Multiple Uses of Utah Irrigation Canals: Cache County as a Case Study

Irrigation use is an obvious benefit of Utah canals that has been recognized for over 100 years. This study attempts to illustrate other, less obvious, uses. the major use examined was recreational, but canals are presently functioning as storm drainage systems and have potential for diverting flood crests in many river systems. Recreational use of canals falls into two categories. There is passive use such as its landscape values, affects on creating shade and bird-wildlife habitat, etc., that is difficult to quantify but no less important than active canal use such as tubing, hiking, bank-play, bicycling, etc. We selected several canals in and about Logan, Utah, and discovered considerable active use; this use will probably increase with suburban expansion. A Logan City canal that flowed year-round was also electro-shocked and found to have a resident brown trout population as great as many exceptional trout streams in the west. The multiple uses of our case study can best be summarized as a contrast between community benefits and conflict. In return for the thousands of hours of public enjoyment that irrigation companies now provide, they get nothing but problems. We feel if communities don\u27t begin to recognize the value of their canals and cooperate with canal companies to equitably share in the cost of public use, then canals of Utah will continue to be withdrawn from public use and become another amenity that is sacrificed to urbanization

Comparative analysis and supragenome modeling of twelve Moraxella catarrhalis clinical isolates

Contains fulltext : 97744.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: M. catarrhalis is a gram-negative, gamma-proteobacterium and an opportunistic human pathogen associated with otitis media (OM) and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). With direct and indirect costs for treating these conditions annually exceeding $33 billion in the United States alone, and nearly ubiquitous resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics among M. catarrhalis clinical isolates, a greater understanding of this pathogen's genome and its variability among isolates is needed. RESULTS: The genomic sequences of ten geographically and phenotypically diverse clinical isolates of M. catarrhalis were determined and analyzed together with two publicly available genomes. These twelve genomes were subjected to detailed comparative and predictive analyses aimed at characterizing the supragenome and understanding the metabolic and pathogenic potential of this species. A total of 2383 gene clusters were identified, of which 1755 are core with the remaining 628 clusters unevenly distributed among the twelve isolates. These findings are consistent with the distributed genome hypothesis (DGH), which posits that the species genome possesses a far greater number of genes than any single isolate. Multiple and pair-wise whole genome alignments highlight limited chromosomal re-arrangement. CONCLUSIONS: M. catarrhalis gene content and chromosomal organization data, although supportive of the DGH, show modest overall genic diversity. These findings are in stark contrast with the reported heterogeneity of the species as a whole, as wells as to other bacterial pathogens mediating OM and COPD, providing important insight into M. catarrhalis pathogenesis that will aid in the development of novel therapeutic regimens

Fall velocity of artificial porous particles

CER63KU25.Includes bibliographical references.The objective of this research is to study the fall velocity of artificial porous particles. It is expected that this study will lead to further research concerning transport of flocules or porous particles in fluids. Two types of porous particles having two different porosities were made by cementing bearing balls together. Then another set of particles identical to the two types above were made with all pores sealed. These particles were released individually in six fluids of different viscosities and the fall velocity was found by photographic means. The drag coefficients of these particles were computed. The experimental results show that there is negligible difference in the drag coefficient of the porous and sealed particles of Type I (porosity ? 0.175), except at Reynolds number greater than 104. For Type II particles (porosity ? 0.380), the porous particles show appreciably higher values of the drag coefficient than the sealed ones, except at Reynolds number smaller than 30. The characteristics of the drag coefficient curves seem to agree satisfactorily with the theoretical analysis. This theoretical analysis included considerations of the pressure drag, shear drag, and shear resistance along the flow passage due to flow through the particle