Glutamate-mediated oxidative stress causes neuronal cell death by increasing intracellular Ca2+ uptake, reactive oxidative species (ROS) generation, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation, and translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) to the nucleus. In the current study, we demonstrated that corydaline exerts potent neuroprotective effects against glutamate-induced neurotoxicity. Treatment with 5 mmol/L glutamate increased cellular Ca2+ influx, ROS generation, MAPK activation, and AIF translocation. In contrast, corydaline treatment decreased cellular Ca2+ influx and ROS generation. Western blot analysis revealed that glutamate-mediated MAPK activation was attenuated by corydaline treatment. We further demonstrated that corydaline treatment inhibited the glutamate-mediated translocation of AIF to the nucleus. We propose that corydaline is a promising lead structure for the development of safe and effective neuroprotectants.

Project manager plays a very important role in the success of any project. The primary duty of the project manager is to combine the outcomes or results of the various processes and activities of project management into a systematic project management strategy or plan for the project. In the construction industry, a lack of motivation is an urgent problem for many project managers in construction and engineering projects. Lack of motivation affects the quality and productivity of jobs, reducing profits and growth for companies, businesses, contractors or organizations that rely on human resources. The reasons for this lack of motivation are diverse ranging from salary to culture to life and working environment, among others. Through surveys and data analysis using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability and EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis), our research scaled the factors affecting work motivation of project managers in the construction industry in Vietnam. The research results identified six major groups of relevant factors including (i) salary and benefits, (ii) work environment, (iii) promotion opportunities, (iv) organizational culture, (v) interest in the job, and (vi) relationship with the organization. From there, this paper contributed useful information as well as measures for businesses, companies, contractors or organizations in the construction industry.

Employability has recently become the first target of the national higher education. Its model has been updated to catch the new trend of Industry 4.0. This paper aims at analyzing and ranking the determinants of undergraduate employability, focusing on business and economics majors in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In-depth interviews with content analysis have been primarily conducted to reach an agreement on a key group of factors: human capital, social capital, and identity. The Stochastic Fractal Search Algorithm (SFSA) is then applied to rank the sub-factors. Human capital is composed of three major elements: attitude, skill, and knowledge. Social capital is approached at both structural and cognitive aspects with three typical types: bonding, bridging, and linking. The analysis has confirmed the change of priority in employability determinants. Human capital is still a driver but the priority of attitude has been confirmed in the contemporary context. Then, social capital with the important order of linking, bridging, and bonding is emphasized. Skill, knowledge, and identity share the least weight in the model. It is noted that identity is newly proposed in the model but a certain role has been found. The findings are crucial for education strategies to enhance university graduate employability.

This is a quantitative research, underpinned by the philosophy of natural science and deduction approach that examines the impact of the various aspects of corporate governance mechanism on the choice of capital structure of Vietnamese listed firms. We focus on the effect of factors such as the board size, the board independence, and especially different ownership structures, which include the managerial ownership, the state ownership, the concentrated ownership, and the foreign ownership. They are the main scopes of corporate governance and are supposed to be relevant to determine the corporate financing choice. To explain the causal relationship between factors, we construct the regression model and then test it by using different statistical method approaches, including the pooled OLS, the fixed effects model, and the random effects model. Data are collected from 336 firms with shares listed in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in Vietnam, totaling 1583 observations. Overall, the results reveal that the board size, state ownership, and concentrated ownership have positive impact on the firm’s capital structure, whereas foreign ownership appears to have negative influence on the capital structure. The research does not find evidence of a the correlation between board independence, managerial ownership and corporate capital struture.

This paper analyzes factors affecting enterprise’s financial risk listed on the Vietnam stock market. The panel data of research sample includes 524 non-financial listed enterprises on the Vietnam stock market for a period of eleven years, from 2009 to 2019. The Generalized Least Square (GLS) is employed to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. In this research, financial risk is measured by the Alexander Bathory model. Debt structure, Solvency, Profitability, Operational ability, Capital structure are independent variables in the study. Firm Size, firm age, growth rate are control variables. The model results show that in order to prevent and limit financial risk for enterprises listed on the Vietnam Stock Market, attention should be paid to variables reflecting Liability structure ratio, Quick Ratio, Return on Assets, Total asset turnover, Accounts receivable turnover, Net assets ratio and Fixed assets ratio. The empirical results show that there are differences in the impact of these factors on the financial risk in state-owned enterprises and non-state enterprises listed on the Vietnam stock market. The findings of this article are useful for business administrators, helping business managers make the right financial decisions to improve the efficiency of financial risk management in enterprises.

This research aims to identify the determinants of e-government satisfaction in Hanoi, Vietnam, and assess their impact. To collect data, we conducted an online questionnaire with citizens living in Hanoi in a time span of five weeks. We received 1,107 responses, divided into three groups: unaware, known, but not used, and used e-government. After leveraging past studies on satisfaction in different contexts, we arrived at six external variables that are of particular relevance to e-government satisfaction (i.e., efficiency, trust, reliability, convenience, citizen support, and transparency) as well as four control variables (i.e., age, gender, education level, and Internet frequency). We then applied both SPSS 22 and STATA 2016 to process and analyze the collected data and found that, while almost all external variables are statistically significant, all four control variables are not. Apart from convenience and trust, four factors – efficiency, reliability, citizens support, transparency – are important measures of system quality, information quality, service quality and relative benefits of e-government, which in turn positively and significantly impact citizens’ satisfaction with the online public services. Furthermore, the efficiency variable has the most influence on customer satisfaction, and the level of impact on the dependent variable decreases in the following order: citizen support, reliability and transparency.

The paper aims to identify the determinants that influence entrepreneurial intention among National Economics University graduates. For the sample size, we conducted a questionnaire survey of 250 full-time third-year undergraduates at the National Economics University, with convenience sampling technique. Of those 250 undergraduates, 150 were Business Administration students and 100 Economy Management students. After eliminating invalid responses due to lack of information or low quality information, 215 responses were used (93.07% of respondents) for data analysis. The results show that the factor “Perceived desirability” has the strongest impact on the intention to start a business. It is followed by the factor “Perceived feasibility” in which the “ability to search and plan for start-up” has a stronger influence on undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention than the “leadership and ability to overcome adversity”. The hypothesis of a positive relationship between undergraduates’ propensity to act and their intention to start a business is also supported in this study. Based on the results, we suggest some recommendations for the university and State management agencies to nurture and develop entrepreneurial intention of undergraduates, forming the young generation of potential entrepreneurs to contribute to the development of emerging countries such as Vietnam, the case study.

The study aims to provide better understanding of sustainable earnings by a comprehensive analysis of earnings persistence of business firms in Vietnam as an example of developing economies in South-East Asia. Dataset of 1,278 publicly listed firms (excluding banking and financial services firms) on Vietnam Stock Exchange for the period from 2008 to 2017 was collected. By applying fixed effect regression model, the empirical results provided the basis to measure the persistence index (Pers index) and find low level of their earnings persistence. The literature of earnings quality analysis in developed countries suggests earnings persistence as a noteworthy determinant of future earnings forecast and stock valuation. However, research of sustainable earnings in developing countries is still highly underdeveloped. For Vietnamese listed firms, the average Pers index was estimated for the period from 2008 to 2010, indicating low level of earnings persistence. We also incorporated earnings persistence level into future earnings forecast by running the quintile regression model divided the data into four equal levels and conducted each section independently to see the difference in each percentile, thence assessed the factors’ influence on the specific model. The findings provide important information on the expected returns of firms, especially helping investors make sound decisions.