An open database of productivity in Vietnam's social sciences and humanities for public use

This study presents a description of an open database on scientific output of Vietnamese researchers in social sciences and humanities, one that corrects for the shortcomings in current research publication databases such as data duplication, slow update, and a substantial cost of doing science. Here, using scientists’ self-reports, open online sources and cross-checking with Scopus database, we introduce a manual system and its semi-automated version of the database on the profiles of 657 Vietnamese researchers in social sciences and humanities who have published in Scopus-indexed journals from 2008 to 2018. The final system also records 973 foreign co-authors, 1,289 papers, and 789 affiliations. The data collection method, highly applicable for other sources, could be replicated in other developing countries while its content be used in cross-section, multivariate, and network data analyses. The open database is expected to help Vietnam revamp its research capacity and meet the public demand for greater transparency in science management

A Categorical Data Analysis on Financial Failures in Vietnam, 2007-2013

In this paper, we examined 256 cases of financial failure and fraud occuring during the recent Vietnam’s chaotic years from 2007 to 2013, employing methods of categorical data analysis. Reported results suggest that the rent-seeking approach, or resource-based orientation, alone does not help explain the outcome of a business intention while the association between Orientation and Approach is the best-fit predictor. Rampant financial collapse not only increases the cost of funds but also erodes trust in the economy. Entrepreneurship development and creativity capacity building are necessary to improve socio-economic conditions and the environment. This work also introduces intuitive and cognitive factors to predict ex-ante outcome of a financing scheme

"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed "cultural additivity", prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings--Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism--as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables).Comment: 8 figures, 35 page

Effects of the synthetic condition on the stability, particle size and redox chemistry of nanoporous CoAlPO-34

This study focuses on the effect of the synthetic conditions on the stability, particle size, redox chemistry of cobalt into the framework of CoAlPO-34. It seems that the most sufficient pH for the substitution of Co into the framework of CoAlPO-34 was pH around 7.5 when the as-synthesized bifunctional catalyst has the best redox property. The pH of the initial gel has strong effect on the particle size of CoAlPO-34. The substitution of cobalt and redox chemistry were determined by: EXAFS combined with XRD, XANES, IR. Stability of the nanoporous catalyst studied by in situ XRD were also reported

A national study of choanal atresia in tertiary care centers in Canada – part II: clinical management

Background: To evaluate the clinical management of choanal atresia (CA) in tertiary centers across Canada. Methods: Multi-centre case series involving six tertiary care pediatric hospitals across Canada. Retrospective chart review of patients born between 1980 and 2010 diagnosed with choanal atresia to a participating center. Results: The health charts of 215 patients (59.6% female) with choanal atresia (CA) were reviewed. Mean age of initial surgical repair was 0.8 months for bilateral CA, and 48.6 months for unilateral CA. Approaches of surgical repair consisted of endoscopic transnasal (31.7%), non-endoscopic transnasal (42.6%), and transpalatal (25.2%). Stents were used on 70.7% of patients. Forty-nine percent of patients were brought back to the OR for a planned second look; stent removal being the most common reason (86.4%). Surgical success rate of initial surgeries was 54.1%. Surgical technique was not associated with rate of restenosis [χ2 (2) = 1.6, p =.46]. Conclusions: The present study is the first national multi-institutional study exploring the surgical outcomes of CA over a 30-year period. The surgical repair of CA presents a challenge to otolaryngologists, as the rate of surgical failure is high. The optimal surgical approach, age at surgical repair, use of stents, surgical adjuncts, and need for planned second look warrant further investigation. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

A national study of choanal atresia in tertiary care centers in Canada – part I: clinical presentation

Background: To evaluate the clinical presentation of choanal atresia (CA) in tertiary centers across Canada. Methods: Multi-centre case series involving six tertiary care pediatric hospitals across Canada. Retrospective chart review of patients born between 1980 and 2010 diagnosed with CA at a participating center. Results: The health charts of 215 patients (59.6% female) with CA were reviewed and included in this study. The mean age of patients at time of CA presentation was 0.4 months (range 0.1 to 7.2 months) for bilateral CA and 37.8 months (range 0.1 to 164.1 months) for unilateral cases. The most common presenting symptoms for bilateral CA in decreasing order were respiratory distress (96.4%), feeding difficulties (68.2%), and rhinorrhea (65.5%), and for unilateral cases in decreasing order were rhinorrhea (92.0%), feeding difficulties (24.7%), and respiratory distress (18.0%). For the majority of patients (73.2%), the obstruction comprised mixed bony and membranous tissue, with only 10.5% presenting with a purely membranous obstruction. Familial history of CA was confirmed in only 3.3% of cases. One half of patients with CA presented with one or more associated anomalies and 30.6% had a syndrome. Conclusions: The present investigation is the first national multi-institutional study evaluating the clinical presentation of CA over three decades. The present cohort of CA patients presented with a breadth of co-morbidities with highly variable presentations, with bilateral cases being more severely affected than unilateral cases. Further investigation into hereditary linkages to CA development is warranted. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

A novel approach in crude enzyme laccase production and application in emerging contaminant bioremediation

Laccase enzyme from white-rot fungi is a potential biocatalyst for the oxidation of emerging contaminants (ECs), such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals and steroid hormones. This study aims to develop a three-step platform to treat ECs: (i) enzyme production, (ii) enzyme concentration and (iii) enzyme application. In the first step, solid culture and liquid culture were compared. The solid culture produced significantly more laccase than the liquid culture (447 vs. 74 μM/min after eight days), demonstrating that white rot fungi thrived on a solid medium. In the second step, the enzyme was concentrated 6.6 times using an ultrafiltration (UF) process, resulting in laccase activity of 2980 μM/min. No enzymatic loss due to filtration and membrane adsorption was observed, suggesting the feasibility of the UF membrane for enzyme concentration. In the third step, concentrated crude enzyme was applied in an enzymatic membrane reactor (EMR) to remove a diverse set of ECs (31 compounds in six groups). The EMR effectively removed of steroid hormones, phytoestrogen, ultraviolet (UV) filters and industrial chemical (above 90%). However, it had low removal of pesticides and pharmaceuticals

Modulation and application of chitosal to adsorb lead (Pb2+) in waterwaste

One of methods to eliminate metals from water is the use of adsorption. Chitosal is a material with a biological origin and was chosen for this study. The material was extracted from shrimp shells. The final product of the extraction progress was chitosal gel with a diameter of 3.5 mm, 97% of purity and good solubility in 1% CH3COOH solution. Three adsorption columns were built with PVC plastic. Two experiments at lead concentration 6.98 mg/l and 15.7 mg/l were carried out with the flow from the top down, at different water retention times of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, and 120 minutes. The results showed that at lead concentrations of 6.98 mg/l we did not find the optimum water retention time. However, in the second experiment with lead concentration of 15.7 mg/l we determined the optimal water retention time was 60 minutes for column h1 and the lead adsorption efficiency achieved was 30.44%; column h2, h3 were the same time (90 minutes) and the lead adsorption efficiency reached 44.71%; and 52.87% respectively

Animal Reservoir Hosts and Fish-borne Zoonotic Trematode Infections on Fish Farms, Vietnam

Cats, dogs, and pigs may be reservoir hosts