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Irrigation and land use are crucial issues in rural sustainable development. The current study modifies the sustainable framework of livelihoods to clarify the role of irrigation management in farmers’ land-use choices. A five-wave panel dataset of 1,534 farms for the period 2008–2016 in Viet Nam (with a total of 7,669 observations) is used for analyzing the influence of irrigation management on land-use selections, employing a fixed-effects model. Irrigation management is investigated in six aspects: (i) the physical conditions, (ii) the ownership of facilities, (iii) the operations, (iv) the management responsibility shift, (v) the decision-making, and (vi) the maintenance. The results reveal that the overall effects of irrigation management are so different, depending on the types of land uses. On top of that, different aspects of irrigation management have diversified influences on types of land uses. The findings lead to several important implications related to irrigation management that are relevant to farmers and policymakers. Different stakeholders, organizations/institutions, and farming households play differently effective roles in irrigation management. In general, policies can be conducted through the development of a lined irrigation network, and decision-making in operations of irrigation, maintenance of irrigation, and irrigation maintenance should give more power to farmers’ groups.

Self-study skills are one of the soft skills that play an extremely important role for students in the university environment. However, some universities in Vietnam, at present, have not introduced this skill into teaching soft skills, including Tra Vinh University. Self-study skills determine the majority of students’ learning outcomes, but in fact, not many students are aware of this. By questionnaires and in-depth interviews conducted in May 2019, the authors wish to present the current situation of self-study skills of students of the Department of State Management, Office Administration and Tourism, thereby proposing solutions of integrating self-study skills into specialized knowledge teaching in order to improve the learning quality of students of the Faculty in particular and Tra Vinh University in general.

Introduction: Bruguiera cylindrica is one of the mangrove plants belonging to Bruguiera genus. This genus is characterized by the presence of a large number of compounds, but the research on bioactivities has not been investigated so far. In the present research, the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, as well as chemical constituents of the ethyl acetate extract of this plant, were studied. Methods: The chemical structures of two new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic and computational methods. Results: Two new compounds, benzobrugierol (1) and bruguierine (2), were isolated from leaves of Bruguiera cylindrica (L.) Blume, together with nine known ones, including lupeol (3), betulin (4), chrysoeriol (5), glut-5-ene-3-ol (6), cholesta-4-ene-3-one (7), 3α-(Z)-coumaroyllupeol (8), 3α-(E)-coumaroyllupeol (9), 3β-hydroxycholesta-5-ene-7-one (10) and β-sitosterol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (11). Extracts and some isolated compounds were evaluated for α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. Conclusion: The results showed that most of the extracts and tested compounds exhibited activities better than the positive control acarbose, especially two new compounds 1 and 2 with their IC50 values of 17.9 ± 0.4 and 34.6 ± 0.7 (mg/mL), respectively.

This study examined the effect of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease inhibitor therapy on lipoprotein production and catabolism in vivo. The HIV protease inhibitor ritonavir was given to C57BL/6 mice fed either a basal low-fat diet or a Western type high-fat diet. Fasted mice were injected with Triton WR1339 followed by hourly blood collection to monitor lipoprotein production. Results showed that ritonavir increased VLDL triglyceride production by 30% over a 4 h period when mice were fed the low-fat basal diet. The ritonavir effect was more pronounced under high-fat feeding conditions, with a 2-fold increase in VLDL triglyceride production rate. Ritonavir did not alter hepatic expression levels of diacylglycerol acyltransferase or microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, but increased hepatic apolipoprotein B (apoB) secretion rates under both low- and high-fat dietary conditions. In contrast to its effect on lipoprotein production, ritonavir did not alter triglyceride-rich lipoprotein clearance from circulation under either dietary condition. Taken together, these results indicate that the hyperlipidemic effect of HIV protease inhibitors is a direct result of increased hepatic lipoprotein production. The mechanism appears to be related to their role in preventing proteasome-mediated degradation of apoB and activated sterol regulatory element binding proteins in the liver.

The GP Super Clinics that will provide multidisciplinary primary care services are seen as a key feature of the Federal Government's health infrastructure development. They are designed to improve convenience for patients when accessing services – especially patients with multiple comorbidities requiring visits to multiple providers – as well as providing the space and equipment for teaching and research in primary care. In addition, Medicare Locals are seen as facilitating ‘investments in primary healthcare infrastructure, including GP Super Clinics’. Enhancements to existing private general practices to ‘support a broader team, teaching or visiting sessions from other health professionals’ are also seen as infrastructure development possibilities. Although no one model is provided for GP Super Clinics, it is intended that each ‘will bring together general practitioners, nurses, visiting medical specialists, allied health professionals and other healthcare providers to deliver better healthcare, tailored to the needs and priorities of the local community’.