The relationship between brand equity and intention to buy: the case of convenience stores

The research aims to identify the components of brand equity that affect consumer purchasing intentions and measure the effect of brand equity components on the intention of consumer purchases at the convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City. The authors conduct the group discussions, expert discussion, and then analyze data from 200 valid questionnaires with four components of brand equity, namely perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association, brand awareness. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) show that all four elements have a positive effect on the customer' intention to purchase in the convenience store of Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, the brand association factor has the strongest influence, followed by perceived quality, brand awareness, and brand loyalty. This research contributes that the results confirm the theory of Aaker (1991), Brown and Stayman (1992), Cobb-Walgren et al. (1995), MacKenzie (1986) in the new context of convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Besides, the study gives some recommendations to help convenience stores improve the elements of brand equity and it, to enhance attraction for consumers

Lovastatin for the Treatment of Adult Patients With Dengue: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Dengue endangers billions of people in the tropical world, yet no therapeutic is currently available. In part, the severe manifestations of dengue reflect inflammatory processes affecting the vascular endothelium. In addition to lipid lowering, statins have pleiotropic effects that improve endothelial function, and epidemiological studies suggest that outcomes from a range of acute inflammatory syndromes are improved in patients already on statin therapy. METHODS: Following satisfactory review of a short pilot phase (40 mg lovastatin vs placebo in 30 cases), we performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 5 days of 80 mg lovastatin vs placebo in 300 Vietnamese adults with a positive dengue NS1 rapid test presenting within 72 hours of fever onset. The primary outcome was safety. Secondary outcomes included comparisons of disease progression rates, fever clearance times, and measures of plasma viremia and quality of life between the treatment arms. RESULTS: Adverse events occurred with similar frequency in both groups (97/151 [64%] placebo vs 82/149 [55%] lovastatin; P = .13), and were in keeping with the characteristic clinical and laboratory features of acute dengue. We also observed no difference in serious adverse events or any of the secondary outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: We found lovastatin to be safe and well tolerated in adults with dengue. However, although the study was not powered to address efficacy, we found no evidence of a beneficial effect on any of the clinical manifestations or on dengue viremia. Continuing established statin therapy in patients who develop dengue is safe.Chinese Clinical Trials Registration. ISRCTN03147572

Cross-sectional study of coeliac autoimmunity in a population of Vietnamese children

Objective: The prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) inVietnam is unknown. To fill this void, we assessed the prevalence of serological markers of CD autoimmunity in a population of children in Hanoi. Setting: The outpatient blood drawing laboratory of the largest paediatric hospital in North Vietnam was used for the study, which was part of an international project of collaboration between Italy and Vietnam. Participants: Children having blood drawn for any reason were included. Exclusion criteria were age younger than 2 years, acquired or congenital immune deficiency and inadequate sample. A total of 1961 children (96%) were enrolled (838 females, 1123 males, median age 5.3 years). Outcomes: Primary outcome was the prevalence of positive autoimmunity to both IgA antitransglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) assessed with an ELISA test and antiendomysial antibodies (EMA). Secondary outcome was the prevalence of CD predisposing human leucocyte antigens (HLA) (HLA DQ2/8) in the positive children and in a random group of samples negative for IgA anti-tTG. Results: The IgA anti-tTG test was positive in 21/1961 (1%; 95% CI 0.61% to 1.53%); however, EMA antibodies were negative in all. HLA DQ2/8 was present in 7/21 (33%; 95% CI 14.5% to 56.9%) of the anti-tTG-positive children and in 72/275 (26%; 95% CI 21% to 32%) of those who were negative. Conclusions: Coeliac autoimmunity is rare in Vietnam, although prevalence of HLA DQ2/8 is similar to that of other countries. We hypothesise that the scarce exposure to gluten could be responsible for these findings

Etersalate prevents the formations of 6Aβ16-22 oligomer: An in silico study.

Oligomerization of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides has been considered as the crucially causative agent in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Etersalate, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory oral drug (United State Food and Drug Administration-Unique Ingredient Identifier: 653GN04T2G) was previously suggested to bind well to proto-fibrils of Aβ peptides in silico. Here, the effect of etersalate on the oligomerization of soluble Aβ16-22 hexamer (6Aβ16-22) were extensively investigated using temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations over ~16.8 μs in total for 48 replicas (350 ns per replica). The results reveal that etersalate can enter the inner space or bind on the surface of 6Aβ16-22 conformations, which destabilizes the hexamer. Etersalate was predicted to able to cross the blood brain barrier using prediction of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion-toxicity (preADMET) tools. Overall, although the investigation was performed with the low concentration of trial inhibitor, the obtained results indicate that etersalate is a potential drug candidate for AD through inhibiting formation of Aβ oligomers with the average binding free energy of -11.7 kcal/mol

A green method to extract rutin from Sophora japonica L.

Sophora japonica L. contains high levels of rutin, which has great potential for use in pharmaceutical products for the treatment of diseases related to the cardiovascular and circulatory systems. We proposed a method of extracting rutin from S. japonica by using a green solvent. • Green deep eutectic solvents (DESs) of choline chloride and ethylene glycol (ChCl-Eth) showed the highest extraction efficiency of rutin from S. japonica. • Under optimal conditions, the extraction yield of ChCl-Eth was 1.34 times higher than that of methanol as solvent. • Rutin was recovered from the DES extracts using water as the antisolvent with a high recovery yield, and the DESs of ChCl-Eth could be productively recovered and reused at least 3 times

The relationship between brand equity and intention to buy: the case of convenience stores

The research aims to identify the components of brand equity that affect consumer purchasing intentions and measure the effect of brand equity components on the intention of consumer purchases at the convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City. The authors conduct the group discussions, expert discussion, and then analyze data from 200 valid questionnaires with four components of brand equity, namely perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association, brand awareness. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) show that all four elements have a positive effect on the customer' intention to purchase in the convenience store of Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, the brand association factor has the strongest influence, followed by perceived quality, brand awareness, and brand loyalty. This research contributes that the results confirm the theory of Aaker (1991), Brown and Stayman (1992), Cobb-Walgren et al. (1995), MacKenzie (1986) in the new context of convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Besides, the study gives some recommendations to help convenience stores improve the elements of brand equity and it, to enhance attraction for consumers

Using Response Surface Method to Optimize Conversion Reaction Conditions of Sucrose Into 5-hydroxymethyl-2-fufuraldehyde by A Combination of Heat and HCl as A Catalyst

5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furfuraldehyde is one of intermediate products of caramel reaction and it has a variety of applications in industry. Based on primary results, response surface method is employed to optimize conversion reaction conditions of sucrose into 5-HMF by a combination of heat and HCl as a catalyst and the target function is 5-HMF yield. The optimized conditions of conversion reaction is T = 17.4 (min), C = 1.81 (M), and R = 6.6:1 (mL:g); with the optimized conditions conversion reaction yield reaches the maximal value of 56,229 ± 2,519%. This research has provided important information for further research of 5-HMF and approach to large scale production and industrial production of 5-HMF

Particulate air pollution in Ho Chi Minh city and risk of hospital admission for acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among young children

This study demonstrates that high level of PM increased the risk of admission for acute lower respiratory infection among Vietnamese children, especially for acute bronchiolitis and among males.High levels of air pollutants in Vietnam, especially particulate matters including PM, can be important risk factors for respiratory diseases among children of the country. However, few studies on the effects of ambient air pollution on human health have been conducted in Vietnam so far. The aim of this study is to examine the association between PM and hospital admission due to acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among children aged < 5 years old in Ho Chi Minh city, the largest city of Vietnam. Data relating PM and hospital admission were collected from February 2016–December 2017 and a time series regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between PM and hospital admission including the delayed effect up to three days prior to the admission. We found that each 10 μg/m increase in PM was associated with an increase of 3.51 (95%CI: 0.96–6.12) risk of ALRI admission among children. According to the analysis, male children are more sensitive to exposure to PM than females, while children exposed to PM are more likely to be infected with acute bronchiolitis than with pneumonia. The study demonstrated that young children in HCMC are at increased risk of ALRI admissions due to the high level of PM concentration in the city's ambient air