EFL STUDENT’S PROBLEMS WITH PARAGRAPH WRITING AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

This paper studied problems in EFL students’ paragraph writing. The research participants were first-year students of English in Tay Do University (TDU). To achieve the desired aims of the current study, the researcher combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, using questionnaires, interviews, and observations as the main instruments. The researcher used the package of social sciences (SPSS) for analysis. Research results showed that the freshmen at TDU often encountered problems in writing paragraphs. These accounted for grammatical structures, vocabulary, and coherence. Basing on the research results, students could recognize their difficulties when writing and find some new ways to overcome them. It is suggested that teachers should find and update some new teaching methods so as to develop students’ paragraph writing skills. Article visualizations

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING STRATEGY USE IN ENGLISH AND MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS AT A COLLEAGUE IN CAN THO CITY, VIETNAM

Among the many factors that increase students’ achievement in the mastery of foreign languages, including English, are motivation and use of language learning strategies. Previous studies by a range of researchers have identified these two elements as the most important in obtaining success in language learning. This study carried out on 152 university students, roughly equal in gender, studying at a university in Can Tho, Vietnam, sought to discover the relationships between these two factors within the Vietnamese language learning context. In particular, the study sought to 1) discover which of two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, is most prevalent among the students studied; 2) their use of language learning strategies; 3) reveals the relationship between students' motivation and use of language learning strategies; and 4) describe the differences in their use of language learning strategies based on whether their motivation was high, medium or low. Research instruments included Schmidt et al.'s Questionnaire on Motivation in Learning English, and Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (both modified for the Vietnamese language learning context and translated into Vietnamese), plus an interview with 18 of the students to gain greater insight into the answers they gave on the questionnaires. Results were obtained using standard deviations and t-tests. They showed that Vietnamese university students are mainly extrinsically motivated; that all strategies were used at least at a medium level, amidst other fluctuations; and that those metacognitive strategies are most prevalent among medium and high motivated students but affective strategies are most common among low motivation students. Recommendations flowing from these results are that teachers should prioritize the formal teaching of learning strategies and should attempt to increase intrinsic motivation by putting greater emphasis on making language learning fun and relevant to the students' interests and passions. Article visualizations

COMMON CHALLENGES IN VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH-MAJORED JUNIORS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

It is undoubted that translation plays an indispensable role in exchanging information, news, culture, literature and sciences among people globally. In other words, translation facilitates communication and understanding between people who come from various cultures and speak different languages. Owing to the significance of translation, it is employed as a fundamental subject to English majored students. Nevertheless, it is not an easy subject for students to master. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the obstacles that students often encountered when translating texts from Vietnamese to English. This was a quantitative and qualitative research. The questionnaire and test paper were used as two major instruments to gain the most reliable findings. To achieve the goal, 74 English majored juniors from both English 10A and 10B at Tay Do University were selected as the sample for this research. The results showed that English majored juniors faced many challenges in Vietnamese-English translation, consisting of vocabulary, grammatical structures and cultural aspects. Article visualizations

Heat Stress Affects Seed Set and Grain Quality of Vietnamese Rice Cultivars during Heading and Grain Filling Period

Environmental stress trigger a variety of rice plant response, ranging from alters seed set, grain yield and grain quality during flowering and grain filling stage.  Efforts are required to improve our understanding of the impact of heat stress on rice production, which are essential strategies in rice cultivation. This article investigated the seed set, yield components and grain yield of Vietnamese rice cultivars (Indica germplasm) under high temperature environment during the flowering and grain filling stage. Six rice cultivars, including popular cultivars and new cultivars of Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, and one popular extraneous cultivar with differences in maturing time, were grown in pots at high temperature (HT) and natural temperature condition as control (CT). All rice cultivars were subjected to the high temperature starting from the heading stage to the harvest maturity, applied by greenhouse effect. The greenhouse has about 25 cm window opening on 3 sides for air ventilation. The seed set rate of the heat-sensitive rice genotypes decreased significantly under HT, leading to a significant reduction in grain yield. The lowest seed set was recorded in “OM4900” (44.3%) and “OM18” (39.9%) under high temperature environment. The lower yield in all rice cultivars at an elevated temperature resulted in a dramatic decrease of filled grains and contributed to a loss of 1000-grain weight. ‘“OM892” is a potential rice cultivar for heat tolerant breeding program due to the seed set percentage was above 80% in both HT and CT conditions. High temperature during the grain filling stage resulted in a decreased amylose and increased chalkiness for all OM cultivars

NUTRIENT RECOVERY AND POLLUTANT REMOVAL FROM PIGGERY WASTEWATER BY SPIRULINA CULTIVATION

Spirulina is noticed for great applications on food supplements, animal feeds, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, biofuel, fertilizer, etc. Spirulina cultures in wastewaters could enhance the feasibility of commodities due to its ability to reduce the cost of biomass production and remove pollutants in wastewaters. This study investigates the effects of wastewater pretreatment using various aeration periods (i.e. from 3 to 7 days), the supplement of bicarbonate and N:P ratios on the growth of Spirulina sp. HH to produce protein-rich biomass. The work showed that Spirulina sp. had the ability to effectively remove ammonium, with the highest efficiencies up to 99.9 %. However, the high concentration of ammonium in wastewater, from 125 mg N/L upward, caused a decline in the growth rate of Spirulina. The growth and remediation potential of Spirulina sp. were in the best condition with the N:P ratio of the medium in the range of 19:1-22:1. This study suggested a procedure to cultivate Spirulina sp. in piggery wastewater and remove pollutants efficiently

An Empirical Study of Affective Commitment: the Case of Machinery Enterprises in Hochiminh City

The study aims to investigate the impact of participation in decision-making (PDM) and perceived organizational support (POS) on affective commitment in machinery enterprises. The study applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses. The authors surveyed 220 employees who work in machinery enterprises to collect data for the research. The study results indicate that both PDM and POS positively impact affective commitment. The findings provide empirical evidence to support the theoretical models that PDM and POS have a positive effect on affective commitment. The findings have implications for management theory: PDM and POS are the key antecedents of affective commitment. The findings also have implications for practical management in the machinery enterprises that managers should practice both PDM and POS to increase affective commitment

Differentiation Effect of Two Alkaloid Fractions from Vietnamese Lycopodiaceae on Mouse Neural Stem Cells

Various Lycopodium alkaloids have been studied for their various biological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective activities. Moreover, these alkaloid compounds have high potential in the treatment of neuron degenerative disease. This study has been carried out to test the effect of Huperzia serrata (Thunb.) Trevis, and Lycopodium clavatum L alkaloid fractions on the mouse neural stem cells (NSCs). Firstly, the alkaloid fractions were used to verify its toxicity on NSCs. The multiple concentrations of alkaloid fractions from H. serrata (0.044; 0.088; 0.175; 0.35; 0.7; 1.4 mg/ml) and L. clavatum (0.031; 0.063; 0.125; 0.25; 0.50; 1.0; 2.0 mg/ml) have been used for the treatment of NSCs at period of 48h incubation. Results of the study suggested that the IC50 value of H. serrata and L. clavatum was 0.56 mg/ml and 0.50 mg/ml, respectively. Then, the NSCs were differentiated in the presence of 5 and 10 µg/ml of alkaloid fraction from H. serrata; 0.625 and 1.25 µg/ml of alkaloid fraction from L. clavatum for 6 days. Here, we observed the primary NSCs treated with alkaloid fraction extract from H. serrata showed the increased gene expression level of early neuron TUBB3 and neuron-specific cytoskeleton MAP2. On the other hand, the L. clavatum alkaloid fraction increased the expression of neural stem cell marker genes (Nestin and PAX6) and decreased neuron marker genes. In conclusion, these results established that alkaloid fraction from H. serrata promoted differentiation of the mouse NSCs to neuron cells, and L. clavatum extract had a capacity for stemness maintenance

Alliance Catering at Deakin: the Economics of University Cafeterias

University cafeterias are a common and crucial component of university life as they provide cheap and convenient meals for students. Ideally, university cafeterias should also be responsible for providing nutritious food at reasonable prices. In practice though, university cafeterias often provide less nutritious food and at high prices. One reason for why this may happen is that cafeterias are aware of their unique market power. For instance, students consider the opportunity and transportation costs in the price they are willing to pay for on-campus services. The costs of preparing meals at home or walking to the alternatives are high, as students may prefer to use the time for studying or socializing. Thus, for a variety of reasons, university cafeterias become more practical in their delivery of services by placing less concern on the health quality of products and the fairness of prices. In this paper, we study the market power of university cafeterias specifically due to a locational advantage by analysing the case of the Alliance Cafeteria operating in Buildings La and Lb at Deakin University’s Burwood campus in Melbourne. We begin by examining Alliance as a monopolistically competitive firm and assess how its location gives market power