A combination of Polycarbonate (PC) material and Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), fabricated using an injection molding machine, has been investigated to determine its advantages, as studied in Ref. 1). This paper aims to investigate the optimization of PMMA/PC blend for both tensile yield strength and impact strength. Furthermore, interaction effects of process conditions on mechanical properties including tensile yield strength and impact strength of PMMA/PC blend by injection molding process are interpreted in this study. Tensile and impact specimens are designed following ASTM, type V, and are fabricated by injection molding process. The processing conditions such as melt temperature, mold temperature, packing pressure, and cooling time are applied; each factor has three levels. As a result, in comparison with optimization of separated responses, mechanical properties of PMMA/PC are found to decrease when optimizing both tensile and impact strengths simultaneously. The melt temperature is found to be the most significant interaction parameter with the mold temperature and packing pressure. In addition, there is more interaction between the mold temperature and cooling time. This investigation provides a useful understanding of the control of injection molding processing of polymer blends in optical application.

In this study, several approaches in evaluating moisture sensitivity of asphalt mixtures were investigated and compared. To evaluate the moisture damage resistance, twenty types of asphalt mixtures with and without anti stripping additives were tested in the laboratory. Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and indirect tensile (IDT) testing were performed to determine the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Cohesion Strength Ratio (CSR). Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) mixtures were found to provide good moisture damage resistance compared to other mixtures. It also does not require anti stripping additives to improve its moisture resistance. Moreover, the correlation coefficient between the TSR test and CSR tests is 0.99 with an average error of 1.5%, which indicates that the TSR test following AASHTO T-283 is still the most reasonable criteria in evaluating the moisture damage of AC mixtures. Marshall Stability Ratio (MSR) and Marshall Stability to Flow Ratio (MSFR) were conducted and were compared to TSR test results. It was found that MSFR value may be used to evaluate the moisture damage resistance of AC mixtures instead of TSR test. Finally, Dynamic Immersion (DI) test was performed to evaluate moisture resistance for loose asphalt mixtures. The DI results showed good correlation also when evaluating moisture resistance compared to TSR. When using DI testing in evaluating moisture resistance, it is recommended to test after 48 hours since it showed higher correlation with the TSR values. Further study is recommended to improve current testing evaluating moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixtures to properly associate it with TSR values.

Anthocyanins are naturally occuring phytochemicals and the main components of the coloring of plants, flowers and fruits. They are known to elicit antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and cancer preventive activity. In this study, we investigated anthocyanins in black / yellow soybean seedcoats using different methods of detection - thin layer chromatography (TLC), capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and HPLC analysis. The anthocyanins in soybean seedcoats were extracted by five independent methods of extraction and the aglycons (anthocyanidins) of the corresponding anthocyanins were prepared by acid mediated hydrolysis. The anthocyanin / anthocyanidin in black soybean seedcoat showed characteristic TLC mobility, CZE electrophoretic retention and HPLC migration time while little of anthocyanins were detected from yellow soybean seedcoat. The extracted anthocyanins showed pH dependent retention time in CZE and spectral change in UV-Vis spectrum. HPLC analysis of the hydrolyzed extract of black soybean seedcoat identified the presence of four anthocyanidins. The major anthocyanin in black soybean seedcoat was cyanin (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside), with the relative order of anthocyanidin in cyanidin > delphinidin > petunidin > pelargonidin.

Titanium dioxide (), which is one of the most basic materials in our daily life, plays a key role for environment purification. We synthesized nanoparticles by the hydrolysis reactions of titanium tetraisopropoxide using as a peptizing agent or as a chelating agent in the sol-gel method. The powder consisted of a rod shape or a spherical shape according to the concentration and kind of acid. The physical properties of nanoparticles were investigated with X-ray diffraction, SEM, BET analysis, and UV-Vis spectrophotometer.

The objective of this research paper is to study the simultaneous relationship between fiscal decentralization, corruption, and income inequality among Vietnamese provinces. We use a balanced panel data set of 63 provinces/cities in Vietnam in the period from 2011 to 2018. The study used 3SLS-GMM (Three Stage Least Squares - Generalized Method of Moments estimator) and GMM-HAC (Generalized Method of Moments - Heteroskedastic and Autocorrelation Consistent estimator). Empirical evidence shows a strong simultaneous relationship: increased corruption will increase regional income disparities, income inequality, and increase fiscal decentralization. In addition, the results also suggest that an increase in per-capita income will reduce the level of corruption, or better control corruption of each province. The degree of increase in income inequality, which reduces fiscal decentralization, is the same for trade liberalization. All demonstrate that there is a simultaneous relationship between fiscal decentralization, corruption, and income inequality. In a region of high public governance quality, fiscal decentralization positively effects its economic growth. This issue will indirectly increase income inequality between provinces within a country. Our findings imply that a country’s fiscal decentralization strategy should be linked to improving corruption control and local governance effectiveness, indirectly improving income inequality between localities or regions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the Operational Self-Sustainability (OSS) of Vietnamese microfinance institutions (MFIs). This research uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods: (i) qualitative research was via in-depth interviews with ten microfinance practitioners, policymakers and researchers; (ii) quantitative research was conducted by using panel data of 34 MFIs in the period 2011-2015 with binary logistics and OLS regressions. Results are as follows: (i) MFIs’ OSS in Vietnam are mainly determined by five key factors: portfolio at risk (PAR>30), capital structure, gross loan portfolio, scope of activities and legal form; (ii) OSS are most affected by legal status (social organizations have better OSS than formal MFIs or programs/projects), location (MFIs focus in one province have higher OSS than working nationwide or just in one district), capital structure (MFIs with more equity proportion have higher OSS); (iii) surprisingly, average loan size per borrower and age of MFIs do not have statistically significant correlation with OSS. The key recommendations are: (i) MFIs should focus on its professionality and increase its equity; (ii) related stakeholders such as State Bank of Vietnam should promote the enabling ecosystem for microfinance development to enhance poverty reduction and economic development.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role in developing countries. In Vietnam, SMEs operating in the field of handicrafts, besides contributing to the economy, also tasked to maintain and develop traditional handicrafts. However, accessing loans from banks of SMEs faces many difficulties. This study explores the determinants of bank lending decision for SMEs, particular, in traditional handicrafts business. Using dataset based on a survey conducted in Binh Duong province, Vietnam, we investigated to what determinant effects for loan approval. The analytical methods used include descriptive statistics for overall assessment, principal component analysis and regression to examine determinants of lending decisions. The results indicate that company’s collateral was the most positive determinant to bank lending decision, follow by company’s business plan. The role of company’s leader is very important for banks considers to approve credit because company’s leaders experience and relationship with stakeholders as well as banks have positive relations with bank’s lending decision. Agreed with previous studies, the company’s financial statement and company’s credit history with banks are also significant determinants for lending decision. Whereas, the business environment seam unaffected lending decision as their relations is not significant..

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of two-dimensional factor of motivators and hygiene on civil servants’ job satisfaction using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) as a technique employed to analyze the measurement and structural models. Exploratory study was deployed to evaluate the relationship among variables. By using multistage stratified sampling, statistical data was collected from a survey of 441 public municipal civil servants who have employed in various levels (municipal government, districts and communes) in Vietnam. The findings provided evidence that hygiene factors (relationship with leader, salary, relationship with coworker and working environment) directly impact on civil servants’ job satisfaction. Meanwhile, only career development factor from motivators significantly influenced on public employee’s job satisfaction. Based on the empirical results, the hygiene factors of job satisfaction are more dominated that the motivators one. This finding suggests that municipal governments should focus policies on improving the hygiene factors which lead to higher job satisfaction on civil servants. Gaining a thorough understanding of the determinants of job satisfaction toward municipal public servants will enable policy makers to grasp the factors that results in retaining employees. Finally, the policy makers can use this knowledge to promote civil servants’ job satisfaction.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are place contributing to the intellectual advancement of the nation, quality human resource, and to a number of socio-economic improvements for society and organizations. Despite facilitators and staffs are the bare-bone of HEIs, there is a scarcity of research, both conceptual and empirical, focusing on their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). To attempt to fill this gap, this article develops a conceptual model of OCB under influencing of organizational justice and job satisfaction. The prospective respondents were chosen randomly from HEIs (public and private). Individuals have been employed at least one year and above will be the unit of analysis in which the experimental test of the proposed model will be conducted. The results suggest that organizational citizenship behavior is one of the most important factor influence the organizational performance. Furthermore, the performance of HEIs does not affect only the national human resources, but also impact on national economy. In this context, a conceptual framework is proposed to study the determinants of organizational citizenship behavior in the form of organizational justice and job satisfaction. Additionally, the ultimate benefits of OCB through perceived organizational justice with job satisfaction as mediator is enlightened. Finally, the authors discuss the managerial implications of their research.