Genetic landscape of autism spectrum disorder in Vietnamese children

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex disorder with an unclear aetiology and an estimated global prevalence of 1%. However, studies of ASD in the Vietnamese population are limited. Here, we first conducted whole exome sequencing (WES) of 100 children with ASD and their unaffected parents. Our stringent analysis pipeline was able to detect 18 unique variants (8 de novo and 10 ×-linked, all validated), including 12 newly discovered variants. Interestingly, a notable number of X-linked variants were detected (56%), and all of them were found in affected males but not in affected females. We uncovered 17 genes from our ASD cohort in which CHD8, DYRK1A, GRIN2B, SCN2A, OFD1 and MDB5 have been previously identified as ASD risk genes, suggesting the universal aetiology of ASD for these genes. In addition, we identified six genes that have not been previously reported in any autism database: CHM, ENPP1, IGF1, LAS1L, SYP and TBX22. Gene ontology and phenotype-genotype analysis suggested that variants in IGF1, SYP and LAS1L could plausibly confer risk for ASD. Taken together, this study adds to the genetic heterogeneity of ASD and is the first report elucidating the genetic landscape of ASD in Vietnamese children

A Multidomain Intervention Program for Older People with Dementia: A Pilot Study

Background: Multidomain interventions have been shown to be effective in improving cognition, quality of life, reducing neuropsychiatric symptoms and delaying progression of functional impairment or disability in dementia patients. To investigate the multidomain intervention in other populations and diverse cultural and geographical settings, this pilot study will assess the feasibility of a multidomain intervention for older people with dementia in nursing homes in Vietnam. Methods: Participants will be randomized into two equal groups, to receive either a multidomain intervention (intervention group) or regular health advice (control group). The intervention will include physical, cognitive, and social interventions as well as management of metabolic and vascular risk factors. We will hypothesize that the multidomain intervention will be feasible in Vietnam, and participants who receive the intervention will show improvement in quality of life, behaviors, functional ability, cognitive function, sleep, and in reduction of falls, use of healthcare services, and death rate compared to those in the control group during the 6 months intervention period and after the 6 months extended follow-up. Discussion: This is the first study to evaluate the feasibility of a multidomain intervention program for older people with dementia in nursing homes in Vietnam. The results from the trial will inform clinicians and the public of the possibility of comprehensive treatment beyond simply drug treatments for dementia. This paves the way for further studies to evaluate the long-term effects of multidomain interventions in dementia patients. Furthermore, the research results will provide information on the effectiveness of multidomain interventions which will inform policy development on dementia. Trial Registration: The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04948450 on 02/07/2021

Grasp-Anything: Large-scale Grasp Dataset from Foundation Models

Foundation models such as ChatGPT have made significant strides in robotic tasks due to their universal representation of real-world domains. In this paper, we leverage foundation models to tackle grasp detection, a persistent challenge in robotics with broad industrial applications. Despite numerous grasp datasets, their object diversity remains limited compared to real-world figures. Fortunately, foundation models possess an extensive repository of real-world knowledge, including objects we encounter in our daily lives. As a consequence, a promising solution to the limited representation in previous grasp datasets is to harness the universal knowledge embedded in these foundation models. We present Grasp-Anything, a new large-scale grasp dataset synthesized from foundation models to implement this solution. Grasp-Anything excels in diversity and magnitude, boasting 1M samples with text descriptions and more than 3M objects, surpassing prior datasets. Empirically, we show that Grasp-Anything successfully facilitates zero-shot grasp detection on vision-based tasks and real-world robotic experiments. Our dataset and code are available at https://airvlab.github.io/grasp-anything/

Plans for nationwide serosurveillance network in Vietnam

In recent years, serosurveillance has gained momentum as a way of determining disease transmission and immunity in populations, particularly with respect to vaccine-preventable diseases. At the end of 2017, the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology held a meeting in Vietnam with national policy makers, researchers, and international experts to discuss current seroepidemiologic projects in Vietnam and future needs and plans for nationwide serosurveillance. This report summarizes the meeting and the plans that were discussed to set up nationwide serosurveillance in Vietnam

Greenhouse gas emissions from passive composting of manure and digestate with crop residues and biochar on small-scale livestock farms in Vietnam

This study investigated the effects of different mixing ratios of crop residues and biochar with liquid digestate from anaerobically treated pig manure on CH4, CO2, and N2O emissions over 84 days in a system of passive aeration composting, resembling typical Vietnamese solid manure storage conditions. Two treatments with solid manure were included for comparison. The results showed that C losses through CH4 and CO2 emissions accounted for 0.06–0.28% and 1.9–26.7%, respectively, of initial total C. CH4 losses accounted for just 0.4–4.0% of total C losses. Total N losses accounted for 27.1–40% of initial total N in which N2O emissions corresponded to 0.01–0.57% of initial total N, and hence accounted for only 0.1–1.8% of total N losses. It is assumed that the remainder was either the result of denitrification losses to N2 or ammonia volatilization. The composting of biochar (B) or crop residue with digestate (D) showed significantly lower CH4 and N2O emissions compared with composting manure (M) (p < .05). The composting of digestate with biochar showed significantly lower CO2 and CH4 emissions and significantly higher N2O emissions compared to the composting of digestate with rice straw (RS) (p < .05). The combined composting of digestate with biochar and rice straw (D + B + RS5:0.3:1) showed significantly reduced N2O emissions compared with composting digestate with biochar with alone (p < .05). Composting sugar cane bagasse (SC) with digestate (D + SC) significantly reduced CH4 and N2O emissions compared with the composting of rice straw with digestate (D + RS3.5:1 and D + RS5:1) (p < .05)

Health-related quality of life in elderly diabetic outpatients in Vietnam

Huong Thi Thu Nguyen,1,2 Mackenzie PI Moir,3 Thanh Xuan Nguyen,2,4 Anh Phuong Vu,5 Long Hoang Luong,2,4 Tam Ngoc Nguyen,1,2 Long Hoang Nguyen,6 Bach Xuan Tran,7,8 Tung Thanh Tran,9 Carl A Latkin,8 Melvyn WB Zhang,10 Roger CM Ho,11 Huyen Thanh Thi Vu1,2 1Department of Gerontology, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 2National Geriatric Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam; 3School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; 4Dinh Tien Hoang Institute of Medicine, Hanoi, Vietnam; 5Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 6School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 7Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 8Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 9Institute for Global Health Innovations, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, Vietnam; 10Biomedical Global Institute of Healthcare Research &amp; Technology (BIGHEART), National University of Singapore, Singapore; 11Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important indicator for designing care and treatment services for patients with diabetes. This is especially true given its rapid increase among the elderly population in Vietnam. HRQoL data in elderly diabetic Vietnamese are currently limited. This study aimed to 1) measure the HRQoL of elderly patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Vietnam and 2) identify related factors and their relationship with HRQoL. Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. We recruited 171 patients aged &ge;60 years with T2DM at the Outpatient Department, National Geriatric Hospital from June to November 2015. Patients were asked to evaluate their health status using the EuroQol Five Dimensions Three Levels (EQ-5D-3L) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Sociodemographic, diabetic treatment, and management characteristics were collected. Multivariate Tobit regression was used to determine which factors were associated with HRQoL, and the strength of this relationship. Results: Patients reported some problems in all areas of the EQ-5D: pain/discomfort (50.9%), mobility (33.3%), anxiety/depression (24.0%), usual activities (21.1%), and self-care (10.5%). The mean EQ-5D index score was 0.80 (SD=0.20), and the mean EQ-VAS was 57.5 (SD=14.4). Patients who were male, lived in an urban area, could afford treatment, were taking fewer medications, and monitored blood pressure often (1&ndash;4 times a week) had a higher EQ-5D index when compared to other groups. Meanwhile, a longer duration of diabetes and older age were negatively associated with the EQ-5D index. Patients with any comorbidity had lower VAS scores than their counterparts. Conclusion: The presence of diabetes and comorbidity were responsible for a significant decrease in HRQoL. Screening and identifying health problems, providing prompt treatment, and facilitating self-management among patients have the potential to increase diabetic patients&rsquo; HRQoL. Keywords: elder, quality of life, diabetes, Vietna