US-China rivalry in Southeast Asia region: a study on the South China Sea case

Southeast Asia is one of the places where fierce rivalry is taking place between the two leading powers in the world today - the US and China. The US-China rivalry in this region takes place in key fields, from politics - diplomacy, economy, security - defense to "soft power", the most prominent of which is the South China Sea issue. This article analyzes the strategic importance of the South China Sea in the policy of the US and China, the competition between the US and China in Southeast Asia in general, and the South China Sea in particular. To achieve this goal, the authors use research methods in international relations to analyze the main issues of the study. In addition to reviewing previous scholarly research and reviews, the authors use a comparative approach to assess the interactions between theory and data. The authors believe the data is important for accurately assessing the strategic competition between the US and China in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea. The rise of China in the early years of the XXI century strongly influenced the adjustment of the US policy in Southeast Asia and the powerful US-China rivalry in this region and the South China Sea. This rivalry is becoming increasingly complicated, and geopolitical conflicts between major powers are possible in the following years

Effect of Organic Loading Rates on Performance of Treating Dairy Wastewater in a Lab-Scale Sequencing Batch Reactor

This study aims to investigate, the effect of organic loading rates (OLRs), nutrient ratio addition, and sludge retention time (SRT) on treating dairy wastewater in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system. This investigation is verified by experiments conducted in 3 phases at 3 different OLRs (1.8, 1.2, and 0.9 kg/m3d, respectively).  Urea ((NH2)2CO) is added to make a suitable (COD:N:P) ratio of (100:5:1) in dairy wastewater. The SRT is adjusted from 50 days to an appropriate value of 18 days. The obtained results show that the COD, TN, and TP removal efficiencies are increased with decreasing OLRs. Sludge concentration in the SBR tank is stable at 1100 mg/L after adding (NH2)2CO. In addition, the SBR operated at a suitable SRT (i.e. 18 days) helps the biomass stably, resulting in enhancement of COD, TN, and TP removal. The results are helpful to the design of SBR for treating dairy wastewater

Influence of the Frequency-chirp on Pulse in Passively Mode-locking Optical Fiber Ring Laser

We consider a model of a passively mode-locking fiber ring laser bult using a saturable absorber and a chirped fiber Bragg grating to balance dispersion and nonlinearity. The evolution of the slowly envelope of the optical field in a loop fiber subject to dispersion , Kerr nonlinearity, frequency- chirp and nonlinear absorption is given by the generalized complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. The influence of the frequency-chirp on the pulse is simulated and discussed, and the stationary conditions concerning the chirp parameter are  found out for our laser

Nurses' willingness to care for patients infected with HIV or Hepatitis B/C in Vietnam

Objectives: This study examined the factors associated with nurses' willingness to care for patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis B or C virus (HBV/HCV) in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-section of 400 Vietnamese nurses from two hospitals were selected using stratified random sampling, to whom a self-administered questionnaire was administered which included demographic items, previous experience with patients infected with HIV or HBV/HCV, and their attitudes toward these patients. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. Results: The lifetime prevalence of needlestick or sharps injury whilst caring for a patient infected with HIV or HBV/HCV was 9 and 15.8%, respectively. The majority of participants expressed a willingness to care for patients infected with HIV (55.8%) or HBV/HCV (73.3%). Willingness to care for HIV-infected patients was positively associated with being 40-49 years of age and confidence in protecting themselves against infection. Regarding HBV/HCV infection, willingness to care was positively associated with individual confidence in protecting themselves against infection. Conclusions: This study revealed that Vietnamese nurses were somewhat willing to care for patients infected with HIV or HBV/HCV, and this was associated with individual confidence in protecting themselves against infection and with negative attitudes towards HIV and HBV/HCV. Establishing a positive safety culture and providing appropriate professional education to help reduce the stigma towards infected patients offers an effective way forwards to improve quality of care in Vietnam, as elsewhere

Damage detection for a cable-stayed Bridge under the effect of moving loads using Transmissibility and Artificial Neural Network

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been widely used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in the last decades. To detect damage in the structure, ANN often uses input data consisting of natural frequencies or mode shapes. However, this data is not sensitive enough to accurately identify minor structural defects. Therefore, in this study, we propose to use transmissibility to generate input data for the input layer of ANN. Transmissibility uses output signals exclusively to preserve structural dynamic properties and is sensitive to damage characteristics. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approach, a cable-stayed bridge with a wide variety of damage scenarios is employed. The results show that the combination of transmissibility and ANN not only accurately detect damages but also outperforms natural frequencies-based ANN in terms of accuracy and computational cost

Damage detection for a cable-stayed Bridge under the effect of moving loads using Transmissibility and Artificial Neural Network

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been widely used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in the last decades. To detect damage in the structure, ANN often uses input data consisting of natural frequencies or mode shapes. However, this data is not sensitive enough to accurately identify minor structural defects. Therefore, in this study, we propose to use transmissibility to generate input data for the input layer of ANN. Transmissibility uses output signals exclusively to preserve structural dynamic properties and is sensitive to damage characteristics. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approach, a cable-stayed bridge with a wide variety of damage scenarios is employed. The results show that the combination of transmissibility and ANN not only accurately detect damages but also outperforms natural frequencies-based ANN in terms of accuracy and computational cost