Isolation and production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from Bacillus pumilus NMG5 strain for bioplastic production and treatment of wastewater from paper factories

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) has the potential to replace traditional plastics and limit environmental pollution caused by plastic waste. This study combined wastewater treatment with PHB production to reduce costs. Bacteria capable of synthesizing PHB were isolated from paper mill wastewater and identified using Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization–Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA gene analysis. Bacillus pumilus NMG5 strain was found to have a good yield in modified Nutrient Broth culture, reaching 42.28% of dry biomass. The PHB product was analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The bacterial strain was also tested for its ability to treat paper mill wastewater, and it showed impressive results in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus, with efficiencies of 95.93%, 79.36%, and 83.55%, respectively. The study found that wastewater treatment combined with PHB production was a promising solution to reduce costs and limit environmental pollution. The bacterial strain B. pumilus NMG5 had a high yield of PHB, and the PHB product was of high quality, as confirmed by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the bacterial strain showed impressive results in treating paper mill wastewater with high COD, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus efficiencies. These results suggest that this harmless bacterium could be used in paper mill wastewater treatment systems to produce PHB, providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution

Anatomical Characteristics of Facial Nerve Trunk in Vietnamese Adult Cadavers

BACKGROUND: In medical literature, there are few studies provided a precise and detailed description of the facial nerve rami and its branches. AIM: Identify several practical anatomic landmarks related to the facial nerve main trunk and its rami. METHODS: A descriptive study, 30 cadavers in the anatomy department of UPNT from October 2012 to April 2015. RESULTS: The average distance from the mandibular angle to the division of the facial nerve is 40.8 mm, and is 86.6% from range 36 – 50 mm. There is 86.7% case in which the facial nerve is in the lateral of the retromandibular vein, and there is a significant difference about both sides. Eighty percent of the case has the superior and inferior ramus in the lateral to the retromandibular vein. There are 2 cases in which the superior ramus makes the circle of the vein. Eighty percent of the facial nerve is in the lateral to the external carotid artery. CONCLUSION: The distance from the mandibular to the division of the facial nerve is longer. The relationship between the superior/inferior ramus and the retromandibular vein maybe not the same in both sides. In some cases, it makes the circle of the vein to cause some complication in the parotid gland surgery

Few-Shot Object Detection via Synthetic Features with Optimal Transport

Few-shot object detection aims to simultaneously localize and classify the objects in an image with limited training samples. However, most existing few-shot object detection methods focus on extracting the features of a few samples of novel classes that lack diversity. Hence, they may not be sufficient to capture the data distribution. To address that limitation, in this paper, we propose a novel approach in which we train a generator to generate synthetic data for novel classes. Still, directly training a generator on the novel class is not effective due to the lack of novel data. To overcome that issue, we leverage the large-scale dataset of base classes. Our overarching goal is to train a generator that captures the data variations of the base dataset. We then transform the captured variations into novel classes by generating synthetic data with the trained generator. To encourage the generator to capture data variations on base classes, we propose to train the generator with an optimal transport loss that minimizes the optimal transport distance between the distributions of real and synthetic data. Extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the state of the art. Source code will be available

PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF OPHIOCORDYCEPS SOBOLIFERA

The aim of study was to determine preliminary phytochemical analysis and the antioxidant potential of Ophiocordyceps sobolifera. The antioxidant activity of Ophiocordyceps sobolifera was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and total antioxidant activity methods. Phytochemical analyses revealed the presence of steroids, triterpenoids, alkaloids, phenolics, flavoinods, protein, carbohydarte and saponins. The antioxidant activity of the ethanol extracts and water extracts showed high antioxidant activity with the lowest half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values to 0.70 from 0.95mg/mL, realtively. Total antioxidant capacity of the O. sobolifera showed contained from 5.52 ± 0.14 to 12,71 ± 0.23 mg GA/g or from 3.55 ± 0.15 to 7.87 ± .05 μmol AS/g. These data suggest that O. sobolifera is a natural source of antioxidants

The Correlation between the Structures of the Nasal Tip on the Ultrasound and the Anthropometry of the Nose in Vietnamese

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, there are few types of research held in Vietnam to investigate the anthropometric index of the nose as well as analysis the structure of nasal tip on ultrasound to identify the relationship between these parameters. AIM: determine the relationship between the height and the width of the nasal tip and the structures constructed these areas by anthropometric and ultrasound measurement. METHODS: a descriptive study in Thanh Van Hospital from December 2017 to April 2019. RESULTS: There were 94 women (62.7%), and 56 men (37.3%) and the average age were 33.6 years old. The height and width of the nasal tip are 10.1 mm and 21.7 mm, respectively. Through the ultrasound, the thickness of the adipose tissues is 3 mm. The width of the interdomal fat pad is 6.5 mm and the distance between two tip point is 5.6 mm. There are the relationships between the distance of two tip points and the width of the tip (r = 0.341), and the width of the interdomal fat pad (r = 0.72). There is also the correlation between the width of the nasal tip with the distance of two tip points (r = 0.46) and the height of the tip with the thickness of the interdomal fat pad (r = 1.23). CONCLUSION: The thickness of the interdomal fat affects the height of the tip, and the distance of two tip points influences the width of the tip

The influence of brand equity on consumer responses toward Cho Gao dragon fruits brand

This thesis study wants to implement a model test for better understandings of brand equity and consumer responses toward Cho Gao Dragon Fruit brand. With the rapid growth of agriculture, including domestic consumption and export of the dragon fruits, it is crucial to differentiate the Cho Gao Dragon Fruits to other competitors in both domestic and foreign markets. Using Structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data of 274 questionnaires to investigate the effects of brand equity and its dimensions on consumer responses. The results show that brand equity dimensions such as brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality are interrelated and those dimensions have a direct and significant effect on brand equity, except brand awareness. The results support the assumption that brand equity has a positive relationship with consumer responses. The findings shed light on the current issues of the market for dragon fruits, which enables us to provide some suggestions for the Government to facilitate farmers and traders in building brand names, marketers for doing marketing activities, and students to know about brand equity of agricultural product such as dragon fruits

Research on Macroanatomic and Histologic Characteristics of the Lower Lateral Nasal Cartilages in Vietnamese

BACKGROUND: There are recently many studies about the anatomy of lower lateral cartilage (LLC). However, the microanatomic studies to identify the segments of most LLC at the nasal tip in Vietnamese are very rare. AIM: Investigate the macroanatomic and microanatomic characteristics of the LLC and the structures of the nasal tip. METHODS: Descriptive study, 30 cadaver noses fixed by 10% formalin, 2 cadaver noses fixed by HE in 69 Institutes in Vietnam from December 2017 to April 2019. RESULTS: The average length of the medial crus is 12.3 mm on the right and 13.2 mm on the left. The maximum intercrural distance is 10.7 mm. The average length of the dome is 3.7 mm and 3.9 mm on the right and left side separately, with 2 subunits are the domal and lobular segment. The average thickness of the tip points is 1.0 mm. The width of the interdomal and intercrural ligaments are 0.5-fold the height and 2-fold the thickness. The thickness of the interdomal fat pad is 3mm and about 0.5-fold the wide. CONCLUSION: The LLC has 3 parts: intermediate, medial and lateral crus. The microanatomic structures of tip consist of the interdomal ligaments, intercrural ligaments, SMAS and interdomal fat pad

EIT enhanced self-Kerr nonlinearity in the three-level lambda system under Doppler broadening

Using density-matrix theory, an analytical expression of the self-Kerr nonlinear coefficient of a three-level lambda EIT medium for a weak probe light is derived. Influences of the coupling light and Doppler broadening on the self-Kerr coefficient are investigated and compared to experimental observation with a good agreement. The self-Kerr nonlinearity is basically modified and greatly enhanced in the spectral region corresponding to EIT transparent window. Furthermore, sign, slope, and magnitude of the self-Kerr coefficient can be controlled with frequency and intensity of the coupling light and temperature. Such controllable Kerr nonlinearity can find interesting applications in optoelectronic devices working with low-light intensity

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

Wearable Smart Technologies: New Ear of Technology

The aim of the thesis is to analyze the current wearable smart technology industry, point out achievements and obstacles and predict growth of the wearable smart technology in the future. In this paper, readers will have the overall information of four main wearable smart devices: smart wristband/fitness trackers, smart watches, wearable cameras and smart glasses. In addition, a case study is carried out to research and access how differently male and female people who took part in the research choose and use wearable technologies. The research methods used are quantitative research along with information and figures collected from articles related to wearable smart technologies. The outcomes of this thesis is realiable. However, there should be other research in order to understand deeper how men and women choose and use wearable technologies. Companies can reference this thesis or similar ones in order to understand customer behavior or create, develop and improve products to please customers. Wearable technologies are taking closer steps into our lives. Achievements already created at the moment and in the future are limitless. Therefore, wearable industry should get more attention and investments from the community