Coastal aquaculture management of research and development coastal aquaculture center region 3, Takhianthong Subdistrict, Kanchanadit District, Surat Thani Province, Thailand

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the management of coastal aquaculture at the Coastal Aquaculture Research and Development Center, Region 3, Surat Thani Province; 2) study problems and obstacles in aquaculture management. 3) Guidelines for the development of aquaculture management. This research used both qualitative and quantitative methods simultaneously. The sample consisted of 60 people, and a categorical randomisation method was used. The qualitative method used a focus group and selected five key informants specifically. The research instruments used include questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The Quantitative data analysis used statistics such as; mean, percentage and standard deviation. The results showed that the overall opinion on the management of coastal aquaculture Research and Development Center, Region 3 (Surat Thani) was at a high level with a mean of 4.03. The qualitative research method used in-depth interviews with the sample groups; it was found that coastal aquaculture management can be of two types: 1) The government sector co-ordinates with some agencies and organizations to seek the people’s opinions in unity, which shows a direct collaboration with the government, hence opening room for mutual understanding. Both in terms of giving information, problem-solving, expression of opinion, and joint decision.

Astrometric observations of water maser sources toward the Galactic Center with VLBI

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) in the Galactic Center region shows outstanding non-circular motion unlike the Galactic disk. Although several models describing this non-circular motion are proposed, an uniform kinematic model of the CMZ orbit is not appeared. Three dimensional velocity information including proper motions will be critical to constrain the orbital models of the CMZ because most of models proposed are devised to reproduce the line-of-sight velocity pro les of the molecular clouds in this region. To reveal the dynamics of the Galactic center region, we conducted VLBI astrometric observations of 22 GHz water maser sources toward the Galactic center with VERA. By measuring parallaxes and proper motions, we can identify whether each source is actually located in the CMZ or not, and identify the three dimensional positions and velocities in the non-circular orbit if the source is located in the CMZ. We show the results of astrometric study for several maser sources associated with molecular clouds toward the Galactic center including Sgr B2 complex and Sgr D HII region. The parallax measurement toward Sgr B2 obtained the parallax of 0.133 0:038 mas, and its proper motions indicated that Sgr B2 complex is moving toward the positive Galactic longitude with V = 100 km s−1 relative to Sgr A*.

Strengthening Maternal Death Surveillance Systems for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of the Center Region in Cameroon

Background: The article seeks to document the experience of implementing Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) in the Center Region of Cameroon. The paper raises awareness on the need for implementing MDSR, shares progress and lessons learned and reflects on the implications for public health practice. Methods: A desk research involving the collection and analysis of secondary data using tables with specific themes in excel, following the review of existing resources at the Regional Delegation of Public Health-Center from the year 2016 to 2019. Results: The findings depict the existence of MDSR policies and sub-regional committees. Although, the number of regional maternal death notifications increased from 19 to 188 deaths between 2016 and 2019, the implementation of death review recommendations was only estimated at 10% in 2019. While 66% of deaths occurred in Yaoundé, 72% of these were deaths reported to have occurred in tertiary institutions out of which 75% were attributed to late referrals. Hemorrhage constituted 70/144 (48.6%) of the known direct causes of death. Maternal death related co-factors such as the use of partograph during labor had a high non-response rate (84%) and represents a weakness in the data set. Conclusion and Global Health Implications: Across the board, stakeholder engagement towards MDSR was increased through continuous awareness-raising, dissemination of surveillance tools, the institutionalization of the District Health Information Software (DHIS 2) and the “No Name No Blame” policy. However, the reporting and investigation of deaths for informed decisions remain a daunting challenge. For a resource-scarce setting with limited access to blood banks, the application of life-saving cost-effective interventions such as the use of partographs and the institution of a functional referral system among health units is likely to curb the occurrence of deaths from hemorrhage and other underlying causes. The success of these will require a robust strengthening of the health system. Copyright © 2021 Bongajum, et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.

First study of Brucella ovis antibodies in purebred sheep flocks in the State of Parana, Brazil

ABSTRACT Brucella ovis, a non-zoonotic species, is the etiological agent of ovine brucellosis, an infectious disease of clinical or subclinical occurrence in sheep flocks. Until then, there is no serological study of anti-Brucella ovis antibodies in purebred sheep herds. This study aimed to determine the presence of anti-Brucella ovis antibodies in purebred sheep flocks with breeding purposes from Parana State. Blood samples from 728 animals, of which 563 were females and 165 males, between 8 and 56 months of age from the six major sheep producing mesoregions of Parana, were submitted to detection of anti-Brucella ovis antibodies by the Agar Gel Immunodiffusion technique using an antigen from the bacteria Brucella ovis (Reo 198). The results indicate the presence of this disease in purebred sheep from Parana State in a low occurrence of 0.27% (2/728). The only two positive animals were rams, Santa Inês breed, from the same flock in the East Center region of Parana, without clinical disease. In conclusion, Brucella ovis is present in purebred sheep in Parana State, Brazil, and this low occurrence may have occurred due to rigorous breeding systems that may contribute to reduce the transmission of this disease.

Scene Text Detection Based on Expanding the Text Center Region for Bilingual Tibetan-Chinese

Scene text detection is an important research branch of artificial intelligence technology whose goal is to locate text in scene images. In the Tibetan areas of China, scene images containing both Tibetan and Chinese texts are ubiquitous. Thus, detecting bilingual Tibetan-Chinese scene texts is important in promoting intelligent applications for minority languages. In this study, a scene text detection database for bilingual Tibetan-Chinese is constructed using a manually labeled method and an automatic synthesis method, and a text detection method is proposed. First, we predict a text rectangular region and the text center region for each text instance and simultaneously learned the expansion distance of the text center region. Second, based on the classification score of the text center region and the text rectangular region, we obtain the final confidence of each text instance and then filter out the text center region with lower confidence. Third, through the learned expansion distance, the full-text instance from the remaining text center region is recovered. The results show that our method obtains good detection performance; it achieves an accuracy of up to 75.47% during the text detection phase, laying the foundation for scene text recognition in the subsequent step.

Unfulfilled Part of the Post-Soviet Development Storyline in “Center – Region” Relations

The author argues that during the post-soviet period Russia did not suffer several discrete crises, as it is usually reflected in scientific publications, but has been remaining in the state of a permanent crisis. This approach predetermines a cardinal assessment of the results of systemic transformations in the country in a single time space, which is the basis for reliability in characterization and assessment of the author’s achievement of the goal and objectives of the study, i.e. determination of the role of relations between the center and the regions as the focus of systemic transformations and explanation of approaches to their improvement. In the paper, the characteristics and comparisons of two models “regions – center” and “center – regions” take place. The first and second models vary in the priorities of political and economic roles of the regions and the center in the strategies of post-Soviet development in the first and in the following two decades, respectively. It was stated that due to insufficient development of the culture of democracy, the first version of the strategy is fraught with a real threat of centrifugal aspirations of the regions, the loss of territorial integrity of the country. The development according to the second option led to restoration of the institution of centralization of political and economic management in the worst version in comparison with the Soviet era and the reset of the original systemic ideological plot of development of a new social pattern according to the principles of political and economic democratization. This situation has led to the loss by the regions of the opportunity for self-development, lagging behind in the social and economic development of Russia and to a predetermined stagnation and degradation. In the conclusion, the results are presented and approaches to the elimination of the negative aspects of the model of relations “center – region” are given, based on the transformation of relations between the center and the regions to a qualitatively different level involving the coordination of interests on a market basis.

Microbiological and physicochemical quality of some water points in the Nkolafamba Subdivision (Center Region, Cameroon)

A study was carried out with the objective of evaluating the microbiological and physicochemical quality of surface water in the Nkolafamba subdivision, Center Region of Cameroon. Five sampling points were selected based on several criteria. The bacteria isolated were Mesophilic Aerobic Heterotrophic Bacteria (BHAM), bacteria that were witnesses to faecal contamination and Pseudomonas. Some abiotic parameters were measured using the usual techniques. The results show that some physicochemical parameters such as temperature was almost constant around 25 °C during the study period. There is also a pH which tended towards neutrality pH de (7,04 ± 1,03 U.C). However, it was noted that the stations are quite oxygenated (63,96%). Bacteriological analyzes revealed that an average value of 5.17 units (logUFC / 100mL) was recorded for BHAM. Overall, the abundances of total coliforms averaged 4.18 units (logUFC / 100mL). The waters of Nkolafamba also harbor a pathogenic microflora, with bacteria such as P. aeruginosa P. pasteurella, the abundance of which can sometimes reach 5,462 units (log CFU / 100mL). These germs can be the cause of eye infections or septicemia on users of these waters. These waters have a high bacterial load, and the microbiological pollution observed is predominantly animal. Some abiotic parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, Suspended Solid (SS), nitrates and turbidity have influenced the distribution of these germs. The degradation of the quality of these waters is favoured by their proximity to sources of pollution, the runoff of contaminated water in the stations. These waters, without any treatment, are not recommended for human consumption according to the standards of the World Health Organization.Keywords: Abiotic variables, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci, pathogenic bacteria, rivers.

FIRELAN—An Ecologically Based Planning Model towards a Fire Resilient and Sustainable Landscape. A Case Study in Center Region of Portugal

This paper explores the role of landscape planning as a tool for rural fire prevention. It presents a methodology for a fire resilient and sustainable landscape model (FIRELAN) that articulates the ecological and cultural components in a suitable and multifunction land-use plan. FIRELAN is a conceptual and ecologically based model that recognizes river basin’ land morphology, microclimate and species combustibility as the fundamental factors that determine fire behavior and landscape resilience, along with the ecological network (EN) for achieving ecological sustainability of the landscape. The model is constituted by the FIRELAN Network and the Complementary Areas. This network ensures the effectiveness of discontinuities in the landscape with less combustible land-uses. It also functions as a fire-retardant technique and protection of wildland-urban interface (WUI). This model is applied to municipalities from Portugal’s center region, a simplified landscape severely damaged by recurrent rural fires. The results show that land-use and tree species composition should change drastically, whereas about 72% of the case study needs transformation actions. This requires a significant increase of native or archaeophytes species, agricultural areas, landscape discontinuities and the restoration of biodiversity in Natura 2000 areas. The EN components are 79% of the FIRELAN N area, whose implementation ensures soil and water conservation, biodiversity and habitats. This paper contributes to the discussion of the Portuguese rural fires planning framework.