Background: Cau Giay is a district within Hanoi city, where diverse people live. Motorbike Taxi Drivers (MTDs) are at high-risk of HIV infection. Objectives: To study the knowledge, attitude and HIV transmission behaviors among MTDs in Cau Giay district. Subjects and method: A cross-sectional study was carried out between March and October 2007 on 250 MTDs who worked at Cau Giay district. Results and conclusions:30.4% MTDs perceived that HIV could not be transmitted to others via sharing nail clippers or scissors with HIV infected people, 42% believed HIV can transmit via mosquito bites, 72% thought the rate of the HIV transmission from mother to child was 100%, 40% were aware that HIV could be recognized from people's appearance. Only 26.5% of the respondents were aware of the 3 main effects of condom use (including prevention from pregnancy, STls and HIV). 83.2% considered HIV/AIDS infected people as social evils such as injecting drug users, Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs). 23.2% MTDs showed are agreeable when being asked to look for CSWs by customers. 12% MTDs agreed to seek out drugs when the customers requested. The survey also reveals that there were 49.2% of MTDs having sex with CSWs within the last 6 months, of which, 58.2% did not regularly practice safe sex with CSWs. Some risk factors included low level of education, time of being MTD >3 years, low income (less than 2,000,000 VND a month), less frequent appraisal books and newspapers. MTDs that were ready to look for CSWs and drugs via customers\u2019 requests also had high risk of using drugs as well as unsafe sex.
HIV transmission knowledge ; HIV transmission attitude ; HIV transmission behavior ; motorbike taxi driver

Objectives: The association between body composition parameters and peak bone mineral density is not well documented. The aim of this study is to assess the relative contributions of lean mass and fat mass on peak bone mineral density (BMD). Methods: The study involved 416 women and 334 men aged between 20 and 30 years who were participants in the population-based Vietnam Osteoporosis Study. Whole body composition parameters (eg, fat mass and lean mass) and BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The association between lean mass and fat mass and BMD was analyzed by the linear regression model using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO). Results: Peak BMD in men was higher than women, and the difference was more pronounced at the femoral neck (average difference: 0.123 g/㎠; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.105–0.141 g/㎠) than at the lumbar spine (average difference 0.019 g/㎠; 95% CI, 0.005–0.036 g/㎠). Results of LASSO regression indicated that lean mass was the only predictor of BMD for either men or women. Each kilogram increase in lean mass was associated with ∼0.01 g/㎠ increase in BMD. Lean mass alone explained 16% and 36% of variation in lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD, respectively. Conclusions Lean mass, not fat mass, is the main determinant of peak bone mineral density. This finding implies that good physical activity during adulthood can contribute to the maximization of peak bone mass during adulthood.

Objectives: The association between body composition parameters and peak bone mineral density is not well documented. The aim of this study is to assess the relative contributions of lean mass and fat mass on peak bone mineral density (BMD). Methods: The study involved 416 women and 334 men aged between 20 and 30 years who were participants in the population-based Vietnam Osteoporosis Study. Whole body composition parameters (eg, fat mass and lean mass) and BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The association between lean mass and fat mass and BMD was analyzed by the linear regression model using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO). Results: Peak BMD in men was higher than women, and the difference was more pronounced at the femoral neck (average difference: 0.123 g/㎠; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.105–0.141 g/㎠) than at the lumbar spine (average difference 0.019 g/㎠; 95% CI, 0.005–0.036 g/㎠). Results of LASSO regression indicated that lean mass was the only predictor of BMD for either men or women. Each kilogram increase in lean mass was associated with ∼0.01 g/㎠ increase in BMD. Lean mass alone explained 16% and 36% of variation in lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD, respectively. Conclusions Lean mass, not fat mass, is the main determinant of peak bone mineral density. This finding implies that good physical activity during adulthood can contribute to the maximization of peak bone mass during adulthood.

Background: According to WHO, there are 5 million deaths from kinds of injury a year in the world, of which 875000 deaths occur in children under 18 years old. Injury leads to 40000 deaths which account for 10.7% deaths due to all other causes a year in VietNam. Objective: To show conclusions of the situation of child injury, recommendations for prevention of child injury and methods in order to enhance emergency activity in Vietnam. Subjects and method: The authors collected information about all patients who had emergencies due to injury at Viet Duc hospital, from March 26th 2006 to Octorber 26th 2006. However, supervised cases were the patients under 18 years old who were examined and treated at the Department of Emergency. Results: During the period of study, 2536 patients under 18 years old were examined for injury, of which death and coming back home for death were 83 cases (3.27%). 974 children had emergency resulted from injury: male was more than female: 697 verus 227. The leading causes of child injury were fall and traffic accident, respetively 34% and 60%. The most common traumas were traumatic brain injury (45%), limbs injury (41%). Although most of cases had first aid at the hospitals in district or province level, the rate of non-first aid cases was high (34%). Conclusion: Child injury is a leading cause of child death in hospitals. Methods for prevention of child injury should focus on educating and propagandizing to minimize injuries caused by traffic accident and fall.
Wounds and Injuries ; Child

The cDNA of endo-1,4-beta-xylanaseA, isolated from Phaenerocheate chrysosporium was expressed in Pichia pastoris. Using either the intrinsic leader peptide of XynA or the alpha-factor signal peptide of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, xylanaseA is efficiently secreted into the medium at maximum concentrations of 1,946 U/L and 2,496 U/L, respectively.
Chrysosporium ; DNA, Complementary ; Phanerochaete ; Pichia ; Polysaccharides ; Protein Sorting Signals ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Four Trichoderma strains (CH2, SH16, PQ34, and TN42) were isolated from soil samples collected from Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces in Vietnam. The strains exhibited high chitinolytic secretion. Strain PQ34 formed the largest zone of chitinase-mediated clearance (> 4 cm in diameter) in agar containing 1% (w/v) colloidal chitin. Analysis of the internal transcribed spacer regions of these strains indicated that they were Trichoderma asperellum. The molecular weights of the chitinases were approximately 42 kDa. Chitinase genes (chi42) of T. asperellum strains TN42, CH2, SH16, and PQ34 were 98~99% homologous to the ech42 gene of T. harzianum CB-Pin-01 (accession No. DQ166036). The deduced amino acid sequences of both T. asperellum strains SH16 and TN42 shared 100% similarity.
Agar ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Chitin ; Chitinase ; Colloids ; Molecular Weight ; Soil ; Sprains and Strains ; Trichoderma ; Vietnam

Ultrasonic computed tomography based on back scattering theory is the most powerful and accurate tool in ultrasound based imaging approaches because it is capable of providing quantitative information about the imaged target and detects very small targets. The duple-frequency distorted Born iterative method (DF–DBIM), which uses density information along with sound contrast for imaging, is a promising approach for imaging targets at the level of biological tissues. With two frequencies f₁ (low) and f₂ (high) through Nf₁ and Nf₂ iterations respectively, this method is used to estimate target density along with sound contrast. The implications of duple-frequency fusion for the image reconstruction quality of density information along with sound contrast based ultrasound tomography have been analyzed in this paper. In this paper, we concentrate on the selection of parameters that is supposed to be the best to improve the reconstruction quality of ultrasound tomography. When there are restraints imposed on simulated scenarios to have control of the computational cost, the iteration number Nf₁ is determined resulting in giving the best performance. The DF–DBIM is only effective if there are a moderate number of iterations, transmitters and receivers. In case that the number of transducers is either too large or too small, a result of reconstruction which is better than that of the single frequency approach is not produced by the implementation of DF–DBIM. A fixed sum N(iter) of Nf₁ and Nf₂ was given, the investigation of simulation results shows that the best value of Nf₁ is [N(iter)/2 − 1]. The error, when applying this way of choosing the parameters, will be normalized with the reduction of 56.11%, compared to use single frequency as used in the conventional DBIM method. The target density along with sound contrast is used to image targets in this paper. It is a fact that low-frequency offers fine convergence, and high-frequency offers fine spatial resolution. Wherefore, this technique can effectively expand DBIM's applicability to the problem of biological tissue reconstruction. Thanks to the usage of empirical data, this work will be further developed prior to its application in reality.
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Methods ; Transducers ; Ultrasonics ; Ultrasonography

In this study, we report the manganese peroxidase production ability from a Fusarium sp. strain using an inexpensive medium of agriculture residues of either rice straw or wood chips as carbon source. The highest manganese peroxidase activity on rice straw medium and on wood chips was 1.76 U/mL by day 9 and 1.91 U/mL by day 12, respectively.
Agriculture ; Carbon ; Fusarium* ; Manganese* ; Mass Screening* ; Peroxidase* ; Wood

Objectives: Calcaneal quantitative ultrasound measurement (QUS) has been considered an alternative to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) based bone mineral density (BMD) for assessing bone health. This study sought to examine the utility of QUS as an osteoporosis screening tool by evaluating the correlation between QUS and DXA. Methods: The study was a part of the Vietnam Osteoporosis Study that involved 1270 women and 773 men aged 18 years and older. BMD at the femoral neck, total hip and lumbar spine was measured using DXA. Osteoporosis was diagnosed based on the femoral neck T-score using World Health Organization criteria. Broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) at the calcaneus was measured by QUS. The concordance between BUA and BMD was analyzed by the linear regression model. Results: In all individuals, BUA modestly correlated with femoral neck BMD (r = 0.35; P < 0.0001) and lumbar spine BMD (r = 0.34; P < 0.0001) in both men and women. In individuals aged 50 years and older, approximately 16% (n = 92/575) of women and 3.2% (n = 10/314) of men were diagnosed to have osteoporosis. Only 0.9% (n = 5/575) women and 1.0% (n = 3/314) men were classified as “Low BUA”. The kappa coefficient of concordance between BMD and BUA classification was 0.09 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.15) for women and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.22) for men. Conclusions In this population-based study, QUS BUA modestly correlated with DXA BMD, suggesting that BUA is not a reliable method for screening of osteoporosis.

Objectives: Calcaneal quantitative ultrasound measurement (QUS) has been considered an alternative to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) based bone mineral density (BMD) for assessing bone health. This study sought to examine the utility of QUS as an osteoporosis screening tool by evaluating the correlation between QUS and DXA. Methods: The study was a part of the Vietnam Osteoporosis Study that involved 1270 women and 773 men aged 18 years and older. BMD at the femoral neck, total hip and lumbar spine was measured using DXA. Osteoporosis was diagnosed based on the femoral neck T-score using World Health Organization criteria. Broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) at the calcaneus was measured by QUS. The concordance between BUA and BMD was analyzed by the linear regression model. Results: In all individuals, BUA modestly correlated with femoral neck BMD (r = 0.35; P < 0.0001) and lumbar spine BMD (r = 0.34; P < 0.0001) in both men and women. In individuals aged 50 years and older, approximately 16% (n = 92/575) of women and 3.2% (n = 10/314) of men were diagnosed to have osteoporosis. Only 0.9% (n = 5/575) women and 1.0% (n = 3/314) men were classified as “Low BUA”. The kappa coefficient of concordance between BMD and BUA classification was 0.09 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.15) for women and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.22) for men. Conclusions In this population-based study, QUS BUA modestly correlated with DXA BMD, suggesting that BUA is not a reliable method for screening of osteoporosis.