Evaluation of COVID-19 protease and HIV inhibitors interactions

The epidemic of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that started in 2019 has evoked an urgent demand for finding new potential therapeutic agents. In this study, we performed a molecular docking of anti-HIV drugs to refine HIV protease inhibitors and nucleotide analogues to target COVID-19. The evaluation was based on docking scores calculated by AutoDock Vina and top binding poses were analyzed. Our results suggested that lopinavir, darunavir, atazanavir, remdesivir, and tipranavir have the best binding affinity for the 3-chymotrypsin-like protease of COVID-19. The comparison of the binding sites of three drugs, namely, darunavir, atazanavir and remdesivir, showed an overlap region of the protein pocket. Our study showed a strong affinity between lopinavir, darunavir, atazanavir, tipranavir and COVID-19 protease. However, their efficacy should be confirmed by in vitro studies since there are concerns related to interference with their active sites

Board Independence and Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence on Mediating Role of Market Competition From the Vietnamese Market

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of board independence on the financial performance of companies listed on the Vietnamese stock exchanges with the mediating role of market competition.   Theoretical framework: The topic is based on agency theory, resource dependency theory and stewardship theory. The independence of the board of directors (BOD) is measured in two aspects: the duality and the non-executive members of BOD. This study approaches the measurement of market competition according to the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). After calculating the HHI, the study will classify companies in a highly competitive market or a low competitive market.   Design/methodology/approach: The study uses secondary data from the financial statements of companies listed on the Vietnamese stock market with the collection period from 2016 to 2020. The data analysis methods comprise of Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), Fixed effects model (FEM), Random effects model (REM) and Generalized method of moments estimation (GMM).   Findings: The results of GMM showed that CEO duality is found to have a negative effect on the financial performance of listed firms. Meanwhile, the statistical evidence shows that the percentage of non-executive board members and market competition positively affect the financial performance. In addition, the evidence showed that market competition could reduce the positive influence of the percentage of non-executive board members on financial performance of listed companies.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study has proposed some governance implications to improve the financial performance of listed firms such as limiting CEO duality, increasing the percentage of non-executive board members and empower the management board in a highly competitive market and choosing the appropriate size of the board.   Originality/value: The value of the study is to provide more scientific basis for policy makers in Vietnam and help listed companies choose and make decisions related to BOD to improve financial efficiency

An Evaluation of Aggregation Techniques in Crowdsourcing

As the volumes of AI problems involving human knowledge are likely to soar, crowdsourcing has become essential in a wide range of world-wide-web applications. One of the biggest challenges of crowdsourcing is aggregating the answers collected from the crowd since the workers might have wide-ranging levels of expertise. In order to tackle this challenge, many aggregation techniques have been proposed. These techniques, however, have never been compared and analyzed under the same setting, rendering a `right' choice for a particular application very difficult. Addressing this problem, this paper presents a benchmark that offers a comprehensive empirical study on the performance comparison of the aggregation techniques. Specifically, we integrated several state-of-the-art methods in a comparable manner, and measured various performance metrics with our benchmark, including \emph{computation time, accuracy, robustness to spammers,} and \emph{adaptivity to multi-labeling}. We then provide in-depth analysis of benchmarking results, obtained by simulating the crowdsourcing process with different types of workers. We believe that the findings from the benchmark will be able to serve as a practical guideline for crowdsourcing applications

Chemical composition and antibacterial activities of essential oils from fruits of Melicope pteleifolia (Champ. Ex Benth.) T.G. Hartley grown in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam

In the present study, chemical composition and antibacterial properties of essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of the Melicope pteleifolia (Champ. ex Benth.) T.G Hartley in Dalat were evaluated. Essential oil was isolated through hydro-distillation. Twenty-nine constituents comprising 100% of the essential oil were characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques. The major compounds in the essential oil were (+)-Sabinene (34.73%), Cis-α-bergamotene (13.15%), Z-α-trans-bergamotol (5.28%), β-mycrene (4.98%), and 1,3,6-octatriene, 3,7-dimethyl-(4.71%). Antibacterial activities of Melicope pteleifolia essential oil were investigated against Gram-positive and-negative bacteria. Results showed significant activities against Streptococcus pyogenes and Escherichia coli using an agar well diffusion method. The application of this essential oil in preventing and eliminating bacteria could be useful in fields as medicine and cosmetics.

Pharmacist-Led Intervention to Enhance Medication Adherence in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome in Vietnam:A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Patient adherence to cardioprotective medications improves outcomes of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but few adherence-enhancing interventions have been tested in low-income and middle-income countries. Objectives: We aimed to assess whether a pharmacist-led intervention enhances medication adherence in patients with ACS and reduces mortality and hospital readmission. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial in Vietnam. Patients with ACS were recruited, randomized to the intervention or usual care prior to discharge, and followed 3 months after discharge. Intervention patients received educational and behavioral interventions by a pharmacist. Primary outcome was the proportion of adherent patients 1 month after discharge. Adherence was a combined measure of self-reported adherence (the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale) and obtaining repeat prescriptions on time. Secondary outcomes were (1) the proportion of patients adherent to medication; (2) rates of mortality and hospital readmission; and (3) change in quality of life from baseline assessed with the European Quality of Life Questionnaire - 5 Dimensions - 3 Levels at 3 months after discharge. Logistic regression was used to analyze data. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02787941). Results: Overall, 166 patients (87 control, 79 intervention) were included (mean age 61.2 years, 73% male). In the analysis excluding patients from the intervention group who did not receive the intervention and excluding all patients who withdrew, were lost to follow-up, died or were readmitted to hospital, a greater proportion of patients were adherent in the intervention compared with the control at 1 month (90.0% vs. 76.5%; adjusted OR = 2.77; 95% CI, 1.01-7.62) and at 3 months after discharge (90.2% vs. 77.0%; adjusted OR = 3.68; 95% CI, 1.14-11.88). There was no significant difference in median change of EQ-5D-3L index values between intervention and control [0.000 (0.000; 0.275) vs. 0.234 (0.000; 0.379); p = 0.081]. Rates of mortality, readmission, or both were 0.8, 10.3, or 11.1%, respectively; with no significant differences between the 2 groups. Conclusion: Pharmacist-led interventions increased patient adherence to medication regimens by over 13% in the first 3 months after ACS hospital discharge, but not quality of life, mortality and readmission. These results are promising but should be tested in other settings prior to broader dissemination

Risk analysis of energy in Vietnam

The purpose of the paper is to estimate market risk for the ten major industries in Vietnam. The focus is on the Energy sector, which has been designated as one of the four key industries, together with Services, Food, and Telecommunications, targeted for economic development by the Vietnam Government through to 2020. Oil and Gas is a separate energy-related major industry. The data set is from 2009 to 2017, which is decomposed into two distinct sub-periods after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), namely the immediate post-GFC (2009-2011) period and the normal (2012-2017) period, in order to identify the behaviour of market risk for Vietnam major industries. Two widely-used approaches to measure and analyze risk are used in the empirical analysis, namely Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). The empirical findings indicate that Energy and Pharmaceuticals are the least risky industries, whereas Oil and Gas and Securities have the greatest risk. In general, there is strong empirical evidence that the four key industries display relatively low risk. For public policy, the Vietnam Government’s pro-active emphasis on the targeted industries, including Energy, to achieve sustainable economic growth and national economic development, seems to be working effectively

Simultaneous quantitative analyses of Tanshinone I, Cryptotanshinone, and Tanshinone IIA in Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge) cultivated in Vietnam using LC-MS/MS

74-83By using chromatography methods, the principal compounds tanshinon I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA were isolated from danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge). Based on the spectroscopic data (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and ESI-MS mass spectra), the structures were determined. The compound was purified (purity > 99.8%) by Agilent 218 purification system, which was used as the standard for analyzing tanshinon I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA in six samples. In this study, one LC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous quantitative determination of three bioactive principles, tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone IIA in Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (RSM, the root of S. miltiorrhiza). The quantification of these diterpenoids is based on the fragments of [M+H]+ under collision-activated conditions and in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The quantitative method is validated by determining the mean recovery from fortified samples of tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone IIA as higher than 98%. The established method is successfully applied to the quality assessment of six batches of RSM samples collected from different regions of Vietnam. The results show that Lam Dong sample has the highest tanshinone I content (4.4286±0.0009 µg/mg), meanwhile Muong Long sample has the lowest (1.2717±0.0013µg/mg). Lam Dong sample has the highest cryptotanshinone content (8.1589±0.0006 µg/mg), whereas Guangxi-China sample has the lowest (2.8630±0.0008 µg/mg). Ha Giang sample has the highest tanshinone IIA content (13.0252±0.0004 µg/mg), whereas Muong Long sample has the lowest (3.8278±0.0003 µg/mg)

Simultaneous quantitative analyses of Tanshinone I, Cryptotanshinone, and Tanshinone IIA in Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge) cultivated in Vietnam using LC-MS/MS

By using chromatography methods, the principal compounds tanshinon I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA were isolated from danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge). Based on the spectroscopic data (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and ESI-MS mass spectra), the structures were determined. The compound was purified (purity > 99.8%) by Agilent 218 purification system, which was used as the standard for analyzing tanshinon I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA in six samples. In this study, one LC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous quantitative determination of three bioactive principles, tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone IIA in Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (RSM, the root of S. miltiorrhiza). The quantification of these diterpenoids is based on the fragments of [M+H]+ under collision-activated conditions and in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The quantitative method is validated by determining the mean recovery from fortified samples of tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone IIA as higher than 98%. The established method is successfully applied to the quality assessment of six batches of RSM samples collected from different regions of Vietnam. The results show that Lam Dong sample has the highest tanshinone I content (4.4286±0.0009 µg/mg), meanwhile Muong Long sample has the lowest (1.2717±0.0013µg/mg). Lam Dong sample has the highest cryptotanshinone content (8.1589±0.0006 µg/mg), whereas Guangxi-China sample has the lowest (2.8630±0.0008 µg/mg). Ha Giang sample has the highest tanshinone IIA content (13.0252±0.0004 µg/mg), whereas Muong Long sample has the lowest (3.8278±0.0003 µg/mg)