Basic Water Law Concepts

Water problems have always plagued New Mexico. Its inhabitants have struggled with how to survive in a land thirsty for water from long before recorded history. Just as past leaders of this arid land have tried to implement policies and laws to distribute the precious resource of water equitably, our present and future leaders will continue to wrestle with how to most wisely manage water in New Mexico. Modern water law has been forged by history. Concepts, attitudes, the language found in today’s constitution, statutes, and judicial decisions addressing New Mexico’s water law have long-standing historical roots. A brief overview of the peoples who have inhabited New Mexico provides a basic understanding of current water law

Adjudications

Adjudications are lawsuits that take place in state or federal court to resolve all claims to water use in the state of New Mexico, including those of Pueblos, tribes and the federal government. These cases are required by statute to create a formal inventory of water uses and to facilitate administration of New Mexico’s surface and groundwater. The geographic scope of each case is generally described by a stream system and occasionally by a groundwater basin. By statute, the State is always the plaintiff. The mission is to formally identify and recognize all valid water rights in each area being adjudicated. For expeditious and effective case management, a court may allow the case to proceed by smaller geographic sections: for example,the Pecos adjudication has twelve sections and the Lower Rio Grande has five sections

Blur Reduction in Ultrasonic Images Using Pseudo Three-Dimensional Wiener Filtering

The ability to quantitatively image material anomalies with ultrasonic methods is severely restricted by the axial and lateral resolution of the interrogating transducer. Axial resolution is controlled by the pulse duration of the transducer with shorter pulse durations yielding better axial resolution. Lateral resolution is controlled by the width of the interrogating beam with narrower beams providing better lateral resolutio

Impact-Induced Delaminations in Thermoset and Thermoplastic Composites

Laminated fiber-reinforced composites are engineering materials with many desirable properties including high stiffness and strength. However, the lack of fiber reinforcement in the through-thickness direction makes composite laminates vulnerable to foreign object impact loading. Transverse impact loading can lead to a variety of damages including matrix cracking, delamination and fiber breakage. Delaminations can reduce the strength of a laminate, especially the compressive strength after impact. Impact loading typically causes multiple delaminations that vary in size and shape by depth location. The fracture behavior of impact damages has been a topic of extensive research [1]. Recently significant advances have been made in the area of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of impact damages in composites. For example, ultrasound is used to map out the details of impact-induced delaminations with ply-by-ply resolution [2].</p

3D Methods for Medical Education and Clinical Practice

New imaging technologies and 3D rendering software, in addition to being useful diagnostic tools, allow us to augment patient education and further medical student and physician knowledge. 3D imaging modalities such as CT and MRI expedite the learning process for medical students, allow physicians to better visualize the anatomy and potential pathologies present, and aid in educating patients to help them better understand their conditions. We present here 3D interpretations from a sample of CT imaging studies of the cerebral vasculature, optic neural pathways, and paranasal sinuses. These data were obtained from the NIH Cancer Database, among other sources. The raw imaging data was imported into a third-party image analysis software called Amira, which was used to primarily facilitate 3D renderings. From there, the project images were further manipulated and enhanced utilizing other third-party programs, including Autodesk, Mesh Mixer, Adobe 3D Toolkit, and Softwarecasa Camtasia Studio, so that they could be exported as 3D prints, interactive 3D PDFs, and 3D animations. Analysis of data, 3D rendering, and construction of the final products all took place in the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine 3D Research Lab. Our intent for the first step in using these projects for medical education includes making these 3D models available to first-year gross anatomy curricula, with the goal of helping students better visualize structures that may otherwise be problematic to view in a cadaver. Our ultimate goal is to have 3D visualization technology incorporated into various facets of medical practice and education: for instance, this technology may help physicians incorporate 3D visualizations of various pathologies (e.g. exact locations of berry aneurysms) into their everyday practice and patient interactions

Imaging of Impact Damage in Composite Materials

Conventional ultrasonic C-scan images are generated from information acquired within “gates” placed at specific temporal locations on low-pass filtered and rectified versions of A-scans. Placing the gates at temporal locations which correspond with interfaces allows the integrity of the interfaces to be examined. However, if the interfaces are closely spaced, as is the case for quasi-isotropic graphite/epoxy composites, the information from upper layers is blurred into the layers below because of the finite time duration of the ultrasonic pulse. This creates a low signal-to-background-level ratio, which causes blurring at and below the first interface

Restricted Rotational Flexibility of the C5α-Methyl-Substituted Carbapenem NA-1-157 Leads to Potent Inhibition of the GES-5 Carbapenemase

Carbapenem antibiotics are used as a last-resort treatment for infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. The wide spread of carbapenemases in Gram-negative bacteria has severely compromised the utility of these drugs and represents a serious public health threat. To combat carbapenemase-mediated resistance, new antimicrobials and inhibitors of these enzymes are urgently needed. Here, we describe the interaction of the atypically C5α-methyl-substituted carbapenem, NA-1-157, with the GES-5 carbapenemase. MICs of this compound against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii producing the enzyme were reduced 4–16-fold when compared to MICs of the commercial carbapenems, reaching clinically sensitive breakpoints. When NA-1-157 was combined with meropenem, a strong synergistic effect was observed. Kinetic and ESI-LC/MS studies demonstrated that NA-1-157 is a potent inhibitor of GES-5, with a high inactivation efficiency of (2.9 ± 0.9) × 105 M–1 s–1. Acylation of GES-5 by NA-1-157 was biphasic, with the fast phase completing within seconds, and the slow phase taking several hours and likely proceeding through a reversible tetrahedral intermediate. Deacylation was extremely slow (k3 = (2.4 ± 0.3) × 10–7 s–1), resulting in a residence time of 48 ± 6 days. MD simulation of the GES-5-meropenem and GES-5-NA-1-157 acyl-enzyme complexes revealed that the C5α-methyl group in NA-1-157 sterically restricts rotation of the 6α-hydroxyethyl group preventing ingress of the deacylating water into the vicinity of the scissile bond of the acyl-enzyme intermediate. These data demonstrate that NA-1-157 is a potent irreversible inhibitor of the GES-5 carbapenemase

High Resolution Computed Tomography Imaging for Material Characterization

With the advancement of aerospace components and structures, traditional materials do not possess the capabilities to perform at the anticipated mechanical stress levels for future generation aerospace applications. New and complex materials are being continually being developed to meet the evolving requirements of these applications. Complicated processes that create these developmental materials are delicate and intricate, making characterization information of the material and/or the process valuable data to material development community. This information may enable the designer to determine whether the material is properly made, the expected range of performance based on the material quality, and anticipate adjustments in future material processing parameters.</p