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Because of limited freshwater resources, urban and industrial areas in Taiwan are often given priority for allocation of water resources. Accordingly, residents in rural regions usually pump groundwater for irrigation and daily needs. Continuous land subsidence has resulted in the elevation of the ground surface to be lower than the sea level, which has led to frequent flooding and created wetland habitats. In addition, seawater intrusion has damaged the soil, which has made the land difficult to farm. This study proposes a novel concept called the Island Lake Eco-town Program that would send the surface runoff from stormwater into a flood buffer wetland through land elevation modification and the necessary levee construction. Except for the use of stormwater to leach salt from the soil, we propose growing salt tolerant crops. Yunlin County of Taiwan has been selected as a study area to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method. This study also demonstrated how to evaluate the available production of rice growth in saline soils. Les zones urbaines et industrielles en Taïwan ont souvent la priorité pour l’obtention des ressources aquatiques en raison des ressources limitées en eau fraiche. Ainsi, les résidents des régions rurales pompent habituellement de l’eau souterraine pour leurs besoins d’irrigation et quotidiens. L’affaissement continu du sol a engendré un abaissement de la surface du sol sous le niveau de la mer, menant à des inondations subséquentes et à la création d’habitats marécageux. De plus, l’intrusion d’eau salée a endommagé le sol, rendant la terre difficile à exploiter. La présente étude propose un nouveau concept, nommé Island Lake Eco-town Program, qui permet d’acheminer l’écoulement de surface dans OU vers un marécage tampon grâce à la modification du niveau du terrain et la construction requise d’une digue. Sauf pour l’utilisation de l’eau de ruissellement pour laver le sel du sol, nous proposons de cultiver des plantes halophytes. Le comté Yunlin, Taïwan, a été choisi comme zone d’étude afin d’évaluer la faisabilité de la méthode proposée. La présente étude démontre également la manière d’évaluer la production disponible de riz cultivé dans des sols salins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aberrant energy metabolism is one characteristic of diabetes mellitus (DM). Two types of DM have been identified, type 1 and type 2. Most of type 2 DM patients eventually become insulin dependent because insulin secretion by the islets of Langerhans becomes exhausted. In the present study, we show that resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxylstilbene) possesses hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects in streptozotocin-induced DM (STZ-DM) rats. In resveratrol-treated STZ-DM rats, the plasma glucose concentration on day 14 was reduced by 25.3 ± 4.2%, and the triglyceride concentration was reduced by 50.2 ± 3.2% compared with the vehicle-treated rats. In STZ-nicotinamide DM rats, the plasma glucose concentration on day 14 was reduced by 20.3 ± 4.2%, and the triglyceride concentration was reduced by 33.3 ± 2.2% compared with the vehicle-treated rats. Resveratrol administration ameliorates common DM symptoms, such as body weight loss, polyphagia, and polydipsia. In STZ-nicotinamide DM rats, resveratrol administration significantly decreased insulin secretion and delayed the onset of insulin resistance. Further studies showed that glucose uptake by hepatocytes, adipocytes, and skeletal muscle and hepatic glycogen synthesis were all stimulated by resveratrol treatment. Because the stimulation of glucose uptake was not attenuated in the presence of an optimal amount of insulin in insulin-responsive cells, the antihyperglycemic effect of resveratrol appeared to act through a mechanism(s) different from that of insulin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]