Primary Course Research Articles

Development of transdermal based hydrogel formulations of vinorelbine with an evaluation of their in vitro profiles and activity against melanoma cells and in silico prediction of drug absorption

The primary course of melanoma treatment involves surgery in association with chemotherapy. One potential agent is vinorelbine (VNR). While it displays anti-proliferative activity against melanoma cell lines, it presents a low oral bioavailability and intravenous administration often causes irritation, phlebitis and pain at the injection site. The aim of this study was to develop Pluronic® F-127 (PF-127) hydrogels containing VNR for the transdermal route of administration. Hydrogels composed of either 15% (G15), 20% (G20), 23% (G23) or 25% (G25) PF-127 aqueous solutions were loaded with a VNR propylene glycol solution. Their release and permeation profiles for VNR were evaluated in a Franz diffusion cell. In addition, their rheological behavior, visual aspect during storage and the in silico prediction of VNR absorption using GastroPlus® were evaluated. The G20 and G23 formulations showed similar release and permeation profiles with the G20 demonstrating a higher permeation of VNR at 8h (p < 0.05) and cumulative permeated drug amount of 495.2 ± 46.7 μg/cm2 at 24h. Further, their activity was tested on the melanoma cell lines SK-MEL28 and MV-3 to evaluate cell viability and proliferation. At VNR concentrations of 75 and 100 μg/mL, cell viability of both melanoma cells was lower in the presence of the G20 formulation than G23 after 24h of treatment although the proliferation profiles were similar. When combined with an in silico pharmacokinetic model, the results suggest that the transdermal administration of VNR could be a promising alternative to intravenous administration and that the G20 formulation would be an excellent candidate for the direct application onto melanomas.

Growth properties and immunogenicity of a virus generated by reverse genetics for an inactivated equine influenza vaccine.

Keeping vaccine strains up to date is the key to controlling equine influenza (EI). Viruses generated by reverse genetics (RG) are likely to be effective for quickly updating a vaccine strain. To evaluate the growth properties of an RG virus in embryonated chicken eggs, and to evaluate antibody responses to a formalin-inactivated vaccine derived from the RG virus in Thoroughbred horses. In vitro and in vivo experiments. Wild-type (WT) viruses (A/equine/Ibaraki/1/2007) or RG viruses (consisting of haemagglutinin [HA] and neuraminidase genes derived from A/equine/Ibaraki/1/2007 and the six other genes derived from high-growth A/Puerto Rico/8/34) were inoculated into embryonated chicken eggs, and the allantoic fluids were harvested at every 24 hours after inoculation. WT and RG viruses were inactivated by formalin for vaccine use. Ten unvaccinated yearlings (five each for WT or RG vaccine) received the first two doses of a primary vaccination course 4 weeks apart followed by their third dose 12 weeks later. Twenty vaccinated adult horses (10 each for WT or RG vaccine) received a single dose of a booster vaccination. The RG virus had high growth properties in embryonated chicken eggs. Unvaccinated yearlings responded poorly to the first vaccination, especially those that received the RG vaccine, but mounted better responses to the second and the third vaccinations, and maintained relatively high haemagglutination inhibition (HI) titres up to 28 weeks after the first vaccination. Vaccinated adult horses did not respond remarkably to the booster vaccination, but no horses showed titres below their pre-booster values even at 12 weeks after vaccination. The RG virus elicited immunogenicity in horses adequate for vaccine use. No virus challenge study was performed. The RG viruses are useful as an EI vaccine strain, and quick updates of an EI vaccine strain can be achieved by using RG techniques.

Que(e) rying undergraduate medical curricula: a cross-sectional online survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer content inclusion in UK undergraduate medical education

BackgroundLesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals are more likely to have negative healthcare experiences and worse health outcomes when compared with their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. A key recommendation of the 2018 Stonewall-commissioned “LGBT in Britain” report was that the curricula, standards, and training provided by medical schools should be reviewed in order to encompass mandatory teaching about LGBT health inequalities and discrimination, LGBT-inclusive care and the use of appropriate language. The aim of our study was to conduct an in-depth national review of the content of LGBT teaching within the curricula of UK Medical Schools.MethodsCourse leads at all 37 UK Medical Schools with students currently enrolled in a primary undergraduate medical training course were asked between December 2019–March 2020 to complete a cross-sectional online survey comprised of 30 questions; divided into three sections relating to the current LGBT teaching (Part 1), any planned or future LGBT teaching (Part 2), and the opinions of the survey respondent about the coverage of LGBT topics (Part 3) at their institution. Responses were analysed using descriptive statistics.ResultsQuestionnaires were received from 19/37 institutions (response rate: 51%). The median estimated number of hours of LGBT-teaching across the entire undergraduate course was 11.0 (IQR: 12.25). Teaching on LGBT mental health, gender identity, sexual orientation, awareness of LGBT-health inequalities, and LGBT discrimination in healthcare were reported by almost all respondents, whilst maternity and childbirth, chronic disease and LGBT adolescent health were least represented within the curriculum. Almost all (18 medical schools; 95%) responding institutions were considering implementing new LGBT teaching within the next three academic years. A lack of space within the curriculum is a universally reported barrier to the implementation of LGBT teaching. Only 5 (26%) survey respondents consider their institution’s current coverage of LGBT topics to be “Good” or “Very good”.ConclusionOur study demonstrates a significant variation in the amount and breadth of content within the undergraduate curricula of UK medical schools. Recommendations for increasing the quantity and quality of LGBT content are provided, based upon areas of good practice.

School Clubs Combined with Ecology

The ecological civilization education will be introduced into primary school courses in the future, aiming to enhance people’s environmental awareness. As the model school of Beijing green ecology and sustainable development education, Beijing experimental primary school attached to Capital Normal University, focus on new energy and sustainable development education, has been practicing and exploring effectively on ecological education. Detailed works are as follows: Making sure the educating purpose of ecological technology educational development; Improving the normative development of ecological education; Training and taking good advantages of core teachers; Constructing ecological special course system; Combining the school clubs with social programs with wonderful works created by both teachers and students.

Covidogram as a simple tool for predicting severe course of COVID-19: population-based study

ObjectivesCOVID-19 might either be entirely asymptomatic or manifest itself with a large variability of disease severity. It is beneficial to identify early patients with a high risk of severe course....

Balloon Laryngoplasty for Pediatric Subglottic Stenosis: A 5-year Experience.

The objective of this study was to present our experience and evaluate our results of endoscopic balloon laryngoplasty (BL) in children with subglottic stenosis (SGS) at a pediatric tertiary center over a 5-year period. This study reviewed 41 pediatric patients diagnosed with acquired SGS who had undergone BL as the primary course of treatment. Cases were analyzed for details including patient demographics, SGS grade and length, timing and the type of surgery, presence of tracheostomy, comorbidities, postoperative management, complications and outcomes of balloon dilatation. Forty-one children (22 girls and 19 boys) who had undergone BL at a mean age of 26 months (range, 1 month to 14 years) were included in the study. Nineteen (46.3%) were diagnosed with acute SGS (12 thin stenosis, 7 thick stenosis) and 22 (53.7%) with chronic SGS (9 thin stenosis, 13 thick stenosis). The success rate of BL was 100% in patients with acute and chronic thin membranous stenosis. The effectiveness of BL was significantly higher in patients with acute thick stenosis than in patients with chronic thick stenosis (p=0.016). This study confirms that BL in patients presenting with acquired SGS with thin membranous stenosis, regardless of whether acute or chronic, can have a good prognosis. However, the results are less promising in cases of chronic thick stenosis.

新生児蘇生法（NCPR）一次コース講習会を看護学生に導入した実践報告 ─専門学校看護学科学生における取り組み─

新生児蘇生法（NCPR）一次コース講習会を看護学生に導入した実践報告 ─専門学校看護学科学生における取り組み─

How do Pre-Service Male Primary Teachers Cope with Gender Related Challenges?

Male teachers are a minority in both primary teacher training courses and in primary schools around the world. Education research has identified numerous gender-related challenges faced by male primary teachers during their initial teacher training and later when teaching in schools. Despite noting that many males leave teacher training because of these challenges, researchers have spent much less time investigating strategies to assist men cope with them and persist in the profession. This paper aims to help address this gap through an investigation of the challenges pre-service male primary teachers face during their teacher training and identifying practical coping strategies. Findings revealed that the most difficult challenges faced by participants were those concerning physical contact and social isolation. Participants appeared to use a range of functional and dysfunctional coping strategies to deal with these challenges.

Exploration and Practice of Blended Learning Reform of Project Management Course Based on “Rain Classroom”

As the primary professional course of undergraduate business administration, Project Management has the characteristics of solid comprehensiveness of theories and broad application of knowledge. Suppose only a traditional offline onsite teaching method is adopted. In that case, students often find the content abstract and challenging to understand, making the classroom atmosphere dull. It is also hard to mobilize students' learning initiative and sense of participation. Based on the teaching practice of the Project Management Course in recent 20 years, this paper explores the online and offline Blended learning mode via deepening teaching method reform. It is to make full use of internet teaching platforms and high-quality online resources to realize the synergies of online and offline teaching. It enhances the primary battlefield role of onsite teaching in imparting knowledge while enabling students to exploit online teaching resources to complete autonomous learning before class, case analysis in class, and expansion and improvement after class. In addition, the Blended learning mode enlivens the classroom atmosphere. It improves students' ability to apply knowledge and critical thinking to solve practical problems of Project Management through the interactions between teachers and students and interactions among students.

Adaptation of traditional children's games to social studies course

One of the greatest goals of the 21st century is the acquisition of high-level skills through the STEM course designs to provide skill-assisted transformation in learning processes. The purpose of this research; The aim of this course is to examine the views of teachers about STEM course designs supported by traditional Turkish games adapted to primary school social studies course. Each teacher who participated in the research was able to videotape all his practices and fill out the observation forms. Through the obtained data, it was shared with the teachers whether the achievements of the course were realized or not. After these practices, the opinions of the teachers towards the research were obtained through a semi-structured interview form. Descriptive analysis technique was applied on the collected data. According to the findings obtained at the end of the study, it was stated by the participants that their students developed a significant sense in cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects. Keywords: Design, Senior Skill, 2023 Vision Document, Traditional Games, Game Based Learning;

Machine Learning-Based Classification of Academic Performance via Imaging Sensors

Teaching is the primary component of the educational process for college students. To achieve the training objectives of different subjects, every University has arranged various types of courses. The ultimate purpose of teaching activities for these courses consists of improving the students’ knowledge level, ability level, and quality level. However, most of the current teaching activities only focus on the evaluation system and performance evaluation method for each course, thus lacking an overall academic performance and evaluation pipeline designed for the influence of different courses on students’ future development. Bearing the above-mentioned analysis in mind, we introduced machine learning-based techniques into students’ academic performance analysis and leveraged the learning-based approaches of rank models to establish a framework for students’ learning ability analysis. By employing imaging sensors, the capability of multiple media including image and video has also been embedded into the proposed architecture. Meanwhile, we exploited the pipeline for different students’ academic performance to reveal the academic commonality among students and the different influence of the primary courses for students’ future development between different groups.

Isolation and Study of the Physicochemical Properties of Galactomannans from Plant Materials

The aim of the study is isolation of galactomannan from plant materials and investigation of their physical and chemical properties. Polysaccharides generally consisting of galactomannan were isolated and purified from galactomannans from the seeds of the plants Sophora japonica and Gleditsia triacanthos by cold and hot extraction methods. Galactose and mannose contents of the galactomannans isolated were quantitatively characterized and physical and chemical properties of the polysaccharides were studied. In addition, polysaccharides isolated were enzymatic hydrolyzed and changes in the monosaccharide composition in the hydrolysis process were studied. The characteristic viscosities of the initial and hydrolyzed galactomannans were 4.85–3.80 dL/g, respectively. Molecular weights of the galactomannans, after treatment with the enzyme, changed in a range of 55 600–26 200 Da. Studies with 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy methods showed decreases in galactoside content of the hydrolyzed galactomannans, indicating the primary course of hydrolysis occurs by the side chain of the macromolecule. Increase in duration of enzymatic hydrolysis more than 24 h led to the formation of poly-mannans with a minor content of galactose units. The data can serve to improve isolation and preparation of galactomannan based materials for biomedical purposes.

Content Validation of the Quality and Safety Framed Clinical Evaluation for Nurse Practitioner Students.

Clinical performance evaluation is a high-stakes assessment that requires a valid and reliable instrument. There appear to be no identified clinical evaluation instruments developed for nurse practitioner (NP) students that have undergone content validation. This study describes the process to develop, validate, and pilot a clinical evaluation instrument for NP students framed in the Quality and Safety Education of Nurses Competencies for advanced practice. Six expert nurse educators were recruited for the purpose of rating items for relevance for inclusion in the Quality and Safety Framed Clinical Evaluation Instrument for NP Students using the content validity index. The instrument was pilot tested in a primary care clinical course. Two rounds of review yielded a 34-item content validated instrument. Evidence suggests that the Quality and Safety Framed Clinical Evaluation for NP Students is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the clinical performance of NP students.

Creating Realistic Mathematics Tasks Involving Authenticity, Cognitive Domains, and Openness Characteristics: A Study with Pre-Service Teachers

Creating mathematics tasks provide opportunities for students to develop their thinking, reasoning, communication, and creativity. This paper presents a study on teaching pre-service teachers to create realistic mathematics tasks in real contexts and amending them through an iterative process of analysis and refinement. The study was undertaken with pre-service teachers from two university training courses in Spain, undergraduate students from a primary teacher training course, and graduate students from an educational Master’s course. The students worked in groups to collaborate in the creation of the requested tasks and improvement of them based on critical thinking and creativity. The tasks were not only evaluated concerning their level of realism, but also regarding their level of authenticity, the cognitive domains involved, and their openness characteristic. These are the key characteristics related to environmental and sustainability aspects. The outcomes confirmed that the creation of realistic mathematics tasks was a challenge for future primary teachers; however, they were able to create tasks with high levels of cognitive domain, authenticity, and openness. This evidences, on the one hand, the difficulty that future teachers have in understanding the realism of a mathematics task, and, on the other, the possibilities offered by the task’s creation and the revision activity, which has educational implications and opens paths for future research.

The Use of a Cooperative-Learning Activity with University Students: A Gender Experience

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) show how education is essential for creating values in students. In particular, SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality) indicate how co-education should be a sustainable benchmark. Co-educational methodologies have been studied for decades. Among them, cooperative learning is considered a valid technique for developing social relations and competences. This study aims to describe and characterize the gender differences between university students regarding their impressions and behaviors when working cooperatively. One hundred and seventy-seven university students (98 women and 79 men), from Physical Education and Primary Education degree courses, worked with Aronson’s Jigsaw technique. After its completion, they completed a questionnaire to analyze cooperative work in higher education (ACOES). The results are organized into seven dimensions. The main gender differences found show that women gave a higher evaluation to relating cooperative learning to future teaching roles (p = 0.017) and to understanding the need for cooperative tasks (p = 0.035). Additionally, female students prefer groups to be organized according to academic criteria and that they should remain stable throughout the academic period. Both genders value Aronson’s Jigsaw as a good method for developing social competences, although they are more neutral when considering it effective at improving academic performance. These findings help to generate a gender-cooperation profile that will enable future research to discuss results more accurately.

Causes and consequences of delayed vaccination against pertussis infection in the Russian Federation

Introduction. One of the reasons for the increase of pertussis in the Russian Federation on the background of the widespread coverage of prophylactic vaccinations of more than 95% is a large number of unreasonable medical recusals and parental refusals and, as a result, untimely prophylactic vaccinations against pertussis infection.Materials and methods. We analyzed 5101 emergency notifications for pertussis in children under 17 years of age in Moscow in 2012-2017 and 300 child development histories for children under 14 years of age in two clinics in Moscow. A сase-сontrol study was conducted to assess the relationship between pertussis and the presence of deviations in the immunization schedule.Results. It was found that the level of timely immunization against pertussis did not exceed 5%. Medical (20%) and parental refusals (45%) prevail among the reasons for delayed vaccination. In the structure of medical exemption, the main causes are perinatal encephalopathy, congenital heart defects, intestinal dysbiosis, allergic diseases, anemia and some chronic diseases.Discussion. The main principle for the formation of a full protective immunity from pertussis infection is the mandatory administration of a full primary course of vaccination against pertussis, with the completion of three vaccinations at the age of 10-12 months and mandatory control over the timely receipt of a booster dose no later than the child reaches two years of age. In addition, it is necessary to introduce additional booster doses of pertussis vaccine at the age of 6-7 years, 12-14 years, vaccination of adults every 10 years, as well as consider the introduction of vaccination of expectant mothers in each pregnancy at 27-36 weeks, vaccination for medical personnel and employees who provide child care services.

Ataxia associated with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies

Anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibody-associated ataxia is a rarely diagnosed but potentially curable disease associated with autoimmune damage to and death of Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex. In Russia, the authors have provided for the first time descriptions of three own observations of this disease, which had a number of clinical features, such as slow progression, mild ataxia, stroke-like episodes with stem symptoms, concomitant gluten sensitivity, onset of ataxia after hepatitis C with cerebellar hemiataxia and hemiatrophy. In the all patients, the diagnosis was verified based on the determination of high anti-GAD antibody titers in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. All the patients lacked intrathecal synthesis of oligoclonal antibodies; protein levels and cytosis were normal. Pulse therapy with methylprednisolone at a total dose of 3–5 g led to a slight reduction in ataxia in one case (a female patient with subacute onset of the disease); the treatment was ineffective in two other cases (patients with a primary chronic course). The paper analyzes the literature covering the pathogenesis and clinical presentations of this type of ataxia, and difficulties in its diagnosis and treatment.

STUDY OF THE IMMUNOGENICITY OF RECOMBINANT HEPATITIS B VACCINE: COMPARISON OF TWO NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMS IN EGYPT

Hepatitis B virus, approximately 2 billion persons, one-third of the world's population, have serologic evidence of past or ongoing infection with the virus. Average 1 million die of hepatitis and its consequences each year. HBV is considered moderately endemic in Egypt with 4% of the population having evidence of chronic HBV infection. Nearly 2 - 3 million Egyptians are chronic carriers of HBV. Vaccination against hepatitis B is the most effective strategy to control HBV infection. Human beings are the sole major reservoir of HBV and hence a complete control strategy by HBV vaccination could lead to virus eradication. HBV vaccine is the first vaccine against a major human cancer. The highest anti-HBs titers are attained 1–3 months following administration of the primary course of hepatitis B vaccine, and are considered a reliable marker of immediate and long-term protection against infection. Anti-HBs response is significantly enhanced after the third injection, with an overall 97–100% anti-HBs ≥10 IU/L. In intermediate and highly endemic countries, universal vaccination without screening of pregnant women is clearly cost-effective. Vertically transmitted HBV infection is becoming an important risk factor for acquisition of HBV among children born after the era of mass vaccination in Egypt. A rate of maternofetal transmission of 51.8% was reported among HBsAg-positive women in Egypt and routine HBV antenatal screening is not practiced. So, stimulated us to perform this work in order to assess the effect of adding the birth dose of HBV vaccine to Egypt’s national immunization program.

Uma história das mobilizações das medidas no contexto das finalidades de Desenho

Sob a perspectiva da história da educação matemática, este texto apresenta os resultados de um estudo que teve como questão norteadora discutir como as medidas podem ter sido mobilizadas no contexto das finalidades de ensino de Desenho para o curso primário paulista, no período de 1890-1950. Para isso, tomaram-se como base para análise os programas de ensino de São Paulo promulgados à época e os resultados apresentados pelas pesquisas de Guimarães (2017) e Trindade (2018). Nesse sentido, orientaram a análise os referenciais teórico-metodológicos da história cultural. Pelo exame, a mobilização das medidas ligada ao contexto das finalidades de ensino de Desenho, de modo a garantir a representação de desenhos geométricos e/ou do natural, se dava prioritariamente e implicitamente com ênfase numa medida intuitiva, conferida e associada ao desenvolvimento de habilidades manual e visual, seja ligada à reprodução de figuras geométricas, seja à cópia de modelos da natureza e/ou manufaturados.

Research on the Optimization of Physical Education Curriculum in Chinese Elementary and Middle Schools from the Perspective of Healthy China

at present, the physical education and health course in primary and secondary schools in China is faced with the dilemma of failing to strengthen the body and bring health and vitality to the students. Through the method of literature review and comparative analysis, this paper studies the physical education curriculum of primary and secondary schools in China, finds that there are some problems in the curriculum of primary and secondary school sports, and explores the social impact of these problems from multiple perspectives. From the perspective of “healthy China 2030”, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: 1. Adjusting measures to local conditions, vigorously promoting the development of school-based physical education curriculum; 2. Paying attention to the clarity of curriculum objectives, reflecting the gradual and targeted of curriculum objectives; 3. Constructing the primary, junior high and high school integrated physical education curriculum teaching content system, hoping that this study could provide a certain theoretical support for Chinese primary and secondary school physical education and health courses so that physical education could become an important position for young people to civilize their spirit and savage their physique, and provide help for the early realization of sports power and healthy China.