THE CUISINE OF THE EDE PEOPLE IN KMRONG PRŎNG VILLAGE, BUON MA THUOT (DAK LAK PROVINCE)

The Ede are a Malayo-Polynesian language-speaking ethnic group residing primarily in Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Phu Yen, and Khanh Hoa provinces. They have a rich and unique tangible and intangible culture. From 2017 to 2020, the authors carried out many field trips to Kmrong Prŏng A and Kmrong Prŏng B villages (Ea Tu Commune, Buon Ma Thuot) to research, collect, and inventory the material and spiritual cultural heritage of the Ede for conservation and exhibition at the Dak Lak provincial museum. In this article, we introduce some traditional dishes of the Ede in Krmong Prŏng village, research and evaluate traditional aspects of their cuisine, and propose some recommendations and solutions to preserve and promote the unique Ede cuisine in the current period of development and integration

Sustainability assessment of Vietnam's electricity planning: Using section 1 of the 2009 hydropower sustainability assessment protocol

The Draft Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) was first introduced in Vietnam at the National Consultant Workshop organized by Vietnam Water Partnership (VNWP) in November 2009. Although the structure of HSAP is relatively complex and new to Vietnam, the participants (from Government agencies, experts, investors, and Vietnamese and international civil society organizations) had the impression that the HSAP has the potential to be a useful tool for participatory assessment of the sustainability of a hydropower project and broader planning. With the assistance of the M-POWER (Mekong Program on Water, Environment and Resilience), a national group of experts in multiple disciplines from government agencies, national organisations and NGOs was mobilized to conduct a rapid sustainability assessment of the energy and hydropower development policy and plan in Vietnam. Section I of the draft HSAP 2009 was used as an assessment tool. The assessment focused on the quality of the process of developing and implementing the strategic development of the electricity sector in general and hydropower development of Vietnam in particular. Even though the rapid assessment framework of HSAP was quite new to the Assessment Team and the assessment subjects are broad, the Team and participants in this trial learned positive and negative lessons that can serve as a basis for future assessment exercises to enable deeper and more comprehensive assessment. The assessment report includes four major parts: 1) Introduction and background, 2) Water and hydropower development in Vietnam; 3) Rapid assessment - process and discussion of results; and 4) Lessons learned from the assessment and recommendations for draft HSAP 2009

Ultra high Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete Panel Subjected to Severe Blast Loading

Experimental studies play a crucial role in shedding light on the dynamic behaviour of structures under blast loading. However, high costs and complicated technical requirements, particularly for full-scale structures, are still huge disadvantages to conduct such a series of tests. Hence, the finite element method is much needed to provide supplementary information to previous experiments and to enable further parametric studies without testing. This article presents a numerical investigation carried out to understand the behaviour of ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) panels under severe blast loading. The authors designed a subroutine with eight numbers of solution-dependent state variables, 32 mechanical constants, integrated with the Abaqus program to analyze the dynamic behaviour of UHPFRC against multiple blast impacts, using the Johnson-Holmquist 2 damage model incorporating both the damage and residual strength of the material. The subroutine was validated by comparing the simulation results with test results. For the purpose of estimating the structural response of the UHPFRC panel subjected to blast loading, other studying scenarios were considered by varying input parameters, including the thickness of the panel, stand-off distance, and steel reinforcement bar volume. The variations in deflection, strain, and damage of the UHPFRC panel, as well as the steel reinforcement strain, were also evaluated. Through important obtained results, the UHPFRC panel is strongly recommended for a protective barrier installed in the vicinity of critical infrastructure against severe blast loadin

ADSORPTIVE CATHODIC STRIPPING VOLTAMMETRIC DETERMINATION OF SEVERAL HEAVY METALS (Ni, Co, Cu, Pb) IN NATURAL WATERS

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

HYDROGEN-PLASMA-TREATED NANO TIO2 FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC OXIDATION OF VOCS IN AIR STREAM

Unlike water treatment processes, the photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs in air stream exhibits many challenges. This study will develop the hydrogen-plasma-treated TiO2 with improvement in photocatalytic activity. The hydrogen-plasma-treatment was carried out in the non-thermal atmospheric pressure reactor at room temperature or above. The catalysts were prepared and analyzed by advanced techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electro-microscopy (SEM) and transmission electro-microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic activity of the catalyst has been investigated under UV light with various reaction conditions such as different initial toluene/formaldehyde concentrations and water content. Significantly, the conversion of toluene by a plasma-treated sample was 1.5 times higher than the bare TiO2 in a similar reaction condition

Application of industrial enzymes in the traditional technology of alcohol from cooked sticky rice in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam

Based on the traditional technology of alcohol from cooked sticky rice in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam, the experiments were conducted by the way to kept the technological process as well as the proportion of ingredients. The quantity of the sticky rice for every experiments was 10 kg. The obtained results showed that the addition of 0.05% enzyme SEBflo-TL compared to the dry matter of sticky rice leads to an increase of the absolute anhydrous alcohol by 10%. Combined application of 0.05% enzyme SEBflo-TL and 0.08% SEBrew-GL for hydrolysing starch and β -glucan, the amount of obtained anhydrous alcohol is 4.6 liters compared to 4.0 liters in the sample control without enzyme application, yield increased by 15% and could provide significant economic benefits to wine producer. In other hand, after the first distillation, the fractional distillation reduced concentration of metanol, acetaldehyde and improved volatile compounds of producted alcohol. The finished alcohol met the Vietnam National technical regulation for alcoholic beverages and are unlikely to cause toxicity to consumers

Status Poles and Status Zoning to Model Residential Land Prices: Status-Quality Trade off Theory (Short Paper)

This study describes an approach for augmenting urban residential preference and hedonic house price models by incorporating Status-Quality Trade Off theory (SQTO). SQTO seeks explain the dynamic of urban structure using a multipolar, in which the location and strength of poles is driven by notions of residential status and dwelling quality. This paper presents in outline an approach for identifying status poles and for quantifying their effect on land and residential property prices. The results show how the incorporation of SQTO results in an enhanced understanding of variations in land / property process with increased spatial nuance. A number of future research areas are identified related to the status pole weights and the development of status pole index

Associations of Psychosocial Factors with Maternal Confidence Among Japanese and Vietnamese Mothers

We conducted this cross-sectional study among 392 Japanese and 294 Vietnamese mothers who attended routine child health visits in a Japanese city and at a tertiary hospital in Vietnam, in order to investigate the prevalence and associated sociodemographic, parenting, and psychological characteristics of low maternal confidence in child rearing among them. All data were collected from medical files in Japan, and from medical files and self-administered questionnaires in Vietnam. The proportion of mothers without secure feeling of confidence in the present study was 22% in Japan and 66% in Vietnam. Significant factors associated with a lack of confidence were first-time motherhood and unintended pregnancy in the Japanese dataset and younger age in the Vietnamese dataset. In both groups, a higher proportion of mothers who lacked confidence reported negative parenting outcomes than did confident mothers. Among the three psychological measurements (mood, self-efficacy and depression), higher self-efficacy was associated independently with a significantly reduced risk of not having confidence in child rearing. These results suggest the importance of developing parenting support programs to help Japanese and Vietnamese mothers, particularly those who are young, first-time mothers or who became pregnant unexpectedly, improve their self-efficacy

Enhanced Near-Infrared Fluorescent Sensing Using Metal-Dielectric-Metal Plasmonic Array

This work presents a numerical study of metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic structure used to enhance a near-infrared fluorescent sensor. The MDM plasmonic structure consists of silver (Ag) subwavelength disk arrays on a thin silica (SiO2) spacing layer and 100-nm-thick-Ag film on a silicon (Si) substrate. The MDM plasmonic arrays with various structural parameters are designed and numerically investigated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Results show that the optical properties of designed structures are slightly dependent on the height of the Ag disk and strongly dependent on the Ag disk diameter and SiO2 thickness. In the near-infrared wavelength range, the proposed MDM plasmonic array has low ohmic loss and shows the high fluorescent emitting enhancement and directivity of about 16 times and 625.0, respectively, thus making MDM plasmonic array an alternative approach for near-infrared fluorescence bioimaging and biosensing devices

Spatiotemporal analysis of historical records (2001-2012) on dengue fever in Vietnam and development of a statistical model for forecasting risk

Background: Dengue fever is the most widespread infectious disease of humans transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. It is the leading cause of hospitalization and death in children in the Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. We analyzed surveillance records from health centers in Vietnam collected between 2001–2012 to determine seasonal trends, develop risk maps and an incidence forecasting model. Methods: The data were analyzed using a hierarchical spatial Bayesian model that approximates its posterior parameter distributions using the integrated Laplace approximation algorithm (INLA). Meteorological, altitude and land cover (LC) data were used as predictors. The data were grouped by province (n = 63) and month (n = 144) and divided into training (2001–2009) and validation (2010–2012) sets. Thirteen meteorological variables, 7 land cover data and altitude were considered as predictors. Only significant predictors were kept in the final multivariable model. Eleven dummy variables representing month were also fitted to account for seasonal effects. Spatial and temporal effects were accounted for using Besag-York-Mollie (BYM) and autoregressive (1) models. Their levels of significance were analyzed using deviance information criterion (DIC). The model was validated based on the Theil’s coefficient which compared predicted and observed incidence estimated using the validation data. Dengue incidence predictions for 2010–2012 were also used to generate risk maps. Results: The mean monthly dengue incidence during the period was 6.94 cases (SD 14.49) per 100,000 people. Analyses on the temporal trends of the disease showed regular seasonal epidemics that were interrupted every 3 years (specifically in July 2004, July 2007 and September 2010) by major fluctuations in incidence. Monthly mean minimum temperature, rainfall, area under urban settlement/build-up areas and altitude were significant in the final model. Minimum temperature and rainfall had non-linear effects and lagging them by two months provided a better fitting model compared to using unlagged variables. Forecasts for the validation period closely mirrored the observed data and accurately captured the troughs and peaks of dengue incidence trajectories. A favorable Theil’s coefficient of inequality of 0.22 was generated. Conclusions: The study identified temperature, rainfall, altitude and area under urban settlement as being significant predictors of dengue incidence. The statistical model fitted the data well based on Theil’s coefficient of inequality, and risk maps generated from its predictions identified most of the high-risk provinces throughout the country