226 research outputs found

    An Economic-Engineering Optimization for the Binational Mexico-U.S. Lower Colorado River Delta: the Mexicali Valley Case Study

    Get PDF
    Agricultural water use in the binational Lower Colorado River Basin is about ninety percent of all the beneficial use. Fast growing border cities of Baja California and conservation uses will increase their water allocations in the near future. The CALVIN economic-engineering model was used to evaluate the benefits and costs of a variety of water management strategies in the Lower Colorado River Delta in Mexico. Results show that at 2025 water demand conditions, agriculture seems to be the most suitable donor of water to other sectors. Wastewater reuse for irrigation and/or conservation purposes may reduce dependence on agricultural water imports to fulfill future demands

    More Than Just a Hand Injury in a World Champion

    Get PDF
    Please click the pdf icon to download the abstrac

    Economic Analysis of the 2016 California Drought on Agriculture: A report for the California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Get PDF
    UC Davis researchers forecast the socio-economic effects of the drought on California agriculture for 2014 and beyond. Economists use computer models and the latest estimates of water deliveries, well-pumping capacities and acres fallowed. The researchers exploit new satellite remote-sensing technologies to estimate fallowed acreage as the drought unfolds.UC Davis researchers forecast the socio-economic effects of the drought on California agriculture for 2014 and beyond. Economists use computer models and the latest estimates of water deliveries, well-pumping capacities and acres fallowed. The researchers exploit new satellite remote-sensing technologies to estimate fallowed acreage as the drought unfolds

    Preoperative surgical risk stratification in osteosarcoma based on the proximity to the major vessels

    Get PDF
    Aims The aim of this study was to determine the risk of local recurrence and survival in patients with osteosarcoma based on the proximity of the tumour to the major vessels. Patients and Methods A total of 226 patients with high-grade non-metastatic osteosarcoma in the limbs were investigated. Median age at diagnosis was 15 years (4 to 67) with the ratio of male to female patients being 1.5:1. The most common site of the tumour was the femur (n = 103) followed by tibia (n = 66). The vascular proximity was categorized based on the preoperative MRI after neoadjuvant chemotherapy into four types: type 1 > 5 mm; type 2 ≤ 5 mm, > 0 mm; type 3 attached; type 4 surrounded. Results Limb salvage rate based on the proximity type was 92%, 88%, 51%, and 0% for types 1 to 4, respectively, and the overall survival at five years was 82%, 77%, 57%, and 67%, respectively (p Conclusion The proximity of osteosarcoma to major blood vessels is a poor prognostic factor for local control and survival. Amputation offers better local control for tumours attached to the blood vessels but does not improve survival. Limb salvage surgery offers similar local control if the tumour attachment to blood vessels is limited

    Fatty acid nitroalkenes ameliorate glucose intolerance and pulmonary hypertension in high-fat diet-induced obesity

    Get PDF
    Aims Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, with the incidence of these disorders becoming epidemic. Pathogenic responses to obesity have been ascribed to adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction that promotes bioactive mediator secretion from visceral AT and the initiation of pro-inflammatory events that induce oxidative stress and tissue dysfunction. Current understanding supports that suppressing pro-inflammatory and oxidative events promotes improved metabolic and cardiovascular function. In this regard, electrophilic nitro-fatty acids display pleiotropic anti-inflammatory signalling actions. Methods and results It was hypothesized that high-fat diet (HFD)-induced inflammatory and metabolic responses, manifested by loss of glucose tolerance and vascular dysfunction, would be attenuated by systemic administration of nitrooctadecenoic acid (OA-NO2). Male C57BL/6j mice subjected to a HFD for 20 weeks displayed increased adiposity, fasting glucose, and insulin levels, which led to glucose intolerance and pulmonary hypertension, characterized by increased right ventricular (RV) end-systolic pressure (RVESP) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). This was associated with increased lung xanthine oxidoreductase (XO) activity, macrophage infiltration, and enhanced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic pressure remained unaltered, indicating that the HFD produces pulmonary vascular remodelling, rather than LV dysfunction and pulmonary venous hypertension. Administration of OA-NO2 for the final 6.5 weeks of HFD improved glucose tolerance and significantly attenuated HFD-induced RVESP, PVR, RV hypertrophy, lung XO activity, oxidative stress, and pro-inflammatory pulmonary cytokine levels. Conclusions These observations support that the pleiotropic signalling actions of electrophilic fatty acids represent a therapeutic strategy for limiting the complex pathogenic responses instigated by obesity.Fil: Kelley, Eric E.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Baust, Jeff. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Bonacci, Gustavo Roberto. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Bioquímica Clínica e Inmunología; ArgentinaFil: Golin Bisello, Franca. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Devlin, Jason E.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Croix, Claudette M. St.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Watkins, Simon C.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Gor, Sonia. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Cantu Medellin, Nadiezhda. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Weidert, Eric R.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Frisbee,Jefferson C.. University of Virginia; Estados UnidosFil: Gladwin, Mark T.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Champion, Hunter C.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Freeman, Bruce A.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Khoo, Nicholas K.H.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unido

    Satellite‐Based Monitoring of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors and Their Implications for Agricultural Water Management Policy

    Get PDF
    Reliable accounting of agricultural water use is critical for sustainable water management. However, the majority of agricultural water use is not monitored, with limited metering of irrigation despite increasing pressure on both groundwater and surface water resources in many agricultural regions worldwide. Satellite remote sensing has been proposed as a low-cost and scalable solution to fill widespread gaps in monitoring of irrigation water use in both developed and developing countries, bypassing the technical, socioeconomic, and political challenges that to date have constrained in situ metering. In this paper, we show through a systematic meta-analysis that the relative accuracy of different satellite-based irrigation water use monitoring approaches remains poorly understood, with evidence of large uncertainties when water use estimates are validated against in situ irrigation data at both field and regional scales. Subsequently, we demonstrate that water use measurement errors result in large economic welfare losses for farmers and may negatively impact ability of policies to limit acute and nonlinear externalities of irrigation abstraction on both the environment and other water users. Our findings highlight that water resource planners must consider the trade-offs between accuracy and costs associated with different water use accounting approaches. Remote sensing has an important role to play in supporting improved agricultural water accounting—both independently and in combination with in situ monitoring. However, greater transparency and evidence is needed about underlying uncertainties in satellite-based models, along with how these measurement errors affect the performance of associated policies to manage different short- and long-term externalities of irrigation water use

    Anti-reflection coatings for submillimeter silicon lenses

    Get PDF
    Low-loss lenses are required for submillimeter astronomical applications, such as instrumentation for CCAT, a 25 m diameter telescope to be built at an elevation of 18,400 ft in Chile. Silicon is a leading candidate for dielectric lenses due to its low transmission loss and high index of refraction; however, the latter can lead to large reflection losses. Additionally, large diameter lenses (up to 40 cm), with substantial curvature present a challenge for fabrication of antireflection coatings. Three anti-reflection coatings are considered: a deposited dielectric coating of Parylene C, fine mesh structures cut with a dicing saw, and thin etched silicon layers (fabricated with deep reactive ion etching) for bonding to lenses. Modeling, laboratory measurements, and practicalities of fabrication for the three coatings are presented and compared. Measurements of the Parylene C anti-reflection coating were found to be consistent with previous studies and can be expected to result in a 6% transmission loss for each interface from 0.787 to 0.908 THz. The thin etched silicon layers and fine mesh structure anti-reflection coatings were designed and fabricated on test silicon wafers and found to have reflection losses less than 1% at each interface from 0.787 to 0.908 THz. The thin etched silicon layers are our preferred method because of high transmission efficiency while having an intrinsically faster fabrication time than fine structures cut with dicing saws, though much work remains to adapt the etched approach to curved surfaces and optics < 4" in diameter unlike the diced coatings

    SDSS-IV MaNGA : the MaNGA dwarf galaxy sample presentation

    Get PDF
    M.C.D. acknowledges support from CONACYT "Ciencia de Frontera" grant 320199. M.C.D. and H.M.H.T. acknowledge support from UC MEXUS-CONACYT grant CN-17-128. A.R.P. acknowledges support from the CONACyT "Ciencia Basica" grant 285721. E.A.O. acknowledges support from the SECTEI (Secretaría de Educación, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de la Ciudad de México) under the Postdoctoral Fellowship SECTEI/170/2021 and CM-SECTEI/303/2021. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions.We present the MaNGA Dwarf galaxy (MaNDala) Value Added Catalog (VAC), from the final release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV program. MaNDala consists of 136 randomly selected bright dwarf galaxies with M* −18.5, making it the largest integral field spectroscopy homogeneous sample of dwarf galaxies. We release a photometric analysis of the g, r, and z broadband imaging based on the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, as well as a spectroscopic analysis based on the Pipe3D SDSS-IV VAC. Our release includes the surface brightness (SB), geometric parameters, and color profiles, Sérsic fits as well as stellar population properties (such as stellar ages, metallicities, and star formation histories), and emission lines' fluxes within the FOV and the effective radii of the galaxies. We find that the majority of the MaNDala galaxies are star-forming late-type galaxies with 〈nSersic,r〉∼1.6 that are centrals (central/satellite dichotomy). MaNDala covers a large range of SB values (we find 11 candidate ultra-diffuse galaxies and three compact ones), filling the gap between classical dwarfs and low-mass galaxies in the Kormendy Diagram and in the size–mass/luminosity relation, which seems to flatten at 108 2, while the last 20% was at 〈z〉 < 0.3. Finally, a bending of the sSFR-M * relation at M* ∼ 109 M⊙ for the main-sequence galaxies seems to be supported by MaNDala.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
    corecore