Dynamics of indigenous community’s food and culture in the time of climate change in the Himalayan region

Global climate change has become the most significant challenge of modern times, confronting the lives and security of vulnerable societies around the world. The anticipated impact of climatic variability will be severe on local communities, particularly those residing near high-risk prone zones such as coastal areas and mountain regions. The indigenous knowledge and locally-held beliefs act as a refuge, which also prompt and prohibit the responsiveness towards climatic instabilities. Subsequently, ensuring food and nutritional security is the primary task of strategy makers. Hence, comprehensive knowledge of the indigenous traditional food habits and cultural values, beliefs, and gendered norms need to be explored on a priority basis to address the adverse impact of environmental changes, emphasizing the urgency of the Himalayan societies. Despite that, the integration of indigenous knowledge is not on the priority list of the researcher. Thus, this article reviews the existing literature on customary food habits to analyze the bidirectional association between climate change and the dietary practice of the indigenous communities for adaptation policy. PRISMA Statement technique is used for a systematic review of Scopus and Web of Science databases identified 24 related studies from 14 countries, with a specific focus on the Himalayan region, which resulted into four themes viz. impact of climatic variability of indigenous societies, the impact of climate change on community’s customary food beliefs, the impact of climate change on gender defined norms, climate change adaption strategies. The findings show that the current literature has failed to include the socio-ecological beliefs of traditional communities associated with dietary habits. Thus, the focus should be given to integrate the locally held beliefs of customary societies for the successful adoption of climate change adaptation and food security programs.

THE EVOLUTION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN MALAYSIA AND NORTH KOREA

This paper aims to analyse the aftermath of Kim Jong Nam’s assassination on the diplomatic relations between Malaysia and North Korea along with the historical evolution of diplomatic relations between both countries since Malaysia’s independence. Little is known about the nature of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and North Korea, especially when public perceptions dictate that both countries barely share any similarities. In appreciating the implications of the murder case from the perspective of international law, an analysis is carried out on the history of diplomatic relations between Putrajaya and Pyongyang. A further study is conducted on the factors which attract Malaysia and North Korea to forge and strengthen their diplomatic relations. Malaysia’s inclusive foreign policy is highlighted via her participation in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1970 which promotes peaceful engagement with all countries regardless of their political allegiance, including the Communist-led regime in North Korea. The task of preserving regional safety and bolstering economic prosperity are top on Putrajaya’s priority list. With the volume of bilateral trade between Malaysia and North Korea is steadily increasing and Pyongyang’s continuous provocations of her Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), peaceful engagements with the aim of repairing the damaged diplomatic relations is the best option for both countries. This study concludes that although the relationship between the two nations is severed, it is crucial for Malaysia to consider reviving and enhancing bilateral relations with North Korea, hence benefiting Putrajaya in outlining Malaysia’s future foreign policy.

A study on socio-clinical profile and associated risk factors of stroke patients admitted to neurology department of SCB medical college, Cuttack, Odisha

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are ragging reality of today’s world and have moved up the priority list of most countries worldwide including India. Objectives were to find out prevalence of different types of strokes among the patients admitted in neurology department of SCB medical college, to study socio-clinical profiles of admitted stroke patients and to find out associated risk factors with different types of strokes.Methods: Cross-sectional hospital-based study in neurology ward of SCB MCH, Cuttack, Odisha in 2019-20.Results: The mean age 60.93±12.8, males are more affected, 60-69 years were more affected, 76% were ischemic strokes, 85% cases weakness of limbs reported, hypertension, diabetes, alcoholism, smoking, dyslipidemia were major risk factors. Hypertension and smoking found to be highly significant in case of young stroke patients.Conclusions: Major modifiable risk factors were hypertension (63.3%) followed by alcohol intake 53.9%.

Evolutionary Priority-Based Dynamic Programming for the Adaptive Integration of Intermittent Distributed Energy Resources in Low-Inertia Power Systems

The variability and uncertainty caused by the increased penetrations of renewable energy sources must be properly considered in day-ahead unit commitment, optimal power flow, and even real-time economic dispatch problems. Besides achieving minimum cost, modern generation schedules must satisfy a larger set of different complex constraints. These account for the generation constraints in the presence of renewable generation, network constraints affected by the distributed energy resources, bilateral contracts enclosing independent capacity provision, ancillary power auctions, net-metering and feed-in-tariff prosumers, and corrective security actions in sudden load variations or outage circumstances. In this work, a new method is presented to appropriately enhance the integration of distributed energy resources in low-inertia power grids. Based on optimal unit commitment schedules derived from priority-based dynamic programming, the potential of increasing the renewable capacity was examined, performing simulations for different scenarios. To ameliorate the expensive requirement of computational complexity, this approach aimed at eliminating the increased exploration-exploitation efforts. On the contrary, its promising solution relies on the evolutionary commitment of the next optimum configuration based on priority-list schemes to accommodate the intermittent generation progressively. This is achieved via the collection of mappings that transform many-valued clausal forms into satisfiability equivalent Boolean expressions.

Investigating the OXA Variants of ESKAPE Pathogens

ESKAPE pathogens are the leading cause of nosocomial infections. The Global Priority List of WHO has categorized ESKAPE as priority 1 and 2 pathogens. Even though several mechanisms contribute to antimicrobial resistance, OXA β-lactamase has emerged as a new threat in combating nosocomial infections. In the present study we have investigated the presence of OXA and their variants, copy number, distribution on chromosomes/plasmids, subfamilies, phylogenetic relationships, amino acid identities and variabilities in ESKAPE pathogens. Our results revealed that a total of 929 OXA were present in 2258 completely assembled genomes, which could be further subdivided into 16 sub-families. Among all the ESKAPE pathogens, OXA were highly prevalent in A. baumannii, followed by P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae but completely absent in E. faecium and S. aureus while, only a few copies were found in Enterobacter spp. Most of the OXA variants belonged to the OXA-51-like subfamily (200 proteins), followed by OXA-50-like subfamily (189 proteins), OXA-23-like subfamily (156 proteins) and OXA-1-like subfamily (154 proteins). OXA-51-like, OXA-213-like, OXA-134-like, OXA-58-like, OXA-24-like and OXA-20-like subfamilies were present exclusively in A. baumannii. Phylogenetic tree of the subfamilies revealed that OXA-1-like and OXA-33-like, OXA-51-like and OXA-213-like and, OXA-5-like and OXA-10-like belonged to the same branches with amino acid identities as 100%, 97.10% and 80.90% respectively. This indicates that the members of these subfamily-pairs might have evolved from the same ancestor or have recently diverged. Thus, a judicious use of carbapenems is warranted to curtail the rise of new OXA enzymes and preserve them. This is the first detailed report about the OXA of ESKAPE pathogens.

US-Africa trade policy will tread a beaten path

Significance The trip comes as Washington seeks to reset US-African policy after four years of relative neglect. However, despite some stark differences in style with his predecessor, President Joe Biden looks likely to deliver much continuity in US engagement with the continent. Impacts Although US rhetoric has de-emphasised ‘great power’ competition, its initiatives will still aim to reduce Chinese influence in Africa. The Build Back Better World initiative will likely produce some large projects in Africa, but China will remain the go-to partner for most. Vaccine diplomacy may increase following the advent of the Omicron variant, and amid pressure from rising Chinese vaccine deliveries. Despite the new tone, Africa will remain low on Washington’s priority list.

Contextual Failure Analysis Improves Reliability While Pushing the Envelope of Extended Reach Wells in a Giant Brown Field, UAE

The current combination of increasingly complex wellbores and tightening budgets forces operators to do more with less and find new ways to expand the drilling envelop. Often this pushes the parameters to the limit in order to achieve faster penetration rates. Operating at the limit or beyond impacts equipment reliability and project cost. A thorough failure analysis of the root cause(s) of every incident can help identify and address areas that need improvement. Identifying a cause fosters improvement while it simultaneously pushes the boundaries so the profitability of mature assets can be maximized. Typical failure analysis attempts to determine the cause of a failure and establish corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence. In a large extended reach drilling project targeting a mature field, the approach to a single failure was expanded and projected in a proactive manner to anticipate the impact of current failure modes in future more challenging scenarios. This innovative method combines the classic failure analysis approach with a comparative approach designed to identify and classify each factor that contributed to the failure. This information is then compiled into a dynamic predictive risk matrix to improve the planning. This method, thanks to the contextualization of individual failures and the multi-facet comparative analysis, revealed a pattern between reliability trends and environmental challenges. The pattern was correlated with the increased drilling difficulty over the lifetime of the project, and suggested that the long-established practices had to be revised to overcome the new scenario. The analysis contributed to the delineation of a strong action plan that immediately revealed a consistent service quality improvement quarter on quarter and nearly a 50% decrease in failure rate. The enhanced reliability had a direct impact on the performance that registered a significant reduction of the drilling time, thus lowering the overall well construction cost. In today's economics where cost reduction, resource optimization and sustainability are at the top of the operator's priority list, failure analysis has become paramount to ensure continuous improvement. Effective analytic methods to identify and eliminate showstoppers are needed to minimize unplanned events and deliver within budget. By digging deep into the root cause of incidents, this new approach to failure analysis enabled an enhanced, broader and more effective quality improvement plan that tackled service quality from multiple angles. From refining bottomhole assembly (BHA) design and risk matrix to drafting field guidelines and roadmaps, this approach also provided extra guidance and risk awareness for future well planning improvement. This particularly applies to mature fields where wellbore complexity increases at the same time budgets decrease and it's necessary to improve operational excellence to assure profitability.

Seroprevalence of Seven Reproductive Diseases in Beef and Dairy Cows from Three Provinces in Indonesia

Bovine reproductive diseases are endemic in Indonesia, but comprehensive information about their infectious causes is not available. Therefore, our aim for this study was to detect several infectious agents that cause reproductive diseases in Indonesian beef and dairy cows. A total of 152 cow serum samples collected by Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Brawijaya University and Veterinary Disease Investigation Centre as a part of the mandatory and regularly surveillance system from three provinces during 2019–2020 were used. The samples were then sent to Indonesian Research Centre for Veterinary Science (IRCVS) for further detection of seven reproductive diseases by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Seven reproductive diseases to be tested in parallel are neosporosis, chlamydiosis, brucellosis, Q fever, bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), and BHV-4 infection. The dominant reproductive diseases in Indonesian cows were BVD (45.69%), chlamydiosis (31.58%), IBR (20.53%), neosporosis (11.84%), and BHV-4 infection (10.53%). The seroprevalence of IBR, BHV-4 infection, neosporosis, and brucellosis varied significantly P < 0.05 between dairy and beef cattle. The most dominant reproductive diseases in aborted cows were chlamydiosis (45%), BVD (41%), and neosporosis (10%). The conclusion drawn from this study is that the dominant reproductive diseases in Indonesian cows are BVD, chlamydiosis, IBR, neosporosis, and BHV-4 infection. Chlamydiosis, BVD, and neosporosis are common among aborted cow. Chlamydiosis, neosporosis, and BHV-4 infection should be included in the national priority list in Indonesia. Control and preventive measures should be focused on high-risk areas and animals like stray cat and dog.

Antimicrobial and Antiviral (SARS-CoV-2) Potential of Cannabinoids and Cannabis sativa: A Comprehensive Review

Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a global health crisis and, therefore, new drug discovery is a paramount need. Cannabis sativa contains hundreds of chemical constituents produced by secondary metabolism, exerting outstanding antimicrobial, antiviral, and therapeutic properties. This paper comprehensively reviews the antimicrobial and antiviral (particularly against SARS-CoV-2) properties of C. sativa with the potential for new antibiotic drug and/or natural antimicrobial agents for industrial or agricultural use, and their therapeutic potential against the newly emerged coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Cannabis compounds have good potential as drug candidates for new antibiotics, even for some of the WHO’s current priority list of resistant pathogens. Recent studies revealed that cannabinoids seem to have stable conformations with the binding pocket of the Mpro enzyme of SARS-CoV-2, which has a pivotal role in viral replication and transcription. They are found to be suppressive of viral entry and viral activation by downregulating the ACE2 receptor and TMPRSS2 enzymes in the host cellular system. The therapeutic potential of cannabinoids as anti-inflammatory compounds is hypothesized for the treatment of COVID-19. However, more systemic investigations are warranted to establish the best efficacy and their toxic effects, followed by preclinical trials on a large number of participants.

TIM: Modelling pathways to meet Ireland’s long-term energy system challenges with the TIMES-Ireland Model (v1.0)

Ireland has significantly increased its climate mitigation ambition, with a recent government commitment to reduce greenhouse-gases by an average of 7 % per year in the period to 2030 and a “net-zero” target for 2050, underpinned by a series of five-year carbon budgets. Energy systems optimisation modelling (ESOM) is a widely-used tool to inform pathways to address long-term energy challenges. This article describes a new ESOM developed to inform Ireland's energy system decarbonisation challenge. The TIMES-Ireland Model (TIM) is an optimisation model of the Irish energy system, which calculates the cost-optimal fuel and technology mix to meet future energy service demands in the transport, buildings, industry and agriculture sectors, while respecting constraints in greenhouse-gas emissions, primary energy resources and feasible deployment rates. TIM is developed to take into account Ireland's unique energy system context, including a very high potential for offshore wind energy and the challenge of integrating this on a relatively isolated grid, a very ambitious decarbonisation target in the period to 2030, the policy need to inform five-year carbon budgets to meet policy targets, and the challenge of decarbonising heat in the context of low building stock thermal efficiency and high reliance on fossil fuels. To that end, model features of note include “future proofing” with flexible temporal and spatial definitions, with a possible hourly time resolution, unit commitment and capacity expansion features in power sector, residential and passenger transport underpinned by detailed bottom-up sectoral models, cross-model harmonisation and soft-linking with demand and macro models. The paper also outlines a priority list of future model developments to better meet the challenge of deeply decarbonising energy supply and demand, taking into account equity, cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility. To support transparency and openness in decision-making, TIM is available to download under a Creative Commons licence.