ASSESSMENT OF THE HEALTH AND ECOLOGICAL RISKS CAUSED BY FUNGICIDES IN CHRYSANTHEMUM CULTIVATION BY ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT QUOTIENT

This study uses the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) to assess the health and ecological risks caused by fungicides used in chrysanthemum cultivation upstream of Xuan Huong Lake, Da Lat city. Survey results reveal that 134 farmers use 21 fungicides with 18 active ingredients on a total area of 35.2 hectares. In all, 18 fungicides with an EIQ at the level of “unlikely to be hazardous” (EIQ < 25) are used on about 95% of the acreage, and 3 fungicides with an EIQ of “slightly hazardous” (25 < EIQ < 50) are used on the rest of the area. The Field Use EIQ of fungicide was rated very low in only 8.2% of the survey area and moderate in 48%. Areas with high and very high ratings account for 3% and 41%, respectively. Using fungicides according to the instructions can reduce the Field Use EIQ values in cultivated areas by 38% and return areas with high and moderate ratings to a low rating. Therefore, it is necessary to instruct farmers on the safe use of fungicides and to recommend those with low EIQ values for chrysanthemum cultivation

Developing and validating five-construct model of customer satisfaction in beauty and cosmetic E-commerce

Customer satisfaction; Determinants; Beauty & Cosmetic; Online shopping; Vietnam; Behavioral economics; International economics; Management; Marketing; Globalization © 2020 The Author(s)Grounded on the American Customer Satisfaction Framework (ACSF) of Bryant (1995), the European Customer Satisfaction Framework Model (ECSF) of Anderson and Fornell (2000), and Eleven-factor Customer Satisfaction Model of Hokanson (1995), this study develops reliable and valid five constructs of customer satisfaction theoretical model and build up a questionnaire in the unique context of Beauty and Cosmetic Online Shopping in the Vietnamese market. More specifically, we identified five main constructs including 5 implementation constructs (i.e., online shopping experience, customer service, external incentives, security/privacy, and personal characteristics), and one outcome construct (i.e., customer satisfaction). A detailed questionnaire was then developed with items for these constructs along with the questions on the personal characteristics of the respondents. The questionnaire was sent to randomly consumers via online channels including Facebook. The target participants are Vietnamese people who have experience in shopping online products like beauty and cosmetics. Based on 334 full responses have been received, we use Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to test for 167 observations to ensure that all items in each scale reflected sufficiently the scope of each construct. This technique helps to identify the underlying dimensions of consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, we also employ Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to validate the constructs and items in questionnaire. To do this, we have used the sample of 167 responses. Finally, together with results from SEM models, our study contributes to providing a reliable and valid questionnaire which fully reflect for our self-constructed theoretical model of five constructs including Online shopping experience (OSE), External incentives (EI), Seller service (SS), and Security/privacy (SP), as well as personal characteristics (PC). © 2020 The Author(s

Catalytic Activity of Cr2O3/sepiolite in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Cr2O3/sepiolite samples with different loadings have been prepared through the precipitation method and characterized by several physical methods such as XRD, TEM, BET, and TGA... The as-prepared materials have large surface area, high distribution of Cr2O3 nanoxides on the nanofibrous sepiolite. The catalysts have been tested in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol with t-BuOOH. Chromium oxides were found to be active sites for the oxidation of benzyl alcohol to aldehyde. The catalytic activity varied with reaction time and temperature. The appropriate temperature is about 60-70oC with conversion of 40-60% and benzaldehyde selectivity of 90%

Exploring benefits of applying Google Workspace for Education in English as a foreign language classroom

The application of technology in language classrooms is widely believed to benefit learners. In the context of teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL) for high school students in Vietnam, there are few studies on the benefits of applying Google Workspace for Education (GWE). This small-scale qualitative study seeks to explore the benefits of applying GWE as a technological solution in the EFL classroom with high school students. The participants were eight eleventh graders in the north of Vietnam learning English in evening classes at an English center. To collect data, the students were interviewed. The qualitative data was analyzed based on themes. The results indicated that the benefits of applying GWE were evident in enhanced attitude and motivation for learning and improved learning skills. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that Google tools be utilized for English language learning and instruction

Formation, Antimicrobial Activity, and Biomedical Performance of Plant-Based Nanoparticles: A Review

Because many engineered nanoparticles are toxic, there is a need for methods to fabricate safe nanoparticles such as plant-based nanoparticles. Indeed, plant extracts contain flavonoids, amino acids, proteins, polysaccharides, enzymes, polyphenols, steroids, and reducing sugars that facilitate the reduction, formation, and stabilization of nanoparticles. Moreover, synthesizing nanoparticles from plant extracts is fast, safe, and cost-effective because it does not consume much energy, and non-toxic derivatives are generated. These nanoparticles have diverse and unique properties of interest for applications in many fields. Here, we review the synthesis of metal/metal oxide nanoparticles with plant extracts. These nanoparticles display antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antioxidant properties. Plant-based nanoparticles are also useful for medical diagnosis and drug delivery

Occurrence, Toxicity and Adsorptive Removal of the Chloramphenicol Antibiotic in Water: A Review

Chloramphenicol is a broad-spectrum bacterial antibiotic used against conjunctivitis, meningitis, plague, cholera, and typhoid fever. As a consequence, chloramphenicol ends up polluting the aquatic environment, wastewater treatment plants, and hospital wastewaters, thus disrupting ecosystems and inducing microbial resistance. Here, we review the occurrence, toxicity, and removal of chloramphenicol with emphasis on adsorption techniques. We present the adsorption performance of adsorbents such as biochar, activated carbon, porous carbon, metal-organic framework, composites, zeolites, minerals, molecularly imprinted polymers, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The effect of dose, pH, temperature, initial concentration, and contact time is discussed. Adsorption is controlled by π-π interactions, donor-acceptor interactions, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions. We also discuss isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamic data, selection of eluents, desorption efficiency, and regeneration of adsorbents. Porous carbon-based adsorbents exhibit excellent adsorption capacities of 500-1240 mg

RaBiT: An Efficient Transformer using Bidirectional Feature Pyramid Network with Reverse Attention for Colon Polyp Segmentation

Automatic and accurate segmentation of colon polyps is essential for early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Advanced deep learning models have shown promising results in polyp segmentation. However, they still have limitations in representing multi-scale features and generalization capability. To address these issues, this paper introduces RaBiT, an encoder-decoder model that incorporates a lightweight Transformer-based architecture in the encoder to model multiple-level global semantic relationships. The decoder consists of several bidirectional feature pyramid layers with reverse attention modules to better fuse feature maps at various levels and incrementally refine polyp boundaries. We also propose ideas to lighten the reverse attention module and make it more suitable for multi-class segmentation. Extensive experiments on several benchmark datasets show that our method outperforms existing methods across all datasets while maintaining low computational complexity. Moreover, our method demonstrates high generalization capability in cross-dataset experiments, even when the training and test sets have different characteristics

Economic interdependence: A deterrent to Sino-American armed conflict

This thesis is devoted to examine the impact of economic interdependence on the interstate relations between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. Specifically, all three propositions emerging from the ongoing controversy over the economics-security nexus inclusive of “economic interdependence increases conflict”, “economic interdependence decreases conflict” and “economic interdependence is irrelevant to conflict” shall be tested in an empirical analysis of Sino-American relationship. Three significant findings have emerged. Firstly, strong economic ties have actually caused tensions between Washington and Beijing. However, these issues of great disputes are not strong enough to turn into a Sino-American war because both countries have gained tremendous benefits from their strong economic ties and are not willing to destroy the economic ties that lock them together. Secondly, it is undeniable that economic interdependence has greatly promoted peace and stability between Washington and Beijing. However, there are three grounds for skepticism. To begin with, leaders always put security concerns over the prospects for economic loss, especially in times of insecurity and vulnerability. Furthermore, it is not yet certain that the linkages between the two sides in different areas can guarantee peace between the two countries. Also, there is a little historical evidence to believe that economic interdependence alone can bring lasting stability in the international order. Thirdly, the third proposition "economic interdependence is irrelevant to conflict” perfectly fits the Sino-American relationship. To start with, Washington and Beijing have used trade to maximize their national power not to suppress conflict. In addition, we should not limit the future of Sino-American relationship to the discussion of economic factors. Both sides have kept their relationship relatively stable not only because of strong economic ties but also other factors such as: the emergence of non-traditional threats and the mutual possession of nuclear weapons

Gender differences in determinants of customer satisfaction in beauty and cosmetic e-commerce

This study investigates the gender differences in determinants of customers' satisfaction when purchasing online beauty and cosmetics products in Vietnamese market. To do so, we construct a data set via online survey of 419 Vietnamese customers including both males and females, and examine such sample using t-tests and multiple regressions. Our regression model is constructed based on our five-construct model including online shopping experience, customer service, external incentives, security and privacy, and personal characteristics. The t-tests results reveal that the mean difference of customer satisfaction (negative coefficient) between the two groups of customers (females and males) is statistically significant. This suggests that the purchasing satisfaction of male customers is significantly higher than that of their female counterparts. Similarly, we also find that male customers are more satisfied with their online shopping experience, customer service and external incentives offered by the online sellers than female peers. Furthermore, regression results for full sample show that, on average, the online shopping experience, customer service and external incentives are significantly and positively related to customer satisfaction. Yet, such positive effect of customer service on customer satisfaction is more likely for males while females' satisfaction is more positively influenced by security and privacy.Tomas Bata University in Zli