Purpose This study was to investigate the work experience of newly recruited male nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods With a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study was adopted semi-structured interviews by phone or video calls. A total of 9 male nurses newly recruited for the COVID-19 wards in Chinese hospitals were interviewed for this study. And Colaizzi's method was applied for evaluation in the data analysis. Results Based on our findings, three themes were extracted. Firstly, the newly recruited male nurses showed negative emotions at the beginning of COVID-19 epidemic, which was caused by changesin working conditions and content, but also prompted the nurses to change the way of coping with the crisis. Secondly, they gradually mastered the working skills and psychological training tocope with COVID-19, and developed a positive attitude towards life and a high sense of professional responsibility. Finally, we learned about their needs to respond to public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion COVID-19 is a disaster for all of humanity. The newly recruited male nurses are an important force in emergency rescue. Although they suffered from short-term negative emotions, they quickly adapted to the crisis. In order to better prepare for future emergencies, the disaster response capacity of newly recruited male nurses needs to be further improved. In addition, newly recruited male nurses have a strong demand for timely and personalized career development guidance.

Nucleic acid precipitation is important for virtually all molecular biology investigations. However, despite its crucial role, a systematic study of the influence factors of nucleic acid precipitation has not been reported. In the present work, via rational experimental design, key factors of nucleic acid precipitation, including the type of nucleic acid, temperature and time of incubation, speed and time of centrifugation, volume ratio of ethanol/isopropanol to nucleic acid solution, type of cation-containing salt solution and type of coprecipitator, were comprehensively evaluated in an attempt to maximize the efficiency of nucleic acid precipitation. Our results indicate that the optimal conditions of each influence factor of nucleic acid precipitation may vary in accordance with the chemistry, structure and length of nucleic acids.

Background The adverse reactions (ADRs) of targeted therapy were closely associated with treatment response, clinical outcome, quality of life (QoL) of patients with cancer. However, few studies presented the correlation between ADRs of targeted therapy and treatment effects among cancer patients. This study was to explore the characteristics of ADRs with targeted therapy and the prognosis of cancer patients based on the clinical data. Methods A retrospective secondary data analysis was conducted within an ADR data set including 2703 patients with targeted therapy from three Henan medical centers of China between January 2018 and December 2019. The significance was evaluated with chi-square test between groups with or without ADRs. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression with backward stepwise method were applied to assess the difference of pathological characteristics in patients with cancer. Using the univariate Cox regression method, the actuarial probability of overall survival was performed to compare the clinical outcomes between these two groups. Results A total of 485 patients were enrolled in this study. Of all patients, 61.0% (n = 296) occurred ADRs including skin damage, fatigue, mucosal damage, hypertension and gastrointestinal discomfort as the top 5 complications during the target therapy. And 62.1% of ADRs were mild to moderate, more than half of the ADRs occurred within one month, 68.6% ADRs lasted more than one month. Older patients (P = 0.022) and patients with lower education level (P = 0.036), more than 2 comorbidities (P = 0.021), longer medication time (P = 0.022), drug combination (P = 0.033) and intravenous administration (P = 0.019) were more likely to have ADRs. Those with ADRs were more likely to stop taking (P = 0.000), change (P = 0.000), adjust (P = 0.000), or not take the medicine on time (P = 0.000). The number of patients with recurrence (P = 0.000) and metastasis (P = 0.006) were statistically significant difference between ADRs and non-ADRs group. And the patients were significantly poor prognosis in ADRs groups compared with non-ADRs group. Conclusion The high incidence of ADRs would affect the treatment and prognosis of patients with cancer. We should pay more attention to these ADRs and develop effective management strategies.

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The SWI/SNF complex is a highly conserved chromatin remodeling complex and can hydrolyze ATP by its catalytic subunit BRG1 or BRM to reconstruct the chromatin. To investigate whether this ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling could affect the DNA conformation, we therefore regulated (knocked down or overexpressed) BRG1/BRM in the cells and applied Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to probe DNA conformational changes. As a result, we found that BRG1/BRM was indeed associated with the DNA conformational changes, in which knockdown of BRG1/BRM reduced Z-DNA conformation, while overexpression of BRG1/BRM enhanced Z-DNA conformation. This Z-DNA conformational transformation was also verified using the Z-DNA-binding proteins. Therefore, this work has provided a direct analytical tool to probe Z-DNA transformation upon ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling.

Background High medication literacy is the basis of rational medication application and is essential for the management of severe adverse drug reactions. The objective of the present study was to assess the level of medication literacy and determine the association between medication literacy and skin adverse drug reactions in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing targeted epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) therapy. Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted from May to September 2020. In total, 296 NSCLC patients undergoing targeted EGFR-TKI therapy were recruited from hospitals in Henan, China. Structured questionnaires were used to evaluate skin adverse drug reactions and medication literacy. Pearson correlation analysis and binary logistic regression analysis were carried out to identify the correlations between medication literacy and the severity of skin adverse drug reactions in the recruited patients. Results The research sample consisted of 296 patients with a response rate of 92.5%. The mean score of skin adverse drug reactions and the mean score of medication literacy were 1.83 ± 0.91 and 6.54 ± 2.78, respectively. In total, 188 patients (63.5%) were considered to have moderate medication literacy. According to the binary logistic regression analysis, the following factors were associated with severe skin adverse drug reactions: age (B =  − 3.929, P = 0.000), sex (B = -4.062, P = 0.000), educational level (B = 2.712, P = 0.002), comorbidity (B = 3.297, P = 0.001), eczema history (B = 2.996, P = 0.001), nutritional status (B = -4.891, P = 0.000), blood interleukin-6 level (B = -2.143, P = 0.013), blood high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level (B = -4.015, P = 0.000), combination of drugs (B = -3.183, P = 0.048) and medication literacy (B =  − 1.503, P = 0.000). Subgroup analysis showed that in addition to medication literacy, some other factors including education level, comorbidity, nutritional status, blood interleukin-6 level and combined drug application were common factors that contributed to various adverse skin drug reactions in NSCLC patients under targeted EGFR-TKI therapy. Conclusion The low medication literacy of the investigated NSCLC patients undergoing targeted EGFR-TKI therapy was correlated with a high proportion of severe skin adverse drug reactions. In addition, factors other than medication literacy including education level, comorbidity, nutritional status, blood interleukin-6 level and the combinatorial application of drugs were also related to the severity of various adverse skin drug reactions. A comprehensive and targeted intervention may be beneficial to improve medication literacy and control severe skin adverse drug reactions in NSCLC patients.

To study the Ca(2+)/Calmodulin (CaM) signal transduction pathway of Gracilaria lemaneiformis under heat stress, myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase (MIPS), a calmodulin-binding protein, was isolated using the yeast two-hybrid system. cDNA and DNA sequences of mips were cloned from G. lemaneiformis by using 5'RACE and genome walking procedures. The MIPS DNA sequence was 2,067 nucleotides long, containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,623 nucleotides with no intron. The mips ORF was predicted to encode 540 amino acids, which included the conserved MIPS domain and was 61-67 % similar to that of other species. After analyzing the amino acid sequence of MIPS, the CaM-Binding Domain (CaMBD) was inferred to be at a site spanning from amino acid 212 to amino acid 236. The yeast two-hybrid results proved that MIPS can interact with CaM and that MIPS is a type of calmodulin-binding protein. Next, the expression of CaM and MIPS in wild-type G. lemaneiformis and a heat-tolerant G. lemaneiformis cultivar, "981," were analyzed using real-time PCR under a heat shock of 32 °C. The expression level displayed a cyclical upward trend. Compared with wild type, the CaM expression levels of cultivar 981 were higher, which might directly relate to its resistance to high temperatures. This paper indicates that MIPS and CaM may play important roles in the high-temperature resistance of G. lemaneiformis.

DNA variants in or closed to the human TBX15 and PAX1 genes have been repeatedly associated with facial morphology in independent genome-wide association studies, while their functional roles in determining facial morphology remains to be understood. We generated Tbx15 knockout ( Tbx15 -/- ) and Pax1 knockout ( Pax1 -/- ) mice by applying the one-step CRISPR/Cas9 method. A total of 75 adult mice were used for subsequent phenotype analysis, including 38 Tbx15 mice (10 homozygous Tbx15 -/- , 18 heterozygous Tbx15 +/- , 10 wild-type WT) and 37 Pax1 mice (12 homozygous Pax1 -/- , 15 heterozygous Pax1 +/- , 10 WT mice). Facial and other physical morphological phenotypes were obtained from three-dimensional (3D) images acquired with the HandySCAN BLACK scanner. Compared to WT mice, the Tbx15 -/- mutant mice had significantly shorter faces ( P =1.08E-8, R2=0.61) and their ears were in a significantly lower position ( P =3.54E-8, R2=0.62) manifesting an “ear dropping” characteristic. Besides these face alternations, Tbx15 -/- mutant mice displayed significantly lower weight as well as shorter body and limb length. Pax1 -/- mutant mice showed significantly longer noses ( P =1.14E-5, R2=0.46) relative to WT mice, but otherwise displayed less obvious morphological alterations than Tbx15 -/- mutant mice did. Because the Tbx15 and Pax1 effects on facial morphology we revealed here in mice are largely consistent with previously reported TBX15 and PAX1 face associations in humans, we suggest that the functional role these two genes play on determining the face of mice is similar to the functional impact their human homologues have on the face of humans.