Indicators of Health-Related Quality of Life in Cats With Degenerative Joint Disease: Systematic Review and Proposal of a Conceptual Framework

Objectives: The assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is becoming increasingly important in companion animals. This study describes a systematic review and development of a proposed conceptual framework to assess HRQoL in cats with osteoarthritis (OA).Methods: The conceptual framework was developed according to published guidelines. A comprehensive search of the CAB Direct, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases was carried out for publications in English from inception to November 12, 2019. Search words used were “cat”, “feline”, “chronic pain”, “pain”, and “quality of life”. Publications were selected if they were full-text and peer-reviewed, based on primary data, and identified or measured behavioral symptoms of chronic musculoskeletal pain in cats. A systematic review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A data extraction form was developed from categories identified in the literature review and piloted on a small number of studies to ascertain the appropriateness for relevant data extraction. Categories were then finalized, and key domains were identified. The domains were then synthesized to develop a conceptual framework.Results: A total of 454 studies were identified, of which 14 met the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-synthesis. All 14 were assessed to be of good quality. Seven domains related to HRQoL in cats with OA were thematically identified from the data: mobility, physical appearance, energy and vitality, mood, pain expression, sociability, and physical and mental wellbeing. The three main HRQoL domains were pain expression, mobility, and physical and mental wellbeing, which impacted all the others. Pain and mobility impacted all six other domains, with increased pain and decreased mobility negatively impacting physical appearance, energy and vitality, mood, sociability, and physical and mental wellbeing.Conclusions and Relevance: This is the first study to develop an evidence-based conceptual framework for the assessment of HRQoL in cats with OA. The proposed conceptual framework suggests that effective management of chronic pain in cats may improve their overall HRQoL.

Characterization and Microstructural Evolution of WC-Co Cemented Carbides

Two types of cemented carbides have been elaborated from three mixtures of WC and Co powders containing 3, 5 and 6% of cobalt mass. Three samples of these mixtures have been obtained by liquid phase sintering and three others of the same composition have been sintered then densified by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). Observations by scanning electronic microscope have allowed to note that the samples elaborated by sintering followed by an HIP densification have a more homogeneous structure than that observed in the sintered samples. Under the compression, the WC grains flattens and interlock more easily from one another which gives a uniform surface appearance. Energy dispersion analysis shows that these samples contain a very small voluminal fraction of graphite and residual porosities, these are more pronounced in sintered samples, especially in the case of alloys with a low Co content (3 and 5%). X rays diffraction analysis allowed to show clearly the existence of cobalt type carbide in the sintered samples. Measurement of the closed porosity allows to observe that the sintering process followed by densification by HIP leads to the elaboration of alloys with a low rate of closed porosity. Microhardness of these samples have improved hardnesses.

Functionalized Hydroperoxide Formation from the Reaction of Methacrolein-Oxide, an Isoprene-Derived Criegee Intermediate, with Formic Acid: Experiment and Theory

Methacrolein oxide (MACR-oxide) is a four-carbon, resonance-stabilized Criegee intermediate produced from isoprene ozonolysis, yet its reactivity is not well understood. This study identifies the functionalized hydroperoxide species, 1‑hydroperoxy-2-methylallyl formate (HPMAF), generated from the reaction of MACR-oxide with formic acid using multiplexed photoionization mass spectrometry (MPIMS, 298 K = 25 °C, 10 torr = 13.3 hPa). Electronic structure calculations indicate the reaction proceeds via an energetically favorable 1,4-addition mechanism. The formation of HPMAF is observed by the rapid appearance of a fragment ion at m/z 99, consistent with the proposed mechanism and characteristic loss of HO2 upon photoionization of functional hydroperoxides. The identification of HPMAF is confirmed by comparison of the appearance energy of the fragment ion with theoretical predictions of its photoionization threshold. The results are compared to analogous studies on the reaction of formic acid with methyl vinyl ketone oxide (MVK-oxide), the other four-carbon Criegee intermediate in isoprene ozonolysis.

On the influence of water on fragmentation of the amino acid L-threonine

The present study describes the fragmentation of the amino acid L-threonine (C4H9NO3) with and without the inclusion of water influence. The fragmentation of the L-threonine molecule was theoretically studied using the Becke’s three-parameter hybrid functional method by applying the non-local correlation provided by Lee, Yang and Parr (B3LYP) with the correlation consistent triple zeta basis (cc-pVTZ). The polarizable continuum model (PCM) was used to evaluate the influence of water. Fragments were selected based on data from mass spectrometry experiments. The chemical compositions of fragments were identified, and the appearance energy was calculated. Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that water affects the appearance energy, the fragment structure and the fragment formation processes.

Is methanol a dopant under atmospheric pressure photoionization conditions?

Using a modified atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) source coupled to a tunable vacuum ultraviolet source at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility, we determined the appearance energy of protonated methanol monomer and dimers at different source temperatures. The experimental data indicated that protonated monomers can be formed through the direct photoionization of neutral methanol by the second emission band of a krypton discharge UV lamp at 116.49 nm (10.64 eV) explaining why methanol can be considered as a weak dopant under APPI conditions. This point is in contradiction with the previously proposed mechanism where photoionization of methanol dimer was followed by the dissociation of the protonated methanol dimer into protonated methanol monomer.

Systematic Review of Computational Models for Human Brain Parcellation

Introduction: The human brain consists of four main lobar sections: Frontal lobe, Parietal lobe, Temporal lobe and Occipital lobe. Most of the existing models used for the parcellation of brain into these lobes have limited accuracy when applied to ageing brain. Aim: To systematically review the existing models of parcellating brain Magnetic Resonance Images, their strengths and weaknesses, and the possibility of using them for ageing brain. Materials and Methods: PubMed was searched combining search terms for Parcellation, Brain and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Articles were considered if they met the following criteria: Parcellation method was indicated, imaging technique was MRI, high resolution anatomical T1-Weighted was used, lobar regions were parcellated, number of lobar regions was indicated. Results: The search resulted into 569 articles. 174 articles (7 from the list of references) were potentially relevant and their abstracts were read. Out of these, 108 were not relevant because they either focused on animal studies, sub-cortical segmentation or tissue segmentation. The full papers of the remaining 66 were reviewed. 39 articles met the inclusion criteria. Various parcellation models were reviewed and summarized into six groups: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, region growing, shape and appearance, energy-based and atlas-based models. Conclusion: All the existing models identified were developed for parcellation of young adult brains and none of them used age-related information. Atlas-based model was found to perform the best among all the models. Future work should consider extending atlas-based model by including ageing information which could make them perform well on ageing brain.

A vacuum ultraviolet laser pulsed field ionization-photoion study of methane (CH4): determination of the appearance energy of methylium from methane with unprecedented precision and the resulting impact on the bond dissociation energies of CH4and CH4+

High-resolution VUV laser PFI-PI detection method for the study of quantum-state-selected unimolecular ion dissociation.