Saprochaete Capitata Infection in an 80–Year Old Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patient: A Case Report

BACKGROUND: The fungal disease caused by invasive fungus Saprochaete capitata is becoming an increasingly popular infection. Fungal pathogens mainly occur in patients with immunocompromised disorders such as hematologic malignancies, acute myeloid leukemia, transplant patients. CASE REPORT: In this study, we presented a COPD patient infected with S. capitata. At the first check, the patient showed cough, dyspnea, chest pain on both sides. The clinical laboratory test result was characterized with high White blood cell (12.8 G/L), HIV negative. The X ray showed bronchitis and emphysema. Bronchoscopy illustrated bronchial mucositis. CT scanner demonstrated pneumonia with fuzzy nodular lesions and thick interstitial organization in both lungs. The patient was treated with ciprofloxacin 800 mg/day; cefuroxime 2250 mmg/day. However, the fever appeared 2 weeks thereafter. The S. capitata was discovered in the bronchial fluid. The patient was then treated with fluconazole 400 mg/day for 14 days. At the end of treatment, all signs and symptoms of S. capitata infection disappeared and the patient recovered. CONCLUSION: This case study showed that S. capitata infection can occur in the COPD patients and fluconazole is a pertinent drug for treatment of the infection

Practical Solutions to Ensure the Schedule Management of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Project in Vietnam: Survey of Expert's Opinions

The development of the construction industry is considered to be a significant factor contributing to the economic growth of states and countries. However, many studies have shown that the quality of time and schedule management on civil and construction projects has generally been poor. Thus, it is essential to investigate factors that significantly affect the project schedule. This research aims to examine the practice of time management on a particular construction transport project in a developing country, the urban railway project in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with its six main lines. The implementation of this project began in 2010, but so far, only two lines have been constructed. The implementation process has been struck by many difficulties leading to the slow implementation of the entire urban railway system. To investigate the main causes leading to project delays, a research survey was carried out in three main stages: (1) a questionnaire was designed (2) data was collected with the participation of experts, and (3) an analysis of the data verification of the research model. Then, the analytical hierarchy process approach was applied to assess the priority level of the proposed solutions to ensure the effectiveness of the schedule of the entire urban railway project

A closed device to generate vortex flow using PZT

This paper reports for the first time a millimeter scale fully packaged device which generates a vortex flow of high velocity. The flow which is simply actuated by a PZT diaphragm circulates with a higher velocity after each actuating circle to form a vortex in a desired chamber. The design of such device is firstly conducted by a numerical analysis using OpenFOAM. Several numerical results are considered as the base of our experiment where a flow vortex is observed by a high speed camera. The present device is potential in various applications related to the inertial sensing, fluidic amplifier and micro/nano particle trapping and mixing

Incidence of dengue and chikungunya viruses in mosquitoes and human patients in border provinces of Vietnam

Background: Dengue virus remains a major threat in Vietnam, while chikungunya virus is expected to become one. Surveillance was conducted from 2012 to 2014 in Vietnam to assess the presence of dengue and chikungunya viruses in patients hospitalized with acute fever in five Vietnam provinces neighboring Lao PDR and Cambodia. Surveillance was extended to mosquitoes present in the vicinity of the patients' households. Results: A total 558 human serum samples were collected along with 1104 adult mosquitoes and 12,041 larvae from 2250 households. Dengue virus was found in 17 (3%) human serum samples and in 9 (0.8%) adult mosquitoes. Chikungunya virus was detected in 2 adult mosquitoes (0.18%) while no chikungunya virus was detected in humans. Differing densities of mosquito populations were found, with the highest in the Long An Province border with Cambodia. Long An Province also displayed the lowest rate of infection, despite a very high Breteau Index, high human population density and presence of the main cross border road system. The highest incidence was found in Dac Nong Province, where the Breteau and Container indices were the second lowest. Dengue virus was detected in five Aedes albopictus, three Aedes aegypti and one Culex vishnui. Chikungunya virus was detected in two Ae. aegypti. All infected mosquitoes belonged to haplotypes described in other parts of the world and a number of novel haplotypes were found among uninfected mosquitoes. Conclusions: Dengue is considered to be regularly introduced to Vietnam from Cambodia, mostly through human movement. The data reported here provides a complementary picture. Due to intensive international trade, long-distance transportation of mosquito populations may play a role in the regular importation of dengue in Vietnam through Ho Chi Minh City. It is important to decipher the movement of mosquitoes in Vietnam, not only at the Lao PDR and Cambodia borders but also through international trade routes. Mosquito surveillance programs should address and follow mosquito populations instead of mosquito species

Fluidic mechanism for dual-axis gyroscope

In this paper, we report a further study of flow-network generating four jet flows which circulate in a sealed device to experimentally investigate the feasibility and efficiency of a dual-axis gyroscope. The experiment is carried out successfully and the experimental results reasonably agreed with those obtained by numerical analysis using OpenFOAM. The flow rectifying coefficient is determined using the mathematical lump model for a vibrating system, which takes into account of the device geometry and resonant frequency. Experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the coefficient of the new system developed in this study is significantly higher than those of conventional designs. The hotwire-integrated device which can function as a dual-axis gyroscope is tested using a turntable with speeds up to 1900 rpm. The scale factor and cross-sensitivity of the system are 0.26 microV s/o and 1.2%, respectively. The cross-sensitivity and the effects of linear acceleration, actuating voltage on the diaphragm, heating power and position of hotwires are also investigated

Robust angular rate sensor based on corona discharge ion wind

A new design of a jet flow gyroscope is developed by employing the advantages of a corona-discharge-based jet flow. Ion wind is generated by applying a high–voltage between a pin, as the discharge electrode, and a ring, as the reference electrode. When the gyroscope is subjected to an angular rate, the induced Coriolis force deflects the ion wind. This deflection is detected using four hotwires installed downstream of the working chamber behind the reference electrode. Both the experimental and numerical study have been conducted to study the phenomenon. The results show that the angular rate can be detected with a sensitivity of above 15 μV/o/s. Because ion wind can be generated with minimum power and does not require any vibrating components, the device is robust, consumes low power, and cost-effective

Camellia sinensis extract delays microbiological and oxidative changes in striped catfish fillets during frozen storage

peer reviewedThis study investigated the effects of tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) extract on the quality of striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) fillets during 18-months of frozen storage (-20 ± 2 °C). Fillet samples were submitted to the treatments Control (cold tap water), CS 7.63 (C. sinensis extract solution 7.63 µg/mL) and CS 625 (C. sinensis extract 625 µg/mL) and stored for 18 months, with collections performed at 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months. Total viable count, physicochemical parameters (water holding capacity, total volatile basic nitrogen, peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, moisture and pH), sensory properties and color measurement were evaluated. Results showed that fillets treated with C.a sinensis extracts slightly reduced lipid oxidation, inhibited bacterial growth and improved sensory properties compared to untreated samples, without causing significant changes in the other quality indicators. The findings indicated that the green tea leaf extract immersion treatments, contributed to the improved quality preservation of striped catfish fillets during frozen storage

TextANIMAR: Text-based 3D Animal Fine-Grained Retrieval

3D object retrieval is an important yet challenging task, which has drawn more and more attention in recent years. While existing approaches have made strides in addressing this issue, they are often limited to restricted settings such as image and sketch queries, which are often unfriendly interactions for common users. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel SHREC challenge track focusing on text-based fine-grained retrieval of 3D animal models. Unlike previous SHREC challenge tracks, the proposed task is considerably more challenging, requiring participants to develop innovative approaches to tackle the problem of text-based retrieval. Despite the increased difficulty, we believe that this task has the potential to drive useful applications in practice and facilitate more intuitive interactions with 3D objects. Five groups participated in our competition, submitting a total of 114 runs. While the results obtained in our competition are satisfactory, we note that the challenges presented by this task are far from being fully solved. As such, we provide insights into potential areas for future research and improvements. We believe that we can help push the boundaries of 3D object retrieval and facilitate more user-friendly interactions via vision-language technologies.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0573

Multiple Wolbachia strains provide comparative levels of protection against dengue virus infection in Aedes aegypti.

The insect bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is being introgressed into Aedes aegypti populations as an intervention against the transmission of medically important arboviruses. Here we compare Ae. aegypti mosquitoes infected with wMelCS or wAlbB to the widely used wMel Wolbachia strain on an Australian nuclear genetic background for their susceptibility to infection by dengue virus (DENV) genotypes spanning all four serotypes. All Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were more resistant to intrathoracic DENV challenge than their wildtype counterparts. Blocking of DENV replication was greatest by wMelCS. Conversely, wAlbB-infected mosquitoes were more susceptible to whole body infection than wMel and wMelCS. We extended these findings via mosquito oral feeding experiments, using viremic blood from 36 acute, hospitalised dengue cases in Vietnam, additionally including wMel and wildtype mosquitoes on a Vietnamese nuclear genetic background. As above, wAlbB was less effective at blocking DENV replication in the abdomen compared to wMel and wMelCS. The transmission potential of all Wolbachia-infected mosquito lines (measured by the presence/absence of infectious DENV in mosquito saliva) after 14 days, was significantly reduced compared to their wildtype counterparts, and lowest for wMelCS and wAlbB. These data support the use of wAlbB and wMelCS strains for introgression field trials and the biocontrol of DENV transmission. Furthermore, despite observing significant differences in transmission potential between wildtype mosquitoes from Australia and Vietnam, no difference was observed between wMel-infected mosquitoes from each background suggesting that Wolbachia may override any underlying variation in DENV transmission potential