The role of confucianism in sociopolitics of the Nguyen dynasty in the first half of the 19th century

The research focuses on how the Nguyen dynasty it became the first to have the largest territory in the history of Vietnam in its nearly 60 years of establishing and reigning over the unified country in the first half of the 19th century. It is seen that in terms of organizing the state apparatus, Gia Long and Minh Mang retained the system of agencies of the previous dynasties and continued reforms to ensure socio-political stability in their governance at that time. The study also clarifies the social role of Confucianism in the Nguyen dynasty, i.e. in the first half of the 19th century, which, in our opinion, is theoretically and practically significant, with the hope of further unraveling the role of Confucianism in that period

Liganden- und Struktur-basiertes Design und Entwicklung potentieller eIF4A-Inhibitoren

Seit Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts kam es bereits wiederholt zu großen Ausbrüchen, die durch RNA-Viren (EBOV, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, Zika-Virus) ausgelöst wurden. So stellte die Ebola Epidemie 2014 in Westafrika und die aktuelle COVID-19-Pandemie (coronavirus disease 2019) eine globale Bedrohung für die Menschheit dar und verdeutlicht die Notwendigkeit antiviraler Wirkstoffe zur Bekämpfung der jetzigen und zukünftiger Pandemien. Durch die hohe Mutationsrate der RNA-Viren besteht jedoch immer die Gefahr einer Resistenzentwicklung durch neue Varianten, da die RNA-Viren sich schnell an neue Bedingungen anpassen können. Eine Hemmung virusspezifischer Proteine könnte in diesem Fall zu einem Verlust der Wirksamkeit des antiviralen Wirkstoffs führen. Das Adressieren der körpereigenen Faktoren durch antivirale Wirkstoffe hingegen würde der Gefahr einer Resistenzentwicklung entgegenwirken. Ein vielversprechendes Zielmolekül ist die DEAD-Box Helikase eIF4A, die von verschiedenen RNA-Viren zur Translation ihrer viralen Proteine genutzt wird. In Anbetracht dessen ist Silvestrol, ein natürlich vorkommender eIF4A-Inhibitor, sehr interessant, da es ein breites Spektrum von RNA-Viren im nanomolaren Bereich hemmt. Als potentieller antiviraler Wirkstoff birgt es somit viel Potential, da es auch zur Behandlung von neu auftretenden Viren eingesetzt werden könnte. Nachteilig ist nur seine komplexe Struktur und die damit einhergehende schwierige Synthese. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde folglich alternativ nach kleinen Molekülen gesucht, die eine ähnliche Struktur und Hemmung wie Silvestrol aufwiesen, jedoch Wirkstoff ähnlicher sind. Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit war die Synthese neuartiger eIF4A-Inhibitoren mittels eines Liganden- und Struktur-basierten Designs. Aus sich wiederholenden Zyklen aus Synthese, Testung und Optimierung durch Modifikationen der unterschiedlichen Komponenten der Ausgangsstrukturen wurden wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Weiterentwicklung der Strukturen gezogen. Der Fokus lag auf zwei Stoffklassen, den Sulfonamiden und N-Acylaminosäureamiden. Die linearen Sulfonamide beruhten auf einer vorangegangenen Arbeit und wurden im Verlauf der Promotion unter Einbeziehung von molekularem Docking zu der Stoffklasse der verzweigten Sulfonamide weiterentwickelt. Die unspezifische Hemmwirkung der linearen Sulfonamide wurde im Zuge dessen auf eine spezifische Hemmwirkung verbessert. Unter den aus dem rationalen Design entstandenen N-Acylaminosäureamiden wurden ebenfalls Verbindungen mit einer spezifischen Hemmung der Translation identifiziert. Zwei vielversprechende Verbindungen aus den beiden Stoffklassen wiesen einen antiviralen Effekt gegen die Coronaviren HCoV-229E und SARS-CoV-2 auf, während eine weitere Verbindung eine Aktivität gegen das Rift-Valley-Fever-Virus zeigte. Abschließend konnte in der vorliegenden Dissertation die Grundlage für zukünftige Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der N-Acylaminosäureamide und der verzweigten Sulfonamide gelegt werden

ATMOSPHERIC PARTICLES IN HANOI-CONCENTRATIONS OF WATER-SOLUBLE INORGANIC IONS AND SOURCE REGIONS

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

The diffusion of norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and the resolution of disputes in the Asia-Pacific, in particular among signatory countries of the TPP

People are central to economic development. Workers are relatively vulnerable compared to the other factors of the economy, including governments and employers. Because violations of workers’ rights and poor working conditions are prevalent, especially in developing countries, the diffusion of internationally recognized labor standards is now emerging as a critical process in the world. This is a process by which internationally recognized labor rights are transferred between countries by various means with the expectation of improving labor conditions world-wide. For this process to be successful, it is important that not only labor standards but also rules and mechanisms for their enforcement be diffused. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is currently under negotiation. The TPP is expected to be the first “high-quality, twenty-first-century agreement” in the world. Norm entrepreneurs have chosen the TPP to be a channel for the diffusion of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific. How is the TPP likely to diffuse the norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and dispute resolution? Will it be by means of goodwill, cooperation and consensus or through material conditionality? Labor rights are human rights which must be upheld and promoted. The answer to the above empirical question is very important to the policy-makers of signatory countries of the TPP, given that labor standards are considered to be a sensitive issue in many Asian countries. Their concerns are grounded in history. The Government of Poland and the communist system in Eastern Europe were brought down as a result of the implementation of labor rights in the 1980s¹. How to implement these rights without causing social and political disorder is a complex question for policy-makers in the TPP countries. The thesis reviews the literature on theoretical norm diffusion and labor standards as well as provides the empirical evidence of past diffusion of labor standards in order to identify which mechanisms of diffusion are likely to prevail in the field of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific region. It answers who are the drivers of diffusion. It draws on the record of all signed FTAs in the region to provide an empirical foundation for its projection about the likely content of the TPP in terms of rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards. ¹ After the rights to organize freely and to strike was recognized by the Government of Poland, the Solidarity Unions was formed and after many ups and downs of its evolution, finally it had led successfully the overthrow of the communist Government of Poland and “played a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe”. Read more at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060898.html, and http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1969_detente/fall_of_communism.htm

A Study on the Impact of the Usage of Cost Information on Business Performance of Enterprises in Vietnam

Purpose: The primary objective of the research was to investigate the correlation between the utilization of cost information and business performance of enterprises in Vietnam, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.   Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted, involving a sample of 380 participants consisting of CEOs, CFOs, managers, board of directors, and individuals in charge of accounting and finance departments. The study employed a structure equation model to analyze the relationship between the use of cost information and business performance.   Findings: The study revealed a significant and positive impact of cost information utilization on business performance among the surveyed enterprises in Vietnam. Additionally, the study provided recommendations for enterprises in Vietnam on how to make use of cost information for various purposes, including planning, evaluating, decision-making, and cost control, to optimize their business performance.   Research, Practical & Social implication: The study's results suggest that utilizing cost information effectively can lead to improved business performance and may provide valuable insights for Vietnamese enterprises on how to navigate the challenging and competitive post-Covid-19 economic environment.   Originality/value: The research employed a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, and a test for univariate normality demonstrated an outstanding critical skewness ratio value. Furthermore, the kurtosis indicated that the data followed a normal distribution, making it suitable for analysis. Since SEM employs rigorous criteria to evaluate model fit, it can be inferred that the measurement model exhibited a high level of fit. The findings affirm the beneficial impact of utilizing cost information on business performance and offer significant recommendations for Vietnamese businesses in the current post-COVID era

Real-Time Obstacle Detection System in Indoor Environment for the Visually Impaired Using Microsoft Kinect Sensor

Any mobility aid for the visually impaired people should be able to accurately detect and warn about nearly obstacles. In this paper, we present a method for support system to detect obstacle in indoor environment based on Kinect sensor and 3D-image processing. Color-Depth data of the scene in front of the user is collected using the Kinect with the support of the standard framework for 3D sensing OpenNI and processed by PCL library to extract accurate 3D information of the obstacles. The experiments have been performed with the dataset in multiple indoor scenarios and in different lighting conditions. Results showed that our system is able to accurately detect the four types of obstacle: walls, doors, stairs, and a residual class that covers loose obstacles on the floor. Precisely, walls and loose obstacles on the floor are detected in practically all cases, whereas doors are detected in 90.69% out of 43 positive image samples. For the step detection, we have correctly detected the upstairs in 97.33% out of 75 positive images while the correct rate of downstairs detection is lower with 89.47% from 38 positive images. Our method further allows the computation of the distance between the user and the obstacles

Straightforward Procedure for Laboratory Production of DNA Ladder

DNA ladder is commonly used to determine the size of DNA fragments by electrophoresis in routine molecular biology laboratories. In this study, we report a new procedure to prepare a DNA ladder that consists of 10 fragments from 100 to 1000 bp. This protocol is a combination of routinely employed methods: cloning, PCR, and partial digestion with restriction enzymes. DNA fragments of 100 bp with unique restriction site at both ends were self-ligated to create a tandem repeat. Once being cloned, the tandem repeat was rapidly amplified by PCR and partially digested by restriction enzymes to produce a ladder containing multimers of the repeated DNA fragments. Our procedure for production of DNA ladder could be simple, time saving, and inexpensive in comparison with current ones widely used in most laboratories

ARSENIC POISONING AT TUBE WELL IN RED RIVER DELTA CASE STUDY AT SON DONG VILLAGE

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart