Irrigation district sustainability

Presented at Irrigation district sustainability - strategies to meet the challenges: USCID irrigation district specialty conference held on June 3-6, 2009 in Reno, Nevada.The Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District (District) releases about 250,000 acre-feet per year from two water supply reservoirs in the Cache Creek watershed for the irrigation of about 60,000 acres of farmland in Yolo County, California. That water is diverted into the Winters Canal and the West Adams Canal at Capay Diversion Dam on Cache Creek. The continued operation of Capay Dam is vital to the sustained future of irrigated agriculture of the District. Urbanization and infrastructure construction in California resulted in extensive sand and gravel extraction from Cache Creek downstream of Capay Dam. Although that mineral extraction ceased many years ago, the streambed of Cache Creek has degraded. Presently the streambed elevation at the toe of Capay Dam is as much as 15 feet below the elevation of the apron of the dam and the dam is at risk due to downstream channel bed degradation and local scour during floods. Capay Dam is a concrete diversion that was constructed in 1915. The main portion of the dam is an overflow section about 475 feet long with low-level sluice gates and service spillways at both abutments. The abutments also contain the headworks for the irrigation canals. Due to streambed degradation, local scour at the toe of the apron and the more than 90-year service life of the structure, the District embarked on a program of dam inspection, including the use of non destructive testing of the concrete, and rehabilitating the dam and headworks so as to continue to provide a sustainable irrigation supply of surface water from Cache Creek. The dam inspection and rehabilitation and betterment program for Capay Diversion Dam is presented. This includes the issues of environmental permitting, stream morphology, sediment transport and historic data collection

The Case of VPL and Industry Focused Programmes in Cork Institute of Technology

As organisations focus on economic indicators and return on investment their approaches to learning and development opportunities are transformed. In a challenging, competitive climate there is a need to ensure that the long and short term benefits are maximised. This masterclass describes the experience and issues raised for Cork Institute of Technology, a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Ireland in implementing programmes developed in partnership with industry which are mutually beneficial and maintain academic standards. It also addresses the enablers, challenges and barriers in customised course development

An evaluation of the fixed concentration procedure for assessment of acute inhalation toxicity

Acute inhalation studies are conducted in animals as part of chemical hazard identification and for classification and labelling. Current methods employ death as an endpoint (OECD TG403 and TG436) while the recently approved fixed concentration procedure (FCP) (OECD TG433) uses fewer animals and replaces lethality as an endpoint with evident toxicity. Evident toxicity is the presence of clinical signs that predict that exposure to the next highest concentration will cause severe toxicity or death in most animals. Approval of TG433 was the result of an international initiative, led by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), which collected data from six laboratories on clinical signs recorded for inhalation studies on 172 substances. This paper summarises previously published data and describes the additional analyses of the dataset that were essential for approval of the TG

Histological phenotypic subtypes predict recurrence risk and response to adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage III colorectal cancer

Histological ‘phenotypic subtypes’ that classify patients into four groups (immune, canonical, latent and stromal) have previously been demonstrated to stratify survival in a stage I–III colorectal cancer (CRC) pilot cohort. However, clinical utility has not yet been validated. Therefore, this study assessed prognostic value of these subtypes in additional patient cohorts along with associations with risk of recurrence and response to chemotherapy. Two independent stage I–III CRC patient cohorts (internal and external cohort) were utilised to investigate phenotypic subtypes. The primary endpoint was disease‐free survival (DFS) and the secondary endpoint was recurrence risk (RR). Stage II–III patients, from the SCOT adjuvant chemotherapy trial, were utilised to further validate prognostic value and for exploratory analysis assessing associations with adjuvant chemotherapy. In an 893‐patient internal cohort, phenotypic subtype independently associated with DFS (p = 0.025) and this was attenuated in stage III patients (p = 0.020). Phenotypic subtype also independently associated with RR (p < 0.001) in these patients. In a 146‐patient external cohort, phenotypic subtype independently stratified patients by DFS (p = 0.028), validating their prognostic value. In 1343 SCOT trial patients, the effect of treatment type significantly depended on phenotypic subtype (pinteraction = 0.011). Phenotypic subtype independently associated with DFS in stage III patients receiving FOLFOX (p = 0.028). Furthermore, the immune subtype significantly associated with better response to FOLFOX compared to CAPOX adjuvant chemotherapy in stage III patients (p = 0.013). In conclusion, histological phenotypic subtypes are an effective prognostic classification in patients with stage III CRC that associates with risk of recurrence and response to FOLFOX adjuvant chemotherapy

Earthquakes drive large-scale submarine canyondevelopment and sediment supply to deep-ocean basins

Although the global flux of sediment and carbon from land to the coastal ocean is well known, the volume of material that reaches the deep ocean—the ultimate sink—and the mechanisms by which it is transferred are poorly documented. Using a globally unique data set of repeat seafloor measurements and samples, we show that the moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8 November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake (New Zealand) triggered widespread landslides in a submarine canyon, causing a powerful “canyon flushing” event and turbidity current that traveled >680 km along one of the world’s longest deep-sea channels. These observations provide the first quantification of seafloor landscape change and large-scale sediment transport associated with an earthquake-triggered full canyon flushing event. The calculated interevent time of ~140 years indicates a canyon incision rate of 40 mm year−1, substantially higher than that of most terrestrial rivers, while synchronously transferring large volumes of sediment [850 metric megatons (Mt)] and organic carbon (7 Mt) to the deep ocean. These observations demonstrate that earthquake-triggered canyon flushing is a primary driver of submarine canyon development and material transfer from active continental margins to the deep ocean.peer-reviewe

The Power of VPL: Validation of Prior Learning as a Multi-targeted Approach For Access to Learning Opportunities For All

Preface from Ruud Duvekot: Learning is more than ever important and valuable, people are encouraged to invest in their potential throughout their lives, taking into account their prior learning. According to policy papers all across the globe, this should concern all citizens, including the underrepresented groups and non-traditional learners with regard to higher education because everywhere the knowledge-economy needs more higher-educated participation from all..

A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa : the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Funding statement This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, AFRICAP programme, grant number BB/P027784/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Novel sensor technology integration for outcome-based risk analysis in diabetes

Novel sensor-based continuous biomedical monitoring technologies have a major role in chronic disease management for early detection and prevention of known adverse trends. In the future, a diversity of physiological, biochemical and mechanical sensing principles will be available through sensor device 'ecosystems'. In anticipation of these sensor-based ecosystems, we have developed Healthcare@Home (HH) - a research-phase generic intervention-outcome monitoring framework. HH incorporates a closed-loop intervention effect analysis engine to evaluate the relevance of measured (sensor) input variables to system-defined outcomes. HH offers real-world sensor type validation by evaluating the degree to which sensor-derived variables are relevant to the predicted outcome. This 'index of relevance' is essential where clinical decision support applications depend on sensor inputs. HH can help determine system-integrated cost-utility ratios of bespoke sensor families within defined applications - taking into account critical factors like device robustness / reliability / reproducibility, mobility / interoperability, authentication / security and scalability / usability. Through examples of hardware / software technologies incorporated in the HH end-to-end monitoring system, this paper discusses aspects of novel sensor technology integration for outcome-based risk analysis in diabetes

Breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the UK ‘Alert Level 4’ phase of the B-MaP-C study

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-08-11, rev-recd 2020-12-04, accepted 2020-12-10, registration 2020-12-11, pub-electronic 2021-03-25, online 2021-03-25, pub-print 2021-05-25Publication status: PublishedAbstract: Background: The B-MaP-C study aimed to determine alterations to breast cancer (BC) management during the peak transmission period of the UK COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of these treatment decisions. Methods: This was a national cohort study of patients with early BC undergoing multidisciplinary team (MDT)-guided treatment recommendations during the pandemic, designated ‘standard’ or ‘COVID-altered’, in the preoperative, operative and post-operative setting. Findings: Of 3776 patients (from 64 UK units) in the study, 2246 (59%) had ‘COVID-altered’ management. ‘Bridging’ endocrine therapy was used (n = 951) where theatre capacity was reduced. There was increasing access to COVID-19 low-risk theatres during the study period (59%). In line with national guidance, immediate breast reconstruction was avoided (n = 299). Where adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted (n = 81), the median benefit was only 3% (IQR 2–9%) using ‘NHS Predict’. There was the rapid adoption of new evidence-based hypofractionated radiotherapy (n = 781, from 46 units). Only 14 patients (1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during their treatment journey. Conclusions: The majority of ‘COVID-altered’ management decisions were largely in line with pre-COVID evidence-based guidelines, implying that breast cancer survival outcomes are unlikely to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, in this study, the potential impact of delays to BC presentation or diagnosis remains unknown