Multi-Camera-Based Sorting System for Surface Defects of Apples.

In this paper, we addressed the challenges in sorting high-yield apple cultivars that traditionally relied on manual labor or system-based defect detection. Existing single-camera methods failed to uniformly capture the entire surface of apples, potentially leading to misclassification due to defects in unscanned areas. Various methods were proposed where apples were rotated using rollers on a conveyor. However, since the rotation was highly random, it was difficult to scan the apples uniformly for accurate classification. To overcome these limitations, we proposed a multi-camera-based apple sorting system with a rotation mechanism that ensured uniform and accurate surface imaging. The proposed system applied a rotation mechanism to individual apples while simultaneously utilizing three cameras to capture the entire surface of the apples. This method offered the advantage of quickly and uniformly acquiring the entire surface compared to single-camera and random rotation conveyor setups. The images captured by the system were analyzed using a CNN classifier deployed on embedded hardware. To maintain excellent CNN classifier performance while reducing its size and inference time, we employed knowledge distillation techniques. The CNN classifier demonstrated an inference speed of 0.069 s and an accuracy of 93.83% based on 300 apple samples. The integrated system, which included the proposed rotation mechanism and multi-camera setup, took a total of 2.84 s to sort one apple. Our proposed system provided an efficient and precise solution for detecting defects on the entire surface of apples, improving the sorting process with high reliability.

Socio-economic or environmental benefits from pondscapes? Deriving stakeholder preferences using analytic hierarchy process and compositional data analysis.

Ponds occupy a large share of standing water worldwide and play an important role in providing various ecosystem services. There are concerted efforts of the European Union either to create new ponds, or to restore and preserve existing ponds as nature-based solutions to provide benefits to ecosystem and human well-being. As part of the EU PONDERFUL project, selected pondscapes (i.e. landscapes of ponds) in eight different countries - hereafter "demo-sites", are studied to comprehensively understand their characteristics and their efficiency to provide ecosystem services. In addition, the needs and knowledge of stakeholders who own, work, research, or benefit from the pondscapes are also important, because of their capabilities to create, manage and develop the pondscapes. Therefore, we established connection with stakeholders to study their preferences and visions on the pondscapes. Using the analytic hierarchy process, this study shows that in general stakeholders in the European and Turkish demo-sites prefer environmental benefits to economic benefits, while stakeholders in the Uruguayan demo-sites rank the economic benefits higher. More specifically, in the European and Turkish demo-sites, the biodiversity benefits, i.e. life-cycle maintenance, habitat and gene pool protection, receive the highest ranking among all groups. On the other hand, stakeholders at the Uruguayan demo-sites rank provisioning benefits as the most important, because many ponds in Uruguayan demo-sites are being used for agricultural purposes. Understanding those preferences helps policy makers to address the needs of stakeholders more correctly, when considering any action or policy for the pondscapes.

Assessment of Mobilization Potential of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances for Soil Remediation.

This study investigated the mobilization of a wide range of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) present in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) in water-saturated soils through one-dimensional (1-D) column experiments with a view to assessing the feasibility of their remediation by soil desorption and washing. Results indicated that sorption/desorption of most of the shorter-carbon-chain PFASs (C ≤ 6) in soil reached greater than 99% rapidly─after approximately two pore volumes (PVs) and were well predicted by an equilibrium transport model, indicating that they will be readily removed by soil washing technologies. In contrast, the equilibrium model failed to predict the mobilization of longer-chain PFASs (C ≥ 7), indicating the presence of nonequilibrium sorption/desorption (confirmed by a flow interruption experiment). The actual time taken to attain 99% sorption/desorption was up to 5 times longer than predicted by the equilibrium model (e.g., ∼62 PVs versus ∼12 PVs predicted for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in loamy sand). The increasing contribution of hydrophobic interactions over the electrostatic interactions is suggested as the main driving factor of the nonequilibrium processes. The inverse linear relationship (R2 = 0.6, p < 0.0001) between the nonequilibrium mass transfer rate coefficient and the Freundlich sorption coefficient could potentially be a useful means for preliminary evaluation of potential nonequilibrium sorption/desorption of PFASs in soils.

1,2,4-Triazole-3-thione analogues with an arylakyl group at position 4 as metallo-ß-lactamase inhibitors.

Metallo-ß-lactamases (MBLs) represent an increasingly serious threat to public health because of their increased prevalence worldwide in relevant opportunistic Gram-negative pathogens. MBLs efficiently inactivate widely used and most valuable ß-lactam antibiotics, such as oxyiminocephalosporins (ceftriaxone, ceftazidime) and the last-resort carbapenems. To date, no MBL inhibitor has been approved for therapeutic applications. We are developing inhibitors characterized by a 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione scaffold as an original zinc ligand and few promising series were already reported. Here, we present the synthesis and evaluation of a new series of compounds characterized by the presence of an arylalkyl substituent at position 4 of the triazole ring. The alkyl link was mainly an ethylene, but a few compounds without alkyl or with an alkyl group of various lengths up to a butyl chain were also synthesized. Some compounds in both sub-series were micromolar to submicromolar inhibitors of tested VIM-type MBLs. A few of them were broad-spectrum inhibitors, as they showed significant inhibitory activity on NDM-1 and, to a lesser extent, IMP-1. Among these, several inhibitors were able to significantly reduce the meropenem MIC on VIM-1- and VIM-4- producing clinical isolates by up to 16-fold. In addition, ACE inhibition was absent or moderate and one promising compound did not show toxicity toward HeLa cells at concentrations up to 250 µM. This series represents a promising basis for further exploration. Finally, molecular modelling of representative compounds in complex with VIM-2 was performed to study their binding mode.

Screening Wetland and Forage Plants for Phytoremediation of Salt-Affected Soils in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

This study evaluated the salt tolerance and sodium (Na) bioaccumulation of Typha orientalis, Lepironia articulata, Eleocharis dulcis, Scirpus littoralis, Brachiaria mutica, Paspalum atratum and Setaria sphacelata at five salinity levels of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20‰ (corresponding to 0, 2.4, 6.9, 12.6 and 18 g NaCl L-1). S. littoralis showed zero-reduction in total dry biomass and was classified as a salt tolerant plant based on the membership function value. The highest Na+ accumulation was observed in S. sphacelata (307.9 mg plant-1) in spite of its salt sensitivity, followed by S. littoralis and T. orientalis at concentration of 155 mg plant-1. Consequently, the Na+ phytoextraction potential of these species can be estimated as 46.2, 23.3 and 23.3 kg ha-1 over 49 days, respectively. Taken together, they show high potential as Na+ hyperaccumulators, and can be selected in the national reclamation program for salt-affected soils in the context adaptation to climate change.

Predictors of Prolonged Pleural Effusion After the Extracardiac Fontan Procedure: A 8-Year Single-Center Experience in Resource-Scare Setting.

To date, despite improvement in survival rate following a Fontan operation, postoperative prolonged pleural effusion (PPE) has still remained a confounding complication of this procedure, which significantly contributes to morbidity and prolonged hospitalization. Our study aims to investigate risk factors associated with PPE after the extracardiac Fontan operation. From August 2012 to December 2019, we obtained clinical data from the medical records of 145 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with single-ventricle lesions and received an extracardiac Fontan operation at the E Hospital (Hanoi, Vietnam). PPE was defined as the need for a chest tube for > 14 days. Patients were divided into two groups, those with PPE (n = 29, 20.00%) and those without PPE (n = 116, 80.00%). During the pre-Fontan evaluation, significant differences between two groups were observed in PPE (p = 0.00), chylothorax (p = 0.045), pleurodesis (p = 0.045), position of thoracic and abdominal organs (p = 0.018), atrioventricular (AV) valve regurgitation (p = 0.030), and large aortapulmonary circulation (p = 0.041). During the Fontan evaluation, significant differences among two groups were seen in aortic cross-clamp time (p = 0.04), cardiopulmonary bypass time (p = 0.014), and mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) at Fontan (p = 0.0072). In multivariable analysis with logistic regression, a reduced model including independent predictors for PPE was found to be the NYHA class III (OR 4.93, 95% CI 1.19-20.50, p = 0.028), double-outlet right ventricle (DORV) with transposition of great arteries (TGA) (OR 31.00, 95% CI 1.35-711.63, p = 0.032), AV valve regurgitation (OR 70.73, 95% CI 3.28-1523.28, p = 0.007), ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt (OR 8.29, 95% CI 1.60-42.78, p = 0.012), PAI (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99, p = 0.002) at pre-Fontan, while, at Fontan, high PAP (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.01-1.53, p = 0.046) was an independent predictor for PPE. In conclusion, the incidence of PPE was relatively low. The NYHA class III, primary anatomical diagnosis of DORV with TGA, pre-Fontan AV valve regurgitation, the existence of pre-Fontan ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt, low pulmonary artery index (PAI), and high PAP in the operation were identified as independent risk factors to predict PPE following a Fontan operation. As prior studies also investigated various risk factors influencing PPE, a preventive strategy that targets these factors combined with previous identified other risk factors might reduce the PPE incidence.

Successful endoscopic endonasal surgery for very huge trigeminal schwannomas in nasopharynx.

We present a 60-year-old female diagnosed with a giant trigeminal tumor (5.2*6.4*8.2 cm) situated in the middle cranial fossa and nasopharyngeal area. The patient was operated on by endoscopic endonasal transmaxillary, transpterygoid and infratemporal approaches. Postoperatively she was stable, with no neurologic complication and no cerebrospinal fluid leakage. We review the literature on extremely large trigeminal schwannomas.

Deep-learning-based accurate hepatic steatosis quantification for histological assessment of liver biopsies.

Hepatic steatosis droplet quantification with histology biopsies has high clinical significance for risk stratification and management of patients with fatty liver diseases and in the decision to use donor livers for transplantation. However, pathology reviewing processes, when conducted manually, are subject to a high inter- and intra-reader variability, due to the overwhelmingly large number and significantly varying appearance of steatosis instances. This process is challenging as there is a large number of overlapped steatosis droplets with either missing or weak boundaries. In this study, we propose a deep-learning-based region-boundary integrated network for precise steatosis quantification with whole slide liver histopathology images. The proposed model consists of two sequential steps: a region extraction and a boundary prediction module for foreground regions and steatosis boundary prediction, followed by an integrated prediction map generation. Missing steatosis boundaries are next recovered from the predicted map and assembled from adjacent image patches to generate results for the whole slide histopathology image. The resulting steatosis measures both at the pixel level and steatosis object-level present strong correlation with pathologist annotations, radiology readouts and clinical data. In addition, the segregated steatosis object count is shown as a promising alternative measure to the traditional metrics at the pixel level. These results suggest a high potential of artificial intelligence-assisted technology to enhance liver disease decision support using whole slide images.

Trends and changes in the knowledge of mother-to-child transmission means of HIV among Vietnamese women aged 15-49 years and its associated factors: findings from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, 2000-2014.

This study aims to characterize trends and changes in the prevalence of knowledge of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) means of HIV as well as to identify its associated socioeconomic factors among Vietnamese women. This is a repeated cross-sectional study using data from the Vietnam Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 2000, 2006, 2011 and 2014. We found that a slow increase was found in the trend of adequate knowledge of HIV transmission means from mother to child among women between 2000 and 2014 (41.81% in 2000, 45.66% in 2006, 49.58% in 2011, and 46.83% in 2014). Most women knew that HIV could be transmitted during pregnancy, however, more than half of women did not know all three ways of MTCT. Socioeconomic factors including age, ethnicity, education level, and economic status as factors that affected full knowledge of MTCT means. The study helps to design public health programs to raise 15-49-year-old women's knowledge in HIV transmission means from mother to child as well as can provide a quite strong case for policy adaptation to improve women's health in the time to come.

Bentonite-supported nano zero-valent iron composite as a green catalyst for bisphenol A degradation: Preparation, performance, and mechanism of action.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a toxic environmental pollutant commonly found in wastewater. Using non-toxic materials and eco-friendly technology to remove this pollutant from wastewater presents multiple advantages. Treatment of wastewater with clay minerals has received growing interest because of the environment friendliness of these materials. Bentonite is a 2:1 layered phyllosilicate clay mineral that can support nano-metal catalysts. It can prevent the agglomeration of nano-metal catalysts and improve their activity. In this article, a green catalytic nano zero-valent iron/bentonite composite material (NZVI@bentonite) was synthesized via liquid-phase reduction. The average size of NZVI was approximately 40-50 nm. Good dispersion and low aggregation were observed when NZVI was loaded on the surface or embedded into the nanosheets of bentonite. Degradation of BPA, a harmful contaminant widely found in wastewater at relatively high levels, by NZVI@bentonite was then investigated and compared with that by pristine NZVI through batch Fenton-like reaction experiments. Compared with pristine NZVI and bentonite alone, the NZVI@bentonite showed a higher BPA degradation ratio and offered highly effective BPA degradation up to 450 mg/g in wastewater under optimum operating conditions. Adsorption coupled with the Fenton-like reaction was responsible for BPA degradation by NZVI@bentonite. This work extends the application of NZVI@bentonite as an effective green catalyst for BPA degradation in aqueous environments.

Zika virus in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia: are there health risks for travelers?

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have reported first cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection since 2010 (Cambodia) and 2016 (Vietnam and Laos). One case of ZIKV-related microcephaly was recognized among a hundred infected cases in these areas, raising a great concern about the health risk related to this virus infection. At least 5 cases of ZIKV infection among travelers to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were recorded. It is noticeable that ZIKV in these areas can cause birth defects. This work aims to discuss the current epidemics of ZIKV in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and update the infection risk of ZIKV for travelers to these areas.

Evaluation of amidoxime derivatives as prodrug candidates of potent bis-cationic antimalarials.

Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for most of the cases of malaria and its resistance to established antimalarial drugs is a major issue. Thus, new chemotherapies are needed to fight the emerging multi-drug resistance of P. falciparum malaria, like choline analogues targeting plasmodial phospholipidic metabolism. Here we describe the synthesis of amidoxime derivatives as prodrug candidates of reverse-benzamidines and hybrid compounds able to mimic choline, as well as the design of a new series of asymmetrical bis-cationic compounds. Bioconversion studies were conducted on amidoximes in asymmetrical series and showed that amidoxime prodrug strategy could be applied on C-alkylamidine moieties, like benzamidines and that N-substituents did not alter the bioconversion of amidoximes. The antimalarial activity of the three series of compounds was evaluated in vitro against P. falciparum and in vivo against P. vinckei petteri in mice.

Simple Ex Vivo Porcine Kidney Model for Teaching Ultrasound-Guided Intervention.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study is to describe the use of a novel, cost-effective, gelatin ex vivo porcine kidney model for renal interventions performed using ultrasound guidance. CONCLUSION. Percutaneous ultrasound-guided renal interventions are common procedures in radiology. Use of models helps trainees develop the hand-eye coordination needed to successfully perform interventional techniques. The gelatin ex vivo porcine kidney model can be used to educate trainees in proper technique before they perform such procedures on actual patients.

Removal and monitoring acetaminophen-contaminated hospital wastewater by vertical flow constructed wetland and peroxidase enzymes.

Hospital wastewater contains acetaminophen (ACT) and nutrient, which need adequate removal and monitoring to prevent impact to environment and community. This study developed a pilot scale vertical flow constructed wetland (CW) to (1) remove high-dose ACT and pollutants in hospital wastewater and (2) identify the correlation of peroxidase enzyme extruded by Scirpus validus and pollutants removal efficiency. By that correlation, a low-cost method to monitor pollutants removal was drawn. Plants, such as Scirpus validus, generated peroxidase enzymes to alleviate pollutants' stress. Results showed that the CW removed 3.5 to 6 logs of initial concentration 10 mg ACT/L to a recommended level for drinking water. The CW eliminated COD, TKN and TP efficiently, meeting the wastewater discharged standards of Thailand and Vietnam. By various multivariable regression models, concentrations of ACT in CW effluent and enzymes in S. validus exhibited a significant correlation (p < 0.01, R2 = 68.3%). These findings suggested that (i) vertical flow CW could remove high-dose ACT and nutrient and (ii) peroxidase enzymes generated in S. validus, such as soluble and covalent ones, could track ACT removal efficiency. This would help to reduce facilities and analytical cost of micro-pollutants.

MaReIA: A Cloud MapReduce Based High Performance Whole Slide Image Analysis Framework.

Recent advancements in systematic analysis of high resolution whole slide images have increase efficiency of diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of cancer and important diseases. Due to the enormous sizes and dimensions of whole slide images, the analysis requires extensive computing resources which are not commonly available. Images have to be tiled for processing due to computer memory limitations, which lead to inaccurate results due to the ignorance of boundary crossing objects. Thus, we propose a generic and highly scalable cloud-based image analysis framework for whole slide images. The framework enables parallelized integration of image analysis steps, such as segmentation and aggregation of micro-structures in a single pipeline, and generation of final objects manageable by databases. The core concept relies on the abstraction of objects in whole slide images as different classes of spatial geometries, which in turn can be handled as text based records in MapReduce. The framework applies an overlapping partitioning scheme on images, and provides parallelization of tiling and image segmentation based on MapReduce architecture. It further provides robust object normalization, graceful handling of boundary objects with an efficient spatial indexing based matching method to generate accurate results. Our experiments on Amazon EMR show that MaReIA is highly scalable, generic and extremely cost effective by benchmark tests.

Effects of nutrient ratios and carbon dioxide bio-sequestration on biomass growth of Chlorella sp. in bubble column photobioreactor.

Photobioreactor technology, especially bubble column configuration, employing microalgae cultivation (e.g., Chlorella sp.), is an ideal man-made environment to achieve sufficient microalgae biomass through its strictly operational control. Nutrients, typically N and P, are necessary elements in the cultivation process, which determine biomass yield and productivity. Specifically, N:P ratios have certain effects on microalgae's biomass growth. It is also attractive that microalgae can sequester CO2 by using that carbon source for photosynthesis and, subsequently, reducing CO2 emission. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of N:P ratios on Chlorella sp.'s growth, and to study the dynamic of CO2 fixation in the bubble column photobioreactor. According to our results, N:P ratio of 15:1 could produce the highest biomass yield (3568 ±â€¯158 mg L-1). The maximum algae concentration was 105 × 106 cells mL-1, receiving after 92 h. Chlorella sp. was also able to sequester CO2 at 28 ±â€¯1.2%, while the specific growth rate and carbon fixation rate were observed at 0.064 h-1 and 68.9 ±â€¯1.91 mg L-1 h-1, respectively. The types of carbon sources (e.g., organic and inorganic carbon) possessed potential impact on microalgae's cultivation.

Persistence criteria for populations with non-local dispersion.

In this article, we analyse the non-local model: [Formula: see text]where J is a positive continuous dispersal kernel and f(x, u) is a heterogeneous KPP type non-linearity describing the growth rate of the population. The ecological niche of the population is assumed to be bounded (i.e. outside a compact set, the environment is assumed to be lethal for the population). For compactly supported dispersal kernels J, we derive an optimal persistence criteria. We prove that a positive stationary solution exists if and only if the generalised principal eigenvalue [Formula: see text] of the linear problem [Formula: see text]is negative. [Formula: see text] is a spectral quantity that we defined in the spirit of the generalised first eigenvalue of an elliptic operator. In addition, for any continuous non-negative initial data that is bounded or integrable, we establish the long time behaviour of the solution u(t, x). We also analyse the impact of the size of the support of the dispersal kernel on the persistence criteria. We exhibit situations where the dispersal strategy has "no impact" on the persistence of the species and other ones where the slowest dispersal strategy is not any more an "Ecological Stable Strategy". We also discuss persistence criteria for fat-tailed kernels.

Morphological Characteristics of the Vietnamese Adult Human Acetabulum Using Multiplanar Reconstruction Computed Tomography in Total Hip Replacement Surgery.

Background: The anatomical parameters of the acetabulum vary among races and geographical regions. Multislice Computed Tomography (CT) has proven to be a practical approach to assess morphological parameters of the acetabulum. The purpose of this study was to explore morphological characteristics of the acetabulum measured by CT scans in Vietnamese adults. Methods: Thirty-five consecutive patients aged 18 years and older received indications and eligibility for total hip replacement surgery. Sixty-three acetabulum were examined with multislice computed tomographic system (CT) with multiplanar reconstruction (MPR). Measured morphometric parameters of acetabulum included acetabular inclination angle (AIA), acetabular anteversion angle (AAA), acetabular angle of sharp (AAS), sagittal acetabular angle (SAA), acetabular horizontal offset (AHO), transverse acetabular ligament anteversion (TALA), transverse acetabular ligament inclination (TALI), acetabular depth (ADe), acetabular depth ratio (ADr) and acetabular diameter (ADi). Results: The mean values of acetabular diameter, femoral head diameter, AIA, AAA, AAS, SAA, TALA, TALI, AHO, ADe, ADr were 50.22±3.56 mm, 43.54±3.68 mm, 40.27±5.09 mm, 13.30±5.54 mm, 39.46±5.41 mm, 26.38±9.01 mm, 9.49±3.92 mm, 47.70±6.73 mm, 3.06±0.37 mm, 18.62±2.95 mm and 309.60±41.87 mm. Conclusion: Our initial data has showed morphological characteristics of the acetabulum in Vietnamese adults, different from the populations from other parts of world. Also, significant correlation between the orientation of the acetabulum and the transverse acetabular ligament was documented.

Extracorporeal life support and continuous renal replacement therapy in a patient with Enterovirus A71 associated cardiopulmonary failure: A case report.

RATIONALE: Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) caused by Enterovirus A71, complicated by cardiopulmonary failure, is associated with a high mortality rate despite intensive treatment. To date, there is a paucity of clinical management data, regarding the use of extracorporeal life support (VA-ECMO) for Enterovirus-A71 associated cardiopulmonary failure reported. PATIENT CONCERNS: The patient in this study presented with severe HFMD complicated by cardiopulmonary failure, polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, and cardiac arrest. DIAGNOSES: Clinical presentations, laboratory data, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results from rectal swabs were used to confirm the diagnosis of severe HFMD caused by Enterovirus A71. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was managed with chest compression and an automatic external defibrillator, mechanical ventilation, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and inotrope (milrinone). The patient did not respond to these interventions and subsequently required further management with VA-ECMO. OUTCOMES: The patient achieved a favorable outcomes. LESSONS: Our study highlights that extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and CRRT can enhance the survival outcomes of patients with severe HFMD with cardiopulmonary failure complications. Furthermore, we propose specific indications for the initiation of VA-ECMO.