Background: People living with advanced HIV disease are at high risk of morbidity and mortality. We assessed the prevalence of cryptococcal antigenemia (CrAg) and clinical outcomes among patients newly presenting with CD4 ≤100 cells/μL in Vietnam. Setting: Twenty-two public HIV clinics in Vietnam. Methods: During August 2015–March 2017, antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naïve adults presenting for care with CD4 ≤100 cells/μL were screened for CrAg. Those who consented to study enrollment were followed up for up to 12 months and assessed for clinical outcomes. Results: Of 3504 patients with CD4 results, 1354 (38.6%) had CD4 ≤100 cells/μL, of whom 1177 (86.9%) enrolled in the study. The median age was 35 years (interquartile range 30–40); 872 (74.1%) of them were men, and 892 (75.8%) had CD4 <50 cells/μL. Thirty-six patients (3.1%) were CrAg-positive. Overall, 1151 (97.8%) including all who were CrAg-positive initiated ART. Of 881 patients (76.5%) followed up for ≥12 months, 623 (70.7%) were still alive and on ART at 12 months, 54 (6.1%) had transferred to nonstudy clinics, 86 (9.8%) were lost to follow-up, and 104 (11.8%) had died. Among all 1177 study participants, 143 (12.1%) died, most of them (123, 86.0%) before or within 6 months of enrollment. Twenty-seven patients (18.9%) died of pulmonary tuberculosis, 23 (16.1%) died of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, 8 (5.6%) died of Talaromyces marneffei infection, and 6 (4.2%) died of opioid overdose. Eight deaths (5.8%) occurred among the 36 CrAg-positive individuals. Conclusions: Late presentation for HIV care was common. The high mortality after entry in care calls for strengthening of the management of advanced HIV disease.

Ecocriticism and Nature Studies have been proved potential research directions worldwide. In Vietnam and other Asian countries, the interest in ecocriticism among academics and educators is not noticeable. This study aims to figure out how this research approach could be applied in specific disciplines in schools in order to build environmental awareness for students. In this case, we have conducted a survey and an experiment in a particular subject: Literature, in a limited scale: Faculty of Literature, Vinh University, Vietnam. The findings revealed that applying ecocriticism in teaching literature is a practical and efficient way of raising environment-tal awareness without distorting literature nature.

Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) have gained the attention of regulators and recent studies due to their comprehensive influence on the firm performance. Thus, the present study examines the impact of CSR practices such as social welfare, human rights and physical environment on SMEs performance in Vietnam. This research also investigates the mediating role of organizational support among the links of social welfare, human rights, the physical environment and SMEs performance in Vietnam. This study has followed the primary data collection methods such as survey questionnaires to collect the data from respondents and also executed the smart-PLS for analysis. The results indicated the social welfare, human rights and physical environment have a positive association with SMEs performance in Vietnam. The results also exposed that organizational support positively mediates among the links of social welfare, human rights, the physical environment and SMEs performance in Vietnam. This study guided the regulators while developing the regulations related to CSR and firm performance.

Background: Ascites and esophageal varices (EV) are the most common complications of portal hypertension, with an incidence of approximately 50%. Since effective preventive modalities have been established for variceal hemorrhage, early detection of EV is critical for primary prevention of bleeding. Serum-ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) can be considered an indirect parameter for the detection of EV and is useful in regions where there is a shortage of human and material resources to perform upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGE). The aim was to evaluate the role of serum-ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) in the prediction of esophageal varices (EV) in cirrhotic patients with ascites. Methods: All cirrhotic patients with ascites, identified by ultrasonography, who underwent measurement of SAAG, were included in this study. All patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGE) for assessment of the presence and size of EV. Results: The study included 80 cirrhotic patients with ascites. The main causes of cirrhosis were alcohol intake (37.5%), hepatitis B virus (25.0%), and hepatitis C virus (15.0%). Patients with SAAG values > 1.75 g/dL demonstrated EV with a sensitivity and specificity of 78.4% and 83.3%, respectively. SAAG values > 1.8 g/dL were associated with the risk of large EV with AUC of 0.856, sensitivity of 88.24%, and specificity of 50.79%. The correlation coefficient (r) between SAAG and EV was 0.429, which was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Cirrhotic patients with SAAG values ≥ 1.8 have a higher risk of large EV. In particular, those with values > 1.9 who have higher possibility of bleeding must undergo upper GI endoscopy.

The paper aims to investigate the effects between corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) in Vietnam context. The author employs context analysis and multiple regressions in Stata software to examine two-ways positive relationship between CSR and CFP. The research is contingent on the database created by Tien, HV & Van Anh, HT (2017) that is revised by an increase in the number of observation variables for a period from 2012 to 2017 for 130 companies via their annual report. Preliminary result indicates that there is a signicantly statistical relationship between CSR and CFP.