The role of supply chain integration in achieving competitive advantage: A study of UK automobile manufacturers

The competitive nature of the global automobile industry has resulted in a battle for efficiency and consistency in supply chain management (SCM). For manufacturers, the diversified network of suppliers represents more than just a production system; it is a strategic asset that must be managed, evaluated, and revised in order to attain competitive advantage. One capability that has become an increasingly essential means of alignment and assessment is supply chain integration (SCI). Through such practices, manufacturers create informational capital that is inimitable, yet transferrable, allowing suppliers to participate in a mutually-beneficial system of performance-centred outcomes. From cost reduction to time improvements to quality control, the benefits of SCI extend throughout the supply chain lifecycle, providing firms with improved predictability, flexibility, and responsiveness. Yet in spite of such benefits, key limitations including exposure to risks, supplier failures, or changing competitive conditions may expose manufacturers to a vulnerable position that can severely impact value and performance. The current study summarizes the perspectives and predictions of managers within the automobile industry in the UK, highlighting a dynamic model of interdependency and interpolation that embraces SCI as a strategic resource. Full commitment to integration is critical to achieving improved outcomes and performance; therefore, firms seeking to integrate throughout their extended supply chain must be willing to embrace a less centralized locus of control

The Mediating Effects of Switching Costs on the Relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: A Study in Retail Banking Industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Especially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights into their roles. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty

The mediating effects of switching costs on the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: A study in retail banking industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Specially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights about their roles. This approach extended the insights on mediating effects of switching costs by differentiate the roles of positive switching costs and negative switching costs in the model. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261 valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty. However, using the right types of switching costs is necessary to significantly boost the loyalty from customers. © ExcelingTech Pub, UK

TẠO DÒNG VÀ BIỂU HIỆN PROTEIN hGM-CSF TRÊN TẾ BÀO CHO K1

GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor) is a cytokine with wide effects, not only on hematopoietic precursor cells, dendritic cells, but also on smooth muscle cells, epithelial cells and even neurons. Although, it does not play role in hGM-CSF biological functions, glycosylation enhances the protein in vivo stability. Therapeutic drugs containing recombinant hGM-CSF are mostly produced in Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which do not have post-translation modification mechanisms similar to those of humans. In this present study, the gene encoding for human (h)GM-CSF was transfected into the Chinese Ovary Cell (CHO)-K1 and expression of the protein was evaluated. Firstly, gene was inserted into the open reading frame after early promoter CMV at EcoRI and XhoI restriction sites. Recombinant vectors are screened by colony PCR, restriction enzyme digestion and sequencing. The recombinant vector was termed pcDNA-hGM and was transfected into CHO-K1 cells using cationic lipid method. Transformants was selected and maintained using antibiotic Geneticin. The results showed that the gene encoding for hGM-CSF was indeed cloned into pcDNA3.1+ vector at EcoRI and XhoI restriction sites. The conditioned medium collected from CHO‑K1/pcDNA-hGM stimulated the proliferation of TF-1, an hGM-CSF-dependent cell line. In summary, the recombinant vector pcDNA-hGM was cloned and the recombinant cell line CHO‑K1/pcDNA-hGM expressed active hGM-CSF. This is the first research on expression hGM-CSF in CHO-K1 cell line and providing evidence for further investigation on isolation and purification of hGM-CSF afterward.Nhân tố kích thích tạo cụm bạch cầu hạt và đại thực bào người (hGM-CSF, human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor) là một cytokine có phổ tác dụng rộng trong cơ thể, từ các tế bào tiền thân tạo máu, tế bào tua, đến tế bào cơ trơn, tế bào biểu mô và cả một số tế bào thần kinh. Sự glycosyl hóa, dù không đóng vai trò trong tương tác với thụ thể nhưng có tác dụng làm tăng độ bền cho hGM-CSF ở điều kiện in vivo. Những sản phẩm hGM-CSF tái tổ hợp sử dụng rộng rãi hiện nay chủ yếu được sản xuất từ Echerichia coli và Saccharomyces cerevisiae, những loại tế bào chủ không có bộ máy biến đổi sau dịch mã giống người. Trong nghiên cứu này, gene hgm-csf mã hóa cho protein hGM‑CSF được chuyển vào trong tế bào buồng trứng chuột hamster Trung Quốc (CHO-K1 cells) và đánh giá khả năng biểu hiện protein. Trước tiên, gene được chèn vào plasmid pcDNA3.1+ đúng khung đọc mở ngay sau promoter CMV tại vị trí EcoRI và XhoI. Plasmid tái tổ hợp được sàng lọc bằng PCR khuẩn lạc với cặp mồi đặc hiệu, cắt giới hạn và giải trình tự. Plasmid tái tổ hợp sau quá trình kiểm tra được đặt tên pcDNA-hGM. Sau đó, plasmid tái tổ hợp đưa vào tế bào CHO-K1 bằng phương pháp biến nạp sử dụng cationic lipid và nuôi chọn lọc bằng kháng sinh Geneticin. Kết quả cho thấy gene hgm-csf đã được dòng hoá vào plasmid pcDNA3.1+ tại vị trí EcoRI và XhoI. Dịch môi trường nuôi tế bào CHO-K1/ pcDNA‑hGM cho thấy khả năng kích thích sự tăng sinh của dòng tế bào TF-1, dòng tế bào sống phụ thuộc hGM-CSF. Như vậy, plasmid tái tổ hợp pcDNA-hGM đã được cấu trúc thành công và dòng tế bào mang gene tái tổ hợp CHO‑K1/pcDNA-hGM biểu hiện protein hGM‑CSF có hoạt tính. Đây là nghiên cứu đầu tiên về biểu hiện hGM-CSF trên tế bào CHO-K1 ở Việt Nam và là cơ sở cho bước khảo sát các điều kiện thu nhận và tinh chế hGM-CSF tiếp sau

SCREENING ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF VIETNAMESE PLANT EXTRACTS AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

Objectives: Infectious diseases caused by bacteria are a leading cause of death worldwide. Hence, the objectives of the study are aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity against five human pathogenic bacteria of methanolic extracts from 66 plants collected from Vietnam. Methods: The broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methanol extracts of 66 plant species against five bacterial strains. Results: In this study, all the plant extracts were active against at least one train with MIC values ranging from 24 to 2048 μg/mL. Twenty-five plant extracts were active against all three Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus). Of these, the extracts of Macaranga trichocarpa (Rchb. f. and Zoll.) Mull. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae), Calophyllum inophyllum L. (Clusiaceae) and Caryodaphnopsis baviensis (Lecomte) Airy Shaw (Lauraceae) exhibited the highest antibacterial activity (MIC =24–128 μg/mL), followed by extracts of Betula alnoides Buch.- Ham. e × . D. Don (Betulaceae), Acronychia pedunculata (L.) Miq. (Rutaceae), Croton alpinus A. Chev. ex Gagnep. (Euphorbiaceae) (MIC =64–256 μg/mL). Furthermore, the extract of Rhus chinensis Mill. (Anacardiaceae) and Annona reticulata L. (Annonaceae) exhibited potent antibacterial activity against the two Bacillus species (MIC =32–64 μg/mL). Conclusion: Results of this study reveal that plant extracts from Vietnam have highly antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. These results suggest that Vietnamese plant extracts may be a rich source of antibacterial drugs

CulturaX: A Cleaned, Enormous, and Multilingual Dataset for Large Language Models in 167 Languages

The driving factors behind the development of large language models (LLMs) with impressive learning capabilities are their colossal model sizes and extensive training datasets. Along with the progress in natural language processing, LLMs have been frequently made accessible to the public to foster deeper investigation and applications. However, when it comes to training datasets for these LLMs, especially the recent state-of-the-art models, they are often not fully disclosed. Creating training data for high-performing LLMs involves extensive cleaning and deduplication to ensure the necessary level of quality. The lack of transparency for training data has thus hampered research on attributing and addressing hallucination and bias issues in LLMs, hindering replication efforts and further advancements in the community. These challenges become even more pronounced in multilingual learning scenarios, where the available multilingual text datasets are often inadequately collected and cleaned. Consequently, there is a lack of open-source and readily usable dataset to effectively train LLMs in multiple languages. To overcome this issue, we present CulturaX, a substantial multilingual dataset with 6.3 trillion tokens in 167 languages, tailored for LLM development. Our dataset undergoes meticulous cleaning and deduplication through a rigorous pipeline of multiple stages to accomplish the best quality for model training, including language identification, URL-based filtering, metric-based cleaning, document refinement, and data deduplication. CulturaX is fully released to the public in HuggingFace to facilitate research and advancements in multilingual LLMs: https://huggingface.co/datasets/uonlp/CulturaX.Comment: Ongoing Wor

Spectral Efficiency Analysis of Hybrid Relay-Reflecting Intelligent Surface-Assisted Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems

A cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input-multiple-output (mMIMO) system can provide uniform spectral efficiency (SE) with simple signal processing. On the other hand, a recently introduced technology called hybrid relay-reflecting intelligent surface (HR-RIS) can customize the physical propagation environment by simultaneously reflecting and amplifying radio waves in preferred directions. Thus, it is natural that incorporating HR-RIS into CF mMIMO can be a symbiotic convergence of these two technologies for future wireless communications. This motivates us to consider an HR-RIS-aided CF mMIMO system to utilize their combined benefits. We first model the uplink/downlink channels and derive the minimum-mean-square-error estimate of the effective channels. We then present a comprehensive analysis of SE performance of the considered system. Specifically, we derive closed-form expressions for the uplink and downlink SE. The results reveal important observations on the performance gains achieved by HR-RISs compared to conventional systems. The presented analytical results are also valid for conventional CF mMIMO systems and those aided by passive reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Such results play an important role in designing new transmission strategies and optimizing HR-RIS-aided CF mMIMO systems. Finally, we provide extensive numerical results to verify the analytical derivations and the effectiveness of the proposed system design under various settings

PlantKViT: A Combination Model of Vision Transformer and KNN for Forest Plants Classification

The natural ecosystem incorporates thousands of plant species and distinguishing them is normally manual, complicated, and time-consuming. Since the task requires a large amount of expertise, identifying forest plant species relies on the work of a team of botanical experts. The emergence of Machine Learning, especially Deep Learning, has opened up a new approach to plant classification. However, the application of plant classification based on deep learning models remains limited. This paper proposed a model, named PlantKViT, combining Vision Transformer architecture and the KNN algorithm to identify forest plants. The proposed model provides high efficiency and convenience for adding new plant species. The study was experimented with using Resnet-152, ConvNeXt networks, and the PlantKViT model to classify forest plants. The training and evaluation were implemented on the dataset of DanangForestPlant, containing 10,527 images and 489 species of forest plants. The accuracy of the proposed PlantKViT model reached 93%, significantly improved compared to the ConvNeXt model at 89% and the Resnet-152 model at only 76%. The authors also successfully developed a website and 2 applications called ‘plant id’ and ‘Danangplant’ on the iOS and Android platforms respectively. The PlantKViT model shows the potential in forest plant identification not only in the conducted dataset but also worldwide. Future work should gear toward extending the dataset and enhance the accuracy and performance of forest plant identification

Состояние провоспалительного цитокинового звена у больных с нестабильной стенокарадией и сахарным диабетом 2-го типа в зависимости от функционального класса хронической сердечной недостаточности

Проанализировано состояние провоспалительного звена цитокинов у больных с нестабильной стенокардией (НС) и сопутствующим сахарным диабетом (СД) 2−го типа в зависимости от функционального класса хронической сердечной недостаточности (ХСН). Нарастание проявлений сердечной декомпенсации у больных с НС и СД 2−го типа ассоциируется с высокой активностью провоспалительного цитокинового звена, представленного фактором некроза опухолей−α и интерлейкином−6. Повышение функционального класса ХСН характеризуется увеличением инсулинорезистентности у больных с НС и СД 2−го типа.Проаналізовано стан прозапальної ланки цитокінів у хворих із нестабільною стенокардією (НС) та супутнім цукровим діабетом (ЦД) 2−го типу залежно від функціонального класу хронічної серцевої недостатності (ХСН). Наростання проявів серцевої декомпенсації у хворих із НС та СД 2−го типу асоціюється з високою активністю прозапальної цитокінової ланки, представленої фактором некрозу пухлин−α та інтерлейкіном−6. Підвищення функціонального класу ХСН характеризується зростанням інсулінорезистентності у хворих із НС та ЦД 2−го типу.The state of pro−inflammatory cytokines in patients with unstable angina (UA) and associated type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) was analyzed depending on the functional class of chronic heart failure (CHF). The increase in manifestations of cardiac decompensation in patients with UA and type 2 DM is associated with high activity of pro−inflammatory cytokine level represented by tumor necrosis factor−β and interleukin−6. Increase of functional class of CHF is characterized by increased insulin resistance in patients with UA and type 2 DM