Semiconducting Properties of Delaminated Titanium Nitride Ti4N3Tx MXene with Gate-Tunable Electrical Conductivity.

MXenes have garnered significant attention due to their atomically thin two-dimensional structure with metallic electronic properties. However, it has not yet been fully achieved to discover semiconducting MXenes to implement them into gate-tunable electronics such as field-effect transistors and phototransistors. Here, a semiconducting Ti4N3Tx MXene synthesized by using a modified oxygen-assisted molten salt etching method under ambient conditions, is reported. The oxygen-rich synthesis environment significantly enhances the etching reaction rate and selectivity of Al from a Ti4AlN3 MAX phase, resulting in well-delaminated and highly crystalline Ti4N3Tx MXene with minimal defects and high content of F and O, which led to its improved hydrophobicity and thermal stability. Notably, the synthesized Ti4N3Tx MXene exhibited p-type semiconducting characteristics, including gate-tunable electrical conductivity, with a current on-off ratio of 5 × 103 and a hole mobility of ∼0.008 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 243 K. The semiconducting property crucial for thin-film transistor applications is evidently associated with the surface terminations and the partial substitution of oxygen in the nitrogen lattice, as corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, the synthesized Ti4N3Tx exhibits strong light absorption characteristics and photocurrent generation. These findings highlight the delaminated Ti4N3Tx as an emerging two-dimensional semiconducting material for potential electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Pregnant women with chronic hepatitis B virus infection at the assessment of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate prescription: Baseline characteristics of a prospective cohort study in Vietnam.

Objectives: We aimed to determine epidemiological characteristics and serologic markers among chronically hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected pregnant women during the assessment of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) prescription in Vietnam. Methods: We consecutively recruited 375 pregnant women with chronic HBV (cHBV) infection at week 25±2 of pregnancy, at which time they were assessed for TDF use as pre-prophylaxis and/or pre-treatment at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in southern Vietnam during December 2019-April 2021. Demographic characteristics, serological biomarkers, and prenatal liver ultrasounds were obtained through interviews and reviews of medical records. Results: The median age of pregnant women was 29 years (interquartile range: 26-32). More than half of pregnant women (208/375; 55.5%) started TDF for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HBV and/or treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Among the pregnant women initiating TDF, 96.1% (198/206) tested positive for hepatitis B e antigen, and 21.6% (45/208) had quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg) ≤104 IU/mL. A relatively strong correlation between qHBsAg and HBV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (r = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.76-0.85) was observed in pregnant women starting TDF. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the high need for TDF prescription for prevention and/or treatment purposes in pregnant women with cHBV infection. Pregnant women with qHBsAg levels ≤104 IU/mL may prioritize HBV DNA testing over qHBsAg to decide on TDF prescription.

Demand for mental health support services among health professionals in Vietnam: Lesson from COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to measure the preferences for mental health support among health professionals, their willingness to support the mental health of colleagues and associated factors. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed from August to October 2022 within five hospitals located in Hanoi, Vietnam. A total of 244 health professionals participated in the study. Data on socio-economic status, health and COVID-19-related characteristics, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21); and preferences for mental health support services were collected by using a structured self-reported questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression models were utilized to identify associated factors with the demand for mental support services. RESULTS: 13.9%, 17.1% and 8.6% reported having at least mild depression, anxiety and stress, respectively. There 13.9% did not seek any mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common support included talking with friends (52.9%), family (50.8%), colleagues (47.6%) and using social networks/Internet (43.5%). There 31.1% had been aware of mental health services, but only 18.0% used this service at least once. Regarding preferences, 47.3% had a demand for mental support services, and the most preferred service was providing coping skills (25.9%), followed by skills to support others against mental problems (22.2%). Major sources of support included psychiatrists (34.4%), colleagues (29.1%) and family (27.9%). The main preferred channels for support included telephone/mobile phone (35.7%) and Internet (20.9%). Only 12.3% were willing to provide mental support for colleagues during the pandemic. Age, education, perceived mental health status, ever seeking any mental service, and DASS-21 depression score were associated with demand for mental support services. CONCLUSION: This study found a lack of awareness of mental health services for health professionals, as well as moderate levels of demand for this service in this population. Raising awareness and developing tailored mental health support services are important to enhancing the mental well-being of health professionals in Vietnam to prepare for the next pandemic.

Anti-Staphylococcus aureus potential of compounds from Ganoderma sp.: A comprehensive molecular docking and simulation approaches.

In this study, a series of secondary metabolites from Ganoderma sp. were screened against Staphylococcus aureus protein targets, including as phosphotransacetylase, clumping factor A, and dihydrofolate reductase, using molecular docking simulations. The chemicals that showed the strongest binding energy with the targeted proteins were ganodermanontriol, lucidumol B, ganoderic acid J, ergosterol, ergosterol peroxide, 7-oxoganoderic acid Z, ganoderic acid AM1, ganosinoside A, ganoderic acid D, and 24R-ergosta-7,2E-diene-3ß,5α,6ß-triol. Interestingly, ganosinoside A showed the greatest affinity for the protein clumping factor A, a result validated by molecular dynamic simulation. Additionally, three natural Ganoderma sp. Strains as Ganoderma lingzhi VNKKK1903, Ganoderma lingzhi VNKK1905A2, and Amauroderma subresinosum VNKKK1904 were collected from Kon Ka Kinh National Park in central land of Vietnam and evaluated for their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus using an agar well diffusion technique. These results suggest that the fungal extracts and secondary metabolites may serve as valuable sources of antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus. These findings provided an important scientific groundwork for further exploration of the antibacterial mechanisms of compounds derived from Ganoderma sp. in future research.

In vitro inhibition of 5-α reductase and in vivo suppression of benign prostatic hyperplasia by Physalis angulata ethyl acetate extract.

The inhibitory effect against 5-α reductase of the ethyl acetate (EA) extract from Physalis angulata was evaluated in vitro using mouse prostate homogenates, and the suppression of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was assessed in a mouse model of testosterone-induced BPH. The EA extract exhibited a potentially inhibitory effect on 5-α reductase with an IC50 of 197 µg/ml. In BPH mice, the EA extract at a dose of 12 mg/kg was comparable to finasteride 5 mg/kg in suppressing BPH in terms of reducing absolute enlarged prostate weight (p < 0.05 vs. BPH group) and mitigating the hypertrophy of glandular elements and prostate connective tissue. Identification of chemical ingredients in the EA extract by UPLC-QTOF-MS revealed 37 substances belonging chiefly to flavonoids and physalins. Further quantification of the EA extract by HPLC-PDA methods revealed that chlorogenic acid, and rutin were the main components. Molecular docking studies of chlorogenic acid and rutin on 5-α reductase showed their high affinity to the enzyme with binding energies of -9.3 and - 9.2 kcal/mol, respectively compared with finasteride (- 10.3 kcal/mol). Additionally, chlorogenic acid inhibited 5-α reductase with an IC50 of 12.07 µM while rutin did not. The presence of chlorogenic acid in the EA extract may explain the inhibitory effects of the EA extract on 5-α reductase, and thus the suppression of BPH.

SABRE hyperpolarization of nicotinamide derivatives and their molecular dynamics properties.

Signal amplification by reversible exchange hyperpolarization explores the chemical structure and kinetic properties of nicotinamide derivatives. N-Benzyl nicotinamide and nicotinic acid hydrazide compounds display relatively fast dissociation rates of approximately 7-8 s-1 and long proton T1 relaxation times of 5-20 s, respectively. Consequently, these substrates exhibit remarkable signal enhancements, reaching approximately 175 and 102 fold, respectively, underscoring the efficacy of the hyperpolarization technique in elucidating the behavior of these compounds.

Identification of Phenolic Compounds from Vietnamese Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) Leaf and Their Antioxidant Activities

Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a perennial plant belonging to the Asteraceae family originating from the Mediterranean region. In Vietnam, there are some varieties of artichoke which are extensively cultivated and propagated in highland areas, however, there have been limited detailed scientific publications on the chemical composition and biological activity of artichoke grown in Vietnam. Therefore, this study provides a detailed description of the extraction, isolation, and structural determination of 20 natural secondary metabolites present in harvested artichoke. The antioxidant activity of the extract and the 9 isolated compounds are tested in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging and ex vivo malondialdehyde model. Among the selected compounds, 1-caffeoylquinic acid, 3-caffeoylquinic acid, chlorogenic acid, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, cynarin, 1,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid, cynaroside, and scolymoside exhibited strong radical scavenging activity with IC50 values ranging from 5.7 to 61.6 µM. In the malondialdehyde assay, 1,3-dicaffeoylquinic acid (or cynarin) showed the strongest activity with an IC50 value of 24.7 µM, followed by 1,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid (66.8 µM), and 4,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid (127.3 µM). This outcome contributes to establishing a database on the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of the Vietnamese artichoke.

A conformal multi-port MIMO patch antenna for 5G wireless devices.

This paper presents a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array with low-profile and flexible characteristics. Multiple microstrip patches are arranged in the E-plane configuration and decoupled by shorted quarter-wavelength stubs. The antenna has a small element spacing of 0.032 λ, where λ is a free-space wavelength at the center frequency. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept, a 1 × 4 MIMO array prototype is fabricated. The measured results on the fabricated prototype demonstrate that the MIMO antenna has good operation features at 4.8 GHz with a reflection coefficient of less than -10 dB and an isolation of better than 20 dB. Besides, good radiation patterns and broadside gain of around 4.5 dBi are also attained. The antenna also works in the bending mode and has the capability of extending to large-scale MIMO arrays. Such attractive features prove the utility of the proposed antenna in various modern electronic devices.

Dataset on the compounds from the leaves of Vietnamese Machilus thunbergii and their anti-inflammatory activity.

Machilus thunbergii has a history of traditional applications including treating dyspepsia, apoplexy, headaches, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and leg edema [1]. It is also employed for alleviating allergies, inflammation, pain relief, promoting blood circulation, addressing costal chondritis, and sinusitis [2]. Research into the chemical composition of M. thunbergii has revealed the presence of lignans, flavonoids, lactones, and essential oils [1,[3], [4], [5]. While some investigations have explored the inhibitory effects of extracts and lignan compounds from this species on NO production [6], [7], [8], there has been no research into the flavonoids isolated from this plant and their potential for inhibiting NO production, given our reachable referencing. The ethyl acetate (EtOAc) soluble fraction of M. thunbergii leaves was subjected to column chromatography (CC) using silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 for compound isolation. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data primarily facilitated the determination of isolated compound structures. Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Anti-inflammatory activity-guided fractionation led to the isolation of twelve secondary metabolites (1-12). The compounds were identified as quercetin (1), kaempferol (2), rhamnetin (3), quercitrin (4), hyperoside (5), reynoutrin (6), guaijaverin (7), afzelin (8), astragalin (9), rutin (10), kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (11), and rhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside (12). Compounds 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, and 12 were isolated from M. thunbergii for the first time. Evaluation against LPS-induced NO production in macrophage RAW264.7 cells showed that 1-3 exhibited potent inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 15.45, 25.44, and 19.82 µM, respectively. Compounds 4-9 demonstrated IC50 values ranging from 42.15 to 67.42 µM, while 10-12 exhibited inactivity (IC50 > 100 µM).

Public healthcare system utilization for chronic hepatitis C infection in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare utilization is typically adversely affected when the treatment is expensive and requires multiple visits. We examined the determinants of healthcare-seeking for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection which is asymptomatic, chronic, and requires costly treatment in an urban tertiary care referral hospital in Vietnam. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of hospital data for patients attending the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam between 2017 and 2020 specifically for HCV infection treatment. Poisson regression was used to determine the effect of personal factors (age, sex, comorbidities) and structural factors (health insurance, proximity to the facility, seasonality, year of visit) on the number of hospital visits. RESULTS: From 2017 to 2020 a total of 22,052 eligible patients sought treatment in the hospital. Among the patients, 50.4% were males and 58.7% were > 50 years of age. The mean number of visits per person was 2.17. In the multivariate analysis compared to 2017, the number of hospital visits increased by 4% in 2018 and then significantly decreased in 2019 and 2020. Visit numbers were significantly lower (6%) among South East region residents compared to those from Central Highlands and for those who lived further away from the hospital. The visit numbers were significantly higher among older age groups (5-11%), those with health insurance (6%), and those with comorbidities (5%) compared to others. Although the number of hospital visits by females was higher (7%) than males in 2017, it significantly decreased in subsequent years. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that there are both structural and individual factors affecting the number of visits for HCV treatment. To meet the global strategy for elimination of HCV, Vietnam Government needs to address the structural and personal barriers to healthcare seeking, with a special focus on women.

Thickness-Dependent Room-Temperature Optoelectronic Gas Sensing Performances of 2D Nonlayered Indium Oxide Crystals from a Liquid Metal Printing Process.

Due to excellent gas sensing performances, such as high responsivity, good selectivity, and long-term stability, two-dimensional (2D) nonlayered metal oxide semiconductors have attracted wide attention. However, their thickness-dependent gas sensing behaviors are rarely investigated, which is critical in the development of practical 2D sensors. In this work, 2D In2O3 crystals with a range of thicknesses are realized by extracting the self-limited oxide layer from the liquid indium droplets in a controlled environment. A strong thickness-dependent optoelectronic NO2 sensing behavior at room temperature is observed. While full reversibility and excellent selectivity toward NO2 are shown despite the thicknesses of 2D In2O3, the 1.9 nm thick In2O3 exhibits a maximum response amplitude (ΔI/Ig = 1300) for 10 ppm of NO2 at room temperature with 365 nm light irradiation, which is about 18, 58, and 810 times larger than those of its 3.1 nm thick, 4.5 nm thick, and 6.2 nm thick counterparts, respectively. The shortest response and recovery times (i.e., 40 s/48 s) are demonstrated for the 1.88 nm thick In2O3 as well. We correlate such a phenomenon with the change in the In2O3 band structure, which is influenced by the thickness of 2D crystals. This work provides in-depth knowledge of the thickness-dependent gas-sensing performances of emerging 2D nonlayered metal oxide crystals, as well as the opportunities to develop next-generation high-performing room-temperature gas sensors.

Image-Based Ship Detection Using Deep Variational Information Bottleneck.

Image-based ship detection is a critical function in maritime security. However, lacking high-quality training datasets makes it challenging to train a robust supervision deep learning model. Conventional methods use data augmentation to increase training samples. This approach is not robust because the data augmentation may not present a complex background or occlusion well. This paper proposes to use an information bottleneck and a reparameterization trick to address the challenge. The information bottleneck learns features that focus only on the object and eliminate all backgrounds. It helps to avoid background variance. In addition, the reparameterization introduces uncertainty during the training phase. It helps to learn more robust detectors. Comprehensive experiments show that the proposed method outperforms conventional methods on Seaship datasets, especially when the number of training samples is small. In addition, this paper discusses how to integrate the information bottleneck and the reparameterization into well-known object detection frameworks efficiently.

Complement Regulatory Protein CD46 Manifests a Unique Role in Promoting the Migration of Bladder Cancer Cells.

CD46 is a membrane-bound complement regulatory protein (mCRP) possessing a regulatory role with the complement system. CD46 protects the host cells from damage by complement. Expression of CD46 is also highly maintained in many cancers, including bladder cancers, and thus functions as a receptor for many cancer therapeutic viruses. In this study we report a unique role of CD46 as a progression factor of cancer cells in bladder cancers. Resulting data from a DNA microarray using CD46-altered HT1376 bladder cancers demonstrated a pool of target genes, including complement C3 α chain (C3α), matrix Gla protein (MGP), AFAP-AS1, follicular dendritic cell secreted protein (FDCSP), MAM domain containing 2 (MAMDC2), gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor pi (GABRP), transforming growth factor, beta-induced (TGFBI), a family of cytochrome P450 (CYP24A1), sialic acid binding Ig-like lectin 6 (SIGLEC6), metallothionein 1E (MT1E), and several members of cytokeratins. Subsequent studies using quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot analyses confirmed CD46-mediated regulation of C3α, MGP, and keratin 13 (KRT13). MGP and KRT13 are known to be involved in cell migration and cancer cell metastasis. A cell migration assay demonstrated that CD46 enhanced migratory potential of bladder cancer cells. Taken all together, this report demonstrated that CD46 is generally overexpressed in bladder cancers and plays a unique role in the promotion of cancer cell migration. Further detailed studies are needed to be performed to clarify the action mechanism of CD46 and its application to cancer therapeutics.

Phylogenetic analysis and morphology of Ganoderma multipileum, a Ganoderma species associated with dieback of the metropolitan woody plant Delonix regia (Boj. ex Hook.) Raf. in Vietnam.

Ganoderma multipileum, a wood decay mushroom, was initially discovered and classified in Taiwan through the analysis of its morphology and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. In this study, we identified a mushroom associated with the dieback of Delonix regia (Boj. ex Hook.) Raf., a woody ornamental street tree in Vietnam, as Ganoderma multipileum. This classification was based on phylogenetic analysis of ITS, RPB2, and TEF1 sequences, as well as morphology assessment and scanning electron microscope observation of basidiospores. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the specimens collected in Vietnam formed a monophyletic group of Ganoderma multipileum with a high bootstrap value and posterior probability (100%/1.00). Furthermore, the morphological features consistent with laccate Ganoderma, including a thin pileipellis composed of enlarged and bulbous hyphae, and the basidiomes exhibited two different phenotypes. Notably, scanning electron microscopy of the basidiospores revealed ovoid spores with numerous echinules, providing the first documented evidence of this characteristic for Ganoderma multipileum. This research represents the first recorded instance of Ganoderma multipileum in Vietnam associated with the dieback of Delonix regia.

A novel adaptive neural network-based time-delayed estimation control for nonlinear systems subject to disturbances and unknown dynamics.

This paper presents an adaptive backstepping-based model-free control (BSMFC) for general high-order nonlinear systems (HNSs) subject to disturbances and unstructured uncertainties to enhance the system tracking performance. The proposed methodology is constructed based on the backstepping control (BSC) with radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) -based time-delayed estimation (TDE) to overcome the obstacle of unknown system dynamics. Additionally, a command-filtered (CF) approach is involved to address the complexity explosion of the BSC design. As the errors arising from approximation, new control laws are established to reduce the effects in this regard. The stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed through the Lyapunov theorem and the superiority of the proposed methodology is confirmed through a comparative simulation with other model-free approaches.

Rethinking Feature Generalization in Vacant Space Detection.

Vacant space detection is critical in modern parking lots. However, deploying a detection model as a service is not an easy task. As the camera in a new parking is set up at different heights or viewing angles from the original parking lot where the training data are collected, the performance of the vacant space detector could be degraded. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed a method to learn generalized features so that the detector can work better in different environments. In detail, the features are suitable for a vacant detection task and robust to environmental change. We use a reparameterization process to model the variance from the environment. In addition, a variational information bottleneck is used to ensure the learned feature focus on only the appearance of a car in a specific parking space. Experimental results show that performances on a new parking lot increase significantly when only data from source parking are used in the training phase.

Isolation, structural elucidation, and cytotoxic activity investigation of novel styryl-lactone derivatives from Goniothalamus elegans: in vitro and in silico studies.

Two styryl-lactone derivatives (1 and 2) were isolated from the aerial parts of Goniothalamus elegans. Compound 1 is a newly discovered natural product, and compound 2 is reported in this plant for the first time. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined based on the ECD spectrum. The two styryl-lactone derivatives were tested for cytotoxicity activity against five cancer cell lines and human embryonic kidney cells. The newly discovered compound demonstrated potent cytotoxicity, with IC50 values ranging from 2.05 to 3.96 µM. Computational methods were also applied to investigate the mechanism of the cytotoxic activity of the two compounds. Density functional theory and molecular mechanisms were used to assess the interaction between protein targets to compound 1 and 2, respectively, through the EGF/EGFR signaling pathway. The results indicated that 1 showed a strong binding affinity for two proteins EGFR and HER-2. Finally, ADMET predictions were used to validate the pharmacokinetics and toxicity of these compounds. The results showed that both compounds are likely to be absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Based on our findings, these compounds may have potential for further studies to be developed into active ingredients for cancer treatment.

Real-World Treatment Intensity and Patterns in Patients With Myopic Choroidal Neovascularization: Common Data Model in Ophthalmology.

BACKGROUND: A paucity of data addressing real-world treatment of myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV) in the era of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs led us to investigate real-world treatment intensity and treatment patterns in patients with mCNV. METHODS: This is a retrospective, observational study using the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership-Common Data Model database of treatment-naïve patients with mCNV over the 18-year study period (2003-2020). Outcomes were treatment intensity (time trends of total/average number of prescriptions, mean number of prescriptions in the first year and the second year after initiating treatment, proportion of patients with no treatment in the second year) and treatment patterns (subsequent patterns of treatment according to the initial treatment). RESULTS: Our final cohort included 94 patients with at-least 1-year observation period. Overall, 96.8% of patients received anti-VEGF drugs as first-line treatment, with most of injections from bevacizumab. The number of anti-VEGF injections in each calendar year showed an increasing trend over time; however, there was a drop in the mean number of injections in the second year compared to the first year from 2.09 to 0.47. About 77% of patients did not receive any treatment in their second year of treatment regardless of drugs. Most of patients (86.2%) followed non-switching monotherapy only and bevacizumab was the most popular choice either in the first-line (68.1%) or in the second-line (53.8%) of treatment. Aflibercept was increasingly used as the first-line treatment for patients with mCNV. CONCLUSION: Anti-VEGF drugs have become the treatment of choice and second-line treatment for mCNV over the past decade. Anti-VEGF drugs are effective for the treatment of mCNV as the non-switching monotherapy is the main treatment regimen in most cases and the number of treatments decreases significantly in the second year of treatment.

Investigating the antibacterial mechanism of Ampelopsis cantoniensis extracts against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus via in vitro and in silico analysis.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a critical pathogen responsible for a wide variety of serious infectious diseases in humans. The accelerated phenomena of drug tolerance, drug resistance, and dysbacteriosis provoked by antibiotic misuse are impeding the effectiveness of contemporary antibiotic therapies primarily used to treat this common worldwide pathogen. In this study, the antibacterial activity of 70% ethanol extract and multiple polar solvents of Ampelopsis cantoniensis were measured against the clinical MRSA isolate. The agar diffusion technique was employed to determine the zone of inhibition (ZOI), accompanied by the use of a microdilution series to identify the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC). Our results revealed that the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited the most significant antibacterial activity, which was determined to be bacteriostatic based on the MBC/MIC ratio 8. A list of compounds isolated from A. cantoniensis was computationally studied to further investigate the mechanism of action with the bacterial membrane protein PBP2a. The combination of molecular docking and molecular dynamics methods showed that the main compound, dihydromyricetin (DHM), is expected to bind to PBP2a at allosteric site. In addition, DHM was identified as the major compound of ethyl acetate fraction, which accounts for 77.03 ± 2.44% by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. As a concluding remark, our study addressed the antibacterial mechanism and suggested the prioritization of natural products derived from A. cantoniensis as a potential therapy for MRSA.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

The impact of cold waves and heat waves on mortality: Evidence from a lower middle-income country.

We estimate the impact of temperature extremes on mortality in Vietnam, using daily data on temperatures and monthly data on mortality during the 2000-2018 period. We find that both cold and heat waves cause higher mortality, particularly among older people and those living in the hot regions in Southern Vietnam. This effect on mortality tends to be smaller in provinces with higher rates of air-conditioning and emigration, and provinces with higher public spending on health. Finally, we estimate economic cost of cold and heat waves using a framework of willingness to pay to avoid deaths, then project the cost to the year 2100 under different Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios.