Effects of plant essential oils and their constituents on Helicobacter pylori : A Review

Essential oils (EOs) obtained from different medicinal and aromatic plant families by steam distillation have been used in the pharmaceutical, food, and fragrance industries. The plant EOs and their broad diversity of chemical components have attracted researchers worldwide due to their human health benefits and antibacterial properties, especially their treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection. Since H. pylori has been known to be responsible for various gastric and duodenal diseases such as atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer, gastric adenocarcinoma, and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, several combination antibiotic therapies have been increasingly used to enhance the eradication rate of the bacterial infection. However, in the last decades, the efficacy of the therapies has decreased significantly due to widespread emergence of multidrug resistant strains of H. pylori. In addition, side-effects from commonly used antibiotics and recurrence of the bacterial infection have drawn public health concern globally.Therefore, this review focuses on in vitro effects of plant EOs and their bioactive constituents on the growth, cell morphology and integrity, biofilm formation, motility, adhesion, and urease activity of H. pylori. Their inhibitory effects on expression of genes necessary for growth and virulence factor productions of the bacterial pathogen are also discussed. Further in vivo and clinical evaluations are required so that plant EOs and their bioactive constituents can be possibly applicable in pharmacy or as adjuvants to the current therapies of H. pylori infection

Vocational Orientation and the Need for Establishing Career Counselling Office in Vietnamese Schools

School psychology is a field that has been receiving a lot of attention recently in Vietnam as it prepares to restructure the general education curriculum. In particular, vocational orientation and career counseling are most concerned due to the emergence of new subjects in the educational curriculum - Experimental and Vocational Orientation Activities. The objective of this study is to investigate the current situation of vocational orientation problems and the need for career counseling of Vietnamese high school students to provide evidence to develop the school counseling activities and the School Psychology in Vietnam. This is a quantitative study used a questionnaire to examine the current situation of vocational orientation problems and the need for career counseling of 1200 high school students in Vietnam to illustrate the importance of vocational orientation work. The results showed that Vietnamese high school students faced many vocational orientation problems and wanted support from school counselors. But the reality did not meet the needs of students: Vietnamese schools lacked a team of school counselors both in quality and quantity, also lack of school counseling offices in almost high schools. This result is expected to contribute to the development of the School Psychology in Vietnam, but firstly, to promote the establishment of counseling office at least one office per school

Adaptation options for agricultural cultivation systems in the South Central Coast under the context of climate change: Assessment Report.

This report highlights the results of consultation meetings and field visits organized by the Department of Crop Production and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast Asia in association with the three offices of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the South Central Coast provinces of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, and Khanh Hoa, in combination with consultation with the provinces in the conference: “Summing up crops production in the Winter-Spring season in 2018-2019, implementing the Summer-Autumn season, Main rice season in 2019 for the South Central Coast and the Central Highlands” held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Tam Ky City, Quang Nam Province on 12 April 2019. The meetings underlined the progress made by the provinces on climate change adaptation and mitigation, options for risk reductions in agricultural production, and conversion of crop structure as results of implementing the guidelines of the provinces and the Sector, especially, solutions for reservation and efficient and economic use of water under the context of climate change. This assessment report also reviews some issues related to the agricultural transformation of the region in adapting to risks caused by climate change. They are based on comparative advantages in terms of geographical location and market of key agricultural products. This report also points out shortcomings in using land and unreasonable points in managing and using important natural resources, especially water, and provides recommendations for the agricultural transformation and inter-regional connection with the Central Highlands and the Southeast. The team also introduces climate-related risks maps and adaptation plans (CS MAP) which is applied in the five provinces in the Mekong Delta Region, and hopes this solution’s expansion shall be supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the provinces

Factors Affecting Successful Quality Assurance Implementation in Vietnamese Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

Quality assurance and accreditation was officially introduced into the higher education system in Vietnam over ten years ago. It is evident that quality assurance has resulted in positive impacts on university management, teaching, learning and research activities. This paper aims to explore factors that aid the successful implementation of higher education quality assurance and accreditation in Vietnam. Through semi-structured interviews with 32 participants, this study identified a number of factors that contributed to quality assurance processes, including awareness of the importance of quality assurance, better institutional manager leadership, support of university lecturers, staff, and students, and the vital responsibility of internal quality assurance staff. These confirm that internal stakeholders play an important role in undertaking quality assurance programmes and activities

Development of a nutritional model to define the energy and protein requirements of cobia, Rachycentron canadum

This study assessed the protein and energy requirements of Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) using a bio-energetic factorial approach. Using a series of inter-related studies, several parameters were defined to enable the construction of a bio-energetic factorial model for this species. The studies included two controlled laboratory experiments and also extensive field-data collection from commercial and research farms in Vietnam. The devised model includes parameters for both maintenance and protein demands; the effect of fish live-weight on maintenance protein (LW0.697), lipid (LW0.972), and energy demands (LW0.815); the efficiencies of protein, lipid and energy utilisation at various protein, lipid and energy intake levels; and the variability in whole body composition with varying live-weight. The protein utilisation efficiencies (0.456·[protein intake]−0.445), lipid utilisation efficiencies (1.292·[lipid intake]−1.120) and energy utilisation efficiencies (0.651·[energy intake]−48.41) were similar to other carnivorous fish species. However, the maintenance requirements for both energy (74.3kJ/kgBW0.8/d−at 28°C) and protein (0.99g/kgBW0.7/d at 27.9°C) were about double to other species. Using this modelling approach it was possible to iteratively derive optimal dietary protein and energy specifications for this species

Synthesis of antiulcer drug esomeprazole.

Esomeprazole (Nexium®), the (S)-isomer of Omeprazole, is the first proton-pump inhibitor developed as a single isomer for the treatment of acid-related diseases. It is used for the treatment of peptic ulcers, gastroesophagal reflux disease, and erosive esophagitis. Herein, we report our synthetic study of esomeprazole sodium salt from the starting    2-mercapto-5-methoxybenzimidazole and 2-(chloromethyl)-4-methoxy-3,5-dimethylpyridine hydrochloride reagents. The Esomeprazole sodium salt was obtained from enantioselectivesulfoxidation reaction in moderate yield with high enantioselectivity

An evaluation of economic viability of small scale slaughterhouses in Vietnam: Implication for pig value chain development

Slaughterhouse plays important role in pig value chain in Vietnam, not only for the functions it plays and economic added value it generates, but also for product quality relates to food safety standards that is much affected under slaughtering activity. The study is aimed to get a better understanding of structure, conduct, performance and economic viability of small scale slaughter houses in the pig value chain, and draw key implications for pig value chain development in Vietnam. Nghe An and Hung Yen are selected as study site. Data is collected from 51 small scale slaughterhouses in 18 communes. Descriptive and comparative statistics are employed with t-test for mean comparison. Results show that slaughterhouse plays multiple functions in the pig value chain, generate permanent jobs for at least 2 family labors, and provides an income of about 18 USD/working day for family labor, contributing about threefourths of total family income. Slaughtering activity generates an added value of 165 USD/one ton of live pig, accounting from 24%-44% total value added in the pig value chain. Upstream and downstream linkages of slaughterhouses in the chain are quite loose with no formal contract. The majority of small scale slaughterhouses do not meet the standards for pig slaughterhouse as required by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The setting up as well as slaughtering practices are perceived to contribute to exposure of meat to contamination that could lead to higher incidence of salmonella in pork, a common cause of foodborne illness for consumers. Rising concerns of consumers about food safety as well as increasing level of economic integration of Vietnam are factors potentially having great impacts on economic viability of small scale slaughterhouse in Vietnam. Several recommendations for upgrading slaughterhouse are proposed accordingly

Synthesis of cuprous oxide nanocubes combined with chitosan nanoparticles and its application to p-nitrophenol degradation

For the first time, cuprous oxide nanocubes (Cu2O NCBs) were successfully combined with chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) to generate Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material with highly optical property and photocatalytic activity using a simple and eco-friendly synthetic approach at room temperature for 30 min. The synthesized Cu2O NCBs NPs/CS NPs were determined characterizations by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X – ray Diffraction (XRD),  Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Results show that the Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites have an average particle size of ~3-5 nm; in which, Cu2O has the form of nanocubes (Cu2O NCBs) with size ~3-4 nm and chitosan nanoparticles with spherical shape (CS NPs) with size ~4-5 nm. In addition, the percent (%) composition of elements present in Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material have been obtained respective: Cu (23.99%), O (38.18%), and C (33.61%). Moreover, Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material was also investigated for photocatalytic activity applied in p-nitrophenol degradation. The obtained results showed that the catalytic capability of Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs for p-nitrophenol reduction reached the highest efficiency >55% in the treatment time of 25 min, and this efficiency was higher than that result of using ZnO@chitosan nanoparticles (ZnO@CS NPs) catalyst under the same conditions for comparison

PHÂN HUỶ MẪU ĐỂ XÁC ĐỊNH VI NHỰA TRONG CÁC BỘ PHẬN CỦA CÁ ĐỐI

In this study, a 10% KOH solution was used to decompose the meat, skin, and digestive system of mullets. The factors in each experiment are as follows: 1) VKOH:mmeat is 10/1 (mL·g–1), incubated at 25 °C for 72 h; VKOH:mskin is 15/1 (mL·g–1), incubated at 40 °C for 72 h; VKOH:mdigestive system is 20/1 (mL·g–1), incubated at 40 °C for 72 h. The actual sample images display microplastics in the surveyed parts of the mullets with different shapes and colours.Trong nghiên cứu này, dung dịch KOH 10% được sử dụng để phân huỷ thịt, da và hệ tiêu hoá của cá đối. Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng bao gồm tỉ lệ thể tích KOH:mẫu thịt là 10/1 (mL·g–1), ủ mẫu ở 25 °C trong 72 giờ; thể tích KOH:mẫu da là 15/1 (mL·g–1), ủ mẫu ở 40 °C trong 72 giờ; thể tích KOH:mẫu hệ tiêu hoá là 20/1 (mL·g–1), ủ mẫu ở 40 °C trong 72 giờ. Hình ảnh phân tích mẫu thực tế cho thấy sự tồn tại của vi nhựa trong các bộ phận nghiên cứu với hình dáng và màu sắc khác nhau