Searching for potential feedstock for biodiesel synthesis is important today and microalgae Chlorella sp. can be used to produce biodiesel due to its high capacity of lipid accumulation. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of culture conditions on the growth and lipid accumulation of Chlorella sp. such as light intensity, time, temperature and salinity. The results showed that the obtained concentration of microalgae was 0.306 g/L and the accumulated lipid was up to 35.86% when it was cultured under the conditions of 1342 lux, 25ºC, salinity of 0‰ and incubation time of 8 days. In addition, the fatty acid composition of Chlorella sp. was mainly C16 - C18, which are suitable for biodiesel synthesis.

This study presented breakdown characteristics and investigated the magnitude of the voltage forming plasma at frequency of 50 Hz. The breakdown chracteristics were studied with volume and surface breakdown. Experimental results revealed that the volume breakdown strength of air was only about 1-1,5 kVrms/mm. Tap water was quite good conductive and only withstood the voltage magnitude of 1,5 kVrms. The volume breakdown strength of a glass tube was higher than 18 kVrms/mm. However, the dry surface breakdown strength was around 0,48 kVrms/mm. When the surface of the glass tube was moistened with injection, the surface breakdown strength reduced to 0,44 kVrms/mm. When the applied voltage reached a value of around 9 kVrms, the appearance of cold plasma was observed. However, the complete breakdown through the glass tube thickness did not occurred. This showed that the plasma was successfully sustained. The length of surface insulation of a glass tube was calculated based on experimental data.

This study presents the preliminary lab scale results of chemical treatment process of waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by using sodium hydroxide. Some important parameters such as operating temperature and immersing time and concentration of sodium hydroxide solution were studied. Operating temperature and immersing time were achieved at 75°C and in 30 minutes, respectively. The ash content of the sample was determined at 800°C. The remaining of inorganic impurities after treating in alkali solution was very low and acceptable. The inorganic content separated from the PET waste increased with increasing amount of alkaline concentration. This investigation showed that an environmentally friendly method to recycle PET could be simply established.

Plagiarism is known as a serious concern in academic environment. Beside strict policy applied to plagiarist, there could be some kind of tools to help both educators and students prevent it. There are commercial products produced to detect plagiarism. However, these products are too expensive to educators in Vietnam and they have not given any proof whether these products work well in Vietnamese. Moreover, there are some detection methods available that could be a good choice to work in Vietnamese academic environment. However, these products have their own detection methods and these methods could not be changed. In addition, scalability is also an important feature for a plagiarism detection system because the number of documents in database is very large and increases rapidly. In this paper, we present a plagiarism detection system to detect plagiarism that have three above features: working on one’s own database, flexibility, and scalability.

In this study, we propose a solution for building an Intelligent Parking Support System (IPSS). The IPSS uses three recognition techniques including automatic recognition for motorcycle license plate (using cascade of Boosting with Haar-like features and Support Vector Machines - SVM), barcode recognition, and semi-recognition via surveillance cameras. Experimental results show that the models work well in three stages. In the license plate area recognition stage, the model gets 99% of accuracy when we use 750 images for training and 243 images for testing. In the letter area recognition stage, the model achieves 95.88% of accuracy when we use 11866 and 4755 images for training and testing, respectively. In the last stage, we train the SVM model on 2603 records and test it on 1550 records. The outcome result is the accuracy of 98.99%. This is a full-fledged system and can be applied in practice.

Sea-water intrusion and its negative impacts on rice farming systems in coastal plains of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta are increasing rapidly both in space and time. The main focus of this study was to analyze possible solutions to enhance (surface) water storage capacity which could be used to irrigate rice-fields during the water-shortage period (caused by temporal salinity intrusion). The study was done based on the system-thinking approach and based on the actual characteristics of the study area (local weather, canals system and existing farming systems), and bio-characteristics of crops (growing period and water demand at each growing stage). A mathematical model describing interaction between above factors was developed to realise a mutual relationship between demands and availability of water supply during the crop season. The simulation results showed that if the surface water area and depth of internal canals was enhanced (+2.4ha and +0.5m, respectively) in combination with the prediction salinity intrusion, surface water to irrigate 120 ha of rice-field in the time of salinity intrusion (15 day) could be secured. In addition, adjusting the cropping calendar and applying water-saving (irrigation) approach (i.e. the alternate wetting and drying technique) also helped to ease negative impacts of temporal water-shortage due to the rise of salinity from supply water sources.

The study on “Evaluation of the slaughter-house wastewater treatment efficiency of rotating biological contactor and package cage rotating biological contactor” was done to evaluate the slaughter wastewater treatment efficiency of rotating biological contactor having PVC flexible-conduit medium, and packed cage rotating biological contactor with wool-thread medium. The testing results showed the treatment efficient of package cage rotating biological contactor was better than that of rotating biological contactor at the hydraulic retention time of 6 hours and all of testing parameters of the effluent reach QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT (column B). The two-stage biological treatment of slaughter wastewater with package cage rotating biological contactor as the first stage and rotating biological contactor as the second stage gave the effluent having testing parameters to meet QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT (column A).

There were 15 storms and 4 tropical low pressures in the rainy season in 2013. From December, 2013 to February, 2014 the lowest temperature was about 17-180C at Cho Lach and Ke Sach district. The temperature in April and May, 2014 was about 36 - 370C (i.e. 1-20C higher than that of the same months in 2013). The rainy season in 2014 came later than that in 2013 about 15 days and the rainy season in 2013 came later than that in 2012 about 10 days. The rainfall in May 2013 was about 50-80 mm while it was down to 40-60 mm in the month of the year 2014. The carbon dioxide (CO2) at Ke Sach district in the rainy season was greater than that in the dry season; however, at Cho Lach district, it was opposite. The weather and carbon dioxide interrupted feeding queen and larvae, and honey was of greater water content. The laying eggs of queen bees in 2013 decreased of about 40-45% and the larval rearing ability of worker bees was lower compared to that of 2008. In the dry season in 2013 the water content in honey of A.m species at Ke Sach district was 23.8% and of A.c species at Cho Lach district was 25%. In the rainy season in 2013 the water content in honey of A.m species and of A.c species was 26% and 28%, respectively.

The study was conducted in 4 intensive catfish ponds in Chau Thanh district, Dong Thap province. At each pond, 5 stations were set to measure sediment deposition throughout the culture period (time-step of measuring was once every month). After 2 months of culture, the thickness of sediment layer was 7 cm and averagely increased about 10 cm per month in following months. By using submerged pump, sediment volume was determined about 1,624 m3/ha after 3 months of culture, and increasing rate of sediment volume was 1,000 m3/ha/month. Average humidity of sediment was 58,56 ± 0,46% and average organic concentration was about 3,95 ± 0,12%C. Sediment dried at room temperature contained 3,88 ± 0,2%C, 0,33 ± 0,02%N and  0,79 ± 0,04%P2O5for organic, total of nitrogen and total of phosphorus, respectively; these parameters significantly decreased at 2,58 ± 0,16 %C, 0,23 ± 0,02%N and 0,41±0,04 %P2O5 respectively, if sediment was continuously pumped. Sediment used for convolvulus plantation, the convolvulus yield of stage 1 and stage 2 were 15,32±0,33 ton/ha and 22,72±1,78 ton/ha, respectively. The convolvulus yield was significantly higher in comparison to those in local agriculture land (with and without application of the NKP fertilizer).

The objective of this study was to assess the current state of groundwater resources in the Soc Trang province using the Water Poverty Index (WPI). Firstly, data were collected from different authorities, and indicators of five components of WPI (including Resources, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment) were evaluated using common accepted thresholds/benchmarks. Secondly, the five components were combined to calculate the WPI with/without considering weights given to the components (based on their importance) which were judged by local managers and experts. Finally, the calculated WPI and its components were mapped and analyzed at the district scale. The results show the overall WPI of the province was 64.1 indicating that the province was at the “medium to low” water-poor situation. In addition, WPI was unevenly distributed among districts. Throught assessing the five components of WPI, the “hot-spots” as well as the main causes of water poverty status were identified, and thus each district would define their own solutions for the groundwater shortage problems. Results from this study may provide useful information for policy makers in prioritizing investments in the water sector.

By combining variational sets, proposed by Khanh and Tuan in 2008, with asymptotic second-order derivative defined from asymptotic second-order cone, presented by Penot in 1998, we propose a new definition, asymptotic second-order variational sets, establish some their calculus rules and apply them to establish the optimal conditions for set-valued optimization problems.

Three different methods of extraction of essential oil from rhizome of Ngai say collected from Bay Nui, An Giang have been studied including water distillation (NSC-1), steam distillation (NSC-2) and microwave-assisted water distillation (NSC-3). The overall yields of the obtained essential oils were found to be almost the same in the cases of NSC-2 and NSC-3 methods (1.439% and 1.423%, respectively) and higher than that of NSC-1 (1.261%). Negligible amount of essential oil was found for trunks and leaves based on the water distillation method (6.00x10-3 % and 4.33x10-3 %, respectively). GC-MS analysis showed that the essential oil from rhizome obtained under studied methods comprised mainly of 4-terpinenol (27 - 35%), sabinene (15 - 26%) and 1,4-bis(methoxy)-triquinacene (7 - 28%). Evaluation of bioactivity showed that the essential oils of Ngai say’s rhizome had no anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties; negligible anti-oxidation activity compared to that of vitamine C but more significant compared with other essential oils such as Curcuma longa or Cinnamomum camphora Ness; and possessed good cytotoxic acitivites toward MCF-7, MCF7/ADR, MDA-MB-231 and Hela species.

This research aims to study antioxidant activity of Acanthus ilicifolius located both in saline and fresh water. The methanol extracts from three major parts including root, stem and leaf of Acanthus ilicifolius, , were determined for their antioxidant activity by DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and TAS (Total Antioxidant Status) methods. The TAS result proved that Acanthus ilicifolius could eliminate almost total free radicals (approximately 90%) at the extract concentration of 1.5 mg/mL. Antioxidant capacity of Acanthus ilicifolius was approximately 900 times higher than that of vitamin C. The DPPH result also presented the efficiency of hydrogen free radical scavenging. Methanolic extracts at concentration of 400 mg/mL could remove about 90% free radicals.

The objective of the current work is to study an optimized protocol for the synthesis of biodiesel from cashew kernel oil (CKO) and to evaluate the quality of the produced biodiesel. Response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was applied for the determination of optimum conditions of the transesterification step. The physicochemical properties in terms of acid value, kinematic viscosity at 40oC, cetane number; ester content, pour point, flash point, distillation range and density at 15oC of the prepared CKO biodiesel  were in acceptable range for use as biodiesel in diesel engines.

In this study we apply the quantum dynamics equation for the electron distribution function in semiconductor superlattices components under the effect of an electromagnetic field with frequency w, amplitude  and a laser pulse frequency W, amplitude .  To solve this equation we have obtained analytical expressions for the constant electric field intensity of horizontal stimulation optical effects. Based on numerical computing results by using the Matlab software, we have obtained the dependence of the electromagnetic field on the temperature as well as the parameters of the magnetic field puting on the material.

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different dietary neutral detergent fiber (NDF) levels on growth performance, nutrient digestion, caecal parameters and carcass quality of crossbred (local x New Zealand) rabbits in Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The experiment consisted of 72 rabbits at 8 weeks age arranged in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments and 3 replications (2 males and 2 females per each experimental unit). The treatments were dietary NDF levels of 33, 36, 39, 42, 45 and 48% DM basis, respectively. The experimental time was 12 weeks. The results showed that nutrient and digestible nutrient intakes, daily weight gain, carcass quality and caecal parameters significantly increased with increasing the dietary NDF level from 33 to 36%, but these traits were gradually decreased with continuous increase of the dietary NDF level up to 48% (p

Twenty three  aerobic bacteria strains were isolated from 20 soil samples collected from slaughterhouse and landfill areas using Horikoshi I medium (pH 9). Their colonies fairly varied in shape, color and size. All of them were rod-shaped, capable of moving/motile and of 1-2.9 µm in length. Only 11 strains showed protease activity on Horikoshi I medium with 1% supplemented casein by forming hydrolytic halo ranged from 5.3 to 13.2 mm in diameter after incubating for 24 hours at 30oC. Later, these strains were grown in broth medium and then examined for their activity. As a result, except strain 11, the remaining displayed protease activity at different levels from 0,12 U/mL to 3,16 U/mL. Among them, strain LM6 originated from soil samples at the landfill revealed the highest activity of 3,16 U/mL. Analysis of morphology, physiology, biochemistry and 16S rDNA sequences indicated that LM4 shared 81% sequence homology with Bacillus pumilus Bp24; LM6 showed 99% sequence similarity with Bacillus pumilus DBF 12 27 and LM7 closely related 99% with Bacillus sefensis AL-75.

Seventy-six isolates were isolated from 25 rhizosphere soil samples of 13 different leaf-eating vegetables species grown in 6 districts of Can Tho City. Among them, 48 isolates had good characteristics as nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubility and IAA synthesis. Especially, 5 isolates (NBT625, NPD721, NPD855, NOM131 and NBT613) had relatively high abilities of nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization (0.80-2.21 mg/L NH4+, 27.82-50.63 mg/L P2O5) and 3 isolates (PBT622, POM112 and POM222) synthesized high IAA levels (7.82-8.25 mg/L). These eight isolates were selected to test the siderophore-producing ability and the results showed that 7 isolates having light and color changes CAS medium. Six/seven isolates were chosen to identify with primers 27F and 1492R, they were sequenced and compared with bacterial 16S rRNA genes in Genbank using BLAST N program. The results showed that NBT613 isolate was a 99% similarity with GQ181060 Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain BLN4, NPD855 isolate had a 99% identity with KC934864 Ensifer adhaerens strain M27 and JQ322555 Sinorhizobium meliloti strain CHW10B, PBT622 isolate was a 97% similarity with KF358257 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain L14, POM112 isolate had a 97% identity with JQ923444 Achromobacter xylosoxidans strain BL6, NBT625 isolate was a 98% similarity with KF870446 Rhizobium sp. LS-079, and NPD721 isolate was a 99% similarity with KC833504 Burkholderia sp. TCP30, and 5 strains were selected to evaluate their effects on leaf-eating vegetables in the pots and field experiments except POM112 strain.

An alkaline protease with molecular mass about 19.2 kDa was isolated and purified from Bacillus sp. SV1 broth culture by ammonium sulfate fractionation following by a combination of cation-exchange on SP-streamline column and anion exchange chromotography on Unosphere Q column with phosphate buffer at pH 7.8. SDS-PAGE under reducing and non-reducing conditions and zymography analysis with casein as a substrate indicated that the protease was a monomer of about 19.2 kDa with no intermolecular disulfite bridges. The optimum pH and temperature for protease activity were 9.0 and 45oC, respectively. The presence of 2.5 mM Ca2+ leaded to a two fold increase of enzyme activity. Additionally, the purified protease was expected as a serine protease because it was completely inhibited by 2mM phenylmethylsulphonyl fluoride (PMSF).

Cassava starch was chemically modified by cross-linking with sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP)/sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) (99/1, w/w). The physicochemical properties of the cross-linked cassava starch were investigated as function of the degree of cross-linking. The study was carried based on changing the amounts of agents (0-12%), reaction temperature (40-50 oC), reaction time (1-3 h) and pH (5-11). The degree of polymerization (Pn), solubility (%) and paste clarity (%T650) were examined as the parameters to evaluate the degree of cross-linking. The results showed that the levels of agents, reaction temperature, reaction time and pH significantly modified natural starches to obtain the chemically modified starches with different properties and functionality. Degree of polymerization increased in accordance with increasing the levels of agents, reaction temperarure, reaction time and pH. Whereas, the solubility and paste clarity decreased when increasing the concentration of agents, reaction temperarute, reaction time and pH.

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of roasting temperature (105, 120, 135oC) and duration (30, 40 and 50 minutes), types of alkali (Na2CO3 and K2CO3) with concentration (0.3, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2%), degree of fineness of cocoa powder (40, 100, 140 and 200 mesh) and cocoa butter content in cocoa powder (10, 15, 20 and 25%) on the quality of cocoa powder. The results showed that the high roasting temperature and the long time gave a poor quality in terms of color and flavor. Potassium carbonate at 0.3% gave ideal color of cocoa powder. The relationship between dispersibility of cocoa powder and degree of fineness, cocoa butter with time was found. Cocoa powder of 15% cocoa butter gave the better dispersibility. The effects of four types of emulsifiers and cocoa butter content were investigated. Optimum levels for emulsifiers were determined. It was found that emulsion stability and viscosity of whipped mixture increased with higher levels of emulsifiers and cocoa butter contents.

The research was executed in Thanh Phu District, Ben Tre Province. The objectives of this research were to (1) use STELLA simulation programme to build a soil water and salt balance model in rootzone of maize crop and (2) predict the soil moisture and salinity level during cropping season. The well simulated model was found for the soil water storage in the root zone (R2 = 0.95), RMSE = 2.1 mm, NRMSE = 2.84% and EF = 0.88). The model mimicked well the mean salt concentration in the root zone rather than specific data at different times of the cropping season. Simulated results of soil salinity showed that soil ECe was fitted with the easured value which was higher than the optimal value (1.7 mS/cm) for the development of maize during the cropping season. Due to the high soil salinity, the total crop evapotranspiration (228.16 mm) was decreased compared to the maximum crop evapotranspiration (264.92 mm). The simulated results of water balance in irrigated condition showed that total water amount needed for maize crop was about 52.3 mm. This figure was matched with the real irrigarion water measurement. In the water-saving irrigation condition without rainfall, the simulated result showed that the total irrigation amount for maize crop was 154.7 mm and the mean irrigation frequency was 5 days.

Objectives of this study were to determine the suitable rootstock grafted with “Sừng vàng Châu Phi” used as scion. The study was conducted at Agricultural Experimental Station, College of Agriculture and Applied Biology, Can Tho University. The experiment was arranged in randomized complete block design with 3 replications and 5 treatments including chili rootstocks of (1) Hiểm trắng, (2) Hiểm xanh, (3) Đà Lạt, (4) Cà and (5) control (non grafting). Results showed that the survival rate were up to 90% after grafted at 12 days for all the grafted treatments. The marketable yield of the combination between “Sừng vàng Châu Phi” scion and Hiểm trắng rootstock was highest (21.39 t/ha), 8.13% higher than ungrafted (control), 19.20% on Hiểm xanh, 44.12% on Đà Lạt and 46.59% on Cà rootstocks. However, the plant height of the combination between “Sừng vàng Châu Phi”grafted on Đà Lạt rootstock was the tallest (126.97 cm) and the lowest were on Ca and Hiem xanh.

This study was aimed to evaluate the capability of year round flowering induction on Hoa Loc mango in Hoa Hung commune, Cai Be district, Tien Giang province, from December 2011 to March 2013. The experiment of this study had four treatments arranged in completely randomized design; each treatment equals to one flowering induction season with three replications, each of which was one demonstration including 30 trees. Seasons of flowering induction included on (Dec-Jan), late (Mar-Apr), early (Jun-Jul) and off (Sept-Oct) season. The flowering induction protocol proposed by Tran Van Hau et al. (2011) was applied, in which paclobutrazol at 1-2 g a.i.m-1 canopy diameter was used to help the flower initiation of meristem, 2.5-3 months later Thiourea at 0.3-0.5% was used to induce flowering; one week later Thiourea was sprayed again at the half-reduced concentration. Results showed that year round flowering induction on Hoa Loc mango affected flowering ratio, number of flower per inflorescent, hermaphroditic flower portion, fruit set ratio, fruit weight, fruit/tree yield, and pest damage. Off-season had high flowering and fruit set rate, hence high fruit yield despite high ratio of young fruit abscission. Anthracnose was the most devastating on inflorescence and fruit on late and off season, whereas thrips were primarily destructive on fruit set stage of on and early season.

A list of 74 reptile species belonging to 53 genera in 19 families of 4 orders has been recorded for the first time during the 2013 survey in the hydropower Ha Nang area, Quang Ngai province. Three families of Colubridae, Dicroglossidae, Rhacophoridae are predominate about genus and species. According to recorded species list, 19 species are precious, including 7 species listed in the Governmental Decree No. 32/2006/NĐ-CP (2006), 10 species listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam (2007), 10 species listed in the IUCN Red List (2014), 12 species are common (16.22%), 47 species are less common (63.51%), 15 species are rare (20.27%). Their distribution including the restored forest (77.03%), around hydropower lake (25,68%), the new residential area (29.73%) and cultivated mountainous fields (21.62%). These species were used for the food (67%); trade (18.65%); medicated alcohol (13%) and not in use (1.35%). Threats to their survival including hunting by local habitants and their habitats were narrowed and lost due to the over-exploitation of forest resources and cultivated impacts from the hydropower construction activities.

Gillnet, trawl and purse seine fishing are 3 main capture fishering activities in the Mekong Delta. This study was carried out from January to December 2013 in the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta as Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces through interviewing 321 households operating on gill nets, trawls and purse seines for evaluating of technical and financial aspects in these fishing activities. The results showed that the exploitation of the above mentioned fishering activities in the Mekong Delta can be exploited whole year. Production of offshore single trawlers (0.35 ton/CV/year) and offshore gillnets (0.22ton/CV/year) were lower (p

This study was conducted to develop the PCR protocol which detects S. agalactiae from infected fish. The research included: (i) optimization of DNA extraction procedure from fish tissues. The DNA extraction procedure from fish tissues was performed following the methods employed by Taggart et al. (1992), Buller (2004), and Monfared et al. (2011). It was found that the first two methods were better at DNA concentration and the purity of extracted DNA. Besides, DNA that was extracted from brain was better than from kidney; (ii) PCR protocol for the detection of S. agalactiae amplified a specific product of 220 bp. The specific of optimized PCR was tested with some common bacterial isolates in aquaculture such as Edwardsiella ictaluri, Aeromonas hydrophila, Streptococcus iniae and Vibrio harveyi. The application of this protocol was also examined and positive results were obtained, indicating that the protocol could detect different isolates of S. agalactiae and from red tilapia samples with haemorrhage and exophthalmia in clinical signs.

This study was conducted to find out the distribution of the black apple snail egg batch in the pond and the effects of the water spraying cycle on the hatching process. Four water spraying cycles were tested during snail egg incubation as follow: 1).3 hours; 2).6 hours; 3). 9 hours and 4). 12 hours. Egg batches were located on coir substrates and incubated into 12 rectangular PVC tanks (3 egg batches/tank). The results showed that the snail eggs were laid near the pond walls at high frequency (43.5%) and few egg batches were found on the plant trunks around the pond (6.5%). Hatching rate of snail eggs after every 6 hours (90.8%) was significantly higher (p

The aims of this research were to study the impacts of mixed selective Bacillus sp bacteria on the growth of rotifers Brachionus plicatilis. The first experiment was investigated the effects of a mixture of Bacillus sp and probiotic products on rotifer populations with two treatments and one control: (1) No adding bacteria for the control treatment, (??2) Adding a mixture of Bacillus B7 + B41 (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens), (??3) Adding Pro W (probiotic products) to cuture rotifer medium. In the second experiment, after accomplishing the first experiment, rotifers from each treatment were infected by Vibrio harveyi to determine the survival rate after the infection. Results showed that the density of rotifers, carrying eggs in the treatments added Bacillus was significantly higher than those in the control (p0.05).

Evaluating the potential use of dried gut weed (Enteromorpha sp.) and blanket weed (Chaladophoraceae) to replace the pellet feed for the giant gourami (Osphronemus goramy) was carried out. Experiment composed of eight treatments with three replicates.  In 3 control treatments (single diets), fish was fed daily either by pellet feed or gut weed or blanket weed. In five other treatments, fish was fed two alternative feeding regimes consisting of 1 day gut weed or blanket weed and 1 consecutive day pellet feed or and 2 consecutive days gut weed or blanket weed, and 1 day gut weed following 1 day blanket and 1 consecutive day pellet feed. After 56 days of culture, survival of experimental fish was not affected by the feeding treatments and ranging from 93.3 to 100%. Growth rates of fish in the alternative feeding treatments were comparable to the control treatment. Application of the combined feeding regimes, feed conversion ratio and cost of pellet feed could be reduced from 43.2 to 62.8%. These results indicated that dried gut weed and blanket weed can be used as feed source to partially substitute pellet feed for rearing the giant gourami.

Developing high-quality human resources plays a key role in implementing economic tasks in the transitional period and a decisive factor for the success of industrialization and modernization of the country. Accompanying this trend, in recent years the city of Can Tho has shown its great interest in industrialization and modernization. Therefore, the issue of training high-quality human resources demand should be, among other things, given high priority to facilitate Can Tho to become an industrial city prior to 2020.

The reasearch conducted a study about the impact of knowledge management on firm organizational performance in the Mekong Delta in order to propose some recommendations to enhance the implemention of knowledge management more effectiveness. The data were collected from 216 firms in four provinces (Can Tho, Vinh Long, Soc Trang and Ca Mau provimces) through questionnaires. The descriptive statistics, Cronbach Alpha test, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling methods were used in this study. The results showed that the factor of strategy and organizational characteristics, and the factor of leadership style and motivative employees have a positive impact on the knowledge management activities. Besides, knowledge management activities also impact positively on firm organisational performance. The study also showed that there is a difference impact of knowledge management to organizational performance among enterprises. Particularly, knowledge management activities of large-scale enterprises are more effectiveness than small and medium-sized enterprises. Some recommendations had given to enhance the implemention of knowledge management in enterpirses more effectiveness. Finally, the research contributed theoretical model of the relationship between knowledge management activities and organizational performance.

This study focuses on developing and validating multi – dimensions scale quality of customer experience at the supermarkets located in Can Tho city. Using quota sampling by gender technique, 173 correspondents were directly interviewed by questionnaire. Cronbach’s Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methods were used in this study. The results showed that the scale of quality of customer experience includes six dimensions: service providers, physical retail environment, other customers, companions, value added, and product characteristics. The results also illustrated that there is a direct influence from the quality of customer experience to customer satisfaction, loyalty and words of mouth. These results emphasized that the quality of customer experience is one of the important factors that enterprises need to care and have solutions to improve the quality of customer experience through its components. This study had contributed and enhanced the contents of quality of customer experience a new concept and few enterprises pay attention on it. Besides that, this study also provided a new approach to measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and loyalty by the quality of customer experience.

Study on financial analysis of households practicing rice based farming systems was undertaken in Long Ho and Binh Tan districts, Vinh Long province in 2013. Households' economic data were collected on three representative systems including 3 rice crops, 2 rice crops-one upland crop a year and intensive upland crop. Study results show that household head and farming workers’ educational attainment practicing 3 rice crops and 2 rice crops-one upland crop a year is higher than those practicing upland crops. Also, cultivated land areas in 3 rice crops and 2 rice crops-one upland crop systems is larger than that in the remaining system. Net income of 3 systems such as 3 rice crops, 2 rice crops-one upland crop, and upland crops are 52,277 million VND, 56,299 million VND and 133,027 million VND per hare respectively. In comparison, intensive upland crops system has 76,6 million VND per hare higher than the 2 rice crops-one upland crop system. Other factors such as cultivated land areas, production costs, and participation in local organisations have positive impacts on households’ income. In contrast, family members per household have negative impacts on households’ income.

This study investigates the effect of multinational enterprise (MNE)’s entry mode on the likelihood of MNE subsidiary’s access to complementary local assets in the MeKong Delta. Using the framework of Hennart, so-called the asset-bundling framework, we hypothesize that the likelihood of MNE subsidiary’s access to complementary local asset through M&A is higher than through Greenfield. The study uses the survey data extracted from the data set of Vietnam Statistics Office at 36 subsidiaries locating in the MeKong Delta and applies OLS regression to test the hypothesis. The empirical results strongly support our hypothesis under controlling the characteristics of parent firm and of home and host countries.

The study is conducted through surveying 70 actors along garlic marketing channel in Ninh Hai and Ninh Phuoc in Ninh Thuan province, including 7 variety suppliers, 7 agricultural material suppliers, 20 growers, 6 collectors within the province, 15 wholesalers and 14 retailers in and outside the province, and 1 supper market outside the province. The study applies the theories of value chain and competitive advantage analysis. The research results show that there are two main marketing channels in the garlic value chain: 1) product is sold to the wholesalers within the province (70% of total garlic) and 2) product is sold to the retailers within the province, and that the biggest problem is the actors’ market access capacity. However, this is also opportunity for increasing profit of the garlic value chain. Finally, there are four main solutions for upgrading the garlic value chain in Ninh Thuan province, including: enlarging areas for garlic, upgrading marketing and production capacity for garlic growers, reorganizing garlic distribution system and developing garlic processing field.

In business of Lilama there are many factors in attracting participation in the management system, such as material, economic, cultural, information... but people remains the leading factor. The economic crisis and competition of sources direct production employees ongoing harsh in erection industry lead to Lilama serious affected. Study of the work motivation of direct production employees plays an important role in attracting and retaining talents for Lilama. Research results were analyzed from observation, testing the reliability of the scale and factor analysis. Then correlation analysis, multiple linear regression under multivariate normal regression, the study found seven factors that affect the work motivation of direct production employees in Lilama: corporate culture, work, opportunity for training and development, working conditions, wages and welfare regime, relationships with colleagues, relationships with the leaders. In of which wages and welfare regime with the corporate culture is the most powerful factor. Results obtained from the study suggest vital implications in developing suitable strategies and development plan to attract human resources Lilama.

This study focuses on analyzing the status, the meteorological and hydrological factors which effect the development of shrimp farming in the brackish water area of Soc Trang province. The data used in this study was secondary data collected from monthly report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Statistical Yearbook, Soc Trang province from 2010 to 2013.Descriptive statistics and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. Results of the regression analysis on factors effecting the monthly stocking area of shrimps showed that monthly average temperature and rainfall is positively corelated to monthly stocking area of shrimp; meanwhile, factors of monthly sun-shining period, humidity and water level are negatively correlated to monthly stocking area of shrimp in the province. The regressionis statistically significant, which67.78% of the fluctuation in shrimp stocking area was explained by the mentioned independent variables. Factors effecting to lossen area of shrimp farming were also analized.

Shrimp farming is subject to high risks including natural disasters and diseases which hammer shrimp farming’s income. To mitigate the consequences of shrimp farming risks, Decision 315/2011/QĐ-TTg was issued to conduct a pilot program on shrimp farming insurance for the period of 2011-2013 in Bac Lieu and other 2 provinces in the Mekong River Delta. The evaluation of the pilot program after 2 years showed that the number of households insured is still low compared with the potential. Hence, this study aims to analyze the determinants of shrimp farmers’ decision to participate in the pilot program on shrimp farming insurance in Bac Lieu province. The result shows that government employees, access to information of shrimp farming insurance program and farm size are positively associated with shrimp farmers’ decision to participate in the shrimp farming insurance program. In addition, the result shows that characteristics of shrimp farmers such as education level are less likely to participate in the insurance program. The results also show that the characteristics of shrimp farmers such as gender, training, years of experience, status of borrowing, and shrimp farming costs do not significantly affect households' decisions to participate in the insurance program for shrimp farming.

The research is conducted to find out customer’s perception about brand personality of laptop computer in Ca Mau City and to identify effects of laptop brand personality on customer loyalty. The result shows that there are three brand personality factors affecting customer loyalty in laptop computer brand. The strongest factor is the self-expressive value, the next factor is brand cohesion and the last one is the attractiveness of the brand personality. The study also suggests some solutions to enhance customer loyalty through building laptop computer brand personality for Ca Mau City market.

This study is aimeds at evaluating the demand of students of School of Economics - Business Administration (SEBA) for communication skills. Research data were collected from 100 students from different courses. The findings show that most of communication skills have been regconized by SEBA students, but not much being applied in reality. Besides, the majority of students are not satisfied with theirown communication skills received from the School. Therefore, appropriated and structured courses of communication skills have been expected to participate. In addition, the findings also imply that the students have diverse demands in aspects of such a course including class forms, teaching forms, assessment form, number of credits, and the size of class.

The reasearch aims to determine factors that affect market accessibility and market accessibility levels of pineapples growing farmers in Tan Phuoc district, Tien Giang province. Research data were collected from 236 pineapples growing farmers in the district by direct interview questionnaire. Logistic regression and linear regression analysis were explored in this reasearch. Results showed that production areas, age, experience, education, telephone and relationships were the factors positively impacted on market accessibility of pineapples growing farmers. Besides, production areas, education, training, telephone and relationship are the factors positively correlated with market accessibility levels of pineapples growing farmers. A number of recommendations are proposed to enhance the market accessibility and the level of the market accessibility for pineapples growing farmers.

Soc Trang has the largest area of Tai Nguyen rice in the Mekong Delta. “Milk Tai Nguyen” grown in Soc Trang for a long time is a 6-month local rice variety characterized by photoperiod, small size and milky color, sweet taste and soft cooked rice. Today, Tai Nguyen rice, however, is low quality with white color, bigger size, hard rice and without sweet taste. As a result, most of users consume other rice instead of Tai Nguyen, either other soft-rice mixation or Soc Mien rice with the same Tai Nguyen shape and color that have lead to reduction of Tai Nguyen value in the recent years. Solutions for improvement of Tai Nguyen quality and value-added are based on the value chain approach of Kaplinsky & Morris (2001), the ValueLinks method of GTZ (2007), Marking value chains work better for the poor (M4P, 2008), rice test and amylose analysis. Research results show that conditions for Tai Nguyen production create high competitive and comparative advantages betwwen provinces; reduction of Tai Nguyen quality has happened in the entire chain; Tai Nguyen rice is mainly distributed to domestic market (93.1% of total quantity) and limited volum for export (6.9%); Less agents in a chain market channel, higher benefits to producers. Furthermore, researchers also propose seven strategic solutions including 11 activities for improvement of Tai Nguyen quality and value-added in the coming time.

Mango area of the Dong Thap province - the largest in the Mekong Delta - is about 9,031ha in the year of 2013. Hoa Loc mango area is about 30% of total mango area in Dong Thap province. Farmers have had many years of experience of mango cultivation. They have successfully applied techniques to handle off-season flowers so mango crops have harvested whole year-round. However, linkages in production and consumption indicated many difficulties. Therefore, a systematic research has needed to find out the problems from production to consumption. Also, integrated value chain approach method from Kaplinsky & Morris (2000), Recklies (2001), GTZ Eschborn (2007), M4P (2007) and Vo Thi Thanh Loc (2013) was used in this research to analyze operations of the Hoa Loc mango value chain in Dong Thap. The result showed that farmers’ land area is small and there is a mango Cooperative but not any mango processing factory in Dong Thap province. Domestic market channel is about 88% of total volume consumption (mainly Ho Chi Minh City market). Shortening market channel and making farmer linkages help reduce costs and increase profit for the value chain actors.

This study was conducted through the survey of 268 actors involved in the value chain of cocoa in four districts in Ben Tre Province, Viet Nam including Chau Thanh, Giong Trom, Mo Cay Bac and Mo Cay Nam. Several experts were also interviewed in this study. The theories of value chain were applied in order to find out how market operation. The main results obtained from this study show that there are three marketing channels for cocoa production in which the main export product is dryed cocoa bean (accounting for 85,92%) and the rest consumed in domestic market (accounting for 14,08%) which is the potential marketing channel for chocolate butter, chocolate, and chocolate powder. Income distribution is in favour of the growers, exporters and processing company. However, there is a room for improvement of this income distribution among actors towards increasing net value added for the whole chain. Through current value chain analysis and using SWOT analysis, this study identified four groups of strategies, including six groups of activities needed to implement in order to increase net value added for the whole chain in general, and for famers in particular.