Cytotoxic Compounds from Brucea mollis

Ten compounds, including soulameanone (1), isobruceine B (2), 9-methoxy-canthin-6-one (3), bruceolline F (4), niloticine (5), octatriacontan-1-ol (6), bombiprenone (7), α-tocopherol (8), inosine (9), and apigenin 7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (10), were isolated from the leaves, stems, and roots of Brucea mollis Wall. ex Kurz. Their structures were determined using one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. All compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against KB (human carcinoma of the mouth), LU-1 (human lung adenocarcinoma), LNCaP (human prostate adeno-carcinoma), and HL-60 (human promyelocytic leukemia) cancer cell lines. Compound 2 showed significant cytotoxic activity against KB, LU-1, LNCaP, and HL-60 cancer cells with IC50 values of 0.39, 0.40, 0.34, and 0.23 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, compounds 3 and 5 showed significant cytotoxic activity against KB, LU-1, LNCaP, and HL-60 cancer cells with IC50 values around 1–4 μg/mL. Compounds 9-methoxycanthin-6-one (3) and niloticine (5) have been discovered for the first time from the Brucea genus

Characteristics and dynamics of backyard poultry raising systems in five Asian countries in relation to the reduction and management of avian influenza risk : final report

Despite rapid growth of the poultry sector, small holders still constitute the vast majority of poultry keepers, marketed through associated informal trade networks. The research aims to better understand backyard poultry raising systems, the variations among them, their roles in rural livelihoods, and to work with stakeholders in this sector to devise practical, equitable and sustainable options to reduce the likelihood of a human Avian influenza (AI) pandemic in five Asian Countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. This report reviews the backyard poultry system in Vietnam in terms of production, trade, gender, marketing and consumption, and information on household income

Code-mixing in a Hong Kong secondary school

published_or_final_versionLinguisticsMasterMaster of Arts in Applied Linguistic

Adsorption Characteristics of Antibiotic Meropenem on Magnetic CoFe2O4@Au Nanoparticles

Adsorption characteristics of the antibiotic meropenem on a novel magnetic material synthesized by surface coating cobalt iron oxide (CFO) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were systematically investigated. The AuNPs can enhance material adsorption capacity by having high affinity towards the thioether and amine groups in the meropenem structure. Au coverage on the CFO surface decreased the saturation magnetization from 55.8 emu/g to 48.8 emu/g, still allowing synthesized CFO@Au nanomaterials to be magnetically recoverable. The CFO@Au nanomaterials showed enhanced adsorption capacity of 25.5 mg/g at optimum conditions of pH 4.0 adsorption time 120 min, and adsorbent mass 0.05 g. Adsorption equilibrium was in accordance with a monolayer Langmuir isotherm, while the adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and intraparticle diffusion models. This work provides a simple method to prepare a magnetic composite material with high adsorption efficiency for meropenem and probably other thioether-containing substances

Novel composites of nano-metal–organic frameworks (IRMOF-3) and silver nanoparticles for the ultra-sensitive performance of SERS sensing and optical fiber modes

Rapid chemical detection of drugs of abuse in biological fluids such as blood and saliva is a concern within medicine and law enforcement. As an outcome, a label-free detection platform takes biological fluid samples with concentrations ranging from extremely high to very low. We obtained experimentally the limit of detection (LOD) of glycerol concentration, corresponding to a minimum resolvable refractive index of 3.4 × 10−7 RIU (refractive index unit). We applied the microfluidic device sensors to the quantitating concentration dopamine solutions. The experiment was recorded in real-time as the concentration of analyte injected exposed to the fiber core surface resulted in a sensitive change in optical power transmission. The presented sensors also exhibited reasonably good reproducibility and higher sensitivity, providing the LOD as 1.02 × 10−11 M. A relatively simple scheme procedure is proposed for the simultaneous detection and quantitative assessment of rhodamine B using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with a limit of detection of 10−12 M and a relative standard deviation of 5.78% across a detection concentration range mainly from 10−5 M to 10−12 M. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of nano-metal–organic framework materials as large-area, label-free optical fiber sensors and SERS-based platforms for biomedical sensing and environmental applications

Avian influenza A (H5N1) in 10 patients in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Recent outbreaks of avian influenza A (H5N1) in poultry throughout Asia have had major economic and health repercussions. Human infections with this virus were identified in Vietnam in January 2004. METHODS: We report the clinical features and preliminary epidemiologic findings among 10 patients with confirmed cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) who presented to hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2003 and January 2004. RESULTS: In all 10 cases, the diagnosis of influenza A (H5N1) was confirmed by means of viral culture or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction with primers specific for H5 and N1. None of the 10 patients (mean age, 13.7 years) had preexisting medical conditions. Nine of them had a clear history of direct contact with poultry (median time before onset of illness, three days). All patients presented with fever (temperature, 38.5 to 40.0 degrees C), respiratory symptoms, and clinically significant lymphopenia (median lymphocyte count, 700 per cubic millimeter). The median platelet count was 75,500 per cubic millimeter. Seven patients had diarrhea. In all patients, there were marked abnormalities on chest radiography. There was no definitive evidence of human-to-human transmission. Eight patients died, one patient has recovered, and one is recovering. CONCLUSIONS: Influenza A (H5N1) infection, characterized by fever, respiratory symptoms, and lymphopenia, carries a high risk of death. Although in all 10 cases the infection appears to have been acquired directly from infected poultry, the potential exists for genetic reassortment with human influenzaviruses and the evolution of human-to-human transmission. Containment of influenza A (H5N1) in poultry throughout Asia is therefore urgently require