Free telecollaboration 2.0 tools and activities for enhancing intercultural communicative competence

This study examines the effectiveness and relevance of some free telecollaboration 2.0 tools and the IT-HELPS activities to the participants’ enhancement of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in reference to Byram’s (1997) ICC definition and its five principles. In-depth qualitative data were collected from six semistructured interviews with students and teachers of the eight-week online intercultural exchange between a Second Language Acquisition class at Eastern Michigan University in the United States and an English as a Second Language class at Tan Tao University in Vietnam. Despite the failed communication in some collaborative tasks due to some deficiencies in motivating, facilitating, and managing the exchange activities, the study results showed the informants’ positive changes of ICC and the Vietnamese students’ significant improvement of English language skills. New avenues and suggestions were also discussed for further research into the benefits of using free telecollaboration 2.0 tools and activities for intercultural learning via online exchanges

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stressful relationship between parents and children

The stressful relationship between children and parents is the pain both go through when they find themselves unable to cope as a parent or a child. In order to find out the status, causes, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest some solutions to reduce stress between parents and children, we surveyed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stressful relationships between parents and children at high school age in Da Nang city. The findings of a survey conducted on 550 randomly selected parents and 550 high school students using the Perceived Stress Scale reveal a high rate of tension between parents and their children, particularly up to 51.1% and 38.5%, respectively. In reality, many factors are affecting the stressful relationship between parents and their children at this age, in which psychological fear about health; social distancing policy; closed schools; students staying at home 24 hours a day and learning online; the disruption in children's daily routine; excessive use of electronic devices are major causes of stress in the relationship between parents and their children. From this practice, our research team has proposed such solutions as participating in creative activities and consulting the handbook instructing parents' behaviour rules toward children and vice versa, designing extra-curricular activities, and organizing training courses on life values for both parents and children to increase happiness and reduce stress in the parent-child relationship

Microbial diversity of Indigenous microorganism communities from different agri-ecosystems in Soc Trang province, Vietnam

Indigenous microorganism (IMO) has great potential for agricultural uses since they have high ability in biodegradation, nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, plant growth hormone production as well as bio-control. This study aimed to determine the presence of some different major groups of microbes in IMO from different agri-ecosystem habitats like bacteria, fungi, actinomyces, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, and Coliform. The presence of bacteria, actinomyces, and fungi of IMO samples was identified by 27F/1492R, 243F/1378R and ITS1F/ITS4R primers, respectively. Numbers of bacteria, fungi, and actinomyces were determined by the plate counting method on TSA, PDA and Starch media, respectively. The numbers of Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. were determined by the plate counting method on selective Salmonella and Shigella agar (SS agar) after incubation for 48 hours at 37oC while the density of Coliforms sp. and E.coli were counted by the Most Probable Number method (MPN). The results of the study showed that 3 major groups of microbes including bacteria, fungi, and actinomyces in 14 collected IMO samples were detected genetically. Moreover, bacterial numbers were dominated and ranged from 106 to 109 cfu/g IMO samples while the density of fungi and actinomyces were lower and varied from 105 to 107 cfu/g IMO sample. Interestingly, all surveyed IMO samples did not contain any human disease pathogens such as Salmonella, Shigella, Coliforms and E. coli. These results imply that collected IMO contains a high diversity of major groups of microbes and can be used as safe bio-stimulants for clean vegetable production

Dairy Value Chain In Vietnam: Evidences from Bavi Area

Dairy farming, in Vietnam, existed in the early twentieth century thanks to the favorable natural advantage. During many difficult periods, the Vietnam’s dairy industry has developed constantly and contributed significantly to the food needs ensuring. However, Vietnam’s dairy industry still could not satisfy the domestic milk demand. Retail milk prices in Vietnam are very high, whereas the price of milk sold by the dairy farmers is very low. The cause stems from the control of dairy companies in the quantity and quality of milk. Moreover, that control caused an imbalance in the profits and benefits of each actor in the dairy value chain. This study, hence, finds out the distribution of benefits, costs, value-added among the actors, and problems in the practical management in dairy milk value chain with specific focus on Bavi as the case study

The influence of govermental management, customers and suppliers relationship to foreign direct investment companies’ performance in Binh Duong province: A qualitative study

Binh Duong province is becoming one of the most attractive locations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) firms of different origins, yet few studies have been conducted to investigate the several aspects related to FDI firms in Binh Duong. This research aims to evaluate the performance of FDI companies and understand the potential determinants of the performances by utilizing the exploratory approach. The research methodology is carefully designed to ensure the trustworthiness in data collection, coding and analysis. The study finds out four dimensions of Governmental Management: Managerial Political Ties, Institutional Support, Governmental Training Activities and Administrative Procedure that relate to FDI firm performance and competitive advantages. Furthermore, relationship with customers and suppliers manifest correlations with the performance and competitive advantage of FDI enterprises. Finally, this paper suggests some managerial implications for the governmental agencies to improve the current policies to attract more foreign investors. Specifically, FDI companies also get some valuable information when investing in the emerging market like Vietnam in general and Binh Duong province in particular

Plectocomia pierreana Becc. (Arecaceae Schutz-sch.) a new species for the flora of Vietnam

The genus Plectocomia Mart. ex Blume had 16 species, distributed in India, Myanma, China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. According to literatures there were 2 species in the flora of Vietnam, such as P. elongata Mart. ex Blume and P. khasyana Becc. Hook.f. which was the synonym of P. kerrana Becc.. During the specimen study, we have found P. pierreana Becc. as a new record for the flora of Vietnam. This species was published by Gagnepain, 1937 in the “Flore GÐnÐrale de l’Indochine” as P. cambodiana Gagnep., and with the distribution in Cambodia. The specimens were collected in the Laocai, Tuyenquang and Vinhphuc provinces. This species differed from the others by group of sheath spines scattered, fruit 2 cm in diameter and bracts tomentosa

Behavioral Improvements and its Molecular Mechanism of Ilex kudingcha C.J. Tseng on Animal Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common chronic neurodegenerative disease with well-defined pathophysiological mechanisms. Ilex kudingcha (IK) C.J. Tseng is commonly known as bitter tea or “Khom” tea in Vietnam. The present study was conducted to investigate the anti-dementia effect of IK using olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice. OBX mice were daily treated with IK extract (540 mg/kg) or reference drug, tacrine (2.5 mg/kg) 1 week before and continuously for 3 days after the OBX surgery. The object recognition test, modified Y maze test and fear conditioning test were employed to analyze non-spatial short-term, spatial short-term and long-term memories of the mice respectively. Administration of IK extract and tacrine attenuated these OBX-induced cognitive deficits in mice. The effects of IK and tacrine on spatial short-term memory impairment were reversed by scopolamine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist. The amyloid-beta (Aβ) production in adult transgenic Drosophila brain flies was also investigated by using Western blotting with APP-HA antibody. These results indicated that IK extract improves short-term and long-term memory disturbances in OBX mice and that muscarinic receptor may play a role on these actions. In addition, our result also showed that IK extract reduces the expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in brain of AD model using Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary patterns and risk factors for Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Fijian, Japanese and Vietnamese populations

Diabetes mellitus is now a serious and increasing problem in Asian countries, where dietary patterns have shifted toward Westernized foods and people are becoming more sedentary. In order to elucidate the relationship of dietary habits to the development of diabetic risk factors, the dietary patterns of 200 Fijian, 171 Japanese and 181 Vietnamese women of 30–39 years of age were investigated using 3 day–24 h recall or dietary records. Anthropometric measurements and glycosuria tests were also conducted. The dietary trends of Fijians and Japanese have changed drastically in the past 50 years, while Vietnamese have been minimally influenced by Western dietary habits. The mean 24 h dietary intake showed that Fijians had the highest energy intake. Energy intake from fat was only 13% for Vietnamese, but over 30% for Japanese and Fijians. Percentage of body fat was higher in Vietnamese than in Japanese, though there were no significant differences in body mass index (BMI). In the overweight and obese women, Vietnamese had higher abdominal obesity than Japanese. The prevalence of obesity (BMI � 30 kg/m2) was 63.0% for Fijians, 1.8% for Japanese and 1.1% for Vietnamese. Glycosuria testing yielded the most positive cases among Fijians. Dietary transition and dietary excess appear to be potential risk factors for diabetes in Fijian women

Potential Use of Rice Husk Biochar and Compost to Improve P Availability and Reduce GHG Emissions in Acid Sulfate Soil

© 2020 by the authors. Acid sulfate soil (ASS) has major problems related to phosphorus deficiency and high potential for N2O emissions, as well as strong acidity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of rice husk biochar and compost on P availability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in ASS in in vitro incubation studies. An ASS was amended with two types of rice husk biochar (at rates of 0 g kg-1, 20 g kg-1, and 50 g kg-1, equivalent to 0 Mg ha-1, 20 Mg ha-1, and 50 Mg ha-1, assuming that bulk density was 1 g cm-3 and evenly applied for 10 cm in depth) and compost (at rates of 0 g kg-1, 10 g kg-1, and 20 g kg-1, equivalent to 0 Mg ha-1, 10 Mg ha-1, and 20 Mg ha-1) and incubated. Application of compost increased labile P by 100% and 200% at rates of 10 g kg-1 and 20 g kg-1, respectively. Both biochars showed an increase in NaHCO3-soluble inorganic P by 16% to 30%, decreases in NaOH-soluble inorganic P and NaHCO3-soluble organic P. N2O emissions were significantly decreased by 80% by a biochar with a higher surface area and higher NH4+ adsorption capacity at a rate of 50 g kg-1 as compared with those in un-amended soil. In contrast, compost amendment at a rate of 10 g kg-1 significantly increased N2O emission by 150%. These results suggest that in ASS, whilst compost is more effective in improving P availability, biochar is more effective in mitigating GHG emissions, emphasizing that fundamental characteristics of organic amendments influenced the outcomes in terms of desirable effects

Impact of climate change on meteorological, hydrological and agricultural droughts in the Lower Mekong River Basin: a case study of the Srepok Basin, Vietnam

peer reviewedThe objective of this study is to assess future changes in meteorological, hydrology and agricultural droughts under the impact of changing climate in the Srepok River Basin, a subbasin of LMB, using three drought indices; standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized runoff index (SRI) and standardized soil moisture index (SSWI). The well-calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used as a simulation tool to estimate the features of meteorological, hydrological and agricultural droughts. The climate data for the 2016–2040 period is obtained from four different regional climate models; HadGEM3-RA, SNU-MM5, RegCM4 and YSU-RSM, which are downscaled from the HadGEM2-AO GCM. The results show that the severity, duration and frequency of droughts are predicted to increase in the near future for this region. Moreover, the meteorological drought is less sensitive to climate change than the hydrological and agricultural droughts; however, it has a stronger correlation with the hydrological and agricultural droughts as the accumulation period is increased. These findings may be useful for water resources management and future planning for mitigation and adaptation to the climate change impact in the Srepok River Basin