Tears for fears tour 2019

During a dive on a small island off the coast of Bình Thuận Province, Nguyễn Văn Giởi and other tour guides were able to see hundreds of poisonous crown-of-thorns starfish, which are coral predators. Coral is seriously damaged by crown-of-thorns starfish. — Photo provided by Nguyễn Văn Giởi “When diving to look at coral reefs on Hòn Tranh isle, we saw crown-of-thorns starfish seriously devastate the coral reefs,” said Giởi, a tour guide on Phú Quý Island in the south-central coastal province. He and other tour guides on the larger island of Phú Quý decided to set up a team "to catch these poisonous crown-of-thorns starfish to save coral." According to the Australian Institute of Marine Science, crown-of-thorns starfish are marine invertebrates that feed on coral and occur naturally on reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific region, and when conditions are right, they can reach plague proportions and devastate hard coral communities. The institute’s research has revealed that crown-of-thorns starfish are a major cause of coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef. These starfish can grow to over 50 centimetres in diametre, and one individual can consume over 13 square metres of coral reef per year, according to the New Heaven Reef Conservation Programme’s team in Thailand. When Giởi and other members of the team have free time, they go to Hòn Tranh isle to catch crown-of-thorns starfish. “In one day, we can catch nearly 500-700 starfish. We often catch them in summer because the water is warm for diving,” Giởi said. Compared to the past, more and more crown-of-thorns starfish are appearing because of an imbalance in the marine ecosystem, he said, adding that starfish predators such as giant triton snail and sea urchins are overfished on the island to serve tourism. Sea urchins play a critical role in maintaining the balance between coral and algae. Nguyễn Trọng Tấn, another member of the team, said: “Diving to see coral reefs on Hòn Tranh isle …

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The survey notes that the global economy contracted by around 4.5 percent in 2020, the biggest fall in global activity in several decades. Having recovered from lockdown-imposed weakness in the first half of the year, many economies again faced weakness as a second wave of COVID infections triggered renewed lockdowns. The survey envisions a steady recovery this year, but continued uncertainty limits the bounce in consumer and busines confidence, with pre-crisis output not being reached until mid-2022. The survey also indicates that the Global orders, employment and capital investment indices recorded a further modest improvement, but still point to activity well below the pre-crisis level in the fourth quarter of 2019. The “fear” indices which means the concern about customers and suppliers going out of business, edged lower in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020 but remain elevated, clearly underlining the extreme uncertainty in the global economic outlook at the start of 2021. At the same time, inflation concerns remain negligible with concern about costs staying close to an all-time low. “Last year was the worst for the global economy for several decades,” said Warner Johnston, Head of ACCA USA. “2021 will see recovery, but precisely when and how strong it will be is very uncertain. We anticipate a weak start, followed by a recovery gathering momentum through the second half. Much depends on the evolution of the COVID virus and variants relative to the progress of vaccination programs, and there is great uncertainty surrounding these developments.” Agreed with this points, Raef Lawson, IMA vice president of research and policy analysed the policy responses to the pandemic that have left public finances of most economies in a perilous state with budget deficits in the range of 10 percent to 15 percent of GDP in many countries with debt to GDP ratios well over 100 percent. In North America, confidence dropped in Q4, having jumped by the most on record in Q3. …

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A survey conducted by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc from Vietnam National University – Hanoi reveals that in 10 years from 2009, the number of Vietnamese articles published in international scientific journals increased fivefold (between 1,764 articles in 2009 to 8,234 in 2018). After the introduction of Resolution No.29 in 2013, which promotes scientific research in different fields, only in 2 years from 2017-2018, leading universities in Vietnam possess around 10,000 research result reports announced internationally. Statistics of Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS also display that in 2018, the quantity of annual international announcements related to research result reached nearly 10,000, 70 percent of which belongs to tertiary educational institutes. Vietnam National University – Hanoi and Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City are the two with the most articles. Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha commented that since 2014, 23 universities in Vietnam have piloted comprehensive autonomy in operation, in accordance with Resolution No.77 by the Government. This means more organizational-scaled prizes and awards for successful research and published articles. Following that was the implementation of the Law on Higher Education on July 1, 2019. They have become the driving force for bustling scientific research activities among tertiary educational institutes in the country, leading to an impressive breakthrough in both training and researching tasks. As a consequence, in 2019, Vietnamese tertiary education was ranked 68/196 nations worldwide, an increase of 12 positions compared to 2018. 2019 was also the first year that 4 Vietnamese universities appeared in the list of Top-1000 Global Best Universities and 11 in the list of Top-500 Asian Best Universities. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc voiced his opinion that there should be different policies for research groups of different fields. These policies should be sensibly adjusted to ensure the …

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