Impacts of Economic Development on the Awareness of Cultural Preservation of Ethnic Minority People in the Border Region of Northern Vietnam

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine how the Vietnamese government's economic development strategies affect ethnic minority people's knowledge of cultural preservation in the border area of Northern Vietnam.   Theoretical framework: The study focuses on three main driven factors of the awareness of cultural preservation that are economic changes, societal changes, and environmental changes from three economic fields: agriculture, industry, and trade and services.   Design/methodology/approach: The research sample was taken from ethnic minorities in Northern Vietnam's border area. For questionnaire administration, interviewees are selected at random from the population. Face-to-face, drop-off, and phone-calling approaches were used to disseminate the questionnaire. We received 544 completed returns out of 725 surveys sent out. The data was then cleaned and analyzed with SPSS 20 software using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).   Findings: The results of a study of ethnic minority communities in seven provinces in Northern Vietnam's border region show that the development of agriculture, industry, trade and service significantly impacts ethnic minority people's awareness of cultural preservation issues due to environmental changes. In contrast, economic and sociological developments appear to have little influence on ethnic minority people's attention to cultural preservation. This phenomenon may be due to the long-term effects of economic and sociological changes, which mostly affect intangible cultural heritages. In contrast, environmental impats are felt swiftly and primarily on physical cultural heritages that can be seen.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The findings of the research provide policymakers with valuable insights on the effects of economic development on cultural preservation. The study's recommendations can inform policies that promote sustainable economic development while preserving the cultural heritage of ethnic minority communities.   Originality/value: The research focuses on the border region of Northern Vietnam, which is an area of strategic importance for economic development and cultural preservation. The study's unique focus on this region provides insights into the cultural and economic dynamics of a specific area that has not been extensively studied

Network Coding with Multimedia Transmission and Cognitive Networking: An Implementation based on Software-Defined Radio

Network coding (NC) is considered a breakthrough to improve throughput, robustness, and security of wireless networks. Although the theoretical aspects of NC have been extensively investigated, there have been only few experiments with pure NC schematics. This paper presents an implementation of NC under a two-way relay model and extends it to two\ua0non-straightforward scenarios: (i) multimedia transmission with layered coding and multiple-description coding, and (ii) cognitive radio with Vandermonde frequency division multiplexing (VFDM). The implementation is in real time and based on software-defined radio (SDR). The experimental results show that, by combining NC and source coding, we can control the quality of the received multimedia content in an on-demand manner. Whereas in the VFDM-based cognitive radio, the quality of the received content in the primary receiver is low (due to imperfect channel estimation) yet retrievable. Our implementation results serve as a proof for the practicability of network coding in relevant applications

Network Coding with Multimedia Transmission and Cognitive Networking: An Implementation based on Software-Defined Radio

Network coding (NC) is considered a breakthrough to improve throughput, robustness, and security of wireless networks. Although the theoretical aspects of NC have been extensively investigated, there have been only few experiments with pure NC schematics. This paper presents an implementation of NC under a two-way relay model and extends it to two non-straightforward scenarios: (i) multimedia transmission with layered coding and multiple-description coding, and (ii) cognitive radio with Vandermonde frequency division multiplexing (VFDM). The implementation is in real time and based on software-defined radio (SDR). The experimental results show that, by combining NC and source coding, we can control the quality of the received multimedia content in an on-demand manner. Whereas in the VFDM-based cognitive radio, the quality of the received content in the primary receiver is low (due to imperfect channel estimation) yet retrievable. Our implementation results serve as a proof for the practicability of network coding in relevant applications

Essential Facts on the History of Hyperthermia and their Connections with Electromedicine

The term hyperthermia is a combination of two Greek words: HYPER (rise) and THERME (heat) and refers to the increasing of body temperature or selected tissues in order to achieve a precise therapeutic effect. This paper reviews the development of thermotherapy by describing the most important moments in its history. For decades, the development of hyperthermia ran parallel with the development of cancer treatment and had numerous connections with electromedicine. Throughout its history, hyperthermia evoked a number of hopes, brought spectacular successes, but also was the subject of many disappointments

Climate-Smart Agriculture in Indonesia

This CSA Country Profile describes the risks posed by climate change to agriculture in Indonesia, discusses the potential of CSA to attenuate those risks, identifies factors that can influence the adoption of CSA practices, and highlights potential entry points for investment in CSA at scale. The report is split into two parts; the National Profile and Provincial Profiles. In the National Profile, agriculture’s relation to economic development, livelihoods, specific social groups, land use, food security, and greenhouse gas emissions are explored, in addition to agricultural production systems critical to national food security and livelihoods. In the Provincial Profiles, qualitative research is employed to delve deeper into farming systems and agricultural value chains across three Indonesian Provinces (East Java, North Sumatra, and Nusa Tenggara Timur)

Surveillance and treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (aka. STOP HCC): protocol for a prospective cohort study of high-risk patients for HCC using GALAD-score.

Vietnam and Saudi Arabia have high disease burden of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Early detection in asymptomatic patients at risk for HCC is a strategy to improve survival outcomes in HCC management. GALAD score, a serum-based panel, has demonstrated promising clinical utility in HCC management. However, in order to ascertain its potential role in the surveillance of the early detection of HCC, GALAD needs to be validated prospectively for clinical surveillance of HCC (i.e., phase IV biomarker validation study). Thus, we propose to conduct a phase IV biomarker validation study to prospectively survey a cohort of patients with advanced fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis, irrespective of etiologies, using semi-annual abdominal ultrasound and GALAD score for five years. We plan to recruit a cohort of 1,600 patients, male or female, with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis (i.e., F3 or F4) and MELD ≤ 15, in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia (n = 800 each). Individuals with a liver mass ≥ 1 cm in diameter, elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (≥ 9 ng/mL), and/or elevated GALAD score (≥ -0.63) will be scanned with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a diagnosis of HCC will be made by Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LiRADS) assessment (LiRADS-5). Additionally, those who do not exhibit abnormal imaging findings, elevated AFP titer, and/or elevated GALAD score will obtain a dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI annually for five years to assess for HCC. Only MRI nearest to the time of GALAD score measurement, ultrasound and/or AFP evaluation will be included in the diagnostic validation analysis. MRI will be replaced with an abdominal computed tomography scan when MRI results are poor due to patient conditions such as movement etc. Gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced MRI will not be carried out in study sites in both countries. Bootstrap resampling technique will be used to account for repeated measures to estimate standard errors and confidence intervals. Additionally, we will use the Cox proportional hazards regression model with covariates tailored to the hypothesis under investigation for time-to-HCC data as predicted by time-varying biomarker data. The present work will evaluate the performance of GALAD score in early detection of liver cancer. Furthermore, by leveraging the prospective cohort, we will establish a biorepository of longitudinally collected biospecimens from patients with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis to be used as a reference set for future research in early detection of HCC in the two countries. Name of the registry: ClinicalTrials.gov Registration date: 22 April 2022 Trial registration number: NCT05342350 URL of trial registry record

Prospects for Food Fermentation in South-East Asia, Topics From the Tropical Fermentation and Biotechnology Network at the End of the AsiFood Erasmus+Project

Fermentation has been used for centuries to produce food in South-East Asia and some foods of this region are famous in the whole world. However, in the twenty first century, issues like food safety and quality must be addressed in a world changing from local business to globalization. In Western countries, the answer to these questions has been made through hygienisation, generalization of the use of starters, specialization of agriculture and use of long-distance transportation. This may have resulted in a loss in the taste and typicity of the products, in an extensive use of antibiotics and other chemicals and eventually, in a loss in the confidence of consumers to the products. The challenges awaiting fermentation in South-East Asia are thus to improve safety and quality in a sustainable system producing tasty and typical fermented products and valorising by-products. At the end of the “AsiFood Erasmus+ project” (www.asifood.org), the goal of this paper is to present and discuss these challenges as addressed by the Tropical Fermentation Network, a group of researchers from universities, research centers and companies in Asia and Europe. This paper presents current actions and prospects on hygienic, environmental, sensorial and nutritional qualities of traditional fermented food including screening of functional bacteria and starters, food safety strategies, research for new antimicrobial compounds, development of more sustainable fermentations and valorisation of by-products. A specificity of this network is also the multidisciplinary approach dealing with microbiology, food, chemical, sensorial, and genetic analyses, biotechnology, food supply chain, consumers and ethnology