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Abstract Previous studies have reported the functional role, biochemical features and synthesis pathway of podophyllotoxin (PTOX) in plants. In this study, we employed combined morphological and molecular techniques to identify an endophytic fungus and extract PTOX derivatives. Based on the analysis of ITS sequences and the phylogenetic tree, the isolate was classified as Penicillium herquei HGN12.1C, with a sequence identity of 98.58%. Morphologically, the HGN12.1C strain exhibits white colonies, short‐branched mycelia and densely packed hyphae. Using PacBio sequencing at an average read depth of 195×, we obtained a high‐quality genome for the HGN12.1C strain, which is 34.9 Mb in size, containing eight chromosomes, one mitochondrial genome and a GC content of 46.5%. Genome analysis revealed 10 genes potentially involved in PTOX biosynthesis. These genes include VdtD, Pinoresinollariciresinol reductase (PLR), Secoisolariciresinol dehydrogenase (SDH), CYP719A23, CYP71BE54, O‐methyltransferase 1 (OMT1), O‐methyltransferase 3 (OMT3), 2‐ODD, CYP71CU and CYP82D61. Notably, the VdtD gene in fungi shares functional similarities with the DIR gene found in plants. Additionally, we identified peltatin, a PTOX derivative, in the HGN12.1C extract. Docking analysis suggests a potential role for the 2‐ODD enzyme in converting yatein to deoxypodophyllotoxin. These findings offer invaluable insights into the synthesis mechanism of PTOX in fungi, shedding light on the relationship between host plants and endophytes.

Background: Studies have shown the importance of metabolic factors like BMI, waist circumference, and lipid profile in predicting knee osteoarthritis severity. However, their predictive ability in knee osteoarthritis patients with metabolic syndrome still needs to be explored. Objectives: Evaluate the predictive ability of Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and triglyceride/ High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) ratio in determining the severity of knee osteoarthritis in patients with metabolic syndrome. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study at Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Rehabilitation and Professional Diseases from January 2023 to January 2024 included 697 patients meeting ACR 1991 and NCEP-ATP III criteria for knee osteoarthritis and metabolic syndrome, respectively. Logistic regression analyzed the predictive ability of BMI, waist circumference, and triglyceride/HDL-C ratios. Six hundred ninety-seven patients were divided into two groups: severe and non-severe knee osteoarthritis. The criteria for severity were defined as the presence of both: (1) Kellgren-Lawrence grade 3 or higher on knee radiographs and (2) moderate or higher knee pain. Two models were constructed to analyze the predictive ability of severe knee osteoarthritis. Model 1 included univariate factors, while Model 2 incorporated multivariate models. Results: Among the 697 patients who participated in the study, the average age was 58.7 ± 12.1 years, and females accounted for 71.3 %. The mean BMI and waist circumference were 24.8 ± 2.0 kg/m2 and 86.2 ± 6.0 cm, respectively. In model 1 (univariate), the discriminative ability of BMI, waist circumference, and triglycerides/HDL-c in predicting severity was excellent, with respective AUCs of 0.90 (95 % CI: 0.87–0.92, p

Major advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) have been achieved by effective new agents such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, or monoclonal antibodies. Despite significant progress, MM remains still incurable and, recently, cellular immunotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment for relapsed/refractory MM. The emergence of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology has transformed immunotherapy by enhancing the antitumor functions of T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, leading to effective control of hematologic malignancies. Recent advancements in gene delivery to NK cells have paved the way for the clinical application of CAR-NK cell therapy. CAR-NK cell therapy strategies have demonstrated safety, tolerability, and substantial efficacy in treating B cell malignancies in various clinical settings. However, their effectiveness in eliminating MM remains to be established. This review explores multiple approaches to enhance NK cell cytotoxicity, persistence, expansion, and manufacturing processes, and highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with CAR-NK cell therapy against MM. By shedding light on these aspects, this review aims to provide valuable insights into the potential of CAR-NK cell therapy as a promising approach for improving the treatment outcomes of MM patients.

Background: Dyslipidemia is highly prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and the relationship between dyslipidemia and renal function in these patients remains controversial. Our objectives were to determine the triglycerides/HDL-cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C), evaluate the correlation between TG/HDL-C and the urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR), and estimate the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) according to MDRD in CKD patients. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 152 patients with CKD at the Endocrine Clinic, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Study subjects were medically examined and recorded information on the data collection form. Subjects were tested for total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-C, LDL-C, urea, creatinine and albumin, urine creatinine, and eGFR according to the MDRD formula. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 20.0. Results: The average age was 58.08 ± 15.69 years, and the overweight and obesity rate was 54%. Most patients had comorbidities, among which the most common diseases were hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Among the subjects, 57.3% were CKD stage 3 patients, and ACR was in the range of 30–300 mg/g. According to the classification of CKD using GFR and ACR categories, 40.8% of patients were at very high risk. The average TG/HDL-C ratio was 5.09 ± 4.26. There was a medium negative correlation between TG/HDL-C and eGFR (R = 0.44, p < 0.01) and a weak positive correlation between TG/HDL-C and ACR (R = 0.34, p < 0.01). Conclusions: The TG/HDL-C ratio was a risk factor associated with CKD and was noticeable in monitoring and assessing the risk of progression of CKD.

The purpose of this research is to find solutions to enhance the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of the Post-Covid-19 pandemic in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam, by collecting secondary data from reports from Tra Vinh Provincial People’s Committee, Tra Vinh Department of Planning and Investment, and Tra Vinh Provincial Statistics Office in the period 2016-2020. The authors used descriptive statistics, synthesis, analysis, evaluation, and expert surveys to verify former hypotheses about small and medium-sized enterprises and search for feasible solutions to enhance the competitiveness of small and mediumsized enterprises in Tra Vinh Province. The study analyzed the situation of small and mediumsized enterprises during the period 2016–2019 regarding the actual operation status, advantages, and limitations in the competition of Small and Medium Enterprises in Tra Vinh, Vietnam. From the research findings, the study proposes solutions to improve competitive advantages for Small and Medium Enterprises in Tra Vinh in the post-Covid-19 pandemic future.

Certain species within the genus Panax L. (Araliaceae) contain pharmacological precious ginsenosides, also known as ginseng saponins. Species containing these compounds are of high commercial value and are thus of particular urgency for conservation. However, within this genus, identifying the particular species that contain these compounds by morphological means is challenging. DNA barcoding is one method that is considered promising for species level identification. However, in an evolutionarily complex genus such as Panax, commonly used DNA barcodes such as nrITS, matK, psbA-trnH, rbcL do not provide species-level resolution. A recent in silico study proposed a set of novel chloroplast markers, trnQ-rps16, trnS-trnG, petB, and trnE-trnT for species level identification within Panax. In the current study, the discriminatory efficiency of these molecular markers is assessed and validated using 91 reference barcoding sequences and 38 complete chloroplast genomes for seven species, one unidentified species and one sub-species of Panax, and two outgroup species of Aralia L. along with empirical data of Panax taxa present in Vietnam via both distance-based and tree-based methods. The obtained results show that trnQ-rps16 can classify with species level resolution every clade tested here, including the highly valuable Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushv. We thus propose that this molecular marker to be used for identification of the species within Panax to support both its conservation and commercial trade.

A generic approach to encapsulating meso scale details and their associated dissipative mechanisms in constitutive models for geomaterials is presented. The focus is the explicit meso-macro link as the basis for developments of constitutive models. These links are usually missing in constitutive modelling of geomaterials, leading to incorrect description of post-localisation behaviour at the constitutive (material) level. In other words, the classical definition of material behaviour associated with a unit volume element, based on conditions of homogenous deformation, ceases to exist once localised failure occurs. Such localisation issues can and should also be dealt with at the constitutive level. The proposed generic thermodynamics-based formulation to integrate meso scale behaviour of localisation band in constitutive models provides a way to correctly connect meso and macro scales so that post-localisation behaviour can be correctly described at the constitutive level. Examples on onset of localisation and post-localisation behaviour are used to demonstrate key features and benefits of the proposed approach.

Electrochemical DNA sensors based on nanocomposite materials of polyaniline nanowires (PANi NWs) have been published in the literature. However, it is interesting that there are very few research studies related to the development of electrochemical DNA sensors based on PANi NWs individually. In this study, PANi NWs were synthesized site-specifically on a Pt microelectrode with only 0.785 mm2 area using an electropolymerization procedure. The electrosynthesis allows direct deposition of PANi NWs onto the Pt microelectrode in a rapid and cost-effective way. The good properties of PANi NWs including uniform size, uniform distribution throughout the Pt working electrode, and H2SO4 doping which improved the conductivity of the PANi material were obtained. Especially, the electrochemically effective surface area of the PANi NW-based Pt microelectrode determined in this work is nearly 19 times larger than that of the Pt working electrode. The PANi NW layer with large electrochemically effective surface area and high biocompatibility is consistent with the application in electrochemical DNA sensors. The fabricated DNA sensors show advantages such as simple fabrication, direct detection, high sensitivity (with the detection limit of 2.48 × 10−14 M), good specificity, and low sample volume requirement. This study also contributes to confirm the role of PANi NWs in DNA probe immobilization as well as in electrochemical signal transmission in the development of electrochemical DNA sensors.

Temporal continuity of object identity is a feature of natural visual input and is potentially exploited – in an unsupervised manner – by the ventral visual stream to build the neural representation in inferior temporal (IT) cortex. Here, we investigated whether plasticity of individual IT neurons underlies human core object recognition behavioral changes induced with unsupervised visual experience. We built a single-neuron plasticity model combined with a previously established IT population-to-recognition-behavior-linking model to predict human learning effects. We found that our model, after constrained by neurophysiological data, largely predicted the mean direction, magnitude, and time course of human performance changes. We also found a previously unreported dependency of the observed human performance change on the initial task difficulty. This result adds support to the hypothesis that tolerant core object recognition in human and non-human primates is instructed – at least in part – by naturally occurring unsupervised temporal contiguity experience.

This study aimed to investigate the nexus between the level of environmental financial accounting practices (EFAP) and cost of capital. The population of this study is 1.188 firm-year observations. However, we excluded 408 firm-year with less than 2 years of information to calculate EFAP, 73 firm-year without sufficient financial accounting information to calculate the cost of capital and 35 firm-year without sufficient financial accounting information to calculate control variables. Finally, this paper used a sample of 672 firm-year observations of listed companies on the Vietnam stock market for 5 years from 2013 to 2017. Two-stage regressions with the lag term are adopted to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. The results show that Vietnamese firms with higher EFAP performance can rapidly reduce their cost of capital. The findings also indicate that capital structure does not play a moderating role to evaluate the relationship between EFAP and the cost of capital.

The study on the factors affecting the access to banking credits of family businesses in Tra Vinh province by directing survey of 250 family businesses in 7 districts and 01 city in Tra Vinh province in which multivariable regression model has been used. The results show that the access to banking credits of family businesses depends on gender, education, years of experience, income, assets and social relations. Based on the results of the analysis, it could be proposed that a number of measures to improve the ability to borrow capital from credit institutions for family businesses and at the same time imply policies for commercial banks in the province. Tra Vinh can improve the ability to serve family businesses better in the future.Keywords: family businesses, credit institutions, banking credits, commercial banks, multi-variable regressionJEL Classifications: G21, M1

The analysis of factors affecting multi-dimensional poverty of the Khmer ethnic minority in Tra Vinh province was conducted by the use of primary data collection, direct interviews with 300 Khmer ethnic households living in 07 districts and cities in Tra Vinh province. The research has found the factors that affect multi-dimensional poverty of the Khmer households: the occupation of household owners, the educational level, and dependency ratio, the participation in health insurance and telecommunications services. In particular, the occupation, educational level and dependency ratio are the factors that have the most impact on the poor status of the Khmer ethnic people in Tra Vinh province. Since then, the research has proposed a number of solutions such as vocational training to raise incomes, building preferential credit policies, building telecommunication infrastructure and medical services, etc. so as to raise incomes, life stabilization, multi-dimensional poverty reduction for the Khmer ethnic people in Tra Vinh province in the future.Keywords: Income, occupation, Khmer, education, health insuranceJEL Classifications: I13, I2, I3

Maize (Zea mays) is a major cereal crop worldwide, and there is increasing demand for maize cultivars with enhanced tolerance to desiccation. Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins group 5C is involved in plants’ responses to various osmotic stresses such as drought and salt. A putative group 5C LEA gene from Z. mays cv. Tevang 1 was isolated, named ZmLEA14tv, and cloned into a T-DNA for expression in plants. The deduced amino acid of ZmLEA14tv showed a conserved Pfam LEA_2 domain and a high proportion of hydrophobic residues, characteristic of group 5C LEA proteins. Transgenic tobacco and maize plants expressing ZmLEA14tv were generated. During drought simulation conditions, the ZmLEA14tv-expressing plants of tobacco showed improved recovery ability, while those of maize enhanced the seed germination in comparison with the non-transgenic control plants. In addition, the survival rate of ZmLEA14tv transgenic maize seedlings was twice as high as the control. These results indicated that ZmLEA14tv might be involved in the drought tolerance of plants and could be a candidate gene for developing enhanced drought-tolerant crops.

The primate visual system achieves remarkable visual object recognition performance even in brief presentations, and under changes to object exemplar, geometric transformations, and background variation (a.k.a. core visual object recognition). This remarkable performance is mediated by the representation formed in inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In parallel, recent advances in machine learning have led to ever higher performing models of object recognition using artificial deep neural networks (DNNs). It remains unclear, however, whether the representational performance of DNNs rivals that of the brain. To accurately produce such a comparison, a major difficulty has been a unifying metric that accounts for experimental limitations, such as the amount of noise, the number of neural recording sites, and the number of trials, and computational limitations, such as the complexity of the decoding classifier and the number of classifier training examples. In this work, we perform a direct comparison that corrects for these experimental limitations and computational considerations. As part of our methodology, we propose an extension of "kernel analysis" that measures the generalization accuracy as a function of representational complexity. Our evaluations show that, unlike previous bio-inspired models, the latest DNNs rival the representational performance of IT cortex on this visual object recognition task. Furthermore, we show that models that perform well on measures of representational performance also perform well on measures of representational similarity to IT, and on measures of predicting individual IT multi-unit responses. Whether these DNNs rely on computational mechanisms similar to the primate visual system is yet to be determined, but, unlike all previous bio-inspired models, that possibility cannot be ruled out merely on representational performance grounds.

Streptococcus suis can cause severe systemic infection in adults exposed to infected pigs or after consumption of undercooked pig products. S. suis is often misdiagnosed, due to lack of awareness and improper testing. Here we report the first fifty cases diagnosed with S. suis infection in northern Viet Nam.In 2007, diagnostics for S. suis were set up at a national hospital in Hanoi. That year there were 43 S. suis positive cerebrospinal fluid samples, of which S. suis could be cultured in 32 cases and 11 cases were only positive by PCR. Seven patients were blood culture positive for S. suis but CSF culture and PCR negative; making a total of 50 patients with laboratory confirmed S. suis infection in 2007. The number of S. suis cases peaked during the warmer months.S. suis was commonly diagnosed as a cause of bacterial meningitis in adults in northern Viet Nam. In countries where there is intense and widespread exposure of humans to pigs, S. suis can be an important human pathogen.

The self-healing performance of epoxidized deproteinized natural rubber (EDPNR) and EDPNR/graphene oxide (GO) composites was investigated. Composites of EDPNR25 and EDPNR50 with GO contents of 0.5 and 1.0 phr were prepared by adding a GO dispersion into a EDPNR latex and the product was subsequently cast into films. Tensile strengths of the original samples and after self-healing were used to evaluate self-healing performance. The tensile strength of EDPNR25 after self-healing achieved about 65% of tensile strength of original EDPNR25. The recovery of tensile strength for the composite increased to 81% for EDPNR25/GO0.5 and 105% for EDPNR25/GO1.0 for self-healing at 25[degrees]C for 24 h. At 70[degrees]C, EDPNR25/GO0.5 and EDPNR25/GO1.0 composite achieved ~100% recovery after 24 h. On the other hand, the tensile strength recoveries of EDPNR50, EDPNR50/GO0.5, and EDPNR50/GO1.0 were relatively low (33%, 28%, and 24%, respectively) at 25[degrees]C. At 70[degrees]C, recoveries increased to 63%, 67%, and 52%, respectively. This result demonstrated that the interdiffusion of epoxidized natural rubber molecules plays a key role in the self-healing performance rather than hydrogen bonds between GO and functional groups on EDPNR molecules. KEYWORDS epoxidized deproteinized natural rubber, graphene oxide, hydrogen bonds, interdiffusion, self-healing, 1 | INTRODUCTION In recent years, humans have been facing environmental problems of discharging thermoset plastics and vulcanized natural rubber (VNR) products since these materials are difficult to be recycled [...]

The consequences of perceived justice are dynamic. The way in which perceived justice is evolutionarily dynamic in customers' emotional states and loyalty intentions remains unclear, particularly in studies distinguishing between initial and final recovery phases. Using two time-lag intervals targeting the same respondents, our findings show that perceived justice–recovery satisfaction increases over time; however, the other two direct linkages, perceived justice–customer forgiveness and perceived justice–loyalty intentions, remain unchanged. Interestingly, the recovery satisfaction–loyalty intention linkage is stable, whereas the customer forgiveness–loyalty intention linkage decreases incrementally. Additionally, only the carryover effect of perceived justice is significant, but the other three carryover effects do not exist. Our results suggest that from the initial to the final recovery stage, managers must redesign their overall recovery strategy based on customer responses and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundWe recently reported on the enhanced tubular expression of two discrete isoforms of the MMP-2 (full length and N-terminal truncated, FL-MMP-2, NTT-MMP-2) in a murine model and human diabetic kidneys. In the present study, we examined in more detail the temporal and spatial distributions of MMP-2 isoform expression in murine models of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.MethodsDiabetic models were streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes (Type 1 diabetes mellitus) and db/db mice (Type 2 diabetes mellitus). We quantified the abundance of two isoforms of MMP-2 transcripts by qPCR. A spatial distribution of two isoforms of MMP-2 was analyzed semi-quantitatively according to time after injection of STZ and with increasing age of db/db mice. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry for nitrotyrosine was performed to examine a potential association between oxidative stress and MMP-2 isoform expression.ResultsBoth isoforms of MMP-2 were upregulated in whole kidneys from STZ and db/db mice. In the case of FL-MMP-2, mRNA levels significantly increased at 12 and 24 weeks in STZ mice, while the isoform expression was significantly increased only at 16 weeks, in the db/db mice. FL-MMP-2 protein levels increased in the cortices and outer medullae of both STZ and db/db mice as a function of the duration of diabetes. For NTT-MMP-2, mRNA levels increased earlier at 4 weeks in STZ mice and at 10 weeks of age in db/db mice. The expression of NTT-MMP-2 also increased, primarily in the cortices of STZ and db/db mice, as a function of the duration of diabetes. Quantitatively, these findings were consistent with the qPCR results in the case of NTT-MMP-2, respectively (STZ 24 weeks, 3.24 ± 3.70 fold; 16 weeks db/db, 4.49 ± 0.55 fold). In addition, nitrotyrosine was expressed primarily in cortex as compared to medulla as a function of the duration of diabetes similar to NTT-MMP-2 expression.ConclusionsTwo isoforms of MMP-2 are highly inducible in two diabetic murine models and become more abundant as a function of time. As the expression patterns were not the same in the two isoforms of MMP-2, it is possible that each isoform has a discrete role in the development of diabetic renal injury.