Effect of Personalized Music Intervention in Mechanically Ventilated Children in the PICU: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the feasibility of a personalized music intervention with mechanically ventilated patients in the PICU. DESIGN: Pilot study with a quasi-experimental design. SETTING: Tertiary children's hospital in China with a 40-bed PICU. PATIENTS: Children, 1 month to 7 years, with mechanical ventilation were recruited and assigned to music group (n = 25) and control group (n = 25). INTERVENTIONS: Children in the music group received their own favorite music and listened for 60 minutes three times a day. The control group receive routine care without music. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Primary outcome measure was comfort measured with the COMFORT Behavior scale 5 minutes before and after the music. Secondary outcome measures were physiologic variables; heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, oxygen saturation. Mechanical ventilation time, length of stay, and sedation medication were also collected. Qualitative analysis revealed that nurses had a positive attitude in delivering the interventions and identified improvements for the main trial. Children in the music group had lower COMFORT Behavior scores (15.7 vs 17.6; p = 0.011). Children in the music group had better physiologic outcomes; heart rate (140 vs 144; p = 0.039), respiration rate (40 vs 43; p = 0.036), systolic blood pressure (93 vs 95 mm Hg; p = 0.031), oxygen saturation (96% vs 95%; p < 0.001), diastolic blood pressure was not significantly (52 vs 53 mm Hg; p = 0.11). Children in the music group had a shorter ventilation time (148.7 vs 187.6; p = 0.044) and a shorter length of stay, but not significant (11.2 vs 13.8; p = 0.071). Children in the control group had higher total amount of on-demand midazolam (29 vs 33 mg; p = 0.040). CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study indicates that personalized music intervention is feasible and might improve the comfort of children with mechanical ventilation. Further studies are needed to provide conclusive evidence in confirming the effectiveness of music interventions comforting critically ill children in PICUs.

Degradation rate affords a dynamic cue to regulate stem cells beyond varied matrix stiffness.

While various static cues such as matrix stiffness have been known to regulate stem cell differentiation, it is unclear whether or not dynamic cues such as degradation rate along with the change of material chemistry can influence cell behaviors beyond simple integration of static cues such as decreased matrix stiffness. The present research is aimed at examining effects of degradation rates on adhesion and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro on well-defined synthetic hydrogel surfaces. Therefore, we synthesized macromers by extending both ends of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with oligo(lactic acid) and then acryloyl, and the corresponding hydrogels that were obtained after photopolymerization of the macromers were biodegradable. Combining the unique techniques of block copolymer micelle nanolithography with transfer lithography, we prepared a nanoarray of cell-adhesive arginine-glycine-aspartate peptides on this nonfouling biodegradable hydrogel. The biodegradation is caused by hydrolysis of the ester bonds, and different degradation rates in the cell culture medium were achieved by different stages of accelerated pre-hydrolysis in an acidic medium. For the following cell culture and induction, both the matrix stiffness and degradation rate varied among the examined groups. While adipogenic differentiation of MSCs can be understood by the lowered stiffness, the osteogenic differentiation was contradictory with common sense because we found enhanced osteogenesis on soft hydrogels. Higher degradation rates were suggested to account for this interesting phenomenon in the sole osteogenic/adipogenic induction and even more complicated trends in the co-induction. Hence, the degradation rate is a dynamic cue influencing cell behaviors, which should be paid attention to for degradable biomaterials.

Highly Enantioselective [3+2] Annulation of Indoles with Quinones to Access Structurally Diverse Benzofuroindolines.

A facile and efficient method to produce optically pure benzofuroindolines, especially those without 3-substituents that are susceptible to rearomatization, through [3+2] annulation of indoles with quinones is described. The suitable combination of a BOX ligand CuII hydrate complex and freshly activated molecular sieves functions to give controllably dynamic release of water, which enables the success of this reaction. This reaction can be performed on a gram scale with only 0.5 mol % catalyst loading.

Cy-SaBOX/Copper(II)-Catalyzed Highly Diastereo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of Bicyclic N,O†Acetals.

Facile and effective access for the asymmetric construction of the useful and important skeleton of the bicyclic N,O-acetals is described. Cu(II) /SaBOX could catalyze the reaction of ß,γ-unsaturated α-ketoesters with cyclic enamines efficiently, thus affording the desired products in excellent yields with excellent stereoselectivities (21 examples; up to 99 % yields; up to >95:5 d.r.; and 95-99 % ee). This reaction can be well performed on gram scale, even with only 1 mol % catalyst loading. The single-crystal structures of the copper complexes lead to a good understanding of the stereo-synergistic effects of the sidearm.

Asymmetric H2O-Nucleophilic Ring Opening of D-A Cyclopropanes: Catalyst Serves as a Source of Water.

The first catalytic enantioselective ring-opening reaction of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes with water is described. By employing Cy-TOX/Cu(II) as catalyst, the reaction performed very well over a broad range of substrates, leading to the ring-opening products in 70-96% yields with up to 95% ee under mild conditions. The current method provides a new approach to direct access to γ-substituted GBH derivatives very efficiently. Importantly, Cu(ClO4)2·6H2O proves to serve as both a Lewis acid and a source of water, which affords a fine system to controllably release water as a nucleophile in the asymmetric catalysis.

One-Pot Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Tetrahydrocarbazoles.

A one-pot asymmetric synthesis of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrocarbazoles has been developed via an enantioselective [3 + 3] annulation of 2-alkynylindoles and donor-acceptor cyclopropanes. In the presence of chiral Lewis acids as catalysts, a series of optically active tetrahydrocarbazoles were furnished in high yields (63-87%) with good to excellent levels of enantioselectivity (up to 94% ee).