Spatial Analysis of Drug-Susceptible and Multidrug-Resistant Cases of Tuberculosis, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2020-2023.

We characterized the spatial distribution of drug-susceptible (DS) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a major metropolis in southeastern Asia, and explored demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with local TB burden. Hot spots of DS and MDR TB incidence were observed in the central parts of Ho Chi Minh City, and substantial heterogeneity was observed across wards. Positive spatial autocorrelation was observed for both DS TB and MDR TB. Ward-level TB incidence was associated with HIV prevalence and the male proportion of the population. No ward-level demographic and socioeconomic indicators were associated with MDR TB case count relative to total TB case count. Our findings might inform spatially targeted TB control strategies and provide insights for generating hypotheses about the nature of the relationship between DS and MDR TB in Ho Chi Minh City and the wider southeastern region of Asia.

Utilizing Deep Learning Algorithms for Signal Processing in Electrochemical Biosensors: From Data Augmentation to Detection and Quantification of Chemicals of Interest.

Nanomaterial-based aptasensors serve as useful instruments for detecting small biological entities. This work utilizes data gathered from three electrochemical aptamer-based sensors varying in receptors, analytes of interest, and lengths of signals. Our ultimate objective was the automatic detection and quantification of target analytes from a segment of the signal recorded by these sensors. Initially, we proposed a data augmentation method using conditional variational autoencoders to address data scarcity. Secondly, we employed recurrent-based networks for signal extrapolation, ensuring uniform signal lengths. In the third step, we developed seven deep learning classification models (GRU, unidirectional LSTM (ULSTM), bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM), ConvGRU, ConvULSTM, ConvBLSTM, and CNN) to identify and quantify specific analyte concentrations for six distinct classes, ranging from the absence of analyte to 10 µM. Finally, the second classification model was created to distinguish between abnormal and normal data segments, detect the presence or absence of analytes in the sample, and, if detected, identify the specific analyte and quantify its concentration. Evaluating the time series forecasting showed that the GRU-based network outperformed two other ULSTM and BLSTM networks. Regarding classification models, it turned out signal extrapolation was not effective in improving the classification performance. Comparing the role of the network architectures in classification performance, the result showed that hybrid networks, including both convolutional and recurrent layers and CNN networks, achieved 82% to 99% accuracy across all three datasets. Utilizing short-term Fourier transform (STFT) as the preprocessing technique improved the performance of all datasets with accuracies from 84% to 99%. These findings underscore the effectiveness of suitable data preprocessing methods in enhancing neural network performance, enabling automatic analyte identification and quantification from electrochemical aptasensor signals.

Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes.

The fast solar wind that fills the heliosphere originates from deep within regions of open magnetic field on the Sun called 'coronal holes'. The energy source responsible for accelerating the plasma is widely debated; however, there is evidence that it is ultimately magnetic in nature, with candidate mechanisms including wave heating1,2 and interchange reconnection3-5. The coronal magnetic field near the solar surface is structured on scales associated with 'supergranulation' convection cells, whereby descending flows create intense fields. The energy density in these 'network' magnetic field bundles is a candidate energy source for the wind. Here we report measurements of fast solar wind streams from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft6 that provide strong evidence for the interchange reconnection mechanism. We show that the supergranulation structure at the coronal base remains imprinted in the near-Sun solar wind, resulting in asymmetric patches of magnetic 'switchbacks'7,8 and bursty wind streams with power-law-like energetic ion spectra to beyond 100 keV. Computer simulations of interchange reconnection support key features of the observations, including the ion spectra. Important characteristics of interchange reconnection in the low corona are inferred from the data, including that the reconnection is collisionless and that the energy release rate is sufficient to power the fast wind. In this scenario, magnetic reconnection is continuous and the wind is driven by both the resulting plasma pressure and the radial Alfvénic flow bursts.

Urban-rural disparities in acceptance of human papillomavirus vaccination among women in Can Tho, Vietnam.

Background: In Vietnam, cervical cancer is a significant public health concern for women. Unfortunately, despite the availability of the HPV vaccine, low vaccination rates persist. Objectives: This study investigates the discrepancy between urban and rural areas in the willingness to receive HPV vaccination with or without fees. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 648 women aged between 15 and 49, living in two urban and two rural Vietnamese districts of Can Tho, between May and December 2021. Results: The overall vaccination rate was 4%, with urban women having a higher rate of 4.9% compared to rural women at 3.1%. Among unvaccinated women, those from rural areas expressed a significantly higher desire to receive the free vaccine (91.4%) than urban women (84.4%). However, the intention to vaccinate declined when rural women and urban women were advised to pay the cost (63.4% and 57.1%, respectively). A strong correlation was found between a positive attitude and intention for vaccination, irrespective of its price or free availability. Education and access to information about the HPV vaccine were also identified as the most significant factors influencing the intention to vaccination among urban and rural women. Conclusion: The low HPV vaccination rates among women aged 15-49 living in both urban and rural regions of Vietnam are a notable public health concern. These outcomes emphasize the critical need for effective programs of vaccine laterization, as an introduction to the offer of affordable and accessible HPV vaccines for women in Can Tho, Vietnam.

Anomaly Detection for Sensor Signals Utilizing Deep Learning Autoencoder-Based Neural Networks.

Anomaly detection is a significant task in sensors' signal processing since interpreting an abnormal signal can lead to making a high-risk decision in terms of sensors' applications. Deep learning algorithms are effective tools for anomaly detection due to their capability to address imbalanced datasets. In this study, we took a semi-supervised learning approach, utilizing normal data for training the deep learning neural networks, in order to address the diverse and unknown features of anomalies. We developed autoencoder-based prediction models to automatically detect anomalous data recorded by three electrochemical aptasensors, with variations in the signals' lengths for particular concentrations, analytes, and bioreceptors. Prediction models employed autoencoder networks and the kernel density estimation (KDE) method for finding the threshold to detect anomalies. Moreover, the autoencoder networks were vanilla, unidirectional long short-term memory (ULSTM), and bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM) autoencoders for the training stage of the prediction models. However, the decision-making was based on the result of these three networks and the integration of vanilla and LSTM networks' results. The accuracy as a performance metric of anomaly prediction models showed that the performance of vanilla and integrated models were comparable, while the LSTM-based autoencoder models showed the least accuracy. Considering the integrated model of ULSTM and vanilla autoencoder, the accuracy for the dataset with the lengthier signals was approximately 80%, while it was 65% and 40% for the other datasets. The lowest accuracy belonged to the dataset with the least normal data in its dataset. These results demonstrate that the proposed vanilla and integrated models can automatically detect abnormal data when there is sufficient normal data for training the models.

Towards hard-magnetic behavior of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles: a detailed study of crystalline and electronic structures, and magnetic properties.

We have used the coprecipitation and mechanical-milling methods to fabricate CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with an average crystallite size (d) varying from 81 to ∼12 nm when changing the milling time (t m) up to 180 min. X-ray diffraction and Raman-scattering studies have proved the samples crystalizing in the spinel structure. Both the lattice constant and residual strain tend to increase when t m(d) increases (decreases). The analysis of magnetization data has revealed a change in the coercivity (H c) towards the hard-magnetic properties. Specifically, the maximum H c is about 2.2 kOe when t m = 10 min corresponding to d ≈ 29 nm; beyond this t m(d) value, H c gradually decreases. Meanwhile, the increase of t m always reduces the saturation magnetization (M s) from ∼69 emu g-1 for t m = 0 to 35 emu g-1 for t m = 180 min. The results collected as analyzing X-ray absorption data have indicated a mixed valence state of Fe2+,3+ and Co2+ ions. We think that the migration and redistribution of these cations between the tetrahedral and octahedral sites together with lattice distortions and defects induced by the milling process have impacted the magnetic properties of the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles.

Investigating the magnetic and magnetocaloric behaviors of LiSm(PO3)4.

We report a detailed study on the magnetic behaviors and magnetocaloric (MC) effect of a single crystal of lithium samarium tetraphosphate, LiSm(PO3)4. The analyses of temperature-dependent magnetization data have revealed magnetic ordering established with decreasing temperature below T p, where T p is the minimum of a dM/dT vs. T curve and varies as a linear function of the applied field H. The Curie temperature has been extrapolated from T p(H) data, as H → 0, to be about 0.51 K. The establishment of magnetic-ordering causes a substantial change in the heat capacity C p. Above T p, the crystal exhibits paramagnetic behavior. Using the Curie-Weiss (CW) law and Arrott plots, we have found the crystal to have a CW temperature θ CW ≈ -36 K, and short-range magnetic order associated with a coexistence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions ascribed to the couplings of magnetic dipoles and octupoles at the Γ7 and Γ8 states. An assessment of the MC effect has shown increases in value of the absolute magnetic-entropy change (|ΔS m|) and adiabatic-temperature change (ΔT ad) when lowering the temperature to 2 K, and increasing the magnetic-field H magnitude. Around 2 K, the maximum value of |ΔS m| is about 3.6 J kg-1 K-1 for the field H = 50 kOe, and ΔT ad is about 5.8 K for H = 20 kOe, with the relative cooling power (RCP) of ∼82.5 J kg-1. In spite of a low MC effect in comparison to Li(Gd,Tb,Ho)(PO3)4, the absence of magnetic hysteresis reflects that LiSm(PO3)4 is also a candidate for low-temperature MC applications below 25 K.

Adjuvant Radiotherapy in Stage II Endometrial Cancer: Selective De-intensification of Adjuvant Treatment.

AIMS: Risk stratification, including nodal assessment, allows for selective de-intensification of adjuvant radiotherapy in stage II endometrial cancer. Patterns of treatment and clinical outcomes, including the use of reduced volume 'mini-pelvis' radiotherapy fields, were evaluated in a population-based study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients diagnosed with pathological stage II endometrial cancer between 2000 and 2014, and received adjuvant radiotherapy in a regional healthcare jurisdiction were reviewed. Registry data were supplemented by a comprehensive review of patient demographics, disease characteristics and treatment details. The Charlson Comorbidity Score was calculated. Survival and recurrence data were analysed. RESULTS: In total, 264 patients met the inclusion criteria. Most patients had endometrioid histology (83%); 41% of patients had International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians grade 1 disease. Half (49%) had surgical nodal evaluation; 11% received chemotherapy. Most patients (59%) were treated with full pelvic radiotherapy fields ± brachytherapy. Seventeen per cent of patients received mini-pelvis radiotherapy ± brachytherapy, whereas 24% received brachytherapy alone. Five-year recurrence-free survival was 87% for the entire cohort, with no significant difference by adjuvant radiotherapy approach. Only one patient receiving mini-pelvis radiotherapy ± brachytherapy recurred in the pelvis but outside of the mini-pelvis field. Recorded late toxicity rates were highest for full pelvis radiotherapy + brachytherapy. CONCLUSION: Risk stratification in a real-world setting allowed for selective de-intensification of adjuvant radiation with equivalent outcomes for stage II endometrial cancer. Mini-pelvis radiotherapy combined with brachytherapy is effective in highly selected patients, with the potential to decrease toxicity without compromising local control. Brachytherapy should be considered in low-risk stage II patients.

Organotypic sinonasal airway culture systems are predictive of the mucociliary phenotype produced by bronchial airway epithelial cells.

Differentiated air-liquid interface models are the current standard to assess the mucociliary phenotype using clinically-derived samples in a controlled environment. However, obtaining basal progenitor airway epithelial cells (AEC) from the lungs is invasive and resource-intensive. Hence, we applied a tissue engineering approach to generate organotypic sinonasal AEC (nAEC) epithelia to determine whether they are predictive of bronchial AEC (bAEC) models. Basal progenitor AEC were isolated from healthy participants using a cytological brushing method and differentiated into epithelia on transwells until the mucociliary phenotype was observed. Tissue architecture was assessed using H&E and alcian blue/Verhoeff-Van Gieson staining, immunofluorescence (for cilia via acetylated α-tubulin labelling) and scanning electron microscopy. Differentiation and the formation of tight-junctions were monitored over the culture period (day 1-32) by quantifying trans-epithelial electrical resistance. End point (day 32) tight junction protein expression was assessed using Western blot analysis of ZO-1, Occludin-1 and Claudin-1. Reverse transcription qPCR-array was used to assess immunomodulatory and autophagy-specific transcript profiles. All outcome measures were assessed using R-statistical software. Mucociliary architecture was comparable for nAEC and bAEC-derived cultures, e.g. cell density P = 0.55, epithelial height P = 0.88 and cilia abundance P = 0.41. Trans-epithelial electrical resistance measures were distinct from day 1-14, converged over days 16-32, and were statistically similar over the entire culture period (global P < 0.001). This agreed with end-point (day 32) measures of tight junction protein abundance which were non-significant for each analyte (P > 0.05). Transcript analysis for inflammatory markers demonstrated significant variation between nAEC and bAEC epithelial cultures, and favoured increased abundance in the nAEC model (e.g. TGFß and IL-1ß; P < 0.05). Conversely, the abundance of autophagy-related transcripts were comparable and the range of outcome measures for either model exhibited a considerably more confined uncertainty distribution than those observed for the inflammatory markers. Organotypic air-liquid interface models of nAEC are predictive of outcomes related to barrier function, mucociliary architecture and autophagy gene activity in corresponding bAEC models. However, inflammatory markers exhibited wide variation which may be explained by the sentinel immunological surveillance role of the sinonasal epithelium.

Magnetic Field Annihilation in a Magnetotail Electron Diffusion Region With Electron-Scale Magnetic Island.

We present observations in Earth's magnetotail by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft that are consistent with magnetic field annihilation, rather than magnetic topology change, causing fast magnetic-to-electron energy conversion in an electron-scale current sheet. Multi-spacecraft analysis for the magnetic field reconstruction shows that an electron-scale magnetic island was embedded in the observed electron diffusion region (EDR), suggesting an elongated shape of the EDR. Evidence for the annihilation was revealed in the form of the island growing at a rate much lower than expected for the standard X-type geometry of the EDR, which indicates that magnetic flux injected into the EDR was not ejected from the X-point or accumulated in the island, but was dissipated in the EDR. This energy conversion process is in contrast to that in the standard EDR of a reconnecting current sheet where the energy of antiparallel magnetic fields is mostly converted to electron bulk-flow energy. Fully kinetic simulation also demonstrates that an elongated EDR is subject to the formation of electron-scale magnetic islands in which fast but transient annihilation can occur. Consistent with the observations and simulation, theoretical analysis shows that fast magnetic diffusion can occur in an elongated EDR in the presence of nongyrotropic electron effects. We suggest that the annihilation in elongated EDRs may contribute to the dissipation of magnetic energy in a turbulent collisionless plasma.

Serological Evidence of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus and IgM Positivity Were Identified in Healthy Residents in Vietnam.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an emerging tick-borne viral disease, is prevalent in East Asia and has also been reported in Southeast Asia since 2019. SFTS patients in Vietnam were first reported in 2019. However, the seroprevalence of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in Vietnam has not been reported. To investigate the seroprevalence of SFTSV in Vietnam, we collected serum samples from 714 healthy residents in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, and the seroprevalence of SFTSV was assessed using immunofluorescence antibody assay (IFA), Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) and the 50% focus reduction neutralization test (FRNT50) assay. The seroprevalence of anti-SFTSV IgM or IgG was observed to be 3.64% (26/714), high IgM positivity was >80 (0.28%, 2/714) and the titer of neutralizing antibodies against SFTSV ranged from 15.5 to 55.9. In Pakistan, SFTSV infection confirmed using a microneutralization test (MNT) assay (prevalence is 2.5%) and ELISAs showed a high seroprevalence (46.7%) of SFTSV. Hence, the seroprevalence rate in Vietnam is similar to that in Pakistan and the number of SFTS patients could increase in Vietnam.

Predicting Analyte Concentrations from Electrochemical Aptasensor Signals Using LSTM Recurrent Networks.

Nanomaterial-based aptasensors are useful devices capable of detecting small biological species. Determining suitable signal processing methods can improve the identification and quantification of target analytes detected by the biosensor and consequently improve the biosensor's performance. In this work, we propose a data augmentation method to overcome the insufficient amount of available original data and long short-term memory (LSTM) to automatically predict the analyte concentration from part of a signal registered by three electrochemical aptasensors, with differences in bioreceptors, analytes, and the signals' lengths for specific concentrations. To find the optimal network, we altered the following variables: the LSTM layer structure (unidirectional LSTM (LSTM) and bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM)), optimizers (Adam, RMSPROP, SGDM), number of hidden units, and amount of augmented data. Then, the evaluation of the networks revealed that the highest original data accuracy increased from 50% to 92% by exploiting the data augmentation method. In addition, the SGDM optimizer showed a lower performance prediction than that of the ADAM and RMSPROP algorithms, and the number of hidden units was ineffective in improving the networks' performances. Moreover, the BLSTM nets showed more accurate predictions than those of the ULSTM nets on lengthier signals. These results demonstrate that this method can automatically detect the analyte concentration from the sensor signals.

Parker Solar Probe Observations of Solar Wind Energetic Proton Beams Produced by Magnetic Reconnection in the Near-Sun Heliospheric Current Sheet.

We report observations of reconnection exhausts in the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) during Parker Solar Probe Encounters 08 and 07, at 16 R s and 20 R s , respectively. Heliospheric current sheet (HCS) reconnection accelerated protons to almost twice the solar wind speed and increased the proton core energy by a factor of ∼3, due to the Alfvén speed being comparable to the solar wind flow speed at these near-Sun distances. Furthermore, protons were energized to super-thermal energies. During E08, energized protons were found to have leaked out of the exhaust along separatrix field lines, appearing as field-aligned energetic proton beams in a broad region outside the HCS. Concurrent dropouts of strahl electrons, indicating disconnection from the Sun, provide further evidence for the HCS being the source of the beams. Around the HCS in E07, there were also proton beams but without electron strahl dropouts, indicating that their origin was not the local HCS reconnection exhaust.

Updated evidence of the safety and efficacy of the miniaturized percutaneous nephrolithotomy with holmium laser lithotripsy for the treatment of recurrent nephrolithiasis.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present communication is to report the safety and efficacy of applying miniaturized percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) in Vietnamese patients with recurrent kidney stones using a miniature nephroscope through a 18F metal access sheath. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who were diagnosed with recurrent nephrolithiasis and underwent mini-PCNL after previous treatments between 2017 and 2020. Clinical profile, preoperative characteristics, intraoperative events, and postoperative outcomes were obtained from the hospital database. Descriptive statistics were used for the whole analysis. RESULTS: Of 89 eligible patients, 54 were male. The mean age was 53.4 years. Mean stone size was 24.9 mm. 37 patients had right side stone, 39 had left side stone, and 13 had stone on both sides. Pain in the flanks and back was the most symptom in our patients (n = 87, 97.8%), followed by hematuria (n = 13, 14.6%), dysuria (n = 8, 8.9%), fever (n = 7, 7.9%), acute renal colic (n = 5, 5.6%), and pyuria in 2 patients. 27 had complex stones, and the remaining stone position included renal pelvis (21, 23.6%), upper calyx (15, 16.9%), lower calyx (14, 15.7%), and middle calyx (12, 13.5%). 35 of them had grade I, 27 grade II, 8 grade III and 2 grade IV of hydronephrosis. Renal failure was documented in 12 patients (13.5%). 18 patients were performed with 2-times punctures (20.2%) and 13 with 3-times punctures (14.6%). We used one percutaneous tract in 79 patients and the remaining 10 were performed with two tracts. The upper, middle, and lower calyx was the site of puncture access in 6 (6.7%), 73 (82.0%), and 10 (11.3%) cases, respectively. 3 patients had bleeding requiring intraoperative blood transfusion and 2 were converted to open surgery. Intraoperative parameters recorded percutaneous puncture duration of 20.9 minutes (5-50), and total operative duration of 112.9 minutes (40-240). 7 patients developed secondary bleeding after surgery, besides 5 cases of fever, 2 cases of septic shock and one case of drainage failure. Early stone-free rate was 89.9% and this rate was 94.4% for patients after one month of mini-PCNL. Mean duration of ureteral catheter circulation was 2.7 days (2-20), mean length of postoperative hospitalization was 6.6 days (4-25) and mean total hospital stay was 12.9 days (7-28). CONCLUSIONS: Present results show the safety of mini-PCNL with respect to recurrent nephrolithiasis. Our updated evidence may provide appropriate modified approaches that aim at reducing the risk of recurrent kidney stone development.

Intention to Quit and Predictive Factors Among Current Smokers in Vietnam: Findings From Adult Tobacco Survey 2020.

BACKGROUND: Smoking leads to many smoking-attributable diseases. The promotion of quitting tobacco smoking is urgent as it has significant and immediate health benefits and improves the impacts of other tobacco control strategies. Intention to quit smoking is considered the first step before quitting smoking. METHODOLOGY: This paper used data from Vietnam provincial GATS 2020 on 80,166 participants who were 15-year-old or older. Data were collected from 34 provinces and cities throughout Vietnam and managed using REDCap. RESULTS: Among those who were current smokers, 50.3% (95% CI: 49.1%-51.4%) had the intention to quit smoking. Some predictive factors found to be positively associated with the intention to quit smoking were age (from 45-64), education level, received information about harmful effects or encouragement to quit smoking from media channels (from 6 channels), hearing about the Tobacco Control Law and noticing health warnings on the cigarette package. There was no significant difference in intention to quit smoking between current smokers from urban and rural areas or among different age groups to start smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions or health promotion programs on smoking cessation should be focused on current smokers who have low education levels as they have a higher smoking rate and are less motivated to stop smoking. Received information about harmful effects or encouragement to quit smoking from media channels is also associated with stopping smoking in the future. The importance of health warning pictures on tobacco packages should be maintained and promoted as it has a specific effect on one's intention to stop smoking.

MRI biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease: the impact of functional connectivity in the default mode network and structural connectivity between lobes on diagnostic accuracy.

BACKGROUND: At present, clinical use of MRI in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is mostly focused on the assessment of brain atrophy, namely in the hippocampal region. Despite this, multiple biomarkers reflecting structural and functional brain connectivity changes have shown promising results in the assessment of AD. To help identify the most relevant ones that may stand a chance of being used in clinical practice, we compared multiple biomarker in terms of their value to discriminate AD from healthy controls and analyzed their age dependency. METHODS: 20 AD patients and 20 matched controls underwent MRI-scanning (3T GE), including T1-weighted, diffusion-MRI, and resting-state-fMRI (rsfMRI). Whole brain, white matter, gray matter, cortical gray matter and hippocampi volumes were measured using icobrain. rsfMRI between regions of the default-mode-network (DMN) was assessed using group independent-component-analysis. Median diffusivity and kurtosis were determined in gray and white-matter. DTI data was used to evaluate pairwise structural connectivity between lobar regions and the hippocampi.Logistic-Regression and Random-Forest models were trained to classify AD-status based on, respectively different isolated features and age, and feature-groups combined with age. RESULTS: Hippocampal features, features reflecting the functional connectivity between the medial-Pre-Frontal-Cortex (mPFC) and the posterior regions of the DMN, and structural interhemispheric frontal connectivity showed the strongest differences between AD-patients and controls. Structural interhemispheric parietal connectivity, structural connectivity between the parietal lobe and hippocampus in the right hemisphere, and mPFC-DMN-features, showed only an association with AD-status (p < 0.05) but not with age. Hippocampi volumes showed an association both with age and AD-status (p < 0.05).Smallest-hippocampus-volume was the most discriminative feature. The best performance (accuracy:0.74, sensitivity:0.74, specificity:0.74) was obtained with an RF-model combining the best feature from each feature-group (smallest hippocampus volume, WM volume, median GM MD, lTPJ-mPFC connectivity and structural interhemispheric frontal connectivity) and age. CONCLUSIONS: Brain connectivity changes caused by AD are reflected in multiple MRI-biomarkers. Decline in both the functional DMN-connectivity and the parietal interhemispheric structural connectivity may assist sepparating healthy-aging driven changes from AD, complementing hippocampal volumes which are affected by both aging and AD.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel (E)-N'-(3-allyl-2-hydroxy)benzylidene-2-(4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetohydrazides as antitumor agents.

In our continuing search for novel small-molecule anticancer agents, we designed and synthesized a series of novel (E)-N'-(3-allyl-2-hydroxy)benzylidene-2-(4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetohydrazides (5), focusing on the modification of substitution in the quinazolin-4(3H)-one moiety. The biological evaluation showed that all 13 designed and synthesized compounds displayed significant cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines (SW620, colon cancer; PC-3, prostate cancer; NCI-H23, lung cancer). The most potent compound 5l displayed cytotoxicity up to 213-fold more potent than 5-fluorouracil and 87-fold more potent than PAC-1, the first procaspase-activating compound. Structure-activity relationship analysis revealed that substitution of either electron-withdrawing or electron-releasing groups at positions 6 or 7 on the quinazolin-4(3H)-4-one moiety increased the cytotoxicity of the compounds, but substitution at position 6 seemed to be more favorable. In the caspase activation assay, compound 5l was found to activate the caspase activity by 291% in comparison to PAC-1, which was used as a control. Further docking simulation also revealed that this compound may be a potent allosteric inhibitor of procaspase-3 through chelation of the inhibitory zinc ion. Physicochemical and ADMET calculations for 5l provided useful information of its suitable absorption profile and some toxicological effects that need further optimization to be developed as a promising anticancer agent.

Faster Form of Electron Magnetic Reconnection with a Finite Length X-Line.

Observations in Earth's turbulent magnetosheath downstream of a quasiparallel bow shock reveal a prevalence of electron-scale current sheets favorable for electron-only reconnection where ions are not coupled to the reconnecting magnetic fields. In small-scale turbulence, magnetic structures associated with intense current sheets are limited in all dimensions. And since the coupling of ions are constrained by a minimum length scale, the dynamics of electron reconnection is likely to be 3D. Here, both 2D and 3D kinetic particle-in-cell simulations are used to investigate electron-only reconnection, focusing on the reconnection rate and associated electron flows. A new form of 3D electron-only reconnection spontaneously develops where the magnetic X-line is localized in the out-of-plane (z) direction. The consequence is an enhancement of the reconnection rate compared with two dimensions, which results from differential mass flux out of the diffusion region along z, enabling a faster inflow velocity and thus a larger reconnection rate. This outflow along z is due to the magnetic tension force in z just as the conventional exhaust tension force, allowing particles to leave the diffusion region efficiently along z unlike the 2D configuration.

Comparison of Duplex and Quadruplex Folding Structure Adenosine Aptamers for Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor Aptasensors.

Carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNT FET) aptasensors have been investigated for the detection of adenosine using two different aptamer sequences, a 35-mer and a 27-mer. We found limits of detection for adenosine of 100 pM and 320 nM for the 35-mer and 27-mer aptamers, with dissociation constants of 1.2 nM and 160 nM, respectively. Upon analyte recognition the 35-mer adenosine aptamer adopts a compact G-quadruplex structure while the 27-mer adenosine aptamer changes to a folded duplex. Using the CNT FET aptasensor platform adenosine could be detected with high sensitivity over the range of 100 pM to 10 µM, highlighting the suitability of the CNT FET aptasensor platform for high performance adenosine detection. The aptamer restructuring format is critical for high sensitivity with the G-quadraplex aptasensor having a 130-fold smaller dissociation constant than the duplex forming aptasensor.