Epilepsies are debilitating neurological disorders characterized by repeated episodes of pathological seizure activity. Absence epilepsy (AE) is a poorly understood type of seizure with an estimated 30% of affected patients failing to respond to antiepileptic drugs. Thus, novel therapies are needed for the treatment of AE. A promising cell-based therapeutic strategy is centered on transplantation of embryonic neural stem cells from the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE), which give rise to gamma-aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) interneurons during embyronic development. Here, we used the Stargazer (Stg) mouse model of AE to map affected loci using c-Fos immunohistochemistry, which revealed intense seizure-induce activity in visual and somatosensory cortices. We report that transplantation of MGE cells into the primary visual cortex (V1) of Stg mice significantly reduces AE episodes and lowers mortality. Electrophysiological analysis in acute cortical slices of visual cortex demonstrated that Stg V1 neurons exhibit more pronounced increases in activity in response to a potassium-mediated excitability challenge than wildtypes (WT). The defective network activity in V1 was significantly altered following WT MGE transplantation, associating it with behavioral rescue of seizures in Stgs. Taken together, these findings present MGE grafting in the V1 as a possible clinical approach in the treatment of AE.

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Land cover change and deforestation are important global ecosystem hazards. As for Syria, the current conflict and the subsequent absence of the forest preservation are main reasons for land cover change. This study aims to investigate the temporal and spatial aspects and trends of the land cover alterations in the southern Syrian coastal basins. In this study, land cover maps were made from surface reflectance images of Landsat-5(TM), Landsat-7(ETM+) and Landsat-8(OLI) during May (period of maximum vegetation cover) in 1987, 2002 and 2017. The images were classified into four different thematic classes using the maximum likelihood supervised classification method. The classification results were validated using 160 validation points in 2017, where overall accuracy was 83.75%. Spatial analysis was applied to investigate the land cover change during the period of 30 years for each basin and the whole study area. The results show 262.40 km2 reduction of forest and natural vegetation area during (1987-2017) period, and 72.5% of this reduction occurred during (2002-2017) period due to over-cutting of forest trees as a source of heating by local people, especially during the conflict period. This reduction was particularly high in the Alabrash and Hseen basins with 76.13 and 79.49 km2 respectively, and was accompanied by major increase of agriculture lands area which is attributed to dam construction in these basins which allowed people to cultivate rural lands for subsistence or to enhance their economic situation. The results of this study must draw the relevant authorities’ attention to preserve the remaining forest area.

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In Part I of this series of papers, structures and geometries of the four-step preforms were studied and analysed. In this part, an account is given of similar work conducted on the two-step preforms. Theoretical models for both regular and tubular two-step preforms are established with a few assumptions. Structu.ral geometries of the preforms are analysed aud discussed according to the theoretical models developed. Mathematical relations between the structural parameters, such as the fibre orientation, yam-volume ft-action, and prefoirm contour sizes, as well as their dependence on operating conditions, are derived. It is found that the preform structures are determined hy the constitucint yams, the braiding arrangements, and the process operating conditions. The extreme values ofthe parameters in the jamming conditions are also discussed. To verify the validity of the analytical models, experimental investigatic>ns were also carried out. The experimental results strongly support the theoretical predictions.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Landslides are one of the main geological hazards that can cause critical damage to the infrastructure in an area and can result in serious risks to the people’s safety there. Landslides can be investigated and monitored using field survey, aerial mapping and high resolution optical satellite data analysis. However, these methods are relatively time-consuming. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) can investigate and monitor landslides and provide sub-centimetre accuracy for ground-surface deformation when time series analysis techniques are employed. In this research, differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry was applied on Sentinel-1 data of two Single Look Complex (SLC) images from 16 October 2018 and 21 March 2019 in the Interferometric Wide (IW) swath mode using the Sentinel application platform (SNAP) to determine the extreme ground-surface deformations, as a prelude to landslides occurrence in Balloran dam area in the north-west of Syria, where the ophiolite complex deposits of the Maastrichtian are exposed causing, due to the heavy rains, several landslides affecting the road network in this area every year. The results reveal ground-surface deformations during the study period along the satellite line of sight near to the main road in Balloran dam area with a maximum value reaches to around 20 cm. The D-InSAR results were compared to the D-GPS results of 10 validation points along the main road in the study area, where the RMS difference value was 20 cm.</p>

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