Evaluation of the conservation status and risks for some endangered plant species in Ba Be National Park, B̆ác Kan Province, Vietnam

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science.Ba Be National Park, in the northern mountainous region of Vietnam, is an important conservation area with numerous rare, endangered and endemic plant and animal species. The plant resources of the park are exploited by local ethnic minority (hill tribe) people to provide food, medicines and wood products; their high birth rate, general ignorance of plant propagation and husbandry and their dependence on the forest resources to maintain a subsistence level of life has placed many plant species in the Park at increasing risk of local extinction. Moreover, many essential plants are becoming so difficult to find that the local peoples’ lifestyle is threatened. This thesis evaluates the socio-economic features of the threat to plant species in the Park, the broad ecological determinants of the distribution of plants in the area and the genetic diversity of a selected number of plant species. The results demonstrate that national and international schemes for the classification of the conservation status of plant species is of limited relevance in the local context and a mixture of national, international and local criteria enabled the compilation of a plant species conservation ranking for the Park. A suite of environmental factors was chosen to investigate their collective influence on plant species distribution; the main determinants of floristic composition appear to be topography and disturbance, with soil factors being important for endangered species, though other factors not measured here may influence species composition at small scales. The genetic diversity of four priority plant species was determined using the Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique and the Random Amplified Microsatellite Polymorphisms (RAMP) technique was used to further investigate genetic diversity in two of the four species; the latter proved somewhat more useful in distinguishing between populations than the former. A preliminary evaluation of the location of high-genetic-diversity populations and individuals should allow an informed selection of source plants for future propagation. Some recommendations on future management of the National Park are made

Geodesics and the competition interface for the corner growth model

We study the directed last-passage percolation model on the planar square lattice with nearest-neighbor steps and general i.i.d. weights on the vertices, out- side of the class of exactly solvable models. Stationary cocycles are constructed for this percolation model from queueing fixed points. These cocycles serve as bound- ary conditions for stationary last-passage percolation, solve variational formulas that characterize limit shapes, and yield existence of Busemann functions in directions where the shape has some regularity. In a sequel to this paper the cocycles are used to prove results about semi-infinite geodesics and the competition interface

Stationary cocycles and Busemann functions for the corner growth model

We study the directed last-passage percolation model on the planar square lattice with nearest-neighbor steps and general i.i.d. weights on the vertices, out- side of the class of exactly solvable models. Stationary cocycles are constructed for this percolation model from queueing fixed points. These cocycles serve as bound- ary conditions for stationary last-passage percolation, solve variational formulas that characterize limit shapes, and yield existence of Busemann functions in directions where the shape has some regularity. In a sequel to this paper the cocycles are used to prove results about semi-infinite geodesics and the competition interface

Complete genome characterization of two wild-type measles viruses from Vietnamese infants during the 2014 outbreak

A large measles virus outbreak occurred across Vietnam in 2014. We identified and obtained complete measles virus genomes in stool samples collected from two diarrheal pediatric patients in Dong Thap Province. These are the first complete genome sequences of circulating measles viruses in Vietnam during the 2014 measles outbreak

Genome sequences of a novel Vietnamese bat bunyavirus

To document the viral zoonotic risks in Vietnam, fecal samples were systematically collected from a number of mammals in southern Vietnam and subjected to agnostic deep sequencing. We describe here novel Vietnamese bunyavirus sequences detected in bat feces. The complete L and S segments from 14 viruses were determined

Psychobiotics for Patients with Chronic Gastrointestinal Disorders Having Anxiety or Depression Symptoms

Viet Hang Dao,1,2 Long Bao Hoang,2 Thi Oanh Trinh,2 Thi Thu Trang Tran,2 Van Long Dao1,2 1Internal Medicine Faculty, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; 2Research and Training Management Unit, Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hanoi, VietnamCorrespondence: Viet Hang Dao Email [email protected]: Using psychobiotics to modify the gut microbiome has been shown to improve the anxiety and depression situation of patients with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. This study evaluated changes in depression, anxiety, GI symptomss and side effects when patients used a multispecies probiotics product.Patients and Methods: A single-center uncontrolled trial was conducted in patients with chronic GI symptoms, anxiety and depression who used a multispecies probiotics product. The patients were screened for anxiety and depression symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Those who had a component score of 8 or higher were given the multispecies probiotics product for 2 months and followed up after 1 and 2 months. All data are collected and managed in a case report form.Results: Eighty-three patients were enrolled, with a mean age (SD) of 43.9 (12.3) years; 73.5% of the patients were female. Of these patients, 8 met the Rome IV criteria for irritable bowel syndrome. The HADS scores displayed significant improvement at follow-up. The mean (SD) total HADS scores were 20.0 (6.3), 7.2 (5.4), and 4.9 (5.1) at baseline, 1 month, and 2 months, respectively. Quality of life also improved significantly. A small proportion (< 5%) of patients developed mild symptoms, including fullness, diarrhea, and sleep complaints.Conclusion: After 2 months using the probiotic product, the symptoms of anxiety and depression improved significantly. Mild gastrointestinal or constitutional symptoms developed in some patients.Keywords: probiotics, anxiety, depressio