Liver transplantation (LT) has considerably improved the outcome of patients with end-stage liver disease, especially in children. The first pediatric LT in Vietnam was performed in 2004. To assess the current need for pediatric LT in Southern Vietnam, a total of 280 patients with chronic liver disease followed at Children's Hospital 2 (Ho Chi Minh City), the only pediatric LT center in this region, were evaluated from January 2009 to June 2014. Sixty-seven patients satisfied criteria for LT but only one transplant surgery occurred since 2009. Parental consent for LT was obtained only in 28.4% of patients. The main reasons for the small number of LTs were financial costs, far distance from home, lifelong follow-up and treatment, and shortage of organ donors. We conclude that the current need for pediatric LT in Southern Vietnam is high. Efforts should be made to develop the liver transplant program in this developing country.

It is predicted that the integration of climate-based early warning systems into existing action plans will facilitate the timely provision of interventions to diarrheal disease epidemics in resource-poor settings. Diarrhea remains a considerable public health problem in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam and we aimed to quantify variation in the impact of environmental conditions on diarrheal disease risk across the city. Using all inpatient diarrheal admissions data from three large hospitals within HCMC, we developed a mixed effects regression model to differentiate district-level variation in risk due to environmental conditions from the overarching seasonality of diarrheal disease hospitalization in HCMC. We identified considerable spatial heterogeneity in the risk of all-cause diarrhea across districts of HCMC with low elevation and differential responses to flooding, air temperature, and humidity driving further spatial heterogeneity in diarrheal disease risk. The incorporation of these results into predictive forecasting algorithms will provide a powerful resource to aid diarrheal disease prevention and control practices in HCMC and other similar settings.

Mineral demand rapidly increases; as a result, underground mining activities gradually dig into the earth’s crust to deeper levels. For instance, the depth of coal mines has reached 1500 m, whereas the depth of mines for nonferrous metals has already achieved around 4500 m. Deep mining faces a number of technical and environmental challenges, first of all, great rock mass stresses, high temperature and long winding distance. The traditional technologies are hardly capable to provide the development and extraction efficiency and safety. That is why the need in developing and implementation of new modern mining technologies arose. In roadheading, TBM (tunnelboring machine) method is gradually introduced. A TBM combines the functions of rock breaking, support installation, mucking and conveying rock. In mining industry, smart mining based on mechanized and automated mining methods is successfully implemented at coal mines. Besides, a technical concept of fluidized mining for deepseated mineral resources (6000 m and more) was proposed. This paper presents the review of the current global status of deep mining and highlights some of the newest technological achievements in roadheading and the mineral extraction processes.

Mục tiêu: Mô tả kiến thức, thái độ, thực hành về tránh thai ở học sinh trung học. Thiết kế nghiên cứu: mô tả cắt ngang có phân tích trên 400 học sinh trường Trung học phổ thông Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, Thành phố Hải Dương. Kết quả: Gần 80% số học sinh được khảo sát hiểu đúng về nguy cơ “có thể mang thai dù chỉ quan hệ tình dục một lần”, có tới 82% trong tổng số học sinh cho rằng “vô sinh” là hậu quả nghiêm trọng của việc phá thai không an toàn. Sử dụng bao cao su và thuốc tránh thai khẩn cấp là biện pháp tránh thai được biết đến nhiều nhất (tỷ lệ tương ứng là 80,3% và 78%) trong khi xuất tinh ngoài âm đạo là biện pháp tránh thai mà học sinh biết đến ít nhất với chỉ 10,7%. Trong 400 học sinh được hỏi chỉ có 50 học sinh (12,5%) đã có quan hệ tình dục trước hôn nhân và cũng chỉ 11,3% trong số họ có sử dụng biện pháp tránh thai khi quan hệ tình dục. Kết luận: nghiên cứu này khẳng định một lần nữa những thiếu sót trong việc cung cấp thông tin về phòng tránh thai cho học sinh trung học để giúp các em tiếp cận với đầy đủ kiến thức và có lựa chọn đúng đắn trong vấn đề phòng tránh thai.

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