Modification Strategies of Kapok Fiber Composites and Its Application in the Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions and Dyes from Aqueous Solutions: A Systematic Review.

Kapok fiber () belongs to a group of natural fibers that are mainly composed of cellulose, lignin, pectin, and small traces of inorganic compounds. These fibers are lightweight with hollow tubular structure that is easy to process and abundant in nature. Currently, kapok fibers are used in industry as filling material for beddings, upholstery, soft toys, and nonwoven materials.

Testing risk and protective factor assumptions in the Icelandic model of adolescent substance use prevention.

Iceland has witnessed a dramatic decline in adolescent substance use that may be partly the result of efforts related to the Icelandic prevention model (IPM). We sought to test risk and protective factor assumptions of the IPM using a prospective cohort study with 12 months separating baseline from follow-up. Participants were students in grades 8 and 9 in the national Icelandic school system enrolled in the spring of 2018 and 2019 (N=2165).

Prevention Is Possible: A Brief History of the Origin and Dissemination of the Icelandic Prevention Model.

In two decades, the Icelandic prevention model (IPM) has been employed to dramatically reduce rates of adolescent substance use in Iceland. Briefly, the IPM is a multisectoral, community-based, collaborative system where researchers, policy makers, administrative leaders, and practitioners join forces to reduce the odds of adolescent substance use over time. Comparatively, Iceland now ranks among the lowest in adolescent substance use in all of Europe.

Acute purulent pericarditis due co-infection with and as first manifestation of HIV infection.

Background: Purulent pericarditis is an unusual first manifestation of HIV-infected patients. Co-infections in this scenario are possible and challenging. is a frequent agent in purulent pericarditis related to HIV infection but co-infection with is rarely reported.

Improving the interview skills of college students using behavioral skills training.

Obtaining a job as a college graduate is partly dependent on interview performance. We used a multiple baseline design across skills to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training with self-evaluation for five college students. Training effects were evaluated using simulated interviews as baseline and posttraining assessments.

Acute liver failure in children: the first 348 patients in the pediatric acute liver failure study group.

Objectives: To determine short-term outcome for children with acute liver failure (ALF) as it relates to cause, clinical status, and patient demographics and to determine prognostic factors.

Study Design: A prospective, multicenter case study collecting demographic, clinical, laboratory, and short-term outcome data on children from birth to 18 years with ALF. Patients without encephalopathy were included if the prothrombin time and international normalized ratio remained > or = 20 seconds and/or >2, respectively, despite vitamin K.

The triple classification of dry eye for practical clinical use.

Purpose: "Dry Eye is a condition produced by the inadequate interrelation between lacrimal film and ocular surface epithelium, and is caused by quantitative and qualitative deficits in one or both of them. It can be produced by one or combined etiologic causes, affecting one or several of the secretions of the glands serving the ocular surface, and producing secondary manifestations of different grades of severity". Clinicians need a practical classification to face diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

What is the best immunosuppression in living donor liver transplantation?

Introduction: As we have learned, there are no golden rules of immunosuppression in solid organ transplantation, and every transplant program is using its own regimen to prevent or treat rejection. We have retrospectively analyzed the incidence and severity of acute rejection in a consecutive series of living donor liver transplants. The major objective during the whole study period was to ultimately avoid any steroids from the beginning.

Safety and efficacy of living donor liver preservation with HTK solution.

Background: In living donor liver transplantation (LDLTx) organ procurement is usually well controlled, and allows to assess liver preservation and graft function under standardized conditions. Because publications on histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) solution are limited, we prospectively studied its safety and efficacy in a consecutive series of LDLTx.

Methods: Twenty-four patients received 22 right, 1 left, and 1 left lateral lobe graft.

Hypothermia inhibits Fas-mediated apoptosis of primary mouse hepatocytes in culture.

Apoptosis occurs during the isolation and even short-term storage and culture of hepatocytes, and in the pathogenesis of liver diseases, such as hepatic failure and hepatitis. Therapeutic hypothermia has beneficial effects in experimental models of fulminant hepatic failure. The mechanisms underlying the potential benefits of mild hypothermia on the liver have not been well investigated.

Hepatocyte transplantation in a 4-year-old girl with peroxisomal biogenesis disease: technique, safety, and metabolic follow-up.

Hepatocyte transplantation is an investigational alternative to orthotopic liver transplantation to treat liver based inborn errors of metabolism. We report successful hepatocyte transplantation in a 4-year-old girl with infantile Refsum disease. Hepatocytes were isolated from the left liver segment of two male donors using a classic two-step perfusion method.

Anoikis: roadblock to cell transplantation?

Cell therapy, in particular liver cell transplantation, holds great therapeutic potential and is partially hindered by the high rate of apoptosis during cell isolation, cryopreservation, and engraftment. Apoptosis occurring due to cell detachment from the extracellular matrix is a phenomenon termed "anoikis." The purpose of this review is to describe signaling mechanisms pertinent to anoikis in both immortalized cell lines, but particularly in primary normal epithelial cells.

Engraftment assessment in human and mouse liver tissue after sex-mismatched liver cell transplantation by real-time quantitative PCR for Y chromosome sequences.

Transplanted hepatocytes can engraft, proliferate, and function permanently in host animals. After one cell infusion, however, engrafted hepatocytes constitute only between 1 in 200 to 1 in 3,000 host liver cells. Although transplanted cells can be identified using biochemical and molecular techniques, more accurate methods are needed to evaluate interventions that could improve cell engraftment rates.

Liver repopulation after cell transplantation in mice treated with retrorsine and carbon tetrachloride.

Background: Efficiency of engraftment after liver cell transplantation is less than 1% under conventional conditions. Our aim was to develop a high-efficiency, nonsurgical, no-genetic-advantage mouse model of liver repopulation with transplanted cells.

Methods: Mice were conditioned with nonlethal doses of a cell cycle inhibitor, retrorsine, 70 mg/kg, to irreversibly block proliferation of native hepatocytes.

Loss of cell anchorage triggers apoptosis (anoikis) in primary mouse hepatocytes.

Liver cell isolation and transplantation have been successfully performed in animal models and in humans. However, lack of initial engraftment due to cell death is a major roadblock to achieving clinical significance. Apoptosis was recently identified as an important cause of freshly isolated and banked hepatocyte cell death [Cell Transplant.

Hepatic osteodystrophy in chronic cholestasis: evidence for a multifactorial etiology.

Children with cholestatic liver disease have been thought to develop hepatic osteodystrophy resulting from vitamin D and calcium malabsorption, resulting in secondary hyperparathyroidism and osteomalacia or rickets. However, treatment with vitamin D has not always proven successful in improving the bone disturbance. The aim of our study was to determine the role of vitamin D deficiency in the pathogenesis of hepatic osteodystrophy.

Cultures of human liver cells in simulated microgravity environment.

We used microgravity-simulated bioreactors that create the unique environment of low shear force and high-mass transfer to establish long-term cultures of primary human liver cells (HLC). To assess the feasibility of establishing HLC cultures, human liver cells obtained either from cells dissociated by collagenase perfusion or minced tissues were cultured in rotating vessels. Formation of multidimensional tissue-like spheroids (up to 1.

A "real time" PCR assay to detect transplanted human liver cells in RAG-1-/- mice.

Xenotransplantation of human liver cells is an expanding field in need of new and precise quantitative techniques. "Real time" PCR is a sensitive and accurate method of quantifying picogram quantities of DNA. We used "real time" PCR with primers complementary to the human alpha-1-antitrypsin gene to assess the efficiency of engraftment of human liver cells transplanted into immunotolerant RAG-1-/- mice.

Apoptosis occurs in isolated and banked primary mouse hepatocytes.

Isolation and cryopreservation of freshly isolated hepatocytes is considered a standard procedure for the long-term storage of liver cells. However, most existing methods for banking hepatocytes do not allow sufficient recovery of viable cells to meet the needs of basic research or clinical trials of hepatocyte transplantation. The mechanisms underlying this poor rate of hepatocyte recovery are unknown.