Socio-cultural Norms and Gender Equality of Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Thirty years ago, Vietnam was a poor low-income country; since then, it has accomplished remarkable achievements in socio-economic development, not least in its high rate of poverty reduction. But cultural stereotypes remain a root cause of inequality for women and girls, forming a barrier to accessing opportunities in education, health care, and in receiving equal treatment. METHODOLOGY: This paper used a variety of methods, including a literature review of cultural stereotypes and gender equality and a survey of gender equality for ethnic minorities covering 2894 households by IFGS in 2019. It analyzed the correlation between different variables, including gender, ethnicity, family type, parents' perception about opportunities for ethnic minority girls for schooling, health care, and equality of treatment. In addition, this article uses material from qualitative data collected from 15 in-depth interviews and life stories. RESULTS: Traditional gender stereotypes are a major obstacle to achieving gender equality for women and girls. Customs and cultural practices ground prejudices against women and girls in the perception of numerous ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Being perceived as the breadwinner for their family, ethnic women have to participate in the labor force, in addition to taking care of other family members. Furthermore, they lack opportunities to communicate outside their small community. Therefore, in some ethnic minorities, there is a high rate of girls experiencing child marriage, and early pregnancies are more likely; this significantly affects their development and results in negative consequences for nutrition and maternal and child health care. In addition, girls who have an early marriage to satisfy their parents' desire have to drop out of school and limit their social interactions. Different causes, such as limited awareness, attachment to traditional beliefs, and parents' prejudice (that schooling is prioritized for boys), have locked adolescent girls into a vicious circle of child marriage and school dropout. This is also the reason for the high illiteracy rate of ethnic minority women in Vietnam. CONCLUSIONS: Traditional stereotyped gender perceptions have become major barriers to the development of ethnic minority girls and women in Vietnam. Child marriage and teenage pregnancy stem from the notion that girls do not need to be educated, but should join the workforce as early as possible and take care of their families; the result is a wide range of negative consequences, including keeping girls away from school and social interaction. Ethnic minority women have a high rate of illiteracy and social communication constraints, leading to their poor access to health care services. The spiral of gender inequality toward ethnic minority girls and women in Vietnam is still ongoing as parents' perceptions have not changed. Ethnic minority girls and women continue to be marginalized by the barriers of gender stereotypes and traditional culture.

[Research progress on effect factors of secondary metabolites content in callus].

Secondary metabolites are the result of that plant interaction with biological and non-biological factors in the long-term evolution process, and play an important role in plant growth, development and physiology. The effective components of medicinal plant are usually the secondary metabolites in plant cells, and the synthesis of them are affected by a variety of factors, such as environmental impact. Acquirement of the secondary metabolites via callus culture has the advantage of low cost and less environmental impact. The synthesis and accumulation of medicinal plant secondary metabolites are not only controlled by light, temperature and pH, but also infected by germplasm, plant growth regulator and elicitor. This article presents a review of the influencing factors, and provides a basis for further study and development.

Research progress on effect factors of secondary metabolites content in callus / 中国中药杂志

Secondary metabolites are the result of that plant interaction with biological and non-biological factors in the long-term evolution process, and play an important role in plant growth, development and physiology. The effective components of medicinal plant are usually the secondary metabolites in plant cells, and the synthesis of them are affected by a variety of factors, such as environmental impact. Acquirement of the secondary metabolites via callus culture has the advantage of low cost and less environmental impact. The synthesis and accumulation of medicinal plant secondary metabolites are not only controlled by light, temperature and pH, but also infected by germplasm, plant growth regulator and elicitor. This article presents a review of the influencing factors, and provides a basis for further study and development.

Expression of follicle-stimulating hormone receptor in tumor blood vessels.

BACKGROUND: In adult humans, the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) receptor is expressed only in the granulosa cells of the ovary and the Sertoli cells of the testis. It is minimally expressed by the endothelial cells of gonadal blood vessels. METHODS: We used immunohistochemical and immunoblotting techniques involving four separate FSH-receptor-specific monoclonal antibodies that recognize different FSH receptor epitopes and in situ hybridization to detect FSH receptor in tissue samples from patients with a wide range of tumors. Immunoelectron microscopy was used to detect FSH receptor in mouse tumors. RESULTS: In all 1336 patients examined, FSH receptor was expressed by endothelial cells in tumors of all grades, including early T1 tumors. The tumors were located in the prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, urinary bladder, kidney, lung, liver, stomach, testis, and ovary. In specimens obtained during surgery performed to remove tumors, the FSH receptor was not expressed in the normal tissues located more than 10 mm from the tumors. The tumor lymphatic vessels did not express FSH receptor. The endothelial cells that expressed FSH receptor were located at the periphery of the tumors in a layer that was approximately 10 mm thick; this layer extended both into and outside of the tumor. Immunoelectron microscopy in mice with xenograft tumors, after perfusion with anti­FSH-receptor antibodies coupled to colloidal gold, showed that the FSH receptor is exposed on the luminal endothelial surface and can bind and internalize circulating ligands. CONCLUSIONS: FSH receptor is selectively expressed on the surface of the blood vessels of a wide range of tumors. (Funded by INSERM.).

The cleavage of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor is dependent on cell-cell contacts and regulates the hormonal stimulation of phospholipase c.

Thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) consists of a hormone-binding extracellular subunit and a seven-transmembrane spanning subunit that interacts with the G proteins G(alphas) and G(alphaq). The two subunits, generated by proteolytic cleavage of a single polypeptide chain, are held together by disulphide bridges. The receptor is completely cleaved in thyroid tissue, while in cultured cells (thyrocytes and non-thyroid cells) the cleaved and uncleaved forms coexist. The reasons for these divergent data are not understood. Here we provide an explanation by showing that cleavage depends on cell-cell contacts. An almost complete cleavage was observed in confluent cells, while in sparse cells most of the receptor was in the uncleaved form. We also show that coupling of TSHR to G(alphaq) (as measured by inositolphosphate generation) is markedly reduced when the receptor is not cleaved. In contrast, coupling to G(alphas) [as measured by cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) synthesis] is unaffected by cleavage of the receptor. These results suggest that the cell-cell contacts are necessary for cleavage of the receptor, which acts as a regulatory step in inositolphosphate production via phospholipase C activation. The latter observation was confirmed using cells that express the uncleavable mutant TSHR-delta50-NET, for which the TSH-stimulated inositolphosphate production was completely abolished.

Receptor-mediated transcytosis of follicle-stimulating hormone through the rat testicular microvasculature.

Accumulated data suggest that endothelial cells express specific receptors for several peptide and (glyco)protein hormones that may transport hormones across the cell to be delivered to the interstitial fluid and tissue target cells. Surprisingly, very little information is available on the actual endothelial organelles involved in this cellular process. In the present study the transfer of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) through the endothelial barrier of rat testes was examined by analysing the binding and transport of gold-tagged recombinant human (rh)FSH under various conditions using electron microscopy. At 4 degrees C the probe bound specifically to the luminal surface of the endothelial cells without internalization. The use of 125I-rhFSH, which allows precise quantitation of the binding, confirmed the specificity of hormone interaction with the testicular microvasculature. At 37 degrees C the hormone was internalized via coated pits and vesicles into an extensive subluminal tubulo-vesicular compartment and was transported across the endothelium via a system of tubules and vesicles. Moreover, monoclonal antibodies against the FSH receptor ectodomain coupled to colloidal gold followed the same route. In contrast, a non specific, fluid-phase uptake via caveolae was observed for a major plasma protein - rat serum albumin and a fluid-phase tracer - peroxidase. These results suggest that FSH transcytosis across the testicular endothelial barrier is receptor-mediated and involves luminal uptake via coated pits/vesicles, sorting at the level of luminal early endosomes, and transcellular transport through transcytotic tubulo-vesicular organelles. Similar receptor-mediated pathways are likely to be involved in the physiological functioning of a number of other protein and peptide hormones that must translocate specifically from blood to the target cells.

Study on vector ability of Nosopsyllus wualis leizhouensis in the transmission of plague / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To find out the vector ability and function of Nosopsyllus wualis leizhouensis in the transmitting plague.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In T: 19 degrees C +/- 1 degrees C, RH: 85% +/- 5%, data regarding the vector ability as cluster spreading, single flea spreading, single flea transmitting plague to single animal, formative bacterial embolus and infection fleas life-span through experiments was gathered.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The rate of infection on fleas was 94.64%, with 100% transmission rate of colony to spread, and 30% from single flea spreading to single animal. In the experiment of single flea transmission, all of the 388 rattus loseas were bitten by the fleas with bacterial, but only 9 animals were characteristically infected with the transmission potential, vector efficiency, survival potential of embolus, vector index as 0.360, 0.257, 0.868 and 0.223 respectively. The mean survive days of infected flea feed with blood were 17.58 (1 - 58), and the mean survive days of hunger infected flea were 7.25 (1 - 16). Formative bacterial embolus days were 8.80 (2 - 16) and the rate of embolus flea was 78.12%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Nosopsyllus wualis leizhouensis could serve as vector and important in the mode of plague transmittion.</p>