CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMESE FICTION WRITTEN ABOUT THE WAR FROM THE GENDER PERS¬PEC¬TIVE

The nature of every war is the same, whether in Asian countries, in Vietnam or anywhere else. However, in reality and literature, war always brings many faces, depending on which aspects and which perspectives it is seen and explained. From the gender perspective, we believe that under a certain aspect “a war has a female face”. Contemporary Vietnamese fiction describes war from the view of “feminine disposition”, realizes women’s beauty during and after war and condemns the brutal destruction of war from the fate of women. From the feminist perspective on war, contemporary Vietnamese fiction also mentions the instinctive desire, the desire to be loved, to be a wife, a mother of women; as well as condemns sexual prejudices to women

Risk factors for treatment failure in isoniazid resistant tuberculosis

There were 8.6 million cases and 1.3 million deaths from tuberculosis (TB) globally in 2012. Among the major challenges to global TB control and the ultimate goal of TB elimination is the increasing prevalence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis worldwide, coupled with an extremely limited pipeline of novel drug development. In 2012 there were an estimated 450,000 cases of muti- drug resistant TB (resistant to at least rifampicin and isoniazid) and 170,000 deaths due to multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB worldwide. The prevalence of resistance to isoniazid is extrememly high In some regions of the world, including Vietnam, where 25% of new smear positive patients and 54% of re treatment patients are infected with strains resistant to isoniazid. Treatment outcomes are known to be worse for patients with undiagnosed isoniazid resistant (INHR) TB treated with standard regimens but the majority of patients have successful outcomes. This thesis investigated risk factors for treatment failure among patients with isoniazid resistant TB in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Chapter one provides. an -introduction to tuberculosis and isoniazid resistant TB and chapter two describes the methodology of the studies decribed in the thesis. In chapter three, I investigate the treatment outcomes among a cohort of patients with isoniazid resistant tuberculosis treated according to National TB guidelines. The data show that unfavourable treatment outcomes are unacceptably high, at 19% among patients with INHR TB. In chapter four, I investigate three bacterial factors associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes among patients with isoniazid resistant TB, bacterial lineage, MIC to isoniazid and mutations responsible for isoniazid resistance. I show that the Beijing genotype is associated with young age, isoniazid resistance and multi-drug resistance, and unfavourable outcome. In chapter five, I determine the prevalence of viral hepatitis co-infection among patients with INHR TB. Infection with hepatitis B is 9.8% and hepatitis C 4.6% among patients with INHR TB and is a risk factor for the development of anti TB drug-induced hepatitis (ATDIH) but not for unfavourable outcome. In chapter six, I determine the distribution of acetylator types for isoniazid among Vietnamese TB patients and show that acetylator status is not a risk factor for unfavourable outcome in patients with INHR TB. Overall, these studies show that INHR TB is a serious challenge to TB control efforts in Vietnam, with unacceptably high rates of treatment failure. In the final chapter, I discuss the implication of my findings and propose priorities for further research to address these issues

THE ROLE OF MANGROVES IN MITIGATING NATURAL DISASTERS

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

EFFECTIVENESS OF POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON VOCABULARY RETENTION OF EFL FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Vocabulary learning plays an important role in language learning. To many language learners, lack of vocabulary is one of the biggest obstacles that prevent them from mastering the language. Moreover, there have been a lot of studies conducted to find out the way to help language learners acquire and retain learned vocabulary. Among them, PowerPoint is suggested by many researchers as one good way to help learners learn vocabulary retention through reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of PowerPoint on vocabulary retention in reading comprehension of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) first-year students at Long An University of Economics and Industry (DLA), Long An Province, Vietnam. Besides, this study investigates learners’ attitudes towards the use of PowerPoint in learning vocabulary. The participants were 60 non-English major students at DLA. Two instruments were (1) the tests on English vocabulary, (2) the questionnaire on the participants’ attitudes towards the use of PowerPoint in teaching and learning vocabulary, were investigated. The results demonstrated a significant difference in learners’ vocabulary retention: the participants in the experimental group remembered vocabulary longer than those in the control group. The study showed that the learners had positive attitudes towards the use of PPT (PowerPoint Presentation) in learning vocabulary retention.  Article visualizations

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM PROPOSED IN VIETNAM

Given that EFL is playing an important role in the national education system of Vietnam for its development and global integration, this paper proposes a bilingual education program with both Vietnamese and English subjects for primary schools. Descriptions and justifications for the proposed program are presented in details. Also, teaching methods and assessments are analyzed. As a pilot, this program is hoped to be widely implemented.   Article visualizations

USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO GRADE 10 STUDENTS: TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES

Authentic materials are considered as a beneficial tool for teachers and students in teaching speaking English as a foreign language. Speaking is one of the most significant skills for EFL students to communicate with other peers. It is also important for tertiary students in the Vietnamese context. However, a few studies about the relationship between authentic materials and speaking ability were conducted in Vietnamese high school contexts. Therefore, the current study aimed to find out high school teachers’ perceptions and practices of using authentic materials in teaching English speaking to Grade 10 students in a Vietnamese context. Data collected in this study include questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Participants in this study were seventy-seven high school teachers in five provinces in the Mekong delta. Findings from this study reveal that teachers had positive perceptions of using authentic materials in teaching English speaking to Grade 10 students. Pedagogical implications for teachers and school administrators are also made.  Article visualizations

Contribution of Manufacturing Strategy to Competitive Performance of Manufacturing Companies: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam

This paper presents the results of an empirical study examining the relationship between manufacturing strategy and competitive performance of Vietnamese manufacturers, with focus on the technology factor of manufacturing strategy. Statistical techniques were used to analyze the data collected from 25 manufacturing enterprises, and the qualitative research method was employed to enrich the captured results. Findings indicate the positive impact that manufacturing strategy (together with its components namely competitive priorities and technology choices) has on firm’s competitive performance. Two case studies also provided more in-depth knowledge of the development and implementation of manufacturing strategy at Vietnamese manufacturers. From there, recommendations are proposed for management to better implement manufacturing strategy and utilize technology in order to improve competitive performance

XRand: Differentially Private Defense against Explanation-Guided Attacks

Recent development in the field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has helped improve trust in Machine-Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS) systems, in which an explanation is provided together with the model prediction in response to each query. However, XAI also opens a door for adversaries to gain insights into the black-box models in MLaaS, thereby making the models more vulnerable to several attacks. For example, feature-based explanations (e.g., SHAP) could expose the top important features that a black-box model focuses on. Such disclosure has been exploited to craft effective backdoor triggers against malware classifiers. To address this trade-off, we introduce a new concept of achieving local differential privacy (LDP) in the explanations, and from that we establish a defense, called XRand, against such attacks. We show that our mechanism restricts the information that the adversary can learn about the top important features, while maintaining the faithfulness of the explanations.Comment: To be published at AAAI 202

Simplified clinical prediction scores to target viral load testing in adults with suspected first line treatment failure in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

BACKGROUND: For settings with limited laboratory capacity, 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend targeted HIV-1 viral load (VL) testing to identify virological failure. We previously developed and validated a clinical prediction score (CPS) for targeted VL testing, relying on clinical, adherence and laboratory data. While outperforming the WHO failure criteria, it required substantial calculation and review of all previous laboratory tests. In response, we developed four simplified, less error-prone and broadly applicable CPS versions that can be done 'on the spot'. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL: Findings From May 2010 to June 2011, we validated the original CPS in a non-governmental hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia applying the CPS to adults on first-line treatment >1 year. Virological failure was defined as a single VL >1000 copies/ml. The four CPSs included CPS1 with 'current CD4 count' instead of %-decline-from-peak CD4; CPS2 with hemoglobin measurements removed; CPS3 having 'decrease in CD4 count below baseline value' removed; CPS4 was purely clinical. Score development relied on the Spiegelhalter/Knill-Jones method. Variables independently associated with virological failure with a likelihood ratio ≥ 1.5 or ≤ 0.67 were retained. CPS performance was evaluated based on the area-under-the-ROC-curve (AUROC) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The CPSs were validated in an independent dataset. A total of 1490 individuals (56.6% female, median age: 38 years (interquartile range (IQR 33-44)); median baseline CD4 count: 94 cells/µL (IQR 28-205), median time on antiretroviral therapy 3.6 years (IQR 2.1-5.1)), were included. Forty-five 45 (3.0%) individuals had virological failure. CPS1 yielded an AUROC of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.62-0.75) in validation, CPS2 an AUROC of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.62-0.74), and CPS3, an AUROC of 0.67 (95% CI: 0.61-0.73). The purely clinical CPS4 performed poorly (AUROC-0.59; 95% CI: 0.53-0.65). CONCLUSIONS: Simplified CPSs retained acceptable accuracy as long as current CD4 count testing was included. Ease of field application and field accuracy remains to be defined