A new approach for land degradation and desertification assessment using geospatial techniques

© Author(s) 2018. Land degradation reduces the production of biomass and vegetation cover for all forms of land use. The lack of specific data related to degradation is a severe limitation for its monitoring. Assessment of the current state of land degradation or desertification is very difficult because this phenomenon includes several complex processes. For that reason, no common agreement has been achieved among the scientific community for its assessment. This study was carried out as an attempt to develop a new approach for land degradation assessment, based on its current state by modifying of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) index and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) index in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran. Using the proposed evaluation method it is easy to understand the degree of destruction caused by the pursuit of low costs and in order to save time. Results showed that based on the percent of hazard classes in the current condition of land degradation, the most and least widespread areas of hazard classes are moderate (38.6 %) and no hazard (0.65 %) classes, respectively. Results in the desert component of the study area showed that the severe class is much more widespread than the other hazard classes, which could indicate an environmentally dangerous situation. Statistical results indicated that degradation is highest in deserts and rangeland areas compared to dry cultivated areas and forests. Statistical tests also showed that the average degradation amount in the arid region is higher than in other climates. It is hoped that this study's use of geospatial techniques will be found to be applicable in other regions of the world and can also contribute to better planning and management of land

Decreased expression of heat shock protein HSP90α after exposure to doxorubicin in breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231)

Background and purpose: Incidence of breast cancer is increasing day by day. Scientists are interested in the effects of inhibition of breast cancer cell on treatment of this cancer. The aim of this study was to determine IC50 of doxorubicin in 24 hours on cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 and the expression of heat shock protein HSP90α as a factor in the cell before and after 24 hours exposure to doxorubicin in both breast cancer cell lines. Materials and methods: A descriptive interventional study was done in two cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231` after 24 hours exposure to doxorubicin. Sensitivity of cells to doxorubicin was determined using MTT Assay in excel software. HSP90α heat shock protein expression were qualitatively compared in both cell lines before and after exposure to doxorubicin using immunofluorescent techniques (Immunocytochemistry). Results: MTT Assay showed that IC50 value in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells after 24 hours exposure to doxorubicin (the dose that kills 50% of cells) were 14.521 and 16.3315µM, respectively. Immunocytochemistry revealed that HSP90α protein expression in both cell lines after exposure to doxorubicin decreased compared to the control group. Conclusion: Cell density in cell lines (ER-) MDA-MB-231 and line MCF-7 (ER+) after exposure to doxorubicin and increasing the dose of medication, decreased indicating a dose dependent effect. Also, apoptosis occurred in both cell lines and expression of HSP90α decreased but MDA-MB-231 cells were found to be more sensitive. © 2017, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Investigating the feasibility of geo-tagged photographs as sources of land cover input data

Geo-tagged photographs are used increasingly as a source of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), which could potentially be used for land use and land cover applications. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the feasibility of using this source of spatial information for three use cases related to land cover: Calibration, validation and verification. We first provide an inventory of the metadata that are collected with geo-tagged photographs and then consider what elements would be essential, desirable, or unnecessary for the aforementioned use cases. Geo-tagged photographs were then extracted from Flickr, Panoramio and Geograph for an area of London, UK, and classified based on their usefulness for land cover mapping including an analysis of the accompanying metadata. Finally, we discuss protocols for geo-tagged photographs for use of VGI in relation to land cover applications

A new modified firefly algorithm for optimizing a supply chain network problem

Firefly algorithm is among the nature-inspired optimization algorithms. The standard firefly algorithm has been successfully applied to many engineering problems. However, this algorithm might be stuck in stagnation (the solutions do not enhance anymore) or possibly fall in premature convergence (fall in to the local optimum) in searching space. It seems that both issues could be connected to the exploitation and exploration. Excessive exploitation leads to premature convergence, while excessive exploration slows down the convergence. In this study, the classical firefly algorithm is modified such that make a balance between exploitation and exploration. The purposed modified algorithm ranks and sorts the initial solutions. Next, the operators named insertion, swap and reversion are utilized to search the neighbourhood of solutions in the second group, in which all these operators are chosen randomly. After that, the acquired solutions combined with the first group and the firefly algorithm finds the new potential solutions. A multi-echelon supply chain network problem is chosen to investigate the decisions associated with the distribution of multiple products that are delivered through multiple distribution centres and retailers to end customers and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm

Are bisphosphonates effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis pain? A meta-analysis and systematic review.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis worldwide. Pain and reduced function are the main symptoms in this prevalent disease. There are currently no treatments for OA that modify disease progression; therefore analgesic drugs and joint replacement for larger joints are the standard of care. In light of several recent studies reporting the use of bisphosphonates for OA treatment, our work aimed to evaluate published literature to assess the effectiveness of bisphosphonates in OA treatment

A survey of algal bloom impacts on abundance and distribution of macro benthos in Hormozgan province coastal waters

The investigation of the algal bloom effects on Macro benthos abundance and diversity was seasonally carried out in coastline waters of Hormozgan province in 1391. Fourteen stations were selected for sampling; as 8 stations in coast of Bandar Abbas, 3 in Jask Port (east of Hormozgan) and 3 stations in Lengeh Port (west of Hormozgan). Polychaets, oligochaets, mollusks, crustacean and others like nematodes, nemertean’s, foraminifera’s, and ophiuroides were identified. Crustacean with 333950 ind.^-2 were dominant group whereas nemertean with 5050 ind.^-2 were minimum in density. Results showed that mean abundance of macro benthos was at most in spring (5614±3992 end) ^-2 and with 1244±380 ind.-2 was at least in autumn. Related results to stations showed that mean abundance in Jask Port and Lengeh Port were more than Bandar Abbas City. Among 8 stations in Bandar Abbas, Langargah with 168±977 ind.^ -2 was at most and Posht-e- shahr was at least in abundance (82±256 ind. ^-2). In Lengeh and Jask ports the stations far from coasts showed more abundance than station near coast. Monthly investigation showed that Macro benthos community was much more in April with 1011±6783 ind.-2 than December with 6±28 ind.^-2 , respectively. Shannon -Winner diversity index was low (0.61.2) in three stations, Evenness ranged from 0.1 to 0.4 and Margalof ranged from 2 to 4. Among four stations, mean wet weight varied from 12.18±6/95 gr in Jask Port (maximum) to 6.24±3/85gr in Bandar Abbas (minimum) .Seasonally, in spring the wet weight of macro benthos was 15.15±16/32 (maximum) and with 1.43±0.88 gr showed the minimum value in summer. There was a negative correlation between silt and macro benthos abundance and a positive correlation existed between macro benthos community and sand. There was no significant correlation between macro benthos community and TOM. To pay attention to results like diversity, abundance, wet biomass and correlation; it seems that algal bloom has no obvious negative effect on Macro benthos communities