Exploring the first-time transition to parenthood in mainland China: a qualitative study on the experiences of fathers and mothers using the transition shock model

BackgroundThe transition to parenthood, which is influenced a lot by local parenting culture, is a dramatic stress for both men and women. Chinese social and cultural contexts form specific parental culture, shaping the unique experience of transition to parenthood. However, the understanding of the transition to parenthood in mainland China is limited. Additionally, few qualitative studies explored the transition to parenthood from both dyadic perspectives.AimTo explore the first-time transition to parenthood experience among mothers and fathers in mainland China during pregnancy, and compare the similarities and differences between their experiences in this transition period.MethodsA descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 36 parents, including 18 primiparous women and their husbands. Data were analyzed by directed content analysis guided by the Transition Shock Model. The interview texts were first analyzed at individual levels and subsequently at the couple level to identify dyadic themes.ResultsFive themes and thirteen sub-themes emerged from the data analysis, including role integration, health risk, dilemma of preparation, protective isolation, and multi-dimensional expectation. Unexpectedly, the experiences and perspectives of mothers and fathers regarding the transition to parenthood were found to be similar, with the exception of the sub-theme extra-care requirement.ConclusionThe findings shed light on the complex emotional journey and expectations of parents, as well as the challenges they face in terms of physical well-being, limited coping resources, and restricted social connections. Notably, fathers in China often shared the stress of the whole process during the transition period alongside mothers but often lacked accessible avenues for seeking and receiving support. These findings underscore the importance of actively involving fathers as a key support population in perinatal care, as well as the need for comprehensive support systems and tailored interventions to enhance the well-being and adaptation of parents

Hypoxia-ameliorated photothermal manganese dioxide nanoplatform for reversing doxorubicin resistance

Drug resistance is a huge hurdle in tumor therapy. Tumor hypoxia contributes to chemotherapy resistance by inducing the hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) pathway. To reduce tumor hypoxia, novel approaches have been devised, providing significant importance to reverse therapeutic resistance and improve the effectiveness of antitumor therapies. Herein, the nanosystem of bovine serum albumin (BSA)-templated manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanoparticles (BSA/MnO2 NPs) loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) (DOX-BSA/MnO2 NPs) developed in our previous report was further explored for their physicochemical properties and capacity to reverse DOX resistance because of their excellent photothermal and tumor microenvironment (TME) response effects. The DOX-BSA/MnO2 NPs showed good biocompatibility and hemocompatibility. Meanwhile, DOX-BSA/MnO2 NPs could greatly affect DOX pharmacokinetic properties, with prolonged circulation time and reduced cardiotoxicity, besides enhancing accumulation at tumor sites. DOX-BSA/MnO2 NPs can interact with H2O2 and H+ in TME to form oxygen and exhibit excellent photothermal effect to further alleviate hypoxia due to MnO2, reversing DOX resistance by down-regulating HIF-1α expression and significantly improving the antitumor efficiency in DOX-resistant human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7/ADR) tumor model. The hypoxia-ameliorated photothermal MnO2 platform is a promising strategy for revering DOX resistance

The Research on the Fuel Performance of Fsae EFI Engine

Conference Name:6th China-Japan International Conference on Mechatronics (CJCM 2010). Conference Address: Zhengjiang, PEOPLES R CHINA. Time:SEP 10-12, 2010.For the modeled engine, the soft AVL-BOOST is applied to do the single-dimensional cycling simulation and calculation. And then the engine performance after assembling the improving limiter (its diameter is 20mm) is analyzed. According to the calculation and analysis, the torque and pneumatic efficiency are largely affected by limiter, the maximum torque and pneumatic efficiency decreases 20 percents and 30 percents respectively. The limiter not only improves the engine's fuel performance, but also reduces its power performance

The design of cam exciter mechanism for beach-cleaner

Conference Name:World-Association-of-Science-Engineering Global Congress on Science Engineering (GCSE 2010). Conference Address: Yantai, PEOPLES R CHINA. Time:NOV 27-28, 2010.Because the cleaning effect for beach cleaning equipments imported from abroad is not ideal. Considering the character of sand, according the theory of vibrating machine to choose the optimal parameters of vibrating sieve, make sure the characteristics of motion for the vibrating sieve. Take advantage of Flock approximation to solve base radius and eccentricity of the Cain; generate theoretical profile curve of the cam directly and three-dimensional model in N

Compositional Dependence of Pore Structure, Strengthand Freezing-Thawing Resistance of Metakaolin-Based Geopolymers

The understanding of the composition dependent properties and freezing-thawing (F-T) resistance of geopolymer materials is vital to their applications in cold regions. In this study, metakaolin-based geopolymer (MKG) mortars were fabricated by controlling the Si/Al ratio and the Na/Al ratio. The pore structure and strength were measured by mercury intrusion porosimetry and compression tests, respectively, which both showed obvious correlations with the material composition. Mass loss, strength loss, visual rate, and microscopic observation were adopted to assess the changes of the material properties and microstructure caused by F-T loads. The results showed that the strength-porosity relationship roughly followed a linear plot. Increases of the Si/Al ratio increased the capillary pore volume, but decreased the gel pore volume and the F-T resistance. Increases of the Na/Al ratio decreased the gel pore, but roughly enhanced the F-T resistance. The MKG mortar at the Na/Al ratio of 1.26 showed the lowest total pore volume and the best F-T resistance. The mechanisms of our experimental observations were that the abundantly distributed air voids connected by the capillary pores facilitated the relaxation of hydraulic pressures induced by the freezing of the pore liquid. The findings of this work help better clarify the compositional dependence of the pore structure, strength, and freezing-thawing resistance of MKG materials and provide fundamental bases for their engineering applications in cold regions

All‐metal wide‐angle and polarization‐independent microwave metamaterial absorber

Abstract An innovative all‐metal self‐support microwave metamaterial absorber (MMA) based on a continuous complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) array frequency selective surface (FSS) is constructed. The CSRR‐based FSS has a selected frequency of 23 GHz and is proved to be polarization insensitive. And the all‐metal MMA has the same response frequency as the FSS, showing convenience in the geometrical scaling process. Additionally, in both transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes, the all‐metal MMA shows stable response at oblique incidences with an incident angle as large as 50°. Along with lightweight, easy fabrication and high cost‐performance ratio, the new proposed all‐metal FSS‐based MMA has good potential to serve in many practical applications

Genetic Variants in the Fat Mass- and Obesity-Associated (FTO) Gene Are Associated With Alcohol Dependence

Variants (such as rs9939609) in the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and alcohol consumption. This study tested the associations of 167 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within FTO gene with alcohol dependence (AD) using two Caucasian samples: the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) sample (660 AD cases and 400 controls) and the Study of Addiction: Genetics and Environment (SAGE) sample (623 cases and 1,016 controls). Logistic regression analysis of AD as a binary trait was performed using the PLINK software. For the SAGE sample, the top three SNPs showing associations with AD were rs8062891, rs1108086, and rs1420318 (p = 0.00088, 0.00086 and 0.00086, respectively). Two SNPs (rs12597786 and rs7204609) associated with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.017 and 0.034, respectively) were replicated in the COGA sample (p = 0.017 and 0.014, respectively). Through meta-analysis of two samples using PLINK, the top three SNPs associated with AD were rs8062891, rs12597786, and rs7204609 (p = 0.00064, 0.00076 and 0.0011, respectively). Haplotype analysis in the SAGE sample further supported the associations with AD in single-marker analysis. In addition, we found association of rs17817449 (which has a strong linkage disequilibrium with rs9939609) with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.00339). The findings provide evidence of joint intervention and prevention of AD and obesity

Integrating Fly Ash-Controlled Surface Morphology and Candle Grease Coating: Access to Highly Hydrophobic Poly (L-lactic Acid) Composite for Anti-Icing Application

New ways of recycling fly ash are of great significance for reducing the environmental pollution. In this work, biodegradable hydrophobic poly (L-lactic acid)/fly ash composites for anti-icing application were successfully fabricated via a facile solvent-volatilization-induced phase separation approach. A silane coupling agent of 3-(Trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate was used to decorate a fly ash surface (FA@KH570) for strengthening the interface bonding between fly ash and poly (L-lactic acid). Moreover, FA@KH570 could obviously enhance the crystallinity of poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/FA@KH570 composites, which accelerated the conversion from the liquid-liquid to the liquid-solid phase separation principle. Correspondingly, the controllable surface morphology from smooth to petal-like microspheres was attained simply by adjusting the FA@KH570 content. After coating nontoxic candle grease, the apparent contact angle of 5 wt% PLLA/FA@KH570 composite was significantly increased to an astonishing 151.2°, which endowed the composite with excellent anti-icing property. This strategy paves the way for recycling waste fly ash and manufacturing hydrophobic poly (L-lactic acid) composite for potential application as an anti-icing material for refrigerator interior walls

Asymmetric sandwiched nanofibrillated cellulose composites prepared by one-pot vacuum filtration for ultrahigh electromagnetic interference shielding

High-efficiency electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding composite films (EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) value > 100 dB) with a small thickness are imminently desired for eliminating the serious electromagnetic wave pollution. Herein, asymmetric sandwiched silver-coated four-needle zinc oxide whisker/nanofibrillated cellulose/Ti3C2Tx (F-ZnO&Ag/NFC/Ti3C2Tx) composite films consisting of the loose F-ZnO&Ag sedimentary layer and compact upper Ti3C2Tx layer were successful fabricated by a facile one-pot vacuum filtration method in combination with gravity-induced delamination. Arising from the favorable electrical conductivity and unique asymmetric sandwich structure, electromagnetic waves can be trapped and dissipated in the F-ZnO&Ag skeletons and strongly multiply reflected between top Ti3C2Tx layer and bottom F-ZnO&Ag layers. Thereby, F-ZnO&Ag/NFC/Ti3C2Tx-30.4 exhibits the ultrahigh averaged EMI SET of 103.9 dB (the maximal value of 123.8 dB) at a low thickness of merely 209 μm, which is far superior to that of almost all the reported NFC composites at the similar thickness to date. In the real EMI shielding application test, composite films are confirmed to block signal transmission and switch off the toy car system. Such simple and high-efficiency asymmetric sandwich structure design makes a great progress towards preparing and adjusting thin EMI shielding composite films for the promising application prospects in advanced electronics and communication technology