Hepatoprotective effect of Phytosome Curcumin against paracetamol-induced liver toxicity in mice

Curcuma longa, which contains curcumin as a major constituent, has been shown many pharmacological effects, but it is limited using in clinical due to low bioavailability. In this study, we developed a phytosome curcumin formulation and evaluated the hepatoprotective effect of phytosome curcumin on paracetamol induced liver damage in mice. Phytosome curcumin (equivalent to curcumin 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight) and curcumin (200 mg/kg body weight) were given by gastrically and toxicity was induced by paracetamol (500 mg/kg) during 7 days. On the final day animals were sacrificed and liver function markers (ALT, AST), hepatic antioxidants (SOD, CAT and GPx) and lipid peroxidation in liver homogenate were estimated. Our data showed that phytosome has stronger hepatoprotective effect compared to curcumin-free. Administration of phytosome curcumin effectively suppressed paracetamol-induced liver injury evidenced by a reduction of lipid peroxidation level, and elevated enzymatic antioxidant activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase in mice liver tissue. Our study suggests that phytosome curcumin has strong antioxidant activity and potential hepatoprotective effects

SURVEYING THE VIETNAMESE YOUTH ON THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In the context of globalization and the rapid development of the Internet, social networks have become an indispensable part of the lives of citizens in the 21st century. In addition to helping people communicate and connect, wireless platforms bring benefits to work, study, and entertainment. However, faced with the staggering increase in the use of social networks, many argue that they can have negative impacts on users, particularly those who are studying or working. This study aims to provide readers with an overview of the negative impacts of social networks on Vietnamese youth. The research data was collected by gathering reputable sources and surveying young people born between 1995 and 2010, belonging to Generation Z, who are living, studying, and working in major cities in Vietnam and using social networks. Through statistical analysis and data processing, the results show that the use of communication platforms has a negative impact on the productivity and health of Vietnamese youth. To minimize the negative impacts on daily life, young people should consider the amount of time they spend using social networks and the content they publish. Additionally, protecting personal information and building positive communities is necessary to avoid unnecessary risks

LAPFormer: A Light and Accurate Polyp Segmentation Transformer

Polyp segmentation is still known as a difficult problem due to the large variety of polyp shapes, scanning and labeling modalities. This prevents deep learning model to generalize well on unseen data. However, Transformer-based approach recently has achieved some remarkable results on performance with the ability of extracting global context better than CNN-based architecture and yet lead to better generalization. To leverage this strength of Transformer, we propose a new model with encoder-decoder architecture named LAPFormer, which uses a hierarchical Transformer encoder to better extract global feature and combine with our novel CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) decoder for capturing local appearance of the polyps. Our proposed decoder contains a progressive feature fusion module designed for fusing feature from upper scales and lower scales and enable multi-scale features to be more correlative. Besides, we also use feature refinement module and feature selection module for processing feature. We test our model on five popular benchmark datasets for polyp segmentation, including Kvasir, CVC-Clinic DB, CVC-ColonDB, CVC-T, and ETIS-LaribComment: 7 pages, 7 figures, ACL 2023 underrevie

A closed device to generate vortex flow using PZT

This paper reports for the first time a millimeter scale fully packaged device which generates a vortex flow of high velocity. The flow which is simply actuated by a PZT diaphragm circulates with a higher velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in a desired chamber. The design of such device is firstly conducted by a numerical analysis using OpenFOAM. Several numerical results are considered as the base of our experiment where a flow vortex is observed by a high speed camera. The present device is potential in various applications related to the inertial sensing, fluidic amplifier and micro/nano particle trapping and mixing

Vortex flow generator utilizing synthetic jets by diaphragm vibration

This paper develops a millimeter scale fully packaged device in which a vortex flow of high velocity is generated inside a chamber. Under the actuation by a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm, a flow circulates with increasing velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in a cavity named as the vortex chamber. At each cycle, the vibration of the PZT diaphragm creates a small net air flow through a rectifying nozzle, generates a synthetic jet which propagates by a gradual circulation toward the vortex chamber and then backward the feedback chamber. The design of such device is firstly conducted by a numerical analysis whose results are considered as the base of our experimental set-up. A vortex flow generated in the votex chamber was observed by a high-speed camera. The present approach which was illustrated by both the simulation and experiment is potential in various applications related to the inertial sensing, fluidic amplifier and micro/nano particle trapping and mixing

Refinement of an inverse analysis procedure for estimating tensile constitutive law of UHPC

As regard to cementitious composite materials added a certain dosage of fiber, estimation of tensile constitutive law through inverse analysis methods is no longer extraordinary. However, development or improvement to achieve an effective method for estimating such a tensile behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) or Ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC) is still an interesting topic to researchers. In this respect, the paper presents a development of inverse analysis method developed by Lopez to obtain the stress-strain behavior of UHPC from the four-point bending test. By applying optimization algorithm into the iterative procedure of method, an improvement could be obtained for the inverse analysis with a high degree of automation in calculation. A post-process treatment for inverse analysis results is also proposed to bring a finer agreement between the tensile behavior curve obtained by the inverse analysis and result curve of uniaxial tensile test (UTT). The effectivity of process is shown through a comparison between the result obtained by the proposed method and the result in Lopez’s public paper

Refinement of an inverse analysis procedure for estimating tensile constitutive law of UHPC

As regard to cementitious composite materials added a certain dosage of fiber, estimation of tensile constitutive law through inverse analysis methods is no longer extraordinary. However, development or improvement to achieve an effective method for estimating such a tensile behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) or Ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC) is still an interesting topic to researchers. In this respect, the paper presents a development of inverse analysis method developed by Lopez to obtain the stress-strain behavior of UHPC from the four-point bending test. By applying optimization algorithm into the iterative procedure of method, an improvement could be obtained for the inverse analysis with a high degree of automation in calculation. A post-process treatment for inverse analysis results is also proposed to bring a finer agreement between the tensile behavior curve obtained by the inverse analysis and result curve of uniaxial tensile test (UTT). The effectivity of process is shown through a comparison between the result obtained by the proposed method and the result in Lopez’s public paper

Corona based air-flow using parallel discharge electrodes

A novel air-flow generator based on the effect of ion wind has been developed by the simultaneous generation of both positive and negative ions using two electrodes of opposite polarity placed in parallel. Unlike the conventional unipolar-generators, this bipolar configuration creates an ion wind, which moves away from both electrodes and yields a very low net charge on the device. The electro-hydrodynamic behavior of air-flow has been experimentally and numerically studied. The velocity of ion wind reaches values up to 1.25 m/s using low discharge current 5 mu-A with the kinetic conversion efficiency of 0.65% and the released net charge of �30 fA, 8 orders of magnitude smaller compared with the discharge current. Due to easy scalability and low net charge, the present configuration is beneficial to applications with space constraints and/or where neutralized discharge process is required, such as inertial fluidic units, circulatory flow heat transfer, electrospun polymer nanofiber to overcome the intrinsically instability of the process, or the formation of low charged aerosol

Heterogeneous integration approach based on flip-chip bonding and misalignment self-correction elements for electronics-optics integration applications

This paper presents a high precision bonding approach, capable of submicron alignment accuracy, based on the thermosonic flip-chip bonding technique and misalignment self-correction elements. The precision of the bonding technique is guaranteed by using of misalignment self-correction bump (convex) and hollow (concave) elements. Metal cone bump and conductive sloped hollow bonding pad elements are created using micro-machining techniques, on a chip specimen and substrate, respectively. The chip and substrate are bonded face-to-face using of an ultrasonic-enhanced flip-chip bonder. By introducing of misalignment self-correction elements, repeatable bonding accuracies of less than 500 nm were confirmed through experimental investigation. Bond properties, including electrical and mechanical properties, are also characterized to confirm the success of the bonding approach. With the obtained results, the proposed bonding approach is capable of being use in electronics-optics heterogeneous integration applications

Correlation between Resilient Modulus MR and Deviator Stress for Subgrade soils of northern provinces in Vietnam

Recently, Resilient Modulus is applied in pavement structural design in Vietnam. The resilient modulus of subgrade soil is an essential input parameter for a flexible pavement design. The resilient modulus depends on soil properties, stress state, and soil type.  However, there is limited research on resilient modulus of soils and models to estimate resilient modulus in Vietnam. Therefore, in this study, soil samples were collected from two provinces in northern Vietnam, namely Bac Giang province and Ninh Binh province, and then physical and mechanical tests were conducted for these samples. In addition, a series of cyclic triaxial tests also conducted according to AASHTO T307 specification to obtain resilient modulus of these soils.  The results showed that the resilient modulus decreased with the increase of deviator stress for Bac Giang samples and increased with the increase of deviator stress in the case of Ninh Binh samples. Simple deviator stress models have developed to estimate a resilient modulus of soils in the area