Market segmentation by profit status: evidence from hospice.

How do referral networks and medical conditions determine where patients get care? We study this question in the US Hospice Industry, where for-profit hospice programs enroll more long-term care patients and more patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. We find that for-profit hospice enrollees have 23% longer lifetime lengths-of-stay in hospice care than not for-profit hospice enrollees with the same medical conditions, institutional referral source, county of residence, and enrollment year. This and other differences in their end-of-life health care utilization suggest that hospice market segmentation is the result of a patient-specific selection mechanism that is partially independent of institutional barriers to hospice care.

IVDCheckR - simplifying documentation for laboratory developed tests according to IVDR requirements by introducing a new digital tool.

Objectives: A recent challenge for clinical laboratories is the lack of clear guidelines for handling significant modifications of CE-marked assays. The modifications may involve, for example, extending measurement intervals, changing dilution procedures or using non-validated sample materials. The challenge arises due to the amended Regulation (EU) 2017/746 on diagnostic medical devices (IVDR), which is now poised for implementation, despite the extended transition periods.

Nanomaterial Characterization in Complex Media-Guidance and Application.

A broad range of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) and their dissolved ions possess a possible toxicological risk for human health and the environment. Reliable and robust measurements of dissolution effects may be influenced by the sample matrix, which challenges the analytical method of choice. In this study, CuO NPs were investigated in several dissolution experiments.

CEP162 deficiency causes human retinal degeneration and reveals a dual role in ciliogenesis and neurogenesis.

Defects in primary or motile cilia result in a variety of human pathologies, and retinal degeneration is frequently associated with these so-called ciliopathies. We found that homozygosity for a truncating variant in CEP162, a centrosome and microtubule-associated protein required for transition zone assembly during ciliogenesis and neuronal differentiation in the retina, caused late-onset retinitis pigmentosa in 2 unrelated families. The mutant CEP162-E646R*5 protein was expressed and properly localized to the mitotic spindle, but it was missing from the basal body in primary and photoreceptor cilia.