No abstract

Essential oils were extracted from the culm and leaf of Cymbopogon citratus collected from different regions of Vietnam and analyzed using GC/MS. The results showed that citral is the major component accounting for 61.20%–76.46% of the essential oils. The citral content was higher in the essential oil obtained from the leaf than in that from the culm of lemongrass in all regions. In particular, camphene, valerianol, and epi-α-muurolol can be used to differentiate essential oils originating from leaves versus culms. The cytotoxic effects of the essential oils on various lung cancer cell lines were evaluated in the present study. All essential oils exhibited cytotoxicity in the tested cells. The Ha Loc leaf essential oil (HLL) exhibited the most potent effects on A549 and H1975 cells, with IC50 values of 1.73 ± 0.37 and 4.01 ± 0.30 μg/mL, respectively. The Hy Cuong leaf essential oil (HCL) showed the strongest effect on H1299 cells, with an IC50 value of 2.45 ± 0.21 μg/mL. The Kim Duc culm (KDC) essential oil exerted the strongest cytotoxic effects against H1650 cells, with an IC50 value of 4.86 ± 0.29 μg/mL. The HLL induced apoptosis and cycle arrest in A549 cells according to flow cytometric analysis and fluorescent nuclear staining assays. The western blot analysis indicated that HLL induced the apoptotic effect by altering the regulating proteins of the apoptosis process such as caspase-3, Bcl-2, and Bax. The data strongly suggested that the intrinsic pathway may play an important role in the apoptotic effects of HLL.

The article aims to identify the main factors affecting customers' decision to use mobile banking service in Vietnam, a case study in Thanh Hoa province. Based on theoretical frameworks of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the study has been conducted with 370 questionnaires to consumers who have not yet used and are currently using mobile banking in Thanh Hoa province. The research results indicates that several factors have been evaluated to be more important than others, of which, the social influence is the strongest, the second is the compatibility and some others factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived trust, etc., all affecting the intention to use mobile banking in Thanh Hoa. Based on these important results, the article propose a number of recommendations: (i) Exploiting the advantages of social influence on the increase of intention to use; (ii) Increasing compatibility and minimizing costs for customers when they use Mobile Banking; (iii) Developing a strategy to increase the users' perceived ease of using banking services; (iv) Issuing a policy on increasing the security of Mobile Banking system to meet customers' needs; and (v) Developing an individual customer management system to improve service quality.

Although the involvement of stakeholders is believed to be the key to the success of sustainable municipal waste management, the specific features of stakeholders, as well as their interdependence, have been under-researched. This study employed a multilevel governance approach to understand the manner in which different types of stakeholder networks interact with one another and how their roles should be reinforced. A combination of stakeholder analysis (SA) and social network analysis (SNA) was employed to investigate the perspective of stakeholders in utilizing municipal solid waste (MSW) in agriculture in Hanoi, Vietnam. SA indicated that the local authorities take the main responsibility for the management of MSW in Hanoi. Although other stakeholders express a significant interest in recycling MSW through composting, many of them do not have sufficient power to make any changes to the current system. SNA revealed the fragmentation of the network, as the coordination among the stakeholders is dominated by hierarchical governance, while there is a lack of horizontal cooperation among the sectors. The fragmentation could be attributed to weak legislative framework, lack of trust, financial constraints, and the limited participation of private enterprises. The governance of MSW use in agriculture should be executed through interdependency rather than hierarchy and through a network comprising both state and non-state actors.