“What Is It Like to Suddenly Shift From Traditional Face-to-Face to Exclusively Online Training?”

Sars-CoV-2 suddenly spread in late December 2019, forever changing people's lives all over the world. Consistent advancements have been done, especially at the medical level, to face the virus and slow it down. At the same time, schools, universities, and educational institutions have been facing hard times since the beginning of the pandemic. Teachers had to shift from face-to-face to exclusively online classes overcoming daily challenges and helping students with their subjects. This chapter aims to present the results of a study conducted during the first wave of COVID-19 concerning language teachers' perceptions of ERT in secondary schools, high schools, and universities. QUAN and QUAL data were collected and analyzed through descriptive statistics and CAQCAS. The results showed that, despite the difficulties encountered and teachers and students' frequent inability to use digital technologies, instructors at all levels believed virtual classrooms to be useful as additional support to teaching and learning.

Characterization of women and youth smallholder agricultural entrepreneur’s in rural irrigation schemes in Vhembe district, South Africa

The purpose of the study was to characterize irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprises (ISAEs) in selected areas of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. The characterization focused on the geophysical environment and on participants in ISAEs. Precipitation was at most 460mmpa for villages along Madimbo Corridor and 701-1380mmpa for those along Mutale Valley, and temperatures were 38.1℃-44.0℃ (Madimbo) and 30.0℃-40.0℃ (Mutale). Groundwater supplemented surface water and was utilized more at Madimbo Corridor compared to Mutale Valley. The study area was characterized as semi-arid to sub-humid, hence technologies for efficient irrigation should be promoted. Participants in ISAEs were female (94.9%), and adult (52.72%) with low education levels (67.7% ≤ secondary education). The majority (88.65%) were not formally employed (54.61% self-employed, 34.04% full-time farmers). Participants experienced some level of poverty, 68.03 percent received low household incomes (R1001-R5000/month), 77 percent received social grants. Interestingly, the majority (65.31%) stayed in multiple-roomed houses, had cement brick walls, and corrugated iron roofs (54.42%), and all had electricity, a stove, and a fridge. Also, majority-owned radio (96.67%), DSTV (87.45%), vehicles (65.56%), and cellphones. Participants mostly provided adequate food supply (91.84%) with three meals/day (79.38%) except during hard times where 49.56 percent provided fewer meals mostly due to delayed readiness of farm produce. Strategies to empower ISAE participants to be more effective should consider their gender, age, education, and economic status estimated by income, asset ownership, and food security.

Hard times for catadromous fish: the case of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla, L. 1758)

Catadromous fish species are very important organisms for their ecological, economical, and cultural value. For its complex life species catadromous fish result in worldwide decline since the beginning of the 20th century. Among the most iconic catadromous species, the European eel Anguilla anguilla L. 1758 has aroused considerable interest since very ancient times. Because, to date, many aspects of their life cycle remain relatively unknown, to implement our knowledge about the main natural and anthropogenic threats to its survivorship and identify possible solutions to preserve it, in this narrative review, we present the state of the knowledge about the life cycle, habitat occupancy, recruitment, and migration patterns of the European eel and about the major threats most likely have contributed to the decline of eels’ populations.