Search

Background: Sleep is a condition of reduced stimulation that allows the body to recoup and re-energize. Hence, poor sleep will affect the body's capacity to think and focus, raise the risk of health issues, and have a negative impact on learning, causing occupational mistakes and accidents. A busy theoretical study schedule, a clinical practice schedule at the hospital and a tight exam schedule will have certain impacts on the sleep quality of medical students. Objectives: Evaluation of quality and some factors related to sleep in third-year full-time medical students at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 students studying full-time medicine, course 45, Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy (CTUMP). Results: Of the 56.5% of students who reported insomnia, mild insomnia accounted for 49%, moderate insomnia for 7.5%, and severe insomnia for none. The rate of reduced sleep quality was 72.7% in the group of students who consumed caffeine and 52.0% in the group who did not; the connection was statistically significant with a p-value of 0.01. The group with high physical activity had the lowest prevalence of insomnia (45.8%), and this association was statistically significant (p

Blended Learning (BL) has gained its prevalence in EFL teaching and learning context in Vietnamese higher education. This study aims to investigate language-majored students' perceptions of implementing Blended Learning in English classrooms at a Vietnamese public university. One hundred fifty-three freshmen majoring in Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages and currently learning English as a compulsory subject participated in this multi-method study. Data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with six randomly selected students, then transcribed and analyzed thematically. Findings indicate that participants mostly perceive that BL enhances digital literacy and motivation and supports in-class learning. However, some challenges faced by these respondents included technical difficulties and the lack of self-regulation skills. The findings are of great value in giving educators and students a profound understanding of BL in EFL classrooms. Based on the findings and discussion, the study gave some recommendations for EFL teachers and institutions to facilitate students' BL experience greatly.

A very important problem in the research of layer structures is the modeling of cracks on the material interface. Due to the complex physical and mechanical properties of this structure, the simulation of discontinuities such as cracks and material interface by traditional finite element methods requires a very fine mesh density. Furthermore, mesh smoothing requires a really large amount of computational resources. Therefore, the extended algorithm which does not require the remeshing technique was born to solve the crack problems. In this paper, the extended consecutive-interpolation finite element method (XCFEM) is employed to modeling the mix-mode interface cracks between two dissimilar isotropic materials. The XCFEM using 4-node consecutive-interpolation quadrilateral element (XCQ4) provides continuity of nodal gradient due to the concept of “consecutive-interpolation” so that the stress and strain fields derived from XCQ4 is smoother than that obtained by the classical FEM element. The accuracy and effectiveness of the method are demonstrated via various numerical examples and compared with other researches.

BackgroundTobacco consumption places a significant economic burden on households, which is particularly severe in developing countries like Vietnam. In a country where the social insurance system is weak and healthcare is often expensive, tobacco-consuming households may face a higher risk of living in poverty. Some evidence on the social consequences of tobacco consumption suggests that it might aggravate poverty and inequality in Vietnam; however, to the best of our knowledge, no research provides a reliable estimate of the impoverishing effect of tobacco use in the country thus far.ObjectivesThis study quantifies the direct impact of tobacco use on poverty, measured by a poverty head count and the total size of the poverty gap in Vietnam in 2018.MethodsBy deducting tobacco-related expenditure from the total household income, the authors recalculate the actual household disposable income and examine whether the households suffer from the state of secondary poverty. Data from the 2018 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey were used for calculation.Results(1) Total tobacco-related expenditure increased the number of poor people by 305 090 (0.31% of the country’s population) in 2018. More than one-third of those impoverished people are children, who should be considered victims of adults’ tobacco use. (2) Tobacco use increased the poverty gap by 0.08 percentage points from 2.20% to 2.28%. (3) The impoverishment effects of tobacco consumption vary across groups in society and appear to be more intense in rural areas, among ethnic minorities and in the two lowest quintiles of consumption.ConclusionThis study confirms the impoverishing effect of tobacco use in Vietnam (305 090 people) and that the effects are heterogeneous across population groups. Therefore, controlling tobacco use should be a part of the broader poverty reduction strategy in Vietnam and should be wisely targeted so as to reduce poverty effectively.

This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of peer-led education intervention on physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and dietary behaviours among adolescents in HCM city, Vietnam. Among students in the intervention arm after a 9-month follow-up, total energy intake was reduced by 304 kcal/day, fat by 13 g/day, carbohydrate by 39 g/day, and sweet foods by 20 g/day, compared to pre-intervention figures (p lt; 0.05, adjusted for age, BMI at baseline, gender, the interaction between measurement time and intervention groups, and cluster effect in schools). Only total energy intake was significantly lower in the intervention than control students (p lt; 0.05, after adjustment). Our pilot project has established the feasibility of a peer-led intervention to improve lifestyles among adolescents in HCM city and evidence of improvements in dietary intake. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12619000421134.

This paper presents a novel topology optimization approach without calculation of sensitivity for the minimum compliance problems, based on the meshfree Radial Point Interpolation Method (RPIM). Relying on the algorithm of Proportional Topology Optimization (PTO), material is distributed using only information of the objective function (which is the elastic strain energy). Material properties are interpolated by the well-known Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) technique; however the pseudo density (design variables) are not defined on the element center as usually encountered in finite element-based approaches, but on integration points. Since no element exists in meshfree analysis, this would be a natural choice. More importantly, the number of integration points is in general larger than that of elements or that of nodes, resulting in higher resolution of the density field. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed approach are demonstrated and discussed via several numerical examples.

Heavy metal contamination in the urban river has become the most severe problem in the urban environment, especially the zinc (Zn) compound is harmful to the environment at current levels of exposure. This study aims to assess the impact of urbanization and industrialization on Zn pollution in surface sediment at the Umeda River. Triplicate surface sediment samples were collected at nine sample points. An atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used for analyzing the Zn and Fe concentrations. The surface sediments in the Umeda River contained 48–159 mg/kg of Zn. The results indicated that Zn concentrations were abundant in the ascending order of 600–1,000 μm, 300–600 μm, and smaller than 300 μm. The higher the grain size, the higher the particulate organic carbon which might contribute to the higher Zn and Fe concentrations. In addition, the sediment quality guidelines indicated that the Zn levels in the study area did not constitute a major threat to biota. Normalization with Fe showed that the Zn pollution in surface sediment had been influenced by anthropogenic activities such as industrialization and urbanization.

Citrus hystrix has been well known for its uses as food and biological activities. In this study, the chemical composition, antibacterial and antioxidant effects of acetone extract isolated from C. hystrix leaves and fruit peels were firstly investigated. GC/MS analyses results revealed that there were 56 and 87 chemical components identified from leaf and fruit peel of the studied plant, respectively. The leaf extract was characterized by the predominance of α-pinene, D-limonene, citronellal, caryophyllene oxide and n-hexadecanoic acid while sabinene, β-pinene, D-limonene, citronellol, citronellol acetate, dihydro-α-ionon, δ-cadinene, n-hexadecanoic acid were the major constituents in the fruit peel extract. The two studied extracts showed antibacterial effects against six oral bacteria, including Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium and displayed a notable antioxidant activity in the ABTS assay with IC50 values of 38.59 ± 0.59 µg/mL and 85.89 ± 1.85 µg/mL, respectively.

Retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer in children, is mostly caused by inactivating mutations of both copies of the RB1gene. Early diagnosis and identification ofRB1 gene mutations would improve treatment outcomes and patients’ management. This study was performed on 10 tumour samples of retinoblastoma patients using the direct sequencing technique. 11 different mutations were found in 9 out of 10 tumour samples, including 6 nonsense mutations, 1 missense mutation, 1 splice site mutation, and 3 frameshift mutations with 1 novel mutation that has not been reported before. The MLPA method was required to identify large deletion mutations in the RB1gene and the study on more samples to provide a picture of RB1 gene mutations in Vietnamese retinoblastoma patients

This paper presents a hybrid approach for multiscale topology optimization of structures. The topological shape of both macro-structure and micro-structure are concurrently optimized, based on the solid isotropic material with penalization (SIMP) technique in combination with finite element method (FEM). The material is assumed to have periodically patterned micro-structures, such that the effective properties can be evaluated via energy-based homogenization method (EBHM). In every iteration, the effective properties of material are passed to the macroscopic problem, and the macroscopic behavior (e.g. strain energy) is transferred back to the micro-scale problem, where the unit cell representing the micro-structure of material is determined for the next iteration. It is found that the update process can be done separately, i.e., the sensitivity of macro-scale design variables is not required during the update of micro-scale design variables, and vice versa. Hence, the proposal is that the macro-structure is updated by the gradient-free Proportional Topology Optimization (PTO) algorithm to utilize the computational efficiency of PTO. The micro-structure is still updated by the common gradient-based algorithm, namely Optimality Criteria (OC). Three benchmark numerical examples are investigated, demonstrating the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed hybrid approach.

The present study was to investigate the effects of different salinities (0 (control), 3, 6, 9, 12, 15‰) in striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) at larvae stage. Four-hundred individuals were randomly distributed to each 500-L composite tank (containing 250-L water) in triplicates. After 60 days, fish was sampled to determine survival rate, growth performance, hematological parameters, stress response indicators, and enzymatic activities. The results showed that the survival rate was highest in 6‰ (60.9%) and lowest in 15‰ (1.25%) (p

One of the major issues about the operation of power systems is the prediction of load demand. Moreover, load forecasting is of prime concern to system operators. Recently, the integration of power system elements, such as renewable energy sources, energy storages and electricity vehicle, brings more challenges, particularly when there are large fluctuations in forecasting cycle. This study concentrates on short-term load demand forecasting and proposes a hybrid method that combines Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) with deep-learning Neural Network (NN) techniques. In the beginning, the SSA technique is applied as an initial filter to remove noises. Next, a hybrid neural network, including Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), is developed and trained. Then, the trained network is used as the core forecasting algorithm. Each SSA has different forms to combine with neural networks. The performance of the proposed forecasting algorithm is demonstrated using the power demand data recorded in Taiwan. Furthermore, this study compares the forecasting results by five models, including SSA, SSA-BPNN, ANN, SSA-LSTM, Wavelet Neural Network (WNN) and LSTM. The forecasting results reveal that the proposed forecasting model using Singular Spectrum Analysis provides the best performance on load forecasts.

Silicon carbide (SiC) was synthesized from Vietnamese rice husk and diatomite by electric arc discharge furnace with the arc current of 100, 150, and 200 A. The synthesized products were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, XRD, FE-SEM, and EDS. The result showed that α-SiC material with the purity of up to 85.12 % had been successfully synthesized from Vietnamese diatomite and rice husk charcoal. Also, there is remained amount of carbon and SiO2 which can be removed by burning and leaching processes.

This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under Grant No. 502.02-2020.09. Although decentralised governance has been one of the most salient political regimes worldwide over the past few decades, many countries have started to realise various shortcomings associated with their decentralisation process. As a consequence, a number of central governments have attempted to pursue recentralisation reforms in order to reclaim authority from the localities. This government reform can lead to significant changes in institutional arrangements, and subsequently, may influence various aspects of socio-economic activities. However, the real impact of recentralisation reform still remains ambiguous. In this paper, we examine how recentralisation may affect foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. We exploit the pilot recentralisation reform that temporarily abolished the intermediate legislative branches in some provinces in Vietnam as a quasi-natural experiment. The result shows that recentralisation leads to a significant reduction in FDI inflows. Our results are robust to a number of sensitivity analyses and falsification tests. Overall, our findings contribute to the literature on the determinants of FDI and provide new evidence on the real effect of recentralisation reform. Publisher PDF

Considering the high metastatic potential of colorectal cancer (CRC), the inhibition of metastasis is important for anti-CRC therapy.

The Kirchhoff-Love plate theory is appropriate for analysing thin plate structures. In a simple form, only one degree of freedom (per node) is needed to describe the behaviour of the plate, thus saving the computational cost. Besides, the analysis of cracked structures is important because it is related to the lifetime of the structures. Therefore, this paper uses the extended radial point interpolation method (XRPIM) to investigate the free vibration of the Kirchhoff-Love plate. The XRPIM is based on RPIM so the requirement for calculating the second-order derivative in Kirchhoff-Love theory is easily done. The numerical results from this study are compared with other researchers to verify the accuracy of the method.

Purpose: Hypertension is common in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). For the evaluation of blood pressure (BP), 24-h ambulatory BP measurements (ABPM) are considered superior to usual office measurements but are also resource demanding and troublesome to many patients. We therefore evaluated the use of unattended automated office BP (AOBP) during the first year following living donor kidney transplantation and compared AOBP with ABPM as obtained 12 months after transplantation. Materials and methods: Data were retrieved from a cohort of 57 KTRs (mean age 45 ± 14 years, 75% males) who all received kidneys from living donors and had a good graft function (estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 52 ± 16 ml/min/1.73 m2 at 12 months). Unattended AOBP was measured at each visit to the outpatient clinic using the BpTru® device, while ABPM was obtained by Spacelabs® equipment before and 12 months after transplantation. Results: AOBP remained stable from month 2 (130.2 ± 10.8/82.2 ± 7.8 mmHg) to month 12 (129.0 ± 12.8/83.1 ± 9.6 mmHg) post-transplantation. At 12 months follow-up, ambulatory daytime systolic BP was slightly higher than AOBP (132.7 ± 10.7 vs. 129.4 ± 12.2 mmHg, p = 0.04), while diastolic BP was similar (82.7 ± 7.7 vs. 82.0 ± 10.2 mmHg). Using Bland–Altman plots, 95% limits of agreements were −17.9 to 24.5 mmHg for systolic and −16.5 to 15.1 mmHg for diastolic BP. When considering a target BP of ≤130/

This paper proposes an adaptive fuzzy backstepping control (AFBSC) for a Segway ball system. AFBSC is developed through a combination of two primary backstepping controllers (BSC) to enhance the control performance of the system, in which a Sugeno fuzzy model adjusts the parameters in the control design. The simulation results verify that the better performance of the AFBSC in comparison with the conventional BSC technique.

In this paper, we report on a SOI-based comb capacitive-type accelerometer that senses acceleration in two lateral directions. The structure of the accelerometer was designed using a proof mass connected by four folded-beam springs, which are compliant to inertial displacement causing by attached acceleration in the two lateral directions. At the same time, the folded-beam springs enabled to suppress cross-talk causing by mechanical coupling from parasitic vibration modes. The differential capacitor sense structure was employed to eliminate common mode effects. The design of gap between comb fingers was also analyzed to find an optimally sensing comb electrode structure. The design of the accelerometer was carried out using the finite element analysis. The fabrication of the device was based on SOI-micromachining. The characteristics of the accelerometer have been investigated by a fully differential capacitive bridge interface using a sub-fF switched-capacitor integrator circuit. The sensitivities of the accelerometer in the two lateral directions were determined to be 6 and 5.5 fF/g, respectively. The cross-axis sensitivities of the accelerometer were less than 5%, which shows that the accelerometer can be used for measuring precisely acceleration in the two lateral directions. The accelerometer operates linearly in the range of investigated acceleration from 0 to 4g. The proposed accelerometer is expected for low-g applications.

In general, the polysulfone (PSf) membranes are popular choices for water treatment because they have high thermal stability and good chemical resistance. On the other hand, the filtration capacity of the polysulfone membrane is limited because of its low water flux and poor antifouling ability, which are caused by the low surface hydrophilicity of the membranes. In this research, blending of graphene oxide (GO) or graphene oxide-titanium dioxide (GO-TiO2) mixture into the polysulfone matrix had been carried out through the phase inversion method to enhance the hydrophilic and antifouling properties. Methods such as energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and water contact angle measurement were used to examine the surface properties of the prepared membranes. Experimental results have led to a conclusion that graphene oxide can be stabilized into prepared membranes, and then, by reducing the water contact angle values, the surface of these membranes becomes hydrophilic, which increases the permeability and the water flux of methylene blue from the aqueous feed solution, improving the membrane’s antifouling resistance.

Background In 2016-2017, 68 women in Southern Vietnam had RT-PCR confirmed Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy. We report here the outcomes of the pregnancies and the virological analyses related to this outbreak. Methods We collected clinical and epidemiological information from the women who were enrolled in the study. Medical records related to the pregnancy in 2016–2017 were retrieved for those who were not able to be enrolled in the study. Children born to women with ZIKV infection during pregnancy were also enrolled. Serum samples were evaluated for presence of ZIKV antibodies. Phylogenetic analyses were performed on Zika virus genomes sequenced from the 2016–2017 serum samples. Findings Of the 68 pregnancies, 58 were livebirths and 10 were medically terminated. Four of the medical records from cases of fetal demise were able to be retrieved, of which one was consistent with congenital ZIKV infection. Of the 58 women with a livebirth, 21 participated in the follow-up investigation. All but two women had serologic evidence of ZIKV infection. Of the 21 children included in the study (mean age: 30.3 months), 3 had microcephaly at birth. No other clinical abnormalities were reported and no differences in neurodevelopment were observed compared to a control group. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a clade within the ZIKV Asian lineage and branch at the root of samples from the 2013–2014 French Polynesian outbreak. The prM S139N mutation was not observed. Interpretation We have been able to demonstrate a clade within the ZIKV Asian lineage implicated in adverse pregnancy outcomes in Southern Vietnam. Funding INCEPTION project (PIA/ANR-16-CONV-0005) and a grant received from BNP Paribas Simplidon.

The paper addresses the problem of effectively controlling a two-wheel robot given its inherent non-linearity and parameter uncertainties. In order to deal with the unknown and uncertain dynamics of the robot, it is proposed to employ the adaptive dynamic programming, a reinforcement learning based technique, to develop an optimal control law. It is interesting that the proposed algorithm does not require kinematic parameters while finding the optimal state controller is guaranteed. Moreover, convergence of the optimal control scheme is theoretically proved. The proposed approach was implemented in a synthetic two-wheel robot where the obtained results demonstrate its effectiveness.

Objectives We performed a One Health surveillance in Hanoi—a region with a high-density human population and livestock production, and a recognized hotspot of animal-associated antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—to study the contribution of blaCTX-M-carrying Escherichia coli and plasmids from food-animal sources in causing human community-acquired urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs). Methods During 2014–2015, 9090 samples were collected from CA-UTI patients (urine, n = 8564), pigs/chickens from farms and slaughterhouses (faeces, carcasses, n = 448), and from the slaughterhouse environment (surface swabs, water, n = 78). E. coli was identified in 2084 samples. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production was confirmed in 235 and blaCTX-M in 198 strains by PCR with short-read plasmid sequencing. Fourteen strains were long-read sequenced to enable plasmid reconstruction. Results The majority of the ESBL-producing E. coli strains harboured blaCTX-M (n = 198/235, 84%). High clonal diversity (48 sequence types, STs) and distinct, dominant STs in human sources (ST1193, n = 38/137; ST131, n = 30/137) and non-human sources (ST155, n = 25/61) indicated lack of clonal transmission between habitats. Eight blaCTX-M variants were identified; five were present in at least two sample sources. Human and food-animal strains did not show similar plasmids carrying shared blaCTX-M genes. However, IS6 elements flanking ISEcp1–blaCTX-M–orf477/IS903B structures were common across habitats. Conclusions In this study, animal-associated blaCTX-M E. coli strains or blaCTX-M plasmids were not direct sources of CA-UTIs or ESBL resistance in humans, respectively, suggesting evolutionary bottlenecks to their adaptation to a new host species. Presence of common IS6 elements flanking blaCTX-M variants in different plasmid backbones, however, highlighted the potential of these transposable elements for AMR transmission either within or across habitats.

We performed a One Health surveillance in Hanoi-a region with a high-density human population and livestock production, and a recognized hotspot of animal-associated antimicrobial resistance (AMR)-to study the contribution of blaDuring 2014-2015, 9090 samples were collected from CA-UTI patients (urine, n = 8564), pigs/chickens from farms and slaughterhouses (faeces, carcasses, n = 448), and from the slaughterhouse environment (surface swabs, water, n = 78). E. coli was identified in 2084 samples. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production was confirmed in 235 and blaThe majority of the ESBL-producing E. coli strains harboured blaIn this study, animal-associated bla

This paper investigates the effects of corruption on the performance of newly established enterprises. Using longitudinal data from enterprise surveys containing virtually all firms over the period from 2011 to 2015 in Vietnam, we find that corruption deteriorates firm financial performance, and subsequently exposes them to a greater failure probability. We further find that, while corruption imposes more harmful effects on the performance and survival of private domestic firms, it exerts no significant impact on state-owned firms. On the other hand, foreign firms are also able to take advantage of corruption to enhance their performance and survivability. In addition, our results suggest that the more mature firms are better at dealing with corruption and can eventually take advantage of it to enhance their performance. The results are robust after various model specifications as well as alternative classifications of newly established firms. Publisher PDF

The ownership - efficiency relationship in a firm has always been an important topic. In this paper, we focus on the state owned versus non-state-owned status of Vietnamese manufacturing firms, to shed light into the relationship between these two variables when using a more state-of-the-art method as a stochastic meta-frontier method. Applying the method for two periods: one during the global economic crisis and the other after the end of the crisis, the study determines that in both periods, there was a strong evidence that non-state-owned firms performed much better than state owned counterpart. We also found that the difference became even larger during the harsh time and sub-industries with non-state-owned firms could outperform the state-owned firms, significantly.

Considering the high metastatic potential of colorectal cancer (CRC), the inhibition of metastasis is important for anti-CRC therapy. Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb (A. pilosa) is a perennial herbaceous plant that is widely distributed in Asia. The extracts of A. pilosa have shown diverse pharmacological properties, such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor activities. In the present study, the antimetastatic activity of A. pilosa was evaluated. Methanol extraction from the roots of A. pilosa was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and 12 fractions were obtained. Among these, fraction 4 showed the most potent inhibitory effect on the migration of colon cancer cells. Using LC-HR MS analysis, quercetin and quercitrin were identified as flavonoids contained in fraction 4. Like fraction 4, quercetin and quercitrin effectively inhibited the migration and invasion of RKO cells. While the level of E-cadherin was increased, the levels of N-cadherin and vimentin were decreased by the same agents. Although they all activate the p38, JNK, and ERK signaling pathways, only SP600125, an inhibitor of the JNK pathway, specifically inhibited the effect of fraction 4, quercetin, and quercitrin on cell migration. An in vivo experiment also confirmed the antitumor activity of quercetin and quercitrin. Collectively, these results suggest that A. pilosa and its two flavonoids, quercetin and quercitrin, are candidates for the antimetastatic treatment of CRC.

This paper illustrates both thermal and mechanical analysis methods for displacement and contact force calculating of a novel sensing silicon-polymer microgripper when heat sources are applied by an electric current via its actuators. Thermal analysis is used to obtain temperature profile by figuring out a heat conductions and convections model. Temperature profile is then applied into the mechanical structure of the gripper's actuators to form the final equation of displacement and contact force of the jaws. Finally, the comparison among the calculation, simulation and actual measurement concludes that materialization methods are appropriate. Achieving the final equation of gripper's jaws displacement and contact force is a major step to optimize or reform this novel structure for different sizes to meet specific applications.

This paper reports on the design and fabrication of a z-axis tuning fork gyroscope which has a freestanding architecture. In order to improve the performance of the tuning fork gyroscope by eliminating the influence of the squeeze-film air damping, the driving and sensing parts of the gyroscope were designed to oscillate in-plane. Furthermore, by removing the substrate underneath the device, the slide-film air damping in the gap between the proof masses and the substrate was eliminated. The proposed architecture was analyzed by the finite element method using ANSYS software. The simulated frequencies of the driving and sensing modes were 9.788 and 9.761 kHz, respectively. The gyroscope was fabricated using bulk micromachining technology. The quality factor and sensitivity of the gyroscope operating in atmospheric conditions were measured to be 111.2 and 11.56 mV/°/s, respectively.

This paper presents an integrated model for calculation of flood in the Vu Gia – Thu Bon river system. In this model, the flow in rivers and channels is considered as onedimensional and described by the Saint – Venant equations while the flow on the floodplains is considered as two-dimensional and described by the shallow water equations. All equations are solved by finitevolume method. Roads, railway with conducts on floodplains are also included in the model. The floods in years 1999, 2007, 2009 and 2010 were calculated. The results show that floods in the Vu Gia – Thu Bon delta were simulated in detail with reliable accuracy.

The aim of the study was to determine which cholinergic muscarinic receptor subtype is responsible for the endothelium-dependent vasodilatation evoked by acetylcholine (ACh) in mouse arteries. Endothelium-dependent relaxations were evaluated using isometric tension measurement of ring from femoral and aortic artery of M1, M2, and M3 knockout (KO) mice. Rings of femoral and aortic artery from M3 KO mice did not exhibit relaxation at the opposite of rings from M1+M2 KO and wild-type (WT) mice, which were relaxed by ACh. The proportion of endothelial cells responsive to ACh, as manifested by an increase in cytosolic free calcium ([Ca]i), was also observed on the intima of aorta wall in vitro by using laser line confocal microscopy. Of the cells from M3 KO mice and M1+M2 KO mice, 4% and 23%, respectively, responded to ACh in comparison with 20 % in WT mice. These results show that in the endothelium from femoral and aortic artery, the larger proportion of cells that express M3 receptor is responsible for the specificity of the M3 receptor subtype for endothelium-dependent relaxation caused by ACh.

This paper reports the design and fabrication of a z-axis tuning fork gyroscope (TFG) having anti-phase controlled and freestanding architectures. The gyroscope is designed to suppress the in-phase sensing mode by using a self-rotation ring. To improve the performance of the TFG by limiting the influence of the squeeze-film damping, the driving and sensing parts of the gyroscope were designed to oscillate in plane. Furthermore, by removing the substrate underneath the device, the slide-film damping in the gap between the proof masses and the substrate is eliminated. The proposed architecture is analysed by finite element method using ANSYS software. The simulated frequencies of the driving and sensing modes are 9.788 kHz and 9.761 kHz, respectively, which determines the sensor bandwidth of 27 Hz. The frequency difference between the driving and sensing modes and the parasitic ones is obtained to be 57.5%. The sensing displacement and driving displacement of the gyroscope at resonance are 0.104 μm and 6.034 μm, respectively. The gyroscope was fabricated based on the bulk micromachining technology. It is shown that the quality factor of the gyroscope is 111.2. The measured sensitivity of the sensor is evaluated to be 11.56 mV/°/s.

The ability to handle changes is a characteristic feature of successful software projects. The problem addressed in this paper is what should be done in project planning and iterative replanning so that the project can react effectively to changes. Thus the work presents research results in software engineering, as well as transfer of methods in knowledge engineering to software engineering, applying the AI planning technique to software process modeling and software project management. Our method is based on inter-project experience and evolution patterns. We propose a new classification of software projects, identifying and characterizing ten software process evolution patterns and link them to different project profile. Based on the evolution patterns, we discuss the planning support for process evolution and propose several methods that are new or significantly extend existing work, e.g. cost estimation of process changes, evolution pattern analysis, and a coarse process model for the initial planning and the iterative replanning process. The preliminary results have shown that the study of evolution patterns, based on inter-project experience, can provide valuable guidance in software process understanding and improvement.

EPOS is a kernel, software engineering environment. EPOS supports integrated product and process modeling through a two-layer architecture. The bottom-level EPOSDB offers a traditional ER data model extended with subtyping and meta-types, uniform versioning, and nested and cooperating transactions. The SPELL process modeling language extends the underlying data model with behavioral object-orientation, type-level properties, and tasking. EPOS can thus be used to model, plan, execute, and evolve activities “processes”; with associated products, tools, human roles, and projects. EPOS tools include a Simple CM tool, a Schema Manager, a Process Engine, a Planner, a Workspace Manager, and a Project/Cooperation Manager.