The effect of oral pregabalin on the minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane in cats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of three different doses of oral pregabalin on minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane (MACISO) in cats. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, blinded, crossover trial. ANIMALS: A group of eight healthy adult cats aged 24-48 months. METHODS: Cats were randomly assigned to three oral doses of pregabalin (low dose: 2.5 mg kg-1, medium dose: 5 mg kg-1, high dose: 10 mg kg-1) or placebo 2 hours before MACISO determination, with the multiple treatments administered with a minimum 7 day washout period. Anesthesia was induced and maintained with isoflurane in oxygen until endotracheal intubation was achieved, and maintained with isoflurane with volume-controlled ventilation. MACISO was determined in triplicate using the bracketing technique and tail clamp method 120 minutes after pregabalin or placebo administration. Physiologic variables (including heart rate and blood pressure) recorded during MACISO determination were averaged and compared between the pregabalin and placebo treatments. One-way analysis of variance and the Friedman test were used to assess the difference for normally and non-normally distributed data, respectively. The Tukey test was used as a post hoc analysis. Values of p < 0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: The MACISO with the medium- and high-dose pregabalin treatments were 1.33 ± 0.21% and 1.23 ± 0.17%, respectively. These were significantly lower than MACISO after placebo treatment (1.62 ± 0.13%; p = 0.014, p < 0.001, respectively), representing a decrease of 18 ± 9% and 24 ± 6%. The mean plasma pregabalin concentration was negatively correlated with MACISO values. Physiologic variables did not differ significantly between treatments. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Doses of 5 or 10 mg kg-1 pregabalin, administered orally 2 hours before determining MACISO, had a significant isoflurane-sparing effect in cats.

Regulation of Interfacial Lattice Oxygen Activity by Full-Surface Modification Engineering towards Long Cycling Stability for Co-Free Li-Rich Mn-Based Cathode.

The construction of a protective layer for stabilizing anion redox reaction is the key to obtaining long cycling stability for Li-rich Mn-based cathode materials. However, the protection of the exposed surface/interface of the primary particles inside the secondary particles is usually ignored and difficult, let alone the investigation of the impact of the surface engineering of the internal primary particles on the cycling stability. In this work, an efficient method to regulate cycling stability is proposed by simply adjusting the distribution state of the boron nickel complexes coating layer. Theoretical calculation and experimental results display that the full-surface boron nickel complexes coating layer can not only passivate the activity of interface oxygen and improve its stability but also play the role of sharing voltage and protective layer to gradually activate the oxygen redox reaction during cycling. As a result, the elaborately designed cobalt-free Li-rich Mn-based cathode displays the highest discharge-specific capacity retentions of 91.1% after 400 cycles at 1 C and 94.3% even after 800 cycles at 5 C. In particular, the regulation strategy has well universality and is suitable for other high-capacity Li-rich cathode materials.

In Situ Induced Lattice-Matched Interfacial Oxygen-Passivation-Layer Endowing Li-Rich and Mn-Based Cathodes with Ultralong Life.

The high capacity of Li-rich and Mn-based (LRM) cathode materials is originally due to the unique hybrid anion- and cation redox, which also induces detrimental oxygen escape. Furthermore, the counter diffusion of released oxygen (into electrolyte) and induced oxygen vacancies (into the interior bulk phase) that occurs at the interface will cause uncontrolled phase collapse and other issues. Therefore, due to its higher working voltage (>4.7 V) than the activation voltage of lattice oxygen in LRM (≈4.5 V), the anion-redox-free and structurally consistent cobalt-free LiNi0.5 Mn1.5 O4 (LNMO) is selected to in situ construct a robust, crystal-dense and lattice-matched oxygen-passivation-layer (OPL) on the surface of LRM particles by the electrochemical delithiation to protect the core layered components. As expected, the modified sample displays continuously decreasing interfacial impedance and high specific capacity of 135.5 mAh g-1 with a very small voltage decay of 0.67 mV per cycle after 1000 cycles at 2 C rate. Moreover, the stress accumulation during cycling is mitigated effectively. This semicoherent OPL strengthens the surface stability and interrupts the counter diffusion of oxygen and oxygen vacancies in LRM cathode materials, which would provide guidance for designing high-energy-density layered cathode materials.

Component-controlled synthesis of PdxSny nanocrystals on carbon nanotubes as advanced electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction.

Pd-based bimetallic or multimetallic nanocrystals are considered to be potential electrocatalysts for cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. Although much advance has been made, the synthesis of component-controlled Pd-Sn alloy nanocrystals or corresponding nanohybrids is still challenging, and the electrocatalytic ORR properties are not fully explored. Herein, component-controlled synthesis of PdxSny nanocrystals (including Pd3Sn, Pd2Sn, Pd3Sn2, and PdSn) has been realized, which are in situ grown or deposited on pre-treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form well-coupled nanohybrids (NHs) by a facile one-pot non-hydrolytic system thermolysis method. In alkaline media, all the resultant PdxSny/CNTs NHs are effective at catalyzing ORR. Among them, the Pd3Sn/CNTs NHs exhibit the best catalytic activity with the half-wave potential of 0.85 V (vs. RHE), good cyclic stability, and excellent methanol-tolerant capability due to the suited Pd-Sn alloy component and its strong interaction or efficient electronic coupling with CNTs. This work is conducive to the advancement of Pd-based nanoalloy catalysts by combining component engineering and a hybridization strategy and promoting their application in clean energy devices.

Effect of oral administration of gabapentin on the minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane in cats.

Objective: To determine if oral gabapentin decreases the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of isoflurane in cats. Study design: Prospective, randomized, blinded, crossover, and experimental study. Animals: A total of six healthy adult cats (three male, three female) aged 18-42 months, weighing 3.31 ± 0.26 kg. Methods: Cats were randomly given oral gabapentin (100 mg cat-1) or placebo 2 h before starting MAC determination, with the crossover treatment given at least 7 days apart. Anesthesia was induced and maintained with isoflurane in oxygen. Isoflurane MAC was determined in duplicate using an iterative bracketing technique and tail clamp method. Hemodynamic and other vital variables were recorded at each stable isoflurane concentration and were compared between gabapentin and placebo treatments at lowest end-tidal isoflurane concentration when cats did not respond to tail clamping. A paired t-test was used to compare normally distributed data, and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied for non-normally distributed data. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Data are mean ± standard deviation. Results: Isoflurane MAC in the gabapentin treatment was 1.02 ± 0.11%, which was significantly lower than that in the placebo treatment (1.49 ± 0.12%; p < 0.001), decreasing by 31.58 ± 6.94%. No significant differences were found in cardiovascular and other vital variables between treatments. Conclusion and clinical relevance: Oral administration of gabapentin 2 h before starting MAC determination had a significant isoflurane MAC-sparing effect in cats with no observed hemodynamic benefit.

A Universal Strategy toward the Precise Regulation of Initial Coulombic Efficiency of Li-Rich Mn-Based Cathode Materials.

Li-rich Mn-based cathode materials (LRMs) are potential cathode materials for high energy density lithium-ion batteries. However, low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) severely hinders the commercialization of LRM. Herein, a facile oleic acid-assisted interface engineering is put forward to precisely control the ICE, enhance reversible capacity and rate performance of LRM effectively. As a result, the ICE of LRM can be precisely adjusted from 84.1% to 100.7%, and a very high specific capacity of 330 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C, as well as outstanding rate capability with a fascinating specific capacity of 250 mAh g-1 at 5 C, are harvested. Theoretical calculations reveal that the introduced cation/anion double defects can reduce the diffusion barrier of Li+ ions, and in situ surface reconstruction layer can induce a self-built-in electric field to stabilize the surface lattice oxygen. Moreover, this facile interface engineering is universal and can enhance the ICEs of other kinds of LRM effectively. This work provides a valuable new idea for improving the comprehensive electrochemical performance of LRM through multistrategy collaborative interface engineering technology.

Challenges and Recent Advances in High Capacity Li-Rich Cathode Materials for High Energy Density Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Li-rich cathode materials have attracted increasing attention because of their high reversible discharge capacity (>250 mA h g-1 ), which originates from transition metal (TM) ion redox reactions and unconventional oxygen anion redox reactions. However, many issues need to be addressed before their practical applications, such as their low kinetic properties and inefficient voltage fading. The development of cutting-edge technologies has led to cognitive advances in theory and offer potential solutions to these problems. Herein, a recent in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and the frontier electrochemical research progress of Li-rich cathodes are reviewed. In addition, recent advances associated with various strategies to promote the performance and the development of modification methods are discussed. In particular, excluding Li-rich Mn-based (LRM) cathodes, other branches of the Li-rich cathode materials are also summarized. The consistent pursuit is to obtain energy storage devices with high capacity, reliable practicability, and absolute safety. The recent literature and ongoing efforts in this area are also described, which will create more opportunities and new ideas for the future development of Li-rich cathode materials.

Function and Application of Defect Chemistry in High-Capacity Electrode Materials for Li-Based Batteries.

Current commercial Li-based batteries are approaching their energy density limitation, yet still cannot satisfy the energy density demand of the high-end devices. Hence, it is critical to developing advanced electrode materials with high specific capacity. However, these electrode materials are facing challenges of severe structural degradation and fast capacity fading. Among various strategies, constructing defects in electrode materials holds great promise in addressing these issues. Herein, we summarize a series of significant defect engineering in the high-capacity electrode materials for Li-based batteries. The detailed retrospective on defects specification, function mechanism, and corresponding application achievements on these electrodes are discussed from the view of point, line, planar, volume defects. Defect engineering can not only stabilize the structure and enhance electric/ionic conductivity, but also act as active sites to improve the ionic storage and bonding ability of electrode materials to Li metal. We hope this review can spark more perspectives on evaluating high-energy-density Li-based batteries.

A genome-wide investigation of microsatellite mismatches and the association with body mass among bird species.

Mutation rate is usually found to covary with many life history traits of animals such as body mass, which has been readily explained by the higher number of mutation opportunities per unit time. Although the precise reason for the pattern is not yet clear, to determine the universality of this pattern, we tested whether life history traits impact another form of genetic mutation, the motif mismatches in microsatellites. Employing published genome sequences from 65 avian species, we explored the motif mismatches patterns of microsatellites in birds on a genomic level and assessed the relationship between motif mismatches and body mass in a phylogenetic context. We found that small-bodied species have a higher average mismatches and we suggested that higher heterozygosity in imperfect microsatellites lead to the increase of motif mismatches. Our results obtained from this study imply that a negative body mass trend in mutation rate may be a general pattern of avian molecular evolution.

A quadratic correlation between long-term mean group size and group density in a cooperatively breeding passerine.

Both mean group size (MGS) and mean group density (MGD) are critical indices to characterize a population of cooperatively breeding birds. When a population reaches its carrying capacity, both long-term MGS and long-term MGD will remain relatively stable. However, there has been little study of how these two variables relate. The Masked laughingthrush Garrulax perspicillatus is a cooperatively breeding bird living in fragmented habitats. During 2010 and 2012-2016, we used song playback to observe and confirm the group sizes and territory ranges of the birds and the data of bird presence to determine habitat suitability. By grouping the nearest territories according to their geographical coordinates, we divided the whole study area into 12 subareas and the whole population into 12 subpopulations. Then, we calculated both MGS and MGD for different time durations for each subpopulation. Finally, using MGD as independent variable and MGS as the dependent variable, we explored the correlations between MGS and MGD by fitting quadratic functions and modeling quadratic regression. Both MGS and MGD were averaged for different time durations and were cross-related. Our results show that the MGS for more than 2 years significantly correlated with MGD for more than 3 years in a reverse parabolic shape, differing from that of short-term effects. Our findings suggest that long-term MGD is a better predictor of long-term habitat quality and that long-term MGS is determined by long-term habitat quality in Masked Laughingthrushes. Based on above findings, we can infer that: (1) Long-term habitat quality determines the long-term MGS, but it sets no prerequisite for the status and source of group members; (2) Long-term MGS in certain populations is adapted to the corresponding level of long-term habitat quality, it facilitates us to predict the helper effects on current or future survival or reproduction in different situations. These findings and inferences are both helpful for us to understand the evolution of cooperative breeding.