An Overview of the Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the premier instrument to study radiation at centimetre and metre wavelengths from the cosmos, and in particular hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. The SKA will probe the dawn of galaxy formation as well as allow advances in many other areas of astronomy, such as fundamental physics, astrobiology and cosmology. Phase 1, which will be about 10% of the full SKA collecting area, will be built in Australia and South Africa. This paper describes the key science drivers of the SKA, provides an update on recent SKA Organisation activities and summarises the baseline design for Phase 1.Comment: Proceedings of the SKA Science Workshop in East-Asia, Nagoya, Japan, 5 - 7 June 201

Education Equity in the Global Context: Insights from an International Organization

This dissertation explores the conceptualization of education equity as manifested in the work of the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), a UNESCO institute with a technical mandate on research, training, and technical cooperation in educational planning and management. The study raises the questions of how UNESCO-IIEP approaches, addresses, and conceptualizes equity through its organizational life and work, and connects this conceptualization to the organizational structures, goals, technology, environments of the institute. It analyzes these connections using constructs from organizational theory that enable understanding and evaluation of IIEP’s role in global education development and its work on equity. The study approaches education equity with a conceptual framework of equity and justice articulated by John Rawls and Amartya Sen that distinguishes between arrangement-focused and realization-focused views of justice. The methodological framework builds upon constructs in organizational theory with an ethnographic orientation, drawing on observation, interviews, and document analyses within my five months at the institute. The contextual framework situates the role and work of UNESCO and IIEP within global educational governance. The findings characterize equity with different layers of complexities, highlighting its many dimensions and dilemmas as conveyed through the organizational life and work of IIEP. These dimensions and dilemmas are connected to the organizational features of the institute, which include its strong and tightly coupled technical core, its clear mandate and well-developed technology, its informal and collegial social atmosphere, and the complex relationships and interactions it has with actors in its environments. These features intersect and interact within the complex dynamics of organizational legitimacy and performance, shaping and defining the concept of equity as IIEP establishes itself and operates within the space of global educational governance. These dynamics inform organizational learning and are the basis on which IIEP situate and evaluate its role and its work on equity in the global context. The dissertation makes several contributions to the study of global educational equity. Conceptually, it brings new insights into the discussion around education equity and how actors in global education address equity. Equity in global education is often more complex than the singular, universal concept reflected in the global discourse, and addressing equity issues often calls for an arrangement-focused rather than an institution-focused view of justice. Methodologically, it approaches and brings organizational theory into the qualitative study of organizations, combining the theoretical rigor of the former with the data richness of the latter. Contextually, it presents a case for studying the conceptualization of equity in international organizations and the impact such a conceptualization may have. The role of IIEP as a prominent technical organization and its status within the UN/ESCO network allow its conceptualization of equity to both inherit from and add to the understanding and characterization of the concept in global educational governance. This work adds to the growing volume of studies on international and intergovernmental organizations in education, and, with its ethnographic orientation, highlights both the consequence and the complexity that characterize their work.PHDEducational StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162873/1/minhhq_1.pd

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD BLENDED TEACHING APPLIED IN EFL CLASSROOM

Blended teaching has recently attracted a lot of attention from educators and researchers worldwide. In Vietnam, blended teaching has been applied at various universities in different forms. However, few studies have been conducted to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of blended teaching in Vietnam. The current study used a questionnaire to explore the perceptions of thirty EFL teachers from a large university in Vietnam. Findings reveal that EFL teachers gain various benefits and encounter different challenges when applying blended teaching in their classrooms.  Article visualizations

EFL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD BLENDED TEACHING

While blended teaching is increasingly becoming popular in higher education all over the world, the concept has recently been paid attention to in Vietnam’s context. However, under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic online teaching and blended teaching suddenly become a popular trend in Vietnamese higher education. Few studies have been conducted to explore topics related to blended learning in Vietnam and the current study was conducted to fill such a gap. This study focuses on exploring English-majored students’ perceptions toward the benefits and challenges of blended leaching in EFL classes. Participants included 440 English-majored students ranging from 18 to 22 years old coming from three study majors namely English Teacher Education, English Language Studies and English Interpretation and Translation in a multi-disciplinary university of 56 years old in Vietnam. Findings reveal that students perceived that blended learning offers them various benefits as well as some challenges. Suggestions are proposed to enhance blended learning for English-majored students in Vietnam and elsewhere.  Article visualizations

Role of immunostimulants in the culture of decapod crustacean

Increased concerns on antibiotics used in aquaculture have promoted research toward alternative products. Immunostimulants have been approved to be good alternatives for antibiotics used in the culture of many species. A series of experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions to investigate the roles of immunostimulants, beta glucan (BG) and mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) in the culture of marron (Cherax tenuimanus), tropical rock lobster (Panulirus ornatus) and yabbies (Cherax destructor).BG showed survival, physiological and immunological improvements in marron through dietary supplementary levels of 0.1 to 0.2%. Dietary MOS at 0.2 to 0.4% inclusion level improved survival, health status and immune system of marron. Similar improvements of dietary MOS were observed in yabbies and tropical rock lobster. In addition, the growth of yabbies and tropical rock lobster increased with MOS supplemented diets. Dietary MOS also benefited marron, tropical rock lobster and yabbies by enhancing the biological functions of their digestive system. Marron and lobster fed MOS diets revealed a healthier gut condition with improvement in morphological structure and microbiota structure. MOS also changed digestive enzyme activities of yabbies. Further, dietary MOS lowered mortality of marron and tropical rock lobster when they were infected with bacteria. The resistance ability of marron to environmental stressors such as NH3 and air exposure during live transportation was also enhanced in marron fed MOS. In addition, there were no adverse effects of BG and MOS on the performances of above crustaceans.The current research implies that MOS and BG could be the used as alternatives to antibiotics in crustacean cultured under laboratory environment. In order to attain the optimum benefits of MOS and BG dietary supplementation in the commercial production of crustaceans, however, further research is suggested