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Community-based conservation can support livelihoods and biodiversity, while reinforcing local and Indigenous values, cultures, and institutions. Its delivery can help address cross-cutting global challenges, such as climate change, conservation, poverty, and food security. Therefore, understanding trends in community-based conservation is pertinent to setting and implementing global goals. We undertook a horizon scan to prioritize 15 emerging threats and opportunities expected to impact the future effectiveness of community-based conservation. Topics relate to global biodiversity policy; human rights; shifting human geography; inclusion, diversity, equity, and access; conservation finance and income; and economic reforms. Our findings offer guidance on strengthening community-based conservation to achieve global environmental and development goals.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome involving corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been implied to cause COVID-19 disease, leading to an unprecedented health emergency across the globe with a staggering figure of mortality rate. Measures to control the pandemic are pushing the economy into a tailspin, putting burden not only on the individuals but also on the nations. Despite the widespread infection rates, young people have shown better recovery rate while COVID-19 symptoms are more pronounced in elderly and people with comorbid conditions such as diabetes, cardiac and respiratory diseases. Cancer is a highly prevalent disease affecting millions of individuals. In this study, we analyzed the expression status of genes that are required for SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and its propagation to assess the susceptibility of certain cancer patients to infection and subsequent complications. Our data indicate that patients with colon, rectum, cholangiocarcinoma, lung adenoma, kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma are more at risk for COVID-19. Genes that are responsible for severe COVID-19 are also highly expressed in many cancer types. We also carried out the association rule mining analysis which is helpful in predicting the expression of proviral genes in various cancers.

Although coexistence with wildlife is a key goal of conservation, little is known about it or how to study it. By coexistence we mean a sustainable though dynamic state in which humans and wildlife coadapt to sharing landscapes, where human interactions with wildlife are effectively governed to ensure wildlife populations persist in socially legitimate ways that ensure tolerable risk levels. Problems that arise from current conflict-oriented framing of human-wildlife interactions include reinforcing a human-nature dichotomy as fundamentally oppositional, suggesting coexistence requires the absence of conflict, and skewing research and management toward direct negative impacts over indirect impacts and positive aspects of living with wildlife. Human behavior toward wildlife is framed as rational calculus of costs and benefits, sidelining emotional and cultural dimensions of these interactions. Coexistence is less studied due to unfamiliarity with relevant methodologies, including qualitative methods, self-reflexivity and ethical rigor, and constraints on funding and time. These challenges are illustrated with examples from fieldwork in India and Africa. We recommend a basic approach to case studies aimed at expanding the scope of inquiries into human-wildlife relations beyond studies of rational behavior and quantification of costs and benefits of wildlife to humans.Replanteamiento del Estudio de la Coexistencia Humano-Fauna Resumen A pesar de que la coexistencia con la fauna es una meta de suma importancia para la conservación, todavía se conoce muy poco sobre ella y cómo estudiarla. Cuando hablamos de coexistencia nos referimos a un estado sustentable, pero a la vez dinámico en el cual los humanos y la fauna están coadaptados a compartir paisajes en los que las interacciones entre humanos y animales están regidas de manera efectiva para asegurar que las poblaciones de fauna persistan de maneras socialmente legítimas que aseguren niveles tolerables de riesgo. Los problemas que surgen de las actuales estructuraciones orientadas hacia la resolución de conflictos en las interacciones humano-fauna incluyen el reforzamiento de una dicotomía humano-naturaleza como fundamentalmente opositora, lo que sugiere que la coexistencia requiere de una ausencia del conflicto y la desviación de la investigación y el manejo hacia los impactos negativos directos por encima de los impactos indirectos y los aspectos positivos de la convivencia con la fauna. El comportamiento humano hacia la fauna está conceptualizado como un cálculo racional de costos y beneficios, haciendo a un lado las dimensiones emocionales y culturales de estas interacciones. La coexistencia está poco estudiada debido a la poca familiarización con las metodologías relevantes, incluyendo los métodos cualitativos, el rigor ético y autorreflexivo y las restricciones al financiamiento y al tiempo. Estos retos se encuentran ilustrados mediante ejemplos tomados del trabajo de campo en la India y en África. Recomendamos un enfoque básico para los estudios de caso centrado en la expansión del espectro de las indagaciones en las relaciones humano-fauna más allá de los estudios del comportamiento racional y la cuantificación de los costos y beneficios de la fauna para los humanos.

Background: Dermatoscopy has been found to be a useful tool in enhancing clinical diagnosis beyond pigmented/neoplastic lesions. Aims: The present study was designed to identify the prevalence of skin lesions in the acral area and to study the clinical and dermatoscopic correlation of acral skin lesions. Methods: A cross sectional clinico dermatoscopic study of 334 patients presenting with acral lesions to the outpatient skin department was done. Veos hd 2 hand held dermatoscope in polarised mode (10x) and iphone 7 camera was used. Results: Out of 334 patients, maximum cases were of psoriasis 83 (24.85%) followed by its close differential chronic eczema 63 (18.86%), 44 (31.17%) scabies, 41 cases (12.28%) wart, 34 (10.18%) tinea. 12 cases of acute eczema, lichen planus 16 cases, 14 of pitted keratolysis, 10 of vitiligo, 4 of secondary syphilis, 4 of subacute eczema, 3 cases of dermatomyositis and 3 of lichen nitidus, 2 of porokeratosis and single case of eryhthema elevatum diutinum. Most of our patients (36.53%) were aged 31-40 years, and included 32.34% females and 67.66% males. In psoriasis, dermatoscopically regular dotted vessels (84.34%), red background (96.39%), and white scales (92.77%) were noted. In scabies, jet with contrail sign was seen in 97.73% cases. In palmoplantar warts, cluster of red/black dots (95.12%), yellowish structureless areas (87.80%) and interrupted skin markings (85.37%) were seen. Eczematous dermatitis showed yellow sero crusts and clusters of red dots with scaling. All patients of pitted keratolysis showed brown/yellow superficial pits with collarette of scaling. Wickham’s striae was seen in 86.67% cases of lichen planus. Vitiligo lesions showed trichrome pattern, starburst pattern and telangiectasia. Limitations: heterogenous group of disorders and histopathological co-relation was not done for all cases. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which investigated the dermatoscopic features and epidemiology of various acral lesions.

The Friction stir welding process is a new entrant in welding technology. The FSW joints have high strength and helps in weight saving considerably than the other joining process as no filler material is added during welding. The weld quality is affected because of various kinds of defects occurring during the FSW process. Defects like cavity, surface grooves and flash could occur due to inappropriate set of process parameters which results in excessive or insufficient heat input. Defects analysis can be done by several non-destructive methods like immersion ultrasonic techniques, X-ray radiography, thermography, eddy current testing, synchrotron technique etc. In the present work the image processing techniques are applied over the test samples to detect the surface defects like pin holes, surface grooves etc.

Humans have lived alongside and interacted with wild animals throughout evolutionary history. Even though wild animals can damage property, or injure humans and domesticated animals, not all interactions between humans and wildlife are negative. Yet, research has tended to focus disproportionately on negative interactions leading to negative outcomes, labelling this human–wildlife conflict. Studies have identified several factors, ranging from gender, religion, socio-economics and literacy, which influence people's responses to wildlife. We used the ISI Web of Knowledge database to assess quantitatively how human–wildlife interactions are framed in the scientific literature and to understand the hypotheses that have been invoked to explain these. We found that the predominant focus of research was on human–wildlife conflict (71%), with little coverage of coexistence (2%) or neutral interactions (8%). We suggest that such a framing is problematic as it can lead to biases in conservation planning by failing to consider the nuances of people's relationships with wildlife and the opportunities that exist for conservation. We propose a typology of human responses to wildlife impacts, ranging from negative to positive, to help moderate the disproportionate focus on conflict. We suggest that standardizing terminology and considering interactions beyond those that are negative can lead to a more nuanced understanding of human–wildlife relations and help promote greater coexistence between people and wildlife. We also list the various influential factors that are reported to shape human–wildlife interactions and, to generate further hypotheses and research, classify them into 55 proximate (correlates) and five ultimate (mechanisms) factors.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most predominant subtype of lung cancers and is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality worldwide. Despite the advancements in the field of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, detection at an early stage using reliable biomarkers is an unmet clinical need for a plethora of cancers, including LUAD, thus attributing to poor prognosis. In view of this, to identify potential biomarkers and therapeutic candidate genes, the expression of all known human genes was screened in the publicly available ‘The Cancer Genome Atlas’ (TCGA) samples of LUAD patients which resulted in the identification of overexpressed genes. Further analysis of these genes across various patient sample datasets revealed that ZNF687, ODR4, PBXIP1, PYGO2, METTL3, PIGM and RAD1 are consistently more highly expressed in LUAD. Higher expression of these genes either alone or in combination is correlated with poor survival of LUAD patients. Hence, in this study we propose that these identified genes could serve as potential candidates as gene signatures or biomarkers for LUAD that require further investigation in large cohorts of LUAD samples., Bioinformatics; Cancer research; Oncology; Lung adenocarcinoma, The cancer Genome Atlas, Biomarkers, Gene expression, cBioPortal.

Evidence suggests that religion is an important driver of peoples’ attitudes toward nature, but the link between religion and carnivore conservation is poorly understood. We examined peoples’ attitudes in Buddhist (n = 83) and Muslim communities (n = 111) toward snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus) in Ladakh, India. We found that the effect of religion on attitudes was statistically nonsignificant, and was tempered by gender, education, and awareness of wildlife laws. Even though religion by itself was not an indication of an individual’s attitude toward large carnivores, the extent to which he/she practiced it (i.e., religiosity) had a positive correlation with pro-carnivore attitudes in the case of Buddhist but not Muslim communities. Our findings indicate that it may be useful to integrate locally relevant religious philosophies into conservation practice. However, the emphasis of conservation messaging should vary, stressing environmental stewardship in the case of Islam, an...

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder with no known organic cause, which is assuming epidemic proportions worldwide. Applying the concept of pathological general to a diagnosed case of IBS, of 7 years duration, Nux vomica was prescribed and the patient recovered remarkably in span of less than 2 months with regular bowel movements and no relapse.

The threat posed by large carnivores to livestock and humans makes peaceful coexistence between them difficult. Effective implementation of conservation laws and policies depends on the attitudes of local residents toward the target species. There are many known correlates of human attitudes toward carnivores, but they have only been assessed at the scale of the individual. Because human societies are organized hierar- chically, attitudes are presumably influenced by different factors at different scales of social organization, but this scale dependence has not been examined. We used structured interview surveys to quantitatively assess the attitudes of a Buddhist pastoral community toward snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus). We interviewed 381 individuals from 24 villages within 6 study sites across the high-elevation Spiti Valley in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. We gathered information on key explanatory variables that together captured variation in individual and village-level socioeconomic factors. We used hierarchical linear models to examine how the effect of these factors on human attitudes changed with the scale of analysis from the individual to the community. Factors significant at the individual level were gender, education, and age of the respondent (for wolves and snow leopards), number of income sources in the family (wolves), agricultural production, and large-bodied livestock holdings (snow leopards). At the community level, the significant factors included the number of smaller-bodied herded livestock killed by wolves and mean agricultural production (wolves) and village size and large livestock holdings (snow leopards). Our results show that scaling up from the individual to higher levels of social organization can highlight important factors that influence attitudes of people toward wildlife and toward formal conservation efforts in general. Such scale-specific information can help managers apply conservation measures at appropriate scales. Our results reiterate the need for conflict management programs to be multipronged.

Attempts to minimize the effects of human–wildlife conflict (HWC) on conservation goals require an understanding of the mechanisms by which such conflicts are caused and sustained. This necessitates looking beyond the natural sciences to the human dimensions of wildlife management. Public dissemination of information regarding HWC occurs largely through the mass media. We conducted a content analysis of print media articles on human–leopard conflict in Mumbai, India. We sought to understand the framing of HWC and the changes in media coverage over a 10-year period (2001–2011) during which a large number of attacks on people prior to 2005 were followed by a program of trapping and relocation. After 2005, when there was a decrease in the level of conflict, the tone of English-language media reports changed. The perpetrator framing was over 5 times more likely before 2005, whereas a neutral framing was twice as likely after 2005. English-language and non-English-language print media differed significantly in their framing of HWC and in the kinds of solutions advocated. Our results also suggest the print mass media in Mumbai could be an influential conduit for content that diminishes HWC. These media outlets seem attentive to human–leopard conflict, capable of correcting erroneous perceptions and facilitating mitigation and effective management. We believe better contact and mutual understanding between conservation professionals and the mass media could be an important component of managing HWC. We further suggest that in such interactions conservation professionals need to be aware of cultural and linguistic differences in reporting within the country. Entendiendo el Papel de las Representaciones del Conflicto Humano–Leopardo en Mumbai A Traves del Analisis de Contenido de Medios Resumen Los intentos para minimizar los efectos del conflicto humanos–vida silvestre (CHVS) sobre las metas de conservacion requieren del entendimiento de los mecanismos que causan tales conflictos y su persistencia. Esto obliga a mirar mas alla de las ciencias naturales y considerar las dimensiones humanas del manejo de vida silvestre. La divulgacion publica de informacion con respecto al CHVS ocurre generalmente a traves de los medios de comunicacion. Realizamos un analisis del contenido de articulos sobre el conflicto humanos–leopardo de Mumbai, India en medios impresos. Buscamos entender la conceptualizacion del CHVS y los cambios en la cobertura de los medios a lo largo de un periodo de diez anos (2001–2011) durante el cual un gran numero de ataques hacia personas previos a 2005 fueron seguidos por un programa de captura y reubicacion. Despues de 2005, cuando hubo una disminucion en el nivel de conflicto, el tono de los reportajes de los medios en ingles cambio. La conceptualizacion del causante fue mas de 5 veces mas probable antes de 2005, mientras que la conceptualizacion neutral fue dos veces mas probable despues de 2005. Los medios impresos, tanto en ingles como en otros idiomas, diferian significativamente en la conceptualizacion del CHVS y en el tipo de soluciones promovidas. Nuestros resultados sugieren que los medios impresos en Mumbai podrian ser un conducto influyente para contenidos que disminuyen el CHVS. Estos medios parecen estar atentos al conflicto humano–leopardo, siendo capaces de corregir percepciones erroneas y facilitar la mitigacion y el manejo efectivo. Creemos que un mejor contacto y entendimiento mutuo entre los profesionales de la conservacion y los medios de comunicacion podria ser un importante componente para el manejo del CHVS. Sugerimos que en tales interacciones los profesionales de la conservacion necesitan estar al tanto de las diferencias culturales y linguisticas en los reportajes dentro del pais.

This paper includes the various past and present researches which involve the study of the cellular radiations on the human cells. The effect of the weak electromagnetic fields from various sources like cell phones, cordless phones and Wi-Fi can be hazardous over long term exposures and can cause various health problems. The technique of superimposition of incoherent noise field can prove advantageous in suppressing the biological effects of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields.

Free space optics (FSO) is emerging as a viable complementary technology to address the need for larger bandwidth and high data rate at affordable cost. FSO communication systems face severe link availability and reliability challenges under different weather conditions, and this is a limitation for the wide-scale acceptability of the FSO technology. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of fog, snow, and rain on FSO link, and hence evaluate the performance of the FSO system for various weather conditions. It is analyzed that bit error rate (BER) and link margin of FSO system are very poor for heavy fog, rain, and snow. However, decreasing the data rate for a particular weather condition can improve both these performance parameters.

The advancement of the terrestrial free space optical communication system (FSO) has shown a drastic increase. But despite the various advantages provided by FSO communication, there are various issues related to the design of optical links. To overcome the problems like scattering, diffraction, turbulence, etc., different techniques were developed, and one of the most widely employed techniques is aperture averaging. The aperture averaging is the main focus of this paper and using on–off (OOK) modulation technique, the bit error rate (BER) performance curves have been analysed for varying data rates and aperture sizes at the receiver using optisystem software.

Conflicts between people over wildlife are widespread and damaging to both the wildlife and people involved. Such issues are often termed human–wildlife conflicts. We argue that this term is misleading and may exacerbate the problems and hinder resolution. A review of 100 recent articles on human–wildlife conflicts reveals that 97 were between conservation and other human activities, particularly those associated with livelihoods. We suggest that we should distinguish between human–wildlife impacts and human–human conflicts and be explicit about the different interests involved in conflict. Those representing conservation interests should not only seek technical solutions to deal with the impacts but also consider their role and objectives, and focus on strategies likely to deliver long-term solutions for the benefit of biodiversity and the people involved.

The threat posed by large carnivores to livestock and humans makes peaceful coexistence between them difficult. Effective implementation of conservation laws and policies depends on the attitudes of local residents toward the target species. There are many known correlates of human attitudes toward carnivores, but they have only been assessed at the scale of the individual. Because human societies are organized hierarchically, attitudes are presumably influenced by different factors at different scales of social organization, but this scale dependence has not been examined. We used structured interview surveys to quantitatively assess the attitudes of a Buddhist pastoral community toward snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus). We interviewed 381 individuals from 24 villages within 6 study sites across the high-elevation Spiti Valley in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. We gathered information on key explanatory variables that together captured variation in individual and village-level socioeconomic factors. We used hierarchical linear models to examine how the effect of these factors on human attitudes changed with the scale of analysis from the individual to the community. Factors significant at the individual level were gender, education, and age of the respondent (for wolves and snow leopards), number of income sources in the family (wolves), agricultural production, and large-bodied livestock holdings (snow leopards). At the community level, the significant factors included the number of smaller-bodied herded livestock killed by wolves and mean agricultural production (wolves) and village size and large livestock holdings (snow leopards). Our results show that scaling up from the individual to higher levels of social organization can highlight important factors that influence attitudes of people toward wildlife and toward formal conservation efforts in general. Such scale-specific information can help managers apply conservation measures at appropriate scales. Our results reiterate the need for conflict management programs to be multipronged.