The objective of this research is to assess the level of competition and the factors affecting the level of competition of Vietnam commercial banks for the period from 2008 - 2016. The authors measure Lerner Index according to the formula of Abba Lerner (1934) to proxy level of competition and uses SGMM for table data to analyze the factors affecting the level of competition of Vietnam commercial banks for the period of 2008 - 2016. The results show that factors that increase the level of competition among banks include equity, outstanding loans, cost-effectiveness, bank size, economic growth rate and inflation. Meanwhile, high return on equity has the effect of reducing competition pressure.

Migrating to a new home often carries some degree of cultural, emotional, and mental plights for immigrants of all ages. Nonetheless, acculturation studies commonly overlook the experiences of immigrant and refugee youth. In addition, prevalent acculturation frameworks fail to acknowledge the presence and role of individuality in this population’s acculturation process. This work aims to highlight key findings from the first author’s dissertation research employing a mixed-methods approach to arts-informed research to examine the acculturation approaches of 15 immigrant and refugee youth. Through the integration of participant developed drawings, think-aloud responses, and the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) instrument, those findings highlighted a multidimensional approach to youth acculturation that prioritizes expressions of individuality over overt allegiances to any one cultural paradigm. Additionally, this paper highlights the implications of employing arts-informed approaches to examine complex issues in social sciences

The law of armed conflict otherwise referred to as international humanitarian law, traditionally evolved to regulate conventional military conflicts between sovereign states regular armies that operated in sparsely populated areas under similar principles using similar means of warfare. Today, it seems that at a glance, this law is inadequate to regulate seemingly indefinite asymmetric warfare conducted between regular armies and irregular, sub-state militias. The rise of transnational asymmetric conflict coupled with new technologies of warfare prompted a debate on the applicability of international humanitarian law and other contemporary laws of armed conflict on such conflicts. This work evaluates the nature and character of this atypical warfare and the response offered by the international humanitarian law. The work concludes that actors in this conflict have a duty to observe the principles of international humanitarian law as this law covers action perpetrated by parties to this conflict.

The study investigated the emerging technical skills expected of students of Motor Vehicle Mechanic Works in the maintenance of transmission system in Rivers State. The population of the study consisted of 153 respondents, comprising 140 Motor Vehicle Industry technicians and 13 Motor Vehicle Technical Teacher in Rivers state. No sampling was done considering the small and manageable size of the population. Four research questions were posed while four null hypotheses wereformulated. A self-developed instrument tagged” Emerging Technical skills of Motor Vehicle Mechanic Works Questionnaire (ETSMVMQ) was used to gather information for the study. This instrument was face validated by three experts, while reliability coefficient of 0.87 was obtained using Cronbach-Alpha reliability technique. The research questions were answered using the mean and standard deviation, whereas t-test statistics was used to test the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Following the analysis, 10 emerging technical skills needed in maintaining the transmission system were identified. It was recommended among other things that the government should embark on training and retaining technical educators of motor vehicle mechanic in technical colleges in order to upgrade their capacity.

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of Performance Lag Address Program (PLAP) in Kadoma East cluster of Mhondoro-Ngezi district in Zimbabwe. The researcher examined teachers ‘attitudes in terms of their appreciation level of PLAP in helping lagging learners, whether PLAP is a strenuous and demanding teaching process, their preparedness to spend on PLAP and their level of happiness in implementing PLAP. A survey to determine teacher’s attitudes against PLAP was carried using twenty teachers (10 males, 10 female) from five primary schools in Kadoma East cluster in Mhondoro- Ngezi district in Zimbabwe. Measures of central tendencies (mode and mean) were used to analyse data from the study. The study found out that primary school teachers teaching in Kadoma East cluster of Mhondoro-Ngezi district of Zimbabwe had negative attitudes towards implementing PLAP. They indicated that they were appreciating the importance of PLAP, PLAP was a strenuous teaching activity and demanding teaching process, were not prepared to spend time on PLAP and were not even happy to implement PLAP. This study recommends PLAP staff development programs that are aimed to make teachers appreciate the value of PLAP teaching and learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of Performance Lag Address Program (PLAP) in Kadoma East cluster of Mhondoro-Ngezi district in Zimbabwe. The researcher examined teachers ‘attitudes in terms of their appreciation level of PLAP in helping lagging learners, whether PLAP is a strenuous and demanding teaching process, their preparedness to spend on PLAP and their level of happiness in implementing PLAP. A survey to determine teacher’s attitudes against PLAP was carried using twenty teachers (10 males, 10 female) from five primary schools in Kadoma East cluster in Mhondoro- Ngezi district in Zimbabwe. Measures of central tendencies (mode and mean) were used to analyse data from the study. The study found out that primary school teachers teaching in Kadoma East cluster of Mhondoro-Ngezi district of Zimbabwe had negative attitudes towards implementing PLAP. They indicated that they were appreciating the importance of PLAP, PLAP was a strenuous teaching activity and demanding teaching process, were not prepared to spend time on PLAP and were not even happy to implement PLAP. This study recommends PLAP staff development programs that are aimed to make teachers appreciate the value of PLAP teaching and learning

The authors want to analyse the differences between the British and the Spanish education systems regarding the secondary education of Mathematics. The objective is to provide a different point of view for Spanish teachers, who can take advantage from the British system characteristics, being at the same time a reference for the changes in the Spanish system with the new educative reform approved with the Organic Law on the Improvement of the Quality of Education. Some comments on the universitary education in both systems are also indicated, with the objective of highlighting the main differences between them. As main conclusions, the British system is more graphic and pragmatic teaching mathematics, while the Spanish system provides a better theoretical basis.

Commercialization and corporatization (C&C) in American higher education since the 1980s have gradually marginalized shared governance in various areas. This article is a case study of an American public university, based on empirical studies through in-depth surveys, observations, and base data collection. It addresses the issue of academic commercialization and corporatization and their impact on shared governance, faculty morale and faculty strain in their research, teaching and service. After defining the key concepts, explaining the methodology and discussing the data, this article examines the roles of commercialization and corporatization in decreasing shared governance and lowering faculty morale in academic research, teaching and service. The article concludes that, with the erosion of academic freedom and faculty power, academic commercialization and corporatization have created dissatisfaction among faculty members who lack pride in their profession and distrust administrators.

Residential setting, adaptive behavior, and a variety of demographic variables were used in an effort to predict scores on an instrument quantifying the exercise of choice. The sample consisted of 141 individuals with intellectual disability who lived in community group homes and 462 individuals with intellectual disability who lived on a campus based program. High adaptive behavior scores and living in a community based setting were predictive of higher exercise of choice. It was suggested that both ability and opportunity were necessary for optimal choice making, and that ability was the primary predictor.