Academic Expectations Stress in Asian American Undergraduate Students - A Revalidation Study

Asian American college students experience academic stress and expectations from selves and from their parents to achieve academic success. The internalized and externalized expectations are experienced by Asian American college students so much so that there may be an unstated academic competition among themselves and their Asian American peers. The initial study aimed to understand perceived academic expectations using social comparison theory as well as the drive to compete by parental pressure. Two focus groups were conducted and eight themes emerged after analysis of the data was complete. The themes suggest that Asian American college students perceive more academic competition with their Asian American peers in high school as compared to college. Additionally, the students noted that parental sacrifices, feelings of obligations to repay their parents, and financial stability are motivators to achieve academic successes in college and beyond. Perhaps the most important theme that emerged was the internalization of parental expectations, which also serves as a compass for achieving academic success. The second study explored the sources of academic expectations stress that Asian American college students experience by revalidating the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI) originally developed by Ang and Huan. Results suggested that the two factor structure model of the AESI had good model fit with the Asian American undergraduates sample in this study with the following fit indices: RMSEA=.085; CFI=.95; SRMR=.05. These fit indices were within acceptable range for a good model fit. Univariate results indicated that female Asian American college students experience higher levels of academic expectations stress from themselves. There were no statistically significant differences between U.S. born and non-U.S. Asian American college students in the levels of academic expectations stress perceived in both others (parents/teachers) and self

ANALYSIS OF PRESCRIPTION INDICATORS FOR OUTPATIENTS WITH HEALTH INSURANCE IN OUTPATIENTS DEPARTMENT AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY HOSPITAL IN THE PERIOD 2017-2018

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the drug prescription parameters and to find out the elements had an influence on the prescribing practice of doctors’. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to collect 300 outpatient drug prescriptions and 30 questionnaires of physicians during the period of 2017-2018. The data were analyzed according to WHO’s the guideline. Results: Average number of drug per prescription: 3.73, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic or international name (INN): 100%, percentage of prescriptions with an antibiotic prescribed: 24%, of β-lactam antibiotics group, including cephalosporin (31.17%) and aminopenicillin (27.27%), accounted for the highest percentage of using in antibiotic groups with a total of 58.44%, of corticosteroid: 12%, of vitamin: 27.3%, of drugs prescribed including in the Essential Medicines List issued by the Ministry of Health: 35.3%. Average drug cost per prescription: 88,867 VNĐ. Percentage of drug costs for antibiotics (%): 7.48%, of corticosteroids (%): 1.85% and of vitamins (%): 5.25%. Conclusion: The results of this research have identified some prescription indicators and elements affect the prescription indicators such as drug information, patient, drug, which may lead to intervention studies for evaluating changes in these issues in the outpatient clinic

RESEARCH TRENDS ON COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM IN THE PERIOD 2013 - 2023

Community-based tourism (CBT) has been around since the 1970s and so far, has grown in popularity in most continents. This study systematically evaluates and generalizes theoretical and practical issues on CBT based on 87 related articles published in scientific journals under the Scopus system from 2013 to 2023 through the application of content analysis methods. The results also show that research in this area has different research areas and mainly uses qualitative methods. The literature review identified a number of key themes including: (1) benefits of CBT development, (2) community and stakeholder engagement, (3) advantages and barriers in CBT development, (4) community perceptions about CBT, and (5) sustainable CBT development. The article has analyzed research trends on CBT: theory and application.  Article visualizations

Vocational Orientation and the Need for Establishing Career Counselling Office in Vietnamese Schools

School psychology is a field that has been receiving a lot of attention recently in Vietnam as it prepares to restructure the general education curriculum. In particular, vocational orientation and career counseling are most concerned due to the emergence of new subjects in the educational curriculum - Experimental and Vocational Orientation Activities. The objective of this study is to investigate the current situation of vocational orientation problems and the need for career counseling of Vietnamese high school students to provide evidence to develop the school counseling activities and the School Psychology in Vietnam. This is a quantitative study used a questionnaire to examine the current situation of vocational orientation problems and the need for career counseling of 1200 high school students in Vietnam to illustrate the importance of vocational orientation work. The results showed that Vietnamese high school students faced many vocational orientation problems and wanted support from school counselors. But the reality did not meet the needs of students: Vietnamese schools lacked a team of school counselors both in quality and quantity, also lack of school counseling offices in almost high schools. This result is expected to contribute to the development of the School Psychology in Vietnam, but firstly, to promote the establishment of counseling office at least one office per school

Towards Green Tourism Development: Customers’ Perception of Using Plastic Products in the 5-star Hotels in Ho Chi Minh City

In recent years, green tourism has become a development trend, attracting the attention of the community, tourism businesses and tourists in many countries around the world. However, the approach of green tourism development in Vietnam is still limited in terms of scale and participants. This article examines the situation of using plastic products and the plastic waste treatment in the 5-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, this study aims to explore the perception of customers of the use of plastic products. By doing so, the study contributes to clarifying the current situation of green tourism development in the hotel sector in the study area. The authors used the research methods of questionnaire, semi-structured interview and non-participant observation to conduct this study. Research results show that although the use of plastic products in hotels is still high, the plastic waste treatment is not thorough because of high treatment costs. But, the hotels tend to change policy on the treatment of plastic waste in an environmentally friendly manner. Besides, customers’ perception of plastic products is completely positive related to their attitudes when using, the willingness to pay and the desire to access more environmentally friendly services and products in the hotel sector. Based on the results, the article also discusses and suggests implications and approaches to developing products and services in hotels towards the development of green tourism and sustainable tourism in the future

A preliminary study to establish the transfected CHO cell lines which highly express Trastuzumab - A biosimilar product of Herceptin

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has been identified as a molecular target for breast cancer therapy, such as Trastuzumab (Herceptin®). This has been shown to improve patient survival substantially. The current study is aiming to locally produce an anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody (named Trastuzumab) which has an equivalent biological properties in comparison with the original version, Herceptin®). In silico design and construction of recombinant vectors, as well as the establishment of transfected cell lines with high expression of Trastuzumab were performed. Based on the protein sequences obtained from the Drugbank, the DNA sequences encoding for the light chain (Tras-Lc) and heavy chain (Tras-Hc) of Trastuzumab were optimized and integrated into pNanogen-Hygro and pNanogen-Puro vectors, respectively. The Neon Transfection System was used to co-transfect the pNanogen-Tras-Lc-Hygro and pNanogen-Tras-Hc-Puro constructs into CHO cells. Different co-transfected single-cell-colonies selected on media supplemented with hygromycin and puromycin were used for ELISA and SDS-PAGE assays to identify the CHO cell lines which highly express Trastuzumab. Based on the present results, 30μg of both constructs were suitable for DNA co-transfection. After 07 days of culture, the highest amount of Trastuzumab (561 µg/ml) was obtained from the H06LD68 cell line

THE CURRENT CONDITIONS OF PROMOTING THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HO CHI MINH CITY

The purpose of the study was to have a comprehensive understanding of the existing conditions assured to give physical education (PE) programs to students at Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM). Through document synthesis, interviews, and statistical processing, the article gained a general evaluation of the current PE conditions according to the following aspects: facilities, administration, and curriculums. In terms of facilities, the total space for sports activities at VNUHCM is measured at 25,454m2, besides, the ratio of sports field area per student is 0.44m2/student. This indicates that VNUHCM’s students do not have enough space for their sports practice as standard. In terms of faculty, teachers at VNUHCM Sports Center are comprised 67.6% male, 88.2% at the age of thirty to fifty, and 100% holding postgraduate qualifications. In addition, 79.4% of the staff at the VNUHCM Sports Center graduated with PE specialized degrees, and 64.7% of them have less than five years of seniority. However, 68.8% of those who are currently delivering PE courses at this Center are visiting teachers. The statistic number reveals that the ratio of students per teacher at VNUHCM is 814.75 students/teacher, which reveals that the number of PE lecturers has not met the standard, and they have been in charge of a large teaching volume. In terms of curriculums, PE programs are conducted with 06 credits in total (90 periods), divided into 02 modules with 3 credits per each (45 periods). Students are allowed to choose their favorite PE content among 10 sports courses including football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, tennis, badminton, martial arts, aerobics, swimming, and chess. The results indicate that VNUHCM’s students actively participate in sports training and competitions to advance their physical fitness.  Article visualizations

Spatial Variation of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) in Agricultural Soils Collected from Different Geographical Regions in Vietnam

Rare earth elements (REEs) exist commonly in minerals, such as carbonates, silicates, fluorides, and phosphates. REEs are also found in coals, animals, algae, and plants which were proven to increase the growth, development, yield, and quality of crops. In the present study, a preliminary assessment of REEs contents in soils collected from different areas in Vietnam was performed using the methods of Fe(OH)3 and Mg(OH)2 co-precipitation to exclude interferences from the sample matrix before analyzing REEs on ICP-MS system. The contents of REEs (mg kg-1) were in descending of Ce > Nd > La > Pr > Sm > Gd > Dy > Tb > Er > Yb > Lu. The light REEs contents were always higher than the heavy REEs, accounting for more than 70% of the total contents. In addition, the REEs also differed in total contents between areas. The contents of REEs were as follows Northwest > Northeast > Central Highland > Southeast. These differences could be related to influences during the natural weathering processes for soil formation and human activities such as mining and cultivation via fertilizers

PERSPECTIVES ON PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE THROUGH LEARNING CULTURES OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES OF HIGH-QUALITY ENGLISH STUDIES PROGRAM STUDENTS, SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, CAN THO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

The overall goal of the project is to understand the awareness or perceptions and practice of students of the High-quality English Studies program, School of Foreign Languages (SFL), Can Tho University (CTU), Vietnam when studying cultures of English-speaking countries (CESCs) to improve intercultural competence. The research on the perspectives or opinions of 200 High-quality English Studies students, 12 of them joining the semi-structured interview, about their awareness and practice through learning CESCs. The analysis would help the researcher understand the difficulties of students when studying cultural modules from English-speaking countries at SFL, CTU. The research results would suggest solutions to overcome the difficulties that students encounter, and at the same time provide factors that contribute to improving the intercultural competence of language students. Also, through the research results, despite many obstacles in the process of absorbing culture from cultural modules, students still retain their interest and love for the course-CESCs. However, it can be seen that the difficulty that many students often encounter is still cultural differences, thereby raising awareness of the need to learn cultures for students. Next is to design teaching materials to become more attractive and attractive, proactively find opportunities to communicate with foreigners.  Article visualizations

Interactions between food environment and (Un)healthy consumption: Evidence along a rural-urban transect in Viet Nam

There is limited evidence on food environment in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the application of food environment frameworks and associated metrics in such settings. Our study examines how food environment varies across an urban-peri-urban-rural gradient from three sites in North Viet Nam and its relationship with child undernutrition status and household consumption of processed food. By comparing three food environments, we present a picture of the food environment in a typical emerging economy with specific features such as non-market food sources (own production and food transfers) and dominance of the informal retail sector. We combined quantitative data (static geospatial data at neighborhood level and household survey) and qualitative data (in-depth interviews with shoppers). We found that across the three study sites, traditional open and street markets remain the most important outlets for respondents. Contrary to the common concern that urban households are the major consumers of processed foods, peri-urban and rural areas on average had higher consumption of ultra-processed foods than in urban areas. The low price levels of processed foods and the presence of processed foods even among the traditional convenience stores, those in closest proximity to the rural households, offer potential explanations of this result. Regarding undernutrition, low retail diversity and a household’s dependence on own production have important implications for the high prevalence of child undernutrition in rural areas. Our findings add to the current discussion on the critical role of the food environment on nutrition, such as the potential link between economic marginalization and access to food, and the role of food supply channels in consumption of processed foods