Dairy Value Chain In Vietnam: Evidences from Bavi Area

Dairy farming, in Vietnam, existed in the early twentieth century thanks to the favorable natural advantage. During many difficult periods, the Vietnam’s dairy industry has developed constantly and contributed significantly to the food needs ensuring. However, Vietnam’s dairy industry still could not satisfy the domestic milk demand. Retail milk prices in Vietnam are very high, whereas the price of milk sold by the dairy farmers is very low. The cause stems from the control of dairy companies in the quantity and quality of milk. Moreover, that control caused an imbalance in the profits and benefits of each actor in the dairy value chain. This study, hence, finds out the distribution of benefits, costs, value-added among the actors, and problems in the practical management in dairy milk value chain with specific focus on Bavi as the case study

NOWJ1@ALQAC 2023: Enhancing Legal Task Performance with Classic Statistical Models and Pre-trained Language Models

This paper describes the NOWJ1 Team's approach for the Automated Legal Question Answering Competition (ALQAC) 2023, which focuses on enhancing legal task performance by integrating classical statistical models and Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs). For the document retrieval task, we implement a pre-processing step to overcome input limitations and apply learning-to-rank methods to consolidate features from various models. The question-answering task is split into two sub-tasks: sentence classification and answer extraction. We incorporate state-of-the-art models to develop distinct systems for each sub-task, utilizing both classic statistical models and pre-trained Language Models. Experimental results demonstrate the promising potential of our proposed methodology in the competition.Comment: ISAILD@KSE 202

Ecological and behavioural risk factors of scrub typhus in central Vietnam: a case‑control study

Background: The risk factors for scrub typhus in Vietnam remain unknown. Scrub typhus caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi often presents as an undifferentiated febrile illness and remains under appreciated due to the limited availability of diagnostic tests. This tropical rickettsial illness is increasingly recognized as an important cause of non-malaria acute undifferentiated fever in Asia. This study aimed to investigate behavioural and ecological related risk factors of scrub typhus to prevent this potentially life-threatening disease in Vietnam. Methods: We conducted a clinical hospital-based active surveillance study, and a retrospective residence-enrolment date-age-matched case-control study in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, from August 2018 to March 2020. Clinical examinations, polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay IgM tests were applied to define cases and controls. All enrolled participants filled out a questionnaire including demographic socio-economic status, personal behaviors/protective equipment, habitat connections, land use, and possible exposure to the vector. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to define the scrub typhus associated risk factors. Results: We identified 44 confirmed cases and matched them with 152 controls. Among cases and controls, the largest age group was the 41-50 years old and males accounted for 61.4% and 42.8%, respectively. There were similarities in demographic characteristics between the two groups, with the exception of occupation. Several factors were significantly associated with acquisition of scrub typhus, including sitting/laying directly on household floor [adjusted OR (aOR) = 4.9, 95% CI: 1.6-15.1, P = 0.006], household with poor sanitation/conditions (aOR = 7.9, 95% CI: 1.9-32.9, P = 0.005), workplace environment with risk (aOR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.2-7.6, P = 0.020), always observing mice around home (aOR = 3.7, 95% CI: 1.4-9.9, P = 0.008), and use of personal protective equipment in the field (aOR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.1-1.1, P = 0.076). Conclusions: Ecological and household hygiene-related factors were more associated with scrub typhus infection,than individual-level exposure activities in the hyper-endemic area. These findings support local education and allow people to protect themselves from scrub typhus, especially in areas with limitations in diagnostic capacit

Echinacea purpurea: An overview of mechanism, efficacy, and safety in pediatric upper respiratory infections and otitis media

Pediatric upper respiratory infections (URIs) and otitis media (OM) significantly impact the health of children globally. Echinacea purpurea, known for its immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, has been historically used to treat various ailments, suggesting its potential as an adjunctive treatment in pediatric respiratory conditions. This narrative review synthesizes literature from January 2000 to December 2023 on the efficacy and safety of E. purpurea in treating pediatric URIs, including OM. It focuses on clinical trials and empirical studies that explore the mechanisms of action, such as the modulation of cytokine production, inhibition of NF-κB signaling, and antimicrobial effects. The analysis reveals mixed outcomes regarding the efficacy of E. purpurea in pediatric populations, attributed partly to variability in study designs and lack of standardized treatment protocols. While some studies report reduced severity and duration of respiratory symptoms, others indicate minimal or no significant difference compared to placebo. The review also highlights the need for specifically designed products that cater to the unique physiological and metabolic needs of children. Rigorous, well-designed clinical trials are crucial for establishing clear guidelines on the use of E. purpurea in pediatric respiratory care, ensuring its safe and effective application in improving health outcomes for children

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Global Research Trend in Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment remains a major health threat globally that requires the understanding of socioeconomic and cultural contexts to craft effective interventions. However, little is known about research agendas globally and the development of knowledge-producing networks in this field of study. This study aims to explore the bibliometric overview on child maltreatment publications to understand their growth from 1916 to 2018. Data from the Web of Science Core Collection were collected in May 2018. Only research articles and reviews written in the English language were included, with no restrictions by publication date. We analyzed publication years, number of papers, journals, authors, keywords and countries, and presented the countries collaboration and co-occurrence keywords analysis. From 1916 to 2018, 47, 090 papers (53.0% in 2010–2018) were published in 9442 journals. Child Abuse & Neglect (2576 papers; 5.5%); Children and Youth Services Review (1130 papers; 2.4%) and Pediatrics (793 papers, 1.7%) published the most papers. The most common research areas were Psychology (16, 049 papers, 34.1%), Family Studies (8225 papers, 17.5%), and Social Work (7367 papers, 15.6%). Among 192 countries with research publications, the most prolific countries were the United States (26, 367 papers), England (4676 papers), Canada (3282 papers) and Australia (2664 papers). We identified 17 authors who had more than 60 scientific items. The most cited papers (with at least 600 citations) were published in 29 journals, headed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (7 papers) and the Lancet (5 papers). This overview of global research in child maltreatment indicated an increasing trend in this topic, with the world’s leading centers located in the Western countries led by the United States. We called for interdisciplinary research approaches to evaluating and intervening on child maltreatment, with a focus on low-middle income countries (LMICs) settings and specific contexts

An Outbreak of Severe Infections with Community-Acquired MRSA Carrying the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Following Vaccination

Background: Infections with community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) are emerging worldwide. We investigated an outbreak of severe CA-MRSA infections in children following out-patient vaccination. Methods and Findings: We carried out a field investigation after adverse events following immunization (AEFI) were reported. We reviewed the clinical data from all cases. S. aureus recovered from skin infections and from nasal and throat swabs were analyzed by pulse-field gel electrophoresis, multi locus sequence typing, PCR and microarray. In May 2006, nine children presented with AEFI, ranging from fatal toxic shock syndrome, necrotizing soft tissue infection, purulent abscesses, to fever with rash. All had received a vaccination injection in different health centres in one District of Ho Chi Minh City. Eight children had been vaccinated by the same health care worker (HCW). Deficiencies in vaccine quality, storage practices, or preparation and delivery were not found. Infection control practices were insufficient. CA-MRSA was cultured in four children and from nasal and throat swabs from the HCW. Strains from children and HCW were indistinguishable. All carried the Panton-Valentine leukocidine (PVL), the staphylococcal enterotoxin B gene, the gene complex for staphylococcal-cassette-chromosome mec type V, and were sequence type 59. Strain HCM3A is epidemiologically unrelated to a strain of ST59 prevalent in the USA, althoughthey belong to the same lineage. Conclusions. We describe an outbreak of infections with CA-MRSA in children, transmitted by an asymptomatic colonized HCW during immunization injection. Consistent adherence to injection practice guidelines is needed to prevent CA-MRSA transmission in both in- and outpatient settings

Global trends of hand and wrist trauma : a systematic analysis of fracture and digit amputation using the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

Background As global rates of mortality decrease, rates of non-fatal injury have increased, particularly in low Socio-demographic Index (SDI) nations. We hypothesised this global pattern of non-fatal injury would be demonstrated in regard to bony hand and wrist trauma over the 27-year study period. Methods The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 was used to estimate prevalence, age-standardised incidence and years lived with disability for hand trauma in 195 countries from 1990 to 2017. Individual injuries included hand and wrist fractures, thumb amputations and non-thumb digit amputations. Results The global incidence of hand trauma has only modestly decreased since 1990. In 2017, the age-standardised incidence of hand and wrist fractures was 179 per 100 000 (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 146 to 217), whereas the less common injuries of thumb and non-thumb digit amputation were 24 (95% UI 17 to 34) and 56 (95% UI 43 to 74) per 100 000, respectively. Rates of injury vary greatly by region, and improvements have not been equally distributed. The highest burden of hand trauma is currently reported in high SDI countries. However, low-middle and middle SDI countries have increasing rates of hand trauma by as much at 25%. Conclusions Certain regions are noted to have high rates of hand trauma over the study period. Low-middle and middle SDI countries, however, have demonstrated increasing rates of fracture and amputation over the last 27 years. This trend is concerning as access to quality and subspecialised surgical hand care is often limiting in these resource-limited regions.Peer reviewe