Structural Factors that Influence the Inhibition of Type II Restriction Enzymes by Minor Groove Binders

The objective of this thesis was to study whether heterocyclic dicationic compounds that are minor groove binders have the ability to inhibit the digestive properties of type II restriction enzymes which bind to the major groove of the DNA. If these compounds do possess the ability to inhibit restriction enzymes, then what factors influence their ability to inhibit the restriction enzymes? The methods used to study the interactions of DNA, compounds, and enzymes are gel electrophoresis, DNA thermal melting, and circular dichroism. The results from this project reveal that the minor grove binding compounds are able to inhibition type II restriction enzymes. The inhibition is heavily influenced by compound structure and the DNA binding sequence of the enzyme

An inquiry into the determinants of Vietnamese product export

Export led growth is the model of economic development that Vietnam has been following. While there are a great number of studies on the determinants of aggregate export of Vietnam, there are few that analyze the impacts of different factors on the export of different product groups. This paper aims at filling this gap in research on international trade of Vietnam. The results show that the fast GDP growth of Vietnam, the large population of importing countries, the wide economic gap between Vietnam and the importing countries, the depreciation of domestic currency, the free trade agreements that Vietnam signed and the shared border with the importing countries contribute to the increase of Vietnam’s export of all product groups. In contrast, the GDP of importing countries and population of Vietnam have no clear impacts on the export of any product groups.

Vulnerability of Rice Production in Mekong River Delta under Impacts from Floods, Salinity and Climate Change

This study sought to estimate the floods and salinity impact index and climate change vulnerability index for the rice farming provinces in Mekong River Delta. In both indexes, Tra Vinh province and the communes within it have the highest index value, followed by other coastal provinces. The estimation showed that the rice production in these areas are being threatened and will be worsen if there is no appropriate plan to cope with the changes in climate condition and extreme events. The results for the simulation model of paddy yield under different scenarios showed decreases in the paddy yield in Mekong River Delta. Specifically, the yield of Spring paddy decreases 6%, Autumn paddy decreases 2%, Winter paddy decreases 4% and Autumn-winter paddy decreases 4% in 2050. From these results, the climate change adaptation and mitigation policies in this delta is suggested to be focused reducing the exposure to sea level rise; upgrading the irrigation system for paddy planting since the coastal provinces have high rate of rain-fed paddy, vulnerability can also be reduced by enhancing the adaptive capacity of provinces through subsidizing and providing farmers with new paddy varieties which are more tolerant to salinity

On the Interference Alignment Designs for Secure Multiuser MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose two secure multiuser multiple-input multiple-output transmission approaches based on interference alignment (IA) in the presence of an eavesdropper. To deal with the information leakage to the eavesdropper as well as the interference signals from undesired transmitters (Txs) at desired receivers (Rxs), our approaches aim to design the transmit precoding and receive subspace matrices to minimize both the total inter-main-link interference and the wiretapped signals (WSs). The first proposed IA scheme focuses on aligning the WSs into proper subspaces while the second one imposes a new structure on the precoding matrices to force the WSs to zero. When the channel state information is perfectly known at all Txs, in each proposed IA scheme, the precoding matrices at Txs and the receive subspaces at Rxs or the eavesdropper are alternatively selected to minimize the cost function of an convex optimization problem for every iteration. We provide the feasible conditions and the proofs of convergence for both IA approaches. The simulation results indicate that our two IA approaches outperform the conventional IA algorithm in terms of average secrecy sum rate.Comment: Updated version, updated author list, accepted to be appear in IEICE Transaction

Costs and Benefits of a Greener Alternative for the Development of Vietnam's power sector

International audienceIn this study, BAU (a scenario based on current trends) and ALT (a greener alternative with more renewables, higher energy efficiency) are developed. The external costs of CO 2 , NOx, SO 2 and PM 10 in the Vietnamese power sector are estimated at 20, 1328, 2047 and 1460 US$/ton, respectively. The authors find that the electricity price and the domestic trade balance in ALT are less sensitive to fluctuations in the international price of coal than in BAU. The total costs accumulated between period 2010-2040 would be lower in ALT: 632 billion US$ compared with 974 billion US$. This difference arises from several factors: lower investment in new capacity (226 vs 306 billion US$); lower local pollution costs (73 vs 137 billion US$); and lower expenditures on imported fuels (57 vs 115 billion US$). The outcomes of ALT are in accord with the targets in the most recent Green Growth Strategy of Vietnam

Perspective of CO2 capture & storage (CCS) development in Vietnam: Results from expert interviews

International audienceThis paper summarizes expert opinions regarding crucial factors that mayinfluence Vietnam’s future use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) based onface-to-face interviews in December 2013 with 16 CCS-related experts fromthe Vietnamese government, research institutes, universities and the energyindustrial sector. This study finds that financial incentives and climate policyare the most important factors for the development of CCS technologies inVietnam in the next two decades. Financial incentives involve direct subsidiesfrom the government, such as tax exemptions for land use and the importationof CCS-related equipment. In addition, all the experts agree that internationalfinancial support is important to initiate a large deployment of CCStechnologies in Vietnam by implementing demonstrative/pilot projects to proveCCS’s working efficiency

Access to health care services in an Australian rural area – a qualitative case study

The study is aimed at investigating access to primary health care by examining various access parameters such as availability, accessibility, and affordability in Meander Valley, Northern Tasmania, Australia. Qualitative research design and data analysis were adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 people that were recruited through convenience sampling. The findings indicated that participants generally expressed relative satisfaction with local health care service provision, although a number of participants cited satisfaction with some services and dissatisfaction with others. The main issues of concern were the absence of specialised, dental and after-hours care, high cost of services, and issues of access to transport. The resourcefulness of people with chronic health issues and their carers emerged as important, as was the relationship between lifestyle choices, alternative and mainstream health care options. This study revealed major barriers to health care access by residents in rural Australia, which calls for urgent corrective measures. Further research should be directed to the exploration of the experience and expertise of carers and health professionals so as to obtain a more complete picture of access to health care services in rural settings. In addition, the study recommends a thorough investigation of the alternative health care options

ASEAN- Australia Trade Relations by Stages of Processing: Comparative Research

ASEAN and Australia became the dialogue partner in 1974. Over 46 years of cooperation and development, ASEAN- Australia relations have achieved many good results, especially in recent years when two sides participate in several free trade agreements (FTAs) at bilateral levels and multilateral levels. In 2014, Australia and ASEAN formally became strategic partners, recognizing the importance of the relationship in building mutual benefits. Participation in FTAs and relationship upgrading has helped bilateral trade growth. In 2018-2019, Australia was the seventh-largest trading partner of ASEAN and ASEAN was one of Australia's top three trading partner, however, the two sides face many challenges such as the difficulties after the global crisis since 2009, the "spaghetti bowl" phenomenon of joining many agreements at the same time. Thus, to solve these problems, the production and exporting of comparative advantage goods by the stages of processing to participate in an ideal regional supply chain are very important. Based on the comparative theory and supply chain perspectives The paper compared revealed comparative advantage indexes of ASEAN countries and Australia from 2009 through 2018 to find which country in ASEAN is Australia's suitable partner from which provided the ideal effective supply chain distribution. After that, through trade value comparison, the paper examed if ASEAN countries and Australia specialized in production by stages of processing. From the results, appropriate recommendations were provided to enhance the trade relations between ASEAN and Australia