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Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain, leucine rich repeat containing X1 (NLRX1) is a negative regulator of the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB) pathway, with a significant role in the context of inflammation. Altered expression of NLRX1 is prevalent in inflammatory diseases leading to interest in NLRX1 as a drug target. There is a lack of structural information available for NLRX1 as only the leucine-rich repeat domain of NLRX1 has been crystallised. This lack of structural data limits progress in understanding function and potential druggability of NLRX1. We have modelled full-length NLRX1 by combining experimental, homology modelled and AlphaFold2 structures. The full-length model of NLRX1 was used to explore protein dynamics, mutational tolerance and potential functions. We identified a new RNA binding site in the previously uncharacterized N-terminus, which served as a basis to model protein-RNA complexes. The structure of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding domain revealed a potential catalytic functionality for the protein as a member of the ATPase Associated with Diverse Cellular Activity family of proteins. Finally, we investigated the interactions of NLRX1 with small molecule activators in development, revealing a binding site that has not previously been discussed in literature. The model generated here will help to catalyse efforts towards creating new drug molecules to target NLRX1 and may be used to inform further studies on functionality of NLRX1.

Azo dyes comprise xenobiotic compounds characterized by the azo group (-NN-). The textile industry primarily consumes this type of dye, discharging significant amounts of textile wastewater with high pollution levels and temperature, necessitating treatment solutions to reduce costs and minimize environmental and human health risks. Thermophilic processes are believed to have rapid substance degradation rates, low sludge production, and cost-saving benefits for water cooling. However, research on treating azo textile-dying wastewater with a thermophilic decolorization process remains relatively limited. From the mentioned information, this study examines the thermophilic process, which exhibits superior color removal compared to the mesophilic process. Besides, the role of enzymes in the thermophilic decolorization process is elucidated. The research investigates the anaerobic thermophilic decolorization process as well as the aerobic degradation of azo dyes under thermophilic temperature conditions. A coupling method for decolorization treatment toward complete mineralization is explored, and the azo dye decolorization through enzyme activities is analyzed. The findings provide insights into the efficient and environmentally friendly removal of azo dyes using thermophilic processes and the involvement of enzymatic activities in the decolorization process.

This study investigates the effectiveness of water hyacinth-derived biochar in removing As(V) from low-concentration aqueous solutions, similar to groundwater, and examines the impact of elevated NO3− concentrations. Biochar was produced by pyrolyzing water hyacinth at 550 °C for 2h and subsequently modified with KOH and FeCl3 solutions. The modified biochar was characterized and employed in adsorption experiments to examine the factors influencing the adsorption process and its kinetics for As(V). Findings indicated that biochar modified with Fe showcased a robust adsorption capacity across a broad pH range of 3–10. The adsorption equilibrium was attained within 1h. The adsorption kinetics were aptly described by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, and the Freundlich isotherm adsorption model was found suitable for characterizing the adsorption process for As(V) using biochar. The equilibrium adsorption capacity, as predicted by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, was 203 μg g−1 at pH 7. The presence of nitrate ions had a negligible impact on As(V) adsorption. The material demonstrated the capability for reuse up to three times for As(V) removal.

Diabetes has always been a matter of concern to health experts as well as the community due to the increasing number of patients with diabetes and the severe consequences it may cause. Many attempts have been made to discover new treatment options for diabetes, and herbal medicines are currently considered to have great potential. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Camellia flava flower extract on the degeneration of the islets of Langerhans and insulin resistance in an alloxan-induced hyperglycemia model in Swiss albino mice. Hyperglycemic conditions were induced by alloxan (55 mg/kg, i.v.). The animals were then treated with glibenclamide (10 mg/kg, p.o.) and flower extract at doses of 1.09 and 2.19 g/kg, p.o. The results showed that the blood glucose, AUC, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR levels of two groups of mice receiving flower extract were considerably lower than those of the hyperglycemic untreated group (p < 0.05). The body weights of these two groups were also lower than the untreated group on the last day of the experiment, though the differences were not significant (p > 0.05). However, this was not observed when assessing insulin levels as well as relative organ weights. In biochemical tests, creatinine and AST and ALT concentrations were evaluated. There was no significant variation in creatinine and AST concentrations between the five experimental groups, whereas mice treated with glibenclamide and flower extract at both doses showed a remarkable decline in ALT concentration (p < 0.05). The hepatic histomicrographs were consistent with ALT results, while the H&E staining of kidneys showed no difference between groups. Histomicrographs of the pancreas revealed that the treatment groups using glibenclamide and flower extract had larger islets of Langerhans than those of the alloxan-treated group. Based on these results, this study demonstrated that Camellia flava flower extract exerted several beneficial effects, including blood sugar level reduction, weight loss promotion, and organ protection, hence making it a new potential herbal medication for the management of diabetes.

This study uses a hybrid concept to propose an optimal textured surface morphology for enhancing water condensation. The natural phenomenon-inspired morphology, which combined different degrees of wettability presented on the surface, documented their advantage in water harvesting compared to untreated surfaces. These superiorities might be explained by the appropriate combination of nucleation and water-driven ability facilitated by the superhydrophobic surrounding area. The uniform condensed droplets are effectively agglomerated to achieve the critical size. The best combination was found on a superhydrophobic-hydrophilic hybrid sample that improved water collection efficiency by up to 50% compared to bare Al. Condensation performance also illustrated an interesting tendency that revealed the great contribution of wettability on hydrophilic dots and the water-driven ability of the high-hydrophobicity area. The results were supported by a theoretical model which predicts the critical volume of a single droplet before it has departed from the surface. The findings reveal a good level of agreement between theory and real-time measurement, demonstrating the potential of combinations of hybrid samples to induce water collection efficiency.

Avocado (Persea americana Mill) is a popular tropical fruit that is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. Besides, as a climacteric fruit with strong respiratory, internal metabolic processes and external factors easily damage avocados. During avocado fruit storage, several factors are taken into consideration. These include alterations in skin and mesocarp color, browning degree, hardness level, weight loss, damage rate, and the organoleptic quality of the mesocarp. Therefore, strategies to improve the avocado shelf-life have received much attention. Post-harvest avocado treatments include cold temperature, chemical use, atmospheric adjustments, irradiation, antagonistic microorganisms, essential oil, edible coating, etc. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages for avocado preservation. Edible coatings (ECs) have emerged as a practical, cost-effective, and eco-friendly approach to extend the shelf life of avocado fruit. Combining the composition of ECs with additional ingredients such as natural antimicrobial agents, antagonistic microorganisms, film structure reinforcements, etc., and appropriate storage conditions would be a potential “green” approach to improve the quality of avocado fruits.

Abstract Background Dementia is a global public health priority. The World Health Organization adopted a Global Action Plan on Dementia, with dementia awareness a priority. This study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and self-confidence with skills required for providing dementia care among primary health care providers in Vietnam. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 405 primary health care providers who worked at commune health stations and district health centers in eight provinces across Vietnam. Results The results showed that primary health care providers had poor knowledge and little confidence but more positive attitudes toward dementia care and management. Conclusions The results suggest the training needs for building capacity amongst primary health care providers, which will be critical as Vietnam’s population ages.

ABSTRACTIn software testing, the quality of the test suite plays a very important role for not only the effectiveness of the testing but also the quality assurance of software. Mutation testing is considered as the usable, automatic and very effective technique in detecting mistakes of the set of test cases such as missing test cases, redundant test cases··· However, when using the mutation testing technique in practice, the generation of a large number of mutants has led to very high computational costs. This raises the question of whether we can reliably and accurately predict this mutation score without running mutants or not. If we can do this, it will save a lot of time and effort but still ensure the effectiveness of mutation testing. In this paper, we propose the approach using machine learning to perform mutation score cross-prediction for software which are new and completely different from the software used to generate test data (mutants) in model training and testing. The experimental results have shown that our proposed approach has achieved the positive results and is highly feasible. Thus, we believe that the approach can be applied to significantly reduce the cost of mutation testing.

The face of corporate governance is changing as new technologies in the scope of artificial intelligence and data analytics are used to make better future-oriented decisions on performance management. This study attempts to provide empirical results to analyze when the impact of diversity on the board of directors is most evident through the multi-breaks model and artificial neural networks. The input data for the simulation includes 853 electronic companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2021. The empirical results show that the higher the percentage of female board members, the more influential the company’s performance is, which is only evident when the company is in good business condition. By integrating ANNs with multi-breakpoint regression, this study introduces a novel approach to management research, providing a detailed perspective on how board diversity impacts firm performance across different conditions. The ANN results show that using the number of business board members for predicting Return on Assets yields the highest accuracy, with female board members following closely in predictive effectiveness. The presence of women on the board contributes positively to ROA, particularly when the company is experiencing favorable business conditions and high profitability. Our analysis also reveals that a higher percentage of male board members improves company performance, but this benefit is observed only in highly favorable and unfavorable business conditions. Conversely, a higher percentage of business members tends to affect performance during periods of high profitability negatively. The power of the board of directors and significant shareholders is positively correlated with performance, whereas CEO power positively impacts performance only when it is not extremely low. Independent board members generally do not have a significant effect on profits. Additionally, the company’s asset value positively influences performance primarily when the return on assets is high, and increased financial leverage is associated with reduced profitability.

Abstract This study aims to provide in vitro and in vivo data to support the utilization of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) as novel tools for the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancers. The hematological, biochemical, and histological toxicities of ANAs were assessed at the doses of 5 and 50 μg per mouse. Radiolabeling study was then conducted with ANA and 131I using the chloramine T method, and the biodistribution and treatment efficacy were subsequently investigated in a PC3 xenograft model. No changes in clinical behavior or signs of intoxication, necrosis, or malignancy were observed in ANA-treated mice. 131I-ANA was obtained in very high yield and radiochemical purity, at 94.97 ± 0.98% and 98.56 ± 0.29%, respectively. They achieved immunoreactivity fraction of 0.841 ± 0.17% with PC-3 cells. Levels of radiolabeled ANAs were 1.15–10.14 times higher in tumor tissues than in other examined organs at 24 h post-injection. The tumor growth inhibition rates were 28.33 ± 5.01% in PC3 xenografts mice treated with 131I-ANAs compared with controls and a nearly twofold improvement in median survival was observed. These results demonstrate that radioimmunotherapy of radiolabeled natural ANAs may be an effective treatment for prostate tumors.

In optimal control, a common problem is developing a control law that can drive a dynamical system from one state to another as quickly as possible. The objective of paper is to design optimal control approach based SIMATIC S7-1200 for under-actuated Pendubot system. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce and validate control method for laboratory model of Pendubot system by using industrial device, namely, Programmable logic controller (PLC). Besides, Lyapunov Analysis is used to analyze the stability of optimal control. The simulation is performed in MATLAB/Simulink environment and experiment is carried out in TIA PORTAL environment. The simulation results and experimental results illustrate that the proposed control method is effective and robust by using PLC.

BackgroundPathogenic variants in the IGHMBP2 gene are associated with two distinct autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorders: spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress type 1 (SMARD1; OMIM #604320) and Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 2S (CMT2S; OMIM #616155). SMARD1 is a severe and fatal condition characterized by infantile-onset respiratory distress, diaphragmatic palsy, and distal muscular weakness, while CMT2S follows a milder clinical course, with slowly progressive distal muscle weakness and sensory loss, without manifestations of respiratory disorder.MethodsWhole-exome sequencing of the IGHMBP2 gene was performed for eight Vietnamese patients with IGHMBP2-related neuromuscular disorders including five patients with SMARD1 and the others with CMT2S.ResultsWe identified one novel IGHMBP2 variant c.1574T > C (p.Leu525Pro) in a SMARD1 patient. Besides that, two patients shared the same pathogenic variants (c.1235 + 3A > G/c.1334A > C) but presented completely different clinical courses: one with SMARD1 who deceased at 8 months of age, the other with CMT2S was alive at 3 years old without any respiratory distress.ConclusionThis study is the first to report IGHMBP-2-related neuromuscular disorders in Vietnam. A novel IGHMBP2 variant c.1574T > C (p.Leu525Pro) expressing SMARD1 phenotype was detected. The presence of three patients with the same genotype but distinct clinical outcomes suggested the interaction of variants and other factors including relating modified genes in the mechanism of various phenotypes.

ObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between oxygen saturation index (OSI) and oxygenation index (OI) for evaluating the blood oxygenation status in neonates with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation support and to assess the predictive capability of OSI in determining clinically relevant OI cutoffs.MethodsA prospective study was conducted on neonates who received invasive mechanical ventilation at the neonatal intensive care unit of tertiary hospital in Vietnam. Bland-Altman analysis was utilized to evaluate the agreement between OSI and OI.ResultsA total of 123 neonates, including both term and preterm infants, were included in the study. A high agreement rate of 94.3% within the 95% limits of agreement (between OI and OSI), with a narrow similarity value of 3.3 (95% CI: -5.1 to 11.8) and high correlation coefficient (r = 0.791, p15 was determined to be 7.45, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87.4% (AUC 0.955; 95% CI: 0.922-0.989, p < 0.05). Similarly, an OSI cutoff value of 9.9 corresponded to an OI of 25, displaying a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 87.4% (AUC 0.92). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for OSI exhibited statistically significant results (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe findings demonstrate a strong correlation between OSI and OI in neonates with respiratory failure. Furthermore, OSI, as a non-invasive method, can serve as a substitute for OI to evaluate the severity of hypoxic respiratory failure and lung injury in neonates.

Using a solvent-free method, zeolite NaA was synthesized from raw kaolin, collected from Binh Duong, Vietnam. The synthesis involved thermal hydration under an alkaline solution. The catalysts based on binary nickel-silver nanoparticles were prepared through in situ reduction of metal salts in aqueous zeolitic suspension using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The catalysts were fully characterized by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). The physicochemical properties of these catalysts were studied in detail, in which the formation of body-centered cubic crystal zeolite NaA (1-2 μm) containing the spherical shape of metallic nanoparticles with a particle size around 8–20 nm was observed. The hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol was performed to confirm the high catalytic activity and stability of the 10%NiAg/ZA catalyst. The results showed that the catalyst achieved over 91% conversion initially and 73% conversion after five re-uses.

Applying nanotechnology, particularly nano zero-valent iron encapsulated by carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-nZVI), is considered less expensive and provides high efficiency for the decolorization of textile wastewater. In this study, Congo red dye (CR) was used in synthesized wastewater to evaluate the treatment performance using different composition ratios of CMC-nZVI. At the initial CR concentration of 500 mg/L, decolorization efficiencies increased with the increase of CMC contents. The removal efficiencies reached almost completely at the CMC:Fe2+ ratio of 0.004 within 10 seconds after adding CMC-nZVI to the CR solution. The optimal decolorization rate was observed at the Fe concentration of 1 g/L, with the CR removal efficiency of approximately 90% and a removal capacity of 8.298 g CR/g nZVI. The core principle of dye decolorization is breaking down the chromophore groups (-NN-), which makes the color of the dye, into N–H bonds. CMC-nZVI is a promising key to solving the issues caused by dye-containing wastewater.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are known for their intriguing optical properties, low toxicity, and high biocompatibility, which make them promising for biomedical applications. In this study, CQDs were synthesized by subjecting orange juice to microplasma as a carbon source at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures. The resulting CQDs exhibited a narrow size distribution, with an average diameter of approximately 4.5 nm and a pH value of 5.67. These CQDs exhibited strong blue emission characteristics. The antibacterial properties of the CQDs against Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains were evaluated using minimum inhibitory concentration assays. The study revealed that an effective inhibition of E. coli was achieved at a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.1 ppm, while the minimum bactericidal concentration for this bacterial strain was 1 ppm, resulting in an average antibacterial efficacy of 57%. Notably, the antibacterial effects of the CQDs were observed without the need for additional light or oxidants, demonstrating the applicability of CQDs in combating bacterial strains.

Currently, there are many research studies that apply and improve mutation testing techniques including traditional mutation testing or first-order mutation testing, and higher-order mutation testing (HOMT) for evaluating the quality of the set of test data in particular, and the quality of test suites in general. The results of those studies have proven the effectiveness of mutation testing in the field of software testing. Mutation testing allows the quality of test cases to be automatically evaluated, thereby helping the testers to improve the quality in the design and execution of the software testing. Besides, these studies have also pointed out the main barriers in applying mutation testing techniques in practice. However, we are the first to introduce a method that can reduce the cost, but keep the quality of testing activity based on evaluating the quality of the mutation operator as well as the quality of the test cases. In this paper, we concentrate on two problems regarding higher-order mutation testing: Evaluating the quality of mutation operators as well as generated mutants and prioritizing test cases based upon its capability of killing mutants. This may help developers allocate suitably their resources during testing phase. The study of this paper is an extended version of our previous study titled “Evaluating Mutation Operator and Test Case Effectiveness by Means of Mutation Testing”, which is published in the proceedings of the 13th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems, ACIIDS 2021 (V. N. Do, Q. V. Nguyen and T. B. Nguyen, Evaluating Mutation Operator and Test Case Effectiveness by Means of Mutation Testing, in Intelligent Information and Database Systems. ACIIDS 2021, eds. N. T. Nguyen, S. Chittayasothorn, D. Niyato and B. Trawiński. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 12672 (Springer, Cham), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73280-6_66) to confirm the usefulness of our proposed method.

Physics informed neural networks have been gaining popularity due to their unique ability to incorporate physics laws into data-driven models, ensuring that the predictions are not only consistent with empirical data but also align with domain-specific knowledge in the form of physics equations. The integration of physics principles enables the method to require less data while maintaining the robustness of deep learning in modelling complex dynamical systems. However, current PINN frameworks are not sufficiently mature for real-world ODE systems, especially those with extreme multi-scale behavior such as mosquito population dynamical modelling. In this research, we propose a PINN framework with several improvements for forward and inverse problems for ODE systems with a case study application in modelling the dynamics of mosquito populations. The framework tackles the gradient imbalance and stiff problems posed by mosquito ordinary differential equations. The method offers a simple but effective way to resolve the time causality issue in PINNs by gradually expanding the training time domain until it covers entire domain of interest. As part of a robust evaluation, we conduct experiments using simulated data to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. Preliminary results indicate that physics-informed machine learning holds significant potential for advancing the study of ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STEM education has been a topic of interest in many countries around the world. Many STEM research studies have been conducted; however, most of them focus on middle-school students and high-school students. At the primary level, STEAM education is known as an advanced mode of STEM education, which is highly integrated between science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. This study proposes a procedure of organizing primary-school students’ learning activities in STEAM education as an approach to help students experience positive emotions and stimulate passion, thereby developing the capacity of problem solving and creativity for students—one of the common competencies emphasized in the General Education Program 2018 in Vietnam. The procedure of organizing STEAM education activities in this study is close to the 5E procedure, but it is flexibly applied to suit the psycho-physiological characteristics of primary-school students in Vietnam. This research was conducted under the project title “Developing STEM education in a number of schools in Lang Son province to meet the new general school program” according to the cooperation document between the University of Education—Thai Nguyen University with the Department of Education and Training of Lang Son Province, No. 77/HT-SGD and DTLS-ĐHSPTN, dated 10 January 2020. The trial of this study was conducted at eight primary schools in Lang Son, Vietnam, with the theme “My green garden” in teaching nature and society in grade 1. Through observing the students’ participation in learning activities, evaluating the learning products made by those students, and collecting comments and feedback from teachers about the procedure of organizing the learning activities, it can be initially seen that the students actively participated in learning activities with joyful feelings, ready to cooperate with each other to complete assigned tasks, and that the students’ creativity was clearly expressed through many unique ideas.

Elemental sulfur (S8) was found to react very rapidly (3). Compared to the previously described methods, the present procedure constitute excellent access to triphenylphosphine sulfide.

Major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related A (MICA) is a tumour antigen that is greatly expressed on the surfaces of human malignancies and infection cells, which trigger attachment to immune cells. Although many studies have investigated the role of the MICA rs2596542 variant involved in high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the expression regulation of rs2596542 MICA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) susceptibility with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is still ambiguous. Therefore, this study was conducted to elucidate the association of rs2596542C/T and EBV load to MICA expression in NPC tissues. A total of 70 tumour tissues from NPC patients were enrolled in the current study . The genetic variant of rs2596542 was identified by Real-time PCR genotyping, and MICA protein expression was quantified by immunohistochemistry staining. A significant difference was observed in the expression of MICA regarding EBV copy numbers (p

Trong nghiên cứu này, chúng tôi đã điều chế than hoạt tính (AC) từ vỏ trấu bằng phương pháp hoạt hoá hoá học với NaOH và kết hợp với siêu âm. Sản phẩm được phân tích bằng phân tích nhiệt trọng lượng (TGA), nhiễu xạ tia X (XRD), hiển vi điện tử quét (SEM) và quang phổ phân tán năng lượng tia X (EDX). Quá trình hấp phụ – giải hấp phụ được sử dụng để xác định diện tích bề mặt (Brunauer – Emmett – Teller, BET). Vật liệu có cấu trúc carbon vô định hình; quá trình nhiệt phân vỏ trấu (than hoá) diễn ra ở khoảng 450 °C; vật liệu có cấu trúc xốp phát triển tốt với kích thước lỗ khác nhau; diện tích bề mặt tối đa khoảng 1673 m2·g–1 thu được từ mẫu kích hoạt bằng siêu âm trong 30 phút (AC30). Mô hình đẳng nhiệt Langmuir đã được áp dụng để mô tả đường đẳng nhiệt hấp phụ của các ion kim loại bằng AC30. Kết quả cho thấy AC30 là một chất hấp phụ tiềm năng để loại bỏ Cr(III) và Pb(II) từ dung dịch nước. Khả năng hấp phụ tối đa là 23,1 mg·g–1 đối với Cr(III) và 41,5 mg·g–1 đối với Pb(II).