An analysis of multi drug resistant tuberculosis control in Vietnam

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a major global health problem. Viet Nam is 14th among 27 MDR-TB high burden countries with an estimated about 5,100 MDR-TB cases among notified TB cases per year. Management of MDR-TB in Viet Nam is one of the main objectives of the TB control programme. This thesis provides an understanding of the current situation of MDRlXDR-TB in Vietnam and its control policies focusing on case finding strategy, targeting groups for MDR-TB screening. MDR-TB contacts, one of the high risk groups recommended by the WHO is a focus of this thesis. The thesis presents screening practices of household contacts of TB patients, feasibility of TB contact investigations, and to identify challenges and solutions for a successful implementation of an efficient contact investigation among MDR -TB patients in Viet Nam. Since 2009, the programmatic management of drug resistant tuberculosis (PMDT) was piloted in Viet Nam following the development of 2009 country MDR TB guideline. A year after the WHO updated guideline was disseminated, the country revised its guideline and SOP to be in line with WHO's recommendations and contextualized to local capacity and resources. The PMDT has been rolled out and scaled up in the country. However, lack of resources, limited communication on policy changes to lower level, unable to provide screening to all risk groups, inadequate capacity to perform diagnosis of mono and poly resistant TB and second- line DST have posed significant challenges for the NTP to implement their policy. This study found that only about 30% MDR TB cases was detected. through the PMDT system. The possible reasons we identified were: (1) delay in fully rolling out PMDT policies and limited capacity of the system, mostly due to inadequate resources, (2) operational factors, and (3) neglecting high risk groups during MDR- TB screening, particularly close contacts of MDR TB patients. Noteworthy, the NTP strategy relies on "passive case finding" while the proportion of household contacts of smear-positive tuberculosis patients screened for TB under the current passive screening approach of the Vietnam National TB program is very low compared with prevalence of TB among contacts in high burden countries, particularly for contacts under 5 years of age. Although screening of close contacts of MDR-TB patients is recommended by the NTP of Viet Nam, this is generally not done. Therefore, a different approach is needed. This study applied Social network Analysis (SNA), which is a more comprehensive approach than traditional contact tracing. However, with SNA of 99 MDR-TB index patients we were not able to detect new MDR-TB cases. The fact we found no new MDR-TB cases may be explained by reduced fitness of MDR-TB and the short follow up time of our study of 6 months. The results of this study suggest that there are several interventions that could improve the PMDT program in Viet Nam. Firstly, the National TB control Program should standardize and decentralize training on PMDT and provide staff with updated information on policy changes through proper communication channels. Capacity on MDR-TB diagnosis and treatment should be strengthened. PMDT should expand ambulatory care of MDR-TB treatment and expand risk group for MDR-TB screening. MDR TB case finding could be strengthened by provision of information and education of close contacts of MDR-TB patients, with special attention to children; and to perform more research on how active contact investigations should be done for MD-TB to have the best yield. The NTP should allocate more resources to MDRTB control, particularly well-trained staff

KHÁM PHÁ CÁC KHÍA CẠNH CỦA TRẢI NGHIỆM ẨM THỰC HUẾ CỦA KHÁCH DU LỊCH NỘI ĐỊA

Although the local cuisine in many tourist destinations has played an important role in attracting tourists, and the local culinary experience could significantly influence tourists’ behaviours, the topic of the culinary experience of tourists has just emerged in the tourism literature in Vietnam. Through the case of Hue cuisine, this study aims to explore aspects of the culinary experience of tourists using the Experience Economy framework. Based on the qualitative data obtained in semi-structured interviews with twenty domestic tourists, the thematic analysis results show that four themes emerged in the culinary experience with Hue traditional cuisine. They include esthetics, education, escapism and entertainment. Based on these findings, several recommendations are proposed to enhance the culinary experience of domestic tourists visiting Hue, such as: telling stories about Hue specialties to tourists, enabling tourists to observe or get involved in certain cooking or decorating activities, or creating attractive check-in area with Hue local food.Mặc dù ẩm thực của một điểm đến có sức hấp dẫn thu hút khách du lịch và trải nghiệm ẩm thực địa phương có tác động đáng kể đến hành vi du lịch của du khách, tuy nhiên, chủ đề nghiên cứu về trải nghiệm ẩm thực của khách du lịch vẫn còn rất mới mẻ ở Việt Nam. Thông qua trường hợp ẩm thực Huế, nghiên cứu này nhằm khám phá các khía cạnh nội dung của trải nghiệm ẩm thực của du khách sử dụng khung lý thuyết về Kinh tế trải nghiệm. Dựa trên dữ liệu định tính thu được thông qua các cuộc phỏng vấn với 20 khách du lịch nội địa, kết quả phân tích chủ đề cho thấy rằng có bốn chủ đề xuất hiện trong trải nghiệm ẩm thực dân gian Huế của du khách. Các chủ đề này bao gồm: trải nghiệm thẩm mỹ, trải nghiệm học hỏi, trải nghiệm thoát ly thực tế và trải nghiệm giải trí. Dựa trên kết quả này, một số khuyến nghị được đưa ra nhằm nâng cao trải nghiệm của du khách đến Huế, chẳng hạn như: kể chuyện về món ăn đặc sản Huế, cho khách xem hoặc tham gia vào một số công đoạn chế biến trình bày món ăn, hoặc tạo các điểm check-in đẹp với món ăn đặc sản Huế

THE IMPACT OF QUESTIONING AND SEMANTIC MAP IN PRE-READING STAGE ON STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Pre-reading activities play an important role in language reading classrooms since they help to activate students’ background knowledge of the topics being taught, which results in improving students’ reading comprehension. Most studies in the literature focus on exploring the effects of individual pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, questioning on students’ performance in doing comprehension tasks. Few studies have been conducted to explore whether one technique is better than the others in activating students’ schemata in reading lessons. The current study investigates the impact of Questioning and Semantic map in Pre-reading stage on EFL gifted high school students’ reading comprehension. The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students). They shared the same culture, native language, educational background and age. The data were collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews. The findings revealed that both Questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students’ reading comprehension. Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill. The findings shed lights on what can be done to improve EFL students’ reading performance.  Article visualizations

ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AGRITOURISM IN BINH DINH PROVINCE, VIETNAM

This study evaluates the potential for agritourism development in Binh Dinh Province, Central Vietnam. The analytical hierarchical process is used to determine the weights of four factors with 25 measurement criteria to assess agritourism potential. The research results show that Binh Dinh Province has great agritourism potential based on four evaluation factors, including (1) local agricultural tourism resources, (2) the trend for agritourism development and the agritourism market, (3) the local community’s willingness, and (4) the supporting activities of the local government. In particular, the local agricultural tourism resources factor received the highest score, followed by the local community’s willingness and the supporting activities of the local government. The trend for agritourism development and the agritourism market was rated the lowest. Therefore, Binh Dinh has viable opportunities to encourage the growth of agritourism to improve farmers’ livelihoodsDu lịch nông nghiệp đem lại nhiều cơ hội cho phát triển kinh tế cũng như đa dạng hóa các loại hình du lịch và cải thiện đời sống sinh kế của người dân. Nghiên cứu sử dụng phương pháp phân tích thứ bậc (AHP) để tính các trọng số của các tiêu chí đánh giá tiềm năng phát triển du lịch nông nghiệp tại các huyện, thị xã phía bắc tỉnh Bình Định. Tiếp theo, kết quả mô hình hóa sơ đồ mạng cho thấy cả 4 địa phương An Lão, Hoài Ân, Phù Mỹ, thị xã Hoài Nhơn đều được đánh giá ở mức điểm cao về tiềm năng phát triển du lịch nông nghiệp trên các khía cạnh tài nguyên du lịch, xu hướng phát triển du lịch, sự ủng hộ của người dân địa phương và sự quan tâm của chính quyền địa phương. Tuy nhiên, yếu tố xu hướng phát triển thị trường du lịch nông nghiệp được đánh giá ở mức điểm thấp hơn. Điều này cũng xuất phát từ việc phát triển du lịch nông nghiệp tại các huyện, thị xã phía Bắc tỉnh Bình Định cũng mới bắt đầu nhận được sự quan tâm trong vài năm gần đây, số lượt khách tham quan các huyện, thị xã phía Bắc tỉnh Bình Định còn ít so với tiềm năng du lịch của địa bàn

Genetic diversity of Afzelia xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib in Vietnam based on analyses of chloroplast markers and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)

Afzelia xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib is not only an endangered species in Vietnam, but also around the world. The wood of this tree species is very valuable as it is used to construct houses and high quality furniture. Habitat loss and exploitation of A. xylocarpa by man have threatened the population to such an extent that the number of mature trees of this species has dwindled to quite a low quantity. Declining numbers of A. xylocarpa in turn causes a constriction of the gene pool. Thus, it is very important to evaluate the genetic diversity of A. xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib in order to conserve and sustain the surviving population of these trees. 50 samples of A. xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib were collected from seven locations in four provinces (Gia Lai, Dac Lac, Dong Nai and Ninh Thuan) and used to evaluate the genetic diversity of these trees based on the analysis of chloroplast 16S rRNA, non-coding regions between trnH-trnK, trnD-trnT and psbC-trnS chloroplast genes using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The data obtained reveals that the 50 samples of A. xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib have low level of genetic diversity, as supported by the fact that the genetic similarity coefficients of the trees ranged from 49 to 100%. At the similarity level of 49%, the 50 samples were grouped into two main groups. There was no clear local specificities of the samples as the samples from same locality were not found in same group. Due to low level of genetic diversity, low numbers of trees and scattered occurrence, setting up suitable conservation strategies are urgently needed.Key words: Afzelia xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib, genetic diversity, non-coding sequences, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers

Artefactual Suboptimal Fixation Effect to Nuclear Staining on Erythrocytes of Lutjanus kasmira (Forsskål 1775)

This research presents the unusual staining characteristic of the teleosts red blood cells–the common bluestripe snapper Lutjanus kasmira, caught at Toc Tan (Allison) Reef, Truong Sa Archipelago, Vietnam, due to side effects of the delayed staining procedure. In addition to the quantitative data measured, the results of microscopic image research showed that, on slides performed with the delayed Romanovsky staining procedure using Giemsa dye, the cell "nucleus" was not dye-stained as seen in the erythrocytes of much other fish. The AFM and SEM images of blood slides show that the structure of the nuclear zone and the nuclear membrane was destroyed. Although methanol is used as one of the common fixatives in biology, the delayed staining still causes artifactual side effects, disrupts the structure of the red blood cell nucleus and can cause confusion when studying cytogenetics

Using fly ash treated by NaOH and H2SO4 solutions for Hg2+ and Cd2+ ion adsorption.

This paper presents the results of adsorption ability of heavy metal ions (Hg2+ and Cd2+) by fly ash (FA) before and after treatment using NaOH and H2SO4 solutions.  Original- and treated FA were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Specific surface area of FA before and after treatment was calculated by Brunauer – Emmett – Teller (BET) isotherm equation. The obtained results indicated that the morphology and specific surface area of FA changed clearly after treatment by acid or alkaline solutions. Adsorption capacity the Hg2+ and Cd2+ ion by FA was determined from data of UV-Vis spectra. After treatment, the adsorption capacity of ions by FA increased remarkably in comparison with non-treated FA. The FA treated by NaOH solution has the adsorption capacity higher than FA treated by H2SO4 solution. The maximum adsorption capacity of the FA treated by NaOH solution for Cd2+ and Hg2+ ions at room temperature is 28.97 and 14.60 mg/g, respectively. The equilibrium adsorption data were described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The results showed that equilibrium data were fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm. Keywords. Fly ash, treatment, adsorption capacity, heavy metal, Langmuir isotherm

The Impact of Viral Marketing on Emotion and Impulse Buying Behavior: A Case Study of Online Fashion

Impulsive online shopping is becoming a habit for many young consumers, especially for fashion products. This study aims to analyze the influence of viral marketing on emotions and impulsive online shopping behavior of young people for fashion products in Vietnam. The results showed that viral marketing with characteristics such as entertainment, source credibility, visual appeal, informativeness, and irritation all had a significant impact on emotions and impulsive online shopping behavior. Therefore,some suggestions are proposed for applying viral marketing to promote impulsive online shopping behavior for fashion products. Keywords: Viral marketing, Impulse buying behavior, Online shopping, Emotions, Fashion. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/15-7-03 Publication date: April 30th 202