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Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease that causes local inflammation and pain, significantly reducing the quality of life and normal social activities of patients. Currently, there are no disease-modifying OA drugs (DMOADs) available, and treatment relies on pain relief agents or arthroplasty. To address this significant unmet medical need, we aimed to develop monoclonal antibodies that can block the osteoclast-associated receptor (OSCAR). Our recent study has revealed the importance of OSCAR in OA pathogenesis as a novel catabolic regulator that induces chondrocyte apoptosis and accelerates articular cartilage destruction. It was also shown that blocking OSCAR with a soluble OSCAR decoy receptor ameliorated OA in animal models. In this study, OSCAR-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies were isolated and optimized by phage display. These antibodies bind to and directly neutralize OSCAR, unlike the decoy receptor, which binds to the ubiquitously expressed collagen and may result in reduced efficacy or deleterious off-target effects. The DMOAD potential of the anti-OSCAR antibodies was assessed with in vitro cell-based assays and an in vivo OA model. The results demonstrated that the anti-OSCAR antibodies significantly reduced cartilage destruction and other OA signs, such as subchondral bone plate sclerosis and loss of hyaline cartilage. Hence, blocking OSCAR with a monoclonal antibody could be a promising treatment strategy for OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mekong Delta region has been seriously affected by climate change, with increasing temperatures, sea-level rise, and salinization strongly impacting agricultural activities of the region. Recent studies have shown that groundwater exploitation also contributes significantly to land subsidence throughout the delta. Thus, combating climate change now makes it necessary to design strategies and policies for adapting to and mitigating climate change and subsidence, not only at the individual level (mainly farmers), but also at the institutional level (province and region). This study aims to build an integrated model for the purpose of exploring the socio-economic impact of adaptation strategies provinces choose under various climate and economic scenarios. The LUCAS–GEMMES model (an agent-based model for strategies for adapting to land-use change in the context of climate change) was developed in order to evaluate socio-economic factors, climate, and water use by farmers, as well as the subsidence dynamics and macroeconomic trends in land-use selection strategies. The simulations are carried out according to four main scenarios: (i) lack of provincial adaptation strategies and absence of subsidence dynamics, (ii) lack of adaptation strategies though subsidence and the impact of land-use production benefits, (iii) purely individual adaptation strategies combined with the impact of subsidence, and (iv) provincial and individual-scale adaptation combined with the impact of subsidence. In all the scenarios that consider subsidence, our results show that early response decisions to even low-level subsidence lead to many positive outcomes in water resource management, such as a significant reduction in water-use in the dry season and a reduction in the area vulnerable to subsidence and climate change. However, the same results also indicate a possible decrease in farmers' income due to reduced agricultural seasons and restricted land-use transformation, which demonstrates the importance of modeling the multi-sectoral aspects of adaptation. Finally, at a more general level, in the fourth scenario, the model clearly shows the benefits when provinces located in the same agro-ecological zone harmonize strategies, thus paving the way for defining integrated land-use policies at the regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibody discovery by phage display consists of two phases, i.e., the binding phase and the amplification phase. Ideally, the selection process is dominated by the former, and all the retrieved clones are amplified equally during the latter. In reality, the amplification efficiency of antibody fragments varies widely among different sequences and, after a few rounds of phage display panning, the output repertoire often includes rapidly amplified sequences with low or no binding activity, significantly diminishing the efficiency of antibody isolation. In this work, a novel synthetic single-chain variable fragment (scFv) library with complementarity-determining region (CDR) diversities aimed at improved amplification efficiency was designed and constructed. A previously reported synthetic scFv library with low, non-combinatorial CDR diversities was panned against protein A superantigen, and the library repertoires before and after the panning were analyzed by next generation sequencing. The enrichment or depletion patterns of CDR sequences after panning served as the basis for the design of the new library. Especially for CDR-H3 with a higher and more random diversity, a machine learning method was applied to predict potential fast-amplified sequences among a simulated sequence repertoire. In a direct comparison with the previous generation library, the new library performed better against a panel of antigens in terms of the number of binders isolated, the number of unique sequences, and/or the speed of binder enrichment. Our results suggest that the amplification-centric design of sequence diversity is a valid strategy for the construction of highly functional phage display antibody libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop a method to estimate chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) in tropical freshwater lake waters using in situ data of Chla, water reflectance, and concurrent Sentinel 2A MSI imagery (S2A) over Lake Ba Be, a Ramsar site and the largest natural freshwater lake in Vietnam. Data from 30 surveyed sampling sites over the lake water in June 2016 and May 2017 demonstrated the appropriateness of S2A green-red band ratio (band 3 versus band 4) for estimating Chla. This was shown through a strong correlation of corresponded field measured reflectance ratio with Chla by an exponential curve (r2 = 0.68; the mean standard error of the estimates corresponding to 5% of the mean value of in situ Chla). The small error between in situ Chla, and estimated Chla from S2A acquired concurrently, confirmed the S2A green-red band ratio as the most suitable option for monitoring Chla in Lake Ba Be water. Resultant Chla distribution maps over time described a partially-seasonal pattern and also displayed the spatial dynamic of Chla in the lake. This allows a better understanding of the lake's limnological processes to be developed and provides an insight into the factors that affect lake water quality. The results also confirmed the potential of S2A to be used as a free tool for lake monitoring and research due to high spatial resolution data (10 m pixel size). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea eutrophication is a natural process of water enrichment caused by increased nutrient loading that severely affects coastal ecosystems by decreasing water quality. The degree of eutrophication can be assessed by chlorophyll-a concentration. This study aims to develop a remote sensing method suitable for estimating chlorophyll-a concentrations in tropical coastal waters with abundant phytoplankton using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra imagery and to improve the spatial resolution of MODIS/Terra-based estimation from 1 km to 100 m by geostatistics. A model based on the ratio of green and blue band reflectance (rGBr) is proposed considering the bio-optical property of chlorophyll-a. Tien Yen Bay in northern Vietnam, a typical phytoplankton-rich coastal area, was selected as a case study site. The superiority of rGBr over two existing representative models, based on the blue-green band ratio and the red-near infrared band ratio, was demonstrated by a high correlation of the estimated chlorophyll-a concentrations at 40 sites with values measured in situ. Ordinary kriging was then shown to be highly capable of predicting the concentration for regions of the image covered by clouds and, thus, without sea surface data. Resultant space-time maps of concentrations over a year clarified that Tien Yen Bay is characterized by natural eutrophic waters, because the average of chlorophyll-a concentrations exceeded 10 mg/m3 in the summer. The temporal changes of chlorophyll-a concentrations were consistent with average monthly air temperatures and precipitation. Consequently, a combination of rGBr and ordinary kriging can effectively monitor water quality in tropical shallow waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, since its beginning in December 2019, has altered every aspect of human life. In Vietnam, the pandemic is in its fourth peak and is the most serious so far, putting Vietnam in the list of top 30 countries with the highest daily cases. In this paper, we wish to identify the magnitude of its impact on college students in Vietnam. As far as we're concerned, college students belong to the most affected groups in the population, especially in big cities that have been hitting hard by the virus. We conducted an online survey from 31 May 2021 to 9 June 2021, asking students from four representative regions in Vietnam to describe how the pandemic has changed their lifestyle and studying environment, as well as their awareness, compliance, and psychological state. The collected answers were processed to eliminate unreliable ones then prepared for sentiment analysis. To analyze the relationship among the variables, we performed a variety of statistical tests, including Shapiro–Wilk, Mc Nemar, Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon, Kruskal–Wallis, and Pearson's Chi-square tests. Among 1875 students who participated, many did not embrace online education. A total of 64.53% of them refused to think that online education would be the upcoming trend. During the pandemic, nearly one quarter of students were in a negative mood. About the same number showed signs of depression. We also observed that there were increasing patterns in sleeping time, body weight, and sedentary lifestyle. However, they maintained a positive attitude toward health protection and compliance with government regulations (65.81%). As far as we know, this is the first project to conduct such a large-scale survey analysis on students in Vietnam. The findings of the paper help us take notice of financial and mental needs and perspective issues for indigent students, which contributes to reducing the pandemic's negative effects and going forwards to a better and more sustainable life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to obtain new data about the complexation between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and benzoic acid (BA) as a model reaction of the complex formation of hydrophobic molecules with cyclodextrins (CDs) in various media. This research may help developing cyclodextrin-based pharmaceutical formulations through the choice of the appropriate solvent mixture that may be employed in the industrial application aiming to control the reactions/processes in liquid phase. In this paper, NMR results for the molecular complex formation between BA and β-CD ([BA⊂β-CD]) in D2O-DMSO-d6 and in D2O-EtOH have shown that the stability of the complex in the H2O-DMSO-d6 varies within the experimental error, while decreases in H2O-EtOH. Changes in the Gibbs energy of BA resolvation in water and water–dimethylsulfoxide mixtures have been obtained and have been used in the analysis of the reagent solvation contributions into the Gibbs energy changes of the [BA⊂β-CD] molecular complex formation. Quantum chemical calculations of the interaction energy between β-CD and BA as well as the structure of the [BA⊂β-CD] complex and the energy of β-CD and BA interaction in vacuum and in the medium of water, methanol and dimethylsulfoxide solvents are carried out. The stability of [BA⊂β-CD] complex in H2O-EtOH and H2O-DMSO solvents, obtained by different methods, are compared. The thermodynamic parameters of the [BA⊂β-CD] molecular complexation as well as the reagent solvation contributions in H2O-EtOH and H2O-DMSO mixtures were analyzed by the solvation-thermodynamic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to analyze the complex institutional landscape of adaptation finance in Vietnam, a middle-income country highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. While resources from international organizations and national authorities occupy a prominent position in adaptation funding, the use of local resources that directly or indirectly support adaptation practices is also an important factor to consider. We hypothesize that it is that interplay between official climate change finance on the one hand and local social dynamics on the other hand that shapes the structure of adaptation funding. These very particular financing circuits consequently determine the kind of adaptation actions that are actually implemented. The paper unfolds the adaptation finance flows at all scales by using qualitative field studies, technical and legal reports, and a wide-ranging literature on adaptation project financing, and thus identifies three types of dialectical tensions that might hinder Vietnamese institutional readiness for adaptation finance: the adaptation/development financing nexus, the adaptation/reaction financing behaviors, and the endogenous/exogenous financing dichotomy. Ultimately, the paper derives from these dialectical tensions within the architecture and functioning of adaptation finance key takeaway messages for a prospective analysis of adaptation funding that better informs adaptation finance policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIMP2-DX2, an exon 2-deleted splice variant of AIMP2 (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-interacting multifunctional protein 2), is highly expressed in lung cancer and involved in tumor progression in vivo. Oncogenic function of AIMP2-DX2 and its correlation with poor prognosis of cancer patients have been well established; however, the application of this potentially important biomarker to cancer research and diagnosis has been hampered by a lack of antibodies specific for the splice variant, possibly due to the poor immunogenicity and/or stability of AIMP2-DX2. In this study a monoclonal antibody, H5, that specifically recognizes AIMP2-DX2 and its isoforms was generated via rabbit immunization and phage display techniques, using a short peptide corresponding to the exon 1/3 junction sequence as an antigen. Furthermore, based on mutagenesis, limited cleavage, and mass spectrometry studies, it is also suggested that the endogenous isoform of AIMP2-DX2 recognized by H5 is produced by proteolytic cleavage of 33 amino acids from N-terminus and is capable of inducing cell proliferation similarly to the uncleaved protein. H5 monoclonal antibody is applicable to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunoblot, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry, and expected to be a valuable tool for detecting AIMP2-DX2 with high sensitivity and specificity for research and diagnostic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the development of the Internet and technology, food retailers have increasingly adopted online channels that enable consumers to buy food products online. This research aims to investigate the factors that influence consumer attitude and intention towards online food purchasing. A research framework was developed by combining the technology acceptance model with website trust, which is an important facilitator of online shopping. Using an online survey, data were obtained from 319 online food shoppers in an Asian emerging economy, i.e., Vietnam. Results from structural equation modeling show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and website trust are important drivers of attitude towards online food purchasing. Among these drivers, perceived ease of use has the greatest impact on attitude. Additionally, attitude and website trust exert a direct and positive effect on intention towards online food purchasing. Taken together, these findings have important managerial implications for key stakeholders, such as online food retailers, associations, and policy makers. One key implication is that online food sellers must endeavor to make their websites simple to use, easy to navigate, reliable, and secure. Several potential caveats for future research studies are also presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]