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The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought great challenges to the traditional medical model. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai, China, from March to May, 2022, there was a significant increase in the number of pediatric cases due to high transmissibility, immune escape, and vaccine breakthrough capacity of Omicron variants. The designated hospitals for children with COVID-19 served as a connecting link between children's specialized hospitals and mobile cabin hospitals. From April 7 to June 2, 2022, a total of 871 children with COVID-19 were admitted to Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (South Branch), a designated hospital for children with COVID-19. Among these patients, 568 (65.2%) were children under 3 years old, 870 (99.9%) were mild or moderate, and 1 was severe. This article reports the experience in the management of pediatric cases in this designated hospital, which included the following aspects: establishing an optimal case-admission process; strengthening multidisciplinary standardized diagnosis and treatment; optimizing the management, warning, and rescue system for severe COVID-19; implementing family-centered nursing care; formulating an individualized traditional Chinese medicine treatment regimen; optimizing the discharge process and strengthening bed turnover; implementing strict whole-process control to reduce the risk of nosocomial infection; constructing a structured medical record system and using information platforms to adapt to the work mode of large-volume cases; conducting scientific research and sharing the experience in diagnosis and treatment.

fNIRS-Based Dynamic Functional Connectivity Reveals the Innate Musical Sensing Brain Networks in Preterm Infants.

Humans have the ability to appreciate and create music. However, why and how humans have this distinctive ability to perceive music remains unclear. Additionally, the investigation of the innate perceiving skill in humans is compounded by the fact that we have been actively and passively exposed to auditory stimuli or have systematically learnt music after birth. Therefore, to explore the innate musical perceiving ability, infants with preterm birth may be the most suitable population. In this study, the auditory brain networks were explored using dynamic functional connectivity-based reliable component analysis (RCA) in preterm infants during music listening. The brain activation was captured by portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to simulate a natural environment for preterm infants. The components with the maximum inter-subject correlation were extracted. The generated spatial filters identified the shared spatial structural features of functional brain connectivity across subjects during listening to the common music, exhibiting a functional synchronization between the right temporal region and the frontal and motor cortex, and synchronization between the bilateral temporal regions. The specific pattern is responsible for the functions involving music comprehension, emotion generation, language processing, memory, and sensory. The fluctuation of the extracted components and the phase variation demonstrates the interactions between the extracted brain networks to encode musical information. These results are critically important for our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the innate perceiving skills at early ages of human during naturalistic music listening.

Protective Effect of a Water-Soluble Carotenoid-Rich Extract of Cordyceps militaris against Light-Evoked Functional Vision Deterioration in Mice.

Light-evoked retinal photodamage is considered an important factor contributing to functional vision deterioration and can even lead to light maculopathy or dry age-related macular degeneration. Loss of visual acuity (VA) and visual contrast sensitivity function (VCSF) are the major symptoms of retinal degenerative diseases. Cordyceps militaris is a carotenoid-rich Chinese medicinal fungus with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory functions. C. militaris extract is a natural substance, and its bioactive constituents have been shown to confer health benefits, but their application in retinal tissue and functional vision protection in vivo remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of water-soluble, carotenoid-rich C. militaris extracts on the visual performance of light-damaged mouse retinas in vivo, using adult female CD-1® (ICR) albino mice. We showed that oral administration of this C. militaris extract (10 mg/kg, twice daily) protected the neural retina tissue against light-evoked photoreceptor cell death, reduced Müller cell hypertrophic gliosis, and elevated GSH levels and promoted the recovery of VA- and VCSF-thresholds, especially for high spatial frequency-characterized vision. These results suggest that, probably because of its water-soluble carotenoids, C. militaris extract has the potential to prevent or treat light-induced visual dysfunction.

Evaluation of the Short-Term Music Therapy on Brain Functions of Preterm Infants Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Music contains substantial contents that humans can perceive and thus has the capability to evoke positive emotions. Even though neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) can provide preterm infants a developmental environment, they still cannot fully simulate the environment in the womb. The reduced maternal care would increase stress levels in premature infants. Fortunately, music intervention has been proved that it can improve the NICU environment, such as stabilize the heart rate and the respiratory rate, reduce the incidence of apnea, and improve feeding. However, the effects of music therapy on the brain development of preterm infants need to be further investigated. In this paper, we evaluated the influence of short-term music therapy on the brain functions of preterm infants measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We began by investigating how premature babies perceive structural information of music by calculating the correlations between music features and fNIRS signals. Then, the influences of short-term music therapy on brain functions were evaluated by comparing the resting-state functional connectivity before and after the short-term music therapy. The results show that distinct brain regions are responsible for processing corresponding musical features, indicating that preterm infants have the capability to process the complex musical content. However, the results of network analysis show that short-term music intervention is insufficient to cause the changes in cerebral functional connectivity. Therefore, long-term music therapy may be required to achieve the deserved effects on brain functional connectivity.

[Post-stroke constipation treated with acupoint embedding therapy: a multi-center randomized controlled trial].

OBJECTIVE: To verify the clinical effect of acupoint embedding therapy on post-stroke constipation. METHODS: The multi-central randomized controlled trial was adopted. 210 patients of post-stroke constipation were divided into an acupoint embedding group (105 cases, 4 cases dropped off) and a sham-embedding group (105 cases, 6 cases dropped off). In the acupoint embedding group, the acupoint embedding therapy was used at Tianshu (ST 25), Daheng (SP 15), Xiawan (CV 10), Zhongwan (CV 12), Qihai (CV 6), Guanyuan (CV 4) and Daju (ST 27). In the sham-embedding group, the sham-embedding therapy was given, in which, the acupoint selection, needle devices and manipulation were the same as the acupoint embedding group. But, no absorbable surgical suture was used in the needle tube. The treatment was given once every two weeks and 4 treatments were required in either group. It was to compare the weekly average complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBMs) during treatment (from the 3rd to the 8th week) between the two groups, the weekly average spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs), Bristol stool form score (BSFS), the score of the patient assessment of constipation quality of life questionnaire (PAC-QOL) and the score of defecation difficulty before and after treatment. RESULTS: The percentage of the cases with weekly average CSBMs ≥ 3 times in the patients of the acupoint embedding group was higher markedly than the sham-embedding group [91.1% (92/101) vs 43.4% (43/99), P<0.01]. Compared with the values before treatment, the weekly average SBMs and BSFS scores after treatment were all increased obviously in the two groups (P<0.01), and PAC-QOL score and the score of defecation difficulty were reduced remarkably (P<0.01). After treatment, the increase range of SBMs and BSFS scores, as well as the decrease range of PAC-QOL score and the defecation difficulty score in the acupoint embedding group were all higher than the sham-embedding group respectively (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The acupoint embedding therapy remarkably increases the spontaneous bowel movements, improves in feces form and defecation difficulty and strengthens the quality of life in the patients of post-stroke constipation.

[Simultaneous determination of eleven sex hormones in antler velvet health products by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry].

A method for the simultaneous determination of 11 sex hormones in antler velvet health products by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was developed. The sex hormones in antler velvet were enriched and purified by solid phase extraction and derivatized with heptafluorobutyric acid anhydride (HFBA). A DB-5 column (30 m x 0.25 mm, 0.25 microm) with nonlinear gradient program was used in GC separation. The sex hormones were determined in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The method realized the complete separation of 11 sex hormones. The limits of detection of this method were from 1.0 to 5.0 microg/kg for the 11 sex hormones. The correlation coefficients were between 0.991 6 and 0.999 9. The recoveries were in the range of 67.4% - 99.1% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.6% - 13%. This method is accurate and reliable for the determination of the sex hormones in antler velvet health products.

[Kinetic analysis of additive effect on desulfurization activity].

The additive effects of A12O3, Fe2O3 and MnCO3 on CaO sulfation kinetics were investigated by thermogravimetic analysis method and modified grain model. The activation energy (Ea) and the pre-exponential factor (k0) of surface reaction, the activation energy (Ep) and the pre-exponential factor (D0) of product layer diffusion reaction were calculated according to the model. Additions of MnCO3 can enhance the initial reaction rate, product layer diffusion and the final CaO conversion of sorbents, the effect mechanism of which is similar to that of Fe2O3. The method based isokinetic temperature Ts and activation energy can not estimate the contribution of additive to the sulfation reactivity, the rate constant of the surface reaction (k), and the effective diffusivity of reactant in the product layer (Ds) under certain experimental conditions can reflect the effect of additives on the activation. Unstoichiometric metal oxide may catalyze the surface reaction and promote the diffusivity of reactant in the product layer by the crystal defect and distinct diffusion of cation and anion. According to the mechanism and effect of additive on the sulfation, the effective temperature and the stoichiometric relation of reaction, it is possible to improve the utilization of sorbent by compounding more additives to the calcium-based sorbent.