Integrated Water Management Strategies for the City and County of El Paso

Regional water planning in Texas began with the passage of Senate Bill 1 in 1997. The state was divided into 16 regions for the purposes of developing regional water plans that would eventually be integrated into a single state wide water plan. El Paso lies within the Far West Texas Region (Region E). In 2001, the first regional plan was developed that included demand estimates for through 2050, current supplies, and identified deficits, or imbalances between current supplies and future demands. For El Paso County, the 2001 plan identified the deficits and provided several potential alternatives to meet the increasing demands that had been projected. However, there was no specific plan to meet future demands. During the second round of planning that led to an updated regional plan in 2006, considerable effort was made to develop a specific plan to meet future demands through 2060. El Paso County is currently supplied water from the Rio Grande, local groundwater and reclaimed water. Potential future supplies include imported groundwater from other parts of Far West Texas. The 2006 regional plan includes the development of six alternative integrated strategies that include local surface water, local groundwater, expansion of reclaimed water and imported groundwater. The 2006 regional plan provides for meeting all future non agricultural demands in El Paso County through the adoption of Alternative 6, which includes conjunctive use of local surface and groundwater resources, expansion of conservation, expansion of reclaimed water use, and the importation of groundwater from the Dell City area and from the Capitan Reef Aquifer, located southeast of Dell City. Other potential imported supplies identified in other alternatives in Culberson, Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties will not be used prior to 2060 under the adopted alternative

HILT : High-Level Thesaurus Project M2M Feasibility Study : [Final Report]

The project was asked to investigate the feasibility of developing SOAP-based interfaces between JISC IE services and Wordmap APIs and non-Wordmap versions of the HILT pilot demonstrator created under HILT Phase II and to determine the scope and cost of the provision of an actual demonstrator based on each of these approaches. In doing so it was to take into account the possibility of a future Zthes1-based solution using Z39.50 or OAI-PMH and syntax and data-exchange protocol implications of eScience and semantic-web developments. It was agreed that the primary concerns of the study should be an assessment of the feasibility, scope, and cost of a follow-up M2M pilot that considered the best options in respect of: o Query protocols (SOAP, Z39.50, SRW, OAI) and associated data profiles (e.g. Zthes for Z39.50 and for SRW); o Standards for structuring thesauri and thesauri-type information (e.g. the Zthes XML DTD and SRW version of it and SKOS-Core2); The study was carried out within the allotted timescale, with this Final Report submitted to JISC on 31st March 2005 as scheduled. The detailed proposal for a follow-up project is currently under discussion and will be finalised – as agreed with JISC – by mid-April. It was concluded that an M2M pilot was feasible. A proposal for a follow-up M2M pilot project has been scoped, and is currently being costed

Alfalfa IPM: sampling alfalfa insects (Revised 1993)

1 online resource (PDF, 4 pages)This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu

Episode 3: Corn Rootworm Activity & Bt Resistance Updates

Runtime 24:04Ken Ostlie discusses corn rootworm and ongoing research

Episode 2: Early Season Weed Control in Corn and Soybeans

Runtime 22:24Jeff Gunsolus discusses early season weed management

Episode 15 Insect Overview with Bill Hutchison: What's Killing My Kale?

Runtime 37:45For our September series of "What's Killing My Kale?", we caught up with some of our Extension IPM experts to discuss the main 2018 growing season pest pressures and how to prepare for 2019. We discussed weeds with Annie Klodd, diseases with Michelle Grabowski, and insects with Bill Hutchison.

Episode 18: Climate in Minnesota - how it helps and challenges pest management

Runtime 32:16Climate in Minnesota and how it helps and challenges pest management. Climate and weather significantly affect how we manage pests from winter keeping out some invasive pests, affecting spring emergence of insects & weeds, conditions ideal for disease, as well as crop planting dates and how they coincide with pest development

Colossal Dielectric Permittivity in (Nb+Al) Codoped Rutile TiO 2 Ceramics: Compositional Gradient and Local Structure

(Nb+Al) codoped rutile TiO2 ceramics with nominal composition Ti4+0.995Nb5+0.005yAl3+0.005zO2, z = (4-5y)/3 and y = 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and Ti4+0.90Nb5+0.05Al3+0.05O2 have been synthesized. The resultant samples in ceramic pellet form exhibit a colossal dielectric permittivity (>-104) with an acceptably low dielectric loss (-10-1) after optimization of the processing conditions. It is found that a conventional surface barrier layer capacitor (SBLC) effect, while it contributes significantly to the observed colossal permittivity, is not the dominant effect. Rather, there exists a subtle chemical compositional gradient inward from the pellet surface, involving the concentration of Ti3+ cations gradually increasing from zero at the surface without the introduction of any charge compensating oxygen vacancies. Instead, well-defined Gr ± 1/3[011]∗ satellite reflections with the modulation wave-vector q = 1/3[011]r∗ and sharp diffuse streaking running along the Gr ± ε011]∗ direction from electron diffraction suggest that the induced additional metal ions appear to be digested by a locally intergrown, intermediate, metal ion rich structure. This gradient in local chemical composition exists on a scale up to submillimeters, significantly affecting the overall dielectric properties. This work suggests that such a controllable surface compositional gradient is an alternative method to tailor the desired dielectric performance

T108. AUT00206, A novel KV3 channel modulator, reduces ketamine-induced bold signalling in health male volunteers: a randomised placebo-controlled crossover trial

Background Evidence suggests that schizophrenia involves impaired functioning of fast spiking (FS) GABA interneurons and disinhibition of glutamate release. Acute ketamine disrupts interneuron-pyramidal neuron balance, increases network activity, and increases the cortical blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in rodents and humans. In humans, ketamine markedly increased BOLD signal in dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and in precuneus, which correlated with psychosis–like subjective effects of the drug. These effects were reduced by pre-treatment with lamotrigine (Deakin et al PMID:18250253). AUT00206 is a positive modulator of Kv3.1 and Kv3.2 channels that are located on fast-spiking cortical GABA interneurons. We have previously reported that AUT00206 reduced the BOLD response to acute ketamine in rodents. The present study explored the effects of AUT00206 in an acute ketamine challenge study in healthy volunteers. Methods The design was a single-centre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study for 16 healthy participants. AUT00206 (800 mg, 2000 mg) or placebo was administered 4 hours prior to the intravenous infusion of ketamine or saline during MR BOLD imaging. Saline was infused for 8 minutes (baseline), followed by ketamine (bolus of 0.26 mg/kg for 1 min, maintenance of 0.25 mg/kg/h for 30 mins) or continued saline. The BOLD signal was followed for a further 16 mins. Participants attended 4 pharmaco-MRI sessions in which they received (in random order) placebo + saline, placebo + ketamine, 2000 mg AUT00206 + ketamine, 800 mg AUT00206 + ketamine. BOLD signal was averaged within 3 ROIs (dACC, precuneus and thalamus). A mixed models ANCOVA examined the influence of Treatment (4 levels) and Time (2 levels: the average BOLD signal over the first and second 8 minutes of the active infusion). The baseline average was used as a covariate. The doses and ROIs were analysed separately. Within the model, pairwise contrasts of interest were AUT00206 + ketamine versus placebo + ketamine. Results 23 subjects were randomised and 15 completed all 4 study scanning sessions, with dropouts mainly due to scanner technical issues, intolerance to ketamine, or excessive head movement. AUT00206 was well tolerated with no serious or severe AEs attributed to study drug. Ketamine evoked rapid increases in BOLD signal in the 3 primary ROIs. In dACC, both doses of AUT00206 attenuated the effect of ketamine compared to placebo, with pairwise effects of Treatment (β= -0.72; [95% CI -1.19 to -0.25] p=0.003) for the 800mg dose and (β= -0.49; [95% CI-0.97 to -0.02] p=0.04) for the 2000mg dose. BOLD responses to ketamine in precuneus and thalamus were similar in magnitude, but shorter lasting than responses in dACC. AUT00206 did not attenuate ketamine effects in precuneus. In thalamus AUT00206 800mg lessened responses in the second 8 minutes at trend level significance (p=0.05) contributing to an overall Treatment by Time interaction (p=0.03). AUT00206 800mg attenuated ketamine effects in all 12 secondary ROIs reaching significance in insula and right prefrontal cortex, again in the last 8 minutes. Discussion This study is the first evidence of a central effect of the novel Kv3 modulator, AUT00206 in healthy humans. Based on evidence from rodent models, we suggest that the drug enhances the activity of GABA interneurons in cortical circuits, which opposes the effects of ketamine. The results are also consistent with results from the rodent ketamine-challenge model. These results are promising for the potential use of AUT00206 in the treatment of disorders associated with reduced cortical inhibitory function, such as schizophrenia

The effect of AUT00206, a Kv3 potassium channel modulator, on dopamine synthesis capacity and the reliability of [¹⁸F]-FDOPA imaging in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Current treatments for schizophrenia act directly on dopamine (DA) receptors but are ineffective for many patients, highlighting the need to develop new treatment approaches. Striatal DA dysfunction, indexed using [(18)F]-FDOPA imaging, is linked to the pathoetiology of schizophrenia. We evaluated the effect of a novel drug, AUT00206, a Kv3.1/3.2 potassium channel modulator, on dopaminergic function in schizophrenia and its relationship with symptom change. Additionally, we investigated the test–retest reliability of [(18)F]-FDOPA PET in schizophrenia to determine its potential as a biomarker for drug discovery. METHODS: Twenty patients with schizophrenia received symptom measures and [(18)F]-FDOPA PET scans, before and after being randomised to AUT00206 or placebo groups for up to 28 days treatment. RESULTS: AUT00206 had no significant effect on DA synthesis capacity. However, there was a correlation between reduction in striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (indexed as Ki(cer)) and reduction in symptoms, in the AUT00206 group (r = 0.58, p = 0.03). This was not observed in the placebo group (r = −0.15, p = 0.75), although the placebo group may have been underpowered to detect an effect. The intraclass correlation coefficients of [(18)F]-FDOPA indices in the placebo group ranged from 0.83 to 0.93 across striatal regions. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between reduction in DA synthesis capacity and improvement in symptoms in the AUT00206 group provides evidence for a pharmacodynamic effect of the Kv3 channel modulator. The lack of a significant overall reduction in DA synthesis capacity in the AUT00206 group could be due to variability and the low number of subjects in this study. These findings support further investigation of Kv3 channel modulators for schizophrenia treatment. [(18)F]-FDOPA PET imaging showed very good test–retest reliability in patients with schizophrenia