To visualize the structure of Iranian chemistry scientific publications in SciSearch, 43 Iranian and International chemists were identified. They were the highly cited scientists in 7682 Iranian chemistry publications (defined as an article with at least one Iranian author address) indexed in Science Citation Index during the period from 1990 to 2006. Co-citation data for these authors from the...

The high temperatures and extended droughts that characterize habitat for desert-living reptiles may already approach their physiological tolerances and so could put them at risk due to climate change. Here I examined climate change sensitivity for desert tortoises, Gopherus agassizii, and common chuckwallas, Sauromalus ater, two large-bodied reptiles that occur across the MojaveeSonoran Desert...

– In the Colorado Desert of California, the western distributional limit of the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) occurs in the Whitewater Hills of the southeastern San Bernardino Mountains. Much of the area has been developed for wind energy generation and tortoises often live in association with altered industrial landscapes. Natural habitat in the area was characterized by a sharp transit...

BACKGROUND Ambient particulate matter (PM) has an adverse effect on respiratory morbidity. Desert dust outbreaks contribute to increased PM levels but the toxicity of desert dust mixed with anthropogenic pollutants needs clarification. METHODS We identified 132 days with desert dust episodes and 177 matched days by day of the week, season, temperature and humidity between 2001 and 2006 in Ath...

Ongoing cti sruption of ancient , varnished desert pave ment surfaces ncar Death Valley Nat ional Park is inferred to be the result of unusually intense animal foraging activity. lncreased levels of biotllrbation are associated with enhanced vegetation growth stimulated by recen t EI Nino precipitation. The occurrence of abundant, recen tly overturned, varnished clasts suggests that the pavemen...

Current global changes are putting both biodiversity and the processes that depend on it at risk. This is especially true for semi-arid regions and the flagship groups that inhabit them, such as amphibians and reptiles. Semi-arid regions are often thought to have lower biodiversity and thus have been overlooked, resulting in the underestimation of their biological richness. Therefore, the aim o...

Desert dust perturbs climate by directly and indirectly interacting with incoming solar and outgoing long wave radiation, thereby changing precipitation and temperature, in addition to modifying ocean and land biogeochemistry. While we know that desert dust is sensitive to perturbations in climate and human land use, previous studies have been unable to determine whether humans were increasing ...

The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge is a 132 mile race through the desert with autonomous robotic vehicles. Lasers mounted on the car roof provide a map of the road up to 20 meters ahead of the car but the car needs to see further in order to go fast enough to win the race. Computer vision can extend that map of the road ahead but desert road is notoriously similar to the surrounding desert. The CAR...