Mitigating Environmental Externalities through Voluntary and Involuntary Water Reallocation: Nevada's Truckee-Carson River Basin

A transition from the era of building water projects and developing new supplies to an era of water reallocation is well underway in most of the West. Two decades ago, experts were debating the ability of western water institutions, originally conceived to serve the earliest non-native water diverters-irrigators and mines -- to adapt to the growing demands of cities. By acquiring water formerly used to grow crops, through voluntary market transactions, western cities have demonstrated that water law and policy prove flexible when the economic and political stakes are high enough.Initially fueled by urban growth, water reallocation is now being stimulated by a new array of forces. Throughout the West, water reallocation is beginning to reflect environmental benefits alongside the traditional uses for water in irrigation, cities, and industry. Some reallocations have involved market transfers of water arranged through voluntary negotiations; others have involved involuntary reallocations prompted by court rulings. This article argues that both types of reallocation will continue to be important in managing western water resources, but that each has quite different implications for the distribution of benefits and costs from reallocation

Imported malaria in the UK, 2005 to 2016: estimates from primary care electronic health records

Objective To investigate trends in the incidence of imported malaria in the UK between 2005 and 2016. Design Analysis of longitudinal electronic health records (EHRs) in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) primary care database. Setting UK primary care Participants In total, we examined 12,349,003 individuals aged 0 to 99 years. Outcome measure The rate of malaria recordings in THIN was calculated per year between 2005 and 2016. Rate ratios exploring differences by age, sex, location of general practice, socioeconomic status and ethnicity were estimated using multivariable Poisson regression. Results A total of 1,474 individuals with a first diagnosis of malaria were identified in THIN between 2005 and 2016. The incidence of recorded malaria followed a decreasing trend dropping from a rate of 3.33 in 2005 to 1.36 cases per 100,000 person years at risk in 2016. Multivariable Poisson regression showed that adults of working age (20 to 69 years), men, those registered with a general practice in London, higher social deprivation and non-white ethnicity were associated with higher rates of malaria recordings. Conclusion There has been a decrease in the number of malaria recordings in UK primary care over the past decade. This decrease exceeds the rate of decline reported in national surveillance data; however there are similar associations with age, sex and deprivation. Improved geographic information on the distribution of cases and the potential for automation of case identification suggests that EHRs could provide a complementary role for investigating malaria trends over time

SOA without SOAP: overview of service­-oriented architecture technologies, with emphasis on SOAP

Käesoleva bakalaureusetöö põhiline eesmärk on süsteemselt üles loetleda teenustele orienteeritud arhitektuuri (SOA) vanade ja uute implementatsioonide tugevused ja nõrkused, asetades rõhu SOAP’ile. Selle täitmiseks on võrdlusesse valitud neli tehnoloogiat, mis mängisid olulist rolli SOA tehnoloogiate kasutuselevõtus.The main goal of this thesis is to systematically identify the advantages and weaknesses in older and newer implementations of service oriented architecture (SOA), putting emphasis on the ones related to SOAP. In order to fulfill this goal, four technologies were chosen for comparison, which played a significant role in adopting SOA

cAMP-sõltuva proteiinkinaasi katalüütilise alaühiku allosteerika

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneInformatsiooni omamine ja selle edastamine on määrava tähtsusega kõikide keeruliste süsteemide toimimisel. Nii on see ka eluslooduses, kus toimub infovahetus nii rakkude vahel kui ka rakkude sees. Antud doktoritöö on keskendunud ühele rakus infot edastavale ensüümile, nimega cAMP sõltuv proteiinkinaas (proteiinkinaas A). Kinaasid on valgud, mis reguleerivad teiste valkude omadusi, kinnitades nende külge ATP molekulist pärineva fosforhappe jäägi. Selle reaktsiooni tulemusena teised valgud kas aktiveeruvad või inaktiveeruvad, või muutub nende asukoht rakus. Inimese genoomis on 518 kinaasi, millel kõigil on omad ülesanded. Nende ülesannete täitmiseks peab kinaas ära tundma oma toime märklaua, st teise valgu, mille aktiivsust ta muutma peab. See molekulide omavaheline äratundmine toimub valkude kokkupuudete kaudu, mille toimumise kohad omavad kindlat keemilist struktuuri ning mida nimetatakse sidumistsentriteks. Samadele sidumiskohtadele võivad seonduda ka muud molekulid, takistades või soodustades valgumolekuli funktsioneerimist, ning neid nimetatakse inhibiitoriteks ja aktivaatoriteks. Samal valgul võib olla ka mitu sidumiskohta. Rohkem kui 60 aastat tagasi avastati, et kui valgu pinnale on juba üks molekul seostunud, võib see oluliselt mõjutada järgnevate molekulide seostumist. Kui sidumist mõjutavad ja järgnevalt seostuvad molekul on erinevad, siis nimetatakse sellist regulatsiooni allosteeriaks. Kuigi selliseid nähtusi on kirjeldatud juba aastakümneid, ei mõisteta nende olemust täielikult tänapäevani. Selles doktoritöös uuriti allosteerilisi nähtusi proteiinkinaas A näitel, mille regulatsioon on määrava tähtsusega rakus toimuvate protsesside suunamisel. Leidsime, et allosteeriline efekt sõltub ligandide struktuurist ja selle kaudu nende valguga seostumise tugevusest ning ilmselt ka sellest, kuidas taoline sidumine muudab valgumolekuli struktuuri võnkumisi. On esitatud oletus, et allosteeriline regulatsioon toimibki valgu dünaamiliste omaduste muutmise kaudu. Tulemuste saamiseks oli vajalik luua uudne metodika, mis võimaldab iseloomustada molekulide seondumist valgule ning mõõta erinevate ligandide mõju sidumisele ning selle kaudu iseloomustada allosteerilist efekti.The ability to store and exchange information is an essential feature present in complex systems. The same principle is also true in living organisms, where information is exchanged between cells and even cell compartments. The present thesis explores one of such information forwarding enzymes in cells, namely cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Kinases are proteins that can regulate characteristics of other proteins by adding a phosporyl group to their structure. This reaction can modulate various aspects of proteins, for example their activity, cellular location or degradation timing. All 518 kinases encoded in human DNA have their specific duties to fulfill. To accomplish this, kinases must specifically identify and subsequently modify their target molecules. This ability depends on specific chemical interactions at the binding interfaces between protein kinases and their target proteins. Other molecules, called activators or inhibitors, can bind to the same binding sites, improving or hindering the proteins‘ function. There can be one or several binding sites on a protein surface. More than 60 years ago it was discovered that binding of a molecule to a protein surface can affect subsequent binding of another molecule which binds to a different binding site. This regulation mechanism is called allostery if the molecules that sequentially bind to a protein are different. Although this phenomenon has been known for decades, it is still not fully understood. In this thesis, allosteric phenomenon was studied in case of PKA. Regulation of this enzyme is important as it plays a significant role as a signal forwarding system in cells. We found that allosteric effect depends on binding affinity which is linked to ligand structure. Data analysis suggested that allostery mainly arises through modulation of protein intrinsic movements, shortly by freezing protein, that is in compex with its binding partners, into a tightly packed conformation. To reach these conclusions, a novel method for detection of ligands in different conditions was developed during the preparation of this thesis

Recent trends in the incidence of anxiety diagnoses and symptoms in primary care.

Anxiety is common, with significant morbidity, but little is known about presentations and recording of anxiety diagnoses and symptoms in primary care. This study aimed to determine trends in incidence and socio-demographic variation in General Practitioner (GP) recorded diagnoses of anxiety, mixed anxiety/depression, panic and anxiety symptoms

The early presentation and management of rheumatoid arthritis cases in primary care

Recent NICE guidance has emphasised the importance of early recognition and referral of patients with inflammatory arthritis so that disease modifying treatment can be promptly initiated. The timely identification of such patients, given the large numbers consulting with musculoskeletal complaints, is a considerable challenge and descriptive data from primary care are sparse. Our objective was to examine GP records from three years before to 14 days after the first coded diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in order to describe the early course and management of the diseas