Inequality in Vietnamese Urban-Rural Living Standards, 1993-2006

Using data from five waves of the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, we find evidence of significant urban-rural expenditure inequality. Urban-rural inequality in Vietnam increased dramatically from 1993 to 1998, and peaked in 2002 before reducing slightly in 2004, and significantly in 2006. The urban-rural gap also monotonically increases across the expenditure distribution. We use a variant of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, applied to the unconditional quantile regression method of Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2009), to explain the components of the per capita expenditure differentials between urban and rural households at selected quantiles of the distribution. We also compare these estimates with those at mean obtained by OLS. Our results show a number of factors contributing significantly to the high urban-rural gap. These include inter-group differences in education, household demographic structure, industrial structure and their related returns. Adjusting the average characteristics of rural households to those of urban households will reduce about a half of the overall urban-rural expenditure gap. A significant part of the remaining unexplained component lies in the intercept differences; that is, the inter-group differences in other factors not captured in the model that favor urban households.urban-rural inequality, Vietnam, unconditional quantile regression, Oaxaca decomposition

Differentiated Instruction And The Need To Integrate Teaching And Practice

Differentiated instruction is becoming critical in higher education due to student diversity and background knowledge. Differentiated instruction does not mean matching teaching styles with learning styles as suggested by the learning styles theory. Findings in recent research studies have proved the lack of credible evidence for the utility of the learning styles theory. As not scientifically proven, the theory serves to perpetuate the learning styles mythology in the educational psychology world. This paper will emphasize students’ readiness levels as a critical part of differentiated instruction that teachers should refer to rather than sticking to student preferences and/or learning styles. The paper also suggests strategies to differentiate instruction effectively. These strategies include, but are not limited to, identifying student readiness; making modifications of the instructional content, process, and product; and enhancing collaboration and autonomy in learning. The last part of the paper places an emphasis on the integration of teaching and practice. Differentiated instruction, at its best, should reflect a new pedagogy that can promote practical integration and knowledge transformation. If implemented thoroughly, differentiated instruction can demonstrate institutional effectiveness and equip students with diverse learning experiences to highly respond to increased challenges in the global society

Higgs revised in Supersymmetric Economical 3-3-1 model with B/\mu-type terms

We re-investigate the scalar potential and the Higgs sector of the supersymmetric economical 3-3-1 model (SUSYE331) in the presence of the B/\mu type terms which has many important consequences. First, the model contains no massless Higgs fields. Second, we prove that the soft mass parameters of Higgses must be at the SU(3)_L scale. As a result, the masses of the Higgses drift toward this scale except one light real neutral Higgs with the mass of m_Z|cos(2\gamma)| at the tree level. We also show that there are some Higgses containing many properties of the Higgses in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), especially in the neutral Higgs sector. One exact relation in the MSSM, m^2_H^{+/-}=m^2_A+m^2_W, is still true in the SUSYE331. Based on this result we make some comments on the lepton flavor violating decays of these Higgses as one of signatures of new physics in the SUSYE331 model which may be detected by present colliders.Comment: Matches version accepted for publication in EPJC. Typos are corrected. We add a new section, a new appendix, a new figure and new references to explain more clearly the properties of the lightest neutral Higgs. Results unchange

High-absorptance high-emittance anodic coating

A colored anodic coating for use on surfaces of substrates, e.g. aluminum substrates in which it is desirable to maintain a high solar absorptance (a) and a high infrared emittance (e), particularly in low earth orbit space environments. This anodic coating is preferably a dark colored coating, and even more preferably a black coating. This coating allows a touch temperature within an acceptable design range to preclude burning of an astronaut in case of contact, but also allows a solar radiation absorption in an amount such that an a/e ratio of unity is achieved. The coating of the invention comprises a first layer in the form of an acid anodized colored anodic layer for achieving a high solar absorptance and a second or high emittance layer in the form of a clear acid anodized layer for achieving a high emittance. The entire coating is quite thin, e.g. 1-2 mils and is quite stable in a hostile space environment of the type encountered in a low earth orbit. The coating is obtained by first creating the high emittance clear anodized coating on the metal surface followed by anodizing using a colored anodizing process

Process for producing a high emittance coating and resulting article

Process for anodizing aluminum or its alloys to obtain a surface particularly having high infrared emittance by anodizing an aluminum or aluminum alloy substrate surface in an aqueous sulfuric acid solution at elevated temperature and by a step-wise current density procedure, followed by sealing the resulting anodized surface. In a preferred embodiment the aluminum or aluminum alloy substrate is first alkaline cleaned and then chemically brightened in an acid bath The resulting cleaned substrate is anodized in a 15% by weight sulfuric acid bath maintained at a temperature of 30.degree. C. Anodizing is carried out by a step-wise current density procedure at 19 amperes per square ft. (ASF) for 20 minutes, 15 ASF for 20 minutes and 10 ASF for 20 minutes. After anodizing the sample is sealed by immersion in water at 200.degree. F. and then air dried. The resulting coating has a high infrared emissivity of about 0.92 and a solar absorptivity of about 0.2, for a 5657 aluminum alloy, and a relatively thick anodic coating of about 1 mil