Serological and molecular surveillance of Orientia tsutsugamushi in scrub typhus patients and coinfection of Huaiyangshan banyangvirus

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 의과대학 의과학과, 2020. 8. 조남혁.1. Introduction: Scrub typhus is a mite-borne infectious disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. Huaiyangshan banyangvirus (formerly Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV)) is a tick-borne virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is emerging in Eastern Asia, including China, South Korea, and Japan, which are endemic region of scrub typhus. As the two infections overlap epidemiologically and clinically, knowledge on the local prevalence of the vector-borne infections is critical in target-oriented investigation and treatment.2. Methods: To investigate the genotypic diversity of O. tsutsugamushi and potential coinfection with SFTSV in South Korea and Myanmar, 2,328 sera collected from patients with acute febrile illness in South Korea from 2000 to 2003 and 152 sera obtained from suspected patients with scrub typhus in Myanmar during 2018 were examined. I performed serological and molecular diagnosis of scrub typhus and SFTS. Phylogenetic analysis of both pathogens were also performed by sequencing of the amplified genes from O. tsutsugamushi and SFTSV.3. Results: Among 2,328 samples from Korean patients, serological analysis detecting specific IgG against SFTSV NP antigen identified 37 positive samples (1.6%). Molecular detection of SFTSV NP gene and O. tsutsugamushi tsa56 gene by PCR using the 37 specimens revealed 9 positive for SFTSV and 14 positive for O. tsutsugamushi, respectively. Sequencing of 14 Orientia-specific PCR products showed the presence of 3 genotypes, including Boryong (1/37, 2.7%), Karp (8/37, 21.6%) and Gilliam (4/37, 10.8%) genotypes. In addition, 4 specimens were positive for both SFTSV NP gene and O. tsutsugamushi tsa56 gene, indicating coinfections. Among 152 Myanmar samples, 9 samples (5.9%) were positive for O. tsutsugamushi tsa56 gene and sequencing of the PCR products revealed the presence of 5 genotypes, Karp A (4/9, 44,4%), Karp B (1/9, 11.1%), Kato B (2/9, 22.2%), Gilliam (1/9, 11.1%) and JG_C (1/9, 11.1%). 5 samples were positive for SFTSV NP gene-specific PCR (5/152, 3.28%). These 5 SFTSV NP gene positive samples were all negative for O. tsutsugamushi tsa56 gene, but 3 of them carried high titers (≥1:2,560) of IgG or IgM or both antibodies specific to O. tsutsugamushi, as measured by indirect immunofluorescence assay. 4. Conclusion: In this study, serological and molecular surveillance of sera collected from suspected scrub typhus patients in South Korea and Myanmar revealed serological prevalence and genotypic heterogeneity of O. tsutsutsugamushi. Moreover, potential coinfection of O. tsutsugamushi and SFTSV was identified by serological and molecular surveillance. These results suggest that SFTSV infections might have been spread more widely in Eastern Asia. Therefore, continuous surveillance of SFTS patients needs to be conducted in the local area. In addition, more reliable differential diagnosis techniques and prevention and control measures are required for better clinical practices and outcomes in the endemic regions of multiple tick-borne and mite-borne pathogens.INTRODUCTION 7 MATERIALS AND METHODS 16 RESULTS 23 DISCUSSION 54 REFERENCES 63 ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 73Docto

Design and analysis of high-Q metasurfaces using multipole expansion

Department of Electrical EngineeringDespite numerous potential advantages of sub-radiative dark modes due to an extremely high quality factor, the practicality still depends on the consistency of excitations for a tight fabrication tolerance. This work proposes a novel approach to adaptive transitions between different dipole moments to allow for consistent excitation of Fano and electric quadrupole resonances that are extremely sensitive to geometric errors. The proposed geometry of each metamolecule consists of four strips printed on a thin dielectric film with four gaps between the strips, and the geometric error is described as structural deformation by adjusting the strip lengths and gap sizes in the vertical direction. In each deformed state, current and magnetic-field distributions are analyzed to interpret operating principles, and multipole moments are calculated based on the multipole expansion using the current distributions. The results demonstrate that the consistent excitation of the electric quadrupole moment is enabled based on a simultaneous transition between toroidal and electric dipole moments, and the Fano resonance is consistently excited by the magnetic-to-electric dipole moment transition. For verification, original and deformed metasurfaces are fabricated, and their transmission and reflection coefficients are measured in a semi-anechoic chamber to experimentally validate the proposed dipole moment transitions. The results confirm that the proposed approach has great potential to bring advances in recent sensing and energy harvesting applications where an extremely high quality factor is essential.clos

SONOCHEMICAL DEGRADATION OF CARBON TETRACHLORIDE IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION AT TWO FREQUENCIES : 200KHZ AND 600KHZ, 200W ACOUSTIC POWER

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Catholic Relief Services: Information and Communication Technology in Monitoring and Evaluation

In February 2015, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Vietnam initiated a new project to support the reintegration and rehabilitation of survivors of accidents involving landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). With funding from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/WRA), CRS’ Access and Reintegration (A&R) project takes a comprehensive approach to serving the needs of 3,219 survivors of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces. Through collaboration with the Government of Vietnam’s provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA), CRS provides survivors with access to medical care, rehabilitation, and social and livelihood support services. The key to success has been establishing an effective and functional coordination system at the local level for referrals, strengthening a network of community-based workers, and supporting families to provide appropriate, home-based care and support. CRS’ A&R project creates a network of support that ensures increased access to comprehensive services for survivors and advances their reintegration into society. The A&R Project has established a model for scaling to six affected districts in the targeted provinces and beyond

Agricultural restructure policy in Vietnam and practical application for sustainable development in agriculture

Recently, effective agricultural policies necessitate sustainable development in the agricultural sector, which necessitates frequent research and the attention of policymakers. Consequently, this study investigates the effect of agricultural restructuring policies on agricultural import, agricultural export, agricultural employment, agricultural irrigation land, and agricultural land on the sustainable development of agriculture in Vietnam. From 1991 to 2021, the researchers extracted secondary data from secondary sources such as World Development Indicators (WDI). The researchers also used the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method to examine the relationships between the variables. The results revealed that agricultural restructuring policies regarding agricultural import, agricultural exports, agricultural employment, agricultural irrigation land, and agricultural land have a positive correlation with Vietnam's agriculture's sustainable development. The research assists policymakers in formulating regulations for achieving sustainable agricultural development by implementing effective agricultural restructuring policies.Mai Thi Huyen (Bac Giang Agriculture and Forestry University (BAFU)), Nguyen Thi Xuan Huong (Viet Nam National University of Forestry (VNUF)), Nguyen Van Song (Viet Nam National University of Agriculture (VNUA)), Nguyen Thi Hai Yen (College of Economics, Vinh University (VU)), Nguyen Dang Que National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA))Includes bibliographical references

Computational Modeling of Metastatic Cancer Migration Through a Remodeling Extracellular Matrix

The spreading of cancer cells, also known as metastasis, remains a lethal and unstoppable aspect of cancer treatment. Several cancer studies have suggested the remodeling of collagen fibers in the extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitates the migration of cancer cells during metastasis. ECM remodeling refers to the following activities: the ECM degradation caused by the enzyme matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the ECM alignment due to the cross-linking enzyme lysyl oxidase (LOX). Such modifications of the collagen fibers induce changes in physical and biomechanical properties of the ECM that affect cancer cell migration through the ECM. However, the underlying mechanism of how these changes will give way favorably for the directional motility of cancer cells through the pool of collagen fibers in the ECM remains an open question. In this thesis, we employed the art of multiscale modeling of cancer to gain more insight into the complex interplay between metastatic cancer cells and the ECM while it undergoes remodeling. Two in silico models following different modeling approaches are proposed in this work. The first model is developed via the continuum modeling approach. The mathematical model is a system of five coupled partial differential equations (PDEs). The second model is built via the open-source software CompuCell3D upon the insight and framework gained from the continuous model. Modeling method applied in CompuCell3D is a composite of discrete and continuum modeling approach in which cells are treated as discrete while other components such as the ECM and chemicals are described through continuum fields. Both models include the effect of LOX, an enzyme that has not been included in any previous cancer invasion models. LOX are considered to enable transport of enzymes and migration of cells through a dynamic, reaction tumor microenvironment that is modulated during cell migration. Our models thus far have extended other existing relevant models with improved features showing the influential role of LOX as well as MMPs on the remodeling of ECM and metastatic cancer migration.Chemical Engineerin

Experimental Evaluation on Engineering Properties and Drying Shrinkage of No-Cement Mortar Produced by Alkaline Activation of Fly Ash-Slag Mixtures

Turning locally available industrial by-products such as fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) into cement-free materials has been recently received much attention from researchers. Following this trend, the present study produces alkali-activated mortars (AAFS) using a mixture of FA and GGBFS as a precursor activated by an alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Five AAFS mixtures were prepared for the evaluation of engineering properties, drying shrinkage, and microstructural observation using various FA/GGBFS ratios of 30/70, 40/60, 50/50, 60/40, and 70/30. The experimental results show that the proportions of FA and GGBFS significantly affected the performance of the AAFS in both fresh and hardened stages. Higher GGBFS content resulted in a reduction in flowability and higher fresh unit weight. The GGBFS-rich AAFS developed its mechanical strength faster than the FA-rich AAFS and the strength gain of the GGBFS-rich AAFS was significantly higher than that of the cement-based mortar at only 1-day old, confirming the applicability of AAFS as a structural material and its potential to replace cement in the no-cement mortar production. The AAFS sample incorporating 60% of GGBFS and 40% of FA exhibited the highest strength, lowest water absorption, and less drying shrinkage with a relatively dense microstructure among the AAFS samples

Isolation and determination of Vibrio spp. pathogen from Sciaenops ocellatus suffering from hemorrhagic disease under cage culture in Vietnam

This study was carried out to isolate and determine the Vibrio spp. from the Red drum fish (Sciaenops ocellatus) suffering from the hemorrhagic disease in Vietnam.  In this study, 18 strains of Vibrio bacteria were identified from 27 samples of Red drum fish. The isolated bacterial strains were identified with the 16S rRNA sequencing method and checked for morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics by using the API 20E KIT. Results of the study revealed the presence of twelve strains of V. alginolyticus, three strains of V. fluvialis, and three strains of V. orientalis. All Vibrio strains have gene similarities with those on the Genbank ranging from 98.05 to 100%. The biochemical characteristics of these 18 isolates were similar and these are susceptible to tetracycline and doxycycline and entirely resistant to ampicillin, amoxicillin, and erythromycin

RMDM: A Multilabel Fakenews Dataset for Vietnamese Evidence Verification

In this study, we present a novel and challenging multilabel Vietnamese dataset (RMDM) designed to assess the performance of large language models (LLMs), in verifying electronic information related to legal contexts, focusing on fake news as potential input for electronic evidence. The RMDM dataset comprises four labels: real, mis, dis, and mal, representing real information, misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information, respectively. By including these diverse labels, RMDM captures the complexities of differing fake news categories and offers insights into the abilities of different language models to handle various types of information that could be part of electronic evidence. The dataset consists of a total of 1,556 samples, with 389 samples for each label. Preliminary tests on the dataset using GPT-based and BERT-based models reveal variations in the models' performance across different labels, indicating that the dataset effectively challenges the ability of various language models to verify the authenticity of such information. Our findings suggest that verifying electronic information related to legal contexts, including fake news, remains a difficult problem for language models, warranting further attention from the research community to advance toward more reliable AI models for potential legal applications.Comment: ISAILD@KSE 202

Fetus Trafficking in Viet Nam – The New Criminal Method of Human Trafficking

When it comes to basic rights of the fetus, including the right to life, theoretical studies around the world on human rights of the fetus still have not reached an agreement on approaches and explanation. Criminal law at the international and national levels still leaves the possibility of protecting the unborn child. Viet Nam’s criminal law is no exception to this trend. In addition, Viet Nam is currently facing human trafficking with new methods and tricks. Children are bought and paid for while still in the womb, then born abroad and given to traffickers. Children are only protected by criminal law for human trafficking if they are born, alive, and detected by the authorities. While the act of trafficking in fetuses is often easily detected by the authorities right from the stage of purchasing and paying, it is not feasible to prosecute this act for human trafficking under the criminal law of Viet Nam. This reduces the criminal law’s ability to suppress crime, at the same time, leaves many fetuses unprotected. Should criminal law be left outside the legal mechanism to protect children while in the fetal stage? This article suggests considering fetus trafficking as a form of human trafficking and to criminalize fetus trafficking. Criminal law should recognize fetus trafficking as a sign of crime or an early stage in the criminal process of human trafficking, because children need special care and protection, including appropriate legal protection before and after birth, due to their physical and mental immaturity