Farmer business school. Learning manual for business skills: Manual for facilitators

This manual was produced as an initiative of the Towards More Profitable and Sustainable Vegetable Farming Systems in North-western Vietnam (AGB/2012/059) project by the ACIAR. The document provides Farmer Business School (FBS) facilitators with the tools, skills, and knowledge that will allow them to guide farmers as they go through their FBS experience. Through FBS, we hope for farmers to improve their business skills and obtain a better understanding of the different aspects relating to the agricultural product market through a learning-by-doing method. This manual is intended for and speaks to facilitators

Exploring knowledge and attitudes toward the hepatitis B virus: an internet-based study among Vietnamese healthcare students

Context: Hepatitis B is a serious global public health problem, especially in developing countries such as Vietnam. Many studies worldwide have focused on health care workers, a population at high risk of infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), but there is little research that explores the high levels of risk faced by health care students. Aims: To assess the knowledge and attitudes of Vietnamese undergraduate students toward hepatitis B vaccination. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1291 Vietnamese healthcare students between November 2017 and March 2018 via social media. Results: The mean score for knowledge was 4.0 ± 0.4, and the mean score for attitude was lower (3.5 ± 0.6). Levels of knowledge were higher (p<0.001) among sixth-year students, students who had been vaccinated, and students attending public universities. Most participants were well-informed about the diseases caused by HBV, with 1128 (87.4%) agreeing that HBV infection can lead to liver cancer. Nevertheless, 259 students believed that HBV cannot be spread by sharing a toothbrush with an infected person, and 18.7% thought that asymptomatic carriers are incapable of transmitting HBV. Conclusions: Although students had adequate knowledge of HBV, their scores for attitude and their rates of vaccination were low. This study therefore recommends improving the knowledge and attitudes of health care students through orientation and sensitization programs and improvements in their educational environment

Ho Chi Minh's Thoughts On Control Of The State's Power And Lessons For Vietnam

In Vietnam, the State’s power is unified, agencies shall assign, coordinate and control each other in the exercises of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers. This is necessary to prevent abuse of power and ensure the state’s power. The Constitution 1946 was written by Ho Chi Minh (1890 -1969) and created a mechanism and foundation to control the state’s power in Vietnam. Nearly, in the Constitution 2013, the issue of controlling state power is recorded. The assignment and control are reflected in the assignment of the scope of power to each state agency. From the approach of philosophical, social philosophy, and political philosophy, through research and analysis documents in Ho Chi Minh Complete Collection; of previous researchers and policies, legal of Vietnam’s Government on control of the state's power and lessons for Vietnam today. The result shows that Ho Chi Minh’s thought on controlling power has shown the basic contents related to asserting that the power owner belongs to the people and focusing on supervision; use the Constitution to limit state power. The article also gives experiences when studying Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on state power control over Vietnam today

Optimization of culture conditions of Streptomyces antibioticus strain 1083 to improve the antimicrobial activity against Aeromonas hydrophila

Fish is a healthy, high protein and low fat food that encourages the health and growth of people, especially children. However, in fact fish is very sensitive to many diseases which affects the productivity and quality of fish. Therefore, identifying the cause of the diseases and finding preventive measures become an urgent task today. In the previous study, we isolated Streptomyces antibioticus strain 1083 that has the ability to antagonize Aeromonas hydrophila - a pathogenic bacterium in fish. Based on the obtained results, we continue to perform this study to determine optimal conditions for the culture of S. antibioticus strain 1083 in order to produce antimicrobial compounds against A. hydrophila. The production of antagonists by the strain 1083 was optimized by controlling the condition of different inoculations such as media, pH, temperature and incubation period. The results indicated that International Streptomyces Project 2 (ISP2) was the best medium for S. antibioticus strain 1083 to produce the highest antimicrobial activity against A. hydrophila with 32 mm in diameter of inhibited zone. The actinomycete strain 1083 could express the maximum antimicrobial activity when they were incubated in shaker incubator (200rpm) at 40oC with pH8 in 8 days. The ability of the actinomycete strain in antagonism against A. hydrophila was evaluated by adding different culture medium volume of S. antibioticus strain 1083. With adding 10% cultured solution volume of S. antibioticus strain 1083 into the culture medium of A. hydrophila, after 1 day of inoculation the number of pathogenic bacteria cells were completely eliminated

Livestock policies in Son La Province, Vietnam - a review

Since the market-oriented Doi Moi reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, Vietnam’s livestock sector has experienced rapid growth. Although policies have been implemented at the national and provincial levels to guide this growth in a sustainable manner, blind spots and implementation gaps remain. Through a review of policy documents, grey literature, peer-reviewed journal articles, and key informant interviews, this research seeks to summarize livestock-related policies at the national and provincial levels in Son La, Vietnam. Policies related to land-use, livestock feed, animal breed development, credit provision, epidemiology, agricultural extensions services, public investment, and sectoral master planning are examined. Based on this review, the authors recommend greater support for smaller actors in Son La’s livestock value chains, mainly in the form of additional research and development, increased credit provision and agricultural insurance, improved agricultural extension services, and strengthened local processing capacity. These policy interventions and investments, among others, will be critical to achieving the government’s ambitious livestock production targets over the coming decade. Notably, more robust public intervention and support is required to unlock this growth. Additional funding for locallevel Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) initiatives and improved coordination between its national and provincial offices will be a key determinant in achieving sustainable intensification in Son La’s livestock sector

Spondylolysis-induced Multilevel Lumbar Spondylolisthesis; Challenges in Lumbar Spine Surgery

Lumbar spondylolysis and multilevel lumbar spondylolysis account for 4.4-5.8% and 0.3% of the general population, and multilevel lumbar spondylolysis resulting in spondylolisthesis is even rarer. Herein, we report two cases of three-level lumbar spondylolisthesis because of spondylolysis: A 49-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital for dull lower back pain over the past 8 months, with exacerbating symptoms when standing and walking. Spasticity at lumbar region and radiculopathy at S1 nerve root was found on examination and a 63-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of numbness and perianal sensory disturbances with difficulty urinating 2 weeks ago, the symptoms gradually increased to the time of examination. Both patients were diagnosed with multilevel lumbar spondylolisthesis because of spondylolysis and were indicated for posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF). After surgery, both patients recovered well without any significant complications. The improved treatment results suggest the application of PLIF technique to treat spondylolysis-induced multilevel lumbar spondylolisthesis

Preparation and characterization of magnesium hydroxyapatite coatings on 316L stainless steel

Magnesium hydroxyapatite coatings (MgHAp) were deposited on the surface of 316L stainless steel (316L SS) substrates by electrodeposition technique. Different concentrations of Mg2+ ion were incorporated into the apatite structure by adding Mg(NO3)2 into electrolyte solution containing 3×10-2 M Ca(NO3)2, 1.8×10-2 M NH4H2PO4 and   6×10-2 M NaNO3. With Mg2+ concentration 1×10-3 M, the obtained coatings have 0.2 wt% Mg2+. The influences of scanning potential ranges, scanning times to deposit MgHAp coatings were researched. The analytical results FTIR, SEM, X-ray, EDX, thickness and adhension strength showed that MgHAp coatings were single phase of HAp, fibrous shapes, thickness 8.1 µm and adhesion strength 7.20 MPa at the scanning potential ranges of 0÷-1.7 V/SCE and scanning times of 5 scans. Keywords. 316L SS, Electrodeposition, MgHAp

Effect of Pharmacist-Led Interventions on Physicians' Prescribing for Pediatric Outpatients

BACKGROUND: Children are at high risk of drug-related problems, increased risk of treatment failures, and high treatment costs. We aimed to evaluate the effect of pharmacist-led interventions on physicians' prescribing for pediatric outpatients. METHODS: A prospective study with pre- and post-intervention measurement assessment was conducted to collect pediatric outpatients' prescriptions during the pre-intervention period (January 2020) and post-intervention (August 2020) at a children's hospital in Vietnam. Drug-related problems were identified and categorized according to Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE), version 9.1. The intervention program was developed based on the results of pre-intervention observations. After the intervention, prescriptions were evaluated. Statistical tests were used to compare the proportions of drug-related problems before and after the intervention and to identify factors related to drug-related problems. RESULTS: There were 2788 out of 4218 (66.1%) prescriptions with at least one drug-related problem before the intervention. Of these drug-related problems, the most common was inappropriate timing of administration and incorrect dosage (36.1% and 35.6%, respectively). After the intervention, the percentage of prescriptions with at least one drug-related problem was 45.5% (p &lt; 0.001). Most of the drug-related problem types decreased significantly (p &lt; 0.05). The binary logistic regression analysis results showed that in addition to pharmacists' intervention, patients' gender, primary disease, comorbidity status, and the total number of drugs prescribed were also factors related to drug-related problems. CONCLUSIONS: Drug-related problems in pediatric outpatients were quite common. Pharmacists' intervention helped to improve the prevalence and types of drug-related problems

Two plant-associated Bacillus velezensis strains selected after genome analysis, metabolite profiling, and with proved biocontrol potential, were enhancing harvest yield of coffee and black pepper in large field trials

Elimination of chemically synthesized pesticides, such as fungicides and nematicides, in agricultural products is a key to successful practice of the Vietnamese agriculture. We describe here the route for developing successful biostimulants based on members of the Bacillus subtilis species complex. A number of endospore-forming Gram-positive bacterial strains with antagonistic action against plant pathogens were isolated from Vietnamese crop plants. Based on their draft genome sequence, thirty of them were assigned to the Bacillus subtilis species complex. Most of them were assigned to the species Bacillus velezensis. Whole genome sequencing of strains BT2.4 and BP1.2A corroborated their close relatedness to B. velezensis FZB42, the model strain for Gram-positive plant growth-promoting bacteria. Genome mining revealed that at least 15 natural product biosynthesis gene clusters (BGCs) are well conserved in all B. velezensis strains. In total, 36 different BGCs were identified in the genomes of the strains representing B. velezensis, B. subtilis, Bacillus tequilensis, and Bacillus. altitudinis. In vitro and in vivo assays demonstrated the potential of the B. velezensis strains to enhance plant growth and to suppress phytopathogenic fungi and nematodes. Due to their promising potential to stimulate plant growth and to support plant health, the B. velezensis strains TL7 and S1 were selected as starting material for the development of novel biostimulants, and biocontrol agents efficient in protecting the important Vietnamese crop plants black pepper and coffee against phytopathogens. The results of the large-scale field trials performed in the Central Highlands in Vietnam corroborated that TL7 and S1 are efficient in stimulating plant growth and protecting plant health in large-scale applications. It was shown that treatment with both bioformulations resulted in prevention of the pathogenic pressure exerted by nematodes, fungi, and oomycetes, and increased harvest yield in coffee, and pepper.Peer Reviewe