Feral dogs in Chitral gol national park, Pakistan: a potential threat to the future of threatened Kashmir Markhor (Capra falconeri cashmiriensis)

Feral dogs are well-organized hunters of ungulates in many parts of the world, causing great damage to wildlife populations and ultimately to the ecosystem. In Pakistan, the impacts of feral dogs on the wildlife have not been documented yet. In a period of fifteen years (2006-2020), feral dogs have killed hundreds of threatened markhor in Chitral gol national park (CGNP), Pakistan. Despite direct predation other impacts including disturbance and competition with other natural predators, could compromise conservation and management efforts. The population of feral dogs seems to have been increased with the increase of dumping sites by communities. Our findings suggest that there are pressing needs of controlling the feral dogs population and eradicating them from the core zone of CGNP and surrounding buffer communities. Conventional culling of dogs should be coupled with modern techniques like castration and sterilization. Communities should be educated regarding the clean environment, proper disposal of home wastes and, biodiversity conservation.

Quantitative Estimation of the Domestic Economic Ripple Effect of Foreign Disaster: The Case of China

In the past, damage from natural disasters was limited to the country directly affected, but as the world becomes one economic community, instances of damage spreading to other countries are increasing. Nonetheless, there has been insufficient research on the ripple effect of foreign disaster. This study thus analyzed the ripple effect on the domestic economy from foreign disaster, using a disaster scenario based on cases of China. The ripple effect was quantitatively calculated using an industry input coefficient. The results show that the direct damage was 0.08% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the total amount of damage (including indirect damage) was 0.39% of GDP, thus demonstrating that foreign disaster could cause great damage to the domestic economy.

Evaluation of Discharging Surplus Soils for Relative Stirred Deep Mixing Methods by MPS-CAE Analysis

Most of the ground in Japan is soft, leading to great damage in the event of liquefaction. Various ground-improvement measures are being taken to suppress such damage. However, it is difficult to carry out ground-improvement work while checking the internal conditions of the ground during the construction. Therefore, a visible and measurable evaluation of the performance of the ground-improvement work was conducted in this study. The authors performed a simulation analysis of the relative stirred deep mixing method (RS-DMM), a kind of ground-improvement method, using a computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis based on particle-based methods (PBMs). In the RS-DMM, the “displacement reduction type (DRT)” suppresses displacement during construction. Both the DRT and the normal type (NT) were simulated, and a visible and measurable evaluation was performed on the internal conditions during each construction, the quality of the improved body, and the displacement reduction performance. As an example of these results, it was possible to visually evaluate the discharge of surplus soil by the spiral rod attached to the stirring wing of the DRT. In addition, the authors succeeded in quantitatively showing that more surplus soil was discharged when the stirring wing of the DRT was used than when the stirring wing of the NT was used.

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Indoor and Outdoor Environments

Since the outbreak in late December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread across the globe, causing great damage to human life and property. A lot of researchers around the world have devoted themselves to the study of its origin, pathogenic mechanism, and transmission route, and this article gives a summary. First, both humans and animals can act as the host of coronavirus. In indoor environments, the virus may exist in aerosols, droplets, saliva, etc., from the nose and mouth connected to the respiratory system, as well as feces, urine, etc., from the digestive and urinary systems. In addition, other substances, such as breast milk, eye feces, and blood, released from the host can carry viruses. The virus transmitted indoors is affected by indoor machinery, natural forces, and human activities, and spreads in different distances. Second, the virus spreads outdoors through three kinds of media: solid, liquid, and gas, and is affected by their survival time, the temperature, and humidity in the environment.

Method for determining the viability of eggs of strongylates of the gastrointestinal tract of horses at critically low temperatures in Yakutia

It is known that the climate of Yakutia is much harsh and hard to tolerate by any living organism. It is considered that the peculiarities of adaptation to the conditions of the Far North are determined by the influence of special natural factors, which is a universal phenomenon of influence on all living organisms. Parasitic nematodes are found in all zones of Yakutia and in almost all domestic animals, among which representatives of the Strongylata suborder dominate. As the authors point out, the parasitization of strongylates in the gastrointestinal tract of herd horses causes great damage, since they reduce not only the productivity of animals, but also cause it to be difficult to endure the winter. Even at subzero temperatures, strongylate eggs are able to maintain their viability. In this paper, the authors of the article were able to present material on determining the ability to maintain the viability of strongylate eggs at low temperatures in Yakutia. For the first time, the results on the survival of strongylate eggs at critically low temperatures of the Yakut winter were obtained and interesting results were obtained, which are described in this article.

Rainstorm Disaster Prediction Based on Weather Research and Forecast (WRF): A Case of Nanjing, China

Rainstorm disaster causes great damage to human lives, environment and economies. Many environmental catastrophes happened every summer in southern China as result of the rainstorm. Therefore, heavy rain prediction remains the main focus of many scholars’ attention. However, the weather forecast is inaccurate and not prompt enough, causing casualties and financial losses. Weather Research Forecast (WRF) is an effective method and is utilized in this study to predict the precipitable water vapor (PWV) in meso-and small-scale in Nanjing. Rain is formed because of the PWV in the atmosphere, and therefore precipitation could be predicted according to the PWV. A method is proposed that the amount of rainstorm precipitation could be predicted based on the PWV, which can be simulated by WRF. The experimental results are consistent with the actual rainstorm situation. It demonstrates that promising measures based on the reliable WRF model could be taken to reduce the impending disasters.

The Historical and Contemporary Causes of «Survival Migration». From Central America’s Northern Triangle

Durante la última media década se han producido salidas masivas de refugiados procedentes del Triángulo Norte de América Central, es decir, de El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras. Dichas salidas surgen de una serie de procesos históricos perversos, que se refuerzan mutuamente: la implementación profundamente defectuosa de acuerdos de paz igualmente defectuosos que puso fin a las guerras civiles de la región en la década de 1990; la búsqueda de la privatización neoliberal y las políticas económicas «amigables al mercado» que socavan el avance hacia una paz social sostenible; los acuerdos comerciales que infligieron un gran daño a la agricultura campesina; la búsqueda de inversión extranjera en sectores extractivos que desplazaron a pueblos rurales e indígenas y las políticas de las principales instituciones internacionales y del gobierno de Estados Unidos en particular, que profundizaron todas estas tendencias perversas que dejaron a la gente sin medios de vida. Las bandas criminales y la violencia vinculadas al narcotráfico son manifestaciones de estos procesos subyacentes que expulsan a las personas de la región en oleadas de «migración de supervivencia» forzada. The past half decade of massive refugee outflows from the Northern Triangle of Central America –that is, from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras– emerge from a number of perverse and mutually reinforcing historical processes: the deeply flawed implementation of equally flawed peace accords that ended the region’s civil wars in the 1990s; the pursuit of neoliberal privatization and «market-friendly» economic policies that undercut advance toward sustainable social peace, including trade agreements that inflicted great damage to peasant agricultura; the pursuit of foreign investment in extractive sectors that displaced rural and indigenous peoples, and the policies of the major international institutions, and of the United States government in particular, which deepened all of these perverse trends that left people without livelihoods. The gang and criminal violence linked to the narcotics trade are manifestations of these underlying processes that expel people from the region in waves of forced «survival migration».

Acque e colture irrigue in Terra di Lavoro tra XVII e XVIII secolo. Una riflessione sul paesaggio dell’acqua tra economia e tutela

In the archive of the Abbey of Montecassino there is a judicial affair between the monks of the Abbey and the Duke of Mignano stored. The quaestio of the dispute is for the sowing of rice by the Duke who, despite several orders of prohibitions (1661, 1665), persists in cultivating it, causing, according to the Benedictine monks, “great damage to the universities of St. Vittore, St. Pietro Infine, Mignano” because “it affects the wholesomeness of these lands”. An unpublished large-scaled cartography is attached to this judicial dispute, whose graphic signs clarify and define the places of the diatribe also providing further information: we are in the Terra di Lavoro bathed by the river Peccia which is used and partly diverted to irrigate the Duke’s rice. The case study offers a lot of food for thought starting from the problematic relationship between the values of the environment and water resources, defended by the Benedictine monks, and the economic and productive needs of a local aristocracy with an entrepreneurial vocation. This contrast connects, recalling and confirming it, to the wider one that developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries linked to the spread of rice where doctors, agronomists, politicians have widely debated the problems raised by the spread of rice fields in the Peninsula.

Research on the Cooperation Behavior of Chinese SMEs from the Perspective of Suppliers

The COVID-19 disease has caused great damage to global economy, and the global economic downturn has brought challenges to all aspects of business operations.(International Labour Organisation [ILO], 2020) The business risk of enterprises has increased significantly, and the problem managers currently facing has changed from "how to develop faster" to "how to survive " (Bvuma & Marnewick, 2020). In this context, many peer companies in the supply chain have chosen the strategy of diluting competition and enhancing cooperation, hoping to avoid risks by grouping together. It is true that an effective cooperation model can reduce transaction costs between enterprises, improve information utilization, and enhance enterprises' ability to resist risks. However, some scholars also pointed out that cooperation based on purely economic interests is highly vulnerable. A simple cooperation may not necessarily benefit the enterprise, and it may even deteriorate into "Avalanche effect" (Rui et al., 2010). Keywords: Risk Perception; Trust between Organizations; Decision Preference; Cooperation Behavior.

ASSESSMENT OF INTRODUCED APPLE VARIETIES BY SCAB AFFECTION (VENTURIA INAEQUALIS (COOKE) G. WINTER)

The article presents data on the identifying of apple varieties resistant to scab for their further use in breeding. The research was carried out on the basis of the Orenburg branch of the Federal Horticultural Research Center for Breeding, Agrotechnology and Nursery from 2010 to 2020 in the orchard established in 2004. The objects of research were introduced apple varieties and local hybrids. Scab (the causative agent is the marsupial mushroom Venturia inaequalis (Cooke) G. Winter) causes great damage to the apple tree. This disease affects the fruits and leaves, while dramatically reducing the apple productivity and marketability. According to the results of the studies, the greatest development of scab was observed in 2011, 2013 and 2016. In dry years (2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017-2020 years) scab lesions were not observed. We have identified apple introduced varieties, which over the years of observation had a weak scab lesion and few spots on the apple leaves. In the control variant, in summer varieties in 2011, the scab on the leaves of the Serebryanoe kopytse variety was 0.9 points, all other studied varieties had a lower parameter. In autumn varieties, the varieties Sverdlovchanin and Gornist had the lowest parameter — 0.3-0.4 points, respectively, with a control parameter of 0.8 points (Prizemlennoye variety); in winter varieties, all the studied samples were lower than the control variant — 0.9 points. Weather conditions 2013 and 2016 also showed apple varieties less susceptible to scab in the conditions of the Orenburg region. As a result, we identified apple varieties that are weakly affected by scab: summer varieties — Letneye polosatoye, Mechtatel’nitsa, Solntsedar, Chudnoye; autumn varieties — resident of Sverdlovsk, Hornist; winter — Anis Sverdlovsky, Krasa Sverdlovsk, Persian. The obtained data can be used in breeding to create new apple varieties resistant to scab in the conditions of the Orenburg region.