Rural Households´ Vulnerability and Strategies to Overcome Flash Floods and Landslides in the Northern Mountainous Regions of Vietnam

Vietnam, situated in South East Asia and dominated by the agricultural sector, is heavily influenced by various types of natural disasters such as floods, flash floods, storms, drought, landslides, and earthquakes. Characterized by a high rate of poverty, marginalization, and limited access to information, production means and resources, the Northern Mountainous Regions are being one of the most prone areas to weather-related events in the country. The regions comprise multiple ethnic minority groups who have deficient levels of education, low income, and inadequate housing systems. Also, local people strongly depend on agriculture as a significant source of income and for daily food demands. As a result, they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of flash floods and landslides that frequently happen in the region. The region has dropped behind other regions in terms of economic development. Against this backdrop, studies should be undertaken in order to provide satisfactory references for policymakers to develop appropriate policies that may help people in such regions recover quickly and sustainably from such climate-related events. The present study investigates the households´ vulnerability; and evaluates how farmers have perceived and adapted to flash floods and landslides in Van Yen district, Yen Bai province. The research’s findings reveal that most local farmers in the research areas had experienced the impacts of flash floods and landslides over 15 recent years. The majority of respondents did respond to these natural hazards by means of applying adaptation measures to their agricultural activities. Famers also confirmed obstacles hindering their incentives in uptaking adaptation practices, such as a lack of production means and family labor forces, a limitation of knowledge about flash floods and landslides, difficulties in accessing updated climate information, insufficient or limited support from local government, social and cultural barriers, and limited awareness. The findings disclose that the vulnerability of small-scale farmers varies across different communities, depending on the level of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure. Farmers’ perceptions of flash floods and landslides are associated with socio-economic, psychological, and geographic features. For example, there is evidence that belonging to an ethnic minority group and being a poor household would increase local households’ awareness of flash floods and landslides. Lastly, the research highlights linkages between farmers’ perceptions, socio-economic characteristics, farming features, and institutional conditions with farmers’ preference in selecting adaptation measures regarding flash floods and landslides. Given that findings, the present study would be useful for designing appropriate policy practices in order to enhance farmers’ capacity and resilience toward future natural disasters not only in Vietnam but also in other countries with similar economic, social, and geographical contexts

Developments in the Right to Defence for Juvenile Offenders Since Vietnam’s Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

This article examines Vietnam’s legal changes and law enforcement practices in regards to the right to defence of juvenile offenders since Vietnam ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. A combination of research methods is employed, including document analysis, statistical analysis, and selected case studies. The findings of the research indicate that Vietnam has demonstrated considerable improvement in acknowledging the right to defence of juvenile offenders in its law. The contemporary Vietnamese regulations are similar to the CRC’s requirements about legal assistance for juvenile offenders. The implementation of the law, however, confronts difficulties as juvenile offenders and their parents’ misunderstand the right to defence, and the procedure-conducting persons and defence councils’ lack commitment to their responsibilities. Therefore, Vietnam needs more effective mechanisms in order to realise the right to defence for juvenile offenders, closing the gap between the rights on paper and in practice

EVALUATION OF SOLAR RADIATION ESTIMATED FROM HIMAWARI-8 SATELLITE OVER VIETNAM REGION

The development of Solar energy system is growing rapidly in Vietnam in recent years by encouragement of the Government in renewable energy. Requirement for accurate knowledge of the solar radiation reaching the surface is increasingly important in the successful deployment of Solar photovoltaic plants. However, measurements of different components of solar resources including direct normal irradiance (DNI) and global horizontal irradiance (GHI) are limited to few stations over whole country. Satellite imagery provides an ability to monitor the surface radiation over large areas at high spatial and temporal resolution as alternatives at low cost. Observations from the new Japanese geostationary satellite Himawari-8 produce imagery covering Asia-Pacific region, permitting estimation of GHI and DNI over Vietnam at 10-minute temporal resolution. However, accurate comparisons with ground observations are essential to assess their uncertainty. In this study, we evaluated the Himawari-8 radiation product AMATERASS provided by JST/CREST TEEDDA using observations recorded at 5 stations in different regions of Vietnam. The result shows good agreement between satellite estimation and observed data with high correlation of range 0.92-0.94, but better in clear-sky episodes.Because of AMATERASS outperform, we used it for validating ERA-Interim reanalysis in the spatial scale. The comparison was made dividedly for 7 climate zones and 4 seasons. The conclusion is that ERA-Interim is also well associated with satellite-based estimates in seasonal trend for all season, but in average the reanalysis has negative bias towards satellite estimates. This underestimation is more pronounced in the months of JJA and SON periods and in the north part of Vietnam because of unpredicted cloud in the ERA reanalysis

Magnetic Order in Heisenberg Models on Non-Bravais Lattice: Popov-Fedotov Functional Method

We study magnetic properties of ordered phase in Heisenberg model on a non-Bravais lattice by means of Popov - Fedotov trick, which takes into account a rigorous constraint of a single occupancy. We derive magnetization and free energy using sadle point approximation in the functional integral formalism. We illustrate the application of the Popov -- Fedotov approach to the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice

Supersolids of Hard Core - Bosons on a Triangular Lattice

We study the boson model on a triangular lattice interacting only via on-site hardcore repulsion by mapping to a system of spins $(S = 1/2)$. We investigate the supersolid phase of the systems which is a state matter displaying both diagonal long- range (solid) order as well as off-diagonal long-range (superfluidity) by utilizing a semionic representation for the spin-XXZ model. We show that the supersolid order is stable in the mean-field theory for a broad region of parameters. The inclusion of spin wave corrections modifies this picture, but the supersolid phase is still quite robust on the triangular lattices

Robust Adaptive Control of 3D Overhead Crane System

In this chapter an adaptive anti-sway controller for uncertain overhead cranes is proposed. The system model including the system uncertainties and disturbances is introduced firstly. Next, the adaptive controller which can guarantee tracking the desired position of the trolley as well as the anti-sway of the load cable is established. In this chapter, the system is proven to be input-to-state stable (ISS) which is supported by Lyapunov technique. The proposed algorithm is verified by using Matlab/Simulink simulation tool. The simulation results shown that the presented controller gives the good performances (i.e., fast transient response, position tracking, and low swing angle) when there exist system parameters variation as well as input disturbances

DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Writing skill is an important part of communication, which helps people express ideas, experiences, and feeling exactly. Good writing skill allows them to communicate their message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations. However, students often face some difficulties when writing. This survey research presents the process of the study of “Difficulties in writing essays of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University”. It was conducted to find out some difficulties in learning writing of 53 sophomores from 12A and 12B classes at Tay Do University. The questionnaire, interview questions, and essay samples were instruments of this research. The results showed that sophomores had many difficulties in writing essays such as vocabulary, grammar structures, idea arrangement, background knowledge, and others. Basing on the research results, students could recognize their difficulties and find ways to overcome them. Article visualizations

Dry Eyes Status on Des Scale and Related Factors in Outpatients at Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology

BACKGROUND: Dry eye (DE) can effect on quality of life by pain, inability to perform certain activities that require prolonged attention (driving, reading,…) and productivity at work and finally effect to Q0L associated with DE. OSDI is scale questionnaire is created team to measure the quality of life related to ocular surface disease. AIM: To describe the dry eye disease according to OSDI scale and related factors of this disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on outpatients (≥ 16-year-old) who were examined and diagnosed with dry eyes at Vietnam National Institute Of Ophthalmology from April to July 2018. Data was collected using the OSDI questionnaire. RESULTS: The average age of participants was 44.6 years; 80.9% of patients were female; 39.9% were identified having mild dry eye. The related factors have been identified that associated with severe dry eye, including age OR = 1.03 (95%CI: 1.01-1.05, p = 0.005), binocular good vision OR = 0.11 (95%CI: 0.05-0.23; p < 0.0001), medical history OR = 17.09 (95%CI: 2.24-130.25; p < 0.0001), chronic conjunctivitis OR = 0.36 (95%CI: 0.14-0.91; p = 0.027), refractive errors OR = 0.14 (95%CI: 0.04-0.48; p < 0.0001), Sjogren's syndrome OR = 31.13 (95%CI: 7.08-136.76; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Several related factors have been identified associated with severe dry eye, including: age, binocular good vision, medical history, chronic conjunctivitis, refractive errors, Sjogren's syndrome