Assessing the impact of palliative care admission of end-of-life cancer adults.

Background: There is evidence that early admission to the palliative care (PC) program in adult cancer patients improves symptoms management, reduces unplanned hospital admissions, minimizes aggressive cancer treatments, and enables patients to make decisions about their end-of-life (EOL) care.

Objectives: This retrospective cohort study aimed to determine whether late admission to a PC program is associated with aggressive treatment at the EOL in adult patients with oncological diseases from their admission until death.

Design/methods: The study evaluated the aggressiveness in EOL management in patients with advanced stage oncological diseases who died between 2017 and 2019.

Medical cannabis: Critical points for clinical application.

Since ancient times cannabis has been used for recreational and medicinal purposes. It is a significant source of chemical compounds, most of them called phytocannabinoids. These compounds have several physiological effects and produce their effects primarily by binding to endogenous cannabinoid receptors such as CB1 and CB2, among others.

The Possible Detriment of Oxygen in Creep of Alumina and Zirconia Ceramic Composites Reinforced with Graphene.

This paper is aims to give an answer to the following question: is the oxidation of graphene a critical issue for high-temperature plasticity in graphene-reinforced ceramics? To give a convincing reply, we will focus on two very different graphene-based ceramic composites: reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced alumina (α-AlO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced yttria tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO). The processing of the powders has been made using a colloidal route, and after that, a spark plasma sintering process was performed in order to densify the samples. Creep tests were performed at temperatures between 1200-1250 °C in an argon atmosphere.

Elusive super-hard BC accessible through the laser-floating zone method.

Boron carbide is among the most promising ceramic materials nowadays: their mechanical properties are outstanding, and they open potential critical applications in near future. Since sinterability is the most critical drawback to this goal, innovative and competitive sintering procedures are attractive research topics in the science and technology of this carbide. This work reports the pioneer use of the laser-floating zone technique with this carbide.