Evaluating Barriers to Supply Chain Resilience in Vietnamese SMEs: The Fuzzy VIKOR Approach

This study aimed to determine and prioritize the critical barriers to supply chain resilience (SCR) in Vietnamese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), which play a crucial role in the global supply chain. Through a systematic literature review and expert consultation, 15 barriers to SCR were identified and evaluated by using the fuzzy VIKOR (ViseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method. The findings provide novel insights into the challenges of enhancing resilience in the Vietnamese supply chain and categorize the barriers into three main categories: the resilience phase, strategy resilience, and the competencies required. The results indicated that a lack of financial resources and alternative sources of supply are the most pressing barriers related to the resilience phase group. In terms of strategy resilience, the lack of a skilled and competent workforce was found to be the most critical obstacle. Furthermore, government delays in supporting and enacting appropriate policies were found to be the most pressing issue related to the competencies required. These findings offer valuable recommendations for managers seeking to address these barriers and enhance the resilience of the Vietnamese supply chain after COVID-19. By prioritizing and solving these critical obstacles, Vietnamese SMEs can better prepare for and recover from potential challenges in the future. © 2023 by the authors.

The Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement with Ballistocardiogram and Photoplethysmogram

In order to decrease the infection of COVID-19 virus, people must frequency wash the hands or decrease the times of touching the public things. The blood pressure (BP) and weight are the important parameters under the healthy management. The goal of this study is to measure BP with a weight scale. The Ballistocardiogram and photoplethysmogram (PPG) were measured to extract the pulse transit time (PTT) that was used to estimate BP. The results show that the performances of proposed method were close to the reference method, using the electrocardiogram and PPG. Thus, the proposed method can decrease the infected risk when measuring BP with the cuff. © 2022 IEEE.

Pan-ancestry exome-wide association analyses of COVID-19 outcomes in 586,157 individuals

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory illness that can result in hospitalization or death. We used exome sequence data to investigate associations between rare genetic variants and seven COVID-19 outcomes in 586,157 individuals, including 20,952 with COVID-19. After accounting for multiple testing, we did not identify any clear associations with rare variants either exome wide or when specifically focusing on (1) 13 interferon pathway genes in which rare deleterious variants have been reported in individuals with severe COVID-19, (2) 281 genes located in susceptibility loci identified by the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, or (3) 32 additional genes of immunologic relevance and/or therapeutic potential. Our analyses indicate there are no significant associations with rare protein-coding variants with detectable effect sizes at our current sample sizes. Analyses will be updated as additional data become available, and results are publicly available through the Regeneron Genetics Center COVID-19 Results Browser.

Surface water quality status and prediction during movement control operation order under COVID-19 pandemic: Case studies in Malaysia.

Global concerns have been observed due to the outbreak and lockdown causal-based COVID-19, and hence, a global pandemic was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020. The Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia acts to moderate the spread of COVID-19 through the enacted measures. Furthermore, massive industrial, agricultural activities and human encroachment were significantly reduced following the MCO guidelines. In this study, first, a reconnaissance survey was carried out on the effects of MCO on the health conditions of two urban rivers (i.e., Rivers of Klang and Penang) in Malaysia. Secondly, the effect of MCO lockdown on the water quality index (WQI) of a lake (Putrajaya Lake) in Malaysia is considered in this study. Finally, four machine learning algorithms have been investigated to predict WQI and the class in Putrajaya Lake. The main observations based on the analysis showed that noticeable enhancements of varying degrees in the WQI had occurred in the two investigated rivers. With regard to Putrajaya Lake, there is a significant increase in the WQI Class I, from 24% in February 2020 to 94% during the MCO month of March 2020. For WQI prediction, Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) outperformed other models in predicting the changes in the index with a high level of accuracy. For sensitivity analysis results, it is shown that NH3-N and COD play vital rule and contributing significantly to predicting the class of WQI, followed by BOD, while the remaining three parameters (i.e. pH, DO, and TSS) exhibit a low level of importance.