Inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines by homalolide A and homalomenol A isolated from rhizomes of .

Inflammation, a natural process of the innate immune system, involves elevated levels of various proinflammatory mediators, such as, nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin (PGE), cytokines such as interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and enzymes including inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). This study investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of homalolide A () and homalomenol A (), two sesquiterpenoids isolated from the rhizome of , on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- stimulated macrophage cells. The results demonstrated that both and dose-dependently inhibited the production of PGE, TNF-α and IL-6 in RAW 264.

Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene Combined with Human Acellular Dermis Matrix for the Nasal Reconstruction in Patients with Postoperative Deformities.

Introduction: Augmentation rhinoplasty is one of five aesthetic surgeries in the world. Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) has been reported as a rational choice to augment the nasal dorsum and tip. However, its application for nasal tip augmentation has some debates.

Knowledge of Medical Education on Maternal and Child Primary-Care Among Physicians: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objectives: To assess the pre-training knowledge of Commune Health Stations (CHSs) physicians in Vietnam on pregnancy and child care.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted and a pre-training questionnaire was administered with physicians working at CHSs in three mountainous provinces of northern Vietnam. Calculated mean knowledge score and estimated adjusted odds ratios (AOR) to compare the relative odds of occurrence of the outcome "answering more than half of questions correct," given exposure to the physicians' characteristics.

Successful surgical interventions for a giant and complicated myoepithelial carcinoma: a case report.

Ethmoid myoepithelial carcinoma is a rare tumor, with only 14 cases reported to date. This report discusses the largest tumor of this type ever recorded in the ethmoid region. The tumor caused extensive damage to facial structures, complicating treatment.

Dissecting the Molecular Origin of -Tensor Heterogeneity and Strain in Nitroxide Radicals in Water: Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Experiment versus Theory.

Nitroxides are common EPR sensors of microenvironmental properties such as polarity, numbers of H-bonds, pH, and so forth. Their solvation in an aqueous environment is facilitated by their high propensity to form H-bonds with the surrounding water molecules. Their - and -tensor elements are key parameters to extracting the properties of their microenvironment.

Effect of substituting glutamine with lysine on structural and biological properties of antimicrobial peptide Polybia-MP1.

The natural antimicrobial peptide Polybia-MP1 is a promising candidate for developing new treatment therapy for infection and cancer. It showed broad-spectrum antimicrobial and anticancer activity with high safety on healthy cells. However, previous sequence modification usually resulted in at least one of two consequences: a notable increase in hemolytic activity or a considerable decrease in activity against Gram-negative bacteria and cancer cells.

Expansion of KPC-producing Enterobacterales in four large hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Objectives: The incidence of carbapenem resistance among nosocomial Gram-negative bacteria in Vietnam is high and increasing, including among Enterobacterales. In this study, we assessed the presence of one of the main carbapenemase genes, bla, among carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) from four large hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam, between 2010 and 2015, and described their key molecular characteristics.

Methods: KPC-producing Enterobacterales were detected using conventional PCR and were further analysed using S1 nuclease pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (S1-PFGE), Southern blotting and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for sequence typing and genetic characterisation.

A Joint Venture of Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics, Coupled Cluster Electronic Structure Methods, and Liquid-State Theory to Compute Accurate Isotropic Hyperfine Constants of Nitroxide Probes in Water.

The isotropic hyperfine coupling constant (HFCC, ) of a pH-sensitive spin probe in a solution, HMI (2,2,3,4,5,5-hexamethylimidazolidin-1-oxyl, CHNO) in water, is computed using an ensemble of state-of-the-art computational techniques and is gauged against X-band continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurement spectra at room temperature. Fundamentally, the investigation aims to delineate the cutting edge of current first-principles-based calculations of EPR parameters in aqueous solutions based on using rigorous statistical mechanics combined with correlated electronic structure techniques. In particular, the impact of solvation is described by exploiting fully atomistic, RISM integral equation, and implicit solvation approaches as offered by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) of the periodic bulk solution (using the spin-polarized revPBE0-D3 hybrid functional), embedded cluster reference interaction site model integral equation theory (EC-RISM), and polarizable continuum embedding (using CPCM) of microsolvated complexes, respectively.

Resistance mechanisms and genetic relatedness among carbapenem-resistant isolates from three major hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam (2011-15).

Background: MDR bacteria including carbapenem-resistant are recognized as an important cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide. This investigation seeks to determine the molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance genes associated with carbapenem-resistant .

Methods: We conducted WGS and phylogenetic analysis of 72 carbapenem-resistant isolated from hospital-acquired infection patients from August 2011 to March 2015 in three major hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam.

From Vietnamese plants to a biflavonoid that relieves inflammation by triggering the lipid mediator class switch to resolution.

Chronic inflammation results from excessive pro-inflammatory signaling and the failure to resolve the inflammatory reaction. Lipid mediators orchestrate both the initiation and resolution of inflammation. Switching from pro-inflammatory to pro-resolving lipid mediator biosynthesis is considered as efficient strategy to relieve chronic inflammation, though drug candidates exhibiting such features are unknown.

Variation of Mitochondrial DNA HV1 AND HV2 of the Vietnamese Population.

Background: The sequence polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable segment 1 (HV1) and hypervariable segment 2 (HV2) is studied and applied to genetic diversity and human evolution assessment, forensic genetics, consanguinity determination, and mitochondrial disease diagnosis.

Methods: The study identified the variations of HV1 and HV2 of 517 unrelated Vietnamese individuals in Kinh, Muong, Cham, and Khmer ethnic. We performed sequencing of two hypervariable segments of mitochondrial DNA: HV1 and HV2.

Water Supply, Sanitation, and Medical Waste Treatment and Disposal at Commune Health Centers in Vietnam.

Water hygiene, sanitation, and proper management of health care wastes at health care facilities are important in preventing infections and improving health and the environment. This article describes the access to safe water and sanitation facilities and the disposal of medical wastes at commune health centers (CHCs) in Vietnam. Data was extracted from the 2015 World Bank Vietnam District and Commune Health Facility Survey.

Exposure to Tobacco Advertising, Promotion Among the Adult Population in Vietnam and Its Implications for Public Health.

Introduction: The Law on Tobacco Control and the Law on Advertisement prohibit the advertising of any tobacco product in Vietnam. Tobacco promotion and marketing are alsostrictly prohibited. However, the violation of tobacco adverting and promotion is still common in Vietnam.

Reconstruction of neck and face scar contractures using occipito-cervico-dorsal supercharged "super-thin flaps": A retrospective analysis of 82 cases in Vietnam.

Background: The concept of the "super-thin flap" (also known as the subdermal vascular network flap) was introduced in Japan in 1994. Its distinctive characteristic is its extreme thinness: it is thinned to the point that the subdermal vascular network (subdermal plexus) can be seen through the minimal fat layer. Since 2006 in Vietnam, we have used circumflex scapular artery-supercharged occipito-cervico-dorsal (OCD) super-thin flaps to reconstruct cases of neck and face scar contracture.

Bipedicled "Superthin" Free Perforator Flaps for Facial Burn Scar Reconstruction: Expanded Scope of Superthin Flaps: A Case Series.

Background: "Superthin flap" is a distinctively thin flap that is thinned primarily to the point that the subdermal vascular network can be seen through a minimal fat layer. Reconstruction of severely disfigured neck and face can be performed using the occipito-cervico-dorsal superthin flap that is harvested from the dorsal region and supercharged by the circumflex scapular vessels. We used bipedicled superthin free perforator flaps to reconstruct scar contractures on half of the face, whole face, or the whole chin-neck area in 17 postburn patients.

Optimization of lipase-catalyzed synthesis of caffeic acid phenethyl ester in ionic liquids by response surface methodology.

Lipase-catalyzed caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) synthesis in ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ([Emim][Tf(2)N]), was investigated in this study. The effects of several reaction conditions, including reaction time, reaction temperature, substrate molar ratio of phenethyl alcohol to caffeic acid (CA), and weight ratio of enzyme to CA, on CAPE yield were examined. In a single parameter study, the highest CAPE yield in [Emim][Tf(2)N] was obtained at 70 °C with a substrate molar ratio of 30:1 and weight ratio of enzyme to CA of 15:1.

OnWARD: ontology-driven web-based framework for multi-center clinical studies.

With a large percentage of clinical trials still using paper forms as the primary data collection tool, there is much potential for increasing efficiency through web-based data collection systems, especially for large-scale multi-center trials. This paper presents OnWARD, an ontology-driven, secure, rapidly-deployed, web-based framework supporting data capture for large-scale multi-center clinical research. Our approach is developed using the agile methodology to provide a flexible, user-centered dynamic form generator, which can be quickly deployed and customized for any clinical study without the need of deep technical expertise.

Anatomical and clinical studies of the supraclavicular flap: analysis of 103 flaps used to reconstruct neck scar contractures.

Background: The supraclavicular flap is an excellent flap that has been used widely, but its vascular reliability remains unclear. In this article, the authors report the results of their anatomical studies on 40 flaps from 20 preserved cadavers and their clinical studies of 103 supraclavicular flaps in 101 patients.

Methods: In their anatomical study, the authors analyzed the important anatomical features that are useful for harvesting flaps.

Reconstruction of neck scar contractures using supraclavicular flaps: retrospective study of 30 cases.

Background: The supraclavicular flap is used to cover chin and neck region defects. Its main vascular supply is the supraclavicular artery, and it can be harvested as either a skin pedicled flap or an island flap (vascular pedicled flap). The island flap has a wide rotation arc, and both the color and texture match are better for reconstructing contour-sensitive areas such as the chin and neck than those of free flaps harvested from distant sites.