Climate Change in Fisheries and Aquaculture: Analysis of the Impact Caused by Idai and Kenneth Cyclones in Mozambique

Fisheries and Aquaculture are among the most popular activities in coastal regions of the world. In addition, both correspond to high-risk activities within a climate change context as they are vulnerable to environmental changes that threaten the socio-economic sustainability of the fishing communities that depend on fish for food security and income generation. In 2019, the central part of Mozambique was hit by two unprecedented cyclones: Idai and Kenneth that killed over 600 people and left nearly 2.2 million people in need of urgent assistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impacts these cyclones had on fisheries and aquaculture in the provinces of Sofala and Zambézia in Mozambique. The study further seeks to propose strategies that could be adopted by the communities to minimize the risks in the future. For the construction of the database, both secondary and primary data collection approaches were used to characterize the cyclone events. Secondary data was collected through sector reports and previously published articles, while primary data was collected through interviews with fishers, sector employees, and aquaculture producers in the affected provinces. The results revealed that these natural events had both a direct and indirect impact on fishing, as they affected more than 1,440 fishermen that lost 590 vessels, 1,800 fishing gear, and 67 boat engines in Sofala province. In Zambézia province, aquaculture producers lost 169 fish ponds, two cages, and 606,000 lost fry, while in Sofala province, 58 fish tanks, 204 cages, and 257,500 fish fry were lost. Overall, our study reveals the vulnerability of fisheries and aquaculture to extreme events particularly the cyclones in Mozambique. Lack of knowledge regarding climate change, advanced preventive measures, and poor adaptive capacity makes the sectors more vulnerable to disasters. Therefore, it is recommended to improve awareness programs, introduce measures and policies that promote resilience and optimum adaptive efficiency.

Covid-19 Mutations and How the Vaccine Enhances Immune Intelligence

We traced the coronavirus classification and evolution, analyzed the Covid-19 composition and its distinguishing characteristics when compared to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Despite their close kinship, SARS-CoV and Covid-19 display significant structural differences, including 380 amino acid substitutions, and variable homology between certain open reading frames that are bound to diversify the pathogenesis and virulence of the two viral compounds. A single amino acid substitution such as replacing Aspartate (D) with Glycine (G) composes the D614G mutation that is around 20% more infectious than its predecessor 614D. The B117 variant, that exhibits a 70% transmissibility rate, harbours 23 mutants, each reflecting one amino acid exchange. We examined several globally spreading mutations, 501.V2, B1351, P1, and others, with respect to the specific amino acid conversions involved. Unlike previous versions of coronavirus, where random mutations eventually precipitate extinction, the multiplicity of over 300,000 mutations appears to have rendered Covid-19 more contagious, facilitating its ability to evade detection, thus challenging the effectiveness of a large variety of emerging vaccines. Vaccination enhances immune memory and intelligence to combat or obstruct viral entry by generating antibodies that will prohibit the cellular binding and fusion with the Spike protein, ultimately debilitating the virus from releasing its contents into the cell. Developing antibodies during the innate response, appears to be the most compelling solution in light of the hypothesis that Covid-19 inhibits the production of Interferon type I, compromising adaptive efficiency to recognize the virus, possibly provoking a cytokine storm that injures vital organs. With respect to that perspective, the safety and effectiveness of different vaccines is evaluated and compared, including the Spike protein mRNA version, the Adenovirus DNA, Spike protein subunits, the deactivated virus genres, or, finally, the live attenuated coronavirus that appears to demonstrate the greatest effectiveness, yet, encompass a relatively higher risk.

A Review of Talent Adaptive Concept and Conceptual Framework of Accelerated Industry4WRD Talent Adaptation in Malaysia

Effective to current practice in the growth of talent by versatility, the companies require expertise to work in different divisions; subsidiaries; or departments; after three to five years’ operating in a specific position, upon request for relocation or promotional activities. Nevertheless, the transfer to work requires specific talent to learn new activities and procedures through adaptation through reading over administrative tasks, as well as to gain technical expertise such as Industry 4.0, which is typically learned by being on the job and takes longer before the talent becomes fully competent to conduct its tasks linked to Industry 4.0 areas. Use eight-dimensional adaptive efficiency as the foundation, this study intends to analysis and to clarify the critical factors in Industry 4.0 job adaptation as well as to create an effective structure that accelerates the cycle of talent adaptation. This framework is expected to contribute to Malaysia Industry4WRD strategy on ‘People’ shift factor and supplement its two aspects of Personal Competence Growth and Top Management Technology Savviness. The study would examine a case study on Malaysian industries and use a semi-structured interview with selected respondents to establish the accelerated proposed adaptation mechanism for Malaysian industry talent.

EFFICIENCY OF STATE REGULATION OF THE MARKET OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES IN MODERN CONDITIONS

The effectiveness of state regulation of the market of educational services in Ukraine involves several stages. Each of them regulates a certain component of the effectiveness of state regulation. By government regulation we mean an alternative mechanism that compensates for market inefficiency. The basis for government intervention are market gaps, errors. The market and the state are not without flaws: the choice between the market and the state is only a choice between different degrees and types of imperfection. However, in a real mixed economy, state regulation is a typical phenomenon, so there are grounds for its analysis and evaluation. There are the following types of efficiency of state regulation: economic, social, adaptive. Economic efficiency presupposes the conformity of the obtained result to the set socio-economic goal and the methods by which it is achieved. Social efficiency implies a social, or social, succession of political and economic measures taken by the state, as the influence of most instruments of public policy is twofold and contradictory. The adaptive efficiency of state regulation is subject to both static and dynamic analysis. Static analysis considers adaptive efficiency in the narrow sense as a response to developments in the economy, as well as change. Dynamic analysis covers a broader aspect: the subject is the active activities of the state aimed at preventing problems that arise. The effectiveness of the state in the market of educational services depends not only on the increase in budget allocations, especially since public revenues and the public sector always have relative growth limits. The highest form of state regulation is state programming, as it involves the integrated use with a global goal of all elements of state regulation of the economy: political, economic rules and contracts. An example of state programming is the structural reforms that are being carried out in Ukraine today. An important component of structural reforms is education reform. Public administration is carried out through the process of interaction between objects and subjects of public administration. The subjects of public administration are the executive authorities, and the object is the system they govern, in those who are subject to the will of the subjects and their decision.

Evaluating Adaptive Efficiency in Environmental Water Recovery: Application of a Framework for Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

The first empirical application of an established framework for evaluating the adaptive efficiency of policy and project options — the Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ICEA) framework — is documented in this paper. The application involves cost-effectiveness comparison of six projects for environmental water recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, managed by the New South Wales (NSW) Government under three programs: The Living Murray Initiative; the NSW Wetland Recovery Program; and the NSW Rivers Environmental Restoration Program. Focussing primarily on one of the projects — the Darling Anabranch Pipeline Project (DAPP) — allows an in-depth account to be presented of the ICEA framework’s application. Abatement and transaction costs, and public and private subsets of these costs, were accounted for in the applications. The adaptive efficiency of the DAPP (a “water-saving project”) is found provisionally — i.e., without accounting quantitatively for institutional lock-in costs — to exceed that of the five other environmental water recovery projects (including two “market-purchase projects”) evaluated. This finding is significant given a tendency for economists to presume that environmental water recovery is generally achieved more efficiently through market-purchase projects. With water management, and environmental management more broadly, exposed to increasing uncertainty, adaptive efficiency will grow in importance as a metric for economic evaluation. The application of the ICEA framework documented in this paper can guide researchers in applying this metric to evaluations of projects and policies implemented in, or proposed for, this domain.

Studies on the Perimeter : Protoxylem Ratios in Twelve Domesticated Orchid Species

The present study was aimed at ranking twelve domesticated orchid species based on ANOVA of their Perimeter : Protoxylem arch ratios. Two terrestrial orchids, Spathoglottis plicata Blume , Peristeria elata Hook and ten epiphytic orchids, Oncidium flexuosum Sims., Dendrobium crumenatum Sw., Dendrobium var. sonia, Arachnis flosaeris (L.) Rchb. f, Vanda sp., Phalaenopsis equestris (Schauer) Rchb. f., Doritis pulcherrima var. marmorata, Acampe sp., Vanilla sp. and Epidendrum sp. were selected for the present study. The P: Px ratio was observed to correlate with the water adaptive efficiency of the orchids.