Testing the WEAP Hydrologic Model for Awash Basin, Ethiopia “Soil Moisture Module with Watershed Demand Approach”

The research is financed by the Egyptian Government through the Nile Sector bilateral cooperation project Abstract Currently, there are several hydrological simulation models in use worldwide. Prior to adoption of a model to a specific basin, its feasibility and practicality should be tested. This study highlights on the application of Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP) model for hydrologic simulation of Awash river basin in Ethiopia. A monthly time step hydrologic model was developed using the soil moisture rainfall-runoff method incorporated in WEAP with an aim to check the suitability of the model for Awash river basin. For this purpose five selected flow gauge stations located at the upper, middle and lower Awash basin were used as control stations. The model is configured taking into account the effects of development and hence the water abstractions, storage, loss rate, etc. are estimated using the data provided through various kinds of research and survey in Ethiopia. Standard methods are also used to prepare the hydro-metrological and landuse input data for each sub-catchment. Based on data availability, the time period 1986-2005 was selected for the hydrologic simulation. The observed data were split for calibration (1986–1995) and validation (1996–2005) purposes. Initially, the model was set up using the default model parameters. Then, manual calibration is performed to reproduce the observed streamflow. The model-simulated values are compared with those obtained from observations using standard statistical tests on monthly and monthly average basis. From the performance test results, it is observed that the coefficient of determination (R2) and the Index of Agreement (IA) show a good fit. Furthermore, the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and the Percent Bias (PBIAS) calibration and validation results show good performance for Upper Awash stations and satisfactory results for the middle and lower Awash control stations. As a conclusion, the main modelling constraints were discussed and possible solutions were also suggested in order to improve the performance of water resources simulation models for the Awash basin. Keywords: Awash Basin, Hydrologic Simulation, Calibration, Validation, Model Performance, WEAP DOI: 10.7176/CER/12-3-07 Publication date:March 31st 202

Planning for Environmental Water Allocations: Hydrology - Based Assessment in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia

The research is financed by the Egyptian Government through the Nile Sector bilateral cooperation project Abstract With expanding water demand due to rapid socio-economic growth and shrinking supplies due to pollution and climate change impact, there is an increasing strain on the water resources of the Awash river basin. Furthermore, flow alterations due to the existing and the ongoing water resources infrastructure projects may adversely impact the natural life cycle of aquatic ecosystems in the river basin. In order to manage these consequences, compensation releases or allocation of environmental flows may be mandatory and calls for the establishment of environmental flows framework in Ethiopia. In this study, the environmental flows at selected five existing and proposed dam sites in the Awash river basin were investigated using six worldwide used hydrology-based methods, viz.: Desktop Reserve Model (DRM), Global Environmental Flow Calculator (GEFC), Tennant, Tessman, 7Q10 and Q95. The environmental flow volumes from the six methods were compared on mean annual, monthly average and monthly basis and it is found that the predictions from the DRM and GEFC are more reliable than the others. Comparative results indicate that minimum annual average flow rates of 4.4 m3/s (15 % of Mean Annual Flow (MAF)), 10.5 m3/s (19 % of MAF), 16.4 m3/s (22 % of MAF), 2.5 m3/s (17 % of MAF) and 24.2 m3/s (26 % of MAF) are required at the immediate downstream reaches of Melka kuntre, Koka, Awash Compensation, Kesem and Tendaho dams respectively. Accordingly, the annual average environmental flow throughout the basin varies from 15-26 % of the natural MAF. Although preliminary, being the first attempt in the Awash river basin, this study is expected to stimulate dialogue among experts and decision makers in Ethiopia. Keywords: EFR, EFA, Tennant, Tessman, Q95, 7Q10, DRM, GEFC Software, Awash DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-11-08 Publication date: November 30th 201

Osteogenic Differentiation Potential of Human Bone Marrow and Amniotic Fluid-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro & in Vivo

BACKGROUND: Cell therapies offer a promising potential in promoting bone regeneration. Stem cell therapy presents attractive care modality in treating degenerative conditions or tissue injuries. The rationale behind this is both the expansion potential of stem cells into a large cell population size and its differentiation abilities into a wide variety of tissue types, when given the proper stimuli. A progenitor stem cell is a promising source of cell therapy in regenerative medicine and bone tissue engineering. AIM: This study aimed to compare the osteogenic differentiation and regenerative potentials of human mesenchymal stem cells derived from human bone marrow (hBM-MSCs) or amniotic fluid (hAF-MSCs), both in vitro and in vivo studies. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Human MSCs, used in this study, were successfully isolated from two human sources; the bone marrow (BM) and amniotic fluid (AF) collected at the gestational ages of second or third trimesters. RESULTS: The stem cells derived from amniotic fluid seemed to be the most promising type of progenitor cells for clinical applications. In a pre-clinical experiment, attempting to explore the therapeutic application of MSCs in bone regeneration, Rat lumbar spines defects were surgically created and treated with undifferentiated and osteogenically differentiated MSCs, derived from BM and second trimester AF. Cells were loaded on gel-foam scaffolds, inserted and fixed in the area of the surgical defect. X-Ray radiography follows up, and histopathological analysis was done three-four months post- operation. The transplantation of AF-MSCs or BM-MSCs into induced bony defects showed promising results. The AF-MSCs are offering a better healing effect increasing the likelihood of achieving successful spinal fusion. Some bone changes were observed in rats transplanted with osteoblasts differentiated cells but not in rats transplanted with undifferentiated MSCs. Longer observational periods are required to evaluate a true bone formation. The findings of this study suggested that the different sources; hBM-MSCs or hAF-MSCs exhibited remarkably different signature regarding the cell morphology, proliferation capacity and osteogenic differentiation potential CONCLUSIONS: AF-MSCs have a better performance in vivo bone healing than that of BM-MSCs. Hence, AF derived MSCs is highly recommended as an alternative source to BM-MSCs in bone regeneration and spine fusion surgeries. Moreover, the usage of gel-foam as a scaffold proved as an efficient cell carrier that showed bio-compatibility with cells, bio-degradability and osteoinductivity in vivo

Significance of Residual Organisms in Foods after Substerilizing Doses of Gamma Radiation: A Review

The nature of the flora surviving substerilizing irradiation of foods is dependent on the dose applied and the conditions of applications as well as the microenvi¬ronment of the food. At a dose level low enough to preserve acceptable sensory properties of fresh food, few if any of the common contaminants of public health significance survive irradiation. Survivors are weakened and present no unique problem of acquired resistance through recycling. Those bacteria surviving a low dose treatment of a relatively contaminated product like ground beef can grow under normal storage conditions and cause obvious sensory spoilage. Thus, low dose irradiation extends the shelf-life of fresh foods and reduces public health hazards, but foods so treated require normal care in production and distribution

Pyrvinium Targets the Unfolded Protein Response to Hypoglycemia and Its Anti-Tumor Activity Is Enhanced by Combination Therapy

We identified pyrvinium pamoate, an old anthelminthic medicine, which preferentially inhibits anchorage-independent growth of cancer cells over anchorage-dependent growth (∼10 fold). It was also reported by others to have anti-tumor activity in vivo and selective toxicity against cancer cells under glucose starvation in vitro, but with unknown mechanism. Here, we provide evidence that pyrvinium suppresses the transcriptional activation of GRP78 and GRP94 induced by glucose deprivation or 2-deoxyglucose (2DG, a glycolysis inhibitor), but not by tunicamycin or A23187. Other UPR pathways induced by glucose starvation, e.g. XBP-1, ATF4, were also found suppressed by pyrvinium. Constitutive expression of GRP78 via transgene partially protected cells from pyrvinium induced cell death under glucose starvation, suggesting that suppression of the UPR is involved in pyrvinium mediated cytotoxicity under glucose starvation. Xenograft experiments showed rather marginal overall anti-tumor activity for pyrvinium as a monotherapy. However, the combination of pyrvinium and Doxorubicin demonstrated significantly enhanced efficacy in vivo, supporting a mechanistic treatment concept based on tumor hypoglycemia and UPR

The responses of an anaerobic microorganism, Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 to individual and combined simulated Martian stresses

The limits of life of aerobic microorganisms are well understood, but the responses of anaerobic microorganisms to individual and combined extreme stressors are less well known. Motivated by an interest in understanding the survivability of anaerobic microorganisms under Martian conditions, we investigated the responses of a new isolate, Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 to individual and combined stresses associated with the Martian surface. This organism belongs to an adaptable and persistent genus of anaerobic microorganisms found in many environments worldwide. The effects of desiccation, low pressure, ionizing radiation, varying temperature, osmotic pressure, and oxidizing chemical compounds were investigated. The strain showed a high tolerance to desiccation, with a decline of survivability by four orders of magnitude during a storage time of 85 days. Exposure to X-rays resulted in dose-dependent inactivation for exposure up to 600 Gy while applied doses above 750 Gy led to complete inactivation. The effects of the combination of desiccation and irradiation were additive and the survivability was influenced by the order in which they were imposed. Ionizing irradiation and subsequent desiccation was more deleterious than vice versa. By contrast, the presence of perchlorates was not found to significantly affect the survival of the Yersinia strain after ionizing radiation. These data show that the organism has the capacity to survive and grow in physical and chemical stresses, imposed individually or in combination that are associated with Martian environment. Eventually it lost its viability showing that many of the most adaptable anaerobic organisms on Earth would be killed on Mars today

Morphological and molecular identification of root-knot nematodes infecting pomegranate in Assiut Governorate, Egypt

Root-knot nematodes are the most plant parasitic nematodes causing serious damage in pomegranate. Accurate identification of Meloidogyne species is of great importance for effective management of root-knot nematodes. Morphological identification of Meloidogyne spp. has been long and extensively used. However, molecular diagnostics was reported as a replacement or a complement method. Examination of the perineal patterns of the female was typically identified the nematode isolates as M. javanica which was dominant in all five pomegranate samples. For further confirmation of identification, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay with two species-specific sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) primer sets was performed. The Fjav/Rjav and MJ-F/MJ-R primers efficiently amplified SCAR markers of 670 and 517 bp, respectively, which were previously reported for M. javanica. These results support that SCAR markers are a powerful tool for rapid and effective detection and could be used as a complementary tool together with the morphological identification of root-knot nematodes