Seismic Interpretation of the Nam Con Son Basin and Its Implication for the Tectonic Evolution

DOI:10.17014/ijog.3.2.127-137The Nam Con Son Basin covering an area of circa 110,000 km2 is characterized by complex tectonic settings of the basin which has not fully been understood. Multiple faults allowed favourable migration passageways for hydrocarbons to go in and out of traps. Despite a large amount of newly acquired seismic and well data there is no significant update on the tectonic evolution and history of the basin development. In this study, the vast amount of seismic and well data were integrated and reinterpreted to define the key structural events in the Nam Con Son Basin. The results show that the basin has undergone two extentional phases. The first N - S extensional phase terminated at around 30 M.a. forming E - W trending grabens which are complicated by multiple half grabens filled by Lower Oligocene sediments. These grabens were reactivated during the second NW - SE extension (Middle Miocene), that resulted from the progressive propagation of NE-SW listric fault from the middle part of the grabens to the margins, and the large scale building up of roll-over structure. Further to the SW, the faults of the second extentional phase turn to NNE-SSW and ultimately N - S in the SW edge of the basin. Most of the fault systems were inactive by Upper Miocene except for the N - S fault system which is still active until recent time

Coxiella burnetii Blocks Intracellular Interleukin-17 Signaling in Macrophages

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterium and the etiological agent of Q fever. Successful host cell infection requires the Coxiella type IVB secretion system (T4BSS), which translocates bacterial effector proteins across the vacuole membrane into the host cytoplasm, where they manipulate a variety of cell processes. To identify host cell targets of Coxiella T4BSS effector proteins, we determined the transcriptome of murine alveolar macrophages infected with a Coxiella T4BSS effector mutant. We identified a set of inflammatory genes that are significantly upregulated in T4BSS mutant-infected cells compared to mock-infected cells or cells infected with wild-type (WT) bacteria, suggesting that Coxiella T4BSS effector proteins downregulate the expression of these genes. In addition, the interleukin-17 (IL-17) signaling pathway was identified as one of the top pathways affected by the bacteria. While previous studies demonstrated that IL-17 plays a protective role against several pathogens, the role of IL-17 during Coxiella infection is unknown. We found that IL-17 kills intracellular Coxiella in a dose-dependent manner, with the T4BSS mutant exhibiting significantly more sensitivity to IL-17 than WT bacteria. In addition, quantitative PCR confirmed the increased expression of IL-17 downstream signaling genes in T4BSS mutant-infected cells compared to WT- or mock-infected cells, including the proinflammatory cytokine genes Il1a, Il1b, and Tnfa, the chemokine genes Cxcl2 and Ccl5, and the antimicrobial protein gene Lcn2 We further confirmed that the Coxiella T4BSS downregulates macrophage CXCL2/macrophage inflammatory protein 2 and CCL5/RANTES protein levels following IL-17 stimulation. Together, these data suggest that Coxiella downregulates IL-17 signaling in a T4BSS-dependent manner in order to escape the macrophage immune response

On the predictions for diffusion-driven evaporation of sessile droplets with interface cooling

The diffusion-driven evaporation of sessile droplets from planar surfaces is influenced by cooling at the air-liquid interface. Here, corrections to the available models for predicting the evaporation process are presented. The mass conservation for diffusion-driven evaporation is resolved by considering the effect of interface cooling on the change in density of saturated vapour along the liquid-vapour interface of sessile droplets. Corrections to the predictions for the spatial distribution of vapour density around a sessile droplet and the evaporative flux of vapour at the interface are obtained. The classical models are recovered from the new predictions if interface cooling is negligible. Comparison between the new and classical predictions for the local surface evaporative flux is obtained using the literature data. Our analysis shows a significant effect of interface cooling which should be considered in predicting diffusion-driven evaporation of sessile droplets on planar surfaces

On the energy efficiency of NOMA for wireless backhaul in multi-tier heterogeneous CRAN

This paper addresses the problem of wireless backhaul in a multi-tier heterogeneous cellular network coordinated by a cloud-based central station (CCS), namely heterogeneous cloud radio access network (HCRAN). A non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is adopted in the power domain for improved spectral efficiency and network throughput of the wireless downlink in the HCRAN. We first develop a power allocation for multiple cells of different tiers taking account of the practical power consumption of different cell types and wireless backhaul. By analysing the energy efficiency (EE) of the NOMA for the practical HCRAN downlink, we show that the power available at the cloud, the propagation environment and cell types have significant impacts on the EE performance. In particular, in a large network, the cells located at the cloud edge are shown to suffer from a very poor performance with a considerably degraded EE, which accordingly motivates us to propose an iteration algorithm for determining the maximal number of cells that can be supported in the HCRAN. The results reveal that a double number of cells can be covered in the urban environment compared to those in the shadowed urban environment and more than 1.5 times of the number of microcells can be deployed over the macrocells, while only a half number of cells can be supported when the distance between them increases threefol

Improving Object Detection in Medical Image Analysis through Multiple Expert Annotators: An Empirical Investigation

The work discusses the use of machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection in medical image analysis and how the performance of these algorithms depends on the number of annotators and the quality of labels. To address the issue of subjectivity in labeling with a single annotator, we introduce a simple and effective approach that aggregates annotations from multiple annotators with varying levels of expertise. We then aim to improve the efficiency of predictive models in abnormal detection tasks by estimating hidden labels from multiple annotations and using a re-weighted loss function to improve detection performance. Our method is evaluated on a real-world medical imaging dataset and outperforms relevant baselines that do not consider disagreements among annotators.Comment: This is a short version submitted to the Midwest Machine Learning Symposium (MMLS 2023), Chicago, IL, US

Suicide attempt in a rural area of Vietnam: Incidence, methods used and access to mental health care

OBJECTIVES: The study aims to determine the incidence of suicide attempt, describe the methods used, and assess use of health care services including mental health care after suicide attempt in a rural area of Vietnam. METHODS: All suicide attempters (104) during 2003-2007 were listed, diagnosed and re-evaluated by trained physicians according to the research criteria of the WHO Multicentre Study of Attempted Suicide. All attempters were interviewed by trained medical staff to investigate methods used, socio-demographic characteristics and use of health services. RESULTS: The yearly incidence was 10.2 per 100000 person-years, 10.6 per 100000 in males and 9.8 per 100000 in females. 99% of cases committed suicide attempt by poisoning, 62.6% by pesticides and 36.3% by pharmaceutical drugs. 34.3% reported having been in contact with somatic care and 13.2% had received mental health care. Among those who reported some treatment received, 47.5% had been in contact with official health care services, 8.1% had pharmacy keepers' consultation or were treated by traditional healers and 4% reported self treatment. CONCLUSION: The incidence of suicide attempt was lower in this population compared to other settings. While the majority of attempters use pesticides, many had used psychotropic drugs. Contact with mental health services following the attempt was very limited in this setting. Suicide prevention for this high risk group should focus on reducing access to pesticides and psychotropic drugs. Mental health services should be made more accessible in rural areas

A Schrödinger Equation for Evolutionary Dynamics

We establish an analogy between the Fokker–Planck equation describing evolutionary landscape dynamics and the Schrödinger equation which characterizes quantum mechanical particles, showing that a population with multiple genetic traits evolves analogously to a wavefunction under a multi-dimensional energy potential in imaginary time. Furthermore, we discover within this analogy that the stationary population distribution on the landscape corresponds exactly to the ground-state wavefunction. This mathematical equivalence grants entry to a wide range of analytical tools developed by the quantum mechanics community, such as the Rayleigh–Ritz variational method and the Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory, allowing us not only the conduct of reasonable quantitative assessments but also exploration of fundamental biological inquiries. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these tools by estimating the population success on landscapes where precise answers are elusive, and unveiling the ecological consequences of stress-induced mutagenesis—a prevalent evolutionary mechanism in pathogenic and neoplastic systems. We show that, even in an unchanging environment, a sharp mutational burst resulting from stress can always be advantageous, while a gradual increase only enhances population size when the number of relevant evolving traits is limited. Our interdisciplinary approach offers novel insights, opening up new avenues for deeper understanding and predictive capability regarding the complex dynamics of evolving populations

A Schr\"odinger Equation for Evolutionary Dynamics

We establish an analogy between the Fokker-Planck equation describing evolutionary landscape dynamics and the Schr\"{o}dinger equation which characterizes quantum mechanical particles, showing how a population with multiple genetic traits evolves analogously to a wavefunction under a multi-dimensional energy potential in imaginary time. Furthermore, we discover within this analogy that the stationary population distribution on the landscape corresponds exactly to the ground-state wavefunction. This mathematical equivalence grants entry to a wide range of analytical tools developed by the quantum mechanics community, such as the Rayleigh-Ritz variational method and the Rayleigh-Schr\"{o}dinger perturbation theory, allowing us to not only make reasonable quantitative assessments but also explore fundamental biological inquiries. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these tools by estimating the population success on landscapes where precise answers are elusive, and unveiling the ecological consequences of stress-induced mutagenesis -- a prevalent evolutionary mechanism in pathogenic and neoplastic systems. We show that, even in a unchanging environment, a sharp mutational burst resulting from stress can always be advantageous, while a gradual increase only enhances population size when the number of relevant evolving traits is limited. Our interdisciplinary approach offers novel insights, opening up new avenues for deeper understanding and predictive capability regarding the complex dynamics of evolving populations