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Yingying Lin,1,&ast; Xiaoyan Xiu,2,&ast; Juan Lin,3 Zhiwei Chen,3 Cui Xian Zheng,3 Xuehong Pan,2 Lihua Lin,1 Jianying Yan3 1Department of Healthcare, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Health Education, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Obstetrics, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jianying Yan, Department of Obstetrics, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86591-86329270, Email fjsfyyan@126.comBackground: The goal is to evaluate the effects of a flipped class strategy on knowledge, self-directed learning ability, learning satisfaction and pregnancy outcomes in primiparas undergoing antenatal education.Methods: A random sampling method was adopted. A total of 600 primiparas who were diagnosed with early pregnancy in a first-class hospital in southeast China and received continuous prenatal health education from May to July 2020 were selected as the research subjects. In order to make the baseline of the two groups of primipara comparable, we divided the two groups in the antenatal education centre according to the odd-even number of the lesson card number. The odd-numbered group was the experimental group, who used the prenatal health education model based on blended learning; the even-numbered group was the control group, who used the traditional mode of prenatal health education. The two groups were compared on the following outcomes: knowledge, self-directed learning ability, learning satisfaction and pregnancy outcomes.Results: Compared with traditional learning, the blended learning approach can effectively controlled the gestational weight gain (GWG), alleviated the anxiety and depression during pregnancy, improved the natural delivery rate of the primipara, shortened the delivery process and reduced the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), the difference was statistically significant (all P< 0.05).Conclusion: Blended learning may be an effective strategy because of its validity and practicality in antenatal education.Keywords: health education, flipped classroom, team-based learning, primipara, pregnancy outcomes, blended learning

Jun Liang,1 Mingyan E,2 Gang Wu,3 Lujun Zhao,4 Xia Li,5 Xia Xiu,6 Ning Li,1 Bo Chen,1 Zhouguang Hui,1 Jima Lv,1 Hui Fang,1 Yu Tang,1 Nan Bi,1 Wenqing Wang,1 Yirui Zhai,1 Tao Li,1 Dongfu Chen,1 Shuangmei Zou,7 Ning Lu,7 Rolando Perez-Rodríguez,8 Junqi Zheng,9 Luhua Wang11Department of Radiotherapy, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Radiotherapy, Cancer Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, People's Republic of China; 3Department of Radiotherapy, Tongji Cancer Center Hospital, Wuhan, People's Republic of China; 4Department of Radiotherapy, Cancer Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China; 5Department of Radiotherapy, LiaoNing Province Cancer Hospital, Shenyang, People's Republic of China; 6Department of Radiotherapy, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 7Department of Pathology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 8Center of Molecular Immunology, Havana, Cuba; 9School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, People's Republic of ChinaObjective: To determine the safety and therapeutic effects of nimotuzumab (h-R3) combined with radiotherapy in esophageal cancer.Methods: This Phase II clinical trial involved 42 patients with stage II (inoperable or refused surgery) to stage IV (supraclavicular lymph node metastasis only) esophageal cancers treated between November 2008 and July 2010. All patients had squamous cell carcinomas, and all received three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy and 200 mg nimotuzumab per week during radiotherapy.Results: There were 9, 25, and 8 patients with stage II, III and IV disease, respectively. All except two patients received 50–70 Gy radiation; 37 patients (88.1%) received more than five nimotuzumab doses. Grade III toxicities (21.4% of all adverse events) included esophagitis and gastrointestinal, dermatological and hematological toxicities. Complete response, partial response, stable disease, and progressive disease were observed in 0, 22 (52.4%), 17 (40.5%) and 3 (7.1%) patients at 1 month after the treatment. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression rate was 95.2%. After a median follow-up of 37 months, the median survival time (MST) was 14 months. The 2 year and 3 year overall survival (OS) rates were 33.3% and 26.2%, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) time was 10 months. The 2 year and 3 year PFS rates were 24.5% and 22.1%, respectively. The MST in the 13 patients with (+++) EGFR expression (group A) and 7 patients with (++) EGFR expression (group B) was 15 and 11 months, respectively. The 2 year and 3 year OS rates were 46.2% and 38.5% in group A and 28.6% and 28.6% in group B, respectively (P = 0.405).Conclusion: Although concurrent chemoradiotherapy was the standard care for locally advanced esophageal cancer, radiotherapy was the choice for those who were refused or could not tolerate chemoradiotherapy. Our study shows that nimotuzumab combined with radiotherapy was well tolerated in patients with esophageal cancer. EGFR overexpression was more common than previously reported. OS was higher after combined therapy than after historical control radiotherapy alone. Further studies are required to confirm the therapeutic efficacy of nimotuzumab in esophageal cancer.Keywords: esophageal neoplasms, nimotuzumab, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, treatment outcomes

In rural China, many pregnant women in their third trimester suffer from anemia (48%) and iron deficiency (ID; 42%), often with coexisting deficiencies of retinol and riboflavin. We investigated the effect of retinol and riboflavin supplementation in addition to iron plus folic acid on anemia and subjective well-being in pregnant women. The study was a 2-mo, double-blind, randomized trial. Subjects (n = 366) with anemia [hemoglobin (Hb) [less than or equal to] 105 g/L] were randomly assigned to 4 groups, all receiving 60 mg/d iron and 400 [micro]g/d folic acid. The iron + folic acid (IF) group (n = 93) served as reference, the iron + folic acid + retinol group (IFA) (n = 91) was treated with 2000 [micro]g retinol, the iron + folic acid + riboflavin group (IFB) (n = 91) with 1.0 mg riboflavin, and the iron + folic acid + retinol + riboflavin group (IFAB) (n = 91) with retinol and riboflavin. After the 2-mo intervention, the Hb concentration increased in all 4 groups (P < 0.001). The increase in the IFAB group was 5.4 [+ or -] 1.1 g/L greater than in the IF group (P < 0.001). The reduced prevalence of anemia (Hb < 110g/L) and ID anemia were significantly greater in the groups supplemented with retinol and/or riboflavin than in the IF group. Moreover, gastrointestinal symptoms were less prevalent in the IFA group than in the IF group (P < 0.05) and improved well-being was more prevalent in the groups receiving additional retinol and/or riboflavin than in the IF group (P < 0.05). Thus, a combination of iron, folic acid, retinol, and riboflavin was more effective than iron plus folic acid alone. Multimicronutrient supplementation may be worthwhile for pregnant women in rural China.

The influences of biaxial and uniaxial strain on the ultraviolet emission efficiencies of both c- and m-plane AlxGa1-xN films with different Al concentrations are investigated under the framework of k·p perturbation theory. The optimal high efficiency windows, for ultraviolet light emissions are quantitatively estimated. c-plane AlxGa1-xN modified by uniaxial strain, shows more advantages over biaxial-strained AlxGa1-xN. This is due to the relatively more flexible tuning range and the advantage of obtaining pure linear polarization, which can be utilized to design polarized emission devices. For m-plane AlxGa1-xN, there are always in-plane polarized emissions under both biaxial and uniaxial strain conditions, thus, it is more likely to obtain high surface emission efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the study of microstructure and dislocation of InN films using high resolution x-ray diffraction grown on sapphire (0001) both by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The mosaic tilt, twist, and correlation lengths of InN films are determined by using symmetrical and asymmetrical reflections as well as reciprocal space mapping. Deducing from these results, MBE-grown InN film exhibits the edge-type dislocations of 4.0×109 cm-2, which is about ten times higher than the density of screw-type dislocations. In MOCVD-grown InN sample, the edge-type dislocations density is as high as 2.1×1010 cm-2, and the screw-type dislocations density is 1.3×109 cm-2. They indicate that edge type is the predominant dislocation type in the InN films. By comparing the reported transmission electron microscopy results, the accuracy of evaluation for the dislocation density using the mosaic model is proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic hepatitis B patients carry a high risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is one of the most commonly used and reliable biomarkers for HCC. However, the AFP level during different phases of CHB is not well understood. We aimed to identify the AFP levels during the different infection phases of CHB patient and explore which phase is at high risk of developing HCC. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-five CHB patients were divided into four groups: a. immune tolerant HBeAgpositive phase (IT); b. immune reactive HBeAg-positive phase (IR), c. inactive carrier state (IC), d. HBeAg-negative activation phase (ENA). The risk of development of HCC in different group is assessed by the serum AFP levels. An electrochemiluminescence assay was used to analyze serum AFP levels. Results: Mean AFP levels were different in each phase of CHB (p < 0.001): IT (9.6 ng/mL), IR (33.7 ng/mL), IC (3.2 ng/mL), and ENA (71.6 ng/mL). The ENA phase had the highest AFP level and IC phase has the lowest. There was no correlation between serum AFP level and HBV viral load. A significant correlation between serum ALT levels and HBV viral load was observed (r = 0.272, p < 0.01). Conclusions: These findings suggest that high levels of AFP during HBeAg-negative activation phase (ENA) may be associated with a high risk of developing of HCC. Furthermore, higher burden of HBV viral load is associated with more severe liver damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which deposited diamondlike carbon (DLC) films onto germanium (Ge) and zinc sulphide slices by a capacitively coupled radio frequency glow discharge plasma with Ar-C[sub2]H[sub2] gas mixtures. Materials and methods; Result of infrared transmission of DLC films coated on Ge; Variation of the refractive index of DLC films; Details on the refractive index of zinc sulphide.