Multiplication-free and hardware-efficient baud-rate timing error detector for Nyquist and faster than Nyquist optical IM/DD systems.

Clock recovery (CR) algorithms that support higher baud rates and advanced modulation formats are crucial for short-distance optical interconnections, and it is desirable to push CR to operate at baud rate with minimal computing resources and power. In this Letter, we proposed a hardware-efficient and multiplication operation-free baud-rate timing error detector (TED) as a solution to meet these demands. Our approach involves employing both the absolute value of samples and the nonlinear sign operation to emphasize the clock tone, which is deteriorated by severe bandwidth limitation in Nyquist and faster than Nyquist (FTN) systems. Through experimental investigations based on a transceiver system with a 3 dB bandwidth of 30 GHz, the proposed baud-rate TED exhibits excellent performance. The proposed scheme successfully achieves clock synchronization of the received signals with the transmitted signals, including 50 GBaud PAM4/8, 80 GBaud PAM4, and up to 120 GBaud PAM4 FTN signals. To the best of our knowledge, the CR based on the proposed baud-rate TED is the most optimal solution for ultrahigh-speed short-reach IM/DD transmission, comprehensively considering the timing jitter, bit error rate (BER), and implementation complexity.

Risk factors associated with the comprehensive needs of cancer caregivers in China.

BACKGROUND: Cancer incidence and mortality rates have been rising in developing countries, especially in Asia. Cancer caregivers face unique challenges which put them at risk for burden, poor quality of life, and burnout. The purpose of this study was to investigate the comprehensive needs and associated factors of cancer caregivers, and explore the correlation with cancer patients. METHODS: In Mainland China, 200 cancer patient-caregiver dyads were chosen and interviewed for a cross-sectional questionnaire survey by convenient sampling method. Cancer caregivers' comprehensive needs were assessed with Comprehensive Needs Assessment Tool in cancer for Caregivers(CNAT-C), including seven domains (health and psychological problems, family and social support, healthcare staffs, information, religious/spiritual support, hospital facilities and services, and practical support). The comprehensive needs assessment tool in cancer for patients (CNAT) was used to assess patients' comprehensive needs. The sociodemographic survey was completed by both cancer patients and caregivers. The mean differences in domain scores for different groups of characteristics were compared by one-way ANOVA or non-parametric analyses, and those factors that had significant differences were selected for the multivariate regression analysis to determine the final influencing factors. The correlation between cancer patients' and caregivers' needs was evaluated by Spearman's correlation analysis. RESULTS: The cancer caregivers' need for healthcare staff (82.60±19.56) was the highest among the seven domains, followed by the need for information (72.17±14.61) and the need for hospital facilities and services (56.44±18.22). The lowest score was the need for religious/spiritual support (28.33±16.05). Caregivers who were younger, highly educated, with high household income, and less than 1 year since diagnosis had higher scores of CNAT-C. Also sociodemographic characteristics were associated with each domain of cancer caregivers' need. Correlations between patients' and caregivers' comprehensive needs were low to moderate (0.013~0.469). CONCLUSION: Cancer caregivers experience high levels of comprehensive needs, which are closely related to their sociological characteristics. The tailored interventions and mobilization of social and health care support may thus provide multiple levels of benefit across cancer trajectories. The patient-caregiver dyad should be regarded as a unit for treatment in cancer care.

Analgesic efficacy of nitrous oxide in adults in the emergency department: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Nitrous oxide (N2O) has a rapidly analgesic effect, but evidence regarding its role in managing pain in adults in the emergency department (ED) is conflicting. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to investigate the analgesic efficacy and safety of N2O in adults in ED. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of science, China National Knowledge Infrastrusture (CNKI) and Wanfang Database up to August 10th, 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included if they compared N2O/O2 to placebo or other analgesic methods for management of pain in adults in ED or prehospital. The primary outcome was the analgesic efficacy of N2O. Secondary outcomes included adverse events, satisfaction of patients and the duration of procedure. RESULTS: 14 RCTs with 1751 patients were included. Pooled analysis suggested that N2O had better analgesia than placebo in the pain score (WMD = -3.00, 95% CI = -3.99 to -2.02, P < 0.00001, I2 = 91%) and the number of patients with pain relief (OR = 6.18, 95% CI = 3.22 to 11.85, P < 0.00001, I2 = 0%), while there were no significant difference in the pain score (WMD = 0.93, 95% CI = -1.09 to 2.95, P = 0.37, I2 = 97%) or the number of patients with pain relief (OR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.00 to 3.47, P = 0.18, I2 = 86%) between the N2O group and the other analgesic method group. Although N2O did not increase nausea (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 0.44 to 5.21, P = 0.50, I2 = 54%) or satisfaction of patients (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.16 to 7.18, P = 0.96, I2 = 81%), it was associated with higher tendency of vomiting (OR = 6.50, 95% CI = 2.07 to 20.42, P = 0.001, I2 = 29%) and dizziness (OR = 4.54, 95% CI = 2.27 to 9.09, P < 0.0001, I2 = 26%), and shorter procedure time (WMD = -5.73 min, 95% CI = -10.14 min to -1.32 min, P = 0.01, I2 = 98%). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis suggested that N2O could provide better analgesia than placebo and similar analgesia to other methods with more vomiting and dizziness in adults in ED.

Psychometric Evaluation of the Spiritual Perspective Scale in Palliative Care Nurses in China.

This study aimed to translate the Spiritual Perspectives Scale (SPS) into a Mandarin Chinese version (C-SPS) and evaluate its psychometric properties among 154 palliative care nurses from twelve community healthcare centres in Shanghai, China. Exploratory factor analysis suggested two factors (spiritually related activities and spiritual beliefs), accounting for 67.49% of the total variance. The Cronbach's α of the total C-SPS score was 0.89, and its split-half coefficient (Spearman-Brown reliability coefficient) was 0.72. The C-SPS showed consistently acceptable psychometric properties of reliability and validity. It can be used to evaluate the level of spiritual perspectives of nurses in China.

A Highly Magnetic Field Sensitive Photonic Crystal Fiber Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance.

A novel magnetic field sensor comprising a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is designed and investigated based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We use finite element analysis in order to analyze the sensing characteristics of the magnetic field sensor. The simulation results show that the sensor is very sensitive to the change of refractive index and has good linearity in the refractive index range from 1.43-1.45. The thickness of the metal film and the metal material has great influence on the resonance wavelength and the peak of the loss spectrum, the diameter of the central air hole will affect SPP excitation. When the thickness of gold layer is 50 nm, the refractive index sensitivity is 4125 nm/RIU in the refractive index range from 1.43-1.45. Using the designed sensor for magnetic field sensing, the loss spectrum is red-shifted with the increase of the magnetic field, the highest magnetic field sensitivity can reach 61.25 pm/Oe in the range from 50 Oe to 130 Oe. The sensor not only has high sensitivity of refractive index, but it can also realize accurate measurement of magnetic field. It has huge application potential in complex environment, remote sensing, real-time monitoring, and other fields.

Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity of porous La-N-co-doped TiO2 nanotubes for gaseous chlorobenzene oxidation.

The photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous chlorobenzene (CB) by the 365nm-induced photocatalyst La/N-TiO2, synthesized via a sol-gel and hydrothermal method, was evaluated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to model and optimize the conditions for synthesis of the photocatalyst. The optimal photocatalyst was 1.2La/0.5N-TiO2 (0.5) and the effects of La/N on crystalline structure, particle morphology, surface element content, and other structural characteristics were investigated by XRD (X-ray diffraction), TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), UV-vis (Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy), and BET (Brunauer Emmett Teller). Greater surface area and smaller particle size were produced with the co-doped TiO2 nanotubes than with reference TiO2. The removal of CB was effective when performed using the synthesized photocatalyst, though it was less efficient at higher initial CB concentrations. Various modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models involving the adsorption of chlorobenzene and water on different active sites were evaluated. Fitting results suggested that competitive adsorption caused by water molecules could not be neglected, especially for environments with high relative humidity. The reaction intermediates found after GC-MS (Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) analysis indicated that most were soluble, low-toxicity, or both. The results demonstrated that the prepared photocatalyst had high activity for VOC (volatile organic compounds) conversion and may be used as a pretreatment prior to biopurification.

Telomere lengthening early in development.

Stem cells and cancer cells maintain telomere length mostly through telomerase. Telomerase activity is high in male germ line and stem cells, but is low or absent in mature oocytes and cleavage stage embryos, and then high again in blastocysts. How early embryos reset telomere length remains poorly understood. Here, we show that oocytes actually have shorter telomeres than somatic cells, but their telomeres lengthen remarkably during early cleavage development. Moreover, parthenogenetically activated oocytes also lengthen their telomeres, thus the capacity to elongate telomeres must reside within oocytes themselves. Notably, telomeres also elongate in the early cleavage embryos of telomerase-null mice, demonstrating that telomerase is unlikely to be responsible for the abrupt lengthening of telomeres in these cells. Coincident with telomere lengthening, extensive telomere sister-chromatid exchange (T-SCE) and colocalization of the DNA recombination proteins Rad50 and TRF1 were observed in early cleavage embryos. Both T-SCE and DNA recombination proteins decrease in blastocyst stage embryos, whereas telomerase activity increases and telomeres elongate only slowly. We suggest that telomeres lengthen during the early cleavage cycles following fertilization through a recombination-based mechanism, and that from the blastocyst stage onwards, telomerase only maintains the telomere length established by this alternative mechanism.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Military Populations with Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review.

Background: Due to the limited role of chronic pain medication in military personnel and the distress caused to the military population, mindfulness-based therapy has been considered for the follow-up treatment of military personnel with chronic pain. The purpose of this review is to explore the effect and the implementation of mindfulness-based therapy for the military population with chronic pain. Methods: The keywords for the search included "mindfulness" AND ("pain" OR "chronic pain") AND ("military" OR "veteran"). The PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched. The Cochrane Collaboration tool was used to independently assess the risk of bias of the included randomized controlled trials, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to independently assess the risk of bias of the included case-control studies. Results: A total of 175 papers were identified; 65 duplicates were excluded, and 59 papers that did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded after reading the titles and abstracts. The remaining 51 papers were read in full, 42 of which did not meet the inclusion criteria. Nine papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. The nine studies included 507 veterans and 56 active-duty female military personnel. All pain interventions were mindfulness-based therapy, and all of them were integrated into or adapted from standard mindfulness courses. The results all showed that after mindfulness-based therapy, the relevant indicators improved. Conclusions: Mindfulness-based therapy is an effective treatment method for the military population with chronic pain. The review indicates that future research should focus on the best setting for mindfulness-based therapy, including the course content and time.

Application and value of anxiety and depression scale in patients with functional dyspepsia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) cannot be assessed for their mental health using a suitable and practical measure. The purpose of the study is to investigate the usefulness of several anxiety and depression scales in patients with FD, offering recommendations for clinical identification and therapy. METHODS: From September 2021 to September 2022, patients were sought and selected. The psychological symptoms were assessed using ten depression or anxiety questionnaires. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, Spearman analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and single factor analysis were applied. RESULTS: Prospective analysis was performed on 142 healthy individuals and 113 patients with FD. In the case group, anxiety and depression symptoms were more common than in the control group, and the 10 scales showed strong validity and reliability. HAMD had the strongest connection with the PHQ-9 score on the depression scale (0.83). The score correlation between SAS and HAMA on the anxiety analysis scale was the greatest at 0.77. The PHQ-9, SAS, HAMD, and HAMA measures performed exceptionally well in detecting FD with anxiety or depression symptoms (AUC = 0.72, 0.70, 0.70, 0.77, and 0.77, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: PHQ-9, SAS, HAMD, and HAMA scales have good application performance in FD patients. They can assist gastroenterologists in evaluating anxiety and depression symptoms, and provide reference and guidance for subsequent treatment.

Germline competency of parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells from immature oocytes of adult mouse ovary.

Parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells (pESCs) have been generated in several mammalian species from parthenogenetic embryos that would otherwise die around mid-gestation. However, previous reports suggest that pESCs derived from in vivo ovulated (IVO) mature oocytes show limited pluripotency, as evidenced by low chimera production, high tissue preference and especially deficiency in germline competence, a critical test for genetic integrity and pluripotency of ESCs. Here, we report efficient generation of germline-competent pESC lines (named as IVM pESCs) from parthenogenetic embryos developed from immature oocytes of adult mouse ovaries following in vitro maturation (IVM) and artificial activation. In contrast, pESCs derived from IVO oocytes show defective germline competence, consistent with previous reports. Further, IVM pESCs resemble more ESCs from fertilized embryos (fESCs) than do IVO pESCs on genome-wide DNA methylation and global protein profiles. In addition, IVM pESCs express higher levels of Blimp1, Lin28 and Stella, relative to fESCs, and in their embryoid bodies following differentiation. This may indicate differences in differentiation potentially to the germline. The mechanisms for acquisition of pluripotency and germline competency of IVM pESCs from immature oocytes remain to be determined.

Training the trainer: An educational course for training pain nursing specialists supported by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).

To train pain nursing specialists through a pain education program, 20 nurses from six hospitals in Shanghai Province and seven in six provinces of China received the training of 2-month pain education and 4-month clinical practice. This nonrandomized pilot study examined the results of tests before and after the program, case report evaluations, future plan evaluations, clinical practice, and satisfaction questionnaire. After the program, the score of the test increased significantly compared with that before the program (44.1 ± 3.19; paired-sample t = 10.363; p < .0001). All of the participants thought that the program had broadened their vision, 19 (95%) thought that the program had raised the level of their theoretical knowledge in pain management, 17 (85%) thought that the program had improved their skills in clinical practice, and 15 (75%) thought that the program had played a role in enhancing their research abilities. Considering the whole program, most students (n = 17; 85%) were quite satisfied, and 3 (15%) were simply satisfied. By content analysis of the opening questions, we found that the participants had deeper and broader ideas about nurses' role and pain nursing specialists' responsibilities in pain management. The program improved nurses' attitudes, knowledge, and skills in pain management. The participants recognized pain nursing specialists' responsibilities in pain management more clearly.

Life insurance salespeople linking work stressors to proactive behaviors by passion: Servant leadership as a moderator.

As the main sales force of life insurance companies, salespeople have accounted for more than 50% of life insurance sales channels over the years, playing a pivotal role in the development of the industry. Since the adoption of the model of employment at an agency, the commission income of life insurance salespeople has largely relied on their sales volume, which requires employee proactivity under a great number of stressors. However, because previous studies have analyzed stressors in a single dimension, our understanding of the relationship between work stressors and proactive behaviors remains limited. Applying self-determination theory, we investigated differential relationships between challenge/hindrance stressors and proactive behaviors, which were expected to be mediated by passion and moderated by servant leadership. In the sample of 332 insurance salespeople, there was a positive (negative) relationship between challenge (hindrance) stressors and proactive behaviors. In addition, passion mediated the relationship between stressors and proactive behaviors, and servant leadership moderated the relationship between stressors and passion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Development and Evaluation of Innovative and Practical Table-top Exercises Based on a Real Mass-Casualty Incident.

PURPOSE: The aim of this work was to develop a table-top exercise (TTX) program for mass-casualty incident (MCI) response based on a real incident to evaluate the program. METHODS: The TTX program was developed based on the 8 TTX design steps. Convenience sampling was adopted to recruit recently graduated physicians in China. After the TTX training, the participants completed a self-designed questionnaire, as well as the Simulation Design Scale (SDS) and Educational Practices in Simulation Scale (EPSS). RESULTS: In total, 148 valid questionnaires were collected. The difficulty score of the TTX program was 3.69 ± 0.8. The participants evaluated the program highly, with a score of 4.72 ± 0.54 out of 5. Both the SDS and the EPSS had average scores higher than 4.5. Guided reflection/feedback (M = 4.68, SD = 0.41) and fidelity (M =4.66, SD = 0.57) were the 2 highest-rated SDS subscales. For the EPSS, diverse ways of learning and collaboration were the 2 highest-rated subscales. Multivariate stepwise regression analysis showed that the participants' evaluations of the TTX training course were related to the EPSS score, the difficulty rating, the evaluation of the instructional props, and the degree of participant involvement (F = 24.385, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A TTX program for MCIs was developed based on the 2014 Shanghai New Year Crush. The TTX kit is practical and sophisticated, and it provides an effective strategy for MCI training.

Factors influencing the degree of participation in surgical decision-making among Chinese patients with prostate cancer: A qualitative research.

Objective: There was increasingly demand of participation in surgical decision-making among Chinese patients with prostate cancer. However, due to the complex healthcare system and advanced care settings, it is quite challenging for the patients to gain sufficient support from the institute and the government. This research aimed to investigate the factors that impact the degree of participation in surgical decision-making among Chinese prostate cancer patients. Methods: A phenomenological approach of qualitative research based on the results of semi-structured interviews was adopted, to explore the influencing factors which hinder the participation in surgical decision-making. Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research were utilized. Up to 160 post-operative patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy along with 68 medical and nursing staffs, were purposively recruited in this research. This retrospective study was carried out from September 2018 to August 2019. After recording and transcribing the interviews, the interview materials were evaluated via the Colaizzi's seven step approach and the NVivo Version 10 software to analyze the interview content. Results: According to the analysis and summary of the interviews, there were three factors affecting the degree of participation in surgical decision-making. Firstly, insufficient information was provided by medical and nursing staffs because of their lack of time, proper communication skills, and career experience, as well as difficulties in the development of patient decision aid and inconsistent resource availability. Secondly, the cognitive level of decision-making among patients was relatively low due to poor psychological endurance, insufficient amount of education, senility, and less knowledge and information demand. Ultimately, decisions were constantly made by family members with/without patients. Conclusions: The degree of participation of Chinese prostate cancer patients in the surgical decision-making had much space for improvement.

Cluster-Based Ensemble Learning Model for Aortic Dissection Screening.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a rare and high-risk cardiovascular disease with high mortality. Due to its complex and changeable clinical manifestations, it is easily missed or misdiagnosed. In this paper, we proposed an ensemble learning model based on clustering: Cluster Random under-sampling Smote-Tomek Bagging (CRST-Bagging) to help clinicians screen for AD patients in the early phase to save their lives. In this model, we propose the CRST method, which combines the advantages of Kmeans++ and the Smote-Tomek sampling method, to overcome an extremely imbalanced AD dataset. Then we used the Bagging algorithm to predict the AD patients. We collected AD patients' and other cardiovascular patients' routine examination data from Xiangya Hospital to build the AD dataset. The effectiveness of the CRST method in resampling was verified by experiments on the original AD dataset. Our model was compared with RUSBoost and SMOTEBagging on the original dataset and a test dataset. The results show that our model performed better. On the test dataset, our model's precision and recall rates were 83.6% and 80.7%, respectively. Our model's F1-score was 82.1%, which is 4.8% and 1.6% higher than that of RUSBoost and SMOTEBagging, which demonstrates our model's effectiveness in AD screening.

Isolation of mouse mesenchymal stem cells with normal ploidy from bone marrows by reducing oxidative stress in combination with extracellular matrix.

BACKGROUND: Isolation of mouse MSCs (mMSCs) with normal ploidy from bone marrow remains challenging. mMSCs isolated under 20% O(2) are frequently contaminated by overgrown hematopoietic cells, and could also be especially vulnerable to oxidative damage, resulting in chromosomal instability. Culture under low oxygen or extracellular matrix (ECM) improves proliferation of MSCs in several species. We tested the hypothesis that culture under low oxygen in combination with ECM prepared from mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF-ECM) could be used to purify proliferative mMSCs, and to reduce oxidative damage and maintain their chromosomal stability. RESULTS: Optimization of culture conditions under 20% O(2) resulted in immortalization of mMSCs, showing extensive chromosome abnormalities, consistent with previous studies. In contrast, culture under low oxygen (2% O(2)) improved proliferation of mMSCs and reduced oxidative damage, such that mMSCs were purified simply by plating at low density under 2% O(2). MEF-ECM reduced oxidative damage and enhanced proliferation of mMSCs. However, these isolated mMSCs still exhibited high frequency of chromosome abnormalities, suggesting that low oxygen or in combination with MEF-ECM was insufficient to fully protect mMSCs from oxidative damage. Notably, antioxidants (alpha -phenyl-t-butyl nitrone (PBN) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC)) further reduced DNA damage and chromosomal abnormalities, and increased proliferation of mMSCs. mMSCs isolated by the combination method were successfully used to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by ectopic expression of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a technique that allows to reduce the number of karyotypic abnormalities for isolation of primary mMSCs and for limited culture period by combination of low oxygen, MEF-ECM, antioxidants and low density plating strategy. The effectiveness of the new combination method is demonstrated by successful generation of iPS cells from the isolated mMSCs. However, a culture system for mMSCs still is needed to prevent all the anomalies, especially after a long-term culture period.

Correlation of expression and methylation of imprinted genes with pluripotency of parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells.

Mammalian parthenogenetic embryos (pE) are not viable due to placental deficiency, presumably resulting from lack of paternally expressed imprinted genes. Pluripotent parthenogenetic embryonic stem (pES) cells derived from pE could advance regenerative medicine by avoiding immuno-rejection and ethical roadblocks. We attempted to explore the epigenetic status of imprinted genes in the generation of pES cells from parthenogenetic blastocysts, and its relationship to pluripotency of pES cells. Pluripotency was evaluated for developmental and differentiation potential in vivo, based on contributions of pES cells to chimeras and development to day 9.5 of pES fetuses complemented by tetraploid embryos (TEC). Consistently, pE and fetuses failed to express paternally expressed imprinted genes, but pES cells expressed those genes in a pattern resembling that of fertilized embryos (fE) and fertilized embryonic stem (fES) cells derived from fE. Like fE and fES cells, but unlike pE or fetuses, pES cells and pES cell-fetuses complemented by TEC exhibited balanced methylation of Snrpn, Peg1 and U2af1-rs1. Coincidently, global methylation increased in pE but decreased in pES cells, further suggesting dramatic epigenetic reprogramming occurred during isolation and culture of pES cells. Moreover, we identified decreased methylation of Igf2r, Snrpn, and especially U2af1-rs1, in association with increased contributions of pES cells to chimeras. Our data show that in vitro culture changes epigenetic status of imprinted genes during isolation of pES cells from their progenitor embryos and that increased expression of U2af1-rs1 and Snrpn and decreased expression of Igf2r correlate with pluripotency of pES cells.

Attitudes toward and Perceptions of Educational Needs for End-of-Life Care among Health Professions Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in China.

CONTEXT: To provide effective end-of-life care education for health professions students, it is important to understand students' views of death in addition to their perceptions of educational needs and preferences. However, there is a lack of studies addressing interindividual variability in perceptions of end-of-life care educational needs among health professions students. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify latent profiles of perceptions of end-of-life care educational needs among health professions students and examine whether the demographic characteristics, death-related events, death attitude, and death anxiety differed by need subgroup. METHODS: Through convenience sampling, health professions students from three universities in China were recruited between March 2020 and June 2020. Data were collected using a demographic information and death-related experience questionnaire, the End-of-Life Care Curriculum Needs Questionnaire, the End-of-Life Care Educational Needs Questionnaire, the Death Attitudes Profile-Revised, and the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: A total of 1048 students completed the survey. Two classes of perceptions of end-of-life care educational needs were identified: approximately 29.80% of students belonged to a medium-need group class (1), and 70.20% belonged to a high-need group class (2). Being female and having knowledge of end-of-life care significantly increased the probability of membership in class 2. Students with the two latent profiles reported having varied curriculum needs. In addition, a positive attitude toward death and low death anxiety increased the probability of membership in class 1. CONCLUSION: Two classes of perceptions of end-of-life care educational needs were identified, and these classes were significantly associated with sex and death-related knowledge (P < 0.05). Interindividual variability should be considered in the future development of end-of-care curricula.

Birth of parthenote mice directly from parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells.

Mammalian parthenogenetic embryos are not viable and die because of defects in placental development and genomic imprinting. Parthenogenetic ESCs (pESCs) derived from parthenogenetic embryos might advance regenerative medicine by avoiding immuno-rejection. However, previous reports suggest that pESCs may fail to differentiate and contribute to some organs in chimeras, including muscle and pancreas, and it remains unclear whether pESCs themselves can form all tissue types in the body. We found that derivation of pESCs is more efficient than of ESCs derived from fertilized embryos, in association with reduced mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in parthenogenetic embryos and their inner cell mass outgrowth. Furthermore, in vitro culture modifies the expression of imprinted genes in pESCs, and these cells, being functionally indistinguishable from fertilized embryo-derived ESCs, can contribute to all organs in chimeras. Even more surprisingly, our study shows that live parthenote pups were produced from pESCs through tetraploid embryo complementation, which contributes to placenta development. This is the first demonstration that pESCs are capable of full-term development and can differentiate into all cell types and functional organs in the body.

[Processing mechanism of calamine].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze the processing mechanism of calamine. METHOD: XRD, TEM and IR were adopted to analyze the structures and the components of original and calcined calamine. Their antibacterial activities were also determined. RESULT: The results indicated that zinc carbonate in original calamine was decomposed into zinc oxide after processing at 700 degrees C for 1 hour using original calamine of 40 mesh, and the particle size was smaller than before processing. All of ZnO, ZnCO3 and Zn5 (CO3) 2 (OH) 6 had antibacterial activitives. CONCLUSION: Original calamine is deposed to ZnO after being calcined for 1 h at 700 degrees C and wet milling. The content of ZnO and antibacterial activity of calcined calamine are better than those of original calamine, moreover, the particle size diminishes and become dimensional uniformity, and the contents of dissolved impurities is decreased. The antibacterial activitives of original and calcined calamine are decided by zinc.