Pro-poor intervention strategies in irrigated agriculture in Asia: poverty in irrigated agriculture: issues and options: Vietnam

Irrigated farming / Poverty / Farm income / Irrigation management / Institutions / Legal aspects / Water rates / User charges / Participatory management / Privatization / Participatory rural appraisal / Performance indexes / Irrigation programs / Irrigation systems / Pumping / Irrigation canals / Social aspects / Economic aspects / Rivers / Hydrology / Dams / Households / Income / Regression analysis / Drainage / Cooperatives / Water delivery / Water distribution / Rice / Financing / Drought / Vietnam / Red River Delta / Nam Duong Irrigation System / Nam Thach Han Irrigation System / Han River

Assessment of physical land suitability by GIS-based fuzzy AHP for rubber plantation at the Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province

This research was conducted to determine the main influences and physical factors of land suitability for rubber plantation in the Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province. Six factors such as soil type, soil texture, soil thickness, slope, soil pH and soil organic matter content were considered. Results indicate that soil thickness is has the highest role on the land suitability analysis while soil pH has the lowest. The physical land suitability of rubber plantation was divided into 4 levels: very suitable (10.1%), suitable (15.5%), slightly suitable (3.6%), and currently not suitable (70,8%). This research provides important information for rubber cultivation in projected agricultural land use planning of the Nam Dong district.Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện nhằm xác định sự ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố tự nhiên đến sự thích nghi đất đai của loại hình sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su trên địa bàn huyện Nam Đông, tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế. Có 6 yếu tố được xem xét trong nghiên cứu này bao gồm: loại đất, thành phần cơ giới, tầng dày canh tác, độ dốc, độ chua và hàm lượng mùn trong đất. Kết quả nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng tầng dày canh tác là yếu tố có ảnh hưởng lớn nhất đến việc sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su, trong khi đó độ chua là yếu tố có ảnh hưởng ít nhất. Sự thích nghi tự nhiên của loại hình sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su được chia thành 4 mức độ bao gồm rất thích nghi (10,1%), thích nghi (15,5%), tương đối thích nghi (3,6%) và hiện taị không thích nghi (70,8%). Nghiên cứu này cung cấp những thông tin cần thiết và hữu ích cho việc quy hoạch sử dụng đất trồng cây cao su trên địa bàn huyện Nam Đông

The comparative analyses of selected aspects of conservation and management of Vietnam’s national parks

The national parks in Vietnam are protected areas in the national system of special-use forests created to protect natural resources and biodiversity. In order to improve the effectiveness of management of national parks, the study assesses some current aspects of conservation and management of natural resources with respect to management plans, financial sources, staff, cooperative activities, causes of limited management capacity and threats to natural resources. Out of the total of 30 national parks, six are under the responsibility of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) and 24 national parks are managed by provincial authorities. It was found that most of the national parks have updated their management plans. Financial sources of funding for national parks mainly originated from the central and provincial budgets, with an average of 51% and 76% respectively. Fifty percent of national parks spent 40–60% of their total funding on conservation activities. About 85% of national parks’ staff had academic degrees, typically in the fields of forestry, agriculture and fisheries. Biodiversity conservation was considered a priority cooperative action in national parks with scientific institutes. Major causes of a limited management capacity of national parks included human population growth and pressure associated with resources use, lack of funding, limited human and institutional capacity and land use conflict/land grab. Illegal hunting, trapping, poaching and fishing, the illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging and firewood collecting appeared to be the most serious threats to the conservation and management of natural resources. In addition to these results, significant differences were found between the VNFOREST and provincial parks in terms of financial sources, staff and the threat of illegal logging and firewood collecting. The authors’ findings offer useful information for national park planners and managers, as well as policy makers and researchers in seeking solutions for the sustainable management of natural resources in national parks

Mortality and failure among tuberculosis patients who did not complete treatment in Vietnam: a cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tuberculosis treatment failure and death rates are low in the Western Pacific Region, including Vietnam. However, failure or death may also occur among patients who did not complete treatment, i.e. reported as default or transfer-out. We aimed to assess the proportion failures and deaths among new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients with reported default or transfer-out.</p> <p>Treatment outcomes rates were 1.4% default, 3.0% transfer-out, 0.4% failure and 2.6% death in northern Vietnam in 2003.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Tuberculosis patients in 32 randomly selected district tuberculosis units in northern Vietnam were followed up 1 to 3 years after treatment initiation for survival, recent treatment history and bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Included were 85 transferred patients and 42 who defaulted. No information was available of 41 (32%), 28 (22%) had died. Fifty-eight were available for follow-up (46%); all had sputum smear results. Tuberculosis was recorded in 11 (13%), including 6 (7%) with positive sputum smears, 3 (3%) with negative smears but positive culture and 2 (2%) who had started re-treatment for bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis. Fifteen (17%, 95%CI 10–27%) had died within 8 months after treatment initiation. Of 86 patients with known study outcomes, 39 (45%, 95%CI 35–56%) had died or had bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis. This was recorded for 29/53 (55%, 95%CI 40–68%) transferred patients and 10/33 (30%, 95%CI 16–49%) patients who defaulted.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The total failure and death rates are 0.6% and 0.8% higher than based on routine reporting in northern Vietnam. Although this was a large proportion of treatment failures and deaths, failure and death rates were low. Defaulting and transfer carry a high risk of failure and in particular death.</p

Decoration of Silver Nanoparticles on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes: Antibacterial Mechanism and Ultrastructural Analysis

Recently, development of carbon nanocomposites composed of carbon nanostructures and metal nanoparticles has attracted much interests because of their large potential for technological applications such as catalyst, sensor, biomedicine, and disinfection. In this work, we established a simple chemistry method to synthesize multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) using a modified photochemical reaction (Tollens process). The formation and interaction of Ag-NPs with functionalized groups on the surface of MWCNTs were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The average size of Ag-NPs on the MWCNTs was approximately ~7 nm with nearly uniform size distribution. Antibacterial effect of Ag-MWCNTs nanocomposites was evaluated against two pathogenic bacteria including Gram-negative Escherichia Coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Interaction and bactericidal mechanism of Ag-MWCNTs with tested bacteria was studied by adapting the electron microscopy. Analysis on ultrastructural changes of bacterial cells indicates that antibacterial action mechanism of Ag-MWCNTs is physical interaction with cell membrane, the large formation of cell-Ag-MWCNTs aggregates, and faster destructibility of cell membrane and disruption of membrane function, hence resulting in cells death

Rule-based Classification of Airborne Laser Scanner Data for Automatic Extraction of 3D Objects in the Urban Area

LiDAR technology has been widely adopted as a proper method for land cover classification. Recently with the development of technology, LiDAR systems can now capture high-resolution multispectral bands images with high-density LiDAR point cloud simultaneously. Therefore, it opens new opportunities for more precise automatic land-use classification methods by utilizing LiDAR data. This article introduces a combining technique of point cloud classification algorithms. The algorithms include ground detection, building detection, and close point classification - the classification is based on point clouds’ attributes. The main attributes are heigh, intensity, and NDVI index calculated from 4 bands of colors extracted from multispectral images for each point. Data of the Leica City Mapper LiDAR system in an area of 80 ha in Quang Xuong town, Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam was used to deploy the classification. The data is classified into eight different types of land use consist of asphalt road, other ground, low vegetation, medium vegetation, high vegetation, building, water, and other objects. The classification workflow was implemented in the TerraSolid suite, with the result of the automation process came out with 97% overall accuracy of classification points. The classified point cloud is used in a workflow to create a 3D city model LoD2 (Level of Detail) afterward

Convenient one-pot access to 2 H -3-nitrothiochromenes from 2-bromobenzaldehydes, sodium sulfide and β-nitrostyrenes

International audienc

Understanding the startup’s intention of digital marketing’s learners: An application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and technology acceptance method (TAM)

AbstractDue to its low entry barrier, minimal overhead, and high return on investment, digital marketing has become more popular among startups, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as all businesses. There is a high need for workers skilled in Digital Marketing, so it is no surprise that schools are vying for students with an interest in this area. In this study, we will look at how students of digital marketing feel about the goals of startups, using data from recent studies to help us draw conclusions. The findings indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between startups’ propensity to use digital marketing tools and their intended behavior, which has a positive effect on their intention to launch a business. The results also support the theoretical hypotheses of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), as entrepreneurs’ propensity to use digital marketing tools has a direct impact on their intention to launch a business. Consistent with recent research, these findings indicate that the level of adoption of technological innovations can predict people’s intent to act in particular ways. This study offers insights for entrepreneurs and policymakers seeking to promote entrepreneurship by maximizing the potential of digital marketing tools.Based on theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this research has also helped bring to light the role of normative influence and behavioral control in shaping entrepreneurs’ intention