Investigating the Role of Natural and Human Factors on Intensification of Floods and Flooding in Kalat City

IntroductionThe world population has grown rapidly over the last 150 years and continues to do so, resulting in impacts on hydrologic resources at both a local and global scale (Yang et al., 2012). The competition for water between humans and ecosystems leads to complex interactions between hydrologic and social systems (liu et al., 2015). From the beginning of human history, it is located in floodplains. Floods can have large societal impacts, such as severe damage to urban areas, which are expected to grow around the world (Alfieriet al., 2018). In traditional hydrology, humans are either conceptualized as an external force to the system under study or taken into account as boundary conditions (Peel and Blöschl, 2011). Sivapalan et al. (2012) proposed a new model for investigating the interactions of the hydrological system and the social system. It explores the procedure coupled human-water system evolves and possible trajectories of its co-evolution, including the possibility of generating emergent, even unexpected, behaviors. Socio-hydrology must strive to be a quantitative science. There are several methods to control and mitigate flood risk, one of these methods is flood zoning (Jha et al., 2012). In last two decates, The Kalat city is flooded almost every year and many houses and historical sites in the city are damaged. Therefore, the main purpose of thisWe paper is to show investigated how changing human behavior with nature can affect the behavior of the natural system.Method and MaterialsKalat city located in 59° 43' 23" to 59° 47' 41" northern latitude and 36° 59' 35" to 37° 00' 05" eastern longitude. The city is divided into 11 sub-basins. The city has experienced fast and inappropriate urbanization over the past few years. To collect our data, the annual reports of the Regional Water Organization and the Environment Organization of Khorasan Province were used.SCS method was used to estimate the runoff peak discharge. Precipitation has been estimated for seven return periods: 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 years. In this study, to analyze the sensitivity of runoff, we considered precipitation and curves number from 20% less to 20% more than the actual values in the study basin (at intervals of 5 %). We used the Cowan method to determine the roughness coefficient in this study. HEC-RAS model has been used for flood zoning. To determine the impact of various factors on the intensification of floods in Kalat city, we obtained questionnaires from relevant authorities. Likert scale was used to measure the results of the questionnaires. We prepared two questionnaires; first one is related to the inner city zone and includes the factors that intensify the occurrence of floods inside the city of Kalat, and it was classified into the following parts: 1) Local community 2) Managerial 3) Physical; and the second one includes the factors that intensify the flood in the upper part of Kalat city. We classified these factors into three parts: 1) Non-local community 2) Managerial 3) Environmental .Results and DiscussionResults of sensitivity analyzes demonstrated that land-use and land cover change had a further effect on peak discharge. In sub-basin 1, by 20% increase in the curve number, the level of peak dumping increased by more than 111%, with a return period of 2 year; while a 20% increase in precipitation, in the same return period, rises the peak discharge only 3%. The peak discharge time in some sub-basins was brief due to the presence of impermeable surfaces, so that in sub-basins 4, 6, 7, and 8, the peak discharge time was less than 30 minutes. These results highlight the dangers of these floods and the need for proper flood planning and management in these sub-basins. The results of the Manning coefficient demonstrated that we can reduce flood damage by applying management measures in the future, as well as paying attention to the feedback between urbanization and the flood zone. Roughness control by applying management programs can reduce the area of flood zones to 0.1 square kilometers. In this case, buildings should be removed from the river, and there should be no structure in the path of the river. According to the questionnaires in the inner city part, the most fundamental factor in intensifying the flood damage was related to “activities of local people” with the average of 3.59. In the upper part of the city, the most influential factors were ascribed to “managerial factors” with the average of 3.79.ConclusionIn a general conclusion, it can be concluded that the role of human factors in the occurrence and intensification of floods was much greater than rainfall. Therefore, in order to manage and control floods, it is necessary to prevent the change of land use and the reduction of permeability. And management programs should be aimed at increasing surface permeability. We suggest that more research be done on the role of economic and social factors in increasing flood risk in other climate zones

Antimalarial Drug Quality in the Most Severely Malarious Parts of Africa – A Six Country Study

A range of antimalarial drugs were procured from private pharmacies in urban and peri-urban areas in the major cities of six African countries, situated in the part of that continent and the world that is most highly endemic for malaria. Semi-quantitative thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and dissolution testing were used to measure active pharmaceutical ingredient content against internationally acceptable standards. 35% of all samples tested failed either or both tests, and were substandard. Further, 33% of treatments collected were artemisinin monotherapies, most of which (78%) were manufactured in disobservance of an appeal by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to withdraw these clinically inappropriate medicines from the market. The high persistence of substandard drugs and clinically inappropriate artemisinin monotherapies in the private sector risks patient safety and, through drug resistance, places the future of malaria treatment at risk globally

Corrigendum to �Targeted gold nanoparticles enable molecular CT imaging of head and neck cancer: An in vivo study� (International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (2019) 114, (S1357272519301256), (10.1016/j.biocel.2019.06.002))

The authors would like to highlight that the first 3 figures in this article show data that is either identical or similar to that reported in our previous paper published in Materials Science and Engineering: C 89, 182�193. These figures have been reproduced with permission from Elsevier and were included in response to recommendations received from the both referees who reviewed our manuscript to include characterization data on the structure of the nanoparticles used. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

A Dynamic Knowledge Management Framework for the High Value Manufacturing Industry

Dynamic Knowledge Management (KM) is a combination of cultural and technological factors, including the cultural factors of people and their motivations, technological factors of content and infrastructure and, where these both come together, interface factors. In this paper a Dynamic KM framework is described in the context of employees being motivated to create profit for their company through product development in high value manufacturing. It is reported how the framework was discussed during a meeting of the collaborating company’s (BAE Systems) project stakeholders. Participants agreed the framework would have most benefit at the start of the product lifecycle before key decisions were made. The framework has been designed to support organisational learning and to reward employees that improve the position of the company in the market place

A systematic literature review on the benefit-drivers of RFID implementation in supply chains and its impact on organizational competitive advantage

Application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in managing supply chains has witnessed significant interest in recent years. However, the current understanding of the potential benefits that act as the motivating factors/drivers in implementing RFID technology (benefit-drivers), its link to competitive advantage, is fragmented and scattered across the literature. This formed the motivation of this study which seeks to address this gap in the literature through a systematic literature review. Based on a rigorous screening of the literature (2006–2018), the study develops a comprehensive understanding of the various 1) corporate-driven and 2) customer-driven benefit-drivers from RFID implementation. The “2 C” categorization of benefit-drivers is novel and should provide more impetus for practitioners to leverage from RFID implementation. Further, the link between the benefit-drivers and competitive advantage is understood and proposed in the form of a conceptual framework. Finally, avenues for future research are highlighted. The study findings and the framework provide a good starting point for academics and practitioners to further explore the opportunities in supply chain afforded by RFID

A non-catecholamine-producing sympathetic paraganglioma of the spermatic cord: the importance of performing candidate gene mutation analysis

textabstractBackground: Catecholamine-producing tumours are called pheochromocytomas when they are located in the adrenal gland and sympathetic paragangliomas when they are located elsewhere in the abdomen. Rarely these tumours do not produce catecholamines and even more rarely they arise in the spermatic cord. Over the past decade, systematic mutation analysis of apparently sporadic cases of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas has elucidated the frequent presence of germ line mutations in one of five candidate genes, including RET, VHL, SDHB, SDHC, and SDHD. Clinical history and methods: We describe a 45-year-old man with a non catecholamine-producing paraganglioma of the spermatic cord. We performed SDHB immunohistochemistry and performed mutation analysis of the SDHB, SDHC, and SDHD genes. Results: There was no staining of tumour cells with SDHB immunohistochemistry, indicative of an SDH mutation. Mutation analysis demonstrated a germ line SDHD mutation (p.Val147Met). Conclusions: Systematic mutation analysis is required in paraganglioma patients for the detection of germ line mutations. This should be preceded by SDHB immunohistochemistry to limit the number of genes to be tested

Fighting malaria in Madhya Pradesh (Central India): Are we loosing the battle?

Malaria control in Madhya Pradesh is complex because of vast tracts of forest with tribal settlement. Fifty four million individuals of various ethnic origins, accounting for 8% of the total population of India, contributed 30% of total malaria cases, 60% of total falciparum cases and 50% of malaria deaths in the country. Ambitious goals to control tribal malaria by launching "Enhanced Malaria Control Project" (EMCP) by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), with the World Bank assistance, became effective in September 1997 in eight north Indian states. Under EMCP, the programme used a broader mix of new interventions, i.e. insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying houses with effective residual insecticides, use of larvivorous fishes, rapid diagnostic tests for prompt diagnosis, treatment of the sick with effective radical treatment and increased public awareness and IEC. However, the challenge is to scale up these services