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A planar dual-band dual-mode antenna with omni-/unidirectional radiation is proposed for operating 2.45/5.8 GHz bands. The lower-band antenna consists of 4 modified quarter-mode substrate-integrated waveugide (QMSIW) elements, which are excited in-phase and with same magnitude to obtain vertically polarized omni-directional radiation. The upper-band antenna is based on a four-port square patch with differential feed to achieve highly-isolated dual-polarization with broadside radiation. In addition, the square patch is loaded with four overlapped-corner-mushroom structures to broaden the upper bandwidth. The final design with overall size of of 90 90 3.66 mm (0.735 0.735 0.03 at 2.45 GHz) was fabricated and measured. Measurements show a 10-dB return loss bandwidth of 160/400 MHz and a gain of 3.4/8.5 dBi at 2.45/5.8 GHz bands, respectively. Furthermore, the antenna prototype demonstrates an isolation of more than 30 dB among all ports. Especially, the isolation among the two ports of the upper-band elements is better than 40 dB.

A thin and broadband frequency selective surface (FSS)-based magnetic absorber is presented for low-microwave frequency applications. The design consists of a double-layers of FSS with the combination of two different magnetic substrates, which provides a much broader bandwidth compared to existing single-layered designs. The magnetic materials are in-house made by mixing different ratios of carbonyl-iron powder with silicone elastomer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The simple single-square loop (SSL) structure is used for both FSSs which are printed on a standard FR4 material using lossy resistive sheet. This configuration allows the use of a closed-form equivalent-circuit model for a fast and efficient bandwidth optimization. A genetic algorithm (GA) is utilized to obtain the design parameters for broadband absorption with minimum overall thickness. The measured results confirm that the proposed absorber operates from 0.78 to 4.8 GHz with -10 dB reflectivity. The design achieves 144% fractional-bandwidth with a 10.12 bandwidth-to-thickness ratio.

This study explores small-scale Vietnamese shrimp farmers’ preferences for good aquaculture practices and proactive aquaculture development policy to encourage wastewater treatment and antibiotic use. Data were collected through a survey of farmers using two discrete choice experiments with a sample size of 450 respondents. The results of mixed logit and latent class models indicated that the farmers preferred good aquaculture practices in shrimp farming to conventional types, and the risk reduction and economic benefits of good aquaculture practices attracted shrimp farmers. However, many small-scale farmers did not prefer the integration of proactive aquaculture practices in development policy, despite the availability of a concessional loan to cover the initial investment cost, and they expressed less willingness to pay for wastewater treatment and antibiotic use regulations. To increase the adoption of good aquaculture practices, in addition to concessional funding policy, small-scale farmers also expressed a need for other support policies, such as the aquaculture insurance provision, subsidies for wastewater treatment, and compliance with regulations on antibiotic use.

A single-layered slot antenna system working at 5.8 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band is proposed for in-band full duplex (IBFD) operation applications without the use of a coupler. First, high isolation is achieved by strong separation of even- and odd-mode feeds. The microstrip-coupled coplanar waveguide (CPW) is used at Port 1 (TX port) to excite a stepped-slot antenna in the CPW odd mode. On the opposite side, a microstrip T-junction power divider is employed at Port 2 (RX port) to feed two offset-fed stepped-slot antennas in even mode. Second, isolation is further improved by 30 dB by using a lumped capacitor at the termination of the CPW. The measured isolation between the two ports is about 50 dB across the bandwidth. The measured −10 dB bandwidth of Port 1 is 0.49 GHz (8.5%), while that of Port 2 is 1.06 GHz (18.3%). The gains of TX and RX antennas are 5.4 and 5.8 dBi at 5.8 GHz. The proposed antenna can also be deployed as a dual-polarized antenna. Mathematical analysis and equivalent transmission line circuit models are provided to give physical insight into the working principals of the antenna with validation from ANSYS HFSS simulation.

Summary Background Data are scarce from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to support the choice of vaccination schedule for the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV). We aimed to compare the immunogenicity of four different infant PCV10 schedules in infants in Vietnam. Methods In this single-blind, parallel-group, open-label, randomised controlled trial, infants aged 2 months were recruited by community health staff in districts 4 and 7 of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Eligible infants had no clinically significant maternal or prenatal history and were born at or after 36 weeks' gestation. Participants were randomly assigned (3:3:5:4:5:4) using block randomisation, stratified by district, to one of six PCV10 or PCV13 vaccination schedules. Here we report results for four groups: group A, who were given PCV10 at ages 2, 3, 4, and 9 months (a 3 + 1 schedule); group B, who were vaccinated at ages 2, 3, and 4 months (3 + 0 schedule); group C, who were vaccinated at ages 2, 4, and 9·5 months (2 + 1 schedule); and group D, who were vaccinated at ages 2 and 6 months (two-dose schedule). Laboratory-based assessors were masked to group allocation. Blood samples were collected at different prespecified timepoints between ages 3–18 months depending on group allocation, within 27–43 days after vaccination, and these were analysed for serotype-specific IgG and opsonophagocytic responses. Participants were followed-up until age 24 months. The primary outcome was the proportion of infants with serotype-specific IgG levels of 0·35 μg/mL or higher at age 5 months, analysed as a non-inferiority comparison (10% margin) of the two-dose and three-dose primary series (group C vs groups A and B combined). We also compared responses 4 weeks after two doses administered at either ages 2 and 4 months (group C) or at ages 2 and 6 months (group D). The primary endpoint was analysed in the per-protocol population. Reactogenicity has been reported previously. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT01953510 , and is now closed to accrual. Findings Between Sept 30, 2013, and Jan 9, 2015, 1201 infants were enrolled and randomly assigned to group A (n=152), group B (n=149), group C (n=250), group D (n=202), or groups E (n=251) and F (n=197). In groups A–D, 388 (52%) of 753 participants were female and 365 (48%) were male. 286 (95%) participants in groups A and B combined (three-dose primary series) and 237 (95%) in group C (two-dose primary series) completed the primary vaccination series and had blood samples taken within the specified time window at age 5 months (per-protocol population). At this timepoint, a two-dose primary series was non-inferior to a three-dose primary series for eight of ten vaccine serotypes; exceptions were 6B (84·6% [95% CI 79·9–88·6] of infants had protective IgG concentrations after three doses [groups A and B combined] vs 76·8% [70·9–82·0] of infants after two doses [group C]; risk difference 7·8% [90% CI 2·1–13·6]) and 23F (90·6% [95% CI 86·6–93·7] vs 77·6% [71·8–82·2]; 12·9% [90% CI 7·7–18·3]). Two doses at ages 2 and 6 months produced higher antibody levels than two doses at ages 2 and 4 months for all serotypes except 5 and 7F. Interpretation A two-dose primary vaccination series was non-inferior to a three-dose primary vaccination series while two doses given with a wider interval between doses increased immunogenicity. The use of a two-dose primary vaccination schedule using a wider interval could be considered in LMIC settings to extend protection in the second year of life. Funding Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In this study, we propose a gesture recognition system that is applicable for controlling home appliances. We utilized sensors embedded inside common smart watches, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, for alleviating the obtrusiveness to users. One-dimensional convolutional neural networks and bi-long short-term memory (1D-CNN-biLSTM) are proposed for analyzing, learning, and representing features from the sensor signals. In addition, a dataset of 18,000 gestures with 18 labels was collected from 20 subjects to verify our proposed methods. Notably, the proposed hand gesture vocabulary was found to be easy to learn for users. Moreover, it provides them with improved control over their home appliances. The results of an empirical experiment conducted on three public datasets in addition to our self-collected dataset (GesHome) indicate that the proposed 1D-CNN-biLSTM model can achieve an F1-score of 90% and outperforms previous state-of-the art methods. Moreover, a demonstrative system was employed to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed model for home appliance control in a real-world scenario.

Dyslipidemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Polyherbal formulation is a traditional therapeutic strategy used to treat dyslipidemia over many years of tradition. The aim of this study was designed to evaluate the effects of Hamo NK hard capsule on endogenous dyslipidemia and exogenous dyslipidemia experimental animal model. In endogenous hyperlipidemia model, mice were previously treated by Hamo NK hard capsule, and intraperitoneally injected by poloxamer - 407 to induce hyperlipidemia. Rats were oral administration of oil - cholesterol mixture and Hamo NK for 4 consecutive weeks (exogenous dyslipidemia). Parameters of serum lipid were determined. Hamo NK ameliorated the elevation of serum total cholesterol, Non - HDL - cholesterol at the daily dose of 1.5g/kg b.w (p < 0.05). Also, there was no signicant difference in increase on high - density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and decrease triglyceride levels between the groups. Hamo NK at two doses of 0.25g/kg b.w and 0.75g/kg b.w significantly reduced serum LDL - C levels compared to the cholesterol control group. Hamo NK hard capsule affected on serum lipid modulations in dyslipidemia models.

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecological malignancies. The gene RAD51involves homologous recombinational repair for double-strand breaks of DNA, so its polymorphisms and mutations are associated with cancer risk. The authors studied, by using a case-control design, whether single nucleotide polymorphism rs1801321 of RAD51 gene associated with ovarian cancer risk among Vietnamese females. Sample sets included 380 ovarian cancer cases and 380 healthy controls of similar age distribution. The genotypes of rs1801321 polymorphism were determined using the Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The distribution of genotype GG, GT, TT was 55.3, 29.2, 15.5% for the patients group and 47.9, 41.8, 10.3% for the control group, respectively (p=0.001). The RAD51 rs1801321 polymorphism was associated with the risk of ovarian cancer among Vietnamese females.

A significant temperature difference between the central zone and the surface of a structure can occur because of the heat generation in cement when making mass concrete. This leads to the formation of tensile stresses and thermal cracks. One of the technological measures to eliminate this adverse effect is to use surface thermal insulation. It can be used both in winter (to prevent excessive cooling of the concrete surface) and in summer (to reduce surface heating). The finite-element method is used to evaluate the effect of the type and thickness of the thermal insulation on the horizontal surface on the temperature regime of the mass concrete. A technique of determining the thickness of surface thermal insulation (polystyrene foam or sand layer) necessary for certain construction conditions is proposed. The results obtained can be used in the design and construction of large concrete blocks.

In this letter, a broadband dual-polarized metasurface-based antenna is proposed for in-band full-duplex applications. The design concept exploits the wideband and low-profile features of a metasurface, as well as its structural symmetry to implement the differential-fed scheme for high isolation. An antenna design operating at 3.5 GHz is optimized, fabricated, and tested. The prototype with dimensions of 0.97 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ × 0.97 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ × 0.078 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ ( $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ is the free-space wavelength referring to the lowest operational frequency) achieves a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 28.4% (2.93–3.90 GHz) and an interport isolation of $>$ 43 dB. The far-field measurements indicate that the antenna exhibits broadside radiation with a realized gain of $>$ 8.0 dBi and low cross-polarization level of ${ 30 dB within the wide operational bandwidth.

Highlights • 1st study to directly compare effect of 2+1 schedule of PCV10 or PCV13 on carriage. • Includes an unvaccinated comparator group. • Both PCVs reduce carriage of serotypes in the corresponding vaccine. • May be some differences between the vaccines in their impact on carriage. • Majority of carriage was vaccine-type, so both vaccines likely to be beneficial., Background Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) generate herd protection by reducing nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage. Two PCVs, PCV10 and PCV13, have been in use for over a decade, yet there are few data comparing their impact on carriage. Here we report their effect on carriage in a 2+1 schedule, compared with each other and with unvaccinated controls. Methods Data from four groups within a parallel, open-label randomised controlled trial in Ho Chi Minh City contribute to this article. Three groups were randomised to receive a 2+1 schedule of PCV10 (n = 250), a 2+1 schedule of PCV13 (n = 251), or two doses of PCV10 at 18 and 24 months (controls, n = 197). An additional group (n = 199) was recruited at 18 months to serve as controls from 18 to 24 months. NP swabs collected at 2, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months were analysed (blinded) for pneumococcal carriage. This study aimed to determine if PCV10 and PCV13 have a differential effect on pneumococcal carriage, a secondary outcome of the trial. We also describe the serotype distribution among unvaccinated participants. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01953510. Findings Compared with unvaccinated controls, a 2+1 schedule of PCV10 reduced PCV10-type carriage by 45–62% from pre-booster through to 24 months of age, and a 2+1 schedule of PCV13 reduced PCV13-type carriage by 36–49% at 12 and 18 months of age. Compared directly with each other, there were few differences between the vaccines in their impact on carriage. Vaccine serotypes accounted for the majority of carriage in unvaccinated participants. Interpretation Both PCV10 and PCV13 reduce the carriage of pneumococcal vaccine serotypes. The introduction of either vaccine would have the potential to generate significant herd protection in this population. Funding National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The combination of a 4-node quadrilateral mixed interpolation of tensorial components element (MITC4) and the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) was formulated and implemented in this work for the analysis of free vibration and unidirectional buckling of shell structures. This formulation was applied to numerous numerical examples of non-woven fabrics. As CSFEM schemes do not require coordinate transformation, spurious modes and numerical instabilities are prevented using bilinear quadrilateral element subdivided into two, three and four smoothing cells. An improvement of the original CSFEM formulation was made regarding the calculation of outward unit normal vectors, which allowed to remove the integral operator in the strain smoothing operation. This procedure conducted both to the simplification of the developed formulation and the reduction of computational cost. A wide range of values for the thickness-to-length ratio and edge boundary conditions were analysed. The developed numerical model proved to overcome the shear locking phenomenon with success, revealing both reduced implementation effort and computational cost in comparison to the conventional FEM approach. The cell-based strain smoothing technique used in this work yields accurate results and generally attains higher convergence rate in energy at low computational cost, This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T-Centro de Ciencia e Tecnologia Textil, hold by National Founds of FCT/MCTES, and project UID/EEA/04436/2013, COMPETE 2020 with the code POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941.

This letter proposes a differentially fed $\pm$ $45^{\circ }$ dual-polarized antenna with ultrawideband operation. It consists of two orthogonal stepped-dipoles backed by an inverted pyramidal cavity reflector for improvement in broadside gain. The stepped dipoles built on both sides of the substrate are constructed from small square pads and square loops for multiresonances to enhance the bandwidth. The dipoles are fed from four coaxial lines with a crossed-strip structure to accommodate the differential feed. The final design with overall size of 0.75 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ × 0.75 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ × 0.21 $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ ( $\lambda _{\text{min}}$ is the free-space wavelength referring to the lowest operational frequency) has been fabricated and measured. The antenna achieves a measured bandwidth of 74.2% (1.74–3.79 GHz) for return loss $>$ 15 dB and a measured isolation better than 43 dB among the differential ports. Its bandwidth can cover the frequency spectrums of the existing and new wireless communication systems such as 2G/3G/4G (1710–2690 MHz) and sub-6 GHz 5G (3100–3800 MHz). Additionally, the measured peak broadside gain is 10.5 dBi with cross-polarization level of $ 20 dB within the operational bandwidth.

This letter presents a simple single-layered dual-band circularly polarized microstrip patch leaky-wave antenna (LWA). The proposed design consists of two linear circular patch arrays that are coupled to a 50 $\Omega$ microstrip line. While having high gain, the rotating sense in each band is opposite to each other, which makes the antenna concept well-suited for the uplink and downlink satellite communication. For demonstration, an antenna has been designed to operate at 5.0 and 8.0 GHz. It is noted that the concept can be easily adapted to other frequencies. With a total length of 2.89 $\lambda _0$ ( $\lambda _0$ is the free-space wavelength at 5.0 GHz), the antenna prototype achieves a satisfactory measured axial ratio (AR) with peak realized gains of approximately 12 and 13.6 dBi at 5.0 and 8.0 GHz, respectively.

A flexible on-body antenna that is compact, unidirectional, and wideband is presented for electromagnetic (EM) biomedical diagnostic systems. To achieve a low operating-frequency band with compact size, an annular ring antenna is loaded with a capacitive gap, a shorting post at its end, and a shorted circular parasitic element. The antenna is designed and fabricated on a purposely built, highly flexible, low-loss, low-cost room-temperature-vulcanizing silicone (RTV) substrate with a tremendously compact size of $0.055\lambda _{0}\times 0.055\lambda _{0}\times 0.009\lambda _{0}$ , where $\lambda _{0}$ is the free-space wavelength at the lowest frequency of 0.55 GHz. The antenna exhibits a measured bandwidth of 0.55–3 GHz at different locations of the human body. The measured near-field radiation patterns demonstrate that the antenna attains unidirectional near-field radiations with more than 10 dB front-to-back-ratio. The received dominant signals of the antenna also exhibit a low distortion level with more than 90% fidelity factor. The achieved features of the proposed antenna confirm its merits for EM biomedical diagnosis applications.

A broadband measurement technique for the normal-incidence absorptivity based on parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) is proposed. The method is well suited for frequency-selective surface (FSS)-based absorbers. By employing the PPW structure, only a small sample size, i.e., 1-D array of FSS, is required for the measurement. The thru-reflect-line (TRL) calibration is implemented to remove the time-gating ambiguity in the conventional PPW-based method. A measurement system working up to 6 GHz is designed such that its length is adjustable to ensure all three calibration standards (thru, reflect, and line) can be carried out in a single device. Moreover, the height of the PPW is also adjustable to allow the measurement of absorbers with a different periodicity of FSSs. Two single-layer FSS-based absorbers with different periodicity are fabricated and measured. The results agree well with the conventional free-space measurement system, which validates the proposed method.

Ground improvement technique by prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) in combination with vacuum preloading is widely used to facilitate consolidation process and reduce residual settlement. However, this technique seem hardly be estimated by both analytical method and numerical method because it has complex boundary conditions (such as vacuum pressure changing with time). Moreover, lateral displacements caused by this technique are also significant problem. Numerical modelling may be an effective design tool to estimate behavior of soft soil treated by this method, however it needs to have a proper calibration of input parameters. This paper introduces a matching scheme for selection of soil/drain properties in analytical solution and numerical modelling (axisymmetric and plane strain conditions) of a ground improvement project by using Prefabricated Vertical Drains (PVD) in combination with vacuum and surcharge preloading. In-situ monitoring data from a case history of a road construction project in Vietnam was adopted in the back-analysis. Analytical solution and axisymmetric analysis can approximate well the field data meanwhile the horizontal permeability need to be adjusted in plane strain scenario to achieve good agreement. In addition, the influence zone of the ground treatment was examined. The residual settlement was investigated to justify the long-term settlement in compliance with the design code. Moreover, the degree of consolidation of non-PVD sub-layers was also studied by means of two different approaches.

In multiscattering environment, the channel capacity can be enhanced by employing dual-polarized antennas, and more significantly, using tripolarized antennas. Aiming at providing a wide coverage of both existing wireless communication systems and the new 5G sub-6 GHz band, this article presents a compact ultrawideband tripolarized antenna. The proposed design consists of a monopole-equivalent structure for vertically linearly polarized (LP) omnidirectional radiation and two orthogonal stepped dipoles for ±45° LP broadside radiation. Several important design features are proposed and implemented. The dipoles act as parasitic elements for the monopole structure, which broadens the monopole bandwidth and reduces the mutual coupling. Furthermore, the port isolation is improved by inserting two metallic posts between the crossed dipoles and the ground plane. The measured results indicate that the fabricated prototype achieves an overlapped bandwidth of 84.73% (1.68–4.15 GHz) for

This communication presents a design concept and realization of a patch antenna array with frequency and polarization reconfigurabilities. The frequency tunability is achieved using one short-circuited varactor diode per patch element. These tuning components also facilitate the generation of different polarizations by arranging the patches both horizontally and vertically. The 45° linear polarization (LP) is obtained by feeding all patches with the same phase, i.e., setting all varactor capacitance the same value. The circular polarization (CP) is obtained by slightly detuning the varactor capacitance such that the phase difference between the horizontal and vertical radiating elements is 90°. For validation, a $2\times 2$ array has been fabricated and measured. The array prototype can operate with 45° LP, left-handed, or right-handed CP in a continuous tuning frequency range from 3.6 to 4 GHz (about 10%).

Aim: To evaluate pain relief, anti-inflammatory and hypouricemic effects of GT1 tablets on experimental animals. Method: GT1 at the doses of 22.32 g/kg/day and 66.96 g/kg/day were evaluated for its analgesic effect in three models (hot plate, pain threshold, and acetic acid-induced writhing), its chronic anti-inflammatory effect in the granulomatous reaction model, and its hypouricemic effect in potassium oxonate-induced hyperuricemic mice. Acute anti-inflammatory effects of GT1 at the doses of 11.16 g/kg/day and 33.48 g/kg/day were evaluated in rats with two models: carrageenin-induced paw edema and peritonitis. Results: GT1 prolonged the temperature reaction time on the hot plate (22.73 s and 20.37 s at both doses of 22.32 g/kg and 66.96 g/kg, respectively, compared to 16.96 s in control group), reduced the number of acid acetic-induced writhing effects, decreased the weight of granulomas, and decreased the level of acid uric in blood and urine (p < 0.05). GT1 caused a significant reduction in paw edema after subplantar injection of carrageenan in rats (p < 0.05). Moreover, there was a substantial decline of GT1 at the dose of 11.16 g/kg/day in terms of the volume and the quantity of protein in the inflammation fluid of the peritonitis model (p < 0.05). Conclusion: GT1 at both doses of 11.16 g/kg/day and 33.48 g/kg/day posed acute anti-inflammatory effects on rats. GT1 at both doses of 22.32 g/kg/day and 66.96 g/kg/day exerted analgesic, chronic anti-inflammatory and hypouricemic effects on mice.

Objective: Data on the management and outcomes of acute myocarditis treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) among low- and middle-income countries are limited. This study aimed to determine the short-term outcomes and also identify factors associated with ECMO use among children with acute myocarditis at a tertiary children's hospital in Vietnam.Methods: A single-center, retrospective observational study was conducted between January 2016 and February 2021. Pediatric patients with acute myocarditis, aged 1 month to 16 years, were included.Results: In total, 54 patients (male, 46%; median age, 7 years) with acute myocarditis were included; 37 of them received ECMO support. Thirty percent (16/54) of the patients died, and 12 of them received ECMO. Laboratory variables that differed between survivors and non-survivors included median left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at 48 h (42 vs. 25%; p = 0.001), platelet count (304 g/L [interquartile range (IQR): 243–271] vs. 219 g/L [IQR: 167–297]; p = 0.014), and protein (60 g/dl [IQR: 54–69] vs. 55 [IQR: 50–58]; p = 0.025). Among patients who received ECMO, compared with the survivors, non-survivors had a low LVEF at 48 h (odds ratio (OR), 0.8; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.6–0.9; p = 0.006) and high vasoactive-inotropic score (OR, 1.0; 95% CI: 1.0–1.0; p = 0.038) and lactate (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.2–6.1; p = 0.013) at 24 h post-ECMO.Conclusions: The case fatality rate among children with acute myocarditis was 30 and 32% among patients requiring ECMO support. Arrhythmia was an indicator for ECMO in patients with cardiogenic shock.

BackgroundPreterm infants are highly vulnerable to infectious disease. While many factors are likely to contribute to this enhanced susceptibility, the immature nature of the preterm immune system is postulated as one key factor.MethodsIn our study, we used high-dimensional flow cytometry and cytokine assays to characterise the immune profiles in 25 preterm (range: 30.4-34.1 weeks gestational age) and 25 term infant (range: 37-40 weeks gestational age) cord blood samples.ResultsWe found that preterm infants exhibit reduced frequencies of monocytes, CD56bright NK cells, CD8+ T-cells, γδ T-cells and an increased frequency of intermediate monocytes, CD4+ T-cells, central memory CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, Tregs and transitional B-cells compared to term infants. Pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-17A were lower in preterm infants in addition to chemokines IL-8, eotaxin, MIP-1α and MIP-1β. However, IL-15 and MCP-1 were higher in preterm infants.ConclusionOverall, we identify key differences in pro-inflammatory immune profiles between preterm and term infants. These findings may help to explain why preterm infants are more susceptible to infectious disease during early life and facilitate the development of targeted interventions to protect this highly vulnerable group.

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is a tissue-specific autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring and rapid onset of hair loss. Interleukin (IL)-17A is mainly produced by T helper 17 (Th17) cells and may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases including AA.Objectives: We conducted this research to measure serum level of IL-17A in patients with AA and investigated its relationship with the clinical manifestations in patients with AA.Methods: We assessed 36 patients with AA and 20 healthy control subjects. Demographic information and clinical characteristics were determined by physical examination and via the review of medical history. Serum IL-17A was measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: Serum IL-17A concentration was significantly higher in patients with AA than in the control group (P=0.004). The AA patients with severe presentation, personal atopy, nail abnormalities, or active phase had significantly higher serum IL-17A levels compared to others without these signs.Conclusion: Increased serum IL-17A levels in patients with AA correlate with severity and indicate an active disease state. These findings suggest that IL-17A may play an important role in determining the pathogenesis of AA and may serve as a valuable clinical biomarker of this disease.

This paper studies the physical layer security of four reactive relay selection methods (optimum relay selection, opportunist relay selection enhancement, suboptimal relay selection enhancement and partial relay selection enhancement) in a cooperative cognitive radio network including one pair of primary users, one eavesdropper, multiple relays and secondary users with perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) at receivers. In addition, we consider existing a direct link from a secondary source (S) to secondary destination receivers (D) and eavesdroppers (E). The secrecy outage probability, outage probability, intercept probability and reliability are calculated to verify the four relay selection methods with the fading channels by using Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that the loss of secrecy outage probability when remaining direct links from S to D and S to E. Additionally, the results also show that the trade-off between secrecy outage probability and the intercept probability and the optimum relay selection method outperforms other methods.

This brief communication describes the findings from a randomised controlled trial in Vietnam that co-administration of measles vaccine (MV) with 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10, Synflorix®, GSK) does not affect the immunogenicity of MV. These findings are most relevant for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia considering PCV introduction.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Aquaculture Economics and Management on 14 Jan 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/https://doi.org/10.1080/13657305.2019.1710876. The paper adopts the bootstrap procedures for data envelopment analysis to analyze the technical efficiency in the Vietnam’s intensive white-leg shrimp farming. The results demonstrate that the null hypothesis of constant returns-to-scale is rejected in favor of variable returns-to-scale for the production technology. Moreover, the potential improvement is greater using bootstrapping than that achieved by using the conventional data envelopment analysis, which has been widely adopted in the aquaculture literature for technical efficiency estimation. By adopting the double bootstrap proposed by Simar and Wilson, the bias-corrected technical efficiency is 0.69 and at the 95% confidence interval, with the lower limit of 0.65 and the upper limit of 0.75. In addition, statistically positive influences on technical efficiency in this type of farming are larger farm size and having access to formal credit, with cultivation period in the production year being a negative influence.

The realization of a common-aperture (or shared-aperture) 5G antenna system is proposed for compact and integrated wireless devices. As a combination of a dipole and tapered slots, an integrated antenna design, which operates at multi-bands, i.e. sub-6 GHz at 3.6 GHz and mm-wave at 28 GHz, is validated. The antenna design procedure starts with a dipole operating at 3.6 GHz, which is fed by a modified balun consisting of a tapered slot and a microstrip line. Here, the tapered slot has a dual feature, i.e., it is used to excite the dipole at 3.6 GHz and works as a tapered slot antenna at 28 GHz. Only a single feeder is optimized and used for both structures making the design unique and provides an extremely large frequency ratio. Moreover, the dipole’s arms are utilized as an antenna footprint for two tapered slot mm-wave arrays, making the dipole dual-functional. The tapered slot antenna and the mm-wave arrays are optimized in a way that the main beams point at different directions. By this configuration, the design is able to cover an angle of $120^{o}$ of space in $\theta -$ direction. As a proof of concept, a prototype is fabricated on Rogers RO-5880 with an overall size of $75\times 25\times 0.254$ mm3. The simulated and measured results confirm the validity of the proposed concept.

This paper presents a dual-sense circularly polarized (CP) antenna with compact size, high isolation, and wideband characteristics. The antenna consists of a microstrip patch, an array of parasitic metal plates positioned around the patch, and a 90° branch line coupler as feeding structure. Unlike the conventional design method, we demonstrate that the wide isolation bandwidth can be achieved with an imperfect coupler and imperfect matching at the radiating element. The final design with overall dimensions of 0.59λc× 0.59λc × 0.06λc (λc is the free-space wavelength at center operating frequency) was fabricated and tested. Measurements on the fabricated prototype show that the antenna has a bandwidth of 16.5% (5.0-5.9 GHz) with port isolation of better than 15 dB. In addition, a peak broadside gain of about 6.6 dBic is attained. In comparison with other related works in literature, this antenna has advantages of wide operating bandwidth with high isolation while possessing a compact footprint.

A dual-function slot antenna at microwave and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) band is proposed. The design consists of a slot printed on the edge of the structure ground plane. A short-circuited varactor diode (VAR) is used to achieve the frequency tunability from 2.05 to 2.7 GHz (4G, WLAN) with a maximum realized gain of 4.5 dBi. For mm-waveband, the slot works as a connected slot antenna array (CSAA) by using eight periodic feeders with a wide bandwidth of 23–29 GHz (5G) and a maximum realized gain of 12.5 dBi. To enhance the functionality, two slots are orthogonally arranged for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) application. The whole structure is implemented using Rogers 5880 substrate with a board size of $70\times 60\times 0.381$ mm3. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and isolation are calculated, showing satisfactory MIMO characteristics. The minimum ECC value is 0.01, while the isolation is more than 20 dB among different feeding ports. Due to the integration of 4G and 5G operations into a single narrow slot, the proposed antenna system is compact, simple, and planar in structure and, thus, attractive for future mobile handheld devices.

Background Glomerulonephritis refers to renal diseases characterized by glomerular and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Multifrequency US time-harmonic elastography enables the noninvasive quantification of tissue elasticity. Purpose To assess the diagnostic performance of US time-harmonic elastography for the early detection of glomerulonephritis. Materials and Methods From August 2016 through May 2017, study participants with biopsy-proven glomerulonephritis were prospectively examined with US time-harmonic elastography. Participants were subdivided according to chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage. All participants underwent elastography of both kidneys to generate full-field-of-view maps of renal shear wave speed (SWS). SWS was determined separately for the whole renal parenchyma, cortex, and medulla and was correlated with quantitative B-mode findings such as renal length and parenchymal thickness. Diagnostic performance of renal elastography was assessed with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results Fifty-three participants with glomerulonephritis (mean age ± standard deviation, 49 years ± 14) and 30 healthy volunteers (mean age, 37 years ± 11) were evaluated. Age-adjusted renal SWS was lower in participants with glomerulonephritis than in healthy volunteers in the parenchyma, cortex, and medulla, with mean values of 1.55 m/sec (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.51 m/sec, 1.59 m/sec) and 1.69 m/sec (95% CI: 1.64 m/sec, 1.74 m/sec; P < .001), respectively, in parenchyma, 1.80 m/sec (95% CI: 1.75 m/sec, 1.84 m/sec) and 2.08 m/sec (95% CI: 2.02 m/sec, 2.13 m/sec; P < .001) in cortex, and 1.25 m/sec (95% CI: 1.21 m/sec, 1.29 m/sec) and 1.33 (95% CI: 1.27 m/sec, 1.38 m/sec; P = .03) in medulla. Age-adjusted renal cortex SWS was lower in participants with glomerulonephritis and stage 1 CKD (preserved renal function) than in healthy volunteers (mean, 1.88 [95% CI: 1.81, 1.96] vs 2.08 [95% CI: 2.02, 2.13]; P < .001). In participants with CKD, renal cortex SWS values showed a positive association with estimated glomerular filtration rate (n = 39; r = 0.56; P < .001). Exploratory diagnostic performance of US time-harmonic elastography (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC], 0.89; 95% CI: 0.82, 0.97) outperformed that of B-mode parameters such as parenchymal thickness (AUC, 0.64; 95% CI: 0.51, 0.77; P < .001) and renal length (AUC, 0.55; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.68; P < .001) in identifying glomerulonephritis. Conclusion US time-harmonic elastography depicts abnormal renal stiffness in glomerulonephritis, particularly among patients with early disease and preserved renal function. Advanced chronic kidney disease is associated with further cortical softening. Time-harmonic elastography outperforms B-mode-based size quantification. © RSNA, 2019 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

A single-layered multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system is presented for future wireless devices operating at WLAN (2.45 GHz, 5.2 GHz), 4G LTE (2.6 GHz) and 5G (24 GHz, 28 GHz) bands. The design consists of a dual-band four-element monopole MIMO antenna system that covers the 2.45 GHz and 5.2 GHz bands. A decoupling mechanism is designed in the ground plane based on a tapered slot. This tapered slot has a dual function, working both as a decoupling structure ( $\lambda _{0}/4$ long) at 2.45 GHz and as a tapered slot antenna ( $3\lambda _{0}$ long) at 28 GHz when excited by a proper feeder. The proposed MIMO antenna system is designed on an RO-5880 substrate with overall dimensions of $104$ mm $\times 104$ mm $\times 0.51$ mm. The measured results show that the presented design covers two low-frequency bands (from 2.40 GHz to 5.1 GHz, from 5.1 GHz to 5.6 GHz) with a peak gain of 5 dBi and one high-frequency band (from 23 GHz to 30 GHz) with a peak gain of 11 dBi. The minimum measured isolation between the two antennas is more than 16 dB, while the maximum envelope correlation coefficient value is less than 0.16 showing good MIMO characteristics.

Background Dementia poses a serious threat to the wellbeing of the elderly. In the context of the rapidly ageing population of Vietnam however, little is known about the prevalence of symptoms and other related factors. This study aims to detect the prevalence of cognitive symptoms of dementia in the elderly in Vietnam as well as other associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of six communes at the Northern, Central and Southern region of Vietnam. Prevalence of cognitive symptoms of dementia was the outcome of interest and assessed by Mini Mental State Evaluation (MMSE) questionnaire and was standardized according to the age structure of Vietnam. A total of 3308 adults aged 60 and above were included. Association between having cognitive symptoms of dementia and other factors was assessed with logistic regression. Findings Cognitive symptoms of dementia were perceived in 46.4% of the sample group. The symptoms were more common among participants who were older, female, had a lower educational level, were not physically active or have previously had stroke. Conclusions Prevalence of cognitive symptoms of dementia in adults aged 60 and above was relatively high in Vietnam. Other modifiable associated factors including physical inactivity and social connectedness should also be considered in designing intervention program to prevent dementia in the future.

Aquaculture is an important economic activity in the coastal zone of Vietnam. Thanh Phu is one the coastal districts in Ben Tre province that rears brackish aquaculture. In recent years, farmers could not grow shrimp because of salinity intrusion and market price fluctuation. This study aims to determine aquaculture and fallow aquaculture pond distribution by using the three indices of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), MNDWI (Modified Normalized Difference Water Index) and NDBaI (Modified Difference Bareness Index) on Landsat 8 imagery. The results reveal that remote sensing can support the detection of aquaculture and fallow ponds with a high accuracy of 77%. The total aquaculture area is approximately 13,093.65 ha, of which the total fallow area is 581.49 ha (roughly 4.44% of the total aquaculture area). Moreover, the fallow ponds are randomly distributed in all four ecological zones and mostly in the fourth ecological region (about 73.92%). In the fourth region, saline concentration in water is from 20 to 30‰, which directly influences cultured shrimp farms. The results also indicate the spatial distribution of aquaculture ponds and ineffective aquaculture locations using Landsat 8 imagery via index image analysis. The findings support the local management’s decision making on further aquaculture planning.

An on-off damping radial spring-damper can be attached to a pendulum to suppress its nonlinear sway motion. This paper studies the class of on-off damping controller, which switches the damping level from high to low and back at fixed times every quarter of period. Among this class, this paper shows the solution of the lower bound controller producing the lowest amplitude-frequency curve. The lower bound curve shows some fundamental natures of the system and gives some useful directions for a good on-off damping controller.

Background: Under the WHO’s Global Action Plan for influenza vaccines, we conducted a phase 2–3 study of IVACFLU-S, a trivalent, seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine candidate. Methods: In the phase 2 portion of the study, 252 participants received one dose of 15 mcg hemagglutinin (HA) vaccine per strain or placebo. Following determination of safety, 636 additional participants were randomized in phase 3 to receive vaccine or placebo. Immunogenicity was assessed in a subset of the participants in the phase 3 study. Results: Higher proportion (70%) of participants in the IVACFLU-S arm reported solicited local adverse events (AEs) (p < .0001) as compared to placebo (25%). Mild injection site pain and tenderness were most common AEs seen in 55% and 60% of participants in the vaccine group. The solicited systemic AEs were comparable (p = .4149). The majority of solicited and unsolicited AEs were mild to moderate in severity. In the vaccine arm for the combined age group of 18–60 years of age, seroconversion against antigens A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B was achieved in 70.3%, 76.1%, and 54.1% of participants respectively; seroprotection against antigens A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B was achieved in 83.3%, 86.6%, and 60.3% of participants respectively; and the geometric mean fold rise for the hemagglutinin-inhibition (HI) antibody titers against antigen A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B were 13.15, 11.85, and 5.87, respectively. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the local reactogenicity, other safety, and immunogenicity of IVACFLU-S, first domestically produced influenza vaccine in Vietnam. ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT03095599 (March 29, 2017)

Objective: At the time of this study, the prevention of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) relied solely on nonpharmaceutical interventions. Implementation of these interventions is not always optimal and, consequently, several cases were imported into non-epidemic areas and led to large community outbreaks. This report describes the characteristics of the first community outbreak of COVID-19 in Viet Nam and the intensive preventive measures taken in response. Methods: Cases were detected and tested for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Contact tracing and active surveillance were conducted to identify suspected cases and individuals at risk. Clinical symptoms were recorded using a standardized questionnaire. Results: In Vinh Phuc province from 20 January to 3 March 2020, there were 11 confirmed cases among 158 suspected cases and 663 contacts. Nine of the confirmed cases (81.8%) had mild symptoms at the time of detection and two (18.2%) were asymptomatic; none required admission to an intensive care unit. Five prevention and control measures were implemented, including quarantining a community of 10 645 individuals for 20 days. The outbreak was successfully contained as of 13 February 2020. Discussion: In the absence of specific interventions, the intensive use of combined preventive measures can mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The lessons learned may be useful for other communities.

As a combination of three orthogonal dipoles, the tripolarized antenna has been demonstrated to significantly improve signal quality in scattering environment. In this communication, we propose a low-profile tripolarized antenna with wideband characteristics. The tristate includes 0° and 90° linear polarizations (LP) with the main beam at broadside and a vertically LP with omnidirectional pattern in the azimuth plane. The design consists of a monopolar patch and two orthogonal dipoles. The wideband performance for the monopolar patch is obtained from two nearly overlapped radiating modes controlled by an array of shorting wires. For the two orthogonal dipoles, the antenna profile is reduced with the effect of parasitic patches. One of the key design features is to utilize the shorting wire in the monopolar patch to feed the dipoles, allowing a simple design and avoiding any feeding network. The concept is experimentally verified with a prototype exhibiting an overlapped bandwidth of 14% with a low profile of $0.09\lambda $ , where $\lambda $ is the free-space wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. The measured peak gain in two broadside modes and in monopolar mode are 10 and 7.5 dBi, respectively. Measured isolation between any port is better than 31 dB in the whole frequency range.

The risk management is quite important for the Expressway projects especially for the bridge, the key in this system with high risk of incident, to ensure the high requirements of safety, quality, longevity and to optimize the management and maintenance activities. Expressway system in Vietnam has recently impressive development with around 1000 km constructed in service and 6400 km in plan until 2030 however the risk management is still limited, the unexpected accidents and incidents were happened…This paper will evaluate the current status of the Risk identification and management for bridge based on the investigation results during the construction and operation periods of the Expressway projects in Vietnam then propose some future researches to attend the effective solutions.

Objectives Pertussis is an infectious disease that causes epidemics and outbreaks and is associated with a high mortality rate, especially in infants, in both developed and developing countries. We aimed to characterize infants with pertussis with respiratory failure and shock and investigated the factors related to mortality. Design A retrospective, observational study conducted between January 2015 and October 2020. Setting This study was conducted at the Vietnam National Children's Hospital, which is a government hospital that serves as a tertiary care center in Hanoi, Vietnam. Patients Children who fulfilled the following inclusion criteria were included: 1) admitted to the PICU, 2) less than 16 years old, 3) pertussis confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction, and 4) treated with mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure and shock. Interventions None. Measurement and main results Seventy-three mechanically ventilated children (40 boys; median age, 56 d), whereas 19 patients received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. Twenty-six patients (36%) died including 12 who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Those who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support had higher leukocyte counts upon admission and were more frequently diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and stage 3 acute kidney injury. Compared with survivors, nonsurvivors showed increased heart rates, leukocyte and neutrophil counts, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure at admission. Increased Vasoactive-Inotropic Score, stage 3 acute kidney injury, fluid overload, the use of renal replacement therapy, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use were prevalent among nonsurvivors. Conclusions In this study, around one third of mechanically ventilated patients with pertussis died. Those who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation had higher leukocyte counts, a higher prevalence of pulmonary hypertension, and advanced stages of acute kidney injury. Higher Vasoactive-Inotropic Score and advanced stages of acute kidney injury were associated with a greater risk of mortality.

Alport Syndrome (AS) is a genetic disorder characterized by impaired kidney function. The development of a noninvasive tool for early diagnosis and monitoring of renal function during disease progression is of clinical importance. Hyperpolarized 13C MRI is an emerging technique that enables non-invasive, real-time measurement of in vivo metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using this technique for assessing changes in renal metabolism in the mouse model of AS. Mice with AS demonstrated a significant reduction in the level of lactate from 4- to 7-week-old, while the levels of lactate were unchanged in the control mice over time. This reduction in lactate production in the AS group accompanied a significant increase of PEPCK expression levels, indicating that the disease progression in AS triggered the gluconeogenic pathway and might have resulted in a decreased lactate pool size and a subsequent reduction in pyruvate-to-lactate conversion. Additional metabolic imaging parameters, including the level of lactate and pyruvate, were found to be different between the AS and control groups. These preliminary results suggest that hyperpolarized 13C MRI might provide a potential noninvasive tool for the characterization of disease progression in AS.

This paper demonstrates how multiple open-ended slot structures can be employed to design an integrated antenna that simultaneously covers the lower 4G/LTE band (800 MHz), upper 4G/LTE band (2 GHz), sub 6-GHz 5G band (3.5 GHz) and millimeter-wave 5G band (28 GHz). In this configuration, three open-ended slots with different sizes operating at the low frequencies range and an array of four Vivaldi antennas are placed altogether in a compact footprint of only 73 × 8.5 mm2. The design is suitable for mobile application and can also be adapted for different devices.

The smart and automatic bag-changing trash can is controlled by a circuit chip and consists of an infrared detection device and a mechanical, electronic drive system. As long as an object approaches the sensing area, the lid will automatically open, and the lid will automatically close after a few seconds after the object or hand leaves the sensing area. It does not require an external power source. It is powered by a battery and has low power consumption. The exquisite streamlined appearance sensor flip design, which combines infrared sensors and microcomputers, is flexible and convenient, and it can easily throw away garbage without manual or foot stepping. It is also convenient and hygienic and has reliable performance, which helps you effectively prevent contact infections. It comprises functional modules such as ultrasonic distance measurement, photoelectric sensor modules, motor drive modules, and voice alarm modules. It takes an ultrasonic sensor, RPR220 photoelectric sensor, and single-chip computer as the core. Distance information is collected through the sensor, and then the single-chip computer sends instructions through AD conversion. When the ultrasonic sensor detects that the distance between the person and the trash can is less than the set distance, the trash can automatically flip the lid. If the RPR220 photoelectric detects the full trash can, the system will give a voice prompt. This system has a simple structure, stable performance, convenient operation, and low cost. This paper designs multifunctional trash can control system based on STC89C52RC. This system has found a feasible solution to further isolate people from garbage and prevent people from infecting bacteria.

Currently, recommendation systems (RS) have attracted a great attention from researchers both in academic and industry. They help extracting useful information quickly to provide right services to users in accordance to there basic requests which are commonly not too details. In the field of higher education and academic research, proposing project/thesis title that has already been developed to the right students/researcher for reference is a new and challenging issue. Therefore, we propose to build a system to suggest title of graduation project in the paper. In proposal system, we use natural language processing (NLP) that is applied artificial neural network (ANN) to solve feature extraction and training problems. The simulation results show that the proposal system achieves an accuracy of 82% with 12 s. The results also show that proposal system is suitable for applying in real environment.

Today, the behavioral culture on social networks is a painful issue. State agencies have been trying to clean up the network environment of country. Many policies are proposed to process videos and clips with offensive content. However, it is a small part of cleaning up the network environment. We often see hateful comments on social media sites. It exists anywhere from social media to online games that are difficult to control and punish because of their big data. There are not too many social networking sites and online games until now. Therefore, it is not too difficult for communities to limit inappropriate words. Therefore, we offer a chatbot model to manage the comments that helps to clean the network environment in the paper. The results show that the proposal model achieves up to 75% accuracy with 100,000 comments.

As the current computer design level continues to improve, the process equipment and production line management levels are relatively stable. The intelligent and automatic 3D garage-type has shown a diversified development trend. Several garage types are currently in everyday use, including vertical lifting type, vertical lifting type, simple lifting type, horizontal shifting circulation type, channel stacking type, etc. The 3D lifting garage has a simple structure, small floor space, low operating cost, and the most extensive application requirements. However, this study summarizes the application status and development prospects of smart lifting 3D garages first. Then the system analyzes the working principle and mechanical structure characteristics of the smart lifting 3D garage, analyzes the control requirements, and designs the semi-automatic control system of the 3D garage S7–1200—it including the PLC control program and the man-machine interface. Finally, the overall system control effect is verified through simulation. This study meter has superficial operation characteristics, a high degree of automation, fast operation speed, high stability, and has deep development value and application prospects in specific markets.

The globalization of Taiwan's corporate industries is subject to competition and threats at two critical levels. Taiwan's factories could use Industry 4.0 to enhance their competitiveness. This listing Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing factory Hsinchu A, B conducts industrial maturity assessment analysis of automation equipment. This study shows that the existing equipment automation in Factory A is 1.20, the ideal is 2.74, the average is 1.65, and the proportion of artificial is 80%, which is much higher than the industry average of 42%. The actual value of equipment automation in Factory B is 2.96, and the ideal is 2.76. The standard is 1.67, fully automatic, accounted for 100%, much higher than the industry average of 15%. The automation of the equipment evaluation project shows the average value of the leading industry self-evaluation. Finally, although this equipment's operation has been relatively smooth, we must pay attention to the industry's future trends and promptly improve it.

An experimental setup was developed for the simultaneous measurements of the electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of ZnO-based thin films in the range from room temperature up to 400 °C (673 K). The main device of measurement setup including a heater integrated with a temperature sensor so-called resistance temperature detector (RTD) made of platinum, was designed and fabricated by using CMOS technology. The temperature measurement result of integrated RTD has been calibrated and compared with the temperature conversion data of Platinum resistance provided by Intech Instruments LTD that allows ensuring the precision for the measurement of material properties. The measurement data is acquired by a Labview program. Tests of the system have been made on the samples of Al-doped ZnO films and ZnO films having hetero-layers doped with Al and Ga as n-type semiconductors. The convenience of measurement setup makes it possible the measurements with a great flexibility on sample’s geometrical dimensions.