Dynamics of social inequality in Vietnam

Philip Taylor, ed. 2004. Social Inequality in Vietnam and the Challenges to Reform. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 392 pp., ISBN 981-230-275-1 (soft cover) 981-230-254-9 (hard cover

Economic analysis of climate change adaptation strategies in selected coastal areas in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam

This report is an account of a cross-country study that covered Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Covering four sites (one each in Indonesia and Vietnam) and two sites in the Philippines, the study documented the impacts of three climate hazards affecting coastal communities, namely typhoon/flooding, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion. It also analyzed planned adaptation options, which communities and local governments can implement, as well as autonomous responses of households to protect and insure themselves from these hazards. It employed a variety of techniques, ranging from participatory based approaches such as community hazard mapping and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to regression techniques, to analyze the impact of climate change and the behavior of affected communities and households

A direct method for analyzing the nonlinear vehicle–structure interaction

This article presents an accurate, efficient and stable algorithm to analyze the nonlinear vertical vehicle-structure interaction. The governing equilibrium equations of the vehicle and structure are complemented with additional constraint equations that relate the displacements of the vehicle with the corresponding displacements of the structure. These equations form a single system, with displacements and contact forces as unknowns, that is solved using an optimized block factorization algorithm. Due to the nonlinear nature of contact, an incremental formulation based on the Newton method is adopted. The vehicles, track and structure are modeled using finite elements to take into account all the significant deformations. The numerical example presented clearly demonstrates the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed method

The Structure of TGBC_C Phases

We study the transition from the cholesteric phase to two TGB$_C$ phases near the upper critical twist $k_{c2}$: the Renn-Lubensky TGB$_C$ phase, with layer normal rotating in a plane perpendicular to the pitch axis, and the Bordeaux TGB$_C$ phase, with the layer normal rotating on a cone parallel to the pitch axis. We calculate properties, including order-parameter profiles, of both phases.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Physical Review E, Rapid Communications, September 5, 2003; Revised manuscript (to the paper submitted on March 18, 2003, cond-mat/0303365)that includes an important missing reference and presents an improved analysis of a generalized mode

Chromosome-level reference genome of stinkwort, Dittrichia graveolens (L.) Greuter : A resource for studies on invasion, range expansion, and evolutionary adaptation under global change

This work was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture “Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant” [2020-67013-31856]. NL acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation [P2EZP3_178481] and Natural Environment Research Council [NE/W006553/1].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analytical results on quantum interference and magnetoconductance for strongly localized electrons in a magnetic field: Exact summation of forward-scattering paths

We study quantum interference effects on the transition strength for strongly localized electrons hopping on 2D square and 3D cubic lattices in the presence of a magnetic field B. These effects arise from the interference between phase factors associated with different electron paths connecting two distinct sites. For electrons confined on a square lattice, with and without disorder, we obtain closed-form expressions for the tunneling probability, which determines the conductivity, between two arbitrary sites by exactly summing the corresponding phase factors of all forward-scattering paths connecting them. An analytic field-dependent expression, valid in any dimension, for the magnetoconductance (MC) is derived. A positive MC is clearly observed when turning on the magnetic field. In 2D, when the strength of B reaches a certain value, which is inversely proportional to twice the hopping length, the MC is increased by a factor of two compared to that at zero field. We also investigate transport on the much less-studied and experimentally important 3D cubic lattice case, where it is shown how the interference patterns and the small-field behavior of the MC vary according to the orientation of B. The effect on the low-flux MC due to the randomness of the angles between the hopping direction and the orientation of B is also examined analytically.Comment: 24 pages, RevTeX, 8 figures include

Endovascular Treatment for Acute Isolated Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion : A Propensity Score Matched Multicenter Study.

The benefit of endovascular treatment (EVT) in patients with acute symptomatic isolated occlusion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) without involvement of the middle and anterior cerebral arteries is unclear. We aimed to compare clinical and safety outcomes of best medical treatment (BMT) versus EVT + BMT in patients with stroke due to isolated ICA occlusion. We conducted a retrospective multicenter study involving patients with isolated ICA occlusion between January 2016 and December 2020. We stratified patients by BMT versus EVT and matched the groups using propensity score matching (PSM). We assessed the effect of treatment strategy on favorable outcome (modified Rankin scale ≤ 2) 90 days after treatment and compared reduction in NIHSS score at discharge, rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) and 3‑month mortality. In total, we included 149 patients with isolated ICA occlusion. To address imbalances, we matched 45 patients from each group using PSM. The rate of favorable outcomes at 90 days was 56% for EVT and 38% for BMT (odds ratio, OR 1.89, 95% confidence interval, CI 0.84-4.24; p = 0.12). Patients treated with EVT showed a median reduction in NIHSS score at discharge of 6 points compared to 1 point for BMT patients (p = 0.02). Rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (7% vs. 4%; p = 0.66) and 3‑month mortality (11% vs. 13%; p = 0.74) did not differ between treatment groups. Periprocedural complications of EVT with early neurological deterioration occurred in 7% of cases. Although the benefit on functional outcome did not reach statistical significance, the results for NIHSS score improvement, and safety support the use of EVT in patients with stroke due to isolated ICA occlusion

K\"{a}hler-Einstein metrics on strictly pseudoconvex domains

The metrics of S. Y. Cheng and S.-T. Yau are considered on a strictly pseudoconvex domains in a complex manifold. Such a manifold carries a complete K\"{a}hler-Einstein metric if and only if its canonical bundle is positive. We consider the restricted case in which the CR structure on $\partial M$ is normal. In this case M must be a domain in a resolution of the Sasaki cone over $\partial M$. We give a condition on a normal CR manifold which it cannot satisfy if it is a CR infinity of a K\"{a}hler-Einstein manifold. We are able to mostly determine those normal CR 3-manifolds which can be CR infinities. Many examples are given of K\"{a}hler-Einstein strictly pseudoconvex manifolds on bundles and resolutions.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, couple corrections, improved a couple example

Apoptosis in the Nervous System in Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis

We report here for the first time the occurrence of apoptosis of cells in the spinal cord in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), an autoimmune, T-cell-mediated demyelinating disease. Four different forms of EAE were studied in the Lewis rat: (i) acute EAE induced by inoculation with whole spinal cord and adjuvants; (ii) acute EAE induced by inoculation with myelin basic protein (MBP) and adjuvants; (iii) acute EAE induced by the passive transfer of MBP-sensitized spleen cells; (iv) chronic relapsing EAE induced by inoculation with whole spinal cord and adjuvants followed by treatment with low-dose cyclosporin A. Cells undergoing apoptosis were recognized at light and electron microscopy by the presence of either crescentic masses of condensed chromatin lying against the nuclear envelope or rounded masses of uniformly dense chromatin. They were found in both the white and grey matter of the spinal cord in all 4 forms of this disease. Although it was not possible to identify definitively the types of cells undergoing apoptosis, the size and location of some of the affected cells suggested that they were oligodendrocytes. As there is now a large body of evidence that T-cell-induced target cell death takes the form of apoptosis, it is attractive to hypothesize that oligodendrocyte apoptosis is occurring in EAE as a result of oligodendrocyte-directed T-cell cytotoxicity. However, other apoptotic cells were located within the myelin sheath, meninges and perivascular spaces and were clearly not oligodendrocytes but were most likely blood-derived mononuclear cells. The sparsity of their cytoplasm and the absence of phagocytosed material suggested that they were mainly lymphocytes rather than macrophages. Apoptosis has been shown to be involved in deleting autoreactive T-cells during the normal development of tolerance. Thus apoptotic deletion of myelin/oligodendrocyte-specific lymphocytes in the central nervous system in EAE might explain both the subsidence of inflammation and the acquisition of tolerance in this autoimmune disease

Propensity-based standardization to enhance the validation and interpretation of prediction model discrimination for a target population

External validation of the discriminative ability of prediction models is of key importance. However, the interpretation of such evaluations is challenging, as the ability to discriminate depends on both the sample characteristics (ie, case-mix) and the generalizability of predictor coefficients, but most discrimination indices do not provide any insight into their respective contributions. To disentangle differences in discriminative ability across external validation samples due to a lack of model generalizability from differences in sample characteristics, we propose propensity-weighted measures of discrimination. These weighted metrics, which are derived from propensity scores for sample membership, are standardized for case-mix differences between the model development and validation samples, allowing for a fair comparison of discriminative ability in terms of model characteristics in a target population of interest. We illustrate our methods with the validation of eight prediction models for deep vein thrombosis in 12 external validation data sets and assess our methods in a simulation study. In the illustrative example, propensity score standardization reduced between-study heterogeneity of discrimination, indicating that between-study variability was partially attributable to case-mix. The simulation study showed that only flexible propensity-score methods (allowing for non-linear effects) produced unbiased estimates of model discrimination in the target population, and only when the positivity assumption was met. Propensity score-based standardization may facilitate the interpretation of (heterogeneity in) discriminative ability of a prediction model as observed across multiple studies, and may guide model updating strategies for a particular target population. Careful propensity score modeling with attention for non-linear relations is recommended