Impacts of the global economic crisis on foreign trade in lower-income economies in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and policy responses: the case of Vietnam and its implications for Lao PDR and Cambodia

This research seeks to better understand the impacts of the global economic crisis on Vietnam’s foreign trade and policy responses, and from this, draw inferences for Lao PDR and Cambodia.Global economic crisis, lower-income economices, GMS, CLMV

The Use of a Motivational Interviewing Instrument to Enhance Academic Self-Efficacy and Academic Motivation of Undergraduate Students at Assumption University

The efficacy of the Brief Academic Motivational Instrument (BAMI) as an intervention in enhancing the academic self-efficacy and academic motivation of university students was tested. The BAMI is a paper based semi-structural Motivational Interviewing (MI) tool that aims to increase student motivation to change studying habits. Participants consisted of 40 undergraduate students, their age ranged from 18 to 32 years old (mean age 21.23), recruited through convenience sampling at Assumption University, Thailand. Participants were randomly assigned to the BAMI experimental group (n=20) and the non-intervention control group (n=20). All participants completed pre and post questionnaires, which the participants self-reported their academic self-efficacy and academic motivation. The investigator went through the BAMI with the experimental group participants after the pretest. All posttests were collected via internet survey 10 days after the pretest. MANOVA for repeated measures analysis was conducted to test the efficacy of the BAMI intervention against a no intervention control group. The results indicated there were no significant differences in academic self-efficacy and academic motivation between the experimental and control group at the posttest, suggesting that the BAMI intervention was ineffective. The insignificant results could be influenced by the timing of the data collection, nature of the sample population, cultural differences, prescreening ineffectiveness, the small sample size and possible language concerns. Further research needs to be conducted in order to further evaluate the effectiveness of the BAMI or similar devices for increasing academic self-efficacy and academic motivation

An Efficient Approach for Line-Following Automated Guided Vehicles Based on Fuzzy Inference Mechanism

Recently, there has been increasing attention paid to AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) in factories and warehouses to enhance the level of automation. In order to improve productivity, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the AGV, including working speed and accuracy. This study presents a fuzzy-PID controller for improving the efficiency of a line-following AGV. A line-following AGV suffers from tracking errors, especially on curved paths, which causes a delay in the lap time. The fuzzy-PID controller in this study mimics the principle of human vehicle control as the situation-aware speed adjustment on curved paths. Consequently, it is possible to reduce the tracking error of AGV and improve its speed. Experimental results show that the Fuzzy-PID controller outperforms the PID controller in both accuracy and speed, especially the lap time of a line-following AGV is enhanced up to 28.6% with the proposed fuzzy-PID controller compared to that with the PID controller only

A novel three-class ROC method for eQTL analysis

The problem of identifying genetic factors underlying complex and quantitative traits such as height, weight and disease susceptibility in natural populations has become a major theme of research in recent years. Aiming at revealing the inter-dependency and causal relationship between the underlying genotypes and observed phenotypes, researchers from different areas have developed a variety of methods for expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping. Most of these methods rely on resampling-based algorithms that are computationally very expensive. To overcome the disadvantages of the current techniques, we propose a novel nonparametric method based on the volume under surface (VUS) within the framework of three-class receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. With the fast algorithms developed, we can reduce the computation time of the genomewide analysis from several months down to several days. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2010 International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics (ICMLC 2010), Qingdao, China, 11-14 July 2010. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 2010, v. 6, p. 3056-306

Energy cost savings based on the UPS

Energy-saving, improving energy efficiency, and finding a new efficient way to use energy are considered as an urgent problem in over the world. In this paper, we consider the economics of energy use in combination with energy storage units where two forms of electricity exist in the power system. Then the problem of optimizing the installation capacity (to optimize the investment costs for energy storage) is presented and investigated in connection with the conversion systems. The topic opens a very significant result, including the introduction of a mathematical model to calculate the simulation in optimizing the installation capacity of the equipment in the system, multi-source power, as well as voltage and power stability benefits

Effective memory of the minority game

It is known that the memory is relevant in the symmetric phase of the minority game. In our previous work we have successfully explained the quasi-periodic behavior of the game in the symmetric phase with the help of the probability theory. Based on this explanation, we are able to determine how the memory affects the variance of the system in this paper. By using some particular types of fake history such as periodic type and random type, we determine how efficient the memory has been used in the standard game. Furthermore, the analysis on the effective memory strongly supports the result we proposed previously that there are three distinct phases in the minority game

Novel dependencies of currents and voltages in power system steady state mode on regulable parameters of three-phase systems symmetrization

The unbalanced mode, negative/zero sequence, variation of real power are caused by the nonlinear or unbalanced loads increase the power transmission losses in distributing power systems and also harmful to the electric devices. Reactive power compensation is considered as the common methods for overcoming asymmetry. The critical issue in reactive power compensation is the optimal calculation of compensation values that is extremely difficult in complex circuits. We proposed a novel approach to overcome these difficulties by providing the creation of new analytical connections of the steady-state mode parameters (voltages, currents) depends on the controlled parameter for the arbitrary circuits. The base of our approach to reactive power compensation is the fractional-polynomial functions. We present a new description of the behavior of voltages and currents depending on the controlled parameters of the reactive power compensation devices, and we prove its effectiveness

Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection in BCG-vaccinated healthcare workers by using an interferon-gamma release assay and the tuberculin skin test in an intermediate tuberculosis burden country

BackgroundThe risk of healthcare workers (HCWs) acquiring tuberculosis (TB) infection is high. We determined the prevalence of latent TB infection (LTBI) in HCWs with a high Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine coverage in an intermediate TB burden country by using an interferon-gamma release assay [QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-G)] and by using the tuberculin skin test (TST). Risk factors associated with a positive test were determined.MethodsThis prospective cross-sectional study enrolled HCWs from a medical center in Taiwan. Participants were grouped into workers without exposure (Group 1) and workers who self-reported a history of TB exposure (Group 2). All participants completed a questionnaire to collect demographic information and risk factors for acquiring TB. The QFT-G test and the TST were administered and risk factors for a positive test were analyzed.ResultsWe recruited 193 HCWs [149 (77.2%) female workers] with a mean age of 35.6 years. All were BCG-vaccinated. The prevalence of LTBI was 88.8% (based on the TST) and 14.5% (based on the QFT-G test). There was no difference between HCWs with and without known exposure to TB. Agreement between the tests was poor (i.e., the kappa value was less than 0.05). Multivariable logistic regression showed that only the QFT-G test was associated with age (35 years or greater) (adjusted OR, 2.53; p = 0.03).ConclusionBy using the QFT-G test or TST, this study found a similar prevalence of LTBI in HCWs with and without known exposure to TB. This suggests that in intermediate TB burden countries exposure to TB may occur within the hospital and within the community. Compared to the TST, the QFT-G test was correlated better with age, which is a known risk factor for latent TB infection