Factors associated with adherence to antihypertensive medication were relatively gender-specific. Awareness of the differences is crucial for health professionals to provide appropriate advice for patients to cope effectively with their health threat.
The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of concept mapping in developing critical thinking ability and approach to learning and studying. A quasi-experimental study design with a purposive sample was drawn from a group of nursing students enrolled in a medical-surgical nursing course in central Taiwan. Students in the experimental group were taught to use concept mapping in their learning. Students in the control group were taught by means of traditional lectures. After the intervention, the experimental group had better overall critical thinking scores than did the control group, although the difference was not statistically significant. After controlling for the effects of age and the pretest score on critical thinking using analysis of covariance, the experimental group had significantly higher adjusted mean scores on inference and overall critical thinking compared with the control group. Concept mapping is an effective tool for improving students' ability to think critically.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common causes of death in Taiwan. Previous studies have shown that more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cells presented epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) cell marker, and this marker is thought to be important as it is related to activation of cancer cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and cancer progression. Moreover, tumor-associated fibroblasts were involved in tumor proliferation and progression. In this study, we fabricated an anti-EGFR and anti-fibroblast activation protein bispecific antibody-targeted liposomal irinotecan (BS−LipoIRI), which could specifically bind to pancreatic cancer cells and tumor-associated fibroblasts. The drug encapsulation efficiency of BS−LipoIRI was 80.95%, and the drug loading was 8.41%. We proved that both pancreatic cancer cells and fibroblasts could be targeted by BS−LipoIRI, which showed better cellular uptake efficacy compared to LipoIRI. Furthermore, an in vivo mouse tumor test indicated that BS−LipoIRI could inhibit pancreatic cancer growth up to 46.2% compared to phosphate-buffered saline control, suggesting that BS−LipoIRI could be useful in clinical cancer treatment.
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