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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Nike fish are a postlarvae group of gobies found in the Gobiidae and Eleotridae families. These fish are a seasonal delicacy in Gorontalo, with significant economic value and popularity among the community. Data from 2020 to 2021 showed a downward trend in Nike fish production in Gorontalo City despite ongoing efforts to promote it as a consumable fish. Therefore, this study assessed the sustainability status of Nike fish in the waters of Tomini Bay Gorontalo. METHODS: This study was conducted across five Nike fishing locations in Tomini Bay, Gorontalo Province, namely the Bone-Bolango, Bilungala, Tombulilato, Taludaa, and Bilato estuaries, from April to September 2023. Data were collected through interviews with 109 Nike fishers and four experts from government agencies in Gorontalo Province. Meanwhile, other supporting data were obtained from various references that support the study objectives. The sustainability status analysis was conducted using rapid appraisal for fisheries, a software with an assessment method comprising five dimensions, ecological, economic, social, ethical, and technological, which are analyzed multidimensionally. FINDINGS: The results showed that of the five dimensions analyzed, only one, the technological dimension, exhibited sustainability. Meanwhile, the other four dimensions, including ecology, economic, social, and ethical, showed a less sustainable status. Some attributes that significantly affected the sustainability of Nike fish resource use in the waters of Tomini Bay, Gorontalo, include fishing location, Nike diversity, by-products, profit distribution, contribution to regional revenue, dependence on subsidies, level of conflict, the role of fishermen in terms of sustainability, fish landing sites, handling on board, externalities (waste disposal), and the level of violations. The results of the multi-dimensional scaling analysis showed that the average index values of the ecological, economic, social, and ethical dimensions are 33.53, 40.33, 30.86, and 25.19, respectively, demonstrating a less sustainable status. Meanwhile, only one of the five dimensions studied has an index value of more than 50--the technological dimension. The multi-dimensional scaling index value of the technology dimension is 84.09, demonstrating its sustainable status. The stress value (0.14 to 0.15) and the coefficient of determination (0.91 to 0.94) in the multi-dimensional scaling calculation showed that the analysis carried out was appropriate. CONCLUSION: The sustainability status of Nike fish in the waters of Tomini Bay, Gorontalo, is less sustainable and highly dependent on the environmental factors that support their life as amphidromous fish. The involvement of all stakeholder elements in implementing sustainable practices is also essential in terms of supporting sustainability. Therefore, this study provided important contributions that can be used by local governments and stakeholders to form appropriate management policies to ensure sustainability in the future. This study can provide information or insights for countries that have fishery potential similar to the waters of Tomini Bay, Gorontalo, to carry out better fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between the total exports and total imports of the food industry in Sarawak from 1961 through 2007. We examined the sample period of the pre-1997 crisis (1961-1996) and the full sample period (1961-2007) to investigate disparities for precrisis sample. Analysis was carried out using standard econometric procedure and Dynamic OLS estimation for the annual observations of the two sample period. This study's major findings are: (1) long run relationships were detected in the full sample period whereas they were absent in the pre-crisis period; (2) imbalances in food were found to be weakly sustainable for the full sample; (3) for every ringgit increase in imports, exports rose by RM0.803 for the full sample, revealing that imports grew at a rate faster than exports. This finding suggests that reducing the size of imports may improve imbalances in Sarawak's food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Streptococcus pyogenes has a variety of virulence factors and the predominant invasive strains differ according to specific emm types and geographical orientation. Although emm typing is commonly used as the gold standard method for the molecular characterisation, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) has become an important tool for comparing the genetic profiles globally. This study aimed to screen selected virulence genes from invasive and non-invasive clinical samples and to characterise the molecular epidemiology by emm typing and MLST methods., Materials and Methods: A total of 42 S. pyogenes isolates from invasive and non-invasive samples collected from two different tertiary hospitals were investigated for the distribution of virulence factors and their molecular epidemiology by emm and multilocus sequence typing methods. Detection of five virulence genes (speA, speB, speJ, ssa and sdaB) was performed using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the standard primers and established protocol. Phylogenetic tree branches were constructed from sequence analysis utilised by neighbour joining method generated from seven housekeeping genes using MEGA X software., Results: Multiplex PCR analysis revealed that sdaB/speF (78.6%) and speB (61.9%) were the predominant virulence genes. Regardless of the type of invasiveness, diverse distribution of emm types/subtypes was noted which comprised of 27 different emm types/subtypes. The predominant emm types/subtypes were emm63 and emm18 with each gene accounted for 11.8% whereas 12% for each gene was noted for emm28, emm97.4 and emm91. The MLST revealed that the main sequence type (ST) in invasive samples was ST402 (17.7%) while ST473 and ST318 (12% for each ST) were the major types in non-invasive samples. Out of 18 virulotypes, Virulotype A (five genes, 55.6%) and Virulotype B (two genes, 27.8%) were the major virulotypes found in this study. Phylogenetic analysis indicated the presence of seven different clusters of S. pyogenes. Interestingly, Cluster VI showed that selected emm/ST types such as emm71/ST318 (n=2), emm70.1/ST318 (n=1), emm44/ST31 (n=1) and emm18/ST442 (n=1) have clustered within a common group (Virulotype A) for both hospitals studied., Conclusion: The present study showed that group A streptococcci (GAS) are genetically diverse and possess virulence genes regardless of their invasiveness. Majority of the GAS exhibited no restricted pattern of virulotypes except for a few distinct clusters. Therefore, it can be concluded that virulotyping is partially useful for characterising a heterogeneous population of GAS in hospitals.