Economy and diversity of aquaculture production in Bulgaria: status and trends

Aquaculture production in Bulgaria has increased over the last decade, reaching 16 442 tonnes in 2019. Fish production has doubled in comparison with 2007, while that of mussels has increased tenfold. The Bulgarian contribution to EU aquaculture production has been increasing significantly in both volume and value over the years, making up 1.15% of the volume and 1.0% of the value of EU production in 2019. Freshwater aquaculture accounts for 78% of total production. Common carp dominates with about 29.4% (4836 t), followed by rainbow trout with 29.2% (4820 t) in 2019. The cultivation of sturgeon species and caviar production are among the most dynamically developing aquaculture segments. Mariculture in the Black Sea has increased in recent years, with the production of Mediterranean mussel reaching 2932 tonnes in 2019. An average of 405 farms operated during the period 2010-2019. Four regions (Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas and Montana) account for 50% of the total fish production. Pond aquaculture is the dominant technology used in Bulgaria, and it serves as the basis for numerous other activities, including management of fish stocks in various water bodies mainly for recreational fishing. Approximately 35 net-cage farms currently operate in bigger dams. Recirculating fish farms output made up only 0.15% of the total amount of aquaculture for the period 2010-2019. The aquaculture sector exhibited difficulties in recovering from the financial crisis of 2007-2008, manifested by a slow growth for the period 2010-2014. From 2015 to 2019 there has been a significant growth, manifested in a sharp increase of total revenue and profitability, especially among the larger enterprises in the sector, as well as an increase in the number of employees, and the labour productivity. As a result, in 2019 the registered total revenue per enterprise and total revenue per employee were more than double the respective figures for 2010. The profits of larger enterprises increased more than three times on average, but smaller entities, micro-enterprises with less than 5 employees, operated at the border line between profit and loss. The COVID-19 crisis could have lasting consequences. Despite EUR 1.2 million direct payments in the sector in 2020, there has been a significant drop in the export of aquaculture products. Consumption of fish and other aquaculture products remains low compared to those in the other EU countries.

COVID-19 impacts on United States crawfish. (Special Issue: COVID-19 impacts on selected commodities.)

This research determines the impacts of COVID-19 US on crawfish production and consumption for 2020 and 2021 using an Equilibrium Displacement Model. In the US, crawfish is one of the seafood commodities where most production is consumed by domestic consumers (7% of domestic consumption is from imports). Crawfish and rice are complementary. Therefore, the impacts of COVID-19 on crawfish consumption simultaneously influence rice production and crawfish producers and consumers. In the first year of COVID-19 (2020), the reduction in crawfish retail demand caused negative effects on final consumers and producers. However, crawfish consumption recovered significantly in the second year (2021), which could compensate for the loss in 2020. Overall, consumer and producer gains ranged from $549 to $626 million if the COVID-19 pandemic only impacted retail consumption. However, in 2021, the increase in production costs due to higher oil/diesel prices and other input prices caused the farm supply to decrease. As a result, total welfare gains ranged from $200 to $228 million. If the demand in 2021 did not increase, but the crawfish farm supply decreased, consumer and producer losses ranged from $929 to $1045 million. Overall, the total effects of COVID-19 on consumers and producers for 2020 and 2021 depend on its effects in 2021. If the demand in 2021 increased following the decrease in farm supply, consumers and producers would benefit from the shocks of COVID-19 due to higher post-COVID-19 demand.

Interpersonal Distance Tracking with mmWave Radar and IMUs

Tracking interpersonal distances is essential for real-time social distancing management and ex-post contact tracing to prevent spreads of contagious diseases. Bluetooth neighbor discovery has been employed for such purposes in combating COVID-19, but does not provide satisfactory spatiotemporal resolutions. This paper presents ImmTrack, a system that uses a millimeter wave radar and exploits the inertial measurement data from user-carried smartphones or wearables to track interpersonal distances. By matching the movement traces reconstructed from the radar and inertial data, the pseudo identities of the inertial data can be transferred to the radar sensing results in the global coordinate system. The re-identified, radar-sensed movement trajectories are then used to track interpersonal distances. In a broader sense, ImmTrack is the first system that fuses data from millimeter wave radar and inertial measurement units for simultaneous user tracking and re-identification. Evaluation with up to 27 people in various indoor/outdoor environments shows ImmTrack's decimeters-seconds spatiotemporal accuracy in contact tracing, which is similar to that of the privacy-intrusive camera surveillance and significantly outperforms the Bluetooth neighbor discovery approach. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Impacts of COVID-19 on U.S. seafood availability. (Special Issue: COVID-19 impacts on selected commodities.)

Seafood is the food group with the highest share traded, and the U.S. is the world's largest seafood importer, importing 79% of the seafood consumed. Hence, a study examining the impacts of the measures to contain COVID-19 on U.S. seafood imports will not only show how U.S. seafood availability has been affected, but will also give strong indications of how resiliently the global seafood markets have worked through the pandemic. We find that U.S. imports of seafood actually increased in 2020 and 2021, suggesting supply chains were able to adapt to potential disruptions. Moreover, for the 14 largest product forms imported to the U.S., there are no strong price movements. Given that there is a global market for most species groups, this adaption also suggests that the markets have worked quite well beyond the U.S. Hence, while there have undoubtedly been market shocks associated with the COVID-19 measures such as the reduction in demand from the restaurant sector and the increased sales in the retail sector, opportunities seem to balance out challenges, and the supply chains for seafood to the U.S. have been highly resilient.

Discovery of Chalcone-Based Hybrid Structures as High Affinity and Site-Specific Inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Structural Analysis Based on Various Host-Based and Viral Targets.

Previous studies indicated that natural-based chalcones have significant inhibitory effects on the coronavirus enzymes 3CLpro and PLpro as well as modulation of some host-based antiviral targets (HBATs). In this study, a comprehensive computational and structural study was performed to investigate the affinity of our compound library consisting of 757 chalcone-based structures (CHA-1 to CHA-757) for inhibiting the 3CLpro and PLpro enzymes and against twelve selected host-based targets. Our results indicated that CHA-12 (VUF 4819) is the most potent and multi-target inhibitor in our chemical library over all viral and host-based targets. Correspondingly, CHA-384 and its congeners containing ureide moieties were found to be potent and selective 3CLpro inhibitors, and benzotriazole moiety in CHA-37 was found to be a main fragment for inhibiting the 3CLpro and PLpro. Surprisingly, our results indicate that the ureide and sulfonamide moieties are integral fragments for the optimum 3CLpro inhibition while occupying the S1 and S3 subsites, which is fully consistent with recent reports on the site-specific 3CLpro inhibitors. Finding the multi-target inhibitor CHA-12, previously reported as an LTD4 antagonist for the treatment of inflammatory pulmonary diseases, prompted us to suggest it as a concomitant agent for relieving respiratory symptoms and suppressing COVID-19 infection.

A Survey on Handover and Mobility Management in 5G HetNets: Current State, Challenges, and Future Directions.

Fifth-generation (5G) networks offer high-speed data transmission with low latency, increased base station volume, improved quality of service (QoS), and massive multiple-input-multiple-output (M-MIMO) channels compared to 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the achievement of mobility and handover (HO) in 5G networks due to significant changes in intelligent devices and high-definition (HD) multimedia applications. Consequently, the current cellular network faces challenges in propagating high-capacity data with improved speed, QoS, latency, and efficient HO and mobility management. This comprehensive survey paper specifically focuses on HO and mobility management issues within 5G heterogeneous networks (HetNets). The paper thoroughly examines the existing literature and investigates key performance indicators (KPIs) and solutions for HO and mobility-related challenges while considering applied standards. Additionally, it evaluates the performance of current models in addressing HO and mobility management issues, taking into account factors such as energy efficiency, reliability, latency, and scalability. Finally, this paper identifies significant challenges associated with HO and mobility management in existing research models and provides detailed evaluations of their solutions along with recommendations for future research.

Structure-guided pharmacophore based virtual screening, docking, and molecular dynamics to discover repurposed drugs as novel inhibitors against endoribonuclease Nsp15 of SARS-CoV-2.

COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease of 2019) caused by the novel 'Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2' (SARS-CoV-2) has wreaked havoc on human health and the global economy. As a result, for new medication development, it's critical to investigate possible therapeutic targets against the novel virus. 'Non-structural protein 15' (Nsp15) endonuclease is one of the crucial targets which helps in the replication of virus and virulence in the host immune system. Here, in the current study, we developed the structure-based pharmacophore model based on Nsp15-UMP interactions and virtually screened several databases against the selected model. To validate the screening process, we docked the top hits obtained after secondary filtering (Lipinski's rule of five, ADMET & Topkat) followed by 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Next, to revalidate the MD simulation studies, we have calculated the binding free energy of each complex using the MM-PBSA procedure. The discovered repurposed drugs can aid the rational design of novel inhibitors for Nsp15 of the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme and may be considered for immediate drug development.

Reverse vaccinology-based prediction of a multi-epitope SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and its tailoring to new coronavirus variants.

The genome feature of SARS-CoV-2 leads the virus to mutate and creates new variants of concern. Tackling viral mutations is also an important challenge for the development of a new vaccine. Accordingly, in the present study, we undertook to identify B- and T-cell epitopes with immunogenic potential for eliciting responses to SARS-CoV-2, using computational approaches and its tailoring to coronavirus variants. A total of 47 novel epitopes were identified as immunogenic triggering immune responses and no toxic after investigation with in silico tools. Furthermore, we found these peptide vaccine candidates showed a significant binding affinity for MHC I and MHC II alleles in molecular docking investigations. We consider them to be promising targets for developing peptide-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Subsequently, we designed two efficient multi-epitopes vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2, the first one based on potent MHC class I and class II T-cell epitopes of S (FPNITNLCPF-NYNYLYRLFR-MFVFLVLLPLVSSQC), M (MWLSYFIASF-GLMWLSYFIASFRLF), E (LTALRLCAY-LLFLAFVVFLLVTLA), and N (SPRWYFYYL-AQFAPSASAFFGMSR). The second candidate is the result of the tailoring of the first designed vaccine according to three classes of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Molecular docking showed that the protein-protein binding interactions between the vaccines construct and TLR2-TLR4 immune receptors are stable complexes. These findings confirmed that the final multi-epitope vaccine could be easily adapted to new viral variants. Our study offers a shortlist of promising epitopes that can accelerate the development of an effective and safe vaccine against the virus and its adaptation to new variants.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Identification of core therapeutic targets for Monkeypox virus and repurposing potential of drugs against them: An in silico approach.

Monkeypox virus (mpox virus) outbreak has rapidly spread to 82 non-endemic countries. Although it primarily causes skin lesions, secondary complications and high mortality (1-10%) in vulnerable populations have made it an emerging threat. Since there is no specific vaccine/antiviral, it is desirable to repurpose existing drugs against mpox virus. With little knowledge about the lifecycle of mpox virus, identifying potential inhibitors is a challenge. Nevertheless, the available genomes of mpox virus in public databases represent a goldmine of untapped possibilities to identify druggable targets for the structure-based identification of inhibitors. Leveraging this resource, we combined genomics and subtractive proteomics to identify highly druggable core proteins of mpox virus. This was followed by virtual screening to identify inhibitors with affinities for multiple targets. 125 publicly available genomes of mpox virus were mined to identify 69 highly conserved proteins. These proteins were then curated manually. These curated proteins were funnelled through a subtractive proteomics pipeline to identify 4 highly druggable, non-host homologous targets namely; A20R, I7L, Top1B and VETFS. High-throughput virtual screening of 5893 highly curated approved/investigational drugs led to the identification of common as well as unique potential inhibitors with high binding affinities. The common inhibitors, i.e., batefenterol, burixafor and eluxadoline were further validated by molecular dynamics simulation to identify their best potential binding modes. The affinity of these inhibitors suggests their repurposing potential. This work can encourage further experimental validation for possible therapeutic management of mpox.

Synthesis and Virtual Screening of Pyrazolothiazole Conjugates as Promising SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors

The current coronavirus outbreak has highlighted the significance of continuing to develop novel antiviral agents. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M-pro), essential for virus replication, has been recognized as a potential target for developing novel COVID-19 therapeutics. Herein, we report synthesizing a series of pyrazolothiazole conjugates and in silico molecular docking screening of their interactions with the COVID-19 protease 6LU7 protein. The new hybrids were obtained by condensing substituted pyrazole-4-carbaldehyde with N-phenyl-hydrazinecarbothioamide and subsequent refluxing with selected alpha-haloketones in a basic medium. The structures of the novel pyrazolothiazoles were fully verified by FTIR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, and elemental analyses. Molecular docking and free energy analyses using the MM/GBSA approach revealed that 5 a-c and 7 a-c formed stable interactions within the protease 6LU7 pocket, thus, could be potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2.

Diversifying the chloroquinoline scaffold against SARS-CoV-2 main protease: Virtual screening approach using cross-docking, SiteMap analysis and molecular dynamics simulation

The absence of designated remedies for coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) and the lack of treatment protocols drove scientists to propose new small molecules and to attempt to repurpose existing drugs against various targets of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in order to bring forward efficient solutions. The main protease (Mpro) is one of the most promising drug targets due to its crucial role in fighting viral replic-ation. Several antiviral drugs have been used in an attempt to overcome the pandemic, such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Despite its perceived positive outcomes in the beginning of the disease, HCQ was associated with several drawbacks, such as insolubility, toxicity, and cardiac adverse effects. There-fore, in the present study, a structure-based virtual screening approach was performed to identify structurally modified ligands of the chloroquinoline (CQ) scaffold with good solubility, absorption, and permeation aimed at eventually suggesting a more dependable alternative. PDB ID:7BRP Mpro was chosen as the most reliable receptor after cross-docking calculation using 30 crystal struc-tures. Then, a SiteMap analysis was performed and a total of 231,456 structur-ally modified compounds of the CQ scaffold were suggested. After Lipinski criteria filtration, 64,312 molecules were docked and their MM-GBSA free binding energy were calculated. Next, ADME descriptors were calculated, and 12 molecules with ADME properties better than that of HCQ were identified. The resulting molecules were subjected to molecular dynamics (MD) simul-ation for 100 ns. The results of the study indicate that 3 molecules (CQ_22;CQ_2 and CQ_5) show better interactions and stability with the Mpro receptor. Binding interaction analysis indicates that GLU143, THR26, and HIS41 amino acids are potential binding hot-spot residues for the remaining 3 ligands.

Study on the contribution of coastal tourism to marine economic development

Since the reform and opening up, coastal tourism has been rising and developing, and it has become one of the important marine industries. This paper selected the added value and gross marine product of coastal tourism industry from 2001 to 2020, constructed direct contribution rate, indirect contribution rate and marginal contribution rate model, and calculated the contribution degree of coastal tourism to marine economic development. The results showed that the direct contribution rate of coastal tourism was on the rise, and the indirect contribution rate was mostly about 2%~4%.In the selected study period, the marginal contribution rate of coastal tourism to GROSS marine product was 40.44%. The study found that the overall development level of coastal tourism was good, and the coastal tourism made a great contribution to the development of marine economy, but it was difficult to take accurate measures in the face of sudden crises such as COVID-19, and sometimes it took a lot of time to recover to the normal level. Based on the above situation, suggestions were proposed to increase policy support for the post-epidemic era, promote the supply-side reform of coastal tourism and build coastal tourism products with characteristics in the post-epidemic era, increase the publicity and marketing of coastal tourism, and train and introduce high-quality tourism talents, etc..

Research on the development status and high quality development mode of recreational fishery in China

First, this paper defines the definition and classification of recreational fishery. Second, the paper analyzes the present situation of recreational fishery from production scale, growth rate, proportion of annual output value of fishery and industrial structure, then discusses the development opportunities of recreational fishery in terms of policy, economy, culture and technology. Third, the paper analyzes the problem of recreational fishery in terms of the talent, the ability to bear risk, the influence of COVID-19. Finally, the paper discusses the high quality development mode of recreational fishery in China against the background of industrial integration. The research showed:the production scale of recreational fishery increased, the growth rate of recreational fishery declined but higher than the annual output growth rate of the total annual output of the fishery, proportion of annual output value of fishery increased steadily, and the structure of recreational fishery developed steadily, guided by recreational fishing and collecting industry and tourism-oriented recreational fishery, supplemented by fishing tackle, bait ornamental fish, fishery medicine, aquatic equipment, other related industries, ornamental fish industry developed rapidly. At present, recreational fisheries has a series of opportunities such as self-advantages, government policy support, good external economic environment and cultural environment, good facilities and technology. At the same time, recreational fishery facing a series of challenges such as shortage of talents, the ability to bear risk is limited and the shock of COVID-19. Finally, The paper proposes the three-dimensional mode of recreational fishery developing in high quality based on industrial convergence to promote the long-term, steady and high-quality development of recreational fishery.

Effectiveness of estrogen and its derivatives over dexamethasone in the treatment of COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and dexamethasone is a glucocorticoid widely used for its treatment. Dexamethasone is not used in non-severe cases due to its immunosuppressant action. So, considering this, Estrogen and Estetrol were tested for the treatment of COVID-19 as they all possess a common steroid ring and dislike dexamethasone, they are immunoenhancer. Virtual screening of test ligands was performed through molecular docking, MM-GBSA, simulations, in silico ADMET and drug-likeness prediction to identify their potential to inhibit the effects of SARS-CoV-2. Results showed that test ligands possess drug-like properties and they are safe as drug candidates. The protein-ligand interaction study revealed that they bind with the amino acid residues at the active site of the target proteins and the test ligands possess better binding potential than Dexamethasone. With protein Mpro, Estetrol and Estrogen showed docking score of -7.240 and -5.491 kcal/mol, and with protein ACE2, Estetrol and Estrogen showed docking score of -5.269 and -4.732 kcal/mol, respectively. Further, MD Simulation was carried out and most of the interactions of molecular docking are preserved during simulation. The prominent interactions that our test ligands showed during MD Simulation are similar to drugs that possess in vitro anticovid activity as shown in recent studies. Hence, our test ligands possessed potential for anticovid activity and they should be further tested through in vitro and in vivo studies for their activity against COVID-19.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Molecular insights to the binding interactions of APNS containing HIV-protease inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro: an in silico approach towards drug repurposing.

SARS-CoV-2 Mpro is one of the most vital enzymes of the new coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and is a crucial target for drug discovery. Unfortunately, there is not any potential drugs available to combat the action of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Based on the reports HIV-protease inhibitors can be applied against the SARS by targeting the SARS-CoV-1 Mpro, we have chosen few clinically trialed experimental and allophenylnorstatine (APNS) containing HIV-protease inhibitors (JE-2147, JE-533, KNI-227, KNI-272 & KNI-1931), to examine their binding affinities with SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and to assess their potential to check for a possible drug candidate against the protease. Here, we have chosen a methodology to understand the binding mechanism of these five inhibitors to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro by merging molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and MM-PBSA based free energy calculations. Our estimations disclose that JE-2147 is highly effective (ΔGBind = -28.31 kcal/mol) due to an increased favorable van der Waals (ΔEvdw) interactions and decreased solvation (ΔGsolv) energies between the inhibitor and viral protease. JE-2147 shows a higher level of interactions as compared to JE-533 (-6.85 kcal/mol), KNI-227 (-18.36 kcal/mol), KNI-272 (-15.69 kcal/mol) and KNI-1931 (-21.59 kcal/mol) against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Binding contributions of important residues (His41, Met49, Cys145, His164, Met165, Glu166, Pro168, Gln189, etc.) from the active site or near the active site regions with ≥1.0 kcal/mol suggest a potent binding of the inhibitors. It is anticipated that the current study of binding interactions of these APNS containing inhibitors can pitch some valuable insights to design the significantly effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 Mpro drugs.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

In-silico studies on wild orange (Citrus macroptera Mont.) compounds against COVID-19 pro-inflammation targets.

One-fifth of COVID-19 patients suffer a severe course of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection; however, the specific causes remain unclear. Despite numerous papers that have been flooded in different scientific journals clear clinical picture of COVID-19 aftermath persists to remain fuzzy. The survivors of severe COVID-19infection having defeated the virus are just the starting of an uncharted recovery path. Currently, there is no drug available that is safe to consume to combat this pandemic. However, researchers still struggling to find specific therapeutic solutions. The present study employed an in silico approach to assessing the inhibitory potential of the phytochemicals obtained from GC-MS analysis of Citrus macroptera against inflammatory proteins like COX-2, NMDAR and VCAM-1 which remains in a hyperactive state even after a patient is fully cured of this deadly mRNA virus. An extensive molecular docking investigation of the phyto-compounds at the active binding pockets of the inflammatory proteins revealed the promising inhibitory potential of the phytochemicals. Reasonable physicochemical attributes of the compounds following Lipinski's rule of five, VEBER and PAINS analysis further established them as potential therapeutic candidates against aforesaid inflammatory proteins. MM-GBSA binding free energy estimation revealed that Limonene was the most promising candidate displaying the highest binding efficacy with the concerned VCAM-1 protein included in the present analysis. An interesting finding is the phytochemicals exhibited better binding energy scores with the concerned COX-2, VCAM-1 and NMDA receptor proteins than the conventional drugs that are specifically targeted against them. Our in silico results suggest that all the natural phyto-compounds derived from C. macroptera could be employed in Post covid inflammation complexities after appropriate pre-clinical and clinical trials for further scientific validation.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

General fisheries commission for the Mediterranean. Report of the twelfth session of the scientific advisory committee on aquaculture, Casablanca, Morocco, 7-9 June 2022

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) held its twelfth session in hybrid mode, in Casablanca, Morocco and online from 7-9 June 2022. The session was attended by delegates from 18 contracting parties, three cooperating non-contracting parties, one observer, as well as representatives of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, the GFCM Secretariat and invited experts. During the session, the Committee reviewed the work carried out during the 2019-2022 intersession, including within the framework of the GFCM 2030 Strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (GFCM 2030 Strategy) and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provided advice on priorities in the field of aquaculture management and research.

Report of the FAO Vigo dialogue on social responsibility in the fisheries and aquaculture value chains - addressing current problems triggered by COVID-19

The 2020 FAO Vigo Dialogue focused on promoting human and labour rights to ensure better social practices along fisheries and aquaculture value chains, including emphasizing social problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The main issues and challenges that the sector is facing were discussed and identified. The Dialogue raised awareness of the situation faced by fish workers and the industry due to the pandemic, and allowed FAO to collaborate with relevant stakeholders by providing a clear outline of the significant challenges on social issues in fisheries and aquaculture value chains.

General fisheries commission for the Mediterranean. Report of the twenty-second session of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries, online, 22-25 June 2021

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) held its twenty-second session online, from 22 to 25 June 2021. The session was attended by delegates from 19 Mediterranean contracting parties, 11 observers, as well as representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Fisheries Division, the GFCM Secretariat and invited experts. The Committee reviewed the work carried out during the 2019-2021 intersession, including within the framework of the mid-term strategy (2017-2020) towards the sustainability of Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provided advice on status of priority stocks and ecosystems and on potential management measures addressing key fisheries and vulnerable species in the Mediterranean. In line with the subregional approach, the Committee formulated advice focusing on: (i) small pelagic and priority demersal fisheries in the Adriatic Sea;(ii) common dolphinfish and blackspot seabream fisheries in the western Mediterranean;(iii) small pelagic and bottom trawl fisheries exploiting demersal stocks, particularly European hake, in the central Mediterranean;(iv) deep-water red shrimp fisheries in the eastern-central Mediterranean, including their interactions with vulnerable marine ecosystems;and (v) round sardinella in the eastern Mediterranean. The Committee also agreed on the technical soundness of three FRA proposals for the Bari Canyon, the Ebro Delta margin and the Palmahim Disturbance, to be submitted to the Commission. At the regional level, the Committee provided advice on the following: (i) fishing technology and bycatch, including minimal technical specifications for bottom-trawl nets and the need for targeted pilot projects to investigate possible mitigation measures;(ii) data call for the database on sensitive benthic habitats and species and other effective area-based conservation measures for the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems and essential fish habitats;and (iii) advances in the adaptation strategy for climate change. Furthermore, the Committee discussed additional work in support of the GFCM, namely the implementation of the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, dedicated research programmes as well as other activities to enhance fisheries management in the region. Finally, the Committee agreed upon its work plan for 2021-2023.

In-silico INVESTIGATION OF FERULIC ACID DERIVATES AGAINST MAIN PROTEASE SARS-COV

Ferulic acid is one of the natural compounds which is prevalent in various plants. This compound has known to possess extensive biological activity to get good health and well-being. In this study, we designed 23 derivates of ferulic acid and evaluate their potency in silico as potential SARS-CoV Mpro inhibitors. Furthermore, in silico ADME profiles of designed compounds were evaluated to verify whether the ferulic acid analogs possess an acceptable pharmacokinetic profile. The molecular docking result using AutoDock 4.2.6 showed that compound FA-24, which contained dihydro benzoxazine moiety, possesses a better docking score among the designed compound. Five top compounds based on docking score (FA-16, FA-17, FA-18, FA-23, and FA-24) were then evaluated using molecular dynamics for 10 ns, followed by free binding energy evaluation using the MM-PBSA approach. The result indicated that all compounds formed stable complexes with the enzyme for 100 ns. However, MM-PBSA result showed that compound FA-16, which contained phenyl benzoate moiety, possess higher free binding energy. It is argued that this difference was due to the nature of free binding energy evaluation, which was based on molecular dynamics results. Although, both the docking score and free binding energy of the designed compound are lower than the native ligand (AZP), it is believed that further structure modification could be performed to address this shortcoming. Ultimately, all designed ferulic acid analogs possess optimal absorption and drug-likeness characteristic, while several compounds were predicted to interact with isoforms of CYP450. © 2022, Rasayan Journal of Chemistry, c/o Dr. Pratima Sharma. All rights reserved.