Evaluation of economic loss caused by Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in agricultural land of district Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

The Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) is a vertebrate pest of agricultural lands and forest. The study was aimed to report the damage to local crops by the Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in the Muzaffarabad District. A survey was conducted to identify the porcupine-affected areas and assess the crop damage to the local farmers in district Muzaffarabad Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from May 2017 to October 2017. Around 19 villages were surveyed, and a sum of 191 semi-structured questionnaires was distributed among farmers. Crop damage was found highest in village Dhanni where a porcupine destroyed 175 Kg/Kanal of the crops. Regarding the total magnitude of crop loss, village Danna and Koomi kot were the most affected areas. More than half (51.8%) of the respondents in the study area suffered the economic loss within the range of 101-200$, and (29.8%) of the people suffered losses in the range of 201-300$ annually. Among all crops, maize (Zea mays) was found to be the most damaged crop ranging between 1-300 Kg annually. In the study area, porcupine also inflicted a lot of damages to some important vegetables, including spinach (Spinacia oleracea), potato (Solanum tuberosum) and onion (Allium cepa). It was estimated that, on average, 511Kg of vegetables are destroyed by porcupine every year in the agricultural land of Muzaffarabad. It was concluded that the Indian crested porcupine has a devastating effect on agriculture which is an important source of income and food for the local community. Developing an effective pest control strategy with the help of the local government and the Wildlife department could help the farmers to overcome this problem.

Common Purpose

The relationship between performance and curation has shift ed. A new attitude of fluid and pragmatic alliance has evolved as the sense of an essential antagonism between performance and curation recedes and the two fields discover a shared focus on aspects of social engagement and agency. This article considers an Australian socially engaged art project, the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation (KSCA), which meshes curatorial and artistic practices in its efforts to reimagine and reanimate the future of a small country town. Employing a wide range of strategies, KSCA works closely with the local community to facilitate collective memory, reflection and social and environmental transformation. Deliberately avoiding traditional lines of artistic and institutional tension, KSCA employs an impure and inclusive approach that is emblematic of emerging forms of activist contemporary art.

Role of Forest Management in Environmental Studies with Reference to the Maintaining of Conservation Values

A forest is a type of ecosystem in which there is high density of trees occupying a relatively large area of land. An ecosystem is an ecological unit consisting of a biotic community together with it’s a biotic environment. In the case of forest, tress dominant the biotic landscape, although there are also other plants and animals. There are many types of forest, such as tropical, evergreen, deciduous and dry forest based on the climatic condition and types of trees present. Forests provide innumerable values to people, provide aspects that address both physical needs as well as the internal nature of people. Forest help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates. Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms. Herbs, shrubs and trees in the forests hold the topmost layer firmly by their roots. This does not allow natural forces like wind and water to carry away the topmost fertile layer of the soil easily. Hence, Forests prevent soil erosion. With forest conservation, animal species, insects and all the biodiversity of natural areas is protected. It is noteworthy that these beings and the local vegetation exert influence on conservation beyond deforestation and the regional climate, even interfering with the health of the local community. Keywords: Forest, Natural Resources, Implementation, Ecological Balance, Significance, Deforestation, Climatic Condition

Community Resilience and Adaptive Capacity: An Integrative Perspective

The aim of this paper is to examine the adaptive capacity for community resilience. Adaptive capacity supports the residents of a local community to survive and recover during and after a disaster. The holistic view of community resilience is seen as personal attributes possessed by community residents which enables them to survive during and after a disaster. Reviewed articles and other secondary sources that discussed on the topic of community resilience and adaptive capacity were used for this study through content analysis and empirical evidence. The discussion of the theories in this paper shed more light towards understanding the four-way adaptive capacity. Community resilience increases the chance of community adaptation during and after a disaster. This study will encourage private businesses and professional individuals to become part of a community by providing them with resources needed to survive in the face or after a disaster. It will also contribute to related research in the future which focuses on adaptive capacity for community resilience.

Heavy Metal Pollution Reduced the Potentiality of Pen Culture in the Wetland Aquaculture in an Urban Area of Bangladesh

The Belai beel serves as an important aquatic resource for the livelihood of the local community of the Gazipur district in Bangladesh. However, water pollution in recent times, mainly from industrial wastes and sewage effluents, may disrupt its aquatic environment. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to assess the potential area of pen fish culture in the Belai beel. The study was performed in the Rajbagan (L1), Kamaria (L2) and Rewla (L3) areas of the Belai beel. Grass carp, silver carp, common carp, catla and rui of 20–30 cm in size were stocked at a rate of 15,000 fish/ha and reared for 150 days in pens installed in the L1, L2 and L3 areas, respectively. The fishes were fed with mustard oil cake and rice bran. Maximum fish production was found in Rewla (12.97 ton/ha/150 days) compared to Rajbagan (8.85 ton/ha/150 days) and Kamaria (10.67 ton/ha/150 days) due to it having comparatively good quality water. There were significant differences in metal ion concentrations (p < 0.05) among the three fish pens. In the Rajbagan area, concentrations of Cd and Cu in the water coming from the industrial effluent canal exceeded the acceptable limit. Results indicated that the Rewla area was better than Rajbagan and Kamaria due to it having relatively good quality water for pen fish culture.

Project COALESCE—An Example of Academic Institutions as Conveners of Community-Clinic Partnerships to Improve Cancer Screening Access

In Virginia, 56% of colorectal cancers (CRC) are diagnosed late, making it one of three enduring CRC mortality hotspots in the US. Cervical cancer (CCa) exhibits a similar pattern, with 48% late-stage diagnosis. Mortality for these cancers is worse for non-Latinx/e(nL)-Black people relative to nL-White people in Virginia, but preventable with equitable screening access and timely diagnostic follow-up. However, structural barriers, such as fractured referral systems and extended time between medical visits, remain. Because Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) care for a large proportion of racial and ethnic minorities, and underserved communities, regardless of ability to pay, they are ideal partners to tackle structural barriers to cancer screenings. We piloted a quality improvement initiative at five FQHCs in southcentral Virginia to identify and address structural, race-related barriers to CRC, as well as CCa screening and diagnostic follow-up using evidence-based approaches. Uniquely, FQHCs were paired with local community organizations in a didactic partnership, to elevate the community’s voice while together, increase support, acceptance, uptake, and intervention sustainability. We report on project development, and share preliminary data within the context of project goals, namely, to increase cancer screenings by 5–10%, improve knowledge and diagnostic follow-up processes, and build longitudinal partnerships.

Making Community Beliefs and Capacities Visible Through Care-mongering During COVID-19

The COVID-19 global pandemic brought forth wide-ranging, unanticipated changes in human interaction, as communities rushed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In response, local geographic community members created grassroots care-mongering groups on social media to facilitate acts of kindness, otherwise known as care-mongering. In this paper, we are interested in understanding the types of care-mongering that take place and how such care-mongering might contribute to community collective efficacy (CCE) and community resilience during a long-haul global pandemic. We conducted a content analysis of a care-mongering group on Facebook to understand how local community members innovated and developed care-mongering practices online. We observed three facets of care-mongering: showing appreciation for helpers, coming up with ways of supporting one another's needs, and continuing social interactions online and present design recommendations for further augmenting care-mongering practices for local disaster relief in online groups.

Students as Community Vaccinators: Implementation of a Service-Learning COVID-19 Vaccination Program

Background: Service-learning is an integral component of medical education. While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive educational disruptions, it has also catalyzed innovation in service-learning as real-time responses to pandemic-related problems. For example, the limited number of qualified providers was a potential barrier to local and national SARS-CoV-2 vaccination efforts. Foreseeing this hurdle, New York State temporarily allowed healthcare professional trainees to vaccinate, enabling medical students to support an overwhelmed healthcare system and contribute to the community. Yet, it was the responsibility of medical schools to interpret these rules and implement the vaccination programs. Here the authors describe a service-learning vaccination program directed towards underserved communities. Methods: Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) rapidly developed a faculty-led curriculum to prepare students to communicate with patients about the COVID-19 vaccines and to administer intramuscular injections. Qualified students were deployed to public vaccination clinics located in underserved neighborhoods across New York City in collaboration with an established community partner. The educational value of the program was evaluated with retrospective survey. Results: Throughout the program, which lasted from February to June 2021, 128 WCM students worked at 103 local events, helping to administer 26,889 vaccine doses. Analysis of student evaluations revealed this program taught fundamental clinical skills, increasing comfort giving intramuscular injection from 2% to 100% and increasing comfort talking to patients about the COVID-19 vaccine from 30% to 100%. Qualitatively participants described the program as a transformative service-learning experience. Conclusion: As new virus variants emerge, nations battle recurrent waves of infection, and vaccine eligibility expands to include children and boosters, the need for effective vaccination plans continues to grow. The program described here offers a novel framework that academic medical centers could adapt to increase vaccine access in their local community and provide students with a uniquely meaningful educational experience.

Social Factors Influencing the Acquisition of the Romanian Language by Students Belonging to a Local Community Hungarian Minority

Research on language acquisition is a central theme in sociolinguistic research. Contemporary social, economic and political processes affect the life of communities and the languages what they speak. Globalization, migration and the enlargement of the European Union can significantly change the role and the future of majority and minority languages. In this research, we aim to reveal the family level language choice strategies of the Hungarian community in the small town of Margitha (Bihor County, Romania), discussing the role of family related social framework that positively or negatively influences the motivation of minority students to acquire knowledge of the Romanian language. For this purpose, we used both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. The results of research confirm that in multi-ethnic communities perhaps the most important, however at the same time the most vulnerable component of ethnic identity is the linguistic identity, which plays a key role in shaping the cultural landmarks and contents that determine the social integration of the individual. The positive family effects of socialization with the Hungarian language can be observed mostly in the ethnically homogeneous family. However, if one of the spouses is ethnic Romanian, the dominant language of communication within the family is more likely to be the Romanian language.