Huong, D.T.T. and Lan, T.D., 2022. Ecosystem sustainability assessment using an economic valuation index for selected offshore islands in Vietnam. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(6), 1128–1134. ...Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Two sites around Bach Long Vi Island (North Vietnam) and Tho Chu islands (South Vietnam) were selected to perform an economic valuation index analysis for the sustainability assessment of insular coastal ecosystems. The critical study methods are based on indicators and index selection and analyses following the well-documented Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework. Total ecosystem economic indices were proposed and calculated using three subindices, including the direct use value index (Idev) of a factor of 35.71 for Bach Long Vi Island and 9.52 for Tho Chu islands, the indirect use value index (Iidev) of 39.38 and 9.52, and the nonuse value index (Inuv) of 100 for both study sites. A total economic valuation index (Ieev) of island coastal ecosystems, consisting of coral reefs and rocky reefs at both sites, was calculated using Idev, Iidev, and Inuv. Ieev values at assigned scale between 0 and 100 points; values lower than 50 indicate ecosystems used unsustainably. Within this 100-point scale, the Ieev for the coastal ecosystems surrounding Bach Long Vi Island from 2014-detected parameters was calculated as 58.37, revealing an overall sustainable use. On the contrary, the value for the Tho Chu islands for the same period was 39.68, indicating that this latter site was unsustainably used. Developing and analyzing these indices can be applied to other coastal ecosystems, such as beaches, mangroves, corals, etc., both in Vietnam and in similar international contexts.
Evaluation of liver fibrosis is necessary to make the therapeutic decision and assess the prognosis of CHB patients. The current study aimed to describe the progression and identify some influencing ...factors in patients with chronic hepatitis B at a General Hospital in Northern Vietnam. The longitudinal study included 55 eligible subjects diagnosed Hepatitis-B-virus. Dependent variable was the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index and we collected some demographic variables and disease related and behaviour variables. Bayesian Model Averaging was used to select variables into model. Mixed-effect linear models were used to evaluate the change of the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index over time and identify related factors. the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index differences between examinations, age of participants, working status were statistically significant. This pattern indicated that the average the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index of the population decreased by 0.005 (95% CI=-0.009; -0.001) after each patient's visit, and increased by 0.013 if the patient's age increased by 1 year (95% CI=0.005; 0.0219). For non-working patients, the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index was lower, coefficient was -0.054 (95% CI=-0.108; 0.001). Other variables such as gender, education level, time for disease detection, drinking tea, alcohol consumption, forgetting to take medicine and the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index were not significantly different. The study showed that the majority of study subjects had average the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index, and were relatively well controlled and treated during the study. Age and working status are factors that influence the the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index.
Background
Job satisfaction is one of the main factors creating and bringing about work motivation, productivity, and efficiency as well as decreasing job-hopping and job turnover. No previous ...studies have been conducted to assess job satisfaction for community pharmacists in Vietnam.
Objective
This research was conducted to develop and validate an instrument used to measure community pharmacists’ job satisfaction in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam.
Methods and results
A total of 351 pharmacists participated in this survey. Data were analyzed using R software version 4.2.0. The final instrument (VIJS) has 34 items divided into six factors which were determined via a parallel analysis (including physical working conditions, work nature, income and other benefits, management policies and managers, relationships with coworkers and customers, and learning and advancement opportunities). VIJS’s internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.97, Omega total = 0.98, split-half reliability = 0.985, and composite reliability>0.8). Two-week test-retest reliability results (intraclass correlation coefficient for the overall instrument: 0.97, for six factors: 0.865–0.938) demonstrated the consistency of the VIJS when the same test was repeated on the same sample (62 pharmacists) at different points in time. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis was employed to assess the construct validity. The VIJS was a good fit to a six-factor model (Chisq/df = 2.352, Comparative Fit Index = 0.937, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.929, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual = 0.042, and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.062). VIJS’s good convergent and discriminant validity was demonstrated via Average Variance Extrated>0.5 and the Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio of correlations<0.85.
Conclusions
The VIJS possesses good reliability and validity and can be used to measure community pharmacists’ job satisfaction.
Huong, D.T.T.; Lan, T.D., and Le, D.T., 2024. Environmental conflicts with tourist beach uses along the northeastern Vietnam coast. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(1), 104–114. Charlotte (North ...Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. NE Vietnamese beaches possess economic and ecological value, particularly in the areas of international importance, such as the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site and the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve, and national significance, such as the National Park of Bai Tu Long Bay. Increasing socioeconomic development in this coastal zone has generated pressures on and use conflicts within coastal ecosystems, including coastal beaches. To support integrated coastal management of the area, identification and in-depth analysis of the environmental conflicts of nine typical tourist beaches were conducted. The conflicts were defined by naming beach users and then grouping them, such as the group of economic sectors and the group of environmentalists and nature conservationists. The first group of beach-use conflicts consists of the conflict of tourism and urbanization with sand mining in Cat Ba, Ha Long–Bai Tu Long, and Cam Pha–Mong Cai; the conflict of tourism and urbanization with marine and coastal aquaculture in Cat Ba, Ha Long–Bai Tu Long, and Cam Pha–Mong Cai, and the conflict of sand mining with marine and coastal aquaculture in Cat Ba and Ha Long–Bai Tu Long. The second group of conflicts between socioeconomic development and nature conservation involves the conflicts of all three economic sectors with conservation activities in the Bai Tu Long National Park and the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve and the conflicts of tourism, urbanization, and marine and coastal aquaculture with nature conservation in the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site. Conflict aspects were detailed with the nature of the conflict, parties involved, typological classification, and current trends. Analysis of detailed aspects shows that environmental conflicts are still severe and long-lasting, especially in coastal areas with international and national importance. This requires a resolution of integrated coastal management to be developed as soon as possible for the study area.
Due to the potential impact of the (currency) exchange rate risk in the financial market, forecasting exchange rate (FET) has become a hot topic in both academic and practical worlds. For many years, ...the various methods have been proposed and used for FET problems including the method of the artificial neural network (ANN). However, in many cases of FET, there is the limitation of using separate methods since they are not able to fully capture financial characteristics. Recently, more researchers have been beginning to pay attention to FET based on an ensemble of forecasting models (in other words, the combination of individual methods). Previous studies of ensemble methods have shown that the performance of an ensemble depends on two key elements (1) The individual performance and (2) diversity degree of base learners. The main idea behind this paper comes from these key elements, the authors use ANNs as the base method (or weak learners), and weights of these ANNs will be optimized by using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) including the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and the Non-Dominated Sorting Differential Evolution (NSDE) using directional information. To assist MOEAs, a number of diversity-preservation mechanisms are used to generate diverse sets of base classifiers and finally we propose to use modified Adaboost algorithms to combine the results of weak learners for overall forecasts. The results show that the proposed novel ensemble learning approach can achieve higher forecasting performance than those of individual ones.
The deposition of TiN on stainless steel substrates may improve the stability and compatibility of this material with bone, which may be advantageously exploited for the elaboration of advanced pros- ...thetic devices. In this work, TiN-coated 316LSS (by way of DC magnetron sputtering) was used as a starting material for investigating the electrochemical post-deposition of hydroxyapatite (HAp) which has a composition close to that of bone. Electrodeposition was carried out starting from an aqueous medium containing solubilized Ca(NO3)2 and NH4H2PO4 in the presence of H2O2. We report the influence of experimental conditions on the morphology of the obtained HAp coating on TiN/316LSS. The effect of applied potential, temperature, H2O2 concentration, pH and duration of reaction were thoroughly discussed on the basis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) results. This method appears advantageous for producing HAp-coated implant materials.
The interplay between nasopharyngeal bacterial carriage, viral coinfection, and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) is poorly understood. We explored this association in Vietnamese children ...aged less than 5 years.
A hospital-based case-control study of pediatric LRTIs was conducted in Nha Trang, Vietnam. A total of 550 hospitalized children (274 radiologically confirmed pneumonia RCP and 276 other LRTIs) were enrolled and 350 healthy controls were randomly selected from the community. Polymerase chain reaction-based methods were used to measure bacterial loads of Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP), Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis and to detect 13 respiratory viruses and bacterial serotypes in nasopharyngeal samples of study participants.
The median nasopharyngeal bacterial load of SP was substantially higher in children with RCP compared with healthy controls or children with other LRTIs (P < 0.001). SP load was 15-fold higher in pneumonia children with viral coinfection compared with those children without viral coinfection (1.4 x 10⁷/mL vs. 9.1 x 10⁵/mL; P 0.0001). SP load was over 200-fold higher in serotypeable SP compared with nontypeable SP (2.5 x 10⁶/mL vs. 1 x 10⁴/mL; P < 0.0001). These associations were independent of potential confounders in multiple regression models. No clear association was found between nasopharyngeal load of Haemophilus influenzae or Moraxella catarrhalis and viral coinfection in either RCP or other LRTIs groups.
An increased load of SP in the nasopharynx was associated with RCP, viral coinfection, and presence of pneumococcal capsule.
In recent years, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education has become important in many countries around the world. In this study a bibliometric analysis was applied to evaluate the ...scientific results of STEM education in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, indexed in the Scopus database for the period 2000-2019. A total of 175 publications were taken from the Scopus database for analysis. Our main findings show that the trend of research in this field has shown a dramatic increase in scientific production in the last three years, when the published amount accounted for 67.43% of the collection. Authors with the most publications came from the top 10 universities and research institutes (accounting for 38.44%). Scholars in the ASEAN region tend to submit their works to Q3 and Q4 journals in the SCImago database. Diverse research with basic and cross-cutting topics focus on STEM education for undergraduate students, engineering education, and education computing.
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