English teachers’ perception and attitudes of scaffolding method in teaching academic writing: An exploratory study at universities in Vietnam

The primary aim of this research is to investigate the impact of utilizing the scaffolding method on teaching academic writing in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at universities in Vietnam. This mixed-method study examined the attitudes and perceptions of 88 EFL educators from diverse backgrounds and degree levels who were randomly selected for the research. Methodologically, data were gathered and analyzed using the appropriate methods for each instrument, including a questionnaire and focus group discussion (FGD). Theoretically, the study is a medley of relevant theories and approaches such as Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Learning, the Scaffolding theory, and the ‘High challenge - High support’ pedagogy. The results of this study suggest that participants used scaffolding to some extent and had strongly positive attitudes and perceptions regarding its practical aspects; however, the findings also revealed that the surveyed lecturers are deficient in the necessary knowledge and skills. In addition, the study's findings imply that EFL teachers need training on how to properly use scaffolding as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate teaching academic writing to EFL students

Application of HEC-HMS model and satellite precipitation products to restore runoff in Laigiang river basin in Vietnam

The Laigiang river basin in the South Central Coast of Vietnam plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Binhdinh Province. In recent decades, the region has experienced commonly flooding in vast areas. This research aims to simulate event-based rainfall-runoff modelling, a historical flood event in December 2016, by applying the HEC-HMS model and rainfall data from CHIRPS. The CHIRPS data is an acceptable potential data input of the hydrology model. These have been confirmed through reliable validation indexes: The peak flood flow rate of 2,542.6 m3/s corresponds to the flood frequency of 5%; NSE with the value at 0.95; R2 coefficient reached 0.87; PBIAS being around 0.45, and PFC being at 0.89. It shows better performance in the rainy season than in the dry season. Inclusive, the CHIRPS rainfall data set and the HEC model could be used for some operational purposes in weather forecasting, especially for flood warnings in river basins in the South Central Coast, Vietnam

Utilizing STEM-based practices to enhance mathematics teaching in Vietnam: Developing students' real-world problem solving and 21st century skills

In Vietnam, STEM-based teaching approaches have been recommended for schools since 2018 with the integration of multiple courses in schools. Teachers’ perspectives on integrated STEM education, and how to design a STEM lesson that supports students’ learning are critical for ensuring that an integrated STEM curriculum is to be implemented successfully. This paper aims to describe a study examining STEM education practices in teaching Mathematics, in particular “Trigonometry ratio of an acute angle” in Vietnam. This study utilized mixed methods approaches with three phases: the first stage employed a quantitative phase to examine Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives on STEM education. The second phase was an experiment on teaching while applying STEM education to design and organize a mathematics lesson, and the third, final phase, was to employ a qualitative study to explore the Vietnamese students’ experiences of STEM education connected with real-world problem-solving and 21st-century skills development. A total of 47 teachers and 85 students participated in this study and data was collected from multiple research tools such as questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings showed Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives on the necessity and importance of applying STEM education practices; however, they reported facing numerous challenges. A lesson designed as a STEM education application and the students’ feedback in relation to real-world problems. Learning outcomes connected with 21st-century skills in this study were expected to provide further knowledge for further discussions and practices to enhance teaching and learning STEM and mathematics education in VietnamPeer Reviewe

Characterization of arsenic-resistant endophytic Priestia megaterium R2.5.2 isolated from ferns in an arsenic-contaminated multi-metal mine in Vietnam

Bioremediation is a biological process to remove or neutralize environmental pollutants. This study was carried out to investing at the efficacy of arsenic resistant endophytic bacteria isolated from Pteris vittata, Pityrogramma calomelanos, Blenchum orientale, and Nephrolepis exaltata, which grow in a highly arsenic (As) contamination mining site in Vietnam. Their segmented roots, stems, and leaves were homogenized separately and inoculated on LB agar plates containing 5mM As(III) and As(V). A total of 31 arsenic resistant endophytic strains were selected, in which strain R2.5.2 isolated from the root of P. calomelanos had the highest arsenic resistant capability. Strain R2.5.2 tolerated up to 320 mM and 160 mM of arsenate and arsenite, respectively. The strain developed well on a media of 0.1 5% NaCl, at 20-40ºC and pH 5 9, and actively utilized most of the sugar sources. It had a high IAA biosynthesis capacity with an average concentration of 19.14 mg/L, tolerated to 0.5-16 mM concentration of Ag+, Hg2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Cr4+, and reduced As(V). Based on 16s rDNA, R2.5.2 was identified as Priestia megaterium. The ars C gene coding for arsenate reductase catalyzing reduction of As(V) was successfully amplified in P. megaterium R2.5.2.  The selected strain may have potential use for bioremediation practice

Design of a smart doorbell for a leader’s office with availability status notification and visitor recognition features

Smart doorbells have become a critical component of smart homes and modern offices. However, a smart doorbell, particularly designed for a leader’s office, has not been introduced. In this study, a smart doorbell is developed for a leader’s office. The system includes an application that allows availability status notification on the doorbell module and voice communication with the visitor from inside the office based on a private Wi-Fi network without an Internet connection to prevent the leader from potential privacy and security issues. It also features a live video capture of the visitor with face recognition by implementing a MobileNet model. In training and testing this model, 1,549 free face images of 125 people were augmented to generate training, validation, and testing datasets of 9,185, 2,500, and 5,000 face images, respectively. An additional authentication testing dataset of 1,068 AI-generated face images was also used to evaluate the system’s False Acceptance Rate (FAR). A high confidence level of 0.945 was selected for the developed MobileNet model to obtain zero FAR and high accuracy, recall, and F-score values of 0.960, 0.960, and 0.978, respectively. Therefore, the proposed doorbell could be used for an office leader, showing potential use for biometric authentication

CSA: Thực hành nông nghiệp thông minh với khí hậu ở Việt Nam

During the last five years, Vietnam has been one of the countries most affected by climate change. Severe typhoons, flooding, cold spells, salinity intrusion, and drought have affected agriculture production across the country, from upland to lowland regions. Fortunately for Vietnam, continuous work in developing climate-smart agriculture has been occurring in research organizations and among innovative farmers and entrepreneurs. Application of various CSA practices and technologies to adapt to the impact of climate change in agriculture production have been expanding. However, there is a need to accelerate the scaling process of these practices and technologies in order to ensure growth of agriculture production and food security, increase income of farmers, make farming climate resilient, and contribute to global climate change mitigation. This book aims to provide basic information to researchers, managers, and technicians and extentionists at different levels on what CSA practices and technologies can be up scaled in different locations in Vietnam

TextANIMAR: Text-based 3D Animal Fine-Grained Retrieval

3D object retrieval is an important yet challenging task, which has drawn more and more attention in recent years. While existing approaches have made strides in addressing this issue, they are often limited to restricted settings such as image and sketch queries, which are often unfriendly interactions for common users. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel SHREC challenge track focusing on text-based fine-grained retrieval of 3D animal models. Unlike previous SHREC challenge tracks, the proposed task is considerably more challenging, requiring participants to develop innovative approaches to tackle the problem of text-based retrieval. Despite the increased difficulty, we believe that this task has the potential to drive useful applications in practice and facilitate more intuitive interactions with 3D objects. Five groups participated in our competition, submitting a total of 114 runs. While the results obtained in our competition are satisfactory, we note that the challenges presented by this task are far from being fully solved. As such, we provide insights into potential areas for future research and improvements. We believe that we can help push the boundaries of 3D object retrieval and facilitate more user-friendly interactions via vision-language technologies.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0573

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke

Studium na temat rozwoju umiejętności studentów matematyki ze specjalnością nauczycielską

This paper presents some courses in Bachelor of capacity development of mathematical pedagogy students. Firstly, we analysed Bachelor of Mathematical Education program. Secondly, we conducted a survey to identify Vietnamese students who need to be equipped and experienced some performance capacities. Thirdly, we suggested some solutions to be taken during courses related to the module of teaching methods and pedagogic practice in order to contribute to the promotion of these competencies for students. Finally, we answered the question “How to develop such capacities for students?”.Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia kilka kursów, które mają na celu rozwój umiejętności dydaktycznych z zakresu matematyki wśród studentów. Po pierwsze, przeanalizowaliśmy program studiów licencjackich z zakresu edukacji matematycznej. Po drugie, przeprowadziliśmy ankietę w celu ustalenia, którzy wietnamscy studenci powinni być wyposażeni w określone doświadczenia i umiejętności. Po trzecie, zaproponowaliśmy kilka rozwiązań, które należy podjąć podczas kursów związanych z modułem metod nauczania i praktyką pedagogiczną, aby podnieść kompetencje studentów. Na koniec odpowiedzieliśmy na pytanie: „Jak rozwijać takie możliwości wśród studentów?”

Validation of the global limb anatomical staging system in Vietnamese patients treated for chronic limb-threatening ischemia

Abstract Background Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is the most severe clinical form of peripheral artery disease (PAD), accounting for approximately 11%, and is strongly associated with the incidence of amputation, cardiovascular events, and mortality. The Global Vascular Guideline (GVG) proposed a new Global Anatomic Staging System (GLASS) for evaluating the anatomic complexity of arterial lesions. However, more research is required to evaluate outcomes after endovascular intervention in CLTI patients using the GLASS. Objective Our study aimed to describe clinical characteristics, arterial lesions, and endovascular interventions according to three grades of GLASS in the Vietnamese population. We evaluated the technical success, mortality rate, and probability to preserve the limb according to the GLASS. Methods All patients were diagnosed with CLTI and underwent infrainguinal endovascular intervention at the Department of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, University Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh City from June 2020 to June 2022. All patients were evaluated before intervention and follow-up at 6 and 12 months after intervention. Patients were divided into three groups according to the GLASS, thereby comparing the technical success, mortality, and amputation rates. This retrospective study describes a series of cases. Results The study sample evaluated 82 lower limbs of 82 patients, in which GLASS class I, II, and III lesions accounted for 36.6%, 43.9%, and 19.5% of the patients, respectively. The rates of technical success in the groups gradually decreased according to the complexity of the lesions (90%, 86.11%, and 56.25% for GLASS I, II, and III, respectively; p = 0.012). Notably, limb-based patency (LBP) at 12 months was significantly lower in the GLASS III group than in the GLASS I and II groups (22.22% vs 88.89% and 67.74%, respectively; p = 0.001). The amputation rates at 12 months in GLASS groups I, II, and III were 13.3%, 22.2%, and 50%, respectively (p = 0.021), while the mortality rates at 12 months were 0%, 8.33%, and 25%, respectively (p = 0.015). Conclusion In patients with CLTI of higher GLASS stages, the rates of technical success were lower and the amputation and mortality rates were higher