JSPS RONPAKU (Dissertation Ph.D.) ProgramAbstracts of Dissertation for FY 2012

Overseas Fellowship Division, JSPS

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-ronpaku/

Message from JSPS

The RONPAKU (Dissertation PhD) Program was inaugurated in 1978

as a centerpiece initiative within JSPS menu of activities directed to Asian

and African countries. Under it, support is given to excellent Asian and

African researchers who wish to earn a doctorate from a Japanese university

by submitting a dissertation, without matriculating a doctoral course.

Up to FY 2012, some 663 researchers have obtained their PhDs through

the RONPAKU Program. This booklet contains abstracts from the 24

RONPAKU fellows who “graduated” from the program in FY 2012. We will

be happy if this collection of their abstracts is of encouragement to current

RONPAKU fellows and researchers from Asia and Africa who will be

eligible to enroll in the program from next year. We look forward to the ties

cultivated among RONKAKU fellows and Japanese researchers through

participation in this program accruing to the building of a robust researcher

network within the Asian and African community.

Finally, it is with great expectation that we look forward to the future

activities and contributions of the researchers who have earned their PhDs

through this program.

February 2014

Takeshi KameiHead

Overseas Fellowship Division

International Program Department

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

CONTENTS

About RONPAKU Program 1

Kabirul BASHAR 5

Aijun LI 7Limin SHAO 9

Kangjam Rekha DEVI 12Dinesh Kumar CHANDRAKER 16

Maryoko HADI 18Laras TURSILOWATI 20Suwito AWIT 22

Hassan SHIRAZI 24Zeinab SALEHI 26

Young Nam CHUN 31Jaemu LEE 33Young Deuk KIM 36Seongkon LEE 39

Shamsul Azhar SHAH 42Harvinder Kaur DHARAM SINGH 43

Rentsenkhand SAMBUU 47

Kamal Kumar PHUYAL 49

Ma. Carmelita Robielos ALBERTO 52

Cem Bulent USTUNDAG 55

Thiem Dinh VU 59Truong Le HOANG 64Anh Duc NGUYEN 72Thi Minh Thi TRAN 74

BANGLADESH

CHINA

INDIA

INDONESIA

IRAN

KOREA

MALAYSIA

MONGOLIA

NEPAL

PHILIPPINES

TURKEY

VIETNAM

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The aim of JSPS's RONPAKU (Dissertation PhD) Program is to provide tutorial and financial support to promising young researchers in Asia and Africa who wish to obtain their PhD degrees from Japanese universities through the submission of a dissertation without going through a doctoral course. Grantees under the program (RONPAKU Fellows) are given the opportunity to visit their Japanese advisor to receive direct supervision at the Japanese university where they will submit their PhD thesis.

Since the program launched in 1978, 663 RONPAKU Fellows have obtained their PhDs under the program. The number of such fellows by country is as follows:

About RONPAKU Program

* Indian counterpart organization (DST) is off the list nominating organization from FY 2008.* Korean counterpart organization (NRF) is off the list nominating organization from FY 2012.* Singapore counterpart organization (NUS) is off the list nominating organization from FY 2001.

Country CounterpartOrganizations

Number of Ph. D.Awardees

Number ofCurrent Fellowsas of April 2013

Eligibility Country

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Eligibility

Number of Fellowships

Duration of Fellowship

This program is offered to researchers in the following countries

ASIA (including Middle East countries)Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh*, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China*, Georgia, India, Indonesia*, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyz, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia*, Maldives, Mongolia*, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines*, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand*, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam*, and Yemen

AFRICA (since FY 2010)Algeria, Angora, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt*, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Each applicant for the Program must be a researcher who● belongs to a university or research institution in the above-listed countries.● already holds a full-time position as a researcher in a university or research

institution in his/her home country or will likely be appointed to such a position by 1 April of the starting year of the fellowship. (JSPS also treats Taiwanese and Palestinian researchers in this manner.)

● is 45 years of age or younger as of 1 April of the starting year of the fellowship. (~JFY2011, Under age 49)

About 30 per year

Up to 5 years (~JFY2011), Up to 3 years (JFY2012~)

* These nine countries have JSPS counterpart organizations that assist in applicant nomination and program implementation.

JSPS Support

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(For fellows selected by JFY 2011)● RONPAKU Fellows may visit their Japanese host university once a year for

a maximum period of 90 days for the purpose of studying under the supervision of their Japanese advisor.

● JSPS provides RONPAKU Fellows with a roundtrip international air ticket (economy class), maintenance allowance and medical/accidental insurance, and covers expenses related to dissertation submission during their stays in Japan.

● The Japanese advisor may visit the RONPAKU fellow’s home university or research institution once a year for a maximum period of 30 days for the purpose of supervising RONPAKU Fellow’s study.

● JSPS provides Japanese Advisors with a roundtrip air ticket (economy class) and maintenance allowance, and covers their visa issuance fees and supervising expenses during their stays in the fellow’s country.

● During the fellow’s stay in Japan, JSPS provides the Japanese Advisor with an allowance for supervising his/her study at the host institution.

For fellows (will be) selected after JFY 2012● Total funding provided to Japanese host university Maximum of 3.6million yen (Up to 1.2million yen per fiscal year)● The following expenses can be covered by the above funding:

Travel expenses between Japan and RONPAKU fellow’s home country, and within Japan by the fellow and his/her Japanese advisors; expenses incurred in conducting research in Japan and fellow’s home country; and other expenses related to the fellow’s dissertation submission (based on Japanese host university’s regulations), etc.

● Details JSPS will contract the Japanese host universities, conclude a contract with

them to commission the RONPAKU program operation, and provide them with funding of up to 1.2 million yen per fiscal year. RONPAKU fellows will receive travel expenses and other necessary expenses through the Japanese host universities based on its regulations.

As this program is administered based on the annual budget for each Japanese fiscal year (from 1 April to 31 March), JSPS cannot carry over the remittance of any allowances or other payments to the following fiscal year.

* Each fiscal year, at least 70% of total funding must be used for travel expenses.

Contact Information

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We are happy to receive news of post-fellowship activities expanding their own initiative and opinion of our RONPAKU Program. Please email your comments to the JSPS RONPAKU Program.

JSPS RONPAKU ProgramOverseas Fellowship DivisionInternational Program Department, JSPSAddress: 5-3-1, Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083 JAPANTEL: +81-(0)3-3263-2368FAX: +81-(0)3-3263-1854Email: ronpaku@jsps.go.jp

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Vector Incrimination in Malaria Endemic Hilly Areas in Bangladesh

Kabirul BASHAR UGC - 10929

Assistant Professor,Department of Zoology,Jahangirnagar University

Japanese Advisor : Nobuko TUNOAssociate Professor, Kanazawa University

Mosquito surveillances were conducted in four malaria endemic areas in Bangladesh during June 2009 to June 2012 to know the vectorial capacity of Anopheles species for the control of malaria. I studied the blood-feeding patterns, Plasmodium infection status and seasonal abundance of Anophelines and their association with environmental factors and malaria incidence. Knowledge, attitude and practices of the villagers’ regarding malaria and its vector were tested using standard pre-tested questioners’ during the study.

Thirty one species of Anopheles mosquito were collected from the study areas. An. baimai, An. minimus s.l., An. annularis, An. jamesii, An. maculates s.l., and An. pallidus are more or less anthropophilic, whereas most of the other species are zoophilic. All species of Anopheles (N=4,724) were tested for P. falciparum, P. vivax 210 and P. vivax 247 CSP, of which 10 species were found positives. Initially 144 samples were found positives by standard CSP- ELISA but the numbers of positives declined to 85 when the samples were tested after heating at 100º C for 10 minutes. The CSP positives species were; An. annularis, An. baimai, An. barbirostris, An. jeyporiensis, An. karwari, An. kochi, An. minimus s.l., An. peditaeniatus, An. philippinensis and An. vagus. The circumsporozoite rates was 3.05% in ELISA applying non-heated samples, and was found to be 1.80% in ELISA applying heated samples.

Anopheles vagus and An. philippinensis were the dominant species in Bangladesh present almost throughout the year with major peaks in March and smaller peaks in September but An. baimai and An. willmori were found during monsoon (July - September) only. Rainfall and t empera tu re were the mos t significant variables influencing An. baimai, An. willmori, An.

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vagus, and An. subpictus density in Kumari. Abundance of these four species positively related to malaria cases. Monte Carlo permutation test shows the significance of rainfall (P <0.01) and temperature (P <0.05) on the abundance of Anophelines species.

Around 86% of the respondents knew that mosquito bite is responsible for the causation of malaria. However, nearly 14% knew about the mode of transmission. Significant relation of malaria (P <0.05) with roof of the house were found in Lama, but insignificant relation with the use of bed net, insecticides and domestic animals of the households. Around 96% of people were using bed nets to prevent malaria. But, it was not found very effective in prevention in Bangladesh.

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Japanese Advisor : Jianwu DANGProfessor, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku

Encoding and Decoding of Emotional Speech: a Cross-Cultural and Multimodal Study between Chinese and Japanese

Aijun LI CASS - 10812

Professor and Director of the laboratory of Phonetics and Speech Science,Institute of Linguistics,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Daily interactive communications involve the processing of verbal and nonverbal emotional cues from auditory and visual stimuli. The encoding and decoding schemes of emotional speech, however, have not been fully investigated in an interactive communication framework. Therefore, the present research is concerned with the encoding and decoding process of emotional speech during interactive communications based on an improved Brunswik’s Lens Model. In this conceptual model, emotional speech is encoded by the distal features of the speakers, which are transmitted through multimodality transmission channels. It is decoded by the listeners, in which the emotional attributes are achieved to be the proximal percepts. The encoding and decoding of the emotion are modulated by the speaker and listener’s language and cultural backgrounds, as well as the transmission channels. This hypothesis is taken as the basic consideration for the present study on multimodal emotional speech communication.

In order to clarify the processing of emotional encoding and decoding in speech, three research issues have been examined through emotional speech perception, production and simulation for two typologically different languages, i.e., Chinese and Japanese. Specifically, (i) The decoding scheme is explored by carrying out four perceptual experiments in four transmission channels, i.e., vocal only (Aonly), facial only (Vonly), vocal & facial congruent (AVC) and vocal & facial conflicting (CAV). The study focuses on the linguistic and cultural effects on the perception of emotion attributes and proximal cues transmitted in multimodality channels; (ii) The encoding scheme is addressed by the analysis of the articulatory, segmental and suprasegmental acoustic features in both Japanese and Chinese; (iii) The relationship between encoding and decoding is checked by the simulation and perception of the expressive Chinese boundary tones.

The approached major findings are as follows: (i) The listeners are able to recognize the portrayed emotions better than chance scores in three modalities, e.g., Aonly, Vonly and AVC. Additionally, they are able to recognize some common vocal and facial action features (e.g., proximal cues), which indicate that the emotional perception has cross-cultural psychological foundations. However, different speakers have their own encoding strategies. When facial expressions are

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presented (e.g.,Vonly or AVC), the intended emotions are better decoded than the Aonly condition. Stimulus context does not affect emotional decoding, but negative emotions are more related to speaking context than positive ones; (ii) Emotional McGurk effect can be observed in both Chinese and Japanese speakers, however, their patterns are not consistent; (iii) Distal cues of the articulatory and acoustic features of the Japanese and Chinese emotional vowels are analyzed by the adoption of EMA data. The results show that there are common features across the two cultures. For instance, the acoustic vowel space varies significantly across emotions. ‘Sad and Angry’ vowels raise tongue body higher than other emotions such as ‘Neutral’ or ‘Happy’. The lip protruding feature is shared by both ‘Angry’ and ‘Sad’. In the other hand, different features can be obtained in two languages. For example, the acoustic space in Chinese moves downwards with the increase of emotion arousal. In Japanese, ‘Angry’ is characterized by a horizontally compressed acoustic space, and ‘Sad’ by a vertically compressed acoustic space. The articulatory encoding of the oral tract may differ signif icantly even for perceptually close emotions; (iv) Supra-segmental acoustic analysis shows that overall variations of emotional intonations are distinct. Chinese exhibits greater magnitude of F0 excursion than Japanese. The successive addition boundary tones (SUABT) are employed by the Chinese speakers to convey expressive information, such as the expression of ‘Disgust and Anger’ by a kind of ‘Falling’ SUABT, and ‘Happiness or Surprise’ by the ‘Rising’ SUABT, with the first part of boundary tone as its lexical tone and the second as an expressive tone; (v) Through the manipulation of a neutral intonation with a falling SUABT which has various F0 slope and duration, it conducted a perceptual experiment to separate the interaction between the form of Chinese SUABT and its expressive function. The results show that the mapping between the form of SUABT and its pragmatic function is a many-to-many relation. The results further reveal that the SUABT is one of the components rather than the unique element encoded to express emotions; (vi) The PENTA model is adopted to simulate both Japanese and Chinese emotional intonations. A new encoding scheme is proposed by setting two targets for Chinese boundary tones. The results suppor t the claim that the performance has been improved s ign i f i can t ly by th i s new encoding scheme. This suggests tha t the encoding scheme should take the new component of SUABT into consideration to approach bet ter emotional decoding performance.

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Japanese Advisor : Hiroyuki KANEKIYOProfessor, Kyushu University

Planning Requirements for the Sustainable Conservation of Landscape Features in Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area from Considering the Existing Liyuan Blocks, China

Limin SHAO CSC - 10821

Professor,School of Architecture and Landscape Design,Shandong University of Art and Design

The objective of this dissertation was to identify the planning requirements for sustainable conservation of landscape features in Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area from considering the existing Liyuan blocks.

Qingdao City lies in the south of Shandong Peninsula on the Jiaozhou Bay, Coast of the Yellow Sea, China. Qingdao City has begun to be built and developed under the German and Japanese rule in the early 20th century. The unique landscape of Qingdao City featured buildings accumulated by the time on the natural topography.

However, the recent urban development is affecting the unique landscape of Qingdao City and rapidly undergoing a complete change of its features. The study about the landscape conservation of Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area has been hard to carry out because the difficulty to collect documentation and references. With this in mind, this dissertation intended to identify the planning requirements to conserve landscape characteristics in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area from the view of existing features of Liyuan buildings and Liyuan blocks, which reflect the historical process and natural changes of Qingdao City.

This dissertation consisted of seven chapters as follow.Chapter 1

First at all, historical reference materials about the old city area, the Historical and cultural Protected Area, and Liyuan blocks were collected and investigated. Followed, four main objectives were established as shown below:

(1) To identify the requirements that demand the city fixed framework for the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area, the target landscape elements, the contents of the city redevelopment plans and the changes of city areas with Liyuan blocks.

(2) To identify the characteristics features of Liyuan blocks and Liyuan buildings, for example, the courtyard of the existing Liyuan architecture in Liyuan blocks, neighborhood ways, streets surrounding neighborhoods,

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characteristics of linking spaces to the city and the existing uses in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area.

(3) To identify the requirements that could support the recognition of Liyuan block characteristics by inhabitants and the aspects that may encourage inhabitants to live there.

(4) To identify the requirements to conserve the visual qualities of places from where people can recognize the Old City area and Liyuan blocks in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area.

Chapter 2The study shows the document analysis, field work and the questionnaire

survey for Liyuan block’s inhabitants in correspondence with the objectives mentioned in chapter 1.Chapter 3

The characteristics of the preservation system for the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area were recognized. In addition, the study investigated the existing, changing and disappearing situations of Liyuan blocks, and the subjects to be considered in the preservation and utilization of the Old City in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area.Chapter 4

The requirements to conserve the landscape characteristics of Liyuan buildings and blocks that are disappearing by urban redevelopment projects were investigated through the analysis of topographical maps, an aerial photo and reference documents. Furthermore, field surveys were utilized to investigate the peoples’ activities in Liyuan blocks, characteristics of neighborhoods, as perceived from courtyards and minor streets in Liyuan blocks, and the sites of new Liyuan buildings.Chapter 5

With base in the results from chapters three and four, questionnaire surveys for inhabitants living in the Liyuan buildings and blocks were carried out. It was also analyzed the inhabitant’s perceptions on amenities, and the inhabitant’s willingness for visiting the Liyuan buildings and blocks. The needs and requirements that may encourage people to keep living in Liyuan buildings and blocks were recognized.Chapter 6

First at all, some viewpoints to observe the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area were set based on the geographical features of Qingdao City. The viewpoints from where people usually observe Liyuan buildings and blocks were identified through the analysis of field surveys and panoramic photographs. Finally, the conditions in which a view could be obstructed were recognized.Chapter 7

The planning requirements for sustainable conservation of the landscape

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features in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area were identified considering the third, fourth and f ifth chapters’ results. The possibilities for conservation and development of Liyuan buildings and blocks were also investigated.Conclusion

In order to develop a planning approach for the sustainable conservation of landscape features in the Qingdao Historical and Cultural Protected Area from considering the existing Liyuan blocks, some planning requirements were identif ied, for instance, an intentional management program of maintenance activities implemented by inhabitants in order to keep the good landscape features of Liyuan buildings and blocks, succeeding the characteristics of the Liyuan buildings and block’s design and decoration, saving landscape setting in middle range distance from the viewpoints to Liyuan buildings and blocks, as well as controlling the vegetation growth around viewpoints.

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Molecular epidemiological studies on paragonimiasis and pulmonary tuberculosis in northeastern India

Kangjam Rekha DEVI IND - 10802

Scientist C,Regional Medical Research Centre,Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Japanese Advisor : Takeshi AGATSUMAProfessor, Kochi University

Human paragonimiasis is a major food-borne parasitic disease caused by lung flukes belonging to the genus Paragonimus of the family Paragonimidae. Paragonimus infection in humans is caused by eating undercooked / raw infected crabs and crayfishes and affects at least 22 million people worldwide. The public health and economic impact of paragonimiasis is considerable in terms of morbidity and loss of productivity and this disease is often misdiagnosed as smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) because of overlapping clinical manifestations including chest pain, cough, haemoptysis and confusing chest radiological findings. Previously, paragonimiasis was known to occur in India only in the state of Manipur and was suspected to be caused by Paragonimus westermani. However, the evidence for the presence of P. westermani group of lung flukes in India was scant. In particular, unambiguous molecular and morphological evidence showing the presence of P. westermani complex in India was lacking. Moreover, the identity of the species of lung fluke causing human infection in India was also not known with certainty and there was no information on the prevalence and clinicoradiological features of paragonimiasis in the community. Keeping the above facts in view studies were initiated to: (i) identify the aetiological agent of human paragonimiasis in nor th eastern region of India using DNA sequences from ova collected from sputum of infected patients, (ii) describe the prevalence of human infection in the community, (iii) repor t the c l in ical prof i le and r a d i o l o g i c a l f e a t u r e s o f t h e pulmonary paragonimiasis cases detected in the population, (iv) detect prevalence of paragonimiasis and tuberculosis among coughers in the r emote r u ra l communi t i e s , (v ) identify medically important lung

Figure 1 Mitochondrial genome of Indian Paragonimus westermani type 1. In the centre is adult worm.

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fluke species prevalent in study area, (vi) identify crab species acting as intermediate host of lung flukes, (vii) determine prevalence of metacercarial infection in crabs, (viii) develop adult lung fluke in experimental rodent models for determining adult morphology and molecular characterization, (ix) clone and characterize of Phospagen kinase (a potential drug target) of Indian isolate Paragonimus westermani.

Presence of three distinct genotypes within the Paragonimus westermani complex in northeastern India

Surveys of the freshwater crabs Maydelliatelphusa lugubris in NE India revealed two morphologically distinct types of lung fluke metacercariae. Phylogenetic analyses, using DNA sequences from ITS2, 28S and cox1 gene regions indicate that these lung metacercariae belong to P. westermani complex. Type 1 metacercariae have a more basal position within the complex whereas type 2 metacercariae are closely related to the relatively derived forms of P. westermani from NE Asia (Japan, Korea, China) and Vietnam. A third type of metacercaria (type 3), detected in another crab host, Sartoriana spinigera in Assam, was phylogenetically close to P. siamensis, also a member of the P. westermani group. Thus molecular evidence has demonstrated the existence of three genotypes of lung flukes within the Paragonimus westermani complex in NE India.

Human pulmonary paragonimiasis due to Paragonimus heterotremus

Initial parasitological and immunological surveys revealed that paragonimiasis was endemic in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. DNA extracted from eggs from the sputum of patients from Arunachal Pradesh was sequenced. Analyses of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of nuclear rDNA revea led tha t the spec ies respons ible i s Paragonimus heterotremus. Chronic cough (97.2%) and haemoptysis (83.3%) were common respiratory symptoms among egg-positive cases. Chest radiography (n = 68) images from egg-positive cases showed that air space consolidation (75%), cavitary lesions (14.7%) and mediastinal adenopathy (11.8%) were very frequent lesions. Less frequent f indings were nodular lesions, bronchiectasis, mediastinal adenopathy, pleural thickening and pleural effusion.

Figure 2 Lung of experimental rat showing cyst containing Paragonimus westermani worms.

Figure 3 Chest CT scan of egg positive human case infected with Paragonimus heterotremus

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Active detection of tuberculosis and paragonimiasis in the remote areas in North-Eastern India using cough as a simple indicator

We also performed a cross-sectional study in 63 remote villages from two states Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to determine prevalence of undiagnosed tuberculosis and paragonimiasis cases using cough as a simple indicator. In Arunachal Pradesh 2961 individuals aged 5 years and above were examined. The prevalence of new smear positive TB in Arunachal Pradesh was 3.7 per 1000 persons. In Assam on the other hand the prevalence of new smear positive TB cases was 7.8 per 1000 population. Sero-positivity of paragonimiasis in coughers of Arunachal Pradesh was 7.6% (n=1091) which was significantly higher (p<0.01) as compared to that in Assam (1.2%, n=321).

Mitochondrial gene sequences of Indian Paragonimus westermani type 1.In this study complete sequences of 12 genes encoding mitochondrial

enzymes (cox3, CYTB, ND4L, ND4, ATP6, ND2, ND1, ND3, cox1, cox2, ND6 & ND5), 2 ribosomal RNA genes (16S & 12S), and 23 tRNA genes of P. westermani were determined. All genes were transcribed in same direction. Only 21 tRNAs had characteristic cloverleaf secondary structure while 2 other tRNAs had smaller than usual D stems and loops. In tRNA-Ser even D-arm was absent and replaced by D-replacement loop. The gene arrangement, direction of transcription and composition was determined by comparison with previously reported sequences. Comparison of P. westermani from India with P. westermani from Korea showed overa l l ident i ty of only 84%. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses based on a l l 12 prote in coding genes of mitochondrial genome supports an independent species status of Indian P. westermani-like lung flukes. Similar results are generated using 16S and12S ribosomal genes.

Molecular cloning and characterization of phosphagen kinases from Paragonimus westermani lung fluke of India.

Phosphagen kinases (PKs) are enzymes that p l ay a key r o l e i n m a i n t a i n i n g e n e rg y homeostasis in the cells of various animal species by catalyzing the reversible transfer of high-energy phosphoryl groups of ATP to naturally occur ring guanidine compounds. We have completed the entire cDNA sequence of two-domain PK from the Indian origin lung fluke,

Figure 4 showing homology model of PK

Figure 5 showing the interaction between tauracymine and phosphagen kinases binding site

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Paragonimus westermani Type1, the PK was also cloned i t in pMAL plasmid and expressed the enzyme in Escherichia coli (TB1). By enzyme kinetic studies it was found that both the domains showed activity for the guanidine substrate taurocyamine. Since TK plays a key role in energy metabolism and is not present in mammals, TK could be possible novel chemotherapeutic target against P. westermani.

Incrimination of crab intermediate hosts of lung flukesMaydelliathelphusa lugubris, Barytelphusa cunicularis, Indochinamon

manipurense and Sartoriana spinigera were found to be important crab hosts of lung flukes in India.

Development of rodent model for pulmonary Paragonimiasis.Wistar rats were experimentally infected with metacercariae of Paragonimus

westermani. Rats were sacrificed at 18, 36, 48, 63 and 77 days post-infection to determine recovery rate of worms from different organs. An overall recovery rate of 55.7%. Most were recovered from the lungs (53.7%) followed by the pleural cavity (27.3%), skeletal muscles (9.0%), peritoneal cavity (8.6%) and liver (1.4%). The proportion of worms recovered from sites other than the lungs decreased dramatically during the course of the experiment. The adult worms recovered from experimental animal rats were used for morphological, immunological and sequencing studies.

ConclusionThe findings of the present study suggest that paragonimiasis and pulmonary

tuberculosis are major public health concerns in North-eastern region of India especially in the remote places. Paragonimus heterotremus is the major parasite for causing human pulmonary infection. In addition our studies have confirmed the existence of three members of Paragonimus westermani complex in India. Important fresh water crab hosts acting as intermediate hosts of lung flukes have also been identif ied in India. Phosphagen kinase gene of P. westermani were successfully cloned in pMAL plasmid and expressed the enzyme in Escherichia coli (TB1). By enzyme kinetic studies it was found that both the domains showed activity for the guanidine substrate taurocyamine. Since TK plays a key role in energy metabolism and is not present in mammals, TK could be possible novel chemotherapeutic target against P. westermani.

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Study on Critical Power for Advanced Heavy Water Reactor

Dinesh Kumar CHANDRAKER IND - 10904

Scientific Officer,Reactor Design and Development Group,Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Japanese Advisor : Masanori ARITOMIProfessor, Tokyo Institute of Technology

As a part of continuous endeavor to enhance the safety level of the nuclear reactors and to meet the challenges for using the large thorium resource in India, the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) has been designed. AHWR is a 300 MWe, pressure tube type, boiling light water cooled and heavy water moderated reactor which utilizes natural circulation for the cooling under normal as well as accidental conditions and incorporates a number of passive safety features. The critical power corresponding to the occurrence of the critical Heat Flux (CHF) is an important design parameter to ascertain the safety margins of reactor. As a part of the present research, existing approaches for the evaluation of CHF has been critically assessed against the experimental data and appropriate models for the evaluation of CHF in a rod bundle was recommended based on this study. In view of the limited applicability of the existing methods, a reliable methodology based on the phenomenological modeling of liquid film dryout for the evaluation of critical power has been established in this thesis composed of seven chapters. To propose the appropriate models of the rates of entrainment and deposition of droplets in an annular two-phase flow having limited validation/recommendation for the reactor application, the CHF experiments in a single channel was conducted under Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) operating conditions. The applicability of these models under the BWR conditions was confirmed and proposed for the a p p l i c a t i o n t o t h e d r y o u t modeling in the rod bundles.

A m e c h a n i s t i c c o d e , FIDOM-Rod has been developed for the analysis of liquid film in the rods of a bundle and validated using the experimental data under the BWR operating conditions. As mentioned, the modeling of deposition and entrainment is vital for the dryout prediction and the proposed models have been

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incorporated in the computer code, FIDOM-Rod which is used in conjunction with the subchannel code for the evaluation of critical power in BWR fuel assemblies. In the present research, the mechanistic modeling of a rod bundle adopts uniform liquid film flow rate around the rod and the excellent prediction of the critical power substantiated this concept having very limited validation in the literature. In addition, a spacer model based on the enhanced turbulent kinetic energy downstream of the spacer has been proposed to study its effect on the performance of AHWR bundle. Finally, the critical power of AHWR has been investigated and the optimized core design was established based on the proposed methodology for the dryout modeling. In addition, based on this study, the possibility of power uprating was found to exist in the present design of AHWR and hence, the enhancement in the power level of AHWR is recommended from economy consideration.

Thus, the thesis deals with the various methods of CHF evaluation including assessments, dryout experiments under BWR conditions, development of methodology for the mechanistic evaluation of critical power in the rod bundles under BWR condition and application of the methodology established. The thesis contributes to the development of AHWR design through the establishment of the methodology for evaluation of the thermal margins in Boiling Water Reactors.

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Earthquake Resisting Timber Structure System Composed of Indonesian Engineered Wood Products

Maryoko HADI LIPI - 10824

Researcher and Sub-Division Head of Research and Development of Building System Division,Research Institute for Human Settlements,Research and Development Agency, Ministry of Public Works, Indonesia

Japanese Advisor : Kohei KOMATSUProfessor, Kyoto University

Some special considerations need to be taken care of when designing earthquake-resistant houses for low-income people in Indonesia. When designing tough and ductile earthquake-resisting houses for low-income people, it is important to pay attention to construction cost low so that the local people could afford to buy.

Research on the use of engineered wood product frame as a structural element, and Fiber Cement Board (FCB)-cum-steel nail as sheathing materials for a typical Indonesia house type has been made. A general calculation method for estimating shear performance of nailed–on-sheathing shear walls has derived. Hence, existing design formula developed for ordinary shear walls with regular nailing patterns cannot be applied in this case. Thus, in order to predict the total behavior of shear walls with nailing patterns either V-shape or arbitrary, modification of existing formula was necessary.

In addition to this, consideration on the nonlinearity due to elasto-plastic characteristics of steel nails is also important. A step-by-step calculation method for predicting shear performance of shear walls with arbitrary nailing patterns was derived. This is followed to looking for the Normalized Characteristic Loop (NCL) model from the experiment results obtained from the cyclic static test of the shear walls. By combining the two models from predicted and experiment results, the nonlinear cyclic load-deformation behavior of shear wall overlapped relatively precisely.

It is also worth noting on the influence of the openings has on a shear wall. To determine the trends in the behavior of shear walls with and without openings, theoretical and experimental studies are conducted through the implementation of cyclic static testing. In this study, as regular nailing pattern was used, hence equations for ordinary design calculations were applied to predict the behavior of shear walls with or without opening when subjected to horizontal push-pull static cyclic load.

Dynamic tests using a small shake excitation machine were also carried out to obtain the relationship between the initial stiffness and natural periods of the shear

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walls.In order to find out whether the strength performance of a simple 3-D test

specimen (design based on ordinary design procedure) could meet with the Indonesian standard requirement, both theoretical and experimental studies on a full-size earthquake-resisting house were studied. Comparisons between experimental result and calculated result showed that the mechanical model developed in this study could predict not only the stiffness of the system but also the yielding strength of the simple 3-D test specimen.

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Impact of land use and land cover changes on the urban climate and environment, studied with satellite observation, GIS and weather research forecast model

Laras TURSILOWATI LIPI - 10825

Researcher,Center for Atmospheric Sciences and Technology,National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN)

Japanese Advisor : Josaphat Tetuko SRI SUMANTYOProfessor, Chiba University

Urban climate and urban environment are influenced by the interactions of various natural and anthropogenic factors. Among such factors, the changes in land use and land cover are especially significant in large cities in relation to the rapid pace of the population increase. Emissions of heat from urban surface materials cause temperature differences between urban and non-urban areas. This situation, often called the urban heat island (UHI), is due to the combined effects of low albedo and high heat capacity of anthropogenic materials, and can drastically alter the conditions of the near-surface atmosphere in the city area through the changes in absorption of solar radiation, evaporation rates, storage of heat and the turbulence and wind conditions. The objective of this study is to analyze the relation between the urban climate variables such as surface temperature, air temperature, and surface energy flux parameters and environmental variables such as the normalized difference vegetation index, Bowen ratio, and evaporative fraction in relation to the relatively long-term land use and land cover changes. The studied areas are large cities in Indonesia, namely, Jakarta, Bandung, and Semarang. The land cover and environmental analyses are carried out using the Landsat TM/ETM data, with the help of the geographic information system (GIS) and meteorological data. In order to simplify the combined use of a number of

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different data sets, the surface energy balance interface software (SEBALIS) has newly been developed on the basis of the Visual Basic platform. This approach has successfully led to the reduction of repetitive and complex tasks subsequently implemented with the existing data analysis and GIS platforms such as ER Mapper and ArcView GIS. Also, the weather research forecast (WRF) model has been effectively coupled to investigate the impact of urbanization on the changes in climate. Important aspects shown and confirmed in this study are that the reduction in vegetation coverage generally leads to noticeable increase in UHI, the radiation energy balance is remarkably dependent on the land coverage, and drought monitoring can be well implemented by analyzing the surface energy balance. As a whole, this study has shown that the comprehensive usage of the remote sensing, GIS, and climate modeling can be quite effective for the quantitative analysis of UHI and related phenomena in large city areas. In the future, these results are expected to be archived and applied for monitoring and controlling the urban climate and environmental by decision makers in large cities worldwide.

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Taxonomy and phylogeny of the Drosophila robusta, quadrisetata and melanica species groups (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Suwito AWIT LIPI - 10919

Researcher,Entomology laboratory, Zoological Division,Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences

Japanese Advisor : Masahito KIMURAProfessor, Hokkaido University

Indonesia is now endowed with huge biodiversity as one of the highest hotspots on earth, but the diversity of Drosophilidae in this region is still poorly investigated. This thesis aims to give light on the diversity of the Drosophila robusta, quadrisetata and melanica species groups in Indonesia and surrounding regions and further to resolve phylogenetic relationships of these groups by a cladistic analysis. Ten new species, 6 spp. of the robusta group, 3 spp. of the quadrisetata group and 1 sp. of the melanica group, are described from Indonesia and surrounding regions. By a cladistic analysis based on 85 adult characters of 33 species, including all the new species reported in this study, of these species groups, the following conclusions are deduced. 1) The 33 ingroup species are divided into two clades: clade I consisting of the robusta species subgroup and the melanica species group and clade II of the lacertosa and okadai species subgroups and the quadrisetata species group. 2) Within the clade I, three subclades are recognized with high support values: the robusta subgroup, the subclade of D. colorata and D. moriwakii, and the melanica group proper. 3) Within the clade II,

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the okadai subgroup proper (excluding D. unimaculata) and the quadrisetata group are recognized as sister clades to each other, but the lacertosa subgroup as the basal, less resolved, paraphyletic group. Based on these results, the classification of the three focal species groups is revised as follows: the clade I is classified as the melanica species group comprising three species subgroups, the melanica, colorata and robusta subgroups, and the clade II as the lacertosa species group, upgraded from a subgroup of the old “robusta group”. Within the latter species group, two subgroups, the okadai subgroup and the downgraded quadrisetata subgroup, are recognized, but all species of the old “lacertosa subgroup” and D. unimaculata, of which phylogenetic positions are more or less uncertain and paraphyletic in the resulting cladogram, remain unassigned to any species subgroup.

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Microstructure Evolution during Reverse Transformation in Fe-High Ni Martensitic Alloys

Hassan SHIRAZI IRN - 10804

Researcher,School of metallurgy and materials engineering, Faculty of engineering,University of Tehran

Japanese Advisor : Tadashi FURUHARAProfessor, Tohoku University

Grain refinement is known as effective way to obtain outstanding combination of strength and ductility. Among grain ref inement techniques, reverse transformation is highly interested in ferrous alloys. Therefore this study is aimed to clarify microstructure change during reverse transformation in Fe-high Ni alloys with lath martensite structure in terms of mechanism of reversion, morphology and crystallography. Austenite reverse transformation from lath martensite structure was studies in Fe-high Ni alloys with 11, 18 and 23 Ni (mass %). In-situ observation by means of confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) and in-situ EBSD were carried out to direct observation. Orientations of austenite and martensite were characterized by using EBSD measurement. Morphological details of reversed austenite was characterized by electron channel contrast imaging (ECCI) equipped with FE/SEM.

It was found that Ni content is an important factor to def ine reversion mechanism, while it changes from martensitic reversion in Fe- 18 and 23 Ni to massive type reversion in Fe-11 Ni. Regardless of reversion mechanism, when there is K-S orientation between reversely formed austenite and initial martensite, austenite memory is found which leads to preservation of grain boundaries and orientation of prior austenite. After completion of martensitic reversion, by further holding, recrystallization is happen by nucleation and growth mechanism throughout orientation of recrystallized austenite is different with un-recrystallized reversed austenite.

Reversion in intercritical annealing region changes the chemistry of constituent phases. During intercritical annealing of Fe-18 Ni at 873 K, at the early stage, a lamellar structure consists of precipitated austenite and initial martensite is formed. By further holding, large white area (single phase austenite) is formed and grows very fast at the expense of lamellar structure without any specific orientation relationship. By applying deformation, mechanism and kinetics of reversion does not change, however the austenite recrystallization kinetics following reversion is accelerated by prior deformation lead to enhancement refinement of reversed austenite. Martensite recrystallization does not occur prior to reversion because deformation structure is appeared even after the reversion is completed.

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In order to clarify the effect of intermetallic precipitation on the reversion, Fe-Ni-Mn alloy is selected as a model system. It is found that reversion behavior is strongly affected by heating rate in this alloy. Substantial structural refinement happens by reversion of very f ine austenite from preliminary precipitate and austenite recrystallization.

Prof. Tadashi Furuhara (supervisor), Hassan Shirazi, Prof. Kouichi Maruyama (referee), Prof. Hiroyuki Kokawa (referee)

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Optimization of novel combined chemical-biological degradation of p-nitrophenol in Iranian aquatic systems

Zeinab SALEHI IRN - 10905

Researcher,School of Chemical Engineering,College of Engineering, University of Tehran

Japanese Advisor : Yoshinori KAWASEProfessor, Toyo University

In this study biologic and photo-chemical degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) was evaluated. In biological degradation performance of pure culture and mixed culture was investigated.

The capability of Ralstonia eutropha H16 to degrade PNP in a slurry bioreactor was studied and modeled . Based on considering growth medium compositions capability of the bacterium for performing of this oxidative event was found to be related to presence of three growth medium nutrients namely, glucose, yeast extract and peptone. The experiments were directed to reduce levels of and then eliminate these common media ingredients. The processes were done through consecutive inoculum transfer program and trend of the operation(s) were monitored by use of HPLC.

Growth adjustment for R. eutropha relevant to the biodegradation of PNP was investigated. Based on considering growth medium compositions capability of the bacterium for performing of this oxidative event was found to be related to presence of three growth medium nutrients namely, glucose, yeast extract and peptone. The experiments were directed to reduce levels of and then eliminate these common media ingrdients. The processes were done through consecutive inoculum transfer program and trend of the operation(s) were monitored by use of HPLC. Complete decomposition of PNP (13 mg/l) by R. eurtopha was occurred in 20 hrs at 30°C and in absence of glucose, peptone while the level of yeast extract was decreased to 80%. The results were discussed in terms of chemotaxis behavior of this Gram- and motile bacterium (R.eutropha). This type of structural bacterial response could be understood when one considers membrane carrier as responsible proteins to respond to organics toxic or nutrient items.

Upon fluctuation of PNP concentration bacterial R.eutropha showed more or less same degradative behavior. R.eutropha species including H16 have flagella and the results have been discussed in terms of probable existence of pollutant carrier(s) such as PNP in the cells’ membrane. Presence of sugar and phosphate transporters has been well documented in bacterial cells.

The effect of PNP concentration with or without glucose and yeast extract on the growth and biodegradative capacity of this bacterium was examined. The

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chemical constituents of the culture medium were modeled using a response surface methodology (RSM). The experiments were performed according to the central composite design (CCD) arrangement considering PNP, glucose and yeast extract as the selected variables whose influences on the degradation was evaluated. Quadratic polynomial regression equations were used to quantitatively explain variations between and within the models (responses: the biodegradation capacity and the biomass formation).

The influence of PNP concentration with or without glucose and yeast extract on the growth and biodegradative capacity of R. eutropha was examined. The chemical constituents of the culture medium were modeled using a response surface methodology (RSM). The experiments were performed according to the central composite design (CCD) arrangement considering PNP, glucose and yeast extract as the selected variables whose influences on the degradation was evaluated (shaking in reciprocal mode, temperature of 30°C, pH7 and test time of about 9 hrs). Quadratic polynomial regression equations were used to quantitatively explain variations between and within the models (responses: the biodegradation capacity and the biomass formation). The coeff icient of determination was high (R2

adjusted=0.9783), indicating the constructed polynomial model for PNP biodegradative capacity explains the variation between the regressors fairly well. A PNP removal efficiency of 74.5% occurred within 9 hr (15mg/L as the initial concentration of PNP with use of yeast extract at 0.5 g/L).

Assuming PNP as the sole energy and carbon sources, the biodegradation behavior of the bacterium was modeled, applying either Monod or a modified form of the later equation with substrate inhibition. Applicability of the kinetic model has

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been tested using slurry bioreactor, applying free cells of R. eutropha.The capability of Ralstonia eutropha H16 to degrade p-nitrophenol with or

without a supplementary substrate (glucose or yeast extract) was investigated. Using PNP as the sole energy and carbon source, the biodegradation behavior of the bacterium was modeled by applying a modified form of the Monod equation that considers substrate inhibition, as suggested in the literature (µ = (µmS/ks + S)(1 −(S/Sm)n)). PNP at a 6 mg/L initial level was degraded within 20 h under the def ined incubation conditions (shaking at the reciprocal mode, pH 7 and temperature of 30°C) however the biodegradation was enhanced when yeast extract included in the test medium (50% reduction in the time for complete degradation). When glucose was used instead of yeast extract in the test medium R. eutropha growth was not supported by this carbohydrate and PNP was degraded in about 14 h indicating degradation time reduced by 1/3. Comparison of R. eutropha growth pattern showed that biomass formation was insignificant when the bacterium grew in the test medium containing only PNP or PNP plus glucose. But by use of yeast extract considerable biomass formation was observed (OD546 = 0.35 versus 0.1). The presence of organic pollutants in natural ecosystems at low levels frequently occurs in form of mixture with other compounds. The findings of the present work were discussed in terms of secondary substrate utilization for R. eutropha at low PNP level

Biodegradation kinetics of PNP in aqueous solution by a gram negative soil bacterium, Ralstonia eutropha was firstly studied in a 50 ml batch reactor. The degradation of PNP was evaluated at initial PNP concentrations ranging from 3 mg/L to 14 mg/L. The rate of PNP consumption in the culture was modeled using several kinetics models in batch condition. PNP degradation by adapted R. eutropha was well f itted to the Monod equation with the pollutant added at initial concentration of 3-8 mg/L, whereas for PNP with initial concentration of 14 mg/L the experimental data were well fitted to the Contois kinetic model. The process of degradation of PNP was scaled up in a slurry bubble reactor with 250 ml working volume in presence of 0.75 L/min air flow rate. The derived kinetic model was validated in the slurry bioreactor by comparison the outlet experimental data of PNP concentration with time and the results showed good agreement between experiments and the model.

In biological degradation by mixed culture an aerobic biodegradation of PNP by acclimated waste activated sludge in a bubble column was examined at varying initial PNP concentrations (from 12.8 to 157 mgL-1), activated sludge concentrations (from 3,530 to 6,300 mg/L) and aeration rates (from 0.3 to 3.0 Lmin-1). The time course of the biodegradation of PNP in a batch slurry bubble column could be divided into three phases, i.e., lag phase, exponential degradation phase and ultimate deceleration phase. The complete biodegradation of 128 mgL-1 of PNP with 3,600 mgL-1 of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) and 1.5 Lmin-1

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of aeration rate was accomplished in 150 min. The present results indicate that the acclimated waste activated sludge is very effective for PNP aerobic biodegradation. The change in dissolved oxygen concentration during the aerobic biodegradation process was also measured. It was found that the oxygen supply strongly affects the PNP aerobic biodegradation. A modified Haldane substrate inhibition kinetics taking account of the lag phase as well as the exponential degradation phase and the ultimate deceleration phase was developed to describe the entire time course of the aerobic biodegradation of PNP. The aerobic biodegradation of PNP by acclimated activated sludge in the bubble column was successfully simulated with the correlation factors of approximately 0.95.

Volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient and oxygen uptake rate in a dense activated sludge slurry bubble column were measured by varying activated sludge concentrations (from 2,000 to 8,000 mg/L) and aeration rates (from 0.3 to 1.5 Lmin-1). The volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient and oxygen uptake rate in the dense activated sludge systems were separately determined by the dynamic methods. While the oxygen uptake rate almost linearly increased with increasing the activated sludge concentration, the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient decreased with an increase in the activated sludge concentration. Their empirical correlations were obtained as functions of activated sludge concentration by fitting the experimental data.

For aerobic biodegradation of PNP by acclimated waste activated sludge the dynamic models for the dissolved oxygen mass balance and PNP degradation kinetics with the correlations for volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient and oxygen uptake rate could successfully simulate the concentration profiles of dissolved

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oxygen and PNP during the time course of an aerobic biodegradation of PNP.In photo chemical degradation of PNP, ,ZnO particles was used. With

increasing PNP loading the degradation rate decreased. The mineralization of PNP was rather slower as compared with the degradation. With a decrease in particle diameter or an increase in surface area, the degradation rate significantly increased. The degradation capability with solar irradiation was found to be superior to UV light irradiation. It was found that 30 mgL-1 of PNP was completely degraded by solar light with the accumulated UV light of around 23 kJL-1 at ZnO dosage of 5gL-1. The degradation PNP by ZnO with UV light or solar light was faster than that by TiO2.

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Japanese Advisor : Kunio YOSHIKAWAProfessor, Tokyo Institute of Technology

Carbonization-Activation of Sewage Sludge for Producing High Quality Gas and Sludge Char

Young Nam CHUN KOSEF - 10814

Professor,Dept. of Environmental Engineering,Chosun University

The general objective of the thesis is to propose a waste treatment process for the by-products of sewage sludge and biogas from a wastewater treatment plant. To do this, the eco-friendly system was suggested the process having two ways. First, conversion treatment of the waste sewage sludge into clean fuel energy and high porosity sludge char; second, hydrogen-rich gas production from the biogas coming from the anaerobic digesters.

For the conversion treatment of the waste sewage sludge, the sequential in-line sludge treatment system was newly designed and verified the process, consisting of the rotary drum dryer, the combined carbonization-activator, the plasma reformer and the adsorber. In addition, the development of each component including the total system integration was conducted for improving the process efficiency. For the hydrogen-rich gas production for the biogas, the plasma-catalyst reformer was designed and verified its performance.

The integrated thermal system with an in-line connection of the combined carbonization-activator, the gliding arc plasma reformer, and the fixed bed tar adsorber was developed.

In the carbonization-activator, the sludge char and producer gas were produced along with a small amount of tar. To improve tar adsorption capability of

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the sludge char, the carbonization-activator was designed for achieving sequential carbonization and activation. In addition, for higher producer gas yield and tar destruction, the plasma reformer was installed at the rear section of the carbonization-activator. The f ixed bed adsorber packed with the sludge char obtained from the carbonization-activator, was tested for adsorption of residual tars.

Therefore, the integrated carbonization-activation system can produce the high quality sludge char and producer gas. The sludge char should be utilized for tar adsorption, and the clean producer gas can be applicable for end-use devices (i.e., gas engines, compressors, etc.).

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Japanese Advisor : Yoshinobu KITAMURAAssociate Professor, Osaka University

Development of Effective Education Systems by Integration of Educational Theories and Computer Technologies

Jaemu LEE KOSEF - 10816

Professor,Department of Computer Education,Busan National University of Education

This thesis describes the development of an effective computer-supported education system. This system reflects educational theories and extended computer abilities to achieve its educational goals.

This study proposes an effective educational system through the use and integration of educational theories and computer technology. This study presents applied case studies in instruction and learning activities. As an example of an instruction system, this study proposes a design method for instructional materials, such as lesson plans and courseware. As an example of a learning system, this study developed e-learning systems that reflect educational models and individual difference theories, and then analyzed their learning effects.

The instructional design system assists in instructional materials design for designers using an ontological model of instruction that was constructed for this study. The expert knowledge and experiences of the instructional design were extracted and saved into the instructional ontology. Novice designers, therefore, can

Picture with professor Yoshinobu Kitamura and Riichiro Mizoguchi (standing from left to right)

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design more easily using the expert knowledge and experience inherent in this instruction system. In addition, an instructional design method using an instructional model template was proposed that could be used without using the instructional ontology or computer. This method f irst asks for the design of frameworks using the instructional model template, and second asks for the design of the content by matching frameworks and real content. This method simulates expert methodology to the greatest extent possible without using the instructional ontology or computer. This proposed methodology was applied to an instructional design class of pre-service teachers in Korea. Its effectiveness was indicated in various ways: comparison and analysis of content, closed and open questionnaires, interviews, and an improvement in instructional model knowledge. Finally, the proposed methods indicated that they help to produce more fluent and systematic content in the instructional design of lesson plans and courseware.

E-learning systems were developed that reflected educational theories. In addition, adaptive learning systems were developed that considered individual differences. This study also applied Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction to an e-learning system for advertising education. This study applied Keller’s ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) theory to mathematics courseware to improve the learner’s motivation when using the courseware. In addition, this study developed a web-based discussion system using Hill’s Group Cognitive Map to improve the efficacy of discussion learning and produce an effectiveness that could lead to active participants in an ethics education class in an elementary school in Korea. This study developed an adaptive learning system that took into consideration various individual differences, such as learners’ achievement, learners’ learning style, and learning task and learning style. This study developed an adaptive learning system that considers learners’ achievements by applying van Hiele’s Theory to geometry learning and supports learning dependent on the students’ levels. This study also developed an adaptive learning system that considers a learner’s learning style and applies Bruner’s EIS (Enactive, Iconic, and Symbolic) theory to mathematics study; it provides personalized learning. Especially, this adaptive learning system automatically diagnoses the learner’s style by analyzing the learner’s learning history and supports changes in the learner’s learning style to more properly reflect the learner’s learning style while the learner is learning. In addition, this study developed an adaptive learning system that considers learning tasks and the learner’s learning style and supports the adaptability of both the learning task and the learning style concurrently.

This thesis consists of the following six chapters.Chapter 1 discusses the research background, objectives, research content and

methods, and a set of definitions of terms.Chapter 2 discusses the theoretical background of this study including

educational theories and computer technologies.

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Chapter 3 proposes a new method to develop instructional materials, such as a lesson plan and courseware. The proposed method in this study develops instructional materials, such as a lesson plan or courseware by utilizing an instructional model template and an ontological model of instruction. The proposed method in this chapter will be applied to designing, and its effect will be analyzed by various methods.

Chapter 4 discusses the development of an e-learning system that applies educational theories. An education model and individual difference theory are applied to the educational theories. The education model applies Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction, Keller’s ARCS motivation theory, and Hill's cognitive group map, while the individual difference theory uses Achievement-Treatment Interaction, Aptitude-Treatment Interaction, and Task-Trait-Treatment Interaction theories.

Chapter 5 focuses on a discussion of the course of effective education system development and the results of an effectiveness analysis. The discussion is largely composed of computer-supported, instructional material design, computer-supported, learning system development; and the application of educational theories, and computer technologies.

Finally, Chapter 6 is the conclusion. Here, study results, the contributions of this study, and future studies will be discussed.

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Young Deuk KIM

Development of Water Footprint Database and Regionalized Water Stress Index at Sub-basins in Korea for Impact Assessment

NRF - 11019

Associate Researcher,Research Planning Office,Rural Research Institute, Korea Rural Community Corporation

Japanese Advisor : Masanori SHUKUYAProfessor, Tokyo City University

Background and objectivesWater footprint assessment helps us to understand how human activities and

products relate to water scarcity and pollution, and provides an insight how the activities and products can become more sustainable from a water perspective. For the assessment it is indispensable to construct water database/inventory, but there is no database in Korea to cover all industry sectors. In addition, Water Stress Index (WSI), a characterization factor at mid-point impact assessment in the perspective of water resources, is limited to annual data at large catchment level suggested by Pf ister et al. (2009). The WSI could not explain the water scarcity properly reflecting regional characteristics since water resources differ basin by basin and period by period.

The aim of this study is to develop a water footprint database at 403 industry sectors covering indirect water and regionalized WSI at sub-basin level in Korea to provide a baseline for water footprint assessment associated with water scarcity. Uncertainty analysis for agricultural sector has been carried out to examine the variability of the estimation. The ultimate goal of the study is to identify hotspots, a specific period of month in a specific river basin in which the water footprint is unsustainable to lower the water stress based on the water footprint assessment.

Methods and scopeGeographically it covers the Republic of Korea with 113 sub-basins for WSI

calculation and temporally 10 year average (1996-2005) for agricultural sector and 2005 for domestic and industry sectors. Scope of water classification is direct and indirect, green and blue, consumptive and non-consumptive, surface, groundwater, recycled and rainwater by water resource types. Direct water for crop has been calculated using water balance model based on Penman-Monteith equation. Other agricultural water use was obtained from statistics and estimation. Water use data in industry and domestic sector were collected from National Census in 2003 by Ministry of Construction and Transportation and 2005 water pollution source survey by Ministry of Environment. For indirect water calculation, Competitive

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Input-output model has been applied at 403 industry sectors. Modified WSI has been developed in consideration of hydrologic features and evaporation in the water bodies of dam by using ratio of storage to runoff in a sub-basin. This study on WSI does not address all aspects of sustainability of water use and just focuses on scarcity of freshwater resources as a limited resource though water use can create problem of water scarcity and pollution.

ResultsUncertainty analysis of evapotranspiration (ET) calculation model shows that

relative humidity (RH) is the most sensitive factor among 4 input climate elements: temperature, wind speed, sunlight hour, and RH. ET calculation during 1996-2005 at 16 provinces and cities is made in the range of 455.6-581.2 mm with average 518.4 mm showing a logistic distribution at 95% confidence level. Water use in the agricultural sector has high direct water share, and industrial sector has high indirect water at most sectors. Most of the crop water is consumptive and direct water except rice. It can be seen that the majority of these sectors are agricultural one and in the food production chain. 13 sectors out of the top 20 sectors were food-related: crop, cereals, vegetables, pulses, potatoes, oleaginous crop, aquaculture, processed seafood, and so on. Wise water management in the supply chain may contribute to water saving in the holistic views, since total indirect water use is 55.3 billion m³, which is 56.1% of 98.4 billion m³ total water use in a year, accounting for 1.28 times of direct water use in volume. As a result of WSI development and case studies, annual average of WSI at 22 basins is 0.52, ranging from 0.13-0.94. Monthly WSIs at sub-basin level can give more useful information to identify hotspots in the water footprint assessment. Hotspots in a year were May and January at the sub-basins, and only three months from July to September were a less-stressed period in terms of water scarcity. West Han River basin and western part of Korean peninsula are the vulnerable basins geographically. But out of WSI at 113 sub-basins, we can observe that the number of sub-basins exceeding the average was 76, which is 65%. It is necessary to apply monthly sub-basin level WSI for the estimation of local water scarcity and the formulation of site-specif ic water footprint reduction strategies from case studies.

ConclusionsWater use intensity using

Input-output analysis and water footprint concept in Korea at all industry sectors can provide a

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baseline data for water footprint inventory. Modified WSI developed at sub-basin level on monthly basis can contribute to the identification and assessment of regional water scarcity and sustainability in terms of environmental aspect. Particularly monthly WSIs enable to assess water stress taking into account temporal variations since water availability and water use fluctuate within a year. It is expected that the water inventory and impact assessment using the WSI will contribute to the improvement of water use efficiency at product level. Water footprint inventory developed in this thesis is a national average that it is advised to be cautious in the impact assessment of water footprint since they have different resolutions temporally and spatially. WSI in this study is concerned about water scarcity on the water resources occurred from the pressure on water demand but not from poor water quality. This is a preliminary study on WSI to look at the quantity issues as a first step. Further works on the grey water and impact assessment need be carried out to complete the water footprint assessment.

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Japanese Advisor : Gento MOGIAssociate Professor, The University of Tokyo

Systematic procedure to generate a strategic energy technology development plan

Seongkon LEE NRF - 11020

Senior Researcher,Energy Technology Research Center,Korea Institute of Energy Research

Humanity is facing depletion of natural resources and disruption of the energy demand-supply balance, both of which are causing climate change and scarcity of energy. Energy crisis is worsening due to growing imbalance between supply and demand for energy. This is happening as the global economy grows and as energy demand by emerging economies, led by China and India, increases. Oil consumption of China had more than doubled from 1997 to 2010. Energy consumption of fossil fuel-driven economies accelerates depletion of global natural resources. Fossil fuel accounted for over 81% of world energy consumption in 2009, according to the IEA world energy outlook 2011. In addition, increased and excessive use of fossil fuels is sharply increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy status is either directly or indirectly influenced by growth of an economy and its efforts to achieve sustainable development. Advanced economies, including the United States, Japan, and Germany, and newly industrialized Korea are taking the lead in the development of green energy technology. After high technology industries, such as of information technology (IT), bio technology (BT), and nano technology (NT), have matured, green energy technology has emerged in the market. Advanced and emerging economies are trying to accelerate economic growth by developing green energy technology and fusion of other technologies with green energy technology. The interest in development of energy technology has been increasing. There is a race towards being the leader in development of green energy technology. Developed and developing countries, led by their governments, have come up with strategic plans to develop energy technology aimed at helping economies cope with problems related with national energy security and green growth. For instance, Korea intends to establish a strategic long-term energy technology development plan for implementing the national agenda of achieving “Low Carbon, Green Growth” and national energy security.

The biggest hindrance to establishment of a strategic energy technology plan is the absence of an systematic procedure to build it given uncertainties of the future. Moreover, there are no strategic plans that apply several multi-criteria decision-making approaches. Most of the existing energy plans apply only one multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. Most of the strategic energy

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plans of developed and developing economies do not have the systematic procedures to implement those. The strategic plans of governments describe the status of a portfolio, which include energy technologies and roadmaps for energy-technology development. In the case of Korea, the government set only a single scenario where oil price will rise to between $120 and $150 per barrel, and where UNFCCC has to consider the present economic status of Korea, which was the seventh largest source of CO2 emissions in 2009. For nations relying on imports to meet a large portion of their energy resource needs, development of energy technology is tantamount to acquisition of natural resources. Korea needs to establish a hierarchy of priorities involving energy technologies. The economy is urged to have a strategic energy technology development plan that considers various scenarios.

This study suggests a systematic procedure to build a strategic energy technology development plan. The said procedure uses a two-stage approach that integrates scenario planning and various multi-criteria decision-making approaches.

The f irst stage involves a four-case scenario where energy security is enhanced and the problem related with energy and the environment is addressed through scenario planning. Scenario planning is commonly used both by the private and public sectors to forecast, and thus prepare for, environment changes. This dissertation covers 10 factors related to the energy problem: oil price change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), natural resource nationalism, world economy trend, Increasing use of nuclear power plants to achieve independence from fossil fuel, energy guzzling industry, energy-technology level and development, energy demand change, low carbon society, and energy independence for the enhancement of national energy security. The five-point scale and TOPSIS approach are used to assess the 10 items and find key variables for making scenarios, taking into consideration the impact on national energy security and the degree of uncertainty. Peer reviews involving 25 experts in energy technology development and energy policy sector are conducted. Two key variables, namely, oil price changes and increasing use of nuclear plants to achieve independence from fossil fuel, are discussed. Four scenarios are established based on oil price changes and nuclear power plant construction.

In the second stage, a criteria and structured hierarchy involving group negotiation by experts and published references are built. Moreover, key variable criteria, such as technical spin-off, economic spin-off, UNFCCC policy, research and development (R&D) budget, and urgency of technical development for the enhancement of energy security, are selected. A survey using peer-review questionnaires was conducted based on pairwise comparison judgments and using the Delphi approach to confirm expert's thoughts and decision. Under the said approach, the experts who served as respondents were made to answer the questionnaires twice to confirm their thoughts. The relative weights of 15 green-

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energy technologies in each scenario case may be calculated as a numerical example. The various results from the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (Fuzzy AHP), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) are compared respectively and concurrently based on the overall viewpoint in each scenario case. The relative results of group clustering, including the positive and negative groups and groups with and without careers, were carried out to analyze the preference and rankings from various viewpoints. The sensitivity analysis was conducted by varying the weight of economic spin-off in the upper level criteria. The insights on the suggested systematic procedure for building a strategic energy technology development plan are described using the two-stage approaches.

This research intends to provide the systematic procedure to generate a strategic energy technology development plan intended to address uncertainties of the future using scenario planning and MCDM approaches. This dissertation provides energy policymakers and decision-makers with a guideline on effective and scientific building of a strategic energy technology development plan using systematic procedure observed in energy policy making and in the energy technology development sector.

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MALAYSIA

Spatial Analysis of Environmental Factors Influencing Typhoid Endemicity in Kelantan, Malaysia

Shamsul Azhar SHAH VCC - 10721

Associate Professor,Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine,UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA

Japanese Advisor : Reiko SAITOProfessor, Niigata University

The determination of the high-risk area and clusters of typhoid cases is critical in typhoid control. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the epidemiology and spatial distribution of typhoid in four selected districts in Kelantan using GIS (geographical information system). A total of 1215 (99%) of the cases were coordinated with GPS (global positioning system) and mapping was done using ArcGIS 9.2. Spatial analysis was performed to determine the cluster and high-risk area of typhoid. Results showed that typhoid incidence was not associated with race and sex. Most affected were from the age group of 5-14 followed by 15-24 year olds. Nine sub-districts were categorized as highly endemic. In addition typhoid has shown a significant tendency to cluster and a total of 22 hotspots were found in Kota Bharu, Bachok and Tumpat with a few sub districts identified as high risk for typhoid. No significant relationships between the treated water ratio and flood risk area were found with the cluster of cases. The cluster of typhoid cases in the endemic area did not appear to be related to environmental risk factors. Understanding the characteristics of these clusters would enable the prevention of typhoid disease in the future.

Picture taken with my supervisor Prof Dr Reiko Saito, Niigata University.

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Developing and Validating a Mobile Learning Pedagogical Model for Distance Learners

Harvinder Kaur DHARAM SINGH VCC - 11025

Lecturer,Institute for Teaching and Learning Advancement,Open University Malaysia

Japanese Advisor : Insung JUNGProfessor, International Christian University

Mobile technologies are becoming more affordable and ubiquitous and worldwide ownership has increased tremendously. In a distance learning environment, mobile technologies are known to speed up communication and hence, the learning process. Studies have indicated that mobile learning can be applied in different learning environment, such as behaviorist, constructivist, situated, collaborative, informal and lifelong learning (Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula, & Sharples, 2004). Among various mobile technologies, there is signif icant interest from educators in using the unique capabilities and characteristics of mobile phones to enable new and engaging forms of learning. Unfortunately, there are very few pedagogical models that are applicable to mobile learning more so in distance education. The inherent attributes of the mobile phones, such as mobility, accessibility and ubiquity provide potential opportunities in distance education, probably even bridge the gaps that the existing models have overlooked. Therefore, there is a need of a pedagogical model that capitalizes the flexibility and accessibility afforded by the mobile phones.

This study was designed to develop and validate a pedagogical model of mobile learning for distance education. The purpose of this study was first, to develop a pedagogical model based on a combination of instructional strategies that included cognitive strategies, motivational strategies and self-directed learning strategies and second, to investigate the effectiveness of this model. The four research questions that guided this study were: (1) What is the effect of the pedagogical model of mobile learning on academic performance? (2) What is the effect of the pedagogical model of mobile learning on learner motivation? (3) How does the pedagogical model of mobile learning influence learner’s self-directed learning? (4) How do learners perceive their mobile learning?

A quasi-experimental research design was used to collect data for the four research questions. A total of 62 first year undergraduate teachers were involved in this study whereby, 35 underwent treatment whilst 27 were used as control. The academic performance and motivation of the participants in the control and treatments groups were assessed before and after the mobile learning treatment.

The research was conducted at Open University Malaysia (OUM). The

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teaching and learning approach at the OUM included: self-learning, face-to-face tutorial classes and online learning. The selected course was HBSC1103-Teaching of Learning Science taught during one semester in January 2012.

The instruments used for collecting data were presurvey, postsurvey, pretest, posttest, Course Interest Survey (CIS), mobile learning journals and interviews.

The pretest and posttest scores were analyzed to answer research question 1 using the t test. The results showed that the treatment group performed significantly better than the control group. From this, the conclusion drawn is that the instructional strategies used for mobile learning were effective for improving academic performance. Further, it was found that the instructional strategies through mobile learning also encouraged active learning and active interaction between learners and instructors and as well as between learners and mobile learning messages. The mobile learning messages that were presented in small chunks of information helped to reduce learners’ cognitive load. In addition, short questions that were sent to the learners’ mobile phones also helped them to store small chunks of information in their long-term memory.

Research question 2 was analyzed using the Course Interest Survey (CIS) questionnaire developed by Keller (2010) and was used to measure motivation in learning the course before and after the treatment for both the control and treatment groups. The effect of mobile learning on motivation was measured by the CIS on four areas: attention, relevance, conf idence and satisfaction (ARCS). The motivation was analyzed with t test between the control and treatment groups. The results showed that there was no significance difference for the motivation. This indicated that at the end of the treatment, there was no evidence to suggest that mobile learning made any difference on the treatment group as compared to the

From left to right: Prof. Dr. Insung Jung, Japanese Advisor, Harvinder Kaur Dharam Singh (PhD student) after PhD dissertation interview on 9 January, 2013.

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control group with regards overall motivation for learning. However, it was noted that the treatment group significantly improved in terms of confidence (the ‘C’ in the ARCS). The motivation strategies for confidence through the mobile learning messages helped the treatment group members to be more confident and have higher self-esteem in succeeding in the course. The three instructional strategies for building confidence were: (1) providing learning requirements by informing key facts (2) providing success opportunities through practice and (3) giving personal responsibilities through feedback (Keller, 2008).

To answer research question 3 on self-directed learning, students’ journals and interview data were analyzed. It was found that learners carried out various activities to demonstrate their self-directed learning for each phase of self-directed learning. It was discovered that by engaging with mobile learning, students were influenced to do the following three major activities: (1) state goals and make plans for learning – (i) plans of when to learn, (ii) plans of where to learn, and (iii) plans of how to learn; (2) use various strategies and processes for learning – (i) read the module, (ii) search for the information, (iii) respond to the SMS question, (iv) work on the activities, (iv) make notes (v) apply learning, (vi) understand the content; and (3) perform self-evaluation of learning – (i) engage in self-learning, (ii) reflecting self-learning. The findings revealed that the learners had demonstrated self-directed learning as there was a push factor that constantly guided the learners on what to do next. The small steps of learning did not overwhelm them to learn on their own and therefore, they were able to follow the activities and respond to the questions accordingly.

Data from journals and survey questionnaires were analyzed to answer research question 4. It was found that learners had a positive perception towards mobile learning. Learners reported that mobile learning was useful for their learning. However, there were some concerns shown on the timing of the message

Graduation ceremony on 27 March 2013

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being sent and learners preferred multiple choice questions that required short answers. Nevertheless, percentage of learners agreed on the possibilities of learning through mobile phone and text messages improved after the treatment.

In conclusion, this pedagogical model of mobile learning was successful in improving learners’ academic performance and motivated learners to be self-directed learners. The significant contribution of this study was that a framework for mobile learning was developed incorporating learning theories and instructional strategies that is uniquely designed for mobile learning to support distance learners. This research has important implications for educators and practitioners of mobile learning for adapting from a role as transmitters of knowledge to facilitators of learning and providing truly learner-centered learning approach. Further research should be performed to investigate the effectiveness of the pedagogical model of mobile learning by using the model with distance learners who may be at higher risk for dropping out from the distance education programs, such as first year learners and low achievers.

Graduation ceremony on 27 March 2013

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Japanese Advisor : Takeshige OTOIProfessor, Yamaguchi University

Assessments of zearalenone contamination in in-vitro maturation and fertilization of gametes

Rentsenkhand SAMBUU MECS - 10940

Principal researcher,Department of Animal Production,Research Institute of Animal Husbandry

Zearalenone (ZEN), a nonsteroidal estrogen-like mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species on several grains, is an estrogen receptor agonist; its distinct estrogenic and anabolic properties in several animal species exert detrimental effects on the reproductive system, resulting in reproductive disorders in domestic animals, particularly in swine. However, the effect of ZEN on the fertilization of sperm and early embryonic development has not been fully reported in the literature.

The f irst series of experiments , were under taken using l iquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to detect ZEN and its metabolites α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) and β-zearalenol (β-ZOL) simultaneously in porcine follicular fluid (FF). ZEN and α-ZOL, but not β-ZOL, were detected in all pooled FF samples collected from coexisting follicles (diameter ≥ 6 mm) with in 10 ovaries. Furthermore, ZEN and α-ZOL were detected in samples pretreated with β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase, but not in those left untreated, suggesting that the FF samples contained glucuronide-conjugated forms of the mycotoxins, which might be less harmful to porcine oocytes because of glucuronidation affecting the receptor binding. Nonetheless, the effects of the glucuronide-conjugated forms should be studied, both in vitro and in vivo.

In the second series of experiments, the influences of acute exposure to zearalenone (ZEN) on porcine oocyte maturation, fertilization, or sperm penetration ability during both in vitro maturation and fertilization were evaluated. First, oocytes were cultured in ZEN-containing (0–1000 µg/l) maturation medium and were then fertilized. Second, oocytes maturing in vitro without ZEN w e r e f e r t i l i z e d i n Z E N -containing fertilization medium.

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The maturation rates of oocytes and the penetration ability of sperm decreased significantly in the presence of 1000 µg/l of ZEN. However, neither increases in the rates of degeneration and DNA fragmentation of oocytes nor reductions in normal and polyspermic fertilization were observed. ZEN had no effects on sperm penetration rates. However, 1000 µg/l ZEN had positive effects on the rates of normal and polyspermic fertilization. Therefore, from a perspective of normal fertilization, results suggest that acute exposure to ZEN during maturation and fertilization of porcine oocytes, even at a higher concentration, might not affect porcine oocyte fertility.

In the third series of experiments, the effects of in vitro exposure of porcine spermatozoa to zearalenone (ZEN) and α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) were studied by evaluating several parameters of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) systems. For this purpose, boar spermatozoa cultured with semen storage medium containing 0 (control), 10 and 1000 µg/l of ZEN and α-ZOL for 1 week at 5ºC were used for IVF of in vitro matured oocytes. Overall, no significant differences were found in the rates of total penetration, monospermic fertilization, and polyspermic fertilization of oocytes inseminated with spermatozoa from the different groups. Similarly, ZEN and α-ZOL at 10 and 1000 µg/l showed no detrimental effects on the cleavage and development to blastocysts of oocytes after in vitro fertilization. Although the motility, viability, and plasma membrane integrity of spermatozoa decreased signif icantly after 3 weeks of storage compared to non-stored spermatozoa (P < 0.05), ZEN and α-ZOL at the evaluated concentrations exerted detrimental effects on the above parameters, even after 3 weeks of storage. These results indicate that prolonged exposure of boar spermatozoa to ZEN and α-ZOL up to 1000 µg/l under reduced metabolic conditions does not affect their in vitro function.

In conclusion, results of this study indicate that ZEN and α-ZOL, but not β-ZOL, are detectable in porcine FF. Moreover, exposure to ZEN during storage of semen and in in vitro maturation and fertilization of porcine oocytes, even at a higher concentrations of ZEN, might not affect the meiotic competence or fe r t i l i ty o f oocytes.

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Japanese Advisor : Takayoshi KUSAGOProfessor, Kansai University

Participatory Communication for Development: An empirical examination of facilitator’s competency in promoting people’s participation

Kamal Kumar PHUYAL NPL - 10808

Research Committee Member / Lecturer,Nepal Institute of Health Sciences,Purbanchal University

The practice and discourse of development has affected billions of people around the world since the inception of the concept of ‘development’ in the 1950s. Initially propounded in 1949 (and through the 1950s and 1960s) with a heavy emphasis on “modernization”, the field of development has since undergone a significant paradigm shift. The modernist development theorists had clear visions of West-led ‘progress’, and placed much faith in modern technology and industrialization to bring about development. However, in many developing countries failures to fulfill the promises of conventional modernism, such as higher living standards, led to questions about its validity; problems like widening gaps between the rich and the poor and rises in unemployment and environmental degradation were attributed to the modernist mode of action. But while critics of this development model criticized its failings and weaknesses, they did not reject it outright. Instead, some proposed new development approaches and theories that emphasize the importance of people’s participation in the development process received serious attention and popularity among development scholars and practitioners, noting that this had been absent in the previous development approaches. Thus, the notion of “participatory development” emerged, with new focus on the participation of local people at decision-making level, on the importance of indigenous knowledge and values, and on the use of local skills and resources.

In spite of widespread acceptance and recognition, it began to become clear that the application of participatory development had not been entirely successful. What, then, was fundamentally lacking in the practice of participatory development? Scholars and practitioners mulled the question over: what factors affect the implementation of participatory development, and what has been done wrong so far? What can be the most effective participatory development model? Many scholars on participatory development, suggested that the introduction and development of the participatory communication model is essential for the success of participatory development. The model advocates the active participation of the people from the very beginning of the decision-making process, and seeks to

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facilitate two-way communication between development facilitators and participants in the process. It also seeks to enable greater involvement in dialogue, so that people could cultivate a deeper understanding of the society they live in and come up with more informed and better discussed collective decisions for social change. However, in practice, the effective application of this participatory communication model has also proved a challenge. Reasons behind its ineffective applications are not well researched although development facilitator’s role and competency in the model has been viewed as crucial to the success of participatory communication. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate this issue and f ind out practical implications for further advancement of participatory development.

As the key findings of the research, the communication medium was found to be a determining factor for members’ participation in the interaction process during group meetings, which differentiate the group performances. The choice of the language influences effectiveness of group activities and performance in group-based micro-finance. Similarly, the application of communication methods during the group meetings was found to be another critical factor which affected members’ participation in the group activities. Facilitators of the successful groups were found to use various methods such as ‘small-group discussions,’ ‘visual pictures,’ ‘sharing practical examples,’ and ‘case stories,’ which helped their group members to become involved in two-way communication and dialogue, which led their group successful in micro-finance. On the contrary, facilitators of unsuccessful groups did not have such knowledge and skills, which may hinder group performance. The study has also found that the meeting process affects the effectiveness of the participatory communication model. Facilitators of active groups have conducted their meetings more systematically, they organized discussions on the various agendas set by the members themselves and encouraged all members to actively take part in the discussions, and this was to a large extent credited to their level of knowledge, skills, attitude and behavior. This proves the importance of facilitator’s knowledge and skills as critical for the success of the participatory communication model.

Since the ultimate goal of participatory development is to enhance people’s living conditions and empowerment, it is worth while looking into impacts of the successful/unsuccessful implementation of the participatory communication model by comparing successful (active) and unsuccessful (passive) groups. The research has examined the impact of the participatory communication model on the group members’ living conditions and empowerment. It provides clear evidence that the members of the successful groups saw improvements in their living conditions than those of the unsuccessful groups. Furthermore, there were significant changes in the decision-making power of active group members in their own households. For example, women members of successful groups gained their influences in decision

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making process both in family and community level. Some of the women even could hold the key positions in various committees formed locally such as school management committee, forest management committee and so on, which tend to be dominated by men. It justif ies the assertion that the effective application of participatory communication needs to be made in order to achieve the goals of participatory development. In conclusion, the research findings have provided ample evidence for making clear how important a competent facilitator is in promoting people’s participation in the decision-making process and in achieving participatory development projects successful.

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Evaluation of rice-based cropping systems from fluxes of heat, water vapor, and greenhouse gases

Ma. Carmelita Robielos ALBERTO DOST - 10826

Associate Scientist,Crop and Environmental Sciences Division,International Rice Research Institute

Japanese Advisor : Takashi HIRANOProfessor, Hokkaido University

The irrigated rice-based cropping system is one of Asia’s most important production systems as it provides approximately three-quarters of the world’s rice needs. Though this system is sustainable, it is faced with several challenges in terms of increasing population to feed, water scarcity, and its contribution to global warming through the emissions of greenhouse gases. Increasing food production is an absolute necessity for the human population and improved resource-use efficiencies are imperative to achieve this goal. However, research on increasing rice yields should focus on strategies that do not harm the environment. This study was therefore conducted to evaluate the environmental impact of different rice-based cropping systems management (continuous flooding (CF), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), aerobic rice, dry-seeded rice, and crop diversification from rice to maize) in terms of fluxes of heat, water vapor, and greenhouse gases.

Irrigated rice fields are the major source of methane (CH4) emissions among the rice ecosystems, which accounts for 5-19% of the world’s total anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Methane production is favored in irrigated rice fields by the ample water supply, intensive soil preparation and fertilization, and improved growth of rice. However, this study has shown that CH4 emission from submerged rice fields can be reduced by about 40% with mid-season soil drying or intermittent irrigation (AWD) during the rice growing season. The AWD also saves up to 15-30% irrigation water. These water-saving techniques are all effective in reducing CH4 emissions but they may enhance nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions as well. Results of this study also conf irmed that AWD lowered the global warming potential contribution of both CH4 and N2O emissions compared to continuous flooding even if rice straw residues were incorporated.

The aerobic rice production system can further save up to 30-50% irrigation water; however, it would cause significant loss of soil organic carbon through increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and may also have an impact on heat fluxes. Aerobic rice production is a new cropping system in which specially-developed varieties are directly seeded in well-drained and non-puddled soils and rice is grown in unsaturated soil moisture conditions for most of the crop duration. As observed in this study, the net carbon (C) uptake of aerobic rice fields was about

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2.5 times lower than that of flooded rice fields. This was evident because the GPP or photosynthetic capacity of aerobic rice is lower than that of flooded rice. More so, the ratio of Re (plant and soil respirations) to GPP in aerobic rice fields was higher than that in flooded fields because of faster organic matter decomposition in aerobic soils. In turn, converting flooded rice production to an aerobic rice system to conserve water would mean less stored organic carbon in the soil. This study has also shown that the aerobic rice fields had about 45% higher sensible heat flux (the energy used to warm the surrounding air) and 11% lower evapotranspiration (ET) than flooded rice f ields because of the drier soil conditions. The higher CO2 emissions and more sensible heat flux in aerobic fields may contribute to global warming. In addition, further breeding is needed to develop aerobic rice varieties that have higher yield potentials. Better water management is also needed to prevent extreme dry soil conditions that can enhance sensible heat transfer leading to warmer rice environments.

Another water-saving alternative is dry-seeded rice grown with the overhead sprinkler irrigation system which can save about 55% of the typical lowland rice water consumption. This water-savings was obtained during land preparation because minimal irrigation was required before the establishment of dry-seeded rice as compared to flooded rice. Additional water was also saved through the use of non-flooded but saturated soil conditions during the growing period. This water management seemed to be fairly efficient because the net C uptake, ET, and crop water productivity (WPET) of the dry-seeded rice were comparable to those of conventional flooded rice. The yields of the dry-seeded rice can be improved as crop management practices are further developed and refined for high-yielding dry-seeded rice.

However, even with water-saving technologies for rice cultivation, the water requirements for rice remain higher than for other cereal crops. Diminishing supplies for irrigation water and increasing opportunities for higher income from non-rice crops can serve as drivers for diversification from rice monoculture with soil submergence to a rotation of rice with other crops such as maize grown on well-drained aerobic soils. The rice-maize cropping system is gaining importance on lowland soils across tropical and subtropical Asia in response to the increasing demand of maize for feed and biofuel. This study has shown that the maize crop had 1.4 times higher net C uptake and twice as much grain yield as dry-seeded rice because of its greater photosynthetic capacity due to its C4 physiology. The canopy light use eff iciency (CLUE), WPET and photosynthetic water use eff iciency (WUEp) of maize were 1.8, 1.9 and 1.6 times higher, respectively, than those of dry-seeded rice. However, even if maize crop has a higher capacity for C uptake, most of the carbon will be respired back to the atmosphere owing to higher soil organic matter decomposition brought about by the aerobic soil condition and thus, leads to low storage of carbon in the soil. This study has also shown that climate

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variability can significantly influence maize production because of the crop’s sensitivity to excess soil water logging brought by erratic rainfall, which resulted in about 20% reduction in net C uptake as well as yield of maize. This implies that a good drainage is necessary in converting paddy fields to maize cultivation.

Future research should focus on evaluating the global warming potential and carbon sequestration capacity of these water-saving rice cultivation practices and diversified cropping systems. Therefore, it will be a continuous effort to evaluate the short and long-term effects of such changes in cropping management in order to establish the process-level understanding for developing pathways for a conversion of rice-based systems in Asia towards higher yield potentials under minimized environmental impacts.

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Japanese Advisor : Masanobu KAMITAKAHARAAssociate Professor, Tohoku University

Highly Designed Bioceramics Prepared with Carbon Nanotube

Cem Bulent USTUNDAG TUR - 10908

Assistant Professor,Vocational School, Ceramic Division,Yildiz Technical University

There are several materials, used in medical applications to improve the quality of life. Some of them are ceramic materials; they are called bioceramics, used for repair and replacement of damaged tissues and organs. Alumina and Hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) are most used bioceramics in clinic applications. Alumina based bioceramics can be a better choice for load-bearing applications, such as hip and knee prostheses and dental implants because of their excellent corrosion resistance, suitable biocompatibility, low density, high hardness resulting in a very low wear rate and high elasticity modulus providing rigidity. HA is used as bioceramics in human body to repair bones and teeth. HA bioceramics show excellent biocompatibility, and in addition, they have the ability to create direct chemical bonds with the hard tissue. However, the mechanical properties of bioceramics, such as alumina and HA, are insuff icient for load bearing applications. Therefore, some reinforcement materials have been used to fabricate bioceramic-based composites with improved mechanical properties. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are excellent reinforcement materials for the purpose of enhancing of mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of composite materials.

Nano composite materials, such as CNTs reinforced, have become attractive research topic for academia and industry in last decades. To obtain unique features, CNTs must be dispersed uniformly in the matrix and ensured strong interfacial bonding between CNTs and the matrix. CNTs have hydrophobic surface and tendency to agglomerate because of sidewall properties. For obtaining homogenous dispersion CNTs in the matrix, their sidewall must be decorated with functional groups. Nowadays, acidic treatment (H2SO4 and HNO3) is commonly used in order to obtain functional groups on sidewall of CNTs. However, this method introduces defects on CNTs which causes destroying crystal perfection and decreasing mechanical and physical properties. Therefore, new methods are required without creating any surface defects which harm integrity of CNTs. Hydrothermal treatment provides favorable conditions for interaction nanoparticles and CNTs during the powder synthesis. For obtaining nano composite structure, hydrothermal process causes little or no defect on sidewall of CNTs. Hydrothermal process can be defined as the occurrence of homogenous and heterogeneous reactions in a

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solvent at the temperature greater than room temperature and pressure more than 1 atm. in a closed system.

In this study, two different ceramic/CNTs composite structure were obtained by hydrothermal process. The first one was boehmite/CNTs from an aluminum acetate (Al(OH)(C2H3O2)2) and multi wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mixture and second one was hydroxyapatite/CNTs from calcium acetate (Ca(CH3COO)2) and phosphoric acid (H3PO4) precursors pre-mixed with MWCNTs. The hydrothermal process was conducted at 200 ºC for 2 h to obtain mixture of ceramic/CNTs composite structure.

Synthesized ceramic/CNTs powders were homogenous mixture after hydrothermal processing. According to TEM observations MWCNTs are interacted by bioceramic particles under hydrothermal conditions. Boehmite particles have almost regular shape and are 30- 40 nm. Hydrothermal process exhibit suitable combination between boehmite nano particles and CNTs. HA particles are needle like shape with ~ 10 nm in width and ~ 70 nm in length. HA nano crystal structure is determined to be a hexagonal prism shape and its c face has negative (-) sites and a face has positive (+) sites because of composed PO4

3- and Ca2+ ions, respectively. HA nano particles clinging to MWCNT walls by c axis of HA crystals parallel to MWCNT lengthwise due to positive (+) sites of HA crystals. HA nano particles show good combination with CNTs in comparison to boehmite/CNTs nano composite structure. HA nano crystals were aligned on CNTs surface by electrostatic interaction and dissolution-recrystallization phenomena during hydrothermal process. Some of nano HA crystals were occurred on sidewall (and inside of CNT) by homogenous and heterogeneous nucleation during hydrothermal process.

Porosity is important factor for mechanical behaviors of ceramic materials. In order to reduce the pore size, a high packing density of ceramic powders and optimization of the sintering conditions are essential to achieve better mechanical properties of ceramics. Besides, at high temperature and relatively long sintering condi t ion, CNTs, in ceramic matrix, oxidizes during sintering process and those perform adverse effect for mechanical properties. Therefore, short and effective sintering temperature is required for sintering bioceramics and bioceramic-CNTs composite . Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a consolidation technique and have been widely used for densification of ceramic powders. SPS differs

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from conventional sintering methods in a way that are rapidly and efficiently methods for obtaining dense ceramics. Synthesized boehmite/CNTs powders were sintered at 1600 ºC under 50 MPa pressure for holding time of 5 min in vacuum by SPS to obtaining dense Alumina/CNTs composite. Smaller grain size of alumina bioceramics exhibit good flexural strength, excellent compressive strength and wear resistance. SEM and TEM observations shows that CNTs inhibit grain coarsening and the addition of 1 wt.% CNTs to alumina decreases the its grain size. Obtained alumina/CNTs composites have lower grain size than alumina bioceramics. An increase in average grain size can decrease mechanical properties of alumina bioceramics. Therefore, alumina/CNTs bioceramic composites can perform better mechanical proprieties in comparison to alumina bioceramic.

HA/CNTs powders were sintered at 1000 ºC under 50 MPa pressure for holding time of 5 min in vacuum by SPS for fabrication of dense HA/CNTs composite. The sintered HA/CNT composite ceramic was densified to near full density by SPS. The results also demonstrated that the desired interaction of CNTs with HA was achieved owing to the provided environment by means of hydrothermal treatment. Fracture toughness of densifed HA and HA/CNTs are 1.098 and 1.314 MPa m1/2, respectively. The mechanical properties of sintered HA/CNTs were enhanced significantly with the addition of CNTs.

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is being used because of its advantages owing to the fabrication of coatings and bulk materials in an effective way. This method is advantageous because the simplicity of the technique is combined with the cheapness of the materials used and enables to the fabrication of complex shape materials. EPD technique also has a possibility to the fabrication of porous materials. To fabrication of porous HA, synthesized HA/CNTs powders were coated on carbon rod substrates. Shaped HA scaffolds were sintered from room temperature to 1200 ºC at heating rate of 2 ºC/min. and kept at 1200 ºC for 60 min. to produce porous HA scaffolds. Hydrothermally processed HA/CNTs powders were used to obtain porous HA scaffolds by means of EPD. There are some technological challenges to obtain thick hydroxyapatite coatings. These are cracking and peeling of the coatings, which are occurred during drying and sintering process. In order to overcome these p r o b l e m s , H A / C N T s p ow d e r s we r e u s e d f o r deriving crack-free coatings. The existing of CNTs in HA based coatings had a positive

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effect on the inhibition of the micro crack formation and peeling of the coating layer. CNTs in HA matrix were enabled crack-free coating by single step EPD process. The HA porous bioceramics were produced with tube shape by EPD. After the sintering process porous crack free HA bioceramic tubes were obtained. The conducted experiments revealed that the HA-CNTs combination enables the production of complex shape bioceramic by using EPD process. Interconnected porous structure of obtained HA can exhibit osteoconductivity and bone growth.

Nano-sized ceramic powders combined with MWCNTs were synthesized by the hydrothermal process which provides interaction nano particles and MWCNTs. The novel mixing method of ceramic/CNTs has several advantages, which are no damage on CNTs, no waste and acidic consumption, economic and practice way to compare conventional acidic functionalization method. Boehmite and HA nano crystals were interacted with CNTs under hydrothermal condition. Boehmite nano crystals interacted with CNTs with large face. HA nano crystals aligned on sidewall of CNTs by their lengthwise direction. Dense alumina/CNTs and HA/CNTs composite bioceramics were obtained by SPS. It is considered that the obtained alumina/CNTs and HA/CNTs composite bioceramics can be suitable for biomedical applications where load and stress are the critical issues. Porous HA was also obtained from HA/CNTs composite by EPD. The results demonstrated that EPD can produce complex shape scaffolds. Fabricated porous HA bioceramics can be candidate materials as a scaffold for bone repairing and generations. Biological investigation, such as in vitro and in vivo evaluations, should be conducted on obtained dense and porous bioceramics to determine biocompatibility in future. The novel hydrothermal mixing process can contribute inspiration of developing new materials for technology and awareness of environmental responsibility for sustainable life with the benefit mentioned.

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Japanese Advisor : Koya ARIYOSHIProfessor, Nagasaki University

Application of GIS on analysis of risk factors of hospitalized diarrhea in children under 5 in Vietnam

Thiem Dinh VU VAST - 10729

Head / Epidemiologist Researcher,Department of Epidemiology,National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology

In Vietnam, livestock plays an important economic role for many households. Despite rapid economic development in Vietnam, many children continue to frequently suffer from diarrheal diseases. Previous studies have often focused on water, sanitation and hygiene issues as risk factors for diarrhea. The role of livestock in the transmission chain of diarrhea pathogens is less well explored.

Salmonella and campylobacter are frequently isolated from chicken faeces, chicken raw meat and organs. Keeping poultry could contribute to transmission of diarrhea pathogens by contaminating the environment via faeces to which children are easily exposed. Given high ambient temperatures, poor hygiene and insufficient food storage facilities, low income settings in the tropics should provide ideal conditions for food contamination.

Ruminants (e.g. cows and buffalos) and swine have been shown to contribute to the transmission of diarrhea pathogens such as Cryptosporidium parvum and a range of Enterobacteriaceae. Recently, Ahmed and colleagues have detected rotavirus G5P[6] strain originated from swine in a child with clinical diarrhea in Vietnam.

Given that a large proportion of households in Vietnam own or raise livestock, we aimed to clarify whether this activity increases the risk of diarrhea in this setting. We explored this question through the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology and analysis in the context of a well-

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characterized study population in south central of Vietnam, and explored the associated risk of diarrhea incidence in children less than 5 years of age

The study area encompasses 33 communes in Nha Trang city and Ninh Hoa district of the south central, coastal province of Khanh Hoa in Vietnam. Census was conducted in the study area in mid-2006. Information on socio-demographic factors, occupation, house structure, hygiene, water source, household animals, as well as admission to hospital for diarrhea in the 12 months prior to the survey were collected. GPS data were collected using GPS receiver Magellan GPS-320 (Magellan Corporation, San Dimas, California, USA) in 2003 and updated during this census for new households. We divided the study area into urban and rural according to government information. The census survey covered 75,828 households. The study population in mid-2006 was 353,525 with 49.3% males. The percentage of children less than 5 years of age was 7.0% (n=24,768). Main economic activities are tourism, agriculture and f ishery. About half of the households had access to tap water. Latrine coverage was 66%.

Two public tertiary care hospitals, Khanh Hoa General Hospital and Ninh Hoa District Hospital, were the only two hospitals that have inpatient facilities for treatment of acute diarrhea in the study area. Patient data was entered into a study database based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10) codes, allowing linkage with the census data. Diarrhea cases of children less than 5 years from the study area admitted to the two hospitals between January 2005 and December 2006 if they could be linked to the census were included.

Data were double entered. Hospitalized diarrhea data were cleaned to eliminate duplicated admissions of the same diarrhea episode using an interval of 5 days between 2 admissions.

We were primarily interested in the effect of animal proximity on diarrhea in children, we restricted documentation of livestock to those reared within 50m of a household. For crowding, we used housing space per person (m2) as an index of crowding and regarded 12m2 as cut-off value referencing a guideline for healthy housing for European countries. Wealth levels were constructed based on an asset index used previously to assess household socioeconomic status.

Diarrhea hospital admission rates were modeled in an open cohor t using Poisson regression since children were born into the cohort between January 2005 and mid-2006 (the time of t h e c e n s u s ) . We h a d n o i n f o r m a t i o n o n outmigration of the study population after the census, but considered the whole population at

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risk throughout the study period between January 2005 and December 2006. We used robust standard errors to account for within-household correlation and to adjust for clustering within 250m grid cells. Child-years of observation was stratif ied by age group to account for aging of the children. Child-years, hospitalized diarrhea rate and animal density were calculated as Kernel density estimation using ESRI® ArcMap™ version 9.2 using a grid cell size 250m. Hotspots were analyzed using Getis-Ord Gi* hotspot analyses and Moran’s I test was used to evaluate the spatial autocorrelation (clustering) for diarrheal incidence rate.

During 51,241 child-years (cy) of observation under children 5 years old, there were 3116 diarrhea episodes requiring hospital admission (60.8 per 1000 cy). Of these, 1,811 diarrhea cases (58.3%) could be linked to the census data. Figure 1 shows numbers of cases and linked cases over time. Distinct seasonal peaks of diarrhea were detected during the mid-year dry, hot season and the 4th quarter cool, rainy season. There was no strong seasonal pattern observed among the children with diarrhea during the study period.

Spatial analysis visually showed that diarrhea incidence rates were lower in population dense area. It also identified multiple “hot spot” areas with significant higher diarrhea hospitalization rate, Z-score (>=1.96, p<0.05) in the study area.

Hospitalized diarrhea was less common in girls than in boys. The rate was highest in children less than one year of age (77.51 per 1000 cy) and decreased by age. There was a trend towards diarrhea being more common in households with larger numbers of occupants. The lack of access to tap water was significantly associated with an increased hospitalized diarrhea. Hospitalized diarrhea was significantly less common in urban areas than in rural areas. Crowding and parents’ education level showed no major association with diarrhea hospital admissions, but there was a trend towards fewer admissions with increasing distance to the nearest hospital (adjusted RR 0.65, 95%CI 0.50-0.84).

Among the households in the census area, 32% of households owned chicken or ducks/geese, 10% cows or buffalos, 6% swines, 50% dogs and 17% cats. Figure 2 illustrates the density of each animal in the study area. By comparing data on diar rhea incidence rates with the distribution of domestic pets and animal livestock, we found no evidence that a h i g h a n i m a l d e n s i t y a r e a we r e associated with higher rate of hospital admissions. Animal ownership in general was more common in rural compared with urban of Khanh Hoa (65% vs 28% for dog, 46% vs. 3% for

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chicken, 10% vs 1% for swine, 16% vs. 0.1% for cows). Excluding households with no animals, the mean number of animals per household was 4.6 (range 1-80) for swines, 4.7 (range 1-31) for buffalos, 1.5 (range 1-13) for dogs, 1.2 (range 1-61) for cats, 3.4 (range 1-80) for cows, 15.7 (range 1-7000) for chicken, and 21.5 (1-6000) for ducks and geese. Livestock ownership was lower in households in the high wealth category compared to the low and middle wealth category (which owned similar numbers of the different animal types). Comparing low and middle with the high wealth category, swine ownership was 7% vs. 3%, Cow ownership 13% vs. 2%, Chicken ownership 34% vs. 10%, duck/geese ownership 19% vs. 4%, and dog or cat ownership 36% vs. 25%.

In univariate and multivariate analysis, children residing in household with poultry, ruminants, swine, dogs or cats had no increased risk of diarrhea hospital admissions. We also found no evidence for a dose-response relationship: children in households in the upper quintile of animal density neighborhood were at no significant higher risk of diarrhea admission compared with children in the lowest quintile.

Because of the strong association between tap water availability and diarrhea (Table 2), we investigated the relationship between animal ownership and an increased risk of diarrhea in households without tap water, where the risk of water contamination with pathogens may be greatest. We found no evidence for effect modification (interaction) based on the presence or absence of household tap water. There was no increased risk of diarrhea associated with any type of animal in households without tap water: poultry RR 0.96 (95% CI: 0.85-1.09): swines: RR 0.90 (95% CI: 0.72-1.11), ruminants RR 1.15 (95% CI: 0.99-1.34), dogs RR 1.10 (95% CI: 0.99-1.23), cats RR 1.06 (95% CI: 0.93-1.22).

We further investigated an association between animal ownership and diarrhea hospitalizations by analyzing the study population separately for (1) rural areas and urban, (2) diarrhea incidence in 2005 and 2006, (3) diarrhea cases during the peaks and not during the peaks, (4) diarrhea cases inside “hot spot” areas. However, none of these factors was found to modify the lack of an association between animal ownership and diarrhea.

Exposure to animals near or in households does not seem to constitute a major risk for diarrhoea in children under the age of 5 in Vietnam. Public health interventions to reduce childhood diarrhoea burden should focus on well-recognized causes such as sanitation, personal hygiene, access to adequate clean water supply and vaccination.

Published papers based on my disertation:Suzuki M, Thiem VD, Yoshida LM, Anh DD, Kilgore PE, Ariyoshi K. Who are

exposed to smoke at home? -A population-based cross-sectional survey in central Vietnam. TOBACCO CONTROL, BMJ. 2010 Aug;19(4):344-5.

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Suzuki M, Vu Dinh Thiem, Hideki Yanai, Toru Matsubayashi, Lay-Myint Yoshida, Le Huu Tho, Truong Tan Minh, Dang Duc Anh, Paul Kilgore, Koya Ariyoshi. Environmental tobacco smoking exposure is associated with an increased risk of hospitalized pneumonia among children under 5 years old in Vietnam. Thorax. 2009 Jun;64(6):484-9.

Ataru T, Thiem Vu, Suzuki Motoi, Matsubayashi Toru, Yoshida Lay-Myint, Tho Le Minh Truong, Anh, Dang, Kilgore Paul, Takagi Masahiro, Ariyoshi Koya. Can Daytime Bed-net Usage Reduce the Risk of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever among Children in Vietnam? American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. 2010 Jun;82(6):1157-9.

Wolf-Peter Schmidt, Motoi Suzuki, Vu Dinh Thiem, Lay-Myint Yoshida, Toru Matsubayashi, Hideki Yanai, Le Huu Tho, Dang Duc Anh, Koya Ariyoshi. User fee exemption does not affect lower rates of hospital admission of girls in Vietnam. Health Policy and Planning. 2012: 27(7): 582-589.

Hideki Yanai, Vu Dinh Thiem, Toru Matsubayashi, Vu Thi Thu Huong, Motoi Suzuki, Le Phuong Mai, Nguen Hien Anh, Le Huu Tho, Trung Tan Minh, Lay Myint Yoshida, Paul Kilgore, Dang Duc Anh, Koya Ariyoshi (2007). “The Khanh Hoa Health Project: Characterization of Study Population and Field Site Development for Clinical Epidemiological Research on Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases.” TMH. 2007; 35(2):61-63.

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Sequentially Cohen-Macaulay rings and modules

Truong Le HOANG VAST - 11034

Researcher,Department of Algebra,Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

Japanese Advisor : Shiro GOTOProfessor, Meiji University

The purpose of my thesis is to study sequentially Cohen-Macaulay rings and modules. The notion of sequentially Cohen-Macaulay ring and module was introduced by R. P. Stanley [St] and has been intensively explored by D. T. Cuong and N. T. Cuong [CC1]. In this thesis I shall continue these researches, exploring the structure of certain special, say good and distinguished, systems of parameters.

My thesis consits of three chapters. Let me explain the contents of each chapter and the main results as well, fixing the notation and terminology which I maintain through my thesis.

In Chapter 1, let (R, ) be a commutative Noetherian local ring and M a finitely generated R-module of dimension d. We consider a finite filtration of submodules of M, : M0 ⊂ M1 ⊂ . . . ⊂ Mt = M such that dim M0 < dim M1 < . . . < dim Mt = dim M. Such a filtration is said to satisfy the dimension condition. A filtration : H 0 (M) = D0 ⊂ D1 ⊂ . . . ⊂ Dt = M of submodules of M is said to be a dimension filtration, if Di−1 is the largest submodule of Di with dim Di−1 < dim Di for all i = t, t − 1, . . . , 1. If Di / Di−1 is Cohen-Macaulay for all 1 ≤ i ≤ t, M is called a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay module. Let x = x1, . . . , xd be a system of parameters of M. Then x is called a good system of parameters with respect to if Mi ∩ (xdi+1, . . . , xd)M = 0 for i = 0, 1, . . . , t − 1, where di = dim Mi. A good system of parameters with respect to the dimension filtration is simply called a good system of parameters of M. Set

where e(x1, . . . , xdi ; Mi) is the Serre multiplicity of Mi relative to x1, . . . , xdi

and ℓR(N) denotes, for an R-module N, the length of N. Denote (n) = x(n) = xn1

1 , . . . , xnd

d for any d-tuple n = (n1, . . . , nd) of positive integers. Notice that I , M (x) = ℓR(M/xM) − arith-deg((x); M). It is shown in [CC1] that I , M (x) is non-negative and I , M (x(n)) is non-decreasing as a function in n1, . . . , nd. In fact, I , M (x(n)) is not a polynomial in n1, . . . , nd in general. However, it can be seen easily that this function is bounded above by a polynomial. In Chapter 1 we study the least degree of the polynomials bounding above I , M (x(n)) and show that this degree is independent of the choices of good systems of parameters with respect to and

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compute this degree in the case where is the dimension filtration of M. This is the content of the following theorem.

Theorem. Let : M0 ⊂ M1 ⊂ . . . ⊂ Mt = M be a filtration of submodules of M satisfying the dimension condition and x = x1, . . . , xd a good system of parameters with respect to . Then

(1) (Theorem 1.1.1) The least degree of all polynomials in n1, . . . , nd bounding above the function I , M (x(n)) is independent of the choice of x, and denoted by p (M).

(2) (Theorem 1.1.2) Let : D0 ⊂ D1 ⊂ . . . ⊂ Dt = M be the dimension filtration of M. Assume that R is a quotient of a Cohen-Macaulay ring. Then we have

where V (M) is the non-sequentially Cohen-Macaulay locus of M and p(M) is the polynomial type of M [C].

For each integers n 1, we set

We say that the system x of parameters has the property of parametric decomposition, if the equality nM = ∩α∈Λd, n

(α)M holds true for all n 1. The main purpose of the final two sections of Chapter 1 is to study the question of when a given system of parameters of M has the property of parametric decomposition. Now, restrict our interest in the above question to the set of all good systems of parameters of M. It turns out that the property of parametric decomposition of a good system of parameters can be characterized by the sequentially Cohen-Macaulayness of the module. The following theorem is the main result of Chapter 1.

Theorem (Theorem 1.1.3). Let R be a commutative Noetherian local ring with the maximal ideal and M a finitely generated R-module with dim M = d > 0. The following statements are equivalent:(1) M is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay module.(2) Every good system of parameters of M has the property of parametric

decomposition.(3) There exists a good system of parameters of M having the property of

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parametric decomposition.

Let I be an -primary ideal of R. It is well-known that there exists a polynomial pI (n) of degree d with rational coefficients, called the Hilbert-Samuel polynomial, such that ℓR(M/I n+1M) = pI (n) for all integers n large enough. Then, there are integers ei(I, M) such that

These integers ei(I, M) are called the Hilbert coefficients of M with respect to I. In particular, the leading coefficient e0(I, M) is called the multiplicity of M with respect to I and e1(I, M) is called by Vasconcelos the Chern number of I with respect to M. At the conference in Yokohama 2008, W. V. Vasconcelos [V4] posed the following conjecture:

The Vanishing Conjecture: Assume that R is an unmixed, that is dim(R̂/P) = dim R for all P ∈ Ass R̂, where R̂ is the -adic completion of R. Then R is a Cohen-Macaulay local ring if and only if e1( , R) = 0 for some parameter ideal of R.

Recently, this conjecture has been settled by L. Ghezzi, S. Goto, J.-Y. Hong. K. Ozeki, T. T. Phuong, W. V. Vasconcelos in [GGHOPV]. The aim of Chapter 2 is to give characterizations of a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay module in term of its Hilbert coefficients and Hilbert-Samuel functions with respect to good parameter ideals. Recall that for all i, the i-th arithmetic degree of M with respect to I is defined by arith-degi(I, M) = multM( )e0(I ,R / ), ([BM], [V2], [V3])

Theorem (Theorem 2.2.19 and 1.3.7). Assume that R is a homomorphic image of a Cohen-Macaulay local ring. Let Λ(M) = {r ∈ | there is a submodule N of M such that dim N = r}. Then the following statements are equivalent:

(1) M is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay R-module.

(2) For any good parameter ideal of M, it holds

for all n 0.

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(3) There exists a good parameter ideal of M such that

for all n 0.

(4) For all distinguished parameter ideals of M and j = 0, . . . , d, we have

(5) For all distinguished parameter ideals of M and j ∈ Λ (M), we have

(6) For some distinguished parameter ideal of M and for all j ∈ Λ (M), we have

We say that an R-submodule N of M is irreducible, if N is not written as the intersection of two larger R-submodules of M. Every R-submodule N of M can be expressed as an irredundant intersection of irreducible R-submodules of M and the number of irreducible R-submodules appearing in such an expression depends only on N and is independent of the expression. Let us call, for each parameter ideal of M, the number N( ;M) of irreducible R-submodules of M that appear in an irredundant irreducible decomposition of M the index of reducibility of M with respect to . We can ask whether sequentially Cohen-Macaulay modules have eventual constant index of reducibility for parameter ideals. This is, unfortunately, not true in general, as Rogers [R, Example 4.3] gave counter-examples. However, once we restrict our attention to good parameter ideals of M, the answer is affirmative. The main result of Chapter 2 is stated as follows.

Theorem (Theorem 2.1.1). Let R be a Noetherian local ring with maximal ideal and M a finitely generated R-module of dimension d > 0. If M is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay R-module, then there is an integer n ≫ 0 such that for every distinguished parameter ideal of M contained in n, one has the equality

Hence the index of reducibility of M with respect to parameter ideals generated by distinguished systems of parameters is eventually constant.

Unless otherwise specified, throughout Chapter 3 let R be a commutative Noetherian local ring with maximal ideal and d = dim R > 0.

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Problem A (Question 3.1.1). Let R be a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay ring. Assume that dim R ≥ 2, or that dim R = 1 and e(R) > 1. Then does there exist an integer n > 0 such that I 2 = I for every parameter ideal contained in n, where I = :R ?This is one of the targets of my research.

To state the results of Chapter 3, f irst of all let us f ix our notation and terminology. For a while, let R be a (not necessarily local) commutative Noetherian ring and let M (≠ (0)) be a finitely generated R-module of finite Krull dimension. Then a filtration

of R-submodules of M is called the dimension filtration of M, if for all 1 ≤ i ≤ ℓ Di−1 is the largest R-submodule of Di with dimR Di−1 < dimR Di, where dimR(0) = −∞ for convention. Here we notice that our notion of dimension filtration is based on [GHS] and slightly different from that of [CC1, Sch]. We say that M is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay R-module, if Ci = Di/Di−1 is a Cohen-Macaulay R-module (necessarily with dimR Ci = dimR Di) for all 1 ≤ i ≤ ℓ ([Sch, St]). Hence M is a sequentially Cohen–Macaulay R–module with ℓ = 1 if and only if M is a Cohen-Macaulay R-module with dim R/ = dimR M for every ∈ AssRM. We say that R is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay ring, if dim R < ∞ and R is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay module over itself.

We now assume that R is a local ring with maximal ideal and let M be a finitely generated R-module with d = dimRM ≥ 1 and = {Di}0 ≤ i ≤ ℓ the dimension filtration. Let x = x1, x2, . . . , xd be a system of parameters of M. Remember that x is said to be good (resp. distinguished), if

for all 1 ≤ i ≤ ℓ , where di = dimR Di. A parameter ideal of M is called good (resp. distinguished), if there exists a good (resp. distinguished) system x1, x2, . . . , xd of parameters of M such that = (x1, x2, . . . , xd). Therefore, if M is a Cohen-Macaulay R-module, every parameter ideal of M is good. Notice that good parameter ideals are distinguished in due course. The converse is also true, if M is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay R-module ([CC1]).

Good system of parameters exist ([CC1, Lemma 2.4]) and if x1, x2, . . . , xd is a good system of parameters of M, then xn1

1 , xn22 , . . . , x

ndd is also a good system of

parameters of M for all integers nj ≥ 1.Let I (≠ R) be an ideal of R. We put

(here t denotes an indeterminate over R), which we call, respectively, the Rees algebra and the extended Rees algebra of I. Let grI (R) = '(I)/t−1 '(I) and call it the

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associated graded ring of I. We shall usually identify

For each ideal D of R, the family = {I n ∩ D}n ∈ Z forms an I-stable filtration of D, for which the graded module gr( ) = n≥0[I

n ∩ D]/[I n+1 ∩ D] is a graded ideal of grI (R) and the graded module ( ) = n≥0[I

n ∩ D] (resp. '( ) = n∈Z[I n ∩ D]) is a graded ideal of (I) (resp. '(I)).

With this notation the main results of Chapter 3 are summarized into the following, which gives a complete generalization of the results in the Cohen-Macaulay case to those of sequentially Cohen-Macaulay rings.

Theorem (Theorem 3.1.2). Let R be a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay local ring with d = dim R ≥ 1 and let = {Di}0≤i≤ℓ be the dimension filtration of R. Let be a good parameter ideal of R and assume that

We put I = :R and S = R/Dℓ−1. Then the following conditions are equivalent.(1) I 2 = I.

(2) The parameter ideal S of S is not integrally closed in S.

When this is the case, the following assertions hold true.

(a) The associated graded ring grI (R) = n≥0 In/I n+1 of I is a sequentially

Cohen-Macaulay ring with {gr({I n ∩ Di}n∈ )}0≤i≤ℓ the dimension filtration.

(b) The extended Rees algebra '(I) = n∈ I n of I is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay ring.

(c) Let Λ (R) = {di | 1 ≤ i ≤ ℓ} where di = dimR Di.Then

H j (grI (R)) = (0),if j ∉ Λ (R) and

if 1 ≤ i ≤ ℓ and di > 0, where = ・ grI (R) + [grI (R)]+ denotes the graded maximal ideal of grI (R).

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We therefore have the following.

(d) The Rees algebra (I ) = n≥0 In of I is a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay

ring, if d1 ≥ 2, or if d1 = 0 but d2 ≥ 2.

Combining Theorem 3.1.2 with Theorem 2.1.1, we get the following answer to Question 3.1.1.

Corollary (Corollary 3.1.3). Let R be a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay local ring with maximal ideal . Assume that dimR ≥ 2, or that dimR = 1 and e(R) > 1. Then there is an integer n ≫ 0 such that for every good parameter ideal of R contained in n, one has the equality I 2 = I, where I = : R , so that assertions (a), (b), (c), and (d) of above Theorem hold true for the ideal I.

参考文献[BM] D. Bayer and D. Mumford, What can be computed on algebraic

geometry?, Computational Algebraic Geometry and Commutative algebra, Proceedings. Cortona 1991(D. Eisenbud and L. Robbiano Eds), Cambridge University Press (1993), pp 1-48.

[CC1] D. T. Cuong and N. T. Cuong, On sequentially Cohen-Macaulay modules, Kodai Math. J., 30 (2007), pp. 409-428.

[C] N. T. Cuong, On the least degree of polynomials bounding above the differences between lengths and multiplicities of certain system of parameters in local rings, Nagoya Math. J. 125 (1992), pp. 105-114.

[GGHOPV] L. Ghezzi, S. Goto, J.-Y. Hong. K. Ozeki, T. T. Phuong, and W. V. Vasconcelos, The first Hilbert coefficients of parameter ideals, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 81 (2010), pp. 679-695.

[GHS] S. Goto, Y. Horiuchi, and H. Sakurai, Sequentially Cohen-Macaulayness versus parametric decomposition of powers of parameter ideals, J. Commutative Alg., 2 (2010), pp. 37-54.

[R] M. Rogers, The index of reducibility for parameter ideals in low dimension, J. Algebra, 278 (2004), pp. 571-584.

[Sch] P. Schenzel, On the dimension filtration and Cohen-Macaulay filtered modules, In. Proc. of the Ferrara meeting in honour of Mario Fiorentini, University of Antwerp Wilrijk, Belgium, (1998), pp. 245-264.

[St] R. P. Stanley, Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra, Second Ed., Birkhäuser, Boston, Basel, Stuttgart, 1996.

[V2] W. V. Vasconcelos, The degrees of graded modules, Lecture Notes in Summer School on Commutative Algebra, vol. 2, pp. 141-196, Centre

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de Recerca Matematica, Bellaterra (Spain), 1996.[V3] W. V. Vasconcelos, Computational Methods in Commutative algebra

and Algebraic Geometry, Springer Verlag, Berlin- Heidelderg-New York, 1998

[V4] W. V. Vasconcelos, The Chern coefficients of local rings, Michigan Math. J., 57 (2008), pp. 725-743.

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Japanese Advisor : Jun-ichi KOJIMAProfessor, Ibaraki University

Taxonomic and biogeographical study of flat-backed millipedes in Vietnam (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae)

Anh Duc NGUYEN VAST - 11035

Researcher,Department of Soil Ecology,Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources

The milliped family Paradoxosomatidae with about 1,000 species in more than 200 genera, is one of the largest families in the order Polydesmida of the arthropod class Diplopoda. Paradoxosomatid millipedes occur in all continents except Antarctica. They all feed on plant detritus, and thus they play important roles in recycling nutrients and organic material in a soil ecosystem.

Vietnam is located in the eastern part of the continental Southeast Asia which is known as one of the biodiversity centers in the world. It is also expected to harbor a rich fauna of millipedes. Despite of their biodiversity and their importance in soil ecosystem management, the Vietnamese fauna of millipedes, especially paradoxosomatid millipedes have been very poorly studied. The present study aims to give a taxonomic revision of the flat−back millipedes of Vietnam and to discuss their distribution pattern in relation with environmental conditions.

A total of 78 species in 25 genera of the family Paradoxosomatidae are recognized in Vietnam. The 78 species recognized in the present study include the following 17 recently described and yet-undescribed species: Sundanina medialis Nguyen, 2010; S. cochinchina Nguyen, 2010; Anoplodesmus borealis Nguyen, 2010; A. solenophorus Nguyen, 2010; Sellanucheza hoffmani Nguyen, 2011; Tonkinosoma jeekeli Nguyen, 2011; Tylopus phanluongi Nguyen, 2012; T. sapaensis Nguyen, 2012; T. golovatchi Nguyen, 2012; T. roseiparaterga Nguyen, 2012; T. snipisterna Nguyen, 2012; Antheromorpha sp. 1; Antheromorpha sp. 2; Nesorthomorpha sp.; Orthomorpha sp. 1; Orthomorpha sp. 2; Piccola sp. Two species, Orthomorpha cambodjana (Attems, 1953) and Simplogonomorpha falcata (Attems, 1953), are discovered for the Vietnamese fauna for the first time.

Tylopus is the species−richest genus with 18 recorded species, followed by the genera Desmoxytes (nine species) and Orthomorpha (nine species). Each of Polylobosoma and Tonkinosoma contains only two species occurring only in Vietnam or in Vietnam and southern China. Seven genera (Annamina, Chapanella, Leiozonius, Pseudosundanina, Sapamorpha and Simplogonomorpha) are monotypic.

The paradoxosomatid fauna of Vietnam is clearly dominated by highly local,

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endemic species. Of the 25 genera, seven (Annamina, Chapanella, Leiozonius, Pseudosundanina, Sapamorpha and Tonkinosoma) have so far been known only in Vietnam; f ive genera have been known to occur in Vietnam and its adjacent regions, such as Laos (Piccola, Simplogonomorpha and Orthomorphoides), southern China (Sellanucheza and Polylobosoma) and Indonesia (Sumatra) (Sundaninella). Most of paradoxosomatid species (71 of 78 recorded species) are endemic to Vietnam except four species found also in Laos (Simplogonomorpha falcata, Tylopus nodulipes), Cambodia (Orthomorpha cambodjana) and Indonesia (Sumatra) (Orthomorpha hydrobiologica) and three pantropical species (Orthomorpha coarctata, Oxidus gracilis and Helicorthomorpha holstii).

Of the 25 recorded genera, six (Chapanella, Kronopolites, Sapamorpha, Oxidus, Polylobosoma and Tonkinosoma) are discovered only in northern Vietnam. Nine genera (Annamina, Leiozonius, Nesorthomorpha, Orthomorphoides, Piccola, Pseudosundanina, Simplogonomorpha, Sundaninella and Touranella) are only found in southern Vietnam. Some genera (such as Anoplodesmus, Desmoxytes, Nedyopus, Sundanina, and Helicorthomorpha) are widely distributed over Vietnam. The genera Tylopus and Sellanucheza are recorded in northern and central Vietnam whereas the genera Antheromorpha and Orthomorpha are found in southern and central Vietnam.

Millipedes are more likely to live in areas at higher altitude, and with low temperature and forests having rich litter layers. Of the 25 genera, eight (Chapanella, Nesorthomorpha, Orthomorphoides, Polylobosoma, Piccola, Pseudosundanina, Sapamorpha, and Simplogonomorpha) are found in forests with rich litter layers in higher lands where the average annual temperature is less than 19ºC. Seven genera (Antheromorpha, Desmoxytes, Kronopolites, Nedyopus, Sellanucheza, Tonkinosoma, and Tourannella) are recorded in forests in both higher and lower lands, where the average annual temperature is less than 23ºC.

At the laboratory of Ibaraki University with Dr. Junich Kojima and Indonesian colleagues (Dr. Cahyo Rahmadi and Hari Nugroho)

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Japanese Advisor : Emiko OCHIAIProfessor, Kyoto University

Divorce in Contemporary Vietnam: Prevalance, Patterns and Effects

Thi Minh Thi TRAN VNM - 10811

Researcher,Institute of Sociology,Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences(VASS)

Recent study on divorce show that, while divorce has long been culturally discouraged and limited, divorce has been rapidly rising after the Renovation policy [Doi Moi] in late 1980s. However, very few empirical studies, which are based on statistical analyses of individual data on the association between socio-demographic factors and divorce in Vietnam, have been implemented. Using the results of the existed data, which include the annual statistics on divorces at the Vietnam Supreme Court; and especially, the whole divorce cases granted at two district courts in ten years 2000-2009 in the Red River Delta (i.e. 499 divorced couples in a rural district and 1534 divorced couples in an urban district); and applying theoretical approaches on divorce, this study attempts to examine how the divorce prevalence, patterns and the reported reasons of divorce varied with structural factors, such as gender, cultural and demographic (i.e. rural/urban residence, living arrangement before divorce), life course (i.e. presence of children, birth cohort, age at marriage, duration of marriage, age at divorce) and socioeconomic status (i.e. economic condition) variables in the effects of social backgrounds. In addition, case studies of divorced men and women were conducted to collect to provide the possible explanations, and to investigate the socio-cultural factors to divorce.

There are twelve important findings in the dissertation. First, divorce in Vietnam is increasing in both number and rate and the upturn is much stronger in urban areas than in rural areas. The crude divorce rate and general divorce rate are rising considerably and reach to 1.12 and 1.49 respectively in 2010, share the similar trend with other Southeast countries but remain low in compared to the developed countries. Second, there are disparate trend in divorced/separated probability. Divorced/separated probability is higher among the more modernized settings such as urban residence, Southeast residence, Kinh group, better-off people, and working women. For instance, living in an urban area, kinship ties and financial independence arising from employment outside home give women the ability and confidence to be on their own, increased opportunities for meeting new partners and divorce is a credible option if they are in unsatisfactory marriages. However, education is negatively associated with divorce, because more educated women are more likely to have a romantic marriage and are less likely to be

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exposed to other high risk factors of bad marriage such as very early and arranged marriages. Third, divorce procedure is still complicated toward reconciliation and collectivism in traditional settings. In the rural areas, divorce procedure is more complicated and is a collective decision with the direct interventions of alternative subject powers such as family, kinship, and mass organization. In the urban setting, higher modernization and individualism may lead to easier divorce decision and less complicated divorce procedure. Forth, there are evidences that divorces happen mostly at the young age, among the young people, especially among the more traditional setting such as rural area. For instance, women divorce at younger age than men, and rural individuals divorce at younger age than the urban counterparts. It is also interesting that there is a strong increase among divorced people who have no child at the time of divorce, and strongly increased among rural divorcees. They may divorce at the younger age when they do not have children yet. Fifth, gender equality and the more independence of women status in marriage and family show the dominant trend of women initiating divorce regardless of birth cohorts, age at marriage, age at divorce, number of children, sex composition of children, wealth ranking, and living arrangement. Sixth, children values remain strong since women with more children are less likely to initiate divorce than women without or having fewer children. While among couple with more children, men are more likely to initiate divorce. Seventh, divorce is the highest in the first five years of marriage and majority of marriages end in divorce in the first 10 years. Eighth, patterns of long or short duration of marriage vary by the socioeconomic status, the life course perspectives and the cultural and demographics backgrounds. The couples with longer marriage duration are those enjoyed more individualism and modernization such as living in the urban areas and separately from parents, getting married at the older age, and being better off. On the other hand, couples with shorter marriage duration are living in the rural areas, with parents, poor, getting married at the younger age, having no child, which predict a tendency toward a higher individualism since there is a conflict of higher social pressure of traditional values of marriage and family and an open viewpoints rooted from modernization, which make people are ready to dissolve their marriage. From the gender perspective, male divorcees report longer duration of marriage than female divorcees. Ninth, there are gender and structural differentials in divorce reasons. Men are more likely to divorce due to adultery and economic hardship. Women suffering domestic violence, adultery, economic hardship and life style difference are more likely to divorce, which support for the hypothesis. Individuals with high socioeconomic status report infidelity and life style conflict as their divorce reasons while the low socioeconomic status report economic hardship, missing/in prison, domestic violence, and life style dispute are the reasons. Individuals who married at a young age were more likely to report difficulties in “settling down,” such as economic hardship, domestic violence, addicted and missing and who married at old age are

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more likely to divorce due to infidelity, life style dispute, and no child. Tenth, there is a competing force of both modern and traditional influences on divorce reasons and a transition toward higher individualism in divorce. Couples who broke their marriage with modern/individualistic reason, such as life style conflict, are more likely are modern people such as urban residence, high socioeconomic status, and older age at marriage. The profound evidence of influences of the “traditional” reason for divorce is the number of divorces due to domestic violence, economic hardship, and childless, which are often high in the rural areas. Eleventh, children granted to live with their mothers after divorce is the dominant trend of the divorced couples in Vietnam, regardless of their rural/urban differential, living standard, child number, divorced year, the age at divorce, birth cohort, and living arrangement before divorce. And finally, there are evidences of the gender inequality in house and property arrangement after divorce. Urban women are given more favourable conditions after divorce since most of them at least receive half of the house value. Mothers can be more protected of the house ownership if taking care of all children. If mothers share the child custody or do not take care of child after divorce, their house ownership right is significant lower than those of the husband.

Modernization accompanied by the infiltration of egalitarianism, important role of the state in formulation of the marriage patterns through the introduction of the legal documents and other socioeconomic development policies, the improvement of women's socio-economic status, and the expansion of individualism explains, to some extent, the prevalence and pattern of divorce in Vietnam.

The socio-economic miracle that followed the country's opening to the outside world and Renovation after 1986 has dramatically changed social mores and getting divorced no longer carries the social stigma it once did. Vietnam's transformation to a market economy and modernization also began to reshape lifestyles and values, including those on marriage and divorce. Modernization process unties individual traditional viewpoints and perceptions of marriage and family and has brought greater autonomy to the Vietnamese. With material comforts vastly improved, people are no longer satisfied with marriages that merely fulfilled the need to carry on the family line and requiring obeying and scarifying from women. Divorce is becoming a reflection of autonomous and rational decision to pursue individual happiness. Gender equality and women status in Vietnam is promoting significantly over the years. The economic independence and legal setting prioritized women have meant power to be emotionally more independent, making women brave enough to walk out of an unsatisfactory marriage. Individualism and collectivism is a cultural dimension which relates to divorce prevalence and pattern. Vietnam is in the stage of catching up with the Western standards of individualism. Individualism, which used to be weak in traditional society, is one of the most influential factors in

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rising rates of divorce.The disparate coexistence of various levels of tradition and modern values in

the context that new institutions have not perfected while old institutions remain existent is the general model of divorce in contemporary transitional Vietnam. This mean there is a contradictory trend existing in contemporary Vietnam, where many traditional ideas are infringed by modern values, but not be eliminated completely and where the new modern values are forming and expanding under the process of modernization and socialism.

JSPS RONPAKU (Dissertation Ph.D.) ProgramAbstracts of Dissertation for FY 2012

Overseas Fellowship Division, JSPS

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-ronpaku/