110 research outputs found

    Approximate formula for the H/V ratio of Rayleigh waves in incompressible orthotropic half-spaces coated by a thin elastic layer

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    This paper is concerned with the propagation of Rayleigh waves in an incompressible orthotropic elastic half-space coated with a thin incompressible orthotropic elastic layer. The main purpose of the paper is to establish an approximate formula for the Rayleigh wave H/V ratio (the ratio between the amplitudes of the horizontal and vertical displacements of Rayleigh waves at the traction-free surface of the layer). First, the relations between the traction amplitude vector and the displacement amplitude vector of Rayleigh waves at two sides of the interface between the layer and the half-space are created using the Stroh formalism and the effective boundary condition method. Then, an approximate formula for the Rayleigh wave H/V ratio of third-order in terms of dimensionless thickness of the layer has been derived by using these relations along with the Taylor expansion of the displacement amplitude vector of the thin layer at its traction-free surface. It is shown numerically that the obtained formula is a good approximate one. It can be used for extracting mechanical properties of thin films from measured values of the  Rayleigh wave H/V ratio

    The politics of numbers and additionality governing the national Payment for Forest Environmental Services scheme in Vietnam: A case study from Son La province

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    Payments for forest environmental services (PFES) is a major breakthrough policy in the Vietnamese forestry sector because it contributes 25% of the total investments in the forestry sector and serves as the first market-based instrument employed to protect forests. However, there is little empirical evidence of its effectiveness. Is the policy meeting the core objectives of improving forest cover and forest quality and is it also achieving its claims of supporting local livelihoods? This paper analyses the environmental, social, and economic impacts of PFES in Son La province, the longest standing implementation of a PFES scheme in Vietnam. Our study uses a sampling method that incorporates pre-matching and a before-after-control-intervention approach. Data was collected from government statistics, remote sensing analysis, focus group discussions involving 236 people, surveys with a total of 240 households, and key informant interviews with 45 people. Our findings show that additionality of PFES in Son La is controversial and depends on who collects the data and what data is used to evaluate the impacts of PFES. Data collection is also politicized to serve central, provincial and district government interests. Evidence shows that PFES has provided little additional income to individual villagers to protect forests in Son La. However, total PFES revenue paid to communities generates significant income for village communities. Moreover, not all villagers can receive continuous payments from PFES, meaning that PFES has not become a stable source of income, rendering the permanence of PFES limited. Improving monitoring and evaluation policies coupled with transparent, inclusive, independent mechanisms are essential to providing a more accurate reflection of impacts from PFES in Vietnam

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

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    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
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