Non-abelian Littlewood-Offord inequalities

In 1943, Littlewood and Offord proved the first anti-concentration result for sums of independent random variables. Their result has since then been strengthened and generalized by generations of researchers, with applications in several areas of mathematics. In this paper, we present the first non-abelian analogue of Littlewood-Offord result, a sharp anti-concentration inequality for products of independent random variables.Comment: 14 pages Second version. Dependence of the upper bound on the matrix size in the main results has been remove

Adult and child labor markets with Nashian and Kantian firms

Purpose – This paper is a dedication to Professor Ngo Van Long who introduced the idea of Kant–Nash equilibrium. The author extends this analysis to the study of adult and child labor markets. Design/methodology/approach – This is a game theoretic analysis of the market for adult and child workers when some firms behave in the neoclassical Nashian way and some firms follow a Kantian social norm. Findings – The presence of Kantian firms in the output market in addition to Nashian lowers industry output and labor demand. This raises the possibility that Kantian behavior in the output market could lower wages sufficiently and increase the incidence of child labor. If firms engage in Kantian behavior in the labor market by not hiring child workers, adult wage rises but could lower child wage as children if they work can only work for Nashian firms. When labor demand is sufficiently high, more Kantians could raise adult wage above subsistence and eliminate child labor supply. Originality/value – This is the first paper to apply Kant–Nash equilibrium to the labor market. The result that Kantian behavior could have an unintended negative spillover effect in other markets is new. The paper keeps alive the ideas of Professor Long, which hopefully will stimulate further work and build on his ideas

Implementation of Health Policy on Establishment of Provincial Center of Diseases Control (CDC) in Vietnam

Purpose: There is increasing interest in the understanding of key influences over successful implementation of health policies within ever-changing contexts of national health systems. The epidemiological transition in Vietnam, combined with an urgent need for improving efficiency of the national health system under the government’s administrative reforms, form important facilitators of restructuring the public health system. This paper explored the implementation processes of policy on establishment of the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) in Vietnam during 2016– 2019. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional and mixed methods design. Staff surveys were collected at 55 out of 63 provinces and in-depth interviews, focus groups were conducted in three purposefully selected provinces. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The innovation implementation framework guided the study. Results: After 3 years of introduction, 82.5% of provinces had established the CDCs. Implementation of CDC establishment policy was influenced by 1) management support; 2) alignment between policy and practice; 3) values towards CDC,; and 4) implementation climate. Other external key influencers included political, social, and cultural factors. Conclusion: Our study provides a framework and evidence to guide future inquiry into the factors that affect the relationship between policy implementation and other contextual factors in healthcare organizations

The Performance of ECMWF sub-seasonal forecasts to predict the Rainy Season Onset Dates in Vietnam

The onset of the rainy season is an important date for the mostly rain-fed agricultural practices in Vietnam. Sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) ensemble hindcasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are used to evaluate the predictability of the rainy season onset dates (RSODs) over five climatic sub-regions of Vietnam. The results show that the ECMWF model reproduces well the observed inter-annual variability of RSODs, with a high correlation ranging from 0.60 to 0.99 over all sub-regions at all lead times (up to 40 days) using five different RSOD definitions. For increasing lead times, forecasted RSODs tend to be earlier than the observed ones. Positive skill score values for almost all cases examined in all sub-regions indicate that the model outperforms the observed climatology in predicting the RSOD at sub-seasonal lead times (~28–35 days). However, the model is overall more skilful at shorter lead times. The choice of the RSOD criterion should be considered because it can significantly influence the model performance. The result of analysing the highest skill score for each sub-region at each lead time shows that criteria with higher 5-day rainfall thresholds tend to be more suitable for the forecasts at long lead times. However, the values of mean absolute error are approximately the same as the absolute values of the mean error, indicating that the prediction could be improved by a simple bias correction. The present study shows a large potential to use S2S forecasts to provide meaningful predictions of RSODs for farmers

Helminth eggs die-off and nutrients : human excreta storage experiment

Are the current practices of handling human excreta for agricultural purposes by farmers in Vietnam good enough?This study set up an excreta storage experiment to research how to inactivate Ascaris lumbricoides eggs and stillmaintain the nutrient value of human excreta

Remark on the Entropy Production of Adaptive Run-and-Tumble Chemotaxis

Chemotactic active particles, such as bacteria and cells, exhibit an adaptive run-and-tumble motion, giving rise to complex emergent behaviors in response to external chemical fields. This motion is generated by the conversion of internal chemical energy into self-propulsion, allowing each agent to sustain a steady-state far from thermal equilibrium and perform works. The rate of entropy production serves as an indicates of how extensive these agents operate away from thermal equilibrium, providing a measure for estimating maximum obtainable power. Here we present the general framework for calculating the entropy production rate created by such population of agents from the first principle, using the minimal model of bacterial adaptive chemotaxis, as they execute the most basic collective action -- the mass transport

Chronic Stress Related to Cancer Incidence, including the Role of Metabolic Syndrome Components

Epidemiological results on the link between chronic stress and cancer initiation have been inconsistent. This study examined the relation between chronic biological stress, indicated as hair cortisol (HairF) and hair cortisone (HairE), and cancer incidence, adjusting for metabolic syndrome (MetS) components. We analyzed HairF and HairE samples from 6341 participants from the population-based cohort Lifelines in 2014. A linkage with the Dutch Nationwide Pathology Databank (Palga) provided the cancer incidence from 2015 to 2021. The association between dichotomized HairF and log-transformed HairE (LogHairE) and cancer incidence was estimated using Cox regression. MetS components were evaluated as confounders or moderators. Of the 2776 participants with known HairF levels and no cancer history, 238 developed cancer. The HairF level did not predict cancer incidence (HR: 0.993, 95%CI: 0.740–1.333). No confounders or moderators were identified. Among the 4699 participants with known HairE levels and no cancer history, 408 developed cancer. There was no association between LogHairE and cancer incidence (HR: 1.113, 95%CI: 0.738–1.678). When including age as a confounder and gender as a moderator, LogHairE was statistically significantly associated with cancer incidence (HR: 6.403, 95%CI: 1.110–36.92). In a population-based cohort, chronic biological stress, measured by HairE, was associated with cancer incidence, after controlling for age and gender.</p

Chronic Stress Related to Cancer Incidence, including the Role of Metabolic Syndrome Components

Epidemiological results on the link between chronic stress and cancer initiation have been inconsistent. This study examined the relation between chronic biological stress, indicated as hair cortisol (HairF) and hair cortisone (HairE), and cancer incidence, adjusting for metabolic syndrome (MetS) components. We analyzed HairF and HairE samples from 6341 participants from the population-based cohort Lifelines in 2014. A linkage with the Dutch Nationwide Pathology Databank (Palga) provided the cancer incidence from 2015 to 2021. The association between dichotomized HairF and log-transformed HairE (LogHairE) and cancer incidence was estimated using Cox regression. MetS components were evaluated as confounders or moderators. Of the 2776 participants with known HairF levels and no cancer history, 238 developed cancer. The HairF level did not predict cancer incidence (HR: 0.993, 95%CI: 0.740–1.333). No confounders or moderators were identified. Among the 4699 participants with known HairE levels and no cancer history, 408 developed cancer. There was no association between LogHairE and cancer incidence (HR: 1.113, 95%CI: 0.738–1.678). When including age as a confounder and gender as a moderator, LogHairE was statistically significantly associated with cancer incidence (HR: 6.403, 95%CI: 1.110–36.92). In a population-based cohort, chronic biological stress, measured by HairE, was associated with cancer incidence, after controlling for age and gender.</p