Vietnamese Mumpreneurs? Middle-class Mothers Negotiating Motherhood and Work in Northern Vietnam

This thesis explores the construction of motherhood in Northern Vietnam and how motherhood influences engagement with digital entrepreneurship. The study relies on 10 in-depth interviews with middle-class mothers of young children in urban areas in Northern Vietnam, who are currently running online businesses through Facebook. Existing literature on motherhood in Vietnam has placed motherhood within the context of the family without references to class differences. Drawing on Bourdieu’s class analysis, intensive mothering ideology and the concept of mumpreneur, this study finds that motherhood in Northern Vietnam is constructed as the primary duty of women and as a result, women are expected to mother intensively and perform more than their husbands within the domestic sphere. Being middle-class influences one’s mothering beliefs and practices in important ways, including through providing women the possibility to negotiate their gender roles and work by delegating care work to qualified external institutions. Engaging in digital entrepreneurship for the mothers in the study is a way of doing meaningful work which provides extra income, enriches one’s social circle and helps validate one’s capabilities to family members

Multilingual Schema Matching for Wikipedia Infoboxes

Recent research has taken advantage of Wikipedia's multilingualism as a resource for cross-language information retrieval and machine translation, as well as proposed techniques for enriching its cross-language structure. The availability of documents in multiple languages also opens up new opportunities for querying structured Wikipedia content, and in particular, to enable answers that straddle different languages. As a step towards supporting such queries, in this paper, we propose a method for identifying mappings between attributes from infoboxes that come from pages in different languages. Our approach finds mappings in a completely automated fashion. Because it does not require training data, it is scalable: not only can it be used to find mappings between many language pairs, but it is also effective for languages that are under-represented and lack sufficient training samples. Another important benefit of our approach is that it does not depend on syntactic similarity between attribute names, and thus, it can be applied to language pairs that have distinct morphologies. We have performed an extensive experimental evaluation using a corpus consisting of pages in Portuguese, Vietnamese, and English. The results show that not only does our approach obtain high precision and recall, but it also outperforms state-of-the-art techniques. We also present a case study which demonstrates that the multilingual mappings we derive lead to substantial improvements in answer quality and coverage for structured queries over Wikipedia content.Comment: VLDB201

FDI in Vietnam

The South East Asian region is fast becoming a destination for investment. The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) of worldwide countries into ASEAN countries has increased significantly. According to the World Bank, among the South East Asian countries, Vietnam is considered as the new most promising market. From 2011, the net inflow of foreign investments into Vietnam has outstandingly increased, especially from East Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan. Therefore, this paper will focus on how Vietnam become the more appealing market than some of the other ASEAN countries through the country’s competitive economic strengths. The paper will analyze and compare FDI positions, circumstances and competitive economic strengths of Vietnam to some of the other ASEAN countries’. In addition, the recent trade war between the US and China is also considered as a positive factor that helps increase generally FDI in ASEAN and specifically FDI in Vietnam. Hence, the paper will also analyze and compare the impact of the recent trade war on the inflow of foreign investments into Vietnam. Finally, this paper will present some challenges that Vietnam needs to consider to keep its promising position in attracting FDI

Reaction of Currencies to Trade War

Recently, China has announced plans for reciprocal tariffs on $50 billions of 106 products that imported from the United States as the second response to President Donald Trump’s increasing tariffs on Chinese exports. Only in a few months, the two influential countries have consecutively announced punishment policies on each other’s exports in order to protect their advantages. The economic war between the two most powerful economies have great impact not only on currencies of themselves but also on those of other countries. After each policy was announced, different countries have their currencies fluctuated differently. The change in exchange rate is impacted by a country’s international trading, investment and competitiveness Therefore, the project focuses on the impact of the economic war between the United States and China on the US Dollar, the Chinese Yuan and currencies of some East Asian Countries, which include the Korean Won, the Japanese Yen, the Singapore Dollar, and the Vietnamese Dong. This project will also examine how those East Asian currencies change relatively to the US Dollar and the Chinese Yuan to evaluate their trend, sensitivity and volatility towards punishment policies. The research will also determine the accuracy of predicted factors and whether the United States or China is the aggressor and has more impact on the East Asian currencie

High throughput profiling of transcription factors involved in soybean root growth under water deficit

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on February 22, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Henry T. Nguyen.M. S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.Drought is the major abiotic stress factor limiting crop productivity worldwide. Plant root and shoot systems respond to environmental changes by altering the expression of complex gene networks through sensing environmental stresses and modifying signaling and metabolic pathways. Previous work (Yamaguchi et al., 2009) showed that the soybean primary root adapts to low water potential (-1.6 MPa) by maintaining longitudinal expansion in the apical 4 mm (region 1), whereas in the adjacent 4 mm (region 2), longitudinal expansion reaches a maximum in well-watered roots but is progressively inhibited at low water potential. To identify the key transcription factors (TFs) that determine these responses to low water potential, we have conducted high-throughput profiling of root-related TF expression in regions 1 and 2 of water-stressed and well-watered roots using quantitative real-time PCR. 186 root- and stress-related TFs were selected to identify their specific expression patterns in root regions 1 and 2 of well-watered and water-stressed soybean seedlings at four time points (5h, 12h, 24h, and 48h) after transplanting. Several stress-specific and root-region-specific transcripts were identified which may contribute to root responses to water deficits. Among these were zinc-finger protein, MYB-related protein, GmNAC3, GmNAC4, and bZIP transcription factors. These TFs were differentially expressed in distinct root regions, and therefore they can be targeted for functional characterization and further genetic engineering for enhanced drought resistance in soybean.Includes bibliographical references

Changes of benthic macroinvertebrates in Thi Vai River and Cai Mep Estuaries under polluted conditions with industrial wastewater

The pollution on the Thi Vai River has been spreading out rapidly over the two lasted decades caused by the wastewater from the industrial parks in the left bank of Thi Vai River and Cai Mep Estuaries. The evaluation of the benthic macroinvertebrate changes was very necessary to identify the consequences of the industrial wastewater on water quality and aquatic ecosystem of Thi Vai River and Cai Mep Estuaries. In this study, the variables of benthic macroinvertebrates and water quality were investigated in Thi Vai River and Cai Mep Estuaries, Southern Vietnam. The monitoring data of benthic macroinvertebrates and water quality parameters covered the period from 1989 to 2015 at 6 sampling sites in Thi Vai River and Cai Mep Estuaries. The basic water quality parameters were also tested including pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The biodiversity indices of benthic macroinvertebrates were applied for water quality assessment. The results showed that pH ranged from 6.4 – 7.6 during the monitoring. The DO concentrations were in between 0.20 – 6.70 mg/L. The concentrations of total nitrogen and total phosphorous ranged from 0.03 – 5.70 mg/L 0.024 – 1.380 mg/L respectively. Macroinvertebrate community in the study area consisted of 36 species of polychaeta, gastropoda, bivalvia, and crustacea, of which, species of polychaeta were dominant in species number. The benthic macroinvertebartes density ranged from 0 – 2.746 individuals/m2 with the main dominant species of Neanthes caudata, Prionospio malmgreni, Paraprionospio pinnata, Trichochaeta carica, Maldane sarsi, Capitella capitata, Terebellides stroemi, Euditylia polymorpha, Grandidierella lignorum, Apseudes vietnamensis. The biodiversity index values during the monitoring characterized for aquatic environmental conditions of mesotrophic to polytrophic. Besides, species richness positively correlated with DO, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The results confirmed the advantage of using benthic macroinvertebrates and their indices for water quality assessment

Beamforming Phased Array Antenna toward Indoor Positioning Applications

Indoor positioning systems based on radio wave have drawn a lot of research interest over the last few decades. One of the positioning methods, Angle of Arrival, locating object based on the relative angle of object to the reference points, requires a directional antenna in order to improve the accuracy of indoor positioning system. From this situation, an eight-port phased array antenna using reflection type phase shifter is designed. The input power is split to each antenna through eight-port Wilkinson power divider with insertion loss of about 11 dB and isolation of about 20 dB. To extract more accurate position, the main beam of phased array antenna can be steered smoothly by a design 18 of a continuous and full 360° reflection type phase shifter with low insertion loss variation. Microstrip patch antennas are used as elements in phased array antenna. The steering of main beam is presented by radiation patterns of phased array antenna, measured in anechoic chamber from −45 to 45° with step 5°. The measurement result shows that the main beam direction is quite close to the desired direction in simulation. In most case, the side lobe level is less than the main lobe about 10 dB

THE FACTORS IMPACT ON THE TRAVEL INTENTION OF HANOI'S PEOPLE AFTER COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The article studies the factors that affect the intention to travel after the Covid-19 pandemic of Hanoi citizens. The research team uses a model of factors that affects the travel intention of people in Hanoi city after the Covid-19 pandemic, including (1) Attitude, (2) Social influence, (3) Image of Destination, (4) Risk perception, (5) Trip expenses, (6) Propulsion. With 303 participants in the survey, the research results show that the factor "The influence of propulsion" had the largest average score (3.99), indicating that the motivation of desire to relax and explore are vital factors that affect the travel intention of Hanoi people after the Covid-19 epidemic. The factor "Effect of perception of risk" has the lowest score (3.56) but shows some concerns such as weather forecasting, trip expenses' estimation, transportation problems, inadequate information, epidemic prevention, and food safety issues, which will not hinder people's intention to travel. That partly shows that Vietnam's tourism industry has been invested, cared for, and is on the way to development in recent years. From the research results, within the framework of the article, the research team also proposed some measures to stimulate tourism demand after the Covid-19 pandemic

Information and noise in stock markets: Evidence on the determinants and effects using new empirical measures

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Business.This thesis comprises four studies relating to stock market efficiency, its measurement, its effects, and its determinants. The first study proposes novel empirical measures that separate different types of information and noise as drivers of stock return variance. Specifically, the new methods disentangle four components: market-wide information, private firm-specific information revealed through trading, firm-specific information revealed through public sources, and noise. Overall, in US stocks, 31% of the return variance is attributable to noise, 37% to public firm-specific information, 24% to private firm-specific information, and 8% to market-wide information. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a dramatic decline in noise and an increase in firm-specific information, consistent with increasing market efficiency. The second study examines how noise affects inference in existing empirical measures, such as idiosyncratic volatility (one minus the ² of a market model) and decompositions of cash flow and discount rate news. This thesis finds that after accounting for noise, cash flow information plays a considerably larger role in driving individual stock returns than previously believed and discount rate information plays a smaller role. Furthermore, the decrease in idiosyncratic volatility (increase of market model ²) since 1997 is the result of a decrease in noise during this recent period. The evidence indicates that the market has become more efficient in the past two decades, contrary to what is implied by standard interpretations of ² as an inverse measure of efficiency. In the third study, this thesis examines the real effects of stock market efficiency by analysing the relation between noise in stock prices and the efficiency of corporate investment and capital allocation at both the firm and industry levels. The analysis uses a long time-series of data from 1963, as well as a cross-section of 42 countries. Consistent with the notion that noise decreases investment efficiency, this research finds strong evidence that noise is negatively associated with the sensitivity of corporate investment to firms’ growth opportunities and the sensitivity of industry-level investment to value added. These findings highlight the important real effects of secondary market quality in determining firms’ investment behaviour and the efficiency with which capital is allocated. The fourth essay provides evidence on how individual investors’ behaviour, in particular investors’ gambling activity in stocks, affects stock market efficiency. We develop novel measures of the amount of gambling in stock markets based on the turnover differences between lottery stocks and non-lottery stocks, and validate the measure. Using a global sample, we examine how much gambling occurs in different countries, what determines these levels, and how the gambling that occurs on stock markets affects a country’s capital markets. We find that culture and economic factors are all significant drivers of a country’s gambling propensity in both traditional venues and stock markets. Interestingly, we find a substitution effect—restrictions/bans on traditional gambling lead to a spillover of gambling onto stock market(s). Exploiting regulation of traditional gambling as an instrument, we find that increased gambling on stock markets makes them more liquid and efficient. Our findings have implications for using gambling regulation as a policy instrument to affect financial market quality. Collectively, these studies contribute to our understanding of market efficiency, how to measure it, what drives its variation through time and across stocks, and how it affects resource allocation across companies and sectors