Modeling the impact of climate change and land use change scenarios on soil erosion at the Minab Dam Watershed

Climate and land use change can influence susceptibility to erosion and consequently land degradation. The aim of this study was to investigate in the baseline and a future period, the land use and climate change effects on soil erosion at an important dam watershed occupying a strategic position on the narrow Strait of Hormuz. The future climate change at the study area was inferred using statistical downscaling and validated by the Canadian earth system model (CanESM2). The future land use change was also simulated using the Markov chain and artificial neural network, and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation was adopted to estimate soil loss under climate and land use change scenarios. Results show that rainfall erosivity (R factor) will increase under all Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. The highest amount of R was 40.6 MJ mm ha(-1) h(-1)y(-1) in 2030 under RPC 2.6. Future land use/land cover showed rangelands turning into agricultural lands, vegetation cover degradation and an increased soil cover among others. The change of C and R factors represented most of the increase of soil erosion and sediment production in the study area during the future period. The highest erosion during the future period was predicted to reach 14.5 t ha(-1) y(-1), which will generate 5.52 t ha(-1) y(-1) sediment. The difference between estimated and observed sediment was 1.42 t ha(-1) year(-1) at the baseline period. Among the soil erosion factors, soil cover (C factor) is the one that watershed managers could influence most in order to reduce soil loss and alleviate the negative effects of climate change.FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology - PTDC/GES-URB/31928/2017; FEDER ALG-01-0247-FEDER-037303info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Computer Implementation of a New Therapeutic Model for GBM Tumor

Modeling the tumor behavior in the host organ as function of time and radiation dose has been a major study in the previous decades. Here the effort in estimation of cancerous and normal cell proliferation and growth in glioblastoma multiform (GBM) tumor is presented. This paper introduces a new mathematical model in the form of differential equation of tumor growth. The model contains dose delivery amount in the treatment scheme as an input term. It also can be utilized to optimize the treatment process in order to increase the patient survival period. Gene expression programming (GEP) as a new concept is used for estimating this model. The LQ model has also been applied to GEP as an initial value, causing acceleration and improvement of the algorithm estimation. The model shows the number of the tumor and normal brain cells during the treatment process using the status of normal and cancerous cells in the initiation of treatment, the timing and amount of dose delivery to the patient, and a coefficient that describes the brain condition. A critical level is defined for normal cell when the patient’s death occurs. In the end the model has been verified by clinical data obtained from previous accepted formulae and some of our experimental resources. The proposed model helps to predict tumor growth during treatment process in which further treatment processes can be controlled

16-08 Does Location Matter? Performance Analysis of the Affordable Housing Programs in Dallas-Fort Worth

On June 2015, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs lost a case in the U.S. Supreme Court due to their failure to provide equitable affordable housing under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The U.S. Supreme Court decision has shaken the affordable housing definition by highlighting the importance of location in housing affordability. To best assist low-income families, what should ‘high-opportunity areas’ concretely provide? First and foremost is transportation affordability. Transportation is more than a sheer convenience for Americans. Looking solely at housing costs is a misleading measure of affordability and a disservice to low-income families. A recent study by the PI, found that, households in 44% of all Multifamily Section 8 properties in the nation, spend on average more than 15 percent of their income on transportation costs, making these properties effectively unaffordable. According to this methodology, more than 73% of Section 8 Multifamily properties in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) are unaffordable. This study has received extensive media attention by The Dallas Morning News, CityLab and other media outlets. Yet there is little understanding on the affordability and effectiveness of other rental assistance programs such as Public Housing, LIHTC and the Housing Choice Voucher Program. There is also little understanding about the long term effects of location on low income households in terms of providing accessibility to opportunities and, as a result, affecting the chance of upward mobility. This study seeks to address these gaps by developing an innovative approach to evaluate the short-term and long-term affordability of all state and federal rental assistance programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. We used disaggregated data at the property level and measured built environment variables around each property. We then estimated transportation costs for a typical household that qualifies under these programs using solid transportation costs modeling tailored for low-income households. This study sheds light on the relative merit of each program in ensuring affordability when factoring in transportation costs. Second, this research seeks to identify long term affordability and opportunities for upward mobility for all census blocks in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region. We produced a series of “Catalyst Areas” maps. Catalyst Areas represent areas with adequate access (by modes other than driving) to major destinations such as educational facilities, healthy food, health care facilities, public transit, and job opportunities. This would help low-income households to not only spend less on transportation, but also, by providing access to opportunities, increase their chance of upward mobility. Finally, this study provides recommendations to further federal and state initiatives in coordinating housing and transportation and is designed to inform regional and local planners on location-efficient investments. This study also recommends that the priority in affordable housing investments for low-income households should be given to Catalyst Areas

The data on the removal of turbidity and biological agents in spent filter backwash by bed ceramic in water treatment process

The use of a ceramic membrane is not only a new and modern technique, but reduce the use of chemicals and coagulants as well, and also having high mechanical and chemical resistance reduces costs over consecutive years. The aim of this research was to remove turbidity and biological agents such as Diatoms, Chlorophyte, Cyanophyceae, Protozoa, and Nematodes by using of ceramic membranes. A ceramic pilot plant was designed and constructed. Titanium oxide (TiO2) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) ultrafiltration membrane with the length, diameter and pore sizes of 25 cm, 2.7 cm, and 50 nm was used. The inlet flow was the effluent resulted from the backwashing of a sand filter. This data showed that the possibility of removing of this agent was high by comparing the size of the agents and ceramic membrane pore size. Therefore, the construction of a pilot plant of ceramic membranes with 50 nm pore size and dimension (H = 1.5 m, Y = 20 cm, X = 50 cm) was offered a constant flow filtration, and sampling was performed at different times. The results showed that all biological agents except diatoms have a removal efficiency of 100% and the effluent׳s turbidity was 0.1 NTU. Keywords: Ceramic membrane, Wastewater treatment, Biological agents, Spent filter backwas

Molecular Design, Expression and Evaluation of PASylated Human Recombinant Erythropoietin with Enhanced Functional Properties

Erythropoietin (EPO) is the principal hormone which, has somewhat short half-life involved in the differentiation and regulation of circulating red blood cells. The present study was carried out to evaluate the capability of a polyethylene glycol mimetic technology as a biological alternative to improve pharmaceutical properties of human recombinant EPO. In silico models of EPO fused to 200 amino acids of proline, alanine, and serine (PAS) were initially generated and assessed by molecular dynamic (MD) simulation. The fluctuations of the modeled structure reached a plateau after 6000 ps of MD simulation. The Phi and psi analysis showed \u3e99.2% of residues were located in the allowed regions. An expression vector consisting of EPO cDNA tagged to PAS coding sequences was synthesized and expressed in CHO-K1 Cells. The produced PASylated molecule was purified and characterized by standard analytical methods. The molecular weight of fusion protein was expanded to 70 kDa using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis method. Analytical size exclusion chromatography revealed an approximately sevenfold increase in apparent size of produced protein. Although the in vitro potency of the fusion protein was significantly reduced (1.26 ± 0.05 vs. 0.24 ± 0.03 ng/ml) but, the in vivo activity was considerably increased up to 1.58 × 105 IU/ml in normocythemic mice assay. Pharmacokinetic animal studies revealed strongly 15.6-fold plasma half-life extension for the PASylated EPO (83.16 ± 13.28 h) in comparison to epoetin α (8.5 ± 2.4 h) and darbepoetin α (25.3 ± 2.2h)

Construction, expression, purification and characterization of secretin domain of PilQ and triple PilA-related disulfide loop peptides fusion protein from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Objective(s): Infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been a long-standing obstacle for clinical therapy due to the complexity of the genetics and pathogenesis, as well for widespread resistance to antibiotics, thus attaching great importance to explore effective vaccines for prevention and treatment. This paper focuses on the introduction of novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pili (T4P)-based fusion protein containing the secretin domain of PilQ and tandem PilA-related peptides. Materials and Methods: We surveyed the expression of the PilQ380-705-PilA fusion protein in-frame with pET26b vector in which a rigid linker was used between two polypeptides and flexible linkers were inserted between the three tandem repeats and each pilA domains. The  transformants were  expressed in Escherichia coli BL21. The reactivity of specific antisera to the fusion protein was assessed by ELISA. The biological activities of this candidate vaccine were evaluated by western blotting, opsonophagocytosis, and twitching inhibition assays. Results: The fusion protein was purified in high yield by osmotic shock method using HisTrap affinity column. The protein was confirmed by immunoblot analysis. The checkerboard titration showed that the optimal dilution of the antibody to react with antigen is 1:128. Results of opsonophagocytosis assay revealed that the antibodies elevated to the fusion protein promoted phagocytosis of the PAO1 and 6266E strains, so that the twitching immobilization test confirmed these results. Conclusion: Due to excellent killing activity mediated by opsonic antibodies and efficient immobilization of the strains, it seems that PilQ380-705-PilA fusion protein could be a reliable candidate vaccine against P. aeruginosa infection

Combined backscatter and transmission method for nuclear density gauge

Nowadays, the use of nuclear density gauges, due to the ability to work in harsh industrial environments, is very common. In this study, to reduce error related to the ρ of continuous measuring density, the combination of backscatter and transmission are used simultaneously. For this reason, a 137Cs source for Compton scattering dominance and two detectors are simulated by MCNP4C code for measuring the density of 3 materials. Important advantages of this combined radiometric gauge are diminished influence of μ and therefore improving linear regression

Combined backscatter and transmission method for nuclear density gauge

Nowadays, the use of nuclear density gauges, due to the ability to work in harsh industrial environments, is very common. In this study, to reduce error related to the ρ of continuous measuring density, the combination of backscatter and transmission are used simultaneously. For this reason, a 137Cs source for Compton scattering dominance and two detectors are simulated by MCNP4C code for measuring the density of 3 materials. Important advantages of this combined radiometric gauge are diminished influence of μ and therefore improving linear regression