Hydrological Dynamics and Human Impact on Ecosystems of Lake Tana, Northwestern Ethiopia

Lake Tana, biggest lake in Ethiopia, is very important water resource for community living and depending on the lake’s resources. However, the recent development activities at the catchment areas have negatively affected the water of the lake, and the climate of the region. This study delineated how land cover modification, climate change, population increase and development activities within the catchment have influenced the hydrological dynamics of Lake Tana. The land cover modification of southern part of catchment of Lake Tana in the years 1973, 1986, 1995 and 2008 were examined using land sat images. For the last 30 years, temperature, rainfall and lake level data were evaluated to identify change in climate and lake level. The annual means of temperature, rainfall, and lake level with their decadal variation and trends were analyzed with the support of linear regression model to assess trend change. Population change for the last 25 years and development activities were also assessed. The results have revealed that within the last 35 years more than 6.2% of lake’s area was converted to other land covers. Parallel to this period within the catchment there was declining of rainfall and lake level and rise in temperature. There was also increase of population and intensification of use of lake’s water in recent times. Thus, it is implied that change in Lake Tana water was caused by human factors and climate changes.Key Words: Lake Tana; Hydrological Dynamics; Climate Change; Population Increase; Land Modification; Development Activitie

Studies on spatial pattern of NDVI over Indiaand its relationship with rainfall, air temperature, soil moisture adequacy and ENSO

The changes in spatial distribution of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are studied for different seasons in India for the period 1982 to 2000. The inter-annual variability of All India NDVI (AINDVI) has been studied and related to rainfall, air temperature, soil moisture adequacy, Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and Nino 3 Sea Surface Temperature (Nino 3 SST) to understand the influence of these variables on vegetal cover. The results show that the NDVI is high during the south-west (June to September) monsoon and retreat (October and November) seasons where in major crop seasons Kharif and Rabi take place over India. The trend of AINDVI is increasing and displayed higher values during La Niña and lower in El Niño episodes. The correlation between rainfall and NDVI of All India is not significant on monthly basis (+0.13) but it is more prominent when the cumulative annual amounts of rainfall are involved (+0.61). NDVI responded very well to the variations of soil moisture adequacy (SAD) which enumerates the strongest correlation (+0.73) of crop performance with NDVI. This significant strong correlation inferred that SAD can be taken as the indicator for the NDVI variations rather rainfall. The linear regression analysis of AINDVI and the ENSO indices revealed the strong impact of sea surface temperatures than SOI on vegetation pattern over India

Studies on spatial pattern of NDVI over india and its relationship with rainfall, air temperature, soil moisture adequacy and ENSO

The changes in spatial distribution of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are studied for different seasons in India for the period 1982 to 2000. The inter-annual variability of All India NDVI (AINDVI) has been studied and related to rainfall, air temperature, soil moisture adequacy, Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and Nino 3 Sea Surface Temperature (Nino 3 SST) to understand the influence of these variables on vegetal cover. The results show that the NDVI is high during the south-west (June to September) monsoon and retreat (October and November) seasons where in major crop seasons Kharif and Rabi take place over India. The trend of AINDVI is increasing and displayed higher values during La Niña and lower in El Niño episodes. The correlation between rainfall and NDVI of All India is not significant on monthly basis (+0.13) but it is more prominent when the cumulative annual amounts of rainfall are involved (+0.61). NDVI responded very well to the variations of soil moisture adequacy (SAD) which enumerates the strongest correlation (+0.73) of crop performance with NDVI. This significant strong correlation inferred that SAD can be taken as the indicator for the NDVI variations rather rainfall. The linear regression analysis of AINDVI and the ENSO indices revealed the strong impact of sea surface temperatures than SOI on vegetation pattern over India

The modulatory effect of septilin on cytotoxicity of cisplatin in a human breast adenocarcinoma cell line

435-441Cisplatin (Csp) is a recurrently used chemotherapeutic drug but its use is inadequate due to undesirable adverse effects. In search of alternative medicine more attention has been given to phytochemicals. Septilin (Spt), a polyherbal drug and its therapeutic potential is huge but there is a scarcity of studies on its cytotoxic potential on cancer cells. The current study was designed to examine the effects of Spt in combination with Csp on human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and normal human breast epithelial (MCF-10A) cell lines. Cell viability for Spt treated cells was studied using MTT assay. IC50 value of Csp on MCF-7 cells was found to be 10 µg/mL at 24 h. This dose was further used to study the combined effects of Csp with Spt on MCF-7 and MCF-10A cell lines. Maximum cytotoxicity of Spt on MCF-7 cells was observed at Spt 5 µg/mL. The mechanism of Spt induced cytotoxicity was studied using apoptosis assay. Spt did not show any cytotoxic effects on MCF-10 A normal human breast epithelial cells, indicating Spt has no effect on normal cells. Our findings suggest that Spt can be used in combination with an anticancer drug Csp to increase its efficacy and/or to minimize its side effects on normal cells

Climatic shift over Mahanadi river basin

The inter-annual variability and the long-term trends in the monsoon rainfall and in two derived climatic parameters, aridity index (I(a)) and moisture index (I(m)), have been examined for the Mahanadi basin using the rainfall and temperature data for the 80-year period (1901-80). The study shows that the basin has experienced a good number of deficit years during the last two decades of the study period. The yearly values of aridity and moisture indices show increase in the aridity conditions over the basin, with the semi-arid type climate in as many as five years during 1965-80. The trend analysis shows that the increasing and decreasing trends in the aridity index and moisture index respectively are statistically significant. The trend in the seasonal rainfall, though negative, is not statistically significant

Study of etiological patterns and various clinical presentations of anemia in children aged 6 months to 5 years admitted in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Nutritional anemia (NA) is the commonest cause of anemia in children. Iron deficiency is the most important contributing factor to nutritional anemia. Severe iron deficiency is associated with impaired brain development along with cognitive, behavioural, and psychomotor manifestations, particularly during the first two years. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and etiological profile of anemia in children aged 6 months to 5 years. Material and methods: Hospital-based observational study conducted on children between 6 months to 5 years of age, admitted to Government General Hospital, Srikakulam and having anemia according to WHO classification. Results: Of the 157 children diagnosed with anemia over 18 months period, iron deficiency anemia is the commonest cause of anemia, seen in 107 children followed by sickle cell anemia seen in 21 children. Out of the sampled children, 154 children recovered, and 3 children succumbed to death. Conclusion: Nutritional anemia, particularly iron deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia in 6 months to 5 years-old children. Co-morbidities like malnutrition, parasitic infestations, diarrheal diseases, and recurrent respiratory tract infections form a vicious cycle and result in nutritional anemia. Identifying the factors that are leading to iron deficiency anemia and implementing the control measures like early iron supplementation results in reducing morbidity and mortality

Evaluation of the CERES-Rice version 3.0 model for the climate conditions of the state of Kerala, India

The CERES-Rice version 3.0 crop growth simulation model was calibrated and evaluated for the agroclimatic conditions of the state of Kerala in India. Genetic coefficients were developed for the rice crop variety Jaya and used for the model evaluation studies. In four experiments using different transplanting dates during the virippu season (June to September) under rainfed conditions (i.e. no irrigation), the flowering date was predicted within an error of four days and date of crop maturity within an error of two days. The model was found to predict the phenological events of the crop fairly well. The grain yield predicted by the model was within an error of 3 for all the transplanting dates, but the straw yield prediction was within an error of 27. The high accuracy of the grain yield prediction showed the ability of the model to simulate the growth of the crop in the agroclimatic conditions of Kerala. It can be concluded from this study that the model can be used for making various strategic and tactical decisions related to agricultural planning in the state

Clique-width : harnessing the power of atoms.

Many NP-complete graph problems are polynomial-time solvable on graph classes of bounded clique-width. Several of these problems are polynomial-time solvable on a hereditary graph class G if they are so on the atoms (graphs with no clique cut-set) of G . Hence, we initiate a systematic study into boundedness of clique-width of atoms of hereditary graph classes. A graph G is H-free if H is not an induced subgraph of G, and it is (H1,H2) -free if it is both H1 -free and H2 -free. A class of H-free graphs has bounded clique-width if and only if its atoms have this property. This is no longer true for (H1,H2) -free graphs, as evidenced by one known example. We prove the existence of another such pair (H1,H2) and classify the boundedness of clique-width on (H1,H2) -free atoms for all but 18 cases