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Biscembranoids are the distinctive tetraterpenoids owing a 14/6/14 membered tricyclic scaffold that have been mainly discovered in the soft corals, especially the genera Sarcophyton, Lobophytum and Sinularia. Recent findings have demonstrated the great anti-inflammatory potential of biscembranoid analogues in human neutrophils, motivating more chemical and biological explorations targeting these marine-derived natural products. In the current study, the chemical diversity of biscembranoids derived from the cultured-type Sarcophyton trocheliophorum von Marenzeller was illustrated through MS/MS molecular networking (MN) profiling approach. Based on the MN patterns, the prioritization of unknown biscembranoid derivatives was putatively analyzed. As a result, the biscembrane targeting isolation afforded two new metabolites, sarcotrochelides A (1) and B (2), along with six known analogues (3–8). Their structures and relative configurations were determined by spectroscopic methods. In vitro neutrophil inflammatory inhibition was further investigated for all isolates based on reduced superoxide anion (O2•−) generation detections. Compounds 5–8 showed significant dose-dependently inhibitory effects, suggesting the cruciality of 6,7-dihydrooxepin-2(5H)-one moiety and saturated γ-lactone ring in their reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent anti-inflammatory properties.

The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the growth of the online food delivery (OFD) market in every corner of the world. In Vietnam, the food delivery service is rising rapidly and opening a large gateway of opportunities for numerous OFD platforms, also making it a competing business market in this country. Thus, to keep up with the ever-changing market dynamics, there are numerous measures and dimensions for the OFD entrepreneurs to take into consideration towards sustainable development. This paper’s objective is to evaluate major OFD companies in Vietnam based on a comprehensive set of criteria, which are social and environmental criteria (healthy and safety, information security, and environmental impact), economic criteria (delivery cost, operational capability, and risk management), service quality (order fulfillment, delivery speed, convenience of payment, online/offline service level, and customer feedback), and technology (web design, real-time tracking systems, and marketing techniques). To achieve this objective, this work proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)-based framework combining the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS). The FAHP is used to generate criteria weights in which fuzzy set theory is applied to translate the linguistic evaluation statements of experts. Then, WASPAS is used to rank the OFD companies against the selected criteria. The evaluation criteria that have obtained maximum weight priority in the FAHP analysis are “convenience of payment”, “delivery speed”, “online service level”, “order fulfillment”, and “delivery cost”. From the final ranking of WASPAS, Foody is today the best performing OFD player in Vietnam regarding the selected criteria, followed by GrabFood and Now. The proposed methodology can be an accurate and robust evaluation model for the industry, while the managerial implications of this study provide significant materials for decision-makers in the OFD market in improving their businesses towards sustainable development.

This study explored the potential impact of pronunciation instruction on L2 listening comprehension. Seventy-two intermediate Vietnamese EFL university learners formed two groups. The pronunciation group (n = 35) received seven weekly 45-minute pronunciation instruction sessions targeting segmental and suprasegmental features of English. The control group (n = 37) did not receive any pronunciation instruction. Weekly reflections, an exit questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to investigate learners’ perceptions of the impact of the pronunciation instruction. Results showed that the two groups’ immediate listening post-test scores did not differ significantly after the first two sessions on syllables and consonants/vowels. However, the pronunciation group outperformed the control group after three further pronunciation sessions on word stress, thought groups and sentence focus, but these differences disappeared on subsequent immediate and delayed post-tests. Self-report data indicated learners’ positive perceptions of the helpfulness of the pronunciation instruction and how the gained pronunciation knowledge helped improve their listening comprehension.

In Vietnam, as more and more organizations are moving toward globalization, green supplier selection (GSS) has emerged as a strategic approach in supply chain management that requires supplier practices in lessening the environmental risks to society. Based on both conventional and environmental criteria, this paper aims to evaluate a set of suppliers by establishing a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)-based framework using an integrated fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) with the VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method. Initially, five GSS criteria of the environmental aspect (wastewater treatment, solid waste generation, energy consumption, air pollution, corporate social responsibility) and conventional criteria (quality, cost, delivery, and technology) are identified from the literature and consulting field experts to employ the MCDM approach. The trustworthiness of the proposed integrated framework is presented by discussing a case study in the coffee bean supply chain in Vietnam. The FAHP is used to generate criteria weights in which fuzzy set theory is applied to translate the linguistic evaluation statements of experts, and VIKOR is used to rank the alternatives against the selected criteria. From FAHP findings, the most important criteria are quantity discount, solid waste generation, order fulfillment rate, logistics cost, and purchasing cost. A consistency test is performed to ensure the uniformity of the expert’s input. The best suppliers are determined through the final ranking of the VIKOR model for the case study. The work presented provides insight to decision-makers of supplier selection that helps determine significant GSS criteria and aids in the minimization of environmental risks to society arising from the supply chain on corporate sustainability standards.

All industries are affected by finance factors and the first factor to evaluate the development of a country must be its financial resource in which the banking sector development plays a significant role. The bank is seen as the lifeblood of an economy, an intermediary activity associated with the movement of the entire economy and covering all socio-economic activities. The research calculates the performance of Vietnamese banks in order to rank decision-making units (DMUs) in progress of business movement through Super SBM Model. The Super SBM model can measure the super-efficiency of variables with the maximum value higher than 1. The result of the empirical researching of input and output factors shows scores of banks over periods and it that VIB Bank with its scores upper 1.527207 stay in the rank of the top bank in Vietnam over the period 2013 to 2016.

Retailing is the act of selling goods or commodities in small quantities directly to consumers. These items are purchased from manufacturers or wholesalers and sold to end users at a marked up price. Retailing is a very special sector because it demonstrates the effectiveness of combined products and services to create business value. In this research, the authors want to investigate the particular areas of purchasing process in Big C (Hanoi-Vietnam). One purchasing product, which is an instant coffee brand, is selected as the main focus during the research. The data was collected by experts of Big C supermarket, which first go through the Delphi method to choose criteria and sub-criteria for the Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP). After a long process of calculation based on AHP and referring experts' opinions, we choose out the best final potential supplier that is Trung Nguyen then follow with Vina Cafe, NesCafe, Starbucks and G8 Coffee. The results of this research would contribute to improve the overall purchasing process of the whole retail industry in terms of how to choose the right partners, especially for the case of Big C itself.

The most comprehensively studied speech act in interlanguage pragmatics to date has been requests. However, the body of research on requests by L2 learners has mainly been done on English or European languages, such as Spanish, French or Hebrew as a second language. There have been very few developmental studies published on requests in Asian languages. For a relatively less taught and studied language like Vietnamese, the literature on L2 learners’ requests, especially pertaining to Vietnamese pragmatics, is close to non-existent. This study was implemented to gather a better understanding of interlanguage pragmatics of L2 learners of Vietnamese. Elicited data from role-plays of requests were analysed based on Al-Gahtani and Roever’s 2012 discursive approach which focuses on the sequential organization of interactions. Findings indicate that compared to higher-level learners, lower-level learners used fewer pre-expansions, and the first pair-parts occurred earlier in the sequence. The interlocutor also accommodated to learners’ proficiency level when introducing complications, which resulted in fewer elaborated request sequences from learners with lower proficiency. The findings offer implications for teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language as well as methodological implications for gathering data and analyzing the sequential organization of speech acts in South-East Asian languages, such as Vietnamese.