Vol 1, No 2 (2016): Second issue

Internet of Things (IoT) plays an important role for solving critical problems such as climate change, smart city, smart agriculture, pollution of air, water and land. Despite being one of the leading countries in information technology outsourcing and facing a lot of critical problems of life environment and health, research and application of IoT in Vietnam are very fragmented. We thus analyze four critical application domains in Vietnam and the role of IoT for solving those problems.

Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is transported across the plasma membrane by sodium-dependent phosphate transporters belonging to solute carrier families 34 (SLC34) and 20A (SLC20A). SLC34 has been well characterized and studied. Recently, the role of SLC20A in many pathological conditions is emerged. In this review, a brief overview of characteristics of this family will be provided.

Teaching listening skills in a test preparation course has been regarded as boring, challenging, daunting, and non-communicative. Games and activities proven pedagogically sound and effective were recommended to make the teaching of the test preparation listening skills courses more fun and engaging as well as integrated with other language skills. A review of studies on using games in teaching listening was made before specific games and activities were suggested. An attempt was made to divide the games and activities into three categories corresponding with the three parts of a typical TOEFL PBT listening section, and flexible application was highly recommended to suit a particular purpose. 

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are the second most common malignant tumor of the pancreas. Neuroendocrine tumors are neoplasms that arise from cells of the endocrine and nervous systems. They all share common features such as having special secretory granules and producing biogenic amines and polypeptide hormones. The mean age of PanNETs occurrence is of 58 years old, and although their prognosis are better than that of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, they are still poor tumors with an average overall 5 years survival only 42%. PanNETs are well classified into functional versus non-functional tumors. While functional PanNETsare easily to be recognized by their classic clinical presentations such as Whipple’s triad for insulinoma or the migratory necrolytic erythema for glucagonoma, patients with non-functional PanNETs usually do not suffer from symptoms due to hormone hypersecretion, even if hormone levels are elevated on laboratory evaluation. Although several TNM classification systems for PanNETs patients have been established, a recent study suggests that the ENETs (European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society) TNM classification was superior to the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) or the WHO2010 grading system. This review aims to present those classification systems as well as list important genetic signatures in PanNETs.

Neurendocrine tumors (NETs) is a rare tumor with incidence about 2 cases per 100,000 persons but they represent a clinical challenge because of their varied presentations and initial studying images to locate the tumors may be inconclusive. Based on the characteristic of peptide and amine producing of those tumor cells, the intracellular markers of endocrine tissue, such as chromogranin A, synaptophysin, and neuron-specific enolase can be used in the diagnosis. NETs can be classified as carcinoid tumors or functional and non-functional NETs. While functional NETs and carcinoid tumors can be revealed by their dramatic clinical symptoms due to it over production of endogenous hormones or vasoactive substances, nonfunctional NETs are silent and therefore may be metastasized at the time of detection. This review will summarize the heritable tumor syndromes that related to NETs, the main clinical symptoms as well as the methods to diagnose NETs.