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Permeating 18th-century French Enlightenment philosophy was a profound rationalist spirit and Enlightenment ideals. This intellectual movement emerged from efforts to disengage from organized religion and the church, asserting an unwavering faith in the boundless power of reason and scientific knowledge over the forces of theocracy and secular powers. This article delves into an analysis of the rationalist and Enlightenment elements within 18th-century French Enlightenment philosophy, aiming to claim its position as the prevailing spirit and the driving force of the Enlightenment-era. By examining these elements, we can draw both the values and limitations of this philosophical movement on the development of the history of human thought.

Background: This article pays tribute to Dr Sulley Gariba, a pioneer of global and African evaluation, by examining the growing movement of culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) and culturally responsive Indigenous evaluation (CRIE) in the Asia Pacific. Objectives: The article aims to describe initiatives to increase awareness and uptake of CRE and CRIE as well as good practice examples across the Asia Pacific. Method: A literature review was conducted guided by evaluation, CRE and CRIE experts. Results: While Western-derived evaluation practice still dominates the region, particularly in international development, there are increasing examples of CRE and CRIE in the Asia Pacific. The movement to mainstream CRE and CRIE is redressing decades of colonisation and power imbalances in the Asia Pacific and such approaches will in turn, contribute to decolonising policy and practice. Conclusion: Integrating CRE and CRIE into mainstream evaluation practice in the Asia Pacific will play a vital role in ensuring that evaluation contributes to meaningful, culturally relevant and appropriate improvements in people’s lives. Contribution: This article contributes to inter-regional awareness of, and learning about, CRE and CRIE by sharing perspectives and good practice from the Asia Pacific.

Coconut is a popular plant and is often concentrated mainly in coastal and river areas in the southern provinces of Vietnam. That is a tree with economic value and preventing erosion in river areas. Coconut tree grows very well on sandy soil with high salt tolerance, specific it is suitable for places with lots of sunshine and average rainfall as the climate in Vietnam Therefore, in Vietnam, coconuts are an abundant raw material used to produce biomass and bioenergy. This paper mainly presents the research process of applying coconut oil as a fuel to reduce environmental pollution from internal combustion engines, replacing a part of traditional fuel. Research results by experimental methods have shown that coconut oil does not need to be synthesized into biodiesel but mixed directly into diesel oil with different ratios that can be used as fuel to reduce emissions pollution, mainly soot. However, the combustion pressure of the engine tends to decrease when the proportion of coconut oil in the diesel-coconut oil mixture exceeds 20% coconut oil (20% coconut oil - 80% diesel oil).

Biofuels are interested in using alternative fuel in diesel engines because those are friendly to the environment and can be recycled. However, characteristics of chemical and physical differences compared to diesel fuel. While using the fuel injection system of an engine must be adjusted. Computational Fluid Dynamics KIVA-3V software allows simulation of the working cycle of the engine with injection pressure effect. This paper presents the results of a simulation study of B15 biofuel used on the 4CHE Yanmar diesel engine, and the fuel injection pressure was adjusted at 210, 220, 230, and 240 bar within the limits of high-pressure pump adjustment. The results showed that the soot emissions of the engine were lowest at 230 bars.

In this paper, the free vibration of the bi-dimensional functionally grated (2D-FG) size dependent nanobeams was investigated by finite element method. The material properties of 2D-FG nanobeam are assumed to vary in both axial and thickness directions by power gradation laws. The size-dependent 2D-FG nanobeam is studied on the basic of nonlocal continuum model. Based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, a finite nanobeam element is derived and employed in vibration analysis of the beam. A parametric study has been carried out to show the effect of material distribution, nonlocal effect on the natural frequencies of the beams.

his paper presents the right-left symmetry of the CS and max-min CS conditions on nonsingular rings, and generalization to nonsingular modules. We prove that a ring is right nonsingular right CS and left Utumi if and only if it is left nonsingular left CS and right Utumi. A nonsingular Utumi ring is right max (resp. right min, right max-min) CS if and only if it is left min (resp. left max, left max-min) CS. In addition, a semiprime nonsingular ring is right max-min CS with finite right uniform dimension if and only if it is left max-min CS with finite left uniform dimension.

The experiment was conducted in the field to evaluate the effect of nitrogen-contaminated irrigation methods on the growth, development, and yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and the movement of nitrogen through the cultivation layers. The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates. It was conducted in the summer season of 2022 at the rice experiment area of the Faculty of Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, with three treatments, namely: T1 (control; continuous flooding (CF) with clean water), T2 (alternate wetting and drying (AWD) with nitrogen-contaminated water), T3 (CF with nitrogen-contaminated water). Experimental results indicated that different irrigation methods with nitrogen-contaminated water affect the growth, development, and yield of rice and the movement of nitrogen in the cultivated soil layers (at 35 cm depth, 70 cm – depth, 120 cm – depth). T2 treatment was the best irrigation method for reducing the amount of water for irrigation of rice and limiting the amount of excess nitrogen on the arable soil layers, which affects the quality of shallow groundwater. The movement of nitrogen nitrates through shallow groundwater was less than that of ammonium nitrogen form, and there was no difference in nitrogencontaminated irrigation using water-saving (T2) and flooded irrigation (T3) methods and within the safe threshold (QCVN 09-MT:2015/BTNMT).

Topography is one of the important factors directly related to the distribution of wind resources, so it plays an important role in determining the layout and operation efficiency of wind power farms. In this research, we use a combination of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data to determine suitable locations for building wind turbines in complex terrain conditions. The selected region to build the analytical model is an area with many hills and mountains adjacent to the East Sea, in Thuan Nam and Ninh Phuoc districts, Ninh Thuan province. The first part, this article will provides a general method for determining the best locations for installation of wind turbines according to specific terrain conditions. Then, apply this method to build accurate 3D models for the area, the models are meshed by hexagonal elements combined with tetrahedron elements with side lengths of 200m. The results obtained from the models are the distributions of wind speed by altitude at specific locations such as mountain peaks, mountain slopes, valleys of the area pointed out. Based on these results, the locations with high and stable wind speed, suitable for wind turbine operation are suggested. In addition, the article also presents some locations where wind with high turbulence or eddy winds may appear, which may adversely affect turbine performance. Finally, the paper gives an optimal location map for a wind farm with a capacity of less than 100MW using a turbine with a 4MW capacity.

Old apartment buildings in Hanoi were built before 1954 and from around 1960 to 1994 with 1600 apartments. Due to the end of construction lifespan, components are sinking, cracking, and tilting, combined with households expanding and repairing themselves, so many buildings are seriously damaged and dangerous, needing to be renovated and rebuilt in the near future to ensure residents’ safety. This work cannot slow down any longer. From 1999 until now, despite great efforts, Hanoi has only renovated and rebuilt 19 apartments (about 1.2%). The main reason is due to conflicts between the interests of the household community and the real estate investors. Contributing to resolving the above contradiction and promoting the speed of redevelopment, this study proposes a community-led model to rebuild old apartment buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Covid-19 pandamic has caused unprecedented challenges and unpredictable fluctuations in Vietnamese economy. Production and supply chain of materials is constantly broken, while prices of energy, supplies, and raw materials have sharply increased, which has boosted construction costs and affected the medium-term public investment capital allocation plan. The regulation system on construction prices as a cost management tool has revealed inadequacies and no longer appropriate for investment projects using state capital or large-scale PPP projects, therefore no longer ensures the principles of accuracy and sufficiency. For construction investment to be effective and investment objectives to be met, it is necessary to complete the basis for the state management of costs, including the construction price system. This study examines the process of formation and management of construction prices in a number of developed economies such as the US., Germany, Poland, and Russia, analyzes and evaluates the shortcomings, and proposes solutions to improve construction price management in Vietnam.

Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) are a heterogeneous entity with -multiple clinical presentations. The incidence of CDI has significantly increased over the last 30 years with the emergence and dissemination of hypervirulent and -hyperepidemic clones which extend to the community environment. Prevention is based on reducing inappropriate antibiotic consumption, early identification of patients at risk of CDI and those who may progress to severe and/or recurrent forms. Fidaxomicin was an important therapeutic innovation and is now used as first line therapy. Oral metronidazole has no place in current therapeutic algorithms. Finally, fecal microbiota transplantation is today the treatment of choice of the 2nd recurrence. Beztoloxumab can be used in cases of ICD with a high risk of recurrence or first recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]