Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative cartilage disease that is characterized by a local inflammatory reaction. Consequently, many studies have been performed to identify suitable prevention and ...treatment interventions. In recent years, both arthroscopic microfracture (AM) and stem cell therapy have been used clinically to treat OA. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effects of AM in the presence and absence of a stromal vascular fraction (SVF) injection in the management of patients with OA. Thirty patients with grade 2 or 3 (Lawrence scale) OA of the knee participated in this study. Placebo group patients (n = 15) received AM alone; treatment group patients (n = 15) received AM and an adipose tissue‐derived SVF injection. The SVF was suspended in platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) before injection into the joint. Patient groups were monitored and scored with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC), Lysholm, Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS), and modified Outerbridge classifications before treatment and at 6, 12, and 18 months post‐treatment. Bone marrow edema was also assessed at these time points. Patients were evaluated for knee activity (joint motion amplitude) and adverse effects relating to surgery and stem cell injection. Treatment efficacy was significantly different between placebo and treatment groups. All treatment group patients had significantly reduced pain and WOMAC scores, and increased Lysholm and VAS scores compared with the placebo group. These findings suggest that the SVF/PRP injection efficiently improved OA for 18 months after treatment. This study will be continuously monitored for additional 24 months. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:187–195
The present paper reports the fabrication of inverse opal photonic crystals (IOPCs) by using SiO2 spherical particles with a diameter of 300 nm as an opal photonic crystal template and poly(ethylene ...glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) as an inverse opal material. Characteristics and fluorescence properties of the fabricated IOPCs were investigated by using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), reflection spectroscopy, and fluorescence microscopy. The results clearly showed that the IOPCs were formed comprising of air spheres with a diameter of ∼270 nm. The decrease in size led to a decrease in the average refractive indexes from 1.40 to 1.12, and a remarkable stopband blue shift for the IOPCs was thus achieved. In addition, the obtained results also showed a fluorescence enhancement over 7.7-fold for the Fluor® 488 dye infiltrated onto the IOPCs sample in comparison with onto the control sample.
Manganese dioxide γ-MnO2 was synthesized via the reduction-oxidation reaction between KMnO4 and C2H5OH at room temperature and characterized with x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron ...microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller nitrogen adsorption (BET-N2 adsorption). The results showed that γ-MnO2 was about 10-18 nm in size and the BET surface area was about 65 m2 g−1. The feasibility of γ-MnO2 used as a low cost adsorbent for the adsorption of Pb(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) from aqueous solutions was explored. During the adsorption process, batch technique was used, and the effects of contact time and pH on adsorption efficiency under room temperature were studied. The adsorption data showed that the Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson isotherms are a good model for the sorption of Co(II) and Cu(II), while the Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson isotherms provide a reasonable fit to the experimental data for Pb(II). By using the Langmuir isotherm, the adsorption capacities for Pb(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) are found to be 200 mg g−1, 90.91 mg g−1 and 83.33 mg g−1, respectively. The effectiveness of γ-MnO2 in the sorption of the three metal ions from aqueous system has the order Pb(II) > Co(II) > Cu(II). Kinetic studies showed that a pseudo-second-order model was more suitable than the pseudo-first-order model. Also, the intra-particle diffusion models were used to ascertain the mechanism of the sorption process. It is concluded that γ-MnO2 can be used as an effective adsorbent for removing Pb(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) from aqueous solutions.
Measurement of environmental gamma dose in air in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam has been conducted at 2245 locations using a portable dosimeter installed on a motobike with GPS integrated and positioned ...1 m above the ground surface. Cumulative gamma dose rates have also been measured using the TLD dosimeters located at 20 fixed locations around the city to evaluate the total component and the contribution of cosmic rays in the rainy and dry seasons. The gamma dose rates in the city were found in the range of 0.05–0.18 μSv/h with the average value of 0.10 μSv/h. The cumulative gamma dose in the dry season is greater than that in the rainy season by about 15%.
A nanocurcuminoids emulsion (NCE) was successfully synthesized via the phase inversion temperature (PIT) method combining magnetic stirring. Factors affecting the fabrication of this material, ...including emulsifier concentration, types of oils, temperature, and stirring time, were investigated. Results showed that the synthesized efficiency obtained 94.56 ± 3.78% at 11% of emulsifier concentration, 2% of sacha inchi oil with 5,000 rpm of shaking speed within 25 min of reaction time at 80°C. Besides, dynamic light scattering analysis presents that NCE gets 24.1 ± 2.9 nm of the average diameter, −10.4 ± 0.8 mV of zeta potential (ZP), and 0.173 ± 0.021 a.u of the polydispersity index (PDI) at the optimal condition. Moreover, the prepared NCE was stable at the ionic strength of NaCl 0.5 M and pH of 7 after 60 days of storage. In particular, the antioxidant activity of this NCE was slightly higher than that of free curcuminoids.
Practical applications
The mixture, including NCE 12%, maltose 58%, honey 12%, and water, was homogenized at a rate of 10,000 rpm in 15 min. Afterward, the system was condensed by a vacuum rotary evaporator (Yamato RE301 vacuum rotary evaporator) at 60°C in 30 min to obtain the Instant Beverage Jam. The obtained products showed a moderate sweetness and retained the characteristic taste of curcumin.
In this study, we measured the activity concentrations of Cs-137 and Sr-90 in surface seawater and surface sediments at the Tra Co, Bach Long Vi, and Ky Anh locations in the Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam, ...from December 2018 to October 2019. The average activity at the selected locations was 1.22, 1.43, and 1.33 Bq/m3 for Cs-137 and 0.88, 1.17, and 1.09 Bq/m3 for Sr-90 in surface seawater samples and 0.74, 1.01, and 0.81 Bq/kg dry for Cs-137 and 0.49, 0.49, and 0.43 Bq/kg dry for Sr-90 in sediment samples. The ratio of the average activity concentration (Cs-137/Sr-90) in the surface seawater was 1.42, 1.22, and 1.22 at the Tra Co, Bach Long Vi, and Ky Anh locations, respectively. These are somewhat low compared to the global ratios (1.6 and 1.8). Meanwhile, Cs-137/Sr-90 ratios in the sediment samples at the selected locations were 1.51, 2.06, and 1.88, respectively, which is equal to or greater than the corresponding value for global sedimentation according to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Correlations between Sr-90, Cs-137, and organic carbon content were detected in this study. The results showed that Cs-137 has a high correlation with the organic carbon content in sediment, while Sr-90 has a low correlation.
Effect of rutile TiO2 nanoparticles modified with 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate silane - TMSPM (m-TiO2) and Ag/Zn zeolite on the properties, and durability of acrylic waterborne coatings ...was studied. The obtained results indicated that m-TiO2 nanoparticles and Ag/Zn zeolite could disperse regularly in the acrylic polymer matrix. Consequently, the acrylic coating's abrasion resistance was improved in the presence of m-TiO2 or/and Ag/Zn zeolite. The acrylic coating's abrasion resistance depended on the content of m-TiO2 nanoparticles as well as the initial TMSPM content for modification of rutile TiO2 nanoparticles. The abrasion resistance of the m-TiO2 nanocomposite coating was higher than that of the unmodified TiO2 nanocomposite coating. The acrylic coating filled by 2 wt% TiO2 modified with 3 wt% TMSPM had the highest abrasion resistance value, leveling off at 187.2 L/mil. The abrasion resistance of acrylic coating filled by m-TiO2 reduced with increasing too high m-TiO2 nanoparticles content and using initial TMSPM content in high level for TiO2 modification. The starting temperature of weight loss of acrylic coating filled by m-TiO2 was lower than that of the neat acrylic coating. In comparison with the m-TiO2 nanoparticles, the Ag/Zn zeolite particles showed a lower improvement for acrylic coating properties, i.e. abrasion resistance, weathering durability, but the Ag/Zn zeolite particles expressed an excellent antibacterial activity. Hence, combination of the m-TiO2 nanoparticles and Ag/Zn zeolite particles could enhance the acrylic waterborne coatings' properties. The acrylic coating filled by 2 wt% m-TiO2 nanoparticles and 1 wt% Ag/Zn zeolite particles illustrated high abrasion resistance, good weather durability, and superior antibacterial activity for both of E. coli and S. aureus. This coating is promising for environmental friendly building materials application.
•Nanoscale rutile TiO2 modified with silane coupling agent enhance acrylic waterborne coating's properties (abrasion resistance, weather durability)•Rutile TiO2 modified with silane coupling agent accelerate thermos-oxidation of acrylic waterborne coatings.•Combination of Ag/Zn zeolite and rutile TiO2 improved acrylic coatings properties (Abrasion resistance, weather durability, antimicrobial activity).
This paper proposes a novel all-digital background calibration technique for gain and timing mismatches in Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters (TIADCs) using adaptive noise canceller (ANC). ...The error signals due to the gain and timing mismatches are expressed in linear regression terms, producing the estimation problem of ANC. The gain and clock skew coefficients are estimated by maximizing the output signal-to-noise ratio in ANC system. The correction is simple by subtracting the re-constructed errors from the TIADC output. The proposed calibration technique eliminates the input spectrum constants as well as removes high-pass filters, which are required in the conventional free-band based calibration technique. In order to validate the proposed approach, simulations are carried out for an 11-bit, 2.7GS/s four-channel TIADC for various input signals. Results show that the proposed calibration produces excellent performance in terms of mismatch distortion suppression. It achieves the SNDR and SFDR improvement of 19dB and 49dB, respectively. Moreover, the synthesized design with hardware co-simulation on Xilinx Kintex-7 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform consumes only 7.36% of the hardware resources of the FPGA chip and reduces the mismatch tone level up to -87dB.
Medicinal plants have been used for disease treatment throughout history, especially in Asia. Vietnam is a tropical country which possesses forests with a diversity of plants; among the plants, many ...have been historically used as alternative therapies for various disease treatments. In this study we aimed to evaluate the selective cytotoxicity of some plant extracts (collected from Vietnamese forests) against hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2, compared to adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs).
In this study, we collected nine plants and produced nine extracts from them; these included whole stem of Buchanania lucida, whole stem of Dipterocarpus turbinatus, Hopea recopei, whole stem of Shorea thorelii, bark of Shorea thorelii stem, bark of Dipterocarpus turbinatus stem, whole stem of Dipterocarpus costatus, bark of Dipterocarpus costatus stem, and rhizome of Boesenbergia pandurata. The cytotoxicity of these extracts on hepatocellular carcinoma cells and mesenchymal stem cells were determined based on IC
values calculated using Alamar Blue assay. Based on these IC
values, the side effect index (SEI) of extracts was determined. Only the extracts with low SEI were used in further assays to determine the apoptotic status of both hepatocellular carcinoma cells and mesenchymal stem cells via caspase 3/7 induction assay, nuclei disintegration (using Hoechst 33342 staining), and Annexin V staining assay.
The results showed that B. pandurata extract had strong cytotoxicity toward HepG2 cells with lowest side index on mesenchymal stem cells (IC
on HepG2 of 222 ± 27.82 (μg/ml) but IC
on ADSCs of 382 ± 16.19 (μg/ml)). Nuclear staining showed that B. pandurata extract could induce disintegration of cell nuclei at the concentration of 400 μg/ml. After 3 h of incubation with B. pandurata extract at the concentration of 200 μg/ml, the BP extract induced caspase 3/7 activation in HepG2 cells, but not in mesenchymal stem cells. Annexin V staining showed that the BP extract induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner.
This study revealed that selective cytotoxicity of some extracts on cancer cells could be determined based on their IC
values on cancer cells and on mesenchymal stem cells. B. pandurata extract displayed the lowest side effect index on mesenchymal stem cells and successfully induced apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2 via activation of caspase 3/7.
This paper presents a novel in-memory matching circuit realizing the CAM applications based on Non-volatile resistive memory and 2T-2R bit cell structure that provides reliable lookup operations. The ...evaluations extended to different NV-RAM types (RRAM, PCRAM, and MRAM) demonstrate the high applicability of our design architecture. The advantages of the CAM matching circuit are verified by Monte Carlo simulations using the 65nm CMOS process technology. Compared to other conventional approaches, our proposed design can reach relatively low sensing latencies, varying from 0.14 to 0.24 ns while maintaining a good level of search error rates.
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