Impact on murine neurodevelopment of early-life exposure to airborne ultrafine carbon nanoparticles.

The effects of ultrafine particle (UFP) inhalation on neurodevelopment, especially during critical windows of early life, remain largely unexplored. The specific time windows during which exposure to UFP might be the most detrimental remain poorly understood. Here, we studied early-life exposure to clean ultrafine carbonaceous particles (UFP) and neurodevelopment and central nervous system function in offspring.

Alterations in the placental proteome in association with the presence of black carbon particles: A discovery study.

Background: Exposure to ambient air pollution is known to cause direct and indirect molecular expression changes in the placenta, on the DNA, mRNA, and protein levels. Ambient black carbon (BC) particles can be found in the human placenta already very early in gestation. However, the effect of in utero BC exposure on the entire placental proteome has never been studied to date.

Accumulation of Ambient Black Carbon Particles Within Key Memory-Related Brain Regions.

Importance: Ambient air pollution is a worldwide problem, not only related to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases but also to neurodegenerative disorders. Different pathways on how air pollutants could affect the brain are already known, but direct evidence of the presence of ambient particles (or nanoparticles) in the human adult brain is limited.

Objective: To examine whether ambient black carbon particles can translocate to the brain and observe their biodistribution within the different brain regions.

Being a Hospice Nurse in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study of Providing End-of-Life Care.

End-of-life care changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the previous prevailing hospice philosophy and essential values of hospice care were suddenly under pressure. The aim was to explore hospice nurses' lived experience of providing end-of-life care to patients admitted in an out-hospital hospice setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data consist of 10 individual in-depth interviews of hospice nurses.

Ambient black carbon reaches the kidneys.

Background: Ultrafine particles, including black carbon (BC), can reach the systemic circulation and therefore may distribute to distant organs upon inhalation. The kidneys may be particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of BC exposure due to their filtration function.

Objectives: We hypothesized that BC particles reach the kidneys via the systemic circulation, where the particles may reside in structural components of kidney tissue and impair kidney function.