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•The performance of five DNA/RNA co-extraction method are evaluated.•Variable DNA/RNA quantities were observed among the tested methods.•Two modified methods combining commercially available DNA and RNA extraction kits showed best results.•Extensive evaluation and optimization is necessary for new combination of kits. The importance of RNA evidence is growing with new developments in RNA profiling methods and purposes. As forensic samples often can be of small quantity, extraction methods with high yields of both DNA and RNA are desirable. In order to identify the optimal DNA/RNA co-extraction workflow for forensic samples, we evaluated the performance of three frequently-used methods, two new approaches for DNA/RNA co-extraction and a manual phenol/chloroform RNA-only extraction method on blood and saliva samples. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the RNA and DNA quantities, as well as the STR genotyping and mRNA profiling results, we conclude that the two frequently-used co-extraction methods, combining commercially available DNA and RNA extraction kits, achieved the best performance. However, not any combination of commercially available DNA and RNA extraction kits works well and extensive optimization is necessary, as seen in the poor results of the two new approaches.

A contribution of foreign direct investment to economic growth is possibly one of the widely examined topics in academic research in the last five decades. However, few studies have examined both the short run and long run impacts of this effect concurrently for developing and emerging markets, in particular during the period of economic turmoil that includes the global financial crisis. As such, this paper examines and provides additional and relevant quantitative evidence on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth, both in the short run and the long run in developing countries of the lower-middle-income group in 2000-2014. Various econometric methods are employed such as the panel-based unit root test, Johansen cointegration test, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) to ensure the robustness of the findings. The results of this study show that FDI helps stimulate economic growth in the long run, although it has a negative impact in the short run for the countries in this study. Other macroeconomic factors also play an important role in explaining economic growth in these countries. Money supply has a positive effect on growth in the short run while total credit for private sector has a negative effect. In addition, long-run economic growth is driven by money supply, human capital, total domestic investment, and domestic credit for the private sector. Based on these results, recommendations for the governments of these countries have been developed.

In the digital age, firms should continually innovate and adapt to remain competitive and enhance performance. Innovation and adaptation require firms to take a holistic approach to their corporate structuring to ensure efficiency and effectiveness to stay competitive. This study examines how corporate restructuring impacts firm performance in Vietnam. We then investigate the moderating role of digital transformation in the corporate restructuring–firm performance nexus. We use content analysis, with a focus on particular terms, including \"digitalization,\" \"big data,\" \"cloud computing,\" \"blockchain,\" and \"information technology\" for 11 years, from 2011 to 2021. The frequency index from these keywords is developed to proxy the digital transformation for the Vietnamese listed firms. A final sample includes 118 Vietnamese listed firms with sufficient data for the analysis using the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach. The results indicate that corporate restructuring, including financial, portfolio, and operational restructuring, has a negative effect on firm performance in Vietnam. Digital transformation also negatively affects firm performance. However, corporate restructuring implemented in conjunction with digital transformation improves the performance of Vietnamese listed firms. These findings largely remain unchanged across various robustness analyses.

Chemosensory-related gene (CRG) families have been studied extensively in insects, but their evolutionary history across the Arthropoda had remained relatively unexplored. Here, we address current hypotheses and prior conclusions on CRG family evolution using a more comprehensive data set. In particular, odorant receptors were hypothesized to have proliferated during terrestrial colonization by insects (hexapods), but their association with other pancrustacean clades and with independent terrestrial colonizations in other arthropod subphyla have been unclear. We also examine hypotheses on which arthropod CRG family is most ancient. Thus, we reconstructed phylogenies of CRGs, including those from new arthropod genomes and transcriptomes, and mapped CRG gains and losses across arthropod lineages. Our analysis was strengthened by including crustaceans, especially copepods, which reside outside the hexapod/branchiopod clade within the subphylum Pancrustacea. We generated the first high-resolution genome sequence of the copepod Eurytemora affinis and annotated its CRGs. We found odorant receptors and odorant binding proteins present only in hexapods (insects) and absent from all other arthropod lineages, indicating that they are not universal adaptations to land. Gustatory receptors likely represent the oldest chemosensory receptors among CRGs, dating back to the Placozoa. We also clarified and confirmed the evolutionary history of antennal ionotropic receptors across the Arthropoda. All antennal ionotropic receptors in E. affinis were expressed more highly in males than in females, suggestive of an association with male mate-recognition behavior. This study is the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of CRG family evolution across the largest and most speciose metazoan phylum Arthropoda.

Aberrant left-right patterning in the developing human embryo can lead to a broad spectrum of congenital malformations. The causes of most laterality defects are not known, with variants in established genes accounting for <20% of cases. We sought to characterize the genetic spectrum of these conditions by performing whole-exome sequencing of 323 unrelated laterality cases. We investigated the role of rare, predicted-damaging variation in 1726 putative laterality candidate genes derived from model organisms, pathway analyses, and human phenotypes. We also evaluated the contribution of homo/hemizygous exon deletions and gene-based burden of rare variation. A total of 28 candidate variants (26 rare predicted-damaging variants and 2 hemizygous deletions) were identified, including variants in genes known to cause heterotaxy and primary ciliary dyskinesia (ACVR2B, NODAL, ZIC3, DNAI1, DNAH5, HYDIN, MMP21), and genes without a human phenotype association, but with prior evidence for a role in embryonic laterality or cardiac development. Sanger validation of the latter variants in probands and their parents revealed no de novo variants, but apparent transmitted heterozygous (ROCK2, ISL1, SMAD2), and hemizygous (RAI2, RIPPLY1) variant patterns. Collectively, these variants account for 7.1% of our study subjects. We also observe evidence for an excess burden of rare, predicted loss-of-function variation in PXDNL and BMS1- two genes relevant to the broader laterality phenotype. These findings highlight potential new genes in the development of laterality defects, and suggest extensive locus heterogeneity and complex genetic models in this class of birth defects.

Vitamin E is important for ruminants’ health. To increase the rate of vitamin E resorption, the use of a carrier is recommended. One authorised porous feed additive is biochar. Biochar’s adsorption capacity is affected by its pore volume, which is determined, among other factors, by the biomass and the production process applied. For this purpose, the vitamin E adsorption capacity of ten commercial biochars with a varying surface area in the range of 2.6 to 20 nm was investigated. The results of these single-point batch experiments were compared to the theoretical results using a monolayer adsorption model. Our hypothesis was proven, as the theoretical model could predict the experimental adsorption capacity. This generally suggests that the number of trials required to identify optimal adsorbents can be reduced. A high percentage of vitamin E adsorption (>90%) was obtained with a short adsorption time of 10 min using an adsorbent dosage of 15.78 g/L and a vitamin E concentration of 1.70 g/L. The highest correlation of vitamin E adsorption existed for the mesopore class, ranging from 3.22 to 4.03 nm in Barrett–Joyner–Halenda surface area. This indicates the necessity of knowing the size of the adsorptive and the adsorbent in order to optimise sorption kinetics.

Ovarian folliculogenesis is a complex biological process critical for female fertility, intricately regulated by various signaling pathways, among which the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway plays a pivotal role. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the physiological functions of MAPK signaling in key stages of folliculogenesis, including primordial follicle formation and activation, dominant follicle selection, cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) expansion, ovulation, and luteinization. The orchestrating roles of MAPK on steroidogenesis and ovarian cell death are also delineated, highlighting its essential contributions to normal reproductive function. Furthermore, we explore the implications of dysregulated MAPK signaling in ovarian aging, primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). By elucidating the multifaceted roles of MAPK signaling in ovarian biology, this review aims to enhance our understanding of folliculogenesis and its associated pathologies, paving the way for future research and therapeutic interventions targeting MAPK pathways in reproductive health. Clinical trial number Not applicable.

The banking sector in Vietnam is under enormous pressure today due to competition arising from the integration of Vietnamese economy into the world economy. Survival and success of this sector significantly depend on customer loyalty which has mostly been built on the recognition of banks' social responsibility and their provision of inclusive services, generally known as financial inclusion. The recognition of social responsibility from the banking sector and its strategy on financial inclusion has largely been ignored in current literature, in particular for Vietnam. This study has been conducted to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR), financial inclusion inter alia, on customer loyalty in the banking sector in Vietnam. The pyramid model is utilized in this paper, including various CSR factors/attributes such as philanthropic responsibility, ethical responsibility, legal responsibility, economic responsibility, customers-centric strategy and bank reputation. A sample of 368 responses to the well-defined questionnaires has been collected from the commercial banks in Vietnam in 2019. The structural equation modelling is utilized. The findings from this paper indicate that philanthropic responsibility of the banking sector has the most substantial impact on customer loyalty, followed by customer-centric strategy. Improving the aspects of CSR programs, in particular customer-centric strategy, will lead to improved extent of financial inclusion which currently attracts attention of Vietnamese government and practitioners. Doing so will improve the reputation of banks and enhance customer loyalty, thus preparing banks for competition in the near future.

Deep learning and image processing technology continue to evolve, with YOLO models widely used for real-time object recognition. These YOLO models offer both blazing fast processing and high precision, making them super popular in fields like self-driving cars, security cameras, and medical support. Most YOLO models are optimized for RGB images, which creates some limitations. While RGB images are super sensitive to lighting conditions, infrared (IR) images using thermal data can detect objects consistently, even in low-light settings. However, infrared images present unique challenges like low resolution, tiny object sizes, and high amounts of noise, which makes direct application tricky in regard to the current YOLO models available. This situation requires the development of object detection models designed specifically for thermal images, especially for real-time recognition. Given the GPU and memory constraints in edge device environments, designing a lightweight model that maintains a high speed is crucial. Our research focused on training a YOLOv8 model using infrared image data to recognize humans. We proposed a YOLOv8s model that had unnecessary layers removed, which was better suited to infrared images and significantly reduced the weight of the model. We also integrated an improved Global Attention Mechanism (GAM) module to boost IR image precision and applied depth-wise convolution filtering to maintain the processing speed. The proposed model achieved a 2% precision improvement, 75% parameter reduction, and 12.8% processing speed increase, compared to the original YOLOv8s model. This method can be effectively used in thermal imaging applications like night surveillance cameras, cameras used in bad weather, and smart ventilation systems, particularly in environments requiring real-time processing with limited computational resources.

Background Trichogrammatids are minute parasitoid wasps that develop within other insect eggs. They are less than half a millimeter long, smaller than some protozoans. The Trichogrammatidae are one of the earliest branching families of Chalcidoidea: a diverse superfamily of approximately half a million species of parasitoid wasps, proposed to have evolved from a miniaturized ancestor. Trichogramma are frequently used in agriculture, released as biological control agents against major moth and butterfly pests. Additionally, Trichogramma are well known for their symbiotic bacteria that induce asexual reproduction in infected females . Knowledge of the genome sequence of Trichogramma is a major step towards further understanding its biology and potential applications in pest control. Results We report the 195-Mb genome sequence of Trichogramma pretiosum and uncover signatures of miniaturization and adaptation in Trichogramma and related parasitoids. Comparative analyses reveal relatively rapid evolution of proteins involved in ribosome biogenesis and function, transcriptional regulation, and ploidy regulation. Chalcids also show loss or especially rapid evolution of 285 gene clusters conserved in other Hymenoptera, including many that are involved in signal transduction and embryonic development. Comparisons between sexual and asexual lineages of Trichogramma pretiosum reveal that there is no strong evidence for genome degradation (e.g., gene loss) in the asexual lineage, although it does contain a lower repeat content than the sexual lineage. Trichogramma shows particularly rapid genome evolution compared to other hymenopterans . We speculate these changes reflect adaptations to miniaturization, and to life as a specialized egg parasitoid. Conclusions The genomes of Trichogramma and related parasitoids are a valuable resource for future studies of these diverse and economically important insects, including explorations of parasitoid biology, symbiosis, asexuality, biological control, and the evolution of miniaturization. Understanding the molecular determinants of parasitism can also inform mass rearing of Trichogramma and other parasitoids for biological control.