Irrigation and water resources in the 1990's

Presented at Irrigation and water resources in the 1990's: proceedings from the 1992 national conference held on October 5-7, 1992 in Phoenix, Arizona.The Turlock Irrigation District, located in the Central Valley of California, supplies irrigation water to 150,000 acres and electricity to over 60,000 customers. The District's irrigation service area is highly developed, and most natural drainage channels have been eliminated. The irrigation delivery system, consisting of 250 miles of canals and laterals, is used by farmers and cities to route storm drainage during the wet season. There are two small intermittent streams, Sand Creek and Mustang Creek, that enter the canal system. During normal storm events, runoff is small and the canals can readily handle the flows from the two creeks, and storm water from Turlock, other communities, and farms. On February 12, 1992 an intense storm in the area resulted in rainfall accumulations of 2.5 inches to 3.5 inches in a 24-hour period. Rainfall of these intensities occurs less frequently than once every 100 years. By early afternoon it was obvious that large flows from the two streams would reach the canal system by evening. A command post was established and crews were organized to patrol the canals and to route flows to laterals with capacity available. In the early evening the Highline Canal had broken in five locations. Crews were immediately dispatched to begin repairs, and additional help was secured from local contractors and farmers. During the same period, the Turlock Main Canal was flowing at peak capacity, with flows being routed to several laterals. The City of Turlock had to discontinue pumping for almost 24 hours. By carefully routing the storm water and keeping the canals and laterals free of debris, additional major damage was avoided. As a result of this emergency, the Turlock Irrigation District is preparing a flood control manual for use in future flood events

1996 USCID water management conference

Presented at Competing interests in water resources - searching for consensus: proceedings from the USCID water management conference held on December 5-7, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Jordan does not have a water supply sufficient for current and future irrigation, domestic, and industrial needs. The Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) provides irrigation water to about 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres) of land in the Jordan Valley where a variety of crops are raised. Water supplied from the Jordan River and its tributaries is limited, and storage is very limited. Domestic and industrial water supplies are also taken from the river, and demands will increase as the population and industrial base expands. Per capita water use is very low, so opportunities to conserve domestic water are limited. Thus the agricultural sector is faced with losing an ever increasing amount of water to domestic and industrial uses; however, much of this water will return to the agricultural sector as treated waste water. There are several opportunities for improving the efficiency of water use in the Jordan Valley including: rehabilitation of the irrigation water delivery system; improvement of the operation and maintenance of the system; upgrading the skills of JVA operations and maintenance personnel; development of water delivery schedules that are compatible with cropping patterns and on-farm irrigation systems, particularly micro-irrigation systems; providing water of adequate quality for use with micro-irrigation delivery systems; training and providing information and technical assistance to farmers; and assisting in the development of water user organizations. This paper discusses the activities that are currently underway and are proposed to conserve water in the Jordan Valley

Season of the year influences infection rates following total hip arthroplasty

To research the influence of season of the year on periprosthetic joint infections. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of the entire Medicare files from 2005 to 2014. Seasons were classified as spring, summer, fall or winter. Regional variations were accounted for by dividing patients into four geographic regions as per the United States Census Bureau (Northeast, Midwest, West and South). Acute postoperative infection and deep periprosthetic infections within 90 d after surgery were tracked. RESULTS In all regions, winter had the highest incidence of periprosthetic infections (mean 0.98%, SD 0.1%) and was significantly higher than other seasons in the Midwest, South and West (P \u3c 0.05 for all) but not the Northeast (P = 0.358). Acute postoperative infection rates were more frequent in the summer and were significantly affected by season of the year in the West. CONCLUSION Season of the year is a risk factor for periprosthetic joint infection following total hip arthroplasty (THA). Understanding the influence of season on outcomes following THA is essential when risk-stratifying patients to optimize outcomes and reduce episode of care costs. © The Author(s) 2017

A gyroscope-based system for intraoperative measurement of tibia coronal plane alignment in total knee arthroplasty

Coronal plane alignment in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an important predictor of clinical outcomes including patient satisfaction and device longevity. Radiography and computer assisted navigation are the two primary technologies currently available to surgeons for intraoperative assessment of alignment; however, neither is particularly well-suited for use in this increasingly high volume procedure. Herein we propose a novel gyroscope-based instrument for intraoperative validation of tibia coronal plane alignment, and provide initial analytical and experimental performance assessments. The gyroscope-based alignment estimate is derived from simplified joint geometry and verified experimentally using a custom tibial trial insert containing a consumer-grade inertial measurement unit (IMU). Average accuracy of the gyroscope-based tibia coronal angle estimate was found to be within ±1° in mechanical leg jig and cadaver testing. These results indicate that the proposed gyroscope-based method shows promise for low cost, accurate intraoperative validation of limb alignment in TKA patients. Integrating IMU technology into the TKA surgical workflow via low-cost instrumentation will enable surgeons to easily validate implant alignment in real time, thereby reducing cost, operating room time, and future revision burden

Small-particle Inhaled Corticosteroid as First-line or Step-up Controller Therapy in Childhood Asthma

Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mid-infrared spectral evidence for a luminous dust enshrouded source in Arp220

We have re-analyzed the 6-12 micron ISO spectrum of the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy Arp220 with the conclusion that it is not consistent with that of a scaled up version of a typical starburst. Instead, both template fitting with spectra of the galaxies NGC4418 and M83 and with dust models suggest that it is best represented by combinations of a typical starburst component, exhibiting PAH emission features, and a heavily absorbed dust continuum which contributes ~40% of the 6-12 micron flux and likely dominates the luminosity. Of particular significance relative to previous studies of Arp220 is the fact that the emission feature at 7.7 micron comprises both PAH emission and a broader component resulting from ice and silicate absorption against a heavily absorbed continuum. Extinction to the PAH emitting source, however, appears to be relatively low. We tentatively associate the PAH emitting and heavily dust/ice absorbed components with the diffuse emission region and the two compact nuclei respectively identified by Soifer et al. (2002) in their higher spatial resolution 10 micron study. Both the similarity of the absorbed continuum with that of the embedded Galactic protostars and results of the dust models imply that the embedded source(s) in Arp220 could be powered by, albeit extremely dense, starburst activity. Due to the high extinction, it is not possible with the available data to exclude that AGN(s) also contribute some or all of the observed luminosity. In this case, however, the upper limit measured for its hard X-ray emission would require Arp220 to be the most highly obscured AGN known.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Also available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~spoon/publications.htm

A review of paratuberculosis in dairy herds — Part 1: Epidemiology

Bovine paratuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). This is the first in a two-part review of the epidemiology and control of paratuberculosis in dairy herds. Paratuberculosis was originally described in 1895 and is now considered endemic among farmed cattle worldwide. MAP has been isolated from a wide range of non-ruminant wildlife as well as humans and non-human primates. In dairy herds, MAP is assumed to be introduced predominantly through the purchase of infected stock with additional factors modulating the risk of persistence or fade-out once an infected animal is introduced. Faecal shedding may vary widely between individuals and recent modelling work has shed some light on the role of super-shedding animals in the transmission of MAP within herds. Recent experimental work has revisited many of the assumptions around age susceptibility, faecal shedding in calves and calf-to-calf transmission. Further efforts to elucidate the relative contributions of different transmission routes to the dissemination of infection in endemic herds will aid in the prioritisation of efforts for control on farm

A review of paratuberculosis in dairy herds — Part 2: On-farm control

Bovine paratuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease of cattle, caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). This is the second in a two-part review of the epidemiology and control of paratuberculosis in dairy herds. Several negative production effects associated with MAP infection have been described, but perhaps the most significant concern in relation to the importance of paratuberculosis as a disease of dairy cattle is the potential link with Crohn’s disease in humans. Milk is considered a potential transmission route to humans and it is recognised that pasteurisation does not necessarily eliminate the bacterium. Therefore, control must also include reduction of the levels of MAP in bulk milk supplied from dairy farms. There is little field evidence in support of specific control measures, although several studies seem to show a decreased prevalence associated with the implementation of a combined management and test-and-cull programme. Improvements in vaccination efficacy and reduced tuberculosis (TB) test interference may increase uptake of vaccination as a control option. Farmer adoption of best practice recommendations at farm level for the control of endemic diseases can be challenging. Improved understanding of farmer behaviour and decision making will help in developing improved communication strategies which may be more efficacious in affecting behavioural change on farm

Direct Polishing of Full-Shell, High-Resolution X-Ray Optics

Future x-ray telescopes will likely require lightweight mirrors to attain the large collecting areas needed to accomplish the science objectives. Understanding and demonstrating processes now is critical to achieving sub-arcsecond performance in the future. Consequently, designs not only of the mirrors but of fixtures for supporting them during fabrication, metrology, handling, assembly, and testing must be adequately modeled and verified. To this end, MSFC is using finite-element modeling to study the effects of mounting on thin, full-shell grazing-incidence mirrors, during all processes leading to a flight