Risk analysis of energy in Vietnam

The purpose of the paper is to estimate market risk for the ten major industries in Vietnam. The focus is on the Energy sector, which has been designated as one of the four key industries, together with Services, Food, and Telecommunications, targeted for economic development by the Vietnam Government through to 2020. Oil and Gas is a separate energy-related major industry. The data set is from 2009 to 2017, which is decomposed into two distinct sub-periods after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), namely the immediate post-GFC (2009-2011) period and the normal (2012-2017) period, in order to identify the behaviour of market risk for Vietnam major industries. Two widely-used approaches to measure and analyze risk are used in the empirical analysis, namely Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). The empirical findings indicate that Energy and Pharmaceuticals are the least risky industries, whereas Oil and Gas and Securities have the greatest risk. In general, there is strong empirical evidence that the four key industries display relatively low risk. For public policy, the Vietnam Government’s pro-active emphasis on the targeted industries, including Energy, to achieve sustainable economic growth and national economic development, seems to be working effectively

Classification Methods for Mapping Mangrove Extents and Drivers of Change in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam during 2005-2018

Mangrove forests have been globally recognised as their vital functions in preventing coastal erosion, mitigating effects of wave actions and protecting coastal habitats and adjacent shoreline land-uses from extreme coastal events. However, these functions are under severe threats due to the rapid growth of population, intensive shrimp farming and the increased intensity of severe storms in Hau Loc and Nga Son districts, Thanh Hoa province. This research was conducted to monitor spatial-temporal changes in mangrove extents using Landsat and Sentinel imageries from 2005 to 2018. Unsupervised and supervised classification methods and vegetation indices were tested to select the most suitable classification method for study sites, then to quantify mangrove extents and their changes in selected years. The findings show that supervised classification was the most suitable in study sites compared to vegetation indices and unsupervised classification. Mangrove forest extents increased by 7.5 %, 38.6 %, and 47.8 % during periods of 2005 - 2010, 2010 - 2015 and 2015 - 2018, respectively. An increase of mangrove extents resulted from national programs of mangrove rehabilitation and restoration during 2005- 2018, increased by 278.0 ha (123.0 %)

Tangent functional connectomes uncover more unique phenotypic traits

Functional connectomes (FCs) contain pairwise estimations of functional couplings based on pairs of brain regions activity. FCs are commonly represented as correlation matrices that are symmetric positive definite (SPD) lying on or inside the SPD manifold. Since the geometry on the SPD manifold is non-Euclidean, the inter-related entries of FCs undermine the use of Euclidean-based distances. By projecting FCs into a tangent space, we can obtain tangent functional connectomes (tangent-FCs). Tangent-FCs have shown a higher predictive power of behavior and cognition, but no studies have evaluated the effect of such projections with respect to fingerprinting. We hypothesize that tangent-FCs have a higher fingerprint than regular FCs. Fingerprinting was measured by identification rates (ID rates) on test-retest FCs as well as on monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Our results showed that identification rates are systematically higher when using tangent-FCs. Specifically, we found: (i) Riemann and log-Euclidean matrix references systematically led to higher ID rates. (ii) In tangent-FCs, Main-diagonal regularization prior to tangent space projection was critical for ID rate when using Euclidean distance, whereas barely affected ID rates when using correlation distance. (iii) ID rates were dependent on condition and fMRI scan length. (iv) Parcellation granularity was key for ID rates in FCs, as well as in tangent-FCs with fixed regularization, whereas optimal regularization of tangent-FCs mostly removed this effect. (v) Correlation distance in tangent-FCs outperformed any other configuration of distance on FCs or on tangent-FCs across the fingerprint gradient (here sampled by assessing test-retest, Monozygotic and Dizygotic twins). (vi)ID rates tended to be higher in task scans compared to resting-state scans when accounting for fMRI scan length.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Risk factors for malaria in high incidence areas of Viet Nam: a case–control study

Background: A key step to advancing the goal of malaria elimination in Viet Nam by 2030 is focusing limited resources for treatment and prevention to groups most at risk for malaria transmission. Methods: To better understand risk factors for malaria transmission in central Viet Nam, a survey of 1000 malaria positive cases and 1000 malaria negative controls was conducted. Cases and controls were matched for age and gender and self-presented at commune health stations (CHS) in Binh Phuoc, Dak Nong and Dak Lak Provinces. Diagnoses were confirmed with microscopy, rapid diagnostic test and PCR. Participants were interviewed about 50 potential risk factors for malaria, which included information about occupation, forest visitation, travel, healthcare-seeking behaviour and prior use of anti-malaria interventions. Participants were enrolled by trained government health workers and the samples were analysed in Vietnamese government laboratories. Data were analysed by univariable, block-wise and multivariable logistic regression. Results: Among cases, 61.8% had Plasmodium falciparum, 35.2% Plasmodium vivax and 3% mixed species infections. Median (IQR) age was 27 (21–36) years and 91.2% were male. Twenty-five risk factors were associated with being a case and eleven with being a control. Multivariable analysis found that malaria cases correlated with forest workers, recent forest visitation, longer duration of illness, having a recorded fever, number of malaria infections in the past year, having had prior malaria treatment and having previously visited a clinic. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the benefits of increased statistical power from matched controls in malaria surveillance studies, which allows identification of additional independent risk factors. It also illustrates an example of research partnership between academia and government to collect high quality data relevant to planning malaria elimination activities. Modifiable risk factors and implications of the findings for malaria elimination strategy are presented

Dissociation of tau pathology and neuronal hypometabolism within the ATN framework of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is defined by amyloid (A) and tau (T) pathologies, with T better correlated to neurodegeneration (N). However, T and N have complex regional relationships in part related to non-AD factors that influence N. With machine learning, we assessed heterogeneity in 18F-flortaucipir vs. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography as markers of T and neuronal hypometabolism (NM) in 289 symptomatic patients from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We identified six T/NM clusters with differing limbic and cortical patterns. The canonical group was defined as the T/NM pattern with lowest regression residuals. Groups resilient to T had less hypometabolism than expected relative to T and displayed better cognition than the canonical group. Groups susceptible to T had more hypometabolism than expected given T and exhibited worse cognitive decline, with imaging and clinical measures concordant with non-AD copathologies. Together, T/NM mismatch reveals distinct imaging signatures with pathobiological and prognostic implications for AD

Dissociation of tau pathology and neuronal hypometabolism within the ATN framework of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is defined by amyloid (A) and tau (T) pathologies, with T better correlated to neurodegeneration (N). However, T and N have complex regional relationships in part related to non-AD factors that influence N. With machine learning, we assessed heterogeneity in 18F-flortaucipir vs. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography as markers of T and neuronal hypometabolism (NM) in 289 symptomatic patients from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We identified six T/NM clusters with differing limbic and cortical patterns. The canonical group was defined as the T/NM pattern with lowest regression residuals. Groups resilient to T had less hypometabolism than expected relative to T and displayed better cognition than the canonical group. Groups susceptible to T had more hypometabolism than expected given T and exhibited worse cognitive decline, with imaging and clinical measures concordant with non-AD copathologies. Together, T/NM mismatch reveals distinct imaging signatures with pathobiological and prognostic implications for AD

Use of Oral Cholera Vaccines in an Outbreak in Vietnam: A Case Control Study

Simple measures such as adequate sanitation and clean water stops the spread of cholera; however, in areas where these are not available, cholera spreads quickly and may lead to death in a few hours if treatment is not initiated immediately. The use of life-saving rehydration therapy is the mainstay in cholera control, however, the rapidity of the disease and the limited access to appropriate healthcare units in far-flung areas together result in an unacceptable number of deaths. The WHO has recommended the use of oral cholera vaccines as a preventive measure against cholera outbreaks since 2001, but this was recently updated so that vaccine use may also be considered once a cholera outbreak has begun. The findings from this study suggest that reactive use of killed oral cholera vaccines provides protection against the disease and may be a potential tool in times of outbreaks. Further studies must be conducted to confirm these findings

Efficacy of Oral Isotretinoin in Combination with Desloratadine in the Treatment of Common Vulgaris Acne in Vietnamese Patients

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin used alone and in combination with desloratadine in the treatment of moderate acne vulgaris. METHODS: A comparative clinical trial was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin alone and in combination with desloratadine in the treatment of 62 moderate acne vulgaris patients. Patients were randomised into two groups with 31 patients in each group. Each studied group's patient took 20 mg isotretinoin and 5 mg desloratadine per day. In the control group, patients took only 20 mg isotretinoin per day. The treatment time was 16 weeks. The evaluation and follow-up were done at week 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 of the treatment. RESULTS: The studied group had a better curative rate than the control group (45.2% versus 22.6%). The average number of inflammatory lesions in the studied group was significantly lower than the control group (0.19 versus 0.94). The mean GAGS score of the studied group was significantly lower than the control group (3.71 versus 6.52). Acne outbreaks rate of the studied group was lower than the control group (in week 2: 22.6% versus 45.2% and in week 4: 16.1% versus 38.7%, respectively). The rate of itchy was lower in the studied group. CONCLUSION: In the treatment of moderate acne vulgaris, oral isotretinoin in combination with desloratadine is more effective and has fewer side effects than using isotretinoin alone

Efficacy of Oral Isotretinoin in Combination with Desloratadine in the Treatment of Common Vulgaris Acne in Vietnamese Patients

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin used alone and in combination with desloratadine in the treatment of moderate acne vulgaris. METHODS: A comparative clinical trial was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin alone and in combination with desloratadine in the treatment of 62 moderate acne vulgaris patients. Patients were randomised into two groups with 31 patients in each group. Each studied group's patient took 20 mg isotretinoin and 5 mg desloratadine per day. In the control group, patients took only 20 mg isotretinoin per day. The treatment time was 16 weeks. The evaluation and follow-up were done at week 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 of the treatment. RESULTS: The studied group had a better curative rate than the control group (45.2% versus 22.6%). The average number of inflammatory lesions in the studied group was significantly lower than the control group (0.19 versus 0.94). The mean GAGS score of the studied group was significantly lower than the control group (3.71 versus 6.52). Acne outbreaks rate of the studied group was lower than the control group (in week 2: 22.6% versus 45.2% and in week 4: 16.1% versus 38.7%, respectively). The rate of itchy was lower in the studied group. CONCLUSION: In the treatment of moderate acne vulgaris, oral isotretinoin in combination with desloratadine is more effective and has fewer side effects than using isotretinoin alone