Influence of Disulfide Bridge on the Structural Stability of Human Neuroglobin: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Using Latest Data Entry

In this paper, we investigated the role of the disulfide bridge in the structural stability of wild-type human neuroglobin. The classical simulation of the neuroglobin without the disulfide bridge was performed for a long simulation run of 240~ns   using a new parameter set of Gromos96 force field and the latest data entry as the initial topologies. We used the analyzed data of original neuroglobin with the remained disulfide bridge to compare to the ones from this simulation. Our results showed that, the structure of neuroglobin was still very stable although the disulfide bridge was absent. There was only a few residues in B and C helices having a higher mobility. The most interesting result we obtained was that the increasing distance between the distal histidine and heme group could allow oxygen to bind more easily

The Mediating Effects of Switching Costs on the Relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: A Study in Retail Banking Industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Especially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights into their roles. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty

The mediating effects of switching costs on the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: A study in retail banking industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Specially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights about their roles. This approach extended the insights on mediating effects of switching costs by differentiate the roles of positive switching costs and negative switching costs in the model. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261 valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty. However, using the right types of switching costs is necessary to significantly boost the loyalty from customers. © ExcelingTech Pub, UK

Interaction Between Two Charged-Hardcore Soft Particles

During two last decades, theories of soft-particles has been introduced and developed in order to describe the behavior of bacteria and virus which can be considered as the bio-colloid particles. Soft particles are assumed to be consist of a rigid core inside an ion-permeable shell. The outer layer is always negatively charged while the core can be neutral or charged. In this paper, we investigate the interaction between two identical soft-particles with charged core. We derived the analytic formula for the interaction energy in a compact form. We showed that this interaction energy involving a screened Coulomb-like interaction term with a distance-independent coefficient. The numerical calculations showed that the interaction energy has very small amplitude and exponentially decay on the distance between the soft particles. The results indicate that it is possible to measure this kind of interaction energy when the system is put into a salt solution with the concentration low enough

Synthesis of cuprous oxide nanocubes combined with chitosan nanoparticles and its application to p-nitrophenol degradation

For the first time, cuprous oxide nanocubes (Cu2O NCBs) were successfully combined with chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) to generate Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material with highly optical property and photocatalytic activity using a simple and eco-friendly synthetic approach at room temperature for 30 min. The synthesized Cu2O NCBs NPs/CS NPs were determined characterizations by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X – ray Diffraction (XRD),  Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Results show that the Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites have an average particle size of ~3-5 nm; in which, Cu2O has the form of nanocubes (Cu2O NCBs) with size ~3-4 nm and chitosan nanoparticles with spherical shape (CS NPs) with size ~4-5 nm. In addition, the percent (%) composition of elements present in Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material have been obtained respective: Cu (23.99%), O (38.18%), and C (33.61%). Moreover, Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs composites material was also investigated for photocatalytic activity applied in p-nitrophenol degradation. The obtained results showed that the catalytic capability of Cu2O NCBs/CS NPs for p-nitrophenol reduction reached the highest efficiency >55% in the treatment time of 25 min, and this efficiency was higher than that result of using ZnO@chitosan nanoparticles (ZnO@CS NPs) catalyst under the same conditions for comparison

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT OF VIETNAMESE HOTEL ENTERPRISES

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the publication of sustainability reports from the perspective of managers at 4-5 star hotels in Vietnam. Issues of corporate size, profitability, legal regulation, corporate governance and technology of the company were mentioned as factors that may affect the publication of the report on sustainable development. The author has synthesized the relevant background theory as well as previous outstanding studies on the issue of publishing sustainable development reports. SPSS 20 software was used to test the relationship between the factors affecting the publication of the Sustainable Development Report based on the manager's point of view. The results of the study show that the factors of business size, profitability, and legal regulations all affect the publication of sustainable development reports at 4-5 star hotels in Vietnam. A new finding of this study is that the two factors of corporate governance and the company's technology combine into a public governance factor based on technology and it is the technology that has the strongest influence on the publication of the Sustainable Development Report. The study once again confirms the relationship between the factors affecting the publication of the Sustainable Development Report and is a document to help researchers understand better in the research context in Vietnam, one of the leading countries in the world developing countries and have limited access to and use of secondary data

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) In Small And Medium Tourism Enterprises: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Purpose – The objective of this study is to develop an integrated framework incorporating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Dynamic capabilities (DC) together for Tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Design – We reconcile theories from strategic management and marketing literatures to form an unifying framework of sources of performance differentials as the theoretical background. Successful factors for the framework including specific CRM processes, two different approaches in DC and specific business processes are defined. Methodology – The framework is tested on data collected from 111 SMEs in tourism industry in Vietnam using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM). Approach – This study approaches CRM processes at the customer facing level and attempts to discover its effects to performance at firm-level analysis. Findings – The results show that the interrelationships suggested by the framework are supported. Especially, the mechanisms of how CRM processes can influence the customer value and financial performance are explored. Originality of the research - The different effects of different DC approaches also suggested useful insights how to develop use them for tourism SMEs. There also has been an emerging urgency for the framework in the practice given the fact that there hasn’t been any of it in previous researches yet

Adsorption of ciprofloxacin using composite Film from PVA, agarose and maltodextrin

Rintangan antibiotik ialah salah satu masalah yang paling membimbangkan hari ini. Oleh itu, membran komposit telah digunakan secara meluas untuk penyingkiran antibiotik daripada air. Filem PVA/Agarosa/Maltodekstrin telah disintesis dengan tuangan dengan pelbagai nisbah komponen. Ia dinilai untuk ciri melalui kelembapan, keterlarutan, pengembangan dan keputusan BET. Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa filem PVA/Agarosa/Maltodekstrin mempamerkan daya maju terbaik dalam persekitaran akuatik melalui keterlarutan rendah (68.88% ± 0.03), bengkak tinggi (431.77% ± 5.89) dan isi padu liang (0.034969 cm³/g). Kapasiti penjerapan PVA/Agarosa/Maltodekstrin telah diuji untuk beberapa antibiotik seperti Ciprofloksacin, Tetracycline, Oxy-Tetracycline dan Chloramphenicol. Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa Ciprofloksacin telah dikeluarkan oleh filem PVA/Agarosa/Maltodekstrin lebih baik daripada antibiotik lain. Penjerapan antibiotik tertinggi diperoleh pada 20 minit, suhu 30 °C, dos 2 g/L, pH 6 dan kepekatan antibiotik 40 mg/L. Penjerapan Ciprofloksacin telah diramalkan melalui model kinetik dan isoterma penjerapan. Keserasian kinetik Pseudo First Order dan isoterma Dubinin-Radushkevich telah menunjukkan bahawa penjerapan berlaku mengikut mekanisme penjerapan fizikal dengan interaksi elektrostatik pada permukaan bahan. Kapasiti penjerapan maksimum direkodkan pada 4.48 mg/g berdasarkan isoterma Dubinin-Radushkevich

Effect of Plumbagin on growth inhibition and apoptosis of imatinib-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia

Development of a new inhibitor of BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase is necessary for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) because of increasing resistance and tolerance to Imatinid efforts. Herein, we reported Plumbagin can significantly inhibit the growth of CML. The results revealed that Plumbagin inhitbited TCCY and TCCY/T315I cells with IC50 values 3 μM and 2.1 μM, respectively. Plumbagin also showed anti-proliferative effects on both the wide type Ba/F3 and the BCR-ABL-transfected Ba/F3 cells with a range of IC50 from 3.2 to 3.8 μM. In addition, Plumbagin induced the apoptosis of CML cells. That would provide a new and potential drug as a chemotherapy medication in the treatment of Imatinid -resistant CML

CSA: Thực hành nông nghiệp thông minh với khí hậu ở Việt Nam

During the last five years, Vietnam has been one of the countries most affected by climate change. Severe typhoons, flooding, cold spells, salinity intrusion, and drought have affected agriculture production across the country, from upland to lowland regions. Fortunately for Vietnam, continuous work in developing climate-smart agriculture has been occurring in research organizations and among innovative farmers and entrepreneurs. Application of various CSA practices and technologies to adapt to the impact of climate change in agriculture production have been expanding. However, there is a need to accelerate the scaling process of these practices and technologies in order to ensure growth of agriculture production and food security, increase income of farmers, make farming climate resilient, and contribute to global climate change mitigation. This book aims to provide basic information to researchers, managers, and technicians and extentionists at different levels on what CSA practices and technologies can be up scaled in different locations in Vietnam