In this study, the temporal variation in soil salinity dynamics was monitored and analyzed using electromagnetic induction (EMI) in an agricultural area in Port Said, Egypt, which is at risk of soil salinization. To assess soil salinity, repeated soil apparent electrical conductivity (EC_a) measurements were taken using an electromagnetic conductivity meter (CMD2) and inverted (using a time-lapse inversion algorithm) to generate electromagnetic conductivity images (EMCIs), representing soil electrical conductivity (σ) distribution. This process involved converting EMCI data into salinity cross-sections using a site-specific calibration equation that correlates σ with the electrical conductivity of saturated soil paste extract (EC_e) for the collected soil samples. The study was performed from August 2021 to April 2023, involving six surveys during two agriculture seasons. The results demonstrated accurate prediction ability of soil salinity with an R² value of 0.81. The soil salinity cross-sections generated on different dates observed changes in the soil salinity distribution. These changes can be attributed to shifts in irrigation water salinity resulting from canal lining, winter rainfall events, and variations in groundwater salinity. This approach is effective for evaluating agricultural management strategies in irrigated areas where it is necessary to continuously track soil salinity to avoid soil fertility degradation and a decrease in agricultural production and farmers’ income.

Many previous studies have noticed obvious alterations in different white matter tracts among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Growing evidence also strongly suggest a role of leptin in the pathogenesis of MDD, but with conflicting results of leptin levels. However, no previous studies have examined the relationship between leptin and white matter integrity of patients with MDD. Therefore, we aimed in this study to investigate the relationship between white matter alterations and plasma leptin levels in both drug-naïve and medicated MDD patients. We measured plasma leptin levels and white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and voxel-based analysis (VBA) in 140 participants (40 drug-naïve MDD patients; 40 medicated MDD patients; 60 healthy controls) aged between 18 and 49 years old. A significant reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) value in the dorsomedial thalamus was found for both drug-naïve and medicated MDD patients compared to the healthy non-depressed participants (p < 0.01, corrected). In addition, leptin levels were significantly higher in the drug-naïve MDD patients and were negatively correlated with the detected white matter alteration. Our results suggest that the elevated plasma leptin levels in the drug-naïve MDD group might be associated with the changes of the white matter integrity in the dorsomedial thalamus region.

In this study, the temporal variation in soil salinity dynamics was monitored and analyzed using Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) in an agricultural area in Port Said, Egypt, which is at risk of soil salinization. To assess soil salinity, repeated CMD2 soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) measurements were taken and inverted to generate electromagnetic conductivity imaging (EMCI), representing soil electrical conductivity (σ) distribution through time-lapse inversion. This process involved converting EMCI data into salinity cross sections using a site-specific calibration equation that correlates σ with the electrical conductivity of saturated soil paste extract (ECe) for the collected soil samples. The study was performed from August 2021 to April 2023, involving six surveys during two agriculture seasons. The results demonstrated the accurate prediction ability of soil salinity with R2 value of 0.81. The soil salinity cross sections generated on different dates observed changes in the soil salinity distribution. These changes can be attributed to shifts in irrigation water salinity resulting from canal lining, winter rainfall events, and variations in groundwater salinity. This approach is effective for evaluating agricultural management strategies in irrigated areas where it is necessary to continuously track soil salinity to avoid soil fertility degradation and a decrease in agricultural production and farmer’s income.