North Vietnam Research Articles

Cryptocarya chinensis from the Upper Pleistocene of South China and its biogeographic and paleoecological implications

Anatomical structure of mummified wood of Cryptocarya (Lauraceae) from the Upper Pleistocene of Maoming, South China and the woods of 15 extant species of Cryptocarya from China and Malaysia were examined. The fossil wood has been convincingly attributed to extant species Cryptocarya chinensis (Hance) Hemsl. This is the first reliable fossil record of Cryptocarya in Asia. The finding combined with the results of Biomod2 species distribution modeling suggest that the range of C. chinensis in the Late Pleistocene in South China and North Vietnam was very restricted due to increased continental aridity and enhanced temperature seasonality in this region. Thus, modern populations of C. chinensis in Maoming can be considered as glacial relicts. The mines (larval tunnels) produced by the larvae of flies from the genus Phytobia Lioy (Agromyzidae, Diptera) were observed in fossil wood under study. These cambial miners have never been reportedin Cryptocarya.

The Relations of Vietnam with the Middle East-North Africa Region: From a Divided State to an Important Member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

During the Cold War, three countries were partitioned into two states: Germany, Korea, and Vietnam. The last was a result of its war of independence against the French following World War II and continued until 1954. Following a victorious war against the United States-backed government in the south, the communist government in the north reunited the country between 1975 and 1976. In 1988, facing economic troubles, Vietnam instituted Doi Moi market reforms while relaxing its ideological worldview and expanded its diplomatic and economic relations. In 1995, Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which it had regarded as a pro-Western organization during the Cold War. Meanwhile, first North Vietnam and later a reunified Vietnam went from a country whose relations were exclusive with states in the communist bloc and a few other non-aligned countries to one that today has ties with almost every country in the world. Academic studies on Vietnam’s foreign relations largely focus on those with Russia, China, the US, its ASEAN partners, and other countries in Asia. However, since the end of the Cold War, countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are an import source of Vietnam’s crude oil and natural gas and an expanding market for its exports, while MENA states, in this era of globalization, have sought to increase diplomatic and economic ties throughout Asia.

SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF LAND SURFACE WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEURAL NETWORK FOR GEMS SEARCH ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE LUK TIEN MOUNTAIN RANGE (NORTHERN VIETNAM)<a href="#FN1"><sup>1</sup></a>

The study area is located in the north of Vietnam in the province of Yen Bai and it is a large (14.5 × 6.5 × × 0.8 km) structural and denudational butte on the periphery of high-dissected low mountains Con Voi, and they are also slopes and bottoms of the neighbor rivers valleys. There are a lot of gemstone outcrops on the territory related with the vein formations in the strata of marbles. The area is relatively difficult to access for geological fieldworks. Therefore, in order to organize and conduct field geological prospecting work, the task was to obtain preliminary data on the possible localization of useful mineralization areas based on the analysis of available geological and geomorphological information. For the task, the spectral regularities of the land surface dissection spatially associated with veined geological formations in the near-surface part of the marble strata were studied, we used the discrete Fourier transform for this. The binary classification (for classes of potentially useful and useless areas) of the elevation amplitudes according with different spatial frequency of topographic dissection was provided with the simple neural network – two-layer perceptron. This algorithm is implemented on the basis of the scientific analysis libraries of the Python. The application of this technique made it possible to carry out a prediction for ruby-spinel mineralization in bedrock over a study area of more than 200 km2. Fieldworks in 2019 verified the predicted data by the ways of mineralogical and geochemical testing of the accessible part of the predicted points. An average estimate of the predictive strength of the method used was obtained as 35% – every third site predicted by the neural network actually contains the primary sources of rubies and spinels in the territory under consideration.

Talking to the enemy: Explaining the emergence of peace talks in interstate war

Why are some states open to talking while fighting while others are not? We argue that a state considering opening negotiations is concerned not only with the adverse inference that the opposing state will draw, but also the actions that the opposing state might take in response to that inference. We use a formal model, with assumptions grounded in extensive historical evidence, to highlight one particular response to opening negotiations—the escalation of war efforts—and one particular characteristic of the state opening negotiations—its resilience to escalation. We find that states are willing to open negotiations under two conditions: when their opponents find escalation too costly, and when there is a signal of high resilience that only the highly resilient care to use. To illustrate the dynamics of the second condition, we offer an extended case study detailing North Vietnam’s changing approach to negotiations during the Vietnam War.

The Use of Cost Information to Determine Prices at Feed Mills in Northern Vietnam

Vietnam's animal feed market is a potential market, but competition pressure between domestic companies and competition with foreign companies is increasing. Product price is the factor that creates the competitiveness of each animal feed producer in the market. Applying cost information to product pricing in feed companies is a key issue in helping managers make the right decisions. The author collects information at 28 feed mills in Northern Vietnam to understand the use of cost information in pricing by Northern Vietnam feed producers. Through descriptive statistical analysis, the study shows that feed producers in the North of Vietnam are using cost information to determine the selling price of their products, but to varying degrees. And business managers are also aware of the importance of cost information in pricing decisions.

Hanoi's Balancing Act: The Vietnamese Communists and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960–1965

Abstract The split between the Soviet Union and China had a great impact on other Communist countries, including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, or North Vietnam), under the leadership of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party (VWP). As the rift between the PRC and the Soviet Union intensified, the VWP tried hard to balance between the two Communist powers so that it could focus on the war against the United States and the conquest of the South. Interactions between the DRV, China, and the Soviet Union highlighted the frequently complex nature of relations within the Communist world during the Cold War.

Correction: Seasonal 222Rn activity in spring water close to rare earth element and uranium mines in North Vietnam

Correction: Seasonal 222Rn activity in spring water close to rare earth element and uranium mines in North Vietnam

Injecting drug use increases the risk of death in HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy in Vietnam

ABSTRACT The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic remains a major public health issue worldwide. In Vietnam, the HIV epidemic is essentially driven by people who inject drugs (PWID). This study aims to compare mortality and loss to follow-up (LTFU) between PWID and other patients. From June 2017 to April 2018, HIV-infected adults were enrolled in a prospective cohort from time of ART initiation in six provinces of North Vietnam. The end date was July 2020. Mortality and LTFU were described using competing-risk survival models. Factors associated with mortality and with LTFU were identified using Cox models with a competing-risk approach. Of the 578 participants, 261 (45.2%) were PWID and almost exclusively male. 49 patients died, corresponding to a mortality rate (95% confidence interval (CI)) of 3.7 (2.8–4.9) per 100 person-months, and 79 were lost to follow-up, corresponding to a rate (95% CI) of 6.0 (4.8–7.4) per 100 person-months. PWID were at higher risk of death but not of LTFU. Overall, LTFU was high in both groups. Latecomers to clinical visits were more at risk of both death and LTFU. Therefore, this should be a warning to clinical teams and preventive actions taken in these patients. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03249493..

Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli isolated from poultry farms in the North Vietnam

Salmonella spp. and E. coli isolated from 515 samples collected from poultry farms at the north Vietnam. The results showed that the presence of E. coli in the poultry farm was 59.4%. The highest positive rate was fecal samples 78.0%; following by sewages samples (77.8%), poultry house floors swap samples (68.0%), drinking water (17.8%), tools samples (16.7%) and none of 45 food samples were E. coli positive isolation. In this study, 37 samples (7.2%) were Salmonella positive isolation including 10.0% fecal samples; 9.3% poultry house floors swap and 6.7% seweages samples. The E.coli isolates were highly resistant to tetracycline (85.3%), streptomycin (83.3%), ampicillin (61.8%), trimethoprim (56.9%) and nalidixic acid (55.9%). They were low resistant to ceftazidime (6.9%) and nitrofurantoin (12.7%). The other antibiotics such as norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin were resisted by E.coli isolates range from 15.7% to 32.4%. In our results, the Salmonella isolates were commonly resistant to streptomycin (89.2%), tetracycline (83.8%) and ampicillin (59.5%). Three antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin, gentamicin and norfloxacin were resisted by the Salmonella isolates with the similar rates (21.6%). Salmonella isolates showed resistance to ceftazidime at the lowest rate (16.2%). Of the isolated trains, 65.7% of the E. coli and 62.2% of the Salmonella isolates showed multi-drug resistance. The data suggest that detection of resistance isolates from chicken, poultry environment, and humans need for one health consideration in the usage of antibiotics in the poultry industry.

Species composition and distribution of mollusca on dead coral from Central to North Vietnam

A study on Mollusks’ species composition and distribution on dead coral from Quang Ngai to Cat Ba was conducted during the field survey between Vietnam and Russia on the AKADEMIC OPARIN RC vessel in 2021 at 39 reef stations in 14 study areas. By comparative morphology method, the authors have identified 135 taxa of Mollusca belonging to 48 families, 4 classes on coral reefs. The species composition of Mollusca was slightly different between study areas.

Applying Negotiation Theory to the Interrogation of Detainees

This article seeks to apply negotiation concepts to the interrogation of detainees. Specifically, Richard Walton and I worked on a project sponsored by the Intelligence Science Board (ISB) to develop protocols for interrogation that would take the high road and be true to our human values. We focus on “The Man in the Snow White Cell” — a true story that took place during the Vietnam War, with the arrest of a high‐level intelligence officer (Tai) serving the North Vietnamese espionage forces. The analysis highlights the failure of either torture or superficial kindness to deliver results and outlines the elements of a constructive approach—one that would have been both more morally acceptable and more likely to deliver results. A mutual gains process using the forcing and fostering strategies would have been such an approach.

Radiological Hazard Assessment of High-Level Natural Radionuclides in Surface Sediments Along Red River, Vietnam.

The Red River is one of the largest rivers that plays an important role in the economic development of North Vietnam. There are many radionuclides bearing rare earth, uranium ore mines, mining industrial zones and magma intrusive formations along this river. The contamination and accumulation of radionuclides could exist at high concentration in surface sediments of this river. Thus, the present investigation aims to study the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th (228Ra), 40K, and 137Cs in Red River surface sediments. Thirty sediment samples were collected, and their activity concentration was calculated using high-purity germanium gamma-ray detector. The observed results ranged from 51.0 ± 2.1 to 73.6 ± 3.7 for 226Ra, 71.4 ± 3.6 to 103 ± 5.2 for 232Th, 507 ± 24.0 to 846 ± 42.3 for 40K, and ND (not detected) to 1.33 ± 0.06Bq/kg for 137Cs, respectively. In general, the natural radionuclides concentration of 226Ra, 232Th (228Ra), and 40K is higher than the average world average values. This indicated that the natural radionuclides could contribute from similar and principal sources surrounding the upstream of Lao Cai where distributed uranium ore mines, radionuclide bearing rare earth mines, mining industrial zones and intrusive formations. Regarding the radiological hazard assessment, results of the indices computed such as absorbed gamma dose rate (D), the excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR), and the annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) were nearly two times higher than world average values.

A study on the bud regeneration ability of Cymbidium wenshanense by in vitro culture

The study on the buds regeneration of Cymbidium wenshanenseorchid seedlings cultured in vitro in the conditions of 25oC room temperature, 65% humidity, 2000 lux light intensity, and 16 hours of lighting a day was implemented with the aim of finding out the proper medium, cytokinin growth stimulators (kinetin, TDZ, and BA), and sucrose concentrations on seed regeneration. Results showed that MS medium had a good effect on seed germination (the highest is 90.54%) and cytokinin BA significantly improved the buds regeneration of Cymbidium wenshanense orchid (4.42 buds of 3.63 cm length, and 272.67 mg weight formed from a sample when 1 mg of BA was added). In addition, sucrose supplemented at 5% concentration was considered to be successful (4.47 buds of 3.6 cm length and 315 mg were produced when 5% sucrose was added). This is a result of practical significance in the conservation and development of Cymbidium wenshanenseorchid in north Vietnam.

First hydrological study on the seasonal occurrence of glyphosate, glufosinate, and their metabolites in the Red River system, North Vietnam

We report the spatial and seasonal distribution of organophosphorus herbicides, namely glyphosate (GLYP), glufosinate (GLUF), and their respective metabolites aminomethyl phosphonic acid (AMPA) and 3-(methylphosphinico)-propionic acid (MPPA), in the Red River system (North Vietnam), a major water body in Southeast Asia. The four compounds were measured at 34 sampling stations located from upstream to the estuary during the dry (March) and wet (July) seasons in 2019. Large seasonal variations in herbicide concentrations were measured for the four analytes from upstream to the estuary, with the highest range of variations observed during the wet season. In the surface waters of the Red River, the maximum concentrations of GLUF (234 ng L–1), GLYP (565 ng L–1) and its metabolite AMPA (1329 ng L–1), occurred in the wet season. These values however, are lower than reported in other rivers worldwide. In contrast, the estimated fluxes of these compounds in the Red River water basin were very high during the wet season, i.e., up to 121, 50.2, 284, and 186 kg d–1 for GLYP, GLUF, AMPA, and MPPA, respectively. During both seasons, we observed correlations between the four compounds and ammonium (NH4+), suggesting that both nitrogen containing fertilizers and herbicides were applied in areas close to the river shore. The concentrations and fluxes of the herbicides GLYP, GLUF, and their metabolites determined in the Red River were compared to those recorded in other world river systems, such as the Garonne River (France), thus highlighting the importance of monitoring these compounds in surface waters.

A novel swarm intelligence optimized extreme learning machine for predicting soil shear strength: A case study at Hoa Vuong new urban project (Vietnam)

In geotechnical engineering, soil shear strength is one of the most important parameters used in the design and construction of construction projects. However, determining this parameter in the laboratory is costly and time-consuming. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to develop a new alternative machine learning approach based on extreme learning machine (ELM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), namely PSO-ELM, for the shear strength prediction of soil for the Hoa Vuong new urban project in Nam Dinh province, North Vietnam. For this purpose, twelve soil parameters were collected on data from a survey of 155 soil samples to construct and validate the proposed model. We assessed the model's performance using the root-mean-square error (RMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), and the coefficient of determination (R2). We compared the model's capability with five benchmark models, support vector regression (SVR), Gaussian process (GP), multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN), radial basis function neural network (RBF-NN), and the fast-decision tree (Fast-DT). The results revealed that the proposed PSO-ELM model yielded the highest prediction performance and outperformed the five benchmark models. It suggests that PSO-ELM can be an alternative method in estimating the shear strength of soil that would help geotechnical engineers reduce the cost of construction.

Determinants of purchase intentions: foreign imported functional foods in Asian emerging country

The purpose of this paper was to investigate factors that impact consumers’ intention of buying foreign-made functional foods. By highlighting various consumer features related to foreign imported functional foods buying behaviours, this study proposed a comprehensive model relating to consumers’ purchase intentions in the context of an emerging country. A quantitative study by a self-administrative survey was applied with a sample of 527 respondents from the north of Vietnam. From the results of structural equation modelling analysis, the study discovered that electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information and credibility, health consciousness positively influence consumers’ attitude toward foreign functional foods and through attitude influence purchase intention. Interestingly, our results showed that consumer ethnocentrism in the case of foreign imported functional foods, conversely with other products, does not influence either consumer attitude or purchase intentions. The study filled a gap in functional foods consumers’ buying behaviour literature in emerging markets by analyzing the mediator role of attitude toward functional foods in the theoretical model of the relation between online information sources and other traditional determinants with purchase intention. From the research results, implications for managers were proposed. Functional food managers should use internet media as a business tool and emphasize the health benefits of functional foods to change consumers’ attitudes and then encourage purchase intention.

Positioning the Yangtze Block within Nuna: Constraints from Paleoproterozoic granitoids in North Vietnam

There is no consensus on the Precambrian paleogeographic reconstructions of Yangtze Block through the various supercontinent cycles and its linkage to other continental blocks. New data on the Paleoproterozoic tectonic history of the block enables linkage with other major Nuna-forming continents to be constrained. Zircon U-Pb-Hf isotopic and whole-rock elemental data highlight three episodes of Paleoproterozoic granitoids, dated at 2.30–2.27 Ga, 1.85–1.83 Ga, and 1.75 Ga from the Phan Si Pan Complex of the Phan Si Pan Zone, a southeast extension of the Yangtze Block in north Vietnam. The older two episodes of granitoid emplacement have negative εHf(t) values with similar TDM2 ages of 3.3–2.9 Ga, which suggest reworking of Archean basement rocks possibly at syn- to post-collisional settings. The 1.75 Ga A-type trondhjemite with positive εHf(t) values (0 to + 9) formed by partial melting of Paleoproterozoic juvenile crustal materials along with some mantle addition, most likely related to an intra-plate rift setting. Integrating the new results with compilations throughout the Yangtze Block, we suggest that the northern and southwestern Yangtze have different Archean and earliest Paleoproterozoic histories. Furthermore, correlations of Archean-Paleoproterozoic tectono-thermal and detrital zircon signatures between southwestern Yangtze and north Laurentia, and between northern Yangtze and southern Siberia, suggest they were close neighbors at these times. The collision between the northern and southwestern Yangtze in the late Paleoproterozoic is inferred to have led to the assembly of Laurentia and Siberia along a cryptic suture in central Yangtze and widespread crustal magmatism. Thus, we tentatively reconstruct the Yangtze Block as a key tie point between northern Laurentia and southern Siberia within the Nuna Supercontinent.

The Material Complexity of Three Seventeenth-Century Cabinets Exported from the Far East

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on three Far East cabinets that have ended up in Sweden for various reasons and on various routes. Some specific characteristics have been analysed using various scientific methods: sectional microscopy, wood taxonomy, X–ray fluorescence microscopy, pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, strontium isotope ratio measurement, and radiocarbon dating. The results show that the cabinets contain wood from species endemic to Japan, namely asunaro (Thujopsis dolabrata) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtuse). They are coated with urushi sap derived from Toxicodendron vernicifluum trees, in two cases confirmed to be harvested in China, and one case probably blended with sap exuded from Toxicodendron succedanea harvested in North Vietnam. Their black appearance is due to a soot pigment typical of many products from the early Edo period or older. The data obtained with scientific methods, unavailable in the past, improve knowledge about these cabinets. Such new information should be made available to scholars and the general public.

Diversity of plant species for food coloring in Vietnam

Abstract. Luong NT, Hop NV, Quy NV, Hoan VM. 2023. Diversity of plant species for food coloring in Vietnam. Nusantara Bioscience 15: 95-104. Using natural colors of plants for food processing is an inevitable trend for the safety of consumers' health. It also provides essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to the body. This study aimed to systematize indigenous knowledge about food coloring plants of 11 ethnic groups in North, Central, and South Vietnam. Methods of ethnobotanical investigation, field investigation under the instruction of local people, and inheritance of documents combined with data analysis were employed. Therefore, 110 species of vascular plants belonging to 54 families of food coloring were discovered in Vietnam. As a result, 28 species were used with high frequency, and 15 species were identified as conservation values domestically and globally. Besides, the richness of folk knowledge of local people was also recorded. Five plant life forms were identified, i.e., shrubs, wood, vines, herbaceous, and bamboo. Eleven plant parts were used; leaves accounted for the largest proportion (36.36%), followed by fruit, wood, flowers, bark, seeds, tubers, rhizomes, young tops, sap, and roots. Ten different colors were created from plants for food dyeing; red accounted for the highest percentage (28.18%), followed by yellow, green, black, and gray was the lowest (0.91%). Most plants can produce monochromatic colors (94/110 species). Of the species recorded, 39.09% were wild plant species, 40.00% were cultivated, and 20.91% of species could be found in the wild or cultivated. The number of species that gave color to cook rice was dominant (68.18%), followed by cakes, drinks, and soups, soaked in alcohol and sticky. This study shows the diversity of species composition, the abundance of traditional knowledge, and the potential of plants for food coloring in Vietnam. In the future, in-depth studies on the species’ nutritional composition, chemistry, vitamins, and extracts should be proposed, contributing to the food and beverage industry and especially maintaining and developing a culinary culture imbued with national identity.

The Streets Echoed with Chants: The Urban Experience of Post-War West Berlin by Laura Bowie (review)

Reviewed by: The Streets Echoed with Chants: The Urban Experience of Post-War West Berlin by Laura Bowie Paul Steege Bowie, Laura–The Streets Echoed with Chants: The Urban Experience of Post-War West Berlin. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2022. 300 p. In September 1968, West Berlin’s biannual Bauwochen (building weeks) celebrated the opening of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s modernist Neue Nationalgalerie and gave visitors an opportunity to tour “the most beautiful post-war … locations” in the city (p. 14). Skeptical opponents organized a kind of “anti-Bauwochen” whose most notable achievement was an exhibition that sought to “diagnose” the problems in West Berlin’s postwar (re)construction. Laura Bowie’s new book focuses on the organizers of this exhibition, the members of Aktion 507. This collection of [End Page 195] architecture students and assistants at West Berlin’s Technical University “mapped intellectual sources onto aspects of the lived experiences of city-dwellers to support their analysis” (p. 166), and those connections shaped the form and content of their work. Taking its name from the seminar room (number 507) of Professor Oswald Mathias Ungers, Aktion 507 offers a compelling means to reframe a transnational student movement within the “micro-politics of everyday spaces of West Berlin” (p. 22). Bowie explicitly locates Aktion 507’s Diagnose exhibition within a “timeline of global events” (pp. xxiii–xxiv) that runs from June 2, 1967—when West Berlin police shot and killed the student Benno Ohnesorg during a protest against the visit of the Shah of Iran—to October 31, 1968—when US President Lyndon Johnson announced an end to the bombardment of North Vietnam. Located in an unfinished building designed by Hans Scharoun to house the Technical University’s Urban Development Institute, the exhibition ran from September 8–20, 1968. Its published manifesto (rather more than a catalogue), as well as visual and personal documentation of the event anchor Bowie’s analysis, and she weaves in these materials throughout the book. Its 77 figures, published in a mix of colour and black and white, richly complement the text. Bracketed by an introduction and a “post-mortem” (Chapter 10), the nine remaining chapters are divided into three sections: “The Present,” “The Past,” and “The Future.” Part I wrestles with the “present” reconstruction of West Berlin, the evolving efforts to cope with post-Second World War destruction and the implications of urban planning policies that demolished housing stock in the city centre and constructed new high-rise housing in the city’s outskirts. The chapters of Part II take on the multilayered theoretical engagement with Germany’s Nazi past and the ways that past remained a (neglected) part of Berlin’s urban cityscape. The final three chapters tackle the ways that student protest tied together critiques of West Berlin’s housing conditions, the trajectory of the discipline of architecture, and Nazism’s authoritarian residue in order to articulate specific revolutionary visions for the city’s future. Hinrich Baller, one member of Aktion 507, retrospectively described this effort to translate theory into praxis as a kind of “visionary pragmatism” (p. 265). Central to Aktion 507’s 1968 diagnosis of the social and material contexts that underlay the lived experience of West Berlin was the Märkisches Viertel (MV) housing development, constructed in the northernmost reaches of West Berlin beginning in 1963. Initial plans drew on international modernist inspirations, such as those that had shaped the city’s International Building Exhibition in 1957, and imagined apartment towers surrounded by ample green spaces, schools, daycare, and other community facilities. Planners turned to a variety of architects, and their variable designs for individual apartments as well as the use of colour to differentiate the buildings aimed to offer an alternative to the “grey Alltag [everyday]” (p. 71) of Berlin’s postwar environment. When interviewed by members of Aktion 507, however, MV residents denounced the development as a “grey hell” (p. 74) for which the addition of external colour changed nothing. In an effort to cope with growing housing demand, the scale of the development expanded dramatically in the midst of construction. Buildings that O. M. Ungers had planned for three to [End Page 196] six stories...