Impacts of farmer-based training in seed production in Vietnam

Key words: farmer seed production school, farm-saved seed, formal seed sector, impact assessment, improved practice, local practice, rice (Oryza sativa), seed production, seed quality, Vietnam Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most important food and cash crop of Vietnam. It is cultivated in all provinces of the country since ancient times. Farm-saved seed is the most important seed source covering more than 80% of the farmers’ seed needs. However, farmers not always use the best techniques of producing and selecting seeds. Inadequate seed quality is an important yield limiting factor in rice production. To improve the farmers’ capacity to produce, process, store and use good rice seed, the farmer seed production school (FSPS) training programme was conducted in seven provinces of Vietnam during the period 2003−2007. The study reported in this thesis took place in four out of those seven provinces, i.e. Nam Dinh, Nghe An, Binh Dinh and Dong Thap. The objective was to assess to what extent farmers’ knowledge in seed production practices and seed quality management had increased and whether that knowledge increase was reflected in an increase in potential rice yields and profits, and in diffusion of retained practices after training to other farmers in communities. A long seed production training programme with the farmer field school approach was combined with field demonstrations including plots with either local practices or improved practices which were conducted in each FSPS. We recorded and analysed data on on-farm demonstrations at 429 FSPSs and on ex-ante and ex-post tests of knowledge at the FSPSs. Moreover, we carried out a survey among 240 rural households. Results of the study indicate that some rice varieties were better adopted in the farming systems than other varieties: well adopted ones were KD18 in both Nam Dinh and Nghe An province and OM1490, Ai32 and MO2718 in Binh Dinh and Dong Thap. With local practices in the farm-saved seed system of the transplanted rice crop, farmers used old seedlings, planted many seedlings per hill, planted too many or too few plants per unit area and applied unbalanced quantities of fertilizers; for the directly sown crop farmers used high seed rates in the traditional system. Rice yields showed larger differences between local practices and improved practices in the dry season than in the wet season all across Vietnam. With improved practices at the FSPSs, rice yields were 8.5% higher in the wet season and 13.6% higher in the dry season; additional profits associated with the improved practice in both the dry and wet seasons averaged 212 US$ ha-1. The majority of the FSPS-farmers moved from food production to seed production, reduced seed rates by about 50%, and used high quality seed to produce seeds with much better quality. More important is that the FSPS-farmers diffused improved practices (79%) and shared good seeds (57% of respondents) with other farmers in their communities to help other rice growers to improve their productivity. A large proportion of non-FSPS farmers learned and applied improved practices for rice production through neighbouring FSPS-farmers within the community. Besides, evaluation in acquired knowledge during training showed that FSPS-farmers with lower scores (<20%) in the ex-ante test realized an enormous improvement of 55.4% points in the ex-post test. There was a clear trend: the higher the scores in the ex-ante test, the smaller the increase in the score, suggesting that the tests provided insight into the knowledge gaps for improvement in training programmes. The FSPS is considered as a good training model for farmers. The FSPS-farmers well retained the acquired knowledge and applied the improved practices to enhance the farm-saved seed system in the project provinces. The community capacity was strengthened through establishing seed clubs by FSPS-farmers. It created a seed supply and production network to ensure seed security for small farmer’s seed needs in the rural areas. Thus, it promoted seed policies to strengthen the informal seed system in Vietnam. Impacts of farmer-based training programme in seed production illustrate that in a country like Vietnam where more than seventy percent of the population live in rural areas and depend on agricultural production, farmer education is a very effective way for agricultural development

Perceived creepiness in response to smart home assistants: A multi-method study

Smart home assistants (SHAs) have gained a foothold in many households. Although SHAs have many beneficial capabilities, they also have characteristics that are colloquially described as creepy – a fact that may deter potential users from adopting and utilizing them. Previous research has examined SHAs neither from the perspective of resistance nor the perspective of creepiness. The present research addresses this gap and adopts a multi-method research design with four sequential studies. Study 1 serves as a pre-study and provides initial exploratory insights into the concept of creepiness in the context of SHAs. Study 2 focuses on developing a measurement instrument to assess perceived creepiness. Study 3 uses an online experiment to test the nomological validity of the construct of creepiness in a larger conceptual model. Study 4 further elucidates the underlying behavioral dynamics using focus group analysis. The findings contribute to the literature on the dark side of smart technology by analyzing the triggers and mechanisms underlying perceived creepiness as a novel inhibitor to SHAs. In addition, this study provides actionable design recommendations that allow practitioners to mitigate end users’ potential perceptions of creepiness associated with SHAs and similar smart technologies

Effects of steel corrosion to BFRP Strengthened columns under eccentric loading

The experiment consists of twenty-four mid-scale rectangular RC columns (200x200x800mm) strengthening by BFRP sheets and research variables include: BFRP layer (0, 1, and 3 layers); eccentricity (25mm and 75mm); and 4 levels of steel corrosion. The results reveal that SEL (ratio of ultimate load of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is direct proportion with steel corrosion while SEV (ratio of ultimate vertical displacement of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is inverse proportion with steel corrosion; SEL slightly increases with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity; but SEV decreases noticeably with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity. In addition,the interaction between FRP sheets, stirrups, and longitudinal reinforcement in steel degraded BFRP strengthened columns is very strong.However, column design basing on current design manuals and codes as ACI 440.2R and CNR DT 200R1 has not mentioned this affect. Thus, the load capacity prediction of column being strengthened by BFRP sheets should include levels of steel corrosion for reality, reasonable, and integral of the design

Effects of steel corrosion to BFRP Strengthened columns under eccentric loading

The experiment consists of twenty-four mid-scale rectangular RC columns (200x200x800mm) strengthening by BFRP sheets and research variables include: BFRP layer (0, 1, and 3 layers); eccentricity (25mm and 75mm); and 4 levels of steel corrosion. The results reveal that SEL (ratio of ultimate load of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is direct proportion with steel corrosion while SEV (ratio of ultimate vertical displacement of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is inverse proportion with steel corrosion; SEL slightly increases with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity; but SEV decreases noticeably with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity. In addition,the interaction between FRP sheets, stirrups, and longitudinal reinforcement in steel degraded BFRP strengthened columns is very strong.However, column design basing on current design manuals and codes as ACI 440.2R and CNR DT 200R1 has not mentioned this affect. Thus, the load capacity prediction of column being strengthened by BFRP sheets should include levels of steel corrosion for reality, reasonable, and integral of the design

Mechanism of beach erosion at the west of Phu Quoc Island, Southern Vietnam

Phu Quoc Island locates in Gulf of Thailand, Southern Vietnam. Several years ago, due to the effect of climate change and the development ofbeach tourism, beach erosion in the Western beach occurred seriously.ReferencesOceanography monitoring data at Phu Quoc Station from 1979 to 2010, National Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, Ha Noi March 2011.Duriyapong F. and Nakhapakorn K., 2011. “Coastal vulnerability assessment: a case study of Samut Sakhon coastal zone”, Songklanakarin J.Sci. Technol. 33 (4), p469-476.Krystian W. Pilarczyk, Ryszard B. Zeidler, 1996. Offshore breakwaters and shore evolutioncontrol.Le Hoai Nam, 2013. Coastal erosion at PhuQuoc Island from 1979-2010, Doctoraldissertation, Ho Chi Minh City University ofScience.Nicole Hacking, 1998. Macrofaunalcommunity structure of beaches in northern NewSouth Wales, Australia, Mar. Freshwater Res., 49,page 47-53.Mike 21 User Manual and Mike 21/3FMScientific Reference Manual.http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%ADp_tin:Phu_quoc_1.jp

MODELING USING 2-D AREAS OF IDEAL CROSS-POINT REGIONS FOR LOSSLESS IMAGES COMPRESSION

This paper presents 2-D areas of ideal cross-point regions which are the new part in the theory of cross-point regions. Actually for using cross-point regions we need an algorithm for determining cross-point maps; this takes a long time and a big space for storing these maps, and brings about not high compression ratio when using one dimensional cross-point regions because many coordinates of data points need to be saved for decoding. When these 2-D areas are used, the scheme of 2-DICRIC (2-D Ideal Cross-point Regions for lossless Image Compression) for losslessly encoding and decoding images with the optimization of probability of cross points which are neighbor to the points of grey levels 2n is improved to get higher compression ratio. The base idea of this method is the effect of Gray coding on cross points, and there are many cross-point regions. Before Gray coding data sets of cross points are determined, they are called the ideal cross point regions (ICRs). After Gray coding these regions always contain only 1 bits or 0 bits depending on the number of bit plane after the operation of bit plane decomposition. This is the characteristic of images, the data do not change much in a specific area, especially in medical images which have many regions with the approximate grey levels. So, the way to determine 2-D areas of cross-point regions so that the cross-point maps are small is important for the theory. The theory with these 2-D areas has important effects on the compression ratio when encoding and decoding processes of lossless image compression for data transmission are proceeded