Status of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Nursing Association and analysis of the development trend of nursing research

Aims and objective:This study focuses on the status quo and development trend of nursing research in our country to provide a reference for nursing research workers and improve the development of nursing research in China.Methods:The official website of the Chinese Nursing Association was searched to obtain the total number,category,geographical distribution,and job of project leaders of winning projects of the Chinese Nursing Association Technology Award.Findings were analyzed using webometrics and content analysis approach to understand the“study hotspots,”“study level,”and“development trend”of nursing research in China.Results:The total number of winning projects was 144.Among them,the number of first,second,and third prizes were 8,36,and 100,respectively.Beijing is the area with the largest number of winners(21),followed by Shanghai(17)and Jiangsu(13).Among the winning projects,the top 3 research areas were specialty nursing,nursing management,and nursing education,with percentages of 50%,27%,and 18%,respectively.Among the 144 project leaders,96% were academic or hospital directors and only 4% were ordinary staff.Conclusions:The geographical distribution of winning projects presented a regional concentration trend.The categories of winning projects are diverse,and our country has made great achievements in every category,particularly in specialty nursing.Most of the project leaders were academic or hospital directors.The stumbling block to nursing research is the lack of high-quality research projects with international influence.Future research should learn from the experiences of developed countries,focus on the in-depth refinement of specialty nursing,and highlight the importance of collaboration to coordinate and promote nursing development in all regions.

Systematic analysis on expression quantitative trait loci identifies a novel regulatory variant in ring finger and WD repeat domain 3 associated with prognosis of pancreatic cancer

Background:Pancreatic adenocarcinoma(PAAD)is an extremely lethal malignancy.Identification of the functional genes and genetic variants related to PAAD prognosis is important and challenging.Previously identified prognostic genes from several expression profile analyses were inconsistent.The regulatory genetic variants that affect PAAD prognosis were largely unknown.Methods:Firstly,a meta-analysis was performed with seven published datasets to systematically explore the candidate prognostic genes for PAAD.Next,to identify the regulatory variants for those candidate genes,expression quantitative trait loci analysis was implemented with PAAD data resources from The Cancer Genome Atlas.Then,a two-stage association study in a total of 893 PAAD patients was conducted to interrogate the regulatory variants and find the prognostic locus.Finally,a series of biochemical experiments and phenotype assays were carried out to demonstrate the biological function of variation and genes in PAAD progression process.Results:A total of 128 genes were identified associated with the PAAD prognosis in the meta-analysis.Fourteen regulatory loci in 12 of the 128 genes were discovered,among which,only rs4887783,the functional variant in the promoter of Ring Finger and WD Repeat Domain 3(RFWD3),presented significant association with PAAD prognosis in both stages of the population study.Dualluciferase reporter and electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that rs4887783-G allele,which predicts the worse prognosis,enhanced the binding of transcript factor REST,thus elevating RFWD3 expression.Further phenotypic assays revealed that excess expression of RFWD3 promoted tumor cell migration without affecting their proliferation rate.RFWD3 was highly expressed in PAAD and might orchestrate the genes in the DNA repair process.Conclusions:RFWD3 and its regulatory variant are novel genetic factors for PAAD prognosis.