The institutional context influencing rural-urban migration choices and strategies for young married women and men in Vietnam

This report draws together secondary data and informed opinion relating to the wider context in which young married rural-urban migrants must craft strategies for managing their reproductive and family lives. In contrast to long standing patterns of male migration, the increasing numbers of migrants and the emergence of new forms of migration mean that young married women are increasingly moving for work too. The report outlines the wider situation in which these dynamics are occurring: the growing inequalities in the context of doi moi, the declining barrier that household registration poses to mobility, and the changing opportunities for work in the city. It also reviews changing gender relations in Vietnam with particular attention to changes in marriage and marital relations, in sexuality and fertility and in parenting. Finally it explores how changes in social entitlements in Vietnam may affect these migrants with special attention to maternal health, child health and children’s education. The report concludes that migrants with young families and new marriages face a plethora of barriers and opportunities that they must negotiate and that the strategies they formulate are dynamic and involve complex trade-offs

Supply chain information visibility and its impact on decision-making : an integrated model in the pharmaceutical industry : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Supply chain information visibility (SCIV) has been largely recognized as a key issue in pharmaceutical supply chain management. In recent years, there has been growing concern regarding the exponential growth and ubiquity of supply chain information as the result of the application of advanced technologies. Thus, the topic of visibility of information flow across a supply chain has attracted interest in both practice and academia. Despite the existence of considerable literature on SCIV, the concept is still under-theorized. The lack of a clear understanding of the characteristics of SCIV has made it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of SCIV and, consequently, hinders the improvement of SCIV (McIntire, 2014). Second, recent research identifies the potential of SCIV for operational performance through supporting managerial decision-making but also points out challenges and risks. In addition, there is a dearth of behavioral empirical research on supply chain management topics with which to achieve an increase in theory-building research in the field. This research addresses these gaps in the literature and investigates how SCIV across the pharmaceutical supply chain is perceived by pharmaceutical supply chain practitioners who are involved in supply chain decision-making, and how the decision-makers make use of SCIV in their supply chain decision-making process. This study adopted an exploratory, and qualitative approach to address two research questions: “How do supply chain professionals perceive SCIV in the pharmaceutical supply chain?” and “How do supply chain professionals make informed supply chain decisions?” The constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to guide the data gathering and analysis. The data were mainly drawn from semi-structured interviews with supply chain practitioners in New Zealand-based pharmaceutical firms, working at different levels of the supply chain, including manufacturers and distributors. Based on the findings a theoretical model was developed, the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Information-based Decision-Making Model. The model explains the behavioral supply chain decision-making process in the pharmaceutical supply chain, based on the existence of a given level of SCIV. The empirical findings suggest that SCIV is achieved both within and outside of the pharmaceutical firms and that human relational factors tend to be more beneficial than technological factors in developing SCIV. The importance of this finding is that it addresses a frequently asked question in recent literature about what constitutes SCIV and how to successfully build information visibility in a supply chain. Moreover, this research contributes to the behavioural supply chain management research literature by introducing a theoretical model of pharmaceutical supply chain information-based decision-making, which is grounded in the field data. The model offers significant theoretical insight into information-based decision-making in the pharmaceutical supply chain context based on empirical data, which has been largely overlooked in the supply chain management discipline. The empirical findings suggest that supply chain practitioners make information-based decisions in which they conduct an informative engaging mechanism with technological tools, with relevant stakeholders, and with themselves. Thus, the decision-making process involves extensive data analysis along with the crucial support of experience-based intuition and relevant stakeholders’ engagement. Another key contribution of this study is the identification of the constructive aspect of political behaviour in the supply chain decision-making process in which relevant stakeholders when invited to engage in the process tend to positively contribute and buy into the decision. Finally, this thesis provides significant practical implications and suggest directions for future research. Supply chain practitioners may benefit from the study by utilizing the study’s results to develop supply chain information visibility in their firms. In addition, the theoretical model of the information-based decision-making process explicates a useful step-by-step approach for supply chain practitioners to follow in making effective supply chain operational decisions. Recommendations for further research are provided, especially the recommendations for further studies that are crucially needed to assist firms to counter the pharmaceutical supply chain disruption risks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic

Factors affecting corruption in the public sector: evidence from Vietnam

This research utilizes a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to comprehensively examine the intricate interactions among various factors influencing corruption in Vietnam's public sector. The findings reveal that certain factors, including inadequate anti-corruption policies and enforcement, a lack of accountability and transparency in anti-corruption endeavors, and significant income disparities between public officials and anti-corruption measures, significantly and positively impact the cultural and social norms associated with anti-corruption. Additionally, insufficient cultural and social standards exert a notable and positive influence on the level of corruption in the public sector. The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights for developing effective policies and strategies that promote accountability, transparency, and good governance to combat corruption in Vietnam's public sector

Family strategies and dilemmas for low-income rural-urban labour migrants

This policy brief summarises the findings of a qualitative study into the family relations of labour migrants across their peak child-bearing years. It evidences how wives/mothers and husbands/fathers manage their relations with spouse and children when they have to ‘go away’ for work. These strategies and dilemmas have implications for the impact of migration on the wellbeing both now and over the longer term for Vietnam

The Efficiency and the Performance of the Logistics Global Supply Chain Activities to Vietnam Exportation: an Empirical Case Study

Purpose: This research paper aims to determine the factors affecting the efficiency and logistics performance index (LPI) of Vietnam's exports to foreign partners during 2018-2022 are due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Theoretical Framework: Based on the primary factors affecting the efficiency and performance of global supply chain activities in logistics for Vietnam's exports, including practical impact and logistics results of enterprises in Vietnam. Based on the primary factors affecting the efficiency and performance of global supply chain activities in logistics for Vietnam's exports, including (1). Customs efficiency (speed, simplicity and predictability of customs clearance procedures) (2). Quality of infrastructure related to trade and transport, including Roads, railways, ports, airports, warehouses and information technology ...(3). The level of ease when arranging to transport import and export goods with competitive prices (costs such as warehousing fees, port fees, tolls ... ) (4). Capacity and quality of logistics service providers ... (5). Ability to track and trace shipments. (6). Timeliness of the shipment to the destination within the specified time limit. The practical impact and logistics results of enterprises in Vietnam.   Method: The panel approach allows the authors to explore the heterogeneity in data across countries. Fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) models were used to estimate the model. Then, the Hausman test is carried out to decide which model is appropriate. The data were collected from 240 observations from Vietnam and 80 major export partner countries of Vietnam.   Findings: The research results show that the cost, time and capacity of providing logistics services have the most significant impact on Vietnam's exports.   Practical & social implications: Overall, to increase the efficiency and logistics efficiency of enterprises. The Vietnamese Government needs to cooperate and propose ideas to partner countries to improve logistics activities for exports from Vietnam. Logistics is beginning to play an increasingly important role in the competitiveness of economies.   Originality values: This study also confirms the sustainability of the extended gravity model using OLS and RE methods by substituting different variables for the country's logistics efficiency and solving the endogenous problem in the model while applying the regression method to industrial variables. We find that an 1% improvement in Vietnam's logistics would increase Vietnam's exports by 1.443%, and an 1% improvement in a partner country’s performance would help promote Vietnam's exports to this country by 0.546%

The complete mitochondrial genome of Paragonimus ohirai (Paragonimidae: Trematoda: Platyhelminthes) and its comparison with P. Westermani congeners and other trematodes

We present the complete mitochondrial genome of Paragonimus ohirai Miyazaki, 1939 and compare its features with those of previously reported mitochondrial genomes of the pathogenic lung-fluke, Paragonimus westermani, and other members of the genus. The circular mitochondrial DNA molecule of the single fully sequenced individual of P. ohirai was 14,818 bp in length, containing 12 protein-coding, two ribosomal RNA and 22 transfer RNA genes. As is common among trematodes, an atp8 gene was absent from the mitogenome of P. ohirai and the 50 end of nad4 overlapped with the 30 end of nad4L by 40 bp. Paragonimusohirai and four forms/strains of P. westermani from South Korea and India, exhibited remarkably different base compositions and hence codon usage in protein-coding genes. In the fully sequenced P. ohirai individual, the non-coding region started with two long identical repeats (292 bp each), separated by tRNAGlu. These were followed by an array of six short tandem repeats (STR), 117 bp each. Numbers of the short tandem repeats varied among P. ohirai individuals. A phylogenetic tree inferred from concatenated mitochondrial protein sequences of 50 strains encompassing 42 species of trematodes belonging to 14 families identified a monophyletic Paragonimidae in the class Trematoda. Characterization of additional mitogenomes in the genus Paragonimus will be useful for biomedical studies and development of molecular tools and mitochondrial markers for diagnostic, identification, hybridization and phylogenetic/epidemiological/evolutionary studies

Antibacterial activity of Piper betle extracts on Helicobacter pylori and identification of potential compounds

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common infectious bacteria in the world that causes gastric diseases leading to cancer. The increase of multiple antibiotic resistance rates of H. pylori have been reported worldwide. Thus, development of novel drugs is urgently required. Piper betle has many therapeutic values in traditional medicine. In this study, therefore, we investigated antibacterial activity of P. betle extracts and their fractions against a H. pylori strain isolated in Vietnam. The agar disk diffusion assay showed inhibition zone of ethyl acetate extract and methanol extract from P. betle leaf that of were 46 mm and 32 mm in diameter, respectively. After fractionation of the ethyl acetate extract through silica gel column chromatography, two peaks, PD2 and PD3, out of 12 fractions showed the strongest antibacterial activity. PD2 was sub-fractionated further by re-chromatography on the silica gel column, and subfraction TK12 gave best resolution on LC-MS analysis. Finally, 4 potential compounds, quercetrin, calodenin B, vitexin and plicatipyrone, were identified in TK12 fraction.

The ribosomal transcription units of Haplorchis pumilio and H. taichui and the use of 28S rDNA sequences for phylogenetic identification of common heterophyids in Vietnam

Background: Heterophyidiasis is now a major public health threat in many tropical countries. Species in the trematode family Heterophyidae infecting humans include Centrocestus formosanus, Haplorchis pumilio, H. taichui, H. yokogawai, Procerovum varium and Stellantchasmus falcatus. For molecular phylogenetic and systematic studies on trematodes, we need more prospective markers for taxonomic identification and classification. This study provides near-complete ribosomal transcription units (rTU) from Haplorchis pumilio and H. taichui and demonstrates the use of 28S rDNA sequences for identification and phylogenetic analysis. Results: The near-complete ribosomal transcription units (rTU), consisting of 18S, ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2 and 28S rRNA genes and spacers, from H. pumilio and H. taichui from human hosts in Vietnam, were determined and annotated. Sequence analysis revealed tandem repetitive elements in ITS1 in H. pumilio and in ITS2 in H. taichui. A phylogenetic tree inferred from 28S rDNA sequences of 40 trematode strains/species, including 14 Vietnamese heterophyid individuals, clearly confirmed the status of each of the Vietnamese species: Centrocestus formosanus, Haplorchis pumilio, H. taichui, H. yokogawai, Procerovum varium and Stellantchasmus falcatus. However, the family Heterophyidae was clearly not monophyletic, with some genera apparently allied with other families within the superfamily Opisthorchioidea (i. e. Cryptogonimidae and Opisthorchiidae). These families and their constituent genera require substantial re-evaluation using a combination of morphological and molecular data. Our new molecular data will assist in such studies. Conclusions: The 28S rDNA sequences are conserved among individuals within a species but varied between genera. Based on analysis of 40 28S rDNA sequences representing 19 species in the superfamily Opisthorchioidea and an outgroup taxon (Alaria alata, family Diplostomidae), six common human pathogenic heterophyids were identified and clearly resolved. The phylogenetic tree inferred from these sequences again confirmed anomalies in molecular placement of some members of the family Heterophyidae and demonstrates the need for reappraisal of the entire superfamily Opisthorchioidea. The new sequences provided here supplement those already available in public databases and add to the array of molecular tools that can be used for the diagnosis of heterophyid species in human and animal infections