CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT – A CASE STUDY IN URBAN WATER UTILITIES IN VIETNAM

Customer is the rationale for the existence of any company because a company sells products or services in a relationship with customers. According to Michael LeBoeuf, every company’s greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company. There is no doubt that the better a company can manage its customer relationships, the more success it is likely to have. To facilitate a successful Customer Relationship Management (CRM), there are many CRM tools such as a variety of software provide by different companies. The businesses can choose the most feasible and suitable for their actual situation and capacity. This paper addresses the concept of CRM – what it is, why it is so important, what current trends it has. Not only analyzing CRM from a general perspective, but we also take water utilities in Vietnam as a case study to feature CRM in a more lively and practical way. 

Antidepressive and anxiolytic effects of ostruthin, a TREK-1 channel activator

We screened a library of botanical compounds purified from plants of Vietnam for modulators of the activity of a two-pore domain K+ channel, TREK-1, and we identified a hydroxycoumarin-related compound, ostruthin, as an activator of this channel. Ostruthin increased whole-cell TREK-1 channel currents in 293T cells at a low concentration (EC50 = 5.3 μM), and also activity of the TREK-2 channel (EC50 = 3.7 mM). In contrast, ostruthin inhibited other K+ channels, e.g. human ether-à-go-go-related gene (HERG1), inward-rectifier (Kir2.1), voltage-gated (Kv1.4), and two-pore domain (TASK-1) at higher concentrations, without affecting voltage-gated potassium channel (KCNQ1 and 3). We tested the effect of this compound on mouse anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and found anxiolytic activity in the open-field, elevated plus maze, and light/dark box tests. Of note, ostruthin also showed antidepressive effects in the forced swim and tail suspension tests, although previous studies reported that inhibition of TREK-1 channels resulted in an antidepressive effect. The anxiolytic and antidepressive effect was diminished by co-administration of a TREK-1 blocker, amlodipine, indicating the involvement of TREK-1 channels. Administration of ostruthin suppressed the stress-induced increase in anti-c-Fos immunoreactivity in the lateral septum, without affecting immunoreactivity in other mood disorder-related nuclei, e.g. the amygdala, paraventricular nuclei, and dorsal raphe nucleus. Ostruthin may exert its anxiolytic and antidepressive effects through a different mechanism from current drugs

THE IMPACT OF QUESTIONING AND SEMANTIC MAP IN PRE-READING STAGE ON STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Pre-reading activities play an important role in language reading classrooms since they help to activate students’ background knowledge of the topics being taught, which results in improving students’ reading comprehension. Most studies in the literature focus on exploring the effects of individual pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, questioning on students’ performance in doing comprehension tasks. Few studies have been conducted to explore whether one technique is better than the others in activating students’ schemata in reading lessons. The current study investigates the impact of Questioning and Semantic map in Pre-reading stage on EFL gifted high school students’ reading comprehension. The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students). They shared the same culture, native language, educational background and age. The data were collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews. The findings revealed that both Questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students’ reading comprehension. Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill. The findings shed lights on what can be done to improve EFL students’ reading performance.  Article visualizations

WATER MANAGEMENT AND METHANE EMISSION FROM RICE FIELDS IN AN GIANG PROVINCE, VIET NAM

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of irrigated water management to CH4 emission from the paddy fields. It was designed with (1) continuous flooding (CF) and (2) alternate for wetting and drying (AWD) which the water level was controlled + 5 cm and ± 5 cm than the soil surface, respectively at Cho Moi, Chau Thanh, Thoai Son and Tri Ton districts of An Giang province. The soil samples were collected to determine their physico-chemical properties. CH4 was collected weekly during the rice cultivation, and the rice yield was determined at the harvest. The results showed that pH 4.55 – 5.93, EC 105 – 175 µS.cm-1, organic matter 3.21 – 3.94 %, CEC 25.05 – 33.33 cmol.kg-1 of the soil were suitable for rice growth. The average rice yield was about 4.5 - 6.52 ton.ha-1. CH4 emissions of the AWD decreased 59.1 % compared to the CF which was 14.6 mg C-CH4.m-2.h-1. Therefore, the AWD is better than the CF in term of reducing CH4 emissions to the environment