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Abstract The epidemiology of vertebral fractures (VF) in underrepresented populations is not well-documented. This cohort study was part of a longitudinal osteoporosis research project with the aim of determining the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for VF. 401 individuals (155 men) aged 50 years and older without a clinical diagnosis of VF were took radiographs at baseline and 2 years later. VF were ascertained using the Genant's semi-quantitative method. Bone mineral density (BMD) of femoral neck and lumbar spine were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (Hologic Inc). The association between VF and risk factors was analyzed by the multiple logistic regression. The 95% confidence interval for prevalence and incidence was estimated by exact Poisson test. At baseline, the prevalence of VF was 12.2% (n = 49, 95% CI 9.0–16.2%) and increased with advancing age with one-fifth of those aged 70 and older having a VF. During the follow-up period, we observed 6 new VF, making the incidence of 6.6/1000 person-years (n = 6, 95% CI 2.4–14.3). The risk of prevalent VF was associated with male gender (OR: 2.67; 95% CI 1.28–5.87) and T-score at the femoral neck (OR per one SD decrease: 1.1; 1.03–1.17). These data indicate that VF is common among adults, and that lower femoral neck BMD was a risk factor for VF.

This study aims to assess the results of kidney retransplantations and the survival of second kidney allografts performed in our center. Methodology: of 550 kidney transplantations performed since July 2001, 26 were second kidney transplants. Many recipients were sensitized. All patients were treated with the same immunosuppressive regimen. Results: grafts were functionally effective in all patients with kidney retransplantations one month after the transplant. Graft survival was 100% after one year (17/17) and after five years (1/1). Graft survival was similar for second and primary kidney transplants performed during the same period of time. There were three cases of acute rejection, but all of these cases responded to the anti-rejection treatment. Conclusions: the rate of acute rejection was similar for both second and primary transplantations in our hospital, and the second graft outcome demonstrated effectiveness 12 months after transplantation.

Background: the role of malnutrition, inflammation, atherosclerosis, and particularly the combination of these three factors were closely related to cardiovascular events, hospitalisation frequency, and death in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. This study examines the relationship between malnutrition-inflammation-atherosclerosis (MIA) syndrome and mortality among these patients during an 18-month period. Subjects and methods: in this prospective observational cohort study, all cause-mortality was evaluated during an 18-month follow-up period. A total of 174 patients with ESRD (including 57 non-dialysis patients, 56 peritoneal dialysis patients, and 61 hemodialysis patients) were enrolled. M (malnutrition) was assessed by the seven-point subjective global assessment (SGA), serum albumin. I (inflammation) was assessed by serum hs-CRP, serum IL-6. A (atherosclerosis) was defined as IMT ≥0.9 mm or the presence of plaque in the carotid artery. The patients are classified into four groups by number of components (MIA0, MIA1, MIA2, MIA3). Results: 73.6% of patients had at least one component of MIA syndrome. The proportion of patients with malnutrition, inflammation, and atherosclerosis accounted for 36.8%, 21.3%, and 50.6%, respectively. The proportion of patients with 3, 2, 1 component accounted for 4.0, 27.0, and 42.5%. There was no difference between MIA groups based on age, sex, percentage suffering from dyslipidemia, anemia, or Hb levels. Relative to patients experiencing no elements of MIA syndrome, patients with three components experienced a 13.16 times higher risk of mortality. Only malnutrition was a strong predictor of mortality with HR (95% CI): 5.90 (2.46-14.14). Conclusion: clinical physicians should attend more closely to and provide early assessments of MIA syndrome in patients with ESRD. They should care for nutrition conditions and thereby provide early and effective treatments. This can contribute to enhancements in quality of life, and decrease mortality rates in patients.

Abstract Intronic GGGGCC repeat expansions in C9orf72 are the most common known cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which are characterised by degeneration of cortical and motor neurons, respectively. Repeat expansions have been proposed to cause disease by both the repeat RNA forming foci that sequester RNA‐binding proteins and through toxic dipeptide repeat proteins generated by repeat‐associated non‐ATG translation. GGGGCC repeat RNA folds into a G‐quadruplex secondary structure, and we investigated whether targeting this structure is a potential therapeutic strategy. We performed a screen that identified three structurally related small molecules that specifically stabilise GGGGCC repeat G‐quadruplex RNA. We investigated their effect in C9orf72 patient iPSC‐derived motor and cortical neurons and show that they significantly reduce RNA foci burden and the levels of dipeptide repeat proteins. Furthermore, they also reduce dipeptide repeat proteins and improve survival in vivo, in GGGGCC repeat‐expressing Drosophila. Therefore, small molecules that target GGGGCC repeat G‐quadruplexes can ameliorate the two key pathologies associated with C9orf72 FTD/ALS. These data provide proof of principle that targeting GGGGCC repeat G‐quadruplexes has therapeutic potential.

This research indicated 16 important factors that affect the result of labor safety program performance. The research was carried out by sending survey questionnaire to both foreigners and Vietnamese who are working for a medium and large scale construction projects. Most of them said that the most critical factor which influences the effect of labor safety program implementation on construction projects is “periodic evaluation of safety programs”. In addition, MEAN is used to rank significant factors basing on two group of respondents: Safety Managers (SM) and Project Managers (PM).

Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude toward coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers at District 2 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed between January 2020 and February 2020 at District 2 Hospital. A systematic random sampling strategy was carried out and the data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire of the knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers regarding COVID-19. Descriptive analysis was reported to describe the demographic, mean knowledge and attitude score of healthcare workers. Inferential statistics including t-test, ANOVA and Spearman’s correlation were used to evaluate the relationship between study variables. Results: A total of 327 eligible healthcare workers had a mean score of knowledge and attitude of 8.17±1.3 (range 4-10) and 1.86±0.43 (range 1-5), respectively. They showed good knowledge and a positive attitude. However, approximately two thirds of the participants knew the mode of transmission, the isolation period and treatment (67.0%, 65.8%, and 58.4%, respectively), and 82.3% and 79.8%, respectively, held positive attitude regarding the risk of personal and family members getting illness. There was a negative correlation between knowledge scores and attitude scores (r=-0.21, P

The purpose of this work is to study new systems given by evolution equations via resolvent operators for solving Yosida inclusion problems, equilibrium problems and fixed point problems on Hadamard manifolds. Then we show that the systems have a unique solution under some suitable assumptions. Furthermore, the exponential stability and invariance properties of the systems are also investigated. Our main results in this paper are new and extend the existing ones in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All biological hydroxylation reactions are thought to derive the oxygen atom from one of three inorganic oxygen donors, O2, H2O2 or H2O. Here, we have identified the organic compound prephenate as the oxygen donor for the three hydroxylation steps of the O2-independent biosynthetic pathway of ubiquinone, a widely distributed lipid coenzyme. Prephenate is an intermediate in the aromatic amino acid pathway and genetic experiments showed that it is essential for ubiquinone biosynthesis in Escherichia coli under anaerobic conditions. Metabolic labeling experiments with 18O-shikimate, a precursor of prephenate, demonstrated the incorporation of 18O atoms into ubiquinone. The role of specific iron--sulfur enzymes belonging to the widespread U32 protein family is discussed. Prephenate-dependent hydroxylation reactions represent a unique biochemical strategy for adaptation to anaerobic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Frailty syndrome is common among older people and can lead to various adverse consequences such as falls, cognitive decline, disability, dependent living, increased mortality, excessive drug use, and prolonged hospital stays. Objectives: This research determined the prevalence of frailty and associated factors among older adults in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 584 older adults across five Ho Chi Minh City wards from November 2020 to January 2021. Based on the modified Fried frailty scale, the participants were divided into three categories: robust, pre-frail, and frail. A chi-square test (or Fisher’s test) examined the relationship between frailty categories and other variables. Multivariable logistic regression used variates with a cut-off of p ≤ 0.05 in the univariate analysis. Results: The prevalence rates of frailty and pre-frailty were 19% and 64%, respectively. The most common frailty component was weak grip strength (63.9%), followed by slowness (36.1%), weight loss (21.6%), low physical activity (19.5%), and exhaustion (18.5%). In addition, the prevalence of frailty was significantly associated with age, BMI levels, living alone, and sarcopenia. Conclusion: The community’s prevalence of frailty among older adults is high. Frailty can lead to many adverse consequences for the elderly. As there were some modifiable factors associated with frailty, it should be assessed in older people through community-based healthcare programs for early diagnosis and management.

ABSTRACT Most bacteria can generate ATP by respiratory metabolism, in which electrons are shuttled from reduced substrates to terminal electron acceptors, via quinone molecules like ubiquinone. Dioxygen (O2) is the terminal electron acceptor of aerobic respiration and serves as a co-substrate in the biosynthesis of ubiquinone. Here, we characterize a novel, O2-independent pathway for the biosynthesis of ubiquinone. This pathway relies on three proteins, UbiT (YhbT), UbiU (YhbU), and UbiV (YhbV). UbiT contains an SCP2 lipid-binding domain and is likely an accessory factor of the biosynthetic pathway, while UbiU and UbiV (UbiU-UbiV) are involved in hydroxylation reactions and represent a novel class of O2-independent hydroxylases. We demonstrate that UbiU-UbiV form a heterodimer, wherein each protein binds a 4Fe-4S cluster via conserved cysteines that are essential for activity. The UbiT, -U, and -V proteins are found in alpha-, beta-, and gammaproteobacterial clades, including several human pathogens, supporting the widespread distribution of a previously unrecognized capacity to synthesize ubiquinone in the absence of O2. Together, the O2-dependent and O2-independent ubiquinone biosynthesis pathways contribute to optimizing bacterial metabolism over the entire O2 range. IMPORTANCE In order to colonize environments with large O2 gradients or fluctuating O2 levels, bacteria have developed metabolic responses that remain incompletely understood. Such adaptations have been recently linked to antibiotic resistance, virulence, and the capacity to develop in complex ecosystems like the microbiota. Here, we identify a novel pathway for the biosynthesis of ubiquinone, a molecule with a key role in cellular bioenergetics. We link three uncharacterized genes of Escherichia coli to this pathway and show that the pathway functions independently from O2. In contrast, the long-described pathway for ubiquinone biosynthesis requires O2 as a substrate. In fact, we find that many proteobacteria are equipped with the O2-dependent and O2-independent pathways, supporting that they are able to synthesize ubiquinone over the entire O2 range. Overall, we propose that the novel O2-independent pathway is part of the metabolic plasticity developed by proteobacteria to face various environmental O2 levels.