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In this study, we demonstrate an integrated synthesis strategy, which is conducted by the thermochemical process, consisting of pre- and post-activation by thermal treatment and KOH activation for the reduction of graphite oxide. A large number of interconnected pore networks with a micro/mesoporous range were constructed on a framework of graphene layers with a specific surface area of up to 1261 m

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil/capecitabine (DCF/DCX) followed by esophagectomy has been the recommended treatment for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, the optimal interval from NAC to surgery has not yet been established. This study evaluated the impact of time to surgery (TTS) in the treatment of ESCC. Methods: Between August 2018 and September 2021, 97 patients who underwent radical esophagectomy following 3-6 cycles of NAC with DCF/DCX for ESCC at a single hospital were analyzed. TTS was categorized into three groups: 16-41 days (group 1; 33 patients), 42-55 days (group 2; 29 patients), and 56-135 days (group 3; 35 patients). Survival outcomes included overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results:Mean age was 59.6±6.8 years, and 95 patients were male. One patient had grade-3 anemia, 12 had grade-2 anemia, and four had grade-2 neutropenia; all other NAC-related toxicities were as grade 1. Regarding pathologic tumor response, 18.6% achieved complete response, 71.1% achieved partial response, and 10.3% had stable disease. Forty-eight patients (49.5%) had a postoperative complication, but only six (6.2%) with grade-IIIa and two (2.1%) with grade IV-a according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Median follow-up time was 24 months. Group 1 and 3 had worse OS (HR [95% CI]: 3.36 [1.16-11.7] and 1.83 [0.55-6.10]) and worse PFS (HR [95% CI]: 3.27 [1.25-8.53] and 1.61 [0.58-4.45]) compared to group 2. Conclusion: The optimal TTS after NAC could be 6-8 weeks. The surgery should not be performed too early.

A series of Mn4+-activated CaAl2O4 (CAO) compounds were synthesized by co-precipitation to seek a candidate for a red-emitting phosphor to be employed in a white LED. The crystal structure, morphology, and fluorescence properties of the as-obtained phosphors were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL). The deep red luminescence of Mn4+ in CaAl2O4 is reported and discussed. The excitation spectrum exhibited broadband emission between 260 and 550 nm with three peaks dominating at 320 nm due to the transition of 4A24T1. Theemission spectra between 600 to 720 nm displays an overwhelming emission peak at 654 nm owing to the 2E4A2 transition of Mn4+ ion.This research demonstrates the great promise of CaAl2O4:Mn4+ as a commercial red phosphor in warm white LEDs and opens up new avenues for the exploration of novel non-rare-earth red-emitting phosphors.

Background Promoters, non-coding DNA sequences located at upstream regions of the transcription start site of genes/gene clusters, are essential regulatory elements for the initiation and regulation of transcriptional processes. Furthermore, identifying promoters in DNA sequences and genomes significantly contributes to discovering entire structures of genes of interest. Therefore, exploration of promoter regions is one of the most imperative topics in molecular genetics and biology. Besides experimental techniques, computational methods have been developed to predict promoters. In this study, we propose iPromoter-Seqvec – an efficient computational model to predict TATA and non-TATA promoters in human and mouse genomes using bidirectional long short-term memory neural networks in combination with sequence-embedded features extracted from input sequences. The promoter and non-promoter sequences were retrieved from the Eukaryotic Promoter database and then were refined to create four benchmark datasets. Results The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCROC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUCPR) were used as two key metrics to evaluate model performance. Results on independent test sets showed that iPromoter-Seqvec outperformed other state-of-the-art methods with AUCROC values ranging from 0.85 to 0.99 and AUCPR values ranging from 0.86 to 0.99. Models predicting TATA promoters in both species had slightly higher predictive power compared to those predicting non-TATA promoters. With a novel idea of constructing artificial non-promoter sequences based on promoter sequences, our models were able to learn highly specific characteristics discriminating promoters from non-promoters to improve predictive efficiency. Conclusions iPromoter-Seqvec is a stable and robust model for predicting both TATA and non-TATA promoters in human and mouse genomes. Our proposed method was also deployed as an online web server with a user-friendly interface to support research communities. Links to our source codes and web server are available at https://github.com/mldlproject/2022-iPromoter-Seqvec.

Power-to-X (PtX) is a large-scale, long-term energy storage approach for converting renewable electrical energy into various chemical fuels. Unlike conventional fossil fuel production processes that operate continuously, PtX processes encounter operational challenges due to fluctuations in renewable power supply. To improve the operational flexibility of PtX processes for industrial applications, it is crucial to develop systematic strategies that can adapt to these fluctuations, which will increase PtX's energy and cost efficiencies. This study comprehensively explores various strategies for flexible operation of renewable-powered PtX processes, which include the use of additional energy buffers and grid connections. Power and material allocation models are developed for PtX processes based on islanded; grid-assisted; and grid-assisted, bidirectional connections by using three possible energy buffers (i.e., hydrogen intermediate storage, Li-ion batteries, and Carnot batteries). Surrogate model-based optimization is performed to establish an economically optimal design for each case. A power-to-methanol process implemented in Kramer Junction, California is studied to investigate the effects of flexible operation strategies on process performance in terms of production cost, renewable penetration, and energy efficiency. The findings of this study offer new insights into the operational flexibility of PtX processes and provide general recommendations for improving the flexibility and performance of PtX, particularly with respect to the establishment of a grid connection and the selection of an appropriate energy buffer.

Malaria is a threatening disease that has claimed many lives and has a high prevalence rate annually. Through the past decade, there have been many studies to uncover effective antimalarial compounds to combat this disease. Alongside chemically synthesized chemicals, a number of natural compounds have also been proven to be as effective in their antimalarial properties. Besides experimental approaches to investigate antimalarial activities in natural products, computational methods have been developed with satisfactory outcomes obtained. In this study, we propose a novel molecular encoding scheme based on Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers and used our pretrained encoding model called NPBERT with four machine learning algorithms, includingik/i-Nearest Neighbors (ik/i-NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and Random Forest (RF), to develop various prediction models to identify antimalarial natural products. The results show that SVM models are the best-performing classifiers, followed by the XGB,ik/i-NN, and RF models. Additionally, comparative analysis between our proposed molecular encoding scheme and existing state-of-the-art methods indicates that NPBERT is more effective compared to the others. Moreover, the deployment of transformers in constructing molecular encoders is not limited to this study but can be utilized for other biomedical applications.

STEM education plays an important role in science, technology, engineering, and math education in general education, helping learners form and develop key competencies and 21st century skills, including critical thinking belonging to the group of learning and innovation skills that need to be developed for students. This article presents the concept of critical thinking, critical thinking in students and proposing the ability to develop students' critical thinking through STEM education in high schools.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is caused by a combination of lifestyle and genetic factors. Physical activity (PA) is a key element in improving the HbA1c index and reducing the risk of complications in a patient with T2D. A descriptive crosssectional study was conducted on 629 outpatients with T2D at Hue Transportation Hospital to describe patients’ PA levels and some related factors. The results showed that there were 48% of participants achieved the WHO recommended level of PA. The multivariate logistic regression model identifed some factors associated with PA among the T2D patients, including age group (group aged 45-64 with OR = 1.55; 95% CI: 1.10 – 2.18), academic level (≥ high school level with OR = 1.79; 95%CI: 1.15 – 2.78), sleeping time (6 - 9 hours with OR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.20 – 2.87), blood pressure (normal blood pressure with OR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.99) and HbA1c (< 7% with OR = 1.43; 95%CI: 1.03 – 1.99). The proportion of patients meeting the recommended PA level was low, making it crucial to strengthen education about the health benefts of doing PAs for diabetic patients.

Background The reestablishment of continuity after Hartmann operation is considered a major surgical procedure with high morbidity and mortality. The optimal interval time between the Hartman procedure and reversal is controversial. Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of laparoscopic Hartmann reversal and to determine the optimal timing of operation. Methods All patients who underwent laparoscopic Hartmann reversal from 2008 to 2019 (11 years) at the University Medical Center (UMC) in Ho Chi Minh City were recruited and divided into 2 groups according to the interval time (≤ 4 or>4months). The short-term operative outcomes of these groups were compared. Results There were 66 patients who underwent laparoscopic Hartmann reversal (mean age: 63.2 years old); ~ 77% of them had colorectal cancer, and 17% had complicated diverticular disease. Themortality rate, anastomotic leakage rate, and overall complication rate were 0%, 1.5%, and 13.2%, respectively. Early operation was performed in 36 patients, and late reversal in 28 patients. There was no difference in mortality, anastomotic leakage, operative complications, and hospital stay between the two groups. Conclusion Laparoscopic Hartmann reversal was effective with acceptable morbidity and mortality at the UMC. There was no observed impact of the interval time between the Hartmann procedure and laparoscopic Hartmann reversal on the short-term operative outcomes. Resumo Introdução O reestabelecimento da continuidade após a cirurgia de Hartmann é considerado um procedimento cirúrgico de grande porte com altas morbidade e mortalidade. O tempo ideal de intervalo entre a cirurgia de Hartmann e a reversão é controverso. Nosso estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a eficácia da reversão da cirurgia de Hartmann e determinar o momento ideal para a cirurgia. Métodos Todos os pacientes submetidos à reversão laparoscópica da cirurgia de Hartmann entre 2008 e 2019 (11 anos) no Centro Médico Universitário (UMC, na sigla em inglês) na cidade de Ho Chi Minh foram recrutados e divididos em 2 grupos de acordo como tempo de intervalo (≤ 4 ou>4meses). Os resultados pós-operatórios de curto prazo destes grupos foram comparados. Resultados Um total de 66 pacientes foram submetidos à reversão laparoscópica da cirurgia de Hartmann (mediana de idade: 63.2 anos); ~ 77 deles tinha câncer colorretal, e 17% tinham doença diverticular complicada. As taxas de mortalidade, de vazamento, e de complicações em geral foram de 0%, 1,5%, e 13,2%, respectivamente. Cirurgia precoce foi realizada em 36 pacientes, e reversão tardia foi realizada em 28 pacientes. Não houve diferença em mortalidade, vazamento anastomótico, complicações operatórias e duração da internação entre os dois grupos. Conclusão A reversão laparoscópica da cirurgia de Hartmann foi eficaz, com morbidade e mortalidade aceitáveis no UMC. Não foi observado qualquer impacto no tempo de intervalo entre a cirurgia de Hartmann e a reversão laparoscópica nos resultados pós-operatórios de curto prazo.