Systemic indicators for agricultural and rural communities in developing countries

Community indicators have been of special interest of international scholars. They are vital for community development as their role in monitoring of community development, and managing and preserving a community’s wellbeing. Community indicators provide information that reflects what the community cares most about - its values. Thus, each community needs to ‘own’ its indicators to orientate it towards what is of most value, and to help it on the way to achieving sustainable outcomes. There have been a great deal of work on community indicators for urban areas in developed countries, but there have been relatively few studies in relation to rural communities, particularly in developing economies. Life in rural communities in developing countries reflects many special challenges that characterise the complexity of rural systems. The communities need their own indicators to reflect their reality, and these community indicators require a holistic and integrated approach that can capture community wellbeing comprehensively. This thesis presents and explores the development of a participatory systems-based framework for identifying community indicators in rural areas in developing countries and principles for applying this framework effectively in these areas. The framework is developed by using the abductive and participatory action research process, underpinned by the principles of complexity, complex living systems and sustainability, and informed by Wells and Mclean’s One Way Forward model (2013) and Meadows’s levels of system Leverage Points (1999). This approach aims to address the difficulties that have challenged scholars in developing appropriate indicators for these communities, and then explore practical facilitation of the choosing and effective use of the indicators. The participatory systems-based framework for identifying community indicators is an iterative sharing, co-learning and refining engagement cycle. It enables the communities to appreciate and adapt to the emergent properties of complex community system, which simply reflect the way our world functions. This is a practical, systemic framework to help communities to identify influential, lead indicators that assist the communities to track what is unfolding in the process of development, and make sound decisions - seen as experiments- directed towards sustainability. Moreover, it enables the active and effective engagement of all community members, regardless of status and level of wealth, to share, collaborate and co-learn from ‘experiments’ that build a culture of ownership, self-management and self-development. On the basis of the findings in relation to this framework’s application in two rural communities in Vietnam (research sites), it might also provide support for sustainable development in organisations and urban communities.Thesis (Ph.D.) (Research by Publication) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 201

Evaluation of organochlorinated pesticide residue in the water of Ba Tri agricultural canal Ben Tre province

The residues of Organochlorine pesticides from the water of the agricultural canal and river in Ba Tri district, BenTre province were determined by gas chromatography with electron- capture detector. The solid phase extraction (SPE- C18) cartridge was applied to extract organochlorine pesticides residues in water samples. The samples were collected during the dry, wet season and the crop growing 2006-2007. The results showed that most of water samples were contaminated with pesticide at concentration from 0.01 to 2.00 ppb. The residue of pesticides in water mainly depended on the crops season and have highest value in the beginning of growing period. The concentration of pesticides residues decreased from rice- field to canal and river. There were many forbidden pesticide such as HCH, Endosulfan, Heptachlor, Dieldrin etc. have been found with high frequency in water. It causes a big risk for human heath and aquatic biota

Osteogenesis activity of fractions extracted from Clinacanthus nutans (Burm. F.) Lindau

Osteogenesis activity of fractions extracted from Clinacanthus nutans was evaluated on an in vitro model using osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells. The results showed that all fractions, including ethanol (EtOH), n-hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and butanol (BuOH) were not significantly toxic to the osteoblast cells at the test concentrations of 5, 10, 25, and 50 µg/mL. The EtOH and EtOAc fractions exhibited the highest osteogenesis activity in terms of enhancement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and mineralization activity of MC3T3-E1 cells, especially the EtOAc fraction which increased ALP activity up to 30% and mineralization activity up to 100%. Thus, the EtOAc fraction shows osteogenesis activity through stimulating activites of the two markers for bone generation including ALP and mineralization in osteoblast cells. The fraction is now under extensive investigation to isolate and fully understand the modes of action of the active compounds. 

Voluntary pension system challenge of expanding coverage

Since 1947, the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) has provided social insurance to public servants and armed forces personnel in Vietnam. In 1995, the Government merged the social insurance unit of the Ministry of labour, invalids and social affairs with that of the Vietnam General Confederation of labor. At the same time the system became mandatory to the employees of the newly developing private sector. The consolidated system is publicly managed by the VSS administration. VSS collects contributions and pay social insurance benefits (in case of sickness and sick leaves, maternity and family planning related leaves, work injury and professional disease, survivorship and to people that reached pension ages). This paper investigates this issue by reviewing the characteristics of employment in Vietnam. It concludes that the risk that social coverage remains limited for many years is high and, presents accordingly some policy options to augment VSS's chances to reach universal coverage in the future.Pensions&Retirement Systems,Emerging Markets,Labor Markets,Debt Markets,Labor Policies

Factors Affecting the Perception of Happiness among Teachers in Vietnam

Vietnam is in the process of implementing education reforms in which teachers play a crucial role in determining success. This study aims to identify the main factors influencing the perception of happiness at work of Vietnamese teachers during the period of educational reform. In any period, teachers are always considered as being the force behind the success of education. Therefore, teachers' happiness is the most vital factor to be taken into consideration when educating students. Identifying the factors that affect teachers' happiness at work is the key to improving their teaching quality and quality of life. This study was conducted to investigate the factors affecting the perceived happiness of secondary school teachers in Vietnam today, thereby objectively assessing the emotional status of teachers in Vietnam in relation to the work they are doing. The results are as follows: 1) Teachers face a lot of pressure from many sides; 2) There is still a large percentage of teachers who do not really attach importance to the teaching profession; 3) State policies have not helped teachers feel secure in their professional activities; 4) Teacher capacity still needs to be greatly improved; 5) It is necessary to strengthen the connection between teachers, educational leaders, policy makers, school administrators and colleagues. This study uses descriptive statistics to present the research results. The survey was carried out in September 2021

The grindability of segmented grinding wheels produced by Vietnam in rough machining aluminum material

Recently developed in Vietnam segmented grinding wheels is base on the fundamental of discontinuous machining is used to enhance the grindability of abrasive grains. The phenomenon of grinding chips adhesive to space between grains, that make the wheels became "dull", was reduce, special machining aluminum. In this paper, the evalution of segmented grinding wheel is based on the cutting performance. η is defined as a ratio between the discontinued regions and the of the grinding wheel’s working surface. There were five newly developed grinding wheels with (10.91%, 16.37%, 18.19%, 20.01% and 21.83% respectively) and one conventional η different η = 0%) were used to grind unhardened steel, hardened steel and aluminum. The results showed η grinding wheel (that segmented grinding wheels obtained a smoother surface in compared with conventional η = 20,01% for machining unhardened steel and at η = 18,19% machining aluminum material. On the other hand, segmented wheels with a less number of abrasive grains, show a higher efficiency for obtaining the smoother surface roughness than conventional wheels in the same working conditions. However, the mechanism of machining hardened and aluminum materials is a little bit different.В статье рассматриваются сегментированные шлифовальные круги, разработанные недавно во Вьетнаме с опорой на основы прерывистой механической обработки, с целью повышения шлифующей способности зерен. Явление "засаливания" шлифовального круга, возникающее при налипании шлифованной стружки в межзеренном пространстве, при использовании таких кругов уменьшается, особенно при обработке алюминия. Исследовались круги с различным соотношением прерывистых участков и рабочей поверхности круга. Испытания кругов проводились для алюминиевого сплава, а также закаленной и незакаленной стали при различных режимах обработки, при этом выявлены некоторые отличия в механизме механической обработки