Traffic Simulation Model for Port Planning and Congestion Prevention

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under its Corp Lab @ University schem

M^2UNet: MetaFormer Multi-scale Upsampling Network for Polyp Segmentation

Polyp segmentation has recently garnered significant attention, and multiple methods have been formulated to achieve commendable outcomes. However, these techniques often confront difficulty when working with the complex polyp foreground and their surrounding regions because of the nature of convolution operation. Besides, most existing methods forget to exploit the potential information from multiple decoder stages. To address this challenge, we suggest combining MetaFormer, introduced as a baseline for integrating CNN and Transformer, with UNet framework and incorporating our Multi-scale Upsampling block (MU). This simple module makes it possible to combine multi-level information by exploring multiple receptive field paths of the shallow decoder stage and then adding with the higher stage to aggregate better feature representation, which is essential in medical image segmentation. Taken all together, we propose MetaFormer Multi-scale Upsampling Network (M$^2$UNet) for the polyp segmentation task. Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets demonstrate that our method achieved competitive performance compared with several previous methods

Assessment of physical land suitability by GIS-based fuzzy AHP for rubber plantation at the Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province

This research was conducted to determine the main influences and physical factors of land suitability for rubber plantation in the Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province. Six factors such as soil type, soil texture, soil thickness, slope, soil pH and soil organic matter content were considered. Results indicate that soil thickness is has the highest role on the land suitability analysis while soil pH has the lowest. The physical land suitability of rubber plantation was divided into 4 levels: very suitable (10.1%), suitable (15.5%), slightly suitable (3.6%), and currently not suitable (70,8%). This research provides important information for rubber cultivation in projected agricultural land use planning of the Nam Dong district.Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện nhằm xác định sự ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố tự nhiên đến sự thích nghi đất đai của loại hình sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su trên địa bàn huyện Nam Đông, tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế. Có 6 yếu tố được xem xét trong nghiên cứu này bao gồm: loại đất, thành phần cơ giới, tầng dày canh tác, độ dốc, độ chua và hàm lượng mùn trong đất. Kết quả nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng tầng dày canh tác là yếu tố có ảnh hưởng lớn nhất đến việc sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su, trong khi đó độ chua là yếu tố có ảnh hưởng ít nhất. Sự thích nghi tự nhiên của loại hình sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su được chia thành 4 mức độ bao gồm rất thích nghi (10,1%), thích nghi (15,5%), tương đối thích nghi (3,6%) và hiện taị không thích nghi (70,8%). Nghiên cứu này cung cấp những thông tin cần thiết và hữu ích cho việc quy hoạch sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su trên địa bàn huyện Nam Đông

Structure and Electrochemical Impedance of LiNix_{x}Mn2−x_{2 - x}O4_{4}

Ni-substitution spinel LiNixMn2−xO4 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2) materials were synthesized by the sol--gel method. The structure and  morphology of the samples were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD)  and the scanning electron microscopy. The ac conduction of the materials was  investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements.  The refinement results showed that the substitution of Ni decreased the  lattice constant and Mn--O distance, while increased Li--O bond length and  16c octahedral volume. The EIS results confirmed the decrease of  conductivity with increasing Ni substitution content. Based on XRD and EIS  results, the relationship between the crystal structure and electrochemical  behavior of the materials was discussed and explained

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

Primary and secondary somatic embryogenesis in Jatropha curcas L. From leaf transverse thin cell layers

An efficient method for plant regeneration in Jatropha curcas L. via primary and secondary somatic embryogenesis culture from ex vitro leaves of 6-month-old plants was presented in this study. Leaves were cut into transverse thin cell layers (tTCLs) and cultured on MS medium supplemented with kinetin (KIN) at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mg/l in combination with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/l or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) at 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/l . The highest embryogenic callus formation rate (89.3%) was obtained on medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l KIN and 1.5 mg/l 2,4-D. The calli were selected for the study of primary somatic embryogenesis on MS medium containing 2,4-D (0.01, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.07 mg/l) or KIN (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mg/l). The highest primary somatic embryos formation rate (76.67%) was achieved on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l KIN. The primary embryos were cultured on medium supplemented with KIN (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mg/l) combined with 0.2 mg/l indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or 0.05 mg/l 2,4-D. The combination of 1.5 mg/l KIN and 0.05 mg/l 2,4-D was suitable for secondary embryos formation. Embryos proliferated rapidly, and the highest number of secondary embryos (77.5 embryos) wasobtained from a single primary embryos inoculated. Results also showed that the addition of proline (0.75 g/l) or spermidine (0.15 mM) to the culture medium increased the number of secondary embryos considerably. The fully developed plantlets exhibiting healthy roots and shoots were obtained when somatic embryos were sub-cultured onto B5 medium containing 1.5 mg/l IBA

PRESENT DAY DEFORMATION IN THE EAST VIETNAM SEA AND SURROUNDING REGIONS

This paper presents velocities of present-day tectonic movement and strain rate in the East Vietnam Sea (South China Sea) and surroundings determined from GPS campaigns between 2007 and 2010. We determine absolute velocities of GPS stations in the ITRF05 frame. The result indicates that GPS stations in the North of East Vietnam Sea move eastwards with the slip rate of 30 - 39 mm/yr, southwards at the velocities of 8 - 11 mm/yr. Song Tu Tay offshore moves eastwards at the rate of ~24 mm/yr and southwards at ~9 mm/yr. GPS stations in the South of East Vietnam Sea move to the east at the rate of ~22 mm/yr and to the south at the velocities of 7 - 11 mm/yr. The effect of relative movement shows that the Western Margin Fault Zone activates as left lateral fault zone at the slip rate less than 4 mm/year.In Western plateau, the first result from 2012 - 2013 GPS measurement shows that the velocities to the east vary from 21.5 mm/yr to 24.7 mm/year. The velocities to the south vary from 10.5 mm/yr to 14.6 mm/year. GPS solutions determined from our campaigns are combined with data from various authors and international projects to determine the strain rate in the East Vietnam Sea. Principal strain rate changes from 15 nanostrain/yr to 9 nanostrain/yr in the East Vietnam Sea. Principal strain rate and maximum shear strain rate along the Red River Fault Zone are in order of 10 nanostrain/year. East Vietnam Sea is considered to belong to the Sunda block

THỰC TRẠNG NĂNG LỰC KIẾN THỨC CÁN BỘ ĐỊA CHÍNH CẤP XÃ TRONG QUẢN LÝ ĐẤT ĐAI TẠI HUYỆN A LƯỚI, TỈNH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ

Cadastral officials play an important role in land management at the local level. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the knowledge capacity of cadastral officials in A Luoi district. We used secondary and primary data by interviewing 171 people, including cadastral officials, commune leaders, district level staff and households. In parallel, we used the 5-point Likert scale (from 1-5, corresponding to the level of competence of cadastral officials from very poor to very good) for analysis. The results show that the knowledge capacity of the cadastral officials is only average, with a score of 3.4. In particular, 4 out of a total of 4 knowledge capacities in law, procedures, time and authority implementation of cadastral officials in conciliation and land dispute resolution are at an average level. In contrast, 3 out of a total of 4 knowledge capacities in conditions for issuance of land use rights certificate, procedures, and authority implementation of cadastral officials in issuance of land use rights certificate are at a good level, and 1 knowledge capacity in law is at an average level. The research results highlighted reasons and proposed some solutions to improve the knowledge capacity of cadastral officials in the study area.Cán bộ địa chính (CBĐC) cấp xã là lực lượng nòng cốt trong công tác quản lý đất đai tại địa phương. Do vậy, nghiên cứu này nhằm đánh giá năng lực kiến thức của CBĐC cấp xã trong quản lý đất đai tại huyện A Lưới. Nghiên cứu sử dụng số liệu thứ cấp và sơ cấp thông qua phỏng vấn 171 người: cán bộ cấp huyện, lãnh đạo xã, CBĐC cấp xã, và người dân để phân tích. Đồng thời, sử dụng thang đo Likert 5 mức độ (từ 1–5, tương ứng rất chưa tốt – rất tốt) để đánh giá năng lực kiến thức. Kết quả cho thấy, năng lực kiến thức CBĐC chỉ ở mức trung bình với số điểm bình quân là 3,4. Trong đó, thủ tục hoà giải, giải quyết tranh chấp đất đai có 4/4 tiêu chí về năng lực kiến thức pháp luật; trình tự thủ tục; thời gian và thẩm quyền thực hiện của CBĐC đều ở mức độ trung bình. Trái lại, thủ tục đăng ký đất đai, cấp GCN, lập và quản lý HSĐC, 3 tiêu chí kiến thức về điều kiện; trình tự và thẩm quyền thực hiện ở mức tốt, 1 tiêu chí kiến thức pháp luật bị đánh giá ở mức trung bình. Kết quả nghiên cứu đã chỉ ra các nguyên nhân và đề xuất một số giải pháp góp phần nâng cao năng lực kiến thức của CBĐC cấp xã tại địa phương

CSA: Thực hành nông nghiệp thông minh với khí hậu ở Việt Nam

During the last five years, Vietnam has been one of the countries most affected by climate change. Severe typhoons, flooding, cold spells, salinity intrusion, and drought have affected agriculture production across the country, from upland to lowland regions. Fortunately for Vietnam, continuous work in developing climate-smart agriculture has been occurring in research organizations and among innovative farmers and entrepreneurs. Application of various CSA practices and technologies to adapt to the impact of climate change in agriculture production have been expanding. However, there is a need to accelerate the scaling process of these practices and technologies in order to ensure growth of agriculture production and food security, increase income of farmers, make farming climate resilient, and contribute to global climate change mitigation. This book aims to provide basic information to researchers, managers, and technicians and extentionists at different levels on what CSA practices and technologies can be up scaled in different locations in Vietnam

The Role of Maternally Acquired Antibody in Providing Protective Immunity Against Nontyphoidal Salmonella in Urban Vietnamese Infants: A Birth Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) organisms are a major cause of gastroenteritis and bacteremia, but little is known about maternally acquired immunity and natural exposure in infant populations residing in areas where NTS disease is highly endemic. METHODS: We recruited 503 pregnant mothers and their infants (following delivery) from urban areas in Vietnam and followed infants until they were 1 year old. Exposure to the dominant NTS serovars, Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis, were assessed using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O antigen-specific antibodies. Antibody dynamics, the role of maternally acquired antibodies, and NTS seroincidence rates were modeled using multivariate linear risk factor models and generalized additive mixed-effect models. RESULTS: Transplacental transfer of NTS LPS-specific maternal antibodies to infants was highly efficient. Waning of transplacentally acquired NTS LPS-specific antibodies at 4 months of age left infants susceptible to Salmonella organisms, after which they began to seroconvert. High seroincidences of S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis LPS were observed, and infants born with higher anti-LPS titers had greater plasma bactericidal activity and longer protection from seroconversion. CONCLUSIONS: Although Vietnamese infants have extensive exposure to NTS, maternally acquired antibodies appear to play a protective role against NTS infections during early infancy. These findings suggest that prenatal immunization may be an appropriate strategy to protect vulnerable infants from NTS disease