How Much Is Too Much? Estimating Effective Price-Hikes to Affect Smoking Behavior in Vietnam.

Introduction: Raising the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective strategies to reduce cigarette smoking. The Vietnamese government is working toward the tobacco control goal of a 10% reduction in smoking prevalence by 2020. However, cigarette prices in Vietnam have not increased in the last two decades.

Occlusal features and need for orthodontic treatment in persons with osteogenesis imperfecta.

The aim of the study was to (a) analyse dental occlusion and determine the need for orthodontic treatment of persons with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) in comparison with the healthy population and (b) investigate the associations between OI and malocclusion. A case-control study included 26 OI persons and 400 healthy participants (control group). Occlusal features and the need for orthodontic treatment were defined according to Dental Health Component-Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need and Dental Aesthetic Index.

Constitutive activation of casein kinase 2 in glioblastomas: Absence of class restriction and broad therapeutic potential.

Casein kinase II contributes to the growth and survival of malignant gliomas and attracts increasing attention as a therapeutic target in these tumors. Several reports have suggested that this strategy might be most relevant for specific subgroups of patients, namely Verhaak's classical and TP53 wild-type tumors. Using kinase assays and microarray genetic profiling in a series of 27 proprietary fresh frozen surgical glioma samples, we showed that constitutive CK2 kinase activation is not restricted to tumors that present increased copy numbers or mRNA expression of its catalytic or regulatory subunits, and can result from a functional activation by various cytokines from the glioma microenvironment.

A bioinspired catalytic aerobic oxidative C-H functionalization of primary aliphatic amines: synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles.

Aerobic oxidative CH functionalization of primary aliphatic amines has been accomplished with a biomimetic cooperative catalytic system to furnish 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles that play an important role as drug discovery targets. This one-pot atom-economical multistep process, which proceeds under mild conditions, with ambient air and equimolar amounts of each coupling partner, constitutes a convenient environmentally friendly strategy to functionalize non-activated aliphatic amines that remain challenging substrates for non-enzymatic catalytic aerobic systems.

Regiospecific synthesis of neuroprotective 1,4-benzoxazine derivatives through a tandem oxidation-Diels-Alder reaction.

The tandem oxidation-inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction of o-aminophenol derivatives and enamines has been accomplished at room temperature using a stoichiometric amount of manganese dioxide as the oxidant to furnish highly substituted 1,4-benzoxazine cycloadducts with complete regiochemical control. Because of its efficiency in introducing diverse elements in both cycloaddition partners, this one-pot process should allow the assembly of libraries of biologically relevant 1,4-benzoxazine derivatives. In this respect, the 3,3-diphenyl-substituted-1,4-benzoxazine derivative 3n was found to be a potent neuroprotective agent in an animal model of excitotoxic lesions in newborn mice.