Variables to Consider when Transferring Water Rights in New Mexico

Demand for water is growing in New Mexico. One potential solution to extend future supplies may be transferring water rights. Water rights transfers occur when existing water rights are moved to a new location or use. Because water transfers are becoming an increasingly popular way to re-allocate water, water rights holders should become familiar with the transfer process and the administrative bodies and policies governing their movement. The transfer process can be complex, influenced by many variables. Parties interested transferring water rights may be unaware of these variables and lack a basic understanding of what constitutes a water right, how water rights are determined, transaction costs, and common pitfalls in the transfer process that can lead to the denial a transfer. Pitfalls identified in this paper include initial validity of the right, continuous beneficial use, defects in title or ownership of the right, type of water right, and protests. Water right holders that can overcome these pitfalls may increase their chances of a successful transfer. The purpose of this paper is to provide a roadmap\u27 or \u27guide\u27 to right holders interested in transferring water rights. A discussion of water rights, their administration, and the transfer process will be given to explain this relationship. Next, the five pitfalls identified will be explained to show why they are important in the transfer process. Finally, recommendations will be given on what right holders should do before transferring their water rights

Analysis and visualisation of RDF resources in Ondex

An increasing number of biomedical resources provide their information on the Semantic Web and this creates the basis for a distributed knowledge base which has the potential to advance biomedical research [1]. This potential, however, cannot be realized until researchers from the life sciences can interact with information in the Semantic Web. In particular, there is a need for tools that provide data reduction, visualization and interactive analysis capabilities.
Ondex is a data integration and visualization platform developed to support Systems Biology Research [2]. At its core is a data model based on two main principles: first, all information can be represented as a graph and, second, all elements of the graph can be annotated with ontologies. This data model conforms to the Semantic Web framework, in particular to RDF, and therefore Ondex is ideally positioned as a platform that can exploit the semantic web. 
The Ondex system offers a range of features and analysis methods of potential value to semantic web users, including:
-	An interactive graph visualization interface (Ondex user client), which provides data reduction and representation methods that leverage the ontological annotation.
-	A suite of importers from a variety of data sources to Ondex (http://ondex.org/formats.html)
-	A collection of plug-ins which implement graph analysis, graph transformation and graph-matching functions.
-	An integration toolkit (Ondex Integrator) which allows users to compose workflows from these modular components
-	In addition, all importers and plug-ins are available as web-services which can be integrated in other tools, as for instance Taverna [3].
The developments that will be presented in this demo have made this functionality interoperable with the Semantic Web framework. In particular we have developed an interactive importer, based on SPARQL that allows the query-driven construction of datasets which brings together information from different RDF data resources into Ondex.
These datasets can then be further refined, analysed and annotated both interactively using the Ondex user client and via user-defined workflows. The results of these analyses can be exported in RDF, which can be used to enrich existent knowledge bases, or to provide application-specific views of the data. Both importer and exporter only focus on a subset of the Ondex and RDF data models, which are shared between these two data representations [4].
In this demo we will show how Ondex can be used to query, analyse and visualize Semantic Web knowledge bases. In particular we will present real use cases focused, but not limited to, resources relevant to plant biology. 
We believe that Ondex can be a valid contribution to the adoption of the Semantic Web in Systems Biology research and in biomedical investigation more generally. We welcome feedback on our current import/export prototype and suggestions for the advancement of Ondex for the Semantic Web.

References

1.	Ruttenberg, A. et. al.: Advancing translational research with the Semantic Web, BMC Bioinformatics, 8 (Suppl. 3): S2 (2007).
2.	Köhler, J., Baumbach, J., Taubert, J., Specht, M., Skusa, A., Ruegg, A., Rawlings, C., Verrier, P., Philippi, S.: Graph-based analysis and visualization of experimental results with Ondex. Bioinformatics 22 (11):1383-1390 (2006).
3.	Rawlings, C.: Semantic Data Integration for Systems Biology Research, Technology Track at ISMB’09, http://www.iscb.org/uploaded/css/36/11846.pdf (2009).
4.	Splendiani, A. et. al.: Ondex semantic definition, (Web document) http://ondex.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ondex/trunk/doc/semantics/ (2009).
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Effects of the Rice Root Aphid, Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominalis (Sasaki), on Wheat Growth and Yield

The rice root aphid, Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominalis (Sasaki), has recently been identified on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Oklahoma. This aphid is easily misidentified as the bird cherry-oat aphid (R. padi L.) and subsequent observations suggest it may be a more serious pest than previously believed. A survey of Oklahoma counties was done to expand the known distribution and field and laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effects this potential pest species may have on wheat cultivars commonly grown in Oklahoma. The rice root aphid has been found on winter wheat across Oklahoma. Under ideal conditions, the rice root aphid had no impact on wheat seedling development and forage weights. In a field setting, a T-test revealed significant decreases in mean sample weights and mean seed weights. Also, during the fall of 2005, Oklahoma experienced drought conditions and the rice root aphid was observed at much higher infestation levels than ever before. It is possible that under drought-like conditions the rice root aphid will significantly affect forage and grain yields of winter wheat in Oklahoma.Department of Entomology and Plant Patholog

An Economic Model Predictive Control Framework for Distributed Embedded Battery Applications

Since building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are significant consumers of primary energy, considerable efforts are being made to improve energy efficiency and decrease energy costs in these applications. Notably, substantial opportunities in the area of HVAC control exist for decreasing energy costs by shifting loads from peak periods to off-peak periods in the presence of time-varying utility prices. This load shifting is also beneficial for power companies since it results in a more constant total load allowing them to operate more efficiently. Economic model predictive control (MPC) has been shown to significantly decrease the energy costs of commercial HVAC systems via load shifting. Typically, thermal energy storage (TES) is used for this purpose by running HVAC equipment at higher rates during periods of low power prices to charge TES and at lower rates during periods of higher prices while discharging TES to meet building demand loads. However, with batteries becoming less expensive to manufacture, electrical energy storage in batteries is becoming a viable option for load shifting. Batteries can be used for both load shifting to decrease costs and revenue generation if the incentives on the electricity market are appropriate. In this work, embedded battery applications are considered. In embedded battery applications, the batteries are directly packaged with airside equipment such as air handler units (AHUs), roof-top units (RTUs), and variable refrigerant flow systems (VRFs). In this arrangement, the batteries are accessible only to the local unit and not to other units. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical control system framework for the economic optimization of distributed embedded battery units. The architecture considers both building mass storage as well as the electrical energy storage of the battery units. A high-level problem performs an economic optimization over the entire system using aggregate models. The low-level layer is broken into subsystems, each optimizing its local decisions with higher fidelity models. Advantages of this framework include no iterative communication required between subsystems, decreased computational complexity in the high-level problem allowing for real-time online implementation, and management of total demand across the entire system to reduce peak demand charges. We conclude with a simulation study demonstrating the benefits of the proposed control architecture

Expression and knockdown of zebrafish folliculin suggests requirement for embryonic brain morphogenesis.

BACKGROUND: Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHD) is a dominantly inherited familial cancer syndrome characterised by the development of benign skin fibrofolliculomas, multiple lung and kidney cysts, spontaneous pneumothorax and susceptibility to renal cell carcinoma. BHD is caused by mutations in the gene encoding Folliculin (FLCN). Little is known about what FLCN does in a healthy individual and how best to treat those with BHD. As a first approach to developing a vertebrate model for BHD we aimed to identify the temporal and spatial expression of flcn transcripts in the developing zebrafish embryo. To gain insights into the function of flcn in a whole organism system we generated a loss of function model of flcn by the use of morpholino knockdown in zebrafish. RESULTS: flcn is expressed broadly and upregulated in the fin bud, somites, eye and proliferative regions of the brain of the Long-pec stage zebrafish embryos. Together with knockdown phenotypes, expression analysis suggest involvement of flcn in zebrafish embryonic brain development. We have utilised the zFucci system, an in vivo, whole organism cell cycle assay to study the potential role of flcn in brain development. We found that at the 18 somite stage there was a significant drop in cells in the S-M phase of the cell cycle in flcn morpholino injected embryos with a corresponding increase of cells in the G1 phase. This was particularly evident in the brain, retina and somites of the embryo. Timelapse analysis of the head region of flcn morpholino injected and mismatch control embryos shows the temporal dynamics of cell cycle misregulation during development. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion we show that zebrafish flcn is expressed in a non-uniform manner and is likely required for the maintenance of correct cell cycle regulation during embryonic development. We demonstrate the utilisation of the zFucci system in testing the role of flcn in cell proliferation and suggest a function for flcn in regulating cell proliferation in vertebrate embryonic brain development.Funding for this project was provided by the Myrovlytis Trust and a KWF travel grant to Monique Luijten.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12861-016-0119-

Cosmological Studies with Radio Galaxies and Supernovae

Physical sizes of extended radio galaxies can be employed as a cosmological "standard ruler", using a previously developed method. Eleven new radio galaxies are added to our previous sample of nineteen sources, forming a sample of thirty objects with redshifts between 0 and 1.8. This sample of radio galaxies are used to obtain the best fit cosmological parameters in a quintessence model in a spatially flat universe, a cosmological constant model that allows for non-zero space curvature, and a rolling scalar field model in a spatially flat universe. Results obtained with radio galaxies are compared with those obtained with different supernova samples, and with combined radio galaxy and supernova samples. Results obtained with different samples are consistent, suggesting that neither method is seriously affected by systematic errors. Best fit radio galaxy and supernovae model parameters determined in the different cosmological models are nearly identical, and are used to determine dimensionless coordinate distances to supernovae and radio galaxies, and distance moduli to the radio galaxies. The distance moduli to the radio galaxies can be combined with supernovae samples to increase the number of sources, particularly high-redshift sources, in the samples. The constraints obtained here with the combined radio galaxy plus supernovae data set in the rolling scalar field model are quite strong. The best fit parameter values suggest a value of omega is less than about 0.35, and the model parameter alpha is close to zero; that is, a cosmological constant provides a good description of the data. We also obtain new constraints on the physics of engines that power the large-scale radio emission.Comment: 32 pages. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

A miniaturized 4 K platform for superconducting infrared photon counting detectors

We report on a miniaturized platform for superconducting infrared photon counting detectors. We have implemented a fibre-coupled superconducting nanowire single photon detector in a Stirling/Joule–Thomson platform with a base temperature of 4.2 K. We have verified a cooling power of 4 mW at 4.7 K. We report 20% system detection efficiency at 1310 nm wavelength at a dark count rate of 1 kHz. We have carried out compelling application demonstrations in single photon depth metrology and singlet oxygen luminescence detection

The MALATANG Survey : The L GAS-L IR Correlation on Sub-kiloparsec Scale in Six Nearby Star-forming Galaxies as Traced by HCN J = 4 → 3 and HCO + J = 4 → 3

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in The Astrophysical Journal. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aac512.We present HCN J = 4→3 and HCO+ J = 4→3 maps of six nearby star-forming galaxies, NGC 253, NGC 1068, IC 342, M82, M83, and NGC 6946, obtained with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the MALATANG survey. All galaxies were mapped in the central 2×2 region at 14 (FWHM) resolution (corresponding to linear scales of ∼0.2-1.0 kpc). The LIR-Ldense relation, where the dense gas is traced by the HCN J = 4→3 and the HCO+ J = 4→3 emission, measured in our sample of spatially resolved galaxies is found to follow the linear correlation established globally in galaxies within the scatter. We find that the luminosity ratio, LIR/Ldense, shows systematic variations with LIR within individual spatially resolved galaxies, whereas the galaxy-integrated ratios vary little. A rising trend is also found between LIR/Ldense ratio and the warm-dust temperature gauged by the 70 μm/100 μm flux ratio. We find that the luminosity ratios of IR/HCN (4-3) and IR/HCO+ (4-3), which can be taken as a proxy for the star formation efficiency (SFE) in the dense molecular gas (SFE dense), appear to be nearly independent of the dense gas fraction ( f dense) for our sample of galaxies. The SFE of the total molecular gas (SFEmol) is found to increase substantially with f dense when combining our data with those on local (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies and high-z quasars. The mean LHCN(4-3) LHCO+(4-3) line ratio measured for the six targeted galaxies is 0.9±0.6. No significant correlation is found for the L'HCN(4-3) L'HCO+(4-3) ratio with the star formation rate as traced by L IR, nor with the warm-dust temperature, for the different populations of galaxies.Peer reviewe

The SAMI Galaxy Survey : rules of behaviour for spin-ellipticity radial tracks in galaxies

We study the behaviour of the spin-ellipticity radial tracks for 507 galaxies from the Sydney AAO Multiobject Integral Field (SAMI) Galaxy Survey with stellar kinematics out to >= 1.5R(e). We advocate for a morpho-dynamical classification of galaxies, relying on spatially resolved photometric and kinematic data. We find the use of spin-ellipticity radial tracks is valuable in identifying substructures within a galaxy, including embedded and counter-rotating discs, that are easily missed in unilateral studies of the photometry alone. Conversely, bars are rarely apparent in the stellar kinematics but are readily identified on images. Consequently, we distinguish the spin-ellipticity radial tracks of seven morpho-dynamical types: elliptical, lenticular, early spiral, late spiral, barred spiral, embedded disc, and 2 sigma galaxies. The importance of probing beyond the inner radii of galaxies is highlighted by the characteristics of galactic features in the spin-ellipticity radial tracks present at larger radii. The density of information presented through spin-ellipticity radial tracks emphasizes a clear advantage to representing galaxies as a track, rather than a single point, in spin-ellipticity parameter space.Peer reviewe