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

MINH GIẢI TÀI LIỆU TRỌNG LỰC VÀ TỪ DỰ BÁO CẤU TRÚC TRIỂN VỌNG KHOÁNG SẢN RẮN KHU VỰC THỀM LỤC ĐỊA NAM - ĐÔNG NAM VIỆT NAM

The East Vietnam Sea is a marginal sea with complicated geological structures. The volcanic activities are quite strong after the sea-floor spreading in Cenozoic Era. There are the types of structure here favorable to the formation of solid minerals (manganese-iron aggregation). However, it is difficult to define their ranges and spatial locations. This paper presents the methods of reduction to the magnetic equator in low latitudes to bring out a better correlation between magnetic anomalies and their sources; High-frequency filtering is to separate gravity and magnetic anomalies as well as information about the solid minerals in the upper part of the Earth’s crust; 3D total gradient is to define the spatial location of high density and magnetic bodies. The potential structures of solid mineral are predicted by multi-dimensional correlation analysis between high frequency gravity and magnetic anomalies with weighted 3D total gradient.Biển Đông là một biển rìa có cấu kiến trúc phức tạp, hoạt động phun trào bazan núi lửa xảy ra khá mạnh mẽ ở thời kỳ sau tách giãn đáy. Ở đây, tồn tại các dạng địa hình thuận lợi cho việc hình thành cấu trúc chứa khoáng sản rắn (cụ thể là kết hạch sắt - mangan). Tuy nhiên việc xác định phạm vi, vị trí không gian của chúng gặp nhiều khó khăn bởi lớp nước dày và nguồn tài liệu khảo sát chưa được đầy đủ. Nghiên cứu này áp dụng phương pháp chuyển từ về xích đạo ở vĩ độ thấp nhằm tạo nên mối tương quan tốt hơn giữa dị thường và nguồn gây dị thường Từ; Phương pháp lọc trường tần số cao dùng để phân tách trường Trọng lực, Từ cũng như các thông tin về khoáng sản rắn ở phần trên của vỏ Trái đất; Phương pháp gradient toàn phần 3D xác định vị trí không gian các khối có mật độ, từ tính cao. Cấu trúc triển vọng khoáng sản rắn được dự báo bằng phép phân tích so sánh mối quan hệ đa chiều giữa trường Trọng lực và trường Từ tần số cao với trường trọng số gradient toàn phần 3D của chúng

Eliciting patients’ health concerns in consulting rooms and wards in Vietnamese public hospitals

This article examines the doctor’s elicitation of the patient’s presenting health concern in two clinical settings in the Vietnamese public hospital system: the consulting room and the ward. The data were taken from 66 audio-recorded consultations. Our analysis shows that the elicitors used by the doctor in the consulting room often communicate a weak epistemic stance towards the patient’s health issue, while those used in the ward tend to signal a strong epistemic stance. In addition, this contrast between the elicitors employed in the consulting room and the ward is evident in our data regardless of whether the consultation is a first visit or a same follow-up (in which the doctor is the same one that treated the patient on their last visit), though the contrast is less clear for different follow-ups (in which the doctor has not treated the patient before). An additional finding is that the clinical setting has some bearing on the use of inappropriate elicitation formats (in which the doctor opens the visit with an elicitor which is more appropriate for another type of visit). The precise way in which each of the consulting room and the ward operates is, of course, a feature of the Vietnamese public hospital system itself. Hence, the overall contrast between the elicitors and elicitation formats used in these two settings illustrates how, on a more general level, the institutional context can have an impact on doctor-patient communication

The role of rice fields, fish ponds and water canals for transmission of fish-borne zoonotic trematodes in aquaculture ponds in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Fish-borne zoonotic trematodes (FZT), such as Clonorchis sinensis, Opistorchis viverini (Opisthorchiidae) and intestinal trematodes of the family Heterophyidae, constitute a public health hazard in Vietnam and infections with these trematodes has been linked to consumption of raw or undercooked fish from aquaculture. The FZT transmission pathways, however, are more complicated than just the presence of intermediate snail hosts in aquaculture ponds as ponds may exchange water with surrounding habitats such as rice fields and irrigation canals and thereby these surrounding habitats may be a source of snails and cercariae and contribute to FZT infection in cultured fish. METHODS: This is a longitudinal descriptive study on selected farms (n = 30) in Nam Dinh Province which is endemic for FZT. At each farm, we sampled one pond, a small irrigation canal used to supply the pond with water, and a nearby rice field. At each of these three sites, we estimated the density of the FZT intermediate snail hosts and determined their trematode infection status. Comparative analysis was performed for the prevalence and density of FZT infections in fish and snails. RESULTS: Species of the Thiaridae, and most notably Melanoides tuberculata, the most important host species for FZT belonging to the Heterophyidae, were particularly abundant in ponds and small canals, i.e. M. tuberculata was found in 27 ponds and 13 small canals. Bithynia fuchsiana, a potential host for both Heterophyidae and Opisthorchiidae, was rarely found in fish ponds but common in rice fields. A total of 12 types of cercariae were found in the snails and pleurolophocercous cercariae, primarily FZT, constituted about 40 % of all cercarial infections. The fish species cultured were mainly carp species and Haplorchis pumilio was the dominating trematode species infecting fish. Clonorchis spp. were not recorded in any of the ponds. FZT transmission to fish was intense during the summer period (May-June to November) but less intense during the winter months (December-January) partly because cercarial emergence ceases due to the low temperature. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the complexity of FZT transmission within aquaculture farm settings and suggest that efforts to control these infections must take a holistic approach using interventions against all stages of the transmission cycle

Some chemical constituents isolated from Acorus tatarinowii Shott.

Anew 8,1′-neolignan, tatarinone, 4-[2-(1,2,3-trimethoxybenz-5-yl)-1-methylethyl]-2,5-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-2,5-cyclohexadien-1-one, has been isolated from Acorus tatarinowii rhizome and  its structure determined by spectroscopic methods, including 2D-NMR spectra. Asarylaldehyde and a mixture of α-asarone and β-asarone were also isolated and  indentified.Keywords: Acorus tatarinowii;Araceae; 8,1′-neolignans; asarylaldehyde; α-asarone; β-asarone; NMR

VNHSGE: VietNamese High School Graduation Examination Dataset for Large Language Models

The VNHSGE (VietNamese High School Graduation Examination) dataset, developed exclusively for evaluating large language models (LLMs), is introduced in this article. The dataset, which covers nine subjects, was generated from the Vietnamese National High School Graduation Examination and comparable tests. 300 literary essays have been included, and there are over 19,000 multiple-choice questions on a range of topics. The dataset assesses LLMs in multitasking situations such as question answering, text generation, reading comprehension, visual question answering, and more by including both textual data and accompanying images. Using ChatGPT and BingChat, we evaluated LLMs on the VNHSGE dataset and contrasted their performance with that of Vietnamese students to see how well they performed. The results show that ChatGPT and BingChat both perform at a human level in a number of areas, including literature, English, history, geography, and civics education. They still have space to grow, though, especially in the areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. The VNHSGE dataset seeks to provide an adequate benchmark for assessing the abilities of LLMs with its wide-ranging coverage and variety of activities. We intend to promote future developments in the creation of LLMs by making this dataset available to the scientific community, especially in resolving LLMs' limits in disciplines involving mathematics and the natural sciences.Comment: 74 pages, 44 figure

Determinants Influencing Vietnamese Farmers’ Intention in Applying New Technologies in Agricultural Farming

This paper used survey data from 273 farmers planting fruit trees in 23 provinces to assess the impact of some factors on the intention of applying new technologies to agricultural production of Vietnamese farmers. Research results have identified and measured a number of factors that have a positive impact and some negative factors hinder farmers' intention to apply new technologies. These findings are the basis to recommend policies and solutions to promote Vietnamese farmers to apply new technologies. Keywords: Agricultural farming; Applicability, Belief; Benefit; Market demand; Communication DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-6-06 Publication date: February 29th 2020