IELTS Reading: Perceived Challenges and Strategies by Vietnamese University English Majors

This study focused on identifying Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ perception of their challenges in doing the IELTS reading test and corresponding strategies to cope with these challenges. The study involved eighty-nine English majors at Can Tho University, and data were collected via a questionnaire administered to all participants and interviews conducted with 10 random students. The results showed that Vietnamese EFL students encountered a number of challenges in doing IELTS reading tests, among which lack of vocabulary and time constraint for the tests were two most noticeable difficulties. The results also revealed that the students in the study frequently employed text related, question related, and general practical strategies for doing the reading test in IELTS. Based on the findings, more opportunities to expose students to tests as well as an integration of instruction on test-taking  strategies were suggested. Keywords: EFL Vietnamese students, IELTS reading test, reading strategies, test-taking techniques DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-28-03 Publication date:October 31st 202

Isolation and identification of yeasts from local fruits in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam

In this study, a total of 30 yeast isolates were recovered from local fruits in Thua Thien Hue province. Genetic characterization based on the ITS sequences identified isolates belonging to 3 species including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lachancea fermentati, and Clavispora fructus, with high sequence homology (over 99%) compared to published sequences in the GenBank. All identified S. cerevisiae isolates could grow well at 30°C and ferment several sugar including fructose, galactose, sucrose, mannose, maltose, and raffinose with different performances, but were inhibited at temperature higher than 35°C. The strains also grew well in the medium containing 5% ethanol (v/v) and 200 g/L glucose, but their growth ability was decreased gradually with an increase in ethanol and glucose concentrations. Interestingly, D14 strain was able to grow in the medium supplemented with 12% of ethanol, and 500 g/L of glucose at 45°C, while D7 strain could utilize both mannitol and glycerol at a low level. Our results also indicated that some strains have relatively high sedimentation efficiency, which are favorable conditions for beer fermentation and biomass recovery. The isolated yeast strains with good tolerance properties may provide a potential source of valuable raw materials for applications in beverage production and food processing

READ-PVLA: Recurrent Adapter with Partial Video-Language Alignment for Parameter-Efficient Transfer Learning in Low-Resource Video-Language Modeling

Fully fine-tuning pretrained large-scale transformer models has become a popular paradigm for video-language modeling tasks, such as temporal language grounding and video-language summarization. With a growing number of tasks and limited training data, such full fine-tuning approach leads to costly model storage and unstable training. To overcome these shortcomings, we introduce lightweight adapters to the pre-trained model and only update them at fine-tuning time. However, existing adapters fail to capture intrinsic temporal relations among video frames or textual words. Moreover, they neglect the preservation of critical task-related information that flows from the raw video-language input into the adapter's low-dimensional space. To address these issues, we first propose a novel REcurrent ADapter (READ) that employs recurrent computation to enable temporal modeling capability. Second, we propose Partial Video-Language Alignment (PVLA) objective via the use of partial optimal transport to maintain task-related information flowing into our READ modules. We validate our READ-PVLA framework through extensive experiments where READ-PVLA significantly outperforms all existing fine-tuning strategies on multiple low-resource temporal language grounding and video-language summarization benchmarks.Comment: Accepted at AAAI 202

ĐẶC ĐIỂM PROTEASE NGOẠI BÀO TỪ CHỦNG Bacillus tequilensis ON1

A bacterial strain with casein hydrolytic activity was isolated from shrimp waste sludge from a culture pond at Phong Dien, Thua Thien Hue. Molecular identification using 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence shows a high similarity to Bacillus tequilensis on the NCBI database. Hence, the isolate was named B. tequilensis ON1. Extracellular protease activity value is 192,42 U·mL–1 after 24 h culture. Zymogram SDS-PAGE electrophoresis shows that the major extracellular protease has a molecular weight of 130 kDa. The enzyme exhibits maximal activity at 50 °C and pH 8. Protease activity increases in the presence of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, while Mn2+ inhibits protease activity. The protease activity was more active and stable in hydrophobic organic solvents.Từ mẫu bùn thải của ao nuôi tôm tại huyện Phong Điền, tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế, chúng tôi đã phân lập được chủng vi khuẩn phân giải casein. Định danh phân tử thông qua giải trình tự 16S rRNA và so sánh với cơ sở dữ liệu GenBank cho thấy chủng phân lập tương đồng cao với vi khuẩn Bacillus tequilensis và được đặt tên là B. tequilensis ON1. Hoạt tính protease ngoại bào đạt giá trị cao nhất 192,42 U·mL–1 sau 24 giờ nuôi cấy. Điện di SDS-PAGE trên nền cơ chất cho thấy protease ngoại bào chính của chủng ON1 có khối lượng phân tử khoảng 130 kDa. Enzyme ngoại bào hoạt động tối ưu ở 50 °C và pH 8. Hoạt tính protease tăng lên khi có mặt Ca2+ và Mg2+, trong khi đó Mn2+ ức chế hoạt động của protease. Protease hoạt động và ổn định hơn trong các dung môi hữu cơ kỵ nước

Aromatic hydrocarbon degradation of biofilm formed by microorganisms on cellulose material at 50 litre modules

Biofilms are defined as community of microorganisms which are irreversibly or reversibly attached on solid surfaces. These microorganisms are embedded in a self-produced exopolysaccharide matrix, and exhibit different growth and bioactivity compared with planktonic cells. With their high biomass density, stability, and potential for biodegradation of recalcitrant compounds contained in oil contaminated wastewater such as aromatic hydrocarbons. Aromatic hydrocarbons are the main constituents of petroleum and its refined products. These compounds are also quantitatively the main environmental pollutants worldwide. In this report, cellulose material was used as a carrier for forming biofilm by microorganisms to remove of these components. Cellulose material is considered as inexpensive, available, sustainable, little waste production and can be recycled. As a result, the microorganisms were successful to adhere on cellulose material at 50 liter module with cell density of 4.3x108 CFU/ml after 7 day-incubation. Under the scanning electron microscope with the 1500 magnification, the microbial cells had a very high density, closely linked together and firm adhesion on the cellulose material. The mixture species biofilm attached on cellulose carrier at 50 liter module had the ability to degrade 80.1, 78.3, 60.0, 98.5 and 91.2% of anthracene, fluorene, naphthalene, phenol and pyrene after 7 days, respectively. The obtained results showed that biofilm formed by multiple bacterial strains attached on cellulose material may considerably increase the degrading efficiency of aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. The results also indicated that cellulose material is suitable carrier to choose in removal of aromatic hydrocarbon contaminated wastewater. These results are considered as new approach to apply microbial films on cellulose material to degrade oil polluted waste-water in the environment

NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC NGHIỆM TÁC DỤNG GIẢM CHẤN CỦA CÔNG TRÌNH CHỊU TẢI TRỌNG SÓNG XUNG KÍCH DƯỚI NƯỚC Ở QUẦN ĐẢO TRƯỜNG SA

Research on the problem of load damping of the structures under the effect of shock waves in environment generally and in water particularly is important and necessary for military structures and buildings of inhabitants. If properly designed and having solution to reduce the effects of the blast wave, general structures will be increased markedly and reduce ability of being destroyed. One of the solutions to reduce the effects of the blast wave is to glue layers of material having capable of absorbing blast waves onto the structures. The theoretical and empirical studies are currently less pronounced due to many different reasons. This paper presents modeling and experimental results from the underwater explosion topic KC09.06/11-15 in Truong Sa archipelago to determine the damping effect of the structure modeling is designed with layers of featured material on  its surface.Nghiên cứu về vấn đề giảm chấn của công trình dưới tác dụng của sóng xung kích trong các môi trường nói chung và môi trường nước nói riêng đều quan trọng và cần thiết đối với công trình quân sự và dân sinh. Nếu được thiết kế hợp lý và có các biện pháp làm giảm tác dụng của sóng nổ thì sức sống của công trình được tăng lên rõ rệt, khả năng bị phá hủy giảm. Một trong những giải pháp giảm tác dụng của sóng nổ là dán lớp vât liệu có khả năng hấp thụ sóng nổ lên kết cấu công trình. Các công trình lý thuyết và thực nghiệm về vấn đề này hiện ít được công bố do nhiều nguyên nhân khác nhau. Bài báo trình bày mô hình và kết quả thí nghiệm nổ dưới nước từ đề tài KC09.06/11-15 tại khu vực Trường Sa nhằm xác định tác dụng giảm chấn của mô hình công trình được thiết kế lớp vật liệu đặc trưng trên bề mặt

SOME METEO - HYDRO - DYNAMICAL FEATURES IN MEKONG RIVER MOUTH AREA

This paper provides some meteo-hydro-dynamical features in Mekong River Mouth area which were based on statistical results from longtime measurement data such as wind, wave, sea water level, and river discharge. Study results show that distribution features of wind and wave characteristics are corresponding to seasonal variation. Predominant wind and wave directions during NE Monsoon period is NE, and in W, SW directions during SW Monsoon period. NE Monsoon period is from November to April (strongest in December and January), SW Monsoon period is from June to September (strongest in August). During NE Monsoon period the wind velocity and wave height were higher than that of SW Monsoon period. Variation of SWL at Vungtau Station shows that the tide is semi-diurnal with maximum value occurred during NE monsoon period (highest in November), and minimum value occurred during SW Monsoon period (lowest in June). Variation of river discharge is similarly at two stations (Mythuan and Cantho). During flood season (from July to December) average monthly discharge was ranged from 4,000 to 15,800 m3/s. During dry season (from January to May) average monthly discharge at both stations was less than 4,000 m3/s. Statistical data show that Mekong River Mouth area is a region of strong and complicated hydro-dynamical interaction processes between river and sea. Key words: Monsoon, North-East (NE), South-West (SW), Sea Water Level (SWL), River discharge, Mekong River

Large-Scale Preventive Chemotherapy for the Control of Helminth Infection in Western Pacific Countries: Six Years Later

In 2001, Urbani and Palmer published a review of the epidemiological situation of helminthiases in the countries of the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization indicating the control needs in the region. Six years after this inspiring article, large-scale preventive chemotherapy for the control of helminthiasis has scaled up dramatically in the region. This paper analyzes the most recent published and unpublished country information on large-scale preventive chemotherapy and summarizes the progress made since 2000. Almost 39 million treatments were provided in 2006 in the region for the control of helminthiasis: nearly 14 million for the control of lymphatic filariasis, more than 22 million for the control of soil-transmitted helminthiasis, and over 2 million for the control of schistosomiasis. In general, control of these helminthiases is progressing well in the Mekong countries and Pacific Islands. In China, despite harboring the majority of the helminth infections of the region, the control activities have not reached the level of coverage of countries with much more limited financial resources. The control of food-borne trematodes is still limited, but pilot activities have been initiated in China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Vietnam

Study protocol: Early neurological deterioration in patients with minor stroke, frequency, predictors, and outcomes in Vietnam single-centre study

Early neurological deterioration (END) is progressive neurological deterioration with an increase in NIHSS score of 2 points or more in the first 72 hours from the onset of acute ischemic stroke. END increases the risk of poor clinical outcomes at day 90 of ischemic stroke. We will study the frequency, predictors, and outcomes of patients with END in a case-control study at a comprehensive stroke centre in Vietnam. of the design is a descriptive observational study, longitudinal follow-up of patients with minor stroke hospitalized at the Stroke Center of Bach Mai Hospital from December 1, 2023, to December 1, 2024. Minor stroke patients characterized by NIHSS score ≤ 5 hospitalized within 24 hours of symptom onset will be recruited. The estimated END rate is about 30%, relative accuracy ε = 0.11, 95% reliability, expected 5% of patients lost data or follow-up, and an estimated sample size of 779 patients. This study will help determine the END rate in patients with minor stroke and related factors, thereby building a prognostic model for END. Our study determined the END rate in patients with minor stroke in Vietnam and also proposed risk factors for minor stroke management and treatment

Organic - Inorganic Hybrid Luminescent Composite for Solid-state Lighting

White light emitting diodes (WLEDs) made by coating organic and inorganic hybrid composites on blue LED chips. Y3Al5O12:Ce (YAG:Ce) nano inorganic powder prepared by low-temperature Sol-Gel method exhibited broad green emission with the peak at 521 nm. Poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) polymer has high luminescence efficiency and red emission peak at 590 nm. The white light was obtained by mixing blue light from emission of the blue LED chip - Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) and green-red light from the fluorescence of nano- YAG:Ce and MEH-PPV polymer hybrid composite. The hybrid nanocomposite-based WLEDs exhibited broad band emission spectra from blue light to red wavelengths and provided the white light with a CIE-1931 coordinate of x = 0.2986, y = 0.2620 and a colour rendering index Ra = 84.36. The results suggest a potential application of nanocomposite based WLEDs in efficient solid-state lighting