Some solutions to respond climate change for the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

In the recent decades, the Mekong River Delta has suffered quite significant impacts of climate change. Fluctuations of weather elements and sea level rises have caused adverse changes, namely: the appearance of unusual high and low levels of annual floods, more and more intense storms, more severe droughts, forest fires, river erosion, cyclones, and tidal surges appear increasingly more dangerous. Traditional adaptation measures to the environmental conditions may be unsuitable in the context of climate change in the Mekong River Delta. This paper summarizes some of the new adaptation measures that scientists and policy planners have proposed for the area to cope with the negative impacts of climate change

Protocol for characterizing contaminant emissions during construction activities

This thesis describes both the development of a sampling strategy and monitoring of seven typical construction/renovation activities for the types and concentrations of particulate, gaseous and microbiological contaminants that were produced. The activities were: prepared dry wall sanding, metal cutting, water-damaged drywall removal, ceiling tile removal, carpet removal/installation, painting, air duct caulking/sealing. Sampling was performed near each activity, at some distance from the activity to estimate spreading potential, and in supply air to determine background concentrations. In addition, ventilation/exhaust rates were measured or estimated, and temperatures and relative humidities recorded. In addition to samples, spot measurements were made with direct-reading equipment for particles in two size ranges and for total VOC, to provide more information on the spatial movement of contaminants, and on variations of concentration with time. The highest particle counts in both size ranges were associated with metal welding. TVOC concentrations associated with VOC-free carpet adhesive, latex paint and water-based duct sealant were all low. Very large quantities of mold spores were found in samples collected during removal of water-damaged drywall. High concentrations were also measured for three microbial VOCs that are typically associated with active mold growth. Sampling also produced evidence for release of mold spores during removal of old carpet and old ceiling tiles. For most activities, concentrations of emitted contaminants decreased with distance from the activity

How To Motivate Language Learning Environment: CALL Before And After The Pandemic Of Covid-19

Integrating information technology into teaching and learning foreign languages holds significant importance for the education system of our country. This serves as a crucial foundation for shaping the core generation of the future, aiding the nation's development, and advancing on the path of international integration. However, the application of information technology in foreign language education is currently prevalent primarily in schools located within major cities. To achieve the good effectiveness of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), suitable solutions tailored to specific localities are necessary, which is the motivation for this study. I conducted this study focusing on high school students in Nha Trang to understand their attitudes towards the use of information technology in learning English before and after the pandemic Covid 19. This understanding was then used to discuss and propose several appropriate solutions aimed at cultivating a self-directed, creative, and engaging learning environment. This research has the potential to contribute towards generating general solutions for the implementation of information technology in teaching and learning across Vietnam

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

Water supply status in rural areas of the Mekong delta and development measures

Rural people in the Mekong Delta (MD) use surface water from rivers and canals for daily activities; and in areas far from the canals, people use rainwater for cooking and drinking. In certain areas, people use shallow layered groundwater and deep layered groundwater from drilled wells 80m – 100m deep. The quality of water used in daily activities of rural people is almost uncontrolled. Somewhere water supply systems are used, but they have been built over many periods, certain ones for over 50 years ago, thus having a lot of damage and many deposits, causing loss of pressure and huge loss of water. The issue of repairing, replacing and installing more water supply networks in urban areas is facing lots of financial, technical difficulties

Development of Daphnia magna under exposure to the xenobiotic octylphenol: Research article

Xenobiotics are of human and environmental concerns due to their potential toxicity. Octylphenol is one of the very common and daily used xenobiotics in door and out door activities of human beings. Toxicity of octylphenol to aquatic organisms, especially to zooplankton (e.g. Daphnia magna) was investigated but not fully understood. In this study we evaluated the chronic effects of octylphenol at the concentrations of 5, 50 and 500 μg L-1 on Daphnia magna over a period of 14 days. The results showed that low concentration of octylphenol (5 μg L-1) stimulated the maturation while high concentrations of the chemical (50 and 500 μg L-1) caused a significant mortality to the Daphnia. Besides, all the tested concentrations of octylphenol had serious impacts on fecundity and growth of the animals. Investigations on the presence, distribution, fate and toxicity of xonobiotics including octylphenol in the developing country environment are suggested for human, environmental and ecological health protection.Những hợp chất tổng hợp đang là mối quan ngại cho con người và môi trường vì khả năng gây độc của chúng. Octylphenol là một trong những hợp chất tổng hợp được sử dụng phổ biến và thường xuyên trong những hoạt động của con người trong nhà và ngoài trời. Độc tính của octylphenol đối với thủy sinh vật, đặc biệt đối với động vật phù du (vd. Daphnia magna) mặc dù đã được nghiên cứu nhưng vẫn chưa được hiểu biết đầy đủ. Trong nghiên cứu này, chúng tôi đánh giá ảnh hưởng mãn tính của octylphenol ở các nồng độ 5, 50 và 500 μg/lít lên Daphnia magna trong thời gian 14 ngày. Kết quả cho thấy ở nồng độ octylphenol thấp (5 μg/lít) kích thích sự thành thục của sinh vật trong khi ở nồng độ cao hơn (50 và 500 μg/lít) gây chết đáng kể Daphnia. Bên cạnh đó, tất cả các nồng độ ocytlphenol dùng trong thí nghiệm gây ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng lên sức sinh sản và sinh trưởng của sinh vật. Nghiên cứu về sự hiện diện, phân bố, phát tán và độc tính của những chất tổng hợp bao gồm octylphenol ở các nước đang phát triển nên được tiến hành vì mục tiêu bảo vệ sức khỏe con người, môi trường và hệ sinh thái

Animal Reservoir Hosts and Fish-borne Zoonotic Trematode Infections on Fish Farms, Vietnam

Cats, dogs, and pigs may be reservoir hosts

Cross-sectional study of coeliac autoimmunity in a population of Vietnamese children

Objective: The prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) inVietnam is unknown. To fill this void, we assessed the prevalence of serological markers of CD autoimmunity in a population of children in Hanoi. Setting: The outpatient blood drawing laboratory of the largest paediatric hospital in North Vietnam was used for the study, which was part of an international project of collaboration between Italy and Vietnam. Participants: Children having blood drawn for any reason were included. Exclusion criteria were age younger than 2 years, acquired or congenital immune deficiency and inadequate sample. A total of 1961 children (96%) were enrolled (838 females, 1123 males, median age 5.3 years). Outcomes: Primary outcome was the prevalence of positive autoimmunity to both IgA antitransglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) assessed with an ELISA test and antiendomysial antibodies (EMA). Secondary outcome was the prevalence of CD predisposing human leucocyte antigens (HLA) (HLA DQ2/8) in the positive children and in a random group of samples negative for IgA anti-tTG. Results: The IgA anti-tTG test was positive in 21/1961 (1%; 95% CI 0.61% to 1.53%); however, EMA antibodies were negative in all. HLA DQ2/8 was present in 7/21 (33%; 95% CI 14.5% to 56.9%) of the anti-tTG-positive children and in 72/275 (26%; 95% CI 21% to 32%) of those who were negative. Conclusions: Coeliac autoimmunity is rare in Vietnam, although prevalence of HLA DQ2/8 is similar to that of other countries. We hypothesise that the scarce exposure to gluten could be responsible for these findings