Prevalence and associated factors of depression and anxiety among doctoral students: the mediating effect of mentoring relationships on the association between research self-efficacy and depression/anxiety.

PURPOSE: Although the mental health status of doctoral students deserves attention, few scholars have paid attention to factors related to their mental health problems. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety in doctoral students and examine possible associated factors. We further aimed to assess whether mentoring relationships mediate the association between research self-efficacy and depression/anxiety. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 325 doctoral students in a medical university. The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale were used to assess depression and anxiety. The Research Self-Efficacy Scale was used to measure perceived ability to fulfill various research-related activities. The Advisory Working Alliance Inventory-student version was used to assess mentoring relationships. Linear hierarchical regression analyses were performed to determine if any factors were significantly associated with depression and anxiety. Asymptotic and resampling methods were used to examine whether mentoring played a mediating role. RESULTS: Approximately 23.7% of participants showed signs of depression, and 20.0% showed signs of anxiety. Grade in school was associated with the degree of depression. The frequency of meeting with a mentor, difficulty in doctoral article publication, and difficulty in balancing work-family-doctoral program was associated with both the level of depression and anxiety. Moreover, research self-efficacy and mentoring relationships had negative relationships with levels of depression and anxiety. We also found that mentoring relationships mediated the correlation between research self-efficacy and depression/anxiety. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that educational experts should pay close attention to the mental health of doctoral students. Active strategies and interventions that promote research self-efficacy and mentoring relationships might be beneficial in preventing or reducing depression and anxiety.

Mutation screening of BMP4, BMP7, HOXA4 and HOXB6 genes in Chinese patients with hypospadias.

Hypospadias, one of the most common congenital abnormalities of the male external genitalia with elusive etiology, are caused by a defect in the normal development of the urethra, foreskin and ventral aspect of the penis. Evidences indicate that BMP4 and BMP7, two of those major factors in a signaling cascade involved in controlling the embryonic urethral development, play central roles in the normal development of the urethra, and that HOXA4 and HOXB6 play important roles in the development of skin in various tissues at the time course of the urethral development. We directly sequenced all these exons and exon-intron boundaries of the four genes in 90 unrelated Chinese patients with hypospadias. Thirteen different heterozygous nucleotide variations were identified for the first time in the four genes in 14 of 90 cases. Of the 13 variations, eight are missense: c.619C>G (p.H207D), c.668G>A (p.R223H), c.751C>T (p.H251Y) in BMP4; c.907C>T (p.R303C) in BMP7; c.385G>T (p.G129C), c.869C>G (p.S290C) in HOXA4; c.124C>A (p.P42T), c.367T>C (p.C123R) in HOXB6. None of these variations were found in 380 control chromosomes. Amino-acid sequence alignments showed most of these changed amino acids are conserved across various vertebrate species. In a word, these findings, together with the indicated roles of the four genes, imply that it should not be random events for so many nucleotide variations found in the present study. Further functional studies are required to make the associations clear between these variants and hypospadias.

Mutation analysis of five candidate genes in Chinese patients with hypospadias.

Hypospadias is the displacement of the urethral meatus from the tip of the glans to the ventral side of the phallus. During fetal development, SRY, SOX9, WT1, SRD5A2 and AR are important at different stages in the differentiation and development of the male genital system. Mutations in these genes impair masculinization and may be associated with hypospadias. In order to explore these possibilities, we employed polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing to analyze the coding regions of these five genes in 90 Chinese hypospadias patients. We found a total of 16 different mutations in SRD5A2, AR and WT1 in 24 of these 90 patients. Seven mutations are novel. No mutation was found in SRY or SOX9. SNP V89L found in SRD5A2 was statistically significant between patients and controls. Our results indicated that mutations in SRD5A2, AR and WT1 were associated with hypospadias. In conclusion, mutations are frequently found in genes that control androgen action and metabolism, but are seldom found in genes active in the early phase of sex determination and differentiation. Mutations in AR, SRD5A2 or WT1 seem to be associated not only with hypospadias but also with micropenis.

[Analysis of the articles published in Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology between 2000 and 2006].

AIM: To analyze the characteristics of publications of Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology between 2000 and 2006, evaluate the academic level and the popularity of the issues, and supplying an evidence for the journal reform. METHODS: With CNKI and manpower search, by use of literature metrology, a comprehensive analysis of the publications of Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology between 2000 and 2006 was made. RESULTS: The number of articles published form 2000 to 2006 in Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology was 968, The average number of each issue is 34.57, the average page of each article is 3.11, in the columns, the article about original articles was top of rank (66.22% of the total). In the quotation, the quotation increase year by year (100% in 2004-2006), the number of English quotation is very more (76.52% in average). In the time lag, the longest is 510 days, the shortest if 60 days, the average is 196.51 days. In the fund support, the level is increase by fund support, the article number by fund support is increase too, It is 97 in 2005. In the authors' professional positions and academic degrees, the authors' level is more and more higher. In the authors column, Beijing's author is the top of rank, has 162 persons (16.74% of the total). CONCLUSION: The Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology has published high quality articles. It is the one of the most important information resource for the physiological research and the most important medical journal.