Aims
We investigated the antibacterial effect of seven essential oils (EOs) and one EO‐containing liquid phytogenic solution marketed for poultry and pigs (‘Product A’) on chicken pathogens, as well ...as the relationship between minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in EOs and antibiotics commonly administered to chicken flocks in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam).
Methods and Results
Micellar extracts from oregano (Origanum vulgare), cajeput (Melaleuca leucadendra), garlic (Allium sativum), black pepper (Piper nigrum), peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.), tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) EOs and Product A were investigated for their MIC against Avibacterium endocarditidis (N = 10), Pasteurella multocida (N = 7), Ornitobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) (N = 10), Escherichia coli (N = 10) and Gallibacterium anatis (N = 10). Cinnamon EO had the lowest median MIC across strains (median 0.5 mg/ml IQR, interquartile range 0.3–2.0 mg/ml), followed by Product A (3.8 mg/ml 1.9–3.8 mg/ml), oregano EO (30.4 mg/ml 7.6–60.8 mg/ml) and garlic 63.1 mg/ml 3.9 to >505.0 mg/ml. Peppermint, tea tree, cajeput and pepper EOs had all MIC ≥219 mg/ml. In addition, we determined the MIC of the 12 most commonly used antibiotics in chicken flocks in the area. After accounting for pathogen species, we found an independent, statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive correlation between MIC of 10 of 28 (35.7%) pairs of EOs. For 67/96 (69.8%) combinations of EOs and antibiotics, the MICs were correlated. Of all antibiotics, doxycycline was positively associated with the highest number of EOs (peppermint, tea tree, black pepper and cajeput, all p < 0.05). For cinnamon, the MICs were negatively correlated with the MICs of 11/12 antimicrobial tested (all except colistin).
Conclusions
Increases in MIC of antibiotics generally correlates with increased tolerance to EOs. For cinnamon EO, however, the opposite was observed.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Our results suggest increased antibacterial effects of EOs on multi‐drug resistant pathogens; cinnamon EO was particularly effective against bacterial poultry pathogens.
Air pollution is one of the leading risk factors for death but also a significant contributor to the global disease burden, affecting quality of life. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) ...report, seven million people die from air pollution every year, and 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air. Any person can be affected by exposure to polluted air, especially the elderly, children, pregnant women, and people with comorbidities. Some studies indicate that the diseases most affected by air pollution are respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. The degree of effect on the body depends on the pollutant composition, source and dose, level and duration of exposure to polluted air. Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) could lead to air pollution. Long-term exposure to air pollution can affect every organ in the body and worsen existing health conditions. Short-term exposure to contaminants can include unpleasant sensations such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, eye, nose, and throat irritation, headache, dizziness, and fatigue. Community and individual solutions such as using clean fuel, wearing personal masks, filtering indoor air, and ventilating need to be taken to reduce the impact of air pollution.
Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) is currently facing a critical problem of the uncontrollable municipal solid waste (MSW). The most common waste disposal practice in the city is landfilling, but this is not a ...sustainable solution. From 2010 to 2022, the amount of waste generated has increased annually, from 6,000 tons/day to 9,200 tons/day, with an average growth rate of 6-8% per year. This study calculated the average emission factor of various districts in the city such as districts 1, 3, etc. at 0.83 kg/capita/day and district Binh Chanh, Cu Chi, etc. at 0.73 kg/capita/day and forecasted that the amount of waste will reach approximately 16,100 tons/day by 2050. Currently, 80-90% of collected MSW is landfilled, while only 10% is recycled. Composting and energy recovery practices are rarely used. This paper reviewed the current solid waste practice in HCMC and proposed four management scenarios to develop a sustainable solid waste management system. The first scenario is landfilling, which involves non-segregated waste disposal at the source. The second scenario is recycling, which involves segregating waste at the source for recycling, reuse, and waste reduction. The third scenario is composting, which requires using a mechanical-biological treatment plant for sorting, composting, and producing fuel from waste. The fourth scenario is waste-to-energy, which uses a waste incineration plant to generate energy from waste.
Molecular diagnostics are considered the most promising route to achievement of rapid, universal drug susceptibility testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). We aimed to generate a ...WHO-endorsed catalogue of mutations to serve as a global standard for interpreting molecular information for drug resistance prediction.
In this systematic analysis, we used a candidate gene approach to identify mutations associated with resistance or consistent with susceptibility for 13 WHO-endorsed antituberculosis drugs. We collected existing worldwide MTBC whole-genome sequencing data and phenotypic data from academic groups and consortia, reference laboratories, public health organisations, and published literature. We categorised phenotypes as follows: methods and critical concentrations currently endorsed by WHO (category 1); critical concentrations previously endorsed by WHO for those methods (category 2); methods or critical concentrations not currently endorsed by WHO (category 3). For each mutation, we used a contingency table of binary phenotypes and presence or absence of the mutation to compute positive predictive value, and we used Fisher's exact tests to generate odds ratios and Benjamini-Hochberg corrected p values. Mutations were graded as associated with resistance if present in at least five isolates, if the odds ratio was more than 1 with a statistically significant corrected p value, and if the lower bound of the 95% CI on the positive predictive value for phenotypic resistance was greater than 25%. A series of expert rules were applied for final confidence grading of each mutation.
We analysed 41 137 MTBC isolates with phenotypic and whole-genome sequencing data from 45 countries. 38 215 MTBC isolates passed quality control steps and were included in the final analysis. 15 667 associations were computed for 13 211 unique mutations linked to one or more drugs. 1149 (7·3%) of 15 667 mutations were classified as associated with phenotypic resistance and 107 (0·7%) were deemed consistent with susceptibility. For rifampicin, isoniazid, ethambutol, fluoroquinolones, and streptomycin, the mutations' pooled sensitivity was more than 80%. Specificity was over 95% for all drugs except ethionamide (91·4%), moxifloxacin (91·6%) and ethambutol (93·3%). Only two resistance mutations were identified for bedaquiline, delamanid, clofazimine, and linezolid as prevalence of phenotypic resistance was low for these drugs.
We present the first WHO-endorsed catalogue of molecular targets for MTBC drug susceptibility testing, which is intended to provide a global standard for resistance interpretation. The existence of this catalogue should encourage the implementation of molecular diagnostics by national tuberculosis programmes.
Unitaid, Wellcome Trust, UK Medical Research Council, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Abstract only
Introduction:
Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is caused by rupture of coronary plaques. What triggers these ruptures?
Hypothesis:
In the field of hydraulics, in a setting of a tank and ...draining pipe, if the valve at the distal end of the pipe is open, the fluid flows normally. If the valve closes abruptly, the flow next to the valve stops. However the fluid from the tank continues to flow forward and can collide with the distal stationary fluid. This is called water hammer shock. Could the same event happen in coronary arteries? The contraction of the left ventricle (LV) is similar to the abrupt closure of a valve, stopping the myocardial capillary flow. Could the systolic LV contraction trigger water hammer shock?
Methods:
Angiograms with culprit lesions of ACS (recorded at 15 images/second or 0.06 second per image) were reviewed. The first image was of the artery completely filled with contrast. The subsequent images showed the blood in white color blood moving in over a background of black contrast. The normal flow was laminar. When there was retrograde on top of turbulent flow, this was evidence of a collision between antegrade and retrograde flow (or water hammer shock). The measurements by visual angiographic evaluation and by Machine Learning (ML) included (1) the duration and (2) size of coronary segment with turbulence. The ML program had 2 models (build on Python). Model 1 was built based on U-net and Densenet-121 for vessel segmentation. Model 2 was used for classification of flow. The model 2 was trained based on the convolutional neural network.
Results:
Angiograms of 20 ACS patients showed laminar flow (90%) in diastole. The flow became turbulent during systole with retrograde flow. The area of collision or water hammer shock showed diffuse coarse mixing of black (contrast) and white (blood). The presence of turbulence matched the location of 85% of ruptured plaques. The duration of turbulence lasted 80% of systole. Special protocols were used successfully to train AI to recognize the lesions, retrograde and turbulent flow.
Conclusions:
With the new angiographic technique, detailed images of water hammer shock matched the location of ruptured plaques in ACS patients. These results may help to understand the genesis and offer precise prevention and treatment for ACS
2-Methylketones are involved in plant defense and fragrance and have industrial applications as flavor additives and for biofuel production. We isolated three genes from the crop plant Solanum ...melongena (eggplant) and investigated these as candidates for methylketone production. The wild tomato methylketone synthase 2 (ShMKS2), which hydrolyzes β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier proteins (ACP) to release β-ketoacids in the penultimate step of methylketone synthesis, was used as a query to identify three homologs from
: SmMKS2-1, SmMKS2-2, and SmMKS2-3
Expression and functional characterization of SmMKS2s in
showed that SmMKS2-1 and SmMKS2-2 exhibited the thioesterase activity against different β-ketoacyl-ACP substrates to generate the corresponding saturated and unsaturated β-ketoacids, which can undergo decarboxylation to form their respective 2-methylketone products, whereas SmMKS2-3 showed no activity.
was expressed at high level in leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits, whereas expression of
and
was mainly in flowers and fruits, respectively. Expression of
was induced in leaves by mechanical wounding, and by methyl jasmonate or methyl salicylate, but
and
genes were not induced. SmMKS2-1 is a candidate for methylketone-based defense in eggplant, and both SmMKS2-1 and SmMKS2-2 are novel MKS2 enzymes for biosynthesis of methylketones as feedstocks to biofuel production.
Nanodiamond (ND) has recently emerged as a potential nanomaterial for nanovaccine development. Here, a plant-based haemagglutinin protein (H5.c2) of A/H5N1 virus was conjugated with detonation NDs ...(DND) of 3.7 nm in diameter (ND4), and high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) oxidative NDs of ~40–70 nm (ND40) and ~100–250 nm (ND100) in diameter. Our results revealed that the surface charge, but not the size of NDs, is crucial to the protein conjugation, as well as the in vitro and in vivo behaviors of H5.c2:ND conjugates. Positively charged ND4 does not effectively form stable conjugates with H5.c2, and has no impact on the immunogenicity of the protein both in vitro and in vivo. In contrast, the negatively oxidized NDs (ND40 and ND100) are excellent protein antigen carriers. When compared to free H5.c2, H5.c2:ND40, and H5.c2:ND100 conjugates are highly immunogenic with hemagglutination titers that are both 16 times higher than that of the free H5.c2 protein. Notably, H5.c2:ND40 and H5.c2:ND100 conjugates induce over 3-folds stronger production of both H5.c2-specific-IgG and neutralizing antibodies against A/H5N1 than free H5.c2 in mice. These findings support the innovative strategy of using negatively oxidized ND particles as novel antigen carriers for vaccine development, while also highlighting the importance of particle characterization before use.
Population-specific profiling of mutations in cancer genes is of critical importance for the understanding of cancer biology in general as well as the establishment of optimal diagnostics and ...treatment guidelines for that particular population. Although genetic analysis of tumor tissue is often used to detect mutations in cancer genes, the invasiveness and limited accessibility hinders its application in large-scale population studies. Here, we used ultra-deep massive parallel sequencing of plasma cell free DNA (cfDNA) to identify the mutation profiles of 265 Vietnamese patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Compared to a cohort of advanced NSCLC patients characterized by sequencing of tissue samples, cfDNA genomic testing, despite lower mutation detection rates, was able to detect major mutations in tested driver genes that reflected similar mutation composition and distribution pattern, as well as major associations between mutation prevalence and clinical features. In conclusion, ultra-deep sequencing of plasma cfDNA represents an alternative approach for population-wide genetic profiling of cancer genes where recruitment of patients is limited to the accessibility of tumor tissue site.
Nghiên cứu này nhằm khám phá và khẳng định các yếu tố tác động đến tránh né quảng cáo cũng như mối quan hệ đến nhận thức của khách hàng về nhãn hiệu sản phẩm dưới hình thức video quảng cáo trên mạng ...xã hội. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ 435 khách hàng là giới trẻ tuổi từ 18 đến 35 đang sinh sống và làm việc tại thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Mô hình nghiên cứu và các thang đo được xây dựng từ các cơ sở lý thuyết về tránh né quảng cáo từ các tác giả Ducoffe (1995), Edwards et al. (2002), Cho và Cheon (2004) cũng như nghiên cứu về mối quan hệ của nó đến nhận thức nhãn hiệu trên cơ sở nền của Rafi et al. (2011), Bellman et al. (2009). Mô hình được thực hiện với phương pháp phân tích mô hình cấu trúc tuyến tính SEM. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy giá trị quảng cáo (bao gồm giá trị giải trí và giá trị thông tin) có tác động nghịch chiều và mạnh nhất đến tránh né quảng cáo. Bên cạnh đó, có sự tương quan thuận chiều giữa trải nghiệm tiêu cực và hành vi tránh né này. Ngoài ra, bài nghiên cứu còn tiên phong khám phá và khẳng định về mối quan hệ nghịch biến giữa tránh né quảng cáo và nhận thức của khách hàng về nhãn hiệu sản phẩm của doanh nghiệp.
Environmental Consciousness in Vietnam Vi, Pham Thi Thuong; Rambo, A. Terry
Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies,
2003, Volume:
41, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper presents findings of a preliminary exploration of the environmental consciousness of urban Vietnamese. Based on in-depth interviews in Hanoi with 20 respondents from various walks of life, ...it finds a high level of awareness of environmental problems and a considerable degree of concern about this issue. Most respondents report that they themselves, and their family members and friends, are concerned about environmental problems, but they believe government officials and leaders of big corporations and enterprises are not concerned. They say that they believe that humans are destroying nature because of the urgent need for resources on the part of the poor and the desire forwealth on the part of the rich and powerful. The views of respondents about ideal relations between humans and nature can be categorized in terms of two general cultural models. The first model views nature as a limited resource on which humans must rely for their survival. The second model views nature and human beings as having a balanced and interdependent relationship. Themodels are similar in that both express anthropocentric and utilitarian views. Most lay informants express variants of the first model, saying that human welfare depends on the natural environment. In particular, they stress, physical health concerns. Almost all of the elite interviewees employ variants if the second model, stating that people’s activities have impacts on nature, and nature reactively affects the welfare of human beings. Consequently, they perceive a need to maintain ecological balance. Deforestation is recognized as a serious problem by all respondents but they display considerable differences in their assignment of blame for causing this problem and also in their proposed solutions to this problem. In comparing deforestation with other problems, most consider that deforestation is a more important problem than air pollution, climate change and global warming, and natural disasters, but less important than traffic accidents and the future of the Vietnamese economy.
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