Multiplex RT Real-Time PCR Based on Target Failure to Detect and Identify Different Variants of SARS-CoV-2: A Feasible Method That Can Be Applied in Clinical Laboratories.

Shortly after its emergence, Omicron and its sub-variants have quickly replaced the Delta variant during the current COVID-19 outbreaks in Vietnam and around the world. To enable the rapid and timely detection of existing and future variants for epidemiological surveillance and diagnostic applications, a robust, economical real-time PCR method that can specifically and sensitively detect and identify multiple different circulating variants is needed. The principle of target- failure (TF) real-time PCR is simple.

Environmental sampling for SARS-CoV-2 at a reference laboratory and provincial hospital in central Viet Nam, 2020.

Objective: To determine whether environmental surface contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred at a provincial hospital in Viet Nam that admitted patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and at the regional reference laboratory responsible for confirmatory testing for SARS-CoV-2 in 2020.

Methods: Environmental samples were collected from patient and staff areas at the hospital and various operational and staff areas at the laboratory. Specimens from frequently touched surfaces in all rooms were collected using a moistened swab rubbed over a 25 cm area for each surface.

Diversity of microbial community and its metabolic potential for nitrogen and sulfur cycling in sediments of Phu Quoc island, Gulf of Thailand.

Although Phu Quoc island, Gulf of Thailand possesses diverse marine and coastal ecosystems, biodiversity and metabolic capability of microbial communities remain poorly investigated. The aim of our study was to evaluate the biodiversity and metabolic potential of sediment microbial communities in Phu Quoc island. The marine sediments were collected from three different areas and analyzed by using 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon approach.

Development and flight performance of a biologically-inspired tailless flapping-wing micro air vehicle with wing stroke plane modulation.

The tailless flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FW-MAV) is one of the most challenging problems in flapping-wing design due to its lack of tail for inherent flight stability. It must be designed in such a way that it can produce proper augmented control moments modulated by a closed-loop attitude controller for active stabilization. We propose a tailless FW-MAV with a wing stroke plane modulation mechanism, namely NUS-Roboticbird, which maneuvers by only using its flapping wings for both propulsion and attitude control.