Formulation of a Mathematical Model for the Allocation of Colorado River Waters in Utah

This report is linked with the work done in fulfillment of the first objective of a research project now underway at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. The project, entitled Application of Operations Research Techniques for Allocation of Colorado River Waters in Utah, is a matching fund grant by The Office of Water Resources Research of the United States Department of the Interior. The project has the following objectives: (1) formulate the mathematical model of that part of the state that can receive Colorado River water, (2) optimize the allocation model under different demand levels and study the economic effects of legal, political, and social limitations, (3) evaluate the usefulness of the operations research approach for water planning

Decisionmaking and the EIS on Operations of Glen Canyon Dam

16 pages

Formulation of a Mathematical Model for the Allocation of Colorado river Waters in Utah

A Mathematical model for the allocation of Utah’s water resources is formulated in the linear programming format. The availability of water from various sources is considered with the demands for water in each of the nine hydrologic study areas of Utah. The applications of mathematical models of this type are studied and the merits of the linear programming approach are discussed

A Water Resource Management Model, Upper Jordan River Drainage, Utah

As demands upon available water supplies increase within a river basin, there is an accompanying increase in the need to assess the downstream consequences resulting from changes at specific locations within the hydrologic system. This problem is approached in this study by digital computer simulation of the hydrologic system. Modeling concepts are based upon basic relationships which describe the various hydrologic processes. Within a hydrologic system these relationships are linked by the continuity-of-mass principle which requires a mass balance at all points. Spatial resolution is achieved by considering the modeled area as a series of subbasins. The time increment adopted for the model is one month, so that time varying quantities are expressed in terms of mean monthly values. The model is general in nature and is applied to a particular hydrologic system through a programmed verification procedure whereby model coefficients are evaluated for the particular system. In this study the model was applied to the Provo River basin of northern Utah, with emphases being placed upon water rights and operation of storage reservoirs within the system, including Utah Lake. The simulation model consists of three specific parts, namely: (1) parameter optimization; (2) river basin management; and (3) Utah Lake operation. The parameter optimization submodel identifies the model parameters for each subbasin through application of a parameter optimization technique. The river basin management submodel, using the optimized parameters, simulated the hydrologic response of the system to various water resources management alternatives. The Utah Lake operation submodel is linked with the river basin management submodel to comprise a combined Utah Lake operations model. Some comparisons between observed and computed outflow hydrographs at various points within the Provo River basin are shown. The utility of the model for predicting the effects of various possible water resource management alternatives is demonstrated

Spatial analysis of air pollution and childhood asthma in Hamilton, Canada: comparing exposure methods in sensitive subgroups

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Variations in air pollution exposure within a community may be associated with asthma prevalence. However, studies conducted to date have produced inconsistent results, possibly due to errors in measurement of the exposures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A standardized asthma survey was administered to children in grades one and eight in Hamilton, Canada, in 1994–95 (N ~1467). Exposure to air pollution was estimated in four ways: (1) distance from roadways; (2) interpolated surfaces for ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and nitrous oxides from seven to nine governmental monitoring stations; (3) a kriged nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) surface based on a network of 100 passive NO₂monitors; and (4) a land use regression (LUR) model derived from the same monitoring network. Logistic regressions were used to test associations between asthma and air pollution, controlling for variables including neighbourhood income, dwelling value, state of housing, a deprivation index and smoking.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no significant associations between any of the exposure estimates and asthma in the whole population, but large effects were detected the subgroup of children without hayfever (predominately in girls). The most robust effects were observed for the association of asthma without hayfever and NO₂LUR OR = 1.86 (95%CI, 1.59–2.16) in all girls and OR = 2.98 (95%CI, 0.98–9.06) for older girls, over an interquartile range increase and controlling for confounders.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings indicate that traffic-related pollutants, such as NO₂, are associated with asthma without overt evidence of other atopic disorders among female children living in a medium-sized Canadian city. The effects were sensitive to the method of exposure estimation. More refined exposure models produced the most robust associations.</p

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Decisionmaking and the EIS on Operations of Glen Canyon Dam

16 pages