A genetic basis has been proposed for PCOS because the prevalence of this disease is higher among family members [12] and [13]. However,

the heterogeneous clinical presentation of PCOS, especially concerning the presence INCB28060 of central adiposity, overweight, and obesity, is indicative of a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors [7]. In this sense, differences in dietary intake between women with PCOS and healthy controls have been described [14], as well as a tendency to overeat, particularly sweet or starchy foods [15]. In Brazil, the highest rates of obesity and overweight in women (14.4% and 42.4%, respectively) occur in the South [16]; but few data are available concerning the implications of lifestyle and dietary pattern on the prevalence of obesity and insulin resistance in PCOS [9], [14], [17] and [18]. In addition, despite the substantial evidence supporting an effect of underweight and Selleckchem Kinase Inhibitor Library excess weight on fertility [17], little is known about the influence of dietary quality on metabolic and endocrine control

in PCOS [19]. Nevertheless, weight loss has consistently been shown to improve the clinical status of PCOS women [18] and [20]. Taking all these into consideration, we hypothesized that dietary intake is associated with insulin resistance, lipid profile, and hormone abnormalities in a sample of women with PCOS from the South of Brazil. To test this hypothesis, we designed a case-control study to assess dietary composition, body fat, and hormonal

and metabolic variables related to insulin resistance in patients with PCOS and in a group of ovulatory, nonhirsute, BMI-matched women. Understanding the interaction between dietary factors and PCOS could provide useful insights for the management of obesity and metabolic abnormalities in affected women. This case-control study was carried out with patients from the Gynecological Endocrinology Unit at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil. Forty-three Liothyronine Sodium hirsute women of reproductive age presenting oligo/amenorrheic cycles (≤9 cycles per year), increased serum testosterone levels and/or free androgen index (FAI), and absence of other disorders causing hirsutism [7] and [21] were included in the PCOS group. Thirty-seven BMI- and race-matched nonhirsute women with regular and ovulatory cycles (luteal phase progesterone levels >3.8 ng/mL) were recruited to participate in the study as a control group. None of the women from either group had received any drugs known to interfere with hormone levels for at least 3 months before the study. Women with a BMI higher than 40 kg/m2 or type 2 diabetes were excluded.

bulloides. Wilke et al. (2006), while studying the planktonic foraminiferal flux in the Indian Ocean, reported the highest oxygen (lowest temperature) and carbon isotope values associated with frontal Depsipeptide clinical trial zones, i.e. when Atlantic and Agulhas waters mix and upwelling of deeper water masses occurs. The present observations enable the isotopic values of planktonic foraminiferal species associated with the various frontal systems in

the study area to be distinguished. The signatures of different water masses associated with various frontal systems across a north-south transect have been traced in stable isotopes (δ18O and δ13C values) in the calcareous shells of the planktonic foraminiferal species Globigerina bulloides. The results may have a bearing on understanding past movements in the position of various frontal systems if studied in sub-surface sediments Decitabine purchase in the study area. However, a larger data set from distinct geographical locations in different sectors of the Southern Ocean is required for further

corroboration of our results. Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Prof. R. Sethuraman, Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA University are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable support for this study. Our thanks go to Prof. A. Mackensen, Dr. Rajeev Saraswat and the Laboratory staff at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Germany, for providing the facilities for the oxygen isotope analyses. The master, officers and crew of ORV Sagar Kanya are acknowledged for providing logistical support during the collection clonidine of the samples. “
“The frontal zones of the subarctic North Atlantic and specifically the Barents Sea belong to the most productive marine areas in the world ocean (Sakshaug and Slagstad,

1991, Sakshaug and Slagstad, 1992 and Sakshaug, 1997). A recently developed Nordic Seas hydrodynamic model containing a primary production module (Wassmann et al. 2010) shows a large area of organic carbon sedimentation to the seabed south of Svalbard. Annual fluxes to the seabed were estimated at over 40 g C m2 year− 1 over the entire Svalbardbanken with some locations reaching 200 g C m2 year− 1 (Sakshaug 1997). However, this rich food supply is not reflected in the accumulation of carbon in the sediment or in the benthic biomass (Sakshaug & McClimans 2005, Renaud et al. 2007). The post-glacial Svalbardbanken is an elongated (300 × 50 km) structure that rises from the Barents Sea bed and in places is as shallow as 30 m (Figure 1). Its surface is covered with loose carbonate material – barnacles (Balanus balanus) and molluscs (Mya truncata, Hiatella arctica and Pecten sp.) – the shell fragments being mixed with very coarse sand and gravel ( Elverhøi & Solheim 1983). On the shallow Spitsbergen Bank (30–100 m depth) high-energy facies of carbonate sand and gravel were dated: the barnacle remains are 2–3 thousand years old ( Bjorlykke et al.

In Fig. 1 a schematic display of one trial and the EEG measurement intervals are depicted. The presentation of the fixation cross (3 s) marked the beginning of each trial. After the 3 s, the stimulus presentation started (max. 8 s) and the participants had to respond as fast and accurately as possible. Each response was

followed by an inter-trial interval of 4 s. The time during the presentation of the fixation cross served as reference interval (3 s) for the TRP calculation. As activation interval the time window from the stimulus onset until the reaction (max. 8 s) was defined. For the TRP calculation Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor only correctly solved trials were used. Task-related power at an electrode i was obtained by subtracting the BIBF1120 log-transformed power during the activation interval (POWi,activation) from the log-transformed power during the reference interval (POWi,reference) according to

the formula: TRP(i) = log(POWi,reference) − log(POWi,activation). Negative values therefore reflect increases in power from reference to activation (subsequently referred to as desynchronization), positive values reflect decreases (referred to as synchronization; cf. Pfurtscheller & Lopes da Silva, 1999). For further analysis, the TRP data was aggregated from different electrode positions in the following way (cf. Neubauer et al., 2005): frontal left (FP1, AF3, F3, F7), frontal right (FP2, AF4, F4, F8), frontocentral left (FC1, FC5, C3), frontocentral right (FC2, FC6, C4), centroparietal left (CP1, CP5, P3), and centroparietal right (CP2, CP6, P4), parietooccipital left (PO3, PO5, O1), parietooccipital right (PO4, PO6, O2), temporal left (T3, T5), and temporal right (T4, T6). The midline electrodes (FZ, CZ, PZ) were not included in the analyses as the hemispheric differences were of

interest. In order to examine possible group differences between girls and boys and between the stereotype exposure groups with respect to task performance, GBA3 a two-way ANOVA with SEX and STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE as between-subjects variables was computed. The average response time (for correct trials) was 4.02 s (SD = 0.78). There were neither significant group mean differences for SEX (F(1,54) = 1.20, p = .28), nor for the STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE condition (F(1,54) = .05, p = .82); the two-way interaction was also not significant (SEX ∗ STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE: F(1,54) = .01, p = .95; no-stereotype exposure condition: Mgirls = 4.04, SDgirls = 0.91; Mboys = 4.04, SDboys = 0.84; stereotype exposure condition: Mgirls = 3.86, SDgirls = 0.79; Mboys = 4.11, SDboys = 0.63). For the analysis of solution rates similar results were found. There were neither significant group mean differences for SEX (F(1,54) = 2.94, p = .09, partial η2 = .05), nor for the STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE condition (F(1,54) = 0.15, p = .70, partial η2 = .00).

Viral insertion resulted in increased expression of this “integration site 1” gene (Int1). Studies of Int1 were hampered

PERK inhibitor by the challenges associated with purifying the protein in biologically active form, so a central focus of early research on this gene focused on evaluating the genetic pathways associated with the homolog of Int1 in Drosophila, a gene known as wingless [30]. To provide clarity, researchers in the field then reorganized the nomenclature to reflect the contributions of studies focused on both Int1 and wingless, renaming the emerging protein family as “Wnt” (wingless + Int1) [31]. The clinical significance of this pathway came into sharper focus as downstream signaling components were identified. For example, one component, the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, is deleted in a significant majority of colorectal tumors

[32]. This, combined with numerous other studies, identified regulation of the cytoplasmic and nuclear levels of β-catenin as Quizartinib mw a key point of activity for Wnts. At the cellular level, Wnts activate several signaling cascades, including the most commonly studied (“canonical”) pathway, which results in stabilization of the β-catenin protein [33]. This pathway is initiated when a Wnt protein binds to a receptor complex that includes a member of the Frizzled family of seven-transmembrane receptors plus either Lrp5 (low-density lipoprotein-related receptor 5) or Lrp6 [34]. Formation of this receptor complex results in the phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic tail of Lrp5 or Lrp6, leading to the formation of a binding site for axin [35]. Axin is normally found in a multiprotein complex that also includes APC and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3). In the absence of an upstream Wnt signal, GSK3 phosphorylates residues near the amino terminus of β-catenin, targeting β-catenin for ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis. The recruitment of axin to the phosphorylated tail of Lrp5/6 inhibits the activity old of GSK3 towards

β-catenin (or perhaps the subsequent ubiquitination), leading to increased β-catenin levels in the cytoplasm. The increased cytoplasmic levels ultimately lead to β-catenin’s nuclear translocation, its binding to members of the LEF/TCF family of DNA binding proteins, and the transactivation of target-gene promoters. Recently, it has emerged that the stability and nuclear levels of the transcriptional activator TAZ are also regulated by the same process that controls β-catenin levels, because TAZ enters the nucleus as part of a β-catenin complex [36]. Thus, sites driven by TAZ transactivation, independent of TCF/LEF sites, may also be directly regulated by Wnt signaling (Fig. 1). Studies of the molecular mechanisms of Wnt signaling as related to osteoblast function were stimulated by three seminal studies published in 2001 and 2002.

Curves in Fig. 2 show the behavior of the most thermal resistant between the curves from duplicate trials for each concentration. Table 3 summarizes the mean value and AZD5363 manufacturer standard deviation of fitted parameter values, such β and α, and the t6D, at 100 °C and different EO concentrations (stage I). For the thermochemical resistance at 300 and 350 μg/g, the mean value of t6D was the same, these concentrations reduced the t6D in around 1.0 min from the thermal resistance without EO. The concentration of 400 μg/g resulted in a reduction of approximately 1.4 min and the concentration of 500 μg/g in 1.9 min in the t6D from the thermal resistance without EO. However, the

concentration of 400 μg/g was chosen to continue the experiment with different

temperatures since the organoleptic impact in a food product can be lower than at 500 μg/g. Subsequently, the thermochemical resistances were carried out with the fixed EO concentration of 400 μg/g and different temperatures. For the thermochemical resistance at 400 μg/g, the parameter mean values of β and α, and the mean value of t6D, with their respective standard deviation, are shown in Table 3 (stage II). As can been seen in Table 3, the values of parameter α for the thermochemical resistance at 400 μg/g of oregano EO do not depend on temperature since these values did not differ significantly Selleck Fulvestrant with increasing temperature. Therefore, the Weibull model with a fixed α was fitted to the thermochemical experimental data. Some studies had already worked with the Weibull model with a fixed α ( Periago et al., 2004 and van Boekel, 2002) Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase achieving good results. The mean value of α for the thermochemical resistance with 400 μg/g of EO (stage II), equal to 2.65, was used to recalculate β and t6D. Fig. 3 exhibits the behavior of the most thermal resistant between the curves

from duplicate trials for each concentration generated through the Weibull model with parameter α fixed (2.65) with 400 μg/g of EO. The new mean values for parameter β and t6D, with their respective standard deviation, with constant α (2.65) and EO concentration (400 μg/g) are shown in Table 3 (stage III). Fig. 4 shows the dependence on temperature of the parameter β and the t6D for the Weibull model with fixed and varying α at 400 μg/g of oregano EO. Through Fig. 4, it can be observed that modeling with a fixed α did not significantly vary the values of β and t6D, similar to in the secondary model. Equations (5) and (6) show the secondary model for the temperature dependence of β and t6D with a fixed α, respectively. And Equations (7) and (8) present the secondary model for the temperature dependence of β and t6D with a varying α, respectively. The exponential equation (Equation (2)) showed a good fit to β and t6D, as can be seen in Fig. 4 and also through the R2 values. equation(5) β(T)=4.109exp(−0.21·T)R2=0.97 equation(6) t6D(T)=6·1010exp(−0.24·T)R2=0.97 equation(7) β(T)=2·109exp(−0.21·T)R2=0.

, 2007 and Xu et al., 2010). Ice-snow melt-water and precipitation in the high mountain regions are the main water resources of the arid areas in northwest China. A significant increasing trend of the precipitation in the upper HRB, especially during the obvious wet period between 2003 and 2012, may be only part of the reason for headwater

increase. Furthermore, increasing air temperature induced more glacier and snow melting during the past decades which contributed significantly to the streamflow increasing in the upper HRB. In the upper HRB, many mountainous terrains are at an elevation of 4000 m or higher, and they are covered in snow or glaciers throughout the year. Melting water of glaciers and snow replenish runoff effectively PR-171 cost (Qin et al., 2013). Numerous studies showed a declination of ice and snow cover areas in the HRB during last several decades (Sakai et al., 2006, Wang et al., 2011a, Wang et al., 2011b, Zhang et al., 2012a and Zhang et al., 2012b). It resulted in the increase of streamflow in upstream mountainous areas of the HRB (Nakawo, 2009). Related studies have also showed that snowmelt runoff increased obviously from 1970 to present (Wang et al., 2010). From monthly changes of average streamflow data, the impact of climate change can be seen more clearly in the HRB. Taking the streamflow of the Yingluoxia (YL) station

as an example (Fig. 13), streamflow increased in the spring, leading to the flood buy Fasudil season in the summer. The spring, March to May, is the snow melting STK38 season, and the rising streamflow can be attributed to higher temperature.

Increasing precipitation for the summer and autumn (see Fig. 10) can explain streamflow rising in the flood season. There is hardly any runoff generated in the middle and lower HRB due to low precipitation and high evapotranspiration, and the change in precipitation does not much affect streamflow. In addition, precipitation increases by a very small amount in the middle and lower HRB, and thus the impact of the precipitation change on the streamflow is negligible. Moreover, the relationships between streamflow and air temperature are different in the middle and lower HRB. Higher air temperature leads to higher actual evapotranspiration which resulted in the decrease of streamflow. Streamflow is the most important water resource that sustains oases and irrigated agriculture in the HRB. During the last several decades, the hydrological regime of the Heihe River has been strongly affected by extensive human activities. They impacted the streamflow by surface water and groundwater exploitation, land reclamation, engineering project development, and new water-related policy implementation. The middle reach region of the HRB is the major water consumer, accounting for about 90% of the total water use from the Heihe River.

Es wird der Median PS-341 mw des durchschnittlichen Eisenbedarfs ermittelt und durch einen Schätzwert für die prozentuale Eisenresorptionsrate dividiert, um einen

Wert für die erforderliche orale Aufnahme von Eisen abzuleiten. Das 97,5. Perzentil dieses Wertes wurde verwendet, um eine empfohlene Tagesdosis („Recommended Dietary Allowance”, RDA) [73] oder eine empfohlene Nährstoffaufnahme („Recommended Nutritional Intake”, RNI) zu definieren [75]. Die prozentuale Eisenresorption ist umgekehrt proportional zu den anhand der Serum-Ferritinkonzentration ermittelten Eisenspeichern im Körper [80]. Deshalb hat das US-FNB [73] vorgeschlagen, den Nahrungsbedarf für Eisen auf einen gut definierten Eisenstatus zu stützen und 15 mg/L als den unteren Cutoff-Wert für die Serum-Ferritinkonzentration zu wählen. Eisenspeicher oberhalb dieses Wertes gelten als ausreichend, um genügend Eisen für die Erythropoese zur Verfügung zu stellen, und werden auch von der FAO/WHO und dem EU-SCF verwendet. Die so abgeleitete RDA soll nicht dazu dienen, Eisenspeicher aufzufüllen. Das US-FNB misst Eisenspeichern oberhalb des Minimums zur Sicherstellung

einer adäquaten Eisenversorgung für die funktionellen Kompartimente ausdrücklich keinerlei 17-AAG physiologischen Nutzen bei [73], [81] and [82]. Nicht-Häm-Eisen und Nahrungsmittelliganden interagieren miteinander im Darmlumen entsprechend Etofibrate den Regeln der Komplexchemie, und zwar in Abhängigkeit vom Verhältnis der Komplexpartner, den

Bindungskonstanten der Eisen-Liganden-Komplexe und der zum Erreichen des thermodynamischen Gleichgewichts erforderlichen Zeitspanne [83]. Nahrungsmittelliganden wie Ascorbinsäure [84] and [85], Polyoxycarbonsäuren wie Citrat und Malat [86] und die Verdauungsprodukte von Fleisch, Fisch oder Geflügel [87] fördern die Eisenresorption, während sie von Phytat in Getreide oder Gemüse [88] and [89], Polyphenolen in Tee [86] and [90] und Kaffee [7] oder Calcium [91] and [92] inhibiert wird. Diese Art Wechselwirkung scheint sich auch bei der Passage des Eisens und der Nahrungsmittelliganden durch die duodenale Mucosa abzuspielen [93]. Die Wechselwirkung zwischen dem Eisen und den Nahrungsmittelliganden scheint geringer zu sein, wenn sie über längere Zeiträume hinweg und nicht nur während einer Mahlzeit untersucht wird [94]; diese Ansicht jedoch wird nicht von allen Forschern geteilt [95] und ist von der FAO/WHO [75] auch nicht übernommen worden. Die Resorption des Häm-Eisens aus Fleisch, Fisch und Geflügel wird von Nahrungsmitteln weit weniger beeinflusst; Calcium bildet dabei allerdings eine Ausnahme [96]. Auch die Bioverfügbarkeit des Häm-Eisens wird von Nahrungsmittelkomponenten weniger beeinflusst, ebenfalls mit Ausnahme von Calcium [92] and [97].

In chemistry these are called chemical fluxes or chemifluxes, but it is more usual in biochemistry to call them simply fluxes. The shorter term should, however, be avoided when there is

any danger of confusion with the quite different use of the same term for discussing metabolic pathways. An inordinate amount of time was devoted by the panel of 1981 in their preliminary discussions to deciding which system of numbering rate constants to recommend, finishing with the commonsense advice that authors could use any system GW-572016 cell line they wished as long as it was defined explicitly. The preferred system was that of IUPAC: k1,k−1,k2,k−2,…;v1,v−1,v2,v−2,…in which the elementary reactions in a composite mechanism are numbered in such a way that reverse processes are easily recognized (i.e. with the use of minus signs). Much earlier the Enzyme Commission (IUB, 1961) had suggested that ambiguity could be avoided by prefixing positive subscripts with plus signs, writing k1 as k+1, for example. The ambiguity that this was intended to avoid arose in particular for the symbol k2, which was used without definition by some authors to refer to

the forward rate constant for the second step in a sequence, and by others, again without definition, for the reverse rate constant of the first step. It had been felt MK-1775 ic50 that if k+2 was used with the first meaning then the + sign would make the meaning clear. However, the panel of 1981 took the view that a better solution was to require authors to specify how their rate constants were defined, especially as no single convention could be expected to

satisfy all needs, from the simplest to the most complicated mechanisms. In the years since then the use of+ signs has largely disappeared from the literature. As an example of when a different approach might be preferable, the panel noted that for some kinds of computer application and for theoretical Decitabine research buy discussions of enzyme mechanisms it is sometimes convenient to number the different forms of the enzyme rather than the elementary steps and then to number the step from, for example, E3 to E4 as 34, and the step from E4 to E3 as 43, and so on. With this scheme the numbering of enzyme forms needs to be given explicitly and the rate constants and rates listed above would then become k12,k21,k23,k32,…;v12,v21,v23,v32,…Although this potentially creates a problem if there are more than nine enzyme forms in the mechanism this is easily solved by separating the subscripts by a comma, e.g. k10,11 but this can be omitted when it is not required for clarity.

To assess the efficiency of amplification, an alternative analysis to PCR amplification efficiency ( Li et al., 2008) was used. Because LAMP amplification PF-02341066 manufacturer is a continuous process that results in a growing concatenation of amplicons rather than discrete individual copies over

well-defined control cycles as in qPCR, we instead estimated a “doubling time” τ for the LAMP process based on observed tp. This analysis assumed that reactions resulted in exponential rates of DNA polymerization, and that tp corresponded to the time when a constant repeatable threshold quantity (K) of double stranded DNA was produced. Mathematically, equation(1) K=ci2tpτwhere ci is the initial template DNA quantity. Through a simple manipulation of Equation (1), the doubling time can be inferred from the relationship between tp and ci: equation(2) tp=τlog(2)[log(K)−log(ci)] The doubling time τ then can be estimated as the product of −log(2) and the slope of tp vs log(ci). An amplicon of 137 bp and multimers of this product were synthesized in the LAMP check details reaction (Supplementary Fig. 1). The LAMP reactions

were scored based on the time of positivity (tp). Most positive samples showed an amplification plot in less than 10 min in the LAMP assay. We use a tp value of 15 as the cut-off to determine positive or negative samples. We compared the standard qPCR assay (conducted routinely in many labs for the 16S rDNA region) with the LAMP method (for the phage region) using aliquots of the same extractions from a batch of known Las-positive

D. citri. Ten-fold serial dilutions (10−1 to 10−6) of the plasmid DNA were utilized for qPCR and LAMP analysis. The qPCR cycle threshold values (Ct) of the first three dilutions were below 33 and these samples were STK38 considered as positive for Las; dilution no. 4 had a Ct of 36 which is generally regarded as negative. In the LAMP assay, the first 5 dilutions had a tp value of 4–8.5 indicating that they were positive ( Fig. 2). We pooled Las-positive psyllids with Las-negative psyllids to test if the LAMP method can detect single positive insects from a pool of negative psyllids. Las positive psyllids obtained from the Las-positive D. citri colony (from Fort Pierce, FL) were first evaluated by testing single psyllids by qPCR for 16S rDNA fragment to estimate the percentage of positives. About 29% of the psyllids from this particular batch were positive for Las (data not shown). Single insects from the Las-positive batch of psyllids (from Fort Pierce) were pooled with 0, 4, 9 and 19 psyllids obtained from the UCR quarantine facility (Las-free psyllids). The tp values of the samples in LAMP assay vary depending on the Las titer in the infected psyllid.

Many of Youngstown’s lakes and reservoirs are filling in with sediments rapidly; however, the relative contributions from different land-cover types are not understood. Studies examining watershed contributions highlight agricultural and urban contributions ( Martin et al., 1998 and Das, 1999), but do not address specific selleck inhibitor contributions from urban forest covers, even though ∼13% of the area is covered by this particular land-cover type ( Korenic, 1999). We can now begin to evaluate this land cover’s regional contributions given this assessment of its erosive nature and basing

an appropriate C-factor value of ∼0.5 based on the USLE model calibration to a sediment record. This land cover has been overlooked as a significant sediment contributor; based on data from Lily Pond, it should be

one of the highest sediment producers in similar urban settings. High amounts of impervious surface would not generate sediment as soils are covered by asphalt and concrete; however, impervious urban covers increase surface runoff, which may have implications for higher erosion rates down-gradient ( Weng, 2001). This concept is also entertained as it may pertain to this study as hillslopes around Lily Pond may by eroding more heavily in response to increased runoff from PF-01367338 clinical trial surrounding urban covers. Regardless, the contribution of forested urban lands to the sedimentation problems in reservoirs

cannot be overlooked considering that most of the urban forests in and around Youngstown are found along the steeper slopes connecting to higher-elevation urban areas with extensive impervious surface cover. In this respect, the study of Lily Pond provides urban managers with a baseline for assessing soil erosion across similar terrain types. Sedimentary studies at the smaller, sub-watershed scale are crucial to understanding local and regional USLE model applications. This study demonstrates how the USLE can be used to assess sediment contributions from small watersheds to ponds in urban environments to help constrain the effects of understudied land-cover types, such as urban forest. Published C-factors for a range of forest types across the globe vary by 3 orders of magnitude. Calibration of a USLE model Acyl CoA dehydrogenase from a sedimentologic investigation of Lily Pond suggests that urban land cover here should be assigned a C-factor on the high end of this spectrum. Although contributions from gully processes are not factored into the equation, a field-based assessment of gully contributions suggests they are minimal and do little to change confidence in the results. As urban expansion will continue to fragment landscapes and produce complex land-cover distributions an increased need should develop for investigating effects of different urban land-cover types on sediment yields.