Developing middle leadership in a Vietnamese university- perceptions and practices : a case study from the Mekong Delta

The area of educational leadership in higher education is well documented in western literature. However, this area is largely under-researched in Vietnam, and this has inhibited the development of educational leadership in this country. Drawing on the experiences of ten middle leaders of a university in the South of Vietnam, this study explored some important aspects of educational leadership to help provide guidance for improving the quality of leadership work for this university, and more broadly, for other universities throughout the country. These aspects included professional learning, and participants' perceptions of effective leadership and sustainable leadership. This investigation also examined participants' perceptions of the relationship between leadership and management, and some challenges in their leadership work, to provide a comprehensive picture of the research topic. This qualitative research was located within the interpretive research paradigm and used a case study method to explore human leadership experiences and perceptions. It adopted two data collection methods, semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire, and used thematic analysis as the data coding framework. The findings revealed that the particular context of Vietnam with the cultural influences of Confucianism and the political system of Socialism had significant influence upon educational leadership at this university. The study also indicated some tensions between the participants‟ perceptions and the literature that deserve consideration for changes to be made. Furthermore, it identified gaps in understanding in this field that necessitated further attention and investigation. In addition, this research disclosed major issues this university faces within its shifting process from a hierarchical bureaucratic model to a more shared distributed one. More broadly, it uncovered the socio-cultural, historical and political complexities of the country's transitional period. Overcoming these barriers will require effort, and awareness of the wider cultural context and the prevailing socio-political norms of Vietnamese society

Real-time Human Detection in Fire Scenarios using Infrared and Thermal Imaging Fusion

Fire is considered one of the most serious threats to human lives which results in a high probability of fatalities. Those severe consequences stem from the heavy smoke emitted from a fire that mostly restricts the visibility of escaping victims and rescuing squad. In such hazardous circumstances, the use of a vision-based human detection system is able to improve the ability to save more lives. To this end, a thermal and infrared imaging fusion strategy based on multiple cameras for human detection in low-visibility scenarios caused by smoke is proposed in this paper. By processing with multiple cameras, vital information can be gathered to generate more useful features for human detection. Firstly, the cameras are calibrated using a Light Heating Chessboard. Afterward, the features extracted from the input images are merged prior to being passed through a lightweight deep neural network to perform the human detection task. The experiments conducted on an NVIDIA Jetson Nano computer demonstrated that the proposed method can process with reasonable speed and can achieve favorable performance with a [email protected] of 95%.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ RESEARCH COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, HUE UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

This study aimed at exploring EFL students’ attitudes towards doing research at the undergraduate level, the perceived practice of research competence and the factors facilitating the development of research competence. The population of the study was EFL undergraduate students studying at University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University. The sample of the study comprised 120 second-year, third-year and fourth-year students majoring in English Language Teaching and English Language Studies. The data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results show that EFL students thought that doing research is important to their future career path, but they were not confident to do their own research. In terms of EFL students’ perceived practice of research competence, thinking of a research topic and writing theoretical background posed challenges for EFL students, while using PowerPoint to present their research was the activity, they felt most confident to do. The participants did not show entire support for the role of the library and the faculty in facilitating the research competence development at a high level. These findings imply that the library and the faculty should provide more various databases for students as well as opportunities to be familiar with doing research.  Article visualizations

Improving service quality through value proposition: A descriptive single case study

This research investigates the current value proposition and service quality challenges at the bookstore chain BK in Vietnam. The study result assists the case firm in increasing its value proposition within the scope of its business model. This research aims to examine the present status of the example firm, compare customer value from a management and customer perspectives, and propose ways to improve BK's service quality through the improvement of a value proposition. The literature review addresses relevant topics in business model, customer preference and business environment analyses to provide a solid background and a wide range of tools for analysis. Then, the study presents an integrated theoretical framework on the relationship between customer needs, firm's competitive advantage (through business model), perceived value and service quality is presented. The research employs a descriptive single-case study approach. One semi-structured interview, four focus groups and desk research are used to collect data, which is then analyzed using thematic analysis. To strengthen the reliability and validity of the study, focus groups were conducted in a standardized environment with participants selected from various client categories. The research was conducted in accordance with Vaasa University's ethical practices. The findings of the study demonstrate that the case company has misjudged the complexity and multidimensionality of client values. Inadequate infrastructure, limited data and the psychology of the customers all present obstacles in determining service quality. Customers are not yet participating in the process of value co-creation due to communication barriers, complex procedures and customer-centric activities. The research also indicates that the company's potential resources are misaligned with its business objectives, resulting in inadequate responses to the external business environment. The PESTLE study highlights the difficulty of implementing digitalization in practice and the emergence of indirect competitors in the online and digital book sectors. Regular competitor analysis is necessary for proactive market responses. The study result assists the organization in improving service quality by engaging consumers in the value co-creation process and appropriately reallocating resources. The proposed new value proposition emphasizes the company's core value, target consumers and social impacts. The result gives recommendations for implementing the new value proposition and business model accordingly. It also assesses the relevancy and applicability of the integrated theoretical framework in practice

Vietnamese American women’s beliefs and perceptions on cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening, and cancer prevention vaccines: A community-based participatory study

Cervical cancer remains commonly diagnosed in Vietnamese American women. Despite efforts to increase cervical cancer screening among Vietnamese American women, participation rates are persistently lower than the national goal. The objective of this study is to explore beliefs of Vietnamese American women about cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening, and cancer prevention vaccines. A qualitative descriptive investigation captured group perceptions about meaning and beliefs of cervical cancer, screening, and cancer prevention vaccines, and participants’ stories using a community-based participatory research approach. Forty Vietnamese American women were recruited from the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area into four focus groups. Using a process of directed content analysis, focus group transcripts were coded for themes. We found that cervical cancer continues to be a difficult topic to discuss, and Vietnamese American women may not bring the topic up themselves to their health care providers. Some women experienced intense emotions of fear or shame of having their cervix examined. Women delayed seeking cervical cancer screening and needed to have early warning signs, which guided them as to when to seek health care. Women focused on cleanliness through vaginal and/or perineal washing as primary prevention for cervical cancer. There were limited awareness and knowledge about cancer prevention vaccines, specifically the human papillomavirus. Some women relied heavily on their informal social networks of family, friends, or community for health knowledge. Fear and misunderstanding dominated the beliefs of Vietnamese American women about cervical cancer screening and prevention. These findings underscored the importance of having culturally-specific findings, which will inform a multicomponent intervention to promote cervical cancer screening and cancer prevention vaccine uptake within this population

Parking Management Strategies for Asian Developing Countries

Rapid motorisation with high motorcycle volume is a unique traffic situation in Asian developing countries. The travel behaviour in these countries is dominated by motorcycle-traffic-culture in which the convenience of this transport mode is exploited. With the ability to enter small alleys and to serve door-to-door mobility, motorcycles are excellent in accessibility. They are also relatively small in size, offering manoeuvring flexibility and freedom to park practically nearly anywhere. At user level, such a motorcycle-dominated culture has resulted in a number of parking issues in Asian developing countries. Transport users are having a unique travel behaviour regarding parking duration, parking searching time and walking distance. The number of private vehicles has been increased while the available space on the roads has remained unchanged, leaving a huge gap between parking supply and demand. Illegal parking occurs frequently in many urban areas, especially central business districts. At city level, rapid motorisation and its uncertain future growth rate are making the planning for parking a challenge. The parking policy has not only poorly aligned with transport policy but also rarely been a particular focus of policies of urban systems. Furthermore, parking spaces have attracted higher opportunity cost due to increased land price in densely-populated urban areas. Given the current problematic parking situation in Asian developing countries, parking management is of critical significance and must be addressed. Appropriate parking planning could positively influence destination choice, modal choice, the volume of car traffic, traffic flow quality, and even land-use and urban structure. Proper parking management might significantly contribute to the sustainability of urban transport development. This study aims to develop parking management strategies for urban areas in Asian developing cities to control motorisation and promote public transport, walking and cycling. Firstly, the study investigates the parking situation and policies in urban areas of developing countries with a higher focus placed on eight selected Asian cities. Eight principles of parking management are then proposed: 1) Parking policy should align with the overall transport management policy and the urban development policy to ensure the liveability of the cities; 2) Parking policy should be made specific for individual urban zones due to their dissimilar characteristics; 3) Mutual effects of parking policies in neighbouring zones should be considered by implementing an area-wide parking management; 4) Parking demand should be analysed for specific user groups; 5) Qualified demand, which should be satisfied by the parking supply, should be distinguished from the general parking demand; 6) Different parking regulations should be used to prioritise specific user demand groups; 7) The amount of parking supply should be controlled to ensure that not any parts of the supply remain unregulated; and 8) Illegal parking should be avoided by physical measures and strict enforcement of parking regulations. Secondly, parking planning methodologies are investigated and compared to recommend a method to efficiently analyse parking supply and demand. Data collection in parking studies in Asian developing cities has been a major challenge due to the local rapid motorisation. Two-step planning at macro and micro level is recommended in this study to overcome this challenge. At macro level, the parking analysis mostly utilises the O-D traffic data within city zones to estimate type and volume of transport mode and required parking spaces. In many Asian cities, data on attraction and modal split of many urban zones are yearly collected. The data can be re-utilised for long period of time. At micro level, the parking analysis helps to verify the planning by analysing parking demand, behaviour and characteristics at typical streets and land use types. The case of Hanoi, focusing on parking supply and demand and parking user‘s behaviour, is further studied. Thirdly, potential parking management measures are defined, followed by a thorough discussion on their advantages and disadvantages in the local context. It is argued that a localised parking supply enhancement measure is needed. The concept of para-parking or the legalisation of illegal parking is developed, covering the requirements of different stakeholder groups, detailed parking regulations, strict enforcement of parking, and a parking pricing scheme. Para-parking is positioned as a significant measure which could potentially enhance the sustainable mobility in urban areas of developing cities. It particularly benefits transport planners in the sense that parking resources can be reasonably shared and efficiently utilised and that unplanned land use is controlled. Furthermore, para-parking also helps develop new parking businesses in urban areas while establishing reasonable pricing schemes and effective regulations. Finally, zone-based parking management strategies are recommended to facilitate the reduction of automobile dependency and promote environment-friendly public transport and non-motorised transport. In summary, the application of two-step parking planning method, para-parking concept, and zone-based parking management strategies in Asian developing cities would be useful for transport planners and authorities. Those actions facilitate sustainable mobility for all user groups, which has been seen as one of the most important factors for urban development and a vital goal of traffic management

Entrepreneurship and Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Decisions

In recent years, entrepreneurship has become an important topic in both academic and practice to find policies to promote entrepreneurship and contribute to economic development. This chapter first presents some arguments about entrepreneurship based on theoretical and practical approaches to entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship, and sustainable entrepreneurship. Second, the presentation of the survey results on factors affecting the business decisions of young entrepreneurs of Vietnam’s generation Y. The results show that nine factors influence the business decisions of young entrepreneurs of the Y generation in Vietnam, such as entrepreneurial education, the background of the family, entrepreneurial ecosystem, knowledge, social valuation, opportunity perception, attitude, business performance, and purposeful entrepreneurial competence. The results highlight the role of entrepreneurship educated, social valuation, perceived opportunity, etc. Hence, to promote success in entrepreneurial entrepreneurship, strengthen entrepreneurial education, and proposed a strategy to complete the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Treatment of landfill leachate through struvite precipitation and nitrogen removal bacteria and poly-phosphate bacteria (in-pots experiment)

Abstract— Landfill leacheate is a type of wastewater which contains large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, therefore it needed to be treated before releasing to directly to the environment. The combination between struvite precipitation and nitrogen removal and poly-P bacteria into wastewater for landfill leachate treatment has been found to be a cost-effective practive, a viable technology in terms of environmental protection and sustainability, especially in the developing-countries. For optimum struvite crystallization from landfill leachate, the Mg:PO4 molar ratio as (1.2:1) was used, the pH of reaction was adjusted to 9 and the sample was stirred continously during 40 minutes. The supernatant sample was then added 1% nitrogen removal bacteria (Pseudomonas stutzeri D3b strain) and 1% poly-P bacteria (Kurthia sp. TGT1013L strain), 5 g glucose/L and aeration 12/24h during 3 days, ammonium concentration reduced significantly from 1076 mg/L to 1.5 mg/L and orthophosphate concentration decreased noticeably from 24.91 mg/L to 7.6 mg/L