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Experiences of an exercise program: Perspectives from breast cancer survivors
No full textFew studies have examined how breast cancer survivors experience an individually tailored group exercise program designed to help mitigate physical and psychosocial challenges and improve health outcomes. This research used qualitative interviews to provide insight into what motivates breast cancer survivors to join an exercise program, what they hope to gain from exercise programs, the barriers they experience to participation, and their overall satisfaction with the program. Thirty-three breast cancer survivors from Atlantic Canada completed semi-structured, qualitative interviews following the completion of a twelve-week supervised exercise program, and thematic analysis was applied to transcripts of the interviews. Our findings suggest of the participants generally enrolled in the program, in hopes of increasing energy levels and muscular strength, most reported increases in both outcomes by the end of the program, and obstacles to participation included fatigue, poor physical health, and access challenges
Dexmedetomidine oromucosal gel reduces fear and anxiety in dogs during veterinary visits: A randomised, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical pilot study
No full textIntroduction: Many dogs are anxious and/or fearful in veterinary clinics and
exhibit avoidant and/or defensive behaviour. The purpose of pharmacological interventions is to reduce anxiety and to enable patient-friendly, low stress
physical examination and procedures.
Materials and methods: This was a randomised, double-blind, placebocontrolled, parallel-group, multicentre, clinical-field study. The eligible dogs
(n = 76) were randomly assigned to receive dexmedetomidine 0.1 mg/g oromucosal gel at a dose of 125 µg/m2 (n = 27) or 250 µg/m2 (n = 24), or an equivalent volume of placebo gel (n = 23).
Results: The investigator’s ability to perform the intended procedure (physical examination and 1 short minor veterinary or husbandry procedure) was
excellent for 40.7% of the dogs that received dexmedetomidine 125 µg/m2
and 33.3% of those that received dexmedetomidine 250 µg/m2 compared
to only 4.3% of the placebo dogs. The overall treatment effect was statistically significant (p = 0.03). In addition, the investigators subjective stress
level assessments revealed that dexmedetomidine treated dogs showed significantly more commonly relaxed body posture (p < 0.01) and more relaxed
behaviour when entering the examination room (p = 0.02). There were very
few adverse events, and treated animals were not sedated.
Conclusions: This study indicated a beneficial treatment effect of
dexmedetomidine gel in alleviation of canine fear and anxiety during
minor veterinary or husbandry procedures in the clinic environment in dogs
previously reported to suffer from fear and anxiety during veterinary visits.
Both dexmedetomidine gel doses studied were effective, and no clinical
safety concerns were noticed for either dose.Orion Corporation (Finland
The Natural Products Atlas 2.0: a database of microbially-derived natural products
No full textWithin the natural products field there is an increasing emphasis on the study of compounds from microbial sources. This has been fuelled by interest in the central role that microorganisms play in mediating both interspecies interactions and host-microbe relationships. To support the study of natural products chemistry produced by microorganisms we released the Natural Products Atlas, a database of known microbial natural products structures, in 2019. This paper reports the release of a new version of the database which includes a full RESTful application programming interface (API), a new website framework, and an expanded database that includes 8128 new compounds, bringing the total to 32 552. In addition to these structural and content changes we have added full taxonomic descriptions for all microbial taxa and have added chemical ontology terms from both NP Classifier and ClassyFire. We have also performed manual curation to review all entries with incomplete configurational assignments and have integrated data from external resources, including CyanoMetDB. Finally, we have improved the user experience by updating the Overview dashboard and creating a dashboard for taxonomic origin. The database can be accessed via the new interactive website at https://www.npatlas.org
Catalytic conversion of glycerol into hydrogen and value-added chemicals: Recent research advances
No full textIn recent decades, the use of biomass as alternative resources to produce renewable and sustainable biofuels such as biodiesel has gained attention given the situation of the progressive exhaustion of easily accessible fossil fuels, increasing environmental concerns, and a dramatically growing global population. The conventional transesterification of edible, nonedible, or waste cooking oils to produce biodiesel is always accompanied by the formation of glycerol as the by-product. Undeniably, it is essential to economically use this by-product to produce a range of valuable fuels and chemicals to ensure the sustainability of the transesterification process. Therefore, recently, glycerol has been used as a feedstock for the production of value-added H2 and chemicals. In this review, the recent advances in the catalytic conversion of glycerol to H2 and high-value chemicals are thoroughly discussed. Specifically, the activity, stability, and recyclability of the catalysts used in the steam reforming of glycerol for H2 production are covered. In addition, the behavior and performance of heterogeneous catalysts in terms of the roles of active metal and support toward the formation of acrolein, lactic acid, 1,3-propanediol, and 1,2-propanediol from glycerol are reviewed. Recommendations for future research and main conclusions are provided. Overall, this review offers guidance and directions for the sufficient and economical utilization of glycerol to generate fuels and high value chemicals, which will ultimately benefit industry, environment, and economy.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)University of Prince Edward Islan
Performance evaluation of urea injection on the emission reduction of dioxins and furans in a commercial municipal solid waste incinerator
No full textPolychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans and dioxins (PCDD/Fs) that pose a great threat to human health are commonly found during the incineration of municipal solid waste. In this study, industrial urea was injected into a commercial MSW incinerator flue gas to evaluate the suppression performances of PCDD/Fs, and the possible inhibition mechanisms were proposed. The results show that the use of urea dramatically reduced the PCDD/Fs emission concentration from 8.87 to 0.63 ng/Nm3, along with a significant decrease in the I-TEQ value (0.26 → 0.047 ng I-TEQ/Nm3), below the Chinese national standard of 0.1 ng I-TEQ/Nm3. The emission reduction cost of the industrial urea was over 41 % lower than that of using activated carbon. Urea molecule poisoned the metal ions, thus seriously inhibiting the de novo synthesis of PCDD/Fs. Furthermore, the decomposition products of urea reduced the concentration of HCl in the flue gas, thereby reducing the formation of Cl2 and hindering the chlorination reaction, which was identified from the reduction of chlorination degree and lower distribution of high-chlorinated PCDD/Fs. This research provided some practice basis and experience to reduce the emission of PCDD/Fs from municipal solid waste incineration for future commercial promotion and application
Valorization of waste tire by pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction: A mini-review
No full textAn amount of 1.5 billion waste tires has been generated every year, resulting in serious environmental problems and damaging human health caused by landfilling and direct burning. One of the most effective valorization processes for the waste tire is to convert it into energy. To achieve this objective, pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) as two major thermochemical conversion technologies have been widely applied for producing liquid fuel from waste tire. This produced tire oil can be either used for energy purposes but also as the precursor to synthesize valuable chemicals such as benzene, xylene, toluene, and limonene. Within this framework, this review extensively summarized the recent studies focusing on the tire oil production by pyrolysis and HTL, along with the current applications of waste tire-derived oil. In addition, the available research regarding the use of solid product obtained from pyrolysis and HTL as an alternative to activated carbon for wastewater treatment and reinforcing filler is discussed. Furthermore, future directions and the main conclusions are provided
Spatiotemporal patterns of future temperature and precipitation over China projected by PRECIS under RCPs
No full textIn this study, the spatiotemporal patterns of future temperature and precipitation changes over China are explored with the regional climate model PRECIS at two horizontal resolutions (25 km and 50 km). The gauge-based temperature (CN05.1) and precipitation data (APHRODITE) are used to validate the performance of PRECIS. The results show that PRECIS has better performance in reproducing the present climatology in spatial distribution and annual cycle than its driving GCM, particularly in some cold months and the high latitude regions, though the simulation is worse in precipitation over the high-cold Tibet Plateau of China. Compared to the observation, the difference between the simulations at 50 km (R50) and 25 km (R25) resolutions is very small. Projected annual temperature and precipitation will increase gradually with the time over most regions of China, especially in the late of this century. The results from R25 show the mean temperature over China will increase by ~1.3(1.5) °C in the early century, 2.7(3.5) °C in the middle century, and 3.5(5.9) °C in the late century under RCP4.5(8.5), which are all smaller than the values from its driving GCM. Most models project that the temperature will have more increases in cold months (i.e., January to March) while the southeastern region will show smaller changes relative to other sub-regions. Additionally, China will receive more precipitation from the overall trend, but the increased amplitude among different concentration scenarios and models are different obviously. The projections from R25 show more precipitation than the R50 and their driving GCM. For instance, the annual mean precipitation will increase by ~15(22) % for GCM, ~20(33) % for R50 and ~ 22(37) % for R25 in the late of this century over the entire China under RCP4.5(8.5). The annual cycles of precipitation at sub-regions also show a distinct variation. The changes are smaller in October or November than other months for the southeastern and central regions, while the percentage change is larger in the northwest, which will alleviate the pressure of water shortage in this arid region of China
A local analgesic, lidocaine, did not affect short‐term welfare during electroanesthesia of a teleost fish
No full textIn recent decades, fisheries research has benefited from the use of various forms of electroimmobilization to facilitate fish handling through rapid induction and recovery times, capacity to allow immediate release, and other advantages not shared by pharmaceuticals. However, as electroimmobilization becomes increasingly prevalent, it is expected that animal care committees may require electroimmobilized fish to also receive chemical anesthetics or analgesics. We experimentally investigated whether the administration of lidocaine (a local analgesic at ~ 1 mg/kg body mass) to electroanesthetized fish resulted in any welfare‐relevant differences in the behavior and physiology of Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides during and after standardized intracoelomic tag implantation surgeries relative to a group that received a saline sham. We also used multiple control treatments to examine potential behavioral and physiological effects of handling, electroanesthesia, surgery, and the drug administration process. We quantified voluntary movements on the surgery table, ventilation rates after surgery, reflexes, and emergence/exploration in a behavioral arena. Primary and secondary stress biomarkers also were used to evaluate physiological stress over a 2‐h period postsurgery. The administration of lidocaine at the tested dose did not facilitate fish handling during surgery and did not affect changes in the physiological stress response relative to the saline control. Swimming activity postsurgery was lower in fish treated with lidocaine; however, other differences in behavior were negligible. Electroanesthesia alone was able to sufficiently facilitate the surgical procedures by limiting voluntary escape attempts without significantly exacerbating physiological stress from handling. There does not appear to be any advantage to adding lidocaine to the protocol
Ensemble projection of city-level temperature extremes with stepwise cluster analysis
No full textClimate change can cause property damage and deaths in cities. City-scale climate projections are essential for making informed decisions towards climate change mitigation and adaptation at city levels. This study aims at developing ensemble projections of temperature extremes at the city-level and quantifying the contributions of various factors to the resulting uncertainty of the ensemble projections. The city of Toronto will be used here as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed research framework. In particular, the stepwise cluster analysis (SCA) model will be used to perform climate downscaling to three GCM datasets (GFDL, IPSL, and MPI) under three emission scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5) in order to generate city-level climate projections for the city of Toronto. The SCA model is demonstrated to be capable of capturing the inter- and intra-annual variations of the daily maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures in the studied city. The results suggest that mean temperatures in Toronto are projected to increase at the rate of 0.15 and 0.5 °C/decade under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively, while no significant warming trend is detected for RCP2.6. In terms of temperature extremes, extreme warm events are projected to increase while extreme cold events decrease under all emission scenarios. The decrease in the heating demand is two to four times larger than the increase in the cooling demand, indicating a decrease in the city’s total energy use. The projected warming might be beneficial for the urban growers because of the significant increases in the growing season length and growing degree days; however, the residents of the city of Toronto are likely to experience simultaneous increases in the intensity, duration, and frequency of heatwave events in future summers. Because of the warming, coldwave events in winters are likely to become less frequent and be shorter in duration, but their intensity is expected to increase significantly. Through decomposition of the resulting uncertainty of the ensemble projections, emission scenario is found to be the dominant factor for the uncertainty associated with urban climate projection
Knowledge, attitudes and influencers of North American dog‐owners surrounding antimicrobials and antimicrobial stewardship
No full textObjectives: To quantify the individual influences of antimicrobial cost, method of administration and drug importance in human medicine on dog-owner antimicrobial preference, and determine knowledge, attitudes and influencers of dog-owners surrounding antimicrobials and antimicrobial stewardship.
Materials and methods: Data were collected through an online survey targeting three dog-owner participant groups. These consisted of individuals residing in: (1) Canada, (2) USA and (3) any country recruited through an educational social media site. USA and Canadian participants were financially compensated. Conjoint analysis was used to quantify the influence of antimicrobial cost, method of administration and drug importance in human medicine. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used for data evaluation.
Results: A total of 809 surveys were completed. Antimicrobial cost accounted for 47% of dog-owner preferences, followed by method of administration (31%) and drug importance in human medicine (22%). All groups preferred lower cost drugs that were administered once by injection. Participants were more likely to prefer drugs considered "very important" in human medicine, except for the social media participants, who preferred drugs that were "not at all important." Most respondents (86%) reported antimicrobial resistance as important in human medicine and 29% believed antimicrobial use in pets posed a risk for antimicrobial resistance in humans. Participants recruited through social media, and those in the highest education category, were significantly more likely to report antimicrobial use in pets as a risk to people.
Clinical significance: Cost was the most important factor in dog-owner antimicrobial preferences. There is a need for dog-owner antimicrobial stewardship education