172 research outputs found
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Assessing and improving rational antimicrobial use in urban and rural health care facilities in Vietnam
The global problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is particularly pressing in developing countries including Vietnam, where the infectious disease burden is high and cost constrains the replacement of older antimicrobials with newer, more expensive ones. Along with surveillance and infection control, responsible use of antimicrobials is one of the main objectives of the Vietnam National Action Plan on combating AMR. This thesis aims to get a better understanding of how antimicrobials are used in the Vietnamese community and how its use can be improved, to tailor evidence-based interventions and inform policies in controlling AMR.
To assess the current situation of community access and use of antimicrobials and identify determinants associated with current practice, an observational study was conducted in 30 private pharmacies in northern Vietnam. This study was followed by a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a point of care (POC) C-reactive protein (CRP, a biomarker of inflammation) test in reducing unnecessary antimicrobial prescribing for patients with non-severe acute respiratory infections (ARI) and analysis of the economic impact and acceptance of this intervention among users.
In private pharmacies, profit incentives coupled to poor knowledge about AMR are key drivers of over the counter dispensing of antimicrobials regardless the existence of regulations. Using a simple rapid blood test to identify customers who do not benefit from antimicrobial therapy would be a potential solution. Primary healthcare stations where over-prescription of antimicrobials for self-limiting infections are common, were chosen for the intervention. CRP POC testing reduced unnecessary AB use for ARI patients without compromising patient’s recovery. This supports and extends findings from European trials by showing that such a stewardship approach is applicable even in resource constrained settings. However, there were several obstacles identified among users regarding test adherence associated with large between-site heterogeneity that need to be addressed to maximize the intervention’s effect in the future. More importantly, our cost analysis indicated that to encourage adoption at scale, proper funding mechanisms to balance the invested costs and achieve global impact on AMR is recommended.
In summary, antimicrobial use in Vietnam is largely uncontrolled both in the community and the healthcare system leading to overuse and over-prescription for non-severe ARI. Use of commercially available CRP tests can be an effective, scalable and economically viable approach, even in highly resource-constrained settings. For the future, we are looking at ways to optimise use of POC biomarker testing in primary healthcare and private pharmacy setting. The potential for biomarker based tests to be combined with rapid pathogen detection, enhancing test algorithm adherence, use of CRP tests with equal financial incentives as as selling of antimicrobials and introducing pay for performance mechanisms may be crucial parts for optimisation
PRODUCTION OF POLYCLONAL ANTIBODIES AGAINST RECOMBINANT VP6 ANTIGEN OF ROTAVIRUS
Rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea in infants and young children under five years old. The VP6 protein of rotavirus was considered as an important antigen in the development of novel vaccine generation and diagnostic tools. Polyclonal antibodies of VP6 antigen could be used to generate a rapid test based on the lateral flow immunoassay. In the present study, we showed the results of synthesis of polyclonal antibodies against recombinant VP6 protein of rotavirus. Recombinant VP6 protein was strongly produced by E. coli in suitable conditions. The properties of recombinant VP6 protein were characterized by Western blot and ELISA methods. Pure recombinant VP6 protein was used as an antigen to inject into the rabbits. The recombinant VP6 protein was highly immunogenic in rabbits. Anti-VP6 antibodies were purified from the rabbit serum using the Protein A affinity chromatography. The specificity of the antibody towards its antigen was characterized by Western blot and ELISA immunoassay. The purity of antibody was reached as 97 %. The efficiency of antibody production in rabbit was 3.94 mg/ml serum. The amount and quality of the obtained anti-rotavirus VP6 antibody was suitable for application in the development of the diagnostic kits
Strain Engineering of Magneto-optical Properties in CB/CN van der Waals Heterostructure
Carbon-based bilayer van der Waals (vdW) materials are attracting much
attention due to their predicted interesting physical properties. Here, we
theoretically investigate electronic and optical properties of CB/CN
vdW heterostructure (HTS) under external magnetic field and mechanical strain.
The tight-binding model of the system is constructed to include the
strain-induced modification of the hopping interactions. The influence of a
uniform perpendicular magnetic field is included by using the Peierls
substitution method. We observe the intriguing electronic and optical
characteristics of the HTS under mechanical strain, covering the band
inversion, alteration of band gap and optical gap, distortion of band-edge
states, as well as significant enhancement of optical absorption. Furthermore,
the interplay between external magnetic field and biaxial strain leads to
exotic features of quantization and optical spectra. This work provides
important information for the comprehension of the engineering of materials by
external effects. Our study suggests that CB/CN vdW HTS is a promising
candidate for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices
Magnetoplasmons in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene
The magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBLG) has been demonstrated to
exhibit exotic physical properties due to the special flat bands. However,
exploiting the engineering of such properties by external fields is still in it
infancy. Here we show that MATBLG under an external magnetic field presents a
distinctive magnetoplasmon dispersion, which can be significantly modified by
transferred momentum and charge doping. Along a wide range of transferred
momentum, there exist special pronounced single magnetoplasmon and horizontal
single-particle excitation modes near charge neutrality. We provide an
insightful discussion of such unique features based on the electronic
excitation of Landau levels quantized from the flat bands and Landau damping.
Additionally, charge doping leads to peculiar multiple strong-weight
magnetoplasmons. These characteristics make MATBLG a favorable candidate for
plasmonic devices and technology applications
Polarizability and Impurity Screening for Phosphorene
Using a tight-binding Hamiltonian for phosphorene, we have calculated the real part of the polarizability and the corresponding dielectric function, Re[
ϵ
q
ω
], at absolute zero temperature (T = 0 K) with free carrier density
10
13
/
cm
2
. We present results showing Re[
ϵ
q
ω
] in different directions of the transferred momentum q. When q is larger than a particular value which is twice the Fermi momentum kF, Re[
ϵ
q
ω
] becomes strongly dependent on the direction of
q
. We also discuss the case at room temperature (T = 300 K). These results which are similar to those previously reported by other authors are then employed to determine the static shielding of an impurity in the vicinity of phosphorene
STUDY THE ANTICANCER MECHANISM OF THE PROMISSING COMPOUND 2B2D BY USING MICROARRAY TECHNIQUE
Being a modern technique with the ability of studying, discovering, probing and analyzing the expression of thousands genes, even the whole genome in the only one experiment, microarray proved to be a powerful tool for cancer research especially at molecular level. Employing the potential anticancer compound 1-(5,7-dimetoxy-2,2-dimetyl-2H-cromen-8-yl)-but-2-en-1-on (2B2D in short) and LU-1, the human lung cancer cells as research objects, we successfully hybridized the cy3/5 incorporated cDNA with Phalanx HOV5 microarray. The results showed 742 genes that got effected with equal or over two folds change under 2B2D treatment. Among - those, 386 genes were up-regulated while the other 356 were down-regulated. The Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2, regulatory factor X domain containing 1, fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (achondroplasia, thanatophoric dwarfism) and E2F transcription factor 8 genes were the most stimulated by our compound. The genes that named as Solute carrier family 7 (cationic amino acid transporter, system) member 11, kelch-like 24 and Hypothetical LOC344887 were the most down in action
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