Employing fruit juices to hydrolyze edible bird's nest and enhance the antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase, and wound-healing activities of the hydrolysates.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of edible bird's nest (EBN) has attracted great interest in both scientific and commercial fields due to the enhancement of solubility and nutraceutical values. The present study attempted to investigate the hydrolysis of EBN with papaya ( L.), pineapple ( (L.

Graphene as a Sensor for Lung Cancer: Insights into Adsorption of VOCs Using vdW DFT.

The adsorption mechanism of individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on the surface of graphene is investigated using nonempirical van der Waals (vdW) density functional theory. The VOCs chosen as adsorbates are ethanol, benzene, and toluene, which are found in the exhaled breath of lung cancer patients. The most energetically favorable configurations of the adsorbed systems, adsorption energy profiles, charge transfer, and work function are calculated.

Green and Facile Synthesis of Porous SiO@C Adsorbents from Rice Husk: Preparation, Characterization, and Their Application in Removal of Reactive Red 120 in Aqueous Solution.

In this work, a green, novel, fast, and facile approach for synthesizing a SiO/C nanocomposite series from rice husk (RH) through quenching and grinding techniques has been reported along with its application for the adsorptive removal of Reactive Red 120 (RR120) dye from an aqueous solution. The effect of carbonization temperature on the textural and interfacial features of RH was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the structure and elemental composition of the as-synthesized RH were investigated via XRD, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), FT-IR, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The RH had a high surface area (521.

Conformational deformation of a multi-jointed elastic loop.

A new class of deformation is presented for a planar loop structure made up of slender elastic bodies and joints. In demonstrating the circumferential shortening of the multi-jointed elastic loop, diverse three-dimensional (3D) deformations emerge through piecewise deflections and discrete rotations. These 3D morphologies correspond to conformations of molecular ring systems.

Two-Dimensional NHVO Nanoflakes as Efficient Energy Conversion and Storage Materials for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Supercapacitors.

Herein, for the first time, we present two-dimensional (2D) NHVO nanoflakes as an excellent material for both energy conversion of the hydrogen evolution reaction and storage of supercapacitors by a simple and fast two-step synthesis, which exhibit a completely sheet-like morphology, high crystallinity, good specific surface area, and also stability, as determined by thermogravimetric analysis. The 2D-NHVO flakes show an acceptable hydrogen evolution performance in 0.5 M HSO on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with 2D-NHVO, which results in a low overpotential of 314 mV at -10 mA cm with an excellent Tafel slope as low as 90 mV dec.

Adsorption of toxic gases on borophene: surface deformation links to chemisorptions.

β borophene has received great attention because of its intriguing mechanical and electronic properties. One of the possible applications of borophene is gas sensing. However, the interaction between common gases and β borophene remains to be clarified.

Food seasoning-derived gel polymer electrolyte and pulse-plasma exfoliated graphene nanosheet electrodes for symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors.

Kitchen sea salt or table salt is used every day by cooks as a food seasoning. Here, it is introduced into a gel polymer (poly(vinyl) alcohol (PVA)-table salt) for use as an electrolyte, and an electrode was constructed from graphene nanosheets for use as symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors. The graphene sheets are prepared by a pulse control plasma method and used as an electrode material, and were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Computation and Investigation of Two-Dimensional WO·HO Nanoflowers for Electrochemical Studies of Energy Conversion and Storage Applications.

The aim of this study is to prepare a two-dimensional (2D) WO·HO nanostructure assembly into a flower shape with good chemical stability for electrochemical studies of catalyst and energy storage applications. The 2D-WO·HO nanoflowers structure is created by a fast and simple process at room condition. This cost-effective and scalable technique to obtain 2D-WO·HO nanoflowers illustrates two attractive applications of electrochemical capacitor with an excellent energy density value of 25.

Nutrients in the rhizosphere: A meta-analysis of content, availability, and influencing factors.

Nutrient deficiency in most terrestrial ecosystems constrains global primary productivity. Rhizosphere nutrient availability directly regulates plant growth and is influenced by many factors, including soil properties, plant characteristics and climate. A quantitatively comprehensive understanding of the role of these factors in modulating rhizosphere nutrient availability remains largely unknown.

Creep trajectory transition of a nonstationary viscoelastic model onto a single rate parameter.

A system of three-variable differential equations, which has a nonstationary trajectory transition through the control of a single rate parameter, is formulated. For the nondimensional system, the critical trajectory creeps before a transition in a long-lasting plateau region in which the velocity vector of the system hardly changes and then diverges positively or negatively in finite time. The mathematical model well represents the compressive viscoelasticity of a spring-damper structure simulated by the multibody dynamics analysis.

Auxetic vibration behaviours of periodic tetrahedral units with a shared edge.

A very low-frequency mode supported within an auxetic structure is presented. We propose a constrained periodic framework with corner-to-corner and edge-to-edge sharing of tetrahedra and develop a kinematic model incorporating two types of linear springs to calculate the momentum term under infinitesimal transformations. The modal analysis shows that the microstructure with its two degrees of freedom has both low- and high-frequency modes under auxetic transformations.

Children and female labor market outcomes in Vietnam.

This paper examines the effect of fertility on the participation of women in the labor market and other labor market outcomes in Vietnam, using Vietnam Labor Force Survey data. To address the endogeneity issue in fertility, we use an instrumental variable estimation method based on parental preference for the mixed-sex composition of the first two children. Our findings indicate that number of children has a negative impact on maternal participation in the labor market and on working hours but has no effect on earnings.

An //1 queue with workload-dependent processing speed and vacations.

Motivated by the trade-off issue between delay performance and energy consumption in modern computer and communication systems, we consider a single-server queue with phase-type service requirements and with the following two special features: Firstly, the service speed is a piecewise constant function of the workload. Secondly, the server switches off when the system becomes empty, only to be activated again when the workload reaches a certain threshold. For this system, we obtain the steady-state workload distribution and its moments of any order.

Association of the colistin resistance gene mcr-1 with faecal pollution in water environments in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Colistin is one of the antibiotics of last resort for human health. However, the dissemination of the plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 is of great concern globally. In the One Health framework, the environment is an important component for managing antimicrobial resistance.

Hybrid Functional Study on Small Polaron Formation and Ion Diffusion in the Cathode Material NaMn(SO).

The crystal structure, electronic structure, and diffusion mechanism of Na ions in the cathode material NaMn(SO) are investigated based on the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid density functional method. The simultaneous motion model of polaron-sodium vacancy complexes was used to reveal the diffusion mechanism of Na ions in this material. Polaron formation at the Mn third-nearest neighbor to the Na vacancy was found.

Nutrient removal by duckweed from anaerobically treated swine wastewater in lab-scale stabilization ponds in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, swine wastewater is generally treated using anaerobic processes. Nevertheless, the level of pollutants in effluent after anaerobic treatment remains very high, thereby necessitating further treatment. This research was conducted to assess the applicability of duckweed (Lemna minor) for purifying wastewater collected from a household swine wastewater treatment system in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Bio-inspired broadband absorbers induced by copper nanostructures on natural leaves.

In this work, two copper-based biometamaterials were engineered using leaves of water cabbage (Pistia stratiotes) and purple bauhinia (Phanera purpurea) as templates. The copper sputtering was implemented to produce a thin copper film on the surface of leaves. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images exhibited the root hair-like nanostructure of water cabbage leaf and single comb-like nanostructure of purple bauhinia leaf.

Consecutive ultrafiltration and silica adsorption for recovery of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes from an urban river.

The dissemination of antibiotic resistance (AR) has attracted global attention because of the increasing antibiotic treatment failure it has caused. Through natural transformation, a live bacterium takes up extracellular DNA (exDNA), which facilitates AR dissemination. However, recovery of exDNA from water samples is challenging.