An analysis of value-chains and market development to support the smaller-scale production of pork by ethnic minority women in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam

HIGHLIGHTS: *Using information gathered from visits to field sites and interviews with farmers in 2019, the authors of this report or Guidance Memo document the challenges faced by socially and economically-marginalized women in the Northern Mountainous Region (NMR) of Vietnam who raise local or heritage pigs on small-scales to supplement their family income. *These women have been greatly affected by recent growth in industrial-scale pork production in Vietnam. *Moreover, the African Swine Fever crisis in northern Vietnam in mid/late 2019 threatens to put an end to raising local/heritage breeds on small scales in NMR. *But there is clear evidence that smaller-scale pork production in NMR is viable and is good socially, economically, environmentally, and for animal welfare. *A number of concrete, practical ways to support small-scale producers are suggested, from providing training in pig breeding to simple steps like teaching the small producers to use Facebook to attract customers

A STUDY ON PROBLEMS IN SPEAKING OF ENGLISH-MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

In this globalization era, there have been drastic changes taking place all over the world. People’s desires are fulfilled when they clearly express their ideas and opinions to others. Thus, they need to learn speaking skills in order to fulfill their ambitions, desires, and goals. However, it is so difficult for students to master this skill because they encounter some common problems when speaking. Therefore, the research entitled "A study on problems in speaking of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University and some suggested solutions" was carried out in order to identify common problems in English speaking of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University and provide some suggested solutions. In this study, questionnaires and interview papers were used as the main instruments to collect the data. The participants were 80 English-majored freshmen in the two classes of English course 16 including 16A and 16B at Tay Do University. The study's findings revealed that freshmen majoring in English had several common problems with vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, the influence of mother tongue, and psychology in speaking. It is expected that this study will assist English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University in recognizing and overcoming obstacles in the process of speaking.  Article visualizations

ESP Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Community Language Learning on Learning Motivation: A Case at a College of Medicine and Pharmacy in the Mekong Delta

Community language learning (CLL) is a language teaching method in which students work together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. It is based on the Counselling-approach in which the teacher acts as a counselor and the learner as a client. CLL techniques are believed to help learners alleviate anxiety, threat and the personal and language problems a person encounters in using the language. The research entitled: “An Investigation into ESP Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Community Language Learning on Learning Motivation: A study in a college of medicine and pharmacy in the Mekong Delta” was conducted to find out ESP students’ perception of the role of CLL on their learning motivation. It was conducted with the participation of 144 ESP students from a College in Can Tho city using the questionnaire. The result shows that ESP students’ perception of the role of CLL on their learning motivation was quite high although the level of perceptions on their interest was not high

Effects of experience years, gender of auditors and audit firm size on firm’ discretionary accrual management: Evidence from Vietnam

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of audit firm size and auditor characteristics on firms’ discretionary accruals management of companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX). The results show that the gender of auditors affect discretionary accruals (DA). Female auditors approve DA at a lower value than male auditors. Number of experience years of auditors also affects restriction of DA. When the number of experience years of auditors increases, the magnitude of DA decreases, which means the quality of information on financial statements (FS) is higher. This study also reveals that the magnitude of DA is significantly lower amongst companies engaging a Big-4 specialist audit firm relative to companies using the audit services of a Non‐Big-4 specialist

Heat Stress Affects Seed Set and Grain Quality of Vietnamese Rice Cultivars during Heading and Grain Filling Period

Environmental stress trigger a variety of rice plant response, ranging from alters seed set, grain yield and grain quality during flowering and grain filling stage.  Efforts are required to improve our understanding of the impact of heat stress on rice production, which are essential strategies in rice cultivation. This article investigated the seed set, yield components and grain yield of Vietnamese rice cultivars (Indica germplasm) under high temperature environment during the flowering and grain filling stage. Six rice cultivars, including popular cultivars and new cultivars of Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, and one popular extraneous cultivar with differences in maturing time, were grown in pots at high temperature (HT) and natural temperature condition as control (CT). All rice cultivars were subjected to the high temperature starting from the heading stage to the harvest maturity, applied by greenhouse effect. The greenhouse has about 25 cm window opening on 3 sides for air ventilation. The seed set rate of the heat-sensitive rice genotypes decreased significantly under HT, leading to a significant reduction in grain yield. The lowest seed set was recorded in “OM4900” (44.3%) and “OM18” (39.9%) under high temperature environment. The lower yield in all rice cultivars at an elevated temperature resulted in a dramatic decrease of filled grains and contributed to a loss of 1000-grain weight. ‘“OM892” is a potential rice cultivar for heat tolerant breeding program due to the seed set percentage was above 80% in both HT and CT conditions. High temperature during the grain filling stage resulted in a decreased amylose and increased chalkiness for all OM cultivars

Factors affecting consumer’s bargaining behavior: The case of fashionable clothing

Shopping is one of the current trends of the Vietnamese. According to Nielsen’s research results about consumer confidence in the fourth quarter of 2017, more than half of Vietnamese people (51%) use their spare money to buy new clothes at modern business models such as supermarkets, shopping centers, or at very traditional models like street vendors and wet markets where haggling (also known as bargaining) is considered as a common habit for Vietnamese. This is due to business characteristics from a very long time ago in Viet Nam. The bargaining behavior is not so hard to recognize in shopping. Even now, a large part of foreign tourists is familiar with the bargaining culture. This study aimed to discover bargaining behavior, the factors affecting such a behavior in buying fashionable clothing of the consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, and to consider whether the differences in bargaining behavior exist among different groups of gender, age, and income. The research was conducted using mixed methods concluding qualitative research (in-depth interview and focus group) and quantitative one (survey). The results showed that Attitude towards bargaining, Perceived behavioral control, Interest in bargaining affect Consumer’s bargaining behavior when buying fashionable clothes. Results were validated in Ho Chi Minh City context, and some conclusions were also presented

Development of a solar/LED lighting system for a plant tissue culture room

As the green energy, sunlight provides a friendly-environment and reduces electricity used for lighting. Our target is to enhance the use of natural energy and minimize the consumption of electricity for improving indoor environments. For this reason, a hybrid lighting system, combining sunlight with LEDs for plant tissue culture, are presented. The optical fiber daylighting system consists of three main parts: concentration, collimation beam, and transportation. The concentration part is formed by Fresnel lenses to collect and focus the sunlight into a small area by a non-imaging optical effect. The collimation part consists of optical filters and collimator lenses; the optical filters are used to reflect the ultraviolet (UV) and near infrared (NIR) regions, therefore, only the visible range of the solar light can be transmitted. The transportation part is a large-core optical fiber bundle. To increase the coupling efficiency, the collimator lens is used to expand and to collimate the focused light beam. The collimated light beam is then transported by the optical fiber bundle into a plant tissue culture room. In order to keep the plant tissue culture room at a constant illumination, a lighting control system based on LEDs is used to compensate variations of the natural light. In this paper, a prototype of optical fiber daylighting system and our proposed application will be presented.Ánh sáng mặt trời, một nguồn năng lượng xanh, được sử dụng cho chiếu sáng nhằm mang lại nguồn ánh sáng thân thiện với môi trường và giảm điện năng. Mục tiêu của chúng tôi là tăng cường sử dụng năng lượng tự nhiên và linh kiện tiêu thụ điện thấp để cải thiện môi trường ánh sáng trong nhà và giảm tiêu thụ điện cho chiếu sáng. Vì lý do này, một hệ thống chiếu sáng kết hợp ánh sáng mặt trời với đèn LED để nuôi cấy mô thực vật sẽ được trình bày. Hệ thống chiếu sáng ban ngày bằng sợi quang bao gồm ba phần chính:Bộ phận thu nhận và hội tụ ánh sáng, bộ phận chuẩn trực chùm sáng và bộ phận vận chuyển ánh sáng mặt trời tới nơi cần chiếu sáng. Phần tập trung được hình thành bởi một thấu kính Fresnel để thu thập và hội tụ ánh sáng mặt trời vào một vùng nhỏ bằng hiệu ứng quang học không tạo ảnh. Bộ phận chuẩn trực chumg sáng bao gồm bộ lọc quang học và thấu kính chuẩn trực. Bộ phận vận chuyển là các bó sợi quang lõi lớn. Bộ lọc quang học được sử dụng để phản xạ vùng cực tím (UV) và vùng hồng ngoại gần (NIR), chỉ cho phần ánh sáng nhìn thấy truyền qua. Để tăng hiệu quả ghép nối, thấu kính chuẩn trực được sử dụng để mở rộng và chuẩn trực chùm ánh sáng hội tụ. Chùm sáng chuẩn trực sau đó được vận chuyển bởi bó sợi quang vào phòng nuôi cấy mô thực vật. Để giữ cho phòng nuôi cấy mô thực vật được chiếu sáng liên tục, một hệ thống điều khiển ánh sáng dựa trên đèn LED để bù lại sự biến đổi của ánh sáng tự nhiên. Trong bài báo này, một nguyên mẫu của hệ thống chiếu sáng ban ngày bằng sợi quang và ứng dụng đề xuất của hệ thống sẽ được trình bày