Spatial distribution and historical dynamics of threatened conifers of the Dalat Plateau, Vietnam

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on July 14, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. C. Mark Cowell.Includes bibliographical references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011.The Dalat Plateau is one of several biodiversity hotspots in Vietnam. It is considered to be one of five centers of plant diversity and one of three endemic bird areas in the country. Almost half of the conifer species known to occur in Vietnam are found in this area. Among the 14 species of conifers found here, six have been evaluated in the 2004 IUCN Global Red List of Threatened Species. However, due to the remoteness of the mountains where these conifers grow, there is very limited information on the ecology, habitat, distribution, population characteristics or historical disturbances for these species. This research examines selected aspects of conifer biogeography in Bidoup-Nui Ba national park to determine their distribution and relationship to topography, size class structure, and disturbances between the 1970s - 2000s. A combination of field work, remote sensing and GIS was used to determine these patterns. Among the seven conifer species sampled, three were classified as threatened. Of the nine general land cover types in the study area, these conifer species occurred in the mixed forest and the coniferous forests, from 1,000 - 2,200 m asl. Results show that the stand structures for these conifer species were unimodal and decreasing. Age-class distribution of Pinus krempfii showed its population to be the oldest. This study suggests that the decreasing numbers of threatened conifers, especially the old age stands, are vulnerable

Urban Green Amenity and City Structure

One of the main components that make cities attractive to their residents is their public park and garden systems. Green urban areas from a small community garden to famous areas such as `Jardin du Luxembourg' in Paris not only shape the face of the city but are a quintessential aspect of the quality of life for local inhabitants. They offer places for local recreation, beautiful views, cleaner air and many other advantages. Recent research has validated the connection between urban parks and the well-being of the city's inhabitants. Although green urban areas might seem to be meagre in comparison with other natural ecosystems such as wetlands or forests, the value of the environmental, recreational, and other services they offer is likely to be disproportionally high due to their strategic locations. This dissertation focuses on studying the optimal provision of green urban areas and the welfare effects of a substantial change in green provision policies in the presence of other types of land uses and adverse shocks. It comprises four papers (chapters)

Solutions to Expansion of Import-export Financing Operations at Agribank Thanh Hoa in the Process of Participation in Free Trade Agreements

This research aims to describe solutions to expansion of import-export financing operations at Agribank Thanh Hoa in the process of participation in FTAs (Free Trade Agreements). This paper presents the results of the study titled “Impacts of FTAs on Vietnam’s Economy - Finance”, clarifying the opportunities for and challenges to Vietnam’s economy - finance from joining the FTAs and influences on Vietnam’s commercial banks during the involvement in the FTAs. It also emphasizes the current situation of lending operations in Agribank-Thanh Hoa Branch (hereinafter referred to as Agribank Thanh Hoa), Complete solutions group credit activities financed import-export in Agribank Thanh Hoa, including solutions for executive management, professional solutions group credit for export financing, solutions group strategic human and banking technology and policy solutions for customers

Simulating of Biofuel Production from Rice Husks

In the context of energy crisis and environmental damage due to rapid depletion and overuse of fossil fuel, alternative renewable energy resources such as biomass have been being significantly studied recently. In Southeast Asia countries like Malaysia, one of the abundant biomass feed stocks is rice husk which is a residue from rice production process. Rice husk can be transformed into gasoline through a series of fast pyrolysis and catalytic cracking processes. However, there is limited work on simulating the whole process. The objective of this project is to develop a mathematical simulation for the production of gasoline from rice husk using MATLAB. From the developed model, parametric studies have been conducted to identify the operating conditions which give the highest yield of product. The mathematic model was based on kinetic equations for the two main processes together with basic mass and energy balance for other subprocesses in the flowsheet. As a result, the model has shown that from 1000kg of rice husk, 191 liters of gasoline would be obtained. Within the studied range, the operating conditions at temperature of 783K and residence time of 5s for pyrolysis and at 723K in 1.25h for catalytic cracking are proposed to get the highest gasoline yield. The developed model can be considered as a basis for further research on simulating the production process of biofuel from rice husk

The Potential of Beauveria against Root Mealybugs Formiccoccus sp. (Homoptera: Pseudococidae) Black Pepper in Dak Lak Province of Vietnam

Root mealybugs Formicoccus sp.(Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) currently emerge as an economically important soil-borne insect pest in the production of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) in Dak Lak province of Vietnam. Entomopathogenic fungi can be used in agricultural production as feasible safe biocontrol agents and plant growth promoters. This study aimed to isolate, select and identify the local Beauveria sp. strains from the black pepper fields, as well as evaluate the effects of the selected strains on the growth of black pepper. The results showed that the frequency of positive Beauveria sp. soil samples collected from organic black pepper fields was significantly higher than that from conventional black pepper fields. Twenty-one Beauveria sp. strains in black pepper organic fields and four Beauveria sp. strains in black pepper conventional fields were successfully isolated, among them, the Beauveria bassiana BB1 was examined and evaluated for its biocontrol potential against Formicoccus sp. and its ability to promote the growth of black pepper seedlings. In the laboratory experiments, the mortality of both adults and first instar nymph root mealybugs Formicoccus sp. caused by B. bassiana BB1 culminated 100% at 21 days after treatments. In the nethouse, at 6 months after treatment, the efficacy of B. bassiana BB1 against black pepper root mealybugs reached 99.18%. The levels of photosynthetic pigments in the leaves of the black pepper seedlings increased about 2 times compared to the control. Moreover, B. bassiana BB1 strain also remarkably promoted the growth of the black pepper seedlings under the nethouse conditions

Topological Lifshitz phase transition in effective model of QCD with chiral symmetry non-restoration

The topological Lifshitz phase transition is studied systematically within an effective model of QCD, in which the chiral symmetry, broken at zero temperature, is not restored at high temperature and/or baryon chemical potential. It is found that during phase transition the quark system undergoes a first-order transition from low density fully-gapped state to high density state with Fermi sphere which is protected by momentum-space topology. The Lifshitz phase diagram in the plane of temperature and baryon chemical potential is established. The critical behaviors of various equations of state are determined.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL; AN ASSESSMENT

The study is about breast lesions which is a common cause of mortality and morbidity among females. To avoid negative consequences, there is need for urgent diagnosis and treatment. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a useful diagnostic tool and possess higher level of accuracy. In this study, the objective was to determine the accuracy of FNAC in diagnosis of palpable breast lumps. Additionally, the objective was to find the correlation between cytological findings and histopathological examination of surgical specimens. The methodology of the study was based on retrospective study method. FNAC of breast lump was conducted on 271 patients out of which 104 formed the base group. The results showed that there were 104 patients of base study who had average age of 32 years. There were 54 patients with lump in left breasts, and 46 patients with lump in right breasts and 4 patient had bilateral lump. There were 77 patients with benign, 34 patients with malignant, and 3 had atypica;/suspicious lesions on cytological examination. Based on histopathological examination, 77 cases were related to benign, 26 were related to malignant, and 1 with atypical/suspicious. Cyto-histological concurrence was 93.05% and 79.2% for Fibroadenoma and Infiltrating ductal carcinoma respectively. Overall sensitivity of FNAC procedure was 94.17%, specificity 100% and accuracy 93.26%.  On the basis of result, it is concluded that FNAC is a simple, reliable method for diagnosis of both benign and malignant lesions and can be used in the evaluation of breast lesions.

Large displacements of FGSW beams in thermal environment using a finite element formulation

The large displacements of functionally graded sandwich (FGSW) beams in thermal environment  are studied using a finite element formulation. The beams are composed of three layers, a homogeneous core and two functionally graded face sheets with volume fraction of constituents following a power gradation law. The material properties of the beams are considered to be temperature-dependent.  Based on Antman beam model and the total Lagrange formulation, a two-node nonlinear beam element taking the effect of temperature rise into account  is formulated and employed in the study. The element with explicit expressions for the internal force vector and tangent stiffness matrix is derived using linear interpolations and reduced integration technique to avoid the shear locking. Newton-Raphson based iterative algorithm is employed in combination with the arc-length control method to compute the large displacement response of a cantilever FGSW beam subjected to end forces.  The accuracy of the formulated element is confirmed through a comparison study. The effects of the material inhomogeneity, temperature rise and layer thickness ratio on the large deflection response of the beam are examined and highlighted