The differences in learning motivation of college freshmen in Northwest China.

The study aimed to investigate the learning motivation of freshmen from a university in Northwest China, which can supply a reference for improving their learning quality and objectives. Data were collected from 800 freshmen of different majors with a learning motivation questionnaire. Differences in learning motivation between different majors, genders, regions, and students are studied. The results show that gender, seeking knowledge orientation, and material pursuit have significant effects on students' learning motivation. The gender had a significant impact on personal achievement and the only child or not had an obvious effect on material pursuit, while other factors had no obvious difference in gender, regional, and only child or not, while other factors on the gender, regional, and whether the one-child had no obvious difference. According to the results of the research, measures to improve learning motivation are proposed. Our research results provide a reference for improving learning attitude and the quality of universities.

Pulmonary Delivery of Reactive Oxygen Species/Glutathione-Responsive Paclitaxel Dimeric Nanoparticles Improved Therapeutic Indices against Metastatic Lung Cancer.

Chemotherapeutics often failed to elicit optimal antitumor responses against lung cancer due to their limited exposure and accumulation in tumors. To achieve an effective therapeutic outcome of paclitaxel (PTX) against metastatic lung cancer with attenuated systemic and local toxicities, pulmonary delivery of redox-responsive PTX dimeric nanoparticles (NPs) was introduced. PTX dimers conjugated through variable lengths of diacid linkers containing disulfide bonds (-SS-) (i.e., α-PTX-SS-PTX, ß-PTX-SS-PTX, and γ-PTX-SS-PTX) were initially synthesized and were subsequently self-assembled into uniform nanosized particles in the presence of vitamin E TPGS with high drug loading capacity (DE > 97%). Among various redox-sensitive scaffolds, ß-PTX-SS-PTX NPs exhibited an optimal reactive oxygen species/glutathione-responsive drug release behavior, causing a lower local toxicity profile of PTX in the lungs. The scaffolds also demonstrated excellent colloidal stability, cellular uptake efficiency, and discriminating cytotoxicity between cancer and healthy cells. Further, they depicted an improved lung retention as compared to the control nanovesicles (ß-PTX-CC-PTX) devoid of the redox-sensitive disulfide motif. In the B16F10 melanoma metastatic lung cancer mouse model, intratracheally delivered ß-PTX-SS-PTX NPs exhibited a stronger anticancer potential with reduced systemic toxicity as compared to Taxol intravenous injection containing an equivalent PTX dose. The PTX dimeric NPs could also dramatically reduce the local toxicity relative to Taxol following their pulmonary delivery. Thus, this study presents redox-responsive PTX dimeric NPs as a promising nanomedicine for improved therapeutic efficacy against metastatic lung cancer.