In this study, we evaluated and compared the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) performance of a typical photomultiplier tube (PMT) with that of multipixel photon counters (MPPCs), also known as ...silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). We used CsI(Tl) scintillators for both setups and mainly evaluated the PSD performance in the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha </tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\beta </tex-math></inline-formula> separation. We used the charge comparison method, that is, identifying the particle type based on the ratio of the charges collected in two time gates: Short gate (SG) for the delayed part and long gate (LG) for the entire digitized waveform. With the same LG = 2250 ns, the PMT setup showed a better PSD performance with the figure of merit (FOM) being 3.33 (in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha </tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\beta </tex-math></inline-formula> separation), whereas the FOM of the MPPC setup was 2.26. This inferior performance of the MPPC setup was due to its slow response, mainly the slow decay time in the waveform of one photoelectron (p.e.) of the MPPCs. This study aimed to determine the relationships of the PSD performance with the number of p.e. collected and the time characteristics of the scintillator-photosensor coupling. From these relationships, we estimated the SG to obtain <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text {FOM}_{\text {max}} </tex-math></inline-formula> and afterward confirmed a method to further increase the PSD performance. The estimated SG gave a comparable FOM without an extensive search for the optimized SG for obtaining the actual <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text {FOM}_{\text {max}} </tex-math></inline-formula> in analysis. To further increase the PSD performance of the MPPC setup, we used a new data acquisition (DAQ) system and extended the LG to 8000 ns to collect more p.e. and mitigate the slow response of the MPPCs. Using the new DAQ system, we obtained an FOM of 3.91 for the MPPC setup, that is, an increase by a factor of 1.7.
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the lives of millions of people globally. Patients recovering from COVID-19 are facing, not only the symptom of long COVID, but also ...psychological problems, such as sleep disturbance. This study aims to assess the proportion of COVID-19 recovered adult patients that suffer from insomnia and associated factors in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed between January and March 2022 among patients who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection. Data were collected based on a self-administered questionnaire that included sociodemographic and standardized questionnaires from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Perceived stress scale (PSS) and the dependent variable using Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to explore factors associated with the patients' insomnia disorder. Results: A total of 325 participants were included in this analysis, 34.5% of participants had insomnia. According to multivariable logistic regression, participants who were equal to and over 50 years of age, feeling alienated from others, and were not supported by families or relatives, reported significantly higher levels of insomnia disorders over those aged under 50 years, having closer ties with family and had received support from family or relatives. Besides, respondents who recorded mental health problems that included anxiety, depression and stress were more likely to get insomnia disorders than those without mental health symptoms (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.1-6.6) (OR 4.5, 95% CI 2.3-8.9) (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.1-5.3), respectively, all p < 0.05. Conclusion: There was a remarkable rate of COVID-19 recovered patients experiencing insomnia disorders. Older age, alienated relationships and not being supported by families or relatives, as well as had mental health problems, are factors that affected the patients' insomnia, which showed that these sleep issues need to be screened and managed among adults who have recovered from COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19, insomnia, recovery, sleep disturbance, Vietnam
is a commensal bacteria species that can cause various illnesses, from mild skin infections to severe diseases, such as bacteremia. The distribution and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern of
...varies by population, time, geographic location, and hospital wards. In this study, we elucidated the epidemiology and AMR patterns of
isolated from a general hospital in Vietnam.
This was a cross-sectional study. Data on all
infections from 2014 to 2021 were collected from the Microbiology department of Military Hospital 103, Vietnam. Only the first isolation from each kind of specimen from a particular patient was analyzed using the Cochran-Armitage and chi-square tests.
A total of 1130 individuals were diagnosed as
infection. Among them, 1087 strains were tested for AMR features. Most patients with
infection were in the age group of 41-65 years (39.82%).
isolates were predominant in the surgery wards, and pus specimens were the most common source of isolates (50.62%).
was most resistant to azithromycin (82.28%), erythromycin (82.82%), and clindamycin (82.32%) and least resistant to teicoplanin (0.0%), tigecycline (0.16%), quinupristin-dalfopristin (0.43%), linezolid (0.62%), and vancomycin (2.92%). Methicillin-resistant
(MRSA) and multidrug-resistant (MDR)
were prevalent, accounting for 73.02% and 60.90% of the total strains respectively, and the strains isolated from the intensive care unit (ICU) had the highest percentage of multidrug resistance (77.78%) among the wards.
These findings highlight the urgent need for continuous AMR surveillance and updated treatment guidelines, particularly considering high resistance in MRSA, MDR strains, and ICU isolates. Future research focusing on specific resistant populations and potential intervention strategies is crucial to combat this rising threat.
Abstract
Current WHO-recommended diagnostic tools for tuberculosis infection (TBI) have well-known limitations and viable alternatives are urgently needed. We compared the diagnostic performance and ...accuracy of the novel QIAreach QuantiFERON-TB assay (QIAreach; index) to the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assay (QFT-Plus; reference). The sample included 261 adults (≥ 18 years) recruited at community-based TB case finding events. Of these, 226 underwent Tuberculin Skin Tests and 200 returned for interpretation (TST; comparator). QIAreach processing and TST reading were completed at lower-level healthcare facilities. We conducted matched-pair comparisons for QIAreach and TST with QFT-Plus, calculated sensitivity, specificity and area under a receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC), and analyzed concordant-/discordant-pair interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) levels. QIAreach sensitivity and specificity were 98.5% and 72.3%, respectively, for an AUC of 0.85. TST sensitivity (53.2%) at a 5 mm induration threshold was significantly below QIAreach, while specificity (82.4%) was statistically equivalent. The corrected mean IFN-γ level of 0.08 IU/ml and corresponding empirical threshold (0.05) of false-positive QIAreach results were significantly lower than the manufacturer-recommended QFT-Plus threshold (≥ 0.35 IU/ml). Despite QIAreach’s higher sensitivity at equivalent specificity to TST, the high number of false positive results and low specificity limit its utility and highlight the continued need to expand the diagnostic toolkit for TBI.
A poorly coordinated performance among stakeholders in the finishing phase can impair the performance of a high-rise building project. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze construction failure ...factors (CFFs) to stakeholder coordinating performance (SCP) in the finishing phase of high-rise building projects and to uncover their underlying relationships. CFFs to SCP in construction projects, especially in the finishing phase of high-rise building projects, have not yet been discovered. The study identified 30 CFFs to the SCP and ranked them according to the perspective of the stakeholders, including owners/consultants and contractors/subcontractors. Additionally, four factors of the CFFs, namely, traditional adversarial relationship, poor project planning and organization, incompetent parties, and delays of parties toward construction works were extracted by the factor analysis method. This study fills the gap in knowledge related to the coordination performance in construction projects. The findings could help stakeholders to enhance their coordinating performance in high-rise building projects.
This is the first publication on arsenic contamination of the Red River alluvial tract in the city of Hanoi and in the surrounding rural districts. Due to naturally occurring organic matter in the ...sediments, the groundwaters are anoxic and rich in iron. With an average arsenic concentration of 159 micrograms/L, the contamination levels varied from 1 to 3050 micrograms/L in rural groundwater samples from private small-scale tubewells. In a highly affected rural area, the groundwater used directly as drinking water had an average concentration of 430 micrograms/L. Analysis of raw groundwater pumped from the lower aquifer for the Hanoi water supply yielded arsenic levels of 240-320 micrograms/L in three of eight treatment plants and 37-82 micrograms/L in another five plants. Aeration and sand filtration that are applied in the treatment plants for iron removal lowered the arsenic concentrations to levels of 25-91 micrograms/L, but 50% remained above the Vietnamese Standard of 50 micrograms/L. Extracts of sediment samples from five bore cores showed a correlation of arsenic and iron contents (r2 = 0.700, n = 64). The arsenic in the sediments may be associated with iron oxyhydroxides and released to the groundwater by reductive dissolution of iron. Oxidation of sulfide phases could also release arsenic to the groundwater, but sulfur concentrations in sediments were below 1 mg/g. The high arsenic concentrations found in the tubewells (48% above 50 micrograms/L and 20% above 150 micrograms/L) indicate that several million people consuming untreated groundwater might be at a considerable risk of chronic arsenic poisoning.
Vulnerability discovery models (VDMs) operate on known vulnerability data to estimate the total number of vulnerabilities that will be reported after a software is released. VDMs have been proposed ...by industry and academia, but there has been no systematic independent evaluation by researchers who are not model proponents. Moreover, the traditional evaluation methodology has some issues that biased previous studies in the field. In this work we propose an empirical methodology that systematically evaluates the performance of VDMs along two dimensions (quality and predictability) and addresses all identified issues of the traditional methodology. We conduct an experiment to evaluate most existing VDMs on popular web browsers' vulnerability data. Our comparison shows that the results obtained by the proposed methodology are more informative than those by the traditional methodology. Among evaluated VDMs, the simplest linear model is the most appropriate choice in terms of both quality and predictability for the first 6-12 months since a release date. Otherwise, logistics-based models are better choices.
Esophageal mucosal admittance (MA) is a promising diagnostic method for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). We conducted a study to describe the esophageal MA in patients with reflux symptoms and ...determine its diagnostic accuracy.
We recruited 92 patients with ambulatory pH-impedance monitoring, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and MA measured by the tissue conductance meter. MA was measured during endoscopy at 5cm (distal esophagus) and 15cm above the Z line (middle esophagus), repeated at least five times at each position, and median MA was obtained. Afterwards, two biopsies were taken 5cm above the Z line for histopathological evaluation using the Esohisto criteria. Patients were classified as GERD or non-GERD according to the 2018 Lyon consensus.
The mean age was 43.2 years, and 42 patients were males. The most common symptoms were regurgitation (75.0%), belching (65.2%), and heartburn (46.7%). Twenty-three (32.3%) were diagnosed with GERD using the Lyon consensus, and 24 (26.1%) had esophagitis on histopathology. The median MA at the distal and middle esophagus was moderately correlated. The median MA at both positions was higher in the GERD group but only statistically significant in the middle esophagus. MA was not associated with pH-impedance parameters and esophagitis on histopathology. The diagnostic model developed using the logistic regression did not have good accuracy.
MA was not different between GERD and non-GERD patients.
To accelerate the reduction in tuberculosis (TB) incidence, it is necessary to optimize the use of innovative tools and approaches available within a local context. This study evaluated the use of an ...existing network of community health workers (CHW) for active case finding, in combination with mobile chest X-ray (CXR) screening events and the expansion of Xpert MTB/RIF testing eligibility, in order to reach people with TB who had been missed by the current system. A controlled intervention study was conducted from January 2018 to March 2019 in five intervention and four control districts of two low to medium TB burden cities in Viet Nam. CHWs screened and referred eligible persons for CXR to TB care facilities or mobile screening events in the community. The initial diagnostic test was Xpert MTB/RIF for persons with parenchymal abnormalities suggestive of TB on CXR or otherwise on smear microscopy. We analyzed the TB care cascade by calculating the yield and number needed to screen (NNS), estimated the impact on TB notifications and conducted a pre-/postintervention comparison of TB notification rates using controlled, interrupted time series (ITS) analyses. We screened 30,336 individuals in both cities to detect and treat 243 individuals with TB, 88.9% of whom completed treatment successfully. All forms of TB notifications rose by +18.3% (95% CI: +15.8%, +20.8%). The ITS detected a significant postintervention step-increase in the intervention area for all-form TB notification rates (IRR(β6) = 1.221 (95% CI: 1.011, 1.475); p = 0.038). The combined use of CHWs for active case findings and mobile CXR screening expanded the access to and uptake of Xpert MTB/RIF testing and resulted in a significant increase in TB notifications. This model could serve as a blueprint for expansion throughout Vietnam. Moreover, the results demonstrate the need to optimize the use of the best available tools and approaches in order to end TB.
Occurrence and behavior of fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents (FQs) were investigated in hospital wastewaters in Hanoi, Vietnam. Hospital wastewater in Hanoi is usually not treated and this ...untreated wastewater is directly discharged into one of the wastewater channels of the city and eventually reaches the ambient aquatic environment. The concentrations of the FQs, ciprofloxacin (CIP) and norfloxacin (NOR) in six hospital wastewaters ranged from 1.1 to 44 and from 0.9 to 17
μg
l
−1, respectively. Total FQ loads to the city sewage system varied from 0.3 to 14
g
d
−1. Additionally, the mass flows of CIP and NOR were investigated in the aqueous compartment in a small wastewater treatment facility of one hospital. The results showed that the FQ removal from the wastewater stream was between 80 and 85%, probably due to sorption on sewage sludge. Simultaneously, the numbers of
Escherichia coli (
E. coli) were measured and their resistance against CIP and NOR was evaluated by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration. Biological treatment lead to a 100-fold reduction in the number of
E. coli but still more than a thousand
E. coli colonies per 100
ml of wastewater effluent reached the receiving water. The highest resistance was found in
E. coli strains of raw wastewater and the lowest in isolates of treated wastewater effluent. Thus, wastewater treatment is an efficient barrier to decrease the residual FQ levels and the number of resistant bacteria entering ambient waters. Due to the lack of municipal wastewater treatment plants, the onsite treatment of hospital wastewater before discharging into municipal sewers should be considered as a viable option and consequently implemented.
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