Letter to My Homeland

I never thought I would be returning back to Vietnam to study its environmental issues and in studying them, also unravel more of my identity, the author writes about her remarkable experience on the January 2018 EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip to Vietnam. Hers is a compelling meditation on the diasporic experience

Air Quality-Related Health and Environmental Trade-off of Electrification: Evidence from Vietnam

Abundant evidence has shown that expanding access to electricity dramat- ically widens access to education, healthcare, and equality. However, the liter- ature on the direct impacts of electrification on air quality and health is still in its infancy. While electricity access can lead to higher outdoor air pollution due to increased reliance on fossil fuel combustion, its usage lowers indoor air pollution as households switch from burning solid fuels to using electricity and become distanced from the source of pollution. Contributing to the nascent lit- erature, this article represents the first quantitative examination of this trade- off between the overall emission level and the degree of population exposure to pollution due to electrification. The study draws on the representative Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys to examine environmental and health out- comes and estimates a satellite-based measure of commune electrification rate using the DMSP/OLS nighttime satellite images and Landscan population grid. I find that although electrification increases the probability that air pollution is among the most pressing environmental issues in a commune, it reduces the probability that a commune reports air quality-related illnesses as one of its top three main health concerns. Thus, as hypothesized, this paper presents ev- idence that electrification alleviates air pollution-related health problems even as it worsens outdoor air quality

Application of remote sensing and GIS in modelling bison carrying capacity in mixed-grass prairie

Understanding carrying capacity of plains bison (B. bison bison) is critical for protecting this wild species and grassland ecosystem in mixed-grass prairie. The overall goal of this study is to examine plains bison carrying capacity in the mixed-grass prairie. There are four specific objectives: 1) investigate annual space use of plains bison and their seasonal core ranges, 2) assess seasonal Resources Selection Functions (RSFs) of plains bison, 3) estimate vegetation biomass and productivity of mixed-grass prairie, and 4) estimate carrying capacity taking into account RSFs. I used Kernel Density Estimator to address the first objective. Generalized Linear Mixed Effects models were used for the second objective. The last two objectives were completed using Sentinel-2 Multispectral Image (MSI). This study highlights the power of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques in estimating key driver of bison carrying capacity (available forage) and adjusting factor (RSFs). Results show that bison family groups in Grasslands National Park frequent specific areas. They mainly use the northeast corner of the West Block and expand the core range when it comes to dormant season. Vegetation type information and other landscape factors (slope, distance to water, roads, fences, and prairie dog town) are influencing seasonal RSFs of bison family groups. Vegetation productivity is 734 kg ha-1 supporting 671 - 959 Bison Unit as the carrying capacity. Our study not only contributes to a better bison management plan for Grasslands National Park, one of seven conservation areas of wild plains bison in Canada, but also assists in understanding the interaction of this wild species with the mixed-grass prairie ecosystem

PROMOTING THE CULTURAL STRENGTH IN CONSTRUCTION AND PROTECTION OF THE COUNTRY – THE VALUABLE PRACTICE FROM THE 1943 OUTLINE OF VIETNAMESE CULTURE

Culture plays an important role in the socio-economic development and sustainable development of the country. It is the spiritual foundation of society, the goal and the driving force of development. The article researches and clarifies the values of the 1943 Outline of Vietnamese Culture, the role of culture in the construction and defense of the country. From there, the article offers solutions to promote the strength of culture in the construction and development of the country in the current period.  Article visualizations

Adaptive sliding mode control for uncertain wheel mobile robot

In this paper a simple adaptive sliding mode controller is proposed for tracking control of the wheel mobile robot (WMR) systems. The WMR are complicated systems with kinematic and dynamic model so the error dynamic model is built to simplify the mathematical model. The sliding mode control then is designed for this error model with the adaptive law to compensate for the mismatched. The proposed control scheme in this work contains only one control loop so it is simple in both implementation and mathematical calculation. Moreover, the requirement of upper bounds of disturbance that is popular in the sliding mode control is cancelled, so it is convenient for real world applications. Finally, the effectiveness of the presented algorithm is verified through mathematical proof and simulations. The comparison with the existing work is also executed to evaluate the correction of the introduced adaptive sliding mode controller. Thoroughly, the settling time, the peak value, the integral square error of the proposed control scheme reduced about 50% in comparison with the compared disturbance observer based sliding mode control

The impact of leverage on stock returns: an empirical test on the Australian stock market

Asset pricing model is no longer a new topic to theoretical finance but it still maintains researchers’ interest until now. The role of firm characteristics in explaining the stock returns becomes more and more significant in the empirical studies. The Fama French three factor is the most famous model of testing the firm characteristics: size effect and book to market effect on stock returns. However, this model does not include leverage, one of the most important firm characteristics. Starting from this idea, the study is conducted to examine the relationship between stock returns and leverage along with measuring the leverage’s contribution to the model’s explanatory power. Data consists of 50 companies in the S&P/ASX 200 index of Australian Stock Exchange over the period 2005-2009. It is found that there is a significantly negative relationship between leverage and stock returns. Nonetheless, the test of explanatory power reports that leverage does not contribute to the explanatory power of the model

THE ISSUE OF NATIONALISM IN NATIONAL LITERATURE EDUCATION IN VIETNAM BEFORE 1945 AND THE LESSONS FOR THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

In the current globalization context, Viet Nam’s traditional cultural values have had changes. Stemming from that situation, through content analysis of materials on books, newspapers and magazines before 1945, the author studies the issue of national literature education in Viet Nam based on the aspects of language, documents and teaching content, initially draws some lessons from the education of national conciousness in the current international integration process

Metagenomic deep sequencing of aqueous fluid detects intraocular lymphomas.

IntroductionCurrently, the detection of pathogens or mutations associated with intraocular lymphomas heavily relies on prespecified, directed PCRs. With metagenomic deep sequencing (MDS), an unbiased high-throughput sequencing approach, all pathogens as well as all mutations present in the host's genome can be detected in the same small amount of ocular fluid.MethodsIn this cross-sectional case series, aqueous fluid samples from two patients were submitted to MDS to identify pathogens as well as common and rare cancer mutations.ResultsMDS of aqueous fluid from the first patient with vitreal lymphoma revealed the presence of both Epstein-Barr virus (HHV-4/EBV) and human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) RNA. Aqueous fluid from the second patient with intraocular B-cell lymphoma demonstrated a less common mutation in the MYD88 gene associated with B-cell lymphoma.ConclusionMDS detects pathogens that, in some instances, may drive the development of intraocular lymphomas. Moreover, MDS is able to identify both common and rare mutations associated with lymphomas

The Ability of Teachers at Tuyen Quang Province’s Primary School to Organize STEM Educational Activities

The effectiveness of students' learning is significantly impacted by primary teachers' capacity to plan STEM instructional activities. If the study reveals the precise state of the teachers' capacity to plan STEM education activities in selected primary schools in Tuyen Quang Province. It will serve as the foundation for initiatives that will increase teachers' ability to plan STEM educational activities and improve the standard of instruction in primary schools. 210 administrators, teachers, and 350 students from 7 primary schools in Tuyen Quang Province of were interviewed in-depth using analysis and synthesis of theoretical approaches, questionnaire surveys mixed with observation, and in-depth interviews. We have got preliminary results on the level of teachers' attainment of the capacity to plan STEM educational activities using quantitative data processing techniques on SPSS software. The competencies are often evaluated at an average to slightly above average level. Based on the aforementioned research findings, we offer some suggestions for managers to take into account when developing a strategic plan to enhance teachers' ability to plan STEM-related educational activities

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