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Background: Foreign body (FB) impaction in the oropharyngeal region-and specifically the tongue-is a common problem in the emergency department that often requires specialty consultation and admission for operative intervention. Over the years, the use of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) has increased ease and success of FB removal in other anatomic regions, but is only rarely reported for extraction of FB from the tongue outside of the operating room.Case Report: This case demonstrates a unique case of ultrasound-guided removal of a fishbone from the tongue in the emergency department after blind attempts failed. Operative intervention and admission were initially avoided; however, because of initial failed attempts and blind dissection before the use of POCUS, the patient presented a day later requiring admission for postprocedural tongue swelling and edema. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Emergency physicians should be aware that POCUS may assist in FB localization in the tongue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features Donna Pierce, director of the Pierce Planetarium located in Dallas, Texas. Topics include her 35-year stint as the planetarium's director, why she considers the planetarium as an extension of the classroom, and the 2011 decision of Highland Park Integrated School District to name the planetarium after her.

Fundamental characterization of battery electrolyte is vital for rechargeable batteries. This work reports the chemical stability of sodium hexafluorophosphate (NaPF 6)-based non-aqueous electrolytes containing different solvent mixtures (e.g., cyclic and acyclic carbonates) in the presence of water for Na-ion batteries. A degradation study is conducted using NaPF 6 -based electrolytes, highlighting two electrolyte additives, 2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy-2,2,2-ethoxy phosphazene (FM2) and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), on degradation and cell performance of Na-ion batteries. Hydrolysis of NaPF 6 in acidic condition is particularly prone to form hydrofluoric acid (HF), and can be observed in electrolytes made with battery grade carbonate solvents (<20 ppm of water). Degradation mechanisms of NaPF 6 -based electrolytes are studied using liquid nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Noticeable degradation takes place in high purity electrolytes with the presence of moisture to form HF and organophosphates in timeframes below the current shelf-life of the Na electrolytes. FEC is not efficient to protect the electrodes from being exposed to HF. On the other hand, FM2 is revealed as a "scavenger" of HF, which helps stabilize the shelf life of electrolytes that might contain or become exposed to water. Our study underscores the importance to understanding the degradation of electrolyte and improving stability toward better shelf life for sodium ion batteries. Image 1 • NaPF 6 -based nonaqueous electrolytes are highly susceptible to HF with water presence. • NMR reveals an autocatalytic hydrolysis pathway of PF 6 − to form HF. • FM2 can serve as an HF scavenger to improve electrolyte chemical stability. • HF mitigation is closely related to the chemical stability of NaPF 6. • HF formation is observed in battery grade electrolytes with <20 ppm H 2 O. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2) is a promising negative electrode for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). Although TiO 2 materials with amorphous (A-TiO 2) and single-phase crystalline structures (C–TiO 2) have been separately explored, the study to compare the fundamental electrochemistry of A-TiO 2 and C–TiO 2 is limited. In this work, we investigated A-TiO 2 and C–TiO 2 nanoparticles with identical chemical composition and morphology. C–TiO 2 exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance than A-TiO 2 in terms of rate capability and cycle life. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis suggests reversible Na ion insertion/extraction in C–TiO 2. However, such process is irreversible in the case of A-TiO 2. The charge storage mechanisms in both samples were studied to show that diffusion-controlled intercalation process becomes significant in C–TiO 2 sample. The C–TiO 2 sample has a better Na+ diffusivity measured through the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) compared to A-TiO 2 , which corroborates well with the rate capability study. Furthermore, the evolution of local structure of the TiO 2 samples was analyzed by ex situ pair distribution function (PDF) to understand the variation in electrochemical properties. It reveals that the corner-shared Ti–Ti distance along Na ion diffusion pathway increases with the increase of crystallinity, leading to the expanded diffusion channels and therefore more active sites and faster diffusion. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]