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Context: Perilla frutescens and its dried extract have been employed in food and pharmaceutical manufacturing due to the plant's biological activities, which include antibacterial, anti-allergic, anticancer, antiviral, antioxidant, and antidepressant properties. Despite numerous studies on preparing dry extracts from various medicinal herbs, no research has been conducted to optimize spray-drying conditions specifically for P. frutescens. Aims: To optimize the spray-drying parameters using BCPharSoft software and evaluate the quality of P. frutescens dry extract. Methods: D-optimal design based on four independent variables carrier type (Glucidex, Glucidex: Arabic gum 9:1, Glucidex: Arabic gum 8:2), carrier mass (10, 15, and 20 g), inlet air temperature (160, and 180℃) and flow rate (12, and 14 rpm/min) was applied to investigate the cause-effect relations and optimized preparation process. The drying performance, moisture content, total phenol, and total flavonoid content were investigated as four dependent variables. Results: All independent variables had significant effects on the dependent variables. The optimal parameters of the preparation process included using carrier Glucidex: Arabic gum at a ratio of 9:1, carrier mass of 19 g, inlet air temperature of 161°C, and flow rate of 12 rpm/min. The drying performance, moisture content, total phenol, and flavonoid content of the optimized P. frutescens dry extract were found to be 10.42%, 4.80%, and 90.57 mg GA/g, and 53.55 mg QE/g, respectively. Conclusions: Dried P. frutescens extract has been efficiently produced using the spray-drying technique, establishing a foundation for future manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and functional foods derived from P. frutescens.

Background and Aim: Rabies is a zoonotic disease that persists endemic in numerous countries worldwide. In Vietnam, the main sources of rabies are dogs and cats, and they caused 76 human deaths annually by 2017–2021. Long An province has recently experienced an increasing burden of rabies, with seven fatal cases reported in the past 5 years. Various rabies control measures have been implemented in this province, including mass vaccination of the animal population, post-vaccination monitoring, diagnostic testing of suspected rabid dogs, dog bite investigation, animal management, pre-exposure treatment, post-exposure treatment (PET), and awareness programs. This study aimed to estimate the cost of rabies control measures for animals and humans in Long An province in 2022. Materials and Methods: An economic model was developed to estimate the costs of rabies control under two scenarios, with and without external financial support from the private sector. Inputs for the model included data from published literature, publicly available reports on rabies, government data, expert opinions, and a pilot study conducted in Vietnam. Results: The total annual costs of rabies control, with or without external support, were estimated to be VND 62.62 and 62.77 billion (equivalent to USD 2.67 and 2.68 million), respectively. The highest proportion of costs was related to PET in humans (84.50% and 84.30%), followed by the cost of mass vaccination paid by animal owners (14.28% and 13.90%). Most of the expenses were paid by the private sector (98.87% and 98.98%) rather than the public sector (1.14% and 1.20%). Conclusion: This study described a transparent and reproducible method for estimating the economic costs of rabies control at the provincial level. The economic model developed showed that control of rabies by mass vaccination is more cost-effective than using PET to prevent human death. The model can be applied to future economic analyses of rabies control in other provinces of Vietnam and other rabies-endemic countries.

Chatbots have become interesting for many users as technology becomes more and more advanced. The need for information exchange among people through computer systems is increasing daily, raising the preference for using chatbots in most countries. Since Vietnam is such a developing country with a variety of ethnic groups, it requires much attention to the proliferation of social networks and the expansion of the cooperative economy. Regarding social networks, the inappropriate use of words in everyday life has become a significant issue. There are mixed reviews of praise and criticism on social networks; and we try to reduce the negative language use and improve the quality of using social networks language. We aim to meet users’ needs on social networks, promote economic development, and address social issues more effectively. To achieve these goals, in this paper we propose a deep learning technique using ontology knowledge mining to collect and process comments on social networks. This approach aims to enhance the user experience and facilitate the exchange of information among people by mining opinions in comments. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the conventional approach.

Abstract This study evaluates the phytotoxic potential of methanolic extracts from six Asteraceae species: Wedelia chinensis, Helianthus annuus, Cosmos bipinnatus, Tagetes erecta, Tithonia diversifolia, and Zinnia elegans. The extracts were tested at concentrations of 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, and 1.0 g/mL to assess their inhibitory effects on the radicle and hypocotyl lengths of Echinochloa crus‐galli and Echinochloa colona. The two most potent species, C. bipinnatus and T. diversifolia, were further evaluated using extracts from their roots, stems, and leaves. Among these, C. bipinnatus leaf extracts showed the most significant phytotoxicity and were tested at 20, 40, and 60 days of plant age. At 0.03 g/mL, C. bipinnatus extract inhibited the hypocotyl and radicle lengths of E. colona by 23.01% and 56.45%, and E. crus‐galli by 8.5% and 36.35%, respectively. At 1.0 g/mL, the extract inhibited the hypocotyl lengths of E. colona and E. crus‐galli by 97.54% and 88.15%, and the radicle lengths by 93.52% and 99.99%, respectively. The 60‐day‐old C. bipinnatus leaf extract exhibited the highest inhibitory effect, correlating with the identification of key allelochemicals such as cinnamic acid, caffeic acid, coumaric acid, ferulic acid, 2‐4 dimethohydroxy benzoic acid, and salicylic acid. These findings suggest that the 60‐day‐old C. bipinnatus leaf extracts have strong potential for use in the biological control of these weed species, offering a promising avenue for the development of natural herbicides.

Significant emphasis has been placed on the matter of a city's aesthetic appeal. Pattern language and form language, which are derived from the language of geometry and human interaction with the surrounding environment, have been utilized in numerous endeavors to construct an aesthetically pleasing city. Concurrently, numerous studies have been conducted on the elements that inspire visits; however, these studies remain broad in scope and exclusively concentrate on the viewpoint of travelers. A comprehensive analysis of the research outcomes identified 134 influential elements that contribute to the allure of Ho Chi Minh City. These findings should serve as a resource for tourism and cultural managers, authorities, urban planners, and designers, as well as regulators, to improve the quality of urban life and establish an appealing urban setting that appeals to both local inhabitants and tourists.

The construction of the Suramadu bridge, the longest bridge in Indonesia connecting the islands of Java and Madura, aimed to stimulate regional economic growth in Madura and reduce disparity. However, 13 years after the construction, significant economic progress in Madura has yet to be seen. This study examines the impact of the bridge construction on the economic growth of Bangkalan, a Madura Island district closest to the bridge from 2010 to 2017. This study employed the synthetic control method (SCM) to construct a synthetic control unit that mimics Bangkalan’s economic growth trajectory in the absence of the Suramadu bridge. The SCM allows for comparison of Bangkalan’s economic growth trajectory with its synthetic control unit post the Suramadu bridge operation. The finding indicates that the Suramadu bridge provision lower the economic growth in Bangkalan. The finding underscores the imperative for careful infrastructure planning to yield optimal returns. Moreover, it advocates for a holistic approach wherein hard infrastructure initiatives are complemented by investments in soft infrastructure, particularly in education and healthcare sectors. Such integrated strategies are essential for realizing the full potential of infrastructure projects in driving sustainable economic growth.

AbstractThis qualitative study investigates the impact of the Japanese comic series ‘Doraemon’ on the maturity process of Vietnamese teenagers. Employing semi-structured interviews with nine Vietnamese adolescents, the research explores how this popular media influences cognitive, moral, social, and cultural development. The thematic analysis reveals four key findings: the enhancement of problem-solving skills and creativity, the development of moral reasoning and ethical decision-making, the shaping of social relationships and emotional intelligence, and the influence on cultural identity and global perspective. The study finds that ‘Doraemon’ inspires creative thinking and innovative problem-solving, resonating with developmental psychology theories on cognitive growth during adolescence. It also plays a crucial role in moral development, presenting complex ethical dilemmas that encourage reflective thinking. Furthermore, ‘Doraemon’ positively impacts social and emotional skills, aiding in the development of empathy and effective management of social relationships. Lastly, it fosters a broader understanding of cultural diversity, influencing the participants’ global outlook and cultural identity. This research contributes to the understanding of how specific media content can influence adolescent development in diverse cultural contexts. It highlights the potential of comics as tools for cognitive and moral development, social and emotional learning, and in fostering global cultural awareness. The findings have implications for educators, media producers, and policymakers in considering the role of media in adolescent development.

Mục tiêu của nghiên cứu nhằm xác định ảnh hưởng của ba loại carbohydrate khác nhau là glucose, fructose và sucrose trong môi trường đến chất lượng tinh trùng dê được bảo quản trong Nitơ lỏng. Thí nghiệm khảo sát ảnh hưởng của 6 loại môi trường bảo quản với nồng độ carbohydrate khác nhau. Mẫu tinh dịch được thu nhận và pha loãng với môi trường và bảo quản trong nitơ lỏng (-196°C). Sau 72 giờ bảo quản, mẫu được giải đông và kiểm tra chất lượng. Kết quả cho thấy, môi trường bảo quản với nồng độ glucose 69 mM giúp tinh trùng dê giữ được chất lượng tối ưu nhất. Cụ thể, tỷ lệ di động tổng số, tỷ lệ di động tiến tới, tỷ lệ sống, tỷ lệ toàn vẹn màng tế bào, tỷ lệ kháng oxy hóa và tỷ lệ nguyên vẹn acrosome của tinh trùng lần lượt là 67%, 49,79%, 73,25%, 52,88%, 28,06% và 97,29%. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy môi trường bổ sung glucose 69 mM là sự lựa chọn tối ưu trong bảo quản lạnh tinh trùng dê.

Wastewater originating from the production of TNT explosives (red water) contains special hazardous substances that must be treated before discharging into the water environment. In this study, we applied both conventional Fenton and photo-Fenton (UV-Fenton) processes to treat COD and color in red water. In the Fenton process, the COD and color removal efficiencies were 75.5 and 92.4%, respectively, under optimal operating conditions of pH = 3, [Fe2+] = 0.3 g L-1, H2O2/Fe(Ⅱ) ratio = 10:1, reaction time = 120 min. In the UV-Fenton process, the efficiencies were 76.1 and 94.2%, respectively, under optimal operating conditions of pH = 3, [Fe2+] = 0.21 g L-1, H2O2/Fe(Ⅱ) ratio = 7:1, reaction time = 90 min. These results indicate that the use of ultraviolet could reduce not only the reaction time but also the chemical use (i.e. H2O2 and Fe2+), thus reducing the sludge production. Importantly, the UV-Fenton process significantly increased the BOD5/COD ratio from 0.13 to 0.58, which greatly enhanced the biodegradability of the wastewater for biological treatment. Therefore, UV-Fenton can be applied as an effective pretreatment in the treatment of red water with high color and organic pollutants.

Based on feminist theory, this article compares two literary works published in the 1990s in Vietnam and China: Trees without Wind by Li Rui and A Piece of Land with Many People and Ghosts by Nguyen Khac Truong. It focuses on identifying the connection between gender and power, how the male gaze perceives the female body, and expressions of submission and resistance of women in the context of Eastern patriarchal society in the 1990s. Through a deep reading method, the article analyzes the nature of patriarchy and the presence of gender power in the two novels, thereby critiquing the social system dominated by men and breaking gender biases in literary discourse created by men. This article also contributes to scholarly research on feminist theory in the world.

Unexpected and intense floods have become more frequent recently; this is related to extreme weather events that are difficult to predict accurately. This necessitates new solutions to decrease the risk of flooding urban and rural areas. Moreover, such solutions should have negligible impact on the environment. There are several concepts, tools, and technical measures for preventing floods, one of which is the ‘monkey cheek’ concept for flood protection, used in Thailand for protection from river and sea floods. Monkeys collect food in their mouths and eat subsequently in stages. In a similar manner, excess water from floods could be collected and stored in reservoirs, sags, canals, floodplain forests, and unused space. Collected water could then be used for irrigation. In most cases, collected water must be pumped to distant or higher locations compared to the location where the water was collected. This requires electric energy for the pumps. This paper analyses a case study for the presented concept for the town of Ludbreg in Croatia, currently undergoing real-site measurements and calculations. A rescaled adjusted partial sums method is applied for the analysis. It has been shown that the energy potential of the local, small river Bednja in the observed location could be approximated using the “monkey cheek’’ concept. Within this, using the produced electricity from small hydropower plants and solar photovoltaic systems has been proven promising. The solution avoids building dams for flood protection, satisfying the environmental aspects.

Jumping motion recognition via video is a significant contribution because it considerably impacts intelligent applications and will be widely adopted in life. This method can be used to train future dancers using innovative technology. Challenging poses will be repeated and improved over time, reducing the strain on the instructor when performing multiple times. Dancers can also be recreated by removing features from their images. To recognize the dancers’ moves, check and correct their poses, and another important aspect is that our model can extract cognitive features for efficient evaluation and classification, and deep learning is currently one of the best ways to do this for short-form video features capabilities. In addition, evaluating the quality of the performance video, the accuracy of each dance step is a complex problem when the eyes of the judges cannot focus 100% on the dance on the stage. Moreover, dance on videos is of great interest to scientists today, as technology is increasingly developing and becoming useful to replace human beings. Based on actual conditions and needs in Vietnam. In this paper, we propose a method to replace manual evaluation, and our approach is used to evaluate dance through short videos. In addition, we conduct dance analysis through short-form videos, thereby applying techniques such as deep learning to assess and collect data from which to draw accurate conclusions. Experiments show that our assessment is relatively accurate when the accuracy and F1-score values are calculated. More than 92.38% accuracy and 91.18% F1-score, respectively. This demonstrates that our method performs well and accurately in dance evaluation analysis.

Toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonosis that shows severe symptoms in immunocompromised patients. High seroprevalences of toxoplasmosis were found in cats, humans, and pigs in traditional farms in Thua Thien Hue province. The main sources of infections remain unknown, thus making toxoplasmosis neglected and uncontrollable in this region. This study aimed to determine T. gondii contamination in vegetables used for human and livestock consumption and its spatial distribution in Thua Thien Hue rural areas. A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate T. gondii contamination in vegetables grown in households in three different geographic regions. The pathogen DNA was detected from vegetable samples using a primer pair that is highly specific for the 529-bp repetitive element found in T. gondii genome. In this study, 55 out of 221 (24.9%) vegetable samples were positive for T. gondii using PCR. Factors, including location, presence of fence in the garden, owning cats, and treatment of feed for cats, were not significantly associated with T. gondii contamination in vegetables according to the logistic regression. However, vegetables collected in households that have no fence for vegetable gardens, own cats, and feed cats raw or undercooked foods tend to be more heavily contaminated than others. Furthermore, a wide distribution of infected vegetables was observed in all investigated districts, showing a high infection pressure in these residential areas. This is the first report of vegetables contaminated with T. gondii in Vietnam, which reveals an overlooked health risk for humans and animals.

In this study, 134 patients including 80 adult men and 54 women treated at Danang Oncology Hospital from January 2019 to July 2021 had specimen culture results found Staphylococcus aureus was investigated. All study patient data was collected according to an established uniform form on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software and processed by Python programming language. We found that 76.1% of patients infected with S. aureus during this time were MRSA. Of which, 100% MRSA and MSSA isolates were resistant to Amoxicillin, 61.2% to Cefuroxime. Multi-resistance and broad-spectrum multi-resistance to other antibiotics belonging to the Carpapenem, Quinolone and Aminoglycoside groups were recorded in most isolated S. aureus. The results showed that S. aureus causing bacterial infection at Danang Oncology Hospital during the survey period had a high antibiotic resistance rate.

This study is an attempt to investigate the influence of organizational factors, including institutional policies, work environment, infrastructure, and workload on the performance of lecturers in Vietnamese higher education institutions. Performance was tested to measure their effectiveness as well as discover important variations between particular groups. This empirical study follows a quantitative approach based on the collection of authentic data through questionnaires from 200 lecturers affiliated with 10 higher education institutions in Vietnam. All quantitative data were placed in a comprehensive database and processed by using Statistical Package for the Social Science software. The study's key findings suggest that factors significantly influencing lecturer performance include training, performance evaluation, salary (institutional policies); colleague support, feedback on performance, organizational communication (work environment); furniture and computer technology (infrastructure); doing research, teaching and testing, and blended course designing (workload). The performance of lecturers is found to be unaffected by the other components in a substantial way, namely incentives, leadership, noise and light, community service. The results of the research output measurement showed that lecturers lacked research abilities. A number of managerial implications are then discussed with an aim of enhancing the performance of lecturers in higher education institutions.

This study examines the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational culture, and the joint effect of both on organisational performance. Using structural equation modelling with data from 903 employees from the Vietnamese manufacturing sector, the results show that transformational leadership influences organisational performance and culture, with differing effects based on context. The study shows that organisational culture directly influences performance and partially mediates the contribution of transformational leadership to organisational performance. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for firms seeking to improve organisational performance through changes in leadership type and culture.

Abstract The abnormal expression in the T-type calcium channels is involved in various cancer types, thus inhibiting T-type calcium channels is one of approaches in cancer treatment. The fact that KTt-45 acted as a T-type calcium channel inhibitor as well as a pain-relief agent prompts us to address if KTt-45 plays any role against cancer cells. The results showed that KTt-45 caused cytotoxic effects towards HeLa cervical, Raji lymphoma, MCF-7 breast cancer, and A549 lung cancer cell lines with IC50 values less than 100 μM, in which highly selective toxicity was against HeLa cells (IC50 = 37.4 μM, SI > 3.2). Strikingly, the KTt-45 induced an accumulation of cytoplasmic vacuoles after 48 h treatment and mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis activation as evidenced by morphological features, chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation, and significant activation of caspase-9 as well as caspase-3. In conclusion, KTt-45 could inhibit cell growth and trigger mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in HeLa cervical cancer cells. The results, taken together, strongly demonstrated that KTt-45 is a potential agent for further study on anticancer drug development which not only targets cancer cells but also helps to relieve neuropathic pain in cancer patients.

In the context of global warming, temperature increases have led to frequent drought events and a sharp increase in economic losses and social risks. In this study, five medium- and high-emission scenario models, the SSP245 and SSP585, CMIP6 monthly scale temperature and precipitation datasets under different global warming contexts (1.5 °C and 2 °C), and the 1984–2014 weather station observations were selected. The latter dataset was used to improve the ability of the CMIP6 to simulate surface drought accuracy. A standardized precipitation–evapotranspiration index dataset was generated. The latest intensity–area–duration framework was adopted to identify regional drought events by considering their continuity and spatial dynamic characteristics. The parameters of intensity, area, and duration were used to characterize the dynamic evolution of drought events. Under the medium- to high-emission scenario model, with a continuous increase in global temperature to 1.5 °C, in the southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) and southern Xinjiang (XJ) there is a significant increase in intensity, extent, and duration of drought events and some drought exacerbation in northeastern China. Under the high-emission SSP585 scenario model, the severity of these drought events is reduced when compared with the SSP245 scenario model, but this also shows an increasing trend, especially with the 2 °C global warming background. Significant drought aggravation trends were observed in southern XJ, northern QTP, and northern Northwest. In contrast, a small but significant drought-weakening trend was observed in southwestern south China. The results of this study provide a reference for society and government departments to make decisions in response to future drought events.

# Background In recent decades, a high prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents has been reported worldwide. In Vietnam, mental health problems such as emotional and behavioural difficulties are relatively common in the adolescent age group. # Objective This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of emotional-behavioural problems and prosocial behaviours in Vietnamese adolescents and identify the role of social support in these adolescents' strengths and difficulties. # Methods A population sample of 582 adolescents from sixth to ninth grade from four secondary schools in Vietnam voluntarily participated by completing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (α = .64) and the Social Support Scale (α = .90). # Results The research results revealed that Vietnamese adolescents suffered from considerable levels of emotional-behavioural difficulties and prosocial behaviour problems. Through multible regression analysis, support from their families significantly predicted to decrease students' emotional and behavioural symptoms (β\< 0; p\< .05) and increasing prosocial behaviours (β\> 0; p \< .05). In contrast, friend support only contribute to protecting adolescents from behavioural problems (β = -.18; p \< .05) and encouraged prosocial behaviours (β = .22; p \< .05) # Discussion Family support had a central role in its positive contribution to reducing emotional-behavioural and prosocial behaviour problems. Friend support only decreased behavioural problems and encouraged prosocial behaviours. These results are interpreted that educators could limit adolescents' emotional-behavioural difficulties and encourage prosocial behaviours through social support from their families and friends.

Abstract Plant genomes contain numerous genes encoding chitinase‐like (CTL) proteins, which have a similar protein structure to chitinase belonging to the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family but lack the chitinolytic activity to cleave the β‐1,4‐glycosidic bond in chitins, polymers of N‐acetylglucosamine. CTL1 mutations found in rice and Arabidopsis have caused pleiotropic developmental defects, including altered cell wall composition and decreased abiotic stress tolerance, likely due to reduced cellulose content. In this study, we identified suppressor of hot2 1 (suh1) as a genetic suppressor of the ctl1hot2‐1 mutation in Arabidopsis. The mutation in SUH1 restored almost all examined ctl1hot2‐1 defects to nearly wild‐type levels or at least partially. SUH1 encodes a Golgi‐located type II membrane protein with glycosyltransferase (GT) activity, and its mutations lead to a reduction in cellulose content and hypersensitivity to cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors, although to a lesser extent than ctl1hot2‐1 mutation. The SUH1 promoter fused with the GUS reporter gene exhibited GUS activity in interfascicular fibers and xylem in stems; meanwhile, the ctl1hot2‐1 mutation significantly increased this activity. Our findings provide genetic and molecular evidence that the antagonistic activities of CTL1 and SUH1 play an essential role in assembling the cell wall in Arabidopsis.

Diabetes is a type of metabolic disorder, which is the cause of many dangerous complications. Ensete glaucum (Musaceae family) has active ingredients with antioxidant and hypoglycemic characteristics in some parts of the plant. This study investigates the ability to reduce blood sugar based on the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes of Ensete glaucum stem extract. The results indicated that 70% ethanol, a material ratio of 1/30, and a temperature of 65oC for 360 minutes are the optimal conditions for the extraction process. Sonication has an extraction efficiency that is 1.8 times greater than that of a thermostatic bath or shaker. With the above conditions, the total polyphenol contents of the upper and the lower stem samples combined with sonication are higher than those without sonication. The ability to capture 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals of the extract used with sonication in the upper stem is four times higher than without sonication. In addition, the presence of sonication increases the capacity to inhibit the α-amylase enzyme (IC50 of the upper stem is 29.94 g/mL, the lower stem is 16.42 g/mL), compared to the absence of sonication (IC50 of the upper stem is 36 g/mL, the lower stem is 26.72 g/mL). Similar to the ability to inhibit α-glucosidase enzyme when using sonication (IC50 of the upper stem is 71.04 µg/mL, the lower stem is 91.91 µg/mL) is higher than not using sonication (IC50 of the upper stem is 142.99 µg/mL, the lower stem is 129.88 µg/mL). In general, the inhibition of α-amylase enzyme was higher than α–glucosidase enzyme in all extracts. In addition, the presence of sonication increased the polyphenol content, DPPH free radical scavenging, and hypoglycemic capacity of Ensete glaucum stem extract.

Abstract The pathological outcome of dengue disease results from complex interactions between dengue virus (DENV) and host genetics and immune response. Complement receptor types 1 and 2 (CR1 and CR2) mediate complement activation through the alternative pathway. This study investigated the possible association of genetic polymorphisms and plasma levels of CR1 and CR2 with dengue disease. A total of 267 dengue patients and 133 healthy controls were recruited for this study. CR1 and CR2 gene polymorphisms were analyzed by Sanger sequencing, while plasma CR1 and CR2 levels were measured by ELISA. The frequency of the CR1 minor allele rs6691117G was lower in dengue patients and those with severe dengue compared to healthy controls. Plasma CR1 and CR2 levels were decreased in dengue patients compared to healthy controls (P

Background and objectives: Hyperuricemia is one of the major causes of gout and other oxidative stress-related diseases. Inhibition of xanthine oxidase activity, an enzyme that converts hypoxanthine to uric acid, has been considered as one of the therapeutic methods for hyperuricemia. Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. has been widely used in traditional medicine in Asia. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-hyperuricemic and xanthine oxidase inhibitory effect of extracts and fractions of Pogostemon cablin. Methods: The dried aerial parts of P. cablin were soaked in 70% ethanol at room temperature for 72 h and were successively fractionated with n-hexane, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. Xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of the samples was determined spectrophotometrically at 290 nm. The hypouricemic effect of extract was investigated in normal and hyperuricemic mice induced by potassium oxonate. Results: Our results showed that the ethyl acetate fraction of P. cablin was able to inhibit xanthine oxidase with IC50 value of 96.39 ± 2.56 µg/mL. Moreover, P. cablin ethanol extract was found to reduce blood uric acid in Swiss albino mice at doses of 100 and 300 mg/kg and increased renal excretion of uric acid. Conclusion:Pogostemon cablin and extracts and fractions may have the potential to prevent hyperuricemia and require further clinical research.

Vitamin C plays an important role for fish survival, growth and disease resistance. However, the optimal vitamin C for rearing red drum Sciaenops ocellatus juveniles in Vietnam is not known. To address this issue, a 70-day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the optimal dietary vitamin C requirements for red drum juveniles. Seven isonitrogenous (55.35% protein) and isolipidic (9.07% lipid) diets were formulated to include graded vitamin C concentrations of 23.2, 124.5, 235.2, 423.8, 626.7, 824.6, and 1,027.3 mg/kg, respectively. The results showed that fish fed on 423.8 mg/kg vitamin C diet had the highest growth rate, which can be linked to the increased feed utilization. Broken-line analysis indicated that the optimal dietary vitamin C requirements of red drum juveniles were 342.92 and 405.80 mg/kg for growth parameters, feed utilization, body composition and biochemical parameters of serum. Based on these parameters the optimal vitamin C supplementation level for red drum juveniles was estimated in the range of 342.92–405.80 mg/kg vitamin C in the diets with direct applications in producing artificial feed for rearing juveniles of this species in Vietnam.

In this report, phytochemical constituents of Dischidia alboflava (Asclepiadaceae) collected in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, Lamdong province, Vietnam were investigated for the first time. The isolation process, as well as structure elucidation, have been supported by modern techniques like chromatographic (TLC, CC) and spectroscopic (ESI MS, 1D and 2D NMR) methods to result six triterpenoids, including β-amirin acetate (1), friedelin (2), 3α-hydroxyglutin-5-en (3), lupeone (4), lupeol (5), and 30-norcyclopterospemol (6). Among these, compounds 3, 4, and 6 have not been recorded to occur in other Dischidia species before. Notably, the identification of compound 6 indicated the presence of cyclotriterpene in Dischidia chemical components, which has not been reported to date.

How to increase positive word-of-mouth of customers for a brand is an interesting question not only for business managers but also for researchers. Based on the consumer value theory, authors try to consolidate the hypothesis “Customer perceived value, brand experience influence on brand attachment, customer satisfaction, and customers’ word-of-mouth in the context of smartphones market in Ho Chi Minh City”. The authors applied the PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) technique to check the impacts of independent constructs on dependent constructs thanks to the information of 230 smartphones users. All hypotheses are confirmed by the results of the research. Such discoveries have both theoretical and practical implications. In theory, it supports the consumer value theory. In practice, enterprises should prioritize to offering more symbolic and emotional values for customers; to use influencers to share their feeling with customers. As a result, enterprises will have effective ambassadors for their brands.

This study aimed to optimize the recovery of ammonium and phosphate from wastewater using Mg-modified biochar as an adsorbent. Given the situation of domestic wastewater and agricultural waste in Vietnam, the researchers fabricated biochar from rice husk and modified it with magnesium salt to make it an effective material for wastewater treatment. To determine the optimal conditions for the experiments, the response surface methodology was used, specifically the central composite design (CCD) model with four factors, namely biochar dosage (g/L), pH, N:P ratio, and initial concentrations of NH4+and PO43-. The materialwas thoroughly characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to ensure that it met the desired specifications. Based on the experimental design, the optimal conditions were determined to be a biochar dosage of 0.12 g/L, an N:P ratio of 1.25, an initial concentration of 60 mg/L, anda pH of 6. Tests conducted in synthetic wastewater produced results that were in agreement with the predicted values. However, when the optimized values were tested in domestic wastewater, only phosphate removal showed good agreement with an efficiency of 93% compared to the predicted optimization value of 88%. This study demonstrates the potential of Mg-modified biochar as an effective adsorbent for recovering ammonium and phosphate from wastewater. Although further optimization may be required for ammonium removal in domestic wastewater, the results are promising and warrant further investigation.

Based on social network theory, the study explained the digital transformation process of startups in Vietnam during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined the relationship between social capital, human capital, access to resources, and digital transformation of startups in Vietnam. The study used Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with a sample size of 230 startups managers. The results show that there are positive and statistically significant relationships between social capital, human capital, access to resources, and digital transformation. The results also reveal the partial mediating roles of access to resources and human capital in the relationship between social capital and digital transformation. The results proposed some managerial implications for startups managers in building relationship networks with stakeholders such as government agencies and business partners (customers, competitors, suppliers, and providers of digital platform services). Through managers' social capital, accessible resources and the improvement of human capital have accelerated digital transformation for startups to escape the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the study presented some limitations and directions for further research.

In this study, Ce1-xLaxNiO3 catalysts (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8) and Ce1-xLaxNiO3 on porous silica were prepared by co-precipitation. The effect of the La content on the catalytic activity in methane bi-reforming was investigated in the temperature range of 550 °C-750 °C. The physicochemical properties of the prepared catalysts were analysed by several methods, including X-ray diffraction, hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction, CO2 temperature-programmed desorption, N2 adsorption isotherm, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. From the research results, the suitable substitution rate of La in Ce1-xLaxNiO3 was found to be x = 0.4; its conversions of CH4 of 94% and CO2 of 92% were achieved at 700 °C and GHSV 30000 mL/(g.h). However, the intense coke accumulation on Ce0.6La0.4NiO3 limited its development. The porous silica carrier improved the structure and properties of the Ce0.6La0.4NiO3 catalyst. The SiO2-supported catalyst (Ce0.6La0.4NiO3/SiO2) showed excellent stability and coke resistance, which had stable activity for 100 h of time on stream, structure stability and low coke accumulation; 2.37 mgC/gcat formed after 100 h (coke formation rate of 0.02 mmolC/(gcat.h)), which demonstrated that it was one of the best coke-resistant perovskite catalysts for the BRM reaction. The large surface area of silica and strong interaction of Ni with metal oxide reduced the metal Ni particle size to the threshold size (2−4 nm), where the strongly reduced coke accumulation, high basicity, and vacancy oxygen content of CeO2 and La2O3 were considered major contributors to the high activity and exceptional coke resistance. The high structural stability, anti-sintering performance and high coke resistance all contributed to the excellent durability of the Ce0.6La0.4NiO3/SiO2 catalyst. This work provides a new resolution for the development of coke-resistant perovskite catalysts for methane reforming.

A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of diet’s organic acid (OG) and garlic powder (GP) on the growth, carcass quality, and intestinal microflora of Tam Hoang chickens. The experiment consisted of three treatments and four replications in a completely randomized design; each replication was a pen (20 chickens/pen), and males and females were raised separately. The treatmentswere:1/Cont: Basal diet (BD) no supplementation; 2/OG: BD + 1g Poulacid /kg feed; 3/GP: BD + 1 g garlic powder/kg feed. Results showed that chickens fed Cont (1451 g /head) had lower final live weight than those having OG (1568 g/head) and GP (1521 g/head/day). So, the average daily gain (ADG) of chickens in Cont (16.8 g/head/day) and GP (17.7 g/head/day) were lower than in OG (18.2 g/head/day). Average daily feed intake (ADFI) was similar in all treatments. Therefore, the feed conversion ratio (FCR) of chickens fed OG (3.04 kg feed/kg gain) was better than that in Cont (3.32 kg feed/kg gain). The density of Salmonella bacteria was not detectable in chicken feces at the 4th week age but became positive in Cont and GP treatments at the 10th week age. Supplementation of OG and GP reduced E. coli and Clostridium perfringens in the feces compared to control chickens at the 4th and 10th week age. In conclusion, adding OG or GP at the same dose (1g/kg feed) in Tam Hoang chicken diets improved ADG, FCR, and reduced E. coli and Clostridium perfringens densities in the feces compared to control chickens

Electric bicycle is a vehicle which is used widely in all the citys and provinces of Vietnam. However, it’s hard to choose “the most suitable” or “the best” type of electric bicycle because each type has different criteria (parameters). To choose out the best option, we need to consider all the alternatives at once. That is called multi-criteria decision-making. This research used three multi-criteria decision-making methods include SAW method, MARCOS method and PSI method to choose from seven bestselling types of electric bicycle on the market in 2022. All the methods which were used chose out the same best electric bicycle type and the same worst bicycle type. And so, among seven types of electric bicycle which include M133 mini, M133 Sport 2022, Aima 133AM, Nijia – PA4, DK 133M, Yadea iGo and Yadea i3, the best type is Aima 133AM, in contrast, Yadea iGo is considered the worst type. Things that need to be done in the folowing researches were proposed in the last part of this paper.

From 1986 to present, Vietnamese novels have had many changes, artists have faced many opportunities and challenges. They have kept searching and innovating to keep pace with the times and meet the needs of the readers. Following the writer's creative journey, the novels have proved not only the unity and inheritance but also their own unique features. That diversity is partly due to the fact that the writers have constantly searched for new ways of generalizing reality. Among them, the method of mythization has created a multi-faceted, multidimensional view of the world. So how does the method of mythization contribute to discovering the realistic essence of Vietnamese novels from 1986 to the present? That's the question this article addresses.

Abstract Water productivity (WP) is one of the most important critical indicators in the essential planning of water consumption in the agricultural sector. For this purpose, the WP and economic water productivity (WPe) were estimated using agronomic technologies. The impact of agronomic technologies on WP and WPe was carried out in two parts of field monitoring and modeling using novel intelligent approaches. Extreme learning machine (ELM), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and artificial neural network (ANN) methods were used to model WP and WPe. A dataset including 200 field data was collected from five treatment and control sections in the Malekan region, located in the southeast of Lake Urmia, Iran, for the crop year 2020–2021. Six different input combinations were introduced to estimate WP and WPe. The models used were evaluated using mean squared error (RMSE), relative mean squared error (RRMSE), and efficiency measures (NSE). Field monitoring results showed that in the treatment fields, with the application of agronomic technologies, the crop yield, WP, and WPe increased by 17.9%, 30.1%, and 19.9%, respectively. The results explained that irrigation water in farms W1, W2, W3, W4, and W5 decreased by 23.9%, 21.3%, 29.5%, 16.5%, and 2.7%, respectively. The modeling results indicated that the ANFIS model with values of RMSE = 0.016, RRMSE = 0.018, and NSE = 0.960 performed better in estimating WP and WPe than ANN and ELM models. The results confirmed that the crop variety, fertilizer, and irrigation plot dimensions are the most critical influencing parameters in improving WP and WPe.

A multi locus sequence analysis (MLSA approach) was studied on the Bacillus genus, or the Bacillus subtilis species complex for specific, including 08 strains from four species (B. subtilis, B. pumilus, B. licheniformis and B. amyloliquefaciens) were provided by Biotechnology Center of Ho Chi Minh City. The research was based on sequences of 16S rRNA genes, the concatenation of five protein-coding housekeeping genes: glpF, pta, purH, pycA, and rpoD. After PCR amplification and sequencing the phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA sequences, concatenate sequences (as well as the phylogenetic tree of each housekeeping gene) are constructed for comparison and discussion. The aim of this study is reach for better resolution and differentiation of strains and species within the B. subtilis species and to determine whether MLSA scheme show advantages in 16S rRNA gene-based studies.

In this paper, we present a new design of solid-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF), a Ge20Sb5Se75 substrate with a hexagonal lattice structure. The fiber characteristics are studied in the long-wavelength range (from 1.5 µm to 7.0 µm). A full modal analysis and optical properties of designed photonic crystal fibers with lattice constant Λ and filling factor d/Λ are presented in terms of chromatic dispersion, effective refractive index, nonlinear coefficients, and confinement loss. All-normal and anomalous flat dispersion with high nonlinearity and low confinement loss are the outstanding advantages of these photonic crystalline fibers. From there, three optimal structures with Ʌ = 2.0 µm, d/Ʌ = 0.35; Ʌ = 2.5 µm, d/Ʌ = 0.3 and Ʌ = 3.0 µm, d/Ʌ = 0.3 are selected and analyzed in detail for application in supercontinuum (SC) generation.

In this research, new circular and hexagonal photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) filled with chloroform have been designed considering the difference in air hole diameters to optimize the characteristics of the fiber simultaneously. Effective mode area and confinement loss of five PCFs with optimal dispersion have been further studied to find the fiber with a great application value for supercontinuum generation (SCG). Generally, circular PCFs are dominant over hexagonal lattices because of their small effective mode area, low loss, and small dispersion. #CF1 fiber with a lattice constant (Ʌ) of 1.0 μm and filling factor (d1/Ʌ) of 0.65 has an all-normal dispersion with a low value of -1.623 ps/nm/km, a small effective mode area of 1.43 µm2, and a low loss of 2.472 dB/m at 0.945 µm. The effective mode area and confinement loss of #CF2 (Ʌ = 1.0 µm, d1/Ʌ = 0.7) are the smallest of proposed PCFs. #HF1 fiber (Ʌ = 1.0 µm, d1/Ʌ = 0.5) has a very flat dispersion curve in the 1-2 µm wavelength range and a rather small effective mode area. These are the most optimal fibers for two types of lattices, which are very suitable for near-infrared SCG.

The dispersion characteristics of As2S3 solid-core photonic crystal fibers were investigated with the change of structural parameters including filling factor (d/Λ) and lattice constant (Λ). Photonic crystal fiber obtained diverse dispersion including all-normal and anomalous dispersion with two zero-wavelengths dispersion at all values of lattice constant investigated. The dispersion value increases when the lattice constant increases and the filling factor decreases. Photonic crystal fiber has a flat dispersion curve and closeness to the zero-dispersion curve in the longwavelength range are advantages of this design. Based on the analysis of numerical simulation results, we have proposed two structures with optimal dispersion for the application of supercontinuum generation.

Materials play an important role in determining the quality and cost of a building, especially in the context of Vietnam’s rapid urbanization today. This study aims to analyze the status quo for supplier selection for construction projects in a developing country, Vietnam. Questionnaires are designed to conduct a survey among several contractors to assess the current situation of how Vietnamese construction enterprises select their material suppliers. Senior managers, project managers, site commanders, site engineers, foreman, office staff of contractors were interviewed. Based on result analysis of 117 valid responses, the most important criteria to consider when selecting material suppliers have been identified, with the most influential ones being price, delivery time, and material quality. However, the supply of materials still reveals some constraints that must be overcome. Vietnamese construction firms should pay more attention to supplier selection to optimize material delivery efficiency. This research contributes to the understanding of the status quo for supplier selection for construction projects in a developing country. This means contractors can adopt suitable measures to select material suppliers for construction projects.

Water demands have increased even more in recent decades because of the high population density. Surface and groundwater resources are insufficient to meet these demands. As a result, governments have turned to the treatment of sewage water. Sewage water contains multiple types of contamination, creating a major health risk. In the research region, 48 water samples were obtained, including 18 samples of surface water and 30 samples of groundwater. The Canadian Council Water Quality Index (CCWQI) program calculates the water quality index to evaluate the water quality for drinking and human use. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Egyptian Ministry of Health (EMH) determined regulatory limits for drinking water and each value of the investigated parameter connected with them. According to the findings, 79% of the tested water samples are safe to drink and are excellent for human and wildlife use. Due to infiltration or recharging of groundwater with drainage water, as well as the involvement of dissolution, leaching processes, and anthropogenic activities that damage human health, animals, and some plants, these samples are unfit for drinking and domestic consumption. The heavy metal level of Cd and Pb in the examined water samples was found to be above WHO and EMH acceptable limits. Furthermore, due to oral exposures, the examined water samples may cause complex health concerns such as non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic influences for children over adults due to a reduction in children's immunity. As a result, water treatment should be carried out in the examined region to protect the health of the residents.

Monitoring water surface areas plays an extremely important role, especially for river and reservoir, lake systems that are significant for irrigation, hydropower and ecosystems etc. In the Tri An reservoir area, the main water source for Dong Nai province, and also where many people live in 4 districts of VinhCuu, DinhQuan, Thong Nhat and TrangBom. However, in the dry season of 2023, the weather became hot and dry with little rain due to the influence of the El Nino phenomenon. The water level of Tri An Lake has dropped to a record low in the past 12 years. Based on Sentinel 1 images and threshold method, this study conducted water surface extraction from January May 2023 of Tri An lake. The results showed that, from January to May 2023, the water surface area decreased from 26,270.97 hectares to 10,059.87 hectares. The most obvious decrease in water surface area was in Phu Ly and Ma Da communes (VinhCuu district) and the La Nga bridge section. This study has been a demonstration of the impact of global climate change on water resources, providing a basis for environmental resource management.

At present, land surface temperature (LST) is an important index in monitoring the urban heat is-land phenomenon and changes in local climate, as well as global climate. By analyzing the variation in land use land cover (LULC), we can see how changes in LULC will lead to changes in LST and understand the expansion of urbanization related to LST. This study used Landsat 8’s thermal infrared band to extract and calculate LST values in DauTieng district in the period 2015-2022. In addition, this study also classified LULC by using the Support Vector Machine algorithm, then evaluated changes in LST on cropland, forest, water surface, and impervious surface areas. The results showed that in places with dense vegetation cover, LST value was low, whereas when moving to areas with low density of vegetation and residential areas, industrial parks,… LST value gradually increased. In general, changes in LULC are important factors that cause LST to increase or decrease, thereby suggesting solutions to minimize high-temperature areas

The transport system is considered the “backbone” of the urban development. Along with the rapid economic development, the urban road transport system is being paid attention and invested by Hanoi city. By the year 2050, The Hanoi municipal government is expected to complete and hand over for use about 317 urban road transport projects. Due to the high demands of social and economic efficiency, the urban road transport projects in Hanoi face many risks. In which, there are 13 high dangerous risks for the urban road transport project in Hanoi. These risks have the high probability and severity impacted on the outcome of the projects. The project participant’s risk management standpoint will determine the solutions to respond the respective risks, thereby affecting the results of the project. In this paper, the authors compare the risk management standpoint of three main project participants, including owner/project management board, consultant and main contractor/subcontractor. The difference of the risk management standpoint is shown clearly by the project participants’ assessments of 13 high dangerous risks.

The Himalayan region, a rugged mountain zone is among the most susceptible zones to the landslide hazard due to its terrain, geography, and active tectonics. Machine learning (ML) techniques are most advanced and precise methods to develop landslide susceptibility model (LSM). The current study was designed to analyze and assess the landslide susceptibility using ML approaches for District Hattian Bala, NW Himalayas, Pakistan. The historical satellite imageries are used to generate spatiotemporal landslide inventories of year 2005, 2007 and 2012. A spatial database was created pertaining to topographic, environmental, geologic, and anthropogenic factors including slope, aspect, elevation, curvature, plane curvature, profile curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI), lithology, distance to faults, distance to streams, distance to roads, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land use/ land cover (LULC). These LCFs were selected to analyze periodic landslide susceptibility in the region. The experimental design utilized 349, 393, and 735 landslide inventory of 2005, 2007, and 2012 respectively. Two ML models, i.e., Random Forest (RF) and Logistic Regression (LR) were applied to assess landslide susceptibility determine by thirteen landslide causative factors (LCFs). The spatiotemporal landslide inventory was partitioned into training (70%) and testing (30%) landslides for respective years to check the prediction accuracies of selected ML models. Comparative analysis of different LSMs was performed by the Receiver Operator Curves – Area Under Curves (ROC-AUC). The resultant accuracy, MAE, RMSE, Kappa, Precision, Recall, F1 indicated that RF outperformed the LR model. The study aims to minimize losses to lives and potential economic damage linked with recurrent slope instabilities in the region. It is anticipated that use of ML algorithms would support concerned authorities and organizations to effectively plan and manage landslide hazard in the region.

This work offered insights into the characteristics and performance of nickel nanocatalyst in situ synthesized through CeNiO3 perovskite for the bireforming of methane (BRM). Effects of calcination conditions on the characteristics of CeNiO3 structure and on the reduction regime of the as-prepared perovskite on the physicochemical properties and performance of nickel catalyst in BRM were assessed. The formation of high-crystallinity CeNiO3 at temperatures above 700 °C was confirmed. The synthesized CeNiO3 existed in the form of spherical particles 20–40 nm in size and uniformly distributed. Among the samples, one calcined at 700 °C for 2 h (C-700-2.0) had the smallest and the most uniform particle and the highest reducibility. This sample was found to be the optimum precursor for the in situ synthesis of a highly effective nano-Ni catalyst for BRM. The reduction mode significantly affected the catalytic performance of the C-700-2.0 precursor. The sample reduced at 750 °C for 1.5 h (R-750-1.5) possessed the optimum activity, with conversions of CH4 and CO2 reaching equilibrium (98% and 84%, respectively) and an ideal H2/CO ratio of 2 at the reaction temperature of 700 °C.

The notion that indigenous people and local communities can effectively prevent conservation crime rests upon the assumption that they are informal guardians of natural resources. Although informal guardianship is a concept typically applied to “traditional” crimes, urban contexts, and the global North, it has great potential to be combined with formal guardianship (such as ranger patrols) to better protect wildlife, incentivize community participation in conservation, and address the limitations of formal enforcement in the global South. Proactive crime prevention is especially important for illegal snare hunting, a practice that has led to pernicious defaunation and which has proved difficult to control due to its broad scope. This paper uses interview data with community members in protected areas in Viet Nam where illegal snare hunting is commonplace to 1) analyze the conditions for informal guardianship in the study locations; 2) explore how community members can become more effective informal guardians; and 3) examine how formal and informal guardianship mechanisms can be linked to maximize deterrence and limit displacement of illegal snaring. Results indicate that conditions for informal guardianship exist but that respondent willingness to intervene depends upon the location, offender activity, and type of offender (outsider versus community member). While respondents generated numerous strategies for wildlife crime prevention, they also listed crime displacement mechanism offenders used to avoid detection. We discuss how informal guardianship can be integrated with formal guardianship into an overall model of situational crime prevention to protect wildlife and incentivize community-led deterrence of illegal snaring.

Abstract Irrigation development necessitates suitable lands for higher yield production and the development of long-term irrigation systems. The purpose of this research was to identify appropriate irrigation lands for irrigation in the Minch Yekest watershed in West Amhara, Ethiopia. Geospatial and multi-criteria decision-making techniques were used in this study. For land suitability analysis for surface irrigation, slope, land use, altitude, distance from the water source, soil characteristics, and available water storage capacity parameters were used. To find the best location for surface irrigation, the values were weighted and combined using the weighted overlay tool. The irrigation land suitability of each physical land parameter was classified into four suitability classes (S1, S2, S3, and N) based on the Food and Agricultural Organization guideline. According to the findings, 63% of the watershed area is highly suitable, 6.25% is moderately suitable, 28.69% is marginally suitable, and 2.06% is not suitable for the aforementioned purposes. The methodological approach and study findings could help policymakers make better decisions when developing irrigation projects in Ethiopia.

Saline soils negatively affect and cause serious problems for rice cultivation. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the purple nonsulfur bacteria (PNSB) capable of secreting 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) to reduce soil salinity, improve soil fertility, and enhance rice growth and yield. A two-factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Factor one was the salinity of the irrigated water, and factor two was the supplementation of the ALA-producing PNSB. The results indicated that watering with saline water above 3‰ led to decreases in plant growth and rice yield compared to the treatments watered with tap water. Application of either an individual strain or the mixture of W01, W14, and W22 ameliorated soil properties and increased total NPK uptake, whereas treatments supplied with the mixed strains reduced total Na uptake (9.50 mg Na pot−1). Supplying the W01, W14, and W22 strains individually or in a mixture enhanced the plant height by 3.51–5.45% and rice grain yield by 14.7–26.2%, compared with those of the control treatment. From the study, the combination of the L. sphaeroides W01, W14, and W22 strains is promising for application in saline or salt-contaminated regions to aid the damages caused by salinity on cultivars there, especially rice. Furthermore, this is a biological approach to ease an environmental problem and improve crop performance, which is supposed to be a trend in the sustainable agriculture.

Identifying polyps is challenging for automatic analysis of endoscopic images in computer-aided clinical support systems. Models based on convolutional networks (CNN), transformers, and their combinations have been proposed to segment polyps with promising results. However, those approaches have limitations either in modeling the local appearance of the polyps only or lack of multi-level feature representation for spatial dependency in the decoding process. This paper proposes a novel network, namely ColonFormer, to address these limitations. ColonFormer is an encoder-decoder architecture capable of modeling long-range semantic information at both encoder and decoder branches. The encoder is a lightweight architecture based on transformers for modeling global semantic relations at multi scales. The decoder is a hierarchical network structure designed for learning multi-level features to enrich feature representation. Besides, a refinement module is added with a new skip connection technique to refine the boundary of polyp objects in the global map for accurate segmentation. Extensive experiments have been conducted on five popular benchmark datasets for polyp segmentation, including Kvasir, CVC-Clinic DB, CVC-ColonDB, CVC-T, and ETIS-Larib. Experimental results show that our ColonFormer outperforms other state-of-the-art methods on all benchmark datasets. Our code is available at: https://github.com/ducnt9907/ColonFormer.

A green synthetic approach to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the stem extract of Piper chaudocanum for highly sensitive colorimetric detection of Hg2+ with a low limit of detection of 23 nM and easy colorimetric read-out has been reported. In addition, the biosynthesized AgNPs demonstrated efficient antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The morphology and structure of the as-synthesized AgNPs were examined using SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD and FT-IR analyses. The XRD and TEM results confirm the formation of AgNPs with an average particle size of 8–12 nm. The TLC, CC and HPLC revealed that four main compounds, pentacosanoic acid (1), piperine (2), β-sitosterol (3), and campesterol glucoside (4), isolated from P. chaudocanum extract act as reducing and stabilizing agents for AgNP formation, and piperine plays a vital role in green synthesis. The chemical structures of these compounds were determined by ESI MS, FTIR, and one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic data analysis. This approach is an efficient, green, cost-effective, eco-friendly and promising technique for synthesizing AgNPs with applications in the colorimetric detection of Hg2+ and antibacterial activity.