Search

Ivan Bunin was the first Russian writer, who won the Nobel Prize in literature. However, Vietnamese readers knew him rather late: it was in 1987 that stories by the famous master of artistic language were translated into Vietnamese for the first time. So, as compared with other Russian classics, the history of perception of Bunin's work in Vietnam is not very long. His works are still little-known to a broad readership, but at the same time, the writer managed to gain recognition by elitist Vietnamese reader. This article analyses the features of perception of Ivan Bunins work (on the whole, his stories) in the elitist Vietnamese readership, from the time of publication of his stories in Vietnamese up to 2019. The basis of the analyses are articles and researches on the writers work, including senior theses and masters theses by graduates of higher education institutes, as well as Bunins works translations into Vietnamese.

Isaac Babel is an exceptional Russian-Jewish writer of Russian literature. The writer himself and his best work Red Cavalry have truly become a remarkable phenomenon in Russian and world literature. Through Red Cavalry, Babel not only helps readers understand more about the life, the fighting process as well as the virtues and the ideal of the Red Army Cossack soldiers, but also allows them to see the human values, human nature, simple wishes and noble aspirations of people, especially the Jewish intellectuals in violent war situations. His readers, therefore, pay even more respect for this talented and brave writer, and at the same time, earn a more comprehensive view of a highly turbulent period of the Russian-Soviet literature. With an uncommon psychological view used in approaching the works written about war, this article hopes to highlight the issues mentioned above.

Chloroplast division is a critical process for the maintenance of appropriate chloroplast number in plant cells. It is known that in some plant species and cell types, environmental stresses can affect chloroplast division, differentiation and morphology, however the significance and regulation of these processes are largely unknown. Here we investigated the regulation of salt stress-induced chloroplast division in protonemal cells of the moss, Physcomitrella patens, and found that, salt stress as one of the major abiotic stresses, induced chloroplast division and resulted in increased chloroplast numbers. We further identified three APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) transcription factors (TFs) that were responsible for this regulation. These AP2/ERF genes were up-regulated under salt stress, and amino acid sequences and phylogenetic analyses indicated that all TFs possess only one conserved AP2 domain and likely belong to the same subgroup of ERF-B3 in the AP2/ERF superfamily. Overexpression of these TFs significantly increased the chloroplast number even in the absence of NaCl stress. On the contrary, inducible overexpression of the dominant repressor form of these TFs suppressed salt stress-induced chloroplast division. Thus, our results suggest that salt stress induced-chloroplast division is regulated through members of the AP2/ERF TF superfamily.

Landscape planning has been advocated by many researchers and conservationists because of its potential to support nature conservation at broad spatial scales. We examined an internationally funded project in Vietnam (the ECOLIME project) that failed in its endeavor to establish landscape planning at the scale of an ecologically valuable karst landscape. We applied the Research–Integration–Utilization model of scientific knowledge transfer to analyze why the ECOLIME project did not succeed in adapting the scale of the political–administrative planning system to the ecological scale of the karst ecosystem landscape. Our study shows that the implementation of landscape planning in the Pu-Luong Cuc Phuong area was not successful to solve scale mismatches in environmental governance because of weak integration, resulting from both the absence of a link to the Vietnamese political process and the lack of support from powerful Vietnamese actors. The establishment of a landscape planning group with the support of an internationally funded project (the ECOLIME project) was not a sufficient means to create links to the political process and win powerful allies. Based on the results of this study, we recommend improvements in integration to make scientific research relevant to science-based policy support, including (1) the need for a link to the existing political process and (2) the need to gain sustainable support from powerful allies.

Red lists of threatened species have been a powerful instrument to interact loss of biodiversity in many countries. However, there have been growing concerns over the scientific basis of red lists and the influence of red lists on conservation policy formulation. This article explores science–policy interface in the development and use of the Vietnamese Red Data Book 2007 by applying the Research – Integration – Utilization (RIU) model of scientific knowledge transfer. Our study has shown the scientific weaknesses of the Vietnamese Red Data Book 2007, which arise from limited availability of updated data on rare and threatened species in Vietnam and unknown factors influencing them. Despite the existing limitations, the science-based policy advice of the Vietnamese Red Data Book 2007 has achieved certain political influence due to successful integration. Our study also reveals that good and actor-relevant communication could help to win powerful allies in conservation policy formulation, which contributes to a successful transfer of scientific knowledge. Based on our results, we recommend that the improvement of the scientific basis of the red lists is essential to enhance science-based policy support in biodiversity conservation.

Chloroplast division is a critical process for the maintenance of appropriate chloroplast number in plant cells. It is known that in some plant species and cell types, environmental stresses can affect chloroplast division, differentiation and morphology, however the significance and regulation of these processes are largely unknown. Here we investigated the regulation of salt stress-induced chloroplast division in protonemal cells of the moss, Physcomitrella patens, and found that, salt stress as one of the major abiotic stresses, induced chloroplast division and resulted in increased chloroplast numbers. We further identified three APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) transcription factors (TFs) that were responsible for this regulation. These AP2/ERF genes were up-regulated under salt stress, and amino acid sequences and phylogenetic analyses indicated that all TFs possess only one conserved AP2 domain and likely belong to the same subgroup of ERF-B3 in the AP2/ERF superfamily. Overexpression of these TFs significantly increased the chloroplast number even in the absence of NaCl stress. On the contrary, inducible overexpression of the dominant repressor form of these TFs suppressed salt stress-induced chloroplast division. Thus, our results suggest that salt stress induced-chloroplast division is regulated through members of the AP2/ERF TF superfamily.

The transfer of scientific knowledge has received great attention by scientists and policymakers especially in fields that are crucially dependent on scientific knowledge like biodiversity conservation or climate change. Although many efforts have been made to better understand how scientific expertise can have an impact on politics, few studies have investigated the influence of limiting factors on scientific knowledge transfer. In this paper, we use a meta-analysis of 13 existing individual case studies from 5 different countries that all have in common that they apply the Research–Integration–Utilization model (the RIU model) to analyze limits of scientific knowledge transfer within research, integration, and utilization. Our results show that the factors of research, integration, and utilization are independent from each other in limiting or increasing the transfer of scientific knowledge. The independence of the RIU's factors also reveals that the increase of scientific knowledge alone will not lead to an improvement in knowledge transfer. There is empirical evidence in our cases providing that utilization could also be possible without a strong scientific basis, and successful integration could be based on weak scientific grounds. As a result of the independence of the different factors the RIU model consists of, the traps of scientific knowledge transfer could be observed in one or multiple RIU's factors and therefore improvements in scientific knowledge transfer should be orientated toward solely one or multiple factors instead of the whole process. We recommend that single improvements of different individual factors (research, integration, utilization) can help to improve the whole process of scientific knowledge transfer.