A Simultaneous Extraction of Context and Community from pervasive signals using nested Dirichlet process

Understanding user contexts and group structures plays a central role in pervasive computing. These contexts and community structures are complex to mine from data collected in the wild due to the unprecedented growth of data, noise, uncertainties and complexities. Typical existing approaches would first extract the latent patterns to explain human dynamics or behaviors and then use them as a way to consistently formulate numerical representations for community detection, often via a clustering method. While being able to capture high-order and complex representations, these two steps are performed separately. More importantly, they face a fundamental difficulty in determining the correct number of latent patterns and communities. This paper presents an approach that seamlessly addresses these challenges to simultaneously discover latent patterns and communities in a unified Bayesian nonparametric framework. Our Simultaneous Extraction of Context and Community (SECC) model roots in the nested Dirichlet process theory which allows a nested structure to be built to summarize data at multiple levels. We demonstrate our framework on five datasets where the advantages of the proposed approach are validated

PSSA- INTERNATIONAL SOLUTION TO PROTECT THE BIODIVERSITY IN HA LONG BAY - CAT BA MARINE AREA

A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is an important management tool for biodiversity protection of a marine area. At the time of designation of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area, an associated protective measure, which meets the requirements of the appropriate legal instrument establishing such measure, must have been approved or adopted by IMO to prevent, reduce, or eliminate the threat or identified vulnerability. Information on each of the Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) that has been designated by IMO is available on the nautical chart. The Vietnam’s coastal zones and islands are the isolated oceanic habitat of extremely rich marine life in very good condition which is important to the maintenance and dispersal of the marine life of the western tropical Pacific. Vietnam coastal areas are very high risk areas affected by maritime activities, particularly international shipping, therefore in the future identification of some Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) is necessary. The first Particularly Sensitive Sea Area for Vietnam in Ha Long - Cat Ba was initially proposed in this paper

Density Functional Based Tight Binding Study on Wurzite ZnS Nanowires

We present a semi-abinitio - Density Functional Based Tight Binding (DFTB) study on the atomic and electronic structure of ZnS Nanowire (NW) and examine the dependence of surface stress on nanowire lateral size and shape. The ZnS wurtzite wire size ranges from 10 to 45Å and of various possible shapes - triangular, hexagonal and circular-like. We investigate the role of unsaturated dangling bond state in the region of band gap varying the wire's diameter. We have calculated the surface formation energy and find that it decreases with increasing the wire diameter and a greater stability (lower surface formation energy) comes with hexagonal and circular-like depending on wire's diameter. Other electronics and mechanical properties e.g. density of states (DOS), Young modulus...  also are found to depend on the wire's size and shape. Futher the wire passivation by hydrogen has also investigated

A novel diagnostic model for tuberculous meningitis using Bayesian latent class analysis

Background Diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is hampered by the lack of a gold standard. Current microbiological tests lack sensitivity and clinical diagnostic approaches are subjective. We therefore built a diagnostic model that can be used before microbiological test results are known. Methods We included 659 individuals aged ≥ 16 years with suspected brain infections from a prospective observational study conducted in Vietnam. We fitted a logistic regression diagnostic model for TBM status, with unknown values estimated via a latent class model on three mycobacterial tests: Ziehl–Neelsen smear, Mycobacterial culture, and GeneXpert. We additionally re-evaluated mycobacterial test performance, estimated individual mycobacillary burden, and quantified the reduction in TBM risk after confirmatory tests were negative. We also fitted a simplified model and developed a scoring table for early screening. All models were compared and validated internally. Results Participants with HIV, miliary TB, long symptom duration, and high cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lymphocyte count were more likely to have TBM. HIV and higher CSF protein were associated with higher mycobacillary burden. In the simplified model, HIV infection, clinical symptoms with long duration, and clinical or radiological evidence of extra-neural TB were associated with TBM At the cutpoints based on Youden’s Index, the sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing TBM for our full and simplified models were 86.0% and 79.0%, and 88.0% and 75.0% respectively. Conclusion Our diagnostic model shows reliable performance and can be developed as a decision assistant for clinicians to detect patients at high risk of TBM. Summary Diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis is hampered by the lack of gold standard. We developed a diagnostic model using latent class analysis, combining confirmatory test results and risk factors. Models were accurate, well-calibrated, and can support both clinical practice and research

Impact of Green Logistics on International Trade: An Empirical Study in Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation

Green logistics has been a trend in the world. This research evaluates the impact of green logistics on international trade among APEC nations over the period of 9 years (2010 – 2018). The research uses an augmented gravity model to investigate the effects of green logistics on international trade through the Environmental Logistics Performance Index (ELPI). The results show that exporting countries applying green logistics increase the export volume to other members of APEC. In the long term, importing countries engaging in green logistics increase trade volume with green logistics countries in APEC. With the aim of enhancing international trade, APEC countries must improve domestic logistics performance. Through those analyses, research proposes several recommendations to encourage nations and enterprises to apply green logistics effectively

Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase Genotype and HIV Infection Influence Intracerebral Inflammation and Survival From Tuberculous Meningitis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most devastating form of tuberculosis, yet very little is known about the pathophysiology. We hypothesized that the genotype of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (encoded by LTA4H), which determines inflammatory eicosanoid expression, influences intracerebral inflammation, and predicts survival from TBM. METHODS: We characterized the pretreatment clinical and intracerebral inflammatory phenotype and 9-month survival of 764 adults with TBM. All were genotyped for single-nucleotide polymorphism rs17525495, and inflammatory phenotype was defined by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leukocyte and cytokine concentrations. RESULTS: LTA4H genotype predicted survival of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-uninfected patients, with TT-genotype patients significantly more likely to survive TBM than CC-genotype patients, according to Cox regression analysis (univariate P = .040 and multivariable P = .037). HIV-uninfected, TT-genotype patients had high CSF proinflammatory cytokine concentrations, with intermediate and lower concentrations in those with CT and CC genotypes. Increased CSF cytokine concentrations correlated with more-severe disease, but patients with low CSF leukocytes and cytokine concentrations were more likely to die from TBM. HIV infection independently predicted death due to TBM (hazard ratio, 3.94; 95% confidence interval, 2.79-5.56) and was associated with globally increased CSF cytokine concentrations, independent of LTA4H genotype. CONCLUSIONS: LTA4H genotype and HIV infection influence pretreatment inflammatory phenotype and survival from TBM. LTA4H genotype may predict adjunctive corticosteroid responsiveness in HIV-uninfected individuals

Spatiotemporal evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Delta variants during large nationwide outbreak of COVID-19, Vietnam, 2021

We analyzed 1,303 SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences from Vietnam, and found the Alpha and Delta variants were responsible for a large nationwide outbreak of COVID-19 in 2021. The Delta variant was confined to the AY.57 lineage and caused >1.7 million infections and >32,000 deaths. Viral transmission was strongly affected by nonpharmaceutical interventions

A prospective multi-center observational study of children hospitalized with diarrhea in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

We performed a prospective multicenter study to address the lack of data on the etiology, clinical and demographic features of hospitalized pediatric diarrhea in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. Over 2,000 (1,419 symptomatic and 609 non-diarrheal control) children were enrolled in three hospitals over a 1-year period in 2009-2010. Aiming to detect a panel of pathogens, we identified a known diarrheal pathogen in stool samples from 1,067/1,419 (75.2%) children with diarrhea and from 81/609 (13.3%) children without diarrhea. Rotavirus predominated in the symptomatic children (664/1,419; 46.8%), followed by norovirus (293/1,419; 20.6%). The bacterial pathogens Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Shigella were cumulatively isolated from 204/1,419 (14.4%) diarrheal children and exhibited extensive antimicrobial resistance, most notably to fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins. We suggest renewed efforts in generation and implementation of policies to control the sale and prescription of antimicrobials to curb bacterial resistance and advise consideration of a subsidized rotavirus vaccination policy to limit the morbidity due to diarrheal disease in Vietnam

The Effectiveness of Narrow Band Uvb (Nb-Uvb) In the Treatment of Pityriasis Lichenoides Chronica (PLC) In Vietnam

AIM: This prospective clinical study presents the experiences with NB-UVB monotherapy in the treatment of PLC on Vietnamese patients. METHODS: We enrolled at National Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology (NHDV), Vietnam, 29 PLC patients with generalised disease involving at least 60% of the total body surface (based on Nine’s Rule) and/or failed to respond to other modalities of treatment. Patients were treated with NB-UVB followed the guideline of the psoriatic treatment of AAD-2010, three times weekly. RESULTS: A complete response (CR) was seen in 24 out of 29 PLC patients (82.8%) with a mean cumulative dose of 9760.5 mJ/cm2 after a mean treatment period of 4.6 weeks (13.8 ± 7.4 exposures). Mild side effects were observed: 69% erythema minimum, 55.2% irritation related to dry skin. No severe side effects were seen during the study. No relapses occurred in 24 CR patients within a mean period of 3 months after the last treatment. CONCLUSION: NB-UVB therapy is an effective and safe option for the treatment and management of PLC