Improving nitrogen content in soil and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) yield by purple nonsulfur bacteria Rhodopseudomonas palustris in two consecutive seasons.

The study was conducted to assess the effects of nitrogen (N)-fixing purple nonsulfur bacteria (PNSB) Rhodopseudomonas palustris TLS06, VNW02, VNW64, and VNS89 on soil fertility, N uptake, essential oil (EO) content, growth, and yield of lemon balm. The experiment followed a completely randomized block design with 9 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments consisted of (i) applying 100% N as the recommended fertilizer rate (RFR), (ii) applying 85% N as RFR, (iii) applying 70% N as RFR, (iv) applying 55% N as RFR, (v) the treatment ii combined with N-PNSB, (vi) the treatment iii combined with N-PNSB, (vii) the treatment iv combined with N-PNSB, (viii) 0% as RFR combined with N-PNSB, and (ix) 0% N as RFR. The results showed that applying N-PNSB increased the plant height, and the number of primary branches in both seasons. In addition, the treatment without N fertilizer combined with N-PNSB increased stem leaf biomass by 41.2 and 50.3% in both seasons as compared with the treatment without neither N fertilizer nor N-PNSB. For soil properties, among treatments without N fertilizer, the treatment with N-PNSB increased concentrations of NH4+, soluble P, and exchangeable K+ by 41.3, 41.4, and 26.8%, respectively, as compared with the treatment without N-PNSB at the end of the second season. Applying 85% N as RFR combined with N-PNSB had a greater yield by 5.78-11.8% as compared with the treatment with 100% N as RFR, and a greater EO content by 23% as compared with the treatment with 85% N as RFR.

Rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Vietnam, 2020-2022.

Objective: We conducted a descriptive analysis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Vietnam's two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Methods: All patients with rifampicin resistant tuberculosis were recruited from Hanoi and surrounding provinces between 2020 and 2022. Additional patients were recruited from Ho Chi Minh city over the same time period. Demographic data were recorded from all patients, and samples collected, cultured, whole genome sequenced and analysed for drug resistance mutations. Genomic susceptibility predictions were made on the basis of the World Health Organization's catalogue of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with drug resistance, version 2. Comparisons were made against phenotypic drug susceptibility test results where these were available. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for previous episodes of tuberculosis. Results: 233/265 sequenced isolates were of sufficient quality for analysis, 146 (63 %) from Ho Chi Minh City and 87 (37 %) from Hanoi. 198 (85 %) were lineage 2, 20 (9 %) were lineage 4, and 15 (6 %) were lineage 1. 17/211 (8 %) for whom HIV status was known were infected, and 109/214 (51 %) patients had had a previous episode of tuberculosis. The main risk factor for a previous episode was HIV infection (odds ratio 5.1 (95 % confidence interval 1.3-20.0); p = 0.021). Sensitivity for predicting first-line drug resistance from whole genome sequencing data was over 90 %, with the exception of pyrazinamide (85 %). For moxifloxacin and amikacin it was 50 % or less. Among rifampicin-resistant isolates, prevalence of resistance to each non-first-line drug was < 20 %. Conclusions: Drug resistance among most MDR-TB strains in Vietnam's two largest cities is confined largely to first-line drugs. Living with HIV is the main risk factor among patients with MDR-TB for having had a previous episode of tuberculosis.

Enhancing control in spatial atomic layer deposition: insights into precursor diffusion, geometric parameters, and CVD mitigation strategies.

In recent years, spatial atomic layer deposition (SALD) has gained significant attention for its remarkable capability to accelerate ALD growth by several orders of magnitude compared to conventional ALD, all while operating at atmospheric pressure. Nevertheless, the persistent challenge of inadvertent contributions from chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in SALD processes continues to impede control over film homogeneity, and properties. This research underscores the often-overlooked influence of diffusion coefficients and important geometric parameters on the close-proximity SALD growth patterns. We introduce comprehensive physical models complemented by finite element method simulations for fluid dynamics to elucidate SALD growth kinetics across diverse scenarios. Our experimental findings, in alignment with theoretical models, reveal distinctive growth rate trends in ZnO and SnO2films as a function of the deposition gap. These trends are ascribed to precursor diffusion effects within the SALD system. Notably, a reduced deposition gap proves advantageous for both diffusive and low-volatility bulky precursors, minimizing CVD contributions while enhancing precursor chemisorption kinetics. However, in cases involving highly diffusive precursors, a deposition gap of less than 100µm becomes imperative, posing technical challenges for large-scale applications. This can be ameliorated by strategically adjusting the separation distance between reactive gas outlets to mitigate CVD contributions, which in turn leads to a longer deposition time. Furthermore, we discuss the consequential impact on material properties and propose a strategy to optimize the injection head to control the ALD/CVD growth mode.

Inhibition of Pancreatic Lipase by Flavonoid Derivatives: In Vitro and In Silico Investigations.

Obesity, characterized by excessive adipose tissue accumulation, has emerged as a crucial determinant for a wide range of chronic medical conditions. The identification of effective interventions for obesity is of utmost importance. Widely researched antiobesity agents focus on pancreatic lipase, a significant therapeutic target. This study presented the evaluation of ten flavonoid compounds in terms of their inhibitory activities against pancreatic lipase, utilizing both in vitro and in silico approaches. The results indicated that all tested compounds demonstrated modest and weaker inhibitory activities compared to the reference compound, orlistat. Among the compounds investigated, F01 exhibited the highest potency, with an IC50 value of 17.68 ± 1.43 µM. The enzymatic inhibition kinetic analysis revealed that F01 operated through a competitive inhibition mechanism with a determined Ki of 7.16 µM. This value suggested a moderate binding affinity for the pancreatic lipase enzyme. Furthermore, the associated Vmax value was quantified at 0.03272 ΔA·min-1. In silico studies revealed that F01 displayed a binding mode similar to that of orlistat, despite lacking an active functional group capable of forming a covalent bond with Ser152 of the catalytic triad. However, F01 formed a hydrogen bond with this crucial amino acid. Furthermore, F01 interacted with other significant residues at the enzyme's active site, particularly those within the lid domain. Based on these findings, F01 demonstrates substantial potential as a candidate for further investigations.

Emerging revolving algae biofilm system for algal biomass production and nutrient recovery from wastewater.

Toward the direction of zero­carbon emission and green technologies for wastewater treatment, algae-based technologies are considered promising candidates to deal with the current situation of pollution and climate change. Recent developments of algae-based technologies have been introduced in previous studies in which their performances were optimized for wastewater treatment and biomass production. Among these, revolving algae biofilm (RAB) reactors have been proven to have a great potential in high biomass productivity, simple harvesting method, great CO2 transfer rate, high light-use efficiency, heavy metal capture, nutrient removal, and acid mine drainage treatment in previous studies. However, there were few articles detailing RAB performance, which concealed its enormous potential and diminished interest in the model. Hence, this review aims to reveal the major benefit of RAB reactors in simultaneous wastewater treatment and biomass cultivation. However, there is still a lack of research on aspects to upgrade this technology which requires further investigations to improve performance or fulfill the concept of circular economy.

A Robust Quadruple Protein-Based Indirect ELISA for Detection of Antibodies to African Swine Fever Virus in Pigs.

African swine fever (ASF) emerged in domestic pigs and wild boars in China in 2018 and rapidly spread to neighboring Asian countries. Currently, no effective vaccine or diagnostic tests are available to prevent its spread. We developed a robust quadruple recombinant-protein-based indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (QrP-iELISA) using four antigenic proteins (CD2v, CAP80, p54, and p22) to detect ASF virus (ASFV) antibodies and compared it with a commercial kit (IDvet) using ASFV-positive and -negative serum samples. The maximum positive/negative value was 24.033 at a single antigen concentration of 0.25 µg/mL and quadruple ASFV antigen combination of 1 µg/mL at a 1:100 serum dilution. Among 70 ASFV-positive samples, 65, 67, 65, 70, 70, and 14 were positive above the cut-offs of 0.121, 0.121, 0.183, 0.065, 0.201, and 0.122, for CD2v, CAP80, p54, p22-iELISA, QrP-iELISA, and IDvet, respectively, with sensitivities of 92.9%, 95.7%, 92.9%, 100%, 100%, and 20%, respectively, all with 100% specificity. The antibody responses in QrP-iELISA and IDvet were similar in pigs infected with ASFV I. QrP-iELISA was more sensitive than IDvet for early antibody detection in pigs infected with ASFV II. These data provide a foundation for developing advanced ASF antibody detection kits critical for ASF surveillance and control.

Retargeting video with an end-to-end framework.

Video holds significance in computer graphics applications. Because of the heterogeneous of digital devices, retargeting videos becomes an essential function to enhance user viewing experience in such applications. In the research of video retargeting, preserving the relevant visual content in videos, avoiding flicking, and processing time are the vital challenges. Extending image retargeting techniques to the video domain is challenging due to the high running time. Prior work of video retargeting mainly utilizes time-consuming preprocessing to analyze frames. Plus, being tolerant of different video content, avoiding important objects from shrinking, and the ability to play with arbitrary ratios are the limitations that need to be resolved in these systems requiring investigation. In this paper, we present an end-to-end RETVI method to retarget videos to arbitrary aspect ratios. We eliminate the computational bottleneck in the conventional approaches by designing RETVI with two modules, content feature analyzer (CFA) and adaptive deforming estimator (ADE). The extensive experiments and evaluations show that our system outperforms previous work in quality and running time.

A Whole-Genome Analysis of the African Swine Fever Virus That Circulated during the First Outbreak in Vietnam in 2019 and Subsequently in 2022.

Since its initial report in Vietnam in early 2019, the African swine fever (ASF), a highly lethal and severe viral swine disease worldwide, continues to cause outbreaks in other Southeast Asian countries. This study analyzed and compared the genomic sequences of ASF viruses (ASFVs) during the first outbreak in Hung Yen (VN/HY/2019-ASFV1) and Quynh Phu provinces (VN/QP/2019-ASFV1) in Vietnam in 2019, and the subsequent outbreak in Hung Yen (VN/HY/2022-ASFV2) in 2022, to those of other ASFV strains. VN/HY/2019-ASFV1, VN/QP/2019-ASFV1, and VN/HY/2022-ASFV2 genomes were 189,113, 189,081, and 189,607 bp in length, encoding 196, 196, and 203 open reading frames (ORFs), respectively. VN/HY/2019-ASFV1 and VN/QP/2019-ASFV1 shared a 99.91-99.99% average nucleotide identity with genotype II strains. Variations were identified in 28 ORFs in VN/HY/2019-ASFV1 and VN/QP/2019-ASFV1 compared to 20 ASFV strains, and 16 ORFs in VN/HY/2022-ASFV2 compared to VN/HY/2019-ASFV1 and VN/QP/2019-ASFV1. Vietnamese ASFV genomes were classified as IGR II variants between the I73R and I329L genes, with two copy tandem repeats between the A179L and A137R genes. A phylogenetic analysis based on the whole genomes of 27 ASFV strains indicated that the Vietnamese ASFV strains are genetically related to Estonia 2014, ASFV-SY18, and Russia/Odintsovo_02/14. These results reveal the complete genome sequences of ASFV circulating during the first outbreak in 2019, providing important insights into understanding the evolution, transmission, and genetic variation of ASFV in Vietnam.

Malnutrition in hospitalized cancer patients: A single-center, cross-sectional study in Southern Vietnam.

Objectives: Malnutrition in cancer patients reduces response to chemotherapy, increases the hospitalization costs, hospital infections, and deaths. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, level of malnutrition, and its related factors in cancer patients at a local hospital in Southern Vietnam. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on all 118 cancer patients who were undergoing inpatient treatment at Long An General Hospital, Vietnam from May to September 2020. Data were collected from patients by face-to-face interviewing using a subjective global assessment (SGA) and from medical records. Malnutrition is divided into three groups: SGA-A (normal), SGA-B (mild/moderate/suspected malnutrition), SGA-C (severe malnutrition). Multivariable logistic regression is used to identify factors related to malnutrition with statistical significance p < 0.05. Results: Out of 118 participants, 72 (61.0%) were males and 84 (71.2%) aged ⩾60 years. The prevalence of malnutrition in cancer patients was 84.7% (100/118), in which 33% (39/118) were severe (SGA-C) and 51.7% (61/118) were mild-moderate (SGA-B). Pancreatic and lung cancers are the most malnourished. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the factors related to malnutrition in cancer patients were gastrointestinal symptoms lasting 2 weeks (odds ratio: 6.10, 95% confidence interval: 1.12-33.35), patients with decreased motor function (odds ratio: 13.73, 95% confidence interval: 2.56-73.86), blood albumin <35 g/l (odds ratio: 6.42, 95% confidence interval: 1.54-26.82), and blood lymphocyte ⩽ 1700 cells/mm3 (odds ratio: 5.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.31-21.97). Conclusions: There was a high proportion of malnutrition in cancer patients. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen nutrition counseling and intervention for these patients, especially those that have prolonged gastrointestinal symptoms, reduced motor function, and low blood albumin or low blood lymphocytes.

Image Collage on Arbitrary Shape via Shape-Aware Slicing and Optimization.

Image collage is a very useful tool for visualizing an image collection. Most of the existing methods and commercial applications for generating image collages are designed on simple shapes, such as rectangular and circular layouts. This greatly limits the use of image collages in some artistic and creative settings. Although there are some methods that can generate irregularly-shaped image collages, they often suffer from severe image overlapping and excessive blank space. This prevents such methods from being effective information communication tools. In this paper, we present a shape slicing algorithm and an optimization scheme that can create image collages of arbitrary shapes in an informative and visually pleasing manner given an input shape and an image collection. To overcome the challenge of irregular shapes, we propose a novel algorithm, called Shape-Aware Slicing, which partitions the input shape into cells based on medial axis and binary slicing tree. Shape-Aware Slicing, which is designed specifically for irregular shapes, takes human perception and shape structure into account to generate visually pleasing partitions. Then, the layout is optimized by analyzing input images with the goal of maximizing the total salient regions of the images. To evaluate our method, we conduct extensive experiments and compare our results against previous work. The evaluations show that our proposed algorithm can efficiently arrange image collections on irregular shapes and create visually superior results than prior work and existing commercial tools.

Regenerating Arbitrary Video Sequences with Distillation Path-Finding.

If the video has long been mentioned as a widespread visualization form, the animation sequence in the video is mentioned as storytelling for people. Producing an animation requires intensive human labor from skilled professional artists to obtain plausible animation in both content and motion direction, incredibly for animations with complex content, multiple moving objects, and dense movement. This paper presents an interactive framework to generate new sequences according to the users' preference on the starting frame. The critical contrast of our approach versus prior work and existing commercial applications is that novel sequences with arbitrary starting frame are produced by our system with a consistent degree in both content and motion direction. To achieve this effectively, we first learn the feature correlation on the frameset of the given video through a proposed network called RSFNet. Then, we develop a novel path-finding algorithm, SDPF, which formulates the knowledge of motion directions of the source video to estimate the smooth and plausible sequences. The extensive experiments show that our framework can produce new animations on the cartoon and natural scenes and advance prior works and commercial applications to enable users to obtain more predictable results.

Influence of Sex and Sex-Based Disparities on Prevalent Tuberculosis, Vietnam, 2017-2018.

To assess sex disparities in tuberculosis in Vietnam, we conducted a nested, case-control study based on a 2017 tuberculosis prevalence survey. We defined the case group as all survey participants with laboratory-confirmed tuberculosis and the control group as a randomly selected group of participants with no tuberculosis. We used structural equation modeling to describe pathways from sex to tuberculosis according to an a priori conceptual framework. Our analysis included 1,319 participants, of whom 250 were case-patients. We found that sex was directly associated with tuberculosis prevalence (adjusted odds ratio for men compared with women 3.0 [95% CI 1.7-5.0]) and indirectly associated through other domains. The strong sex difference in tuberculosis prevalence is explained by a complex interplay of factors relating to behavioral and environmental risks, access to healthcare, and clinical manifestations. However, after controlling for all those factors, a direct sex effect remains that might be caused by biological factors.

A Theoretical Study of Interband Absorption Spectra of Spherical Sector Quantum Dots under the Effect of a Powerful Resonant Laser.

We explore the variation of interband absorption spectra of GaAs spherical sector quantum dots (QDs) in response to a strong resonant laser, using the renormalized wave function method. Even though a spherical sector QD appears identical to a section cut from a spherical QD, it contains a controllable additional spatial parameter, the apical angle, which results in radically different wave functions and energy levels of particles, and is anticipated to exhibit novel optical properties. The obtained findings reveal that the apical angle of the dot has a considerable effect on the interband absorption spectrum. With the increase in the dot apical angle, a significant redshift of the interband absorption peaks has been identified. Increasing the pump laser detuning and dot radius yields similar results. Especially when a powerful resonant laser with tiny detuning is utilized, a dynamical coupling between electron levels arises, resulting in the formation of new interband absorption peaks. These new peaks and the former ones were similarly influenced by the aforementioned parameters. Furthermore, it is thought that the new peaks, when stimulated by a suitable laser, will produce the entangled states necessary for quantum information.

Estimating the economic burden of respiratory syncytial virus infections in infants in Vietnam: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Little information is available on the costs of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in Vietnam or other low- and middle-income countries. Our study estimated the costs of LRTIs associated with RSV infection among children in southern Vietnam. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study evaluating household and societal costs associated with LRTIs stratified by RSV status and severity among children under 2 years old who sought care at a major pediatric referral hospital in southern Vietnam. Enrollment periods were September 2019-December 2019, October 2020-June 2021 and October 2021-December 2021. RSV status was confirmed by a validated RT-PCR assay. RSV rapid detection antigen (RDA) test performance was also evaluated. Data on resource utilization, direct medical and non-medical costs, and indirect costs were collected from billing records and supplemented by patient-level questionnaires. All costs are reported in 2022 US dollars. RESULTS: 536 children were enrolled in the study, with a median age of 7 months (interquartile range [IQR] 3-12). This included 210 (39.2%) children from the outpatient department, 318 children (59.3%) from the inpatient respiratory department (RD), and 8 children (1.5%) from the intensive care unit (ICU). Nearly 20% (105/536) were RSV positive: 3.9 percent (21/536) from the outpatient department, 15.7% (84/536) from the RD, and none from the ICU. The median total cost associated with LRTI per patient was US$52 (IQR 32-86) for outpatients and US$184 (IQR 109-287) for RD inpatients. For RSV-associated LRTIs, the median total cost per infection episode per patient was US$52 (IQR 32-85) for outpatients and US$165 (IQR 95-249) for RD inpatients. Total out-of-pocket costs of one non-ICU admission of RSV-associated LRTI ranged from 32%-70% of the monthly minimum wage per person (US$160) in Ho Chi Minh City. The sensitivity and the specificity of RSV RDA test were 88.2% (95% CI 63.6-98.5%) and 100% (95% CI 93.3-100%), respectively. CONCLUSION: These are the first data reporting the substantial economic burden of RSV-associated illness in young children in Vietnam. This study informs policymakers in planning health care resources and highlights the urgency of RSV disease prevention.

Thickness measurement of material plates using low-activity sources with various energies in gamma-ray transmission technique.

This study proposes an approach based on the gamma-ray transmission technique to accurately determine the thickness of material plates using a low-activity source. For this purpose, we have set up an experimental configuration without collimators for both source and detector. Besides, a Monte Carlo simulation model using MCNP6 code has been created with the same geometric parameters as the empirical one. The calibration curves of thickness measurement were constructed for various energies of the incident gamma rays in the range of 123-661.7 keV and two materials of aluminum and copper using Monte Carlo simulation data. The thickness of the material plate was determined by applying experimental data to a known calibration curve. For a given material and gamma energy, the measurable thickness range (MTR) was estimated by investigating the dependence of the expected relative error on the thickness of the material plate. The obtained results show that the approach is feasible with the relative deviation between the measured and reference thicknesses of mostly less than 2% and the relative uncertainty of less than 3%. Such an approach could suggest a practical and cost-effective evaluation tool for optimizing the configuration to achieve a given accuracy corresponding to each type of material.

Depression, anxiety, and stress among frontline health workers during the second wave of COVID-19 in southern Vietnam: A cross-sectional survey.

Health workers around the world have taken on massive frontline roles in the fight against COVID-19, often under intense pressure and in the face of uncertainty. In this study, we determined the rates of depression, anxiety, stress and related factors among health workers in COVID-19 designated hospitals in southern Vietnam during the second wave of COVID-19. From July-September 2020, we collected self-administered surveys from 499 health workers in 14 hospitals that were designated for the care and treatment of patients with COVID-19. The survey included sections on demographics, co-morbid health conditions, symptoms experienced during patient care, a depression, anxiety and stress assessment (DASS-21), and other related factors. We used logistic regression models to identify factors associated with depression, anxiety and stress, and adjusted for confounding factors. 18%, 11.5%, 7.7% of participants had symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively with the majority at mild and moderate levels. The risk factors for increased mental health impact included long working hours, experiencing physical symptoms, fear of transmission to family, COVID-19 related stigma, and worry when watching media about COVID-19. Psychological counseling and training in infection prevention were protective factors that reduced the risk of mental health problems. Further exploration of the association between physical symptoms experienced by health workers and mental health may guide interventions to improve health outcomes. More routine COVID-19 testing among health workers could reduce anxieties about physical symptoms and alleviate the fear of transmitting COVID-19 to family and friends. Medical institutions need to ensure that health workers have access to basic trainings prior to initiation of work, and mental health support during the pandemic and into the future.

Adsorption of norfloxacin from aqueous solution on biochar derived from spent coffee ground: Master variables and response surface method optimized adsorption process.

In this study, biochar derived from spent coffee grounds (SCGB) was used to adsorb norfloxacin (NOR) in water. The biochar properties were interpreted by analysis of the specific surface area, morphology, structure, thermal stability, and functional groups. The impacts of pH, NOR, and ion's present on SCGB performance were examined. The NOR adsorption mode of SCGB is best suited to the Langmuir model (R2 = 0.974) with maximum absorption capacity (69.8 mg g-1). By using a Response Surface Method (RSM), optimal adsorption was also found at pH of 6.26, NOR of 24.69 mg L-1, and SCGB of 1.32 g L-1. Compared with biochars derived from agriculture such as corn stalks, willow branches, potato stem, reed stalks, cauliflower roots, wheat straw, the NOR adsorption capacity of SCGB was 2-30 times higher, but less than 3-4 times for biochars made from Salix mongolica, luffa sponge and polydopamine microspheres. These findings reveal that spent coffee grounds biochar could effectively remove NOR from aqueous solutions. Approaching biochar derived from coffee grounds would be a promising eco-friendly solution because it utilizes solid waste, saves costs, and creates adsorbents to deal with emerging pollutants like antibiotics.

Scoping review: Influence of cisgender male and female genders on health literacy of the elderly people.

This scoping review mapped out the relevant literature, identified gaps and made suggestions on the influence of cisgender on the health literacy (HL) of the elderly people. This scoping review was guided by the PRISMA-ScR checklist. The databases Wiley Online Library™ and Elsevier™ were searched for academic articles published in the English language between February 2011 and February 2021 that met a pre-set criteria of content. The process of selection of sources of evidence based on screening and eligibility of evidence reduced the initially identified 153 sources of evidence in the searched databases to 14 sources of evidence. The content of these 14 sources of evidence was mapped out on a charting table where data was summarised and synthesised individually and collectively by the authors. Repetitive and irrelevant data were deleted. Identified gaps include the lack of extensive exploration of male and female genders alone as a determinant of HL, how gender may be utilised to encourage elderly men and women to apply HL, how different sociocultural and sociodemographic backgrounds of elderly men and women would require separate academic research, the scarcity of social sciences based research and qualitative research methodologies on the subject as well as the use of mixed-methodologies and longitudinal studies. Future research directions were suggested and limitations of this scoping review are addressed in the discussion.

Scoping review: Health needs of the family caregivers of elderly stroke survivors.

This scoping review mapped out the relevant literature, identified gaps and made suggestions on the subject of the health needs of family caregivers (FC) of elderly stroke survivors (ESS). The authors utilised the PRISMA-ScR checklist to guide the scoping review. The databases PubMed, Elsevier and BioMed Central were searched for academic articles published in the English Language between the years 2010 and 2020 that met a pre-set criteria of content on the health needs of FC of ESS. The process of selection of sources of evidence based on screening and eligibility of evidence reduced the initially identified 13,303 sources of evidence in the searched databases to five sources of evidence. The content of these five sources of evidence was mapped out on a charting table where data was summarised and synthesised first individually and then collectively by the authors. Repetitive and irrelevant data were removed collectively by the authors from the charting table. The gaps identified were a paucity of research on the subject of health needs of FC of ESS, lack of longitudinal and mixed-methods research on the health needs of FC of ESS, sparse use of social sciences perspectives and theories, research that addresses specific physical and mental health concerns beyond general descriptions and gaps in information, social networks, interventions, health policy and systems. Future research directions were suggested and a limitation of this scoping review are addressed in the discussion.

The radical scavenging activity of muriolide in physiological environments: mechanistic and kinetic insights into double processes.

Muriolide (MO) is a natural lactone that was isolated from Ranunculus muricatus. This compound exhibited good antioxidant activity in some experiments; however, the radical scavenging activity of MO in physiological environments has not been studied yet. In this study, the reaction between hydroperoxyl radical and MO was investigated in physiological environments by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It was found that MO exhibits excellent antiradical activity in water at physiological pH (k = 1.05 × 108 M-1 s-1) by the single electron transfer mechanism of the anion state. However, the activity in lipid media is moderate with k = 2.54 × 104 M-1 s-1 and is defined by the formal hydrogen transfer pathway. The antiradical reactions can occur in double processes; however, the first reaction may define the HOO˙ radical scavenging activity of MO. Compared with typical natural antioxidants, the antiradical activity of MO against HOO˙ radicals is slightly lower than Trolox in pentyl ethanoate. However, the activity of MO is approximately 808 times faster than that of the reference in aqueous solution. Thus, the data suggest that MO is a promising natural radical scavenger in the physiological environment.