Urbanization disrupts local thermal habitats and causes the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) effect, which poses major environmental and public health problems in hyper-arid cities. In contrast, SUHI is derived from satellite remote sensing and quantifies surface temperature radiative anomalies rather than canopy-layer air temperatures related to atmospheric UHI. Using Landsat 9 OLI/TIRS imagery from July 2025, this study examines the spatial features of SUHI in Baghdad City, Iraq. A single-channel algorithm was used to extract Land Surface Temperature (LST) from the thermal data, and a Random Forest classifier was applied to LULC, which was classified into four classes. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) was employed to find spatial clusters of surface areas with elevated temperature, which were then related to surface indices describing vegetation (NDVI), built-ups (NDBI), and water (NDWI). It was found that 52.89% of the study area came from the high and very high surface thermal-intensity distribution classes of the Iraqi regions, where the LST values ranged from 44 to 47°C and >47°C, respectively, with the highest percentage occurring in the central, west, and southwest areas of Baghdad. The Pearson correlation analysis indicated that a strong negative correlation exists between LST and NDVI (r =-0.73), a strong positive correlation between LST and NDBI (r = +0.65), and a moderate negative correlation between LST and NDWI (r =-0.55). The results describe the spatial characteristics of satellite-derived surface temperatures in Baghdad and serve as a geospatial foundation for investigating SUHI patterns in arid urban settings.
This descriptive cross-sectional study examined household waste collection services and agricultural waste management practices in Tay Do Commune, Thanh Hoa Province. The survey was conducted from 28 April to 10 May 2026. Households were selected by random draw within villages, with 150 households invited in each former commune; 580 of the 600 invited households participated. The management survey included 49 purposively selected respondents. The final quantity analysis included 6,810 records from 579 households, selected from 7,199 records and grouped by waste type and reporting period. Among responding households, 92.6% rated collection services positively. Households reported that they did not separate waste at source, although they separated recyclables for sale. Burning accounted for 66.21% of the sum of quantities reported across the eight management categories for agricultural plastics and 64.56% for pesticide containers reported per cropping season. Satisfaction with collection services therefore needs to be considered alongside practices for individual waste types. The findings suggest that recyclable recovery and the transfer of agricultural plastics and containers should be monitored separately. These shares describe reported quantities in the retained dataset and do not establish material flows or treatment effectiveness. Quantities were estimated subjectively, and reporting-period boundaries and allocation rules for management categories remain incompletely documented. Pooled percentages were not weighted to support commune-wide inference.
Breast cancer (BC) imposes a tremendous global health burden. In 2022, approximately 2.3 million women were diagnosed with BC, resulting in 685,000 deaths worldwide (IARC, 2024). Female gender is the primary risk factor for BC, accounting for over 99% of all cases compared to less than 1% in men. Ovarian hormones (estrogen and progesterone), along with adipose tissue signaling in obesity, play critical roles in BC etiology (IARC, 2024; Marshall et al., 1991). Breast cancer remains the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide, presenting a profound public health and financial challenge. By integrating multi-omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), recent studies have established a strong bidirectional association between BC and metabolic syndrome (MetS), a clinical cluster defined by hyperglycemia, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and central obesity. Warburg originally hypothesized that cancer cells import excessive glucose to undergo aerobic glycolysis, prioritizing it over mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation even under normoxic conditions (Warburg effect). Cancer cells obtain nutrients and energy by hijacking physiological metabolic pathways, reprogramming their internal metabolism to fuel rapid proliferation via the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP). Enhanced hexosamine flux, driven by increased glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transaminase 1 (GFAT1 / GFPT1) expression and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) activation within the hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME), promotes proteasomal degradation of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1), thereby precipitating cellular insulin resistance (Akella et al., 2019; Ferrer et al., 2014; Buse, 2006). This study investigates dysregulation of canonical insulin signaling cascades, specifically IRS1, PI3K/Akt, and GLUT4 (encoded by SLC2A4), which drive insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and increased insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptor signaling (Biello et al., 2021). We evaluated gene expression profiles in MCF-10A (a non-tumorigenic human mammary epithelial cell line) and MCF-7 (an estrogen receptor-positive human breast cancer cell line). Target genes included key adipokines/myokines: adiponectin (ADIPOQ), retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), chemerin (RARRES2), adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (FABP4), and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), alongside metabolic regulators (IRS1, SLC2A4, SLC2A1 [GLUT1], and GFPT1). RNA was extracted and performed sequencing using Nanopore technology. Differential expression analysis (edgeR) and functional enrichment (GO/KEGG) revealed that ADIPOQ, SLC2A4, RBP4, and IRS1 were significantly downregulated in MCF-7 cells compared to MCF-10A cells, whereas SLC2A1, GFPT1, and FABP4 were significantly upregulated in MCF-7 cells. These findings indicate that hyperactive hexosamine flux (driven by GFPT1) and a shift in the GLUT1/GLUT4 expression ratio serve as critical drivers of cellular insulin resistance and metabolic rewiring in breast cancer. It is recommend targeting HBP and insulin signaling components to reverse metabolic drug resistance and improve therapeutic outcomes in breast cancer.
End-of-life tyres (ELTs) are accumulating quickly in India, and since July 2022 tyre producers have carried a legal obligation, under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), to pay for their recycling. Crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) is one of the recycling routes the rules recognise, yet its climate performance in Indian conditions has not been examined. We therefore asked whether putting ground rubber tyre (GRT) into bituminous wearing courses actually lowers life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions once the energy spent on grinding, blending and hotter mixing is accounted for. A comparative attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed in line with IS/ISO 14040 and IS/ISO 14044. The functional unit was 1 km of two-lane (7.0 m) national-highway wearing course maintained for 20 years. Three options were compared: conventional VG-40 bituminous concrete (S0), wet-process CRMB-60 bituminous concrete to IS 17079:2019 (S1), and a gap-graded bitumen-rubber wearing course to IRC:SP:107-2015 containing 20% crumb rubber by mass of base bitumen (S2). Electricity was represented by the Central Electricity Authority grid factor of 0.727 tCO₂/MWh for FY 2023-24. With cut-off allocation, the 20-year emissions came to 167.7, 121.8 and 98.3 t CO₂e km⁻¹ for S0, S1 and S2, which are reductions of 27% and 41% relative to the conventional course. Giving credit for avoided open burning of tyres raised these reductions to 42% and 60%; assuming instead that the tyres would have fired cement kilns lowered them to 20% and 32%. Service life proved to be the deciding factor. Against a five-year conventional life, the break-even lives were about 5.1 years for S1 and 5.9 years for S2, and the advantage of S2 shrank to 4% when short life, high plant energy and a kiln counterfactual were combined. Under illustrative zone-specific service lives, S2 cut annualised emissions by 29–47% across five climatic zones of India, with the largest gains in the hot-arid zone, where rutting controls pavement life. These findings favour rubberised binders on hot, heavily trafficked corridors, provided their longer life is verified in the field, and suggest that EPR credits should be tied to demonstrated pavement performance.
Surface streams draining gold mining concessions in south-western Ghana are used by nearby communities for domestic and agricultural purposes, yet they receive runoff and effluent from both regulated large-scale mining and unregulated artisanal and small-scale mining (galamsey). This study assessed the physicochemical, nutrient and dissolved metal quality of the Angonabeng and Bediabewu streams within the concession of AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Limited (AAIL), Tarkwa. Upstream and downstream stations on each stream were selected using a GIS-based slope–aspect and drainage analysis, and 24 samples were collected monthly from November 2015 to April 2016. Field parameters were measured in situ with calibrated probes, nutrients and free cyanide were determined by spectrophotometry, and dissolved metals by ICP-OES. Results were compared with Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mine effluent guidelines and World Health Organization (WHO) drinking-water guidelines, and differences between streams and between upstream and downstream stations were tested using t-tests. Historical monitoring data for 2012–2015 were reviewed for trends. pH (6.21–7.40), electrical conductivity (143.5–433 µS/cm), total dissolved solids, nitrate and free cyanide were within Ghana EPA limits at all stations. Total suspended solids (38–3,539 mg/L) and turbidity (115–433 NTU) exceeded the EPA limits of 50 mg/L and 75 NTU in almost every sample, with the highest loads at the Bediabewu upstream station. Mean dissolved arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper, lead and zinc were well below EPA effluent limits; however, individual samples exceeded WHO drinking-water guidelines for arsenic (0.018 mg/L) and lead (up to 0.043 mg/L). The streams are suitable for washing and irrigation but not for drinking without treatment. Sediment loading, largely from galamsey and land disturbance, is the principal water-quality concern, and sustained monitoring is recommended.
