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BackgroundThe stigmatization of mental health problems is a primary barrier for young people to approach mental health services when they suspect they might have such problems. Nevertheless, the internet has become a common platform on which they are likely to seek information on mental health. As such, this study aimed to explore responses from secondary school students in Can Tho city regardingsuckhoetre.vnwebsite. This website provided information on health and mental health, and this study assessed the potential relevance, appeal, accessibility, usefulness, and sustainability of the website.MethodsA cross-sectional study included 643 secondary school students in Can Tho city selected by cluster sampling. Two weeks after the students were introduced to the website, they were invited to evaluate it using an anonymous questionnaire. The Chi-squared test was used to assess the significance of differences in the distribution of selected students’ sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsMost (98.6%) participants visited the website in the two-week period, 74% once or twice a week, the others more often, up to once a day. Their activities included reading information (85.8%), seeking help (17.7%), sharing information (15.5%), giving advice to others (11.0%), and chatting or giving comments (9.8%). Most students rated the website very highly in terms of appeal, relevance, accessibility, and usefulness, and wanted to have access to the website in the future. These findings are positive signals to pursue the possible use of a website on mental health for secondary school students to help raise awareness and support good mental health among adolescents in Can Tho city and beyond.ConclusionA website designed to provide information to secondary school students appeared to be a promising way to provide access to information on the topic of mental health. The website should be maintained and introduced widely to students, teachers and parents, with regular evaluation of the effectiveness of this website.

With The Huawei Model, Yun Wen has written a superb book on the complex relationship between Huawei and China as well as the implications of their simultaneous rises, albeit in different roles, wit...

The expansion of fintech credit around the world is challenging the global banking system. This study investigates the interrelationships between the development of fintech credit and the efficiency of banking systems in 80 countries from 2013 to 2017. The findings indicate a two-way relationship between them. More specifically, a negative relationship between bank efficiency and fintech credit implies that fintech credit is more developed in countries with less efficient banking systems. Meanwhile, a positive impact of fintech credit on the efficiency of banking systems suggests that fintech credit may serve as a wake-up call to the banking system. Therefore, fintech credit should be encouraged by the authorities around the world.

Microwave heating of Ag+ in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is an effective method to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), a broad-range antibacterial agent. However, the microwave may cause PVA solution to dry out and degrade. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of microwave irradiation on different concentrations of PVA in PVA/Ag+ solution in short periods of exposure. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to evaluate chemical changes of samples with different exposure times and PVA concentration. The results confirm the redox reaction of Ag+ with PVA. In addition, Ag+ reduces the rate of hydrolysis of PVA, and the ether bridges are limited by the spatial structure.

Background: The stigmatization of mental health problems is a primary barrier for young people to approach mental health services when they suspect they might have a problem. Instead it is becoming common, especially for youth, to look for information on the Internet. This study explored the responses of secondary school students in Cantho city to the suckhoetre.vn website, which aimed to provide information on health and mental health, and to assess its potential relevance, appeal, accessibility, usefulness, and sustainability. Methods: A cross-sectional study included 643 secondary school students in Cantho city selected by cluster sampling. Students were introduced to the website; after two weeks they were invited to evaluate it using an anonymous questionnaire. The Chi-squared test was used to assess the significance of differences in the distribution of selected sociodemographic characteristics.Results: Most (98.6%) of the students visited the website in the two-week period, 74% once or twice a week, the others more often, up to once a day. Their activities included reading information (85.8%), seeking help (17.7%), sharing information (15.5%), giving advice to others (11.0%), and chatting or giving comments (9.8%). Most students rated the website very highly in terms of appeal, relevance, accessibility, and usefulness, and wanted to have access to the website in the future. These findings are positive signals to pursue the application of a website on mental health for secondary school students as a contribution to better mental health for adolescents in Cantho city and elsewhere.Conclusion: A website designed to provide information to secondary school students appeared to be an effective way to provide access to information on the sensitive topic of mental health. The website should be maintained and introduced more widely to students, teachers and parents, with a continuous evaluation of its effectiveness.

This study empirically presents evidence of nonlinearity and heterogeneity relation between intellectual capital and risk-taking for the Vietnamese banking system. We used quantile regression methods on a data set of 30 Vietnamese banks from 2007 to 2019. The results showed that bank insolvency was positively affected by its value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) at the upper quantiles (i.e., 80th and 90th), while the opposite was true for credit risk (i.e., 10th and 20th quantiles). When observing the VAIC&rsquo, s components, risk-taking behaviors were also significantly affected by HCE (Human Capital Efficiency), CEE (Capital Employed Efficiency) and SCE (Structural Capital Efficiency) at the 90th quantile of instability distribution and the 10th quantile of credit risk distribution. Furthermore, the results also emphasized that there was an inverse U-shaped association between intellectual capital and bank risk-taking. Therefore, this study provides important implications for policymakers, regulators, bank managers and academics that encourage increasing investment in knowledge assets to minimize bank risks in the long run.

We empirically investigate and present evidence of nonlinearity and heterogeneity in the impact of abnormal loan growth on risk-taking in the Vietnamese banking system between 2007 and 2019, using a quantile regression method. Our results showed that abnormal loan growth initially helped banks to reduce risk-taking. However, this relationship was U-shaped and heterogeneous. The effect of abnormal loan growth was more significant for banks at the upper tail of the risk-taking distribution. Our findings also demonstrated that the turning point of abnormal loan growth increased throughout the risk-taking distribution. Hence, our findings suggest that the pursuit of excessive lending is more likely to result in greater bank risk-taking.

This study explains the differences and variances in the efficiency scores of the Vietnamese banking sector retrieved from 27 studies published in refereed academic journals under the framework of meta-regression analysis. These scores are mainly based on frontier efficiency measurements, which essentially are Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) for Vietnamese banks over the period of 2007–2019. The meta-regression is estimated by using truncated regression to obtain bias-corrected scores. Our findings suggest that only the year of publication is positively correlated with efficiency, whilst the opposite is true for the data type, and sample size.

The objectives of the study were to explore the experiences of school health officers in identifying and managing mental health problems of secondary school students and to gather recommendations from the school officers for improving the effectiveness of mental health care in secondary schools in Can Tho City, Vietnam. We conducted a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews using a semi-structured guideline with 15 school health officers at 15 secondary schools in Can Tho City, Vietnam. Data were analyzed using content-driven analysis to identify recurring themes. The school health officers reported that stress, depression, suicidal ideation, and sexual orientation issues were the most commonly encountered mental health problems among their students. The officers worked with a limited range of interventions for helping these students, such as giving non-narcotic analgesics or advising students to take a short break at school or to go home. Most of them felt that their training was insufficient to deal with mental health problems in an optimal way. They recommended further training to improve their knowledge and skills in recognizing and managing mental health problems in students. They also considered a university-sponsored mental health website a good source of information on mental health care for students. School health officers reported that they did not feel well equipped to manage mental health problems because of insufficient training, lack confidence, and absence of an appropriate network for advice and referral. Updated policies and programs are needed for initial training and refresher courses, which will strengthen the role of school health officers as first line support for secondary school students with mental health problems.

This study empirically examines the impact of intellectual capital on bank risk-adjusted returns in Vietnam between 2007 and 2019 using the system generalized method of moments (GMM). The findings show the positive impacts of value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and its components (human capital efficiency (HCE), capital employed efficiency (CEE), and structural capital efficiency (SCE)) on bank profitability. However, the results show an inverted U-shaped relationship may exist in the case of VAIC, HCE, and CEE. Also, the positive impacts of VAIC and HCE on bank profitability are true to the case of state-owned commercial banks while for foreign-owned banks the positive effect is more with HCE. Therefore, this study provides significant implications for policy-makers, management, and academics.

Single KDP crystals were grown from an aqueous solution by the slow cooling method. They were cut into triangular prism-shaped blocks whose angles were determined by type II phase-matching condition for the second harmonic generation (SHG). The 1064 nm laser was shone into the KDP crystals and was partially converted to the 532 nm light. The power of remaining 1064 nm beam was much higher than that of 532 nm SHG beam. Total internal reflection occurred inside the KDP crystals for the 1064 nm beam. The 532 nm beam passed through the crystals and was recorded by a detector. The KDP crystal prisms have two functions: help to measure the output 532 nm radiation accurately, and adjust the power of 532 nm beam by changing the point of incidence of the 1064 nm beam, which improves convenience of the frequency doubler in optical devices.

Price competition has been a growing concern of worldwide researchers and managers. In the aviation market, especially with the help from e-commerce platforms such as Expedia, TripAdvisor, and SkyScanner, airfares are now available to customers in the easiest and quickest way. It thus allows airlines to match their fares immediately and simultaneously upon any changes of their rivals, given that customer’ choices are made with regard to their incomes. This study provides a dataset on domestic airfares in New Zealand that could be useful for future studies in the fields of marketing, business and economics, transportation and aviation, or management. The dataset covers 12 trunk routes and 40 secondary routes in New Zealand from 19 September 2019 to 18 December 2019, a total of 90 days. It provides a rich dataset of more than 162,000 observations regarding the airfare, departure time, arrival time, flight duration, airline, departure airport, arrival airport, transiting airport, and so on. There are possibilities to extend the dataset (e.g., in terms of flying distance, airport characteristics, and airline characteristics) to make it be valuable for future study.

Background: There is a correlation between self-esteem in adolescents and risks and protective factors for their health and welfare. The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of low self-esteem and sociodemographic features related to anxiety, depression, educational stress, and suicidal ideation in secondary school students in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed for this study with participation of 1,149 students in Cantho City in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire was applied to ask about self-esteem, depression, anxiety, educational stress, and suicidal ideation. Results: Students with low self-esteem were detected at a prevalence of 19.4%. High educational stress and physical and emotional abuse by parents or other adults in the household were major risk factors correlated to low self-esteem, while a protective factor for low self-esteem was attending supplementary classes. An association among lower self-esteem and increased anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation was detected. Conclusions: Self-esteem is associated with anxiety, depression, and academic stress, which significantly affect students’ quality of life and links to suicidal ideation. These results therefore suggested the need for a school-based or web-based provision aimed at proactively increasing students’ self-esteem and skills for dealing with academic stress.

Cancellous bovine bone represents an inexhaustible source of material for bone tissue engineering. However, its natural marrow-filled structure can greatly limit the efficacy and prolong the duration of the decellularization procedure. Here this research formulates an efficient, shorten decellularization protocol for cancellous bovine bone with an initial delipidation step to improve the effect of following methods. The samples were then treated with a series of physical and chemical treatments including thermal shock and detergent wash. The samples acquired from this protocol have shown effective removal of cellular materials and fat while maintaining the essential bone extracellular matrix, which was confirmed through scanning electron microscopy observation and histological staining results. The decellularized bone showed potential to be further investigated, developed and combined with other material to create biocompatible scaffold for bone tissue engineering application.

The enormous potential of a hydrogel from Aldehyde Hyaluronic Acid (AHA)—a modification of Hyaluronan, and N,O-Carboxymethyl Chitosan (NOCC)—a polymer derived from Chitosan, has been discussed in our previous study. This research presents two approaches to combine silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with the hydrogel in order to yield a bioglue with higher antimicrobial property. The first one utilized the reaction between reactive aldehyde groups in D-glucuronic acid units of the AHA molecular chain and Tollens’ reagent, which is known as silver mirror reaction, while the latter attempted to synthesize NOCC–AHA hydrogel loading AgNPs through thermal decomposition of silver nitrate (AgNO3) with NOCC and AHA respectively. From primary results, heating a mixture of AgNO3–NOCC appeared to attain the best hydrogel in terms of gelation time and elasticity, broadening the application of the hydrogels in the medical field.

Characterizing polarization of skin pathologies is still an interested issue for the dermatology community. In a previous study, the present group proposed a Stokes–Muellermatrix polarimetry for differentiating between squamous cell carcinoma tissue and normal healthy tissue in mice. The present study extends our method to the detection of squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and melanoma skin cancer in humans. Using the proposed method, the orientation angle of linear birefringence ( α ), phase retardance ( β ), optical rotation angle of circular birefringence ( γ ), orientation angle of linear dichroism ( θ d ), linear dichroism (D), circular dichroism (R), degrees of linear depolarization ( e 1 and e 2 ), degree of circular depolarization ( e 3 ), and depolarization index ( Δ ) are extracted for 72 slices of 12 squamous cell carcinoma samples, 72 slices of 12 basal cell carcinoma samples, 18 slices of 3 melanoma skin cancer samples, and 36 slices of 6 healthy samples. The experimental results show that the cancerous tissue exhibits lower phase retardance ( β ) and linear dichroism (D) than healthy skin tissue. Overall, the proposed method provides a useful insight into the characterization optical properties of human skin cancer by Stokes–Mueller matrix polarimetry.

Single Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphates (KDP) crystals were successfully grown in pure and 1 mol% Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA) added KDP solutions by Sankaranarayanan–Ramasamy method. Their growth was oriented in type I phase-matching direction which is one of two conditions of maximum second harmonic generation efficiency. The elemental compositions of the crystals were determined by EDX analysis. The UV–Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR analysis, X-Ray diffraction, and second harmonic generation studies have been carried out in order to assess the influence of EDTA additive on quality of KDP crystal. EDTA can improve the structural perfection and optical characteristics of the crystal. Especially, this additive helps increase second harmonic generation efficiency of KDP crystal, which is very useful for frequency doublers.

Introduction: Vietnam is implementing hepatitis B (HBV) birth dose (BD) vaccination since 2003 but coverage remains low, especially in the Mekong River Delta. This study aimed to determine the coverage of the HBV BD vaccination, to identify socio-demographic factors influencing HBV BD, and to assess reasons for non-immunization of neonates. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in 2015-2016. Mothers from 526 children aged 6-11 months living in 3 provinces in the Mekong River Delta - representing respectively urban, rural and remote area - were interviewed at home and infant vaccination documents were checked. The three-stage sampling method was adapted from WHO 30-cluster sampling. Predictors of HBV BD administration were identified with multiple regression analysis. Results: The overall HBV BD coverage (within 24 h) was 46.6% (compared to 44.5% for BCG) and was significantly higher in remote or rural than in urban area (OR 1.87 and 3.36, respectively), and in children whose father had a higher educational level (OR 2.76; 2.29 and 1.86, respectively, for master degree, bachelor and secondary school) as compared to a lower level. Main reasons for not having received HBV BD mentioned by parents were vaccines not offered by health care workers (53.0%), and illness of the infant (27.2%). Conclusion: Although Vietnam started HBV BD vaccination more than 10 years ago, the coverage and timeliness need to improve to reach WHO targets (95% within 24 h after birth). Better training and information of health care workers, and better protocols ensuring timely HBV BD could address these vaccine administration thresholds. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers, including melanoma and nonmelanoma cancer. Melanoma can be easily detected by the observation of abnormal moles, but nonmelanoma signs and symptoms are not apparent in the early stages. We use the Stokes-Mueller matrix decomposition method to detect nonmelanoma at the early stage by decomposing the characteristics of polarized light interacting with normal and cancerous tissues. With this decomposition method, we extract nine optical parameters from biological tissues, namely the LB orientation angle (α), the LB phase retardance (β), the CB optical rotation angle (γ), the LD orientation angle (θd), the linear dichroism (D), the circular dichroism (R), the degrees of linear depolarization (e1 and e2), the degree of circular depolarization (e3), and the depolarization index (Δ). The healthy skin and the induced nonmelanoma skin cancer of mice are analyzed and compared based on their optical parameters. We find distinctive ranges of values for normal skin tissue and nonmelanoma skin cancer, in which β and D in cancerous tissue are larger and nonmelanoma skin becomes less depolarized. This research creates an innovative solid foundation for the diagnosis of skin cancer in the future.

Background: There is a rapidly growing public awareness of mental health problems among Vietnamese secondary school students. This study aims to determine the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, to identify related risk factors, and to explore students' own proposals for improving their mental health. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1161 secondary students in Can Tho City, Vietnam during September through December, 2011. A structured questionnaire was used to assess anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and proposed solutions. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale. Results: The prevalence estimates of symptoms reaching a threshold comparable to a diagnosis of anxiety and depression were 22.8% and 41.1%, respectively. Suicide had been seriously considered by 26.3% of the students, while 12.9% had made a suicide plan and 3.8% had attempted suicide. Major risk factors related to anxiety and depression were physical or emotional abuse by the family, and high educational stress. As proposed solutions, nearly 80% of students suggested that the academic workload should be reduced and that confidential counselors should be appointed at schools. About half the students stated that the attitudes of their parents and teachers needed to change. A significant majority said that they would visit a website that provided mental health support for students. Conclusions: Anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation are common among Vietnamese secondary school students. There are strong associations with physical and emotional abuse in the family and high educational stress. Academic curricula and attitudes of parents and teachers need to be changed from a punitive to a more supportive approach to reduce the risk of poor mental health. An internet-based mental health intervention could be a feasible and effective first step to improve students' mental health.

Background: Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students. Methods. A qualitative design was used to address the main study question including: six in-depth interviews conducted with professionals (with two researchers, two psychiatrists, and two secondary school teachers) to learn about their experience of mental health problems among secondary school pupils; 13 focus group discussions (four with teachers, four with parents, and five with pupils); and 10 individual in-depth interviews with pupils who did not take part in the FGDs, to reflect on the collected data and to deepen the authors' understanding. All interviews and FGDs were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed for the identification of emerging issues using qualitative techniques of progressive coding, analytic memoing and ongoing comparison. Results: Our study confirms the need to pay attention to mental health of pupils in Vietnam. Depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts were seen as major problems by all stakeholders. Mental health problems were mainly associated with academic pressure, resulting from an overloaded curriculum and pressure from teachers and parents to succeed. The study found that pupils' mental health demands interventions at many levels, including at the level of government (Ministry of Education and Training), schools, communities, families and pupils themselves. Conclusions: Vietnamese secondary school pupils feel that their mental health status is poor, because of many risk factors in their learning and living environment. The need now is to investigate further to identify and apply strategies to improve students' mental health.