HPTLC sequentially coupled to UV and SERS: A cost-effective tool for confirmative identification and quantitation of sildenafil in falsified herbal products.

The detection of falsified drugs usually requires multi-disciplinary analysis for confirmative identification. Among hyphenated techniques with high specificity detection, thin-layer chromatography coupled with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TLC-SERS) is an efficient choice, especially for herbal products with diversified matrix. In this study, HPTLC was coupled to two detection techniques: UV absorption and Raman scattering with silver colloid enhancement for the analysis of sildenafil adulterated in herbal products.

Single versus Double Coffee-Ring Effect Patterns in Thin-Layer Chromatography Coupled with Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Anti-Diabetic Drugs Adulterated in Herbal Products.

In thin-layer chromatography coupled with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TLC-SERS), the coffee ring effect (CRE) describes the formation of a ring-shape spot (blank in the middle and darker on the edge) caused by the aggregation of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), alone (single CRE) or with the analytes (double CRE). In this work, the SCRE and DCRE were investigated in two anti-diabetic drugs, hydrophobic glibenclamide (GLB) and more hydrophilic metformin (MET). The SCRE occurred in GLB analysis, as opposed to the DCRE that occurred in MET.

VinDr-Mammo: A large-scale benchmark dataset for computer-aided diagnosis in full-field digital mammography.

Mammography, or breast X-ray imaging, is the most widely used imaging modality to detect cancer and other breast diseases. Recent studies have shown that deep learning-based computer-assisted detection and diagnosis (CADe/x) tools have been developed to support physicians and improve the accuracy of interpreting mammography. A number of large-scale mammography datasets from different populations with various associated annotations and clinical data have been introduced to study the potential of learning-based methods in the field of breast radiology.

A New Look and Convergence Rate of Federated Multitask Learning With Laplacian Regularization.

Non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) data distribution among clients is considered as the key factor that degrades the performance of federated learning (FL). Several approaches to handle non-IID data, such as personalized FL and federated multitask learning (FMTL), are of great interest to research communities. In this work, first, we formulate the FMTL problem using Laplacian regularization to explicitly leverage the relationships among the models of clients for multitask learning.

Timing and duration of bevacizumab treatment and survival in patients with recurrent ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancer: a multi-institution study.

Bevacizumab has demonstrated significant benefit in recurrent ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancer (OC), but its optimal position within the sequence of systemic therapies remains controversial. Since rebound progression after bevacizumab has been observed in other cancers, and because bevacizumab is incorporated in several regimens used in the recurrent setting, the duration of treatment may impact survival. We sought to identify whether earlier bevacizumab exposure is associated with prolonged bevacizumab therapy and survival by conducting a multi-institution retrospective study of recurrent OC patients treated with bevacizumab from 2004-2014.

Plastic surgery and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in the management of advanced external auditory canal cancer.

Background: Carcinoma of the external auditory canal is a rare malignancy that originates in the external auditory canal and has a tendency to spread to adjacent structures such as the periorbital soft tissues, parotid gland, temporomandibular joint and mastoid. It is difficult to determine the primary tumour from the external ear canal or from adjacent structures. In addition, the lack of a unified classification system, along with the rarity of the disease, is a major obstacle in providing specific treatment guidelines for this disease.

VinDr-CXR: An open dataset of chest X-rays with radiologist's annotations.

Most of the existing chest X-ray datasets include labels from a list of findings without specifying their locations on the radiographs. This limits the development of machine learning algorithms for the detection and localization of chest abnormalities. In this work, we describe a dataset of more than 100,000 chest X-ray scans that were retrospectively collected from two major hospitals in Vietnam.

Fear of disasters within the risk communication network of foreign students in Japan amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: A cohort design.

The main objective of this study is to examine the role of risk communication during the COVID-19 crisis, which is often neglected in studies investigating the outbreak of the pandemic. The study is based on survey data from a group of international (non-Japanese) students in Japan and the theoretical foundation of fear appeal theory. The results, which are based on the panel data structure, show that individually, (1) the act of seeking out others to discuss risks in depth in the current pandemic context or (2) the observed adoption of advocated precautionary health behaviours is not necessarily a good indicator of mental management, but (3) the combined effect of (1) and (2) unexpectedly suggests a conciliatory effect on the fear of disasters.

Improving antibiotic prescribing for community-acquired pneumonia in a provincial hospital in Northern Vietnam.

Objectives: To test the effectiveness of a quality improvement programme to promote adherence to national quality standards (QS) for patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), exploring the factors that hindered improvements in clinical practice.

Methods: An improvement bundle aligned to the QS was deployed using plan-do-study-act methodology in a 600 bed hospital in northern Vietnam from July 2018 to April 2019. Proposed care improvements included CURB65 score guided hospitalization, timely diagnosis and inpatient antibiotic treatment review to limit the spectrum and duration of IV antibiotic use.

Sequencing and analysis of the mitochondrial genome of (Bloch, 1793) (Perciformes: Sciaenidae).

Donkey croaker, (Bloch, 1793) is a commercially important croaker in the Indo-Pacific region. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the mitogenome of . The nearly complete mitochondrial genome of is 15,694 bp in size.

Detection of sildenafil adulterated in herbal products using thin layer chromatography combined with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy: "Double coffee-ring effect" based enhancement.

Sildenafil is an inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase type 5 which is commonly adulterated in herbal health products. In this study, a rapid, sensitive and selective method using thin layer chromatography (TLC) combined with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was developed for identification of sildenafil adulteration in herbal drugs and dietary supplements. TLC separation method was developed and different SERS factors were investigated: nanosilver colloid preparation, concentration and volume, and coffee-ring effect (CRE) enhancement for SERS measurement.

Knowledge and Determinants of Health Consequences of Cigarette Smoking Among Vietnamese Adults, 2015.

. Vietnam was one of 16 countries that implemented the second round of the GATS (Global Adult Tobacco Survey) in 2015. .

Depression and Anxiety as Key Factors Associated With Quality of Life Among Lung Cancer Patients in Hai Phong, Vietnam.

Cancer is a leading cause of death. People living with cancer experience a variety of symptoms that might profoundly affect their quality of life (QoL). The study aims to identify factors associated with the QoL of patients with lung cancer at the oncology department of Viet Tiep Hospital, Hai Phong city, Vietnam in 2018.

WITHDRAWN: Performance of survivin mRNA as a biomarker for breast cancer among Vietnamese women.

Ahead of Print article withdrawn by publisher.

Performance of mRNA as a biomarker for breast cancer among Vietnamese women.

Objective: This study aimed to perform the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to express the mRNA among patients with breast cancer in Vietnam and identify some potential associated clinical and pathological factors.

Methods: Peripheral blood (PB) samples and tissues on 43 patients with breast cancer and 21 patients with fibroids were obtained. The Real-time RT-PCR and gene sequencing techniques were employed to detect survivin gene in breast cancer cell lines and cancer tissues.

Detection of human mammaglobin mRNA in breast cancer cells among Vietnamese women.

Background: Detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is a promising approach for evaluating the progression of occult metastases as well as the efficacy of treatment therapies among patients with breast cancer. A real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique has been proposed for detecting CTCs due to its high sensitivity. In this study, we aimed to validate the RT-PCR technique for human mammaglobin (hMAM) mRNA detection among Vietnamese women with breast cancer.

Multicenter Study of Device-Associated Infection Rates, Bacterial Resistance, Length of Stay, and Mortality in Intensive Care Units of 2 Cities of Vietnam: International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium Findings.

Objective: The aim of the study was to report the results of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) study conducted from May 2008 to March 2015.

Methods: A device-associated healthcare-acquired infection surveillance study in three adult intensive care units (ICUs) and 1 neonatal ICU from 4 hospitals in Vietnam using U.S.

Structured sparse priors for image classification.

Model-based compressive sensing (CS) exploits the structure inherent in sparse signals for the design of better signal recovery algorithms. This information about structure is often captured in the form of a prior on the sparse coefficients, with the Laplacian being the most common such choice (leading to l1 -norm minimization). Recent work has exploited the discriminative capability of sparse representations for image classification by employing class-specific dictionaries in the CS framework.

Recurrence patterns after extended treatment with bevacizumab for ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancers.

Objective: To evaluate patterns of recurrence for ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancer patients undergoing extended treatment with bevacizumab (BEV).

Methods: A retrospective review of patients with primary ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer treated with BEV alone or in combination with other chemotherapy from 2001 to 2011 was performed. Qualified patients were identified by chemotherapy records.

Depressed and anxious mood and T-cell cytokine expressing populations in ovarian cancer patients.

The adaptive immune response of ovarian cancer patients has been linked to survival, and is known to be impaired in the tumor microenvironment. Little is known about relationships between biobehavioral factors such as depressed mood and anxiety and the adaptive immune response in ovarian cancer. Thirty-seven patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and 14 patients with benign ovarian neoplasms completed psychosocial questionnaires pre-surgery.

Positive psychosocial factors and NKT cells in ovarian cancer patients.

Psychosocial factors are known to be associated with properties of both NK cells and T cells in cancer patients. Less is known about the relationship between psychosocial factors and NKT cells, a rare group of lymphocytes that have known relevance for tumor control. We examined four psychosocial factors and percentage and number of CD3+CD56+ NKT cells, CD3-CD56+ NK cells, and CD3+CD56- T cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), ascites, and tumor of 35 ovarian cancer patients and 28 patients with benign pelvic masses.

Social support, psychological distress, and natural killer cell activity in ovarian cancer.

Purpose: Psychosocial stress has been related to impaired immunity in cancer patients. However, the extent to which these relationships exist in immune cells in the tumor microenvironment in humans has not been explored. We examined relationships among distress, social support, and natural killer (NK) cell activity in ovarian cancer patients in peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), ascitic fluid, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL).