Pilot Study of French-Canadian Lifestyle Redesign® for Chronic Pain Management

As chronic pain (CP) interferes with an individual's lifestyle by limiting meaningful activities and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), occupational therapy (OT) plays an important role in CP management interventions. This pilot study aimed to explore the influence of a 13-week French-Canadian Lifestyle Redesign^® for CP. A mixed-methods research design including a preexperimental quantitative component pre-/posttest was used with 15 participants with fibromyalgia. Although pain remained unchanged after the intervention, improvements were observed in participants' engagement in meaningful activities (p < .01), life balance (p < .01), mental components of HRQoL (p < .01), depressive symptoms (p = .047), and pain self-efficacy (p < .01). After the intervention, phone interviews (n = 6) highlighted the participants' appreciation of the focus being placed on their daily routines and the development of a sense of belonging throughout the intervention. This study suggests the potential feasibility and benefits of an occupation-based approach in CP management.

0566 Assessment of Soft Palate Muscle Fatigue and its Effect on Velopharyngeal Upper Airway (UA) Mechanical Properties

Introduction

Soft palate muscles are crucial in the maintenance of UA patency. This study aimed to investigate the fatigability of soft palate muscles and to quantify its effects on velopharyngeal UA dynamic properties in OSA patients and control subjects.

Methods

8 control (AHI ≤ 10 /h), 21 OSA patients (13 with mild/moderate disease: 10 /h &lt; AHI ≤ 20 /h and 8 with moderate/severe: AHI &gt; 20/h) were included in the study. Subjects were asked to develop repetitive intra-oral positive pressure during cheek-bulging maneuvers while wearing a mouth piece to keep the jaw opened. Subjects were asked to develop sustained maximal bulging pressure for 5 sec every 10 sec until the peak pressure could not reach 85% of baseline maximal pressure for 2 consecutive times. UA dynamic properties were assessed by measuring instantaneous airflow and velopharyngeal pressure in response to phrenic nerve magnetic stimulation (PNMS) performed before, immediately and every 3 minutes after the fatiguing protocol for a maximum of 30 minutes’ recovery time. UA closing pressure (Pcrit) was estimated by modeling the flow/pressure relationship in response to PNMS.

Results

The sex, age, BMI and the soft palate mechanical properties (including the baseline strength, endurance time, total muscle work) did not significantly differ between the 3 groups. Maximal peak bulging pressure measured using cheek-bulging maneuver significantly changed following the fatigue task (p &lt; 0.05). Baseline velopharyngeal Pcrit were less negative in moderate/severe OSA group compared to mild/moderate OSA (-6.5±2.6 vs. -11.9±3.2, p &lt; 0.05). In mild/moderate OSA patients, PNMS-induced drop in maximal instantaneous airflow tend to increase 3 mins after the fatiguing trial compared to baseline (22.7±21.1 l.s-1vs. 9.6±5.8 l.s-1, p &lt; 0.1), and their Velopharyngeal linear resistance 3 mins after the fatiguing trial tend to be higher than the moderate/severe OSA group (3.9 ± 5.0 cmH2O·l−1·s−1 vs. 1.8 ± 1.1 cmH2O·l−1·s−1, p&lt; 0.1).

Conclusion

The cheek-bulging maneuver could induce soft palate muscle fatigue, with no difference observed in soft palate mechanical performances among patients with different OSA severity. The fatiguing maneuver could further alter velopharyngeal UA mechanical properties in patients with mild/moderate OSA.

Support

SBD from IUCPQ Foundation

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.

A commercial seaweed extract structured microbial communities associated with tomato and pepper roots and significantly increased crop yield

Seaweeds have been used as a source of natural fertilizer and biostimulant in agriculture for centuries. However, their effects on soil and crop root microbiota remain unclear. Here, we used a commercially available Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE) to test its effect on bacterial and fungal communities of rhizospheric soils and roots of pepper and tomato plants in greenhouse trials. Two independent trials were conducted in a split-block design. We used amplicon sequencing targeting fungal ITS and bacterial 16S rRNA gene to determine microbial community structure changes. We find that productivity parameters of root, shoot and fruit biomass were positively and significantly influenced by the ANE amendment. In addition, a-diversity differed significantly between amended and control plants, but only in some of the experimental conditions. Species composition among sites (b-diversity) differed according to the amendment treatment in all four communities (fungal-root, fungal-soil, bacterial-root and bacterial-soil). Finally, we identified a number of candidate taxa most strongly correlated with crop yield increases. Further studies on isolation and characterization of these microbial taxa linked to the application of liquid seaweed extract may help to enhance crop yield in sustainable agro-ecosystems.

Data on soil physicochemical properties and chemical composition of rainfall and of throughfall and stemflow generated by Turkey oak trees (Quercus cerris L.) in acid and sub-alkaline soils

We report data on the physicochemical properties of soils collected in two adjacent areas, one acid and one sub-alkaline, both developed on sequential beds of Plio-pleistocene marine sediments, and on the chemical composition of ecological solutions (rainfall, throughfall and stemflow) separately collected in the two areas. Throughfall and stemflow were generated by Turkey oak trees (Quercus cerris L.), which was the dominant tree species in both study areas. These data are related to the original article "Soil affects throughfall and stemflow under Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.)" (Corti et al., 2019) [1].

Soil trace element changes during a phytoremediation trial with willows in southern Québec, Canada

This study determined the changes in trace elements (TE) (As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) chemistry in the soils of a willow ("Fish Creek" - Salix purpurea, SV1 - Salix x dasyclados and SX67 - Salix miyabeana) plantation growing under a cold climate during a three-year trial. The soil HNO₃-extractable and H₂O-soluble TE concentrations and pools significantly decreased under most cultivars (Fish, SX67). Yet, TE changes showed inconsistent patterns and localized soil TE increases (Ni, Pb) were measured. Temporal changes in soil TE were also detected in control plots and sometimes exceeded changes in planted plots. Discrepancies existed between the amount of soil TE change and the amount of TE uptake by willows, except for Cd and Zn. Phytoremediation with willows could reduce soil Cd and Zn within a decadal timeframe indicating that they can be remediated by willows in moderately contaminated soils. However, the time needed to reduce soil As, Cu, Ni and Pb was too long to be efficient. We submit that soil leaching contributed to the TE decrease in controls and the TE discrepancies, and that the plantation could have secondary effects such as the accelerated leaching of soil TE.

Three months of chronic ethanol administration and the behavioral outcome of rats after lateral fluid percussion brain injury

This study examined the effects of 3 months of chronic ethanol administration (CEAn) on the behavioral outcome in rats after lateral fluid percussion (FP) brain injury. Rats were given either an ethanol liquid diet (ethanol diet groups) or a pair-fed isocaloric sucrose control diet (control diet groups) for 3 months. Then, rats from both diet groups were subjected to either lateral FP brain injury of moderate severity (1.8 atm) or to sham operation. Postinjury behavioral measurements revealed that brain injury caused significant spatial learning disability in both diet groups. There were no significant differences in spatial learning ability in the sham or brain-injured animals between the control and ethanol diets. However, a trend towards cognitive impairment in the sham animals and a trend towards reduced deficits in the brain-injured animals were observed in the ethanol diet group. Histologic analysis of injured animals from both diet groups revealed similar extents of ipsilateral cortical and hippocampal CA3 damage. These results, in general, suggest that 3 months of CEAn does not significantly alter the behavioral and morphologic outcome of experimental brain injury.

An investigation of FB interactions with poly(ethylene glycol) 6000, poly(ethylene glycol) 4000, and poly-epsilon-caprolactone by thermoanalytical and spectroscopic methods and modeling

The interactions between flurbiprofen (FB) and different polymers are studied in order to improve the bioavailability of FB. FB-polymer phase diagrams [poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 4000, PEG 6000, and poly-epsilon-caprolactone] were constructed and compared with the modeling diagrams. Thermoanalytical methods (differential scanning calorimetry, thermomicroscopy) were used to construct the phase diagrams. Thermodynamic data were used to model the FB-polymer systems. The construction of the FB-polymer phase diagrams showed the existence of a stable invariant called "eutectic" characterized by (XE)exp, (TfE)exp, and (DeltaHfE)exp, the experimental eutectic composition, the experimental temperature, and the enthalpy of eutectic melting, respectively. Modeling confirmed the values for these parameters and was used to evaluate the different Flory-Huggins parameters chi for each FB-polymer mixture. chi values and the infrared spectra confirm that the interactions due to hydrogen bonds between FB and PEG 4000 are more numerous than between FB and PEG 6000 and also more numerous than between FB and poly-epsilon-caprolactone.

Characterization of Polymorphs and Solvates of 3-Amino-1-(m-trifluoromethylphenyl)-6-methyl-1H-pyridazin-4-one

The characterization of two polymorphs of the title compound (F2692; 1) by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), microanalysis, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, thermomicroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffractometry is described. Both polymorphs are crystalline, with form II being more stable at temperatures less than 160 degrees C. The thermal behavior was studied at different rates of heating, and the enthalpies of transition were calculated from DSC data. The transformation of aqueous suspensions of form I to the water-stable form II is described, and the heats of solution and intrinsic aqueous dissolution rates of both polymorphs were determined. 1 also formed solvates with dimethyl sulfoxide and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone. The solvates were studied by thermogravimetry, DSC, and infrared spectroscopy.

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The authors have determined by differential scanning calorimetry the degree of purity of some organic psychotherapeutic and analgesic drugs. The influence of parameters such as type of cup, heating rate, sensitivity, time-base is discussed and the utility and reproducibility illustrated by five determinations, under the same conditions, on each drug.