Arabian Peninsula

Desalination. A special case of distillation is water desalination. In places where energy is abundant but fresh water is not, eg, the Arabian Peninsula, water may be produced from seawater ia flash evaporators. Low pressure turbiae steam is extracted to provide heat for the evaporators. Coadeased steam is returned to the cycle. Such units may be particularly prone to corrosion by salts. Sizes vary, but a plant scheduled for completion in 1996 had six units and a total capacity of 345,600 m /d. Power generation was expected to be 17,500 MW (36). 

Viljoen et al. (2002) have described the occurrence of a new anthrone derivative, which they named homonataloside B, from 14 species of Aloe (of the 380 tested). Species containing this compound, a hitherto unknown diglycoside, were obtained from scattered sites in East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The compound was not observed in any of the species native to Madagascar. 

During the Golden Age of Islam (7th through the 17th century) Muslim philosophers and poets, artists and scientists, princes and laborers created a unique culture that has influenced societies on every continent. Here documentary writer Howard Turner offers a fully illustrated, highly accessible introduction to the scientific achievements of medieval Islam. Howard Turner opens with a historical overview of the spread of Islamic civilization from the Arabian peninsula eastward to India and westward across northern... 

Arid and semi-arid lands are quite widespread in Asia, where deserts make up some 11% of this continent (Table 1.1) in Central Asia, north and east of the Caspian to Aral Sea area. In the Turkestan desert, large dunes form huge sand seas (Nettleton and Peterson, 1983). West and North of China, the Takla-Makan and Gobi deserts dominate the landscapes. More to the south, the Great Indian Desert extends up to the Himalayan foothills. More to the west are the hyperarid areas of the Dasht-i-Lat and Dasht-i-Kavri deserts in Iran and Syrian deserts. Immense areas in the north-central part of the Arabian Peninsula and in the Rub al Khali deserts in its southeastern part are hyperarid or arid. 

Chewing leaves of the khat shrub is practiced in parts of East Africa and the Arabian peninsula (Kalix 1988 Widler et al. 1994). Some estimate daily use at 5 million portions. Use in the West is less common, but has increased somewhat. More common in the United States has been use of the synthetic drug methcathinone (or "cat"), which is derived from khat alkaloids. Only the fresh khat leaves are pharmacologically active, so for some time use was limited to local areas that grew the plant. However, with air transportation, use has spread with emigrants in Europe and the United States. Because of its pharmacological similarities to amphetamine and its addictive properties, khat has been listed on Schedule I of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. 

Most of the aeolian input of trace metals is in particulate form as weathered rocks and soil. The deposition patterns on the sea surface tend to follow those of the major winds bands, with deserts being the primary source regions (Figure 11.4a). As shown in Figure 11.4b, this results in high deposition to the surfece waters immediately downwind of the arid regions of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, Australia, and... 

The next largest resin seizures were made in the Near Middle East / South-West Asia region (18% of the world total). The largest seizures here were reported by Pakistan (40% of all Asian cannabis resin seizures), followed by Iran (30%) and Afghanistan (18%). The Near East (defined as the Arabian peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Iraq) accounted for 10 per cent of cannabis resin seizures made in Asia the remaining 2 per cent were made in other parts of Asia. 

Optimal dosage schedules vary for different regions of the world. In the Western Hemisphere and western Africa, the adult oxamniquine dosage is 12-15 mg/kg given once. In northern and southern Africa, standard schedules are 15 mg/kg twice daily for 2 days. In eastern Africa and the Arabian peninsula, standard dosage is 15-20 mg/kg twice in 1 day. Cure rates are 70-95%, with marked reduction in egg excretion in those not cured. 

Miller, A.G. Cope, T.A. Flora of the Arabian Peninsula and Socota. 1. University Press, Edinburgh, 1996. 

The most widespread type of soil degradation is erosion by water, which accounts for 55% of the global degraded area. It affects 440 Mha in Asia and is a particular threat to land use in the wet and semiarid Tropics (Bridges and Oldeman 1999, Ghassemi et al. 1995). The largest area affected by wind erosion, which contributes 27% worldwide, is situated in Africa and on the Arabian peninsula (332 Mha), followed by Asia with 222 Mha (Bridges and Oldeman 1999). 

The fresh leaves of the khat shrub (Catha edulis) are chewed by several millions of people in East Africa and the Arabian peninsula for their euphoric and stimulating properties (284). The rather newly discovered alkaloid cathinone [(S)-a-aminopropiophenone] is responsible for the stimulating properties of khat (284). It has been shown that cathinone induces release at physiological catecholamine storage sites in a manner similar to that of amphetamine. Further results suggest that cathinone and amphetamine produce their stimulant effects via the same dopaminergic mechanism (599). The more recently discovered khat constituents merucathinone, merucathine, and pseudomerucathine were found to have only weak dopamine-releasing effects and were therefore considered unlikely to play an important role in the stimulatory actions of khat leaves (414). 

There are a number of examples of locahzed conflicts where CWs have been intentionally used but cannot be verified e.g. in 1951-1952 in the Korean War in 1963 the Egyptians used mustard bombs against Yemeni royalists in the Arabian peninsula in the Indo-China War (see Vietnam War) in 1970, in Angola antiplant agents were almost certainly used and in former Yugoslavia, there were rumors of the use of psychotomimetic agents. 

SE Australian Dubbo V.F. Arabian Peninsula Yemen Africa-N. Tanzania East African Rift West Africa S Cameroon Line Low Sr High Sr Turkey Central Anatolia Early Late Miocene Miocene Europe Rhine graben rr h I aiwan NE, China Vietnam SE Australia Newer V.P. Taos Plateau Rio Grande Rift... 

Mjrrh is an oleo gum resin obtained from the stem of Commiphora molmol, a tree that grows in north-east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In mice, myrrh showed no mutagenic effects and was a potent cytotoxic drug against solid tumor cells (5). The antitumor potential of C. molmol was comparable to that of cyclophosphamide. Studies in hamsters suggested an antischistosomal activity of myrrh (6). 

The third major region is the northeastern Sudan. . . vast dust storms form when cold northwesterly air currents meet hot southwesterly monsoons. At such times masses of dust may be raised over large areas encompassing the region of the northeastern Sudan from the Nile River to the Red Sea. High-altitude winds often transport this dust across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. 

The Middle East is comprised of 14 independent countries located on the Arabian peninsula Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey. The peninsula is bound by three bodies of water the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Red Sea to the west and the Arabian Sea to the east and south. 

Aloes belong to the Aloaceae family and comprise a large genus of over 300 sp (4, 5). The genus is native to Africa from the southern Cape in South Africa to about 15°N north to the southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula (4). 

Ibexa horned antelope from northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula. 

Other areas with sickle mutation are the Arabian Peninsula, Indian subcontinent, and the Mediterranean region. HhS has been reported in up to 25% in certain Middle Eastern populations and greater than 30% in Greece and Cyprus. Genetic analysis shows that the mutation found in Arabic patients is different from those of African descent. Sickle gene mutation variants have been associated with different geographic locations and may be responsible for variations in chnical manifestations. In Africa, the variants are Senegal (Atlantic West Africa), Benin (Central West Africa), Bantu (Central African... 

In Exodus, God gives Moses instructions for a holy perfume for himself, and a different one for his priests, whilst the Queen of Sheba s visit to Solomon was motivated by her wish to keep open the trade routes of the Arabian peninsula, her source of frankincense and myrrh, through Palestine to Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

Baker, M.S. and Strunk, H.K., Medical aspects of Persian Gulf operations Serious infections and communicable diseases of the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabian Peninsula, Mil. Med., 156, 385, 1991. 

Figure 1. Ocean drainage basins of Asia (UNESCO, 1978 I boundaries of drainage basins, U—Boundaries of internal runoff regions HI—Arctic Ocean W—Pacific Ocean V Indian Ocean VI—Atlantic Ocean. I—Thar desert (India) 2—Arabian Peninsula 3—Dead Sea basin 4—Inland Anatolia (Turkey) 5—Central Asia 6—Kazakhstan and Middie Asia 7—Seistan depression and adjacent regions 8—Iranian highlands 9—Pre-Caspian area.

Onchocerciasis is prevalent in tropical Africa, parts of Latin America, and the Arabian peninsula. Of 37 countries where onchocerciasis is endemic, 30 are in sub-Sahara Africa, 6 are in Latin America, and the last is Yemen. According to World Health Organization (WHO) information in 2000, 120 million people are at the risk worldwide of contracting this disease. A total of 18 million people are infected with this disease, 99% of whom are in Africa. Of those infected, more than 6.5 million suffer from impaired visual acuity and 270,000 are blind. This disease is a public health and economic development problem in Africa, where it constitutes a serious obstacle to socioeconomic progress. 

Hoelzmann, P., Jolly, D., Harrison, S. P., Laarif, F., Bonnefille, R., and Pachur, H.-J. (1998). Mid-Holocene land-surface conditions in northern Africa and the arabian peninsula a data set for the analysis of bio-geophysical feedbacks in the climate system. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 12,35-51. 

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