Pet ownership has been shown to improve quality of life for older adults. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to compare older pet owners and older non-pet owners and assess differences between groups. This study was conducted on adults over 50 years of age, who owned either one cat or one dog versus nonowners based on age, race, gender, and education. Matched older pet owners (OPO)...

The main objective of this work was the incorporation of reactive isocyanate groups into chitin and chitosan in order to effectively use the products as reactive thickening agents in castor oil. The resulting gel-like dispersions could be potentially used as biodegradable lubricating greases. Three different NCO-functionalized polymers were obtained: two of them by promoting the reaction of chi...

Self-optimizing control is a promising method for selection of controlled variables (CVs) from available measurements. Recently, Ye et al. [2012] have proposed a globally optimal method for selection of self-optimizing CVs by converting the CV selection problem into a regression problem. In this approach, the necessary conditions of optimality (NCO) are approximated with linear combinations of ...

Novel bio-based polymer electrolyte was synthesized with LiClO4 as the main source of charge carrier. Initially, polyurethane-LiClO4 polymer electrolytes were synthesized via prepolymerization method with different NCO/OH ratios and labelled them as PU1, PU2, PU3 and PU4. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis indicates the co-ordination between Li ion and polyurethane in PU1. Differential ...

We investigated the nitrogen-hyperfine structure (hfs) and Stark effect in the rotational spectra of methyl isocyanate, CH 3NCO, and methyl isothio­ cyanate, CH 3NCS, by microwave Fourier transform (MWFT) spectroscopy. The rotational spectrum of methyl isocyanate was first measured and analyzed by Curl et al. [1] and Lett and Flygare [2]. More recently Koput [3] improved the analysis by the mod...

A synthesis of the 2-phosphathioethynolate anion, PCS-, under ambient conditions is reported. The coordination chemistry of PCO-, PCS- and their nitrogen-containing congeners is also explored. Photolysis of a solution of W(CO)6 in the presence of PCO- [or a simple ligand displacement reaction using W(CO)5(MeCN)] affords [W(CO)5(PCO)]- (1). The cyanate and thiocyanate analogues, [W(CO)5(NCO)]- (...