A Single Preoperative Administration of Dexamethasone, Low-dose Pregabalin, or a Combination of the 2, in Spinal Surgery, Does Not Provide a Better Analgesia Than a Multimodal Analgesic Protocol Alone.

Objectives: A single perioperative dose of glucocorticoid or gabapentinoid, or a combination of the 2, may improve postoperative analgesia, but data are still insufficient to be conclusive. In this single-center, randomized, double-blind, and double-dummy trial, we aimed to test whether the analgesic effect of adding preoperative pregabalin, at a dose unlikely to induce side effects, to preoperative dexamethasone improves early mobilization after spinal surgery.

Materials And Methods: A total of 160 patients undergoing scheduled lumbar disk surgery (145 analyzed) comprised the study cohort.

Climate and atmosphere simulator for experiments on ecological systems in changing environments.

Grand challenges in global change research and environmental science raise the need for replicated experiments on ecosystems subjected to controlled changes in multiple environmental factors. We designed and developed the Ecolab as a variable climate and atmosphere simulator for multifactor experimentation on natural or artificial ecosystems. The Ecolab integrates atmosphere conditioning technology optimized for accuracy and reliability.

The respiratory metabolism of a lizard (Lacerta vivipara) in supercooled and frozen states.

We investigated the respiratory metabolism of the overwintering lizard Lacerta vivipara while in either supercooled or frozen states. With a variable pressure and volume microrespirometer and a chromatograph, we show that the oxygen consumption of the supercooled animals showed a nonlinear relationship with temperature and an aerobic metabolism demand between 0.5 and -1.