Dynamic Autophagy Map in Mouse Female Germ Cells Throughout the Fetal to Postnatal Life.

Autophagy plays vital roles in mouse female germ cells, but the potential mechanism is largely unknown. In this study, by interrogating single-cell RNA-seq dataset, we investigated the dynamic expression of autophagy-related genes in seven types of germ cells (mitosis, pre-leptotene, leptotene, zygotene, pachytene, diplotene, and dictyate) and discovered stage-specific autophagy-related genes. Using immunofluorescence (IF) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), autophagy activity and autophagosome numbers were revealed from mitosis to follicular assembly (E12.5 (embryonic day 12.5) to P5 (postnatal day 5)). Furthermore, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was performed to validate the autophagy kinetics from E12.5 to P5. Our study proved that the mitosis, diplotene, and dictyate female germ cells had relatively higher autophagy activity among the seven subtypes. In summary, our work provided an autophagy map, suggesting that autophagy was complicated in mouse female germ cell development from the fetal to postnatal life, which paved a new insight for deciphering the autophagy regulatory networks for cell-fate transition and female infertility issues like primary ovarian insufficiency (POI).

Adaptation of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) to Surgical Residents in China.

BACKGROUND: In modern China, conflicts between doctors and patients with their families have become increasingly serious. Lack of communication skills is one of the major challenges faced by many residents. Surgical residents' attitudes toward communication are of great significance to communication skills learning. The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) is a widely validated and popularly used tool for assessing the attitudes of medical students toward communication skills. The aim of this study was to develop a Chinese version of the CSAS in order to explore attitudes toward communication skills among Chinese surgical residents and to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument. METHODS: 1490 surgical residents among PGY1 to PGY3 were recruited in September 2017 to evaluate attitudes toward communication skills using the Chinese version of the CSAS in China. The reliability of the questionnaire and of each factor was assessed by Cronbach's α coefficients. Principal component analysis was used to evaluate construct validity. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: Of 1490 surgical residents of PGY1 to PGY3, 1420 (95.03%) residents completed the questionnaires satisfactorily. An overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the CSAS was 0.919. The results of principal component analysis showed that the 2-factor structure, which explained 49.06% of the variance, produced an acceptable fit. Stratified analysis by demographic variables suggested that there may be differences based on gender and study year of residency in attitudes toward learning communication skills. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that the Chinese version of CSAS developed to assess surgery residents are feasible and provide valid and reliable evidence. Further research is necessary to explore and understand attitudes toward communication skills of surgical residents in China.

Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale among medical students in Liaoning province, China: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to develop the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS-Ch) in order to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2016 to evaluate the attitudes of Chinese medical students towards communication skills learning using CSAS at China Medical University. PARTICIPANTS: The study recruited 510 fifth-year medical students by cluster sampling. METHODS: Cronbach's α coefficients were calculated for the entire questionnaire and for the subscales to evaluate the internal consistency of the CSAS-Ch. In order to determine the structure underlying the CSAS, the scale was factor analysed using maximum likelihood extraction and the oblique rotation method. RESULTS: Of the 510 medical students, 492 (96.5%) completed the questionnaire. Cronbach's α coefficient for the CSAS scale was 0.897. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the four-factor structure accounted for 59.8% of the variance and produced an acceptable fit to the data. CONCLUSIONS: The modified CSAS-Ch can be used to evaluate attitudes towards communication skills. Further Future research for improving the teaching methods for communication skills should explore the relationship between medical students' attitudes and the demographic characteristics.