A scientist’s walk through Hanoi Old Quarter Houses

Hanoi – the capital city of Vietnam and the land of thousand years of civilization – invokes among both locals and tourists the image of the ‘Sword Lake’ with its ancient ‘Turtle Tower’ and the charming Old Quarter with its preserved old houses lying along small commercial alleys. The houses in the Old Quarter were constructed over a century ago which feature tube houses with inclined tile roofs and a blend of French architecture create the infusions of history and memory. Researchers of various fields have attempted to capture and explain the essence of these townhouses in their works, either in the collectibles of many authors, the quintessential drawings of talented painters, or in publications on the history of the Old Quarter. Among these, the recent work by Vuong et al. (2019) adds a unique view of the architectural features of Hanoi’s ancient townhouses as these features are viewed as dependent and independent variables. The study titled ‘Cultural evolution in Vietnam’s early 20th century: A Bayesian network analysis of Hanoi Franco-Chinese house designs’ aims to find traces of cultural evolution in the early 20th century in Vietnam and highlight the most notable elements that affect the Vietnamese people’s perception of cultural evolutions

Book Review: The Vietnamese Social Sciences at a Fork in the Road

For individual researchers and academics, research outputs are a crucial asset that enables public gaining of recognition and acknowledgments of their expertise. For institutions, industry sectors, and countries, scientific publications serve a more critical role, being a measure and an index that indicates scientific development and competitiveness. As a country that is transitioning to modernization and industrialization, Vietnam recognizes science and education as the driving force for its socio-economic development. The government has made sizeable efforts to enhance the research capacity for research institutes and higher education establishments across the country. This involves introducing policies that prioritize research activities and elevating research funding and monitoring schemes to some certain levels

Auscultation non destructive des structures en béton atteintes par la réaction alcalis-granulats

Un nombre important de structures à travers le monde sont touchées par la réaction alcalis-silice (RAS), mais plusieurs points restent à valider concernant leur diagnostic. Il y a donc un besoin d'un moyen efficace d'identifier le problème, quantifier l'endommagement et faire le suivi des structures dans le temps afin de déterminer notamment l'efficacité des mesures de mitigation. Le projet présenté dans ce mémoire met en relief les travaux de recherches menés dans le cadre d'un contrat de recherche avec le Federal Highway Administration des USA. L'objectif à moyen et long terme est d'élaborer un guide d'utilisation essais non destructifs sur les structures en service qui pourra être intégré à un protocole d'inspection. Ce projet a été scindé en deux parties complémentaires, soit une partie d'essais in situ et une partie en laboratoire où une nouvelle technique non linéaire du saut temporel a été étudiée. La maniabilité et la sensibilité d'une combinaison de techniques acoustiques pour l'auscultation in situ ont été mises à l'épreuve sur des structures en service. Des ponts et viaducs autoroutiers dans le nord-est des États-Unis ont été évalués en utilisant l'impact-écho, la vitesse d'impulsions ultrasonores et le saut temporel, une nouveauté dans le contrôle non destructif. De ces trois techniques, quatre indicateurs ont été étudiés : vitesse provenant de la fréquence de résonance, la vitesse directe, la fréquence centroïde et le saut temporel. Le saut temporel est une technique où des rafales ultrasonores de hautes fréquences balaient le matériau pendant qu'une onde élastique de basses fréquences perturbe le matériau et causant un délai dans la propagation des ultrasons. Contrairement aux autres techniques non linéaires très sensibles mais non applicables sur le terrain, le saut temporel semble pouvoir être utilisé efficacement sur les structures en service. La technique permet également d'évaluer des paramètres linéaires telle que la vitesse d'impulsions ultrasonores en plus du paramètre non linéaire. L'étude a porté sur l'applicabilité à différents niveaux d'endommagement afin d'identifier les avantages et les limites de la technique ainsi que pour optimiser son utilisation avec différentes configurations de transmission. Les configurations indirecte et semi-directe ont été évaluées sur des échantillons de mortiers à différents niveaux d'endommagement généré par les cycles de gel-dégel. Les résultats ont démontré que le saut temporel est plus sensible lorsqu'utilisé en configuration de transmission indirecte, mais également beaucoup plus sensible que les indicateurs linéaires à l'initiation de l'endommagement. Sa sensibilité et sa versatilité (différents indicateurs pour différents niveaux d'endommagement) sont d'un grand intérêt pour l'évaluation rapide des structures

Accomodating traditions of hospitality in a tourist region: The Mekong Delta, Vietnam

While there has been a significant focus on how hospitality was commodified, commercialised and standardised in the literature, less attention is given to the extent of which local traditions and hospitality change and adapt to the demand of tourists. Through an empirically grounded investigation, this thesis at micro-level gives an insight to how local hospitality and traditions in Mekong Delta (Vietnam) transform in homestay practice under the pressure of tourism development. Normally, the local traditions and hospitality are offered by the host and experienced by the guests. However by focusing on contact zone, the settings and decoration of homestays, this thesis shows this mechanism in Mekong Delta is not one way but a dynamic process. The guests do not only passively receive but also have influences on what the hosts can offer. In fact, the homestay providers have capitalised on what tourists want to see. As consequence, local traditions and hospitality are changing and subject to re-invention to adapt to legal requirements, tourists demands, and social context. Ironically, tourists are using homestay believing they are experiencing true Vietnamese culture, while actually the local Vietnamese people are changing their traditional home styles and behaviour to accommodate the tourists

Examining Academic Challenges and Mental Health Among First-Generation and Non-First-Generation Students

First-generation students are individuals whose parents have not attended college. These students often face challenges such as academic pressures, lack of social support, and mental health problems. Research has found that first-generation students experience a culture shock when transitioning from high school to college. These factors can impact academic success and affect overall health. This quantitative, cross-sectional study examined the impact of stress on mental health among first-generation and non-first-generation students. The study also examined if social and emotional support had a buffering effect on levels of depression, anxiety, and academic stress among first-generation college students. A survey measuring these constructs was distributed to 117 students at the University of Central Florida who consented to participate in the study in the Fall of 2023. Findings revealed that first-generation college students reported having higher levels of self-perceived stress (p \u3c .05), anxiety (p \u3c .01), and depressive symptoms (p \u3c .05) than non-first-generation students. Family and peer social and emotional support served as a protective factor for first-generation students; however, family support played a larger role in reducing depressive symptoms (p \u3c .05) and different dimensions of stress (p \u3c .05). Study findings shed light on the need for universities to implement mental health screening and other wellness programs to address the mental health needs of first-generation students

Study on the influence of bus suspension parameters on ride comfort

This study proposes a three-dimensional vibration model of bus with 10 DOF (degree of freedom) based on Dragan Sekulić model to analyze the suspension parameters directly influenced ride comfort. The suspension parameters which include the stiffness and damping parameters are analyzed based on the weighted r.m.s. (root-mean-square) acceleration responses of the space of a driver, passenger in the middle part of the bus and passenger in the rear overhang according to ISO 2631-1:1997. The results show that both stiffness and damping parameters of vehicle suspension have important influences on ride comfort. Especially, the stiffness and damping values of vehicle suspension are within the value ranges (0.5k0 ≤ k ≤ 0.75 k0) and (0.5c0 ≤ c ≤ 0.75c0) to improve the ride comfort of driver and passengers

‘Easy to Borrow, Hard to Repay’ Credit and Debt in Ho Chi Minh City’s Sex Industry

This study examines the inner workings of credit and debt in the sex industry in Ho Chi Minh City, the megalopolis of Southern Vietnam. It argues that credit is widely available to financially excluded sex workers, but that this availability comes with tight constraints. As one sex worker put it bluntly, ‘it is easy to borrow, but it is hard to repay.’ This tension summarizes the financial lives of indoor and outdoor sex workers who borrow money from the informal credit market to fund consumption and make ends meet

Factors Affecting Intention to Transact by Electronic Payment in Supermarkets in Hanoi (Vietnam)

The study is conducted based on 391 observational samples in Hanoi with the context that Vietnam is promoting digital transformation in all aspects of life. Research has shown that: “Performance Expectancy”, “Effort Expectancy”, “Social Influence”, “Facility Conditions” and “Security and Privacy” have a positive impact on the e-payment intention of shoppers in supermarkets in Hanoi, especially Facility Condition is the most influential factor. In addition, the result also found that the age variable also acts as a crucial driver factor in the process of forming human intentions, while the gender variable has no impact on that process. The study of factors that can affect the intention of electronic payment contributes more theoretical basis in this field, as well as provide a more realistic view of the situation of using electronic payment in Vietnam in general, creating a driving force for the promotion of the development of electronic payment regularly in terms of frequency of application and diversity of application forms. In this study, the authors, besides inheriting domestic and foreign studies on electronic payment, also develop innovative points compared to previous studies. The study uses the new approach to study electronic payment through transactions in supermarkets and assess the role of demographic variables on user intention. Keywords: electronic payment, supermarket, solutions DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-11-02 Publication date:June 30th 202

NOISE TRADER RISK: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM STOCK MARKET

Abstract: This paper investigates the existence of noise trader risk in Vietnam’s stock market and its effect on the daily returns of stock prices. The methodologies contain the estimation of GARCH (1,1) model to filter the residuals using the moving average method to calculate the impact of information traders. Noise trader risk or the risk that is caused by noise traders is derived by subtracting the residuals by the rational traders’ impact. We find that the noise trader risk does exist in Vietnam’s stock market and its impact on daily returns of stocks is unpredictable. Meanwhile, we find a positive impact of information traders on the stock returns. It increases the daily stock returns, and in turn, helps the market to correct itself because the stock prices move back to its fundamental value.Keywords: noise trader risk, GARCH (1,1), Vietnam’s stock marke