Innovation Education: Problems and Prospects in Governance and Management of the Vietnamese Higher Education System

Vietnam is currently in the process of creating and implementing an important series of reforms to their higher education system. Their commitment to the process is encouraging, but the level of institutional autonomy at the college and university level is still low. Higher education institutions are unable to fully make academic and financial decisions without government oversight, an issue that appears to be hindering innovation and development within the sector. Based on the high importance of human resource development, and higher education’s distinct role in that process, these reforms are becoming increasingly important and necessary. Reforms are being created but not implemented and thus the entire process is slowed to a dangerously slow level—without resolute action, the large economic growth Vietnam has experienced will become unsustainable. The aim of the research is to come to a better understanding of what kind of system of government management and governance is currently in place in the higher education sector. Additionally it will focus on the reform process, including who is involved and what steps are being taken. Great emphasis is placed on increased institutional autonomy. By interviewing former government officials, university administrators, professors, and educational policy experts involved in the reform process and conducting extensive secondary research, this study hopes to gain perspective into the realities of educational reform in Vietnam, specifically related to the governance structure of higher education

Putting the wood back into our rivers: an experiment in river rehabilitation

This paper presents an overview of a project established to assess the effectiveness of woody debris (WD) reintroduction as a river rehabilitation tool. An outline of an experiment is presented that aims to develop and assess the effectiveness of engineered log jams (ELJs) under Australian conditions, and to demonstrate the potential for using a range of ELJs to stabilise a previously de-snagged, high energy gravel-bed channel. Furthermore, the experiment will test the effectiveness of a reach based rehabilitation strategy to increase geomorphic variability and hence habitat diversity. While primarily focusing on the geomorphic and engineering aspects of the rehabilitation strategy, fish and freshwater mussel populations are also being monitored. The project is located within an 1100m reach of the Williams River, NSW. Twenty separate ELJ structures were constructed, incorporating a total of 430 logs placed without any artificial anchoring (e.g., no cabling or imported ballast). A geomorphic control reach was established 3.1 km upstream of the project reach. In the 6 months since the structures were built the study site has experienced 6 flows that have overtopped most structures, 3 of the flows were in excess of the mean annual flood, inundating 19 of the ELJs by 2 - 3 m, and one by 0.5 m. Early results indicate that with the exception of LS4 and LS5, all structures are performing as intended and that the geomorphic variability of the reach has substantially increased

A business case for electric power distributors using simulation: Investigating the combined use of the strategies of feed-in-tariffs, distributed generation, time of use rates, and efficiency

Numerous references found in the academic and trade literature discuss the availability and applicability of certain technologies and policies to allow the U.S. electrical grid to address the future challenges of continued growth and aging infrastructure. However, the existing utility companies seem reluctant to adopt these new measures. This thesis will describe some of these strategies and develop a model using Stella system dynamics software that will explore the potential financial impact to the utilities from using these strategies in combination. The four strategies to be investigated are feed in tariffs, time of use rates, distributed generation, and demand-side energy efficiency . There are other strategies that could be considered such as Renewable Portfolio Standards, Net Metering, Critical Peak Pricing, and Renewable Energy Tax Credits. These other strategies are either similar in implementation to the four discussed in this paper or have been shown to not have lasting affect on the utility industry\u27s bottom line. For this reason, the four listed above have been chosen. From the research and the test case data used in this paper, the following findings were observed: Distributed Generation will most likely not be implemented without some true incentive to the owner and without a policy such as Feed-In Tariffs. Energy Efficiency practices can significantly reduce electrical consumption. Specific technologies have very attractive payback or return on investment and others are not practical when only taking into account ROI measurements. Peak Shifting or Peak shaving can have significant effect on the utility\u27s profit but has no effect on the consumer\u27s electricity bill. Time of Use rates have very different effects on the utility. Depending upon the cost structure of their generation and the nature of its customer load, the TOU rate can significantly reduce the profit of the utility even without Peak Shifting. The biggest positive impact for society as a whole would be a policy that lowers electrical consumption, decreases the release of greenhouse gases, and allows the utility to remain a viable business. The combination of strategies that offers this impact would be the use of Peak Shifting with no TOU rates, demand-side Energy Efficiency, and the implementation of a FIT for photovoltaic generation

Global Warming Mitigation Technologies

Many technologies and techniques have been developed to confront the issue of global warming with many focusing on reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and others focusing on increasing the reflectivity of the Earth\u27s atmosphere. Carbon sequestration, synthetic trees and stratospheric sulfur injection are the three of these global warming mitigation technologies that seem to be the most viable and are analyzed in this paper

Interactions Between Lexical and Syntactic Knowledge in ESL: Behavioral and Brain Measures of Sentence Comprehension Among Spanish L1 Learners of English

We examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during comprehension of the English Causative. The main goal was to examine ERP responses to grammatical violations that reflect a mismatch between the verb and the sentence structure. The second goal was to compare effects among native English speakers (NES) and native Spanish speakers learning English as a second language (ESL). We expected group differences to reflect different neurolinguistic processes, particularly for sentences that are well-formed in English, but not in Spanish. The English Causative is a grammatical construction that is syntactically ditransitive (\u27SubjNP–V–ObjNP–PP\u27) and means \u27[someone]–[CAUSED-by-doing-X]–[something]–[change-of-state]\u27. An example is the sentence, Jack sent his sister to the store, which implies that Jack (SubjNP) caused his sister (ObjNP) to undergo a change of location (PP) by sending her (V). Importantly, only certain verbs are permitted within this construction: In English, ditransitive verbs (e.g., send), are allowed, as are alternating unaccusatives, such as walk (Jack walked his sister to the store). Non-alternating unaccusatives, such as arrive, are disallowed, even when the sentence has a meaningful interpretation (*Jack arrived his sister to the store). To comprehend these structures as they unfold in time, a language-user must therefore reconcile word- and clause-level constraints and dynamically update his or her understanding throughout the sentence. In the present study we asked nine NES and eight ESL participants to view a series of sentences, presented one phrase at a time, while we recorded their EEG. Each sentence was intransitive (\u27SubjNP–V\u27 ), transitive (\u27SubjNP–V–ObjNP\u27), or ditransitive (\u27SubjNP–V–PP\u27), and was followed by a response probe. The task was to say whether each sentence was acceptable. Brain activity was measured using electroencephalography (EEG) and processed to create ERPs. We had four predictions. First, we predicted that the ObjNP following an intransitive verb would elicit a P600 effect, reflecting a syntactic violation (e.g., *Jack walked/arrived his sister). Second, for non-alternating (arrive-type) verbs, we predicted that a subsequent PP (e.g., *Jack arrived his sister to the store) would elicit a P600 effect, whereas Alternating (walk-type) verbs would elicit a minimal or no P600. Third, we expected that ESL partiticpants, like NES participants, would show an P600 effect to the ObjNP for sentences containing intransitives. However, in contrast with English, we predicted that the final PP would elicit an error-related response among ESL participants for walk-type verbs, as well as for arrive-type verbs. Study results partly confirmed our predictions. The two groups showed similar patterns of acceptability, although ESL participants were slower overall. As predicted, the ObjNP elicited a P600 effect for arrive-type verbs for NES participants. Interestingly, ESL participants exhibited N400 rather than P600 effects to the ObjNP. Further, in response to the PP, both groups exhibited N400 effects to arrive-type verbs, without a subsequent P600 effect. In summary, although their behavioral patterns did not differ, ERPs revealed group differences in verb–construction mismatches at different points in the sentence. The pattern of N400 and P600 responses was partly unexpected. We consider implications for syntax-semantic interactions, integration of word- and clause-level information, second-language learning, and functional correlates of N400 and P600 effects

Agency Training 101

Abstract available to download

MODELLING THE DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL POLICIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE DEVELOPMENT POLICY EVALUATION MODEL (DEVPEM)

The purpose of the Development Policy Evaluation Model (DEVPEM) is to provide an appropriate modelling structure for analysing the welfare and distributional implications of alternative agricultural policies in developing countries. The aim of the model is to provide illustrative results that show how structural diversity among developing countries, and systemic differences from developed OECD countries, can affect the outcomes of alternative policy interventions. The model is relatively stylised, seeking to capture, as simply as possible, four critical aspects of rural economies in developing countries that are important when evaluating the impacts of agricultural and trade policies. These are: (1). The role of the household as both a producer and a consumer of food crops. (2). High transaction costs of participating in markets, resulting in a subsistence sector that often is important in terms of the number of households and the amount of food production it encompasses. (3). Market linkages that can transmit impacts of policy and market shocks among heterogeneous rural producers and consumers, particularly via factor markets (for labour, land or capital, when those markets exist). (4). The imperfect convertibility of land from one use to another.International Relations/Trade,

Evaluation of the utility of sediment data in NASQAN (National Stream Quality Accounting Network)

Monthly suspended sediment discharge measurements, made by the USGS as part of the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN), are analysed to assess the adequacy in terms of spatial coverage, temporal sampling frequency, accuracy of measurements, as well as in determining the sediment yield in the nation's rivers. It is concluded that the spatial distribution of NASQAN stations is reasonable but necessarily judgemental. The temporal variations of sediment data contain much higher frequencies than monthly. Sampling error is found to be minor when compared with other causes of data scatter which can be substantial. The usefulness of the monthly measurements of sediment transport is enhanced when combined with the daily measurements of water discharge. Increasing the sampling frequency moderately would not materially improve the accuracy of sediment yield determinations

Reflections on the Impact of Service-Learning/Experiential Education for the Field of Human Services

The article addresses the importance of a holistic approach to human services by exploring the concept of community through utilizing service-learning/experiential education in human service courses. ACCESS (Achievement, Collaboration, Community, Education, Standards, and Services) illustrates that service learning/experiential education can offer a viable pedagogy for collaborative partnerships between the university, community, students, and faculty. The article reviews important elements of service-learning/experiential education to provide a thorough understanding of the concepts, including reflection on the service experience from students, community agencies, and faculty. Survey results demonstrate ways in which service learning/experiential education aids students in achieving skills and in acquiring a deeper understanding of course concepts while meeting needed services in the community