Shifts in Living Standards: The Case of Vietnamese Households 1992-1998

This paper investigates determinants of shifts in living standards for Vietnamese households, measured by the difference in consumption at two different points in time. In agreement with studies on other countries, results show that education, household composition, and community infrastructure are strongly related to consumption changes. A main contribution of the paper is to propose novel analytical techniques for the modeling of shifts in living standards. In particular, it proposes the use of Directed Acyclic Graphs to help identify direct and indirect predictors of consumption differences and protect against spurious correlations, and advocates the use of Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) to help identify nonlinearity and interactions. It suggests graphical methods to guide the interpretation of the models.Vietnamese households, living standards, shifts in living standards, household vulnerability, household consumption

Shifts in Living Standards: The Case of Vietnamese Households 1992-1998

This paper investigates determinants of shifts in living standards for Vietnamese households, measured by the difference in consumption at two different points in time. In agreement with studies on other countries, results show that education, household composition, and community infrastructure are strongly related to consumption changes. A main contribution of the paper is to propose novel analytical techniques for the modeling of shifts in living standards. In particular, it proposes the use of Directed Acyclic Graphs to help identify direct and indirect predictors of consumption differences and protect against spurious correlations, and advocates the use of Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) to help identify nonlinearity and interactions. It suggests graphical methods to guide the interpretation of the models.Vietnamese households, living standards, shifts in living standards, household vulnerability, household consumption

Role of mineralocorticoid receptor regulation during experimental myocardial infarction

Ischaemic heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Following an ischaemic event, the primary strategy is to restore blood flow (reperfusion). However, this triggers release of reactive oxygen species, activation of stress-related gene transcription, autophagy and cell death processes leading to further injury (reperfusion injury). Elevated plasma aldosterone levels produce adverse cardiac effects, while mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonists (spironolactone or eplerenone) reduce mortality, although mechanisms have not been defined. The aim of this thesis was to determine the role of MR regulation during experimental myocardial infarction (MI). This was achieved by using an ex-vivo isolated rat heart model and occluding a branch of the left coronary artery (30min) followed by reperfusion (150min). Increased levels of oxidative stress with activated autophagy and apoptosis confirmed our model of MI. Since there are sex differences in cardiac damage during MI, our studies show that androgens downregulate anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL, which shifts the balance towards apoptosis leading to aggravated cardiac damage in males compared to females. Expression levels of MR have been reported to be upregulated during MI in males, which could contribute to the aggravated damage, we did not find any significant change in MR expression between male and female rats and hence male rats were used for subsequent studies. Activation of MR by aldosterone (10 nM) increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis and aggravated infarct size during MI; prevented by low-dose MR antagonists. Low-dose (10 nM) spironolactone alone maintained redox balance, prevented activation of stress-related gene transcription and degradation of anti-apoptotic protein ARC, which prevented initiation of apoptosis. These studies provide direct evidence that MR activation aggravates cardiac damage during MI and provide mechanisms for the cardioprotective action of low-dose MR antagonists clinically

Improve Operational Efficiency at Cam Thuy District Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism Center, Thanh Hoa Province

In 2019, the Center for Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism of Cam Thuy district was established by reorganizing public service units under the People\u27s Committees of districts and towns—communes and cities operating in the fields of Culture, Sports, Tourism, Radio and Television. After nearly five years of operation, the Center has overcome some difficulties due to the merger and exceeded the tasks and goals compared to the plans set out for each year. However, in the current period, the development of the Center in the coming time will still be complex due to the old-fashioned way of thinking; the Center\u27s activities are solitary, and cultural propaganda work needs to be coordinated. Change and attraction service activities have yet to be focused on. Therefore, studying the limitations in the Center\u27s operations and proposing several solutions to improve the Center\u27s operational efficiency in the future is necessary

The Effects of War and Migration Trauma on Southeast Asian Families in the United States

This review article focuses on Southeast Asian (SEA) families, which include Vietnamese, Laotian, Hmong, and Cambodian ethnic groups, comprising about three million people in the United States. Although many differences exist among SEAs, they share experiences of war and migration-related trauma and losses that continue to have long-term effects on their families and individual well-being within and across generations. Research and practice work with SEA families and individuals requires in depth knowledge of their experiences before, during, and after migration to the U.S. This article on SEA families, although not exhaustive in its coverage, highlights the following topics: SEA populations in the U.S., migration history, resettlement and adaptation in the U.S., mental health issues of SEAs, traditional SEA family, migration and family formation, migration and family relationships, migration and family in later life, and implications for research and practice with SEA families and individuals

Enhance the chromatic uniformity and luminous efficiency of WLEDs with triple-layer remote phosphor structures

The angular color uniformity (ACU) with the ability to evaluate chromatic performance of WLED has become an important target to achieve in producing higher-quality WLEDs. This paper studies the ACU enhancing effects of novel triple-phosphor configuration in lighting devices with remote phosphor structure. Moreover, the optical influences of remote phosphor structure with three phosphor layers (TL) on WLEDs properties are calculated and compared to the dual-layer (DL) one for reference. The experiments are applied to devices at 5 distinct correlated color temperature ranging from 5600-8500 K. The results presented that DL structure attains better color rendering index (CRI) than the TL one. Meanwhile, in terms of color quality scales (CQS), TL model shows higher values at all ACCTs, compared to the DL. Moreover, the luminous flux of DL configuration is lower than that of TL structure. In addition, the diversion of color temperature depicts as D-CCT in TL structure is much better than the value in DL structure, especially at high ACCT as 8500 K, which means TL is good for chromatic uniformity of high ACCTs WLEDs. These results proved that the triple-layer structure is superior and more effective to apply for acquiring the enhancement of WLEDs package

Improving color rendering index of WLEDs with convex-dual-layer remote phosphor geometry using red-emitting CaGa2S4:Mn2+ phosphor

The white-light light-emitting diode (LED), a conventional illumination solution, usually consists of one chip and one phosphor layer, which leads to the insufficient color rendering index (CRI) in this configuration. To optimize the efficiency of WLED, a new LED package with 2 chips and one phosphor was proposed, this innovative configuration can yield more lights and achieve high CRI. Thus, this study aims at perfecting the color performance with the two chips and dual phosphor layers package with the proportions and densities of phosphor in the silicone constantly changed to find the best option. The white-light LED module is adjusted using a specialized color design model. The comparison results between the measured and the simulation from the color design model CIE 1931 color coordinates suggest that the highest discrepancy is about 0.0063 and is achieved at around 5600K correlated color temperature (CCT). This study’s results lay a firm path in customizing white-light LED modules that guarantee CRI and lumen output qualities