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In this paper, basing on the forward-backward method and inertial techniques, we introduce a new algorithm for solving a variational inequality problem over the fixed point set of a nonexpansive mapping. The strong convergence of the algorithm is established under strongly monotone and Lipschitz continuous assumptions imposed on the cost mapping. As an application, we also apply and analyze our algorithm to solve a convex minimization problem of the sum of two convex functions.

Vietnam is one of the leading rice exporters in the world. Popularly, as other rice producing countries, rice husks from rice processing in this nation are used widely not only in electricity generation and silicon making but also one kind of raw material for various building materials production. This article presents a reusing waste method of Rice Husk Ash (RHA) in Vietnam to improve the behavior of hydrotechnical concrete (HTC), one of the most significant building materials. In this study, RHA plays a role as a highly active fine mineral additives, containing 88.42% amorphous SiO2 oxide in component. The combination of RHA and superplasticizer ACE 388 as mineral additives is able to modify the concrete structure. Not only the compressive strength of hydrotechnical concrete at the age of 28 days increase 7.39% (from 11.71 to 19.1%), but also its water resistance rises up to 50% (from the point of 25%) due to compaction of the structure. The experimental results of permeability of chloride-ion according to standard ASTM C1202-97 (American) show that the HTC patterns containing 10% and 20% RHA by mass of the binder have the average value of electrical energy, respectively 351.18 C and 297 C. While other control samples without RHA have the average value of electrical energy of 1013.22 C. In comparison to the American Concrete Association classification table, these chlorine-ion permeability values of samples HTC-10 and HTC-20 are, precisely, at low level. Therefore, hydraulic concrete, using modified structure from mineral additives of superplasticizer ACE 388 and RHA, is appropriate building material for construction of irrigation works and hydroelectric projects in Vietnam.

Starch from jackfruit seeds shows potential for use in food production processes with high starch content. Modification of jackfruit seed starch to increase the resistant starch content makes it a promising candidate for prebiotics in the food industry. Carboxymethylation can provide benefits for starch utilization in improving starch functional properties such as solubility, viscosity, and resistant starch content. This study chemically modified starch through carboxymethylation at different concentrations of sodium hydroxide to investigate the effect of carboxymethyl substitution on the digestible properties of the starch. Carboxymethylation exhibited a high degree of substitution from 0.28% to 0.57% as a function of the concentration of sodium hydroxide (5–10 wt%). The treatment enhanced the swelling, water solubility, and water/oil absorption. The resistant starch content increased from ~ 21 to ~ 39.67%. However, the high degree of substitution showed structural deformation of the starch granules with a decrease in crystallinity from about 35 to 1% by SEM and XRD. The degree of carboxymethyl substitution increased resistant starch content, reduced rapidly digestible starch, and had negligible impact on slowly digestible starch. Jackfruit seed starch treated with 10% by weight of NaOH was the optimal value that increased carboxymethyl substitution to 0.57% and resistant starch content to ~ 40%. This concentration was also optimal for the functional properties of starch with the highest values of swelling degree (~ 27 g/g), water solubility (~ 50%), freeze–thaw stability (~ 20% of syneresis after 4 freeze–thaw cycles), and oil and water absorption (150% of oil absorption and 180% of water absorption).

PurposeThis study aims to address two relatively unexplored issues in banking service literature. The first relates to the impact of co-creation behaviors of frontline employees (FLEs) on their well-being. The second is the impact of FLEs' adaptability on their performance of co-creation behaviors and their well-being in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachA structural model was built and tested using survey data collected from 366 FLEs offering financial consulting services to customers at banks.FindingsFLE co-creation behaviors have positive impacts on FLEs’ well-being, including well-being in the workplace (job satisfaction) and general well-being (quality of life). Moreover, FLEs with a high level of interpersonal and service-offering adaptability perform co-creation behaviors better than those with lower adaptability and have higher job satisfaction. Between service-offering adaptability and interpersonal adaptability, the former has stronger effects than the latter.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that banks develop and enhance FLEs’ adaptability and co-creation behaviors to enhance their well-being and customer value.Originality/valuePrior research on FLEs' co-creation mainly focuses on customer-related transformative outcomes, leaving their own well-being less examined. This study fills this gap by providing evidence to suggest that although active co-creation behaviors require FLEs to have more skills and put in more effort, they do bring about transformative impacts in terms of better job satisfaction and quality of life. Additionally, a high level of adaptability helps FLEs to comfortably perform their co-creation behavior, thereby reducing stress and improving well-being.

Purpose This study aims to examine the impacts various types of resources had on customer effort in mandatory and voluntary value cocreation activities and the contribution of efforts in these different activity types to quality of life. Design/methodology/approach Data from customers across five chronic health conditions were collected through an online survey. Rasch analysis helped identify hierarchies of activities representing varying levels of effort across four activity types (mandatory (customer), mandatory (customer or organization), voluntary in-role and voluntary extra-role activities). The conceptual model that was developed to examine the relationships of interest was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings While clinical resources helped mandatory activities and personal network resources facilitated voluntary activities, psychological resources had greater impacts on customer effort across the whole range of activities. Effort in each activity type contributed to the quality of life differently, with voluntary activities having the greatest impacts on quality of life. Practical implications This study lends support to a holistic approach to health service that requires the mobilization of networks of resources to encourage customers’ engagement in a broad range of activities. Understanding the resources facilitating effort in distinct activity types provides insights to develop strategies to drive value cocreation efforts that subsequently contribute to improvements in quality of life. Originality/value Drawing on an extensive and nuanced categorization of activities, this study broadened the understanding of the networks of resources that are integrated in customer value cocreation processes and the link between value cocreation efforts and quality of life.

In this paper, we introduce a parallel extragradient-like projection algorithm for finding a common solution of a system of unrelated variational inequalities and fixed point problems corresponding to different feasible domains in a real Hilbert space. The main idea of the paper, based on the 2006 hybrid extragradient method of Nadezhkina and Takahashi, is to combine three methods including the extragradient method, the Mann iteration method and the projection method with the parallel splitting-up technique. After computing the parallel extragradient iteration point, the next iteration point is modified by projecting a given initial point on the intersect of suitable convex sets to get a strong convergence property under certain assumptions by suitable choice parameters. Finally, a numerical example is developed to illustrate the behavior of our algorithm.

The paper introduces and analysizes the convergence of two multi-step proximal-like algorithms for pseudomonotone and Lipschitz-type continuous equilibrium problems in a real Hilbert space. The algorithms are combinations between the multi-step proximal-like method and Mann or Halpern iterations. The weakly and strongly convergent theorems are established with the prior knowledge of two Lipschitz-type continuous constants. Moreover, by choosing two sequences of suitable stepsizes, we also show that the multi-step proximal-like algorithm for strongly pseudomonotone and Lipschitz-type continuous equilibrium problems where the construction of solution approximations and the establishing of its convergence do not require the prior knowledge of strongly pseudomonotone and Lipschitz-type continuous constants of bifunctions. Finally, several numerical examples are reported to illustrate the convergence and the performance of the proposed algorithms over classical extragradient-like algorithms.

The disease caused by the SARS-Cov 2 virus has spread to most areas of the world with high rates of infection and deaths. Facing the complicated developments of the epidemic, clinical medical staff (CMS) are at risk of suffering psychological pressure. This study aimed to investigate the situation of anxiety, depression, and related factors affecting CMS during the COVID-19 pandemic at Dong Da General Hospital and Dong Anh General Hospital in Hanoi. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to July 2020 using self—administered questionnaires amongst 341 CMS. The participants’ anxiety levels were assessed using the standardized General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) toolkit and levels of depression expression were assessed based on the standardized Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) toolkit. Of the CMS who completed the questionnaire, 33.1% had an anxiety disorder and 23.2% exhibited mild to very severe depression. The factors associated with anxiety and depression were department of work, shortage of human resources, and discrimination from the community that directly affects the family of the CMS. The study results highlight the need for a training session to equip CMS with the skills required to cope with psychological stress in all circumstances in general and during the pandemic in particular. This training is especially important for those working in at-risk departments which are susceptible to infection.

Galactan is a major sulfate polysaccharide in the red seaweed, Pyropia yezoensis. In the present study, the prebiotic potential and anticancer activities of three sulfate galactans with different molecular weights (GPYcrude, GPY300, and GPY10) were evaluated in vitro. Monosaccharide composition and structural analyses of these sulfate galactans showed that all polysaccharide fractions contained the same monosaccharides but had different molecular weights. All the polysaccharides tested displayed potential prebiotic activity, with GPY10 noticeably having the best potential compared to others, especially for Bifidobacterium spp., which highlights possible correlations between structural galactan features and prebiotic activity. Furthermore, all three sulfate galactans were cytotoxic to DU145 and PC-3 prostate cancer cells, with GPY10 exhibiting the greatest inhibition in DU145 cells. Moreover, GPY10 induced modulates the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), with subsequent increased apoptosis of DU145 prostate cancer cell and modulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. GPY10 increased expression of Bax, executor caspase-3, and initiator caspases 8 and 9. Therefore, sulfate galactans from P. yezoensis could be applied as a novel prebiotic and anticancer compounds in prostate cancer cells.

Polysaccharides are key bioactive compounds in lotus plumule tea, but their anti-diabetes activities remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prebiotic activities of a novel polysaccharide fraction from the Nelumbo nucifera lotus plumule, and to examine its regulation of glucose metabolism in insulin-resistant HepG2 cells. The N. nucifera polysaccharide (NNP) was purified after discoloration, hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation, and DEAE-cellulose chromatography to obtain purified polysaccharide fractions (NNP-2). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to analyze the main structural characteristics and functional group of NNP-2. Physicochemical characterization indicated that NNP-2 had a molecular weight of 110.47 kDa and consisted of xylose, glucose, fructose, galactose, and fucose in a molar ratio of 33.4:25.7:22.0:10.5:8.1. The prebiotic activity of NNP-2 was demonstrated in vitro using Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Furthermore, NNP-2 showed bioactivity against α-glucosidase (IC50 = 97.32 µg/mL). High glucose-induced insulin-resistant HepG2 cells were used to study the effect of NNP-2 on glucose consumption, and the molecular mechanism of the insulin transduction pathway was studied using RT-qPCR. NNP-2 could improve insulin resistance by modulating the IRS1/PI3K/Akt pathway in insulin-resistant HepG2 cells. Our data demonstrated that the Nelumbo nucifera polysaccharides are potential sources for nutraceuticals, and we propose functional food developments from the bioactive polysaccharides of N. nucifera for the management of diabetes.