Water management development and agriculture in Syria

Irrigated agriculture has increased steadily in Syria over the last decades, almost doubling since 1985. This mounting pace has responded to the nation’s food security policy objectives to satisfy the food production needs of an increasing population that features one of the largest growth rates in the world, namely 3,50 percent in 1985 and still 3,39 percent in 2007. Total expenditures for irrigated agriculture accounted for almost 70 percent of all expenditures in agriculture. Sustainable irrigation water policies aimed at increasing the efficiency of water use in agriculture and at conserving water resources by reducing future consumption. The Euphrates River is 2.800 km long and its middle traverses a wide floodplain in Syria, where it is used extensively for irrigation, and the Euphrates Dam is 230 ft (70 m) high. The total estimated water use volume is about 15 billion m3. The Euphrates and Orontes basins account for about 50% and 20% of the water use respectively. About 701.634 ha has been irrigated by ground water in the year 1997. This area represents 60% of the total irrigated land in Syria It has been gradually increased from 30% during 1970 to 44% in 1980 and 49% in 1990. The Government projects extended on 349.820 hectare area, which includes large, medium and small scale farms. The small scale government project is under 2000 hectare, but large scale project over 20.000 hectare areas. The Syrian Government wants to ensure the food supply for sharply increasing population based on established governmental agricultural projects, as state-owned farms. Water balance for Syria indicates that most of the basins are in deficit. This will be exacerbated further especially in basins encompassing large urban areas and if the country’s population continues to grow at its current rate (about 3%) and water use efficiency is not increased effectively.Water utilisation, Water management, Modern irrigation technologies, Benefits of agricultural sector, Governmental supports, Total Renewable Water Resources (TRWR), Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,

The Role of Anti- and Pro-apoptotic Cofactors in Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Dependent Regulation of MAPKs in the Brain of an Anoxia-Tolerant Model

The cellular and molecular regulation of MAPKs and apoptosis was investigated in a model of hypoxiatolerance. Survival of neurons in Chrysemys picta bellii, an anoxia-tolerant turtle, involves a reduction in energy metabolism. The biochemical/physiological mechanisms of anoxia tolerance have been examined at the level of ion transport and ATP turnover. However, changes in the phosphorylation state of key enzymes and kinases, mainly, MAPKs, may occur during anoxia, thereby reversible protein phosphorylation could be a critical factor and major mechanism of metabolic reorganization for enduring anaerobiosis. If a turtle were to undergo hypoxia akin to that experienced in its native habitat, it was placed in a glass aquarium filled with water to within a half inch of the top. After the turtle was anesthetized, through extended hypoxia or anesthesia, the animal was sacrificed by decapitation. The brain was then excised and placed in anoxic artificial cerebrospinal fluid. Total protein extraction was performed by homogenizing brain in a buffer, followed by threonine and tyrosine phosphorylation determination of MAPKs, and caspase activity. MAPKp38 was decreased after reoxygenation following 1 day and 1 week hypoxia. The effect of hypoxia on the phosphorylation of MAPKERK was biphasic: Enhancement at 5h and inhibition at 6 weeks. Pro-caspases 8/9 were unchanged by hypoxia until increasing at 6 weeks. Both pro-caspases were upregulated by reoxygenation at 1 day or 6 weeks hypoxia. Neither hypoxia nor reoxygenation induced the cleavage of pro-caspases 8/9 into p20 and p10, respectively. Furthermore, hypoxia induced Bax at 3 days and 1 week, and reoxygenation increased Bax - 4-fold at 1 day. Although the expression of Bcl-2 was slightly increased by hypoxia, [Bcl-2] was 3-4-fold smaller in comparison with Bax. These results indicate that hypoxia up-regulates MAPKERK but not MAPKp38; hypoxia/reperfusion increases the expression of caspases and pro-apoptotic cofactors. The patterns of MAPK regulation suggest the significance of these kinases in cellular adaptation to oxygen deprivation with biomedical correlations, and thereby identify novel natural responsive signaling cofactors in Chrysemys picta bellii with potential pharmacologic and clinical applications

Field behavior of an Ising model with aperiodic interactions

We derive exact renormalization-group recursion relations for an Ising model, in the presence of external fields, with ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor interactions on Migdal-Kadanoff hierarchical lattices. We consider layered distributions of aperiodic exchange interactions, according to a class of two-letter substitutional sequences. For irrelevant geometric fluctuations, the recursion relations in parameter space display a nontrivial uniform fixed point of hyperbolic character that governs the universal critical behavior. For relevant fluctuations, in agreement with previous work, this fixed point becomes fully unstable, and there appears a two-cycle attractor associated with a new critical universality class.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure (included). Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Molecular Regulation of Inflammatory Pain and Hyperalgesia - Is NF-?B the Lynchpin?

Inflammatory cells and inflammatory mediators are crucially involved in the genesis, persistence and severity of pain following trauma, infection or nerve injury. The mechanisms and pathways mediating pain and nociception are transcriptionally regulated. The transcriptional mediator nuclear factor (NF)-kB plays a major role in regulating the inflammatory milieu, ostensibly via the control of gene expression/suppression. An association has recently emerged to establish a possible link between NF-kB and pain/nociception, purportedly through the regulation of the inflammatory loop and the secretion (biosynthesis) of pro-inflammatory mediators. Current concepts conspicuously indicate that the effective inhibition of this transcription factor and associated upstream kinase(s) and the pathways that regulate its nuclear translocation could be major targets in a new strategy for the alleviation of inflammation and inflammatory-related pain. To better understand this relationship between NF-kB and the evolution of pain and hyperalgesia/nociception, it is imperative to unravel the molecular basis of this process. This survey definitively integrates current themes pertaining to the pivotal role that NF-kB shares in regulating pain through the decoding of implicated molecular pathways and signaling mechanisms

The Emphatic Role of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases (MAPKs) in the Cellular Mechanisms Mediating Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurogenetic condition that affects the processes via which the brain functions. Major observable hallmarks of AD are accumulated clusters of proteins in the brain. These clusters, termed neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), resemble pairs of threads wound around each other in a helix fashion accumulating within neurons. These tangles consist of a protein called Tau, which binds to tubulin, thus forming microtubules. Unlike NFTs, deposits of amyloid precursor protein (ß-APP) gather in the spaces between nerve cells. The nearby neurons often look swollen and deformed, and the clusters of protein are usually accompanied by reactive inflammatory cells, microglia, which are part of the brain's immune system responsible for degrading and removing damaged neurons or plaques. Since phosphorylation/dephosphorylation mechanisms are crucial in the regulation of Tau and ß-APP, a superfamily of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) has recently emerged as key regulators of the formation of plagues, eventually leading to dementia and AD. The complex molecular interactions between MAPKs and proteins (plagues) associated with the evolution of AD form a cornerstone in the knowledge of a still burgeoning field of neurodegenerative diseases and ageing. This review overviews current understanding of the molecular pathways related to MAPKs and their role in the development of AD and, possibly, dementia. MAPKs, therefore, may constitute a neurogenetic, therapeutic target for the diagnosis and evolution of a preventative medical strategy for early detection, and likely treatment, of Alzheimer's

Induction chemotherapy in locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: role, controversy, and future directions.

BackgroundThe value of induction chemotherapy (ICT) remains under investigation despite decades of research. New advancements in the field, specifically regarding the induction regimen of choice, have reignited interest in this approach for patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (LA SCCHN). Sufficient evidence has accumulated regarding the benefits and superiority of TPF (docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil) over the chemotherapy doublet cisplatin and fluorouracil. We therefore sought to collate and interpret the available data and further discuss the considerations for delivering ICT safely and optimally selecting suitable post-ICT regimens.DesignWe nonsystematically reviewed published phase III clinical trials on TPF ICT in a variety of LA SCCHN patient populations conducted between 1990 and 2017.ResultsTPF may confer survival and organ preservation benefits in a subgroup of patients with functionally inoperable or poor-prognosis LA SCCHN. Additionally, patients with operable disease or good prognosis (who are not candidates for organ preservation) may benefit from TPF induction in terms of reducing local and distant failure rates and facilitating treatment deintensification in selected populations. The safe administration of TPF requires treatment by a multidisciplinary team at an experienced institution. The management of adverse events associated with TPF and post-ICT radiotherapy-based treatment is crucial. Finally, post-ICT chemotherapy alternatives to cisplatin concurrent with radiotherapy (i.e. cetuximab or carboplatin plus radiotherapy) appear promising and must be investigated further.ConclusionsTPF is an evidence-based ICT regimen of choice in LA SCCHN and confers benefits in suitable patients when it is administered safely by an experienced multidisciplinary team and paired with the optimal post-ICT regimen, for which, however, no consensus currently exists

How Does the Law Put a Historical Analogy to Work?: Defining the Imposition of “A Condition Analogous to That of a Slave” in Modern Brazil

Over the last decades, the Brazilian state has engaged in concerted legal efforts to identify and prosecute cases of what officials refer to as “slave labor” (trabalho escravo). At a conceptual level, the campaign has paired the constitutional protection of human dignity and the “social value of labor” with an expansive interpretation of the offense described in Article 149 of the Criminal Code as “the reduction of a person to a condition analogous to that of a slave.” At the operational level, mobile teams of inspectors and prosecutors have intervened in thousands of work sites, and labor prosecutors have obtained hundreds of consent agreements and convictions in the labor courts, a civil branch of the judiciary. Between the mid-1990s and the end of 2016, some 51,000 workers were administratively resgatados (“rescued”) from rural and urban workplaces in which inspectors determined that they had been reduced to a condition analogous to slavery. Under the supervision of the inspectors, labor contracts have been administratively cancelled, back pay has been (when possible) extracted from the employer, and unemployment insurance payments have been provided to the rescued workers

Food safety policy issues for developing countries

"Food safety issues have attracted international attention because they play an increasingly important role in determining whether developing countries have access to export markets.At the same time, food suppliers in developing countries face the challenge of improving food safety for their growing urban middle classes, and the large burden of disease that poor food safety generates in developing countries is more widely appreciated. Because developing countries produce and consume more perishable foods than before, such as meat, milk, fish, and eggs, food safety has become especially important to domestic consumers and in trade among developing countries.... Food safety is no longer simply a public health issue. It is also a market development issue. The focus on food safety in international trade and in trade agreements has also made it a trade issue for many countries—developed and developing alike." from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,