Evaluating the Efficiency of Vietnamese Banking System: An Application Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Over the last twenty years in Vietnam, the financial system in general and the banking system in particular had been transferred from a monopoly system into a diversified system which allows all participants to compete fairly and effectively. Within these past years, the banking system in Vietnam did gradually developed in number of banking institutions, size of the banking sector in the economy, amount of credits for the economy, and amount of other banking services as well. Along with the development of the banking system in number, size, asset value, deposit, credit and debit account, ATM/POS, interest rates, etc. which attracted more and more customers using the banking’ services; the efficiency of the banking system also has been increasing. So far, there is still a lack of research on the efficiency of the banking sector in Vietnam over the decades. Several researches were conducted, however, due to the data limitation, these researches were just small steps at the big front gate. This paper, which focuses on evaluating the efficiency of bigger sample size of Vietnamese commercial banks in the year of 2008, tends to make a contribution to this progress. The DEA approach allows this paper to evaluate the efficiency of 22 Vietnamese commercial banks in using their inputs in 2008 (these banks were ranked top in the banking industry in Vietnam – VNR500 in 2009). After analyzing, the research comes to a conclusion that although the efficiency of these banks is averagely high, however, there is still an opportunity to improve this indicator.Data envelopment analysis, Vietnam, bank, efficiency

Acetate Metabolism: The physiological role of ADP-forming acetyl-CoA synthetase and acetate kinase in Entamoeba histolytica

Entamoeba histolytica is a protozoan parasite that causes amoebic colitis and liver abscess in approximately 90 million people each year, resulting in 50,000-100,000 fatalities. Even though Entamoeba poses a significant public health problem worldwide, research dedicated to understanding the biology of this unique protozoan has been limited. This amitochondriate parasite lacks many essential biosynthesis pathways including the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. As a result, substrate level phosphorylation plays a necessary role in ATP production. Unlike the standard glycolytic pathway, E. histolytica glycolysis requires pyrophosphate (PPi) by replacing ATP - dependent phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase with PPi - dependent phosphofructokinase and phosphate pyruvate dikinase. E. histolytica infects and colonizes the human colon where glucose is limited and short chain fatty acids (acetate, propionate, and butyrate) are plentiful. Acetate is also a major end product that is excreted when E. histolytica is grown axenically on glucose. Acetate has been demonstrated to act as carbon and energy source for cellular growth in other organisms, acetogenesis can regenerate NAD+, recycle coenzyme A, and produce ATP when the TCA cycle or oxidative phosphorylation does not operate or when the carbon flux into the cell exceed its capacity. In E. histolytica, acetate can be generated by acetate kinase (ACK) and ADP - forming acetyl - CoA synthetase (ACD). ACK converts acetyl phosphate + orthophosphate (Pi) to acetate + PPi. Previous biochemical and kinetic characterization of recombinant ACK showed that it strongly prefers the acetate/PPi-forming direction. We hypothesized that ACK may function to supply PPi for the PPi oriented glycolytic pathway in E. histolytica. Recombinant ACD displayed high activity in both directions of the reaction to convert acetyl-CoA + orthophosphate + ADP to acetate + ATP + CoA. ACD may function to extend the glycolytic pathway to increase ATP production by 40% per molecule of glucose, or in the alternative direction to convert acetate to acetyl-CoA to meet the cell\u27s metabolic needs. Using reverse genetics, an Ehacd silenced strain displayed a growth defect in normal high glucose media, while Ehack silenced cells showed enhance growth in medium without added tryptone and glucose. The presence of acetate and butyrate showed no effect on E. histolytica growth in the absence of glucose regardless of ACK or ACD activity. The presence of propionate, however, improved E. histolytica growth and impaired growth of the Ehacd silenced strain implicated ACD as the cause of this improvement. Our data suggest ACD plays a role in increasing ATP production during growth on glucose and utilization of propionate as a growth substrate. Our data do not support the previously hypothesized role for ACK but instead suggest it possesses a novel function. The basis for E. histolytica ACK\u27s divergence from all other ACKs in phosphoryl substrate utilization was also explored. Currently, E. histolytica ACK is the only known ACK that uses pyrophosphate (PPi) or inorganic phosphate (Pi) as the phosphoryl donor or acceptor. All other known ACKs utilize ATP or ADP. In silico structural comparison and modeling of E. histolytica ACK against other ACKs identified structural differences that could affect substrate binding and selection. ACK variants were generated to test these predictions. Inhibition and structural activity relationship studies revealed an occlusion in the ADENOSINE motif of E. histolytica ACK reduced ATP and ADP binding affinity. However, alterations to alleviate the constriction did not confer activity with ATP or ADP. Our results suggest controlling access of the adenosine pocket influences phosphoryl substrate binding but is not the sole determinant of enzyme activity

Exploring CALL Options for Teaching EFL in Vietnam

Research has demonstrated that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has the capacity to enhance second language learning. Therefore, in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts like Vietnam, the government has invested in computers in schools as a way to address the lack of quality in education. However, Vietnamese EFL teachers have made little or no use of these computers. The purpose of this Alternate Plan Paper (APP) is to assist Vietnamese ESL teachers in choosing appropriate CALL programs. I select some of the most effective, user-friendly, and cost-effective CALL options for language areas and language skills. The options are selected based on the availability of resources, the teachers\u27 and learners\u27 computer proficiency levels, and the Vietnamese institutional context. The recommended options are also based on my personal experience as a CALL learner and user, and a one-month observation of CALL applications in a classroom at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The paper also discusses the pedagogical principles for using the recommended options effectively and efficiently

Women's Role in Disaster Response in Vietnamese Rural Families Today: Challenges in the context of climate change

The 13th Next-Generation Global Workshop第13回次世代グローバルワークショップテーマ: New Risks and Resilience in Asian Societies and the World 日程: 21-23 November, 2020 開催場所: ベトナム社会科学院(ハノイ)/Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences(No. 1 Lieu Giai street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam) ※Due to the COVID-19, the workshop will be held at ONLINE for overseas participants(not from Vietnam)/ONSITE for Vietnamese participants.Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters. More than 70% of Vietnam's population has been affected by natural disasters and climate change at many different levels. Women in Vietnam, especially ethnic minority women, rural women and women living in mountainous areas are at highest risk of natural disasters because they work in agriculture and this type of work depends on the weather, natural conditions and natural resources such as soil, water and climate... This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data from the research "The response of women in Central Vietnam to climate change" with 368 household questionnaires and 25 in-depth interviews conducted in Ninh Thuan province in 2017. By analyzing documents and doing frequency, correlation and logistic regression analysis, the research results show that people in community in general and members in family in particular have suffered the influence of disasters in different ways. Gender gaps have been found in the level of suffering from natural disasters as well as in the way of responding to natural disasters. Women play a very important role in coping with natural disasters, but due to the unequal distribution of rights, resources and cultural standards, women have confronted a lot of difficulties in disasters response, especially in the context of climate change today

A LOSSY CODING SCHEME FOR IMAGES BY USING THE HAAR WAVELET TRANSFORM AND THE THEORY OF IDEAL CROSS-POINTS REGIONS

This paper presents Lossy Coding Scheme for Images by Using The Haar Wavelet Transform and The Theory of Cross-points Regions with Ideal Cross-points Regions (HWTICR). The base of this statement is the effect of Gray coding on cross-points which are neighbor to the points of grey levels 2n. After Gray coding these regions always contain only 1-bits or 0-bits depending on the number of each bit plane after bit plane decomposition. The optimization of probability in each bit plane has important effects on encoding and decoding processes of lossless image compression for data transmission. The framework itself is founded upon a wavelet transformed domain, the scheme will show how The Haar Wavelet Transform combines with the theory of Ideal Cross-points Regions to become a lossy coding scheme for images. The goal of the method is to build a lossy coding scheme for images with high compression ratio and low distortion factor in comparison with some other methods. Finally, some initial results of the scheme are also presented and compared to the other methods. The algorithm can be used in medical and photographic imaging

Investigate of Changes in Glucose Homeostasis by Modulating Endothelial Permeability

Altered permeability of the endothelial barrier in a variety of tissues has implications both in disease pathogenesis and treatment. Glucocorticoids are potent mediators of endothelial permeability and this forms the basis for their heavily-prescribed use as medications to treat ocular disease. However, the effect of glucocorticoids on endothelial barriers elsewhere in the body is less well-studied. Here we investigated glucocorticoid-mediated changes in endothelial flux of Adiponectin (Ad), a hormone with a critical role in diabetes. First, we used monolayers of endothelial cells in vitro and found that the glucocorticoid dexamethasone increased transendothelial electrical resistance and reduced permeability of polyethylene glycol (PEG, molecular weight 4000kDa). Dexamethasone reduced flux of Ad from the apical to basolateral side, measured both by ELISA and Western blotting. We then examined a diabetic rat model induced by treatment with exogenous corticosterone, which was characterized by glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinemi