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

DEEP MULTI-MODAL SCHIZOPHRENIA DISORDER DIAGNOSIS VIA A GRU-CNN ARCHITECTURE

The file on this institutional repository is embargoed indefinitely due to licensing and copyright restrictions. Individuals may download a copy of this article from the publisher's website for personal, non-commercial use at: https://doi.org/10.14311/NNW.2022.32.009 .Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder associated with a change in the functional and structural of the brain. Accurate automatic diagnosis of schizophrenia is crucial and still a challenge. In this paper, we propose an automatic diagnosis of schizophrenia disorder method based on the fusion of different neuroimaging features and a deep learning architecture. We propose a deep-multimodal fusion (DMMF) architecture based on gated recurrent unit (GRU) network and 2D-3D convolutional neural networks (CNN). The DMMF model combines functional connectivity (FC) measures extracted from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and low-level features obtained from fMRI, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data and creates latent and discriminative feature maps for classification. The fusion of ROI-based FC with fractional anisotropy (FA) derived from DTI images achieved state-of-theart diagnosis-accuracy of 99.50% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 99.7% on COBRE dataset. The results are promising for the combination of features. The high accuracy and AUC in our experiments show that the proposed deep learning architecture can extract latent patterns from neuroimaging data and can help to achieve accurate classification of schizophrenia and healthy groups

An experimental hut study to quantify the effect of DDT and airborne pyrethroids on entomological parameters of malaria transmission

<b>Background</b><p></p> Current malaria vector control programmes rely on insecticides with rapid contact toxicity. However, spatial repellents can also be applied to reduce man-vector contact, which might ultimately impact malaria transmission. The aim of this study was to quantify effects of airborne pyrethroids from coils and DDT used an indoor residual spray (IRS) on entomological parameters that influence malaria transmission.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> The effect of Transfluthrin and Metofluthrin coils compared to DDT on house entry, exit and indoor feeding behaviour of Anopheles gambiae sensu lato were measured in experimental huts in the field and in the semi-field. Outcomes were deterrence - reduction in house entry of mosquitoes; irritancy or excito-repellency – induced premature exit of mosquitoes; blood feeding inhibition and effect on mosquito fecundity.<p></p> <b>Results</b><p></p> Transfluthrin coils, Metofluthrin coils and DDT reduced human vector contact through deterrence by 38%, 30% and 8%, respectively and induced half of the mosquitoes to leave huts before feeding (56%, 55% and 48%, respectively). Almost all mosquitoes inside huts with Metofluthrin and Transfluthrin coils and more than three quarters of mosquitoes in the DDT hut did not feed, almost none laid eggs and 67%, 72% and 70% of all mosquitoes collected from Transfluthrin, Metofluthrin and DDT huts, respectively had died after 24 hours.<p></p> <b>Conclusion</b><p></p> This study highlights that airborne pyrethroids and DDT affect a range of anopheline mosquito behaviours that are important parameters in malaria transmission, namely deterrence, irritancy/excito-repellency and blood-feeding inhibition. These effects are in addition to significant toxicity and reduced mosquito fecundity that affect mosquito densities and, therefore, provide community protection against diseases for both users and non-users. Airborne insecticides and freshly applied DDT had similar effects on deterrence, irritancy and feeding inhibition. Therefore, it is suggested that airborne pyrethroids, if delivered in suitable formats, may complement existing mainstream vector control tools

Impact of Surface Functional Groups and Their Introduction Methods on the Mechanisms of CO2 Adsorption on Porous Carbonaceous Adsorbents

Copyright © 2022 The Authors. The utilisation of solid adsorbents for the selective removal of CO2 from major emission points is an attractive method for post-combustion carbon capture due to the inherent potential for retrofit and cost-effectiveness. Although focus in the scientific community is often centred on extremely novel, high-performance and costly material development, the exploitation of carbonaceous adsorbents is another avenue of research proving to be extremely promising. This is even more pronounced when considering the abundance of carbon in various waste streams. The production of carbonaceous adsorbents, however, often requires significant post-treatments to enhance both the textural and physico-chemical properties of the adsorbent, as such, the incorporation of surface functionalities is unavoidable and can often lead to significant improvements to the associated CO2 adsorption. This review aims to critically assess the various routes for surface modification of carbonaceous adsorbents and the implications these may have on the incorporation of surface functional groups. Subsequently, the adsorption mechanisms for CO2 on surface-modified porous carbons are discussed in depth with consideration to the influence of the introduced functionalities. The review concludes with a detailed section on current modelling approaches such as the application of artificial intelligence, Monte Carlo, and Density Functional Theory simulations in this realm of research.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the project titled “Multiphysics and multiscale modelling for safe and feasible CO2 capture and storage - EP/T033940/1”; UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (EP/P026214/1) through the flexible funded research programme “Techno-economics of Biomass Combustion Products in the Synthesis of Effective Low-cost Adsorbents for Carbon Capture”; UKCCSRC is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, as part of the UKRI Energy Programme; EPSRC Impact Accelerator Award (2021)

BCL-2 Expression is Prognostic for Improved Survival in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

ObjectiveWe used a large patient population to identify immunohistochemical biomarkers to enable improved prognostication in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).MethodsA tissue microarray was constructed using duplicate 0.6 mm cores of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from 609 patients with NSCLC. Immunohistochemical was used to detect 11 biomarkers including epidermal growth factor receptor, Her2, Her3, p53, p63, bcl-1, bcl-2, Thyroid transcription factor, carcinoembryonic antigen, chromogranin, and synaptophysin. A clinical database was generated prospectively at the time of tissue collection. Survival outcomes were obtained from a Provincial Cancer Registry database. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to look for a relationship between biomarker expression, smoking history, and survival.ResultsSurvival data for 535 cases were available. As of June 2005, 429 patients (80%) had died; of these 286 (54%) died of lung cancer, 117 (22%) died of other known causes, and for 26 (5%) the cause of death was not available. Univariate analysis revealed that bcl-2 (p = 0.007) was the only biomarker prognostic for improved overall survival (OS). bcl-2 (p = 0.021) and p63 (p = 0.025) were both found to be prognostic for improved disease-specific survival (DSS). Multivariate analysis (using age and biomarker expression) revealed that bcl-2 expression is prognostic for improved OS (p = 0.005) and DSS (p = 0.021).ConclusionsOur results suggest that bcl-2 expression is prognostic for improved OS and DSS in NSCLC. Testing for bcl-2 expression in a prospective study will help to determine its clinical relevance in prognostication

Biomass Combustion Fly Ash-Derived Nanoporous Zeolites for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK (EP/P026214/1) UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre 2017 (UKCCSRC 2017) - UKRI Energy Programme “Biomass Combustion Ash in Carbon Capture”; Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund (BRIEF)

To DoE or not to DoE? A Technical Review on & Roadmap for Optimisation of Carbonaceous Adsorbents and Adsorption Processes

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Design of experiment (DoE) techniques are invaluable tools which readily allow for efficient optimisation of processes via simultaneous evaluation of a combination of input parameters. Such approaches can yield positive outcomes whilst minimising the number of resources and amount of time utilised, hence, achieving a more robust approach. Additionally, when designing the experiment intelligently information about the interaction between the variables could be gathered, therefore, allowing for a more in-depth understanding of the process and identification of the “key players”. This method of conducting an experimental campaign is, unfortunately, underused (or often misused) in academia. This review aims to technically scrutinise the employment of design of experiment techniques in the context of synthesis and deployment of carbonaceous sorbents and the optimisation of the adsorption processes in both gaseous and aqueous media for environmental applications. We have also discussed how the implementation of DoE techniques in interpreting the results and the underlying trends and/or adsorption mechanisms could help with a better understanding of such observations. Additionally, a brief description of the most popular experimental design techniques with an explanation and a simple visualisation is provided. This review aims to facilitate a greater understanding and appreciation of these powerful optimisation tools, and to depict the best practices upon their employment in academic research in the field of chemical and environmental engineering.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the project titled “Multiphysics and multiscale modelling for safe and feasible CO2 capture and storage - EP/T033940/1”, and via the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (EP/P026214/1) through the flexible funded research programme “Techno-economics of Biomass Combustion Products in the Synthesis of Effective Low-cost Adsorbents for Carbon Capture”. The UKCCSRC is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, as part of the UKRI Energy Programme