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This article is to study corporate social responsibility through packaging and communicated CSR to evaluate consumer buying decisions using the packaging from coconut fibrin. Packaging was obtained from local materials in the community of Samut Sakorn Province, Thailand. Using local waste material (coconut fibrin) for green packaging, it is beneficial to the environmental issue, and can create jobs in the community by making paper and packaging from coconut fibrin. Coconut pulp paper has performed under alkaline conditions coupling a mixture of natural additives consisting of carboxymethyl cellulose and corn starch. The obtained pulp paper was tested according to The National Standard of Kraft paper. It was characteristic of the liner board. The individual packaging was fabricated and used as an instrument for the consumer perception study (258 informants). We found the consumer view of business doing CSR is an ethical organization (4.44) that deems to present responsibility to society and the environment. The decisions were agreed upon, and consumers were delighted to buy the packaging. The CSR activity through the packaging could induce community development in job creation and reduces waste in the community by adding value to green packaging. The CSR activity of business influences the positive perception of consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential of the Gamified Metaverse as a platform for promoting library services. The study compares the effectiveness of a traditional library program with a Metaverse- based library program in terms of knowledge acquisition and library anxiety. The research also examines students' perceptions of implementing gamification within the context of the Gamified Metaverse platform. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, including pre- and post-test analysis, statistical analysis, and qualitative data collection. The results indicate that both the traditional and Metaverse-based library programs effectively increased the participants' knowledge, with no significant difference between the two approaches. However, the Metaverse-based program was found to be less effective in facilitating interaction with librarians and reducing library anxiety. Additionally, students expressed positive perceptions of implementing gamification in the Gamified Metaverse platform, finding it engaging and motivating. These findings contribute to the understanding of the effect of the Metaverse as a tool for promoting library services and enhancing knowledge acquisition. However, it is not as effective in reducing library anxiety, particularly in terms of interaction with librarians and staff. It should be noted that the platform may have limitations such as high costs and potential side effects of virtual reality, making it more suitable as an additional tool for promoting library services, taking into account its feasibility and potential benefits for specific student populations and larger libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nevertheless, based upon her interviews with Malay-Muslim women in Thailand's Deep South, Streicher asserts that "some young women...found soldiers handsome... [and as the] civilized Other of I Malayness i (110)." Following the post-2004 exacerbation of Deep South insurrection, the military has increasingly promoted itself to Deep South locals as an institution of fatherly benevolence. Streicher concludes by arguing that Thailand's 2014-2019 military junta used imperial practices of policing which re-applied tactics used in the Deep South. [Extracted from the article]

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) includes targets to formally protect thirty percent of Earth by 2030 and stimulate financialization of biodiversity conservation. This paper foregrounds potential risks and limitations of the GBF in Thailand. It examines the historical context of state-run protected areas, including their role in facilitating state territorialization and dispossession, political and cultural persecution, and deleterious economic agendas. It then shows that implementation in Thailand could displace residents of more than 200 villages and supplant roughly forty percent (3,951 square kilometers) of all state-registered community forest lands, which provide various livelihood, cultural, and conservation benefits. The paper challenges three assumptions: that parties to the Convention will recognize the rights and agency of Indigenous Peoples and local communities; that state-run protected areas are managed for biodiversity conservation and not for economic growth; and that perpetual economic growth and modernization are compatible with conservation. Effective and equitable conservation in Thailand and elsewhere requires more socially and ecologically responsive community rights-based approaches that empower (rather than supersede) customary institutions and transcend unsustainable political-economic imperatives for privatization and perpetual economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers conducting fieldwork, especially in comparative social research, face the complex issue of conceptualizing and practicing positionality. How we position ourselves affects the research approach, the interpretation of the data and, therefore, the whole research process. This paper discusses my own in-between or 'in-out-sider' positionality during my fieldwork studying the experience of youths in social movements in Thailand and Myanmar in 2020 and 2021. Drawing on data from a visit to Thailand and interviews with 40 Myanmar and Thai youths who participated in the movements, this article documents my experience of the subtle nuances of multiple positionalities and how I navigated through the fieldwork as an in-out-sider researcher. In this comparative context, especially, I believe that my in-out-sider positionality facilitated the research process, from interviewing participants to conducting the field visit. The discussion of this contextually situated positionality challenges the typical explanations of the insider/outsider dichotomy, suggesting the need for a rethinking of certain aspects of this explanation, such as the background and experience of the researcher, and the context in which the researcher and the researched interact. This paper therefore contributes to knowledge around this subject and its application, particularly in the context of comparative social research which studies specific groups of youth activists or protestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hole in a graph is an induced cycle of length at least 4. A hole is long if its length is at least 5. By Pt, we denote a path on t vertices. In this paper, we give polynomial-time algorithms for the following problems: the maximum weight independent set problem in long-hole--free graphs and the feedback vertex set problem in P5-free graphs. Each of the above results resolves a corresponding long-standing open problem. An extended C5 is a five-vertex hole with an additional vertex adjacent to one or two consecutive vertices of the hole. Let C be the class of graphs excluding an extended C5 and holes of length at least 6 as induced subgraphs; C contains all long-hole--free graphs and all P5-free graphs. We show that, given an n-vertex graph G\in C with vertex weights and an integer k, one can, in time, n\scrO (k) find a maximum-weight induced subgraph of G of treewidth less than k. This implies both aforementioned results. To achieve this goal, we extend the framework of potential maximal cliques (PMCs) to containers. Developed by Bouchitté and Todinca [SIAM J. Comput., 31 (2001), pp. 212--232] and extended by Fomin, Todinca, and Villanger [SIAM J. Comput., 44 (2015), pp. 54--87], this framework allows us to solve a wide variety of tasks, including finding a maximum-weight induced subgraph of treewidth less than k for fixed k, in time polynomial in the size of the graph and the number of potential maximal cliques. Further developments, tailored to solve the maximum weight independent set problem within this framework (e.g., for P5-free [Lokshtanov, Vatshelle, and Villanger, SODA 2014, pp. 570--581] or P6-free graphs [Grzesik, Klimo\v sov\'a, Pilipczuk, and Pilipczuk, ACM Trans. Algorithms, 18 (2022), pp. 4:1--4:57]), enumerate only a specifically chosen subset of all PMCs of a graph. In all aforementioned works, the final step is an involved dynamic programming algorithm whose state space is based on the considered list of PMCs. Here, we modify the dynamic programming algorithm and show that it is sufficient to consider only a container for each PMC: a superset of the maximal clique that intersects the sought solution only in the vertices of the PMC. This strengthening of the framework not only allows us to obtain our main result but also leads to significant simplifications of the reasoning in previous papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the textile trade data of 66 countries along the Belt and Road from 2001 to 2020, this paper uses the social network analysis method to measure the network centrality, uses the block model method to investigate the competitive and complementary relationship of textile trade among countries along the Belt and Road, and uses the QAP method to analyze the structure of textile trade network and its influencing factors. The results show that since the implementation of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the density of textile trade network has increased significantly, and the network presents an obvious core-edge structure. China has always been in the center of textile trade network. Before and after the "Belt and Road" Initiative is put forward, core countries such as China, India and Thailand changed from internal sector to two-way overflow sector, and textile trade competition existed among core countries. The influencing factors on the textile trade network of countries along the Belt and Road are, in descending order, economic scale, regional trade agreements between countries, population scale, cultural proximity and geographical distance. Based on the research conclusions and combined with the textile trade network pattern of the Belt and Road countries, this paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions to promote high-quality development of textile trade between China and "The Belt and Road" countries from the perspective of social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider optimal control problems for partial differential equations where the controls take binary values but vary over the time horizon; they can thus be seen as dynamic switches. The switching patterns may be sub ject to combinatorial constraints such as, e.g., an upper bound on the total number of switchings or a lower bound on the time between two switchings. In a companion paper [C. Buchheim, A. Gruütering, and C. Meyer, SIAM J. Optim., arXiv:2203.07121, 2024], we describe the Lp -closure of the convex hull of feasible switching patterns as the intersection of convex sets derived from finite-dimensional pro jections. In this paper, the resulting outer description is used for the construction of an outer approximation algorithm in function space, whose iterates are proven to converge strongly in L² to the global minimizer of the convexified optimal control problem. The linear-quadratic subproblems arising in each iteration of the outer approximation algorithm are solved by means of a semismooth Newton method. A numerical example in two spatial dimensions illustrates the efficiency of the overall algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we intend to utilize the generalized scalar auxiliary variable (GSAV) approach proposed in recent paper (Ju et al., SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 60 (2022), 1905–1931) for the nonlocal coupled sine-Gordon equation to construct a class of fully decoupled, linear, and second-order accurate energy-preserving scheme. The unconditional unique solvability and discrete energy conservation law of the proposed scheme are rigorously discussed, and the unconditional convergence is then proved by the mathematical induction. Particularly, the convergence analysis covers the proposed scheme in multiple dimensions due to the corresponding nonlinear terms satisfy the global Lipschitz continuity straightforwardly. Finally, time evolution of dynamical behavior of the governing equation with different nonlocal parameters are observed, and ample numerical comparisons demonstrate that the proposed scheme manifests high efficiency in long-time computations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper investigates Thailand and Malaysia climate governance policy in practice within their multi-level governance structures. Thailand presents a unique case of a unitary state with a degree of deconcentration and decentralization, while Malaysia showcases a federal state with a high degree of centralization. Methodology: The paper collected and analyzed both primary and secondary data. Indepth interviews with government officials, NGOs, and international organizations were conducted online and onsite in Thailand and Malaysia from May 2022 to September 2023. Interview data was triangulated with secondary data from key national policy documents on climate change and related issues. This paper examines the contributions and hindrances of multi-level governance on climate governance and highlights some lessons learned from both countries. Results: It concludes that multi-level government systems provide opportunities for various stakeholders to engage in decision-making and create policy innovation. However, the administration of decision-making in these systems can be constrained by tensions within these systems, between tendencies towards the centralization of decision-making, and little engagement between subnational governments and local-level stakeholders. Conclusions: Overall, we assert that clear direction and guidance at the national level complemented by mechanisms that engage local stakeholders in administration and civil society is essential to achieve overarching climate action goals regardless of the administrative system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes are popular high-order numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws. When dealing with hyperbolic systems, WENO schemes are usually used in cooperation with the local characteristic decomposition, as the componentwise WENO reconstruction/interpolation procedure often produces oscillatory approximations near shocks. In this paper, we investigate local characteristic decomposition-free WENO schemes for a special class of hyperbolic systems endowed with a coordinate system of Riemann invariants. We apply the WENO procedure to the coordinate system of Riemann invariants instead of the local characteristic fields to save the expensive computational cost on local characteristic decomposition but meanwhile maintain the essentially nonoscillatory performance. Due to the nonlinear algebraic relation between the Riemann invariants and conserved variables, it is difficult to obtain the cell averages of Riemann invariants directly from those of conserved variables and vice versa; thus, we do not use the finite volume WENO schemes in this work. The same difficulty is also faced in the traditional Shu-Osher lemma [C.-W. Shu and S. Osher, J. Comput. Phys., 83 (1989), pp. 32-78]-based finite difference schemes, as the computation of fluxes is based on reconstruction as well. Therefore, we adopt the alternative formulation of the finite difference WENO scheme [Y. Jiang, C.-W. Shu, and M. Zhang, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 35 (2013), pp. A1137-A1160, C.-W. Shu and S. Osher, J. Comput. Phys., 77 (1988), pp. 439-471] in this paper, which is based on interpolation for nodal values. The efficiency and good performance of our method are demonstrated by extensive numerical tests which indicate that the coordinate system of Riemann invariants is a good alternative of local characteristic fields for the WENO procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This study aimed to present national data for children and adolescents requiring hospitalization in Thailand. Background: Feeding and eating disorders can cause life‐threatening and negative health impacts. In Asia, the prevalence is rising. Data from children and adolescents in Thailand are limited. Design: This study is a retrospective study of the national database. Methods: Data from the National Health Security Office database on Universal Health Insurance Coverage (2015–2019) of 0–17‐year‐olds were analysed by diagnosis (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, vomiting associated with psychological disturbances, other eating disorders and unspecified eating disorders). Descriptive statistics, chi‐square test and multinomial logistic regression were used. Results: There were 163 patients, averaging 9.4 ± 5.2 years old, requiring 205 admissions. Most diagnoses showed stable trends, except for a slight decrease in anorexia and unspecified eating disorders. Most admissions were due to unspecified eating disorders and psychogenic vomiting, followed by anorexia nervosa. The overall prevalence was 3.86 per 100 000 admissions. Anorexia had the highest hospital costs and re‐admission rates. Anorexia nervosa was most prevalent in early adolescence and females, while bulimia nervosa was most prominent in middle adolescence and had a male predominance. Conclusion: Early recognition in clinical practice could increase early detection and improve outcomes. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that involve unhealthy eating habits and cause fatal medical complications.Most studies have been reported from Western or developed countries; recently, more data are emerging from the East, particularly in developing countries including the Southeast Asia.Underdiagnoses and underdetection can cause delayed treatment and prognosis. What this paper adds? Some types of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have specific characteristics. ○Anorexia nervosa was mostly prominent among early adolescents but was also found in younger children. Patients with anorexia nervosa required a longer length of stay, had the highest re‐admission rate and had the highest treatment cost per admission.○Bulimia nervosa was more prominent during middle adolescence. Contrasting to previous literature, we found that Thai males were diagnosed with bulimia nervosa 2.5 times higher than females.○Psychogenic vomiting was prominent in children of both sexes. The implications of this paper: We present the prevalence of national data on feeding and eating disorders among children and adolescents, but we believe that there are more patients with eating disorders outside the health care system, who remain underdetected and underdiagnosed.For early detection, minimizing admissions and complications, clinicians, nurses and health care providers who are at the front line are encouraged to recognize eating disorders, particularly in this era where body image is a concern for adolescents.This study portrays feeding and eating disorders among children and adolescents in Thailand, and the trends may represent counties that have similar socioeconomic backgrounds and health care systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of humanitarian crises such as torrential rainfall, resulting floods, and landslides, rapid rescue operations are often imperative. However, owing to the inherent dangers and unpredictability of such circumstances, immediate on-site aid delivery is frequently unfeasible. In such challenging scenarios, mobile robot systems have emerged as the optimal solution for aiding search and rescue efforts. The 'Informational system for management of flood and landslide disaster areas using a distributed heterogeneous robotic team' project, initiated by the International e-ASIA Joint Research Program, united research teams from Japan, Russia, and Thailand, each contributing unique expertize and experience towards common objectives. Drawing upon our extensive theoretical and practical knowledge in disaster response research, we developed an integrated international operational framework for disaster site management, centered on dispersed, heterogeneous semi-autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Semi-Autonomous Rough Terrain Vehicles (UGVs), and Semi-Autonomous Surface Vehicles (USVs). This paper provides an overview of the methodologies, models, and algorithms employed throughout the successful three-year project conducted by the Thailand team while also directing interested readers to supplementary research papers for in-depth insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the ABO and Rhesus (Rh) blood groups play crucial roles in blood transfusion medicine. Herein, we report a simple and low-cost paper-based analytical device (PAD) for phenotyping red blood cell (RBC) antigens. Using this Rh typing format, 5 Rh antigens on RBCs can be simultaneously detected and macroscopically visualized within 12 min. The proposed Rh phenotyping relies on the presence or absence of hemagglutination in the sample zones after immobilizing the antibodies targeting each Rh antigen. The PAD was optimized in terms of filter paper type, antibodies, and distance of the visualization zone. In this study, the optimal conditions were Whatman filter paper Grade 4; anti-D, –C, -E, -c, and -e antibodies; RBC suspension of 30%; and a visualization zone of 1 cm above the sample zone. The accuracy of simultaneously phenotyping the five Rh RBC antigens in the blood samples (n = 4692) was 99.19%, comparable with the accuracy of the gold-standard tube method used by blood bank laboratories in several regions of Thailand. Furthermore, decision making based on this method can be assisted by deep learning. After implementing a two-stage objective detection algorithm (YOLO v4-tiny) and classification model (DenseNet-201), the ambiguous images (n = 48) were interpreted with 100% accuracy. The PAD integrated with customized-region convolutional neural networks can reduce the interpretation discrepancies in RBC antigen phenotyping in any laboratory. [Display omitted] • Five Rh antigens typing PADs combined with deep learning algorithm for an assisted human-decision. • Rh antigens typing PADs were tested with real blood samples and compared with the standard tube method. • Dataset of photographs following Rh PADs testing were trained and evaluated by the in-house deep learning platform CiRA CORE. • Misinterpretation caused by weak or ambiguous reactions was solved by the CiRA CORE platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that the majority of Thailand’s female Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in or before 2011 came from political families and constituted one small yet important part of the country’s dynastic democracy. This paper examines whether this pattern continued in the last two general elections of 2019 and 2023. It shows that a sizeable number of female MPs elected in 2019 and 2023 are related, by blood or marriage, to male MPs. While the restoration of electoral politics in 2019 has helped end military authoritarian rule, it has enabled well-connected and well-heeled women from political families to win parliamentary seats. Electoral dynasticism still constitutes a formidable, if not insurmountable, structural barrier to entry into Parliament for female candidates who do not have powerful family connections. Dynastic female MPs contribute, as in the previous decades, to adding a dynastic and patrimonial quality to Thailand’s democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This microhistory of a shoreline place in Thailand details the socio-natural process by which a piece of coastal land came to be recognised as private property by the state. It demonstrates that intimate and long-term attention to specificities of how property comes into being has more explanatory power than synoptic theorisations of accumulation and dispossession. Using ethnography, archives and affective co-narration, this paper probes the shifting ground of water and land to show how the fluidity of water plays a key role in the politics and legal procedures of enclosure, and how fluctuating boundaries become an ambiguous arena for property claims contestations amid entanglements of slippery legal semantics. It argues that the expanded notion of agency in the Anthropocene presents new challenges for thinking about property relations, and that thinking from a shoreline place of shifting water-land boundaries engenders novel questions to do with fluid dispossessions at a time of rising oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative investigation examines fish conservation practices in the community water resources of three northeastern Thai provinces. Data was gathered from documentary review and field study, through observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. The findings revealed that fish resources are decreasing in Northeastern Thai communities. This is due to a combination of factors, including unsystematic conservation methods and negative human impact. In acknowledging the ecocontextual nature of Thai Buddhism, this investigation argues a case for the adoption of Buddhist principles toward environmentalism as a means for more sustainable and successful fish conservation. The paper outlines eight key religious principles compatible with conservation approaches and recommends their inclusion in government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classical parking function of length n is a list of positive integers (a 1 , a 2 , ... , a n) whose nondecreasing rearrangement b 1 ≤ b 2 ≤ ⋯ ≤ b n satisfies b i ≤ i . The convex hull of all parking functions of length n is an n-dimensional polytope in R n , which we refer to as the classical parking function polytope. Its geometric properties have been explored in Amanbayeva and Wang (Enumer Combin Appl 2(2):Paper No. S2R10, 10, 2022) in response to a question posed by Stanley (Amer Math Mon 127(6):563–571, 2020). We generalize this family of polytopes by studying the geometric properties of the convex hull of x -parking functions for x = (a , b , ⋯ , b) , which we refer to as x -parking function polytopes. We explore connections between these x -parking function polytopes, the Pitman–Stanley polytope, and the partial permutahedra of Heuer and Striker (SIAM J Discrete Math 36(4):2863–2888, 2022). In particular, we establish a closed-form expression for the volume of x -parking function polytopes. This allows us to answer a conjecture of Behrend et al. (2022) and also obtain a new closed-form expression for the volume of the convex hull of classical parking functions as a corollary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors influencing the severity of driver injuries in single-vehicle speeding-related crashes, by comparing different driver age groups. This study employed a random threshold random parameter hierarchical ordered probit model and analysed crash data from Thailand between 2012 and 2017. The findings showed that young drivers face a heightened fatality risk when speeding in passenger cars or pickup trucks, hinting at the role of inexperience and risk-taking behaviours. Old drivers exhibit an increased fatality risk when speeding, especially in rainy conditions, on flush median roads, and during evening peak hours, attributed to reduced reaction times and vulnerability to adverse weather. Both young and elderly drivers face escalated fatality risks when speeding on road segments lacking guardrails during adverse weather, with older drivers being particularly vulnerable in rainy conditions. All age groups show an elevated fatality risk when speeding on barrier median roads, underscoring the significant role of speeding, which increases crash impact and limits margins of error and manoeuvrability, thereby highlighting the need for safety measures focusing on driver behaviour. These findings underscore the critical imperative for interventions addressing not only driver conduct but also road infrastructure, collectively striving to curtail the severity of speeding-related crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become common to attribute the growing frequency and severity of floods to climate change. But the factors behind flooding are many, and climate change often disappears from the equation at the local level. This study draws on interviews with key informants and community members and focus group discussions to explore the increasing incidence of flooding in two sub-districts in Eastern Thailand. To our surprise, there was little sense of community anger: flood risk had increased; the causes rooted in maladaptation linked to land conversion were recognised and uncontested; and injustice was palpable. But anger and resistance were muted. The paper seeks to make sense of this situation. Villagers accepted their complicity in creating the conditions for heightened flood risk through their willingness to sell their land for conversion. The disconnection between the identification of causality and the allocation of blame raises questions about how notions of environmental justice play out in places like Ban Thapma and Ban Nhonglalok, where justice and injustice do not fall equally across space and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rather than confining the investigation solely to intentions, as typically done within the unifinality paradigm (e.g. Structural Equation Modeling with prespecified hypotheses), this paper extends the traditional approach by delving into the actual behaviors of tourists through diverse pathways. Employing mixed methods, we aim to uncover potential explanations for the formation of green behavioral patterns among tourists. While our findings reveal a limited variance in behavior explained solely by intention, it is imperative to recognize the critical role of intention as a significant determinant of behavior, as supported by our empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African footballers comprise a significant group of sport migrants, who face structural challenges set-forth by specific visa requirements which have made entry into Thailand more challenging. Using data collected through in-depth interviews with five African players who have lived, played, and settled down in Thailand for over a decade, the article explores the acculturation journeys of African football players in Thailand and investigates how forms of identities are created and upheld. The paper concludes that various coping strategies are consistently deployed by the players in their attempt to integrate into Thai society. Additionally, emotional attachments to homelands are expressed and heightened during events such as the World Cup. Findings suggest that among the diasporic community, identities are multi-layered, inclusive of local, regional, national and global attachments which are unveiled and more sharply defined when the individual is 'confronted with "outsiders"'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Thailand, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) regularly performs visual larval surveys throughout the country to monitor dengue fever outbreaks. Since 2016, the DDC switched from a paper-based to a digital-based larval survey process. The significant amount of larval survey data collected digitally presents a valuable opportunity to precisely identify the villages and breeding habitats that are vulnerable to dengue transmission. Methods: The study used digitally collected larval survey data from 2017 to 2019. It employed larval indices to evaluate the risk of dengue transmission in villages based on seasonal, regional, and categorical perspectives. Furthermore, the study comprehensively scrutinized each container category by employing different measures to determine its breeding preference ratio. Results: The result showed that villages with a very high-risk of dengue transmission were present year-round in all regions, with the highest proportion during the rainy season. The Southern region had more high-risk villages during the winter season due to rainfall. Slums and residential communities were more vulnerable to dengue than commercial areas. All container categories could potentially serve as breeding habitats for dengue-carrying mosquitoes, with abandoned containers being the most significant breeding sites. Conclusions: The risk of dengue transmission was present year-round throughout Thailand. This underscores the importance of community and government initiatives, along with sustained public awareness campaigns and active community engagement, to efficiently and permanently eradicate mosquito breeding habitats. It should be noted that larval indices may not strongly correlate with dengue cases, as indicated by the preliminary analysis. However, they offer valuable insights into potential breeding sites for targeted preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB) causes an economic impact on the patients and their households. Although Thailand has expanded the national health benefit package for TB treatment, there was no data on out-of-pocket payments and income losses due to TB from patients and their household perspectives. This national TB patient cost survey was conducted to examine the TB-related economic burden, and assess the proportion of TB patients and their households facing catastrophic total costs because of TB disease. A cross-sectional TB patient cost survey was employed following WHO methods. Structured interviews with a paper-based questionnaire were conducted from October 2019 to July 2021. Both direct and indirect costs incurred from the patient and their household perspective were valued in 2021 and estimated throughout pre- and post-TB diagnosis episodes. We assessed the proportion of TB-affected households facing costs > 20% of household expenditure due to TB. We analyzed 1400 patients including 1382 TB (first-line treatment) and 18 drug-resistant TB patients (DR-TB). The mean total costs per TB episode for all study participants were 903 USD (95% confident interval; CI 771–1034 USD). Of these, total direct non-medical costs were the highest costs (mean, 402 USD, and 95%CI 334–470 USD) incurred per TB-affected household followed by total indirect costs (mean, 393 USD, and 95%CI 315–472 USD) and total direct medical costs (mean, 107 USD, and 95%CI 81–133 USD, respectively. The proportion of TB-affected households facing catastrophic costs was 29.5% (95%CI 25.1–34.0%) for TB (first-line), 61.1% (95%CI 29.6–88.1%) for DR-TB and 29.9% (95%CI 25.6–34.4%) overall. This first national survey highlighted the economic burden on TB-affected households. Travel, food/nutritional supplementation, and indirect costs contribute to a high proportion of catastrophic total costs. These suggest the need to enhance financial and social protection mechanisms to mitigate the financial burden of TB-affected households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the development and convergence analysis of greedy reconstruction algorithms based on the strategy presented in [Y. Maday and J. Salomon, Joint Proceedings of the 48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and the 28th Chinese Control Conference, 2009, pp. 375--379]. These procedures allow the design of a sequence of control functions that ease the identification of unknown operators in nonlinear dynamical systems. The original strategy of greedy reconstruction algorithms is based on an offline/online decomposition of the reconstruction process and an ansatz for the unknown operator obtained by an a priori chosen set of linearly independent matrices. In the previous work [S. Buchwald, G. Ciaramella, and J. Salomon, SIAM J. Control Optim., 59 (2021), pp. 4511--4537], convergence results were obtained in the case of linear identification problems. We tackle here the more general case of nonlinear systems. More precisely, we introduce a new greedy algorithm based on the linearized system. We show that the controls obtained with this new algorithm lead to the local convergence of the classical Gauss--Newton method applied to the online nonlinear identification problem. We then extend this result to the controls obtained on nonlinear systems where a local convergence result is also proved. The main convergence results are obtained for dynamical systems with linear and bilinear control structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Gowda and Sossa [Math. Program., 2019, 177: 149–171] studied the existence of solutions to weakly homogeneous variational inequalities. In particular, their main result, based on a degree-theoretic condition and a constraint on the corresponding cone complementarity problem, covers a majority of existence results on the subcategory problems of weakly homogeneous variational inequalities. In this paper, what we achieve is a new copositivity-type existence result for the weakly homogeneous variational inequality. The conditions we used are easier to check than the degree-theoretic condition and our result crosses each other with the main result established by Gowda and Sossa and the main result given by Ma, Zheng and Huang [SIAM J. Optim., 2020, 30(1): 132–148], respectively. Besides, we show the distinctiveness of our existence result by comparing it with the well-known coercivity result obtained for variational inequalities and a norm-coercivity result obtained for complementarity problems, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband's minus wife's age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men's marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an assessment study of traffic-induced ground vibrations and their effects on masonry-type historic structures in Ayutthaya Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Thailand. The first objective is to propose a practical prediction of the attenuation rate of vibration for risk management of the monuments located along roadsides in the city. The attenuation of vibration waves traveling from traffic sources and the intensity of ground vibrations were determined by in situ vibration measurement. The results from the investigations in the Ayutthaya area were compared with those obtained from other sites having different characteristics of subsoil classified by the average shear wave velocity (Vs). It was found that the attenuation rates at a long distance from the source tend to be dependent on soil property in terms of Vs of subsoils. The attenuation curves derived from the regression analysis are proposed for risk management from the vibration of the heritage site. The second objective is to assess the effects of traffic vibrations on historic structures. The highest amplitude observed in Ayutthaya was within the recommended vibration criteria for historic buildings. In addition, finite element analysis of a 3D stupa model revealed that the stresses resulting from the ground vibration records induced by traffic was lower than the strength of ancient brick and mortar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the integration of magnetic susceptibility measurements and whole-rock geochemical compositional and Nd–Sr isotopic ratio analyses for granite samples collected from the Ranong, Lam Pi, Ban Lam Ru, and Phuket granite bodies in the Western Granitoid Belt of Thailand. In addition, U–Pb dating was performed on zircons extracted from the samples. All samples are proper granites based on their mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. Two samples collected from the Lam Pi granite body were classified as magnetite-series and I-type. The remaining granite samples were classified as ilmenite-series and S- or A-type. Furthermore, all granites were classified as syn-collision granites. Excluding the magnetite-series samples from the Lam Pi granite body, the other samples exhibit enrichment in incompatible elements, such as Nb, Sn, Ta, Pb, Bi, Th, U, Ce, Rb, and Cs. Zircon U–Pb dating yielded ages of ca. 60 Ma for the magnetite-series granites from the Lam Pi granite body, whereas ages of 88–84 Ma were obtained for the other granite bodies. Initial Nd–Sr isotopic ratios indicate a higher contribution of mantle material in the Lam Pi magnetite-series granites and a higher contribution of continental crust material in the other granites. Based on these compositional and zircon U–Pb age data, it is inferred that the 88–84 Ma granites formed as a result of the thickening of the continental crust owing to the collision between the Sibumasu and the West Burma blocks. In contrast, the ca. 60 Ma Lam Pi magnetite-series granites are thought to have been generated via partial melting of the mantle wedge associated with the subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic crust beneath the West Burma Block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon geological storage (CGS) is one of the key processes in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, which are used to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve carbon-neutrality and net-zero emissions in developing countries. In Thailand, the Mae Moh basin is a potential site for implementing CGS due to the presence of a structural trap that can seal the CO2 storage formation. However, the cost of CGS projects needs to be subsidized by selling carbon credits in order to reach the project breakeven. Therefore, this paper estimates the economic components of a CGS project in the Mae Moh basin by designing the well completion and operating parameters for CO2 injection. The capital costs and operating costs of the process components were calculated, and the minimum carbon credit cost required to cover the total costs of the CGS project was determined. The results indicate that the designed system proposes an operating gas injection rate of 1.454 MMscf/day, which is equivalent to 29,530 tCO2e per year per well. Additionally, the minimum carbon credit cost was estimated to be USD 70.77 per tCO2e in order to achieve breakeven for the best case CGS project, which was found to be much higher than the current market price of carbon credit in Thailand, at around USD 3.5 per tCO2e. To enhance the economic prospects of this area, it is imperative to promote a policy of improving the cost of carbon credit for CGS projects in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition of the potential of migration to contribute to climate-change adaptation. Yet, there is limited evidence to what degree, under what conditions, for whom, and with which limitations this is effectively the case. We argue that this results from a lack of recognition and systematic incorporation of sociospatiality--the nested, networked, and intersectional nature of migration-as-adaptation. Our central objective is to utilize the translocal social-resilience approach to overcome these gaps, to identify processes and structures that shape the social resilience of translocal livelihood systems, and to illustrate the mechanisms behind the multiplicity of possible resilience outcomes. Translocal livelihood constellations anchored in rural Thailand as well as in domestic and international destinations of Thai migrants serve as illustrative empirical cases. Data were gathered through a multisited and mixed-methods research design. This paper highlights the role of the distinct but interlinked situations and operational logics at places of origin and destination, as well as the different positionalities and resulting vulnerabilities, roles, commitments, and practices of individuals and households with regard to resilience. Based on the empirical results, the paper distills a generalized typology of five broad categories of resilience outcomes, which explicitly considers sociospatiality. Our approach helps to grasp the complexity of migration-as-adaptation and to avoid simplistic conclusions about the benefits and costs of migration for adaptation--both of which are necessary for sound, evidence-based, migration-as-adaptation policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the approximation of the Euler equations of compressible fluid dynamics on a staggered mesh. With this aim, the flow parameters are described by the velocity, the density, and the internal energy. The thermodynamic quantities are described on the elements of the mesh, and thus the approximation is only in L2, while the kinematic quantities are globally continuous. The method is general in the sense that the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters are described by an arbitrary degree of polynomials. In practice, the difference between the degrees of the kinematic parameters and the thermodynamic ones is set to 1. The integration in time is done using the forward Euler method but can be extended straightforwardly to higher-order methods. In order to guarantee that the limit solution will be a weak solution of the problem, we introduce a general correction method in the spirit of the Lagrangian staggered method described in [R. Abgrall and S. Tokareva, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 39 (2017), pp. A2345--A2364; R. Abgrall, K. Lipnikov, N. Morgan, and S. Tokareva, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 2 (2020), pp. A343--A370; V. A. Dobrev, T. V. Kolev, and R. N. Rieben, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 34 (2012), pp. B606--B641], and we prove a Lax--Wendroff theorem. The proof is valid for multidimensional versions of the scheme, even though most of the numerical illustrations in this work, on classical benchmark problems, are one-dimensional because we have easy access to the exact solution for comparison. We conclude by explaining that the method is general and can be used in different settings, for example, finite volume or discontinuous Galerkin method, not just the specific one presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of traditional high‐voltage capacitor banks relies on an unbalance relay which operates when an internal fuse is blown. However, the unbalance relay cannot indicate the cause of the fault. Thus, an operator wastes time and human resources investigating the fault issues. In this paper, a fault which occurred in a 230‐kV power system of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand was observed by performing simulations using the Power Systems Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) program. The study system based on the double bus station and 72 MVAR capacitor banks was installed in the form of a back‐to‐back topology. Three scenarios were considered: normal condition, fault occurrence in one capacitor bank and fault occurrence in both capacitor banks. Current characteristics such as the current phase and difference in unbalance current were considered. In addition, discrete wavelet transform was applied to solve the ambiguity of current generated from the PSCAD. The authors' results suggest that identifying fault events using a coefficient of wavelet is more efficient than relying on the current amplitude. The findings mentioned in this paper can be applied in a traditional power system protection scheme to enhance a system's reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There appear to be relatively few studies examining the emergence and persistence of hydraulic bureaucracies (hydrocracies) in specific national contexts. This paper addresses this perceived lacuna by considering the case of the century-old Royal Irrigation Department (RID) in Thailand. Drawing upon the concept of 'bureaucratic patrimonialism', this paper seeks to disentangle some of the political economy issues surrounding the RID's rise and prolonged national dominance. It pays special attention to inter-bureaucratic competition amid calls for water sector reform and how the RID has successfully negotiated these challenges through changing political regimes of the last century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents interval estimation for the population mean and coefficient of variation in a two-parameter exponential distribution. The new generalized pivot, profile likelihood function and likelihood ratio statistic are derived and used to construct the confidence intervals. A highlight of this paper is that the generalized and likelihood ratio confidence intervals for the mean and coefficient of variation perform well in terms of coverage probability in many cases. Finally, two real-data applications on the air pollution of particulate matter (PM2.5) and the renewable energy through wind power of Thailand are used for illustration purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perfectly matched layer (PML) is a very popular tool in the truncation of wave scattering in unbounded domains. In [S. N. Chandler-Wilde and P. Monk, Appl. Numer. Math., 59 (2009), pp. 2131-2154], the author proposed a conjecture that for scattering problems with rough surfaces, the PML converges exponentially with respect to the PML parameter in any compact subset. In the author's previous paper [R. Zhang, SIAM J. Numer. Math., 60 (2022), pp. 804-823], this result has been proved for periodic surfaces in two-dimensional spaces, when the wave number is not a half-integer. In this paper, we prove that the method has a high-order convergence rate in the three-dimensional biperiodic surface scattering problems. We extend the two-dimensional results and prove that the exponential convergence still holds when the wave number is smaller than 0.5. For larger wave numbers, although exponential convergence is no longer proved, we are able to prove a higher-order convergence for the PML method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an efficient sieving-based secant method to address the computational challenges of solving sparse optimization problems with least-squares constraints. A level-set method has been introduced in [X. Li, D. F. Sun, and K.-C. Toh, SIAM J. Optim., 28 (2018), pp. 1842-1866] that solves these problems by using the bisection method to find a root of a univariate nonsmooth equation varphi (λ) =varrho for some varrho >0, where varphi (·) is the value function computed by a solution of the corresponding regularized least-squares optimization problem. When the objective function in the constrained problem is a polyhedral gauge function, we prove that (i) for any positive integer k, varphi (·) is piecewise Ck in an open interval containing the solution λ ast to the equation varphi (λ) =varrho and that (ii) the Clarke Jacobian of varphi (·) is always positive. These results allow us to establish the essential ingredients of the fast convergence rates of the secant method. Moreover, an adaptive sieving technique is incorporated into the secant method to effectively reduce the dimension of the level-set subproblems for computing the value of varphi (·). The high efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by extensive numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kovaleva and Spieksma (SIAM J Discrete Math 20(3):48–768, 2006) considered the problem of stabbing a given set of horizontal line segments with the smallest number of horizontal and vertical lines. The standard LP relaxation for this problem is easily shown to have an integrality gap of at most 2 by treating the horizontal and vertical lines separately. However, Kovaleva and Spieksma observed that threshold rounding can be used to obtain an integrality gap of e / (e - 1) ≈ 1.58 which is also shown to be tight. This is one of the rare known examples where the obvious upper bound of 2 on the integrality gap of the standard LP relaxation can be improved. Our goal in this paper is to extend their proof to two other problems where the goal is to stab a set R of objects with horizontal and vertical lines: in the first problem R is a set of horizontal and vertical line segments, and in the second problem R is a set of unit sized squares. The proof of Kovaleva and Spieksma essentially shows the existence of an appropriate threshold which yields the improved approximation factor. We begin by showing that a random threshold picked from an appropriate distribution works. This reduces the problem to finding an appropriate distribution for a desired approximation ratio. In the first problem, we show that the required distribution can be found by solving a linear program. In the second problem, while it seems harder to find the optimal distribution, we show that using the uniform distribution an improved approximation factor can still be obtained by solving a number of linear programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Before the advent of antenatal steroids, early non-invasive respiratory support (NIV), and intratracheal surfactant, antenatal terbutaline was also used to improve lung compliance and reduce the incidence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Objectives The objective of this paper was to study the association between antenatal terbutaline and endotracheal intubation (ET) within the first 24 hours of life, RDS, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in infants with the gestational age (GA) of <32 weeks, and to study the association between antenatal terbutaline, and ET or NIV within the first 24 hours of life, and RDS in infants with the GA of 32 to 36 weeks. Method This was a retrospective medical record review of preterm infants delivered at a single tertiary care center from October 2016 to December 2020. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore the association between antenatal terbutaline and neonatal respiratory support. Result 1,794 infants were included, 234 (13.0%) had the GA of <32 weeks and 1,560 (86.9%) had the GA of 32 to 36 weeks. Antenatal terbutaline, corticosteroid, or both agents were administered in 561 (31.3%), 1,461 (81.4%), and 555 (30.9%), respectively. Antenatal terbutaline was significantly associated with a reduction in ET (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.40, 95% confident interval [CI] 0.19–0.82, p = 0.012) in infants with the GA of <32 weeks, but not in infants with the GA of 32–36 weeks. Antenatal terbutaline was not associated with RDS or BPD but was significantly associated with a reduction in grade III-IV IVH (aOR 0.11, CI 0.01–0.98; p = 0.048), in infants with the GA of <32 weeks. Conclusion In a state-of-the-art neonatal care setting, antenatal terbutaline was associated with a reduction in ET during the first 24 hours in infants with the GA of <32 weeks. The use of antenatal terbutaline to improve acute neonatal respiratory outcomes merits reconsideration. Key Points The neonatal respiratory benefits of antenatal terbutaline in the era of antenatal corticosteroids were uncertain. Terbutaline is associated with a reduction in endotracheal intubation in a modern care setting. The role of terbutaline, and potentially other betamimetics, to improve neonatal respiratory outcomes merits reconsideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Northern Thailand, het thop mushrooms (Astraeus) are foraged and sold into an increasingly commodified marketplace. A species of wild fungi that only appears for a short time each year, it is widely enjoyed across the diverse range of communities living in the region and increasingly positioned as part of the Lanna food and cultural aesthetic. Through a rapid rise in price over recent decades and the subsequent forging of supply chains linking rural communities to urban and online markets, foraging practices now provide significant seasonal incomes and form an essential part of annual livelihoods. However, as this paper contends – working closely with the analytical framing of "precarity" put forth by Tsing (2015) in a similar fungal context – there are forms of precariousness and uncertainty that are inherent in wild products, from the indeterminant ecologies from which it emerges, to the unreliable livelihoods that arise from it, and the fickle market for such products. The purpose is not to dismiss this market as frivolous or problematic, but rather to suggest that in a disturbed and distorted environmental and economic context such as Northern Thailand, this is indicative of a wider shift toward a "salvage economy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low Reynolds number fluid flows are governed by the Stokes equations. In two dimensions, Stokes flows can be described by two analytic functions, known as Goursat functions. Brubeck and Trefethen [SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 44 (2022), pp. A1205-A1226] recently introduced a lightning Stokes solver that uses rational functions to approximate the Goursat functions in polyg- onal domains. In this paper, we present the LARS algorithm (lightning-AAA rational Stokes) for computing two-dimensional (2D) Stokes flows in domains with smooth boundaries and multiply con- nected domains using lightning and AAA rational approximation [Y. Nakatsukasa, O. Sète, and L. N. Trefethen, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 40 (2018), pp. A1494-A1522]. After validating our solver against known analytical solutions, we solve a variety of 2D Stokes flow problems with physical and engineering applications. Using these examples, we show rational approximation can now be used to compute 2D Stokes flows in general domains. The computations take less than a second and give solutions with at least 6-digit accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entropy inequalities are crucial to the well-posedness of hyperbolic conservation laws, which help to select the physically meaningful one from among the infinite many weak solutions. Recently, several high order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods satisfying entropy inequalities were proposed; see [T. Chen and C.-W. Shu, J. Comput. Phys., 345 (2017), pp. 427-461; J. Chan, J. Comput. Phys., 362 (2018), pp. 346-374; T. Chen and C.-W. Shu, CSIAM Trans. Appl. Math., 1 (2020), pp. 1-52] and the references therein. However, high order numerical methods typically generate spurious oscillations in the presence of shock discontinuities. In this paper, we construct a high order entropy stable essentially oscillation-free DG (OFDG) method for hyperbolic conservation laws. With some suitable modification on the high order damping term introduced in [J. Lu, Y. Liu, and C.-W. Shu, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 59 (2021), pp. 1299-1324; Y. Liu, J. Lu, and C.-W. Shu, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 44 (2022), pp. A230-A259], we are able to construct an OFDG scheme with dissipative entropy. It is challenging to make the damping term compatible with the current entropy stable DG framework, that is, the damping term should be dissipative for any given entropy function without compromising high order accuracy. The key ingredient is to utilize the convexity of the entropy function and the orthogonality of the projection. Then the proposed method maintains the same properties of conservation, error estimates, and entropy dissipation as the original entropy stable DG method. Extensive numerical experiments are presented to validate the theoretical findings and the capability of controlling spurious oscillations of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]