An Evaluation of Programmatic Community-Based Chest X-ray Screening for Tuberculosis in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Across Asia, a large proportion of people with tuberculosis (TB) do not report symptoms, have mild symptoms or only experience symptoms for a short duration. These individuals may not seek care at health facilities or may be missed by symptom screening, resulting in sustained TB transmission in the community. We evaluated the yields of TB from 114 days of community-based, mobile chest X-ray (CXR) screening. The yields at each step of the TB screening cascade were tabulated and we compared cohorts of participants who reported having a prolonged cough and those reporting no cough or one of short duration. We estimated the marginal yields of TB using different diagnostic algorithms and calculated the relative diagnostic costs and cost per case for each algorithm. A total of 34,529 participants were screened by CXR, detecting 256 people with Xpert-positive TB. Only 50% of those diagnosed with TB were detected among participants reporting a prolonged cough. The study's screening algorithm detected almost 4 times as much TB as the National TB Program's standard diagnostic algorithm. Community-based, mobile chest X-ray screening can be a high yielding strategy which is able to identify people with TB who would likely otherwise have been missed by existing health services

Plant-arthropod interactions: who is the winner?

Herbivorous arthropods have interacted with plants for millions of years. During feeding they release chemical cues that allow plants to detect the attack and mount an efficient defense response. A signaling cascade triggers the expression of hundreds of genes, which encode defensive proteins and enzymes for synthesis of toxic metabolites. This direct defense is often complemented by emission of volatiles that attract beneficial parasitoids. In return, arthropods have evolved strategies to interfere with plant defenses, either by producing effectors to inhibit detection and downstream signaling steps, or by adapting to their detrimental effect. In this review, we address the current knowledge on the molecular and chemical dialog between plants and herbivores, with an emphasis on co-evolutionary aspects

Defining the function of Amyloid Precursor Protein dimerisation in neuritogenesis

© 2017 Dr. Luan LuuAmyloid Precursor Protein (APP) is known to be primarily involved with Alzheimer’s disease; however APP is also involved with neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity and neuroprotection. Many factors can bind to APP to affect its function and processing. APP can also bind to other membrane bound APP, known as APP dimerisation. We hypothesise that dimerisation of APP can affect the biological actions of APP. This study aims to determine the effect APP dimerisation has on neurite outgrowth and elucidate its mechanism of action. We found that APP dimerisation can reduce neurite outgrowth by modulating extracellular and intracellular signals regulating neurite outgrowth. We determined the effect APP dimerisation has on APP neurite outgrowth by using APP dimerisation mutants, G33I and L17C (these cause decreased and increased APP dimerisation, respectively), transfected into SH-SY5Y cells. To determine if APP dimerisation utilises extracellular signalling to modulate neurite outgrowth, condition media treatment of APP dimerisation mutants was used to determine if a secreted factor was responsible for modulating neurite outgrowth. Intracellular mechanisms including APP localisation, RhoA activity and miRNA expression were investigated. The localisation of APP can affect its function therefore; immunofluorescent imaging was used to determine its localisation. RhoA GTPase is known to negatively regulate neurite outgrowth, therefore RhoA activity was determined using an ELISA based assay that was specific for activated RhoA. The Ion Torrent Next Generation Sequencing system was also used to determine the differential expression of miRNA in the APP dimerisation mutants and these were confirmed by qRT-PCR. APP-L17C mutants inhibit neurite outgrowth by inhibiting the secretion of a neurite outgrowth promoting factor as APPwt condition media treatment rescues neurite outgrowth. APP dimerisation also caused perinuclear APP aggregates which colocalised within the endoplasmic reticulum. RhoA activity is increased in the APP-L17C mutant, and treatment with condition media decreases RhoA activity which correlated with neurite outgrowth. APP dimerisation also affects several miRNA expressions. The miR-125a, miR-135b, miR-34a species, which have a known role to play in the regulation of neuritogenesis, were down regulated and transduction of an miR-34a restored neurite outgrowth back to wild type levels. In conclusion, APP dimerisation reduces neurite outgrowth and can mediate its effects by inhibiting a secreted factor, modulating APP localisation, increasing RhoA activity and modulating the expression of certain miRNAs involved in neurite outgrowth

Defining the function of Amyloid Precursor Protein dimerisation in neuritogenesis

© 2017 Dr. Luan LuuAmyloid Precursor Protein (APP) is known to be primarily involved with Alzheimer’s disease; however APP is also involved with neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity and neuroprotection. Many factors can bind to APP to affect its function and processing. APP can also bind to other membrane bound APP, known as APP dimerisation. We hypothesise that dimerisation of APP can affect the biological actions of APP. This study aims to determine the effect APP dimerisation has on neurite outgrowth and elucidate its mechanism of action. We found that APP dimerisation can reduce neurite outgrowth by modulating extracellular and intracellular signals regulating neurite outgrowth. We determined the effect APP dimerisation has on APP neurite outgrowth by using APP dimerisation mutants, G33I and L17C (these cause decreased and increased APP dimerisation, respectively), transfected into SH-SY5Y cells. To determine if APP dimerisation utilises extracellular signalling to modulate neurite outgrowth, condition media treatment of APP dimerisation mutants was used to determine if a secreted factor was responsible for modulating neurite outgrowth. Intracellular mechanisms including APP localisation, RhoA activity and miRNA expression were investigated. The localisation of APP can affect its function therefore; immunofluorescent imaging was used to determine its localisation. RhoA GTPase is known to negatively regulate neurite outgrowth, therefore RhoA activity was determined using an ELISA based assay that was specific for activated RhoA. The Ion Torrent Next Generation Sequencing system was also used to determine the differential expression of miRNA in the APP dimerisation mutants and these were confirmed by qRT-PCR. APP-L17C mutants inhibit neurite outgrowth by inhibiting the secretion of a neurite outgrowth promoting factor as APPwt condition media treatment rescues neurite outgrowth. APP dimerisation also caused perinuclear APP aggregates which colocalised within the endoplasmic reticulum. RhoA activity is increased in the APP-L17C mutant, and treatment with condition media decreases RhoA activity which correlated with neurite outgrowth. APP dimerisation also affects several miRNA expressions. The miR-125a, miR-135b, miR-34a species, which have a known role to play in the regulation of neuritogenesis, were down regulated and transduction of an miR-34a restored neurite outgrowth back to wild type levels. In conclusion, APP dimerisation reduces neurite outgrowth and can mediate its effects by inhibiting a secreted factor, modulating APP localisation, increasing RhoA activity and modulating the expression of certain miRNAs involved in neurite outgrowth

Effects of silicafume and fly ash on properties of alumina cement

Alumina cement which was used in this investigation contains about 56% of Al2O3 in the component. Early compressive strength alumina cement at 1 and 3 days can be achieved of 85% compressive strength value at 28 days. After a long period of hydration, the compressive strength of alumina cement harder decreased due to the releasing process of aluminum hydroxide [Al(OH)3] to the outside environment [1, 4,11]. To improve and maintain the long lasting compressive strength of alumina cement harden, new binders would be created SiO2- Al2O3 and among CaO-SiO2-Al2O3. The new binders would exist sustainably in the cement harden as a result of the chemical reaction between the product of hydrated cement called gel [Al(OH)3] with micro silica (amorphous SiO2) [4]. This report demonstrates the result of the investigation which is about the effect of silica fume and fly ash on alumina cement

Effects of silicafume and fly ash on properties of alumina cement

Alumina cement which was used in this investigation contains about 56% of Al2O3 in the component. Early compressive strength alumina cement at 1 and 3 days can be achieved of 85% compressive strength value at 28 days. After a long period of hydration, the compressive strength of alumina cement harder decreased due to the releasing process of aluminum hydroxide [Al(OH)3] to the outside environment [1, 4,11]. To improve and maintain the long lasting compressive strength of alumina cement harden, new binders would be created SiO2- Al2O3 and among CaO-SiO2-Al2O3. The new binders would exist sustainably in the cement harden as a result of the chemical reaction between the product of hydrated cement called gel [Al(OH)3] with micro silica (amorphous SiO2) [4]. This report demonstrates the result of the investigation which is about the effect of silica fume and fly ash on alumina cement

Rescue intracranial stenting in acute ischemic stroke (study).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In cases of acute ischemic stroke that are caused by intracranial large vessel occlusion, rescue intracranial stenting has recently become a treatment option to achieve recanalization in patients when mechanical thrombectomy fails. However, there have been few studies to date that support this beneficial treatment. Our goal is to analyze whether the use of rescue intracranial stenting would improve non-poor prognosis in patients 3 months posttreatment. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort of patients with acute ischemic stroke who were treated with rescue stenting at our hospital. Inclusion criteria for the study consisted of evidence of intracranial large vessel occlusion, absence of intracranial hemorrhage, and severe stenosis or reocclusion after mechanical thrombectomy. Tandem occlusions, failure to follow up after discharge, and a severe combined illness concomitant with acute ischemic stroke were excluded. The primary outcome was the non-poor outcome rate at 3 months and postprocedural symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. RESULTS: The posttreatment outcomes of 85 eligible patients who received rescue intracranial stenting between August 2019 and May 2021 are reported. In total, 82 of these patients (96.5%) had successful recanalization and 4 (4.7%) experienced symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. In total, 47 (55.3%) patients had non-poor and 35 (41.2%) good outcomes at 3 months after treatment with rescue intracranial stenting. The use of dual antiplatelet therapy was associated with new infarcts (relative risk = 0.1; 95% confidence interval 0.01-0.7) and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (relative risk = 0.1; 95% confidence interval 0.01-0.9). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that despite the occurrence of postprocedural symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage in a low proportion of cases, rescue intracranial stenting could be an important alternative treatment after mechanical thrombectomy failure

Land-use dynamics in the Mekong delta: From national policy to livelihood sustainability

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) is one of the most examined deltas in the world given its dynamics, complexity, and vulnerability. In the past decades, the VMD has changed rapidly, especially the land use in relation with the socioeconomic development. National policy has profoundly influenced these changes and the changes have significantly affected local livelihoods. However, these changes are not well reported systematically. In this study, we investigate land-use changes based on institutional analyses across multiple scales, that is, from national, provincial, to local livelihood based on institutional and sustainability analysis. The results show a strong relationship between legal settings over the last 30 years on land use and livelihood transitions. In addition, the constraints of implementing national legal frameworks at provincial level in practice were identified including effects to local livelihoods. We offer some recommendations for sustainable livelihoods in the VMD, with a focus on increasing socioecological resilience.Most of Vietnamese authors are supported by the projects “Transforming agricultural livelihoods for climate change adaptation in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: A case study in Ben Tre province - KHCNTNB-DT/14-19/C20”, regular funding by Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (under grant number TX2019-48-01) and “Floodbased farming systems for enhancing livelihood resilience in the floodplain of upper Mekong delta“ (DUPC2 Grant 108 474)