of poultry movements and trading activities. In particular, our models found that higher number of 36 broiler flocks in the village increased the risk (OR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.12-1.96), as well as the village 37 having at least one poultry trader (OR =11.53, 95% CI: 1.34-98.86). To a lesser extent, in one of our 2 38 models, we also identified that increased density of ponds and streams, commonly used for waterfowl 39 production, and greater number of duck flocks in the village also increased the risk. The higher 40 percentage of households keeping poultry, as an indicator of households keeping backyard poultry in 41 our study population, was a protective factor (OR= 0.95,. At the farm level, 3 risk 42 factors at the 5% level of type I error were identified by univariate analysis: a greater total number of 43 birds (P=0.006), and increase in the number of flocks having access to water (p=0.027, and a greater 44 number of broiler flocks in the farm (P=0.049). Effect of vaccination implementation (date and doses) 45 was difficult to investigate due to a poor recording system. Some protective or risk factors with limited 46 effect may not have been identified due to our limited sample size. Nevertheless, our results provide a 47 better understanding of local transmission mechanisms of HPAI H5N1 in one province of the Red 48 River Delta region in Vietnam and highlight the need to reduce at-risk trading and production 49 practices. 50

Autistic individuals often have difficulties expressing or controlling emotions and have poor eye contact, among other symptoms. The prevalence of autism is increasing globally, posing a need to address this concern. Current diagnostic systems have particular limitations; hence, some individuals go undiagnosed or the diagnosis is delayed. In this study, an effective autism diagnostic system using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, which are generated from electrical activity in the brain, was developed and characterized. The pre-processed signals were converted to two-dimensional images using the higher-order spectra (HOS) bispectrum. Nonlinear features were extracted thereafter, and then reduced using locality sensitivity discriminant analysis (LSDA). Significant features were selected from the condensed feature set using Student’s t-test, and were then input to different classifiers. The probabilistic neural network (PNN) classifier achieved the highest accuracy of 98.70% with just five features. Ten-fold cross-validation was employed to evaluate the performance of the classifier. It was shown that the developed system can be useful as a decision support tool to assist healthcare professionals in diagnosing autism.

SUMMARYThe domestic poultry population in Vietnam has been vaccinated against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 since 2005. Since then, outbreaks have continued to occur without a clear understanding of the mechanisms involved. The general objective of this study was to understand the epidemiology of the disease in the context of vaccination and to draw some conclusions about vaccination efficacy in the domestic poultry population of the Red River Delta area. Five cross-sectional surveys to measure the serological and virological prevalence in vaccinated and unvaccinated poultry were performed from the end of 2008 to June 2010. The global seroprevalence was 24 % (95 % confidence interval 19 . 9-28 . 2). Determinants of vaccine immunogenicity were identified separately in chickens and ducks as well as determinants of the seroconversion in unvaccinated birds. The results highlight the difficulties in maintaining good flock immunity in poultry populations using inactivated vaccine in the field with two vaccination rounds per year, and in preventing circulation of virus in co-existing unvaccinated poultry.