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Introduction: Drought, as one of the major natural hazards, affects the environment, society, agriculture and economy. Several indices have been developed for drought quantification based on ground data and remote sensing. Traditional drought quantification methods are based on meteorological data and conventional criteria and are usually not available in near real- time. On the other hand, data based on remote sensing are continuously available and can be used to detect several aspects and characteristics of drought. The purpose of this research is to investigate and compare different indices derived from remote sensing and meteorological data for local scale drought monitoring (eastern part of Kurdistan Province). Material and methods: Seven drought indices were compared, including Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Vegetation Drought Index (VDI), Vegetation Health Index (VHI), Vegetation Supply Water Index (VSWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Remote sensing indicators are derived from MODIS data. The meteorological index SPI is obtained by combining the data of rain gauge stations and gridded precipitation data. The digital maps of the seven drought indicators have been prepared for the period of 2002-2021 with the same time interval (16-days). To analyze the characteristics of each drought index, a comparative method including the selection of specific periods of drought and spatial drought identification characteristics has been used. The comparison of drought indicators was done May, which is the growing season. Finally, Pearson's correlation analysis was used to evaluate the behavioral similarity of the indicators. Results and discussion: The spatial comparative analysis between the drought indicators showed that all the indicators had certain adaptations in the distribution of the regional scale of drought, especially those derived from similar data sets. Meanwhile, the difference in local scale distribution was found among different groups of indicators. The results showed that the general trend of the VSWI had a better compliance with the standardized precipitation index. Based on the correlation analysis, it was proved that the VSWI can be a better reflection of the amount of rainfall and the severity of drought due to the lack of rainfall. In addition, the land surface temperature (LST) contributes more to the VSWI results than the reflectance information. A two-period (32-day) delay of the indicators indicating the state of vegetation is a good indicator of the meteorological drought conditions in the study area. The absence and lack of rainfall in at least five periods (80 days) earlier can had a serious effect on the state of vegetation in the existing conditions. Plain and mountainside areas located in the central, eastern and south-eastern parts of the study area were more sensitive to drought conditions than other parts due to the dominance of grain farming, especially rainfed farming. Conclusion: While remote sensing drought indicators have many advantages in the analysis of drought in real-time, meteorological drought indicators are still the priority for drought monitoring. This is due to the dependence of hydrological and agricultural systems on meteorological conditions. Mainly, these hydrological and agricultural systems in different regions respond to meteorological fluctuations with different time delays. Understanding these complex relationships between meteorological, hydrological and agricultural systems can be useful in early preparation programs against drought and its management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Objective: Gamma rays are widely used in medicine despite their harmful effects on health. Our study evaluated the protective effects of melatonin on kidney, heart, and liver tissues. Materials & Methods: Seventy-two adult male Wistar rats were categorized into nine groups. Groups 2 and 3 only received whole-body γ-ray irradiation (WBI) (2.0 Gy), no melatonin, interval time (IT) 8hr and 24hr. Groups 4 and 5 received WBI (8.0 Gy, no melatonin, 8hr and 24hr). Groups 6 and 7 received melatonin at 60 minutes (min) before WBI (2.0 Gy). Groups 8 and 9 received melatonin before WBI (8.0 Gy). All the rats were sacrificed 8 or 24 h after the experiments for laboratory and histopathological analysis. Serum levels of Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), Creatinine (Cr), Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Potassium (K), Gamma-glutamyl Transferase (GGT), Serum Glutamic-Oxaloacetic Transaminase (SGOT), Serum Glutamic-Pyruvic Transaminase (SGPT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), c-reactive protein (CRP), Troponine (TPO) and histological features of liver, heart and kidney tissues were assessed. Statistical analysis was performed by One-Way ANOVA. Results: Our data did not indicate significant differences in BUN, Cr, K, and CRP between groups with or without melatonin treatment (P>0.05); but differences were significant for LDH, GGT, SGOT, SGPT, ALP, and TPO (P<0.05). The results showed that radiation-induced histopathological effects on the liver, heart, and kidneys were mitigated in the groups six to nine. Conclusion: The existence of significant differences in serum levels of LDH, GGT, SGOT, SGPT, ALP, and TPO in groups (6 to 9) and amelioration of the histopathological effects of irradiation on the liver, heart, and kidneys in the groups six to nine showed that the melatonin (100 mg/kg) is able to protect the body in gamma-radiation (2.0 Gy and 8.0 Gy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Interand intraspecific variation of fruit bats of the genus Rousettus in Iran were examined. Morphometric analyses of 7 external and 21 craniodental characters of material from southeast Iran showed that two species are found there, R. aegyptiacus and R. leschenaultii. Phylogenetic trees inferred from Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analyses of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) marker revealed that R. aegyptiacus populations are divided into five lineages and the Iranian population clustered with the Middle East samples. The result showed very low genetic variation between different populations of R. leschenaultii throughout its range in the Palaearctic and Indo-Malayan realms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is one of the most important environmental factors which can limit the lentil production. To evaluate the effect of drought stress at flowering and pod filling stages on growth indices of lentil cultivar Kimiya (a new high yielding lentil cultivar for moderate cold and semi warm climate of Iran), an experiment was conducted at the research greenhouse of Higher Educational Complex of Saravan in completely randomized design with four replications. The drought stress was applied by withholding irrigation until the soil moisture reached to 20% of field capacity at stages of flowering and pod filling. In this experiment, we measured grain yield per plant, growth indices including plant leaf area (PLA), relative growth rate (RGR), plant growth rate (PGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR). Results showed that the flowering stage in lentil plant is more sensitive to drought as exhibited significant decline in PLA, RGR, PGR and NAR. PGR declined at the end of growing season when vegetative growth stop, senescence of leaves, the reduction of NAR and the allocation of assimilate to the seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]