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Learners’ classroom involvement is thought to be highly influential in their academic success in that highly involved learners typically invest more time and energy in acquiring course content. For this reason, the predictors and determinants of learners’ classroom involvement have been highly attended to by educational researchers. Nonetheless, the predicting role of teachers’ emotional competencies like compassion and empathy has rarely been researched. Furthermore, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no theoretical review has looked into the concurrent impacts of teachers’ compassion and empathy on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ classroom involvement. To address this lacuna, the current theoretical review aimed to explicate the effects of these two emotional competencies on EFL learners’ classroom involvement. The desirable effects of teachers’ compassion and empathy on EFL learners’ involvement were demonstrated using theoretical and empirical evidence. The implications of the present review’s findings are thoroughly discussed.

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This study investigates the instructional strategies Vietnamese EFL lecturers prefer to employ to teach productive skills of general English in online and face-to-face teaching environments. Thirty-eight lecturers from 6 Vietnamese universities participated and responded to a questionnaire with 29 close-ended questions detailing instructional strategies. Four of the participants were invited to join the semi-interview about the reasons for their preference for instructional strategies. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics for Quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. The findings indicate that the most favored strategy in both teaching environments is describing pictures while opinion sharing and group discussion are much more favorable in the face-to-face than in the online teaching environment. Additionally, certain strategies are preferred in the face-to-face setting over instruction in the online setting and vice versa. Some primary reasons for lecturers’ preference for instructional strategies were identified and participants gave some recommendations of choosing appropriate strategies for teaching productive skills via interviews. These findings highlight EFL lecturers' preferences in selecting instructional strategies to teach English productive skills in the two teaching contexts and underscore implications for choosing proper instructional strategies.

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Research on L2 learners’ engagement has highlighted the impact of emotional engagement on task performance to uphold their language development, but there remains a need for further empirical evidence, especially from the text-driven perspective on task-based language teaching. The present mixed-methods study aims to explore Vietnamese EFL learners’ emotional engagement during two task-based lessons driven by two text genres. One speaking task and a writing task that engaged the learners in solving problems driven by the texts were implemented in two three staged lessons. Quantitative data was collected by using a post-task questionnaire analyzed with SPSS v.29 to gauge 33 English undergraduates’ emotional engagement, and an interview was conducted with eight students on a voluntary basis to delve into factors that influence their emotional engagement. Observations during the lessons were further used to triangulate evidence. Descriptive statistics revealed that the participants were highly emotionally engaged in both task-based lessons, expressing high enjoyment and low anxiety. Further thematic analysis of engagement during the lessons indicated that pre-task visual prompting, text processing, the proper cognitive challenges of tasks and texts, and peer monitoring were the main influential factors. These findings imply that task design and implementation based on engaging texts potentially heighten learners’ emotional engagement in task-based performance, thereby facilitating their language acquisition.

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Abstract
This study aimed to examine the frequency of reading strategy use among EFL high school students and the relationship between their strategy use and reading comprehension achievement. The research sample consisted of 328 EFL students from four high schools in Central Vietnam. Data collection was carried out using three primary instruments: a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and two reading comprehension tests. The findings revealed that most participants expressed a generally positive attitude toward the use of reading strategies. However, their actual use of these strategies was found to be limited during the reading process. Moreover, the study identified a significant correlation between the frequency of reading strategy use and students’ reading performance: students who employed reading strategies more frequently achieved higher reading scores. Based on these findings, several pedagogical implications were proposed for both EFL students and teachers, aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning of reading skills in EFL contexts.
 

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A numerical model for two-phase debris flows is developed in this paper, on the basis of understanding of the physical characteristics of debris flows from field investigations and experiments. Employing a moving coordinate, the kinetic energy equation of gravel particles in unit volume in debris flow is developed by considering the potential energy of the particles, energy from the liquid phase, energy consumption due to inner friction-collision between the particles, energy dispersion through collisions between particles, energy for inertia force, energy consumption due to the friction with the rough bed and energy consumption at the debris front. The model is compared with measured results of two-phase debris flow experiments and the calculated velocity profiles agree well with the measured profiles. The gravel’s velocity at the debris flow head is much smaller than that of particles in the following part and the velocity profile at the front of the debris flow wave is almost linear, but the profile in the main flow shows an inverse ‘s’ shape. This is because the gravel particles in the main flow accelerate as they receive energy from the gravitational energy and flowing liquid and decelerate as they transmit the energy to the debris flow head and consume energy due to collision with the channel bed.

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To investigate the effect of droughtstress on chlorophyll content, enzymatic responses and some growth characteristics of Acacia victoriae seedlings and the effect of super-absorbent polymers (SAP) in reducing drought stress, a split plot experiment based on the completely randomized design was conducted. The treatments included four levels of drought stress (15, 30, 60 and 100% of field capacity) and four levels of SAP (0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6% weight percentages). The results of ANOVA showed a significant effect of drought stress on all growth characters, chlorophyll content and catalase and peroxidase enzymes activity, while the SAP didn't show any significant effect on the weight and areas of the leaves. The interaction effect between drought stress and SAP on the weight, number of leaves, proportion of root dry weight to aerial organs, chlorophyll and peroxidase enzyme activity was also significant. The effect of drought stress on reducing the number of the leaves, leaf area, length, volume and surface of roots and also increasing the root dry weight to aerial organs dry weight ratio, amount of chlorophyll and activity of antioxidant enzymes was significant. The different levels of SAP could absorb and hold water and consequently reduce the effect of drought stress and improve the growth characteristics and reduce the activity of catalase and peroxidase enzymes.

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This study was done during 2012 to 2014 to determine the species composition of thrips on fruit trees and weeds of orchards in three counties of Qazvin Province (i.e. Buin-Zahra, Takestan and Qazvin). For each county 14 orchards were sampled. In each orchard, 10 trees and from each tree four shoots along with their leaves, flowers and fruits were selected as a sample unit. Diversity was calculated by Shannon-Wiener Index and evenness by Pielou evenness index. Species richness was estimated using the first-order jackknife richness estimator. One-way ANOVA was used to test whether there exists significant variation in species diversity, evenness and richness along the three counties. Of the 4,489 adult collected specimens from three locations, 27 species belonging to 13 genera were identified. The highest number of thrips was collected on plants of family Rosaceae, followed by Vitaceae and Moraceae, respectively. The number of collected species in Qazvin (18) and Buin-Zahra (17) counties were more than Takestan (13) county. Similar trend was observed for the total number of adult specimens collected in the three counties as more specimens were found in Qazvin and Buin-Zahra than Takestan. Results of this study showed that Thrips tabaci L. was found on all species of fruit trees and weeds. There were no significant differences among the three counties in terms of both diversity (P = 0.41) and evenness (P = 0.45). Across the counties, thrips estimated richness was higher in Qazvin county compared to Buin-Zahra and Takestan counties. Among the trees in Buin-Zahra and Takestan counties, grape had the highest thrips diversity. The highest value of diversity for Qazvin county was recorded for apricot. The polyphagous species T. tabaci was dominant in all three counties, followed by Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (in Qazvin county), Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom) (in Buin-Zahra county) and Frankliniella tenuicornis (Uzel) (in Takestan county).

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Backgrounds: This study aimed to determine community-initiated Lassa fever prevention and control strategies in Africa.
Materials & Methods: Literature search was performed on four databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, African Journal OnLine (AJOL), and BioMed Central, using different combinations of the following search terms. A three-stage methodology was employed to conduct the study. At first, related articles were identified using pre-defined key terms, such as Lassa fever, Lassa fever control, Lassa fever prevention, community engagement and Lassa fever, and community participation and Lassa fever. Thereafter, articles were screened to remove duplicates and articles not relevant to the study objectives.
Findings: Community mobilization and sensitization and risk communication were some of the community-directed activities towards Lassa fever prevention and control. Also, stakeholders’ advocacy and engagement, rodent control practices, environmental sanitation, and proper food processing and preservation were practiced to prevent Lassa fever. In addition, a referral mechanism from the community to the health facility was constituted through the engagement of community health workers.
Conclusion: Health program managers should strive to provoke coordinated and sustainable community-initiated efforts to improve rodent preventive and control measures. Strategies should be developed and implemented to promote environmental sanitation and restrict cultural practices facilitating contact with rodents or infected persons.

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Backgrounds: This study aimed to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of inactive HBV chronic carriers at the gastroenterology department of the university teaching hospital Yalgado Ouedraogo.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2014 by employing a prospective data collection method. It was a census of all cases meeting the eligibility criteria. All patients with chronic viral hepatitis B (VHB) and ≥15 years of age and presenting the following signs were included in this study: positive result on hepatitis B surface antigen test for at least 6 months, normal levels of alanine amino-transferase for at least one year, positive anti-HBe antibodies, negative HBeAg, and viral DNA < 20,000 IU/mL.
Findings: The mean age of patients was 35 years, and the mean duration of HBsAg carriage was 6 years. The physical examination was normal in all participants. Ultrasound exam was normal in 150 (92.6%) participants and showed a fatty liver in 12 (7.4%) participants. Overall 4.4% of participants developed severe fibrosis, and no patient developed cirrhosis. The main indications for drug treatment included the existence of a family history of hepatocellular carcinoma (36.7%), the presence of active hepatitis (33.3%), and the progression of the fibrosis (30%).
Conclusion: This study confirms the importance of close follow up of HBV-infected patients to dramatically reduce the risk of developing complications such as cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma.

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The New World insect species Frankliniella minuta (Moulton, 1907) is reported from Asia for the first time. This is a member of the Order Thysanoptera and is placed in the subfamily Thripinae of the Thripidae. A total of 45 female and 14 male adults were found on Tridax procumbens (Asteraceae) at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) in Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia. Both sexes were taken from the capitula of T. procumbens. The potential threat of this species to the horticultural industry is inconclusive, but the discovery will alert horticulturalists and quarantine entomologists to possible invasion pathways. Diagnostic characters, relevant figures and a key to Frankliniella species in Malaysia are provided.

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Chlorophyll fluorescence was studied as a rapid technique to detect weight loss of table grape cultivars "Thompson and Flame seedless" under air storage conditions (20°C) and in a 0ºC cold room. Grape clumps (ca. 1kg) were divided into 12 groups (six for each cul-tivar) and initial fresh weight, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, pH and color values were recorded. Three groups were placed inside ventilated baskets with a HarvestWatch sensor facing down on the grapes and placed in a 20ºC room in front of a forced air fan. These samples were used to generate continuous recording of F-α. The other groups were handled in a similar manner and were used to generate weight loss. The control treat-ments were held in a 0ºC cold room and constantly measured by a HarvestWatch sensor. F-α (F0) ratio curve for Thompson generally declined over times, and the rate of reduction was maximal between days 1 and 6 which is equal to ca. 20 percent in weight loss. The re-sponse for Flame grapes was almost the same as for the Thompson cultivar. There were good relationships between F-α values and weight loss values for both cultivars. From these relationships it appears that, for both cultivars, at about 20% weight loss (equal to 0.8 weight loss ratio), the F-α value stopped its decline. The other fruit quality such as SSC, TA, pH and color value indicated that the drying treatment affected these responses, compared with the fruit in the control treatment. Our results indicated that chlorophyll fluorescence techniques can detect weight loss in grapes after harvest, and thus has a po-tential as a rapid and non-destructive method for monitoring fruit weight loss and senes-cence in grape during storage.

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Community service learning (CSL) has been regarded as a pedagogical tool which provides students with opportunities to participate in a service activity to meet social needs and simultaneously gain benefits for themselves. There has been a tendency in the world to include CSL in higher education training programs. This study aims to investigate Vietnamese EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions of CSL and their practices of a CSL-integrated course at a university of foreign languages in central Vietnam. The study involved 61 teachers and 201 students and employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings revealed that both teachers and students showed strong support for CSL, and that the teachers, especially more experienced teachers, had more positive beliefs than the students about the five categories surveyed: perceptions of CSL, role of the school, benefits for teachers, benefits for students, and feasibility of CSL integration. Also, the participants believed that CSL was to be a tool to help students develop professionally, personally, and academically.

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Aims: This study aimed to measure the professional quality of life of healthcare workers in an urban hospital in Vietnam after the epidemic and identify the associated factors.
Instrument & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare workers in an urban hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, from July to September 2022. A total of 924 participants were recruited in the study. The Professional Quality of Life Scale for Health Workers was employed. Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for data analysis.
Findings: The mean professional quality of life score for healthcare workers was moderate. Being female was positively associated with the PS domain (r=0.7) but negatively related to STS (r=-0.9) and MD domains (r=-0.9). Living with a spouse/partner positively affected the CS domain (r=0.6). Lower education level was negatively correlated with CS and PS scores. Participants with other professionals had higher CS (r=0.9) and PS (r=1.1) scores but lower BO (r=-1.0), STS (r=-0.6), and MD scores (r=-0.6). Being staff was negatively associated with CS and PS scores. Higher working days per week were negatively correlated with CS (r=-0.4) and PS scores (r=-0.4), while a higher number of working hours per day was positively correlated with BO (r=0.2) and STS scores (r=0.1).
Conclusions: This study shows a moderate professional quality of life among Vietnamese healthcare workers after the pandemic.
 

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Contemporary literature in English language teaching shows some impacts of oral narrations on learners’ speaking competence and phonological processing. However, little research has explored the relationship between this methodological practice and young learners’ L2 reading comprehension. This paper investigates the effect which story retelling has on young English learners’comprehension of reading. The researchers employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. Forty children were chosen from two different classes of a comparable level of proficiency and assigned into two groups for a two-month treatment. The results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the reading comprehension posttest. The questionnaire and observation data also indicated that the children responded positively to story retelling and that story retelling brought about excitement in the reading class, motivated young learners to read as well as shaped young learners’ behaviours and attitudes. This study suggests using story retelling more often in L2 language programs for young learners.

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Driven by the concept of mediation, this study is set out to use sociocultrual theory as the theoretical framework to explore the mediation role of textbooks, specifically, the series Northstar in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university classes in Vietnam. Learning journals with guided questions are employed to collect data on how different aspects of English textbooks assist students’ learning in the classroom. Besides, transcripts of recorded classroom obervations are analysed to interpret how the textbooks formulate and faciliate students’ ideas related to the given tasks and generate their interaction in both the target language and the mother tongue. It is found from the students’ journals that the textbooks assist them in understanding the lesson contents and the images help them with visualizing the lessons. Besides, the students make use of the tasks/activities when practising language skills, especially the listening skill. The transcripts reveal the process in which students refer to their previous knowledge related to the topics/tasks provided in the textbooks to interact with one other. More speficially, the tasks and the ideas of other group members mediate more thoughts of the students, leading to  collective knowledge construction and task completion. From the findings, recommendations for the use of textbooks in the framework of sociocultrual theory are put forward.

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The effects of ethylene and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on sugar accumulation during storage of Malus domestica Borkh. cv. "Tsugaru" apples were evaluated. Fruit was harvested and treated with ethylene and 1-MCP at both immature and mature stages. The loss of starch content in immature "Tsugaru" fruit was observed in ethylene-treated fruit at days 7-10, and the total sugar content of all tissue zones only changed slightly following storage. The highest sugar content was of fructose, and the lowest was of sorbitol. The difference in sugar content between ethylene-treated and untreated fruit was observed only after four days of treatment. Other ripening aspects of the immature fruit, such as respiration rate and ethylene production, were not affected by ethylene and 1-MCP. In the mature fruit, the sugar content changed slightly between days 4-7 and then dropped on day 10. Ethylene treatment resulted in an increase in starch hydrolysis and also affected the ripening characteristics of the fruit. However, exogenous ethylene did not seem to induce sugar accumulation in mature "Tsugaru" fruit during storage. Therefore, this study indicates that the accumulation of sugars in the detached ‘Tsugaru’ fruit during storage seems to correlate differently with the ripening properties and starch hydrolysis, depending on fruit maturity at harvest and its storage duration.