"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed "cultural additivity", prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings--Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism--as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables).Comment: 8 figures, 35 page

"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed “cultural additivity”, prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings –Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism–as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables). Our main findings included the existence of the cultural additivity of Confucian and Taoist values. More specifically, empirical results showed that the interaction or addition of the values of Taoism and Confucianism in folktales together helped predict whether the key message of a story was about Confucianism, β{VT ⋅ VC} = 0.86. Meanwhile, there was no such statistical tendency for Buddhism. The results lead to a number of important implications. First, this showed the dominance of Confucianism because the fact that Confucian and Taoist values appeared together in a story led to the story’s key message dominated by Confucianism. Thus, it presented the evidence of Confucian dominance and against liberal interpretations of the concept of the Common Roots of Three Religions (“tam giáo đồng nguyên”) as religious unification or unicity. Second, the concept of “cultural additivity” could help explain many interesting socio-cultural phenomena, namely the absence of religious intolerance and extremism in the Vietnamese society, outrageous cases of sophistry in education, the low productivity in creative endeavors like science and technology, the misleading branding strategy in business. We are aware that our results are only preliminary and more studies, both theoretical and empirical, must be carried out to give a full account of the explanatory reach of “cultural additivity”

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Farmers’ livelihood strategies and perceived constraints from poor and non-poor households: A dataset from a field survey in Nghe An, Vietnam

ABSTRACT: The first Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of The United Nations aims to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere”. Its seven associated targets aim, among others, to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere. In Vietnam, poverty eradication in ethnic minorities and mountainous areas are among the top priorities. This study aims to learn about farmers’ livelihoods associated with perceived difficulties in Chau Thai Commune, Nghe An Province, a rural mountainous area in Vietnam. A random sampling technique and a face-to-face interview method were employed to conduct a field survey in the region in 2018. The dataset collected from 215 households shows that Chau Thai Commune's livelihood largely depends on agriculture and forestry. Plantation forest and livestock are major sources of farmers’ income while forestland accounts for over 90% of households’ land. Besides, the disparity in livelihood in areas such as forestland, labor and income between the poor and non-poor households is reported. This primary data could be useful for scholars who want to conduct a further in-depth study and or experts, policymakers who work in Vietnam's ‘New Rural Development’ program to devise a better rural livelihood -improvement policy for farmers, particularly the poor in the uplands of Vietnam and beyond

Conversion of bipolar resistive switching and threshold switching by controlling conductivity behavior and porous volumes of UiO-66 thin films

In the age of big data, a memory with cross-bar array architecture is urgently required to facilitate high-density data storage. To eliminate the sneak path current of integrated circuits, threshold switching-based selectors have been utilized simultaneously with resistive switching memories. In this study, the successful absorption of uric acid (UA) into a UiO-66 matrix was realized at room temperature without any disruption of the host crystalline structure. Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectra revealed the presence of UA based on the interaction of its carbonyl group with the UiO-66 matrix, whereas the diffraction peaks in the X-ray diffraction spectra of the (111) and (200) index planes were slightly shifted to the lower 2θ values, demonstrating the interaction of the UA on the system is occupy porous cages and free volume structures. The occupation of UA in the porous volume of the framework has been estimated by the significant vanishing of surface area from 1299 to 950 cm3 g−1 as well as the almost dismission of UiO-66 porous cages of 12.5 Å by BET analysis. The electronic transitions from linkers to metals and intramolecular between nearest linkers of UA absorbed UiO-66 were heavily reduced via the evidence from photoluminescence spectroscopy. These changes in structural and electronic density lead to the change in the electrical conduction mechanism, operating voltage, and resistive switching characteristics from memory switching to threshold switching corresponding to Ag/UiO-66–PVA/Ag and Ag/UA@UiO-66–PVA/Ag device, respectively. The reduction and vanish of porous cages and free volume restrict the formation management of silver conducting filaments through the UA@UiO-66–PVA matrix. This study provides a new approach to controlling the conversion switching behavior between memory and threshold in metal–organic framework materials for high-density cross-bar architecture

Encapsulation of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in LunaGel Photocrosslinkable Extracellular Matrix and Subcutaneous Transplantation in Mice

Stem cells have significant potential in regenerative medicines. However, a major issue with implanting stem cells in the regeneration of new tissue is the methods to implant them and cell viability and functions before and after implantation. Here we developed a simple yet effective method that used photo-crosslinkable gelatin-based hydrogel (LunaGelTM) as a scaffold for the encapsulation, expansion, and eventually, transplantation of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) into mice subcutaneously. We demonstrated the proliferation and maintenance of the original expression of mesenchymal stem cell markers as well as the ability to differentiate into mesoderm-derived cells. The hydrogel was highly stable with no signs of degradation after 20 days in PBS. The hUC-MSCs remained viable after transplantation into mice’s subcutaneous pockets and migrated to integrate with the surrounding tissues. We showed a collagen-rich layer surrounding the transplanted cell-laden scaffold indicating the effects of growth factors secreted by the hUC-MSCs. A connective tissue layer was found between the implanted cell-laden scaffold and the collagen layer, and immunohistochemical staining results suggested that this tissue was derived from the MSCs which migrated from within the scaffold. The results, thus, also suggested a protective effect the scaffold has on the encapsulated cells from the antibodies and cytotoxic cells of the host immune system

"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed "cultural additivity", prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings –Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism–as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables). Our main findings included the existence of the cultural additivity of Confucian and Taoist values. More specifically, empirical results showed that the interaction or addition of the values of Taoism and Confucianism in folktales together helped predict whether the key message of a story was about Confucianism, β{VT ⋅ VC} = 0.86. Meanwhile, there was no such statistical tendency for Buddhism. The results lead to a number of important implications. First, this showed the dominance of Confucianism because the fact that Confucian and Taoist values appeared together in a story led to the story’s key message dominated by Confucianism. Thus, it presented the evidence of Confucian dominance and against liberal interpretations of the concept of the Common Roots of Three Religions ("tam giáo đồng nguyên") as religious unification or unicity. Second, the concept of "cultural additivity" could help explain many interesting socio-cultural phenomena, namely the absence of religious intolerance and extremism in the Vietnamese society, outrageous cases of sophistry in education, the low productivity in creative endeavors like science and technology, the misleading branding strategy in business. We are aware that our results are only preliminary and more studies, both theoretical and empirical, must be carried out to give a full account of the explanatory reach of "cultural additivity".info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

BƯỚC ĐẦU KHẢO SÁT ĐỘT BIẾN GEN BRCA1 VÀ BRCA2 T RONG QUẦN THỂ UNG THƯ BIỂU MÔ BUỒNG TRỨNG NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM BẰNG KỸ THUẬT GIẢI TRÌNH TỰ THẾ HỆ MỚI

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are two important tumor suppressor genes. The germline and somatic mutations of these two genes in ovarian carcinomas are sensitive for treatment with ADP-ribose polymerase enzyme inhibitor (PARPi). Recently, several PARPi drugs, such as Olaparib and Rucaparib, have been approved for ovarian cancer with BRCA1/2 germline mutations by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and for both germline and somatic mutations by European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, there have no been reliable data about the prevalence of mutations of these two genes in ovarian carcinomas population for treatment in Vietnam so far. Therefore, we studied the prevalence of the BRCA1/2 germline and somatic mutations among ovarian carcinomas patients in the Vietnamese population. In this study, we sequenced these two genes by using Ion Torrent PGM. The subjects of the study are 11 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor (FFPE) samples from 11 patients with ovarian carcinomas obtained from Tu Du Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Vietnam). Multiplex PCR then was performed on the DNA samples and two controls containing known mutations by using Oncomine BRCA Research Assay. Of the sequenced 11 samples, a pathogenic mutation (1/11 patient, 9.1%) detected on the BRCA1 gene was a nonsense point mutation causing stop codon at the position of amino acid 1772. Consequently, our sequencing workflow shows the success in identifying and investigating the prevalence of BRCA1/2 mutation in a small group of ovarian carcinomas with FFPE tumor samples.BRCA1 và BRCA2 là hai gen ức chế khối u quan trọng. Việc đột biến hai gen này ở bệnh nhân ung thư biểu mô buồng trứng dòng mầm và dòng sinh dưỡng thì đáp ứng tốt hơn với thuốc ức chế enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor (PARPi). Gần đây, một vài thuốc PARPi, như Olaparib và Rucaparib, đã được chấp thuận dùng cho bệnh nhân ung thư buồng trứng với đột biến dòng mầm BRCA1/2 bởi Food and Drug Administration (FDA) và với đột biến dòng mầm và dòng sinh dưỡng đối với European Medicines Agency (EMA). Tuy nhiên, hiện nay Việt Nam chưa có dữ liệu nào đáng tin cậy về tình trạng đột biến hai gen này trong quần thể bệnh nhân ung thư biểu mô buồng trứng nhằm hỗ trợ cho điều trị. Do đó, chúng tôi tiến hành giải trình tự nhằm khảo sát đột biến hai gen BRCA1/2 dòng mầm và dòng sinh dưỡng ở bệnh nhân ung thư biểu mô buồng trứng người Việt Nam. Trong nghiên cứu này, chúng tôi tiến hành giải trình tự hai gen này bằng Ion Torrent PGM. Đối tượng nghiên cứu là 11 mẫu mô vùi nến được thu nhận từ Bệnh viện Từ Dũ của 11 bệnh nhân ung thư biểu mô buồng trứng. DNA từ các mẫu này và 2 mẫu đối chứng đã biết thông tin đột biến được tiến hành multilplex PCR với kit Oncomine BRCA Research Assay. Trong mười một mẫu được giải trình tự, một đột biến gây bệnh (1/11 bệnh nhân; 9,1%) đã được phát hiện trên gen BRCA1, là đột biến điểm đưa codon stop vào trình tự protein tại vị trí axit amin 1772. Tóm lại, quy trình giải trình tự của chúng tôi thành công trong việc xác định và khảo sát tỉ lệ đột biến BRCA1/2 trong một nhóm nhỏ bệnh nhân ung thư biểu mô buồng trứng với mẫu sinh phẩm là mô vùi nến

Involvement of Secondary Metabolites in Response to Drought Stress of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

In this study, responses of rice under drought stress correlating with changes in chemical compositions were examined. Among 20 studied rice cultivars, Q8 was the most tolerant, whereas Q2 was the most susceptible to drought. Total phenols, total flavonoids, and antioxidant activities, and their accumulation in water deficit conditions were proportional to drought resistance levels of rice. In detail, total phenols and total flavonoids in Q8 (65.3 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) and 37.8 mg rutin equivalent (RE) were significantly higher than Q2 (33.9 mg GAE/g and 27.4 mg RE/g, respectively) in both control and drought stress groups. Similarly, the antioxidant activities including DPPH radical scavenging, β-carotene bleaching, and lipid peroxidation inhibition in Q8 were also higher than in Q2, and markedly increased in drought stress. In general, contents of individual phenolic acids in Q8 were higher than Q2, and they were significantly increased in drought stress to much greater extents than in Q2. However, p-hydroxybenzoic acid was found uniquely in Q8 cultivars. In addition, only vanillic acid was found in water deficit stress in both drought resistant and susceptible rice, suggesting that this phenolic acid, together with p-hydroxybenzoic acid, may play a key role in drought-tolerance mechanisms of rice. The use of vanillic acid and p-hyroxybenzoic acid, and their derivatives, may be useful to protect rice production against water shortage stress