The Boat and the Sea

I composed The Boat and the Sea as a celebration of my first love. This piece is inspired by a poem by Xuân Quỳnh (1942–88), one of the most well-known female poets in Vietnam since the twentieth century. Her poem, “Thuyền và Biển” [The Boat and the Sea], is a love letter that describes a woman’s heart through several stages of love. At first, she is a mysterious sea, so enticing yet far away. Then, as her heart grows fonder, she is like gentle ripples, but some other times, she becomes vehement waves that push the boat for no reason. And if she is ever separated from her love, all that remains in her are tumultuous storms.In the performers' score, I quote lines from the poem at the beginning of each musical section to suggest the desired characteristics of the music.* Several extended techniques for the alto saxophone and percussion imitate sounds from the ocean, such as winds, storms, moving sand, the seagulls' chirping, and whales' vocalization. For the electronic percussion, I use the recordings from A Collection of Sounds from the Sea on the website of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)** as the sound samples.This music score was submitted for Resonate 2024: An Open Access Call for Scores by the UCLA Music Library with Bent Frequency and Jan Berry Baker

Fragments of Memories for solo alto saxophone

This music score was submitted for Resonate 2024: An Open Access Call for Scores by the UCLA Music Library with Bent Frequency and Jan Berry Baker

The sanctity of goddesses: an insight into the worship of Bà Tổ Cô in Northern Vietnam

In Vietnam, a country where religious expression is widespread, many gods and goddesses are commonly worshipped. Among those, Bà Tổ Cô (Family Goddess) is widely worshipped in the North of Vietnam due to her exceptional background as unmarried, young, and having spiritual roots, unlike other national and heroic figures. This article examines the sanctity of the Family Goddess by decoding the terms, worshippers, beliefs and practices, sacred encounters and supports. The research is a final result of decade-long field trips, archival study, and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders. The research findings show that the veneration of the Family Goddess in Northern Vietnam is a continuity of a long-standing tradition of worshipping female deities in Asia and thus emphasising the need to maintain this unique intangible heritage as a crucial part of Vietnamese cultural diversity

The Costs of Increasing the Fertility Rate in an Endogenous Growth Model

In this paper, we apply an Overlapping Generations (OLG) model with endogenous fertility and a pay as you go (PAYG) pension system to find out what are the economic consequences of different policy measures to increase the number of children. Especially, we take into account the introduction of a child dependent PAYG pension system, child allowances financed by a labor income tax, and a reduction of the child rearing costs. Some authors have shown that in small open economies with exogenous growth it is possible to increase the fertility without harming any generation. Here we show that this is impossible in a model with endogenous growth

The Costs of Increasing the Fertility Rate in an Endogenous Growth Model

In this paper, we apply an Overlapping Generations (OLG) model with endogenous fertility and a pay as you go (PAYG) pension system to find out what are the economic consequences of different policy measures to increase the number of children. Especially, we take into account the introduction of a child dependent PAYG pension system, child allowances financed by a labor income tax, and a reduction of the child rearing costs. Some authors have shown that in small open economies with exogenous growth it is possible to increase the fertility without harming any generation. Here we show that this is impossible in a model with endogenous growth

Perspective Chapter: Cyclic Generation of Box-Behnken Designs and New Second-Order Designs

Box-Behnken designs (BBDs) are three-level second-order spherical designs with all points lying on a sphere, introduced by Box and Behnken, for fitting the second-order response surface models. They are available for 3–12 and 16 factors. Together with the central composite designs for the second-order model, BBDs are very popular response surface designs, especially for 3–7 factors. This chapter introduces an algorithm to produce cyclic generators for BBDs and similar designs, which we call cyclic BBDs (CBBDs). The new CBBDs offer more flexibility in choosing the designs for a specified number of factors. Comparisons between some BBDs and the new CBBDs indicate the superiority of the new CBBDs with respect to multiple design quality measures and graphical tools assessing prediction variance properties. A catalog of 24 new CBBDs, which includes orthogonally blocked CBBDs for 11, 13, and 14 factors, will be given

Response Surface Designs Robust against Nuisance Factors

This paper discusses an algorithmic approach to constructing trend-free and orthogonally-blocked response surface designs. The constructed designs have the main effects, 2-factor interactions and second-order effects being orthogonal or near-orthogonal to the nuisance factors such as the time-trend or the blocking factors. The paper also provides a catalogue of (near-) trend-free Box–Behnkens designs and orthogonally blocked Box–Behnkens designs arranged in rows and columns

Designs for Screening Experiments with Quantitative Factors

Most screening experiments in chemometrics and science are quantitative, i.e. continuous factors. These factors should be 3-level and the designs for these experiments should also be 3-level. However, popular designs for screening experiments are still Plackett-Burman designs (PBDs) and 2-level fractional factorial designs (FFDs) such as resolution III and resolution IV FFDs. This chapter introduces the conference matrices as an alternative to PBDs and resolution III FFDs and definitive screening designs, a conference matrix-based class of designs, as an alternative to resolution IV FFDs. A table of conference matrices of up to order 32 and examples are also provided for illustration