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The aim of the current study is to modify water hyacinth fibre (WHF), which are then used to produce novel oil sorption polymers. Two synthetic materials were derived from acetylation by acetic anhydride using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as a catalyst and the graft co-polymerisation of butyl acrylate (BA) using 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator. Physicochemical properties were comprehensively characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, contact angle, and thermogravimetric analysis. In the seawater/crude oil system, the best oil sorption capacity values of the raw WHFs and their acetylated-WHF and graft co-polymer WHF-g-BA were 7.46 g/g, 20.16 g/g, and 25.47 g/g, respectively. The sorption kinetic and isotherm studies exhibited that the oil sorption of the co-polymer WHF-g-BA is ruled by pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models. The reusability of the WHFs and their synthetic materials has reached 6 cycles of sorption/desorption, and this property of the co-polymer is always better than that of acetylated and original fibres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the dynamic landscape of Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS), leading firms are challenged to uphold efficiency and quality in the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCB). With PCB technology rapidly advancing and becoming increasingly integral to various industries, there is a pressing demand for improved assembly techniques that can match the pace of innovation. This study tackles the essential requirement for enhanced precision and speed in the PCB assembly operations of the world's preeminent EMS provider. It addresses the challenges posed by time delays and the intricate coordination needed among component feeding, pick-and-place systems, and PCB positioning. Through the innovative combination of TRIZ methodology and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), the research presents a simulation-based strategy for streamlining assembly paths. This approach empowers engineers to determine and apply the most effective parameters, achieving a notable 29.86% reduction in assembly time. Beyond boosting operational efficiency and supporting strategic planning in PCB assembly, this optimization also makes a significant environmental contribution by reducing energy consumption. The integration of simulation, ACO, and TRIZ techniques not only establishes new efficiency benchmarks for the EMS industry but also demonstrates a commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices, aligning productivity enhancements with environmental stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of social interactions, including online review quality and source credibility, on consumers' risk perception and purchase intention in e-commerce based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. Further, it investigates the role of risk-related feelings (immediate negative emotions) in consumers' decision-making journeys. We used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyze 405 online questionnaires. Our analysis reveals that review quality and source credibility lower perceived risk and risk-related feelings while enhancing purchase intention. Moreover, it indicates that the online decision journey is twofold and varies based on emotions. Our results have considerable theoretical and practical implications. We enrich consumer risk perception and behaviour literature by incorporating social interactions and risk-related feelings. We also provide several impactful suggestions for marketing strategies for e-commerce businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Rare disease Background: Monostotic fibrous dysplasia is a benign proliferation of fibrous and osseous tissues that expand medullary bone to cause symptoms due to compression of adjacent organs and anatomical structures. Focal seizures are rarely the first sign of this kind of lesion. This report describes a young female patient with left-sided focal motor seizures associated with fibrous dysplasia presenting as a mass in the right parietal bone. Case Report: An 18-year-old female student with left-sided focal motor seizures presented with a mass in the right parietal bone. Computed tomography revealed an expansile mixed-density lesion on the right parietal bone, a relatively homogeneous ground-glass appearance in the outer circumferential portion, and a lucent eccentric area with thinned but sclerotic borders. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a homogeneously hypointense signal on T1WI, a small hyperintense signal on T2WI, and avid enhancement signal intensity on post-contrast T1. Electroencephalogram showed inter-ictal epileptiform activities derived from the right fronto-central lobe. Surgical en bloc resection with a margin of normal bone and cranioplasty were performed. Histopathology showed features indicative of fibrous dysplasia, including osteoid trabeculae arranged haphazardly in a dense fibroblastic stroma, irregular trabeculae lacking conspicuous osteoblastic rimming, and intervening fibrous stroma containing cytologically bland spindle cells. The patient achieved seizure control and has remained neurologically intact. Conclusions: This report has highlighted the importance of early diagnosis of fibrous dysplasia of bone to exclude primary bone malignancy or bone metastasis, to ensure rapid management and symptom control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of review quality (a situational stimulus) on consumers’ risk perception and purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. In doing so, quantitative research involving 400 Hungarian respondents was performed. The data were analysed using composite-based structural equation modelling (SEM). The study concludes that an experience created through highly qualified online reviews of previous consumers has a significant effect on mitigating consumers’ risk perception while increasing their purchase intentions. The study also differentiates two aspects of risk, including perceived risk and affective risk, and reveals the two-fold mechanism of the decision-making journey. These results enrich the existing literature by supporting the use of the SOR model and introducing review quality as a situational stimulus to explain consumers’ risk perception and purchase behaviours in cross-border e-commerce. Additionally, the study also provides valuable guidance in website design that can stimulate purchasing while lowering online perceived risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore Jacket Platforms (OJPs) are often affected by environmental components that lead to damage, and the early detection system can help prevent serious failures, ensuring safe operations and mining conditions, and reducing maintenance costs. In this study, we proposed a prediction model based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) aimed at determining the early stage of the OJP structure's abnormal status. Additionally, the EfficientNet-B0 Deep Neural Network classifies normal and abnormal states, which may cause problems, by using displacement signal analysis at specific areas taken into account throughout the test. Displacement data is transferred to a 2D scalogram image by applying a continuous Wavelet converter that shows the state of the work. Finally, the scalogram image data set is used as the input of the neural network, and feasibility experimental results compared with other typical neural networks such as GoogLeNet and ResNet-50 have verified the effectiveness of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study are to predict the stock price trend in the stock market in an emerging economy. Using the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) algorithm, and the corresponding technical analysis indicators for each stock code include: simple moving average (SMA), convergence divergence moving average (MACD), and relative strength index (RSI); and the secondary data from VN-Index and VN-30 stocks, the research results showed that the forecasting model has a high accuracy of 93% for most of the stock data used, demonstrating the appropriateness of the LSTM model and the test set data is used to evaluate the model's performance. The research results showed that the forecasting model has a high accuracy of 93% for most of the stock data used, demonstrating the appropriateness of the LSTM model in analyzing and forecasting stock price movements on the machine learning platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The objective of the study was to isolate bacteriophages and conduct a comprehensive analysis of their potential against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) strains in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Methodology and results: Twelve Xoo strains were isolated from rice fields located in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Among these strains, three strains Xoo L019, L020 and L024, showed the highest disease index of bacterial blight. Four phages specific to Xoo were isolated from soil, water and leaf samples, and their morphologies were determined. In a test against 12 Xoo strains, phage L541, MLA23 or W41 could infect 10 of the 12 Xoo strains, while phage LBH01 could infect 8 of the 12 Xoo strains. The stability of the phages to pH, organic solvents, UV-A and UV-B was also evaluated. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: The initial characterization of the phages indicates their potential as biocontrol agents against bacterial blight in rice. The study is one of the very first studies about Xoo phages in rice in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approach to performing the α-level optimization in the fuzzy analysis of structural systems is developed in this study. The method uses a simple global optimizer, the Jaya algorithm, together with an innovative dimension reduction technique. The dimension reduction technique aims to transform the original large α-level optimization problem into a low-dimension one by making use of the monotonic behavior of the system output with respect to the input variables. Then, the Jaya algorithm is applied to solve the reduced max/min α-level optimization problems to determine the bounds of the fuzzy output. Two numerical examples, including a 2D truss and a 3D truss, with a relatively large number of fuzzy input variables are analyzed and the fuzzy displacements under static loads are predicted. It is demonstrated that the proposed approach can save a significant computational amount and also estimate the fuzzy displacement with high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats are a major reservoir of zoonotic viruses, including coronaviruses. Since the emergence of SARS-CoV in 2002/2003 in Asia, important efforts have been made to describe the diversity of Coronaviridae circulating in bats worldwide, leading to the discovery of the precursors of epidemic and pandemic sarbecoviruses in horseshoe bats. We investigated the viral communities infecting horseshoe bats living in Northern Vietnam, and report here the first identification of sarbecoviruses in Rhinolophus thomasi and Rhinolophus siamensis bats. Phylogenetic characterization of seven strains of Vietnamese sarbecoviruses identified at least three clusters of viruses. Recombination and cross-species transmission between bats seemed to constitute major drivers of virus evolution. Vietnamese sarbecoviruses were mainly enteric, therefore constituting a risk of spillover for guano collectors or people visiting caves. To evaluate the zoonotic potential of these viruses, we analyzed in silico and in vitro the ability of their RBDs to bind to mammalian ACE2s and concluded that these viruses are likely restricted to their bat hosts. The workflow applied here to characterize the spillover potential of novel sarbecoviruses is of major interest for each time a new virus is discovered, in order to concentrate surveillance efforts on high-risk interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of uncertainty avoidance (a cultural feature at the individual level) in the effect of risk perception and consumers' behavioural intention in e-commerce. Further, we attempt to distinguish between conventional (cognitive) perceived risks and riskrelated feelings of consumers when shopping online. To this end, we utilise a sample of 603 online shoppers from Hungary and Vietnam. Data is analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results reveal two different aspects of risk (i.e., perceived risk and risk-related feelings) and highlight that the online decision journey is twofold and influenced by the presence of emotions. Moreover, the result also indicates that the level of uncertainty avoidance works as a moderator in the effect of perceived risk on consumer purchase intention. The more consumers are risk-averse, the stronger the negative impact of perceived risk is on their purchase intention. Our results have considerable theoretical implications. We enrich the existing literature on risk perception in consumer behaviour by incorporating the view of cross-culture and risk-related feelings. Further, we provide meaningful, practical implications for Asian e-businesses as well as worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an extension of the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Partial Recharges (EVRPTW-PR), which incorporates the use of parcel lockers as a delivery method (i.e., self-pickup method). This variant, named the electric vehicle routing problem with time windows, partial recharges, and parcel lockers (EVRPTW-PR-PL), focuses on minimizing delivery costs by employing a homogeneous fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) and providing two delivery methods for serving customers: home delivery and self-pickup methods. We derive a mathematical formulation and propose an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm to address EVRPTW-PR-PL. Moreover, in ALNS, the solution representation is constructed to handle the assignment of delivery methods. The performance of our proposed ALNS algorithm is evaluated by solving EVRPTW-PR benchmark instances. Finally, the results of EVRPTW-PR-PL obtained by using the GUROBI solver and our ALNS algorithm are provided, accompanied by managerial insights on the implementation of parcel lockers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new outer proximal approach for solving the variational inequality problems in the real Euclidean space, where the feasible set is replaced by its polyhedral outer approximation. First, we prove the quasicontractiveness of the outer proximal operator. Second, we apply this property to present two new algorithms and their convergence under strongly monotone and Lipschitz continuous conditions of the cost mapping. Finally, we give some numerical results for the proposed algorithms and comparison with other known methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2 nanoparticles have emerged as a great photocatalyst to degrade organic contaminants in water; however, the nanoparticles dispersed in water could be difficult to be recovered and potentially become contaminant. Herbicide like 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) used in agriculture usually ends up with a large fraction remaining in water and sediment, which may cause potential risk to human health and the ecosystem. This study proposes a greener method to utilize TiO2 as photocatalyst to remove 2,4-D from water. Accordingly, TiO2 nanoparticles (10–45 nm) were synthesized and grafted on lightweight fired clay to generate a TiO2-based floating photocatalyst. Experimental testing revealed that 60.2% of 2,4-D (0.1 mM) can be decomposed in 250 min under UV light with TiO2-grafted lightweight fired clay floating on water. Degradation fits well into the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The floating photocatalysts can degrade approximately 50% 2,4-D in 250 min under sunlight and the degradation efficiency is stable for cycles. The results revealed that the fabrication of floating photocatalyst could be a promising and greener way to remove herbicide contaminants in water using TiO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises. These enterprises have made significant contributions to economic growth in Vietnam. Although the efforts of The Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the government to support businesses have increased, the number of businesses facing difficulties leading to dissolution tends to increase. One of the reasons is that those businesses lack business orientation. This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance to raise awareness among business owners and managers about the role of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance. The results provide empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. The study surveyed employees and managers of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises. The number of returned surveys was 290, and the valid number was 279. The data was processed by SPSS 25 to test the proposed research model. The results support that proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking positively affect enterprises' performance. Besides, recommendations were submitted to encourage entrepreneurial orientation and improve Vietnamese small and medium enterprises' business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we analyze some convergent properties of a projection and contraction algorithm for solving a variational inequality problem, where the feasible domain is the solution set of an affine variational inequality problem. We prove that, for solving the problem where the second cost mapping is affine and not necessary for monotone properties, any iterative sequence generated by the algorithm converges to a unique solution provided that the first cost mapping is strongly monotone and Lipschitz continuous. Computational errors of the algorithm are showed. Finally, some preliminary numerical experiences and comparisons are also reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, by combining the hyperplane projection technique and gradient projection method with Polyak’s stepsizes, we propose a novel projection algorithm to solve the split feasibility problem in Hilbert spaces. Unlike the existing projection methods, our method is designed such that the next iterate is closer to the solution set than the previous one. The weak and strong convergence of new algorithms under standard assumptions are established. We examine the performance of our method on the sparse signal recovery problem. The reported numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteriophage L522, which infects Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, was isolated from a paddy leaf sample collected in Long An province, Vietnam. The phage shows myovirus morphology based on transmission electron microscopy. It displays a latent period and burst size of approximately 3 h and 63 new virions per infected cell (PFU/infected cell), respectively. The genome of L522 is 44,497 bp in length, with 52% GC content. Of the 63 genes identified, functions were predicted for 26. No virulence or antibiotic-resistance genes were detected. The results of a BLASTn search showed similarity to a previously reported Xanthomonas phage, with 85% average nucleotide sequence identity and 87.15% query coverage. Thus, this L522 is a representative of a new species in the genus Xipdecavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of liver venous deprivation (LVD) following transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Between January 2021 and December 2022, HCC patients indicated for hepatectomy with initial insufficient future liver remnant (FLR) underwent LVD after TACE to induce preoperative liver hypertrophy. Results: Twenty-seven HCC patients with a median age of 55 years underwent LVD. No TACE or LVD procedure-associated complications occurred, except for 1 case presenting with grade A liver failure after LVD (then recovered after 7 days). The FLR volume was 29.3% (interquartile range [IQR] = 7.5) and 48.9% (IQR = 8.6) of the total liver volume before and after LVD, respectively (p < 0.001). The degree of hypertrophy and FLR hypertrophy rate were 14.8% (IQR = 8.4) and 55.2% (IQR = 36.7), respectively. All 27 patients demonstrated sufficient FLR after LVD (24 patients at three weeks post-LVD, one at six weeks, and two at ten weeks), but only 21 patients accepted surgery. Postoperative histopathology showed 16 patients with cirrhosis and five with mild fibrosis (F1, F2). One patient presented with severe intraoperative bleeding due to damage of left hepatic vein and developed grade C liver failure, then died on day 32 postoperation. Conclusion: LVD following TACE seems to be a safe, effective, and feasible method of inducing significant FLR regeneration in HCC, even in well-selected cirrhotic livers. Comparative studies with a large patient population and multicenter data are needed for further evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial recognition has been one of the most intriguing and exciting research topics over the last few years. It involves multiple face-based algorithms such as facial detection, facial alignment, facial representation, and facial recognition. However, all of these algorithms are derived from large deep-learning architectures, leading to limitations in development, scalability, accuracy, and deployment for public use with mere CPU servers. Also, large data sets that contain hundreds of thousands of records are often required for training purposes. In this paper, we propose a complete pipeline for an effective face-recognition application that requires only a small data set of Vietnamese celebrities and a CPU for training, solving the problem of data leakage, and the need for GPU devices. The pipeline is based on the combination of a conversion algorithm from face vectors to string tokens and the indexing & retrieval process by Elasticsearch, thereby tackling the problem of online learning in facial recognition. Compared with other popular algorithms on the same data set, our proposed pipeline not only outperforms the counterpart in terms of accuracy but also delivers faster inference, which is essential to real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in deep neural networks have been successfully demonstrated with fairly good accuracy for multi-class activity identification. However, existing methods have limitations in achieving complex spatial-temporal dependencies. In this work, we design two stream fusion attention (2SFA) connected to a temporal bidirectional gated recurrent unit (GRU) one-layer model and classified by prediction voting classifier (PVC) to recognize the action in a video. Particularly in the proposed deep neural network (DNN), we present 2SFA for capturing appearance information from red green blue (RGB) and motion from optical flow, where both streams are correlated by proposed fusion attention (FA) as the input of a temporal network. On the other hand, the temporal network with a bi-directional temporal layer using a GRU single layer is preferred for temporal understanding because it yields practical merits against six topologies of temporal networks in the UCF101 dataset. Meanwhile, the new proposed classifier scheme called PVC employs multiple nearest class mean (NCM) and the SoftMax function to yield multiple features outputted from temporal networks, and then votes their properties for high-performance classifications. The experiments achieve the best average accuracy of 70.8% in HMDB51 and 91.9%, the second best in UCF101 in terms of 2DConvNet for action recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a novel iterative method for finding the minimum-norm solution to a pseudomonotone variational inequality problem in Hilbert spaces. We establish strong convergence of the proposed method and its linear convergence under some suitable assumptions. Some numerical experiments are given to illustrate the performance of our method. Our result improves and extends some existing results in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are small RNAs that play a conserved role in genome defense. The piRNA processing pathway is dependent on the sequestration of RNA precursors and protein factors in specific subcellular compartments. Therefore, a highly resolved spatial proteomics approach can help identify the local interactions and elucidate the unknown aspects of piRNA biogenesis. Herein, we performed TurboID proximity labeling to investigate the interactome of Zucchini (Zuc), a key factor of piRNA biogenesis in germline cells and somatic follicle cells of the Drosophila ovary. Quantitative mass spectrometry analysis of biotinylated proteins defined the Zucproximal proteome, including the well-known partners of Zuc. Many of these were enriched in the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM), where Zuc was specifically localized. The proximal proteome of Zuc showed a distinct set of proteins compared with that of Tom20, a representative OMM protein, indicating that chaperone function-related and endomembrane system/vesicle transport proteins are previously unreported interacting partners of Zuc. The functional relevance of several candidates in piRNA biogenesis was validated by derepression of transposable elements after knockdown. Our results present potential Zuc-interacting proteins, suggesting unrecognized biological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to assess and rank the service quality of the healthcare system utilizing a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (Fuzzy AHP) andGreyRelationalAnalysis (Fuzzy GRA) technique. In this study, the six primary characteristics of healthcare service quality, comprising Tangibles (A), Healthcare Staff (B), Responsiveness (C), Relationships (D), Support Service (E), and Accessibility (F), are examined through a case study of 20 private and public hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam. The weighting results of Fuzzy AHP technique indicated that Responsiveness (C) has the highest ranking, followed by Relationships (D) and Healthcare Staff (B). Meanwhile, Tangibility has finally comprised the next priority for increasing satisfaction with the service quality in the healthcare industry. Additionally, the highest service quality rankings are top 5 private hospitals via the Fuzzy GRA approach. Notably, this proposed approach may be applied to a complex decision-making process, which often makes sense with subjective data or imprecise information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present DC (difference of convex functions) auxiliary principle methods for solving lexicographic equilibrium problems. Under the strongly monotone and Lipchitz-type assumptions of the cost bifunction, we study the convergence of the sequence generated by the proposed algorithms to a unique solution of the considered lexicographic equilibrium problem. Moreover, we also study the asymptotic behavior of the algorithm for solving the considered problem under the presence of computational errors. Finally, we give some numerical experiments to illustrate the behaviour of the proposed algorithms and provide their comparison with some known algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new projection-type method with inertial extrapolation for solving pseudo-monotone and Lipschitz continuous variational inequalities in Hilbert spaces. The proposed method does not require the knowledge of the Lipschitz constant as well as the sequential weak continuity of the corresponding operator. We introduce a self-adaptive procedure, which generates dynamic step-sizes converging to a positive constant. It is proved that the sequence generated by the proposed method converges weakly to a solution of the considered variational inequality with the nonasymptotic O(1/n) convergence rate. Moreover, the linear convergence is established under strong pseudo-monotonicity and Lipschitz continuity assumptions. Numerical a exmples for solving a class of Nash–Cournot oligopolistic market equilibrium model and a network equilibrium flow problem are given illustrating the efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flavonoids have a variety of biological functions including UV protectant, antioxidant, allelopathy and auxin transport inhibitor in plants. In addition, flavonoids are implicated in defense response against pathogens. In this study, we found that kaempferol, a kind of flavonol, induces bacterial pathogen resistance. In addition, we identified the signaling pathway to explain how kaempferol can induce pathogen resistance in Arabidopsis. We showed that kaempferol upregulates the transcription of two pathogenesis-related (PR) genes. Interestingly, the monomerization and nuclear translocation of NPR1, a key regulator of PR gene expression, was induced by kaempferol through the accumulation of salicylic acid (SA). Furthermore, we found that the kaempferol-induced monomerization of NPR1 is mediated by the activation of MPK3 and MPK6. Taken together, this study suggests that kaempferol induces pathogen resistance by both SA and MPK-dependent signaling pathways in Arabidopsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a gradient-like regularized dynamical system associated with a monotone equilibrium problem is studied. First, we give a rigorous proof of the existence and uniqueness of the strong global solution to the dynamical system. Then, we obtain strong convergence of the generated trajectories to a solution of the original equilibrium. A time discretization of the dynamical system provides a strongly convergent iterative regularization gradient-type method with relaxation parameters. Finally, the performance of the regularized dynamical system approach is illustrated by numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are small-scale wind turbines green? In this study, we perform a 'cradle to grave' life cycle assessment of a novel domestic-scale 10 kW vertical axis wind turbine tree which uses combined Savonius and H-Darrieus blades. Situated at a test site in Surat Thani, Thailand, SimaPro software was used to evaluate the environmental impact profile of the tree. Comparisons to the Thai grid mix were made, using both with and without end-of-life treatments. Impact profiles were calculated using wind data collected over two years at Surat Thani, and from wind data from a higher capacity factor (CF) site at Chiang Mai, Thailand. Energy and greenhouse gas payback times were estimated for both locations. The relative magnitudes of impacts were compared with environmental prices protocol, and we investigated reductions in impacts using three mitigative scenarios: changes to design, transportation and materials. The results showed that Chiang Mai had a CF = 7.58% and Surat Thani had a CF = 1.68%. A total of 9 out of 11 impacts were less than the grid values at Chiang Mai, but at Surat Thani, 9 of 11 impacts were more than the grid values. End-of-life treatments reduced impacts by an average of 11%. The tower and generator were majority contributors to impacts (average 69%). Greenhouse gas and energy payback times were 28.61 and 54.77 years, and 6.50 and 12.50 years for Surat Thani and Chiang Mai, respectively, with only the Chiang Mai times being less than the turbine's estimated lifetime. Location changes mitigated impacts most, followed by design, transportation, and then materials. We make recommendations to further improve the environmental impact profile of this turbine tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is a dangerous disease, causing the second - highest number of deaths among all cancers that Vietnamese women have. Although it can be prevented, the participation of Vietnamese women in cervical cancer screening is still low, especially among ethnic minority women in the Northern midlands and mountainous areas. Especially when Vietnam is a country that does not have a national screening program. The objective of this study was to explore the perceptions of ethnic minority women in Vietnam about cervical cancer and identify the factors that inhibit and motivate their decision to perform screening. This study conducted interviews with a group of 155 ethnic minority women in the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam. The results show that the awareness of cervical cancer among ethnic minority women in Vietnam is incomplete and inaccurate. The lack of financial capacity and weakness of the health system for ethnic minority communities are the main reasons preventing them from implementing screening. Motivating factors, such as increased awareness and the need to love and care for themselves, as well as interventions from family and community support may convince a woman to go for screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates monthly variation of surface water volume of Thac Mo hydroelectric reservoir (located in South Vietnam), during the 2016–2021 period. Variation of surface water volume is estimated based on variation of surface water extent, derived from Sentinel-1 observations, and variation of surface water level, derived from Jason-3 altimetry data. Except for drought years in 2019 and 2020, surface water extent of Thac Mo reservoir varies in the range 50–100 km2, while its water level varies in the range 202–217 m. Correlation between these two components is high (R = 0.948), as well as correlation between surface water maps derived from Sentinel-1 and free-cloud Sentinel-2 observations (R = 0.98), and correlation between surface water level derived from Jason-3 altimetry data and from in situ measurement (R = 0.99; RMSE = 0.86 m). We showed that water volume of Thac Mo reservoir varies between −0.3 and 0.4 km3 month−1, and it is in a very good agreement with in situ measurement (R = 0.95; RMSE = 0.0682 km3 month−1). This study highlights the advantages in using different types of satellite observations and data for monitoring variation of lakes' water storage, which is very important for regional hydrological models. Similar research can be applied to monitor lakes in remote areas where in situ measurements are not available, or cannot be accessed freely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomaly detection for sensor systems is one of the most researched topics for the Internet of Thing systems. Researchers have been attracted to machine learning classification problems that are considered the most effective techniques. The novel model is proposed by combining anomaly pattern Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX), processing imbalance data and machine learning techniques for sensor anomaly detection. The advantage of anomaly patterns and machine learning leads to the the proposed model to have better performance. The proposed model consists of three phases: finding anomaly pattern features, processing imbalanced data, exploring data by machine learning model. In this paper, the main contributions with respect to previous works can be listed as follows: (i) Successful modeling the new method of SAX for time series data for finding complex and dynamic anomaly patterns. (ii) Archiving applied anomaly pattern feature into machine learning model Random Forest and hyperparameters optimisation of these model. (iii) Fitfully proposed a model combining SAX, imbalance technique, and random forest to anomaly detection. (iv) Achieving applied proposal model in automatic meter intelligence system in Vietnam. The experiential results of the proposed model have described the robustness and better performance for detecting anomalies of power meter sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early essential newborn care has been implemented in countries regardless high or low neonatal mortality. This study aims to investigate the current practice of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) and its effect on exclusive breastfeeding during the hospital stay.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 1812 Vietnamese mothers in multicenter. A questionnaire answered by the mothers was used to assess the duration of both SSC and breastfeeding practices. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify a dose-response relationship between early SSC and prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in hospital.Results: There were 88.7% of mothers experiencing SSC with their infants right after birth and the highest prevalence of SSC was found in district hospitals. Among those experiencing SSC, 18.8% of the infants received more than 90 min of SSC and completed the first breastfeeding during SSC time. Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during maternity hospital stay was 46.7%. We found a significant dose-response relation between the duration of SSC and exclusive breastfeeding in hospital. Compared with infants without SSC, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was higher in infants who experienced SSC for 15-90 min (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 95% confidence interval [95%-CI]: 2.62 [1.61-4.27]) and more than 90 min (aOR [95%-CI]: 5.98 [3.48-10.28]). Completed first breastfeeding during SSC time (aOR [95%-CI]: 4.24 [3.28-5.47]) and being born in district hospitals (aOR [95%-CI]: 2.35 [1.79-3.09]) were associated with increased prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during hospital stay. On the other hand, mother education level as high school/intermediate (aOR [95%-CI]: 0.58 [0.42-0.82]) and place of residence classified as rural decreased odds of exclusive breastfeeding in hospital (aOR [95%-CI]: 0.78 [0.61-0.99]).Conclusion: Our results demonstrate a strong dose-response relationship between duration of SSC and exclusive breastfeeding in hospital. Interventions that support exclusive breastfeeding during hospital stay, especially achieving prolonged uninterrupted SSC, could improve the duration of breastfeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In international trade, exporters prefer to receive payments as quickly as possible, and importers want to make payments as late as possible. In this respect, the payment field, an essential condition for trade transactions, also represents the positions of exporters and importers conflict. In addition, there are many cases in which various variables must be considered rather than only one specific variable representatively affecting payment, particularly in the case of import-export Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) from emerging countries. A selection of proper payment methods can be categorized as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) issue. Therefore, this study aims to propose a novel and efficient Spherical Fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment based Entropy Objective Weighting method (SF-EW and WASPAS-SF) to evaluate international payment methods with uncertain information. First, SF-EW model is applied to determine the relative weights of critical factors. Second, international payment method alternatives are prioritized by the WASPAS-SF approach. Five essential factors for four international payment methods are proposed based on experts' opinions and the existing literature. A real-world case study from Vietnamese import-export SMEs is presented to validate the applicability of the proposed framework. The results indicated that "Characteristics of payment method (PA)" had the most significant impact on international payment method selection. In comparison, "Letters of Credit (L/C)" was the most reliable payment method with the highest ranking available to international traders. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the validity and robustness of the proposed decision support model. Consequently, this study could contribute to international payment services and in the context of globalization and international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The charged defect states of C-doped α-Al2O3 are investigated systematically with the density functional theory to study their thermodynamic stability and possible effects on the crystal structure and electrical conductivity. Our results reveal that under reducing (Al-rich) synthesis conditions, the most stable defect configuration is CO-2 with a deep (-1/-2) thermodynamic transition level. As a result, C defects are expected to act as double acceptors by introducing appreciable deep electron traps in the host band gap of α-Al2O3. These results are consistent with the proposal that a large number of F+-centers are formed as charge compensators to CO-2 ions in α-Al2O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]