Artículos de revistas sobre el tema "Viet Nam Air Force"

Most of us are aware of the medical airlifts that were practiced by the United States Air Force during the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. Likewise, we read regularly of the air transport of one or more severely burned patients from the scene of an accident to the Burn Center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. But what is not generally known is the daily movement of patients who are armed forces members, or their dependents, throughout the world for the purpose of receiving sophisticated medical care, regardless of where they may be stationed.The reasons for this service are two: first, quite obviously, it is humanitarian; second, it is a way for the Air Force to maintain medical readiness for their wartime mission by exercising this system on a daily basis during peacetime. We are talking about a worldwide network whose major and minor branches sweep around the globe.Patients are air transported according to three levels of need: routine, high priority, and urgent. This article will be limited to a general description of the necessary hardware and current practices used for the urgent mission.We use three types of aircraft: the Huey helicopter for short distances; the C-9, a two-engined jet, for medium range; and the C-141, a four-engined jet, for intercontinental transport. The medical modifications to the C-9 include a built-in ramp; a nurses' station similar to that found on a hospital ward, complete with built-in drug and equipment cabinets; multiple sources for oxygen and suction; and ready communication fore and aft. Seats can be quickly removed, leaving space for litters in tiers, infant isolettes and Stryker frames.

SETTING and OBJECTIVE: Exposure to pollutants is related to the type of dwelling inhabited. Besides tobacco smoke, indoor air pollution is a significant risk factor for chronic respiratory disease (CRD). The prevalence of CRD by type of dwelling was studied in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.DESIGN: A total of 1561 people living in four type of dwellings were enrolled. Information on respiratory health, lung function, dwelling characteristics and sources of indoor pollution was obtained using a symptom and demographics questionnaire and spirometry. The two main respiratory health outcomes were clinical chronic CRD (CCRD) and chronic obstructive respiratory disease (CORD) (forced expiratory volume in 1 sec/forced vital capacity <0.7). We used binary logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, time spent at home, smoking status, certain occupational exposures, previous tuberculosis, presence of pets, rats or cockroaches at home, wall dampness, biofuel use and use of airconditioning.RESULTS: The prevalence of CCRD (24.3%) and CORD (5.3%) in the type of dwellings studied were not similar (χ2 P < 0.0001). CCRD and CORD prevalence was similar in tube houses and apartments. Compared to people living in apartments, those living in rental single rooms had a 46% higher risk of developing CCRD. The odds ratio of having CORD in people living in rental single rooms and in rural houses were respectively 4.64 (95%CI 1.97–10.5) and 2.99 (95%CI 1.21–7.37).CONCLUSION: Type of dwelling was associated with CCRD and CORD morbidity.

John Foster Dulles, then Secretary of State under the presidency of Eisenhower, once said there are two ways to conquer: by the clash of arms or through the economic control. The motto of the former WWII British SBS Commandos (Special Boat Service)used to be "United we conquer" and the one from the SAS (Special Air Service) used to be "Who dare win ", both of these commando troops or irregulars were in tactical competition framed by strategic cooperation where the light forces overcame heavier and overnumbering forces. Unity and daringness seem to be their secret weapon, but neither so secret nor so exclusive, comparatively to the recipe of tactical competition framed by strategic co-operation and coordination. "Superior numbers on the battlefield are an undoubted advantage, but skill, better organization, and training, and above all a firmer determination in all ranks to conquer at any cost, are the chief factors of success. Half-hearted measures never attain success in war and lack of determination is the most fruitful source of defeat" wrote Anthony Wilden1. The Chinese "Chii" (close to the latin "anima": heart, mind, courage) may be translated to "determination" and not by "energy" as it uses to be with the western obsession and compulsion of matter, energy and big power at the expense of high determination or "Tai Chi". The Chinese "Lii" - though its primal senses are "Law", "Rationality" and "Reason", "Rite" and "Harmony" - may be viewed as "Skill". Here, Asia is the Far East and mainly Japan, the "mother tiger" and her "baby tigers ", namely Korea (South), Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. The ride of the dragon is oriented elsewhere and devastated Viet Nam (the smaller dragon) - by its independence wars and communist insulation and isolation - is not yet in the game. Strategy is both an organizational level of action and a type of action based on disguise, deception, uncertainty, flexibility and adaptation.

Aerosol pH is an important parameter that affects air quality, and the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, the lack of such data was reported in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. In this study, we estimated the aerosol pH in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) collected in HCMC, Vietnam using the thermodynamic equilibrium models (E-AIM Extended Aerosol Inorganics Model and ISORROPIA-II), and the phase partitioning of ammonia. Aerosol pHs estimated by different methods were 1.7 – 2.9. Good correlations between the phase-partitioning approach and models in predicting the aerosol pH were observed with R2 from 0.77 to 0.89, suggesting that the assumption of equilibrium is valid at the HCMC site.

Aiming to clarify the environmental impact caused by transportation activities in sectors of Vietnam, this study uses the Input-Output (IO) model to assess energy consumptions and air emissions from railway, road traffic, waterway, transport service as well as aviation vehicles in 2016. The data is based on the 2012 IO table updated for 2016. All sectors of the original IO table are aggregated into 38 sectors where the transport service sectors are kept intact for the deeper analysis. The energy consumptions of transport activities are determined based on the net contribution rate of fuels to each product/service sector and the calorific value of each fuel type. Then multiplying with the corresponding emission factors of CO2, NOx and SO2, the respective emissions from above sectors are calculated. The results show the contribution of transport activities in total emissions of each product/service sector and compare these numbers among all the sectors. Additionally, the study evidences that among transportation service sectors, the road traffic occupies the highest rate in term of energy consumptions and air emissions as well.

Although cooling storage system used broadly in the world, it is rarely applied in Viet Nam due to their high import expense that increase the initial cost. For that reason, in this article, we study on theories, and experiments about cooling storage sphere with expect to create the base for populising it in our country. That will contribute the efficiency of energy using to our country.

In this paper we study the impact of relevant factors, such as individual characteristics, wages, living areas, on individual migration decisions. We have been using data from Labor Force Survey 2014 from Genaral Statistics Office of Vietnam (LFS 2014). We are going to evaluate how these above factors affect the status of "short-term migration" and "long-term migration" compared to "nonmigration". The well-known model in this field is the multinomial logistic model. However, the multinomial logistic model does not control the latent factors that have different effects on migration decision. This would result that the estimated coefficients of the variables would no longer be reliable (biased estimates due to lack of important variables). Hence, we have selected a multilevel multinomial logistic model. The levels we choose to control latent factors are province and region levels. As the results, the potential factors of different provinces and regions show different impacts on migration decisions. To sum up, a multilevel multinomial logistic model gives more reliable estimates, so it is more suitable for migration analysis compared to conventional multinomial logistic model.

The present study was undertaken to formulate nutritious soup mix from chicken and locally available vegetables in Viet Nam. The drying was done by using a cabinet dryer (for vegetables) at a constant air flow rate and temperature or freeze-drier (for chicken) at varying times. The studies were carried out by mixing ingredients into 4 formulas. The chemical and physical characteristics of the product were analysed. The total energy, energy balance in terms of the major sources of energy, i.e. carbohydrate, protein and fat were calculated. In addition, the percentage of daily value (% DV) was calculated and the Nutrition facts of soup were established. Among various recipes, the mixed soup containing 9.2% freeze-dried chicken, 23.7% full cream powder, 28.8% potato starch, 19.8% of vegetables powder (which include 3.2% pumpkin, 3.8% tomato, 3.8% carrot, 9% potato), 2.4% seaweed, 11.4% seasoning and 2.8% sugar was the best among the four mixtures evaluated. During the storage period of 5 months, the moisture content, water activity and color of the dried soup mixture have changed but not significantly. The total colony forming units of soup mix (CFU/g) was below the recommended level (Vietnamese Standard - QCVN 11-4:2012/BYT).

In this paper, three machine learning models have been applied to predict and fill in the missing monitoring data of air quality for Gia Lam and Nha Trang stations in Hanoi and Khanh Hoa respectively, including Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Support Vector Regression (SVR). Two air pollutants being NO2 and PM10 were selected for this study. The experimental results showed that the performance of all three studied models is better than that of some traditional approaches, including Multiple Linear Regression (LR) and Spline interpolation. Besides that, ARMA, ANN and SVR can capture the fluctuation of concentrations of the selected pollutants. These results indicated that the machine learning is a feasible approach to deal with the missing of data which is one of the biggest problems of air quality monitoring stations in Viet Nam.

The production of packaging goods for cement is one of the most important industries, contributing to income of many workers. Production activities, however, cause air pollution and health risk. The study was conducted to assess air quality and health risks of workers through air quality data and interviewing employees from 2016-2017 at a packaging production factory, Cantho city, Vietnam. The findings indicated that temperature and noise exceeded the national technical regulations (QCVN 22-26: 2016/TT-BYT) while the humidity, wind speed, light, respirable particles, toxic gases (benzene, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK)) were in accordance with the national standards for occupational health and safety (Decision 3733/2002/QĐ-BYT). However, health risk assessment showed that long-term exposure in this factory would result in severe impact on health of workers due to indoor air pollution. The non-cancer risk caused by benzene, toluene and MEK for workers in the working sections such as printing, film coating, weaving, spinning and pasting was expected to cause serious impact on workers’ health. The cancer risk (benzene) index was in the range of 1.3 x 10-5 to 7.7 x 10-4 and averaged at 3.3 x 10-4. The study clearly showed that benzene greatly contributes to serious workers’ health effects. Appropriate protection measures such as treatment of air pollutants, regular health check, wearing protective clothes should be implemented to mitigate impact of indoor air pollution at the factory. More importantly, it is necessary to reconsider the standard values of benzene, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone to ensure health of workers. Công nghiệp sản xuất bao bì xi măng thuộc lĩnh vực ngành xây dựng là một trong những ngành công nghiệp quan trọng, đã góp phần mang lại nguồn thu nhập cho nhiều người lao động. Tuy nhiên hoạt động sản xuất cũng gây ra những vấn đề về ô nhiễm môi trường không khí và rủi ro sức khỏe. Nghiên cứu được thực hiện nhằm đánh giá mức độ ô nhiễm môi trường không khí và đánh giá rủi ro sức khỏe của công nhân thông qua số liệu chất lượng môi trường không khí và phỏng vấn trực tiếp người lao động trong khoảng thời gian từ 2016 - 2017. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy nhiệt độ, tiếng ồn vượt qui chuẩn cho phép (QCVN 22-26:2016/TT-BYT) trong khi độ ẩm, tốc độ gió, ánh sáng, bụi hô hấp, hơi khí độc (Benzen, toluen, methyl ethyl ketone) đạt chuẩn cho phép theo tiêu chuẩn vệ sinh an toàn lao động (QĐ 3733/2002/QĐ-BYT). Tuy nhiên, kết quả đánh giá rủi ro sức khỏe cho thấy công nhân làm việc lâu dài sẽ bị ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng đến sức khỏe do ô nhiễm không khí. Rủi ro không gây ung thư do benzene, toluene và MEK gây ra đối với công nhân ở từng khu vực có thể gây ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng đến sức khỏe công nhân làm việc ở các khu vực sản xuất như in, tráng màng, dệt, kéo sợi và dán. Benzene gây rủi ro ung thư với xác suất từ 1 đến 7 người trong 10.000 người trong quá trình làm việc lâu dài tại nhà máy. Nghiên cứu cho thấy benzene đóng góp rất lớn vào khả năng gây ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng đến sức khỏe công nhân. Môi trường không khí bên trong nhà máy cần được cải thiện hơn nữa đồng thời tuyên truyền nâng cao ý thức công nhân thực hiện nghiêm túc bảo hộ lao động, tổ chức khám sức khỏe định kỳ cho công nhân. Quan trọng hơn là cần điều chỉnh lại các giá trị qui chuẩn để đảm bảo an toàn sức khỏe cho công nhân đang làm việc tại những nơi có sự hiện diện của khí độc như benzene, toluen, methyl ethyl ketone.

Finding alternative energy sources for fossil fuels was a global matter of concern, especially in developing countries. Rice husk, an abundant biomass in Viet Nam, was used to partially replace fossil fuels by gasification process. The study was conducted on the pilot plant fixed bed up-draft gasifier with two kind of gasification agents, pure air and air-steam mixture. Mathematical modeling and computer simulations were also used to describe and optimize the gasification processes. Mathematical modeling was based on Computational Fluid Dynamics method and simulation was carried by using Ansys Fluent software. Changes in outlet composition of syngas components (CO, CO2, CH4, H2O, H2) and temperature of process, in relation with ratio of steam in gasification agents, were presented. Obtained results indicated concentration of CH4, H2 in outlet was increased significantly when using air-steam gasification agents than pure air. The discrepancies among the gasification agents were determined to improve the actual process.

Introduction: Continuous monitoring provides real-time data which is helpful for measuring air quality; however, these systems are often very expensive, especially for developing countries such as Vietnam. The use of low-cost sensors for monitoring air pollution is a new approach in Vietnam and this study assesses the utility of low-cost, light-scattering-based, particulate sensors for measuring PM2.5 concentrations in Ho Chi Minh City. Methods: The low-cost sensors were compared with both a Beta attenuation monitor (BAM) reference method and a gravimetric method during the rainy season period of October to December 2018. Results: The results showed that there was a very strong correlation between two low-cost sensors (R = 0.97, slope = 1.0), and that the sensor precision varied from 0 to 21.4% with a mean of 3.1%. Both one-minute averaged data and one-hour averaged data showed similar correlations between sensors and BAM (R2 = 0.62 and 0.69, respectively), while 24-hour averaged data showed excellent agreement (R2 = 0.95, slope = 1.05). In addition, we also found a strong correlation between those instruments and a gravimetric method using 24-hour averaged data. A linear regression was used to calibrate the 24-hour averaged sensor data and, once calibrated, the bias dropped to zero. Conclusion: These results show that low-cost sensors can be used for daily measurements of PM2.5 concentrations in Ho Chi Minh City. The effect of air conditions, such as temperature and humidity, should be conducted. Moreover, technical methods to improve time resolution of lowcost sensors need to be developed and applied in order to provide real-time measurements at an inexpensive cost.

Glyphosate (C3H8NO3P) is a highly effective broad-spectrum, post-emergence, non- selective organophosphate herbicide and commonly applied in Viet Nam. The removal of glyphosate in aqueous solution has been investigated by electro - fenton process which is based on the continuous production of ●OH radicals by reaction between Fe2+ catalyst and H2O2 electrochemical generated on cathode. The carbon felt (60 cm2) and Pt gauze (45 cm2) were used as cathode and anode of the electro-fenton system, successively. Monitoring the total organic carbon (TOC) during the electrolysis proved that pH, current intensity, electrolysis time and catalyst concentration influenced the glyphosate mineralization efficiency. At the optimal conditions: [Fe2+] = 0.1 mM; pH = 3; [Na2SO4] = 0.05M ; I = 0.5A and the compressed air was bubbled through the solutions, the experiment results showed that 84.4 % Glyphosate was mineralized to CO2, H2O and inorganic acid after 50 min.

The work presents the main characteristics of the most efficient solar energy technologies, including in small distributed energy. The use of hybrid technologies based on the use of solar radiation is justified. The prospects of these facilities in one of the provinces of the Republic of Viet Nam (Ninh Tuan), which is characterized by the highest intensity of solar radiation, have been determined. The results of calculation of the station with capacity of 4.6 MW, operating on the basis of use of GTU without use of solar energy and its use for heating of air entering the combustion chamber, are presented. The energy-saving effect of the introduction of hybrid technologies is due to the increase in the efficiency of the station by 6% to 10% depending on the time of year and the characteristic intensity of solar radiation and ambient temperature. A significant decrease in the consumption of fuel (natural gas) used in the gas turbine plant has been detected.

The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to serious air pollution problems in Viet Nam. Many studies have investigated in air quality monitoring and treatment, in order to determine the average concentrations of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely used as adsorbent in environmental treatment, especially for VOCs. This paper aims to determine the adsorption capacity of multiwalled carbon nanotubes for removal of BTEX from air samples. In preliminary study, the effects of various parameters during adsorption experiments were monitored such as flow rate, temperature and BTEX concentrations in air samples. The equipment for BTEX removal was developed by our research team consisting of filter columns, air sample bags, adsorption cartridge. The air samples containing BTEX were conducted directly through a cartridge packed with adsorbent. The adsorption experiments were carried out under various operating conditions such as temperature (30 - 40°C), gas concentration (0,57 - 4,77 mg/L) and the gas flow rate (10 - 90 mL/min). In addition, isotherm studies of CNTs for BTEX removal were achieved by using Langmuir and Freundlich models. The results showed that the experimental parameters were optimized at a flow rate of 30 mL/min and an ambient temperature at 30°C. The adsorption capacity of CNTs increased proportionally with BTEX concentrations. The specific affinity of CNTs for BTEX from air samples was in order of X > E > T > B. The experimental isotherm data were well-fit with the Langmuir model for Benzene and Xylene removal, and the Freundlich model for Toluene and Ethylbenzene adsorption. The CNTs presented highly potential application for BTEX adsorption thanks to their microporous structure and high surface area.

Abstract Snow plays a major role in land–atmosphere interactions, but strong spatial heterogeneity in snow depth (SD) and snow water equivalent (SWE) makes it challenging to evaluate gridded snow quantities using in situ measurements. First, a new method is developed to upscale point measurements into gridded datasets that is superior to other tested methods. It is then utilized to generate daily SD and SWE datasets for water years 2012–14 using measurements from two networks (COOP and SNOTEL) in the United States. These datasets are used to evaluate daily SD and SWE initializations in NCEP global forecasting models (GFS and CFSv2, both on 0.5° × 0.5° grids) and regional models (NAM on 12 km × 12 km grids and RAP on 13 km × 13 km grids) across eight 2° × 2° boxes. Initialized SD from three models (GFS, CFSv2, and NAM) that utilize Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) SD data for initialization is 77% below the area-averaged values, on average. RAP initializations, which cycle snow instead of using the AFWA SD, underestimate SD to a lesser degree. Compared with SD errors, SWE errors from GFS, CFSv2, and NAM are larger because of the application of unrealistically low and globally constant snow densities. Furthermore, the widely used daily gridded SD data produced by the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) are also found to underestimate SD (similar to GFS, CFSv2, and NAM), but are worse than RAP. These results suggest an urgent need to improve SD and SWE initializations in these operational models.

Abstract. Ambient air pollution from ozone and fine particulate matter is associated with premature mortality. As emissions from one continent influence air quality over others, changes in emissions can also influence human health on other continents. We estimate global air-pollution-related premature mortality from exposure to PM2.5 and ozone and the avoided deaths due to 20 % anthropogenic emission reductions from six source regions, North America (NAM), Europe (EUR), South Asia (SAS), East Asia (EAS), Russia–Belarus–Ukraine (RBU), and the Middle East (MDE), three global emission sectors, power and industry (PIN), ground transportation (TRN), and residential (RES), and one global domain (GLO), using an ensemble of global chemical transport model simulations coordinated by the second phase of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants (TF HTAP2), and epidemiologically derived concentration response functions. We build on results from previous studies of TF HTAP by using improved atmospheric models driven by new estimates of 2010 anthropogenic emissions (excluding methane), with more source and receptor regions, new consideration of source sector impacts, and new epidemiological mortality functions. We estimate 290 000 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 30 000, 600 000) premature O3-related deaths and 2.8 million (0.5 million, 4.6 million) PM2.5-related premature deaths globally for the baseline year 2010. While 20 % emission reductions from one region generally lead to more avoided deaths within the source region than outside, reducing emissions from MDE and RBU can avoid more O3-related deaths outside of these regions than within, and reducing MDE emissions also avoids more PM2.5-related deaths outside of MDE than within. Our findings that most avoided O3-related deaths from emission reductions in NAM and EUR occur outside of those regions contrast with those of previous studies, while estimates of PM2.5-related deaths from NAM, EUR, SAS, and EAS emission reductions agree well. In addition, EUR, MDE, and RBU have more avoided O3-related deaths from reducing foreign emissions than from domestic reductions. For six regional emission reductions, the total avoided extra-regional mortality is estimated as 6000 (−3400, 15 500) deaths per year and 25 100 (8200, 35 800) deaths per year through changes in O3 and PM2.5, respectively. Interregional transport of air pollutants leads to more deaths through changes in PM2.5 than in O3, even though O3 is transported more on interregional scales, since PM2.5 has a stronger influence on mortality. For NAM and EUR, our estimates of avoided mortality from regional and extra-regional emission reductions are comparable to those estimated by regional models for these same experiments. In sectoral emission reductions, TRN emissions account for the greatest fraction (26–53 % of global emission reduction) of O3-related premature deaths in most regions, in agreement with previous studies, except for EAS (58 %) and RBU (38 %) where PIN emissions dominate. In contrast, PIN emission reductions have the greatest fraction (38–78 % of global emission reduction) of PM2.5-related deaths in most regions, except for SAS (45 %) where RES emission dominates, which differs with previous studies in which RES emissions dominate global health impacts. The spread of air pollutant concentration changes across models contributes most to the overall uncertainty in estimated avoided deaths, highlighting the uncertainty in results based on a single model. Despite uncertainties, the health benefits of reduced intercontinental air pollution transport suggest that international cooperation may be desirable to mitigate pollution transported over long distances.

Abstract. Black carbon (BC) emissions play an important role in regional climate change in the Arctic. It is necessary to pay attention to the impact of long-range transport from regions outside the Arctic as BC emissions from local sources in the Arctic were relatively small. The task force Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution Phase 2 (HTAP2) set up a series of simulation scenarios to investigate the response of BC in a given region to different source regions. This study investigated the responses of Arctic BC concentrations and surface temperature to 20 % anthropogenic emission reductions from six regions in 2010 within the framework of HTAP2 based on ensemble modeling results. Emission reductions from East Asia (EAS) had the most (monthly contributions: 0.2–1.5 ng m−3) significant impact on the Arctic near-surface BC concentrations, while the monthly contributions from Europe (EUR), Middle East (MDE), North America (NAM), Russia–Belarus–Ukraine (RBU), and South Asia (SAS) were 0.2–1.0, 0.001–0.01, 0.1–0.3, 0.1–0.7, and 0.0–0.2 ng m−3, respectively. The responses of the vertical profiles of the Arctic BC to the six regions were found to be different due to multiple transport pathways. Emission reductions from NAM, RBU, EUR, and EAS mainly influenced the BC concentrations in the low troposphere of the Arctic, while most of the BC in the upper troposphere of the Arctic derived from SAS. The response of the Arctic BC to emission reductions in six source regions became less significant with the increase in the latitude. The benefit of BC emission reductions in terms of slowing down surface warming in the Arctic was evaluated by using absolute regional temperature change potential (ARTP). Compared to the response of global temperature to BC emission reductions, the response of Arctic temperature was substantially more sensitive, highlighting the need for curbing global BC emissions.

Vietnam is facing big challenges in terms of environmental pollution caused by natural agents and anthropogenic activities. Environmental pollution in Vietnam is present in air, water and soil environments in many areas with contaminants including total suspended particles (TSP), organic substances, heavy metals, nutrients including ammonium, phosphate exceeding the allowable values of national standard. One of the most important causes of environmental pollution is the legal powers of environmental protection organizations, especially the environmental police force, not strong enough. In addition, the awareness of the people about environmental protection is very weak. Improving the system of laws on environmental protection, including sanctions that are strong enough to prevent violations, is of the most importance to enhance the effectiveness of environmental management and protection in Vietnam. On the other hand, educating people and even school children about environmental protection is a very meaningful activity to reduce the pressures and challenges of environmental management and protection in Vietnam. Việt Nam đang phải đối mặt với những thách lớn về ô nhiễm môi trường gây ra bởi các tác nhân tự nhiên và các hoạt động của con người. Ô nhiễm môi trường ở Việt Nam biểu hiện ở cả môi trường không khí, nước và đất tại nhiều khu vực với hàm lượng các chất ô nhiễm gồm bui thô TSP. các chất hữu cơ, kim loại nặng, các chất dinh dưỡng gồm amoni, phosphat vượt quá tiêu chuẩn cho phép. Một trong những nguyên nhân quan trọng gây ô nhiễm môi trường là sức mạnh pháp lý của các cơ quan tổ chức hoạt động trong lĩnh vực môi trường, đặc biệt là lực lượng cảnh sát môi trường, chưa đủ mạnh. Bên cạnh đó, ý thức của người dân về giữ gìn bảo vệ môi trường còn rất yếu. Việc hoàn thiện hệ thống luật pháp về bảo vệ môi trường bao gồm các chế tài đủ mạnh để ngăn chặn các vi phạm là quan trọng hàng đầu nhằm tăng cường hiệu quả quản lý và bảo vệ môi trường ở Việt Nam. Mặt khác, giáo dục tuyên truyền ý thức cho người dân và thậm chí các học sinh trong trường học về giữ gìn bảo vệ môi trường là hoạt động rất ý nghĩa nhằm giảm bớt các áp lực và thách thức trong quản lý và bảo vệ môi trường ở Việt Nam.

Stream sediments from the upper Chi River basin, including Chi and Nam Phong sub-watershed, are applicable to be a source of raw materials to produce fired clay bricks. The sampling locations of clay materials are generally found along the river terrace where are covering three different regions (upper-, mid-and lower sub-watershed) nearby brickyards. Quartz is the main mineral of all samples. Moreover, mainly clay mineral groups consist of mica, kaolinite, and chlorite group composing totally around 5%. Other mineral compositions, such as carbonate, evaporite, corundum, hematite and pyrolusite are normally found both in fine stream sediments and fired clay bricks. Additional minerals in fired bricks are forsterite, zircon and mullite group which are less than 0.2%. Their strength in submersion test expressed in the air-dried to pure water both 1 day and 5 days is revealed that their strength and strain intend to increase with the submersed brick. Besides, prism compressive strength decreases in half related to a fired brick unit. Their impact resistances are significantly distinctive by mineral composition of clay mineral group and silica. The compressive strength of air-dried fired brick at the ultimate stress and strain corresponding by time in water absorption test show that water filled in void or pore can enhance their strength and strain. Thus, fired clay bricks are capable to resist compressive force than the normal condition.

Ruang udara nasional negara-negara anggota ASEAN telah ditetapkan menjadi langit terbuka bagi penerbangan diantara sejak tahun 2010. Penerapan kebijakan open sky tersebut tidak seluruhnya dapat dilakukan serempak karena terkait dengan masalah regulasi, penyiapan dan kesiapan infrastruktur karena terkait dengan kondisi ekonomi masing-masing negara dan teknis penerbangan. Kebijakan open sky walau sarat dengan masalah regulasi dan kerjasama internasional dalam bidang bisnis dan ekonomi tetap harus diterapkan. Hal tersebut terkait dengan globalisasi dan peningkatan kesejahteraan regional di Asia Tenggara. Saat ini masalah tersebut dilakukan melalui perjanjian bilateral dan multilateral diantara negara-diantara anggota, termasuk Indonesia, Malaysia dan Vietnam. Praktik penerapan kebijakan open sky terbukti dapat mengembangkan industri penerbangan. Permasalahan ini diteliti dengan menerapkan metodologi penelitian analisis deskriptif dan yuridis normatif. Untuk membahas permasalahan diterapkan teori kedaulatan, teori kebijakan publik dan teori kerjasama internasional agar permasalahan terungkap dengan tuntas. Kata kunci: ASEAN, open sky, industri penerbangan Abstract The national air space of the countries members of ASEAN had been set to be open skies for flights between them since the year 2010. The application of the open sky policy is not entirely can be performed synchronously because of regulatory issues, related to the preparation and readiness infrastructure because economic conditions associated with each country and technical flight. The open sky policy although laden with regulatory issues and international cooperation in the field of business and economy should still be applied. It is associated with globalization and increased regional prosperity in Southeast Asia. Currently the issue is done through bilateral and multilateral agreements between the countries among the members, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam. Practice of application of the open sky policy proved to be able to develop the aviation industry. This issue was examined by applying research methodology descriptive and normative juridical analysis. The problem is discussed by implementing the theory of sovereignty, public policy and the theory of international cooperation so that the problems unfold completely. Keywords: ASEAN, open sky, aviation industry

Progress in semiconductor technologies have been so consequent these last years that theoretical limits of silicon, speci cally in the eld of high power, high voltage and high temperature have been achieved. At the same time, research on other semiconductors, and es- pecially wide bandgap semiconductors have allowed to fabricate various power devices reliable and performant enough to design high eciency level converters in order to match applications requirements. Among these wide bandgap materials, SiC is the most advanced from a techno- logical point of view: Schottky diodes are already commercially available since 2001, JFET and MOSFET will be versy soon. SiC-based switches Inverter eciency bene ts have been quite established. Considering GaN alternative technology, its driving force was mostly blue led for optical drive or lighting. Although the GaN developments mainly focused for the last decade on optoelectronics and radio frequency, their properties were recently explored to design devices suitable for high power and high eciency applications. As inferred from various studies, due to their superior material properties, diamond and GaN should be even better than SiC, silicon (or SOI) being already closed to its theoretical limits. Even if the diamond maturity is still far away from GaN and SiC, laboratory results are encouraging speci cally for very high voltage devices. Apart from packaging considerations, SiC, GaN and Diamond o ers a great margin of progress. The new power devices o er high voltage and low on-resistance that enable important reduction in energy consumption in nal applications. Applications for wide bandgap materials are the direction of high voltage but also high temperature. As for silicon technology, WBG-ICs are under development to take full bene ts of power and drive integration for high temperature applications.

Can Gio mangrove forest (CGM) is located downstream of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), situated between an estuarine system of Dong Nai - Sai Gon river and a part of Vam Co river. The CGM is the largest restored mangrove forest in Vietnam and the UNESCO’s Mangrove Biosphere Reserve. The CGM has been gradually facing to numeric challenges of global climate change, environmental degradation and socio-economic development for the last decades. To evaluate sediment quality in the CGM, we collected 13 cores to analyze for sediment grain size, organic matter content, and trace element concentration of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn. Results showed that trace element concentrations ranged from uncontaminated (Cd, Cu, and Zn) to very minor contaminated (Cr, Ni, and Pb). The concentrations were gradually influenced by suspended particle size and the mangrove plants.ReferencesAnh M.T., Chi D.H., Vinh N.N., Loan T.T., Triet L.M., Slootenb K.B.-V., Tarradellas J., 2003. Micropollutants in the sediment of Sai Gon – Dong Nai rivers: Situation and ecological risks. Chimia International Journal for Chemistry, 57, 09(0009–4293), 537–541.Baruddin N.A., Shazili N.A., Pradit S., 2017. Sequential extraction analysis of heavy metals in relation to bioaccumulation in mangroves, Rhizophora mucronata from Kelantan delta, Malaysia. AACL Bioflux, 10(2), 172-181. Retrieved from www.bioflux.com/aacl.Bravard J.-P., Goichot M., Tronchere H., 2014. An assessment of sediment transport processes in the lower Mekong river based on deposit grain size, the CM technique and flow energy data. Geomorphology, 207, 174-189.Cang L.T., Thanh N.C. 2008. Importing and exporting sediment to and from mangrove forest at Dong Trang estuary, Can Gio district, Ho Chi Minh city. Science & Technology Development, 11(04), 12-18.Carignan J., Hild P., Mevelle G., Morel J., Yeghicheyan D., 2001. Routine analyses of trace elements in geological samples using flow injection and low-pressure on-line liquid chromatography coupled to ICP-MS: A study of geochemical reference materials BR, DR-N, UB-N, AN-G and GH. The Journal of Geo standard and Geoanalysis, 187-198.Carlson P.R., Yarbro L.A., Zimmermann C.F., Montgomery J.R., 1983. Pore water chemistry of an overwash mangrove island. Academy Symposium: Future of the Indian River System, 46(3/4), 239-249. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24320336.Chatterjee M., Canário J., Sarkar S.K., Branco V., Godhantaraman N., Bhattacharya B.D., Bhattacharya A., 2012. Biogeochemistry of mercury and methylmercury in sediment cores from Sundarban mangrove wetland, India—a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Environ Monit Assess, 184, 5239–5254.Claudia R., Huy N.V., 2004. Water allocation policies for the Dong Nai river basin in Viet Nam: An integrated perspective. EPTD Discussion Paper, 127, 01-52.Folk R.L., Ward W.C., 1957. Brazos River bar: A study in the significance of grain size parameters. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 27(1), 3-26.Furukawaa K., Wolanski E., Mueller H., 1997. Currents and sediment transport in mangrove forests. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 44, 301-310.Hai H.Q., Tuyen N.N., 2011. Coastal Erosion of Can Gio district Ho Chi Minh City due to the global climate change. The journal of development of technology and science, 14, 17-28.HCM SO S.O., 2015. Annual statistic data in 2015 for HCM city. Ho Chi Minh city: Statistic office of HCM city.HCMC, 2017. Decision No. 3901 on approving the areas of forest and land in HCM city in 2016. Ho Chi Minh: The people's committee of HCM city.Herut B., Sandler A., 2006. Normalization methods for pollutants in marine sediments: review and recommendations for the Mediterranean. Haifa 31080: Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research: IOLR Report H18/2006.Hong P.N., San H.T., 1993. Mangroves of Vietnam: Chapter VI Human impacts on the mangrove ecosystem. Bangkok 10501: IUCN - The International Union for Conservation of Nature, ISBN: 2-8317-0166-x.Hubner R., Astin K.B., Herbert R.J., 2009. Comparison of sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for the assessment of metal contamination in marine and estuarine environments. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 11, 713–722.IAEA, 2003. Collection and preparation of bottom sediment samples for analysis of radionuclides and trace elements. Vienna, Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA-TECDOC-1360, ISBN 92–0–109003–X.Jingchun L., Chongling Y., Ruifeng Z., Haoliang L., Guangqiu Q., 2008. Speciation changes of Cd in mangrove (Kandelia Candel L.) rhizosphere sediments. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol, 231-236. Doi:10.1007/s00128-007-9351-z.Kalaivanan R., Jayaprakash M., Nethaji S., Arya V., Giridharan L., 2017. Geochemistry of Core Sediments from Tropical Mangrove Region of Tamil Nadu: Implications on Trace Metals. Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change, ISSN: 2157-7617., 8(1.1000385), 1-10. Doi:10.4172/2157-7617.1000385.Kathiresan K., Saravanakumar K., Mullai P., 2014. Bioaccumulation of trace elements by Avicennia marina. Journal of Coastal Life Medicine, 2(11), 888-894.Kitazawa T., Nakagawa T., Hashimoto T., Tateishi M., 2006. Stratigraphy and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of a Quaternary sequence along the Dong Nai River, southern Vietnam. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 27, 788–804.Lacerda L.D., 1998. Trace metals of biogeochemistry and diffuse pollution in mangrove (M. Vannucci, Ed.) Mangrove ecosystem occassional papers (ISSN: 0919-1348), 2, 1-72.Laura H., Probsta A., Probsta J.L., Ulrich E., 2003. Heavy metal distribution in some French forest soils: evidence for atmospheric contamination. The Science of Total Environment, 195-210.Li R., Li R., Chai M., Shen X., Xu H., Qiu G., 2015. Heavy metal contamination and ecological risk in Futian mangrove forest sediment in Shenzhen Bay, South China. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 101, 448–456.Long E., Morgan L.G., 1990. The potential for biological effects of sediment-sorted contaminants tested in the national status and trends program. Seattle, Washington: NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS OMA 52.Long E.R., Field L.J., MacDonald D.D., 1998. Predicting toxicity in marine sediments with numerical sediment quality guidelines. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 17, 714–727. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/etc.5620170428/abstract;jsessionid=C5264A1AD0.7ACCA9B4EF9A088BE2EDE9.f04t04Long E.R., MacDonald D.D., Smith S.L., Calder F.D., 1995. Incidence of adverse biological effects within ranges of chemical concentration in marine and estuarine sediments. Environmental management, 19, 81-97.Maiti S.K., Chowdhury A., 2013. Effects of Anthropogenic Pollution on Mangrove Biodiversity: A Review. Journal of Environmental Protection, 4, 1428-1434.Marchand C., Allenbach M., Lallier-Verges E., 2011. Relation between heavy metal distribution and organic matter cycling in mangrove sediments (Conception Bay, New Caledonia). Geoderma, Elsevier, 160 (3-4), 444-456.Mohd F.N., Nor R.H., 2010. Heavy metal concentrations in an important mangrove species, Sonneratia caseolaris, in Peninsular Malaysia. Environment Asia, 3, 50-53.Muller G., 1979. Schwermetalle in den Sedimenten des Rheins - Veränderungen seit 1971. Umschau, 778-783.Nam V.N., 2007. Restoration of Can Gio mangrove forest: Its structure and function in comparison between the ecosytems of plantion and nature mangrove forest. Workshop on the thesis between Germany and Vietnam.Nickerson N.H., Thibodeau F.R., 1985. Association between pore water sulfide concentrations and the distribution of mangroves. Biogeochemistry, 1, 183-192.Ong Che R.G., 1999. Concentration of 7 Heavy Metals in Sediments and Mangrove Root Samples from Mai Po, Hong Kong. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 39, 269-279.Passega R., 1957. Texture as characteristics of clastic deposition. Publisher: American Association of Petroleum Geologists.Passega R., 1964. Grain size representation by CM patterns as a geological tool. J Sediment Petrol, 34, 830–847.Phuoc V.L., An D.T., Cang L.T., Chung B.N., Tien N.V., 2010. Study the sediment dynamics in Can Gio mangrove forest (Nang Hai site, Ho Chi Minh city). Ho Chi Minh city: The final report of National University Ho Chi Minh city, No. B2009-18-36.Pumijumnong N., Danpradit S., 2016. Heavy metal accumulation in sediments and mangrove forest stems from Surat Thani province, Thailand. The Malaysian forester, 79(1&2), 212-228.QCVN43:2012/BTNMT, 2012. QCVN43:2012/BTNMT: National technical regulation on the sediment quality, Ha Noi: Ministry of natural resources and environment of Vietnam.Qiao S., Shi X., Fang X., Liu S., Kornkanitnan N., Gao J., Yu Y., 2015. Heavy metal and clay mineral analyses in the sediments of Upper Gulf of Thailand and their implications on sedimentary provenance and dispersion pattern. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 114, 488–496.Rollinson H. R., 1993. Using geochemical data for evaluation, presentation and interpretation. UK: Longman Group UK Limited ISBN-0-582-06701-4.Spalding M., Blasco F., Field C., 2010. World atlas of mangrove. Cambridge: Earthscan in UK and US, ISBN: 978-1-84407-657-4.Strady E., Dang V.B., Némery J., Guédron S., Dinh Q.T., Denis H., Nguyen P.D., 2016. Baseline seasonal investigation of nutrients and trace metals in surface waters and sediments along the Saigon River basin impacted by the megacity of HCM, Viet Nam. Environ Sci Pollut Res, 1-18. doi:10.1007/s11356-016-7660-7.Tam N.F., Wong Y.S., 1996. Retention and distribution of heavy metals in mangrove soils receiving wastewater. Environment pollution, 94(5), 283-291.Thomas N., Lucas R., Bunting P., Hardy A., Rosenqvist A., Simard M., 2017. Distribution and drivers of global mangrove forest change, 1996– 2010. PLoS ONE, 12(6): e0179302, 1-14. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179302.Thuy H.T., Loan T.T., Vy N.N., 2007. Study on environmental geochemistry of heavy metals in urban canal sediments of Ho Chi Minh city. Science and Technology Development, 10(01), 1-9.Toan T.T., Bay N.T., 2006. A study on the tendency of accretion and erosion in Can Gio coastal zone. Vietnam-Japan estuary workshop, 184-194.Tri N.H., Hong P.N., Cuc L.T., 2000. Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve Ho Chi Minh city, Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Ha Noi: Hanoi University Publisher.Truong T.V., 2007. Planning for water source of Dong Nai river basin. Retrieved from Water Resources Planning: http://siwrp.org.vn/tin-tuc/quy-hoach-tai-nguyen-nuoc-luu-vuc-song-dong-nai_143.html.Tuan L.D., Oanh T.T., Thanh C.V., Quy N.D., 2002. Can Gio mangrove biosphere reserve. HCM city, Vietnam: Agriculture Publisher.Tue N.T., Quy T.D., Amono A., 2012. Historical profiles of trace element concentrations in Mangrove sediments from the Ba Lat estuary, Red river, Vietnam. Water, Air & Soil Pollution, ISSN 0049-6979, 223(3), 1315-1330.Twilley R., Chen R., Hargis T., 1992. Carbon sinks in mangroves and their implications to carbon budget of tropical coastal ecosystems. Water, Air & Soil pollution, Netherland, 64, 265-288.UN Environment Program, 2006. Methods for sediment sampling and analysis. Palermo (Sicily), Italy: United Nation Environment Program.UNESCO, 2000. List of Biosphere reserves approved by MAB committee belonging to UNESCO. Retrieved from United Nations, Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO): http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/asia-and-the-pacific.Vandenberghe N., 1975. An evaluation of CM patterns for grain size studies of fine grained sediments. Sedimentology, 22, 615-622.Vinh B.T., Ichiro D., 2012. Erosion mechanism of cohesive river bank and bed of Soai Rap river (Ho Chi Minh city). J. Sci. of the Earth, 34(2), 153-161.Wang J., Du H., Xu Y., Chen K., Liang J., Ke H., Cai M., 2016. Environmental and Ecological Risk Assessment of Trace Metal Contamination in Mangrove Ecosystems. BioMed Research International, Article ID 2167053, 1-14. Doi:10.1155/2016/2167053.Wedepohl K.H., 1995. The composition of the continental crust. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 59(7), 1217-1232.Woodroffe C., Rogers K., McKee K., Lovelock C., Mendelssohn I., Saintilan N., 2016. Mangrove sedimentation and response to relative sea level rise. The Annual Review of Marine Science, 8, 243-266.Zhang J., Liu C.L., 2002. Riverine Composition and Estuarine Geochemistry of Particulate Metals in China-Weathering Features, Anthropogenic Impact and Chemical Fluxes. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 54(6), 1051-1070.Zhang W., Feng H., Chang J., Qu J., Xie H., Yu L., 2009. Heavy metal contamination in surface sediments of Yangtze River intertidal zone: An assessment from different indexes. Environmental Pollution, 157, 1533-1543.Zheng W.-j., Xiao-yong C., Peng L., 1997. Accumulation and biological cycling of heavy metal elements in Rhizophora stylosa mangroves in Yingluo Bay, China. Marine ecology progress series, 159, 293-301.

This paper presents some results of rainfall forecast in the monsoon onset period in South Vietnam, with the use of ensemble Kalman filter to assimilate observation data into the initial field of the model. The study of rainfall forecasts are experimented at the time of Southern monsoon outbreaks for 3 years (2005, 2008 and 2009), corresponding to 18 cases. In each case, there are five trials, including satellite wind data assimilation, upper-air sounding data assimilation, mixed data (satellite wind+upper-air sounding data) assimilation and two controlled trials (one single predictive test and one multi-physical ensemble prediction), which is equivalent to 85 forecasts for one trial. Based on the statistical evaluation of 36 samples (18 meteorological stations and 18 trials), the results show that Kalman filter assimilates satellite wind data to forecast well rainfall at 48 hours and 72 hours ranges. With 24 hour forecasting period, upper-air sounding data assimilation and mixed data assimilation experiments predicted better rainfall than non-assimilation tests. The results of the assessment based on the phase prediction indicators also show that the ensemble Kalman filter assimilating satellite wind data and mixed data sets improve the rain forecasting capability of the model at 48 hours and 72 hour ranges, while the upper-air sounding data assimilation test produces satisfactory results at the 72 hour forecast range, and the multi-physical ensemble test predicted good rainfall at 24 hour and 48 hour forecasts. The results of this research initially lead to a new research approach, Kalman Filter Application that assimilates the existing observation data into input data of the model that can improve the quality of rainfall forecast in Southern Vietnam and overall country in general.References Bui Minh Tuan, Nguyen Minh Truong, 2013. Determining the onset indexes for the summer monsoon over southern Vietnam using numerical model with reanalysis data. VNU Journal of Science, 29(1S), 187-195.Charney J.G., 1955. The use of the primitive equations of motion in numerical prediction, Tellus, 7, 22.Cong Thanh, Tran Tan Tien, Nguyen Tien Toan, 2015. Assessing prediction of rainfall over Quang Ngai area of Vietnam from 1 to 2 day terms. VNU Journal of Science, 31(3S), 231-237.Courtier P., Talagrand O., 1987. Variational assimilation of meteorological observations with the adjoint vorticity equations, Part II, Numerical results. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 113, 1329.Daley R., 1991. Atmospheric data analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Elementi M., Marsigli C., Paccagnella T., 2005. High resolution forecast of heavy precipitation with Lokal Modell: analysis of two case studies in the Alpine area. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 5, 593-602.Fasullo J. and Webster P.J., 2003. A hydrological definition of India monsoon onset and withdrawal. J. Climate, 16, 3200-3211.Haltiner G.J., Williams R.T., 1982. Numerical prediction and dynamic meteorology, John Wiley and Sons, New York.Hamill T.M., Whitaker J.S., Snyder C., 2001. Distance-dependent filtering of background error covariance estimates in an ensemble Kalman filter. Mon. Wea. Rev., 129, 2776.He J., Yu J., Shen X., and Gao H., 2004. Research on mechanism and variability of East Asia monsoon. J. Trop. Meteo, 20(5), 449-459.Hoang Duc Cuong, 2008. Experimental study on heavy rain forecast in Vietnam using MM5 model. A report on the Ministerial-level research projects on science and technology, 105p.Houtekamer P.L., Mitchell H.L., Pellerin G., Buehner M., Charron M., Spacek L., Hansen B., 2005. Atmospheric data assimilation with an ensemble Kalman filter: Results with real observations. Mon. Wea. Rev., 133, 604.Houtekamer P.L., Mitchell H.L., 2005. Ensemble Kalman filtering, Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 131C, 3269-3289.Hunt B.R., Kostelich E., Szunyogh I., 2007. Efficient data assimilation for spatiotemporal chaos: a local ensemble transform Kalman filter. Physica D., 230, 112-126.Kalnay E., 2003. Atmospheric modeling, data assimilation and predictability. Cambridge University Press, 181.Kalnay et al., 2008. A local ensemble transform Kalman filter data assimilation system for the NCEP global model. Tellus A, 60(1), 113-130.Kato T., Aranami K., 2009. Formation Factors of 2004 Niigata-Fukushima and Fukui Heavy Rainfalls and Problems in the Predictions using a Cloud-Resolving Model. SOLA. 10, doi:10.2151/sola.Kieu C.Q., 2010. Estimation of Model Error in the Kalman Filter by Perturbed Forcing. VNU Journal of Science, Natural Sciences and Technology, 26(3S), 310-316.Kieu C.Q., 2011. Overview of the Ensemble Kalman Filter and Its Application to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. VNU Journal of Science, Natural Sciences and Technology, 27(1S), 17-28.Kieu C.Q., Truong N.M., Mai H.T., and Ngo Duc T., 2012. Sensitivity of the Track and Intensity Forecasts of Typhoon Megi (2010) to Satellite-Derived Atmosphere Motion Vectors with the Ensenble Kalman filter. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 29, 1794-1810.Kieu Thi Xin, 2005. Study on large-scale rainfall forecast by modern technology for flood prevention in Vietnam. State-level independent scientific and technological briefing report, 121-151.Kieu Thi Xin, Vu Thanh Hang, Le Duc, Nguyen Manh Linh, 2013. Climate simulation in Vietnam using regional climate nonhydrostatic NHRCM and hydrostatic RegCM models. Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Journal of Natural sciences and technology, 29(2S), 243-25.Krishnamurti T.N., Bounoa L., 1996. An introduction to numerical weather prediction techniques. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FA.Lau K.M., Yang S., 1997. Climatology and interannual variability of the Southeast Asian summer monsoon. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 14,141-162.Li C., Qu X., 1999. Characteristics of Atmospheric Circulation Associated with Summer monsoon onset in the South China Sea. Onset and Evolution of the South China Sea Monsoon and Its Interaction with the Ocean. Ding Yihui, and Li Chongyin, Eds, Chinese Meteorological Press, Beijing, 200-209.Lin N., Smith J.A., Villarini G., Marchok T.P., Baeck M.L., 2010. Modeling Extreme Rainfall, Winds,and Surge from Hurricane Isabel, 25. Doi: 10.1175/2010WAF2222349.Lu J., Zhang Q., Tao S., and Ju J., 2006. The onset and advance of the Asian summer monsoon. Chinese Science Bulletin, 51(1), 80-88.Matsumoto J., 1997. Seasonal transition of summer rainy season over Indochina and adjacent monsoon region. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 14, 231-245.Miyoshi T., and Kunii M., 2012. The Local Ensenble Transform Kalman Filter with the Weather Rearch and Forecasting Model: Experiments with Real Observation. Pure Appl. Geophysic, 169(3), 321-333. Miyoshi T., Yamane S., 2007. Local ensemble transform Kalman filtering with an AGCM at a T159/L48 resolution. Mon. Wea. Rev., 135, 3841-3861.Nguyen Khanh Van, Tong Phuc Tuan, Vuong Van Vu, Nguyen Manh Ha, 2013. The heavy rain differences based on topo-geographical analyse at Coastal Central Region, from Thanh Hoa to Khanh Hoa. J. Sciences of the Earth, 35, 301-309.Nguyen Minh Truong, Bui Minh Tuan, 2013. A case study on summer monsoon onset prediction for southern Vietnam in 2012 using the RAMS model. VNU Journal of Science, 29(1S), 179-186.Phillips N.A., 1960b. Numerical weather prediction. Adv. Computers, 1, 43-91, Kalnay 2004.Phillips N., 1960a. On the problem of the initial data for the primitive equations, Tellus, 12, 121126.Phuong Nguyen Duc, 2013. Experiment on combinatorial Kalman filtering method for WRF model to forecast heavy rain in central region in Vietnam. The Third International MAHASRI/HyARC Workshop on Asian Monsoon and Water Cycle, 28-30 August 2013, Da Nang, Viet Nam, 217-224.Richardson L.F., 1922. Weather prediction by numerical process. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Reprinted by Dover (1965, New York).Routray, Mohanty U.C., Niyogi D., Rizvi S.R., Osuri K.K., 2008. First application of 3DVAR-WRF data assimilation for mesoscale simulation of heavy rainfall events over Indian Monsoon region. Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1555.Schumacher, R. S., C. A. Davis, 2010. Ensemble-based Forecast Uncertainty Analysis of Diverse Heavy Rainfall Events, 25. Doi: 10.1175/2010WAF2222378.Snyder C., Zhang F., 2003. Assimilation of simulated Doppler radar observations with an Ensemble Kalman filter. Mon. Wea. Rev., 131, 1663.Szunyogh I., Kostelich E.J., Gyarmati G., Kalnay E., Hunt B.R., Ott E., Satterfield E., Yorke J.A., 2008. A local ensemble transform Kalman filter data assimilation system for the NCEP global model. Tellus A., 60, 113-130.Tanaka M., 1992. Intraseasonal oscillation and the onset and retreat dates of the summer monsoon east, southeast Asia and the western Pacific region using GMS high cloud amount data. J. Meteorol. Soc. Japan, 70, 613-628.Tan Tien Tran, Nguyen Thi Thanh, 2011. The MODIS satellite data assimilation in the WRF model to forecast rainfall in the central region. VNU Journal of Science, Natural Sciences and Technology, 27(3S), 90-95.Tao S., Chen L., 1987. A review of recent research on East summer monsoon in China, Monsoon Meteorology. C. P. Changand T. N. Krishramurti, Eds, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 60-92.Tippett M.K., Anderson J.L., Bishop C.H., Hamill T.M., Whitaker J.S., 2003. Ensemble square root filters. Mon. Wea. Rev., 131, 1485.Thuy Kieu Thi, Giam Nguyen Minh, Dung Dang Van, 2013. Using WRF model to forecast heavy rainfall events on September 2012 in Dong Nai River Basin. The Third International MAHASRI/HyARC Workshop on Asian Monsoon and Water Cycle, 28-30 August 2013, Da Nang, Viet Nam, 185-200.Xavier, Chandrasekar, Singh R. and Simon B., 2006. The impact of assimilation of MODIS data for the prediction of a tropical low-pressure system over India using a mesoscale model. International Journal of Remote Sensing 27(20), 4655-4676. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160500207302. Wang B., 2003. Atmosphere-warm ocean interaction and its impacts on Asian-Australian monsoon variation. J. Climate, 16(8), 1195-1211.Wang B. and Wu R., 1997. Peculiar temporal structure of the South China Sea summer monsoon. J. Climate., 15, 386-396.Wang L., He J., and Guan Z., 2004. Characteristic of convective activities over Asian Australian ”landbridge” areas and its possible factors. Act a Meteorologic a Sinica, 18, 441-454.Wang, B., and Z. Fan, 1999. Choice of South Asian Summer Monsoon Indices. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Sci., 80, 629-638.Webster P.J., Magana V.O., Palmer T.N., Shukla J., Tomas R.A., Yanai M., Yasunari T., 1998. Monsoons: Processes, predictability, and teprospects for prediction, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 14451-14510.Wilks Daniel S., 1997. Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences. Ithaca New York., 59, 255.Whitaker J.S., Hamill T.M., 2002. Ensemble data assimilation without perturbed observations. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 1913.Wu G., Zhang Y., 1998. Tibetan plateau forcing and the timing of the monsoon onset over South Asia and the South China Sea. Mon.Wea.Rev., 126, 913-927.Zhang Z., Chan J.C.L., and Ding Y., 2004. Characteristics, evolution and mechanisms of the summer monsoon onset over Southeast Asia. J.Climatology, 24, 1461-1482.http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html and http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/archive/

Both the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) support regional and national integration, the protection of human rights and civil society involvement, and non-interference in member states' internal affairs. Sometimes these goals at the regional level become mutually exclusive. Human rights groups, international organizations, and Western states have criticized human rights abuses and democracy and governance shortcomings in several ASEAN states (e.g., Vietnam and Myanmar) and SADC countries (e.g., Swaziland, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe). This article addresses ASEAN and SADC's historical context and continued development related to these issues. It also evaluates the regional organizations' effectiveness in balancing o en mutually exclusive goals and concludes that existing regional organizational strength and cohesion impact the approaches used to manage conflict and external criticism and build greater social cohesion regionally and within states. SADC utilizes a “regional compliance model“ based on political criteria whereas ASEAN utilizes a “constructive engagement“ or “economic integration first“ model. SADC places greater emphasis on placing good governance, especially as it relates to human rights, at the forefront of regionalism. ASEAN sublimates human rights to regional integration through constructive engagement and greater emphases on economic relations. Two distinct models of regional integration exist.Spanish La Comunidad de Desarrollo de África Austral (SADC por sus siglas en inglés), y la Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático (ASEAN en inglés), apoyan la integración regional/continental y nacional, la protección de los derechos humanos, la participación de la sociedad civil, y la no injerencia en los asuntos internos de los estados miembros. A veces, estas metas son mutuamente excluyentes a nivel regional. Grupos de derechos humanos, organizaciones internacionales y estados occidentales han criticado las violaciones de los derechos humanos y las deficiencias en democracia y gobernabilidad en varios Estados de la ASEAN (por ejemplo, Vietnam y Myanmar) y en algunos países de la SADC (por ejemplo, Suazilandia, Madagascar y Zimbabue). En este artículo se aborda el contexto histórico de la SADC y la ASEAN y su continuo desarrollo relacionado con los temas mencionados. También se evalúa la eficacia de las organizaciones regionales, haciendo el balance entre los objetivos a menudo mutuamente excluyentes, y concluye que la existente fuerza regional de organización y cohesión impacta los enfoques utilizados para manejar el conflicto y la crítica externa, y promueve la construcción de una mayor cohesión social regionalmente y dentro de los estados. La SADC utiliza un “modelo de cumplimiento regional“ basado en criterios políticos, mientras que la ASEAN utiliza un modelo de “compromiso constructivo“ o “integración económica primero“. La SADC pone mayor énfasis en afianzar la buena gobernanza, especialmente en lo relacionado con los derechos humanos, a la vanguardia del regionalismo. La ASEAN vincula los derechos humanos a la integración regional a través de un compromiso constructivo y pone un mayor énfasis en las relaciones económicas. Dos existentes modelos diferentes de integración regional. French La Communauté de développement d'Afrique australe (SADC en anglais), aussi bien que L'Association des nations de l'Asie du SudEst (ANASE) soutiennent respectivement les principes relatifs à l'intégration régionale et nationale, à la protection des droits de l'homme, à la participation de la société civile dans l'agenda publique, ainsi qu'à la non-ingérence dans les affaires internes des Etats. Toutefois, il arrive que ces objectifs deviennent mutuellement exclusifs au niveau régional. Les organisations de défense des droits de l'homme et les gouvernements occidentaux n'ont jamais cessé de critiquer les violations des droits de l'homme, ainsi que les lacunes en matière de démocratie et de gouvernance qui prévalent dans les pays membre de l'ANASE (ex : le Viet Nam, Myanmar) et ceux de la SADC (ex : le Swaziland, Madagascar et le Zimbabwe). Cet article aborde le contexte historique dans lequel l'ANASE et la SADC ont vu le jour ainsi que la nature des enjeux qui l'ont suivi. Il évalue également d'un point de vue comparé, l'efficacité de ces organisations régionales sur la base des objectifs qu'ils se sont fixés, tout en penchant pour la conclusion selon laquelle la présence d'une force régionale influente impacte nécessairement dans la gestion des conflits, et combien la critique externe participe à la construction d'une plus grande cohésion sociale et régionale au sein des États. La SADC s'appuie un “modèle de conformité régionale» fondé sur des critères politiques, tandis que l'ANASE fait appel à un “engagement constructif“ ayant pour modèle “l'intégration économique“. La SADC accorde davantage plus d'importance à la mise en œuvre d'une bonne gouvernance, particulièrement en ce qui concerne les droits de l'homme et l'évolution vers un régionalisme plus avancé. L'ANASE sublime les droits de l'homme à l'intégration régionale par le biais d'un engagement constructif et de grandes insistances dans les relations économiques. Ce qui fait d'eux deux modèles d'intégration régionale distincts.

Rong Cave is one of the more important caves in northern Vietnam’s Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark (part of the Global Geoparks Network), because its subterranean lake provides agricultural and domestic water for neighboring communities. Maintenance and utilization of Rong Cave’s water reservoir, as well as touristic cave use, require frequent human access to Rong Cave. Depending on the availability of seasonal drip water and the water level of the lake, the abundant clay-rich sediment in the back portion of Rong Cave and possible seepage of gas from deeper strata along geologic faults provide seasonally elevated concentrations of radon in cave air. Based on repeated measurements over 10 months in 2015 and 2016 of the concentrations of radon isotopes (222Rn and 220Rn, also called thoron) with a portable SARAD® RTM 2200 instrument (SARAD® GmbH, Germany), the human total annual inhalation dose was estimated according to the UNSCEAR (2000) algorithm. The result indicates that the radon-related radiation exposure is insignificant for short-term visitors but may reach ~1.8 mSv a-1 for tour guides and ~25 mSv a-1 for cave utility workers. The latter values exceed the IAEA-recommended safety threshold of 1 mSv a-1 (IAEA, 1996). We recommend radiation monitoring for cave utility workers and tour guides. Prolonged human presence in Rong Cave should be avoided during periods of seasonally elevated radon concentrations.References Cigna A.A., 2005. Radon in caves. Interna-tional Journal of Speleology 34(1-2), 1-18. Ha Giang Statistics Office (GSO), 2016. Statistical Yearbook of Ha Giang 2015, 404 pages, Ha Giang (in Vietnamese). Dumitru O.A., Onac B.P., Fornós J.J., Cosma C., Ginés A., Ginés J., Merino A., 2015. Radon survey in caves from Mallorca Island, Spain. Science of The Total Environment, 526, 196-203. Etiope G., Martinelli G., 2002. Migration of carrier and trace gases in the geosphere: An overview. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 129(3-4), 185-204. Global Geoparks Network (GGN), 2010. Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark. http://www.globalgeopark.org/aboutggn/list/vietnam/6509.htm Gregorič A., Vaupotič J., Šebela S., 2013. The role of cave ventilation in governing cave air temperature and radon levels (Postojna Cave, Slovenia). International Journal of Climatology 34, 1488-1500. Gunn J., 2003. Radon in caves. In Gunn J (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science. Fitzroy Dearborn (Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.), London, UK, 617-619. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1996. Quality assurance for safety in nuclear power plants and other nuclear installations. Safety standards and guides, In: Safety series Q1-Q14. A publication within the Nuss programme. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), 2003. Database of Dose Coefficients: Workers and Members of the Public, Version 2.0.1 (CD- ROM), Elsevier Science, Amsterdam. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), 2010. Lung cancer risk from radon and progeny and Statement of radon. ICPR Pub. 115. Ann. ICPR 40(1). Markkanen M., Arvela H., 1992. Radon emanation from soils. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 45(1-4), 269-272. Meisenberg O., Mishra R., Joshi M., Gierl S., Rout R., Guo L., Agaarwwal T., Kanse S., Irlinger J., Sapra B.K., Tschiersch J., 2017. Radon and thoron inhalation doses in dwellings with earthen architecture: Comparison of measurement methods. Science of The Total Environment, 579, 1855-1862. Morawska L., Phillips C.R., 1993. Depend-ence of the radon emanation coefficient on radium distribution and internal structure of the material, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 57(8), 1783-1797. Nguyen Thuy Duong, Nguyen Van Huong, Arndt Schimmelmann, Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet, Dang Thi Phuong Thao, Ta Hoa Phuong, 2016. Radon concentrations in karst caves in Dong Van karst plat-eau. VNU Journal of Science - Earth and Environmental Sciences, 32(2S), 187-197 (in Vietnamese). Nguyen Thuy Duong, Arndt Schimmelmann, Nguyen Van Huong, Agnieszka Drobniak, Jay T. Lennon, Ta Hoa Phuong, Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet, 2017. Subterranean microbial oxidation of atmospheric methane in cavernous tropical karst. Chemical Ge-ology, 466, 229-238. Nguyen Van Huong, Nguyen Thuy Duong, Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet, Pham Nu Quynh Nhi, Dang Thi Phuong Thao, Tran Van Phong, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 2016. Cenozoic tectonics in Dong Van karst plateau recorded in karst cave system. VNU Journal of Science - Earth and Environmental Sciences, 32(2S), 45-58 (in Vietnamese). Nguyen Anh Nguyet, Nguyen Thuy Dương, Arndt Schimmelmann, Nguyen Van Hu-ong, Ta Hoa Phuong, Dang Phuong Thao, Ma Ngoc Giang, 2016. Radon concentration in Rong cave in Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark. Proceeding of International Symposium Hanoi Geoengineering 2016, 248-253. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), 1993. Report to the General Assembly, with scientific annexes. United Nations sales publication E.94.IX.2. United Nations, New York. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), 2000. UNSCEAR 2000 Report. In: Sources, vol. I. United Nations, New York. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), 2008. UNSCEAR 2000 Report. In: Sources, vol. I. United Nations, New York. Vietnamese Standards (TCVN 7889:2008), 2008. Natural Radon activity in buildings-Levels and general requirements of measuring methods, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Construction (Viet Nam) (in Vietnamese). Tong-Dzuy Thanh, Vu Khuc (Eds), 2011. Stratigraphic units of Vietnam. Vietnam National University Publisher, 553p. Walia V., Lin S.J., Fu C.C., Yang T.F., Hong W.L., Wen K.L., Chen C.H., 2010. Soil-gas monitoring: A tool for fault delineation studies along Hsinhua Fault (Tainan), Southern Taiwan. Applied Geochemistry, 25(4), 602-607. Wang J., Meisenberg O., Chen Y., Karg E., Tschiersch J., 2011. Mitigation of radon and thoron decay products by filtration. Science of The Total Environment, 409(19), 3613-3619. World Health Organization (WHO), 2000. Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, (2nd edition). WHO Regional Publications, European Series, 91, Chapter 8.3 - Radon.

Lagoonal environments exhibit high levels of instability depending on hydrological, climatic and ecological factors, thereby influencing the distribution and structure of submerged plant communities. Conditions typically fluctuate widely due to the interaction of freshwater from rivers with saltwater from the sea, as well as from aquaculture activities that together influence submerged hydrophyte community spatial and temporal variability depending on plant survival strategies. Ruppia species feature either underwater pollination mediated by an air bubble or by the release of pollen floating at the water surface, the former promoting self-pollination. Tropical Asian Ruppia brevipedunculata Yu and den Hartog was assumed to pollinate below the water surface and identified as a separate lineage among selfed Ruppia taxa. We used nine nuclear microsatellites to estimate inbreeding levels and connectivity of R. brevipedunculata within a large SE Asian lagoon complex. Ruppia brevipedunculata meadows were strongly inbred as could be derived from the many monomorphic or totally fixed loci for unique alleles in different parts of the lagoon, which appears consistent with selfing behavior. Those from aquaculture ponds were highly inbred (FIS = 0.620), though less than open lagoon sites that showed nearly total inbreeding (FIS = 0.942). Ruppia brevipedunculata from two major lagoon parts were highly differentiated with spatially structured gene pools and a strong barrier between parts of the lagoon over a 30 km distance. Migration-n analysis indicated unidirectional though limited gene flow and following potential hydrological connectivity. Overall, private alleles under homozygote conditions explained a stronger genetic differentiation of populations situated inside aquaculture ponds than of open lagoon populations. Kinship values were only relevant up to 5 km distance in the open lagoon. Within a confined area of aquaculture ponds featuring dense vegetation in stagnant water, there would be opportunity for mixed pollination, thereby explaining the higher diversity of unique multilocus genotypes of aquaculture pond habitats. Low connectivity prevents gene pools to homogenize however promoted sites with private alleles across the lagoon. Complex hydrodynamic systems and human-made habitats enclosed by physical structures impose barriers for propagule dispersal though may create refugia and contribute to conserving regional genetic diversity.

Three levels of analysis (individuals, nation states and international system) which have been widely recognized in foreign policy are applicable in explaining whether the Trump Administration has actually had a policy in the East Sea. At individual level, President Trump first announced the U.S. “Free and Open Indo – Pacific Strategy” in November 2017, in which the East Sea is known as an important factor of security pillar to preserve vitality of free and open air and maritime space in the region. It was then echoed at national level by national strategies, including the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and National Military Strategy. Also, members of the U.S. Cabinet and Congress have shown support for the Indo – Pacific Strategy in general and the U.S. policy in the East Sea in particular. In order to cope up with China’s assertiveness in this waterway at systematic level, the Trump Administration has unceasingly projected considerable its power, including increasing military presence and regional maritime capacity building efforts as well as frequent freedom of navigations (FONOPS). In the context that territorial disputes remain complex and unforeseeable, it is valuable to have a thorough look at the Trump’s East Sea policy for claimants in this water, including Viet Nam.

Property ownership is an ancient concept and plays an important role in determining the status of each individual in society and for the nation's development. During the past 70 years since its inception, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam today, has only policy guidelines for this guarantee. Keywords: property ownership, private economic, private ownership. References: [1] Melvin Urofsky, Rights of The People: Individual Freedom and The Bill of Rights.[2] Garrett Hardin, The tragedy of the commons, Science 162 (3859) 1968.[3] Milton Friedmen and Rose Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, University of Chicago, IL., 1962.[4] Nguyen Huy Vien, Developing private economy, the people will be richer and the country will be stronger, 22/05/2019.https://vietnamnet.vn/vn/tuanvietnam/tieudiem/chi-khi-kinh-te-tu-nhan-phat-trien-moi-co-dan-giau-nuoc-manh-533536.html.[5] Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 1848, London.[6] Pham Thi Thanh Binh, Private economy: An important driving force in Vietnam's economic development, tapchitaichinh.vn 13/01/2018. http://tapchitaichinh.vn/nghien-cuu--trao-doi/trao-doi-binh-luan/kinh-te-tu-nhan-dong-luc-quan-trong-trong-phat-trien-kinh-te-viet-nam-134456.html. [7] Le Tho Binh, “The king of tires” Nguyen Van Chan: a… miser, Vietnamnet.vn 11/10/2004.https://vietnamnet.vn/psks/nhanvat/2004/10/333737/.

Tóm tắt Mục tiêu: Đánh giá kết quả của phẫu thuật nội soi lồng ngực điều trị ung thư phổi không tế bào nhỏ (UTPKTBN) tại Bệnh viện Hữu nghị Việt Đức giai đoạn Phương pháp: Nghiên cứu mô tả hồi cứu 84 người bệnh (NB) được chẩn đoán trước mổ ung thư phổi không tế bào nhỏ giai đoạn I - IIIA và tiến hành phẫu thuật nội soi lồng ngực cắt thùy phổi kèm theo nạo vét hạch. Kết quả: Tuổi trung bình 57,4 ± 9,52 (từ 25 đến 78 tuổi), tỷ lệ nam/nữ = 1,9. Vị trí u gặp nhiều thùy trên 2 bên phổi. Giai đoạn I chiếm 45,24%. Thời gian phẫu thuật 169,2 ± 47,2 phút, thời gian rút dẫn lưu màng phổi: 6,31 ± 2,15 ngày, thời gian nằm viện: 9,56 ± 2,56 ngày. Biến chứng sau mổ: 8,1% trong đó rò khí kéo dài 85,7%. Ung thư biểu mô tuyến 82,1%. Tỉ lệ sống thêm toàn bộ giai đoạn I, II, IIIA lần lượt là 94,74%; 63,33%; 31,25%. Thời gian sống trung bình chung cho tất cả các giai đoạn là 29,6 ± 12,88 tháng (9 - 54 tháng). Kết luận: Phẫu thuật nội soi lồng ngực cắt thùy phổi, nạo vét hạch tại Bệnh viện Hữu nghị Việt Đức là phương pháp điều trị cho UTPKTBN giai đoạn I-IIIA, kết quả khả quan, biến chứng thấp, nằm viện ngắn. Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the results of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for non-small cell lung cancer at Viet Duc University Hospital in the period of 2016 - 2018. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study of 84 patients diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer staging I - IIIA and have been performed lobectomy and lymph node dissection by VATS. Results: Average age 57.4 ± 9.52 (from 25 to 78 years old), male / female ratio = 1.9. The tumor is mostly located at upper lobes on both of the lung. Stage I accounted for 45.24%. The operative time: 169.2 ± 47.2 minutes, the postoperative drainage time: 6.31 ± 2.15 days, hospitalization time: 9.56 ± 2.56 days. Complication ratio: 8.1% with postoperative air leakage: 85.7%. Adenocarcinoma 82.1%. The total survival rates of stages I, II and IIIA: 94.74%, 63.33% and 31.25%. The average over all survival time: 29.6 ± 12.88 months (9 - 54 months). Conclusion: VATs for lobectomy and lymph node dissection of lung cancer at Viet Duc University Hospital for lung cancer at I-IIIA stages is feasible with good results, low complications, and short hospital stay. Key words: Non-small cell lung cancer, lung lobectomy, VATS.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Cardiovascular risk assessment is an important step in preventing and treating the disease. The current study assesses the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in 306 VNU’s office workers in 2016-2017 based on the 2008 Framingham Risk Score. The study results show that the average risk score was 4.05 ± 4.76%; low risk was 90.52%; moderate risk: 7.85 %; and high to very high risk was 1.63%. Men have a higher risk score than women (p <0.001). The ten-year cardiovascular risk score shows that age and systolic blood pressure correlated with the risk at a medium level, and cholesterol and HDL correlated with it at a low level. Keywords Framingham Risk Score 2008, 10-year cardiovascular risk score, hypertension, blood cholesterol, blood HDL. References [1] Cardiovasculardiseases, http://www.who.int/en/newsroom/factsheets/detail/cardiovascular diseases-(cvds), (truy cập ngày 22/03/2019).[2] A.R. Gregory et al, Global, regional, and national burden of cardiovascular diseases for 10 Causes, 1990 to 2015, Journal of the American college of cardiology. 70(1) (2017) 1–25.[3] E. Gresham, T.E. Fitzpatrick, P.A. Wolf et al, Residual disability in survivors of stroke--the Framingham study, N Engl J Med. 293(19) (1975) 954–956.[4] T.A. Pearson, S.N. Blair, S.R. Danielset et al, AHA guidelines for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke: 2002 update: consensus panel guide to comprehensive risk reduction for adult patients without coronary or other atherosclerotic vascular diseases, American heart association science advisory and coordinating committee, Circulation. 106(3) (2002) 388–391.[5] I. Graham, D. Atar, K. B. Johnsen et al, European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: full text - Fourth joint task force of the European society of cardiology and other societies on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice constituted by representatives of nine societies and by invited experts, Euro heart J. 28(19) (2007) 2375-2414.[6] S.S. Mahmood, D. Levy, R.S. Vasanet et al, The Framingham heart study and the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases: a historical perspective, Lancet. 383(9921) (2014) 999–1008.[7] J.A.A.G. Damen, L. Hooft, E. Schuit et al, Prediction models for cardiovascular disease risk in the general population: systematic review, BMJ. 353(2016) 1-10.[8] L.Q.H. Goh, T.A. Welborn, S.S. Dhaliwal, Independent external validation of cardiovascular disease mortality in women utilising Framingham and SCORE risk models: a mortality follow-up study, BMC women health. 14 (2014) 118-129.[9] L.M. A. Rodenas, J.A. C. Herencia, J.A. D. Garrote et al, Framingham risk score for prediction of cardiovascular diseases: a population-based study from southern Europe, PLoS One. 8(9) (2013) 1-10.[10] G.M. Park, Y.H. Kim, Model for predicting cardiovascular disease: insights from a Korean cardiovascular risk model, Pulse (Basel). 3(2) (2015) 153–157.[11] Trần Kim Trang, Nguy cơ 10 năm của bệnh tim mạch ở nữ giới tăng huyết áp, Y học thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. 16(1) (2012) 181-185.[12] Trương Thanh Sơn, Nguyễn Văn Trí, Trương Quang Bình, Nghiên cứu áp dụng thang điểm Framingham nhằm định nguy cơ bệnh động mạch vành trong 10 năm tới tại bệnh viện đa khóa Bình Dương, Y học thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. 15(1) (2011) 207-212. [13] Nguyễn Thị Kim Thủy, Dự báo nguy cơ mắc bệnh động mạch vành trong 10 năm theo thang điểm Frammingham ở bệnh nhân tăng huyết áp nguyên phát, Y học thực hành. 802(1) (2012) 27-29. [14] Nguyễn Hồng Huệ, Nguyễn Đức Công, Nghiên cứu ước tính nguy cơ bệnh động mạch vành trong 10 năm tới theo thang điểm Framingham qua 500 trường hợp, Y học thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. 15(2) (2011) 38-44. [15] C.V. Aram et al, The seventh report of the joint national committee on prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure, National heart, lung and blood institute - National institutes of health, NIH publication no. 04-5230, US, (2014), pp 13.[16] National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Third Report of the national cholesterol education program (NCEP) expert panel on detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults (Adult treatment panel III) Final report, National institutes of health, part II, US, (2002), pp 5-10. [17] World Health Organization, The Asia-Pacific perspective: redefining obesity and its treatment, Geneva: World health organization western pacific regional office, (2000), 18-19.[18] N.Q. Nguyen, S.T. Pham, L.D. Do et al, Cardiovascular disease risk factor patterns and their implications for intervention strategies in Vietnam, Int J Hypertens, ID. 560397, (2012), 1-11.[19] M. Nakhaie, B. Koor, S. Salehiet al, Prediction of cardiovascular disease risk using framingham risk score among office workers, Iran, 2017, Saudi journal of kidney diseases and transplantation. 29(3) (2018) 608-614. [20] Trịnh Xuân Thắng, Nghiên cứu các yếu tố nguy cơ bệnh tim mạch ở người >25 tuổi tại 2 quận huyện Hà Nội, Luận văn thạc sỹ, Đại học Y Hà Nội, (2013). [21] Nguyễn Hoàng Liên, Văn Thế Trung, Xác định nguy cơ tim mạch theo thang điểm Framingham trên bệnh nhân vẩy nến tại bệnh viện da liễu TP. Hồ Chí Minh, Y Học TP. Hồ Chí Minh, 18(1), (2014), 79-85. [22] R. Gupta, V. Kaul, A. Agrawalet et al, Cardiovascular risk according to educational status in India, Preventive medicine. 51(5) (2010) 408–411.[23] C.A. Jones, L. Ross, N. Suraniet al, Framingham ten-year general cardiovascular disease risk: agreement between BMI-based and cholesterol-based estimates in a South Asian convenience sample, PLOS ONE. 10(3) (2015) e0119183.[24] K.S. Tyrrell, H.C. Lassila, E. Meilahn et al, Carotid atherosclerosis in premenopausal and postmenopausal women and its association with risk factors measured after menopause, Stroke. 29(6) (1998) 1116–1121.[25] Margaret Kelly Hayes et al, Influence of age and health behaviors on stroke risk: lessons from longitudinal studies, J Am Geriatr Soc. 58(2) (2010) 325–328.[26] D. Sugiyama, T. Okamura, M. Watanabe et al, Risk of hypercholesterolemia for cardiovascular disease and the population attributable fraction in a 24-year Japanese cohort study, J Atheroscler Thromb. 22(1) (2015) 95–107.[27] M.R. Law, N.J. Wald, S.G. Thompson, By how much and how quickly does reduction in serum cholesterol concentration lower risk of ischaemic heart disease, BMJ. 308(6925) (1994) 367–372.[28] Abolfazl Mohammadbeigi et al, Dyslipidemia prevalence in Iranian adult men: the impact of population-based screening on the detection of undiagnosed patients, World J men health. 33(3) (2015) 167-173. [29] R.S. Joshi et al, Prevalence of dyslipidemia in urban and rural India: The ICMR–INDIAB Study, PloS ONE. 9(5) (2014) 1-9.[30] Wichai Aekplakorn et al, Prevalence of dyslipidemia and management in the Thai population: national health examination survey IV, 2009, Journal of lipids. (2014) 1-13.[31] Asia Pacific, Cohort Studies Collaboration, cholesterol, diabetes and major cardiovascular diseases in the Asia-pacific region, Diabetologia. 50(11) (2003) 2289-2297.[32] S. Lewington, R. Clarke, N. Qizilbash, R. Peto, R. Collins et al, Age-specific relevance of usual blood pressure to vascular mortality: a meta-analysis of individual data for one million adults in 61 prospective studies, Lancet. 360(9349) (2002) 1903–1913.[33] Viet Nam national STEPS Survey 2015, https://www.who.int/ncds/un-task-force/steps-survey-vietnam2015.pdf, (2015), (truy cập ngày 09/03/2019).[34] Nguyễn Lân Việt, Kết quả mới nhất điều tra tăng huyết áp toàn quốc năm 2015 – 2016, Hội tim mạch Việt Nam, http://www.yhth.vn/hoinghitanghuyetapvietnamlanthuii_d3378.aspx, (2016) (truy cập ngày 11/02/2019).[35] M. Satoh, et al, Combined effect of blood pressure and total cholesterol levels on long-term risks of subtypes of cardiovascular death: evidence for cardiovascular prevention from observational cohorts in Japan, hypertension. 65(3) (2015) 517–524.

Air pollution has been a growing concern for decades, which has a serious toxicological impact on human health and the environment. It has a number of different emission sources, but motor vehicles and industrial processes contribute the major part of air pollution. According to the World Health Organization, six major air pollutants include particle pollution, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. Air pollution is considered as the major environmental risk factor in the incidence and progression of some diseases such as asthma, lung cancer, ventricular hypertrophy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, psychological complications, autism, retinopathy, fetal growth, and low birth weight. This article aims to discuss toxicology of major air pollutants, sources of emission, and their impact on human health. We have also proposed practical measures to reduce air pollution in VietNam. Keywords: Air pollution, cardiovascular diseases, environment, human health, Vietnam. References: [1] http://www.healthdata.org/infograp hic/global-burden-air-pollution.[2] http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/781521473177013155/pdf/108141-REVISED-Cost-of-PollutionWebCORRECTEDfile.pdf.[3] https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-topline.[4] https://thanhnien.vn/thoi-su/khong-khi-ha-noi-lai-vuon-len-muc-o-nhiem-nhat-the-gioi-1185769.html.[5] Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (adopted 13 November 1979, entered into force 16 March 1983).[6] United States Environmental Protection Agency (2007), “Terms of Environment: Glossary, Abbreviations and Acronyms.[7] Trường Đại học Luật Hà Nội, Giáo trình luật môi trường, NXB. Công an Nhân dân, Hà Nội, 2014, tr.165.[8] WHO, ‘A Global Assessment of Exposure and Burden of Disease: FAQs’ http://www. who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/global-exposure-assessment-faq/en.[9] https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/what-causes-air-pollution#agriculture.[10] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health.[11] WHO, “Household Air Pollution and Health” (February 2016).http://www.who.int/ mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/.[12] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health.[13] M. Sand et al, “Response of Arctic Temperature to Changes in Emissions of Short-Lived Climate Forcers” (2016) 6 Nature Climate Change 286.[14] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6862654/#B2-ijerph-16-04296.[15] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749114000062.[16] Kết luận số 56-KL/TW, ngày 23/8/2019 của Bộ Chính trị về tiếp tục thực hiện Nghị quyết Trung ương 7 khoá XI về chủ động ứng phó với biến đổi khí hậu, tăng cường quản lí tài nguyên và bảo vệ môi trường.[17] Quyết định số 79/QĐ-BTNMT, ngày 09/01/2020 của Bộ trưởng Bộ Tài nguyên và Môi trường về việc công bố 10 sự kiện ngành tài nguyên và môi trường năm 2019.[18] https://www.thiennhien.net/2020/02/25/chat-luong-khong-khi-do-thi-dien-bien-xau-trong-2-thang-dau-nam/.[19] https://vietnamnet.vn/vn/thoi-su/moi-truong/khong-khi-ha-noi-o-nguong-rat-co-hai-ngay-thu-7-lien-tiep-599095.html.[20] https://thanhnien.vn/thoi-su/khong-khi-ha-noi-lai-vuon-len-muc-o-nhiem-nhat-the-gioi-1185769.html.[21] Shannon N. Koplitz và cộng sự, Burden of Disease from Rising Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions in Southeast Asia (2017), https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.6b03731. [22] Nguyễn Quang Dy, Câu chuyện đầu năm: Nguy cơ khủng hoảng môi trường, http://www.viet-studies.net/kinhte/NQuangDy_KhungHoangMoiTruong.html.

In the context of the long, complex disputes in Bien Dong (South China Sea) and the emergence of the use of force risks therefor, a long term solution based on a system of approaches and measures on deferent diplomatic, economic, and legal levels must be available. On the legal level, the Article analyzes the main contents of the Arbitration Award in the Philippines v. China Case regarding the status of islands and other features and the China's unreasonable claim on the nine-dash line and its actions in the South China Sea. Since then, the Article suggests the comments on the effects and consequences of the Award in light of the general perception that this Award is an important victory of international law in general and of the Law of the Sea in particular, this also is the victory of the countries, including Vietnam against China's unjustified unilateral claims and acts in the South China Sea. Keywords: South China sea; the arbitration award on South China sea, legal status of islands, the nine-dash line. References: [1] PCA Case Nº 2013-19, The South China Sea Arbitration, Award of 12 July 2016,https://pcacases.com/web/sendAttach/2086. [2] Nikos Papadakis, The International Legal Regime of Artificial Islands, Sijthoff - Leyden, 1977. [3] Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, Geneva 29 April 1958, United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. 516, p. 205.[4] Convention on the Continental Shelf, Geneva, 29 April 1958, United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. 499, p. 311.[5] United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay 10 December 1982.[6] Van Dyke, M. Jon and Bennett, Dale (1993), Islands and the Delimitation of Ocean Space in the South China Sea, 10 Ocean Yearbook.[7] Jonathan I. Charney (1999), Rocks That Cannot Sustain Human Habitation, American Journal of International Law, 93 A.J.I.L. 863.[8] Continental Shelf Area between Jan Mayen and Iceland (Jan Mayen Continental Shelf), Report and Recommendations to the Government of Iceland and Norway of the Conciliation Commission of 19-20 May 1981 in 62 International Law Reports (1981), p. 108.[9] D.W. Bowett (1979), The Legal Regime of Islands in International Law; E.D. Brown (1978), Rockall and the Limits of National Jurisdiction of the UK: Part 1, Marine Policy Vol. 2, p. 181 at pp. 206-207; J.M. Van Dyke & R.A. Brooks (1983), Uninhabited Islands: Their Impact on the Ownership of the Oceans’ Resources, Ocean Development and International Law, Vol. 12, , Nos. 3-4, p. 265; R. Kolb (1994), The Interpretation of Article 121, Paragraph 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Rocks Which Cannot Sustain Human Habitation or Economic Life of Their Own, French Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 40, 1994, p. 899; D. Anderson (2002), Islands and Rocks in the Modern Law of the Sea, in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982: A Commentary, Vol. VI, pp. 307-21; J.L. Jesus, Rocks (2003), New-born Islands, Sea Level Rise, and Maritime Space, in J. Frowein, et al., eds., Negotiating for Peace, p. 579.[10] North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, Para 57.[11] Tunisia Libya Case, Para. 128.[12] Case Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area, (U.S. v. Canada), I.C.J. Reports 1984, p. 222.[13] PCA Case Nº 2013-19, The South China Sea Arbitration, Award of 12 July 2016. Truy cập tại đường link:https://pcacases.com/web/sendAttach/2086.[14] Note Verbal No. CML/8/2011 (14 April 2011) from the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the UN Secretary-General with regard to the joint submission made by Malaysia and Viet Nam to the Commssion on the Limites of Continental Shefl, Annex I, Doc. A23; Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Remarks on Relevant Issue about Taiping Dao, 06/03/2016: www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510665401/t1369189.shtml.[15] Daniel Schaerffer, The Legacy of the Nine -Dashed Line: Past, Present and Future in International Workshop Paracel and Spratly Archipelagos History Truth, Danang, 19-21/4/2014: http://pdu.edu.vn/a/index.php?dept=20&disd=&tid=4921.[16] Note Verbal No. CML/17/2009 (7 May 2009) from the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the UN Secretary-General with regard to the joint submission made by Malaysia and Viet Nam to the Commssion on the Limites of Continental Shefl: https://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissionsfiles/mysvnm33_09/chn_2009re_mys_vnm_e.pdf.[17] Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) Outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines: Submissions to the Commission: Joint submission by Malaysia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.[18] http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissiosfiles/submission_mysvnm_33_2009.htm.

If thinking about home necessitates thinking about “place, space, scale, identity and power,” as Alison Blunt and Robyn Dowling (2) suggest, then thinking about home themes in popular music makes no less a conceptual demand. Song lyrics and titles most often invoke dominant readings such as intimacy, privacy, nurture, refuge, connectedness and shared belonging, all issues found within Blunt and Dowling’s analysis. The spatial imaginary to which these authors refer takes vivid shape through repertoires of songs dealing with houses and other specific sites, vast and distant homelands, communities or, less tangibly, geographical or cultural settings where particular relationships can be found, supporting Blunt and Dowling’s major claim that home is complex, multi-scalar and multi-layered. Shelley Mallett’s claim that the term home “functions as a repository for complex, inter-related and at times contradictory socio-cultural ideas about people’s relationships with one another…and with places, spaces and things” (84) is borne out heavily by popular music where, for almost every sentiment that the term home evokes, it seems an opposite sentiment is evoked elsewhere: familiarity versus alienation, acceptance versus rejection, love versus loneliness. Making use of conceptual groundwork by Blunt and Dowling and by Mallett and others, the following discussion canvasses a range of meanings that home has had for a variety of songwriters, singers and audiences over the years. Intended as merely partial and exploratory rather than exhaustive, it provides some insights into contrasts, ironies and relationships between home and gender, diaspora and loss. While it cannot cover all the themes, it gives prominence to the major recurring themes and a variety of important contexts that give rise to these home themes. Most prominent among those songs dealing with home has been a nostalgia and yearning, while issues of how women may have viewed the home within which they have often been restricted to a narrowly defined private sphere are almost entirely absent. This serves as a reminder that, while some themes can be conducive to the medium of popular music, others may be significantly less so. Songs may speak directly of experience but not necessarily of all experiences and certainly not of all experiences equally. B. Lee Cooper claims “most popular culture ventures rely upon formula-oriented settings and phrasings to attract interest, to spur mental or emotional involvement” (93). Notions of home have generally proved both formulaic and emotionally-charged. Commonly understood patterns of meaning and other hegemonic references generally operate more successfully than alternative reference points. Those notions with the strongest cultural currency can be conveyed succinctly and denote widely agreed upon meanings. Lyrics can seldom afford to be deeply analytical but generally must be concise and immediately evocative. Despite that, this discussion will point to diverse meanings carried by songs about home. Blunt and Dowling point out that “a house is not necessarily nor automatically a home” (3). The differences are strongly apparent in music, with only a few songs relating to houses compared with homes. When Malvina Reynolds wrote in 1962 of “little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky,” she was certainly referring to houses, not homes, thus making it easier to bypass the relationships which might have vested the inhabitants with more warmth and individuality than their houses, in this song about conformity and homogeneity. The more complex though elusive concept of home, however, is more likely to feature in love songs and to emanate from diasporal songs. Certainly these two genres are not mutually exclusive. Irish songs are particularly noteworthy for adding to the array of music written by, or representational of, those who have been forced away from home by war, poverty, strife or other circumstances. They manifest identities of displacement rather than of placement, as studied by Bronwen Walter, looking back at rather than from within their spatial imaginary. Phil Eva claims that during the 19th Century Irish émigrés sang songs of exile in Manchester’s streets. Since many in England’s industrial towns had been uprooted from their homes, the songs found rapport with street audiences and entered popular culture. For example, the song Killarney, of hazy origins but thought to date back to as early as 1850, tells of Killarney’s lakes and fells, Emerald isles and winding bays; Mountain paths and woodland dells… ...her [nature’s] home is surely there. As well as anthropomorphising nature and giving it a home, the song suggests a specifically geographic sense of home. Galway Bay, written by A. Fahy, does likewise, as do many other Irish songs of exile which link geography with family, kin and sometimes culture to evoke a sense of home. The final verse of Cliffs of Doneen gives a sense of both people and place making up home: Fare thee well to Doneen, fare thee well for a while And to all the kind people I’m leaving behind To the streams and the meadows where late I have been And the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of Doneen. Earlier Irish songs intertwine home with political issues. For example, Tho’ the Last Glimpse of Erin vows to Erin that “In exile thy bosum shall still be my home.” Such exile resulted from a preference of fleeing Ireland rather than bowing to English oppression, which then included a prohibition on Irish having moustaches or certain hairstyles. Thomas Moore is said to have set the words of the song to the air Coulin which itself referred to an Irish woman’s preference for her “Coulin” (a long-haired Irish youth) to the English (Nelson-Burns). Diasporal songs have continued, as has their political edge, as evidenced by global recognition of songs such as Bayan Ko (My Country), written by José Corazon de Jesus in 1929, out of love and concern for the Philippines and sung among Filipinos worldwide. Robin Cohen outlines a set of criteria for diaspora that includes a shared belief in the possibility of return to home, evident in songs such as the 1943 Welsh song A Welcome in the Hillside, in which a Welsh word translating roughly as a yearning to return home, hiraeth, is used: We’ll kiss away each hour of hiraeth When you come home again to Wales. However, the immensely popular I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen, not of Irish origin but written by Thomas Westendorf of Illinois in 1875, suggests that such emotions can have a resonance beyond the diaspora. Anti-colonial sentiments about home can also be expressed by long-time inhabitants, as Harry Belafonte demonstrated in Island in the Sun: This is my island in the sun Where my people have toiled since time begun. Though I may sail on many a sea, Her shores will always be home to me. War brought a deluge of sentimental songs lamenting separation from home and loved ones, just as likely to be parents and siblings as sweethearts. Radios allowed wider audiences and greater popularity for these songs. If separation had brought a longing previously, the added horrors of war presented a stronger contrast between that which the young soldiers were missing and that which they were experiencing. Both the First and Second World Wars gave rise to songs long since sung which originated in such separations, but these also had a strong sense of home as defined by the nationalism that has for over a century given the contours of expectations of soldiers. Focusing on home, these songs seldom speak of the details of war. Rather they are specific about what the singers have left behind and what they hope to return to. Songs of home did not have to be written specifically for the war effort nor for overseas troops. Irving Berlin’s 1942 White Christmas, written for a film, became extremely popular with US troops during WWII, instilling a sense of home that related to familiarities and festivities. Expressing a sense of home could be specific and relate to regions or towns, as did I’m Goin’ Back Again to Yarrawonga, or it could refer to any home, anywhere where there were sons away fighting. Indeed the American Civil War song When Johnny Comes Marching Home, written by Patrick Sarsfield Gilmour, was sung by both Northerners and Southerners, so adaptable was it, with home remarkably unspecified and undescribed. The 1914 British song Keep the Home Fires Burning by Ivor Novello and Lena Ford was among those that evoked a connection between home and the military effort and helped establish a responsibility on those at home to remain optimistic: Keep the Homes fires burning While your hearts are yearning, Though your lads are far away They dream of home, There’s a silver lining Through the dark clouds shining, Turn the dark clouds inside out, Till the boys come Home. No space exists in this song for critique of the reasons for war, nor of a role for women other than that of homemaker and moral guardian. It was women’s duty to ensure men enlisted and home was rendered a private site for emotional enlistment for a presumed public good, though ironically also a point of personal hope where the light of love burned for the enlistees’ safe return. Later songs about home and war challenged these traditional notions. Two serve as examples. One is Pink Floyd’s brief musical piece of the 1970s, Bring the Boys Back Home, whose words of protest against the American war on Viet Nam present home, again, as a site of safety but within a less conservative context. Home becomes implicated in a challenge to the prevailing foreign policy and the interests that influence it, undermining the normal public sphere/private sphere distinction. The other more complex song is Judy Small’s Mothers, Daughters, Wives, from 1982, set against a backdrop of home. Small eloquently describes the dynamics of the domestic space and how women understood their roles in relation to the First and Second World Wars and the Viet Nam War. Reinforcing that “The materialities and imaginaries of home are closely connected” (Blunt and Dowling 188), Small sings of how the gold frames held the photographs that mothers kissed each night And the doorframe held the shocked and silent strangers from the fight. Small provides a rare musical insight into the disjuncture between the men who left the domestic space and those who return to it, and we sense that women may have borne much of the brunt of those awful changes. The idea of domestic bliss is also challenged, though from the returned soldier’s point of view, in Redgum’s 1983 song I Was Only Nineteen, written by group member John Schuman. It touches on the tragedy of young men thrust into war situations and the horrific after-affects for them, which cannot be shrugged off on return to home. The nurturing of home has limits but the privacy associated with the domestic sphere has often concealed the violence and mental anguish that happens away from public view. But by this time most of the songs referring to home were dominated once more by sentimental love, often borne of travel as mobility rose. Journeys help “establish the thresholds and boundaries of home” and can give rise to “an idealized, ideological and ethnocentric view of home” (Mallett 78). Where previously songsters had sung of leaving home in exile or for escape from poverty, lyrics from the 1960s onwards often suggested that work had removed people from loved ones. It could be work on a day-by-day basis, as in A Hard Day’s Night from the 1964 film of the same name, where the Beatles illuminate differences between the public sphere of work and the private sphere to which they return: When I’m home, everything seems to be alright, When I’m home feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah and reiterated by Paul McCartney in Every Night: And every night that day is through But tonight I just want to stay in And be with you. Lyrics such as these and McCartney’s call to be taken “...home to the Mull of Kintyre,” singled him out for his home-and-hearth messages (Dempsey). But work might involve longer absences and thus more deepfelt loneliness. Simon and Garfunkel’s exemplary Homeward Bound starkly portrays a site of “away-ness”: I’m sittin’ in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination… Mundaneness, monotony and predictability contrast with the home to which the singer’s thoughts are constantly escaping. The routine is familiar but the faces are those of strangers. Home here is, again, not simply a domicile but the warmth of those we know and love. Written at a railway station, Homeward Bound echoes sentiments almost identical to those of (Leaving on a) Jet Plane, written by John Denver at an airport in 1967. Denver also co-wrote (Take Me Home) Country Roads, where, in another example of anthropomorphism as a tool of establishing a strong link, he asks to be taken home to the place I belong West Virginia, mountain momma, Take me home, Country Roads. The theme has recurred in numerous songs since, spawning examples such as Darin and Alquist’s When I Get Home, Chris Daughtry’s Home, Michael Bublé’s Home and Will Smith’s Ain’t No Place Like Home, where, in an opening reminiscent of Homeward Bound, the singer is Sitting in a hotel room A thousand miles away from nowhere Sloped over a chair as I stare… Furniture from home, on the other hand, can be used to evoke contentment and bliss, as demonstrated by George Weiss and Bob Thiele’s song The Home Fire, in which both kin and the objects of home become charged with meaning: All of the folks that I love are there I got a date with my favourite chair Of course, in regard to earlier songs especially, while the traveller associates home with love, security and tenderness, back at home the waiting one may have had feelings more of frustration and oppression. One is desperate to get back home, but for all we know the other may be desperate to get out of home or to develop a life more meaningful than that which was then offered to women. If the lot of homemakers was invisible to national economies (Waring), it seemed equally invisible to mainstream songwriters. This reflects the tradition that “Despite home being generally considered a feminine, nurturing space created by women themselves, they often lack both authority and a space of their own within this realm” (Mallett 75). Few songs have offered the perspective of the one at home awaiting the return of the traveller. One exception is the Seekers’ 1965 A World of Our Own but, written by Tom Springfield, the words trilled by Judith Durham may have been more of a projection of the traveller’s hopes and expectations than a true reflection of the full experiences of housebound women of the day. Certainly, the song reinforces connections between home and intimacy and privacy: Close the door, light the lights. We’re stayin’ home tonight, Far away from the bustle and the bright city lights. Let them all fade away, just leave us alone And we’ll live in a world of our own. This also strongly supports Gaston Bachelard’s claim that one’s house in the sense of a home is one’s “first universe, a real cosmos” (qtd. in Blunt and Dowling 12). But privacy can also be a loneliness when home is not inhabited by loved ones, as in the lyrics of Don Gibson’s 1958 Oh, Lonesome Me, where Everybody’s going out and having fun I’m a fool for staying home and having none. Similar sentiments emerge in Debbie Boone’s You Light up My Life: So many nights I’d sit by my window Waiting for someone to sing me his song. Home in these situations can be just as alienating as the “away” depicted as so unfriendly by Homeward Bound’s strangers’ faces and the “million people” who still leave Michael Bublé feeling alone. Yet there are other songs that depict “away” as a prison made of freedom, insinuating that the lack of a home and consequently of the stable love and commitment presumably found there is a sad situation indeed. This is suggested by the lilting tune, if not by the lyrics themselves, in songs such as Wandrin’ Star from the musical Paint Your Wagon and Ron Miller’s I’ve Never Been to Me, which has both a male and female version with different words, reinforcing gendered experiences. The somewhat conservative lyrics in the female version made it a perfect send-up song in the 1994 film Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. In some songs the absentee is not a traveller but has been in jail. In Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the Ole Oak Tree, an ex-inmate states “I’m comin’ home. I’ve done my time.” Home here is contingent upon the availability and forgivingness of his old girl friend. Another song juxtaposing home with prison is Tom Jones’ The Green, Green Grass of Home in which the singer dreams he is returning to his home, to his parents, girlfriend and, once again, an old oak tree. However, he awakes to find he was dreaming and is about to be executed. His body will be taken home and placed under the oak tree, suggesting some resigned sense of satisfaction that he will, after all, be going home, albeit in different circumstances. Death and home are thus sometimes linked, with home a euphemism for the former, as suggested in many spirituals, with heaven or an afterlife being considered “going home”. The reverse is the case in the haunting Bring Him Home of the musical Les Misérables. With Marius going off to the barricades and the danger involved, Jean Valjean prays for the young man’s safe return and that he might live. Home is connected here with life, safety and ongoing love. In a number of songs about home and absence there is a sense of home being a place where morality is gently enforced, presumably by women who keep men on the straight and narrow, in line with one of the women’s roles of colonial Australia, researched by Anne Summers. These songs imply that when men wander from home, their morals also go astray. Wild Rover bemoans Oh, I’ve been a wild rover for many a year, and I’ve spent all my money on whiskey and beer… There is the resolve in the chorus, however, that home will have a reforming influence. Gene Pitney’s Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa poses the dangers of distance from a wife’s influence, while displaying opposition to the sentimental yearning of so many other songs: Dearest darlin’, I have to write to say that I won’t be home anymore ‘cause something happened to me while I was drivin’ home And I’m not the same anymore Class as well as gender can be a debated issue in meanings attached to home, as evident in several songs that take a more jaundiced view of home, seeing it as a place from which to escape. The Animals’ powerful We Gotta Get Outta This Place clearly suggests a life of drudgery in a home town or region. Protectively, the lyrics insist “Girl, there’s a better life for me and you” but it has to be elsewhere. This runs against the grain of other British songs addressing poverty or a working class existence as something that comes with its own blessings, all to do with an area identified as home. These traits may be loyalty, familiarity or a refusal to judge and involve identities of placement rather than of displacement in, for instance, Gerry and the Pacemakers’ Ferry Cross the Mersey: People around every corner, they seem to smile and say “We don’t care what your name is, boy. We’ll never send you away.” This bears out Blunt and Dowling’s claim that “people’s senses of themselves are related to and produced through lived and metaphorical experiences of home” (252). It also resonates with some of the region-based identity and solidarity issues explored a short time later by Paul Willis in his study of working class youth in Britain, which help to inform how a sense of home can operate to constrict consciousness, ideas and aspirations. Identity features strongly in other songs about home. Several years after Neil Young recorded his 1970 song Southern Man about racism in the south of the USA, the group Lynyrd Skynyrd, responded with Sweet Home Alabama. While the meaning of its lyrics are still debated, there is no debate about the way in which the song has been embraced, as I recently discovered first-hand in Tennessee. A banjo-and-fiddle band performing the song during a gig virtually brought down the house as the predominantly southern audience clapped, whopped and stamped its feet. The real meanings of home were found not in the lyrics but in the audience’s response. Wally Johnson and Bob Brown’s 1975 Home Among the Gum Trees is a more straightforward ode to home, with lyrics that prescribe a set of non-commodified values. It is about simplicity and the right to embrace a lifestyle that includes companionship, leisure and an enjoyment of and appreciation of nature, all threatened seriously in the three decades since the song’s writing. The second verse in which large shopping complexes – and implicitly the consumerism they encourage – are eschewed (“I’d trade it all tomorrow for a little bush retreat where the kookaburras call”), is a challenge to notions of progress and reflects social movements of the day, The Green Bans Movement, for instance, took a broader and more socially conscientious attitude towards home and community, putting forward alternative sets of values and insisting people should have a say in the social and aesthetic construction of their neighbourhoods as well as the impacts of their labour (Mundey). Ironically, the song has gone on to become the theme song for a TV show about home gardens. With a strong yet more vague notion of home, Peter Allen’s I Still Call Australia Home, was more prone to commodification and has been adopted as a promotional song for Qantas. Nominating only the desire to travel and the love of freedom as Australian values, both politically and socially innocuous within the song’s context, this catchy and uplifting song, when not being used as an advertisement, paradoxically works for a “diaspora” of Australians who are not in exile but have mostly travelled for reasons of pleasure or professional or financial gain. Another paradox arises from the song Home on the Range, dating back to the 19th century at a time when the frontier was still a strong concept in the USA and people were simultaneously leaving homes and reminiscing about home (Mechem). Although it was written in Kansas, the lyrics – again vague and adaptable – were changed by other travellers so that versions such as Colorado Home and My Arizona Home soon abounded. In 1947 Kansas made Home on the Range its state song, despite there being very few buffalo left there, thus highlighting a disjuncture between the modern Kansas and “a home where the buffalo roam” as described in the song. These themes, paradoxes and oppositional understandings of home only scratch the surface of the wide range of claims that are made on home throughout popular music. It has been shown that home is a flexible concept, referring to homelands, regions, communities and private houses. While predominantly used to evoke positive feelings, mostly with traditional views of the relationships that lie within homes, songs also raise challenges to notions of domesticity, the rights of those inhabiting the private sphere and the demarcation between the private and public spheres. Songs about home reflect contexts and challenges of their respective eras and remind us that vigorous discussion takes place about and within homes. The challenges are changing. Where many women once felt restrictively tied to the home – and no doubt many continue to do so – many women and men are now struggling to rediscover spatial boundaries, with production and consumption increasingly impinging upon relationships that have so frequently given the term home its meaning. With evidence that we are working longer hours and that home life, in whatever form, is frequently suffering (Beder, Hochschild), the discussion should continue. In the words of Sam Cooke, Bring it on home to me! References Bacheland, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1994. Beder, Sharon. Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR. London: Zed Books, 2000. Blunt, Alison, and Robyn Dowling. Home. London: Routledge, 2006. Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press, 1997. Cooper, B. Lee. “Good Timin’: Searching for Meaning in Clock Songs.” Popular Music and Society 30.1 (Feb. 2007): 93-106. Dempsey, J.M. “McCartney at 60: A Body of Work Celebrating Home and Hearth.” Popular Music and Society 27.1 (Feb. 2004): 27-40. Eva, Phil. “Home Sweet Home? The Culture of ‘Exile’ in Mid-Victorian Popular Song.” Popular Music 16.2 (May 1997): 131-150. Hochschild, Arlie. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Metropolitan/Holt, 1997. Mallett, Sonia. “Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature.” The Sociological Review 52.1 (2004): 62-89. Mechem, Kirke, “The Story of ‘Home on the Range’.” Reprint from the Kansas Historical Quarterly (Nov. 1949). Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State Historical Society. 28 May 2007 http://www.emporia.edu/cgps/tales/nov2003.html>. Mundey, Jack. Green Bans and Beyond. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1981. Nelson-Burns, Lesley. Folk Music of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America. 29 May 2007 http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/thoerin.html>. Summers, Anne. Damned Whores and God’s Police: The Colonization of Women in Australia. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975. Walter, Bronwen. Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place and Irish Women. London: Routledge, 2001. Waring, Marilyn. Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women Are Worth. Wellington, NZ: Allen & Unwin, 1988. Willis, Paul. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia UP, 1977. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Varney, Wendy. "Homeward Bound or Housebound?: Themes of Home in Popular Music." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/16-varney.php>. APA Style Varney, W. (Aug. 2007) "Homeward Bound or Housebound?: Themes of Home in Popular Music," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/16-varney.php>.

Desire. A longing, craving, hunger. A powerful motive. The representation of hope. Seemingly carnal. While historically the term "desire" has been categorized as an innately human and ultimately basic natural force, within the postmodern context "desire" becomes far more complex and contradictory and accordingly requires more expansive defining. Regardless of the content of the desire, whether it be the desire for romantic love or a successful career or an ice cold soda, whose desire is it? Can we within postmodernity separate the carnal from the calculated, the individual from the collective? How many others are involved in the desires that I have? Where do my desires come from? A dialogue regarding the strategic forces used to create consumer desire is well established within academia, dating back at least twenty-five years. This has been in response to the expansive advertising efforts engineered by industrial corporations which began in the early 1900s as mass production increased, necessitating new consumer markets. This research has provided insights into how advertising developed not merely to inform consumers about product availability, but also to reconstruct consumer perception (Ewen 41). Additionally, this modernist approach to the study of consumer desire has explored how advertisers study "mass psychology" in order to understand the way representations of products work to enhance product desirability (Ewen 47-9). While this dialogue is most important, within postmodernity, questions of representation become even more complex. Building upon questions of how images of consumption operate, we must now ask what, if anything, is behind those images. One of the characteristics of postmodernity is that I remember images of events that I did not witness. For example, while I was not present at the assassination of President Kennedy or during the Viet Nam War, I can recall, both spontaneously and at will, crystal clear visual moments of each historical event. In this postmodern time and space we all share a collective memory of images associated with events we may not have personally witnessed. Given this historically unique phenomenon, and that images often work within the realm of the unconscious, how do I know where my images of desire come from? Moreover, is there a universality that even my most seemingly personal desires maintain? Baudrillard asserts that we live in a world of simulation where referents are lost and we live by a system of signs without origin, no longer able to distinguish the real from the imaginary. He posits, "simulation threatens the difference between the true and the false, the real and the imaginary" (3). Desire forcefully manifests itself as true and real within each of our lives. In our hyperreal postmodern time and space, how can we individually and collectively be able to distinguish what our own true desires are as our I/eyes are mediated in multiple and often invisible ways (Pfohl)? Furthermore, do we desire what is represented in signs that don't actually have an origin in reality? Sociologist Stephen Pfohl writes the following: "The last thing that happened to me was a memory. Flash. Snap. Crack(le). Pop. I was watching television when suddenly I was recalled, taken by a sensational image of a desire to return to a time that never existed. Where does this image of desire come from? Where is it taking me? Where is it taking others?" (6). Combining the works of Baudrillard and Pfohl I am left wondering not only where does desire come from, but do images of desire actually spark our lives? This raises two pertinent questions: 1) as previously stated, we have a collective remembrance of images; therefore, to what extent are desires universal within any given historical time and geographic location, and, 2) who constructs those omnipresent images of desire? To what extent do media conglomerates, advertisers and politicians serve as mediators in our consciousness? I desire an answer to the following question: why is it that I drink diet coke? To quench a thirst or multiple thirsts? When I desire a cold diet coke, what might I gain from satisfying that craving? In the movie You've Got Mail the character played by actor Tom Hanks says: "The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf., decaf., low fat, nonfat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are, can for only 2.95, can get not just a cup of coffee, but, an absolutely defining sense of self. Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino." The promise of both the product and the experience of fulfilling "personal" passion(s) has historically risen and is now at an all-time high. This increase in expectations can bring about two new results: 1) the fulfillment of the desire does not live up to the promise of fulfillment, or, 2) the satisfaction(s) gained from fulfilling the desire are illusions or partial illusions. For example, the first possibility occurs when I purchase a cappuccino to both quench my physical thirst and exert my decision-making ability even if on some unconscious level. Should the latter not occur, the desire for the possibility of the product is felt to be greater then the reality of the product. In the second case, I, as the character in the film asserts, may gain a false sense or illusion that purchasing and consuming this product demonstrates my decision-making ability. Turning to the issue of the universality of our images of desire, what happens to the individual when he/she discovers that the most intimate of desires is shared by countless others? What happens to the value placed upon that desire? In 1908 classical Sociologist Georg Simmel shared the following insight: In the stage of first passion, erotic relations strongly reject any thought of generalisation. A love such as this has never existed before; there is nothing to compare either with the person one loves or with our feelings for that person. An estrangement is wont to set in (whether as cause or effect is hard to decide) at the moment when this feeling of uniqueness disappears from the relationship. A skepticism regarding the intrinsic value of the relationship and its value for us adheres to the very thought that in this relation, after all, one is only fulfilling a general human destiny, that one has had an experience that has occurred a thousand times before, and that, if one had not accidentally met this precise person, someone else would have acquired the same meaning for us. (147) Are all of my desires comparable or even parallel to those of strangers? One does not desire without an object or subject. The desire for romantic passion involves a subject while the desire for a product involves an object. Even desires regarding success that may appear to live only within the individual actually exist within institutions and/or based upon some level of comparison exterior to the individual. The desire for the product or passion does not exist in my body alone but rather in the relation between the object or subject and myself. In our postmodern context the mediating factors between what is desired and the desirous individual are increasingly manifold yet often invisible. I'm going to Starbucks. I want a grande, decaf, low fat, extra dry cappuccino. Obey your thirst! References Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Michigan: U of Michigan P, 1994. Ewen, Stuart. All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture. Basic Books, 1988. Pfohl, Stephen. Death at the Parasite Café: Social Science (Fictions) and the Postmodern. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Simmel, Georg. On Individuality and Social Forms. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1971. You've Got Mail. Warner Bros., 1998. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Patricia Leavy. "Grande, Decaf, Low Fat, Extra Dry Cappuccino: Postmodern Desire." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.5 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9907/grande.php>. Chicago style: Patricia Leavy, "Grande, Decaf, Low Fat, Extra Dry Cappuccino: Postmodern Desire," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 5 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9907/grande.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Patricia Leavy. (1999) Grande, decaf, low fat, extra dry cappuccino: postmodern desire. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(5). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9907/grande.php> (your date of access]).

Saturday, 24 July 1971, Tower Mill Hotel The man jiggles the brick, gauges its weight. His stout hand, a flash of his watch dial, the sleeve rolled back, muscles on the upper arm bundled tight. His face half-erased by the dark. There’s something going on beneath the surface that Murray can’t grasp. He thinks of the three witches in Polanski’s Macbeth, huddled together on the beach, digging a circle in the sand with bare hands, unwrapping their filthy bundle. A ritual. The brick’s in the air and it’s funny but Murray expected it to spin but it doesn’t, it holds its position, arcs forward, as though someone’s taken the sky and pulled it sideways to give the impression of movement, like those chase scenes in the Punch and Judy shows you don’t see anymore. The brick hits the cement and fractures. Red dust on cops’ shined shoes. Murray feels the same sense of shock he’d felt, sitting in the sagging canvas seat at one of his film nights, recognising the witches’ bundle, a severed human arm, hacked off just before the elbow; both times looking so intently, he had no distance or defence when the realisation came. ‘What is it?’ says Lan. Murray points to the man who threw the brick but she is looking the other way, at a cop in a white riot helmet, head like a globe, swollen up as though bitten. Lan stands on Murray’s feet to see. The pig yells through a megaphone: ‘You’re occupying too much of the road. It’s illegal. Step back. Step back.’ Lan’s back is pressed against Murray’s stomach; her bum fits snugly to his groin. He resists the urge to plant his cold hands on her warm stomach, to watch her squirm. She turns her head so her mouth is next to his ear, says, ‘Don’t move.’ She sounds winded, her voice without force. He’s pinned to the ground by her feet. Again, ‘Step back. Step back.’ Next to him, Roger begins a chant. ‘Springboks,’ he yells, the rest of the crowd picking up the chant, ‘out now!’ ‘Springboks!’ ‘Out now!’ Murray looks up, sees a hand pressed against the glass in one of the hotel’s windows, quickly withdrawn. The hand belongs to a white man, for sure. It must be one of the footballers, although the gesture is out of keeping with his image of them. Too timid. He feels tired all of a sudden. But Jacobus Johannes Fouché’s voice is in his head, these men—the Springboks—represent the South African way of life, and the thought of the bastard Bjelke inviting them here. He, Roger and Lan were there the day before when the footballers pulled up outside the Tower Mill Hotel in a black and white bus. ‘Can you believe the cheek of those bastards?’ said Roger when they saw them bounding off the bus, legs the span of Murray’s two hands. A group of five Nazis had been lined up in front of the glass doors reflecting the city, all in uniform: five sets of white shirts and thin black ties, five sets of khaki pants and storm-trooper boots, each with a red sash printed with a black and white swastika tied around their left arms, just above the elbow. The Springboks strode inside, ignoring the Nazi’s salute. The protestors were shouting. An apple splattered wetly on the sidewalk. Friday, 7 April 1972, St Lucia Lan left in broad daylight. Murray didn’t know why this upset him, except that he had a vague sense that she should’ve gone in the night time, under the cover of dark. The guilty should sneak away, with bowed heads and faces averted, not boldly, as though going for an afternoon walk. Lan had pulled down half his jumpers getting the suitcase from the top of the cupboard. She left his clothes scattered across the bedroom, victims of an explosion, an excess of emotion. In the two days after Lan left, Murray scours the house looking for some clue to where she was, maybe a note to him, blown off the table in the wind, or put down and forgotten in the rush. Perhaps there was a letter from her parents, bankrupt, demanding she return to Vietnam. Or a relative had died. A cousin in the Viet Cong napalmed. He finds a packet of her tampons in the bathroom cupboard, tries to flush them down the toilet, but they keep floating back up. They bloat; the knotted strings make them look like some strange water-dwelling creature, paddling in the bowl. He pees in the shower for a while, but in the end he scoops the tampons back out again with the holder for the toilet brush. The house doesn’t yield anything, so he takes to the garden, circles the place, investigates its underbelly. The previous tenant had laid squares of green carpet underneath, off-cuts that met in jagged lines, patches of dirt visible. Murray had set up two sofas, mouldy with age, on the carpeted part, would invite his friends to sit with him there, booze, discuss the state of the world and the problem with America. Roger rings in the afternoon, says, ‘What gives? We were supposed to have lunch.’ Murray says, ‘Lan’s left me.’ He knows he will cry soon. ‘Oh Christ. I’m so sorry,’ says Roger. Murray inhales, snuffs up snot. Roger coughs into the receiver. ‘It was just out of the blue,’ says Murray. ‘Where’s she gone?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘She didn’t say anything?’ ‘No,’ says Murray. ‘She could be anywhere. Maybe you should call the police, put in a missing report,’ says Roger. ‘I’m not too friendly with the cops,’ says Murray, and coughs. ‘You sound a bit crook. I’ll come over,’ says Roger. ‘That’d be good,’ says Murray. Roger turns up at the house an hour later, wearing wide pants and a tight collared shirt with thick white and red stripes. He’s growing a moustache, only cuts his hair when he visits his parents. Murray says, ‘I’ll make us a cuppa.’ Roger nods, sits down at the vinyl table with his hands resting on his knees. He says, ‘Are you coming to 291 on Sunday?’ 291 St Paul’s Terrace is the Brisbane Communist Party’s headquarters. Murray says, ‘What’s on?’ ‘Billy needs someone to look after the bookshop.’ Murray gives Roger a mug of tea, sits down with his own mug between his elbows, and cradles his head in his hands so his hair falls over his wrists. After a minute, Roger says, ‘Does her family know?’ Murray makes a strange noise through his hands. ‘I don’t even know how to contact them,’ he says. ‘She wrote them letters—couldn’t afford to phone—but she’s taken everything with her. The address book. Everything.’ Murray knows nothing of the specifics of Lan’s life before she met him. She was the first Asian he’d ever spoken to. She wore wrap-around skirts that changed colour in the sun; grew her hair below the waist; sat in the front row in class and never spoke. He liked the shape of her calf as it emerged from her skirt. He saw her on the great lawn filming her reflection in a window with a Sony Portapak and knew that he wanted her more than anything. Murray seduced her by saying almost nothing and touching her as often as he could. He was worried about offending her. What reading he had done made him aware of his own ignorance, and his friend in Psych told him that when you touch a girl enough — especially around the aureole — a hormone is released that bonds them to you, makes them sad when you leave them or they leave you. In conversation, Murray would put his hand on Lan’s elbow, once on the top of her head. Lan was ready to be seduced. Murray invited her to a winter party in his backyard. They kissed next to the fire and he didn’t notice until the next morning that the rubber on the bottom of his shoe melted in the flames. She moved into his house quickly, her clothes bundled in three plastic bags. He wanted her to stay in bed with him all day, imagined he was John Lennon and she Yoko Ono. Their mattress became a soup of discarded clothes, bread crumbs, wine stains, come stains, ash and flakes of pot. He resented her when she told him that she was bored, and left him, sheets pulled aside to reveal his erection, to go to class. Lan tutored high-schoolers for a while, but they complained to their mothers that they couldn’t understand her accent. She told him her parents wanted her to come home. The next night he tidied the house, and cooked her dinner. Over the green peas and potato—Lan grated ginger over hers, mixed it with chili and soy sauce, which she travelled all the way to Chinatown on a bus to buy—Murray proposed. They were married in the botanic gardens, surrounded by Murray’s friends. The night before his father called him up and said, ‘It’s not too late to get out of it. You won’t be betraying the cause.’ Murray said, ‘You have no idea what this means to me,’ and hung up on him. Sunday, 9 April 1972, 291 St Paul’s Terrace Murray perches on the backless stool behind the counter in The People’s Bookshop. He has the sense he is on the brink of something. His body is ready for movement. When a man walks into the shop, Murray panics because Billy hadn’t shown him how to use the cash register. He says, ‘Can I help?’ anyway. ‘No,’ says the man. The man walks the length of the shelves too fast to read the titles. He stops at a display of Australiana on a tiered shelf, slides his hand down the covers on display. He pauses at Crocodile Hunt. The cover shows a drawing of a bulky crocodile, scaled body bent in an S, its jaws under the man’s thumb. He picks it up, examines it. Murray thinks it odd that he doesn’t flip it over to read the blurb. He walks around the whole room once, scanning the shelves, reaches Murray at the counter and puts the book down between them. Murray picks it up, turns it over, looking for a price. It’s stuck on the back in faded ink. He opens his mouth to tell the man how much, and finds him staring intently at the ceiling. Murray looks up too. A hairline crack runs along the surface and there are bulges in the plaster where the wooden framework’s swollen. It’s lower than Murray remembers. He thinks that if he stood on his toes he could reach it with the tips of his fingers. Murray looks down again to find the man staring at him. Caught out, Murray mutters the price, says, ‘You don’t have it in exact change, do you?’ The man nods, fumbles around in his pocket for a bit and brings out a note, which he lays at an angle along the bench top. He counts the coins in the palm of his hand. He makes a fist around the coins, brings his hand over the note and lets go. The coins fall, clinking, over the bench. One spins wildly, rolls past Murray’s arm and across the bench. Murray lets it fall. He recognises the man now; it is the act of release that triggers the memory, the fingers spread wide, the wrist bent, the black watch band. This is the man who threw the brick in the Springbok protest. Dead set. He looks up again, expecting to see the same sense of recognition in the man, but he is walking out of the shop. Murray follows him outside, leaving the door open and the money still on the counter. The man is walking right along St Paul’s Terrace. He tucks the book under his arm to cross Barry Parade, as though he might need both hands free to wave off the oncoming traffic. Murray stands on the other side of the road, unsure of what to do. When Murray came outside, he’d planned to hail the man, tell him he recognised him from the strike and was a fellow comrade. They give discounts to Communist Party members. Outside the shop, it strikes him that perhaps the man is not one of them at all. Just because he was at the march doesn’t make him a communist. Despite the unpopularity of the cause —‘It’s just fucking football,’ one of Murray’s friends had said. ‘What’s it got to do with anything?’— there had been many types there, a mixture of labour party members; unionists; people in the Radical Club and the Eureka Youth League; those not particularly attached to anyone. He remembers again the brick shattered on the ground. It hadn’t hit anyone, but was an incitement to violence. This man is dangerous. Murray is filled again with nervous energy, which leaves him both dull-witted and super-charged, as though he is a wind-up toy twisted tight and then released, unable to do anything but move in the direction he’s facing. He crosses the road about five metres behind the man, sticks to the outer edge of the pavement, head down. If he moves his eyes upwards, while still keeping his neck lowered, he can see the shoes of the man, his white socks flashing with each step. The man turns the corner into Brunswick Street. He stops at a car parked in front of the old Masonic Temple. Murray walks past fast, unsure of what to do next. The Temple’s entry is set back in the building, four steps leading up to a red door. Murray ducks inside the alcove, looks up to see the man sitting in the driver’s seat pulling out the pages of Crocodile Hunt and feeding them through the half wound-down window where they land, fanned out, on the road. When he’s finished dismembering the book, the man spreads the page-less cover across the back of the car. The crocodile, snout on the side, one eye turned outwards, stares out into the street. The man flicks the ignition and drives, the pages flying out and onto the road in his wake. Murray sits down on the steps of the guild and smokes. He isn’t exactly sure what just happened. The man must have bought the book just because he liked the picture on the front of the cover. But it’s odd though that he had bothered to spend so much just for one picture. Murray remembers how he had paced the shop and studiously examined the ceiling. He’d given the impression of someone picking out furniture for the room, working out the dimensions so some chair or table would fit. A cough. Murray looks up. The man’s standing above him, his forearm resting on the wall, elbow bent. His other arm hangs at his side, hand bunched up around a bundle of keys. ‘I wouldn’t of bothered following me, if I was you,’ the man says. ‘The police are on my side. Special branch are on my side.’ He pushes himself off the wall, stands up straight, and says, ‘Heil Hitler.’ Tuesday April 19, 1972, 291 St Paul’s Terrace Murray brings his curled fist down on the door. It opens with the force of his knock and he feels like an idiot for even bothering. The hallway’s dark. Murray runs into a filing cabinet, swears, and stands in the centre of the corridor, with his hand still on the cabinet, calling, ‘Roger! Roger!’ Murray told Roger he’d come here when he called him. Murray was walking back from uni, and on the other side of the road to his house, ready to cross, he saw there was someone standing underneath the house, looking out into the street. Murray didn’t stop. He didn’t need to. He knew it was the man from the bookshop, the Nazi. Murray kept walking until he reached the end of the street, turned the corner and then ran. Back on campus, he shut himself in a phone box and dialed Roger’s number. ‘I can’t get to my house,’ Murray said when Roger picked up. ‘Lock yourself out, did you?’ said Roger. ‘You know that Nazi? He’s back again.’ ‘I don’t get it,’ said Roger. ‘It doesn’t matter. I need to stay with you,’ said Murray. ‘You can’t. I’m going to a party meeting.’ ‘I’ll meet you there.’ ‘Ok. If you want.’ Roger hung up. Now, Roger stands framed in the doorway of the meeting room. ‘Hey Murray, shut up. I can hear you. Get in here.’ Roger switches on the hallway light and Murray walks into the meeting room. There are about seven people, sitting on hard metal chairs around a long table. Murray sits next to Roger, nods to Patsy, who has nice breasts but is married. Vince says, ‘Hi, Murray, we’re talking about the moratorium on Friday.’ ‘You should bring your pretty little Vietnamese girl,’ says Billy. ‘She’s not around anymore,’ says Roger. ‘That’s a shame,’ says Patsy. ‘Yeah,’ says Murray. ‘Helen Dashwood told me her school has banned them from wearing moratorium badges,’ says Billy. ‘Far out,’ says Patsy. ‘We should get her to speak at the rally,’ says Stella, taking notes, and then, looking up, says, ‘Can anyone smell burning?’ Murray sniffs, says ‘I’ll go look.’ They all follow him down the hall. Patsy says, behind him, ‘Is it coming from the kitchen?’ Roger says, ‘No,’ and then the windows around them shatter. Next to Murray, a filing cabinet buckles and twists like wet cardboard in the rain. A door is blown off its hinges. Murray feels a moment of great confusion, a sense that things are sliding away from him spectacularly. He’s felt this once before. He wanted Lan to sit down with him, but she said she didn’t want to be touched. He’d pulled her to him, playfully, a joke, but he was too hard and she went limp in his hands. Like she’d been expecting it. Her head hit the table in front of him with a sharp, quick crack. He didn’t understand what happened; he had never experienced violence this close. He imagined her brain as a line drawing with the different sections coloured in, like his Psych friend had once showed him, except squashed in at the bottom. She had recovered, of course, opened her eyes a second later to him gasping. He remembered saying, ‘I just want to hold you. Why do you always do this to me?’ and even to him it hadn’t made sense because he was the one doing it to her. Afterwards, Murray had felt hungry, but couldn’t think of anything that he’d wanted to eat. He sliced an apple in half, traced the star of seeds with his finger, then decided he didn’t want it. He left it, already turning brown, on the kitchen bench. Author’s Note No one was killed in the April 19 explosion, nor did the roof fall in. The bookstore, kitchen and press on the first floor of 291 took the force of the blast (Evans and Ferrier). The same night, a man called The Courier Mail (1) saying he was a member of a right wing group and had just bombed the Brisbane Communist Party Headquarters. He threatened to bomb more on Friday if members attended the anti-Vietnam war moratorium that day. He ended his conversation with ‘Heil Hitler.’ Gary Mangan, a known Nazi party member, later confessed to the bombing. He was taken to court, but the Judge ruled that the body of evidence was inadmissible, citing a legal technicality. Mangan was not charged.Ian Curr, in his article, Radical Books in Brisbane, publishes an image of the Communist party quarters in Brisbane. The image, entitled ‘After the Bomb, April 19 1972,’ shows detectives interviewing those who were in the building at the time. One man, with his back to the camera, is unidentified. I imagined this unknown man, in thongs with the long hair, to be Murray. It is in these gaps in historical knowledge that the writer of fiction is free to imagine. References “Bomb in the Valley, Then City Shots.” The Courier Mail 20 Apr. 1972: 1. Curr, Ian. Radical Books in Brisbane. 2008. 24 Jun. 2011 < http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2008/07/18/radical-books-in-brisbane/ >. Evans, Raymond, and Carole Ferrier. Radical Brisbane: An Unruly History. Brisbane: Vulgar Press, 2004.