The Impact of State Religious Policies on Christian Women’s Leadership Status in Vietnam: The Case of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam Since 1975

This paper contributes to a feminist critique of multiculturalism by presenting the complexity of the relationship among the state, religion and women in the context of Vietnam. By taking the Evangelical Church of Vietnam—South as a case study, and based on both primary and secondary data obtained from in-depth interviews with 38 Vietnamese female and male church leaders in 2014–2016, and four months of fieldwork in southern Vietnam between February and May 2016, the paper argues that the assumption of equal rights and citizenship status for all women in the wider society according to the liberal model of multiculturalism cannot be directly applied in Vietnam. State religious policies in this country play a significant role in the double reduction of Christian women’s and status in terms of leadership first in the wider society and second in the religious community itself despite the existence of national advanced gender law and the government’s tight control of religious groups. The failure of both this church and the government in upholding the governmental gender policies within this religious organization has complex causes rights embedded in the context of Vietnam. This paper looks into the government’s political concern rather than gender one in its management of religion and the ECVN’s theological, political and social stance as main causes of the gender problem

Struggles for Women-Inclusive Leadership in Toraja Church in Indonesia and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam

Traditionally, women in Vietnam have been seen as the sole nurturer and care-taker of the family. Similarly, recent reports show that both men and women in Vietnam expect women to behave in a socially constrained way. Women’s struggle for leadership in religious organizations in Southeast Asia has been particularly characterized with various levels of accomplishment. This study takes the Toraja Church in Indonesia and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam as two cross-cultural case studies. As the main causes of change in the churches, the author discusses (1) the degree of destabilizing forces from external context and institutional structure; (2) the degree of support and identification with the struggle by male leaders; and (3) the dominant existence of women’s feminist projects and their success in turning their feminist projects into collective effort

Truth Telling in Peacebuilding: A Buddhist Contribution

Truth telling has been recognized as important in the process of trauma healing and reconciliation according to modern peacebuilding theories. Studies have shown that truth telling is not a simple issue but involves problems and challenges that need research and solutions. This study contributes to this problem-solution or the question “How should difficult and painful truth be told in a way that minimizes harm and maximizes benefit for all?†by offering an alternative knowledge and method rooted in the Buddhist tradition. Based on textual study of the Majjhima Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya, the paper argues that the Buddha’s teachings can widen the understanding and minimize potential problems with the work of truth telling whether in the collective or interpersonal context by providing a concrete systematic framework and criteria for reflection, making decision and communication of truth

In Vitro Antibiotic Resistance in Bacterial Infected Eczema at Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Dermatology

BACKGROUND: Infected eczema is one of the most common complications of eczema. The progression and treatment of infected eczema have become more complex and difficulty due to the antibiotic resistance of bacteria and the abuse of antibiotics in treatment. AIM: Our research was conducted with the aim of investigating the severity of in vitro antibiotic resistance in patients with bacterially infected eczema at Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Dermatology. METHODS: We studied 40 cases of patients, suffering from atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, vesicular palmoplantar eczema, with positive results of infected eczema. RESULTS: S. aureus accounted for 82.5%, followed by S. epidermidis (15%), P. aeruginosa (12.5%), S. pyogenes (5%) accounted for a small percentage. E. coli (2.5%) and M. morganii (2.5%) accounted for the lowest percentage. Both MSSA and MRSA were completely resistant to penicillin. MRSA is completely resistant to penicillin, erythromycin, and cefuroxime, highly resistant to clindamycin (82.35%). Our research showed that Pseudomonas aeruginosa was not resistant to a variety of antibiotics. It was completely resistant to tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (100%). Most bacteria are highly sensitive to linezolid, vancomycin as other studies in the world shown. There are also rifampicins, pristinamycin. Hence, it`s prioritised to be used for only patients with eczema infected with multidrug-resistant bacteria. CONCLUSION: Penicillin is not recommended for the treatment for infected eczema. Linezolid, vancomycin has a high sensitivity to bacteria including multidrug-resistant bacteria like MRSA

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF VIETNAM AND THE TORAJA CHURCH IN INDONESIA TOWARD WOMEN-INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP: CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXTS

This paper starts with the question: Why do Protestant churches in Asia have different levels of accommodating women in leadership? By taking two case studies - the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN) and the Toraja Church in Indonesia that have similar starting points but different levels of transformation regarding women’s leadership, the paper aims to explore how the cultural, political, and religious contexts of these churches are different and how they contribute to the different process of church transformation toward women-inclusive leadership based on both primary and secondary data. Keywords: Women in Leadership, The Evengelical Church of Vietnam, Toraja Churc

Firm’s innovation activities across ASEAN countries: Examining the impacts of management experience, management practices and the moderating role of female CEOs

AbstractThis study investigates the roles of management experience and management practices towards innovation activities across ASEAN nations. Notably, the moderating role of the female CEOs in the management experience management practices—innovation relationship is also examined. The data came from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey, consisting of 180,000 enterprises worldwide. This study extracted data from seven economies in ASEAN (Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, and Cambodia). To deal with the hierarchical/multilevel structure of the study’s data set, the study uses the multilevel mixed-effects ordered logit model. The findings reveal that both management practices and management experience have positive impacts on innovation activities, particularly product innovation. Furthermore, this paper highlights the positive moderating role of female CEOs in the management experience management practices—innovation relationship

N,2,6-Trisubstituted 1H-benzimidazole derivatives as a new scaffold of antimicrobial and anticancer agents : design, synthesis, in vitro evaluation, and in silico studies

Compounds containing benzimidazole moiety occupy privileged chemical space for discovering new bioactive substances. In continuation of our recent work, 69 benzimidazole derivatives were designed and synthesized with good to excellent yields of 46-99% using efficient synthesis protocol i.e. sodium metabisulfite catalyzed condensation of aromatic aldehydes with o-phenylenediamines to form 2-arylbenzimidazole derivatives followed by N-alkylation by conventional heating or microwave irradiation for diversification. Potent antibacterial compounds against MSSA and MRSA were discovered such as benzimidazole compounds 3k (2-(4-nitrophenyl), N-benzyl), 3l (2-(4-chlorophenyl), N-(4-chlorobenzyl)), 4c (2-(4-chlorophenyl), 6-methyl, N-benzyl), 4g (2-(4-nitrophenyl), 6-methyl, N-benzyl), and 4j (2-(4-nitrophenyl), 6-methyl, N-(4-chlorobenzyl)) with MIC of 4-16 mu g mL(-1). In addition, compound 4c showed good antimicrobial activities (MIC = 16 mu g mL(-1)) against the bacteria strains Escherichia coli and Streptococcus faecalis. Moreover, compounds 3k, 3l, 4c, 4g, and 4j have been found to kill HepG2, MDA-MB-231, MCF7, RMS, and C26 cancer cells with low mu M IC50 (2.39-10.95). These compounds showed comparable drug-like properties as ciprofloxacin, fluconazole, and paclitaxel in computational ADMET profiling. Finally, docking studies were used to assess potential protein targets responsible for their biological activities. Especially, we found that DHFR is a promising target both in silico and in vitro with compound 4c having IC50 of 2.35 mu M

Speciation Analysis of Arsenic Compounds by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography in Combination with Inductively Coupled Plasma Dynamic Reaction Cell Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry: Application for Vietnamese Rice Samples

In this work, high-performance liquid chromatography in combination with inductively coupled plasma dynamic reaction cell quadrupole mass spectrometry was introduced and optimized for speciation analysis of five major arsenic species including arsenobetain (AsB), arsenite (As(III)), monomethylarsonic (MMA), dimethylarsenonic acid (DMA), and arsenate (As(V)) in rice samples. Five arsenic compounds were separated on a Hamilton PRP X100 strong anion-exchange column employed with the mobile phase that is compatible with mass spectrometry, containing ammonium carbonate, methanol, and disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Arsenic compounds were detected online by inductively coupled plasma dynamic reaction cell quadrupole mass spectrometry utilizing oxygen as the reaction gas at a flow rate of 0.7 mL·min−1. Five selected arsenic species were baseline separated at the optimum experimental conditions. The excellent LOD and LOQ values of the developed method were achieved in the range of 0.5 to 2.9 μg·kg−1 and 1.7 to 9.6 μg·kg−1 for all species of arsenic, respectively. The ionization effect in plasma during chromatographic gradient elution was systematically investigated by using postcolumn injector. Arsenic compounds in rice samples were extracted by diluted nitric acid at elevated temperature. The extraction efficiency and the interconversion of target compounds during sample preparation were also assessed. The full validation of the developed method was performed by using certified reference material, BRC 211, from European Institute of Reference and Standard for speciation analysis. The recovery of all selected arsenic species was in the range of 70 to 135.5%. The validated method was also applied to analyze rice samples collected from some contaminated rice fields. The results showed that As(III), DMA, and As(V) were found in all rice samples. Average concentration (range) of inorganic arsenic and DMA in all rice samples were 130.3 (65.5–228.1) and 32 (8.2–133.01) μg·kg−1, respectively. However, total concentration of inorganic arsenic in most of investigated rice samples was below the maximum residual level according to US-FDA and European Union standards