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Aims and objectives To examine the relationships among nursing students’ perceived nursing image, caring behaviours and gender‐friendliness barriers to determine whether gender‐friendliness barriers affect nursing image and caring behaviour among male nursing students. Background Because caring is typically seen as a feminine trait, male nurses face gender‐role strains in the current nursing environment. Gender‐friendliness barriers may have an impact on the vital relationship between professional nursing image and caring behaviour. Design This study used a quantitative and cross‐sectional research design. Methods Participants were 141 male students who had obtained at least 1 month of clinical practice experience. We collected data using three instruments: The Caring Assessment Report Evaluation Q‐sort (CARE‐Q), Gender‐Friendliness Barriers in Nursing Programs (GFB‐NP), and Nursing Image—as a Profession Questionnaire (NIPQ). Data were collected from August 2016–July 2017. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) with bootstrapping was used to test the hypothesis model. Results The full model results indicated a direct positive and significant path from professional nursing image to caring behaviour (β = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.32 to 0.61, t = 6.19, p < 0.001). Gender‐friendliness barriers had a direct and significant negative relationship between professional nursing image (β = −0.31, 95% CI = −0.49 to −0.12, t = 3.17, p < 0.01) and caring behaviour (β = −0.18, 95% CI = −0.35 to −0.02, t = 2.18, p < 0.05). In addition, the variable of student‐perceived barriers to gender‐friendliness was indirectly and significantly negatively related to caring behaviour (β = −0.15, 95% CI = −0.27 to −0.05, t = 2.57, p < 0.05) through professional nursing image. Conclusion Male nursing students with a higher nursing image engage in greater caring behaviour. Gender‐friendliness barriers, however, decrease students’ nursing image and caring behaviour. Relevance to clinical practice As applied to nursing education, the goal should be to improve male nursing students’ caring behaviours and professional nursing image and decrease gender‐friendliness barriers.

In this paper, we report on the mission study and laboratory development for ASTROD. ASTROD mission concept is to use drag-free spacecraft in solar orbits together with a constellation of Earth orbiting satellites to provide high-precision measurement of relativistic effects, better determination of the orbits of major asteroids, improvement in the measurement of G, measurement of solar angular momentum via Lense-Thirring effect and the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves and solar oscillations in a single mission. We present our progress in the mission study on the various aspects for measuring these quantities. As to the laboratory development, after reviewing briefly our progress in long fibre-linked heterodyne interferometer and tunable fibre directional coupler, we present our progress in weak light optical phase locking, fibre delay-line and laser and time metrology.

Lapatinib is an oral-form dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR or ErbB/Her) superfamily members with anticancer activity. In this study, we examined the effects and mechanism of action of lapatinib on several human leukemia cells lines, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells. We found that lapatinib inhibited the growth of human AML U937, HL-60, NB4, CML KU812, MEG-01, and ALL Jurkat T cells. Among these leukemia cell lines, lapatinib induced apoptosis in HL-60, NB4, and Jurkat cells, but induced nonapoptotic cell death in U937, K562, and MEG-01 cells. Moreover, lapatinib treatment caused autophagic cell death as shown by positive acridine orange staining, the massive formation of vacuoles as seen by electronic microscopy, and the upregulation of LC3-II, ATG5, and ATG7 in AML U937 cells. Furthermore, autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine and knockdown of ATG5, ATG7, and Beclin-1 using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) partially rescued lapatinib-induced cell death. In addition, the induction of phagocytosis and ROS production as well as the upregulation of surface markers CD14 and CD68 was detected in lapatinib-treated U937 cells, suggesting the induction of macrophagic differentiation in AML U937 cells by lapatinib. We also noted the synergistic effects of the use of lapatinib and cytotoxic drugs in U937 leukemia cells. These results indicate that lapatinib may have potential for development as a novel antileukemia agent.

The present study examined the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study "Advanced" data to examine how the educational credentials of maths teachers and other teacher characteristics were related to attitude towards advanced mathematics and perceptions of engaged teaching among 12th-grade students enrolled in advanced mathematics courses in the U.S. As attitudinal outcomes in this study, two measures of attitude towards mathematics were employed-the Students Like Learning Advanced Mathematics scale and the Students Value Advanced Mathematics scale, and one measure of student perception of engaged teaching-the Students' Views on Engaging Teaching in Advanced Mathematics Lessons. A set of multilevel regression analyses were conducted predicting each of these aforementioned outcomes. No statistically significant effects on the attitudinal outcomes were observed for teacher variables. Positive effects were noted for parental education on students' valuing of advanced mathematics. A prominent finding was that higher levels of parental education were associated with higher student levels of valuing mathematics, which likely reflects a family/home culture that implicitly or explicitly places high value on science and mathematics. Identifying factors that might facilitate positive attitude is important to increase the likelihood that students will choose, and be retained in, mathematics and STEM education and careers.