This paper investigates students' perceptions of the English medium instruction courses at Southern Taiwan University of Science & Technology (STUST) in terms of their learning motivation, learning anxiety, and learning achievement. 157 students, including 93 local and 64 foreign students, participated in the study by completing a self-assessment questionnaire on EMI course taking experiences. A quantitative method was employed to analyze data, performing statistical procedures of descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, and Pearson correlation using SPSS 17.0. The major findings of the study are as follows:(1) most participants were motivated to take EMI courses to strengthen English ability and professional knowledge, (2) most participants agreed with the helpfulness of EMI courses, (3) interactions with students of other nationalities motivated learning, (4) major anxiety experienced by local students stemmed from self-perceived low English proficiency, (5) there exists significant reverse association between learning anxiety and achievement or motivation, and (6) there exists significant differences between local and international students in measures of motivation, anxiety, and achievement.

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BackgroundDocetaxel (DOC) is widely used as a chemotherapy drug for various tumors, including gastric cancer (GC), but the clinical application of DOC has been limited due to the hydrophobicity of the drug. We aimed to formulate a multifunctional nanoparticle (NP) system to reduce the side effects of the chemotherapy agent, to promote synergistic therapeutic effects, and to achieve targeted delivery of the therapy.MethodsThe polyethylene glycol-poly(ε-caprolactone) NPs (PEG-PCL NPs) were prepared by a ring opening copolymerization technique and were then conjugated with a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) monoclonal antibody (mAb). The effects of the surface coating on particle size, size distribution, zeta potential, drug encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and the drug release kinetics were investigated. By using a panel of PD-L1-expressing human GC cell lines and PD-L1-overexpressing cells, we studied cellular uptake, cytotoxic effects, and cellular apoptosis in the presence of PD-L1 mAb-conjugated NPs.ResultsThe characterization of the structure and biological functions of DOC-PEG-PCL-mAb NPs was investigated in vitro. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy validated the presence of the PD-L1 mAbs on the NP surface. The cellular uptake analysis showed that the antibody-conjugated NPs achieved significantly higher cellular uptake. The results of an in vitro cytotoxicity experiment on three GC lines further proved the targeting effects of the antibody conjugation. In addition, we found that the DOC-PEG-PCL-mAb NPs induced cell apoptosis and enhanced G2-M arrest in cancer cells, indicating the inhibition of microtubule synthesis. When compared with the control groups, DOC-PEG-PCL-mAb NPs are more effective in inhibiting PD-L1 expression in GC cells.ConclusionOur results reported here highlight the biological and clinical potential of DOC-PEG-PCL-mAb NPs using PD-L1 mAbs in GC treatment.

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