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Viet Hang Dao,1,2 Long Bao Hoang,2 Thi Oanh Trinh,2 Thi Thu Trang Tran,2 Van Long Dao1,2 1Internal Medicine Faculty, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 2Research and Training Management Unit, Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hanoi, VietnamCorrespondence: Viet Hang Dao Email daoviethang@hmu.edu.vnPurpose: Using psychobiotics to modify the gut microbiome has been shown to improve the anxiety and depression situation of patients with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. This study evaluated changes in depression, anxiety, GI symptomss and side effects when patients used a multispecies probiotics product.Patients and Methods: A single-center uncontrolled trial was conducted in patients with chronic GI symptoms, anxiety and depression who used a multispecies probiotics product. The patients were screened for anxiety and depression symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Those who had a component score of 8 or higher were given the multispecies probiotics product for 2 months and followed up after 1 and 2 months. All data are collected and managed in a case report form.Results: Eighty-three patients were enrolled, with a mean age (SD) of 43.9 (12.3) years; 73.5% of the patients were female. Of these patients, 8 met the Rome IV criteria for irritable bowel syndrome. The HADS scores displayed significant improvement at follow-up. The mean (SD) total HADS scores were 20.0 (6.3), 7.2 (5.4), and 4.9 (5.1) at baseline, 1 month, and 2 months, respectively. Quality of life also improved significantly. A small proportion (< 5%) of patients developed mild symptoms, including fullness, diarrhea, and sleep complaints.Conclusion: After 2 months using the probiotic product, the symptoms of anxiety and depression improved significantly. Mild gastrointestinal or constitutional symptoms developed in some patients.Keywords: probiotics, anxiety, depression

Evidence accumulation models (EAMs) are an important class of cognitive models used to analyze both response time and response choice data recorded from decision-making tasks. Developments in estimation procedures have helped EAMs become important both in basic scientific applications and solution-focused applied work. Hierarchical Bayesian estimation frameworks for the linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) model and the diffusion decision model (DDM) have been widely used, but still suffer from some key limitations, particularly for large sample sizes, for models with many parameters, and when linking decision-relevant covariates to model parameters. We extend upon previous work with methods for estimating the LBA and DDM in hierarchical Bayesian frameworks that include random effects that are correlated between people and include regression-model links between decision-relevant covariates and model parameters. Our methods work equally well in cases where the covariates are measured once per person (e.g., personality traits or psychological tests) or once per decision (e.g., neural or physiological data). We provide methods for exact Bayesian inference, using particle-based Markov chain Monte-Carlo, and also approximate methods based on variational Bayesian (VB) inference. The VB methods are sufficiently fast and efficient that they can address large-scale estimation problems, such as with very large data sets. We evaluate the performance of these methods in applications to data from three existing experiments. Detailed algorithmic implementations and code are freely available for all methods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Model comparison is the cornerstone of theoretical progress in psychological research. Common practice overwhelmingly relies on tools that evaluate competing models by balancing in-sample descriptive adequacy against model flexibility, with modern approaches advocating the use of marginal likelihood for hierarchical cognitive models. Cross-validation is another popular approach but its implementation remains out of reach for cognitive models evaluated in a Bayesian hierarchical framework, with the major hurdle being its prohibitive computational cost. To address this issue, we develop novel algorithms that make variational Bayes (VB) inference for hierarchical models feasible and computationally efficient for complex cognitive models of substantive theoretical interest. It is well known that VB produces good estimates of the first moments of the parameters, which gives good predictive densities estimates. We thus develop a novel VB algorithm with Bayesian prediction as a tool to perform model comparison by cross-validation, which we refer to as CVVB. In particular, CVVB can be used as a model screening device that quickly identifies bad models. We demonstrate the utility of CVVB by revisiting a classic question in decision making research: what latent components of processing drive the ubiquitous speed-accuracy tradeoff? We demonstrate that CVVB strongly agrees with model comparison via marginal likelihood, yet achieves the outcome in much less time. Our approach brings cross-validation within reach of theoretically important psychological models, making it feasible to compare much larger families of hierarchically specified cognitive models than has previously been possible. To enhance the applicability of the algorithm, we provide Matlab code together with a user manual so users can easily implement VB and/or CVVB for the models considered in this article and their variants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Background & Aims: The evolving epidemiologic patterns of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) throughout the world, in conjunction with advances in therapeutic treatments, may influence hospitalization rates of IBD. We performed a systematic review with temporal analysis of hospitalization rates for IBD across the world in the 21st century., Methods: We systematically reviewed Medline and Embase for population-based studies reporting hospitalization rates for IBD, Crohn's disease (CD), or ulcerative colitis (UC) in the 21st century. Log-linear models were used to calculate the average annual percentage change (AAPC) with associated 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Random-effects meta-analysis pooled country-level AAPCs. Data were stratified by the epidemiologic stage of a region: compounding prevalence (stage 3) in North America, Western Europe, and Oceania vs acceleration of incidence (stage 2) in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America vs emergence (stage 1) in developing countries., Results: Hospitalization rates for a primary diagnosis of IBD were stable in countries in stage 3 (AAPC, -0.13%; 95% CI, -0.72 to 0.97), CD (AAPC, 0.20%; 95% CI, -1.78 to 2.17), and UC (AAPC, 0.02%; 95% CI, -0.91 to 0.94). In contrast, hospitalization rates for a primary diagnosis were increasing in countries in stage 2 for IBD (AAPC, 4.44%; 95% CI, 2.75 to 6.14), CD (AAPC, 8.34%; 95% CI, 4.38 to 12.29), and UC (AAPC, 3.90; 95% CI, 1.29 to 6.52). No population-based studies were available for developing regions in stage 1 (emergence)., Conclusions: Hospitalization rates for IBD are stabilizing in countries in stage 3, whereas newly industrialized countries in stage 2 have rapidly increasing hospitalization rates, contributing to an increasing burden on global health care systems., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) has been widely used in pharmacology, food poisoning analysis, therapeutic use, and neurobiology. In the last decades, the isolation and purification of TTX from natural sources ( e.g. , pufferfish) were mostly based on column chromatography. Recently, functional magnetic nanomaterials have been recognized as promising solid phases for the isolation and purification of bioactive compounds from aqueous matrices due to their effective adsorptive properties. Thus far, no studies have been reported on the utilization of magnetic nanomaterials for the purification of TTX from biological matrices. In this work, an effort has been made to synthesize Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 and Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -NH 2 nanocomposites for the adsorption and recovery of TTX derivatives from a crude pufferfish viscera extract. The experimental data showed that Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -NH 2 displayed a higher affinity toward TTX derivatives than Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 , achieving maximal adsorption yields for 4epi-TTX, TTX, and Anh-TTX of 97.9, 99.6, and 93.8%, respectively, under the optimal conditions of contact time of 50 min, pH of 2, adsorbent dosage of 4 g L -1 , initial adsorbate concentration of 1.92 mg L -1 4epi-TTX, 3.36 mg L -1 TTX and 1.44 mg L -1 Anh-TTX and temperature of 40 °C. Interestingly, desorption of 4epi-TTX, TTX, and Anh-TTX from Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -NH 2 -TTX investigated at 50 °C was recorded to achieve the highest recovery yields of 96.5, 98.2, and 92.7% using 1% AA/ACN for 30 min reaction, respectively. Remarkably, Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 -NH 2 can be regenerated up to three cycles with adsorptive performance remaining at nearly 90%, demonstrating a promising adsorbent for purifying TTX derivatives from pufferfish viscera extract and a potential replacement for resins used in column chromatography-based techniques., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Seagrass meadows provide valuable ecosystem services but are fragile and threatened ecosystems all over the world. This review highlights the current advances in seagrass research from Viet Nam. One goal is to support decision makers in developing science-based conservation strategies. In recent years, several techniques were applied to estimate the size of seagrass meadows. Independent from the method used, there is an alarming decline in the seagrass area in almost all parts of Viet Nam. Since 1990, a decline of 46.5% or 13,549 ha was found. Only in a few protected and difficult-to-reach areas was an increase observed. Conditions at those sites could be investigated in more detail to make suggestions for conservation and recovery of seagrass meadows. Due to their lifestyle and morphology, seagrasses take up compounds from their environment easily. Phytoremediation processes of Thalassia hemprichii and Enhalus acoroides are described exemplarily. High accumulation of heavy metals dependent on their concentration in the environment in different organs can be observed. On the one hand, seagrasses play a role in phytoremediation processes in polluted areas; on the other hand, they might suffer at high concentrations, and pollution will contribute to their overall decline. Compared with the neighboring countries, the total C org stock from seagrass beds in Viet Nam was much lower than in the Philippines and Indonesia but higher than that of Malaysia and Myanmar. Due to an exceptionally long latitudinal coastline of 3,260 km covering cool to warm water environments, the seagrass species composition in Viet Nam shows a high diversity and a high plasticity within species boundaries. This leads to challenges in taxonomic issues, especially with the Halophila genus, which can be better deduced from genetic diversity/population structures of members of Hydrocharitaceae. Finally, the current seagrass conservation and management efforts in Viet Nam are presented and discussed. Only decisions based on the interdisciplinary cooperation of scientists from all disciplines mentioned will finally lead to conserve this valuable ecosystem for mankind and biodiversity., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Nguyen, Phan, Cao, Nguyen Nhat, Nguyen, Nguyen, Lau, Hoang, Nguyen-Thi, Nguyen, Dao, Teichberg and Papenbrock.)

Pim kinases (proviral integration site for Moloney murine leukemia virus kinases) are overexpressed in various types of hematological malignancies and solid carcinomas, and promote cell proliferation and survival. Thus, Pim kinases are validated as targets for antitumor therapy. In this context, our combined efforts in natural product-inspired library generation and screening furnished very promising dibenzo[ b , d ]furan derivatives derived from cercosporamide. Among them, lead compound 44 was highlighted as a potent Pim-1/2 kinases inhibitor with an additional nanomolar IC 50 value against CLK1 (cdc2-like kinases 1) and displayed a low micromolar anticancer potency towards the MV4-11 (AML) cell line, expressing high endogenous levels of Pim-1/2 kinases. The design, synthesis, structure-activity relationship, and docking studies are reported herein and supported by enzyme, cellular assays, and Galleria mellonella larvae testing for acute toxicity.

The genus Halophila shows the highest species diversity within the seagrass genera. Southeast Asian countries where several boundary lines exist were considered as the origin of seagrasses. We hypothesize that the boundary lines, such as Wallace's and Lydekker's Lines, may act as marine geographic barriers to the population structure of Halophila major. Seagrass samples were collected at three islands in Vietnamese waters and analyzed by the molecular maker ITS. These sequences were compared with published ITS sequences from seagrasses collected in the whole region of interest. In this study, we reveal the haplotype and nucleotide diversity, linking population genetics, phylogeography, phylogenetics and estimation of relative divergence times of H. major and other members of the Halophila genus. The morphological characters show variation. The results of the ITS marker analysis reveal smaller groups of H. major from Myanmar, Shoalwater Bay (Australia) and Okinawa (Japan) with high supporting values. The remaining groups including Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Two Peoples Bay (Australia) and Tokushima (Japan) showed low supporting values. The Wallacea region shows the highest haplotype and also nucleotide diversity. Non-significant differences were found among regions, but significant differences were presented among populations. The relative divergence times between some members of section Halophila were estimated 2.15-6.64 Mya., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Exposure to plasma can significantly increase the surface area of silver species and their resistance to oxidation. While some work investigating plasma-treated silver has been done, limited morphologies and applications have been explored. We hereby explore this effect on silver nanowires (AgNWs) through medium-vacuum air plasma exposure time ranging between 30 s to 60 min. These plasma-treated AgNW networks are directly applied as supercapacitor electrodes, without any carbon or polymer additives that are typically employed alongside silver in energy storage applications. The plasma treatment consequently affected the electrochemical performance of AgNWs, where longer treatment times resulted in higher energy storage capacity. An increase in resistance was observed for plasma treatment times greater than or equal to 5 min, due to the switch from the percolation threshold of the metallic Ag phase to the Ag2O phase. Despite an initial drop in stored energy, an overall improvement in energy storage capacity was observed throughout cycling, where the optimal plasma treatment time of 5 min resulted in an increase of 320% of its starting value with near 100% coulombic efficiency, through the development of stable redox-active surface nanostructures.

The flocculation efficiency of polyelectrolytes in a high-ionic-strength environment is often affected and reduced due to shielding of the active ionizable functional groups, as well as changes in the surface chemistry of the solid slurry. To address this problem, a series of well-defined novel ABA triblock copolymers were employed for the flocculation of high-ionic-strength kaolin slurries at three different Ca 2+ concentrations (0.05, 0.10, and 0.50 M). The primary focus was on the advancement in the polymer architecture, where the anionic functionalities were localized at the terminal ends. Typical commercial flocculants tend to have anionic functionalities randomly distributed throughout the polymer chain and hence a higher propensity toward condensed conformation and formation of insoluble species. In comparison to a control random copolymer, the ABA triblock copolymers were able to flocculate kaolin slurries to give faster settlement rates, particularly at the high Ca 2+ concentrations of 0.10 and 0.50 M. In addition, these polymers had significantly better clarification ability at higher Ca 2+ concentrations compared to the control random copolymer. The ABA triblock copolymer architecture may therefore have potential as a flocculant in high-ionic-strength applications.

In a context of growing resistance to classical antifungal therapy, the design of new drugs targeting alternative pathways is highly expected. Benzofuro[3,2-d]pyrimidine derivatives, derived from (-)-cercosporamide, were synthesized and evaluated as potential Candida albicans PKC inhibitors in the aim of restoring susceptibility to azole treatment. Co-administration assay of benzofuropyrimidinedione 23 and fluconazole highlighted a synergistic effect on inhibition of cell growth of a Candida albicans resistant strain., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: A substantial proportion of Plasmodium species infections are asymptomatic with densities too low to be detectable with standard diagnostic techniques. The importance of such asymptomatic plasmodium infections in malaria transmission is probably related to their duration and density. To explore the duration of asymptomatic plasmodium infections and changes in parasite densities over time, a cohort of participants who were infected with Plasmodium parasites was observed over a 2-year follow-up period., Methods: In this open cohort study, inhabitants of four villages in Vietnam were invited to participate in baseline and subsequent 3-monthly surveys up to 24 months, which included the collection of venous blood samples. Samples were batch-screened using ultra-sensitive (u)PCR (lower limit of detection of 22 parasites per mL). Participants found to be infected by uPCR during any of these surveys were invited to join a prospective cohort and provide monthly blood samples. We estimated the persistence of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infections and changes in parasite densities over a study period of 24 months., Findings: Between Dec 1, 2013, and Jan 8, 2016, 356 villagers participated in between one and 22 surveys. These study participants underwent 4248 uPCR evaluations (11·9 tests per participant). 1874 (32%) of 4248 uPCR tests indicated a plasmodium infection; 679 (36%) of 1874 tests were P falciparum monoinfections, 507 (27%) were P vivax monoinfections, 463 (25%) were co-infections with P falciparum and P vivax, and 225 (12%) were indeterminate species of Plasmodium. The median duration of P falciparum infection was 2 months (IQR 1-3); after accounting for censoring, participants had a 20% chance of having parasitaemia for 4 months or longer. The median duration of P vivax infection was 6 months (3-9), and participants had a 59% chance of having parasitaemia for 4 months or longer. The parasite densities of persistent infections oscillated; following ultralow-density infections, high-density infections developed frequently., Interpretation: Persistent largely asymptomatic P vivax and P falciparum infections are common in this area of low seasonal malaria transmission. Infections with low-density parasitaemias can develop into much higher density infections at a later time, which are likely to sustain malaria endemicity., Funding: The Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation., (Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Forty-eight isolates of Pseudo-nitzschia species were established from the Miri coast of Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) and underwent TEM observation and molecular characterization. Ten species were found: P. abrensis, P. batesiana, P. fukuyoi, P. kodamae, P. lundholmiae, P. multistriata, P. pungens, P. subfraudulenta, as well as two additional new morphotypes, herein designated as P. bipertita sp. nov. and P. limii sp. nov. This is the first report of P. abrensis, P. batesiana, P. kodamae, P. fukuyoi, and P. lundholmiae in coastal waters of Malaysian Borneo. Pseudo-nitzschia bipertita differs from its congeners by the number of sectors that divide the poroids, densities of band striae, and its cingular band structure. Pseudo-nitzschia limii, a pseudo-cryptic species in the P. pseudodelicatissima complex sensu lato, is distinct by having wider proximal and distal mantles, a higher number of striae, and greater poroid height in the striae of the valvocopula. The species were further supported by the phylogenetic reconstructions of the nuclear-encoded large subunit ribosomal gene and the second internal transcribed spacer. Phylogenetically, P. bipertita clustered with its sister taxa (P. subpacifica + P. heimii); P. limii appears as a sister taxon to P. kodamae and P. hasleana in the ITS2 tree. Pairwise comparison of ITS2 transcripts with its closest relatives revealed the presence of both hemi- and compensatory base changes. Toxicity analysis showed detectable levels of domoic acid in P. abrensis, P. batesiana, P. lundholmiae, and P. subfraudulenta, but both new species tested below the detection limit., (© 2016 Phycological Society of America.)

We demonstrate the existence of a novel superconducting state in high quality two-component MgB2 single crystalline superconductors where a unique combination of both type-1 (lambda{1}/xi{1}<1/sqrt[2]) and type-2 (lambda{2}/xi{2}>1/sqrt[2]) superconductor conditions is realized for the two components of the order parameter. This condition leads to a vortex-vortex interaction attractive at long distances and repulsive at short distances, which stabilizes unconventional stripe- and gossamerlike vortex patterns that we have visualized in this type-1.5 superconductor using Bitter decoration and also reproduced in numerical simulations.