Differential predictors of acute post-surgical pain intensity after abdominal hysterectomy and major joint arthroplasty

Author's personal copyBACKGROUND Psychological factors have a significant role in post-surgical pain, and their study can inform pain management. PURPOSE The aims of this study are to identify psychological predictors of post-surgical pain following abdominal hysterectomy (AH) and major joint arthroplasty (MJA) and to investigate differential predictors by type of surgery. METHOD One hundred forty-two women undergoing AH and 110 patients undergoing MJA were assessed 24 h before (T1) and 48 h after (T2) surgery. RESULTS A predictive post-surgical pain model was found for AH and MJA yielding pre-surgical pain experience and pain catastrophizing as significant predictors and a significant interaction of pre-surgical optimism and surgery type. Separate regression models by surgery type showed that pre-surgical optimism was the best predictor of post-surgical pain after MJA, but not after AH. CONCLUSIONS Findings highlight the relevance of psychological predictors for both surgeries and the value of targeting specific psychological factors by surgery type in order to effectively manage acute post-surgical pain.Supported by a project grant (PTDC/SAU-NEU/108557/2008) and by a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/36368/2007) from the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology, COMPETE, and FEDE

Mercury thioarsenate glasses: a hybrid chain/ pyramidal network

International audienceVery little is known about mercury chalcogenide glasses. Using Raman spectroscopy and DFT modelling, we show that the (HgS)x(As2S3)1-x glasses, 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5, form a hybrid Hg–S chain/As–S pyramidal network, highly unusual for metal chalcogenide glasses. This network is evidenced by Hg–S stretching modes at 300 and 370 cm-1 and an As–S spectral envelope centred at 340 cm-1. The decreasing glass transition temperature is consistent with a gradual substitution of more rigid corner-sharing CS-AsS3/2 pyramids by flexible (HgS2/2)n chain fragments. Nevertheless we cannot exclude completely the presence of a small fraction of HgS4/4 tetrahedral units. A non-monotonic change in electronic transport properties and metacinnabar ß-HgS traces detected using neutron diffraction in large x = 0.5 samples support the dual structural role of mercur

Telluride glasses with far-infrared transmission up to 35 μm

International audienceTelluride glasses are very attractive due to their unique infrared transparency window compared to other chalcogenide glasses. The extension of their infrared transmission by changing the composition appears to be very challenging. Glasses in the (GeTe4)100-x(AgI)x system, with 5 ≤ x ≤ 30 have been synthesized using the melt-quenching method. The effect of the addition of silver iodide is a widening of the infrared transparency range up to 35 μm that is much larger than for any other chalcogenide glass families. Moreover, the moulding of these telluride glasses is also achievable without affecting the optical properties. © 201

Mid-IR s-SNOM imaging of photo-induced refractive index variation in chalcogenide glass

International audienceWe report the mid-IR s-SNOM surface characterization of a chalcogenide glass photo-inscribed by ultrashort laser pulses. Imaging allows to access to the morphology and the optical properties of the material at nanoscale, unravelling topographical and optical contrasts resulting from the laser inscription process. © 2019 IEEE

Accumulation of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning toxins in the oyster Crassostrea gigas and the mussel Choromytilus meridionalis in the southern Benguela ecosystem

Diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) poses a significant threat to the safe consumption of shellfish in the southern Benguela ecosystem. The accumulation of DSP toxins was investigated in two cultivated bivalve species, the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas and the mussel Choromytilus meridionalis, suspended from a mooring located off Lambert’s Bay on the west coast of South Africa. The dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata, a known source of polyether toxins associated with DSP, was common through most of the study period. The toxin composition of the dinoflagellate was dominated by okadaic acid (OA) (91%), with lesser quantities of the dinophysistoxin DTX-1 (6.5%) and pectenotoxin PTX-2 (2.4%), and traces of PTX-2sa and PTX-11. The mean cell toxin quota of D. acuminata was 7.8 pg OA cell–1. The toxin profile in shellfish was characterised by a notably higher relative content of DTX-1. The study showed the average concentration of DSP toxins in the mussels to exceed that in the oysters by approximately 20-fold. The results indicate a need to establish species-specific sampling frequencies in shellfish safety monitoring programmes