Public Investment Management of Higher Education in Vietnam : Current Issues and Policy Recommendations

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive insight on public investment management practices in higher education and experiences of developed countries, to analyse the current approaches to public investment management in Vietnam and to propose applicablepolicy recommendations.Design/methodology/approach: Case study based on literature of public investment in higher education and analysis of legal documents, reports and data regarding Vietnam’s current practices in the field.Findings: Public investment management practices of Vietnam still follow the traditional approach, which has shown various weaknesses and drawbacks in terms of efficiency, lack of unification, and incapability of higher education institutions to seek for autonomy and alternative operational resources.Research and practical limitations/implications: Lack of quantitative data and survey tools to enhance the practical implementation of the study.Originality/value: This paper can become a reference resource for policy makers in terms of promoting reforms in the public investment system for higher education in the future.Paper type: Case study

Impact of Internal Control on the Quality of Accounting Information at Enterprises Listed on the Stock Market in Vietnam

Purpose: This study is intended to show the impact of internal control on the quality of accounting information at companies listed on the stock market in Vietnam.   Theoretical framework: We using the multivariate linear regression model between the five independent variables according to five components of internal control in the framework of the COSO 2013 and the dependent variable - accounting information quality according with four attributes namely: appropriateness, reliability, consistency and comparability, completeness and ease of understanding which was presented Susanto in 2016.   Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research methods are used through questionnaires sent to directors and chief accountants of enterprises. The sample size is 193 valid questionnaires for the period from 2021-2022. Statistical analysis tools, testing the reliability of the scale, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple linear regression are used to evaluate the impact of internal control on the quality of accounting information.   Findings: The research results have proved that all hypotheses are accepted and internal control factors have a positive impact on the usefulness of accounting information. In which, the control environment variable has the strongest impact with the coefficient β5 = 0.276, followed by the monitoring activity variable with the coefficient β5 = 0.258. The risk assessment variable has the impact level of β2 = 0.201; the information, communication and control variables have the lowest impact with the coefficients of β4 = 0.175 and β3 = 0.141, respectively.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study has provided a basis to confirm the relationship and direction of impact of internal control on the quality of accounting information at companies listed on the stock market in Vietnam. Thereby, this research gives some recommendations for improving the internal control of enterprises in order to improve the quality of accounting information.   Originality/value: The findings reveal that the quality of internal control plays an important role in increasing the quality of accounting information, ensuring the safety of enterprises' assets, reducing financial fraud, and improving risk prevention

Multi-level damage detection using a combination of deep neural networks

In recent years, bridge damage identification using a convolutional neural network (CNN) has become a hot research topic and received much attention in the field of civil engineering. Although CNN is capable of categorizing damaged and undamaged states from the measured data, the level of accuracy for damage diagnosis is still insufficient due to the tendency of CNN to ignore the temporal dependency between data points. To address this problem, this paper introduces a novel hybrid damage detection method based on the combination of CNN and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to classify and quantify different levels of damage in the bridge structure. In this method, the CNN model will be used to extract the spatial damage features, which will be combined with the temporal features obtained from Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model to create the enhanced damage features. The combination successfully strengthened the damage detection capability of the neural network. Moreover, deep learning is also improved in this paper to process the acceleration-time data, which has a different amplitude at short intervals and the same amplitude at long intervals. The empirical result on the Vang bridge shows that our hybrid CNN-LSTM can detect structural damage with a high level of accuracy

Relationship between cash holding and capital structure of Vietnamese public companies in the COVID-19 pandemic context

Determining the capital and cash holdings pattern is among the most critical decisions of firm executives. This study investigates the link between cash holdings and capital structure to help executives consider the best pattern of capital and cash. The study collected a sample of 5,747 observations from public companies in Vietnam during 2019–2022 and employed the panel data regression method for analysis. The findings demonstrate a correlation between capital structure and cash holding ratio that is statistically significant. However, these relationships are inconsistent between the cash holdings and each component of the capital structure. Current debt and total debt ratios have a positive and linear association with cash holdings, while non-current debt ratio has a negative and nonlinear association. The study highlights a heterogeneous association of the cash holding ratio with three proxies of debt structure. The results reveal that, during COVID-19, the effects of the non-current debt ratio on cash holding and of cash holding on the current debt ratio have no statistical significance

Air pollution caused by exhaust gas from 2 cycle engine in Vietnam

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Isolation and identification of indole acetic acid producing bacteria from the coasts of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh Provinces

Beneficial plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have been reasonably applied to rescue crucial issue for agriculture by salinity soil. Observed most of PGPB was found in endophyte, rhizosphere and soil. Indole acetic acid (IAA)-producing bacteria could naturally stimulate and facilitate plant growth. The knowledge of IAA production and content of bacteria resident in the marine environment has been typically insufficient and limited to date. In recent years, unwarrantable intrusions of sea water have been enlarged in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam, threatening productive rice fields, local fruits, and cash crops. Therefore, finding PGPB in the coastal regions in the Mekong River Delta as a creative resource for sustainable agriculture is necessary and is a prompt challenge. In this study, IAA-producing bacteria from coastal regions of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh Provinces were isolated and adequately identified. Out of 202 bacterial isolates, 10 isolates showed the possible ability to produce IAA from L-tryptophan. These 10 isolates were objectively evaluated the capacity to produce IAA under 5% (w/v) NaCl in King B and marine broths. The results revealed that IAA production decreased in 5% NaCl, even though bacterial growth increased. These 10 IAA-producing bacteria were classified at the species level, Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus, M. pelagius, M. daepoensis, and Mameliella phaeodactyli by 16S rRNA gene analysis. The most IAA producer in King’s B broth, the isolate C7, was investigated in more detail. The isolate C7 produced the maximum IAA amount (192.2 ± 1.14 µg/ml) under the presence of 20 g/l yeast extract, 2 g/l of L-tryptophan and 1% NaCl. The isolate C7 was able to grow at 1–17% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 4%), but not in the absence of NaCl, indicating it is a moderate halophilic bacteria. This study highlighted the considerable ability to produce IAA of marine bacteria, which could be thoughtfully considered to use naturally as biofertilizers to promote plant growth in saline intrusion lands.

MULTI-PIXEL PHOTON COUNTER FOR OPERATING A TABLETOP COSMIC RAY DETECTOR UNDER LOOSELY CONTROLLED CONDITIONS

The multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) has recently emerged as a great type of silicon photomultiplier to replace or compensate for conventional vacuum-based photomultiplier tubes. An MPPC provides many advantageous features, such as high electrical gain, outstanding photon detection efficiency, fast timing response, immunity to magnetic fields, low-voltage operation, compactness, portability, and cost-effectiveness. This article examines the electrical and optical characteristics of an MPPC under loosely controlled environmental conditions. We also report a measurement of the light yield captured by the MPPC when a cosmic ray passes through the plastic scintillator, demonstrating that such a setup is suitable as a simple, cost-effective tabletop cosmic ray detector for educational and research purposes

A computational study on structure and stability of nitrogen-doped titanium clusters TinN (n = 1-10)

A study was performed using density functional theory at the PW91PW91/DGDZVP2 level to investigate the structures and stability of the neutral nitrogen-doped titanium clusters TinN (n = 1-10). The most stable isomers may have spin state ranging from doublet to quartet to sextet. Interestingly, the ground-state structures of these clusters are consistently formed by adding an N atom on an edge and a face of the pure titanium cluster and the N atom prefers to stay on surface of the clusters. Doping with an N atom increases the stability of titanium clusters and decreases their metallicity. Moreover, the analyses of average binding energy, second-order energy differences and fragmentation energy according to cluster size imply a special stability of Ti6N. Keywords. N-doped titanium clusters, PW91PW91 functional, cluster stability, electronic structure, HOMO‑LUMO gap

Rifampicin resistant 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' in Vietnam, 2020–2022

Objective: We conducted a descriptive analysis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Methods: All patients with rifampicin resistant tuberculosis were recruited from Hanoi and surrounding provinces between 2020 and 2022. Additional patients were recruited from Ho Chi Minh city over the same time period. Demographic data were recorded from all patients, and samples collected, cultured, whole genome sequenced and analysed for drug resistance mutations. Genomic susceptibility predictions were made on the basis of the World Health Organization’s catalogue of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with drug resistance, version 2. Comparisons were made against phenotypic drug susceptibility test results where these were available. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for previous episodes of tuberculosis. Results: 233/265 sequenced isolates were of sufficient quality for analysis, 146 (63 %) from Ho Chi Minh City and 87 (37 %) from Hanoi. 198 (85 %) were lineage 2, 20 (9 %) were lineage 4, and 15 (6 %) were lineage 1. 17/211 (8 %) for whom HIV status was known were infected, and 109/214 (51 %) patients had had a previous episode of tuberculosis. The main risk factor for a previous episode was HIV infection (odds ratio 5.1 (95 % confidence interval 1.3–20.0); p = 0.021). Sensitivity for predicting first-line drug resistance from whole genome sequencing data was over 90 %, with the exception of pyrazinamide (85 %). For moxifloxacin and amikacin it was 50 % or less. Among rifampicin-resistant isolates, prevalence of resistance to each non-first-line drug was < 20 %. Conclusions: Drug resistance among most MDR-TB strains in Vietnam’s two largest cities is confined largely to first-line drugs. Living with HIV is the main risk factor among patients with MDR-TB for having had a previous episode of tuberculosis