Best Selling Books by Hoang Nguyen

Humans are one of the most peculiar species on the planet. They may not have been the earliest to inhabit Earth, but given enough time, they can adapt to any situation. From earthquakes, tsunamis, natural disasters to pandemics... no matter how severe the natural disasters, as long as they have not been completely wiped out, they will always find a way to overcome them. Therefore, the current world, standing on top of the food chain, standing at the peak of the pyramid, is humans, until... EVOLUTION

Blackwell Underground Clinical Vignettes: Pathophysiology I, Fourth Edition is your primary source for clinically relevant, case-based material essential for USMLE Step 1 review. Each Clinical Vignette simulates USMLE format, and includes classic buzzwords in history taking, physical examination, lab, imaging, and pathology. This volume, Pathophysiology I, covers pulmonary, OB/GYN, ENT, and hematology/oncology; Pathophysiology II covers the gastrointestinal system, neurology, rheumatology, and endocrinology; and Pathophysiology III covers the cardiovascular system, dermatology, the genitourinary tract, and general surgery. This revised edition contains: Carefully selected cases templated to fit the way you are tested and taught to think Valuable links to Step 1 and 2 Atlases for emphasis on photographic case studies Over 50 new cases compatible with the updated content of USMLE Step 1 Blackwell Underground Clinical Vignettes: Pathophysiology I, Fourth Edition is perfect for medical students. Physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and related health professionals will also find Underground Clinical Vignettes valuable.

Stock and oil relationship is usually time-varying and depends on the current economic conditions. In this study, we propose a new Dynamic Stochastic Mixed data frequency sampling (DSM) copula model, that decomposes the stock-oil relationship into a short-run dynamic stochastic component and a long-run component, governed by related macro-finance variables. We find that inflation/interest rate, uncertainty and liquidity factors are the main drivers of the long-run co-dependence. We show that investment portfolios, based on the proposed DSM copula model, are more accurate and produce better economic outcomes as compared to other alternatives.

Končni rezultat projekta (Deliverable D2.3) v sklopu projekta FLOW (Lightweight alkali activated composite foams based on secondary raw materials).

Since the radio spectrum is a scarce resource, to satisfy the future demand for wireless capacity, more efficient methods to utilize the spectrum are needed. The recent trend of migrating radio devices from ASIC hardware to a more software-based nature enables a host of new flexible applications. In addition, modern RF frontend and antenna technologies have matured in terms of processing bandwidth, frequency coverage, and reconfigurability to enable emerging capabilities, such as wideband sensing, beamforming, and adaptive transmission. These advances constitute significant system design elements that are still underutilized in practice for enhancing spectrum use and network capacity. In this research work, we propose to leverage these new system design elements to realize effective MAC/PHY cross-layer designs that can substantially increase wireless network capacity. Specifically, we address three system design issues: i) enhancing software radios for timing and frequency agility in spectrum sharing scenarios, ii) enabling synchronous and directional channel access in wireless LANs to handle congestion and interference, and iii) maximizing indoor spatial reuse through adaptive antenna beamsteering. Software-defined radios (SDRs) have become instrumental for experimental prototyping and evaluations of modern wireless technologies. Nevertheless, with their physical layer programmability, SDRs incorporates long and non-deterministic processing latencies that severely limits its utility in cross-layer MAC/PHY designs. Existing approaches to overcome this drawback tend to focus on either optimizing PHY software implementations with highly specialized techniques, or moving the entire PHY onto reconfigurable hardware (FPGAs and DSPs). These solutions inadvertently make reprogramming the radio layer becomes a complex and time-consuming task. We propose an extension of the recently emerged split-functionality architecture to enhance the timing and frequency agility of SDRs specifically for spectrum sharing applications. The key idea is to split MAC and PHY functionalities for hardware/software co-processing, with all time-critical functionalities implemented in hardware for low latency and deterministic timing, and all non-time-critical parts remaining in software for flexibility. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this design pattern through two specific spectrum-agile operations: a protocol-aware reactive jamming radio, and a bandwidth-adaptive Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communications system. Both experimental systems are verified to work consistently with prior studies and can serve as valuable instruments to investigate and develop agile spectrum-sharing techniques to enhance the spectral efficiency and security of cognitive radio networks. An undesired aspect of widespread wireless adoption is the chaotic, unplanned, and unmanaged deployments of wireless devices, especially in indoor environments. Existing wireless LAN protocols such as IEEE 802.11, however, scales poorly to handle the interference problem in dense networks. To address this problem, we design a novel synchronous directional wireless architecture that dramatically increase indoor wireless capacity using reconfigurable antennas. The core of this solution is an antenna orientation algorithm that applies reinforcement learning to consistently identify and track close-to-optimal antenna directions. In addition, this wireless design also incorporates a new Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)-based channel access protocol that can ensure sub-microsecond synchronization among all wireless nodes, making it much more efficient than existing asynchronous 802.11 MACs in maintaining quality of service across the network at scale.

In this thesis work, we develop optical imaging protocols for the observation of then anoparticles on tissue slices in order to further link their localization and their “behaviour” to the biological pathological environment. Bimodal zinc and iron oxide-based MRI/optical nanoparticle contrast agents (Zn(Fe)O) have been synthesised with a novel azeotropicpolyol method in glycol solvents (DEG and PG). The most potent NPs, as regard to their MR contrast power, have been coated with carboxymethyl pullulan, polyethylene glycol,carboxymethyl dextran (CMD) and fucoidan, the latter being a polysaccharide able to specifically bind to the vascular wall. The coated NPs were injected into rat to locate atherothrombosis by MRI. Then the histological slices of harvested diseased tissue were imaged with our homemade optical microscope. Water removal using Dean-Stark apparatus is a novel strategy for the synthesis of NPs in polyol solution with high yield and small size.The NPs show the good magnetic and optical properties at room temperature. The coated nanoparticles were injected into an atherothrombotic rat model to locate the thrombus by MRI prior to sacrifice of the animals and tissue collection for histological study by optical microscopy. The difference of MRI images between before and after injection with Fucoidan-NPs and CMD-NPs is clear. The results indicated that fucoidan-NPs are linked to the thrombus. Some type of microscopies, such as fluorescent microscopy, dark field microscopy, hyperspectral dark field microscopy and interference dark field microscopy have been developed for the detection of NPs in liquid medium and in the histological tissue. By analyzing the spectrum of every pixel and comparing to the spectrum of reference materials, hyperspectral microscopy can detect the presence of nanomaterial on exposed tissue slices, locate, identify, and characterize them. Zn(Fe)O NPs would therefore constitute a potential bimodal contrast agent for MRI and optical imaging. Although many advance optical tools have been developed, but we found it is still a challenge to identify reliably the NPs in the tissue.

Traditionally, machine learning community has been focused on supervised learning where the source of learning is fully labeled examples including both input features and corresponding output labels. As one way to alleviate the costly effort of collecting fully labeled examples, semi-supervised learning usually concentrates on utilizing a large amount of unlabeled examples together with a relatively small number of fully labeled examples to build better classifiers. Even though many semi-supervised learning algorithms are able to take advantage of unlabeled examples, there is a significant amount of effort in designing good models, features, kernels, and similarity functions. In this dissertation, we focus on semi-supervised learning with partially labeled examples. Partially labeled data can be viewed as a trade-off between fully labeled data and unlabeled data, which can provide additional discriminative information in comparison to unlabeled data and requires less human effort to collect than fully labeled data. In our setting of semi-supervised learning with partially labeled examples, the learning method is provided with a large amount of partially labeled examples and is usually augmented with a relatively small set of fully labeled examples. Our main goal is to integrate partially labeled examples into the conventional learning framework, i.e. to build a more accurate classifier. The dissertation addresses four different semi-supervised learning problems in presence of partially labeled examples. In addition, we summarize general principles for the semi-supervised learning with partially labeled examples.

Končni rezultat projekta (Deliverable D3.2) v sklopu projekta FLOW (Lightweight alkali activated composite foams based on secondary raw materials).

"We study spillovers among daily returns and innovations in option-implied risk neutral volatility and skewness of the G10 currencies. An empirical model uncovers substantial time variation in the interaction of risk measures and returns, both within and between currencies."--Page 2.

Can green growth policies help protect the environment while keeping the industry growing and infrastructure expanding? The City of Kitakyushu, Japan, has actively implemented eco-friendly policies since 1967 and recently inspired the pursuit of sustainable development around the world, especially in the Global South region. However, empirical studies on the effects of green growth policies are still lacking. This study explores the relationship between road infrastructure development and average industrial firm size with air pollution in the city through the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Non-linear Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) methods were applied on nearly 50-years' time series data, from 1967 to 2015. The results show that the shape of the EKC of industrial growth, measured by average firm size, depends on the type of air pollution: inverted N-shaped relationships with NO2 and CO, and the U-shaped relationships with falling dust particle and Ox. Regarding infrastructure development, on the one hand, our analysis shows a positive effect of road construction on alleviating the amount of falling dust and CO concentration. On the other hand, the emissions of NO2 and Ox are shown to rise when plotted against road construction. The decline of CO emission, when plotted against both industrial growth and road development, indicates that the ruthlessness of the local government in pursuing green growth policies is effective in this case. However, the story is not straightforward when it comes to other air pollutants, which hint at limits in the current policies. The case of Kitakyushu illustrates the complex dynamics of the interaction among policy, industry, infrastructure, and air pollution. It can serve as an important reference point for other cities in the Global South when policies are formed, and progress is measured in the pursuit of a green economy. Finally, as an OECD SDGs pilot city and the leading Asian green-growth city, policymakers in Kitakyushu city are recommended to revise the data policy to enhance the findability and interoperability of data as well as to invest in the application of big data.

This case is about a growing international food marketing and distribution firm that is not able to produce accurate product costs or accurately track inventory. Impcorp’s business model involves sourcing quality food products from Italy for major North American retail chains. Impcorp, the fictitious name for a real firm, takes ownership of these food products, the majority of which are shipped directly from suppliers to retail chains or to public warehouses to wait for shipment. The existing accounting system does not provide the required processing and information needed to track inventory and to support the business model in terms of specifying the costs and profits of suppliers, products, and retailers. Moreover, the clients--North American retail chains--require IT sophistication beyond what the existing system is delivering. There is an option to replace the existing accounting system. Students are required to determine the current problems and how they can be resolved.

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city and the economic center of Vietnam. It has a land area of 2,095 square kilometers with a population of 8.2 million. Its increasing population growth, rural-to-urban migration, high density development in the center, huge and increasing travel demand, insufficient road infrastructure and limited public transit, present an enormous challenge for its urban planners to develop an efficient and sustainable transportation system. A city built at sea level, its faces serious climate change issues as flooding and increased carbon use add to its environmental problems. This paper provides a theoretical model for the development of a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Policy for urban sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City. This model acts as a sustainable transportation planning strategy designed to produce vibrant neighborhoods with compact, walkable, mixed-use development centered on rail and bus transit systems. The paper addresses three basic questions. First, what is Transit-Oriented Development and how is it a model for urban sustainability? For this question, a recent research literature on TOD's is undertaken within the framework of its relevance for establishing a TOD Policy for Ho Chi Minh City. Second, how does a TOD Policy offer a solution to urban traffic problems in Ho Chi Minh City? For this question, an in-depth review of transportation problems in Ho Chi Minh City is undertaken with an analysis of how TOD's can provide a solution. And third, how can a TOD policy be implemented in Ho Chi Minh City? For this question, a pathway to how a TOD Model can be implemented for Ho Chi Minh is presented. This model discusses the present urban planning system; the tools that exist for a TOD policy to be implemented; and the barriers to that implementation. This research project was the result of a Fulbright Specialist Program Grant provided by the United States Government.

Končni rezultat projekta (Deliverable D5.9) v sklopu projekta FLOW (Lightweight alkali activated composite foams based on secondary raw materials).

The main focus of my Ph.D. research is synthetic methodology development to effectively construct nitrogen-containing heterocycles from readily accessible building blocks. During the course of my graduate studies in the Kurth lab, I have developed synthetic routes to forge these novel heterocyclic structures: Indazolones, triazepines, and triazoles are important N-heterocycles present in the structures of many bioactive compounds and natural products. The pharmacological significances of these heterocycles prompt us to develop an effective route to construct a novel fused-ring system embodying these three substructures. As illustrated in Chapter 1, we have developed an operationally-simple, one-pot, cascade route to a series of novel triazolotriazepinoindazolones from oxazolino-2H-indazoles via an electrophilic indazole --> indazolone reaction with a subsequent intramolecular azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. We also show the utilization of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to further diversify these novel heterocycles. The indole scaffold is a privileged core structure present in numerous natural products and synthetic pharmaceuticals. Belonging to this heterocyclic class, substituted nitroindoles are versatile intermediates in the synthesis of biologically active molecules. As described in Chapter 2, we have developed a method to transform a variety of N-aryl [beta]-nitroenamines into 3-nitroindoles in good yields and with complete regioselectivity via a rapid microwave ([mu]W) assisted intramolecular arene-alkene coupling reaction. This method utilizes catalytic amounts of relatively inexpensive Pd(PPh3)4. The enamines required for this transformation are readily available in one synthetic step from commercially available o-bromoanilines. We further demonstrate the versatility of this method by constructing 3-carboalkoxy- and 3-cyanoindoles. Optimization data, substrate scope, and mechanistic insights are discussed. The 1,4-benzodiazepine core is a ubiquitous motif found in numerous psychoactive pharmaceutical agents. Prompted by the synthetic interest and applications of imidazole/triazole/benzodiazepine-fused skeletons, we have developed an operationally simple, one-pot, multicomponent reaction for the assembly of 9H-benzo[f]imidazo[1,2-d][1,2,3]triazolo[1,5-a][1,4]diazepines adorned with three diversification points via an atom-economical transformation incorporating four starting materials: [alpha]-diketones, o-azidobenzaldehydes, propargylic amines, and ammonium acetate. This process involves tandem InCl3-catalyzed cyclocondensation and intramolecular azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Optimization data, substrate scope, and mechanistic insights are discussed in Chapter 3. The family of indoloquinoline alkaloids has been isolated from the root bark extracts of Cryptolepis sanguinolenta (Asclepiadaceae), a Ghanaian medicinal shrub native to West Africa. Well-recognized as components in folk remedies for malaria, these alkaloids also display other interesting pharmacology. In Chapter 4, we have reported a transition metal-free, one-pot protocol for the synthesis of 11H-indolo[3,2-c]isoquinolin-5-amines via the atom economical annulation of ethyl (2-cyanophenyl)carbamates and 2-cyanobenzyl bromides. This method proceeds via sequential N-alkylation and base-promoted cyclization. Optimization data, substrate scope, mechanistic insights, and photoluminescence properties are discussed. The other portion of my Ph.D. research focuses on the development of small-molecule therapies for Cystic Fibrosis, a fatal recessive genetic disease in Caucasians caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Our group has identified a lead compound containing a methylbithiazole core, which is capable of partially correcting the misfolding of [delta]F508-CFTR proteins and restoring the functional channels to the cell surface. Our follow-up report showed the conformational constrained bithiazole exhibited an improved corrector activity. This was achieved by locking the two free-rotating thiazoles in the s-cis conformation by an annulated cycloalkane ring. With this encouraging result, two sets of novel constrained bithiazole correctors were synthesized and evaluated in-vitro with FRT epithelial cells coexpressed with human [delta]F508-CFTR. The objective is to investigate the effect of constrained ring sizes and peripheral groups on the corrector activity. The potency and efficacy of the cyclooctabithiazole library were compared to cycloheptabithiazole library in order to identify the better corrector type. The outcome of this study would provide insights into the mechanisms of the protein-corrector interactions and hints towards the design of more potent analogs. This work is described in Chapter 5.