Avon Hotham catchment appraisal 2005

This report summarises current information on risks and impacts to agricultural production and natural resources within the Avon Hotham study area. It then identifies suitable options to manage such risks. The Avon Hotham study area is 1.9 million hectares and is made up of three sub catchments: West Avon, South Avon and Hotham, in south west Western Australia. Among the risks and impacts discussed are rainfall, surface drainage; major land degredation hazards are subsurface compaction and acidification

Anti-diabetic and pharmacological activities, of phytoestrogens

Isoflavones class of phytoestrogens including, genestein, daidzein and formononetin found in human dietary and show wide range of biological effect. In this study the impact of these phytoestrogens on glucose uptake was investigated in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2 cells), using, 2-(N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3- diazol-4-yl) amino)-2-deoxyglucose and Omega FluoStar plate reader. Incubation of cells (104/ml, in 24 well plate at 37 °C in 5% CO2 / air) with three phytoestrogens at concentration of 10-4 M to 10-9M in two studies mood, short term treatment (one hour) and long term treatment (24 hours) revealed, daidzein stimulates uptake of glucose, with a greater effect after a short treatment of one hour compared with treatment 24 hours. The effect was broadly higher at the lower concentrations tried, 1 μM to 1nM, at which glucose uptake was increased four to five fold after a one hour treatment. Interestingly the higher concentrations tried, 10 and 100 μM, showed less effect. Longer treatments resulted in a lesser stimulation of glucose uptake, and a peak effect was found at 0.1 μM. genestein exerted slightly inhibitory effect after one hour treatment compared with control, with the exception of treatment at 1 μM, which stimulated uptake about three-fold compared with control. Longer treatments with 10-4M to 10-6 M genistein resulted in gradual increase in glucose uptake to 2.4 times more than control, and thereafter a decline. Overall there was significant difference in glucose uptake between short and long term treatments, as indicated by two-way ANOVA, but the differences depend on the concentration of genistein, with higher concentrations of 10 and 100 μM inducing greater uptake after 24 hours treatment but at lower concentrations, uptake was stimulated more after a one hour treatment. A short treatment with formononetin inhibited glucose uptake, while longer treatments had variable effects, with an approximately two fold stimulation across a range of concentrations.HepG2 cells showed a significant increase in glucose uptake after treatment with phytoestrogens compared to the control

Pollen-pistil compatibility relationships in some Iranian almond (Prunus dulcis, Batch) genotypes as revealed by PCR analysis

The identification of pollen-pistil compatibility relationships among almond cultivars and genotypes is very important for breeders and growers. In the present study, PCR based technique was used to identify S-alleles in 10 late blooming almond genotypes. In total, 19 alleles were amplified by five primer pairs in the studied genotypes. The size of bands ranged between 480 - 2000 bp. Seven S-alleles were amplified using AS1II/AMYC5R primer pair, whereas each of the Alsc11/AMYC5R, Pru-C2/Pru-C4R, Pru-C2/Pru-C5R and Pru-C2/Pru-C6R primer pairs amplified nine different S-alleles. Based on S-allele patterns, all of the studied genotypes were identified as self-incompatible. However, some of the genotypes had only one similar S-allele, all of the genotypes could be used in establishment of commercial orchards based on their blooming times

Variable Resolution Sampling and Deep Learning-Based Image Recovery for Faster Multi-Spectral Imaging Near Metal Implants

Purpose: In multi-spectral imaging (MSI), several fast spin echo volumes with discrete Larmor frequency offsets are acquired in an interleaved fashion with multiple concatenations. Here, a variable resolution (VR) method to nearly halve scan time is proposed by only acquiring low resolution autocalibrating signal in half of the concatenations. Methods: Knee MSI datasets were retrospectively undersampled with the proposed variable resolution sampling scheme. A U-Net model was trained to predict the full-resolution images from the VR input. Image quality was assessed in 10 test subjects. Results: Spectral bin-combined images produced with the proposed variable resolution sampling with deep learning reconstruction appear to be of high quality and exhibited a median structural image similarity of 0.984 across test subjects and slices. Conclusion: The proposed variable resolution sampling method shows promise for drastically reducing the time it takes to collect multi-spectral imaging data near metallic implants. Further studies will rigorously examine its clinical utility across multiple implant scenarios

Comparison of the tuberculin skin test and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test in detecting latent tuberculosis in health care workers in Iran

OBJECTIVES: The tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT) are used to identify latent tuberculosis infections (LTBIs). The aim of this study was to determine the agreement between these two tests among health care workers in Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 177 tuberculosis (TB) laboratory staff and 67 non-TB staff. TST indurations of 10 mm or more were considered positive. The Student's t-test and the chi-square test were used to compare the mean score and proportion of variables between the TB laboratory staff and the non-TB laboratory staff. Kappa statistics were used to evaluate the agreement between these tests, and logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors associated with positive results for each test. RESULTS: The prevalence of LTBIs according to both the QFT and the TST was 17 (95 confidence interval CI, 12% to 21%) and 16% (95% CI, 11% to 21%), respectively. The agreement between the QFT and the TST was 77.46%, with a kappa of 0.19 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.34). CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of LTBI based on the QFT and the TST was not significantly different, the kappa statistic was low between these two tests for the detection of LTBIs

Comparison of predictions of daily evapotranspiration based on climate variables using different data mining and empirical methods in various climates of Iran

To accurately manage water resources, a precise prediction of reference evapotranspiration (ETref) is necessary. The best empirical equations to determine ETref are usually the temperature-based Baier and Robertson (BARO), the radiation-based Jensen and Haise (JEHA), and the mass transfer-based Penman (PENM) ones. Two machine learning (ML) models were used: least squares support vector regression (LSSVR) and ANFIS optimized using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (ANFPSO). These models were applied to the daily ETref at 100 synoptic stations for different climates of Iran. Performance of studied models was evaluated by the correlation coefficient (R), coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), scatter index (SI) and the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). The combination-based ML models (LSSVR4 and ANFPSO4) had the lowest error (RMSE = 0.34–2.85 mm d−1) and the best correlation (R = 0.66–0.99). The temperature-based empirical relationships had more precision than the radiation- and mass transfer-based empirical equations

Groundwater study of the Bencubbin townsite

A groundwater study of the townsite of Bencubbin. It aimed to accelerate the implementation of effective salinity management options. The study consisted of drilling investation and installation of a piezometer network, groundwater flow modelling and a flood risk analysis

A Model for Project Scheduling with Fuzzy Precedence Links

Abstract In the real world for many projects we have to use human judgment for estimating the duration of activities. A way to deal with this imprecise data is to employ the concept of fuzziness, where the vague activity times can be represented by fuzzy sets. This paper presents a new method based on fuzzy theory for solving fuzzy project scheduling in fuzzy environment. The duration of activities is triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN). Also for the first time in the literature, we consider the relationship between activities is not crisp and assume it is a triangular fuzzy number. The proposed solution method is based on linear programming (LP) model that gives us several parameters of project such as earliest time, latest time, and slack times in term of TFN

Seroepidemiology of human cystic echinococcosis among nomads of lorestan province, Iran

Background: Cystic Echinococcosis (CE) is one of the major zoonotic parasitic diseases caused by the larval stages of parasite Echinococcus granulosus. This is an endemic disease in a number of regions in Iran, such as Lorestan province, and is considered as a health problem. Objectives: Due to the close contact of nomadic people with sheep dog, this research aimed at studying the seroepidemiology of CE among in-migration and out-migration nomads of Lorestan province, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, among 5920 residents of nomadic areas, 315 people were randomly selected and serum samples were obtained from these individuals. IgG antibodies against CE were evaluated using the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Demographic data of all subjects were collected by a questionnaire, and the results were statistically analyzed using SPSS V.20 and STATA12. Results: According to the results, the seroepidemiology of CE among the nomads was 18 (5.7); 13 (72.22) were male and five (27.77) were female yet the difference was not statistically significant. The highest prevalence (7.79) was in the age group of 20 to 30 years old, yet no significant difference was observed between various age groups. In terms of education, more seropositive cases were found amongst subjects with low education, yet no significant difference was observed between educational level and seropositivity of CE. It should also be noted that all the participants were not aware of proper washing of vegetables and fruits. Conclusions: This study was conducted for the first time in Lorestan province, Iran, and showed that the seroprevalence among the nomadic population of Aligoudarz and Sepiddasht was considerable. In order to prevent zoonotic disease, increased awareness of nomads in understanding the transmission ways of disease is suggested through health education programs according to the educational level of the target population, the majority of whom are illiterate. Active surveillance is also recommended in these areas. © 2018, Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases

Comparison of the tuberculin skin test and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test in detecting latent tuberculosis in health care workers in Iran

OBJECTIVES: The tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT) are used to identify latent tuberculosis infections (LTBIs). The aim of this study was to determine the agreement between these two tests among health care workers in Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 177 tuberculosis (TB) laboratory staff and 67 non-TB staff. TST indurations of 10 mm or more were considered positive. The Student's t-test and the chi-square test were used to compare the mean score and proportion of variables between the TB laboratory staff and the non-TB laboratory staff. Kappa statistics were used to evaluate the agreement between these tests, and logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors associated with positive results for each test. RESULTS: The prevalence of LTBIs according to both the QFT and the TST was 17 (95 confidence interval CI, 12% to 21%) and 16% (95% CI, 11% to 21%), respectively. The agreement between the QFT and the TST was 77.46%, with a kappa of 0.19 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.34). CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of LTBI based on the QFT and the TST was not significantly different, the kappa statistic was low between these two tests for the detection of LTBIs. © 2016, Korean Society of Epidemiolog