Alumni survey of Masters of Public Health (MPH) training at the Hanoi School of Public Health

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Measurement Quality of Life of Rural to Urban Migrants in Ho Chi Minh City by Using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model

Ho Chi Minh City is among the top cities in Vietnam with a high proportion of rural to urban migration. This strongly contributes to the economic growth of the city but challenges the infrastructure, social security services, health care, clean water, education, traffic, safety, and social order which negatively impacts the quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore the life quality of rural to urban migrants in Ho Chi Minh City. A quantitative method was employed to confirm the measurement model and structural model. Probability sampling was applied for the field survey. The final data of 272 migrants have been analyzed, using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). Social capital, a special resource of the vulnerable like rural to urban migrants has been investigated. This contributes to the theory that both social capital and quality of life have been approached multi-dimensionally. Bonding, bridging, and linking dimensions have all been approached to construct the social capital measurement model. Five aspects of life quality including work, housing, environment, finance, and social cohesion have been measured to reflect the quality of life multi-dimensionally. The research results showed the reliability and validity of the measurement model. The positive impact of social capital on quality of life has empirically been confirmed. The findings implied the prompt strategies for mobilizing social capital effectively and efficiently, including the exploitation of bonding, bridging, and linking to improve the quality of life

The results of deep magnetotelluric sounding for studying the Nha Trang - Tanh Linh fault

The profile of deep magnetotelluric sounding (MT) from Duc Trong - Tuy Phong has been carried out in Lam Dong and Binh Thuan  provinces. The length of the Duc Trong - Tuy Phong profile is about 80 km with 15 stations and the distance between the stations measures about 5 km. Two-dimensional MT inversion was used to find a resistivity model that fits the data. The 2D resistivity model allows determining position and development formation of the Nha Trang - Tanh Linh  fault. This is the deep fault, which is showed by the boundaries of remarkable change of resistivity. In the near surface of the Earth (from ground to the depth of 6 km), the angle of inclination of this fault is about 60o; in the next part, the direction of the Nha Trang - Tanh Linh  faut is vertical. Geoelectrical section of the Nha Trang - Tanh Linh  profile shows that the resistivity of mid-crust is higher than that of lower-crust and of upper-crust

Income Diversification and Financial Performance: The Mediating Effect of Banks’ Size, Ownership Structure, and the Financial Crisis in Vietnam

Research aims: This study focuses on the correlation between income diversification and financial performance, taking into account banks’ size, type of ownership, and the financial crisis.Design/Methodology/Approach: This study uses financial data of 29 commercial banks in Vietnam during the period from 2005 to 2018. This research employs a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression.Research findings: The results do not find statistical evidence of a direct effect of banks’ income diversification on their financial performance. However, when considering the classification factors, such as the bank’s size and ownership type, the findings show that big banks and state-owned banks could take advantage of diversification strategies to boost their profitability. Moreover, the study has proven that income diversification generates a significant positive effect on banks’ financial performance during the crisis time.Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study provides a theoretical evidence on the direct effect of income diversification on a bank’s financial performance concerning banks’ size, ownership type, and the financial crisis.Practitioner/Policy implication: Further, this research also offers the bank’s managers, policymakers, and investors an insight of good banks’ financial performance in the context of an unstable economy.Research limitation/Implication: The limitations still exist in this research, such as (1) the number of banks participating in the research sample was a predictable limitation; (2) this research mainly focused on financial variables but ignored the variables representing the managers’ behavior and the banks’ organizational structure; (3) the future studies can focus on these aspects to explore further the hidden picture of diversification strategy and banking performance

The Relationship between Public Debt, Budget Deficit, and Sustainable Economic Development in Developing Countries: The Role of Corruption Control

This study investigates the effects of public debt and budget deficits on the sustainable economic development of developing countries, taking into account the role of control of corruption. The two-step GMM method was applied for unbalanced panel data of 59 developing countries from 2004 to 2015. The study found that public debt and the budget deficit had negative effects on sustainable development, while the effect of control of corruption was positive. Moreover, using interaction terms between control of corruption and public debt and budget deficit, respectively, empirical results showed that controlling corruption limited these adverse effects. Thus, if the objective is to achieve sustainable economic development, developing countries should not see raising public debt or maintaining budget deficits as a strategy for economic development. The study contributes empirical evidence to the theory of debt overhang, crowded effects, and institutional theory in the context of developing countries. The implications are also discussed in this paper

Exploring Critical Risk Factors of Office Building Projects

Risks and uncertainty are unavoidable problems in management of projects. Therefore, project managers should not only prevent risks, but also have to respond and manage them. Risk management has become a critical interest subject in the construction industry for both practitioners and researchers. This paper presents critical risk factors of office building projects in the construction phase in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey based on the likelihood and consequence level of risk factors. These factors fell into five groups: (i) financial risk factors; (ii) management risk factors; (iii) schedule risk factors; (iv) construction risk factors; and (v) environment risk factors. The research results showed that critical factors affecting office building projects are natural (i.e., prolonged rain, storms, climate effects) and human-made issues (i.e., soil instability, safety behaviors, owner’s design change) and the schedule-related risk factors contributed to the most significant risks for office buildings projects in the construction phase in Ho Chi Minh City. They give construction management and project management practitioners a new perspective on risks and risk management of office buildings projects in Ho Chi Minh City and are proactive in the awareness, response, and management of risk factors comprehensively

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

Isolation an agar degradation Bacillus sp. AT6 and preliminary application for seaweed saccharification

Background: Agar is a common polysaccharide found in nature. However, agar is strongly resisted to the degradation processing, leading to limitation of its application in various areas. Thus, finding an effective solution for agar saccharification significantly improves the economically effects of agar based substrates.Methods: Soil samples were collected from TienPhong Forestry Ltd. Company, ThuyXuan District, ThuaThien Hue province, Vietnam. Potential agar degrading bacteria were screened on a mineral salt agar medium. The isolate was identified based on 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics. Agarase production was evaluated by modification culture conditions including incubation time, shaking speed, and initial inoculum size. Molecular mass of extracellular agarase was determined by native SDS-PAGE. The effect of pH, temperature, metal ions, and organic solvents were conducted for enzyme characterization. Application of enzyme was investigated on seaweed saccharification.Result: An agar degrading bacterial strain was isolated from soils and identified as Bacillus sp. AT6. Maximal agarase accumulation obtained in the culture containing an inoculum size of 10% (v/v), shaking speed of 210 rpm, and 96 hours incubation. The agarase revealed a single band on zymogram analysis with an apparent molecular weight of 180 kDa. The optimal temperature and pH were 40°C and pH 8.0, respectively. All tested metal ions and organic solvents partially decreased enzyme activity. Treatment seaweed by agarase resulted in reducing sugars release present in the reaction, indicating the saccharification of seaweed was succeeded.Conclusion: Bacillus sp. AT6 is a new report of agarolytic bacteria that produces extracellular agarase enzymes. The present results promise strain AT6 is a great candidate for agar saccharification for industrial application

Using cassava waste of the cassava starch processing as food for raising African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) to obtain vermicomposting and earthworm biomass

The raising earthworms by cassava waste is a useful solution to reduce environmental pollution caused by cassava starch processing. In this study, cassava waste (including cassava peel, cassava pieces and soil) was used as a food source for raising African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) with three experiments: E1, earthworms were raised in crushed cassava waste right after being discharged; E2, earthworms raised in crushed cassava waste that had been incubated with organic matter after decomposing microbiological preparation for the previous two weeks; E3, earthworms were raised in crushed cassava waste that had self-decomposed naturally for the previous two weeks. The cassava waste was decomposed naturally for 4 weeks for control. The results showed that the content of organic matter, humic acid and total nitrogen in organic cassava humus, obtaining from experiments, increased compared to the control; the total organic matter content reached from 10.4%-15.7%, higher than the control (8.2%) from 1.27-1.92 times, humic acid content reached 0.6 - 0.8% and total nitrogen reached 0.3%. Experiment 3 had the highest quality of humus (organic matter content 15.7%, total nitrogen 0.3%, humic acid 0.7% and fulvic acid 0.5%). The experiment 3 also had the highest earthworm biomass (3.6kg), increasing 30.5% compared to experiment 1 and 19.4% comparing to experiment 2. Therefore, experiment 3 was proposed for application in treatment of cassava waste at larger scale. The organic humus obtaining from raising earthworms by cassava waste can be used as raw material for vermicompost production. The earthworm biomass can be used as protein-rich food for domestic animals (such as chicken, tortoise, eel, fish, etc) or used as nutritious fertilizer.Nuôi giun bằng phế liệu sắn là giải pháp hữu ích nhằm giảm thiểu ô nhiễm môi trường do chế biến tinh bột sắn gây ra. Trong nghiên cứu này, bã thải sắn (bao gồm vỏ, đầu mẩu sắn và bùn đất) được sử dụng làm nguồn thức ăn giun đất Châu Phi (African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) với các thí nghiệm như sau: Thí nghiệm 1: Giun quế được nuôi trong bã thải sắn nghiền ngay sau khi được loại bỏ; Thí nghiệm 2: giun đất được nuôi trong bã thải sắn nghiền đã được ủ với chế phẩm vi sinh phân hủy chất hữu cơ trong hai tuần trước đó; Thí nghiệm 3: Giun đất được nuôi trong bã thải sắn nghiền được để tự phân hủy tự nhiên trong hai tuần trước đó. Đối chứng là bã thải sắn để phân hủy tự nhiên trong 4 tuần. Bên cạnh đó, bã thải sắn nghiền còn được ủ bằng chế phẩm vi sinh phân hủy chất hữu cơ trong 4 tuần để cung cấp thêm số liệu so sánh giữa các thí nghiệm (Thí nghiệm 4). Các thí nghiệm được theo dõi trong 4 tuần. Kết quả cho thấy: Kết quả cho thấy: hàm lượng chất hữu cơ, axit humic và nitơ tổng trong mùn sắn hữu cơ thu được từ thí nghiệm đều tăng so với đối chứng: hàm lượng chất hữu cơ tổng số đạt từ 10,4% -15,7%, cao hơn đối chứng (8,2%) so với 1,27-1,92 lần, hàm lượng axit humic đạt 0,6 - 0,8% và nitơ tổng số đạt 0,3%. Trong đó, thí nghiệm 3 có chất lượng mùn cao nhất (hàm lượng chất hữu cơ 15,7%, đạm tổng số 0,3%, axit humic 0,7% và axit fulvic 0,5%). Thí nghiệm 3 cũng có sinh khối giun quế cao nhất (3,6kg), tăng 30,5% so với thí nghiệm 1 và 19,4% so với thí nghiệm 2. Do đó, thí nghiệm 3 đã được đề xuất ứng dụng để xử lý phế thải sắn ở quy mô lớn hơn. Chất mùn hữu cơ thu được từ việc nuôi trùn quế bằng phế thải sắn có thể được sử dụng làm nguyên liệu để sản xuất phân trùn quế. Sinh khối trùn quế có thể dùng làm thức ăn giàu đạm cho vật nuôi (như gà, ba ba, lươn, cá ...) hoặc làm phân bón dinh dưỡng

Correlation and high-resolution timing for Paleo-tethys Permian-Triassic boundary exposures in Vietnam and Slovenia using geochemical, geophysical and biostratigraphic data sets

Two Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) successions, Lung Cam in Vietnam, and Lukač in Slovenia, have been sampled for high-resolution magnetic susceptibility, stable isotope and elemental chemistry, and biostratigraphic analyses. These successions are located on the eastern (Lung Cam section) and western margins (Lukač section) of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during PTB time. Lung Cam, lying along the eastern margin of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean provides an excellent proxy for correlation back to the GSSP and out to other Paleo-Tethyan successions. This proxy is tested herein by correlating the Lung Cam section in Vietnam to the Lukač section in Slovenia, which was deposited along the western margin of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the PTB interval. It is shown herein that both the Lung Cam and Lukač sections can be correlated and exhibit similar characteristics through the PTB interval. 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