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This paper empirically studies the impact of female proportion and the background of the board on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of Taiwanese listed firms. The different groups of board size are detected by the structural break test, which is used as the threshold for dividing subsamples. The results show that the higher proportion of women and accounting background of board of directors, the more CSR disclosure for firms with more than 11 directors in the board, implying that women and accounting background directors can only promote their compassionate and reciprocal in CSR decision-making in large board firms. Overall, the empirical results poorly support the efficiency hypothesis suggesting that the board of directors is more powerful when it has high gender diversity. This study also confirms that the linear regression method may not be able to fully present the various possible relationships between the variables.

The use of thermal generation facilities (TGFs) in manufacturing industries produces of a massive amount of bottom and fly ash (BFA) containing toxins, thus requiring proper management. In Ho Chi Minh city, more than 200 TGFs are in operation but the generation BFA and how it is handled is unknown, posing environmental and health risks if contaminants in BFA are leaching into the environment and accumulated in food webs. This study investigated the fuel demands of and the BFA generation from the TGFs in 17 industrial zones and export processing zones in Ho Chi Minh city to estimate BFA generation rates for various fuels. The results revealed a total consumption of 129,028 tons of diverse fuels per month, among which diesel oil (DO) and coal were of majority, accounting for 85,65% and 9,11% by weight, respectively. In addition to coal and DO, cashew husk, wood, and sawdust were among the most widely used fuels. BFA generation rates for rice husk, coal, sawdust, firewood, and cashew husk were 16.95 ± 28.12%, 10.62 ± 8.84%, 5.57 ± 7.34%, 4.88 ± 3.59% and 0.93 ± 1.37%, respectively. Automatically fuel feeding and small – medium TGFs showed higher BFA generation rates than manually fuel feeding and large ones. The findings help estimate the amount of BFA from MFs on larger scales, such as city, province, and country, which serves to develop an effective management strategy and plan.

The article describes the methodology of an experiment to reduce the coefficient of excess air in the furnace in order to find the minimum total harmfulness of combustion products in boiler houses and power plants running on hydrocarbon fuel. A detailed mathematical analysis of pairs of numbers obtained during the experiment is proposed (coefficient of excess air; total harmfulness of combustion products). An algorithm of an automatic control system is proposed that allows implementing the principle of minimal harmfulness of combustion products.

The main aim of this work was to compare six machine learning (ML) - based models to predict the municipal solid waste (MSW) generation from selected residential areas of Vietnam. The input data include eight variables that cover the economy, demography, consumption and waste generation characteristics of the study area. The model simulation results showed that the urban population, average monthly consumption expenditure, and total retail sales were the most influential variables for MSW generation. Among the ML models, the random forest (RF), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithms show good predictive ability of the training data (80% of the data), with an R2 value > 0.96 and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 121.5–125.0 for the testing data (20% of the data). The developed ML models provided reliable forecasting of the data on MSW generation that will help in the planning, design and implementation of an integrated solid waste management action plan for Vietnam. The limitations of this work may be the heterogeneity of the dataset, such as the lack of data from lower administrative units in the country. In such cases, the predictive ML algorithm can be updated and re-trained in the future when the reliable data is added.

This publication describes uniform definitions for cardiovascular and stroke outcomes developed by the Standardized Data Collection for Cardiovascular Trials Initiative and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA established the Standardized Data Collection for Cardiovascular Trials Initiative in 2009 to simplify the design and conduct of clinical trials intended to support marketing applications. The writing committee recognizes that these definitions may be used in other types of clinical trials and clinical care processes where appropriate. Use of these definitions at the FDA has enhanced the ability to aggregate data within and across medical product development programs, conduct meta-analyses to evaluate cardiovascular safety, integrate data from multiple trials, and compare effectiveness of drugs and devices. Further study is needed to determine whether prospective data collection using these common definitions improves the design, conduct, and interpretability of the results of clinical trials.

A series of CaSiO3:x%Tb3+, y%Sm3+ compounds was synthesized by the conventional solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy investigations were conducted to determine crystal structure. The photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectrum of Tb3+ and Sm3+ doped compounds consists of a series of peaks corresponding to electronic transitions of Tb3+ and Sm3+ions. The wavelength of 375 nm was optimal to excite the luminescence of Tb3+/Sm3+ co-doped compounds. The PL emission spectrum consists of a set of intense lines at wavelengths of 415 nm, 436 nm, 457 nm, 488 nm, 543 nm, 586 nm, and 622 nm, corresponding to Tb3+ electronic transitions of 5D3 → 7F5, 5D3 → 7F4, 5D3 → 7F3, 5D4 → 7F6, 5D4 → 7F5, 5D4 → 7F4, and 5D4 → 7F3, respectively. The PL emission spectrum of the Sm3+ doped compound has a series of three peaks located at wavelengths of 565 nm, 602 nm, and 648 nm, corresponding to the electronic transitions of Sm3+ from 4G5/2 to 6H5/2, 6H7/2, and 6H9/2, respectively. The energy level diagram was proposed. The lifetime measurements were conducted for all samples and energy transfer process was also examined by this way. The Commission Internationale de I’Eclairage chromaticity coordinates, correlated color temperature, and color rendering index of phosphors were determined and the results indicate that the obtained materials are optimal candidate for white LED applications.

Background: Measles remains a serious vaccine preventable cause of mortality in developing nations. Vietnam is aiming to achieve the level of immunity required to eliminate measles by maintaining a high coverage of routine first vaccinations in infants, routine second vaccinations at school entry and supplementary local campaigns in high-risk areas. Regular outbreaks of measles are reported, during 2005-2009. Methods: National measles case-based surveillance data collected during 2005-June 2009 was analyzed to assess the epidemiological trend and risk factors associated with measles outbreak in Vietnam. Results: Of the 36,282 measles suspected cases reported nationwide, only 7,086 cases were confirmed through laboratory examination. Although cyclical outbreaks occurred between 2005 and 2009, there was no definite trend in measles outbreaks during these periods. Overall, 2438 of measles confirmed cases were among children ≤5 years and 3068 cases were among people ≥16 years. The distribution with respect to gender skewed towards male (3667 cases) significant difference was not observed (P= 0.1693). Unsurprisingly, 4493 of the con-firmed cases had no history of vaccination (X2, International Journal of Biological Sciences, 7(2), pp.138-146; 2011

The Planar Hall effect in a spin valve structure has been applied as a biosensor being capable of detecting Dynabeads ® M-280. The sensor performance was tested under the application of a DC magnetic field where the output signals were obtained from a nanovoltmeter. The sensor with the pattern size of 50×100 ㎛² has produced high sensitivity; especially, the real-time profiles by using that sensor revealed significant performance at external applied magnetic field of around 7.0 Oe with the resolution of 0.04 beads per ㎛². Finally, a successful array including 24 patterns with the single sensor size of 3×3 ㎛² has shown the uniform and stable signals for single magnetic bead detection. The comparison of this sensor signal with the others has proved feasibility for biosensor application. This, connecting with the advantages of more stable and high signal to noise of PHR sensor’s behaviors, can be used to detect the biomolecules and provide a vehicle for detection and study of other molecular interaction.

Intelligent problem solvers must have suitable knowledge base used by the inference engine to solve problems in certain knowledge domain, and they can solve problems in general forms. Knowledge representation models should be convenient for designing the knowledge base, inference engine and interface of the system. This article presents a design method using the model of computational objects knowledge bases to design the above intelligent software. The method has been used in designing software for solving problems in analytic geometry, and in solid geometry. The systems have been implemented, and produce good solutions.

Nowadays, Wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies are considered as potential solution healthcare monitoring applications. Different researches focus on network designing network for health care monitoring wireless sensor network (HCWSN), especially in the physical design of the HCWSN. However, work to evaluate the performance these network designs is largely lacking. This paper presents a HCWSN network design and simulation study to evaluate the performance in different scenarios such as network topologies, routing and media access control protocols. A practical WSN for HCWSN and a prototype SPO2 device integrated with WSN node have been designed. The testing results are also described in this paper.

To the Editor In the study by Dr Block and colleagues,1 the effect of etelcalcetide on reducing serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism receiving hemodialysis was compared with cinacalcet. This 26-week randomized, double-blind, double-dummy controlled trial was designed to demonstrate noninferiority between 2 calcimimetics for the primary end point of the proportion of patients achieving more than a 30% reduction in PTH levels from baseline. Demonstration of superiority on PTH reduction was a secondary end point. The authors concluded noninferiority and superiority for etelcalcetide compared with cinacalcet. However, comparative claims require a fair comparison between treatments, and the dosing algorithm in this trial appeared to favor etelcalcetide.

As a result of Hon Ba nature reserve survey, Hetaeria finlaysoniana, previously recorded from Thailand, Myanmar and southern China, is newly recorded from Vietnam. Description of studied plants is presented together with notes on ecology and photographic documentation. These plants were collected in southern Vietnam (Hon Ba Nature Reserve, Khanh Hoa), which is located quite far from other known localities and thus a larger distribution of this possibly overlooked species could be expected. Additionally, H. youngsayei is newly recorded from the same reserve, 540 km from the nearest previously known locality. Distribution of both species is discussed and an updated identification key for all Vietnamese members of the genus Hetaeria is presented.

In recent years, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is considered as a potential solution for real time applications in industrial automatic control. However, there are several challenges to develop real time WSN due to its wireless nature, limited resources (power, processing and memory), low node reliability and dynamic network topology. Several researches have been carried out, but there has been little discussion about practical design and implementation of real time WSN in building automation system. This paper describes a simulation study and practical implementation of real time WSN for controlling and monitoring system in multi-storey building environment. A prototype building automation system using Microchip ZigBee WSN was developed with more than thirty sensor nodes and controlling nodes has been developed and tested successfully in multi-storey building. We also discuss future improvements of our current implementation.

The prevalence of Salmonella spp. in pigs was evaluated in a survey of small abattoirs in Hanoi, Vietnam. Cecal contents, carcass swabs, and tank water samples were collected for bacterial isolation in various media. Prevalence rates exceeded 50% in pig samples and 62% in water samples. This increased prevalence indicates the need for risk assessment evaluations along the entire production chain.

Background Optimal treatment for acute pain is a function of an individual's willingness to make trade-offs between treatment side effects and pain control. The objective was to investigate the degree to which patients are willing to make these trade-offs. Methods Fifty patients undergoing major abdominal surgery were enrolled and completed interviews before and after surgery. Measures included an experience with pain questionnaire and an adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA) interview. Results Percentage of pain relief obtained post-surgery was between 70 and 80%. Eight-two per cent reported at least one moderate or severe side effect. ACA results demonstrated that pain efficacy and side effect type/severity have almost equal ‘importance' scores. Patients varied in their willingness to trade-off pain efficacy for different or milder side effects. Conclusions We conclude that people have different relative preferences for different side effects and are willing to trade-off pain relief for less upsetting and/or less severe side effects but to different degrees. Thus, physicians should consider offering pain medications with fewer side effects than narcotics as a first choice. Our study indicates the need to balance analgesia and side effects in order for patients to achieve optimal pain control.

PURPOSE. Subtle changes in retinal vascular caliber have been shown to predict diabetic retinopathy and other diabetic complications. This study was undertaken to investigate whether retinal vascular caliber correlates with light-flicker-induced retinal vasodilation, a measure of endothelial function. METHODS. The participants were 224 persons with diabetes (85 type 1 and 139 type 2) and 103 persons without diabetes (controls). Flicker-induced retinal vasodilation (percentage increase over baseline diameter) was measured with a vessel analyzer. Retinal vascular caliber was measured from digital retinal photographs according to a standardized, validated protocol. Data from both right and left eyes were used and modeled with generalized estimating equations to account for correlation between eyes. RESULTS. In persons with diabetes, after adjustment for age and sex, reduced flicker-induced vasodilation was associated with wider retinal vascular caliber. Eyes with the lowest tertiles of flicker-induced arteriolar dilation had wider arteriolar caliber (5.40 μm; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.76-9.05) and eyes with the lowest tertiles of flicker-induced venular dilation had corresponding wider venular caliber (12.4 μm; 95% CI, 6.48-18.2), respectively, than eyes with the highest tertile of vasodilation. These associations persisted after further adjusting for diabetes duration, systolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, lipids, body mass index, current smoking, and presence of diabetic retinopathy. No associations were evident in persons without diabetes. CONCLUSIONS. Changes in retinal vascular caliber (wider arterioles and venules) are associated with impaired flicker-induced vasodilation in persons with diabetes. Determining whether endothelial dysfunction explains the link between retinal vascular caliber and risks of diabetic microvascular complications calls for further study.