Collaboration between climatologists and climate social scientists in addressing the climate crisis

According to social scientists, people’s beliefs about climate change are more strongly influenced by cultural values than concrete evidence. But how could disheartening climate news help shape their socio-cultural values and beliefs? Some explanations follow

The VIASM-HANU BMF Class Paper Solved Kingfisher’s Food Worry

Following the joint efforts by participants in the VIASM-HANU BMF Class, part of the Conference on Innovations of Mathematics Teaching in Social Sciences co-organized by the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) and Hanoi University (HANU) in early November 2023, a joint manuscript was submitted to the VMOST Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. The peer review process was successfully completed in February, and the paper was officially published today (see the screenshot below)

Tam đề nan giải phát triển công nghiệp bền vững

Bài nghiên cứu của nhóm tác giả người Việt đánh giá hiệu quả của chính sách phát triển xanh đối với Kitakyushu, một thành phố công nghiệp nặng nhưng nổi tiếng với khả năng kiểm soát ô nhiễm môi trường, đã lọt vào Top Trending của tạp chí Palgrave Communications thuộc Nature Research, không lâu sau khi được công bố

Spatial Patterns of Hand-Foot and Mouth Disease In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Background: Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease (HFMD) is most frequently caused by Enterovirus71 (EV-A71) or Coxsackie virus A16 (CV-A16), infants and young children are at greatest risk. Describing the spatial patterns of HFMD can help develop and better target interventions. The objective of this study is to identify spatial patterns of HFMD in the first 8-months of 2023 in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Methods: The global Moran’s I statistic, Moran’s I scatterplot and local Moran’s I statistic and Boxplot will be applied to study spatial patterns of HFMD. Spatial patterns including spatial clusters (high-high and low-low) and spatial outliers (low-high and high-low) will be identified for HFMD cases and HFMD infection rates. Results: three high-high spatial clusters were mainly distributed in districts in the western region of the city such as Binh Tan, Binh Chanh, and Tan Phu. These high-high spatial clusters belonged to districts having the highest rates of HFMD infections in the city with their corresponding rates of 289, 283 and 281 cases/100,000 inhabitants, respectively. On the other hand, two low-low spatial clusters were detected in Districts 1 and 5 in the city center with their HFMD infection rates of 190 and 209 cases/100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Conclusions : findings in this study support the usefulness of boxplots, local and global Moran's I statistics, and Moran's I scatterplots in the identification of spatial clusters and spatial outliers of HFM

Isolation and determination of Vibrio spp. pathogen from Sciaenops ocellatus suffering from hemorrhagic disease under cage culture in Vietnam

This study was carried out to isolate and determine the Vibrio spp. from the Red drum fish (Sciaenops ocellatus) suffering from the hemorrhagic disease in Vietnam.  In this study, 18 strains of Vibrio bacteria were identified from 27 samples of Red drum fish. The isolated bacterial strains were identified with the 16S rRNA sequencing method and checked for morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics by using the API 20E KIT. Results of the study revealed the presence of twelve strains of V. alginolyticus, three strains of V. fluvialis, and three strains of V. orientalis. All Vibrio strains have gene similarities with those on the Genbank ranging from 98.05 to 100%. The biochemical characteristics of these 18 isolates were similar and these are susceptible to tetracycline and doxycycline and entirely resistant to ampicillin, amoxicillin, and erythromycin

Challenges And Opportunities For The Development Of Infrastructure After ‘Oda Graduation’ - Moving Towards Sustainable Development: Case Study Of Vietnam

The research on ODA will be focused on its relation to Goal 17, the Partnership, considered a major issue by the researchers, especially in the case of Vietnam as a developing economy. ODA was mainly used for investing in economic infrastructure when Vietnam witnessed a downfall in receiving financial aid due to its significant economic growth. ODA helped Vietnam transform from one of the world’s poorest nations into a lower middle-income country and soon, this is going to lead to the ‘ODA Graduation’. However, the process has just begun. The country is still in a process of industrialization and modernization and its socio-economic situation has not been stable or solid. By all means, ODA is not only a financial resource, it also helps the country to accomplish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN. ‘ODA Graduation’ means that the economy of Vietnam has faced certain challenges such as increasing pressure of outbound debts; raising impact on social development or imbalance between high capital recovery investments and public-services investments. However, ‘ODA Graduation’ has brought certain opportunities such as increasing Vietnam’s independence in capital mobilization, preventing the removal of tariffs barrier, reducing losses and waste of funds. This research gives recommendations for improving Vietnam’s economic situation and can help overcome the difficulties in the period of ‘ODA Graduation’

Challenges And Opportunities For The Development Of Infrastructure After ‘Oda Graduation’ - Moving Towards Sustainable Development: Case Study Of Vietnam

The research on ODA will be focused on its relation to Goal 17, the Partnership, considered a major issue by the researchers, especially in the case of Vietnam as a developing economy. ODA was mainly used for investing in economic infrastructure when Vietnam witnessed a downfall in receiving financial aid due to its significant economic growth. ODA helped Vietnam transform from one of the world’s poorest nations into a lower middle-income country and soon, this is going to lead to the ‘ODA Graduation’. However, the process has just begun. The country is still in a process of industrialization and modernization and its socio-economic situation has not been stable or solid. By all means, ODA is not only a financial resource, it also helps the country to accomplish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN. ‘ODA Graduation’ means that the economy of Vietnam has faced certain challenges such as increasing pressure of outbound debts; raising impact on social development or imbalance between high capital recovery investments and public-services investments. However, ‘ODA Graduation’ has brought certain opportunities such as increasing Vietnam’s independence in capital mobilization, preventing the removal of tariffs barrier, reducing losses and waste of funds. This research gives recommendations for improving Vietnam’s economic situation and can help overcome the difficulties in the period of ‘ODA Graduation’

The beauty industry and biodiversity: “The Story of Kindness”

Today, many people have realized that the climate change and biodiversity loss issues lie in how and to what extent humans consume products for their lives in the Anthropocene era. Consumerism has pushed natural resource exploitation to its peak, and the depletion of resources is becoming increasingly prevalent. The beauty and personal care industry has a large market and high profits, especially in the high-income segment. However, this advantage also carries the risk of facing scrutiny, investigations, and criticism from civil society organizations, environmental activists, and consumers. More than anyone else, the industry is vulnerable to the perils of unfavourable societal assessments, particularly the repercussions of consumer-led boycott actions. In this discourse, we suggest that, given the current circumstances, it is imperative for multinational beauty corporations to take a proactive role in allocating resources towards the development of sustainable agriculture practices. This entails not only advocating for the widespread adoption of environmentally conscious production methods but also dedicating efforts towards conducting research and innovation in the area of nature-friendly manufacturing techniques. Doing so will help demonstrate their commitment to the environment and actively provide convincing evidence to consumers of their social responsibility through emission reduction and biodiversity conservation activities

Survey on Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives and perceived support during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented damage to the educational system worldwide. Besides the measurable economic impacts in the short-term and long-term, there is intangible destruction within educational institutions. In particular, teachers – the most critical intellectual resources of any schools – have to face various types of financial, physical, and mental struggles due to COVID-19. To capture the current context of more than one million Vietnamese teachers during COVID-19, we distributed an e- survey to more than 2,500 randomly selected teachers from two major teacher communities on Facebook from 6th to 11th April 2020. From over 373 responses, we excluded the observations which violated our cross-check questions and retained 294 observations for further analysis. This dataset includes: (i) Demographics of participants; (ii) Teachers' perspectives regarding the operation of teaching activities during the pandemic; (iii) Teachers' received support from their schools, government bodies, other stakeholders such as teacher unions, and parents' associations; and (iv) teachers' evaluation of school readiness toward digital transformation. Further, the dataset was supplemented with an additional question on the teachers' primary source of professional development activities during the pandemic