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Graphical abstract, Highlights • Device occlusion is the method of choice to treat atrial septal defects. • Atrial myxoma on an atrial septal defect occlusion device is rare but does occur. • Echocardiography plays an essential role in confirming an atrial myxoma. • Echocardiography helps to exclude a left atrial thrombus. • Echocardiography contributes to surgical planning.

Basketball is known for the vast amount of data collected for each player, team, game, and season. As a result, basketball is an ideal domain to work on different data analysis techniques to gain useful insights. In this study, we continued our previous study published in 2020 Computational Collective Intelligence (12th International Conference, ICCCI 2020, Da Nang, Vietnam, November 30 – December 3, 2020, Proceedings) reviewing some important factors to predict players’ future performance and being selected in an All-Star game, one of the most prestigious events, of National Basket Association league. Besides traditional Machine Learning, Deep Learning is also applied in this study for prediction purpose. However, compared to traditional Machine Learning, Deep Learning’s performance is not as good for our dataset. It is understandable when our data are relatively small and structured with a few predictor variables which limited Deep Learning’s ability to deal with a vast amount of Big Data. Our final results, through both Regression and Classification Analysis, indicated that scoring is the most important factor from the primary players for any team and also basketball fan’s favourable style.

The rapidly drop of frequency in the microgrid (MG) system when it operates under island operation has caused frequency stability problems. In case, generators and renewable energy sources cannot s...

Background. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pandemic of pneumonia spreading around the world, leading to serious threats to public health and attracting enormous attention. There is an urgent need for sensitive diagnostic testing implementation to control and manage SARS-CoV-2 in public health laboratories. The quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) assay is the gold standard method, but the sensitivity and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 testing are dependent on a number of factors. Methods. We synthesized RNA based on the genes published to estimate the concentration of inactivated virus samples in a biosafety level 3 laboratory. The limit of detection (LOD), linearity, accuracy, and precision were evaluated according to the bioanalytical method validation guidelines. Results. We found that the LOD reached around 3 copies/reaction. Furthermore, intra-assay precision, accuracy, and linearity met the accepted criterion with an RSD for copies of less than 25%, and linear regression met the accepted R 2 of 0.98. Conclusions. We suggest that synthesized RNA based on the database of the NCBI gene bank for estimating the concentration of inactivated virus samples provides a potential opportunity for reliable testing to diagnose coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as well as limit the spread of the disease. This method may be relatively quick and inexpensive, and it may be useful for developing countries during the pandemic era. In the long term, it is also applicable for evaluation, verification, validation, and external quality assessment.

Introduction: Surgical operative risk of valvular replacement has been widely studied and it has been shown that postoperative complications incidence and mortality increase with patients’ age. The aim of this study was to assess among elderly patients whom underwent surgical aortic valve replacement using various scoring system and Geriatric Assessment Indexes to predict post-operative risk and long-term outcome. Methods and Results: We prospectively evaluated the incidence, over early and late results, of surgical scores and geriatric profile amid 122 intermediate-risk patients, aged 75 years or more who underwent surgical aortic valve replacement. In a univariate analysis, the EuroScore II (OR 1.73, 95% CI: 1.21-2.48, P =0.002), STS score (OR 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03-1.88, P = 0.03) and a Katz index ≤ 5 (limitation of at least one daily living activity) (OR 3.35, 95% CI: 1.08-10.35, P=0.03) were predictors of a 30-day unfavorable evolution. In a multivariate analysis, only surgical scores were predictive factors. At 6 months, 20 patients had deceased or had to be readmitted to hospital. At 10 years, survival was 48 % [IQR 39-57]. The Katz index ≤ 5 was the only geriatric test independent of an unfavorable outcome at 6 months (OR 4.51, 95% CI: 1.25-16.29, P = 0.02) and of a deleterious effect over long-term survival (OR 3.00, 95% CI: 1.58-5.69, P=0.001). Conclusion: In elderly patients, autonomy assessment with the Katz index allows to distinguish a vulnerable population with less beneficial outcomes after aortic valve replacement.

Cardiac involvement is an often fatal and underestimated complication in systemic sclerosis, but only few reports have been published on the surgical intervention of patients with cardiothoracic complication in patient with systemic sclerosis. We hereby present a case of severe mitral valve regurgitation due to infective endocarditis on patient with systemic sclerosis. The patient underwent mitral valve reconstruction and post-operative management of systemic sclerosis.

Introduction: This study report the clinical characteristics, surgical indications, surgical technique and initial outcomes of autologous pericardial aortic valve reconstruction using Ozaki’s procedure. Methods: The study included consecutive patients with isolated aortic valve disease who underwent Ozaki’s procedure between June 2017 and December 2019. Aortic valve cups were reconstructed by autologous pericardium using Ozaki’s procedure. Results: Seventy-two patients were enrolled (mean age 52.9 ± 13 years; 53 males) and consisted of 30 aortic stenosis cases, 20 aortic regurgitation cases, and 22 patients with a combination of both 72 patients, a bicuspid aortic valve was present in 20, and 7 patients had infective endocarditis. Surgery was performed via a full or partial sternotomy. The procedure was successful in 70 case, and two patients were converted to prosthetic valve replacement. The aortic cross-clamp time was 106.3 ± 13.8 minutes, cardiopulmonary bypass time was 136.7 ± 18.5 minutes. One patient died of cardiac tamponade in hospital, and two patients underwent reoperation due to bleeding and sternal infection, respectively, were observed during the follow-up period of 30 days. 1-month postoperative echocardiography revealed that one patient had moderate aortic valve regurgitation, max trans-valvular pressure gradient was 16.1 ± 2.3 mmHg, and aortic valve area was 2.5 ± 0.2 cm ². Conclusions: Aortic valve reconstruction using autologous pericardium by Ozaki’s procedure was feasible, good hemodynamics, and can be applied to all lesions of the aortic valve.

Objective: Myxoma is the most common form of non-malignant tumor that arises from connective tissue. Totally endoscopic surgery without robotic assistance can resect the entire atrial myxoma. This study aim to evaluate the early results of this surgical method. Methods: From January 2019 to April 2021, 26 patients (20 females, 6 males, mean age 49.5 ± 14.3) were diagnosed with atrial myxoma. All tumors of those patients were resected by totally endoscopic surgery. We evaluated the early outcome of this method based on the following criteria: mortality rates, conversion to open surgery, cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic cross-clamp time, postoperative time. Results: Totally endoscopic surgery to resect atrial myxoma was successfully performed in all patients with surgical ports on the thoracic wall. The largest incision was not more than 1.5 cm in diameter. Mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 134 ± 39 minutes, aortic cross-clamp time was 81.4 ± 26.4 minutes, mechanical ventilation time was 10.5 ± 4.6 hours, ICU length of stay was 2.1 ± 0.9 days, postoperative time was 6.9 ± 5.4 days. We had one case in which the excision of myxoma was performed contemporaneously with mitral valve annuloplasty. Conclusions: Initial outcomes of totally endoscopic surgery to resect atrial myxomas were satisfactory. However, to fully evaluate the effectiveness of this method, we need to conduct a long-term follow-up of these patients.

Due to the development of state-of-the-art fifth-generation communication (5G) and Internet-of-Things (IoT), the demands for capacity and throughput of wireless networks have increased significantly. As a promising solution for this, a radio access technique, namely, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been investigated. Particularly, in this paper, we analyse the system performance of a joint time allocation and power splitting (JTAPS) protocol for NOMA-based energy harvesting (EH) wireless networks over indoor scenarios, which we modelled with log-normal fading channels. Accordingly, for the performance analysis of such networks, the analytical expression of a metric so-called "ergodic outage probability" was derived. Then, thanks to Monte Carlo simulations done in Matlab, we are able to see how different EH power splitting (PS) and EH time switching (TS) factors influence the ergodic outage probability. Last, but not least, we plot the simulation results along with the theoretical results for comparison studies. Web of Science 27 3

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is caused by a combination of lifestyle and genetic factors. Physical activity (PA) is a key element in improving the HbA1c index and reducing the risk of complications in a patient with T2D. A descriptive crosssectional study was conducted on 629 outpatients with T2D at Hue Transportation Hospital to describe patients’ PA levels and some related factors. The results showed that there were 48% of participants achieved the WHO recommended level of PA. The multivariate logistic regression model identifed some factors associated with PA among the T2D patients, including age group (group aged 45-64 with OR = 1.55; 95% CI: 1.10 – 2.18), academic level (≥ high school level with OR = 1.79; 95%CI: 1.15 – 2.78), sleeping time (6 - 9 hours with OR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.20 – 2.87), blood pressure (normal blood pressure with OR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.99) and HbA1c (< 7% with OR = 1.43; 95%CI: 1.03 – 1.99). The proportion of patients meeting the recommended PA level was low, making it crucial to strengthen education about the health benefts of doing PAs for diabetic patients.

The study was conducted to estimate factors affecting the information sources and communication channels that were used by pig farmers to access information about African Swine Fever (ASF) in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam, and to determine the perception of pig farmers about ASF epidemic. The survey used the questionnaires to gather data from 150 pig farmers which was conducted in a purposive method and was analyzed by multiple logistic regression model. The respondents were pig farmers who had experienced at least one year and have been affected by ASF epidemic in raising or trading pigs and other activities of the value chain. The result showed that the decision to choose information from government extension worker as the main information resource was affected by gender, pig herd size, informal education, and formal education (p

In this work, a mixture of mill scale with 5 wt% molasses as binder was pressed under pressure of 200 MPa to prepare briquettes. The reduction process was performed at the temperature of 1000, 1050, 1100, 1150 and 1200 °C in the bed of A3 fine coal as the reductant. The degree of reduction was evaluated at time duration of 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 150 minutes, after the furnace temperature reached the predetermined reduction temperature. The highest reduction degree is 94.7% at the reduction process temperature of 1200 °C. Reaction rate constant (k) increased from 4.63×10-4 to 5.03×10-3 min-1 when the temperature increased from 1000 to 1200 °C. The apparent activation energy of the reduction reaction (Ea) is about 95.6 kJ/mole.

The literature on plastic watse recently focus upon products such as plastic bag and plastic straw. However, there are products that create a very huge amount of waste such as plastic children's toys, have not received proper attention. Also, the need of green products for children's toys is essential since plastic children's toys were proved that contain heavy metals which are potential sources risk to children’s health. Therefore, this research aims at pioneering in doing investigate about consumer attitudes to plastic and environmentally friendly children's toys in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Also, propose green marketing activities for children's toy companies to become the leading recognized brand in the line of environmentally friendly product. A survey was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City in December 2019 with 200 respondents to assess their attitudes towards green products, especially green products for children. Based on the rationale and survey results, the research conclude that consumers’ attitudes towards green products and their level of interest in the current environmental situation are very positive. Respondents did understand the concept of green products in detail and pay much attention to famous green campaings and products. And there are statistics prove the high consumer awareness of environmentally friendly plastic toys. This forward-looking insights can create the potential for green marketing activities of children's toy companies.

In December 2016, the first bus rapid transit (BRT) service in Vietnam was introduced in an urban area of Hanoi, the capital, with a 14.7-km route. This study empirically investigates the impacts of introducing the Hanoi BRT service on the travel behaviors of commuters using public transportation services. A quasi-experimental approach is employed with difference-in-differences and propensity score matching to identify the impacts on commuters’ travel time, acceptable walking distance to the nearest stop, and modal share of public transportation. Interviews with public transportation users were conducted to collect data in June 2018, and 501 valid responses were obtained. Respondents were asked about their travel behaviors and perceptions regarding public transportation before and after the BRT introduction. The study assumes a treatment group containing commuters currently using the BRT service and a control group containing those currently using standard bus services. The estimation results reveal that the introduction of the Hanoi BRT service had significantly positive impacts on improving travel time efficiency, increasing the acceptable walking distance to the nearest stop, and encouraging commuters to use more public transportation in their daily journeys.

Melanoma skin cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of skin cancer because it grows fast and causes most of the skin cancer deaths. Hence, early detection is a very important task to treat melanoma. In this article, we propose a skin lesion segmentation method for dermoscopic images based on the U-Net architecture with VGG-16 encoder and the semantic segmentation. Base on the segmented skin lesion, diagnostic imaging systems can evaluate skin lesion features to classify them. The proposed method requires fewer resources for training, and it is suitable for computing systems without powerful GPUs, but the training accuracy is still high enough (above 95 %). In the experiments, we train the model on the ISIC dataset – a common dermoscopic image dataset. To assess the performance of the proposed skin lesion segmentation method, we evaluate the Sorensen-Dice and the Jaccard scores and compare to other deep learning-based skin lesion segmentation methods. Experimental results showed that skin lesion segmentation quality of the proposed method are better than ones of the compared methods.

In this paper, an extremely sensitive Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) based Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor having D-shaped structure has been proposed. Gold has been used as the plasmonic material, and it has been coated outside of the fiber on its glassy surface to detect the change in the refractive index of the surrounding medium. Gold has been chosen as it is chemically stable and has no impact on the surrounding aqueous medium. Maximum Wavelength Sensitivity (WS) of 216,000 nm/RIU and Amplitude Sensitivity (AS) of 1680 RIU-1 have been achieved for the analyte refractive index range 1.23 to 1.42 by the proposed sensor. After conducting a detailed literature review in the relevant field, it has been revealed that the proposed sensor possesses the highest wavelength sensitivity among recently reported PCF-SPR sensors to this date. The proposed sensor also exhibits a resolution of 4.63 × 10-7 RIU and FOM of 1200. Consequently, the proposed sensor can become an ideal candidate in the field of biomedical sensing, chemical sensing, and other lower RI analytes sensing.

This article aims to reveal the features of research culture in Vietnamese universities, through various indicators. It shows that among factors impacting the formation of research culture in Vietnamese universities are state-related ones, including policies, regulations, norms and traditions for university research. The state-related factors have contributed to bettering the qualifications of lecturers, recognizing faculty’s research works with financial and non-financial rewards, strengthening the cooperation between universities with external research partners, and increasing the number of publications. Yet, at the same time, different problems stem from the existence of some state-related factors including the nation’s tradition of spending less on higher education than on basic education and less on universities than on research institutes, the lack of autonomy among universities, the almost ultimate power of the university rector, and the use of the historically-negotiated recurrent approach for allocating research funding to universities. Given the fact that Vietnam’s higher education is highly regulated by the state, changes to research culture in universities must accompany changes to the state-related factors believed to influence the formation of research culture.

A quantitative study was used in the study of the tendency to change drought indicators in Vietnam through the Ninh Thuan province case study. The research data are temperature and precipitation data of 11 stations from 1986 to 2016 inside and outside Ninh Thuan province. To do the research, the author uses a non-parametric analysis method and the drought index calculation method. Specifically, with the non-parametric method, the author uses the analysis, Mann-Kendall (MK) and Theil-Sen (Sen’s slope), and to analyze drought, the author uses the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Moisture Index (MI). Two Softwares calculated in this study are ProUCL 5.1 and MAKENSEN 1.0 by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Finnish Meteorological Institute. The calculation results show that meteorological drought will decrease in the future with areas such as Phan Rang, Song Pha, Quan The, Ba Thap tend to increase very clearly, while Tam My and Nhi Ha tend to increase very clearly short. With the agricultural drought, the average MI results increased 0.013 per year, of which Song Pha station tended to increase the highest with 0.03 per year and lower with Nhi Ha with 0.001 per year. The forecast results also show that by the end of the 21st century, the SPI tends to decrease with SPI 1 being −0.68, SPI 3 being −0.40, SPI 6 being −0.25, SPI 12 is 0.42. Along with that is the forecast that the MI index will increase 0.013 per year to 2035, the MI index is 0.93, in 2050 it is 1.13, in 2075 it will be 1.46, and by 2100 it is 1.79. Research results will be used in policymaking, environmental resources management agencies, and researchers to develop and study solutions to adapt and mitigate drought in the context of variable climate change.

Dictionary learning (DL) for sparse coding has been widely applied in the field of computer vision. Many DL approaches have been developed recently to solve pattern classification problems and have achieved promising performance. In this paper, to improve the discriminability of the popular dictionary pair learning (DPL) algorithm, we propose a new method called discriminative dictionary pair learning (DDPL) for image classification. To achieve the goal of signal representation and discrimination, we impose the incoherence constraints on the synthesis dictionary and the low-rank regularization on the analysis dictionary. The DDPL method ensures that the learned dictionary has the powerful discriminative ability and the signals are more separable after coding. We evaluate the proposed method on benchmark image databases in comparison with existing DL methods. The experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms many recently proposed dictionary learning approaches.

In this study, the effects of various agricultural LED lights (LED NN), including single red LED (R), single blue LED (B), and four combinations of blue, red, and warm white (W) LED (BR, BRW1, BRW2, BRW3) on the growth and development of C. militaris (Link.) Fries were evaluated in vitro. After 7 days, samples subjected to LED NN showed shorter sporocarp sprouting time and higher sprouting ratio than the control, which was subjected to T5 fluorescent light. After 2 months, LED lights with high red ratio, such as single red LED and LED BR, had suppressing effect on the growth and development of C. militaris (Link.) Fries. On the other hand, combinations of red, blue, and warm white such as LED BRW1, LED BRW2, and LED BRW3 had the positive impact on the growth and development of this fungus. Notably, samples subjected to LED BRW2 reached 5.79 cm in height, fresh biomass of 3.67 g/20 samples. Cordycepin and Adenosine levels were 64.2 and 6.37 mg/100 g fresh mass, respectively. All of studied indicators were the higher compared to those of the control and other LED lighting schemes. Therefore, it can be conlcuded that LED lighting combination with BRW2 ratio of 1:5:1 and luminous intensity of 45±2 µmol.m-2.s-1 (511,59 Lux) was suitable for the growth and development of C. militaris (Link.) Friesand a potential replacement of fluorescent light for C. militaris (Link.) Friesin vitro propagation.

With the continued increase in skin cancer incidence rates, the population of skin cancer survivors continues to grow. Understanding skin cancer survivors’ lifestyle behaviors, including ultraviolet radiation exposure, is important in reducing skin cancer recurrences and improving health outcomes. The objective of this study is to compare the differences in lifestyle behaviors among skin cancer survivors or individuals who currently have skin cancer versus individuals who have never had a skin cancer diagnosis. To investigate these lifestyle behaviors, we performed a cross-sectional analysis comparing lifestyle behaviors in persons diagnosed with skin cancer and those without a history of skin cancer among US citizens using publicly available data from the 2018 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). In total, there were 437,436 respondents. No significant difference existed between the two cohorts in sunburn frequency, use of sun protection, or indoor tanning; in fact, males were more likely to be afflicted with sunburns following diagnosis. Skin cancer survivors were less likely to be current smokers and sedentary. Female survivors were more likely to binge and heavily drink alcohol. Our findings highlight important areas for reducing risk factors, which could reduce the recurrence of skin malignancies in skin cancer survivors. Our study provides insight to lifestyle behaviors among skin cancer survivors. Being aware of these behaviors has the potential to reduce skin cancer recurrence.

Smart homes are an element of developing smart cities. In recent years, countries around the world have spared no effort in promoting smart cities. Smart homes are an interesting technological advancement that can make people’s lives much more convenient. The development of smart homes involves multiple technological aspects, which include big data, mobile networks, cloud computing, Internet of Things, and even artificial intelligence. Digital information is the main component of signal control and flow in a smart home, while information security is another important aspect. In the event of equipment failure, the task of safeguarding the system’s information is of the utmost importance. Since smart homes are automatically controlled, the problem of mobile network security must be taken seriously. To address these issues, this paper focuses on information security, big data, mobile networks, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. Security efficiency can be enhanced by using a Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256), which is an authentication mechanism that, with the help of the user, can authenticate each interaction of a given device with a WebServer by using an encrypted username, password, and token. This framework could be used for an automated burglar alarm system, guest attendance monitoring, and light switches, all of which are easily integrated with any smart city base. In this way, IoT solutions can allow real-time monitoring and connection with central systems for automated burglar alarms. The monitoring framework is developed on the strength of the web application to obtain real-time display, storage, and warning functions for local or remote monitoring control. The monitoring system is stable and reliable when applying SHA-256.

Hồi cứu mô tả loạt ca các bệnh nhân được phẫu thuật van hai lá ít xâm lấn qua đường mở ngực phải nhỏ có nội soi lồng ngực hỗ trợ tại bệnh viện Đại học Y Dược Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh từ tháng 8/2014 đến tháng 8/2018. Có 183 trường hợp phẫu thuật van hai lá, trong đó có 86trường hợp sửa van, tuổi trung bình 50.1 ±12.6 tuổi. Tỷ lệ nam/nữ là 1.2:1. Trong đó có 76 trường hợp van thoái hóa, 1 trường hợp van hậu thấp, 2 trường hợp viêm nội tâm mạc nhiễm trùng, 3 trường hợp tổn thương mép van và 4 trường hợp tim bẩm sinh. Cơ chế tổn thương chính là sa lá sau (59 trường hợp), đứng thứ hai là sa lá trước với 17 trường hợp, sa cả lá trước và lá sau có 5 trường hợp và chẻ lá van chiếm 4 trường hợp phẫu thuật, 1 trường hợp có giới hạn lá van. 15 trường hợp có biến chứngtrong đó, tràn máu màng ngoài phổi cần dẫn lưu có 4 trường hợp, 1 trường hợp vỡ vòng van, 1 trường hợp mổ lại do hở tồn lưu và 9 trường hợp mổ lại do chảy máu, 1 trường hợp hẹp động mạch đùi phải cần mổ lại. Không có tử vong. Tỉ lệ sửa van hai lá thành công (không hở hoặc hở độ 1 trên siêu âm sau mổ) cao (93%).

The integration of seaweeds (extractive, low-footprint species) into aquaculture systems has been considered an alternative approach for the sustainable development of the shrimp industry, which aims to expand in an environmentally friendly way. Two consecutive experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of integrating various densities of black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon post-larvae (PL) and red seaweed Gracilaria tenuistipitata on water quality and shrimp performance in the nursery phase. The first experiment involved a 3 × 4 factorial design with three levels of shrimp density (1000; 2000 and 3000 PL m−3) and four levels of red seaweed density (0, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg m−3) randomly allocated in triplicate tanks for 30 days. Shrimp PL (with a mean weight of 0.012 ± 0.002 g and length of 1.12 ± 0.09 cm) and red seaweed were reared in 150 L tanks at a salinity of 15 g L−1. Significant synergistic effects between shrimp and seaweed densities were observed for the NO3− total nitrogen (TN) and PO43− contents, as well as for the survival (p < 0.05) and production of shrimp (p < 0.01). The integration of shrimp and red seaweed significantly decreased the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in the rearing tanks and greatly enhanced the survival and growth rate of shrimp. In particular, increased stocking density resulted in poorer growth performance but enhanced production. Applying stocking densities of 1000 and 2000 PL m−3 obtained larger shrimp size, while a density of 3000 PL m−3 achieved the highest production output in the integrated system. In the second experiment, which followed the 30-day growth trial, shrimp quality was assessed via an immersion challenge test using pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus (a concentration of 2 × 108 CFU mL−1) on the shrimp groups previously stocked at a density of 3000 PL m−3 and integrated with different quantities of seaweed. After 14 days of challenge, the cumulative mortality in the monoculture system averaged 75.6%, which was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those in the integrated groups (17.8–31.1%). It is concluded that the integration of P. monodon shrimp and G. tenuistipitata improved tank water quality as well as shrimp survival and growth while also enhancing the antibacterial activity of shrimp against V. parahaemolyticus infection in the nursery phase.

Saphenous venous insufficency (VI) is more and more common. This disease is diagnosed by clinical symptoms and doppler US. In the last decade, ligation and stripping was main treatment modalities. Recently, there are many alternative methods for this disease such as sclerotherapy, thermal therapies… Laser is one of effective procedure for VI. Objective: To evaluate short-term outcomes of endovenous laser ablation for the treatment of saphenous venous insufficiency. Methods: This retrospective study included 124 patients at C2 stage and above (CEAP classification) who underwent endovenous laser ablation at Hue Central Hospital from 12/2014 to 02/2017. Results: The patients’ average median age was 52 ± 12.18. Patients with great saphenous insufficency were 98.4% (181 limbs) and only 1.6% with small saphenous disease. Most of them were treated with laser wavelength at 1470nm, power at 6-10W. There were 82 patients needed phlebectomy (Muller) and 20 patients associated with sclerotherapy. Most of cases underwent local anesthesia. The initial outcomes of the patient are excelent, there were no major complication related to the procedure. Most of patient were no pain significantly after treatment. The number of patient with mild (no need of antalgics) and severe pain (needed fort antalgics for 5 days) due to laser ablation were 4 cases and 1 case, respectively. Patients could return to daily activities at the day after. A follow – up postoperative ultrasound after 10 days: 100% of cases presented sclerosant veins and no intravenous flow, no deep venous thrombose. There were no recurrence at 3 and 6 month of medical revisit. Conclusion: Endovenous laser treatment was proven as a method of preference for chronic vein insufficiency because of its advandtages such as minimal invasive technique, high successive percentage, least of complication, high aesthetics and early to return daily activities. Key words: Saphenous venous insufficency (VI), laser, endovenous laser ablation

Objectives: To compare quality of life of patients before and one- month after spinal surgery and to identify factors affecting improvement on their quality of life. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted in 60 patients who were diagnosed with complicated degenerative lumbar spine and scheduled for surgery of spine at Quang Ngai General Hospital. The SF-36 scale was used to evaluate quality of life of the patients. Results: Findings showed that quality of life after surgery of patients was improved significantly in all components. The better change was found in items of bodily paint and social functioning while the least improvement was reported in physical functioning and role physical. Conclusion: Factors affecting improvement on quality of life of patients after degenerative lumbar surgery were age, BMI and accompanied diseases Key words: degenerative lumbar disease, surgery, quality of life, SF-36, Quang Ngai

Objectives: To study clinical, subclinical features and to evaluate therapeutic efficacy of Secukinumab in patients with active Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). Patients and methods: Descriptive, comparative, retrospective and prospective study, combination with treatment intervention in patients diagnosis with AS, following to modified ACR-1984 criteria (New York criteria) who are inpatient or outpatient in the Department of General Internal Medicine - Endocrinology of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and in the Department of Nephrology and Rheumatology of Hue Central Hospital from May 2018 to August 2019. Results: The study recruited of 38 patients, (76.3% males) with mean age of 29.76 ± 9.75 years old. The age of onset was about 23 years old and the percentage of patients who were diagnosed AS under 30 years old was 73.7%. The majority of patients were hospitalized with severe pain (92.1%), in which 86.8% of patients sufferred from spinal pain, 71.1% of patients showed peripheral joint pain, commonly seen in hip joints (44.7%). Other common symptoms were lumbar Schober (about 3 cm), hand to ground distance (about 20 cm), median BASDAI score: 4.15 ± 1.01, median ASDAS-CRP: 3.81 ± 0.94, increasing CRP (81.58%), increasing erythrocyte sedimentation rate (81.6%), the percentage of HLA-B27 (+): 81.25% (for patients who have received this test). For patients treated with Fraizeron, in general, there were changes in patient global assessment, noctural back pain, peripheral swelling, lumbar Schober, hand to ground distance, BASDAI, ASDAS-CRP, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, CRP. These changes were positive with p < 0.05. When we assessed the safety of Secukinumab, we did not record any clinical or subclinical undesirable effects. Conclusion: At week 16, Secukinumab has been effectively shown to improve clinical symptoms as well as subclinical symptoms in patients with AS. It is also considered safe for use in these patients. Key words: Ankylosing Spondylitis, Secukinumab

In this paper, a dual-core photonic crystal fiber (DC-PCF) based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bio-compatible sensor is proposed for various bio-organic molecules and biochemical analytes refractive index (RI) detection in the visible to near-infrared region (0.5 to $2~\mu \text{m}$ ). Two hexagonal ring lattice with all circular air-holes are used to simplify the sensor structure. To make the practical applications feasible, plasmonic material and analyte sensing layer both are employed at the outer surface of the fiber. Noble plasmonic material gold (Au) having a thickness of 30 nm is used to excite the surface plasmons. A thin layer of titanium oxide (TiO2) having a thickness of 5 nm is also considered as an adhesive layer between the Au and silica glass. The sensor response is investigated using the mode solver based finite element method (FEM). Numerical results indicate that the proposed sensor shows a maximum amplitude sensitivity (AS) of 6829 RIU $^{-1}$ , amplitude resolution (AR) of $5\times 10 ^{-6}$ RIU, maximum wavelength sensitivity (WS) of 28,000 nm/RIU, and wavelength resolution (WR) of $3.57\times 10 ^{-6}$ RIU, using the amplitude and wavelength interrogation methods, respectively. Moreover, a maximum figure of merit (FOM) of 2800 RIU $^{-1}$ is obtained, which is the highest among the reported PCF-SPR sensor. Owing to the promising sensitivity and simple structure, the proposed sensor can be potentially applicable for the detection of biochemical solutions and biological samples.

Applicability of PCR-DGGE (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gel Gradient Eletrophoresis) technique to analyze microbial community is based on the V3 gene fragments in the rice straw sample (R) and after composting rice straw samples (Rn). Besides clonning method combined with analyzing Rn samples and comparing the results of microbial community analysis with PCR-DGGE method had the same reuslts is the main goal in this study. Results obtained from PCR-DGGE technique of R sample had 5 the V3 gene fragments (R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5) and Rn had 4 the V3 genes fragments (Rn1, Rn2, Rn3 and Rn4). Comparison of bacterial groups in R and Rn samples showed that bacteria in R samples including Agrobacterium, Clostridium, Bacteroidetes, Thermopolysporasa and Bacillus species, but in the Rn sample after incubation, the remaining bacterial results of 2 main species are Agrobacterium and Clostridium. Using Clonning method of Rn sample also gave 4 positions and gene fragment sizes corresponding to the positions of Rn1, Rn2, Rn3 and Rn4 from representatives of about 30 samples collected from the Clonning products. Based on the comparison of the similarity among the sequence of V3 gene fragments in PCR-DGGE and Clonning with reference to the data base in NCBI gene bank the results that Rn1 and Rn4 genes are similar to Agrobacterium species, about 96%, Rn2 and Rn3 are similar to Clostridium about 99%. In summary the results of microbial community analysis in the R sample show that the diversity of bacteria in the R sample is larger than in the Rn sample. Summarize the results of microbial community analysis in the R sample show the diversity of bacteria but less stable than the Rn sample. In addition, cloning and PCR-DGGE produced similar results on the sample Rn.

Improving level of service (LOS) is an essential requirement for a sustainable public transport development of a city. A large number of previous studies have considered bus LOS on viewpoints of its users. It should, however, be noted that the viewpoint of non-bus travelers is also equally important because they are potential to be bus users. This paper suggests a novel model for transport planners to assess driving behavior of bus drivers through a consideration of bus movement in association with motorcyclists' interaction. Bus movement assessment is modelled based on GPS and traffic surveillance video data in correlation with the traffic density estimated under Kalman-filter algorithm. A case study in Hanoi, Vietnam showed an illustration to the model.

Metastatic cervical spine disease can cause compression fractures, cervical spine instability, and pain. Vertebroplasty can stabilize a fracture, reduce the pain associated with a compression fracture, prevent or stop the progression of a fracture, thus avoiding cervical spine fixation, and decreased mobility. Transoral C2 vertebroplasty is less invasive than open fusion surgery, but it poses its own risk of infection and cement leak in this highly sensitive area.The image guidance setup consisted of the Stryker NAV3i navigation system, Stryker CranialMask tracker, and the CranialMap 3.0 software combined with biplanar fluoroscopy.The patient's neck pain has completely resolved immediately after the surgery. There were no complications.Quality of life preservation is paramount in the management of metastatic spine disease. Vertebroplasty of osteolytic lesions can both relieve pain and restore stability, thus avoiding permanent stiff cervical collar, halo vest, or upfront occipitocervical fusion. With the increasing availability of surgical navigation systems, its use combined with biplanar fluoroscopy for performing transoral C2 vertebroplasty seems to be an adequate treatment in selected cases for pain relief, stabilization, and maintaining quality of life in the complex cancer population with C2 pathological fractures. The article describes as well vertebroplasty of the subaxial spine through a conventional anterior approach which again seems to be adequate in the treatment of spinal pathological fractures. Graphical abstract.

BACKGROUND: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions. Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) may play an important role in the pathogenesis of SJS/TEN. AIMS: This study aims to identify HLA-B alleles in Vietnamese patients with SJS/TEN and to investigate the possible link between HLA-B alleles and causative drugs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients including SJS (30 patients) and TEN (30 patients) were enrolled in a cross-sectional descriptive study at two hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam, from July 2018 to July 2019. Clinical features and laboratory findings were noted, HLA-B alleles were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-sequence-specific oligonucleotide assay and LuminexTM Multiplex Technology. RESULTS: The most common HLA-B allele was HLA-B*15:02 (41.7%) followed by HLA-B*58:01 (25%) and HLA-B*46:01 (15%). Of the 25 patients possessing HLA-B*15:02 allele, culprit medicines were carbamazepine (13 patients; 52%), traditional medicine (two patients; 8%), and unknown drugs (seven patients; 28%). Of the 15 patients carrying HLA-B*58:01 allele, there were 13 patients whose offending medicine was allopurinol. Of the eight patients whose culprit drug was traditional medicine, there were 6 patients (75%) carrying HLA-B*51:02. Patients who carry HLA-B*15:02 were found to have 4 times higher risk of developing carbamazepine-induced SJS/TEN as compared with the tolerant control group (OR=4.17; 95% CI=2.07–8.37; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: HLA-B*15:02 was the most common HLA-B allele in Vietnamese patients with SJS/TEN. In traditional medicine-induced SJS/TEN patients, HLA-B*51:02 allele might play an important role. The link between the HLA-B genotypes and causative drugs may suggest physicians to avoid risk medications for certain patients.

BackgroundLittle is known about the natural history of asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.MethodsWe conducted a prospective study at a quarantine center for coronavirus disease 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We enrolled quarantined people with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, collecting clinical data, travel and contact history, and saliva at enrollment and daily nasopharyngeal/throat swabs (NTSs) for RT-PCR testing. We compared the natural history and transmission potential of asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals.ResultsBetween 10 March and 4 April 2020, 14 000 quarantined people were tested for SARS-CoV-2; 49 were positive. Of these, 30 participated in the study: 13 (43%) never had symptoms and 17 (57%) were symptomatic. Seventeen (57%) participants imported cases. Compared with symptomatic individuals, asymptomatic people were less likely to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 in NTS collected at enrollment (8/13 [62%] vs 17/17 [100%]; P = .02). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 20 of 27 (74%) available saliva samples (7 of 11 [64%] in the asymptomatic group and 13 of 16 [81%] in the symptomatic group; P = .56). Analysis of RT-PCR positivity probability showed that asymptomatic participants had faster viral clearance than symptomatic participants (P ConclusionsAsymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is common and can be detected by analysis of saliva or NTSs. The NTS viral loads fall faster in asymptomatic individuals, but these individuals appear able to transmit the virus to others.

Payment for Environment/Ecosystem Services (PES) is a market-based approach toward the dual goal of poverty alleviation and forest conservation. In Vietnam, PES has been nationwide applied to the forest environment, namely Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES). Nevertheless, the PFES application in forest-based tourism is very limited. To enhance policy implementation in practice, this study analyses a case study in Sapa town, Vietnam. We find that the overlapping revenue of service providers is a substantial issue holding back PFES applications in tourism. Accordingly, we recommend two potential payers for tourism-PFES, including accommodation companies and ticketing companies (based on the revenue from entrance tickets). We then suggest a PFES payment level of 1 percent of total revenue from ticket sales and room charges. Moreover, the study also provides some recommendations to ensure the fairness and transparency in PES application, as well as factual, reflect of the nature of PFES during implementation.

Summary Background Artemisinin and partner-drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum are major threats to malaria control and elimination. Triple artemisinin-based combination therapies (TACTs), which combine existing co-formulated ACTs with a second partner drug that is slowly eliminated, might provide effective treatment and delay emergence of antimalarial drug resistance. Methods In this multicentre, open-label, randomised trial, we recruited patients with uncomplicated P falciparum malaria at 18 hospitals and health clinics in eight countries. Eligible patients were aged 2–65 years, with acute, uncomplicated P falciparum malaria alone or mixed with non-falciparum species, and a temperature of 37·5°C or higher, or a history of fever in the past 24 h. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to one of two treatments using block randomisation, depending on their location: in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar patients were assigned to either dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine or dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine plus mefloquine; at three sites in Cambodia they were assigned to either artesunate–mefloquine or dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine plus mefloquine; and in Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo they were assigned to either artemether–lumefantrine or artemether–lumefantrine plus amodiaquine. All drugs were administered orally and doses varied by drug combination and site. Patients were followed-up weekly for 42 days. The primary endpoint was efficacy, defined by 42-day PCR-corrected adequate clinical and parasitological response. Primary analysis was by intention to treat. A detailed assessment of safety and tolerability of the study drugs was done in all patients randomly assigned to treatment. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02453308, and is complete. Findings Between Aug 7, 2015, and Feb 8, 2018, 1100 patients were given either dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine (183 [17%]), dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine plus mefloquine (269 [24%]), artesunate–mefloquine (73 [7%]), artemether–lumefantrine (289 [26%]), or artemether–lumefantrine plus amodiaquine (286 [26%]). The median age was 23 years (IQR 13 to 34) and 854 (78%) of 1100 patients were male. In Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam the 42-day PCR-corrected efficacy after dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine plus mefloquine was 98% (149 of 152; 95% CI 94 to 100) and after dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine was 48% (67 of 141; 95% CI 39 to 56; risk difference 51%, 95% CI 42 to 59; p

Spinal laminectomy is a common procedure performed to relieve neural compression in patients suffering from myelopathy or radiculopathy. However, up to 40% of patients suffer from persistent post-operative pain and disability, a condition known as Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS). Excessive scarring in the surgical bed is implicated as a cause. Hydrogels have been proposed to prevent adhesion formation post-laminectomy; however, their efficacy has not been proven. This study uses Chitogel complexed with the iron chelator Deferiprone (Def) to prevent adhesion formation in a sheep laminectomy model.Fifteen Adult Merino sheep (Ovis Aries, 1-5 yrs old) underwent laminectomy at lumbar levels 1-5 and had hydrated aluminum silicate (kaolin) applied to promote adhesion formation. Subjects were randomised to receive at each laminectomy level no-treatment control, Chitogel, Chitogel with Def at 20 mM or 40 mM or Carboxy-methyl-cellulose and Polyethylene oxide (CMC/PEO) gel. The animals were recovered for 3 months post-surgery, followed by assessment with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and histopathology of the spinal tissues for evaluating the presence and extent of adhesions.MRI and Histology assessment indicated that Kaolin induced severe inflammation with adhesion formation. Chitogel with and without 20 mM Def decreased inflammation (p 0.01) and trended to reduce adhesions (p 0.1). Chitogel with Def 40 mM was not significantly dis-similar to CMC/PEO and did not reduce inflammation or adhesions compared to no-treatment control.Chitogel in combination with Def 20 mM is safe and effective in decreasing the inflammatory process and may possibly reduce post-operative adhesions following laminectomy.