Pre-operative administration of butorphanol mitigates emergence agitation in patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery: A randomized controlled clinical trial

BackgroundThis study explored the effectiveness of pre-operative intravenous injection of butorphanol in the alleviation of emergence agitation (EA) in patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS).MethodsPatients (n = 708) were randomized into two groups. The butorphanol group (Group B, n = 358) received butorphanol infusion (20 ug/kg) before anesthesia induction, while the control group (Group C, n = 350) received an equal volume of normal saline infusion. General anesthesia was induced with sufentanil, propofol, and rocuronium, and was maintained with sevoflurane and remifentanil. Vasoactive drugs maintained the hemodynamic indices within 20% of the baseline.ResultsThe incidence of EA was significantly lower in Group B than that in Group C (Group B vs. C: 24.3% vs. 31.4%, respectively; P = 0.034). The times to spontaneous breathing (26.5 min vs. 23.7 min, P = 0.011), verbal response (36.0 min vs. 33.4 min, P = 0.012), and extubation (31.0 min vs. 28.7 min, P = 0.025) were longer in Group B, and the grade of cough (0.33 vs. 0.43, P = 0.024) at extubation in Group B was lower than that in Group C (P = 0.024). The mean arterial pressure at the end of the operation (P = 0.004) and at 5 min after extubation (P = 0.008) was higher and hypotension was less prominent (0.6% vs. 2.6%, P = 0.030) in Group B.ConclusionPre-operative intravenous injection of butorphanol decreased the incidence of EA after FESS and provided smooth and hemodynamically stable emergence without extending the stay in post-anesthesia care unit.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier NCT03398759

Multiple Anesthesia/Surgery Cannot Impair Reference Memory in Adult Mice

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction increases mortality and morbidity in perioperative patients. Numerous studies have demonstrated that multiple surgery/anesthesia during the neurodevelopmental period affects cognitive function, whereas a single anesthesia/surgery rarely causes cognitive dysfunction in adults. However, whether adults who undergo multiple anesthesia/surgery over a short period will experience cognitive dysfunction remains unclear. In this study, central nervous system inflammation and changes in cholinergic markers were investigated in adult mice subjected to multiple laparotomy procedures over a short period of time. The results showed that despite the increased expression of IL-6 and TNF-α in the hippocampus after multiple operations and the activation of microglia, multiple anesthesia/surgery did not cause a decline in cognitive function in adult mice. There were no changes in the cholinergic markers after multiple anesthesia/surgery

Evolutionary selection of biofilm-mediated extended phenotypes in Yersinia pestis in response to a fluctuating environment

Yersinia pestis is transmitted from fleas to rodents when the bacterium develops an extensive biofilm in the foregut of a flea, starving it into a feeding frenzy, or, alternatively, during a brief period directly after feeding on a bacteremic host. These two transmission modes are in a trade-off regulated by the amount of biofilm produced by the bacterium. Here by investigating 446 global isolated Y. pestis genomes, including 78 newly sequenced isolates sampled over 40 years from a plague focus in China, we provide evidence for strong selection pressures on the RNA polymerase ω-subunit encoding gene rpoZ. We demonstrate that rpoZ variants have an increased rate of biofilm production in vitro, and that they evolve in the ecosystem during colder and drier periods. Our results support the notion that the bacterium is constantly adapting—through extended phenotype changes in the fleas—in response to climate-driven changes in the niche

Measurement of the neutron capture cross sections of rhenium up to stellar s- and r-process temperatures at the China Spallation Neutron Source Back-n facility

The neutron capture measurement of natural rhenium was performed with the time-of-flight technique at the Back-n facility of the China Spallation Neutron Source in the energy range from 1 to 500 eV of the resolved resonance region (RRR) and from 5 to 400 keV in the unresolved resonance region (URR). Prompt γ-rays originating from neutron-induced capture events were detected by four C_{6}D_{6} detectors. The pulse height weighting technique and the double-bunch unfolding method based on the Bayesian theory were used in the data analysis. To obtain reliable measurement results, background subtraction, normalization, and corrections were carefully considered. The multilevel R-matrix Bayesian code SAMMY was used to extract the resonance parameters in the RRR. An absence of resonance near 392 eV is observed in our measurement, which has been observed in previous works. The average cross sections in the URR of natural rhenium relative to ^{197}Au were obtained in logarithmical equidistant energy bins with 20 bins per energy decade. The talys code was used to describe the average cross sections in the URR; the Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACSs) of ^{185}Re and ^{187}Re are given from kT=5 to 100 keV. At a thermal energy of kT=30 keV, the MACS value for ^{185}Re (1469±127 mb) is in good agreement with the Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of Nucleosynthesis in Stars (KADoNIS) recommended value (1535±62 mb) within the error bars. By contrast, the value of 1361±118 mb for ^{187}Re shows a discrepancy with the KADoNiS recommended value (1160±57 mb)

Measurement of the

In nuclear astrophysics, the nuclides $$^{151}$$Eu and $$^{153}$$Eu are both in the path of the s-process, and their (n, $$\gamma$$) cross sections are important input parameters for the calculation of the nuclear astrophysics network. According to the EXFOR database, the neutron capture cross section of natural europium in the resonance region has not been fully measured. The (n,$$\gamma$$) cross section of $$^{nat}$$Eu was measured using the time-of-flight (TOF) technique at the Back-n white neutron source facility of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in the 1 eV–to 500 keV range. Four C$$_{6}$$D$$_{6}$$ liquid scintillator detectors and pulse height weighting techniques were used to measure prompt $$\gamma$$ rays and analyze the data. The results of the analysis were compared with the evaluated data of ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JENDL-5.0. It shows that there are some differences between the measurement results and different evaluated data libraries. The resonance parameters of $$^{151}$$Eu and $$^{153}$$Eu were extracted in the 1  eV–150 eV region using the R-Matrix code SAMMY. The accurate Maxwellian-averaged capture cross section (MACS) is derived over the temperature range of the s-process nucleosynthesis model. The result shows that at kT=30 keV, the MACS value of $$^{151}$$Eu is 3417 ± 297 mb and the value of $$^{153}$$Eu is 2718 ± 237 mb