SOME EXPERIENCE OF AN GIANG PROVINCE IN THE PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTING INDUSTRIALIZATION AND MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AREAS IN THE PERIOD 2010-2020

Industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas play especial importance to agricultural development, building new rural areas, and improving farmers’ lives. Vietnam has a starting point from the backward agricultural economics, wants to build a modern developed economy. So, it is necessary to carry out industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas. This article focuses on researching the actual situation of implementing industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas in An Giang province, Vietnam, period 2010-2020. Then, learning some lessons from experience in the process of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas in the localities, contributing to supplementing documents, theoretical and practical bases for this process in the next period. Article visualizations

THE ASYMMETRIC EFFECTS OF EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITY ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN A TRANSITION ECONOMY: THE CASE OF VIETNAM

This study examines the asymmetric effects of Exchange Rate Volatility (ERV) on Vietnam’s international trade. Using time-series data fitted to the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model, we find that positive changes in ERV have a negative impact on the trade balance in the short-run. On the other hand,increases in ERV have a positive impact on the trade balance in the long-run. We also find that negative changes in ERV do not have any significant effect on the trade balance

Factors affecting the decision to choose a university of high school students: A study in An Giang Province, Vietnam

It is important to provide high school students with the necessary information for them to consult and make a decision to choose a university. The study aims to identify and evaluate the influence of factors in the decision to choose a university for high school students. The questionnaire survey method was used to collect data from 393 students from eight high schools in An Giang Province, Vietnam. Exploratory factor analysis and linear regression were used to analyze the data. The research results show that students are quite satisfied and quite certain with their decision to choose a university, while there are six important factors affecting the decision to choose a university. Influential factors with decreasing order of magnitude are: i) Factors consulted by teachers, family, friends, and relatives; ii) Factors of future job opportunities; iii) Factors of media activities; iv) Factors of learning conditions; v) Factors of university reputation; vi) Factors belong to the students themselves. The findings of the study show that there is no statistically significant difference between the group of males and females, between grades 10, 11, and 12. Besides, there is a statistically significant difference between students in high schools. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for university admissions in Vietnam. Proposals made to university administrators were discussed. From the research results, we want to help students find the right university, and support universities to improve the efficiency of admissions

EFFECTS OF SALT STRESS ON PLANT GROWTH AND BIOMASS ALLOCATION IN SOME WETLAND GRASS SPECIES IN THE MEKONG DELTA

Salt stress causes serious damage to many cellular and physiological processes that leads to yield reduction. The study induced salt stress using Hoagland solution added NaCl to evaluate its effects on plant growth and biomass allocation of some wetland grass species in order to identify salt-tolerant species for replacing and/or supplementing rice/grass in rice-shrimp model and salt-affected area in the Mekong Delta. The study also seeks to evaluate the response of leaf chlorophyll (SPAD unit) and proline content in salt-treated plants to varying application of salinity. Typha orientalis, Lepironia articulata, Eleocharis dulcis and Scirpus littoralis were studied in hydroponics condition with four levels of NaCl of 5, 10, 15, 20‰ and the control treatment (without adding NaCl). The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 3 replications. The salt-treated plants showed visually clear responses of inhibited growth under salt stress condition compared to the control plants. Among the four studied species, T. orientalis produced the highest dry shoot biomass (15.5 g DW/plant), while E. dulcis had the lowest value (2.8 g DW/plant). However, only T. orientalis showed significantly decreased in biomass as salinity increased with 9.3 and 4.6 times lower of fresh and dry biomass in plants grown at the salinity level of 20‰ compared to those grown in the control treatment. The other three plant species did not affect by salinity levels. The results indicated that S. littoralis, L. articulata and E. dulcis could tolerate at high salinity of 20‰ (eq. to the EC value in the nutrient solution of 38.0 dS/m) and could be potential candidate to grow in the rice-shrimp model or in the salt-affected soils. 

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Amorphous and ‘crystalline’ penta-silicene

International audienceAtomic structure, thermodynamic and mechanical behaviours of the penta-silicene (p-silicene) obtained by cooling from the melt are studied by the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We find that p-silicene can 'naturally' form from the liquid state using the appropriate interatomic potential, density and buckling. The charge-optimised many body (COMB) potential is employed. Depending on the cooling rate used in simulations, 'crystalline' or amorphous p-silicene can be obtained. 'Crystallisation' and glass transition temperatures (T X = 1620 K and T g = 1230 K, respectively) have reasonable values compared to those of the hexa-silicene (h-silicene). We find that the Poisson's ratio of the obtained 'crystalline' p-silicene is positive unlike the negative one found for the p-graphene. The reasons for the formation of p-silicene instead of tetra-silicene (t-silicene) are analysed and discussed, i.e. 2D liquid silicene with COMB potential has a significant fraction of pentagons which grow with decreasing temperature, unlike 2D liquid silicene with the Stillinger-Weber potential

Tetra-SiC – New allotrope of 2D silicon carbide

International audienceFormation and atomic structure of two-dimensional (2D) tetra-SiC (containing entirely tetragons) are studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Models contain 6400 atoms (3200 Si atoms and 3200 C ones) interacted via so-called Vashishta's interatomic potentials. We compress initially perfect planar SiC with honeycomb structure (hexa-SiC) at three different temperatures (below and above melting point) step by step and we find hexa-tetra 2D SiC phase transition. Tetra-SiC sample obtained at temperature significantly below melting point exhibits the best quality which contains the lowest concentration of defects (non-tetragons). This tetra-SiC is stable over a wide range of density and temperature. On the other hand, we cool the obtained tetra-SiC to room temperature and it is also stable at room temperature. Evolution of various structural and thermodynamic quantities upon compression is studied and we find that it exhibits a first-order-like phase transition behavior. Detailed analysis of structure of the obtained tetra-SiC is shown via coordination number and bond-angle distributions, ring statistics, 2D visualization of atomic configurations etc. Moreover, important quantities of mechanical behaviors such as Young modulus and Poisson's ratio of the sample are found and discussed. DFT calculations show that flat tetra-SiC is stable with a band gap of around 0.97 eV. Our prediction of the existence of this new allotrope of 2D SiC can serve as a guide for further investigation in this direction including fabrication of material in practice

Stages of melting of graphene model in twodimensionalspace

International audienceSpontaneous melting of a perfect crystalline graphene model in 2D space is studied via molecular dynamics simulation. Model containing 104 atoms interacted via long-range bond-order potential (LCBOP) is heated up from 50 to 8,450 K in order to see evolution of various thermodynamic quantities, structural characteristics and occurrence of various structural defects. We find that spontaneous melting of our graphene model in 2D space exhibits a first-order behaviour of the transition from solid 2D graphene sheet into a ring-like structure 2D liquid. Occurrence and clustering of Stone–Wales defects are the first step of melting process followed by breaking of C–C bonds, occurrence/growth of various types of vacancies and multimembered rings. Unlike that found for melting of a 2D crystal with an isotropic bonding, these defects do not occur homogeneously throughout the system, they have a tendency to aggregate into a region and liquid phase initiates/grows from this region via tearinglike or crack-propagation-like mechanism. Spontaneous melting point of our graphene model occurs at Tm = 7,750 K. The validity of classical nucleation theory and Berezinsky–Kosterlitz–Thouless–Nelson–Halperin–Young (BKTNHY) one for the spontaneous melting of our graphene model in strictly 2D space is discussed