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Capacity deionization (CDI), which combines capacitive carbon electrodes and redox-active electrodes, has emerged as a promising method for water desalination. It enables higher ion removal capacity than CDI-containing carbonaceous electrodes. Our work aimed to synthesize layered structure δ-MnO2/CNTs composites via the sol-gel method, examining their suitability for hybrid capacitive deionization (HCDI). The XRD results showed a layered structure birnessite for all composites with a distance interlayer over 7.0 Å, while the SEM images confirmed the intercopration of MnO2 particles and CNT fibers. The electrochemical evaluations evidenced the role of CNTs in enhancing the charge transfer and ionic diffusion in composites. Composite δ-MnO2/CNTs presented a specific capacitance of 160 F g−1 at a charge-discharge rate of 1 A g-1 upon 1600 cycles. In salt removal performance, the asymmetric cell AC||δ-MnO2/CNTs-1 showed the highest salt adsorption capacity (SAC) of 30.2 mg g−1 and fast average salt adsorption rate (ASAR) of 3 mg g−1 s−1 under a constant applied potential 1.4 V in 200 ppm NaCl, rendering it a promising candidate for efficient and sustainable desalination technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desired performance of nucleic acid testing (NAT) may vary if used for disease diagnosis or for the evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of a treatment, although in most cases, the same assay is used. However, these tests may not be affordable in many situations including in low/middle income countries that in response have developed domestic assays. Given the example of HCV NAT among people who inject drugs in Vietnam, we aimed at evaluating a domestic assay versus an FDA- and CE-approved assay. This cross-evaluation revealed that (i) the domestic assay had a poorer sensitivity with a threshold of detection above 104 IU/mL, and (ii) the FDA-approved assay had a percentage of false negative results close to 1%. Together, in the present study, the domestic assay had a performance compatible with diagnosis purposes (given that this population was 70% HCV seropositive) but not compatible with HCV treatment monitoring (given that treatment failures are rare and the observed viremia frequently below the threshold of detection). This study highlights the need for a proper evaluation of HCV RNA domestic assays in order to efficiently contribute to the WHO HCV elimination target by 2030.

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers have attracted considerable attention in the field of gene therapy due to their flexibility in introducing different functional moieties and reduced toxicity at low generations. However, their transfection efficiency remains a limitation. Therefore, an essential approach for improving their transfection efficiency as gene carriers involves modifying the structure of PAMAM by conjugating functional groups around their surface. In this study, we successfully conjugated an RRHRH oligopeptide to the surface of PAMAM generation 2 (PAMAM G2) to create RRHRH-PAMAM G2. This construction aims to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) and facilitate its penetration into cell membranes, leading to its promising potential for gene therapy. RRHRH-PAMAM G2/pDNA complexes were smaller than 100 nm and positively charged. Nano-polyplexes can enter the cell and show a high transfection efficiency after 24 h of transfection. The RRHRH-PAMAM G2 was non-toxic to HeLa, NIH3T3, A549, and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. These results strongly suggest that RRHRH-PAMAM G2 holds promise as a gene carrier for gene therapy owing to its biocompatibility and ability to deliver genes to the cell.

This paper aims to find out the current state of the high-class apartment market. Qualitative research is done to adjust and supplement the observed variables for the scale. Quantitative research is conducted through a survey of customers who have bought a high-class apartment or are intending to buy an apartment to build a research model and test the scale. After collecting data, the study conducted the descriptive statistical analysis, testing the reliability of scale. Then, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to group the related factors into groups of factors that are independent. The research results showed that there are eight main groups of factors with 31 related observational variables that affected customers' decisions to choose high-class apartments.

This study contributes to anti-malarial research effort by conducting in silico assessment of 125 compounds originated from Cannabis sativa L. against plasmodium falciparum dihydrofolate reductase-thymidinesynthase (pfDHFR-TS) enzyme for potential inhibition activity. Drug-like and pharmacokinetic criteria were used to assess the drug-like properties of the studied compounds. AutoDock4.2.6 and AutoDock Vina software were used to calculate the possible binding pose of the studied compounds to pfDHFR-TS enzyme. The docking procedure was validated using two known inhibitors cycloguanil and WR99210. 65 out of 125 compounds violated no more than 2 of Lipinski’s rule of five and were sorted out as favorable for drug development. Amongst these 65 compounds, pharmacokinetic properties and toxicity evaluation identified 60 compounds that meet the criteria of drug-like properties and were subjected to further docking studies. Docking outcomes identified 10 compounds including compounds 4, 9, 19, 22, 23, 25, 30, 42, 43, and 59 as potential candidates for inhibiting the function of pfDHFR-TS at the active site through hydrogen bonds with Ile14, Asp54, and Ile 164 residues. Compound 9 is considered as the top “hit” with docking energy far more exceeding those of the standard compounds. High correlation coefficient between the docking energy of AutoDock4.2.6 and AutoDock Vina was recorded with the value of R 2 = 0.74.

Abstract Background Species domestication is generally characterized by the exploitation of high-impact mutations through processes that involve complex shifting demographics of domesticated species. These include not only inbreeding and artificial selection that may lead to the emergence of evolutionary bottlenecks, but also post-divergence gene flow and introgression. Although domestication potentially affects the occurrence of both desired and undesired mutations, the way wild relatives of domesticated species evolve and how expensive the genetic cost underlying domestication is remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the demographic history and genetic load of chicken domestication. Results We analyzed a dataset comprising over 800 whole genomes from both indigenous chickens and wild jungle fowls. We show that despite having a higher genetic diversity than their wild counterparts (average π, 0.00326 vs. 0.00316), the red jungle fowls, the present-day domestic chickens experienced a dramatic population size decline during their early domestication. Our analyses suggest that the concomitant bottleneck induced 2.95% more deleterious mutations across chicken genomes compared with red jungle fowls, supporting the “cost of domestication” hypothesis. Particularly, we find that 62.4% of deleterious SNPs in domestic chickens are maintained in heterozygous states and masked as recessive alleles, challenging the power of modern breeding programs to effectively eliminate these genetic loads. Finally, we suggest that positive selection decreases the incidence but increases the frequency of deleterious SNPs in domestic chicken genomes. Conclusion This study reveals a new landscape of demographic history and genomic changes associated with chicken domestication and provides insight into the evolutionary genomic profiles of domesticated animals managed under modern human selection.

Objectives: To identify the proportion of atopic dermatitis adult patients having anxiety and depression disorder and measure the relationship between anxiety and depression disorder and characteristics of atopic dermatitis. Materials and Methods: a cross-sectional study with convenience sampling was conducted. Diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatitis were based on modified Hanifin and Raijka criteria and the severity of anxiety - depression disorder was evaluated using HADS (Hospital Anxiety And Depression Scale). Results: 208 patients were enrolled in this study. The percentage of patients with anxiety and subthreshold anxiety were 11.1% and 34.1%, respectively. 5.3% of patients had depression and 39.4% of patients suffered from subthreshold depression. The proportion of patients with mixed anxiety-depressive disorder was 1.44%. Patients with severe atopic dermatitis were more likely to endure anxiety but not depression. Allergies or autoimmune diseases and SCORAD C were two independent risk factors of depression whereas edema and excoriation were two independent risk factors related to anxiety in atopic dermatitis patients. Conclusion: These findings suggest that atopic dermatitis is associated with anxiety and depression. Allergies, autoimmune diseases, pruritus, and insomnia had a correlation with anxiety and depression disorder.

The growing evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics represents a global issue that not only impacts healthcare systems but also political and economic processes. This necessitates the development of novel antibacterial agents. Antimicrobial peptides have shown promise in this regard. Thus, in this study, a new functional polymer was synthesized by joining a short oligopeptide sequence (Phe-Lys-Phe-Leu, FKFL) to the surface of a second-generation polyamidoamine (G2 PAMAM) dendrimer as an antibacterial component. This method of synthesis proved simple and resulted in a high conjugation yield of the product FKFL-G2. To determine its antibacterial potential, FKFL-G2 was subsequently analyzed via mass spectrometry, a cytotoxicity assay, bacterial growth assay, colony-forming unit assay, membrane permeabilization assay, transmission electron microscopy, and biofilm formation assay. FKFL-G2 was found to exhibit low toxicity to noncancerous NIH3T3 cells. Additionally, FKFL-G2 had an antibacterial effect on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus strains by interacting with and disrupting the bacterial cell membrane. Based on these findings, FKFL-G2 shows promise as a potential antibacterial agent.

This article presents a research approach to enhancing the quality of short-term power output forecasting models for photovoltaic plants using a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network. Typically, time-related indicators are used as inputs for forecasting models of PV generators. However, this study proposes replacing the time-related inputs with clear sky solar irradiance at the specific location of the power plant. This feature represents the maximum potential solar radiation that can be received at that particular location on Earth. The Ineichen/Perez model is then employed to calculate the solar irradiance. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, the forecasting model incorporating this new input was trained and the results were compared with those obtained from previously published models. The results show a reduction in the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) from 3.491% to 2.766%, indicating a 24% improvement. Additionally, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) decreased by approximately 0.991 MW, resulting in a 45% improvement. These results demonstrate that this approach is an effective solution for enhancing the accuracy of solar power output forecasting while reducing the number of input variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small wind turbines operating in low wind speed regions have not had any significant success. In addition, small wind speed regions occupy a large area of the world, so they represent a potential area for installing small wind turbines in the future. In this paper, a method to design an efficient airfoil for small wind turbines in low wind speed conditions using XFLR5 and CFD simulations is implemented. Because the impact of the airflow on the blade surface under low Re number conditions can change suddenly for small geometries, designing the airfoil shape to optimize the aerodynamic performance is essential. The tuning of the key geometric parameters using inversion techniques for better aerodynamic performance is presented in this study. A two-dimensional model was used to consider the airflow on the airfoil surface with differences in the angle of attack. The original S1010 airfoil was used to design a new airfoil for increasing the aerodynamic efficiency by using V6.57 XFLR5 software. Subsequently, the new VAST-EPU-S1010 airfoil model was adjusted to the maximum thickness and the maximum thickness position. It was simulated in low wind speed conditions of 4–6 m/s by a computational fluid dynamics simulation. The lift coefficient, drag coefficient, and CL/CD coefficient ratio were evaluated under the effect of the angle of attack and the maximum thickness by using the k-ε model. The simulation results show that the VAST-EPU-S1010 airfoil achieved the greatest aerodynamic efficiency at an angle of attack of 3°, a maximum thickness of 8%, and a maximum thickness position of 20.32%. The maximum value of CL/CD of the new airfoil at 6 m/s was higher than at 4 m/s by about 6.25%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the efficacy and suitability of five different nutrient solutions, including Biolife, BKFast, Hoagland, Hydro Umat F and Knop, on the growth and development of Impatiens walleriana in a hydroponic system. The investigated parameters were branch numbers, canopy diameter, leaf size, flower numbers, floral longevity, flower diameter and flowering time. The results showed that Knop and Hydro Umat F were the most suitable solutions for the growth of hydroponic Impatiens walleriana. The highest floral longevity (7.64 to 7.67 days) and largest flower diameter (4.68 to 4.71 cm) were obtained from Knop and Hydro Umat F solution treatment, respectively. Besides, compared to the other four solutions, using the Knop solution helped impatiens have the earliest flowers (27.14 days) and the highest number of flowers (54.86 flowers). Based on the results of our study, we recommend using the Knop nutrient solution with a TDS concentration range of 750-800 ppm and a pH level range of 5.5-6.5 for three-week-old Impatiens walleriana seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the development of society, based on the internet platform, in addition to other types of written and visual newspapers, online newspapers were born, allowing people around the world to quickly access news without delay depends on space and time. To attract readers, the language of online newspapers is also increasingly being innovated to meet readers' tastes. Code mixing is a fairly common phenomenon in online newspapers, giving readers interesting impressions. Therefore, the article "Code mixing phenomena in Vietnam online newspapers" will survey the forms of code mixing in languages in Vietnamese online newspapers, thereby providing comprehensive assessments of this phenomenon on the Internet journalistic language in particular and communication in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been growing interest in incorporating dietary fiber into yogurt products, driven by its potential to improve the texture, rheology, and stability of yogurt, as well as the associated health benefits. This study specifically focused on the utilization of enzymatically hydrolyzed cantaloupe rind powder, which was the product of the enzymatic hydrolysis of the raw cantaloupe rind powder using cellulase and xylanase enzymes to increase its soluble dietary fiber content. The resulting hydrolyzed cantaloupe rind powder (referred to as HCRP) was added to a probiotic yogurt recipe at varying ratios of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% (w/w). Physicochemical, textural, and rheological properties, and syneresis of the control yogurt (without HCRP addition) and the HCRP-fortified yogurts at different addition ratios, were evaluated during a 15-day storage period at 4℃. Additionally, the color, total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant property of the yogurts were assessed at the end of the storage period. The results demonstrated that the addition of HCRP increased the hardness, viscosity, elasticity, and stability of the yogurt compared to the control yogurt. Specifically, the addition of 1.5% HCRP to yogurt resulted in a 1.6, 6.0, 1.9, 1.7, and 1.5 times increase in hardness, adhesiveness, apparent viscosity, storage modulus, and loss modulus compared to the control yogurt on day 15 of the storage period, respectively. Meanwhile, the syneresis was reduced by approximately 3 times in the 1.5% HCRP-added yogurt (5.60%) compared to the control yogurt (17.41%). The TPC of the yogurt also increased with higher levels of HCRP addition, reaching approximately 1.5 times that of the control yogurt at a 1.5% addition level. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity, as determined by the DPPH assay, was not detected in the control yogurt but exhibited a significant increase with higher concentrations of HCRP. This study highlights the potential of enzymatically hydrolyzed cantaloupe rind powder as a functional ingredient to enhance the quality attributes of yogurt, including its textural, rheological properties, stability, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world, building excellent schools often relies on a certain school model. For example, models such as "Happy School", "Amazing School", "Cultural School", "Brand School", and "Student-Centered Schools" have been implemented quite successfully. The common purpose of these models is to create an excellent school; the core of these models is the core cultural values. Through studying the models, the article draws out the core cultural values to create an excellent school. Community culture, religious doctrines, laws, state management policies, and knowledge management are factors that influence school culture and are also mentioned. Based on that, a survey was conducted with 1,517 subjects including school managers, teachers, and parents of students at preschool, primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels representing four different regions of Vietnam. The results show that school managers can express very well the school's vision and mission but have a vague perception of the essence of school culture and the specific approach to building school culture. In management, school principals lack creative measures in both approaching general culture and in creating core cultural values for the school; the influence of the impacting factors has not been effectively utilized; therefore, the results of building excellent schools are very limited. Solutions to build excellent schools by creating core cultural values are proposed in the context of Vietnam and can be referenced for countries with similar conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of the use of cartoons on the speaking and listening skills of students in a primary school in a rural area in Vietnam and their attitudes towards the use of cartoons as a learning tool in their English classes. The study employed an experimental research design to collect data. Participants included 70 fifth-graders divided into two groups, the control group and the experiment group. The control group was taught regular English lessons. The experiment group learned similar lessons but cartoons were added to the English lesson to practice speaking and listening skills for six weeks. Before and after the experiment, the speaking and listening skills of the two groups were measured by a pretest and a posttest. In addition, the students in the experiment group were surveyed using a questionnaire to examine their attitudes towards watching cartoons for learning purposes. The findings show the English speaking and listening skills of the students in the experimental group improved more significantly than those of the students in the control group. Besides, the students in the experiment group expressed positive attitudes towards watching cartoons in English classes. The findings had implications for English language teachers at primary schools in Vietnam and in other non-dominant English speaking countries to include visual materials in their English lessons to enhance young learners’ English proficiency.

This study attempts to investigate the effect of the Total Physical Response (TPR) Method on vocabulary retention and explore the young learners’ attitudes toward it. It involved sixty two English young learners (YLs) aging from 10 to 11. All of them were attending English classes at Viet Uc English Language Center (henceforth called VUC) in Bien Hoa City where the current study was conducted. Both quantitative and qualitative data was obtained through the three instruments, namely pre- and post-test and interview. Descriptive statistics was employed for data analysis. The results revealed that TPR had effect on the YLs’ vocabulary knowledge through an increase in their vocabulary retention after they underwent the treatment. Similarly, the findings of the study also revealed that the YLs had positive attitudes toward the use TPR in vocabulary teaching and learning. This study is expected to shed light to the implementation of teaching vocabulary methods in the VUC context and other similar contexts.

The monosaccharide composition is one of the crucial factors affecting the bioactivity of exopolysaccharide (EPS) in Cordyceps species. Therefore, many scientists have studied, analyzed monosaccharide composition and structure of EPS from Cordyceps species, especially Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis). This study aimed to compare hydrochloric acid (HCl) with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in the EPS hydrolysis process in monosaccharide composition analysis by Gas Chromatography with Flame-Ionization Detection (GC-FID). The hydrolysis is a crucial step in forming the acetyl derivative, which helps the GC-FID technique to have good results in monosaccharide composition analysis. The results showed that hydrolysis with HCl gave a higher hydrolysis efficiency and was more suitable than hydrolysis by TFA in pretreatment to EPS for GC-FID. Hydrolysis results were analyzed through thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), then Acetyl derivatives were produced and finally analyzed by GC-FID to determine the monosaccharide composition of EPS. For EPS hydrolyzed by HCl, the analytical results presented that this sample had 6 kinds of monosaccharides, including rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, glucose, and galactose; the most monosaccharide was glucose. The EPS hydrolyzed by TFA only detected three kinds of monosaccharides, including mannose, arabinose, and galactose, mainly mannose. The study has set a foundation for further analysis of monosaccharide composition and structure of EPS from O. sinensis.

Xạ đen, tên khoa học là Ehretia asperula Zoll. et Mor., thuộc họ Vòi voi (Boraginaceae), có nguồn gốc từ các nước Đông Nam Á. Xạ đen thường được dùng để chữa bệnh như u nhọt (kể cả ung bướu), viêm thũng và giải độc. Khảo sát ảnh hưởng của một số chất điều hòa sinh trưởng thực vật và nguồn cung cấp carbon lên sự hình thành và tăng sinh mô sẹo từ mẫu cấy lá của cây xạ đen in vitro nhằm tạo nguyên liệu cho các hệ thống nuôi cấy tế bào để cung cấp các hợp chất có giá trị cho ngành dược liệu. Kết quả cho thấy mô sẹo phát triển tốt trên môi trường B5 bổ sung glucose 30 mg/L và 2,4-D 0,4 mg/L kết hợp với BA 0,1 mg/L. Trên môi trường này, mô sẹo có màu vàng xanh, xốp, mịn và tăng sinh nhanh. Mô sẹo chuyển sang màu trắng sữa sau 10 tuần nuôi cấy và được sử dụng làm nguyêu liệu cho nuôi cấy huyền phù tế bào. Huyền phù tế bào trong điều kiện tối phát triển tốt hơn ngoài sáng với lượng sinh khối cao nhất đạt được sau 4 tuần nuôi cấy (149,933 g/L).

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting the role of women in the economic development of rural household families in Vietnam. 210 survey samples collected in Trieu Son district, Thanh Hoa province were used as data in the study. The study finds a number of important factors influencing the role of women in rural household economic development. Since then, some meaningful solutions to promote the role of women in the economic development of rural household families in Trieu Son district are proposed in the study.

Targeted drugs have been used to treat mitochondrial dysfunction-related diseases, including metabolic disorders and cancer; however, targeting and penetrating intracellular organelles remains a challenge. Dominant targeting approaches for therapeutic delivery are detailed in many nanoemulsion studies and show the tremendous potential of targeted delivery to inhibit cancer cell growth. Dequalinium (DQA) and α-tocopherol succinate (α-TOS) are good agents for targeting mitochondria. In this study, we aimed to develop a mitochondria-targeting emulsion, using DQA and α-TOS (DTOS), for cancer treatment. DTOS emulsions of 150–170 nm in diameter were formulated using homogenization. DQA and α-TOS were used as bifunctional agents (surfactants) to stabilize the nanoemulsion and anticancer drugs. Various molar ratios of DQA and α-TOS were tested to determine the optimal condition, and DTOS 5-5 was selected for further study. The DTOS emulsion showed improved stability, as evidenced by its ability to remain stable for three years at room temperature. This stability, combined with its effective targeting of mitochondria, led to inhibition of 71.5% of HeLa cells after 24 h. The DTOS emulsion effectively inhibited spheroid growth in the 3D model, as well as prevented the growth of HeLa cells grafted onto zebrafish larvae. These results highlight the DTOS emulsion’s promising potential for mitochondria-targeting and cancer treatment.

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is a tissue-specific autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring and rapid onset of hair loss. Interleukin (IL)-17A is mainly produced by T helper 17 (Th17) cells and may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases including AA. Objectives: We conducted this research to measure serum level of IL-17A in patients with AA and investigated its relationship with the clinical manifestations in patients with AA. Methods: We assessed 36 patients with AA and 20 healthy control subjects. Demographic information and clinical characteristics were determined by physical examination and via the review of medical history. Serum IL-17A was measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Serum IL-17A concentration was significantly higher in patients with AA than in the control group (P=0.004). The AA patients with severe presentation, personal atopy, nail abnormalities, or active phase had significantly higher serum IL-17A levels compared to others without these signs. Conclusion: Increased serum IL-17A levels in patients with AA correlate with severity and indicate an active disease state. These findings suggest that IL-17A may play an important role in determining the pathogenesis of AA and may serve as a valuable clinical biomarker of this disease.