Current Status of Elderly Social Support Services in Elderly Care Centers in Hanoi

The Article aims to elaborate and analyze the current status of social support services for the elderly in general and semi-professional social work services provided in care centers in Hanoi in particular today. The centers subject to the investigation include Social Protection Center 3 Hanoi, Dien Hong Nursing Home, Bach Nien Thien Duc Elderly Care Center, and Social Protection Center 2 Hanoi. The service performance is determined based on the satisfaction of the needs of the elderly group. The results evidence that from the point of view of the elderly, “the need for medical care, examination and treatment is the highest among other needs of the elderly (with 149 votes, taking up 64.2%), from the point of view of social support workers, the need for “someone to share their feelings” is the highest (with 144 votes, taking up 77.4%). The services subject to assessment and review to the extent of the Article include (1) Consultancy; (2) Legal aid; (3) Supporting the elderly in the integration; (4) Communication. The frequency of rendered services changes at the “sometimes received by the elderly” level, approx. 50% on average. The level of performance as assessed by the elderly and social workers is at a medium and quite high level, ranging from 2.26 to 3.30 and from 1.98 (high) to 3.1 (medium), respectively.  Keywords: the elderly, social support services, care centers DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-20-04 Publication date:October 31st 202

Using learning games for fourth-grade students to teach Vietnamese lessons and teachers' perspectives on learning games

Students can learn   in   a   meaningful way through the use of educational games. When students apply their skills and information in order to progress through a game, a huge degree of engagement is generated among them in the classroom as a result both their capabilities and their learning   increase. 153 children from primary schools in Vietnam participated in this research. The children were split into two groups: an experimental and a control group. Both groups participated in two sessions of word and sentence practice as well as spelling instruction. According to the findings of the study, the educational outcomes of the students are greatly improved when games are used in their classrooms. In addition, research has shown that some teachers are against the use of games in the classroom since it makes it more difficult to prepare educational materials. Some educators believe that playing educational games is a more effective method of instruction as it allows for greater flexibility during the learning process. This makes a contribution to the theoretical framework that is necessary to guide educators and instructors in the process of improving learning game programs for children in primary schools and other learners

Investigate the effect of EGR stratergies on the HCCI engine's performance with N-heptane fuel injection

In this study, the effect of EGR strategies on the HCCI engine's performance is studied. A program was established to control the injection fuel and amount of exhaust gas recirculation on the HCCI engine. The results of the research show that when the EGR rate is greater than 30%, the engine operates stably according to the HCCI combustion characteristic at speeds lower than 2400 rpm. But when engine speeds are higher than 2400 rpm, the HCCI combustion characteristic is unstable; the torque and the indicator efficiency decrease rapidly. When the HCCI engine increases the EGR rate, the start of combustion is gradually later, the coefficient gradually decreases to close to the black smoke characteristic curve, the CO, HC, and CO2 emissions increase. The NOx emissions tend to increase when the EGR ratio increases from 0–25%, but the NOx decreases when the EGR rate is greater than 25%

TURBIDITY REMOVAL BY MUCILAGE FROM BASELLA ALBA

Coagulation and flocculation are preliminary used in water treatment processes for turbidity removal, using popularily synthetic chemicals with health and environmental concerns. The use of natural flocculants has known to be a promising alteratives for chemical ones due to their environmental friendly behavior. This research investigated turbidity removal efficiency of mucilage extracted from Basella alba - an indigenous species in Vietnam - in the role of a flocculant. The removal efficiency of mucilage was investigated in combination with PAC or Alum on To Lich river water by mean of Jar tests. PAC or Alum alone can remove maximum 97% and 90% turbidity of To Lich river water at its original pH for the sedimentation time of 30 minutes. The combination of mucilage and PAC or Alum increased the efficiencies of turbidity removal and reduced the amount of chemicals needed. The corresponding increases were maximum 7% and 18%, respectively; while the reduction of PAC/Alum used was 75-80%

The role of tradition for food and wine producing firms in times of an unprecedented crisis

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, the study will investigate the importance of tradition for businesses operating during the COVID-19 crisis, notably, as a valuable proposition and strategy. Second, the study seeks to advance theoretical understanding, proposing two frameworks based upon emerging dimensions, the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey gathered the views of 107 predominantly micro and small-scale owner-manager and family-owned firms involved in the food and wine sector. These participants are based in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries in the crisis. Findings: Three fundamental dimensions emerge from the findings. The first, “embedded advantage”, concerns firms’ more direct involvement and tradition-related actions. The second, “active advantage”, highlights the already established value of tradition, for example, through firm identity gained, well-established roots and firm culture. The third dimension, “strategic fusion”, underscores the importance of upgrading the business model, where innovation complements tradition strategically. Originality/value: The study’s revealed dimensions provide new conceptual perspectives to understand tradition in the context of firms confronting an unprecedented event. The first proposed theoretical framework illustrates that firms appear to mainly rely on tradition as the fundamental pillar of their overall strategy. Additionally, other firms engage in actions to consolidate tradition’s strategic significance, while others embrace innovation to further strengthen their competitiveness. The second framework emphasises relations between these dimensions and key attributes associated with the two adopted theoretical foundations, where the need to “reconfigure tradition” clearly emerges

Straightforward Procedure for Laboratory Production of DNA Ladder

DNA ladder is commonly used to determine the size of DNA fragments by electrophoresis in routine molecular biology laboratories. In this study, we report a new procedure to prepare a DNA ladder that consists of 10 fragments from 100 to 1000 bp. This protocol is a combination of routinely employed methods: cloning, PCR, and partial digestion with restriction enzymes. DNA fragments of 100 bp with unique restriction site at both ends were self-ligated to create a tandem repeat. Once being cloned, the tandem repeat was rapidly amplified by PCR and partially digested by restriction enzymes to produce a ladder containing multimers of the repeated DNA fragments. Our procedure for production of DNA ladder could be simple, time saving, and inexpensive in comparison with current ones widely used in most laboratories

Role of GmNAC019 transcription factor in salinity and drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Increasingly severe drought and salinity stress due to global climate change have made these stresses bigger threats to ecosystem and agriculture. Previous studies reported that GmNAC019, a soybean NAC transcription factor - encoding gene, displayed induced expression upon drought treatment in wild-type cultivars. In this study, drought and salinity stresses were applied on GmNAC019-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants to verify the contribution of GmNAC019 in regulating plant response to the stress conditions. Results from the water loss rate and survival rate assays revealed that the transgenic line conferred improved tolerance to drought stress as evidenced by lower leaf water loss and significantly higher rate of survival than seen in the wild-type plants. Similarly, the survival rate assay for testing salinity effects on plants by growing the plants on MS medium supplemented with different NaCl concentrations also indicated that the transgenic plants had a better tolerance to salt stress as they displayed lower rate of root growth inhibition and higher survival rate. Taken these results altogether, it is suggested that GmNAC019 might play important role in aiding plant response to drought and salinity stresses. Specific functions of this gene should be elaborated in future studies to evaluate its potential application for crop improvement

Resistance of aerosolized bacterial viruses to four germicidal products

Viral diseases can spread through a variety of routes including aerosols. Yet, limited data are available on the efficacy of aerosolized chemicals to reduce viral loads in the air. Bacteriophages (phages) are often used as surrogates for hazardous viruses in aerosol studies because they are inexpensive, easy to handle, and safe for laboratory workers. Moreover, several of these bacterial viruses display physical characteristics similar to pathogenic human and animal viruses, like morphological size, type of nucleic acids, capsid morphology, and the presence of an envelope. In this study, the efficacy of four chemicals was evaluated on four airborne phages at two different relative humidity levels. Non-tailed bacteriophages MS2 (single-stranded RNA), ϕ6 (double-stranded RNA, enveloped), PR772 (double-stranded DNA), and ϕX174 (single-stranded DNA) were first aerosolized in a 55L rotative environmental chamber at 19°C with 25% and 50% relative humidity. Then, hydrogen peroxide, Eugenol (phenylpropene used in commercial perfumes and flavorings), Mist® (automobile disinfectant containing Triethylene glycol), and Pledge® (multisurface disinfectant containing Isopropanol, n-Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Amonium Chlorides, and n-Alkyl Dimethyl Ethylbenzyl Ammonium Chloride) were nebulized with the phages using a separate nebulizer. Aerosols were maintained in suspension during 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours. Viral aerosols were sampled using an SKC BioSampler and samples were analyzed using qPCR and plaque assays. The resistance levels of the four phages varied depending on the relative humidity (RH) and germicidal products tested. Phage MS2 was the most stable airborne virus under the environmental conditions tested while phage PR772 was the least stable. Pledge® and Eugenol reduced the infectivity of all airborne phages tested. At 25% RH, Pledge® and Eugenol were more effective at reducing infectivity of RNA phages ϕ6 and MS2. At 50% RH, Pledge® was the most effective agent against phage MS2. These findings illustrate that various airborne viruses should be tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of germicidal treatments. This research also provides a set of parameters for testing germicidal products in large-scale settings to reduce the risk of virus transmission

Dietary patterns and risk factors for Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Fijian, Japanese and Vietnamese populations

Diabetes mellitus is now a serious and increasing problem in Asian countries, where dietary patterns have shifted toward Westernized foods and people are becoming more sedentary. In order to elucidate the relationship of dietary habits to the development of diabetic risk factors, the dietary patterns of 200 Fijian, 171 Japanese and 181 Vietnamese women of 30–39 years of age were investigated using 3 day–24 h recall or dietary records. Anthropometric measurements and glycosuria tests were also conducted. The dietary trends of Fijians and Japanese have changed drastically in the past 50 years, while Vietnamese have been minimally influenced by Western dietary habits. The mean 24 h dietary intake showed that Fijians had the highest energy intake. Energy intake from fat was only 13% for Vietnamese, but over 30% for Japanese and Fijians. Percentage of body fat was higher in Vietnamese than in Japanese, though there were no significant differences in body mass index (BMI). In the overweight and obese women, Vietnamese had higher abdominal obesity than Japanese. The prevalence of obesity (BMI � 30 kg/m2) was 63.0% for Fijians, 1.8% for Japanese and 1.1% for Vietnamese. Glycosuria testing yielded the most positive cases among Fijians. Dietary transition and dietary excess appear to be potential risk factors for diabetes in Fijian women