Kỷ Yếu Hôi Thảo Hutech STS 2022

THE ISSUE CONTAINS:
STS 2022 program;

Proceedings of the 3rd
International Conference On
Science, Technology and
Society Studies (STS 2022)
International Conference On Science,

Technology and Society Studies
HUTECH UNIVERSITY
22.07.2022
STS 2022 PROGRAM
Date & Time: 08:00 – 11:30, 22 July 2022
at HUTECH University
475A Dien Bien Phu, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City
Time Program Note

OPENING SESSION
7:30 – 8:00 Welcoming
Opening Ceremony
● Welcome Remarks by Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Hoang Anh Tuan, Chair of STS 2022,
Chief Editor of JTIN
● Introduction of the STS 2022 Building B
8:00 – 8:15 Program Hall B.02.09
o Plenary Session
o Parallel Session
• Hybrid Session
• Direct Session
• Online Session
PLENARY SESSION
Topic: Recent trends in Nanotechnologies and

Nanomaterials
8:15 – 8:40 ● Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Xuan Lam Building B
● Affiliation: Vice-Chairman of the Board of Hall B.02.09
Presidents, HUTECH University, Vietnam
8:40 – 9:00 Tea break and networking
PARALLEL SESSION
(9:00 – 11:30)
Time Program
Hybrid Session
1. MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES
Building B, Room: B-10.03
Online at: https://meet.google.com/nrb-ntun-ava
Chair: Dr. Nguyen Thanh Luan
Coordinator: Dr. Ha Thi My Ngan
Application of Titanium Dioxide Photocatalyst

9:00 – 9:15 ● Speaker: Dr. Mitesh G. Mapari,
● Affiliation: University Mumbai, India
A Quantitative and Qualitative Overview of Microplastics

9:15 – 9:30 ● Speaker: PhD candidate. Mkuye Robert Martin
● Affiliation: Guangdong Ocean University, China
Health Risk Assessment: Case of Ornamental Aquaculture

in Ho Chi Minh City
9:30 – 9:45
● Speaker: Dr. Nguyen Thanh Luan
● Affiliation: HUTECH University, Vietnam
9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking
Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Carbon Aerogel

10:00 – 10:15 ● Speaker: Dr. Sung Hoon Jung
● Affiliation: Gachon University, Republic of Korea
Bovine Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Protocol

10:15 – 10:30 ● Speaker: MSc. Pham Quoc Dinh
● Affiliation: International University, VNU, Vietnam
Discussion
10:30 – 11:00
Group photo
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Time Program Presenter
Parallel Session: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC, AND MECHANICAL

ENGINEERING
Chair: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong
Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Trong Hai
9:00 – 9:15 Study on water addition into cylinder for Van Nhanh
reducing knock issues in GDI engine Nguyen
9:15 – 9:30 A research on the design and production Van Thoai Le

of vehicle models using composite
material, solar energy, and electrical
energy for tourism purposes
9:30 – 9:45 A new rectangle representation algorithm Trong Hai

based on the Kinect camera to localize the Nguyen
grasping point of the object
10:00 – 10:15 Design and fabricating mini core XY 3D Hong Hieu Le

printer
10:15 – 10:30 Decoding technique of hard and soft Tran Duy Cuong
decision of LDPC
10:30 – 10:45 A study on design finite element helmet Phu-Thuong-Luu

model for V-Dummy based CAE Nguyen
methodology
10:45 – 11:15 Discussion

Group photo
2. CIVIL ENGINEERING
Chair: Dr. Tran Tuan Nam
Coordinator: Dr. Phung Van Phuc
9:00 – 9:15 Seismic torsional behavior of a tested full- Tran Tuan Nam
scale steel building
9:15 – 9:30 Utilization of the influence line of Ha Minh Tuan

displacement to identify a decline in the
stiffness of beams
9:30 – 9:45 Proposing solutions to reduce factors Tran Tuan Kiet

affecting the delay of construction phase in
high-rise building projects
Discussion
10:00 – 10:30
Group photo
3. ARCHITECTURE AND ART

Chair: Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Quyen
Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Quoc Trung
9:00 – 9:15 Application of automatic smart water system Hai-Yen Hoang

to planting fresh organic vegetables in high-
rise apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
9:15 – 9:30 Indochinese style in interior design of Tuyet Dang

restaurants and resorts in Vietnam today Nguyen Thi
Hong
9:30 – 9:45 Review of Chinese traditional handicraft: Thi Nhi

Ming ceramic Nguyen*, Thi
Thao Hien
Dao*
10:00 – Discussion
10:30 Group photo
4A. AGRICULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND FOOD SCIENCE

Chair: Dr. Nguyen Le Ha
Coordinator: MSc. Nguyen Thi Tho
9:00 – 9:15 Use of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) to Man Lam Van

extend shelf-life of fruit and vegetable: a
review
9:15 – 9:30 Effect of different drying temperatures on Huynh Phuong

the quality of carrot powder and application Quyen
carrot powder to preplace wheat flour in the
production of pizza base
9:30 – 9:45 Effects of hot water treatment on the quality Tran Tong
of purple passion fruit Tuan
10:00 – 10:15 Improving Wine’s aroma and flavor by Thi Tho

using the lactic acid bacteria starters in the Nguyen
malolactic fermentation

Group photo
4B. AGRICULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND FOOD SCIENCE
Chair: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thai Van Nam
Coordinator: Dr. Pham Minh Nhut
9:00 – 9:15 Overview of theoretical perspectives on Huynh Thi

methods of analyzing microsized plastics Ngoc Han
continental surface water
9:15 – 9:30 Anti-bacterial and anti-diarrheal evaluation Luong Tan

of Moringa oleifera Trung
9:30 – 9:45 Assessment of the current situation of Tran Thanh Đat

salinity intrusion in tan phu dong and Go
Cong Dong districts, Tien Giang province
and proposal of solutions

Group photo
5. ANIMAL SCIENCE AND VETERINARY

Chair: Dr. Nguyen Van Phat
Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan
9:00 – 9:15 Molecular epidemiology of Mammalian Dung Van

Orthoreovirus and canine Kobuvirus among Nguyen
domestic dogs in Vietnam
9:15 – 9:30 Survey on Leptospira infection in dogs at Ho Tran Dinh

Chi Minh City Chanh
9:30 – 9:45 The sources of Greenhouse gas (GHG) Pham Ho Hai

emissions in the livestock sector in Vietnam
and the mitigation options for those sources
10:00 – 10:15 Surveillance of the parasitic blood disease Nguyen Thi

caused by Babesia spp. in dogs in ho chi Lan Anh
minh city

Group photo
SOCIETY STUDIES

Hybrid-session: SOCIETY STUDIES
1. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Online at: https://meet.google.com/fhk-cxhe-rsn
Chair: Dr. Vu Quoc Anh
Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Thi Van Thanh
9:00 – 9:15 The art of performing Drums Rabana of Nhat Tan Vu

Cham people in tourism development in An
Giang
9:15 – 9:30 Characteristics of student’s sleep-wake Nguyen Thi

disorders: a study in HUTECH university Van Thanh
9:30 – 9:45 The political economy relations between the Tran Thai Bao
Philippines and China under president (online)
Rodrigo Duterte’s administration
10:00 – 10:15 Students’ emotion control strategies: a study Nguyen Thi

at Ho Chi Minh City Thanh Van

Group photo
Parallel session: SOCIETY STUDIES
2. LAW
Chair: TS. Le Ngoc Thanh
Coordinator: MSc. Vu Thanh Duong
9:00 – 9:15 The right to communicate works to the Nguyen Thi

public on the internet environment: issues Thai Ha
and proposals for Vietnam
9:15 – 9:30 Human capital development in agriculture in Thanh-Nha

some East Asian countries - experience and Pham Huu
lessons for Vietnam
9:30 – 9:45 Balancing the employee’s right to free Nguyen Thi

choice of employment and the employer’s Xuan Mai
right to protect the business secrets from the
perspectives of Vietnamese labour law
10:00 – 10:15 Organization and governance at law firms Dao Thu Ha,
Vu Thanh
Duong

Group photo
3. ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Chair: Assoc. Prof. Tran Van Tung
Coordinator: Dr. Le Duc Thang
9:00 – 9:15 Development of non-state enterprises in Hoang Xuan

Vietnam during the period from 2015 to 2021 Son
9:15 – 9:30 Implementation of blended learning model in Le Duc Thang

the faculty of finance and commerce –
empiricized with securities market simulation
9:30 – 9:45 Factors affecting customers' intention to use Nguyen Thanh

mobile banking at Ho Chi Minh City Tu

Group photo
4. POLITICS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE EDUCATION

Online at: https://meet.google.com/ybz-sykf-nju
Chair: Dr. Nguyen Minh Tri
Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Dinh Co
9:00 – 9:15 Opportunities and challenges of education Nguyen Minh

and training in the trend of international Tri*
integration in Vietnam
9:15 – 9:30 The role of social criticism in the Le Thuy Nga

communication process on universal Hoang
education policy in online press Vietnam
9:30 – 9:45 The impacts of current context on the Nguyen Linh

teaching methodology of political subjects Phong
for students at Ho Chi Minh City university
of education
10:00 – 10:15 Political culture and some factors affecting Nguyen Thi
the development of political culture of long- Nuong
term training students at military technical
academy in recent times

Group photo
5. STUDY OF LANGUAGES
Online at: https://meet.google.com/bqi-phuw-jvu
Room: B-09.01
Chair: Dr. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu
Coordinator: Dr. Tran Quoc Thao
9:00 – 9:15 EFL non-majors’ attitudes towards the use of Tran Thi Cuc,
self-assessment checklist in speaking Do Manh
classrooms Cuong*
9:15 – 9:30 Factors affecting the online English teaching Nguyen Thi
of English teachers at economics universities Hong Hanh
in Vietnam
9:30 – 9:45 Factors affecting the quality of blended Nguyen Hong

courses in some Universities in the Covid time Mai
10:00 – 10:15 Online education and students achievement Tran Kim Ngan
during the Covid 19 time
10:15 – 10:30 The status and applications of information Quach Duc

technology to enhance the interest in teaching Tai*, Tran
English at primary school in Thu Duc City Tuyen
10:30– 11:00 Discussion

Group photo
6. TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Chair: Chair: Dr. Nguyen Van Hoang
Coordinator: MBA. Bui Trong Tien Bao
9:00 – 9:15 Sustainable development of river tourism in Nguyen Phuoc

Ho Chi Minh City Hien, Tran
Trong Thanh*
9:15 – 9:30 The experience of Beijing City (China) in the Tran Van
development of heritage tourism and lessons Phong, Tran
for Ho Chi Minh City Dinh Anh
9:30 – 9:45 Research on the relationship between rural Chung Le

tourism and new-style rural area construction Khang
criteria: Case of Con Quy - Ben Tre
10:00 – 10:15 The festival changes of the chinese in Binh Quach Duc Tai
Duong: Case study: Thien Hau Thanh Mau’s
festival of the Chinese in Thu Dau Mot City,
Binh Duong province

Group photo
------------------END------------------
ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH
(Nhiều tác giả)
THE 3 rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
AND SOCIETY STUDIES [STS] 2022
NHÀ XUẤT BẢN GIAO THÔNG VẬN TẢI
i
EDITORIAL BOARD OF STS 2022
Editor in Chief Prof. Df. Nguyen Xuan Hung
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan HUTECH University
HUTECH University Science and Technology
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong Assoc. Prof. Dr. Giang Thanh Long
HUTECH University The National Economics University (NEU)
Electrical, Electronic, and Mechanical Economics, Social and Medical Studies
Engineering
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Dinh Bay Assoc. Prof. Dr. Behara Satyanarayana
HUTECH University University Malaysia Terengganu (Malaysia)
Informatics Technology Science and Technology
Dr. Khong Trong Toan Dr. Nguyen Le Ha
HUTECH University HUTECH University
Civil and Architecture Engineering Agricultural, Environmental, and Food
Science
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thai Van Nam Dr. Neelesh Sharma
HUTECH University SKUAST (India)
Agricultural, Environmental, and Food Veterinary Sciences and Technology
Science
Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Van Tung
Veterinary Sciences Finance and Commerce
Dr. Vu Quoc Anh Dr. Luu Thanh Tam
Social Sciences and Humanities Politics and Business Administration
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Duc Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quyet Thang
Law Tourism and Hospitality Management
Dr. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu Dr. Tran Quoc Thao
English Language Study of Languages
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Luan
HUTECH University
Editor of Conference Proceeding
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Electrical, Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering page
Van Thoai Le, Van A research on the design and production of vehicle 7
Nhanh Nguyen*, Dinh models using composite material, solar energy, and
Duy Le electrical energy for tourism purposes
Thanh Sa Nguyen, Study on water addition into cylinder for reducing 13
Van Nhanh Nguyen*, knock issues in GDI engine
Dinh Duy Le
Trong Hai Nguyen*, A new rectangle representation algorithm based on 19
Tran Duy Cuong the kinect camera to localize the grasping point of the
object
Hong Hieu Le*, Van Design and fabricating mini core XY 3D printer 22
Nhanh Nguyen
Tran Duy Cuong*, Decoding technique of hard and soft decision of 25
Trong Hai Nguyen LDPC
Phu-Thuong-Luu A study on design finite element helmet model for V- 30
Nguyen Dummy based CAE methodology
Civil Engineering, Architecture and Art
Tran Tuan Nam Seismic torsional behavior of a tested full-scale steel 41

building
Khang Ma, Tan-Nien Utilization of the influence line of displacement to 46
Nguyen, Ngoc-Trung- identify a decline in the stiffness of beams
Kien Ho, Chi-Hao
Pham, Ngoc-Thuy-Vy
Dang, Tuan Minh
Ha*, Duc-Duy Ho,
Saiji Fukada
Tran Tuan Kiet*, Proposing solutions to reduce factors affecting the 56
Truong Cong Thuan, delay of construction phase in high-rise building
Tran Thi Kha projects
Tran Trung Hieu House transforming process in period case study: 60
traditional housse in the north central of Vietnam
Hai-Yen Hoang Application of automatic smart water system to 67
planting fresh organic vegetables in high-rise
apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tuyet Dang Nguyen Indochinese style in interior design of restaurants and 75
Thi Hong resorts in Vietnam today
Thi Ngoc Quyen Potential for development of production and use of 82
Nguyen 3D knitted fabrics in Vietnam
iii
Thi Nhi Nguyen*, Thi Review of Chinese traditional handicraft: Ming 88
Thao Hien Dao* ceramic
Agricultural, Environmental, and Food Science

Tran Thanh Dat, Ngo Assessment of the current situation of salinity 95
Thi Huyen Trang, intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong
Thai Van Nam* districts, Tien Giang province and proposal of
solutions
Hoang Trong Nhan, Experimental optimization of natural coagulants from 101
Trinh Trong Nguyen, Nopal Cactus applied in leachate treatment
Thai Van Nam*
Huynh Phu*, Huynh Overview of theoretical perspectives on methods of 107
Thi Ngoc Han, analyzing microsized plastics continental surface
Nguyen Ly Ngoc water
Thao, Tran Thi Minh
Ha
Vinh Son Lam*, Vu Feasibility of vermicomposting of spent coffee 114
Phong Nguyen, Trung grounds
Kien Ta
Lam Van Man*, Le Use of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) to extend 120
Hong Nhi, Luu Thi shelf-life of fruit and vegetable: a review
Huyen My, Ha Thi
My Trang
Thi Tho Nguyen*, Evaluating the influences of avocado on the physical 126
Nhu Man Huynh and textural properties of low-fat sponge cake
Huynh Kim Phung*, Effect of material thickness, blanching time on 131
Huynh Phuong Quyen product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon
Huynh Kim Phung Effect of osmotic process, drying temperature on 135
product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon
Thi Tho Nguyen*, Improving Wine’s aroma and flavor by using the 140
Huu Thanh Nguyen lactic acid bacteria starters in the malolactic
fermentation
Phan Phuoc Thanh, Le Effect of different drying temperatures on the quality 146
Thi Ngoc Mai, Huynh of carrot powder and application carrot powder to
Kim Phung, Huynh preplace wheat flour in the production of pizza base
Phuong Quyen*
Nguyen Mai Phuong, Improving the efficiency of bovine somatic cell 152
Pham Quoc Dinh, nuclear transfer protocol by establishment of culture
Pham Truong Duy, medium changing system
Pham Minh Chien,
Bui Hong Thuy,
Nguyen Van Thuan*
Tran Tong Tuan, San Effects of hot water treatment on the quality of 158
Anh Tram purple passion fruit
Pham Ben Chi*, Study on anti-Candia albicans activity of 164
Nguyen Thi Bach combination of betel’s extract (Piper betle L.
Tuyet, Pham Thuy Piperaceae) and clove basil essential oil (Ocimum
Huong, Phan Kim gratissimum L. Lamiaceae)
Thai, Ngo Yen Nhi
Nguyen Trung Hieu, Anti-bacterial and anti-diarrheal evaluation of 171
iv
Luong Tan Trung, Moringa oleifera
Pham Minh Nhut,*
Tran Thi Hai Yen Utilization of sodium chloride in in vitro 177
magnetofection
Ha Kim Ngoc, In vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities of Bouea 182
Nguyen Hoang Nam macrophylla Griff LEAVES
Anh, Vo Van Giau,
Nguyen Ngoc Hong*
Pham Huu Tuan, Radical scavenging and antibacterial activities of 186
Nguyen Ngoc Hong, extracts from Muntingia calabura l.
Nguyen Thi Thu Ha*
Animal Science and Veterinary
Dang Hoang Dao*, A survey on cattle lumpy skin disease in small scale 195
Truong Anh Thy, household of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tran Dinh Chanh
Ngo Hoang Thao Survey on the circulation of some oocyst species 199
Nhung, Truong Anh causing coccidiosis in chicken in Vinh Long province
Thy*, Nguyen Vu
Thuy Hong Loan
Dang Hoang Dao*, Evaluating the effectiveness of treatment methods for 204
Duong Nguyen Khang lameness in dairy cows on milk yield and quality
Diep Tan Toan, Ketosis on dairy cow and to study the effect of using 209
Nguyen Van Phat*, propylene glycol in prevention and treatment against
Dang Hoang Dao ketosis
Nguyen Thi Lan Surveillance of the parasitic blood disease caused by 214
Anh*, Du Thanh Vu, Babesia spp in dogs in Ho Chi Minh City
To My Quyen,
Nguyen Pham Thao
Nhi
Tran Dinh Chanh1*, Survey on Leptospira infection in dogs at Ho Chi 220
Dang Hoang Dao, Minh City
Truong Anh Thy
Vu Thao Vy, Bui The prevalence of overweight domestic cats and 225
Ngoc Thuy Linh1*, obesity-related diseases
Nguyen Vu Thuy
Hong Loan, Truong
Anh Thy, Dang
Hoang Dao
Dung Van Nguyen*, Molecular epidemiology of Mammalian 231
Thanh Dinh Ha Le, orthoreovirus and canine kobuvirus among domestic
Ken Maeda, Nguyen dogs in Vietnam
Vu Thuy Hong Loan
Nguyen Vu Thuy Physiological response and disorders in newborn 237
Hong Loan*, Truong puppies after treatment of dystocia
Anh Thy
Nguyen Vu Thuy Physiological changes and disorders in mother dogs 242
Hong Loan*, Truong after treatment of dystocia
Anh Thy
v
Pham Ho Hai The sources of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 248
the livestock sector in Vietnam and the mitigation
options for those sources
SOCIETY STUDIES
Social sciences and humanities
Nhat Tan Vu*, Luu The art of performing Drums Rabana of Cham 259
Phuc Ho people in tourism development in An Giang
Nguyen Thi Van Characteristics of student’s sleep-wake disorders: a 266
Thanh*, Trinh Hai study in HUTECH University
Duc
Ho Thi Thanh Tam*, High school students’ awareness of cyberbullying: 271
Le Thi Be Nhung, results of research and suggested solutions
Nguyen Mai Ha, Ho
Thi Phi Yen, Tran
Nguyen Minh Huan
Do Thi Hoai Van The role of university rankings for universities in 277
Vietnam
Hoang Thi Minh Building a brand management model for Vietnamese 284
Hue*, Nguyen Anh Universities: Case of Private Universities in Hanoi
Tuan, Nguyen Thi My
Loc, Nguyen Trung
Kien, Tran Thi Lua
Nguyen Thi Van Romantic love in junior high school students 292
Thanh* Cao Thanh
Tra
Vu Quoc Anh Building awareness of positive citizens for students 297
of public relations at HUTECH University
Nguyen Thi Thanh Students’ emotion control strategies: a study at Ho 301
Van Chi Minh City
Tran Thai Bao*, The political economy relations between the 307
Duong Quang Hiep, Philippines and china under president Rodrigo
Tran Xuan Hiep Duterte’s administration
Law
Tran Tuan Canh The right to be forgotten according to European 315
union law in the face of challenges of artificial
intelligence to human's private life
Nguyen Thi Thai Ha The right to communicate works to the public on the 321
internet environment: issues and proposals for
Vietnam
Nguyen Chi Thang Sea carrier’s right to apply safety measures to the 326
dangerous goods
Tran Nguyen Quang Electronic labour contract - a comparative study of 331
Ha Chinese law
Ho Tran Bao Tram, The impacts of Roman law on the law of the French 338
Nguyen Minh Tri Republic
Nguyen Thi Xuan Balancing the employee’s right to free choice of 345
Mai*, Tran Thien employment and the employer’s right to protect the
vi
Trang business secrets from the perspectives of Vietnamese
labour law
Nguyen Van Lam Business freedom rights in Vietnam’s enterprises law 350
Dao Thu Ha, Vu Organization and governance at law firms 356
Thanh Duong
Dao Thu Ha, Nguyen Judicial expertise, asset valuation, and litigation 361
Hoang Phuong skills of lawyer in criminal cases
Nguyen
Economics and Business Administration
Hoang Xuan Son*, Ho Development of non-state enterprises in Vietnam 369
Thi Thanh Truc during the period from 2015 to 2021
Truong Dinh Hong HR crisis-responding practice for the next normal: 376
Thuy*, Truong Dinh Implications for sustainable recovery
Hai Thuy
Assoc. Prof. Tran Van Recommendations to improve the application of 383
Tung*; M. Ngo Ngoc management accounting in members of Vietnam
Nguyen Thao; M. educational publishing house’s system
Tran Phuong Hai
Le Duc Thang*; TranImplementation of blended learning model in the 391
Phuong Hai faculty of finance and commerce – empiricized with
securities market simulation
Nguyen Thi Thu Ha Application of AI and machine learning in search 397
engine optimization
Nguyen Thanh Tu*, Factors affecting customers' intention to use mobile 404
Nguyen Van Bao banking at Ho Chi Minh City
Vu Thanh Long The impact of corporate governance on the 410
application of accounting policies in the financial
statements of companies listed on the Vietnamese
stock market
Nguyen Vinh Phuoc Need to develop green logistics system in Ho Chi 417
Minh City
Thanh-Nha Pham Huu Human capital development in agriculture in some 422
East Asian countries - experience and lessons for
Vietnam
Politics and National Defense Education
Nguyen Minh Tri*, Opportunities and challenges of education and 431
Dao Tuan Hau training in the trend of international integration in
Vietnam
Le Thuy Nga Hoang The role of social criticism in the communication 438
process on universal education policy in online press
Vietnam
Nguyen Linh Phong The impacts of current context on the teaching 444
methodology of political subjects for students at Ho
Chi Minh City University of Education
Nguyen Thi Nuong*, Political culture and some factors affecting the 450
Nguyen Thi My Linh development of political culture of long-term training
students at military technical academy in recent times
vii
Study of languages
Le Thi Huyen*, Blended learning approach - International studies and 459
Nguyen Hong Mai implications for Vietnamese higher education
Nguyen Hong Mai*, Teachers’ motivation to participate in continuing 467
Le Thi Huyen professional development
Khuat Mai An Types of question functions in EFL classes 474
Quach Duc Tai*, Tran The status and applications of information 481
Tuyen technology to enhance the interest in teaching
English at primary school in Thu Duc City
Nguyen Thi Hong An investigation into online english learning for 489
Hanh; Le Thi Ngoc students at National Economics University, Vietnam
Diep; Nguyen Phuong
Hoai
Nguyen Hong Mai Factors affecting the quality of blended courses in 495
some universites in the Covid time
Trần Kim Ngân Online education and students achivement during the 502
Covid 19 time
Nguyen Thi Hong Factors affecting the online English teaching of 506
Hanh*, Le Thi Huyen English teachers at economics universities in vietnam
Tran Thi Cuc, Do EFL non-majors’ attitudes towards the use of 514
Manh Cuong* self-assessment checklist in speaking classrooms
Tourism and Hospitality Management

Nguyen Phuoc Hien, Sustainable development of river tourism in Ho Chi 525
Tran Trong Thanh* Minh City
Nguyen Phuoc Hien, The role of state management in the river tourism 533
Tran Trong Thanh* development linkages in Ho Chi Minh City
Tran Dinh Anh The experience of Beijing City (China) in the 541
development of heritage tourism and lessons for Ho
Chi Minh City
Chung Le Khang*, Research on the relationship between rural tourism 547
Nguyen Thi Kim and new-style rural area construction criteria: Case of
Thoai, Nguyen Anh Con Quy - Ben Tre
Ngoc
Quach Duc Tai The festival changes of the chinese in Binh Duong: 553
Case study: Thien Hau Thanh Mau’s festival of the
chinese in Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong province
viii
FOREWORD
Developed and driven by an expert committee of science scholars, the 3rd
International Conference on Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS)
2022 is where professionals come together to learn from each other. In particular, the
conference is organized by HUTECH University
(https://www.hutech.edu.vn/english) and co-organized by open access Journal of
Technology & Innovation – JTIN (https://jtin.com.my/). Thus, high quality papers in
Science and Technology will be contributed to issue of JTIN with zero cost.
After a careful peer review process, the following 87 papers have been selected to be
published in the proceeding. These articles are recognized for their excellent research
quality and innovative approach in the respective disciplines. The proceeding
showcases the research results and achievements by many researchers coming from
different regions within Vietnam and abroad.
I want to recognize the contribution of many people in making STS 2022 possible
including the organizers, reviewers and all participants. On behalf of the program
committee, I would like to thank all the authors for their contribution by submitting
their research articles to the conference program. My sincere gratitude further extends
to the professors and scholars from our partner universities whose inputs have been
found invaluable.
I hope you will find the value from this year’s conference as we all look forward to
reconvening again in future editions of STS.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
On behalf of the STS 2022 Conference Committee

Program Committee Chair
Assoc. Prof. Hoang Anh Tuan
HUTECH University
1
2
3
4
Electrical, Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering
5
6
A RESEARCH ON THE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF VEHICLE
MODELS USING COMPOSITE MATERIAL, SOLAR ENERGY, AND
ELECTRICAL ENERGY FOR TOURISM PURPOSES
Van Thoai Le1, Van Nhanh Nguyen2*, Dinh Duy Le2
1
Faculty of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet
Nam.
2
Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 962 128 383; Email: nv.nhanh@hutech.edu.vn).
Abstract
The article introduces the content of research for design and manufacture of car models using new energy
sources. On the basis of analysis, synthesis of theory, then design and manufacture the model, we have
successfully built a 4-seat car model, the body is made of composite materials, using electric and solar
energy soruces. This result is the basis for making commercial passenger cars for tourism in Nha Trang city,
Khanh Hoa province.
Keywords: Solar energy, Electric energy, Composite, Electric car.
1. Introduction
The rate of exploitation using these fuel sources compared to their reserves is raising alarm bells about the
depletion of fossil energy in the future. Therefore, diversifying energy sources and avoiding dependence on
fossil energy is one of the top goals of scientists worldwide.
Besides, fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas when burned will emit CO2, sulfur oxides (SOx),
nitrogen oxides (NO2), methane (CH4), etc. These gases are the causes of harmful effects. causing great
harm to the living environment and directly affecting humans such as: acid rain, global warming, causing
many diseases, causing global disputes [1].
Among the sources of air pollution, substances emitted by automobile engines such as CO, CO 2, NOx, HC,
etc. are the biggest sources of pollution, causing adverse effects on human health as well as on the
environment ecology and climate [1].
From only the perspective of environmental protection, using cars powered by solar energy and cars powered
by electric batteries is the most radical solution. In reality, thousands of solar-powered cars are designed and
built. However, all of them are only considered as symbols of human ability and determination to protect the
environment. There are still many technical, economic and social issues that need to be solved so that solar
electric cars can become a common means of transportation in the future.
On the other hand, reducing fuel costs by reducing vehicle weight from using new durable and lightweight
materials such as fiberglass composites, ultra-light steel, aluminum alloys, etc., has always been favored by
domestic and foreign scientists care.
Accompanying with the meaningful and practical research program of domestic automotive scientists, we
chose the content "Research for design and production of car models by composite material, using solar
energy and electric energy for tourism purposes" to perform.
2. Methods
2.1 Subjects of study: Model of automobile body with composite materials, using solar energy and electric
energy for tourism.
2.2 Research objective: Design a 4-seaters car model, body made of Composite material, using solar
energy and electric energy to run at a maximum speed of 30 km/h.
2.3 Research method:
- Synthesize theory and survey the reality of electric car models on the market, then design and manufacture
7
models. Calculation and choosing electric motor and power source: The electric motor of the designed model
car must have the characteristics suitable for the vehicle's operating modes and the capacity is large enough to
overcome the resistance forces generated during the vehicle's movement: rolling force, slope resistance, frictional
force, inertia force; From the above requirements, the DC motor, series-excited, brushless DC motor was
selected as the motor for the model car, with specific parameters: Rated power 2KW, rated voltage 24V; The
power source is maintained by electricity charged to a 12V-65Ah battery connected in series when the
vehicle is stationary and is recharged by electrical energy from 2 TIDI-SUN solar panels with a capacity of
85W/panel during vehicle operation; Vehicle speed (motor rotation speed) is controlled by pulse-width
modulation, using self-made circuit using ATMega32 microcontroller.
- Bodywork: Shell: Designed and manufactured with Composite materials according to the shell models of
electric vehicles on the market; Chassis: Made of CT3 low carbon steel, then tested for durability in two
cases: Braking and turning by RDM software.
- The manufactured model must meet the following requirements: Strictly and fully comply with the
technological process in manufacturing, assembling and testing model cars; When completing the model
car, in addition to ensuring the structural and functional requirements, it is also aimed at the criteria of
aesthetics, ventilation, ease of operation, reliability,... in addition, it can also serve well for training; Parts,
manufacturing system: Frame system; Electric motor reducer; Engine speed control unit; Body shell; The
remaining systems are mainly selected and purchased equivalent products on the market for assembly;
Fabrication materials: carbon steel, aluminum and fiberglass reinforced composite.
3. Results and discussion

3.1 Design and layout of model cars
- After the fact survey, we proceed to build, analyze, select the option and use RDM software to calculate,
design the chassis, arrange the propulsion system, steering, braking... for the car model whose body shell
made of composite materials, using solar energy and electric energy (shown in figure 1), specifically: Wheel
formula: 4x2; Using DC electricity from batteries and solar batteries; Car speed: about 30 km/h; Load: Can
carry 4 people (including the driver, equivalent to 260 kg); Ability to overcome slope: 10%; Size: [2];
Overall dimensions L x W x H: 2712 x 1420 x 1650 mm; Wheelbase: 1500 mm; Base width: 1320 mm;
Ground clearance: 240mm
- Material, weight:The chassis is made of galvanized steel, ensuring rigidity, the shell is made of Composite
material to ensure durability and aesthetics: Weight of the whole vehicle: 578 kg; Body weight: 318 kg;
Mass distribution on the front axle: 289 kg; Mass distribution on the rear axle: 289 kg.
The vehicle is driven by a DC motor with a capacity of 2KW. The electric motor drives the rear wheels
through a differential.
Figure 1. Overall structure of the model car

1. Brake pedal; 2. Brake master cylinder; 3. Accelerator pedal; 4. Oil pipe to the divider;
5. Brake system oil divider; 6. Oil pipe to the front brake system; 7. Wheels; 8. Oil pipe to the rear brake
system; 9. Motor speed controller; 10. Motor reverser; 11. Batteries; 12. Electric motor; 13. Active demand;
14. Control wire; 15. Intermediate steering box; 16. Handbrake; 17. Steering wheel; 18. Seats; 19. Car shell;
8
20. Solar cells.
3.2 Fabrication of body, motor speed control circuit board
3.2.1 Fabrication of the body by fiberglass composite material
3.1.1.1 Equipment, manufacturing technology process
Based on the bearing position of the body system on the model car, composite materials are manufactured
with different properties (number of reinforcement layers).
- Prepare the mold: The mold surface must be clean, without any impurities on the mold surface. Then,
apply anti-stick and mold release agent to the mold, and then let the mold dry naturally.
- Create gelcoat layer: Gelcoat after mixing color must be used immediately. The gelcoat is applied with a
soft brush on the surface of the mold. When sweeping, use only the brush head, lightly sweep, make a
straight streak in a certain direction, do not sweep streaks that have just been swept, do not sweep in curves
or circles. Subsequent streaks are parallel to the first line only, do not overlap too much, to ensure
uniformity of the gelcoat. [3]
- Create reinforcement layers by hand: Spread the glass cloth and wet the resin.
After the gelcoat is cured (completely dry but still sticky to the hands), proceed to create reinforcement
layers.
The reinforcement layer adjacent to the gelcoat layer is soft glass fabric (0.2÷0.3) kg/m2, the next layers are
Roving woven fabric (0.36÷0.8) kg/m2 [3].
Resin for layering is uncolored. The catalyst must be mixed in the correct ratio, gently stirring with the resin
in the container device. After the catalyst is added, the resin must be used immediately.
The manual layering process is as follows: Cover the surface of the mold with a glass cloth, on top of the
gelcoat. Next, using a soft brush, apply the catalytic resin soaked cotton roller on the glass cloth and gently
press or press the cotton roller while pressing. The process of rolling and pressing is to make the resin
penetrate the glass fiber, creating a bond between the layers and avoiding air bubbles. After completing this
layer, continue to do another layer until the desired product thickness is achieved [3].
When processing this stage, pay attention to the following points:
- Air bubbles will weaken the reinforcement layer, so make sure the resin is evenly wetted, and press
thoroughly to avoid air bubbles.
- The joint joints of the glass fabric should be staggered from (3÷5) cm, but the joints of the following
layer must be far away from the joints of the previous layer, to avoid duplication between the joints.
- For products with large thickness, after a large number of layers, let it cool down for a while before
continuing to make the following layers.
The quality of the reinforcement layer in this method, in addition to the quality of the glass fiber and resin, also
depends on the resin impregnation process as well as the ratio of the catalyst.
Trial fabrication:
- Before entering the process of manufacturing the body system, it is necessary to fabricate test samples to
test the mechanical properties of composite materials in order to select the most suitable material structure.
We conduct tests with composite materials with the following specifications: Gelcoat/MAT CSM 225/MAT
CMS 225/WR 360/Gelcoat (2 Mat - 1 Fabric).
Test equipment:
- The mechanical properties of the test-fabricated shell materials were tested on the HOUNSFIELD Model
H50KS universal mechanical testing machine at the Institute of Shipbuilding Research - Nha Trang
University.
3.1.1.2 Crafting
Prepare materials for the manufacturing process
Table 1. Materials for fabrication composite shell. Step 1: Create a gelcoat surface layer: After
No. Material Unit Quantity cleaning the surface of the mold, applying anti-stick
9
1 Gelcoat Kg 35 and mold release agent to the mold, we proceed to
2 Matit Kg 20 sweep the colored gelcoat on the surface of the mold.
3 WR 360 Kg 8 Step 2: Create laminate reinforcement layer: After
4 WR 800 Kg 10 the gelcoat layer made in step 1 cures (completely
5 MAT CSM 225 Kg 6 dry but breathes), proceed to create reinforced
6 Resin Kg 45 laminate layers.
7 Mek Kg 1 The surface glass cloth adjacent to the gelcoat layer
is a thin soft CSM short sand MAT with a mass of
0.225 kg/m2. Proceed to spread MAT CSM 225 on
the gelcoat surface.
Next, use WR woven roving fabric with a mass of 0.8 kg/m2 to continue for the next layer of material.
Subsequent reinforcement layers: depending on product requirements, the quantity and type of material for
subsequent reinforcement layers can be selected.
Step 3: Take the product out of the mold: After the liquid resin is bonded to the glass fiber layers and
completely cured, the composite product is complete, and the product is removed from the mold.
Step 4: Assemble the composite body to the model car: After having composite products in flat or curved
form according to manufacturing requirements. We use a hand-held cutter to cut the composite according to
the required profiles of the chassis system. Then put composite panels on the chassis to form a shell system
for the model car, specifically. Install each composite panel in the correct position of their frame. Fix each
frame temporarily to the shell thanks to a layer of resin glue plastered through some local positions on the
frame body, with special positions we can use aluminum rivets to connect.
Step 5: Finish the bodywork: After roughing the
body shell, we begin the finishing process. This
is the stage that gives the car an aesthetic look.
The main materials used in this stage are matit,
rough abrasive paper and water sandpaper P150 -
P400.
Use matt to seal the gaps between the Composite
panels when mounting on the chassis, Then use
coarse abrasive paper and water sand to polish.
Finally, we proceed to spray paint (paint color
must be the same as the color of the body shell)
at the points just processed. Figure 2. Model bodywork after crafting.
3.2.2 Design and manufacture motor speed control circuit
Figure 3. Motor speed control circuit board.
10
3.2.2.1 Source block
Using a power resistor to give a voltage of 24VDC and a standard voltage of 5VDC, in order to keep the
voltage stable to power the main circuit, capacitors are arranged in the circuit to filter out high frequency
noise on the road. circuit, giving a steady voltage is shown in figure 4.
Figure 4. Source block diagram.
3.2.2.2 DC motor speed control algorithm

3.2.2.3 Assemble, adjust and finish the model
Form of assembling of model cars: vehicles are
assembled in the form of free mobility. This is a
form of assembling in which a complete
assembly operation is performed at each
assembly location.
Break down the car model assembly into
assembly units, divided into assembly groups,
from which we have an overall assembly
diagram. Among the parts of a mounting unit, we
find the base part, and then attach the other parts
to the base part in a certain order.
Figure 5. Diagram of the principle of electric motor

speed regulation.
3.2.2.4 Test and discuss
Successfully tested and adjusted a car model with a composite body using solar energy and electric energy.
The vehicle operates stably, safely and reliably and can carry 4 people (including the driver) with 2 test
modes, specifically:
Table 2. Results of testing modes of model cars.
Vehicle speed Driving time Number of people
No Test mode
(km/h) (hour) (including driver)
1 Vehicles runs on flat road 30 1,38 4
2 Vehicles running on ramps (10%) 16 0,75 4
11
Figure 6. Car model after finishing
4. Conclusions and Recommendations

Result achieved: The research product which is a car model with a body made of composite materials, using
solar energy and electric energy fully meet the car's features, capable reaching a maximum speed of 30 km/h
on flat terrain and climbing slopes with a slope of about 10% and a speed of 16km/h. Overcoming the
problem of environmental pollution because model cars using grid power and solar power do not emit
harmful substances. Successfully designed and fabricated an electric motor speed control circuit by pulse-
width modulation, using Atmega 32 microcontroller. The composite car body model made at Nha Trang
University has achieved some encouraging initial results, which can be applied for training and research. The
model is intuitive, helping students access and apply the knowledge of the Automotive Engineering
Technology modules to a specific vehicle.
Restrictions: The maximum speed of the model car is still low, the ability to climb slopes is limited. When
the movement is not really smooth due to taking advantage of some old details and parts in the suspension
and steering system; Small battery capacity; The efficiency of charging energy from solar cells is also not
high.
Recommendations:To be able to apply this model in practice, it is necessary to equip and add the following
elements: Increase battery capacity and solar battery capacity to increase vehicle operating time; Replace old
parts and components in the suspension, steering, ... to increase the smoothness of the vehicle; For this field
of electric car research to really develop, it requires a real investment in both finance and time to research
towards training human resources who can master the technology of automobile manufacturing in general, as
well as electric cars in particular for society.
References
1. Bui Van Ga (2006) Automobile and environmental pollution. Education Publishing House.
2. Ministry of Transport (1999) Sector Standard No. 22TCN 256 – 99, Hanoi.
3. Nguyen Dang Cuong (2006) Fiberglass composites and applications. Science and Technology
Publishing House.
4. Le Van Doanh (2007) Power Electronics. Science and Technology Publishing House.
Conference registration number:

[STS22-12]
12
STUDY ON WATER ADDITION INTO CYLINDER FOR REDUCING
KNOCK ISSUES IN GDI ENGINE
Thanh Sa Nguyen1, Van Nhanh Nguyen2*, Dinh Duy Le2
1
Mechanical Institute, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
2
Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 962 128 383; Email: nv.nhanh@hutech.edu.vn).
Abstract
GDI engines indicated an improving of fuel efficiency and reducing emission in comparision with intake
port-fuel injection engine. This study research on the direct injection water into GDI engine chamber for a
part load. The study focus on the injection water and its evaporation in cylinder of compression stroke (from
80oCA BTDC to 70oCA BTDC). The study results indicated that water evaporation process will absorb
amount of heat from compressed air. With various injected water mass, the average temperature of piston
crow, exhaust valve, compressed gas decreased. This is an advantage factor for increasing of compression
ratio and improving anti-detonation issues of engine.
Keywords: Direct injection, evaporation, GDI, water addition.
1. Introduction
The SI engines have a trend of higher compression ratio. The ICE indicates that higher thermal efficiency is
due to higher compression ratios. However, high compression ratio contributes to higher combustion
temperature and encourages the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission. Many studies have
determined that the concentration of NOx increases as the compression ratio increases [1-2]
The higher compression ratio engines also leads to higher temperature at the latter stages of the compression
stroke and higher local temperature at the earlier stage in the combustion and expansion process, resulting in
rapid NOx reaction rate. The solution for decreasing of high NOx formation by GDI engine is well-known
and has been studied by many researchers [3-6]. The method of introducing WI system would be one of the
perfect solutions to reduce NOx formation [7-8]. The thermal-dissociation process of water will form
hydroxide and hydrogen at high temperature, which absorbs the heat during combustion [9]. The capability
of water is not only to absorb the heat of intake gas for decreasing the compressed gas temperature, but also
to provide oxygen for burning fuel. The injected water also reduces the local temperature of combustion
flame and leads to lower NOx emission.
Nande investigated the effect of WI on performance of SI engine with hydrogen as a fuel [8]. The emission
problems and the effects of injected water in cylinder were discussed on air-fuel mixture and burning
condition. Gadallah implemented a similar study on hydrogen fueled direct injection SI engine in
combination with WI system [10]. Water injector was installed at the adjacency position of spark plug on a
single cylinder engine and the amount of injected water ranged from 4 to 14 mg/cycle with different
compression ratios. They demonstrated that the presence of liquid water during the later stage of
compression stroke helps to improve the indicated thermal efficiency and reduce NOx emission. In another
study, three different water ratios of water-gasoline emulsions were used for reducing the NOx– 5%, 10%
and 15% respectively. WI has a certain effect on NOx reduction with a ratio of 5% by mass. Injected water
has an affect to reduction of NOx emission up to 35.0% in compared pure gasoline case [11].
2. Simulated model
In this study, the AVL CFD Solver that is based on the Finite Volume approach; was used to simulate the
flow in-cylender engine. The numerical mesh employed of unstructured grids from polyhedral calculation
volumes. The turbulence models were implemented for accurate calculations of turbulent flows. The general
conservation principles for equation governing the fluid motion were presented
13
2.1 Conservation equations for a control volume
The equations governing the fluid motion are the three fundamental principles of mass, momentum, and
energy conservation.
Equation of Continuity:
 
  (U j ) (1)
t x j
where ρ is density fluid and U is velocity fluid in the volume control.
Equation of Momentum:
DUi   U U j 2 Uk
   gi   [( i + - ij )] (2)
Dt xi x j x j xi 3 xk
where
D
is material derivative; g ,  ,  , ij stand for gravity, pressure, molecular viscosity
Dt
and viscous stress, respectively.
Equation of Energy:
DH    T
  q   ( ijU j )  ( ) (3)
Dt t xi x j x j
where: H : Internal energy; q: Heat flux;  ij : Stress tensor; T : Temperature; : Heat conductance.
The k   Turbulence Model:
The k   model is the most common used turbulence model and has been implemented into most CFD
codes. The k   model consists of the transport equations for k and for . The exact k equation is derived
by scalar multiplication of the transport equation for the velocity fluctuation Du / Dt by the velocity
fluctuation itself  .  is supplied from the  equation. The applied model to near-equilibrium flows for
high Reynolds numbers is called the standard k   model.
The final form of the standard k   model equation over a control volume can be expressed as follow:
k k   k
  U j  P  G   (  t ) (4)
t x j x j  k x j
And
D U   t 
  (C 1P  C 3G  C 4k k  C 2 )  ( ) (5)
Dt xk k x j  x j
where P is mean-strain production. G stands for The coefficients are in the standard k   model
body force production and depends on the character equation as follow:
of the body force.
C C 1 C2 C3 C4 k  
0,09 1,44 1,92 0,8 0,33 1 1,3 0,9

2.2 Spray models
Basic Equations
Spray simulation deals with multi-phase flow phenomena and requires solving the conservation equations for
the gas and the liquid phase. In the liquid phase, all spray calculations are based on a statistical method.
The differential form of equations for the trajectory and velocity of a particle parcel are as follows:
14
duid
md  Fidr  Fig  Fip  Fib (6)
dt
Where F i d r is the drag force, Fig is a force by the effects of gravity and buoyancy, Fip presents the pressure
force and Fib summarizes other external forces.
In these above forces, the magnitude of the draft force is highest and it is the relevant force for fuel spray
injection and combustion computation.
Evaporation Models
In this study, Multi-component evaporation model was used for vapor simulation of water and fuel. This
model is based on the Abramzon-Sirignano approach. The main difference to the single-component
evaporation models is that mass transfer of every component is taken into account separately. Then, the mass
flow rate is the sum of the single contributions.
Break-up Model and Spray-Wall Interaction
The syudy also applied WAVE Standard model and Spray-Wall Interaction properties for the break up of
water, fuel after.
a. ICE simulation
Table 1. The engine model with operation parameters.

Engine Parameters Value
Engine Type Single cyliner-GDI
Compression Ratio 13
Bore [mm] 80 A spark ignition GDI engine has been applied
Stroke [mm] 81.4 for numerical simulation using CFD to provide
Displacement [cm3] 441 an insight into complex in-cylinder behavior.
Engine speed (rpm) (rpm) 2000 The engine model with operation parameters
Fuel Injection Timing (oCA) 60 BTDC was presented in details at the table 1.
Fuel Injection Duration (oCA) 20
3. Simulation results
After supplying to the engine, WA could have a cooling effect on such as charge or motive fluid and could
lead to an increase in the effective octane number, ultimately resulting in an improved anti knock resistance
(anti-detonation ability) of the combustible mixture. The effects of sprayed water into the cylinder of the
engine model used are discussed in the subsequent sections.
3.1 Injection sprays
300oBTDC: Spray Droplet Diameter[m] 290oBTDC: Spray Droplet Diameter[m]
Figure 4. The spray of fuel injection and water injection.
15
Figure 4 showed the in-cylinder water spray of 290oBTDC and fuel spray of 300oBTDC. There was droplet
and evaporation generated during injection process due to its physical properties. In this study, the effect of
water addtion on compressed gas temperature and engine parts temperature were focused to evaluate the
Anti-detonation of engine.
3.2 Reducing compressed gas temperature
As the water droplets vaporized by absorbing the heat from compressed air, they were converted into high
pressure steam. The evaporation of water in small liquid droplets may absorb the heat which decreases the
average temperature of suction gas. At the same time, it reduced compression pressure. Hence, the initial
injection of water not only facilitates the cooling of the air but significantly also increases its density,
allowing more fresh air to enter the cylinder.
Although water was injected into the cylinder at
280oCA, water evaporation was slower because
of its properties. This reduced the temperature
significantly beyond 300oCA. With the presence
of water (up to 20% of WA) in cylinder, the
average temperature of compressed air at 320oCA
(the end of fuel injection) decreased about 37K
compared with no water addition, as shown in
Figure 5.
The WI significantly cooled the charge gas in the
GDI engine or air-fuel mixture in an MPI engine
and increases the density of air in each case.
Hence, higher engine output can be reached with
an increase in the fresh-air mass that enters the
cylinder. Moreover, the gains in power output is
Figure 5. The effect of various water mass on the in- possible due to the lower work done in
cylinder temperature of the compressed gas, during the compression stroke. Because the decreasing of
latter part of the compression stroke. compressed gas temperature leads to lower of
compression pressure.
Additionally, engines with higher
compression ratios or boost pressures have to
support higher octane number fuels as a
requirement for anti-detonation. The water
addition can be useful in these situations.
Engines equipped with boost intake pressure,
the intake air compressed before entering the
cylinder. This is one of the enabling
conditions for detonation. The combination
of WI and boost pressure could be acceptable
in this case due to the greater benefits
derived from the cooling effects of vaporized
water. While, an normal engine can be
operated with a lower octane number fuel in
combination with WI.
Figure 6. The decrease of WI on in-cylinder temperature at
the end of fuel injection.
16
3.3 WI for cooling certain parts of the engine
In ICE operation, some heat energy was wasted in exhaust, friction, heating parts, etc. The energy expended
in heating engine parts such as piston, combustion chamber, and exhaust valves is further evidence of heat
loss. This lost energy is highest during combustion stroke because the maximum temperatures are generated.
The second of lost energy by heat tranfer is in the compression stroke.
Water is a naturally substances with a high heat absorption of 2260KJ/kg. After injection and evaporation,
the average temperature of exhaust valves decreased as the injected water quantity increased.
Figure 7. The effect of 20% WA on the cooling of Figure 8. The temperature of the piston crown with
exhaust valves in compression stroke. varios water mass.
As the water/fuel mass ratio increases, the average temperature of the piston crown is lowered compared to
that of no water addition operation during the compression stroke. The results in Figure 8 showed that the
heat loss through the piston also decreased as the water to fuel mass ratio increased.
WA with different mass also prevents the overheating of cylinder crown, exhaust valves. By using WI with
20% of fuel mass, the piston crown temperature could be decreased about 50K. The higher reduction in the
piston temperature for crown was because of the direction of injected water.
Figure 9. The drop temperatures for piston crown at the later compression stroke.
17
The greatest benefit of WA was an derease in the knock abitility due to the cooling of overheated hot spots in
cylinder, especially for engines with high compression ratios. WA has an effect on increasing the conversion
efficiency of lower heat tranfer energy within cylinder and from inside engine to enviroment.
4. Conclusion
The effects of different WI ratios on the compressed gas and hot pots parts of a GDI engine have been
investigated in this study. The various water mass ratios were injected directly into the cylinder at the latter
part of the compression stroke. The water additon ratio was determined as 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% in
comparison with fuel mass in terms of anti-knock compatibility issues.
The important effect of WA was the reduction of inlet temperature as a direct consequence of water
vaporization, which resulted in a large decrease in in-cylinder temperature. The direct water injection also
reduces the temperature of hot pots in cylinder at the latter stages of the compression stroke. WI maybe was
helpful for improving the anti-detonation properties of the fuel from higher compression ratio spark ignition
engines. WA can be also helpful solution for engine with lower octane number fuel.
References
1. Caton P, Song H, Kaahaaina N and Edwards C. Strategies for achieving residual affected homogeneous
charge compression ignition using variable valve actuation. SAE Paper No. 2005-01-0165.
2. Marriot C, Reitz R. Experimental Investigation of Direct Injection-Gasoline for Premixed Compression
Ignited Combustion Phasing Control. SAE Technical Paper 2002-01-0418.
https://doi.org/10.4271/2002-01-0418.
3. Fennell D, Herreros J, Tsolakis A (2014) Improving gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine efficiency
and emissions with hydrogen. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 39:5153-5162.
4. Cinar C, Uyumaz A, Solmaz H, Topgul T (2015) Effects of valve lift on the combustion and emissions
of a HCCI gasoline engine. Energy Conversion and Management 94:159-168.
5. Geng P, Zhang H (2015) Combustion and emission characteristics of a direct-injection gasoline engine
using the MMT fuel additive gasoline. Fuel 144:380-387.
6. Subramanian V, Mallikajiuna J, Ramesh A (2007) Effect of water injection and spark timing on the
nitric oxide emission and combustion parameters of a hydrogen fuelled spark ignition engine.
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 32:1159-1173.
7. Nande A, Wallner T, Naber J. Influence of water injection on performance and emissions of a direct-
injection hydrogen research engine. SAE Paper No. 2008-01-2377.
8. Ozcan H, Soylemez M (2006) Thermal balance of a LPG fuelled, four stroke SI engine with water
addition. Energy Conversion and Management 47: 570-581.
9. Gadallah A, Elshenawy E, Elzahaby A. Effect of in-cylinder water injection strategies on performance
and emissions of a hydrogen fueled direct injection engine. SAE Paper No. 2009-01-1925.
10. Nguyen Q A, Wu Y (2009) Experimental investigations of using water-gasoline emulsions as a NOx
treatment and its effects on performance and emulsions of lean-burn spark ignition engine. International
Conference on Power Engineering-09 (ICOPE-09).

[STS22-13]
18
A NEW RECTANGLE REPRESENTATION ALGORITHM BASED ON THE
KINECT CAMERA TO LOCALIZE THE GRASPING POINT OF THE
OBJECT
Trong Hai Nguyen1*, Tran Duy Cuong1
1
HUTECH Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 8491 372 8234; Email: nt.hai75@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
This paper proposes a method for localizing and grasping objects in a picking robot system using Kinect
camera. A new rectangle representation algorithm based on the Kinect camera is proposed to localize the
grasping point of the object. The effectiveness and the applicability of the proposed algorithms is verified by
using experiment with an acceptable small error.
Keywords: Object localization, Grasping object, Object recognition
1. Introcduction
A robotic manipulation of objects typically involves object detection/recognition and grasping control. The
most dominant methods are based on single camera to receive color image and laser sensor for depth
information. However, they are complex and expensive. In real-world grasping, the full 3D shape of the
object is hard to perceive (Hu Y, et al 1999). Other methods (Piater J. H. 2002) focus on grasping 2D planar
objects using edges and contours to determine form and force closures for simple objects such as squares,
triangles, etc.
To solve this problem, RGB-D data from Kinect camera is used to localize grasping points of an object. The
experimental results show that the proposed algorithm successfully detects an object and finds its grasping
points with an acceptable small error.
2. Proposed algorithm
2.1 Work space of a picking robot system
The workspace of a picking robot system is shown in Figure 1. It consists of manipulator platform, stereo
camera and a horizontal table with an object at the manipulator workspace.
Figure 1. Work space of a picking robot system

2.2 Mapping RGB image into depth map
This transformation is achieved based on a mapping function of the SDK, which enables to map a
corresponding color to a corresponding pixel in depth space for RGB color image to complete the lost depth
information from the depth map as shown in Figure 2.
19
Figure 2. Mapping RGB image into depth map
2.3 Proposed object grasp detection method
Block diagram for a proposed method for object grasp detection using Kinect camera sensor is shown in
Figure 2. For object detection, to ensure robust and correct object identification, two algorithms to be
effective for object matching are employed: Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm first for
matching object’s features (Bay H, et al 2008), and Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors
(FLANN) algorithm for matching (Muja M, et al 2009). FLANN is a library available in OpenCv. A
proposed rectangle representation algorithm for this paper consists of two phases based on depth map data
from Kinect camera sensors. The first phase is for adaptive peak-depth detection to detect the peak-depth
value. The second phase is for grasp detection to localize grasping points of an object.
Figure 3. Proposed object grasp detection method

3. Results and discussions
The experimental workspace consists of stereo camera and a horizontal table with some objects. Firstly, the
object detection algorithm is applied for finding one desired object on the table. Secondly, the grasping point
algorithm is applied for finding rectangle representation. Finally, the accuracy of algorithm is shown in
different scenes of object.
Figure 4 show some grasping rectangle results of the proposed method. Table 1-2 show the results of object
detection and rectangle representation of the proposed method and compared with 2D planar method (Piater
J. H. 2002). The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm successfully detects an object with
accuracy 92.5% when the background distance is 0.6m and finds the grasping points with accuracy 100% for
no transparent object.
Table 1. Object detection results
Algorithm Accuracy (%) Background distance
Proposed 83.9 1m
2D planar 62.6 1m
Proposed 92.5 0.6m
2D planar 70.3 0.6m
20
Figure 4. Experiment results of grasping rectangle
Table 2. Rectangle representation results

Proposed 2D planar Accuracy
Object
Accuracy (%) (%)
Spire bottles 95 50
Tennis bat 95 20
Biscuit box 100 95
Small ball 100 95
Shampoo bottle 100 95
4. Conclusions
This paper proposed a method for localizing and grasping objects in a picking robot system using Kinect
camera. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm successfully detects an object with
accuracy 92.5% when the background distance is 0.6m and finds the grasping points with accuracy 100% for
no transparent object. But, in this method, the depth data error is increased with the distance increased.
References
1. Hu Y, Eagleson R, Goodale M. A (1999). Human Visual Servoing for Reaching and Grasping: The
Role of 3D Geometric Features. ICRA 3:3209–3216.
2. Piater J. H (2002). Learning Visual Features to Predict Hand Orientations. ICML Workshop on
Machine Learning of Spatial Knowledge.
3. Bay H, Tuytelaars T, Gool L.V (2008). SURF: Speeded Up Robust Features. Journal of Computer
Vision and Image Understanding 110:346-359.
4. Muja M, Lowe D.G (2009). FLANN - Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbours.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mariusm/uploads/FLANN/manual.pdf.

[STS22-30]
21
DESIGN AND FABRICATING MINI CORE XY 3D PRINTER
Hong Hieu Le1*, Van Nhanh Nguyen1
1
HUTECH Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 098 698 5794; Email: lh.hieu@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstracts
In this research, a mini core XY 3D printer is design and fabricated with high volume of 200x200x150 mm.
The machine is tested with many aspects such as: speed, tolerance, surface. It is concluded that for getting
highest quality product, the machines should be run at speed of 30 mm/s with the tolerance of 0.1 mm.
Keywords: 3D printer, core XY printer, mini 3D printer
1. Introcduction
3D printing is the next Industrial Revolution and coming closer to every-day reality for consumers as well as
designers (Anthony Simons 2019). 3D printing is a rapid prototyping technology (Ali Kamrani and Emad
Abouel Nar 2009, Grzegorz Budzik et al 2011), in which the product is made up of printing layers (Ngoc-
Hien Tran et al 2017). Nowadays, rapid prototyping has wide range of applications in various fields such as:
mechanical, automotive engineering, medical industry… (D. K. Shinde et al 2017).
In this research, we successfully develop a mini core XY 3D printer (Figure 1a, b). The machine is designed
to reach the good quality of printing product with high accuracy, speed and surface with the total size is 350
x 350 x 400 mm.
Figure 1. Strategy design of machine: (a) a mini core XY 3D printer in modeling and (b) after fabricating.
2. Characterization
2.1 Stress analysis
The machine after being design is simulated by SolidWorks software. The machine is supported and loaded.
We assume that the support is rigid (that is also called fixed support) and that a 100000N tensile load is
uniformly distributed.
2.2 Printing efficiency
The printer is run at 3 different speeds: 30 mm/s, 90 mm/s and 200 mm/s for determining the effect of speed
to printing time, accuracy, surface quality and choosing suitable speed for particular purpose.
22
3. Results and Discussions
Figure 2: Stress (a) and displacement (b) when a uniform load is applied on the beam frame of machine.
SolidWorks simulation results showing stress and displacement analysis of the machine frame (Figure 2).
The frame structure has low localized stress and displacement values, that indicates machine frame is stable
and sturdy, can withstand for the applied force.
Figure 3. Printing results. Samples (a), accuracy (b) and printing time (c) with different speeds, and
printing size (d).
It can be seen that as the increases from 30 mm/s to 200 mm/s, surface quality is reduced (Figure 3a). It is
clear that the roughness is increasing. Moreover, the accuracy decreases from 0.1 mm to 0.24 mm (Figure
3b). However, the printing time is decreased from about 18 minutes to 10 minutes (Figure 3c). Thus, it can
23
be concluded that less the printing speed, better will be the product quality. Printing with low speed (30
mm/s) gives the smooth surface and it is suitable for parts that needs high accuracy and aesthetics. The
medium speed (90 mm/s) is suitable for parts that do not need high quality surface. The high speed (200
mm/s) can be used for parts that can’t be seen in the assembly. The optimal printing speed is from 30 mm/s
to 90 mm/s to get high accuracy and surface quality.
Moreover, the print size is conducted to get the best value for running the machine with the size of 200 x 200
x 150 mm (Figure 3d). It is showed that the quality of the product is a little change together with the height.
From 0 to 50 mm, the printed product is beautiful and smooth, this is the optimal printing range of the
machine. From 50 to 100 mm, the product begins to have tiny plastic melts, if it is not the product that needs
high surface quality, this print range can still be used well. From 100 to 150 mm, the product appears to have
small plastic melts but still ensures its firmness.
4. Conclusions
A mini core XY 3D printer has been designed and developed using printed parts and e wasted materials. The
overall build size of 3D printer is 350 mm x 350 mm x 400 mm.
The printer can be run at different speeds: 30 mm/s, 90 mm/s and 120 mm/s and exhibits high accuracy with
tolerance about 0.1 mm, 0.18 mm and 0.24 mm. The optimal printing size of the machine is 200 x 200 x 150
mm. The experiments results show that the mini core XY 3D printer is very efficient and effective so the
machine could be a choice for many applications, especially in prototyping technology.
References
1. Anthony Simons, Kossi L. M. Avegnon, and Cyrus Addy (2019), Design and Development of a Delta
3D Printer Using Salvaged, Journal of Engineering, Volume 2019, Article ID 5175323, 9 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5175323
2. Ali Kamrani and Emad Abouel Nar, Rapid prototyping: Theory and currently a lecturer of faculty of
Electrical and Practice, Springer, 2006. Electronic Engineering, UTC.
3. Grzegorz Budzik, “The use of the rapid prototyping method for the interests include power electronic,
manufacture and examination of gear wheels,” 2011, in Advanced measurement technique and technical
Applications of Rapid Prototyping Technology in Modern diagnosis,
Engineering, InTech publisher, 2011.
4. Ngoc-Hien Tran, Van-Cuong Nguyen, Van-Nghia Nguyen, 2017, Study on Design and Manufacture of
3D Printer based on Fused Deposition Modeling Technique, International Journal of Engineering and
Advanced Technology (IJEAT), ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-6, August 2017.
5. Vinod G. Gokhare, D. N. Raut, D. K. Sindle, 2017, International Journal of Engineering Research &
Technology (IJERT), ISSN: 2278-0181, Vol. 6 Issue 06, June – 2017.

[STS22-50]
24
DECODING TECHNIQUE OF HARD AND SOFT DECISION OF LDPC
Tran Duy Cuong1*, Trong Hai Nguyen1
1
HUTECH Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh city, Viet Nam.
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 918285908; Email: td.cuong@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
In communication systems, forward error correction (FEC) codes have been widely used to battle data errors
caused by transmission through a noisy channel. By adding extra bits to the end of message bits, a certain
number of bit errors can be detected and corrected without frequent retransmission. Low density parity
checks (LDPC) is a powerful FEC coding scheme which can achieve good error performance under very low
signal-to-noise ratios. A communications system utilizing LDPC code is able to get very close to the channel
capacity limit established by Claude Shannon in the 1940’s. In addition, LDPC codes have lower complexity
in the decoding process compared to other FEC codes. With advances in computing power, LDPC codes
have been adopted in many high speed communication standards such as digital video broadcasting,
WiMAX, 4G-5G wireless systems, among others.
Keywords: Forward error correction, Low density parity check, Tanner graph, Hamming Code, WiMAX
1. Introduction
LDPC codes are a class of linear block codes. The name comes from the characteristic of their parity-check
matrix which contains only a few 1’s in comparison to the amount of 0’s. Their main advantage is that they
provide a performance which is very close to the capacity for a lot of different channels and linear time
complex algorithms for decoding.
In addition to their good performance, LDPC codes have lower complexity in the decoding process
compared to other FEC codes such as Turbo codes. LDPC codes were developed in 1960 by Robert G.
Gallager at MIT. With recent advances in parallel computing power, LDPC codes have been rediscovered
and studied. They are used in many high speed communication standards such as digital video broadcasting,
WiMAX, 4G-5G wireless systems, etc. (JohnC. et al 2014)
2. Project description
The goal was to gain a good understanding of LDPC codes and decoding techniques by implementing a
system simulation using MATLAB code. Figure 1 depicts a high level block diagram of a coding system.
Figure 1: High level LDPC System Block Diagram

2.1 Linear Block Coding
LDPC codes stem from another type of FEC scheme called linear block codes. To describe how LDPC codes
operate, consider how typical linear block codes operate. Hamming code is given as an example. Figure 2
illustrates how a Hamming Code system operates.
25
Figure 2: Hamming Code Block diagram
To describe linear block codes, (n,k) notation is commonly used. The k value denotes the number of bits in a
message and the n value denotes the number of bits in thetransmitted codeword. All linear block codes,
including LDPC, utilize an encoder matrix, G, that adds redundant information to a message to be
transmitted. The redundant information is used to detect and correct errors at the receiver. This redundant
information is embedded in the extra bits called parity bits that are appended to a message. In order for the
system to work properly, the encoder and decoder matrices, G and H respectively, share a special
relationship. The G and H matrices are orthogonal to each other, meaning that G.HT = 0.
2.2 LDPC Codes
(1)
LDPC codes it is usual that every node has at least two edges (Hmod). In the example used above, the node of
the parity bits only has one edge each (H), because channel code is systematic. As Hmod is produced from a
linear combination of the rows from H, the channel code generated with G can also be verified with H mod.
2.2.1 Encoding
The channel code generated with G can also be verified with Hmod.
(2)
The vector of the channel codeword t is calculated from the vector of data bits m and the generator matrix G.
t = mG (3)
2.2.2 Decoding
2.2.2.1 General decoding with hard decision [1, 4]: 0 or 1
The algorithm will be explained on the basis of the example code already introduced in equation 3 and figure
2. An error free received codeword would be e.g. r = [1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1].
010110 0 1
𝐻 = 11100 1 0 0
00100 1 1 1
10011 0 1 0
Figure 3: Tanner graph corresponding to the parity check matrix (H).

26
Table 1: overview over messages received and sent by the c-nodes
c-node Received/sent
f0 Received: c11 c31 c40 c71 sent: 0c1 0c3 1c4 0c7
Table 2: Step 3 of the described decoding algorithm. The v-nodes use the answer messages from the c-nodes
to perform a majority vote on the bit value.
v-node ri received Messages from check nodes decision
C0 1 f10 f31 1
C1 1 f00 f10 0
C2 0 f11 f20 0
C3 1 f00 f31 1
C4 0 f01 f30 0
C5 1 f10 f21 1
C6 0 f20 f30 0
C7 1 f00 f21 1
2.2.2.2 Soft-decision decoding: real numbers

The implementation of the belief propagation algorithm is based on the decoding algorithm presented in
[Gallager, Robert G 1963, Namrata P. Bhavsar 2014, Waheed Ullah 2015]. For transmitted LDPC-encoded
codeword, c, where 𝑐 = [𝑐 𝑐 𝑐 … 𝑐 ]. The input to the LDPC decoder is the log-likelihood ratio (LLR)
value:
( | )
𝑦 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔 ( | )
(4)
𝐿 (𝑣 ) = 𝑙𝑜𝑔 = 𝑦; (5)
𝐿 𝑟 = 2 ∗ 𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑛ℎ ∏ ∈ \
𝑡𝑎𝑛ℎ 𝐿 𝑞 (6)
𝐿(𝑄 ) = 𝐿 (𝑣 ) + ∑ ∈ 𝐿 𝑟 (7)
1 𝑖𝑓 𝐿(𝑄 ) < 0
𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑐 = (8)
0 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒
Figure 4: Soft-decision decoding (Log Domain Algorithm)
∅(𝑥) = 𝑙𝑜𝑔 (9)
27
Table 3: List of input parameters and their values or type
Input parameters Value or Type of parameters
Modulation BPSK
Channel AWGN
LDPC code rate ½
row=3; col=6; Z=5;
The parity check matrix H
H = (row*Z,col*Z);
proH = [1 -1 3 1 0 -1;
Prototype matrix
2 0 -1 0 0 0;
-1 4 2 1 -1 0];
Eb/N0 in dB Eb/N0 = [-2:1:8];
Number of iteration iter = 20;
Number of frame
frame = 1000;
(N bits per frame)
Decoding algorithms Log domain algorithm and bit flipping
G matrix of LDPC code

0
H matrix of LDPC code 10

0
15
5
20
10
25
30
15
0 5 10 15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
nz = 115
nz = 65
Figure 5: (a) H matrix of LDPC code (b) G matrix of LDPC code
28
Tanner graph of LDPC code LDPC Code
0
10
DecodeLogDomain
2
DecodeBitFlip
-1
1.8 10
1.6
-2
BER
10
1.4
1.2 -3
10
-4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 10
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Eb/N0 (dB)
Figure 6: Tanner graph of LDPC code Figure 7: BER vs Eb/N0 simulation result
4. Conclusion
Low-density-parity-check codes have been studied a lot in the last years and huge progresses have been
made in the understanding and ability to design iterative coding systems.
As for future work, it is recommended to fifth-generation wireless technology standard for broadband
cellular networks (5G NR) introduces LDPC codes for data channel coding. Due to their excellent
errorcorrecting performance and the possibility of achieving high parallelization in decoding procedures,
LDPC codes outperform turbo codes (Berrou C. et al 1993], as their predecessor in 3G and 4G LTE
(Barzegar H.R. et al 2019, Richardson, T.J. et al 2018).
References
1. Gallager, Robert G. Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1963.
2. B. Sklar, Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, Prentice Hall PTR, 2001.
3. M. Karkooti, Semi-Parallel Architectures for Real-Time LDPC Coding, Houston, TX: Rice University,
2004.
4. JohnC. Porcello and Senior member IEEE, “Designing and Implementing Low Density Parity Check
(LDPC) Decoders using FPGAs”, IEEE 2014.
5. Namrata P. Bhavsar, “Design of Hard and Soft Decision Decoding Algorithms of LDPC”, International
Journal of Computer Applications, vol.90, no.16 March2014.
6. Waheed Ullah, “Comprehensive Algorithmic Review and Analysis of LDPC Codes”, Indonesian Journal
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, August 2015.
7. Berrou, C.; Glavieux, A.; Thitimajshima, P. Near Shannon limit error-correcting coding and decoding:
Turbo-codes. 1. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC ’93),
Geneva, Switzerland, 23–26 May 1993.
8. Barzegar, H.R.; Reggiani, L. Channel Coding for Multi-Carrier Wireless Partial Duplex. Wirel.
Commun. Mob. Comput. 2019, 2019,1–13.
9. Richardson, T.J.; Kudekar, S. Design of low-density parity check codes for 5G new radio. IEEE
Commun. Mag. 2018, 56, 28–34.

[STS22-53]
29
A STUDY ON DESIGN FINITE ELEMENT HELMET MODEL FOR V-
DUMMY BASED CAE METHODOLOGY
Phu-Thuong-Luu Nguyen1*
1
Automotive Engineering Department, HUTECH Institute of Engineering, HUTECH University, VietNam
*Corresponding Author: (Email: npt.luu@hutech.edu.vn, luunguyenphuthuong@gmail.com)
Abstract
Helmet can protect vehicle riders from severe injuries during traffic accidents. Traffic injuries have only
quite recently been recognized as a major public health problem in developing countries. Also, serious
motorbike accidents have increased in the last two decades. In order to reduce deaths and traumas of traffic
accident, the helmet act for motorcyclists and bicyclists was enacted in many countries. Some countries
even enforced the helmet use to be nationwide. The goal of this study is design a full face helmet and to
build finite element models. Based on observations, full-face helmets are rated as providing the best
protection. The viability of this helmet was studied using the finite element method. Full-face helmets were
designed by the Solidwork CAD tool and modeled by LS- Prepost with different thickness of the impact
absorbing liner. The helmet has been conducted drop test following the European helmet standard ECE
R22.05. Numerical simulation approach is validated by comparing results of head acceleration and HIC
obtain from this study with experimental data.
Keywords: Helmet, FEM, Design, Crash, Dummy.
1. Introduction
Globally, road traffic accident takes more than 1.35 million lives a year. In South-East Asia, 43% of the
deaths are among 2-3 motorized wheelers (WHO, 2018). 7624 deaths due to road traffic accident in Vietnam
in 2019. Motorcycles are the main type of transportation in Vietnam, for the population over 90 million,
Vietnam had more than 58 million motorbike travel on the streets, this number had increased 48 times over
the past 30 years. With the increase in motorcycles comes the increase the number of people who would be
injured or dead by accidents. Motorcycle riders are more vulnerable to road traffic accidents than other types
of vehicle. In fact, car occupants are protected by the car itself and there is more space for passive safety
features such as seatbelts and airbags whereas motorcyclists have nothing to cover themselves during an
impact. Furthermore, motorcycle travels much faster than on foot and bicycle so it would be more drastic for
the motorcyclists when an accident occurs. To reduce the injury rate of the majority of the road users, in
2007, Vietnam’s government enacted law requiring motorcycle.
Motorcycle helmet is the most efficient and significant protective gear for protecting motorcyclists.
Researches have pointed out that wearing helmets helps decrease the risk of head injuries by 69% and
motorcycle fatalities by 42% (B. Liu et al, 2008). There are motorcycle helmet standards such as the famous
US DOT FMVSS 218, sport/racing helmet’s SNELL Standard, or the widely adopted European Union’s
ECE R22.05, etc. Any manufacturers, who want their product be able to sell at the specific region, have to
have their product passed the region’s standard test. Vietnam also has its own standard for helmets called the
TCVN5756:2017. However, the TCVN only specifies the criterion of translate acceleration gained from drop
test when it comes to impact absorbed ability test. In other words, the TCVN is lack of detail comparing with
the ECE which include peak linear acceleration, HIC and rotational criterion. That might say, a TCVN
certified helmet may not be passed the ECE test. Subsequently, we choose not to follow the TCVN standard
but the ECE R22.05 in this research.
There are 3 main types of helmet in the market, each comes with several variations:
Full-face: This is the bulkiest and heaviest of them all. A full-face helmet contains thick shell and liner, more
material to cover the chin and the rear skull (Figure 1). It is the most recommended helmet because it
provides most covered surface of the head. It usually comes with a visor/windshield to protect riders from
30
undesirable object like either insects, dust or bad weather, also the thicker foam provides exceptional wind
noise isolation in order to increase the rider’s concentration.
Figure 1. Full-Face Helmet, open face helmet and half face helmet
Open face: This genre of helmet covers almost the head except for the face. Sometimes the manufacturer
provides a large visor which covers the rest of the face but it has limited sustain against a small impact
comparing to the chin bar from the full-face. Studies pointed out that wearing open face helmet significantly
increase the likelihood of head injuries (M. Hitsugi et al, 2004).
Half helmet: This has the smallest footprint size wise and weight wise. Half helmet has the shape of a bowl
that gives cover only for the crown of the head. And on account of being small and lightweight, it contains
less material which plays important roles in absorbing the impact like padding, liner, shell, makes it the least
protective type of helmet. Half helmet barely meets any standard of minimum coverage. Ironically this is the
most worn type of helmet in Vietnam.
People in Vietnam use motorcycles everyday so they tend to wear the most convenient helmet and since the
tropical climate half helmet intuitively is the first choice and followed by the open-faced. Conversely, full-
face helmet is space consuming and heat absorbing which would bring no joy for everyday use. The goal of
this paper is to investigate the performance of the half helmet and the open face helmet in impact drop test
using finite element method.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Helmet design and finite element helmet modeling
Basically, motorcycle helmets are mainly used to prevent the skull from fracture due to complex kinematic
impact. Some other advanced helmets also have the ability to reduced the affect of brain and neck injuries
from an oblique impact where rotation movements are considerable to provoke damage to these parts (E.
Bliven et al, 2019). The study wanted to focus on the primary function of helmets that is reducing the effect
of a translational impact to the head to prevent skull fracture, concussion and scalp/facial skin scratches.
In general, a helmet includes an outer shell, an energy absorbed liner, a comfort padding and a chin strap.
For simplicity, the padding was neglected and the chin strap was replaced by a CONTACT code in the
simulation to maintain on the head after the impact. The full face helmet model has only the outer shell and
the liner, which is the main component for preventing penetration, spreading the direct impact forces and
absorbing energy from the impact.
2.1.1 Design Criteria
Figure 2. 2D Sketch dimensions of the helmet.

31
The first is to create the contour of the helmet using the Circle, Line, and Centerline commands to create
sections. After that, use the Extruded-Surface command to contour the chin. Draw a Centerline from the
origin to create the radius of the circle. And then use the Revolve-Surface command scan into a circle to
contour the head (Figure 2)
To create a vertex contour, use the Line command to create the shape and then use the Trim-Surface
command to trim the excess. The top of the head and the chin are connected by the Loft-Surface command,
the lines connecting these two parts can be changed curvature to match the contour of the head.
At the Front Plane, use the Line command to create a new part with a size sufficient for the motorcycle
operator to have maximum visibility and still ensure safety. Then use the Extrised-Surface to command the
newly created part is thickened until it penetrates the cone surface. Finally, choose the Trim-Surface
command to trim the excess.
The lining design process is simplified and made easier. the shell of helmet will be scaled back with the
Scale command with a ratio of 24.99/25 (the size of the helmet is 25 cm; the error is 0.01) (Figure 9). Use
the Thicken command to thicken the lining to make it solid. Choose the Delete/Keep-Body command to
delete the redundant parts.
Figure 3. Back view of the helmet dimensions.
Figure 4. Front view of the helmet dimensions.
Figure 5. 3D design of the helmet liner. Figure 6. 3D design of full-face Helmet.

2.1.2 Helmet Modeling
In this work, a motorcycle helmet that fully meets the ECE R22.05 regulations was modeled (Figure 4).
Nevertheless, an arduous stage of geometric modeling was still necessary in order to have a geometrically
32
accurate FE mesh. The geometry of the different parts that compose the helmet was improved in
SOLIDWORD software and then, these parts were meshed in LS-DYNA.
The expanded polystyrene (EPS) liners thickness varies from 16 mm to 20 mm. The outer shell made of
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) has a thickness of 3 mm. In order to simulate the interactions between
the headform and the liner and also the interactions between the anvil and the shell, a surface-to-surface type
of contact with friction coefficients of 0.8 and 0.5 were used, respectively
Figure 4. Real-world vs simplified 3D CAD model of the full-face helmet.
As regards to the objective of the study, the construction of a helmet model is indispensable. Hence, in this
literature, we propose some simple steps to create a model of a helmet: from creating a boundary shapes to
forming the geometrical characteristics within the model of the human head (Figure 5). It is also important to
mention that this modeling process is supported by the tools of Solidwork.
The mesh was conducted by LSTC LS-PrePost tool which is a finite element pre-processing and post-
processing program. The outer shell was meshed with mostly two-dimensional (2D) quadrangular and
triangular elements with the size of 5mm averagely. The geometry of the shell was simplified for easily
meshing. The outer shell was chosen to be shell element with the thickness of 3mm. The liner on the other
hand has solid three-dimensional (3D) elements which were projected from the 2D mesh like the outer shell.
The meshing process is divided into two parts: shell meshing and lining meshing will be detailed.
Firstly, the shell of helmet will be meshed in part by part by Auto Mesher command, elements with an
average size of 5mm (Figure 11). The nodes in some places will not fit together or be deformed. The solution
to this problem is to use the Duplicate Nodes command to check for faulty elements. And then use the
Element Editing command to fix distorted or missing nodes. After that, must bring the normal vectors in the
same direction this will help control when the cone is thickened, will it face outward or inward.
The lining is also meshed similar to the shell, but the lining must be solid in nature. So the next step would
be creating the solid elements base on the shell of the helmet and thicken it as required. And then create
constraint with the shell. Finally, the step is the most crucial step which is the transform.
Figure 5. Meshing the shell of Figure 6. Meshing the liner of the

the helmet. helmet. Figure 7. Dummy’s posture set up
33
3.1 Set up the helmet’s posture
In the Figure 7, the helmet is placed on an anvil, which is seen as the ground. The boxesolid is dropped in the
Z direction to collide with the helmet.
3.2 Material
The material choice for the outer shell is diverse. Polycarbonate (PC) is usually seen in those cheap, poor
quality helmets meanwhile fiberglass and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) are commonly seen in
helmets with more supreme features such as ultra light weight and super durable but they are generally very
expensive as well. Then comes the Acrylonitrin Butadiene Styrene (ABS), it has the acceptable performance
without pricing yourself out of the market that can be found in those cheap DOT/ECE certified helmets. The
outer shell is the first part and should be the only part makes contact with the impact surfaces and the
surrounding objects during an accident happens. It prevents sharp, pointed object to penetrate inside the
helmet. It also has a duty to spreading the impact load over its surface area, decreasing stress concentration at
the impact point which eventually acts on the skull in side the helmet.
For the liner, EPS foam, a synthetic cellular material, is commonly used for protection purposes like making
helmet liner and cargo packaging due to its capability of absorbing impact (Prasartthong, el al, 2018). Liner’s
job is to take in the remaining load and energy from the impact through deforming. As the liner crushes
during the impact, the duration for the head to stop increases which leads to reduction of the deceleration of
the head. The density, Young’s Modulus and yielding stress of the EPS foam play important roles for the
performance of the liner, which will affect the efficiency of the liner with each variation (C. Deck và R.
Willinger, 2006). EPS foam is an exceptional shock absorbing, lightweight and lowpriced and has the
density vary from 30 to 90 kg/m3 (Chia-Yuan Chang et al, 2003). In this paper, the thickness of the linear
varied with three values 16mm, 18mm and 20mm. For the record, the capability of the liner will decrease
drastically after the first hard hit. That is why it shouldn’t be reused after undergoing an accident. These
material properties are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Material properties of the helmet parts
Part Density Young Modulus Poisson’s Yield stress
(kg/m3) (Mpa) ratio (Mpa)
ABS 1200 4000 0.37 34.6
EPS 90 8.64 - -
3.3 Drop test the boxsolid with the helmet set up

Helmet impact test was performed for finite element model validation. To qualify for the test, the helmet was
required to have legible and valid product certification labels and identification which are traceable. To
achieve high accuracy, the test will be set up like a finite element model (Figure 21). The anvil is fixed,
which is seen as the ground.
Figure 8. Drop test the boxsolid with helmet Figure 9. The mass of the anvil.
34
Sample was subjected to impact attenuation test at a speed of V= 1400 mm/s and the box solid has mass m=
0.0037 tonne is dropped vertically from above (Figure 8).
The collision distance is 0.1m calculated according to the formula:
𝑣 = 2𝑔𝑠
4. Result and discussion
The Head Injury Criterion (HIC) was not calculated for the test since the requirement is not tipulated in the
test protocol. After each impact, the samples were visually inspected for deformation and crack appearance
on the outer shell and in the inner liner.
The drop velocity of boxsolid is 1.4 m/s (Figure 10) completely coincident with the drop speed in the actual
experiment. Besides, the maximum acceleration of the solid is approximately 0.1625 mm/s2 (Figure 11),
infer that the force acting on the helmet is approximately equal to 0.6 N calculated by formula: 𝐹 = 𝑚𝑎
Figure 10. Resultant Velocity Of Boxsolid Figure 11. Resultant Acceleration Of Boxsolid
Figure 12. Internal energy of shell and liner Figure 13. Total energy of helmet
Helmet shell absorbs a large amount of energy on first impact (Figure 12), the lining also suffers a part of the
energy when impacted, but not significantly. The maximum energy absorbed by the shell at the first impact
is approximately 2.5 E+3 and at the liner the energy gain is approximately 0.45 E+3. The amplitude of
deformation is relatively small (Figure 14). To consider the amplitude of deformation of the helmet on
impact we will consider the displacement of the nodes at the point of impact contact. At the position of
elements with maximum Von Mises Stress, there will be contour of the displacement. We can easily see the
nodal when impact will be displaced a certain distance (Figure 15). On the other hand, the maximum total
energy the helmet must absorb is approximately 3.6 E+3 N-mm (Figure 13) and effective stress is mainly
concentrated in the side position, the elements are relatively less affected (Figure 16).
35
Figure 14. The displacement of Figure 15. The displacement of Figure 16. Effective stress of
helmet nodal helmet
5. Conclusion
Real drop test and finite element model tests are performed under the same conditions as same mass, same
velocity, same coordinates were given exactly the same results. The hard outer shell is made from
thermoplastic materials is acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and two experiments were carried out under
the same conditions so helmet deformation of real drop test is the same as that of deformation the helmet
finite element model. In addition, the mass of the helmet finite element model is 0.00065 tonne, which is
smaller than that of the real helmet model, which has a mass of 0.0008 tonne. It can be concluded that the
helmet finite element model is up to 81.25 percent accurate compared to the real helmet model. Thereby
proving that the finite element simulation model of the helmet has high accuracy and reliability and can be
used in the finite element simulation with V-Dummy (Nguyen, 2019).
References
1. World Health Organization, “Global Status Report On Road Safety 2018,” World Health Organization,
Geneva, 2018.
2. B. Liu, R. Ivers, R. Norton, S. Boufous, S. Blows và S. Lo, “Helmets for preventing injury in motorcycle
riders (Review),” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, number 1, 2008.
3. U.S. Department of Transportation, “Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Standard No. 218,
Motorcycle helmets,” Available: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules
regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=5 71.218
4. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, “ECE Regulation 22.05 ‐ Uniform provision
concerning the approval of protective helmets,” 2002. Available:
www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp29/wp29re gs/r022r4e.pdf.
5. Vietnam Standard and Quality Institute, “Protective helmets for motorcycles and mopeds users,” 24 10
2017 Available: https://tieuchuan.vsqi.gov.vn/tieuchuan/view?sohieu=TCV N+5756%3A2017.
6. United Nations Economic and Social Council, “Proposal for the 06 series of amendments of UN
Regulation,” 18 08 2019. Available: https://unece.org/DAM/trans/doc/2019/wp29grsp/GRSP-66-
22e.pdf.
7. M. Hitsugi, A. Shigeta, A. Takasu, T. Yokoyama và S. Tokudome, “Analysis of fatal injuries to
motorcyclists by helmet type,” American Journal of Forensic Medicine andPathology, part 25, pp. 125-
128, 2004.
8. E. Bliven, A. Rouhier, S. Tsai, R. Willinger, N. Bourdet, C. Deck, S. M. Madley và M. Bottlang,
“Evaluation of a novel bicycle helmet concept in oblique impact testing,” Accident Analysis and
Prevention, part 124, pp. 58-65,2019.
9. United Nations. ECE Regulation 22.05—Uniform Provision Concerning the Approval of Protective
Helmets and Their Visors for Driver and Passengers of Motor Cycles and Mopeds. Available online:
www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs/r022r4e.pdf
36
10. Prasartthong, N.; Koetniyom, S.; Carmai, J. Development of Motorcycle Helmet for Pre-school Children
Using Metal Foam. In Proceedings of the 9th Thai Society of Mechanical Engineers, International
Conference on Mechanical Engineering, Phuket, Thailand, 11–14 December 2018.
11. C. Deck và R. Willinger, “Multi-directional optimisation against biomechanical,” International Journal
of Crashworthiness, part 11, number 6, p. 561–572, 2006.
12. Chia-Yuan Chang, Chih-Hsiang Ho, San-Yi Chang, “Design Of A Helmet” report, 2003
13. B. D. Nguyen, “Database Construction of Vietnamese Injury Criterion in Traffic Collision: Pedestrian
Injury Criterion Responses in Collision,” Ho Chi Minh, 2019.

[STS22-76]
37
38
Civil and Architecture Engineering
39
40
SEISMIC TORSIONAL BEHAVIOR OF A TESTED FULL-SCALE STEEL
BUILDING
Tran Tuan Nam1*
1
Faculty of Civil Engineering, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 918787353; Email: tt.nam@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Based on shaking experiment results of a full-scale 4-story steel building conducted on E-Defense – the
world largest shaking table in Japan, the characterization of twisting behavior can be achieved. Exploration
on twisting motion of the specimen building is presented in this paper, addressing global rotational responses
in various increasing excitation levels. Study results show that the torsion movement of the building is
mainly due to story mass eccentricity. On the other hand, the shaking-table also causes considerable
influence on the building twisting response. System identification and mode superposition of response
translational acceleration at floor mass centers are carried out. Some justifications for stiffness of non-
structural are also presented, through which we can get a more precise basis to determine stiffness
contribution of each component.
Keywords: shaking experiment, twisting, mass eccentricity
1. Introduction
Torsional deformation of a building during seismic incidents is relatively small and thus commonly
negligible in structural design. However, based on a shaking-table experimental record of a full-scale four-
story steel building (Kasai et al, 2016), twisting motion of the frame, in contrast to its translational response,
was inverse proportional to excitation load levels. The specimen building is a full-scale four-story steel
moment frame (Figure 1), shaken to collapse on the E-Defense shaking-table facility in Japan. The ground
acceleration histories recorded at Takatori station during the 1995 Japan Kobe earthquake (herein referred to
as Takatori motion) were used as the input for the test. Accelerometers are installed at four corners of the
floor. By taking the difference between those records, the torsional acceleration at the floor center can be
obtained.
41
(c)
(c)
Figure 1. Specimen building: (a) overview, (b) elevation and plan, (c) accelerometer layout
The experimental responses of the specimen building under the weak, strong and collapse shaking levels
were formerly reported by Suita et al (2009), Yamada et al (2009) and Shimada et al (2010). Some other
researchers (such as Isobe et al 2013, Kasai et al 2016, Pan et al 2008, Miyamura et al 2014, Yu et al 2010,
Tada et al 2008) numerically simulated and analyzed the building responses during the shaking test. Almost
studies focused on the physics of structural behavior, such as Maison et al (2009) evaluated the collapse
response on global perspective; whereas Yamada et al (2009) and Shimada et al (2010) examined local
behavior of beams, panel zones and columns. Behavior of non-structural components observed in the test
was particularly described by Matsuoka et al (2009). However, there have not been any studies mentioning
the eccentricity and twisting motion of the specimen building. Hence, this paper provides a further
exploration on the test results, addressing torsional eccentricity and its effect on the global rotational
responses in varying excitation levels.
2. Torsional motion of the building
Due to the fact that the shaking-table contains certain torsional component in the input motion, especially
when the shaking level increases from 20% to 40% and 60% as shown in Figure 2, torsional input motion is
definitely one of the causes of the building’s twisting motion. Natural torsional vibration period of the
building can be evaluated from Fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the building’s response torsional
acceleration, as shown in Figure 3. It indicates that the natural period of torsion increases from 0.58 to 0.65
sec when the excitation level strengthens.
(rad/s2) üg[θZ] Table
0.08
Load scale (%)
0.04 60
40
0 20
-0.04
-0.08 t (s)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
ütot[θZ](applied
Figure 2. Input torsional acceleration RF by the shaking-table)
Fourier Spectrum (rad/s2.s)
0.5
Load scale (%)
0.4 60
0.3 40
20
0.2
0.1
0 T (s)
0 0.5 1
Figure 3. Fourier spectrum of absolute torsional acceleration (RF)
42
Assuming damping ratio h=0.03, response spectrum for the torsional input motion of each excitation level is
plotted in Figure 4. Spectral torsional angle corresponding to the building’s natural torsional period can be
approximately evaluated as follows: 0.0002 rad, 0.0005 rad and 0.0008 rad for 20%, 40% and 60% Takatori
load scales, respectively.
Sd (rad)
0.001
Load scale (%)
0.0008 60
0.0006 40
20
0.0004
0.0002
0 T (s)
0 0.5 1
Figure 4. Response rotation spectra of the input torsional motions (damping ratio h=0.03)
3. Torsional-translational coupling
The relative torsional angle at the building’s equivalent height (Heq) is computed approximately equal to 2/3
of relative rotation angle at the roof floor, and plotted in Figure 5. It is apparent that the peak magnitude of
the wave curve during the post-shaking time (i.e. from 13.0 to 30.0 sec) is consistent with the spectral
rotation angle obtained above. This confirms the effect of input torsional motion that causes the building’s
twisting behavior during this time.
Detailed clarification is given in Figure 6 which compares the relative torsional angle at Heq between
experimental record and SDOF analytical result assuming damping ratio h=0.03. An example of torsion
behavior in case of 40% load scale is selected to show in the figure. The analytical result almost agrees with
the experiment record during the post-shaking time. Significant difference is exhibited only in the beginning
stage when the translation motion is large. Torsional-translational coupling due to the building eccentricity is
thought to be the reason for this phenomenon.
Load scale (%)
60
40
20
Figure 5. Experimental torsional relative rotation angle at Heq = 2/3H

0.001 (rad)
40-θ
0.0005
0
Analysis
Test
-0.0005
-0.001 t (s)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Figure 6. Relative torsional angle at Heq (40% Takatori loading)
Torsional-translational coupling is created when the center of mass and the center of rigidity in the building
do not coincide. Because the configuration of this building mostly has the eccentricity in the X direction
(Figure 7), it is necessary to calculate the center of mass (xCM), center of rigidity (xCR) and torsional
eccentricity (eX) of each story with respect to the X direction. The results are given in Table 1. Note that, in
order to obtain center of rigidity, story shear stiffness of non-structual components (Kns,Y) is computed by
taking difference between the inertial-force-based story shear stiffness (Kbu,Y) and the frame-based story
43
shear stiffness (Kfr,Y). Then, assuming claddings and partition walls having same stiffness, we can use Eq. 2
to calculate xCR as shown in Table 2.
Figure 7. Center of mass and center of rigidity on building plan
Table 2. Story eccentricity

Center of mass [mm] Center of rigidity [mm] Torsional eccentricity [mm]
Story
x 
 mi xi (1) x 
 kYi xi (2) eX = xCM - xCR (3)
m k
CM CR
i Yi
4 -108 -327 219

3 -342 -515 173
2 -383 -489 106
1 -322 -324 2
Table 3. Story shear stiffness (Y-dir)

Kbu,Y Kfr,Y Kns,Y = Kbu,Y - Kfr,Y xCR
Story Kns,Y / Kbu,Y
[kN/rad] [kN/rad] [kN/rad] [mm]
4 89500 76400 13100 0.15 -327
3 96800 76400 20400 0.21 -515
2 102000 81600 20400 0.20 -489
1 132900 120200 12700 0.10 -324
The effect of rigidity eccentricity and mass eccentricity on torsional behavior of the building can be proved
through identification results by an ambient vibration experiment conducted by Kanazawa et al (2008). This
study indicates that when the partition walls and ceilings have been completely installed, the building’s
natural frequency in Y direction rapidly increases by about 15 percent. In contrast, the natural frequency in X
direction almost does not change, compared to the time when the bare frame was initially erected. It is
because the partition walls are light in weight but strongly contribute additional stiffness in Y direction,
therefore natural frequency can increase only in this direction. Torsional mode arises more obviously in both
1st mode X and 1st mode Y, showing the increase of building’s torsional eccentricity due to the shifting of
rigidity center. Finally, when the building has finished all installation works, torsional mode only appears in
1st mode Y, and almost vanishes in 1st mode X. This is consistent with the building eccentricity which is
more dominant on X-side rather than on Y-side.
4. Conclusions
44
The study explores twisting motion of the specimen building, addressing global torsional responses in
varying excitation levels. Study results show that the torsion movement of the building is mainly due to story
torsional eccentricity. On the other hand, the shaking-table also causes considerable influence on the
building’s twisting response.
Some justifications for stiffness of non-structural components are also presented. The installation process of
those components contributes to the building eccentricity, resulted in torsional-translational coupling effect.
However, the additional stiffness disappears in the large deformation state, thus the magnitude of building’s
torsional angle does not increase proportionally with excitation levels.
References
1. Isobe D, Han WS, Miyamura T. Verification and validation of a seismic response analysis code for
framed structures using the ASI-Gauss technique (2013) Earthquake Engineering & Structural
Dynamics; 42(12):1767–1784.
2. Kanazawa K, Kirita F, Kitamura H, Matsuoka Y (2008) Health Monitoring of 4-story Steel Moment
Frame Before and After the Collapse Test. Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Beijing.
3. Kasai K, Nam TT, Maison B (2016) Structural collapse correlative analysis using phenomenological
fiber hinge elements to simulate two‐directional column deteriorations, Earthquake Engineering &
Structural Dynamics; 45(10):1581-1601.
4. Maison BF, Kasai K, Deierlein G (2009) ASCE-41 and FEMA-351 evaluation of E-Defense collapse
test. Earthquake Spectra, 25 (4), 927–953.
5. Matsuoka Y, Suita K, Yamada S, Shimada Y, Akazawa M, Matsumiya T (2009) Evaluation of seismic
performance of exterior cladding in full-scale 4-story building shaking table test (in Japanese). Journal of
Structural and Construction Engineering, Transactions of AIJ; 641:1353-1361.
6. Miyamura T, Yamashita T, Akiba H, Ohsaki M (2014) Dynamic FE simulation of four-story steel frame
modeled by solid elements and its validation using results of full-scale shake-table test. Earthquake
Engineering & Structural Dynamics; 44(9):1449–1469.
7. Pan P, Ohsaki M, Zhang J (2008) Collapse analysis of 4-story steel moment-resisting frames.
Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing.
8. Shimada Y, Suita K, Yamada S, Matsuoka Y, Tada M, Ohsaki M, Kasai K (2010) Collapse behavior on
shaking table test – complete collapse test of full-scale 4-story steel building part 3 (in Japanese). Journal
of Structural and Construction Engineering, Transactions of AIJ; 653:1351-1360.
9. Suita K, Matsuoka Y, Yamada S, Shimada Y, Tada M, Kasai K (2009) Experimental procedure and
elastic response characteristics of shaking table test – complete collapse test of full-scale 4-story steel
building part 1 (in Japanese). Journal of Structural and Construction Engineering, Transactions of AIJ;
635:157-166.
10. Tada M, Tamai H, Ohgami K, Kuwahara S, Horimoto A (2008) Analytical simulation utilizing
collaborative structural analysis system. Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Beijing.
11. Yamada S, Suita K, Matsuoka Y, Shimada Y (2009) Elastoplastic responses and process leading to a
collapse mechanism – complete collapse test of full-scale 4-story steel building part 2 (in Japanese).
Journal of Structural and Construction Engineering, Transactions of AIJ; 644:1851-1859.
12. Yu YJ, Tsai KC, Weng YT, Lin BZ, Lin JL (2010) Analytical studies of a full-scale steel building
shaken to collapse. Engineering Structures; 32:3418–3430.

[STS22-10]
45
UTILIZATION OF THE INFLUENCE LINE OF DISPLACEMENT TO
IDENTIFY A DECLINE IN THE STIFFNESS OF BEAMS
Khang Ma1, Tan-Nien Nguyen1, Ngoc-Trung-Kien Ho1, Chi-Hao Pham1, Ngoc-Thuy-Vy Dang2,3,4, Tuan
Minh Ha1*, Duc-Duy Ho2,3, Saiji Fukada5
1
2
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
3
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
4
Meinhardt (Vietnam) limited
5
Faculty of Geosciences and Civil Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa City, Japan
*Corresponding Author: Tuan Minh Ha (Phone: + 84 973 842 816; Email: hm.tuan@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to offer a method for detecting structural damage utilizing the standardized index
of the beam's deflection influence line difference as input data for the evaluation procedure. The
displacement influence line used in the evaluation is calculated using the findings of the behavior analysis of
the reinforced concrete beam's finite element model when subjected to a moving load. SAP2000 software is
used to simulate reinforced concrete beams. The mobile load is then assigned to move along the beam from
its starting position to its ending position. For each mobile load example, the displacement at each survey
node will be output in order to draw the influence line. The displacement analysis of the beams is compared
before and after assuming damage for each mobile load instance in order to determine the location of the
stiffness drop. From then, the findings of beam damage diagnosis are reviewed and evaluated, as well as the
methods' practicality in real implementations.
Keywords: displacement influence line, damage detection technique, elastic modulus reduction
1. Introduction
The science of structure monitoring has advanced rapidly in recent decades. Rytter suggests three levels of
damage detection: occurrence of damage, position of damage within the structure, and stiffness reduction. In
other words, the damage detection method's objective is to ascertain the occurrence of a damage, its location,
and severity. In addition, the structure's behavior can be classified into two main categories: static behavior
and dynamic behavior. For many years, many studies have focused on developing an efficient and reliable
approach for diagnosing failures.
Many scientists are interested in structural diagnosis, most notably Pandey and Biswas (1991), who used the
mode shape curvature in conjunction with vibration patterns to identify beam damage. Min and co-authors
(2010) used ANNs to determine the optimal frequency domain for determining the structure's damage
pattern. The authors extended their work two years later. In 2012, Min and his co-authors conducted research
on structures that had been damaged in a variety of ways, including aluminum beams that were subjected to
changing boundary conditions and developed cracks, and also a reinforcement plate on a bridge girder
subjected to a reduced bolt loosening force and developed cracks. The author concludes that ANNs can
provide diagnostics for the simultaneous incidence of multiple types of damage on the structures. In the same
year, Hong and co-authors (2012) measured the deformation of a beam during vibration using a strain gauge
sensor (macro-strain Sensor) attached to the bottom of the beam. The sensor value acquired was used to
determine if there was any damage to the beam. Additionally, the authors validated the method using
experimental reinforced concrete beams. More investigations based on the natural frequency and the
vibration mode shape have been conducted since then (Dawari et al., 2013; Miyashita et al., 2012). However,
46
Watanabe et al. (2014) previously established that low-order natural frequencies are insensitive to structural
stiffness changes. Additionally, it is critical to have a sufficient number of measurement instruments to
precisely determine the vibrational mode shape.
Additionally, the method of identifying damage using static characteristics has drawn the attention of various
studies due to the accuracy and speed with which static parameters can be collected using inexpensive
instruments. Sheena and co-authors presented an analytical method in 1982 based on minimizing the
difference between the stiffness matrixes of the elements under investigation. In 1993, Banan and co-authors
devised a method for estimating each element's damage parameters based on displacement caused by a
predefined static load. Wang and co-authors (2001) devised a two-step approach for detecting damaged
structures based on natural frequency and static displacement discrepancies. By minimizing the difference
between the load vectors of destructive and non-destructive structures, Bakhtiari-Nejad and co-authors
(2005) established a method for describing the change of static displacement with a predetermined degree of
freedom. Seven years later, Abdo (2012) used numerical analysis to explore the parameters and locate the
fault location using displacement curvatures. The findings revealed that the displacement change curve can
be a valuable indication, even capable of capturing the element's position with a slight decrease in stiffness.
In 2017, Ha and Fukada (2017) presented the displacement-based index (DBI) as a tool for detecting
structural degradation in prestressed concrete girders by utilizing nodal displacement variation. DBI, on the
other hand, was a static load-based method that makes no allowance for moving loads.
The present work proposes a method for detecting damage to beams by employing a standardized index and
focusing on changes in the beam's displacement influence curve. To begin, the suggested method is
introduced and demonstrated in a variety of conditions for determining the damage characteristics of a
simple beam finite element model. Then, vary the position, number of expected failures, and beam structure
to determine the method's effectiveness. Finally, the study addresses a damage diagnostic and monitoring
model for structures subject to moving loads, such as crane girders in industrial steel buildings and bridges,
employing input data as the influence line of displacement.
2. Proposed diagnostic method
Ha and Fukada (2017) estimated the DBI and determined the damage locations by assessing the calculated
deformation shapes of the girder under static load in its normal and deteriorated states. The purpose of this
study is to determine the effect of DBI when the displacement influence line obtained from the moving load
is used. As illustrated in Figure 1, the influence line of displacement at point C in the elastic beam can be
generated by shifting the unit load P from A to B in a sequential manner. Then, using the Maxwell–Betti
reciprocal theorem's feature of the displacement influence line, the displacement of point C caused by a unit
load applied to a given point is equal in magnitude to the displacement of that particular point caused by a
unit load applied to point C. Because the observed displacement influence line at point C is equal to the
pattern of the beam's displacement curve when a unit load is applied at point C, the DBI can theoretically be
applied to the moving load.
In this study, the elastic modulus of the assumed beam is lowered in order to investigate the displacement
change of the assumed beam in comparison to the sound beam. Assume a unit load is shifted from support A
to support B, the following equation describes the node displacement at point C:
[𝑥, 𝑢 ] = (𝑥 , 𝑢 ), … , 𝑥 , 𝑢 , … , (𝑥 , 𝑢 ) , (1)
[𝑥, 𝑢 ] = (𝑥 , 𝑢 ), … , 𝑥 , 𝑢 , … , (𝑥 , 𝑢 ) , (2)
where, x is the node position determined on the beam, uo/d is the displacement value of the normal/damaged
beam. From the displacement matrix, the difference between uo and ud values is determined:
∆𝑢 = ||𝑢 | − |𝑢 ||. (3)
The difference in the displacement influence line values between the normal and damaged beams is used to
calculate the damage localization index DBI using the equation:
∆ (∆ )
𝐷𝐵𝐼 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥[0; (∆ )
]. (4)
47
where Δuj is the difference in the displacement influence line values between the normal and damaged beams
at the jth location, and average(Δuj) and std(Δuj) denote the mean and standard deviation of Δuj, respectively.
The DBIj coefficient quantifies the degree of point relationship between two influence curves at the jth point.
DBI = 0 indicates that the structure is not harmed at the observation site, whereas DBI > 0 indicates that the
structure is damaged at the observation site.
Figure 1. Illustration of the displacement influence line.

3. Investigated problems
To demonstrate the capability of determining the location of damage within a structure using the DBI
approach with the input data as the displacement influence line, the present study considers four different
types of beam structures. Especially, the study evaluates the proposed method's performance on single-span
simple beams, overhanging beams, cantilever beams (statically determinate structure), and two-span
continuous beams (statically indeterminate structure). Numerous criteria, such as location and the number of
damage, are also studied and discussed in relation to the suggested method's performance.
3.1 Single-span simple beam
A simple reinforced concrete beam with a length of L = 10m (Figure 2) and a rectangular cross-section of
bxh = 0.35 x 0.7 m was subjected to a simulation study under the influence of a unit movable load moving
on the beam. Simulated concrete was a linear elastic material with an elasticity modulus of E = 2.7x10 7
kN/m2 and a Poisson coefficient of v = 0.2. SAP2000 software was used to create models and assign moving
loads, from which displacement influence lines at specified positions on beams can be calculated (Figure 3).
Eleven points evenly spaced 1 m apart from support A to support B were chosen in this investigation to
derive the displacement influence curve.
Figure 2. Illustration of single-span simple beam in SAP2000.

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
-0.00001
-0.00002
Displacement (m/kN)
-0.00003
-0.00004
-0.00005
-0.00006
-0.00007
-0.00008
-0.00009
Distance (m)
Figure 3. Influence line obtained at position 6 of healthy beam.

Damaged beams were created in this study by lowering the elastic modulus of one or two individual
segments of the beam. This study examined three cases with varying damage characteristics in order to
determine the efficiency of the damage detection approach based on the displacement influence line. Case 1
was based on the assumption of a damage in the second element position, on one side of the support (Figure
4). Specifically, the second element's elastic modulus was lowered to E = 2.7x107 kN/m2. The remaining
48
elements retained their typical beam material properties. Case 2 was based on an element failure in the mid-
span position (6th element) (Figure 5). To investigate the feasibility of simultaneously identifying multiple
damages, the third situation (Case 3) assumed two damages in the second and eighth elements (Figure 6).
The displacement influence line analysis of the 6th position of the healthy beam and the beam with presumed
damage in the second element is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 4. Simple beam diagram assuming damage at the second element.
Figure 5. Simple beam diagram assuming damage at the 6th element.
Figure 6. Simple beam diagram assuming two damages at the 2th and the 8th elements.
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
-0.00001
Displacement (m/kN)
-0.00002
-0.00003
-0.00004
-0.00005
-0.00006 Healthy beam

Damaged beam
-0.00007
Distance (m)
Figure 7. Influence line obtained at position 6 of healthy and damaged beams.

The figures 8, 9, and 10 depict, respectively, the results of diagnosing the damaged position of the beams in
the first, second, and third cases. According to Figures 8 and 9, the DBI value is largest at positions 2 and 6,
where the element has a decreased elastic modulus. Thus, in the hypothetical scenario of a loss, the DBI can
pinpoint the site of the reduced stiffness. The diagnostic results for the third case's damage areas are shown
in Figure 10 when the input data is used as the displacement influence line at positions 2, 4, and 10.
According to Figure 10, when the displacement influence line of position 2 or position 10 is used as an input,
the approach correctly diagnoses only one reduced stiffness element position; however, when the
displacement influence line of position 10 is used as an input, the method correctly diagnoses up to two
reduced stiffness elements. Furthermore, when displacement influence line data from position 4 is studied,
DBI reveals two peaks at positions 2 and 8, which correlate precisely with the locations of the elastic
modulus reduction elements. Thus, while diagnosing via the influence line of displacement, the closer the
access point is to the location of the damage, the more precise the diagnosis. On the other hand, if the site of
the damage is remote from the access point for the influence line, the method used to calculate the DBI
factor may result in a misdiagnosis or absence of damage. Thus, when the displacement influence curve is
used as an input to the DBI method for determining the location of the damage, the number of access points
49
must be sufficient to discover any structural concerns.
1.2
0.8
DBI
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance (m)
Figure 8. Diagnostic results of the damaged location of Case 1

1.4
1.2
1
0.8
DBI
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance (m)

1.6
1.4
1.2
1
DBI
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance (m)
Position 2 Position 4 Position 10

3.2 Two-span continuous beam
A simulation analysis was conducted on a continuous reinforced concrete beam of length L = 20m (Figure
11). The rectangular cross-sectional dimensions and concrete material parameters are simulated similar to the
simple beam problem. To extract the displacement influence line, 21 sites equidistant 1 m from support A to
support B and from support B to support C are selected.
Figure 11. Illustration of two-span continuous reinforced concrete beam in SAP2000.

The study examines five cases with varying failure characteristics to determine the efficiency of the
approach for two-span continuous beam failure diagnosis utilizing the influence line of displacement. Case 4
was predicated on the presence of a damaged element at position 2. Case 5 was constructed with the
supposition of a damage at position 15. Cases 6, 7, and 8 are used to assess the method's diagnostic capacity
in the event of concurrent failure of numerous elements. Case 6 entailed two failures at the second and
50
nineteenth sites. Case 7 was built on the premise of three failures at locations 2, 9, and 19. Case 8 entailed
four site failures at locations 2, 9, 12, and 19. Figures 12(a)-(e) illustrate the results of diagnosing the
location of damaged beams in the 4th, 5th, 6th , 7th and 8th assumed damage cases, respectively. The charts
illustrate the results obtained by analyzing the influence line of displacement at various locations along the
beam. Diagnostic charts showing DBI rising and peaking at presumptive locations of beam damage. The
analysis results demonstrate that the DBI can correctly identify the location of the reduced stiffness in both
the case of a single element failing and the case of multiple elements failing simultaneously. However, based
on the analysis presented in the previous section for the simple beam model, the number of monitoring points
must be sufficient to diagnose possible beam failures when there are multiple failures concurrently.
(a) Diagnostic chart of case 4 (b) Diagnostic chart of case 5
(c) Diagnostic chart of case 6 (d) Diagnostic chart of case 7
(e) Diagnostic chart of case 8

Figure 12. Diagnostic results for two-span continuous beam.
3.3 Cantilever beam
Cantilever beams rarely exceed a span of 10m in practice. To reconcile the span with the above-mentioned
51
beam systems, the study simulated a cantilever beam made of reinforced concrete with a length L = 10m and
a rectangular cross-section size bxh = 0.35 x 0.7 m having the unit mobile load moving on the beam (Figure
13). The simulated concrete material was a linear elastic material with the same properties as the preceding
examples. To extract the influence line of displacement, 11 points equidistant 1 m from the support A to the
end of the beam were chosen.
Figure 13. Illustration of cantilever beam in SAP2000.

The study investigates two cases with varying failure characteristics to determine the effectiveness of the
failure diagnosis method based on the influence line of displacement for the cantilever beam structure. Case
9 assumed the existence of a defective element at position 2. Case 10 relied on the assumption the presence
of two defective elements at positions 2 and 5. The results of diagnosing the damaged position of beams in
the hypothetical cases of the 9th and 10th cases are shown in Figures 14(a) and 14(b). DBI can determine the
location of the element with reduced stiffness based on the diagnostic chart. However, in both cases, the
elevation segment is visible at the free end. Elevation of the DBI histogram at the free end, where there is
almost no damage, resulted in an incorrect diagnosis. This can be explained by the geometrical displacement
at the free end of the beam when it is loaded. This displacement effect interferes with the obtained values at
the transposition positions near the free end. As a result, diagnostic results at the free end of the cantilever
beam are inaccurate.

Figure 14. Diagnostic results for cantilever beam.
3.4 Overhanging beams
The diagram of the overhanging beam beam is shown in Figure 15. The rectangular cross-section and
simulated material properties are identical to those in the preceding examples. To extract the influence line
of displacement, 11 points equidistant 1 m from the support A to the free-end segment are chosen. This study
examines two cases with varying failure characteristics in order to determine the effectiveness of the damage
diagnosis method based on the influence line of displacement for ovehanging beams. Case 11 presupposed
damage at the beam's second position between the two supports. Case 12 assumed two failures at the
cantilever beam's second and ninth positions.
Figure 15. Illustration of overhanging beam in SAP2000.

The results of diagnosing the damage location of beams in the assumed damage cases of the 11 th and 12th
52
cases are shown in Figures 16(a) and 16(b). The DBI can determine the position of the element with reduced
stiffness based on the diagnostic chart. When the failure is assumed to be in the simply supported portion, the
DBI diagnostic chart indicates the correct location of the failure. However, in both cases, the elevation
segment is visible at the free end. When damage is assumed at the overhanging portion, the DBI diagnostic
chart's peak at the free end position (diagnostic noise) is significantly greater than the damage diagnostic
peak at the portion between the two supports. As a result, diagnostic results in the ovehanging beam are
inaccurate.
Figure 16. Diagnostic results for overhanging beam.
4. Application of the proposed methods in structural degradation monitoring

This study develops a method for diagnosing failures in beam-shaped structures by utilizing input data as the
displacement influence line. As a result, this method is applicable to structures that are subject to movable
loads. Indeed, the method of diagnosing structural damage via the influence line of displacement can be
applied to crane girder structures in industrial steel buildings, as well as road bridges and rural roads.
Crane girders in industrial steel buildings deteriorate over time due to a variety of factors such as rebar
corrosion reaction, resulting in a loss of function and posing a safety hazard during operation. Localized
damage, depending on its severity, can result in a significant drop or complete failure. As a result, it is
necessary to assess damage on a periodic basis and repair or reinforce as necessary. The displacement sensor
is mounted beneath the crane girder in the case of crane girders (Figure 17). The sensor will monitor and
collect displacement values at a point on the crane girder caused by the movable wheel load. After
determining the displacement influence line caused by wheel movement, the displacement influence line
value is sent in real time to the signal receiver. The data from the resulting signal receiver will be used to
diagnose and locate any beam damage.
Besides, road bridges in Vietnam are critical for the transportation of goods due to the high volume of daily
traffic. For bridge structures, the sensor will be mounted beneath the bridge girder or deck slab (Figure 18).
As the vehicle passes over the bridge, the sensor will determine the displacement value at a particular point,
thereby establishing the influence line. The value of the displacement's influence line will be transmitted to a
nearby signal receiver, which will transmit the signal to a laboratory for analysis and determination of the
location of the damage. During the actual monitoring of the structure, the signal receiver located at the
tracking location collects data from the sensors and transmits it via the wireless network to the processing
computer (base station) or mobile phone. This computer or mobile phone can function as a data center,
collecting displacement influence line tracking data, calculating the DBI failure diagnostic index, and
uploading the results to the server. It enables the administrator to remotely access the database and confirm
the structure's damaged state. Due to the long communication distances associated with large bridges, data
transmission from the base station may be challenging. Additional base stations would be required in this
case.
53
Figure 17. Proposing diagnostic procedures for crane girders.
Figure 18. Proposing diagnostic procedures for bridges.

5. Conclusions
Numerous methods for diagnosing damage to beam structures have been researched and developed to date.
The present study proposes a diagnostic method based on the displacement influence line. The following
summarizes the findings of this study:
 The obtained results indicate that the displacement influence line method is quite effective for
diagnosing single damaged beams. However, the method requires a sufficient number of
displacement access points in the case of numerous damaged elements.
 The more closely located the affected line access point is to the location of the fault, the more
accurate the diagnostic results. On the other hand, if the failure site is located a great distance from
the retrieval site, the proposed method may result in an incorrect diagnosis.
 The method is limited in diagnosing damage to cantilever beams and overhanging beams caused by
the influence of disturbances caused by geometrical displacements of the free ends.
The following study will continue to develop a diagnostic method based on the influence line of
displacement for more complex structures, including diagnostics for rigid frame and actual structures, as well
as further investigate the effect of noise on diagnostic results.
References
1. Abdo MAB (2012) Parametric study of using only static response in structural damage detection’. Eng
Struct 34:124-131. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2011.09.027.
2. Bakhtiari-Nejad F, Rahai A, Esfandiari A (2005) A structural damage detection method using static
noisy data. Eng Struct 27:1784-1793. doi: 10.1016/j.engstruc2005.04.019.
3. Banan MR, Banan MR, Hjelmstad KD (1993) Parameter estimation of structures from static response. I:
computational aspects. J Struct Eng 120:3243- 3258. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1994)120:11(3243)
4. Dawari VB, Vesmawala GR (2013) Structural damage identification using modal curvature differences.
IOSR J Mech Civ Eng 4:33–38.
5. Ha TM, Fukada S (2017) Nondestructive damage detection in deteriorated girders using changes in
54
nodal displacement. J Civ Struct Heal Monit 7:385–403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-017-0231-x
6. Hong W, Wu ZS, Yang CQ, Wan CF, Wu G, Zhang YF (2012) Condition assessment of reinforced
concrete beams using dynamic data measured with distributed long-gage macro-strain sensors. Journal of
Sound and Vibration 331:2764–2782.
7. Min J, Park S, Yun CB (2010) Impedance-based structural health monitoring using neural networks for
autonomous frequency range selection. Smart materials and structures 19(12):125011.
8. Min J, Park S, Yun CB, Lee CG, Lee C (2012) Impedance-based structural health monitoring
incorporating neural network technique for identification of damage type and severity. Engineering
Structures 39:210–220.
9. Miyashita T, Tamada K, Liu C, Iwasaki H, Nagai M (2012) Relationship between damage and change of
dynamic characteristic in an existing bridge for vibration-based structural health monitoring. J Jpn Soc
Civ Eng Ser A1 Struct Eng Earthq Eng 68:367–383.
10. Pandey AK, Biswas M (1994) Damage Detection in Structures Using Changes in Flexibility. J Sound
Vib 169:3–17. https://doi.org/10.1006/jsvi.1994.1002
11. Rytter A (1993) Vibration based inspection of civil engineering structure. Dissertation, Department of
Building Technology, University of Aalborg, Denmark.
12. Sheena Z, Unger A, Zalmanovich A (1982) Theoretical stiffness matrix correctionby static test results.
Israel J Tech 20:245–253.
13. Wang X, Hu N, Fukunaga H, Yao ZH (2001) Structural damage identification using static test data and
changes in frequencies. Eng Struct 23:610-621. doi:10.1016/S0141-0296(00)00086-9.
14. Watanabe G, Tomohiro F, Goto S, Emoto H (2014) Health monitoring and identification of dynamic
characteristic of a skewed bridge based on the vibration test using a moving vehicle. J Struct Eng A
60A:513–521.

[STS22-32]
55
PROPOSING SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE FACTORS AFFECTING THE
DELAY OF CONSTRUCTION PHASE IN HIGH-RISE BUILDING
PROJECTS
Tran Tuan Kiet1*, Truong Cong Thuan1, Tran Thi Kha1
1
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 097 986 4279; Email: tt.kiet@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Along with the rapid development of the construction industry in recent years, high-rise projects have grown
in both quantity and scale. However, delays are common in this type of project in developing countries. It
causes significant economic damage and has a very serious impact on investor confidence. Following a
previous study on factors affecting the delay of construction phase in high-rise building projects, this study
will propose solutions to reduce the factors mentioned in the previous study. Nine groups of solutions
corresponding to nine groups of factors will be analyzed in this study. The investor chooses a designer and
project management consultant who has expertise, experience and is suitable for the project; the investor
clearly determined the scale and purpose of using the project; skilled labor and suitable construction
methods; provide adequate and timely materials; the investor has to confirm the contractor's capacity are
suggested as mitigation activities. The results could help stakeholders learn from the mentioned factors and
apply solutions so that they can avoid delays.
Keywords: construction, delay, high-rise building, mean score, solutions.
1. Research problem
Along with the rapid development of the construction industry in recent years, high-rise projects have grown
in both quantity and scale. However, delays are common in this type of project in developing countries (Kiet
et al., 2020). Because the construction industry plays an important role in the national economy. It
contributes to the economic growth of a country (Long et al., 2008). Therefore, delays in construction
projects lead to serious consequences that can slow down the development of the construction industry in
particular and the overall economy of a country in general.
For the above reasons, it is necessary to better understand the factors affecting construction delays in
High-rise Building projects and solutions to reduce those delays. This knowledge could help stakeholders
learn from the mentioned factors and apply solutions so that they can avoid delays.
2. Literature review
The previous studies chosen for literature review in this study are referred from various literature sources,
such as the global databases of Google Scholar, Web of Science, Emerald Insight, Taylor and Francis,
Science Direct, Scopus, Engineering Journals, SpringerLink, and Wiley Online Library, PMI Online Library,
ASCE Library.
Pourrostam and Ismail (2011) suggested methodologies to reduce construction delays from consultant and
contractor viewpoints in Iran as well as other developing countries. Adequate funding throughout the project,
competent project manager, awarding bids to the right designer/contractor, complete and proper design at the
right time, availability of resources, clear objective and scope, and the use of experienced subcontractors and
suppliers were considered effective methods of minimizing delay in construction projects.
Kesavan et al. (2015) conducted a study to identify the major causes of construction project delays in the
construction industries in Sri Lanka and find out how planning and mitigation methods would minimize their
impacts. The results had been shown 52 affecting factors that were grouped into seven categories such as
client, contractor, consultant, materials, equipment, labour and external factors. This study also finds out
seven mitigation methods to reduce the impact of project delays. They are proper project planning and
scheduling, effective strategic planning, site management and supervision, collaborative working in
56
construction, frequent coordination between the parties involved, frequent progress meeting, accurate initial
cost estimates.
Alzara et al (2016) carried out a case study research on finding out the major causes of project delays in
Saudi Arabia. There were 27 factors that delayed public projects in Saudi Arabia. Nine of them are proved to
be important factors. Out of 27 factors, Late in Reviewing and Approving Design Documents Owner, Delay
in Progress Payments to Contractors Owner, Poor Contractor Performance Contractor, Contractor’s Lack of
Qualifications Contractor, Lack of Contractor Experience Contractor, Shortage of Manpower Contractor,
Lack of Consultancy Employees Consultant, Material Delivery Problems Other, and Bidder System were
identified as major causes of delays. The Performance Information Procurement System (PIPS) and the level
of experience and risk assessment documents are submitted via vendors were suggested as mitigation
activities.
Based on similar domestic and foreign studies that have been published that are aforementioned and
suggestions from experts. This study proposed a model consisting of nine groups of solutions compatible
with nine groups of factors affecting the construction delay in high-rise building projects, namely: Project,
Investor, Project Supervision and Management Consultant, Contractor, Design, Materials, Labor,
Construction equipment, and External factors.
3. Research methodology
Figure 1 displays the research framework adopted for this study, including the processes and techniques
used.
3.1 Proposed model

Following up on a previous study by the authors that have been published (Kiet et al.,2020) and suggestions
from experts, this study proposed a model which consists of 52 solutions for factors that affect the
construction delay in high-rise building projects. Those solutions were divided into nine groups according to
nine groups of factors. They are Project, Investor, Project Supervision and Management Consultant,
Contractor, Design, Materials, Labor, Construction equipment, and External factors (Kiet et al.,2020).
RESEARCH PROBLEM
EXPERT
PROPOSED RESEARCH MODEL
INTERVIEW
CRONBACH’S
DATA COLLECTION
ALPHA
ANOVA TEST DATA ANALYSIS
RESULTS
Figure 1. The research framework.
3.2 Data collection

A questionnaire survey was used to collect data in this study for six months. The survey was conducted on
201 construction engineers in Vietnam. Out of 201 responses, 18 (nine percent) work for investors, 82 (40.8
percent) work for contractors, 56 (27.9 percent) work for project supervision companies, 27 (13.4 percent)
work for project management consultants, and 18 (nine percent) work for design companies, respectively.
192 of them (corresponding to 95.5 percent) have at least five years of experience in the construction
industry. 183 (corresponding to 91 percent) have ever participated in a project that has been delayed.
Previously, to obtain the final questionnaire used for this survey, five experts with postgraduate
qualifications in the construction industry were invited for face-to-face interviews. They had worked for
more than ten years in construction organizations. The objective of the interviews was to reach a consensus
among experts on the contents of the preliminary questionnaire. The final result is a questionnaire with a
structure consisting of two main parts. In the first part, respondents have to rate their agreement about 52
57
solutions according to a Liker scale from 1 (impossible) to 5 (absolutely possible). The other is five
questions about respondents’ personal information and their company characteristics.
The reliability test yielded a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of internal consistency value of 0.810 (>0.80),
which was indicated reliable. In addition, the Spearman’s rank correlation test does not indicate any
difference in assessing an individual item (sig. = 0). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test is used to
examine whether the mean values of each item rated by the different groups are different.
3.3 Data analysis
The solutions for each of nine factor groups are calculated and ranked using mean score method - a widely
applied method in previous research (Dang et al., 2018). Ranking solutions can help understand the
consensus of experts with those solutions. In addition, the results of ANOVA test and Kruskal Wallis test
show that there is no significant difference in the ratings of the four aforementioned groups at the
significance level of 5 percent.

Table 1 presents nine top solutions corresponding to nine groups of factors affecting construction delays in
high-rise building projects.
Table 1 Nine top solutions corresponding to nine groups of factors affecting construction delays in high-rise
building projects.
Group Solutions Mean

- The terms in the contract on penalty for delays must be clear, complete, strict and
strictly comply with the agreements.
Projects 4,34
- The documents related to the compensation and clearance must be completed before
the site starts.
- Professional design service is required to complete the design and limit errors.
- Change orders must be recorded and confirmed by competent persons of the
participating parties.
Investor - Provide a clear scale and purpose of use. The technical design has to verify to limit 4,78
change orders.
- Hire a capable project management consultant to assist the investor in project
coordination.
PM - The project management consultant promptly reports the obstacles in the project
4,54
consultant implementation and proposes the solutions.
- Prepare professional bid documents and bid evaluation process.
- Contractor interviews are required.
Contractor 4,69
- Visiting the contractor's office and construction sites.
- Interviewing ex-investors and ex-material suppliers.
- Select competent and experienced designers who have performed similar projects.
- Thoroughly advise the project investor on the design documents, propose many
options to choose from, and carefully review the errors before issuing the final design
Designer 4,73
documents.
- When the design requires adjustment, the designer quickly implements it with the
confirmation of the relevant participants.
- The plan for the supply of materials must be agreed in writing on the types and sizes
Materials that are available in the market. Progress for the procurement of materials is also 4,10
prepared in detail.
- Use skilled labor.
Labor - Apply appropriate construction measures. 4,70
- Provide timely and complete materials and equipment as required.
Equipment - Establish an equipment layout plan according to project schedule. 4,29
- When an occupational accident occurs, it is necessary to quickly fix the problem and
External report it to the relevant authorities and participants. The effects on the project schedule 4,37
have to limit to the lowest level.
58
From Table 1, some outstanding solutions for reducing factors affecting delays in high-rise building
projects can be mentioned below:
Firstly, the Investor is the owner of the construction work, so the Investor has the right to decide to hire
a professional designer to minimize errors in the design process. The investor should also provide a clear
scale and purpose of use for the project. From there, the designer will understand clearly to avoid problems
later. During the construction process, if there are any design changes, the designer will quickly produce
minutes and drawings for immediate construction. Next, the Investor needs to sign a contract with a
professional project management consultant to minimize the delay in construction progress. It is the optimal
solution for investors who want to improve construction progress.
Next, the quality of labor is a decisive factor for the success or failure of the contractor in particular and
the project in general. Therefore, the more skilled the workforce and the appropriate construction methods
will help the Contractor achieve full results and complete the project on time. At the same time, the material
suppliers must provide a timely to avoid the situation that workers have too much free time, which will affect
the progress of the project.
The contractor is the main implementing participant and has a decisive influence on the project
schedule. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm the contractor's capacity. Some common ways are contractor
interviews, visits to offices and construction sites that the contractor is working on. Another effective way to
be sure to know the contractor's qualifications is the former investors interview. To find out if the contractor
is reputable, it is advisable to interview material suppliers who have cooperated with that contractor before.
5. Conclusion
In continuation of a previous study on factors affecting the delay of construction phase in high-rise building
projects, this study proposed solutions to reduce nine factor groups mentioned in the previous study. Nine
factor groups are namely: Project, Investor, Project Supervision and Management Consultant, Contractor,
Design, Materials, Labor, Construction equipment, and External factors. Accordingly, the solutions for each
of nine factor groups are ranked and analyzed. The mean score ranking results indicate several solutions with
high consensus from the responders. Such as the investor chooses a designer and project management
consultant who has expertise, experience and is suitable for the project; the investor clearly determined the
scale and purpose of using the project; skilled labor and suitable construction methods; provide adequate and
timely materials; the investor have to confirm the contractor's capacity.
The solutions given in this study can only be applied to high-rise building projects in Vietnam. If
additional data collection is available across other countries and for other types of projects, the findings of
the study could be broadly applicable. This is a promising research direction in the future.
References
Kiet T T, Thuan T C, Van L (2020) Analyzing Factors Affecting Delay in Construction Phase of High-
Rise Building Projects. The 1st International Conference on Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS
2020) 202-205.
Long L H, Lee D Y, Lee J Y (2008) Delay and Cost Overruns in Vietnam Large Construction Projects: A
Comparison with Other Selected Countries. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering 12(6) 367-377.
Pourrostam T, and Ismail A (2011). Study of Methods for Minimizing Construction Delays: Evidences
from a Developing Country. Advanced Materials Research (201–203) 2939–2942.
Kesavan M, Gobidan N N, and Dissanayake P B G (2015) Planning & Mitigation Methods to Reduce
the Project Delays in Sri Lankan Civil Engineering Construction Industries. 6th International Conference on
Structural Engineering and Construction Management 2015, Kandy, Sri Lanka 102-107.
Alzara M, Kashiwagi J, Kashiwagi D, and Al-Tassan A (2016) Using PIPS to Minimize Causes of Delay
in Saudi Arabian Construction Projects: University Case Study. Procedia Engineering (145) 932-939.
Dang N C, Long L H, Kim S Y (2018) Impact of knowledge enabling factors on organizational
effectiveness in construction companies. Jounal of Knowledge Management, Emerald 22(4) 759-780.

[STS22-79]
59
HOUSE TRANSFORMING PROCESS IN PERIOD
CASE STUDY: TRADITIONAL HOUSE IN THE NORTH CENTRAL OF
VIETNAM
Tran Trung Hieu
Department of Architecture and Art, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: +84.905.997968; Email: tt.hieu@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
During a long period, the important role of reusing has been proved by many methods, even all things
seemed like annihilated only such as trash, etc. In architecture field, reuse is not only the literal meaning of
recycleing construction material but also in spatial organization. Housing building process has been a result
of a long period in adaptive method by people to the changes of natural. Beside absolute adaptability to
climatic condition, the Viet house is also a place for the occupants and the family’s members to do all the
daily activities comfortably. Many types of housing have been appeared to respond the modern life growing
demand of employers which has partly reflected the organizational rules of the occupier. First, from the
comfort of homeowners in the daily activities as well as their living space, and then the organization of space
to describle the daily living needs of people. Understand the main space organization is how to define the
character of residents living in it, which were created by designers over a long historical process. Through
the analysis of the organizations living space, the relationships between the central space and others, several
theatrical proposed models would be given illustrate the general methodology for designing houses and its
conversion process to correspond with social activities. based on the use of traditional living-space
organizations that give a sensible layout model with traditions and the paths for future work in designing.
Keywords: adaptive reuse, transforming, wooden traditional house.
1. Introduction
Heritage is the potential in contributing to the development of the whole society. However, it only promotes
really these values in an optimal way only when the balance between conservation of cultural heritage value
to the process of modernization is found
Conservation and development, which one is more important, which one is given more priority? It has been
never stopping simmering this problem is while preserving and promoting the heritage value in both tangible
and intangible. Usually there are streams of opinions: “conservation”, “development” and “both conservation
and development. In this writing, there is a new viewpoint named “development based on conservation”.
Any nation has been tired of a process of formation and development, that history was indisputable or denied
by any individual or organization. In terms of preservation and promotion process that history had proved
that development which overlooked at the lack of sustainable conservation and preservation so rigid would
be retarded such as Paris, the capital of the magnificent light, a young vibrant developing alongside an
ancient Paris where the emphasis was raised by haughtily Eifel Tower, a symbol of modern innovations and
a testament to the parallel development of the old and the new, of tradition and modernity.
Traditional garden houses are the most ubiquitous of historic building types along Vietnam. They are not
only fundamental to its sense of place and local distinctiveness, but also represent a major economic asset in
terms of their capacity to accommodate new uses. In recent years, apart from protected as historical evidence
left after the fierce war, the traditional garden house also witnessed the development of the country. The best
solution to ensure their role in the urban fabric is adaptive reuse.
In the most general terms, architectural conservation was accompanied with three questions: why, what and
how to protect the works. Conservationists, through various professional experiences as historians, artists,
sociologists, archaeologists, usually answer the answers... Architects are those who base on the guidelines of
conservationists to apply into actual architecture design of building’s conversion usually, the issues are
handled in small separately ways and cause to the improperly preservation, causing the loss of architectural
60
and historical value. In the fields of architectural conservation now are often encourage the discussion
revolved around approaches to respond to three questions above as part of the process. The purpose of this
approach is to create the synergy in the questions and give the optimum method. Latterly, it’s able to find the
best way to protect all the values of the building during the conservation.
“After built structures become disused or abandoned, adaptive reuse can be the perfect way to breathe new
life into an old building, while conserving resources and historic value. Whether due to environmental
reasons, land availability or the desire to conserve a historic landmark, countless architectural firms
worldwide are turning to adaptive reuse as a solution to some of the modern problems of the built
environment (archdaily, 2020)”.
2. Methodology
To create the adaptation, the necessary is that transformation that we called adaptive transformation or
adaptive reuse.
The motivation of this study was to discover how the Vietnamese have been using and organizing the living
spaces through that we may see the reflection of the Vietnamese architecture’s characteristics in geographic
and socio-cultural conditions. To solve the issues, it is necessary to understand the historical factors that
affect the process of converting, especially the direct influence of the architectural styles from abroad such as
colonial style in Indochina and its application in architecture design.
Although there are many environmental problems are directly related and human issues in indirect, the focus
of this study is to provide an appropriate design guild for social and economic contexts in order not to lose
the values of the inherent buildings during the conversion process which still satisfy the sustainable
development need. Currently parallel with efforts in preserving and promoting the value of older value, there
is also a design idea in favor of the new design, the modern architecture without the need to look back to the
traditional architecture. These methods usually have new thinking of building the new constructions in order
to adapt to environmental problems and respond the demands of the developments in the best conditions of
the future generations. The geographical context affects to buildings’ location will be paid attention carefully
attempt to find a method of optimizing the natural climatic conditions such as ventilation and lighting
influent to the house. The design would be based on the principles of ecologically sustainable design to make
alternatives the most comfortable conditions for daily activities of the occupants and the family’s member.
Based on the methodology of urban conservation was constructed in the research process lasted nearly 30
years and summarized in the book "Urban Conservation" by the worldwide academics to apply efficiently in
Vietnam, the thesis has modified prospective method of heritage assessment appropriate to apply for Hue
City, Vietnam.
To appreciate the potential of urban architectural heritage in the historic urban Vietnam and conservation-
oriented solutions, accordingly, should follow these steps:
Determining the scope and object of conservation: The area to be preserved as historic urban center is the
area that has developed over time overlay, with the integration of the intangible value (dating) and tangible
(materials, archaeological rest). Therefore, there is often soft morphological transformation between urban
areas, feel the place mainly through the cultural element - spirit. Objects can be conserved are the variety of
genres and styles of architecture; street architectural features; the typical landscape; street network structure;
Urban general appearance; metabolic and morphological variations between urban areas; activities of
community life.
Analysis of the original data to determine the ingredients to be conserved: the original data is the urban
status. The subjects were chosen to be conserved are often unstable status cause of the nearly dating,
architectures have been preserved relatively clearly, and the profiles have been stored relatively full. These
are favorable factors for conservation research.
Identify the structural elements that necessary to conserved: urban areas are usually relatively clear identity.
From feudal times, there were the separate clearly from inside and outside the wall of citadel so that in order
to assess the potential of heritage preservation and urban architecture: it is necessary to process according
from micro to macro level of urban designing work, from the specific single building to the contained subject
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of that mentioned building such as unbanning, row, town or city in order to determine its relationships to the
surroundings beside the compared between different areas to have the focus range and the particular features.
3. Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse is finding a new function for the use of existing buildings, which may be degraded and
needed to be replaced or renovated. Usually, the purpose of this type is understood as restructuring a
building or complex of buildings and bringing new uses according to the economic efficiency “the process
by which structurally sound older buildings are developed for economically viable new uses.” (Austin, 1988)
In some cases, conservation through reuse can create a new image for urban areas if they are done correctly
and reasonably “The aim of the City Beautiful was the City Monumental. Great schemes were drawn up for
systems of baroque boulevards, which mainly came to nothing. What did come out of the movement was the
Center Monumental, modeled on the fair. City after city built its civic center or its cultural center.” (Jacobs,
1992)
The reuse of the constructions has been used for long time and is an important method in preserving the
historical buildings effectively. It was originally formed by the urgent needs of people1 and gradually
developed as a method to protect the important historical buildings from demolition.
Firstly, adaptive reuse firstly fixing or changing existing building to conform with current use while keeping
the basic features of the past. Lately, based on the natural law of the deterioration of the building over time
that reuse is the process to repair those damages and make changes to do the functional rehabilitation works.
The traditional housing is particularly suitable to perform adaptive reuse due to its specific characteristics.
Normally those constructions were built from long time ago based on the needs and purposes of the human
on that period, so those functions are no longer suitable for the day life nowadays beside they may be on the
verge of degradation due to many different effects that have created a need for repairing them in order to
reuse instead of destroying. The traditional constructions are also the delegate of local architect, represents a
school of architect of a region or territory, the language for cultural expression of an urban structure through
architecture that maybe related to the events in the developments process of that nation.
As a growing trend of social, adaptive reuse is the logical choice for the renovation and would be blown a
new breeze into community life as well as a new image for common urban planning however there are
accompanied by disadvantages such as the integrations of used materials, the cost of replacement parts that
might be higher, but if the predictions are given early, those points may be solved smartly and creativity.
(Bonsall, 2003)
Before the trend of population growing, crowded phenomenon made the land fund of every country are
becoming smaller, the land-use policies and urban development boundary are making the space narrower day
by day which are threatening directly the survival of traditional architectural type. In response to that
process, people have already taken advantages of those possible areas in order to serve their own interests,
some destructive options for the whole new planning’s; otherwise there are still also some choosing of reuse
and developments that based on the old scale to minimize the cost while still ensuring the common demands.
However, those creations of architectural renovation are still at a disadvantage because most of them are
relying on the spontaneity of local people but not through any specific regulations of technicians or planners
even architects… that making the low effect and the advantage of the ideas are disclosed weakly even the
waste of the owners.
Recycle or razed? Where available scarce land resources, reuse methods adapted to provide a way to create
new space without losing the characteristics of community history.
“There are a lot of values to maintaining our connection to the past” Due to the many low-interest financing
programs available to renovate older properties; Adaptive reuse offers a cost-effective development option
1In Vietnam, especially after the Independence Day in 1975, a lot of buildings from the old regime
had been reused adaptively as many different functions instead of being destroyed for other
purpose.
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(Barns, 1996). “Process by which structurally sound older buildings are developed for economically viable
new uses” (Austin, 1988) or “a variety of repairs or alterations to an existing building that allow it to serve
contemporary uses while preserving features of the past” (Bookout, 1990)
In any condition, the implementation of adaptive reuse will be a good solution firstly in economic terms and
then the practice of other conditions. Not only the particular structure but also many things in the world
today has been done reuse adapting even garbage, things seemed removed and no longer can be used
whether any purpose, “Dollar to use your refuse in new and creative ways” (Chris Gardner, 2007), the free
plastic bottle trash is free, a lot of them and a bamboo frame has been used for making houses or even when
combined with other trash as adding as much trash inside the bottle as possible by using anything to compact
items’ inside, the goal is to compress as much trash and then wasted plastic bottles and trash might became
bricks (Smriti Saraswat, 2003) and be useful again.
4. Some forms have been transformed successfully
Townhouse is a single-family dwelling unit constructed in a group of three or more attached units in which
each unit extends from the foundation to roof and with open space on at least two sides (Steve Ikkanda,
2011).
Townhouses are low-rise, grade-related, attached residential units constructed in rows or blocks. They share
several design characteristics with single-family detached and semi-detached houses such as front doors
facing the street, natural through-ventilation, and grade related outdoor space. In urban locations, with
existing infrastructure and public transportation, townhouses are “smart growth” alternative to detached
dwellings because they are compact, less land consumptive and more energy efficient. Townhouses have
become an increasingly popular form of housing in Toronto over the past decade. (Paula M. Dill, 2003)
The model is the kind of town houses have at least one hand in contact with the street, often share a wall
with the next house and living space for the whole family developed the depth of the house.
In Vietnam, especially in Hue, residents living community in clusters, the formation of the pattern of roads
derived from trade demand between those residential clusters. From time to time and the increase in
population of each family, the need for independent housing but building land fund was fixed, combined
with the desirable to keep abreast with appropriate curb trading activities above has appeared the
phenomenon of dividing the old houses into pieces to share with family members. That was the formation of
Vietnamese townhouse type.
Vietnamese old people loved living along the rivers or the water source to facilitate trading and exchange
with the regions and other commodity items thus there was the appearance of new forms next to the river
played the role as storage houses at the very first.
Figure 8. Illustrating the process of forming
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Figure 9. The development on horizon
Overtime, though many houses have deteriorated, even demolished and built again in the modern form but
their remains functions are unchanged. Because of the adjacent frontal of the houses to the others (usually
the owner of each separately apartment is member, children’s grandchildren of a family) so the increase
occurred only in horizontal depth of the house.
According to the followed development process, when the development on the horizon is no longer viable
again, people started to think about taking advantages of the overhead area, originally formed as the attic
space mentioned above (Hieu, 2015,), later than the form of stories appear. Initially only for warehousing,
storage possessions or food, then residence for humans and until now is still used for that purpose.
Figure 10. The formation of storey-townhouse

Historically, before being built to this kind of house were built, a wide range of thatched and then the stone
one-storey huts were built along the river to accommodate collecting goods from outside to the inner city by
the river before being distributed on the market within the city. However, most of them were devastated by
fires and floods, so that the people started to think about moving this constructive upper to prevent the
flooding and protect the goods.
5. Discussion
How many current infrastructures will be abandoned in nearly future of about 40-50 years?
We need to have an effort to use up the efficiency that they brought rather than having to wait until the
values were lost by time and then find the ways to bring it back to the community. May also in the future, the
building will reach a new technical level, beyond the present traditional style but the more modern as
improving the more we must strive to preserve the value old, that is the balanced of the development process.
Making these heritage buildings adapted to current life is a big challenge for engineers, architects and
designers, that is the motivation for them to work even harder to bring out the creative solutions. For
countries with many ancient architectural constructions this really is a challenge because of the legacy of the
design will determine the success in preserving their senses.
Most of the residential areas constructed in Italian cities since the middle of the last century consist of
apartment buildings. These purpose-built, multi-family buildings evolved from the multi-family houses that
had been created in the old cities by converting existing medieval one-family houses.
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The residential areas built between the middle of the last century and 1930 show local differences in
structure, layout and, above all, the way in which the buildings are aggregated, reflecting the continuity of
local typological processes inherited from the old cities. Each city also has its own type of urban and
building design, and these too reveal the continuity of a local typological process. The origin of each process
has conditioned the utilization and form of subsequent building developments.
Since the end of the Second World War, building design has become more and more detached from these
gradual evolutions, with the result that buildings tend to be the same everywhere, and everywhere out of
keeping with other buildings. Any attempt to halt this spreading anonymity will have to start from an
analysis of the local typological processes of each city, in order to discover exactly what gives them their
historical continuity.
6. Conclusion
Instead of levelling the ground surfaces for new building lands in the need of living of resident area, the
solution is that using adaptive reuse method in both conservation and new built for better effectivities in both
economic and architectural significance.
The solutions of adaptive reuse of a historic building should have impact on the formation and heritage value
of any building. The development firstly needs to understand the characteristics of the facility constituting at
aspects of tangible and different intangible values that cause the object became heritage before going into
research and provide the solution for the new used purposes. Adaptive reuses would fail unless
understanding clearly and the acceptations from the current objects.
Heritage is part of the general urban planning; the existence of heritage has been taking place in parallel with
the development of society. In that process of social development, not only the destructions of the people
have taken place, threatening the existence above but also other objective reasons as the impact of weather or
war, the problem is not enough at just stopping at the required level to protect them, but also to promote the
values that had been brought from them.
Because the housing designing is related closely to the development of society, the research showed that the
spatial organization influent directly to the dwellers who live in. The small changes in housing will change
the normal daily activities of occupants that will lead to the significant changes in the future structure of
society. This will be a loop-relationship when the change of social will also cause the change in architecture
design and vice versa.
Although until now, the design methodologies and traditional housing construction have been based on the
methods of hereditary and experience between generations, but still need a general pattern for the design of
the house in which to match the development of individuals and families in particular, the conversion
process in economics and culture of the community in general. The new development will be space adaptive
reuse.
Despite their inefficiencies, row houses should be maintained in urban areas to respect the existing built
fabric as appropriate choices for current needs and future’s. However, there must be an ensure design
guidelines for the basic requirements of sustainability through such conventions such as coverage, height
limits and the setback, necessary provisions to minimize the impact of natural instead of building disorderly
for other purpose. The general plan should limit the space for the separate dwelling for saving the area in the
whole planning so there would be the necessary fund land for conservation work.
References
1. Archdaily. (2020, 1 15). www.archdaily.com/783283/20-creative-adaptive-reuse-projects. Retrieved
from www.archdaily.com: www.archdaily.com/783283/20-creative-adaptive-reuse-projects
2. Austin, R. L. (1988). Adaptive reuse: Issues and case studies in building preservation. In Austin. New
York: Van Nostrand Reihold company.
3. Barns, B. (1996). Making reuse cost-effective, . Washington, DC, USA;: Bollinger T.B.
65
4. Bonsall, G. F. (2003). Renovation and adaptive reuse. Retrieved from
http://www.dcd.com/insights/janfeb_2003_dcd_insights.html:
http://www.dcd.com/insights/janfeb_2003_dcd_insights.html
5. Bookout, L. W. (1990). Residential Development Handbook. Second Edition. . Washington: D.C.: Urban
Land Institute.
6. Chris Gardner. (2007). 14 Creative Ways to ReUse Your Garbage.
7. Hieu, T. T. (2015,). Living historical urban landscape. The conversion of traditional house in Hue,
Vietnam. Ancona: Universita politecnica delle Marche.
8. Jacobs, J. (1992). The death and life of great American cities. In Jane Jacobs, The death and life of great
American cities. New York.
9. Paula M. Dill. (2003). Toronto Urban Design Guidelines – Infilltownhouses. Toronto: Toronto press.
10. Smriti Saraswat. (2003). Bottle bricks and the aesthetics of sustainability.
11. Steve Ikkanda. (2011). residential code manual county of los angeles department of public works
building and safety division lacrc.

[STS22-02]
66
APPLICATION OF AUTOMATIC SMART WATER SYSTEM TO
PLANTING FRESH ORGANIC VEGETABLES IN HIGH-RISE
APARTMENT BUILDINGS IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
Hai-Yen Hoang
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Art, HUTECH University, HCMC, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 098 432 2305; Email: hh.yen84@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
High-rise apartment buildings are growing more and more in large cities in Vietnam such as HCMC, causing
the area of agricultural land to shrink and the lack of green spaces in urban areas. People always want to live
close to nature and eat clean food. Living in high-rise apartment buildings makes the desire to grow
vegetables in the house more difficult. In order to develop sustainable urban agriculture, the first thing we
need to think about is the accompanying technical solutions to be able to plant trees in high-rise apartment
buildings, in which the irrigation solution is the most important factor. The article is a qualitative study,
providing solutions to apply smart irrigation systems that automatically grow organic clean vegetables in
high-rise apartment buildings in HCMC, such as drip, mist, rain spray irrigation solutions at balcony, terrace.
These solutions contribute to increase crop productivity, reduce care time, and make it easier for people to
grow self-sufficient clean vegetables in high-rise apartment buildings.
Keywords: Agricultural architecture, high-rise apartment building, automatic irrigation, self-sufficiency,
HCMC
1. Introduction
In recent years, the rate of urbanization in Vietnam is increasing, especially in big cities like HCMC.
Urbanization has narrowed the area of agricultural land and increased amount of city residents, which has led
to the development of urban agriculture in HCMC.
In the last time, Vietnam also has guidelines, policies and projects to promote agricultural production
to develop comprehensively and effectively in the direction of ecological urban agriculture. However, the
application of techniques and high technology to production is limited, leading to low productivity, quality
and value of agricultural products in urban areas in Vietnam. The difficulty in developing urban agriculture
in high-rise apartment buildings is how to maintain healthy trees in the limited living space in apartment
buildings, in which an effective irrigation solution to take care of plants is primary care.
High-rise apartment buildings are currently the most commonly built type of building in HCMC.
Currently, high-rise apartment buildings in HCMC are built with the main purpose of living. Few investors
are interested in taking advantage of the alternating areas in these buildings to grow agricultural crops to turn
into self-sufficient buildings, improving the issue of clean food for residents. Nowadays, with the
development of science and technology, the application of green technologies, smart buildings and smart
irrigation systems that automatically grow organic clean vegetables in the house is gradually interested,
becoming useful solutions for high-rise apartment buildings in HCMC. Not only solve the problem of
providing clean food on the spot, save time and increase crop productivity, but also contribute to greening
high-rise apartment buildings, creating a natural air purification system and helping to reduce urban heat.
Developed countries have successfully applied the automatic irrigation system model in vertical
agriculture in high-rise apartment buildings. HCMC can completely learn and apply for high-rise apartment
buildings. Contributing to the sustainable development of urban agriculture, increasing crop productivity and
saving time to take care of the people, making the green spaces of urban agriculture an indispensable part of
high-rise apartment buildings in hcmc in the future.
1.1. Agricultural architecture
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Agricultural architecture is defined as the art of architecture that combines science and business, the
design of which integrates agriculture into the built environment. The term was first popularized by Henry
Gordon-Smith in 2011, when Henry was researching how cities could use agriculture to address
environmental, social and economic challenges, while development of food systems that are resilient to
climate change. By definition, agricultural architecture is the application of architectural thinking when
designing agriculture for urban built environments. (UAAGreen, 2021)
1.2. Automatic smart irrigation system

Automatic vegetable irrigation system is a collection of equipment such as: Pump, Timer, water line,
automatic watering heads... designed into a complete system, helping to transfer water from source to
locations that want to water for the vegetables. This smart watering system will automatically turn on / off
every day, can be timed to water the vegetable garden at any time of the day, ensuring that the vegetables are
always fully supplied with water. The automatic vegetable watering system will help the vegetable garden
become more and more green and save a lot of time for watering vegetables every day. (Maka, 2019)
2. Research methods
This article is a qualitative study, using a mixed method including data aggregation and expert
methods. Data aggregation method is applied to analyze the situation of apartment buildings that have been
built, and the current status of agricultural crops in apartments in HCMC, on the basis of surveying some of
specific buildings, thereby presenting difficulties in growing vegetables in current high-rise apartment
buildings. At the same time, they also learned about the people's need to use clean food and grow vegetables
for self-sufficiency and some solutions that people have come up with in their own apartments. The data
aggregation method is also applied to refer to the experience of using automatic irrigation systems to grow
vegetables in high-rise buildings in developed countries around the world. The expert method is applied to
collect automatic smart vegetable irrigation models that have been used in Vietnam and around the world,
thereby finding solutions to apply those models in other spaces in apartment buildings, combining with green
architectural design solutions from the beginning to create self-sufficient, green, clean and sustainable
buildings.
3. Experience to application of automatic irrigation system in urban agriculture in the world

3.1. Farmhouse model
Architects Fei and Chris Precht, co-founders of architectural studio Precht, developed the Farmhouse
housing model. They developed this model as a way to connect urban residents with agriculture and create a
more sustainable life.
Urban residents are unfamiliar with how agriculture is produced, while the transportation of food has
an increasingly serious impact on the environment. The modular system will allow residents to grow food in
tower blocks to eat or share with the community. Prefabricated A-frame housing modules are made from
laminated timber (CLT), stacked to provide flexible living spaces. CLT is more sustainable than other cheap
construction materials like concrete. Each wall of the module will be made of three layers. The innermost
layer is where the indoor surface finishes, with the electrical and plumbing lines. A structural and insulating
layer will form the middle layer, and the outer layer will contain all the elements of the urban garden while
providing water.
A household can build their own house using composite modules. The arable gardens will be
arranged either private or shared, with inverted voids between the modules forming a V-shaped buffer zone
between the apartments and providing the plants with natural light and ventilation.
A food market will be located on the ground floor of the building, along with a winter food storage
cellar and waste zone that will turn food waste back into farming materials. (Dezeen, 2019)
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Figure 1. Farmhouse system, cultivated gardens in V-buffer zones between apartments (Dezeen, 2019)
3.2. OGarden Smart vegetable garden system
The OGarden Smart vegetable garden system is self-watering, and allows up to 90 types of
vegetables and fruits to be grown at the same time. Users just need to plug in the power, put the plants in,
and this garden will grow on its own without much care. Every week, just pour water into the garden's tank
once, vegetables will be watered automatically. ( Linh, 2019)
Figure 2. OGarden Smart vegetable growing system (Linh, 2019)

This indoor garden is also equipped with an LED system that provides light for the plants without
consuming too much electricity, which is environmentally friendly. The most special feature of this garden is
that we can grow up to 90 plants at a time without taking up much space in the house. There are 60 places to
plant trees on the rotating wheel and 30 places to place plants below. It is estimated that vegetables can be
harvested after about 30 to 40 days from planting. (Linh, 2019)
4. Importance and application of automatic irrigation systems in urban agriculture in high-rise

apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City
Vertical agriculture will be a potential solution to the problem of uncontrolled urbanization,
especially in big cities like HCMC. These forms of farming are suitable for all conditions, even in the most
extreme climates because they are completely independent of nature, and at the same time help to solve the
problem of limited land fund and help to increase green spaces in big cities. Therefore, the application of
"vertical farming" with automatic irrigation systems in urban areas is absolutely necessary. (Hong-Hanh,
2019)
One of the sustainable solutions to be considered is to form farms in high-rise buildings in the heart
of crowded cities like HCMC. In order to solve the problem of limited land fund and transportation costs,
and at the same time the city can be self-sufficient in clean food for itself, "vertical farming" is becoming the
optimal choice to application to solve the above problems. (Hong-Hanh, 2019)
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Figure 3. Vertical farm model (Hong-Hanh, 2019)
The form of "vertical farming" not only saves 95% of irrigation water, but these farming models also
form a closed process. Exhaust gas, waste water and food waste can be reused by plants and animals and
purified into clean air and clean water. By optimizing the production process and applying science and
technology, automatic irrigation taking care, the plant buildings not only provide clean and safe food but also
create a green living space in the heart of the city. Even people's psychology has the opportunity to relieve
pressure when having access to spaces close to nature. (Hong-Hanh, 2019)
People living in high-rise apartment buildings in HCMC now know how to make use of a lot of
empty space indoor to grow vegetables. However, the irrigation system has not been fully designed from the
beginning, even many balconies and loggias do not have a sprinkler system available, leading to the need to
take care of the plants in the apartments get many difficulties. Most people do not have much time to water
their gardens regularly. This leads to the situation that the indoor vegetable garden cannot be maintained for
a long time. Automatic irrigation solutions will help people reduce the time to take care of vegetable
gardens. Due to sufficient water supply, the vegetable garden will grow quickly and harvest early, providing
a source of clean vegetables for people every day.
Figure 4. Automatic irrigation system helps the vegetable garden in the apartment to be green
everyday (Maka, 2019)
5. Current design methods of automatic vegetable irrigation system

5.1. Drip irrigation solution
Water will be accurately to each vegetable tray, helping vegetables absorb the maximum amount of
water for irrigation and save water for users. Drip irrigation method can be applied to models of growing
vegetables in styrofoam containers, plastic boxes, growing on trellises or stratified shelves in balconies and
terraces. (Maka, 2019)
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Figure 5. Drip irrigation solution (Maka, 2019)
5.2. Sprinkler irrigation solution
For the sprinkler irrigation solution, the water will spray evenly for the entire vegetable garden,
creating a convenient environment for vegetables to grow and quickly for harvest. The form of sprinkler
irrigation is also suitable for watering vegetables grown in styrofoam containers, or hierarchical shelves,
hanging pots. For premises such as terraces or large open yards, applying sprinkler irrigation will be a
reasonable solution, helping to evenly water all vegetable beds. (Maka, 2019)
Figure 6. Solution for sprinkler irrigation (Maka, 2019)

5.3. Mist irrigation solution
Mist irrigation solution is suitable for areas with large vegetable growing areas. The sprinkler
irrigation system for vegetables will spray out fine and evenly distributed water droplets, creating a cool
environment with appropriate humidity, helping vegetables to grow quickly. (Maka, 2019)
Figure 7. Mist irrigation solution for a large vegetable garden (Maka, 2019)
6. Application of automatic irrigation system to grow vegetables in high-rise apartment buildings in

Ho Chi Minh City
6.1. Automatic irrigation solution for apartment balconies without water source
In apartments in HCMC, balcony or loggia space are commonly used spaces to grow vegetables.
Using the balcony area to grow ornamental plants and vegetables will help increase the green space of the
apartment, making the balcony more beautiful. This is also the most suitable empty space in the house to
grow clean vegetables. However, to ensure that the vegetable garden is always green, we need to water it
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daily. Busy life in the city makes people not have enough time to take care of vegetable gardens. In addition,
some balcony spaces are designed without a faucet, making it difficult to water plants.
6.1.1. Use an automatic drip irrigation system
For balconies that do not have a water source, we can use automatic drip irrigation. This watering set
consists of many components, allowing users to easily design a drip irrigation system to automatically supply
water to the vegetable trays grown on the balcony. The sprinkler operates completely independently due to a
watering timer that uses a rechargeable battery that is charged by solar energy. A mini pump is integrated
inside to pump water for plants from the water tank and do not need electricity or water. The watering set has
20 watering heads, watering 20 pots of plants at a time.
Figure 8. Automatic drip irrigation set (Maka, 2019)

6.1.2. Use a drip irrigation head
For the vegetable pots grown on the balcony, we can also use a drip irrigation head. We can combine
reuse of plastic bottles as water containers. Users choose plastic bottles with a capacity of 0.2-2 liters, the
watering time will be about 10-20 days. This watering head has a very simple principle of use, we just need
to put water in the container, attach the watering head to the container, then plug the watering head into the
base of the plant to be watered, a sharp object pierces a hole in the bottom of the water container to have air
to water the plants.
Figure 9. Drip irrigation head (Maka, 2019)

6.2. Automatic irrigation solution for apartment balconies with water sources
Đối với những căn hộ chung cư có sẵn vòi nước, giải pháp tưới rau ngoài khu vực ban công sẽ dễ
dàng hơn rất nhiều. Với những ban công dạng này, chúng ta có thể sử dụng các giải pháp tưới tự động như
sau:
For apartments with faucets available, the solution of watering vegetables outside the balcony area
will be much easier. With these balconies, we can use automatic irrigation solutions as follows:
6.2.1. Use a drip root irrigation set
The drip root irrigation set includes 6 drip irrigation sets, each with 4 sprinklers, which can be
divided into many different irrigation branches. When operating, the watering unit will provide water in a
drop-by-drop form to the position of the tree to be irrigated, with a water flow rate of about 1.3 liters per
hour. This watering set is suitable for small and medium green vegetable trays. The equipment in the
irrigation set is designed with high-quality plastic, which is durable and can be used for a long time in harsh
environmental conditions.
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Figure 10. Diagram of the drip root irrigation system (Maka, 2019)
6.2.2. Use a drip irrigation set
The drip irrigation set can water up to 12 pots of plants at the same time. When operating, the
sprinklers will drip water drop by drop to the exact location of the tree to be watered without splashing the
surrounding area, helping to save water. The amount of water for each plant is about 0-8 liters/hour. We can
adjust the water flow of each sprinkler to match the water needs of each pot. This drip irrigation set is
suitable for vegetable gardens in areas with low water pressure such as corridors and balconies.
Figure 11. Diagram of the drip irrigation set (Maka, 2019)

6.2.3. Combine Timer for automatic watering of plants
Timer is a device to schedule automatic watering. When combined irrigation sets with the Timer, it
will create a fully automatic plant watering system, allowing the user to set a timer to water the indoor
vegetable growing areas several times a day.
.
Figure 12. Timer combination model for automatic vegetable watering for the balcony (Maka, 2019)
7. Conclusion
In order to maintain the developed urban agriculture system and the vegetable garden in the
apartment buildings to be always green every day without taking too much time to take care of them, the
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application of automatic irrigation system to grow vegetables in high-rise apartment buildings is an
extremely useful solution. When applying automatic irrigation system in vegetable growing spaces, it will
create optimal efficiency, while helping to keep the vegetable garden space always green, increase crop
productivity, and create a source of clean organic food for building residents, both contributing to improving
air quality and reducing environmental pollution, enhancing green space in high-rise apartment buildings.
Urban residents living in apartment buildings will become productive farmers in their own apartments. To
ensure that people do not spend too much effort in taking care of the vegetable garden, but still maintain a
good green vegetable garden in the apartment, with scientific and technical care solutions, irrigation
solutions automation such as drip irrigation, misting or rain spraying plays a key role. Gardening right in the
apartment also helps people relax and reduce stress in life.
Compared with traditional farming, hi-tech urban agriculture with automatic irrigation system is
more efficient, more sustainable and more productive. Organic products become more accessible, small
spaces are friendly, so it is easy to arrange automatic irrigation systems in apartments. The application of
automatic irrigation solutions to grow organic vegetables in high-rise apartment buildings is completely
feasible and appropriate. With the country's long tradition of farming, most people love gardening and
growing vegetables, but the tight spaces in urban areas as well as busy work make it impossible for them to
do their favorite work, automatic irrigation solution is a perfect solution to help overcome the above
difficulties.
Urban agriculture will continue to be the solution and strategic direction for the sustainable
development of eco-cities in the future. And Vietnam is also approaching this model to create green urban
areas, vertical farm models in the heart of urban areas, helping to create a healthy and sustainable living
environment.
References
1. UAAGreen (2021) What is Agricultural Architecture? https://uaagreen.com/kien-truc-nong-nghiep-la-gi.
Accessed January 31, 2019
2. Maka (2019) Automatic vegetable watering system at home- Benefits and installation costs.
https://maka.vn/blogs/he-thong-tuoi-rau/he-thong-tuoi-rau-tu-dong. Accessed 25 February 2019
3. Dezeen (2019) Model of high-rise apartment building combined with urban agriculture Farmhouse.
https://kienviet.net/2019/03/05/mo-hinh-nha-o-cao-tang-ket-hop-nong-nghiep-do-thi-farmhouse/.
Accessed May 5, 2019
4. Linh NL (2019) Mini garden can grow 90 plants at the same time with automatic watering. Accessed 22
July 2019
5. Hong-Hanh (2019) Vertical agriculture – green solutions for urban areas. https://reatimes.vn/nong-
nghiep-thang-dung-giai-phap-xanh-cho-do-thi-37822.html. Accessed 23 July 2019
6. Maka (2019) Automatic irrigation solution for apartment balconies. https://maka.vn/blogs/giai-phap-
tuoi-tu-dong/tuoi-tu-dong-cho-ban-cong-chung-cu-nha-o. Accessed 12 July 2019

[STS22-31]
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INDOCHINESE STYLE IN INTERIOR DESIGN OF RESTAURANTS AND
RESORTS IN VIETNAM TODAY
Tuyet Dang Nguyen Thi Hong1*
1
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Art, HUTECH University, 475A Dien Bien Phu
Street, 25 Ward, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 972 075 252; Email: dnth.tuyet@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
In today's era, the trend of integration is growing strongly, the design styles of the world are more and more
diverse and won the growing hearts of people in the profession as well as those who love architecture,
interior worldwide. In the face of material conveniences that are gradually becoming such common
standards, the exploitation of traditional values of the nation to incorporate into the design is a trend worthy
of attention in the world. Indochinese style is a combination of Vietnamese cultural identity and French
neoclassical style - a unique combination of East and West, but suitable with culture, customs, and artistic
conceptions. Vietnam's landscape and climate have inspired me to want to do more research and learn more
about this style. Explore and study the influence of Indochinese style in interior design of restaurants and
resort in Vietnam, through specific issues: Characteristics and status of influence of Eastern architectural
style Duong in interior design of food service and resort projects in Vietnam; Affirming values, providing
solutions and application trends of Indochinese style in the interior of culinary and resort projects in
Vietnam... In order to contribute to strengthening the source of additional materials for the major, serving
good for teaching, especially for students who want to learn about traditional Vietnamese design styles.
Keywords: Indochinese style, restaurants, resort, interior design, Vietnam
1. Introduction
Indochine style is a design style combining Asia - Europe formed in the late 19th century to mid 20th
century when the French Empire colonized the colonial countries in the region. Indochina (Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia) to form the Federation of French Indochina. Since 1921, a series of mixed-style buildings began
to be built with the tendency to exploit Eastern and tropical characteristics, along with Western construction
techniques to create a new style different from the traditional style. Pure French style called Indochina style.
The Indochinese style blends traditional Asian perspectives with influences of French romantic flair. In other
words, the Indochinese style is the style created by the French when combining the French style with the
styles of the indigenous countries in Indochina. Indochinese style is a subtle and distinctive fusion between
two completely different East and West cultures. But that combination has created a style suitable for the
philosophy, traditional aesthetic views, culture and landscape of the colonial countries.
In the middle of the 20s of the twentieth century, architectural works combining the Neoclassical style
prevailing in France and traditional Vietnamese culture were initially constructed, starting to form the
Indochinese style in Vietnam. Male. The leading architect of this style was Ernest Hébrard, a famous French
architect at that time. He has worked for many years in Indochina, is passionate about indigenous traditional
culture and is the author of plans for Ha Noi and Da Lat.
Indochinese style was born in the East, where there are two great civilizations of mankind: China and
India. The colonial countries of Indochina were influenced and dominated by these two civilizations, so the
Indochinese style is a fusion of Chinese and Indian cultures. When the French colonists invaded Vietnam,
they brought the French style in and so, the Indochinese style took shape early but in 1920 in Vietnam was
influenced by the styles of China, India, France and traditional culture. native system. The cultural
interference of East - West, cultural characteristics of 54 ethnic groups throughout the country has created a
very diverse, rich and rich culture in Vietnam.
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The influence of Indian style
Indian civilization once influenced Southeast Asia with majestic architectural and religious works.
The kingdom of Champa once left a golden mark in history, also deeply influenced by Indian civilization.
That is easily recognized through the religious architectural works spread throughout the Central region
today. The Champa people are the crystalline ethnic group that absorbs the architectural culture of India the
most.
The influence of Chinese style
We can see that Vietnamese and Chinese architecture also have many similarities. There are many
reasons for this similarity. Geographically, it is a continuum of climatic zones and natural regions. In
addition, both have continuous cultural interference throughout more than a thousand years of history. The
process of cultural interference has left a clear mark on the mainstream architecture. In the Indochinese style,
the influence from China is also clearly seen in all three regions.
However, this similarity not only did not negate the independent nature and unique identity of
Vietnamese culture, but on the contrary, it also proved the excellent ability to inherit and promote the
Vietnamese culture.
The influence of French style
In France as well as in Europe in general, architecture has been developed over time and
architectural styles have since been affirmed. French architecture brought into Vietnam has no pure origin,
partly in the country, partly in other colonies. When the French first came to Vietnam, many buildings with
different styles were built before they created the Indochinese style.
2. Characteristics of indochinese style in early constructions in Vietnam
2.1 Architecture
Structure and organization of space: The shape and contours of the building are suitable and close to the
people of Vietnam. In order to suit the climate and landscape conditions of the area, special attention should
be paid to solving: heat-resistant tile roof system, sloping umbrellas to shade from sun and rain, door system
for natural light and ventilation, corridors, thick walls, etc. Regarding the organization of space, focus on
usability. Functional zoning according to the concept of use of different types of works. The floor plan is
arranged in the orthodox French architectural style, posted on one axis, taking the hall as the center.
Lanscape: In the Indochinese style, architects always choose the location to place the work in
accordance with the master plan. The work is in harmony with the surrounding overall, the buildings are not
too tall, massive and contrasting, in harmony with the trees and the lake, making the master plan elegant and
luxurious. The garden is opposite the axis of the building and is a part of the building. The garden
surrounding the building has a cooling effect and adds decoration to the building.
2.2 Interior
In the first stage, the works served the French, so the furniture and equipment were all French lifestyle.
In the later period, the French style was "tropicalized" by indigenous nuances, climate, and sophisticated
decorative arts in ancient architectures, thus forming a unique meeting and mixing in products fine arts.
Currently, the Indochinese style selects decorative motifs and embodies ancient Vietnamese traditions,
simplicity and sophistication, sophisticated motifs only found in the highlights in the works and interior
equipment.
Indochinese style interior, in addition to aesthetics, also meets and matches living habits and tropical,
hot and humid climate in Vietnam from the use of colors, the use of materials, and shapes equipments.
3. The status of impact of indochina style in interior design of restaurant and resort projects in
Vietnam
3.1 Indochinese style in restaurant projects
Today, many people come to restaurants not only with the need to eat, but also want to enjoy new and
unique things in the architectural design as well as the restaurant interior. Therefore, the interior design of
the restaurant is interested by many investors in order to bring the restaurant space with a unique and
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impressive design that is suitable for the majority of customers. Indochinese-style restaurants are often
directed to foreigners who come to Vietnam or Vietnamese diners who want a luxurious space with many
local cultural beauties.
Floor layout and space division: Restaurant space has its own requirements in terms of design as well as
the layout of the premises depending on the location, size, and quality of investment. For small and medium-
sized restaurants located in commercial centers or hotels and resorts, the restaurant block is usually
independent of the architectural design process. After completing the construction work, the interior design
stage begins its work. Indochinese-style restaurants often have relative or absolute symmetry with high
ceilings, symmetrical rectangular plan on both sides and a series of corridors surrounding the outside.
Currently, the layout of the restaurant space is much more diverse than in the past. Although the contrasting
layout is common in Indochinese-style restaurants, today architects and interior designers have known more
flexibility in the layout of the premises according to the needs. customers and the business goals that the
investor wants to aim for. "Open space" is a popular space layout in interior design. The layout of the open
space is associated with Asian traditions with the philosophy of living in harmony with nature, bringing the
beautiful scenery from the outside to the inside, creating an airy atmosphere for the whole building.
Interior decoration and interior equipment: In addition to the reasonable layout of the premises to create
a convenient functional element during use, the interior decoration of the space and the selection of interior
equipment are equally important in bringing the aesthetic aesthetic, contributing to attracting customers and
bringing artistic value to the entire project. Take advantage of the ancient architectures and traditional
Indochinese-style equipment left over from the previous period, combine them together, flexibly change
colors and materials in space design since then. creating a new building with a new breath, but the soul of
Indochina still exists almost completely.
Figure 1. Exquisitely selected interior equipment with traditional pattern (Source: L'aura De Namky
Restaurant, 55 Tu Xuong, District 3, HCMC)
3.2 Indochinese style in resort projects
Resorts with Indochinese style in Vietnam are often highly invested works at the level of 4 to 5 stars or
more, built separately in areas with beautiful scenery close to nature, away from noise. of urban life. The
construction is mostly based on topography, not destroying nature but immersing in nature, expressing the
spirit of indigenous cultural identity and taking indigenous culture as inspiration for the design of
architecture and interior. interior, landscape of the project.
Floor layout and space division: The resort is different from the usual accommodation facilities in that, it
has a continuous, integrated service that can meet all the needs of guests' services such as entertainment
services, spa, health care, etc. beauty, sports, resort... Therefore, when designing and building a resort, the
prerequisite is to keep as many trees as possible. And as mentioned above, the construction of the resort must
always be based on the terrain, not to destroy nature, but to consider nature as an indispensable part of the
overall ground. The layout of the rooms and the division of space of the resort are all oriented towards nature
and are what all visitors want to experience and maximize relaxation. Because of that, what the designer
needs to focus on is the layout of the premises with lots of creative space, enough for visitors to have
moments of enjoying nature as much as possible. Along with the harmonious arrangement of landscape,
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architectural and interior elements, it will contribute to creating a different space for the whole project.
Customers come to and remember a resort because of that different space.
Interior decoration and interior equipment: We also know that the amount of equipment needed for
resort services is often very large, so it is impossible to completely reuse antique furniture. If so, there are
only a few spaces that need accents such as the reception hall, the waiting area, etc. The areas where the
designer wants to bring the most complete first look for visitors when they first arrive at the resort. Most of
the remaining interior equipment will be renewed with designs and materials with many traditional
Vietnamese features.
Figure 2. The layout of the space is contrasted, using carved furniture in a traditional but still luxurious style
(Source: JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort - Phu Quoc)
4. Values, solutions and application trends indochina style in interiors of restaurant, resort in vietnam
4.1 The historical and artistic values brought by the Indochinese style
4.1.1 Indochinese style - beautiful memory of the past in design
Leaving aside the pain of war, the French have left behind treasures of great architecture and interior.
Indochine Style - Indochine style has both the nostalgia of the East Asian tradition and the French romantic
style, a subtle fusion between two different cultures. Indochinese architectural style is extremely attractive
and affirms its enduring value over time.
Today, we still see Indochine architecture and interior on the streets and corners of the old quarters of
Hanoi, Saigon, Hoi An, Hue, etc., works with yellow painted walls or cream white, book-leaf windows and
traditional tile roofs, etc, with interiors using ethnic motifs such as lathes, millennials, reliefs combined with
wooden furniture, lanterns, textured ceramics, bricks Cotton, rattan, bamboo, sedge... It is this combination
that gives the Indochinese style an artistic beauty, containing many emotions and memories of a glorious
time.
4.1.2 Aesthetic value
Indochinese style interior designs affect the emotional essence of people, evoke the sense of place,
family traditions, philosophy of cosmology, social thought, community culture. Eastern spiritual values
besides absorbing the influence of Western science and technology. Not only that, the synthesis of the
beauties bearing the typical elements of the regions and regions and stylizing them to form unique works of
visual art, then brought into the designs, has inadvertently made the companies program with profound
community spirit values. The Indochinese style with the romance and courtesy of the West combined with
the charm and rustic charm of the Eastern tradition has satisfied the beauty lovers not only in the ancient
society but also aroused the compassion of the people. people who love beauty in today's modern society.
4.1.3 Functional value
Formed in the 20s of the last century with constant changes in bringing French architecture into
harmony with the climate, culture and people of Vietnam. French architectural works throughout Vietnam
have had diverse constructions depending on the region in which the work was built. That is why until today,
even though nearly a century has passed, the works still have its beauty. And so the recently built works in
the field of restaurants and resorts with Indochinese style have also learned and applied techniques and
materials of French architecture to preserve that function. French villa - is a typical example of "passive
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house". We all like its natural coolness with very little energy consumption, materials and styles are
extracted a lot from nature and local culture, so they are very affectionate and close to the Vietnamese
people.
4.2 Solutions for effective application of Indochinese style in the interior of restaurants and resorts in
Vietnam
4.2.1 Preserving Indochina architectural works
French colonial architectural works, especially architectural works of Indochinese style, have
become an integral part of the community space of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some other cities like Hoi
An, Da Lat... From public works such as theatres, museums, schools, churches to villas, houses have existed
for a long time and become an organic part in people's lives, connecting social strata in a sustainable way. In
addition to the works that have been used to serve as administrative offices and community spaces, there are
currently many villas that have not been restored and used for the right purposes, so we need to have timely
solutions so that these works are properly preserved, without creating barriers to economic development.
To serve conservation work, the first and most important thing is to conduct an investigation of the
current status, assessment and classification of architectural works. For degraded buildings, it is necessary to
survey and evaluate damaged parts and damage levels and then restore them on the basis of archives,
previous photos or other scientific documents. another study so as not to lead to a change in the originality of
the work. Exploit heritage values by preserving facades, renovating interiors to suit new functions.
Encourage the embellishment of gardens and trees in the premises of the works if these spaces still exist.
4.2.2 Exploiting traditional elements bearing national cultural identity
Cultural identity is the living totality of human creative activities that have taken place in the past as
well as are taking place in the present. Over the centuries, creative activities have constituted a system of
values, traditions, tastes, aesthetics and lifestyles on which a nation asserts its own identity. In the context of
the market economy and globalization, in addition to absorbing the positive factors of the new era, we need
to be wary of its negatives and downsides. Those are the problems that easily make the national identity
easily homogenized and uniform, leading to being lost, increasingly losing its inherent noble values.
Therefore, in all arts in general and interior architecture in particular, the exploitation of traditional national
elements is also a top priority, recreating the original traditional forms based on the established harmony
between ethnic elements and times.
Vietnam is a country with a long cultural tradition with the cultural diversity of regions. Culturalism
makes architecture, interior designs find a way to behave in harmony with nature and does not separate
individuals from the community. The Indochinese style has successfully combined Western architecture with
Eastern cultural elements, and Vietnam has created a suitability with the climate, aesthetics, and psychology
of the Vietnamese people, still influencing to this day.
4.3 The trend of applying Indochinese style in the interior of restaurant, resort in Vietnam
Along with the strong development of the tourism industry, in recent years, our country's culinary and
resort service projects have been assessed to have achieved many outstanding marks, not only meeting the
needs of the domestic people but also contribute to attracting international tourists. Vietnam has always been
evaluated as a country that loves to eat and has the most attractive culinary culture in Asia. Along with the
development of the country, every year the number of new restaurants, hotels, resorts... opening is huge.
World-famous food chain and restaurant brands along with domestic investors have created a colorful picture
of the food service industry in our country. In such a competitive environment to attract diners, in addition to
investing in food and service quality, investing in interior design is also very interested by investors.
The reuse of old French villas in Indochinese style is currently very much interested by interior
designers. We can see a series of eateries with the use of rustic materials of wood, of cement bricks, antique
furniture and equipment collected next to rudimentary brick walls, wooden door frames. Old books or
pictures of colorful wind-shaped bricks dividing space…
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Figure 3. Indochinese-style restaurants in unique colors (Source: Bui Restaurant, District 1, Ho Chi Minh
City)
Indochinese style is also an inspiration for foreign designers when coming to Vietnam. We can mention
the Tempus Fugit restaurant system of the JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay resort or La Maison 1888 of
the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula resort by architect Bill Bensley with the inspiration of traditional
Vietnamese beauty. In harmony with the elegant and luxurious French style. The restaurant has won many
prestigious awards in the region and the world for its design.
One of the top priority choices in the design of resorts today in Vietnam is inspired by the traditional
style with bold Vietnamese imprints such as royal architecture. Besides, Indochinese style with a harmonious
blend of Western styles, specifically French style with Vietnamese traditional style, is considered the right
solution in large-scale resort projects. both reflect the national cultural identity and show the comfort,
modernity and luxury in resort service projects. Some of the Indochinese-style resorts across the country can
be mentioned as La Veranda Resort Phu Quoc, La Maison De Campagne Cu Chi, Ana Mandara Villas
Resort Da Lat, The Anam Resort Cam Ranh... Along with many Many resorts are under construction and not
yet completed and future projects of Vietnamese corporations are under construction.
Figure 4. Indochinese style brings a warm and comfortable space for visitors (Source: La Veranda Resort
Phu Quoc)
5. Conclusion
Indochinese style in Vietnam has been bringing good messages about an eclectic but very
sophisticated interior architecture with a selective cultural identity. Traditional values in compositions from
decorative forms, space layout, furniture, materials and colors... are enhanced and combined with natural and
environmental elements, not copied, imposed but very humble together have created unique features, typical
for the works. In addition, indigenous culture also contributes to creating the art form for the works when
using traditional architectural forms and local materials. In addition, it also contributes to the introduction,
preservation and promotion of specific values and cultural quintessence of regions of the country.
Looking back at the present time, the Indochinese style along with colonial architecture has created great
influences in the development of Vietnamese architectural history. Its achievements have created an
architectural and interior heritage fund with great functional, aesthetic and historical values. Colonial
architecture has changed to better adapt to our country's environment, and has developed thanks to the
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successful application of traditional values, so it is necessary to have plans for conservation as well as use
and planning. rationalize these legacy funds. Interior design with Indochinese style today, whether in
completely new construction or reuse of old colonial villas, has really affirmed its certain position,
contributing to shaping artistic values in design.
References
1. Angelika Taschen (2010), Interior Now! 1, Taschen and Multilingual edition, German.
2. Barbara Walker, Jay Graham (2008), Indochine Style, Marshall Cavendish, Singapore.
3. Benat Tachot. Gruzins (2001), Passeurs culturels. Mécanismes de métissage, Paris.
4. Henri Cucherousset (1927), L’Éveil économique de l’Indochine : bulletin hebdomadaire, Hanoi.
5. Jeannie Ireland (2008), History of Interior Design, Fairchild Books, Inc, New York.
6. Jean Royer (1932), L’urbanisme dans les colonies et les pays tropicaux, Delayance.
7. Pierre Brocheux – University of California Daniel Hémery (2009), Indochina: An Ambiguous
Colonization, 1858-1954, Berkeley: Press.

[STS22-40]
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POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND USE OF 3D
KNITTED FABRICS IN VIETNAM
Thi Ngoc Quyen Nguyen
Faculty of Architecture and Arts, HUTECH University, Vietnam
Phone: + 84903945303; Email: ntn.quyen@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Flat knitting technology is often applied in the production of outerwear such as long-sleeved sweaters, long
coats, short coats, decorative accessories such as collars, sleeves, and hats, as well as details. 3D for
engineering applications such as seat covers or two-dimensional knitted fabrics are used as reinforcing
elements used in composite structures. Compared with the traditional flat knitting method, the seamless
hologram knitting method enables the production of a holographic fabric with consistent texture. The
finished fabric product is free of irregular seams, providing creative ideas for shoulder, neck, and sleeve
embellishments. In this article, the author will focus on the development of product output as well as
information through the use of knitted fabrics. Metal basics are introduced first, followed by a review of the
literature on the history, technology, advantages and disadvantages, and finally the functions of knitted
fabrics and the direction of development. development in Vietnam soon.
Keywords: Textile; knitting, automotive textiles, technical textiles
1. Introduction
At the moment in Vietnam, the growth of textile and garment exports is based on outsourcing and cheap
labor. Experts say that these two factors are not stable. As a general rule, outsourcing production will move
to countries with cheaper labor sources, while labor costs are increasing. Therefore, the application of
automation, reducing the number of direct labor, linking data between production equipment, will help the
textile and garment industry to produce green, clean, natural resources, minimize inventory to increase
competitiveness. In particular, the industrial revolution 4.0 with a high level of automation technology, using
robots in production is being applied more and more widely. The stages in production and circulation are
also linked together thanks to the internet, so management and design costs are significantly reduced. Thus,
cheap labor is no longer an advantage. In fact, in the past 10 years, the industry has welcomed the trend of
shifting production from surrounding countries to Vietnam, the industry's exports have also increased dozens
of times, expected to reach 40 billion USD by the end of this year. But due to the ongoing Covid 19
pandemic, causing many difficulties for businesses, technology improvement has become more urgent than
ever.
This article will first introduce some essential knitting concepts and then discuss the topic of cushion fabrics.
The advantages, disadvantages and potential end uses of knitted backing are then presented to give a full
understanding of the purpose and means of manufacture of the lining fabric.
2. The difference between knitted and woven

2.1. Knitting
Knitting is a process that involves interlacing loops of yarn to produce fabric. In simpler terms, a loop is
formed by using one or more yarns in front and next in the knitting row. The resulting fabric is called a
knitted fabric and it is later used in garments like t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.
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Figure 1. Knitted fabric yarn structure.
2.2. Woven
Weaving is a common method used to create the structure of fabrics. It is the interlacing of yarns as a way to
produce fabrics. Each yarn is called a warp (Vertical) or a weft (Horizontal) and they are interwoven at right
angles to each other to create a fabric structure. The result is woven fabric and also variations are made to
make different fabrics.
Figure 2. Woven fabric structure.

2.3. Variations in warp-knit fabric structures
Warp structures can be composed of stitches containing both open and closed loops as can be seen in Figures
3a and 3b.
Figure 3. a. Open-loop. b. Closed-loop.
Other between open loop and closed loop: open loops (two examples include the open chain stitch, and open
half tricot stitch) which tend to be flimsy, and lack stability because the yarns do not cross at the bottom.
Closed loops are those that do cross at the bottom and create a more fixed fabric. It should be noted that the
chain stitch is used to lock fabrics in place and is successful at adding length stability, but if used alone
cannot make a fabric [1]. Warp knit fabrics can be classified in many ways. For example, they can be
solid/full-set fabrics or open-work fabrics [2]. To have a two-bar solid fabric both guide bars must be fully
set meaning that each wale will have two yarns [3].
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3. The characteristics of yarns in Vietnam's textile industry
3.1 Artificial fiber
Polyester (PES)
Polyester is a synthetic fiber with the characteristic composition of ethylene (derived from petroleum). The
learning process of creating complete polyesters is called duplication. There are four polyester fiber bases
which are polyester fiber yarn and cotton yarn. (See Figures 4a and 4b).
Figure 4a. Polyester fiber. Figure 4b. Cotton yarn.
Polyester Partially Oriented Yarn (Polyester POY)

Polyester Partially Oriented Yarn, commonly known as Polyester POY is the primary form of Polyester yarn.
It is also known as Polyester Pre-Oriented Yarn. This is the first type of yarn created directly by spinning
polyester. Polyester POY is mainly used to produce textured yarn. Polyester POY can be available in two
lusters: Semi Dull (Glossy) & Bright (Glossy).
Polyester Drawn Textured Yarn (Polyester DTY)
Drawn Textured Yarn (DTY) is formed when pulling and twisting Polyester POY at the same time. DTY
yarn is mainly used as a part of weaving and knitting fabrics for making clothes, home decoration,
upholstery, bags and various things. DTY yarn can be Semi Dull or Bright or Triloble Bright depending on
the yarn type. Polyester DTY yarn can also be obtained in different colors by dope dyeing or traditional
dyeing technology.
Polyester Fully Drawn Yarn (Polyester FDY)
Polyester FDY is the abbreviation of Polyester Complete Drawn Yarn. It is also known as Polyester Filament
Yarn (PFY) or Spin Draw Yarn (SDY). FDY is mainly used as weft or weave in fabric production. FDY can
be knitted or woven with any other silk yarn to obtain different fabrics. It is mainly used in Home Decor
Fabric, Fashion Fabric, Denim Fabric, Bath towels and others.
Polyamide (PA) – Nylon
Nylon is essentially a plastic derived from crude oil, which, after undergoing an intensive chemical process,
creates a strong fiber material with good stretchability and then into fabrics. Nylon is the world's first fabric
made entirely in a laboratory. This fabric has all the desired properties such as elasticity and durability.
However, the manufacturing process of this material is extremely complicated.
Polyethylene (PE)
Polyethylene is a compound base (poly) of many ethylene groups (C2H4) linked together. Polyethylene is
white, slightly transparent, does not conduct electricity and does not conduct heat, does not allow water and
gas to penetrate.
Elastane (EL) – Spandex
Elastane is a block copolymer consisting of Polyurethane and Polyethylene glycol. The urethane units form
stiff, stretched segments that are linked together by covalent forces to form this fiber. Low moisture
permeability, no charge, no lint or knot on the surface, light, smooth and easy to dye. This fiber has high
elasticity, similar to rubber but stronger and more durable.
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3.2 Natural fibers
Cotton
Cotton yarn is made from the cotton plant - a very old plant variety. In the garment and processing
industries, cotton types are distinguished first by the length of the yarn, then by the smell, color and
cleanliness of the yarn. The longer the cotton yarn, the higher the quality.
Wool
Wool or wool yarn is a textile fiber obtained from the wool of sheep and some other animals, such as goats,
camels, etc. Wool provides raw materials for weaving, knitting, and making sweaters that are warm clothing
items. common in the world, especially in cold climates. Wool has some by-products derived from hair or
fur, wool is elastic and holds air and retains heat well. Wool burns at a higher temperature than cotton and
some synthetic fibers.
Silk
The main characteristics of silk are single silk length and silk fineness. Silk fiber can be hygroscopic,
affected by hot water, acids, bases, metal salts, dyes. The cross-section of the silk thread has a triangular
shape with rounded corners. Because of the triangular shape, light can shine at many different angles, the silk
has a natural iridescent look. Silk clothing is great for hot weather and lots of activity because silk absorbs
sweat easily. Silk clothing is also suitable for cold weather because silk is a poor conductor of heat, making
the wearer warmer
3.3 Introduction to spacer fabrics

According to Cass [4], spacer fabrics are much like a sandwich and feature “two complementary slabs of
fabric with a third layer tucked in between. The inner layer can take a variety of shapes, including tubes,
pleat or other engineered forms, which gives the entire three-layer fabric a wide and ever-expanding range of
potential applications” (see Figure 5a for illustration). Typically, double plush or “plush” fabrics are created
by knitting two separate layers of fabric that are connected by pile yarns then sliced down the middle to
create two separate fabrics. Figure 5b illustrates a side view of a two-needle -bed Raschel machine using one
pile bar.
Figure 5a. Spacer fabric. Figure 5b. Cut plush fabric made on five guide bar Raschel
machine.
Spacer fabric production on weft knitting machines

Spacer fabrics are two distinct layers of fabric joined together by a connecting layer. Weft knitting machines
with two sets of needles can create two individual layers of fabric that are held together by tucks. Such a
fabric was referred to as a double-faced fabric, but can also be called a spacer fabric.
Spacer fabric production on warp knitting machines
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Spacer fabrics are two distinct layers of fabric joined together by a connecting layer. Various means of
forming Raschel knit spacer fabrics exist. The fabric shown in Figure 6 is knitted on a double-needle bar
machine with at least six guide bars.
Figure 6. Raschel spacer fabric notation.

4. Spacer fabric applications
The methods by which knit spacer fabrics are produced have been presented in the previous sections.
Research on the market for technical textiles has found that there will be a rising demand for knit spacer
fabrics in the areas of automotive and other transportation media; medical, hygiene and healthcare;
geotextiles, civil engineering, building and construction; sports and leisure; environmental protection,
filtration and cleaning; and safety and protection [5].
4.1 Automotive
The current car seat offered in the global marketplace consists of three layers: the top layer which is often
plush and made of polyester; the middle layer made of polyurethane foam; and the bottom layer, a polyamide
warp knit. A breakdown of the worldwide demand is given in Table1
Table 1: Relative Volume of Different Seating Fabrics [6]
Fabric type Europe USA Asia
Flat-woven 47% 14% 12%
Woven velour 1% 30% 24%
Tricot (incl, pile sinker) 15% 11% 44%
Double-needle bar raschel 5% 23% 9%
Circular knitted 21% 1% 7%
Leather 11% 21% 4%
Total 100% 100% 100%
4.2 Medical
The properties, such as heat and moisture regulation associated with both warp and weft-knitted spacer
fabrics are ideal for use in medical textiles. The development of weft-knitted products in which loops are
formed across the width of the fabric creates a functional bandage that is inelastic thereby offering high
levels of compression and support [7]. Warp-knitted fabrics offer greater flexibility and elasticity due to the
formation of loops along the length of the fabric. According to Elsner [5], spacer fabrics are a key new
development in medical textiles as they are “composed of textile sheets interconnected by distance fibers,
which may be polyamides, polyesters, viscose or even natural fibers like cotton.
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Figure 7. Warp Mesh knitting is used in the medical immobilization of wearable devices.
4.3 Geotextiles, Civil Engineering, Building, Construction, Environmental Protection
Knitted fabrics are not commonly used in geotextiles with 70% of materials used coming from nonwovens
and 25% from wovens [7]. As discussed with both weft and warp knit spacer fabrics, it is possible to create
the two outer layers with different structures such as a grid shape or mesh which is more effective at
grabbing the soil than smooth fabrics.
4.4. Sports and Leisure
Sports and athletics have been increasing worldwide, as has the demand for athletic apparel. Spacer fabrics
are used because the various layers can offer different attributes – the layer closest to the skin can be
hydrophobic, the middle can be used for diffusion, and the outer layer can be hydrophilic thereby absorbing
and evaporating heat energy (Anand, 2003a).
5. Conclusion
 Currently, Vietnam is the country with the leading garment industry in Southeast Asia. Domestic-made
textile products can not only meet the quality requirements of foreign enterprises, but we also have
impressive designs, suitable for many customers' aesthetic tastes. Therefore, the production and
application of three-dimensional spacer fabrics in Vietnam still have a lot of potential for development
and exploitation, especially for many industries, medical, construction, automobile...
 Special abilities and versatility offered by spacer fabrics include the ability to knit two entirely different
fabrics having different properties and connect them to form a single structure was changed by varying
the number of spacer yarns between two single jerseys courses and by varying the number of spaces
between two consecutive tucks. This offers end users a great deal of opportunity to modify the weight,
aesthetics, properties and cost of the fabric to meet consumer demand.
References
1. Raz, S. (1993). Flat Knitting Technology. Westhausen: C.F. Rees GmbH, Druck.
2. Reinsfeld, A. (2002). Outer Limits. Knit Americas, 64-69.
3. Smith, G. (2001). Warp Knitting Fundamentals Short Course. North Carolina State University
4. Cass, J. (2000). Spacer Consideration. Industrial Fabric Product Review, 77(3), 20-24.
5. Elsner, P. (2004). Textiles and the Skin. Karger Gazette.
6. Ishtalque, S., Yadav, P, and Sharma, N. (2000). A New Approach to Improve the Performance of Spacer
Fabrics for Automobiles. Man-Made Textiles in India, 67-74.
7. Anand, S. (2003). Recent Advances in Knitting Technology and Knitted Structures for Technical
Textiles Applications. Istek, 2003.
8. What is antibacterial fabric?https://iqc.com.vn/vai-khang-khuan-la-gi?

[STS22-59]
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REVIEW OF CHINESE TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFT: MING CERAMIC
Thi Nhi Nguyen1*, Thi Thao Hien Dao2*
1
Department of Interior Design, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, HUTECH University, HCMC, Vietnam
2
Department of Fashion Design, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, HUTECH University, HCMC, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 934 328 300; Email: nt.nhi@hutech.edu.vn); (Phone: + 84 907 113
894; Email: dtt.hien94@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The Ming dynasty was a great of prosperity, as well as relative political stability. Most of the finest
decorative arts were produced in large workshops or factories by essentially unknown artists, especially in
the field of Chinese porcelain. As in earlier dynasties, the Ming Dynasty saw a flourishing in the arts,
whether it was painting, poetry, music, literature, or dramatic theater. In the decorative arts, carved designs
in lacquerware and designs glazed onto porcelain wares displayed intricate scenes similar in complexity to
those in painting. As with many art forms, the Ming Dynasty saw advancement in the realm of decorative
arts such as porcelain and lacquerware. The literature survey method is primarily used in this study to
systematically sort out relevant related literature. From the standpoint of history and craftsmanship, it
attempts to comment on the traditional handicrafts of Ming Dynasty porcelain and summarizes the
viewpoints and problems involved, with the hope of excavating the long-term lags in Ming Dynasty
porcelain research, and further recognizing and solving these problems to provide historical and scientific
rational basis, and promoting the inheritance and development of this knowledge.
Keywords: Chinese traditional handicrafts, inheritance, Ming Dynasty ceramic.
1. Introduction
Chinese ceramics have been an important component of Asian trade networks for over a thousand
years. Significant economic growth as a result of good management and increased international trade
ensured that arts patronage flourished in China. During this prosperous period, the porcelain manufacturing
town of Jingdezhen experienced a significant increase in production, making it the Chinese capital of
porcelain production. There were 18 imperial kilns at the start of Jiajing's reign (1522-1566), rising to 62 at
the peak of production and then falling back to 18 by the time he died. At its peak, orders for up to 100,000
pieces of porcelain were placed for the imperial household alone. The costs were obviously very high, and
the process was extremely labor-intensive.
The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) equates to the European Middle Ages. Ming dynasty artifacts
primarily consisted of horn and ivory carvings, cloisonné (a technique for decorating metalwork pieces with
materials of different colors either separated or held in place by – usually gold – wire), jade carvings, silks
and textiles, jewelry, goldwork, and lacquerware. It was in these locations that Ming dynasty artwork
became famous throughout the world.
During the Ming Dynasty, some of the most significant manufacturing innovations occurred. The
Yongle period (1402–24), Xuande period (1425–35), Chenghua period (1464–87), Zhengde period (1505–
21), Jiajing period (1521–67), and Wanli period (1572–1620) are the traditional divisions. Porcelain wares,
including some of the most celebrated Chinese styles, such as the prestigious blue-and-white Ming ware,
were regularly exported to Europe during the era of Ming Dynasty art (1368–1644). (known as Kraak
porcelain).
1.1 Ming decorative Arts & Crafts
Early Ming artists were influenced by both traditional Chinese and foreign styles, but as the dynasty grew,
the Ming artists were bound by a strict set of rules regarding style and standards that ensured quality and
safeguarded what was exported out of the country.
The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) inherited and strictly followed the Yuan registry of artisan households,
which prohibited any changes. Individuals of special distinction could still become government officials or
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hold equivalent office titles if their talents were greatly recognized by the emperor; however, their status as
registered artisans were recorded and passed down through the generations. Members of Ming's learned
class, despite being at the top of the traditional Chinese social hierarchy of four classes (learned, farming,
crafts, and trade, in that order), did not consider "handicraft" projects beneath them. By the late Ming
dynasty, some artisans had not only built a successful business and fortune based on their craft specialties,
but also achieved equality with the literati The half-dead old rigid class registry, ambitious artisan families
striving to improve their own social standing, and the cultured and enlightened approving and admiring them
all contributed to the demise of a system that had long since become irrelevant. The new ruler Manchurian
court ordered the abolition of the "Artisan Household" system on May 19th, 1645.
Several professional artisans were well-read during the Ming period, and they worked hard to gain
acceptance from the literati. Nonetheless, for these aspiring initiates, keeping their own specialties of crafts
was as important as having good learning to socialize with the latter group. As a result, after mid-Ming,
carving and all other crafts experienced a new and robust period of advancements, thanks to the enthusiastic
support of the emperors and literati, as well as the efforts of the motivated artisans themselves.
After the mid-Ming period, when Chinese arts and crafts as a whole had claimed independent status in their
own right, with support and patronage both within and outside the court, the carving artisans continued to
advance their ingenuity and refine their techniques. They eventually earned the coveted title of "Celestial"
craftsmanship.
1.2 Porcelain production in the Ming dynasty (1368-1364)
Under the Ming dynasty, porcelain production in Jingdezhen town became China's porcelain
manufacturing capital, thanks to initiatives to promote global trade and strict management. There were 18
imperial kilns at the start of the Jiajing Dynasty (1522-1566), which increased to 62 at the peak of production
and then returned to 18 at his death. At its peak, up to 100,000 pieces of porcelain were produced exclusively
for royal households. The cost is obviously very high; this process requires a lot of labor. The grinding of
cobalt for a vase can take up to three days. Massive output depleted the local supply of Chinese clay, and
later dynasties had to import raw materials from further afield.
The porcelain was abundant, of high quality, and came in a variety of designs. In terms of decoration, glaze
color porcelain, in addition to blue and white, emerged and gained traction. According to the book Chinese
Ceramic History: Color Porcelain, the invention of color porcelain is a turning point in Chinese ceramic
history. Later dynasties made great efforts to produce larger items, such as large fish bowls. Although the
custodians eventually attempted to reduce the production of less useful items, the pressure on the production
of pottery was so intense that the potters revolted in 1598 and 1605. Under the Yongle dynasty, there were
imperial manufacturers as well as private kilns that produced pottery for the domestic market as well as
exported to Western and near Eastern markets, with goods reaching as far as Istanbul and Ardebil. Many
export and provincial pieces are based on the royal design but are painted more loosely and in a matte blue
color. Larger quantities of porcelain did not reach Europe until the Wanli dynasty, when the Dutch arrived in
China. Blue glazed porcelain production increased dramatically during the Ming dynasty. The blue color is
created with cobalt pigment, which is both imported and mined locally. It is unspecified when cobalt was
first used on porcelain, but by the fourteenth century, large plates and bowls had blue decorations under the
glaze.
Since the 11th century, Persia has used cobalt as a pigment to decorate ceramics. It first appeared on Chinese
glazed earthenware during the Tang Dynasty, but it appears to have been dormant until the Yuan and Ming
dynasties. Because of the uncertain supply of imported cobalt, the quality and intensity of the blue color vary
greatly. Locally mined materials are of much lower quality. Blue on Xuande pottery was the brightest and
best in the eyes of the Chinese, while blue on Chenghua pottery was softer due to the depletion of imported
cobalt supplies. Blues were darker in the early 16th century, but the best Jianjing wares had a strong almost
purple-blue color with additional elements in the lighter wash.
2. Ming porcelain decoration
2.1 Underglaze blue and red
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Due to high demand from Asia and Muslim countries in the Near East and Middle East, Chinese potters
developed red glaze decorations during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 AD). Painting red under the glaze is
more difficult than painting blue because the copper oxide used as a colorant is more difficult to control than
the cobalt used for the blue glaze. The splashes to the left of the red areas, like on this large jar, are grey
(above).
General Zhu Yuanzhang (reigned 1368-98), known as Hongwu, was the first emperor of the Ming dynasty,
which ruled China for the next 300 years. He deposed the foreign rulers of the Yuan dynasty (the Mongols).
He was determined to restore the Chinese style's dominance at court, so the blue-and-white porcelain was
made in the Chinese style rather than the Islamic style. Similar works in red enamel were created for the
Emperor's use.
Hongwu banned foreign trade on several occasions, but it was never completely effective. However, cobalt
imports were halted, resulting in a reduction in the production of blue and white porcelain. For a brief period
in the late fourteenth century, red glaze was used to decorate pottery rather than blue glaze.
2.2 Underglaze blue
Temple jars with an engraving of 1351 are the earliest blue and white items discovered to date. These vases,
which date from the second quarter of the fourteenth century, suggest that the enamel painting technique was
already well-established at the time. Cobalt blue is imported from Iran, possibly in the form of a cake. It is
ground into a pigment and then applied directly to the leather-hard porcelain body. After that, the piece is
glazed and fired. In China, "blue and white" porcelain was used in temples and occasionally in burials, but
most Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) products appear to have been exported.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, trade was still an important part of blue-and-white porcelain production
(1644-1911). Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia are major export destinations. Chinese motifs, such as
dragons, waves, and flower scrolls, are painted on the ships' many decorative bands. Jingdezhen potters also
produced pottery for the Middle Eastern market. Geometric patterns inspired by metalwork or Islamic
architectural decoration are densely decorated on large dishes.
The court favored blue and white porcelain, and the shapes and textures preferred by different emperors,
many of whom ordered large quantities of porcelain from the kilns in Jingdezhen, are fascinating to see.
Blue-and-white porcelain from the XIV and XV centuries was frequently inspired by Islamic metalwork.
The spherical body, tall cylindrical neck, and dragon-shaped handle of this vase are all inspired by Timurid
Persia's contemporary metalwork. The crowded decoration on this vase is typical of early blue-and-white
porcelain, which was popular during the early Ming dynasty. It contrasts sharply with the generally more
refined character of Chinese ornaments. The motifs used to decorate the vase, however, are still distinctly
Chinese, particularly the waves on the neck and the flower rolls on the vase's body.
2.2 Overglaze enamels
The decorative glaze on the surface of the fired enamel is referred to as "over-glazed." Following painting,
the piece is fired again, usually at a lower temperature.
The first overuse of glaze was discovered in northern China on anti-slip ceramics. This is a Jin dynasty
(1115-1234) innovation, with fragments dating back to 1201. These were not royal items, but rather
utilitarian household items. Various enameling techniques reached their pinnacle at the Jingdezhen
manufacturing center under the Ming emperors (1368-1644).
3. Ming voyages to the west
3.1 Kraak Porcelain
Kraak is a Western term for the first export porcelain produced for international trade. The term Kraak is
said to derive from the name of a Portuguese caracca that was famously looted by the Dutch in 1600. These
well-stocked cargo ships carried a lot of Chinese porcelain. Country. This, along with the rest of the exotic
Far Eastern goods, was duly auctioned off for a fortune by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Blue and
white porcelain have since become very popular. Not only among the nobility and wealthy Dutch burgers but
also in European aristocratic and royal households. Kraak porcelain was mass-produced in massive
quantities, becoming one of China's most successful mass-produced exports. Truncation is required to
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achieve such a large output. Impurities in the body were caused by the use of less pure clay. Shapes such as
bowls and plates are created that are easier and less laborious to rotate and press. The enamel is clear and
transparent, but it does not always adhere well to the body, which frequently results in flaking on the rim.
Tarpaulin and kiln sand were frequently discovered stuck to the underside of the rim. This is also the first
type of porcelain made specifically for the West, first for the Portuguese market and then for the Dutch
market. It was made in the late Ming dynasty, during the Wanli dynasty (1573-1620). However, due to its
enormous success as an export product and widespread popularity in Europe, it was manufactured until the
end of the 17th century. In fact, the term Craequporselein was not widely used until around 1675. Kraak
bowls, cups, and plates are frequently seen in still life paintings from the first half of the 17th century, their
fragility making them an appropriate adornment. It can also be found in period Dutch interior painting, as it
is regarded as a status symbol due to its scarcity and high value, and is depicted as such.
3.2. The early growth of trade routes westwards to central Asia
The Ming period saw the introduction of Middle Eastern ceramic shapes and decorations into China.
Possibly through the famous massive maritime missions led by the great eunuch general Zheng He (1371-
1433), under Emperor Yongle's patronage (1403-1424). Zheng, made seven voyages with legendary self-
supporting fleets of up to 250 ships, some of which were 140 meters long. These vast armadas sailed all the
way to the Middle East and Africa, carrying soldiers, horses, diplomats, translators, and, most importantly,
Chinese treasures. These luxury items, which were intended as diplomatic gifts, would have included silks,
teas, lacquerware, and, of course, porcelains. Despite the fact that Chinese maritime and land trade was
known to exist as early as the Tang dynasty, The Ming period saw the introduction of Middle Eastern
ceramic shapes and decoration into China. These massive maritime expeditions were the first imperial
sponsored missions, possibly through the famous massive maritime missions undertaken by the great eunuch
general Zheng He (13). They were designed specifically to increase Chinese influence and power in the
region. On these journeys, which were meticulously documented, tribute gifts were also delivered to the
Emperor's court. These included many unusual and rare objects, as well as wild animals such as giraffes.
There would have been objects with distinct Middle Eastern forms among these artifacts. These foreign
items would have influenced the shapes and designs of the pieces produced by the kilns in Jingdezhen as
they made their way into China.
4. Ceramic art development requires innovation
Fresh and elegant green flowers, colorful paintings, gorgeous color glaze, and beautiful sculptures are
treasures of Chinese culture and art and the pride of Jingdezhen. People who are familiar with the history of
Jingdezhen's ceramic development know that Jingdezhen has held the title of world porcelain capital for
more than a thousand years as a result of continuous innovation. As a result, from a historical standpoint,
Jingdezhen should maintain its reputation, its status as the porcelain capital, and its leadership position in
ceramic technology and cultural fields. It is necessary to constantly innovate and not rely on the
achievements of predecessors; if stagnant, it will be unable to adapt to the changing times. It is a necessary
process in the heritage of ceramic culture to inherit the artistic achievements of the ancestors, and innovation
is the ultimate foothold of cultural heritage. Ceramic culture's heritage and innovation complement one
another. People are looking forward to Jingdezhen's current and future ceramic art, regardless of the
decorative technique, theme, material technology, tool innovation, burning, or display mode.
5. Preserve ancient culture while innovating porcelain
Inheritance and innovation are perennial topics, especially in ceramic art, which has a long history and a rich
heritage. Jingdezhen ceramic art is cultivated in our country's unique cultural soil, and it is the profound
cultural atmosphere and connotation that has made it endure for thousands of years. The development of
contemporary ceramic art should be based on adhering to the basic foundation of tradition; otherwise, it will
be like a tree without roots and a source of water. However, inheritance does not mean blindly imitating
traditional decoration and rigidly employing traditional ceramic technology, but rather studying, studying,
analyzing, and inheriting the most precious traditional ceramic art essence left by ancestors. Then we
integrate contemporary ceramic art of the spirit into the spirit of the times. After all, modern people are not
91
the ancients; they must be integrated into the modern context, and modern people's cultural thinking and
aesthetic experience can be displayed; we can learn from other art forms. Tens of thousands of artists are
now engaged in ceramic art creation in Jingdezhen, using their artistic achievements, art ideas, and creative
methods to combine ceramic technology, techniques, and concepts, yielding a variety of unexpected results.
This type of lesson and learning, however, cannot be doctrinarism.
In today's world of "economic globalization," regional communication is gradually increasing, and cultural
differences are becoming increasingly small. Chinese ceramics must find their own path, which should not
only maintain the independence of Chinese traditional culture but also demonstrate the modern
characteristics of the Chinese ceramics road. Jingdezhen ceramics have made significant contributions to the
spread and exchange of culture around the world. Demand for ceramics is increasing globally, and an
increasing number of foreigners are interested in learning about traditional Chinese culture.
6. Conclusion
In summary, academic research on Ming Ceramic remains in the empirical description stage, focusing on
research on its crafts, styling, and materials while ignoring the 'art creation' vision with spiritual meaning.
Promote ceramic culture, develop and expand art and craft culture, and realize the combination of these two
is promising. As everyone knows, a unique cultural phenomenon can form a good cultural industry market.
In order to develop and expand the era characteristic and traditional culture, realize the combination of
ceramic culture and culture, which is not only based on history but also has extensive business opportunities
and future development potential.
References
1. Li Pei Ning, Archaeological study of emerald glazed porcelain and enamelware [D]. Jilin University,
2015.
2. S.J. Vainker, Chinese pottery and porcelain: From Prehistory to the Present (London, The British
Museum Press, 1991).
3. Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David
Collection (British Museum Press, 2009).
4. The British Museum, "Chinese porcelain: production and export," in Smarthistory, February 28, 2017,
accessed May 12, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/chinese-porcelain-production-and-export/.
5. The British Museum, "‘Kraak’ bowl, from Jingdezhen," in Smarthistory, February 26, 2021, accessed
May 12, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/kraak-bowl-jingdezhen/.
6. Visual-arts-cork.com. 2020. Chinese Porcelain: Characteristics, History of White China Pottery,
Accessed 20 July 2020, http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/east-asian-art/chinese-porcelain/.

[STS22-80]
92
Agricultural, Environmental, and Food Science
93
94
ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF SALINITY INTRUSION IN TAN PHU DONG
AND GO CONG DONG DISTRICTS, TIEN GIANG PROVINCE AND PROPOSAL OF
SOLUTIONS
Tran Thanh Dat1, Ngo Thi Huyen Trang1, Thai Van Nam2*
1
Ho Chi Minh City Industry and Trade College (HITC)
2
HUTECH Institute of Applied Science (HIAS), HUTECH University
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: 0945 007 990; Email: tv.nam@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The research used statistical analysis methods, compared, and simulated the MIKE model, predicted the risk
of salinity intrusion according to the scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 to assess the current situation of salinity
intrusion and its impact on Go Cong Dong district and Tan Phu Dong district. After conducting the study
"Assessing of the current situation of salinity intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts of Tien
Giang province and proposing solutions", the researchers achieved the following results: the situation of
salinity intrusion in both 2 districts became more complicated, salinity intrusion came early, high salinity
encroached the fields; Regarding the risk prediction of salinity intrusion: according to the scenarios of RCP
4.5 and RCP 8.5 through the periods of 2030, 2050, 2070, 2100, the salinity level in the studied area tends to
increase gradually, the lowest salinity will be from 4 to 6 g/l, the salinity in the whole districts of Tan Phu
Dong and Go Cong Dong will exceed 12 g/l in 2100. Regarding the assessment of the impacts of salinity
intrusion to the main local industries including agriculture - forestry – fishery, the fields of land, water, and
ecosystem resources, the agriculture and water resources sectors are most severely affected.
Keywords: Climate change, MIKE model, salinity intrusion, solutions, Tien Giang
1. Introduction
In recent years, the situation of saltwater intrusion in Tien Giang has become increasingly complicated, salt
water continued to penetrate major rivers, affecting production and people's daily life on a large scale. In the
period from 2012 to 2019, saline intrusion caused about 6,300 hectares of high-yield rice to be lost, with a
total loss of 140.5 billion VND. The heaviest was the 2015-2016 Winter-Spring crop, which caused a loss of
3,700 hectares, estimated at over VND 81.6 billion [9]. Saltwater intrusion 2019-2020 was complicated, the
salinity line 4g/l goes deeper into the field and was higher than the extreme salinity in 2016. According to
aggregated results from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development/Economic Division of
districts, towns, cities, and communes, as of June 26th, 2020, the total area of fruit trees damaged by salinity
in the dry season of the year 2020 in the province was 5,343 ha (Western districts- 5,195 ha, Eastern
districts-148 ha). The damage rate (from 30 - 70%) was 1,434 ha, the rate of damage over 70% (dead) was
3,909 ha [10]. Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts are typical areas, most severely affected by
saltwater intrusion. Every year, the district is affected by saltwater intrusion from 1 month to 3 months.
Particularly in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts, each year there are from 3 to 6 months of salinity
intrusion.
When saltwater intrusion occurs, it will lead to a shortage of water for production and daily life, specifically:
In Phu Thanh commune, Tan Phu Dong district with high salinity concentration, the amount of stored water
is not enough for people to use. Currently, there are still over 3,300 households accounting for 27.34% of the
households that have not yet benefited from the rural water supply program (11, 12). In the dry season, they
still need to buy fresh water to use with an expensive price. Life there is difficult. In Go Cong Dong district,
there are still many residential clusters that do not have running water to use, especially in the dry season,
people use from rainwater stored in pots and ponds and from canals. Water in those stored objects and water
resources in the “Go Cong Sweetening Project” was contaminated, unsanitary and easily affected health and
caused disease outbreaks for rural people. However, research on salinity situation in these two districts has
not been well studied and still has limitations. Therefore, the research about "Assessing of the current
95
situation of salinity intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts of Tien Giang province and
proposing solutions" is necessary.
2. Materials and methods
2.1 Materials
MIKE 11 model: MIKE11- HD and MIKE 11- AD modules: Set up river networks and cross-sections for
rivers and tributaries. River network in the studied area includes 85 rivers, tributaries and 2077 sections.
The average emission scenario RCP 4.5 and the high emission scenario RCP 8.5 over the periods 2030,
2050, 2070 and 2100. The survey of people’s opinions in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts.
2.2 Methods
Methods of inheritance and synthesis of documents: Collecting documents and reporting on salinity intrusion
in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong; MIKE model.
Methods of field investigation: examining fields, taking photos of dikes and sluices preventing salinity
intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts; community consultation.
Statistical methods and data processing: Recording statistical results of public consultation through survey
forms, software EXCEL, SPSS, etc...
Modeling method: using the MIKE model and setting up the MIKE 11-HD and MIKE11-AD modules,
calibrating and verifying the model to describe the salt propagation process in 2 districts of Go Cong Dong
and Tan Phu Dong, simulating the salinity situation under climate change scenario.
3.1 The situation of salinity intrusion in Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong districts
3.1.1 Impact of salinity intrusion at Go Cong Dong district
Cultivation: In winter-spring rice crop 2019-2020, Go Cong Dong district sowed 10,151 hectares, was lower
174 hectares compared to the same period last year, yield reached 4.6 tons/ha (2.37 tons/ha lower than the
same period of the previous year) and the output was 43,062 tons (28,917 tons lower than the same period of
the previous year) [12]. The whole district had 6,058.83 hectares of agricultural production area (rice, crops,
fruit trees) which was damaged due to drought and saltwater intrusion, the total loss was estimated at 201
billion VND. Regarding vegetable production, in general, by the end of June 2020, the whole district had
sown 12,000 hectares of rice, 8,502 hectares less than the same period last year; harvested with an output of
43,062 tons (28,917 tons lower than the same period of the previous year).
Aquaculture: The total production of fishery products in the first 6 months of the year reached 39,220 tons,
2,625 tons lower than the same period in the previous year. The harvested output of clams as of the end of
June 2020 was about 8,005 tons (3,000 tons lower than the same period in the previous year); because of
high salinity, the clams died causing heavy damage and the clam farmers suffered heavy losses.
Lack of domestic water: By the end of 2019, tap water could only supply 31,160/37,158 households,
reaching 83.8% of the households in the district. In addition, Go Cong Dong is a coastal district and is
located at the end of the source of the “Sweetening Project”, so in the dry season, strong winds (northeast
monsoon) pushed saltwater into the mainland, saline water from the East Sea penetrated deeper. Therefore,
the water level in the field was exhausted and heavily polluted. Since then, it has led to a shortage of fresh
water, which seriously affected daily life and production in the district.
3.1.2 Impact of salinity intrusion at Tan Phu Dong district
Cultivation: In the autumn-winter crop of 2015, Tan Phu Dong district sowed late while the salinity came
early and penetrated deep into the upstream of the Tien River, this killed nearly 1,000 hectares of rice,
accounting for 66.49% of the district's cultivated area. During the salinity drought in 2019-2020, people
sowed 1200 hectares of lemongrass, but only obtained 650 hectares. The cause of the decrease in lemongrass
area was due to lack of water along with the appearance of mealybugs on the roots and aphids on the leaves.
Aquaculture: Due to the complicated situation of salinity intrusion in 2020, the high salinity level exceeded
the allowable level, reduced the resistance of shrimp causing a high risk of shrimp being infected.
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In addition, due to the influence of saltwater intrusion, fish farmers also faced many difficulties when the
salinity was high, the heat was intense, and the environment was unstable, which slowed down fish growth
and consumed a large amount of food. Particularly, the shrimp-rice production model also decreased from
560 ha (in 2015) to 200 ha (in 2020).
Lack of domestic water: Here, there are currently 12,074 households, but only 9,117 households have tap
water, reaching 75.5%. Nearly 3,000 households have not yet registered to install water meters, there are
about 1,500 households in remote areas without freshwater pipelines. If there are no support measures, in the
dry season, domestic water is really a problem for local people.
3.2 Forecasting the risk of saline intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts under the
influence of climate change
3.2.1. The forecast of salinity intrusion according to the RCP 4.5 scenario
According to the RCP 4.5 scenario, with the same salinity, the saline intrusion area in Go Cong Dong district
is more than in Tan Phu Dong district. The salinity of Go Cong Dong district tends to increase gradually over
the years, the lowest salinity is about 4-6 g/l, by 2100 the whole district has salinity > 12 g/l. In particular,
under the RCP 8.5 scenario, by 2070, the salinity in the district will exceed 12 g/l. The communes of Tan
Thanh, Tan Dien, Tang Hoa are vulnerable areas due to salinity from 2030 all these communes have salinity
of about > 12 g/l.
The area of land contaminated with high salinity is increasing gradually. In 2030, the main land area will
have salinity level of about 6 – 10 g/l. In 2050 and 2070, the area of saline soil will be about 10 - 12 g/l,
accounting for the majority, from 245.40 km2 in 2050 to 367.38 km2. By 2100, the salinity level of the two
districts will be around 10 – 12 g/l and higher than 12 g/l; the soil area with salinity higher than 12 will
accounts mainly for an area of 423.02 km2, accounting for 75.53% total natural land area.
Figure 1. a, b, c, d: Forecasting the risk of saline intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts
according to the RCP 4.5 scenario in 2030, 2050, 2070, 2100
3.2.2 The forecast of salinity intrusion according to the RCP 8.5 scenario
According to the RCP 8.5 scenario, with the same salinity, the saline intrusion area in Go Cong Dong district
is more than in Tan Phu Dong district. By 2100, The forecast of salinity intrusion in the complete two
districts (Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong districts).
Similar to Go Cong Dong district, the salinity in Tan Phu Dong district also tends to increase gradually over
the years. The lowest salinity will be about 4-6 g/l by 2030, from 2050 the salinity will gradually increase,
the lowest salinity will be around 8-10. By 2100, the whole area of Tan Phu Dong district will have high
salinity level, the salinity will be higher 12 g/l. Compared with the salinity intrusion situation in 2016, the
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lowest salinity in Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong districts is from about 2.5 - 4 g/l, by 2030, the lowest
salinity will be around 4-6 g/l. From the forecasted results, it can be seen that the salinity intrusion tends to
increase gradually, the higher the sea level rises, the higher the salinity will increase and by 2100, the entire
2 districts will face difficulties and challenges when salinity intrusion occurs.
The area of salinity intrusion tends to increase gradually in terms of salinity level and expand its area. In
2030, the salinity level will be around 10 - 12 g/l, the salinity area with higher than 12 g/l will be the least.
However, over time, the saline area with higher 12 g/l tends to expand. By 2100, the entire natural land area
of the two districts will be intruded with the highest salinity concentration (higher than 12 g/l).
Figure 2. a, b, c, d: Forecasting the risk of saline intrusion in Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts
according to the RCP 8.5 scenario in 2030, 2050, 2070, 2100
3.3 Assessment of the effects of salinity intrusion at Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong districts
3.3.1 Agriculture, forestry and fishery industry
Agriculture: In recent years, salinity intrusion came early, high salinity level has made many fields be under
shortage of water for irrigation, so many rice farming households only got 50-70% of the output and more
seriously, many rice fields were completely killed, people fell into a state of loss, damage to hundreds of
millions of VNDs. Therefore, with the forecast results of salinity intrusion, the salinity level will be higher in
the future, on a large scale, so the rice production industry is at risk of being more seriously affected.
Fisheries: Some freshwater aquaculture areas have decreased due to sea level rise, saltwater penetrating into
the continent. The habitat and breeding areas of the coastal ecosystem will experience great changes due to
changes in mangrove forest. The inshore fishery will therefore have corresponding changes (decrease).
Forestry: When the sea level rises, the salinity level in mangrove forest can exceed 25%, causing many
changes in the mangrove forest ecosystem, drastically change the mangrove ecosystem.
3.3.2 Water resources sector
According to the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, the salinity in the studied area is about 4-6 g/l and by 2100
it will exceed 12 g/l. With such a high salinity concentration, the local water source has been salinized.
Therefore, this water source cannot be used for activities such as drinking, irrigation, but can only be used in
livestock when the salinity is from about 2 - 10 g/l; if the salinity is higher than 10 g/l, water is used mining
and industrial activities only. Thus, the water quality in Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong districts does not
meet the standards for domestic water supply according to QCVN 08-MT: 2015/BTNMT, causing water
shortage in daily life and production, seriously affecting the lives of local people.
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3.3.3 Land resources sector
Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong Dong are vulnerable areas due to saltwater intrusion, with high salinity above 4
g/l, so when soil is under saline intrusion, it will become acidic, which changes the physio-chemical
properties of the soil and nutrients. Thereby it has a strong influence on plants, especially rice (such as
withering leaves, dying plants), adversely affect the yield and quality of harvested agricultural products. The
rise of sea level brings in salinity, so the salinization of the soil increases, the alum of the surface layer
decreases due to the process of leaching alum into the deeper layer.
3.4 Solutions to cope with and minimize salinity intrusion at Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong
districts
3.4.1 Non-structural solutions
Raising public awareness: It is necessary to improve expertise and management capacity of authorities at all
levels and managers in encouraging people to change the structure of crops and livestock to adapt to salinity
intrusion. It also needs to guide people on advanced and modern techniques in production. It is also
important to raise people's awareness through training courses as well as change the structure of plants and
animals to adapt to salinity intrusion.
Changing the structure of crops and livestock: It is crucial to implement the transformation of crop structure
according to the Project "Construction planning in Tien Giang province to 2030, with a vision to 2050",
select the cultivars with tolerance to drought and salinity, change the season and planting schedule to suit
saline intrusion and change appropriate farming methods. Tan Phu Dong district focuses on developing
soursop and coconut tree. In addition, according to the plan, the district will develop a concentrated livestock
and poultry breeding area according to the model of an industrial farm that meets Viet GAP standards. As for
Go Cong Dong district, it belongs to the area specializing in cultivating specialty fruit trees with acerola,
watermelon and safe vegetable growing areas. In the field of livestock production, like Tan Phu Dong and
Go Cong Dong districts, it is necessary to develop a concentrated livestock and poultry breeding area
according to the model of industrial farms that meet Viet GAP standards.
3.4.2 Construction solutions
Water management and regulation and operation of irrigation systems: It is important to review and
evaluate the performance of the irrigation system, adjust the water storage capacity, regulate water in the dry
season, expand the irrigation system, invest in completing the project of canals to supplement fresh water for
key agricultural areas and water shortage areas in the eastern part of the province. It is necessary to complete
“the Go Cong Sweetening project” with the goal of preventing salinity, leading freshwater, waterlogging,
alum discharging, etc. to serve production and people's livelihood and economic development in the project
area and focus on completing the network of water supply pipelines in the East and Go Cong booster
pumping station, it is necessary to strengthen the operation and ensure the security of water sources to meet
the needs of daily life and local production.
Water storage solutions: Building concentrated water reservoirs: Tien Giang Province has implemented “the
Nguyen Tan Thanh Canal Reservoir Project” to form a water reservoir serving an area of nearly 80,000
hectares and to create a water supply for daily life of nearly 807,716 people in a part of Chau Thanh district
My Tho city and the eastern districts of Tien Giang province. Particularly in Tan Phu Dong district, to solve
the shortage of fresh water, the province is implementing the project to build the Cua Trung river reservoir to
create a water reservoir (with a capacity of about 35 million m3 of fresh water) serving 9,500 ha production
and living land for 45,000 people in Tan Phu Dong district.
4. Conclusions
Regarding the prediction of saltwater intrusion: According to the scenarios of RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, through
the periods of 2030, 2050, 2070, 2100, the saltwater intrusion in the study area tends to increase gradually,
the lowest salinity is from 4-6 g/l, by 2100, the salinity in the whole district of Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong
Dong will exceed 12 g/l. Regarding the assessment of the impacts of salinity intrusion: Based on the results
of forecasting the saltwater intrusion according to the scenarios, the study has evaluated the impacts of the
salinity intrusion on the main local industries including the following: Agriculture - forestry - fisheries and
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land, water, and ecosystem resources. The study also gave preliminary solutions to respond to the effects of
salinity intrusion for each industry and sectors in accordance with the natural, socio-economic conditions as
well as the planning direction of Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong.
In addition to the obtained results, the research also has some recommendations as follows: it is important to
study, select and create new plant varieties that are resistant to or adapted to salinity corresponding to salinity
in the forecast scenario. Researching, evaluating the impacts, and proposing specific solutions of the salinity
intrusion affecting on the exploitation and use of water, ensuring the water source for daily life and
production of the people are important.
References
1. Le Huy Ba (Editor), Luong Van Viet and Nguyen Thi Nga (2016), Climate change, adaptation to live
together, Ho Chi Minh City National University Press.
2. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (2016), Climate change and sea level rise scenarios for
Vietnam, Hanoi.
3. Department of Water Resources Management (2016), Main causes of saline intrusion, Hanoi.
4. Tran Quoc Dat, Nguyen Hieu Trung, Kanchit Likitdecharote (2012), "Simulation of saltwater intrusion
in the Mekong Delta under the impact of sea level rise and the decline in discharge from upstream",
University Scientific Journal Can Tho, No. 21b, p. 141 - 150.
5. Dang Van Dung, Tran Dinh Phuong, Le Thi Oanh, Tran Thanh Cong (2018), "Exploiting MIKE 11
model in forecasting and warning of saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta", Journal of
Hydrometeorology, No. 693, p. 48-58.
6. Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Go Cong Dong district (2019), Report on
assessment of implementation and national plan on climate change in the period of Go Cong Dong
district, Tien Giang.
7. Global Environment Fund of Vietnam (1992), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change.
8. Le Sam (2001-2004), “Study on saltwater intrusion for socio-economic development in coastal areas of
the Mekong Delta,” Southern Institute of Irrigation Science, State-level project KC08-18.
9. Tien Giang province, 2020, Report on assessment of the implementation of the national strategy and
plan on climate change for the period 2012-2020.
10. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province, Summary of natural disaster
prevention and search and rescue work in the years (from 2010 to 2019).
11. Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tien Giang province (2019), Evaluation of the
implementation of the national strategy and plan on climate change for the period 2012 - 2019.
12. Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tien Giang province (2020), Developing and
updating the Action Plan to respond to climate change in the period of 2021 - 2030 with a vision to 2050
in Tien Giang province.
13. Nguyen Van Duc Tien & Vo Nhat Sinh, 2016, Saline soils and methods of use, Department of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Ho Chi Minh City.

[STS22-05]
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EXPERIMENTAL OPTIMIZATION OF NATURAL COAGULANTS FROM NOPAL CACTUS
APPLIED IN LEACHATE TREATMENT
Hoang Trong Nhan1, Trinh Trong Nguyen1, Thai Van Nam1*
1
HUTECH Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* Corresponding author: Phone: 0945 007 990; Email: tv.nam@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
The study focused on 3 objectives: (1) determining the composition and structure of the dry powder and
mucilage of the Nopal Cactus; (2) determine the optimal values: pH, dosage, stirring speed; and (3) evaluate
the ability to remove turbidity, color, COD, total nitrogen, heavy metals (As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cr, Hg) on leachate
samples collected at Toc Tien landfill. The leachate treatment efficiency of natural coagulants from Nopal
Cactus (in dry powder and mucilage) was performed by Jartest experiment. The maximum values: pH = 6.5,
coagulant dosage is 1.5 g dry powder and 15.5 g mucilage, respectively, stirring speed is 30 rpm with stirring
time of 30 minutes. Turbidity removal efficiency is at 72 - 73%, for COD it is at 50 - 54%. Conduct
experimental optimization, in the dry powder: pH = 6.48; powder dosage used is 1.42 g; stirring speed is
26.78 rpm; under the assumed conditions then, the desired optimal turbidity removal efficiency is 73.29%
and the desired optimal COD removal efficiency is 54.64%. In the mucilage form: pH = 6.55; the dosage
used is 15.18g; hair stirrer 29.99 rpm; under that assumed condition, the desired optimal turbidity removal
efficiency is 73.47% and the desired optimal COD removal efficiency is 51.51%.
Keywords: flocculation-flocculation, leachate treatment, mucilage, Nopal Cactus.
1. Introduction
Among the methods of municipal solid waste management such as landfilling, incineration, composting etc.,
the sanitary landfill option or open dumping is popular in most countries (Vaverková, 2019). However,
landfills generate a large amount of leachate with a complex composition, easily fluctuating with weather,
difficult to handle and potentially polluting surface water, groundwater and the soil environment
(Danthurebandara, 2012). Many methods of leachate treatment have been proposed, but some of the
available techniques are still complicated, expensive and often require certain adaptations in the
implementation process (Kamaruddin et al., 2014). In recent years, a number of physicochemical treatment
methods (coagulation/flocculation, air stripping, and advanced oxidation processes etc.) have been shown to
be effective in removing the organic load and toxicity of this wastewater (Cherni et al., 2021), especially
using natural organic polymers (Aygun and Yilmaz 2010). The advantages of coagulant from natural
polymer such as: ease of treatment, high solubility in water, reducing sludge volume, availability, and self-
decomposition (Dat et al., 2021). Such as tannin-based natural coagulant could effectively remove organic
compounds and heavy metals from stabilized landfill leachate (Banch et al., 2019).
Nopal Custus is a plant that grows a lot in the sandy soils of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan of Vietnam. Many
studies have shown that Nopal Custus has the ability to remove turbidity and color in surface water (Nam
and Ba, 2017) and wastewater (Dat et al., 2021). The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of
using natural coagulants from Nopal Cactus in treating leachate with high efficiency, safety, but cost savings
and environmental protection.
2 Materials and methods

2.1 Materials
Preparation of absorbent material: Nopal Cactus branches are collected from the sandy soil area of Binh
Thuan provice. Rinse several times with tap water, removing spines and shell. Then drained for 3 hours, cut
into small pieces (1x1 cm), dried at 80°C for 24 hours and ground to a powder stored in glass bottles at
laboratory temperature (called as NCP) (Montaño et al., 2019). Similarly, for the mucilage, Nopal Cactus
branches are also preliminarily treated, then pounded, pressed and extracted (Bouatay, 2014). Samples were
stored in a glass bottle under low temperature (called as NCM). Prepare water samples for research: The
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research water sample are taken at the inlet of the conditioning tank of the leachate treatment system at Toc
Tien landfill (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, Vietnam).
2.2. Methods
Surface Morphology Analysis of the Materials: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been extensively
used to study the surface morphology of OFI. Analyze the composition of extract from OFI (moisture,
carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and ash) to consider its capacity to absorb impurities in water (Jingdong,
2006).
Experimental Setup Method: The experiment was performed on the Jartest model. Experiment 1 investigated
the optimal pH, the pH value changed from 6.1 to 7.1. Experiment 2 investigated the optimal adsorbent
dosage based on the optimal pH in experiment 1 with the dosage changed from 1.1 to 2.1 g and experiment 3
investigated the optimal slow stirring speed based on pH and optimal adsorbent dosage from experiments 1
and 2, the fast stirring speed was fixed at 250 rpm for 5 min then changed the slow stirring speed from 20 to
50 rpm. The water samples after the experiment were calculated for the turbidity and COD treatment
efficiency. Experiment 4 was conducted to determine the ability to treat leachate with optimal parameters
determined in experiments 1, 2 and 3 through the analysis of turbidity, COD and heavy metals of the water
sample after treatment.
Data processing methods: using Excel software and STATGRAPHIC XV (ANOVA analysis) to process the
data of the experiment.

3.1 The surface structure of NCP
The results show that the rough surface texture, large porosity along with the multi-layer structure helps to
increase the surface area, contributing to the adsorption of impurities. In addition, the presence of deep holes,
irregular sizes and shapes allows the adsorption and enhanced diffusion ability of substances of different
sizes (particles/molecules/ions) (Figure 1). This result is similar to the study of Kumar and Barakat (2013)
and Yainner et al (2019).
a) b) c) d)
Figure 1. The surface structure of Nopal Cactus (dry powder).
On that basis, it can be confirmed that cactus dried powder is an appropriate material in removing impurities
in some water sources such as turbidity, color, COD and pathogenic microorganisms.
3.2 Composition of mucilage from Nopal Custus
The results of analysis of the composition of mucilage from Nopal Custus showed moisture (54.56%),
carbohydrates (23.31%), crude protein (8.22%), crude lipids (0.75%) and content ash (12.63%). The
analytical results are quite similar to the results of Yainner Tarazona et al (2019).
3.3 Optimal pH
The COD and turbidity treatment efficiency of NCP and NCM is best in the pH range from 6.3 to 6.7, and
then gradually decreases. The maximum COD and turbidity treatment efficiency of NCP is 73.22% and
45.12% and NCM is 72.66% and 40.72%. At pH = 6.5 for the best treatment efficiency for leachate with
COD content above 10,000 mg/l (Firuge 2).
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a) b)
Figure 2. COD (a) and turbidity (b) treatment efficiency under pH change
The reason is that in Nopal Custus there are polymers such as: L-arabinose, D-galactose, L-rhamnose, D-
xylose and galacturonic acid containing many groups (-COOH). When the pH from 6.0 to 7.5, hydrolysis
takes place strongly, creating vacancies with a negative charge (-) that will bind with particles with a positive
charge (+). In contrast, pH > 7.5 to create a basic environment that reduces hydrolysis capacity, reducing
treatment efficiency. This result is consistent with the study results of Yainner Tarazona et al (2019) (pH =
6.5 with NCP).
3.4 Optimal dosage
a) b)
Figure 3. COD (a) and turbidity (b) treatment efficiency under dosage change
The COD and turbidity treatment efficiency of NCP is best at the dosages of 1.5 g, with the treatment
efficiency of 72.71% and 54.28%, respectively. This efficiency is higher than the study of Yainner Tarazona
et al. (2019) with COD treatment efficiency of 45.93% at the same pH and powder dosage conditions. The
reason is that the origin and properties of leachate at the two studied landfills are different. The best COD
treatment efficiency corresponds to the NCM dosages of 15.5 g (treatment efficiency of 46.54%). The best
turbidity treatment efficiency corresponds to the NCM dosage of 15 g (treatment efficiency of 73.16%). This
result is similar to the study of Yainner Tarazona et al. (2019) but much lower than the efficiency in the
study of Martínez (2017). The dosage of NCM was chosen to be 15.5 g for the next experiments.
3.5 Optimal slow stirring speed
For NCP, the optimal slow stirring speed for the best treatment efficiency is 30 rpm (COD treatment
efficiency is 55.95% and turbidity treatment efficiency is 72.54%). For NCM, the slow stirring speed of 20
rpm give the highest turbidity treatment efficiency is 73.33%, but the COD treatment efficiency only
49.39%. When increasing the slow stirring speed to 30 rpm, the turbidity treatment efficiency decreased to
73.16% (decreased 0.17%), but the COD treatment efficiency increased to 50.88%. When increasing the
stirring speed to 40 rpm and 50 rpm, the treatment efficiency gradually decreased.
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a) b)
Figure 4. COD (a) and turbidity (b) treatment efficiency under slow stirring speed change
In the mucilage form, if stirred too slowly, the liquid will accumulate in the lower part of the beaker,
resulting in no chance to evenly contact the suspended particles to form larger flocs. But if stirred at too high
a speed, the flocs will break. The results of the study are similar to the optimal slow stirring speed of Yainner
Tarazona (2019) which is 30 rpm, while in the study of Martínez (2017), the best slow stirring speed is at 50
rpm.
3.6 Evaluation of the efficiency of leachate treatment by Nopal Custus
Table 1 shows that the treatment efficiency of turbidity, color, COD and total nitrogen of NCP and NCM are
all over 50%.
Table 1. Results of testing the efficiency of leachate treatment by Nopal Custus
NCP NCM
Before Treatment Treatment Standard of
Testing analysis Unit After After
treatment efficiency efficiency Vietnam
treatment treatment
(%) (%)
Turbidity NTU 177 49.1 72.26% 47.7 73.05% -
Color Pt-Co 351 148.4 57.72% 182.6 47.98% -
COD ppm 12,430 6,144 50.57% 6,257 49.66% <300(*)
Total nitrogen ppm 306 52.2 82.94% 55.4 81.90% <300(*)
Nopal Custus almost completely removes some heavy metals such as As, Cd, Hg, Pb. However, this Toc
Tien landfill receives domestic and non-hazardous industrial waste, the metal composition is not high. It can
be seen that the natural coagulant from Nopal Custus is a potential material for leachate treatment especially
turbidity, COD and total nitrogen although it is still in the pretreatment stage. However, the results of COD
treatment are still quite high compared to standard of Vietnam, so it is necessary to go through the next
biological and physico-chemical treatment stages to thoroughly remove pollutants before being discharged
into the environment.
3.7 Evaluation of leachate treatment efficiency by experimental optimization method
The experimental optimization with 15 experiments, choosing the pH value (6, 6.5 and 7), dosage (dosages
NCP are 1, 1.5, 2 g and dosages NCM are 14, 15.25, 16.5 g) and slow stirring speed (20, 35 and 50 rpm)
with the same value. The optimal is between min and max values.
3.7.1 Leachate treatment efficiency of the NCP
For COD treatment efficiency, R2 is 91.78% and R2 (adj) is 76.98%, while for turbidity treatment efficiency,
R2 is 98.33% and R2 (adj) is 95 ,32 %. All three main factors are pH, dosage of NCP and slow stirring speed,
p < 0.05. This can be said that the model is quite suitable and has high reliability.
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COD treatment efficiency (%): = -557,76 +
153,77*pH + 124,23*D + 1,94*S -
14,42*pH*D - 0,03*S2 (Equation 1)
Turbidity treatment efficiency (%): 11,14 +
15,01*pH + 12,33*D + 0,29*S - 1,24pH*D -
1,30* S2 - 0,008*S2 (Equation 2)
Figure 5. The response surface model for COD and

turbidity removal efficiency of NCP
According to the results of optimizing the multilinear function according to the desired capacity, the optimal
pH is 6.49, the dosage of NCP used is 1.5g and the slow stirring speed is 25 rpm. These optimization metrics
are close to the results analyzed above.
3.7.2 Leachate treatment efficiency of the NCM
For COD removal efficiency, the regression equation reflects 84.07% of the actual data, but the values of
pH, dosage of NCM, slow stirring speed do not show statistical significance (p > 0.05) except for some
interactions between factors. For turbidity treatment efficiency, R2 is 94.58%, R2 (adj) = 84.81% and the
three main factors are NCM dosage, slow stirring speed and time all have p < 0.05. This can be said that the
model is quite suitable and has high reliability.
COD treatment efficiency (%): -

14,72*pH2 - 0,02*S2 (Equation 3)
Turbidity treatment efficiency

(%): - 49,73 + 18,24*S1 + 8,34*D
+ 0,02*S + 0,03*D*S – 0,004*S2
(Equation 4)
Figure 6. The response surface model for COD and
turbidity removal efficiency of NCM
According to the results of optimizing the multilinear function according to the desired capacity, the optimal
pH is 6.55, the dosage of NCM used is 15.18 g and the slow stirring speed is 29.9 rpm. These optimization
metrics are close to the results analyzed above.
4. Conclusion
SEM analysis results show that NCP has a rough surface structure, large porosity, deep pores with irregular
size and shape suitable for the adsorption of substances of different sizes.
The composition of NCM includes: moisture (54.56%), carbohydrates (23.31%), crude protein (8.22%),
crude lipids (0.75%) and content ash (12.63%).
Determine the optimal value of the influencing factors: pH = 6.5; dosage used = 1.5g (dry powder) and 15.5g
(mucilage); Slow stirring speed is 30 rpm through Jartest experiment.
Experimental optimization results have determined the optimal parameters to achieve the highest turbidity
and COD treatment efficiency. For NCP: pH is 6.48, dosage is 1.42g/l, slow stirring speed is 25 rpm for
optimal turbidity removal efficiency of 73.29% and COD is 54.64%. For NCM: pH is 6.55, dosage is 15.18
g/l, slow stirring speed is 29.99 rpm for optimum turbidity removal efficiency of 73.47% and COD of
51.51%.
105
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coagulación-floculación con mucílago de Opuntia ficus-indica”. [Alternative method to treat mature
leachates through the coagulation-flocculation process with mucilage of Opuntia ficus-indica] Programa
de Maestría y Doctorado en Ingeniería Ambiental, UNAM (In Spanish).
10. Montaño, Y.T., Rojas-Valencia M.N., Araiza-Aguilar, J., Fernández-Rojas, D., Vaca-Mier, M., Nájera-
Aguilar, H., Gutiérrez-Hernández, R., 2019. Evaluation of a Coagulation-Flocculation Process forthe
Treatment of Leachates using a BiopolymerExtracted from Organic Waste from the Opuntiaficus
Industry. Transylvanian Review: Vol XXVII, No. 38, pp. 9468 - 9475.
11. Nam T.V., and Ba, L.H., 2017. Research on the ability to remove turbidity, color level and COD in
surface water with dried Nopal Cactus powder, Journal of Biotechnology.
12. Vaverková, M.D., 2019. Landfill Impacts on the Environment-Review. GeoscieNCMs 2019, 9, 431.

[STS22-11]
106
OVERVIEW OF THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON METHODS OF
ANALYZING MICROSIZED PLASTICS CONTINENTAL SURFACE
WATER
Huynh Phu1*, Huynh Thi Ngoc Han2, Nguyen Ly Ngoc Thao1, Tran Thi Minh Ha3
1
HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; h.phu@hutech.edu.vn
2
Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam;
htnhan_ctn@hcmunre.edu.vn;
3
Tay Nguyen University, Buon Ma Thuot - Dak Lak, Vietnam; ttmha@ttn.edu.vn
* Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84-966687548; Email: h.phu@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Currently, the problem of microplastics is being paid much attention by researchers and experts in many
fields such as environment, health, food, consumer products, etc. However, researches on analytical
methods, distribution levels, and types of microplastics in Vietnam are still incomplete. Mainly, the
analytical method was derived from NOAA's ocean microplastic analysis method and was developed under
Vietnamese conditions. However, to accurately detect and avoid confusion, especially transparent and nano-
sized microplastics, it is necessary to apply deeper and more modern analytical methods. The methods of
physical (microscopic), chemical (spectral) and thermal analysis are studied and applied to suit the
conditions of Vietnam when researching for continental surface water. In this study, the authors based on the
characteristics of microplastics, arguments on basic and modern analytical methods to choose an accurate
and suitable microplastic detection method for Vietnamese conditions.
Keywords: Microplastics; Microplastics Analysis; Saigon–Dong Nai river basin; Sediment; Surface water
1. Introduction
In recent years, microplastic pollution has been reported to exist in soil, water, and air environments
worldwide and is considered a potential threat to the health of ecosystems and humans. The sample objects
for microplastic analysis are different such as water, sediment, sand, mud or food, etc. However, the current
methods are used in microplastic analysis in Vietnam, which still follow the general trend of relying on size
screening, density separation, and removal of organic matter caused by microplastics. The characteristics of
microplastics are relatively high inertness and light density. However, for microplastics of small size, these
analytical operations are easy to miss, appear "false microplastics" (wrongly observing other components
into microplastics), inaccurate results, especially especially nano-sized microplastics. Techniques for
sampling, extracting or separating nano-sized microplastics and microplastics need to be applied with
appropriate analytical methods.
2. Overview of microplastic
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defined microplastics as particles less than 5
mm in size (NOAA 2015). Microplastics are derived from plastic wastes released by humans into the
environment, classified into 3 groups: primary microplastics, secondary microplastics, and microplastics
from other sources. Once microplastics are introduced into the environment, they are very difficult to
remove. Plastic undergoes decomposition to produce microscopic plastic substances that have been affected
by physical (wind, rain, heat), chemical (ultraviolet radiation from sunlight or corrosion) and has been
through the mechanism of biodegradation (microorganism). Microplastics have all the characteristics and
properties of the plastics that make them up.
2.1. Characteristic
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The characteristics of microplastics are exactly the same as those of the plastic from which it is made.
Some general characteristics: high mechanical properties, ability to withstand strong tear and impact forces,
strong gas and water repellency, high hardness and strength, wear resistance in weather conditions worst.
Table 1. Density of common plastics (Andrady 2011).
Resin type Specific gravity (g/mL) Common applications
Polyethylene 0.91–0.95 Plastic bags, storage containers
Polypropylene 0.9–0.92 Rope, bottle caps, gear, strapping
Polystyrene (expanded) 1.01–1.05 Cool boxes, floats, cup
Polystyrene 1.04-1.09 Utensils, containers
Polyvinyl chloride 1,16–1,30 Film, pipe, containers
Polyamide (Nylon) 1,13–1,15 Fishing nets, rope
Polyethylene terephthalate 1,34–1,39 Bottles, strapping
Polyester resin > 1,35 Textiles, boats
In addition to the characteristics of waste plastic, microplastics have two main components: (i)
additives and plastic-based polymers such as monomers, oligomers, etc. and (ii) absorbed chemicals. from
environment. Active additives are chemicals that are added during the plastic manufacturing process to
improve the quality of plastic products, increase the color and transparency of the product, improved
resistance to degradation by temperature, light radiation, mold, bacteria and moisture, mechanical, thermal
and electrical resistance.
Some substances (such as Bisphenol A - BPA) are used mainly in the production of polycarbonate (PC
resin), epoxy resin and many other resins. Common products made up of these plastics such as water bottles,
sports equipment, CDs and DVDs, plumbing pipes, and even poor quality toys for children… are very toxic.
BPA is most commonly found in the following 3 types of plastic:
- PVC: This is a flexible plastic commonly used in the production of transparent food packaging,
cooking oil bottles, toys and many other products.
- PS or polystryrene: This is an inexpensive plastic often used to produce fast food packaging, only
used once. They easily release toxins at high temperatures and in strong acidic or alkaline environments.
They are not recommended for long-term storage of food and drink.
- PC plastic and other types of plastic: This type is often used to produce large capacity water cans and
some food products.
2.2. Classification of microplastics
There are many ways to classify microplastics, depending on their chemical characteristics and
intended use. One of them is the use of different symbols, including the recycling symbol, on products (Fig
2). If based on size, microplastics are classified as: Macroplastics, Microplastics and Nanoplastics (Fig 1).
Figure 1. Size of microplastic (Gillibert et al. 2019).
108
3. Methods of analyzing microsized plastics in the environment
3.1. Overview of basic methods for microplastic analysis
3.1.1. Technical methods for microplastic analysis by microscopy
Microscopic observation allows direct exploration of the size, shape and chemical composition of
microplastics.
1. Advantages: Simple sample preparation and the ability to directly observe the surface
2. Limitations: It takes the longest time to determine, depends on the researcher's judgment and observation
ability, low accuracy, high cost.
1. Optical microscope: Optical microscopy is widely used to identify microplastics in the >100 µm range.
Colored microplastics can be easily identified with an optical microscope (Dehghani et al. 2017).
2. Electron Microscopy: Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy
(TEM). Both have high prices.
* SEM: After processing, the sample was placed under a scanning electron microscope and all the
microplastics present were counted and identified as flakes, pellets, fibers, films or foams. SEM can provide
very sharp, high-magnification images, even for very small particles, such as nanoplastics (Tunali et al.
2020).
* TEM: As a solid-state microstructure study device, it uses magnetic lenses to create images with high
magnification (up to millions of times), images can be produced on a fluorescent screen, or on optical film,
or recorded with digital cameras. Visual identification of microplastics via TEM may vary depending on the
user. In addition, the composition of additives, such as Al, Ca, Mg, Na and Si, or antioxidants in
microplastics are recorded (Sabri et al. 2021).
3. Gemstone microscope (polarizing microscope): It can be used successfully for the determination of
polyethylene (PE) particles. However, depending on the type of plastic, the plastic structure affects the
transmission of polarized light when measured. Therefore, this method is only suitable for measuring
transparent microplastics (Mossotti et al. 2021).
3.1.2. Technical methods for microplastic analysis by thermal analysis
Analytical method that uses heat based on the individual chemical and physical properties of each
substance in the sample
Advantages: Large numbers of samples can be identified at once.
Limitations: Samples are not preserved, easy to melt; It is not possible to quantitatively analyze microplastics
in each sample; After passing the thermal analysis, it is not possible to proceed to the next analysis because
the nature of the thermal method is to destroy the original sample.
1. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC): DSC is a thermal analysis technique that can confirm the
physical properties of plastics. Because it is easy to melt microplastics, it can only be used to
identify some major types of microplastics, such as PE and PP.
2. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA): The equipment includes: oven, micro scale, temperature
controller and data acquisition system. Confirmation of qualitative and quantitative information is by
measuring the weight loss of a sample while being heated at a specific rate under given temperature
conditions. But only polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are clearly identified, polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyurethane (PU) are difficult to determine,
polyamide (PA) and polyester (PES) are not identified (Majewsky et al. 2016).
3. Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC/MS - Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass
spectrometry): The chromatographic spectrum obtained from a sample is compared with the results
of a known resin standard to determine if it is plastic. This method can only determine well for PS.
(Ceccarini et al. 2018).
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3.1.3. Technical methods for microplastic analysis by spectroscopy
1. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR): This is a measurement technique that allows
infrared spectroscopy to be recorded. Carbon-based microplastics can be seen. The characteristic
spectrum helps to distinguish microplastics from other organic and inorganic particles. FTIR shows
the composition of microplastics, which can provide information on the origin and appearance of the
sample, even the oxidation state of the microplastic. Howerver, analysis results may be affected by
plasticizers, antioxidants, ink composition and adhesives from the color of the sticker
2. Raman spectroscopy analysis: The laser beam in Raman spectroscopy is smaller than FTIR.
Therefore, it can be used to analyze microscopic forms of microplastics of just a few micrometers,
preserving samples, which can be further analyzed later. However, Raman signals are sensitive to
additives and colorants in microplastics, are expensive, require specialized engineering, and are
prone to errors due to the effects of wear on the curved surface of the microplastics. In addition,
when analyzing PE microplastics, a substance during analysis can be confused as Sodium Stearate
(deodorant, soap) or other chemicals, so it can be difficult to identify the desired microplastics
Figure 2. Technical methods for microplastic Figure 3. Technical methods for microplastic analysis
analysis by microscopy (SEM-EDS) (Wang et al. by thermal analysis (Py-GC/MS) (JanDziwiński etal.
2017). 2018).
Figure 4. Technical methods for microplastic analysis by spectroscopy (Raman (left) and FTIR (right))
(Gillibert et al. 2019).
3.2. Theoretical point on modern microplastic analysis methods

3.2.1. Nile Red staining method
This is an alternative method to solve the problem of small and transparent microplastics: using
fluorescent dye Nile Red (9-diethylamino5H-benzo [α] phenoxazine-5-one), a fluorescent dye strong for
hydrophobic objects to stain microplastics. It is very effective for identifying microplastics that are difficult
to detect and is a good preparatory step before further spectral analysis such as FTIR. However, mixed
organics can be stained red at the same time, so it is necessary to remove the organic matter before
application to increase the efficiency of the analysis.
110
Figure 5. Analytical technique by Nile Red staining technology (Hengstmann et al. 2019).
3.2.2. Vis-NIR spectroscopy

Vis-NIR spectroscopy is a combination of visible (Vis - Visible) and near-infrared (NIR - Near
Infrared Reflectance) spectroscopy. This is a method of visual identification and needs to rely on human
judgment. This analytical method can be used for the identification of microplastics such as low-density
polyethylene (LDPE), PET and PVC (Corradini et al. 2019).
Figure 6. Spectral color ranges according to wavelengths.
4. Some actual results when applying

Research results on microplastics in water and sediments in the Saigon-Dong Nai river basin by
Huynh Phu et al (2021) for water and sediment samples at 18 locations (13 locations on the Saigon River and
5 locations on the Dong Nai River) have determined the composition and properties of microplastics:
There were 228.120 fibers per m3 of water to a maximum of 715.124 fibers per m3 of water (water samples
are taken from the riverbank 3-5 m) and 23-300 pieces per m3 of water with smaller sizes 5 mm (samples are
taken in the middle of the river at a depth of 2–4 m). In sediments, there were from 6.47 ± 1.45 to 52.32 ±
4.92 mg/kg, average 21.77 ± 6.9 mg/kg. In which, PE accounted for 51.2%, 27.1% was PP, PVC accounted
for 13.4% and 8.3% was other plastics (Phu at al. 2021).
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Figure 7. Determination of microplastics in Figure 8. At 100x magnification shows the thin
sediments under fluorescence microscope. microplastic (A) with a length of 229.49 μm; fibrous
(B) with a length of 524.68 μm and granular (C) with
a length of 113.81 μm.
Figure 9. Samples of microplastics in water in Figure 10. Results of identification of microplastics

sediments from stereomicroscopy. in sediments by FTIR.
5. Conclusion
Microplastic analysis by microscopy, spectroscopy and thermal analysis have been continuously
developed by researchers. Each technology has different characteristics as well as advantages and
disadvantages. The sample preparation operation of this method is simple but time consuming and the
accuracy is not high. Method Spectroscopy uses optical principles to analyze the overall surface of a sample.
Multiple samples can be defined at the same time. In addition, the sample is preserved intact after analysis
and can be followed by quantitative analysis such as individual particle oxidation. Spectroscopic methods
compared with thermal analysis are difficult to identify large numbers of samples at once. Thermal analysis
has the advantage that it can be performed with a larger number of samples than with microscopy and
spectroscopic methods. In order to compensate for the shortcomings of each analysis technique and make the
most of their advantages for analysis purposes, the authors recommend applying combined technical
methods and analytical methods. Modern analysis to identify microplastics in the sample environment such
as the TGA-FTIR-GC-MS method described above is a typical example.
112
References
1. Andrady, A. L (2011). Microplastics in the marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 62(8). pp
1596-1605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.05.030
2. Ceccarini, A.; Corti, A.; Erba, F.; Modugno, F.; La Nasa, J.; Bianchi, S.; Castelvetro, V (2018). The
Hidden Microplastics: New Insights and Figures from the Thorough Separation and Characterization of
Microplastics and of Their Degradation Byproducts in Coastal Sediments. Environ. Environmental
Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01487
3. Corradini, F.; Bartholomeus, H.; Huerta Lwanga, E.; Gertsen, H.; Geissen, V (2019). Predicting soil
microplastic concentration using vis-NIR spectroscopy. Science of The Total Environment. DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.101
4. Dehghani, S.; Moore, F.; Akhbarizadeh, R (2017). Microplastic pollution in deposited urban dust,
Tehran metropolis, Iran. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. DOI:
10.1007/s11356-017-9674-1
5. Gillibert, R.; Balakrishnan, G.; Deshoules, Q.; Morgan Tardivel, Alessandro Magazzù, Maria Grazia
Donato, Onofrio M. Maragò, Marc Lamy de La Chapelle, Florent Colas, Fabienne Lagarde, Pietro G.
Gucciardi (2019). Raman Tweezers as a Tool for Small Microplastics and Nanoplastics Identification in
Sea Water. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b03105
6. Hengstmann, E.; Elke Kerstin Fischer (2019). Nile red staining in microplastic analysis—proposal for a
reliable and fast identification approach for large microplastics. Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7786-4
7. JanDziwiński, E.; Gniady, J. I (2018). Py-GC/MS analyses of poly(ethylene terephthalate) film without
and with the presence of tetramethylammonium acetate reagent. Comparative study. Polymer Testing.
DOI: 10.1016/j.polymertesting.2017.11.009
8. Majewsky, M.; Bitter, H.; Eiche, E.; Horn, H (2016). Determination of microplastic polyethylene (PE)
and polypropylene (PP) in environmental samples using thermal analysis (TGA-DSC). Science of The
Total Environment. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.017
9. Mossotti, R.; Dalla Fontana, G.; Anceschi, A.; Gasparin, E.; Battistini, T (2021). Preparation and
analysis of standards containing microfilaments/microplastic with fibre shape. Chemosphere. DOI:
10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129410
10. NOAA. (2015). Methods for the Analysis of Microplastics in the Marine Environmet Recommendations
for quantifyling synthetic particles in water and sediments. Technical Menmorandum NOS-OR&R-48.
11. Sabri, N.H.; Muhammad, A.; Abdul Rahim, N.H.; Roslan, A.; Abu Talip, A.R (2021). Feasibility study
on co-pyrolyzation of microplastic extraction in conventional sewage sludge for the cementitious
application. Materialstoday Proceedings. DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.439

[STS22-27]
113
FEASIBILITY OF VERMICOMPOSTING OF SPENT COFFEE GROUNDS
Vinh Son Lam1*, Vu Phong Nguyen1, Trung Kien Ta1
1
HUTECH Institute of Applied Sciences (HIAS), HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* Corresponding Author: Vinh Son Lam, phone: +84 903399800; email: lv.son@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Contain high nutrient content, so coffee grounds can be used as a very effective fertilizer, as well as proper
nutrition environment for earthworms’ growth, development. Building of experimental model of composting
materials are entirely feasible with coffee grounds and earthworms. Continuous tracking 30 days past the
target: temperature, humidity, pH, nutrient concentrations to determine the extent of the influence factors to
the quality. Research shows bagasse and vegetables have created favorable conditions for the earthworms
develop. All samples are made from fertilizer to plants. The evidence is already examining the possibility of
water spinach seeds in normal and grow normally relatively well on the product
Keywords: coffee grounds, earthworms, water spinach
1. Introduction
Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world (after Brazil). According to the Institute of
Applied Marketing (2009), the total demand for coffee in the country is 60,000 tons per year, of which
instant coffee accounted for 19,000 tons, roasted coffee with the name of 35,000 tons, the remaining No
roasted ground coffee. From the above data, it can be seen that the amount of waste coffee residue in our
country is very large. Most of this waste is removed and will contribute to the amount of waste which is
already overloaded, as well as waste. Inadequate state budget in dealing with waste. So how to handle this
amount of coffee grounds is not harmful to the environment and save money to process them.
Due to the high nutrient content, it is possible to use coffee grounds as a very effective fertilizer as well as a
suitable nutrient medium for earthworms to grow. It is rich in calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen, as well as other
minerals that help the growth of plants. When it is processed for fertilizer, coffee grounds contain a lot of
nutrients: 0.5% nitrogen, 0.15% phosphorus and 0.5% potassium. It is therefore suitable for use as organic
fertilizers, increasing the amount of humus, preventing weeds, airing, creating acidity of the soil, providing
nitrogen and attracting earthworms.
Compost brings fertility to the soil, improves soil structure, helps to keep water and also makes the soil drain
well. Using worms to compost is an easy-to-use method for household or commercial use. This technology
can save the cost of collecting and sorting garbage, limiting the spread of pollution into the air. Organic
waste treatment by worm culture is a simple technology, does not require operating or management level,
high technical level as other methods of treatment.
2. Objectives and research methods

2.1. Subjects of research
Coffee grounds, bagasse, vegetable waste are collected at the business establishments in Ward 21, Binh
Thanh District. Model of compost from coffee grounds with earthworms on commercial scale.
2.2. Research methods
Experimental model of composting with coffee grounds and bagasse and vegetable was developed in
different treatments. From the composting model, continuous monitoring of the parameters of temperature,
humidity, pH, light, air, nutrient concentration to determine the effect of these factors on the quality of the
fertilizer. From there, optimum technology for the process of incubation.
2.3. Experimental procedure
The model with insulating foam material, rectangular shape, length x width x height is 30x20x10 was
designed and installed. Processing of raw materials: small bagasse; Roasted coffee grounds to dry, drying to
114
dry; shredded vegetables. Selection of earthworms: the same size and weight. Put in 4 cartons of equal
volume after checking the input parameters: humidity, pH, temperature.
Input materials (coffee grounds, bagasse,

raspberries)
Treat
Mix into 4 models and check the input

Humidity,
parameters
Stage 1: The first Determin Temperature
Treatment 1 Treatment 2 Treatment 3 Treatment 4

(0.1kg (0,2kg of (0.1kg (0,2kg of
ground coffee ground coffee coffee
coffee grounds: 0,1 residue: grounds: 0,1
residue: kg of bagasse: 0.2kg kg bagasse:
Periodical inspection of
indicators
Temperature, humidity, pH, adaptation
Model
operation
Stage 2: Last 15
Stable stage
Organic matter, C,
Harvest of humus/Quality check
Evaluate the effectiveness of the

product
Figure 1. General experiment layout
3. Research results
3.1. Parameters variation of biological fertilizer production
Stage 1: During the tempering process, the indicators: temperature, humidity, pH. Ensure the habitat for
earthworms’ adaption and development.
3.1.1. Temperature variation
115
34
33
32
31
30
29
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
DAY
TL1 TL2 TL3 TL4
Figure 2. Representation of temperature variation

During the incubation, the moisture content of all four models was maintained at an optimal range of 20-
330C. But by the time the temperature is measured at about 10am, the process of sensing the temperature is
not very accurate but not significant enough. With the maintenance of this temperature, earthworms will
work optimally.
3.1.2. pH variation
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
DAY
TL1 TL2 TL3 TL4
Figure 3. Representation of pH variation

During the incubation, the pH of all four models was maintained at an optimum of 6.8-7.2. But by
the time the pH was measured at around 10 am, the pH-sensitive process was not exactly high, but
not significant enough. With this pH maintenance, earthworms will work optimally.
3.1.3. Humidity
116
80
60
40
20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
DAY
TL1 TL2 TL3 TL4
Figure 4. Representation of moisture variation

Due to the different composition of the original material, the moisture content of the original silage
blocks is different, and at the same time because of different materials, the same amount of time
does not add water to the blocks at the same time. Incubate, the incubation unit will have a faster
moisture reduction and also different. Water should be added more often to ensure that the humidity
is not too low.
As conditions of the experiment, the addition of water to the incubators was not evenly distributed,
but the increase in morphology showed that the moisture content of the silage blocks was
maintained in the range 50% - 65% to earthworms can work well.
3.1.4. Adaptation of earthworms
To ensure no disturbance of the worm habitat, the worm was tested only on day 16, with the number of
worms removed from each worm was 20 worms.
Table 1. Survey results of earthworm adaptation
TL TL1 TL2 TL3 TL4
Quantity 16/20 10/20 18/20 6/20
Vitality Good Medium Very good Weak
TL1+ TL3: Create a perfect environment to be spongy, clean, rich in nutrients ... able to keep moisture, not
heat reaction, pH is not outside the spectrum of worm tolerance, so the number of dead worms is very small.
TL2: Too much coffee, too rich in nutrition. Inhibition, the rate and vitality of the worms not so high.
TL4: Too much vegetable, in the process of decomposition produces CO2, H2S, SO3, NH4 is the enemy of
earthworms. So the survival rate of worms very low and die a lot.
Stage 2: After 15 days, remove the dead earthworm's carcass in the model, so that the environment does not
have foul odor, odor or methane gas and microorganisms decompose. The remaining worms also enter the
adaptive phase. We start to check the organic matter, C, N.
3.1.5. Organic matter content
Table 2. Survey results of earthworm adaptation
Date 1 4 7
TL1 58.8 49.8 47.7
TL2 52.5 52.5 52.4
TL3 57.4 52.4 49.7
TL4 54.8 49.6 58.4
We found that the Organic matter content in all four models decreased, indicating that the earthworms and
microorganisms were active. During the 4-day test, the Organic matter content of the models decreased
sharply: the TL1 control pattern from 58.75% to 49.77%, the TL2 from 52.46% to 52.47%, the model TL3
117
from 57.35% reduced to 52.4%, TL4 model from 54.8% reduced to 58.43%. From day 7 to the last days of
the incubation period, the Organic matter content decreased slowly and stably in the last days.
Looking at the Organic matter variation chart of the three models showed that the TL1 model had the highest
decrease in CHC content, followed by the TL3 model and the lowest was TL2 control. It was shown that the
model had the highest rate of earthworms, the most abundant was the ability to decompose Organic matter
more effectively than the model with low earthworm populations and low survival rate.
3.1.6. Carbon content
Table 3. Results of carbon content analysis
Date 1 4 7
TL1 32.6 27.7 26.5
TL2 29.1 29.2 29.1
TL3 31.9 29.1 27.6
TL4 30.4 27.5 32.5
We found that the Carbon content in all four models decreased, indicating that earthworms and
microorganisms were active. During 4 days of testing, the Carbon content of the models decreased sharply:
the TL1 control pattern from 32.63% to 26.48%, the TL2 model from 29.14% to 29.09%, the model TL3
from 31.86% reduced to 27.6%, TL4 model from 30.44% reduced to 32.46%. Looking at the C variation
gradient of the three models showed that the TL1 model had the highest decrease in Carbon content,
followed by the TL3 model and the lowest reduction in TL2 control.
This indicates that the model with the highest number of earthworms, the most abundant, is more effective in
decomposing carbon than the model with low earthworm populations and low survival rates.
3.1.7. Nitrogen content
Table 4: Results of nitrogen content analysis
Date 1 7
TL1 1.85 1.81
TL2 1.99 1.98
TL3 1.78 1.75
TL4 2.1 2.08
Although the measurement probability is too small, the Nitrogen content in all four models is reduced,
indicating that earthworms and microorganisms are active. During the 7 days of testing, the Nitrogen content
of the models decreased sharply: the TL1 control pattern from 1.85% to 1.81%, the TL2 model from 1.99%
to 1.98%, the model TL3 from 1.78% reduced to 1.75%, TL4 model from 2.1% reduced to 2.08%. Looking
at the Nitrogen variable plot of the three models showed that the TL1 model had the highest Nitrogen
content, followed by the TL3 model and the lowest TL2 control model. It was shown that the model had the
highest number of earthworms, the highest number of decaying Nitrogen, which was more effective than the
low earthworm model and low survival rate.
3.2. Comments and discussions
Table 5: Experimental results after 30 days of incubation
INDICATORS UNIT TL1 TL2 TL3 TL4
Color Black Brown - black Black Black
Incubation time Day 30 30 30 30
Incubation 0
C 31-33 31-33 31-33 31-33
temperature
pH 6.68-7 6.35-6.82 6.32-6.97 6.75-7.32
Humidity product % 58.79 55.08 60.39 60.85
% Organic matter % 47.67 52.36 49.68 58.43
%Carbon % 26.5 29.1 27.6 32.5
%Nitrogen % 1.81 1.98 1.75 2.08
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Remarks:
In the first week, after a full complement of favorable conditions for earthworms, earthworm and
microorganism increased considerably, causing the decay rate to increase sharply.
Comparison between the four models shows that the product has a sugarcane ratio of 1: 1: 1: 1: 1 or 1: 2: 1
ratio of sugar cane surpasses the survival rate. of worms and fertility of the soil.
But most of the products after incubation need to add a quantity of chemical fertilizer to meet the
microorganism standards of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Vietnam.
4. Conclusion
30 days of researching with raw materials, coffee grounds combined with bagasse and broken vegetables
mixed into 4 treatments have created favorable conditions for earthworms to develop. All samples are used
for fertilizer. As evidenced by the ability to germinate seeds of jasmine seeds on the production of feces, the
results of spinach seeds have germinated normally and developed relatively well on the product. Compost
products, however, need to be supplemented with chemical fertilizers that meet the standards of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development for organic compost.
The subject has opened new materials in the production of compost and compost. It also demonstrates that
solid wastes have the potential to make micro-organisms, which in turn will make the microbiological
process faster and more efficient if appropriate earthworms are added. In addition, the topic has contributed
to reproducing agricultural residues, reducing the burden on the environment and bringing more profit to
farmers.
References
1. Bui Minh Tuan, Application of red worm farming model (earthworm) to treat household-scale organic
waste (2012)
2. Nguyen Thi Diem Trinh, Treating coffee grounds and its application as Substrates for water spinach
(ipomoea aquatic) growth In hydroponic system (2020)
3. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nhi, The research on the application of coffee residue for calocybe indica (2020)
4. Nguyen Van Phuoc, Management and treatment of solid waste, publishing company Ho Chi Minh City
National University (2010)
5. Thai Van Nam, Practice soil analysis, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (2015)
6. Viet Nam Coffee – Cocoa Associations (VICOFA), website: vicofa.org.vn
7. Vo Hong Thi, Practical environmental chemistry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (2015)
8. Vu Hai Yen, Research on production of organic fertilizer - microorganism from coffee grounds (2015)

[STS22-36]
119
USE OF 1-METHYLCYCLOPROPENE (1-MCP) TO EXTEND SHELF-LIFE OF FRUIT
AND VEGETABLE: A REVIEW
Lam Van Man1*, Le Hong Nhi1, Luu Thi Huyen My1, Ha Thi My Trang1
1HUTECH Institute of Applied Science, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: + 84 326 415 105; Email: lv.man@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is a growth regulator and used to inhibit ethylene. This is one of the new
technologies being applied for extending the shelf-life and maintaining the quality of fruits and vegetables.
1-MCP is applied on a wide range of crops, including apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, broccoli, kiwis,
pears, mangoes, melons, peaches, nectarines, persimmons, plums and tomatoes. During treatment, factors
that can affect 1-MCP effectiveness include concentration, temperature and treatment duration. Effective
concentrations of 1-MCP are low and normally range from 2.5 ppb to 1 ppm. In most studies show that the
concentration and temperature interaction is correlated, it has been found that low concentrations of 1-MCP
need to be treated for a long time to be as effective as high concentrations and short durations. 1-MCP is
most commonly treated at 20 to 25°C, but can be at lower temperatures for some fruits and vegetables. In
general, the treatment duration of 12 to 24 hours is sufficient to achieve an effect. Many factors may need to
be considered when using 1-MCP including cultivar and maturity. Depending on the type of fruit and
vegetables being treated, 1-MCP can have a variety of effects on respiration, ethylene production, water
evaporation, chlorophyll breakdown and other color changes, softening, total acidity changes and total sugar
content changes. This review what is known about technology uses for 1-MCP, identifies reports differences,
and aims to identify areas for further research.
Keywords: 1-methylcyclopropene, extend shelf-life, fruit and vegetable
1. Introduction
Ethylene is a plant hormone produced during cell metabolism. Like other hormones, ethylene also
participates in many biological processes such as promoting the ripening of fruits, causing loss of
chlorophyll of green vegetables, causing rapid aging of vegetables and changing the structure of vegetables
and fruits leading to vegetables and fruits become rotten. These processes lead to increase in respiration,
creating a favorable environment for microorganisms to grow. As a result, fruits and vegetables lose their
qualities and spoil within a few days after harvest (Michael Reid, 2001; Jim Mattheis, 2002; Graeme
Thomson, 2003; Chris B. Watkins, 2006). To limit these negative effects of ethylene on fruits and
vegetables, many different methods have been used, such as the using ozone to oxidize ethylene, using
KMnO4 solution. However, these methods give low efficiency, sometimes there is no effect because
ethylene is generated in the cells, while these substances only have the ability to adsorb or oxidize ethylene
in the atmosphere of the storage environment (Adel A. Kader, 1992).
In 1979 Sisler was the first to propose a method of isolating ethylene in cells. This method was
immediately accepted and quickly applied to fruits and vegetables. The first agent Sisler used to inhibit
ethylene was 2,5-norbornadiene (NBD). Although effective, it has many limitations as it reacts with metals,
and only has results on a few vegetables and fruits. After that, he and his colleagues synthesized a number of
other compounds but did not meet the requirements due to strong odor, or flammable and explosive. In 1996
Sisler and his colleagues received a patent for the active ethylene inhibitor 1-MCP. When reacting with
water these compounds release 1-MCP and this delayed fruit ripening, reduced firmness loss, skin colour
changes, respiration rate and fruit weight loss and extended the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables at an
advanced maturity stage when ripened immediately after harvest or after cold storage (Manganaris et al.
2008). This active ingredient has met the requirements such as ease of use, high efficiency and non-toxicity,
no impact on the environment, and no residue in the product (Grichko V., 2006; EPA, 2006).
120
2. Commercialization of 1-MCP and safety
In the market, some products of 1-MCP in the form of powder are sold under the trade names
EthylBloc®, SmartFresh® and AnsiP-G®. In which, the EthylBloc® is used to treat ornamentals, while
SmartFresh® and AnsiP-G® are used for fruits and vegetables (the United States Environmental Protection
Agency - EPA 2002). The safety, toxicity and environmental profiles of 1-MCP in regard to humans,
animals and the environment are extremely favorable. The products are used at low rates, has a non-toxic
mode of action and environmental friendly and harmless to the public health. The studies also indicated that
1-MCP has no impact on the environment, no residue in the product (EPA, 2006). The rat inhalation LC 50 is
greater than 2.5 mg/L. In tests for acute toxicity of 1-MCP no death or clinical signs of systemic toxicology
were seen (EPA, 2002). 1-MCP is approved for use in UK, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras, the Netherlands, the United States, Israel, Mexico, South
Africa, Japan and New Zealand (Graeme Thomson, 2003; Chris B. Watkins, 2006, Grichko V., 2006).
3. Conditions for use of 1-MCP

3.1 Concentration
Effective concentrations of 1-MCP vary widely with fruits and vegetables, and with respect to time
of treatment, temperature and method of application (Blankenship and Dole, 2002). The minimum
concentration required was 2.5 ppb on carnation, while in apples some studies showed 1 ppm was required to
block ethylene action (Sisler et al. 1996a; Fan et al. 1999a). Concentrations between 1 and 12 ppm were
effective in blocking ethylene action in broccoli (Fan and Mattheis 2000a; Able et al. 2002a). Jingi Yoo
(2019) suggested that peaches were treated with 1-MCP at 1 ppm
was an effective method for peach fruit storage, and it enhanced fruit quality by reducing the
enzymatic activities related to cell wall hydrolysis and softening. Japanese plums were treated with 1-MCP
at 1.0 ppm suppresses and delays the climacteric ethylene production with acceptable fruit quality during
ripening at ambient temperature and is effective in extending the storage life up to 6 weeks with minimal loss
of plum fruit quality (Khan et al., 2009). Mangoes were treated with 1 and 2 ppm concentrations of 1-MCP
for 24 h. the fruit firmness, weight and color changes were minimized during storage.
Higher concentrations of 1-MCP (0.1 - 100 ppm) for short durations (2 h) were effective on green
tomatoes (Wills and Ku, 2002), with at least 20 ppm required to increase postharvest life of ripe tomatoes.
While 5 and 50 ppb had no effect on unripe bananas, 500 ppb delayed ripening (Harris et al., 2000), which is
in contrast to Sisler et al. (1996b) who reported that only 0.7 ppb was effective. In apples 1 ppm 1-MCP was
effective in delaying ripening (Fan et al.,1999a; Rupasinghe et al., 2000b).
3.2 Temperature
In most studies 1-MCP has been applied at temperatures ranging from 20 - 25 0C (Blankenship and
Dole, 2002). Lower temperatures have been used but a relationship exists between concentration, time and
temperature, and applications at low temperatures are not effective on some crops. In coriander (Coriandrum
sativum) 1-MCP was not effective at low temperatures (5 - 10 0C), presumably due to low sensitivity to
ethylene (Jiang et al., 2002a). Application of 1-MCP (5 or 20 ppm) at 2 0C was not effective on penstemon
(Penstemon) ‘Firebird’; however, application at 20 0C resulted in complete protection from exogenous
ethylene (Serek et al.,1995a).
3.3 Maturity and ripeness
Maturity standards have been determined for many fruit, vegetable.
Selecting crops at the proper maturity allows handlers to begin their work with the
best possible quality produce. If the fruits and vegetables harvested too early may lack flavor and may not
suitable for storage, while produce harvested too late may be fibrous or overripe. The maturity stages must
be considered when applying 1-MCP as effects vary with fruits and vegetables maturity. Banana maturity
was a major factor in the response of the fruit to 1-MCP. Because commercial lots of bananas can have a
range of maturity, 1-MCP treatment would likely result in ‘mixed’ lots of fruit. Stage of ripeness in pears
was found to be significant in 1-MCP treatment effects when testing pears for tissue mechanical properties
121
(Harris et al., 2000, Baritelle et al., 2001). Fan (2000a) found that 1-MCP effects in apricots (Prunus
armeniaca) decreased with advanced fruit development. A leafy brassica was found to respond less to 1-
MCP than a floral brassica, possibly due to different ages of leaves and inherent differences between flowers
and leaves (Able et al., 2002a).
Post-harvest application of 1-MCP was an efficient method to delay
tomato fruit ripening. As 1-MCP concentration increased, ripening was further delayed. Moretti et al. (2002)
reported that tomatoes were treated with 250, 500 and 1000 ml/ L of 1-MCP were delayed by 8-11, 11-13
and 15-17 days. Fruits treated with 1-MCP took almost twice as long as untreated fruits and time to ripen is
increased with increasing 1-MCP concentration in banana (Saeed and Abu-Goukh 2013), avocado (Woolf et
al. 2005). Treatment for 24 h with 30–70 nl/ L 1-MCP delayed ripening of avocado fruit by 10–12 days, after
which the fruit resumed normal ripening (Feng et al., 2000). Faasema and Alakali (2012) reported that the
mangoes were treated with 1 and 2 ppm concentrations of 1-MCP for 24 h, was delayed for fruits stored up
to 25 days.
4. Physical-chemical responses
4.1 Color changes
1-MCP has the effect of delaying the aging and preventing chlorophyll degradation and various
types of color changes in a wide range of fruits and vegetables (Sisler and Serek 1997; Golding et al. 1998).
According to Zhang et al. (2020), 1-MCP treatment more effectively maintained the chlorophyll contents of
Asian pears, tomatoes and bananas at a concentration of 0.9 - 1 μl/ L. A storage temperature of 12 - 25 °C
improved the ability of 1-MCP treatment to maintain the chlorophyll content (Zhang et al., 2020). When the
1-MCP treatment time was 18 - 22 h, 1-MCP retained the chlorophyll content more, to nearly 3–5 times that
in the other treatment time groups (Zhang et al., 2020). Treatment for 24 h with 30–70 ppm 1-MCP delayed
skin color change in avocado (Feng et al., 2000). 1-MCP also prevented chlorophyll degradation in coriander
when ethylene was present (Jiang et al., 2002). Fan and Mattheis, 1999b showed that 1-MCP had the effect
of maintaining the green color of "Fuji" apples. While 1-MCP-treated 'Red Chief' apples were greener than
untreated fruits, chlorophyll fluorescence measurements indicated that the loss of chloroplast function was
largely independent of ethylene (Mir et al., 2001).
Faasema and Alakali (2012) studied effects of storage temperature on 1-MCP mango (Mangnifera
Indica) fruit varieties and the results indicated that the mangoes were treated with 1 and 2 ppm
concentrations of 1-MCP for 24 h, color changes were minimized during storage. 1-MCP significantly
delayed the peel colour in bananas. Fruits treated with 1-MCP at 250 ppb reached the full yellow colour after
20 days, compared with the untreated fruits, respectively. Other researchers also found that 1-MCP delayed
green colour loss in guava fruits (Bassetto et al. 2005) and greatly delay red colour development of tomato
fruits (Huber et al. 2003).
4.2 Softening
1-MCP can delay fruit softening in most fruits and vegetables, however some crops were not
affected. Firmness of tomato fruits treatment with 1000 ppm 1-MCP was about 88% higher than control
fruits after 17 days (Moretti et al. 2002). Liu (2005) found that treating peach fruit with 0.2 μl/ L of 1-MCP
at 22 °C for 24 h effectively slowed the decline in fruit firmness and the minimal concentration of 1-MCP
able to inhibit fruit softening was 0.6 μL/ L. Apples also maintained firmness after 1-MCP treatment (Mir et
al. 2001). 1-MCP treatment maintained apple firmness better than controlled atmosphere (CA) storage (Mir
et al. 2001). Watkins et al. (2000) reported that the combination of 1-MCP and CA was better than either
alone.
More results on study of fruit softening indicated that poly-galacturonase (PG) and cellulose
activities were lowered by 1-MCP; Feng (2000) found that activities of both enzymes were still present and
avocado fruit ripened and softened normally. PG activity was completely suppressed for up to 10 days,
indicating that softening can occur without PG activity in avocado (Jeong et al.,2002). Uronic acid contentin
avocado decreased in the control but the 1- MCP-treated fruit showed little change (Jeong et al., 2002).
Pectinmethylesterase activity was delayed in 1-MCP-treated fruit compared with the control but followed a
122
similar pattern (Jeong et al., 2002). By using 1-MCP to block ethylene action, it was found that endo-beta-
1,4-glucanase was ethylene induced during raspberry (Rubus idaeus) fruit abscission (Iannetta et al., 2000).
Porat (1999) found that orange softening was not affected by 1-MCP or ethylene. No firmness
difference was not affected the fruits treated with ethylene alone or 1-MCP with ethylene-treatment in
strawberry fruits (Tian et al. 2000).
5. Conclusions
As 1-MCP slows down the ripening and aging of fruits and vegetables, it is necessary to have a
suitable treatment method for each type of fruit and vegetable so that it can ripen normally after
transportation or storage. The rate at which fruit regains sensitivity to ethylene depends on many variables.
These include: variety, maturity, 1-MCP concentration, temperature, treatment duration, and storage
conditions. The effect of 1-MCP treatment temperature appears to be important for some fruit and vegetable
species but not for others, and may be due to differences in receptor sensitivities. The effective concentration
ranges are large and there is no explanation as to why there are large differences. Some fruits and vegetables
recover quickly (tomatoes), while others sometimes have difficulty ripening after 1-MCP treatment such as
banana. All variables affecting the rate at which fruits and vegetables regain sensitization to ethylene should
be investigated special for exportable fruits and vegetables requiring effective fruit ripening.
References
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Postharvest Biology and Technology 26, 147–155.
2. Adel A. Kader (1992). Modified Atmospheres during Transport and Storage. University of California,
Publication No. 3311.
3. Ahmad S. Khan,Zora Singh,Ewald E. Swinny (2009 Postharvest application of 1-Methylcyclopropene
modulates fruit ripening, storage life and quality of ‘Tegan Blue’ Japanese plum kept in ambient and
cold storage) International journal of Food Science Technology.
4. Baritelle, A.L., Hyde, G.M., Fellman, J.K., Varith, J., 2001. Using 1-MCP to inhibit the influence of
ripening on impact properties of pear and apple tissue. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 23, 153/160.
5. Bassetto, E.; Jacomino, A. P.; Pinheiro, A. L. and Kluge, R. A. (2005). Delay of ripening of 'Pedro Sato'
guava with 1-methylcyclopropene. Postharvest Biology and Technology 35, 303-308.
6. Blankenship, S. M. and Dole, J. M. (2003). 1-Methylcyclopropene: a review. Postharvest Biology and
Technology 28, 1–25.
7. Chris B. Watkins and William B. Miller (2005). A summary of physiological processes or disorders in
fruits, vegetables and ornamental products that are delayed or decreased, increased, or unaffected by
application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
8. Chris B. Watkins (2006). 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) based technologies for storage and shelf life
extension. Int. J. Postharvest Technology and Innovation, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 62-68.
9. Faasema, J.S. Alakali,J.O. Abu (2012). Effects of Storage Temperature on 1-Methylcyclopropene-
Treated Mango (Mangnifera Indica) Fruit Varieties. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation.
10. Fan, X.; Blankenship, S.M. and Mattheis, J.P. (1999a). 1-Methylcyclopropene inhibits apple ripening.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 124, 690-695.
11. Fan, X.; Mattheis, J. P.; Blankenship, S. (1999b). Development of apple superficial scald, soft scald, core
flush, and greasiness is reduced by 1-MCP. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 47, 3063-
3068.
12. Fan, X. and Mattheis, J. P. (2000a). Yellowing of broccoli in storage is reduced by 1-
methylcyclopropene. HortScience 35, 885-887.
13. Feng, X.; Apelbaum, A.; Sisler, E.C. and Goren, R. (2000). Control of ethylene response in avocado fruit
with 1-methylcyclopropene. Postharvest Biology and Technology 20, 143-150.
14. Golding, J. B.; Shearer, D.; Wyllie, S. G. and McGlasson, W. B. (1998). Applications of 1-MCP and
propylene to identify ethylenedependent ripening processes in mature banana fruit. Postharvest Biology
and Technology 14, 87-98.
15. Graeme Thomson, Sonja Winkler, & Ian Wilkinson (2003). Treatment of Asian vegetables and herbs
with 1-MCP. RIRDC Publication No 02/153.
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16. Grichko V., Serek M., Watkins C.B. and Yang S.F. (2006). Father of 1-MCP. Biotechnology Advances,
Vol. 24, p 355-356.
17. Graeme Thomson, Sonja Winkler, & Ian Wilkinson (2003). Treatment of Asian vegetables and herbs
with 1-MCP. RIRDC Publication No 02/153.
18. Harris, D.R., Seberry, J.A., Wills, R.B.H., Spohr, L.J., 2000. Effect of fruit maturity on efficiency of 1-
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19. Huber, D.; Jeong, J. and Ritenour, M. (2003). Use of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on Tomato and
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Cooperative Extension Service, Horticultural Sciences Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
20. Iannetta, P.P.M., Wyman, M., Neelam, A., Jones, C., Taylor, M.A., Davies, H.V., Sexton, R., 2000. A
causal role for ethylene and endo-beta-1,4 glucanase in the abscission of red-raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
drupelets. Physiol. Plant. 110, 535/543.
21. Jeong, J., Huber, D.J., Sargent, S.A., 2002. Influence of 1- methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on ripening
and cell-wall matrix polysaccharides of avocado (Persea americana) fruit. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 25,
241/364.
22. Jiang, Y., Joyce, D.C., Macnish, A.J., Jiang, Y.M., 2002a. Softening response of banana fruit treated
with 1-methylcyclopropene to high temperature exposure. Plant Growth Regul. 36, 7 /11.
23. Jim Mattheis, Xuetong Fan, Luiz Argenta (2002). Factors influencing successful use of 1-MCP.
Washington tree fruit postharvest conference, p.1-3.
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25. Jingi Yoo1, Seulgi Ryu1, Chulho Park1,2, Nay Myo Win, Hyong Woo Choi, Jinwook Lee, Hae Keun
Yun, Hee-Young Jung, Myoung-Gun Choung, Young-Je Cho, and In-Kyu Kang (2019). Effects of
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technology,Vol. 37(5):609-617
26. Liu H.,Weibo Jiang,Ligang Zhou,Baogang Wang,Yunbo Luo (2005). The effects of 1-
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immersion formulation extends shelflife of advanced maturity 'Joanna Red' plums (Prunus salicina
Lindell). Postharvest Biology and Technology 47, 429-433.
28. Michael Reid, Fisun Celikel, Alistair McKay and Don Hunter (2001). Use of 1-MCP on Floral Products.
Perishables Handling Quarterly, Issue No. 108, p. 7-9.
29. Mir, N.A.; Curell, E.; Khan, N.; Whitaker, M. and Beaudry, R.M. (2001). Harvest maturity, storage
temperature, and 1-MCP application frequency alter firmness retention and chlorophyll fluorescence of
‘Redchief Delicious’ apples. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 126, 618-624.
30. Moretti, C.L.; Araujo, A.L.; Marouelli, W.A. and Silva, W.L.C. (2002). 1-methylcyclopropene delays
tomato fruit ripening. Horticultura Brasileira 20(4), 1-9.
31. Porat, R., Weiss, B., Cohen, L., Daus, A., Goren, R., Droby, S., 1999. Effects of ethylene and 1-
methylcyclopropene on the postharvest qualities of ‘Shamouti’ oranges. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 15,
155/163
32. Serek, M., Sisler, E.C., Reid, M.S., 1995a. Effects of 1-MCP on the vase life and ethylene response of
cut flowers. Plant Growth Regul. 16, 93/97.
33. Sisler, E.C. and Blankenship, S.M. (1996). Methods of counteracting an ethylene response in plants.
U.S. Patent Number 5,518, (May 21, 1996). U.S. Patent and Trade mark Office, Washington, D. C.,
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35. Rupasinghe, H.P.V., Murr, D.P., Paliyath, G., Skog, L., 2000b. Inhibitory effect of 1-MCP on ripening
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36. Tian, M.S.; Prakash, S.; Elgar, H.J.; Young, H.; Burmeister, D.M. and
Ross, G.S., (2000). Responses of strawberry fruit to 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and ethylene. Plant
Growth Regulation 32, 83-90.
37. Zhang Jing, Yuanchun Ma, Chao Dong, Leon A. Terry, Christopher B. Watkins, Zhifang Yu and Zong-
Ming (Max) Cheng (2020). Meta-analysis of the effects of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment on
climacteric fruit ripening. Horticulture Research.
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postharvest life of ripe tomatoes. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 26, 85/90
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(2005). 1-MCP reduces physiological storage disorders of 'Hass' avocados. Postharvest Biology and
Technology 35, 43-60.

[STS22-18]
125
EVALUATING THE INFLUENCES OF AVOCADO ON THE PHYSICAL
AND TEXTURAL PROPERTIES OF LOW-FAT SPONGE CAKE
Thi Tho Nguyen1*, Nhu Man Huynh1
1
Hutech Institute of Applied Science, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* Corresponding Author: Thi Tho Nguyen: (Phone: + 84 917 801 301; Email: nt.tho83@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
This research was implemented to evaluate the influences of using avocado puree as an oil replacer on the
modified quality of sponge cake at 0% (Control), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% levels. Compared with the
control cake, the oil-replaced cakes had greater densities, lower heights, reduced specific volumes, and
possessed greater hardness, increased chewiness, reduced springiness, and cohesiveness. However, the
nutritional values of low-fat avocado sponge cake (100% level of oil replacement) were appreciated, due to
its total fat content decreased by 32%, and its protein content and dietary fiber increased by10% and 300%
respectively compared with the control cake.
Keywords: avocado; low-fat sponge cake; nutritional values
1. Introduction
Nowadays, consumers have started to change from traditional foods to more convenient and healthier food
by reducing fat intake. Fat replacement in cakes, however, poses a complicated problem because fat (oil,
margarine, shortening) plays an essential role in the quality of cakes which is responsible for the
incorporation of air in the batter in the form of small bubbles improving the stability of the batter (Wilderjans
et al. 2013). Also, using fat gives the cake a softer texture and a longer shelf life by slowing the rate of
staling through their influence on the retrogradation of starch (Gómez 2008). However, excess fat
consumption has been related to obesity (Bray et al. 2004) and cardiovascular problems, and certain types of
cancer (Rothstein 2006). As a result, studying to minimize the fat and oil content of cakes should have been
conducted.
Avocado (Persea americana) is a medium energy-dense fruit with a buttery puree texture. Avocado is high
in monounsaturated fatty acids, which can promote healthy blood lipid profiles and regulates blood glucose
levels. Using avocado as a partial and full-fat replacer has been researched in bakeries (Nurul Ain, O.
Marina, A.M., and Sakinah, H 2016; Benhilda Wekwete and Khursheed P. Navder 2007; D. Nguyen et al.
2013). Compared to the previous studies, this research was carried out to evaluate the effects of blanched and
frozen avocado puree incorporation as an oil substitute on the physical, textural and nutritional values of the
cake with the goal of full oil replacement in the sponge cake formula.
Blanched and frozen avocado fruit puree preparation
The Booth avocados (Persea Americana) were purchased from markets in Vietnam and stored at 28-300C for
ripening. The ripe avocados (slightly yellow in color and soft when touched) were chosen based on their
physical and chemical properties.
The avocado fruits were cut in half and the seeds were removed. Avocado flesh was blanched on the water of
850C for 90 seconds, then grounded and frozen by air at -25 ÷-300C for 4 hours. The frozen puree was slowly
defrosted at room temperature for 60 minutes for incorporation in cake recipes.
Cake ingredient
Bakers’ choice 8 (7.5% - 9.0% protein) cake flour (Interflour, Vietnam), refined saccharose (Bien Hoa
Company, Vietnam), skim milk powder (Fonterra, New Zealand), soybean oil (Tuong An Cooking oil
Company, Vietnam), baking soda (Arm & hammer, USA), eggs and salt used were bought from local
markets in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
126
Cake preparation
Formulations presented in Table 1 were used to produce control cake (F0) and test cakes (F1, F2, F3, F4).
Four test cakes were derived from the control cake recipe with the increased percentage of the avocado puree
used as oil-replacer of 25% (F1), 50% (F2), 75% (F3), and 100% (F4). Each cake recipe is recalculated the
added water contents for equivalent batter moistures (40.89±0.5%)
Dry ingredients, wheat flour, baking soda, and salt were sifted together White egg was beaten with sugar in a
separate bowl until stiff in the stand mixer (UNOLD 78526, China), next mixed thoroughly with egg yolk,
milk liquid (skim milk powder added water), soybean oil. The mixed dry ingredients were then poured from
a sieve into a mixing bowl and were mixed until the mixture was just smooth to avoid over-mix. A total of
Ingredients (g) 100%:0% 75%:25% 50%:50% 25%:75% 0%:100%

Cake flour 69 69 69 69 69
Soybean oil 10 7.5 5.0 2.5 0
Avocado puree 0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10
Salt 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5
Skim milk powder 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5
Water 10.5 7.5 3.5 1.0 0
White egg 100 100 100 100 100
Egg yolk 60 60 60 60 60
Baking soda 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Sugar 68 68 68 68 68
Vanilla extract 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Batter moisture content (%) 40.62 40.63 40.65 40.68 41.87
180 g of batter was poured into a mold and baked for 25 minutes at 160/170ºC in an electric deck oven
(SINMAG 0 - 3000C KS-SJ-923, Indonesia). After 25 minutes, the cakes were removed from the oven and
cooled on a wire rack at room temperature for 1 hour. Next, the cakes were packed and sealed in plastic
bags. Analyses were conducted after 24 hours of baking.
Table 1. Oil-reduced cake formulations with the various rates of soybean oil and avocado puree
Physical measurements of batter and cakes

Batter-specific gravity was calculated as the ratio of the weight of certain volume of batter to the weight of
the same volume of water. The weight and volume of each cake were measured using an electronic balance
and seed displacement method, respectively. Standard ruler was used to measure the height of the cake
(Rodriguez-Gracia et al. 2014).
Height increase (%) = (cake height -batter height in mold)/ batter height in mold x 100%
Specific volume was calculated by the ratio of the cake volume to the weight and density was the ratio of
cake weight to its volume. The moisture content in the cake was determined by the oven-drying method. All
analyses were done in triplicate.
Texture profile analysis (TPA) analysis
Textural properties of the cake were measured using a Texture Analyzer (Brookfield CT3, USA).
Statistical Analysis
Statgraphics Centurion 15.2.11.0 was employed for statistical analysis. The data were analyzed by using a
one-way ANOVA test with differences of a 5% significance level (p<0.05).

Evaluation of the influence of various percentages of incorporated avocado puree as oil replacer on
physical measurements of batters and sponge cakes
127
Texture profile 100%:0% 75%:25% 50%:50% 25%:75% 0%:100%
Hardness (N) 2,99±0,37a 5,77±0,18b 8,28± 0,17c 9,57±0,10d 10,82±0,05e
Springiness 26,15±0,71c 24,25±0,02b 23,87±0,08b 23,13±1,13b 20,78±0,52a
Cohesiveness 0,72±0,01 b 0,65±0,02b a 0,64±0,05a 0,58± 0,01a 0,59±0,06a
Chewiness(N) 60,76±0,23a 93,14±0,85b 125,81±0,2 c 142,40±0,10d 150,65±0,25 e
It is found that formulations with various oil-replaced levels of avocado puree in a cake show a minor
significant difference (p>0.05) in the specific gravity and humidity of cake batters, cake humidity, specific
volume, and height increase (Table 2). In general, specific gravity defines the ability of fats in incorporating
air into the batters, which indicates the volume development of baked cakes and air cells in crumb structure
Properties
100%:0% 75%:25% 50%:50% 25%:75% 0%:100%
a b c c
Batter density 0.46±0.02 0.52±0.02 0.54±0.02 0,54±0.01 0,59±0.01d
Cake moisture 36,53 a 36,77 ab 37,02 b 37,68 c 38,09 d
content (%)
Cake specific volume 629,3±0,58d 624,3±0,58c 621±1,73b 616,3±1,15a 615,3± 0,57 a

(cm3/g)
Height increase (%) 150 a 150 a 140 b 120 c 120 c

(Psimouli & Oreopoulou 2013)
Table 2. Batter density, physical properties, and moisture content of cakes
Table 3. Texture profile of different cakes
F0 is a control cake (0% avocado replacement); F1 is a cake with 25% avocado replacement; F2 is a cake
with 50% avocado replacement; F3 is cake with 75% avocado replacement; F4 is cake with 100% avocado
replacement. Numbers with different letters within the same row are statistically different (p <0.05)
It is shown that with increasing oil replacement, cake specific volume and height decreases significantly
(p<0.05). This is due to the increase significant of batter specific gravity of all formulation as well as
replacing oil with the avocado puree causing collapse of air membrane leading low amount of air in baked
cake (Nurul Ain, O., Marina, A.M. and Sakinah H 2016).
It can be seen a minor moisture content increase of cakes with the incorporation of avocado puree. All
formulations were calculated for equivalent batter moisture content, so this is possibly due to the water
retention of the fibers with a strong affinity for water derived from avocado puree (Sadaf et al. 2013).
Evaluation of various percentages of incorporated pretreated avocado puree as oil replacer on texture
profile of cakes
F0 is a control cake (0% avocado replacement); F1 is a cake with 25% avocado replacement; F2 is a cake
with 50% avocado replacement; F3 is cake with 75% avocado replacement; F4 is cake with 100% avocado
replacement. Numbers with different letters within the same row are statistically different (p <0.05)
The texture profile of the cake crumb shown in Table 4 proved that incorporating avocado puree as an oil
replacement in cake recipes gives a significant effect on cake texture (p>0.05). In fact, there was a great
difference between the fat replaced cakes and the control in terms of hardness, springiness cohesiveness, and
chewiness. Fat substitution, either partially or fully, usually produces harder and springier baked products
(Martinez-Cervera et al. 2013). This has been proved by some previous studies on the incorporation of fat
replacers including the studies that used sesame oil in cakes, peanut butter in biscuits, and extra virgin olive
128
oil as margarine substitute in cakes (Sowmya et al. 2009; Sadaf et al. 2013; Matsakidou et al. 2010). The
lower specific volume and higher density of cake produce harder and chewier cake (Martinez-Cevera et al
2013). This is in accordance with the results obtained in the study in which the fully (100%) oil replacement,
F4, showed the lowest specific volume, and hardest texture compared to the control sample. Full-fat
substitution, F4, also exhibited the lowest springless reflecting the high ability of the cake to go back to its
original shape after the deforming force is removed (Szczesniak 2012).
Evaluation of nutritional values of low-fat avocado sponge
80
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Protein Total fat Total carbohydrate Dietary fibers
Control cake Avocado cake Solite
Figure 1. Comparison of nutrition values of control cake, low-fat avocado, and branded sponge cakes
It is clear that there are significant increases in protein content (10%) and dietary fiber content (300%) in the
low-fat avocado sponge cake compared to the control cake (100% soy oil), while the total fat of the avocado
cake has been reduced by 32%, which is highly appreciated by consumers for health goal. In addition,
compared to the famous branded cake - Solite of Kinh Do Bakery-Vietnam, the low-fat avocado also showed
its high nutrition values which give it more chance to be accepted by consumers.
4. Conclusion
From this study, it can be concluded that blanched and frozen avocado puree is a good choice for oil replacer
in cake production. Although the incorporation of avocado purees showed a significant influence on the
cake’s physical and textural properties as compared to the control cake, it improved the cake’s nutritional
values. As a result, next studies should focus on evaluating sensorial properties to investigate the
acceptability of the cakes and the shelf-life properties of low-fat avocado cake.
References
1. Ashton, O.B.O., Wong, M., McGhie, T.K., Vather, R., Wang, Y., Roquejo-Jackman, C., Ramankutty, P.
& Woolf, A.B. (2006) Pigments in avocado tissue and oil. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 54:
10151–10158.
2. Benhilda Wekwete and Khursheed P. Navder (2007) Effects of avocado fruit puree and oatrim as fat
replacers on the physical, textural and sensory properties of oatmeal cookies, Nutrition and Food Science in
Urban Public Health Program Hunter College of the City University of New York, NY
3. Bray GA, Paeratakul S, Popkin BM (2004) Dietary fat and obesity: are view of animal, clinical and
epidemiological studies. Physiol Behav 83:549–555
4. D.Nguyen et al. (2013) Effect of Avocado Fruit Puree as Fat Replacer on the Physical, Textural and
Sensory Properties of Shortened Cakes Nutrition Program, CUNY School of Public Health, Hunter is Coll.,
New York, NY.
129
5. Gómez-López, V.M. (2002) Some biochemical properties of polyphenol oxidase from two varieties of
avocado. Food Chemistry, 77: 163– 169
6. Gómez M (2008) Low-sugar and low-fat sweet goods. In: Sumnu SG, Sahin S (eds) Food engineering
aspects of baking sweet goods. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 245–273.
7. Martinez-Cervera, S., Hera, E., Sanz, T., Gomez, M. & Salvador, A. (2013) Effect of nutriose on
rheological, textural and characteristics of Spanish muffins. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 6: 1990–1999
8. Matsakidou, A., Blekas, G. & Paraskevopoulou, A. (2010) Aroma and physical characteristics of cakes
prepared by replacing margarine with extra virgin olive oil. LWT – Food Science and Technology, 43: 949–
957.
9. Nurul Ain, O., Marina, A.M. and Sakinah, H (2016) The effect of avocado puree as fat replacer on the
physical quality of muffin, H. School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia 16150 Kubang Kerian,
Kelantan
10. Psimouli, V. & Oreopoulou, V. (2013) The effect of fat replacers on batter and cake properties. Journal
of Food Science, 78: 1495–1502.
11. Rodríguez-garcía, J., Salvador, A. Hernando, I (2014) Replacing fat and sugar with inulin in cakes:
bubble size distribution, physical and sensory properties. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 7: 964–974.
12. Rothstein WG (2006) Dietary fat, coronary heart disease, and cancer: a historical review. Prev Med
43:356–360.
13. Sadaf, J., Bibi, A., Raza, S., Waseem, K., Jilani, M.S. & Ullah, G. (2013) Peanut butter incorporation as
substitute for shortening in biscuits: Composition and acceptability studies. International Food Research
Journal, 20: 3243–3247.
14. Sowmya, M., Jeyarani, T., Jyotsna, R. & Indrani, D. (2009) Effect of replacement of fat with sesame oil
and additives on rheological, microstructural, quality characteristics and fatty acid profile of cakes. Food
Hydrocolloids, 23: 1827– 1836.
15. Wilderjans E, Luyts A, Brijs K, Delcour JA (2013) Ingredient functionality in batter type cake making.
Trends Food Sci Technol 30:6–15.

[STS22-20]
130
EFFECT OF MATERIAL THICKNESS, BLANCHING TIME ON PRODUCT
CHARACTERISTICS OF DEHYDRATED BITTER MELON
Huynh Kim Phung1*, Huynh Phuong Quyen1
1
Hutech Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 038 989 2703; Email: hk.phung@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a common vegetable in Vietnam and has high nutritional value but
short storage time. A study on the effect of material thickness and blanching time of bitter melon was
conducted to produce dehydrated bitter melon to prolong the storage time. When evaluating the effect of
bitter melon slices’material thickness of 0.4cm, 0.6cm, 0.8cm, and 1.0cm, it was found that increased
material thickness prolonged the drying time and this affected the sensory properties of the product.
Therefore, the thickness of bitter melon slices was chosen to be 0.6cm for the process of dehydrated bitter
melon products. Similarly, the blanching time affected the green color of the dehydrated bitter gourd product
as well as the product organoleptic scores. The recommended blanching time was 2 minutes in hot water of
800C for dehydrated bitter melon production.
Keywords: Bitter melon, blanching time, dehydrated bitter melon, material thickness.
1. Introduction
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a vegetable fruit that brings health benefits to consumers because
the fruit is rich in bioactive compounds (Linh Nguyen et al., 2020). It is rich in bitter substances which are
highly biological activities and is a rich source of vitamins and phenolic compounds, which have been
confirmed to bring health benefits including anticancer, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory (Tan et al., 2016).
However, it has a low acid content and this causes spoilage within a short period of storage. Therefore,
processing dehydrated bitter melon is a solution to prolong the preservation time.
Natural antioxidants in bitter melon protect the human body from free radicals and prevent oxidative stress
and associated diseases (Barros et al., 2011; Ferreira et al., 2009; López et al., 2007). It was found that the
antioxidant capacity in fruits and vegetables (Kamiloglu et al., 2016) decreased due to the chemical,
enzymatic, or thermal decomposition of bioactive compounds (Nicoli et al., 1999) during food processing.
2. Material and methods

2.1 Materials
Fresh bitter melons (Momordica charantia L.) were brought from the local markets in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, based on ASEAN Standard ("ASEAN Stan47", 2016). High-quality bitter melons, which were
from 18 to 22 cm in length and had evenly green surfaces without visual defects, were selected. The bitter
melons were washed, sliced, deseeded was used for drying.
2.2 Methods
The moisture content was determined using the KERN moisture analyzer.
Determination of total dissolved solids (TSS-0Brix) according to ISO 2017: 2003.
The L*, a* and b* values were measured using a chromameter (CR-200b Minolta, Japan).
Total reducing sugar contents were analyzed using the dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method (Miller, 1959).
The DNS reagent was prepared by dissolving 1g solid DNS in 100 ml of 0.4 M NaOH solution.
Subsequently, 30g of solid sodium potassium tartrate was added to yield the reagent. Samples were extracted
using a procedure similar to that used for TPC determination (cf. Section 2.4). 2 ml of each sample was
transferred to a glass test tube subsequent to the addition of 1 ml DNS reagent. After boiling for 10 min, the
test tubes were cooled to the ambient temperature, and the absorbances were recorded at 540 nm. The results
were expressed as glucose equivalent in g/100g (dry basis).
131
Sensory evaluation was carried out according to Ha Duyen Tu, 2006, using 20 randomly untrained testers
(students) who evaluated the product by giving scores by ranking tests for attributes of taste, texture, and
color.
2.3 Statistical analysis
All experiments were conducted in triplicate. The mean and standard deviation of the mean were calculated
in JMP Software. Significant differences at p < 0.05 level of data were tested by Tukey's test.

3.1 Material characteristics
Table 1. Characteristics of material
Parameters Results
L*: 81.76 ±0.086
Color a* : -5.66±0.043
b* : 21.36 ±0.025
TSS (°𝐵𝑥) 2 ±0.036
Moisture content (%) 94.27 ±0.051
Water activity 0.95 ±0.005
Total sugar content (%) 1.95 ±0.009
Pulp recovery rate (%) 76 ±0.521
Processing yield (%) 45 ± 0.334
Raw materials have low soluble solids content of 20Bx bitter melon, low total sugar content of 1.95%, bitter
bitter melon taste difficult to eat, suitable for production of products with added sugar, limiting bitter feeling.
With high pulp recovery rate and high processing efficiency of 76% and 45%, bitter melon after mechanical
treatment and processing does not cause much loss, which is economically beneficial for production.
Therefore, the raw materials are suitable for the production of dried slices added sugar to increase the
sweetness.
3.2 Effect of material thickness on product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon

Table 2. Product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon with different thicknesses
Thickness of Parameters Sensory values of dehydrated bitter melon
bitter melon slices (rank sums)
slices Moisture Time of Color Taste Texture
content (%) drying (h)
0.4cm 18,31 2,5 66 46 41
0.6cm 18,16 4.25 64 89 78
0.8m 18,16 6.08 63 65 75
1cm 18,22 7.25 47 40 46
According to the results of statistical analysis, different thicknesses of bitter melon slices affected the time of
drying and sensory values of the product (p<0.05).
When increasing the thickness of bitter melon slices (slices), the drying time also increases. Specifically,
0.4cm slices needed a drying time of 2.5 hours and it increases to 4.25 hours when the material thickness was
0.6cm, almost doubling the drying time of slices with a thickness of 0.4cm. Meanwhile, slices with a
thickness of 0.8cm needed drying time up to 6.08 hours, and the longest drying time (7.25 hours) when the
thickness was 1cm. This can be explained that these thicker slices took more time to transfer heat from the
oven environment to the center. So, the thicker the slices, the longer it took for heat transfer (Kabiru et al.,
132
2013). Long drying time also affected the sensory quality of the product (color, taste, texture). The longer the
drying time, the more the green color (a*) of the product was lost, replaced by a pale yellow color when
chlorophyll changed to pheophytin and Maillard reaction (Koca et al., 2007).
In general, slice thickness of 0.6cm gave good organoleptic properties with good sensory scores in terms of
structure, taste, color, as well as the best colorimetric results. Therefore, the slice thickness of 0.6cm was
selected to cut bitter melon in the processing process of dried bitter melon.
3.3 Effect of blanching time on product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon

Table 3. Product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon with different blanching times
Blanching Parameter Sensory values of dehydrated bitter melon slices (rank
times sums)
Green color Color Texture
(a*)
2 minutes −8.52 77 76
3 minutes −6.77 60 75
4 minutes −6.51 53 47
5 minutes −4.35 48 42
According to the results of statistical analysis, the blanching time affected the green color and sensory values
of dehydrated bitter melon slices (p<0.05). As the blanching time increases, the color of the bitter melon
changed from light green to dark green, and the texture sensory evaluation score of the slices also decreased.
Blanching bitter melon slices, protopectin hydrolyzed to soluble pectin, making the structure soft. Redox
enzymes such as polyphenol oxidase are inactivated, so the product was less darkened at the surface, and the
biochemical activities of the cell were suspended (Minkov et al., 1996). And these caused the decreases in
ranking sums of dehydrated bitter melon slices. About color, the longer the blanching time, the longer the
time the slices were exposed to heat, and the color changed from green to dark green (Koca et al., 2007) and
following that, ranking sums decreased from 77 to 48 when blanching time increased from 2 to 5 minutes.
In terms of texture, the longer the blanching time, the lower the ranking sums. This was because when slices
were blanched at high temperature for a long time, the proteins are denatured, the propeptide bonds turn into
peptides that break the bonds between cells, this link turns into a soluble form, so the cells were loose, the
plant tissue softens, and could no longer keep the original structure (Minkov et al., 1996). Therefore, the
blanching time of 2 minutes was selected in the processing process of dried bitter melon.
4. Conclusions
The thickness of bitter melon material affected the drying time and organoleptic properties of the dehydrated
bitter melon product and the thickness of bitter melon slices should be 0.6cm. In addition, the blanching time
of the raw materials affected the green color (a*) of the dehydrated bitter melon after drying and the sensory
scores of the final product. Therefore, bitter melon slices (0.6cm) should be blanched in 2 minutes in the
dehydrated bitter melon process.
References
1. AOAC (2000). Official method 945.21 moisture in hops. Arlingon, VA: AOAC International.
2. ASEAN Stan 47:2016. (2016). ASEAN standard.
3. Barros, L., Cabrita, L., Boas, M. V., Carvalho, A. M., & Ferreira, I. C. F. R. (2011). Chemical,
biochemical and electrochemical assays to evaluate phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of wild
plants. Food Chemistry, 127(4), 1600– 1608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.02.024
4. Ferreira, I. C., Barros, L., & Abreu, R. (2009). Antioxidants in wild mushrooms. Current Medicinal
Chemistry, 16(12), 1543– 1560. https://doi.org/10.2174/092986709787909587
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5. Ha D. T. (2006). Evaluation sensory technology in Food production, Science and Technics
Publishing House, 73-77.
6. Kabiru A. A., Joshua A. A. & Raji A. O. (2013), Effect of slice thickness and temperature on the drying
kinetics of mango (Mangifera Indica), IJRRAS, 15, 1.
7. Kamiloglu, S., Toydemir, G., Boyacioglu, D., Beekwilder, J., Hall, R. D., & Capanoglu,
E. (2016). A review on the effect of drying on antioxidant potential of fruits and
vegetables. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 56(sup1), S110–
S129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2015.1045969
8. López, V., Akerreta, S., Casanova, E., García-Mina, J. M., Cavero, R. Y., & Calvo, M.
I. (2007). In vitro antioxidant and anti-rhizopus activities of Lamiaceae herbal extracts . Plant
Foods for Human Nutrition, 62(4), 151– 155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-007-0056-6
9. S.Minkov, A.Minchev, K.Paev (1996), Modelling of the hydrolysis and extraction of apple
pectin, Journal of Food Engineering, Volume 29, Issue 1, July 1996, Pages 107-113.
10. Nicoli, M. C., Anese, M., & Parpinel, M. (1999). Influence of processing on the antioxidant
properties of fruit and vegetables. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 10(3), 94–
100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-2244(99)00023-0
11. Nuray Koca, Feryal Karadeniz, Hande Selen Burdurlu (2007), Effect of pH on chlorophyll degradation
and colour loss in blanched green peas, Food Chemistry, Volume 100, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 609-
615.
12. S.Minkov, A.Minchev, K.Paev (1996), Modelling of the hydrolysis and extraction of apple
pectin, Journal of Food Engineering, Volume 29, Issue 1, July 1996, Pages 107-113.
13. Tan, S. P., Kha, T. C., Parks, S. E., & Roach, P. D. (2016). Bitter melon (Momordica
charantia L.) bioactive composition and health benefits: A review. Food Reviews
International, 32(2), 181– 202. https://doi.org/10.1080/87559129.2015.1057843.

[STS22-22]
134
EFFECT OF OSMOTIC PROCESS, DRYING TEMPERATURE ON
PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS OF DEHYDRATED BITTER MELON
Huynh Kim Phung1*
1
Hutech Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 038 989 2703; Email: hk.phung@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a common ingredient in Vietnam and has high nutritional value
but short storage time. Study on the effect of osmotic process and drying temperature of bitter melon were
conducted to produce dehydrated bitter melon to prolong the storage time. When evaluating the effect of
sugar ratio from 25% to 29% and osmotic time from 20 to 80 minutes, it was found that increased sugar
ratio, osmotic time affected total sugar content, reducing sugar content, water activity and the sensory
properties of the product. Therefore, the sugar ratio of osmotic process was chosen to be 25% in 60 minutes
for the process of dehydrated bitter melon products. Similarly, the drying temperature affected the moisture
content, water activity, time of drying, green color of the dehydrated bitter gourd product as well as the
product organoleptic scores. The recommended drying temperature was 550C for dehydrated bitter melon
production.
25% crystalline sugar is selected for infiltration in the processing of dried bitter melon.
Keywords: Bitter melon, dehydrated bitter melon, drying temperature, material thickness, osmotic process.
1. Introduction
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a fruit that brings health benefits to consumers because the fruit is
rich in bioactive compounds (Linh Nguyen et al., 2020). It is a fruit rich of bitter substances which are highly
biological activities and being a rich source of vitamins and phenolic compounds, which have been
confirmed to bring health benefits including anticancer, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory (Tan el at., 2016).
However, it has a low of acid content and this cause spoilage within a short period of storage. Therefore,
processing dehydrated bitter melon is a solution to prolong the preservation time.
Natural antioxidants in bitter melon protect the human body from free radicals, and prevent oxidative stress
and associated diseases (Barros et al., 2011; Ferreira et al., 2009; López et al., 2007). It was found that the
antioxidant capacity in fruits and vegetables (Kamiloglu et al., 2016) decreased due to chemical, enzymatic,
or thermal decomposition of bioactive compounds (Nicoli et al., 1999) during food processing.
2.1 Materials
Fresh bitter melons (Momordica charantia L.) were brought from the local markets in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, based on ASEAN Standard ("ASEAN Stan47", 2016). High quality of bitter melons, which were
from 18 to 22 cm in length and evenly green surface without visual defects, were selected. The bitter melons
were washed, sliced into 6 mm thick, and deseeded was used to dry.
2.2 Methods
The moisture content was determined using the KERN moisture analyzer.
Determination of total dissolved solids (TSS-0Brix) according to ISO 2017 : 2003.
The L*, a* and b* values were measured using a chromameter (CR-200b Minolta, Japan).
Total reducing sugar contents were analyzed using the dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method (Miller, 1959).
The DNS reagent was prepared by dissolving 1 g solid DNS in 100 ml of 0.4 M NaOH solution.
Subsequently, 30 g of solid sodium potassium tartrate was added to yield the reagent. Samples were
extracted using a procedure similar to that used for TPC determination (cf. Section 2.4). 2 ml of each sample
was transferred to a glass test tube subsequent to the addition of 1 ml DNS reagent. After boiling for 10 min,
the test tubes were cooled to the ambient temperature, and the absorbances were recorded at 540 nm. The
results were expressed as glucose equivalent in g/100 g (dry basis).
135
Sensory evaluation was carried out according to Ha Duyen Tu, 2006, using 20 randomly untrained testers
(students) evaluated the product giving scores by ranking test for attributes of taste, texture, and color.
All experiments were conducted in triplicate. The mean and standard deviation of the mean were calculated
in JMP Software. Significant differences at p < 0.05 level of data were tested by Tukey's test.

3.1 Material characteristics
Table 1. Characteristics of material
Parameters Results
L*: 81.76 ±0.086

Color a* : -5.66±0.043
b* : 21.36 ±0.025
TSS (°𝐵𝑥) 2 ±0.036
Moisture content (%) 94.27 ±0.051
Water activity 0.95 ±0.005
Total sugar content (%) 1.95 ±0.009
Pulp recovery rate (%) 76 ±0.521
Processing yield (%) 45 ± 0.334
Raw materials have low soluble solids content of 20Bx bitter melon, low total sugar content of 1.95%, bitter
melon taste difficult to eat, suitable for production of products with added sugar, limiting bitter feeling.
With high pulp recovery rate and high processing efficiency of 76% and 45%, bitter melon after mechanical
treatment and processing does not cause much loss, which is economically beneficial for production.
Therefore, the raw materials are suitable for the production of flexible dried products to increase the
sweetness and ease of eating for customers.
3.2 Effect of sugar ratio on product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon

Table 2. Characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon with different sugar ratios
Sugar ratio Parameter Sensory values
Total sugar Total Water Taste Color Texture
content (%) reducing activity
sugar
contents
(%)
23% 13.53 7.52 0,95 64 65 51
25% 15.81 9.07 0,92 73 67 54

27% 16.21 9.29 0,88 53 57 57
29% 16.44 9.53 0,86 50 51 78
136
According to the results of statistical analysis, samples with different sugar ratios had different sensory
values and total reducing sugar content at the significance level of 0.05.
The higher the sugar ratio, the higher the total reducing sugar, the lower the water activity. The taste and
color sensory scores decreased, the structural sensory scores tended to increase. The total reduction in sugar
content of the 4 samples was unevenly different, indicating an uneven increase in sugar content. The 27%
and 29% sugar samples were not statistically different and not significantly different from the 25% sugar
samples. The higher the sugar ratio, the osmotic pressure increases, increasing the permeability of cells, so
the amount of sugar entering the material increases. In addition, due to the hydrolysis reaction of sucrose to
reducing sugar.
The higher the sugar ratio, the lower the water activity was due to the high concentration of osmotic
pressure, and at the same time, the bitter melon has been cut to break the tissue structure, so the free water in
the material easily escapes and the sugar enters. In place of that, the water activity in the material decreased.
In addition, when adding sugar, the water in the food strongly interacted with the solute, making it difficult
for water to participate as a solvent or reactant, difficult to crystallize and difficult to evaporate, leading to
low water activity in foods. The water activity of 23% and 25% content decreased but there was no
statistically significant difference at 0.95 and 0.92, respectively. The osmolarity of 27% and 29% glucose
samples decreased but not statistically significant results were 0.88 and 0.86, respectively.
The results of sensory evaluation in Table 2 by the method of comparison of tastes show that the sensory
values of different samples were significant at the 0.05 level of significance. In which, the most popular
models were 23% and 25% sugar, while the remaining models were considered to be less popular with 27%
and 29% sugar.
Among the survey samples, the 25% crystalline sugar permeation sample showed good organoleptic
characteristics with good sensory scores in terms of structure, taste, and color. Therefore, 25% crystalline
sugar was selected for infiltration in the processing of dried bitter melon.
3.2 Effect of osmotic time on product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon

Table 3. Characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon with different osmotic times
Times Parameter Sensory values (rank sums)
Total Total Water Color Taste Texture
sugar reducing activity
content sugar
(%) contents
(%)
20 8.93 5.86 0,92 59 46 48
minutes
40 13.24 7.39 0,89 61 66 45
minutes
60 15.75 9.12 0,87 60 85 76
minutes
80 16.24 9.65 0,86 60 43 71
minutes
According to the results of statistical analysis, samples with different osmotic times had different sensory
values and total reducing sugar content at the significance level of 0.05.
The longer the osmosis time, the reducing sugar and total sugar tended to increase, the water activity
decreased, the organoleptic color did not change significantly, the taste and structure had an increase but not
uniform.
137
Specifically, the sample permeation at 80 minutes gave the highest results in terms of total sugar content of
16.24% and reducing sugar of 9.65%. Meanwhile, samples with 20 minutes of permeation time had the
lowest results in both total sugar content of 8.93% and reducing sugar at 5.86%. The 60-minute sample had a
total sugar content of 15.75% and the reducing sugar content of 9.12% was not much different from the
sample of 80 minutes of osmosis.
The sensory evaluation of taste and structure is significantly different at the 0.05 level. There was no
significant difference in the value of color perception between the 4 samples. The shorter the permeation
time, the higher the sensory score. Samples permeation at 60 minutes were the samples with the highest
evaluation of all 3 sensory criteria.
Therefore, 60 minutes is selected for osmosis in the processing of dried bitter melon.
3.3 Effect of drying temperature on product characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon
Table 4. Characteristics of dehydrated bitter melon with different drying temperatures
Temperatures Parameter Sensory values (rank sums)
Moisture Time of Green Water Taste Color Texture
content drying color activity
(%)
50°𝐶 18,25 5.25 −1.54 0.60 64 65 76
55°𝐶 18,34 4.2 −2.17 0.57 73 85 78
60°𝐶 18,31 3,25 −0.95 0.54 53 48 45
65°𝐶 18,38 3 −0.72 0.51 50 42 41
Through the results of statistical analysis of samples dried at different temperatures, the water activity, color,
drying time and sensory properties of the products were significantly different at the 0.05 level of
significance.
The higher the drying temperature, the shorter the drying time to reach the desired moisture content. At 650C
it only took 3 hours to reach a humidity of 18.33 % and at 500C it took 5.25 hours to reach a humidity of
18.25%. Drying samples at 550C took 4.2 hours and 60 took 3.25 hours.
The result of the drying color measurement at 500C was 1.54, the green color is darker than that of the dried
sample at 550C (2.17) and decreased as the temperature increased, the green color measurement results of
sample dried at 600C and 650C products were 0.95 and 0.72, respectively. Samples dried at 500C colors were
darker than samples dried at 550C because drying at high temperatures during 600C and 650C high
temperatures, the stronger the reaction between the pigments occurred, and the Maillard reaction took place
causing the product to be degraded, change color, going from green to dark green.
The higher the temperature, the lower the water activity. The sample with the highest water activity was the
sample dried at 500C with results of 0.6, the sample with the lowest water activity was the sample with 650C
results of 0.51. The reason was that when drying at high temperature brook hydrogen bonds, free water
easily escapes, the higher the temperature, the faster the water escapes, so the water activity decreases.
The highest evaluation scores samples were samples dried at temperatures of 500C and 550C, these two
samples have no statistically significant difference. The least favorite sample was the sample dried at 650C
Among the survey samples, the sample at drying temperature 550C gave the best colorimetric results and
good organoleptic properties with good sensory scores in terms of structure, taste, and color. Therefore, 550C
was selected for drying in the processing of dehydrated bitter melon.
4. Conclusions
The sugar ratio, osmotic time affected total sugar content, reducing sugar content, water activity and the
sensory properties of the dehydrated bitter melon product. In addition, the drying temperature also affected
the moisture content, water activity, time of drying, green color of the dehydrated bitter gourd product as
well as the organoleptic scores of the final product.
138
References
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7. Miller, G. L. (1959). Use of dinitrosalicylic acid reagent for determination of reducing sugar. Analytical
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100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-2244(99)00023-0
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bioactive composition and health benefits: A review. Food Reviews International, 32(2), 181–
202. https://doi.org/10.1080/87559129.2015.1057843

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139
IMPROVING WINE’S AROMA AND FLAVOR BY USING THE LACTIC
ACID BACTERIA STARTERS IN THE MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION
Thi Tho Nguyen1*, Huu Thanh Nguyen2,3
1
Hutech Institute of Applied Science, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
Department of Biotechnology, An Giang University, An Giang, Vietnam
3
Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: *Thi Tho Nguyen: (Phone: + 84 917 801 301; Email: nt.tho83@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Malolactic fermentation (MLF) in wine is a key stage in the vinification of wines, responsible for their
sensory profiles with the activities of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) converting L-malic acid in the must into L-
lactic acid resulting in a wine acidity decrease and wine aroma enhance. However, the MLF performance
depends on the LAB growth, which is influenced by multi-stressors from the harsh environment of wine
must (low pH, a high alcoholic content, non-optimal growth temperatures, and growth-inhibitory substances
….) This review provides evidence on the roles of LAB starters in improving the wine’s aroma flavor in the
MLF.
Keywords: Lactic acid bacteria; Malolactic fermentation; Winemaking
1. Introduction
In winemaking, the transformation of grape must into wine involves two stages: alcoholic fermentation (AF),
initiated by yeasts, and then malolactic fermentation (MLF) carried out by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). During
MLF, there is an enzymatic decarboxylation of L-malic acid to L-lactic acid and CO2 (L. E, L, & Du Toit
2011), which reduces the total acidity, increases the pH, enhances microbial stability, and improves the
flavor and aroma complexity of wine such as the release of volatile thiols from precursor compounds,
methionine metabolism, glycosidase and esterase activities, reduced acidity (Bartowsky 2017; Capozzi et al.
2021). Consequently, MLF for the deacidification of vinification is a vital stage for the final quality of a
well-balanced wine (Lerena et al. 2016)
In grape must, LAB are present in various sources such as the grape berry surface, the leaves, or the winery
equipment with the LAB population varying from 103 to 104 CFU/mL of juice, which relies on the maturity
and sanitary conditions (L. E, L, & Du Toit 2011). The main species among LAB used as starter cultures for
the MLF include Lactobacillus sp., Pediococcus sp., Oenococcus sp. (Capozzi et al. 2021), however, the
severe physicochemical properties of wine, for instance, low pH value, high ethanol content, low
temperature, and presence of SO2 give add stress to these LAB (Pozo-Bayon et al. 2005), which constrain
LAB’s growth and activity.
All of the species of LAB, Oenococcus oeni is considered the most frequently the predominant and best-
adapted species in wine. Several studies recognized O. oeni ability to cope with wine harsh conditions,
including the cumulative effects of low pH, high ethanol and SO2 content, non-optimal growth temperatures,
and growth inhibitory compounds (Bonomo et al. 2018). Some O. oeni strains are able to survive in acidic
conditions below pH 3.0 and tolerate ethanol levels above 10% (v/v) and the sulfite concentrations used
during wine processing or produced by yeast during the AF (Lorentzen and Lucas 2019). Besides, as a result
of global warming, Lactobacillus sp. is more often reported to predominate and be responsible for
spontaneous MLF. Some Lactobacillus plantarum strains can tolerate the high alcohol and SO2 levels
normally encountered in wine.
The paper claims the importance of the LAB strains for MLF in winemaking for its sensory contribution of
wine via their resistance to harsh environment of wine.
140
2. Population kinetics lab in wine
Various LAB enter into grape must or wine from the surface of grape berries, stems, leaves, and soil and
winery equipment. Among these LAB, Pediococcus, Leuconostoc, and Lactobacillus species occur on grapes
more common than O. oeni (Jackson, R.S 2008). Immediately after crushing and the start of AF, the LAB
population in the grape juice generally range from 103 to 104 cfu/ml, and the LAB species mainly belonging
to the species of Lactobacillus and Pediococcus gradually disappear during the AF (Dicks, L.M.T.; Endo, A.
2009). This decrease may be due to increased ethanol concentrations, high SO2 contents, initial low pH, low
temperatures, nutrient depletion, and/or competitive interactions with the yeast culture (Volschenk, H et al.
2006). During spontaneous MLF, O. oeni is the major bacterial strains detected, however, certain species can
be occasionally found, largely Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and Leuconostoc (L. E, L & Du Toit 2011; Dicks,
L.M.T.; Endo, A. 2009). Nevertheless O. oeni is most frequently the predominant species at the later stages
of vinification (Figure1), since it is best adapted to the stressful conditions encountered in wine.
Grape surface Harvest Delivery Alcoholic Fermentation Malolactic Storage

Lactobacillus plantarum Lactobacillus plantarum (AF) Fermentation (MLF) Lactobacilli
Lactobacillus mali Lactobacillus Lactobacillus plantarum (Lactobacilli) Pediococci
Lactobacillus kefiri sanfrancisensis Pediococcus parvulus (Pediococci) (Oenococcus oeni)
Lactobacillus lindneri Lactobacillus casei Lactobacillus hilgardii… Oenococcus oeni
Lactobacillus brevis Pediococcus parvulus Oenococcus oeni
Lactobacillus buchneri Lactobacillus hilgardii… 80-100%
Lactobacillus kunkeei Oenococcus oeni
Lactobacillus lactis 0-10%
Enterococcus faecium
Enterococcus avium
Enterococcus durans
Enterococcus hermanniensis
Figure 1. Population kinetics of wine LAB of the various stages of wine
Enterococcus mesenteroides production (Patrick Lucas 2016, International ML School Lallemand Toulouse)
Pediococcus parvulus 3. Improving MLF performance by lab starters
Pediococcus damnosus
(Oenococcus oeni) MLF has traditionally been carried out by indigenous LAB, which were caried to
the wine via the grape skin or the winery containers (Bokulich et al. 2016).
However, when MLF is induced by indigenous LAB, the conversion of malic acid into lactic acid can be
slow or incomplete, or undesired volatile compounds and potentially dangerous compounds can be produced.
Using of inoculated LAB as bacterial starters can help minimize these hazards (Lonvaud-Funel 1999).
Reducing the overall AF and MLF time by inoculated starters allows the wine producers to preserve the wine
with SO2 additions earlier in the winemaking process, thereby eliminating the production of volatile phenols
from spoilage microorganisms such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis (Sumby et al. 2019). More recently,
efforts have been directed to discovering the biodiversity of wine related to geographic areas, with the goal
of finding new LAB starters with a high degree of adaptation to the specific niches (López-Seijaset al. 2020).
141
For example, two potential new indigenous MLF starters with interesting β-glucosidase activity,
Lactobacillus paracasei UVI-2 and L. hilgardii UVI-23, have been identified from Albariño grapes in Val
do Salnés, Spain (López-Seijas et al. 2020). In another study, the isolation of numerous Lactobacillus
plantarum highlighted a great intraspecies genetic variability in North Patagonia, Argentina, and suggested
also their potential use as MLF starter cultures for regional wines (Bravo-Ferrada et al. 2013).
When selected bacterial starters are used, the wine producer can choose for a sequential inoculation with
yeast, where Oenococcus oeni is inoculated at the end of alcoholic fermentation. Besides, the use of blended
cultures of L. plantarum and O. oeni as MLF starters, can facilitate a fast conversion of L-malic acid to L-
lactic acid, contributing importantly to volatile profile of wine (Brizuela et al. 2018). Formulations
containing mixtures of L. plantarum and O. oeni, recommended for co-inoculation use, are commercially
available (eg. Anchor Oenology). The timing of inoculation leads to various aromatic compounds being
released in wine, qualitatively and quantitatively changing wine profiles (Lasik-Kurdy´s et al. 2018).
However, regardless of the inoculation time, the key of the success of MLF appears to be the proper control
of the inoculation technique. For instance, the use of pre-adapted bacterial starters to sub-optimal pH (5.0)
can improve the consumption of malic acid (Lombardi et al. 2020).
4. Key inhibitors in wine for malolactic fermentation and the lab starters’s resistance to harsh
conditions in winemaking
The transformation of L-malic acid to L-lactic acid and CO2 in wines during MLF inhibits the growth of
spoilage microorganisms, reduces wine’s acidity, and improves its sensory complexity. In wineries, after the
end of alcoholic fermentation, commercial starter cultures of bacteria were inoculated to help ensure an
efficient and timely MLF. However, the growth of LAB is still often inhibited and thus MLF stopped. It is
clear that MLF and the growth of O. oeni are negatively affected by wine’s physiochemical properties of
wine, e.g., low pH, ethanol concentration, low temperature, and presence of SO 2
pH
pH is most selective as low pH inhibits the growth of the wine LAB, and, at a pH below 3.5, generally only
strains of Oenococcus oeni can survive and express malolactic activity. Britz and Tracey confirmed that all
Oenococcus oeni strains were able to survive and grow at 10% (v/v) ethanol at pH 4.7 (Britz, T.J.; Tracey,
R.P, 1990). In addition, some selected L. plantarum starters proved their capacity to perform MLF under
high pH conditions, and possess facultative hetero-fermentative metabolism that prevents acetic acid
production from hexose sugars that being commercialized for MLF in wine (Bartowky et al. 2015)
Ethanol
Besides pH, ethanol produced by yeasts during alcoholic fermentation is considered a key stress factor for
the viability of LAB in wine. Indeed, ethanol is known to affect membrane lipid ordering and bilayer
stability, as well as membrane characteristics such as permeability, fluidity, and the functioning of
membrane-embedded enzymes (Weber, F. J., and J. A. M. de Bont. 1996). Oenococcus oeni can tolerate
content attaining 14% (v/v) (Garcia Alegria, E et al. 2004) and Oenococcus oeni SD-2a stressed with 8%
ethanol during 2 hours also gave improvement to its survival rate and functionality (Zhang, G et al.
2012). Guerzoni et al studied the combined effects of pH, temperature, ethanol, and malate contents on L.
plantarum and O. oeni activities and proved L. plantarum is more competitive in early stage of alcoholic
fermentation. However, harsher conditions, e.g., ethanol concentrations higher than 6% (v/v), favor O. oeni.
Most robust commercial O. oeni strains, which are produced with MBR™ process for pre-adaptation to
various stressful wine conditions, showed great survival rate and good malolactic activity up to 16% (v/v)
alcohol, depending on other environmental factors even higher.
Temperature
In wine, the optimum temperature of growth is various from what is obtained in laboratory culture. The
optimum range varies on other physical and chemical factors of the wine, especially the ethanol
concentration. A higher ethanol level will lead to a decrease in the optimum growth temperature. Generally,
MLF commonly occurs at sub-optimal LAB temperatures (below or around 180C). At 150C or lower, the
opportunity of bacterial growth is low (Lafon-Lafourcade, S. Chapter 1983). Guerzoni et al. also studied the
142
influences of certain chemical and physical parameters (pH, SO2, ethanol content and temperature) on L.
plantarum and O. oeni growth. A temperature increases only positively affected the lag phase of O. oeni, but
not of L. plantarum. A temperature increase exhibited a negative and positive influence on O. oeni and L.
plantarum, respectively. The combination of high temperatures and high alcohol level increase the toxicity
of ethanol as outlined above. Low temperatures are not lethal but decrease the enzymatic activity (Guerzoni,
M.E et al. 1995).
Sulphur dioxide
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) is another compound found for its bactericidal action and plays an important role in
the growth of LAB and development of MLF (Amerine, M.A et al. 1997) This compound is detected in wine
with different concentrations depending on the winemaking conditions and the yeast species responsible for
alcoholic fermentation. SO2 is intentionally added to wines to inhibit the growth of unwanted
microorganisms and for its antioxidant effect. Sulphur dioxide in its free form and in its combination form
with aldehydes and ketones, is a potent inhibitor of many microbes, including LAB. Three liberated forms of
SO2 occur in wine: molecular SO2, bisulphite (HSO3-), and sulphite (SO32-). Molecular SO2 is effective as a
bacterial preservative (Chang, I.S et al, 1997), and a well-known synergistic effect is the impact of pH on the
content of molecular SO2. The lethal content of molecular SO2 for most wine LAB is low (0.3 mg/L), but it is
possible that several selected wine LAB strains may show a better resistance to molecular SO2. Replying on
the pH of the must or wine, the level of molecular SO2 is between 1% and 7% of the free SO2 content. The
molecular SO2 increases with a decrease in pH and an increase in temperature and/or alcohol. For MLF to be
successful, the values of these chemical parameters described above must correspond to those that allow the
bacterial cultures to function successfully. A favorable level of any of these components may compensate for
an unfavorable level of one or several of the others. It is important to remember these factors function
synergistically, i.e., their actions together have a greater total effect than the sum of their individual actions.
5. Conclusions
All of the species of LAB starters, Oenococcus oeni and Lactobacillus plantarum have shown most
interesting results for their capacity to induce MLF under high pH conditions, high ethanol content and other
harsh conditions which could play a key role in the amelioration of wine aroma and flavor. Therefore, the
selection of these LAB starters with a high conversion of L-malate and further well stress-adaptation (i.e.,
high survival rate; deacidification (pH decrease); high concentration of malolactic enzymes production;
presence of sugar/salt for creating a status of osmotic stress and stimulation of the production of
exopolysaccharides (EPSs) will be needed to control effectively the MLF for higher wine quality production.
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[STS22-35]
145
EFFECT OF DIFFERENT DRYING TEMPERATURES ON THE QUALITY
OF CARROT POWDER AND APPLICATION CARROT POWDER TO
PREPLACE WHEAT FLOUR IN THE PRODUCTION OF PIZZA BASE
Phan Phuoc Thanh1, Le Thi Ngoc Mai1, Huynh Kim Phung1, Huynh Phuong Quyen1*
1
HUTECH Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 098 928 2942; Email: hp.quyen@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Carrots are a low-calorie but high-nutrient food source, packed with nutrients such as: carotenoids,
flavonoids, polyacetylenes, vitamins and minerals, all of which have many health benefits for consumers.
The objective of this study was to determine the parameters in the production process of “Carrot Powder”
and “Carrot Pizza Base” to create new products, increase nutrition and increase product diversity in the
market pizza. The results showed that, drying carrots at 65°C for 150 minutes after slicing 2mm, the color of
carrot powder was less changed. In the process of making carrot pizza base, when replacing 10% of flour
with carrot flour and baking at 210°C for 8 minutes, the product achieved the highest sensory ratings and
evaluations. This result showed that the addition of carrot powder to the pizza base had increased the
commercial value of the product in terms of both sensory and nutritional values compared to the traditional
pizza base.
Keywords: nutrition, antioxidant compounds, food processing.
1. Introduction
Pizza, one of the most popular purchased items in retail food stores, has maintained its market share through
the changing nature of the processed food industry and even gained popularity. Initially, pizza was Pizza was
Italian cuisine. And then, it spread widely to Europe, the US, and other countries. Nowaday, Pizza was one
of the most popular fast foods around the world. As a result, pizza production is increasing at an
unprecedented momentum and is expected to increase further over the next decade in response to the
growing world population. Pizza is one of the most famous Italian dishes in the world because of its
simplicity, taste and nutritional value (Preeti Singh G.K. Goyal, 2011).
Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is one of the vegetables grown in Lam Dong, Vietnam. The most abundant
antioxidant compounds found in carrots are α- and β-carotene, vitamin E, and anthocyanin. Interestingly, the
levels of these antioxidant pigments found in different cultivars are responsible for the colors of carrots. The
carotenoids α- and β-carotene, lycopene, and lutein account for the orange, red, and yellow colors,
respectively (Simon PW et al, 2019). Besides high bioavailability of carotenoids, carrots have also a unique
combination of three flavonoids: kaempferol, quercetin and luteolin (Ching LS et al, 2001) and other
phenolic derivatives stimulating cancer-fighting mechanisms in the human body (Hansen L, 1986). Carrot is
also a good source of dietary fibers and trace mineral elements. Molybdenum, magnesium and manganese
found in carrots help in carbohydrate metabolism, energy production, absorption of iron (Singh MN, 2021),
insulin secretion (Bartlett HE et al, 2008; Kim DJ et al, 2010) and coordination of antioxidant enzymes in the
body whereas, potassium helps in functioning of muscles (Dias JS, 2012)
Therefore, combining to create the product “carrot pizza base” both creates new products and adds
nutritional value to the product to increase competition in the market.
2.Materials and methods

2.1 Materials
The carrot is a root vegetable. In Vietnam, carrots grow mostly in Lam Dong province, Northern midland
and mountainous, and the Southeast region. In this study, carrots were used in Da Lat, which contained 9
Brix, and pH 6.13. Carrots were washed and stored at 4-5oC before preparation.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used form AB company.
146
Wheat flour is off-white, odorless, dry, granular, non-localized, and non-moist. The powder has a wet gluten
network of over 26% and protein content from 11-13%.
Other ingredients were used such as salt, oil, honey, water.
2.2 Methods
Moisture content
The moisture content was determined using the KERN moisture analyzer, AOAC (2004)
Color measurement
The surface color of powder puffed samples was measured using a Mini Lab colorimeter (CR-10 Konica
Minolta Sensing Inc, Japan) using the CIE color system with the color of samples expressed as L*, a* and
b*, where L* represents lightness (whiteness), a* represents red/green opposing colors and b* represents
yellow/blue opposing colors. Prior to each measurement, the calorimeter was calibrated using a standard
white and black plate. The measurements were performed in two replications and repeated five times per
replicate of puffed sample.
Sensory evaluation
Samples derived using the optimal processing conditions for the desirability technique were used sensory
evaluation. Thirty panelists comprising fourth year bachelor degree students, teachers and other staff of
Institute of Applied Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Viet Nam participated in the
sensory evaluation. The panelists received three-digit encoded samples with questionnaires and evaluation
instructions. The evaluation of the appearance, flavor, crispness, and hardness of samples was done using a
9-point hedonic scale.
2.3 Preparation of carrot powder
The selected carrot tubers were thoroughly washed in clean water to remove adhering soil and other
unwanted materials. The cleaned tubers were then sliced 2mm and dried in oven at 70oC with difference
times. It was than cooled at ambient temperature. Carrot powder was made by grinding the peeled carrot
using blender machine and a sieve of 0.2mm. The dry carrot powder had moisture <10%.
2.4 Preparation of carrot pizza base
The carrot pizza base, prepared by using the difference formulations, was made up of the perfect
combination of wheat, water, carrot powder, and yeast that hatches by kneading the dough for 10-15 minutes
until the dough mixture together. The pizza crust tastes well if the dough has perfect structure. It means that
yeast processing happened well. Unless kneading is properly, the crust is dry, tough, unsoft. In cooling
storage, pizza crust is soft, tough, odourless, compared to the standard crust. Frozen pizza soles stored at a
temperature of -15 to -18oC will be preserved for 1-2 months.
The statistical significance of each effect was tested by comparing the mean square against an estimate of the
experimental error (P ≤ 0.05). The differences in mean values were compared by application of ANOVA and
least significant difference multiple range testing at the 95% confidence level. The analysis was carried out
using the ANOVA procedure of Statgraphics XV Centurion plus.

3.1 Effect of different drying temperature on the quality of carrot powder
In the graph of Figure 1, after drying the carrot to the required moisture content <10% (Santana-Galvez,
2016 and Alvarado, 2018), the carrot slices were cooled, mashed, sifted, and carrot powder was collected.
The higher the temperature, the lighter the color of the carrots, the L* brightness of the samples increased
compared to that of the non-dried carrots, the carrots dried at 700C and 750C had a higher L* value because
the higher the drying temperature, the higher the L* value. At high levels, the enzyme lipoxygenase destroys
carotene, reducing the yellow-orange color. Samples dried at 600C and 650C, both are brighter than the color
of the starting material. However, the value is not too different and the luminous intensity L* of the two
samples dried at 600C, 650C has no statistically significant difference at 5 %.
147
Choose flour with high a* to increase the sensory perception of bakery products when adding carrot powder.
So through the above results, it can be concluded: drying at 650C can keep the color and brightness of carrot
powder close to the color and brightness of raw carrots.
Figure 2 showed the effect of drying temperatures on moisture content. With increase in drying temperature
from 600C to 750C, the drying time was low and the moisture content was 10%. At a temperature of 700C
and 750C, convection drying reduced the color and bioactive compounds of carrot powder so these results
were not suitable. However, at a temperature of 600C and 650C, color of carrot powder could be kept closing
to the color of raw carrots. In addition, the drying temperature must require humidity and the drying time
was not too long to save time and fuel. From there, it was found that the drying temperature at 650C for 150
minutes was the most suitable.
90
d
80 c
70
b b
a
60
d
Value
50
b a c
40 a
30 c c d c e
b b b
a
20 a
10
0
L* a* b* Delta E
Colorimetric index
No drying Drying 60 Drying 65 Drying 70 Drying 75
Figure 1. Effect of drying temperature on carrot powder color
90
80
70
60
Moisture (%)
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240
Time (min)
Drying 60 Drying 65 Drying 70 Drying 75
Figure 2. Effect of drying temperature on carrot powder moisture content
3.2 Effect of ratio of carrot powder to replace wheat flour on pizza base quality
In Figure 3, the graph showed that the moisture content of the pizza base after baking increased as the baking
temperature increased. Pizza base baked at 200ºC had the lowest residual moisture after baking (24.53%),
148
while pizza soles baked at 230ºC had the greatest residual moisture (26.83%) (significant difference). The
moisture content after baking at 210ºC and 220ºC was not significantly different, with comb values: 25.38%
and 26.00%. Moisture after baking at 200ºC and 210 ºC had no significant difference through ANOVA
statistics 5%. Due to the higher temperature, the outer layer evaporates quickly, forming a hard film that
prevents the water molecules inside from escaping, making the moisture drop more slowly. To increase the
shelf life for the pizza base, choose a baking temperature that has a low moisture content and still does not
make the pizza dry and hard.
30
d d
25 c
a b
20
Moisture (%)
15
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
Ratio of carrot powder (%)
Figure 3. Effect of carrot powder ratio on carrot pizza base moisture
Increasing the percentage of carrot powder caused the color of the pizza base to decrease (Figure 4), that
was, the L* value gradually decreases. The luminance L* was significantly different at the scales. In the
pizza with 5% carrot powder added for the lightest color (L* = 70.88), the pizza with 20% carrot powder
gave the darkest color (L* = 65.66). Crust color 10% carrot powder (L* = 69.66) had a lightness that was not
significantly different in value from the lightest pizza (5%). Crust color 15% carrot powder (L*=66.65) was
significantly darker than the crust color at 5% and 10% carrot powder.
80 a b
c d
70
60
50
Value
40
a a b b
30
b a a a
20
c b
10 a b
0
L a* b* Delta E
Colorimetric index
5% 10% 15% 20%
Figure 4: Effect of ratio of carrot powder replacing flour on pizza crust color after baking
149
Figure 5 showed that the selection of preferred bar by consumers was mainly based on the level of color,
pleasant sweetness, stable structure, crispy and spongy crust. As a results, the product added with 10% carrot
powder ranged from very favorite to completely liking, which was higher than that of traditional pizza
products (0%).
This was followed by a pizza fortified with 5% carrot powder above preferred, followed by a pizza
supplemented with 15% and 20% carrot powder, rated above normal.
7
c
bc
6
b
ab
5 a
Sensory score
0
0 5 10 15 20
Ratio of carrot powder (%)
Figure 5: Effect of ratio of carrot powder to replace wheat flour on sensory score
Figure 6: Product picture in different carrot powder ratios
4. Conclusions
Research results showed that carrots were dried at 65°C for 150 minutes, the carrot powder product had the
same color as the raw material. In the production process of the pizza base, the choice of replacing 10% of
the 13th flour with carrot gave the carrot pizza base high quality, a bright yellow color, smell and sweetness
from carrots.
References
1. Alvarado-Ramírez, M., Santana-Gálvez, J., Santacruz, A., Carranza-Montealvo, L. D., Ortega-
Hernández, E., Tirado-Escobosa, J., … Jacobo-Velázquez, D. A. (2018). Using a Functional Carrot
Powder Ingredient to Produce Sausages with High Levels of Nutraceuticals. Journal of Food Science.
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Velázquez, D. A. (2016). Application of wounding stress to produce a nutraceutical-rich carrot powder
ingredient and its incorporation to nixtamalized corn flour tortillas. Journal of Functional Foods, 27, 655–
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Genome. Cham: Springer (2019). p. 247–60.
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a review. J Pharmacogn Phytochem. (2021) 10:1293–9. doi: 10.22271/phyto.2021.v10.i1r.13529

[STS22-39]
151
IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF BOVINE SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR
TRANSFER PROTOCOL BY ESTABLISHMENT OF CULTURE MEDIUM
CHANGING SYSTEM
Nguyen Mai Phuong#, Pham Quoc Dinh#, Pham Truong Duy#, Pham Minh Chien, Bui Hong Thuy, Nguyen
Van Thuan*
School of Biotechnology, International University, Vietnam National University HCMC, Ho Chi Minh
700000, Vietnam.
#
Equally contributed to this work
* Corresponding author: Email: nvthuan@hcmiu.edu.vn
Abstract
Bovine cloning is expected as a promising technology for endangered genome conservation and the
production of transgenic cloned cows to manufacture human recombinant proteins. However, cloned bovine
embryos often resulted in poor development, thus reducing the success of producing cloned offspring. One
of the reasons is based on culture medium, which directly relates to the development of cloned bovine
embryos. This study aimed to establish culture medium changing system to improve the efficiency of bovine
somatic cell nuclear transfer protocol. Our results showed that using the culture medium of Takahashi and
First 1992 produced the cloned bovine blastocyst at the highest rate (9.4%, P < 0.05) among different
modified synthetic oviduct fluid (mSOF) media. In addition, the rate of embryos developed to the hatching
blastocyst was highest in the culture group within transfer embryos to the fresh medium with 5% FBS on day
3 and day 5 (18.5%) compared to the other treatments. Finally, we found that cloned embryos in the group of
partial replacement presented significantly higher blastocyst formation rate and quality compared to the
group of full replacement (27.6% and 15.6%, respectively, P < 0.05), and it also showed the highest number
of cells in blastocyst (about 116 cells). In conclusion, using mSOF and changing the fresh medium
supplemented with 5% FBS on day 3 following partial replacement on day 5 improved the preimplantation
development of cloned bovine embryos and promoted the blastocyst quality.
Keywords: cloned bovine embryos, full replacement, mSOF culture medium, partial replacement,
preimplantation development.
1. Introduction
Since the success of Dolly the sheep (Wilmut et al., 1996), somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has become
a powerful technique for extensive application in industrial farm animal production, bio-organ
transplantation, conservation of valuable genetic resources, and manufacturing human recombinant protein
(Knosalla et al., 2018); (AA Borges et al., 2019); (Wu et al., 2012); (X Su et al., 2018). Unfortunately, the
success rate to birth was very low (~2-3%) in bovine cloning (N Rodriguez-Osorio et al., 2012), leading to a
severe impediment in the practical use of the SCNT technique.
Among the strategies for improving the cloning efficiency, optimizing the vitro culture system is a critical
factor to determine the efficiency of embryo developmental competence. Several culture media have been
used for culturing of bovine embryos to develop from zygote to blastocyst, including TCM199 (Gandhi.,
2000), CR1aa and CR2 (Rosenkrans and First et al., 1994), and IVD101 (Abe and Hoshi., 2003), etc. Until
now, the most widely accepted medium was modified synthetic oviduct fluid (mSOF) because of its simple
composition and ability to support the development of bovine embryos both in vitro and in vivo (Holm et al.,
1999). However, the formulation of SOF medium differed in many studies (Tervit et al., 1972), (Holm et al.,
1999) and (Takahashi and First, 1992). These formulations varied in osmolarity, salt compositions, energy
substrate concentration, and presence of myo-Inositol and sodium citrate in mSOF of Takahashi and First.
Still, there is no comparison between the effect of different mSOF media on development of cloned bovine
embryos.
It is well known that supplementation with fetal bovine serum (FBS) to the culture medium is beneficial for
bovine embryo development (Carolan et al., 1995). In addition, 5% FBS has been evidently demonstrated for
152
its significant effects served as growth factors and energy sources to promote post-cleavage embryo
development in bovines (S Wang et al., 1997). Although previous research has demonstrated the essential
use of FBS supplementation, bovine embryo arrest often occurs at the 8-cell stage (Zhao et al., 2009).
Therefore, its effect on different stages during preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos was
not clearly examined.
Based on these issues, the first aim of this study is to examine and compare the effects of different mSOF
media on the preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos and blastocyst quality. Secondly, we
aimed to examine the effect of the defined mSOF medium supplemented with 5% FBS at different duration
timing from pronuclear formation stage to blastocyst stage based on developmental competence of cloned
bovine embryos and blastocyst quality. Furthermore, after defining the optimal culture system for cloned
bovine embryos, we evaluated the effect of the medium changing methods either by full or partial
replacement of fresh medium supplemented with 5% FBS to the culture system on blastocyst formation
rates. In summary, this study established the in-vitro bovine embryo culture system to maximize the cloned
blastocyst production at high quantity and quality for further processes to produce cloned cows with high
efficiency.
2. Material and method

2.1 Sample preparation and somatic cell nuclear transfer
In-vitro maturation (IVM) of bovine oocyte and donor cell preparation were performed as previous describe
(Thuan NV et al., 2019). In brief, the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured in IVM medium
covered with mineral oil in a humidified 5% CO2 incubator at 38.5oC. After 18 – 20h of culture, COCs were
expanded, and surrounding cumulus cells were removed from oocytes by treatment with hyaluronidase and
mouth pipetting. The oocytes extruded the first polar body (1st PB) with homogenous cytoplasm were
considered matured and used for SCNT.
Donor bovine lung tissues were washed several times in absolute ethanol and phosphate-buffered saline
(PBS) to avoid contamination. Afterward, tissues were dissected into small pieces and were seeded in a cell
culture disk of Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA)
supplemented with 10% FBS, 100 IU/mL Penicillin in a humidified 5% CO 2 incubator at 38.5oC. After
reaching 80% confluence, cells were passed into the next passage and were frozen. The cell culture at the
passage 3-7 were thawed and treated with trypsin before nuclear transfer.
SCNT was performed based on the established protocol from Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory (Thuan
NV et al., 2019) with some modification. In brief, matured oocytes were enucleated by aspirating the
metaphase II chromosome in HEPES medium supplemented with 7.5 μg/mL cytochalasin B under a
micromanipulator system using an XY clone laser to open the zona pellucida of oocytes. After that, the
prepared fibroblast cells were transferred to the enucleated oocytes by microinjection using the Piezo action.
After recovery within 2 hours in mSOF, the reconstructed oocytes were activated to become cloned embryos
by 5 μM Ionomycin for 5 mins at room temperature (RT), followed by treatment of 2 mM 6-
(Dimethylamino)purine (6-DMAP) in mSOF medium for 4 hours at 38.5oC, 5% CO2 and 95% humidified
air. Embryos then were in vitro developed (IVD) within the two-steps treatment of HDACi (purpose for
supporting high developmental competence of cloned bovine embryos) (Thuan NV et al., unpublished data)
in droplets (each drop contains 10 µL) of different mSOF media including (Tervit et al., 1972), (Holm et al.,
1999), and (Takahashi and First, 1992).
2.2 Supplementation of 5% FBS to mSOF medium for cloned bovine embryos culture
After defining the ideal mSOF medium for cloned bovine embryos culture, 5% FBS was supplemented to the
defined mSOF medium at different duration timing (culturing embryos were transferred to the fresh mSOF
supplemented with 5% FBS one time on day 3 or two times on day 3 and day 5 after activation) and the
developmental rates from pronuclear formation to the blastocyst stage (7 days) were recorded and compared
among groups.
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2.3 Partial and full replacement (changing medium methods) of fresh mSOF supplemented with 5%
FBS to cloned bovine embryos culture medium at day 5 post-activation (PA)
The medium changing methods at day 5 PA of embryos culture were examined between:
 Partial replacement (use mouth pipette to take out 50% of medium and add 50% fresh medium
supplemented with 5% FBS into the culture drops).
 Full replacement (use mouth pipette to transfer the cloned embryos to a new droplet of fresh medium
supplemented with 5% FBS).
2.4 Evaluation quality of cloned blastocyst
On day 7 PA, cloned bovine blastocyst were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 30 minutes at RT. After
fixation, embryos were washed in PBS-BSA twice (10 minutes each time). For allowing permeabilization of
staining dye into the cell membrane, embryos were treated with 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS-BSA for 1 hour.
Then the samples were washed in PBS-BSA twice (10 minutes each time). After that, each group was DNA
staining with 2 µg/mL of 4’, 6-diamidino-2phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI, blue) for 30 minutes.
Finally, samples were washed twice with PBS- BSA (10 minutes each time) before being mounted on
microscopic slides using glycerol covered with a glass coverslip. Each slide was observed under Nikon
Eclipse Ti-U to count the number of cells in each blastocyst by NIS- Element BR Analysis 4.500.000 64-bit
Program.
Each experiment was repeated at least three times. All experiment data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA
(analysis of variance) using the SPSS version 20 system. A probability of P < 0.05 was considered
statistically significant.

3.1 Effect of different mSOF culture media on preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos
According to Table 1, cloned bovine embryos cultured in mSOF from Takahashi & First resulted in the
highest developmental rate to the blastocyst (9.4%) compared to the other mSOF groups (2.7% and 8.3%).
This result might be due to the presence of sodium citrate and myo-Inositol. The earlier report (Keskintepe et
al., 1995) has proven that sodium citrate has an embryotropic effect. Citrate facilitates fatty acid synthesis
(Goodridge 1973) and plays a role as a chelator of metal ions (e.g., Ca2+). This effect might be critical for
maintaining junctional integrity. Consequently, it is essential for compaction and blastocyst formation (Gray
et al., 1992). Additionally, adding tri-sodium citrate to mSOF also improved blastocyst development (Holm
et al., 1999).
Table 1. Effect of different mSOF culture medium on preimplantation development of cloned bovine
embryos
No. of embryos No. (%) of cloned bovine embryos developed to
Culture medium examined 2-cell 4-cell 8-cell Blastocyst
Modified SOF from a a a
37 18 (48.6) 12 (32.4) 7 (18.9) 1 (2.7)a
Tervit et al 1972
Modified SOF from
24 18 (75.0)b 16 (66.7)b 12 (50.0)b 2 (8.3)ab
Holm et al 1999
Modified SOF from
32 27 (84.4)b 26 (81.2)b 22 (68.8)b 3 (9.4)b
Takahashi & First 1992
Within the same column, percentages with different superscripts (a, b, and c) differ significantly (P < 0.05). Three
replicates were performed to obtain the data.
The presence of glucose in Tervit formulation could be harmful to the embryos (Takahashi and First, 1992).
Though it has been unclear how glucose affects cattle and various species, glucose is supposed to prevent
respirators with phosphate and cause the ineffective production of ATP during embryo development (Schini
et al., 1988).
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Besides, the concentration of NaCl in mSOF was also a critical aspect. The NaCl concentration was
supposed not to be over 95 mM and maintains the total osmolarity of the medium from 250 to 270 mOsm
(Liu et al., 1996), whereas both Holm and Tervit formulations were above this level. NaCl with high
concentrations prefers to hyperosmolarity primarily and depressed embryo development. Thus, the
preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos might be affected due to these factors, and mSOF
from Takahashi and First was considered the most suitable medium for cloned bovine embryo culture.
3.2 Effect of mSOF medium supplemented with 5% FBS at different duration timing on
preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos
Table 2. Effect of mSOF medium supplemented with 5% FBS at different duration timing on
preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos.
No. of No. (%) of cloned bovine embryos developed to
Treatment embryos Early Hatching Cells
examined Morula
blastocyst blastocyst number
Keep in mSOF for 7 days 31 5 (16.1)a 3 (9.6)a 0 (0.0)a 0 (0.0)a
ab a a
Change fresh medium on day 3 25 5 (20.0) 2 (8.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)a
Change fresh medium with 5%
24 6 (25.0)ab 4 (16.7)ab 2 (8.3)b 72 (±5.3)b
FBS on day 3
Change fresh medium with 5%
27 8 (29.6)b 6 (22.2)b 5 (18.5)c 95 (±6.8)c
FBS on day 3 and day 5
The data from Table 2 shows that transferring cloned embryos to a droplet of fresh medium supplemented
with 5% FBS on day 3 and day 5 PA produced the number of morula that was significantly higher than the
control group without any changing medium and 5% FBS supplementation (29.6% compare to 16.1%,
respectively). In addition, the rate of cloned bovine embryos developed to the blastocyst stage was highest in
a culture group with changing the fresh medium with 5% FBS on both day 3 and day 5 PA (18.5% expanded
blastocyst) compared to the other treatments without supplementation of 5% FBS (0%) and changing the
fresh medium with 5% FBS only on day 3 (8.3%). In other words, when changing the fresh medium with 5%
FBS on day 3 and day 5 PA, the number of cloned bovine embryos developed to blastocyst was increased. It
is well known that FBS contains vitamins, hormones, and growth factors (S Wang et al., 1997) which are
essential for the preimplantation development of bovine embryos. Besides, it is beneficial for embryo
development in cattle (Takahashi and; First 1992) when adding amino acids to the culture medium (mSOF).
However, spontaneously breaking down at 37-39oC of amino acid and the metabolism of amino acid by
embryos resulted in the medium a high level of ammonium, and the toxicity of ammonium on cells has been
well reported. Additionally, it also inhibited embryo development (Gardner et al., 1993). In our study,
ammonium and other toxic factors in the culture medium could be removed by transferring cloned embryos
to a fresh medium (changing medium).
3.3 Effect of changing medium methods on preimplantation development of cloned bovine embryos
Table 3. Effect of partial and full replacement (changing medium methods) of fresh mSOF supplemented
with 5% FBS to cloned bovine embryos culture medium at day 5 PA.
No. of No. (%) of cloned bovine embryos developed to
Treatment embryos Early Hatching Cells
examined Morula
blastocyst blastocyst number
Full medium replacement 32 9 (28.1)a 7 (21.9)a 5 (15.6)a 92 (±.7.6)a
29 16 (55.2)b 12 (41.4)b 8 27.6)b 116 (± 7.3)b
Partial medium replacement
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In the developmental rates comparison of the cloned bovine embryo during preimplantation development
between two changing medium methods, there were significant differences between 2 groups at both morula
and blastocyst stage (Table 3). After changing medium at day 5 PA, only 28.1% of cloned embryos
developed to morula, and the rate decreased to 15.6% blastocyst formation in the full replacement group. On
the other hand, the percentage of morula formation peaked at more than 55%, and about 27.6% of cloned
embryos reached to hatching blastocyst stage with higher quality (about 92 cells compared to 116 cells,
respectively) in the partial replacement group (P < 0.05). An explanation for this phenomenon might be
related to the communication between embryo secretion factors to the in-vitro culture medium that played an
essential role in embryo development (Wydooghe et al., 2017). Transferring all cloned embryos into new
drops (full replacement) may interrupt and remove the linkage of essential factors to embryos, thus affecting
the development of embryos. Moreover, at the morula stage, the embryos were sensitive to the outside
environment's change (Leibo et al., 1995). This issue affected some cloned embryos to stop developing at the
morula stage after transferring into a new drop. Therefore, maintaining the embryo culture condition and
replacing a part of the old medium (partial replacement) not only limit the effects of pipetting or shock
condition but still provide enough fresh medium and supplement (5% FBS) to stimulate the development of
cloned bovine embryos to hatching blastocyst stage applied for further process to produce cloned cows.
The majority of cloned embryos did not develop to term, leading to the low overall cloning efficiency.
Therefore, several research groups tried a variety of approaches to improve each step of the SCNT method.
This study focused on optimization of cloning procedure in the in vitro culture system and achieved a high
blastocyst formation rate comparing to the recent studies (Jang G et al., 2011; Xu L et al., 2019). To achieve
the highest blastocyst development rate, the further research can use the combination of the procedure from
this study with other methods like modifying DNA methylation and histone modifications, overexpression or
suppression of embryonic-related genes, embryo transfer procedure and so on.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, this report successfully established a culture system after SCNT performance to achieve a
high percentage of viable cloned bovine embryos that can develop to the blastocyst stage. Using mSOF
(Takahashi and First., 1992) and changing the fresh mSOF medium with 5% FBS on day 3 following the
partial replacement of fresh mSOF medium supplemented with 5% FBS on day 5 PA improved the
developmental competence of cloned bovine embryos to blastocyst and promoted the blastocyst quality.
Acknowledgment
Pham Truong Duy was funded by Vingroup Joint Stock Company and supported by the Domestic PhD
Scholarship Programme of Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VINIF), Vingroup Big Data Institute
(VINBIGDATA), code VINIF.2020.TS.27
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2. Borges, Alana Azevedo, and Alexsandra Fernandes Pereira. "Potential role of intraspecific and
interspecific cloning in the conservation of wild mammals." Zygote 27.3 (2019): 111-117.
3. Campbell, Keith HS, et al. "Sheep cloned by nuclear transfer from a cultured cell line." Nature 380.6569
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development of bovine embryos throughout maturation, fertilization and culture. Human reproduction,
15(2), 395-401.
6. Gardner, D. K., & Lane, M. (1993). Amino acids and ammonium regulate mouse embryo
development in culture. Biology of Reproduction, 48(2), 377-385.
156
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commercial bovine serum albumin and its identification as citrate. Reproduction, 94(2), 471-480.
8. Holm, P., Booth, P. J., Schmidt, M. H., Greve, T., & Callesen, H. (1999). High bovine blastocyst
development in a static in vitro production system using SOFaa medium supplemented with sodium
citrate and myo-Inositol with or without serum-proteins. Theriogenology, 52(4), 683-700.
9. Jang, G., Hong, S. G., & Lee, B. C. (2011). Cloned calves derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer
embryos cultured in chemically defined medium or modified synthetic oviduct fluid. Journal of
Veterinary Science, 12(1), 83-89.
10. Keskintepe, L., Burnley, C. A., & Brackett, B. G. (1995). Production of viable bovine blastocysts
in defined in vitro conditions. Biology of reproduction, 52(6), 1410-1417.
11. Knosalla, Christoph. "Success for pig-to-baboon heart transplants." (2018): 352-353.
12. Leibo, S. P., J. W. Pollard, and A. Martino. "Chilling and freezing sensitivity of reassembled in vitro-
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15. Rodriguez-Osorio, N., et al. "Reprogramming mammalian somatic cells." Theriogenology 78.9 (2012):
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[STS22-16]
157
EFFECTS OF HOT WATER TREATMENT ON THE QUALITY
OF PURPLE PASSION FRUIT
Tran Tong Tuan1*, San Anh Tram1
1
Department of Biotechnology, HUTECH Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Tong Tuan Tran (Email: trantong4868@gmail.com)
Abstract
Postharvest diseases are the major concern of the passion fruit industry as they significantly influence the
sensory attributes, appearance, and fruit quality. The effects of different hot water temperatures were
determined in purple passion grown in Gia Lai province, Vietnam in terms of weight loss, skin colour,
overall fruit quality assessment, shriveling, disease damage, and organoleptic chemical properties. Freshly
harvested passion fruits were dipped in hot water temperatures at 47, 49, and 53 oC for 5 minutes. Data
showed that fruit treated at 47 or 49 °C in 5 minutes had good fruit quality, and was more resistant to
postharvest diseases.
Keywords: passion fruit, hot water, quality, postharvest diseases.
1. Introduction
Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) belongs to the Passifloraceae family and is a perennial evergreen climbing
vine with more than 500 species (Rizwan et al. 2021). There are two recognized forms of edible passion fruit
(Passiflora edulis) including purple (Passiflora.edulis Sims) and yellow (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Deg.)
(Kishore et al. 2011). In Vietnam, the purple passion fruit production provinces are Gia Lai, Son La, Dak
Nong, Lam Dong, Dak Lak, and the harvest season is usually from March to May and August to December.
The purple variety is grown mainly for fresh juice production and its flavour is a vital attribute that make the
juice a desirable ingredient for many formulated beverages (Chen et al. 1987). The passion fruit industry and
market are constantly evolving worldwide due to the increasing demand for the active fruit ingredients and
health benefits for consumers (Rizwan et al. 2021).
Although many factors affect the fruit quality, the enormous postharvest losses between harvest and
consumption are caused by the high susceptibility of the fruit to pathogen infections (Aulakh et al. 2013).
Microbial infections are the main cause of postharvest losses worldwide, and the major post-harvest diseases
are green and blue mold caused by Penicillium digitatum and P. italicum (Perez et al. 2016), brown rot by
Monilinia fructicola, Alternaria black spot by Alternaria alternata, Rhizopus rot by Rhizopus stolonifer
(Palou et al. 2015), and anthracnose by Colletotrichum brevisporum, C. boninense, and C. brevisporum
(Kamle et al. 2013). Treatment with hot water at the postharvest stage usually controls diseases caused by
fungi, as long as the spores and quiescent lesions are located on the surface or in cell layers of the epidermis
(Lurie 1998). The mechanism of hot water action against fungi is linked to the reduction of spore
germination viability and mycelial growth, and plant tissues respond by alleviating the damage caused by
such stress (Aular et al. 2001). Therefore, the present research aimed to study the effects of different hot
water temperatures on purple passion grown in Gia Lai province, Vietnam in terms of weight loss, skin
colour, overall fruit quality assessment, shriveling, disease damage, fruit firmness and organoleptic chemical
properties.

Purple passion fruit were harvested from an orchard in Gia Lai province, Viet Nam, and transported to the
Postharvest laboratory in Ho Chi Minh City. Fruit were harvested at commercial maturity, free of visible
wounds and rot, and homogeneous in size. Fruit were randomly grouped into four treatment lots (each
containing 20 individually numbered fruit). Fruit immersed in tap water at room temperature for 2 min acted
as controls. Other three lots of fruit were subjected to one of the following hot water dipping treatments: 47
158
◦C for 5 minutes, 49 ◦C for 5 minutes, and 53 ◦C for 5 minutes. Bath temperature was monitored regularly by
a thermostat and never fell less than 0,5 ◦C below the established temperature during each treatment. After
that, the fruit of each treatment were packed in-tray, wrapped in plastic wrap (Ringo, Vietnam), and stored in
the cold chamber. Physiological and fruit quality parameters were recorded every third day.
Quality assessments
Skin colour development
Skin colour was rated using the following scale; 0 = 100 % green, 1 = 90 % green and 10 % purple, 2 = 70-
80 % green and 20-30 % purple, 3 = 40-50 % green and 50-60 % purple, 4 = 5-15 % green and 85-95%
purple, 5 = 100 % purple and 6 = 100 % purple and very dark purple, no shining, sometimes wrinkled
(Pinzón et al. 2007).
Overall fruit quality assessment
Overall fruit quality was assessed using a subjective four point scoring systeml; 1 = high quality fruit with
glossy skin and no of signs of dehydration, shriveling, decay or bruises; 2 = acceptable fruit quality with dull
skin and slight signs of shriveling, bruises and softness; 3 = unacceptable fruit with dull skin and moderate
signs of shriveling, browning, dryness, bruises and softness; and 4 = poor quality fruit with evident signs of
shriveling, pitting, significant softness, decay (Golding et al. 2015).
Fruit shrivel
Fruit shrivel was scored using a five point scoring system; 1 = no skin shrivel, full plump fruit; 2 = slight
shrivel (< 10 % shrivel); 3 = light shrivel (< 25 % shrivel); 4 = moderate shrivel (50 % shrivel); and 5 =
severe deep shrivel (Golding et al. 2015).
Disease damage
Disease damage was assessed using a subjective four point scoring system; 1 = no disease damage; 2 =
starting damaged; 3 = clearly damaged (< 1 cm2 damaged); 4 = seriously damaged (> 1 cm2 damaged)
(Golding et al. 2015).
Fruit firmness
Fruit firmness was scored using a four point scoring system; 1 = hard; 2 = slightly soft; 3 = soft; 4 = very
soft and unacceptable (Golding et al. 2015).
TSS
Prior to instrumental analysis, the samples were thawed and squeezed through two layers of cheesecloth to
extract the juice. The TSS (oBrix) of juice samples was determined at room temperature using a PAL-1
digital hand-held “Pocket” refractometer (Atago, Japan).
TA
Flesh samples were collected and stored as above. Prior to instrumental analysis, they were thawed and
blended with a stick blender. TA of 10 g samples of the homogenised pulp in 100 ml distilled water and then
determined with a titrator using 0.1 M NaOH as the titrant. TA was expressed as the citric acid equivalent
(%) in each sample.
Data analysis
The data were subjected to analysis of variation (ANOVA) with Minitab software with maturity stages and
storage time as the sources of variation. Differences between means were tested using least significant
differences (Fisher’s protected LSD) at P ≤ 0.05.

Weight loss:
Fruit treated at 53 oC had the highest weight loss rate and showed significant differences compared to other
treatments and control in the first half of the storage period, but no longer showed a difference in the later
storage period.
159
Table 1: The weight loss value of passion fruit from different hot water treatments during storage
Treatment Day 3 Day 5 Day 7 Day 9 Day 11 Day 13 Day 15 Day 17 Day 19
Control 1,6 b 3,6 b 5,0 b 7,1 b 8,4 ab 10,5 11,8 13,5 14,7
Treatment 1
1,7 b 3,5 b 5,1 b 7,5 ab 8,8 ab 10,8 12,2 14,0 15,2
(47 oC)
Treatment 2
1,8 b 3,5 b 5,1 b 7,0 b 8,2 b 10,4 11,6 13,3 14,4
(49 oC)
Treatment 3
2,5 a 4,5 a 6,1 a 8,5 a 9,8 a 11,9 13,4 15,5 16,5
(53 oC)
P-value ** ** ** ** ** ns ns ns ns
Means within parameter (column) with different small letters are significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) as tested
by Fisher's protected LSD.
Skin colour:
The development of the skin colour of passion fruits in treatment 3, after being treated at 53 oC was different
from other treatments (P ≤ 0.05) and has the most damaged appearance because of the higher temperature
(Table 2). Fruit treated at 47 oC and 49 oC still can maintain the natural colour after being immersed in hot
water as the control treatment.
Table 2: Skin colour rating scores of passion fruit from hot water treatments during storage
Control 5,1 5,1 a 5,2 5,2 ab 5,3 ab 5,3 ab 5,3 ab 5,3 ab 5,3 ab
Treatment 1
5,0 5,1 ab 5,3 5,3 a 5,4 a 5,4 a 5,4 a 5,4 a 5,4 a
(47 oC)
Treatment 2
4,9 4,9 ab 5,1 5,1 b 5,1 b 5,2 b 5,3 ab 5,3 ab 5,3 ab
(49 oC)
Treatment 3
4,9 4,9 b 5,1 5,1 ab 5,1 b 5,1 b 5,1 b 5,1 b 5,1 b
(53 oC)
P-value Ns ** ns ** ** ** ** ** **
Overall fruit quality:
Fruit being treated with hot water at 53 oC for 5 min maintained a lower overall fruit quality (higher fruit
quality scorse) and showed significant differences compared to other treatments (P ≤ 0.05). However, fruit
being treated at 47 oC and 49 oC for 5 min also maintained good overall fruit quality, were less burned, and
less discoloured than fruit treated at 53 oC (Table 3).
Table 3: Overall quality scores of passion fruits from hot water treatments during storage
Control 1,0 1,0 b 1,3 a 1,3 b 1,4 b 1,5 b 1,5 b 1,7 1,8 ab
Treatment 1
1,0 1,1 ab 1,3 a 1,4 b 1,5 ab 1,7 ab 1,7 ab 1,8 1,9 ab
(47 oC)
Treatment 2
1,0 1,0 ab 1,2 b 1,2 b 1,4 b 1,5 b 1,6 ab 1,7 1,7 b
(49 oC)
Treatment 3
1,0 1,1 a 1,2 ab 1,6 a 1,6 a 1,7 a 1,8 a 1,9 2,0 a
(53 oC)
P-value Ns ** ** ** ** ** ** ns **
160
Fruit shrivel:
Fruit being treated at 53 oC had the highest percentage of shriveling fruits of all treatments. Meanwhile, fruit
being treated at 47 oC had a low percentage of wrinkled fruits.
Table 4: The shriveling scores of passion fruits from hot water treatments during storage
Control 1,0 1,0 1,1 b 1,7 b 2,2 2,6 b 3,0 3,3 3,7
Treatment 1
1,0 1,0 1,6 a 2,4 a 2,8 3,5 a 3,7 4,1 4,1
(47 oC)
Treatment 2
1,0 1,0 1,2 b 1,9 ab 2,5 3,0 ab 3,3 3,6 3,8
(49 oC)
Treatment 3
1,0 1,0 1,9 a 2,5 a 2,8 3,5 a 3,7 4,1 4,2
(53 oC)
P-value Ns ns ** ** ns ** ns ns ns
Disease damage:
The results showed the interaction of disease damage among hot water temperatures and time storage has
significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) (Table 5). Fruit treated with hot water at 47 oC or 49 oC for 5 min had the
lowest signs of pathogen presence as compared to others. Pathogens appear mainly in the stalk of passion
fruit and the natural mushy parts but not at the scalds.
Table 5: The disease damage rating scores of passion fruits from hot water treatments during storage
Control 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,1 gh 1,1 gh 1,1 gh 1,2 fgh 1,4 def 1,7 bcd
Treatment 1
1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,1 gh 1,2 fgh
(47 oC)
Treatment 2
1,0 h 1,0 h 1,1 gh 1,1 gh 1,2 fgh 1,2 fgh 1,2 fgh 1,2 fgh 1,3 efg
(49 oC)
Treatment 3
1,0 h 1,0 h 1,0 h 1,2 fgh 1,6 cde 1,6 bcd 1,6 bcd 1,6 bcd 1,8 abc
(53 oC)
P-value **
Means within parameter with different small letters are significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) as tested by Fisher's
protected LSD.
Fruit firmness:
Fruit treated at 53 oC had the highest firmness value as compared to other treatments (Table 6). The reason
for this was that the scalds gradually mushed the surface of the fruit around that area over time.
Table 6: The fruit firmness scores of passion fruits from hot water treatments during storage
Control 1,0 1,0 1,1 b 1,1 b 1,3 b 1,4 bc 1,5 b 1,6 1,9
Treatment 1 (47 oC) 1,0 1,0 1,2 ab 1,2 b 1,5 ab 1,7 ab 1,7 ab 1,8 2,1
Treatment 2 (49 oC) 1,0 1,0 1,1 b 1,2 b 1,3 b 1,4 c 1,5 b 1,6 1,7
Treatment 3 (53 oC) 1,0 1,0 1,2 a 1,5 a 1,5 a 1,7 a 1,8 a 1,9 2,0
P-value Ns ns ** ** ** ** ** ns ns
161
TSS and TA:
The results regarding TSS and TA showed significant differences among treatments (P ≤ 0.05). The TA
values of treatment 1 and treatment 2 were the highest and showed significant differences from the control
(P ≤ 0.05).
Table 7: The TSS and TA values of passion fruit from hot water treatments during storage
Treatment TSS (%) TA (%)
Control 15,2 b 1,6 b
o
Treatment 1 (47 C) 15,5 a 1,9 a
Treatment 2 (49 oC) 15,4 ab 1,9 a
o
Treatment 3 (53 C) 15,1 b 1,7 ab
P-value ** **
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, the research showed an effective way to reduce postharvest diseases can be approached by
using hot water treatment. Fruit treated at 47 oC and 49 oC had low weight loss rates, good colour
development, lower disease damage rate, and high TA values. Fruit treated at 53 oC had the highest weight
loss rate, poorer colour development, lower overall fruit quality, higher shriveling, and very soft. Meanwhile,
the temperature of 53 oC for 5 min can easily cause damage to the fruit because of the high temperature,
leading to the emergence of pathogens quickly from the wound, and the quality of the fruit was also
degraded over time.
References
1. Aulakh, J., Regmi, A., Fulton, J.R., Alexander, C.E (2013) Estimating Post-Harvest Food Losses:
Developing A Consistent Global Estimation Framework; Joint Annual Meeting: Washington, DC, USA
2. Aular J, Ruggiero C, Durigan J (2001) Effect of thiabendazole and warm water applications on
postharvest response of passion fruit. Bioagro 13:79–83
3. Chen SL, Wu JSB, Wu CM (1987) The preparation of concentrated passion fruit juice by methods of
flavour recovery and enzyme treatment. J Chinese Agric Chem Soc 25:177–187
4. Golding JB, Blades BL, Satyan S, Spohr LJ, Harris A, Jessup AJ, Archer JR, Davies JB & Banos C
(2015) Low dose gamma irradiation does not affect the quality or total ascorbic acid concentration of
“Sweetheart” passionfruit (Passiflora edulis). Foods 4(3):376-390
5. Kamle, M., Kumar, P., Gupta, V.K., Tiwari, A.K., Misra, A.K., Pandey, B.K (2013) Identification and
phylogenetic correlation among Colletotrichum gloeosporioides pathogen of anthracnose for mango.
Biocatal. Agric. Biotechnol. 2013, 2, 285–287
6. Kishore, K., Pathak, K. A., Shukla, R., & Bharali, R. (2011) Effect of storage temperature on physico-
chemical and sensory attributes of purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims). Journal of Food Science
and Technology, 48(4), 484-488
7. Lurie S (1998) Postharvest heat treatments of horticultural crops. In: Janick J (ed) Horticultural reviews.
Wiley, New York, pp 91–121
8. Palou, L., Montesinos-Herrero, C., Tarazona, I., Besada, C., Taberner, V (2015) Incidence and Etiology
of Postharvest Fungal Diseases of Persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb. cv. Rojo Brillante) in Spain. Plant
Dis. 2015, 99, 1416–1425
162
9. Perez, M.F., Contreras, L., Garnica, N.M., Fernández-Zenoff, M.V., Farias, M.E., Sepulveda, M.,
Ramallo, J., Dib, J.R (2016) Native Killer Yeasts as Biocontrol Agents of Postharvest Fungal Diseases in
Lemons. PLoS ONE 2016, 11, e0165590
10. Pinzón, I. M. D. P., Fischer, G., & Corredor, G. (2007). Determination of the maturity stages of purple
passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims). Agronomía Colombiana, 25(1), 83-95
11. Rizwan, H. M., Zhimin, L., Harsonowati, W., Waheed, A., Qiang, Y., Yousef, A. F., ... & Chen, F.
(2021) Identification of fungal pathogens to control postharvest passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) decays
and multi-omics comparative pathway analysis reveals purple is more resistant to pathogens than a
yellow cultivar. Journal of Fungi, 7(10), 879.

[STS22-29]
163
STUDY ON ANTI-Candia albicans ACTIVITY OF COMBINATION OF
BETEL’S EXTRACT (Piper betle L. Piperaceae) AND CLOVE BASIL
ESSENTIAL OIL (Ocimum gratissimum L. Lamiaceae)
Pham Ben Chi1*, Nguyen Thi Bach Tuyet2, Pham Thuy Huong2, Phan Kim Thai2, Ngo Yen Nhi2
1
Faculty of Laboratory Medicine Techniques, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
Faculty of Pharmacy, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Pham Ben Chi (Phone: +84966858543; Email: phambenchi@gmail.com)
Abstract
Betel extract contains Hydroxychavicol which inhibits the growth of Candida albicans through inhibition of
DNA replication (Singh D., 2018). Clove basil essential oil was reported about anti – Candida activity (Saad
N, 2013). Its mechanism of action involves the inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis in the cell membrane
(Singh D., 2018). Based on the principle of the combination of two agents that have different mechanisms of
action in the treatment of infection, the study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy against C. albicans of
the combination of betel extract and clove basil essential oil. The results indicated that the combination of
betel extract and clove basil essential oil (ratio of 1 mg:1 μL) additively interacted on inhibiting C. albicans
ATCC 10231 in vitro and ex vivo models of permeability through nail. Besides, by ex vivo infected nail
model, the research showed that the combination of betel extract 0.625 % (w/v) and clove basil essential oil
0.625 % (v/v) killed the fungi. The results could provide basic information to develop some preparations
(cream, gel, etc) that contain betel extract and clove basil essential oil for the treatment of onychomycosis.
Keywords: onychomycosis, Candida albicans, betel extract, clove basil essential oil, additive effect.
1. Introduction
Onychomycosis is the condition where the nails is destroyed by fungi with in most cases is Candida
albicans. The patients with onychomycosis will usually be required to administrate antifungal drugs such
terbinafine or the azole group. However, this treatment, in long term, will causes excessive side effects and
increase the drug resistance condition. Therefore, current trend is using herbal’s drug to solve this problem.
In 2020, Le Van Kim Anh and et al reported betel extract (extracted from betel’s leaves by decoction with
water and purified by EtOH 96% to remove polysaccharide, gum, etc) against Candida spp (MIC range 2 – 4
mg/mL) (Le Van Kim Anh, 2020) Betel extract contains Hydroxychavicol which inhibits the growth of
Candida albicans through inhibition of DNA replication (Singh D., 2018). Clove basil essential oil was
reported about anti – Candidal activity. Its mechanism of action involves the inhibition of ergosterol
biosynthesis in the cell membrane. Based on the principle of the combination of two agents that infection
(Ministry of Public Health, 2015) the study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy against C. albicans of the
combination of betel extract and clove basil essential oil through the in vitro and ex vivo experiments.
2.1 Material
Betel’s extract was prepared from its leaves (Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam) by decoction
with the ratio of herbal – water (1:5 g/mL), at the temperature of 100 ± 5 oC for 3 hours. The liquid extract
was concentrated to 1/10 original volume, then was purified by alcohol precipitation method at the ratio of
concentrated liquid and 96% EtOH was 1:16 (v/v). (Le Van Kim Anh, 2020)
Clove basil essential oil was bought from My Linh aromatic and Travel Corp, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
Candida albicans ATCC 10231
2.2 Method
2.2.1 Interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in inhibition C. albicans in vitro
The type of interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in inhibition C. albicans was
evaluated by the agar microdilution method (Naumann S., 2014). The tested medium was MHA (Muller
Hinton Agar) with additional 2% glucose. Betel extract and clove basil EO is constantly ½ diluted in tested
164
medium in a 96-wells plate. Each well contained 100 μL of tested medium and sample (betel extract or clove
basil essential oil or combination of them). Wells A2 – A6 contained clove basil essential oil concentrations
from 4 μL/mL to 0.25 μL/mL. Wells B1 – G1 contained betel extract containing betel extract concentration
from 8000 µg/mL – 250 µg/mL. Wells B2 – B6, C2 – C6, D2 – D6, E2 – E6, F2 – F6, G2 – G6 contained
combine of betel extract and clove basil essential oil at different concentrations and ratios (Table 1)
Table 1. The 96 wells plate in checker – board agar microdilution method
Clove basil essential oil
1 2 3 4 5 6
A Control A2 A3 A4 A5 A6
B B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
Betel C C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
extract D D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
E E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6
F F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6
G G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6
C. albicans ATCC 10231 was actived and isolated in Sabauraud dextrose agar (SDA) at 37 0C for 4 hours.
The purified colonies were suspended in sterile 0.85% of NaCl solution to obtain 1 – 5 x 106 CFU/mL of
yeast cell concentration (equivalent to 0.08 – 0.12 of OD530nm). Dropping 10 µL of the yeast cell suspension
into each well. Then, incubating the plates at 370C for 48 hours and recording the MIC value of betel extract
and clove basil essential oil in individual and combination. After that, calculating the FIC value to determine
kind of interaction of them.
FIC = +
FIC ≤ 0.5: synergism 0,5 < FIC ≤ 1: additive
1 < FIC ≤ 4: indifferent 4 < FIC: antagonism

2.2.2. Nail penetration ability of betel extract and clove basil essential oil
Nails of volunteer people were collected and cut into pieces 3 x 3 mm in size. They were cleaned by 70% of
EtOH, sterile saline, followed up drying in laminar at room temperature. Covering the surface of tested
medium (MHA with 2% of glucose, 0.0025 % of Chloramphenicol, 0.025% of cycloheximide) by C.
albicans ATCC 10231 suspension (concentration of 106 CFU/ml). Putting pieces of nail on the surface of
tested medium. Then putting the sterile paper disk on the nail pieces. Dropping 2.5 µL of sample (betel
extract diluted in 10% DMSO solvent, clove basil essential oil diluted in PEG 400% and combine of them at
various concentration) into the paper disks. After that, incubating at 370C for 48 hours and recording
diameter of the inhibition zone (DIZ) to evaluate their nail penetration abilities (Traynor M, 2010).
2.2.3. Anti – C. albicans activity of betel extract and clove basil essential oil by nail infected ex vivo
model
Nail infection : C. albicans ATCC 10231 activated in agar YPG medium (Yeast extract – Peptone –
Glucose), incubated at 370C for 48 hours, then continued to activate in broth YPG medium. After 48 hours,
centrifuging to collect the yeast cell bite. Dispersing this bite in sterile saline with addition of 0.05 % of
Tween 80 to obtain 107 CFU/mL. Yeast cell counts were determined using a Neubauer erythrocyte counting
chamber. Diluting the fungal suspension in water agar so that the yeast concentration is 106 CFU/mL. Place
the nail peices on the medium surface, so the fungus uses the nail as its sole source of nutrients. After 7 days
of incubation at 370C, observing the fungal growth in nails using an optical microscope.
After causing fungal infection, the nail is transferred to a petri dish containing the sample diluted in YPG
agar at various concentrations. After (2 – 3) days, observing the regrowth of the fungus with the naked eye to
165
determine the antifungal ability of the sample (MIC ex vivo). Then, transfering the nail to YPG agar so that
they is exposed to the medium, incubating at 370C for 48 hours, observing the growth of the fungus again.
This stage helps to determine the minimum concentration of fungicides on the nail tissue (MFC ex vivo)
(Nguyen Vu Giang Bac, 2012).

3.1. Interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in inhibition C. albicans in vitro
The kind of interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in inhibition C. albicans ATCC
10231 in vitro showed in table 2 and figure 1.
Table 2. The result of determining kind of interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in
inhibition C. albicans ATCC 10231 in vitro
Sample Well MIC FIC Interaction type Ratio
Betel extract D1 2 mg/mL
Clove basil EO A3 2 μl/mL
Combination E4 1 mg : 1 mL 1 Additive 1 mg: 1 mL
Figure 1. The 96 wells plate in determining interaction between betel extract and clove basil essential oil in
inhibition C. albicans ATCC 10231
Combination of betel extract and clove basil essential oil interacted additively in inhibition C. albicans
ATCC 10231 at the ratios of (1 mg : 1 µL). When combining them together, anti – C. albicans ATCC 10231
of betel extract and clove basil essential oil 2 times increased in comparison to them in alone. Moreover,
their combining ratio had fairly equal synergy effectiveness, thus become very potential for developing later
formula.
3.2. Nail penetration ability of betel extract and clove basil essential oil
The nail penetration ability of betel extract and clove basil essential oil was showed in Table 3 and Figure 2.
166
Table 3. DIZ C. albicans ATCC 10231 of the sample
DIZ (mm)
Sample
No.1 No. 2 No. 3 Average
PEG 400 0 0 0 0
Betel extract 40% 0 0 0 0
Clove basil EO 80% 15 16 15 15.33
Clove basil EO 40% 9 8 8 8.33
Clove basil EO 20% 0 0 0 0
Betel extract 40% + Clove basil 40% 14.5 14.5 15 14.67
Figure 2. Inhibition zone C. albicans ATCC 10231 of sample
PEG 400, DMSO 10% (v/v) that were used to dissovle clove basil essential oil and betel extract, show no
inhibition zone. Betel extract could not penetrate through healthy human nails at the concentration of 100%
(w/v). In contracts, clove basil essential oil could penetrate healthy human nails at concentration of at least
20% (v/v). The DIZ of combination of betel extract 40% (w/v) and clove basil essential oil 40% were higher
in statistically comparing to clove basil essential oil at 40% of concentration (p < 0.05). This has proved the
additive effectiveness of them in inhibition C. albicans.
3.3. Anti – C. albicans activity of betel extract and clove basil essential oil by nail infected ex vivo
model
After infected C. albicans ATCC 10231 on human nails, the result showed that yeast cells and false
mycelium under the microscope at 400x magnification (Figure 3). Thus, the nail were successfully infected.
167
Figure 3. Infected nails
As combination of betel extract 40% and clove basil essential oil 40% were additive effective against C.
albicans ATCC 10231 in the human nail penetration model, the research was continued to determine the
MIC ex vivo and MFC ex vivo. The result was illustrated in Figure 4
Figure 4. The result in determining MIC ex vivo of combination of betel extract and clove basil essential oil
(1mg:1ml)
When the infected nails were treated with combination betel extract 0.313% and clove basil essential oil
0.313%, there were growth of the fungi around the nails. Meanwhile, at the ratio of 0.625% : 0.625%, the
fungi was inhibited. Thus, the concentration was also the MIC ex vivo value of the combination on
C.albicans ATCC 10231.
The infected nails that treated with the sample at concentration higher than MIC ex vivo were re – located on
YPG medium to determine MFC ex vivo. The results are described in Figure 5. On YPG medium, there were
168
no signs of fungi growth around the nails. Therefore, the MFC ex vivo value of the combination betel extract
and clove basil essential oil was equal to MIC ex vivo.
Figure 5. The result in determining MFC ex vivo of combination of betel extract and clove basil essential
oil (1mg:1ml)
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, by the in vitro and ex vivo model, the research had determined the additive effective anti-C.
albicans ATCC 10231 of combination betel extract and clove basil essential oil (1 mg:1 μL). In the
combination. Also, the research has determined that the combination of betel extract 0.625% (w/v) and clove
basil essential oil 0.625% (v/v) killed the C. albicans infected in nail. These results are the corner stones to
develop suitable formulas (cream, gels, etc.) that supports treating Candida infected nails containing betel
extract and clove basil essential oil
References
1. Lê Văn Kim Anh, Phạm Bền Chí (2020), "Khảo sát hoạt tính kháng Candida spp. của cao Trầu không
riêng rẽ và phối hợp với miconazole". Tạp chí Khoa học và Công nghệ - Đại học Nguyễn Tất Thành. 12,
tr.58 -63.
2. Singh D., Narayanamoorthy S., Gamre S. et al. (2018), "Hydroxychavicol, a key ingredient of Piper
betle induces bacterial cell death by DNA damage and inhibition of cell division". Free Radical Biology
and Medicine. 120, pp.62-71.
3. Saad N. Y., Muller C. D., Lobstein A. (2013), "Major bioactivities and mechanism of action of essential
oils and their components". Flavour and Fragrance Journal. 28 (5), pp.269-279.
4. Bộ Y tế (2015), Hướng dẫn sử dụng kháng sinh, tr. 29 - 31
5. E. J., Rogers P. D. (2005), Antifungal agents: methods and protocols. Vol. 118, Springer Science &
Business Media.
6. Golus J. et al. (2016), "The agar microdilution method–a new method for antimicrobial susceptibility
testing for essential oils and plant extracts". Journal of Applied Microbiology. 121 (5), pp. 1291-1299.
7. Naumann S., Meyer J.-P., Kiesow A. et al. (2014), "Controlled nail delivery of a novel lipophilic
antifungal agent using various modern drug carrier systems as well as in vitro and ex vivo model
systems". Journal of Controlled Release. 180, pp. 60-70.
169
8. Thatai P., Tiwary A., Sapra B. (2016), "Progressive development in experimental models of transungual
drug delivery of anti‐fungal agents". International Journal of Cosmetic Science. 38 (1), pp. 1-12.
9. Traynor M., Turner R., Evans C. et al. (2010), "Effect of a novel penetration enhancer on the ungual
permeation of two antifungal agents". Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. 62 (6), pp. 730-737.
10. Nguyễn Vũ Giang Bắc, Nguyễn Đinh Nga (2012), "Ứng dụng một số mô hình khảo sát tác dụng của chất
kháng nấm ex vivo trên Candida albicans". Tạp chí Y học Thành phồ Hồ Chí Minh. 16(1), tr. 86 - 89.
11. Bộ Y tế (2013), Hướng dẫn quy trình kĩ thuật chuyên ngành Vi sinh y học, tr. 736 - 638

[STS22-34]
170
ANTI-BACTERIAL AND ANTI-DIARRHEAL EVALUATION OF Moringa
oleifera
Nguyen Trung Hieu2, Luong Tan Trung3, Pham Minh Nhut1,*
1
HUTECH Institute of Applied Science, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
2
Vahinvest Investment Produce and Development Limited Liability Company, Can Tho City, Vietnam
3
Faculty of Medicine, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* Corresponding author: Email: pm.nhut@hutech.edu.vn. Phone: +84 947 200991.
Abstract
Moringa oleifera is a woody plant popularly distributed in Vietnam. M. oleifera ethanolic extract was used to
evaluate antibacterial activity, toxicity and anti-diarrheal activity. The results showed that M. oleifera
ethanolic extract had highly antibacterial activity, particularly to diarrhea relating bacteria such as
Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio spp. and Escherichia coli. The M. oleifera ethanolic extract also
effectively prevented enteropooling, reduced either time of charcoal transit in small intestine or defecation in
castor oil-induced mice at 63 mg kg–1 body weight. In addition, no significant toxicity signs or mortality
were observed on mice after treating the plant extract up to doses of 5000 mg kg–1 body weight. The
preliminary phytochemical screening of M. oleifera ethanolic extract showed the presence of carbohydrates,
alkaloids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins and steroids. These results
strongly demonstrated that M. oleifera ethanolic extract possessed highly anti-bacterial and anti-diarrheal
properties.
Keyword: Moringa oleifera, antibacterial activity, anti-diarrheal activity, ethanolic extract.
1. Introduction
Intestinal disease is one of the diseases with the highest number of people, in which diarrhea is the most
common, especially in the developing countries. Diarrhea is caused by many reasons including bacterial
infections such as Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhii, Shigella flexneri, Escherichia coli, Vibrio
cholerae, or chemicals such as castor oil or magnesium sulfate (Guandalini S and Vaziri H 2011; Sarin RV
and Bafna PA 2012). These agents cause the influx of water and ions to the lumen and thus increase the
intestinal motility, thereby using watery stool (Shahid, 1998). To treat diarrhea, some medicines are used
such as diphenoxylate and loperamide. However, the usage of those medicines may cause some side effects
such as vomit, intestine obstruction and constipation (Lakshminarayana et al. 2011). For this reason, recently
there has been a great interest in herbal remedies for diarrhea treatment with no side effects.
Moringa oleifera is a medium-sized tree that can grow up to tens of meters high in adulthood. Stems are
glossy, without spines. Compound leaves are 30–60 cm long, feathery, musty green; leaflets are 12–20 mm
long, ovate, and opposite in 6-9 pairs. The plant blooms in January-February. The flowers are creamy white,
with peduncles, shaped like pea flowers, growing in panicles in the leaf axils, hairy, with much nectar. The
fruit is a hanging capsule, 25–40 cm long, 2 cm wide, with 3 edges, slightly raised seeds, and grooves along
the fruit. The ethnobotany information revealed that leaves can be used to treat diarrhea. The present study
was conducted to evaluate its bioactivity, toxicity, and anti-diarrheal activity.

2.1. Preparation of Moringa oleifera ethanolic extract
M. oleifera was collected from An Binh commune, Long Ho district, Vinh Long province. Leaves were dried
and powdered and prepared as a modified procedure of Milosevic et al (2007). The sample was extracted
with ethanol 70% by the immersion method at room temperature for 48 hours. The extract was filtered and
evaporated at 400C, using a rotary evaporator to constant weight. The yield of the extract was 18.89% (w/w).
The extract was stored in a sterilized bottle in 40C.
171
2.2. Preparation of indicator bacteria and animals
19 strains of pathogenic bacteria (4 strains of Salmonella spp.; 3 strains of Shigella spp.; 4 strains of
Escherichia coli; 3 strains of Vibrio spp. and 5 strains of other pathogenic bacteria) and 7 strains of useful
bacteria (4 strains of Lactobacillus spp. and 3 strains of Bacillus spp.) were used to evaluate the antibacterial
activity of M. oleifera ethanolic extract.
Albino mice (25-30 g) were used to evaluate anti-diarrheal activity of M. oleifera ethanolic extract (MoEE).
All the animals were housed in glass cages in laboratory conditions for at least 1 week before performing
experiment.
2.3. Anti-bacterial activity of MoEE

The M. oleifera ethanolic extract was evaluated for antibacterial activity by the well diffusion agar method
(Sen and Batra 2012). Indicator bacteria were enriched at 370C for 24 hours. 100μl of diluted bacteria (106
cfu ml–1) solution was spread on agar medium until dried. Then, wells (6 mm in diameter) were made by
using sterile metal cylinders. 100μl of the M. oleifera ethanolic extract (100 mg.ml–1) were added into the
wells. Control experiment comprised inoculums with 1% DMSO. Plates were incubated at 37.0 ± 0.10C for
24 hours. The diameter of the inhibition zone (mm) was measured. Each experiment was triplicated and the
collected data was subjected to statistical analysis.
2.4. Acute toxicity study
The acute toxicity of M. oleifera ethanolic extract was determined on mice model. Mice were fasted for 18
hours and randomly divided into four groups (6 mice per group). Different doses of plant extract (1250, 2500
and 5000 mg kg–1) were separately oral administered to the mice. The fourth group of animals as control was
administered DMSO 1% (2 ml.kg–1 body). All the animals were observed over a period of 5 days for deaths
and signs of acute toxicity.
2.5. Castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice
Mice were fasted for 18 hours then divided into six groups (6 mice per group). A group of control animals
was administered DMSO 1% (2 ml kg–1 body). The second group received the standard drug, loperamide (3
mg kg–1 body) orally as a suspension. The MoEE was administered orally at the doses of 63, 125, 250, 500,
1000 mg kg–1 body - to the five remaining groups, separately. After 30 min of treatment, the animals of each
group were received 0.4 ml of castor oil orally. Then, they were housed separately in cages over clean filter
paper. Diarrhea episodes were observed for a period of 4 hours.
During this period, the first defecation time, the defecation animal number at each group and the cumulative
wet fecal mass was recorded. The percent of diarrheal inhibition (PI) was defined as the following formula:
PI (%) = (Mean of defecation (control group – treated group)/ mean of defecation of control group) x 100.
The results of treated groups were compared with control group to evaluate the diarrheal treatment
effectiveness of M. oleifera ethanolic extract (Lakshminarayana et al. 2011).
2.6. Castor oil-induced enteropooling test
Mice were treated with castor oil and MoEE as mentioned above. After 1 hour of castor oil administration,
all animals were sacrificed by an overdose of diethyl ether. The small intestine (from the pylorus to the
caecum) was dissected out and weighed. Its content was collected into a cylinder and its volume measured.
The empty intestine was weighed again, then percentage reduction of intestine secretion (volume) was
calculated (Lakshminarayana et al. 2011).
2.7. Small intestine transit test in mice
Mice were fasted and treated with MoEE as mentioned above. 30 minutes after plant extract administrated,
the mice were administered 0.4 ml castor oil, followed by 0.2 ml charcoal meal (3% charcoal suspension in
carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) 0.5% (w/v)). Then, each animal was housed separately in cage. After 1
hour, all animals were sacrificed by overdose of diethyl ether then the small intestine (from the pylorus to the
caecum) was dissected. Charcoal meal moving distance was measured and then expressed as a percentage of
the distance from the pylorus to the caecum (Lakshminarayana et al. 2011).
2.8. Preliminary phytochemical analysis
172
The M. oleifera ethanolic extract was chemically tested for the presence of different constituents including
carbohydrates, alkaloids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, anthraquinone glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic
compounds, tannin, steroids, and amino acids by using standard methods (Jayaveera et al. 2010).
2.9. Statistical analysis
Values were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Mean values were evaluated by Analysis of Variance.
Duncan test was used to determine the statistical significance (P < 0.05).

3.1. Antibacterial activity of M. oleifera
The ethanolic extract of M. oleifera showed inhibitory activity against several different diarrhea-related
bacteria strains, including Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio spp. and E. coli (Table 1). Interestingly, our
experiment also revealed that M. oleifera ethanolic extract inhibited against an ampicillin resistant S.
enteritidis strain with 8.50 ± 0.00 mm diameter of inhibition zone at 100 mg ml –1 used concentration.
However, the MoEE did not inhibit other pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, L. innocua,
Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus feacalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Table 1). The pathogenic
indicator bacteria were used such as S. typhii caused typhoid fever; S. enteritidis, S. flexneri caused diarrhea;
S. boydii caused dysentery; E. coli was responsible for the diarrhea; Vibrio spp. caused a number of serious
diseases in humans such as cholera disease (V. cholerae), gastroenteristic (V. parahaemolyticus). Those
bacteria were strongly inhibited by M. oleifera ethanolic extract. Those results strongly demonstrated that
MoEE had a high potential for antibacterial activity.
Table 1 Antibacterial activity of M. oleifera ethanolic extract

Indicator bacteria Diameter of inhibition Indicator bacteria Diameter of inhibition
zone (mm) zone (mm)
S. dublin 9.83 ± 0.76 E. Coli 9.50 ± 0.76
S. enteritidis 8.50 ± 0.00 ETEC 10.67 ± 0.58
S. typhimurium 8.16 ± 0.76 V. alginolyticus 8.33 ± 1.00
S. boydii 9.23 ± 0.58 V. cholerae 8.67 ± 0.87
S. flexneri 9.33 ± 0.76 V. parahaemolyticus 8.50 ± 0.00
V. harveyi 10.00 ± 0.50
3.2. Anti-diarrheal activity of M. oleifera

In this study, defecation in castor oil-induced diarrhea mice, which were treated by MoEE, was significantly
reduced. While loperamide (3 mg kg–1 body) inhibited 89.34% of mice defecation, the crude extract of M.
oleifera inhibited 35.57% of mice defecation at 63 mg kg–1 used concentration. The MoEE defecation
inhibitory activity was dose-dependence when it was clearly increasing at the high MoEE dose of treatment
(Table 2). In castor oil-induced diarrheal mouse model, anti-diarrheal activity may be attributed to an anti-
electrolyte permeability action and intestine transit. In our experiment, castor oil-induced enteropooling was
observed in all experimental mice and it was strongly weakened by MoEE treatment at 63 mg kg–1 dose. The
MoEE had shown a dose–dependent effect in reduction in intestinal weight and volume (Table 3). Besides,
MoEE also strongly reduced the charcoal meal transit rate in castor oil-induced mice (Table 4).
The result was shown that the MoEE had high anti-diarrheal activity. The cause of diarrhea is characterized
by excessive secretion of water and electrolytes into intestine lumen, exudation of protein and fluid from the
mucosa and altered intestinal motility, resulting in rapid transit time and an increase in wet feces. Castor oil
stimulates secretion of fluid and electrolytes and increases in intestinal lumen. These results showed that
MoEE was clearly effective to treat diarrhea in castor oil-induced mice model by reducing wet feces,
inhibiting secretion fluid and gastrointestinal propulsion.
173
Table 2 Defecation inhibitory activity of M. oleifera ethanolic extract.
Treatment Onset of Animals with No. of % inhibition
diarrhea (min) diarrhea faeces in 4h of
(g) defecation
Castor oil + DMSO 1% (2 ml kg–1) 85.33 ± 11.54a 6/6 0.78 ± 0.12a
Castor oil + Loperamide (3 mg kg–1) 220.50 ± 7.78d 2/6 0.11 ± 0.03e 89.34
–1 cd
Castor oil + MoEE (1000 mg kg ) 207.05 ± 6.36 2/6 0.14 ± 0.05de 85.74
–1 c
Castor oil + MoEE (500 mg kg ) 197.67 ± 15.82 3/6 0.20 ± 77.87
0.05cde
Castor oil + MoEE (250 mg kg–1) 176.33 ± 7.09b 4/6 0.27 ± 72.95
0.05bcd
Castor oil + MoEE (125 mg kg–1) 164.25 ± 15.56b 5/6 0.44 ± 0.00bc 55.56
–1 b b
Castor oil + MoEE (63 mg kg ) 139.00 ± 5.07 6/6 0.65 ± 0.06 35.57
The value are mean ± SEM, n = 6; a,b,c,d,e p<0,05 when compared with control group (ANOVA followed by
Duncan test).
Table 3 Enteropooling reduction in M. oleifera ethanolic extract treated mice

Weight intestinal % inhibition in weight of intestinal
Treatment
content (g) content
Castor oil + DMSO 1% (2 ml kg–1) 1.12 ± 0.42a -
–1 cd
Castor oil + Loperamide (3 mg kg ) 0.35 ± 0.09 68.66
Castor oil + MoEE (1000 mg kg–1) 0.32 ± 0.12d 71.64
Castor oil + MoEE (500 mg kg–1) 0.33 ± 0.14cd 70.15
Castor oil + MoEE (250 mg kg–1) 0.45 ± 0.12bc 59.70
–1
Castor oil + MoEE (125 mg kg ) 0.53 ± 0.09c 52.99
Castor oil + MoEE (63 mg kg–1) 0.68 ± 0.17b 39.55
a,b,c
The value are mean ± SEM, n = 6; p<0,05 when compared with control group (ANOVA followed by
Duncan test).
Table 4 Effect of M. oleifera ethanolic extract on small intestine transit in mice

Treatment Mean Mean distance % Movement %
intestine travel by Inhibition
length (cm) charcoal (cm)
Castor oil + DMSO 1% (2 ml kg–1) 43.58 ± 5.04 35.08 ± 1.39 81.28 ± 8.63a 18.72 ± 8.63
–1 de
Castor oil + Loperamide(3 mg kg ) 39.25 ± 6.21 15.00 ± 2.33 38.36 ± 4.16 61.64 ± 4.16
Castor oil + MoEE (1000 mg kg–1) 43.58 ± 2.37 12.33 ± 4.31 28.14 ± 8.98d 71.86 ± 8.89
–1 cd
Castor oil + MoEE (500 mg kg ) 41.00 ± 3.18 15.33 ± 3.92 37.45 ± 9.28 62.55 ± 9.28
Castor oil + MoEE (250 mg kg–1) 42.02 ± 2.09 17.95 ± 3.17 42.95 ± 8.40bcd 57.05 ± 8.40
Castor oil + MoEE (125 mg kg–1) 40.67 ± 4.38 21.92 ± 3.32 54.14 ± 7.45bc 45.86 ± 7.45
Castor oil + MoEE (63 mg kg–1) 45.00 ± 5.70 26.08 ± 2.46 58.49 ± 7.24ab 41.51 ±7.24
b,c,d,e
The value are mean ± SEM, n = 6; p<0,05 when compared with control group (ANOVA followed by
Duncan test).
3.3. Acute animal study
In acute toxicity study, mice were treated by MoEE at several different high doses (1250, 2500, and 5000 mg
kg–1). Our observation on all treated mice demonstrated that during the 5 days after MoEE oral
administration no significant toxicity signs or mortality were obtained. The treated mice were holding
normal physiology condition, body temperature.
3.4. Preliminary phytochemical analysis
174
The preliminary phytochemical screening of M. oleifera ethanolic extract showed the presence of
carbohydrates, alkaloids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins, and
steroids (Table 5).
The data on indicator bacteria and the castor oil-induced mouse model strongly contributed to evidence of M.
oleifera antibacterial and anti-diarrheal activity. Coincidently, the preliminary phytochemical screening data
provided a sight of mechanism on study of M. oleifera activity as an anti-diarrheal herb. It is well known that
flavonoid, phenolic compounds and tannin are antibacterial compounds (Silva and Fernandes Junior 2010;
Gobalakrishnan et al 2013). Our data also demonstrated that M. oleifera ethanolic extract contains those
mentioned compounds. Taken together, it suggested that antibacterial activity of the plant might due to the
flavonoid, tannin and phenolic compounds. Furthermore, both tannin and flavonoid can precipitate protein of
the electrolyte and reduce small intestine transit and intestinal secretion (Rajeswari et al 2014; Sai et al
2015), the compounds may play a function in M. oleifera anti-diarrheal activity.
Table 5 Phytochemical screening of M. oleifera ethanolic extract

Chemical test Results Chemical test Results
Test for carbohydrate Test for saponin
Molisch’s test + Foam test +
Fehling’s test + Test for amino acid
Barfoed’s test + Ninhydrin test –
Test for flavonoid Test for phenolic compound
Alkaline reagent test + Lead acetate test +
Shinoda’s test + Gelatin test +
Ferric chloride test +
Test for tannin Test for steroids
Ferric chloride test + Salkowski’s test +
Lead acetate test + Libermann Burchard test +
Test for alkaloid Test for anthraquinone glycosides
Mayer’s test + Borntrager’s test –
Dragendorff’s test + Test for cardiac glycosides
Hager’s test + Legal’s test +
Wagner’s test + Keller Killiani’s test +
(+) positive; (–) negative
4. Conclusions
M. oleifera are popular herb in Vietnam. In our study, diarrhea-related bacteria were strongly inhibited by M.
oleifera ethanolic extract. The data of the assay on castor oil-induced mouse model strongly contributed to
evidence of M. oleifera anti-diarrheal activity. The preliminary phytochemical screening data provided a
sight of mechanism on study of M. oleifera activity as an anti-diarrheal herb.
Since M. oleifera has not been reported as an anti-diarrheal herb yet, the present study strongly demonstrated
that M. oleifera is effective in the treatment of diarrhea either by its antibacterial or anti-diarrheal activity.
175
References
1. Gobalakrishnan R, Kulandaivelu M, Bhuvaneswari R, Kandavel D, Kannan L (2013) Screening of wild
plant species for antibacterial activity and phytochemical analysis of Tragia involucrata L. J Pharm
Analysis 3: 460-465.
2. Guandalini S and Vaziri H (2011). Diarrhea: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Advances. London: Springer.
p. 1-31.
3. Jayaveera KN, Yoganandham RK, Govindarajula Y, Kumanan R (2010) Phytochemical screenings,
antibacterial activity and physical chemical constants of ethanolic extract of Euphorbia thymifolia Linn.
Int J Pharm Pharm Sci 2: 81–82.
4. Lakshminarayana M, Shivkumar H, Rimaben P, Bhargava VK (2011) Antidiarrhoeal activity of leaf
extract of Moringa oleifera in experimentally induced diarrhoea in rats. Int J Phytomedicine 3: 68–74.
5. Milosevic T, Solujic S, Sukdolak S (2007) In vitro study of ethanolic extract of Hypericum perforatum
L. on growth and sporulation of some bacteria and fungi. Turk J Biol 31: 237–241.
6. Rajeswari K, Kumar AR, Rathinam KMS (2014). Phytochemical and anti diarrhoeal activity of
Hippocratea Africana roots. Indian J Res Pharm Biotech 2: 1357-1359
7. Sai BN, Chand CVG, Krishna GR, Kumar AR, Reddy AJR, Vallabh V (2015) Phytochemical and anti
diarrhoeal activity of extract of Morinda citrifolia. Int J Pharm Chem Biol Sci 5: 138-140.
8. Sarin RV and Bafna PA (2012). Herbal Antidiarrheals: A review. Int J Res Pharm Biomed Sci 3: 637-
649.
9. Sen A, Batra A. Evaluation of antibacterial activity of different solvent extracts of medical plants: Melia
azedarach L. Int J Curr Pharm Res, 2012; 4(2): 67–73.
10. Shahid AA (1998) Biological activities of extracts and isolated compound from Bauhinia galpinii
(Fabaceae) and Combretum vendae (Combretaceae) as potential antidiarrhoeal agents. University of
Pretoria, South Africa.
11. Silva NNC, Fernandes Junior A (2010) Biological properties of medicinal plants: a review of their
antimicrobial activity. JVATiTD 16: 402-413.

[STS22-37]
176
UTILIZATION OF SODIUM CHLORIDE IN IN VITRO
MAGNETOFECTION
Tran Thi Hai Yen1,2,*
1
Department of Biotechnology, International University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 909 020 147; Email: tthyen@hcmiu.edu.vn)
Abstract
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been successfully applied in biomedical applications due to their
unique properties such as superparamagnetism, biocompatibility, and bio-friendly. However, gene delivery
by using MNPs (magnetofection) has not achieved much significant success. Our study aims to initially
establish a promising and simple protocol for gene delivery by utilizing MNPs. Specifically, we aim to
evaluate whether sodium chloride (NaCl) could induce magnetofection with naked plasmid DNA. We
investigated different doses and time of NaCl treatment based on previous studies. The delivery efficiency of
magnetofection and the viability of the HEK293T (Human Embryonic Kidney) cell under various treatments
were evaluated. Delivery efficiency was represented by fluorescent expressing cells. NaCl increased the
magnetofection process in a dose and treatment duration co-dependent manner. Initial data showed the
optimal condition was 150mM with 40-minute duration. However, further researches need to be carried out
in order to tell the definite optimal conditions.
Keywords: Magnetic nanoparticles, Magnetofection, NaCl
1. Introduction
Gene delivery is defined as the process of transferring foreign DNA or RNA to host cells. This process is
for applications such as genetic research or gene therapy. We summarised here two most well-established
methods for gene delivery. The first one is lipofection, a chemical-based transfection. This method focuses
on combining DNA with vesicles, such as either liposomes or polymersomes. The resulting DNA/lipid
complexes will fuse with the cytoplasmic membrane and are introduced to the cells through endocytosis
(Wagner 2005). This system requires no membrane repair mechanism since it benefits from not messing
around with the membrane structure. This method is well-known for average toxicity, high efficiency;
however, it requires complicated procedure of changing buffers frequently. Lipofection was first introduced
in the 1980s; it still remains as the most widely used method nowadays, which is to say about its importance
(Felgner 1987).
The other system is nucleofection, a physical-based transfection. This method involves the application of
brief electric pulses to cells or tissues to increase the permeability of cells to macromolecules (Zimmermann
1982). As a result, it needs specific adaptation and optimization of parameters for particular cell types,
therefore, the drawback of this method is the tendency for a high level of damaged cells. The damaged cells
later on use specific membrane-repair mechanisms to close the holes created by the electric field.
Currently, scientists approach to another gene delivery system by the use of magnetic forces, so-called
magnetofection (Plank 2003). With the promising aspect of delivery material (genetic or drugs) to achieve
high local concentration, avoiding toxic and other adverse side effects arising due to high drug doses in other
parts of the organism (Langer 1990). For the magnetofection system, the magnetic plate of the system is to
improve contacting between complexes containing magnetic nanoparticles and plasmid DNA (these
complexes are called magnetofectins) and the cells’ surface. In past research, it would be used in
combination with lipofection as means for protecting and helping vectors enter cells' membranes, further
increase the efficiency of lipofection (Plank 2011). On the other ways, as stated in previous researches,
magnetofectin was mixed with liposomes (Plank 2003) or polymersomes (Kim 2019). However, this
combination will additionally increase the cost of transfection process. By removing such vesicles from
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magnetofection, in theory, the efficiency would be reduced, but with the benefit of much less toxicity and
simpler to control with fewer factors.
Previous literature had shown that the association of DNA and MNPs could be induced by salt. For
nucleic acid purification method, silica containing spin column is a common use. In the presence of
chaotropic sodium salt, DNA is bound to the silica membrane to separate them from other components.
Taking advantage of home-made materials, our MNPs are coated by silica. Sodium chloride (NaCl) was used
in previous successful magnetofection (Plank 2003, Huth 2004). The choice of NaCl to facilitate the
aggregation of DNA and silica-coated MNPs is theorically applicable. In the optimal condition of sodium
salt, the DNA would bind to solid silica particles which were coated MNPs. They would form DNA-MNPs
complex. These complexes, consequently, would increase their magnetic ability. We, additionally, made
magnetic plate to enhance magnetic force in order to concentrate DNAs carrying by magnetofectin
complexes onto the target cells. Therefore, in our initial establishment, we would test NaCl salt as inducing
buffer for magnetofection.

2.1 Plasmid DNA
phEF1-hKO-IRES-PuroR was used as material for gene delivery by utilisation of fluorescent signal
(hKO). The quality and quantity of plasmid DNA were confirmed by the conventional agarose gel
electrophoresis UV exposure and NanoDrop One machine (ThermoFisher Scientific).
2.2 Mixture of Plasmid DNA and Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs)
Plasmid DNA and MNPs were mixed together with the ratio of 1:1 in terms of weight (100ng per well),
combined with NaCl. The final volume was adjusted to 50 µL using DMEM without FBS. The DNA +
MNPs mixture sat undisturbed for 20 minutes, and then transferred carefully into prepared cell culture
without disturbing cell attachment, following the instruction of a commercial kit - Magnetofection™.
2.3 Transfection of cultured cells
Prior to transfection, HEK293T cells were seeded into each well of 96-well plate at 2x104 cells/well in
50µl culture medium (DMEM (Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium) containing 10% FBS (fetal bovine
serum) and 1% Penicillin-Streptomycin). Cells were maintained 16-18 hours in a humidified incubator at
37oC with 5% CO2.
Magnetofectins were added directly to the prepared cell culture. The 96-well plate was put on a home-
made magnetic plate with strong permanent magnets. The whole system was kept in humidified incubator.
Transfections with 20-minute, 40-minute, 1440-minute duration were tested. After tested time, the magnetic
plate was detached, the solution was taken out, replaced by fresh 70µl DMEM supplemented 10% FBS for
each well.
Two days after transfection, transfection efficiency could be inspected under a fluorescent microscope
with specialized excitation filters (550nm filter for Kusabira Orange fluorescence). For the control,
Lipofectamine® 2000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.) was used according to the manufacturer's instruction
with same amount of DNA (100ng it each well).
2.4 Gene delivery efficiency
The efficiency of transfection was represented by the number of detectable fluorescent expressing cells
under 550nm excitation filter. The captures from microscopic viewing were processed and quantified using
ImageJ. The process of highlighting signal and contrast value is described in Figure 1 for easier and more
precise counting.
178
A B C
Figure 1. Capture processed by ImageJ. (A) Original (B) RGB value adjusted (C) Black/White threshold
adjusted and counted manually.
The data were obtained from three independent replications and analyzed by Student’s t-test to perform
statistical analyses. Data are presented as Mean ± Standard error (SE).
3 Results and discussion

3.1 Sodium chloride induces magnetofection
Hypothetically, NaCl could function as inducing buffer in term of DNA+MNPs formation as well as
endocytosis independently of liposomes. As stated in the research of Plank in 2003, without the presence of
150mM NaCl, there was no binding association between opposite charge DNA and particles, and much less
association between similar charge DNA-particle. According to previous researches, 20-minute was the
usual duration in most previous magnetofection literature (Plank 2003, Plank 2011). Hence, the duration and
concentrations of NaCl for magnetofection in our study was initially inspected at 20 minutes and 150mM,
respectively, as following previous literatures.
The representative photos of cells after 2 days of transfection with DNA-MNPs/NaCl were shown in
Figure 2A. There was no fluorescent signal observation in the control group (only MNPs and DNA), which
indicates no gene delivery without NaCl. This result suggested that 150mM NaCl could act as inducing
buffer for magnetofection, which is independent of liposomes.
In 2003, Plank and his colleagues suggested the usage of 150mM NaCl for aggregation of DNA and
magnetic particles for magnetofection (Plank 2003). However, no other concentration of NaCl was tested.
Following up our success in using 150mM, we tested different increasing concentrations of NaCl with our
expectation in enhancing transfection efficiency. The duration for magnetofection was also inspected at 20
minutes.
Right after transfection, cells were in healthy condition in groups treated with 150 and 300mM. In the
treatment of NaCl concentration over 300mM, we observed cell shrinkage (figure not shown). Consequently,
the cells died. It could be explained that at high concentration, NaCl created osmotic stress to the cells. It
suggested that, in our tested system, the upper limitation for cell tolerance is 300mM.
In 150mM and 300mM treated groups, the transfection efficiency leaned toward 300mM NaCl buffer
with more than double cells fluorescent count (55 to 24) (Figure 2B).
179
Figure 2. Transfection result of 20-min duration magnetofection by NaCl. (A) Morphology and fluorescent
signal of cells treated without and with NaCl; (B) Diagram of transfection efficiency (fluorescent signal
counts) of MNP treated groups. (n=3) (Scale bar 20 µm).
3.2 NaCl increased the magnetofection process in a dose and treatment duration co-dependent
manner
To further optimise our magnetofection system, different magnetofection duration (20 minutes, 40
minutes, and 1440 minutes) were tested. Clearly, 1440-minute duration (24-hour duration or not changing
medium at all) means we aimed to test the effect of longtime magnetofection (magnetic plate was still
attached to cell plate and no medium change within 24 hours).
Overall, after 20 minutes and 40 minutes of magnetofection, cells were healthy. Despite having some
result at NaCl 150mM and 300mM, not changing medium (roughly 24-hour duration transfection or medium
change after 24 hours) affected for the cells negatively in general. It might be resulted from the lack of
nutrition and toxicity.
Figure 3. Transfection efficiency at different treatments by NaCl. (A) 150mM NaCl, (B) 300mM NaCl (NC
– Not changing medium) (n = 3, ns – not significant, **P < 0.01)
In 150mM NaCl treated group (Figure 3A), elongating transfection duration resulted in the increasing
fluorescent signals from transfected cells. 40-minute duration magnetofection yielded highest efficiency.
After that time, the transfection efficiency decreased. The efficacy of 40-minute duration could have the
180
potential to compete with lipofection in terms of efficiency although the number of fluorescent expressing
cells was lower than positive control (Lipofectamine®2000).
At 300 mM, lengthening transfection duration did not yield to higher efficiency. 20-minute duration is
the highest efficacy (Figure 3B). However, the efficiency is much lower than positive control, especially
compare to NaCl 150mM with 40-minute duration.
From our general observation, this result might suggest a co-dependent relationship between doses and
durations in terms of genetic delivery. Although our data should proceed further confirmation as well as
further evaluation on other cell lines, our initial findings are providing promising conditions for
magnetofection by utilizing silica coated MNPs, in particular for adherent cells.
4. Conclusion
Magnetofection without liposomes or polymersomes is certainly possible. The optimal condition is
150mM NaCl with 40-minute transfection duration. The data from this study will eventually provide
suggestions for further follow-up researches and effective method for drug delivery in the future.
References
1. Felgner PL, Gadek TR, Holm M, Roman R, Chan HW, Wenz M, et al (1987) Lipofection: a highly
efficient, lipid-mediated DNA-transfection procedure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
of the United States of America 84(21):7413-7.
2. Huth S, Lausier J, Gersting SW, Rudolph C, Plank C, Welsch U, et al (2004) Insights into the
mechanism of magnetofection using PEI-based magnetofectins for gene transfer. The journal of gene
medicine 6(8):923-36
3. Kim H, Kang JY, Mun D, Yun N, Joung B (2019) Calcium chloride enhances the delivery of exosomes.
PloS one 14(7):e0220036
4. Langer R (1990) New methods of drug delivery. Science 249(4976):1527-33
5. Plank C, Schillinger U, Scherer F, Bergemann C, Remy JS, Krotz F, et al (2003) The magnetofection
method: using magnetic force to enhance gene delivery. Biological chemistry 384(5):737-47
6. Plank C, Zelphati O, Mykhaylyk O (2011) Magnetically enhanced nucleic acid delivery. Ten years of
magnetofection-progress and prospects. Advanced drug delivery reviews 63(14-15):1300-31
7. Wagner E, Culmsee C, Boeckle S (2005) Targeting of Polyplexes: Toward Synthetic Virus Vector
Systems. Advances in genetics 53PA:333-54.
8. Zimmermann U (1982) Electric field-mediated fusion and related electrical phenomena. Biochimica et
biophysica acta 694(3):227-77

[STS22-68]
181
IN VITRO AND IN VIVO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF Bouea
macrophylla Griff LEAVES
Ha Kim Ngoc1, Nguyen Hoang Nam Anh1, Vo Van Giau2,3, Nguyen Ngoc Hong4*
1
Institute of Applied Sciences, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam.
2
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Vietnam National University –Ho Chi Minh
City (VNU-HCM), Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam.
3
Research Center for Genetics and Reproductive Health, School of Medicine, Vietnam National University –
Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam.
4
Cirtech Institute, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam.
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84.908.644.000; Email: nn.hong@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Bouea macrophylla Griff. (or Bouea gandaria Blume, Bouea burmanica Griff.) is widely grown throughout
South East Asia, the aim of this study was to find out source of safe antioxidant and value in health from
leaves of B. macrophylla. ethanol (EB) and aqueous (AB) extracts of B. macrophylla leaves were tested for
their antioxidant activities on the ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-
hydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging assays. The results showed that EB possessed the
strong in vitro antioxidant activity in FRAP, DPPH and NO assays. In vivo antioxidant activity of EB and AB
on injury liver mice induced by ethanol was examined. The results indicated that AB and EB were
effectively against the acute ethanol induced hepatic damage at the dose of 50 mg/kg. The results obtained in
the present study demonstrated that B. macrophylla leaf is potential source of natural antioxidant and
hepatoprotective agent.
Keyword: Bouea macrophylla, AB, EB, NO assay, in vivo antioxidant.
1. Introduction
Bouea macrophylla Griff. (B. macrophylla) is a tropical fruit tree native to Southeast Asia that belongs to
Anacardiaceae. It resembles mango in appearance, but has a distinct flavor (Rajan and Babu 2016). It is
widely grown in South East Asia, particularly in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos and
other Southeast Asian countries (Thummajitsakul and Silprasit 2017). In Vietnam, various parts of B.
macrophylla such as leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds are consumed as food and and its phytochemical bioactive
compounds may be beneficial to one's health. GC-MS analysis of an ethanol extract of B. macrophylla
previously revealed the presence of significant phytochemical classes such as caryophyllene, squalene,
retinol, and -himachalene. These compounds have been shown to be effective against free radicals, anti-
inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticancer cell lines in the active compounds of B. macrophylla leaves
(Nguyen et al. 2020). The goal of this study was to discover a source of safe antioxidants and their health
benefits from B. macrophylla. The antioxidant activities of B. macrophylla ethanol and aqueous extracts
were tested in vitro using the ferric reducing/antioxidant power assay (FRAP), as well as the 1,1-diphenyl-2-
picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging assays. The antioxidant activity of B.
macrophylla was tested in vivo on ethanol-induced liver injury in mice.

2.1 Sample preparation, extraction and animals
Fresh leaves of B. macrophylla were collected at O Mon district, Can Tho city, in the South of Vietnam
(October–November 2020). The leaves were triple-washed with tap water, dried dried in oven at not higher
than 60°C. Dried samples were pulverized to medium size powders and were exhaustedly extracted with
ethanol and aqueous successively to obtained ethanol and aqueous extracts of B. macrophylla (EB and AB),
respectively. These extracts were used for antioxidant tests
Male albino mice weighing 25-30g (6-8 weeks old), were provided by Pasteur Institute, Ho Chi Minh City.
182
2.2. Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP)
The total antioxidant potential of extracts were determined using a ferric reducing ability of plasma
FRAP assay as “antioxidant power” (Benzie and Strain 1996).
2.3. Free radical scavenging activity assay
The DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay was determined using the method proposed by Von
Gadow et al. (1997). The inhibitory percentage of the DPPH radicals by the samples was calculated
according to the formula proposed by Yen and Dul (1994).
2.4. Nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging activity assay
At physiological pH, nitric oxide generated from aqueous sodium nitroprusside (SNP) solution interacts with
oxygen to produce nitrite ions which were measured by Griess Illosvoy reaction (Brand- Williams et al. 1995;
Hoai et al. 2010).
2.5 Phytochemical Analysis
Preliminary phytochemical investigation
Identification of phytochemical groups in the sample was carried out using the process described by
Ciulei (1981) and modified by Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine
and Pharmacy Ho Chi Minh City (Tran Hung 2006).
Quantification of total flavonoid content
The total flavonoid content was determined using the method proposed by Park et al. (2008).
Quantification of total phenolic content
The total phenolic content of the ethanolic and aqueous leaf extract of O. indicum was
spectrophotometrically determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method (Singleton and Rossi
1965).
2.6. In vivo antioxidant activity
In vivo antioxidant activity of extracts were carried out against ethanol induced liver injury. Male mice
were divided into six groups of six animals each. Group 1 served as vehicle control. Group 2 served as toxic
control received 4 ml/kg/day of ethanol for checking the biochemical parameter periodically for hepatotoxicity.
Group 3, 4, 5 were received single daily dose of 4 ml/kg of ethanol and EB at dose of 30, 40 and 50 mg/kg,
respectively. Group 4, 5, 6 were received single daily dose of 4 ml/kg of AB at dose of 30, 40 and 50 mg/kg
respectively. For all tested groups, blood was collected 14 days after last treatment and serum was separated for
testing alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity. ALT activity was determined by the standard method using
commercial available kit for ALT of Diagnosticum
2.7. Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed using the Microsoft® Excel® 2016 and SAS ver. 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc.,
Cary, NC, USA)
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Antioxidant capacity determined by FRAP
The antioxidant capacity of extracts on FRAP assay are shown in Table 1. As the results, EB has a
higher FRAP value than AB (p< 0.05). At the same dose of 1 mg/ml, EO exhibited a greater antioxidant
potential and was 2.09 times lower than ascorbic acid.
Table 1. Antioxidant activities of extracts on FRAP assay
Samples FRAP (µmol Fe 2+/l)
AB 1987 ± 30
EB 5425 ± 22
Ascorbic acid 11338 ± 43
DPPH radical scavenging activity
As shown in Table 2, EB has significant free radical scavenging activity. EB was more effective than
AB at scavenging DPPH radicals. This extract had an antioxidant effect comparable to that of the reference
substance, ascorbic acid. EB (3.99 µg/ml) had a lower IC50 than ascorbic acid (2.84 µg/ml) by 1.4 times.
183
NO radical scavenging activity
The results obtained in Table 2 revealed that EB performed higher NO radical scavenging activity
than AB. The IC50 value of EB (49.91 µg/ml) was 2.37 times lower than that of the reference compound,
quercetin (21.05 µg/ml).
Table 2. Radical scavenging capacities of extracts
Method AB IC50 (µg/ml) EB IC50 (µg/ml) Standard IC50 (µg/ml)
DPPH assay 6.25 + 0.10 3.99 + 0.05 2.84 + 0.07 (ascorbic acid)
NO assay 77.99 + 1.25 49.91 + 0.30 21.05 + 0.26 (quercetin)
The results of three assays revealed that both of the extracts possessed strong antioxidant activities.
In vivo antioxidant efficacy of both extracts was investigated further.
3.5. In vivo antioxidant activity
Oxidative stress in mice liver was induced by ethanol administration for 14 days, resulting in a 282%
increase in ALT leaking out from damaged liver into serum (of toxic group compared to control group). The
administration of different doses of EB and AB to the liver produced the results shown in Figure 1.
The serum ALT concentrations were decreased 34 %, 40 % in group 7, group 6 and significantly
decreased 53%, 61% and 66% in group 8 or group 3, group 4 and group 5, respectively when compared to
that of toxic control - group 2. Therefore, EB and AB at doses of 30, 40 and 50 mg/kg were effectively
against the acute hepatic damage induced by ethanol. The serum ALT concentrations of group 4 and group 5
were equivalently when compared with that of control group (p > 0.05). It is therefore suggested that EB at
dose of 40 and 50 mg/kg scavenges ethanol derived radicals resulting in depressing the toxicity.
Figure 1. Effect of EB and AB at doses on ALT activity in serum of ethanol induced liver injury in mice
The identification of phytochemical groups in the plant sample revealed that B. macrophylla leaves
contained polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, carbohydrates, steroids, triterpenoids, fixed oils, saponins, and
alkaloids, similar to what previously reported (Nguyen et al. 2020). The EB and AB were found to be non-
toxic up to 3000 mg/kg.
The phytochemical analysis revealed a high total phenolic content of the B. macrophylla extracts,
corresponding to 81.05 ± 2.26 mg GAE/g (EB), 37.80 ± 1.52 mg GAE/g (AB) and a flavonoid content of
72.71 ± 4.54 mg RE/g (EB), 34.04 ± 5.60 mg RE/g (EB). Therefore, according to the results, B.
macrophylla contains active compounds with potential antioxidant. High antioxidant activity in FRAP (total
electron transfer based) and DPPH (hydrogen atom transfer based) assays, as well as NO radical scavenging
studies, could be due to these factors. The combination of these assays results in a more accurate assessment
of antioxidant activity. In this investigation, it was discovered that EB had more antioxidant activity than
AB.
The B. macrophylla extracts possessed high content of polyphenol compounds, especially high
flavonoid content. In the medicinal effects described in the folk and Vietnamese traditional recipe phenolic
184
acids, Flavonoids have a chemical structure that permits them to have radical scavenging, reducing, and ion
chelating properties (Havsteen 2002). Flavonoids are essential ingredients in preventing oxidative stress and
reducing the effects of toxins that damage the liver (Ji et al. 2015).
4. Conclusion
In summary, evaluation of B. macrophylla leaves has demonstrated that the strong in vitro antioxidant
activity was EB. In vivo antioxidant activity of extracts were effectively against the acute hepatic damage
induced by ethanol. The results prove that leaves of B. macrophylla are a promising antioxidant and
hepatoprotective herb. This encouraging result encourages further studies including bioassay of the
fractionated extracts, which could lead to the isolation of compounds responsible for B. macrophylla
leaf activities, which could then be developed into modern drugs.
References
1. Rajan MNU and Babu AV (2016) Saturation throughput analysis of IEEE 802.11ad wireless LAN in the
contention based access period(CBAP). 2016 IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing,
VLSI, Electrical Circuits and Robotics, DISCOVER 2016 - Proceedings, Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Inc. :41–46.
2. Thummajitsakul S and Silprasit K (2017) Genetic differentiation and antioxidant activities of Bouea
macrophylla Griffith in Nakhon Nayok province. Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry 60(1):41–47.
3. Nguyen NH, Nguyen TT, Ma PC, Ta QTH, Duong T-H, Vo VG (2020). Potential Antimicrobial and
Anticancer Activities of an Ethanol Extract from Bouea macrophylla. Molecules 25:1996.
4. Benzie IF and Strain JJ (1996) The ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) as a measure of
"antioxidant power": the FRAP assay. Analytical Biochemistry 239(1):70-76.
5. Von Gadow A, Joubert E and Hansmann CF (1997) Comparison of antioxidant activity of aspalanthin
with that of orther plant phenols of Rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis), α-tocopherol, BHT, and BHA.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 45:632-638.
6. Yen GC and Duh PD (1994) Scavenging effect of methanolic extracts of peanut hulls on free radical and
active oxygen species. Agricultural and Food Chemistry 42(3):629-632.
7. Brand- Williams W, Cuvelier ME and Berset (1995) Use of free radical method to evaluate antioxidant
activity. LWT- Food Science and Technology 28:25-30
8. Hoai HTC, Huong BDT, Mai NTT, Hong NN, Hung T (2010) NO redical scavenging activity of some
medicinal plants in Vietnam. Journal of Chemistry 48 (4B):429-434.
9. Ciulei I (1981). Methodology for analysis of vegetable drugs. United Nations Industrial Development
Organisation. Romania:17-25.
10. Tran Hung (2006). Medicinal Laboratory, HCM city University of Pharmacy and Medicine, pp 31-45.
11. Park YS, Jung ST, Kang SG, Heo BG, Arancibia-Avila P, Toledo F, Drzewiecki J, Namiesnik J,
Gorinstein S (2008) Antioxidants and proteins in ethylene treated kiwifruits. Food Chemistry 107
(2):640-648.
12. Singleton VL, Rossi JA (1965). Colorimetry of total phenolics with phosphomolybdice phosphotungstic
acid reagents. Am. J. Enol. Vitic 16:144-158.
13. Havsteen BH (2002) The biochemistry and medical significance of the flavonoids. Pharmacology &
Therapeutics 96:67-202.
14. Ji LL, Sheng YC, Zheng ZY, Shi L, Wang ZT (2015). The involvement of p62-Keap1-Nrf2
antioxidative signaling pathway and JNK in the protection of natural flavonoid quercetin against
hepatotoxicity. Free Radic Biol Med. 85:12–23.

[STS22-70]
185
RADICAL SCAVENGING AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES OF EXTRACTS FROM
MUNTINGIA CALABURA L.
Pham Huu Tuan1, Nguyen Ngoc Hong2, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha2*
1
Faculty of Pharmacy, HUTECH University
2
Cirtech Institute, HUTECH University
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84909234159; Email: ntt.ha@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine some basic chemical components in M. calabura leaf extracts,
their 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) free radical scavenging ability and
antibacterial activity. The screening for M. calabura phytochemical analysis revealed phenolics, flavonoids,
tannins, and steroids. In both DPPH and NO assays, the findings indicated that ethanol 70% (EM1) and
ethanol 90% (EM2) extracts had significant radical scavenging action. The HPLC/MS analysis determined
the presence of chrysoeriol, 8-methoxygalangin and some flavonoid compounds in EM1. In terms of
antibacterial activity, EM1 and EM2 inhibited enterotoxigenic E. coli-ETEC, Listeria monocytogenes,
Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri. The findings of this study revealed that M. calabura has
antioxidant activity and intestinal antibacterial activity.
Keywords: Antimicrobial activity, extracts, NO radical-scavenging, HPLC/MS, Muntingia calabura L.
1. Introduction
Muntingia calabura L. (M. calabura) is a member of the Elaeocarpaceae family. The plant is simple to grow
and has a wide range of uses. The leaves, bark, and flowers are all useful for therapeutic purposes.
Traditional medicine claims that cooking or decocting the leaves of M. calabura will help treat stomach
ulcers, prostate enlargement, and headaches. M. calabura has analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic
properties, according to recent scientific research (Yusof et al., 2011). M. calabura leaf extract was found to
be effective against stomach ulcers in other studies (Balan et al., 2013). Methanol extract of M. calabura
leaves from Indonesia had antibacterial action on three bacterial pathogens (Desrini et al 2018). Methanolic
leaf extract of M. calabura aided in the production of collagen, thereby reducing the appearance of wrinkles
(Aulia et al, 2019). M. calabura has been studied extensively throughout the world, but there haven't been
many in Vietnam. The goal of this study was to determine the quantities of some chemical components in M.
calabura leaf extracts, as well as their 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) radical
scavenging capability and antibacterial activity.
2.1. Reagents and chemicals
Folin-Ciocalteu (Darmstadt, Germany), DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and quercetin from MP
Biomedicals (Illkirch, France), gallic acid, rutin from Riedel-de-Haen (Seelze, Germany) aluminum chloride,
sodium carbonate, iron (III) chloride from BDH Labs (Cambridge, England), TSB (Tryptone casein soy
broth), TSA (Tryptone casein soy agar) from New Delhi (India).
2.2. Sample preparation and extraction
Leaf samples of M. calabura were collected in Ho Chi Minh City and identified by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran
Hop, University of Sciences, HCMC. After the samples were collected, they were processed and ground to a
size of 0.2-1 mm. The plant samples were stored in a dry place, away from sunlight. Plant samples were
soaked in ethanol 70%, ethanol 90% and water at a ratio of 1/20 (w/v). After 24 hours, the solutions were
filtered and collected. The extracts were obtained using a vacuum rotary evaporator at 40oC to obtain crude
ethanol 70% (EM1), ethanol 90% (EM2) and aqueous extracts (AM). To prepare a stock solution for the
bioactivity assay, the crude extracts were dissolved in DMSO (10% final concentration) and filter-sterilized
with a 0.2 m membrane filter (Millex).
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2.3. Microorganism strain
The pathogens used included: Escherichia coli, enterotoxigenic E. coli-ETEC, Listeria monocytogenes,
Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri provided by the
Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City.
2.4. Phytochemical screening
Phytochemical groups in the sample were identified using the method developed by Yadav et al (2013) to
identify groups of organic substances in extracts of M. calabura.
2.5. DPPH free radical scavenging antioxidant capacity
The DPPH free radical scavenging antioxidant activity of M. calabura was determined according to the
description of Nur Alam et al. (2012). The antioxidant capacity was determined based on the IC 50
concentration at which it was able to inhibit 50% of free radicals. The sample was measured with a UV-
visible spectrometer at wavelength λ=517 nm.
2.6. Nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging activity assay
At physiological pH, nitric oxide produced by an aqueous sodium nitroprusside (SNP) solution reacts with
oxygen to form nitrite ions, which could be quantified using the Griess Illosvoy reaction.
2.7. Quantification of flavonoids
The flavonoid content was determined according to the method of Woisky and Salatino (1998). 2 ml of the
sample was added to 2 ml of 2% AlCl3, incubated at room temperature for 45 min and then photometrically
analyzed at wavelength λ = 420 nm. The flavonoid content was calculated based on the rutin standard curve.
2.8. Quantification of phenolic
The phenolic content was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method according to Von Gadow et al. (1997)
using gallic acid as the standard. In a test tube, an aliquot of 0.5 mL of each infusion was diluted in distilled
water and 2.5 mL of Folin-Cicateau reagent diluted in distilled water was added (1/10 v/v). After about 5 to
8 minutes, 2 ml of 7.5% Na2CO3 were added, and incubated at 40oC at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a
spectrophotometer, the sample absorbance at 765 nm was measured. The total phenolic content was
calculated based on the gallic acid standard curve.
2.9. HPLC-MS method
Analysis of the alcohol extract from the leaves of M. calabura by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC)
was performed in column C18 (size 4.6 x 150 mm, 3.5 μm) provided by Weber Consulting Ltd., Hungary. The
mobile phase consisted of water - formic acid (A; 100:0.1, v/v) - methanolic- formic acid (B; 100:0.1, v/v). A
and B were given at intervals as follows: 0 min, A: B = 90:10; 35 min, A: B = 0:100; 60 min, A: B = 0:100.
The flow rate was 0.5 ml/min and the chromatographic column temperature was kept at 40°C. All solvents
were filtered through a 0.45 µm filter and ultrasonically degassed in an ultrasonic chamber prior to use. The
MS status was as follows ESI spark ionization; positive and negative ions; pin for RF: with a speed of 250.0
rpm; drying gas flow 9.0 l/min, drying gas temperature 2000C; regulating valve: source; nebulization gas
pressure: 1.2 bar; capillary voltage at 4500V with an end plate offset at −500 V. Data was collected from 50
m/z to 3000 m/z. The chromatographic data was processed on the Agilent ChemStation software (Agilent
Corporation, MA, USA).
2.10. Antibacterial activity test
The method to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the extract was based on the agar well diffusion method
(Aibinu et al., 2007). 0.1 ml of indicator bacteria with a density of 106 cfu/ml was aspirated from Tryptone
casein soy broth (TSB) and cultured on agar plates containing sterilized Tryptone casein soy agar (TSA).
Using a sterilized metal tube with a diameter of 6 mm punch holes in the agar plate. Sterile filtered extracts
were diluted to obtain different concentration of 100, 50, and 25 mg/ml using sterile peptone water. 100 µl of
the extract to be examined into each hole in the agar plate with indicator bacteria. The petri dishes were then
incubated in an incubator at 37°C for 24 hours. The antibacterial activity of the extracts from M. calabura
was determined by measuring the diameters of inhibition zones.
The average diameter of the inhibitory zone was used to calculate antibacterial activity in millimeters
(excluding the diameter of wells). Each test was performed three times.
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2.11. Data processing
The experiments were carried out three times. The data are presented as mean ± standard deviation. The data
were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 20.0) software, p value of
less than 0.05 was considered significant.
3.1. Phytochemical Screening
Preliminary qualitative results of the chemical composition of M. calabura revealed the presence of a group
of phenolic compounds known as flavonoids in all three extracts (Table 1). This is similar to the previous
work of Ogunleye and Ibitoye (2003). Flavonoid, phenolic, tannin, and steroid compounds were found in
EM1 and EM2 extracts. While AM extract has the presence of flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, saponins, and
free amino acids. Alkaloids were not present in all three extracts.
Table 1. Qualitative phytochemical screening of M. calabura
Alkaloid Saponin Anthra-quinone Amino acid
Mar- Ma- Drag- Ha- Wag- Foam
BonTrager Ninhydrin
quis yer endrof Ger ner Test
EM1 ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ +
EM2 ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
AM ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ++ ‒ ++
Phenolic
Flavonoid Tannin Steroid
compound
Lead
Alka- Shi- Ferric Gela- Ferric Lead Salk-
aceta-
line noda clorid tin clorid acetate owski
te
EM1 ‒ +++ +++ +++ ++ +++ +++ Triterpenoid
EM2 ‒ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ Triterpenoid
AM + + +++ +++ ++ +++ +++ ‒
Note: +++ Appreciable amount (positive within 2 min.); ++ Moderate amount (positive after 2 min. but
within 5 min.); + Trace amount (positive after 5 min. but within 10 min.); − Completely absent.
3.2. DPPH radical scavenging activity
The DPPH method is widely used in antioxidant studies because it is simple, rapid, and stable. Therefore,
this method is widely used to screen antioxidants. The results are presented in Table 2. EM1 and EM2 have
significant free radical scavenging activity. The activities of EM1 and EM2 were statistically similar (p >
0.05). These extracts had an antioxidant effect comparable to that of the reference substance, quercetin. AM,
EM1, and EM2 showed IC50 that were 3.24, 2.18, and 2.15 times lower than quercetin, respectively.
Compared with previous studies, the antioxidant capacity of EM1 and EM2 extracts is about 1.69 times
lower than that of methanol extracts and higher than petroleum ether extracts of the same plant, M. calabura
(Premakumari et al. 2010)
Table 2. Radical scavenging capacities of extracts
Sample DPPH assay NO assay
(IC50 (µg/ml)
EM1 16.70 ± 0.10 61.98 + 0.15
EM2 16.49 ± 0.03 65.30 + 1.64
AM 24.77 ± 0.04 87.43 + 1.28
Quercetin 7.65 ± 0.35 22.41 + 0.36
3.3. NO radical scavenging activity
Nitric oxide plays a role in a number of physiological functions. Increased nitric oxide levels are linked to
the cytotoxic consequences seen in a variety of diseases (Pacher et al. 2007). According to the results in
188
Table 2, three extracts demonstrated NO radical scavenging action. EM1 was more effective at scavenging
NO radicals than EM2 and AM. The IC50 values of AM, EM1, and EM2 were 3.90, 2.77, and 2.98 times
lower than quercetin, respectively.
3.4. Quantification of flavonoids and phenolics
The contents of total polyphenols and total flavonoids from the plant extracts are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Total polyphenol and flavonoid content
Total polyphenol content Total flavonoid content
EM1 120.77 ± 0.54 mg GAE/g 90.94 ± 2.12 mg RE/g
EM2 43.18 ± 0.30 mg GAE/g 35.48 ± 1.23 mg RE/g
AM 60.60 ± 0.93 mg GAE/g 20.25 ± 1.39 mg RE/g
EM1 had the highest polyphenol content (120.77 ± 0.54 mg GAE/g), and similarly the flavonoid content
(90.94 ± 2.12 mg RE/g). Based on the quantitative results of polyphenols and flavonoids as well as the
antioxidant results, it can be seen that they are related. The higher the total polyphenol and flavonoid content
in the extract, the stronger the free radical scavenging ability.
3.5. Antibacterial activity
The antibacterial activity was shown based on the inhibition zone (IZ) as measured in diameter (mm) of
inhibition zones on the agar plate. EM1 and EM2 had activity against Listeria monocytogenes at
concentrations of 100, 50, and 25 mg/ml. The results were compared with the control ciprofloxacin (125
µg/ml). EM1 and EM2 had high antibacterial activity in general, inhibiting 4/6 strains of intestinal
pathogenic microorganisms, including Enterotoxigenic E. coli-ETEC, Listeria monocytogenes,
Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri (Table 4). This is similar to the study by Zakaria et al (2006).
Listeria monocytogenes was sensitive to the M. calabura components. This takes the use of natural herbs to
treat digestive problems in a new direction. Furthermore, at 50 mg/ml concentration, EM1 and EM2 had
good inhibitory ability against Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri, whereas ciprofloxacin (125
µg/ml) had no inhibitory activity (Table 4).
Table 4. Antibacterial activity from M. calabura
Antibacterial activity
Microbial strains EM1 (mg/ml) EM2 (mg/ml) AM (mg/ml) Ciprofloxacin (µg/ml)
100 50 25 100 50 25 100 50 25 125 63 32
Escherichia coli ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
E.coli-ETEC ++ + ‒ + + + ‒ ‒ ‒ +++++ +++++ +++++
L. monocytogenes ++ + + +++ ++ + +++ ++ + +++++ ++++ ‒
S. typhi ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ +++++ ++++ ‒
S. aureus +++ ++ + ++ + ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
S. flexneri ++ + ‒ +++ ++ + ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Note: IZ= inhibitory zone (mm): excluding the diameter of wells; ‒ no zone of inhibition;
+ IZ ≤ 9,0 mm; ++ 9,0 mm < IZ ≤ 12,0 mm; +++ 12,0 mm < IZ ≤ 16,0 mm; ++++ 16,0 mm < Z ≤ 20,0 mm;
+++++ IZ >20 mm
3.6. HPLC-MS Chromatographic analysis
The qualitative and quantitative results indicate that the EM1 extract contains a significant amount of
antioxidants such as phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins and plays an important role in maintaining people’s
health (Sani et al. 2012). Therefore, it is necessary to study the compounds present in M. calabura for
antioxidant as well as antibacterial ability by HPLC-MS chromatographic analysis. The results are shown in
Table 5.
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Table 5. Determination of compounds in ethanol extracts from M. calabura by HPLC-MS method
Molecular
Peak Rt MS (m/z) Identification
Formula
2 3,7 C16H13O6 301,0720 Chrysoeriol
3 3,9 C17H15O7 331,0838 3,8-Dimethylherbacetin
2,3-dihydroxy-4,3’,4’,5’-
4 4,0 C19H23O7 363,1471
tetramethoxydihydrochalcone
5 4,4 C16H12NaO6 323,0553 8-Methoxygalangin
The flavonoid chrysoeriod is found in the plant and is thought to aid bone-building cells in combating
oxidative stress and protect the liver from toxic agents. Chrysoeriol also has better antibacterial ability than
capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin on 3 strains of bacteria: Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtillis, Staphylococcus
aureus (Patricia et al. 2014). 8-Methoxygalangin has the ability to fight leukemia cells (Adila et al. 2013). In
addition, 3,8-Dimethylherbacetin and 2,3-dihydroxy-4.3',4',5'-tetramethoxydihydrochalcone are also present
in M. calabura. Although EM1 and EM2 extracts differed only in the ratio of solvent, their antibacterial
ability against the same strain of bacteria was different in strength and weakness. The nature and amount of
secondary metabolites extracted from medicinal plants have been reported to be affected by the solvents used
during the extraction process. As a consequence, selecting the appropriate extraction solvent is essential for
the intended active compounds of these extracts (Ngo et al. 2017). While EM1 has an extract content of
18.21%, EM2 has a content of 7.31%. Differences in chemical composition such as phenols, flavonoids,
saponins, and tannins may be responsible for the different antibacterial activities, as well as their effect on
antioxidant capacity. Ethanol 70% was discovered to be the best solvent for extracting phenolic compound-
rich extracts with free radical scavenging and antibacterial properties.
4. Conclusions
From the above results, it can be seen that M. calabura had high radical scavenging and antibacterial
activity, which was correlated with phenolic and flavonoid content. Chrysoeriod, 8-methoxygalangin and
some flavonoid compounds were found in M. calabura. For the development of new antibacterial
medications, more study is necessary to isolate and identify the extract's bioactive components.
References
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activity of crude extracts from plants Bryophyllum pinnatum and Kalanchoe crenata. Afr. J. Traditional.
4 (3): 338 – 344.
2. Adila S. Sufian, Kalavathy R, Norizan A, Zakaria ZA, Yusof M. I M (2013). Isolation and identification
of antibacterial and cytotoxic compounds from the leaves of Muntingia calabura L. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology, 146(1):198-204
3. Aruna S M, Yadav D, Bodke, Chandrashekar A (2013). Antioxidant and in vivo anti-hyperglycemic
activity of Muntingia calabura L. leaves extracts. Der Pharmacia Lettre, 5 (3): 427-435.
4. Aulia N. R., Okid P. A., Artini P. (2019) The effect of Muntingia calabura L. leaves methanolic extract
in increasing of collagen production, AIP Conference Proceedings 2194, 020098.
5. Balan T, Mohd S MH, Suppaiah V, Mohtarrudin N, Suhaili Z, Ahmad Z, Zakaria ZA (2013) Antiulcer
activity of Muntingia calabura L. leaves involves the modulation of endogenous nitric oxide and
nonprotein sulfhydryl compounds. Pharm Biol 52: 410-418.
6. Desrini, S., Mashita, A.I., Rosary, A.N., Hidayah, U.N., Annisa, Fitria, & Farm, S. (2018). Antibacterial
activity screening of Muntingia calabura L leaves methanol extract on three bacterial pathogens.
Pharmacologyonline 2:1-10
7. Hoai H.T.C., Huong B.D.T., Mai N.T.T., Hong N.N., Hung T. (2010). NO redical scavenging activity of
some medicinal plants in Vietnam. Journal of Chemistry, 48 (4B): 429-434.
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8. Brand-Williams, W., Cuvelier, M.E. and Berset (1995). Use of free radical method to evaluate
antioxidant activity. LWT- Food Science and Technology, 28: 25-30.
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solvents on bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity from the root of Salacia chinensis L. Journal
of Food Quality 2017(1): 1-8
10. Premakumari KB, Ayesha S, Rokeya S, Vithya, Savitha (2010). Antioxidant activity and estimation of
total phenolic content of Muntingia calabura by colorimetry. International Journal of ChemTech
Research. 2 (1): 205-208.
11. Ogunleye, D.S, Ibitoye S.F. (2003). Studies of antimicrobial activity and chemical constituents of
Ximenia americana. Trop. J. Pharm. Res., 2: 239-241.
12. Pacher P., Beckman J.S., Liaudet L. (2007) Nitric oxide and peroxynitrite: In health and disease. Physiol.
Rev.; 87(1): 315–424.
13. Patrícia L. A, Talita N, Natália R, Girliane R. S, José EGG, Rosângela EF, Keila A, Moreira A, Ana L.
Porto F, Tania MS. Silva (2014). Quantification, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of phenolics
isolated from different extracts of Capsicum frutescens (Pimenta malagueta). Molecules, 19(4):5434-
5447.
14. Sani MH, Zakaria ZA, Balan T, The LK, Salleh MZ (2012). Antinociceptive activity of methanol extract
of Muntingia calabura leaves and the mechanisms of action involved. Evidence-based complementary
and alternative medicine: eCAM, 2012, 890361. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/890361
15. Von Gadow A., Joubert E. and Hansmann C. F., (1997). Comparison of antioxidant activity of
aspalanthin with that of orther plant phenols of Rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis), α-tocopherol, BHT,
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16. Yadav P D, Bharadwaj N.S.P. Yedukondalu M., Methushala CH., Ravi Kumar A. (2013). Phytochemical
evaluation of Nyctanthes arbortristis, Nerium oleander and Catharathnus roseus. Indian Journal of
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17. Yusof MM, Teh LK, Zakaria ZA, Ahmat N (2011). Antinociceptive activity of the fractionated extracts
of Muntingia calabura. Planta Med 77: PF21.
18. Nur A, Nusrat JB, Rafiquzzaman MD. (2012). Review on in vivo and in vitro methods evaluation of
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19. Zakaria ZA., Mohamed AM., Jamil NSM., Rofiee MS., Hussain MK., Sulaiman MR., Teh LK., Salleh
MZ. (2006). In vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of the extracts of Muntingia calabura
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quality control. J. Apic. Res. 37: 99-105.

[STS22-74]
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Animal Science and Veterinary
193
194
A SURVEY ON CATTLE LUMPY SKIN DISEASE IN SMALL SCALE
HOUSEHOLD OF HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
Dang Hoang Dao1*, Truong Anh Thy1, Tran Dinh Chanh1
1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
* Corresponding author: (Phone: 0358158277; Email: dh.dao@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evluate the prevalence of LSD, incidence by breed, age, mortality at disease and
clinical symptoms in cattle 120 household farms at suburd of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, were surveyed by
a structured questionnaire used to gather information about key data, from July 2020 to July 2020. Results
showed that cows infected with LSD were 1212 cows (96%) out of the total of 1259 surveyed cows. The
rates of LSD by age under 6 months, from 6 to 12 months, and over 12 months of age were 19.3
respectively; 16; 64.7%. The incidence of LSD cows according to the breeds Golden Cow, Lai Sind, BBB,
Charolais, Red Angus, 3/4 HF such as 24.4; 22.3; 6.5; 9.9; 36.9%. The mortality rates by age under 6
months, from 6 to 12 months, and over 12 months such as 4.7; 0.5; 0%. The survey showed that severe
clinical symptoms were full of symptoms in calves under 6 months including fever (100%), nodules on the
skin (100%), arthritis inflammation (98%), respiratory inflammation (100%); from 6 to 12 months including
fever (100%), nodules on the skin (100%), arthritis inflammation (6%), respiratory inflammation (2%);
above 12 months including fever (100%), nodules on the skin (100%), arthritis inflammation (7%),
respiratory inflammation (0%).
Keywords: Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), cattle, capripoxvirus, Vietnam
1. Introduction
Lumpy skin disease (LSD), is a highly infectious viral disease of cattle, caused by LSD virus
(LSDV) which belongs to the genus Capripoxvirus of family Poxviridae. Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a
poxvirus disease of cattle characterised by fever, nodules on the skin, mucous membranes and internal
organs, emaciation, enlarged lymph nodes, oedema of the skin, and sometimes death (Abutarbush et al.,
2015; Babiuk, Bowden, Boyle, Wallace, & Kitching, 2008). The disease is of economic importance as it can
cause a temporary reduction in milk production, temporary or permanent sterility in bulls, damage to hides
and death due to secondary bacterial infections. Lumpy skin disease (LSD) was first seen in Zambia in 1929
then spread into most countries limited to sub-Saharan Africa in the next decades (Mercier et al., 2018),
spreading into Botswana by 1943 (Haig, 1957), and then into South Africa, where it affected over eight
million cattle causing major economic loss. The LSD virus isolated in these first outbreaks was 100%
identical to viruses isolated in China (2019). The first outbreaks of LSD were reported in Lang Son Province
of Vietnam, and an official document has been submitted to OIE on 1 November 2020. LSD occurred in
many provinces and cities in Vietnam in 2020. That is why we conducted the study “A survey on cattle
Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in small scale household of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam”.
2.1 Time and location
The survey was conducted in suburb around of Ho Chi Minh city including Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi,
Can Gio districts and District 9, 12 from July 2020 to July 2021. Ho Chi Minh city is located in the
Southeast, a subequatorial climate with two distinct seasons: the rainy season from May to November and
the dry season from December to April of the following year, it has the average temperature in range 25 -
280C, the humidity levels average 75% throughout the year but are higher during the rainy season. The
population of Ho Chi Minh City is 7,521,100 in 2011 (www.gso.gov.vn); however, uneven distribution with
crowded in the city and sparsely in suburbs.
195
2.2 The content of survey
The scale of cow breeding in Ho Chi Minh City is quite large, so the survey will use random sampling and
conduct a survey of 120 households. Each district (Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, Can Gio districts and
District 9; 12) surveyed 20 households. Small-scale households on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City were
surveyed by a structured questionnaire used to gather information about key data. The information recorded
in the questionnaire is as follows:
 Cow infected with LSD.
 Age of LSD: less than 6 months, from 6 to 12 months, over 1 year.
 Breed of cow with LSD (Golden Cow breed, Lai Sind breed, BBB breed, Charolais breed, Red Angus
breed, dairy cow breed).
 The age of cow dies from LSD.
 Clinical symptoms: fever, nodules on the skin, arthritis, respiratory inflammation by age under 6 months
of age, from 6 to 12 months of age, over 1 year of age.
2.3 Data analysis
Data were analyzed descriptive statistic such as percentages in the ANOVA program of the Minitab software
(Minitab 2000) and software Microsoft Excel 2010.
According to a survey in 120 households with 1259 cows. After the study, we had the result and shown by
Table 3.1.
Table 3.1. Percentage of cow with Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) by surveyed districts
Sample (cows) LSD (cows) Rate (%)
Binh Chanh 107 98 92
Hoc Mon 343 343 98
Cu Chi 385 368 96
Can Gio 86 79 92
District 9 111 111 100
District 12 227 213 94
Total 1259 1212 96
Table 3.1 shows that a total of 1212 (96%) cows were infected with LSD out of a total of 1259 surveyed
cows. In which, District 9 has an infection rate of 100%, Hoc Mon district 98%, District 12 (94%), Cu
Chi district 96%, Binh Chanh district (92%), Can Gio (92%). Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) tends to have a
mortality of <10% and a morbidity of 0% - 90% (Sprygin, Artyuchova, et al., 2018).
Table 3.2. Percentage of cows with Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) by age stage
Age stage (months)
Total
>6 6 - 12 <12
LSD (cow) 234 194 147 1212
Rate (%) 19.3 16 64.7 100
Table 3.2 showed that the disease occurs at any age. The highest age of cows is over 12 months (64.7%),
followed by the age of less than 6 months (19.3%) and the lowest is between 6 and 12 months (16%).
Table 3.3. Percentage of cows with Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) by breed cow
Breed (cows)
Golden Cow Lai Sind BBB Charolais Red Angus ¾ HF
LSD (cow)
0 296 271 78 120 447
n = 1212
Rate (%) 0 24.4 22.3 6.5 9.9 36.9
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Table 3.3 showed that cattle breeds LaiSind, BBB, Charolais, Red Angus, ¾ HF all infected with LSD
accounted for 24.4; 22.3; 6.5; 9.9; 36.9%. Particularly for Golden Cow not infected (0%). The most
susceptible to the disease was ¾ HF (36.9%). Through the survey, we found that the rate of foreign
varieties infected with LSD was higher than that of domestic varieties.
Bảng 3.4. Percentage of dead cows with Lumpy Skin Disease by age stage
Age stage (months)
>6 6 - 12 >12
LSD (cow) 236 194 147
Die (cow) 11 1 0
Rate, % 4.7 0.5 0
Table 3.4 showed that the age groups with LSD mortality rates at the age of less than 6 months, from 6
months to 12 months, and over 12 months are 4.7, respectively; 0.5; 0%. In which, the mortality rate was
highest for the period under 6 months old (4.7%), the lowest for the age group over 12 months old (0%).
On July 13, 2020, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China officially announced 7 LSD
outbreaks in 6 provinces (Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Anhui, Zhejiang) in southeast China
(http://www.xmsyj.moa.gov.cn/yqfb/202007/t20200715_6348686.htm). It was noted two independent
LSD outbreaks were determined in Jiangxi. The 7 LSD outbreaks occurred between June 2 and July 7,
leading to 55 infection cases and 6 death cases. On July 7, 2020, a LSD outbreak affecting 36 cattle
individuals with one death case was announced in Taiwan Island. As of now, a total of 9 LSD outbreaks
were reported in 7 provinces in China, infecting 156 and killing 7 cattle. The total morbidity and
mortality in the 9 outbreaks were 19.5% (156/801) and 0.9% (7/801) respectively. The morbidity and
mortality in each of the separate outbreaks ranged 6.6% - 100% and 0% -16.7% respectively.
Table 3.5. Percentage of cows Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) with clinical symptoms of fever, nodules on
the skin, arthritis inflammation, respiratory inflammation by age stage
Clinical Symptom
Age stage LSD
Nodules on the Arthritis Respiratory
(months) Fever (cows)
skin inflammation inflammatiom
236 236 231 236
>6 n = 236
(100%) (100%) (98%) (100%)
194 194 6 2
6 - 12 n = 194
(100%) (100%) (3%) (1%)
147 147 7 0
<12 n = 147
(100%) (100%) (2.9%) (0%)
Table 3.5 showed that all age stages of Lumpy Skin Disease infection showed fever, nodules on the
skin (100%). The clinical manifestations of arthritis were highest at the age of less than 6 months (98%),
the lowest at the age of over 12 months (2.9%). For clinical symptoms of respiratory infection, the
highest was in the period of less than 6 months old (100%), the lowest was in the age of over 12 months
(0%). Through the survey, we found that clinical symptoms were severe in the period under 6 months of
age.
197
Figure 3.1. Nodules on the skin Figure 3.2. Respiratory Figure 3.3. Arthritis inflammation
inflammation
Figure 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 showed the clinical symptoms in calves under 6 months of age. When calves are
infected with Lumpy Skin Disease, there are all clinical symptoms such as: fever, nodules on the skin,
arthritis inflammation, respiratory inflammation.
4. Conclusion
The study showed that it is LSD that infects all age groups. But causing severe clinical problems as well as
causing death at the age of less than 6 months is 100; 4.7%.
Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledged of cow farmers in Ho Chi Minh City provided the information.
This work was supported by Mr. Hoai is Veterinary technician from the Center for Research and Transfer of
Science and Technology, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City for supporting to take information.
References
1. Abutarbush, S. M., Ababneh, M. M., Al Zoubi, I. G., Al Sheyab, O. M., Al Zoubi, M. G., Alekish, M.
O., & Al Gharabat, R. J. Babiuk, S., Bowden, T. R., Boyle, D. B., Wallace, D. B., & Kitching, R. P.
(2008). Capripoxviruses: An emerging worldwide threat to sheep, goats and cattle. Transbound Emerg
Dis, 55(7), 263-272. doi:10.1111/j.1865-1682.2008.01043.
2. Haig D. (1957). Lumpy skin disease. Bull. Epizoot. Dis. Afr., 5, 421–430.
3. Mercier, A., Arsevska, E., Bournez, L., Bronner, A., Calavas, D., Cauchard, J. Lancelot, R. (2018).
Spread rate of lumpy skin disease in the Balkans, 2015-2016. Transbound Emerg Dis, 65(1), 240-243.
doi:10.1111/tbed.12624
4. Sprygin, A., Artyuchova, E., Babin, Y., Prutnikov, P., Kostrova, E., Byadovskaya, O., & Kononov, A.
(2018). Epidemiological characterization of lumpy skin disease outbreaks in Russia in 2016. Transbound
Emerg Dis, 65(6), 1514-1521. doi:10.1111/tbed.12889.

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198
SURVEY ON THE CIRCULATION OF SOME OOCYST SPECIES CAUSING
COCCIDIOSIS IN CHICKEN IN VINH LONG PROVINCE
Ngo Hoang Thao Nhung1, Truong Anh Thy1*, Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan1
1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh city, Viet Nam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: 0763829169; Email: ta.thy@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The survey investigated the prevalence of coccidiosis in two broiler farms in Tra On district, Vinh
Long province and recognized the species of oocysts involved in causing the disease. A total of 860 faecal
samples of chickens (from 1 to 6 weeks old) were collected and examined microscopically to identify oocyst
and asexual forms of Eimeria. The result shows the proportion of coccidiosis at the two farms was 39.34%
and 29.75%, respectively, and the 5th week of age was the most infected stage with a rate of 75,33%. There
are 4 species of oocysts including E. tenella, E. acervulina, E. maxima and E. necatrix. E. tenella accounted
for the highest percentage (67.64%), followed by E. acervulina (44.25%), E. maxima (27.55%) and the
lowest was E. necatrix (19.62%). This study demonstrated that in broiler farms coccidiosis is an omnipresent
parasitic intestinal disease and the prevalence of coccidiosis is the highest in the period from 3 to 5 weeks
old. Therefore, farmers should apply good biosecurity measures during this period to mitigate the effect of
the disease. Besides, further studies are imperative to offer alternative solutions for production performance
in broiler chickens.
Keywords: Eimeria species, coccidiosis, oocyst, chickens, Vinh Long
1. Introduction
Coccidiosis is a common disease in chickens, affecting the income of farmers. It causes a global economic
loss of up to 3 billion USD annually (Blake and Tomley, 2014). In Viet Nam, the prevalence of coccidiosis
at broiler farms is from 4 to 100%, depending on the management system, age, breed and veterinary hygiene
while mortality rates range from 5 to 15% (Nguyen et al., 2011). The economic losses caused by coccidiosis
in chickens vary including the increase in the number of stunted chickens in the flock, weight loss, reduced
egg production, and increased mortality (Le Van Nam, 2003). The disease also reduces the immunity of
chickens, paving the way for other pathogens to infiltrate.
Coccidiosis, caused by the obligatory intracellular protozoan Eimeria spp., is one of the most common
worldwide parasitic diseases. In the poultry industry, seven species of Eimeria, including E. tenella, E.
maxima, E. necatrix, E. praecox, E. mitis, E. acervulina and E. brunettican frequently appear in infected
chickens, causing intestinal lesions with different severity. The infection rate of Eimeria recorded in broiler
flocks in Bac Giang province, Hue city was 80.56% (Tran et al., 2014), 33.17% (Doan et al., 2014), and
50.92% (Huynh, 2017), respectively.
However, the reports of the prevalence of coccidiosis in broilers in the southern of Vinh Long province have
been limited so far. Therefore, the current study focused on evaluating the epidemiology of coccidiosis Vinh
Long province by applying flotation and morphological techniques.
2.1. Sampling
A total of 860 faecal samples were collected from broiler farms by using the formula of Thrustfield (2007) in
Tra On district, Vinh Long province from February to March 2021. Fresh samples were taken from chickens
aged from 1 to 6 weeks old. Collected samples were put in a container, marked (location, age and date of
sampling), stored in a dry ice box and brought to the HUTECH’s Veterinary Laboratory for examination.
Stool samples were stored in a refrigerator at 5-10oC and tested within 2-3 days.
2.2. Parasitological analysis
199
Approximately 2g faecal sample of an individual chicken was weighed and transferred into tubes. The
samples were blended then the floatation technique was applied using sodium chloride solution to harvest
oocysts (Conway and McKenzie, 2007). The sample was examined microscopically at x40-100
magnification using a light microscope. The species of oocysts were identified based on oocysts
morphometry (shape, size, colour, the presence or absence of micropyle) and the sporulation time described
by Eckert et al. (1995).
The number of coccidial oocysts in 1g faeces was quantified by the McMaster method. The intensity of
infection was determined based on the number of oocysts present in 1g of faeces.
 Intensity 1+: count less than 1,000 oocysts/1g stool
 Intensity 2+: quantity from 1,000 - 5,000 oocysts/1g stool
 Intensity 3+: quantity from 5,000 - 20,000 oocysts/1g stool
 Intensity 4+: the number of more than 20,000 oocysts/1g stool
2.3. Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis was performed by using Minitab version 16.0 software for Windows. The differences
among variables were evaluated by the Chi-Square test. A 𝑃 value < 0.05 was considered statistically
significant.
3.1. The prevalence of coccidiosis in two broiler farms in Tra On district, Vinh Long province
The overall prevalence: out of 860 samples collected at two broiler farms in Tra On district, Vinh Long
province, 300 samples were positive for coccidial oocysts, accounting for 34,88%. The infection rate of
coccidiosis in two farms was 39.34% anđ 29.75%, respectively (Table 1). The difference was statistically
significant (P < 0.05). The higher presence of coccidiosis chickens on Farm 1 might be explained because
the farm has been in operation for a longer time and has undergone more rounds of rearing. According to
Huang et al. (2017), chicken farms with a long farming history can lead to the development of coccidiosis
pathogens with a high probability of resistance to most treatments.
Based on the result in Table 2, there was a statistically significant infection rate among age groups. The
infection rate of coccidiosis increased from the third week to the fifth week; however, the infection rate
significantly decreased during the next week (P< 0.05). In the fifth week, the peak of infection was recorded
with an infection rate of 75.33% and an intensity (4+) of 15.9%. In the first two weeks of age, there is no
infection detected, this might be because the chicks are still protected by maternal antibodies (Kaboudi et al.,
2016). The infection rate increased and reached the peak at 3 - 5 weeks of age, this result is in accordance
with the study of Naveed and Faryal (2019), it is possible that at this stage, chickens have not yet produced
enough antibodies to fight the pathogen. Moreover, from 31 to 45 days old, there is a dramatic fall in
maternal immunity against coccidiosis (Kaboudi et al., 2016). According to Muazu et al. (2008), chickens of
all ages are susceptible to coccidiosis, however, they may be cured of pathogens on their own from 6 weeks
of age onward, this might be due to healthy chickens have produced immunity after being affected by
coccidiosis. Moreover, the high prevalence also revealed that the prophylaxis strategies of coccidiosis in
surveyed farms were not adequately concerned. The farmers just gave anticoccidial drugs as observing the
typical symptoms such as anorexia, foamy faeces, and bloody droppings. This situation was also recorded in
two farms, resulting in a significant decrease in the prevalence of coccidiosis from the fourth to fifth week.
Table 1. Prevalence of coccidiosis in two broiler farms
Farm No. of samples No. of positive samples Percentage (%)
Farm 1 460 181 39,34a
Farm 2 400 119 29,75b
Total 860 300 34,88
200
a,b
Values in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (p < 0.05)
Table 2.The infection rate and infection intensity of coccidiosis in Vinh Long province, Vietnam, by
microscopic examination
Intensity of infection and percentage
Age Percentage
Samples Positive samples 1(+) 2(+) 3(+) 4(+)
(week) (%)
(%) (%) (%) (%)
1 130 0 0.00a - - - -
2 130 0 0.00b - - - -
3 150 57 38.00c 92.98 7.02 - -
4 150 78 52.00d 37.18 44.87 15.38 2.56
5 150 113 75.33e 11.50 30.09 42.48 15.90
6 150 52 34.67f 61.54 38.46 - -
Total 860 300 34.88 42.33 31.00 20.00 6.67

a,b,c,d,e,f
Values in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (p < 0.05)
3.2. Morphological identification

Based on the morphological features of Eimeria spp. oocysts and sporulation time, the characteristics of each
Eimeria species were described in detail (Table 3). In the current study, four different Eimeria species (E.
necatrix, E. acervulina, E. maxima, and E. Tenella), were found in faecal samples of chickens in broiler
farms in Tra On district, Vinh Long province.
Table 4 presents that the prevalence of 4 species of coccidiosis oocysts were E. tenella (67.64%), E.
acervulina (44.25%), E. maxima (27.55%) and E. necatrix (19.62%). E. tenella accounted for the highest
percentage of coccidiosis species detected. This result is similar to the study of Huang et al (2017).
According to Huang et al. (2017), E. tenella is the most widespread coccidiosis in the world, this might be
due to E. tenella oocysts are relatively stable in the external environment, and for a long time retain their
vigor and pathogenicity after lying in the soil all year long (Kolapski and Paskin, 1980). E. acervulina
appeared at the third week of age with a high rate (86.79%), although this is the most fertile species, it has a
lower virulence, which makes it difficult to observe the symptoms in the chicken affected by this specie (Cao
et al., 2016). E. maxima is a moderately virulent species, releasing into the environment (36 million
oocysts/day) three times more than E. necatrix (12 million oocysts/day). Although it is a highly virulent
species and is quite common in industrial chicken production, E. necatrix has a low reproductive capacity,
making it difficult to compete with other coccidiosis species (Calnek, 1997). In the current study, starting
from the 3rd to the 6th week of age, chickens are infected with all 4 species of coccidiosis, according to Cao
et al. (2016) when the animal is infected with 106 - 1.5x106 oocysts, it can affect animals with symptoms
such as reduced weight, loss of pigmentation and possibly death.
Table 3: Morphological characteristics of Eimeria species
Length (μm) Width (μm) Sporulation
Oocyst characteristics Species
Mean ± SE Mean ± SE time (h)
Oocyst ovoid, smooth and
21.82 ± 1,89 18.65 ± 1,60 17- 23 E. tenella
colorless wall, no micropyle
201
Oocyst ovoid or ellipsoid,
18.69 ± 1,21 14.98 ± 0.96 15 - 22 E. acervulina
smooth wall, no micropyle
Oocyst ovoid, yellowish,
slightly rough surface wall, 29.93 ± 1,75 20.58 ± 1.40 28 - 42 E. maxima
without micropyle
Oocyst ovoid or spherical,
20.25 ±1,65 16.90 ± 1.60 17 - 24 E. necatrix
smooth wall, no micropyle
Table 4: Prevalence of Eimeria species based on the age of chicken

Rate of coccidiosis based on the age of chicken
(week)
Percentage
Species Samples 1 2 3 4 5 6
(%)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
E. tenella 324 67.64 - - 90.12 81.79 68.20 59.87
E. acervulina 212 44.25 - - 86.79 67.92 52.35 44.81
E. maxima 132 27.55 - - 42.42 34.84 29.54 25.75
E. necatrix 94 19.62 - - 58.51 35.10 20.21 17.02
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the result of the current study indicated that coccidiosis is the most common and significant
disease affecting chicken production. The age of chickens was associated with chicken coccidiosis in this
research scope. Although the prevalence of coccidiosis in this study was not high, it revealed that the disease
management was not adequately performed. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the hygiene factors
of the barn to improve environmental hygiene and prevent avian coccidiosis outbreaks in Vinh Long and
reduce economic losses. Besides, in the future, there should be more research on coccidiosis, especially
testing natural medicinal herbs to treat the disease, meet the supply of clean food and limit the use of
antibiotics in livestock.
References
1. Blake D.P., and Tomley F.M. (2014). Securing poultry production from the ever-present Eimeria
challenge. Trends Parasitol, 30:12-19. https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2013.10.003
2. Calnek B.W., Barnes H. Jonh, Charles W. Beard, Larry R. McDougald, Y. M. Saif (1997). Diseases of
poultry. Iowa State University Press Ames, Iowa, USA. pp 867-873.
3. Cao Thanh Hoan, Nguyen Huu Hung và Nguyen Ho Bao Tran (2016). The prevalence of Eimeria
species in broiler farms in Vinh Long province. Can Tho University Journal of Science. (2):11-16.
https://doi.org/10.22144/ctu.jsi.2016.037
4. Conway Donal P, and McKenzie E (2007). Poultry coccidiosis: Diagnosis and testing procedure, 3rd
edition. Blackwell Publishing.
5. Doan T.T., Tran Đ.H., Nguyen H.N., and Nguyen T.H.C. (2014). Survey of coccidiosis in chickens in
Bac Giang province. Veterinary Science, 21: 68-75.
202
6. Eckert J., Braun R., Shirley M. W., Coudert P. (1995). Biotechnology Guideline one techniques in
coccidiosis. Research, ECSC – EC – EAEC, Brussels, Luxembourg, Belgium.
7. Huang Yueyue, Ruan Xiangchun, Li Lin, and Zeng Minghua (2017). Prevalence of Eimeria species in
domestic chickens in Anhui province, China. Journal of Parasitic Diseases. 41(4):1014-1019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-017-0927-1
8. Huynh V.C. (2017). Survey on some pathological features of coccidiosis in chickens and research on
manufacturing probiotics for use in prevention and treatment. PhD dissertation. Vietnam National
University of Agriculture.
9. Khaled Kaboudi, Sajid Umar and Muhammad Tanveer Munir (2016). Prevalence of Coccidiosis in
Free-Range Chicken in Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. Scientifica. Article ID 7075195, 6 pages.
10. Kolapxki N.A., Paskin P.I.(1980). Bệnh cầu trùng ở gia súc, gia cầm. Nhà xuất bản Nông nghiệp.
11. Le Van Nam (2003). Coccidiosis in livestock and poultry. Agriculture Publishing, Ha Noi. Page: 29 –
55.
12. Muazu A., Masdoog A.A., NgbedeJ., Salihu A.E., HarunaG., Habu A.K., Sati M.N. and Jamilu, H.
(2008). Prevalence and identification of species of Eimeria causing coccidiosis within Vom, Plateau
State, Nigeria. International Journal.of Poultry Science. 7(9): 917-918.
https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2008.917.918
13. Naveed Qualab, Faryal Rani (2019). Risk factors and prevalence of coccidiosis in chicken in district
Gujarat, Punjab, Pakistan. International Journal of Biosciences. 15(3):66-79.
http://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/15.3.66-79
14. Nguyen Huu Hung (2011). Textbook of parasitic diseases of livestock and poultry. Can Tho University
Publishing. Page: 246– 283.
15. Tran H.D., Gadahi J.A., and Leghari R.A. (2014). Molecular identification of Eimeria species Infection
in chickens in surrounding areas of the red river delta in Vietnam. International Journal of Livestock
Research, 4:9.
16. Thrusfield M. (2007). Veterinary epidemiology. 3rd edition. John Wiley and Sons, Scotland.

[STS22-75]
203
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TREATMENT METHODS FOR
LAMENESS IN DAIRY COWS ON MILK YIELD AND QUALITY
Dang Hoang Dao1*, Duong Nguyen Khang2
1
2
Research and Technology Transfer Center, Nong Lam University,Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: 0358158277; Email: dh.dao@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
We conducted at Reseach and Technology Transfer Center, Nong Lam University of Ho Chi Minh City from
June 2018 to August, 2019. Three investigations were carried out: (1) Effect of with or without hoof triming
on yield and quality of dairy cows, (2) Effect of hoof triming, lime with copper sulphate with sulfur,
oxytetracycline on yield and quality of dairy cows. The method (1) was conducted on 02 group of lameness
each group have 5 cows evenly about locomotion score above 3, body codition score below 3, disease status,
milk yield and milk quality, etc. The experimental group was trimmed hoof periodically. The result showed
that the experimental group had feed intake increased by 0.22 kg DM/cow/day, the body condition score
increased by 0.25 point, the gait point was better 1 point, the milk quantity increased by 0.98 kg/cow/day,
content of dry matter, protein and milk fat was respectively increased by 0.13; 0.06 and 0.13%. The method
(2) was conducted on 03 group of lameness each group have 5 cows evenly about locomotion score above 3,
body codition score below 3, disease status, milk yield and milk quality, etc. The experimental group was
treatment with lime + copper sulphate + sulfur and oxytetracycline. The result showed that the experimental
group had feed intake increased by 0.93 and 0.99 kg DM/cow/day, the body condition score increased by
0.25 and 0.5 point, the gait point was better 1 and 1 point, the milk quality increased by 1.79 kg/cow/day,
content of dry matter, protein and milk fat was respectively increased by 0.22; 0.13 and 0.03% and 0.26;
0.12; 0.06%.
Keywords: Cow, hoof trimming, lameness, milk yield, milk quality
1. Introduction
In modern dairy production, lameness has marked negative consequences for productivity and animal
welfare (Warnick et al., 2001). Lamenes in dairy cows is one of the most important health problems today.
This disease does not present as severe as infectious diseases, but its effects on dairy cows are on health,
weight loss, reduced milk production, reduced milk solids, reduced herd lifespan, increased mastitis and
cellulitis. Poor body composition, poor reproduction, and especially reduced resistance will affect and create
conditions for the development of other infectious diseases that cause heavier economic losses such as low
productivity, increased cost of care and treatment. Lameness significantly reduced milk production per
lactation (Green et al., 2002; Enting et al., 1997). Lameness is associated with a longer parity interval
(Enting et al., 1997), a low conception rate at the first insemination, and a high risk of ovarian cysts
(Melendez et al., 2003). On the other hand, lame are 8.4 times more likely to be culled than cows without
foot pain (Sprecher et al., 1997), and are costly to treat (Enting et al., 1997). From the above problems, we
conduct research “Evaluating the effectiveness of treatment methods for lameness in dairy cows on milk
yield and quality”.

2.1. Time and location
We conducted at Reseach and Technology Transfer Center, Nong Lam University of Ho Chi Minh City from
June 2017 to August 2018.
2.2. Method
Dairy cows crossed with more than ¾ of Holstein Friesian blood with lameness had a mobility score above 3
(Figue 2.1).
204
Figue 2.1. Table locomotion score (Steven, 1992)
Experiment 1: The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design divided into 2 groups, each
with 5 animals: (1) control group, (2) hoof trimming.
Figue 2.2. Five steps triming process (Su Thanh Long et al, 2016)
Experiment 2: The experiment was carried out completely randomly divided into 3 lots, each batch of 5
animals: (1) control group, (2) batch using duplicate quality (80% lime, 15% CuSO4, 5% sulfur), (3) a batch
of spray antibiotics.
Steps to perform:
Use antiseptics
Step 1: Clean the wound with a brush and soap, then dry.
Step 2: Use an antiseptic solution of 80% lime, 15% CuSO4, 5% sulfur.
Use of antibiotics
Step 1: Wash the wound with a brush and soap, then dry.
Step 2: Use oxtetracycline spray - Tetravet aerosol blue.
Step 3: If the wound is large, it can be covered with a waterproof gauze bandage to avoid increasing
damage and spreading.
Tracking criteria:
Feed intake, milk yield and quality, milk somatic cells, locomotor index, body condition score, recovery
rate.
2.3. Data analysis
Collected data were processed by Microsoft Excel (2013), then statistically processed by Minitab software
(version 16.2). Mean values were compared by Tukey's test; proportions were compared by χ2 test when
there was a significant difference with P ≤ 0.05.
205
Table 1. Effect of periodic hoof trimming on composition and feed intake
Hoof trimming
Target SEM P
No Yes
n (cows) 5 5
Feed intake
4,94b 4,99a 0,018 0,036
Grass, kg DM/cow/day
Casava, kg DM/cow/day 1,91 1,93 0,015 0,505
Brewer grain, kg DM/cow/day 2,04 2,10 0,025 0,087
Concentrate grain, kg DM/cow/day 6,12 6,20 0,048 0,194
Total DM intake, Kg DM/cow/day 15,00 15,22 0,089 0,088
The results of Table 1 showed that the intake weight of those with periodic nail trimming was 0.22 kg higher
than that of no periodic trimming of DM/cow/day.
Table 2. Effect of periodic hoof trimming on milk yield

n, Average milk yield
Hoof trimming CV (%) SEM P
cows (kg/cow/day)
No 5 16,06b 7,38
a
0,079 0,001
Yes 5 16,95 5,85
Total 10 16,51 7,13
The results of Table 2 showed that cows with hoof trimming had higher milk production than those without
hoof trimming, 0.89 kg/cow/day. As reported by Sarel et al. (2002) showed the impact of lameness on milk
production. Warnick et al. (2001) have shown that the production of cows with lame is reduced by 1.5
kg/cow/day compared with those without hooves. Manson et al (1988) studied the effect of hoof trimming on
milk yield. The results showed that hoof trimming, shortened treatment time for those with hoof problems
and increased milk production. According to Warnick et al (1988), cows with lame have reported a decrease
in milk production of 1.5 - 2 kg during the first week of lameness.
Table 3. Effect of hoof trimming on milk quality

Hoof trimming
Target SEM P
No Yes
n (cow) 5 5
DM Milk (%) 8,59b 8,72a 0,017 0,001
Milk protein (%) 3,96 4,02 0,025 0,099
b
Milk fat (%) 3,85 3,98a 0,036 0,020
SC (x103/ml) 274,5a 144,5b 9,33 0,001
Table 3 shows that in the lot of cows that have hoof trimming, there has been a significant improvement in milk
quality such as protein, fat, and milk dry matter, respectively, by 0.06; 0.13 and 0.13%. Milk somatic cells were
also reduced compared with the control group. Many studies have shown that cows have lame that leads to pain.
A study conducted on 300 Holstein Friesian cows showed that milk production in 30 days of hoofed cattle was
516.8 kg lower than that of healthy cows. The percentage of milk fat and protein decreased by 0.16 and 0.04%,
respectively, compared with healthy cows (Penev et al., 2015).
Table 4. Effect of hoof trimming on the rate of recovery

Sample Cured Not cured Cured
Methods P
(cows) (cows) (cows) rate (%)
Hoof trimming 5 5 0 100a 0,002
206
None hoof trimming 5 0 5 0b
Through the results of table 4, it has been shown that the resilience for hoof trimming and periodic hoof
trimming is 100; 0%, statistically significant with P = 0.002.
Table 5. Efficacy of antiseptics and antibiotics in the treatment lameness for feed intake
Treatment
Lime +
Target Control Copper
Oxytetracycline SEM P
group Sulphate +
Sulfur
n (cows) 5 5 5
Feed intake
7,62b 8,19a 8,11a 0,079 0,001
Grass, kg DM/cow/day
Casava, kg DM/cow/day 1,53b 1,57ab 1,59a 0,018 0,061
b ab a
Brewer grain, kg DM/cow/day 1,48 1,51 1,54 0,018 0,061
Concentrate grain, kg
4,46b 4,75a 4,84a 0,078 0,003
DM/cow/day
Total DM intake, Kg DM/cow/day 15,09b 16,02a 16,08a 0,169 0,001
Table 5 shows that the intake weight under the positive influence of antiseptics and antibiotics was higher
than that of no treatment such as 0.93; 0.99 kg of DM/cow/day. Good care and treatment make cows recover
quickly, reduce pain, and have better feed intake.
Table 6. Effect of antiseptics and antibiotics in treatment on milk yield

Average milk
n CV
Treatment yield SEM P
(cow) (%)
(kg/cow/day)
Control 5 15,48c 9,64
b
Lime + Copper Sulphat+ Sulfur 5 17,27 6,59 0,106 0,001
a
Oxytetracycline 5 17,93 7,47
The results of Table 6 showed that when using oxytetracycline, lime + copper sulfate + sulfur all gave good
treatment results, so milk yield was higher than that of the group without treatment. The group of cows
treated with antiseptics and antibiotics had increased milk production by 1.79 and 2.45 kg/head/day,
compared with the control group. Our results are consistent with the study of Estill et al., (2002) when using
topical oxytetracycline antibiotic to treat lameness also gave high recover results, up to 90%.
Table 7. Effect of antiseptics and antibiotics in the treatment of lameness on milk quality
Treatment SEM P
Target Lime + Copper
Control Oxytetracycline
Sulphat + Sulfur
n (con) 5 5 5
b a
DM milk (%) 8,44 8,66 8,70a 0,021 0,001
b a a
Milk protein (%) 3,89 4,02 4,01 0,025 0,001
Milk fat (%) 3,79 3,82 3,85 0,023 0,141
3 a b b
SCC (x10 /ml) 542,5 142,0 175,5 37,63 0,001
During the treatment, milk quality was significantly improved in terms of dry matter, protein, milk fat such as
0.22; 0.13; 0.03% for the disinfectant group. And the group using antibiotics, dry matter, protein, milk fat
increased by 0.26; 0.12; 0.06% compared with the control group.
207
Table 8. Effect of antiseptics and antibiotics in treatment on recovery rate
Sample Cured Not cured Cured rate
Method P
(cows) (cows) (cows) (%)
Control 5 0 5 0b
Lime + Copper Sulphat
5 4 1 80a 0,031
+ Sulfur
Oxytetracycline 5 3 2 60ab
The results of Table 8 showed that the recovery ability when using lime + copper sulphate + sulfur as well as
oxytetracycline was 80 and 60%, respectively, higher than the control group was 0% (P = 0.031).
4. Conclusion
Hoof trimming will limit dead tissue, localize inflammatory microorganisms, reduce the condition of
lameness. The use of antiseptics and antibiotics will increase the effectiveness of treatment, improve
locomotion score, body condition score, yield and milk quality.
Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledged of Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City
for financial support.
References
1. Enting H., Kooij D., Dijkhuizen A.A., Huirne R.B.M, Noorduizen – Stassen E.N., 1997. Economic
losses due to clinical lameness in dairy cattle Livest Prod. Sci. 49: 259 - 267.
2. Estill C.T., 2002. Diseases of dairy animals.
3. Melendez P, Bartolome J, Archbald L.F., Donovan A, 2003. The association between lameness, ovarian
cysts and fertility in lactating dairy cows. Theriogenology, 59: 927 – 937.
4. Manson F.J Leaver J.D., 1988. The influence of concentrate amount on lomotion anhd clinical lameness
in dairy cattle. Anim. Prod. 47, pp. 175-190.
5. Green L.E., Hedges V.J., Schukken Y.H., Blowey R.W., and Packington A.J., 2002. The Impact of
Clinical Lameness on the Milk Yield of Dairy Cows. Journal of Dairy Science 85: 2250 - 2256.
6. Sarel RS., Shearer AJ., 2006. Manual for treatment and control of lameness in cattle. Ames (IA):
Blackwell Publication. 31 - 41.
7. Penev, T., K. Stankov., 2015. Effect of lameness on milk production traits in holstein-friesian dairy
cows. J. Veterinarija ir zootechnika (vet med zoot). T. 70 (92). ISSN 1392-2130.
8. Su Thanh Long et al (2016). Reproductive and hoofed diseases of dairy cows in Vietnam.
9. Steven L. Berry, DVM, MPVM; Univ of Davis, CA, and Zinpro Corporation (1992), in J Hulsen, Cow
Signals. http://parklandsvets.com/farm/dairy/locomotion-scoring. Accessed May 4, 2022.
10. Sprecher D.J., Hostetler D.E. and Kaneene J.B., 1996. A lameness scoring system that uses posture and
gait to predict dairy cattle reproductive performance. Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
and Population Medicine Center College of Veterinary Medicine Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48824.
11. Warnick, L. D., D. Janssen, C. L. Guard, and Y. T. Gröhn. 2001. The effect of lameness on milk
production in dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1988–1997.

[STS22-78]
208
KETOSIS ON DAIRY COW AND TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF USING
PROPYLENE GLYCOL IN PREVENTION AND TREATMENT AGAINST
KETOSIS
Diep Tan Toan1, Nguyen Van Phat2*, Dang Hoang Dao2
1
Dairy Demonstration and Experimental Farm (DDEF) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 913895315; Email: nv.phat@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The study was carried out from 11/2015 to 04/2016, at Dairy Demonstration and Experimental Farm (DDEF)
in Ho Chi Minh City. The objectives were: (i) to evaluate the effects of ketosis on dairy cow health and
related factors, and (ii) to study the effects of using propylene glycol in prevention and treatment against
ketosis. The study included 81 HF dairy cows. The experiment of using PG was set up in a randomized
complete block design with one primary factor. The mean values were compared by Tukey’s test, the
difference between blocks by P<0,05. The results showed that 35.80% of the cows suffering ketosis, in
which the illness at subclinical level accounted for 51.73% and clinical level accounted for 48.27%. Blood
ketone concentrations in healthy cows and cows with clinical and subclinical ketosis were significantly
different (P<0.001). In cows with ketosis, the physiological indicators such as activity, rumination or milk
yield decreased remarkably (P<0.001). Propylene glycol was showed to produce good effect for prophylaxis
of ketosis. Using propylene glycol in combination with other products that are included in routine treatment
of ketosis resuted in best therapeutic effect against ketosis in dairy cows.
Keywords: dairy cows; ketosis; propylene glycol; DDEF.
1. Introduction
Ketosis disease is a common disease on many dairy farms (Duffield, 2000; Geishauser et al., 1997). Disease
rates vary widely from farm to farm, averaging around 40% and can be as high as 80% in some herds
(Duffield, 2000). Postpartum cows are at increased risk of developing ketosis in the early lactation due to the
high energy, fat, and protein requirements for milk production, whereas the dry matter intake is high. low
intake and rapid fat mobilization after birth (Baird, 1982). Ketone bodies are produced and are associated
with negative energy imbalances in the postpartum period (Oetzel, 2004). Serum ketone levels have a
negative impact on cow health and reduce milk production (Duffield et al., 1997). Cows with beta-
hydroxybutyrate (BHBA, a form of serum ketone) concentration of ≥1800 mmol/L are estimated to result in
a loss of milk production of about 300 kg per lactation (Duffield) et al., 2009). Propylene glycol (PG) was
used in the treatment of ketones in 1954 (Johnson, 1954). PG into the rumen will be absorbed directly into
the Krebs cycle to increase the oxidation of acetyl Co-A and stimulate glucose metabolism (Studer et al.,
1993). From the above problems, we conduct research “Ketosis on dairy cow and to study the effect of using
propylene glycol in prevention and treatment against ketosis”.
We conducted at Dairy Demonstration and Experimental Farm (DDEF) in Ho Chi Minh City from
November 2015 to April 2016.
2.2. Method
2.1.1. Measure blood ketone and glucose levels
Cows have blood drawn in the morning (10-11 hours) to check blood ketone levels. Blood was taken from
the caudal artery and no anticoagulant was used. Glucose and ketone levels in blood samples were directly
measured with a Precision Xtra (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL), which has sensitivity and specificity
of 96-100% and 98-100% (Iwersen et al., 2009). Subclinical ketone was concluded when the ketone body
concentration was between ≥1.4 and ≤2.9 mmol/L.
209
2.1.2. Check the locomotion and rumination of cows
The American SCR tracker is designed with a strap (signal acquisition) attached to the cow's neck. The
received signal is transmitted to the data reading and analysis system. Movement and rumination were
recorded by the device every 2 hours and data was kept until the device was disassembled. The device has
been practically used to monitor the ruminant and locomotion of cows effectively (Schirmann, 2009). The
unit for rumination is the number of times/min; The unit for movement is the percentage (%) change.
2.1.3. Determining the Body Condition Score (BCS)
Score the BCS for Holstein dairy cows on a scale of 1 to 5 with a gap of 0.25. Time to score BCS: 14 days
before birth, 10 days after birth and 30 days after birth (Domecq et al., 1997).
2.1.4. Milk yield
Milk yield is measured by the Afimilk milking system daily. The data are kept after each milking shift.
2.1.5. Prevention of ketone disease
The experiment was performed on 81 dairy cows and randomly divided into two groups:
Experiment group: 39 dairy cows were vaccinated with PG continuously for 3 days after birth (PG, 500 ml);
Control group: 42 cows, not taking PG and no other preventive measures.
2.1.6. Treatment of ketone disease
On the 4th day postpartum, all cows of the 2 groups were tested for blood ketone levels. Cows with blood
beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) <1.4 mmol/L were monitored for sampling on days 7, 12, 21, and 30, and
observed for signs of ketones disease until day 60 postpartum. Cows with a BHBA concentration ≥1.4
mmol/L were treated with one of three methods (treatment):
Ex1: Combine with 30% glucose infusion (1L/day); injection (I/M) Catosal, 1 ml/20kg body weight, injected
every other day; injection (I/M) Dexamethasone, 15ml/head/day, injected every other day. This course is
done for 3 consecutive days;
Ex2: Only use PG continuously for 3 days (500ml/head/day);
Ex3: Combination of both Ex1 and Ex2 therapies continuously for 3 days.
On day 4 post-treatment, recheck the blood of all treated cows for ketone bodies to assess the effectiveness
of therapy. If blood ketone levels <1.4 mmol/L: discontinue treatment, record ketone (K), glucose (G) levels.
If blood ketones >1.4 mmol/L: record K, G levels, then continue treatment according to facility's procedures.
2.3. Data analysis
(version 16.2). According to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the experimental design in a completely
randomized block design with 1 factor. Mean values were compared by Tukey's test, the difference between
experimental groups (experimental treatment) was significant when the P < 0.05.
3.1. The situation of ketone disease in dairy herds is monitored
Table 1. Blood ketone and glucose levels in cows with blood ketones
Ketone concentration (mmol/L) Glucose concentration (mg/dl)
Symptom N (cows) TB SD CV (%) TB SD CV (%)
Clinical 14 4,58a 1,45 31,75 44,21a 8,95 20,23
Subclinical 15 2,20b 0,51 23,37 51,53b 9,43 18,29
c c
Normal 52 0,77 0,13 16,91 63,45 6,47 10,20
P 0,000 0,000
Table 1 shows that 35.80% have ketone disease. In which, clinical form accounted for 48.27%, subclinical
form 51.72% and there was no significant difference (P>0.05). The mean ketone concentration of clinically
sick cows is 4.58 mmol/L, subclinical is 2.20 mmol/L, and non-diseased (normal) cows are 0.77 mmol/L.
The mean blood ketone levels of the 3 groups were significantly different (P < 0.001). The blood glucose
concentration in the normal group of cows was 63.45 mg/dl. In cows with blood ketones, this concentration
was significantly reduced (P<0.001).
3.2. Effects of blood ketones on some functions of cows
210
Table 2. Changes in locomotion, rumination and milk yield in cows with ketone disease
Locomotion Rumination Milk yield
n TB SD CV TB SD CV TB SD CV
Levels P P P
(cows) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
- -
Clinical 14 -11,74 6,28 -53,50 -14,57 8,16 -55,97 9,20
16,06 57,29
- -
Subclinical 15 -9,78 7,74 -79,12 0,464 -23,60 18,43 -78,09 0,104 11,01 0,598
14,00 78,70
- -
Total 29 -10,73 7,02 -65,43 -19,24 14,89 -77,40 10,05
14,99 67,05
There was a significant reduction in exercise in cows with blood ketones compared with cows without blood
ketones. Cows with blood ketones had a rate of reduced exercise of 100% while cows without blood ketones
did not lose exercise (P<0.001). The group of cows with clinical ketone disease reduced movement on
average by 11.74 %, while the subclinical group decreased by 9.78%. There was no difference in exercise
level in the two groups of sick cows (P>0.05) (Table 2).
In addition to movement, rumination also shows the health status of cows. The group of cows with ketone
disease reduced rumination by 100%, while the group without ketone disease only decreased by 40.38%, the
difference is very significant (P<0.001). Ruminance is influenced by many other factors such as feed length,
temperature, and humidity. The mean rumination of the group of cows with ketone disease at clinical level
was -14.57%, subclinical level was -23.60%, there was no difference between the two levels (P>0.05).
The study showed that the rate of milk yield reduction in the group of cows with ketone disease was 96.55%,
in the group of cows without the disease it was 34.61% (P<0.001).
3.3. Effects of ketonesis on Body Condition Score
Table 3. BCS difference related to blood ketone concentration
BCS n Blood Ketone (mmol/l) SD CV (%) P
≤ 0,25 41 0,87c 0,41 46,85
0,5 20 1,70b 1,18 69,55
0,75 7 2,04b 1,14 55,95 0,000
≥1 13 4,12a 2,05 49,63
Total 81 1,70 1,57 92,47
For the cow group with BCS difference ≥1 before and after birth, the mean ketone concentration was 4.12
mmol/L, which was very different from the other 3 groups (P<0.001). This group of cows often falls into the
case of ketone type 1, the increase in milk yield is rapid but the feed intake is drastically reduced causing a
sharp decrease in BCS leading to high clinical manifestations of ketone disease.
The group with a BCS difference of 0.5–0.75 had mean ketone levels of 1.70–2.04 mmol/L, respectively,
often presenting at subclinical levels. The group with a BCS difference ≤0.25 accounted for a high
percentage (50.61%), with an average ketone concentration of 0.87 mmol/L. Table 3 showed that the larger
the BCS difference, the higher the rate of ketone disease.
3.3. Prevention and treatment of blood ketones with propylene glycol
In this study, 39 dairy cows were fed 500 ml of PG during the first 3 days of life as a prophylactic for
ketones. Subsequent follow-up showed that the rate of ketone disease in the PG-prevented group was
20.51%, while this rate in the no-prevention group was 50% (P<0.01) (Table 4).
Table 4. Prevalence of ketone disease between groups with prevention and none prevention by PG
Clinical PG (n=39 cows) None PG (n=42 cows) P
Ketosis (cows) 8 21
None Ketosis (cows) 31 21
Rate (%) 20,51 50,00 0,006
211
The mean blood ketone concentration of both prevention and no prevention groups with PG was 0.91
mmol/L and 1.14 mmol/L (P<0.05) respectively (Table 5).
Table 5. Ketone concentrations between prevention and none prevention group by PG
Method n (cows) Blood Ketones (mmol/L) SD CV (%) P
PG 39 0,91a 0,30 32,96

0,044
None PG 42 1,14b 0,61 53,89
3.4. Treatment of blood ketones with PG
Results of treatment of subclinical ketone disease: The results presented in Table 6 show that the lowest
reduction in ketone levels in cows treated with Ex1 (0.78 mmol/L), the highest decrease in Ex3 (1.50
mmol/L) L). However, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). It is possible that at the
subclinical level, the ketone concentration only ranges from 0.77 to ≤2.9 mmol/L, so the treatment method
used has not shown a clear change in the course of treatment.
Table 6. Average blood ketone levels before and after treatment
Level Experiment Ketone concentration (mmol/L) P
Before After Therapeutic effect
treatment treatment (increase/decrease)
Ex1 1,98 1,20 - 0,78
Clinical Ex2 2,32 1,10 -1,22 0,104
Ex3 2,30 0,80 -1,50
Ex1 4,75 3,47 -1,28b
Subclinical Ex2 4,20 2,52 -1,68b 0,002
Ex3 4,82 1,00 -3,82a
Results of treatment of clinical ketone disease: The results showed a significant difference in the
effectiveness of the 3 regimens in reducing blood ketone levels (Table 6). The effectiveness of Ex3 was
significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of the other 2 regimens (with Ex3, the mean ketone concentration
decreased by 3.82 mmol/L), while methods 1 and 2 had a mean reduction in blood ketone levels of 1.28
mmol/L and 1.68 mmol/L, respectively (P>0.05).
4. Conclusion
Ketone disease affects milk yield, changes biochemical indicators such as ketone levels, blood glucose
levels, cows reduce exercise, rumination and reduce immunity, increase mastitis, decrease milk. Factors
related to the increased likelihood of disease can be mentioned as: parity, health score, duration of dry milk.
In the treatment of ketone disease at subclinical level, all 3 treatment regimens, with or without PG, are
equally effective. At the clinical level, experiment 3 (combination of glucose 30%, dexamethasone, catosal,
and PG) showed the highest therapeutic effect, which can be used in the treatment of ketone disease in dairy
cows.
Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledged of Dairy Demonstration and Experimental Farm (DDEF) in Ho
Chi Minh City.
References
1. Domecq J.J., Skidmore A.L., Lloyd J.W and Kaneene J.B., (1997), Relationship between body condition
scores and conception at first artificial insemination in a large dairy herd of high yielding Holstein cows,
Journal of Dairy Science, 80:113-120.
2. Duffield T.F., Kelton D.F., Leslie K.E., Lissemore K.D and Lumsden J.H., (1997), Use of test day milk
fat and milk protein to detect subclinical ketosis in dairy cattle in Ontario, The Canadian Veterinary
Journal, La Revue Vétérinaire Canadienne, 38(11):713–718.
3. Duffield T.F., Lissemore K.D., McBride B.W and Leslie K.E. (2009), Impact of hyperketonemia in early
lactation dairy cows on health and production, Journal of Dairy Science, 92(2):571–580.
212
4. Duffield T.F. (2000), Subclinical ketosis in lactating dairy cattle, Vet. Clin. North Am. Food Anim.
Pract, 16:231-253.
5. Geishauser T., Leslie K., Duffield T and Edge V. (1997), Evaluation of aspartate transaminase activity
and β-hydroxybutyrate concentration in blood as tests for prediction of left displaced abomasum in dairy
cows, Am. J. Vet. Res, 58(11):1216- 1220.
6. Iwersen M., Falkenberg U., Voigtsberger R., Forderung D. and Heuwieser W. (2009), Evaluation of an
electronic cowside test to detect subclinical ketosis in dairy cows, Journal of Dairy Science, 92: 2618-
2624
7. Johnson R.B. (1954), The treatment of ketosis with glycerol and propylene glycol, Cornell Vet, 44(1): 6-
21.
8. Schirmann K. (2009), Technical note: Validation of a system for monitoring rumination in dairy cows,
Journal of Dairy Science,.92:6052–6055
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on periparturient fatty liver in dairy cows, Journal of Dairy Science, 76:2931-2.

[STS22-82]
213
SURVEILLANCE OF THE PARASITIC BLOOD DISEASE CAUSED BY
BABESIA SPP IN DOGS IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Nguyen Thi Lan Anh1*, Du Thanh Vu1, To My Quyen2, Nguyen Pham Thao Nhi2
1
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Husbandry, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam
*Corresponding author: Nguyen Thi Lan Anh (Phone: 0913410429; E-mail: ntl.anh@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
In this study, a total of 256 suspicious dogs of blood parasitic infection were subjected to clinical
examination, blood test, Giemsa staining, and PCR in several veterinary clinics from October 2020 to May
2021. The results showed that 14.06% of blood samples were positive with protozeal Babesia spp. Free-
ranging dogs were infected more than household dogs with prevalence of 63.89% and 36.11%, respectively.
Dogs at the age from 1 to 5 years old had higher infection ratio (47.22%) than both of less 1 age and over 5
ages (33.33% and 19.44%, respectively). Symptoms of pale mucous membranes, jaundice and subcutaneous
hemorrhage that occurred more popular with dogs were found in Babesiosis (58.33%, 19.44% and 13.89%).
Hematological abnormalities included thrombocytopenia (55.56%), anemia (52.78%), leukocytosis (38.89%)
and leucopenia (11.11%). 100% of samples infected with Babesia by technical staining Giemsa were
positive for Babesia by PCR method.
Keywords: dogs, blood parasites, Babesia, technical staining Giemsa.
1. Introduction
Babesiosis is an emerging zoonosis with important public health implications, as the incidence of the
disease has risen dramatically over the past decade. In our country, pet care has become a very essential need
in the daily life of many urban people, so the number and types of pets are increasing rapidly, especially pet
dogs. This leads to the emergence and serious many diseases in dogs, especially in Ho Chi Minh City.
Babesia parasites are transmitted to humans and animals by ixodid ticks. Currently, blood-borne diseases in
dogs are becoming a big challenge for breeders because the control of vectors of infectious diseases (ticks) is
very difficult. Babesia parasites are transmitted to humans and animals by ixodid ticks.
Babesiosis is one of the diseases that cause serious consequences in dogs if not detected and
intervened in time. The disease causes a decline in the function of the dog's blood-forming organs, thereby
leading to the consequences of anemia. The disease has no characteristic signs in the early stages, but when
detected with typical symptoms, pets are at high risk of death. This article provides the latest information on
blood parasites caused by Babesia in domestic dogs in Ho Chi Minh City
256 dogs with clinical signs suspected of blood-borne diseases were collected blood samples between
October 2020 and May 2021 to survey babesiosis in dogs in Ho Chi Minh City.
Location of sample collection and analysis: Vinpet Veterinary Clinic in Binh Thanh, Go Vap, and
District 12; Chuan Veterinary Clinic in District 3; 651 Veterinary Clinic in District 3.
Method
Step 1: Physical examination
Collecting basic information about dogs through interviewing owners and direct examination of dogs
to record clinical symptoms of blood-borne diseases infection such as fever, loss of appetite, difficulty
214
breathing, jaundice, bleeding nosebleeds, motility, subcutaneous hemorrhage, pale mucous membranes, and
neurological symptoms.
Step 2: Complete blood count
Physiological parameters in blood of 256 dogs with clinical signs of suspected blood-borne diseases
infection were investigation. The main parameters tested according to Van Heerden et al. (1983) such as
white blood cell count, red blood cell count, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit, and platelet count.
Step 3: Giemsa stain for microscopy
Carefully dilute Giemsa’s solution in the ratio 1:5 with phosphate buffer solution with pH 7.0 – 7.2 to
Giemsa stain 20%. Then, identify the Babesia spp. in 256 blood samples according to Van Heerden et al.
(1983).
Step 4: We were selected 10 samples positive for Giemsa staining to do PCR method.
DNA extraction
Blood samples spotted onto the filter paper, corresponding to approximately 20 ml of fluid, were cut out
by use of individual sterile scalpel blades and put into sterile tubes for DNA extraction (Strauss-Ayali et al.,
2004). DNA was extracted by adding 300 ml of lysis buffer [50 mM NaCl, 50 mM Tris, 10 mM EDTA (pH
8.0)], proteinase K to a final concentration of 250 mg/ml and Triton X-100 (20%) to a final concentration of
1%. Following a 2 h incubation at 560C and an inactivation of proteinase K at 900C for 10 min, 300 ml of
phenol (75%), chloroform (24%) and isoamylalcohol (1%) mixture were added, vortexed and centrifuged
(12,000 g) for 4 min. The supernatant was collected and 300 ml of a mixture of phenol (50%), chloroform
(48%) and isoamylalcohol (2%) were added, vortexed and centrifuged (12,000 g) for 4 min. The supernatant
was collected and 300 ml of a mixture of chloroform (96%) and isoamylalcohol (4%) were added, vortexed
and centrifuged (12,000 g) for 4 min. The supernatant was collected, and 1:10 volume of Na-acetate (3 M)
and 1 volume of ice cold 100% isopropanol (200C) were added and incubated over night at 200C. Following
centrifugation (14,000 g) at 40C for 30 min, the supernatant was discarded and the pellet was washed with
150 ml of ethanol (75%, 200C) and centrifuged (13,000 g, 40C) for 15 min. The supernatant was discarded
and the pellet was airdried. The DNA was then hydrated with 30 ml of ddH2O for 1 h at 50 0C.
PCR
Primers PIRO-A (50 -AAT ACC CAA TCC TGA CAC AGG G-30) and Piro-B (50 -TTA AAT ACG
AAT GCC CCC AAC-30 ) were used to amplify a 408 bp fragment of the 18S rRNA gene of Babesia spp.
using PCR (Olmeda et al., 1997). Amplification was done under the following conditions: 940C for 1 min
followed by 39 cycles of 940C for 45 s, 620C for 45 s, and 720C for 45 s.
Calculation formula
+ The percentage of dogs blood-borne diseases caused by Babesia spp. individuals breed, age, sex, and
farming form is calculated according to the following formula:
Percentage (%) = [number of dogs infected with Babesia/ number of dogs suspected of being infected] x
100
The frequency of clinical symptoms in dogs blood-borne diseases caused by Babesia spp. is calculated
according to the following formula:
Frequency (%) = [number of dogs with clinical symptoms/number of infected dogs] x 100.
+ The percentage of dogs blood-borne diseases caused by Babesia spp. changes physiological
parameters in blood is calculated according to the following formula:
Percentage (%) = [number of dogs with changes physiological parameters in blood/ number of infected
dogs] x 100
Data processing: Proportions were compared using the chi-square with significant differences
recorded at p<0.05 by Minitab 16 software.
215
3.1 Prevalence dogs blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp. divided by breed, age, sex, and farming form
The results of clinical and subclinical diagnosis on 256 dogs recorded in Table 1 showed that 14.06%
(36/256) individuals were infected with blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp.
Table 1 Proportion of dogs testing positive for blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp.
Categories Survey targets Prevalence (%)
(n=36)
Breed Domestic dogs 55,56a
Foreign dogs 44,44a
Sex Male dogs 47,22a
Female dogs 52,78a
Farming form Captivity 36,11b
Free-range dogs 63,89a
Age group (years) <1 33,33b
1-5 47,22a
>5 19,44c
Total 14,06
Note: The total number of positive dogs is 256. In the same column, mean values followed by the same letter
are not significantly different by χ2 test at p = 0.05
In 36 dogs infected with blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp. recorded in Table 1, the prevalence of
infected dogs was not statistically significant (p > 0.05) when divided by domestic or foreign breed and male
or female groups. While, dogs that were from 1 to 5 years old had higher infected ratio than both of less 1
age and over 5 ages, the age group over 5 ages less infected than the age group less 1 age and were statistical
significantly different (p < 0.05).
Thus, the prevalence of blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp. in dogs is high or low does not depend
on domestic or foreign breed and sex but depends on captivity or free-range dogs and age group beacause
free-range dogs are kept in yards and gardens, so they are easily exposed to the source of the disease through
vectors (ixodid ticks). In contrast, captive dogs are cared better than, most of them are kept indoors, so they
are less exposed to the source of the disease, and are periodically prevented from ticks, so the source of the
disease has less infectious conditions. This was also confirmed by Torres (2008). Dogs from 1 to 5 years old
are more infected with blood-borne diseases than other ages. This is related to the increased activity of dogs
during estrus times, which increases probability of exposure to the source disease.
3.2 Frequency of occurrence of some clinical symptoms in dogs infected with blood-borne diseases
According to the owners’ assessments, the time span between the onset of clinical signs and arrival at
the clinic varied from one to five days. Routine physical examination of the dogs revealed typical clinical
signs compatible with babesiosis: apathy (52,77%), anorexia (14.63%), difficulty breathing (13.88%), fever
(13.33%).
The results of clinical diagnosis of 36 dogs blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp. showed that the
majority of dogs suffered tick (91.66%), 58.33% had pale mucous membranes, 13.89% had subcutaneous
hemorrhage, and 19.44% had jaundice (Table 2).
Table 2. Frequency of occurrence of some clinical symptoms in dogs infected with Babesia spp.
Clinical signs Frequency of occurrence (%)
(n=36)
Tick 91,66
Pale mucous membranes 58,33
Subcutaneous hemorrhage 13,89
Nosebleed 0,00
Jaundice 19,44
216
Convulsions 0,00
Anorexia 14,63
Apathy 52,77
Fever 33,33
Difficulty breathing 13,88
Note: The total number of dogs tested for subclinical testing is 36 dogs
Thus, typical symptoms often appear were pale mucous membranes and jaundice (58.33% and 19.44%)
in dogs infected with Babesia spp. Jaundice is more common in dogs infected with Babesia spp. because
Babesia causes hemolytic anemia, which releases a large amount of free bilirubin into the blood, leading to
jaundice (Welzl et al., 2001).
3.3 Physiological parameters in dogs with babesiosis
The results of subclinical tests on 36 dogs infected Babesia spp. are recorded in Table 3 showing that
the diseased dogs are mainly increased in white blood cell count and decreased in red blood cell,
hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet. An increase in the number of white blood cells, mainly in mildly ill
dogs, is caused by white blood cells gathered to fight the invasion of parasites into the body by a natural
defense mechanism, then the white blood cell count decreased as the dog got sicker. Meanwhile, the parasite
infects and destroys red blood cells and platelets leading to a decrease in the number of these cells in the
blood. The destruction of the red blood cells of the parasite and a decrease in the hemoglobin and hematocrit
levels leads to a decrease in the function of the cells. Reddy et al. (2016) reported that dogs infected with
Babesia cause a decrease in red blood cells, platelets and hematocrit, increased leukocytosis when the
disease is mild, then decreasing when the disease is more severe.
Table 3 Hematological parameters in dogs infected with Babesia spp.

Proportion
Survey factor Unit Level Quantity (child) Quantitative
(%)
24,73 ± 8,48
Increase
White blood cell 14 (17,3 – 59,9) 38,89
109/L
count 4 4,39 ± 1,39 11,11
Decrease
(1,6 – 5,9)
Decrease 19 4,12 ± 1,08 52,78
Red blood cell 1012/L
(1,4 – 5,9)
Decrease 16 79,9 ± 20,95 44,44
Hemoglobin g/L
(20 – 109 )
Decrease 21 28,49 ± 7,81 58,33
Hematocrit %
(7,4 – 52,1)
Decrease 20 59,16 ± 28,75
Platelets 109/L 55,56
(8,0 – 115)
Note: The total number of dogs tested for subclinical testing is 36 dogs
3.4 PCR method

100% of samples infected Babesia by Giemsa stain for microscopy were positive for Babesia by PCR
method. This result shows that the method of diagnosing Babesia by PCR method has high accuracy, even
with low density Babesia-infected blood samples when observing the blood smear under the microscope.
217
Note: 1: Marker (408 bp); Wells 2 – 11: Sample No. 1 – 10.
Figure 1. Electrophoresis of PCR products from some blood samples
Laha et al (2013) study on 111 blood samples of dogs suspected of blood-borne disease showed that
the detection rate of Babesia on blood smears was lower than PCR method (39.63% versus 56.75%). Similar
results to the study of Jain et al (2018) also reported that among 150 dogs participating in the survey, the
detection rate of Babesia by Giemsa staining method was 26.6% (40 cases), lower than the PCR method was
36.7 % (55 cases). In this study, we initially conducted PCR for 10 blood samples due to limited conditions,
so we could not give an overview on comparing the rate of Babesia detection by Giemsa staining and PCR.
PCR method requires more testing costs. Therefore, at present, veterinary clinics still give priority to using
Giemsa staining blood smear technique. However, this PCR result has contributed to confirm that the
detection of Babesia on previous blood smears is absolutely correct accurate and have a scientific basis.
4. Conclusion
The prevalence of blood-borne diseases by Babesia spp. in dogs is high or low does not depend on domestic
or foreign breed and sex but depends on captivity or free-range dogs and age group. Dogs which lived
unlimitedly in home were infected more than limited dogs. Dogs that were from 1 to 5 years old had higher
infected ratio than both of less 1 age and over 5 ages.
Symptoms of pale mucous membranes, jaundice and subcutaneous hemorrhage that occurred more popular
with dogs found out Babesia spp.
Hematological abnormalities included thrombocytopenia, anemia, leukocytosis and leucopenia.
100% of samples infected with Babesia by Giemsa staining method were positive for Babesia by PCR
method.
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218
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the South African Veterinary Association, 72(3): 158–162.

[STS22-83]
219
SURVEY ON LEPTOSPIRA INFECTION IN DOGS AT HO CHI MINH CITY
Tran Dinh Chanh1*, Dang Hoang Dao1, Truong Anh Thy1
1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Tran Dinh Chanh (Phone: + 84 81 344 564; Email: td.chanh@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The survey showed that the Leptospira infection situation showed that the rate of Leptospira infection in
dogs was in 8 surveyed districts, of which the highest was District 10 (34.12%), followed by District 11
(31.15%), District 1 (30.43%), Tan Binh District (30%), District 6 (28.21%), District 5 (28.13%), District 3
(27.91%) and the lowest is Binh Thanh District (26.32%. The difference is not statistically significant
(P>0.05); The highest frequency of occurrence was high fever (87.41%), followed by vomiting (79.02%),
anorexia (63.64%), jaundice, mucous membranes (39.89%), asthenia (23.78%) and the lowest is yellow
urine (13.29%); the infection rate in the group of dogs 3-6 years old (29.41%), the group 1-3 years old
(28.61%) and the lowest in the group of dogs over 6 years old (26.92%), the difference in prevalence was
infection rate between groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05); Leptospira infection status in male
dogs (32.11%) and female dogs (27.47%) did not differ much and there was no statistical difference
(P>0.05); Leptospira infection status in domestic dogs (29.61%) and mixed dogs 30.03%) were similar and
there was no statistical difference (P>0.05).
Keywords: Dog, Ho Chi Minh city, Leptospira, MAT, Survey
1. Introduction
Leptospirosis is a common infectious disease of many species of livestock and humans caused by
Leptospira. According to the research literature on Leptospira, this disease is present everywhere in the
world, causing significant losses to the livestock industry and affecting human health in many countries,
especially tropical countries. Diseases caused by Leptospira are diverse in sources of infection such as
animals in ponds and lakes, wild animals and especially domestic animals, and Leptospira can survive for a
long time in the natural environment (Ko et al. 1999). Leptospira causes disease in many animal species,
mainly rodents and many domestic animals, especially dogs. Although not highly contagious and killing
many dogs, there is a risk of spreading the disease to people, especially owners. Infected humans and
animals have symptoms of jaundice, fever, hepatitis, nephritis, miscarriage, stillbirth, and reduced fertility
(OIE, 2014). Besides, the rate of Leptospira infection in dogs-pets in Ho Chi Minh City, owners often come
into contact with dogs (especially children), so there is a high potential for transmission of the disease from
dogs to humans. because this is also a dangerous infectious disease that is concerned and controlled by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Health. Stemming from the above
issues, we carried out the topic: "Survey on Leptospira infection in dogs at Ho Chi Minh City".

From January 2017 to June 2017
The Aminal Health Laboratory-Diagnostic and Treatment division- Veterinary Department Ho Chi Minh
City
Study subjects: 479 dogs suspected of infection based on clinical symptoms such as jaundice, vomiting,
yellow mucous membranes (Goldstein et al., 2006)
2.2. The content of survey
Doing: Dog blood is taken from the leg vein using a sterile syringe.
Sample volume: blood samples were taken from 479 survey dogs, taking 3-5ml/sample
Collect blood samples from dogs suspected of having Leptospira infection, blood samples for spontaneous
coagulation (2ml) and serum for MAT testing.
220
MAT test method
Described by Galton et al. (1965) and revised by Cole et al. (1973)
The MAT technique is a proven and accepted test for the diagnosis,
Detection of Leptospira antibodies in animal and human serum. Currently, this is the technique most
commonly used in the diagnosis of Leptospirosis.
General rule: The agglutination is read directly under a dark background microscope. Described by Galton et
al. (1965) and revised by Cole et al. (1973)
The MAT technique is a proven and accepted test for the diagnosis,
Detection of Leptospira antibodies in animal and human serum. Currently, this is the technique most
commonly used in the diagnosis of Leptospirosis.
General rule: The agglutination is read directly under a dark background microscope.
2.3. Data analysis
The differences between the ratios and values were calculated using the Minitab program with chi-square
test.

During the survey, we recorded 479 survey cases (clinical symptoms, region, breed group, gender, age) and
after having Leptospira positive (MAT test positive), they I conducted follow-up on 143 Leptospira positive
cases, presented in the following tables:
Table 1. Rate of Leptospira infection (MAT positive)
Clinical Symptoms MAT positive
No District Rate (%)
(dogs) (dogs)
1 1 69 21 30,43
2 3 86 24 27,91
3 5 32 9 28,13
4 6 39 11 28,21
5 10 85 29 34,12
6 11 61 19 31,15
7 Binh Thanh 57 15 26,32
8 Tan Binh 50 15 30,00
Total 479 143 29,85
P > 0,05
Table 1 showed that the rate of Leptospira infection in dogs in 8 surveyed districts, of which the highest is
District 10 (34.12%), followed by District 11 (31.15%), District 1 (30.43%) ), Tan Binh District (30%),
District 6 (28.21%), District 5 (28.13%), District 3 (27.91%) and the lowest is Binh Thanh District (26.32%).
The difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The difference was not statistically significant (P
> 0.05). Because the districts in the survey process are located in the inner city area, the area is not far from
each other, the life and way of living in urban areas are not much different besides the same way of raising
dogs (breding in captivity, not letting them loose).
Leptospira infection in Ho Chi Minh City was 29.85%, higher than reported by Nguyen Thi Be Muoi (2008).
Leptospira infection rate in Can Tho city (21.33%), higher than the study of Leptospira in Can Tho city
(21.33%). Nguyen Huu Duc (2015) determined the prevalence of Leptospira infection in dogs in Vinh Long
province (26.9%). The infection rate in the survey was higher than the results of the study in Thailand by
Meeyam et al. (2004) determined the Leptospira infection rate was (10.9%), equivalent to the study of
Scanziani et al (2002) in Italy. is (29.4%) and lower than the study of Andrew et al (2007) in Australia
(40%).
221
Thereby, dogs can see that Leptospira infection can fluctuate due to the time of the study compared to
previous studies. Our research only focuses on inner city districts, so it is not really representative of Ho Chi
Minh City as a whole. Ho Chi Minh City is a densely populated area, with hot weather and high humidity
creating favorable conditions for rodents (rats) to develop, combined with the behavior of dogs that often
come in contact with rats. (catch mice) is a condition to spread the disease from mice to dogs, so the rate of
Leptospira infection is higher than Can Tho and Vinh Long.
With a fairly high Leptospira infection (29.85%), prevention should be the top priority, limiting spread,
isolating sick dogs for monitoring and treatment .
Table 3.2. Frequency of clinical symptoms in dogs infected with Leptospira - MAT positive (%)
Yellow Yellow
Symptom Abortion Vomiting Fever Weakness
skin urine
(n=143) (dogs) (dogs) (dogs) (dogs)
(dogs) (dogs)
Case positive
91 113 125 57 19 34
(dogs)
(91/143) (113/143) (125/143) (57/143) (19/143) (34/143)

Frequency
63,64 % 79,02% 87,41% 39,86% 13,29% 23,78%
Table 3.2 showed that the clinical symptoms for Leptospira-positive dogs, with the highest frequency of
occurrence is high fever (87.41%), followed by vomiting (79.02%) and loss of appetite. 63.64%), jaundice,
mucous membranes (39.89%), asthenia (23.78%) and the lowest was yellow urine (13.29%).
The results are similar to the study of Goldstein et al. (2006) investigating in New York-US, noting eating
(75%), vomiting (64%), jaundice (18%), fever (9%) ), asthenia (31%). Kohn et al (2010) surveyed in
Germany recorded anorexia (84%), vomiting (72%), jaundice (10%), fever (8%), asthenia (0%).
Clinical symptoms, bleeding, vomiting, and gastrointestinal bleeding have been reported with leptospirosis
in dogs (Goldstein et al., 2006). Liver damage in Leptospira causes jaundice-mucosal symptoms. It is caused
by damage to the blood vessels that nourish hepatocytes leading to cell necrosis and by spirochetes that
destroy red blood cells (Agunloye and Nash, 1996).
Table 3.3. Rate of Leptospira-MAT-positive dogs in dogs by age
Clinical Symptoms
No Age stages MAT positive Rate (%)
(dogs)
1 <6 months 44 19 43,18
2 6 months-3 year 332 95 28,61
3 3-6 years 51 15 29,41
4 >6 years 52 14 26,92
479 143
P >0,05
The above results showed that dogs under 6 months of age were infected the most (43.18%), followed by
dogs 3-6 years (29.41%), 1-3 years old (28.61%) and the lowest was the group of dogs over 6 years old
(26.92%), the difference in infection rate between groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).
This result is also consistent with the study of Nguyen Huu Duc (2015), the highest prevalence of Leptospira
infection in dogs <6 months old (32.4%) and the lowest in the group of more than 6 years old (29.3%).
Research results of Nguyen Thi Be Muoi (2008), accounted for the most in the group of 1-3 years (25%),
followed by the group of less than 1 year (21.87%), from 3-6 years (19.67). %) and the lowest is over 6 years
(15.25%). The study results are also consistent with Ward's (2002) when this author said that the rate of
Leptospira infection in dogs under 1 year of age (21%) was the highest and lowest in the group of 7-10 years
old (16%).
222
The above difference is because dogs under 6 months of age have an undeveloped immune system that is
susceptible to attack by Leptospira bacteria. The immune system in neonates-small animals has immature
immune systems and is not able to resist common inflammatory bacteria as in adults (Nguyen Van Tien,
2010).
Table 3.4. Prevalence of Leptospira-MAT-positive dogs in dogs, based on the sexual
Clinical
No Sex MAT positive Rate (%)
Symptoms (dogs)
1 Male dogs 246 79 32,11
2 Female dogs 233 64 27,47

479 143 -
P > 0,05
The above results showed that the Leptospira infection status in male dogs (32.11%) and female dogs
(27.47%) did not differ much and there was no statistical difference (P>0.05). The above results are also
consistent with Nguyen Van Tien (2010) the rate of Leptospira infection in female dogs is (39.13%) and
male dogs (42.11%), Nguyen Huu Duc (2015) Leptospira infection rate in female dogs were (28.0%) and
male dogs (25.8%), indicating that susceptibility to Leptospira was not sex-discriminatory.
Table 3.5. Rate of Leptospira-MAT-positive dogs in dogs by breed group
Breed Clinical
No MAT positive Rate (%)
group Symptoms (dogs)
1 domestic 206 61 29,61
2 mixed 273 82 30,04
479 143 -
P >0,05
The above results show that Leptospira infection status in domestic dogs (29.61%) and mixed dogs 30.03%)
are similar and there is no statistical difference (P>0.05). Research results of Nguyen Huu Duc (2015)
showed that domestic dogs infected (28.6%), mixed dogs (17.9%) and Nguyen Van Tien (2010) the rate of
domestic dogs infected was (39.13%) and mixed-breed dogs (42.11%), indicating that dog breed does not
affect the incidence of Leptospira infection.
4. Conclusion
Through the MAT test of 479 dogs surveyed, the results recorded Leptospira infection status in domestic
dogs (29.85% ,143/479), the prevalence was not affected by breed, age, sex and county. Clinical symptoms
for Leptospira disease are concentrated in the symptoms of anorexia, high fever, vomiting in the group with
mild signs of disease, and jaundice-mucosal disease, yellow urine and body weakness are the signs.
important sign in severe cases
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong and Dr. Vu Kim Chien working at the Sub-Department of
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City for their guidance during the
implementation of the thesis.
223
References
1. Agunloye and Nash, 1996. Investigation of possible Leptospiral infection in Scotland. J Small Anim
Pract. 1996 Mar; 37(3):126-9.
2. Andrew et al, 2007. Diagnosis and management of small-scale is applicable in developing countries.
3. Cole et al, 1973. Improved Microtechnique for the Leptospiral Microscopic Agglutination Test.
4. Galton et al, 1965. Application of a Microtechnique to the Agglutination Test for Leptospiral Antibodies
5. Goldstein, 2006. Influence of infecting serogroup on clinical features of Leptospirosis in dogs. J Vet
Intern Med. 2006 May-Jun;20(3):489-94.
6. Ko, 1999. Characterization of a virulent Leptospira interrogans strain isolated from an abandoned
swimming pool. Advanced Journal List Help Journal ListBraz J Microbiolv.44(1); two thousand and
thirteen
7. Kohn, 2010. Pulmonary abnormalities in dogs with Leptospira. J Vet Intern Med. 2010 Nov-
Dec;24(6):1277-82
8. Nguyen Thi Be Muoi, 2008. Leptospira infection in dogs in Can Tho city. Thesis of Master of Science in
Agriculture, Can Tho University, Vietnam.
9. Nguyen Huu Duc, 2015. Circulation of Leptospira in dogs and mice in Vinh Long province. Master
thesis. Thesis of Master of Science in Agriculture, Can Tho University, Vietnam.
10. Nguyen Van Tien, 2010. Investigation of Leptospira Infection in Dairy Cows, Dogs and Rats at Song
Hau Seafood Joint Stock Company. Thesis of Master of Science in Agriculture, Can Tho University,
Vietnam.
11. OIE, 2014. Leptospirosis - Chapter 2.1.12.
12. Scanziani E, Origgi F, 2002. Serological survey of Leptospiral infection in kenneled dogs in Italy. J
Small Anim Pract. 2002 Apr;43(4):154-7.

[STS22-84]
224
THE PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT DOMESTIC CATS AND OBESITY-
RELATED DISEASES
Vu Thao Vy1, Bui Ngoc Thuy Linh1*, Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan2, Truong Anh Thy2, Dang Hoang Dao2
1
Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 919123559; Email: linh.buingocthuy@hcmuaf.edu.vn)
Abstract
The survey was conducted on 100 cats at AUDIPET Veterinary Clinic in Ho Chi minh city, using the fBMI
method to assess the overweight - obesity rate and survey common pathogenesis associated to overweight or
obese cats. The results showed that 33% of cats surveyed were overweight or obesity. In these overweight or
obese cats, the male cats and cats which are 1 - 2-year-old accounted for the highest percentage, 52% and
58%, respectively. There were 8 diseases appearing in these subjects, of which bladder stones accounted for
5/23 and dermatitis accounted for 4/23 of total cases. The proportion of overweight or obese cats appeared to
be significantly higher in the spayed male cat groups (53%) and those in the group > 5 years old. (67%).
Kidney failure, bladder stones and dermatitis also had a higher percentage of cats which were overweight
and obese than those in average-sick condition, with the rates being 66,7%, 62,5% and 57%, respectively.
This shows that being overweight or obesity can be a risk factor for urinary tract diseases such as kidney
failure, bladder stones and dermatological disease.
Keywords: cats, overweight, obesity, survey, fBMI method
1. Introduction
Obesity is a multifactorial condition, in which 3% of obesity cases are related to animal including
gene/breed, age, sex and 97% to human factors such as diet, physical activity, owner perception,
environment) (Bland, 2010; Martha and Maryanne, 2019) The increase in obesity in dogs and cats in recent
years also has may be the result of these changes in environmental patterns, where most pets have easy
access to high-energy, palatable diets and are often confined indoors with little opportunity for exercise. than
their ancestors (Martha and Maryanne, 2019). Unlike some animals that are genetically inherited to be fat
like whales and walruses, or bears with their ability to periodically gain weight to hibernate, weight gain in
cats is actually a factor. risk factor for many diseases. In a recent study, 14 medical conditions were shown to
be highly correlated with BCS body condition scores, especially with cats with a BCS >7 (Teng et al., 2018).
Obesity has significant implications for feline health, the survey of a number of comorbidities in these
subjects can provide an overview of the current status of obesity and its risk diseases acquired in the near
future.

2.1. Sampling
The survey was conducted in 100 cats at AUDIPET Veterinary Clinic, 495 Le Van Sy, Ward 2, Tan Binh
District, Ho Chi Minh city in 3 months from November 2021 to January 2022.
2.2. Research methods
2.2.1. Assess the degree of overweight - obesity
First, body weight (BW) (in kilograms) was weighted, then the length from top of patella to end of calcaneus
(PCL), was measured using a commercial tape measure contacted to the body
After collecting the data, the degree of overweight - obesity was assessed through the body mass index fBMI
evaluation formula of Kawasumi et al. (2016):
fBMI=BW/PCL
With:
- fBMI (feline BMI): cat BMI (kg/m)
225
- BW (Bodyweight): body weight (kg)
- PCL (patella, calcaneus, length): length from the anterior tip of the kneecap to the end of the
calcaneus (m)
All cats with fBMI ≥28.0 are classified as overweight – obese
2.2.2. Clinical diagnosis
2.2.2.1. FPV (Feline Panleukopenia Virus)
Cats which have not been vaccinated or have not completed vaccinations against the disease and have the
above clinical signs, will be assigned a blood physiological test to check whether the WBC index is reduced
or not combined with the test. FPV Ag test kit for disease identification.
2.2.2.2. Coccidiosis
In order to diagnose coccidiosis, from the above clinical signs, FPV should be examined first to rule it out
after examining the medical history and vaccination schedule. Fresh fecal examination for oocysts is a quick
and simple method for the diagnosis of coccidiosis.
2.2.2.3. Enteritis
First, a history of changes in the animal's diet or habitat and previous medical conditions will be taken.
Based on the vaccination schedule, FPV can be temporarily ruled out. Next, infectious diseases caused by
blood parasites will be checked using a blood physiological test to check for anemia and a stool test for eggs
or follicles. FPV disease at this time will also be checked through the white blood cell count. In animals of
middle age and older, a general blood test may be performed to rule out certain metabolic causes of vomiting
due to acute pancreatitis, liver failure, renal failure, or a Less common conditions such as hypoadrenalism
and hyperthyroidism. After excluding the above causes, the medical record will be concluded as enteritis. In
addition, in cases of inflammatory bowel disease, dysbiosis of the intestinal microflora can lead to intestinal
gas production and this phenomenon can be observed with abdominal ultrasound.
2.2.2.4. Constipation
In combination with a medical history or constipation, cats without stools for many days with the above
symptoms will be clinically and ultrasound examined to evaluate the status of constipation and the degree of
intestinal obstruction. On physical examination, rectal peristalsis can be observed on anus view and solid dry
stools can be felt through abdominal palpation.
2.2.2.5. Upper respiratory tract infection
Diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infection is usually based on characteristic clinical signs. Identification
of the causative agent is not always necessary but is recommended if the cat is responding poorly to
treatment. If viral illness is suspected, the specific virus can usually be identified by collecting nasal or eye
discharge for a quick test. In cases of persistent or recurrent symptoms, additional diagnostic tests such as
chest or skull X-rays and blood tests may be needed to check for extent and inflammation.
2.2.2.6. Pneumonia
The diagnosis of pneumonia is made in a similar way to upper respiratory tract infection, but when
examining the lung area with a medical stethoscope, a wet crackling sound can be heard. In addition, chest x-
ray also helps confirm the diagnosis of pneumonia and is useful in finding suspected inhaled foreign bodies
in cases of aspiration pneumonia.
2.2.2.7. CKD
In renal failure, the issue of kidney failure is often considered when an owner mentions it during a medical
history visit, or when a middle-aged or older cat has multiple underlying medical conditions. At this time, a
general blood test is often ordered to evaluate liver and kidney function and the general condition of the
body. High urea combined with abnormal elevations of BUN and/or Creatinine is often suggested to be due
to renal failure.
2.2.2.8. Bladder stones
Most bladder stones can be seen through X-rays and ultrasounds.
226
2.2.2.9. Dermatitis
Dermatitis can be diagnosed through examination of dietary habits to diagnose atopic dermatitis and history
and clinical signs to diagnose fungal dermatitis.
2.2.2.10. Ear scabies
A sample of your cat's earwax will be taken with a regular cotton swab and smeared on a slide. After being
instilled with 1-2 drops of physiological saline, the specimen will be spread evenly and observed under the
microscope.
2.3. Statiscal analysis
(version 16.2).

3.1. Prevalence of overweight cats
In total of 100 cats which have come to the veterinarian to use the clinic's services such as spa, grooming,
vaccinations and medical examination, 33 cats are classified as overweight or obesity through the fBMI
index survey. So the proportion of overweight or obese cats is 33% (Table 1).
Table 1. Prevalence of overweight cats
No. of cats Percentage (%)
fBMI 33 33
fBMI < 28.0 Tổng 67 67
Tổng 100 100
3.2. Percentage of overweight cats based on sex

Over 33 overweight - obese cats, 17 were of the whole male sex, 9 castrated males, 6 whole females and 1
castrated female. Thus, on overweight - obese cats, male cats are the group with the highest percentage of
52%, followed by male cats with 27%, whole female cats with 18% and the lowest rate of female cats. at a
rate of 3%. Out of 33 overweight cats, the castrated male cats that are more likely to become obese than the
female. Previous studies have demonstrated that male cats have a higher risk of obesity than female cats
(Tarkosova, 2016; Martha and Maryanne, 2019) and castrated cats tend to be more obese than whole cats
(Tarkosova, 2016; Martha and Maryanne, 2019) with a rate 3,6 times higher (Martha and Maryanne, 2019).
3.3. Rate of overweight - obesity by age
In the group of 33 overweight cats, those were from 1 - 2 years old had the highest rate of overweight -
obesity, accounting for 58% of the total number of obese cats of all ages. Followed by cats in the group > 5
years old with the rate of 18% of total fat cats of all ages. Cats in the age groups <1 year old, 3-4 years old,
2-3 years old and 4-5 years old account for 9%, 9%, 6% and 0%, respectively.
In the population of 100 cats, the group of cats <1-year-old has 47 cats, 1 - 2 years old has 30 cats, 2 - 3
years old has 5 children, 3 - 4 years old have 7 children, 4-5 years old have 2 children and >5 years old have
9 children. In which, in the groups of <1-year-old, 2-3 years old, 3-4 years old and 4-5 years old, non-fat cats
accounted for a much higher proportion when compared with overweight cats. Specifically, in the group of
cats <1-year-old, only 3 (6%) cats are overweight or obese and up to 44 cats (94%) are non-fat; in the group
of cats 2-3 years old, only 2/5 (40%) cats are overweight or obese and up to 3/5 (60%) are non-fat cats; in the
group of 3 - 4-year-old cats, only 3/7 (43%) are overweight - obese cats and up to 4/7 (57%) are non-fat cats;
In the group of cats 4-5 years old, 100% of cats are fat-free. However, in cats in the group of > 5 years old,
up to 6/9 cats (67%) are overweight - obese cats, with the highest obesity rate. Right behind are cats in the 1-
2-year-old group with 19/30 cats (63%) also overweight - obese cats.
227
This means that, although surveyed in a population of 33 overweight cats, those were from 1 to 2 years old
account for more than the rest of the age groups, but in fact, cats in the age group > 5 years tends to be
overweight - obese the most. This is similar to Tarkosova et al. (2016) study, which identified cats over 5
years of age as a risk factor for becoming obese.
3.4. Investigate some diseases related to overweight or obese cats
In this study, the diseases related to the overweight – obese cats including: FPV, coccidiosis, diarrheal
enteritis, constipation, upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonia, bladder stones, kidney failure,
dermatitis, ear mites and scabies. Unexplained conditions such as abnormal tremors, hair loss. However, on
33 overweight cats, only 8 medical conditions were recorded and only 23 cats appeared medical conditions,
each with one disease. The remaining 10 children have completely normal health and only go to the clinic to
use spa services. Medical conditions over 33 overweight - obese cats include: dermatitis (4 cases),
constipation (3 cases), ear scabies (3 cases), kidney failure (2 cases), coccidiosis (2 cases), inflammation of
the airways upper respiratory tract (2 cases), pneumonia (2 cases) and bladder stones (5 cases). In which,
bladder stone disease appeared the most (accounting for 5/23 total cases) and then dermatitis (4/23 total
cases).
Out of 100 cats, there are 3 cats with unknown diseases, 8 cats with ear mites, 7 cats with dermatitis, 3 with
kidney failure, 8 with bladder stones, 3 with pneumonia, 4 children with upper respiratory tract infection, 11
children with constipation, 3 children with diarrhea, 4 children with coccidiosis and 6 children with FPV. In
particular, non-fat cats tended to appear more on unexplained diseases, ear mites, pneumonia, upper
respiratory tract infections, constipation, diarrheal enteritis, coccidiosis, and FPV than those who did not.
overweight and obese cats. Specifically, in ear scabies, only 3/8 cases (37,5%) belong to the group of
overweight - obese cats and up to 5/8 (62,5%) belong to the group of non-fat cats; in pneumonia, only one
third of cases (33,3%) belong to the group of overweight cats and up to two thirds of cases (66.7%) belong to
the group of non-fat cats; in the group of upper respiratory tract infections, only one quarter (25%) of cats
were overweight - obese and up to three quarters (75%) were in the group of non-fat cats; in the state of
constipation, only 3/11 cases (27,3%) belonged to the group of overweight cats and 8/11 cases (72,7%)
belonged to the group of non-fat cats; In coccidiosis, overweight-obese cats and non-fat cats accounted for
the same ratio at 50%. For diseases of unknown etiology, enteritis due to diarrhea and PFV, 100% of the
total cases occurred in cats of average health - ill. In contrast, in diseases such as dermatitis, bladder stones
and kidney failure, overweight and obese cats account for a high proportion of these diseases. In which, cats
with kidney failure have the highest number of cases in overweight - obese cats (66,7%), accounting for the
highest rate. Followed by bladder stones with 5/8 cases (62,5%) and dermatitis with 4/7 cases (57%).
For urinary tract disease, Teng et al. (2018) evaluated the relationship between the body condition and the
medical conditions related to overweight - obesity score of 8-9 were proven to be highly correlated with
diseases of the upper urinary tract. To explain chronic renal failure as a comorbidity of obesity in cats, three
mechanisms have been proposed: low-grade chronic systemic inflammation, diabetes, and RAAS activation.
First, low-grade systemic chronic inflammation induced by proinflammatory adipokines such as TNF-alpha
and IL-6 is likely to promote renal failure indirectly through nephritis. With the role of increasing insulin
sensitivity and limiting the process of gluconeogenesis in the liver, the decrease of adiponectin when fat
mass increases, making insulin resistance easy to occur, leading to the risk of diabetes. Diabetes with its
ability to alter renal structure subsequently also becomes a risk factor for chronic renal failure (Teng et al.,
2018). Mechanisms involved in RAAS activation in obesity include sympathetic stimulation, synthesis of
adipokines in the RAAS by visceral fat, and hemodynamic changes (Thethi, 2012). The RAAS system, after
being activated, will increase the blood pressure of the glomerular and systemic capillaries, affecting the
endothelial and glomerular hemodynamics. In addition, the profibrotic and proinflammatory effects of
angiotensin II and aldosterone can also cause kidney damage (Brewster et al., 2003). In the study of Teng et
al., lower urinary tract diseases were also found to have a positive correlation with body condition or weight
scores (Teng et al., 2018). Currently, the link between obesity and bladder stones remains unclear. However,
changes in the biochemical composition of urine such as decreased pH, increased concentrations of sodium,
228
ammonium, uric acid, and phosphate observed in obese individuals may be the reason for bladder stone
formation (Aydogdu, 2012).
In the study of Teng et al in 2018, for the group of dermatological diseases, cats with a BCS condition score
of 7-8 have a significantly higher rate of dermatological disease than cats with an average score of 5. This
may be due to the large amount of excess fat. In addition, obesity has the potential to impair the skin's
protective barrier function and increase transepidermal water loss. In atopic dermatitis, chronic low-grade
systemic inflammation may also be a risk factor (Teng et al., 2018).
Although overweight - obesity is considered a risk factor for some diseases, but this is a factor that increases
survival when animals face diseases such as cancer, heart failure, chronic kidney failure. The mechanism of
this protective role is still unclear, but several hypotheses have been proposed. One of the hypotheses was
that, in obese subjects, besides having more fat than normal, muscle mass was also higher and this
counteracted the consequent effects of muscle loss in some diseases. Thus, this paradox should be considered
in overweight animals with comorbidities to determine whether weight loss should be and, if so, how much it
should be reduced (Martha and Maryanne, 2019).
4. Conclusions
Out of 100 cats coming to the Veterinary Clinic, 33% of cats are classified as overweight or obese by
measuring fBMI. Among them, the male cats in the 1 - 2 year age group accounted for the highest
percentage, 52% and 58% respectively. There were 8 diseases appearing in these subjects, of which bladder
stones accounted for 5/23 and dermatitis accounted for 4/23 of total cases. However, when looking at a
population of 100 cats and surveying for each trait, the proportion of overweight - obese cats appeared to be
significantly higher in the spayed male cat groups (53%) and those in the group > 5 years old. (67%). Kidney
failure, bladder stones and dermatitis also had a higher percentage of sick cats who were overweight and
obese than those in average-sick condition, with the rates being 66,7%, 62,5% and 57%, respectively. This
shows that being overweight - obese can be a risk factor for urinary tract diseases such as kidney failure,
bladder stones and skin diseases.
Overweight - obesity is a worrisome situation that leads to many comorbidities. However, not many owners
realize this. Body composition assessment by fBMI is a simple and easy method to perform in both the clinic
and at home. Therefore, regular physical assessment will help early detection and control many preventable
risks, play a big role in prolonging life as well as ensuring the well-being of this companion.
References
1. Abella V., Scotece M., Conde J., Pino J., Gonzalez-Gay M.A., Gómez-Reino J.J., Mera J.J.G.-R.A.,
Lago F., Gómez R., Gualillo O. (2017). Leptin in the interplay of inflammation, metabolism and immune
system disorders. Nature Reviews Rheumatology 13, 100–109.
2. Aydogdu O. (2012) Urinary stone disease and obesity: different pathologies sharing common
biochemical mechanisms. World Journal of Nephrology 1(1), 12– 15.
3. Bland IM, Guthrie-Jones A, Taylor RD, Hill J. (2010). Dog obesity: Veterinary practices’ and owners’
opinions on cause and management. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 94(3):310–315.
4. Brewster UC, Perazella MA (2004). The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the kidney: Effects
on kidney disease. The American Journal of Medicine 116, 263–272.
5. Kawasumi K., Iwazaki E., Okada Y., Arai T. (2016). Effectiveness of feline body mass index (fBMI) as
new diagnostic tool for obesity. The Japanese Journal of Veterinary Research 64, 51–56.
6. Lindhorst A, Raulien N, Wieghofer P, Eilers J, Rossi FMV, Bechmann I, Gericke M. (2021). Adipocyte
death triggers a pro-inflammatory response and induces metabolic activation of resident macrophages.
Cell Death & Disease 12 (6), 579.
7. 7.Martha G. C. & Maryanne M. (2019). Obesity in the Dog and Cat. Boca Raton: CRC Press
229
8. Morton GJ, Schwartz MW. (2011). Leptin and the Central Nervous System Control of Glucose
Metabolism. Physiological Reviews 91, 389–411.
9. Neel JV. (1962). Diabetes mellitus: a “thrifty” genotype rendered detrimental by “progress”? American
Journal Human Genetics 14(4), 353–362.
10. Park H.-K., Ahima R.S. (2015) Physiology of leptin: Energy homeostasis, neuroendocrine function and
metabolism. Metabolism 64, 24–34.
11. Sellayah D, Cagampang FR, Cox RD. (2014) On the evolutionary origins of obesity: a new hypothesis.
Endocrinology 155, 1573–1588.
12. Speakman J.R. (2008). Thrifty genes for obesity: An attractive but flawed idea, and an alternative
perspective: The ‘drifty gene’ hypothesis. International Journal of Obesity 32, 1611–1617.
13. Tarkosova, D.; Story, M.; Rand, J.; Svoboda, M. (2016). Feline obesity— Prevalence, risk factors,
pathogenesis, associated conditions andassessment: A review. VeterinárníMedicína 61, 295–307.
14. Teng, K.T., McGreevy, P.D., Toribio, J.A.L.M.L., Raubenheimer, D., Kendall, K. and Dhand, N.K.
(2018). Associations of body condition score with health conditions related to overweight and obesity in
cats. Journal of Small Animal Practice 59, 603–615.
15. Thethi T., Kamiyama M., Kobori H. (2012). The link between the renin- angiotensin-aldosterone system
and renal injury in obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Current Hypertension Reports 14 (2), 160–169.

[STS22-85]
230
MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MAMMALIAN ORTHOREOVIRUS
AND CANINE KOBUVIRUS AMONG DOMESTIC DOGS IN VIETNAM
Dung Van Nguyen1*, Thanh Dinh Ha Le2, Ken Maeda3, Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan4
1
Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
2
Department of Animal Health of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3
Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan.
4
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 (028) 38536132; Email: nv.dung@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
Vietnamese MRVs and CKoVs were characterized. The prevalence of MRV in diarrheic dogs (50%, 15/30)
was significantly higher than that in healthy dogs (4%, 2/50). Mix-infection with MRV and the other enteric
viruses (CDV, CPV, CKoV) was commonly observed in diarrheic dogs. Four MRVs were isolated from
faeces, and genetic analysis of MRV S1 genes showed that three Vietnamese MRVs belonged to serotype 3
and one did to serotype 2. Vietnamese serotype 3 and 2 showed the highest identities with Chinese porcine
MRV-3 (95.2%-96.1%) and Chinese human MRV-2 (94.6%), respectively. CKoV was detected in three
diarrheic (10%) and two healthy dogs (4%). The nucleotide sequence of CKoV showed that Vietnamese
CKoV was similar to those in Korea. This is the first report on MRV and CKoV infections in Vietnamese
dogs.
Keywords: dogs, molecular epidemiology, canine kobuvirus, mammalian orthoreovirus
1. Introduction
Mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV) is a double-stranded (ds) RNA virus belonging to Orthoreovirus genus,
Reoviridae family. MRVs cause symptomatic or asymptomatic infections in mammals and possess a wide
host range (Decaro et al., 2005). Currently, MRVs were divided into four serotypes, including serotype 1
(Lang), serotype 2 (D5/Jones), serotype 3 (Dearing) and serotype 4 (Ndelle), by VN and HI tests (Sabin et
al., 1959; Knipe et al., 2013). MRV contains 10 genome segments, which are named large (L1, L2 and L3),
medium (M1, M2 and M3) and small (S1, S2, S3 and S4) based on their electrophoresis mobility (Nibert et
al., 1990). The S1 gene encodes the σ1 protein which is located on the outer capsid of the virion and is
responsible for viral attachment to cellular receptors and the determination of serotypes (Decaro et al., 2005).
MRVs have been isolated from domestic dogs in America, Japan and Italy (Lou et al., 1963, Murakami et
al., 1979; Kobubu et al, 1993, Decaro et al., 2005).
Canine kobuvirus (CKoV), is a single-strand positive RNA virus belonging to the Kobuvirus genus,
Picornaviridae family. Kobuvirus genus is divided into three species, Aichivirus A (Yamashita et al., 1991),
Aichivirus B (formerly Bovine kobuvirus) and Aichivirus C (formerly Porcine kobuvirus). CKoV may be
considered to be a genotype CaKV type 1 different from murine kobuvirus MuKV type 1 and human
Aichivirus type 1 (Martino et al., 2013). It is reported that CKoV was associated with diarrhoea in domestic
dogs (Li et al., 2016).
In Vietnam, no information on MRV and CKoV infection is available in domestic dogs. In this study, MRV
and CKoV in domestic dogs were analyzed.
231
2.1. Faecal swab samples
A total of 80 faecal swabs were collected from 30 diarrheic and 50 healthy dogs in an animal hospital and
households, respectively, in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam from 2013 to 2015. The ages were between 2 months
and 13 years old. The swab samples were dissolved in 2ml phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), filtrated
through a 0.22µm filter (Millipore, Carigtwohill, Iceland) and stored at -80 oC until analysis.
Viral RNA extraction
Viral RNA was extracted from faecal swab samples with QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden,
Germany), following the manufacturer's instructions.
2.2. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
For detection of RNA viruses, RT-PCR was performed by using QIAGEN One-step RT-PCR
(Qiagen) with primers for MRV, L1-rv5, 5'- GCA TCC ATT GTA AAT GAC GAG TCT G-3' and L1-rv6,
5'- CTT GAG ATT AGC TCT AGC ATC TTC TG-3', and primers for CKoV, CKoVF, 5'-CTC CCC TCA
GCT GCC TTC TC-3' and CaKoVR, 5'-GAG GAT CTG AAA TTT GGA AG-3' (Leary et al., 2002; Choi et
al., 2014). One-step RT-PCR was carried out in 40 sequential cycles at 94oC for 30 sec, 50oC (for MRV) or
52oC (for CKoV) for 30 sec and 72o C for 1 min after the incubation step for the synthesis of cDNA at 50oC
for 30 min and then at 95oC for 15 min. The amplified products were confirmed as 416bp for MRV and
252bp for CKoV by electrophoresis on 2% agarose gels and then purified using QIAquick PCR Purification
kit (Qiagen) for sequencing.
2.3. Virus isolation
A72 cells expressing canine SLAM, A72/cSLAM (Nakano et al., 2009) were maintained in
Dulbecco’s minimum essential medium (DMEM; Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) containing 10%
heat-inactivated fetal calf serum (FCS; Sigma-Aldrich, MO, USA), 100 units/ml penicillin and 100 µg/ml
streptomycin (Life Technologies). A72/cSLAM cells in 6 well plates were inoculated with extracts from
faecal swab samples and then incubated at 37oC in a 5% CO2 incubator. Cells were daily observed for
cenotaphic effect (CPE). If there was no CPE, the cells were blind-passaged five times. RT-PCR was used
for the determination of isolated enteric viruses.
Genotyping of isolated mammalian orthoreovirus
To determine the genotype of MRV, RT-PCR was carried out using primers S1F, 5'-GCT ATT SGY
RCB KAT G-3' and S1R, 5'- GAT KRR WNB CCV YHG TGC CG-3', for amplification of S1 gene of
MRV-1 and MRV-2. Primers S1-R3F, 5'-TGG GAC AAC TTG AGA CAG GA-3' and S1R were used for
amplification of S1 of MRV-3. One-step RT-PCR was carried out in 40 sequential cycles at 94oC for 30 sec,
53oC for 30 sec and 72oC for 2 min after the incubation step for the synthesis of cDNA at 50oC for 30 min
and at 95oC for 15 min.
2.4. Phylogenetic and statistical analysis
Phylogenetic trees were constructed using the Neighbor-Joining method in MEGA 6.0 (Tamura K et
al., 2013). Bootstrap values were calculated on 1,000 replicates. Fisher's exact and Chi-square tests were
used for the analysis of data. P values of <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Detection of MRV and CKoV from diarrheic and healthy dogs
The prevalence of MRV in diarrheic dogs (50%, 15/30) was significantly higher than that in healthy dogs
(4%, 2/50). There was no difference in the prevalence of CKoV between diarrheic (10%, 3/30) and healthy
dogs (4%, 2/50). Single MRV infection was observed in 3 diarrheic dogs, double infection with MRV and
CPV or CDV was in 8 dogs, triple infection with MRV, CPV and CDV were in 2 dogs, triple infection with
MRV, CDV and CKoV was in one dog and quadruple infection of MRV, CDV, CPV and CKoV were in one
dog (Table 1).
232
Table 1. Epidemiological information of positive dogs for MRV and CKoV.
Collection RT-PCR Viru
Age
ID Sex Clinical sign date Breed detection isolati
(month)
(month/year) MRV CKoV MRV
3 Female 2 Diarrhea, ocular discharge 10/2013 Vietnamese + -
5 Male 4 Diarrhea 10/2013 Japanese + -
6 Male 6 Diarrhea, ocular discharge 10/2013 Vietnamese + -
7 Female 4 Diarrhea 10/2013 Mixed + -
9 Female 2 Diarrhea, nasal discharge 10/2013 Vietnamese + + MRV
11 Male 3 Diarrhea, cough 11/2013 Japanese + -
12 Male 8 Diarrhea, ocular discharge 11/2013 Vietnamese + -
Diarrhea, cough, nasal
13 Female 3 11/2013 Vietnamese - +
discharge
14 Male 3 Diarrhea, cough 11/2013 Vietnamese + -
15 Female 2 Diarrhea 11/2013 Japanese + -
16 Male 4 Diarrhea 11/2013 Mixed + + MRV
17 Female 4 Diarrhea 11/2013 Japanese + -
18 Female 8 Diarrhea, cough 11/2013 Japanese + -
19 Male 3 Diarrhea, nasal discharge 11/2013 Vietnamese + - MRV
47 Female 72 Healthy 6/2015 Mixed - +
52 Female 6 Healthy 6/2015 Vietnamese + -
69 Male 24 Healthy 6/2015 Vietnamese + + MRV
Total 17 5
CPV, canine parvovirus; CDV, canine distemper virus; CCoV, canine coronavirus; MRV, mammalian orthoreovirus; CKoV
positive; -, negative.
*; CPV, CDV and CCoV were detected in the previous studies by PCR or RT-PCR.
233
3.2. Virus isolation and nucleotide sequence analysis of Vietnamese MRVs
For isolation of MRV, four MRVs were successfully isolated and named MRV/dog/HCM9/2013,
MRV/dog/HCM16/2013, MRV/dog/HCM19/2013 and MRV/dog/HCM69/2013. In A72/cSALM cells,
MRV caused CPE 3-4 days post-inoculation. MRV-infected cells showed granulating, shrinking, rounding
and detachment (Figure2). Phylogenetic analysis using S1 genes indicated that one Vietnamese MRV strain,
MRV/dog/HCM9/2013, belonged to serotype 2, and the other three MRVs belonged to serotype 3.
Vietnamese MRV-2 was similar to human MRV-2 (302II strain) in China (94.6% identity in amino acid),
and Vietnamese MRV-3 were to porcine MRV-3 (SC-A, GD-1 strains) in China (95.2% - 96.1% identity in
amino acid) (Fig .1). The identities of the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of S1 genes among three
Vietnamese MRVs-3 ranged from 98.0%-99.5%, and 97.3%-98.6%, respectively.
73 CKoV/Dog/HCM69/2015
CKoV/Dog/HCM9/2015
CKoV-K73-Korea
CKoV-K71-Korea
CKoV/dog/HCM13/2013
75
CKoV/dog/HCM16/2013
CKoV-K78- Korea
CKoV/dog/HCM47/2015
Dog
87 63 12D049-Korea
CKoV-K7- Korea
95 UK003-UK
C.DD2-UK
60
58
CKoV-009-USA
CKoV-083-USA
60
98 AN211D-USA
99
12Q87-2-Korea Cat
M-5-USA-Mouse Mouse
M166/91-Japan-Human Human
57 SH-W-CHN-China Pig
KBH71-Korea Cattle
TM003k-USA Bat
0.05
Figure1. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial S1 genes of MRV
Figure 2. Cytopathic effect (CPE) of Vietnamese MRV in cell culture

A) Uninfected cells control. B) CPE was observed in A72/cSLAM cells infected with
MRV/dog/HCM9/2013 strain.
234
3.3. Nucleotide sequence analysis of Vietnamese CKoV
Unfortunately, Vietnamese CKoV could not be isolated. Five CKoV strains were detected from fecal
samples and named as CKoV/dog/HCM9/2013, CKoV/dog/HCM13/2013, CKoV/dog/HCM16/2013,
CKoV/dog/HCM47/2015 and CKoV/dog/HCM69/2015. Nucleotide sequences of the partial 3D gene of five
CKoVs were determined. Phylogenetic analysis of CKoV based on partial 3D genes showed that Vietnamese
CKoVs belonged to the canine group and were similar to CKoV in Korea (CKoV-K73, CKoV-K-71, CKoV-
K-78, 12D049) and UK (UK003) (Figure5.2). Identities among five Vietnamese CKoVs ranged from 97.2 -
100%, those between Vietnamese CKoVs and Korean CKoVs were 95.8% - 99.5% and those between
Vietnamese CKoVs and UK CKoVs were 95.8%-96.2%.
4. Discussion
Prevalence of MRV infection in diarrheic dogs (50%, 15/30) was significantly higher than that in healthy
dogs (4%), but co-infection with other enteric viruses was observed in many diarrheic dogs (Table 5.1 and
Table 5.2). Dogs experimentally infected with MRV-1 strain, IU41, which was isolated from the urine of
healthy adult dogs in 1970 in Japan, did not show any clinical signs (Murakami et al., 1979). On the other
hand, dogs experimentally infected with MRV-1 isolated from the dead dog with choking, bubbling of
foamy saliva, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea developed clinical signs, nasal discharge, foamy saliva, cough
and fever (39.5oC-40oC) (Lou et al., 1963). These results indicated that the pathogenicity of MRV has been
still unclear, but MRV might be one of the exacerbation factors of diarrhoea.
In Vietnam, 10% of diarrheic dogs and 4% of healthy dogs were infected with CKoV. There was no
significant difference between diarrheic dogs and healthy dogs. Similar results were reported in Korea and
Japan (Oem et al., 2014; Soma et al., 2016). In Vietnam, mix-infection of CKoV and MRV or CPV was
observed, while mix-infection of CKoV and CDV or CCoV was commonly recognized in Korea (Oem et al.,
2014). These results indicated that CKoV might be a minor pathogen of enteritis in dogs.
5. Conclusion
The results of this study indicated that the prevalence of MRV in diarrheic dogs (50%) was significantly
higher than that in healthy dogs (4%). Four MRVs were isolated from faeces, and genetic analysis of MRV
S1 genes showed that three Vietnamese MRVs belonged to serotype 3 and one did to serotype 2. Vietnamese
serotype 3 and 2 showed the highest identities with Chinese porcine MRV-3 (95.2%-96.1%) and Chinese
human MRV-2 (94.6%), respectively. CKoV was detected in three diarrheic (10%) and two healthy dogs
(4%). The nucleotide sequence of CKoV showed that Vietnamese CKoV was similar to those in Korea. This
is the first report on MRV and CKoV infections in Vietnamese dogs.
References
1. Choi, S., Lim, S. I., Kim, Y. K., Cho, Y. Y., Song, J. Y. and An, D. J. 2014. Phylogenetic Analysis of
Astrovirus and Kobuvirus in Korean Dogs. J. Vet. Med. Sci.,76, 1141-1145.
2. Day, J. M. 2009. The diversity of the orthoreovirus: Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic divides.
2009. Infec. Gen. Evol., 9, 390-400.
3. Decaro, N., Campolo, M., Desario, C., Ricci, D., Camero, M., Lorusso, E., Elia, G., Lavazza, A.,
Martella, V. and Buonavoglia, C. 2005. Virological and molecular characterization of a mammalian
orthoreovirus type 3 strain isolated from a dog in Italy. Vet. Microbiol., 109, 19-27.
4. James, N. and Lachlan, M. 2011. Fenen's Veterinary Virology, 4th ed., Elsevier Academic Press.
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5. Kapoor, A., Simmonds, P., Dubovi, E. J., Qaisar, N., Henriquez, J. A., Medina, J., Shields, S.
and Lipkin W. I. 2011. Characterization of a canine homolog of human Aichivirus. J. Virol., 85, 11520-
11525.
6. Knipe, D. M. 2013. Fields Virology, 6th edit., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, A Wolters Kluwer
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7. Kokubu, T., Takahashi, T., Takamura, K., Yasuda, H., Hiramatsu, K. and Nakai, M., 1993. Isolation of
Reovirus Type 3 from Dogs with Diarrhea. J. Vet. Med. Sci., 55, 453-454.
8. Leary, T. P., Erker, J. C., Chalmers, M. L., Cruz, A. T., Wetzel, J. D., Desai, S. M., Mushahwar, I. K.
and Dermody T. S., 2002. Detection of mammalian reovirus RNA by using reverse transcription PCR:
sequence diversity within the lambda 3 encoding L1 gene. J. Clin. Microbiol. 40: 1368-1375.
9. Li, C., Wei, S., Guo, D., Wang, Z., Geng, Y., Wang, E., Zhao, X., Su, M., Wang, X. and Sun, D. 2016.
Prevalence and phylogenetic analysis of canine kobuviruses in diarrhoetic dogs in northeast China. J. Vet.
Med. Sci.,78, 7-11.
10. Lou, T. Y., Wender, H. A. and Millien, J. M. 1963. Natural and experimental infection of dogs with
reovirus, type 1: pathogenicity of the strain for other animals. Am. J. Epidemiol., 77, 293-304.
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diarrhoeic dogs in Italy. Vet. Microbiol., 166, 246-249.
12. Murakami, T., Ogawa, T., Abe, K. and Hirano, N. 1979. Reovirus isolation from healthy dogs in Japan.
Vet. Microbiol., 4, 255-259.
13. Nibert ML, Dermody TS, Fields BN, 1990. Structure of the reovirus cell-attachment protein: a model
for the domain organization of σ1. J Virol 64:2976–2989
14. Oem, J. K., Choi, J. W., Lee, M. H., Lee, K. K. and Choi, K. S. 2014. Canine kobuvirus infections in
Korean dogs. Arch. Virol., 159, 2751-2755.
15. Park, S. J., Kim, H. K., Moon, H. J., Song, D. S., Rho, S. M., Han, J. Y., Nguyen, V. G. and Park, B. K.
2010. Molecular detection of porcine kobuviruses in pigs in Korea and their relationship with diarrhea. Arch.
Virol., 155, 1803-1811.
16. Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. and Kumar, S. 2013. MEGA6: Molecular
evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol. Biol. Evol., 30, 2725-2729.
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18. Soma, T., Matsubayashi, M. and Sasai K., 2016. Detection of kobuvirus RNA in Japanese domestic
dog. J. Vet. Med. Sci. (In press).
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Dis. 164: 954-957.

[STS22-86]
236
PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE AND DISORDERS IN NEWBORN PUPPIES
AFTER TREATMENT OF DYSTOCIA
Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan1*, Truong Anh Thy1
1
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84913610715; Email: nvth.loan@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
During the intervention of difficult labor in dogs, many effects occur that require the puppy to adapt
physiologically (Purohit, 2011). Puppies can have respiratory failure due to the effects of anesthesia, and
cardiovascular collapse due to the side effects of oxytocin. The intervention can cause complications, if not
handled in time, will lead to the death of puppies and contribute to disorders after the interventions of
dystocia. This study presents the physiological changes after birth and evaluates the problems of
complications, and common disorders in puppies after difficult labor intervention. Therefore, the therapist
can orient reasonable interventions or make treatment recommendations.
Keywords: puppies, dystocia, physiological response, disorders, newborn
1. Physiology of puppies after birth

According to Purohit (2011), newborn puppies have physiological changes because they have not yet
adapted to the external environment, so their physiology is not stable.
1.1. Body temperature and metabolism
According to Tran Thi Dan and Duong Nguyen Khang (2006), because of the amniotic fluid, the surface of
newborn puppies is wet which leads to heat loss through evaporation. Dog neonates have a lower
temperature than adults in the first week of life (Rayes-Sotelo et al., 2021), the body temperature of puppies
in the first 8 days of life varies from 29oC to 32oC, and then at 27oC from day 8 to day 28 and finally at 21oC
from day 29 and thereafter (Purohit, 2011). However, just after birth, temperature diminishes, perhaps, as an
adaptation measure, protecting against hypoxia and acidosis, and reducing the metabolic demand (Lawler
2008; van der Weyden et al. 1986). In altricial species, like the dog, which is immature at birth, stabilization
of temperature is not reached until day 18 of age (Pineda and Dooley 2008). Puppies are often cold and
susceptible to respiratory diseases and mold infections, so do not keep dogs in a humid environment
(Mushtaq, 2009).
For these reasons, it is essential to maintain a controlled environmental temperature for the newborn puppy
and provide an adequate temperature during the first week of life to prevent hypothermia. Besides, a
thermometer must be provided to monitor the temperature in the newborn’s heating area to avoid
overheating which reduces the ventilatory response to carbon dioxide leading to respiratory failure.
1.2. Heartbeat
One of the most important and widely used parameters for determining fetal viability is the fetal heart rate.
Zone and Wanke (2001) said that a normal fetal heart rate of 180 - 220bpm is considered standard for the
newborn dog; moderate fetal distress when heart rate is <180bpm, severe fetal distress when heart rate is
between 120 and 160bpm and requires veterinarian assistance (Zone and Wanke, 2001; Smith, 2012).
Newborn puppies have very different physiological characteristics from adult dogs (Hutchison, 2005).
During parturition (before birth), the fetal heart rate increases (200 - 250bpm) and returns to normal only 1
hour before birth. This physiological change is caused by uterine contractions due to fetal cardiac response to
uterine contractions during labor (Gil et al., 2014).
237
1.3. Respiratory rate
Puppies have a higher metabolism than adult dogs, so their respiration rate is higher. The respiration rate is
an important indicator of the body's metabolic rate. The respiratory rate of puppies ranges from 15 to 35
times/min (Tran Thi Dan and Duong Nguyen Khang, 2006).
Batista et al. (2014) determined the respiratory capacity of newborn dogs by giving a score based on the
number of breaths per minute, respiratory rate < 6 beats/min was evaluated as 0 points; 6 - 15 beats/min is
rated as 1 point, and > 15 beats/min are assessed as 2 points. After that, the puppy's health was assessed
based on the Apgar index. If clinical assessment confirms reduced survival in a newborn dog (Apgar score <
5 or/and respiratory rate < 12 breaths/min), immediate neonatal intensive care and resuscitation measures are
deployed.
According to Doebeli et al. (2013), respiration helps to create energy to supply living organisms. If breathing
is weak, immediately gently open the puppy's mouth and nose to expand the lungs. If breathing remains
unstable (not reached when >15 beats/min), use a single dose of 5% glucose subcutaneously (3 - 5 ml/100g
body weight).
2. Common diseases in newborn dogs after birth
After the surgery, the mother dog often pays little attention to the baby due to pain in the incision, and
difficulty walking. This leads to a decrease in the amount of colostrum, if the newborn dog is not fed
colostrum in the first days, the newborn dog has a decrease in vitality leading to an increased mortality rate.
After birth, puppies need to receive special care immediately, which includes cleaning of the upper
respiratory tract (mouth and nose), clamping of the umbilical cord, and removal of the placenta with a gauze
pad or towel. At this point, puppies evaluated for severe birth defects (cleft palate, wide fontanelle, etc.) were
not receiving continued neonatal care (Pascoe and Moon, 2001).
Although there are many causes of abnormalities in neonates, the clinical signs are similar making difficult
to diagnose the causes. Newborn dogs often become infected due to poor maternal care, viral infections or
less frequent environmental causes. Therefore, veterinarians need to guide owners to participate early in the
periodic health check of the breed dog before giving birth.
2.1. Clinical examination of newborn dogs
The physical examination should be performed in a clean environment. The examination place needs to be
warmed. All puppies born in the pack should be carefully examined along with the mother dog. The mother
dog can be with the puppies during the examination, as obstetrics and paediatrics are inseparable unless the
mother is agitated or stressed and needs to be kept separate (Pretzer, 2008; Batista et al., 2014; Vo Tan Dai,
2017).
2.2. Medical history
Issues related to newborn dogs as well as mother dogs need to be learned from the owner. Check the
newborn dog's weight twice a day in the first week for weight gain or poor weight gain that needs careful
monitoring. Newborn puppies need to reach twice their birth weight at 7-10 days of age. Some newborn
puppies do not gain or lose weight (<10% of body weight) within the first 12-24 hours. Weight loss of more
than 10% of body weight is often associated with medical problems such as endocrine diseases, poor
maternal nutrition, multiple litters, and congenital or infectious diseases.
2.3. Rectal temperature
Newborn puppies have very poor temperature regulation. Young animals are less able to regulate heat than
adult dogs, so they need to be warmed up when separating from their mothers. Low temperature makes
newborn dogs respiratory failure, slow heartbeat, and reduced gastrointestinal motility. High temperatures
dehydrate newborn dogs and reduce weight gain. Overheating causes the newborn dog to separate from the
herd, the body is red, and the mucous membranes are congested (Vo Tan Dai, 2017). According to Mushtaq
(2009), about one-third of puppies born live to weaning age, and most die within the first 2 weeks after birth.
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2.4. Hypoglycemia
Low blood sugar makes newborn dogs weak, slow heartbeat, crying, hypothermia, ataxia or possibly
convulsions. A 30% oral solution can be provided with a dose of 0,25 - 0,5 ml/100g of body weight or
intravenously (Vo Tan Dai, 2017).
2.5. Milk poisoning syndrome
The disease usually occurs in underdeveloped young dogs, animals screaming, discomfort, and abdominal
pain. The condition is often accompanied by gastrointestinal disturbances in neonates leading to hypothermia
and hypoglycemia. If this syndrome is determined, breast milk or other foods can be used as an alternative
food for puppies, the situation will improve (Vo Tan Dai, 2017).
2.6. Management care related issues
Care and management have an important role in the development of a newborn dog. Environmental factors
that cause stress such as many puppies in a litter, very hot or cold weather, high humidity, and poor
sanitation also affect newborn puppies. Poor care of the mother dog such as lack of milk, poor quality milk
or injury to the baby. Poor nutrition, stress factors for the mother dog, and genetic factors of the mother dog
also indirectly affect the newborn dog (Moon et al., 2002; Luna et al., 2004; Vo Tan Dai, 2017).
2.7. Premature pregnancy
Immature fetuses are common in dogs with early cesarean section. Premature puppies with low birth weight,
lack of hair, and poor sucking. The mother dog is poorly cared for, lacks milk or loses milk. Therefore, it is
necessary to give newborn dogs formula milk, keep them warm and ensure appropriate humidity. Puppies
born by cesarean section may experience premature birth, especially in cases where the due date is not
accurately determined, at this time the puppies are prone to respiratory problems, jaundice, dehydration, and
infections. The weak immune system of puppies is also caused by anesthetic poisoning. Although the
surgery is usually done very quickly, the anesthetic for the mother is also very easily absorbed through the
placenta into the puppy's body. Puppies infected with the mother's anesthetic can sleep forever, and lose the
reflex to cry. This easily causes respiratory failure, and respiratory infections when growing up. If the mother
dog is allergic to anesthetics, there is a risk of serious consequences for postpartum survival because of the
side effects of anesthesia (Kushnir and Epstein., 2012; Vo Tan Dai, 2017).
2.8. Respiratory failure
While in the womb, the fetus depends on the placenta for respiration, nutrition, and excretion. Therefore,
when coming out of the mother dog's body, the puppies need to physiologically adjust themselves to live
independently. In response to the changes in the body, the lungs must mature to support respiration with the
first inspiration due to fetal cortisol (Silva, 1990; Liggins, 1994). Glucose production from glycogen stores to
meet the infant's energy supply until breastfed. A sharp increase in body heat in response to body
metabolism (Purohit, 2011).
When giving birth naturally, the puppies are pushed through the mother's genital tract (vaginal), so they
swallow the beneficial bacteria here. These beneficial bacteria have the effect of stimulating the intestinal
microflora of the puppy, which contains the immune cells of the whole body, thereby helping to perfect the
immune system. Puppies born by cesarean section do not receive beneficial microorganisms (Lactobacillus,
lactic acid bacteria, etc.) from the mother's vagina, causing the intestinal microflora to be activated more
slowly, which greatly affects the development. of the immune system. On the other hand, puppies born by
cesarean section do not pass through the mother dog's genital tract, so they are not pushed from the uterine
cavity to the vagina through contractions. Therefore, the puppy's ribcage is not squeezed tightly to push out
all the amniotic fluid in the respiratory tract (lungs, trachea) out. This can cause fluid retention in the lungs
leading to acute respiratory failure and increased risk of respiratory diseases later in life. The follow-up time
in the hospital of puppies born by cesarean section is longer than that of puppies born naturally, which also
affects health (because the immune system of newborn dogs is still incomplete when exposed to many
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bacteria and viruses). pathogens in hospital environments are susceptible to disease). Right after leaving the
mother's body, the puppy's health is weak but does not receive nutrients from colostrum, which is a huge
obstacle to the comprehensive development of the puppies after birth. This makes puppies born by cesarean
section more susceptible to diseases, especially infectious diseases.
Many studies show that puppies often have digestive system problems because newborn dogs' digestive
systems are still under development. This is one of the reasons that make puppies more susceptible to some
gastrointestinal diseases and this rate in puppies born by cesarean section is much higher. Therefore, the
balance of the digestive system plays an important role in the development of the immune system. Beneficial
bacteria in the digestive tract can also help the puppy's body produce antibodies against the disease. On the
other hand, intestinal bacteria are also involved in the synthesis of vitamins K and B, which are very good
for the health of puppies.
When born by natural birth, the puppy will be born in the direction that is suitable for the mother's skeleton,
for example, the puppy's shoulders are compared, the legs are together, the puppy is forced to press the chest
and then water in the lungs will be out (Purohit, 2011). Puppies born by cesarean section often wheeze, are
prone to respiratory failure and are at increased risk of respiratory diseases later in life. In addition, the risk
of diseases such as allergies and asthma in puppies born by cesarean section is also higher than that of
puppies born vaginally because the immune system is slower to develop and takes more time to perfect.
When a new puppy is born, if breathing is weak, immediately gently open the mouth wide to assist
breathing, do this to expand the lungs. If breathing is still unstable, 5% glucose (3 - 5 ml/kg body weight)
can be used subcutaneously (Doebeli et al., 2013).
Cesarean section is a common practice in small animals (Traas, 2008). However, intraoperative and
postoperative anesthesia as factors affecting neonatal survival have not been evaluated in depth (Moon et al.,
2000; Moon and Erb, 2002). Depression after the cesarean section has two basic causes: The most important
cause is hypoxia in the newborn dog, and the second factor is depression caused by anesthetic drugs in the
mother dog (Traas, 2008). In addition, several studies have reported a non-viable effect on large-headed dog
breeds (Beijing, Pug, Bulldog) and neonatal survival after cesarean section (Moon et al., 2000; Reiss, 2001;
Forsberg and Persson, 2007; Traas, 2008; Wydooghe et al., 2013). Thus, rapid and accurate clinical
assessment after birth will identify the neonate in need of immediate help and establish an appropriate
clinical approach to improve the survival of newborn dogs.
3. Conclusion
Physiological factors also affect the health of puppies after birth. Some common medical problems after
cesarean section as well as medical disorders can cause complications that endanger the life of puppies.
Besides, the application of the Apgar index to assess the health status of newborn dogs has also contributed
to the success of breeding work.
References
1. Doebeli A., Michel E., Bettschart R., Hartnack S., Reichler I. M., 2013. Apgar score after induction of
anesthesia for canine cesarean section with alfaxalone versus propofol. Theriogenology 80: 850 - 854.
2. Liggins G., 1994. The role of cortisol in preparing the fetus for birth. Reprod Fertil Dev 6: 141 - 150.
3. Luna S. P, Cassu R. N., Castro G. B., Teixeira Neto F. J., Silva Junior J. R., Lopes M. D., 2004. Effects
of four anaesthetic protocols on the neurological and cardiorespiratory variables of puppies born by
caesarean section; Vet Rec; 154: 387 - 389.
4. Moon P. F., Erb H. N., Ludders J.W., Gleed R.D., Pascoe P. J., 2000. Perioperative risk factors for
puppies delivered by cesarean section in the United States and Canada. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc; 36: 359 -
368.
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5. Moon-Massat P. F., Erb H. N., 2002. Perioperative factors associated with puppy vigor after delivery by
cesarean section; J Am Anim Hosp Assoc; 38: 90 - 96.
6. Munnich A., 2008. The pathological newborn in small animals: the neonate is not a small adult. Vet Res
Commun; 32: p. 81 - 85.
7. Mushtaq A., 2009. Whelping and managing healthy puppies. Dept. Of Veterinary Clinical Sciences,
College of Veterinary Medicine. Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
8. Pascoe P. J., and Moon P. F., 2001. Periparturient and neonatal anesthesia. Veterinary Clinics of North
America. Small Animal Practice 31 (2), 315 - 340.
9. Silva L. C. G., Lucio C. F., Veiga G. A. L., Rodrigues J. A., and Vannucchi C. I., 2009. Neonatal clinical
evaluation, blood gas and radiographic assessment after normal birth, vaginal dystocia or caesarean section in
dogs. Reproduction in Domestic Animals 44 (Suppl 2): 160 - 163.
10.Vo Tan Dai (2017). Reproduction and reproductive diseases in dogs and cats. Agriculture Publishing, Ho
Chi Minh City.
11. Purohit G. N. (2011). Care of the New Born Domestic Animals. WebmedCentral Veterinary Medicine.
2(6):WMC001994. Accessed 18 June 2011.
12. Tran Thi Dan and Duong Nguyen Khang (2006). Animal physiology. Agriculture Publishing, Ho Chi
Minh City.
13.Pretzer S.D. (2008). Clinical presentation of canine pyometra and mucometra: A review. Theriogenology.
70(3):359-363.
14. Trass A.M. (2008). Resuscitation of canine and feline neonates. Theriogenology. 70(3):343
15. Batista M., Moreno C., Vilar J., M. Golding, C Brito, M Santana, D Alamo (2014). Neonatal viability
evaluation by Apgar score in puppies delivered by cesarean section in two brachycephalic breeds
(English and French bulldog). Animal Reproduction Science. 146(3-4):218-226
16. Kushnir Y. and Epstein A. (2012). Anesthesia for the Pregnant Cat and Dog. Israel Journal of Veterinary
Medicine. 67(1): 19-23.
17.Catharina Linde Forsberg and Gunilla Persson (2007). A survey of dystocia in the Boxer breed. Acta
Veterinaria Scandinavica. 49:8
18.E. Wydooghe, E. Berghmans, T. Rijsselaere, A. Van Soom (2013). International breeder inquiry into the
reproduction of the English bulldog. Vlaams Diergeneeskundig Tijdschrift. 82:38-43

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PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES AND DISORDERS IN MOTHER DOGS
AFTER TREATMENT OF DYSTOCIA
Nguyen Vu Thuy Hong Loan1*, Truong Anh Thy1
1
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84913610715; Email: nvth.loan@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
During the intervention of difficult labour in dogs, many effects occur that change the body's physiology.
This stage requires the mother dog's body to adapt physiologically (Purohit, 2010). In the majority of mother
dogs, physiological changes are a continuous process, gradually adapting, so there are no dangerous
reactions. However, in some mother dogs, these changes can give rise to some degree of pathology (Gil et
al., 2014; Jackson, 2014). The mother dog may experience respiratory failure due to the effects of anesthesia
and cardiovascular collapse due to calcium side effects, fluctuations in blood oxygen pressure or uterine
rupture as a side effect of oxytocin. The intervention can cause complications, if not handled in time, will
lead to the death of the mother dog and her pups and contribute to creating disorders after the intervention of
difficult birth. Understand the physiological development after birth, and assess the problems of
complications, and common disorders in mother dogs and puppies after difficult labour intervention so that
the therapist can offer the suitable interventions or make treatment recommendations.
1. Physiology of the mother dog

According to Purohit (2010), after giving birth, the mother dog has physiological changes through a difficult
labor period that make the physiology not stable.
1.1. Body temperature and metabolism
The body temperature of adult dogs ranges from 38,5oC to 39oC which is influenced by the following
factors: age, sex, exercise, and environmental temperature (Gil et al., 2014). The normal body temperature of
the mother dog during pregnancy is 39,2 oC. Before whelping, rectal temperature decreases from 1,1 to 1,7oC
between 6-18 hours (Purohit, 2010). The decrease in progesterone levels near birth is associated with a
decrease in maternal body temperature. The rectal temperature of medium-sized breeds (11-20 kg) can be
reduced to 36oC and large breeds (>20 kg) to 37oC. Several clinical studies of female dogs have shown signs
of preterm birth including a decrease in rectal temperature (<37,2oC). In the second stage of childbirth, when
the fetus reaches the body of the uterus, the temperature returns to normal. If the mother dog does not have a
wound infection or fever after giving birth, the temperature will be stable according to the dog's body
physiology.
Normal core temperature is around 36,5 - 38,5oC in mammals and 38 - 42oC in poultry. When the core
temperature deviates from the reference value, several mechanisms occur to bring the body temperature back
to the original required level. When the body temperature increases by 10oC, the metabolic rate increases 2-
2,5 times. During pregnancy, the female dog's metabolism increases and progesterone levels begin to
increase from 25-35 days of gestation. Anemia can appear between the 25th and 30th days of pregnancy.
However, the actual changes in blood volume have not been determined. Pregnancy increases blood sugar in
some normal female dogs. The cause may be increased secretion of growth hormone and progesterone.
Bodyweight during pregnancy usually increases by 20-55% (average 35%) compared to normal. The diet
provides protein and carbohydrates needed for the body to increase by >150% in the last 3 weeks of
pregnancy, and >200% during the first time and lactation.
1.2. Heartbeat
Heart rate is the number of heartbeats in a minute, expressing the metabolic rate, and physiological or
pathological state of the heart in the body. An adult dog's heart rate ranges from 70 to 120 beats per minute.
Cardiac muscle activity depends on the ratio of ions in the blood. Calcium ions play an important role in the
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contractile activity of the heart muscle. Calcium acts on ion channels that are pumped out into the cells to
help contract the heart muscle. Abnormal calcium movement may directly impair contraction or relaxation of
the heart, hindering the normal pump function. Under these conditions, the heart cells can eventually become
“tired” and fail.
1.3. Respiratory rate
The respiratory rate of an adult dog ranges from 10 to 30 per minute. The breathing rate is an important
indicator of the body's metabolic rate. According to Doebeli et al. (2013), respiration helps to create energy
for living organisms. Due to respiration the body can absorb nutrients and transfer them to cells in the body.
2. Common complications in mother dogs after giving birth

The postpartum period is different for each female dog, so the postnatal genital complications are also
different (Purohit et al., 2012). In cases where the mother dog is not cared for after the surgery as directed by
the doctor, it is often seen on stray dogs, or because the mother dog licks the wound, sucking movements of
the puppy, and the mother dog is pregnant. The breast grows large, and the milk secretes sticks to the
incision, making the seam slow to heal and easy for infection.
2.1. Diagnosis and treatment for difficult labor
Diagnosis and decision-making in a case dystocia is complex and individual. Depending on the cause of
dystocia, veterinarian will decide to appoint more paraclinical tests in the next steps.
2.2. Drug use disorders (oxytocin, calcium, anesthetics)
Oxytocin is commonly used in obstetrics. Oxytocin induces uterine contractions with varying degrees of pain
depending on the intensity of uterine contractions. Rapidly injected large doses of oxytocin
increased contraction frequency and decreased coordination. When administering oxytocin, it is neccessary
monitoring of uterine contractions, fetal heart rate and maternal blood pressure are required to avoid
complications. In the event of severe uterine contractions, oxytocin must be discontinued immediately
(because oxytocin usually decreases in effectiveness as soon as the drug is stopped). When using oxytocin,
avoid rapid intravenous administration (may cause transient hypotension; do not administer oxytocin when
the cervix is not dilated (Bakker et al., 2009).
After giving birth, it is necessary to supplement calcium during lactation. However, the amount of calcium
needed in each stage must be paid to attention. It is important to note that mother dogs with kidney stones or
kidney failure need a veterinarian's prescription. Calcium use can cause cardiac arrhythmias. The
relationship between calcium ions in the cell can be a dysfunction of the transport of ions across the
membrane causing inactivation. When calcium is deficient, the excitability of muscle and nerve fibres
increases. Calcium levels below 30 - 50% can cause muscle contractions and possibly death due to
contraction of the larynx muscle, which is very sensitive to calcium deficiency. Excess calcium will reduce
the excitability of nerve fibres (Bergstrom, 2009).
An overdose of an intravenous anesthetic will cause the heart to stop beating. Each mother dog has a
different response to anesthesia. Before induction of anesthesia, the female dog should be given oxygen
because the apnea which is common after the anesthetic has taken effect can cause hypoxia in the blood of
the mother dog and the fetus. All drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier also cross the placenta and affect
the fetus (Mathews, 2005; Mathews and Dyson, 2005).
2.3. Milk gland disease
Genetics determine milk production potential, and this potential is only realized when feed and management
are satisfactory. The daily diet also determines the ability to produce milk. Infectious mastitis or non-
infectious mastitis can occur in the lobes of the breast during lactation. Bacteria enter the lobe of the breast
through the nipple, through a wound, or bacteria from a blood infection reach the lobe. Clinical signs include
breast swelling, fever, and tenderness to palpation. Inflammatory milk can have blood, pus, and alkaline pH
and is thicker than normal milk, do not stimulate the udder at this stage (Vo Tan Dai, 2017).
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Mother dogs after giving birth, especially by cesarean section, often experience clogged milk, less milk, or
diluted milk. Postpartum lactation is caused by many reasons such as the mother giving birth for the first
time, the lactation reflex may not work and the puppies cannot suckle. Due to pain, the mother dog does not
breastfeed, the mother dog does not breastfeed regularly is a common cause of low milk production. Excess
milk accumulates in the udder after each feeding causes blockage of the milk glands, mastitis, and breast
abscess gradually leading to the loss of milk. The diet of the mother dog during pregnancy and after birth is
not nutritionally adequate. Others, due to stress, could reduce their intake of food to affect lactation or use
anti-inflammatory drugs after surgery (Briggs et al., 2005). High ambient temperature and humidity can
easily create heat stress and reduce milk yield because dopamine reduces prolactin secretion.
2.4. Complications due to cesarean section during a difficult labor
2.4.1. Timing of cesarean section
According to Purohit et al. (2012), uterine or vaginal trauma results from the treatment of difficult labor,
which can result in blood loss. Before delivery, the vagina can be examined with a long speculum can cause
damage, and in more severe cases, bleeding may occur. To avoid prolonged blood loss that can lead to death,
it is essential to locate the bleeding site and place a cotton ball, soaked in adrenaline, into the vagina. In mild
cases, if the cervix is completely open and the head is in, it is possible to use manual intervention to bring the
pregnancy out. In other cases, the cesarean section should be performed as soon as possible to avoid
affecting the uterus. During cesarean section, it is necessary to determine the damage to the uterus, if the
uterus is bruised and bleeding a lot, the lower part of the uterus should be removed.
Uterine rupture is common in mother dogs with signs of infection, fetal death, uterine torsion, inappropriate
obstetric technique, and excessive use of oxytocin or prostaglandins. This is a dangerous obstetric
complication, which often occurs due to uncontrolled labour during labour, or trauma in late pregnancy
(Forsberg, 2007). Clinical symptoms show that it is an intense uterine contraction (increasing the intensity,
duration, and frequency of contractions, reducing the rest time between contractions) causing the mother dog
a lot of pain and fear of being near people. If detected in this period for timely intervention, it will be safe for
both mother and pups. Vaginal bleeding bright red. In this case, perform emergency surgery as quickly as
possible. It is possible to have surgery, resuscitation, and blood transfusion. Depending on the injury and
fertility needs of the owner, it is possible to sew to preserve the uterus or remove the uterus. Follow-up is
necessary to detect early cases of uterine rupture to avoid maternal mortality (Oelzner and Munnich, 1997;
Noakes et al., 2001; Jackson, 2004; Hajurka et al., 2005).
2.4.2. Heavy bleeding due to surgery touching the uterine artery
During surgery on the abdominal wall, it is easy to touch the large blood vessels, causing bleeding, due to the
pregnancy, the blood vessels in the abdominal wall are very developed. Bleeding due to the rupture of blood
vessels in the placental membrane is rare. The only symptom, in this case, is bright red vaginal bleeding,
without other symptoms (the abdomen may be slightly distended, but this symptom is often difficult to
detect). This case should be treated with a combination of resuscitation and an emergency cesarean section
immediately, depending on the mother's condition, the need for childbirth, the extent and location of the
uterine rupture, to perform a hysterectomy or conservative sewing.
Using X-ray and ultrasound examination can give accurate results. Dogs under 3 years of age are most likely
to have a placenta left at first birth (Wheeler, 1986). Causes of this condition include obese dogs, dogs with
high calcium and low zinc levels in the diet, hypoglycemia, poor uterine contractions, and premature birth
(Mshella and Chaudhari, 2001). When complications occur, the clinician makes the diagnosis based on
palpation, vaginal discharge, abdominal pain, and restlessness in the mother dog (Woods, 1986). Oxytocin
will help the uterine muscles contract strongly and tightly, and when the uterine muscles contract, the blood
vessels between the uterine muscle fibres will be clamped tightly to prevent bleeding (Davidson and Baker,
2011).
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2.4.3. Surgical infection
Surgical site infections are infections at the surgical site from the time of surgery to one week after surgery.
Superficial wound infections include infections in the skin or subcutaneous tissue at the site of the skin
incision. Deep wound infections include infections of the muscle layer at the skin incision site. Deep wound
infections may originate from superficial wound infections that extend deep into the fascia. Common causes
of infection include Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Peptococcus and Peptostreptococcus.
2.4.4. Risk of hysterectomy
A hysterectomy is a partial or complete removal of the uterus. This surgery is sometimes performed for
reasons such as uterine rupture, or at the request of the owner. Currently, in developed countries, doctors
only remove the uterus when the cause is clear and always cautiously before surgery. This surgery is
sometimes used to treat conditions such as uterine prolapse, sterilization, severe endometriosis, and pelvic
muscle trauma during childbirth that severely affects bowel and bladder function, and urinary output.
Uncontrollable uterine bleeding. It is necessary to discuss carefully with the owner the need to remove the
uterus because, after the surgery, the mother dog will not be able to give birth. Hysterectomy is performed as
a major surgical operation. After being under general anesthesia, the doctor will make an incision in the
lower abdomen, removing the uterus, fallopian tubes, and possibly ovaries. After surgery, the mother dog
will be given fluids. The mother dog has bleeding and vaginal discharge one to two days after surgery.
Owners need to take good care of the mother dog and limit the dog's running around because it will affect
the wound. Do not let the mother dog lie in one place after surgery because it will stick to the intestines and
easily cause wound infection.
2.4.5. Surgical complications due to touching adjacent organs
Complications that can occur and are common are surgical site, urinary, lung, and amniotic infections
causing peritonitis that can lead to hysterectomy in the postoperative period. Complications due to surgery
such as touching adjacent organs (bladder, intestine), right suture of ureter, bladder - uterus, bladder - vagina
fistula. Bleeding due to touching the uterine artery, uterine inertness increases more when anesthesia,
anesthesia for surgery; bleeding due to tearing of the lower segment. In addition, other complications such as
intestinal paralysis, incision rupture, abdominal wall hernia, internal bleeding, venous thrombosis,
thrombosis, death of the mother dog, and anaesthesia-related complications may also occur.
2.4.6. Complications due to anesthesia
According to Kushnir et al (2012), all anesthetics can cross the blood-brain barrier and cross the placenta
(Pascoe and Moon, 2001; Smith, 2012). Therefore, all anesthetic drugs will affect the fetus. The process of
anesthesia progresses through the stages of pre-anaesthesia, induction of anesthesia, maintenance of
anesthesia, the release of anesthesia (recovery) and the postoperative period. At any stage, complications can
occur. When anesthetizing, it is necessary to examine, evaluate and predict the mother dog's condition before
surgery to have a reasonable plan for anesthesia and resuscitation and to closely monitor the mother dog
during and after anesthesia to promptly detect and treat. Manage possible complications, and ensure safety
for surgery. Anesthesia complications emphasize only respiratory and circulatory complications during the
anesthetic stages, which are the most sensitive vital functions under anesthesia.
2.4.7. Complications in surgery
Although cesarean section helps to solve unsafe vaginal births for the mother dog, this can also lead to
complications such as allergy - anaphylaxis due to anesthesia; Incorrect surgery also breaks many blood
vessels or due to surgical manipulation, the instrument touches the blood vessels or tears the uterus, also
causing a lot of bleeding; damage to some other internal organs in the abdomen (bladder, ureters, intestines),
some unwanted foreign bodies such as gauze, cotton, bandages...
2.4.8. Complications after surgery
Hypotension due to complications of anesthesia. The mother dog has bleeding due to uterine atony, a blood
clotting disorder. In the days after surgery, there may be bleeding due to infection of the uterine myometrial
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suture. Postpartum infection due to endometritis, bacterial infection or because the mother dog is weak and
does not exercise soon after surgery.
Thread rupture is a common complication after surgery, mainly due to the mother dog biting the wound
itself, causing the skin seam to burst, leading to infection and tissue necrosis at the two edges of the wound.
In addition, there are some cases of common complications such as bleeding in premature mother dogs,
strong placental detachment causing hemorrhage, or when cutting into the abdominal wall, large blood
vessels cause bleeding because the blood vessels in the abdominal wall are very developed. Complications of
respiratory problems occur in old, weak and debilitated dogs, mothers with a history of chronic pneumonia
or dogs that are not well prepared before anesthesia.
2.4.9. Risk of intestinal adhesions or bowel obstruction
Adhesions are a condition in which a group of tissues form between tissues and organs in the abdomen that
adheres several organs together. Normally, internal tissues and organs have slippery surfaces, allowing them
to change easily as the body moves. Intestinal adhesions are common in dogs with previous incisions that are
not necessarily cesarean sections. The intestines are part of the digestive system, so intestinal adhesions can
cause intestinal obstruction, often with symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal swelling, and bloating.
Due to the characteristic of dogs that run and jump, after awakening, the mother dog will not sit still. In this
case, the owner needs to limit it by tying the mother dog to avoid the risk of breaking the thread, opening the
wound and causing infection.
2.4.10. The possibility of uterine rupture due to the incision in the next pregnancy
The process of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing affect the health of the mother dog. The next
pregnancy too close will make the mother dog not healthy enough to nourish the fetus. The cesarean scar
above the uterus will thicken and may cause some problems later in life. This scar can rupture during
pregnancy or natural labour. This is the main cause of premature birth and malnutrition. The risk for the
mother dog if the second pregnancy is early, such as the risk of cracking the old incision. Old surgical scar
cracking is an obstetric complication, common in mother dogs who have had a caesarean section with an
incision along the body of the uterus, surgery to suture the ruptured uterus. Detecting danger signs early and
taking the pet to a doctor promptly will help avoid possible bad events such as heavy bleeding in the mother
dog and the risk of having to abort the baby. This has created an opportunity, facilitating the penetration of
bacteria into the uterus as the cervix dilates (Deepti Both, 2014).
2.4.11. Mother dog
An obstetric accident is a maternal health problem that occurs during pregnancy and may occur during
pregnancy, labour, miscarriage, premature birth, or the postpartum period. Complications during surgery, if
not promptly intervened, can lead to the death of the mother dog. In this section, we focus only on common
problems such as postpartum infection, uterine rupture, and eclampsia. These are dangerous and often fatal
causes for the mother dog.
According to Vo Tan Dai (2017), postpartum infection is the cause of residual placenta, acute inflammation
of the uterus during childbirth or infection of genital tract wounds, occurring after birth or after surgery.
After the surgery, the mother dog may refuse to breastfeed, leaving the placenta, causing a lot of bleeding,
distended abdomen, and poor contraction of the uterus after birth.
Uterine rupture occurs most often in female dogs with multiple litters, causing the uterine wall to be thinner
than it was initially, especially in bitches with multiple litters and difficult labour (Hayes, 2004). According
to Biddle and McIntire (2000), conditions that are considered an obstetric emergency with external trauma
are also a common cause. Uterine rupture during or after delivery can occur in cases where the uterine wall is
damaged by an infection, a dead fetus, uterine torsion, a tumour, or a careless obstetric procedure. Uterine
rupture is a consequence of inappropriate oxytocin dosing (Humm et al., 2010). In these cases, immediate
laparotomy to remove the fetus and examine or remove the uterus, cleaning the abdomen to avoid infection
(Davidson and Baker, 2009).
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According to Drobatz and Casey (2000) and Vo Tan Dai (2017), eclampsia is an acute life-threatening
disease affecting female dogs if not promptly intervened. Causes of poor nutrition, low blood albumin, high
milk production and disease of the parathyroid glands have reduced blood calcium levels in female dogs.
Eclampsia usually occurs at lactation 2 to 5 weeks after birth (may occur in late pregnancy), bitches of small
breed but carrying multiple pregnancies are most commonly affected. Hypocalcemia may be caused by an
imbalance resulting from inadequate calcium absorption during lactation (usually in large puppies or in
litters). In dogs, oral calcium supplementation during pregnancy may affect eclampsia during lactation
(Catherine, 2012; Hall, 2016). The initial clinical signs of eclampsia include panting, restlessness, slight
tremors, convulsions, muscle spasms, and gait changes (body stiffness and ataxia). Hypoglycemia and
hyperthermia can occur at the same time. The disease can progress rapidly (minutes to hours) (Kaufman,
1986; Hall, 2016). The diagnosis is based on history and clinical signs. A blood test will accurately identify
low calcium in the blood.
4. Conclusion
Physiological factors such as body temperature and metabolism, heart rate, and respiration also affect the
mother's health after birth. Some common medical problems after cesarean section as well as medical
disorders caused by the use of drugs (oxytocin, calcium, anesthetics) can cause dangerous complications to
the mother dogs. The death of the mother dog is a loss in livestock production, so it is necessary to diagnose
and intervene to save the mother's life to reduce the economic loss.
References
1. Batista M., Moreno C., Vilar J., Golding M., Brito C., Santana M., Alamo D., 2014. Animal
Reproduction Science. 146 (3 - 4): 218 – 226.
2. Catherine G., Makloski Chelsea L., 2012. Current advances in gestation and parturition in cats and dogs.
Vet Clin Small Anim 42: 445 – 456.
3. England G., 2013. Dog breeding whelping and puppy care. Wiley - Blackwell, USA.
4. Gil E. M. U., Garcia D. A. A., d Giannico A. T., Froes T. R., 2014. Canine fetal heart rate: Do
accelerations or decelerations predict the parturition day in bitches? Theriogenology 82: 933 - 941.
5. Hall A. J., 2016. Puerperal Hypocalcemia in Small Animals. Department of Biomedical Sciences,
College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University.
6. Karen M. Tobias and Spencer A. J., 2011. Veterinary Surgery: Small Animal, Vol2. Elsevier Inc,
Cananda, p. 1871 - 1874.
7. Kushnir. Y., Epstein A., 2012. Anesthesia for the Pregnant Cat and Dog. Israel Journal of Veterinary
Medicine. 67 (1).
8. Purohit G., 2010. Parturition in domestic animals: A Review. Review articles 1 (10).
9. Smith F. O., 2012. Guide to emergency interception during parturition in the dog and cat. Vet Clin Small
Animal. 42 (3): 489 - 499.
10. Võ Tấn Đại, 2017. Sinh sản và bệnh sinh sản trên chó mèo. Nhà xuất bản Nông nghiệp.

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THE SOURCES OF GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) EMISSIONS IN THE
LIVESTOCK SECTOR IN VIETNAM AND THE MITIGATION OPTIONS
FOR THOSE SOURCES
Pham Ho Hai1
1
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Corresponding Author: Phone: + 84 903 643 570; Email: phamhohai63@gmail.com
Abstract
In recent years, the total livestock herd and scale farm in Vietnam are increasing, contributing to lower
imported animal products and higher income for the farmers. However, such growth has led to some
challenges faced by the livestock industry. For example, there will be a heavier environmental burden in the
form of greenhouse gas emissions, causing global warming. The primary sources of emissions are mainly
enteric fermentation from ruminants and livestock related waste such as manure, waste water and the liquid
water from the slaughterhouse. There are several ways to mitigate the emissions. These include enhanced
animal productivity, improving digestibility, and increasing forage: concentrate ratio, inclusion of nitrates in
diet, lipid supplementation, and inclusion of secondary plant compounds such as tannins in the diet and
proper balancing of the ration. Similarly, sustainable manure management in the tropics should include the
use of manure nutrients in crop production, effective use of the energy potential associated with manures
(such as biogas), and minimization of potential contaminants. How manure is handled, stored and applied to
land affect its quality, including nutrient value and potential to pollute the environment. Manure treatment
can also play a central role in changing manure quality to enhance its beneficial properties and minimize its
potentially adverse properties. An integrated crop-livestock approach will produce a more sustainable way to
generate agricultural products economically while minimizing environmental impact.
Keywords: Greenhouse gas, Methane, livestock, manure
1. Introduction
Livestock sector is one of the major causes of environmental pollution due to a lack of awareness about
livestock management and particularly manure and waste management. The average annual volume of
manure was estimated to be approximately 81 million tons, of which cattle are responsible for 36 million
tons, swine 16 million tons and poultry 29 million tons (Based on total animal herd data; GSO, 2020, IPPC
1996). Solid manure was used as valuable organic fertilizer for cultivation; as a result, it emitted nitrous
oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere. The slurry (liquid manure) storage emitted mainly methane (CH4) and
nitrous oxide (N2O), especially in swine industry. The rapid development of poultry has also increased
abundant amount of poultry litter which emitted ammonia and other pollutant gases. According to IPPC
(2006), CH4 and N2O are 25 and 310 times respectively more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Therefore, there has been recently an increasing emphasis on control of these emissions. In Vietnam,
knowledge about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock sector is lacking, as data based on actual
measurements are limited. Most of the measured data comes from developed countries using animals such as
pure Holstein and rarely from tropical breeds. Therefore, there is a knowledge gap of measured emission
values from developing countries using local breeds under local conditions, especially the emissions from
slurry storage. The objective of this report is to review and discuss the sources of GHG emissions in the
livestock sector and technological innovations that are used to mitigate environmental pollution and increase
sustainability of animal production in Vietnam.
2. The source of GHG emissions in the livestock
2.1. Current livestock system in Vietnam
2.1.1. Animal husbandry system
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The animal husbandry sector of Vietnam has coped with several difficulties in the last few years. Disease
epidemic of has harmed its development. For example, in 2010 and 2019, there were outbreaks of foot and
mouth disease (FMD); swine fever (also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus
(PRRSV), or Blue-Ear Pig Disease, avian influenza and African swine fever (ASF). Extreme climate events
and global and domestic challenges in recent years have also negatively affected the sector. Yet, livestock
numbers are still increasing, thus environmental and sanitary challenges remain important factors for future
development.
In 2021 livestock products consumption per capita is characterized by 55-57 kg live weight meat, 13-15 kg
fresh milk and 130-135 eggs (Livestock Husbandry Vietnam 2000-2020, Department of livestock
husbandry). The achievements of livestock sector for the period 2010-2020 are presented in table 1.
Table 1. Figures of livestock production during period 2010-2020
Animal Year Growth rate
(Mill. 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 decade
heads) 2010-2020
Buffalo 2.91 2.52 2.52 2.49 2.43 2.39 2.39 -17,87
Cattle 5.91 5.37 5.50 5.66 5.80 6.06 6.28 6,26
Goat, sheep 1.29 1.89 2.15 2.72 2.83 2.73 2.77 114.73
Pig 27.73 27.75 29.08 27.41 28.15 17.06 20.21 -27,12
Poultry 296.25 341.91 361.72 385.46 408.97 481.08 481.09 62,39
Source: Viet Nam animal husbandry in 2010-2020, Department of Livestock production
The population of livestock in 2020 was 8.67 million cattle and buffaloes, 2.77 million goats and sheeps,
20.21 million pigs and 481.09 billion poultry. Ruminant production in Vietnam is different from those of
developed countries. It is mainly small farms with 3 to 5 cattle/buffaloes or 15 to 20 goats/sheeps. Livestock
are raised in a semi-intensive small scale farming system with farmers having low knowledge and skills.
This system combines grazing and supplementation of crop residues such as rice straw, peanut hay etc... in
cattle shed after grazing.
2.1.2. Swine production
Pigs are reared almost entirely by small-scale farmers, who own 80% of the pigs and hogs. However, the
trend is towards larger confined farms under cooperative business structure in the North of the country,
whereas farms are still independent in the South, which have smaller swine farms than the North. Hanoi has
expanded its boundary and now includes a dedicated region for commercial pig production. Classification of
swine farm size in Vietnam is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Classification of swine farm sizes in Vietnam
Farm scale Number of animals
Feeder pigs Sows
Small <19 <5
Medium (commercial) 19-99 5-19
Large (commercial) >100 >20
Sources: Department of Livestock production, 2019
Vietnam’s swine production is composed of mostly backyard/household operations or small farms. In 2020,
about 65% to 70% of swine were raised in backyard/household operations, while the remainder were raised
at larger, commercial farms. In Vietnam, farms are considered commercial if they have 20 sows or more.
While small farms account for 65 to 70% of the total pig population, they produce only about 75 to 80% of
the pork supply. The government wishes to increase commercial swine production to 40- 45% by 2020. By
the year 2020, medium-sized swine farms are projected to supply 50% of the pork, with the remainder
supplied by small and large farms.
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2.1.3. Dairy cattle
Dairy cattle households have an important role in the development of the dairy industry of Vietnam because
over 80% of the country's dairy herds are fed in these households. According to Vu Chi Cuong et al. (2007),
most of the households raise dairy in a small scale system. In total 19,639 dairy farms were small farms
(90.4%) with 1-5 dairy herd/farm. In recent year, there were the big dairy farms to establish with total herds
coming to 200,000 cows.
Beef cattle and goats: Most beef cattle and goats are reared on smallholder properties in the intensive
farming areas of the delta and coastal zones. From 2015-2017, the number of beef cattle has decreased but
breeding quality was improved, currently the farms raising beef cattle are concentrated in southern
provinces, occupying 74% (4,890 farms). Many farms with 100 heads or more are located in Binh Phuoc,
Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan Province (Southeast Area) and Eastern Highlands (GSO, 2011).
2.2. Scale and farm sizes
Livestock farms are small and depend on farmer’s household. On average, there are only 1.93 farms per
1,000 farmer’s households (0.81 pig farms; 0.31 poultry farms, 0.70 cattle farms, 0.026 buffalo farms and
0.082 goat/sheep farms). On average, 88% of pig farms for reproduction and 89% of pig farms for meat were
less than 100 heads per livestock. The orientation of Vietnamese Government for the development of
livestock production strongly promotes the number of animal heads to reach 45% GDP of agricultural output
value by 2025. However, management and controlling diseases, manure and waste water of livestock system
is challenging due to lack of knowledge and experience of the farmers.
Table 3. Pig and cattle farms size in Vietnam
Breeding goal Total Of which (heads)
farms < 100 heads 100-300 300-500 > 500 heads
Sow 2,990 2,639 (88.26)* 266 (8.89) 54 (1.8) 31 (1.04)
Pig-meat 4,485 3,994 (89.05) 390 (8.69) 87 (1.94) 14 (0.31)
Beef 1,620 1,269 (78.33) 323 (19.91) 23 (1.41) 5 (0.31)
Reproductive cow 2,774 2,459 (88.64) 311 (11.21) 3 (0.1) 1
Lactating cow 2,011 1,937 (96.23) 62 (3.08) 11 (0.54) 1
Buffalo 247 232 (93.92) 15 (6.08) 0 0
Goat 757 668 (88.24) 9 (11.76) 0 0
Source: MARD, 2009; *the number in parentheses as (%)
3. The source of GHG emissions in Vietnam
There are two main sources of GHG emissions in livestock sector in Vietnam: enteric methane emissions
from ruminants and manure storage including waste-water management.
3.1. Enteric methane emissions
There are the largest contributing GHG in beef production was enteric methane accounting for 63% of total
emissions, with about 84% of the enteric methane from the cow-calf herd, mostly from mature cows. In the
dairy sector, methane contributes most to the global warming impact of milk about 52% of the GHG
emissions - from both developing and developed countries. Most of the life cycle analyses conducted on
emissions from livestock suggest that research into mitigation practices to reduce GHG emissions from cattle
should focus on reducing enteric methane production from cows (Kebreab et al, 2012).
According to Kebreab et al. (2012) methods to measure methane emissions from ruminants range from
whole-animal respiration calorimetric chambers with various types of gas analysers to tracer techniques and
whole-barn mass-balance techniques. However, most of the measured data comes from developed countries
using animals such as Holstein and rarely from tropical breeds. Therefore, there is a knowledge gap of
measured emission values from developing countries using local breeds under local conditions. Besides,
most of the animals in the developing countries are under grazing or kept in the cattle shed the whole day,
which makes quantification. particularly challenging. Although there are methods that are being currently
evaluated for use in pasture based animals, it is difficult in practice because of the cost and time required to
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measure enteric methane production. Therefore, prediction equations are widely used to calculate methane
emissions. Moreover, mathematical equations range from simple fixed conversion values and statistical
models to highly complex process-based models to estimate emissions using IPCC methodology. Therefore,
more research is required from Vietnamese ruminant breeds and models developed based on local data that
are able to assess mitigation options through dietary manipulation (Kebreab et al. 2012).
3.2. Manure methane emissions
3.2.1. Cattle
Solid manure is normally collected and used for agriculture. Cattle manure is widely used as fertilizer due to
its softness, high content of fibers and lower concentration of protein compared to pig manure. It does not
have offensive odour. One ton of fresh manure costs VND 180,000 to 200,000. Cattle manure can be utilised
as fertiliser for (i) elephant grass; and (ii) bonsai that has strongly developed in Ho Chi Minh City; (iii)
coffee, pepper, or fruit plants. Cattle solid wastes may go through one of the following treatments before
being utilised: (i) land-spreading for dehydration (for approximately 3-4 days) is the most popular method;
and (ii) manure is dried, then mixed with lime, rice straw, rice husk ash, or/and coconut husk dust. Cattle
liquid manure may be used for biogas and/or irrigation of elephant grass or gardens.
3.2.2. Swine
Pig manure is collected or stored in three ways: (i) Slurry, a mixture of urine, feces, and water; (ii) Solid
manure, feces and litter scraped from the floor; (iii) Liquid manure, a combination of urine and feces
remaining after scraping and cleaning with water. The farmers managed manure in one of four ways: (i) No
treatment with direct disposal to fields, fishpond, or water bodies (e.g., lakes, streams), (ii) Composting with
ultimate disposal on crops, in fish ponds, for sale, or in discharge, (iii) Storage without treatment with
ultimate disposal on crops, in fish ponds, for sale, or in discharge, and (iv) Biogas production with ultimate
disposal on crops, in fish ponds, for sale, or in discharge (Hoa et al., 2004).
3.2.3. Liquid waste management
Liquid waste comes from mainly two sources: liquid wastes in swine production and slaughtering house.
Disposal of liquid wastes in swine production has remained a headache to enterprise owners as well as the
authorities. It would be due to the following reasons: (i) large amounts of liquid wastes are generated due to
high numbers of animals and a high volume of water used to cool and wash the animals as well as to flush
out solid manure (100 L of water/day/pig of 50 kg); (ii) pig wastes are highly odorous; (iii) pig farms are
often located in areas of high population, close to markets with shortage of land for wastewater treatment,
cropping, or gardening; (iv) there is no real market for pig manure as discussed above. The following are
successful measures of pig waste management: (i) biogas; (ii) fish feeding; (iii) through canals to fertilise or
improve quality/structure of vegetable or crop land; and (iv) transporting (in tankers) to crop or fruit-tree
areas.
3.2.4. Slaughterhouse
Slaughtering activities increased due to the rapid growth of different categories of livestock over the last
decade. According to the Department of Animal Health of Vietnam (DAH, 2016), there were 12,984
slaughter enterprises operating in the 63 cities/provinces of the country in 2016. These slaughtering
operations are scattered and vary significantly in capacity, between 1 and more than 1,000 animals
slaughtered per day. Among these units, 10,340 only process cattle and swine and 1,031 only process
poultry. The remaining 1,613 process all three. The MOST (2015) study shows that slaughterhouses threaten
the water quality of receiving bodies by discharging untreated wastes, especially waste water, which contains
up to 70 to 80 percent organic matter, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats contained in animal faeces
and blood. In addition, the waste water can also contain parasite eggs and pathogenic bacteria that
contaminate the receiving environment and endanger human health.
3.3. Estimated GHG emissions from solid waste in livestock
According to IPCC 2006 and data of GSO, 2020, we estimated the total GHG emissions in the Vietnamese
livestock. The result is presented on Table 4. Livestock produce more 82 million tons of solid waste per year,
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and 25-30 million cubic meters of waste water. More than 60% of solid waste and 80% of liquid waste were
discharged directly to the environment. Methane emission from manure management is 183,600 tons
equivalent to 3,857 tons CO2eq. Consequently, more than 90% of samples taken from livestock intensive
areas exceeded environmental indicator set by Vietnam National Standard (TCVN 5945-1995).
Table 4. Solid waste and GHG emissions in Vietnamese livestock (2020)
Type of Rate of solid Total heads Solid Solid CH4*/year
livestock waste waste/day waste/year (Tones)
(kg/head/day) (1,000 tons) (1,000 tons)
Beef Cattle 10.0 5,912,891 59.13 21,582.05 5.92
Dairy cattle 10.0 331,368 3.31 1,209.49 10.26
Buffalo 15.0 2,332,754 34.99 12,771.83 4.66
Pig 2.0 22,028,091 44.06 16,080.51 154.20
Poultry 0.2 409,499,647 81.90 29,893.47 8.19
Goat, sheep 2,768,738 2.77 1,011.05 0.36
Total 442,873,489 226.2 82,548.4 183.6
*Estimating methane emission based on IPCC, 2006
4. The mitigation options for reducing GHG emissions
There are a number of publications that have covered mitigation options to reduce GHG from animal
agriculture (e.g. Kebreab et al. 2006; Beauchemin et al. 2008; Olander et al. 2012). Therefore, in this review,
we will focus on near-term options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems in the
tropics and Vietnam. Some of the opportunities for mitigation include enhanced animal production,
improved diet digestibility and additives for enteric methane, and anaerobic digesters for emissions from
manure management. These options are discussed in more detail below.
4.1. Enhanced animal production
Methane production is directly related to level of intake and diet composition. Increased production levels
associated with increased feed intake levels reduce methane per unit product in two principal ways (1)
dilution of maintenance effect, and (2) decreased proportion of feed converted to methane. The maintenance
requirements of animals are usually considered to be fixed. Therefore, an animal that eats more feed to
support greater production partitions a smaller portion of feed towards maintenance needs and a greater
portion is transferred to the product (milk, meat, etc.). Increased intake levels are associated with
proportionally less methane production (Mills et al., 2001), because higher intake levels are associated with
reduced rumen retention times, reduced rumen pH and a consequent shift towards propionic acid formation
which reduces methane emissions (Ellis et al., 2008). Considering the energy transformations of a feed,
Dijkstra et al. (2012) pointed out that the highest gains in efficiency can come from converting gross energy
into digestible energy.
4.2. Diet digestibility
The digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose are strongly related to methane production more so than
soluble carbohydrate (Holter and Young, 1992). Improving digestibility of feed can increase the feed energy
available to the animal, thereby reducing emissions of methane per unit of animal product. Forage
preservation, forage composition and an increase in the concentrate: forage ratio may all reduce the
proportion of dietary intake energy lost as methane by up to 30% (Olander et al., 2012). Previous research
demonstrated that animals with access to urea-molasses block presented higher DM and fiber digestibilities,
consumed less rice straw and displayed similar performance (Chowdhury and Huque, 1996). A current
example is the use of mulberry (Morus Alba) leaves, which are a good source of protein (18-25%). Huyen et
al. (2012) studied the effect of mulberry leaf on performance and rumen parameters in beef cattle and
reported that animals fed mulberry leaf presented better DM and nutrient digestibility which induced a
greater consumption of rice straw and total DMI.
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4.3. Proportion of Roughage to Concentrate Ratio
A higher proportion of concentrate in the diet leads to a reduction in methane emissions as a proportion of
energy intake (Yan et al., 2000). The relationship between concentrate proportion in the diet and methane
production is curvilinear with a marked decrease in methane observed when dietary starch is higher than
40%. Replacing plant fiber in the diet with starch induces a shift of VFA production from acetate towards
propionate occurs, which results in less hydrogen production (Singh, 2010). A positive response to high
levels of grain based concentrate on methane reduction has also been reported by others (Anantasook and
Wanapat, 2012). The metabolic pathways involved in hydrogen production and utilization and the activity of
methanogens are two important factors that should be considered when developing strategies to control
methane emissions by ruminants.
4.4. Lipid supplements
A number of studies have demonstrated that supplemental fat decreases enteric methane emissions (e.g.
Odon go et al. 2007). However, there is a limit to how much lipid can be supplemented without interfering
with fiber digestion and reducing DMI. In their review, Beauchemin et al. (2008) indicated that the
production of enteric methane decreased 5.6% for each 1% increase in added fat to the diet. In Vietnam,
Hiep et al. (2011) reported that supplementation of oil and nitrates in growing cattle diet containing 2%
NaOH treated rice straw and cassava leaf meal reduced methane emissions from about 12% (in
unsupplemented) to 5-8% of gross energy.
4.5. Plant secondary compounds
The search for specific compounds in animal diets that could decrease methane production in rumen
fermentation has increased over the years. Plant extracts such as essential oils, tannins and saponins have
been studied as natural compounds that could assist in the reduction of enteric methane emissions. The
reduction of methane emissions with condensed tannins may be caused by an inhibition of rumen
methanogens and by a decrease in the hydrogen available for methanogens (Tavendale et al., 2005). Tropical
forages such as Luciana contain condensed tannins, and have been shown to reduce methane emissions in
vitro (Tan et al. 2011).
4.6. Ration formulation
Provision of properly balanced diet has been shown not only to enhance productivity but also reduce
methane emissions. For example, FAO (2012) reported that in India, methane emissions were reduced by 36
g/d from 238 g/d when the ration was balanced in dairy cows and 32 g/d from 232 g/d in buffaloes. Liang
(2012) reported that replacing quickly degradable carbohydrate (barley) with slowly degradable
carbohydrate (sorghum) in diets fed to lambs increased average daily gain 38%. The feed conversion ratio (g
intake: g product) was also significantly improved from 9.5 to 7.1.
4.7. Manure management and land application
4.7.1. Methane
Anaerobic Digestion: Animal manure has complex chemical composition and high moisture content,
therefore, biogas production from anaerobic digestion appears to be the most energy efficient choice (CAES,
2008). A properly functioning anaerobic digester can provide numerous benefits at farm, local, and
environmental levels. These benefits include: (1) odor control; (2) reduction of nuisance gas emissions; (3)
potential pathogen kill; (4) reduction of wastewater strength (oxygen demand); (5) conversion of organic N
into plant available NH3-N; (6) preservation of plant nutrients (e.g., N, P, K) for use as a high quality
fertilizer; and (7) production of a renewable energy source-biogas, which typically contains 50-70% methane
with the rest being primarily CO2 and impurities. In Vietnam, over 200,000 biogas units have been installed
in the Northern provinces alone. Farmers use biogas for cooking and electricity, although some have
experienced odor and other problems because biogas contains impurities that need to be removed for more
efficient household use (Vietnamese National Agricultural Extension Service, pers. comm.).
4.7.2. Nitrous Oxide
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By some estimates only 17% of the nitrogen used in fertilizers ends up in our food; the rest ends up in soils
and water. Fertilizer pollution in lakes and the ocean causes massive blooms of algae, which use up the
oxygen dissolved in the water, suffocating other species. Over-use of fertilizers is a particular problem in
China, where whole river systems are polluted and the soils degraded by intensive farming. Mitigation of
nutrients includes using targeted application of fertilizer, and providing catchment reed beds that filter out
any runoff before it enters the river (Asghedom and Kebreab, 2011). The authors summarized experiments
on the effects of sources of N fertilizers on N2O-N. The N2O-N emission for some fertilizers, from data-
aggregation of global studies showed wide range when expressed as percentage of N applied: 0% to 30.5%
for ammonium nitrate, 0.05% to 19.6% for anhydrous ammonia, 0.01% to 46.4% for urea and 0.08% to
0.18% for ammonium sulphate. The wide ranges could be a result of variations in biophysical settings and
experimental methods. Integration of crop and livestock systems is expected to reduce use of inorganic N
fertilizers, improve nutrient use efficiency by using manure as organic fertilizer, thereby decreasing the
carbon footprint of agricultural products.
4.8. Composting
Composting is used to reduce manure bulk, concentrate nutrients, reduce odor, kill pathogens and weed
seeds. Composted material is more uniform and easier to handle than raw manure, providing a source of
slow release nutrients. There are several methods for composting manures: passive composting, aerated
composting, windrow composting, and in vessel composting. Passive composting is probably the most
common method used today because it involves simply stacking manure (and other feedstock) and leaving
them to compost over a long period of time. Aerated static pile composting modifies the passive composting
technique by using blowers to supply air to the composting manure. Windrow composting is similar to
passive composting although the piles of manure are turned or aerated by mechanical equipment to maintain
optimum conditions. In-vessel composting refers to any type of composting that takes place inside a
structure, container or vessel. Each type of vessel system relies upon mechanical aeration and turning to
enhance and decrease the duration of the composting process.
Reference
1. General Statistics Office-GSO (2010, 2011).
2. Hoa, N. Thai., Kei Gomi and Yuzuru Matsuoka (2008) A scenario for Sustainable Low-carbon
Development in Vietnam towards 2030.
3. IPCC (2006) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories
4. Kebreab E., P. H. Hai, S. Foiklang and M. Wanapat (2012) Mitigation options to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions – with emphasis on livestock production in South East Asia. In: Proceedings of the 15th AAAP
Animal Science Congress 26-30 November 2012, Thammasat University, and Rangsit Campus,
Thailand.
5. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development-MARD (2011) on approving programme of greenhouse
gas emissions reduction in the agriculture and rural development sector up to 2020. Document no.
3119/QD-BNN-KHCN, Hanoi, Vietnam.
6. Thanh, N. Phuc. and Yasuhiro Matsui (2009) Evaluation of the alternative treatment methods for GHG
emission mitigation from municipal solid waste management: case study of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
As. J. Energy Env. 2009, 10(01), 35-52.

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SOCIETY STUDIES
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Social sciences and humanities
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THE ART OF PERFORMING DRUMS RABANA OF CHAM PEOPLE IN
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN AN GIANG
Nhat Tan Vu1*, Luu Phuc Ho2
1
HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNUHCM), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Cellphone:
0904155887
* Corresponding Author: CP. 084.975408540; Email: tan.vn@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Rabana drum is a traditional musical instrument of Cham people in An Giang. They use Rabana drums to
perform in some festivals and cultural activities in the community. This musical instrument brings many
cultural and spiritual values to the Cham community. In addition to cultural values, Rabana drums also have
great potential to be put into performances in tourism activities, contributing to preserving Cham culture and
improving the livelihoods of Cham people in An Giang. The article introduces the cultural values of Rabana
drum performance art of the Cham people and proposes some solutions to bring Rabana drum performance
into tourism activities in An Giang.
Keywords: Cham people; performing arts; Rabana drums.
1. Introduction
Located in the watershed area of the Mekong Delta, An Giang is an area characterized by
agricultural land, with both plains and hills, and a border with Cambodia nearly 100km long. In addition, this
place is also a province with many ethnic groups living together such as Viet, Cham, Hoa and Khmer,
creating a unique feature for the culture of the ethnic groups in An Giang and the common features of
Vietnamese national culture. The Cham used to be a long-lived ethnic group in the territory of Vietnam, was
once a resident of the Champa Kingdom. Due to various historical reasons, the Cham people left their
homeland to live in An Giang and Cambodia, forming a cross-border community to live and develop
together. Due to historical conditions, the Cham people in An Giang have a relationship with the Muslims in
Malaysia and Indonesia. Since then, they have expanded relations with the Muslim community in Southeast
Asia and the world.
Different from the musical instruments of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan when
using a trio of musical instruments: Saranai trumpet; Paranung drums are used in community festivals. The
Cham people in An Giang use Rabana drums to perform in a number of festivals and cultural activities. The
original origin of this drum can be adopted by the Cham people through their co-religious relationship with
the Malaysians (Van Han Phu 2019, 11). But the Rabana musical instrument “is mostly created by the Cham
people on local materials, has its own unique and unique cultural value, which cannot be confused with the
music of other ethnic groups. Rabana and Jumak1 are indispensable in cultural activities of the Cham people”
(Van Han Phu 2018, 51). In addition to cultural values, the art of performing Rabana drum also has great
potential for exploitation in tourism activities, both contributing to cultural preservation, creating jobs and
improving livelihoods for the Cham people.
Nowadays, there are many more research works on the cultural and musical life of Cham. It’s
possible to review Cham ethnic music, the interference between Cham music and Vietnamese music by Tran
Hong (2013); Cham folk music, conservation and development of Dang Nang Hoa published in 2019. The
traditional music of the Cham ethnic group by Bui Ngoc Phuc (2016), Proceedings of the scientific
conference of the Vietnam National Academy of Music (2018) with the topic “Preserving and promoting the
value of Cham musical heritage in Ninh Thuan”. These works have the common feature of learning about
1
It is a single-sided, round-shaped lead drum. In the Rabana drum set, when performing, there must be Jumak drum as
the main character.
259
cultural and musical life, typically musical instruments for performances in Cham festivals in the central
region. Regarding the research direction of Cham music and cultural life in An Giang, one can take a look at:
“Traditional and contemporary music of the Cham people in An Giang” published in the AUG International
Scientific Journal by the authors Vo Van Thang and Duong Phuong Dong (2020). The article is about the
characteristics of Cham music in An Giang, including an introduction to the Rabana drum instrument of the
Cham people.
2. Methods
To do this reseach, we have fieldwork in two Cham villages in Chau Phong commune (Pham Soai
hamlet, Chau Giang hamlet), Tan Chau town, An Giang and Vinh Truong commune (Lama hamlet), An Phu
district, An Giang from June 2020 to May 2021. The article mainly uses a qualitative method through
interviews with religious dignitaries, the Cham people performing the Rabana drum as well as observing and
attending a number of festivals and cultural activities with the performance of the Rabana drum. In addition,
a cultural comparison method was performed when comparing the characteristics of the performance art of
the Rabana drum with the Paranung drum of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan to find out the
cultural values in the art of performing the Rabana drum of the Cham people in An Giang.
Some characteristics of the Rabana drum of the Cham people in An Giang
According to the Encyclopedia, Rabana is a general term used to refer to “…a round frame drum,
made of short tube wood with a fairly wide head, covered with leather and stretched on the top, the other side
is left open. The name of this type of drum is said to be derived from the word Robbana, which means “our
God”. This term is commonly used because this instrument is often used to play tunes with lyrics that
contain Islamic content. This type of instrument is often performed during important events of Islam, such as
the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammed, a wedding, a circumcision.” (Jarkata SAR information
page 2017, paragraph 2).
Materials for making Rabana drums are made from wood rattan ropes to fix the drum surface, and
the skin of Rabana drums are all locally available materials. These materials are easy to find and transport.
Usually, the drummer is also the performer, so they have the ability to listen to the sound, and how to
perform, so it is easy to create a good quality drum.
Currently, a Cham drum set includes a Jumak drum (drum that leads the beat) and many Rabana
drums of different sizes. In the current living area of the Cham people, there are two Cham villages that still
maintain the Rabana drum team to serve festivals and community cultural activities, namely the Cham drum
team in Chau Phong commune, Tan Chau town, An Giang and the team Lama drums in Vinh Tuong
commune, An Phu district, An Giang.
3. Result
3.1. Performance time and venue
Through research, we found that drum performances usually take place in 3 main places: At the
mosque, at home or on stage.
3.1.1. Mosque of Islam
In the past, Rabana drums were often performed when chanting prayers in mosques. Every year, on the
12th day of the month of Rabiul Awal2, the Cham community in An Giang organizes a celebration to
celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammed3 at his mosques in Jammaah4. According to this holiday, the
Rabana drum is used to accompany the rituals of praying for the peace of Prophet Mohammed, they believe
that when they pray for peace and for the Prophet, they are also praying for their own peace.
3.1.2. At home
2
March according to the Islamic calendar.
3
Founder of Islam , prophet or messenger of Allah in Islam.
4
Residence unit, and at the same time a self-governing traditional economic, cultural and social unit of the Cham
people in An Giang.
260
The living room plays an important role in the house, this is where the reception activities and family
activities take place. When building a house, the Cham people pay great attention to the design of the living
room space, which must be spacious, airy and clean. On important occasions (especially weddings), this
space is used to entertain guests, celebrate ceremonies as well dining activities. This is also a gathering place
to perform Rabana drums for everyone to enjoy. After the bride and groom complete the wedding
ceremonies, they will receive many blessings from friends and relatives. At this time, the Rabana drum team
begin to perform. The performers sang and clapped their hands to each beat of the drum, making the
wedding ceremony atmosphere bustling dignified and polite. In addition, the Rabana drum is also performed
by the Cham people after the end of the month of Ramadan5. On the last day of Ramadan, the ritual of Roya
Iadil Fitrah6 is held to honor individuals, families and communities who have overcome the challenges of the
month.
3.1.3. On stage
Today, many performance activities such as contests, cultural and artistic exchanges among ethnic
groups are also responded by the Cham people in An Giang, especially the Festival of Culture, Sports and
Tourism. The Cham people organize it every two years. This is also an opportunity for the art of Rabana
drumming to be known to many people. Rabana drum performance space is eld on a large stage with the
witness of many people. At this time, the Rabana drummers are like real artists with a professional and
highly methodical style.
Table 1: Comparison of the place and time of performing the Rabana drum of the Cham people in An
Giang and the Paranung drum of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan.
Criterian Rabana drum Paranưng drum
- In Islam’s mosques (in Nabi Mohammed’s birthday
- Temple Tower Cham.
Perfomance anniversary).
- Stage
venue - House (weddings).
- Large area.
- Stage (committee festival)
- Dependent on the time of festivals in Cham Islam
Perfomance - Dependent on the time of festivals in
committee
time Cham Balamon và Cham Bani’s committee.
- Dependent on the time of host
3.2. Performers and Enjoyers

Traditionally, most Rabana performers are male and knowledgeable about the instrument. Because the
art of performing Rabana drums is a combination of drumming and singing, the selection of members for a
drum team must also ensure that they are proficient in the melodies of the song in Arabic or Cham or not.
There is support for notation of musical notes7.
In the art of performing Rabana drums, in addition to the performers, there are also people who enjoy the
art of Rabana drums. People who enjoy the art of performing Rabana drums are the Cham community
regardless of age, gender, guests of the Cham people and recently tourists. Those who enjoy once can enjoy
the Rabana drum performance art activities in accordance with the "sacred" space, the "sacred" environment
of the villagers, then they will feel the beauty of the art of Rabana drum performance. The presence of the
audience makes the Rabana drum performance more exciting. The relationship between the audience and the
5
September according to the Islamic calendar. During this one month of holiday, all Muslims strictly follow the rule:
no eating, no drinking, no smoking, etc., which means not to put anything in the mouth, but only apply it on daytime
(from sunrise to sunset). However, those who are sick, women pregnant, children under 5 years old are exempted
(Manh Cuong Nguyen 2010, 229).
6
Roya Edil Fitri is a great Muslim festival, celebrated at the end of the month of Ramadan. After prayer on this day,
everyone eats and drinks together and congratulates each other on passing the month of Ramadan (Th. van Baaren
2002, 201-203).
7
Song recording books often do not have musical notation but only content, so the Cham people are required to practice
and memorize the melodies.
261
Rabana drum performer is the glue that connects the Cham community together, and at the same time
contributes to the transmission and promotion of Cham culture.
Table 2: Comparison of the performers and enjoyment of the Rabana drum of the Cham people in An
Giang with the Paranung drum of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan
Criterian Rabana Drum Paranưng Drum
- All must remember the lyrics, the position of the pitch, the position of each tone of the drum.
Same
- They all have a familiar ethnic relationship with each other in the community.
- Performers are mainly male, form a - The performers are Maduen masters, also known
drum team, unlimited members, must be as drummers. The Baraneng drum is both a musical
knowledgeable about how to perform as instrument and a "totem" of Master Maduen.
well as Cham Islam music. - There is a clear distinction between the audience
Different
- The audience can also perform and the performer, cannot change positions for
sometimes. each other.
- Performing in the Cham Islam - Performing for both Cham Balamon and Cham
community. Bani.
Usually, in the wedding ceremony at the Cham's own house, the members participating in the Rabana
drum performance often sit cross-legged in two parallel rows and face each other, or sit in a circle to easily
observe the other members. and promptly correct each other during the performance. The arrangement of the
performance lineup must depend on whether the space is wide or narrow to choose the appropriate way to
sit. In addition, when performing on stages, the Rabana drum team often sits in an arc to help the audience
easily observe and the image of the drum team is also more beautiful.
Rabana drummers can choose a sitting or standing position that is suitable and comfortable. However, in
the culture of Cham people in An Giang, all activities such as receiving guests, eating and drinking, they
choose to sit cross-legged. Therefore, when performing drums, the sitting position is often chosen. The drum
can be stowed in the lap or placed on one side of the performer's leg, but the Rabana drum face must always
face forward.
3.3. Music genre and performance content
Songs performed with Rabana drums often have Islamic influences. It originates from the area of the
Arabian peninsula known as Nasheeds and Selawat 8. Nasheeds are hymns, and Selawats are poems that are
often recited or sung by performers when paired with Rabana drums. The content of Nasheeds and Selawat is
mainly about Islam, including three main contents: praising Allah and the merits of Prophet Mohammed, as
well as spreading Islam. In addition to songs related to religion, the Cham people also use Cham folk songs
with cheerful tones, reflecting daily working life.
Table 3: Comparison between genres and music content when combining performances of Rabana
drums of Cham people in An Giang and Paranung drums of Cham people in Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan
Criterian Rabana Drum Paranưng Drum
Types of Islamic music: Types of traditional Cham folk music:
+ Nasheeds song + Ceremonial music.
Music
+ Selawat + Central Cham folk songs are associated
genres
+ Cham folk songs in the South of Vietnam with love of the homeland, love of couples,
associated with cultural life and Islam daily life,…
- Praise God Allah and Prophet Mohammed - Legends, myths.
Music
- Praise Islam - Biography, life, career and merits of the
content
- Working life, homeland, people. gods.
8
These songs are very popular among Muslim communities around the world. The distinguishing feature of these songs
is that the verses with the same melody are repeated many times by the singer.
262
4. Discussion on the art of performing Rabana drums in Cham tourism development
Rabana drum performance brings many cultural values to the Cham community. In particular, these
cultural values have great potential in tourism activities to Cham village in An Giang. In order for the Cham
people's art of Rabana to be both preserved and developed in tourism activities, certain orientations are
needed. Detail:
Search and buy the lost Rabana drums backover time. Damaged drums must be repaired and maintained
periodically. Moreover, the production of new Rabana drums helps the Cham people to ensure a sufficient
number of drums to perform in community festivals and in tourism activities. In addition, the collection,
copying, and recording of the content of the songsare to serve the performance activities, encouraging the
Cham people to create more songs for performance, more diverse in the song's content. This is a great
advantage to attract the attention and research of visitors in tourism development.
There should be drumming training classes, Rabana drum performance classes. The target audience is
mainly aimed at Cham youth, helping young people have the opportunity to study and perform for the Cham
community. The teaching staff is none other than the local Cham drummers and talented teachers who are
trained in teaching. These funds must be estimated from the beginning of the year in the localities in order to
organize the development of a reasonable training program, foster the teaching staff as well as purchase
equipment to serve the teaching. The teaching force and learners will be the nucleus of preserving and
promoting the cultural values of the Cham people.
In festivals, the art of performing Rabana drums should be focused on staging quality programs with
bold colors of the national culture. Modern musical instruments should not be abused and forgotten about
traditional musical instruments. In fact, the art of performing Rabana drums is not only limited to religious
ceremonies but also a national musical instrument that can be combined with other forms of dance and music
of the Cham people.
When tourists visit Cham village, they only visit the mosque, visit the house, learn about daily life such
as religious practice, cuisine, and costumes, in the future, they can attend a Rabana drum performance. Cham
village in An Giang can be built more Cham culture galleries, which display Rabana drum instruments as
well as build a stage where Rabana drums are performed for tourists. More interestingly, tourists can interact
with the drummer Rabana through a demonstration of how to perform the drums. At the same time, it is
possible to exploit the art of performing Rabana drums through by recreating the wedding ceremony of the
Cham people. With an atmosphere that is both formal and joyful, visitors have more vivid and authentic
experiences.
Tourists interact with the Rabana drum performance team in Chau Phong commune, Tan
Chau, An Giang (Photo: Roset Mohamed, taken on February 9, 2022)
To be able to bring the art of Rabana drumming into tourism activities, also requires a lot of effort and
orientation from state agencies, cultural researchers, and tourism businessmen in order to have a plan to
263
develop effectively the art of performing Rabana drums, both to improve the lives of the Cham community
and to develop the local economy and tourism.
5. Some benefits for the Cham community from developing the art of performing Rabana drums in
economic and tourism development in the locality
5.1. Help preserve traditional Cham culture in An Giang
Tourism is an effective activity in maintaining and preserving culture. The introduction of Rabana drum
performance into tourism activities helps visitors have many opportunities to understand and experience the
culture. Instead in the past, tourists only knew about visiting the mosque, houses, costumes, and cuisine, now
they can learn more about the art of Rabana drum performance, enriching the cultural life spirit of the Cham
people. In particular, the Cham people who work in tourism also have the opportunity to learn and introduce
the culture help preserve traditional culture effectively.
5.2. Help diversify tourism products in An Giang
Tourists to visit Cham village in An Giang is currently interested and invested by local authorities.
Tourists coming to Cham village have the opportunity to visit the mosques with unique Arabic architectural
style, learn about the religion of Islam. In addition to the mosques, visitors can also visit ancient Cham
houses hundreds of years old, learn about housing architecture as well as the daily cultural life of the Cham
people. Food and costumes are also potentials to attract the attention of tourists through traditional craft
villages such as: Brocade weaving; Making sausages “Tung Lò Mò”; Making some traditional cakes, etc. In
addition to Islam, which is typical for the cultural and spiritual life of the Cham people, the art of performing
Rabana drums is considered a typical cultural and artistic performance that can be an investment and tourist
attraction. Rabana drum performance can be a new activity added to the Cham tourism program in An
Giang, diversifying tourism products to Cham village An Giang, attracting more tourists to visit Cham
village.
5.3. Create livelihoods for Cham people in An Giang
The art of performing Rabana drums in tourism contributes to the livelihoods of the Cham people and
improves the economic life of the people. It is the Cham people in An Giang who must be the main
managers, coordinators and beneficiaries of tourism activities under the guidance and support of local
agencies. To be able to effectively develop this operating model, it is necessary to have coordination between
Cham community dignitaries and local authorities. It is necessary to have policies and mechanisms to
support funding, giving them peace of mind in conserving and transmitting knowledge to the next
generations, devoting themselves to the cause of conservation and promotion of music. Traditional music in
the community and in tourism development today. “How to develop tourism while preserving and
developing national culture, improving historical traditions, people's living standards, ensuring security and
defense, to make a worthy contribution to the development socio-economic conditions of the locality and the
country” (Van Mon Truong 2020, 796).
6. Conclusion
The art of performing Rabana drums brings many cultural values to the Cham community in An Giang.
This is not only an art form for festivals or activities in the community, but also has great potential when it is
put into operation and serves tourism development in the locality, where the Cham people live. Finding some
effective solutions to exploit this art form contributes to preserve traditional Cham culture, creating
livelihoods and improving economic life for the Cham people in An Giang.
264
References
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2. Agus Iswanto (2019) Understanding Hadrah Art as The Living Al Quran: The Origin Performance and
Worldview. Balai Penelitian dan Pengembangan Agama Semarang Badan Litbang dan Diklat
Kementerian Agama, Indonesia.
3. Dang, Nang Hoa (2019) Âm nhạc dân gian Chăm, Bảo tồn và phát triển [Cham folk music, Conservation
and development]. Hanoi: Knowledge Publishing House.
4. DKI Jakarta (September 2017) “Rebana”. Reference from
https://jakarta.go.id/artikel/konten/4050/rebana123 accessed July 20, 2020.
5. Mohd Hassan Abdullah (2005) Kompang: An Organological and Enthnomusicalogical study of a Malay
Frame Drum, International Center for Music Studies. Australia: The University of Newcastle upon
Tyne.
6. Nguyen, Manh Cuong (2010) Văn hóa lối sống của người theo Hồi giáo [Culture and lifestyle of
Muslims]. Ha Noi: Culture and Information Publishing House.
7. Phu, Van Han (2018) Nghệ thuật biểu diễn của người Chăm [Performing arts of the Cham people]. Ho
Chi Minh: Culture and Arts Association of Ethnic Minorities Ho Chi Minh City.
8. Phu, Van Han (2019) Văn hóa người Chăm ở Nam Bộ [Cham culture in the South of Viet Nam]. Ha Noi:
Social Science Publishing House.
9. Th. van Bareen (2002) Islam (Translated by Trinh, Huy Hoa). Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publishing
House.
10. Truong, Van Mon (2020) Tiếp cận một số vấn đề văn hóa Champa [Approaching some cultural issues of
Champa]. Ha Noi: Knowledge Publishing House.
11. Vo, Van Thang and Duong, Phuong Dong (2020) “Âm nhạc truyền thống và đương đại của người Chăm
An Giang” [“Traditional and contemporary music of An Giang Cham people”]. AGU International
Scientific Journal, No. 26, P. 98-111.
12. Vo, Thanh Phuong (2015) “Quá trình định cư của người Chăm ở An Giang” [“The settlement process
of the Cham people in An Giang”]. An Giang History - Culture Magazine, No. 123, p. 8-10.

[STS22-06]
265
CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENT’S SLEEP-WAKE DISORDERS: A
STUDY IN HUTECH UNIVERSITY
Nguyen Thi Van Thanh1*, Trinh Hai Duc1
1
Faculty of Social Sciences and Public Relations, HUTECH University
* Corresponding Author: Phone: + 84 916869772; Email: ntv.thanh@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Sleep plays an important role in everyone's life, that is helping people recover and grow. Sleep disorder
adversely affect a person's daytime functioning. Subjective: Manifestations of characteristics of sleep-wake
disorders on HUTECH students in general. Methods: Using a questionnaire with two Likert rating scales, the
study was conducted on 54 students of 9 majors of HUTECH university. Result: The students' sleep pattern
is diverse and highly variable, in which some students wake up late in the morning or at midday. Students
experience sleep disturbances and report the effects of sleep loss on their quality of life. There are
differences in sex, school year with characteristics of sleep disorders surveyed.
Keywords: sleep disorders, sleep-wake disorders, student, impacts of sleep disorders, HUTECH University.
1. Introduction
Sleep occupies an important part of human life: one third of a person's life is spent sleeping. Sleep helps
people recover and maintain and grow. (Huynh, 2007). However, not everyone is lucky enough to have good
sleep: about 57-70 million American adults suffer from some form of sleep disorders. (Hemmings, J., 2018).
Sleep disorders affect everyone, including students. At the beginning of the article “The Sleepy Student: The
Effects of Sleep Disorders in Students”, MD Sandra Block wrote “When a student often falls asleep on his
desk, we assume that the student is lazy, staying up late, or even a drug addict. But we forget another
possibility: the student may have a sleep disorder”. (Sandra Block, 2006).
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th (DSM-5), people with sleep-
wake disorders often complain of sleep disturbances, feeling dissatisfied with sleep quality, sleep duration.
They experience daytime discomfort and functional impairments in life and work (American Psychiatric
Association, 2013).
DSM-5 divided sleep-wake disorders in 10 disorders or disorder groups: insomnia disorder,
hypersomnolence disorder, narcolepsy, breathing-related sleep disorders, circadian rhythm sleep-wake
disorders, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep arousal disorders, nightmare disorder, rapid eye
movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, restless legs syndrome, and substance/medication-induced sleep
disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
In this study, we tried to explore:
- What is the HUTECH student's pattern of sleep?
- What are manifestations of characteristics of sleep-wake disorders on HUTECH students in general?
2. Method
The study was conducted on 54 students of HUTECH University:
+ Distribution by sex: Male: 25, Female: 29
+ Distribution by Major: Psychology (14), Multimedia communication (1), Administration and Economics
(15), Languages (6), Information technology (8), Public Relations (2), Tourism (3), Jurisprudence (1), Others
(4).
A Questionnaire with opened question for exploring student's pattern of sleep.
A Questionnaire with two systems of Likert-scale for exploring characteristics of students' sleep disorders:
- A Likert 4-point scale (with “1”=“Not at all”, “2”=“Less than once/week”, “3”=“Once to
twice/week”, “4”=“Three times or more/week”.
- A Likert 5-point scale (with “1”=“Not at all”, “2”=“Quite little”, “3”=“To some extent”, “4”=“Quite
much”, “5”=“Very much”.
Data analysis method: IBM SPSS Version 26 statistical software was used to analyze the results.
Figure 1 present HUTECH students’ pattern of sleep. All component of the pattern are variable and
heterogeneous. For Time’s Sleep latency, for example, beside large amount of the students immediately falls
266
asleep at night, there are students who have to stay in bed for one hour, two hours or even three hours before
they can fall asleep. For Time’s Going to bed, for example, there are large number of students who go to bed
at the physiological sleep time as usual, meanwhile there are also some students who go to bed early in the
morning (5:00 AM) or even in midday (12:00 PM). These students reported “I sleep during the day, stay
awake at night” or “I am called a night owl”.
Time’s Sleep latency Time’s Sleep duration

30 20
15
20
10
10 5
0 0
0 2 4 7 15 20 45 90 180 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5
Time’s Going to bed Time’s Wake up

25.0
20 20.0
15 15.0
10 10.0
5 5.0
0 0.0
12:00 AM
12:00 PM
10:00 PM
10:30 PM
11:00 PM
11:30 PM
1:00 AM
2:00 AM
3:00 AM
3:30 AM
4:00 AM
5:00 AM
12:00 AM
10:00 AM
10:30 AM
11:30 AM
2:00 AM
2:30 AM
4:00 AM
4:30 AM
5:00 AM
5:30 AM
6:00 AM
6:30 AM
7:00 AM
7:30 AM
8:00 AM
8:30 AM
12:00 PM
Figure 1. Students’ Pattern of Sleep
Going to bed late lead to waking up late. It can be seen from the student's waking time: many students wake
up at 10:00 AM or 11:30 AM. The waking up too late in the morning probably explain the reason why many
lecturers complain that there are many students, who are late to class in the morning shift.
HUTECH students report characteristics of sleeping’s problems in Figure 2. The problems in sleeping are
include: “Awake during night or too early in the morning”, “Shortness of breath”, “Feeling very hot”. In
which, the scores of females are more than that of males, who experience these problems and almost of the
frequency levels.
The impact of insomnia on HUTECH students’ life of is also presented in Figure 2. Similarly, the scores of
females are more than that of males, who report the impacts of insomnia on their life in almost of the
frequency levels.
100
80
60
40
20
0
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Not at all Less than once/week Once to twice/week Three times or more/week
Awake during night or too early in the morning (*)
Shortness of breath (*)
Feeling very hot (**)
Difficult to stay awake while driving, eating or participating in relaxation activities (*)
Difficult to maintain interest in completing work (**)
Figure 2. Problems in sleeping and the impacts of insomnia on HUTECH students’ life. Note: (*)
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; (**) Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; Descriptive Data
Included in Total Scores of the Likert Scale.
267
In Figure 3, the number of females is more than that of males, who report they lost concentration in their
daily work if they had insomnia. Figure 4 present the problems of their insomnia. The problems “Feeling
very painful”, “Feeling very hot”, “Awake during night or too early in the morning” encountered by students
of all majors surveyed.
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Not at all Quite little To some extent Quite much Very much
Figure 3. Distractions in daily work due to insomnia. Note: (*) Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level;
(**) Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; Descriptive Data Included in Total Scores of the Likert Scale.
Figure 5 shows that students reported “Very much” or “Quite much” to the problem of “Falling asleep even
though I really want to listen to the teacher's lecture” found in almost surveyed majors, except “Multimedia
communication” major. Perhaps because the characteristic of this major is that lectures are always attractive
by images and sounds. Or maybe because the sample size of this industry is quite small (only 2 students
participated in the survey).
4. Conclusion
All components in the sleep pattern, including Time's Sleep latency, Time's Sleep duration, Time's Going to
bed, Time's Wake up, varied strongly across different students. Some students have a late bedtime that leads
to late waking up, making it difficult to adapt to the morning schedule at university.
Female students experienced sleep problems such as Awake during night or too early in the morning,
Shortness of breath, Feeling very hot more than male students.
268
Three times or more/week Very much
Quite much
Once to twice/week
Others
Others
To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Not at all Not at all
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Once to twice/week Quite much
To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Quite much
Tourism
Tourism
Once to twice/week
To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Very much
Public Relations
Public Relations
Three times or more/week
To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Information
Information
technology
technology
To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Languages
Languages

To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
communication and Economics
Administration
communication and Economics

Administration

To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Multimedia
Multimedia

To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
Psychology
Psychology

To some extent
Less than once/week
Quite little
0.0 20.040.060.080.0100.0
120.0 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0100.0120.0
Feeling very paintful (*) Falling asleep even though I really want to
Feeling very hot (*) listen to the teacher's lecture (*)
Awake during night or too early in the morning (*)
Figure 4. Problems of insomnia (distributed by majors) Figure 5. Characteristic of insomnia

(distributed by majors)
Note: (*) Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; (**) Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level;
Descriptive Data Included in Total Scores of the Likert Scale.
269
In almost majors of HUTECH university, there are students, who experience falling asleep even though I
really want to listen to the teacher's lecture. Finding out some manifestation’s characteristics of sleep-wake
disorders on HUTECH students in general implies that: there is a certain proportion of HUTECH students
have sleep-wake disorders. This study suggests for future research to investigate sleep-wake disorders in
students, as well as the factors affecting their sleep disorders.
Limit of the research:
There is no uniform distribution by major, which reduces the validity of comparisons between majors. The
study explores the manifestation’s characteristics of sleep-wake disorders on students in general. Therefore,
it is not clear whether these characteristics are caused by some kind of sleep-wake disorders or caused by
other environmental problems such as: lecturers' teaching, students' interest, etc.
References
1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed.
Washington, DC: New School Library.
2. Asma Ali Al Salmanib, A. A. (2020). Prevalence of sleep disorders among university students and its
impact on academic performance. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE AND YOUTH,
25(No1), 974–981. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2020.1815550
3. Hemmings, J. (2018). How psychology works - Understand all about Psychology. Ho Chi Minh city:
World Publishing House.
4. Huynh, Do Cong (2007). Textbook of Advanced Nervous Activity Physiology. Ha Noi: National
University Publishing House.
5. Kronholm E, H. M. (2006). Self-reported sleep duration in Finnish general population. Journal of Sleep
Research. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2006.00543.x
6. Sandra Block. (2006, Nov). The Sleepy Student: The Effects of Sleep Disorders in Students.
NASNewsletter, 21(6), 13.

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HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ AWARENESS OF CYBERBULLYING:
RESULTS OF RESEARCH AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Ho Thi Thanh Tam1*, Le Thi Be Nhung1, Nguyen Mai Ha2, Ho Thi Phi Yen3, Tran Nguyen Minh Huan1,
1
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City
2
Phan Van Tri High School, Giong Trom District, Ben Tre Province
3
Can Tho University, Can Tho City
*Corresponding Author: Phone: +84 966 765 817; Email: hothithanhtam_thpt_pvt@bentre.edu.vn
Abstract
“High school students’ awareness of cyberbullying: results of research and suggested solutions” was
conducted from September 2021 to February 2022 to inform the reality of students’ perception of
cyberbullying, which could help students raise their awareness of the consequences of cyberbullying. The
questionnaires self-report is used in this study to survey 600 students at Phan Van Tri High School, Giong
Trom District, Ben Tre Province. The results of the study show that students have not known about
cyberbullying clearly due to choosing “Disagree” (59.1%) in the questionnaires. Conclusions and
recommendations provide the solutions to the problem of raising students' awareness of cyberbullying;
besides, preventing cyberbullying behaviors from happening in the educational environment.
Keywords: Awareness, cyberbullying, high school, students.
1. Introduction
“Bullying” used to be considered as a harmless and unserious action, but it could lead into many
problems. According to UNICEF, the report states that “Globally, slightly more than 1 in 3 students aged 13-
15 experience bullying, and roughly the same proportion are involved in physical fights”. According to Plan
International, violence and school bullying are increasing gradually, especially in the United States. It’s
about 20% of high school students in the U.S. say they regularly bully others, and about 20-65% of children
worldwide say they have been bullied, in fact that percentage may be higher.
The workshop “Safe, friendly and equal school – Status and Solutions” which was held in Hanoi,
Vietnam (November 26, 2014), the Institute of Medical - Social Research in collaboration with Plan Vietnam
published the results of the study on the situation of gender violence in schools in Hanoi. There are 3,000
students who was surveyed (between 11 and 18 years old), 40% of them stated that they used to be bullied
for six months. In particular, female students suffered more mental violence than male students, and 15-17
years old students were the most sexually abused and harassed. The report also pointed out the situation of
being bullied on social media such as Facebook, Zalo, Messengers ...
In 2019, the workshop “School-based cyberbullying prevention and intervention program” (University
of Education, Hanoi National University) published the results of research on the new form of “school
violence”, called “cyberbullying” in the educational environment. The study found that 32.5% of middle and
high school students (N=1040) engaged in “cyberbullying”, maybe once, twice a day or every day, with
different roles as perpetrators, victims or both (Tran Van Cong, 2019).
Vietnam’s population reached 97.8 million (2021), the Internet users reached 68.17 million (about
70.3% of the population) through various platforms and applications, with an average duration of 6 hours
and 47 minutes; the number of social media users is more than 72 million (73.7% of the population). Due to
rapidly increasing of information technology, the Internet users, and social networks, a shortcut has been
created that makes school violence develop in a new and broader way – cyberbullying, which is an urgent
issue recently. Students spend too much time on social networks without the necessary understanding of
cyberbullying. During COVID-19, most students have to use online platforms more often to study, which
could raise cyberbullying cases. This form of bullying can be more dangerous than traditional bullying
because it can be done anonymously through the creation of fake names and profiles on technological
devices and social networks. If this situation is not prevented and protected in a timely manner, it is difficult
to imagine what terrible consequences will happen next. There are many reasons for cyberbullying in
students, one of the main reasons is that students’ awareness of cyberbullying is not enough.
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2. Methodology
2.1. Study objects
The official study sample was selected based on the method of selecting randomly sample of 600
students of three grades 10, 11 and 12 of Phan Van Tri High School (Giong Trom District, Ben Tre
Province). Specifically, as follows:
Table 1. Personal information of the study’s object
GRADE
12 11 10
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Male 56 9.3 70 11.7 103 17.2
Gender
Female 144 24.0 130 21.7 97 16.2
Good 69 11.5 71 11.8 145 24.2
Academics Fair 106 17.7 94 15.7 52 8.7
Average 25 4.2 35 5.8 3 0.5
Good 200 33.3 196 32.7 197 32.8
Conduct Fair 0 0.0 2 0.3 3 0.5
Average 0 0.0 2 0.3 0 0.0
2.2. Study methods
2.2.1. Method of the investigation by questionnaire
The authors follow these three steps:
Step 1: Designing questionnaires with certain content to survey the perceived status of students’
cyberbullying for research purposes.
Step 2: Inviting students to try the questionnaire so that the students give feedback on the language
used for the questionnaire is appropriate or not.
Step 3: Making online survey (Google forms) which are sent to groups of classes to collect students’
opinions.
2.2.2. Mathematical statistical methods
After compiling the results from the online survey, the authors used SPSS 20 software to statistics and
process the data collected from the survey, verifying the objectivity and reliability of the study results.
3. Results
3.1. Awareness of the concept of cyberbullying
In the survey, the authors did not give available answers about the concept of cyberbullying but only
listed expressions of cyberbullying behavior with the aim of measuring students’ awareness of the concept of
cyberbullying as honestly and accurately as possible. So, the authors formulated the question “Let tell me
your opinion with manifestations of the phenomenon of cyberbullying?” with 10 behavioral manifestations of
cyberbullying. The results are as follows:
Table 2. Statistical results of students’ level of understanding of cyberbullying
No. Statement Agree Hesitate Disagree Std.

N (%) N (%) N (%) Deviation
Rushing through the Internet to judge, defame,
threaten, and cause trouble for others in order to 177 53 358
1 0.904
satisfy themselves makes them psychologically and (30.1) (9.0) (60.9)
physically hurt.
Intentionally remove a person from an online group 141 98 346
2 or not let that person know or join an online group 0.878
(list of friends, forums, associations, etc.). (24.1) (16.8) (59.1)
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Sending threatening or offensive messages via 155 48 380
3 email, SMS... Or on the relevant websites. 0.884
(26.6) (8.2) (65.2)
Writing, posting rumors, bad stories about a person 160 51 372
4 on social networking sites, forums ... Or send a link 0.884
for someone else to read. (27.4) (8.7) (63.8)
Leaving comments that are derisive, defamatory, 151 57 374
5 disparaging, provocative, etc. on a person's post. 0.870
(25.9) (9.8) (64.3)
Creating a public vote or score online about a 135 72 377
6 person's shortcomings to tease. 0.840
(23.1) (12.3) (64.6)
Posting personal contact information (email address,
phone number, personal account, etc.) on popular 144 70 370
7 0.855
websites so that the person has to receive spam or (24.7) (12.0) (63.4)
harassing contacts from strangers...
Finding a way to take an email account, social media 152 54 377
8 and spread one's secrets to everyone to read. 0.872
(26.1) (9.3) (64.7)
Impersonating a person who sends messages, emails 149 56 379
9 or posts on social networking sites, forums... To say 0.866
things that are not true. (25.0) (9.6) (64.9)
Editing/making photos and puting them online to 146 62 375
10 embarrass a person. 0.861
(25.0) (10.6) (64.3)
Cronbach’s Alpha test results in Table 3 show that the items have a consistent Corrected Item - Total
Correlation (>0.3). Cronbach’s Alpha is equal to 0.990 > 0.8 (between 0.8 and close to 1, the scale is very
good) so it meets the reliability requirements. Although, items 1 and 2 have Cronbach’s Alpha if Item
Deleted equals 0.991 is greater than Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.990, so as a rule, it will be eliminated. However,
Corrected Item - Total Correlation of the two items above is both greater than 0.3 (the higher this
coefficient, the better) and Cronbach’s Alpha is already above 0.8. There is no need for items 1 and 2 in this
case. This demonstrates that this set of items has good links to reflect students’ perceptions of cyberbullying.
Table 3. Cronbach’s Alpha for cyberbullying statements
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
0.990 10
Item – Total Statistics
Scale Mean if Scale Variance if Corrected Item - Cronbach’s Alpha if
Items
Item Deleted Item Deleted Total Correlation Item Deleted
1 21.48 55.983 0.908 0.991
2 21.45 57.118 0.878 0.991
3 21.41 55.600 0.970 0.989
4 21.43 55.361 0.980 0.988
5 21.41 55.729 0.968 0.989
6 21.38 56.447 0.940 0.990
7 21.41 56.095 0.956 0.989
8 21.41 55.557 0.979 0.989
9 21.40 55.855 0.963 0.989
10 21.40 56.009 0.957 0.989
The statistical results in Table 2 indicate that students’ perceptions of cyberbullying are simple and
there is no similarity in the choice of level of consent for statements of cyberbullying due to the standard
deviation of expressions > 0.500. For example, in No. 1, 177 students (30.1%) chose “Agree”, 53 students
(9.0%) chose “Hesitate” but 358 students (60.9%) chose “Disagree”. In No. 2, 141 students (24.1%) chose
“Agree”, 98 students (16.8%) chose “Hesitate” and the highest was “Disagree” with 346 students (59.1%).
For the remaining manifestations, more than 60% of students chose to “Disagree” with the manifestations of
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cyberbullying. Most of the students chose “Disagree” or “Hesitate” with the expressions of cyberbullying
given in the survey. In conclusion, it can be concluded that students are aware of the phenomenon of
cyberbullying but are still very vague.
3.3. Awareness of the causes of cyberbullying
To delve deeper into students” perceptions of cyberbullying, the authors analyzed some of the
underlying causes that influence the formation of cyberbullying behavior and asked the question “What are
the more likely causes of cyberbullying behavior?”. The results are in Table 4.
Table 4. Students’ awareness of what causes a person to engage in cyberbullying behavior
Causes Frequency Percent Rank
I want to express myself. 452 75.3 1
I'm not aware of what I'm doing. 415 69.2 2
I don't know if cyberbullying has serious consequences. 400 66.7 3
My parents don't care. 378 63.0 4
I don't know if my behavior is cyberbullying. 300 50.0 5
Cyberbullying is difficult to manage 289 48.2 6
Being manipulated by others 243 40.5 7
Parents allow the use of smart devices comfortably 237 39.5 8
The school did not mention cyberbullying. 133 22.2 9
Doing what my friends do. 103 17.2 10
Do cyberbullying to make parents care about me 68 11.3 11
According to Table 4, most of the students said that “I want to express myself” was the main cause of
cyberbullying, with 452 students choosing (75.3%). Besides, the remaining reasons such as “I'm not aware
of what I'm doing”, “I don’t know how cyberbullying has serious consequences”, “My parents are less care
about”, “I don’t know my behavior is cyberbullying” also account for a fairly high rate of over 50.0%. The
results showed that most of the students did not have the right judgments about cyberbullying but had certain
understandings of the causes of cyberbullying.
3.3. Awareness of the consequences of cyberbullying
Students’ awareness of cyberbullying includes not only obtaining information, knowledge about the
behaviors and causes of cyberbullying, but also the student’s understanding of the dialectical relationship
between cyberbullying behavior and other factors, there is an understanding of the consequences as well as
the impact of cyberbullying on people who are bullied. This understanding of students derives from whether
they have seen in real life or by feelings from themselves and have a personal appreciation of these
consequences. The authors used Custom tables in SPSS for survey results in two questions: “What are the
consequences of cyberbullying compared to real-life bullying?” and “What are the possible consequences
of being bullied online?” to find out the association between students’ perceptions of how dangerous
cyberbullying is compared to real-life bullying and awareness of the possible consequences of being bullied
online.
Table 5. How dangerous the consequences of cyberbullying
Less dangerous Equal dangerous More dangerous Undangerous
Consequence
N (%) N (%) N (%) N (%)
Being upset 18 (3.0) 226 (37.7) 157(26.2) 0 (0.0)
Being stressed, fear 8 (1.3) 86 (14.3) 54 (9.0) 0 (0.0)
Not interested in going to school 0 (0.0) 7 (1.2) 3 (0.5) 0 (0.0)
Feeling lonely 1 (0.2) 12 (2.0) 7 (1.2) 1 (0.2)
Feeling humiliated 1 (0.2) 4 (0.7) 5 (0.8) 0 (0.0)
Being vulnerable 1 (0.2) 2 (0.3) 3 (0.5) 0 (0.0)
I don't care 0 (0.0) 1 (0.2) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Being stressed, depression 0 (0.0) 2 (0.3) 1 (0.2) 0 (0.0)
Results obtained in Table 5 showed that many students found that the possible consequences of
cyberbullying were more dangerous than in real life, such as 157 students (26.2%) who said that “Being
upset” caused by cyberbullying were more dangerous than real-life bullying. The possible consequences of
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being bullied online are also considered by more than 10% of students to be much more dangerous than real-
life bullying. Thereby, it can be seen that although students do not have a deep understanding of
cyberbullying, they are still aware of the possible consequences if they are bullied online.
3.4. Awareness of how to respond to cyberbullying
Responding to cyberbullying is the interaction, facing, solving the students’ problems when a person
or group of people (students or outsiders) commits bullying behavior through electronic forms of
communication or utilities, application on the internet intentionally with threatening, hateful attitudes. To
learn students’ perceptions of how to respond to cyberbullying, the authors came up with eight responses for
students to choose from when they do the survey. The results are obtained in Table 6.
Table 6. Ranking of how to respond to students’ cyberbullying
Gender
Sum
How to deal with cyberbullying Female Male Rank
N (%)
N (%) N (%)
Asking for the help of teachers, family. 335 (55.8) 178 (29.7) 513 (85.5) 1
Reporting to the network managers. 285 (47.5) 162 (27.0) 447 (74.5) 2
Asking for advice from friends. 216 (36.0) 120 (20.0) 336 (56.0) 3
Blocking all disruptive accounts. 190 (31.7) 124 (20.7) 314 (52.3) 4
Ignoring, don’t care. 133 (22.2) 89 (14.8) 222 (37.0) 5
Deleting the message, deleting the bully’s name. 120 (20.0) 87 (14.5) 207 (34.5) 6
Unresponsing and save the evidence. 73 (12.2) 50 (8.3) 123 (20.5) 7
Doing the same thing again. 23 (3.8) 27 (4.5) 50 (8.3) 8
The results of the survey in Table 6 showed that when cyberbullying occurs, the majority of students
choose to respond by asking for help: the option “Asking for the help of teachers, family” was chosen by the
most students with a rate of 85.5%, “Reporting to the network managers” accounted for 74.5%, “Asking for
advice from friends” accounted for 56.0%. The immediate and direct responses to cyberbullying were also
chosen by many students. They are: “Blocking all disruptive accounts” accounted for 52.3%, “Ignoring,
don’t care” and “Deleting the message, deleting the bully’s name” accounted for 37.0% and 34.5%. The two
ways of responding by retaliation were chosen by very few students (only 20.5% and 8.3%). In addition, the
choice of how to cope between male and female students is not much different. From a research perspective,
the authors found that the majority of students understood and knew how to respond to prevent cyberbullying
from happening.
4. Conclusions
Nowadays, modern devices and the Internet are available for students to study and relax, on the other
hand, it could be reason to increase many problems including cyberbullying. Students regularly participate in
online activities such as playing games, listening to music, chatting, posting photos, and so on, which could
be more likely to become a victim, or observe cyberbullying behavior. Therefore, one of the most important
directions is raising students’ awareness about cyberbullying, so that it can be prevented more effectively.
By surveying the awareness of cyberbullying of 600 students of Phan Van Tri High School, the authors
obtained certain results:
Firstly, the general overview of students’ perceptions of cyberbullying shows that the majority of
students do not have much understanding of cyberbullying when they consider themselves to know some
information or have never heard of it, which can be caused of lacking knowledge.
Secondly, as the research hypothesis of the topic, students of Phan Van Tri High School have got the
incomplete awareness of cyberbullying, which is reflected in the fact that the majority of students choose the
level of “Disagree” or “Hesitate” with the comments about cyberbullying made in the survey.
In addition, although students do not have completed perception of cyberbullying, they have correctly
identified the causes and negative effects of cyberbullying behavior. In case of reacting to cyberbullying,
they may choose an unsustainable and ineffective way.
Finally, beside the positive results, this research has got some limitations: only the quantification
method is used through designing questionnaires, so there is no qualitative and insightful view in the
student’s cyberbullying awareness study; the questionnaires self-report are used to quantify, so it is
impossible to evaluate other objectives relating to students such as teachers, family members to have a more
275
comprehensive view; the research concerns about students’ awareness of cyberbullying, except students’
bullying and bullying behavior. These limitations can be authors’ new research directions in the future.
5. Recommendations
The authors propose some methods to raise students’ awareness of cyberbullying through research’s
results:
At first, it is necessary to have a counseling psychology room for all high schools. Currently, teachers
in charge of counseling psychology may share the space with the clinic or Youth Unions, so it could not
ensure privacy for students. Simple documents about school bullying should be compiled and given to
students, parents and teachers.
Moreover, students can be the perpetrators or victims of cyberbullying, so that school should pay
attention to raise awareness about cyberbullying for students. The content should include: propagandizing
students about the manifestations, impacts, consequences of cyberbullying and responsibility in detecting,
notifying, denouncing to prevent cyberbullying behavior from happening to their friends and themselves;
providing knowledge, skills for students on responding to cyberbullying; publicizing to students channels to
receive information about cyberbullying (hotlines, emails); holding talk show at school yard publicly or
inside a class; organizing variety activities of clubs, seminars, competitions, school's website.
Finally, teachers in charge of counseling psychology should follow three basic forms: practicing social
work for an individual, or a group of student at the school’s counseling psychology room; counseling
indirectly by phone, email, social network; counseling publicly (integrating psychological counseling topics
into the main lessons, organizing forums or talk show about counseling psychology for students in a class,
writing articles on the school’s website).
References
1. Ellen M. Kraft, Jinchang Wang (2009). Effectiveness of Cyberbullying prevention strategies: A study on
students’ perspectives, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 3(2).
2. Le Thi Hai Ha (2017). Bullying roles and associations with mental health of adolescents in Vietnam: A
short-term longitudinal study. Queensland University of Technology.
3. Lee, M.; Zi-Pei, W.; Svanstrom, L.; Dalal, K. (2013). Cyber Bullying prevention: intervention in
Taiwan. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from: www.plosone.org.
4. Slonje, R.; Smith, P. K. (2008). Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying? Scandinavian Journal of
Psychology.
5. Smith, P.; Mahdavi, J.; Carvalho, M.; Tippett, N. (2005). An investigation into cyberbullying, its forms,
awareness and impact, and the relationship between age and gender in cyberbullying. A Report to the
Anti-Bullying Alliance, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2005.
6. Sora Park, Eun-Yeong Na, Eun-mee Kim (2014). The relationship between online activities, netiquette
and cyberbullying. Children and Youth Services Review. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science.
7. Tran Van Cong, Nguyen Phuong Hong Ngoc, Ngo Thuy Duong, Nguyen Thi Tham (2015). Students’
Strategies for coping with cyberbullying. VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, 31(3).
8. Tran Van Cong, Nguyen Thi Hoai Thuong (2018). The relation between cyberbullying and friendship
quality among highschool students in Hanoi. Journal of Sciences and Technology, 60(4).
9. Tran Van Cong (2019). Cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs in school. Retrieved
September 15, 2021, from http://education.vnu.edu.vn/ATMi.

[STS22-28]
276
THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY RANKINGS FOR UNIVERSITIES IN
VIETNAM
Do Thi Hoai Van*
PhD student, VNU University of Education, Viet Nam National University, Hanoi
*Corresponding Author: Phone: 0901908333; Email: dothihoaivan2308@gmail.com
Abstract
University ranking plays an increasingly important role for higher education institutions. Because university
rankings affirm the brands of educational institutions to stakeholders such as learners, parents, partners,
companies, businesses, media units, employers, lecturers, etc. From there, they have a basis to refer to,
decide and choose where to study, cooperate, invest or work for a long time. Therefore, the position on the
international social tables is not only the concern of most universities in the world in general but also for
Vietnam in particular. This study will collect, analyze, compare and evaluate the history of university
rankings; points out the trends and rules of university ranking in the world. At the same time, evaluate the
role of university rankings for universities in the world and in Vietnam. On that basis, the author proposes to
state management agencies and Vietnamese educational institutions some solutions to improve the criteria
and raise the position of higher education institutions in Vietnam on world-renowned rankings.
Keywords: higher education institutions; university ranking; world university rankings.
1. Introduction
In the context of extensive international integration and globalization, world university ranking is an
inevitable and inevitable trend as Vietnamese higher education institutions step by step participate in the
integration process. Ranking universities on a regional and global scale poses as an inevitable need of society
about the right to be informed about the quality and operation of the university. Participating in the world
university rankings is also a way to actively promote universities to improve their quality and affirm widely
(nationally, regionally, internationally) about the quality of their training. Vietnamese universities need to
actively participate in university rankings and need to know how to use the ranking results as an objective
basis to determine the targets to strive for the university in order to quickly overcome the situation of lagging
behind with the world.
The study of the role of university rankings has a positive meaning in making judgments about the
role of university rankings for universities in the world and in Vietnam, thereby providing implications
specifically for Vietnamese higher education institutions.
2. University ranking history

The history of the birth of university rankings in the United States is marked by the event that took
place in 1981, a national university social system published by the US News and World Report abbreviated
as USNWR) made its first appearance in the US (Hazelkorn, E., 2009). In Canada, the university
socialization of universities carried out by the Canadian popular magazine Macleans was first published in
1991. In the UK, the national university society system is governed by the Times Higher Education
Supplement. abbreviated as THES) started in 2001. At the end of the 20th century, SOs crossed national
borders to rank universities by region and then goingglobally .
However, first time, in 1997, Asia Week Magazine published the report Asia's Best Universities
(Usher, A. & Savino, M., 2006). Next is Shanghai Jiaotong University which publishes the world university
rankings in 2003 (ARWU, 2020). The UK produced Times Higher Education (THE) and the QS World
Rankings (QS) in 2004 (Hazelkorn, E., Loukkola, T., & Zhang, T., 2014, THE, 2021). Webometrics
published the results of ranking universities in the world based on information on university websites also in
2004.
In 2007, the Taiwan Council's scientific performance rating for evaluation and classification in the
field of higher education was implemented and became an annual tradition (Usher, A. & Savino, M., 2006).
The international university social system appeared after the national university ranking system. The reason
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why university rankings were initially carried out at the national level and later expanded to international
rankings with a very rapid growth is due to many reasons, of which focus on 3 main reasons:
Firstly, the globalization process of higher education leads to the need to compare the quality of
universities in different countries and this leads to the formation of international university social systems.
Second, the competition of the market economy in the field of higher education makes universities
begin to pay attention to the position in the rankings and see it as a competitive goal to attract students and at
the same time to Review and improve school operations.
Third, the development of the knowledge economy has made the government of countries more
aware of the importance of higher education, in which many countries consider the rankings of universities
on the international university social chart is an important indicator of higher education development level
and an indicator reflecting the competitiveness of the country's higher education. Since then, the
international university ranking system has developed rapidly and strongly (Marginson & Van Der Wende,
2006). Therefore, the keyword "university rankings" is increasingly interested and there are many studies on
it (Lu Pang, 2018).
Currently, ranking of universities and higher education programs is a global phenomenon. With the
massification of higher education and increasing market orientation in the world, the beneficiaries of the
higher education system such as students, parents, higher education institutions, recruitment and the
Government really care about the position of each university and other higher education institutions.
3. The role of university rankings

University rankings have a relatively short history relative to other educational practices (Hazelkorn,
E., Loukkola, T., & Zhang, T., 2014). But it really has a big impact on university branding. In global higher
education, university ranking is the quality publication that receives the most attention (Deming and Figlio,
2016). According to David D. Dill & Maarja Soo, 2005 University society plays an important role,
specifically:
Firstly, university society is very important in policy formulation. Because university society has
attracted the attention of policy makers and led to major changes in national policies such as encouraging
mergers of higher education institutions and promoting differentiation of specialized educational institutions.
on research with a specialized unit of application (Docampo et al., 2015). To governments and policy
makers, they can suggest quality levels and international standards and their impact on national economic
capacity and viability (Hazelkorn, 2013). Leaders use university social outcomes as a strategic and
managerial decision-making tool, and governments around the world, university social boards provide
information on the performance of their higher education institutions from which they can make decisions
regarding those institutions (Hazelkorn, Loukkola, & Zhang, 2014). University society has an important and
relevant role of public policy in the development and distribution of university social systems of a country or
world integration (David D. Dill & Maarja Soo, 2005). The results of the Global Social Panel can stimulate
national debate and focus analysis on the key determinants of social success, which in turn can lead to
positive policy change at the system level. Rauhvargers, 2011).
Second, society plays an important role in improving the quality of training for higher education
institutions (David D. Dill & Maarja Soo, 2005). Higher education society evaluates the real value of a
university compared to other universities in the field of higher education, evaluates the true quality of a
higher education institution by pre-established criteria and standards and applies to a particular university.
Higher education institutions and the ranking of universities in the region or the world (Aguillo, I., Bar-Ilan,
J., Levene, M., & Ortega, J, 2010). Social organizations evaluate and let the higher education institution
know the strengths and positive points that exist in the process of reviewing the records and actual evidence
of that higher education institution, on that basis, the higher education institution makes adjustment, to
improve training quality (Laura M. Arpan, Arthur, A. Raney, Suzanne Zivnuska (2003). Universities based
on social tables to improve and invest in University activities to meet the requirements of social rankings and
improve the university's position on those social tables, and at the same time demonstrate to stakeholders
about the quality of the University's training (Salmi, 2009). It has also been argued that rankings can also
motivate educational institutions to research how to measure success of the university policies, strategies,
and at the same time improving the practice of the University's activities (IHEP, 2009). The University
Social Table is also useful in internal analysis of university strengths and weaknesses (van Vught and
Westerheijden, 2012) and can also help convince stakeholders of the need for university reform. University
(Hazelkorn, 2011). The society also encourages and promotes higher education institutions to invest in the
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collection and publication of reliable national data, to bring scientific research activities with quality results,
and to improve the citation index to match the criteria, standard in the XH table (Rauhvargers, 2011).
Third, university society is considered as the focal point, for many stakeholders, about the quality of
educational products (Hazelkorn, 2013). Although the history of university society is relatively short, it has
achieved great achievements and attracted the attention of different stakeholders (Altbach, 2012, p. 27).
Because they are not designed for a specific audience but for many different audiences related to higher
education (Federkeil, van Vught, & Westerheijden, 2012). For example, leaders use them as a strategic
decision-making and management tool. Management, many governments around the world, university social
boards provide information on the performance of their higher education institutions from which they can
make decisions regarding those institutions, the media pays attention to the University society for increasing
commercial opportunities for the marketing industry,…. (Hazelkorn, Loukkola, & Zhang, 2014). Society
also affects students' choice of university (Griffith and Rask, 2007; Horstschräer, 2012; Gibbons et al., 2015;
Broecke, 2015).
To the public, social tables provide valuable information on the performance and productivity of
higher education institutions in a simple and understandable manner Hazelkorn (2013). Sharing the same
opinion, in 2017 Altbach and Hazelkorn continued to assert that the social chart was initially strongest in
Europe, but has now become popular worldwide. In addition to students and parents of universities who are
still important subjects for the social table, all stakeholders such as the Government, employers, investors,
educational institutions and partner enterprises, the public and the media are users in one way or another.
However, besides the positive role of university society brought through many studies above, there are
also many studies on the limitations of university society. According to Hazelkorn, (2009) social systems
have both positive and negative effects and understanding the full impact of rankings is no small task for
researchers. In a 2008 study, Hazelkorn said that university society is still controversial, partly the product of
universities is quite complicated to define its meaning. Social systems that use narrow performance
indicators do not cover all the various factors related to the quality of education in educational institutions.
The social chart, on the other hand, measures what is easy and predictable, and focuses on past performance,
which benefits older HEIs over newer institutions (Usher and Medow, 2009).
The methodology used in university sociology is also controversial and reduces the value of social
tables (Bienkowski, Brada & Stanley, 2012). Many educational leaders believe that the fact that the ranking
shown in the social table is a poor indicator of the quality of education, because higher education institutions
'legalize' social data and processes by pointing focus on the criteria in the social table with the main purpose
of bringing higher rankings. As such, they will focus on these criteria to maintain or change a higher ranking
without focusing on other activities of equal importance to the University (Stolz, Hendel & Horn, 2010) ).
Andrejs Rauhvargers has shown that the methodologies used by the global social tables are not
intended to cover the activities of higher education institutions, and therefore cannot provide a sound basis
for a system-wide analysis (Andrejs Rauhvargers, 2011, 2013). Some schools try to improve their position in
the social table, so they focus on improving the performance of their activities only in those areas that can be
measured by social indicators (Rauhvargers, 2011) .
In summary, there are many studies on the role of university society, in which many authors have
clearly shown the positive role of university society. XH table. Despite the controversy, university society is
still influential, popular and widely used (Mehmet Pinar, Joniada Milla, Thanasis Stengos, 2018). Global
university society has become an important factor in the field of higher education, generating growing
interest and exerting a great influence on stakeholders (Vicente Safón, 2019).
4. The role of university rankings for Universities in Vietnam

University ranking plays an important role not only for higher education in the world but also in
Vietnam, especially in the current context of education internationalization. This is reflected in the number
of educational institutions in Vietnam increasing every year in the world university rankings, and at the same
time the position of the institutions is also improved year by year. According to the Conference document
summarizing the work of quality assurance and accreditation of higher education and pedagogical colleges in
the period 2011-2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training (2020), from the fact that there are only
three schools named in the Asian QS in 2015, by 2020, this number has increased to 08 universities in the
top 500 leading universities in Asia and especially 04 higher education institutions that are socialized in the
group of 1000 best universities in the world (Education & Training, 2020). According to the 2021 data of 3
prestigious world university social tables, in the 2021 world university society period (THE 2022), Vietnam
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has 05 socialized higher education institutions (THE, 2021) including Duy Tan University, Ton Duc Thang
University, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam National
University, Ho Chi Minh City; Socialization results QS 2022, there are 04 higher education institutions of
Vietnam that are socialized, which are National University of Hanoi, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi
Minh City, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ton Duc Thang University (QS, 2021); Social
results of ARWU 2021 have 02 Vietnamese universities present in the social table: Ton Duc Thang
University and Duy Tan University (ARWU, 2021).
Compared with the role of university rankings in the world, the author identifies that the role of
university rankings for higher education institutions and specific stakeholders is as follows:
For policy makers, university society helps policy makers propose a quality level of application of
international standards in line with national economic capacity and capabilities, and at the same time build
Reasonable policies, suitable to the development of society, with criteria in the social system such as
academia, technology transfer, internationalization, etc. Especially the policy of scientific research, the
policy of encouraging international publication because scientific research always occupies a high weight in
the university social tables.
For higher education institutions, participating in university society is participating in the global
education system, helping universities to integrate internationally in many fields of educational activities.
Building the brand and reputation of the School. The position in the social table helps higher education
institutions to assess their own performance, recognize the capacity of the University, determine where they
are located, which need to invest and improve activities to improve qualityand can be listed in the ranking
table or improve their position when they have been socialized.
Helping stakeholders such as parents, learners, teachers, researchers, employers, sponsors, partners, media,
society, etc. have valuable information about the higher education institution to help them have the choice of
higher education institutions to study, teach, research, recruit human resources, policy on investment,
sponsorship, cooperation, advertising and increase commercial opportunities for the marketing industry.
5. Solutions for university ranking activities in Vietnam
Government and state management agencies
From the perspective of education policy analysis, it is clear that the Government needs to have policies to
regulate or encourage Vietnamese universities to participate in social activities in the country/region/world.
However, participation with specific goals, content, and methods is at the discretion of each university based
on the guarantee conditions and resources of each school.
The universities
One thing is easy to see: Vietnamese universities need to study deeply the university social tables, choose the
right ranking system to participate at the appropriate time, and have a plan to improve the quality of teaching
and research of the university according to the standardsscore of the selected leaderboard. It is of concern
that universities must clearly define the purpose of participating in the university society, actively participate
in the university society, and know how to use the results of the university society as an objective basis to set
goals for the university.
According to Nguyen An Ninh and Pham Xuan Thanh (2018), ranking universities in Vietnam is an
approach to promote universities to improve training quality, provided that the ranking method and ranking
criteria. The ranking must minimize the shortcomings as analyzed in the above sections and exploit the
strengths of the ranking methods of the ranking organizations in the world that have gone before us. As for
the universities themselves, the rankings give a good reputation to the university if the school is ranked high.
This means that the school will have more good students applying for it and it will be easier for the school to
find funding sources from the Government, NGOs, the community and donorsother aid. Universities with
high positions in the rankings will have a high reputation, great reputation in the community, interest and
investment by the community and businesses or companies/organizations. For each university, the ranking is
considered as a basis for reviewing the school's activities; comparing and contrasting with the ranking
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criteria and with other universities, this will give the school itself and the community a more accurate and
specific view of a training institution. Since then, universities have drawn up strategies and plans to develop
schools to meet the needs and requirements of society.
The author believes that, like every other country in the world, in Vietnam, properly understanding the
nature of university rankings and especially how to use published results in the rankings are issues. Not
everyone can get an answer that can be called "the right answer". In the context of globalization of higher
education, Vietnamese universities need to determine their comparability with other universities in the region
and the world to determine the direction and development roadmap to quickly overcome the current lagging
status of higher education compared to the world.
According to Nguyen Phuong Nga (2018), ranking universities has become an irresistible trend globally and
follows the "general law of development", so it is difficult for Vietnamese universities to go against it. this
law of development. Whether we voluntarily or not voluntarily provide data, Vietnamese universities are still
ranked on the top. Rankings vary around the world, for example on Asiaweek Rankings and on Webometrics
Rankings. Although those rankings do not reflect the true capacity of the teaching and research results as
well as other resources of universities that are included in the top 100 or top 150 of the rankings in Asia or
Southeast Asia. Rating agencies around the world can only obtain ratings data that have been published in
English. Therefore, the first issue that Vietnamese universities need to pay attention to right now is do
Vietnamese universities make public data on their resources and outputs? The level of publicity so that it can
be reached quickly? And are these data and results statements available in Vietnamese and English? Next is
how each school has short-term and long-term investment strategies to truly integrate with higher education
in the world.
On the basis of an overview of previous studies and assessment of the current state of university ranking in
Vietnam, the author proposes the following specific solutions:
Firstly, universities need to choose a ranking that is suitable with their existing resources and conditions so
that their performance results are evaluated according to the highest weights in the standards. /ranking
criteria of the rankings; avoid losing, not benefit when conducting university ranking.
Second, maintain the right training scale. As recommended by experts, the number of learners should be
maintained in the optimal range (12,000 to 30,000) to be able to ensure resources for the work of ensuring
the quality of higher education. Many universities operate on such a large scale that it will be difficult for
them to maintain quality assurance conditions.
Third, universities need to have many flexible, attractive and effective solutions to attract talents, attract
prestigious domestic and international scientists to create more resources for universities, increase the ratio
of students / teachers, increase the quantity and quality of international publications, increase the amount of
scientific citations and many other indicators.
6. Conclusion
Vietnamese education strives to integrate with the development of the world in many different activities
such as international cooperation, scientific research , technology transfer, joint training, quality accreditation, etc.
University society. Indeed, in recent years, in the competitive and globalized world of education, Vietnam has had
higher education institutions participating in the world's largest university social chart. This is a good sign for our
country's education. Societies seem to have been, are and will become an indispensable part in the history of
educational development in the world and in Vietnam. International scholars unanimously point out the important
role of university society for the sustainable development of universities, which is also the university's public and
transparent information channel for stakeholders. mandarin. International experience also shows the diversity of
rankings based on different standards/criteria and different approaches. However, one thing is easy to see: The
ranking is increasingly reaching for accuracy, rationality and science; increasingly widely accepted. Ranking results
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are more and more popular, research works on the role of rankings in higher education, on the perception or
behavior of stakeholders in ranking results are also increasingly popular than. Despite the many shortcomings that
remain, national and international social systems continue to exist and exert far-reaching influence in society. It
exists because it fulfills a real-life need, whether academic or commercial.
In Vietnam, the issue of higher education has been legalized and concretized for easy application in higher
education practice. Vietnamese universities are also not out of the trend of world university rankings. It is necessary
to deeply study university rankings, choose the right ranking system to participate in at the right time, and have a
plan to improve the quality of teaching and research at the university according to the criteria of the table. selected
rating. It is of concern that universities must clearly define the purpose of participating in the university society,
actively participate in the university society, and know how to use the results of the university society as an objective
basis to set goals for the university.
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BUILDING A BRAND MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR VIETNAMESE
UNIVERSITIES: CASE RESEARCH OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN
HANOI
Hoang Thi Minh Hue1*, Nguyen Anh Tuan1, Nguyen Thi My Loc1, Nguyen Trung Kien1, Tran Thi Lua2
1
VNU - University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam
2
Phuong Dong University, Hanoi, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: minhhue1234@gmail.com, Tel. 0988779621;
Abstract
This research proposes a brand management model based on an examination of the interaction
between brand management activities in Vietnamese universities - a case research of private universities in
Hanoi. To fully comprehend the influence of impact on brand management operations in universities, a case
research and qualitative technique based on interviews were used. Face-to-face and online interviews were
undertaken at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 to confirm the results of the previous research
period. Essentially, the research results show that the process and decisions for management activities, as
well as the degree of interaction with brand management activities, are dependent on the effectiveness of
implementing university leaders' objectives and leaders' perceptions of the university's future development
orientation. This article contributes to the document on executing brand management activities by exhibiting
theoretical and practical importance in order to better knowledge of the effect of brand management
strategies in higher education.
Keywords: Brand management model, University brand, higher education, private university
1. Introduction
In today's global market, the role of brand management has taken on new significance. According to
Jevons (2006), brand is a concise measure of all the criteria that comprise a university's quality, whereas
Bennett (2007) believes that universities require strong brands to raise awareness of their existence and course
offerings, differentiate themselves from competitors, and gain market share. The reasons for applying branding
principles to higher education are therefore evident, but the actuality of benefit quantification remains elusive,
and the degree of desirability discussion persists. Private educational institutions can be described as a service-
oriented organization. Furthermore, the service model is founded on economic theories. It is evident that brand
theory and brand management from the business field are invading educational institutions. Researched works
also reveal that the theory of mathematical theory and mathematical management of higher education is in its
infancy, with definitions of associated topics being provided. The majority of researchers acknowledge and are
steadily refining the concepts of brand and brand management in higher education.
University Brand Management works in tandem with the university's educational quality management
system from start to finish. As can be observed, brand management in general is far more widespread and
complete than the perception of most university leaders in Vietnam today, which is still geared towards media
advertising—only from the standpoint of establishing the university's external brand image. In the new
approach, Brand Strategy is fundamental and central, governing all other functions. This is proven by the
ability of brand management to lead other administrative operations inside a university.
2. Literature review and research context

The beginning of the theory of branding in the field of economics is for physical things. Trademarks,
according to the evolution of the market economy, pertain to corporate organizations. Theoretical research on
organizational philosophy have been fairly comprehensive in terms of both basic concepts and organizational
brand management. At the same time, several research has confirmed that educational institutions are both a
service and a commercial entity. Several research has been conducted to demonstrate the penetration of
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economic brand theory into educational institutions. In terms of science, there are several commonalities in
brand identity across industries.
The following are the fundamental characteristics of a private university that require brand
management: (1) A private university's primary goal is to serve the market's requirements. As a result,
private universities in Vietnam will be nimbler and more adaptable in recognizing demands, therefore
satisfying the market's regularly changing requirements. Domestic universities are always competing with
one another, especially in the current context of educational reform. At the same time, when technological
growth occurs at a “dizzy” rate, it will be very impossible to anticipate the future of education-training;
nonetheless, due to their flexibility, private universities will have many outstanding advantages in each
country's educational development; (2) Market dynamics are the most powerful driving factor that has driven
universities to expand their research topics, seek talented personnel, and improve internationalization in
order to meet the demands of learners and the market. These are undeniable aspects of the private university
system. When Vietnam's economy is growing rapidly and there is a high demand for human resources, the
development of the private university system has contributed to reducing the pressure on human resource
training for society and, in particular, has shared the Government's increasing cost burden for higher
education; (3) The universities are financially proactive and self-sufficient. As a result, once accessible,
development orientations and decisions for the university will be forcefully and synchronously deployed.
When researching and executing brand management for an organization, these characteristics of universities
are comparable to those of a business organization. As a result, private university brand management is
essential. Vietnam is one of the country having a low to medium pace of development of private higher
education. In the context of reforming Vietnam's higher education, the introduction of policies to encourage
public universities to be autonomous on the basis of financial autonomy, to encourage the application of
market mechanisms in public universities, thereby contributing to the improvement of quality and the ability
to expand the training scale of public higher education in particular and Vietnam's higher education in
general, has had a significant impact on private universities. Private universities in Vietnam must drastically
alter their thinking and orientation in order to attract resources from outside the university, allowing them to
raise the cost of higher education per student, thereby improving training quality and gradually affirming the
value of the domestic education system, catching up with regional and international higher education levels.
However, while branding in general receives a lot of academic attention, particular models in higher
education are still not well understood. Based on the research, we may remark on an overview of the brand
problem in the sector of education and summarize some statements as follows: There have been research that
provide mathematical theory and mathematical management for educational institutions, particularly higher
education, and many studies affirm the usefulness of theory in higher education. According to Christopher
Chapleo (2014), brand is a critical concern in higher education. In summary, it is obvious that a greater
understanding of higher education brands is required, as well as brand management and more study to identify
branding difficulties and recommend viable models suitable to the university. Chris Chapleo's (2015) research
investigates the context of higher education branding management with the following goals in mind: (1) exploring
the perception of potential and actual challenges to building branding in university management; (2) exploring the
structure of branding in higher education; (3) exploring branding concepts and models in higher education; and
(4) exploring cultural issues and relationships with brand implementation in universities. The goal is to improve
understanding of branding in higher education by providing practical information and serving as a foundation for
future university Brand Management research.
Today, university branding is a joint effort of the marketing department and the university as a
whole. Educational marketing is essential for effectively recruiting students, lecturers, and staff, as well as
expanding market share of resources. A university brand is a collection of distinct qualities that contribute to
a university's reputation and competitiveness. Successful branding necessitates the alignment of university
resources, guided by leadership, and focused on an integrated plan. A good brand is a valuable resource for
gaining a competitive advantage, and brand management is a critical duty that a university must perceive and
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develop. Weng Marc Lim, Teck Weng Jee, and Ernest Cyril De Run confirmed in a 2018 research: "Fierce
competition in student enrolment has produced a significant desire for higher education institutions,
particularly those that offer graduate degree programs, to distinguish themselves apart." Higher education
institutions with graduate degree programs may proactively manage their brands through the marketing mix
higher education (i.e. highlights, announcements, programs, prices, people, fees and benefits). According to
Musa Pinar (2020), branding and brand management are becoming increasingly crucial as organizations seek
a competitive advantage in a highly competitive market. As colleges and universities confront growing
competition, administrators have realized that focusing exclusively on external marketing is insufficient, and
that efforts must also be made to develop a strong university brand and boost brand equity. Because
universities are complex systems of sub-brands, managing these subsystems necessitates taking into account
all important components of brand equity as a whole within the framework. Brand ecosystem frameworks
demonstrate the direct and indirect relationships that contribute to the development of a strong university
brand and brand equity. These findings give critical insights that may have strategic implications for building
effective university branding initiatives.
3. Research Methodology
The investigation is divided into three stages: The first phase began off in October 2021. The first
phase uses a primary data collection method: the goal of this phase is to establish the context of the research
contents and gather data on the status of brand management activities at private universities in Hanoi.
The second phase uses qualitative research methodologies in in-depth interviews with education
experts and leading universities in brand management activities. This phase begins with a discussion of
brand management activities and their relationships, which is followed by a proposal to construct a brand
management model at a private university. The case of implementing the proposed brand management model
to the university's operational structure was then discussed. To identify the interactions between brand
management activities – case studies at private universities in Hanoi – the research team employs qualitative
methods, including semi-structured interviews and face-to-face conversations with managers and people
involved in implementing brand management activities. However, when the number of infections in the
capital Hanoi grew owing to the covid-19 outbreak, face-to-face interviews were replaced with online
questionnaires. During this time, the team sought to hold several casual conversations in order to confirm the
preliminary findings. Because the process's results are limited at this moment, the team picked the online
survey as the most essential data source at this point.
The methodology is used in the following stage: a system of principles, the first of which are the
principles and views related to the brand in the economic field; as a basis, having the function of building
methods, orienting the scope, skills in applying methods, and determining for research and discovery, as well
as the selection and application of various methods to address brand issues and brand management in higher
education. Then, in phase 2, it takes into account the proposals of the interviewers and surveyors and
develops a brand management model for universities at private universities in Hanoi.

Higher education is considered as a service business, and a university’s name is equivalent to a
brand name. Therefore, like other service industries, the goal of university branding is to optimize brand
equity. The new development trend of higher education in the world is about building university brand
through specific activities such as: Expanding educational institutions, promoting international cooperation
in scientific research; diversifying cooperation relationships between universities and business organizations;
building education centers to attract foreign investment; gathering experts in brand development and
investing in finance and human resources for brand development; developing the brand on online and digital
media... These are all activities that help enhance the university brand, create prestige in the community,
society and reach out to the world. Brand management is one of the complex management challenges for
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university leaders. A successful brand must be based on a close fit between the external image and the
internal identity of the university and its members. A successful brand must not only align with market
positioning, learners’ expectations, and employees’ identities and values, but must also reflect the
university’s identity system and core values to society, show the vision, mission and development orientation
appropriate to the educational context. University brand management is the totality of solutions orienting all
resources of the university to create the university’s identity and image, demonstrating the commitment to
quality and the core values that the university is aiming for.
In conversations, some leaders of private univertsities also admitted: universities are only focusing
their marketing efforts above-the-line, targeting the public and potential learners at times of preparation for the
entrance exams. This is confirmed by the majority of the interviewees: that is not the way to build a sustainable
brand for a university. The first step for brand positioning is that universities need to analyze the learner
segment and understand the strengths of universities which have the same training majors and target learners.
Based on two basic groups of factors: Needs and Incomes, we establish the basis of positioning for the brand of
each major in the university through the model of defining the benefits (or expected value) of Reason and
Feeling, thereby establishing the solution expressed through training programs and major branding based on the
university’s overall brand identity. This approach not only makes it possible to create a new major or brand of a
single newly opened major, but also needs to establish a combination of many majors target the potential
learner segment, helping to solve the budget analysis for brand promotion investment. Branding in education is
important when learners and parents have to choose between one university/major and other university/major
alternatives. These qualities determine the likelihood that people will choose the brand, pay for the brand, and
stick with it in the future. Therefore, universities need to determine that the brand of university/major must be
built on positive emotions of learners, parents, and society by being meaningfully different from competing
universities/majors. To create a sustainable competitive advantage, a brand must be well differentiated and
marketing must reflect and enhance such difference. Meaningful difference stems from the benefits of the
brand. Creating a brand has different meanings regarding clarity of purpose – it must offer something
consumers want or need, and offer something competitors do not have and cannot copy.
The research results also show that it is necessary to have multi-level nature, integration and correlation
with each other to increase the usefulness from making a comprehensive strategy, establishing an organizational
structure, decentralizing management and building university culture. Brand elements are established throughout
the university’s operational management levels, potential learner market orientation levels, education and training
activities management levels, and education vision and philosophy management levels of the university. From the
analysis of the research results, combined on the 4-stage strategic management diagram (strategy analysis,
strategy formulation, implementation and monitoring) of Rothaermel, F. T. (2012, p.20), David, F.R. (2009, p.46),
Thompson, J. and Martin, F. (2010, p.36), the research team proposes a brand management model consisting of 4
steps: Identifying and establishing value, positioning university brand, Design and implementation of university
brand marketing programs, Measure and interpret university brand performance, Growth and maintenance of
university brand value.
(1) Identifying and establishing value, positioning university brand: Referring to the sustainable
development of a university brand, the idea that the Brand serves the interests of learners is recognized by all.
By becoming a brand that serves the interests of learners or a brand that is learner-oriented, the brand will
become necessary and gain attention from learners, at the same time increase emotions and contribute to
increase the loyalty of learners through pride in the university they have attended. Once a brand has been
accepted by learners, it will bring to the university real visible benefits. It’s easier and more extensive market
access even if it's a new training major.
(2) Design and implementation of university brand marketing programs based on the objective:
Deliver a brand experience to learners: By providing a positive learner experience, the university needs to
build a core of loyal learners who will recommend the university/major brand to others. This is what helps
university/major brands maintain their universities’ strength during competition with many other
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universities. A learner, parent and society’s impression of a university/major brand is achieved through a
series of encounters: observing, advertising on TV or on a billboard, reading an article, reading a social
media review, hearing word of mouth or visiting the university. Each encounter must provide a consistent
impression of the experience that the university/major brand offers to learners, parents and society to avoid
reality gaps and negative brand perceptions. Nowadays, technology enables broader conversations, and that
requires paying more attention to the conversation. On social media, the university initiates a conversation to
send an official message to its target audience while learners use similar websites to talk to friends to have
informal knowledge of the university. “Everything is connected.” That’s also how universities implement
brand communication. By creating a strong and seamless learner experience both digitally and on campus,
introducing university/major brand to promote passion, desire and loyalty will increase, the proportion of
brand value based on learners’ perception will also increase.
Leaders of universities who were interviewed all affirmed: Currently, branding in higher education
has become an increasingly essential issue, but Vietnamese universities have not yet made a significant
commitment to the financial resources allocated to branding activities. As the economic environment has a
large negative impact on the financial health of most higher education institutions, colleges and universities
have begun to realize that the former relatively simple tools of image promotion no longer works as
effectively as it used to. As we seek to grow and, in some cases, survive in the current competitive higher
education market, there is growing recognition of the importance of branding among universities.
Figure 1. Diagram of university brand management model based on the strategic management
diagram of Rothaermel, F. T. (2012, p.20), David, F.R. (2009, p.46), Thompson, J. and Martin, F. (2010,
p.36)
(3) Definitions of brand equity and the measurement of brand equity are mentioned when discussing
the interpretation of university brand performance. For a university, the components of brand equity in the
university include: Perception of the university’s name, Perceived quality, Brand association, Brand assets,
Value brought to learners, Value brought to the university and Loyalty to the university by learners, parents
and society. Bringing value to learners will emphasize the value-added equity factor, increasing the level of
satisfaction when experiencing a training program in the following factors: -Increasing information
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interpretation/processing, -Increasing learners’ confidence in learning, -Increasing the level of satisfaction
when experiencing the training program. Brand equity expressed in Value brought to the university includes
the following factors: -Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing programs, -Loyalty to the
brand, - Balance tuition and costs, - Expanding major brand in the university, - Competitive advantage with
other universities with the same major. Building learner-oriented brand equity is the diffrential effect of the
brand knowledge on the reaction of learners, parents and society to the marketing activities of such brand.
From which, the learner-based measure of university brand equity includes choosing how to develop and
implement a brand equity measurement system.
(4) Growth and maintenance of university brand value: When proposing to select factors to consider
in order to grow and maintain brand equity in the brand management model for a university as mentioned
above, the following factors are considered in this research: a) Brand vision: From the vision message,
mission, ideological or ethical values, corporate social responsibility (CSR)..., all contribute to building and
communicating the brand vision or the university’s vision to two groups of subjects: inside (officials, teachers,
students) and outside the university (society, parents and students). The important thing when evaluating is not
only the content of the vision, but the spread of the vision to all members and the governance system. (b) There is
a basis of Emotional Capital or the capacity of trust: Emotional capital is understood as the capital obtained by
the consensus and synergies of all members of the university to form the university culture, and Emotional capital
can be formed through learners’ experiences with the university brand characteristics into the training program
being experienced. The essence of emotional capital is the brand mission established in the minds and hearts of
learners. A university with a good vision executed well shall contribute to the creation of an emotional capital
base. Besides, a brand is a set of benefits, including rational benefits and emotional benefits. It is the factor of
emotional benefits that creates emotional capital in the hearts of the target learners, parents and society. (c)
Diversification strategy (or diversified positioning): Facing the rapidly changing social trend in general and the
market in particular, marketing has established a diversification strategy or is ready to respond to changes. Thus,
the ability to respond flexibly in different market situations or environments is also a measure of the health of a
strong brand for universities. Quantitative methods in management in general and in brand management in
particular provide new criteria for the flexibility of the management system, open-mindedness and proactiveness.
(d) Always stick to the university’s Vision and Values: University brand behavior is usually through two ways:
through the experience of participating in the training program and through brand communication. This is the
university’s commitment to students, parents and society. The identity and image of the brand must always
contribute to reinforcing the sustainability of the university brand, then the sustainability of the university brand
and brand vision will create motivation to motivate all officials, lecturers and students for the benefit of learners
and the common good of the Brand, including the personal interests of each member. The university branding
efforts show the vision and spiritual values. University brand commitments must be demonstrated consistently
and continuously. (e) The successful brand of a university is always closely and responsibly attached to
learners, community and society: Responsible expression is also concretized by concrete actions, not just
through media and beautiful images. A strong university brand is associated with the community’s concerns, as a
leader and a responsible person. The sense of responsibility of a strong brand to the community affirms its
responsibility to the community for a sustainable development and creates sustainable benefits for both the
university and society. (f) Use multi-channel communication with a suitable financial capacity: Multi-channel
or integrated communication are inevitable moves that a strong university brand needs to show. The
diversification of communication will help the university brand spread with a wide spectrum of the public
including the target group, potential group and impact group. What is more important is the ability to be flexible
and creative in using communication channels and methods of communication exploitation to maximize the
Brand’s ability to reach its target students and parents. A strong university brand always puts the financial
problem for the brand goal, thereby forming a new financial management that is brand finance in the university.
(g) Always aim for the highest education quality with values commensurate with learners’ expectations: In
fact, the education quality is not only commensurate with learners’ expectations, but sometimes it needs to exceed
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the expectations and get the attention of society and the media. Stable training quality is the minimum condition.
Constantly improving quality and outstanding elements of the benefits that learners enjoy create not only
satisfaction but also admiration, pride and loyalty: facilities, dedication to science and technology, fame and
success of alumni, etc. The benefits of a university brand are not just physical benefits or easily measurable
benefits, but also emotional benefits which are felt more intuitively, emotionally, and Abstractly. Emotional
benefits are the soul of the communication between the university brand and external audiences: training partners,
students, parents, the public, the media. Once it’s established in the heart, it’s hard to fade. (h) Highly
appreciated by learners for commensurate tuition fees: A successful brand achieves a premiumness (added
value created by the brand itself) higher than that of competing universities. It is the willingness to choose a
university that will create a university brand with added value as an increasingly larger number of learners trust to
choose the university. In many cases, the premiumness factor will be established in emotional benefits or brand
image, not just in the group of rational benefits. Thus, an incommensurate increase in tuition fees will lead to a
dishonest perception from the public. (i) Always keep promises and deliver honest university brand
experience: A strong university brand provides a great learning experience, and, more than that, it presents itself
as a spiritual support, trust, sharing and more spiritual values. A brand is a synthesis of products (through a set of
benefits), identity system (logo, brand name, message), image and personality… which are ways of
communicating and satisfying learners’ needs. The harmonious relationship between university identity and
university image for many related parties is a challenging task. A clear definition of the university brand
combined with a strong leadership team is one of the key aspects to success. Universities with a strong historical
and cultural heritage are beneficial in providing a clear platform for branding efforts. Through the synthesis of all
factors (physical, aesthetic, rational and emotional), the harmonious association between university identity and
university image is conveyed, contributing to raising awareness of all related parties about who the university is
and what it stands for. (j) University brand is always monitored and managed effectively by a qualified
Brand Management system: A successful university brand name not only has the right solutions, but is also
managed by qualified people in the brand management system. People and professionalism are two
complementary factors for a successful university marketing model. The brand management system of a
successful university is one that focuses on brand management; the functions of brand management in particular
and marketing in general are placed at the center and harmoniously coordinated with other management functions
effectively. (k) The university brand value increases steadily every year: Brand value that increases steadily
every year or always keeps the top position is the end result that the brand brings to the university. Brand value is
proportional to the number of learners choosing the university and the degree of affection that the university brand
occupies among those learners. However, it is a complicated administrative process to do such a thing. It is an
arduous journey with the continuous development of training programs and the stable and increasing quality of
education; it is the freshness of the brand image and the way of expressing emotions through specific movements,
subtle behaviors, and other factors.
A strong university brand takes the learners’ interests as the goal for development. Accordingly, the
university brand is a method to conquer learners and the hearts of learners with a set of benefits that are constantly
improved, more diverse, and more interesting. It is necessary to have a new perspective on educational management,
that is: Focusing on university leaders/managers’ awareness of approaching new thinking is an urgent issue, because
the trend of accelerating global development is posing opportunities and challenges for rapid development. To
effectively implement innovation in educational management in training institutions, managers need to be capable,
qualified, determined, brave, dynamic, and creative. Brand management in higher education management also needs
more attention and adequate funding.
5. Conclusion
The synthesis of studies also shows that effective brand management models, processes, and
solutions for higher education institutions have not been mentioned but they are urgent issues in the current
context of Vietnam, especially for private universities in the context of educational innovation (the stage of
implementing university autonomy, higher education management in the socialist-oriented market economy,
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increasingly strong international integration, the fourth industrial revolution developing at an exponential
speed, digital transformation orientation in education...). This research has been conducted with the desire to
contribute to clarifying some theoretical foundations of brand and brand management in higher education; to
propose a brand management model for a university with 4 levels in the system: Determining brand value
and brand positioning, Bringing brand experience in brand marketing program design, Brand measurement,
Growth and maintenance of brand equity.
Although there have not been many studies on brand management model in educational
organizations - educational institutions, specifically universities, it should be noted that “the lack of a clear
model to facilitate branding in a nonprofit organization as large and as diverse as a university is considered
as a limitation in building a clear brand”. For Vietnamese universities in general and private universities in
Hanoi in particular (most of which are registered to operate for profit), the application of brand models in
economic field to the brand development model for private universities operating for profit is not possible
due to certain characteristics of product of education although there are many similarities. The proposal from
this study is the initial discovery of the brand management model applied to higher education institutions.
Case studies will still be needed, especially brand approaches that do not emphasize consistency and
precision in identity definition. Only then can new researches begin to provide insight into the usefulness of
brand management in the clearest, most general sense.
Acknowledgement
The research was conducted within the framework of Research Paper coded QS.NH.22.02 by VNU-
University of Education
References:
1. Bennett, R., Ali-Chowdhury, R., & Savani, S. (2008). Defining the components of a
university brand: A qualitative investigation. Paper presented at the International Conference
of Higher Education Marketing, Krakow, Poland
2. Chris Chapleo (2005), Do universities have “successful” brands? International Journal of
Educational Advancement, International Journal of Educational Advancement (2005) 6, 54-
64;
3. Chris Chapleo, 2015, Brands in Higher Education: Challenges and Potential Strategies,
International Studies of Management and Organization 45(2):150-163,
DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2015.1006014
4. David, F.R. (2009). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. 12th ed. FT Prentice Hall
5. Jevonc C. (2006), Universities: a prime example of branding gone wrong, Journal of Product
& Brand Management 2006, Available from: http://doi.org/10.1108/10610420610712856
6. Musa Pinar (2020), University Branding and Measuring Brand Equity: Conceptual
Framework and Empirical Studies, The Journal of International Scientific Researches,
7. Rothaermel, F. T. (2012). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. McGraw-Hill/Irwin
8. Thompson, J. and Martin, F. (2010). Strategic Management: Awareness & Change. 6th ed.
Cengage Learning EMEA
9. Weng Marc Lim, Teck Weng Jee, Ernest Cyril De Run (2018), Strategic brand management for
higher education institutions with graduate degree programs: empirical insights from the higher
education marketing mix, Journal of Strategic Marketing Volume 28, 2020 - Issue 3, Pages 225-
245.

[STS22-42]
291
ROMANTIC LOVE IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Nguyen Thi Van Thanh1* Cao Thanh Tra2
1
Faculty of Social Sciences and Public Relation, HUTECH University.
2
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City
*Corresponding author: email: ntv.thanh@hutech.edu.vn ; Phone: + 84 916869772
Abstract
Students falling in love while in middle school are often called “early lovers”. Although the love of junior
high school students confuses many parents and teachers, there are still not many systematic studies on this
issue in Vietnam. This research tries to answer: (1) What are the junior high school students’ characteristics
of their romantic love (base on behavioural approach)? (2) Which component of their love triangle (intimacy
or passion or commitment) is the predominant? Using an online survey by a questionnaire on 44 middle
school students who are in a love relationship, the results of this study found that the love of middle school
students in Vietnam is still very pure. They thrilled when standing next to their partner and hugging and
holding their partner's hand, and their partner reciprocating. The students appreciated things that make up the
quality of a couples’ relationship such as: being respected, being recognized, being accepted. Preliminary
results revealed that there is a gradual complex progression in students' love as they move up to higher
grades; There is also a gender difference, in that female students tend to enter a love relationship because
they feel lonely.
Keywords: early lover, junior high school students, romantic love, attachment in love, triangular of love.
1. Introduction
Junior high school students’ falling in love has confused many teachers (nd. Thanh Nga, 2014). They are
worry that early love leads to early sex activities (K. Ngoc, 2019). The early sex activities of junior high
school students is a high risk for consequences of pregnancy in female students. It is not good at all when
these students were not mature enough both physically and mentally (Do Hop, 2017). Because of high
potential the consequences, many parents of junior high school students prevent hardly their children from
liking or loving another one, that made stress and lead their children having negative solutions, such as
looking for ending of life (Law and Life Online, 2014).
In Vietnam, there were only a very small number of studies on love among junior high school students.
Studies in the Psychology of Love refer to three theories:
The first, in the center, is Bowlby's attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1982). Although, early attachment
theory mainly considered attachment in the mother-child relationship. But Bowlby claims that the attachment
is active “from cradle to grave” (nd. Phillip & Mario, 2006). The romantic love can be conceptualized
according to three behavioral systems defined by Bowlby (1969/1982): Attachment, Caregiving, and
Sexuality.
Attachment behavior system. The presumed biological function of the attachment system is to protect a
person (especially in infancy) from danger by ensuring that he or she is in close contact with other caring and
supportive people (attachment figures). The purpose of this system is objective protection or support, as well
as a subjective sense of security or security (as Sroufe & Waters, 1977 calls it “felt security”).
Just working on a communication system requires an attached chart that is available on demand, sensitive
and responsive to individual requests for proximity, and effective to reduce individual stress.
Caregiving behavior system. As the other behavioral systems, the functioning of the caregiving behavior
system produces positive emotions, although the primary goal is to benefit others.
A deactivated caregiving system entails less sensitivity and responsiveness to others’ needs, dismisses or
reduces the stress of others, eliminates ideas related to the needs and weaknesses of others, and stops the
compassion and sympathy. (Phillip & Mario, 2006).
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Sexual behavior system. Sexual attraction is the driving force that drives individuals to seek short- or long-
term mating opportunities with potential mates (Buss, 2019).
The second, triangular theory of love (Sternberg, 1987) with the three components that manifest three
aspects of love include:
Intimacy refers to the feeling of closeness, connection and attachment in loving relationships;
Passion refers to the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and related
phenomena in loving relationships.
Decisions/Commitment refers, in the short-term, to the other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to
maintain that love.
The third is interdependence theory (Holmes & Cameron, 2005). Interdependence theory (IT) extends the
formula proposed by Lewin (1946) that behavior is a function of a person and the environment. In a social
relationship, the behavioral interaction (I) occurring between person A and person B is a reflection of the
respective goals of both people in the mutual relationship in the specific context of interdependence (S) in
which the interaction occurs. Each “situation” defines the way in which two people depend on and influence
each other for their outcomes (hence the term “interdependence”). This theory attempts to identify the types
of interpersonal biases of people A and B – their attitudes, motives, and goals – that are functionally relevant
to decision making in each type of situation. Specifically. Then, the type S scenario, together with the
associated positions A and B, defines the interaction I (forming the model with the SABI elements). Thus,
each model scenario is seen as presenting two people with their own problems and opportunities. This
research based on attachment theory and triangular theory of love.
2. Method
44 middle school students, in a love relationship with another person [For sexes: 14 Male (31.8%), 27
Female (61.4%), 3 Other (6.8%); For grades: 0 students in grade 6 (0%); 2 students in Grade 7 (4.5%); 7
students in Grade 8 (15.9%), 35 students in Grade 9: (79.5%); For regions: 34 students (77%) in Ho Chi
Minh city (as a special urban area); 10 students (23%) live in other cities of Vietnam (as urban areas of
another kind)].
A questionnaire surveyed online from December 1st, 2021 to February 28th, 2022 about love’s system of
behaviors (attachment behaviors and caregiving behaviors and sexual behaviors) as well as the components
of the love triangle (Intimacy and Commitment and Passion) is scored on a Likert 4 point scale (with “1” =
“Not True”; “2”= “Somewhat True”; “3”=True; “4”= “Absolute True”). The data are analyzed on the total
score of the Likert-4 scale of each item. In addition, we also conduct statistics on the frequency of
occurrence of the phenomenon as follows: “1” = “Not True” equivalent to “absence” of the phenomenon;
“2”= “Somewhat True”, “3”= “True” and “4”= “Absolute True” are equivalent to “occurence” of the
phenomenon.
IBM SPSS Version 26 statistical software was used to analyze the data.

The results of the love survey of junior high school students by using the Likert scale and under the
behavioral approach shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 as follow:
+ For the Attachment behavior: The junior high school students appreciate romantic attachment behaviors
such as Talking to his/her partner (overall score of 144), Standing next to his/her partner (overall score of
135), Hugging (overall score of 128), Holding his/her hand (overall score of 128), Reciprocating (overall
score of 127); Factors related to the quality of love were also highly appreciated by students: Being
Respected (overall score 144), Being Recognized (overall score 133), Being Accepted (overall score 124).
These factors are all statistically significant at the 0.01 level.
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Hugging (**)
Responsibility to him/her
Reciprocating (**)
Being Recognized (**) Being given gifts
Being Accepted (**) 105 110 115 120 125

Being Respected (**) Figure 2. Caregiving behavior
Standing next to him/her…
Holding his/her hand (**) Desire sex

Talking (**)
Desire to embrace
Love because felt lonely
0 20 40 60 80 100
0 50 100 150 200
Figure 1. Attachment behavior Figure 3. Sexuality behavior
Desire sex Duration of love from 1

year or more
Desire to embrace Duration of love from 1
week to less than 1 year
Hugging (**)
Duration of love less than
Standing next to him/her 1 week
(**)
Holding his/her hand (**) Responsibility to him/her
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
Figure 4. Intimacy component Figure 5. Commitment component

Note of Figure 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5: (*) Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; (**) Correlation is significant at the 0.01
level; Descriptive Data Included in Total Scores of the Likert Scale
+ For the Caregiving behavior and Sexuality behavior, the data is not statistically significant.
Figures 4, Figures 5 and Figures 6 show the results of the love survey in junior high school based on the
triangular theory of love. It can be seen that the love of junior high school students is still very pure, as
follow:
+ For the Intimacy factors, middle school students often prefer Hugging, Standing next to him/her, and
Holding his/her hands with their partner.
+ For the Passion factors, middle school students love their partners both for understandable reasons
(Partner is the ideal, Partner brings novelty, Partner has similarities to share, Partner with opposite traits
for self-fulfillment, Partner has helped me find out many new things, Partner has beauty characteristics that
I like, Partners has a lot in common) and also the reasons that are difficult to explain according to normal
logic (Partner is different, Partner has opposite appearance). In the Passion factors, we also found that,
while on a date, junior high school students Immerse themself in their own world, Forget every one around,
Freedom to express feelings. These factors are all statistically significant at the 0.01 level.
+ All variables of the Commitment factors and some variables in the Intimacy factors (Desire to embrace,
Desire sex) are not statistically significant.
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100%
Freedom to express feelings
when dating (**)
Forget every one around while 50%
on a date (**)
Immerse yourself in your own
world when dating (**) 0%
Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9
The Partners has a lot in
common (**) Talking (*)
The Partner has beauty
characteristics that I like (**) Holding his/her hand (*)
The Partner has opposite Partner with opposite traits for self-fulfillment (*)
appearance (*)
Figure 7. Differences’love in grades
The Partner has helped me find
out many new things (**)
The Partner is different (**)

40%
The Partner with opposite traits
for self-fulfillment (**) 30%
The Partner has similarities to
20%
share (**)
10%
The Partner brings novelty (**)
0%
The Partner is the ideal (*) Male Female Other
0 50 100 150 Love because felt lonely (*)
Figure 6. Passion component Figure 8. The difference’s love in sexes

Note of Figure 6: (*) Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; Note of Figure 7 & 8: (*) Correlation is significant
(**) Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; Descriptive Data at the 0.05 level; Descriptive data based on the
Included in Total Scores of the Likert Scale frequency of observation
Figure 7 shows the differences between classes for the variables: Talking, Holding his/her hand and Partner
with opposite traits for self-fulfillment. The junior high school students of 9th graders scored those variables
higher than the ones in 8th graders. And the students of 8th graders scored those variables higher than the ones
in 7th graders. The growing divergence represents progress with the growing complexity of junior high
school students' romantic love.
Figure 8 shows the gender difference with the reason Love because felt lonely: To eliminate loneliness, more
female students tend to accept a love relationship than male students and other sex ones.
4. Conclusion
The survey results on love behavior of junior high school students show that:
+ The middle school students highly appreciate romantic attachment behavior such as Talking with his/her
partner, Standing next to his/her partner, Hugging, Holding his/her hand, Reciprocating. In addition,
variables related to love quality were also highly appreciated by the students as Being Respected, Being
Recognized, Being Accepted.+ The love of junior high school students is still very pure: The students prefer
Hugging, Standing next to their partner and Holding his/her hands.
+ The junior high school students love their partners with both explainable reasons (Partner is the ideal,
Partner brings novelty, Partner has similarities to share, Partner with opposite traits for self-fulfillment,
Partner helps see novelty's things, Partner has beauty characteristics that I like, Partners has a lot in
common) and unexplainable reasons (Partner is different, Partner has opposite appearance).
+ While on a date, junior high school students Immerse themself in their own world, Forget every one
around, Freedom to express feelings.
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+ The tendency to appreciate increasing as students move to higher grades for romantic factors Talking with,
Holding his/her hand and Partner with opposite traits for self-fulfillment reflects a progression of students'
romantic love in their personal growth.
+ The junior high school female students felt in love because they feel lonely rather than male students and
students of the other sex. This finding suggested that parents and teachers should spend more time for the
junior high school female students to help them find out their own true emotion.
Limit of the research: Research has not yet explored the aspect of love from the perspective of
interdependence theory. In addition, the study was not yet surveyed on 6th grade students. Therefore, the
research results did not provide a comprehensive conclusion of love among junior high school students. The
sample size of Ho Chi Minh city is much larger than the sample size in other regions as an another limit.
This may have led to the failure to find out regional differences of love. In further studies, larger sample
sizes should be conducted to draw more valid conclusions.
References
1. Bowlby, J. (1969,1982). Attachment and Loss (Second Edition ed., Vol. I. Attachment). New York:
Basic Books.
2. Buss, D. M. (2019). Evolutionary psychology: the new science of the mind (6th Edition ed.). David M.
Buss: Routledge.
3. Do Hop. (2017, 4 18). Shocking cases of 7th grade girls giving birth. Retrieved from Vanguard News:
https://tienphong.vn/rung-dong-nhung-vu-nu-sinh-lop-7-sinh-con-post946852.tpo
4. Hazan, C., and Zeifman, D. (1999). Pair-bonds as attachments: Evaluating the evidence. In J. C. Shaver,
Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications (pp. 336–354). New York:
Guilford Press.
5. Holmes, J. G., and Cameron, J. (2005). An integrative review of theories of interpersonal cognition: An
interdependence theory perspective. In M. W. (ed.), Interpersonal Cognition (pp. 415–447). 415–447:
Guilford Press.
6. K. Ngọc. (2019, 6 10). Teacher with “cardiac arrest” when she saw two students “making love” in the
toilet. Retrieved from Infonet. https://infonet.vietnamnet.vn/doi-song/co-giao-dung-tim-khi-phat-hien-
hai-hoc-sinh-yeu-trong-nha-ve-sinh-7403.html
7. Law and Life Online. (2014, 12 27). Forbidden from falling in love, two students committed suicide by
hanging. Retrieved from Law and Life Online: https://www.doisongphapluat.com/bi-ngan-cam-yeu-
duong-2-hoc-sinh-om-nhau-treo-co-tu-tu-chet-a76491.html
8. Lewin, K. (1946). Behavior and development as a function of the total situation. In L. Carmichael,
Manual of child psychology (pp. 791–844). New York: Wiley.
9. Phillip Shaver and Mario Mikulincer. (2006). A Behavioral Systems Approach to Romantic A
Behavioral Systems Approach to Romantic and Sex. In R. J. Weis, The New Psychology of Love (pp.
35-64). New York: Yale University.
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1184–1199.
11. Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93, 119–135.
12. Sternberg, R. J. (1987). Liking versus loving: A comprehensive evaluation of theories. Psychological
Bulletin, 102, 331–345.
13. Thanh Nga. (2014, 12 10). Love comedy "kissing cheek" of school age. Retrieved from People's
Wisdom: https://dantri.com.vn/nhip-song-tre/bi-hai-tinh-yeu-thom-ma-cua-tuoi-hoc-tro-1418849721.htm

[STS22-45]
296
BUILDING AWARENESS OF POSITIVE CITIZENS FOR STUDENTS
OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AT HUTECH UNIVERSITY
Vu Quoc Anh
Department of Social Sciences and Public Relations, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: 0908 072 372; Email: vq.anh@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
The explosion of information technology, technology science and the Industrial Revolution 4.0 have caused
geographical barriers in cultural, economic exchanges and learning and employment opportunities in the
labor market to be erased, making the world flatter. It creates conditions for citizens of countries to have the
opportunity to access many global living and working environments. The concept of global citizenship in
higher education environments with specific training programs help young generations access the core
criteria, spiritual orientation, and global citizenship attitude. However, in addition to the criteria of foreign
languages, technology, soft skills, crisis management, the sense of becoming active citizens is an important
factor that students need to invest and develop to orient their careers. The article mentions to building
awareness of positive citizens for students of public relations at HUTECH.
Keywords: active citizenship, active citizenship education, students of public relations
1. Introduction
In recent years, the concept of "Global citizen" has been mentioned more by universities. The trend of
globalization in economic, social, cultural and educational life opens up many opportunities for Vietnamese
students to strive to become global citizens. A global citizen is a capable person who can live, work and
study in any foreign countries. Thus, students need to cultivate and be equipped with many different skills
and qualities to achieve that goal. One of the important criteria is to be an "active citizen".
Training students to become active citizens will enable students to see issues more broadly, more
broadly and with greater depth, they will be more aware of their role in domestic society and internationally
in a positive and responsible manner. They tend to be actively creative and have the will to strive for
community development in a global perspective, easily grasping opportunities to change the community for
the benefits of the society and themselves. In today society, citizens are evaluated as positive ones those
when they have capability to organize and actively pursue their interests within the community (Moro,
2012). Citizens care about the world in which they live with the desire to contribute to the realization of a
series of positive values or the community in many different fields (Van Dam et al., 2015).
The university environment in general and non-public universities in particular have an active role in
building a positive sense of citizenship. The article is made with the purpose of learning about active
citizenship, educating global citizenship consciousness and orienting to training global citizens. The article is
made based on the method of synthesizing theoretical documents and researches in order to draw lessons
learned in building a positive sense of citizenship in students.
2.1. Active Citizens – Good Citizens
There is no unified definition for the concept of "active citizen" which implies the role in which a
person participates actively and actively in public and political life. Active citizens are those who are willing,
able and equipped to influence public life and have the critical capacity to consider before presenting ideas
and taking action. Active citizenship helps to build society and maintain social solidarity. According to the
British Council Training Program (2009), “Active Citizens” are those who go beyond the basic obligations
of a citizen and are engaged in volunteer activities that create positive effects on the lives of local people or
broader community groups. Citizens actively participate in their communities at all levels from local to
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national and global (Brewis et al. 2010). Active citizenship promotes quality of life in the community
through both political and non-political processes, developing a combination of knowledge, skills, values,
and drive to work to make a difference in society (Moro, 2012).
An active citizen is also defined in contrast to a “good citizen” who tends to obey the law, be polite
and well behaved, respect individual rights, uphold moral qualities, and respect individual rights. virtue care
and concern for others, be good neighbours, good colleagues, good classmates. The concept of 'good
citizenship' implies a normative view of citizenship that promotes compliance and is therefore essentially
conservative (Ross, 2008). Osborne (2005) also distinguishes between being a "good person" and an "active
citizen". The author also believes that good citizenship requires investment in building and maintaining a
sustainable, good society and community, without breaking the law. Moreover, active citizens are also those
who play a pioneering role, leading and inspiring the community. To a certain extent and space, they are a
shining example and have a good personality.
2.2. Active Global Citizen
“Active global citizen” is a concept that includes individuals who are aware of the following:
- Ability to live and work in the world and the international community.
- Must take actions that benefit the local and international communities.
- Appreciate cultural diversity, multi-ethnicity, democracies.
- Always thinking about changing the local community and the world for the better. Take
responsibility for your actions (Brewis, et al. 2010).
First, active citizens understand the problem of globalization or becoming a global citizen is not the
movement, soon off. Active global citizenship often uses a broad lens of global citizenship. At the global
level, those who are identified as global citizens actively develop an international mindset, willing to fulfill
obligations and responsibilities that transcend national boundaries (Moro, 2012). Ross (2008) admits that
when people feel more united with citizens of other countries, they are more willing to participate and work
for the common good of all. Positive global citizenship is often described in positive terms and is recognized
for helping to build international social resources, create strong international communities, promote social
justice, and promote social justice. improve personal life.
However, it is important to note that the concepts of connect and active citizenship can also be used
for purposes that may have harmful effects in some other communities (Brewis et al. associates 2010).
According to Voloneurope (2018), global citizens are seen as active must build and share common interests.
Common interests must be necessary conditions for individuals, groups of people, countries and
communities to develop, not for the benefit of this group of people but adversely affect other groups of
people.
3. Positive citizen consciousness

3.1. Consciousness connecting the international community
The concept of community must be valued and wanting to be part of a strong, safe community
requires network-based citizenship and camaraderie that helps foster trust, concern for the well-being of each
individual. individuals, a sense of self-worth, and the promotion of individual and collective social
responsibility. International volunteering for global citizenship is seen as an organized period of participation
and contribution to society by volunteers working across international borders, in one country or another.
each other (VoluntEurope, 2018).
3.2. Sense of pioneering and contributing
Most young people want to make an active and responsible contribution to their communities,
especially the school community. Many students feel that they have a responsibility to themselves, their
school, and their peers (Brewis, et al. 2010).
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3.3. Consciously actively seek out opportunities and experiences
Active citizens are aware of the connections between their opportunities and experiences in different
contexts and environments. Active citizens are also sensitive to variation in their opportunities and
experiences in these different contexts. They are aware of the lack of experiential knowledge in the face of
an ever-changing world of which the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is a prime example. Young citizens need to
prepare well professionally, be aware of the strengths and weaknesses that need to be overcome, master at
least one foreign language to face challenges and seize opportunities to compete with young people. world.
In life, only a sense, a positive attitude, a market with the goal of always being better than oneself, and
healthy competition can help citizens stay awake, lucid, and actively seek opportunities. society that the
world brings (Nguyen Hoang Anh, 2017).
3.4. Sense of social responsibility
No matter who the active citizen is, in what position, in what country they work, the family is the
place where anyone must have a first sense of responsibility because it is a miniature society. More broadly,
citizens live and work in society, interact with many people to study, do business, do community activities,
and benefit from many aspects of society. It is difficult for a person to live a prosperous and happy life but
live separately from society. Therefore, it is natural for an active citizen, regardless of position and
profession, to have a sense of social responsibility.
3.5. Good sense of foreign language use
Active citizens have a clear sense that in a globalized world, it is obvious that at least one foreign
language must be used well when knowledge is constantly increasing, constantly being transmitted, knowing
one more foreign language is that we have one more door to communicate with countries around the world.
4. Conclusion – Recommendation
4.1. Conclusion
The concept of active citizenship has been and is receiving much attention in many countries. The
education sector tends to educate young people about active citizenship from primary school to university,
linking education work to reality from local to international. In Vietnam, this concept is also interested in
Association activities, groups, and subject projects. NCL universities are a favorable environment to carry
out educational work in order to build a positive sense of citizenship oriented towards global citizenship for
students of non-public universities. More specifically, when NCL universities are proactive in building and
implementing training programs with dynamic students with a spirit of growth, wishing to develop
themselves comprehensively in the global context. and Revolution 4.0.
4.2. Recommendations
4.2.1. For students of public relations at HUTECH
- Students need to be aware that being educated, trained and self-advocating to become an active citizen is a
responsibility, a student's right to enjoy, an opportunity to express themselves in front of society.
- Students should learn and research the standards and qualities of active citizenship from local to global.
- Students should set their own standards and goals according to the level of professional training, social
space and actual requirements of the community.
- Students should have at least one community service project and specialized training project.
- Students shou inspire and set goals to successfully become a global citizen.
4.2.2. For the Department of Social Sciences and Public Relations - HUTECH
- Exploiting and implementing training concepts of "active citizenship", "active global citizen" into the
training program in a formal way, integrated into the subject or regularly organize training sessions in the
training sessions.
- Formally introducing the concept of active citizenship into Students’ Union activities and in social work,
regular team activities, not only at the movement level.
- Using the phrase "Active citizens" more often and formally in training and extra-curricular activities.
- Applying active methods to train students.
299
References
1. Brewis, G., Russell, J. & Holdsworth, C. (2010). Bursting the Bubble: Students, Volunteering and the
Community. National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement. Accessed on 12/5/2021 at
publicengagement.ac.uk/ sites/default/files/ publication/bursting_the_bubble_summary
2. Moro, G. (2012). Citizens in Europe: Civic activism and the community democratic experiment.
Springer. Accessed on 21/5/2021 at www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461419419
3. Osborne, K. (2005). Political education and citizenship: Teaching for civic engagement. Education
Canada, 45 (1), 13-16. Accessed on 21/5/2021 at www.edcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/EdCan-2005-v45-
n1-Osborne.pdf
4. Ross, A. (2008). Organizing a curriculum for active citizenship education. The Sage Handbook of
Education for Citizenship and Democracy. Sage.
5. Van Dam, R., Duineveld, M., During, R. (2015). Delineating active citizenship: The subjectification of
citizens’ initiatives. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 7(2), 163-179. Accessed on
21/5/2021 at www.researchgate.net/publication/265596276
6. Volonteurope (2018). Active Citizens for the Common Good: The Active Citizenship Footprint.
Accessed on 21/5/2021 at volonteurope.eu/people-and-values/

[STS22-73]
300
STUDENTS’ EMOTION CONTROL STRATEGIES: A STUDY AT HO CHI
MINH CITY
Nguyen Thi Thanh Van
Department of Social Sciences and Public Relations, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Corresponding author: Phone: 0938113689; Email: ntt.van79@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Emotion is an attitude that expresses the vibration of people with things and phenomena related to their
needs and motives. About the impact of emotions on students, we can name lots of them including affecting
the psychological and physiological life of students, affecting the learning, training of students and affecting
the social relationships of students. This article mentions how to control emotions of students in Ho Chi
Minh City. The results show that students choose a variety of emotions, but about emotional control, they
focus mainly on the ways to control negative emotions, namely boredom and anxiety. Among many ways to
control negative emotions, there is a unique way of controlling students' choice. The way that students use
the most is “Attention shifting” when controlling boredom, “Problem solving” is the way most to control
anxiety. The correlation between control ways is a positive correlation and a relatively high correlation
coefficient indicates the logic and the relationship between the ways to control students’ emotions. The
timing of emotional controls is primarily at that time or a few hours later. There are differences between
gender groups, major studying, school years when different ways to control emotions are used.
Keywords: Control, emotion, emotional control, students.
1. Introduction
In the system of factors that make up the human psychological life, the emotion is one of the fundamental
factors, the reactions of people when expressing their attitudes to the life. Emotions will express affection,
awareness, culture, which create an important aspect of human personality and greatly influence their lives,
careers, social relations as well as their success. In fact, emotions can be motivations, agents which help
activate, maintain and enhance individual activity; but it can also obscure reason, reduce communication
efficiency, leading to improper words and behaviors of individuals. Explaining this problem, D.R. Caruso
and P. Salovey (2004) - emotional intelligence researchers have said: "Emotions can boost our thinking and
can help our mindset, promote problem solving and support finding the causes. If we are in a positive mood,
we can create exciting new ideas and tend to better solve problems, such as the idea of a new marketing plan.
If we are in a slightly negative mood, we focus more attention on details and can better address finding the
cause of the problem, such as finding the error of a financial report". Accordingly, no matter what approach
is adopted, the value and power of emotions towards human life is always absolutely acknowledged. The
problem is how to understand emotions, promote the role of positive emotions to bring about high efficiency
in activities and avoid the harms caused by uncontrolled negative emotions. Therefore, studies on emotional
control are of great significance to help individuals operate effectively, achieve balance and harmony in life.
A person capable of controlling emotions is a person who has energy, culture, good living skills and is also
loved, admired and respected by people.
Foreign researches on emotional control include authors such as Walter Mischel (1960), D. Roger and B.
Najarian (1989), JD Mayer and P. Salovey (1990), Thompson (1994), DR Caruso et al (1997), Petrides and
Furnham (2000), Gross (2001), LK. Elksnin (2006), G.L. Macklem (2008). In domestic research on
emotional control, it can be mentioned that the authors have research related to emotional control of students
such as Nguyen Cong Khanh (2005), Phan Thi Mai Huong (2007), Dao Thi Oanh (2006), Duong Thi Hoang
Yen (2010), Tran Thi Thu Mai (2013), Tran Thi Tu Anh (2010), Dinh Thi Hong Van (2014). Through
domestic and foreign research works on emotional control, yes It can be seen that the research direction is
conducted in many different approaches, but mainly mentioned, integrated in emotional intelligence
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research, emotional management and social interaction. Emotional control is considered as an element of
emotional intelligence in the models, which is the criterion for building scales as well as teaching programs
so that they can grasp and control their emotions and others’. Accordingly, emotional control is mentioned a
lot in models, measures and elements of emotional intelligence. The research projects on emotional control
of students in Vietnam are still not much and mainly mentioned in research topics on emotional intelligence,
how to respond to emotions and adjust emotions as well as social interaction. There are studies that deal with
emotional control as a research indicator in a major issue of emotional management or emotional
intelligence, in which emotional control is also studied in model or strategy form. There are studies on how
to respond to emotions, although research is in students, but also valuable and theoretical references,
especially positive responses that demonstrate ability of emotional control.
Figure 1. Gross’s model of emotional regulation (2001)

Control is about mastering yourself (restraint, repressing the manifestations, reactions that are deemed
unnecessary or harmful depending on the specific case) and know how to reasonable react. Emotional
control is the ability to master your emotions in events causing emtions by using appropriate ways. The
emotional control of HUTECH students is the ability of Police students to master the negative emotions of
themselves in the events that cause emotions regarding learning, training and social relationships at
university by using appropriate ways. About the ways to control emotions of HUTECH students, emotional
control with an approach that focuses on awareness - behavior is essential, which can generalize basic ways
to control emotions include: “response adjustment”, “attention shifting”, “problem solving”, “positive
thinking”, “talking to others” and “responsibility”.
2. Method
The total number of research object was 241 students of 3 Universities in Ho Chi Minh City (Ho Chi Minh
City University of Technology, University of Science - Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City and
University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City). They are
in the first year and the last year according to the two major studying (natural and social sciences). After
designing questionnaires, we conducted surveys (Test and official survey). The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient
of the scale is 0.811>0.6, thus ensuring reliability requirements. Accordingly, this is defined as a
measurement scale with high reliability. The observed variables have a correlation coefficient of the
corresponding variable (Corrected Item-Total Correlation) (≥ 0.3), showing that each item has a correlation
with the whole scale. Thus, this questionnaire can be used to survey. For official surveys: People who do the
survey strictly follow the survey requirements. They instruct students to answer each sentence, asking
students not to talk or joke; ready to explain when students do not understand the question; ask students to
fill in the information in the questionnaire; guarantee time for students to answer the questionnaire.
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The statistical parameters used are descriptive statistics (Average score, standard deviation, percentage);
correlation analysis; 1-factor variance analysis (OneWay-Anova); Chi-Square; T-test; linear regression
analysis. Using SPSS software version 22.0 to perform analysis and verification. In it, using regression
analysis to predict the impact of factors on ways of control emotions. The impact variable is the self-
assessment of the event causing emotions. The dependent variable is ways of control emotions (6 ways). The
way to create variables on how to control emotions is as follows: Each control has 4 items and each item has
4 options that correspond to the score from 0 to 3, in which: Do not do as so = 0 points, doing so right then
or after a few hours = 1 point, doing so after a few days = 2 points, doing so after about a week = 3 points.
To determine which control is most used, score from 1 point to 2 points, in which: Do not do that = 1 point
(Option 1), Did so = 2 points (Option 2, 3 and 4). By averaging, it is shown that, if the average value of
control is higher, the way that control is most used. The average value calculated according to the options
1,2,3,4 reflects the time of implementation, the higher the average value, the slower the implementation time.
3.1. Emotions in need of control
The survey results shown in Table 1 show that students who choose a variety of emotions, but about
emotional control, they focus mainly on the ways to control negative emotions, namely boredom and
anxiety.
Table 1: Students’ emotions in need of control (*)
Emotions Quantity Percentage Rank
Excited 84 34.9 9
Delight 73 30.3 10
Boredom 235 97.5 1
Disappointment 114 47.3 5
Anger 166 68.9 4
Resentment 102 42.3 6
Anxiety 228 94.6 2
Fear 174 72.2 3
Contempt 97 40.2 8
Shame 101 41.9 7
Note: (*): List the 10 emotions with the highest rate
The above survey results are also consistent with the students' assessment of the importance of emotions to
control. Students appreciate the importance of controlling negative emotions, such as boredom, anger,
anxiety, fear. Both boredom and anxiety are evaluated as very important emotions that need to be controlled
with an average score of 4.87 and 4.74. The low standard deviation shows the focus, less dispersed.
3.2. Control of boredom
The results shown in table 2 show that students also use different control ways. “Attention shifting” is most
used by students. With “attention shifting”, the highest average value belongs to the item "entertainment,
relaxation such as playing sports, walking, shopping, listening to music, reading books, playing games,
surfing the web" with an average score of 1.91. "Thinking about good and fun things to not get into negative
emotions" is the second item, with an average value of 1.87. “Positive thinking” is also much chosen by
students corresponding to the second position with an average score of 1.81. Facing boredom, even
disappointment, thinking about positive things is a way to help relieve those negative feelings. The item with
the highest average value in this way is "assuming that each person has their own point, so they have a
reason to do so" with an average of 1.95.
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Table 2: How to control students' boredom
Numerical Frequency of using Rank
Emotional control
order Average score Standard deviation
1 Response adjustment 1.64 0.23 4
2 Attention shifting 1.89 0.25 1
3 Problem solving 1.78 0.31 3
4 Positive thinking 1.81 0.34 2
5 Talking to others 1.61 0.27 5
6 Responsibility 1.53 0.21 6
The study also explores the correlation between ways to control boredom. The correlation survey results
show that all correlations are positively correlated and the correlation coefficient is relatively high. The
correlation matrix between how to control boredom emotions shows that students choose a variety of ways to
control their emotions and coordinate their use so that they can solve their problems. Students choose ways
to soothe unpleasant emotions so that emotions temporarily settle down, have time to think, find solutions,
adjust appropriate responses as well as seek advice from others and accept facing your problem. With a
percentage of over 50% indicate that students mainly perform ways to control boredom immediately after the
event or later hours. The rate of 71.2% indicates that students perform mainly “attention shifting” to control
boredom at the time or after a few hours. Next is “positive thinking” (68.7%), “response adjustment”
(67.4%), “problem solving” (65.9%), “talking to others” (58.9%), “responsibility” (58.4%). However, the
research results on how to “talking communication with people” have a relatively low rate. Students who
choose to do it right away or a few hours later (58.9%) find it quite reasonable because this emotion is
different from anger due to its unequal in strong nature, so the immediate reaction is difficult to implement.
But after the event a few days, it has a rate of 34.8% (the highest rate in the group).
The result also shows that there is no difference between male and female students in the frequency of
“problem solving”, “responsibility” and “response adjustment” (F>0.05). Male students use more “attention
shifting” than female students (F=0.002<0.05). Female students use “positive thinking” (F=0.000<0.05) and
“talking to others” (F = 0.001<0.05) more than male students. There are statistically significant differences
when examining how “positive thinking”, “problem solving” and “response adjustment” (F<0.05) between
regular students and inter-training students, first-year and final-year students and there is no difference when
doing “attention shifting”, “talking to others” and “responsibility" (F> 0.05).
3.3. How to control anxiety
Table 3 shows the diversity in using students' anxiety control ways.
Table 3: How to control students’ anxiety
Numerical Frequency of using Rank
order Emotional control Standard
Average score
deviation
1 Response adjustment 1.63 0.24 5
2 Attention shifting 1.58 0.33 6
3 Problem solving 1.85 0.36 1
4 Positive thinking 1.72 0.21 3
5 Talking to others 1.81 0.27 2
6 Responsibility 1.69 0.31 4
If “attention shifting” is a way most used by students to control boredom, “problem solving” is the way most
used by students to control anxiety. In items showing how to “problem solving”, "find out what happened,
cause analysis" is the item with the highest average value with an average score of 1.90. Besides, students
also "visualize the consequences if they don't control anxiety", "think about solving problems", "plan and
make decisions" with an average value of 1.81; 1.84 and 1.86. In addition to the “problem solving”, the
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survey results also show how “talking communication with people” is also selected by many students, ranked
2nd with average score 1.85. Students also use “positive thinking”, “responsibility”, “response adjustment”,
“attention shifting” to controlling anxiety. Each way has an average value of 1.72; 1.69; 1.63 and 1.58. The
result of the lowest average value belongs to the “attention shifting”, indicating that students choose the
least. Explaining this problem also comes from the characteristic of anxiety. Anxiety often lasts, so if you
use a way to find positive emotions that only settle temporarily, anxiety still continues so prioritize ways to
focus on action rather than emotion.
The correlation results are positively correlated and the correlation coefficient between the ways in this
matrix is also relatively high. The results of the correlation survey again show the relationship between ways
and diversity in implementing students' ways of controlling anxiety. Thereby, it shows that students are
conscious of trying to control anxiety in different ways to solve their own problems. “Response adjustment”
and “problem solving” are most commonly done in the way of controlling anxiety at that time or after a few
hours event with the rate of 79.4% and 68.2% respectively. Other ways of doing things like right away or
after the event for a few hours have a ratio of over 50%, which is “talking to others”, “responsibility”,
“attention shifting” and “positive thinking”. The direction of using anxiety control ways is the same as the
cases of anger and boredom in which students mainly focus on emotions, but also focus on problem solving.
This also reflects the characteristic of the type of anxiety that impacts how to control emotions.
Female students use “attention shifting” more than male students (F=0.000<0.05). There is no statistically
significant difference with respect to “positive thinking”, “talking to others”, “responsibility”, “problem
solving” and “response adjustment” (F>0.05). There is no difference between students in different major
studying when implementing “attention shifting”, “response adjustment”, “positive thinking”,
“responsibility” and “talking to others” (F> 0.05) but there are significant differences when examining how
to “problem solving” (F<0.05). There is no difference between first-year and final-year students when
implementing “attention shifting”, “response adjustment”, “positive thinking” and “responsibility” (F>0.05)
but there are significant differences when examining how to “problem solving” and “talking to others”
(F<0.05).
4. Conclusion
Boredom and anxiety are the emotions that need to be controlled according to the evaluation of students of
this survey. In it, boredom emotion is the feeling that many students experience most through the most
impressive and memorable situation for students. The students use a variety of ways to control their
emotions of boredom and anxiety. Responding to each emotion, there is a unique way of controlling
students' choice. With boredom, that way is “attention shifting”. “Problem solving” is the way most to
control anxiety. The correlation between control ways is a positive correlation and a relatively high
correlation coefficient indicates the logic and the relationship between the ways to control students’
emotions. The timing of emotional controls is primarily at that time or a few hours later. There are
differences between gender groups, major studying and school years when different ways to control
emotions are used. Research results are the basis for further understanding, building emotional control
models and processes, helping to improve their emotional control.
305
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7. Pekrun R., Goetz T., Titz W., Perry R.P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning
and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research, Educational Psychologist, 37, 91-
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8. Tuna, M. E. C. E. (2003). Cross-cultural differences in coping strategies as predictors of university
adjustment of Turkish and US Students, Middle East Technical University.
9. Van, N. T. T. (2019). Emotional control of students at the Southern People’s Public Security
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Sciences.

[STS22-77]
306
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY RELATIONS BETWEEN THE
PHILIPPINES AND CHINA UNDER PRESIDENT RODRIGO
DUTERTE’S ADMINISTRATION
Tran Thai Bao1*, Duong Quang Hiep1, Tran Xuan Hiep2
Department of History - University of Sciences – Hue University, Hue City
Institute for Socio-Economic Research - Duy Tan University, Danang City
*Corresponding Author: Tran Thai Bao, 0946.327.864, Email: tranthaibao2@dtu.edu.vn
Abstract
The Philippines and China established diplomatic ties on June 9, 1975, since then the relationship
between two countries was almost "frozen" due to a variety of objective and subjective circumstances.
For a long time, the Philippines' foreign policy has been labeled as pro-American. However, as
entering the twenty-first century, China is viewed as a crucial partner and one of the key economic
locomotives that can assist the Philippines in overcoming economic stagnation. The Philippine
government advocated improving and expanding relations with China to take advantage of the
opportunities presented by China's economic boom, while limiting China's support for the opposition
in the Philippines, after being cold-shouldered by the US for deciding not to continue participating in
the US war in Iraq and attracted by China's investment commitments. The policy of deeper ties with
China also aims to achieve a balance in relations with major countries and reduce reliance on the
United States. Furthermore, the Philippines recognizes China as a large neighbor with territorial
ambitions, and it is constantly concerned about China intruding on Philippine maritime territory.
Despite existing hurdles, trade and investment cooperation between the Philippines and China has
gradually improved and is increasingly solidified and strengthened, owing to subjective and objective
conditions. The article focuses on analyzing the achievements of the two countries' relations in the
economic field, the causes and significance of this cooperation for the two sides under the
administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Keywords: Philippines, China, economic, trade, investment, cooperation
1. Introduction
The development of science and technology, the process of globalization and regionalization, and
the changing international and regional situation at the beginning of the twenty-first century force
countries to prioritize economic development, integration, and actively strengthen international
cooperation. These factors have influenced and provided favorable conditions for the Philippines-
China relationship to flourish in all areas. China is vigorously supporting reform and opening up as
entering the twenty-first century in order to accomplish its goal of becoming a world power. China
has increased its diplomatic connections with the majority of Asia-Pacific countries in order to
assume leadership in the area. China's growth began in 2010, when it surpassed Japan to become the
world's second largest economy (William J. Norris, 2021) after the United States. This has piqued the
interest of countries in the region seeking development possibilities from China. Furthermore, in order
to accomplish the geopolitical ambitions of a great power in the twenty-first century, China has
established clear objectives, with the economy serving as the driving force behind all of its growth
efforts. In the context of globalization and regionalization, the Philippines wants to expand
multilateral cooperation, diversify international relations, and seek integration with the region and the
world, but first and foremost, with the region's neighboring countries, China, for the purpose of
development and raising their position. Furthermore, the Philippines' stance to China is increasingly
shifting toward closer ties in order to boost economic cooperation between the two countries. Faced
307
with this situation, the Philippines and China both perceive the benefits that must be strengthened in
order to promote cooperation in all fields, particularly commerce and investments.
2. Commercial relations between the Philippines-China under President Rodrigo Duterte
dispensation (2016-2022)
Unlike its predecessor, since President R. Duterte came to power, the Duterte administration
has shifted from a tough foreign policy in relations with China to more flexible contact with Beijing.
On the other hand, unlike the Aquino Administration, which challenged China's expansionism in the
South China Sea, the Duterte Administration kept quiet about the dispute in exchange for concessions
on trade, aid and investment by China. President Duterte fostered closer economic and diplomatic ties
with China, he sought China's support to build structures in Mindanao, and even purchased Chinese-
made weapons for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Renato Cruz de Castro, 2017). As a result,
commercial and investment ties between the Philippines and China have accelerated. The Chinese
side, too, said that the two countries had entered a "golden period" (Duong Van Huy, 2019) in
bilateral commercial relations. As a result, it can be stated that political issues and tensions in the East
Sea do not impede economic cooperation between the two nations (Vo Xuan Vinh, 2019).
Regarding trade, with the policy of "pivot" towards China after taking office as president in
mid-June 2016, economic relations between the two countries were really promoted, economic
cooperation agreements between the two sides have been signed. During the 28th Conference of the
China-Philippines Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation (JCETC), the two sides
discussed many issues on economic cooperation, trade and investment. In addition, the two countries
also discussed the 6-year development program on Economic and Trade Cooperation. This is
considered an overall cooperation framework for the two countries' economic relations in the period
2017-2022 (Xinhua, 2017).
The number of cooperation agreements established during high-level visits between the
Philippines and China was several times more than the number of agreements inked during President
Duterte's first three years in office (2016-2018). This statistic does not include 25 cooperation
agreements between the two nations in 2019 with a total value of roughly 15 billion dollars, which
were signed under President Aquino III's six-year presidency (ASEAN Briefing 2017). From 2016 to
2022, China has consistently been the Philippines' most important commercial partner. In general, the
Philippines-China bilateral turnover market share in the Philippines' total annual trade is quite high,
and it holds a significant position.
Table 1. Trade between the Philippines and China for the period 2015-2020. Unit: Billion USD
Year Total Turnover Export Import Balance of trade
2015 45,65 18,98 26,67 -7,70
2016 47,21 17,38 29,83 -12,46
2017 51,28 19,23 32,05 -12,81
2018 55,67 29,61 35,06 -14,45
2019 60,95 20,21 40,74 -20,54
2020 61,15 19,31 41,84 -22,53
Source: Duong Van Huy, (2021), Adaptation of island Southeast Asian countries to the increasing
influence of China since the 19th congress of the Communist Party of China, pp. 223.
In 2016, China was the second trading partner of the Philippines, with a total turnover of
47.21 billion USD. In 2019, China became the largest trading partner of the Philippines, with a total
turnover of 60.95 billion USD. According to the table, the bilateral trade between the Philippines and
China has grown continuously and reached a high level in the period 2015-2020. However, it is worth
noting that the trade balance is increasingly tilted towards China, the bilateral trade deficit between
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the Philippines and China increased from $7.7 billion in 2015 to 22.53 in 2020 (See table). Despite
the hurdles, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian stated on January 19, 2021 that
economic and commercial cooperation between the Philippines and China "had achieved obvious
successes" in 2020. Pandemic challenges posed by the COVID-19 virus (Raymond Carl Dela Cruz,
2021).
In March 2022, by major trading partner, exports to the People’s Republic of China
comprised the highest export value amounting to USD 1.18 billion or a share of 16.5 percent to the
total exports (Dennis S. Mapa, 2022).
China, People's Republic of 1183700

United States of America 1/ 1090000
Japan2/ 1040600
Hong Kong 921300
Singapore 423700
Thailand 360800
Taiwan 251100
Germany 240300
Netherlands 230700
Korea, Republic of 230100
Other Countries 1198600
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000
FOB Value in million USD
Figure 1. Philippine Export by major partner country, March 2022. Source: Philippines
Statistics Authority, Highlights of the Philippine Export and Import Statistics March 2022
(Preliminary), https://psa.gov.ph/content/highlights-philippine-export-and-import-statistics-march-
2022-preliminary, accessed on 7/6/2022
Completing the top five major export trading partners with their export values and percent
shares to the total exports were: United States of America (USA), USD 1.09 billion (15.2%); Japan,
USD 1.04 billion (14.5%); Hong Kong, USD 921.27 million (12.8%); and Singapore, USD 423.67
million (5.9%). (See the figure 1).
3. Investment relations between the Philippines-China under President Rodrigo Duterte
dispensation (2016-2022)
The increase in economic contact between the two countries through the two sides' efforts to promote
bilateral economic cooperation within the framework of "One Belt One Road", as well as China's
establishment. The financial mechanism for this strategy is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIIB), which has helped the Philippines to attract investment capital from China. In 2018, China
ranked first in foreign investment in the Philippines, amounting to 819.6 million USD, up 2,072%
from 718.93 million USD in 2017 (figure 2). Despite being heavily affected by the Covid 19
pandemic, investment from China to the Philippines decreased from 830.02 in 2018 to 776.13 in 2020
(see figure 2). However, from the analysis data, the investment level from China through the
Philippines has decreased, but not too seriously. Businesses and corporations in industries such as
information and communication technology, food production, real estate, and power are driving this
expansion. With US$830.02 million, China placed second after Singapore as the second largest source
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of investment in the Philippines in 2019, accounting for 32 percent of overall foreign investment in
the Philippines.
The largest initiative is a joint venture with China Telecom to create a third
telecommunications operator. Related projects in the telecommunications, infrastructure, and services
industries are being attracted by this investment. C&U Group Ltd., New Hope Liuhe, Azure Gaming
(Hongkong) Ltd., Suzhou Boamax Technologies Group Co., Ltd., and JTK Technology (Suzhou) Co.,
Ltd. are some of the other significant Chinese investors in the Philippines. These are companies who
have promised to invest a significant amount of money in the Philippines in the near future.
900
819.6 830.02
759.94 776.13
800
692.38 711.05 718.93
700 664.09
593.14
600
MILLION USD
494.37
500
387.34
400
300
200
100
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
YEAR
Total FDI stock in million U.S.dollars
Figure 2. Total FDI from China to the Philippines 2010-2020. Source: Total FDI stock from
China to the Philippines, Published by C. Textor, Nov 2, 2021,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/720978/outward-fdi-stock-from-china-to-the-philippines/, accessed
on 7/6/2022
That the investment granted by the Philippine Investment Commission this year grew by
double digits to 907.2 billion pesos, owing to Chinese investment. (About RMB117.8 billion yuan) in
2018, up 47.1 percent from 616.8 billion pesos (around RMB80 billion yuan) in 2017. And Chinese
investment surged by 8364 percent from 575.8 million yuan in 2017 to 48.7 billion yuan in 2018 ( 刘
万里,2018). Also in 2017, during the visit of a high-level delegation of Philippine economic managers
to Beijing in January, 40 “large” and “small” infrastructure projects were proposed for financing to
the Chinese government. Of these, three major projects have been identified and are set to be
launched this year: The Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in Cagayan and Kalinga ($53.6 million);
the New Centennial Water Source – Kaliwa (Hyrdoelectric) Dam Project in Quezon ($374.03
million); and the 653-km South Line of the North-South Railway from Manila to Legaspi City/Bicol
Region ($3 billion) (Aaron Jed Rabena,2022). As a result, commercial connections between the
Philippines and China have swiftly increased under President R. Duterte's administration. The two
sides have made a number of good progresses by focusing the economy and increasing trade relations.
Despite the constraints of border conflicts, these successes have provided motivation for both nations
to continue to deepen economic cooperation. However, after more than two decades of trade and
investment cooperation between the Philippines and China, it can be argued that, the development of
the security-political situation has an impact on bilateral cooperation. China's commercial investment
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has fallen short of the Philippines' demands and growth objectives. Environmental concerns have
received little consideration in the pursuit of long-term development. Despite China's commitment to
invest heavily in the Philippines, the number of projects that have been completed is still small. One
of the reasons cited for this is a lack of energy. For Chinese investors, corruption and terrorism pose
challenges.
4. Conclusion
The Philippines-China relationship has gradually improved under President Duterte's
leadership. After approximately four years of shifting foreign policy toward "independence"
commerce, investment, and finance from China have all improved significantly. Furthermore, the
Philippines maintains territorial sovereignty and maintains domestic stability in order to sustain its
economic progress. Furthermore, the Philippines has improved its position and role in major country
relations, increasing relations with China while also altering relations with the United States in a more
substantial and balanced manner. Although problems in the South China Sea continue under President
Duterte's leadership, he also stated that political conflicts should not impact investment and economic
relations between the two nations. Aside from rapid economic development, the Philippines faces
significant obstacles when it comes to attracting investment capital and investors from China. These
same issues have forced the Philippines to change its diplomatic approach on a regular basis
throughout President Rodrigo Duterte's four years in power. There have recently been numerous
unfavorable views expressed regarding the Philippines-China relationship, owing to the growing
discord between the two nations, which would surely lead to competitiveness and violence.
Furthermore, because the Philippines and China's main common strategic objectives are drawn from
their bilateral economic connection, there is reason to assume that the bilateral relationship will
continue to expand in the future in a favorable manner.
References
1. Aaron Jed Rabena, Philippines-China Relations: A Deepening Partnership,
https://appfi.ph/resources/commentaries/1311-philippines-china-relations-a-deepening-partnership,
accessed on 7/6/2022.
2. ASEAN Briefing (2017), The Philippines‟ Economic and Political Relations with China,
ASEAN Briefing https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/philippines-economic-politicalrelations-
china/, accessed on June 19, 2021.
3. Dennis S. Mapa, (2022), Highlights of the Philippine Export and Import Statistics March
2022 (Preliminary), https://psa.gov.ph/content/highlights-philippine-export-and-import-statistics-
march-2022-preliminary, accessed on 6/6/2022
4. Duong Van Huy, (2019) Changes in the Philippines' relations with China under President
Duterte, Journal of Chinese Studies, No. 7, p.21.
5. Foreign Trade Statistics of the Philippines (2016), https://psa.gov.ph/content/foreign-trade-
statistics-philippines-2016, accessed May 20, 2021.
6. Foreign Trade Statistics of the Philippines, (2016), https://psa.gov.ph/content/foreign-trade-
statistics-philippines-2016, accessed May 20, 2021.
7. Liang Yu (2017), Sino-Philippine relations showing good momentum in all fields, Xinhua net,
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017 11/15/c_136754233.htm, accessed May 20, 2021.
8. Philippines Board of Investment, Philippines-China Business Relations,
https://boi.gov.ph/cifit-2020-philippines-china-
businessrelations/#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20and%20China%20bilateral,by%2016.02%20perce
nt%20in %202019, accessed 9/9/2021.
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9. Raymond Carl Dela Cruz, (2021), China is PH's top trading partner in 2020: envoy,
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1127882, accessed September 9, 2021
10. Renato Cruz de Castro, (2017) The Duterte Administration’s appeasement policy on China
and the crisis in the Philippine–US alliance, Philippine Political Science Journal.
11. Republic of the Philippines, https://psa.gov.ph/, accessed May 20, 2021.
12. Vo Xuan Vinh, (2019), Philippines-China relations after three years of President R. Duterte's
administration, Southeast Asian Studies No. 5/2019, pp.3-10.
13. William J. Norris, (2021), China’s Post-Cold War Economic Statecraft: A Periodization,
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 2021, Vol. 50(3) 294–316
14. Xinhua, (2017), China, Philippines agree to deepen trade, investment, http://
english.gov.cn/state_council/ministries/2017/03/07/content_281475587927594, accessed on
23/7/2020.
15. 刘万里 (2018), 菲政府报告：中国今年对菲律宾投资猛增 8364%,
https://finance.sina.com.cn/world/2018-12-25/doc-ihmutuee2571083.shtml, accessed on 7/6/2022.

[STS22-92]
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Law
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THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN
UNION LAW IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGES OF ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE TO HUMAN'S PRIVATE LIFE
Tran Tuan Canh1
Postgraduate students, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: + 84 962 941 171; Email: tcanh0505@gmail.com
Abstract
In the digital age, the advent and development of modern equipment has changed many social
relations, strongly influencing people's lives. People can easily access and share personal information
through different applications to meet their social needs. One of the technologies that raises many big
questions for legal science is artificial intelligence (AI). It is easy to see that AI collects data,
especially personal data, to turn it into valuable “commodities”. This is because that it is the necessary
“input material” for AI technology, helping AI learn how to think of humans, producing higher
results. At some point, due to the impact of AI on social life, it is required that the law be adjusted to
ensure that the collected personal data does not affect or infringe on the right to privacy of people.
Within the scope of the article, the author will analyze the challenges of artificial intelligence
applications to human privacy. At the same time, learn from the experience of the European Union on
the right to be forgotten as a legal solution to protect personal data in the digital age.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, personal data, the right to be forgotten, the right to privacy
1. Artificial intelligence and legal status of Artificial intelligence

1.1. Artificial intelligence (AI)
John McCarthy was the first to bring the phrase “artificial intelligence” (AI) into a scientific
concept. John McCarthy et al argue that artificial intelligence research aims to accurately describe
aspects of intellectual processing and learning (to obtain knowledge) and to create systems, machines
that simulate learning and intellectual processing. In the early stages, artificial intelligence aims at
building systems and machines capable of using natural languages, Abstracting - formalizing concepts
and solving problems based on a logical approach, make decisions in the absence of information
(John McCarthy 1955).
The term “AI” is becoming more and more popular in many fields. From research and
development perspective, the main areas of AI are expert systems, robotics, machine vision systems,
natural language processing systems, learning systems, and neural networks (Thuy, Nguyen Thanh et
al 2018). AI is implemented as a software package (virtual platform, chat bot, program, etc.) or
programming (robot, drone, etc.) as a tool for specific goals set out within the framework of legal
relationships formed by legal entities (Atabekov A, Yastrebov O 2018).
Thus, it can be seen that AI is deployed in the form of a data system (AI system), and then
applied in the form of software invisible entities or material tangible entities. AI has been applied in a
wide range of fields such as: healthcare, education, business, legal, finance - banking, transportation,
manufacturing, and services.
1.2. Legal status of Artificial intelligence
When AI reaches a certain level of development, they are no longer inanimate entities, but
have the ability to perceive, learn, make decisions on their own, and have the ability to independently
create. Increasing people’s demand for intelligent machines is the driving force behind the
development of AI. In the future, it is possible for AI to participate in social relations with other
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subjects, which will arise new legal relations that need adjustment. What happens when an AI-
integrated robot performs harmful behavior towards a human, how to punish this entity or how will
the law be adjusted once AI engages in social relations that arises problems?
In order to have optimal solutions to the legal challenges posed by AI, it is first necessary to
determine the legal status of AI. However, it should be clearly understood that the term “AI” is
defined as a field, so the legal determination must be based on AI technologies or AI-carrying entities.
As analyzed, AI technology can exist in data systems (computer programs, chat bots, software, etc)
that are intangible and can also be carried by a tangible entity or by a physical entity or also known as
intelligent agents, such as robots or self-driving cars.
Currently, there are two approaches to the legal status of AI as follows: (1) AI is a legal
object. Some AI-attached tangible entities, such as robots, can be considered to have human rights,
but very few countries take this approach; (2) AI is a separate legal object and is governed by special
regulations. Unrecognized AI-bearing entities have the same rights as humans, with the essence being
a property, tool, or product (the law only stipulates that AI is a specially controlled object, and there
are specific regulations to adjust the issues that being arisen related to AI) (Atabekov A, Yastrebov O
2018).
In Vietnam, there is no clear approach for AI or AI-carrying entities. This can be a challenge
in the application of the governing law. Vietnamese law stipulates that the subject of legal relations is
an individual or a juridical person (Article 1, Civil Code 2015). Since AI is an artificial entity and not
a natural entity like a human, AI cannot be included in the group of individuals. Obviously, AI is also
not an organization and does not have the characteristics to be recognized as a legal entity. On the
other hand, AI should not be seen as just a tool. Because, in the future, the prospect of AI
independently participating in social relations by itself is entirely possible. Considering AI as an asset,
tool or product is not suitable for the development level of AI. Based on these arguments, it is clear
that the best solution to the problem is to grant AI legal status, treating it as a separate subject from
real entities and thus creating a legal framework that adjusts legal matters related to AI.
2. Challenges of Artificial intelligence to human’s private life
As can be seen, AI offers many opportunities, but also attaches to a series of challenges that
are not easy to solve. Of these, the social and legal challenges are especially important (Matjaž Perc et
al 2019). What happens when an AI-carrying entity commits acts of harm to humans? Here are the
challenges AI can impact on people’s privacy.
2.1. Violation of privacy in data collection
With the widespread use of various means of data collection, intelligent systems can not only
determine identity through physiological characteristics such as fingerprints and heart rate, but also
automatically adjust lighting, indoor temperature, music playback, and even sleep time, exercise,
eating, and physical habits, thereby analyzing the user’s health status.
However, the value that AI brings often comes with risks when personal data is illegally
collected, invaded privacy, or used for bad purposes such as manipulation, swaying public opinion,
etc. The economic value of AI makes personal data attractive to both researchers and businesses. In
many cases, there are people who are willing to risk other people’s private spaces to obtain this
personal data.
This personal data will be used by AI for decision-making in the economy. For example,
banks will decide to lend based on AI analysis of the borrower’s credit history (with more confidence
than creditors, and without the risk of bribery or confusion); insurance companies will offer discounts
to customers who accept to wear health monitoring devices, which are very compact and convenient.
Furthermore, governments with a coercive apparatus and significant financial and technological
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resources, such as China, are aspiring to manage society through a social credit system (Writed 2019).
The greater the potential of AI, the greater its appeal to those who want to invade privacy.
2.2. Privacy issues in knowledge mining
Mining from data to knowledge is an important capability of artificial intelligence.
Knowledge mining tools are becoming more and more powerful. Countless seemingly unrelated
pieces of data can be integrated with each other to determine individual behavioral traits and even
personality traits. For example, as long as being web browsing history, chat content, shopping history,
and other types of record data are combined, it is possible to outline a person’s behavioral trajectory
and analyze preferences, individual and behavioral habits to further predict consumer behavior. In the
event of a potential need, the seller can provide the consumer with the necessary information, product,
or service in advance. However, these personalized customization processes come with the discovery
and exposure of individual privacy, and how privacy protection is regulated is an issue that needs to
be considered concurrently with other technical applications.
3. The right to be forgotten according to European Union law and experience for Vietnam
in the face of challenges of artificial intelligence to human's private life
Internationally, the legal challenge to AI has always been an issue of concern to governments
and academia besides research, development, and application of AI. Many countries around the world
have begun to conduct research and have taken significant steps in building a legal framework
governing social relations related to AI (Atabekov A, Yastrebov O 2018). In this section, the author
will refer to the European Union’s right to be forgotten; this is considered a solution to protect
personal data against the challenges posed by technology, thereby contacting Vietnam.
3.1. The right to be forgotten according to European Union law
The right to be forgotten appeared in Europe from the French term le droit à l'oubli – a right
that grants a convicted criminal the right to object to the publication of relevant data to the case and
the process of serving their own punishment (Jeffrey Rosen 2012). The criminal justice system in this
country places great importance on the significance of reintegration into the community. This is
considered an opportunity for former offenders to forget the haunting things that exist in the past and
move towards a better future.
Today, the right to be forgotten is mentioned in the European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), which officially came into force on May 25, 2018, including right to
erasure and right to de-list/right to de-refer, although this right was declared by the Court of Justice of
the European Union (CJEU) in an earlier ruling against Google on May 13, 2014 (Google Spain SL,
Google Inc. v Agencia 2014).
In the case that is considered the most important when the right to be forgotten was officially
recognized in the European Union (Case Google v. Costeja), on May 13, 2014, the European Court of
Justice (CJEU) made a decision to accept the petition of Mr. Costeja González (Spanish). Mr. Costeja
González had previously filed a complaint with the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD)
against La Vanguardia Ediciones SL (publisher of the Spanish newspaper), Google Spain, and Google
Inc. Because when entering Mr. Costeja González's name into Google’s search engine, the results
show links to two web pages from La Vanguardia from January 19 and March 9, 1998, with the
content of the notice of the foreclosure of Mr. Costeja’s house to open an auction to recover the debt
of the Spanish Social Security agency. According to Mr. Costeja, his foreclosure proceedings were
settled several years ago. Mr. Costeja González has asked Google Spain or Google Inc to delete or
conceal personal data relating to him and to exclude them from search results so that they no longer
appear in links leading to La Vanguardia. It affects his present life. With the acceptance of this request
from Mr. Costeja González, the CJEU argues that even if a data processing company'’s physical
servers are located outside of Europe, EU rules still apply to operators. They can exploit search
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engines if they have a branch or subsidiary in an EU member state. Therefore, Google cannot exclude
its responsibility under Union law when processing personal data by a search engine. At that point,
EU data protection laws apply, and the right to be forgotten is no exception. This applies when such
information is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, or no longer relevant for the purposes of its original
processing (Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia 2014). At the same time, the Court also found
that in this case, the infringement of a person’s right to data protection cannot be replaced by the
economic interests of the search engine.
The CJEU ruling is considered to have laid the foundation for the regulation of personal data
protection by the right to be forgotten in an era when artificial intelligence is widely applied to life.
Accordingly, the right to be forgotten mentioned in Sections 65 and 66 of the preamble and Article 17
of the GDPR is understood as the right of data subjects to request data controllers to delete personal
information related to them when this information is no longer relevant. Within a reasonable period of
time, when receiving a request to delete personal data related to the data subject, the data controller
must make such a request if it falls into one of the following cases (Article 17.1, GDPR): (1) personal
data is no longer needed and is no longer suitable for its original purpose of existence; (2) data
subjects withdraw their consent regarding the processing of their personal data for a particular
purpose or purposes; (3) the data subject objects to the processing of personal data when the data
controller does not have a good reason for the processing; (4) personal data has been used illegally;
(5) data is deleted to comply with Union or Member State regulations or to fulfill a particular legal
responsibility of a public authority; or (6) personal data has been unlawfully collected in connection
with the provision of children’s social information services.
As of May 29, 2014, the process of asking Google to delete data related to the right to be
forgotten was officially implemented. As of March 30, 2022, Google received 1,252,729 removal
requests, and as a result, 4,879,765 URLs related to the request were removed from Google search
results (Google Transparency report 2022).
Thus, it can be seen that the right to be forgotten in the European Union has set a big turning
point and is an experience for countries to consider and perceive the progressive aspects and
concretize the provisions of the law in order to promptly protect important personal data when
technology is becoming popular and people’s private lives are at risk of being violated, especially
with the application of artificial intelligence, which has requirements that need to be adjusted by law.
3.2. Experience for Vietnam in legislative research activities against the challenge of
artificial intelligence to people's privacy
In Vietnam, AI has been mentioned a lot in recent years and is considered an important
driving force for socio-economic development. As an example, research work and products and
entities associated with AI appear more and more. The government has identified AI as a disruptive
technology in the next 10 years. At the same time, it is determined that this will be a “spike” that
needs to be researched in order to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the Industrial
Revolution 4.0 (Ministry of Science & Technology Vietnam 2019).
However, the Vietnamese legal system is still in the process of regulating traditional social
relations related to natural persons, legal entities, and organizations without legal status. The legal
space for legal relations involving technology is still limited. Therefore, if AI-related problems arise,
the confusion in regulating those problems also begins. This shows that we are having certain delays
with the global trend in preparing specific solutions and scenarios for the prospect of AI thriving in
Vietnam, especially related to personal data protection issues. Therefore, building legal regulations
governing the protection of personal data and ensuring that the right to privacy is not infringed upon
by the challenges posed by AI is absolutely necessary and appropriate to the global picture as well as
the demand and reality of AI development in Vietnam.
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From the needs of society and the current situation of domestic law, compared with the
provisions of European Union law on the right to be forgotten, the author suggests some orientations
for Vietnam to consider and recognize the right to be forgotten as a basic human right in addition to
other moral rights that exist when the speed of Internet connection and the process of storing and
analyzing data take place quickly, directly affecting people’s lives, specifically:
Firstly, regulate the concept of the right to be forgotten to understand the meaning of this
right, and at the same time, define who controls the data and what work it does to ensure that the right
to be forgotten is fully understood in a unified way.
Secondly, specific regulations on cases where individuals and organizations (collectively
referred to as “data subjects”) are allowed to exercise the right to be forgotten in the digital age when
more and more artificial intelligence is applied in real life. From studying the EU regulations on the
right to be forgotten, the author proposes that data subjects can exercise this right in some cases, for
example: when data collection and storage are done in an illegal way; data is outdated, no longer
suitable for the purpose of its original existence, or data must be deleted to comply with a legal
obligation at the decision of a competent state agency, etc.
Thirdly, regulations on the limited case of the right to be forgotten can ensure a balance
between the benefits of applications of artificial intelligence and the protection of personal data from
infringing on privacy. As analyzed, although it is an indispensable right when technology is gradually
becoming popular in people’s lives, the right to be forgotten cannot be seen as an absolute right but
must be limited by larger purposes, for example, the public interest, serving common goals for human
development, ensuring balance with other human rights, etc.
4. Conclusion
The development of modern technologies such as AI has brought about tremendous changes
in various areas of human life. Huge amounts of data are collected and analyzed using applications of
artificial intelligence to help solve social problems that have not previously been solved. However,
every good thing has some flaws, and AI is no exception. The data collected by AI can be used
against people and put personal data at risk, even intruding on the privacy of each person. Therefore,
the right to be forgotten is seen as a solution to protect people from the risks posed by technology.
The introduction of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new step
forward, a foundation for countries to learn from progressive experiences and at the same time
concretize the right to be forgotten in the provisions of national law. And Vietnam has all the
preconditions to consider acquiring and building this right in order to meet the needs of individuals’
data protection against the challenges posed by artificial intelligence applications in the digital age.
References
1. Civil Code 2015 (Law No. 91/2015/QH13) dated November 24, 2015.
2. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of The European Parliament and of The Council of 27 April 2016 on
the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free
movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (European General Data Protection
Regulation - GDPR).
3. Atabekov A, Yastrebov O (2018), Legal Status of Artificial Intelligence Across Countries:
Legislation on the Move, European Research Studies Journal, XXI(4), pp.773-782.
319
4. Google Spain SL, Google Inc v. Agencia Española de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Costeja
González, 2014. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62012CJ0131.
Accessed 27 March 2022.
5. Google Transparency report (2022), Removal request under European privacy law.
https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/europeprivacy/. Accessed 30 March 2022.
6. Hojnik J, Ozer M, Perc M (2019) Social and juristic challenges of artificial intelligence.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0278-x. Accessed 30 March 2022.
7. Ministry of Science & Technology Vietnam (2019) Trí tuệ nhân tạo sẽ là mũi nhọn cho Cách
mạng công nghiệp 4.0 của Việt Nam. https://www.most.gov.vn/vn/tin-tuc/16538/tri-tue-nhan-tao-
se-la-mui-nhon-cho-cach-mang-cong-nghiep-4-0-cua-viet-nam.aspx. Accessed 2nd April 2022.
8. McCarthy J, Minsky L, Rochester N, Shannon C.E (1955) A Proposal for the Dartmouth summer
conference on artificial intelligence, AI Magazine. http://www-
formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html. Accessed 26 March 2022.
9. Roén J (2012) The Right To Be Forgotten, Stanford Law Review.
http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/privacy-paradox/right-to-be-forgotten.
10. Thuy, Ha quang et al (2018) Trí tuệ nhân tạo trong thời đại số: Bối cảnh thế giới và liên hệ với
Việt Nam. http://tapchicongthuong.vn/bai-viet/tri-tue-nhan-tao-trong-thoi-dai-so-boi-canh-the-
gioi-va-lien-he-voi-viet-nam-55038.htm. Accessed 27 March 2022. Accessed 31 March 2022.
11. Writed (2019) The complicated truth about China's social credit system.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained. Accessed 1st April 2022.

[STS22-07]
320
THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE WORKS TO THE PUBLIC ON THE
INTERNET ENVIRONMENT: ISSUES AND PROPOSALS FOR
VIETNAM
Nguyen Thi Thai Ha1*
1
Faculty of Law, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (Phone: + 84 961 902 972; Email:
ntt.ha93@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
In recent years, a number of cases related to the illegal communication of works to the public on the
Internet environment have attracted much public attention. In addition, the development of technology
has resulted in the illegal release, distribution, and communication of works on the Internet
environment becoming more and more sophisticated, causing many challenges for the process of
handling violations. In the article, the author analyzes the prevailing Vietnamese laws on the right to
communicate works and consults a number of provisions of international laws on this issue. Thereby,
the author presents some proposals for Vietnam to improve the laws on the right to communicate
works in the future.
Keywords: communication right, copyright, intellectual property right, distribution, the public
1. Introduction
In the recent years, copyright infringement on the Internet environment in Vietnam has become more
and more common. As though the prevailing intellectual property laws of Vietnam has basically met
the requirements for copyright protection in international treaties to which Vietnam is a member as
well as the practical requirements of Vietnam, copyright infringement in general and on the internet
environment in particular is still happening every day for all types of works, from literary, artistic and
scientific works to cinematic and musical works, stage, computer programs, etc. The acts of
infringement are also very diverse, from infringing on economic rights such as the right to copy,
communicate and distribute the works to moral rights such as the right to publish the works, the right
to protect the integrity of the works, etc. The acts of infringement are becoming more sophisticated
with the exploitation of technology development.
Recently, the case causing a stir in public opinion and those who are interested in Vietnamese
copyright is that the Investigation Police Agency under the the Municipal Police Department of Ho
Chi Minh City shared that it is investigating a case of infringement of copyright and related rights
according to the decision to prosecute a criminal case related to the website: www.phimmoi.net. This
is the first case in Vietnamese history that the police investigate to prosecute a case of copyright
infringement on the act of exploiting, copying, using, displaying, and communicating
cinematographic works to the public without the permission of the rights holder and conducting the
business of advertising products and services illegally on copyrighted movies, to gain illicit profits
with particularly large sums of money. This fact gives a necessary task to review the laws related to
copyright infringement, especially on the Internet environment, and to consult international
experience on this issue in order to make improvement on Vietnamese laws in the coming time. In
particular, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has officially taken effect. In this
Agreement, there are also several new regulations and commitments on intellectual property that
Vietnam needs to meet. In this article, the author shall focus on analyzing the content of Vietnamese
laws on the right to communicate works to the public. In addition, several international regulations
and adjudication practices related to this issue are also studied and analyzed. From there, the author
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shall present some issues to note to improve Vietnamese intellectual property laws on copyright in
general and the right to communicate works to the public in particular.
2. Provisions of international law and Vietnamese laws on the right to communicate works to
the public
2.1 Provisions of international law on the right to communicate works to the public on the
Internet environment
In terms of international law, the provision of the right to communicate works to the public is
recognized in the Berne Convention with the implication that the author of a work has the “exclusive”
right to exercise or allow others to communicate his/her work to the public by any means or process,
landline or wireless.
Recently, the EVFTA also has provisions related to this issue. In particular, the Agreement recognizes
that: “Broadcasting or communicating works to the public by landline, wireless, electronic
information networks or any other technical means, including making the works available to the
public in a manner that the public accessible at a place and time of their choosing”. This content is
considered a new and special provision. Because, this provision is not recognized in the Berne
Convention or the TRIPs Agreement, which is provided for in Article 3(1) of the Copyright Directive
of the Council of Europe (Copyright Directive, (2001/29/) EC)). This provision was passed by the
Council of Europe (EC) on May 22, 2001, with the aim of protecting copyright and related rights in
the information technology age. Under this provision, countries being members of the EU must vest in
authors the exclusive right to permit or prohibit any communication of works to the public by wireless
or wired means, including making their works available to the public in such a way that the public can
choose where and when to access the works. The main entities for this provision are websites
containing unauthorized works, with the phrase “including making the work available to the public in
a manner accessible to the public at a place and time of their choosing”, which is to handle these sites
even before there are users (or there are enough people to be considered “the public”) – because
omitting this phrase, owners of violated websites would be able to argue that they have not
communicated unauthorized works to “the public” when no one or only a group of people can view
their website content. But, as the Council of Europe has determined, these sites can provide the public
with unauthorized access to works at any time, thereby creating the extreme high risk of copyright and
related rights infringement.
2.2 Provisions of Vietnamese laws on the right to communicate works to the public on the
Internet environment
In accordance with the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, amended and supplemented in 2009, 2019
(the prevailing Law on Intellectual Property) cinematographic works are a type of work protected by
copyright (point e, Clause 1 of Article 14). Copyright of a work is a specific civil right, including the
economic rights and moral rights of the holder as the author or copyright holder to the
cinematographic works. In which, economic rights include the following rights: to make derivative
works; to display their works to the public; to reproduce their works; to distribute or import the
original or copies of their works; to communicate their works to the public by wireless or landline
means, electronic information networks or other technical means; to lease the original or copies of
cinematographic works and computer programs (Article 19 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005
amended, supplemented in 2009, 2019). These rights are vested in the author, the copyright holder
having the exclusive right to exercise or permit others to do so. In other words, the entity who wants
to exercise one of these rights of the work must obtain the consent of the author or the copyright
holder. At the same time, when exploiting and exercising one, several or all of the above rights, they
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must obtain permission and pay royalties, remunerations and other material benefits to the copyright
holder (Article 20 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 amended, supplemented in 2009, 2019).
In Vietnam, in accordance with the Decree 22/2018/ND-CP, the right to communicate works to the
public by landline, wireless, electronic information networks or any technical means is the right of the
copyright holder to exclusively exercise or permit others to make the work or copies of the work
available to the public accessible to the public at a place and time of their own choosing (Article 21.4
of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP). As such, such act of making work available to Internet users is
considered an act of communicating the work to the public; because via online websites, works can be
accessed worldwide (Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung 2015).
In general, the provision on communication of works specified in the EVFTA is not a completely new
provision for Vietnamese intellectual property laws. Because this provision has been stipulated in
Article 21.4 of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP and the Draft Law amending and supplementing the Law on
Intellectual Property.
3. The practice of handling several cases related to the act of illegally communicating works to
the public on the internet environment
In the case brought to Dutch court, there is the content as follows: “Stichting Brein” is a copyright
protection fund in the Netherlands. This organization required the companies “Ziggo BV”, “XS4ALL
Internet BV”, which was a group of internet service providers (Internet service provider ISP;
hereinafter referred to as Providers) to prevent users of the Internet services of these Providers, not
allow them to access the “The Pirate Bay” website (hereinafter referred to as the Pirate Bay). The
reason Stichting Brein requested this is because they believed that Pirate Bay was providing a
searching tool that allowed users to find files shared by other users, which the software large of which
were files containing unlicensed copies of works, most of which were files containing unauthorized
copies of works, causing widespread copyright infringement.
The Dutch court initially accepted this request. But then, when the case went to the appellate level,
this request was rejected by the Court on the grounds that Pirate Bay did not infringe copyright, but
the users of Pirate Bay were the ones doing illegal acts when users use the website to search and share
unauthorized files. Therefore, the request to ban users from accessing Pirate Bay’s website is not
reasonable.
This case made the Dutch Supreme Court to request the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) to give an answer
to the question: whether in this case, there had been an act of infringing on the copyright of Pirate
Bay, more specifically, had Pirate Bay broadcasted and communicated the works to the public? On
November 13, 2015, the ECJ finally issued a ruling, that the concept of “communication to the
public” also includes the act of Pirate Bay, that is, the act of building and managing an online
platform which allows users to search and share unauthorized works (Paragraph 18 Judgment of the
Court 2017).
Thus, if an individual or organization on the Internet environment intentionally provides users of their
services, website with the right to illegally access and approach protected works at any place or time
of their choosing can be considered an act of communication. In fact, this is one of the most common
copyright infringement acts on the internet, including the internet in Vietnam, due to the ease of
sharing; as well as users also have access to a large number of works.
Comparing the act of the Pirate Bay and the infringement in the case of “phimmoi.net”
It can be seen that the infringement in the “phimmoi.net” case is done in a fairly traditional way. In
particular, it is the individuals or organizations that manage “phimmoi.net” uploading unauthorized
works on their own websites, thereby allowing internet users to access and view these works.
Meanwhile, the act of the Pirate Bay is to provide a platform for users to exchange these works
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themselves (“peers to peers” or P2P), using Torrent cloud sharing technologies, so they do not directly
share unauthorized works. This is also the reason that the Dutch Court in the above case decided not
to accept the request to block access to Pirate Bay.
While the illegality of the act of sites like “phimmoi.net” is relatively conspicuous, Pirate Bay
introduced a new type of act based on the development of science and technology in which they do
not must be the entity spreading unauthorized works. Therefore, the EJC’s supplemented provision on
the definition of communicating works to the public has given law enforcement a more theoretical
basis to handle similar acts. In addition, the EJC’s guidance also opens up the way to handle other
copyright infringement acts arising in the 4.0 technology era.
4. Proposals for Vietnam in order to improve the laws on the right to communicate works
In the light of the above analysis, the provision on the right to communicate works to the public
according to the EU’s definition is highly applicable in the current context when the acts that are
likely to infringe on copyright and related rights appear more and more complex, especially acts
taking place on the internet environment.
Although Vietnamese Intellectual property laws in general and the Draft Law on Intellectual property
in particular are consistent with international law in general and have domesticated the provisions of
the EVFTA, there are still certain shortcomings in the right to communicate the work to the public.
Therefore, considering that Vietnamese Intellectual property laws needs to be supplemented to clarify
this right to narrow the gap when this is an important economic right of copyright holders. From the
point of view of the author, when considering and making regulations related to signs of infringement
the right to communicate works to the public via the internet, there are important characteristics
should be noted as follows: Firstly, there is an act of communicating illegally works or/and
significantly assisting directly or indirectly to users of websites or internet services to access illegally
works. Secondly, there is an act of seeking income through websites and internet services that show
signs of communicating works to the public, including the form of indirectly seeking income, not
using infringing works such as through advertising (the “The Pirate Bay” website, Paragraph 46
Judgment of the Court 2017) or asking users to fill out surveys.
With the development of technology, copyright infringement acts on the Internet environment are
more and more sophisticated and difficult to control. Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnamese
intellectual property laws to have feasible and highly applicable provisions to facilitate the process of
controlling and handling infringing acts.
References
1. Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 14 June 2017. Stichting Brein v Ziggo BV, XS4ALL
Internet BV. C-610/15.
https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=191707&pageIndex=0&doclang=E
N&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=2831946#Footref*. Accessed 5 April 2022.
2. Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung (2015) Copyright in virtual space. Ho Chi Minh City National University
Publishing House.
3. The European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
4. Vietnam Government (2018) Decree on Guidelines for Certain Number of Articles of the
Intellectual Property Law and Law on Amendments to the Intellectual Property Law 2009 in terms of
the Copyright and Related Rights.
5. Vietnam National Assembly (2005) Law on Intellectual Property, No. 50/2005/QH11 dated
December 12, 2005.
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6. Vietnam National Assembly (2009) Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of
the Law on Intellectual Property, No. 36/2009/QH12 dated June 19, 2009.
7. Vietnam National Assembly (2019) Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of
the Law on Insurance Business and Law on Intellectual Property, No. 42/2019/QH14 đated June 14,
2019.

[STS22-17]
325
SEA CARRIER’S RIGHT TO APPLY SAFETY MEASURES TO THE
DANGEROUS GOODS
Nguyen Chi Thang
Law Faculty, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: 0908633996; Email: nc.thang@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract:
Dangerous goods are considered to be restricted goods for shipping due to their nature and
serious impact on people, the environment, and national security in case of a happening accident. The
carrier has strict rights and obligations when transporting dangerous goods to avoid damages. The
article analyzes the provisions of Vietnamese laws in comparison with international laws regarding
the responsibilities and legal powers of the party transporting dangerous goods in sea transport.
Keywords: Dangerous goods, transport of dangerous goods, carrying by sea.
1. The concept of dangerous goods in sea transport under Vietnamese laws

Dangerous goods are goods that contain dangerous substances, potentially endangering
human life, the environment, and national security. Vietnam's Maritime Code 2015 does not specify
the concept of dangerous goods. Instead, Article 3(2) of Decree No
1
. 42/2020/ND-CP2 introduces the concept of dangerous goods as follows: Dangerous goods
are goods containing dangerous substances when transported on roads or inland waterways that are
likely to endanger human life and health, environment, safety and national security. In addition, in
order to provide more detailed regulations on dangerous goods, Decree 42/2020 categorizes
dangerous goods into 9 groups, including Group 1: Explosives - Group 2: Gases (Pneumatics,
liquefied natural gases) that can cause explosions, toxic, corrosive ... - Group 3: flammable liquids -
Group 4.1: flammable solids - Group 4.2: flammable substances - Group 4.3: substances when
exposed to water can catch fire gases. - Group 5.1: oxidizers - Group 5.2: organic peroxides - Group
6: toxic substances that cause damage or death when exposed through the gastrointestinal or
respiratory tract or cause transdermal infections. - Group 7: radioactive substances - Group 8:
corrosive substances - Group 9: other dangerous substances that do not belong to the above groups.
Each group is divided into a variety of goods and each type of goods is branded with colors indicating
dangerous properties, requiring separate requirements for loading and unloading, loading,
transportation.
That Vietnamese laws classify dangerous goods according to the above groups is inconsistent
with the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code proposed by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) in 1965 to ensure safety in the process of transporting dangerous goods by sea. 3
In my opinion, dangerous goods need to be defined more clearly so that the reader can
basically grasp the dangerous nature of the goods as well as the conditions to be adhered to when
storing or transporting these items. Accordingly, dangerous goods are understood as items capable of
fire, explosion, corrosion, toxins, and radiation, as well as causing human casualties and loss of
property and environment, which require special measures and conditions of preservation.
Transporting dangerous goods by sea needs more attention than other modes of transport.
This comes from many reasons: First, the amount of dangerous goods transported around the world
1
Clause 1.4 National Technical Regulations QCVN 38:2015/BGTVT
2
Decree 42/2020/ND-CP dated April 8, 2020 stipulates the list of dangerous goods, the transportation of
dangerous goods by road vehicles and the transport of dangerous goods on inland waterways.
3
Clause 2.0.1.1 IMDGC, full text at https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/004/imo.imdg.1.2006.pdf
326
by sea is much greater than other means; Second, transporting dangerous goods at sea can pose major
environmental risks, such as pollution and toxic effects on the marine environment; Third, in practice,
many maritime accidents occur frequently; And finally, the legal relationship between the shipper and
the carrier under the contract for transporting dangerous goods by sea is quite complicated.
2. The right to apply safety measures of the dangerous goods carrier by sea
The carrier of dangerous goods is allowed by law to apply a number of measures to ensure
that the goods are safe, with no accidents affecting the environment and human health. These rights
include: (1) the right to refuse the carriage and (2) the right to dispose the goods from ships.
2.1 Right to refuse to transport dangerous goods
The right to refuse to transport dangerous goods is the basic right of the carrier. The carrier
may exercise this right at any time before the dangerous goods are loaded onto the ship even if the
carrier and shipper have an agreement on the transportation of dangerous goods.
Vietnam's laws on transporting goods do not have any provisions that give the carrier the right
to refuse to carry dangerous goods but only provide in a general way about this right. Specifically,
para. 1, Article 154 of the Maritime Code stipulates: The carrier has the right to refuse to load onto
ship the goods that do not meet the necessary packaging standards. As such, the carrier is allowed to
refuse to receive the goods if the shipper does not fulfill his or her obligations to properly pack the
goods, mark, label, and notify in writing. Particularly for dangerous goods, Vietnamese laws stipulate
that the shipper is obliged to notify the carrier within an appropriate time, attaching appropriate
documents and instructions necessary for explosive, flammable goods and other dangerous goods or
types of goods that need to take special measures when loading goods, transport, storage and
unloading (Article 154.2 of the Maritime Code).
With regard to the shipper's obligation to notify the carrier of dangerous goods, Article 32 of
the Rotterdam Convention provides more clearly than Vietnamese law. Specifically, when the nature
or characteristics of the goods are likely to become a danger to people, property, or the environment:
(a) The shipper must notify the carrier about the nature or the dangerous characteristics of the goods
in a timely manner before they are delivered to the carrier. If the shipper does not do so and the carrier
or the implementer is unaware of their nature or characteristics of danger, then the shipper shall be
liable to the carrier for losses or damages resulting from the failure to notify; and (b) the shipper must
mark or label the dangerous goods in accordance with any laws, regulations or other requirements of
the public authority applicable during any stage of the expected carriage of the goods. If the shipper
does not perform, the carrier shall be responsible for the loss or damage caused by such an error.
Of course, it is necessary to distinguish this right of the carrier from the violation of the
transport contract. In fact, sometimes the carrier violates the agreed carriage agreement on the
grounds of exercising the right to refuse to transport dangerous goods. The writer argues that in the
situation where the carrier exercises the right to refuse to receive the goods, the carrier shall be
responsible for demonstrating the exercise of the right to refuse to transport dangerous goods due to
the failure to notify the shipper of the status of the dangerous goods. If the carrier fails to provide
evidence, the carrier shall be liable for a breach of contract.
2.2 Right to handle the dangerous goods
Article 155.1 of the Maritime Code 2015 stipulates: The carrier has the right to unload goods
from the seagoing vessel, cancel or incapacitate the harmful capacity of explosive, flammable or
other dangerous goods without compensation and still be collected at the full price of the transport
service if the goods have been misrepresented or because the carrier was not informed in advance
and could not be aware of the dangerous characteristics of the goods when loading and unloading
according to normal professional knowledge.
327
It can be seen that during the transport of dangerous goods by sea, the carrier can dispose of,
destroy or send it back without having to pay damages. This can be called the right to handle
dangerous goods. Once dangerous goods are involved in an accident during shipping at sea, there will
be enormous consequences. Based on the principle of social safety and mitigation of cargo damage in
exchange for the safety of ships, people and the environment, the carrier has the right to handle
dangerous goods in an emergency. This is one of the most important rights of the carrier and also the
major difference in the transport of dangerous goods in the field of shipping with ordinary goods.
The above provisions of Vietnamese laws are similar to those of the 1968 Hague-Visby Rule.
Specifically, Article 4.6 of this Rule provides that goods that are flammable, explosive or dangerous
to the loading that the carrier, captain or agent of the carrier will not accept carriage if they are aware
of their nature or characteristics, may be unloaded by the carrier at any time at any location, or
destroyed or innocuous without a refund and the sender of such goods will be liable for all damages
and costs directly or indirectly arising from or as a result of such queuing. It can be seen that the
provisions of Vietnamese and international law both recognize the right to handle dangerous goods in
an emergency and can lead to accidents affecting life, health, environment and maritime security. 4
a. Subject of the right to handle of dangerous goods
According to the analysis above, it can be noticed that the Maritime Code 2015 gives the
"carrier" the right to handle the goods during transportation. The writer argues that the subject of this
right should also include the actual carrier. In some cases, the carrier is only a party to the contract of
carriage and does not carry out the actual transport of goods at sea; In this case, the carrier in the
contract of carriage may authorize the actual carrier. The transport of dangerous goods at sea shall be
carried out by the actual carrier; At the same time, this subject controls and handles dangerous goods
directly. Therefore, when faced with danger and risk, the discretion of the actual carrier should be
exercised. If the right to dispose of dangerous goods is not extended to the actual carrier, this right
will exist only nominally and goes against the original idea of the law. The actual carrier will have no
legal basis to handle dangerous goods and will even be subject to damage claims from the shipper.
The laws should provide detailed provisions that give the de facto carrier the right to handle
dangerous goods, in accordance with the purpose of the law to reduce damage and risks to ships,
people, goods and the marine environment, and ultimately to ensure safe shipping. 5
b. Conditions to exercise the right to handle dangerous goods
Clause 2, Article 155 of the Maritime Code stipulates: "In case the carrier has received and
loaded the ship with dangerous goods, despite having been notified in advance or has been aware of
the dangerous nature of such goods according to ordinary professional knowledge and has taken
preventive measures in accordance with regulations, but when such goods threaten the safety of ships,
persons and goods on board, the carrier shall have the right to handle them in accordance with
clause 1 of this Article."
It can be seen that the Maritime Code sets out the conditions for applying the right to remove
dangerous goods, including: First, the goods have been loaded onto the ship; Second, the carrier has
4
Original text of Article IV rule 6 of the Hague Rules: "Goods of an inflammable, explosive or dangerous
nature to the shipment whereof the carrier, Master or agent of the carrier has not consented with knowledge of
their nature and character, may at any time before discharge be landed at any place, or destroyed or rendered
innocuous by the carrier without compensation and the shipper of such goods shall be liable for all damages
and expenses directly or indirectly arising out of or resulting from such shipment……."
5
Paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the United Nations Convention for the Carriage of Goods by Sea, 1978 (Hamburg
Convention), “Actual carrier” means any person entrusted by the carrier to carry out the carriage of the goods
or part thereof, and includes any other person entrusted to the performance of such carriage.
328
taken the necessary measures to preserve the cargo; and Third, when such goods threaten the safety of
the ship, people and other goods on board. In the event that all three of these criteria are satisfied, the
carrier has the right to apply measures to handle dangerous goods from the ship if an emergency
occurs regardless of whether the shipper has notified in advance or the carrier is aware of the
dangerous nature of the goods.
However, the law provides that this right applies only when "such goods threaten the safety of
the ship, people and cargo on board" but does not specify under what circumstances the carrier is
obliged to apply the right to handle dangerous goods. According to the writer, the carrier may only
apply this measure under "mandatory circumstances". In the event that the carrier knows about the
nature of the dangerous goods and agrees to the carriage, it is only when these goods become a real
danger that the carrier has the right to handle to eliminate the existing danger and prevent further
losses. Due to the transport of dangerous goods in this condition as a result of the agreement between
the carrier and the shipper, in terms of cruise safety, the carrier enjoys this special right, but the
prerequisite is stricter than the previous condition. The actual dangers here include the danger that
will occur immediately in the absence of countermeasures and the real objective situation in which
without countermeasures the danger will inevitably occur after a certain period. It is especially
important to note that the carrier is responsible for proving for "becoming a real danger", otherwise he
will face the risk of being complained about by the shipper. Whether the carrier exercises the right to
dispose of the goods and how the right to dispose of the goods depends on the decision of the carrier
and there is no need to consider the interests of the parties involved.
The carrier has the right to unload goods from the seagoing vessel, cancel or incapacitate the
potential for harm of explosive, flammable, or other dangerous goods. The writer wants to better
analyze the concepts in this regulation. Specifically, "unloading goods from ships" can be interpreted
as bringing goods from ships to shore or disposing of goods at sea; "Cancellation" is considered to be
the eradication or disappearance of the physical form of the goods; while "incapacitating harm" means
disposing of goods in a certain way to make them not threaten the safety of ships, property and
people. In fact, the types of measures that the carrier must take are not arbitrary but must be according
to the actual situation at that time. Appropriate measures should cause minimal losses, benefit the
safety of the voyage and maintain the interests of the parties involved. For example, if the cargo is not
in a dangerous situation or is not in an emergency, the cargo must be kept on board until the ship
docks. The carrier shall be liable for compensation for damages to the shipper if the carrier applies
inappropriate handling measures.
The right to dispose of dangerous goods during transport is a special right for the carrier due
to the huge risk of transporting this type of goods at sea, mandatory and not restricted by the contract
of carriage between the parties or the terms of the bill of lading. Compared to the value of the ship and
of other transported goods, the lives of the crew and the marine environment are worth many times
more. The right to handle dangerous goods is an inevitable provision that the law names the carrier.
3. Conclusion
With the development of society and the improvement of science and technology, new types
of dangerous substances and goods appear constantly. Due to its specific nature, dangerous goods are
prone to accidents during transportation. Accidents caused by dangerous goods often result in serious
injury even death, as well as property damage and environmental pollution. Besides, for some types of
dangerous goods, transportation conditions are very important and are not easy to control under stable
conditions during transportation. This leads to the attraction of increasing attention to the
transportation of dangerous goods. In addition, due to the inherent risks of the shipping industry, the
transport of dangerous goods at sea has raised serious concerns in the legal spheres. Vietnamese laws
329
in general and the Maritime Code in particular need to have specific and detailed provisions on
conditions and situations so that the carrier has the right to apply measures to handle dangerous goods
transported on board.
References
1. International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code
2. Vietnam Maritime Code 2015
3. Rotterdam Convention 2009.
4. United Nations Convention on the Transport of Goods by Sea 1978 (Also known as the Hamburg
Convention).
5. National Technical Regulation QCVN 38:2015/BGTVT on survey and construction of freight
containers issued by the Ministry of Transport.
6. The VISBY Protocol of 1968.
7. Decree No. 42/2020/ND-CP dated April 8, 2020.

[STS22-41]
330
ELECTRONIC LABOUR CONTRACT - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF
CHINESE LAW
Tran Nguyen Quang Ha
1
Faculty of Law, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
*Corresponding Author: Phone: (+84) 985040127; Email: tnqha@ntt.edu.vn
Abstract
Although it has existed since the 2005 Law on E-Transactions, the legislator did not add a type of
labour contract until the 2019 Labour Code, which is defined as “a labour contract concluded using
electronic means in the form of a data message” or “electronic labour contract” for short. The
electronic labour contract can promote its function and benefits, including the capacity to save time,
money, efficient connectivity, and fast data transmission, in the context of travel bans and social
distancing measures adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, the electronic labour
contract is seen as a “saviour”, allowing businesses to engage into contracts remotely. However,
because it is a relatively new labour regulation that involves many different documents, the author
will provide a summary of this form of contract in this article, as well as conduct research into
Chinese law for suggestions on how to improve Vietnam’s labour law.
Keywords: China, electronic labour contract, electronic labour contract, the 2019 Labour Code,
Vietnam
1. Introduction
The Labour Code 2019, which went into effect on January 1, 2021, makes a number of significant
modifications to help improve the socialist-oriented market economy institution, international
integration, and better protect workers’ and employers’ legitimate rights and interests.
In addition, Vietnam’s government has purposefully built a corporate climate that aims to
integrate digital operations as seamlessly as possible with the least amount of red tape. Several
administrative operations will be moved online, as well as the creation of a vaccination app and
vaccine passports. This focus is reflected in the government’s regulation of digital signatures, which
creates a legal environment that supports the use of electronic transactions. These regulations are also
part of the government's larger National Digital Transformation Programme, which intends to
accelerate digital transformation in business and industry activities, as well as in government
administration, by 20251.
As the result, the addition of the type and form of labour contracts is one of the most significant
modifications. The 2019 Labour Code permits parties to enter into a labour contract concluded
through electronic means in the form of a data message (besides writing labour contract and verbal
labour contract)2. Companies will help their Human Resources departments enhance work
productivity, minimise administrative costs, and eliminate hazards associated with paper labour
contracts by using electronic labour contracts. However, because it is new to the field of labour and
there is no specific guide on the subject, it is critical to research and learn from the experiences of
other nations.
This article will outline the regulations on labour contracts concluded through electronic means in
the form of data messages under Vietnamese law, and then compare them to Chinese law in order to
help employees and employers gain a better understanding of this type of contract and avoid future
disputes.
2. Regulations of Vietnamese laws on electronic contracts and electronic labour contracts.
To better meet the requirements of international integration and optimise the protection of the
work contract, the Labour Code 2019 has made significant revisions to the definition and structure of
1
Dezan Shira & Associates. (2022, January 14). What are digital signatures and what businesses need to know.
Vietnam Briefing News. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/what-are-
digital-signatures-and-what-businesses-need-to-know.html/
2
Article 14 of the 2019 Labour Code.
331
the labour contract. A labour contract, in particular, is an agreement between a worker and an
employer about remunerated work, wages, working conditions, and each party’s rights and obligations
in the labour relations. The most basic elements of a labour contract have been outlined in this
definition, which is that a labour contract is a negotiation, agreement, and covenant between the
parties; the subject of the labour contract is the employee and the employer; the content of a labour
contract is a paid job, salary, working conditions, rights and obligations of the parties in the labour
relations; and the subject of the labour contract is the employee and the employer. Furthermore, the
Labour Code 2019 enhances the definition of a labour contract, which is defined as an agreement
between two parties under a different title but with contents indicating remunerated work, wages, and
management, direction, and supervision by one party. That is to say, determining whether a contract is
a labour contract is based on its substance rather than its name. It is nevertheless established that the
contract is a labour contract if the content of the parties’ agreement in the contract incorporates the
provisions of the labour contract (the signs of the labour contract). This rule intends to protect
employees' interests by limiting the situation where employers “change” labour contracts into other
forms of contracts.
Labour contracts are signed on the basis of voluntariness, honesty, equality, goodwill, and
cooperation, as well as labour law and social morals.
In addition to the written labour contract and the verbal labour contract (in some situations), the
electronic labour contract is officially recognised and has the same legality as the written labour
contract described above, according to Article 14 of the Labour Code 2019.
“1. A labour contract must be concluded in writing and made in two copies. The worker keeps 01
copy and the employer keeps 01 copy, except in cases stipulated in Clause 2 of this Article.
A labour contract concluded through electronic means in the form of a data message in
accordance with the law on electronic transactions has the same validity as a written labour contract.
2. For contracts with a duration of less than 01 month, the two parties may enter into a verbal
labour contract, except in cases stipulated in Clause 2 of Article 18; point a, Clause 1 of Article 145;
and Clause 1 of Article 162 of this Code”.
An electronic contract is one that is established in the form of information that is created,
transferred, received, and stored electronically, according to Articles 4(12), 4(10), and 33 of the 2005
Law on E-Transactions. Electronic means are those that use electrical, electronic, digital, magnetic,
wireless transmission, optical, electromagnetic, or similar technologies to operate.
The use of data messages to perform part or all of a transaction in the process of entering into a
contract is known as concluding an electronic contract. The notice in the form of a data message has
the same legal value as a regular contractual notice at this stage. The value of an electronic contract
remains the same as a written contract, notwithstanding the fact that it is submitted as a data message.
Thus, an electronic labour contract can be defined as a contract established in the form of
information created, sent, received, and stored by electronic means in which the employee and the
employer agree on the terms of paid employment and which specifies the working conditions, rights,
and obligations of each party in the labour relationship.
The question of which conditions must be met for an electronic labour contract to be valid arises
once it is recognised as a type of labour contract. To put it another way, what are the requirements for
a labour contract to become an electronic labour contract? Because it is an electronic labour contract,
it must meet the requirements set forth in both the Labour Code of 2019 and the 2005 Law on E-
Transactions.
Firstly, an electronic labour contract is a labour contract. Because it is a labour contract, the
electronic labour contract must include agreements on paid employment between the employee and
the employer that specify the working conditions, rights, and obligations of each party in the labour
relationship. Article 21 of the Labour Code 2019 and Articles 3, 4 and 5 of Circular No. 10/2020/TT-
BLDTBXH require that the contract’s content be complete, including information about the
contracting parties, job and working place, contract period, remuneration…
Secondly, the contract’s subject. The contract’s subject satisfies all of the labour law’s
requirements.
Thirdly, the principle of contracting. The parties are voluntary, equal, goodwill, cooperative, and
honest when they enter into an electronic labour contract. Employees and employers have the right to
332
agree on the use of electronic means in concluding and performing contracts, as well as the freedom
to engage into labour contracts, provided that they do not violate the law, collective bargaining
agreements, or social morals3. This means that before entering into a digital labour contract, the
employer must get the employee’s approval. If the employee rejects, the employer is not allowed to
end the labour relations; instead, they must respect the employee’s decision and sign a written labour
contract that reflects the employee’s preferences. The parties have the right to agree on technical
specifications, authentication, and conditions to maintain the integrity and secrecy of electronic labour
contracts when concluding and performing them.
The content of the electronic labour contract must be completed in the form of a complete data
message and digitally signed by two or more parties starting on the initial activation date. This means
that the content of the electronic labour contract does not change until the form of the data messages
changes during transmission, storage, or display.
Last but not least, electronic signatures. In order to confirm the signer of the data message
(employee and employer) and the permission of the two parties to the data message’s content, an
electronic signature is highly necessary in finalising an electronic labour contract. Employers should
be aware of the legal value of electronic signatures when utilising them to enter into contracts with
employees, and take steps to avoid the illegal use of data to form their electronic signatures.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, when movement is difficult owing to lockdown and social
distancing orders, the use of electronic data to conclude contracts is becoming increasingly prevalent.
Digital signatures4, scan signatures5, and image signatures6 have all become common types of
electronic signatures. However, only digital signatures are currently governed by Decree No.
130/2018/ND-CP, thus employees and employers can rely on the provisions of digital signature to
apply when learning about the legal framework for electronic signatures used in electronic labour
contracts.
A digital signature is legitimate if it is regarded a "secured" digital signature that meets the
following requirements7:
The digital signature is formed within the validity term of the digital certificate and may be
verified using the public key stored on the certificate.
The private key matching to the public key recorded on the digital certificate issued by one of the
following organizations (“Certified Authority” or “CA”) is used to create the digital signature: (a) a
national digital signature certification service provider; (b) a Government specialized digital
signature certification service provider; (c) a public digital signature certification service provider;
(d) a specialized digital signature certification service provider of an agency or organization issued
with a certificate of satisfaction of security conditions for specialized digital signatures.
At the time of signing, the signatory has sole authority over the private key.
A digital signature that has been confirmed by a licensed CA in Vietnam (e.g., FPT, VNPT,
Viettel) is legally considered as a "secured" e-signature in Vietnam, due to the higher level of security
it provides compared to other forms of e-signature8.
3
Article 15 of the 2019 Labour Code và Article 35(1) the 2005 Law on E-Transactions.
4
Article 3(6) Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP: ‘A digital signature’ is created by transforming a data message
using an asymmetric cryptographic system, whereby the person obtaining the original data message and the
public key of the signatory is able to determine correctly the following: (a) That the above-mentioned
transformation is made with the correct private key corresponding to the public key in the same key pair. (b)
The integrity of the contents of the data message as from the time of making the abovementioned
transformation.
5
Scanning signature means that the parties sign the contract, then convert the contract and signature into
electronic data through scanning.
6
Image signature is understood that the parties will insert their signature image into the electronic contract.
7
Article 9 Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP
8
Tran Manh Hung. (2021, June 23). Vietnam: Electronic Signature & Digital Signature under Vietnamese
Laws. Baker McKenzie. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from
333
When it is discovered that an electronic signature is no longer under its control, the person
signing the electronic signature must immediately use appropriate means to notify the parties
accepting the electronic signature, and the organisation must provide electronic signature
authentication service if the signature is authenticated9. In addition, if an electronic certificate is used
to authenticate an electronic signature, required steps must be taken to assure the accuracy and
integrity of the information contained in the certificate10.
3. Chinese experiences
On July 1, 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) issued
Guidelines for the Conclusion of Electronic Labour Contracts [2021 No. 54] 11 (referred to as
Guidance No. 54) to provide employers with comprehensive guidance on concluding electronic
contracts with employees. Guidance No. 54 has been compiled based on the Labour Contract Law, the
Electronic Signature Law and the Civil Code of China. Guidance No. 54 marks the official transition
of the labour contract signing procedure to the digital era by using electronic versions and online
electronic signatures instead of the usual paperwork. Prior to that, in March 2020, MHRSS released a
“Letter on Information on Electronic Labour Contracts Related Issues” in response to limitations in
the COVID-19 epidemic and recognition of the practical challenges in signing a written contract. The
agency certified the legitimacy of electronic labour contracts in China for the first time. The Letter, on
the other hand, does not go into detail about how to engage into a legal electronic labour contract. For
example, how to assure that “the electronic labour contract is complete, correct, and unaltered” and
the requirements for “trusted electronic signature” 12.
In order to enter into an electronic labour contract in China, the parties must:
Firstly, select an electronic contract management platform that is suited for your needs.
First and foremost, if both the employer and the employee agree to enter into an electronic labour
contract, the contract must be completed via an electronic contract management platform13.
Self-built platforms, platforms acquired from a third party, and platforms provided by the
government are all options. The platform must, however, meet the qualifying standards outlined in
Article 4 of Guidance No. 54: (i) The platform can verify the identity of the contracting parties, apply
electronic signatures, confirm the parties’ wishes, and ensure the security of the contract data; (ii) The
platform can verify the identity of the contracting parties, apply electronic signatures, confirm the
parties’ wishes, and ensure the security of the contract data; (iii) The platform ensures that electronic
labour contracts are signed, created, transferred, and stored in accordance with applicable laws and
regulations; (iv) The platform ensures that the electronic labour contract is authentic, complete,
accurate, tamper-proof, and traceable.
Furthermore, the platform’s information protection system is subject to stricter criteria in the
fourth chapter of Guidance No. 54, which deals with “security and data protection”. Because the
information held on the platform is relevant to privacy, as defined by the Chinese Civil Code, the
platform must adhere to the rules and not allow unauthorised access to contract data by third parties.
In light of these considerations, choose which platform to use to conclude an electronic labour
contract is critical. Employers should first evaluate the platform, the government’s model labour
https://viewpoints.bakermckenzie.com/post/102h16y/vietnam-electronic-signature-digital-signature-under-
vietnamese-laws
9
Article 25(2)(b) the 2005 Law on E-Transactions
10
Article 25(2)(c) the 2005 Law on E-Transactions.
11
人力资源社会保障部办公厅关于发布《电子劳动合同订立指引》的通知. 中华人民共和国中央人民政
府. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2022, from http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-
07/12/content_5624319.htm
12
Zoey Zhang. (2021, July 22). China’s new guideline for Electronic Labor Contracts. China Briefing News.
Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-new-guideline-for-electronic-
labor-contracts/
13
Article 3 Guidance No. 54.
334
contract14, or the platform that meets Guideline 54’s requirements and has been recognised by the
local legal authority.
Secondly, confirm the signatories’ identification and good faith.
Before moving on to the details of the agreement, it is essential to figure out who the contracting
parties are and whether they are prepared to sign the labour contract in electronic form.
Both employers and employees are required to provide factual, complete, and accurate identifying
information to the contract management platform under Directive 54. Through technical techniques
such as digital certificates, networked information verification, biometric identity verification, and
code mobile short message verification, the platform must check the identity and preparedness of the
signatories. An electronic social security card can also be used by employers to verify a person’s
identity. Simultaneously, the platform logs and saves the verification and validation process 15.
Thirdly, apply digital signatures and reliable timestamps.
A labour contract usually takes effect once both the employer and the employee have signed or
stamped the contract document. An electronic signature (must conform with China’s Law on
Electronic Signatures) can be used to create an electronic labour contract. The contract should also be
time-stamped (a timestamp confirms the time of creation and modification of electronic documents
such as digital signatures, invoices, and electronic documents). The timestamp attached to the data
message is synchronised with the time of the cesium atomic clock, which is a standard time source
managed by the Directorate of Standards, Metrology and Quality. No one, including the owner, has
the ability to alter the time that has been linked to a data message16), making it difficult to determine
the exact contract effective date17.
According to Guideline 54, the parties to the contract must use a “digital certificate” and a “key”
provided by a legally established e-certification service provider issued under the terms of the Law on
Electronic Signatures to ensure a reliable electronic signature18.
Guidance No. 54 outlines the responsibility of the employer before and after the electronic labour
contract is signed in order to preserve employees’ right to know and other rights.
Before concluding an electronic labour contract, the employer must fully tell the employee about
the procedure, operating methods, precautions, and channels to view and download the entire contents
of the labour contract. Employees are not required to pay any costs. This necessitates the employer
becoming familiar with the method for concluding an electronic labour contract using this platform
ahead of time, as well as bearing the fees involved with it19.
After signing an electronic labour contract, the employer must tell the employee by text message
on mobile phones, WeChat, e-mail, text message APP, or other means that the contract has been
completed20.
Employers must also remind and encourage employees to download and securely retain the
contents of the electronic labour contract as soon as possible. Employees must be able to access,
download, and print the entire contents of the electronic labour contract at any time and at no cost
using standard equipment21.
Furthermore, if the employee demands a hard copy of the electronic labour contract, the employer
must supply at least one copy free of charge and use stamping to demonstrate the consistency of the
hard copy and the original data message22. This is because, in reality, even with an electronic labour
14
Article 5 and Article 15 Guidance No. 54.
15
Article 7 Guidance No. 54.
16
M.T. (2021, April 1). Áp dụng dấu thời gian giúp doanh nghiệp, tổ chức chống giả mạo trong giao dịch điện
tử. VietNamNet. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://ictnews.vietnamnet.vn/bao-mat/ap-dung-dau-thoi-
gian-giup-doanh-nghiep-to-chuc-chong-gia-mao-trong-giao-dich-dien-tu-280625.html
17
Article 9 Guidance No. 54
18
19
20
21
22
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contract, employees may require a printed copy along with a new corporate contract to cope with
personal matters. As a result, employers should work together and support their employees 23.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, while the use of an electronic labour contract has aided the parties in the labour
contract in saving time, being speedier, and more convenient amid the present COVID-19 pandemic,
it has also raised the bar for businesses and employees. Domestic and foreign firms should pay
particular attention to the new electronic labour contract compliance requirements and laws, as they
provide a variety of issues for businesses as they move to the digital era and eliminate the redundancy
of paper records. This includes security measures to prevent outside actors from gaining access to
copies of digital signatures, as well as internal controls to prevent employees from misusing the e-
signatures of other employees. Furthermore, in the event that a digital form is updated by another
entity, businesses should take steps to create records of electronically signed forms24.
Furthermore, legislators require a comprehensive legal framework for a contract that is not new
but is novel to the sphere of labour. To authenticate the identity and information of both the employee
and the employer, as well as preserve and secure the parties’ information, an appropriate electronic
labour contract administration platform is required. Other legal documents, such as the Civil Code, the
Law on Cybersecurity, the Law on E-Transactions, and others, should be coordinated so that
electronic labour contract information can be managed, retrieved, and applied safely and effectively;
prevent identity information from being collected or used, contract content, information, log
information leakage, tampering, and loss.
REFERENCES
1. Dezan Shira & Associates. (2022, January 14). What are digital signatures and what businesses
need to know. Vietnam Briefing News. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.vietnam-
briefing.com/news/what-are-digital-signatures-and-what-businesses-need-to-know.html/
2. 人力资源社会保障部办公厅, Guidance No. 54 dated July 1, 2021 on Guidelines for the
Conclusion of Electronic Labour Contracts of People’s Republic of China.
3. Ministry of Labour - Invalids And Social Affairs, Circular No.10/2020/TT-BLDTBXH dated
November 12, 2020 on elaborating and guiding certain articles of the Labour Code concerning
labour contracts, collective bargaining council, jobs with hazards to reproductive function, and
children raising.
4. M.T. (2021, April 1). Áp dụng dấu thời gian giúp doanh nghiệp, tổ chức chống giả mạo trong giao
dịch điện tử. VietNamNet. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://ictnews.vietnamnet.vn/bao-
mat/ap-dung-dau-thoi-gian-giup-doanh-nghiep-to-chuc-chong-gia-mao-trong-giao-dich-dien-tu-
280625.html
5. National Assembly of Vietnam, The 2019 Labour Code.
6. National Assembly of Vietnam, The 2005 Law on E-Transactions.
7. The Vietnamese Government, Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP dated September 27, 2018 on
detailing the Law on E-Transactions regarding digital signatures and digital signature certification
services.
8. Tran Manh Hung. (2021, June 23). Vietnam: Electronic Signature & Digital Signature under
Vietnamese Laws. Baker McKenzie. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from
https://viewpoints.bakermckenzie.com/post/102h16y/vietnam-electronic-signature-digital-
signature-under-vietnamese-laws
23
Zoey Zhang. (2021, July 22). China’s new guideline for Electronic Labour Contracts. China Briefing News.
Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-new-guideline-for-electronic-
labour-contracts/
24
Dezan Shira & Associates. (2022, January 14). What are digital signatures and what businesses need to know.
Vietnam Briefing News. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/what-are-
digital-signatures-and-what-businesses-need-to-know.html/
336
9. Zoey Zhang. (2021, July 22). China’s new guideline for Electronic Labour Contracts. China
Briefing News. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-
new-guideline-for-electronic-labour-contracts/
10. 人力资源社会保障部办公厅关于发布《电子劳动合同订立指引》的通知. 中华人民共和国中央
人民政府. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2022, from http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-
07/12/content_5624319.htm

[STS22-43]
337
THE IMPACTS OF ROMAN LAW ON THE LAW OF THE FRENCH
REPUBLIC
Ho Tran Bao Tram1, Nguyen Minh Tri2*
1
Faculty of Law, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
2
Faculty of Tourism & Vietnamese Studies, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.
*Corresponding author: Nguyen Minh Tri, Email: nmtri@ntt.edu.vn
Abstract
In the formation and development of legal systems globally, we cannot deny the value and impact of
Roman law, including the legal systems of continental Europe (see Civil law). Our article aims to
analyze under-researched aspects of the effects of Roman law on the formation and establishment of
modern legal systems concerning continental European law. The specific study here is the law of the
French Republic. We conduct a historical analysis of the formation and highlight the specifics of
several sources of Roman law. Legal reception considered the main factor was influencing Roman
law to the birth and construction of the laws of the countries of the continental European system,
including the legal system in the French Republic. Those are the contents of our article.
Keywords: The impacts, The legal systems of continental Europe, The law of the French Republic,
Roman law.
1. Introduction
The legal system of each state reflects the development patterns of the society, moreover
historical, ethnic, and cultural characteristics of that country. Although each country has its legal
system, this system has both standard features with the legal system of other countries and its features
created and formed under many influencing factors. The law of a nation can learn all or part of the
rules and experiences of foreign countries and then synthesize them with the traditional legal norms of
the country. From there, it builds its internal legal system. The legal influence from the most advanced
sources in the world is essential in developing the law of a country. Roman law is one of the sources
which has had a significant impact on the development of many national legal systems.
As a legacy of historical development, Roman law is recognized as the basis of the legal
system of many modern Western European countries. However, this does not clarify the role of
Roman law. Most historical scholars point to its significance as a factor in unifying the political and
legal thought of the ancient, medieval, and modern world. The reason is due to the long history of
Roman law from its inception, borrowed and actively incorporated into modern legal systems (Tur,
P.N., 2021, pp.34-36).
For centuries, Roman law that has influenced continental European law can be considered a
unique phenomenon. At first glance, its spread in the countries of ancient and medieval Europe was
the result of long Roman political domination and Christian influence. However, the deep penetration
of this legal institution into national cultures cannot be explained solely by external objective reasons.
On the contrary, Roman law itself had several intrinsic features that attracted European residents
interested in it. Moreover, it is quite possible to argue that Roman law was not the product of creating
just one people - the Romans but has brought together all the active and longstanding legal
experiences of different cultures ancient in the Mediterranean (Sogoyan, D.P., 2018, pp.292-295).
If we do not mention the political and legal spheres, the role of Roman law is evident as an
essential cultural heritage and a colossal intellectual property of humanity.
338
2. History of ancient Roman civilization
The Italian peninsula, which formed the ancient Roman state, is located in Southern Europe
like a human leg stretching out to the Mediterranean. The Italian peninsula has many plains, which are
relatively convenient for agricultural development, and the underground contains many minerals
favorable for metallurgy. The terrain here is not divided, creating conditions for unification. The coast
in the south of the peninsula has many bays and ports convenient for ships to shelter in bad weather.
Due to such geographical conditions, the Italian peninsula has requirements to contact the early
civilizations developed in the East. The earliest people present on the Italian peninsula are called
Italiot. The part living on the Latium plain is called Latin, in addition to a small number of people of
Gauls (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2012) origin, of Greek origin.
According to legend, people of the Latium plain built a citadel on the banks of the Tiber river
in 753 BC. They took the name of the leader Romulus (Rodríguez Mayorgas, Ana, 2010, pp.89-109),
hence Rome's name. In the period 753-510 BC, the head of the state was the king. Under the king,
there was the Senate and the People's Congress. Therefore, this period is also known as the foremost
king period.
The Roman Republic period was from 510 to the 1st century BC. At this stage, the supreme
power lies in the hands of the Senate, elected by the people, headed by two consuls with equal
strength. Since then, the government has become the ordinary business of the people (Res Publica);
that was when Rome used its military power to expand its territory. Although in the 8th century BC,
Rome was just a small city in the central part of the Italian peninsula, in the 1st century BC, Rome
became a large empire covering all the lands around the Mediterranean coast.
From the 1st century BC to the 5th century, the Empire of Rome used war to expand its
territory. A great Roman general, Caeser tried to take all the power into his hands, but he failed in 47
BC. After that, the Council of elders of the republic assassinated him. Then, in 27 BC, Caesar's
grandson Octavius (Fergus Millar, Erich Segal, 1984) gradually attracted the Senate's figures by more
ingenious means, excluding those who could not. Finally, in 27 BC, the Senate honored Octavius as
Augustus (Syme, Ronald, 1959) - the Supreme Being. So, from the 1st century BC, the Roman
republic was abolished.
In the third century BC, the Roman government began to enter a period of decline. The wars
around the Mediterranean no longer provided enough enslaved people for the great estates and mines
to make up for the number of dead enslaved people. The rest of the enslaved people lived too hard,
rebelling or running away. The economy was in crisis, and the military was weak. Taking that
opportunity, Germanic tribes came from outside to raid. In 395, the Roman Empire split in two. In
476, the city of Rome was defeated by the Germans. The Eastern Roman Empire, in 1453, was
annexed by the Turkish Empire.
3. Ancient Roman law

The Romano-Germanic Civil Law System is the legal system of the ancient Roman state, has
the most extended history, and has the most influence on other legal systems in the world. Therefore,
this system is often referred to as Civil Law or the legal systems of continental Europe.
The emergence and existence of Roman Law went through two stages. The first period is
from the beginning of the 5th century BC to the 6th-century forming stage. The second period begins
around the 11th to the 13th centuries, the Renaissance of Roman Law (Nguyen Van Nam, 2006,
pp.76-80). Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, developed over thousands of years of
jurisprudence.
In literature, art, and philosophy, the Romans were considered students of the Greeks.
Moreover, their position was much higher in the area of law. Around 514 BC, the Roman republic
339
was established; the state apparatus consisted of a senate, a congress of people, and a consul. Their
legal system results from a long evolution that began with the 12-panel law published in 449 BC
(Jolowicz, H.F., 1952, p.108). In 454 BC, Rome sent three people to study the law of Greece,
especially that of Solon. In 452 B.C.E., Rome established a committee of ten to draft laws.
Completing the code, Rome had ten bronze tablets placed in the square. In 449 BC, they appointed a
new committee of ten, drafted more laws, and carved two more tablets, so this law is called the
Twelve Tables (Crawford, M.H., 2012).
The content of this code deals with many aspects of social life, such as procedural rules,
inheritance of property, loans, family relations, great women, etc. The leading spirit of the law is to
protect life, property, and honor for everyone. Regarding family relations, the laws clearly show the
nature of patriarchy. On the political field: “The Law of the Twelve Tables decreed the death penalty
for anyone who incited the enemies of the Roman people to attack the Roman state or who handed
over a Roman citizen to the enemy.” In summary, the content of the Rule of Twelve Tables only
mentions some aspects of social life, and many punishments are too harsh. Still, it has the effect of
limiting the arbitrary judgment of the nobles and, at the same time, placing the basis for the
development of ancient Roman law.
Because the 12-pound law has many unresolved issues, many unresolved requests of the
familiar people, whereas in Table XI, it is clearly stated “forbidden common people to marry nobles”,
the struggle of the ordinary people continues. Therefore, from the middle of the 5th century BC
onwards, the Roman state had to issue many additional ordinances. In 445 BC, the law of Canuleius
was enacted, allowing commoners to marry nobles (Naphtali Lewis, Meyer Reinhold, 1990, p.118).
After that, the familiar people were elected as corps commanders with the same power as the consul.
In 367 BC, three necessary ordinances were passed again: Debts borrowed by the ordinary people, if
interest has been paid, must be considered to have been repaid, the outstanding amount will be paid
off in 3 years; no one can occupy more than 500 jujera of public land, i.e., about 125 ha; give up the
position of Commander of the Corps, restore the annual mode of electing a consul, one of the two
consuls must be a commoner. In 326 BC, the decree abolished slavery for Roman citizens. In 287
B.C, the ordinance was issued by the Popular Congress, which had the force of law for all Roman
citizens. By the end of the third century, the legislative power of the Senate was no longer there, so
the orders of the head of the state were the law.
To the Civil Code (Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinianus), promulgated around 529 by
the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It can be said that this is the first significant written legal work in
human history. Roman law forms the basic framework for civil law, the most commonly used legal
system today. During the renaissance period, when the Civil Code was discovered and studied at
universities. Scholars began to analyze, interpret, and modernize the contents of the old law to suit the
society of that time. It later spread widely and became the common foundation for European jurists to
build their law in the countries based on the spirit of ancient Roman law.
Although it has been a long time, the contents of Roman Law such as property rights, jus in
re, contracts, obligations, marriage and family, and inheritance are still valid. Engels observed Roman
law “It is the complete form of law based on private property which we know with unsurpassed
precision in expressing all the basic legal relations of the possessors of simple goods”. Furthermore,
“Roman law is the classic legal expression of a society's living conditions and contradictions where
pure private property reigns over which all subsequent legal systems cannot put something
fundamental in it.”(Le Minh Truong, 2021). Nowadays, this system exists in the continental European
countries France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and
affects most African countries, most of the countries Latin American countries, Eastern countries,
including Japan (Thai Vinh Thang, 2004, p.70).
340
4. The impact of Roman law on the French Republic's legal system
The French Republic's legal system is typical of the Continental European judicial system.
France's legal system, divided into private and public law, has its primary sources: written law, case
law, and jurisprudence. Besides, there exists by-law documents, customs, collective agreements, etc.
Regarding private law, the French Civil Code of 1804 and the German Civil Code of 1896
were both valuable legal documents in this historical period. The French Civil Code was drafted by a
group of four jurists assigned by Napoléon Bonaparte, thus was called after his name - Napoleonic
Code. The Civil Code went into force in 1804, emphasizing clarity and utility, hence often regarded as
a milestone to the fundamental shift of the legal system away from feudal laws. French Civil Code
was made into several books, which comprise People, Goods, Property, and Civil Procedure (Civil
Procedure has been changed to private law since 1806). The content of the Civil Code brings about
the fundamental spirit of the French Revolution of 1789, such as the right to private property, freedom
of contract, and the abandonment of the patriarchal family. This Code also shattered the feudal system
by limiting the area of land available for transactions and inheritance (Gouvernement, 2021). The
French Civil Code is considered the harmonious combination of religious beliefs and the individualist
non-religious movement at the time and traditional customs and Roman Law's principles. Historians
have deemed this legal document a significant influence on the laws of numerous countries globally,
as the fact has proven true.
The French legislature in general and the French Civil Code, in particular, inherit the
foundation of the Roman law on the following bases:
Firstly, the French legislature features written law. The strong emphasis on the codification of
laws, particularly the civil codes of countries in the Continental European system, has proven that the
traditional approach of honoring the written law has existed since the Roman Empire (Nguyen Van
Nam, 2006, pp.76-80). The earliest written laws established a transparent and unambiguous legal
system that contained general principles that could be commonly applied to all community members.
The very first recorded codes date to antiquity, such as The Urnammu Code enacted around 2100 BC
during the reign of King Ur-Nammu of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia. The Babylonian Code of
Hammurabi passed around 1700 BC, inspired by a collection of Sumerian and Akkadian judgments
and practices. The Law of the Twelve Tables was enacted in ancient Rome in 450 BC, and most
remarkably, the Code of the Roman Emperor Justinian in 534 AD (Tran Kien, 2020). Countries in the
Civil Law system place much value on written law under the direct influence of ancient Roman civil
law. Therefore, as a typical representative of the Continental European legal system, the law of the
French Republic naturally embraces the role of written law. This viewpoint is distinct from those of
countries practicing the standard law system, which beholds case law as the most essential and widely
used source of law. Written laws consist of codes containing fundamental provisions and compulsory
rules of conduct anticipated scientifically logically, thus bringing about security for the entirely legal
system.
Secondly, the distinction between public and private law should be considered. The idea of
public and private law has existed quite early, since ancient Rome. This distinction between private
and public law established in the Roman Republic and the Law of the Twelve Tables is deemed its
origin (Le Thi Lien Huong, 2010). In French, private law refers to legal rules that govern relationships
between individuals and organizations and their relationship with the state and government. Some of
the branches of private law are civil law, criminal law, business law, civil procedure law, criminal
procedure law, etc. On the other hand, constitutional law, administrative law, and public finance law
belong to the public law area (Cours de droit.net, 2019). The division of the legal system into public
and private law based on ancient Roman Law's ideas in general and the Continental European legal
341
system, in particular, has a theoretical and practical use. Theoretically, this division would unify and
solidify the legal system and practice; it would benefit all legislative, executive, and judicial activities
(Cours de droit.net, 2019).
Thirdly, the distinction between moveable and immovable property. Initially, the
distinguishment between objects and property, established by Roman law, lays the groundwork for
future legal regulations. Property can be distinguished as follows: movable or immovable properties,
consumable and non-consumable items, fungible and non-fungible assets, primary objects and
auxiliary objects, initial assets, and yields are divisions. In French law, the Civil Code does not define
the concept of “property”. Jurists define property as items recognized by law and can belong to a
person. The Civil Code does not govern items that cannot be attributed to a person (French Civil
Code, Article 714). Article 516 of the French Civil Code stipulates that “Property is movable or
immovable”. There are three types of immovable property: immovable by nature, immovable by
destination, and immovable by the object they apply. The movable property consists of two types:
those that are movable by nature and those that are movable due to legal provisions. Besides, French
law distinguishes between consumable and non-consumable objects and fungible and non-fungible
things.
Fourthly, in respect of “Jus in re”. “Jus in re” is a group of property rights in which the holder
(either the owner or a non-owner) has direct control over the item without the requirement for consent
by others (Truong Thi Dieu Thuy, 2017). Roman jurists defined possession, ownership, and other
people's property rights as property rights. Property rights include the ability to use and dispose of the
property. The term “right of possession” was neither directly included in the notion of property rights
in ancient Roman law nor in the laws of European countries (Huynh Anh, 2021). “Possession” and
“property right” are two distinct categories that can be integrated with the same subject but can
alternatively belong to different issues. Possession differs from ownership in that the owner may or
may not be the possessor, and vice versa (Nguyen Thi Que Anh, 2013, pp.1-6).
French law also has the same idea as Roman law through the provision that “Property is the
absolute right to enjoy and dispose of property, provided that it doesn’t prohibit from the use by law
or in compliance with the law” (French Civil Code, Article 544). As a result, the right to use and
dispose of the property includes property rights. However, possession is not a content of property
right. Instead, possession is defined as “the ownership or benefit of something or a right that we hold
or exercise by ourselves or another person on our behalf” (French Civil Code, Article 2228). Thus,
“possession” is an event, a situation, and it is distinct from “property right.”
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the civil law of the French Republic inherits many essential elements of Roman
law. In turn, French law has had a significant impact on the legal thought of lawmakers in the world,
including in Vietnam. Though our country belongs to the socialist legal system, Vietnam’s legal
system, like that of Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and others, is heavily influenced by
continental European law due to historical reasons associated with the process of colonization by
France, the Netherlands, and Spain. Essentially, Vietnamese law, in particular, is highly inspired by
French Republic law, which is a common feature of the Continental European legal system. As a
result, there are many parallels between Vietnamese law in general and civil law in particular, such as
promoting the role of written law, distinguishing between moveable and immovable property and the
point of view of property rights, etc.
342
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separation-du-droit-prive-et-du-droit-public-a121608838, accessed 20 November 2021.
2. Crawford, M.H. (2012), “Twelve Tables” in Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther
Eidinow (eds.) Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.), Oxford University Press.
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napoléoniennes (Translate: “Birth of the French Civil Code, one of Napoleon's «granite
masses»”), Gouvernement, https://www.gouvernement.fr/partage/9056-naissance-du-code-civil-
des-francais, accessed 20 November 2021.
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qua-che-dinh-tai-san-va-che-dinh-chiem-huu-trong-phap-luat-dan-su-13166/, accessed 05
December 2021.
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p.108.
8. Le Minh Truong (2021), What is Roman Law? Learn about Roman Law's provisions,
https://luatminhkhue.vn/luat-la-ma-la-gi---tim-hieu-quy-dinh-cua-luat-la-ma.aspx, accessed 20
November 2021.
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Vietnamese law, Master's thesis in Civil Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
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University”, pp. 34-36.

[STS22-44]
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BALANCING THE EMPLOYEE’S RIGHT TO FREE CHOICE OF
EMPLOYMENT AND THE EMPLOYER’S RIGHT TO PROTECT THE
BUSINESS SECRETS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF VIETNAMESE
LABOUR LAW
Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai1*, Tran Thien Trang 2
1
Department of Law, Ho Chi Minh University of Economics and Finance (UEF), Ho Chi Minh,
Vietnam
2
Department of Law, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Phone: 0931156892; Email: maintx@uef.edu.vn
Abstract
Employment relationship is one of the driving factors playing an essential role in the globalization
trend. In an employment relationship, both the employees and the employers have specific rights and
obligations. According to article 21 of the Vietnamese Labour Code 2019, employers have the right to
take action to protect their business secrets. Usually, this will be materialized by a non-disclosure
agreement and a non-competition agreement. However, there is a narrow border between the
employee’s right to freedom of work and the employer’s right to protect the business secrets under
Vietnamese Labour Law. Consequently, this has made the difficulties for the employer to perform
their legitimate rights and not be considered to violate the employee’s right to freedom of work. Thus,
steps should be needed for the employers to find legal methods to protect their rights in this situation.
This article aims to answer the research question of ‘What can be done to balance the employee’s
right to freedom of work and the employer’s right to protect the business secrets from the perspectives
of Vietnamese labour law?’. To answer this question, two sub-questions should be analysed (i) What
is the current international and national legal framework of the employee’s right to freedom of work
and the employer’s right to protect the business secrets? and (ii) How is the employer’s right in the
protection of the business secrets by applying the non-disclosure agreement and the non-competition
agreement in Viet Nam?
Keywords: employment relationship, non-disclosure agreement, non-competition agreement, right to
free choice of employment.
1. Introduction
Currently, the non-disclosure agreement (‘NDA’) and the non-competition agreement (‘NCA’)
in the employment relationship play an essential role in business activities. To protect the business
secrets and eliminate unfair competitive behaviours such as the engagement of workers working for a
competitor's business, employers normally require the employees to sign an NDA related to the
protection of their business's business secrets; or an NCA of the commitment not working for the
competitor's business within a period of time.
In practice, many businesses are using these agreements as protection. However, the legal
framework governing the NDA and NCA in the field of labour in Vietnam is too vague to apply.
Specifically, the current provisions of the Labour Code 2019 only give the enterprises the right to
conclude an NDA or NCA and do not mention the agreement's contents or requirements to be lawful
under the law. Therefore, though employers are currently concluding NDA and NCA, it should be
noted that its validity is still a matter of question due to the uncertainty of the current legal framework.
At the same time, the right to free choice of employment is one of the employee's fundamental rights
recognized by the law. However, putting this right together with the right to protect the employer's
345
business secrets by NDA or NCA may create a conflict of interests when both sides need the
protection.
Therefore, clarifying the validity of the agreement and the limitations of the NDA and NCA
will help the employers use the NDA and NCA as an effective means of preventing the disclosure or
use of business secrets. In addition, this will help protect workers' rights in the freedom to choose the
workplace, avoiding the case of employers setting regulations that seriously violate this right of
workers.
2. Legal framework of the right to free choice of employment and the right to protect the
business secrets
2.1. International legal framework of the right to free choice of employment and the right to protect
the business secrets
At the international level, the employee’s rights are protected by many human rights
conventions, treaties and charters. According to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
‘everyone has the right to work, free choice of employment’ (Article 23 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights). This is also recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, in which everyone has the right to freely choose or accept employment for their
living (Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).
Furthermore, in EU countries, the freedom to seek, choose and pursue employment is laid out in the
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 15 of Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European
Union). Similarly, the laws of nations such as Austria, Iceland, Israel, Slovenia, Germany, Finland
and Italy protect freedom of occupation and the right to work (Steve Adler, 2006). However, during
the employment relationship, it seems to be acknowledged that employees may be prevented from
working for their employer’s competitor or freely choose a related job if their employers do not allow
it. Although there are no constitutions, treaties and conventions which enshrine matters relating to
covenants not to compete, several national statutes mention covenants not to compete directly or
indirectly in an aim to protect trade secrets, including Germany, Spain, Belgium and Austria and so on
(Steve Adler, 2006). For example, Sweden’s law provides that the covenants relating to non-
competition are binding in reasonable cases. Besides, Austria’s legislation also recognises the legal
validity of covenants not to compete, which are enforceable during the employment contract and even
after its termination. This means that employees may be limited in their right to receive opportunities
that the labour market offers them in these countries.
2.2. Vietnamese legal framework of the right to free choice of employment and the right to protect the
business secrets
The right to free choice of employment
As one of the main content of the right to work - an international standard (Bueno Nicolas
2017), the right to free choice of employment is one of the basic human rights. Specifically, it is
clearly stated in the Constitution 2013 of Viet Nam. Specifically, under section 1, article 35 of the
Constitution 2013: ‘citizens have the right to work and choose their occupations, employment and
workplaces’.
In addition, the right to free choice of employment is also one of the employee’s rights stated in
the Labour Code 2019. Accordingly, point a, section 1, article 5 of the Labour Code pointed that the
employees have the right to work, free choice of work, place of work and so on. To protect this right,
under section 1, Article 4 of the Employment Law 2013 the principle of employment is stated to
‘ensure the right to work, freedom of choice of employment and workplace’, and section 6 Article 9
prohibits acts of ‘Obstructing, causing difficulties or harming the legitimate rights and interests of
employees’.
The right to protect the business secrets
346
Currently, business secrets are stated not only in the Labour Law but also in the Law on
Intellectual Property. Specifically, according to section 3, article 121 of the Law on Intellectual
Property, the owner of a business secret means ‘an organization or individual who has lawfully
acquired such trade secret and kept it secret’. In addition, a business secret ‘gained by an employee or
a performer of an assigned task during the performance of the hired job or assigned task shall be
owned by the employer or the task assignor, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.
In terms of labour area, the development of the right to protect the business secrets during the
years has shown the changes in the lawmakers’ ideas about this right. Specifically, the right to protect
the business secrets was prohibited under section 3, article 50 of the Labour Code 2012: ‘In case part
or the whole of the labour contract provides the employee’s benefits lower than those provided by the
labour law, internal labour regulations and collective labour agreement that are currently effective or
the contents of the labour contract limit other rights of the employee, such part or the whole of the
labour contract is invalid’. In other words, if the employee can prove that under the labour law, the
prohibition of working for a period of time or the prohibition of working for the competitor violates
the right to free choice of employment, the labour contract will be considered to be invalid. It was not
until the recent reform of the Labour Code 2019 that this section was crossed out as one of the cases
making the labour contract invalid.
In summary, it can be seen that the right to protect the business secrets has been only at the first
stage of recognization. Therefore, this has caused employers confusion when applying labour law
provisions to protect their legitimate rights. Specifically, the current legal framework allows the
performance of NDA or NCA, but the question of how to make the agreement lawful and avoid the
situation of declaring it invalid when a dispute occurs remains and has been formally explained by the
competent authority. Indeed, the practice has also shown that not in every case the NDA or NCA will
be recognized lawful by the Court since these types of agreements easily overrule the employee’s
right to free choice of work.
3. The right to free choice of employment and the right to protect the business secrets in the
practice of employment relationships in Vietnam
As mentioned above, due to the uncertainty of the current legal framework, the protection of
business secrets by NDA and NCA, in practice, the determination of the validity of the NDA or NCA
will depend on the consideration of the judges when resolving the dispute. Accordingly, the judges
will base on various factors depending on cases.
Judgment No. 420/2019/LD-PT dated 15 May 2019 on the dispute of termination of labour
contracts with competitors:
Mr B worked for U Company from November 1, 2012 to August 25, 2017 as a design officer.
While working at the U Company, he signed an NCA and an NDA No. 07/2016/SHTT&CtrUR dated
January 29, 2016. Accordingly, he pledged that after quitting his job, he still kept all information
owned by U Company confidential and did not work for the rival company of U Company. However,
company U recently discovered that Mr. B was working for Company P, which has the main field of
operation is post-graphics in real estate area and is a direct competitor to U. The fact that Mr. B
worked at Company P with the same job as the one he did at Company U is a violation of the above-
mentioned agreement. Specifically: Mr. B violated section 9.1 of paragraph 9 of the NDA: ‘... serving
competitors with the company's products and technologies’; and section 2.1, paragraph 2 of the NCA:
‘The employee undertakes not to work, support or cooperate directly or indirectly with the Company's
competitors and its customers’(Ho Chi Minh City People's Court 2019). After the effort of requesting
Mr. B to follow the agreement, Company U initiated a lawsuit to require Mr. B not to work for
Company P. In this case, in the appellate judgment, the Court made the following statement:
347
First, considering that the plaintiffs believe that Company P operates a similar business to
Company U. The evidence presented by the plaintiff is that the A4 papers printed from company P's
website on the recruitment of employees. Thus, since there are either no originals for comparison nor
the evidence collected in accordance with the order prescribed by law, there is no basis for
consideration the request. At the same time, the defendant's representative presented: ‘Company P
operates in the field of image processing of interior and exterior, the parent company in the
Netherlands performs 2D design drawings transferred to P Company 3D editing at the court minutes
on November 30, 2018’ (Ho Chi Minh City People's Court 2019). In addition, there is no
acknowledgement by the representative of Company P nor Mr. B that the industry in which Company
P operates is the same as the industry company U as the plaintiff presented. Considering that, apart
from the plaintiff's presentation, there is no evidence that Company P operates a similar business with
U Company.
Second, article 35 of the 2013 Constitution provides that ‘Citizens have the right to work,
career choices, employment and workplace’. In addition, according to point a, section 1 Article 5,
section 1 Article 10 of the Labor Code 2012, section 1, Article 4 and section 6 Article 9 of the
Employment Law 2013, the court also ruled that the employee, in this case, has the right to free
choice of employment.
Judgment No. 09/2010/LD-ST dated December 10, 2010 of the People's Court of Duc Hoa
district, Long An province:
In another judgment, the Court recognized the NDA and the NCA because the judges consider
a voluntary element here and that this is a form of civil transaction in nature. Specifically, in the
judgment No. 09/2010/LD-ST dated December 10, 2010 of the People's Court of Duc Hoa district,
Long An province, the Saitex Company ('Saitex') signed with Mr. R an agreement in which Mr. R
may not work directly or indirectly for any company or individual that is a competitor of Saitex within
one year of terminating his contract with Saitex. Under the agreement, however, Mr. R can work for
Saitex's competitors if he receives written approval from Saitex. The list of competitors' companies
will be updated each month by general notice to the whole company. After terminating his
employment contract with Saitex, Mr. R signed a contract with another company (which was on the
list that Saitex had previously announced) without Saitex's consent. So Saitex sued Mr. R for violating
the agreement and asking him for compensation for the damage. In its judgment, the court stated that
'Mr R is a technician and should be directly involved in Saitex's business secrets. The company must
have the right to protect the confidentiality of the company's business technology. If the employee
works for a competitor company, Saitex's business secrets are exposed. As a result of the
measurement, Saitex's request to force Mr. R to comply with the terms of the competition at 2 Article
3 of the labour council meeting signed with Saitex is appropriate and well-founded’ (Huong LTT and
Hang NHB 2015).
From the two mentioned judgments, it can be concluded that there is no a fix formula in the
current legal framework to determine whether the right to protect the business secret of the employer
overrules the right to free choice of employment or not. It will depend on the judge’s opinions and the
provided evidence. However, it is possible to increase persuasion and minimize the probability of the
NDA and the NCA’s invalidity by the Court by the suggestions that will be presented in the next
section.
4. Suggestions for the balancing of the right to free choice of employment and the right to
protect the business secrets in Vietnam’s context
In the current context of the market economy, the participation of many economic sectors has
led to fierce competition. Therefore, an effective policy mechanism is one of the factors that not only
348
ensures the safety of businesses but also contributes to the development of a country. Therefore, the
author proposes some suggestions as follows:
First, the author proposes employers conclude the NDA and NCA as separate agreements
governed by civil and relevant laws. In other words, employers should avoid concluding the NDA and
NCA as parts of an employment contract since this may lead to the consequences that the employer is
violating the right to free choice of employment of the employee under the provisions of the Labour
Law.
Second, employers need to clearly define some basic and important contents in the NDA and
NCA. For example, in what cases will it be considered a business secret? For example, documents or
information that are considered business secrets will depend on the nature of the business.
Furthermore, who will be the competitors in the case of NDA and NCA? As can be seen in the above
judgment, the Court considered the factors to determine what a competitor was by considering the
business registration code on the Business Registration Certificate.
Finally, to ensure the balancing of the right to free the choice of employment and the right to
protect the business secrets in Vietnam's context, the rights and obligations of the parties should be
expressed in terms of a bilateral contract. For example, when an employee agrees to give up his
employment relationship within a specific period of time, the employer should pay compensation in
terms of benefits for the time the worker waives his or her employment relationship.
References
1. Bueno, Nicolas (2017) From the right to work to freedom from work: introduction to the human
economy. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations.
2. Huong LTT, Hang NHB (2015) Nghĩa vụ bảo vệ bí mật kinh doanh trong quan hệ lao động.
Tapchikhpl. https://tapchikhplvn.hcmulaw.edu.vn/module/xemchitietbaibao?oid=7ba98d2c-0535-
42bb-8aed-2fafa6e7e565. Accessed 28 March 2022.
3. Steve Adler (2006) General Report non-competition clauses (covenants not to compete) in labour
contracts. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---
dialogue/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_159933.pdf. Accessed 04 April 2022.
Legal documents
4. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).
5. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
6. Vietnamese Employment Law 2013.
7. Vietnamese Labour Code 2019.
8. Vietnamese Law on Intellectual Property 2005 (Amended in 2019).
Judgment
9. Vietnamese Judgment No. 09/2010/LD-ST dated December 10, 2010 of the People's Court of Duc
Hoa district, Long An province.
10. Vietnamese Judgment No. 420/2019/LD-PT dated 15 May 2019 on the dispute of termination of
labour contracts with competitors.

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BUSINESS FREEDOM RIGHTS IN VIETNAM’S ENTERPRISES LAW
Nguyen Van Lam
School of Economics and Management, Hanoi University of Science and Technology
*Corresponding Author: Email: lam.nguyenvan@hust.edu.vn. Phone: +84 988614612
Abstract
Legal regulations on types of companies are always considered as central in the business legal
system of each country. The formation and development of various types of companies on the basis of
exercising the right to freedom of business, when the law recognizes a variety of types, it will help
investors have more opportunities to choose the appropriate form, create conditions for them to well
exercise their right to freedom of business. This article deals with the conceptual issues of freedom of
business, the diversity of types of companies and the issues posed to law on enterprises in Vietnam.
Keywords: Business freedom right, enterprises law, type of company.
1. Overview of theoretical issues about forming different types of companies

The foundation of the formation and development of all types of companies is the exercise of
citizens' rights to freedom of will, freedom of law, and freedom of business. In which, freedom to do
business is the right of business subjects to choose the field of business to invest capital, freedom to
establish a company, freedom to choose the type of business organization, freedom to determine the type
of business. assets to contribute capital, freedom to organize the operating apparatus, the way of
organization and management, etc. to conduct business activities.
Freedom, in a certain sense, is creativity, a wave of breaking out of the old ways of thinking
of life (Pham Duy Nghia, 2006). Freedom of business is one of the fundamental rights, which is "the
ability of the subject to carry out business activities in certain forms in order to achieve the purpose
of making profits” (Bui Ngoc Cuong, 2004). In order to carry out business activities, investors have the
freedom to choose the type of business organization, including types of companies. The core of freedom
to do business in Vietnam includes a system of rights associated with business entities, such as: “(i)
The right to secure ownership of property; (ii) Freedom to establish an enterprise (including freedom
to choose business lines, business locations, and business models); (iii) Freedom of contract; (iv) The
right to freedom of competition under the law; (v) The right to self-determination in the field of
dispute settlement” (Bui Ngoc Cuong, 2001). However, “a subject's freedom to do business is always
limited by the right to do business and the legitimate interests of other subjects in society. Therefore,
the laws of countries around the world take the first criterion to protect core values, public order and
legitimate interests of the state, other organizations and individuals, limited freedom of business by
the provisions of the current law”(Bui Xuan Hai, 2001).
Over time of development, freedom of association and freedom of business tend to narrow
with the intervention of legislators, under the pressure of different periods. Sometimes the state has to
intervene and limit the freedom of trade because it needs to direct the national economy towards a
certain purpose, such as protecting the currency, protecting a few production industries...(Le Tai
Trien, Nguyen Vang Tho, Nguyen Tan, 1973). The right to freedom of business in general and the
freedom to choose the type of company should be restricted only for the purpose of protecting the
interests of the community, the state and other entities. The laws of many countries always recognize
and tend to expand the freedom of business of citizens. Therefore, legal provisions as a framework for
freedom of business are concretized, protected, and limited in necessary cases to ensure sustainable
development, in accordance with the law, public interests and minimize interference with the
freedoms of business of other entities.
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Types of companies are formed based on the basic elements of responsibility regime,
relationship between members, capital mobilization, legal status, and ownership. This is proven by the
history of formation and birth of different types of companies in countries around the world.
It can be said that, thanks to “the diversity of many economic sectors together with the freedom to do
business of enterprises - the inevitable product of a multi-component commodity economy under the market
mechanism - has created a variety of business types”(Nguyen Thi Thu Van, 2008) To explain the formation
of different types of companies, the author argues that: “On the basis of three factors, which are facilities,
management, and responsibility. If one revolves around these three factors, different types of new businesses
will emerge. In other words, by law, the governments have added and cut the form of partnership to create
other types to help the economy develop”(Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Nguyen Dinh Cung, 2009). This is proven
by the history of formation and birth of different types of companies in countries around the world.
The difference between the types of companies that create the type has certain advantages and
limitations. The type of company to choose depends on the conditions and requirements of investors. It is
the difference between the types of companies that will create strength in the market that entrepreneurs
have the right to demand the option of establishing or transforming to carry out their business. “Activities
and the development of the type of company requires the adjustment of the law” (Bui Xuan Hai,
2016). The role of the law is to recognize and create a legal basis for the types of companies created in real
life.
Besides, in the reality of business life, investors can create new ways of organizing
companies, with forms of association that can meet their conditions and needs. The law as a
recognition of the realities of business life , it is necessary to recognize and regulate Diversifying the
type of company makes it easier for investors to choose, business freedom is better guaranteed.
2. The reality of the diversity of types of companies in Vietnamese law

In Vietnam, European corporate law was introduced to Vietnam by the French from the late 19th
century and the first half of the 20th century. Therefore, Vietnam's corporate law has been greatly influenced
by the model. European company law. French Commercial Law is applied in different territories of Vietnam.
Company forms such as those in the French Commercial Law appeared in the French colonial laws such as
the Civil Law implemented in the Southern and Northern Courts 1931 and the Civil Code of the Middle
Period, the Commercial Code of the Middle States 1942. The regulations on companies in Vietnam during
this period are considered “copies of French company law” (Bui Xuan Hai & Gordon Walker, 2005).
After the liberation of the country in 1975, the whole country built an economy in which the State
controlled all factors of production and retained the right to decide the use of factors of production as well
as the distribution of income. In a centrally planned economy, there are two main economic components,
state and collective. “Only socialist economic organizations (state-owned, collective) are allowed to do
business, while other economic sectors are restricted and banned” (Bui Ngoc Cuong, 2004). Therefore,
the types of companies do not develop, the state does not promulgate the Law on Enterprises.
At the 1986 Communist Party of Vietnam Congress, Vietnam began to carry out the doi moi
process, according to which Company Laws 1990 to 1999 were promulgated respectively, creating a
legal basis for various types of companies to be born and develop. Over the past three decades,
Vietnamese legislators have introduced into the law common types of business organizations in the
world such as partnerships, limited liability companies (one member and multi-member), joint stock
companies, private enterprises for investors to freely choose. It can be said that the birth of the unified
Law on Enterprises 2005 (and now the Law on Enterprises 2020) to replace the Law on Enterprises
1999 has demonstrated the Party's policy and the State's policy in expanding investors' right to
establish businesses private. At the same time, creating legal equality for business entities.
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The current types of companies in the Law on Enterprises have been recognized for a long
time and are no longer new. It can be seen that, “the monopoly of certain types of enterprises of course
cannot lead to the need for conversion nor facilitate choice” (Bui Ngoc Cuong, 2002). The need to add
new types of companies into Vietnamese law is very necessary and of great significance. The law
must keep up with social life and must be predictable and flexible in order to set the direction for the
development of the market economy in Vietnam in the future. The fact shows that “companies with
all its types, not only limited liability companies and joint stock companies, are changing the
socio-economic face and perception in Vietnam today” (Ngo Huy Cuong, 2003).
Moreover, according to regulations, Vietnam Law on Enterprises does not recognize the forms
of companies established by investors in practice. That is, apart from the types recognized and
regulated by the Law on Enterprises, investors cannot establish other types of businesses. In actual
business life, there are many cases where investors want to associate with each other to create a type of
company to meet certain needs. Among these, there may be cases such as:
The first case: The investor wants to establish a type of company owned by members of the same
family, a lineage and that company must be associated with the development of that family. These
members must have the right to decide on all important issues and represent and participate in legal
relations on behalf of the company (general partners). In particular, they do not want to be dominated or
taken over by outsiders. But besides that, they want to have flexibility in mobilizing many people to
contribute capital in the form of buying shares (like a JSC) to benefit from the company's operations or in
other words they want to be mobilized. capital from the public (to become a capital contributing member
of the company). The company's internal governance structure must be compact, simple and less subject to
strict regulations by law (different from the types of LLCs and JSCs). If looking at the types of companies
prescribed by current law, none of them can meet the requirements set forth by investors.
The second case: When the general partners of a simple syndication company (according to the
current Law on Enterprises, a partnership with capital contributors) want to change the form of the
company to another type of company in order to meet the conditions: (i). Having the same organizational
model and operating rights; (ii) There is a flexible mechanism to mobilize capital from outside to become a
member of the company; (iii). The contributed capital is freely transferable (similar to JSC). According to
the current Law on Enterprises, there will be no type of company that can meet the needs of investors.
Currently, the types of enterprises recognized by Vietnamese law include limited liability companies,
single-member limited liability companies, multi-member limited liability companies, joint-stock companies,
and private enterprises. In addition, “the authorities will not accept investors to conduct business activities in
a form of business organization that has not been recognized by law” (Bui Xuan Hai, 2016).
Under the circumstances, the law of Vietnam has not yet recognized the actual company as the law
of some countries in the world. It can be seen that this problem seems to be contrary to the reality of business
life of investors, when business types are only adapted to certain industries, the The legal recognition of the
interference patterns of factors creating new types of businesses is an inevitable trend and a prerequisite for
perfecting the freedom of business of investors.
On the basis of the nature of the company is “a contract and like all agreements, not only giving
rise to the will and obligations between the contracting parties, but also creating a new legal entity” (Luu
Van Dat, Pham Huu Chi (translated), 1993). The company was born on the basis of the free will of the
founding members of the company. Any state or society must respect and recognize human creations,
because only creativity can be effective and produce many material products. In particular, the creation of
new types of businesses to carry out business activities must be encouraged, with the goal of developing
the economy - society in an equal and healthy environment. The history of the birth of various types of
companies shows that the birth of JSCs is the creation of traders in response to the needs of
business practices in countries with market economies. Because “each type of business has
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different economic, legal and business risk characteristics, sometimes opposing each other.
Therefore, from practice, reflecting the needs of practice and business problems, corporate law
needs to recognize and protect more broadly a number of business legal forms in order to have
options for investors” (Nguyen Nhu Phat, 2016).
It can be seen that the cases arising in the above practice have not been regulated by law.
Therefore, there is no legal basis to regulate new forms of legal association and investors do not have the
opportunity to choose the type of company. It is a fact that in the event that the Law on Enterprises is not
amended and supplemented, the types of businesses that may arise in practice, stemming from the
needs of investors, will create loopholes in the law, the shadow transactions of the types specified in
the Law on Enterprises. In addition, the law does not encourage investors to participate in the
establishment of new types of associations.
Types of enterprises specified in the law in Vietnam today have partly met the practical needs of
business life. Thereby, attracting and encouraging investors to contribute capital to establish different types
of business organizations with different types of links and certain advantages and disadvantages. Citizens'
right to freedom of business and state management of all types of enterprises are still guaranteed and
effective. Therefore, the addition of a new type in the Law on Enterprises will meet the investor's need to
choose the type of business and demonstrate the flexibility of the Law on Enterprises when it comes to
recognizing the interference between different types of businesses. To create new types of businesses is an
inevitable trend and a premise to perfect the freedom of business of investors. At the same time, improve
the quality of the business environment in general and business development in particular.
3. The need to improve the law governing the types of companies in Vietnam
The establishment of the company is based on the will of the investors when choosing the
company model as prescribed in the law. In the reality of business life, individuals and organizations can
think of new ways of organizing companies to meet the conditions and needs of investors.
The need of practice for the law governing types of companies, that is: “First, the law must
"design" more diverse types of companies so that investors have the freedom to choose choose. Second, the
law "recognizes" the types of companies that the reality of business life arises. The task of the law is to
recognize these types, provide a legal mechanism to protect investors and related third parties” (Bui Xuan
Hai, 2001). Therefore, the law as a recognition of the realities of socio-economic life, the more types of
companies must be recognized, the easier it will be for investors to choose, and the freedom to do
business will be easier better guarantee. Otherwise, it would be to restrict the rights of citizens.
The problems posed for the process of perfecting the company law in Vietnam can be seen as:
Firstly, citizens have the freedom to choose the business lines to invest capital in, the freedom
to establish and choose the type of company, the freedom to determine the type of assets to contribute
capital to the company, and the freedom to choose the type of company due to the organization of the
operating apparatus, the way in which the company is organized and managed... in order to conduct
business activities. Therefore, the right of citizens will be free to choose within the types of
companies prescribed by law.
Second, the provisions on freedom of business in Vietnamese law are often the right of the
company, which means that if understood in this way, the right to do business arises only after
investors have chosen to do so type of company to establish and operate (Article 7, Law on Enterprises
2020). Therefore, Vietnamese law has not yet paid attention to citizens' right to freely choose types of
companies. It is the investor's right to freely choose the type of company when conducting his
business activities, not after the company has been established.
Third, the legal form of the company is very important, not only delineating the rights and
obligations of the owners, but also having a long-term influence on the development orientation and
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vision of the business future. Therefore, in terms of business theory and practice, when the law restricts
the types of businesses that are considered popular, it will both limit the freedom to choose the type of
business organization of the investor private sector, because it does not cover all the types that have been
born and developed in the world and have b een recorded in the history of Vietnamese law.
Fourth, in a market economy, the role of law is to determine the factors and create guarantees
for the exercise of the right to freedom of business, by respecting and recognizing the creativity of
investors in business forms. Legislation must be predictive, on the one hand, to respond promptly to
social conditions, and at the same time create an open direction for people's choices in business. Only
then will the law recognize the realities of life and be stable and sustainable.
4. Conclusion
The company's legal regulations were issued and developed in order to ensure the legal basis for
the development of various types of companies of different economic sectors on the one hand, operating
under the market mechanism with a state management. On the other hand, encouraging and creating
favorable conditions for those with assets to invest in business, attracting capital from the people to put into
business.
In the current conditions in our country, there is a need for legislators to research and build
various types of companies to meet and match real life. The law on types of companies needs to be
perfected in the direction of introducing a variety of types, especially forms of companies that have the
nature of person-to-person association and have a simple structure that is suitable with the corporate
culture. culture and commercial habits of Vietnamese people. At that time, investors can promote all their
resources to contribute to building the economy on the basis of the law, ensuring maximum freedom of
business of citizens.
References
1. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Nguyen Dinh Cung (2009), Company: Capital, Management and Disputes under
Enterprise Law 2005 , Knowledge Publishing House .
2. Bui Ngoc Cuong (2002), “The role of economic law in ensuring freedom of business”, Journal of legal
science, (7), pp.25-30
3. Bui Ngoc Cuong (2004), Some issues on business freedom in current Vietnamese law , National
Political Publishing House, Hanoi,
4. Bui Ngoc Cuong (2001), Building and perfecting economic law to ensure the right to freedom of
business in our country, Doctor of Law thesis, Hanoi Law University.
5. Ngo Huy Cuong (2003), “Philosophical basis of the company establishment contract”, VNU
Scientific Journal: Economics - Law, Vol. XIX, (4), tr.1- 8
6. Luu Van Dat, Pham Huu Chi (1993) (translated) , Principles and practice of commercial law,
business law , National Political Publishing House .
7. Bui Xuan Hai (2001), “Some issues on enterprises and the law governing different types of
enterprises in Vietnam”, Journal of Legal Science, (3), p. 11-17
8. Bui Xuan Hai (2001), “Some issues on enterprises and the law governing different types of
enterprises in Vietnam”, Journal of Legal Science, (3), p. 11-17
9. Bui Xuan Hai (2016) (editor), Legal textbook on business subjects (1st edition), Hong Duc
Publishing House – Lawyers' Association.
10. Bui Xuan Hai & Gordon Walker (2005), “Transitional Adjustment Problems in Contemporary
Vietnamese Company Law”, Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation, (20), p.567–568
11. Pham Duy Nghia (2006), Textbook of economic law, volume 1: Enterprise Law, Hanoi National
University Publishing House
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12. Nguyen Nhu Phat (2016), “The right to freely establish an enterprise under the Constitution”,
State and Law Review , (10) (342), pp. 28-32
13. Le Tai Trien, Nguyen Vang Tho, Nguyen Tan (1973), Interpretation of the Commercial Law of
Vietnam, volume 2, Kim Lai An Quan, Saigon.
14. Nguyen Thi Thu Van (2008), Some issues about companies and perfecting the law on companies in
Vietnam today, National Political Publishing House

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355
ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNANCE AT LAW FIRMS
Dao Thu Ha1, Vu Thanh Duong1
1
*Corresponding Author: Email: dt.ha@hutech.edu.vn ; vt.duong@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
The article shall include 3 primary points with the first matter named “Overview”, shall illustrate
reasons why we choose this field as well as the necessary of the article. In terms of the second one,
“Subject matters”, we shall present entire skills on brand building and customer relationship
development, accompanied by typical actual cases around the title “Organization and Governance at
Law firms”, besides that, we also demonstrate marketing activities which shall push law firms to
reach estimated achievement on the legal field. Finally, practical experience for law firms and advices
for career path developments of law students shall be shared fully during the article.
Keywords: governance of law firms, law firms, skills on brand building.
1. Overview
One of significant signals of a successful start-up enterprise shall be sustainability. However, it is not
applied for legal field, or not regular at least, because one lawyer cannot advise for more than one
client at the same time. Notwithstanding, the start-up company First Counsel, which headquarter is in
Singapore, shall narrow such distance [3]. We cite the statement of a successful start-up company to
prove difficulties on law start-ups. Due to specific matters on the law field, it is obviously not easy to
reach the peak of success on start-up, however, it is also not impossible. Based on this, the purpose of
this article is to share actual skills on organization and governance of law firms with law students and
whom it may be concerned.
2. Skills on brand building and development on organization and governance of law firms
What is the most ideal organization of a law firm? Answering this question shall resolve the essence
of starting and developing a law firm in the legal market. It should be defined such issues:
First, brand building, core of brand building is prestige and trust of clients, which decides the success
or loose of the firm [2].
It should be concentrated on individual images of Founders/ Partners/ Associates. In term of a small-
scale firm, the individual image of owner shall play a decided role, clients trust in reputation of such
lawyer. Actual cases should be considered, such as: (i) Minh Nhut Law Firm, which is operated by
Lawyer Nguyen Minh Nhut, he has made his name in the law market through his major on the field of
import and export, especially Vietnamese coffee and side products. He, as a businessman, has run a
company named Café Gốc, which sells Vietnamese coffee in local market and exports it to foreign
market, and he provides legal consultance on import-export to local clients, as a solicitor. Moreover,
he is a wellknown barrister on civil as well, especially on the field of real estate [4]. (ii) Lawyer’s
office Luu Van Tam, Lawyer Luu Van Tam has got distinguished achievement through well-known
criminal cases such as Nam Cam, Trust Bank and Hua Thi Phan [5], etc. Similarly, individual profiles
of Partners or Associates of bigger firms is the most essential key of successful firms. For instance,
Global Vietnam Lawyers is a law firm operated by over 10 experienced lawyers [6]. Even if there is a
unique Managing Partner, Lawyer Nguyen Gia Huy Chuong, clients may believe in the firm because
of reputation of other partners or lawyers.
Short-term plans lasting from 5 to 7 years should be created to approach the law market, where other
famous firms have existed previously. Next, you will touch the long-term plan – brand name of your
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firm. In order to reach such targets, building brand name identification, through social medias such as
websites, Facebook, fan page, Instagram, etc., should be the first priority. Acts of sharing and
updating information shall promote images of media and company activities to spread out firms’
messages, which may be followed by potential candidates.
Second, long-term plans of firms’ brand building. Building long-term plans of firms shall include
such work: (i) Firm Profile – Logo – Name cards; (ii) Lawyer Associates and Staff profiles – internal
force of firm; (iii) Scale of firm – Client’s development – Competitive ability – Legal service quality;
(iv) Marketing dossier of firm – Website of firm.
“Design a name card” is initial must-done-work of Brand building: brainstorming of firm’s name
card plays a vital role to match significant standard, which shall make clients feel an immediate
professional attraction to firm. Design of firm’s name card is not easy as thought. It contains profound
meanings that new owners should follow formers’ contents – formats – layouts – pages’ category and
should do it properly and sincerely. Name cards must provide coherence and cohesion of format and
content; shall have logo under regular colors such as blue and red; and should create its signature and
differences.
Example: Logo of LEXcomm – So what does LEXcomm mean? Why did they choose so? What
message would the firm like to convey? Who are their potential clients that they wish to serve?
Lawyer Pham Ba Linh shared the meaning of the LEXcomm Logo that: their target clients are
foreigners. Lex, a latin word, means law, while Comm is also the latin word meaning commerce. Such
both words come from Roman Law, the origin of commercial law. Their vision is not only litigation
but also consultance, so, such message is very important for a firm on communication strategy [7].
Lawyer Nguyen Manh Dung shared his firm's logo that, his main field are law on marine and marine
insurance, and his firm’s logo is also the Slogan, pursuanted to business ethics. It has two large red
sails and the third yellow sail is smaller, which imply maritime and inheritage of next generations,
moreover, which mean they would also expand to other fields in the future. Generally, it shows the
desire of founders [8].
Building firm's Website, a portal of firm, it is one of the particularly important tasks in the era of
science and technology 4.0.
The firm’s scale, based on targets, founders should develop according to the roadmap from the short-
term plan to the long-term strategy, where each firm will have orientations for implementation in
order of priority. For example, LEXcomm planned to have two offices in two major economic centers
of the country, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and then developed a third office in Singapore. The
message that Lex wanted to send to the market is to develop well at home country and reach out to the
international legal market. However, after evaluating, examining and considering factors in terms of
both financial capacity, exploitable benefits and disadvantages, the firm has decided to focus on
developing two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, each office has 50 associate lawyers, standing
strongly at the local legal market (abandon the ambition to open in Singapore because the cost is too
large and there is not too much benefits).
Developing client relationships, building relationships with clients to bring in many cases is the
strategic vision of firm. It shall be based on groups of client, who are they, are they potential clients or
not? What is their majors, which level of such majors shall we reach to? For example, if clients are on
the field of oil and gas infrastructure, when approaching and targeting this group, it is necessary to
have a deep understanding of how the oil and gas industry is organized and operated? Understand the
type and complexity of client needs, identify specialized or diversified areas – litigation or consulting.
Developing client relationships needs to separate professional expertise with a balance of
diversification, and locate a wide range of legal services related to maritime, financial, banking,
investment, civil, crime, etc. Each type of services shall have each separated approaches, founders
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must create unique and professional information in order to build the firm's reputation through
differentiation and high specialization in such each field of supply to clients.
It is necessary to balance client relations to develop the firm's work resources with handling a specific
professional case. For example, 70% for case expertise; 30% to develop client relationship network,
corporate governance cannot be ignored or taken lightly. Because, if founders do not ensure this
balance after solving a case, it will take a round of restarting to establish client relationships and find
jobs for the firm.
An indispensable issue for developing client relationships is building a team specializing in
supporting client relationship development, this team may determine the level of development of the
firm.
Competitive ability, it needs to identify scopes of job, probability of success. For example, in the field
of banking and finance or labor, tourism, etc., what factors do often arise in dispute. Founders must
posit the firm through the difference and outstanding advantages while they also realize the existing
challenges posed by the firm compared to others in the same field of work. Whether the firm is
qualified to be on the list of legal advisors that banks need, or is on the reference list for enterprises
and industrial zones that often have disputes with employees and business partners or not? It should
allocate reasonable time for that array, do not miss the opportunity but do not spend too much time
and effort because the potential level is not high.
Associate Lawyers should run individual presentations for each client or for each specific case;
Firm’s members should participate in professional forums, associations and events such as Bar
Federation, Professional Associations, Business Associations, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, European Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc., which are great channels to exploit,
access as well as demonstrate the firm's competitiveness in the legal market.
Founders must ensure the stability and sustainable development of the firm in internal and external
activities.
Legal entity model must be appropriate for scale of work, creating leverage for development.
Currently, the law has broadened the scope of entity models for the field of legal services, founders
can choose between partnership, limited company (one or more members) to establish a law firm [1].
In the form of private or public, it will be favorable for the development of the firm.
In practice, lawyers participate in advising investors, helping them to have a diverse view and
comprehensive assessment in choosing the legal business models. In this case, they themselves must
consider choosing an appropriate direction adapting major requirements while ensuring market factors
in terms of economic benefits.
Marketing materials of the firm, are illustrated by documents introducing specialized competencies
and expertise of the firm. The quality of legal services is an extremely important factor that elevates
the firm's position and competitiveness in the service market. This is reflected in: (i) The quality of
legal services, through the evaluation of clients on work efficiency. (ii) Curriculum vitae, brief of
education statements, experience, forte, ethics, service attitude of each member lawyer of the firm.
(iii) List of cases that have been done, can be introduced more through published articles, thank-you
comments/letters from clients, related stories to attract the attention of clients and readers who may
become a client in the future. (iv) Analyzes, comments, answers and questions by creating a legal
consulting channel of the firm; (v) Post, update and analyze the latest legal documents through the
firm's website to convey media messages to all audiences in society.
3. Notice on organization and governance of the law firm

Currently, the opportunity to enter the legal market is very open when Vietnam participates in
international playgrounds, but can we exploit and seize those great opportunities? The success of
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brand building, thanks to the modern technology marketing system, creates a strong push for law
firms. Besides, whether create prestige from an individual or an organization so that it can spread
quickly, access the domestic legal market and resonate in neighboring countries. As mentioned above,
if in a small or medium scale firm, name of the founder lawyer is a prerequisite to help attract a source
of clients. Otherwise, if it is determined to grow bigger, it is necessary to pay attention to
teambuilding of the firm, which affects strongly to the success of the firm, like the quote "If you want
to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together".
On the basis of the scale of development, the firm will determine the appropriate legal type, whether it
should be private or public. Based on this, founders shall choose a suitable path of development.
Firstly, capital shall be a financial basement of its first stage. This basement plays an essential role. At
that time, each individual constantly promotes their strengths and no one thinks about the own private
benefits but only focuses on foreign policies, which make their firm have a position in the market.
Members co-operate with owners for both achievements, when everyone has the right to vote and
decide. Achievements of individuals shall create the signature of the firm. After reaching stable level,
the firm should move to the second step – internal relationship. In the context of a legal firm, it needs
to have a stable human resource who is responsible for general affairs. Moreover, key personel should
have mutual vision even if number of such members is small. Therefore, for the purpose of remaining
stably and preventing estimated disputes, (i) regulations of corporate governance, authorization charts
and code of conducts should be mentioned at the firm charter; and (ii) owners should balance benefits
of members clearly; and (iii) agreements among associate lawyers should be transparent.
Regarding clients, the firm should consider choosing clients as well as segmenting the market based
on its capacity, which will bring benefits to the firm. Client resources may be from diverse channels,
such as clients find the firm, clients know the firm through reference of colleagues, clients corporate
with the firm. All the components, including the process of developing, creating communication
channels, client sources, corporate with law institutions, law lecturers, businesses, company leaders,
member lawyers, interns, translators, assistants, secretaries, accountants, etc. shall create a mutual
strength, each stage takes on a task towards the mutual success.
In short, it should depend on the level of activity, the field of work, the specific time to develop a plan
of action. Maybe initially the firm will accept all kinds of jobs, general to cover operating costs,
gradually specializes, branching, segmenting jobs, etc., to a certain extent, time will definitely assign
to each specific member, a higher level of specialization and expertise.
4. Conclusion
With the above content, the article hopes to share stories through certain successes of some law firms,
through the practical operating experience of the lawyers of those firms to respond to the initial quote
is: start-up in the legal field is very difficult but not impossible, and hope to and analyzes the points to
pay attention to when building and developing a law firm. All of these are analyzed to give wings to
the successful dreams of law students on their future career path.
References
1. Vietnam National Assembly Office (2015), Law on Lawyer (conflation of Law on Lawyer issued
in 2006, Amended Law on Lawyer issued on 2012, and Criminal Law 2015), No. 03/VBHN-
VPQH issued on 31st December, 2015.
2. Vietnam National Assembly (2020), Law on Enterprise, No. 59/2020/QH14 issued on 17th June,
2020.
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3. Vietnam Bar Federation, National Bar Council (2019), Code of ethics and conduct for
Vietnamese lawyers, No. 201/QĐ – HĐLSTQ issued on 13th December, 2019.
4. Minh Hà (2017), VN Business, “Khởi nghiệp bằng tư vấn pháp lý, tại sao không?”, posted on
14th February, 2017 at https://vnbusiness.vn/y-tuong/khoi-nghiep-bang-tu-van-phap-ly-tai-sao-
khong-1017691.html , accessed on 26th April, 2022.
5. Profile of Lawyer Nguyen Minh Nhut posted at https://www.facebook.com/minhnhutlaw/ and his
business posted at https://www.facebook.com/cafegoctakeaway/ .
6. Congannhandan Online (2018), “Luật sư của bà Hứa Thị Phấn “phản pháo” tại Tòa”, posted on
28th May, 2018 at https://cand.com.vn/Vu-an-noi-tieng/Luat-su-cua-ba-Hua-Thi-Phan-phan-
phao-tai-toa-i477245/ , accessed on 26th April, 2022.
7. Global Vietnam Lawyers, Board of Partners, https://gvlawyers.com.vn/hoi-dong-luat-su-thanh-
vien/ , accessed on 26th April, 2022.
8. LEXcomm Solicitors and Barristers, The Firm, https://lexcommvn.com/en/the-firm/ , accessed
on 26th April, 2022.
9. Dzungsrt and Associates (2021), Logo Evolution, posted on 23rd November, 2021 at
https://dzungsrt.com/news/the-4th-wave-of-covid-19-in-vietnam-and-its-impacts-on-the-legal-
sector/ , accessed on 26th April, 2022.

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JUDICIAL EXPERTISE, ASSET VALUATION, AND LITIGATION
SKILLS OF LAWYER IN CRIMINAL CASES
Dao Thu Ha1, Nguyen Hoang Phuong Nguyen1
1
*Corresponding Author: Email: nhp.nguyen@hutech.edu.vn; dt.ha@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Litigation in a criminal case is an activity that occurs during the settlement of a case from the stage of
prosecution, investigation, prosecution and trial. In Resolution 49 and Article 26 of Vietnamese
Criminal Litigation 2015, government had set out a new regulation. Such is accordance with the
judicial revolution in the scope of our Party. In litigation, subjects proceed in litigation, defender and
others in the litigation process are entitled in presenting, evaluating evidence and making requests to
reveal the ultimate truth of the case equally. Judicial expertise and asset evaluation are most essential
skills of lawyers in criminal litigation. They play a crucial role in the task of requiring evidence in
certain criminal cases. Due to such reasons, in this article, the authors want to examine several aspects
of judicial expertise and asset valuation relating to lawyers’ litigation skills in criminal cases.
Keywords: judicial expertise, asset valuation, criminal case
1. The role of judicial expertise, asset valuation and litigation skills of laywer in the scope of
criminal cases
Expertise means using knowledge, scientific, technical and professional methods by an expert to make
professional conclusions on issues related to the investigation, prosecution, adjudication and
enforcement activities. Executing criminal judgments, and settle civil and administrative cases at the
request of procedure-conducting agencies or procedure-conducting persons or the requirement of
expertise from professionals. The assessment is carried out in two forms: solicitation of expertise and
requirement for expertise. Article 1 of the Law on Judicial Assessment to be amended and
supplemented in 2020 states: “Judicial expertise means the use of scientific, technical and
professional knowledge, means and methods by a judicial expert to make professional conclusions on
issues related to prosecution, investigation, prosecuting, adjudicating and executing criminal
judgments, settling civil and administrative cases at the request of a competent procedure-conducting
agency, a person competent to conduct procedures or at the request of a competent procedure-
conducting agency regulating by this law.”
In the process of settling criminal cases, from the prosecution stage to the investigation, prosecution,
trial and criminal judgment execution. Criminal procedure-conducting persons have solicited judicial
expertise and asset evaluation or at the order of the requester for assessment and asset valuation in
accordance with the law. From such, judicial expertise and property valuation in criminal proceedings
have played a crucial role in the settling of cases. Throughout this activity, it determines the crime
(guilty or not guilty), whether a person's behaviour is a violation of law and also what frame of
punishment is applied. Also, this activity determines the amount of damage in these cases. The
conclusion of property assessment and valuation is a document established by individuals or
organizations performing judicial expertise and is the result of the assessment process. The analysis,
evaluation, and use of judicial expertise conclusions to prove the presence or absence of a criminal
act. Furthermore, this conclusion also points out the person who committed the crime and other
significant circumstances in settling the case. Correctly deciding criminal cases is one of the important
skills of lawyers when participating in criminal cases.
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For example, when participating in the proceedings to defend the accused with the act of
"Intentionally causing injury" under Article 134 of the Penal Code 2015, the defendant's lawyers
demonstrate their ability to argue by participating in the activities of the prosecution agency.
Proceedings, in which attention is paid to examining and evaluating evidence by soliciting judicial
expertise on the injury rate of the victim. The assessment results are essential evidence. The basis for
deciding whether to prosecute criminally or not. And if the law decided to prosecute the suspect,
which frame and which article should be used? All of this will be solved by a judicial expertise. Injury
assessment results with a rate of less than 11% may not be criminally prosecuted, in cases of more
than 11%, only prosecuted for this crime.
Conclusions on property assessment and valuation are prescribed by the 2015 Criminal Procedure
Code as the source of evidence at Point d, Clause 1, Article 87. This regulation aims to prove the
crime and the person committing the crime. In certain cases, the assessment and valuation of property
are mandatory to determine the criminal composition, and the penalty frame is applied. For example,
destruction of property under Article 178 of Criminal law, Nguyễn Văn M used a metal bar to break
the glass and driving mirror of Mr X’s car. Mr X filed the case with the police. Before prosecution,
the Investigation agency must issue a decision to solicit the expertise of the destroyed property. If the
report of damaged property is above 2 million Vietnam dong, the investigation agency can consider
and prosecute Nguyễn Văn M under the crime of Intentionally damaging property. [Lưu Văn Tám].
In the very case of “Murder” with several accomplices, when viewing the result of judicial expertise
of evidence, the murder weapon is the dagger of Trần Văn T. However, in the forensic report, the
dagger did not cause the wounds on the victim. In such cases, Lawyers apply litigation skills by
guiding the accused to make an appeal because he is not the one who killed the victim; Due to such,
the investigation agency conducts a supplement investigation. After such, the investigation agency
had concluded that the cause of death is from the wounds on the victim’s wrist. Furthermore, the
wounds were caused by a falchion, not the dagger. With this latest finding, the one liable for the death
of the victim is Nguyễn Văn D. This litigation by the lawyer helped the defendant Tran Van T escape
the crime of murder, only being handled according to the crime of intentionally causing injury. [2]
Judicial expertise and property valuation are carried out as soon as the procedure-conducting agencies
receive information and denunciations about crimes and handle denunciations and information about
crimes, proposing to prosecute a criminal case are one of the prerequisites for considering whether
there is a criminal act or not when settling a criminal case. Specifically, the case at Galaxy 9
apartment building, after receiving a criminal report from the apartment management board about
harassment behaviour with people under 16 years old. However, if they want to prosecute the case
against Mr Nguyen Huu Linh, the investigating police agency must issue a decision to solicit judicial
expertise on videotapes in the elevator. With this evidence, they can determine whether or not Mr
Linh is liable for the charge. On the results of judicial expertise, the police investigation agency of the
District 4 Police Department has just issued a decision to prosecute the accused against Mr Nguyen
Huu Linh.
In the section of crimes of Vietnamese Criminal law 2015 supplementing in 2017, almost crimes from
Chapter XIII to XXVI relate to requiring an appraisal or property valuation. Especially in recent
times, criminal cases related to corruption, economy, position, finance – banking, or topical issues
such as the case of Nguyễn Phương Hằng and so on. Such cases all need judicial expertise and asset
valuation to maintain the transparency of legal aspects. Lawyer Lưu Văn Tám stated that with the
crime of propaganda against the State (the section of crimes infringing on national security), the
investigation process needs to have judicial expertise on documents considering whether the
documents are reactionary or not. With the crime of Murder (a Group of crimes infringing on human
life, health, dignity and honour) the process requires assessment of blood marks, DNA left at the
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scene to see who committed the crime, assessment of the age of the criminal responsibility,
psychiatric assessment of the offender.
Furthermore, Lawyers can demonstrate their litigation skills through the form by studying records,
evaluating evidence as judicial expertise results, and valuing assets. Thus, lawyer can point out
unreasonable points and guide their clients to exercise the rights of the defense party such as
complaints, petitions, and arguments in the process of participating in the proceedings.
2. Drawbacks of judicial expertise, asset valuation that affects the litigation process of lawyers,
and notes on lawyers’ litigation skills
Judicial expertise and asset valuation in criminal proceedings have been responding better and better
to legal proceedings, making a significant contribution to the resolution of criminal cases. Over time,
these criminal cases have been handled objective, in a timely and lawful. In response to the
requirement to improve the quality of judicial expertise and property valuation activities, especially to
serve the fight against crime and control in the new situation. Regulations on judicial expertise and
property valuation are required. The property has simultaneously issued new documents; however,
there are still difficulties and obstacles to applying. Besides the positive aspects, there are still some
shortcomings and limitations leading to the results of the assessment and property valuation. There are
still man problems, which are also requirements for lawyers to study, exploit and apply in the
litigation process to best protect customers when performing legal services. For example:
First, the consolidated document of the Law on Judicial Assessment in 2020 stipulates the order and
procedures for asset valuation in criminal proceedings. But it does not provide detailed instructions on
judicial assessment and asset valuation of property in criminal proceedings (even though the centre of
judicial expertise in crime has been founded). “There are still conflicting opinions in determining the
value of damage” Ngô Văn Lượng states in Procuracy Journal. In this case, when participating in the
litigation, the lawyer will study the basics, how to solicit, evaluate and use the assessment results, and
consider whether or not there is an abuse of the expert opinion? Check and assess whether the expert
conclusion is consistent with the records, documents and other evidence in the case or not? When
inspecting, determining whether the assessment or valuation has violated the assessment time limit is
essential. Economic and corruption cases are often complicated and lengthy, valuation factors and
criteria often change for many reasons such as inflation, price slippage, and affecting valuation
results. However, the economy does not stay still, and the re-evaluation results must be adjusted,
causing difficulties in the handling of the case.
Second, the regulations on the responsibilities of the expertise soliciting agency and the agencies,
organizations and individuals performing the assessment and valuation in criminal proceedings are
unclear. There is a lack of sanctions to ensure implementation leading to the existence of extrusion,
and delay in assessment and valuation of assets. The coordination between the soliciting agencies and
the implementing agencies still faces many obstacles, making the quality of asset assessment and
valuation activities not meet the requirements set forth. In addition, a large number of appraisers,
property appraisers who have not been professionally trained, and appraisers who work consistently
are often afraid of not wanting to be an appraiser because of their responsibilities. The legal status is
high, while the conditions for the assessment and valuation of assets in criminal proceedings are not
yet guaranteed. Applying this limitation, lawyers in litigation should note the exploitation and study
of the assessment order and procedures; criteria for being an assessor, has the appraiser fully satisfied
the conditions prescribed by law? Do you have a professional certificate? If there is a violation, it is
necessary to propose recommendations, request changes, and request a re-inspection.
Third, there are quite a few cases due to prolonged expertise, affecting the time limit for proceedings.
Many cases have to be temporarily suspended the results of the assessment and property valuation. In
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some fields such as finance, banking, environment, transportation, science and technology, and rare
and precious wildlife, there is no specialized assessment organization, leading to limitations, often
having to requisition experts in that field. The standards of assessors have not yet been met, causing
certain difficulties. The quality of the assessment conclusions is also not guaranteed. It is still general,
and it is not clear what is required. In practice, there are also cases where the results are different for
the same issue, sometimes giving opposite results, causing difficulties for the proceedings-conducting
agency. Encountering these situations, lawyers need to research and exploit the assessment results to
find and point out inadequacies, violations, and conflicts to find the optimal solution to protect the
interests of clients.
Fourth, the regulations on the cases in which the right to refuse expertise is not specified. There has
not been a sanction for organizations and individuals that refuse to conduct the assessment without a
valid reason, causing delay, prolongation, expropriation of responsibility or untruthful assessment
conclusions. Objectively biased due to subjective factors of agencies, organizations or experts. When
studying documents, the lawyer noted to check the legitimacy, consider whether the assessor is
eligible to conduct assessment and valuation? Is the denial valid? Do the assessment result show signs
of violation or falsify the evidence file? Does it reflect objective truth or not? From those exploits,
make recommendations on assessment results, value properties or request re-appraisal.
Fifth, when participating in legal proceedings, some lawyers are still passive, have not focused on
researching and fully grasping the legal provisions and have not fully realized the importance of
judicial expertise and property valuation in the criminal litigation procedure. These issues are directly
related to the determination of crimes, the setting of penalties, liability for compensation in criminal
proceedings and civil judgment enforcement. From such, lawyers have not fully exercised the rights
of the lawyer, such as making petitions, and complaints, and expressing their opinions and views on
the results of the assessment and property valuation when they find it unfavourable to the client.
When participating in criminal proceedings, lawyers must master the legal provisions on judicial
expertise and property valuation. Also, lawyers need to use their litigation skills in handling criminal
cases. It is necessary to improve skills in drafting petitions, complaints, and requests, and consult and
guiding skills for clients to ensure full implementation of the rights and obligations of lawyers
participating in criminal cases. As well as provide the best protection for its customers related to
judicial expertise and property valuation by the law.
3. Recommendations from an actual tax case

According to the tax invasion case, the investigation agency – the Ministry of Public Security
prosecuted criminal case number 112/CQĐT and suspect number 113/ĐT on 18/09/2013. Such
ministry accused Q of the charge of “tex invasion” based on Article 161 Vietnamese Criminal law
1999 under the Conclusion of judicial expertise number 395/KLGĐ on 12/09/2013. With this charge,
Q can be sentenced to imprisonment from 2 to 7 years.
After receiving the file from defendant Q, Lawyer Luu Van Tam asked his associates to study the
conclusion of judicial assessment No. 395/KLGD dated September 12, 2013, through which they
found out as follows: Limited liability company SHĐ did not declare the actual data of the company's
business operations, revenue and expenditure, specifically from February 18, 2002, to August 21,
2003. SHĐ conducted collecting money and gold from customers. But, the company did not record it
in the accounting books for monitoring, did not issue invoices as prescribed, so it evaded tax with the
amount of 5,581,003,000 VND (with a value-added tax is 4.436065.000 VND and company income
tax is 1.144.938 VND).
According to the conclusion of the tax judicial assessment, the investigation conclusion and the
indictment, defendant Q's act of tax evasion occurred from February 18, 2002, to August 21, 2003. As
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above-mentioned, Q was prosecuted under article 161.3 of Vietnamese Criminal law, with the
sanction being imprisonment from 2 to 7 years. Such is a felony in the criminal law of Vietnam.
Specifically, under article 8.3 of such a legal document in 1999. According to Article 23 of
Vietnamese Criminal Law 1999 regulated the time for criminal prosecution for serious crimes is ten
years. Thus, if counting from the last date defendant Q committed the crime of tax evasion, August
21, 2003, to the date the investigating agency issued a decision to prosecute the defendant on
September 18, 2013, it would be ten years and twenty-seven days. The statute of limitations for
criminal prosecution for serious crimes has passed.
The prosecution of defendant Q, in this case, has seriously violated the procedure and all activities of
investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating defendant Q after August 21, 2013, are illegitimate. From
the above result, the lawyer and Q requested the procedure-conducting agency to suspend the case and
suspend the defendant Q and achieved the results. The case was suspended because the statute of
limitations for prosecution had expired criminal liability.
4. Conclusion
With the desire to improve the effectiveness of law application and litigation skills of Lawyers in
criminal cases of judicial expertise and property valuation, the article has raised and analyzed
problems and difficulties when applying legal regulations on judicial expertise and property valuation
in specific criminal cases. Also, the authors want to propose necessary notes for Lawyers when
participating in litigation to better performance skills and techniques in the process of practising
related to matters of judicial expertise, and property valuation.
References
1. Vietnamese Criminal law, 2015
2. Vietnamese Criminal procedure law 2015
3. Vietnamese law on Judicial expertise 2020
4. “Tax invasion”, Lawyer Luu Van Tam, Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province Bar association
5. Ngo Van Luong (2021), “Vướng mắc về định giá tài sản trong vụ án hình sự”, Tạp chí Khoa
học Kiểm sát, volume 06, 2021.

[STS22-72]
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Economics and Business Administration
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368
DEVELOPMENT OF NON-STATE ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM
DURING THE PERIOD FROM 2015 TO 2021
Hoang Xuan Son1*, Ho Thi Thanh Truc2
1
Master, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (UEH); Postgraduate, Saigon
University, Vietnam (SGU).
2
Master, University of Finance - Marketing, Vietnam.
*
Corresponding author: Email: xuanson@ueh.edu.vn ;Phone: +84 907600789;
Abstract
Over 35 years of national comprehensive reform, Vietnam has recorded a fundamental change
in support policies and the appearance of the private sector. Along with the adjustment of awareness
and improvement of market economic institutions, recognition and protection of private property
rights as well as the right to freedom of business, the equal right among all types of enterprises
regardless of business sectors, the non-state enterprises have been developing strongly, increasing in
volume, expanding in scale, diversifying in organizational forms and spreading more and more widely
in scope, business fields. That improves their competitiveness, and becomes increasingly important
driving forces to make great contributions to the realization of the goal of “striving for the middle of
the twenty-first century, our country becomes a developed country, according to Socialist
orientation”.
Keywords: development, non-state enterprises, Vietnam.
1. Introduction
In the last time, the highlight is the amendment of the Law on Enterprises (2015, 2020), and
Vietnam’s active participation in new generation trade agreements (notably the Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) such as Free Trade Agreement
between Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA)). These are considered guidelines, policies and
motivations to promote constant development of the non-state enterprise sector to continue affirming
its position and the important role in the national economy. In addition, the impact of the fourth
industrial revolution and the Covid-19 pandemic have also significantly affected the development of
the non-state enterprise sector in Vietnam during this period.
2. Definitions of non-state enterprise and types of enterprise in Vietnam today

According to Clause 10, Article 4 of the Enterprise Law 2020, “enterprise is an organization
with its own name, property, transaction office, established or registered for establishment in
accordance with the law for the purpose of doing business”. According to this concept, enterprises
include only those officially established and operating under the Enterprise Law.
Based on the General Statistics Office, an enterprise “is an economic organization with its own
name, transaction office, assets, and registered establishment in accordance with law for business
purposes, including: company limited liability, joint stock company, partnership, sole proprietorship”
(General Statistics Office 2021).
In addition, in a broader sense, enterprises can also be understood as organizations and business
households that have the function of producing and trading goods and services legally in order to
achieve maximum profits or socio-economic efficiency targets. According to this understanding,
enterprises include economic organizations such as cooperatives, non-business organizations with
business activities, public utility enterprises operating for non-business purposes, business households
which are not eligible to establish a business according to the law.
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Moreover, the non-state enterprise sector includes “enterprises with domestic capital that are
privately owned by one person or group of people or owned by the State but account for 50% or less
of the charter capital. Non-State enterprises include: Private enterprises; Partnerships; Private Limited
Company; Limited liability companies with 50% or less of State capital; Joint stock companies
without State capital; Joint stock companies with 50% or less of state capital” (General Statistics
Office, 2021).
Briefly, enterprises are understood as organizations with the function of producing as well as
trading goods and services; which have legal status in the transaction and are recognized by law for
the legal existence in the economy on the basis of fully implementing the procedures for business or
establishment registration in accordance with regulations and activities in order to get profitable goals.
Thus, the existence of enterprises must ensure three criteria: (i) independence; (ii) legitimacy and (iii)
utilitarianism.
According to the Enterprise Law 2020, in Vietnam, there are currently five types of businesses:
(i) limited liability company with two or more members, (ii) single-member limited liability company,
(iii) joint stock company, (iv) partnership and (v) sole proprietorship.
In this study, we mention non-state enterprises having domestic capital that are privately owned
by one person or group of people and are owned by the State accounting for 50% or less of the charter
capital. Therefore, non-State enterprises include Private enterprises; Partnerships; Private Limited
Company; Limited liability companies with 50% or less State capital; Joint stock companies without
State capital; Joint stock companies with 50% or less state capital.
3. Development of non-state enterprises in Vietnam last time

In the last time, the highlight is the amendment of the Enterprise Law (2015, 2020), and
Vietnam’s active participation in new generation trade agreements (notably the Comprehensive
Partnership Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) such as Free Trade Agreement
between Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA)). These are considered as guidelines, policies
and driving forces for development of the non-state enterprise sector. In addition, the impact of the
fourth industrial revolution and the Covid-19 pandemic have also significantly affected the
development of the non-state enterprise sector in Vietnam during this period. On the other hand, in
order to recognize the development of the non-state enterprise sector, we must analyze it in
perspective with the entire enterprise sector of the country. That means there is the comparison
between non-state enterprises and two sectors including state-owned enterprises and FDI enterprises.
Basically, the development of non-state enterprise sector in Vietnam during the last time is
prominently shown in the following issues:
Firstly, the non-state enterprise sector continues to develop and is affirmed as an important
driving force of the economy.
According to the General Statistics Office, in the period of 2015 - 2019, because the number of
non-state enterprises is always highest, the amount of capital mobilized for production and business is
the largest compared to the sectors of state-owned enterprises and the FDI enterprises. On average,
each year the non-state enterprise sector attracts capital for production and business which is 17.140,8
trillion VND, accounting for 54,7% of the national total capital for production of enterprise sector,
while the figures for state enterprise sector and FDI enterprise sector are only about 8.492,9 trillion
VND and 5.678,6 trillion VND, accounting for 27,1% and 18,1%, respectively.
In terms of contribution to GDP, the non-state enterprise sector has the highest contribution to
GDP in all years during the period 2015 – 2020. Specifically, the contribution to GDP of non-state
enterprises is 1.812.152 billion VND, 1.916.263 billion VND and 2.089.784 billion VND in the year
of 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. From 2018 to 2020, this figure continually rises up from
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2.332.245 billion VND to 2.694.087,2 billion VND. On average, each year in the period, the non-state
sector contributes to GDP about 2.236.847,9 billion VND, while these figures for state enterprise
sector and the FDI enterprise sector are only 1.469.370,3 billion VND and 1.032.776,5 billion VND,
respectively. Thus, the contribution to GDP of non-state enterprise sector always accounts for a large
proportion in the economy, with the average proportion of 47,2%.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the period of 2016 - 2018, the non-
state enterprise sector generates the highest percentage of revenue, on average, each year this sector
generates 11,64 million billion VND, accounting for 56,6% revenue of the total revenue of business
sector. Therefore, there is a higher of 78% in non-state enterprise sector's revenue in the researched
period than previous period of 2011 – 2015. Besides that, the sector of FDI enterprises generated
about 5,81 million billion VND, accounting for 28,2%, which is 91,3% higher than the previous
period. Moreover, state-owned enterprises generated 3,13 million billion VND, accounting for 15,2%,
which is 9,9% higher than the previous period. In 2018, the state-owned enterprise sector had the
highest labor utilization efficiency, reaching 20 times, followed by the non-state enterprise sector with
16,1 times and the lowest was the FDI enterprise sector with only 12,6 times.
Second, the growth in size and number of businesses and step by step participation in industries
of the economy.
According to the General Statistics Office, in the period 2015 - 2020, the number of non-state
enterprises is always the highest, in comparison of two sectors which are state-owned enterprises and
FDI enterprises. In 2015, there were 427.710 non-state enterprises, which increased to 488.395
enterprises and 541.749 enterprises in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In 2018, this figure was 591.499,
before growing up to 647.632 enterprises in 2019. Meanwhile, the FDI sector in the period 2015 -
2020 also gradually increases, from 11.940 enterprises in 2015 to 18.762 enterprises in 2019.
However, there was the opposite trend in the number of state-owned enterprise sector during the same
period above. Specifically, the figure in 2015 was 2.835 enterprises, which gradually decreases to
2.109 enterprises by 2020. On average each year during this period during this period, the non-state
enterprise sector always had 539.397 enterprises, accounting for 96,8% of the total number of
enterprises in the country, while the figures for state-owned enterprises sector and FDI enterprises
sector were only 2.470 enterprises and 15.552 enterprises, accounting for 0,4% and 2,8% of the total
number of enterprises in the country, respectively.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in two years of 2017 and
2018, there were 258.134 newly established enterprises and 60.458 temporarily suspended enterprises
returning to operation. These figures for the next two years are 273.080 newly established enterprises
and 83.517 enterprises returning to operation. Thus, on average, the number of newly established non-
state enterprises in this period was 132.803 enterprises and 35.994 enterprises returned to operation
per year, thanks to the marked improvement in the business environment. The business community
has enjoyed many reform results through the reduction of business investment conditions, the
simplification of administrative procedures and the State’s policies on business support and
development.
Thirdly, the non-state enterprise sector is increasingly contributing more to the budget, and at
the same time creating many new jobs for workers in all fields.
State budget revenue from non-state enterprises continuously increased by over 16%/year in the
period of 2015 – 2020. The proportion of contribution to state budget revenue of non-state enterprises
increased gradually over the years, from 2018 to 2020, which is higher than the two sectors of state-
owned enterprises and FDI enterprises. In 2020, although the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has
made the contribution to national budget of FDI enterprise sector and state-owned enterprise sector
has decreased, but there is the opposite trend in the contribution of the non-state enterprise sector.
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Specifically, the amount of tax contributed by non-state enterprises in 2015 was 129.582 billion VND,
which gradually climbed up to 247.104 billion VND in 2020. However, there was a fluctuation in the
amount of tax contribution of the state-owned enterprises and FDI enterprises. In general, the figures
for state-owned enterprises sector and FDI enterprises sector in 2020 were 148.209 billion VND and
206.088 billion VND, respectively, which were lower than the ones in previous year. On average,
during this period, the amount of tax contributed to national budget from non-state enterprises sector
was 193.785 billion VND per year, while the contribution of the FDI enterprises sector and the state
enterprises sector were 80.453 billion VND and 154.438 billion VND, respectively. These figures
reflect the growth in size and number of subjects of the non-state enterprise sector. Contributing to
increasing state budget revenue shows that the development of the non-state sector has promoted its
position and the role in consolidating the national finance.
Regarding job creation for workers, the non-state enterprise sector has always created the
largest number of jobs. Specifically, in 2015, there were 45.132 thousand employees getting jobs from
non-state enterprises. The figures in three next years were 45.052 thousand workers, 44.905 thousand
employees and 45.215 thousand employees. In 2019 and 2020, there were 45.664 thousand people
and 44.777 thousand persons have got new works in non-state enterprises, respectively. Meanwhile,
the figures for state-owned enterprises and FDI enterprises in 2015 were 4.779 thousand employees
and 3.197 thousand employees, respectively. In 2016, there were 4.702 thousand employees and 3.591
thousand employees working in state-owned enterprises and FDI enterprises, respectively. In 2017,
the number of people getting new jobs from state-owned enterprises sector and FDI enterprises sector
were 4.595 thousand and 4.207 thousand, respectively. In 2019 and 2020, the figures for state-owned
enterprises sector and FDI enterprises sector were 4.226 thousand employees and 4.768 thousand
employees; 4.098 thousand workers and 4.733 thousand workers, respectively. On average, during
this period, the non-state enterprise sector attracted 45.124 thousand employees each year, while the
figures for state-owned enterprise sector and FDI enterprise sector were only 4.488 thousand
employees and 4.173 thousand workers, respectively. Thus, on average, the number of jobs that non-
state enterprises can solve in this period always accounts for 83,9% of the total number of jobs.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the period of 2016 - 2018,
on average each year, non-state enterprises attracted the most workers with 8,79 million employees,
accounting for 60,8% of the total number of employees in enterprise sector, having an increase of
25% compared to the average number of employees in the previous period from 2011 to 2015.
However, FDI enterprises attracted 4,46 million employees, accounting for 30,9%, having a rise of
43,5%; the state-owned enterprise sector attracted 1,2 million employees (of which the 100% state-
owned enterprise sector attracted 706,24 thousand employees), accounting for 8,3%, having a
decrease of 19,6% in the total number of workers.
Fourth, non-state enterprises contribute to promoting international economic integration and
play an important role in the country’s commercial activities.
In the development process of the country, especially in recent years, a number of enterprises in
the non-state sector in Vietnam have become large economic groups, which are capable of competing
in the international market and participate in business contracts with many major partners of
developed countries (Vingroup, FLC, FPT, Viettel...). Through the form of joint venture and
association, enterprises in the non-state sector have promoted the economic integration process of the
economy, especially in receiving and transferring advanced technologies being suitable for Vietnam,
as well as expanding the market, especially bringing some dominant products, typical products of
Vietnam to the world market. With their dynamism, enterprises in the non-state sector in Vietnam in
recent years are gradually asserting their superiority over the state-owned enterprise sector in this
respect.
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According to the report of the Central Economic Commission, in the two years 2017 - 2018, the
non-state sector accounted for the proportion of 25,3 – 26,3% of the total export turnover of goods
and accounted for the proportion of 34,7 – 34,8% of the total import turnover of goods, which were 10
times larger in export and nearly 7 times larger in import than the state-owned enterprise sector,
respectively. In addition, enterprises in the non-state sector of Vietnam also make an important
contribution to the transformation of the economic structure through employment, attracting labor
from the agricultural sector, participating in investment into “niche markets”, which contributes to
promoting production and business development.
Table 1. Some basic indicators of non-state enterprises in the period of 2015 - 2020
Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Number of
businesses 427,710.0 488,395.0 541,749.0 591,499.0 647,632.0 659,400.0
(enterprises)
Total
number of
employees 45,132.8 45,052.2 44,905.4 45,215.4 45,664.6 44,777.4
(thousand
people)
Average
production
and business
11,020.9 13,713.2 16,095.4 20,669.7 24,204.6 -
capital
(thousand
billion VND)
Contribution
to GDP
1,812,152.0 1,916,263.0 2,089,784.0 2,332,245.1 2,576,556.1 2,694,087.2
(billion
VND)
Total
tax/GDP
129,582.0 157,082.0 181,001.0 209,624.0 238,317.0 247,104.0
(billion
VND)
Source: Synthesized from the General Statistics Office, the years 2015 - 2020
(https://www.gso.gov.vn/doanh-nghiep/)
4. Discussion
In our opinions, for the role of the non-state enterprise sector in country's economic
development in future, Vietnam should implement the following basic solutions:
For large enterprises: it is necessary to have an industrial policy suitable for the tectonic role
and orientation of the State to create an environment for the formation of large private enterprises
operating in new industries, especially in technology-based industries. Beside the supporting for
existing large private enterprises such as FPT, it is necessary to accelerate the equitization of state-
owned enterprises such as Viettel and VNPT; Vietnam’s large private sector firms need to develop a
roadmap for successful issuance of shares in the international stock market and need an export-
oriented strategy rather than focusing on a few key protected sectors or acquiring a number of well-
known brands abroad.
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For the group of small and medium-sized enterprises: it is necessary to establish clusters in the
component industry that require moderate capital investment and medium technological
sophistication. Governments and local authorities need to orient and focus resources to support the
building of clusters in the industries of electronics, information technology, food and food processing,
and promote the development of supporting industries in the region these fields. On the other hand,
some solutions might be mentioned such as expanding the scale, completing the regulations of the
funds to support the development of small and medium enterprises, expanding the object and scope of
the credit guarantee mechanism, etc.
For the group of start-up businesses: The government should encourage the spirit of
entrepreneurship; promote entrepreneurship to become a deep and wide movement in society, avoid
evaluating quantity over quality, the efficiency is recognized as the key factor. More measures should
be also implemented such as promoting the construction and completion of the startup ecosystem,
helping entrepreneurs overcome barriers of capital, risk, human resources, etc. to perfect their ideas.
The State need to focus on building and perfecting mechanisms and policies, creating favorable
conditions for the establishment and operation of venture capital funds; implementing many forms of
public - private partnership, combining the support capital of the State with private investment capital
to provide finance for start-ups.
For the informal sector: On the one hand, State agencies do not force informal business and
production establishments to transform into private enterprises by administrative measures instead of
voluntary export and import arising from the needs and interests of these establishments themselves;
on the other hand, it is necessary to improve the business environment to support the development of
this area. Moreover, reducing the burden of administrative procedures, inspection, examination,
unofficial costs, taxes for production and business households and creating favorable conditions for
households to hire, recruit, fire and terminate labor contracts, providing unemployment insurance,
appropriately support the informal sector in vocational training, especially short-term training,
training associated with job requirements are necessary solutions.
For enterprises in agriculture and rural areas: In order to create favorable conditions for land
accumulation, it is necessary to continue researching to come to an official decision on the lifting of
land tenure, and to have a favorable mechanism for farmers to lease agricultural land in a long term;
local authorities need to support businesses in renting land from smallholder farmers. There should be
close linkage and cooperation between local authorities, businesses, scientists and farmers to help
remove and handle difficulties that farmers or businesses cannot do on their own. In addition, the
government should continue to building clusters of agriculture - industry - services in rural areas,
focusing on the role of technology, especially information technology, green technology and clean
technology to improve the quality and value of agricultural products.
5. Conclusion
In the last time, although the domestic status as well as the situation in the world is very
complicated, which has greatly affected the economic development of Vietnam. However, the non-
state enterprise sector still develops rapidly and plays an important role in the development of
Vietnamese enterprises in particular and in the Vietnamese economy in general. In addition, the
development of the non-state enterprise sector also greatly contributes to solving social problems and
carrying out the goal of “rich people, strong country, democracy, justice and civilization”. However,
in order to sustainably develop the non-state enterprise sector in the new context, enterprises need to
promote the application of sustainable business models, clean production technologies, and efficient
use of resources. At the same time, they should improve mechanisms and policies to attract and apply
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modern technologies to production in order to create quality, competitive and environmentally
friendly products.
References
1. Central Economic Commission (2019), “Report of 2 years on implementation of the 5th Central
Committee Resolution XII on developing the private economy to become an important driving
force of the socialist-oriented market economy” , Vietnam Private Economic Forum 2019, Hanoi.
2. Ministry of Planning and Investment (2021), Vietnam Enterprise White Paper 2020, Statistical
Publishing House, Hanoi.
3. Ha Minh Hiep (2020), Enterprise with a roadmap to approach the industrial revolution 4.0,
National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi.
4. Law No: 59/2020/QH14 (https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/Doanh-nghiep/Luat-Doanh-nghiep-
so-59-2020-QH14-427301.aspx)
5. General Statistics Office, Statistical Yearbook for the years 2015 - 2020
(https://www.gso.gov.vn/doanh-nghiep/).
6. Hanoi Open University Institute (2017), Enterprise and integration, National Political Publishing
House Truth, Hanoi.

[STS22-01]
375
HR CRISIS-RESPONDING PRACTICE FOR THE NEXT NORMAL:
IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY
Truong Dinh Hong Thuy1*, Truong Dinh Hai Thuy2
1
Department of Business Administration, University of Finance & Marketing, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2
Department of Information Technology, University of Finance & Marketing, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Truong Dinh Hong Thuy (Phone: +84 98 862 3703; Email:
hongthuy@ufm.edu.vn)
Abstract
The post-pandemic period marks the 'next normal' context, which refers to the dynamism of changes
in external conditions. While HR is placed at the forefront of re-defining strategic goals, working
procedures, and business modeling to better adapt to whatever the future may look like, implications
for a stable recovery and re-growth of organizations have not yet been intensively integrated from the
strategic vision of top management. We have discussed with top management of services companies
with the attempt to find out empirical answers. As what have been imagined, companies are seldom
integrating sustainability meaning into practices owning to the pressure of quick responses and
mismatch of bold visions by top management and understandings of employees. The practical
implication gives attention to enhancing conversations between top management and employees to
reach the same page of purposes, visions, and determination in transforming the operations for
sustainable recovery and long-term growth.
Keywords: crisis responses, HRM practice, the next normal, sustainable recovery
1. Introduction
Positioning yourself in the role of CEOs taking challenges in recovering and sustainably developing
the business after initial shocks by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the decision for long-term
recovery weighs heavily on top management, you deeply acknowledge that HR-related crisis-
responding solutions must be composed at the strategic level rather than a functional lever for specific
scenarios.
Or imagine you are the HR Director in a service company that has successfully stabilized the
workforce through the crisis. Now, just as the time comes, a member of your team spots a new vision
for further developing a sustained competitive advantage using its internal workforce strength.
However, it is not in line with the newly-announced purposes of the company – focusing on sales
boosting. Do you seize the idea or do you satisfy with what has been achieved and align with the sale-
oriented purpose?
Or let’s say you are trying to plan for strategic goals in the next five years. Do you choose to
implement scenario-specific crisis-responding practices as a valuable solution for long-term recovery,
or do you leap the wall by outlining a bold vision of transformation to create a new balance in the
scorecard? Taking a deep breath, you decide to pursue the latter and quickly know that your team is
also thinking about a long-term vision. However, they may find the point is far more complicated and
takes more time than just applying scenario-specific responding remedies.
These examples - extracted from real cases in the survey - draw out attention to the nature of crisis-
responding solutions and purposes of recovery at companies. Currently, ‘Back to the normal’ is
discussed widely; but what has been left behind when unlocking the new normal for the dynamic
changes in the external environment, whatever ‘normal’ looked like at the start of 2020 (Kulik 2021).
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The recovery ambition of firms starts with the unique aspiration and bold vision of top management
for what they expect for their business growth (Gast, Nina & Bruce 2020).
Using the reflective findings from the practical sharing of top management classes by SMEs in the
Vietnam context, this paper sees the role of HRM by its strategic partnering position to business
strategy. HR sheds light on sustaining a wealthy workforce by all means of assisting, advising, and
aligning top management to reach a sustained future. ‘Sustainability’ in this research delineates the
continuity and stability of the businesses in the long term after the initial recovery.
HR crisis-responding practices in the next normal
Fairly stating that the pandemic has given HR opportunities in redefining the meaning of
“commitment, meaningful engagement, virtual collaboration, innovation, and digital transformation”
(Sharm & Sharm 2022, pr. 2). Changes in HR policies and work culture are not only to enhance a safe
and secure environment in the pandemic-prevention setting but also to foster trust in the workforce
and their self-motivation for expected productivity (Arnout et al 2020).
Remote working is predicted to have continuous influences on the working arrangement. Although it
can sustain the continuity of work in the isolation period, its consequence is anything more than being
envisioned – separation between employees who have strong and weak out-of-work ties. That
separation may challenge the stability of working morale and productivity (Bloom et al. 2015).
Researchers and HR practitioners have proposed a hybrid model of work flex in which WFH and
working in the office environment are assigned by the nature of work required, for instance, WFH for
intensive work that needs greater focus, and in the office for collaboration tasks (Felstead & Henseke
2017). This responding action is, although rational, beneficial only for companies with relationship-
oriented cultures or community-connectedness (Six and Sorge 2008).
Besides the arduous mission of keeping financial figures on the controllable and acceptable track,
organizations are at the heat of satisfying stakeholders with a wide range of benefits. Shed light on the
mission, scholars have suggested the embrace of the human-centric approach (Ruiz-Frutos, et al.
2019). Protecting employees’ health and safety becomes the threshold for continuing competitive
edges of organizations. Sustainably, the proposal focuses on tailoring operational procedures in a way
that retains the work by a new match of goals in the next normal of highest uncertainty and
vulnerability (Boldog, et al. 2020; Yilmazkuday 2021). Lee and the colleagues (2020) have
emphasized the quick response features and measures of practices when implementing tactical
changes. While improving the health protection condition in the workplace and for the workforce,
skills upgrading and autonomy empowerment are crucial for sustaining a reasonable productivity
level in a new situation (Bouziri, et al. 2020).
2. Method
We discussed with CEOs, HR experts and HR-management people from 25 services companies in
Vietnam. We used two themes – essential changes in HRM practices for recovery and sustainability in
the recovery to moderate the focus group. With the exploratory purpose, the selected paradigm fulfills
the research objectives in peeling off solutions by their significance in creating an adaptive cover of
HR strategies (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill 2019). Once clearly-defined external challenges ask for
adaptive responses in a new conditional setting, adjustments in internal strategies and priorities are
only able to be understood by using rich data from subjective perceptions and actions of organizations
themselves. It is the core discipline of interpretivism that is utilized as the core philosophical
underpinning in the focus group and finding interpretations. Unique behaviors and responding actions
by single cases are compiled and reflected in a synthetic form of implications for sustainable recovery
(Woodman, 2014).
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The purpose of the focus group is to acquire subjective reflections and perceptions of SMEs’ top
management, especially CEOs and HR Director/ Manager on root causes of integrating HR practices
into the set of crisis-responding solutions for long-term recovery. Company participants are domestic
organizations who are retailers, distributors, marketing agencies, fintech companies, restaurants,
education and training providers, and accounting services. They all have utilized the WFH format as
the solution to maintain operations through the isolation period.
3. Findings and managerial implications

HRM sheds light on practical solutions to quickly respond to the need for psychological safety and a
secured working environment; however, an adaptive and interactive manner of reactions to retain the
recovery is still the real challenge. When implementing crisis-responding solutions, little is
preparation for long-term recovery envisioned. Many top managers/ CEOs are ambitious and
apprehensive about embracing sustainability to lead their operations into the post-pandemic
uncertainty and vulnerability. It is the organizational resilience that they highlight. The finding
suggests that the activation and integration of sustainability meaning into [new/updated] business
goals and functional management practices can help strike the confidence and balance of
organizations on the edge of grand challenges.
Figure 1. Distribution of respondents by perceptions of sustainability mindset activation and

integration, %. Source: Analyzed from the Fieldwork by the authors (2022)
The practical remedies are mostly adopted with the bold vision of sustainable recovery.
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new focus: adaptability and alignment in the
next normal 47.4% 57.9%
define new opportunities and re-framing

operational modeling 36.8% 68.4%
grand adjustments in business visions and

goals 52.6% 52.6%
functional improvements: technology, HRM

quality & practices, … 36.8% 68.4%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Yes No
Figure 2. The focus of responding strategies. Source: Analyzed from the Fieldwork by the authors
(2022)
The analysis shows the sweet spot in the combination of companies’ activation and integration of
sustainability meaning into their reactions and planning to adapt to the next normal condition.
Companies that get the right to the spectrum appear to focus on functional investments, including
adopting technological advances to manage employees as remote working; and conducting a grand
review and adjustments to enhance the organizational adaptability. Vision about sustainability in
recovery solutions has two branches of reflection – highlighting the temporary adaptability with
efforts to respond, at best, to crisis impacts, and insisting on the power of sustainability in recovering
inner strengths and competitive advantages. The latter observes digital transformation and
acceleration of technology application, self-stabilizes the business environment to explore new
opportunities, and implementation of HRM-related practices focusing on psychological aspects and
working skills.
The degree of integrating sustainability vision into practices is generally not as intensive as expected.
Achieving a sustainable recovery requires sustained dedication and commitment from top
management and employees. The finding recognizes that sustainability-oriented plans by
organizations are still at the superficial level of action. Little evidence has been found to confirm the
master change in vision, instead of determining statements from the top management. For example,
while the CEO insists on an improvement of competitive advantages to match with newly-defined
business opportunities, practical remedies (in general) are functionally about augmenting the
knowledge of employees about ‘a sustained structure of operations’, altering working behaviors to
accept challenges, shifting to a productivity-based compliment system, and so on. In short, top
management is determined to activate and integrate sustainability meaning into strategic solutions to
recover from the crisis; yet a huge distance is perceived.
Top management can better live up to their bold vision in the journey, not by only stating the
sustainability for the sake of its strategic meaning but by involving multiple perspectives and inspiring
the determination of employees, and enhancing the effectiveness of single practices to challenge the
vision, pursue it so that the whole company can craft their ways to achieve it together. We have
implied the change in mindset and thought about integrating sustainability meaning into practices. It
should be thought not as a responding action separately, but as a series of ongoing adjustments to
adapt and improve the quality of management practices on the new equilibrium space of the balanced
scorecard. The integration of adaptability and sustainability must happen again and again with the
strong alignment to top management’s bold vision, managerial experiences of managers, and practical
actions of employees. We also suggest continuous conversations on external challenges and
379
mandatory and strategic changes with all people who matter. The conversation content should be
embedded with ‘looking-ahead purposes’ both to ways the organization can successfully get over the
crisis, and to the predictable incidents or bottlenecks that the achievement of sustainable recovery will
inevitably face. The promise of ‘good things’ will always be accompanied by certain elements of
arduous matters.
Having a bold vision about sustainable recovery communicated
It is the personal development of individuals who are in the top management positions to lead the
organization to an expected game with long-term results. If nearly anything other than rationally-
envisioned goals and purposes has been proposed by top management, responding practices would be
focused, by nature, on short-term priorities only. Communication sessions to talk about new purposes
can unlock the capabilities in fulfilling changing chain of events. When mentioning this point to
managers in the focus group, many of them admit that that kind of content is seldom included in staff
communication. Most of cases, it is kept within the boundary of the board room. Everyone may think
what has been talked about in the staff com is already approved and waited for being enacted, or think
that purposes and goals (which are announced by top management) are unchangeable or unable to be
discussed, or think that it is not critical to mention about sustainability when quick actions to complete
short-term objectives are more important. It is a paradoxical phenomenon, where the failure of long-
term performance is interpreted by employees’ rationality in focusing on temporary practices to deal
with eye-front issues.
Don’t assume that top management’s vision and purpose are untouchable or indisputable. And also, it
is not rational for top management to hypothesize that employees will show their disagreement when
they are not officially provided with details and requests of giving feedback. The Director of
Operations of a famous English Center who has 25 years of experience in the role showed his
hesitancy, saying that “Well, we’re here to find the best solution to quickly get back to the pre-
pandemic rate of operations. It isn’t about our passion or compassion in changing anything, it’s about
the collaboration to fulfill the guideline”. The guideline he mentioned means to the communicated
goals and purposes, which are discussed, agreed and approved by the Board.
This example suggests that honest and direct dialogues with employees are probably required. The
most important part is how to frame the conversations that highlight the criticality and strategic
meaning of the bold vision for long-term development. And that matches consistently to employees’
purposes and benefits. We suggest the economic-social-governance structure as the focus in
conversations since sustainable recovery by bold visions of top management usually anchors the
balance of those priorities.
However, there is also another challenge – top management’s bold vision might not be recognized,
appreciated, or meaningful to others. In other words, what is perceived to contribute to long-term
survival and re-growth by managers is not what employees think it should be. Thus, it is essential to
find out employees’ sources and causes of acting – that would be helpful to make the communication
effective and new visions/purposes real for them.
4. Conclusion
The best action from the top management is to scrutinize the crisis and self-challenge themselves and
the business goals in the new situation with an aim of improving the chances for the company to
recover and re-grow in a sustained way. While a majority of companies focus on HRM practices to
protect physical and psychological benefits for employees, they almost forget to integrate long-term
vision into their actions. Pressures of survival put them at the forefront of quick reactions to resolve
immediate challenges. Moreover, they are in the dilemma of planning for an uncertain future in the
380
‘next normal’ – whatever the future may look like. Changes across HRM functional areas, for
instance, employee health and safety, adaptive performance, remote working setting or WFH, etc.
provide a firm platform for companies to look ahead – what will happen next in the post-pandemic
outbreak? Experientially, top management recognizes the need of planning for long-term vision and
goals. However, their visions and purposes need communicating and achieving a consensus across the
organization. We suggest the use of staff communication or dialogues to put employees into the loop
of new visions and to help top management understand the implementation process of their purposes
in practice.
Reference
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2. Bloom N, Liang J, Roberts J, Ying ZJ (2015) Does working from home work? Evidence from a
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COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health? Occup Environ Med, 77(7): 509-510.
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effort, well-being and work-life balance. New Tech, Work and Engagement 32:195-212.
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April 2022
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coronavirus disease outbreak in hospital. J Hosp Infect 105(1): 102-103.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.02.022
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make it happen? OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
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https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2020.1845903

[STS22-24]
382
RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE APPLICATION OF
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING IN MEMBERS OF VIETNAM
EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING HOUSE’S SYSTEM
Assoc. Prof. Tran Van Tung1*; M. Ngo Ngoc Nguyen Thao1; M. Tran Phuong Hai1
1
Faculty of Finance and Commerce, HUTECH University
*Corresponding Author: Tran Van Tung (Phone: +84 90 901 8052; Email: tv.tung@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
This research has analyzed, built and tested models of factors affecting the application of
Management Accounting (MA) in members of Viet Nam educational publishing house’s system
(VEPH). To perform this research, the authors have utilized both qualitative and quantitative research
methods to construct the research model and measure the degree of impact each factor has on the
application of MA. The results have shown that there were 5 factors, including Managers’ Awareness,
Market Competition, Industry Characteristics, Qualification of Staff and Method and Techniques, that
have the same impact on the application of MA in members of VEPH’s system. Based on such
findings, the authors proposed several recommendations to improve the application of MA in those
publishers, thereby improving the management efficiency of members through supplying information
related to the members’ internal environment management
Keywords: management accounting, members, Viet Nam educational publishing house
1. Introduction
For the MA system to be able to provide useful information, the selection of management
accounting practice (MAPs) is vital as such practice has to be appropriate with the organization’s
characteristics while ensuring high economic efficiency and assisting managers in achieving strategic
goals for the organization. The MAPs system in each country and each enterprise can be varied, as it
can be influenced by a variety of factors such as economic development level, production technology,
role of the organizations, organizational culture, etc., allowing enterprises to improve their
performance, which can help them achieve their main goals. Therefore, in order to achieve operational
efficiency – an essential indicator for assessing the performance of business operations and resources
allocation, managers have to make optimal decisions while minimizing risks. In the information
system used for making optimal business decisions, information provided by the MA system plays an
important role in helping managers construct methods to accelerate sustainable production
development, reducing costs, lowering prices and improving product quality, securing market share
for enterprises in a dynamic marketplace. MA in general and MAPs in particular have already been
studied widely around the world for a long time. However, in Vietnam, the research on MAPs in
manufacturing enterprises is still a controversial issue.
Meanwhile, to manage efficiently, enterprises need to construct and finalize information
system to support management in general and MA in particular. Such information system can provide
timely information for management and decision-making, thereby strengthening the MA system in
enterprises in general and in members of VEPH’s system in particular. This system will supply
managers with information to make suitable decisions in order to utilize resources efficiently, thus
enhancing the organization’s competitive advantages.
2. Foundation theories
2.1. Definition of management accounting (MA)
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According to Ray H. Garison (2012): “MA is related to the supply of documents to managers,
who are a part of an organization and are responsible for operating and controlling every activity of
that organization“.
According to the definition put forth by IMA (The Institute of Management Accountants),
MA is the process of identifying, measuring, summarizing, analyzing, composing, interpreting and
conveying information used by managers to create plans, evaluate and assess enterprises internally
and to ensure the allocation of that enterprise’s resources is carried out appropriately and responsibly.
According to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (1998), MA is considered as
a process of defining, managing, measuring, summarizing, analyzing, presenting, interpreting and
conveying financial and non-financial information related to the operations of the enterprise for
managers to plan, evaluate, control and manage organizational activities to ensure responsible and
efficient allocation of the enterprise’s economic resources.
According to A.Atkinson et al. (2012), management accounting is the process of continuously
improving the planning, design and measurement of financial and non-financial information systems
of an enterprise to guide, promote management actions, improve enterprise’s operating conditions to
create the cutural business values needed to achieve the organization’s strategies and plans.
According to Vietnam Accounting Law No. 88/2015/QH13, Management accounting is the
collection, processing, analyzing, and providing economic, financial information to assist
management and the making of internal economic, financial decisions of the accounting department.
With managers‘ increasing demand due to the level of competition between public and private
healthcare facilities, MA information not only stops at the quantitative side but also extends to the
qualitative side. The major difference between public MA and corporate MA is the unique nature of
these two fields. The main purpose of business operations is maximizing profit, therefore, corporate
MA provides information to assist the decision-making process that ensures maximum profit,
minimum costs, competitive prices, and maximization of the enterprise’s market share. Meanwhile,
public MA also provides information for managers, but they operate not for profit but to maximize
social welfare, minimize costs and maintain maximum cost-effectiveness
2.2. MA’s roles and functions
According to Ray H. Garrison (1997), the responsibility of managers in public entities is to
run and manage all activities of the public unit. Managers need information in order to make
appropriate decisions and manage effectively. And MA is a source of information for managers.
Therefore, it can be seen that the role of MA in public entities is an accounting tool to establish
macroeconomic balances to assist in the planning of socio-economic development; a tool for public
financial management; a tool to help managers manage fiscal risks, explain and evaluate
responsibility in public financial management; allowing managers to measure and evaluate the
effectiveness and impact of public finance on a quantitative basis; a tool to manage public asset;
provide information to public sector governance in terms of value and tangible asset; a tool to control
the internal environment of public entities.
According to Phạm Văn Dược et al. (2011), MA information holds a key role and
controls all the organization’s activities. The fundamental functions of managers in any enterprise are
Planning, Implementing, Controling, Evaluating and Decision-making
Planning: MA must provide quantitative and qualitative criteria that align with the planned
targets. These criteria must be both historical and predictive.
Implementing: MA provides information according to targets set by managers. Such
information is formed based on detailed accounting process, through accounting and graph analysis
methods.
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Controling, evaluating and decision-making: MA provides information on key performance
criteria
2.3. Basic MA contents
According to A.Atkinson et al. (2012), the nature of MA information is information that the
management team requested to be provided and summarized with a control process to assist with the
management of the department. Although the process of collecting, summarizing, accessing and
analyzing MA information may differ by department, these processes have to be able to perform the
key role MA has in the unit‘s operating environment to assist the internal management team in
proposing appropriate operating, business plans and then monitor the implementation of the proposed
plans. Below are a few approaches to MA:
MA contents approached in accordance with different functions of information:
According to Phạm Văn Dược et al. (2011), information which assists in business planning and
orientation are gathered through: capital estimation, current inventory level, goods supply schedule,
labor cost, income statement, capital flow, current debt and loan maturity. In order to obtain internal
information, managers have to collect data from organizational performance reports. These reports
can be: Production costs, business results, investment capital, capital assets, etc. Managers then rely
on these reports to design, organize and determine the work that‘s needed to be done, then allocate
this work to departments and coordinate those departments to achieve optimal performance.
Information used for inspection and evaluation that circulates internally can be information gathered
in business activities, changes in capital and capital usage, changes in economic resources usage and
fluctuations in product consumption. Information involved in the decision-making process can be:
Profitability of the organization, profitability of the sales department, productivity measurements,
business plans analysis, price analysis, economic capacity analysis, financial resources in large
investment projthects and the structure diagram of revenue, costs, profit, financial index, balance of
asset and capital, etc
MA contents approach in accordance with processes and procedures: According to Ray
H. Garrison (2012), the contents required are information and methods to obtain such information.
These will support internal managers in different activities and fields. First of all, the process-based
approach needs to determine the needs for data and goals of MA, then develop criteria, classification,
identification and analyze expenses, income, and finally build a MA reporting system and provide
information to the end users. Such information includes information on expenses, costs and the
pricing process to assist managers in pricing, checking, analyzing and forecasting operating and
departmental costs; Information on the revenue, cost, profit estimated by the business strategy and the
process of collecting and calculating the costs, revenue and profit of plans to provide managers with
appropriate production plans choices.
3. Methodologies and research models

3.1. Methodologies
The research is conducted through 2 stages. (1) Stage 1: The authors conducted qualitative
research through building and developing the concept of observed variables and its measurement
system, and adjusting the observed variables in accordance with reality. (2) Stage 2: The authors
conducted quantitative research using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient to examine the coherence
between items on the scale; Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess influencing factors and
identify appropriate factors; simultaneously, multivariable linear regression was carried out to
determine the factors and the level of impact each factor has on the application of MA in members of
VEPH’s system.
By reviewing previous researches, documents and consulting experts while using group
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discussion methods, the authors were able to determine 5 factors with 21 observed variables that
supposedly have an impact on the application of MA in members of VEPH’s system.
3.2. Data and data collection methods
Primary data are collected through the process of gathering previous documents and direct
interviewing, combined with questionnaires results gathered from directors, heads of departments,
chief accountants and accountants in 39 members of VEPH’s system. The questions are linked to
observed variables measuring the impact of factors on the application of MA in members of VEPH’s
system, rated using the Likert scale of 1-5 for every questions: 1 – Strongly Disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3
– Neutral, 4 – Agree, 5 – Strongly Agree. According to Bollen (1989), the minimum sample size
should be 5 samples for each question asked. As this research consists of 21 questions, the minimum
sample size should be 21x5 = 105. To achieve a minimum of 105 samples, from Jul, 2021 to Sep,
2021 the authors have sent 220 questionnaires to members of VEPH’s system. Among them, the
authors were able to collect 207 samples, in which 12 were invalidated (due to lack of information).
Therefore, the sample size for this research is 195, which satisfies the minimum sample size of 105.
3.3. Research models, hypotheses and regression model
3.3.1 Research models and hypotheses
Through steps such as reviewing relevant previous studies, interviewing experts and group
discussion, the authors have identified 5 factors affecting the application of MA in members of
VEPH’s system. Thus, the research model is proposed as follows:
Managers’ awareness - NTQL
Market competition - CTTT
The application of
Industry characteristics - DDNN MA in members of
VEPH’s system -
KTQT
Qualifications of Staff - TDNV
Methods and Techniques - PPKT
Figure 1: Official research model (Source: Constructed by authors)

3.3.2. Regression model
The authors built a regression model to test the impact factors have on the dependent variable
of the model: The application of MA in VEPH’s system (KTQT)
Regression model:
KTQTi= α0 +β1NTQL +β2CTTT +β3DDNN+ β4TDNV + β5PPKT + δ
In which: KTQT: Dependent variable describing the application of MA in members of VEPH’s
system; NTQL: Managers’ Awareness; CTTT: Market Competition; DDNN: Industry
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Characteristics; TDNV: Qualifications of Staff; PPKT: Methods and techniques; α0: intercept
coefficient; β1, β2, ...., β5: regression coefficients; δ: standard deviation
3.4 Data processing methods
Based on the survey data, the research utilized SPSS Statistics 22.0 to analyze the reliability of the
factors as well as factor measurement criteria an, simultaneously, apply statistical methods to
summarize and compare in order to quantify the impact factors have on the application of MA in
members of VEPH’s system

4.1. Measurements reliability inspections:
Table 1: Results from measurements reliability analysis using Cronbach Alpha
No. Number of Cronbach Alpha
Variable group observed variables
1 Managers’ Awareness 4 0.914
2 Market Competition 4 0.846
3 Industry Characteristics 4 0.882
4 Qualifications of Staff 5 0.936
5 Methods and Techniques 4 0.943
6 MA Application 3 0.909
As can be seen in Table 1, the overall Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is greater than 0.7. Thus,
the measurements system is built with 6 measures to ensure good quality with 24 characteristic
observed variables.
4.2. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results:
EFA of independent variables
Table 2: KMO coefficient and Bartlett’s test
KMO and Bartlett’s tests
KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) coefficient 0.870
Bartlett’s test model Chi-Square value 3545.177
Degrees of freedom 210
Sig (p-value) 0.000
Table 2 shows that KMO = 0.870 which satisfies the condition of 0.5 ≤ KMO ≤ 1 so factor analysis is
accepted in research data. Sig Barlett’s Test = 0.000 < 0.05 suggests that Bartlett’s test is statistically
important, which means observed variables are in correlation with each other in factors.
After processing data using the Fixed number of factors, we can see that the extracted variance is
79.264% > 50% which satisfies the requirement. Using Principal components extraction and Varimax
rotation methods, 5 factors can be extracted from 21 observed variables. This also means that these 5
extracted factors can explain 79.264% of the changes in the dependent variable.
EFA of dependent variables
Bartlett’s test results from table 2 shows that there is a general connection between variables (sig =
0.000<0.5). Simultaneously, KMO coefficient = 0.754 > 0.5, which proves that grouping variables
together using factor analysis is appropriate and the data is suitable for the analysis. On the other
hand, results from table 3 suggests that by using Principal components extraction and Varimax
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rotation methods, 1 factor can be extracted from observed variables. The extracted variance, which is
84.995% > 50%, also meets the requirements.
Table 3: KMO coefficient and Bartlett’s test
KMO and Bartlett's tests
KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) coefficient 0.754
Bartlett’s test model Chi-Square value 396.959
Degrees of freedom 3
Sig (p – value) 0.000
4.3. Multivariable linear regression model inspection

The research utilized multi-variable linear regression using one-pass input method (Enter method):
Table 4: Data in regression model using the Enter method
Unstandardized Standardized
Multicollinear statistics
coefficient coefficient
Model Standard t Sig. Tolerance VIF

B Beta
deviation coefficient coefficient
(Constant) -1.476 0.184 -8.040 0.000
NTQL 0.302 0.042 0.303 7.180 0.000 0.531 1.885
CTTT 0.317 0.043 0.270 7.441 0.000 0.717 1.395
DDNN 0.236 0.044 0.206 5.370 0.000 0.643 1.555
TDNV 0.210 0.044 0.193 4.732 0.000 0.565 1.770
PPKT 0.330 0.048 0.251 6.812 0.000 0.697 1.434
Dependent variable: (VD)

When considering tstat và tα/2 of variables in table 6 to measure reliabilities, the independent variables
NTQL, CTTT, DDNN, TDNV and PPKT all meet the requirements and Sig. values show reasonably high
reliability (all < 0.05). Moreover, VIF coefficients of Beta coefficients are all less than 10 and Tolerance
coefficients are all over 0.5, which means there is no multicollinearity phenomenon.
4.4. Evaluation of the suitability of the Multi-variable linear regression model
Table 5: Suitability of the model
Statistics change Coefficien
Stand t
Adju Adju Degrees
ard Degrees of
sted sted F of Durbin-
Model R R2 R2
error freedom 2
R2 freedom Watson
1 0.907 a
0.822 0.817 0.32448 0.822 174.26 1
5 189 1.536
9
Table 7 shows that the correlation coefficient value is 0.858 > 0.5. Therefore, this model is
appropriate for evaluating the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables.
Moreover, the adjusted R2 coefficient value of the regression model is 0.817, which means the linear
regression model fits the data 81.7%. This shows about 81.7% of variation in the application of MA in
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members of VEPH’s system, the rest are due to errors of other factors. Durbin Warson test = 1.536 in
the range of 1< D < 3, so there is no autocorrelation of the residuals.
Regression model
KTQT = 0.303*NTQL + 0.270*CTTT + 0.251*PPKT + 0.206*DDNN+ 0.193*TDNV
5. Conclusion and recommendations

5.1. Conclusion
Results show that there were 5 factors with positive impact on the application of MA in members of
VEPH’s system. The degree of impact independent factors has on the dependent factor is shown as
follows
Table 6: The degree of impact independent factors has on the dependent factor
Independent factors Beta Order of Sig.
impact
Managers’ awareness 0.303 1 0.00 < 0.05
Market Competition 0.270 2 0.00 < 0.05
Industry characteristics 0.206 4 0.00 < 0.05
Qualifications of Staff 0.193 5 0.00 < 0.05
Methods and Techniques 0.251 3 0.00 < 0.05
As can be observed in Table 6, Managers’ Awareness has the biggest impact on the application of
MA in members of VEPH’s system, while Qualifications of staffs has the smallest impact. On the
other hand, all sig coefficents of variables are less than 0.05, thus all initial hypotheses are accepted.
5.2 Recommendations
Based on the degree of impact of each factor, the authors proposed several recommendations to
improve the application of MA in members of VEPH’s system in descending order:
Managers’ Awareness: The board of directors and heads of departments of the organization
must acknowledge the importantce of MA in supplying information for the decision-making process
of managers at different management levels. Managers should appreciate the practicality of MA tools;
be willing to invest money and effort in MA; actively learn about MA tools and understand the needs
to use MA information in the decision-making process to apply MA in their organization
appropriately
Market Competition: Organization’s targets are depended on the managers. Based on the
available resources, managers will set appropriate development goals for the organization. Each
organization will have a different set of goals. For organizations with long-term goals, big scale, wide
range of expertise, and operate in highly competitive markets such as the medical industry, MA tends
to apply modern and advanced techniques to ensure the supply of long-term information, control
operations on a large scale, measure efficiency and improve the organizations’ competitive
advantages.
Methods and Techniques: This is an important matter determining the success of the
application of MA in organizations. Apparently, the organizations need to: (1) correctly and fully
identify the criteria to execute MA; (2) classify costs, revenues and profits in accordance with MA;
(3) Estimations need to be made fully and in detail to each specific department, reducing rigidity and
imposition; (4) Management reports need to be systematic, and be able to satisfy information
requirements for the management of each organization and departments in the organization.
Industry Characteristics: For enterprises in general and members of VEPH’s system in
particular, industry characteristics have an impact on the application of MA and MA techniques in the
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organization. Apparently, organizations need to consider their production and business processes
characteristics, the need to improve products and services, and the need to expand the business to
clearly identify MA information required in the process of decision-making. In addition, the
organizations need to clearly define the functions and duties of each department in the process of
cooperating and sharing information to ensure both the clarity and confidentiality of information for
each department
Qualifications of staff: Organizations need to encourage employees to join and continuously
participates in training at professional associations. Furthermore, organizations need to actively invite
experts, executives, or finance directors that have successfully applied MA in their organizations to
give lectures to enhance practicality. This is the training model that combines theory and practice.
References
1. Atkinson, A; Kaplan, R.S & et al, 2012, Management Accounting: Information for Decision-
Making and Strategy Execution, 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
2. Bollen, K.A. (1989) Structural Equations with Latent Variables. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New
York.
3. Phạm Văn Dược, Trần Văn Tùng (2011), Kế toán toản trị, NXB Tài chính.
4. Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen, Peter C. Brewer (2012), Managerial Accounting, McGraw
Hill, Irwin, 13rd edition.
5. Trần Văn Tùng (2016), Vận dụng kế toán quản trị tại doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa ở Việt Nam trong
thời kỳ hội nhập, Tạp chí Kế toán & Kiểm toán, ISSN 1859-1914.

[STS22-48]
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IMPLEMENTATION OF BLENDED LEARNING MODEL IN THE
FACULTY OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE – EMPIRICIZED WITH
SECURITIES MARKET SIMULATION
Dr. Le Duc Thang1*; M. Tran Phuong Hai1
1
*Corresponding Author: Le Duc Thang (Phone: +84 93 612 8833; Email: ld.thang@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
This article is about Blended Learning. Through summarizing research and conducting
experiments, the article presents theoretical issues about Blended Learning, analyzes the
characteristics and benefits of Blended Learning; the results of empirical survey on the
effectiveness, benefits and issues of the educational institutions to propose recommendations for
the implementation of Blended Learning in the faculty of Finance and Commerce, HUTECH
University.
Keywords: Blended Learning, combined learning method, training, HUTECH
1. Introduction
The innovation of teaching methods is increasingly becoming an essential requirement in
education in many countries around the world, including Vietnam. Such method is designed
with the aim of achieving the Millennium Development goal for education: training a full-
fledged human being, a global citizen with lifelong self-learning, critical thinking skills and the
ability to work in a collaborative environment. IT is an effective tool to support the innovation
of teaching, and the application of technology in combination with traditional teaching methods
is increasingly being used widely around the world.
Nowadays, educators have realized the impact technology, such as E-learning or Blended
Learning, has on how teaching and learning operates. Especially, Blended Learning plays an
increasingly essential role in education.
Blended Learning is gaining currency as a term used to describe a method in education that
integrates online educational materials with traditional classroom practices, creating a new
hybrid teaching method.
Blended Learning is the combination between educational medias such as technology, activities
and events to create an optimal teaching method for a particular audience. “Blended Learning
(BL) refers to learning models that combine traditional classroom practice with e-learning
solutions”.
Blended Learning uses IT to promote learning outside of the classroom was and is a
progressively more popular teaching model, especially at the level of university (Garrison and
Kanuka, 2004) perhaps because of the benefits that it brings (Ark, 2012). A recent study
conducted by Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, Jones (2010) evaluated the overall effectiveness
of Blended learning by summarizing 46 empirical studies conducted in high schools and
universities in the US and concluded that Blended Learning is an effective leaning model.
Compared with traditional methods of teaching, Blended Learning shows large differences in the
students’ results. This may be attributed to the fact that Blended Learning has created deep
learning and meaningful learning environments as well as the development of critical thinking
and high-level learning. Moreover, Blended Learning creates an independent and self-learning
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environment as Garrison and Kanuka (2004) stated.
It is universally known that Blended Learning was developed by 1st world countries after the
unsuccessful implementation of E-Learning. Even though technology brings convenience, speed
and cost-efficiency, students can lose motivation easily and lose opportunities for collective
communication like those in traditional classrooms. Therefore, face-to-face sessions still retain
many values that cannot be compensated by self-studying using computers. In contrast, with the
explosion of IT and the emergence of online programs, pure offline communication cannot
sufficiently provide learners with timely knowledge and information. Here is where the
supporting role of online learning shines.
Large changes can easily be seen in the role and position of lecturers. Lecturers no longer just go
to class to organize learning activities or make announcements and then leave as usual. They are
now responsible for disambiguating and guiding students, creating educational materials that
students can access themselves, and most importantly, teaching students information gathering
and processing skills which include computer skills. For students, being proactive and positive
in learning is extremely important. Aside from hours spent studying in class, self-studying
through the Internet would also help improve their learning results. Nowadays, not only do
students have to gather and memorize information, but they also have to know how to analyze,
summarize and process information effectively. Maintaining a sense of discipline and motivation
to learn play important roles in this method of learning.
1. Benefits of blended learning
Blended Learning is comprised of the best elements from both online and offline learning, which
offers many benefits.
Firstly, Innovating teaching methods: Compared to traditional classroom practices, Blended
Learning has fundamental changes. With the switch of focus on learners instead of lecturers,
learners will become more active and interactive. Lecturers will disambiguate, guide students
and create educational materials that encourage students to actively study and answer questions.
The students’ proactivity in learning is highlighted since students have full control over when,
where, and how they want to study the already given online educational materials outside of the
classroom. The grading process is now highly objective as most of the students’ grading is done
automatically right after the submission of their work. Content and additional issues related to
the lectures can be discussed through face-to-face lectures and other online resources such as
videos, slides, e-books, etc.
Secondly, Encouraging students through interaction: The opportunity and ability to create
interactions between lecturers and students or between students themselves are made easy
through online learning applications. These applications encourage the students to be proactive
and courageous which make them excited and boost their efficiency. Forums with topics for
each subjects allow students to ask questions to clarify their concerns by receiving answers from
lecturers or other students. Sending and receiving private messages allows students to set up
personal communication channels with lecturers and other students. Chat room with members of
the same class allows students to have collective communication on all relevant topics. Working
as a group on a test or review outline create excitement for students and save their time while
still help them get the best results
Thirdly, Collaboration outside the classroom: through group works or essay assignments,
students are motivated and willing to seek collaboration with other students in the same class or
with any professionals or individuals through forums. Collaboration and information exchange
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can be held anywhere, anytime, in the form of face-to-face meetings or online seminars for the
students’ convenience and enthusiasm.
Fourthly, Independent Learning: Online learning applications alongside the guidance of
instructors can provide a more personalized and effective learning experience for students.
Students can re-watch and re-listen to the lecture many times without any time limit, which
means there will be less pressure for students to be in class on time and lecturers will no longer
have to worry about repeating lessons for students who were absent from the previous class.
Students can do their studies in the time frame they find suitable without having to follow a
fixed schedule. Students can actively review or learn materials related to the subject in advance
depending on their interest or focus.
Fifthly, Increasing students’ management and responsibility: Through the convenience of online
classes, the responsibility, as well as the ability to manage students will increase. Learning
materials are available 24/7 online; this, combined with independent learning, allows students to
study anywhere, anytime, which contributes to the increase of pressure and responsibility on
students in completing their assigned work as they no longer have any excuses for not
completing their assignments. Lecturers or class managers can supervise all activities carried out
by students in the online classroom such as log-in time, studying time, content of answers, etc.
Based on this, lecturers can further personalize classroom management down to each student.
Moreover, students' parents have the ability to supervise scores as well as participating and
assisting students in learning outside of classroom. This helps increase student management as
well as learning efficiency
Sixthly, Remodelling teaching models: Blended Learning with superior capabilities allows
educational managers to adjust and remodel traditional teaching methods in the direction of:
Personalizing learning activities; Combining different digital tools to encourage and interest
students in order to enhance their learning efficiency; Reducing face-to-face theoretical lectures
and increasing the time limit for discussions, presentations and group work to achieve higher
learning efficiency; Increasing management and supervision to give timely and detailed
feedbacks to each individual student; Increasing teachers’ responsibility of supervising, assisting
and managing students not only within the classroom but also outside the classroom.
2. The pilot implementation of Blended Learning in the Securities Market Simulation

course – managed by the Faculty of Finance and Commerce
The pilot implementation of Blended Learning model has been applied to several classes while
studying the Securities Market Simulation course at the Faculty of Finance and Commerce.
The implemented Blended Learning model includes:
Teaching face-to-face in the lecture hall in accordance with the allocated time.
Using the open-sourced application Moodle, a solution for E-learning, completely free
+ The lecturer creates an online classroom on Moodle to provide lectures, reference materials,
online tests, forums and several other extensions
+ In combination with lectures in class, students are required to read educational and reference
materials available on the online classroom; take online tests after each theoretical section
provided in offline class; discussing and investigating relevant topics assigned by the lecturer.
+ The lecturer establishes and maintains both public and private communication channels to
assist, answers questions given by students and supervising the online learning process.
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3. Evaluation of the feasibility and efficiency of implementing blended learning model.
To carry out this research, the authors utilized qualitative methods. To inspect and survey the
situation, the authors had designed a questionnaire and send it via Google docs to collect data
from students completing the Securities Market Simulation course. The authors were able to
collect 246 validated samples. The process of surveying took place over a time span of about 4
months, from April 2021 to August 2021.
The Securities Market Simulation course was in the formal university program provided to
students enrolling in Finance – Banking and Accounting, which were managed by the Faculty of
Finance and Commerce. From 246 validated samples, the authors were able to collect the
following results:
- Possession of computers and access to the Internet
Possess their own private computers

0%
12%
Have access to computers at certain
7%
time
Some difficulties in accessing
22% 59%
Have to borrow relatives and friends'
computers
No access to the Internet
Figure 1: Possession of computers access to the Internet
Statistical data collected from 246 students attending Securities Market Simulation course
showed that 59% of students possess private laptops or computers, 22% of them could have
access to computers at certain time, 12% of students need to use their relatives or friends’
computers and Internet, and only 7% of those students actually encountered difficulties in
accessing the Internet. Such result suggested that the feasibility of the implementation of
blended learning model would be quite high.
In the Likert 5 scale showing increasing benefits of blended learning model, statistical result
suggests that students highly valued this type of learning model. In general, all functions of
blended learning system received high scores. Among them, 4 functions with the highest scores
(average score > 3.9) were related to Proactivity and Innovations in learning methods. The
function Establishing communication channels between lecturers and students was at the 4th
position, suggesting that students would be interested in the ability to approach and discuss with
lecturers, which would be almost impossible in the traditional learning model. Meanwhile,
Learning pressure was at the lowest position, even when it received a quite high score (3.36/5).
In the Likert 5 scale showing increasing benefits, all functions show level of benefits greater
than 3.7. The fact that the function Establishing communication channel with students received
the highest point (3.98/5) suggests that online learning provides many advantages and
convenience with its information and communication channel provided by E-learning system.
High efficiency in Knowledge transferring received 3.96 points over 5, indicating that blended
learning model has more advantageous aspects than the traditional learning model.
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4. Recommendations for the implementation of blended learning method in
HUTECH’s Faculty of Finance and Commerce
The authors proceeded to collect opinions from students regarding the compatibility of blended
learning method with courses managed by the Faculty of Finance and Commerce. 63% of
respondents agreed that blended learning model can be applied to practical courses, while up to
78% of respondents supported the implementation of the model in theoretical courses.
Practical courses
Theoretical courses
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Figure 2: Compatibility of courses
Considering characteristics of courses, 76% of respondents agreed that blended learning model
could be applied to courses with final exams utilizing multiple choices questions. Meanwhile,
approximately 71% of respondents stated that the model could be suitable for courses with
exams consisting of short-answer questions; about 52% of respondents thought that the model
should only be applied to courses with large amounts of exercises and calculations. For pure-
theory courses, only 38% of respondents supported the implementation of blended learning
method.
By surveying students about the impact of factors on the efficiency of blended learning model,
the authors were able to collect the following results: For the Likert scale with 5 degrees, which
shows the level of impact from the lowest to highest, Regulations in the educational institutions
and Ratios of theory / practice are 2 factors with the highest degree of impact (>3.9/5).
Apparently, courses with multiple choices as the final exams would benefit more from this type
of learning model. Internet connection has a significant impact on the efficiency of the learning
model. On the other hand, IT skills and Interaction between lecturers and students were 2 factors
with the lowest degree of impact. This suggests that students’ IT skills level are on par with the
learning model’s requirements; meanwhile, infrastructures related to the internet have to be
improved to implement the learning model successfully.
Therefore, to implement the blended learning model successfully, the authors proposed several
recommendations:
Firstly, blended learning model should be applied to theoretical courses with the following
characteristics: large amount of theory, exercises with short-answer questions, final exams
consisting of multiple choices questions.
Secondly, the university needs to establish a consistent and unified set of regulations, adjust the
program, increase the amount of time for discussion and group works in courses that utilize the
new learning model.
Thirdly, course material should be redesigned, easy to access and share, and such material
should not require high-speed Internet connection or advanced hardware.
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5. Conclusion
Throughout this paper, the authors have presented theoretical and practical matters related to
blended learning model. Based on the results, it would be possible to apply blended learning
model to the Faculty of Finance and Commerce, in specific, and to HUTECH University, in
general, since the university’s infrastructure is becoming more advanced and can actually meet
the requirements for educational innovations to improve the quality of training.
Through the survey with 246 validated samples, the authors presented the statistical evaluation
of the benefits provided by Blended learning model. Simultaneously, the authors also investigate
the feasibility, directions, and recommendations to implement the blended learning model in the
Faculty of Finance and Commerce, in particular, and HUTECH University, in general.
Reference
1. Ark, T.V. June, 29, 2012. Blended Learning Can Improve Working Conditions, Teaching &
Learning.
2. Garrison, D.R. and Kanuka, H., 2004. Blended Learning: uncovering its transformative
potential in higher education. Internet and Higher education 7, 95-105.
3. Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., Jones, K., 2010. Evaluation of Evidence-
Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning
Studies.
4. Victoria L. Tinio, ICT in Education, New York., 2003.

[STS22-49]
396
APPLICATION OF AI AND MACHINE LEARNING IN SEARCH
ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Nguyen Thi Thu Ha*
Faculty of Management Information Systems, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: +84 966471703; Email: ntt.ha@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
In recent years, the phrase artificial intelligence (AI) has become too familiar to marketers. There is
no denying that artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the center of the digital world and creating a
big change in the way businesses reach their target customers. For every industry, machine learning is
penetrating and bringing a lot of benefits, however, for the digital advertising industry, the benefits of
machine learning are huge. AI and machine learning provide the ability to collect, analyze, and learn,
the output of which is providing valuable customer insights to companies. AI and machine learning
are changing the world of digital strategies, where search engine marketing (SEM) is an aspect of
digital marketing that has benefited greatly from the adoption artificial intelligence and machine
learning. Most of all, every aspect of a business today is touched by search engine optimization
(SEO).
Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, search engine marketing, search engine
optimization.
1. Introduction
Nowadays, businesses have been in the process of changing their business models to adapt to the new
economic context during the covid pandemic. Most businesses have focused on building their e-
commerce sales channels, specifically websites. In the near future, businesses will compete more
fiercely with the battle for rankings on search engine results pages (Pinsky, 2022). They may find
their sites go through big ups and downs in ranking in Google or some other search engine. In the era
of rapidly changing technology, search engines are also constantly updating their core technology to
provide better services with new algorithms. Therefore, businesses can experience drops in search
results rankings as search engines have implemented more machine learning and artificial intelligence
(AI) applications in ranking websites. In recent years, SEO specialist have had to admit that their
goals and roles will need to change, update, and evolve soon, so they can prepare and adapt good
response to reality.
2. AI and machine learning

AI is a technology that simulates human thinking and learning processes for machines, especially
computer systems. AI is often applied in controlling, planning, surveying, or identifying information
of the target audience and it represents a human goal. Machine learning is a means that is expected to
help humans achieve that goal. Machine learning and AI have a close relationship, and currently
machine learning focuses on short-term goals such as making computers have basic human cognitive
abilities such as hearing, seeing, understanding language, math, programming, etc. In a more intuitive
way, machine learning is a subfield of AI, which uses algorithms that allow computers to learn from
data to perform tasks instead of being programmed clearly. People's lives today have the intervention
of artificial intelligence in many different aspects, including education, health care, investment,
cybersecurity, family life and traffic (Matošević, Dobša, Mladenić, 2021). In the above fields, the
field of search in cyberspace is also an application area of artificial intelligence. For each specific
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desired context, artificial intelligence has optimized search engines to help people find reliable
sources of information and it has many benefits in terms of optimizing website traffic. (Zhang and
Dimitroff, 2005).
The AI process input is collected from multiple websites, analytics reports, business metrics, social
media information, and proceeds the data to produce accurate, optimal and highly predictive results
(Theodoridis and Gkikas, 2019). There are many different technologies covered in the term AI
including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and natural language
generation (Kaput, 2021). The current AI model has many versions and is applied for many different
purposes including Evolutionary computing model, Fuzzy logic model, Classifiers and Statistical
Models (Nourani, Hosseini Baghanam, Adamowski and Kisi, 2014). In terms of machine learning,
this is one of the areas of artificial intelligence. Machine learning uses empirical data, processing them
with algorithms. Machine learning is an interdisciplinary field that deals with information science,
databases, statistics, and data science. After the processing, the goal of machine learning is to learn
from the data and predict variable values, detect structures, or recognize patterns. Machine learning is
divided into two main categories including supervised and unsupervised (Witten, Frank, Hall and Pal,
2016).
3. Search engine marketing

With the development of search engines, consumer behavior has changed a lot. Search engines have
become the primary means by which consumers find information about products and services
(Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010, Rangaswamy, Giles & Seres, 2009). Search engine marketing (SEM) is
the optimal way to display a website's search results in the most accessible position on search engines
like Google or Bing, Yahoo, etc. Report, Silverman pointed out that 47% of spending in digital
marketing goes to SEM, the largest number of most spends (Silverman, 2010).
Chaffey et al. defined that SEM includes SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per
Click). Basically, SEM is a marketing tactic that advertises a company's products or services through
the use of paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM is an
effective way to grow your business because it provides the opportunity to show ads to the right
people at the right time, thereby increasing conversion rates. However, to optimize SEM, businesses
need to research and process data, and this is the ability of artificial intelligence. Machine learning
uses algorithms to manage bids and budgets by analyzing data and creating effective strategies. (Jalil,
2022). Over time, websites compete by rankings, SEO is a technique that has a direct correlation with
pageview rate and frequency of visits (Egri and Bayrak, 2014) and it plays a huge role in internet and
search engines (Sunny, 2020). SEO is the process of optimizing a website to get high rankings for
Keywords in search engines. SEO principles also help the company create a website with quality
content that meets the needs of the visitors. Through some optimization techniques like SEO and PPC,
it is possible to improve website ranking (Yang, Shi & Wang, 2015). To sum up, SEO is a set of
techniques and practices that enable a website to get more traffic from search engines by improving
the structure and content of the website to conform to the rules and regulations of the search engine
standards (Özel, 2011). When combined with machine learning, whatever SEM technique is, machine
learning shows the outstanding performance of machine learning-powered SEO tools in increasing
business value (Park, 2020).
4. Applications of AI and machine learning in SEO

The techniques of artificial intelligence have evolved and allow search engine managers to
continuously improve their algorithms. However, it is also a challenge to respond appropriately to the
change in pursuing and understanding algorithms. Search engines collect data by applying various
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artificial intelligence methods including Polidoxa, Fuzzy inference system, Commercial Package,
Support vector machine application and K-nearest neighbor algorithms application (Yuniarthe, 2017).
In addition, there are many other techniques that tools powered by machine learning and AI have
helped humans do SEO related jobs. The following techniques are compiled from many research
papers by different researchers.
4.1 AI and web page classification in search engine optimization
There are many factors that influence a website's ranking results, and these results impact the
functionality and effectiveness of websites. Machine learning techniques build a classification model
that automatically adjusts to SEO optimization guidelines and identifies on-page factors that influence
SEO optimization of a website. This classification model is implemented through four successive
stages. First, a random site is selected. In stage 2, experts will perform ratings and classifications
according to the categories they define. The third stage builds and evaluates the classification models.
In the final stage, the important factor extraction from the classification models is performed.
Compared to the classification method in the majority class, the classification model based on the
level of SEO optimization has higher accuracy. In general, this model will use machine learning and
expert ratings to identify and predict important factors affecting on-page SEO (Matošević, Dobša,
Mladenić, 2021). The stages are described in Fig 1 as follows:
Fig 1. The workflow of classification models.

Adapted from Matošević et al. (2021)
With 4 main stages described in Fig 1, the input of the process including random sample sites.
Experiencing the classification stages, the output is the important factor that affects the on-page SEO
so that SEO specialist can use to adjust the SEO optimization guidelines appropriately.
4.2 Applying machine learning, AI in data analysis to improve website rankings

The data collected from SERPs includes number of pages, domain authority, site rating, keyword
relevance, content type, and more. Over time, the landscape of SEO has changed, it has spawned a lot
of new things: mobile SERPs, social media, page speed, personalized search, schema and other new
web technologies, etc. These aspects also include a lot of factors that influence the battle for rankings
on search engines. SEO specialist can put data blocks into machine learning models corresponding to
their analysis purposes to discover which ranking factors are the winning benchmark factors, between
sites with significant differences, which ranking factors and how many unit changes in those factors
399
can affect the ratings.
According to Voniatis (2021), it is necessary to define the right machine learning model. The two
types of problems that machine learning solves include classification and regression. Competitor
analysis and search engine rankings improvement would be suitable for regression models because
rankings are essentially a series of numbers. However, it is necessary to determine the outcome metric
for this problem, which is the ranking. Next, it is necessary to define the parameters, input variables
for the model, and data types. After the variables are declared, the regression model needs to be
shaped in mathematical terms. Everything needs to be done in the process after the data block is
collected, from data transformation, data cleaning to modelling. In fact, choosing the best model can
take many tries of algorithms on training and evaluation datasets.
The analysis needs to take place continuously because the data collected is only temporal in nature, it
is necessary to collect and analyze data on a regular basis to adjust and perform SEO work
continuously. Nowadays, tools are often a combination that includes building a data warehouse,
building dashboards, analyzing data, and automating the ELT (Extract – Load - Transform) process to
find out what the key drivers are, winning benchmarks, and calculating how much identify key drivers
lift in rank when adjusting for those key factors (Voniatis, 2021).
4.3 Application of machine learning in building predictive models
Build a machine learning model to predict how adding Keywords to title tags can affect organic
search clicks. The training data source will be pulled from search engines like Google Search Console
and title tags (and meta descriptions) from scraping the pages (Batista, 2020). Following the ELT
processes, the code snippets will connect to the data source and get the training data. Next step, find
the page titles, meta description and calculate whether the queries are in the title page or not, choose
the desired target columns to predict. Finally, import the data set in the expected format into the
machine learning system and select the predictive model to train. Usually, experts use deep neural
nets (Salminen et al., 2019).
4.4 Applying AI in content marketing
Today, the landscape of content marketing has changed with the arrival of AI (Chintalapati and
Pandey, 2021). AI can save humans a lot of time and can do a lot of things including content creation
and content analysis (Fach, 2019). AI can analyze content, select Keywords, create data-driven
content, optimize, analyze, recommend, create personalized content, and A/B test to improve content.
AI will perform reading, writing of human language and improve, adjust accordingly after each
writing. Aspects of AI content marketing include forecasting, optimization, expert support, adaptive
guidance, and correction of marketing mistakes. The prominent element of AI in content marketing is
the adaptability in the process, flexibility, interaction and intelligence to the needs and preferences of
the user (Kose and Sert, 2016). This helps to speed up the execution of specialized human tasks
because intelligent machines learn very quickly (Klass, 2022). Integrated AI tools will convert
numerical statistics into readable text and bring this data to narrate reports through automated insights
(Kaput, 2021).
According to the research of Kose and Sert (2016), there are 3 scenarios for AI content marketing and
have been summarized by the researchers through 3 models including intelligent scenario, optimized
scenario and self-learning digital content. The first scenario is the intelligent scenario, which is based
on a digital content on the web, using the elements that make up the content. The artificial neural
network model is applied to control the values of each element for the defined scenario. The second
model is optimized scenario, in digital content, key values set by experts (total views, total sold, total
cost, income and results) were used to calculate the success rate. In addition, several other additional
variables need to be optimized (total follow-up visits, total target users, etc.). Then the scenario is
applied, the variables are optimized, and the process is continued until the company is satisfied with
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the script and marketing. The third model is self-learning digital content, digital content uses
parameters related to user interaction and self-updates, improves, and adapts to different web
environments through a combination of many AI techniques such as neural networks and machine
learning. In content creation and personalization, AI Thinking has huge potential. Besides, Feeling AI
is also a technique that will become increasingly popular when it can rely on customers' emotional
reactions to analyze feelings, feelings, reactions and adjust promotions in real time (Huang and Rust,
2020). Message value and effectiveness can be optimized by content analytics, and customer
responses can be tracked in real time with emotional AI algorithms (Verma, Sharma, Deb and Maitra,
2021).
5. The role of SEO specialist

Although AI and machine learning bring many benefits and reduce human tasks by performing
automated techniques, however, the roe of SEO experts is undeniable and irreplaceable. In the above
sections, when applying AI and machine learning to SEO, there are still many processes and activities
that need SEO experts. For example, to implement a website classification model, SEO experts need
to evaluate and rank websites according to criteria of their choice before building a classification
model and using machine learning. In applying AI to content marketing, SEO experts also need to
identify the components related to content, the parameters that need to be optimized for AI to perform
in the best way.
As for the problem of content creation, language is one of the difficult elements for machines because
it requires understanding the overall context and using knowledge of culture, history, and other
factors. The stories and content created need to attract, connect, and arouse the emotions of the
readers. This makes it difficult for AI because only a human can create a content properly (Klass,
2022). Human thought process, experience, creativity, and analysis are what machines cannot replace
(Park, 2020). The responsibility of SEO specialists to ensure that content is relevant and useful today
across all devices, platforms, and content formats to provide a positive user experience (Burton,
2020). Since search engines also use a variety of evaluation criteria powered by AI and machine
learning techniques to better rank search engine results, the related SEO job requires human
involvement and supervision.
6. Conclusion
AI is an ever-evolving machine designed to meet user requirements and it is not a static method.
Beyond the simple keyword phrases, AI skills will greatly enhance the future of SEO (Mohapatra,
2018). Machine learning has many amazing benefits, allowing marketers to enable real-time insights,
analyze customer behavior to personalize, and optimize content for their individual needs to improve
search visibility and customer engagement (Park, 2020). In addition, machine learning and AI help
reduce costs, generate customer insights and intelligence, enhance the experience, focus on creating
quality content, and improve rankings on SERPs. With the advancements of AI and machine learning,
SEO is changing rapidly and delivering desired results for users. (Burton, 2020). SEO analysts can
decide on aspects related to structure, Keywords, content, links to increase website presence on the
internet with the help of artificial intelligence-based tools and devices (Yuniarthe, 2017). However,
SEO specialist cannot be replaced by machines because there are tasks that only they can do like
training, explaining, and sustaining (Daugherty and Wilson, 2018). In the future, techniques of AI and
machine learning will be developed and applied in SEO, but humans need to have elements of testing
and monitoring to get the expected output results.
401
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pp.665-690.

[STS22-64]
403
FACTORS AFFECTING CUSTOMERS' INTENTION TO USE
MOBILE BANKING AT HO CHI MINH CITY
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tu1,*, Dr. Nguyen Van Bao1
1
*Corresponding Author: Nguyen Thanh Tu (Phone: +84 90 754 1066; Email: nt.tu@hutech.edu.vn)
Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the factors affecting the intention to use mobile
banking of customers in Ho Chi Minh City. Research results have 5 factors affecting the intention to
use mobile banking including ease of use, financial costs, security, trust and the impact of the Covid
pandemic. The research has surveyed 180 customers of banks in Ho Chi Minh City. In Ho Chi Minh
City, at the same time, using Cronbach's Alpha analysis method, EFA analysis and regression analysis
with the support of SPSS software. In which, the influencing factor of the Covid pandemic had a
positive and strong impact on intention to use mobile banking. In addition to identifying influencing
factors, the study also contributes to helping managers in the banking have appropriate strategies for
the development of mobile banking.
Keywords: mobile banking, covid, online payment, intention to use.
1. Introduction
Digital transformation is becoming a trend in all socio-economic activities. Finance and
Banking is said to be an industry with a very high level of information technology application.
Changing consumer behavior and new technology platforms promote the development of digital
banking. The trend of online mobile banking is becoming more and more focused and used by
customers because of its convenience, which can be used anytime, anywhere with a compact device
that can be carried with you at any time.
Most banks provide online mobile banking (Mobile Banking), digital banking services via
mobile apps are increasingly complete, bringing more experiences to customers. Up to now, on the
Mobile banking application, customers not only transfer money and inquire, but now pay and pay for
almost all their daily shopping and transaction needs, both directly and online such as tuition fees,
hospital fees, going to the online market/supermarket, calling a car - delivery, ordering air tickets,
tours, train tickets...
In Ho Chi Minh City, due to the need to exchange communication and experience high
technology and convenience, the number of people owning wireless devices and having an internet
connection is increasing. This is considered an advantage of the development of online mobile
banking in Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has created an explosive push to
promote electronic payments, which is a new opportunity for credit institutions to promote better
online mobile banking investment to attract customers to use, reduce operating costs, as well as bring
benefits to customers.
2. Theoretical basis
2.1. Online mobile banking
Is a modern banking service that allows customers to use mobile phones to make transactions
with the bank? This is a form of online payment via mobile phone (customers do not need to go to the
bank but can still access all services 24/7 and everywhere). This method was born to solve the need to
pay for small value transactions or automated services without a banker. Some banks have applied
404
eKYC technology to electronically identify customers to open authentic online accounts by helping
customers open accounts anytime, anywhere, without limitation by space and time.
“Online mobile banking” is a service provided by banks or other financial institutions that
enables customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using devices such as mobile phone or
tablet. This service is coded in the form of a piece of software, also known as an application, issued
by the bank or financial institution itself. The condition to use the service is that the customer's phone
must have an internet connection in the form of GPRS/3G/4G/wifi, etc.
2.2. Technology acceptance theory - Davis's TAM (1989)
Based on the theory of rational action, it aims to establish relationships between factors to
explain human behavior in accepting and using technology. Basically, this theory consists of two
components, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in assessing customer behavioral
intentions and further on actual usage behavior. Specifically, perceived usefulness is considered to be
the extent to which users feel the usefulness brought by technology, with the belief that using
technology will increase their job performance. Perceived ease of use is the degree to which users find
it easy and comfortable to learn and use technology. New technology will be widely accepted and
used if users can easily learn how to use it (Davis, 1989). Over the past two decades, TAM has been
considered as the most applied model in explaining the behavior of using information systems in
organizations and individuals with extensions to each specific context.
2.3. Some related studies
Research by Singh and Srivastava (2018) has identified four factors that positively influence
the intention to use mobile banking in India including: ease of use, usability, financial cost, trust.
Research results of author Le Hoang Viet Phuong (2021) show that there are 6 factors:
perceived ease of use, trust, expected effectiveness, social influence, favorable conditions, and
positive influence to the application of mobile banking in Ho Chi Minh City.
3. Research hypothesis
(1) Ease of use: It is the degree to which a customer believes a system is easy to learn or use.
Mobile banking technology should be simple and understandable for customers to increase adoption
(Chitungo & Munongo, 2013). In using online mobile banking, customers always feel friendly with
services whose functions look simple, friendly, easy to use, can perform features Easily. From those
arguments, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H1: Ease of use positively affects intention to use online mobile banking
(2) Financial costs: the lower the costs incurred, the better for the customer's intention to use
the service (Yu, 2012; Alalwan et al., 2017). Perceived financial cost is the degree to which a person
believes that the lower the cost of using a service, the better with respect to intention to use that
service (Luarn & Lin, 2005). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2: Low financial cost has a positive effect on intention to use online mobile banking.
(3) Confidentiality: security is a huge concern when conducting any financial transactions
through electronic channels. For online mobile banking, security can be classified as application
security that enables mobile payments, network security, and device security. The security mechanism
of mobile banking has a positive influence on the intention to use this service. Therefore, the
following hypothesis is proposed:
H3: Security has a positive effect on intention to use online mobile banking
(4) Social influence: is a person's perception of social pressure to perform or not to perform a
behavior. Venkatesh et al. argue that social influence is considered as an individual's perception of the
opinions of important people to fulfill the need to use the system. In the context of the Covid-19
epidemic, limiting contact has become a condition that contributes to changing the choice of
405
customers when using online mobile banking to pay when shopping online. Therefore, the following
hypothesis is proposed:
H4: The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic positively affects the intention to use online mobile
banking.
(5) Trust: Masrek et al., 2012 defined trust in online mobile banking as “trust that makes
customers vulnerable to banks, telecommunications service providers and mobile technology in the
face of their technological characteristics or changes”. Customers are more likely to trust the new
service if their transaction data is perfectly secure. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H5: trust positively affects intention to use online mobile banking
From the proposed research hypotheses, the author builds the following research model:
H1
Ease of use
H2
Financial costs
H3
Confidentiality Intention to use online
mobile banking
H4
Impact of covid
H5
Trust
Figure 1: Research model
The author uses qualitative and quantitative research methods. Researching documents from
articles, journals and using questionnaires to investigate information, collected data will be processed
with the support of SPSS software with analytical and testing techniques: Cronbach's Alpha,
exploratory factor analysis (EFA), regression analysis to evaluate the reliability of the scales and test
the research model. For the variables of the scale, to assess the level of customer agreement, the
questionnaire is designed with a 5-point Likert scale with 1 being completely disagree to 5 being
completely agree.
5. Research results
The author issued 180 survey questionnaires, collected 165 surveys, after checking and
removing invalid surveys, the sample size used for data analysis and processing is 158. The surveyed
subjects are customers of the banks in Ho Chi Minh City, including: Vietcombank, BIDV,
Techcombank, VPbank, Eximbank.
Table 1: Description of survey sample
Information Characteristics Frequency Rate (%)
Gender Male 39 24.7
Female 119 75.3
Age < 22 years old 41 25.9
406
From 22-35 63 39.9
From 35-45 36 22.8
Over 45 years old 18 11.4
Income < 5 million VND 6 3.8
5 – 10 million VND 56 35.4
> 10 million dong 96 60.8
Level Common 17 10.7
Colleges 34 21.5
University 105 66.6
Postgraduate 2 1.2
Source: Author's survey data
Evaluate the reliability of the scale
After testing Cronbach's Alpha, all variables in the model have coefficients greater than 0.7
and observed variables have total correlation coefficients greater than 0.3. In summary, there are all
23 observed variables that are accepted, including 5 independent factors and 1 dependent factor, all of
which satisfy the requirements when performing a reliability test of the collected data with accuracy,
precision, and accuracy. high reliability. Therefore, the scale is suitable for performing the next step
of analysis.
Table 2: Results of reliability analysis by Cronbach's alpha
Cronbach’s Variable correlation
Variable Symbol Observed
alpha coefficient
Ease of use DSD 3 0.85 0.712
Financial costs CPTC 3 0.96 0.705
Confidentiality BM 4 0.921 0.587
Impact of covid COVID 4 0.892 0.721
Trust TT 4 0.854 0.564
Intention to use online mobile
YD 5 0.77 0.596
banking
Source: Author's calculation using SPSS software
Table 3: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results
KMO
Factor Sig coefficient. Total Variance Factor Loading
coefficient
1. Independent variables 0.894 0.000 68.145
Ease of use 0.624 – 0.802
Financial costs 0.814 – 0.823
Confidentiality 0.784 – 0.834
Impact of covid 0.618 – 0.826
Trust 0.715 – 0.762
2. Dependent variable 0.758 0.000 64.258
Intention to use online 0.795 – 0.864
mobile banking
The results of factor analysis to explore independent variables (Table 3) show that all
observed variables have factor loading coefficients > 0.5. KMO and Bartlett's test in factor analysis
show that Sig. = 0.000 < 0.05; high KMO coefficient (equal to 0.894 > 0.5). This result indicates that
the observed variables in the population are correlated with each other and the EFA factor analysis is
407
very appropriate. Besides, with the total variance extracted is 68.145% > 50% meets the requirements.
Table 3 shows that all observed variables have factor loading coefficients larger than the allowed
standard (Factor loading > 0.5). This result indicates that the observed variables in the population are
correlated with each other and factor analysis (EFA) is appropriate. Thus, after analyzing EFA factors,
we find that the proposed theoretical model is suitable for the study. The independent and dependent
variables have gained confidence to use for the next analysis.
Table 4. Results of regression model analysis
Unnormalized coefficients Normalized Multicollinear Statistics
Sig
Factor Beta Standard Beta
coefficient. Acceptability VIF
coefficient error coefficient
1 (constant) 0.164 0.148 0.258
DSD 0.065 0.008 0.243 0.000 0.921 1.074
CPTC 0.072 0.013 0.162 0.000 0.752 1.268
BM 0.084 0.035 0.094 0.011 0.642 1.485
COVID 0.623 0.034 0.625 0.000 0.714 1.422
TT 0.059 0.024 0.098 0.012 0.739 1.396
The Sig values in table 4 are all < 0.05, showing that the regression coefficients of the
independent variables are all significant with 95% confidence. Through the regression results, we see
that the influencing factor of the Covid epidemic has the greatest influence on the intention to use
online mobile banking, followed by the factor of ease of use and financial cost, so that customers can
intention to use online mobile banking, the influence of society, especially through the context of the
Covid pandemic along with the impact of family, friends and relatives has a great influence on the
intention to use the Internet. customer.
From this research result, banks can consider designing online mobile banking utilities that
are friendly, simple, suitable for all audiences and customer levels. In addition, the lower the bank's
cost of using the service, the higher the customer's intention to use the service. At the same time,
banks need to research to strengthen information security so that customers can gain trust to increase
usage behavior.
6. Management implications
(1) Regarding the impact factor of the Covid epidemic, in an environment, if everyone tends
to use the service, other members will also follow the same behavioral intention. Therefore, in order
to increase the intention to use online mobile banking, banks do a few things:
Implement a number of marketing programs such as: encouraging existing customers to introduce
friends and relatives to use online mobile banking to receive incentives, annual free, online savings
gift. Sponsor community programs to support people during the Covid epidemic season to build a
beautiful image closer to customers. Promote online mobile banking on social networking sites to
attract likes and good reviews from the existing customer community to attract the interest of new
members.
(2) In terms of ease of use, banks need to focus on the following: Invest in the design and
redesign of online mobile banking to be user-friendly, easy to use, and suitable for all audiences.
Investing in modern technology for the technology platform because the service wants to be simple
and easy to use, it must be based on an advanced technology platform. Invest in a team of experts to
develop online mobile banking services to create and continuously develop knowledge of new
technology platforms.
408
(3) Regarding the financial cost factor, this is the issue that customers often consider when
deciding to use a bank's services: Invest moderate resources in construction and maintenance, avoid
redundant investment of resources to save investment costs as well as operating costs, to ensure
customer costs are at the lowest. Besides, in order to charge no fees or charge as low as possible,
banks need to have other services/utilities to increase the compensatory income for online mobile
banking.
(4) Regarding the security factor, in recent years, the security issue has received great
attention from customers: Banks need to invest heavily in information technology security systems to
prevent possible security-related incidents. Strengthen communication activities about the security of
online mobile banking in the media to help customers understand and feel more secure to increase the
intention to use.
(5) Regarding the trust factor, when using the services of large reputable banks, it will create
trust for customers: Promote the brand on the media and social networks so that more customers know
the brand and increase the intention to use online mobile banking. Build credibility with existing
customers to gain customer loyalty and introduce services to new customers.
References
1. Alalwan, A. A., et al. (2017), “Factors influencing adoption of mobile banking by Jordanian
bankcustomers: Extending UTAUT2 with trust”, International Journal of Information
Management, 37(3): 99-110.
2. Chitungo, S. K., & Munongo, S. (2013), “Extending the Technology Acceptance Model to Mobile
Banking Adoption in Rural Zimbabwe”, Journal of Business Administration and Education, 3,
51-79.
3. Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1989), “User acceptance of computer technology:
A comparison of two theoretical models”, Management Science 35 (8), 982-1003.
4. Phuong, L.H.V. (2021), “Intention to use m-banking application: an empirical study in HCMC”,
Independent Journal of Management & Production.
5. Luarn, P. and Lin, H.H. (2005), “Toward an Understanding of the Behavioral Intention to Use
Mobile Banking”, Computers in Human Behavior, 21, 873-891.
6. Singh, S. and Srivastava, R.K. (2018), “Predicting the intention to use mobile banking in India”,
International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 357-378.
7. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003), “User acceptance of
8. information technology: Toward a unified view”, MIS Quarterly 27 (3) 425-478.
9. Yu, C.-S. J. J. o. e. c. r. (2012), “Factors affecting individuals to adopt mobile banking:
Empiricalevidence from the UTAUT model”, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 13(2):
104.

[STS22-88]
409
THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ON THE
APPLICATION OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES IN THE FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS OF COMPANIES LISTED ON THE VIETNAMESE
STOCK MARKET
Vu Thanh Long
Van Hien University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Email: longvuthanh@gmail.com, Phone: +84 91 842 2260)
Abstract
Financial statements are tools used by management to convey a company's financial information to
investors and related parties. Accounting information is useful for users when it honestly reflects the
business situation and results of operations of the company in a suitable and reliable manner.
Managers are allowed to be flexible in applying accounting policies and methods. Thus, the
management will choose accounting methods for their purposes, so there are risks, errors and frauds.
This study conducts a survey to collect published financial information of companies listed on the
Vietnam stock market and identifies the factors of corporate governance characteristics and the test
model with some factors through measuring related variables by corresponding measurements. From
there, the quantitative research method is applied to determine the factors affecting the application of
accounting policies presented in the financial statements.
Keywords: Accounting policy, corporate governance, financial statement
1. Introduction
Financial statements are presented in an accounting language that complies with accounting
regulations, standards and policies promulgated by the State, are the tool to convey information about
the financial position and business results of the company and at the same time shows the
management capacity of the management. Accounting information must be useful, relevant and
reliable to help investors make sound financial decisions regarding the company. Thus, it is required
that the information provided by the company must give a fair view of the business situation, strictly
comply with regulations, and at the same time need to allow the company to be flexible in the
application of its accounting policies and methods. Like those in many other countries in the world,
Vietnamese accounting standards and accounting policies allow the management to be flexible in
choosing an accounting method that is suitable for their company by offering a variety of accounting
methods in handling and recording an economic activity such as inventory costing method, fixed asset
depreciation method, etc. Because of flexibility in choosing accounting policies, the management can
apply appropriate policies according to subjective calculations to perform profit management behavior
for the benefit of the group or the management themselves, leading to misstatement of financial
information published on the market, which is different from reality.
Thus, there are many factors inside and outside the company that affect the application of
accounting policies in the preparation and presentation of financial statements to adjust profit.
However, in this study, the authors only study the influence of the factors inside the company, namely
the factors of the corporate governance group, on the application of accounting policies in the
companies. The authors used quantitative methods in the research process.
410
2. Theoretical overview and published scientific research
2.1. Concept
 Accounting policies are accounting standards and policies promulgated by competent
authorities in order to ensure that accounting is a tool for strict and effective management and
supervision of all economic and financial activities in order to provide complete, truthful and timely
information to meet the requirements of information users. In which, it sets out general mandatory
principles such as accrual basis, historical cost, consistency, etc.; guides the accounting methods that
the company can choose for itself in measuring, evaluating and recording business activities such as
inventory valuation method, depreciation of fixed assets, etc. Also, there are contents that allow the
company to build its own accounting policies on the basis of ensuring the appropriateness, such as
determining provisions. Companies have taken advantage of items and targets that accounting
standards have not specifically mentioned, or in other words, the company's accounting estimates on
the basis of assurance of appropriateness. The Company has used these estimates as a tool for
adjusting profit.
 Financial statements are financial accounting information, factual information, which have
occurred, are reliable information because there are reasonable and valid documents, and are legally
valid information. The preparation and publication of accounting statements for the purpose of
providing information and transmitting information to investors. Useful financial statement
information is information that meets the requirements of the information users who are internal and
external entities and helps users make appropriate decisions.
2.2. Foundation theories
 Jensen & Meckling (1976) defined agency as the relationship between the authorizing party
(investors, owners, etc.) and the authorized party (company managers), in which the authorized party
will represent the authorizing party to manage the company and perform the authorized tasks. Another
study by Fama & Jensen (1983) concluded that in a company there should be a separation between
ownership and control, in other words, the actual owner of the company is not involved in the
management of the company. So, managers have more information about the company's situation and
they will use management power to benefit themselves.
 The theory of asymmetric information (1970) of scientists George Akerlof, Michael Spence
and Joseph Stiglitz, asymmetric information occurs when a company publishes unreliable or poor
quality information such as the company conceals unfavorable information due to loss of investment
business, property damage due to subjective and objective reasons and exaggeration of beneficial
information, etc. the company provides unfair information for investors, inaccurate information, etc.
which reduces the quality of financial information, and makes investors a passive person in
information collection, the information is mainly collected from the company's disclosure, financial
statements, the verification of the information reliability is mainly based on the audit report of the
auditors.
 The theory of useful information dated back in the 1960s, which started the period of
orientation on the use of useful accounting information for appropriate decision making. In 1973, this
theory was widely considered in the United States with the objective of financial statements to
provide information useful for decision making. On the other hand, this theory is geared towards
information usefulness for users rather than satisfying legal requirements. Through appropriate
decision-making, the focus has shifted from accounting principles to the results of the accounting
process in which information is provided. According to the theory of useful information, information
from financial statements is seen as the process of providing relevant information to users. In listed
companies, managers are the information providers, the users of financial statement information are
411
mostly investors. Therefore, managers of listed companies need to provide useful information to
investors. Thus, in addition to the mandatory information, managers need to provide voluntary
information including interpretations so that the information is really useful to users.
2.3. Models to measure the effectiveness of accounting policy application
When managers flexibly apply accounting policies, they all aim at the performance of the
company, specifically, the business performance, profit. The company's profit is calculated on the
total earnings minus all costs incurred. Earnings include both actual cash proceeds and outstanding
credit sales. Expenses incurred in the period include expenses that are not actually paid out such as
expenses for accruals, provision for devaluation, etc. Therefore, the profit is determined on the profit
earned in cash which is the part calculated on the revenue with the actual expenses paid in cash and
the accrued profit is the amount calculated on the revenue and expenses that have not been actually
paid in cash. Also, the manager can make profit adjustments on the accumulated profit such as
adjusting provisions, etc.
Many studies have discussed how to measure profit management and are often identified
through quantitative models of accruals, many models have been applied to detect profit management
behavior. Each model is considered from different perspectives but are all based on the accrual basis
of accounting principles. In the financial statements, the total accruals (TA) including the Non-
Discretionary Accruals (NDA) are made according to the accounting principles and Discretionary
Accruals (DA). Many studies have shown that the impact of managers to adjust profits is to use the
tricks to create adjustable accruals through some of the following models:
 DeAngelo Model (1986)
DeAngelo believes that Non-Discretionary Accruals are subject to change depending on the
performance of the company over the accounting periods, it occurs randomly. According to
DeAngelo, the expression of earnings management behavior when there is a different Discretionary
Accruals between times t and t-1, determined by the following formula: DAt = (TAt – TAt-1)/At-1
 The Jones Model (1991)
Based on the inheritance of the models in previous studies, Jones used revenue (REV) and fixed
asset value to measure DA. Jones believes that the change in revenue will bring about a change in
working capital when it has an impact on Discretionary Accruals such as calculation of accruals,
advance deductions, provisions, etc.
After calculating Non-Discretionary Accruals, Jones came up with the following formula for
determining the Discretionary Accruals: TAt = α + β1ΔREVt + β2PPEt + ɛt
In which: α, β: estimated parameters
ΔREVt: Revenue difference in year t compared to year t-1
PPEt: Original cost of fixed assets year t
t: Estimation error
 Models adjusted from the Jones model
There are many researchers who have found limitations to the model of Jones (1991) and
previous models, they have published a number of models to correct errors to better identify earnings
management behaviors:
Dechow, Sloan and Sweedney (1995) added the receivables factor related to uncollected sales
in the Non-Discretionary Accruals, the new model is as follows: TAt = α + β1(ΔREVt - ΔART) +
β2PPEt + t
In which: ARt: Difference between receivables in year t compared to year t-1
Research group Kothari, Leone and Wasley (2005) said that it is necessary to consider the
performance of the company. Therefore, they added the ROA factor as an additional independent
variable to the Jones (1991) model and the model adjusted by Dechow et al (1995) as follows:
412
TAt = α + β1(REVt - ΔARt) + β2PPEt + β3ROAt + t
In which: ROAt: Ratio of return on total assets
2.4. Impacts on the application of accounting policies
The results of previous studies show that there are many groups of factors that affect the
application of accounting policies in the process of preparing and presenting financial statements.
However, according to the author group, the factors belonging to the corporate governance group
have a great impact on the application of accounting policies, thereby affecting the financial statement
information provided on the stock market.
Thus, the goal of the article is to focus on studying the group of corporate governance factors
with the following specific factors:
 Business performance
 Salary and bonus policy for managers
 Board members with financial expertise
 Members of the Supervisory Board with financial expertise
 The independence between the board of directors and the supervisory board
3. Methods
 Information on the financial statements and annual reports for the period of 2018 - 2020 are
published of non-financial companies operating in various fields listed on the Vietnamese stock
market.
 Data collected for research is audited financial statements including Balance Sheet, Income
Statement, Cash Flow Statement, Notes to financial statements and annual reports of listed
companies.
 The study size covers 92 companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi Stock
Exchanges from [http://www.cophieu68.vn/companylist.php]. The number of samples that fits the
minimum sample requirement for the multivariate regression model according to the formula is n ≥ 50
+ 8p = 50 + 8 x 5 = 90, where n is the minimum sample size, p is the number of independent variables
(Nguyen Dinh Tho, 2011).
The author uses mainly quantitative research methods:
- Determining the factors, the scale of factors affecting the application of accounting policies of
enterprises listed on the stock market
- Building research models, hypotheses and collecting data to test and measure the impact of
factors through the use of statistical tools, econometrics, data processing on SPSS software.
- Analyzing, discussing and proposing recommendations on the results after testing.
Measurement design and variables description
The research model is built with a dependent variable (symbol Y) which is the application of
accounting policies in financial statements and 5 independent variables (symbol X n) affecting the
application of accounting policies which are the factors identified above.
The research model is shown by the following multiple linear regression equation:
Y = β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + β4X4 + β5X5 + ε (Y)
In which, the dependent variable Y measures the influence of the application of accounting
policy in the company's financial statements through Total accrual variables = Profit after tax - Net
cash flow from operating activities is determined using the DeAngelo model (1986):
DAt = (TAt – TAt-1)/At-1
In which: TAt: Total accrual variable in year t
TAt-1: Total accrual variable in year t-1
At-1: Total assets in year t-1
413
4. Results
Evaluation of the appropriateness and statistical significance of the model
Table 1: Evaluation of the appropriateness of the model
Model Summaryb
Mod R R Adjust Std. Change Statistics Durbi
el Square ed R Error R F df1 df2 Sig. F n-
Square of the Square Chang Chang Wats
Estima Chang e e on
te e
1 ,290a ,084 ,031 ,21219 ,084 1,583 5 86 ,174 1,759
8
a. Predictors: (Constant), X5, X1, X4, X3, X2
The results table shows that 5 factors are independent variables that explain 8.4% of the
change in the application of accounting policies, and the adjusted coefficient of determination R2 =
0,031 is smaller than the coefficient R2 = 0,084, so the model appropriateness is secure. At the same
time, the Durbin-Watson index (D) = 1,759 shows that the model is not autocorrelated with each
other. The results show that the appropriateness of the model is not exaggerated.
According to the results, the actual F = 1.583 has the same value as the critical F = 2,02, so the
linear regression model with 5 factors included in the model could significantly explain the degree of
change of the application of accounting policies related to business performance.
Analysis of variance of factors
Among the factors that need to be studied, the factor of the independence between the board of
directors and the supervisory board and the factor of compensation policy for managers is measured
by the nominal scale, the author uses the variance analysis method ANOVA to test the correlation and
the impact of these factors on the level of influence of the application of accounting policies.
Table 2: Results of variance analysis ANOVA

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups ,001 1 ,001 ,027 ,870
Within Groups 4,227 90 ,047
Total 4,229 91
Y / X5
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups ,002 1 ,002 ,036 ,851
Within Groups 4,227 90 ,047
Total 4,229 91
According to the results of ANOVA analysis, the actual F = 0.027 and 0.036 are smaller than
the critical F = 3.94, and the Sig index has a high ratio, showing both factors of The independence of
the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board and the remuneration policy factors for managers
have no impact on the application of accounting policies affecting business performance.
Table 3: Analysis of regression (Coefficientsa)

Model Unstandardized Standardized 95,0% Confidence
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B
Lower Upper
B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound
414
1 (Constant) ,027 ,166 ,162 ,872 -,303 ,357
X1 ,747 ,267 ,293 2,796 ,006 ,216 1,277
X2 -,031 ,193 -,021 -,163 ,871 -,414 ,351
X3 -,040 ,111 -,038 -,361 ,719 -,260 ,180
X4 -,043 ,135 -,041 -,317 ,752 -,310 ,225
X5 -,018 ,046 -,042 -,396 ,693 -,109 ,072
a. Dependent Variable: Y
According to the results, the actual t-index of the business performance factor = 2,796 is close
to the critical t = 1.984, so the hypothesis H0 is rejected. Thus, the multivariable linear regression
model with the factor of business performance included in the model could meaningfully explain the
degree of change of the influence level of the application of accounting policies. At the same time, the
coefficient of business efficiency factor β1 is 0.747 ≠ 0 confirming that the model is still statistically
significant.
The regression model shows the linear relationship between the variables as follows:
Y = 0.027 + 0.747X1
5. Discussion
The authors also make some relevant policy suggestions to improve the efficiency of the
application of accounting policies in the process of recording accounting information and preparing
financial statements of listed companies.
 For listed companies:
+ It is necessary to develop corporate governance regulations to ensure compliance with the
requirements of the law and in accordance with the operating model of the company to be able to
control the application of accounting policies to ensure accounting information. Providing complete,
truthful and timely information that meets the requirements of information users will bring benefits to
the company.
+ It is necessary to separate the inspection and supervision activities of the Supervisory Board
from those of the Board of Directors and all members of the Supervisory Board need to have financial
expertise along with a firm grasp of legal knowledge. The law aims to prevent and reduce the profit
adjustment for the benefit of the group, contributing to protecting the interests of all shareholders - the
source from which the company can raise more investment capital for the company.
+ It is necessary to clearly define the responsibilities of the members of the Board of Directors
and the structure must have independent members in order to strengthen the role of supervisory
management and at the same time effectively monitor internal control.
 For the Stock Exchange, the competent authorities
+ It is necessary to issue additional sanctions for listed companies that provide misleading
information compared to audited results. It is necessary to have measures to promote information
transparency and effectively monitor the use of investment capital. The conduct of inspection and
audit with the participation of many independent units will help the government better control the
production and business activities of companies.
+ In addition, the building of a strict legal framework, the sanctions are enough of a deterrent to
ensure that the companies go in the right direction and with the goals set out earlier. The improvement
of the legal and regulatory environment will create a basis for reforming the corporate governance
mechanism, thereby helping investors to be more active and secure when investing in the company.
415
 For audit firms, it is necessary to provide additional assurance services to evaluate financial
statement information and to provide additional assessment information about the internal control of
listed companies.
 For the Ministry of Finance
+ It is necessary to continue updating and perfecting the uniform and strict Vietnamese
accounting standards in the application of accounting policies, especially the estimation of provisions
in order to limit the subjectivity of financial and accounting managers in companies.
+ It is necessary to continue to supplement and perfect Vietnam's accounting standards and
gradually achieve the quality as assessed by the two international professional associations FASB and
IASB in the period of international integration of our country.
 For institutions that offer training in accounting and finance human resource, it is necessary to
guide those in charge of financial and accounting management in professional ethics and sense of
responsibility to society in addition to professional training. It is necessary to supplement and adjust
the training program in accordance with the current economic situation of our country, gradual
international integration and the needs of the company, such as adding an international accounting
program, etc.
6. Conclusion
The application of accounting policy by managers is not only affected by factors of corporate
governance but also by many factors including internal and external factors of the company. In this
study, it is not possible to cover all the factors affecting the application of accounting policies of
enterprises in terms of culture, behavior, qualifications of managers and accounting staff in
enterprises. With the new research approaches, the authors hope to go deeper into the study of other
factors so that they can contribute to perfecting the financial and accounting management regulations
for companies in Vietnam.
References
1. Danute Zinkeviciene, Dr. Giedre Vaisnoraite, MSt., Aleksandras Stulginskis University,
Lithuania, (2014), “Factors affecting the choice of tangible fixed asset accounting methods:
theoretical approach”, European Scientific Journal, vol 1, p 198-208.
2. DeAngelo, L., 1986. Accounting Numbers as Market Valuation Substitutes: A Study of
Management Buyouts of Publics Stockholders, Accounting Review, 61(3), 400-419
3. Dechow, P., & Dichev, I, 2002. The Quality of Accruals and Earnings: The Role of Accrual
Estimation Errors, Accounting Review, 77, 35-59
4. Dechow, P., Hutton, A., Kim, J. & Sloan, R. 2012. Detecting Earnings Management: A New
Approach, Journal of Accounting Research, 50(2) 275-334
5. Jensen, M. C. and Meckling, W. H. (1976), “Theory of firm: managerial
behavior, agency costs and ownership structure”, Journal of Financial
Economics, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp.305–360
6. Jones. J.J, 1991. Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations, Journal of
Accounting Research, 29(2), 193-228.
7. Korathi.S.P. Lcome and Wasley, C.E, 2005. Performance-Marched Discretionary Accruals,
Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 39: pp: 163-197
8. Szilveszter FEKETE1; Yau M. DAMAGUM; Răzvan MUSTAŢĂ; Dumitru MATIŞ;
Ioan POPA (2010), “Explaining Accounting Policy Choices of SME’s: An Empirical
Research on the Evaluation Methods”, European Research Studies.
[STS22-89]
416
NEED TO DEVELOP GREEN LOGISTICS SYSTEM
IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Nguyen Vinh Phuoc
Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics
*Corresponding Author: Email: phuocnv@kthcm.edu.vn
Abstract
Currently, green logistics is an inevitable development trend of the logistics system in major cities
around the world. Logistics activities in Ho Chi Minh City cannot stay out of this development trend.
In order to solve the difficulties that the 1ogistics system in Ho Chi Minh City is facing, it is
necessary to have research on the development of the green logistics system in the city through
infrastructure, training logistics human resources, environmental pollution, business benefits, etc.
Therefore, the article will explore logistics activities in Ho Chi Minh City to demonstrate the need to
develop a green logistics system in Ho Chi Minh City.
Keywords: logistics, green logistics, green logistics system
1. Introduction
The division of labor of the society and the specialization in the production process of the global
economy have led to the exchange of import and export goods between countries in the region and the
world. That has led to the birth of logistics activities that aim to minimize costs and time in the
process of transportation, storage, packaging, customs procedures, loading goods, etc. Currently,
logistics is considered as a tool to help businesses cut costs and improve the competitive efficiency of
their products. Therefore, Logistics becomes an indispensable business in the import and export of
goods in the region and the world in order to bring goods from one location to another. But when
logistics activities developed, difficult problems such as environmental pollution, traffic jams in city
centers, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of professional skills have arisen in human resources.
Therefore, society needs to develop green logistics activities in the task of developing activities of the
logistics industry. “Green logistics” is a growing concept in the logistics field today, which can be
described as a comprehensive transformation of logistics strategies, structures, processes and systems
towards rational use. and more efficient resources. From the above practice, it shows that the
assessment of the current situation as well as the analysis of factors affecting the development of the
green logistics system, giving solutions to build and develop a comprehensive green logistics system
in the locality. Ho Chi Minh City is very important, creating a basis for the rational use of natural,
socio-economic resources; contribute to the city's economy to develop effectively and modernly. For
the above reasons, the author chooses the topic "Development of a green logistics system in Ho Chi
Minh City".
2. Research overview, theoretical basis and research methods

2.1. Overview of related research works
In 2015, Dang Thi Thuy Hong with the topic: "Development of the logistics system in Hanoi city".
The author has studied the factors affecting the development of the Logistics industry in Hanoi City,
the author focuses on researching 5 factors: Infrastructure, legal policies, service provider’s logistics,
companies using logistics services, logistics human resources.
In 2016, several authors studied logistics at an economic level and mentioned the following:
Reducing logistics costs, carbon taxes and fuel costs (Guajardo and Rönnqvist 2016; Wang et al.
2017). At the ecological level, it is worth mentioning: Simultaneous reduction of GHG emissions,
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noise, exploitation of natural resources (energy), promotion of recycling and waste treatment (Alvarez
et al. 2018; Niu and others). Li 2019; Ntziachristos et al 2016; Senkel et al 2013). At the social level,
we can consider the following: Stakeholders, establishing a sharing culture (Wang et al. 2018), less
stress for drivers - less congestion (Gonzalez) -Feliu and Battaia 2017; Hensher 2018) – and save time
(Ghaderi et al. 2016; Moutaoukil et al. 2015).
In 2020, Ho Chi Minh City based on Decision 200/QD-TTg approving “Action plan to improve
competitiveness and develop Vietnam Logistics services to 2025” issued on 14/02/ 2017 by the Prime
Minister emphasized the importance, goals and development orientation of Vietnam's Logistics sector.
As the economic center of the country, the development of the logistics industry is very important for
Ho Chi Minh City in linking the region with neighboring provinces and regions, so the Ho Chi Minh
City People's Committee Ho Chi Minh City has carried out the development of "Logistics
development project in Ho Chi Minh City until 2025, orientation to 2030".
2.2. Theoretical basis
2.2.1. Logistics
According to the American Board of Logistics in 1988: “Logistics is the process of planning,
implementing, and controlling the efficient and cost effective flow and storage of raw materials,
inventory, finished goods, etc.”
According to the 2005 Vietnam Commercial Law (Article 233) stipulates: “Logistics service is a
commercial activity whereby a trader organizes to perform one or more stages including receiving
goods, transporting, storing and storing goods. warehousing, customs clearance, other paperwork,
customer consultation, packaging, marking, delivery or other services related to goods as agreed with
the customer to receive remuneration".
But according to the author's point of view: "Logistics is the process of managing the cycle from
input to output of products in order to save production costs and protect the environment."
2.2.3. Green logistics
Today, the development of the logistics industry has put pressure on environmental protection.
Specifically, the consumption of fossil fuels in freight transport is the main source of environmental
pollution (M. Lu et al., 2019). In which, the transportation industry accounted for a quarter of carbon
emissions to the environment in 2016 (I. E. Agency, 2018)
Green logistics will contribute to reducing environmental pollution and making the most of the
benefits of logistics resources to prevent damage to the environment in logistics processes. To have an
environmentally friendly logistics system, green logistics must include a series of activities such as
green transportation, green packaging, green warehousing, green distribution and recycling and green
waste treatment. (H. Wu and S. C. Dunn, 1995).
Based on the research of the previous authors along with the perspective of supply chain management,
the author's view on green logistics is as follows: Green logistics will strongly promote the formation
of consumers' needs. green demand, promoting green technology innovation, increasing the quantity
and quality of green logistics talents through green education program. In which, technological
innovation plays an important role in supporting the green transformation of the logistics industry to
reduce negative impacts from logistics activities on the environment with the participation of the
Government and companies using the service. logistics, logistics service providers, human resources
team.
33 Research Methods
- Methods of analysis, comparison, synthesis: During the research process, the author has analyzed,
compared, synthesized about the current status of logistics performance efficiency of Vietnam with
other countries in the world.
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4. Results
4.1. Infrastructure of seaports, airports, cargo terminals
+ Inland customs clearance port:
Figure 1. Current status of IDC . ports

Source: Portcoast Engineering and Consulting Joint Stock Company (2017)
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 6 dry ports including: ICD Tracomexco; IDC Phuoc Long; ICD
Transimex; ICD Sotrans; Southwest ICD – Tanamexco; ICD Phuc Long with 1,112m wharf with
capacity to receive ships of 5,000 tons. In which, Truong Tho ICD cluster plays an important role to
connect with the southern key economic region. With a growth rate of 36.7%/year, the number of cars
circulating in and out of the port increases with an average of nearly 3,000 times/day, leading to
traffic jams on the roads connecting to the port and far away. Hanoi Highway at peak hours has
caused impacts on people's living environment.
+ Seaports, river ports:
Figure 2. Map of the current status of inland waterway connections in the seaport group area
Southeast Group 5. Source: Portcoast Engineering and Consulting Joint Stock Company (2017)
Currently, on the Dong Nai and Soai Rap rivers, many ports have been established, but mainly in the
Tan Cang Cat Lai port cluster on the Dong Nai river, making the port always in a state of overload,
the traffic system is always overloaded. traffic jams at peak hours; Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc cluster on
the Soai Rap river and the rest of the wharfs are very small, the exploitation output is insignificant. In
general, the port clusters in Ho Chi Minh City have not been linked with each other, moreover, the
ports are mainly shallow water ports, so large-tonnage vessels should be limited in operation. Besides,
the ports are only rudimentary investment, so they can only serve the surrounding businesses, have
not invested in modern infrastructure and have no connection, which often leads to prolonged
congestion.
+ Airports and railway stations: Ho Chi Minh City has 1 Tan Son Nhat international airport located in
the city center, so traffic jams often occur at peak hours, so the city government has put issued a
policy to ban trucks from traveling on many roads to limit traffic jams. Specifically, trucks under 2.5
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tons are prohibited from circulating daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 26 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Trucks
over 2.5 tons are not allowed to enter the truck-restricted area from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., except for some
corridors where traffic is allowed.
+ Warehouse system, yard, distribution center, logistics center.
Figure 3. Distribution of warehouses in Ho Chi Minh City area

Source: VLI (2019)
The total number of warehouses in Ho Chi Minh City is scattered throughout 24 districts. According
to VLI statistics, as of 2019 there are 1,505 warehouses. In addition to the current number of private
warehouses of the manufacturing enterprise itself, which is 520 warehouses, these warehouses mainly
develop spontaneously, the scale depends on the goods owner, and the exploitation is not effective
due to the unprofessional warehouse operator organization. Karma. In general, warehouses in the
inner city have a very small area due to high land rents and frequent traffic jams, so large-scale
warehouses cannot be established, the current trend is for warehouses to move to the suburbs. and
neighboring provinces such as Long An, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong because of low rental prices and
large land areas.
4.2. Transportation system
+ Road: The ring roads of the city have not been completed and closed, especially Ring Road 3 with
the role of reducing the traffic load moving through the city center area and supporting the connection
between the East region South and Southwest BE
It has not been completed, so it has caused traffic jams at the gateways and connecting shafts. In
addition, the developed transport infrastructure system has not kept up with the development speed of
the logistics industry, leading to a prolonged traffic jam on the roads leading to Cat Lai port, IDC
Truong Tho cluster area (Thursday). Virtue).
+ Railway: Ho Chi Minh City has a North-South railway, but its exploitation capacity is limited due
to the lack of railway connection with other means of transport, so it has not been exploited to the
best. At the same time, the technical equipment of the railway industry is not modern, so the
transportation of goods is not convenient.
+ By air: Currently, Tan Son Nhat international airport is overloaded, the system is out of traffic,
often causing traffic jams at peak hours. Besides, the transport capacity is still limited, so international
flights are mainly to countries in Asia, flights to Europe and America are very limited, mainly through
an airport. of another country to continue flying.
+ Inland waterway: Ho Chi Minh City has an interlaced system of rivers and canals, but currently the
exploitation is still very limited because on the waterways there are many existing road and railway
bridges with low static. and the narrow aperture limits the traffic capacity, even leading to many
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traffic accidents and collisions with ships and piers in the past time, not connecting well between
inland waterways and sea routes.
5. Conclusion
Ho Chi Minh City is an urban area with the largest growth rate in the country, where the largest
import and export activities take place in the country. It is the development of logistics activities that
leads to difficulties that the city is facing such as traffic jams, lack of infrastructure, environmental
pollution, noise pollution, and legal policies that have not kept pace with the development of the city.
industry, lack of human resources trained at colleges and universities, so it is necessary to learn from
the experience of developing logistics systems of countries with developed logistics systems to help
the city avoid mistakes. that countries have encountered as well as helping the City learn valuable
experiences from countries with developed logistics systems.
References
1. Dang Thi Thuy Hong (2015), development of the logistics system in Hanoi city, doctoral thesis,
Commercial Research Institute;
2. Logistics development project in Ho Chi Minh City to 2025, orientation to 2030.
3. World bank (2018), logistics perfomance index, https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global;
4. Honkong logistics development council, Hongkong maritime industry council and Hongkong port
development council (2013), Hongkong: the hub, the gateway and services center.
5. Vietnam Commercial Law (2005), National Truth Political Publishing House, Hanoi.
6. Website: https://www.vla.com.vn/
7. Christopher (2010), Logistics an supply chain management, 4th, Financial Time/Prentice Hall -
ISBN9780273731122, London.
8. Kent Gourdin (2006), Global Logistics Management: A Competitive Advantage for the 21st
Century, Journal of Commerce.

[STS22-38]
421
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE IN SOME
EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES - EXPERIENCE AND LESSONS FOR
VIETNAM
Thanh-Nha Pham Huu1,2
1
Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment
2
PhD Candidate of University of Economics and Law/ VNU-HCM
*Corresponding Author: Phone: 0933668278; Email: nhapht19701@sdh.uel.edu.vn
Abstract
East Asia currently has a number of countries with developed agriculture such as: Japan, Korea,
Thailand. These countries have a common feature that they all develop from an agricultural country,
most of the workers are farmers with very low qualifications. Thanks to the right education policies,
they have developed human capital in agriculture, increasing productivity and income for farmers.
Vietnam is also in the process of industrialization, but our country does it later. Therefore, learning
from the experiences of the above countries will give us useful lessons on the path of development.
By studying previous documents and describing statistical data, the following article will focus on
studying the successes in education and training policies for agricultural human resources in East
Asian countries. From there, lessons learned in improving the quality of agricultural human resources
in Vietnam today.
Keywords: Agricultural, human capital, East Asia, Vietnam.
1. Introduction
Agriculture is an economic sector which plays an important role in Vietnam’s socio-economic
development. Up to now, agriculture is still an extremely important economic sector of the country
because it directly creates jobs for about 33% of workers, contributing 14.9% to GDP. The rural area
is the place where more than 63% of the population live and work (GSO, 2020). Therefore,
agricultural development is one of the top priorities of the Government. In the document of the 13th
National Congress affirmed “Agricultural and rural economic development continues to be the most
important task in the process of industrialization and modernization”.
To be able to develop the agricultural economy, after all, the decisive factor lies in the quality
of human resources – aka human capital in agriculture. However, at present, the quality of agricultural
human resources in Vietnam is very low, with more than 95.4% untrained workforce, the agricultural
productivity is only about 50% of that of other economic sectors. (GSO, 2020). That fact requires
education and training policies to improve farmers' knowledge and skills, because the provision of
agricultural information plays a decisive role for the overall development of agriculture as well as
improving the livelihoods of farmers.
Looking back at East Asian countries, they have common characteristics such as growing up
from an agricultural country with most of the population being farmers, with low education. So how
have these countries improved their knowledge and skills to help agricultural workers work
efficiently? Therefore, studying the successes in education and training policies of East Asian
countries will give us many valuable lessons on the path of development.
2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Theory on the role human capital in agriculture
The theory of human capital was first proposed by Theodore William Schultz in the paper
“Investment in human capital” (1961). In accepting the Nobel Prize in 1979, Schultz spoke to the
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theme that: “Most of the world's poor people earn their living from agriculture, so if we knew the
economics of agriculture, we would know much of the economics of being poor”. In the book about
“Transforming Traditional Agriculture” published in 1964, Schultz argued that it was completely
possible for countries to switch from traditional agriculture to high-yield modern agriculture. The
main solution is to invest in people to improve knowledge and skills for farmers. He sees education as
an investment in people and it also acts as a type of capital - “human capital”. The relationship
between human capital and income is a cause-and-effect relationship. Investing in education means
increasing human capital and will increase individual productivity in the future. At that time, human
capital becomes the property of the nation, an important resource to ensure the sustainable
development of the economy.
Schultz's theory of "Human Capital" later developed and perfected by Becker (1962, 2009),
Mincer (1974). Since the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century, in an endogenous growth model of
Romer (1986), Lucas (1988), Mankiw et al (1992) argue that technical progress is due to the spillover
of human capital.
According to the above authors, “human capital, the set of skills, knowledge, capabilities, and
other attributes embodied in people that can be translated into productivity”. OECD proposed a broad
definition of human capital as ‘the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in
individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being’ (OECD, 2001).
This definition has gradually obtained wide acceptance.
In agriculture, human capital is acquired through various types of education such as: Formal
education, Non-formal education (agricultural extension), informal education (through experience or
learning from other farmers) (Etling, 1993).
2.2 Policies to develop human capital in agriculture in Vietnam
For formal education: Starting from the 7th National Congress (June 1991), The State has
implemented a policy that considers education and training a top national policy. At present, the state
has completed the universalization of lower secondary education. The above universalization of
education will help equip workers with general knowledge about nature and society such as reading,
writing, and basic calculation. This is the initial foundation for them to acquire professional
knowledge, so that they can learn better agricultural knowledge and techniques, and develop their
own capacity throughout life.
Regarding vocational training policy for agricultural workers On November 27, 2009, the
Government issued Decision No. 1956/QD-TTg approving the Project “Vocational training for rural
workers until 2020”. This project aims to improve the quality of rural labor to meet the requirements
of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Up to now, this project has
supported elementary level training, training under 3 months for 4.57 million people, achieving 70%
of the plan. Of these, only 1.84 million laborers were trained in agriculture, accounting for 40.2% of
the total, 59.8% are non-agricultural apprentice ships (Quan, 2022). Thus, the number of trained
agricultural workers accounts for a very low proportion of the total 17,7 million agricultural labor
force.
For agricultural extension: Since 1993, as the development of Vietnamese public extension. On
May 24, 2018 the Government issued Decree No. 83/2018/ND-CP on agricultural extension. This
decree states: “Agricultural extension is an activity of transferring technical advances, information,
spreading knowledge and training skills to farmers in order to improve production capacity and
efficiency, agribusiness, environmental protection and new rural construction”
The national agricultural extension system is divided into two levels: Central and local.
Currently, the number of communes with agricultural and forestry extension officers accounts for
only 80.57% (GSO, 2021). In addition, investment costs for agricultural extension activities are very
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low, especially in recent years, due to difficulties in state budget revenue, the allocation of funds for
agricultural extension activities has shown signs of decline, and cannot meet the needs of production.
The capacity of the agricultural extension staff is still low and uneven, the National Agricultural
Extension Center (2016) reported that grassroots extension workers (commune extension workers and
village extension collaborators) have been the weakest group in the extension system: in 2016, Viet
Nam had about 20,000 grassroots extension workers at the commune and village levels, but only
about 24% of commune extension workers had a college degree. Thus, limited financial resources,
lack of human resources of agricultural extension officers in quantity and low quality are barriers to
agricultural extension activities in Vietnam.
3. Policies to develop human capital in agricultural in some East Asian countries

3.1 Japan
For formal education: In 1947, Japan promulgated the Basic Law on Education and the Law
on School Education, which is compulsory and free for 9 years for all citizens. The universal
education up to the lower secondary level has laid the foundation for raising human capital in
agriculture. Today Japan is one of the developed countries in the world with practically zero illiteracy
and 72.5% of the students enrolled up to university, college and intermediate level.
For agricultural extension: The Japanese extension system for agriculture, which started in
1948, was meant to help farmers acquire useful, appropriate, and practical knowledge in the domain
of agriculture. Agricultural extension activities have been formalized by law and the contingent of
agricultural extension officers has been continuously built and strengthened. To become an extension
officer, one has to pass a national exam. The job of extension officers is to help farmers in person to
acquire technical and managerial knowledge and other skills in the domain of agriculture. They do
this job in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, research institutions,
agricultural universities, and the prefectural government
The Japanese do agricultural extension on the basis of agricultural cooperatives. In Japan,
100% of farmers join cooperatives (JA) voluntarily. They get a lot of benefits from JA and
government support such as improving production skills, improving the ability to absorb science and
technology, and the ability to grasp the requirements of the market. This is achieved through mutual
learning among farmers, especially because the JA operators are professionally trained and
experienced in the agricultural field.
One of the most commonly applied extension methods in Japan today is the electronic
extension system, which helps farmers to access new policies and techniques.
3.2 Korea
During as early as the 1950s, Korea was basically an agricultural country where the agricultural
population was nearly 60% of the whole population and agriculture contributed to 30% of the GDP
Within one generation, Korea had transformed itself from a poor agrarian society to a modern
industrial nation, a feat never seen before.
For formal education: Korea has designed education policies to suit the needs of the economy.
In 1950, the Korean government advocated eradicating illiteracy for the entire population. In the
following years, the education system was gradually promoted as development of vocational
education in secondary schools (in 1960); technical vocational schools (1970); promote research and
education activities in the fields of basic science and technology, improve the quality of education and
lifelong learning. And today is the new era education strategy…
Particularly in agriculture, after eradicating illiteracy for the entire population, Korea
implements the strategy of vocational training in agriculture. Through the Sae-maul Movement in the
early 1970s, the Sae-maul Movement tried to help people recognize the importance of developing the
424
agriculture sector. Agricultural education programs for the high school level and adult education
programs in Korea, have been well organized as practical education, showing close relationships
between the school and the rural community.
Secondary Agricultural Education: The agricultural high school has played an important role in
educating adults at the rural gun (county) level. High school teachers also hold joint appointments at
the gun rural development office, and training classes in the high schools use the same materials and
machinery as those used by extension workers. Agricultural colleges also have participated in
programs to educate farmers. The Kon-Kuk University (KKU) holds a "school of the farmer" every
summer vacation providing farmers with lodging and boarding at school facilities.
For agricultural extension: The agricultural extension system plays a very important role in
strengthening the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. It is an excellent medium for
strengthening both the competitive edge of the farmers and technology. In 1962 RDA, headquarters of
Korean agricultural extension services was established. Korea has invested in building and
decentralizing the agricultural extension system from the central to local levels. This contributes to
creating a close connection between the actors involved, and at the same time ensures a favorable
operating mechanism of the agricultural innovation system.
For the purpose of increasing the professional capabilities of the extension workers “Regulation
on Specialization of Extension Personnel” was enacted. RDA administered the exam through which
extension work candidates acquired the extension license. Above all, the education and training of the
extension workforce and rural people was emphasized. Therefore, agricultural extension officers are
the people who are selected, have professional and technical qualifications to support farmers. Thanks
to the strict remuneration policy, management and training of extension staff, Korea has an
agricultural extension force that works with utmost dedication, creating absolute trust for farmers.
As of today in Korea, a system has been successfully established so that any rural people can
receive consultation and advice in agricultural technology. In addition, one of the great outcomes or
performance was increased credibility toward agricultural extension organizations as a result of the
processes of diffusing new technologies and educating and training agricultural people.
3.3 Thailand
Thailand is a traditionally agricultural country with a rural population accounting for about
80% of the country's population in the 2000s. Currently, Thailand has advanced agriculture that
applies high technology in production. And is the world's largest rice exporter, bringing the country
billions of dollars a year.
To improve the knowledge and skills of farmers, the Thai government has adopted the
following policies:
Firstly: promote training in farming techniques and transfer technology to farmers through
formal education. Technical training and awareness raising for farmers are highly valued. Many
universities, colleges, and high schools offer on-site courses on farming techniques and technology
transfer in order to attract and improve the level of agricultural human resources. Thanks to the right
directions in training high-quality human resources, the wasteland, mountainous terrain and arid areas
are also exploited and used to grow not only maize and upland rice, but also can grow a variety of
high yielding rice with high yield.
Secondly: increase investment in the agricultural extension system to transfer agricultural
knowledge to farmers. In 1967, agriculture became the top priority of Thailand national policy with
the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE) within the Ministry of
Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC). Regarding the extension system, DOAE has adopted the
participatory extension approach of “people centered development” where people, sustainability,
decentralization and participation by community members themselves are at the center.
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Agricultural extension policy is very active in supporting farmers' knowledge and experience in
cultivating and harvesting. Through government programs, people are aware of their role and actively
absorb new, modern and useful knowledge in farming. Thailand's agricultural extension policy is very
strong. Annually, the Government spends up to 150 million USD on agricultural extension. (Ngoc,
2020). This has helped Thai farmers develop their human capital. Currently, Thailand has a basic
digitized agricultural extension management system.
Thirdly: Improve the knowledge level of farmers through the development of agricultural
cooperatives.
In 1972, farmer’s cooperatives were initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,
and developed rapidly after that. There are two important types of farmer’s organization: agricultural
cooperatives and farmer groups; both of which receive support from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives (Falvey, 2000). Nowadays farmer organizations in Thailand almost cover half of
farmers. They are not only the objects of agricultural extension service, but also the important
facilitators for agricultural extension and rural development.
4. Experience and lessons for Vietnam

From the successes of human resources development in agriculture in East Asia, some lessons
can be drawn for Vietnam as follows.
Firstly, clearly define the role, position and objects of impact of various types of education in
agriculture.
There are many types of education to improve human capital in agriculture, each with its own
effectiveness. Investment in formal education pays dividends in the future, while non-formal
education and in-formal education pay off today. The experience of East Asian countries is that they
have clearly defined the role of each type of education in order to have a priority strategy for
development at each stage, while in Vietnam recently, only investment in formal education has been
focused. Therefore, Vietnam needs to clearly define the role and position of various types of
education in agriculture in order to have the right investment policy, concretize these policies by the
provisions of law.
Secondly, strengthen vocational training in agriculture
Vocational training and continuing professional skills education for farmers play an important
role in enhancing human capital in agriculture. Experience from Korea and Thailand shows that this is
an effective policy for farmers to have knowledge and skills in production, helping to increase
farmers' income.
In Vietnam over the past time, the state has also implemented a policy of vocational training for
rural workers. However, this project mainly focuses on training non-agricultural occupations, helping
to transfer labor from agriculture to other economic sectors, but has not focused on training
agricultural occupations for farmers. Therefore, the effect of this policy on agricultural human
resources has not been as effective as expected. The ways of Japan, Korea, and Thailand can be useful
experiences for Vietnam to strengthen agricultural vocational education for farmers, closely
coordinate with universities and colleges to organize training courses for farmers to acquire
knowledge and skills in agricultural production practices.
Thirdly, especially increase investment in agricultural extension activities.
The experience of East Asian countries shows that agricultural extension has played an
important role in raising the level and knowledge of agriculture for farmers, helping them to produce
efficiently and increase their income. In order for agricultural extension to do its job well, countries
have made a huge investment in agricultural extension. The investment of interest is first reflected in
the law, then in the Government's budget, and finally in the investment in agricultural extension staff.
426
Looking back at Vietnam, over the past time, the State has focused on investing in formal
education, meanwhile, agricultural extension, which is the form of education that has the most direct
and effective impact on farmers in the industrialization period, has not yet received adequate attention
and investment. Therefore, Vietnam needs a large investment policy for agricultural extension, and
must consider agricultural extension as the most important form of education for farmers in the
current period.
Fourthly, improve agricultural knowledge for farmers through the association between agricultural
extension and farmers' organizations.
Farmers' organizations or cooperatives established on a voluntary basis. Joining these
organizations will help farmers enjoy a lot of benefits from the investment of the state and the
organization itself, such as improving agricultural knowledge and market knowledge, supporting
agricultural product consumption. Therefore, the government should have support for farmers'
associations/cooperatives, especially training activities of extension to improve knowledge for
farmers. When farmers realize their benefits, they will actively participate in these organizations.
Farmer’s cooperatives were initiated in Japan, Korea and Thailand have played an effective role as
important facilitators for agricultural extension and rural development. Thereby, a positive spillover
effect will take place, farmers will learn from each other's experiences and production skills,
contributing to improving the quality of human resources.
5. Conclusion
The process of industrialization in countries such as Japan, Korea, and Thailand were started by
a breakthrough period of agricultural development. because agricultural growth has always been an
essential factor for the industrialization process. Therefore, investing in improving human capital in
agriculture is considered a top priority. Research on the experience of raising human capital in
agriculture of the above East Asian countries has given Vietnam important lessons. From there,
Vietnam can learn and apply creatively to the specific situation of Vietnam, helping Vietnam firmly
on the path of development.
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14. Schultz, T. W. (1964). Transforming Traditional Agriculture. New Haven: Yale University Press.
15. Suncheol, K., Jinkun, K., & Miok, S. (2014). Agricultural Extension System in Korea: Lessons
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Politics and National Defense Education
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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION AND
TRAINING IN THE TREND OF INTERNATIONAL INTEGRATION IN
VIETNAM
Nguyen Minh Tri 1*, Dao Tuan Hau 2
1
Politics and National Defense Education Center, HUTECH University, Vietnam
2
Faculty of Philosophy, The University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National
University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Email: nm.tri@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
International integration is an inevitable trend in the development process of mankind and affects all
fields of politics, economy, culture, and education, it attracts all countries into a "game" generally that
is "integration". For Vietnam, international integration has brought both opportunities and challenges
in the development of education and training. Therefore, to develop education and training to meet
current international integration requirements, it is necessary to raise awareness and renew thinking
about education and training development; innovate training programs and methods; apply technology
to the teaching process; improve the quality of teachers and administrators.
Keywords: challenges, opportunities, education and training, international integration, Vietnam
1. Introduction
Education and training are also a way to preserve, disseminate, exchange and develop culture and
science, and create human resources for the reproduction of the labor force. Because the nature of
education is the transmission, acquisition, and development of socio-historical knowledge and
experiences that mankind has created, through successive generations in history. Therefore, from the
past to the present, all countries and ethnic groups in the development process have highly appreciated
the important role of education; and today, people not only consider education and training as a
special social activity, a part of the superstructure but also a factor that holds a fundamental position
and a driving role in determining the development of socio-economic; Investment in education and
training is an investment in the future. In recent years, Vietnam's extensive international integration
process has created many opportunities for education and training development to meet socio-
economic development requirements. However, education and training in Vietnam are still facing
challenges that need appropriate solutions to meet current international integration requirements.
The research questions in this study will be:
- What are the opportunities and challenges of international integration to education and training in
Vietnam?
- What are the solutions to take advantage of opportunities and overcome challenges in education and
training development in the trend of international integration?
2. Opportunities for international integration to develop education and training in Vietnam
According to statistics of the Ministry of Education and Training, in the period 2013-2016, there were
68 international agreements and 23 international treaties signed; In the 2016-2020 period, the Ministry
of Education and Training has presided over the negotiation and signing of 75 international
agreements and treaties at the Government and ministerial levels. In particular, in the 2019-2020
school year, the Ministry of Education and Training presided over and signed 21 international
cooperation documents (including 6 government-level documents, and 15 ministerial-level
documents) and signed agreements on recognition diplomas to promote student mobility with
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countries in the region and the world such as Agreement on Vietnamese-German universities,
Agreement on teaching English under peace program; An exchange note on the Human Resource
Development Scholarship Project with Japan; Agreement between the Government of Vietnam and
the Government of Armenia on cooperation in the fields of education and science; Agreement
between the Government of Vietnam and the Government of Latvia on cooperation in the field of
education; Agreement between the Vietnamese Government and the French Government on the
development of CFVG for the period of 2019-2023.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training has organized many forums and
conferences to connect and cooperate between education experts, investors, domestic and foreign
educational institutions to share experiences and promote cooperation. cooperation and investment,
improving quality in the field of education and training such as UNESCO's Global Forum on
Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizen at, Vietnam education exhibition in Laos;
Conference of presidents of universities in Vietnam - Russia, Education Conference of Vietnam -
Taiwan (China), Conference to promote learning opportunities for international education programs in
Vietnam.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, treaties and agreements on educational
cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Training and its partners have been actively
promoted and effectively implemented by the parties practical. Up to now, the whole country has a
total of 455 foreign FDI projects investing in the field of education and training.
Vietnam has now established educational cooperation relations with countries around the world,
helping to improve the efficiency of international cooperation and Vietnam's position in the world,
demonstrating:
Firstly, international integration contributes to the modernization of Vietnamese education.
Globalization makes today's world market larger and more complete in its operating mechanism. We
have the conditions to learn, absorb, exchange, and improve the level, management experience, and
capital of the world, especially the knowledge to develop the digital economy and participate in the
supply chain of global products. Thereby, we have the opportunity to expand production, create jobs,
stabilize and improve people's lives, and participate in the process of international cooperation and
division of labor. Therefore, international integration not only contributes to removing barriers
between nations in economic development but also opens up favorable conditions for the development
of education and training of all nations. All countries in the world, thereby, allowing each country to
supplement and overcome the weaknesses of the national economy. International integration has
placed Vietnamese education in the general picture of the education of other countries in the world,
thereby helping Vietnamese education realize where it stands in the international arena, where it is
good or bad can absorb the experience of developed education systems, making necessary
breakthroughs to break old and outdated stereotypes, from educational philosophy, program content to
teaching methods, organization Education Management. These advanced experiences will create a
premise to modernize education and training in Vietnam, connect Vietnamese education and training
with education systems in the world, expand the vision and value ladder beyond national and ethnic
borders, towards common international standards, training quality human resources for socio-
economic development in Vietnam.
Secondly, international integration creates favorable conditions for the trend of peace, cooperation,
development, and stability to develop Vietnam, thereby creating favorable conditions for the
development of education and training created in Vietnam. In recent years, humanity has been
witnessing complicated developments with many potential uncertainties and unpredictable events.
Tensions, religious and ethnic conflicts, secession, local wars, territorial disputes, political riots,
interference, subversion, and terrorism will still take place sharply; non-traditional security threats,
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high-tech crimes in the fields of finance - currency, electronics - telecommunications, biology,
environment tend to increase with increasing nature complicated. However, the multipolar world
political landscape is becoming more and more obvious; There are new points in international
relations such as: besides big countries playing the leading role, small countries are increasingly rising
to assert their positions; together with political, military, and economic factors, clearly and
increasingly important; the gathering of intertwined, loose, even temporary political forces based on
interests. In which, countries both entice, take advantage of, and restrain each other. Moreover, the
world is facing global problems: poverty, epidemics, resource depletion, environmental pollution,
terrorism... that require solving together for the sake of the existence mortality of mankind. Therefore,
in relations between countries, although there are still many contradictions, the outstanding feature
will be a diverse world, and the trend of democratization in international relations will continue to
develop. Peace, cooperation, and development still appear to be the common trend of mankind today.
In that context, our Party continues to affirm the motto: “Diversification and multilateralization in
foreign relations; proactively and actively integrate into the world; is a friend, a reliable partner and a
responsible member of the international community” (Communist Party of Vietnam, 2016, p. 153). It
is also a great orientation for Vietnam to take advantage of to establish an education and training
development policy in line with international practices, conduct administrative reform to create a
breakthrough in the strategy, and bring Vietnam's education and training has moved to a new stage in
the process of international integration.
Thirdly, international integration also opens up great opportunities for Vietnamese education and
training to approach and learn about goals, contents, programs, educational methods, and modern
educational management experience advanced, opening a development direction for learners to study
and research on the spot, without having to go abroad but still be able to learn modern knowledge
with high economic efficiency. As a result, employees can broaden their understanding, gradually
overcome the emotional, intuitive, and experiential thinking and working methods created from small-
scale production, and train to get used to the idea of scientific working methods and methods,
industrial style, gradually fostering employees with the necessary qualities and capabilities to serve
the process of international integration.
Participating in globalization and international integration, Vietnam has favorable conditions to
promote international cooperation in the fields of scientific research, science, and technology,
education, and training. This has helped Vietnam not only take advantage of the capital and
experience of your country but also an opportunity to strengthen links with prestigious regional and
international educational institutions and vocational training organizations in the construction industry
by building modern training institutions, updating textbooks and materials, transferring facilities for
teaching and learning, exchanging scientific information, training and fostering vocational teachers,
etc. Since then, gradually develop Vietnam's education and training in the direction of modernity and
international standards, contributing to improving the education and technical qualifications of
workers according to international standards international integration process in Vietnam today.
Fourthly, international integration also creates opportunities and conditions for Vietnamese people to
exchange, learn and absorb the quintessence of human cultural values, based on preserving and
promoting cultural values culture of the nation's traditions in education, training, and building the new
Vietnamese people. At the same time, in the process of international exchange and contact, new
standards and values of the times and the world are imported into Vietnam, which will contribute to
creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese education to learn and absorb, such as the spirit of
dynamism, creativity, self-control, self-reliance; gradually eliminate backward, conservative and
stagnant practices and habits that still exist in a large number of Vietnamese people as well as
students.
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Not only that, in the current context, international integration also creates opportunities for
Vietnamese education to have conditions to cooperate, exchange, study and acquire achievements and
modern scientific and technological knowledge in the world, especially the results of the fourth
industrial revolution, which contribute to the development of education and training, creating
resources for rapid socio-economic development.
3. Challenges of international integration to the development of education and training in
Vietnam
Firstly, lagging in education and training compared to other countries in the region and the world is
still permanent and difficult to overcome, because globalization and international integration today
are, in essence, globalization is dominated by monopolistic capitalism, moreover taking place in the
context of real socialism is in decline, so its negative impact on developed countries along the social
path ideology is even more pronounced. From an economic point of view, this is a very tough and
complicated competition between countries in the context of monopolistic capitalist forces increasing
their strong influence, dominating globalization on all sides field of social life.
Although, during more than 35 years of reform and integration, Vietnam has achieved continuous and
stable economic growth and has spent 20% of the capital construction investment budget on
education. Therefore, the scale, quality, and diversity of types of education and training are constantly
changing in quality, making a very important contribution to raising people's intellectual level and
developing qualified human resources. However, the quality of education – training, and human
resources have not met the requirements of development and international integration, so the risk of
lagging in education and training is not enough compared to many countries. This is a real challenge,
a difficult problem for Vietnam today, and needs an overall and long-term strategy to overcome.
Second, the danger from the hostile forces' plot to carry out "peaceful evolution" to destroy our
country with new, more drastic, and sophisticated manifestations than before in the process of
globalization and international integration has led to the deterioration of political ideology, morality,
lifestyle, and manifestations of "self-evolution", "self-transformation", including bureaucracy,
corruption, and waste in the department current cadres and party members. International integration
by developed capitalist countries dominates the game rules in the style of "big fish eat small fish",
developed countries will be shared more opportunities than poor countries. And poor countries are at
risk of being squeezed and lost, easily facing risks in economy, culture, and society. Vietnam is a
country that is integrating deeply, so the negative effects of the economic integration process have
also had a strong impact on education and training, such as hostile and reactionary forces that can take
advantage of the government's policy. The policy of opening up and integration promotes activities
that destroy education through internal cooperation and investment, thereby promoting "self-
evolution", "self-transformation" and implementing the "peaceful evolution" scheme, "deviating from
socialism" with new manifestations in terms of the subject, method, content, goal... has developed to
the climax, to the extent that it can be considered a "technology", it's "subversive technology", with so
many different scenarios in every field, especially through increasing investment in education and
training with the main purpose that they target students, students and young people, making them
disoriented in perception, thought, and will beliefs, moral degradation, lifestyle, fading of ideals and
goals of socialism, thereby weakening the role and strength of students, hindering the cause of
industrialization, modernization and the construction of socialism in Vietnam. This is a risk that
cannot be underestimated, that fact requires us to have appropriate measures and ways to cope and
overcome, not to fall into a passive and unexpected situation.
Third, international integration also poses challenges to preserving and promoting traditional
Vietnamese values. That is the risk of fading, losing cultural identity, and eroding the traditional
values of the nation in the context of globalization and international integration. Globalization today
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has new developments, along with the development of science - technology has promoted the process
of forming an information society; at the same time, it also threatens to preserve and promote
traditional values of ethnic groups in the world, including Vietnam. International integration has made
new developments, along with the development of science - technology has promoted the formation
of the information society; at the same time, it also threatens to preserve and promote traditional
values of ethnic groups in the world, including Vietnam. A few large countries are taking advantage
of the globalization process to find ways to spread their cultural values, languages, customs, and
lifestyles around the world, with the effective support of tools, cross-platform media, carrying out its
scheme of "cultural hegemony", tarnishing traditional national values. Many anti-value and anti-
cultural factors and toxic opinions and ideas easily penetrate and distort traditional cultural and ethical
values. This is an existing and increasing risk for Vietnam as well as localities throughout the country,
especially its negative impacts on the young people such as following a materialistic lifestyle
mediocrity, deviant moral standards, hybrid lifestyle, pragmatism, individualism, selfishness, foreign
students, far from traditional national values in the spiritual life of a part of today's youth. It is a big
challenge for education and training in Vietnam to preserve and promote traditional values in
developing countries.
4. Some solutions to develop education and training in the trend of international integration in
Vietnam today
Raising awareness and renewing thinking about education and training development in the overall
development strategy of Vietnam. To effectively take advantage of opportunities as well as overcome
challenges in the process of international integration, the entire political system, and social
organizations need to raise awareness of the importance of international integration; changes in the
job market; on the mission of education and training in providing high-quality human resources for
socio-economic development. At the same time, in Vietnam's overall development strategy, it is
necessary to identify a key role in providing high-quality human resources and making direct
contributions to socio-economic development; training a workforce with professional qualifications,
soft skills, creative thinking, and the ability to adapt to the constant change of the global labor market.
Innovate training models, programs, and methods. Developing education and training in the process
of international integration in Vietnam in the direction of breakthroughs in building education and
training programs and plans suitable to Vietnam's particularities in the direction of focusing on the
development qualities and abilities of learners through orienting the most suitable paths for different
groups of students and students to help them develop their potential. Therefore, Vietnam needs to
promote research and the application of the STEM education model. This is a model that combines
four separate subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The STEM model has
three important characteristics: an interdisciplinary approach, combining theoretical lessons with
practice, and connections from school to local and global. STEM education is carried out from the
lowest level of kindergarten to university. By incorporating knowledge in these subjects, the STEM
education model encourages learners to solve real-life problems through integrated knowledge.
At the same time, diversify educational pathways. Each student will have different learning needs and
abilities, and the mission of education is to discover, nurture and motivate learners to identify and
pursue their interests and passions. This requires the education system to provide diverse educational
pathways to cater to each individual's different learning inclinations and learning styles. The new
general education program has made fundamental changes with the integration of content at the
primary and lower secondary levels, a strong differentiation at the high school level, and the
promotion of career orientation and streamlining in general education. Along with that, educational
content needs to ensure that learners are equipped with digital and technology literacy at all levels of
education to easily access advances in science and technology. In the new general education
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curriculum, foreign languages and computer science have become compulsory subjects right from the
beginning of primary school.
Regarding teaching methods, Vietnam needs to change its thinking about teaching and learning in a
new way so that learners can both acquire knowledge and apply it creatively in practice. Combining
traditional methods (presentation, conversation, practice...) with new methods (problem-solving, case
teaching, action-oriented teaching...).
Perfect the national education system in the direction of openness, modernity, and connectivity.
Completing the national education system in the direction of openness and interconnection,
standardization, modernization, diversification, and international integration, meeting the human
resource needs for socio-economic development, which especially attach great importance to training
high-quality human resources at all levels. Build an education system that is diverse in terms of
learning methods, ensuring that all people can learn according to their aspirations and enjoy lifelong
learning in a learning society. Developing an open, modern and interconnected education and training
system is a premise for the development of science and technology, making the most of and effective
use of the nation's and humanity's knowledge resources and serving as the foundation for the process
of industrialization and modernization as well as for the construction of a knowledge-based economy
in Vietnam today.
Strengthen international cooperation and integration in education and training. Vietnam needs to
promote international exchanges and cooperation, attract investment, and exchange, and selectively
consult the experiences of countries with developed education and training backgrounds to apply to
the development of their education. Vietnam. That will help us reduce difficulties, save time, and go
in the right direction of the world's development. As a result, the human resources trained by
education in Vietnam will be qualified to cooperate and compete equally in the era of knowledge-
based economic development and the fourth industrial revolution. However, the joint venture and
association must be educational institutions licensed to conduct educational activities in the host
country and have a good reputation, avoiding the case of buying and selling degrees. Along with that,
there is a regime to encourage foreign travel, creating conditions for international students to promote
their professional skills when returning to their homeland.
Good implementation of the above contents will create an important step forward, fundamentally
promoting the role of the State, taking advantage of opportunities, repelling and overcoming
challenges, and bringing the process of globalization and international integration to life. Vietnam's
economy has achieved success.
5. Conclusion
International integration has had significant impacts (both opportunities and challenges) on the
development of education and training in Vietnam. To limit the negative impacts of international
integration on the spiritual life of students, universities, colleges, and associations need to: (i) Raise
awareness and renew thinking on the development of education and training in the overall
development strategy of Vietnam; (ii) Innovate training models, programs and methods. Developing
education and training in the process of international integration; (iii) Perfecting the national
education system in the direction of openness, modernity, and connectivity; (iv) Strengthening
international cooperation and integration in education and training. Good implementation of the above
contents will contribute to the development of education and training in Vietnam in the current
international integration trend.
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[STS22-03]
437
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CRITICISM IN THE COMMUNICATION
PROCESS ON UNIVERSAL EDUCATION POLICY IN ONLINE PRESS
VIETNAM
Le Thuy Nga Hoang
Faculty of Journalism and Communication, University of Sciences, Hue University
*Corresponding author: (Phone: +840914204008; Email: hoanglethuynga@gmail.com or
hoanglethuynga@husc.edu.vn)
Abstract
The object of this article is to examine how the Vietnamese press consider and discuss the
central policy on university education via applying Habermas' theory of "Public Sphere" combined
with the analysis of the content of news. The paper exhibited that the Vietnamese press contributes to
the communication process of higher education policies by creating a public space for criticising these
policies. Newspapers provide a forum to inform higher education polices, bring together and orient
the participants into discussions, as well as create the consensus for the community.
Keywords: Social criticism, higher education policy, policy communication
1. Introduction
Policy communication on higher education is considered to the process that the government
officials use the facilities to deliver the policy to relevant target groups. It has the participation of
many organizations, subjects, and channels, of which one of the most influential channels is the press.
Policy communication on universal education is considered to a part of government action to
implement a specific policy, to bring information to the people to persuade them to change their
perception, act in accordance with the law, participate in contributing ideas to improve public policy.
(Buurma,2001). The core objective of policy communication is to engage citizens and stakeholders in
policy cycles (Liu and Horsley,2007). This cycle composes the stages of Policy making, Policy
formulation, Policy proposal formulation, Implement public policy and Policy review. The
participation of policy communication ensures the success of the policy and helps to make the policy
more and more perfect (Do, 2018)
Through the press, policies on higher education are widely disseminated to the community.
The press creates a forum for them to participate in the stages (steps) in the policy cycle. Each citizen
can participate from the planning, promulgation to policy evaluation. The press not only reflects but
also critiques society, stimulating the active participation of different actors. That is the role of builder
to create a dialogue space for the whole society, a forum for open and frank discussion between
officials constructing the policy and the people. From there, policy beneficiaries fully understand the
policy content for effective implementation. At the same time, the criticism and social supervision of
the press help to improve the policy, create social consensus, and contribute to ensuring the success of
the policy in practice.
2. Methodology
This study applies the cored content of Habermas' theory of "public sphere" to evaluate how
the Vietnamese press discusses higher education policy.
The concept of "Public Sphere" was mentioned by Jürgen Habermas in 1962 in his first work
called The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.
Habermas's concept of public sphere is the space of political debate, including formal and
informal spaces. The formal public sphere is the space of political decisions, composing: parliaments,
courts, ministries, administrative agencies, etc. Informal public sphere, is the sphere of opinion
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formation, including associations, forums, mass media, etc. Formal and informal debate is one of the
conditions for democracy, where debates form opinions expressing the aspirations of citizens.
Thus, according to Habermas, public spaheres include social spaces in which any individual
can participate and exchange ideas without outside pressure. Individuals focus on discussing common
issues and resisting the arbitrariness and oppression of social power. Public sphere allows the openly
and rational debates among citizens to form public opinion. Discussion can be performed directly or
through an exchange of letters or mediated by newspapers, magazines and other forms of electronic
communication.
Habermas' ideas are considered to valid notion. In his study, he emphasized the concept of
"political participation" of the community, considering it to the core of a democratic society. This is a
factor for the development of the community and the individual. Therefore, Habermas' concept is
widely cited in studies of public opinion, the mass media and the public sphere.
From the above approach, this study chooses to survey of 2 newspapers representatively,
namely Vietnam Education Electronic Journal and Education and Times newspaper. By analyzing the
content of news and articles, this study points out a number of key policies criticized and discussed in
the press space. At the same time, the study aloso evaluates the ways of expressing social criticism in
the press and social criticism through the press for those policies.
3. Finding
3.1. The press participates in criticizing some important policies on higher education
The new points of higher education policies had mostly discussed in forums before they are
adopted and applied to life. Journalism participates from the beginning of the issue by providing in-
depth, systematic, thematic information, forming reliable scientific data.
The media method in the press is multi-dimensional information about the opinions of
experts, managers, lecturers, etc. to orient the subjects to be aware of the "problems" of higher
education policies and make appropriate decisions, create social consensus.
We examined 7 key higher education policies published in the newspapers:
The policy of institution stratification within higher education and network planning (Policy
1); The policy of university governance and autonomy (Policy 2); The policy on development of
management staff and lecturers (Policy 3); The policy on scientific and technological development
and international cooperation (Policy 4); The policy on linkage between training institutions and
enterprise employers (Policy 5); The policy on assessment and accreditation of university institutions
(Policy 6); The policy for learners (Policy 7)
We conducted to survey 336 news and articles in The Education and Times newspaper and
222 news and articles in the Vietnam Education magazine. The survey period for Education and
Times newspaper is from July 2017 to December 2020, and Education electronic magazine from
January 2017 to December 2017. The result is:
Table 1. Survey results on the amount of content reviewed in news and articles in 2 newspapers
Higher education policy The number of content are The number of content are
reviewed in 336 news and reviewed in 222 news
articles of Education and articles and articles of
Times newspaper Vietnam Education
Magazine
Quantity Ratio Quantity Ratio
The policy of institution stratification 47 8.8% 17 5.9 %
within higher education and network
planning (Policy 1)
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The policy of university governance and 214 40.1% 124 42.4 %
autonomy (Policy 2)
The policy on development of management 73 13.7% 16 5.5 %
staff and lecturers (Policy 3)
The policy on scientific and technological 80 15% 12 4.1 %
development and international cooperation
(Policy 4)
The policy on linkage between training 21 4% 22 7.5 %
institutions and enterprise employers
(Policy 5)
The policy on assessment and accreditation 49 9.2 % 21 7.2 %
of university institutions (Policy 6)
The policy for learners (Policy 7) 49 9.2 % 80 27.4 %
Total 533 292
The results in Table 1 show that many news articles not only reflect one policy but also many
policies. Below is a chart presenting the number of reviewed contents of each policy, in both
newspapers:
Figure 1. Chart of the number of policy content reviewed in 336 news and article of Education and
Times online newspaper.
Figure 2. The chart of the number of policy content reviewed in the Vietnam Education Review
From the tables and graphs above, it can be noted that university governance and autonomy
policies have been discussed the most in the Vietnamese press in recent years. Specifically, Education
and Times newspaper has a rate of 40.1% while Vietnam Education magazine has a rate of 42.4%.
Other education policies have a relatively equal amount of content reflected and discussed. Notably,
440
newspapers have paid attention to publish policies for learners that account for 27.4% in Vietnam
Education magazine and 9.2% in Education and Times newspaper.
Mostly, the content is discussed mainly in the following aspects:
(1) Successes of higher education policy
(2) Reality, contradictions and difficulties of some higher education policies in practice.
(3) Solutions to overcome the limitations of higher education policy in practice
(4) The State's political determination to effectively amend, adjust and put policies into
practice.
In content (1), the news and articles mainly reflect the progress and effectiveness that training
institutions have been making the application of policies. Content group (2) mainly discusses
difficulties and inadequacies of policies that hinder the operation and development of education and
training institutions. The content group (3) concentrated on the recommendations of the subjects to
provide solutions to overcome the unreasonable points of the higher education policy. The content
represented in this paper multidimensionaly and comprehensively provides the opinions and criticisms
of many different subjects. Content group (4) is integrated in groups (1), (2) and (3).
3.2. Subject of social criticism
In the first stage of the policy cycle, the role of the press is reflected in the fact that the content of the
policy is made public to all people, especially to the group of people within the direct influence of the
policy (the beneficiaries and those affected by the policy) and receive feedback. From there, policy
makers adjust policies to be more complete, more suitable, more feasible and bring the most benefits
to target groups.
Social criticism of higher education policies appears in two forms: (1) social criticism through the
press and (2) social criticism of the press.
Social criticism through the press is the publication of opinions, comments or debates of experts,
scientists, managers, people, social organizations... Opinions include agreeing, disagree or reject. In
this case, the press is a forum for subjects to express their opinions and aspirations on a certain issue.
This is the team that helps social criticism in the press become more and more diverse and rich.
Social criticism of the press is the opinion of journalists or newspaper editors expressed in articles.
Newspapers do not simply report news, but also present their views. On the other hand, the point of
view is also reflected in the choice of public opinion to publish. This is also very sensitive, it is very
necessary to the qualifications, capacity and bravery of journalists and press agencies.
Thus, through gathering opinions of many subjects, the press performs the function of social criticism.
The press connects society, creates public opinion and turns into a power that forces policy makers to
consider the issue thoroughly. It is the interaction and exchange of views and opinions between
policy-related parties that will help policy makers and policy implementers find harmonious and
consensual commonalities.
Below are the results of a survey of types of social criticism for higher education policies in two
newspapers:
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Figure 3. The chart of the number of comments criticizing the policies in the newspaper Education
and Times
Figure 4. The graph of the number of comments criticizing the policies in the Vietnam Education
magazine
From charts 3 and 4, it can be seen that journalists have few criticisms, mostly neutral opinions.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of leading cadres and those involved in policy drafting have clearly
expressed their political will to adjust and promulgate policies and they tend to agree. The target
group is representatives of universities, education experts, and scientists with a high frequency of
participation, mainly providing comments, pointing out policy gaps and suggesting solutions. They
have directional opinions. After that, there were criticisms from other subjects in society with their
evaluations, criticisms and suggestions to the public apparatus on inappropriate policy content. In the
end, they offer more adaptive solutions. Thus, criticism is also a donation, an opportunity to build
talents and opinion leaders in the press.
Other subject groups include employers, directors of businesses, students, etc. They often tend to
stand side with learners and directly implement policies that also have different opinions in the
newspaper.
4. Discussion and conclusion
Although a large number of reviewers were gathered, in reality there was still no uniformity in the
number of opinions of the subjects such as students, parents, households... They are the subjects
directly affected by the policy, however, their number of views and frequency of appearing opinions
in the newspaper is not much. Habermas said that in the public sphere, there is no entire public
participating in the discussion, it just belongs to only a small part. Thus, even though it may seem like
the survival of civil society in the “public press space”, in reality opinion leaders are leading the
discussion environment. In the press, there is a force of intellectuals who play the role of "driving" to
take on the work of reflecting on society. The information will be passed on to the information
leaders. Information managers then will conduct "filtering" to transmit to the public. Through the
media, information is transmitted and diffused widely and quickly.
This can lead to a policy that is only suitable for one group of people, while it is detrimental to
another. The conflict of interests of the target groups in a policy is inevitable. Therefore, the press
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must become a space to discuss and create consensus among organizations, representatives of
university institutions, experts, leaders at all levels from central to local...
In the process of higher education policy communication, social criticism of the pressand social
criticism through the press help policy makers receive a comprehensive view of the current state and
feasibility of the policy. If these two types of criticism are expressed more fully and diverse, the
function of social criticism of the press will increasingly play a better role. However, the press is not
only on the side of policy makers but also on the side of the directly implementing the policy to listen
to those opinions. Instead of conveying the will of the leader, the press needs to increase the
frequency and expand the area of "public space" for the community.
The press performs the function of social criticism by gathering multi-dimensional opinions with
different levels at different stages of policy. Therefore, the method of criticism does not always
publish objections, but also consensus opinion and amends and supplements to make the policy more
and more complete. In addition, the review requires supporting evidence. The knowledge and
responsibilities of the parties involved must be expressed via opinions, arguments, scientific bases,
and practical grounds. All of these factors should be fully expressed in the press sphere for the policy
communication process to be highly effective.
References
1. Buurma, H (2001). Public policy marketing exchange in the public sector, European Journal of
Marketing, vol. 35 no. 11/12.
2. Habermas, J. (1962 trans 1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry
into a category of Bourgeois Society, Polity, Cambridge. ISBN 0-7456-0274-6
3. Do Phu Hai (2018). Policy Communication in the Stages of the Public Policy Process, April
20.https://ajc.hcma.vn/Pages/nghien-cuu-khoa-hoc.aspx?CateID=679&ItemID=9538.
4. Liu, B. F., & Horsley J. S. (2007). The Government communication decision wheel: Toward a
Public Relations model for the public sector. Journal of Public Relations Research, 19:4, 377-
393.https://doi: 10.1080/10627260701402473

[STS22-04]
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THE IMPACTS OF CURRENT CONTEXT ON THE TEACHING
METHODOLOGY OF POLITICAL SUBJECTS FOR STUDENTS AT
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
Nguyen Linh Phong
Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Viet Nam
*Corresponding author: Email: phongnl@hcmue.edu.vn; Phone: 0963503904
Abstract
Teaching political subjects to students at training institutions in general and at Ho Chi Minh
City University of Education in particular, has been so far implemented. The changes in current
context would affect the teaching and learning process of the subjects, which requires lecturers to
adopt a scientific approach to choose and use appropriate teaching methodology for political subjects
to achieve the highest efficiency. Therefore, based on the teaching reality at his institution, the author
focuses on analyzing the current context and its impacts on the teaching methodology for political
subjects to students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, thus suggesting measures to
improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process.
Keywords: current context, teaching methodology, political subjects, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Education.
1. Introduction
As a result of the constant development of social life, a general social trend is regarded as to
develop in a positive direction, or in other words, to overcome the shortcomings for innovation. The
education and training sector is no exception to this trend. In recent years, the teaching of political
subjects to students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education as well as at others training
institutions throughout the country has always been well attended by individuals and the whole
society. In response to recently arising opportunities and challenges in the current social context
which affect the training process, the teaching methodology of political subjects must also change
accordingly. Stemming from that situation, a careful analysis to clarify the impacts of the current
context on the teaching method of political subjects for students at the Ho Chi Minh City University
of Education is of great significance, which is a premise to propose reasonable measures for further
improvement on the teaching methods in these subjects.
2. Research content
2.1 Current context
First of all, it is necessary to mention some common recently arising issues that have an
impact on educational activities. Currently, peace, cooperation and mutual development among
countries becomes a mutual trend, in which countries support and cooperate in all fields including
education as it has become a solid foundation for sustainable development. In addition, the impact of
non-traditional security issues, especially the epidemic, has caused great difficulties to the form and
method of organizing educational and teaching activities. The epidemic also imposes negative impacts
on research and educational cooperation. Within the country, Vietnam Communist Party and the
Government have always prioritised education as one of the most important strategic tasks by
establishing appropriate mechanisms and supplying abandant resources to educational subjects.
Besides, the explosion of the fourth industrial revolution and the trend of "internet of things", i.e.
computer network connecting everything, are a very good foundation to promote educational
activities. It allows teachers to use new teaching methods to organize classroom activities and
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subsequently, new technical devices such as computers, interactive whiteboards, virtual classrooms,
virtual reality glasses, etc, are developed to aid in the teaching process. Of course, it is undeniably
accompanied with creativity and applications by lecturers. In addition, the mindset of "investing in
children education” in most families in the whole society has changed positively compared to the past,
in which education is viewed as a turning factor to people's lives. All these factors have generally
affected the teaching process and the teaching methodology in the current context.
Regarding the specific context of the education - training industry, one of the breakthrough
contents identified through the 10-year socio-economic development strategy for 2021-2030 in the
Document of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam has stated a mission of
“implementing fundamental and comprehensive renovation and improve the quality of training,
focusing on modernizing and changing education and training methods, especially in higher education
and vocational education” (Central Committee of Communist Party of Vietnam 2021), which means
the policy and orientation of educational development and innovation are clearly and specifically
defined by our Party. Besides, favorable conditions for educational activities are also created. In
recent years, the process of educational innovation in the direction of developing quality and capacity,
taking the learner as the center of the teaching process is being widely deployed. The learning
outcomes are not only knowledge but also qualities and skills, which are clearly defined in the
detailed outline of each course. Moreover, modern teaching methods that are complemented the
conventional teaching methods are being gradually deployed. However, the educational reform
process is still slow, sometimes taking place assynchronously between sectors and localitiesand facing
certain problem in popularising in remote and mountainous areas.
In terms of the context of political subjects, Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee
on concluding the theoretical work, has affirmed: "Theoretical propagation and education are to be
oriented and conducted with richer content and more diverse forms. Political education has been
widely taking place within the Party and the political system” (Central Committee of Communist
Party of Vietnam 2014). This is a favorable condition to continuously inherit the achieved results and
promote the role of political subjects. The teaching of political subjects is implemented seriously and
presented in accordance with regulations. In addition, that the academic staff teaching theoretical
subjects at training institutions have strong political qualities and accredited professional
qualifications is a favorable condition. Most training institutions have independent working units in
charge of teaching political subjects. Therefore, the teaching methods of the main theoretical subjects
have had appropriate changes to achieve their objectives. The students participating in the study of
political subjects have a high ability to perceive and understand the contents of political theory, thus
being a dynamic part of learning and researching. Yet simultaneously, the counteraction of enemy,
especially the plots and tricks of “the peaceful evolution strategy" in the field of ideology and culture
is also a heated issue, which needs focusing on when teaching political subjects.
About the context of teaching political subjects to students at Ho Chi Minh City University of
Education, the university is one of the two national key pedagogical universities, with the mission of
training high-quality teacher resources. The university has 22 specialized faculties and one affiliated
group, including the Faculty of Political Education. The faculty operates with the motto "humanities -
pedagogy - dedication - creativity" (Ho Chi Minh City University of Education 2021) and is
responsible for training staff to teach political theory content, and in charge of teaching political
subjects for students of the institution. The faculty operates independently in terms of expertise, under
the management of the University’s Party Committee, the School's Board of Directors, and has
favorable conditions for teaching and researching political theoretical content. The teaching of
political subjects for students is carried out by a qualified team of 20 lecturers, many of whom have
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earned Master, Doctoral, and Associate Professor degrees. This is a favorable environment for
lecturers to choose appropriate forms and methods in teaching political subjects at the school.
2.2 The impacts of the current context on teaching methodology of political subjects for students
at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
From the academic year 2019 - 2020, the teaching of political subjects at Ho Chi Minh City
University of Education is implemented including 5 modules according to the regulations of the
Ministry of Education and Training, namely The Philosophy of Marxism-Leninism, Political
Economy-Marx Lenin, Scientific Socialism, History of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Ho Chi
Minh’s Ideology (Ministry of Education and Training 2019). The contexts analyzed above are
regarded as the environment and influential factors to the teaching process. At the same time, they
also have certain impacts on the process of teaching political subjects for students at Ho Chi Minh
City University of Education. Below are a few highlights.
Firstly, about the positive impact of the current context on teaching methodology of political
subjects.
The process of international integration is extensive in all fields, along with the
comprehensive transformation that has been carried out, especially the trend of joint modules between
universities, as an application from foreign training activities which allow managers and teachers the
opportunity to access new teaching methods or hereby modify the current conventional teaching
practices. For example, when teaching the content of Vietnam's political system, lecturers can draw on
both their own knowledge and students' understanding of the political systems of the United States,
China, Russia, etc. to compare and solve problems in teaching. Or the lecturer could research for the
blended learning method which is widely used in the educational history of the United States,
Australia, and Japan, to apply into the teaching process of political subjects. At the same time, the
study and use of foreign documents in teaching political subjects have created many new teaching
contents which alternates teaching methods in a positive direction.
Next, the Party and administrative sectors from the central to local levels always give certain
priorities to educational activities. This is one of the advantages for teachers and people working in
the education industry with experience in teaching practice to devise measures to overcome
shortcomings in teaching political subjects. There are mechanisms operated for teachers to
continuously innovate and creatively apply active teaching methods to develop learners’ capacities
and qualities. At the same time, the priorities are also a catalyst to better physical and spiritual
conditions so that teachers can feel secure in their work, continue to innovate and be creative in the
teaching process, contributing to the implementation of the Party's guidelines and policies in the field
of education.
In addition, the trend of research on teaching and the innovation of teaching methodology in
political subjects also exerts a positive impact from the current context. Lecturers, therefore, can
access or have conditions to research for more innovative teaching methods than the traditional
lecture delivery. For the conventional one, it is easy to create a passive and boring state in classroom
when students receive one-way interaction. Instead, teaching methods that promote the activeness of
learners such as project teaching methods, case teaching methods, problem solving teaching methods,
group teaching methods along with techniques "fish tank", tablecloths, KWL questionnaires, etc. have
really had a great impact on the current teaching context. Almost along with the educational
innovation, the teaching methods (including views, methods, and teaching techniques) as listed have a
great impact on the selection and use of methods in teaching political subjects for lecturers at Ho Chi
Minh City University of Education and other training institutions in general.
The development of information technology is deemed a favorable condition for lecturers of
political subjects to use modern equipment. For example, projectors, interactive whiteboards,
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smartphones, etc. are indispensable items for visual teaching methods. It simultaneously stimulates
curiosity and attracts more attention to students especially when lecturers have to deliver academic
political theoretical content. “The co-penetration between scientific fields allows people to switch
between scientific approaches: systems approach, modular approach, etc. into teaching activities,
giving rise to complex combinations of suitable teaching methods …” (Huong, T. T. 2014). At the
same time, online teaching applications such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, ... or LMS
also maximize their effectiveness in the context of modern teaching and the raging Covid-19
epidemic. Undeniably, the factors have an impact in positively transforming teaching methods for
political subjects.
In addition, at present, the teaching staff of political subjects of Ho Chi Minh City University
of Education are specifically trained according to each module and are fully capable of using active
teaching methods, which is also a favorable condition.
The separation of political subjects into 5 separate modules allows lecturers to easily choose
and use teaching methods suitable to each module content. Typically, from the 2019-2020 school year
onward, the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism are separated into 3 components.
Secondly, besides the positive effects, the current context also causes certain difficulties in
choosing and using the teaching methodology of political subjects for students at Ho Chi Minh City
University of Education.
First, although the educational reform process is taking place extensively, there are still some
asynchronous points. For example, the overlap between the implementation of the old program and
the new one, or the updating, review, and development of detailed course outlines is still slow and has
not been timely put into teaching. As a result of shortcomings from the innovation stage to the
teaching regulations, especially the detailed outlines, the selection and use of teaching methods and
techniques in political subjects could sometimes put the teaching staff in passivity.
The teaching activities of political subjects still face certain difficulties. Like other subjects,
the teaching of political subjects was also affected by the epidemic and had to switch to virtually
delivering platform. Although the form of online teaching has some features responding to the
current-case scenario, teachers are put under limited choice of teaching methods and techniques.
Moreover, the school's facilities, although improved and upgraded compared to the past, still cannot
adequately meet the teaching requirements. Due to the lack of local classrooms, a class of political
subjects with 70-100 students regularly takes place. With too many students within a class and the
lack of spacious and airy classrooms, it will be difficult for teachers to choose and use effective
teaching methods. The implementation of classroom activities for students to participate or for
students to directly organize these activities is very limited. Therefore, usually, lecturers mainly use
presentation method when teaching political subjects to overcome the shortcomings.
Although the teaching staff of the school's political subjects have highly specialized
knowledge and are fully qualified for teaching, the research and innovation of teaching methods for
each lecturer is sometimes difficult, partly due to the impact of working circumstances. Because
lecturers are to undertake a large number of different classes, they simply use traditional teaching
methods or follow previous experiences. The lack of time could deter lecturers from doing research
and innovating teaching methodology. When changing teaching methods, lecturers at the same time
have to adjust many other relevant teaching documents, leading to the fear of change.
Finally, there is the impact from the students’ part. Besides many students who are actively
involved in political subjects, there is still a part of students who are apathetic, keeping the
psychology of learning through the subject without investment, attendance, concentration, and self-
study. This is not the main cause, but of course it also has impacts on the psychology, the selection
and use of teaching methods.
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2.3 Measures to improve the effectiveness of teaching methodology of political subjects for
students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education under the impacts of the current context
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that "at this time and more than ever, we must
quickly innovate teaching methodology and promote political theoretical education for students to
raise their interest in the subject. Thereby, we can orient students to have a positive, healthy lifestyle
and have faith in the Communist Party of Vietnam” (Hung, V. M. 2019). The teaching of political
subjects to students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education is also influenced by the current
context. Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of this method of teaching these subjects in schools,
it is necessary to take the measures as follows into consideration:
The first and foremost is called general measures. All stakeholders, especially those directly
involved in the teaching of political subjects, need to understand the implications of the current
context on teaching. To be specific, there is a need to understand the impacts, continuously seize the
opportunity to maximize the positive impacts and at the same time, minimize the negative impacts to
achieve the highest teaching effectiveness. It is advisable to have careful selection and use of teaching
methods which are suitable to the subjects and reality, because there is no such universal teaching
method.
In terms of the parts of the school and administrators, educational innovation activities should
be promoted, and lecturers should be encouraged to use of new context-tailored teaching methods.
There should be forms of reward and encouragement for lecturers who make great contributions to
innovating teaching methods of political subjects, as well as creating a dynamic working environment
that stimulates creativity and innovation among lecturers. Another suggestion is to offer lecturers to
participate in training and retraining courses on modern teaching methods.
On the part of lecturers who directly teach political subjects at the school, more than anyone
else, teachers must understand and be able to analyze the context and its impact on the teaching
process of political theory. In teaching, often use modern teaching methods or combine them with
traditional teaching methods. Additionally, it is a must for self-reflection to overcome existing
difficulties in the teaching process. The lecturers should also actively advise and propose to superiors
in appropriate conditions and circumstances about the mechanism for selecting and using teaching
methods flexibly. In addition, making the most of modern equipment in teaching such as mobile
phones, computers, interactive whiteboards, labs, etc. and catching up with current innovation trends
in teaching are also a must. It is necessary for lecturers to thoroughly grasp the learner-centered
viewpoint, avoiding the pressure of psychology, and giving monotonous lectures. Lecturers should be
knowledgeable about the context, update the favorable conditions in the process of teaching political
subjects to achieve the set goals.
Finally, there are certain recommendation for students participating in learning process.
Because the context has continuously changed, students cannot keep their previous learning methods.
It is necessary to have a smooth coordination with lecturers in the learning process such as actively
participating in classroom activities, forming a positive, enthusiastic, and proactive attitude to
studying political subjects.
3. Conclusion
Society is always moving and developing. The surrounding context is considered relevant
elements to the ever-changing classroom, so the teacher needs to understand this regular problem to
avoid the disease of subjectivity, voluntarism, stereotypes, and over-mechanism in teaching. Through
the above analysis, it can be seen that the teaching of political subjects to students at Ho Chi Minh
City University of Education has been and will be affected by both positive and negative impacts of
the current context. Stakeholders in the teaching process need to be aware of this issue to use positive
448
points and eliminate the limitations of the context to achieve the highest teaching effectiveness. For
the teaching of political subjects to contribute to ideological and political education, it is advisable to
build a solid bravery, to have scientific and correct social awareness, and to foster a firm belief for
students with a career in construction and defend the Socialist Fatherland.
References
1. Central Committee of Communist Party of Vietnam (2014). Nghi quyet so 37-NQ/TW ngay
09/10/2014 cua Bo Chinh tri ve Cong tac ly luan va dinh huong nghien cuu den nam 2030
[Resolution No. 37-NQ/TW issued on 09/10/2014 by Political Bureau of the Party Central
Committee on the political theories and research orientation in views of 2030]. Hanoi.
2. Central Committee of Communist Party of Vietnam (2021). Tai lieu hoc tap cac van kien Dai hoi
Dai bieu toan quoc lan thu XII cua Dang (dung cho can bo, dang vien o co so) [Study materials
for documentaries of the 13th National Party Congress (for Party members)]. Su that National
Publishing House. Hanoi, pp 101.
3. Ministry of Education and Training (2019). Cong van so 3056/BGDĐT-GDĐH ngay 19/7/2019
cua Bo Giao duc và Đao tao ve Huong dan thuc hien chuong trinh, giao trinh cac mon Ly luan
chinh tri [Official Dispatch No. 3056/BGDĐT-GDĐH issued on 19/7/2019 by Moet on guidelines
on implementing educational programs for political subjects]. Hanoi.
4. Hung, V. M. (2019). “Mot so bien phap nang cao chat luong day hoc cac mon ly luan chinh tri o
cac truong dai hoc, cao dang hien nay” [“Some measures to enhance the teaching quality of the
political subjects at university and colleges at the current time”]. Education Journal, special
issues, 2, pp 296-301.
5. Huong, T. T. (2014). Giao duc hoc dai cuong [General Education]. Ho Chi Minh City University
of Education Publishing House: Ho Chi Minh City, pp 206.
6. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (2021). Department of Political Education. Retrieved
01/3/2022 from https://hcmue.edu.vn/vi/khoa-bo-mon/khoa-gdct.

[STS22-09]
449
POLITICAL CULTURE AND SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE
DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL CULTURE OF LONG-TERM
TRAINING STUDENTS AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY IN
RECENT TIMES
Nguyen Thi Nuong1*, Nguyen Thi My Linh1
1
Military Technical Academy, Hanoi, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone number: 0962.65.8869; Email: nguyennuong5988@gmail.com)
Abstract
Political culture is the infiltration of culture into politics, which is political culture. As a
regular and important future force, extending the strength of the Vietnam People's Army, the building
and development of political culture for students at academies and schools of the Army including
generations of students at Military Technical Academy is of particular significance, especially in the
context of the rapid and complicated developments in the world and regional situation. On the basis of
clarifying the concept of political culture and the structure of political culture, the article analyzes
some factors affecting the development of political culture of long-term training students at Military
Technical Academy nowadays. This is a reference source with profound theoretical and practical
significance for the process of political and ideological education for students at the Academy.
Keywords: political culture; political knowledge; political qualities; capacity for political activities;
long-term training students; Military Technical Academy.
1. Introduction
As Nguyen Van Huyen author asserted: "political culture is an aspect of culture, a vertical cut
in cultural history according to the field of political activities" [4], political culture is a humanistic,
progressive and creative value system, plays an important role in adjusting and orienting the relations
among political subjects, between people and organizations, the community in the political life and
social life with the aim of consistence with the political institution of the society. Therefore, political
culture is an essential quality in the soldier's personality in general, generations of student’s at
academies and schools of the Vietnam People's Army in particular. As students at the leading
university of the Vietnam People's Army, the training of a contingent of military technicians with high
professional and technical qualifications to meet new requirements in the military field in the context
of the fourth industrial revolution, which is the goal and the mission of Military Technical Academy.
At the same time, with the purpose of the task of defending the Fatherland, especially protecting the
maritime sovereignty in the context of rapid, complicated and unpredictable developments in the
world and regional situation; activities against the Party, State, regime and our army of hostile and
reactionary forces are also increasingly sophisticated, sinister and more direct; competition and
conflicts between countries and regions are fierce; non-traditional security challenges are becoming
more and more serious so that the requirement of Military Technical Academy’s students about not
only high profession but also political knowledge to maintain and promote the qualities of "Uncle
Ho's army" which is flexible, sensitive and brave to new events and political situations.
The facts show that the political culture of the majority of students with long-term training at
Military Technical Academy has now had positive changes and achieved important results. However,
there are still some restrictions about the level of political culture of some of the regular students at
the Academy. These inadequacies and limitations are caused by many objective and subjective
reasons, of which the main reason from students.
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The article provides the basic awareness of political culture, the structure of political culture,
analyzes some factors affecting the development of political culture of long-term training students at
Military Technical Academy. This contributes to raising awareness of political culture, the importance
of building political culture for students, especially grasping the factors affecting the development of
political culture of long-term training students at Military Technical Academy. This has practical
significance for the work of education, training and the cause of army building and defense
consolidation in the current period.
2. Contents
2.1. Political culture and the structure of political culture
2.1.1. Political culture
The way to establish "politics" is not impossible to pass through the "field" of culture, as
President Ho Chi Minh generalized: "Culture, art, as well as all other activities cannot stay out but
must stay in economics and politics” [6]. Thus, political culture which is an aspect of culture from a
political perspective is not politics itself, culture itself, or the simple agglomeration of these two
fields, but politics that embraces culture from its inner essence.
“Each political culture is the historical product of both a political system and the history of its
members. It is therefore rooted in both public events and personal experiences” [10]. Political culture
reflecting all aspects, all areas of political life is expressed through the current political lines,
viewpoints, institutions and political behavior of the subjects; "contributing to influencing on the
activities of individuals and politicians, contributing to orienting and evaluating the activities of
political subjects in participating in political life to serve the basic interests of a certain class” [9].
Therefore, it is necessary for political subjects to have general knowledge to mobilize the cultural
strength of all fields to set goals and create motivation for political activities. Political subjects must
recognize and analyze the situation properly, have the ability to forecast the changing movement
trends of reality in order to make political decisions accurate; simultaneously have the qualifications
to organize and operate political institutions effectively in order to achieve the set political goals and
ideals.
2.1.2. The structure of political culture
Political culture is a system of values formed in political practice, "crystallized in knowledge,
ideals, ethics, and political capacity for the development of human and community” [3]. Thus, the
structure of political culture includes basic elements: Knowledge, quality and capacity for political
activities. Political knowledge is an individual’s level of education and understanding of politics fully
and deeply at the essence level. Political quality is a gorgeous political-cultural value, a synthesis of
attitudes, feelings, beliefs and political spirit, which plays the role of governing, orienting and
regulating the subject's behavior. Political capacity is the ability to change the world and create
cultural values through the subject's actual political life and activities. The elements of political
culture having an organic relationship with each other create its wholeness.
Political culture is always associated with certain political subjects, manifested at two universal
levels: individuals and organizations. At the organizational level, political culture “shows how
interested people are in the management and administration of the state for the entire society”. At the
individual level, political culture "is an expression of socio-political culture in particular individuals"
[7], indicates the level of knowledge, quality and capacity to operate in the political life of the
country. Political culture at the individual level is always associated with the characteristics of certain
political subjects.
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2.2. Some factors affecting the political culture development of long-term trainees at
Military Technical Academy in recent times
2.2.1. Political culture and structure of political culture of long-term trainees at Military
Technical Academy
Long-term training students at Military Technical Academy are soldiers, high school graduates,
and are strictly selected according to the annual military enrollment (or election) regime of the
Ministry of National Defense. These are all young men or soldiers with good physical strength,
psychophysiology, well-developed intelligence; dreams, ambitions and revolutionary ideals; talents
and initial choices about a career in science and technology to serve in the army as their profession...
Most of them have been studied and trained from high schools; have fairly basic socio-political
knowledge including knowledge of political culture. However, their level of the awareness, the
understanding of society, the sensitivity about the political situation at high schools is not much; the
understanding of military organization and military discipline is not deep. These shortcomings and
inadequacies limit the reception of theoretical knowledge, and make the education, training and self-
education, self-training and development of political culture of students to face certain difficulties and
obstacles.
C. Marx asserted: "In its reality, human nature is the sum total of social relations" [5]. The
political culture of long-term training students at Military Technical Academy is the values
crystallized from the student’s knowledge, qualities and capacity for political activities, formed and
developed in accordance with the learning and training tasks in the training process at the university.
As a political subject, the political culture of long-term trainees at the Military Technical Academy is
under the influence and affected by the political culture of mass organizations and grassroots party
organizations; political culture of comrades and teammates; political culture of crew and teachers of
Military Technical Academy; political culture of the local government and people where they are
stationed.
The general agreement on the structure of political culture, the political culture of long-term
trainees at Military Technical Academy is a unified whole that includes the following factors:
Knowledge, qualities and capabilities for political activities.
The factors of knowledge, quality and capacity for political activities do not exist in isolation
but always have a close relationship and interact with each other to form a unified whole with its own
unique characteristics about the political culture of long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy.
Currently, the political culture of long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy has many
outstanding advantages, such as: The students' political knowledge and qualities are increasingly
comprehensive, profound, and have positive changes, gradually becoming standard features in their
personality qualities; the students' political activity capacity has been increasingly improved,
contributing to the completion of their study and training tasks. However, in order to meet the
requirements and tasks of military technical work in the new era, the political culture of trainees still
reveals a number of limitations that need to be overcome, involving in: the level of knowledge, the
political and political qualities of some students are not profound and comprehensive; still theoretical,
not really penetrated deeply, firmly stable in personality; some student’s political capacity is still
inadequate, inconsistent, and effective. The advantages and limitations have both objective and
subjective causes, in which the subjective cause is considered to be direct and decisive. In order to
contribute to the development of the political culture of long-term trainees at Military Technical
Academy, it is essential to identify a number of factors affecting the development process, including:
The socialist-oriented market economy means; Globalization; The Fourth Industrial Revolution and
the requirement about the political strength in the task of building the military, the military technical.
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2.2.2. The impact of the socialist-oriented market economy on the political culture development of
long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy
The historical achievements brought about by the socialist-oriented market economy
development will continue to improve the material and spiritual life of the people, soldiers as well as
students of Military Technical Academy. This have a contribution to stabilizing the political,
ideological and psychological situation, improving students' political responsibility in performing
assigned tasks; giving them more dynamism and activeness in improving their knowledge, quality and
capacity for political activities in performing tasks.
The development of the socialist-oriented market economy in our country faces difficulties and
challenges, but it will bring positive effects to the country’s appearance. It is the process of economic
development associated with cultural development, implementation of social justice, promotion of
human roles for human goals, liberation of people from oppression and injustice, and progress
towards building a democratic, just and civilized society, creating a healthy environment for the
comprehensive development of human personality. This is a favorable condition and a positive
motivation for the students of Military Technical Academy to continue to correctly perceive and have
faith in the superior nature of socialism, in the necessity to move up to socialism in Vietnam during
the middle of capitalism and socialism period; simultaneously, overcome their misconceptions about
this issue. However, due to its duality, the negative side of the socialist-oriented market economy will
still have a negative impact, even more profound on the development of political culture of students of
military academies in general and students of Military Technical Academy in particular. First of all,
due to the policy of developing many economic sectors, our country will continue to form a new
social-class structure that is diverse, complex, and intertwined, having a unification, the cooperation
for co-existence and development, and the fierce competition as well as struggle with each other. The
division of new social classes and classes will inevitably give rise to many ideological trends, political
views, value orientations, cultural standards, ethics, and lifestyles in every student.
The consequences for personal interests in the development of the market economy may make
students of Military Technical Academy to pursuit for trivial personal material interests but away
from the goals and ideals of the Party, violations of State law, military discipline, negatively affect the
development of their political culture at current time. The adverse side of the market economy will
still be a fertile land producing a free, "fashionable" lifestyle of a part of young people in society, it is
easy to give rise to students a pragmatic, hedonistic lifestyle, following lowly and selfish tastes,
disregarding social obligations, disregarding the task of studying, training and serving durablly for the
construction and defense of the country.
2.2.3. The impact of globalization on the political culture development of long-term trainees at
Military Technical Academy
Before the effects of globalization and international integration, students' awareness of political
and socio-cultural issues is more multi-dimensional, open and developmental. Globalization and
comprehensive international integration with other countries, including in the field of political culture,
create favorable conditions for students to soon contact, receive and inherit the quintessence of
political culture of countries in the region and around the world. The significant development of
information technology and the application of those achievements scientifically to the process of
military construction in general, military technical in particular, including propaganda, dissemination
and education of the political culture values of the military and military technical in countries with the
same political regime in the world and in the region have brought practical effects contributing to
improving the political culture level of long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy.
The spread of foreign political factors is not suitable for the socialist political regime in
Vietnam and the revolutionary tradition of our Army. Those counter-values will cause a large number
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of long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy to have a deterioration in political thought,
morality, and lifestyle. Globalization and deep international integration are easily exploited by hostile
forces to carry out the plot of "non-violent resistance" and subversive riots with many new and
increasingly sophisticated forms; thereby, students easily lead to "self-evolution", "self-
transformation"; "speak, write, and retrograde the views, guidelines and lines of the Party, policies
and politics of the State". The strong development of information technology and social networking
sites makes the propaganda, agitation and distortion of reactionary forces towards untrue information
and events, especially hot events with the relation to politics that take place directly and quickly,
easily making a part of students to agitate psychology, waver their beliefs, negatively affect their
thoughts, feelings, beliefs and political behavior.
2.2.4. The impact of the fourth industrial revolution and the requirements and tasks of building a
strong politics in the army and military technical to the political culture development of long-term
trainees at Military Technical Academy
The fourth industrial revolution has set many new requirements and tasks for building the army
and military technical in terms of modern science and technology; foreign language ability;
professional working style; the ability to respond to modern military art, war with high-tech weapons,
etc. The 11th Military Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term determined to build a revolutionary,
regular, elite, step-by-step modernized people's army, prioritize the modernization of a number of
armed services, branches and forces to create a solid premise to strive from 2030 to build a modern
army. Specifically in this direction, the Party Committee of the General Department of Engineering
determined the goal of building a contingent of military technical officers: “Having pure moral
qualities, a strong sense of organization; having comprehensive knowledge and capacity; having
credibility, health, appropriate age; having a reasonable and synchronous quantity and structure;
ensuring a solid transition between generations, meeting the requirements of building a
revolutionary, regular, elite, step-by-step modern army and the development of the fourth industrial
revolution” [2]. According to the above orientation, military technical academies and schools,
including Military Technical Academy, it is necessary to change training methods with the strong
application of achievements of the fourth industrial revolution (information technology, digital
technology and network systems...). Forms of online training, virtual reality, simulation, digitization
of lectures are inevitable trends. In addition to the element of professional capacity, special attention
should be paid to build and strengthen political bravery, a greater sense of belonging to the profession,
and dedication of their talents and wisdom to the military engineering. The 12th Party Congress
affirmed: "Building the People's Army ...is politically strong, improves the quality of synergistic
combat power, is absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State and the people" [1]. The
requirement and task of building a politically strong army is a realistic land for all soldiers, including
long-term trainees at Military Technical Academy in order to step by step participate in and carry out
the contents of the politically strong construction of military and military engineering; helping
students to receive and improve their political knowledge, quality and capacity to develop their
political culture more and more effectively.
3. Conclusion
As a high-quality military technical human resource of the Vietnam People's Army, political
culture has become an indispensable quality in the personality of generations of students at the
Academy as well as all Army soldiers. With the positive changes in knowledge, quality, and political
capacity of the majority of long-term training students at Military Technical Academy, it shows the
good results in the effectiveness of the Academy's political and cultural education. Currently, it is
necessary to continue to identify and make the most of opportunities and positive aspects of a number
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of factors affecting the development of political culture of Academy students, typically: the
development of a socialist-oriented market economy; process of globalization; the Fourth Industrial
Revolution and the task of building the military, the military engineering have a political strength.
That makes a great contribution to the process of political, ideological education and political culture
development for students at the Academy.
References
1. Communist Party of Vietnam (2016) Documents of the 12th National Congress. National Political
Publishing House - Truth, Hanoi, p.34.
2. Party Committee of General Department of Engineering (2019) Resolution on building a
contingent of officers of General Department of Engineering, especially commanding officers and
managers at General Department level, Department level and the equivalent to meet the
requirements and tasks in the new situation (No. 1095-NQ/DU), Hanoi.
3. Cao Thu Hang (2017) On the structure of political culture. Journal of Human Resources and
Social Sciences (No. 12), Hanoi, pp.50 - 58.
4. Nguyen Van Huyen (Editor, 2009) The first step to learn about the values of traditional political
culture in Vietnam. National Political Publishing House - Truth, Hanoi, p.15.
5. Karl Marx (1995) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (volume 3). National Political Publishing
House, Hanoi, p.11.
6. Ho Chi Minh (2011) Complete Volume (vol. 7). National Political Publishing House - Truth,
Hanoi, p. 246.
7. Nguyen Van Ky (2021) Political culture of young officers in the Logistics branch of the Vietnam
People's Army today (PhD thesis in philosophy). Academy of Politics - Ministry of National
Defense, Hanoi, p.37.
8. Lucian Pye (1968) International Encyclopedia of the Social Siences. Macmillen Press, New York,
pp 218.
9. Ho Thuc Tai (2019) Discussing the concept of political culture. Journal of Political Science (No.
9), p.93.
10. Tran Dinh Thao, Ngo Minh Thuan (2011) Political culture in the formation of qualities and
capacities of political leaders. Journal of Philosophy (No. 6), p.22.

[STS22-15]
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Study of languages
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BLENDED LEARNING APPROACH - INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
AND IMPLICATIONS FOR VIETNAMESE HIGHER EDUCATION
Nguyen Hong Mai1*, Le Thi Huyen1
1
Faculty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University
*Corresponding Author: Email: mainh@ftu.edu , CP: +84937596988
Abstract
This study summarizes scientific works and international experience on the application of blended
learning methods to higher education. The research results show that the blended learning method
shows its superiority when promoting the favorable conditions of learners in using information
technology; change and overcome the shortcomings of traditional teaching and learning methods;
highly promote the positivity, and creativity of learners. Various studies also show that there is a
positive correlation between blended learning methods and learning outcomes, especially English
learning outcomes of learners. In the context of digital transformation, there are still unpredictable
developments, and the applications of information technology and social networking platforms are
increasingly popular, strongly influencing teaching and learning at university level; Blended learning
methods need to be researched and applied extensively in educational practice in general and in higher
education in Vietnamese context.
Keywords: higher education; blended learning methods; English learning outcomes
1. Introduction
According to Friesen, the concept of blended learning was first defined in the 1960s as "the
combination of technology with traditional learning." However, establishing a precise description of
blended learning is challenging because the teaching and learning process is exceedingly multifaceted
and influenced by multiple elements. The blended approach is still a relatively new concept in
Vietnam that has received little attention. Only a few courses offered by foreign-affiliated colleges or
institutions, such as Aptech, Intel, World Bank, and others, as well as AusAIDs, mention this concept.
These courses are commonly used in English classes.
The author used Bluic et al., (2007) defined blended learning method can describe educational
activities that combine face-to-face aspects and online learning to optimize the learning potential of
students, teachers, and learning resources. This definition, according to the researcher, more
effectively captures the nature and goal of adopting blended teaching to replace completely online or
offline learning as a tradition. In addition, the above opinion clearly demonstrates the positive effects
that blended learning may have if the program is properly designed and implemented. However,
combining online and offline characteristics to improve the blended learning method's success is a
new subject that needs to be investigated and will be tackled in this study.
In this study, the researcher reviewed previous studies as well as Delphi's research approach.
The author searches for, analyzes, and synthesizes scholarly publications and research works that are
both directly and indirectly relevant to the Blended Learning Method. Meanwhile, the author employs
the Delphi research method to interview experts, managers, lecturers, and university students about
the issues raised by the research.
2. 1. Studies on the concept of blended learning approach
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According to Gage (2005), blended learning is an effective learning approach because it can
encompass a wide variety of learners' learning demands, enhance learning possibilities, and improve
educational quality. They also argue that blended learning is a type of learning that enables real-life
possibilities to be built into learning experiences that can result in truthful knowledge acquisition at
the correct time, in the right location, and for each object and each learner. Blended learning creates a
"flat world" of learning options for people from different cultures and different types of groups.
Author Moskal (2014) considers blended learning method as a bridge between old and new
educational methods at different levels. Some scholars define blended learning in terms of its purpose
and characteristics. Graham (2006) argues that a hybrid approach is a combination of teaching
methods consisting of face-to-face and online learning.
According to Mudra (2018), the blended method is also defined as an accumulation that combines
online learning into face-to-face learning activities. Online activities aim to improve the effectiveness
of face-to-face learning. This can also be a challenge for teachers to change traditional teaching
methods, apply technology to stimulate the students’ creativity and innovation.
According to Greenlaw (20019), blended learning approach is “the combination of training media
such as technology, activities, and event types to create an optimal training program for a given one”.
Author Victoria L. Tinio thinks that “Integrated Learning” refers to learning models that combine
traditional classroom forms and e-Learning solutions”. The same opinion about blended learning
approach, which is a combination of traditional face-to-face and online learning, aims to create a
learning atmosphere that supports self-directed learning and it offers many benefits (Grgurovic, 2014)
such as improving learning efficiency, satisfaction and academic performance.
A long-range research survey conducted by the University of Central Florida measured the success of
tens of thousands of students in face-to-face, blended learning, and online learning environments. The
University of Central Florida considers that a successful school environment is the place where allows
students to get at least a level C. Some factors affect result are listed such as a student's university,
gender, and financial ones. The University of Central Florida reports that, for each university, blended
learning has a higher success rate than face-to-face or online learning (Ibrahim, 2019).
Moreover, blended learning can also reinforce flexibility (Moskal, 2014) while providing more
opportunities for students to access higher education and at the same time allowing schools to interact
more with students (Vaughan, 2007). Blended learning can also allow both teachers and students
more flexibility in terms of space and time so that they have the freedom to decide when and where
online teaching and learning is held. It also helps to improve cost efficiency and resource utilization
rate (Moskal, 2013).
Compared with face-to-face teaching, blended teaching is more likely to cut operating costs
(Vaughan, 2013). By motivating more students to choose courses and use networking facilities,
blended learning requires less classroom time than face-to-face courses and maintains higher student
retention rates compared to online courses, thereby reducing the time required for students to
complete their studies (Wright, 2017).
The researcher defines blended learning as "teaching activities that combine the best components of
the classroom learning system and online learning in order to optimize the potential learning of
students, teachers, and learning resources." According to the author, this definition is the most
comprehensive, precise, and pertinent in the present situation.
2.2. The advantages and disadvantages of blended learning approach
2.2.1. For university leaders
Many studies show that blended teaching allows universities to increase the number and diversity of
student as as well as to improve the quality of foreign language teaching and learning.
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First, blended learning can help universities reduce the pressure on student enrollment, faculty size
and teaching space (Banditvilai, 2016). It is the fact that, in the international economic intergration,
English become the international language, as the results, the training forms as well as the quality of
English courses have also received more and more attention, especially at universities where it will
directly train human resources for society. One of the methods to improve the quality of foreign
language education is that higher education institutions often spend more time on teaching and
learning foreign languages. Second, blended learning can also allow universities to expand their
training offerings to meet the diverse learning needs of students and improve the quality of foreign
language education.
2.2.2. For teachers
Blended learning provides teachers with an additional opportunity to better understand students'
individual learning processes to enhance their learning and their reflexes (Gruba, 2012). An example
is the use of online communication tools that can be used to increase interaction between teachers and
students through connections from social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. (Vaughan et al.
events, 2013). Through such communication channels, it is possible to enhance the quality of class
discussions and improve the students' ability to explore in-depth knowledge and language skills.
Blended learning environments can also allow teachers to facilitate interactive and collaborative
English learners. Online learning components can be used to facilitate students' self-study of language
knowledge and deepen and practice receptive language skills (Zhang, 2018), where they can allocate
more face-to-face learning time to enhance students' collaborative and interactive learning. Teachers
can also encourage students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of their target
language knowledge online, and stimulate classroom discussion to help students understand key
concepts or solve problems (Graham, 2013). Establishing periods of face-to-face discussion
interspersed with online learning also allows teachers to create more opportunities for students to
engage in interactive and collaborative learning beyond face-to-face classes (Hayden, 2010). That is,
teachers can encourage students to use synchronous and asynchronous tools such as chat rooms,
discussion boards, and email to communicate with each other online, exchange ideas, discuss related
issues. related to learning and practicing communication in English.
2.2.3. For students
Firstly, with the inclusion of online learning components, blended learning can provide students with
rich language learning resources of various types (Grgurovic, 2010). This can be seen as a major
benefit in teaching and learning English in an EFL context where students have limited English
exposure outside of EFL classrooms and there is a lack of authentic references and materials to learn
English.
Secondly, blended learning provides students with more opportunities to interact with teachers and
other learners (Guba, 1994). Since students are able to self-study online, more time in the face-to-face
classroom can be used to facilitate student interaction with teachers and classmates. In addition,
students may have the opportunity to interact with English learners and English speakers elsewhere
through online communities (Wallace, 2010).
Thirdly, blended learning can facilitate active and reflective learning by students. Research has
revealed that students prefer blended learning because it provides them with the flexibility to work
from home and at their own pace (Wright, 2017), online content delivery offers more time for
students to reflect and improve their understanding of the learning material as they can reread or
replay as needed.
Fourthly, blended learning can enhance student engagement and learning engagement (Vaughan et al.,
2013). Research on student attitudes in different contexts shows that blended learning has a positive
effect on reducing dropout and dropout rates compared to fully online or in-person classes.
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Fifthly, blended learning can lead to improvements in student learning outcomes. It was found that
students of the combined courses performed better in exams, wrote better papers, and had higher
quality projects than students of the pure face-to-face or online courses (Vaughan et al., 2013). In
language education, research has also shown that blended learning helps students master language
knowledge (Yim, 2016), improve their pronunciation and spoken language skills (Wedell, 2011) and
facilitate the development of students' sociolinguistic, intercultural, strategic and pragmatic
competencies (Yamagata, 2010). Such empirical evidence convincingly demonstrates the potential of
blended learning in promoting students' English language learning.
2.4. Studies on the disadvantages of blended teaching methods
2. 4.1. For faculty and university
To be successful in blended learning implementations, institutions need to reallocate existing
resources and modify institutional policies to maintain good communication between stakeholders and
provide teachers and students with adequate training and ongoing support to enhance their
performance. However, research shows that there is a lack of awareness and clear policies to support
the implementation of associative learning. In particular, teachers receive little training and are not
adequately supported financially for the additional work and time to commit to blended learning.
Teachers also lack the free time, professional development, and technical support to effectively design
and deliver blended courses (Mudra, 2018).
2.4.2. For teachers
The pedagogy of implementing blended learning, which is an important contributor to its
effectiveness, is the development of a more student-centered pedagogy that addresses the diversity of
students’ learning needs and facilitate their active and collaborative learning (Moskal, 2014).
However, for teachers who are used to teacher-centered pedagogy, adopting a student-centered
approach requires radical changes in teachers' pedagogical practice. Research shows that many
teachers show little awareness of their students' self-study time or have significant difficulty
integrating student self-study periods into their teaching in face-to-face classes.
Teachers also report issues with online feedback, facilitate online and community discussions, and
resolve and manage issues online. Some teachers expressed doubts about the quality of blended
courses and reported feelings of isolation when teaching blended learning (Moskal & Cavanagh,
2013). In language education, Graham (2013) revealed that some teachers still mainly focus on the
correctness of language rather than enabling students to communicate meaningfully and interact. They
also have poor knowledge of the potential of asynchronous communication tools for language
learning and prefer live or real-time online communication with students. Because teachers play a
central role in creating and shaping a supportive environment to promote active and collaborative
learning of students, they lack the knowledge and skills to use inclusive learning environments. The
right way to motivate students to learn is one of the most serious challenges facing the
implementation of blended learning in foreign language courses.
2.4.3. For students
A fundamental requirement for the success of blended learning is that students take responsibility and
active role in learning (Banditvilai, 2016). That is, students are aware of the learning goals and are
motivated to achieve the goals. They also need to know their individual learning needs in order to
select the necessary learning steps, reflect and evaluate their learning progress, and reorganize the
steps if necessary. However, during the first years of schooling, not many students are able to perform
the self-directed learning activities required in the blended learning environment. This situation may
be due to the fact that they have not experienced learning in this form or previously in a teacher-
centered learning environment in secondary schools (Banditvilai, 2016).
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In language education, the synchronous use of online communication tools plays an important role in
facilitating students' interactive speaking skills. However, not all foreign language learners are able to
use tools such as Skype, video conferencing, and voice chat to support their language learning
(Grgurovic, 2011). As a result, students lacking the ability and agility to work in a technology-
enhanced learning environment can present another challenge to blended learning implementations.
2.5. Studies on models of blended teaching methods
According to Ibrahim (2019), based on learning objectives, blended teaching methods can be divided
into three types: skills, attitudes and abilities. Blended methods are also classified into categories such
as enabling blends, enhancing blends, and transforming blends (Graham, 2013). The details of each
model are as follows:
The enabling blends has the effect of enhancing the convenience and access rights of students. This
type of hybrid offers learners the same flexibility or opportunities to learn using online tools. For
example, students can access presentations or videos of class lectures if they are absent from the class
or need to review a lesson. This help does not radically change the pedagogy of the course and is seen
as an additional option for students (Ibrahim, 2019). Furthermore, this type of association simply
helps or treats the negative effects of inadequate classroom participation.
Enhanced blends change into existing pedagogy by providing online materials that complement
classroom courses. In reinforcement mix, the pedagogy of a course can be altered and study time can
be reduced because students do not have to work together as much in class (Gruba, 2012). This is the
most common type of learning in traditional universities.
Transforming blends allow fundamental pedagogical approaches to be changed, for example, from a
model in which students only absorb information to one in which learners actively reinforce
knowledge and English skills through more interactive activities. In this model, there is extensive use
of technology applications to support student learning as well as teacher teaching. Classroom teaching
and learning also need to be redesigned to reinforce or support online learning. In other words, this
type of combination is a "thoughtful combination" (Gruba, 2012) between classroom and online
learning.
Of these three categories, transforming blends offers the most benefits and is also the biggest
challenge for educational institutions because it requires a rethinking of existing pedagogical
approaches. Studies suggest that a hybrid approach should not be used in cases where online materials
are viewed only as digital versions of face-to-face instruction (Gruba, 2012). To achieve the potential
benefits, a hybrid approach should be adopted (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008) and the design should be
based on a balance between online and classroom content so that the method can be applied to get the
best available teaching for a particular learning goal”.
2.6. Studies on blended teaching approach
Blended learning is still controlled by the instructors based on the design of the established learning
plan remotely (Graham, 2013). In the associative learning model, there are 4 main components
including:
Time: Learning is no longer limited to the school day; they can learn at anytime that is suitable to
them.
Study space: not just limited to classroom learning; students can study anywhere like at home, library,
etc.
Learning method: no longer limited to the teacher's classroom learning, but the use of interactive and
adaptive software that allows learners to learn in methods tailored to their needs.
The learning speed is adjusted based on their own one; they can use more time as needed for the
learning process.
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However, Graham (2013) states that all of this will become possible if instructors applying blended
learning can improve their teaching skills and use of e-learning media. In the implementation of
learning, we can explain the relationship between learning types and online content rates.
2. 7. Studies on conditions for conducting associative learning

Sharma (2008) identified five essential elements in the design of associative learning models
including:
Offline (face-to-face) learning process: students participate directly at the same time and directly in
the classroom or at the same time but in different places (virtual classroom). Face-to-face learning can
be used to create realistic and engaging learning experiences that can achieve learning goals.
Self-study with online content: Self-study experiences can be done anytime and anywhere with online
content. The learning process can be accomplished using text-based or multi-modal (video, animation,
simulation, image, sound, or a combination of such media) that can be accessed online access via web
or mobile in the app: streaming audio, streaming video, e-books, can be accessed by students anytime
and anywhere, accessible Accessible offline as CDs and hard copies.
Interaction: through communication tools implemented in the form of chat rooms, discussion forums,
such as email, discussion, online chat, website and social media, to dig in-depth physical, problem-
solving, or project tasks. With this partnership, students' scientific understanding will be broader as it
involves many different parties with diverse learning sources. Can be poured into project or product
forms that can be taken both online and offline until students follow the assessment for greater
flexibility.
Assessment: Reviewing is important for measuring student knowledge. Pre-assessment can be
performed prior to face-to-face and independent learning to determine initial experience, and post-
assessment can be performed using scheduled online learning, to measure learning transfer. learning,
retention, and learning outcomes in blended learning models.
Learning Materials: Instructional materials are indispensable for improving student retention and
learning outcomes in blended learning models. Teaching materials must be prepared in digital forms
and be accessible by learners both in person and online to support students’individual needs.
3. Discussion and implications for Vietnamese universities

The use of blended learning in English courses is particularly advocated in Vietnamese
institutions as part of the country's higher education reform, with an emphasis on increasing enrolment
and academic competency. Students' English proficiency, as well as the use of information and
communication technology to enhance teaching pedagogy with the goal of increasing student
dynamism, creativity, and active learning. Additionally, due to significant investments in on-campus
digital infrastructure, blended learning deployments can assist universities in making the best use of
available resources, hence saving money. However, colleges must pay particular attention to external
factors affecting blended learning approaches during the implementation phase. Understanding the
pros and disadvantages of each teaching approach can assist leaders in selecting the most optimal
selections to maximize available resources.
The adoption of ICT in classrooms also bring various disadvantages for the institutions.
While there are high hopes for the use of information and communication technologies in education,
the direction and purpose of implementation remain unknown. There is a general absence of rules,
training, and support for the use of information and communication technology at the institutional
level. Despite major efforts in developing or improving technological infrastructure, instructors and
students continue to have extremely limited access to information and communication technology
tools. As a result, Vietnamese institutions must place a greater emphasis on defining implementation
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objectives, creating implementation strategies, and strengthening technology infrastructure in order to
be prepared for blended learning.
In the context of EFL education and the application of information technology in higher
education in Vietnam, teacher-related problems to EFL blended learning implementation may become
more significant. Despite the fact that fostering student-centered pedagogy is a high priority on the
higher education reform agenda, there is still a lack of comprehension of the concept.
Teachers lack trust and confidence in their abilities to apply information and communication
technologies due to a lack of professional and emotional preparedness. Certain university professors
in Vietnam lack an awareness of and capacity for integrating technology into the classroom.
Vietnamese teachers require training since they are unfamiliar with student-centered pedagogy, EFL
teaching methods, and the use of technology in higher education. Effective blended learning requires
a comprehensive design and robust support. EFL Implementation In the context of EFL education in
Vietnam, students may confront much larger problems. Students have developed an expectation of a
teacher-directed learning environment in which they must listen to and obey their teacher in order to
learn. Students' reliance on teachers for motivation and guidance in learning can impede them from
making independent choices about what to study and how to obtain it.
Teachers must also organize instruction ahead of time, create novel learning activities that
combine online and face-to-face components, and regularly assess student learning to improve
learning. As a result, many professors believe that planning and teaching blended courses is too
complicated and time demanding. Teachers are also discovering that when teaching blended courses,
they must take on new tasks and functions, greatly increasing their already heavy workload.
Seven blended learning concepts should be researched and used to both face-to-face and
online learning methods. It should be noted that implementing seven principles to course design and
delivery can increase the quality of blended courses. Furthermore, blended course designs must
adhere to seven standards in order to be theoretically linked to student performance. As a result, the
pedagogical principles for implementing blended learning in the Vietnamese setting should be closely
matched with the seven good practice standards in face-to-face classes.
References
1. Banditvilai, C. (2016). Enhancing student’s language skills through blended learning. Electronic
Journal of e-Learning, 14(3), pp223-232.
2. Morgan, D. (2014). Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods: A pragmatic approach.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
3. Moskal, P. D., & Cavanagh, T. B. (2014). Scaling blended learning evaluation beyond the
university. In A. G. Picciano, C. D. Dziuban & C. R. Graham (Eds.), Blended learning: Research
perspectives (Vol. 3, pp. 34-51). New York, NY: Routledge.
4. Mudra, H. (2018). Blended English language learning as a course in an Indonesian context: An
exploration toward EFL learners’ perceptions. Journal of Foreign Language Education
Technology, 3(2), 28-51.
5. Graham, C. R. (2006). Blended learning systems: Definition, current trends, and future directions.
In C. J. Bonk & C. R. Graham (Eds.), The handbook of blended learning: Global perspectives,
local designs (pp. 63-95). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
6. Graham, C. R. (2013). Emerging practice and research in blended learning. In M. G. Moore (Ed.),
Handbook of distance education (3rd ed., pp. 333- 350). New York, NY: Routledge.
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TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE IN CONTINUING
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Le Thi Huyen1*, Nguyen Hong Mai1
1
Faculty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: (Phone: + 84 0947173333; Email: huyenlt@ftu.edu.vn)
Abstract
Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been recognized that continuous professional
development (CPD) is essential for enhancing language teachers' abilities, knowledge, skills and
effectiveness in the classroom. Rzejak et al. (2014), Schieb & Karabenick (2011), and Kennedy
(2014) have all emphasized the need of continuing professional development (CPD) for instructors in
their respective fields of study. As stated by Adu and Okeke (2014), continuing professional
development (CPD) should be considered as a learning strategy, with instructors acting as learners
whose motivation is a vital condition for their participation. Since teachers' motivation is critical to
their engagement in continuing professional development, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive
review of related theories currently available about teacher motivation and their participation in CPD.
It also discusses factors that influence teachers' motivation to participate in CPD, which are discussed
in more detail later in this paper. The implications for practice and further research are included in this
paper.
Keywords: continuing professional development, CPD engagement, participation, teacher motivation
1. Introduction
It has long been recognized that continuing professional development (CPD) is critical for improving
teachers' skills, knowledge, and teaching effectiveness. The benefits of CPD for teachers are widely
acknowledged (Rzejak et al., 2014; Schieb & Karabenick, 2011; Kennedy, 2014). Sschieb and
Karabenick (2011), for example, stated that "teacher professional development (PD) interventions are
designed to increase teacher content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge" (p. 7).
Regarding the significance of CPD, significant national and global efforts have been made in
designing, implementing, and evaluating CPD for teachers (Alghamdi & Li, 2011; Almazroa, 2013;
Kennedy, 2007). Huge budgets have been invested in this effort to ensure teacher professional
development through CPD (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009).
Furthermore, due to the importance of CPD, numerous researchers have conducted studies to address
various aspects of CPD (Broad & Evans, 2006; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Guskey, 2000; Opfer
& Pedder, 2011; Schleicher & OECD, 2016).
The need of CPD for teachers is justified by the complexity and diverse nature of teaching, which
includes providing service, assuring learning, and enabling knowledge, values, and skills.
Additionally, fresh information regarding teaching and learning is developed on a continuous basis.
As a consequence, instructors must continually improve their craft, which includes engaging in
professional development programs designed to enhance their teaching capacities, in order to maintain
a high professional level conducive to student learning.
According to Guskey (2002), the goal of CPD is to effect change in teachers' classroom practices,
beliefs, and attitudes, particularly with regard to student learning outcomes. To accomplish this goal,
CPD should be well designed and implemented in order to be highly effective and potentially ensure
improved outcomes for teachers and students. Consideration of teachers' motivation to participate in
such programs is an important aspect of successful CPD. Recognizing teachers' motivation to engage
in CPD is critical in order to achieve its goals, according to Schieb and Karabenick (2011), and it
467
should be given high priority. Similarly, Guskey (2002) asserted that when teachers are not motivated
to participate in CPD, the success of such programs is less likely. Furthermore, several studies have
linked the positive outcomes of CPD to a variety of factors, including teachers' motivation to grow
(Fallik, Eylon, & Rosenfeld, 2008). Furthermore, Adu and Okeke (2014) stated that CPD should be
viewed as a learning approach; thus, teachers must be viewed as learners whose motivation is a
critical prerequisite for their engagement. When policymakers consider teacher motivation to
participate in CPD, they can ensure that programs are effective and achieve the desired results.
Given the significance of motivation in relation to behavior, there is an urgent need to investigate
what factors are associated with teachers' motivation to participate in CPD (Conley, 2011; Schieb &
Karabenick, 2011). Despite the importance of teacher motivation to engage in CPD, there is a lack of
research investigating whether teachers are motivated at any school level, and what factors influence
their motivation to participate in these programs (Conley, 2011; Guskey, 2002; McMillan et al., 2014;
Schieb & Karabenick, 2011). According to Cave and Mulloy (2010), motivation studies exist in many
fields; however, they primarily focus on student motivation rather than teacher motivation.
2. Teachers’ motivation in CPD participation

2.1. The concept of CPD
Continuing professional development (CPD) is a concept that has been used in a variety of fields for
decades, including teaching, engineering, nursing, and law (Earley, 2010; Henwood, Edie, Flinton, &
Simpson, 1998; Galloway, 2000). A number of studies have defined CPD by stating that, in general,
CPD refers to a variety of formal and informal activities organized by teachers to develop their skills,
improve their performance, and improve learning for their students (Cole, 2012; OECD, 2014).
Furthermore, it has been developed that CPD must be based on consistency throughout a
professional's career (AFT, 2008; Blomeke & Delaney, 2014; Cole, 2012; Day, 1999; Earley, 2010;
Galloway, 2000; Henwood et al., 1998; Stoll, Harris, & Handscomb, 2012). CPD should strive to
develop and expand teacher technical and personal skills and awareness, as well as students' learning,
according to studies (AFT, 2008; Blomeke & Delaney, 2014; Cole, 2012; Day, 1999; Earley, 2010;
Galloway, 2000; Henwood et al., 1998; Hinchliff, 2000; Stoll et al., 2012). Although some research
suggests that CPD should concentrate on improving teachers' technical abilities in order to improve
teaching results, others suggest that CPD should also focus on improving teachers' personal qualities
(Day, 1999; Henwood et al., 1998), for example, emotional intelligence (Day, 1999), decision-
making, and problem-solving abilities (AFT, 2008).
Additionally, according to some research, CPD is projected to improve not only teachers, but also
student outcomes and the entire school system and staff (Day, 1999; Earley 2010; Hinchliff, 2000). In
addition, several studies identify CPD as programs/activities that are only accessible to in-service
teachers (Earley, 2010; Stoll et al., 2012). Other research, on the other hand, broadens the definition to
include pre-service teachers (Cole, 2012). Day and Sachs (2004) believed that pre-service teacher
CPD was insufficient in terms of training capable inexperienced teachers, and that CPD for in-service
teachers was intended to fill this void and then increase teaching standards. Many studies show that
CPD should be based on an ongoing mechanism that allows teachers to improve their effectiveness
over the course of their careers (Earley, 2010; Stoll et al., 2012). (Beavers, 2009; Cole, 2012; Day,
1999; Earley, 2010; Galloway, 2000; Henwood et al., 1998; Hinchliff, 2000; Stoll et al., 2012). The
studies emphasize the importance of teachers continuing their professional development not only at a
certain point in their careers, but throughout their careers. While the principle of consistency is
important for CPD, it has been reinforced in the twenty-first century, as awareness and challenges
develop at a rapid pace. As a result, many researchers, including Buntat et al. (2013), believe that
continuing to learn is extremely critical for teachers in the twenty-first century.
468
In summary, CPD consists of a wide range of formal and informal learning activities with which
teachers continue to engage their professional lives to enhance and develop their professional and
personal skills, knowledge and practices to improve the learning outcomes of the students and help to
improve education as a whole.
2.2. The importance of CPD
CPD is widely acknowledged to provide numerous benefits in terms of improving teachers’ abilities,
student learning outcomes, overall school quality, and educational reforms (Almazroa, 2013; Darling-
Hammond et al., 2009; Day, 1999; Kennedy, 2014; Schleicher & OECD, 2016). Musset (2010)
emphasizes that improved teacher skills have a major influence on the effectiveness of teaching and
on other aspects of education. One of the main goals for the CPD design was therefore considered to
improve the skills and knowledge of teachers (Cohen, 1995; Desimone, 2011; Desimone, Porter,
Garet, Yoon, & Birman, 2002; Goodall, Day, Lindsay, Muijs, & Harris, 2010; Guskey, 2003; Stoll et
al., 2012; Williams, 2007).
CPD can help teachers in three ways: increasing their knowledge of a subject, dealing with specific
issues, and implementing effective strategies (AFT, 2008; Lessing & De Witt, 2007; Timperley et al.,
2007). Additionally, Timperley et al. (2007) believe that providing continuing professional
development for teachers includes empowering them with a better understanding of their students'
learning outcomes, enabling them to monitor their progress, and identifying the optimal way to
approach to increase those outcomes, too. CPD is also important to address the professional and
personal needs of teachers, which can increase their efficiency (David & Bwisa, 2013). These skills
include a wide range of evaluations and analytical abilities, student learning interpretation, class
management, problem solving, decision making, research, and technological abilities (David &
Bwisa, 2013). Since each teacher is unique and has different requirements, CPD can be tailored to
meet those needs, ensuring that each teacher's quality is improved (Lessing & De Witt, 2007;
Timperley et al., 2007). As a result, some CPD, such as mentoring and coaching, is tailored to meet
these specific needs (Alharbi, 2011).
Furthermore, research shows that CPD has a significant effect on improving students' learning
outcomes. According to Stoll et al. (2012), the primary goal of CPD should be to improve student
outcomes. Musset (2010) found a positive relationship between teacher quality and student
performance, which is supported by Timperley et al. (2007), who discovered that "teachers'
knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions have direct and serious implications for the success of
the students they teach." (p. 9). Lessing and De Wit (2007) say that successful CPD is intimately
linked with the quality of school development as a whole. Similarly, Stoll et al. (2012) concluded that
effective professional development that is highly impactful on teachers' practices will result in highly
effective schools. When the qualities of school students are enhanced by CPD and teachers share
knowledge and ideas and support each other to address the issues faced by their students and improve
their learning, the quality of their whole school can be improved (Curwood, 2011; Poskitt, 2005;
Postholm, 2012; Timperley et al., 2008).
Additionally, CPD may play an important role in educational reforms. According to the literature on
CPD, with the recent emphasis on educational reforms, improving teacher quality has been viewed as
a critical component of achieving these reforms (Desimone, 2011; Desimone et al., 2002; Schleicher
and OECD, 2016). Scheerens (2010) cited a consensus among European Union education ministers
that excellent teaching is essential for high-quality education. Effective CPD to improve the quality of
teachers can thus contribute to the objectives of education reforms (Almazroa, 2013; Phillips, 2008).
2.3 Factors affecting teachers’ motivation for CPD engagement
In terms of factors affecting CPD, it is considered that CPD that is both effective and efficient will
help to ensure that program goals are met. An increasing body of research is undertaken examining
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components of effective CPD, which give teachers necessary know-how and skills (Australian
Institute for Teaching School Leadership (AITSL), 2014; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Desimone,
2011; Desimone et al., 2002; Garet et al., 2001; Guskey, 2002; Guskey, 2003). Identifying the
components of effective CPD is critical for several reasons. To begin, studies confirm the importance
of efficient CPD in the achievement of the program objectives in various fields of education.
Desimone et al. (2002), for example, have stated that effective CPD is considered the key to education
reforms aimed at strengthening the education system. Likewise, Stoll et al. (2012) stated that effective
CPD is essential for developing and sharing pedagogy. These studies show that unless CPD is
effective, the desired goals of designing and implementing it are unlikely to be met. Successful CPD
can be a key factor in increasing teachers' incentive to participate in CPD. According to Guskey
(2002), teachers who are inspired to participate in CPD feel that it will broaden their awareness and
help them learn and be more successful in the classroom. Karabenick and Conley (2011) also reported
that teachers believed their involvement in CPD was valuable to enhance their effectiveness. Efficient
CPD can therefore enhance teacher motivation to participate, since it considers the programs to be
valuable and useful.
The role of motivation in learning and development has been emphasized in many studies. If CPD is
to be effective, teachers must be motivated to participate in it. Despite the value of CPD for teachers,
it has been reported that some have been found to be ineffective due to a lack of teacher motivation to
participate in such programs (Hill, 2015; Rzejak et al., 2014). Although there is little research on
teacher motivation to participate in CPD (Appova & Arbaugh, 2018; Schieb & Karabenick, 2011), a
few studies have attempted to investigate this subject and identify possible factors that influence
teacher motivation to participate in CPD (e.g., Appova & Arbaugh, 2018; David & Bwisa, 2013;
Kwakman, 2003; Wan & Lam, 2010). These studies found certain factors that can influence the
motivation of teachers to participate in learning activities, including within-teacher factors, personal
and professional contexts, policy and education systems, and the quality of the CPD content (Appova
& Arbaugh, 2018; Hill, 2015; Karabenick et al., 2013; Kwakman, 2003; McMillan et al., 2014;
Schieb & Karabenick, 2011).
Teacher-related factors appear to play a significant role in teacher motivation to engage in CPD.
According to some studies, personality factors are the most influential factors on teachers' motivation
to engage in CPD (David & Bwisa, 2013; Kwakman, 2003; McMillan et al., 2014; Wan & Lam,
2010). McMillan et al. (2014), for example, reported that when asked who is primarily responsible for
seeking professional development, participant teachers attributed the primary role to themselves. This
sense of responsibility has been found to have a positive relationship with teacher motivation to
engage in CPD (Karabenick & Conley, 2011). McMillan et al. (2014) identified three major
personality factors: the desire to achieve, grow, and advance. Despite the fact that these factors appear
to be professional rather than personal, McMillan et al. (2014) stated that personal factors overlap
with professional factors. Similarly, Kwakman (2003) classified personal factors into several sub-
factors, the top three of which were professional aspects: professional attitudes, feasibility appraisals,
and significance evaluation. Appova and Arbaugh (2018) found that a variety of factors related to the
teaching profession influence teacher motivation to engage in CPD after reviewing several studies.
These factors include meeting basic professional needs such as adequate income and job security,
improving their teaching skills and knowledge, promoting their students' learning, and having
resources that allow teachers to maintain their CPD. Teachers' beliefs about the importance of
learning activities also play a role in increasing their motivation to participate in such activities.
According to Karabenick et al. (2013), teachers were motivated to participate in CPD when they
perceived the programs to be beneficial to their professional development.
470
When teachers' voices are heard, especially in regards to CPD, it can increase their motivation to
participate in CPD. Professional development should be based on learning needs reported directly by
teachers, according to Hsu and Malkin (2013). The Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000)
is based on the premise that autonomy is essential in motivating people. Teachers who feel
independent will be able to express and choose their needs, as well as the best way to deal with and
monitor their CPD participation. Hsu and Malkin (2013) discovered that in many classrooms, school
leaders make decisions about their teachers' needs. This behavior will jeopardize teachers' autonomy,
leaving them unmotivated to participate in CPD. According to some studies, school factors influence
teacher motivation to participate in CPD. Workload and time constraints have also been identified as
influential factors that may have a negative impact on teacher motivation to participate in CPD (Adu
& Okeke, 2014; Appova & Arbaugh, 2018; Wan & Lam, 2010). Workload overload can lead to stress,
which can undermine teachers' motivation to complete even the most basic tasks correctly. Time
constraints were also discovered to be a barrier that prevented teachers from participating in various
CPD, particularly when outside of schools (Appova & Arbaugh, 2018). According to the OECD
(2014), the most common barrier preventing teachers from engaging in CPD is conflict with
scheduled work.
Interpersonal relationships were also mentioned as having an impact on teacher motivation to
participate in CPD (Kwakman, 2003; McMillan et al., 2014; Adu & Okeke, 2014). Teachers' jobs
frequently require them to collaborate with others on a daily basis. Positive relationships in school
environments where teachers are supported, respected, and trusted, therefore, play an important role in
teacher motivation. According to research, a lack of peer and school leader support can have a
negative impact on teacher motivation to engage in CPD (Appova & Arbaugh, 2018; McMillan et al.,
2014). Teachers are more likely to participate in CPD when they have intrinsic motivation and the
support of their peers and principals (Kwakman, 2003; McMillan et al., 2014). Some researchers, such
as Poskitt (2005), believe that school-based professional development programs are more likely to
elicit teacher interest and engagement. In this case, teachers can design the content of CPD and select
a time that works for their own schedules. Teacher motivation to engage in CPD can also be
influenced by factors related to education policy and the system. Providing rewards and incentives to
teachers may increase their motivation to participate in CPD. According to the OECD (2014), one of
the most common barriers that prevent teachers from participating in CPD programs is a lack of
incentives for participation. According to Ryan and Deci (2000), not everyone is intrinsically
motivated to engage in tasks; thus, addressing some external factors can be beneficial for increasing
teacher engagement in CPD. According to Appova and Arbaugh (2018), recent studies have found
that the educational system and policies can influence teacher motivation to engage in CPD.
Professional benefits such as incentives, insufficient funds for CPD, having unrealistic expectations of
teaching and learning outcomes, and policies regarding the limited size of classroom students are
examples of these factors (Appova & Arbaugh, 2018).
Finally, the content of CPD can play an important role in increasing teacher motivation to participate
in the programs. Adu and Okeke (2014) also stated that when CPD content is relevant to teachers and
designed to meet their professional needs, they will be effectively encouraged to participate. While
the quality of the content is important, other studies have confirmed that having expert facilitators
who ensure that such important content is delivered properly is also important (Bevan-Brown et al.,
2012).
3. Conclusion
Teaching as a profession has advanced beyond the rudimentary in the twenty-first century. Modern
teaching techniques, paradigm changes in pedagogy, big class management, and classroom
471
management, to name a few, are all aspects in the teaching profession that require lecturers to engage
in continuous professional development activities in order to remain relevant. Continuing professional
development is a critical component of school improvement. It also has an effect on the lecturers'
personal development, progress, and self-actualization. Effective CPD provision benefits teachers by
enabling lecturers to aim for expert position while equipping them with the required skills to deal with
society's dynamism. Furthermore, CPD allows teachers to maintain their expertise of teaching up to
date while also assisting them in staying current with current trends and being relevant. It can be said
that lecturers' continuing professional development in institutions is critical, and it is even critical to
the success of any country. Having said that, it is critical that professors continue to update in order to
position themselves to deliver the services that the profession requires.
However, after reviewing a number of studies as mentioned above, it was determined that, while there
is a large body of research that has investigated various aspects of CPD, only a small number of
studies have examined issues surrounding teacher motivation for CPD (David & Bwisa, 2013;
McMillan et al., 2014; Rzejak et al., 2014). Schieb and Karabenick (2011) concluded, after reviewing
and categorizing over 250 resources related to teachers' motivation and CPD, that there has been no
systematic focus on the factors that influence teachers’ motivation for engaging in PD, their level of
engagement during PD activities, and the degree to which teachers’ motivation and engagement in PD
influence their classroom instruction. Furthermore, a recent study by Appova and Arbaugh (2018)
found that, although research on teacher motivation has increased in volume, research on teacher
motivation to participate in CPD remains sparse.
Additionally, to our knowledge, in the context of higher education in Vietnam, although there are
some studies that have been conducted on EFL teacher PD (Nguyen, 2018; Dau, 2020), teacher
motivation to engage in CPD remains unexamined; in other words, there is no study has been
undertaken in the setting of higher education in Vietnam to examine the factors that impact EFL
instructors' willingness to participate in CPD at universities. Therefore, it is our recommendation that
doing such a research project in the Vietnamese context would be significant, laying the groundwork
for future research on different aspects of teacher motivation in connection to CPD.
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TYPES OF QUESTION FUNCTIONS IN EFL CLASSES
Khuat Mai An
Facuty of English for spercific purposes, Foreign Trade University, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Email: ankm@ftu.edu.vn, Mobile: +84962185868
Abstract
This paper focuses on the teacher question, which is one of the most common interactions in
classroom conversation. The majority of research showed that the preponderance of questions to the
pedagogical aims of developing, eliciting, and assessing learners ‘knowledge, as well as the learners'
unlimited linguistic skills. This article aims to help teachers understand the types of questions used in
English classes in terms of both its definition and functions. The author uses the method of
synthesizing previous research papers to have the most overview of question types and their functions.
The results show that there are eight types of questions divided according to its function that have
been used by language teachers in English classes.
Keywords: classroom, communication, interactions, teacher’s talks, types of questions
1. Introduction
Nowadays, learning at least a foreign language is necessary in human’s life: “Language is
arguably the defining characteristic of the human species and knowledge of language in general, as well
as ability to use one’s first and, at least one other language, should be one of the defining characteristics
of the educated individual” (Nunan, 1999: 71). The world has become smaller. It is said it has turned
into the size of the so-called “global village”. We are living in the time of immense technological
inventions where communication among people has expanded way beyond their local speech
communities (Ellis, 1997: 3). Today receiving education, language education not excepting, is not an
issue connected exclusively with schools; the time requires everyone to learn throughout their lifetimes.
Therefore, learning a second language has become a means of keeping up with the pace of the rapidly
changing world.
English language has gained its significance among a number of foreign languages such as French,
Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc on the world. English is the official language in fifty-three countries as
well as in all the major international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union
and the International Olympic Committee. It is the most used language on the Internet, and is
currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world (Shahi & Pang,
2009).
Furthermore, in any effective language learning environment, the most important factor is that
students are enabled to do most of the talking. An ideal classroom situation is one in which students
are actively involved and both able and willing to participate in the lesson. Student participation is
more beneficial if the students are productive rather than purely receptive. Nevertheless, in order for
the students to participate actively, they need to be stimulated. This stimulation can arise as a result of
the implementation of appealing activities or through the use of thought-provoking questions. One
popular method of involving students in a lesson and facilitating student participation used by many
language teachers is asking questions. In some classrooms, over half of the class time is taken up with
question-and-answer exchanges (Gall, 1984). Teacher question functions are used as target language
input for the students and form an integral part of classroom interaction (Ho, 2005). Nunan (2007: 80)
suggests that teachers use questions “to elicit information, to check understanding, and to control
behavior.”
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Because of all the reasons above, the author decided to conduct this paper to help EFL teachers
understand more about types questions and set appropriate questions for the learning context of an
EFL classroom.
2.1. Teachers’ talks and types of questions
2.1.1. Teachers’ talks
A substantial amount of classroom research has been conducted on various components of
teacher speak to which foreign language learners are primarily and regularly exposed in the
classroom. This emphasis is mostly on the rate of speech, volume of discussion, impacts of instructor
questioning on student performance, changes in discourse, pauses, forms of oral feedback, changes in
grammar and vocabulary, and so on. (Almeida (2011), Dashwood (2005), Hamayan and Tucker
(1980), Pica and Long (1986) and Shen (2012))
Given the quantity of research on teacher speaking and classroom engagement, the topic of
questioning has emerged as a popular academic focus. Questions have long been seen as an important
pedagogical tool for instructors, whether used to evaluate pupils' knowledge or encourage their
thinking. The knowledge and abilities employed in asking different sorts of questions in a classroom
are a significant element of the teaching and learning process to the degree that questions may
enhance language acquisition, production, and result in meaningful engagement. Thus, the sorts of
questions developed and used by teachers in the classroom are connected to learners' involment and
level of involvement. In support of this viewpoint, according to Chaudron (1988), "teachers' questions
provide a primary technique of engaging students' attention, motivating vocal replies, and measuring
students' development".
According to Pawlak (2004), students are encouraged to engage in the continuous interaction
by asking questions, and teachers use student replies to adjust the entire learning and teaching process,
from topic to linguistic inputs. An increase in the quantity of classroom engagement via questions is
likely to stimulate learners' competency and aid in language acquisition. As a result, in the following
section, the author will offer some information regarding the sorts of questions that linguistic teachers
employ in their respective EFL courses.
2.1.2. Types of Questions
Another critical problem in connection to teacher questions is categorizing them into functional
classes. Several attempts have been made to categorize questions. Barnes (1969) appears to present
one of the early taxonomy of questions, based on his secondary school classroom observations, and
proposes four sorts of inquiries: factual, reasoning, open, and closed. Barnes further classified
reasoning as closed (just one expected response) and open (a variety of replies).
Richards and Lockhart (1994) categorize the issues as procedural, convergent, or divergent.
Procedural questions, as opposed to content questions, relate to classroom processes and routines, as
well as classroom management. For example, did everyone accomplish the task? Convergent
questions, on the other hand, encourage students to offer single short (right) statements or 'no' 'yes'
responses, such as what are some capital cities in the world? with the emphasis on recollection of
certain material. Divergent questions, contrast to convergent questions, force students to engage in
higher level thinking, such as what would happen if all of the world's computers were out for a
month? They urge pupils to supply their own knowledge rather than recollect material that has already
been presented to them.
Long and Sato (1983), who worked on Kearsley's (1976) categorization based on
conversational data, produced one of the most often used taxonomies of inquiries. Long and Sato's
taxonomy distinguishes between echoic and epistemic categories. The former is intended to encourage
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a repetition or confirmation of an utterance, therefore commencing discourse repair (confirmation
checks, clarification requests and comprehension checks). The latter is used to elicit information and
has two subcategories: referential and display (pseudo) questions. Referential questions are legitimate
information-seeking inquiries for which the instructor is unable to provide an answer, such as "What
do you think about globalization?". Display questions, such as ‘what is the past form of the
verb'read?', the knowledge is known by the teacher. Display questions are commonly used to assess
understanding.
Hargie's (2006) categorization appears to be quite similar to that of Long and Sato (1983), in
that questions are classified into three types: procedural, recall-process, and closed-open. According
to Seedhouse (2004), display questions contain IRF properties. Referential questions, on the other
hand, are said to spark classroom discussion (Brock, 1986; Kramsch 1985). According to Nunan
(1987), "raising the use of referential questions... over display questions is likely to encourage a
higher quantity of actual classroom conversation" (p. 142).
Tsui (1992) uses the word "elicitation" to define statements that invite required verbal or
nonverbal replies from the addressee, in line with Sinclair and Coulthard's (1975) philosophy of
elicitations between teachers and students in the classroom (p. 101). Tsui (1992), as quoted by Janin
Jafari (2013), established six elicitation functions: informing, confirming, agreeing, committing,
repeating, and clarifying.
Tsui (1992) defines an information question as one that asks the addressee to offer new
knowledge in order to bridge information gaps. The addresser makes no speaker assumption, and the
expected information is unknown before the elicitation. This function is related to referential
questions. The addresser asks a confirmation question having an assumption in mind regarding the
inquiry, but the addressee must confirm the assumption. In many circumstances, the addressee can
confirm or refute the assumption in the response. For example, when a speaker asks, "Are you going
to Taipei tomorrow?", the speaker wishes for the addressee to corroborate the speaker's supposition
regarding the addressee's journey to Taipei. Similarly, while asking an agreement question, the
speaker makes an assumption, yet the claim is "self-evidently true" (p. 107) such as inquiring about
the weather, "Is it a wonderful day, isn't it?" in the beginning of a conversation with new
interlocutors. A commitment inquiry necessitates not just an obligatory vocal answer, but also further
contact or a verbal conversation from both the addresser and the addressee. A question such as, "Can
you turn on the light?" would necessitate an action of turning on the light, rather than merely a verbal
response like, "Sure, I can." A repeat question prompts the addresser to repeat the prior speech in
order to explain the entire statement or specific portions of the utterance that are acoustically unclear
to the addressee. This category includes utterances like "Pardon?", "Sorry?", "Huh?", and "What did
you say?" A clarification question, unlike a repeat question, demands the addressee to clarify any
content misunderstanding or doubt in a previous speech.
Although Tsui’s taxonomy of elicitation functions is more detail than the others, Tsui's
taxonomy was initially built on social interactions between speakers with equal speaking rights;
hence, it is insufficient for assessing classroom interaction, in which the instructor has greater
authority over the conversation than the pupils (Shin-Mei Kao, 2012). Tsui, for example, categorizes
display (pseudo) questions as information elicitation, implying that there is no distinction between
these two sorts of questions in nature. However, from the standpoint of education, asking pseudo
questions is a separate characteristic of classroom engagement and serves different functions than an
information inquiry (van Lier, 1988). Two new categories were added to the taxonomy utilized in this
study: display questions and understanding check questions.
In terms of discourse function, display and understanding check questions are called
instructional questions, which are instruction-oriented, whereas the other six functions outlined by
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Tsui (1992) are communication-oriented. In the classroom, using more communicative forms of
questions can help to create a more natural, participatory environment for language teaching and
learning. In contrast, when instructional questions dominate classroom engagement, the instructor has
control. As a result, the pupils are required to react to the questions. Because all of the answers are
"known" to the teacher, the teacher frequently provides evaluative response to the students' replies,
such as "Good!" or "Can anybody else answer this question?". Whatever the students' responses are,
they do not advance the discourse and are not crucial to the following turn statements. If the course
goal is to assist learners use the target language for communication, the classroom environment must
be similar to how language is used for social purposes, or learners may struggle to initiate subjects,
manage speaking turns, and extend contact outside of the classroom (van Lier, 1988).
Based on the taxonomy of questions functions analyzed by the previous researchers, The degree
of communicative level of the eight questions functions from low to high. The understanding check
and display questions are placed at the low-communicative end, and the responses to these questions
have no effect on the next turn's discourse content. These two kinds of inquiries are more educational
in nature and will be referred to as "instructional questions" in this study. The other six sorts of
questions, which will be referred to as "communicative questions" in this study, have greater
communicative functions that aid to advance the conversation and overcome communication barriers.
Analyzing how these roles are distributed by instructors in the classroom assists EFL experts in
understanding the communicative level of the environment established for teaching and learning.
2.2. Studies about EFL teachers’ questioning
Many studies show that questions seeking new information have higher educational value than
display questions, both in terms of content and length. Brock (1986) examined students' responses to
teachers' questions in terms of syntactic complexity and mean length of utterance and discovered that,
when compared to display questions, referential questions elicited more student output and answers
with a higher cognitive level for language teaching and learning. Beardmore (1996) proposed that
excessive use of display questions will result in poor student production and deprive students of the
chance to think for themselves. However, not all study findings back up this assertion. For example,
Kachur and Prendergast (1997) discovered in a study that pupils exhibited less interest when teachers
offered legitimate questions, but more readiness to answer their professors' bogus inquiries. Wu
(1993) discovered that referential inquiries did not produce more sophisticated responses or promote
student-teacher interaction. These inconsistencies may come from contrasting classrooms with distinct
objectives, teaching styles, instructional methodologies, and student levels. Furthermore, these studies
relied heavily on surveys or interviews as primary research instruments, which are dependent on
respondents' perspectives, therefore the responses may not accurately reflect how interaction occurred
in these classes.
3. CONCLUSION
Teachers' questions in an EFL classroom play an important role in “stimulating thinking,
checking student comprehension and progress, gathering attention, modeling appropriate usages, and
creating interactive opportunities” (Shin-Mei Kao, 2012). Questioning is an important strategy for
EFL teachers not just for retaining classroom management (Ellis, 1990), but also for carrying out
instructional materials (Gabrielatos, 1997). Nonetheless, EFL teachers' queries are rarely based on
genuine needs or an enthusiasm in learning new things (Long & Sato, 1983).
In view of the significant role of questions used by teachers in classroom, this paper aims to
sumarise types of questions in classroom interaction. In a language classroom, what matters is the
teacher's verbal (and nonverbal) replies, questions, and feebacks. Language teachers clearly differ
from other classroom teachers in how they handle language learners. Language teachers frequently
modify both language forms and language functions to improve communication. Because teacher
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speak has a possible influence on learners' understanding, which is theorized to be vital for L2
acquisition, the quality of the instructor's input aimed towards the learner can be central for L2
(second or foreign language) learning (Ellis, 1995).
The study helps teachers understand more about the use of question functions. Such
understanding will help EFL teachers set appropriate types of questions functions for the learning
context of an EFL classroom. Questioning is one of the most common teaching techniques employed
by teachers. Question and answer exchanges sometimes occupy more than half of the class time (Gall,
1984; Kerry, 2002). The question-and-answer sequence is not only about the transmission of facts or
the management of classes but is rather the interactions between the teacher and students in the
classroom where the teacher co-constructs learning with students, building on what learners have
already known and extending that by asking high-level questions.
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68.

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THE STATUS AND APPLICATIONS OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE THE INTEREST IN TEACHING
ENGLISH AT PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THU DUC CITY
Quach Duc Tai1, Tran Tuyen2
1
Education Faculty, Ho Chi Minh University Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam
2
Institute of Technical Education – HCMUTE, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Cellphone: +84 902 883 662; Email: quachtai1983@gmail.com
Abstract
In the trend of globalization, the enhancement of foreign languages competence in general and of
English proficiency particularly has now attracted concerns in all levels of Vietnamese national
education system. To achieve this objective, lots of teaching methods of English are changed and
applied. Among these, application of information technology in teaching English is considered as a
quite effective way in order to create the interest in English lessons. The article is aimed at finding the
current status of application of information technology application in teaching English at primary
schools in Thu Duc city as well as presenting some its applications to build an interesting and exciting
environment of learning English.
Keywords: application, information technology, interest, teaching in primary school, English
teaching
1. Introduction
In the era of information technology (IT) of the digital economy and the industrial revolution 4.0,
traditional methods of teching English simply provide knowledge through teaching activities on class
with supported by cassette, chalkboards have become obsolete. Instead of it, the advent of a series of
IT devices such as computers, smartphones, internet, social networks... has been removing classroom
walls, creating an endless connection in space and time in the process of teaching and learning in
general and English in particular.
Teaching English is a unique teaching activity because it not only provides knowledge but also helps
learners perceive and feel an entire culture through language learning. Therefore, creating lively and
effective English lessons is always the goal of teachers through changing on teaching methods,
learning, updating information, and cultivating knowledge. And the application of IT in teaching in
general and English in particular has become an effective method widely applied to achieve all the
above-mentioned goals.
According to Collis and Moonen (2001), IT can be applied to teach English in three main areas,
including: (i) Learning resources (training software, digital learning resources and videos extracted on
the internet); (ii) Applications to support teaching (software, tools for teaching, system for organizing
exams and assessments); (iii) Communication and media applications (email, social networks).
In the world, the application of IT is studied in different directions such as behavioral approach, the
cognitive approach (Nguyen Van Long, 2016). Microsoft also conducted a research survey of 200
educators in the Asia - Pacific region on the application of IT in teaching. Accordingly, most
education experts believe that the application of IT will continue to play an important role in
improving teaching methods and especially inspiring learners through improving their learning
experiences in the classroom, improving the creative effectiveness of teacher’s activities, and creating
multi-dimensional interactions between teachers and learners with the vast world of knowledge
outside the classroom.
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Many studies have also been done to show a strong connection between activities of teaching English
supported by IT devices. Nomass (2013) pointed out the important role of IT in improving English
speaking and listening skills. Through the using of video, audio, electronic lessons, online dictionaries
or other forms of e-mail, learners become motivated and interested in lessons, thereby improving their
listening and speaking skills. He has many significant improvements. According to Acha (2009),
educators are now using more and more software as well as multimedia lectures in teaching activities,
creating more excitement as well as helping learners focus in English lessons.
In Vietnam, the Government issued Decision No. 117/QD-TTg approving the project “Strengthening
the application of IT in management and supporting teaching and learning activities, and scientific
research, contributing to improving improve the quality of education and training in the 2016-2020
period, with a vision to 2025” with the goal of forming an education database. Targets are given:
100% of State management agencies and education and training institutions manage and process work
records in the network environment; 70% of professional training courses for teachers and educational
administrators are conducted in a combined method (directly and online); 50% of administrative
records are processed online at least at level 3. Thus, the application of IT in schools in the 2016-2020
period, with a vision to 2025, needs to meet new requirements according to the project.
The above documents and studies initially presented in general the theoretical and practical problems,
pedagogical measures, etc. of the application of IT in teaching without any specific research on the
relationship between IT application and learner’s interest in learning English. In this article, the
authors would like to find out the current status of IT application in the process of teaching English at
primary schools in Thu Duc city. From there, the research clarifies the role of IT application in
creating an exciting and vibrant English learning environment, as well as discusses some useful IT
applications for English’s teaching and learning in schools.
2. Research methods
The article uses theoretical research methods, practical research methods and mathematical statistical
methods, specifically:
- Theoretical research methods: using methods of analysis, synthesis, classification of documents and
systematization of research results, domestic and foreign documents related to activities of IT
applications in teaching in general and English at primary school in particular.
- Method of practical research: using the survey method by questionnaire to find out the current status
of applications of IT in teaching English at primary schools in Thu Duc city. At the same time, using
mathematical statistical methods to process data and analyze research results.
3. Research content
3.1. Definitions
Application of information technology in teaching
Application of IT in teaching is the usage of IT in teaching activities of teacher and learing of learner
in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning activities at primary
schools. Thanks to IT, it is possible to increase the capacity to express the lecture content, through
which teacher can form creative thinking methods and create excitement for learners. Using teaching
software to support the development of teaching plans and teaching operations such as: designing
lessons on Ms PowerPoint, painting and drawing pictures, simulating experiments... Based on
multimedia technology to create high interactivity, promote the activeness of learner in the process of
teaching.
The application of IT in teaching is the process of applying of IT to teaching activities in a reasonable
way. In teaching and learning activities, IT must be for the right purpose, at the right time, in the right
482
place, at the right level and intensity. Applying of IT in teaching aims to innovate teaching methods.
Applying of IT in education includes two areas: in management and in teaching (Saeed Ahmadi,
Abdollah Keshavarzi, Moein Foroutan, 2011)
Application of information technology in teaching at primary school
From the above definition about application of IT in teaching, it is possible to give the definition of
applying IT in teaching in primary school as follows: Application of IT in teaching in primary school
is the usage of IT in teaching activities of teacher to learning activities of learner in the classroom in
primary school in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of the teaching process.
Application of information technology in teaching English
Thus, it can be understood that application of IT in teaching English is the usage of modern technical
tools and IT equipments in preparing lessons, organizing teaching activities, testing and evaluating,
and supporting learner to promote learner’s capacity according to the teaching objectives of the
subject.
3.2. The role of information technology in teaching English
In the trend, IT is an important solution that needs to be thoroughly exploited when implementing
education and training. IT helps to input and process information quickly to turn into knowledge. IT
increases the productivity of teachers and learners, high productivity, shortens working time to a
minimum, and facilitates the common development of each individual.
There are many softwares to compose electronic lessons and textbooks. It provides practical and
effective support in teacher’s lessons, increasing learner’s interest in learning. It can be seen that these
applications are now commonly used such as: Ms Office (writing documents, textbooks), GIF Movie
Gear (animating), Windows Movie Maker (making movies). Not just stopping there, IT also plays a
huge role in linking education systems together between schools in the world and each branch of that
education system together.
In addition, IT also plays an important role in improving the quality of learning for learners, creating a
highly interactive environment. With the impact of IT, the teaching environment has also changed, it
has a strong impact on the management, teaching and learning process based on the support of a
system of teaching and learning infrastructures based on the strong development of IT including the
accompanying softwares. The applying IT into teaching has drastically changed the roles of both
teacher and learner (Hadibandhu Behera, 2020).
For English subject, the application of IT in teaching plays a very important role in the success of the
teaching and learning process. Currently, the application of IT in teaching and learning foreign
languages is making strong developments and is increasingly asserting an important role. Over the
years, teachers have focused on applying IT in teaching.
With the application of IT in teaching, the transition from “teacher-centered” to “learner-centered”
will become easier. Through the electronic lessons, teachers have more time to spend asking open-
ended questions, enabling learners to be more active in class. The application of IT in teaching and
learning English helps teacher and leaner having the opportunity to practice their English listening,
speaking and expression skills. When applying IT in teaching, it makes teacher’s lessons more lively,
attracts learner to lessons, promotes interaction between teachers and learners, and helps them to love
the subject more.
3.3. The status of application of information technology in teaching English at primary schools
in Thu Duc City
In recent years, primary schools in Thu Duc city have implemented many measures to promote the
application of IT in teaching. The introduction of IT in teaching at schools in the area initially
achieved some encouraging results.
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The article is based on the results of a survey to collect opinions using a questionnaire about the status
of IT applications in teaching English at 10 primary schools in Thu Duc city of 116 teachers,
including: 42 English teachers, 8 teachers are leaders of English subject and and 66 teachers are
classroom teachers.
Score convention: each vote has options and is defined by different score levels as follows: level 1 (1
point), level 2 (2 points), level 3 (3 points), level 4 (4 points). The level of each factor based on the
mean score of that factor is shown in Table 1:
Table 1: The level of each factor based on the mean score
Mean Levels
1.00 - 1.75 No important Never No necessary
1.76 - 2.50 Less important Only occasionally Less necessary
2.51 - 3.25 Important Regular Necessary
3.26 - 4.00 Very important Very regular Very necessary
3.3.1. The status of the importance and necessity of application of information technology in
teaching English at primary schools
The survey results show that teachers have a correct awareness of the role of IT applications in
teaching English, in which: 100% of surveyers believe that the applying of IT in teaching English
subjects are “Important” and “Very important” at 35.30% and 64.70% respectively. The above data
shows that in general, teachers have a good awareness of the role of IT in teaching English at primary
schools.
Similarly, with the question for teachers in schools that “How is your assessment about the necessity
of application of IT in teaching English in primary schools”, there is 37.90% of the respondents said
that it was “Necessary” and 62.10% of the respondents considered “Very necessary”. With the right
awareness of the role and necessity of IT in teaching English, it will contribute to the improvement of
the quality of English teaching in particular and the educational quality of schools in general.
3.3.2. The status of application of information technology in teaching activities in primary
schools
Table 2: Rating level of applying information technology in teaching English at primary schools
Rating level (%)
No. Creteria Only Very Mean
Never Regular
occasionally regular
Preparing and designing
1 electronic lessons with using
images, audio, video, charts, etc. - 11.21% 43.97% 44.83% 3.34
Organizing visual teaching
2 through supporting software,
simulations, virtual experiments 4.31% 12.93% 49.14% 33.62% 3.12
Applying IT in discussion and
3 learning exchange between
teacher and learner 2.59% 12.07% 48.28% 37.07% 3.20
Organizing online teaching,
4
online via the Internet 2.59% 10.34% 41.38% 45.69% 3.30
Applying IT in testing and
5
assessing learner 6.03% 15.52% 43.97% 34.48% 3.07
The survey results in Table 2 show that the applying IT in teaching English has been highly
emphasized, focused on implementation. Most teachers have applied IT in preparing and designing
electronic lessons, electronic textbooks with using images, audio, videos, charts; Organizing online
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teaching, online via the Internet with mean over 3.26. These contents are often applied by teachers to
their teaching activities.
The above data also shows the form of applying IT in discussions and learning exchanges between
teacher and learner; Organizing visual teaching through supporting software, simulations, virtual
experiments; Using IT in testing and assessing learners is at the level of “Regular”.
By attending class time in English class, we knew that teachers use multi-function projectors, teachers
prepare their lessons with Ms PowerPoint software. In the process of teaching, teachers only exploit
some application softwares. In some schools, teachers have applied IT in teaching with initially
effective.
3.3.3. The status of using softwares of teaching English and applications in designing English
lessons
Table 3: Some software applications in designing English lessons at primary schools
Software applications Rating level (%)
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Word Others
100.00% 31.03% 3.45%
Map Mapinfo Google Map Others
23.28% 74.14% 8.62%
Graphics PhotoShop Paint Others
33.62% 67.24% 11.21%
Media Edit (creating and editing videos) Video Audio Others
82.76% 35.34% 7.76%
Softwares for teaching and learing English Monkey Junior Fun English Others
40.52% 54.31% 19.83%
Online teaching Zoom Microsoft Teams Others
52.59% 16.38% 41.38%
The survey results in Table 3 show that primary schools in Thu Duc city paid great attention to the
application of software and IT applications in designing electronic lessons as well as teaching
activities in English. In which, it can be seen that 100% of teachers used Ms PowerPoint, 74.14% of
teachers used Google Map, 67.24% of teachers used Paint graphics software, 82.76% of teachers used
Video, softwares for teaching and learing English such as: Monkey Junior with 40.52% and Fun
English with 54.31%. Besides, teachers also use other softwares in teaching English. This shows that
schools are very diverse in the use of software in teaching English.
3.3.4. The status of using information technology in the design and organization of teaching with e-
lessons
Table 4: Applications of IT in designing English lessons at primary schools
Applying rate (%)
Apply full lesson Apply most lesson Apply a part of lesson Without apply
47.41% 37.93% 14.66% 0.00%
The results in Table 4 show that 100% of English lessons of schools are designed with applying IT to
increase learner’s interest in the learning process as well as improving the effectiveness of the subject.
According to the survey results, up to 55.17% of teachers think that the applying of IT in the design
and organization of teaching with e-lessons brings “Effective” and 38.79% is “Very effective”.
3.4. Applications of information technology in teaching English at primary schools in Thu Duc
City
Among the methods being applied in primary schools in Thu Duc city, the use of teaching aids
through IT (google map, powerpoint, video, educational websites...) is the dominant method to attract
learners in English class. The more interested learners are in the lesson, the more naturally they will
485
be stimulated to participate in the lesson, and they will not consider the class as heavy as a traditional
class anymore. In addition, teachers also constantly research, improve methods, explore and update
information to serve each lesson. When it comes to modern means of teaching foreign languages, it is
impossible not to mention such as multimedia projectors, computers, internet network, interactive
boards, etc. Digital devices such as recorder, photographer, mobile phone, USB storage drive.
With the characteristics of the subject, it requires teacher to always refresh their lessons and this will
help learners a lot in improving their sense of learning this subject. In the classroom where learners
only take notes from teacher, look at pictures in books, or use old utensils, they will no longer be
excited. Learner’s interest in learning and confidence in English communication is a measure of the
effectiveness of the lesson. Enhancing the interest of learner to actively participate in learning
activities, from which learner actively acquires knowledge and creatively applies knowledge in
communication situations as well as mobilize knowledge to do tests and exams with the best results.
Since then, learner loves English, is interested, and eagerly look forward to next lesson, so that each
lesson that is really comfortable and highly effective from both sides.
Regarding the preparation of teaching aids for the lesson, a teacher will design methods and games
based on the content of the lesson and their IT knowledge. Through electronic lessons, teacher has
more time to spend asking open-ended questions, enabling learner to be more active in class.
Applying IT in teaching makes lessons always flexible, promotes interaction between teacher and
learner, and helps learner to enjoy in the lesson. Here are some of the applications of IT in teaching
English that we have observed and implemented effectively:
3.4.1. Application in Warming up
Instead of warming up for each learner, Kahoot software will help teacher creating a full set of
questions of the above types with an unlimited number of questions, but it doesn’t take much time.
More professionally, learners will participate to answer the questions, the scores are accumulated and
ranked from high to low after each question turn. This makes it easy for both teacher and learner to
determine which learner answers the fastest and has the most correct answers; learner will know
where they are and will try harder on the next question. More specifically, this software has a very
vibrant and motivating design, making the warm up activity of a lesson very exciting and engaging or
giving learner a feeling of nostalgia and anticipation to the next class after participating in this game
in the reinforcement activity at the end of the lesson.
Kahoot application really impresses and stimulates the learning spirit of learners, because it has
interactive game -l ike interactions to test lesson knowledge. In addition, this application also creates a
wide interaction, a spirit of learning competition among class members. Through this application,
learners can give feedback to teachers about the quality of teaching as well as provide regular and
direct exchange of ideas with teachers for effective in learning English.
3.4.2. Application in teaching English’s vocabulary
In teaching vocabulary to learner, teacher can use some games related to the content of the lesson
such as Palmanism, Jumpled words, Crossword puzzles… These games can help learner remembering
more words. vocabulary and practice some more frequently asked questions. It will help learner
understanding the main content of the lesson.
Thanks to IT, teacher can use powerpoint to design and compose electronic lessons and easily change
to refresh each lesson. In addition, teacher can easily switch from one game to another very easily and
quickly, bringing novelty and excitement. Although we have to invest a lot of time and effort when
composing, but based on a basic game, we can create similar but new games, creating interest and
excitement for learner.
Instead of just suggesting words with very boring situations or translations. For difficult words,
teachers will use images from the internet, or use phenomena to describe those words. Only applying
486
of IT can describe all the content of difficult vocabulary without the mother tongue, making it more
interesting and attractive to learner. Besides, teacher uses their mobile phones to take real pictures
around the class, school, and learner’s images to put on the lessons, helping learner get excited when
they see their pictures and their friends in the lesson.
3.4.3. Application in teaching English’s listening and speaking
In the practice of listening - speaking skills, teacher can use Audio: this is an application of IT to help
learner in learing of listening and speaking skills. Music, sound effects... in the audio will create a
stimulating effect on learner’s hearing, helping learners to be interested and focus on the topics. In
addition, learner can record speech or lessons as learning data and information memorization or test
their own listening and speaking abilities. Teacher can use audio to assess learner’s progress and self-
adjust teaching activities to suit learner’s goals and levels. Audios can be digitized and downloaded as
learning materials through applications of IT.
Besides, Video is considered as a representation of the filmed and recorded data on the TV screen. If
the content of the video is designed in accordance with the teaching activities, it will really create
excitement for the learners. Because the video will bring learners to real information in life, helping
learners to have practical knowledge. In particular, learners have the opportunity to hear, feel and
imitate intonation, using the correct the context of native speakers. Besides, it is possible to take
advantage of the endless source of videos on Youtube to enrich English teaching activities. Teacher
and learner can also record themselves to create English teaching and learning data according to
specific goals.
3.4.4. Application of software for teaching and learning English
Teacher and learner can take advantage of available English software to carry out English teaching
and learning activities such as: Fun English, Monkey Junior, Duolingo… These programs are really
useful and free to use in case the computer with a network connection.
Applications on smartphone and tablet software: there are many softwares to support for learning
English such as: learn English grammar, Dictionary.com, Oxford dictionary, Quizlet, etc. These
applications really support for learners in the process of approaching English. In particular, the
learning process can take place anywhere, anytime with phones and tablets. In addition, some
softwares like Quizlet make learning fun and exciting with interaction games to test knowledge. This
application also allows learner to create their own learning program, to test and evaluate their English
ability.
There are many other IT applications that can be applied in classroom of English. However, the
choice of application must be considered in accordance with the level of each learner and the content
of instruction. In addition, it is necessary to guide and introduce learner to specific applications with
each learning content.
The application of IT in teaching English brings teacher and learner a lot of interest and makes the
lesson lively and more attractive. Thereby it increases the effectiveness of teaching and learning.
Therefore, we must make the use of English and the application of IT become regular and continuous
practice of teacher and learner. In order to do this, it is necessary to have adequate means and
investment of time, which leads to a lot of time and effort.
4. Conclusion
In fact, the application of IT in education in general and in English teaching in general is inevitable
because of the great benefits that these applications bring to both teacher and learner. In addition,
when learners are interested in learning through IT applications, they will find their own ways of
learning with high efficiency as well as pursue their own learning goals.
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The applying of IT in the teaching and learning process is an important and meaningful issue that
needs to be implemented quickly in the current period. Each teacher and learner should be aware of
the effectiveness and good application of IT for teaching and learning activities. Only then will we be
able to fulfill the goal of education at all levels with the highest efficiency.
In this article, we have only presented some applications of IT in the teaching and learning process in
general and in the teaching of English for learner in primary school in particular. Therefore, we hope
that there will be further studies to research the issue more comprehensively to improving the quality
of current teaching and learning activities. The widespread application of IT will promote a learning
environment with multi-dimensional, integration, creativity, it contributes to improve English
language ability for learners in the in the internationalization of education.
References
1. Acha, J. (2009) The effectiveness of multimedia programmes in children’s vocabulary learning.
British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(1), 23-31.
2. Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2001) Flexible learning in a digital world. Experiences and expectations.
London: Kogan Page.
3. Dao Thai Lai (2007) Applying information technology in teaching in Vietnamese high schools.
Institute of Strategy and Educational Programs.
4. Do Manh Cuong (2008) Textbook of applying information technology in teaching. Ho Chi Minh
City: National University of Ho Chi Minh City.
5. Hadibandhu Behera (2020) Role of Information Technology in Education System. International
Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), Volume 8, Issue 9, 3215-3220.
6. Nguyen Van Long (2016) Application of information technology in foreign language teaching:
From international experience to reality in Vietnam. VNU Science Journal: Educational Research,
32(2), 36-47.
7. Nomass, B. (2013) The impact of using technology in teaching English as a second language.
English language and Literature Studies, 3(1), 111-116.
8. Pho Duc Hoa, Ngo Quang Son (2008) Applying information technology in active teaching. Hanoi:
Education.
9. Prime Minister (2017) Decision No. 117/QDTTg approving the project “Strengthening IT
application in management and support for teaching-learning activities, scientific research,
contributing to improving the quality of education and training in the period 2016- 2020, with
orientation to 2025”, issued on January 25, 2017, Hanoi.
10. Saeed Ahmadi, Abdollah Keshavarzi, Moein Foroutan (2011) The Application of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) and its Relationship with Improvement in Teaching and
Learning. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 28 (2011) 475 – 480.

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO ONLINE ENGLISH LEARNING FOR
STUDENTS AT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM
Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, Le Thi Ngoc Diep, Nguyen Phuong Hoai
National Economics University
Corresponding author: Tel No: 0936588468, Email: honghanh@neu.edu.vn
Abstract
In the period of Vietnam's global economic integration, universities' top objective is to
maintain and improve the quality of education. When external forces such as pandemics, natural
disasters, and the consequences of wars and conflicts in the world cause socioeconomic fluctuation, it
is always vital to have timely solutions to overcome difficulties. Students at the National Economics
University (NEU) have recently had to adapt to online learning to study English. The transition from
face-to-face to online learning has generated issues and deficiencies, particularly for the English
subject, which has distinct requirements from those of other courses. To respond flexibly to changes
and challenges, it is essential to analyze, evaluate, and have solutions not just for the present but also
for similar situations and issues in the future. A survey (n = 158) among students of Intake 62 of the
Advanced Education Program at NEU showed the benefits and difficulties of online English learning.
In addition, based on the survey results, this paper provides recommendations for sustaining and
enhancing the quality of English learning not just for NEU students but also for higher education
students, and for promoting the effectiveness of the online approach to English study.
Keyword: NEU, online English learning
1. Introduction
1.1 Study background and rationale
The education system has been greatly influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic. Numerous
nations have shuttered schools to avoid the spread of the virus (UNESCO, 2020). In response to the
epidemic, the National Economics University (NEU) of Vietnam has used online learning rather than
face-to-face teaching. COVID-19's transition to online teaching and learning has both advantages and
disadvantages. Regarding online education, the field of information technology has achieved
significant advances. The Internet and intranet/external/satellite networks may be leveraged for e-
teaching and e-learning. Using audio-visual mediums such as interactive television and CD-ROM,
web-based education may employ web-based collaboration and knowledge transfer (Kelly & Bauer,
2004).
The Learning Management System (LMS), a software application that enables the management
and operation of a system of documents, instructions, monitoring, reporting, and the provision of
electronic education technologies (also known as online education or e-learning) for courses or
training programs, has been used at NEU since COVID-19 in Vietnam. Students at NEU used Zoom
and Microsoft Teams in addition to the LMS when learning English online. In addition to the LMS,
students at NEU used Zoom and Microsoft Teams to learn English online. Since the introduction of
social distance in the Advanced Education Program (AEP) at NEU, online English courses have been
available. Numerous studies are currently being conducted around the world to determine whether
virtual learning environments have beneficial or bad effects on student learning. This technology has
only recently been implemented at NEU, and this is only the second semester that AEP students have
taken an online English course. Thus, it is crucial to comprehend how these students feel and think
about this sort of teaching and learning and to analyze their perspectives on online English learning.
1.2 Objectives and research questions
489
As English teachers responsible for online English classes for students enrolled in the AEP
program's intake 62 (I62-AEP), we observe that while some students are already enthusiastic about
online learning, others are not. As such, we want to understand how students perceive virtual learning
environments, particularly in terms of their course-long comprehension, engagement, and motivation
to study. It is also essential to comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of online English
learning to make timely and appropriate adjustments to enhance the quality of learning and
instruction. To achieve the goals, the following research questions are raised: (1) What are the
advantages and disadvantages of online English learning for AEP I-62 students? (2) How might the
quality of online English learning for students be enhanced?
2.1 Definition of online learning
Anastasiades & Retalis (2001) classified e-learning into three types: fully online learning,
blended learning, and web-assisted. Fully online learning implies conducting all course portions
online, without any face-to-face interaction. This is not the case with entirely online learning, which is
unlike face-to-face learning, which permits face-to-face communication between students and
teachers. All teaching materials, assignments, and teaching and learning occur online (Young et al.,
2008). Furthermore, unlike face-to-face learning, which is generally teacher-directed and centered on
the teacher's area of expertise, fully online learning is self-directed and adaptable. Due to the self-
directed nature of fully online learning, it also seeks to accommodate learners' requirements, interests,
learning styles, skills, and objectives (Buzzetto & More, 2008). Asynchronous technologies are
utilized to support fully online learning, which has an asynchronous character. In this study, online
learning refers to learning that is conducted entirely online.
2.2 The strengths and weaknesses of online learning
Online learning has both benefits and cons. In terms of benefits, first, the learner can complete
course materials whenever and wherever he or she desires, so he or she can study from anywhere in
the world (McDonald, 1999-2000). Second, online learning has pedagogical advantages over
traditional face-to-face learning because it allows the incorporation of multimedia elements into
learning processes. Online learning allows the use of animations to illustrate concepts and issues that
are difficult to describe in traditional classroom settings, allowing for more accurate communication
and comprehension of complicated ideas and themes (Smart & Cappel, 2006). Online learning can
improve teaching and learning over face-to-face techniques (McEwen, 1997). Online education is
worldwide and saves time, money, and effort. Students can request that lecturers record online
classes. Teacher preparation for recording increases their educational strategies and skills. Students
can watch lectures whenever they want to learn more. However, not all students have dependable
internet access for face-to-face linguistics courses like phonetics and phonology. Some students had
network and equipment troubles. Access to online learning is easier now that students and teachers
can use mobile, computer, and web-based learning resources (Pellegrini at el., 2020). Today's learners
are natural-language speakers, according to Prensky (2001). Their virtual and digital engagement
increased. Contact with many sorts of technology has made today's learners active online learners
(Mohalik & Sahoo, 2020). IT and the COVID-19 epidemic are considered as solutions in times of
disaster and adversity.
2.3 Challenges and successful factors of online learning
Successful online learning aspects include academic, social, and student features, as well as the
involvement of teachers and educational assistance (Wolfinger, 2016). An online course's success
depends on a teacher's learning environment. Studies show that communication is key to creating an
effective online learning environment and motivating students to study (Chen, Bennett, & Maton,
490
2008; Martin & Parker, 2014; Zhang & Kenney, 2010). Choosing the right tools to help students
collaborate, discuss projects, and communicate with the teacher is key to online learning success.
Effective learning environments mix synchronous and asynchronous technologies. No one online
strategy has been determined to be the most effective for delivering course material. Teachers should
provide student-centered environments with clear guidelines and help and allow students to explore
them. Their knowledge can help them find answers and learn new skills and theoretical foundations,
all of which are goals of the course.
Participants: Seven I62-AEP English classes at NEU participated. Since COVID-19, these
students have taken two terms of online English and have never learnt online.
Research method: An online survey was utilized to evaluate English-language online learning
during the pandemic. The questionnaire has 25 multiple-choice items (21 open-ended questions
utilizing a five-liket scale and 4 open questions) that address the study's goals. The first section covers
students' impressions of online learning's effectiveness; the second section explores its benefits; the
third section analyzes its obstacles; and the fourth section offers solutions for enhancing it. Each part
includes an open-ended inquiry to elicit more online learning information from students. Validity and
dependability were checked.
Data collection procedure: NEU I62-AEP students were anonymously polled using Office 365
Form. Responses totaled 158. Due to the COVID-19's social distance, Office 365 Forms helped
collect replies quickly and efficiently. Each student might submit answers online using a smartphone,
tablet, or computer. All respondents could access the online survey.
4. Findings
Descriptive research methods were adopted in this research to analyze the collected data, and its
findings focus on four major aspects of online English learning during COVID-19 among students of
I62-AEP at NEU: the effectiveness, the advantages, the obstacles, and recommendations for
enhancing the quality of online learning. The effectiveness of online English learning was assessed on
a five-point scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." According to the results of the
survey, over seventy-five percent of students agree that the assignments, activities, materials,
approaches, and reference resources used by teachers when teaching English online are adequate.
Surprisingly, almost half of the respondents feel that skillful use of information technology may
facilitate discourse and involvement. There is a negligible amount of disagreement across all
variables, less than six percent.
The advantages of online English learning are shown in Figure 1. It is stated unequivocally that
more than 70% of respondents agree on the two advantages of online English education: the ease of
course assignments and the readily available course materials for students. The percentage of students
who are uncertain about “Online activities and online discussions encourage students to engage in
additional learning throughout the course” is more than 35%. There is a tiny number of students that
choose disagreement across all perks, with less than 12%, and particularly less than 5.3 percent and
2.6 percent for “Learning English online makes course tasks such as submitting assignments, getting
assignments, and doing other course activities more convenient for me.”
491
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
The ease of course The connection and The readily available The engagement in
assignments cooperation between course materials for learning
teachers and students students
strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree
Figure 1: The advantages of online English learning among AEP students

Figure 2 illustrates the difficulties associated with online English learning via the lens of four
primary factors: time commitment, Internet connection, material availability, and information access.
As can be seen, most students (87%) agree that online activities such as assignments and
conversations consume a significant amount of time. The second issue, which is shared by 76 percent
of respondents, is the difficulty in verifying information obtained from the internet. Over half of
students are unaware whether readily accessible resources influence their performance or not.
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Online activities like Occasionally, when I am The ease with which If you do not frequently
assignments and unable to access the materials may be shared, check information online,
discussions use a larger network, certain actions, accessed, and copied you risk being late,
proportion of my time. particularly locking and online may result in an missing important news,
discussion, may be underestimate of each or falling behind on
delayed or missing. student's abilities. unanticipated plans.
strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree
Figure 2: The advantages of online English learning among AEP students

Suggestions from students, teachers, and administrators were gathered in the survey. From the
students' viewpoint, strong IT skills are seen as the most critical element for successfully studying
online, with about 84% agreeing, followed by the importance of peer connection, and learning area,
with 82% and 74%, respectively. The results showed that 83% of the teachers believe that more
guidance and training for students on how to use technology successfully is required. Additionally,
over 80% of respondents believe that creating new teaching methods and integrating tactics are
important. In terms of administrators, more than 86% of respondents agreed that checking on and
assisting students on a timely basis is critical, while about 82% believe that channels or exchange
groups to assist one another should be established.
5. Discussion and recommendations

492
The findings demonstrated that students' responses to online English learning were diverse.
However, most respondents viewed online English learning favorably. Participating students agreed
that online English learning is advantageous. If students are unable to attend class, they may either
study specific lessons or review the content of the classes through recordings and materials published
on the website by the teacher. If they have a reliable internet connection, they may do the project in
their spare time from any location. In addition, they reported that their instructor's online materials are
readily accessible and that the applications used by their teacher, such as Quizzes, Nearpod, and
others, are enjoyable for them to use in English sessions. Teachers may use online learning to create
and disseminate learning resources for students, as well as offer language-practice exercises. They
appreciate the accessibility of online education, which they can access from anywhere and at any
time. However, the major issue that nearly all students experience while studying English online is a
poor internet connection. According to the result of Ekmekci's (2016) research, access to the internet
is the biggest disadvantage of online learning, because not all students have access to a constant
internet connection. This causes a pause in the students' enthusiastic participation in class.
Some suggestions are made considering the research results. First, for students, each student
needs to create an online study space in their home, depending on their circumstances. It is critical to
maintain additional relationships with classmates to exchange information, remind one another of
dates and times, find papers, and offer other ad hoc help, as well as troubleshoot. Students must be
able to understand and use the databases, connections, and information channels that are supplied and
used only for the purposes of the course. Second, for teachers, they must be more creative in selecting
resources, apps, and updating teaching methods, as well as creating new teaching approaches and
integrating ways to enhance students' willingness to study online. The difficulties teachers have had in
choosing resources that not only suit students' needs and growth but also encourage students' interest
in classes, motivate them, and assist them in meeting learning goals. Additionally, teachers are urged
to be more engaged with their students throughout the online learning process. Additional guidance
and instruction for students who are still uncertain about how to use technology effectively while
studying online Finally, administrators must keep an eye on and help students who do not get news,
notifications, or changes in a timely manner, or who do not show up on time for class, especially
when they are taking exams. For students, this means creating channels and exchange groups among
students to supplement each other. Considering the internet connection is a primary barrier to online
learning, the university and department should offer internet access to facilitate technology integration
in the classroom.
6. Conclusion
The key finding of this study is that students in AEP I62 at NEU perceive online learning to be
advantageous. This ability to study from anywhere in the world is a benefit of online learning over
traditional face-to-face learning, as it is not possible during the COVID-19 epidemic for traditional
face-to-face learning. In addition, this study reveals that students believe they have a greater
opportunity to experiment with various techniques of language learning when they learn English
online. As a result of technological improvements, adolescents have access to a variety of exciting
app-based activities. In addition, this study demonstrates that online education is perceived as simple
and convenient. The majority of students agree that online English learning is just as beneficial as
face-to-face learning in a variety of ways. They would benefit more from online learning during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
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Holsapple (Ed.), Handbook on knowledge management 2: Knowledge directions (pp. 511–532).
Berlin, Germany: Springer.
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11(1), 17-36.

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494
FACTORS AFFECTING THE QUALITY OF BLENDED COURSES IN
SOME UNIVERSITIES IN THE COVID TIME
M.A. Nguyen Hong Mai
Faculty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam
Corresponding author: Email: mainh@ftu.edu.vn
Abstract
The COVID 19 epidemic has had a significant impact on the global education system, as well as in
Vietnam. For continuous learning, a variety of blended courses have emerged as an alternative to
face-to-face courses. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of four major groups of
factors affecting the quality of these courses during the epidemic period, namely student
characteristics, teacher characteristics, information technology, and learning materials. 231 online
student questionnaires were distributed for more than ten universities, revealing a strong relationship
between these factors and the quality of blended courses.
Keywords: blended learning courses, covid 19, course quality
1. Introduction
Concept of blended learning courses
A blended course consists of face-to-face class sessions supplemented by blended materials and
activities—basically a "blend" of live and blended learning. The blended materials in a blended course
are not meant to "replace" face-to-face class time; rather, they are meant to supplement and build on
the content discussed in the classroom.
Because class materials are easily accessible to students thanks to the widespread use of learning
management systems such as Canvas, the blended course approach has become very popular.
Instructors frequently use blended courses to post articles, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and interactive
blended activities for students to participate in outside of face-to-face class time.
Blended learning is a pedagogical approach that combines face-to-face instruction with information
technology (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004; Williams, 2002). Blended learning courses have been widely
implemented in higher education institutions worldwide over the last decade, particularly in the field
of health profession education (Frenk et al., 2010). In light of the COVID-19 global pandemic,
institutions are increasing their use of BLPs or transitioning to blended and remote learning formats if
they have not already done so (Ehrlich, McKenney, & Elkbuli, 2020).
2. Theoretical background
According to Mungania, learning barriers are obstacles encountered in the learning process (at the
beginning, during and after the training course) that can negatively impact the learning experience of
learners. In this study, we investigate four factors affecting the quality of blended learning courses
during the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam: information quality, course content, teachers
characteristics and learners characteristic
2.1 Information quality
Currently, there are two main challenges in blended learning: the demand for overall interoperability
and the request for high quality. However, quality can’t be defined and set by a simple definition,
since in itself quality is a very Abstract notion. In fact, it is much easier to notice the absence of
quality than its presence (Alex, Michael, & Peter, 1994). According to Alkhattabi, M., Neagu, D., &
Cullen, A., it is common to define information quality on the Internet by identifying the main
495
dimensions of the quality. For that purpose information quality frameworks are widely used to
identify the important quality dimensions as described by Porter (Porter, 1991).
Wong's research has discovered some limitations of the curriculum: “Technological limitations,
learners limitations and other limitations. For individual learners, the use of new technologies can be a
drawback or barrier in an blended learning program. The shortage of information, communication
skills, and technology can be a barrier to blended learning as learners could be bored of this unique
learning environment.”
2.2 Blended course quality
According to Kontogeorgos (2012), the term is extended to reveal a group of features, which form
into a Gestalt, offering a whole representation of an individual, a system, a process, or a product.
Importantly, quality doesn’t equal perfection, as it merely provides a means to measure the
satisfaction of certain criteria and requirements / standards which ensure it. Therefore, it is recognized
as “a never-ending journey” (Sârbu, Ilie, Enache, & Dumitriu, 2009; Schindler, Puls-Elvidge,
Welzant, & Crawford, 2015). Belardo et al. (1982) used reliability, time interval, simple use, and
simple learning. Bailey and Pearson (1983) used convenience of access, flexibility of the system,
integration of the system, and time interval. Franz and Robey (1986) used perceived usefulness of the
IS. Seddon (1997) used reliability, user interface consistency, simple use, documentation quality and
maintainability of program code.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) condensed ten factors into the seminal SERVQUAL scale,
which includes the appearance of facilities, equipment, and personnel, collectively referred to as
“tangibles”; the willingness to assist customers and supply fast services, collectively referred to as
“responsiveness”; the ability to perform the committed services correctly and trustfully referred to as
“reliability”; and the accessibility, easy to contact, and always strive to understand the customers and
their needs, collectively referred to as “empathy”.
2.3 Teacher characteristics
Selim H. M. (2007) argued that instructors' attitudes toward interactive learning were the most
important success factor in comparison to other factors such as control of technology, teaching style,
students' computer competencies, interactive collaboration, course content, design, access,
infrastructure, and support. Boyd (2008) also concluded that faculty’s response as well as students'
judgments of the timeliness and quality of instructor feedback had a major impact on the perceived
success of the course when students in blended classrooms do not have the opportunity to interact
with instructors face to face.
Mtebe (2014) found that poor ICT infrastructure, a low level of internet connectivity, and an
insufficient quantity of computers were all hindrances in his study on the difficulties of Instructors'
Intention to Adopt and Use Open Educational Resources in Tanzanian Higher Education. Instructor
characteristics such as self-efficacy, attitude toward e-learning, experience, and motivators or
incentives for instructors were found to play a crucial influence in determining quality in a study by
Busaidi & Alshihi (2010).
The NMC Horizon Report (2017) covers the development of skills and knowledge using digital tools,
along with collaborative learning, blended learning, assessing learning outcomes, and other in-depth
learning trends (Adams Becker et al., 2017). Cheng et al. (2019) and Peltier et al. (2007) also
recommended a few aspects of successful e-learning: communication between students, teachers and
students, course design, course content, teaching quality, and administrator support. Teachers and
students connect directly in a traditional classroom setting (Martinez-Argüelles & Batalla-Busquet,
2016). Nonetheless, e-learning offers a wide range of possibilities, including multimedia for teaching
and learning in order to accomplish desired results (Sara-badani et al., 2017). Interaction with peers in
an e-learning system also improves the quality of learning (Goh et al., 2017).
496
2.4 Learners characteristics
With the increased use of technologies for teaching and learning, there is a renewed demand for (a) a
better understanding of student characteristics that influence learning and (b) effective instruction
design. According to Baxter (2012), involvement through the use of social networking technologies
such as Facebook can help students retain and progress in e-learning by facilitating social and
academic integration and building early strong interpersonal links between staff, students, and their
peers. In e-learning, how instructors perceive students and how students connect with each other may
promote self-confidence. Positive past learning experiences, such as passing modules, boosted e-
learning students' confidence, according to Baxter.
Kuo et al., (2013) confirmed these findings by mentioning that learner - learner interaction enhanced
student satisfaction in e-learning as it acted as a two-way reciprocal communication between or
among learners who exchange information, knowledge, thoughts, or ideas regarding course content.
Apart from interactions, Kuo claims that internet self-efficacy, or one's ability to organize and carry
out Internet-related actions required to complete assigned tasks, has a beneficial impact on learner
satisfaction, and hence achievement and consistency in e-learning.
According to studies by Hartnett (2016), Bonk and Khoo (2014), Learner motivation (intrinsic and
extrinsic) is pivotal to learners' success in an blended coursework environment. Learner motivation
(intrinsic and extrinsic) can influence their decisions to stay in or drop out of a course, their level of
engagement in the course, the quality of the work, and their level of achievement in the blended
course.
3. Methodology
Due to the Covid epidemic situation, many Vietnamese universities have switched to blended
learning, so students have had a long experience with this type of learning. With the situation
favorable for research, our research team has implemented a plan to learn about the quality of blende
learning for freshmen at some universities in Hanoi.
An 43- item online questionnaires were divided into 6 main items to measure the quality of blended
learning course. Specifically, items include general information of survey respondents, information
quality of blended learning courses, quality of blended learning courses, teacher characteristics,
student scores, preferences of learners with blended learning courses.
Specifically, our team sent out invitations and questionnaires to freshmen who had completed at least
one blended course to participate in the survey. The invitation letter explains the purpose of this study
and encourages students to participate in the survey to improve the quality of university blended
learning services. Within a month, 238 students had returned the completed questionnaires.
Participants responded to the questions on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 =
strongly agree). After examining the content of these responses, 231 satisfactory questionnaires were
used to analyze the data used for qualitative determination of the blended courses.
We have researched openly and honestly. All figures are fully substantiated and they are used solely
for non-profit research. The students were also asked to answer seriously and willingly. These
questionnaires therefore objectively represent freshmen's feelings based on their most recent blended
learning experience.

4.1 Gender, number of e-courses, platforms
Gender
Most of the students (70%) who completed the questionnaire were female. However, there was no
statistically significant difference between the results collected from females and their counterparts.
497
Therefore, it advances the idea that gender does not considerably influence the quality of blended
learning.
The number of e-courses
Approximately more than half of those who were asked had completed up to three courses blended.
As can be deduced from the figure, the number of students who took from four to five courses
approximate that of those who enrolled in six to eight courses. Sixteen students were observed to have
completed at least ten e-courses, which takes account of nearly seven percent of the statistics.
Platforms
18 and 31 percent of Zoom and other platforms respectively, Microsoft Teams prevails accounting for
more than half of all the platforms recorded. Therefore, the data has recognised the dominance of the
platform Microsoft Teams, which significantly contributes to the quality of blended learning.
4.2 Factors affecting the quality of Blended learning
Information Quality
Students as a whole agreed with the Information quality of Blended learning (Appendix 1) (3.49).
F1.7 received the most satisfaction (3.85), followed by F1.6 (3.84). F1.5, on the other hand, garnered
the least support from the students. Moreover, survey participants said that they often experienced
network problems while studying blended. Although students are still hesitant with the aspect that
their university’s Blended learning course accurately reflects their learning outcomes and the status of
the network when studying, they do not deny the quality of information that Blended learning
provides, such as setting up websites, updating information or exchanging lessons with their teachers
and partners.
Table 1: Information Quality
NOo Content N Min Max Mean Std.
F1 Information Quality 231 1.00 5.00 3.49 0.98
F1.1 You feel secure in providing personal information for e- 231 1.00 5.00 3.45 0.95
transactions through my university's blended learning
website
F1.2 The information on your university's blended learning 231 1.00 5.00 3.50 0.98
website is up-to-date
F1.3 My university's blended learning course website provides 231 1.00 5.00 3.65 0.88
with valuable information
F1.4 Your university's blended learning course website allows 231 1.00 5.00 3.61 0.93
you to find information easily
F1.5 Your university's blended learning course accurately 231 1.00 5.00 2.92 1.05
reflects your learning result
F1.6 The layout of the information at your university's blended 231 1.00 5.00 3.84 0.93
learning website is easy to install
F1.7 The layout of the information at your university's blended 231 1.00 5.00 3.85 0.89
learning website is easy to utilize
F1.8 You can easily exchange learning with teachers when 231 1.00 5.00 3.32 1.07
studying blended
F1.9 You can easily exchange learning with your classmates 231 1.00 5.00 3.25 1.11
when studying blended
F1.10 You often experience network problems while studying 231 1.00 5.00 3.32 1.15
blended
498
Blended learning course materials
Factor 2 shows Blended learning course quality. While students agreed more with the factors from
F2.5 to F2.8, in which the factor F2.6 had the most agreement (3.56), the factor F2.2 received the
most answers that students did not have any decisions (3.13). As a result, students were quite satisfied
with the elements of assignments, materials, and course design. However, there was little consensus
on the elements of exams or skills when studying blended.
Table 2: Blended learning course materials
F2 Blended learning course materials 230 1.00 5.00 3.30 0.90
F2.1 The supporting modules given in blended learning for the 231 1.00 5.00 3.18 0.91
content are simple to understand
F2.2 Students are developed their critical thinking, analysis and 231 1.00 5.00 3.13 0.96
problem-solving when learning blended
F2.3 Your university's blended learning course assignments 231 1.00 5.00 3.29 1.05
exams are reasonable in length
F2.4 Your university's blended learning course assignments 231 1.00 5.00 3.28 1.01
exams are reasonably difficult
F2.5 The course design is suitable for the blended learning 231 1.00 5.00 3.55 0.89
F2.6 Assignments are designed in accordance with e - learning 231 1.00 5.00 3.56 0.91
F2.7 Your university's blended learning course materials are 231 1.00 5.00 3.41 0.92
useful
F2.8 Your university's blended learning course materials are 231 1.00 5.00 3.51 0.89
up-to-date
F2.9 The study materials help you achieve the learning results 231 1.00 5.00 3.25 0.91
you want
Instructor characteristics
Factor 3, which is Instructor characteristics, had the most agreement from students among 4 factors
(3.71). F3.7 and F3.6 were ranked first and second, respectively (4.00 and 3.97). Besides, F3.1 and
F3.2 also obtained the same level of satisfaction (3.71). Even though the students agreed with F3.4 at
least (3.66), this was not an insignificant total figure. Therefore, even while teaching blended, teachers
performed a good job of educating and answering students' queries, and they adjusted to the situation
fast when using proficient Blended learning platforms.
Table 3: Teacher characteristics

F3 Teacher characteristics 231 1.00 5.00 3.71 0.88
F3.1 Teachers are proficient in the use of the blended learning 231 1.00 5.00 3.71 0.88
platform
F3.2 Teachers are proficient in the use of tools that help with 231 1.00 5.00 3.71 0.84
blended learning
F3.3 Blended learning facilitate instructors in precise 231 1.00 5.00 3.77 0.89
conducting of summative assessments
F3.4 Your university's blended learning instructors consistently 231 1.00 5.00 3.66 0.86
provide quality lectures
F3.5 Your university's blended learning instructors are well 231 1.00 5.00 3.73 0.85
499
prepared and organized
F3.6 The instructors encourage you to join groups 231 1.00 5.00 3.97 0.79
F3.7 The instructors encourage you to participate in the self- 231 1.00 5.00 4.00 0.79
study process
F3.8 Your university's blended learning instructors quickly and 231 1.00 5.00 3.88 0.86
efficiently respond to student needs
Learner characteristics
The data on Learner characteristics, which come last, is the most diverse. F4.1 acquired the most
agreement (3.68), followed by F4.5 (3.39). Students, on the other hand, were most unwilling about
Factor 4. They did not know whether Blended learning supported them to improve their interactions
with professors and peers. The fact that Blended learning can assist them to boost their learning
motivation was also not well accepted by pupils (2.87).
Table 4: Learner characteristics
F4 Learner Characteristics 231 1.00 5.00 3.16 0.90
F4.1 Blended learning helps students improve their computer 231 1.00 5.00 3.68 0.89
skills
F4.2 Enhanced motivation and learning style provided by the 231 1.00 5.00 2.87 0.97
blended learning
F4.3 You can interact with your classmates constantly when 231 1.00 5.00 2.63 1.07
learning blended
F4.4 You can interact with teachers constantly when learning 231 1.00 5.00 2.79 1.07
blended
F4.5 Blended learning helps you improve your teamwork skills 231 1.00 5.00 3.39 1.02
Overall, with data that was not too dissimilar, all four factors got consent from survey participants.
The factor that generated the highest pleasure (4.00) was that instructors encourage students to
participate in the self-study process; however, students' interactions with classmates were not
improved when they received little consent most (2.63). Although students' engagement and skill
development such as critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving are better trained directly at
school than blended, Blended learning can still be developed and improved to better serve students'
learning. In particular, the transmission line's quality should be improved so that class time is not
disrupted, and the learning results should be reviewed more completely to represent the students'
abilities. Furthermore, the exams should be more suitable in length and difficulty for students.
5. Conclusion
Several factors influence the quality of blended courses, but we cannot ignore the importance of the
four sets of factors outlined above in determining their overall effectiveness. Despite the fact that each
component has a unique impact on the quality of blended course instruction, the findings of this study
can be used as a starting point for future research into other related factors. Other data collection
methods, such as interviews and classroom observations, can be used in this study for further
information.
500
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Tomorrow's Education. Commission of the European Communities.

[STS22-62]
501
ONLINE EDUCATION AND STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT DURING
THE COVID 19 TIME
M.A Tran Kim Ngan
Falcuty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University, Ha Noi, Vietnam
Corresponding author: Email: ngantk@ftu.edu.vn
Abstract
Online education has grown significantly and is expected to continue increasing rapidly in the future
as technology breakthroughs advance. There is obviously a push toward online learning, which
demands the need for greater empirical evidence on effective learning and learner achievement. This
study examined the impact of demographics (age, gender, employment/unemployment, and computer
efficacy); Internet self-efficacy; satisfaction (student-student, student-instructor, and student-content
interaction); and the reasons for students' online education preferences on their achievement. The
findings revealed a favorable relationship between students' preferences for online education and their
achievement scores as determined by their final test scores.
Keywords: Online learning, students achivement, students factors
1. The relationship between online education preferences and student’s achivement

It's not as straightforward to examine disparities in student learning in online environments as it is in
traditional ones. There are numerous constructs that have been shown to be significant determinants
of academic achievement in online learning environments (OLEs). And other researchers have
defined these conceptions or components differently (Lim, Morris, and Yoon, 2006; Yukselturk &
Bulut, 2007). Schrum and Hong (2002), for example, established and validated seven categories that
were critical for successful online learners: access to resources, technology experience, learning
preferences, study habits and abilities, objectives or reasons, lifestyle variables, and personal qualities
and characteristics.
If this does not occur, a pre-course orientation for first-time virtual students is recommended by
Roblyer, Davis, Mills, Marshall, and Pape (2008). In fact, this should be a prerequisite in all virtual
schools. They also discovered that field independent learners were more successful than field
dependent learners in their study evaluating the impact of e-learning and cognitive style on
achievement and perceived Internet self-efficacy.
Other factors affecting students' achievement in OLEs include gender, age, employment or
unemployment, learners' Internet or computer self-efficacy, their traits and learning styles, and so on.
To engage successfully in online learning, online learners are expected to possess a particular degree
of technical abilities, prior computer experience, and knowledge (Wojciechowski & Palmer, 2005).
If this is not possible, as Roblyer, Davis, Mills, Marshall, and Pape propose, it is critical to provide a
pre-course orientation for first-time virtual students (2008). Indeed, all virtual institutions should
make this a requirement. In their study of the impact of e-learning and cognitive style on achievement
and perceived Internet self-efficacy, Güngör and Akar (2004) discovered that field independent
learners were more effective than field dependent learners.
Due to the isolated nature of the online learning environment, the ability of online learners to self-
regulate, self-monitor their learning and resources, self-awareness of motivation, and
cognitive/metacognitive methods is critical. Self-regulation is defined as "self-generated ideas,
attitudes, and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to achieve personal objectives"
(Zimmerman, 2000, p. 14). It was also asserted that OLEs necessitate self-directed learning, which
allows for greater customization and adaptability. The effective learners in distant education programs
502
exhibit a high level of motivation, maturity, and self-discipline, and self-efficacy for remote education
was found to be positively connected with students' academic progress. Similarly, Lim (2001) found
that the sole significant predictor of accomplishment in her study was self-efficacy in computer
knowledge.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the following variables on student
achievement: demographics (age, gender, employed/unemployed status, computer knowledge);
Internet self-efficacy; interaction (student-student, student-instructor, student-content); and the
reasons for students' preference for online education. Unlike earlier studies on online student
accomplishment, this study focuses on the impact of students' online education preferences on their
achievement.
2. Method
This study was to find out the relationship between various student characteristics and achievement in
an online course. It employed a correlational study design to explain important human behaviors and
to investigate the correlations between variables (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000). As a result, the data for
the analysis was collected quantitatively.
2.1. The participants of the study
Students participating in an online elementary-level English language course taught exclusively
through a Learning Management System were included in this study. The convenience sampling
method was used by the researchers in this study. The convenience sample, according to Fraenkel and
Wallen (2000), is the sample that is easily accessible. Originally, 500 students enrolled in the course;
however, this study included only those who volunteered to participate in the study (N=158). The
number of male participants (N= 95) outnumbered the number of female participants (N=63), with
individuals ranging in age from 18 to 35. The bulk of the participants were between the ages of 18 and
25 (76%). Furthermore, roughly half of the students worked part-time or full-time (50%).
2.2. Data collection
The 2020-2021 fall semester data were obtained from students enrolled in an Online English
Language Course through a distance education program at a public university in the North of Viet
Nam. Numerous online questionnaires were used to obtain data. At the start of the semester, data on
student demographics, reasons for preferring online education, and internet self-efficacy were
gathered; at the end of the semester, course evaluations (satisfaction with accomplishment ratings)
were obtained. Nine independent variables were extracted from the collected data (four categorical:
gender, age, employment/unemployment status, and computer efficacy level; and five continuous:
Internet self-efficacy, reasons for students' preference for online education, student-student
interaction, student-content interaction, and student-instructor interaction). The dependent variable,
the final test results of the pupils, was retrieved.
The factors Internet self-efficacy (self-efficacy), reasons for students' preferences for online education
(preferences), interactions (student-student, student-content, and student-instructor), and achievement
scores are listed in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, students showed a high perceived level of Internet
self-efficacy (mean = 59.7 out of 65) and a low desire for online education (mean = 29.6 out of 50).
Additionally, the majority of students believed they interacted with their classmates (mean = 36.1 out
of 50), with the topic (mean = 39.8 out of 50), and with the teacher (mean = 44 out of 50).
503
Table 1: descriptive statistics of independent variables
Predictors N Range Min Max Mean Std
Self- efficacy 158 41 24 65 59.7 6.1

Preferences 158 36 14 50 29.6 8.3
s-s interaction 158 36 15 50 36.1 7.9
s-c interaction 158 37 19 55 39.8 7.2
s-t interaction 158 50 10 50 44 6.4
Final grade 158 90 8 96 52.2 19.4
There are numerous studies in the literature that examine the aspects that contribute to online learners'
achievement. These variables may be classified as follows: Individual qualities such as preferences,
technical skills, and requirements; self-regulated learning strategies such as self-efficacy, self-
regulation, and self-awareness; and motivational factors such as intrinsic and extrinsic goal
orientation, locus of control. student-student, student-content, and student-teacher interaction;
(Blocher, Montes, Willis, & Tucker, 2002; Ergul, 2004; Schrum & Hong, 2002; Wojciechowski &
Palmer, 2005; Yukselturk & Bulut, 2007). It is well-known that online learners are expected to behave
differently than traditional learners to succeed in OLEs, as OLEs lack the facilities and standards
associated with traditional face-to-face learning settings, and frequently impose an additional load on
the learners. Thus, much more research is required to ascertain the requirements and characteristics of
online learners, as well as the elements that contribute to their success. The current study assessed a
variety of student characteristics and their associations with achievement in an online course. This
objective was accomplished by examining the effect of nine learner characteristics on students'
achievement in an online course. These factors included gender, age, employment status, computer
efficacy level, Internet self-efficacy, reasons for preferring online education, student-student, student-
content, and student instructor interactions. The findings demonstrated a positive association between
students' motivations for choosing online education and their accomplishment as judged by their final
test scores. Additionally, the regression analysis revealed that preferences related to achievement were
the sole variable that influenced the regression equation in the online course regression studies. This
explained approximately 5.1 percent of the variation in students' final grades.
According to Rovai, Ponton, Wighting, and Baker (2007), the benefits of online learning include ease
of access, flexibility in teaching and learning methodologies, and increased educational opportunities
for students. Online courses are frequently claimed as a solution to time constraints, travel costs, and
competing job schedules associated with face-to-face education. Other benefits of online education
include individualized instruction, the use of interactive learning materials (Gratton-Lavoie & Stanley,
2009), the convenience or flexibility with which one can study, and a more student-centered approach
to learning (Broadley & Trinadad, 2008; Murray, Casey, & Fraser, 2007).
According to research, these benefits have a major impact on students' preferences for online learning.
Like earlier findings about the benefits of online learning over face-to-face learning, this study
suggests that the reasons behind students' preference for online learning may have a significant impact
on their achievement. That is, students who favored online education due to some of the benefits
outperformed others. As a result, students who are more willing and determined to participate in an
online learning experience while taking use of some of its benefits are predicted to perform better. As
a result, it is assumed that when online learners begin an online course, they first check to see if the
course or program matches their expectations, which are likely to influence their success. If students'
expectations are not satisfied, they are unlikely to complete the online course/program successfully. In
504
this regard, Chyung (2001) proposed online learner tracking, which refers to the notion that students'
early active participation in online courses predicts their success. It is claimed that students who are
active in the first few weeks of class are more likely to succeed in the course, and disengagement
behavior is most likely to occur in the first few weeks of the course (Chyung 2001). This conclusion
could be related to the fact that students are more likely to drop out of a course once their expectations
are not met. Similarly, Wang and Newlin (2002) recommend that online teachers analyze why
students join in their programs and actively monitor their students' on-line, course-related behavior.
Students' early habits, according to them, are linked to their grades.
4. Conclusion
It is well-known that not all students will succeed in an educational environment, even more so in an
online environment. They are unable to complete the course requirements and ultimately fail the
course as a result of their expectations not being realized. Meeting learners' expectations, such as
providing a flexible and personalised learning environment that is engaging, user-friendly, easily
available, and effective, is critical to their success. Any organization seeking to boost participation in
and qualification for its online courses or programs should focus on increasing and maintaining
student happiness and producing successful graduates. Similarly, any designer interested in creating a
competent and effective online course should prioritize satisfying learners' preferences, expectations,
and needs. The current study may be beneficial in identifying characteristics of successful and high-
risk students in online education, as well as contributing to drop-out research. It is claimed that by
early intervention, high-quality online learning environments may be established.
References
1. Lim, D. H., Morris, M. L. & Yoon, S. W., (2006). Combined effect of instructional and learner
variables on course outcomes within an online learning environment. Journal of Interactive
Online Learning, 5(3), 255-269.
2. Roblyer, M. D., Davis, L., Mills, S., Marshall, J., & Pape, L. (2008). Toward practical procedures
for predicting and promoting success in virtual school students. The American Journal of
Distance Education, 22(2), 90-109.
3. Schrum, L. & Hong, S. (2002). From the field: characteristics of successful tertiary online
4. students and strategies of experienced online educators. Education and Information Technologies
7(1), 5-1
5. Yukselturk, E. & Bulut S. (2007) Predictors for Student Success in an Online Course,
Educational Technology & Society,10(2), 71-83.
6. Wojciechowski, A. & Palmer, L.B (2005) Individual student characteristics: can any be
predictors of success in online classes? Online Journal of Distance Learning Education 8(2).
7. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective.
8. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13-39).
9. New York: Academic Press.

[STS22-63]
505
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ONLINE ENGLISH TEACHING OF
ENGLISH TEACHERS AT ECONOMICS UNIVERSITIES IN
VIETNAM
Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh1*, Le Thi Huyen2
1
National Economics University, Hanoi
2
Foreign Trade University, Hanoi
*Corresponding Author: 0936588468, email: honghanh@neu.edu.vn
Abstract
The paper examines the influence factors of online English teaching on English teachers at some
economics universities in Vietnam. The main objective of this paper is to analyze and discuss the
challenges facing teachers in online English teaching. The survey conducted shows that although the
teachers enjoy their online working experience, they frequently work longer hours without receiving
additional compensation when teaching online, resulting in a demotivated mindset and decreased
work efficiency, less interaction between students with teachers and lowering teachers’ motivation.
Based on the survey research findings, this paper makes some recommendations for teachers at
economics universities in particular, and English teachers in tertiary education in general, to improve
the quality of teaching and learning English online, such as providing a professional working
environment, technical support for teachers, and students’ training.
Keywords: online English teaching, English teachers, tertiary education
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Many aspects of global civilization have been turned upside down as a result of the COVID-
19 epidemic (Impay, 2020). Every aspect of life has been influenced, including education systems
around the world, which have seen some unexpected developments. Institutions and educational
institutions around the world have been shut down as a precautionary measure to try and slow the
spread of the epidemic (UNESCO, 2020). It is because of COVID-19 that compulsory teachers at
universities quickly accept and implement the use of technology in order to succeed in this
challenging time. Traditional on-campus classes have been phased out in favor of online alternatives
at many universities. There are many countries throughout the world that use virtual or online
education, and it can be more successful in situations like the COVID-19 outbreak, which we are
currently experiencing. In the wake of COVID-19, tertiary education has seen an abrupt change to
online pedagogy, which has both advantages and disadvantages. As a result, teachers will have to deal
with obstacles as they transition to online teaching.
1.2 Rationale, objectives and research questions
Online education is largely acknowledged as being critical to the future of higher education,
and it has grown in popularity over the last two decades in this sector (Allen & Seaman, 2014). Online
education has become a significant part of postsecondary education because of the accessibility of
access to the internet and the customization of online courses (Luyt, 2013). In light of the benefits it
provides to teachers, students, and institutions, online education has gained a lot of attention (Konetes,
2011). Numerous empirical studies were conducted on online courses’ quality (Ko & Rossen, 2010;
Limperos, et al., 2015). For online teachers, conducting an ever-expanding study to discover these
difficulties is a demanding endeavor (Mayes, Luebeck, Yu Ku, Akarasriworn, & Korkmaz, 2011).
Teachers need to be made aware of the concerns and adaptations necessary for online learning
and teaching due to recurrent complaints about online course dropout rates (Luyt, 2013, Morris, Xu,
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and Finnegan, 2005; Tyler-Smith, 2006). It was decided to investigate the most important issues and
best practices in online education and teaching at some economics universities. Courses are also being
taught online using tools like LMS, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams since COVID-19 occurred in
Vietnam. The university's English courses could also be taken online. English teachers in charge of
students' online English teaching observe that, despite their best efforts, teachers still face a number of
difficulties. Thus, the aim of the research is to discover what obstacles English teachers have when
teaching online and how they might be overcome. To accomplish the aforementioned objectives, the
following research questions are posed: (1) What are the factors influencing English teachers at
economics universities in online English teaching? (2) What should be done to support English
teachers to adapt to the online teaching transformation?
This review of the literature focuses on the difficulties that tertiary teachers experience as
they move from face-to-face teaching to online teaching, including issues such as shifting teachers’
roles, online time management, and technology.
Online learning and teaching: Fully online learning is one sort of e-learning, while blended
learning and web-assisted education are the other two (Anastasiades & Retalis, 2001). There can be
no face-to-face interaction during the entire process of taking a fully online course. There is no body
language or usual face-to-face contact between students and teachers in entirely online teaching,
unlike offline traditional learning. Online access is required for all course materials, tasks, and student
participation (Young, et al, 2008).
Changes in lecturing role: The teacher's role has changed dramatically as a result of online
education (Coppola, Hiltz, & Rotter, 2001; Syverson & Slatin, 2010). Online educators have four
distinct roles to play: instructional, social, management, and technological. Pedagogical functions
include teaching methods, social interactions, and administrative and organizational duties. Examples
of technical responsibilities include technical obligations. Online instruction's principal means of
achieving its educational goals is through pedagogical tasks (Robertson, 2000). A new function has
been assigned to the teaching staff: facilitators of the transition from education centered on lectures to
education focusing on students. Lecture-style instruction is no longer confined to the classroom but
instead requires teachers to adapt to their students' online environments and impart knowledge in a
manner reminiscent of a lecture (Coppola et al., 2001).
Transitioning from face-to-face to online: There is still considerable effort to be done in
transferring classroom knowledge to an online context. According to Anderson, Imdieke, and
Standerford (2011), one of the major roadblocks was the disconnect between how teachers were
prepared to teach and how course content must be delivered in a successful online classroom. Despite
the fact that this mismatch is not new, some programs may not have kept up with the rapid
developments in online educational environments. Without visual and face-to-face contact with
students, teachers may struggle to communicate content or engage students, resulting in a loss of
control over the structure of their lessons. Among the additional difficulties Anderson et al. (2011)
face is a lack of institutional expectations for their online courses. Without defined standards and
expectations for teachers to follow, there is no way to determine the effectiveness of online study.
2.2 Factors affecting online learning and teaching
Time management: Teachers face a number of challenges, one of which is the time
commitment required to prepare for, arrange, and conduct an online course (Capra, 2011; Humphries,
2010). As institutions must devote two times as much time to preparing for and teaching online as
they do in person, the amount of time spent on each student is higher. Another thing to consider is that
one economics professor who teaches both online and in person found that preparing for and actually
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teaching the course online took more than twice the time of doing it face-to-face (Cavanaugh, 2005).
Even the smallest online programs require the same amount of time as their in-person counterparts, so
it's crucial to keep that in mind. Due to the time limits on course development, design, and facilitation,
teachers who are interested in giving online courses may be deterred from doing so. Additional
compensation for teachers' additional time may also encourage them to teach online.
Teachers' apprehension about teaching online: The majority of teachers who like to teach
face-to-face are not interested in teaching online (Osika, Johnson, & Buteau, 2009). It is difficult for
many teachers to adapt to online classrooms because they have taught face-to-face for so long.
Uncertainty about the unknown or an inability to develop personal ties with students while working
online could be to responsible for this unease. Due to educators' fear of the unknown at the time,
many believed that computers would someday replace them in the classroom. If a teacher is
conversant with technology and thinks online education is beneficial, they are more likely to want to
teach online.
Technology: Faculty communication that is ineffective because to language barriers, as well
as communication via a variety of technical means, are communication issues (Limperos et al., 2015).
The shifting roles of faculty members have an effect on how they communicate with their students. In
a face-to-face classroom, teachers are guided by students' verbal and nonverbal interactions (Coppola
et al., 2001). When teachers are unable to observe their pupils' facial expressions, it becomes more
difficult to comprehend these emotional cues (Crawley et al., 2009). To be effective online educators,
teachers must understand how to use technology. As a result, it is believed that providing sufficient
training to teachers on cutting-edge technology could assist in resolving technical issues associated
with online education.
3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
Sixty-one English teachers were polled at three economics universities in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Teachers have been active in online English teaching as part of COVID-19 for the last one to two
years. They have no prior knowledge of how to provide classroom instruction over the internet. Table
1 summarizes the demographic characteristics of the participants.
Table 1. Participant demographic information
Items Number (n=61) Percent (%)
Age 23-35 years old 9 14.8
36-50 years old 48 78.7
51+ years old 4 6.6
Gender Male 26 42.6
Female 34 57.4
Teaching 1-5 years 3 5
experience 6-10 years 9 15
11-15 years 37 61.7
>16 years 11 18.3
3.2 Research method
An online questionnaire survey utilizing Google Forms was utilized to obtain data and
perform the study. Teachers' opinions on online English teaching were evaluated. Seventeen multiple-
choice questions utilizing a five-liket scale (from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5)) are
included in the questionnaire, which is separated into two sections. There is information about English
teachers' demographics in the first part. The second part of the study is to learn more about the
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teachers' views on the many influences on their lives. Online teaching transformation, time
management, techers' mindsets, and technology are all covered in this section, which includes
fourteen questions.
4. Findings and discussion

The study analyzed the collected data using descriptive research methods, and its findings
emphasize four significant effects of online English teaching on English teachers: (1) time; (2)
teachers' attitude; and (3) technology. The following are the statistical results (Table 2), including the
minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation, for the three major factors affecting teachers’
online English teaching: teachers' time management, teachers’ mindset, and teachers’ level of comfort
with technologies.
Table 2. Statistical results on influence factors
Items Mean Max Min SD
Online teaching transformation
Online teaching in the COVID-19 pendamic is going well for 4.29 5 2 0.88
teachers.
Time
Preparation for online teaching takes longer than it does for face- 4.52 5 1 0.78
to-face instruction.
Teachers' time invested in online classes is unaffected by the class 3.96 5 1 1.09
size.
Teachers' enthusiasm to teach online is being affected by the rise 3.63 4 2 1.08
in online teaching time.
Teachers are more inclined to teach online if the institutions offer 2.11 3 1 1.51
incentives such as overtime pay.
Teaching online necessitates a more flexible approach to time 4.37 4 2 0.77
management than teaching in person.
Teachers’ mindset
The online teaching environment has changed the teacher's 4.27 5 1 0.81
teaching role from "presenting" to "instructing" style.
Teachers feel less control in the classroom when teaching online 4.31 5 2 0.74
compared to face-to-face teaching.
Consolidating seminars and meetings will aid in problem solving. 4.56 4 3 0.60
Technology
The institution has assisted in guiding and updating teachers on 4.31 5 3 0.69
online teaching.
Being provided with online training and support will make the 4.47 5 2 0.72
online learning process better.
Teachers are comfortable and familiar with electronic tools and 4.09 5 2 0.88
technology.
The technology unfamiliarity will have a negative influence on 4.31 5 2 0.84
teachers' desire to teach online.
Converting the teaching environment to an online environment 4.54 4 2 0.75
necessitates more learning and practice for teachers.
The first question in section 2 of the questionnaire aims to find out how well the online
teaching transition process is going for teachers. Figure 1 shows that almost all participants (88.8% on
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numbers 4 and 5; high mean (4.29) and low SD (0.88)) agreed that the online teaching transition is
going well. Less than 10% found it challenging with the online teaching transformation.
Figure 1. Online teaching transition

4.1 Time management
A look at Figure 2 shows that the Mean and SD results show that most participants strongly
agreed that they spend more time preparing online than in-person teaching (4.52 and 0.78). According
to Cavanaugh's (2005) research, teachers spend nearly twice as much time on online classes as they do
on face-to-face classes. Similar results can be shown in Figure 3, where 41% and 36% of participants
agree, despite the lower degree of agreement (Mean = 3.96) and level of standard diviation, that the
number of pupils does not affect time. Despite what Cavanaugh said in 2005, academics have not
tried to find out if smaller classes take the same amount of time. Figure 5 shows another situation that
yields inconsistent outcomes, with a standard deviation of 1.08 SD. Teachers' enthusiasm to teach
decreases as the amount of time required for online sessions increases. While 31% of those polled are
firmly in agreement, another 37% are somewhere in the middle, undecided. It's feasible that
professors could be more productive by cutting down on the amount of time they spend on online
classes to match the time they spend on face-to-face lessons. Time constraints on class conception,
design, and facilitation may deter professors interested in offering online courses from taking the
plunge (Crawley et al., 2009).
Another possibility is that online lessons may demand more time in the future, and the
solution to this issue lies in the teachers' attitudes. Most participants in Figure 4 believe teachers have
a responsibility to be more flexible in their time management as they deal with the online teaching
transformation process. For an online teacher to succeed, they must be able to handle these kinds of
expectations (Li & Irby, 2008). There is a wide range of responses to the idea of allowing teachers to
earn an additional income for working more hours with online programs (Figure 6). Despite the fact
that 55.7 percent of participants oppose this strategy, it does not appear to be a viable option for
institutions. In addition to time, other minor difficulties, such as teachers' enthusiasm in the medium
and teacher education programs, may also be of relevance in online instruction issues.
Figure 2. Preparation time for online teaching Figure 3. The effect of class size on teachers'
time in online classes
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Figure 4. Teachers’ time flexibility in Figure 5. The effect of increased online teaching
online teaching time on teachers' desire
Figure 6. Teachers’ motivation in online teaching with the institutions’ incentives

4.2 Teachers’ mindset
All three questions in the questionnarie in terms of teachers’ mindset, including the changes
in online teaching environment, classroom management, and seminar and academic meetings
strengthening, resulted in a high rate of agreement (Mean = 4.27; 4.31; and 4.56) with minimum
diviation (SD = 0.81; 0.74; and 0.6). Online educational environments have permanently altered
participants' roles as teachers, from "presenting" to "instructing," as demonstrated in the first example
(Figure 7). By focusing on their abilities to deliver content, improve their communication, and utilize
technology, the literature clearly shows teachers' transition from teacher-centered to student-centered
education (Juan, Steegman, Huertas, Martinez, & Simosa, 2011). Instead of simply passing on
knowledge, the online teacher becomes an expert in helping students grasp the process of learning
how to do so (Juan et al., 2011). Instead of lecturing their students, teachers in this position assist
them with their education. Faculty members are also ready to provide feedback (pedagogical), point
out the tools (administrative or managerial), and stimulate student interaction in the classroom.
As can be seen from Figure 8, it is confirmed that teachers also feel less control in the
classroom when teaching online compared to teaching face-to-face. Due to the lack of visual and face-
to-face interaction with their students, many teachers have difficulty delivering the curriculum and
engaging their students (Crawley, Fewell, & Sugar, 2009). According to Figure 9, a realistic solution
to the problem has been found, with nearly 90 percent of participants believing that enhancing
seminars and academic meetings amongst teachers will help. It would be very appreciated if you
could provide us with some feedback. A lack of adequate feedback mechanisms was noted by the
researchers, who found that the courses in the format of past distant or correspondent education were
identical (Copola et al., 2001).
Figure 7. The change in the teacher's role from Figure 8. Teachers’ classroom management
"presenting" to "instructing" in online teaching
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Figure 9. The benefits of strengthening seminars, academic meetings among teachers
4.3 Technology
All five questions on technology in the questionnaire had high Means and low standand
deviations, confirming nearly all of the researcher's hypotheses. Figure 12 shows an average of 4.09;
however, there are a few individuals that have a limited understanding of technology.
The Figures 10 and 11 show that economics universities provide teachers with support and
training, and that these efforts are appreciated by the teachers themselves.
Figure 13 reveals that lecturers at these economics universities are less likely to want to teach
online because of their lack of familiarity with the technology. Teachers' willingness to teach online is
influenced by their ability to use technology and a good attitude toward online education. Universities
may be comfortable incorporating technology into their classes, but online courses may not hold the
same value for them as they do for traditional ones (Osika et al., 2009). Figure 14 provides
participants with a solution to the challenge of online teaching: teachers need to study and use
technology more.
Figure 10. The institution’s support for teachers Figure 11. The advantage of online training and
in online teaching support for the online learning process
Figure 12. Teachers’ comfortablity and Figure 13. The effect of unfamiliarity with
familiarity with electronic tools/technology technology on teachers' desire to teach online
Figure 14. The requirement of teachers’ further learning and practice in online teaching
5. Conclusion
Online English education change raises many questions and issues, which necessitated
conducting this research in order to better understand them. Teachers' mindset, time management, and
technical skill were all found to be significant variables in the survey results. An investigation into
online English teaching at some economics universities in Vietnam has led to the conclusion that
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these universities must support teachers' professional development and technical assistance in order to
address challenges in online education and enhance the effectiveness of online teaching and learning.
The majority of economics research is conducted in other nations, hence this study fills in the
knowledge vacuum. Expanding the research topic and conducting more in-depth surveys and analyses
are two recommendations for future research.
References
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[STS22-65]
513
EFL NON-MAJORS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE USE OF
SELF-ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST IN SPEAKING CLASSROOMS
Tran Thi Cuc1, Do Manh Cuong2*
1
Department of Foreign Languages, Saigon University, Vietnam
2
Faculty of English Language, HUTECH University, Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: dm.cuong@hutech.edu.vn
Abstract
Self-assessment checklist is considered as an effective and beneficial tool for the learner-centered
method. This paper presents the result of a study conducted to investigate the attitudes of thirty EFL
non-majored students at Saigon University towards using a self-assessment checklist to gain the
students’ insights into their learning assessment and achievements. This paper employed a self-
assessment checklist and a descriptive survey questionnaire form as two research instruments for data
collection during a 15-week course through 4 video recording assignments that could be considered,
on their own, as their best submissions. Data from the questionnaire showed that all learner
participants indicated that the self-assessment checklist was a useful and effective self-learning tool.
They used it for every speaking task as the chances to review and explore their speaking ability by
recognizing their strengths and weaknesses and engaging them in self-revision. On the other hand,
respondents exposed that the self-assessment checklist’s challenges came from the time limitations
due to assignment deadlines and the lack of concern among some of them. Despite the commonly
limited shortage of time and language competency, the students’ feedback shows that they could take
full advantage of the self-assessment checklist to improve their speaking ability.
Keywords: speaking skills, learners’ attitudes, self-assessment checklist, self-learning
1. Introduction
Speaking is considered the most important and challenging skill by language learners, based on
linguistic and psychological factors. In terms of productive skills, writing and speaking skills are
regarded as how language learners acquire and use their own language through vocabulary and
grammar use in particular contexts of communication (Nunan, 1999). Speaking has been generally
considered the most difficult not only the fact that it involves numerous linguistic components which
require a learner to acquire, such as pronunciation, content, comprehension, vocabulary, grammar,
and fluency, but also non-linguistic challenging components such as psychological and social factors
(Richards, 2006; Brown, 2004).
The traditional types of assessment and in-class speaking activities, including interviews, oral tests
in the forms of questions and answers, role-playing, and presentations, however, can give little
feedback about the learners’ speaking process speaking, from preparations to performance, from
which students cannot correctly self-evaluate, realize whether they have done well or not, and even
understand what the differences of their performances and differences of their performance from
others’ performance are. Now that students’ fear about making mistakes when speaking, it can be
shown that students can confront the challenges of willingness and difficulties in improving their
speaking skills; they can have negative attitudes towards speaking activities both in the context of
Vietnam and in other non-native speaking English countries (Bernat, 2004; Marzuki, 2019; Ngo,
2020).
Since the late 20th century, new trends in EFL teaching methods and alternative assessment
methods have shaped the more authentic communication role of English learning, including speaking
skills. This perspective has emphasized a learner-centered approach with a widespread recognition
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that speaking is a process that involves several steps in creating a piece of work (BC:
TeachingEnglish, nd; Black and William, 1998; Marzuki et al., 2020).
Self-assessment has been carried out in many different ways and techniques such as portfolios,
checklists, rubrics, self-correction, conferences, reflection pieces, computer-assisted assessment, and
interviews by numerous researchers (Higgins, 1987; McCaslin and Hickey, 2001; Brown, 2004;
Wang, 2016; Harris and Brown, 2018; Marzuki et al., 2020). As a result, self-assessment is presented
as one of the effective self-evaluation tools used in numerous studies on teaching and learning English
as a Foreign Language. Self-assessment evaluation, however, has been chiefly investigated in writing
skills or grammar. In contrast, a few authors have implemented a self-assessment checklist in
speaking classrooms is to examine how a self-assessment checklist can engage the learners in
reviewing their speaking performance and exploring their speaking ability. Hence, this study focuses
on finding the answer to the research question, “What are the learners’ attitudes towards the
application of the self-assessment checklist?”.
2.1. Speaking process approach in EFL classrooms
Goh (2007:51) stated that speaking could be considered in six different views: speaking and
language acquisition, the cognitive process in speaking, speaking skills, communication strategies,
speech genres, and spoken grammar. Through the various notions of definition of the word
‘speaking,’ speaking can be defined by Nunan (1991) as saying words orally, communicating by
talking, making requests, and speeches. In contrast, speaking can be referred to as a process in which
speakers can create and share meanings through verbal and non-verbal symbols in different contexts
(Chaney, 1998 cited in Leong and Ahmadi, 2017) and as an interactive process of making meaning
which is composed of producing, receiving and processing information (Burns and Joyce, 1997).
According to Gullian Brown and George Yule (1983) (cited by British Council: TeachingEnglish,
nd), the advent of the process approach prompted research on composing that focused on the person
(that is, the speaker) and the process (that is, strategies) involved in the process. This tendency,
referred to as the process-oriented approach, requires step-by-step developments via students’ own
revision, self-evaluation, and editing to explore their speaking ability and/or improve their speaking
skills.
Despite the fact that speaking skills play a vital part in language acquisition, it is considered the
most challenging to EFL/ESL learners due to various factors including linguistic components and
learners’ language competency to communicate easily and effectively. These speaking problems can
be presented as inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation, and mother-tongue use (Ur,
1996). If teachers want to encourage EFL/ESL learners to communicate in English, they should use
English in real communication and ask their learners to do the same process.
In this line of implementing self-assessment, Falchikov (2003) points out that this process
includes 3 phases pre-implementation with careful preparation, implementation phase accompanied
with monitoring, and post-implementation phase requiring follow-up. In the first phase, teachers
classify the activities or tasks and their purposes and establish the proper criteria so that students
can assess their own products or performances. In other words, teachers should provide an
assessment tool for students, such as a checklist giving students clear details and guidelines on the
way of assessing their products or performances. Besides, teachers should also encourage students
to self-assess their products impartially. In the second stage, the implementation phase, while
teachers illustrate how to carry out self-assessment, students do the activities or tasks and self-
evaluate their products. Students can be monitored or helped when they do their tasks in class. In
the last stage, the post-implementation phase, which follows the self-assessment activities, a
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systematic follow-up should be conducted by teacher’s written feedback on students’ workpieces
or any technique.
2.2. Self-assessment as authentic assessment practices
2.2.1. The strengths of self-assessment
The application of the process speaking approach has been supplemented with alternative forms
such as portfolio assessment, performance evaluation, and self-evaluation assessment is considered a
continuous process rather than a terminal event, and teachers share the authority with students (Black
and William, 1989; Marzuki et al., 2020). As the token of process, Abdul Ghafar Marzuki and his co-
authors (2020) claimed that a shift from traditional to authentic assessment would enhance students’
four achievements: (1) focusing learners’ attention on the speaking task objectives, (2) arousing more
students’ attention, (3) improving students’ motivation, and (4) enhancing students’ speaking ability.
Self-assessment, when used correctly and properly, serves the purposes of learning evaluation and
accountability (Andrade, 2000; Huang, 2015).
2.2.2. The challenges learners face in conducting self-assessment
As with any method or technique, despite students’ achievements from their potential stimulant
through self-assessment, students often harbor a variety of misconceptions that make many learners
unable to appreciate the role of speaking evidence in the self-assessment. Thus, discrepancies between
students’ and teachers’ appraisals are resolved, which seems not to make self-assessment a positive
impact on learning achievements (Chen, 2006; Bailey and Garner, 2010; Orsmond and Merry, 2011).
3. Methodology
3.1. Research Site
The research is a three-stage process of defining the research objectives and collecting and
analyzing the information to provide the data to answer the research question. It employed a
descriptive survey to mix both qualitative and quantitative features.
The research explored the students’ attitudes in implementing self-assessment checklist for
fostering students’ speaking ability. This investigation was conducted in an English non-majored
classroom in the first 15-week semester of schoolyear 2021-2022 at Saigon University, where one of
the two authors is teaching General English in this 30-student Intermediate-level class. At the
beginning of the course, based on the informal interview with the students, the author found that most
students in this class were confronted with speaking English, were afraid of speaking English, and
even thought the speaking test was most difficult.
The objectives of the course were listed by the syllabus specially designed for the academic
program as (1) raising students’ awareness of English speaking activities; (2) providing learners with
the awareness of strategies for English speaking; and (3) creating opportunities for students to apply
analytical skills through speaking activities/tasks; (4) helping students improve their speaking ability.
One of the students’ learning outcomes was about the acquired speaking ability – it is that students
were required to perform good speaking skills with techniques to examine literary works through
topic-based video recording assignments. In order to complete the objectives of this paper, the
speaking tasks assigned during the course were four video recording assignments with the teacher’s
assigned topics, submitted in weeks 4, 7, 10, and 13. Along with class discussion and group
presentation that take 10% of the total score, the above speaking video recording tasks take 80% of
the total score of the course, and their attendance in class takes 10%. That means the course makes a
strong focus on training learners’ speaking skills.
3.2. Research instruments
The instruments of collecting information for this paper were (1) self-assessment checklist used for
speaking tasks and (2) the questionnaire to explore learners’ attitudes towards the use of a checklist.
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3.2.1. Self-assessment checklist
Self-assessment checklist is a tool that tells students what to include in their work. It helps the
students review their submitted speaking video recordings and make revisions by themselves for
multiple drafts to reach their expectations. The self-assessment checklist used in the research was
adapted from the form by Thoughtful Learning consisting of 10 items that reminded students of
reviewing their video recordings for pronunciation, content, comprehension, vocabulary, grammar,
and fluency.
3.2.2. Student feedback questionnaire
A twelve-item questionnaire listing statements about students’ attitudes towards using the checklist
was designed in a mixed format with 10 closed-ended yes-no statements and 2 open-ended questions.
The first section aimed to make students express their agreements or objections to the benefits of
using the checklist. The second section included two questions that assisted in exploring the
challenges the learners faced in using the checklist and the causes of their trouble.
3.3. Research procedure
There was a workshop in the first two weeks of the course to provide the students with the aim of
using the self-assessment checklist. Then, in the third week, the teacher carried out the informal
interview, and the students voluntarily submitted the checklist form along with each essay in weeks 4,
7, 10, and 13. The individual students were coded by their ordinal numbers from the student list of the
course. The student feedback questionnaire forms were collected in week 15. Then analyses were
made to find out how students used and thought about the checklist.
4. Research Results Analysis and Discussion
From the results of the following data analysis and discussions, the objective of this research can
be fulfilled through the following parts.
4.1. How often self-assessment checklist was used in the speaking process
There were 120/120 checklists collected with 1,076/1,200 times of students checking the items
they employed. Table 1 shows the frequency 30 students used each checklist item during their
speaking video recordings: 89.67% of the items on the checklist were used to check pronunciation,
content, comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency.
Table 1: Frequency of students’ use of checklist items
Categories Checklist Items (CI) Times of %
use/120
Content 1. Do I have a clear introduction, including a topic
sentence, naming the topic, and focusing on a specific 115
part of it? 95.83%
2. Do I support the topic sentence with interesting proper
111
details? 92.50%
Comprehen 3. Does my introduction arouse the audience’s attention
105
sion and identify the topic? 87.50%
4. Are the supporting ideas and conclusion organized to
112
fit my purpose and the speaking topic? 95.00%
5. Does my speaking have good coherence? 101 87.50%
Grammar 6. Does my speaking show how correctly the grammar is
106
used? 91.67%
Pronunciati 7. Is my pronunciation improved considerably?
102
on 85.83%
Vocabulary 8. Have I used precise vocabulary to clarify my speaking? 114 92.50%
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Fluency 9. Do I use a variety of sentences with different
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beginnings and lengths? 90.83%
10. Does my speaking have good fluency? 101 84.17%
Total 1076/1200 89.67
Table 2: Frequency of using checklist items by individual students

CI1 CI2 CI3 CI4 CI5 CI6 CI7 CI8 CI9 CI10 TOTAL
S1 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 38
S2 4 3 4 3 4 2 2 3 3 3 31
S3 4 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 36
S4 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 33
S5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 36
S6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 39
S7 4 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 2 31
S8 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3 3 37
S9 4 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 4 3 36
S10 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 3 4 37
S11 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 38
S12 4 3 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 3 36
S13 3 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3 4 37
S14 4 3 2 4 3 4 4 3 4 3 34
S15 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 36
S16 3 4 4 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 35
S17 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 39
S18 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 39
S19 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 38
S20 4 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 38
S21 4 4 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 37
S22 3 3 4 2 3 3 2 4 4 3 31
S23 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 38
S24 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 39
S25 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 34
S26 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 37
S27 4 4 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 37
S28 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 3 35
S29 4 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 4 2 29
S30 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 35
TOTAL 115 111 105 112 101 106 102 114 109 101 1076
Tables 1 and 2 show that all the checklist items were used with a high frequency, from 84.17% to
95.83%, and each user employed the checklist with a high percentage. In fact, the frequency of usage
could not be interpreted totally as the degree of concern or level of speaking ability. In the limited
scope of this paper, the primary aim was to explore how students used the checklist and their attitudes
towards the use of the checklist as a self-assessment tool. A need for further research in the future,
hence, should be regarded to clarify if there are any reasons or correlations between the frequency and
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other issues in learners’ concern about linguistic knowledge and speaking skills.
4.2. Students’ attitudes towards the implementation of the self-assessment checklist
The data from the students’ feedback questionnaire illustrates how students highly appreciated the
role of the self-assessment checklist and its benefits for the student’s speaking process in the speaking
classroom.
Table 3: Learners’ attitudes towards their use of the self-assessment checklist through the
questionnaire
Statements about the self-assessment checklist Yes No
1. It is a useful self-study learning tool for speaking. 30 0

2. I have used it for every speaking task/activity. 30 0
3. It helps me understand the objectives of speaking video recordings. 26 4
4. It helps me review my speaking videos quickly and more efficiently. 26 4
5. It helps me be more specific in checking my speaking assignments. 25 5
6. It helps me be more confident in completing the speaking tasks/activities. 25 5
7. It helps me improve my pronunciation on my own. 25 5
8. With the checklist, I can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of my speaking 27 3
ability.
9. It gives me chances to foster my speaking on my own. 28 2
10. I am motivated to practice speaking through multiple drafts. 26 4
Total 268 32
As the findings of many other studies on self-assessment by numerous researchers, table 3 proves
the advantages of the checklist in increasing students’ achievements, such as (1) raising students’
awareness of English speaking activities; (2) providing learners with the awareness of strategies for
English speaking; and (3) creating opportunities for students to apply analytical skills through
speaking activities/tasks; (4) helping students improve their speaking ability (Andrade, 2000; Chen,
2006; Huang, 2015; Marzuki et al., 2020). Furthermore, 26/30 of participants agreed that the checklist
helped them review their speaking video recordings quickly and more efficiently with confidence as
well as understand the strategies of speaking skills (25/30 respondents).
4. Recommendations and conclusion

As the above-mentioned results from the findings and data analysis, this paper could propose the
following significant recommendations:
1. A checklist indicates what needs to be included in a product of speaking. Meanwhile, it is also
such a crucial tool that EFL students should be equipped with a checklist and with more
scrutiny. Despite the fact that a variety of checklist forms should be provided, it must be
noticed that teachers should apply a consistent, simple form of self-assessment checklist
companied with the clear guidelines.
2. As students themselves could witness their own gradual improvements, using a self-
assessment checklist during the writing process should be assigned as part of a learning task
to increase students’ involvement in achieving their learning outcomes.
3. Students should be trained and retrained for speaking elements pronunciation, content,
comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency and given the opportunities to revise and
produce multiple better drafts.
4. There should be considerable encouragement and awarding acknowledgments for students’
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efforts in revising and producing the drafts to recognize their gradual improvements besides
assessing the speaking product quality.
Fostering and exploring speaking ability with a self-assessment checklist means providing an
effective tool for EFL students to shift their teacher-centered learning to learner-centered autonomy.
Teachers and students must consider learning speaking skills as a creative and flexible process with
the subsequent quality improvement of the students’ take-home assignments and missions. By
implementing EFL students’ such input information and the ongoing process, they could take
advantage of self-assessment checklists to help themselves engage in nurturing their own
development of responsibilities, speaking skills, and individuality.
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Tourism and Hospitality Management
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF RIVER TOURISM IN HO CHI
MINH CITY
Nguyen Phuoc Hien1, Tran Trong Thanh2*
1
Falcuty of Tourism and Vietnamese studies, Nguyen Tat Thanh University 300A Nguyen Tat Thanh
Street District 4 Ho Chi Minh City 70000
2
Falcuty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Economics and Finance. 141 Dien
Bien Phu Street, Ward 17, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City.
*Corresponding Author: Phone: +84 764912215; Email: thanhtt@uef.edu.vn
Abstract:
Ho Chi Minh City is considered a river urban with 1000 km of canals and rivers crisscrossing the
inner city. River tourism is one of the three key tourism products of the city. To preserve and exploit
the potential tourism of the locality is necessary for all stakeholders. This article aims to find down
The actual situation of exploiting river tourism including the limitations of exploitation from which to
offer solutions to sustainable Sai gon river tourism development in the coming time. The research
uses qualitative methods, collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, comparing, and evaluating.
Understandings these matters allow travel agencies to offer better service, overcome competition, as
well as meet the demands of the market.
Keywords: Ho Chi Minh City; river tourism; Sustainability; sustainable tourism development.
1. Introduction
In Ho Chi Minh City, two large rivers are flowing through which are the Saigon River and the
Dong Nai River, both of which flow in the Southeast direction, and then pour into the East Sea
through Ganh Rai Bay and Dong Tranh Bay. It creates an interlaced system of canals and rivers. Dong
Nai River originates from Lam Vien plateau about 586 km long, is the longest river flowing in our
country, providing fresh water for about 17 million people. The Saigon River has a length of about
256 km, an average width of 300 m, and a depth of about 18 m, flowing through Ho Chi Minh City
for 80 km, originating from the Hon Quang area, Binh Phuoc province. During the long development
period of Gia Dinh - Tran Bien - Saigon - Cho Lon - Ho Chi Minh City, the river has been and is a
key traffic hub, playing an important role in history - economy - culture. The demand for river tourism
is becoming more and more popular. However, river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City has not yet
developed to its full potential and local strengths, and tourism activities have not been associated with
the conservation of cultural values, environmental protection, and economic benefits. It is necessary
to have a comprehensive and detailed assessment of the impacts on this type of tourism to have
fundamental solutions toward the goal of sustainable tourism development.
2. Research overview
2.1. Concepts
River tourism has become a popular form of tourism in the world. Well-planned sustainable
tourism programs provide opportunities for visitors to learn about natural areas and local communities
and learn more about the importance of rivers and cultural conservation. Moreover, sustainable
tourism activities can generate income for local communities. Sustainable tourism holds particular
promise as a necessary mechanism for local communities to benefit from biodiversity and
environmental resources. According to (World Conservation Union, 1996) sustainable tourism is
environmentally responsible travel and visiting natural areas to enjoy and appreciate nature (and all its
cultural features possibly from past to present) in a way that is conservation-recommended, has low
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visitor impact, and provides the benefits of active socio-economic participation by the communities.
Sustainable tourism has three main components, sometimes referred to as "three legs":
+ Environmental friendly, sustainable tourism has a low impact on natural resources. It minimizes the
impact on the environment (animals and plants, habitats, resources, energy use, and pollution...) and
tries to benefit the environment.
+ Social and cultural proximity, does not harm the social or cultural structures of the community in
which they are performed. Instead, it respects local culture and traditions. Engaging stakeholders
(individuals, communities, tour operators, and government managers) in all stages of planning,
development, and monitoring, educating stakeholders about their role.
+ It contributes economically to the community and generates fair and stable incomes for the local
community and as many other stakeholders as possible. It benefits the owner, employees, and people
around. It didn't start simply and then collapse quickly due to poor business practices. (International
Ecotourism Society, 2004). River tourism business that is conducted based on these three criteria can
enhance the conservation of natural resources, appreciate cultural values and bring benefits to the
community.
2.2. Experiences in river tourism development in some countries
Taking a look at several river tourism models in some localities around the world, it can be seen
that tourism policies associated with rivers are considered for development based on historical and
cultural characteristics of the river and other factors. its effect on the surrounding environment.
Europe's rivers and canals attract tourists with their relaxing landscapes, unique cultural features, and
exciting riverside activities. Talking about European river tourism, it is impossible to ignore the
Italian city of Venice. Venice is the city with the most rivers and canals flowing in the city in the
world. This is also an attractive point of Venice that makes visitors excited. Another typical tourist
product of Venice is the means of transport on the river, not by yacht but by gondola, a typical
traditional Venetian rowing boat. In Venice, festivals are also "reversed", brought down to boats to
enrich the tourism products here. How to do Thai river tourism is also worth learning. Thailand is a
tourism powerhouse, so the Thai way of tourism is very creative and professional. Thailand's river
tourism features are floating markets on the winding rivers. Most of them are not spontaneous but are
rebuilt and exploited by people in the direction of tourism. Thailand's floating market only trades
between river people in the early morning, and in the afternoon and after sunset, they trade for
tourism. They sell ready-to-eat fruit and clean and beautiful displays. Along the two banks of the
river, they sell souvenirs, and specialties, and eateries are busy, close to the river, and convenient for
guests to sit on the boat to enjoy. Another feature is that Thai people have exploited the Boatabus, a
type of water taxi traveling on the Chao Praya River flowing through Bangkok. This type of water
taxi is very convenient for tourists to visit the capital at a very low price. China is also a country with
developed river tourism, but China's recent industrial development has created major pollution
problems for the earth, air, and water resources. The Yangtze River is banned from swimming and the
native crocodile, one of the two main species in the river, has been severely reduced and is listed as
endangered. This is also a valuable lesson that the development of river tourism must be associated
with the protection of the ecological environment. China has quite a few successful river tourism
models that are worth learning. These include tourism activities on the Lijiang River in Guilin. The
Lijiang is considered a divine river, associated with many Chinese legends. Tourism here is
considered to be in-depth exploitation by the tourists who keep in mind the long-term purpose of
improving the lives of people in the region and protecting the traditional craft villages.
2.3. Potential for development of river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City
Nowadays, from the Saigon River, boats not only call at Nha Rong port, Bach Dang, Tan Cang, Ba
Son wharf, but also go deep into the inner city through Lo Gom, Tau Hu, Thi Nghe, and Giong Ong
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To rivers. … even go further to Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria Vung Tau, and the Mekong Delta
provinces, connecting with countries around the world through cruise lines, and river cruises. Ho Chi
Minh City with a history of formation and development of 320 years. Many cultural structures can be
accessed by waterways. It could be archaeological remains; Hung Loi Pottery Furnace, ancient tombs
of Giong Ca Vo, or Can Gio Geological Museum, Historical - Cultural Relics: Rung Sac relics Zone,
Cu Chi Tunnels - Ben Duoc Temple, City Cemeteries, Conference Hall Reunification, History
Museum..., colonial architectural works with City People's Committee, State Bank, City Post Office,
Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ho Chi Minh City Museum. .., in addition, the city also has the largest system
of state-owned and private museums in the country, such as the war remnants museum, history
museum, and Ho Chi Minh campaign museum, Museum of Southern Medicine FITO, Museum of Ao
Dai... these are the tourist attractions that attract special attention of both international and domestic
tourists. Visit the pagoda, church ceremony is also very popular. Ho Chi Minh City has ancient
temples such as Giac Lam Pagoda, Giac Vien Pagoda, Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, Nam Thien Nhat Tru
Pagoda, Xa Loi Pagoda, Sea Goddess Pagoda, Jade of Emperor Pagoda, Dai Giac Pagoda, Linh Son
Pagoda,etc. The church has unique architecture such as Notre Dame Cathedral, Huyen Sy Church,
Cho Quan Church, Cha Tam Church, Tan Dinh Church... Many artificial cultural works bring
Vietnamese cultural elements to serve tourists, which are tourist areas and entertainment areas: Dam
Sen, Suoi Tien, Binh Quoi 1,2,3, Van Thanh, Tan Cang, etc. Ho Chi Minh City is also the land of
convergence of most ethnic groups. The place that many neighboring residents have chosen in their
journey to find a new life. The acclimatization of the local culture, inheriting the cultural tradition of
his ancestors, has led to Ho Chi Minh City having many religious festivals: Nghinh Ong Festival in
Can Gio, Ky Yen Festival in Phu Nhuan communal house, Ky Yen festival in Binh Trung communal
house, Ong Dia Temple Festival, Vu Lan Festival, Traditional Chinese Festivals, Cham Traditional
Festivals, Khmer Traditional Festivals... or festivals related to occupation: The founding anniversary
of the Jewelry job, the classical music, the tailor, etc., and especially the modern festivals that cannot
be ignored are the Three regions delicious food festival, the festival of Southern fruits, tourism
festival with delicious dishes, specialties are introduced and displayed...
According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City tourism administration. in 2 years (2017 and
2018), the number of visitors to the city and using waterway tourism was estimated at 450,000
visitors/year, with a revenue of 540 billion VND/year. Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry is striving
to increase the flow of waterway tourists at a rate of about 15% per year in the following years. As for
international tourist flows, the number of visitors to and using waterway tourism is about 470
thousand arrivals/year and has a growth rate of 12 to 15%/year. In the following years, revenue from
waterborne tourism (mainly ships) strives to reach VND 1,220 billion/year, increasing by about 12%.
The above is extremely favorable conditions for Ho Chi Minh City river tourism development.
2.4. The situation of river tourism exploitation in Ho Chi Minh City
2.4.1. Tourist routes are being exploited
* Short-range river cruise routes
Route 1: Inner-city route in the direction of districts 1,4,6,8 going on canals Te, Doi, Tau Hu, Lo
Gom, Ben Nghe: Route 1 meets the needs of sightseeing, enjoyment, medical treatment, and
pilgrimage. The source of tourists visiting the inner city is due to historical, landscape, urban, and
architectural factors typical of the land such as Ho Chi Minh Museum, Khanh Hoi Bridge, Mong
Bridge, Tau Hu canal, Vo Van Kiet Road, State Bank, Securities Commission, Ong Lanh Bridge, Ong
Lanh Market, Nhon Hoa Ancient Communal House, Binh Tay Wine Factory, Y-Bridge, Cha Va
Bridge, Binh Dong Wharf, Long Hoa Pagoda, bustling craft villages created by rice products such as
Lo Gach, Lo Gom, Lo Lu, Lo Sieu...
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Route 2: Go to Artists' Village, District 2 was separated from Thu Duc District and District 9 in 1997
and now belongs to Thu Duc City. On this tour, tourists can visit some famous places such as Binh
Trung communal house (worshiping the God of Thanh Hoang, Mr. Vo Van Dung), Giong Ong To,
Saigon bridge, Rach Chiec Bridge, Thu Thiem ferry, Thu Thiem new urban area, Thu Thiem ancient
church, a historical place with Tau O hamlet, Giac Ngu fortress...
Route 3: Route to Binh Quoi - Thanh Da tourist area on the Saigon River: This can be called a
culinary or green tourism route. Although the geographical distance is not far from the city center,
visitors can completely ride motorbikes and bicycles, but the benefits that visitors have after their
experience by boat or canoe are unforgettable memories. The boat picks you up from Bach Dang
wharf, passing by places of Uncle Ton museum, Ba Son port, Tan Cang tourist area, Saigon Bridge,
Hanoi Highway, Thao Dien villa village, Thanh Da peninsula with The famous duck porridge. The
last stop is a Southern-style meal at Binh Quoi 1,2,3 restaurant.
* Mid-range river cruise routes
Route 4: Going to Cu Chi, the final destination is Ben Dinh or Ben Duoc tunnels: This tourist route
has a length of 70 km on the Saigon River. This is the most popular tourist route among the 7 existing
tourism routes in Ho Chi Minh City. Starting from Bach Dang wharf. Visitors can experience the
scenery on both sides of the river through the narration from the guide. After 2 hours, visitors will be
able to visit and experience the Ben Dinh or Ben Duoc tunnel system. Depending on the departure
schedule and the tour program you choose, the trip will have a few stops. Visiting the floating temple
on the Saigon River will always give visitors a feeling of nostalgia, fondness, or admiration for the
artisans who built this beautiful architecture.
Route 5: The route towards the cultural and historical park area, Hoi Son Pagoda (District 9), is 50
km long, following the Saigon River. District 9 is adjacent to District 2, Thu Duc, Binh Duong, and
Dong Nai, with Suoi Tien tourist area, Memorial of Hung Kings, and Ao Dai museum which is very
famous for domestic and foreign tourists. In addition to cultural and entertainment attractions, this
route also attracts many tourists with the type of spiritual tourism, sightseeing, and experiencing life
in the countryside such as: visiting Long Phuoc pagoda on the island, Ba Chau Doc 3 pagoda,
enjoying delicious dishes, ... Besides, this route can also connect with famous tourist sites: Cu Lao
Pho, Ba Xe island, That Thu Temple, Nguyen Huu Canh Temple, Dai Giac Pagoda, Tan Van Pottery
Village, Tan Trieu Pomelo garden, Tan Trieu Ancient Church Currently, this tourist route is still
exploited by the company Saigon Tourist, but it does not attract many tourists due to the high cost,
long travel time, attractive but fragmented attractions, difficult to connect. Therefore, the company
often sells tours and builds programs according to the requirements of visitors.
* Long-range river cruise routes (Two long-range routes, using large boats with 2-4 day tours)
Route 6: Towards Nha Be, Can Gio and can connect to Vung Tau, more than 75 km long, following
the rivers of Saigon, Nha Be, and Long Tau (or Soai Rap). Tourist routes often use vehicles such as
canoes, medium motorboats, or hydrofoils. Can Gio - Monkey Island tour, Vam Sat tourist area, Can
Gio mangrove forest "the green lung of the city" is a world biosphere reserve, suitable for the type of
resort and eco-tourism. Can Gio also has Nghinh Ong Festival, Ca Ong temple - the belief of the
people in the river region. Can Gio be also a place to grow a lot of seafood, a long-standing salt-
making profession that is very suitable for the type of study tourism, agricultural tourism? In addition,
Can Gio is also a study and research destination for students of Vietnamese studies, archeology, and
culture through archaeological sites found at Giong Ca Vo relics dating back to 3000 years in
Vietnam on the pre-archaeological culture of Sa Huynh and the archeological culture of Oc Eo. To the
heroic feats of the special commando Rung Sac. By hydrofoil vehicle, with a time of 1 hour 45
minutes, guests have reached the coastal tourist city of Vung Tau, with 12 km of public coastline,
white sand, blue sea, and cool climate bringing visitors a trip. go to the beach as expected. In addition,
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Vung Tau is also suitable for pilgrimage tours: Nirvana Tinh Xa Pagoda, Shakyamuni Buddha Statue,
Christ Statue, Thang Tam communal house, cultural history tour with Lighthouse, White palace
museum…
Route 7: The direction to Binh Chanh, Long An to the western provinces to connect to Cambodia,
follow the Te, Doi canal, Cho Dem river, Ben Luc river to the Tien River and upstream of the
Mekong river; Route 7 is to visit the southwestern provinces of Long An and Tien Giang (Ben Tre-
My Tho). Fast travel time, diverse and attractive sightseeing programs, visitors can immerse
themselves in green nature, the daily life of local people such as Can Giuoc Market, My Tho market,
fruit garden, farm bee, a place to process and produce products from coconut trees, rice fields, canals,
enjoy honey tea, four-season fruits, Southern amateur music. This is the 2nd most popular tourist
route after the 4th tourist route according to the author's own experience. There are many companies
serving guests on this tour that can be listed as Saigon Tourist, Les rivers, and River tour before the
Covid 19 pandemic. For longer travel routes departing or ending in Ho Chi Minh City, there are
Avalon Sai gon, Avalon Siemriep, Mekong Princess, Emerald, Indochine, Lan Diep, and Tomtew
ships owned by companies Saigon tourist, Indochina partner travel, and Buffalo. These companies are
exploiting the river route Saigon - Tien Giang - Vinh Long - Can Tho - Sa Dec - Tan Chau - Chau
Doc and vice versa for high-income international tourists. The above are 7 tourist routes by the river
in Ho Chi Minh City that have been put into operation since 2013. After January 1st, 2015, the above
tourist routes must change places to pick up and drop off passengers instead of Bach Dang wharf,
which is the Tan Cang tourist area. Because Bach Dang wharf is in the planning of remodeling and
embellishment of the city. This is a big challenge in terms of convenience in organizing, welcoming,
and serving tourists when comparing the competitive advantages of cultural heritage sites with other
types of tourism. Through the work of guiding cruise tourists, the author also found that: Our city
does not have companies organizing and selling inter-provincial tours to the Central region, the North,
or outside the territory of Vietnam, but every year, foreign cruise lines still organize international
tourists to Vietnam by sea and then by river to visit the cities: Ha Long, Hue, Da Nang, Vung Tau...
specifically to Ho Chi Minh city. Tan Hong travel company annually welcomes about 20,000 tourists
to visit by waterway. Due to the low height level of Phu My Bridge, only cruise ships with less than
1000 passengers can dock at Nha Rong Port, which is: Sea bourn, Silver sea, Silver muse, Silver
Pride, Nautica, or Semester At The Sea cruise ship is organized by an Asian destination company.
Larger fleets such as Crystal Symphony, Seven Seas Voyages, and Diamond princess... must dock at
Hiep Phuoc port (Nha Be) or Phu My port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
* New river tourist attractions from 2015 to present
To diversify the types of river tourism services, on September 1, 2015, Saigon Boat Co., Ltd. opened
an inner-city tour on Thi Nghe River, and invested in 2 new stations, a phoenix boat, tortoise boat,
and rowing boat, bringing visitors stories about Madame Thi Nghe, Thi Nghe black water canal, Thi
Nghe Bridge, Ngoc Hoang Pagoda, Vinh Nghiem pagoda, Bong bridge …and other types of
entertainment on the boat such as folk music, playing the harmonica… To reduce the load on urban
traffic and give visitors more choices of tourism products, on November 27, 2017, the first river bus
tour in Ho Chi Minh City, invested by Thuong Nhat Co., Ltd., was opened and put into operation with
the ticket price of 15,000 VND / 1 people. River bus route No. 1 has a route of nearly 11 km, passing
through 12 stations (3 reserve stations). The boat used on the route has a hydrofoil design 18 m long
with the main yellow color. The inside of the bus is decorated with lights, whistles, air conditioners,
and fire alarms. On July 10, 2020, the inter-region tourist route on the Saigon River was officially put
into operation with a speedboat with a modern design. Depart from Bach Dang wharf - Binh Duong -
Cu Chi (Ben Dinh, Ben Duoc), the ship stops at Thanh Da peninsula, picks up passengers at Binh Hoa
wharf, and then goes straight to Thu Dau Mot, continues to dock at Tiamo, then round to Ben Dinh
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Tunnels or Ben Duoc). Every day, there will be 4 high-speed boats departing at Bach Dang and Ben
Dinh wharves, with a capacity of 98-150 passengers each. The ticket price for the whole route is
220,000 VND/way, 150,000 VND/way from Cu Chi to Binh Duong, and 120,000 VND/way from
Bach Dang to Binh Duong. In addition, good news for travelers from Can Gio to Ho Chi Minh city,
the sea ferry service has been put into operation this year. This is a sea ferry route with a distance of
about 15 km, departing from Tac Suat wharf (Can Gio) to Vung Tau city. The journey time is about
30 minutes. The sea ferry is designed with two hulls according to Australian technology with a length
of 45 m, a width of 10 m, a capacity of 2,900 horsepower, and a maximum speed of 24 knots.
Currently, the investor has ready two ferries, each can carry an average of 350 passengers, 20 cars of
all kinds, and 100 motorbikes, the expected frequency of operation is 24 trips/day, and the time
interval is 60 days. minutes/trip. The exploitation of the sea ferry route connecting Can Gio, Ho Chi
Minh City with Vung Tau city will reduce the road load, create favorable conditions for the Can Gio
district to connect with neighboring provinces, and create unique tourism products, regional linkage,
contributing to socio-economic development in the region.
2.4.2. Limitations in the sustainable development of river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City
River tourism in Ho Chi Minh City has been becoming more and more attractive for domestic and
foreign tourists with the inner-city, inter-regional tourism programs. Nha Rong, Hiep Phuoc ports
becoming familiar stopovers of international cruise lines. Many tours are full of creativity and poetry
such as sunset tours, moon-sighting tours, and historical field study tours... However, besides the
advantages, river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City has many limitations. It is necessary to consider and
evaluate to come up with specific measures to develop river tourism in the direction of economic,
social, and environmental sustainability.
Group of conditions for sustainable tourism development: The development of river tourism in Ho
Chi Minh City has not met the main pillars of sustainable tourism development yet.
Firstly, the development of river tourism must contribute to economic growth and create a budget for
the city and the income of local people. from the perspective of social equality, there are many
shortcomings. Due to limited connectivity with other types of tourism, people living on both sides of
rivers, canals, boathouses, and islands have not had the opportunity or realized benefits of
participating in the development of this type of tourism. Visitors spend only paying the price of the
package tour, there are no souvenir stores or local specialties at the destination.
Secondly, the issue of environmental protection is necessary, but in reality, the State's regulations and
policies are not convincing and deterrent enough. Image of garbage floating in rivers and canals.
Boats and others moving on the river, dragging oil slicks on the water surface, toilets on the river;
waste from households living along the banks of rivers; waste from vehicles transporting goods on the
river, etc. all of these problems need to be solved early and effectively to limit environmental
pollution.
Thirdly, tourism products are still in raw form, lacking in linkages, it can be seen that intra-regional,
and inter-regional links between river tourism business organizations are weak, and there are no
cooperative sales, marketing, and advertising activities through leaflets, websites, social networks...
There is a link between the local tourism business organizations and the destination, but it is still
lacking unity, according to the individual relationship, "word of mouth" leads to low service quality,
heterogeneity, not strong competition among service providers, incompetence in the operating
organization.
Fourthly, the tourism expertise of local leaders is uneven and limited. From working in the tourism
business. The author finds that the majority of river tourism staff are not properly trained in tourism,
or currently hold many different positions, so they do not have enough time and capacity for full-time
activities. The same thing happens with business managers and service staff at tourist sites, leading to
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a lack of advice and understanding of tourists' needs and characteristics. The limitation of foreign
language proficiency also partly affects the quality of services associated with tourism development.
Fifthly, the safety level of boats and tourist piers is limited: some have not been renovated and
upgraded for many years, so the safety conditions for tourists are not guaranteed, lack of lifebuoys
and force rescue when an unfortunate incident occurs. The static level of the bridges has not yet
ensured the navigability of cruise ships
2.5. Solutions for sustainable development of river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City
Through learning about the current status of river tourism, and identifying the causes and limitations
affecting river tourism activities. The authors suggest some solutions for sustainable development of
river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City as follows:
- Tourism development must major in three important components to ensure sustainable tourism
development, which is to contribute to the city's economic growth, social equality, and environmental
protection. This depends mainly on the city's master plan for tourism development and sectors in the
economic structure. In the planning, tourism capacity must be taken into account, including economic
capacity, social capacity, and ecological capacity as the basis for tourism planning, investment, and
exploitation.
- Strengthen cooperation and tourism promotion: strengthen links with travel companies in the
Southeast and Southwest regions, build river tourism in combination with river resorts or a
combination of the waterways and roads along the Saigon River, Nhieu Loc, Thi Nghe, Tau Hu, and
Ben Nghe canals to increase diversity and attractiveness to international and domestic tourists.
- Regularly renewing and updating river cruise programs: based on being suitable with the resources,
advantages, and characteristics of Ho Chi Minh City, meeting the diverse needs of tourists. In the
same tour, it is not advisable to focus on all tourist attractions, but to have a reasonable allocation, so
that tourists have the desire to return or lengthen their stay in the city, increasing income for local
communities.
- Investment in the development of material and technical facilities: The State needs to invest in
building and upgrading degraded tourist wharves in District 8, District 9, and District 7… Planning at
least 300 m at Nha Rong Wharf cruise tourists.
-Cooperation between businesses: Ho Chi Minh City tourism will be developed if tourism businesses,
landlords in District 9, Thu Duc city, Cu Chi Dist, and Binh Duong province... work together,
showing responsibility when picking up guests, marketing the destination, improving service quality
and serving.
-Close cooperation between local authorities and related industries: coordinating both investors and
local authorities in the construction of destinations, stops, vehicles, piers...
- Increase attractiveness in tours: increase the value of tourist attractions by linking tourism resources
together. The link between river tourism can be coordinated with boats, canoes, and garden sites then
designing more new river tour services.
-For planners, operators, tour guides, etc must be equipped with knowledge about history,
ethnography, geography, climate, culture, and ecology... and apply it to introducing destinations, and
stopping points. This is an effective method to increase the length of stay at the attraction and increase
the curiosity, discovery, and understanding of visitors. Combination of meditation tourism. The
reason that modern life has so much pressure: work, family, money, etc., so tourists need tours to
nature, close to the countryside, and have peace of mind. Here, the type of river tourism can
completely combine to exploit meditation tourism. Some typical tourism products combined with
river tourism depend on the locality.
3. Conclusion
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In summary, this article offers some solutions to develop river tourism sustainably, however, it is
not possible to exist independently of this type of tourism in the tourism activities of Ho Chi Minh
city, but due to many factors, river tourism development has not been commensurate with the existing
potential. When exploiting river tourism, there are no specific highlights of each destination, lack of
coordination, water environment was being threatened. The landscapes on both sides of the inner city
are still sluggish, river tour costs are high, and guests feel unsafe traveling by boat… These issues
related to sustainable tourism development in Ho Chi Minh city require river tourism makers and
people involved in river cruise tourism, destination communities must work together to have a master
plan for long term strategy, new responsible products, and closer cooperation among cities and
provinces in the region, solve the problems of jobs, clean water, income for locals, safety for tourists
in the future. Tourism responsible development in general and river tourism development, in
particular, is an evitable trend in the world.
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[STS22-14]
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THE ROLE OF STATE MANAGEMENT IN THE RIVER TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT LINKAGES IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Nguyen Phuoc Hien1, Tran Trong Thanh2*
1
Faculty of Tourism and Vietnamese studies, Nguyen Tat Thanh University 300A Nguyen Tat Thanh
Street District 4 Ho Chi Minh City 70000
2
Falcuty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Economics and Finance. 141 Dien
Bien Phu Street, Ward 17, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City 7000.
*Corresponding Author: Phone: +84 764912215; Email: thanhtt@uef.edu.vn
Abstract
Ho Chi Minh City is a major economic-cultural center of the country and the region, not only serving
as a pulling tourist destination but also as a pushing tourist area. The city has cooperated with most
tourist regions across the country, specifically 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta and 5 provinces in
the Southeast. Besides linking to development MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions)
and urban tourism, river tourism is also mainly invested in and developed by the government. To
evaluate this issue, the authors have conducted in-depth interviews with representatives of local
authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, surveying 189 river tourists. All have agreed on the role of the state's
leadership responsibility in joint activities for tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City, but the
implementation wasn't drastic, sticking to the reality that reason why inter-regional tourism business
development has many limitations, not yet achieved the expected results. Some solutions to further
enhance the role of state management in training and fostering human resources to serve the needs of
local tourism linkage development in the coming time.
Keywords: River tourism cooperation; River tourism connection; State management role tourism
linkage
1. Introduction
Today, in the trend of international integration and globalization, intra-regional and inter-regional
connectivity, intra-industry and inter-sectionalization have become an inevitable need in society.
Tourism is an integrated economy that has an interdisciplinary and inter-regional characteristic. It is a
resource-oriented business.
In recent years, Vietnam has turned towards inter-regional tourism development research, but
this research theory has not become a clear scientific foundation. Regional linkage is still heavy on
achievement, and not realistic. The efficiency of linking activities has not been measured and
evaluated objectively and transparently by authorities, causing waste of time and the state budget. But
it wasn't mean we underestimated the role of state management. Intra-regional or inter-regional
linkage requires the regulation and management of the state through the lines, policies, and legal
policies, stimulating investment in tourism, providing financial incentives, advertising - spending
money on tourism promotion in international markets, coordinating the activities of various
government agencies involved in tourism, establishing a system of tourism education institutions, and
providing programs for tourism education and training.
The case is specifically studied through the period of economic reform in China (Zhang, Chong,
& Ap, 1999). State management and supervision from local to central tourism businesses are
important for sustainable tourism development. (Dinica, 2009). Political and sociological changes
deeply affect the relationship between the state and tourism businesses, among businesses, and
businesses with customers (Dredge & Whitford, 2011). The role of human resources in state
organizations in giving the right direction and policy, and creating conditions for tourism businesses,
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destinations, and countries to operate effectively and compete in the contemporary global economy is
mentioned and discussed (Zhang et al., 1999). But somewhere still has group interests, and local
interests, so local authorities should promote or inhibit the linkage of sustainable tourism
development? The question is raised in the study (Ruhanen, 2013).
The content of state management of tourism under the Law on Tourism (Article 10)(law, 2005)
includes: (1) Formulating and organizing the implementation of tourism development strategies,
plans, plans and policies; (2) Develop, promulgate and organize the implementation of legal
documents and standards of economic - technical norms in tourism activities; (3) Propagating,
disseminating and educating about tourism law and information; (4) Organize and manage training
and retraining of human resources, research and application of science and technology; (5) Investigate
and evaluate tourism resources to develop tourism development planning, identify tourist areas,
tourist sites, tourist routes, tourist urban areas; (6) Organizing the implementation of international
cooperation on tourism and tourism promotion activities in the country and abroad; (7) Regulations on
the organization of the state management apparatus of tourism, the coordination of state agencies in
the state management of tourism; (8) Granting and withdrawing permits and certificates for tourism
activities; (9) Examining, inspecting and settling complaints and denunciations and handling
violations of tourism laws. (law, 2005) So, it can be understood that the State management of tourism
is: the process of the State's impact on tourism through the system of State management agencies, the
system of legal policies and laws to develop tourism in the right direction. of the State, creating order
in tourism activities makes tourism a spearhead economic sector. The object of such management is
tourism activities, tourism agencies, and tourists themselves. (law, 2005)
Realizing its importance, and the great economic efficiency that the tourism industry brings. The
State issued Resolution No. 08 NQ / TW dated January 16, 2017, of the Politburo to develop tourism
into a spearhead economic sector. Decision No. 1685 / QD / Ttg dated December 15, 2018, of the
Prime Minister, decided to approve the project: "Restructuring the tourism industry to meet the
development needs to become a spearhead economic sector ". To implement the Resolution of the
Politburo. In Bac Lieu, an agreement to link tourism development cooperation between the People's
Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and the People's Committee of 13 provinces and cities in the
Mekong Delta for the period 2020 - 2025 was signed on December 14, 2019.
On June 28, 2020, in Tay Ninh, the signing ceremony of the Tourism Cooperation Agreement
for the Southeast between the People's Committees of localities: Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, Binh
Duong, Binh Phuoc, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Dong Nai.
Linking the development of various types of tourism between localities and regions in the
current period is an urgent need. With the advantage of flow and connection with most of the
Southern provinces. River tourism in Ho Chi Minh city needs more investment. The Saigon River
originating in the Hon Quang region of Binh Phuoc province has a length of about 256 km and an
average width of 300m a depth of about 18m flowing through Ho Chi Minh City 80 km. During the
long period of development of Gia Dinh - Tran Bien - Saigon - Cho Lon - Ho Chi Minh City, the river
has been and is a vital traffic hub, playing an important role in history - economy - literature.
socialization of the city. Nowadays, from Saigon River, tourist boats not only dock at Nha Rong port,
Bach Dang wharf, Tan Cang, Khanh Hoi, etc, but also go inner the city through Lo Gom, Tau Hu, Thi
Nghe canals. Giong Ong To river, etc. or going further to Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria Vung Tau,
and the Mekong Delta provinces, even connecting with other countries in the world via cruise ship
and river cruise routes.
According to statistics from the City Department of Tourism Ho Chi Minh city, for 2 years
(2017 and 2018) the number of visitors to the city and using waterways tourism is estimated at 450
thousand passengers per year, with revenue reaching 540 billion per year. It is striving to increase the
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flow of waterway tourists at a rate of about 15% per year in the following years. For international
arrivals, the number of tourists coming and using waterways tourism is about 470 thousand
arrivals/year and has a growth rate of 12 to 15% per year. In the following years, revenue from
waterway tourism (mainly cruises) strives to reach 1,220 billion VND per year, an increase of about
12%. To perform the state management of travel the National Administration Of Tourism has built a
website quanlyluhanh.vn. Until May 2021, there are 2427 international travel businesses and 494
domestic travel businesses. Ho Chi Minh City has 21 businesses that do business on river travel from
the inner city to the regional route with many different types of transport such as motorboats, canoes,
speed boats, yachts, ferries, hydrofoils, river buses, dinner boats... There are 3 short-range tourist
routes: Route 1: The inner city route in the direction of districts 1,4,6,8 going on Te canal, Kenh Doi,
Tau Hu, Lo Gom, Ben Nghe, Route 2: Going to Artists' village, Route 3: Going to Binh Quoi tourist
area - Thanh Da on the Saigon River. Mid-range river routes. Route 4: Going to Cu Chi, with the final
destination of Ben Dinh Tunnels or Ben Duoc Tunnels. Route 5: The route towards the historical-
cultural park, Hoi Son pagoda (District 9), 50 km long, goes along the Saigon River. Long-range river
routes. Route 6: Towards Nha Be, Can Gio and can connect to Vung Tau, longer than 75 km, go along
the rivers Saigon, Nha Be, and Long Tau (or Soai Rap). Route 7: Direction to Binh Chanh, Long An
to the western provinces connecting to Cambodia along Te canal, Doi canal, Dem market river, Ben
Luc to Tien river upstream of Mekong river. From the fact that tourism routes are being exploited
today, Ho Chi Minh river tourism can not develop alone without linking with other localities or not
linked with other types of tourism such as road tourism, air travel ..., or not linked with economic
fields such as trades, services, communication ..., the connection of tourism in Ho Chi Minh City still
has many shortcomings such as the level of tourism personnel is not equal among local, tourism
products are not attractive, pricey, the link between businesses and local people is still fragmented,
avoidance, fear of responsibility occurred when problems occurred, and lack of application of
information technology in the destination's an advertising and marketing ... Therefore, the role of state
management in linking river tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City is being concerned.
The research is carried out in two phases, preliminary by qualitative method and formal by
quantitative method. Interview, group discussion with 20 managers, and part-time lecturers in Ho Chi
Minh City. The results of this interview will then be referenced in the design of a river tourist survey
(quantitative) questionnaire. The stages to be carried out are as follows.
Stage 1: Qualitative preliminary research
The research team has conducted in-depth interviews with 5 river tour operators. 10 leaders of
government agencies, group discussion with teachers. The role of preliminary research is to finalize
unknown issues, identify risks, and help researchers to perfect the research model and survey
questionnaire before going into official research (Schensul, Schensul, & LeCompte, 1999).
Stage 2: Formal quantitative research
Quantitative research encompasses a wide range of methods that involve the systematic
investigation of social phenomena, using either statistical or numerical data. Quantitative research is
therefore concerned with measuring and assuming that the phenomena under study can be measured.
It sets out to analyze data for trends and relationships and verify that measurements are taken
(Watson, 2015). According to (Encyclopedia, 2005), quantitative research is the operation of
numerical representation and observation to describe and explain the phenomena that those
observations reflect. It is used in many types of natural and social sciences, including physics,
biology, psychology, sociology, and geology. Based on the results of in-depth interviews and group
discussions, the research team developed a tourist survey questionnaire at Nha Rong wharf, Hoang Sa
inner-city wharf No. 1, and online interviews. Number of samples (n = 189). The questionnaire
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content is designed according to the Linkert questionnaire divided into 5 big questions corresponding
to 5 tourists' assessments of the role of state management in linking river tourism development. The
purpose of quantitative research is to test research hypotheses. The interview time is from 15th Oct
2021 to 10th Nov 2021.
3. Research results
The study conducted surveys for 189 river tourists, including 98 female tourists (accounting for
51,8%). Tourists come from all 3 regions, but tourists from Ho Chi Minh city account for the highest
proportion (52.6%), tourists are mainly aged 18 to 55 (95.5%) with the main tourism purpose. FIT
(free independent traveler) (accounting for 78.7%).
Table 1: Why is it good for Ho Chi Minh City’s river tourism to make connections. Source: Author's
survey data, 189 samples, 2021
Reasons Number Percentage of
respondents respondents
Exploit available advantages 165 87.3
Creating new products, extending the stay, and 159 84
stimulating spending
River tourism, the trend of linking becomes 178 94
popular in the world
Small group tourism, safe against epidemics 191 96,2
Reduced load for road travel, easy to connect 164 86.7
Others 36 19
165 answers account for 87.3% of the answers, it is necessary to link the development of river
tourism in Ho Chi Minh City with other regional achievements due to the potential and available
advantages that nature and history have bestowed. River tourism links create new products to
stimulate spending had 159 answers accounting for 84% agreed. River tourism, the trend of linking
becomes popular in the world had 178 ticks accounting for 94%. River cruises are also very suitable
for small groups, families, nature lovers, and environmental protection. This is the current and future
tourism trend that has 191agreed to account for 96,2%. The development of river tourism also reduces
the load on road tourism. riverway is becoming more and more popular with 164 answers accounting
for 86.7%. The rest has 36 answers accounting for 19% giving other reasons.
Table 2: The role of state management in connection with river tourism development. Source:
Author's survey data, 189 samples, 2021
The role of state management Number Percentage of
Provide the policies, supervise the connection 177 93,6
activities
Investing and Attracting investment 172 91
Develop learning programs, seminars, education, 159 84
coordination activities
Others 39 20
Understanding the role of state management in linking river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City. For
issuing the policies, supervising the connection activities had 177 answers accounting for 93.6%.
Investing and attracting investment had 172 answers accounting for 91%. Developing learning
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programs, seminars, education, and coordinating activities had 159 choices accounting for 84%. the
other opinions were 39 answers accounting for 20%.
Table 3: Evaluation of the role of state management in linking river tourism development. Source:
The role of state management Number Percentage of
Not yet drastic 155 82
There was no strategic vision 142 75
Coordination of the linkage activity has not been effective 175 92.5
Poorly connected infrastructure 168 89
The quality of human resources is not good yet 161 85
Others 43 22.7
Evaluation of the role of state management in linking river tourism development nowadays. Not
yet drastic the state authorities had 155 answers accounting for 82%. There was no strategic vision
with 142 choices accounting for 75%. Poorly connected infrastructure had 168 answers accounting for
89%. Coordination of the linkage activity has not been effective with 175 answers accounting for
92.5%. The quality of human resources is not good yet 161 answers account for 85%. The others with
43 answers account for 22.7%.
Table 4: What do the connected river tour products inquire about? Source: Author's survey data, 189
samples, 2021
Inquiry Number Percentage of respondents
respondents
Safe for visitors and the community 177 93.6
Reasonable price 174 92
Environmental protection,sustainable 182 96
tourism
Others 35 18.5
When interviewing tourists what are the requirements for a river tourism link: there were 177 answers
needed for safe accounts for 93,6%. Reasonable prices had 174 choices accounting for 92%.
Environmental protection and sustainable tourism had 182 ticks accounting for 96%. Other choices
with 35 answers account for 18.5%.
Table 5: To link up the tourism development of HCM river tourism. Source: Author's survey data,
189 samples, 2021
Must Number respondents Percentage of
respondents
Links between state and businesses 143 73.6
State and local people 125 66
Businesses and local people 151 80
All related stakeholders but the state play a key role 176 93
Between businesses and training institutions, develop 138 73
learning programs, seminars, education ...
Checking, evaluation of the cooperations 155 82
Others 49 26
537
To link up the development of river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City: Links between state and
businesses had 143 answers accounting for 73.6% needs linkage between businesses and locals had
125 answers accounting for 66%. All related stakeholders but the state plays a key role is the highest
number with 176 answers accounting for 93%. Enterprises and local people had 151 choices
accounting for 80%. Between businesses and training institutions, develop learning programs,
seminars, and education had 138 answers account 73%. Checking and evaluation of the cooperations
had 155 choices account 82%. The others were 49 accounts for 26%.
Table 6: Assessment of the current status of river tourism products in Ho Chi Minh City. Source:
Opinions Number Percentage of
The product is monotonous, not attractive yet 168 77
The water environment is polluted 159 75.7
Lack of connection to the road 166 81.3
Lack of shopping and entertainment activities 164 86.7
Lack of promotional and marketing activities 160 84.6
Service levels have not yet uniformed 153 81
Others 41 21.6
Assessing the current status of river tourism product linkage in Ho Chi Minh City. There were
168 who have agreed that the products are still monotonous accounting for 77%. The water
environment is polluted with 159 answers accounts 75.7%. Lack of connection to the road had 166
choices accounting for 81.3%… Lack of shopping and entertainment activities had 164 answers
accounting for 86.7%. Lack of promotional and marketing activities with 160 choices accounts for
84,6%. Service levels have not yet been uniformed: 153 answers account for 81%. The other 41
answers account for 21.6%.
4. Comments on some shortcomings and causes affecting the linkage to develop river tourism in
Ho Chi Minh City.
Through learning from tourists about the role of state management in linking tourism
development activities in Ho Chi Minh City, and the current situation of river tourism products, the
author identifies the causes and limitations of these activities as follows.
Firstly, the role of the state is very important but the state cannot do the job of the enterprises:
Strengthen the promotion, tourism promotion, cooperation in tourism development, Strengthen
inspection and examination for tourism activities. Specifically, the link between river tourism
organizations in Ho Chi Minh City with each other, with the river tourism supply units in the
destinations is still fuzzy, with no sales, marketing, or advertising activities through leaflets, websites,
or social networks ... There is a link between the river tourism business organizations and the
destination but still lax, according to personal relationships, "verbal contracts", this leads to service
quality is low, heterogeneous, weak competition among service providers, and inefficiency in the
operating organization. Each cruise ship business unit has its tourism products, targeting different
markets such as Indochina cruise company and Saigon cruise company for example. Tourists' needs
are always changing and different, today they want to experience the dinner cruise on the Saigon river
but next time they want to experience a romantic tour on Thi Nghe river. This is a problem to soon
have a solution.
Secondly, the tourism expertise of local leaders is not yet uniform and has many limitations.
Most of the staff are not properly trained in the tourism industry and have transferred or held many
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different positions so they do not have enough time and capacity for full-time activities. The same
goes for business managers, and the service staff at river tourism units, leading to modest
consultation, and understanding of the needs and characteristics of tourists. Limited language
proficiency also partly affects the quality of services in the river tourism connection.
Thirdly, river tourism products lack diversity, specificity, and specialization. Tor organizing
forms are still the same, there is no innovation in service to meet many types of tourists or suitable
with natural conditions and landscapes on both sides of the river. Therefore, it is difficult to attract
and retain tourists in this period of fierce competition today.
Fourthly, the promotion of the image of river tourism and river tourism links in the tourist
area has not been paid attention to by the State, the scope of the linkage is still limited, and the
support and learning exchange have not much. Although the State has support to promote Vietnam's
tourism image on domestic and international media, the frequency is small, and has not introduced
each specific destination. Tourism organizations just stop in the form of articles, images on websites,
and social networks about local products or their companies without cooperation in the tourism
market or tourist destination. For many reasons, localities and travel agencies have not been eager to
invest in promoting river tourism development.
5. Solutions to promote the role of state management in Ho Chi Minh city river tourism
Through learning about the role of state management in linking tourism development in Ho Chi
Minh City, the current situation of river tourism, identifying the causes and limitations affecting
tourism activities. The authors would like to propose solutions to further promote the role of state
management in the linkage of river tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City.
Firstly, the local government and related agencies need to play the vital role of intermediaries
connecting business organizations, and tourist destinations with each other. Regularly hold
seminars between the State, business organizations, service providers, and local people to strengthen
the link to support, solve problems and difficulties, and create a high consensus between related
parties. The State needs to review and re-evaluate legal policies, planning, and training to have a
suitable joint program for each development stage of Ho Chi Minh City and the region.
Secondly, the State needs to link with training centers to organize courses to improve educational
qualifications, foreign language skills, and river tourism knowledge skills for managers and full-time
officials. In addition, there should be professional training courses for service providers including
local communities, tourism managers, and tourism business organizations ... to learn and meet the
needs. variety of customers. The State should encourage tourist destinations, and tourist areas ... to
actively exchange experiences through exchanges and practical learning of the successful association
model to improve the organization management and meet travelers' satisfaction.
Thirdly, the State needs to coordinate with all stakeholders to have policies to attract
development investment. The State needs to have favorable and transparent policies to call on private
state resources, to participate in the investment. more technical facilities for river cruises such as
piers, and berths, it makes an easier and more convenient connection between different types of
tourism, and tourist destinations, creating a unique tourism product. Enriching in the indigenous
regions. Attracting more domestic and international tourists.
Fourthly, building strategic images to promote images of river tourism professionally. The link
of river tourism in Ho Chi Minh City has great potential for development, so it is indispensable to
have a strategy to promote the image of a well-known tourist destination. This requires coordination
of the local government agencies, business organizations, service providers, and local communities in
the associated area. The unity of image, content, frequency and means of advertising should be
organized professionally in scale and periodic continuity following local fine customs and regulations.
539
6. Conclusion
Trends of green tourism, ecotourism, and river tourism have been becoming more and more
popular in Vietnam and the world. Links for development are an inevitable need. Facing the
advantages and challenges in the current period. River tourism in Ho Chi Minh City needs to joint
ventures with other types of tourism and other tourist areas to achieve the goal of sustainable
development. This is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders, but it is the state's main role. Through
the solutions proposed in the article, the authors hope that the state will have the right strategy to bring
Vietnam tourism in general and Ho Chi Minh city river tourism to develop steadily in the future.
References
1. Dinica, V. J. J. o. S. T. (2009). Governance for sustainable tourism: a comparison of international
and Dutch visions. 17(5), 583-603.
2. Dredge, D., & Whitford, M. J. J. o. S. T. (2011). Event tourism governance and the public sphere.
19(4-5), 479-499.
3. Encyclopedia, W. O. (2005).
4. Law, V. n. T. (2005). Tourism law.
5. Ruhanen, L. J. J. o. S. T. (2013). Local government: facilitator or inhibitor of sustainable tourism
development? 21(1), 80-98.
6. Schensul, S. L., Schensul, J. J., & LeCompte, M. D. (1999). Essential ethnographic methods:
Observations, interviews, and questionnaires (Vol. 2): Rowman Altamira.
7. Watson, R. J. N. S. (2015). Quantitative research. 29(31), 44.
8. Zhang, H. Q., Chong, K., & Ap, J. J. T. M. (1999). An analysis of tourism policy development in
modern China. 20(4), 471-485.

[STS22-21]
540
THE EXPERIENCE OF BEIJING CITY (CHINA) IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF HERITAGE TOURISM AND LESSONS FOR HO
CHI MINH CITY
Tran Dinh Anh
Ho Chi Minh City College of Technology
*Corresponding Author: Email: Dinhanhvtc280@gmail.com. Tel: 0938422925
Abstract
Cultural heritage is an indispensable resource for the development of tourism of each country and
ethnic group. The article centers on clarifying the current situation and some solutions to promote and
preserve cultural heritage in the development of cultural heritage tourism in Beijing city (China).
Accordingly, the author suggests some references and proposes solutions to promote and preserve
cultural heritage in the development of cultural heritage tourism in Ho Chi Minh City today.
Keywords: Cultural heritage, travel, Beijing (China), Ho Chi Minh City.
1. Introduction
Cultural heritage tourism is a special type of tourism and is increasingly popular in many countries
around the world. Cultural heritage tourism can be understood as a type of tourism that experiences authentic
places, artifacts and activities about the stories of people in the past - present across all cultural fields, history,
cuisine, costumes, music, etc. Cultural heritage tourism not only brings economic value but also has cultural
and social significance, raising awareness of conservation, contribute to promoting the national image.
In the process of development, Beijing city attaches special importance to cultural heritage tourism,
considering it "the core tourism product and also the root of sustainable development" (Xu, 2003). p. 85). So
what are the values and results of cultural heritage tourism development? What measures has Beijing city
taken to preserve and promote cultural heritage in tourism development? This is an attractive economic,
cultural, and touristic issue that needs to be researched. On the basis of research, research and reference, the
author proposes a number of solutions with reference nature for sustainable cultural heritage tourism
development in Ho Chi Minh City.
2. Identifying the cultural heritage of Beijing City and Ho Chi Minh City
The cultural heritage of Beijing city blends the ancient features of a capital with thousands of years of
history and the modern features of a civilized city. Cultural heritage of Beijing city can be divided into
categories such as: Material cultural heritage, typically: Palaces, royal tombs of the Ming - Qing dynasties,
Zhoukoudian relics; Summer Palace, Great Wall, Zhongshan Park, Baiyun Temple, Jietai Temple...;
Intangible cultural heritage, typical: Bach Van Pagoda Fair, Lama Temple Buddhist Event, Niujie Mosque...
Likewise, in the process of formation and development, Ho Chi Minh City has built a unique cultural
heritage system, contributing to the enrichment and diversity of Vietnamese cultural identity. Dang Van Bai,
Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association, said: "There is only one city in Vietnam. Ho
Chi Minh City, Hanoi Capital, and Hue Ancient Capital are still eligible to be preserved as a heritage city.
This is an invaluable asset in terms of spirit, but at the same time, it is also a huge physical asset, containing in
it resources of financial, material and human resources with high intellectual content” (quoted: Thuan, 2018).
Cultural heritage in Ho Chi Minh City is classified into categories such as: tangible cultural heritage, typically
such as: Independence Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, City Post Office, Nha Rong Wharf, Cu Chi Tunnels ,
Rung Sac, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Building, Notre Dame Cathedral...; Intangible cultural
heritage, typical: Don ca tai tu, Nghinh Ong festival, ao dai festival, ho, ly, performance, cuisine, customs,
traditions, spirituality, diverse beliefs.. .
541
Similarities in Cultural Heritages of Beijing and Ho Chi Minh City: The cultural heritages of these two
cities are the creative products of the people in the historical process, and are traditional because they are
handed down from generation to generation. generation to generation. The cultural heritage of Beijing and
Ho Chi Minh City exhibits a rich diversity including architectural works, music, dance, festivals,... Moreover,
cultural heritage is constantly changing. change (both positive and negative) due to human and natural
influences.
The difference: The cultural heritage of Ho Chi Minh City is less in quantity and value. The cultural
heritage in Beijing City is rich and large in scale, with influence on the region and the world. Currently,
Beijing City has 07 world cultural heritages, while Ho Chi Minh City has no recognized world cultural
heritage. Cultural heritage in Beijing City bears the imprint of the capital of feudal dynasties, while cultural
heritage in Ho Chi Minh City is a political, economic, cultural and social center newly established. formed
over 300 years. Cultural heritage in Ho Chi Minh City is associated with rivers. The system of Dong Nai
river, Saigon river, Tau Hu - Ben Nghe canal... is not only water transportation, but also promotes the
development of the fields of "handicrafts and business along both sides of the river." , many factories were
established such as Nam Long, Kien Phong, Binh Tay wine company of Chinese or Vietnamese... managed"
(Hanh, 2006, p. 172). Ho Chi Minh City is a young, dynamic city with Western-style planning architecture.
Therefore, the Cultural Heritage in Ho Chi Minh City has its own charm and appeal compared to Beijing
City.
Beijing City like Ho Chi Minh City, currently the process of urbanization is taking place rapidly, conflict
between the new and the old, between conservation and development, between modernity and tradition. With
such characteristics, it will have a significant impact on the development of heritage tourism in both cities.
3. Current status of cultural heritage tourism development in Beijing city

In the process of development, the Beijing City government considers cultural heritage tourism to be an
important factor and at the same time of special significance, contributing to creating jobs and promoting
economic development. , society, enhancing the image of Beijing City in the international arena. Tourism
revenue in Beijing city achieved a compound annual growth rate of 8.8% between 2009 and 2018. In 2018,
tourism revenue reached 592.12 billion yuan (or 91.9 billion yuan). billion USD) (Wu, 2019).
In the consumption structure of Beijing's tourism products in 2018, historical relics accounted for the
highest proportion, reaching 50.3%, typically: Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace...; followed by
typical parks (tolled parks): Thanh Long Lake Park, Beijing Zoo, Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture…
accounting for 12.7%; typical city visits are Bird's Nest, Water Cube… accounted for 6.9%; playgrounds
such as Beijing Happiness Valley… accounted for 2.8%; Theaters and stage performances such as National
Opera House, Trieu Duong Theater, Deyun Theater… accounted for 1.3% (The Association of Foreign
Trade Development reipublicae Sinarum, 2018).
Cultural heritage tourism is an indispensable element in the tourism structure of Beijing city. Peng Min's
research shows that the satisfaction level about beautiful landscapes, variety of activities in tourist areas,
abundance of tourist goods, types of food and beverage services, prices and souvenirs. tourism.... is generally
rated as exceeding visitors' expectations (Peng, 2018, p. 84).
However, due to the excessive demand for economic development, real estate, tourism, etc., leading to
"devastation", causing "disappearance of precious memories of the city" (Shan, 2007, p. .twelfth). Many
cultural heritage values are “significantly degraded, deserted, with outdated infrastructure…” (Zhu, Wang,
Zhang, 2019, p. 559). Excavation work, “protection and management of cultural heritage is not effective” (Li,
2006, p. 562). The situation of “over-commercialization will bring disaster to cultural heritages” (Zhu, 2019,
p. 566), causing “heritage destruction, lack of local identity and loss of traditional values. ” (Zhu, 2019, p.
561). Therefore, harmonious development and balance between promotion and conservation is Beijing's top
concern for cultural heritage tourism.
542
4. Cultural heritage tourism development solutions of the Beijing City government
Technology Solutions
Currently, Beijing City is constantly perfecting mechanisms, policies and planning in preserving and
promoting heritage values. Promote community participation in cultural heritage protection and promotion
strategies. Beijing city attaches great importance to the application of modern technology to restore and
preserve cultural heritage. Irradiation technology, biotechnology, ultrasound, three-dimensional laser
scanning, nanomaterials, radar, terahertz, 3S technology, etc. are used to preserve cultural heritage. For
example, Beijing city uses integrated cloud technology, laser scanning, 3D technology... to survey and map
the ancient buildings in the Forbidden City. Integrating modern technology to collect data to avoid direct
contact, but the speed and volume of data collected is very large. High accuracy, low error (Li, 2014, p. 99).
In addition, Beijing city also built an online game system based on advanced technology to mobilize the
whole society and tourists to protect cultural heritage. This is an important factor, helping Beijing city to
sustainably preserve cultural heritage in tourism development.
Especially recently, cloud computing technology, artificial intelligence AI, virtual reality (VR),
augmented reality (AR)... have been used by Beijing city to build destinations. Smart heritage tourism,
enhancing the experience and interaction between tourists and cultural heritage. Beijing city uses modern
technology... to develop online tourism, optimize the quality of travel services such as ticket purchase,
payment, online booking... to provide global awareness Thorough and timely representation of cultural
heritages helps visitors experience and choose the most appropriate tour. Modern information technology is
used for ecological environment monitoring, meteorological monitoring, air quality monitoring, water quality
monitoring, noise monitoring... “Building a self-reporting system multilingual, communication and
interactive activities on the cloud platform” (National Scientia et Lorem Development Agency, 2016, p. 38).
Beijing city builds educational programs, research and learn about cultural heritages such as craft villages,
dance, traditional music, architecture, history, culture... through various elements. technology. For example:
Technology allows visitors to record data, role-play (dance, sing...), even guide correct errors for visitors
during the heritage tourism experience.
Solutions for planning and perfecting the infrastructure system
Beijing city has focused on synchronous heritage tourism planning such as: tourism functional zoning
planning, service development planning (accommodation, tourism product development, dining, shopping)
...); planning on tourism environment (soft environment and increasing hospitality, quality improvement,
prevention and control of environmental pollution in tourism...); planning to develop human resources,
increase the technological element for the heritage tourism industry of Beijing city.
In order to promote the development of cultural heritage tourism, Beijing city has developed many
programs to coordinate between agencies and departments, mobilize many social resources, and public-
private partnerships (PPP). From macro to micro, in order to comprehensively improve infrastructure and
tourism services. In which the government plays an executive role in relation to “developing and
implementing regulations to control tourism business activities; stimulate tourism investment, promote
tourism; coordinate the activities of various government agencies related to tourism activities; Establish a
system and provide education and training programs in tourism” (Hanqin, King, 1999, p. 471). Beijing City
strongly develops PPP method in infrastructure development, environmental improvement, ecological
construction, “consulting services, public works construction and other tourist public services such as scenic
spots, shops, parking, real estate, advertising, integration and development, comprehensive improvement and
constant optimization of tourism public services and public products” (Yuyan, Alexandru , 2018, p. 58). So,
transportation system, parking, restrooms, tourist information services, banking, garbage disposal,
wastewater, security, fire protection, entertainment services, safety management , cultural heritage tourism
destinations, all built perfectly, synchronously and modernly.
543
Solutions to develop Beijing's typical cultural heritage tourism products
In order to position the image of cultural heritage tourism, Beijing City builds a program to coordinate
smoothly in all stages: from airports, train stations, gates of tourist resorts, hotels, restaurants to the region.
core of travel. All need to strengthen the tourism image building, create the best impression in the hearts of
visitors. Organizing cultural tourism promotion with many topics such as: Restarting the "Marine Silk Road",
organizing events to explore Beijing City in India, Vietnam and Russia, introducing the charm The
uniqueness of Beijing city from different angles. “Attracting celebrities to tourism”, etc. (Xu, 2003, p. 87)
“Standardizing the tourism market, accelerating the integration process” (Yuyan, Mircea, 2019, p. 11). Create
own brand value of Beijing city heritage tourism, design differentiated tourism products, build marketing
network on integrated communication platform (IMC).
With the policy of "letting heritage live", the Beijing City government has been making efforts to restore
and promote all heritage values in a creative and reasonable way to promote the development of multi-
faceted tourism products. form, difference. Many tourism products are associated with "Tourism +" such as:
Tourism + agricultural tourism, tourism + new industrialization, cultural heritage tourism combined with red
tourism, resort tourism, health tourism, etc. enrich and diversify tourism products in Beijing city. Promoting
heritage values such as: Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, cuisine, Peking opera art, etc. to create unique
features for the city's tourism. Integrating cultural heritage values such as music, entertainment, cuisine,
shopping, lighting, traffic safety to develop night tourism, etc.
5. Solutions for developing cultural heritage tourism in Ho Chi Minh City today
Beijing city can be considered as one of the typical cases for the current type of cultural heritage tourism
development in the world when "cultural heritage tourism contributes 80% of income in the tourism industry
in Beijing city". (Yuyan, Mircea, 2019, p. 12). From the research, comparing solutions to develop the type of
heritage tourism that the Beijing City government has been implementing, the author boldly points out a few
solutions to help the city's tourism managers. Ho Chi Minh City now has a more reliable basis, which can be
referenced in the policy making process to further promote the value of the cultural heritage of the City
named after Uncle Ho.
Firstly, promote conservation in association with the promotion of cultural heritage
Ho Chi Minh City as well as Beijing are both places where the urbanization process is very fast, the
conservation of cultural heritage becomes a difficult problem: destroy or keep, preserve the status quo or
preserve adaptively? The results show that Beijing chooses to preserve and promote the value of cultural
heritage. The process of preserving cultural heritage in Ho Chi Minh City has achieved certain results.
However, due to the pressure of economic development and rapid urbanization in Ho Chi Minh City, there
has been a great challenge to the preservation of cultural heritage. Many heritages associated with the
characteristics of Southern rivers have been adversely affected. For example, the factory row of hundreds of
years old along the Tau Hu - Ben Nghe canal has been dismantled,... Most recently, the Ba Son historical
relic site, Tax Trade Center was destroyed,... Article This creates a "gap" in historical awareness for a new
generation of residents and loses some long-term benefits, affecting the development of tourism in Ho Chi
Minh City in particular and the country in general. (Hau, 2017, pp. 395 – 396). Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City
needs to attach importance to conservation work, develop a reasonable conservation plan in the direction of
honoring heritage values, making cultural heritage truly "alive" and lasting with time. .
Second, promote cultural heritage to form rich tourism products with unique characteristics for tourism
in Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City needs to use the characteristics of cultural heritage, to build a brand and position a
destination for the tourism industry, to form rich, diverse and unique tourism products. The cultural heritage
feature of the city is a river-city, culturally diverse, the economic center and locomotive of the whole country,
with Western-style planning and architecture... Therefore, can design and build tourism river - canal. The
544
purpose for tourists to explore Ho Chi Minh City with a new "prism", is the basis for visitors to experience
the river-like culture "on the wharf under the boat", the commercial port city associated with the system.
Waterways: Tau Hu - Ben Nghe, Tau Hu - Lo Gom, Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe, Bach Dang wharf associated
with Ben Thanh market, Lon market (Binh Tay market)... Development of tourism to discover unique
experiences Khmer culture, Cham culture, Chinese culture, West street... Pay attention to building Tourism to
enjoy and admire Western architecture and planning in the heart of the City (Notre Dame Cathedral,
Independence Palace, Central Post Office, Marie Curie High School, Le Hong Phong High School for the
Gifted, Pasteur Institute, learn about the characteristics of French planning in the city...). Focusing on
developing tourism on revolutionary traditions (Rung Sac, Cu Chi tunnels, Saigon Special Forces, Nha Rong
Wharf, Vietnam History Museum, City Revolution Museum, War Remnants Museum, heritage sites, etc.)
historical site of Ba Son...). In tourist routes, it is necessary to combine and promote intangible cultural
heritage values such as: Don ca tai tu, cuisine, folk festivals, lifestyle, customs and habits of Ho Chi Minh
City.
Third, complete the system of infrastructure and heritage tourism services
Over the years, transportation infrastructure, banking services, supermarkets, night shopping streets,
libraries, parks, cultural houses, food services, resorts, etc. have been in Ho City. Ho Chi Minh City is
significantly improved. However, the demand for travel, shopping, exchange, discovery and enjoyment of
tourists has not yet been met, becoming a "choke" point in tourism development in particular and the city's
economy and society in particular. shared. Therefore, promoting the development of infrastructure and
services, building a green and beautiful city, creating an open environment landscape is a necessary
requirement. Ensure the synchronous development and connection of the system of restaurants, hotels,
entertainment areas, tourist services such as parking lots, toilets... Should be socialized, public-private
partnership (PPP) ), to mobilize capital to build infrastructure, promote cultural heritage tourism. It is
necessary to develop a mechanism to manage and improve service quality at airports, railway stations, ports,
means of transport, restaurants, hotels, etc. small image of tourism in Ho Chi Minh City in the hearts of
tourists.
Fourth, further strengthen the application of modern technology to develop sustainable heritage tourism
Ho Chi Minh City needs to increase the use of technology to preserve and promote the value of cultural
heritage, and at the same time work towards building a smart tourist city. Access to irradiation technologies,
ultrasound technology, holographic laser scanning technology, nanomaterials, cloud computing, artificial
intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), augmented reality ( AR), experience virtual reality (VR) via the
internet (WebVR),... to preserve and refresh, increase the attractiveness, and liveliness of cultural heritage
tourism products. Apply technology to connect tourists with the transportation system, food and beverage
services, entertainment... and tourist destinations, enhance security, and promptly handle tourists' complaints
guest.
6. Conclusion
Cultural heritage tourism is a specific type of tourism development that cannot be found everywhere.
Many cities and countries around the world consider cultural heritage as a core value and cultural heritage
tourism will ensure sustainable tourism development. Ho Chi Minh City is the economic locomotive of the
country, has a rich cultural heritage system, is the area of many large travel companies. This is a favorable
condition for the city to preserve cultural heritage and develop cultural heritage tourism. The biggest
difficulties and obstacles at present mainly lie in the mechanisms, policies and investment capital for this type
of special revenue. Therefore, there is a need for breakthroughs in inter-sectoral coordination and public-
private partnership to develop heritage tourism. In addition, further improve service infrastructure, promote
technology application as well as strengthen PR to refresh the city's cultural heritage tourism image, and at
the same time train human resources to meet the needs of the city. respond to demand. The synchronous
545
measures taken will certainly bring practical effects in the development of cultural heritage tourism in Ho Chi
Minh City in the coming time.
References
1. Hanh, V. T. H. (2006) Canal - side highway in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam – Issues of urban
cultural conservation and tourism development. Geo Journal, Volume 66, 165–186.
2. Hau, N. T. (2017) Urban Cultural Heritage of Saigon – TP. Ho Chi Minh perspective, tools to preserve
and promote values. Management and exploitation of cultural heritage in the integration period, National
University Publishing House, Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, 395 – 418.
3. Li, W. [李文华] (2006) 中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所知识创新工程重大项目预研究项目“
稻鱼共生系统的保护与适应性. ,卷 4 (25)
4. Li, B., Cheng, C., Duan, Q. [李滨，程承旗, 段奇三] (2014) 点云技术在建筑文化遗产保护中的实
践与探讨, 1672－8262
5. Peng, M. [彭敏] (2018) 基于IPA法的北京世界文化遗产地游客满意度调查与分析.北京师范大学
学报 (科学) 第39卷(1), 82-88.
6. Shan, J. [单霁翔] (2007) 城市文化遗产保护与文化城市建设. TU984.
7. The Association of Foreign Trade Development reipublicae Sinarum [中华民国对外贸易发展协会
](2018)北京在中国大陆的文化产业规模增长到1万亿元以上
https://www.taiwanservices.com.tw/internet/cn/procurementInfoDetail.aspx?item=15715&cat=2.
Retrieved March 23, 2021.
8. Thuan, G. (2018) Promoting cultural heritage values in Ho Chi Minh City - Lesson 1.
https://dantocmiennui.vn/phat-huy-gia-tri-di-san-van-hoa -o-thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-bai-1/204676.html.
Retrieved September 26, 2020.
9. Thuy, N.V. (2020) Impact of tourism service quality on visitor satisfaction towards destinations in Ho
Chi Minh City. Science Journal of Hue University: Economics and Development Vol. 129, No. 5B.
10. Wu, Y. [吴媛媛] (2019) 北京旅游区加速摆脱“门票依赖症”.
htTps://www.sohu.com/a/320990184_115865. Accessed 11/10/2020
11. Xu, J. [徐巨峰] (2003) 北京文化旅游;现状•难点•策略.北京联合大学旅游学院编辑部 (旅游学报)
1003-2398(05), 84-88.
12. Yuyan, P., Alexandru, M. N. (2018) The public private partnership mode in Beijing cultural tourism, The
USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration. Vol 18, No 2(28)
13. Yuyan, P., Mircea, N. (2019) Analysis and strategy for developing Beijing cultural tourism. The USV
annalseconpmics and public adminstation, Volume 19(30), 7-14.
14. Zhu, H., Wang, J., Zhang, X. (2019) Comprehensive Assessment of Sustainable Tourism-oriented
Revitalization in a Historic District: A Case Study of Qianmen Area, Beijing, China. Journal of
Resources and Ecology 10(5), 559-568.

[STS22-51]
546
RESEARCH ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RURAL TOURISM
AND NEW-STYLE RURAL AREA CONSTRUCTION CRITERIA: CASE
OF CON QUY - BEN TRE
Chung Le Khang1*, Nguyen Thi Kim Thoai2, Nguyen Anh Ngoc3
1
PhD students of VNU, Hanoi-institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Science. Lecturer in
Vietnam Studies, Faculty of Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
2
Faculty Tourism and Hospitality Managegement, Ho Chi Minh city Univesity of Economics and
Finance
3
Lecturer in Vietnam Studies, Faculty of Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
*Corresponding author: Email: khangcl@hcmue.edu.vn; Phone: 0934508070
Abstract
This article analyzes the relationship between rural tourism exploitation and the new rural
construction movement, based on the criteria of new rural construction to assess the appropriateness
of the rural tourism model. Using the interdisciplinary fieldwork method, the field study, the author's
team conducted a case study in Con Quy, Ben Tre province. From that fact, the authors draw
conclusions about the role and importance of the exploitation of rural tourism in environmental
protection, cultural preservation, livelihood development for local people, towards sustainable
development.
Keywords: rural tourism, new-style rural area, Ben Tre tourism, Con Quy
1. Introduction
Rural tourism gradually receives the attention of not only tourists but also local authorities. This
type of tourism acts as a solution toward sustainable development. Besides bringing new experiences
about rural life, farming lifestyle, learning and researching traditional cultural values, rural tourism is
also seen as an effective strategy to create new livelihood directions, contributing to solving problems
of creating jobs for rural workers, improving the quality of life, developing socio-economic,
contributing to the protection of natural resources, tourism resources, maintaining and ensuring the
amount of agricultural land in Vietnam in the face of the increasing risk of rural urbanization. Rural
tourism was born and developed as a responsible form of tourism and has become a strategic trend of
tourism development in countries with rural resources, including Vietnam.
Con Quy is located in Tan Thach and Quoi Son village, on the Tien River, local people mainly
garden, plant, and exploit fruit orchards, besides they also participate in handicrafts such as knitting
water hyacinth, bundling broomsticks; some households also participate in fish farming in cages. Con
Quy is in the process of completing infrastructure and investing in works to improve people's living
standards towards building a new countryside. Life on Con Quy has not had an impact of tourism
activities, but the resources and location are very convenient for exploiting rural tourism associated
with rivers. The location of Con Quy is convenient to connect the tourist route with the tourist area of
Chau Thanh district and Tien Giang province, this is the potential to attract tourists from the Mekong
Delta, Ho Chi Minh City, and other areas.
The research and development of rural tourism in association with new rural construction in Con
Quy creates opportunities for job creation and income enhancement for local people. Along with other
industries and occupations in the area, the tourism industry has had an appropriate direction to
effectively exploit the potential of tourism, solve employment problems for a part of young workers,
shift the economic structure to service industries, provide on-the-spot export goods of agricultural
547
products, handicrafts, etc. Create an additional source of income besides the main source of income
from agricultural farming activities.
2. Developing rural tourism in association with building new-style rural area

2.1. New-style rural area
New-style rural area is the transformation of the rural area based on preserving and promoting
progressive values and achievements, building new values in line with the trend of the times, and
meeting suggested criteria. In the period of 2021 - 2025, there are 15 criteria for building a new-style
area including Traffic; Irrigation; Facilities and infrastructure; Residential housing; Income; Poor
households; Employment; Organization of production; Household garden; Education and training;
Medical; Culture; Environment; Security; Public administration.
2.2. Rural tourism
The article "What is rural tourism?" by author Bernard Lane published in the journal Sustainable
Tourism, has defined rural tourism as a type of tourism: (1) Taking place in rural areas; (2) Practical
for the countryside – operating based on typical characteristics of rural areas with small scale
business, open space, direct contact and immersion in the natural world, the social-cultural and
traditional-cultural heritage in the village; (3) Having a rural scale – including construction works as
well as the size of settlements that are usually small (villages and hamlets); (4) Based on the
characteristics, traditional factors, slow development and closely organized, associated with local
households. Developed and managed mainly by the locality, serving the long-term purposes of the
inhabitants of the village; (5) With many types, showing the diverse characteristics of the
environment, economy, history, and location of each countryside (Bernard Lane 1994).
2.3. Exploiting rural tourism in the movement of building new-style rural area
To develop rural tourism in association with building new-style rural areas in a sustainable way, it
is necessary to implement rural tourism development planning in sync with local socio-economic
development planning and construction planning project for new-style rural areas. In addition, it is
necessary to improve mechanisms and policies to support rural tourism. Formulate and promulgate
policies on management, support, and incentives for each type of rural tourism...; develop a rural
tourism map, which indicates areas capable of developing typical tourism products of each region,
and locality on the basis of linkages to form routes. Besides, tourism products should be built to
ensure three factors: diversity, uniqueness, and added value.
3. The relationship between rural tourism and new-style rural area

Group 1: Factors affecting the formation and development of rural tourism includes:
+ Traffic: The completion of traffic routes, the commune trunk road and the commune center
road to the district road, and the piers to ensure convenient car travel will help increase accessibility to
tourists. The hamlet and inter-hamlet roads are asphalted or concreted to create a network of links
between local tourism service providers. Streets that are clean and not muddy during the rainy season
will become experience routes for visitors. Besides, convenient transportation will help transport
goods all year round.
+ Irrigation: The completed dikes and canals will create an experience space for visitors
associated with river activities. The assurance of adequate water flow for irrigation supply ensures the
maintenance of cultivation activities, diversification of crops to meet the needs of tourism and ensures
the income of local people. A good supply of water ensures the conditions to meet the requirements of
people's daily life, and tourism, and to comply with regulations on on-site disaster prevention and
control.
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+ Household gardens: When building a new-style rural area, dense orchards with many crops
of low economic value are replaced by orchards specializing in fruit trees with high economic value.
Agricultural products ensure food safety standards. Irrigation and fertilizing activities must ensure
science and not cause environmental pollution. With standard household gardens, it will be an
interesting experience space to attract tourists.
+ Medical: A locality that meets the national criteria for health will ensure that there are
qualified medical facilities, which will improve residents' quality of life as well as tourists'. For the
type of agricultural tourism, tourists often stay in rural areas, far from the center, so the local
guarantee of medical requirements in general and tourism health, in particular, is the basis for the
tourism providers to bring tourists to visit and relax.
+ Public Administration: Although it does not directly affect rural tourism, administrative
reform has an indirect impact on attracting investment and exploiting rural tourism.
+ Security: The locality meets safety standards in terms of security, social order, and peace,
no protracted mass lawsuits, no serious crimes, controlling, and reducing continuously the number of
cases compared to previous years are the goals that the government strives to achieve to ensure a
civilized life for the people, a stable environment for businesses. It can be seen that in the pyramid of
human needs in general and tourists in particular, security and safety are the basic groups of needs.
Therefore, to attract tourists, the locality must ensure security criteria.
Group 2: Factors affected by the development of rural tourism includes:
+ Income: Tourism in general creates a lot of new opportunities for income improvement.
Diversify services in rural areas such as transportation, providing food for local tourists, trading in
traditional goods, handicraft products... to strive for per capita income in the rural areas by 2020: 50.5
million VND/person) (standard of Ben Tre province).
+ Poor households: From increasing job opportunities, increasing income will be the engine
to improve the poverty rate in the locality, towards the new rural standard of less than 4% (standard of
Ben Tre province).
+ Employment: Rural tourism creates jobs for local residents in the process of creating
services for tourists such as guiding activities, catering services, selling items locally available goods,
transportation services, etc. Although they cannot generate the main source of income, they can
generate additional income for small communities in their agricultural free time.
Group 3: Factors that interact with the development of rural tourism includes:
+ Infrastructure: Facilities and infrastructure create conditions for tourism to develop and are
an important factor in the process of exploiting tourism potential. It is a factor that ensures the
conditions for accessing tourists and tourism activities take place. The infrastructure system is an
important factor affecting the level of satisfaction of tourists' needs because of its capacity and utility.
There are three components to create tourism products and services, which are tourism resources,
tourism labor, and tourism infrastructure facilities. Therefore, facilities and infrastructure are
indispensable factors in tourism exploitation. In addition, when the local tourism industry develops, it
will generate revenue, from which there will be money to upgrade infrastructure, improve the lives of
local communities, and complete public works.
+ Residential housing: For rural tourism, the values associated with local community life are
the objects to visit, serving the needs of visitors' experience. Currently, staying at homestays, and
local people's houses instead of hotels are becoming a new trend in the accommodation service
industry. Visitors have the desire to experience and participate in activities with local people, so the
housing of local residents becomes an attractive tourist product. However, to participate in the process
of serving tourists, residential houses must meet certain criteria and must be licensed by local
authorities. The criteria are related to safety, health, and environmental factors. As tourism develops,
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the material life of the local community is also increased. For the above reasons, tourism has had an
impact on preserving the typical architectural values of houses or completing infrastructures to
improve the living quality of local people.
+ Organization of production: organization method for farmers to develop production
efficiently and sustainably in order to increase income and improve life. Farmers will not produce
individually but are encouraged to join cooperatives and cooperate with businesses to jointly organize
production, preliminary processing, and consumption of key local agricultural products. Changing
production methods helps to shape the brand of local products, increasing the recognition to attract
domestic and foreign tourists. Besides, tourism also helps to preserve traditional occupations and
enhance the status of traditional workers.
+ Education & Training: Education and training are the backbones of development. Thanks to
activities to improve the quality of education, the local workforce can improve their qualifications,
change their perception and improve the production process. When tourism develops in rural areas of
Vietnam, it will change production practices, local people will be able to participate in training
programs to improve professional skills in tourism and sustainable development.
+ Culture: Building a rural cultural life always holds an important position in cultural
construction and development. However, pursuing the development of science and technology to
improve material life sometimes makes traditional cultural values obscure or disappear. Local culture
is a great resource in building tourism products, helping to attract tourists, and being the basis for
tourism development planning. Besides, tourism in general and rural tourism, in particular, is an
effective tool for preserving and promoting local cultures. The lives of artists and cultural workers are
also more stable through ticket sales. However, if it is not controlled, it will be very easy to
commercialize cultural values for immediate profit, losing the sustainable orientation in exploiting
local cultural values.
+ Environment Criteria: Environment is the standard in assessing people's quality of life and
is an important criterion in the new-style rural area construction scale. The environment is assessed
through many different factors: the current state of solid waste, water, soil, air, climate change, and
the density of clean water used by local people. In the process of building a new-style rural area,
environmental factors are considered to be the most difficult criteria to fulfill, however, with the
advent of organizations and professional cooperatives, it helps to change living habits and farming
habits towards environmental protection and sustainable development. Thereby, creating a friendly,
green, and clean environment to attract tourists.
4. Current state of building new-style rural area in Con Quy

4.1. Advantages
Con Quy is located on the Tien River, which is convenient for socio-economic development,
creating conditions for the development of handicraft, trade, service, and tourism industries. The local
climate and soil conditions are favorable for cultivation and animal husbandry, contributing to the
economic development of the commune. The economic and labor structure has changed, moving in
the right direction, gradually increasing the proportion of trade and services. Agricultural production
is gradually shifting towards commodity production, increasing productivity and quality.
The infrastructure and water transport system has been gradually improved, contributing
significantly to agricultural production, trade, service, travel, and education for the people. People
have a hard-working tradition and experience in production. However, the trained and skilled
workforce has not yet met the demand for applying scientific and technical advances in production
development. If this can be overcome, this will be an important factor in the process of building a
new-style rural area, contributing to the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
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4.2. Disadvantages
Although the location is very convenient for service development, the current technical
infrastructure, socio-economic infrastructure, and internal resources are not synchronized. Production
is still scattered, not meeting the needs of production development for the economic sectors of
industry, handicrafts, trade, and services in Con Quy. More than 50% of the workforce has not been
professionally trained, not yet capable of applying scientific and technical advances and new
technologies to production development. The problem of creating jobs for workers and exploiting
labor resources is still limited. Income disparity between rich and poor households remains. People
have a habit of living scattered according to arable land, which is not favorable for infrastructure
investment.
The development of residential areas, technical infrastructure, and social welfare is still
limited, the situation of people building houses is still spontaneous, not according to the general plan,
and not meeting the socio-economic development goals, has not yet created attractiveness for
investors. Lack of entertainment areas for local people such as cultural centers, amusement parks for
children, etc.
The ability to mobilize local people and attract investment in infrastructure construction is
still limited, mainly taking advantage of the budget. The drainage system and cemetery have not been
completed yet, so environmental hygiene and beauty have not been ensured.
5. Potential for rural tourism development in Con Quy

Con Quy has a favorable location and is the gateway of Ben Tre province, about 70km away
from Ho Chi Minh City, this contributes to creating opportunities for Con Quy to attract tourists
looking for new experiences. Not only that, Con Quy also has the strength of cool, fresh climate and
beautiful natural landscape, which is still wild, simple, and has not been massively exploited, so it
creates attractiveness and novelty for visitors. People are aware of the benefits of rural tourism for
themselves and for local socio-economic development, and they support and are willing to participate
in tourism development, from planning to implementation. In the locality, people still retain their
traditional occupations and livelihoods associated with the natural environment. The security in Con
Quy is very good, the people are friendly and hospitable, and the awareness of community
organization is high.
6. Conclusion
Rural areas in Vietnam are being invested in and developed to improve the quality of life to
meet new-style rural area standards. In localities with different topography and resources such as Con
Quy, there are both difficulties and opportunities in building different products. The potential and
strength of rural tourism in Con Quy is that it still preserves the landscape, and traditional agricultural
activities, many craft villages still operate with sophisticated skills and culinary culture associated
with local specialties, simple, friendly, and hospitable rural people are great potentials for tourism,
etc.
Rural tourism helps people have more income when participating in providing services in
their agricultural free time. The community's awareness of environmental protection of rural
landscape, conservation and restoration of craft village activities, restoration and embellishment of
historical sites, etc., has increased with the appearance of tourism activities. Rural technical facilities
are being upgraded. Besides the active participation of the local community, there is the support and
facilitation of the local government, travel companies, domestic and foreign organizations.
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On the basis of analyzing the potential factors of rural tourism development and the current
state of the process of constructing new-style rural area in Con Quy, the study analyzed the impacts
and then proposed some solutions to promote and strengthen the development of rural tourism based
on the opportunities obtained in the process of building new-style rural area.
References
1. Bernard Lane, 1994, What is rural tourism?, Journal of Sustainable, Publisher:Routledge, pg. 7-
21.
2. Chung Le Khang, Huynh Thi Kim Loan, Phung Thi Kieu Oanh, Lam Duc Cuong. 2021.
Foundational research for the development of community tourism model in Con Quy, Ben Tre
province. ELIS-2021 International Conference on Economic, Cultural, and Legal Issuses in
Sustainable Development.
3. George, Mair & Donald, 2009, Rural tourism Development – Localism and Cultural Change,
Channel View Publication, UK.
4. Mai Hong. 2010. Developing effective community-based tourism. Viet Nam Tourism Journal No.
02/2010.
5. Vo Que. 2006. Theoretical and applied community tourism. Science and Technology Publishing
House.
6. Le Van Tan, Chung Le Khang. 2021. Proposing a model of community-based tourism in Ben Tre.
Journal of tourism. Ha Noi.
7. Pham Trung Luong. 2002. Ecotourism – theoretical and practical issues of development in
Vietnam, Education Publishing House, Hanoi.

[STS22-57]
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THE FESTIVAL CHANGES OF THE CHINESE IN BINH DUONG
CASE STUDY: THIEN HAU THANH MAU’S FESTIVAL OF THE
CHINESE IN THU DAU MOT CITY, BINH DUONG PROVINCE
Quach Duc Tai
Anthropology Faculty, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNU-HCM), HCM City,
Vietnam
*Corresponding Author: Cellphone: +84 902 883 662; Email: quachtai1983@gmail.com
Abstract
In the process of settlement and development in Binh Duong province, the Chinese brought their
traditional cultural values to this land such as customs, beliefs, religions, festivals..., In which, beliefs
and festivals played as a prominent value, role and position in the history of reclamation and
development in this land. In which, it can be said that the belief and festival of Thien Hau Thanh Mau
(also known as Thien Hau festival) is the highlight, is one of the important festivals of the year of the
Chinese in Binh Duong and is the core of community culture.
In the face of rapid industrialization and modernization in Binh Duong and globalization trend at the
present, this unique cultural tradition is gradually fading and changing. In which, the festival culture
of the Chinese in Binh Duong in general and Thien Hau festival in particular are not out of rules of
change. In this article, we focus on studying the beliefs and the festival of Thien Hau Thanh Mau of
the Chinese community in Thu Dau Mot city, Binh Duong province as a case study, thereby analyzing
the changes of Thien Hau festival of the Chinese in Binh Duong in the current context.
Keywords: Chinese, Chinese belief and festival, Chinese in Binh Duong, festival changes, Thien Hau
Thanh Mau
1. Introduction
The festival is one of the typical phenomena of traditional cultural activities of many ethnic
groups in our country as well as in the world. The festival was born and exists in association with the
development process of many ethnic groups in general and the Chinese community in particular, it
reflects many values in the socio-economic and cultural life of the community.
Binh Duong is a province with a large proportion of ethnic minorities and followers of religions
compared to other provinces in the South of Vietnam with about 15 ethnic groups, the largest being
the Kinh and then the Chinese, the Khmer and 13 different religions reached 186,0211 people. The
Chinese came to settle in Binh Duong through each migration wave, influenced by many historical
factors, settled down and developed in different regions. Among them, perhaps the most densely
populated and earliest were in the areas of Phu Cuong and Chanh Nghia in Thu Dau Mot city, Lai
Thieu and Bung in Thuan An city and Tan Phuoc Khanh in Tan Uyen town.
Along with the Kinh, the Chinese community in Binh Duong has a very important position in the
economic, cultural and social development. The Chinese live in Binh Duong, mainly consisting of 4
groups: Guangdong, Chaozhou, Fujian, and Hakka. For the purpose of friendship, solidarity, economic
and cultural development, all groups of Chinese agree to have an organization called “Chinese
Association”.
As immigrants to a new land, the beliefs became an important necessity in the life of the Chinese.
That is one of the great spiritual props, helping them to sustain and thrive. Because of that, the beliefs
of the Chinese people are very diversity and abundance in many aspects. And the most prominent
belief of the Chinese is the worshiping of Thien Hau Thanh Mau in the community with a festival very
1
General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Accessed at https://www.gso.gov.vn/
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typical of their national culture that people call the Thien Hau’s festival or Chua Ba’s festival.
One of the typical values of Thien Hau’s festival in particular and the community festival of the
Chinese in general is the cultural value and community connection through religion and belief. It is
this value that is one of the important reasons for creating lasting vitality, existing with the history of
the Chinese community until today. In the current trend of globalization, unique cultural traditions are
gradually being lost and there are changes and cultural festivals of the Chinese in Binh Duong in
general and Thien Hau’s festival in particular are not out of that change.
The article will focus on researching the overview of Thien Hau’s festival of the Chinese in Binh
Duong in general as well as the changes of this festival in the context of rapid industrialization and
modernization in Binh Duong today. In order to achieve the research’s goal, the article will answer the
question: How has been the festival culture of the Chinese changed and in what factors under the
influence of objective and subjective factors of the modernization process? In particular, the article
explores this change through a case study of the Thien Hau’s festival in Phu Cuong ward, Thu Dau
Mot City, Binh Duong province.
2. Research methods
Cultural change is a complex issue, related to the subjects of human and community. In order to
clarify the manifestations and problems posed systematically, the article also uses an interdisciplinary
research method derived from the background of methods in ethnographic research combined with
methods in cultural studies and sociology. In which, the author uses:
- Method of survey via questionnaire: the researcher conducts a survey with table of questionnaire
for individuals in the Chinese in Binh Duong belonging to the following dialect groups: Guangdong,
Chaozhou, Fujian, and Hakka with a sample size of 68 votes. With the research point of view of
conducting research with the community, the author focuses on the participation of each Chinese with
the expectation of obtaining the most objective documents for explaining the manifestations of
research problems from the actual survey.
- In-depth interview method: besides the survey results, the author also conducted interviews with
local Chinese to learn more about the change of traditional festivals of the Chines in Binh Duong Hoa.
The results of the sociological investigation method will be the basis for clarifying the actual situation
of the acquisition of cultural, religious, and festival elements of the Chinese community in Binh
Duong and their perception of the changes in traditional festival culture in the process of integration.
3. Research content
3.1. Overview of the belief and festival of Thien Hau Thanh Mau of the Chinese in Binh Duong
The gods worshiped by the Chinese in Binh Duong are the common gods in China that they
brought with them on the way to migrate and settle down, who have a great influence on their real life
in the process of migrating to new lands. Those are the gods that they believe have blessed them on
the way of migration, namely the floating road on the sea, and the folk gods they bring from their
homeland so that they can always remember their roots. Among them are the beliefs of worshiping
Thien Hau Thanh Mau, Quan Cong, Huyen Thien Thuong De, That Phu Dai Nhan, Quan The Am Bo
Tat, Cuu Thien Huyen Nu, Ngu Hanh Nuong Nuong, Tho Dia, Than Tai, Tao Quan.
3.1.1. Belief in worshiping of Thien Hau Thanh Mau
The belief of Ma To - Thien Hau (Mazu - Tianhou) was formed on the island of Mi Chau, Pho
Dien, Phuc Kien (Meizhou, Putian, Fujian) during the Song Dynasty in China. Her real name is Lam
Mac (林默 Lin Mo) commonly known as Lam Mac Nuong (林默娘 Lin Moniang), born March 23,
960, is a famous shaman (Ma Thu Dien & Ma Thu Hiep, 2006). She was originally from Dan Dan
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(Dan'min, also known as Long Nhan (龙人 Dragon), Giao Nhan (鲛人) - a descendant of the ancient
Man Viet (闽越 Minyue) people who lived by fishing and trading in goods on rivers and seas
(Nguyen Ngoc Tho, 2012).
Most of the Chinese in Binh Duong, including Chanh Nghia, Thu Dau Mot City worship Thien
Hau Thanh Mau. Most places where the Chinese migrated by sea to settle down, there is a temple to
worship Thien Hau. There are many stories about her, according to author Tsai Maw Kuey in the
research “The Chinese in South Vietnam” (translation copy of Central Mass Mobilization
Commission, 1984) the story said: She is the youngest daughter in the family. The family has 6
brothers, his father is a merchant by sea. From a young age, she had an extraordinary character, being
able to predict the future of others. She had miracles, only through prayers was able to save her father
and brother in a shipwreck. She died at the age of 16, was built a temple by local people. After her
death, the seafarers said: many times they saw her epiphany saving ships damaged in storms. But it
was not until a century later that her apparition was recognized by the feudal court. That’s when she
epiphany saved a Song emissary on her way to Korea, met a storm at sea in 1122. In a crisis, the
ambassador begged her for her help, and in the end, only passed the storm. Each of the ambassador's
ships was unsinkable, while all other ships sank to the bottom of the sea. After this event, King Tong
Nhan Tong immediately granted her the title “Phuc Than”. In succession, the Song kings gave her
many other titles: in 1156 the title “Phu Nhan”, in 1184 the title “Tu Phuoc”, in 1208 the title “Vuong
Hau”, in 1240 the title “Tu An” grace, in 1262 the title “Thien Tu”. In the Ming Dynasty, it is said
that she saved the ships of the king's fleet many times, so in 1410 she was awarded the title “Thien
Phi”. During the Manchu Dynasty, she also appeared to save Qing soldiers from the storm on the way
to conquer the rebellion on the island of Taiwan. From that miracle, in 1682, Emperor Kangxi
conferred the title of “Thien Hau”. People built her temple with a stone stele recording her miraculous
appearance. People also call her “Thien Mau” and “Thanh Mau”.
The Chinese migrants in their history of immigration have all spent months floating on the sea
with big waves and storms, Thien Hau Thanh Mau is one of the gods they always pray to. When they
settled in peace in the Southern Vietnam, the migrants set up a shrine to worship her, admire and
worship her with gratitude for helping them “smoothly”. Following the influx of immigrants to all
parts of the South in general and in Binh Duong in particular, Thien Hau’s temple was also erected.
Later, the Chinese also worshiped her with additional functions of security, blessings and prosperity,
especially guardianship for newborn babies (Tran Hong Lien, 2005). Therefore, scattered in the towns
and cities in the land of Binh Duong, there are Thien Hau shrines with many names of Chua Ba, Chua
Thien Hau, Thien Hau Cung or Mieu Thien Hau. In Binh Duong, there are 7 religious establishments
worshiping Thien Hau Thanh Mau, of which Thu Dau Mot city has 3 establishments:
- Thien Hau Cung is currently located in quarter 8, Chanh Nghia ward, Thu Dau Mot city,
established in 1867 (besides on Huong Chu Hieu canal), in 1945 this facility was
destroyed during the war, then the Chinese moved the statue and worshiping objects to
Thien Hau Cung in Phu Cuong until now. In 1996, Thien Hau Cung was rebuilt on the
old foundation.
- Thien Hau Cung is located in Phu Cuong ward, Thu Dau Mot city (commonly known as
Chua Ba Phu Cuong), where the Thien Hau’s festival is held on the middle of January
(lunar year) every year. There is no data to determine the year of establishment, but
according to some elderly people, around 1934-1935, this place had a shrine to worship
her.
- Thien Hau Mieu is located in Hiep An ward, Thu Dau Mot city, founded by a group of
Chinese people in Bung Cau market in 1867, also known as Chua Ba Bung Cau.
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During the year, the Chinese in Binh Duong organize worshiping Thien Hau on 3 main days: on
the March 23rd (lunar year) - Birthday celebration, on the September 9th (lunar year) - Ascension
ceremony, and on January 15th (lunar year) – Thien Hau’s Sping tour (every year the Thien Hau’s
festival to travel around in the street was hold such as Chua Ba Phu Cuong, Chua Ba Lai Thieu, Chua
Ba Bung, etc. with the meaning that Thien Hau is going on a patrol to see how the people’s lives and
with the desire to be protected and blessed for a prosperous and lucky new year by Thien Hau.
The Thien Hau’s apotheosis and worshiping in the Chinese community in Binh Duong has spread
to the Kinh community. Because spiritual beliefs are nothing more than asking for divine help, Thien
Hau is a typical example of a guardian god. In the process of long-term coexistence, cultural
interference has led to the easy penetration of folk beliefs into each other, even though her origin is
the subject of Chinese folk beliefs (Vo Dong Son, 2012).
3.1.2. Thien Hau Thanh Mau festival through ethnographic description
Religious establishments of Thien Hau Thanh Mau of the Chinese in Binh Duong annually
organize sacrifices associated with festivals. As mentioned, in the year the Chinese organize these
three main ceremonies. In which, January 15th (lunar year) is solemnly celebrated hold the festival by
the Chinese. Therefore, in this paper, we present about the Thien Hau’s festival of the Chinese
community in Phu Cuong ward, Thu Dau Mot city through ethnographic description
In Phu Cuong ward, the content of the festival is to invite Thien Hau to travel to spring tour in the
form of bringing her palanquin through the streets around the place of worship with the meaning of
letting her visit the people. The festival is solemnly held with many rituals, a large number of Chinese
and Kinh, not only in the locality but also from other provinces and cities, flock to worship, attend the
procession of Thien Hau’s palanquin with the wish that Thien Hau will bless peace, pray for fortune.
On the morning of January 15th, the organizing committee of festival held a lantern auction to raise
funds for the community and do social charity. Participating in the lantern auction are mostly
entrepreneurs, small traders, people operating in the field of business and trade. There are nine lanterns
are put up for auction. The lanterns are made very elaborately, beautifully and the most important is
couplets with congratulatory content on the body of the lantern. There are lanterns auctioned up to
hundreds of millions of Vietnam dong a piece. Participants in the lantern auction, in addition to having
faith in being blessed by the Thanh Mau, are also honored to contribute to the fund of public and
charitable activities of the Chinese.
The peak of the festival began at 14:00 on the January 15th, that is the time to invite the Thien Hau
onto the palanquin and prepare the procession. The Thien Hau’s palanquin is very simple, a kind of
palanquin without a roof. There are two palanquins, one for the incense burner and the other for the
tablet. Both palanquins are covered with umbrellas. The roads will have processions passing, people
stood crammed together like a wedge. On the upper floors of the buildings, there are also many people
looking for every corner to easily watch the procession go by. In the temple yard, the costumed dance
teams with a dozens of lions and dragons taking dance and bow to Thien Hau before escorting to the
spring tour.
The procession of the Thien Hau’s palanquin extends to hundreds of meters and has a fixed order
for each Chinese group. At the forefront of the procession is a team of flags and banners
congratulating the Thanh Mau, lanterns, and eight kinds of precious weapons. Next are the Hau dance
troupr of the Fujian group in Binh Duong, dragons of the Fujian in Ho Chi Minh City, the flower car
of the Fujian Mutual Association, followed by other teams of lions and dragons. Next to the Fujian
group is the flower car of the Hakka Mutual Association; the association’s dance team; children with
beautiful makeup and colorful costumes holding lanterns and flower baskets; beautiful young women
in brilliant costumes carry flowers and flags; followed by the dragon and lion team. Next is the flower
cart of the Chaozhou Mutual Association, the girls carry flowers with the Trieu Chau ancient music
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band. Right behind the Trieu Chau delegation were two palanquins of Thien Hau. Next was the flower
car of the Guangdong Mutual Association and lion group, followed by other teams of lions and
dragons. The lion and dragon teams followed the procession with dozens of teams of all colors,
dancing and walking, sometimes stopping to perform for everyone to enjoy, resounding drums and
gongs, bustling sounds. On the flower car of the Associations, depending on the Association, there is a
stage disguised as different characters such as Tam Thanh (Quan Cong, Quan Binh, Chau Xuong),
That Tien Nu (seven fairies), next are Duong Tang, Te Thien, Bat Gioi, Sa Tang, Quan Am Bo Tat,
Hong Hai Nhi... On the way she passed by, many families set up incense plans in front of the house to
bow to her and pray for her protection. peace, happiness, etc. The procession starts at 15:00 o’clock,
goes through the main roads around the town and returns to the temple at 18:00 o’clock. However, the
sound of the festival continued until midnight.
Regarding the order in the procession formation, according to the beliefs of Taoist, without
knowing where the origin came from, the Chinese Associations in Binh Duong have determined that
each each group has an animal representing its dialect. In which, the representing of th Fujian is a
tiger, the Chaozhou is a horse, the Guangdong is goat, and the Hakka is a dog. Therefore, when
forming a line-up to process the Thien Hau’s palanquin, the Fujian group is always at the forefront,
especially the Hau’s dance troupe is considered a mascot to pave the way. Because the Chinese
believe that the tiger that follows will eat goats, dogs, and horses. If the Fujian group follows, the
Chinese in other groups will not be favorable in business. The festival organizers take turns each
language group’s Mutual Association is responsible for organizing one year. In order, the Fujian group
always comes first, followed by the group responsible for organizing the festival that year. For
example, in the year that the Hakka group organizes, the Hakka group will follow the Fujian group in
the procession.
The festival of Thien Hau has the color of folk beliefs of the Chinese ethnic groups in Binh
Duong, but in fact has become a spring festival, because the festival not only attracts Binh Duong
residents but also residents of the Southern provinces, not only the Chinese but also Kinh and other
ethnic groups integrate into this colorful festival atmosphere.
In addition to Chua Ba Phu Cuong, Chua Ba Lai Thieu, Chua Ba Bung and Chua Ba Bung Cau all
organize the spring procession festival on the January 15th, but on a smaller scale. There is also Chua
Ba Dau Tienga, which also has the Thien Hau’s festival, but it is held on January 11 th and also on a
small scale.
3.2. Cultural changes in the festival of Thien Hau Thanh Mau of the Chinese in Phu Cuong
ward, Thu Dau Mot city, Binh Duong province
In the current context of industrialization and modernization, cultural changes of ethnic groups are
taking place strongly. Especially, Binh Duong is one of the dynamic localities in the economy,
attracting foreign investment, which has attracted a large number of labour from the provinces to the
locality. It is the process of local economic development that is taking place rapidly along with the
cultural interference of ethnic groups in different regions, which has affected the local culture in
which the culture of the Chinese community, but specifically, the festival culture of Thien Hau Thien
Hau because this is not only a festival of one ethnic group, a locality, but now, the festival has
expanded to Southern East of Vietam with the participation of many ethnic communities. Through the
survey, the Thien Hau’s festival is undergoing many changes when the survey results show that up to
57.35% answered “Have a change” and 8.82% was “Have change a lot”, and 33.82% was “Have
change a little” and no answer “No change”. This result shows that, within the Chinese community
has realized that their traditional festival culture is gradually changing in one or several aspects before
the interference and cultural integration. Ethnicity is taking place as it is today as well as the current
economic development of the locality.
557
As the survey results, the changes of the Thien Hau’s festival of the Chinese in Phu Cuong ward,
Thu Dau Mot city, Binh Duong province is clearly shown in a number of aspects presented by the
author as Table 1:
Table 1: Changing factors of the Thien Hau Thanh Mau’s festival of the Chinese
Changing factors Frequency Ratio (%)

Changes in the scale of the festival 22 32.35%
Changes in participants 18 26.47%
Changes in the content and way of organizing 13 19.12%
Changes in the management role of the state 10 14.71%
Changes in the festival processing 5 7.35%
Total 68 100.00%
Ratio (%) 32.35% 26.47% 19.12% 14.71% 7.35%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Changes in the scale of the festival

Changes in participants
Changes in the content and way of organizing
Changes in the management role of the state
Diễn trình lễ hội
Figure 1: Changing factors of the Thien Hau Thanh Mau’s festival of the Chinese
3.2.1. Changes in the scale and participants of the festival
The survey results show that 32.35% of the respondents answered that the Thien Hau’s festival is
changing in terms of festival scale, accounting for the highest percentage of variable factors. Although
it is merely a religious activity of folk character, over the past hundred years, this belief has become
the largest-scale festival in the Southeast region on the occasion of the full moon of January (lunar
year) with cultural rituals imbued with the typical identity of the land of Binh Duong. Mr. Vuong
Vinh Thang - Head of the Board of Directors of Thien Hau Thanh Mau festival said: “Currently, this
festival is no longer a festival of the Chinese alone but has become a folk festival. Kinh people also
come here to pray for her help. We organize the procession of her palanquin on the full moon day so
that she can see if the world can live in peace and happiness, if not, let her give more blessings”.
The survey also showed that up to 26.47% of the respondents said that festivals in recent years
have changed in terms of festival participants. The festival has become a big festival of the Chinese
and Kinh in the South. The festival contributes to strengthening the solidarity of ethnic groups and
becomes a common cultural feature in the Vietnamese ethnic community. Ms. Tran Ngoc Huong, a
resident living in the area near Chua Ba, said: “Thien Hau Thanh Mau comes from the Chinese, but
here there are many Kinh people. But living near Chua Ba area, she was blessed to have a smooth and
lucky business, so all ethnic groups, regardless of Chinese or Kinh, if they have faith, everyone
believes in them”.
In Binh Duong province, there are many pagodas and shrines worshiping Thien Hau Thanh Mau
as described in section 3.1.1. However, the number of tourists from all over the world mainly flocks to
558
attend the Thien Hau’s festival in Phu Cuong ward. In the past few years, the festival has increasingly
attracted visitors from near and far with a few hundred thousand, even up to a million visitors in some
years. The largest is still the main holiday (January 15th of the lunar calendar).
3.2.2. Changes in the content and way of organizing
As festivals of other ethnic groups, the traditional festival of the Chinese in Binh Duong is
organized in two parts: ceremony and festival. The content and way of conducting the ceremony takes
place with many traditional rites and procedures. The festival has the participation of performances of
Boi singing, Cai Luong singing with many ancient Chinese folk tales, Lion – Dragon dancing, Hau
dancing with the participation of a large number of local people.
The survey results also showed that 19.12% of the respondents said that the festival is having
changes in the content and way of organizing the festival. This is shown that in recent years, in
addition to traditional way, the festival is also supported by much more modern, diversity and modern
vehicles, sounds and lights. The festival space is a space that intertwines the traditional and the
modern. Traditional musical instruments, the quintessence of Chinese dance are shown, ancient
Chinese folktales are transformed into modern stage plays that still have folk nuances… This festival
has created a unique atmosphere, at the same time these values make up their own identity, vividly
showing the connection between tradition and modernity of the Chinese people in particular, the
people of Binh Duong in general.
The festival of Ba Thien Hau in Thu Dau Mot city is imbued with the local traditional culture.
The festival attracts people from all over the world to come and enjoy the folklore, gather together the
first harvest of the year, and wish each other "harmonious rain, happy home", thereby, tightening the
solidarity. cohesion between ethnic groups, between regions. Over the years, the festival, mixed with
the hospitality and kindness of the people of Binh Duong, has become a unique cultural feature, the
early spring festival of everyone, every family.
3.2.3. Changes in the management role of the state
With the development of both scope and participants, the festival has been closely coordinated by
relevant authorities under the profound direction of the Festival Steering Committee together with the
coordination of the Board of Directors of the temples and shrines and the consensus of the people. In
order to ensure the stability of the security and order situation, and at the same time create peace of
mind for tourists when coming to the festival, to the locality. This shows that, if in the past the festival
was simply the culture of the Chinese community with the participation and organization of members
of the Chinese community, today with the attention and policies of the Party and The State’s support
and participation role of functional agencies is increasingly broad and clear with the participation of
forces such as: Police, Women's Union, Division of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, Youth
Union,… with 14.71% of the opinion said that the Thien Hau’s festival of the Chinese in Binh Duong
is changing about this factor. This shows that the local government is paying more and more attention
to the community culture of the local ethnic minorities, especially the Chinese.
4. Conclusion
The belief and festival of Thien Hau Thanh Mau are imbued with traditional Chinese culture in
addition to cultural interference, but there are differences in circumstances. natural, social, economic
and cultural conditions they brought during immigration.
Thien Hau festival contains human values, gratitude to ancestors, and beliefs of exiles in the
process of migrating to a new land. It is these values, although the festival is only the culture of the
Chinese, but has attracted a large number of residents in Binh Duong, from the Chinese to Kinh and
other ethnic groups.
559
The Thien Hau’s festival of the Chinese in Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong is a folk festival, a cultural
heritage that contributes to enriching cultural characteristics of Binh Duong in particular and the
South in general. Under the impact of objective and subjective factors of the modernization process,
the festival culture of the Chinses in Binh Duong has been changing. Therefore, it is necessary to pay
attention, preserving and promoting traditional cultural values, serving the goal of building an
advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.
In summary, the belief and festival of Thien Hau of the Chinese in Phu Cuong in particular and
Binh Duong in general are typical cultural heritages of the Chinese community in Binh Duong. These
heritages have been contributing to the preservation and promotion of typical cultural values of the
Chinese people in the South in general and the Chinese in the Southeast in particular in the context of
cultural exchange and integration with ethnicities.
References
1. Chau Thi Hai (1997). Chinese community groups in Vietnam. Hanoi: Social Sciences.
2. Huynh Ngoc Dang (2010) The Chinese in Binh Duong – History and current status. Historical
Science Association of Binh Duong province.
3. Huynh Ngoc Trang (1998). An overview of beliefs, folk festivals and traditions in Binh Duong.
Binh Duong Department of Culture and Information, May-1998.
4. Nguyen Ngoc Tho (2012). Spiritual culture and development: Thien Hau beliefs in Southern
Vietnam. Economic - Social Magazine Da Nang, June/2012.
5. Nguyen Ngoc Tho (2017). Belief of Thien Hau in the Southwest region. Hanoi: National politics
– The truth.
6. Phan An (2006). Contributing to understanding Chinese culture in the South. Ho Chi Minh City:
Culture and Information.
7. Tran Hong Lien (2005). Chinese culture in the South: religion and beliefs. Hanoi: Social
Sciences.
8. Vo Son Dong (2012) Ba Thien Hau festival and its influence on the religious life of the Chinese
in Binh Duong (master's thesis). University of Social Sciences & Humanities – Vietnam National
University Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC.
Websites
9. Binh Duong Historical Society. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at: http://www.sugia.vn/home
10. Festival of Chua Ba Thien Hau Thanh: Fun, safe. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at:
http://m.tuoitrebinhduong.vn/tin-tuc/le-hoi-chua-ba-thien-hau-thanh-mau-vui-tuoi-an-toan-
5204.html
11. “Festival of no copper” at Chua Ba Binh Duong. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at:
https://cand.com.vn/Chuyen-dong-van-hoa/le-hoi-khong-dong-o-chua-ba-binh-duong-i644097/
12. General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at: https://www.gso.gov.vn/
13. Information page of Binh Duong province. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at:
https://www.binhduong.gov.vn/
14. Youth Online. Accessed on October 20th, 2021 at: https://tuoitre.vn/se-co-hang-van-du-khach-du-
le-hoi-chua-ba-o-binh-duong-2019021812320737.htm

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560
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In xong và nộp lưu chiểu năm 2022.
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THE ISSUE CONTAINS:

STS 2022 program;

International Conference On Science,

Time Program Note

7:30 – 8:00 Welcoming

Topic: Recent trends in Nanotechnologies and

8:40 – 9:00 Tea break and networking

Application of Titanium Dioxide Photocatalyst

A Quantitative and Qualitative Overview of Microplastics

Health Risk Assessment: Case of Ornamental Aquaculture

9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking

Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Carbon Aerogel

Bovine Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Protocol

Time Program Presenter

Parallel Session: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC, AND MECHANICAL

9:15 – 9:30 A research on the design and production Van Thoai Le

9:30 – 9:45 A new rectangle representation algorithm Trong Hai

9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:00 – 10:15 Design and fabricating mini core XY 3D Hong Hieu Le

10:30 – 10:45 A study on design finite element helmet Phu-Thuong-Luu

10:45 – 11:15 Discussion

Parallel Session: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

9:15 – 9:30 Utilization of the influence line of Ha Minh Tuan

9:30 – 9:45 Proposing solutions to reduce factors Tran Tuan Kiet

9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking

3. ARCHITECTURE AND ART

9:00 – 9:15 Application of automatic smart water system Hai-Yen Hoang

9:15 – 9:30 Indochinese style in interior design of Tuyet Dang

9:30 – 9:45 Review of Chinese traditional handicraft: Thi Nhi

9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking

4A. AGRICULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND FOOD SCIENCE

9:00 – 9:15 Use of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) to Man Lam Van

9:15 – 9:30 Effect of different drying temperatures on Huynh Phuong

9:45– 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:00 – 10:15 Improving Wine’s aroma and flavor by Thi Tho

10:15 – 10:45 Discussion

9:00 – 9:15 Overview of theoretical perspectives on Huynh Thi

9:15 – 9:30 Anti-bacterial and anti-diarrheal evaluation Luong Tan

9:30 – 9:45 Assessment of the current situation of Tran Thanh Đat

9:45 – 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:00 – 10:30 Discussion

Parallel Session: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

5. ANIMAL SCIENCE AND VETERINARY

9:00 – 9:15 Molecular epidemiology of Mammalian Dung Van

9:15 – 9:30 Survey on Leptospira infection in dogs at Ho Tran Dinh

9:30 – 9:45 The sources of Greenhouse gas (GHG) Pham Ho Hai

9:45 – 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:00 – 10:15 Surveillance of the parasitic blood disease Nguyen Thi

10:15 – 10:45 Discussion

Time Program Presenter

1. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

9:00 – 9:15 The art of performing Drums Rabana of Nhat Tan Vu

9:15 – 9:30 Characteristics of student’s sleep-wake Nguyen Thi

9:45 – 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:00 – 10:15 Students’ emotion control strategies: a study Nguyen Thi

10:15 – 10:45 Discussion

Parallel session: SOCIETY STUDIES

9:00 – 9:15 The right to communicate works to the Nguyen Thi

9:15 – 9:30 Human capital development in agriculture in Thanh-Nha

9:30 – 9:45 Balancing the employee’s right to free Nguyen Thi

9:45 – 10:00 Tea break and networking

10:15 – 10:45 Discussion

Parallel session: SOCIETY STUDIES