Adaptation options for agricultural cultivation systems in the South Central Coast under the context of climate change: Assessment Report.

This report highlights the results of consultation meetings and field visits organized by the Department of Crop Production and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast Asia in association with the three offices of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the South Central Coast provinces of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, and Khanh Hoa, in combination with consultation with the provinces in the conference: “Summing up crops production in the Winter-Spring season in 2018-2019, implementing the Summer-Autumn season, Main rice season in 2019 for the South Central Coast and the Central Highlands” held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Tam Ky City, Quang Nam Province on 12 April 2019. The meetings underlined the progress made by the provinces on climate change adaptation and mitigation, options for risk reductions in agricultural production, and conversion of crop structure as results of implementing the guidelines of the provinces and the Sector, especially, solutions for reservation and efficient and economic use of water under the context of climate change. This assessment report also reviews some issues related to the agricultural transformation of the region in adapting to risks caused by climate change. They are based on comparative advantages in terms of geographical location and market of key agricultural products. This report also points out shortcomings in using land and unreasonable points in managing and using important natural resources, especially water, and provides recommendations for the agricultural transformation and inter-regional connection with the Central Highlands and the Southeast. The team also introduces climate-related risks maps and adaptation plans (CS MAP) which is applied in the five provinces in the Mekong Delta Region, and hopes this solution’s expansion shall be supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the provinces

Computational Simulation of Detonation Waves and Model Reduction for Reacting Flows

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Partial Underpinning a Five-Storey Building

Partial underpinning is often not accepted because of dangerous damage that may be caused by the redistribution of stresses in the superstructure. A five-storey building was partially underpinned successfully. To give stability to the building only a small number of piles, about 70% fewer than with the conventional method, were used. The results observed have proved the success of the partial underpinning

Comparative genomics of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii associated with meningitis in HIV infected and uninfected patients in Vietnam.

The vast burden of cryptococcal meningitis occurs in immunosuppressed patients, driven by HIV, and is caused by Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii. We previously reported cryptococcal meningitis in Vietnam arising atypically in HIV uninfected, apparently immunocompetent patients, caused by a single amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) cluster of C. neoformans var. grubii (VNIγ). This variant was less common in HIV infected individuals; it remains unclear why this lineage is associated with apparently immunocompetent patients. To study this host tropism we aimed to further our understanding of clinical phenotype and genomic variation within Vietnamese C. neoformans var. grubii. After performing MLST on C. neoformans clinical isolates we identified 14 sequence types (STs); ST5 correlated with the VNIγ cluster. We next compared clinical phenotype by lineage and found HIV infected patients with cryptococcal meningitis caused by ST5 organisms were significantly more likely to have lymphadenopathy (11% vs. 4%, p = 0.05 Fisher's exact test) and higher blood lymphocyte count (median 0.76 versus 0.55 X109 cells/L, p = 0.001, Kruskal-Wallis test). Furthermore, survivors of ST5 infections had evidence of worse disability outcomes at 70 days (72.7% (40/55) in ST5 infections versus 57.1% (52/91) non-ST5 infections (OR 2.11, 95%CI 1.01 to 4.41), p = 0.046). To further investigate the relationship between strain and disease phenotype we performed genome sequencing on eight Vietnamese C. neoformans var. grubii. Eight genome assemblies exhibited >99% nucleotide sequence identity and we identified 165 kbp of lineage specific to Vietnamese isolates. ST5 genomes harbored several strain specific regions, incorporating 19 annotated coding sequences and eight hypothetical proteins. These regions included a phenolic acid decarboxylase, a DEAD-box ATP-dependent RNA helicase 26, oxoprolinases, a taurine catabolism dioxygenase, a zinc finger protein, membrane transport proteins and various drug transporters. Our work outlines the complexity of genomic pathogenicity in cryptococcal infections and identifies a number of gene candidates that may aid the disaggregation of the pathways associated with the pathogenesis of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii

Genome sequences of a novel Vietnamese bat bunyavirus

To document the viral zoonotic risks in Vietnam, fecal samples were systematically collected from a number of mammals in southern Vietnam and subjected to agnostic deep sequencing. We describe here novel Vietnamese bunyavirus sequences detected in bat feces. The complete L and S segments from 14 viruses were determined

The Consumer Quality Index Hip Knee Questionnaire measuring patients' experiences with quality of care after a total hip or knee arthroplasty

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Dutch Consumer Quality Index Hip Knee Questionnaire (CQI Hip Knee) was used to assess patients' experiences with and evaluations of quality of care after a total hip (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The aim of this study is to evaluate the construct validity and internal consistency reliability of this new instrument and to assess its ability to measure differences in quality of care between hospitals.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Survey data of 1,675 subjects who underwent a THA or TKA were used to evaluate the psychometric properties. Exploratory factor analyses were performed and item-total correlations and inter-factor correlations were calculated to assess the construct validity of the instrument. Reliability analyses included tests of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficients). Finally, multilevel analyses were performed to assess the ability of the instrument to discriminate between hospitals in quality of care.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Exploratory factor analyses indicated that the survey consisted of 21 items measuring five aspects of care (i.e. communication with nurses, communication with doctors, communication with general practitioner, communication about new medication, and pain control). Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.76 to 0.90 indicating good internal consistency. The survey's ability to discriminate between hospitals was partly supported by multilevel analysis. Two scales (i.e. communication with nurses and communication with doctors) were able to measure differences between hospitals with respect to patients' experiences with quality of care. Logistic multilevel analyses indicated that hospitals explained part of the variation between patients in receiving information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that the CQI Hip Knee is reliable and valid for use in Dutch health care. Health care providers or health plans can use this survey to measure patients' experiences with hospital care and to identify variations in care between hospitals.</p