Short- and long-term assessment of PAH, PCB, and metal contamination in the Belgian part of the North Sea.

Dredging activities can result in the relocation of contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and metals from shipping channels, harbours, and ports into the marine environment where these components may exert a negative effect on the marine ecosystem. In this work, contamination associated with dredging is evaluated at and around dredged spoil disposal sites in the Belgian part of the North Sea, taking into account spatial as well as temporal variation. A homogeneous dispersion of the different contaminants was observed at the different sites. However, the contamination pattern was different for disposal sites that were linked with commercial ports, resulting in significantly higher PAH and PCB concentrations. When comparing concentrations with environmental assessment criteria, contamination of PAHs does not exceed these criteria in the Belgian Part of the North Sea, and for PCBs, only CB118 reveals a concerningly high concentration that exceeds the environmental assessment criteria. This is in contrast with metals where the contamination of As, Cr, Ni, and Zn exceeded the environmental limit values both at dredged spoil disposal sites and reference locations.

Usefulness of Hospital Admission Chest X-ray Score for Predicting Mortality and ICU Admission in COVID-19 Patients.

We aimed to investigate the performance of a chest X-ray (CXR) scoring scale of lung injury in prediction of death and ICU admission among patients with COVID-19 during the 2021 peak pandemic in HCM City, Vietnam. CXR and clinical data were collected from Vinmec Central Park-hospitalized patients from July to September 2021. Three radiologists independently assessed the day-one CXR score consisting of both severity and extent of lung lesions (maximum score = 24). Among 219 included patients, 28 died and 34 were admitted to the ICU. There was a high consensus for CXR scoring among radiologists (κ = 0.90; CI95%: 0.89-0.92). CXR score was the strongest predictor of mortality (tdAUC 0.85 CI95% 0.69-1) within the first 3 weeks after admission. A multivariate model confirmed a significant effect of an increased CXR score on mortality risk (HR = 1.33, CI95%: 1.10 to 1.62). At a threshold of 16 points, the CXR score allowed for predicting in-hospital mortality and ICU admission with good sensitivity (0.82 (CI95%: 0.78 to 0.87) and 0.86 (CI95%: 0.81 to 0.90)) and specificity (0.89 (CI95%: 0.88 to 0.90) and 0.87 (CI95%: 0.86 to 0.89)), respectively, and can be used to identify high-risk patients in needy countries such as Vietnam.

Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Metabolites from the Marine Fungi Penicillium sp. Isolated from Sediments of Co To Island, Vietnam.

Marine microorganisms are an invaluable source of novel active secondary metabolites possessing various biological activities. In this study, the extraction and isolation of the marine sediment Penicillium species collected in Vietnam yielded ten secondary metabolites, including sporogen AO-1 (1), 3-indolecarbaldehyde (2), 2-[(5-methyl-1,4-dioxan-2-yl)methoxy]ethanol (3), 2-[(2R-hydroxypropanoyl)amino]benzamide (4), 4-hydroxybenzandehyde (5), chrysogine (6), 3-acetyl-4-hydroxycinnoline (7), acid 1H-indole-3-acetic (8), cyclo (Tyr-Trp) (9), and 2',3'-dihydrosorbicillin (10). Their structures were identified by the analysis of 1D and 2D NMR data. Among the isolated compounds, 2-[(5-methyl-1,4-dioxan-2-yl)methoxy]ethanol (3) showed a strong inhibitory effect against Enterococcus faecalis with a minimum inhibitory concentration value of 32 µg/mL. Both 2-[(2R-hydroxypropanoyl)amino]benzamide (4) and 4-hydroxybenzandehyde (5) selectively inhibited E. coli with minimum inhibitory concentration values of 16 and 8 µg/mL, respectively. 2',3'-Dihydrosorbicillin (10) potentially inhibited α-glucosidase activity at a concentration of 2.0 mM (66.31%).

Antimicrobial Lavandulylated Flavonoids from a Sponge-Derived Streptomyces sp. G248 in East Vietnam Sea.

Three new lavandulylated flavonoids, (2S,2''S)-6-lavandulyl-7,4'-dimethoxy-5,2'-dihydroxylflavanone (1), (2S,2''S)-6-lavandulyl-5,7,2',4'-tetrahydroxylflavanone (2), and (2''S)-5'-lavandulyl-2'-methoxy-2,4,4',6'-tetrahydroxylchalcone (3), along with seven known compounds 4-10 were isolated from culture broth of Streptomyces sp. G248. Their structures were established by spectroscopic data analysis, including 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS). The absolute configurations of 1-3 were resolved by comparison of their experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism spectra. Compounds 1-3 exhibited remarkable antimicrobial activity. Whereas, two known compounds 4 and 5 exhibited inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 6.0 µg/mL and 11.1 µg/mL, respectively.