Hongjam is a natural health food that has been shown to have various health-promoting effects, but studies on immunity enhancement have not been done so far. In this study, we investigated whether HongJam extracts could be enhancing innate immunity by protomoting proliferatin of macrophages and their phagocytic or pinocytic abilities to pathogens. (Grant No. PJ017024022023)

Immunity is largely divided into innate immunity and adaptive immunity. We conducted a study using HongJam extract to confirm its innate immunity-enhancing effect. Our data using Natural Killer (NK) cells, which play an important role in innate immunity, confirmed that HongJam extract promotes the proliferation of NK cells and also enhances the function of NK cells to attack and destroy cancer cells. (Grant No. PJ017024022023)

Increasing ambient carbon dioxide ( CO2) concentration from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission has contributed to the growing rate of global land and ocean surface temperature. Various carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies were established to mitigate this impending issue. CO2 adsorption is gaining prominence since unlike traditional chemical absorption, it does not require high energy usage for solvent regeneration and consumption of corrosive chemical solvent. In CO2 adsorption, activated carbons show high CO2 adsorption capacity given their well-developed porous structures. Numerous researches employed oil palm wastes as low-cost precursors. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of research works available thus far in oil palm-derived activated carbon (OPdAC) for CO2 adsorption application. First, we present the desired OPdAC characteristics and its precursors in terms of their chemical properties, elemental, and proximate compositions. This is followed by an overview of various activation methodologies and surface modification methods to attain the desired characteristics for CO2 adsorption. Then the focus turned to present available OPdAC CO2 adsorption performance and how it is affected by its physical and chemical characteristics. Based on these, we identify the challenges and the potential development in different aspects such as precursor selection, process development, and optimization of parameter. A pilot scale production cost analysis is also presented to compare various activation and surface modification methods, so that the appropriate method can be selected for CO2 adsorption.

Inconsistent findings about role stress and performance motivates this study. Data from 240 customer service representatives (CSRs) and 27 supervisors showed that role conflicts (involving supervisors and consumers) negatively relate to performance, while CSRs’ adaptive behavior mediates the relationship. CSRs’ feedback seeking moderates effects of role conflicts on adaptive behaviors.

How the destination image is presented in terms of the content and the selected media is known to have a considerable influence on consumers. In the current study, we examined the effect of destination images of Japanese hot spring hotels through photographic images taken by actual hotel guests on intended customer engagement behaviors (CEB) and their evoked conceptualization of the hotels. By showing photographic images of two types of hot spring hotels (traditional/contemporary) to participants from the United States (Phase 1, n=154) and Japan (Phase 2, n=677), we found that the image of traditional hot spring hotels induced higher evaluations and stronger CEB. When participants were clustered based on their travel motivations, we also found that, in both inbound and domestic markets, more engaged tourists gave higher evaluations and stronger CEB. The results suggest that the relationship among key constructs tested in this study validates the conceptual perspective on the theory application of destination image and CEB to hotel operations. From a practical perspective, hotel managers should carefully reconsider the primary drivers that attract tourists to visit the site and stay at their hotel. In addition, when developing promotional materials, managers should also consider key features in the photographic image to create a desirable destination image to attract tourists to visit and recommend the property to others.

The manuscript examines Guanxi’s direct influence on reducing opportunism and conflicts, and its indirect influence on increasing buyers’ satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The findings based on data collected from 273 Chinese firms reveal that Chinese buyers’ guanxi with US suppliers could significantly reduce buyers’ perception in suppliers’ opportunistic behaviour and the perceived levels of conflicts in Sino-US relationships, hence increasing their satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The results broaden existing understanding of guanxi literature by empirically examining Guanxi’s influence on supplier opportunism and conflicts. The research implications suggest guanxi could be employed as a management mechanism in reducing supplier opportunism and conflicts, hence positively increasing satisfaction, performance and long-term orientation.

It is well known that a rotating bar potential can transport angular momentum to the disk and hence cause the evolution of the disk. Such a process is particularly important in disk galaxies since it can result in fuelling AGNs and starburst ring activities. In this paper, we will present the numerical simulations to show how this mechanism works. The problem, however, is quite complicated. We classify our simulations according to the type of Lindbald resonances and try to single out the individual roles they play in the disk evolution. Among many interesting results, we emphasize the identification of the origin of the starburst rings and the dense circumnuclear molecular disks to the instability of the disk. Unlike most of the other simulations, the self-gravitation of the disk is emphasized in this study.

This study was conducted to analyze the impact of industrial park development on the livelihood of people living around the industrial parks in the Central region of Vietnam. The data was collected from 394 households living around these industrial parks; using the data, the authors employed a quantification model among factors affecting the income of families living in the surroundings of industrial parks and they calculate the adaptive capacity of households to consider the impact of the development of industrial parks on people’s livelihood. Research findings show that industrial park development has both positive and negative impacts on the livelihood of people living around the industrial parks. Specifically, the factors that positively affect the income of households living around industrial parks include the area of land acquired due to the construction of industrial parks, the transportation system after the industrial park has located there, and the number of jobs available when the industrial park is being built. The factor that negatively affects the income of households living around industrial parks when they are under construction is the number of unemployed laborers. The study also calculated that the adaptive capacity of the people after the industrial park development is a coefficient of 0.376.

The study examines direct and indirect impacts of organizational commitment on employee motivation through two mediating factors – opportunistic behavior and knowledge sharing – in Vietnamese enterprises. The samples were selected by the non-probability sampling method followed convenient sampling, relatively stratified by localities in Vietnam. The sample size was 636 employees in Vietnamese enterprises. The number of collected online questionnaires was 379, while the number of valid questionnaires was 329. In the direct survey, the number of distributed questionnaires was 750, while the number of collected questionnaires was 421 and the number of valid questionnaires was 307. The total number of valid questionnaires used for analysis was 636. The study used quantitative methods with structural equation modeling analysis. The results indicate that among the components of organizational commitment, normative commitment has both direct and indirect impacts on employee motivation through two mediating factors: opportunistic behavior and knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, affective commitment has only an indirect impact on employee motivation through these mediating factors. Continuance commitment has both direct and indirect impacts; however, it has only an indirect impact on employee motivation through opportunistic behavior. In addition, the results show opportunistic behavior has a negative impact on the knowledge sharing of employees in enterprises.

This study presents a more comprehensive approach to investigate how Emotional Intelligence (EI) is associated with performance. Previous research has revealed that EI is related to positive outcomes such as better performance, life satisfaction and career success. However, in most research of EI, this factor has been investigated independently from the effect of contextual factors and other individual characteristics. This study extended the research on the impact of EI on student performance by simultaneously examining the impact of EI, individual factors - (1) Perseverance of Effort, (2) Goal Consistency and (3) Goal Clarity and learning environment factors - Program Fit in one study. The results based on the data collected from 1,117 students in Vietnam largely support the hypothesis that that EI was an important but not the only factor affecting the student performance. MANOVA and post-hoc analysis indicated that both individual and environmental factors better predicted performance than EI could. These results suggest that the impact of EI on individual performance is more complicated than what we have already known. Future study is encouraged to investigate both the mechanism through which EI impact individual performance and the interaction between EI and other factors that moderate the EI – performance relationship.

Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest developing economies. A long coastline of nearly 3,500 km provides a comparative advantage for Vietnam in developing a seaport system. Despite accounting for only about 30% of Vietnam’s traffic volume, the Northern seaports have rapidly developed over the years. However, the location of the container terminals close to the common hinterland are a cause of fierce competition among container terminals. To outperform rivals and improve competitiveness, it is essential to identify the competitive positions of container terminals. This study analyzes the competitive positioning of container terminals in the northern region of Vietnam between 2005 and 2014 by applying the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix in order to assist terminal operators and policy makers to generate strategic planning as well as to improve priorities for development. Otherwise, the period from 2005-2014 aims to clarify the static and dynamic positioning of container terminals. The results demonstrate that the Hai Phong terminal dominates the market, but the Nam Hai Dinh Vu and Dinh Vu terminals are considered as “star” performers. Quang Ninh, Doan Xa, and Transvina are losing their competitive positions in Northern Vietnam.