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Not AvailableGully erosion and the associated soil loss have caused major environmental disasters worldwide. Gully erosion causes numerous environmental and socio-economic consequences, and most of them are negative. Land degradation caused by ravines and gullies is a serious problem in many areas around the world. Ravine formation due to combined effect of climate, geological and human interference gets activated by other processes such as gully head cutting, scouring, selective erosion transport of sediment etc. Gully induced ravine are densely dissected areas which are severely degraded subjected to water erosion and soil disappeared or lost most of its fertility. The major factors causing gully erosion are high intensity rainfall, soft and deep alluvium soil, height difference between table land and stream, uncontrolled biotic interference etc which converts into ravine or badlands. Many technologies have proved to be effective in gully management including conservation structures like chute, gabions, vegetative barrier, checkdams etc. However, most of the techniques are adopted by the farmers as they directly not provide any rapid benefits.Not Availabl

DVT in degenerative cervical spine disease

Study design: A prospective observational study. Objectives: To determine the incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and to evaluate the risk factors for DVT development associated with degenerative cervical spine disease. Setting: Hokkaido Spinal Cord Injury Center, Japan. Methods: Between April 2008 and March 2015, patients with degenerative cervical spine disease, such as compressive myelopathy or radiculopathy, who underwent surgical treatment were prospectively assessed. Leg vein ultrasonography and D-dimer tests were performed preoperatively and at 4 days after surgery. All patients received treatment with intermittent pneumatic compression and elastic stockings for primary DVT prophylaxis. No anticoagulation medications were used for DVT prophylaxis. Results: A total of 289 patients (203 males, 86 females; median age: 67 years (interquartile range, 58-76)) were included. Nine patients (3.1%) exhibited DVT during the perioperative period. All 9 cases were women who had distal DVT. The incidences of preoperative and postoperative DVT were 1.1% and 2.1%, respectively. The univariate analysis showed that statistically significant risk factors for perioperative DVT included female gender (P < 0.01), advanced age (P = 0.04), a low Japanese Orthopaedic Association score (P = 0.03), rapidly progressive myelopathy (P < 0.01), and inability to walk (P = 0.01). The multivariate analysis showed that rapidly progressive myelopathy (P = 0.04) was the most important risk factor. Conclusion: Female gender and rapidly progressive myelopathy are high-risk factors that predict the development of DVT during the perioperative period of cervical spine surgery. This result indicates that screening and treatment for DVT are needed in such high-risk patients