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Leucinodes orbonalis (Guenee) inflicts considerable damage on eggplant. In the present study farmers’ practice (Regime 1: Repeated use of different insecticides viz., Cypermethrin, Monocrotophos, Chlorpyriphos and Triazophos once or twice at weekly intervals) was compared with two IPM regimes, during 2010-12. The IPM regimes were: 1) Regime 2: weekly shoot clipping of infested twigs at the time of infestation along with installation of pheromone traps at 100/ha (lure was changed at 25 days intervals); and 2) Regime 3: weekly shoot clipping of infested twigs at the time of infestation along with installation of pheromone traps at 100/ha (lure was changed at 25 days interval) and need based application of NSKE at 4% and cartap hydrochloride at 1 g/l. The least fruit damage (20.46%) was observed in regime 3. With this IPM regime, the fruit damage was prevented by 35.01 to 36.18% and 22.87 to 23.33% additional yield was recorded over the regime relied upon only chemical pesticides. An additional income of USD $ 1064.22/ha was also obtained in open pollinated and USD $ 1799.35/ha in hybrid cultivars with a 10 to 11 times reduction of chemical sprayings in the regime 3. The selected regime not only reduced the total cost of crop production but also increased the net return per unit area. The IPM programme (regime 3) that consisted of cultural, mechanical and chemical components was proved to be an ideal management strategy against eggplant shoot and fruit borer along with a benefit: cost ratio of 3.65 to 4.27.

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This action research study aims to test the feasibility of applying an intercultural language learning and teaching model (IcLLT) to teaching EFL in general education in Vietnam through teachers’ and students’ responses to two trial lessons. The IcLLT model of “construction”, “connection”, “interaction”, “reflection”, and “extension” is developed to foster students’ intercultural competence by invoking their engagement in social interaction and critical cultural reflection. As shown in observations and students’ evaluation sheets, the intercultural language activities in IcLLT lessons could engage the students in activating prior knowledge, comparing culture, talking about cultural issues, and participating in intercultural communication. However, they were not able to reflect on their intercultural perspectives in oral interaction as much as in their writing. In parallel, the teacher agreed that the activities requiring students’ reflection were most challenging and the other three steps of “construction”, “connection”, “interaction” could be conducted in relevance to three-stage Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) skill lessons of Pre-While-Post. The IcLLT is applicable to teach integrated skill CLT lessons with culture-specific input if intercultural objectives are added and relevant intercultural language activities with more focus on students’ intercultural interactions and critical reflection are conducted.  Hence, IcLLT could be recommended as a supplementary approach to integrating culture into EFL teaching to build students’ intercultural communicative competence, which is considered a critical part of the new educational reform in general education in Vietnam

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Service-Learning (SL) has been internationally gaining in popularity in the field of teacher education in higher education thanks to its benefits. However, this pedagogical method is still new in some EFL higher education settings like Vietnam. This qualitative study investigates the undergraduate students’ attitudes after their implementation of an SL-integrated teaching practicum unit at some EFL community classes. In the study, seventy-eight fourth-year students of English in the pedagogy sector at a department of English of a university of foreign languages in Central Vietnam were involved as participants. They were guided to contact community learners of English, observe classes, design lesson plans, do micro-teachings, and finally write reflections. The findings from the reflections revealed that all of the students had positive attitudes towards SL and the teaching practicum unit, which made impacts on their personal growth, classroom management skills, profession, and community-related aspects. Recommendations concerning how to make SL and SL-integrated courses more effective were put forward at the end of the research study.

 

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Dyadic Data Analysis (DDA) has been suggested, in the existing literature, to be used to explore interpersonal variables which have long been conventionally investigated in isolation. DDA is effective in analyzing procedures that go on among dyads in studies of family relations, partnership, teacher-student affairs, and many other interpersonal relationships. Illustrative examples come from psychological, behavioral, and sociological studies that help develop the researcher's ability to investigate relationship processes, model and test for the effects of actors, partners, and relationships, and control for the statistical inter-dependence which can be conceived between partners. The present paper first reviews the distinctive features of DDA and the potential advantages it can have for language studies. Also, it shows how longitudinal DDA is strongly needed in the investigation of L2 affective variables in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) domain to longitudinally explore the dynamic and developmental nature of language learners’ affective factors. Finally, it goes on with making suggestions for a future line of inquiry using this innovative analytic procedure and ends with several conclusive remarks about this analytical framework which is compatible with the complexity of dynamic systems theory (CDST).
 

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The breakout and intensification of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic caused dramatic changes to education across the world. Both teachers and students were not prepared for the sudden change regarding the mode of teaching and learning: onsite to offsite and offline to online. The current study seeks to identify frequent problems that first-year English major students have during their online learning process and explore their suggestions for the improvement of the situation. Data were collected from an online survey of 89 first-year English-majored students. The students’ obstacles were identified by the 30-item questionnaire, and their suggestions for positive changes were explored thanks to open-ended questions. The results show that learning environment is the students’ biggest problem due to the distraction of attention during home study. The extent of problems in six areas: (1) self-regulation, (2) technological literacy, (3) student isolation, (4) technological sufficiency, (5) learning resources, and (6) learning environments are significantly different. Among the suggestions, the students expected improvements in (1) teachers’ pedagogy, (2) students’ health, and (3) assessment scheme. Acknowledging the problems and putting forward suggestions for emergency remote teaching could contribute to the development of sustainable online teaching as a complementary mode of instruction in the new normal.   

 

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Due to the advancement of multimedia technology, it is now very common to use tools and equipment for teaching and learning. Understanding how to best utilize the benefits and functions of multimedia technology has now taken the lead in English teaching and learning. The positive contributions that multimedia technology makes to the teaching and learning of English listening, speaking, reading, and writing are highlighted in this essay. It also focuses on strategies and methods to enhance English comprehensive ability in a multimedia environment and highlights issues that need to be addressed. It is advised to focus more on the natural integration of multimedia technology and English teaching, expand the range of English reading, increase interest in English learning, enhance the comprehensive ability of English application, and establish a resource-sharing environment for teachers.
 

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A green house study was conducted to evaluate the comparative efficacy of Pasteuria penetrans under the influence of organic amendments of four oil seed cakes namely Azadirachta indica (Locally known as Neem), castor (Ricinus communis), mustard (Brassica campestris) and Citrullus (Citrullus colocynthis)on suppression of populations of Meloidogyne incognita in Chilli. Oil seed cakes were applied at the rate of 20 mg/Pot (500 kg/ha), either individually or in combination with one dose of P. penetrans (100 g/kg soil). Application of oil seed cakes and P. penetrans, singly or in combination, proved effective in reduction of gall and final root-knot nematode population. Combination of castor and P. penetrans showed greater reduction in galling index (84.75%) and final population (85.74%) over the M. incognita control than other treatments. In addition, oil seed cake significantly improved the shoot and root dry matter of chilli. Among the four oil cakes tested, the combined application of P. penetrans with castor oil cake seemed to be more promising in the management of M. incognita in chilli as it resulted in greater nematode suppression and improved plant health.

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Repeatability, (the consistency with which a given trait is expressed) of aggressiveness against prey (attack latency) in gravid females of the predatory mite Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) was examined. In two experiments, prey - conspecific individuals, the onion thrips Thrips tabaci (Lindeman), and the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch- were repeatedly offered in various no-choice vs. choice situations. Throughout the first experiment, the predators were offered conspecific larvae twice, alone and then together with Te. urticae. In a second experiment, the predators were alternately offered Te. urticae and Th. tabaci within choice vs. no-choice situations. Latency to the first successful attack (resulting in death and consumption of prey) was recorded as aggressiveness. In the first experiment, Pearson’s r indicated that the predators were consistent in aggressiveness against conspecific prey. Additionally, latency to attack conspecific larvae and Te. urticae were strongly correlated when the former were offered alone and the latter offered together with conspecific larvae. In the second experiment, aggressiveness against spider mites and thrips was inconsistent, non-repeatable and varied among contexts. However, Te. urticae was attacked more quickly when offered second, following the first prey Th. tabaci than when offered as the first prey. Both experiments, in concert, suggest that the level of behavioral consistency of N. californicus in aggressiveness against prey is strongly context-dependent. Further in-depth studies are needed to determine which foraging traits, (and why and under what circumstances) are more repeatable than others.

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Uncertainty in staple food prices places the economy under jeopardy if not managed coherently and markets are not integrated. An attempt was made to analyze the wheat price behavior and extent of integration across selected wholesale and retail markets in India sourcing monthly data from FAO (July 2000-June 2016). Findings indicated that the price in wholesale and retail markets as well as its divergence was lowest in Patna, implying a major production and consumption zone, and highest in Chennai, indicating a negligible production. Monthly price indices exhibited a clear-cut seasonality linking with the arrivals of post-crop harvest. Extent of price integration was examined using Johansen’s approach to know whether markets share a linear deterministic trend followed by testing the Law Of One Price (LOOP). The maximum likelihood test indicated a strong integration in different combinations of markets with some market pairs showing unidirectional-causality, while the rest exhibiting either bidirectional-causality or no-causality. Barring Patna, Delhi, and Mumbai’s retail and wholesale markets, the rest of the market combinations did not confirm the LOOP. The study advocates rational allocation of resources based on the extent of price integration and reducing the market distortion for improving the overall performance.
 

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To investigate the response of soil microbial populations to different doses of glyphosate and sulfosulfuron, a factorial experiment based on a complete block design was conducted at Shiraz University, Iran. The factors included different herbicides and dose rates (glyphosate at 0, 540, 1,080, and 4,320 g ae ha^-1 and sulfosulfuron at 0, 12.5, 25, and 50 g ai ha^-1), and time of measurements (4, 15, 45, and 65 days after herbicides spray). Microbial respiration, microbial biomass carbon, metabolic quotient, dehydrogenase activity, and aerobic heterotrophic bacteria were measured in soil samples. The results showed that microbial respiration, microbial biomass carbon and metabolic quotient were highest for glyphosate 1,080 g ae ha^-1 at 4 days after herbicide application. Dehydrogenase activity had a decreasing trend in all herbicide treatments in comparison with the control treatment in all measuring times, except 4 days after spraying. There was no significant difference in dehydrogenase activity between herbicide treatments. The effect of sulfosulfuron on microbial respiration and metabolic quotient was not significant, whereas time and its interaction with herbicide dose rate affected these two variables significantly. Generally, all the measured indices for sulfosulfuron and glyphosate treatments decreased with time after herbicide application. Sulfosulfuron at 50 g ha-1 and glyphosate at 4,320 g ha-1 had the lowest amounts of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria after 65 days, decreased by 23.7 and 50%, respectively compared with the control. Our results demonstrate that the effects of herbicides on soil microbial communities are strongly related to the herbicide dose and the time after herbicide spray. In conclusions, the herbicides at doses more than the recommended doses showed inhibitory effects on soil microbial communities in the alkaline soil, where the inhibitory effect was more at 4,320 g ae ha^-1 glyphosate.

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The Tomato Leaf Miner (TLM), Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is a cosmopolitan tomato pest that has driven a renewed reliance on pesticides in tomato production, negatively affecting biological control of other pests and creating environmental and health hazards. We tested five locally important Iranian tomato cultivars (TD, Karon, Petoprid, Matin, and 8320) for constituitive resistance to TLM by comparing its biological performance and life table parameters under standardized laboratory conditions (27.5±1°C, 65±5% RH, 16 L:8 D hours photoperiod). Survival and developmental rates of immature stages varied significantly among cultivars, as did female fecundity and main parameters of the life table. Karon was most suceptible, affording 90% juvenile TLM survival, the fastest development, and the highest female fecundity, with cultivar 8320 not significantly different in these regards. By contrast, Matin ranked most resistant; i.e. only 59% of larvae survived, and female fecundity was almost halved. TD was the next most resistant, being not significantly different from Matin in these metrics. The intrinsic rates of increase (r), in descending order, were Karon (0.178), 8320 (0.169), TD (0.146), Petoprid (0.138), and Matin (0.111). Matin and TD had the highest densities of glandular trichomes on adaxial leaf surfaces. These findings indicate that the Matin, Petoprid and TD are more resistant than the other cultivars and have potential as one component of an IPM strategy to manage T. absoluta.