A general framework for the realistic analysis of sorting and searching algorithms. Application to some popular algorithms

We describe a general framework for realistic analysis of sorting and searching algorithms, and we apply it to the average-case analysis of five basic algorithms: three sorting algorithms (QuickSort, InsertionSort, BubbleSort) and two selection algorithms (QuickMin and SelectionMin). Usually, the analysis deals with the mean number of key comparisons, but, here, we view keys as words produced by the same source, which are compared via their symbols in the lexicographic order. The "realistic" cost of the algorithm is now the total number of symbol comparisons performed by the algorithm, and, in this context, the average-case analysis aims to providee stimates for the mean number of symbol comparisons used by the algorithm. For sorting algorithms, and with respect to key comparisons, the average-case complexity of QuickSort is asymptotic to 2n log n, InsertionSort to n^2/4 and BubbleSort to n^2/2. With respect to symbol comparisons, we prove that their average-case complexity becomes Theta(n log^2n), Theta(n^2), Theta (n^2 log n). For selection algorithms, and with respect to key comparisons, the average-case complexity of QuickMin is asymptotic to 2n, of SelectionMin is n - 1. With respect to symbol comparisons, we prove that their average-case complexity remains Theta(n). In these five cases, we describe the dominant constants which exhibit the probabilistic behaviour of the source (namely, entropy, and various notions of coincidence) with respect to the algorithm

APPLICATION OF THE MODEL 5E TO DESIGN A TEACHING PLAN FOR THE TOPIC “WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER?” IN 4TH GRADE SCIENCE SUBJECT OF VIETNAM IN STEM EDUCATIONAL ORIENTATION

STEM education is an educational model based on the interdisciplinary integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to solve real-life problems (Bentley et al., 2022; Kaleci & Korkmaz, 2018). When implementing STEM education in primary schools, there are many different approaches: discovery model, engineering design model, 5E, 6E, TRIAL model (Chacko et al., 2015; Kaleci & Korkmaz, 2018; Matsuura & Nakamura, 2021; Stohlmann et al., 2012). The selection of a model to apply appropriately is important, depending on the student, the actual teaching conditions, the teaching content, etc. The article analyzes the content of Science in primary school, teaching practice in Vietnam and illustrates the design of a specific teaching plan for grade 4 students on the basis of applying the model 5E to organize STEM education-oriented teaching in order to provide teachers with an approach when designing science teaching plans for primary school students.  Article visualizations

Incentives and Firm Behaviors

My research interests focus on the economic behavior, choices, and actions of organizations as well as individuals given their incentives, and analyze the consequences of such decisions to the financial health of firms and the macro economy. A firm is incentivized by the value investors place on its operations; while employees, particularly the management team, is incentivized by the private benefits the firm gives them. Understanding the impact of such incentives will help alleviate the classic agency costs in modern organizations. Stock illiquidity raises the cost of share ownership to outside investors. The sizable adverse price impact of trading increases transactions costs and stock volatility. The reduced gains from informed trading discourages the acquisition of private information and impedes the price discovery process. The first essay substantiates that shares of financially constrained firms are significantly more illiquid than shares of similar but financially unconstrained firms. Acting as buyers of last resort for their own shares, share repurchases by financially constrained firms enhance stock liquidity, which alleviates the cost of external financing and underinvestment. Increased stock liquidity improves information efficiency, inducing higher value-added from incremental capital investments. Further, higher stock liquidity lowers stock volatility and allows financially constrained firms to issue equity. In the second and third essays, I investigate whether the incentives given to the employees and the management team at banks contribute to the financial crisis. I provide evidence that CEO compensation is weakly related to bank risk measures and risky bank activities. However, when looking at banks with regards to their reward cultures, I find that during the 2008 crisis period, banks either at the high or low reward culture groups perform worse, and are more risky than banks in the average reward culture group. The reward culture score represents the common factor in incentives across all levels of the bank, from CEO, Vice Presidents to all other employees. The findings are consistent with the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard associated with incentive misalignment when incentives are too low or too high. This shows the importance of reward culture in understanding the role of performance-based compensation

Consequences of urban migration of adult children for the elderly left-behind in rural Vietnam

Following market liberalisation in Vietnam, concern has been raised about the elderly ‘left behind’ by the urban migration of adult children from rural areas. This study used qualitative methods to examine the consequences for these elderly and the strategies they adopt to cope. It found overall positive outcomes for rural aged parents with migrant children, as long as at least one family member remained nearby. However, elderly with no remaining family members suffered more

Vitamin C inhibited FasL-induced apoptotic death of mouse dendritic cells through c-FLIP expression

Vitamin C (VitC) is a potent antioxidant and contributes as an apoptosis inhibitor by preventing death receptor-triggered caspase 8 activity. Fas ligand (FasL) induces the apoptotic cell death via activation of Fas signaling, which is dependent on the expression level of anti-apoptotic molecule c-FLIP (FADD-like IL-1beta-converting enzyme-inhibitory proteins). The present study addressed the effects of VitC on survival of dendritic cells (DCs), a regulator of innate and adaptive immunity. To this end, mouse bone marrow cells were isolated and cultured to attain bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs). The cells were treated with FasL in the presence or absence of VitC. Real time RT-PCR, Western blotting and FACS analysis were performed to determine different hallmarks of DC apoptosis. As a result, FasL treatment resulted in activation of caspase 8 and stimulation of cell membrane scrambling, the effects were supressed when VitC was present in the cell culture or the cells were transfected with FLIP siRNA. In conclusion, VitC prevented FasL-triggered DC apoptosis mediated through the expression of c-FLIP

Úloha lidského proteinu tepelného šoku HSP70, HSP60 a HSP65 Mycobacterium bovis v patogenezi reakce štěpu proti hostiteli a revmatoidní / juvenilní idiopatické artritidy

Úloha lidského proteinu tepelného šoku HSP70, HSP60 a HSP65 Mycobacterium bovis v patogenezi reakce štěpu proti hostiteli a revmatoidní / juvenilní idiopatické artritidy. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)We investigated IgG antibodies against Mycobacterium bovis heat shock protein 65 (M. bovis Hsp65) fragments produced by cleavage with cyanogen bromide (CNBr) in 10 healthy controls, 11 patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 10 children with various malignant and non-malignant diseases before allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) by using Western blotting (WB). CNBr cleaved M. bovis Hsp65 to three larger fragments: Pl-163, molecular weight (Mw) 17.1 kDa; P191-285, Mw 10.4 kDa and P290-534, Mw 25.3 kDa. Humoral reactivity against M. bovis Hsp65 derived fragments differed on a case-by-case basis. The sera either of JIA patients ar those befare SCT reacted with individual M. bovis Hsp65 fragments more frequently when compared with healthy controls. While IgG anti-Hsp65 antibody levels showed no significant differences between the small studied cohorts, significantly higher levels of antibodies against M. bovis Hsp65 epitopes were observed in patients befare SCT and JIA patients when compared with healthy controls. Comparing WB reflectance densities (DRl and DR2), significantly elevated antibodies against Pl-163 (DRl: p=0.014; DR2: p=0.022) and P290-534 (DRl: p=0.009; DR2: p=0.003) epitopes were found in patients befare SCT. Similarly, significantly increased DRl and DR2 values of antibodies...Units out of CUMimofakultní pracoviště2. lékařská fakultaSecond Faculty of Medicin

Study of new exchangers for boron removal from water containing high concentration of boron

Boron is an element, which is necessary as essential nutrient for living organisms, especially for plants where it is involved in cell wall composition. But boron excess can cause some problems on the development of plants (defoliation, decay and fall unripe fruits), of humans and animals such as nausea, diarrhoea, dermatitis, lethargy. Boron toxicity also changes blood composition, caused disorder in neurological, physical, intellectual development. Nowadays, due to the shortage of fresh water sources, seawater desalination has been becoming an alternative fresh water supply. However, the presence of boron in seawater is quite high (4.5 mg L–1, around 4.5 mM). Moreover, the increasing use of boron in industries and its discharge to the environment has led to the contamination of surface and ground waters. As the result, boron removal, in production of drinking water becomes very important. Therefore, the World health organization has recommended a guideline of 0.5 mg L–1 B in drinking water and a maximum limit of 0.3 mg L–1 B in fresh water used for irrigation. The objective of this thesis is to study the mechanisms of boron surface exchange on different materials versus time and at equilibrium depending on some physicochemical parameters such as pH, initial boron concentration, reaction time in order to find a new exchanger for boron removal. Boron removal was carried out by ion exchange process using 2 types of resins: Amberlite IRA 743, Diaion CRB 03 as boron selective resins with methylglucamine functions, and Ambersep 900-OH and Amberlite IRA 402 Cl as anionic exchange resins with ammonium functions. From batch studies, fast exchange between resin surface and liquid phase was observed with boron removal up to at least 96 % within 30 min for Amberlite IRA 743, Diaion CRB 03 and Ambersep 900- OH. The reaction between resin surface and boron solution reached equilibrium after 2 h for all the resins. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was used to well describe the sorption kinetic process of the resins. At equilibrium, the experimental results showed that the maximum adsorption was observed to be achieved at pH 8 for Ambersep 900- OH, pH 10 for Amberlite IRA 402 Cl and independent on pH range from 6 to 12 for the 2 boron selective resins Amberlite IRA 743 and Diaion CRB 03. At pH 8 and for boron concentrations < 20 mM, the Langmuir-type relationship was used to fit the experimental data for Amberlite IRA 743, Ambersep 900- OH and resin Diaion CRB 03. In the range of studied boron concentration, the boron sorption onto Amberlite IRA 402 Cl followed linear-type behaviour. At pH 8 and for boron concentrations < 20 mM, the sorption capacities are: 1, 0,7, 0,3 et 0,05 mmol g–1 for Diaion CRB 03, Amberlite IRA 743, Ambersep 900- OH and Amberlite IRA 402 Cl, respectively. Column experiments were performed with the anionic resin Ambersep 900-OH and the selective one Amberlite IRA 743 by studying both the influence of boron concentration and the residence time. For the selective resin, if the residence time decreases, the boron breakthrough is fast followed by a long tail. For larger residence time, local equilibrium seems to be assumed. Results are thus consistent with batch experimental data. For the anionic resin, the nonlinear behaviour is also confirmed. Moreover, column experiments showed a strong difference during desorption. To regenerate resins, acid and basic treatments are necessary for the selective resin although a basic solution is enough for the anionic resin. A more detailed study of mechanisms is in progress in order to build a exchange model for predicting boron fate. Finally, characterization of pectins was also performed. Its composition (sugar and boron content) and the viscosity of pectin solutions were quantified. Filtration experiments allowed testing the efficiency of such material to remove boron to

A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN THE VIETNAMESE BANKING SECTOR

Relationship Marketing has been thought of as a new paradigm in marketing over the last few decades. It has been believed by academics and practitioners that companies can achieve success in the long run by maintaining relationship with their customers and business associates. However, much of the work and understanding of relationship or relational marketing to date focuses on the Western perspective, and hardly any work has been done in the Vietnamese or Asian context. The current literature on relationship marketing in the Asian financial sector is relatively under-researched, and hence this dissertation aims to provide some insight into relationship marketing in this sector and country. The main objective of this research is to unravel the nature of relationship marketing applied in the Vietnamese banking sector, its benefits and key factors of relationship marketing implementation. The research design follows the case study methodology. Archival records are reviewed, and qualitative data are gathered from interviews with senior mangers, marketing managers in the related research field, and individuals who are current account holders of local banks. The interview questions relate to relationship marketing and its major constructs: trust, commitment, bond, and customer relationship management. These data provide a vital resource of relationship marketing and its practical approach in the Vietnamese banking sector

The Roll of Small Businesses in Traditional Handcraft in Rural Development: A Case-Study Of Hanoi Suburban Rattan Enterprises

peer reviewedRural industrial development and new rural development programmes are the main target of Vietnam in the process of industrialization – modernization of the country. To expedite this process, it is necessary to promote the development and encourage the contributions of small enterprise in general and small enterprise rural in particular because practices in many countries show the important role of small and micro enterprises in local development. This paper presents the initial results of research to understand the economic–social contributions of rural enterprises to local development through the mobilization of local resources as well as establishment of the economic-social relations in local of rattan’s enterprises in the suburb of Hanoi, and then propose some measures to facilitate the operation of enterprises and promote the contribution of rattan’s enterprises for local development

CSR motivators of local firms in a developing country: a case study in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam

This research explores firms’ motivators to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions from the middle managers’ perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 middle managers from Quang Ninh province in Vietnam. Using Carroll’s (1991) CSR pyramid model as the framework for qualitative data analysis, the research finds that, through the middle managers’ lens, firms are motivated to engage with CSR for necessity and sufficiency. The necessity components are profitability, competitive advantage, law compliance, and anti-bureaucracy achievements serving as the maintenance factors; and the sufficient components known as encouraging factors include employee retention, ethical image and reputation. The research contributes to the extension of Carroll’s (1991) CSR pyramid model to the context of local firms in a developing country