Application of hybrid control algorithm for the vehicle active suspension system to reduce the vibration

This research proposes a hybrid control algorithm to enhance smoothness in a vehicle’s motion. The control signal is synthesized from two separate controllers, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) and Sliding Mode Control (SMC), to achieve superior control performance. The novelty of the proposed control algorithm lies in using a double-loop algorithm to determine the controller parameters. The algorithm proposed in this research involves two computational processes to determine the model's optimal values including the raw value and the acceptable value. The proposed control algorithm has been simulated considering three specific cases corresponding to the three types of road stimuli. The results demonstrate that the values of sprung mass displacement and acceleration dropped considerably with the application of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, the change in vertical force at the wheel is also reduced with the application of the algorithm particularly in the third case where the vertical force at the wheel has reached to zero. The average values of vehicle body displacement are found to be 166.17mm (for passive case), 54.20mm (for PID) and 42.52mm (for SMC). The proposed control algorithm managed to reduce this value to 8.95mm as evidenced by simulation results. Finally, the response of the control system when subjected to an excitation signal from the road surface further demonstrates efficacy of the proposed hybrid control algorithm

Random Lasing from a Layer of ZnO Powder Painted on Glass Substrate under Excitation of Nanosecond and Picosecond Laser Pulses

The ZnO powder which consists of monodisperse colloidal spheres with average diameter of 100-300 nm was synthesized by hydrolysis of Zinc acetate dehydrate. The random lasing around 380 nm was produced from a layer of the ZnO powder painted on a glass substrate and optically pumped at 355 nm. Our experimental results show that random laser action of a layer of ZnO spherical nanoparticles and the characteristics of these random lasers under excitation of nanosecond and picosecond laser pulses

Conditional expectation with regularization for missing data imputation

Missing data frequently occurs in datasets across various domains, such as medicine, sports, and finance. In many cases, to enable proper and reliable analyses of such data, the missing values are often imputed, and it is necessary that the method used has a low root mean square error (RMSE) between the imputed and the true values. In addition, for some critical applications, it is also often a requirement that the imputation method is scalable and the logic behind the imputation is explainable, which is especially difficult for complex methods that are, for example, based on deep learning. Based on these considerations, we propose a new algorithm named "conditional Distribution-based Imputation of Missing Values with Regularization" (DIMV). DIMV operates by determining the conditional distribution of a feature that has missing entries, using the information from the fully observed features as a basis. As will be illustrated via experiments in the paper, DIMV (i) gives a low RMSE for the imputed values compared to state-of-the-art methods; (ii) fast and scalable; (iii) is explainable as coefficients in a regression model, allowing reliable and trustable analysis, makes it a suitable choice for critical domains where understanding is important such as in medical fields, finance, etc; (iv) can provide an approximated confidence region for the missing values in a given sample; (v) suitable for both small and large scale data; (vi) in many scenarios, does not require a huge number of parameters as deep learning approaches; (vii) handle multicollinearity in imputation effectively; and (viii) is robust to the normally distributed assumption that its theoretical grounds rely on

Management and monitoring of air and water pollution by using GIS technology: Research article

The need for a green clean living environment is increasing today, with the boom of the socioeconomic development, educational level. However, the environmental pollution becomes an alerted global issue due to the large amount of wastes discharged making this need to be not easily met at the moment. Greenhouse gas emission mainly from energy, transport and agricultural land use is causing climate change because of their long atmospheric lifetime and trapping the heat in the atmosphere. Harmful effects and damages caused by environment pollution and climate change are unpredictable. It was reported that every year millions of people die because of fine particles when exposing to air pollution and other millions die from water-born diseases. Management and monitoring of air and water pollution by using GIS technology is an effective method. The measured data can be obtained continuously, quickly and accurately at stations in any regions even with complex terrain. This helps reduce the required number of employees, manage automatically and continuously a large number of data.Ngày nay nhu cầu về một môi trường sống xanh, sạch đang gia tăng, với sự bùng nổ của phát triển kinh tế - xã hội và trình độ dân trí. Tuy nhiên, ô nhiễm môi trường đang trở thành một vấn đề cảnh báo toàn cầu do số lượng lớn các chất thải được xả ra môi trường làm cho nhu cầu này không dễ dàng được đáp ứng tại thời điểm này. Phát thải khí nhà kính chủ yếu là từ sử dụng năng lượng, giao thông vận tải và đất nông nghiệp đang gây ra biến đổi khí hậu vì thời gian tồn tại của cúng dài và giữ nhiệt trong khí quyển. Các ảnh hưởng xấu và thiệt hại gây ra bởi ô nhiễm môi trường và biến đổi khí hậu là không thể đoán trước. Thông tin báo cáo chỉ ra rằng mỗi năm có hàng triệu người chết vì hít các hạt bụi mịn khi tiếp xúc với ô nhiễm không khí; và hàng triệu người khác chết vì bệnh do nước sinh ra. Quản lý và giám sát ô nhiễm không khí và nước bằng cách sử dụng công nghệ GIS là một phương pháp hiệu quả. Các dữ liệu đo có thể được lấy liên tục, nhanh chóng và chính xác tại các trạm ở bất kể khu vực nào, ngay cả nơi có địa hình phức tạp. Điều này giúp làm giảm số lượng lao động cần thiết, quản lý tự động và liên tục một số lượng lớn dữ liệu

Student Satisfaction with Quality of Accounting and Auditing Education: The Case of Vietnam

This research is conducted to examine and evaluate determinants influencing the level of student satisfaction in the quality of auditing and accounting training at Vietnamese universities. Data were collected from 213 students of accounting and auditing field in three universities of National Economics University, University of Commerce and Academy of Finance. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and linear regression models were employed to determine the determinants influencing student satisfaction about quality of accounting and auditing. The findings show that the strongest impact on student satisfaction was the ability to serve; then training program; infrastructure component, and the last of teaching team. Based on the results, some recommendations are proposed for improving the satisfaction levels of students of accounting and auditing. Keywords: Quality of service; Quality of training; Satisfactio

KHẢ NĂNG LƯU TRỮ CACBON CỦA THẢM CỎ BIỂN TẠI ĐẦM LĂNG CÔ, TỈNH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ

Seagrass beds play an essential role in mitigating climate change by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and converting carbon into biomass through photosynthesis. We used remote sensing and GIS technology with field survey data to establish the distribution and above-ground dry biomass maps of seagrass beds in 2021. A Landsat 8 OLI satellite image was used in the interpretation process. An above-ground dry biomass map was established by building the regression function between the above-ground dry biomass and the reflectance spectrum of the image bands. The overall accuracy and the Kappa coefficient of the classification process were 95.5% and 0.94. At Lang Co Lagoon, the seagrass bed area in 2021 was about 36.18 ha, distributed primarily in the area between Lang Co Town and the north of the lagoon; and scattered in the north of the lagoon, Hoi Can, Hoi Dua, and Hoi Mit. In addition, the total carbon stock of seagrasses in Lang Co Lagoon was estimated at 5.54 tons, equivalent to 20.32 tons of CO2, in which the contribution of Halodule uninervis accounted for 61% of the total carbon stock.Thảm cỏ biển đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc giảm thiểu biến đổi khí hậu thông qua việc hấp thụ CO2 từ khí quyển và chuyển cacbon thành sinh khối nhờ quá trình quang hợp. Chúng tôi đã sử dụng công nghệ viễn thám và GIS, kết hợp với dữ liệu khảo sát thực địa, để thành lập bản đồ phân bố và sinh khối khô trên mặt đất của hệ sinh thái thảm cỏ biển tại Đầm Lăng Cô vào năm 2021. Một ảnh vệ tinh Landsat 8 OLI đã được sử dụng trong quá trình giải đoán. Một bản đồ sinh khối khô trên mặt đất được thành lập thông qua việc xây dựng hàm hồi quy giữa sinh khối khô trên mặt đất và phổ phản xạ của các kênh ảnh Landsat. Độ chính xác tổng thể và hệ số Kappa là 95,5% và 0,94. Tại Đầm Lăng Cô, diện tích thảm cỏ biển năm 2021 chiếm khoảng 36,18 ha, phân bố chủ yếu ở các khu vực giao giữa Thị trấn Lăng Cô và phía Bắc của đầm; rải rác tại phía Bắc của đầm, Hói Cạn, Hói Dừa và Hói Mít. Ngoài ra, tổng trữ lượng cacbon của cỏ biển ở Đầm Lăng Cô là 5,54 tấn cacbon, tương đương với 20,32 tấn CO2; trong đó, sự đóng góp của loài Halodule uninervis chiếm 61% tổng trữ lượng cacbon

Host Transcription Profile in Nasal Epithelium and Whole Blood of Hospitalized Children Under 2 Years of Age With Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection.

BACKGROUND: Most insights into the cascade of immune events after acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection have been obtained from animal experiments or in vitro models. METHODS: In this study, we investigated host gene expression profiles in nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs and whole blood samples during natural RSV and rhinovirus (hRV) infection (acute versus early recovery phase) in 83 hospitalized patients <2 years old with lower respiratory tract infections. RESULTS: Respiratory syncytial virus infection induced strong and persistent innate immune responses including interferon signaling and pathways related to chemokine/cytokine signaling in both compartments. Interferon-α/β, NOTCH1 signaling pathways and potential biomarkers HIST1H4E, IL7R, ISG15 in NP samples, or BCL6, HIST2H2AC, CCNA1 in blood are leading pathways and hub genes that were associated with both RSV load and severity. The observed RSV-induced gene expression patterns did not differ significantly in NP swab and blood specimens. In contrast, hRV infection did not as strongly induce expression of innate immunity pathways, and significant differences were observed between NP swab and blood specimens. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that RSV induced strong and persistent innate immune responses and that RSV severity may be related to development of T follicular helper cells and antiviral inflammatory sequelae derived from high activation of BCL6

A Multi-Center Randomised Controlled Trial of Gatifloxacin versus Azithromycin for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Typhoid Fever in Children and Adults in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Drug resistant typhoid fever is a major clinical problem globally. Many of the first line antibiotics, including the older generation fluoroquinolones, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin, are failing. OBJECTIVES: We performed a randomised controlled trial to compare the efficacy and safety of gatifloxacin (10 mg/kg/day) versus azithromycin (20 mg/kg/day) as a once daily oral dose for 7 days for the treatment of uncomplicated typhoid fever in children and adults in Vietnam. METHODS: An open-label multi-centre randomised trial with pre-specified per protocol analysis and intention to treat analysis was conducted. The primary outcome was fever clearance time, the secondary outcome was overall treatment failure (clinical or microbiological failure, development of typhoid fever-related complications, relapse or faecal carriage of S. typhi). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We enrolled 358 children and adults with suspected typhoid fever. There was no death in the study. 287 patients had blood culture confirmed typhoid fever, 145 patients received gatifloxacin and 142 patients received azithromycin. The median FCT was 106 hours in both treatment arms (95% Confidence Interval [CI]; 94-118 hours for gatifloxacin versus 88-112 hours for azithromycin), (logrank test p = 0.984, HR [95% CI] = 1.0 [0.80-1.26]). Overall treatment failure occurred in 13/145 (9%) patients in the gatifloxacin group and 13/140 (9.3%) patients in the azithromycin group, (logrank test p = 0.854, HR [95% CI] = 0.93 [0.43-2.0]). 96% (254/263) of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi isolates were resistant to nalidixic acid and 58% (153/263) were multidrug resistant. CONCLUSIONS: Both antibiotics showed an excellent efficacy and safety profile. Both gatifloxacin and azithromycin can be recommended for the treatment of typhoid fever particularly in regions with high rates of multidrug and nalidixic acid resistance. The cost of a 7-day treatment course of gatifloxacin is approximately one third of the cost of azithromycin in Vietnam. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN67946944

Rifampicin resistant 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' in Vietnam, 2020–2022

Objective: We conducted a descriptive analysis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Methods: All patients with rifampicin resistant tuberculosis were recruited from Hanoi and surrounding provinces between 2020 and 2022. Additional patients were recruited from Ho Chi Minh city over the same time period. Demographic data were recorded from all patients, and samples collected, cultured, whole genome sequenced and analysed for drug resistance mutations. Genomic susceptibility predictions were made on the basis of the World Health Organization’s catalogue of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with drug resistance, version 2. Comparisons were made against phenotypic drug susceptibility test results where these were available. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for previous episodes of tuberculosis. Results: 233/265 sequenced isolates were of sufficient quality for analysis, 146 (63 %) from Ho Chi Minh City and 87 (37 %) from Hanoi. 198 (85 %) were lineage 2, 20 (9 %) were lineage 4, and 15 (6 %) were lineage 1. 17/211 (8 %) for whom HIV status was known were infected, and 109/214 (51 %) patients had had a previous episode of tuberculosis. The main risk factor for a previous episode was HIV infection (odds ratio 5.1 (95 % confidence interval 1.3–20.0); p = 0.021). Sensitivity for predicting first-line drug resistance from whole genome sequencing data was over 90 %, with the exception of pyrazinamide (85 %). For moxifloxacin and amikacin it was 50 % or less. Among rifampicin-resistant isolates, prevalence of resistance to each non-first-line drug was < 20 %. Conclusions: Drug resistance among most MDR-TB strains in Vietnam’s two largest cities is confined largely to first-line drugs. Living with HIV is the main risk factor among patients with MDR-TB for having had a previous episode of tuberculosis

Effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine fixed-dose combination in the treatment of hypertension: a systematic review

Background: Uncontrolled blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy offers a promising approach to addressing this challenge by providing a convenient single-tablet solution that enhances the effectiveness of blood pressure control. In our systematic review, we assess the effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC in managing blood pressure.Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search across four primary electronic databases, namely, PubMed, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Global Health Library (GHL), and Google Scholar, as of 8 February 2022. Additionally, we performed a manual search to find relevant articles. The quality of the selected articles was evaluated using the Study Quality Assessment Tools (SQAT) checklist from the National Institute of Health and the ROB2 tool from Cochrane.Results: Our systematic review included 17 eligible articles. The findings show that the use of perindopril/amlodipine FDC significantly lowers blood pressure and enhances the quality of blood pressure control. Compared to the comparison group, the perindopril/amlodipine combination tablet resulted in a higher rate of blood pressure response and normalization. Importantly, perindopril/amlodipine FDC contributes to improved patient adherence with minimal side effects. However, studies conducted to date have not provided assessments of the cost-effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC.Conclusion: In summary, our analysis confirms the effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC in lowering blood pressure, with combination therapy outperforming monotherapy and placebo. Although mild adverse reactions were observed in a small subset of participants, cost-effectiveness assessments for this treatment remain lacking in the literature