ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA ASTAXANTHIN BỔ SUNG TRONG THỨC ĂN LÊN TĂNG TRƯỞNG, TỶ LỆ SỐNG VÀ MÀU SẮC DA CÁ KHOANG CỔ NEMO, Amphiprion ocellaris THƯƠNG MẠI

This study examined the influence of astaxanthin added to food on growth, survival rate and pigmentation of commercial false clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris. Five experiments were performed with synthetic astaxanthin contents: 0; 50; 100; 150 and 200 mg/kg diets. Mean weight and mean length of fish were 1.16 ± 0.22 gand and 33.05 ± 3.29 mm respectively. Fish were fed by 5% of their live weight during the examination of 8 weeks. After 56 days of experiments, the skin pigmentation levels were analysed using Clownfish Exercise pigmentation chart which has a scale from 1 to 10. Color scales of 5 experiments: 0; 50; 100; 150 and 200 mg Astaxanthin/kg diets were 2.12 ± 0.08, 3.79 ± 0.1, 5.31 ± 0.14, 7.78 ± 0.09, 8.04 ± 0.12 respectively. The result showed that the dietary astaxanthin could increase coloration of skin compared with the control group which had the lightest color (P 0.05) but there were no significant effects on growth and survival rate of clownfish (P 0.05).Nghiên cứu này đánh giá ảnh hưởng của Astaxanthin bổ sung trong thức ăn lên tăng trưởng, tỷ lệ sống và màu sắc da của cá khoang cổ Nemo Amphiprion ocellaris thương mại. Năm lô thí nghiệm được thực hiện với hàm lượng astaxanthin tổng hợp (Carophyll Pink 10% CWS) bổ sung vào trong thức ăn là: 0, 50, 100, 150 và 200 mg/kg. Cá thí nghiệm có khối lượng và chiều dài trung bình ban đầu tương ứng là 1,16 ± 0,22 g và 33,05 ± 3,29 mm. Cá được cho ăn với khẩu phần 5% khối lượng thân trong 8 tuần. Sau 56 ngày nuôi màu sắc da của cá được đánh giá bằng phương pháp cho điểm sử dụng thước so màu Clownfish Exercise có thang điểm từ 1 tới 10. Thang điểm màu sắc của 5 lô bổ sung 0, 50, 100, 150 và 200 mg Astaxanthin/kg thức ăn lần lượt là: 2,12 ± 0,08; 3,79 ± 0,1; 5,31 ± 0,14; 7,78 ± 0,09; 8,04 ± 0,12. Kết quả cho thấy những lô thí nghệm có bổ sung Astaxanthin làm tăng màu sắc da của cá so với lô đối chứng (P0,05) nhưng không có sự khác biệt có ý nghĩa về tăng trưởng và tỷ lệ sống giữa các lô thí nghiệm với nhau (P 0,05)

LEARNING IDIOMS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS: VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF DIFFICULTIES AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

Learning idioms play an influential role in language generally and in English notably. Comprehending idioms assists language learners in integrating culture, enhancing skills, and ameliorating English levels. Numerous studies have analyzed the function of idioms in second language acquisition (Cieślicka, 2015). This study investigates the difficulties and strategies used in learning idioms by English-majored students at a regional public university (PU) in the south of Vietnam. This paper furnishes data showing learners’ perceptions of facing complications and learning methods. The samples consisted of 150 undergraduate EFL students from English-medium instruction programs. The data was analyzed by utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal that students struggle to understand idiomatic terms without specific, understandable contexts. Furthermore, the results indicate that the most frequently employed strategies are guessing the meaning of idioms, learning idioms through keywords, and learning from a range of sources, particularly via media. The findings also mentioned that low-proficiency and high-proficiency students encounter identical challenges, with no significant differences. The study's results revealed that the majority of students have difficulty acquiring, recognizing, and interpreting idioms. The findings indicated that guessing the implication of idioms is the most used strategy.  Article visualizations

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke

Gating Mechanism of Hv1 Studied by Molecular Dynamic Simulations

The voltage-gated proton channel (Hv1) plays the important role in proton extrusion, pH homeostasis, sperm motility, and cancer progression. The closed-state structure of Hv1 was recently revealed by X-ray crystallography. However, the opened-state structure has not been captured yet. To investigate the mechanism of proton transfer in Hv1, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed with the closed-state structure of Hv1 under electric field and pH conditions. The residues arrangement on the closed-state structure revealed that the selectivity filter (Asp108) which is located in the hydrophobic layer (consists of two Phe residues 146 and 179) might prevent water penetration. In molecular dynamics simulations, we observed that the channel opened by moving 3 Arg up on the S4 helix and a continuous hydrogen-bonded chain of water molecules (a “water wire”) went through the channel when it opened. During simulations, the open channel allowed water molecules to pass through the channel but excluded other ions. This indicates the Hv1 channel is highly selective for protons. Our results clearly showed the Hv1 channel is voltage-and pH-gradient sensing

A Novel One-Step Green Method to Synthesis of Palladium Nanoparticles

Palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) are one of the most attractive metal nanomaterials because of their excellent physicochemical properties. PdNPs have been studied for many different applications such as Suzuki cross-coupling reactions, hydrogen purification/storage/sensing, CO oxidation, fuel cells, prodrug activation, and antimicrobial therapy. Recently, PdNPs have been explored as photoabsorbers for photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging in the treatment of cancer. Herein, we reported a scalable, efficient, green, and one-step method to synthesize PdNPs. The chitosan polymer was used as a stabilizer and vitamin C was used as a reducing agent. Interestingly, the reaction temperature can be adjusted to the size of PdNPs. When the reaction temperature was increased from 25 °C to 95 °C, the morphology of resulted PdNPs changed from a flower shape to a spherical shape and their nanoparticles’ sizes decreased from 64 nm to 29 nm. The characterization revealed that the obtained PdNPs were relatively uniform in size, shape, and stability in an aqueous solution

Gating Mechanism of the Voltage-Gated Proton Channel Studied by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 has important roles in proton extrusion, pH homeostasis, sperm motility, and cancer progression. The Hv1 channel has also been found to be highly expressed in cell lines and tissue samples from patients with breast cancer. A high-resolution closed-state structure has been reported for the mouse Hv1 chimera channel (mHv1cc), solved by X-ray crystallography, but the open-state structure of Hv1 has not been solved. Since Hv1 is a promising drug target, various groups have proposed open conformations by molecular modeling and simulation studies. However, the gating mechanism and the open-state conformation under the membrane potential are still debate. Here, we present a molecular dynamics study considering membrane potential and pH conditions. The closed-state structure of mHv1cc was used to run molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with respect to electric field and pH conditions in order to investigate the mechanism of proton transfer. We observed a continuous hydrogen bond chain of water molecules called a water-wire to be formed through the channel pore in the channel opening, triggered by downward displacement of the S2 helix and upward movement of the S4 helix relative to other helices. Due to the movement of the S2 and S4 helices, the internal salt bridge network was rearranged, and the hydrophobic gating layers were destroyed. In line with previous experimental and simulation observations, our simulation results led us to propose a new gating mechanism for the Hv1 proton channel, and may provide valuable information for novel drug discovery

Photothermal Responsive Porous Membrane for Treatment of Infected Wound

Wound infection is a big issue of modern medicine because of multi-drug resistance bacteria; thus, developing an advanced therapy is curial. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a newly noninvasive strategy that employs PTT agents to transfer near-infrared (NIR) light energy into heat to kill bacterial pathogens. In this work, the PTT agent-containing dressing was developed for the first time to treat the wound infection. Palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) were chosen as PTT agents because of their high stability, good biocompatibility, excellent photothermal property, and simple-green preparation. With the flexibility and wettability, highly porous membrane chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol (CS/PVA) membrane was chosen as the dressing. The prepared wound dressings exhibited excellent biocompatibility, high porosity, a high degree of swelling, high moisture retention, and high photothermal performance. The treatment of PdNPs loading CS/PVA dressing (CS/PVA/Pd) and laser irradiation killed most of the bacteria in vitro. The proposed PTT agent containing wound dressing introduces a novel strategy for the treatment of wound infection

Roles of Chitosan in Green Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Chitosan (CS) is a well-known stabilizer for metal nanoparticles in biomedical engineering. However, very few studies have explored other important roles of CS including reducing, shape-directing, and size-controlling. This review aims to provide the latest and most comprehensive overview of the roles of CS in the green synthesis of metal nanoparticles for biomedical applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review that highlights these potentialities of CS. At first, a brief overview of the properties and the bioactivity of CS is presented. Next, the benefits of CS for enhancing the physicochemical behaviors of metal nanoparticles are discussed in detail. The representative biomedical applications of CS-metal nanoparticles are also given. Lastly, the review outlines the perceptual vision for the future development of CS-metal nanoparticles in the biomedicine field

Roles of Chitosan in Green Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Chitosan (CS) is a well-known stabilizer for metal nanoparticles in biomedical engineering. However, very few studies have explored other important roles of CS including reducing, shape-directing, and size-controlling. This review aims to provide the latest and most comprehensive overview of the roles of CS in the green synthesis of metal nanoparticles for biomedical applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review that highlights these potentialities of CS. At first, a brief overview of the properties and the bioactivity of CS is presented. Next, the benefits of CS for enhancing the physicochemical behaviors of metal nanoparticles are discussed in detail. The representative biomedical applications of CS-metal nanoparticles are also given. Lastly, the review outlines the perceptual vision for the future development of CS-metal nanoparticles in the biomedicine field

pH and Thermoresponsive PNIPAm-co-Polyacrylamide Hydrogel for Dual Stimuli-Responsive Controlled Drug Delivery

The therapeutic delivery system with dual stimuli-responsiveness has attracted attention for drug delivery to target sites. In this study, we used free radical polymerization to develop a temperature and pH-responsive poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)-co-poly(acrylamide) (PNIPAM-co-PAAm). PNIPAm-co-PAAm copolymer by reacting with N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAm) and acrylamide (Am) monomers. In addition, the synthesized melamine-glutaraldehyde (Mela-Glu) precursor was used as a cross-linker in the production of the melamine cross-linked PNIPAm-co-PAAm copolymer hydrogel (PNIPAm-co-PAAm-Mela HG) system. The temperature-responsive phase transition characteristics of the resulting PNIPAM-co-PAAm-Mela HG systems were determined. Furthermore, the pH-responsive drug release efficiency of curcumin was investigated under various pH and temperature circumstances. Under the combined pH and temperature stimuli (pH 5.0/45 °C), the PNIPAm-co-PAAm-Mela HG demonstrated substantial drug loading (74%), and nearly complete release of the loaded drug was accomplished in 8 h. Furthermore, the cytocompatibility of the PNIPAm-co-PAAm-Mela HG was evaluated on a human liver cancer cell line (HepG2), and the findings demonstrated that the prepared PNIPAm-co-PAAm-Mela HG is biocompatible. As a result, the PNIPAm-co-PAAm-Mela HG system might be used for both pH and temperature-stimuli-responsive drug delivery