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Background: Although men have a higher rate of stroke than women, it is not clear whether women have a worse outcome after adjusting for confounders such as vascular risk factors, age, stroke severity, and reperfusion therapy. We evaluated sex differences on 90-day functional outcomes after stroke in a multicenter study in Vietnam. Methods: We recruited patients presenting with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke at 10 stroke centers in Vietnam for a period of 1 month from August 1, 2022, to August 31, 2022. We reviewed the patient’s clinical demographics, time from symptom onset to hospital admission, stroke classification, stroke subtype, stroke severity, characteristics of reperfusion therapy, and 90-day clinical outcome. We compared functional outcomes and predisposing factors at day 90 between men and women after an ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Poor outcome was defined as mRS 3-6. Results: There were 2,300 stroke patients included. Men accounted for 61.3% (1,410) of participants. Compared with men, women were older (67.7±13.9 vs. 63.7±13.3, P There was no difference in 90-day functional outcomes between sexes. Factors associated with poor outcomes included age ≥ 50 years (adjusted OR, aOR 1.75; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.66), history of stroke (aOR 1.50; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.96), large artery atherosclerosis (aOR 5.19; 95% CI, 3.90 to 6.90), and cardioembolism (aOR 3.21; 95% CI, 1.68 to 6.16). Factors associated with mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke included a history of coronary artery disease (aOR 3.04; 95% CI, 1.03 to 8.92), large artery atherosclerosis (aOR 3.37; 95% CI, 2.11 to 5.37), and cardioembolism (aOR 3.15; 95%CI, 1.20 to 8.27). Conclusion: There were no sex differences in the clinical outcome of stroke and ischemic stroke in this prospective cohort of hospitalized Vietnamese patients

Background Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, but is not endemic in all areas where this vector is found. For example, the relatively sparse distribution of cases in West Africa is generally attributed to the refractory nature of West African Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) to DENV infection, and particularly the forest-dwelling Ae. aegypti formosus. However, recent studies have shown these mosquitoes to be competent vectors within some West African countries that have suffered outbreaks in the past, such as Senegal. There is however little information on the vector competence of the Ae. aegypti in West African countries such as Ghana with no reported outbreaks. Methods This study examined the vector competence of 4 Ae. aegypti colonies from urban, semi-urban, and two rural locations in Ghana in transmitting DENV serotypes 1 and 2, using a single colony from Vietnam as control. Midgut infection and virus dissemination were determined by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), while the presence and concentration of DENV in the saliva of infectious mosquitoes was determined by the focus forming assay. Results There were significant differences in the colonies’ susceptibility to virus infection, dissemination, and transmission. All examined Ghanaian mosquitoes were refractory to infection by DENV serotype 2, while some colonies exhibited potential to transmit DENV serotype 1. None of the tested colonies were as competent as the control group colony. Conclusions These findings give insight into the possible risk of outbreaks, particularly in the urban areas in the south of Ghana, and highlight the need for continuous surveillance to determine the transmission status and outbreak risk. This study also highlights the need to prevent importation of different DENV strains and potential invasion of new highly vector-competent Ae. aegypti strains, particularly around the ports of entry. Graphical Abstract

This paper proposes a method to optimize the structure of the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The combination of PSO and RBFNN can overcome the disadvantages of RBF neural network. The PSO algorithm is used to determine the number of hidden neurons, initial weights, center and base widths in RBF neural network. After being optimised, the RBF neural network-based controller is applied in trajectory tracking to control an Omnidirectional Mobile Robot. This is a holonomic robot that can be operated easily in small and narrow spaces, due to flexible rotational and translational movementing, simultaneously and independently. The simulation results in MATLAB Simulink show that PSO-RBF-PD Supervisory controller was better than RBF-PD Supervisory controller.