Efficiency of ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region in identifying Cordyceps species

Cordyceps genus is a well-known traditional medicine worldwide. It contains abundant physiological active compounds that were demonstrated to perform benefit in reducing progression of cancer as well as protecting human health. Accurately classifying species in this genus is essential in order to prevent commercial counterfeit medicines. Nowadays, a taxonomic classification of species based on DNA sequences can overcome the existed limitation in identifying by using only morphological characteristics of this genus. DNA barcodes are standard short genomic regions that are universally present in target lineages and has sufficient sequence variation to discriminate species in the genus. A variety of loci has been suggested as DNA barcodes for plants, including genes and non-coding regions in the nuclear and plastid genomes such as psbA-trnH, matK, rbcL, and ITS. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify selected species of Cordyceps genus using DNA barcodes. Seven strains of Cordyceps were collected. Total DNA extraction and purification, PCR amplification and DNA sequencing were performed with standard chemicals and kits. The candidate ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was amplified and sequenced. Data were analyzed using Bioedit 7.2.6 and MEGA 7 softwares. Analysis of seven obtained DNA barcode sequences of collected samples revealed that the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region provided high species discriminating power for Cordyceps genus. Accordingly, phylogenetic trees based on this DNA barcode exhibited six samples had closed relationship to Cordyceps militaris, while another specimen was the nearest neighbor to Cordyceps sinensis with average similarities at 99.82% and 99.81%, respectively. Our results support the identification of valuable medicinal plant species within Cordyceps genus

Testing edible oil authenticity by using smartphone based spectrometer

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the classification of edible vegetable oils, examining authenticity and in detecting possible adulteration of high quality, expensive extra virgin olive oils with low-cost edible oils. Classical methods such as gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, and Raman spectroscopy have been widely applied to examine the authenticity of edible oils. Despite of their high sensitivity and accuracy, these methods are significantly expensive for daily life testing, especially in resource-poor regions. Furthermore, they are time-consuming as samples have to be analyzed in dedicated laboratories. In this paper, we propose a compact, low-cost, portable smartphone-based spectrometer for testing edible oil authenticity. Using simple laboratory optical components and a smartphone, we developed a compact spectrometer which can function in the wavelength range of 400–700 nm with the spectrum/pixel resolution of 0.334 nm/pixel. The images captured by the smartphone were converted into intensity distribution plots versus wavelength. As a proof of concept, the smartphone based spectrometer was utilized to measure the variations in fluorescent intensity of the mixed oils of expensive extra virgin olive oil and low-cost rice oil with different percentages. The results obtained the spectrometer were in good agreement with that from a laboratory spectrometer, thus, confirmed its adequate sensitivity and accuracy. Due to the cost effectiveness, the adequate sensitivity, and the portability, the smartphone based spectrometer can be applied in numerous applications such as in-field testing, lifestyle monitoring, and home diagnostics.This research was supported by the International Foundation for Science (IFS), Stockholm, Sweden, and by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), through a grant to Dr. Hanh Hong Mai. Grant NO. I-2-W-6258-1

Efficacy and Toxicity of Folfoxiri for Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

BACKGROUND: In recent times, scientists have found new treatments for colorectal cancer patients. AIM: The study is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of triplet combination chemotherapy of 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (FOLFOXIRI) for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in stage IV. METHODS: Uncontrolled clinical trial carried on 39 stage IV colorectal cancer patients. RESULTS: The overall response rate of the treatment was 79.4%. The average progression-free survival was 13.4 ± 9 months. The overall survival rate at 12th month and 24th month were 90% and 76%, respectively. The proportion of granulocytopenia was 48.9%, no grade 3 or 4. Side effect beyond hematology was most seen in hepatic toxicity with 52.5%, mainly at grade 1. Vomiting was 18.3%, all at grade 1. Other adverse event was very low at percentage. CONCLUSIONS: The triplet combination FOLFOXIRI chemotherapy improves the outcome of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer regarding rate of response, overall survival rate and progression-free survival, and the level of toxicity was acceptable

Natural plant colorants widely used in Vietnam traditional food culture

The artificial colorants have gradually been being replaced by natural pigments which are becoming increasingly important in Vietnam and other parts of the world due to the potential noxiousness of man-made food dyes to human health. This research covers colorant plants and sources used commonly in the food culture of ethnic communities in Vietnam with the current trend toward natural pigments and coloring foods. As a result, we reported 49 species which can be used as natural food pigments and of these, 7 colorant plants used mostly in Vietnam traditional food culture were detailed

Determinants Influencing Accounting Quality of Transportation Service Firms

The study aimed to determine what determinants influencing the accounting of transportation service firms working the area of Da Nang of Vietnam. A study model was developed, investigated and analyzed with the involvement of 250 transportation service firms in Da Nang. The results show five determinants influencing the accounting works including industry characteristics; legal guidance; material facilities for accounting; interest in accounting of business owners; accountants’ qualifications. Among them, the two most important determinants influencing the quality of the accounting were legal guidance and interest in accounting of business owners. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made to improve the quality of accounting of transportation service firms. Keywords: Determinants, accounting, transportation services DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-4-08 Publication date: February 29th 202

Towards Green Tourism Development: Customers’ Perception of Using Plastic Products in the 5-star Hotels in Ho Chi Minh City

In recent years, green tourism has become a development trend, attracting the attention of the community, tourism businesses and tourists in many countries around the world. However, the approach of green tourism development in Vietnam is still limited in terms of scale and participants. This article examines the situation of using plastic products and the plastic waste treatment in the 5-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, this study aims to explore the perception of customers of the use of plastic products. By doing so, the study contributes to clarifying the current situation of green tourism development in the hotel sector in the study area. The authors used the research methods of questionnaire, semi-structured interview and non-participant observation to conduct this study. Research results show that although the use of plastic products in hotels is still high, the plastic waste treatment is not thorough because of high treatment costs. But, the hotels tend to change policy on the treatment of plastic waste in an environmentally friendly manner. Besides, customers’ perception of plastic products is completely positive related to their attitudes when using, the willingness to pay and the desire to access more environmentally friendly services and products in the hotel sector. Based on the results, the article also discusses and suggests implications and approaches to developing products and services in hotels towards the development of green tourism and sustainable tourism in the future

Physiochemical properties, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of Terminalia catappa seed oils from two extracting processes

Terminalia catappa is a widespread medium tree species in many tropical countries. While the majority of the studies up to date focuses on the aerial part of the plant such as leaf, stem bark and fruit, information about the phytochemical property as well as the biological property of the edible seed is still scarce. This study was the first to explore the fatty acid composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of the seed oil from T. catappa grown in Vietnam. The results showed that both the hot-pressed and cold-pressed oils contained a high level of unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic (~32%) and linoleic acids (28.38%-29.2%), as well as saturated fatty acids such as palmitic acid (~33.3%-33.61%). The presence of eicosadienoic acid in T. catappa seed oils was reported in this study for the first time. These oils displayed antibacterial activity against 5 out of 12 tested strains such as Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The antioxidant activity of the oils was also recorded by DPPH radical scavenging assays with IC50 values of 950 µg/ml and 2529 µg/ml for cold-pressed oil and hot-pressed oil respectively. This study has provided promising extracting methods and resulted in oils that could be good candidates for developing food sources with valuable fatty acids, antioxidant and antibacterial capacities against both Gram-positive and negative bacteria in the human diet

Relationship between clinicopathologic factors and FDG avidity in radioiodine-negative recurrent or metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma

BACKGROUND: In this study, we investigated the relationship between clinicopathologic factors, BRAF METHODS: From 2015 to 2018 all patients with suspected recurrent or metastatic radioiodine-negative DTC patients who underwent FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) were retrospectively reviewed. Suspected lesions on FDG PET/CT were biopsied and underwent BRAF RESULTS: Sixty-three consecutive patients, 55 (87.3%) female, with median age of 48 (range 17-81) were included. The majority of patients had BRAF CONCLUSION: The majority of recurrent or metastatic RAI-negative DTC have BRA

INVESTIGATION OF ARSENIC RELEASE FROM SEDIMENT MINERALS TO WATER PHASES -MOTIVATION FOR ARSENIC MITIGATION TECHNOLOGY

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Damage detection for a large-scale truss bridge using Tranmissibility and ANNAOA

In this paper, we propose an efficient approach to enhance the capacity of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to deal with Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) problems.  Over the last decades, ANN has been extensively utilized for damage detection in structures. In order to identify damages, ANN frequently utilizes input information that is based on dynamic features such as mode shapes or natural frequencies. However, this type of data may not be able to detect minor damages if the structural defects are insignificant. To transcend these limitations, in this work, we propose utilizing transmissibility to create input data for the input layer of ANN. Moreover, to deal with local minimum problems of ANN, a combination between the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA) and ANN is proposed. The global search capacity of AOA is employed to remedy the local minima of ANN. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a numerical model with different damage scenarios is considered. The suggested approach detects damage location precisely and with higher severity detection precision than the conventional ANN method