bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Shallow Geohazards Assessment Study for Field Development Projects, Lake Albert Basin
Authors: Matovu G. R. , Kibirango J. , Bidgood T. , Busingye L. , Cryan J. , Dawson K.
Published: December 2015

This paper presents the use of good quality field appraisal data to assess the shallow geohazards in locations planned for development well pads placement. For any hydrocarbon development, understanding the integrity of the surface and near-surface is important in the decision process of well pad placement and pipeline routing. The objective of this study was to assess risk of surface faults and the presence of shallow gas below the proposed surface facilities locations using available good quality 3D seismic, a high resolution digital elevation model and gas log data to analyse the shallowest 150m of the overburden in the development project area. The project area lies in the northern extent of the Albertine Rift basin, a tectonically active intracontinental rift system, with seismic activity in the region of 800 events per month.

By detailed interpretation and analysis of the 3D seismic, the study provided an insight into the structural architecture of the near surface and occurrence of shallow gas. The seismic data was of such high quality that attributes such as Variance and Dip Azimuth were used to interpret both basement and sediment propagating normal faults that extended to surface. The majority of the faults were found to align with changes in the surface topography or drainage pattern seen on the high resolution digital elevation model. Using a fault proximity zone of 200m the pad locations were categorised with regard to probability of surface fault hazard, as low, medium or high risk. Out of the 27 well pads that were screened, 5 pads locations were found to be in the high risk category, with proposed pad locations falling within the defined 200m fault proximity. This formed an important decision criterion on choice of the surface facilities location.

The work has demonstrated and identified high risk areas due to shallow faulting, with resulting pad moves whilst ensuring that environmental and social impact is minimised. In the studied area, no anomalously bright amplitudes were seen on the seismic in the shallow section. Also from the gas logs, no shallow gas was encountered in all 25 the exploration and appraisal wells in the area. The findings will also be taken into account in the pipeline routing process in order to minimise the traverse of major faults.

Development of the hydrocarbon resource in the project area will involve drilling of about 200 wells and hundreds of kilometres of excavation for inter-field pipelines. Use of the 3D seismic has demonstrated to be effective in this setting with early detection of high risk areas due to near surface faults. This desktop study resulted in a significant reduction of the scope of additional surveys and therefore a significant reduction in the cost of pre-development.
Analysis of Reservoir Scale Fracture Sets in Southern Italy's Carbonate Reservoir Analogues, Monte Faito, Sorrento Peninsula (Southern Italy)
Authors: Corradetti A. , Girundo M. , Tavani S. , Iannace A. , Parente M. , Mazzoli S. , Strauss C. , Torrieri S. , Pirmez C. , Giorgioni M.
Published: December 2015

Hauterivian-Barremian dolomitized carbonates of the Monte Faito ridge (Sorrento peninsula, Italy) rep-resent a good analogue for the Lower to middle Cretaceous portion of the reservoir units of the Southern Italy oilfields. In order to gain a better understanding of the distribution of reservoir-scale, flow-controlling ‘fracture corridors’ and of the nature of the mechanical boundaries con-trolling their vertical propagation, an integrated sedimentological, petrographic and structural study has been performed on a 200 m-thick succession of alternating dolostones and limestones. The fracture analysis, performed on a 3D model generated from photogrammetry with the help of an Unmanned Aer-ial Vehicle, identified a clear mechanical stratigraphy for large-scale fracture corridors and fault damage zones. The following stratigraphic survey established that the position of the main mechanical interfaces is controlled by: (i) tens of meters-thick bed packages dominated by fine- to medium-grained dolomite abutting a package of thick calcareous or calcareous-dolomitic beds; and (ii) packages of thin laminated dolomitic beds, representing thinning upward cycles deposited during the late highstand of lower order cycles. The rather regular stacking pattern resulting from the superposition of several orders of shallow-ing-upward cyclicity may be used to obtain a predictive tool for fracture distribution and impedance.
The Importance of Chemical Compatibility in Corrosion Inhibitor Performance
Authors: Xiong Y. , Li C. , Desai S. , Pacheco J. , Ciecko E. , Orhue D. , Mboho E. U. , Monahan C.
Published: December 2015

An important element that is often overlooked during chemical qualification and application is the compatibility between oilfield chemicals (OFCs), which can critically impact the ability of the chemicals to meet their desired function in the field. In the area of corrosion control, one important example of this is the interference of oilfield chemicals on corrosion inhibitor effectiveness. In this study, we aimed to identify the primary sources of inhibition failure during the simultaneous use of a corrosion inhibitor with scale inhibitor, drag reducing agent, and biocides under particular field conditions. Results show that one type of biocide completely rendered the corrosion inhibitor ineffective, while other OFCs had no significant impact on corrosion inhibition. The findings in this study highlight the necessity for chemical compatilibty checks during corrosion inhibitor qualification, or when there is a change in other OFC formulation/application, to ensure proper corrosion protection is maintained. Additional work is ongoing to improve the fundamental understanding of chemical compatibility.
A Portfolio of Commercial Scale CCS Demonstration Projects
Authors: Maas W. , de Nier M. , Wiwchar T. , Spence B.
Published: December 2015

Shell is progressing a portfolio of commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects covering an array of technologies that target applications of close relevance to the wider oil and gas industry. The portfolio includes projects such as Peterhead, Quest, Technology Centre Mongstad and Gorgon. A number of key learnings on both the technology deployment and critical project development aspects for the different project phases have been obtained. This paper provides an overview of these learnings with a specific focus on the issues faced by CCS project developers.

CCS is currently recognised as the only technology available for mitigation of carbon emissions from large-scale fossil fuel use. Before the process can be widely adopted it must be demonstrated at scale end-to-end. Learnings for all different project phases from early assess through to operations of these demonstrators need to be captured and communicated. As additional facilities to existing hydrocarbon operations, CCS projects require an approach similar to the development of other oil and gas projects.

To help enable and support other CCS projects, Shell is also committed to knowledge sharing from the projects, often agreed as part of the Knowledge Management provisions of the projects.

One of the key observations provided from the demonstration portfolio is the need for regular and informative engagement with both the public and regulators as the project progresses. Early and successful demonstrations can provide the evidence required for regulators, project developers and the public to have the confidence to proceed with future CCS projects.

It is also recognised that cost reduction will be key in driving commercial ‘deployability’ of CCS. The Quest and Peterhead projects are ideally placed to enable follow-on projects to learn and further reduce costs. The Shell portfolio of projects has also demonstrated that the drivers for technology optimisation can differ depending on the end user of the CCS technology. There is a need to demonstrate different technology aspects, for example flexibility or availability.

This talk will focus on how these issues are being addressed in two of the different projects within the Shell CCS portfolio, and highlight the key lessons learned. Furthermore, the cost-related issues of CCS will be addressed.
Innovative Drilling Methodology by Integrating an Advanced Simulation Approach for Recovery Optimization of Horizontal Wells
Authors: Salim D. , Couto P. , Alves J. , Freitas E. , Haq S. , Denichou J. M.
Published: December 2015

After the progressive advancement of the drilling technologies, such as mud motors and afterward rotary steerable systems, the successful execution of high angle wells became a common practice in the oil industry. Although the associtated costs have much superior magnitude when compared to the ones related to vertical wells, the production factor is normaly improved by multiple times, turning such trajectory design very suitable. However achiving the key performance objectives, e.g., consistent and effective net pay interval along the horizontal section, can be extremely difficult. There are many geological and geophysical reasons, such as the lateral discontinuities of the reservoirs and intrinsic seismic uncertainties. To overcome such challenge, Well Placement technique is used to interactively position the well based on geological and seismic criteria together with real time Logging-While Drilling data. Despite the fact of covering the technical disciplines of drilling, geology, petrophysics and geophysics, most Well Placement approaches rarely take into consideration reservoir engineering aspects when geosteering horizontal wells.

Therefore the project objectives were to evaluate the impacts in the productivity generated by the geometrical changes in the trajectory through numerical reservoir simulation. The research work was then divided into two parts. The first one was the creation of a representative 3D synthetic reservoir model where numerical simulations were applied for each trajectory design. A detailed sensitivity analysis was made by comparing the results among the different trajectory cases in order to identify the relationship between well positioning and its productivity response.

The second part consisted of a real geosteering case study. Around both planned and executed wellbores, it was created a detailed reservoir model enhanced by LWD inputs. Afterwards, reservoir simulations were performed in order to evaluate the impacts caused by trajectory variations, demonstrating the expected productivity results versus the actual.

This research study shows that there is a productivity impact in all reservoir fluids when well trajectory is subjected to geometrical variations. Thus it reinforces that predictions related to reservoir production should not only be performed on planning stage, but most importantly during or after well conclusion using relevant inputs, such as the actual well path, LWD logs, and formation pressures while drilling, which all combined provides an enhanced reservoir model, and so a more accurate forecast analysis.
Successful Startup And Operation Of World Scale Fully Integrated 1.1 BCF AGRU & TGTU For The Giant Qatargas LNG Plant
Authors: Normand L. , Streicher C. , Laborie G. , Perdu G. , Al Hatou O. I.
Published: December 2015

Qatargas Operating Company Limited (QATARGAS) has executed a major debottlenecking of its existing facilities at QATARGAS 1. This Project is known as the Plateau Maintenance Project (PMP). Its purpose is to maintain the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production, while coping with increased levels of H2S and CO2 in the inlet feed gas streams. Revamp of LNG trains adds new pretreatment AGRU, upstream of the existing gas sweetening facilities an additional Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU) and Tail Gas Treatment unit (TGTU).

This paper details the challenges of the PMP project which involves the construction of an additional Acid Gas Removal Unit (AGRU) treating in a single train 1,100 MMSCFD of natural gas, an associated Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU) and Tail Gas Treatment Unit (TGTU) within the minimum plot area allocated to the green field part of the Project. It focuses on the AGRU with integrated amine section of TGTU which was considered as the most effective solution to install a new compact plant inside the existing facilities of QATARGAS 1 LNG plant in Ras Laffan, Qatar.

The design selected by QATARGAS after an international bidding phase uses the AdvAmine™ MDEAmax technology based on open market MDEA solvent. This reliable and original design features a fully integrated AGRU + TGTU amine section unit that meets multiple process requirements with high operational flexibility: jointly to H2S and CO2 removal specifications assigned to the 1,100 MMSCFD inlet gas, the plant cleans up the H2S from tail gas installed downstream the new 880 tpd SRU to meet the environmental emissions regulation. It secures the H2S, RSH and BTX content in the acid gas (by a dedicated preflash column) in order to satisfy the design of the SRU furnace section. The final acknowledged benefit of this giant unit is the decrease of the solvent circulation and of the solvent regeneration duty achieved by the recycle of semi lean solvent from TGT column to HP absorber.

Performance tests took place at the beginning of 2015 and all the guarantees associated with the operation of AGRU and TGT Amine section at design & turndown capacities have been demonstrated without operational issues. Operators have reported the simple management of the acid gas H2S content by the preflash column, the easy adjustment of the AGRU and its stability.
Processing of Sparsely and Irregularly Sampled 3D OBC Seismic Data Offshore Abu Dhabi
Authors: Nakayama Shotaro , Benson Mark Allen , Matarid Tarek , Belaid Kamal , Garden Mickael , Zarubov Dmitry
Published: December 2015

An OBC technique generally provides several technical advantages over a conventional towed streamer survey. However, due mainly to commercial and operational constraints, some compromises on survey parameters are required though dense and symmetric sampling is ideal. As a result, seismic data is often sparsely and irregularly sampled, leading to several challenges in processing of OBC seismic data offshore Abu Dhabi.

Conventional linear noise attenuations are not effective with Scholte waves as they are usually aliased with typical source and receiver sampling intervals in 3D OBC seismic data, and sometimes scattered because of near-surface heterogeneity offshore Abu Dhabi. To address this, we apply model-based surface wave attenuation, Surface Wave Analysis Modeling and Inversion (SWAMI), which enables an estimate of local near-surface properties and create noise model by analyzing dispersion curves. The method does not involve multi-channel filtering to the input data so both direct and scattered Scholte waves are effectively attenuated without suffering a lack of spatial sampling.

Matching Pursuit Fourier Interpolation (MPFI) is then implemented to enhance spatial sampling caused by acquisition geometry. MPFI is a frequency domain interpolation and regularization technique. Iterative process along with its anti-aliasing capability enables optimum data reconstruction for each frequency range at desired locations. In addition to regularization aspect, MPFI is targeted to densify receiver line interval and extend source lines with 5D implementation (4 spatial coordinates and time). This consequently enhances fold, offset and azimuth distributions of the data.

SWAMI for both direct and scattered Scholte waves and 5D MPFI are successfully implemented to address processing challenges related to insufficient spatial sampling in 3D OBC seismic data offshore Abu Dhabi. SWAMI deals with complex properties of Scholte waves and attenuates both direct and scattered ones without any processing artefacts. MPFI with 5D implementation dramatically improves spatial sampling. The several aspects of values of interpolation are recognized such as improvement of signal to noise ratio and stack response. Additionally, the interpolated data provides great potential to subsequent processes such as de-noise, de-multiple and imaging.

The results enhance the value of sparsely and irregularly sampled OBC seismic data, and indicate a possibility that seismic data with insufficient spatial sampling could achieve an equivalent data quality to dense and full azimuth survey.This consequently allows us to ease survey requirements related to spatial sampling criteria. Unlike a land case, these two techniques had not previously been applied to OBC data. This study, therefore, proved their applicability, reliability and benefits to 3D OBC survey.
Keeping Pace with Changing Well Integrity Management Demands
Authors: Smith Liane , Milanovic Dragan , Smith Colin , Halfawi Sami
Published: December 2015

This paper looks back at 10 years of addressing well integrity challenges and shows how operating company focus has changed over time. As field conditions have evolved and assets have aged, operators have acquired and sold assets and faced challenges for new conventional and unconventional well stock. Expectations of system integration have changed and the demand for real-time risk assessment and quantitative evaluation of well risk has increased. Keeping on top of the issues, controlling developing problems and reporting the situation clearly have remained high priorities for all operators. This presentation explores case histories over the past decade, specifically looking at changing field environments and operator expectations over that time.

The case histories explored include: The case where initial requirements for a giant oilfield excluded any contribution of corrosion to the integrity status of wells. Over 10 years, water cuts increased significantly and corrosion risks emerged as an important integrity threat. To respond to this, a real-time corrosion modelling approach was implemented to identify wells requiring batch inhibition to ensure tubing life meets initial design expectations.Several cases where changes in third party systems through time has required re-configuration of well integrity system interfaces to ensure seamless continuity in data access in line with IT developments.Cases where the understanding of, and need for, real-time risk evaluation has changed over time. Risk ranking, based upon the well failure model approach has become a routine requirement to capture common, easily identified, indicators of integrity threats in wells. In addition, operators have increasingly utilised quantitative risk data such as failure frequencies (failures/million hours) and mean-time-to-failure or survivability functions. The data has been used to define maintenance schedules, calculate the risk status of problem wells pre- and post-workovers and benchmark the overall reliability of completion components in one operation versus global performance.Cases where requirements to report well integrity has changed over time in line with company thinking and regulatory authority requirements. The improved capability of web-based visualisation has also evolved, and the paper discusses how this can be exploited to convey more decision-making information in a single page. The specific capability to track well events and operating conditions using software technology for the full lifecycle is also discussed.
Study of Electrostatic Oil/Water Separation by Ultrasound Monitoring: Comparison With Gravity Separation Process
Authors: Quintero C. G. , Passade-Boupat N. , Lauranson D. , Palermo T. , Sansevero B.
Published: December 2015

The increasing number of off-shore projects has resulted in an important R&D effort to optimize the vessel sizes used for electrostatic dehydrators and desalters, otherwise known as electrocoalescers (ECS). Despite the maturity of this technology, the separator design remains mostly empirical. A very important part of the ECS has an inlet distribution device in the bottom of the vessel: similar to the gravity vertical separators or "Wash Tanks" separators configuration. In this last process, it has been found that the water drop accumulation at the oil water interface in a compact layer, so-called Dense Packed Zone (DPZ), plays a crucial role in the separation efficiency because it acts as a coalescence promoter. The objective of this work is to investigate the oil/water separation under an electrostatic or gravity field, in order to establish the presence and role of the DPZ in the separation mechanisms.

An open continuous loop pilot (DUSS), equipped with an ultrasound scanner and an electric tension generator, was used in this study. DUSS mimics the wash tank or ECS processes. Two crude oils with contrasted separation behaviors were studied.

Results show that in order to achieve an optimal separation, it is important to control the inlet flow rates to form a stable DPZ with an optimal thickness, either by gravity or electrostatic separation. In the electrostatic case, the electric field placed into the oil zone improves the coalescence of smaller drops that are not able to settle under the gravity field. Then, some of these bigger droplets feed the DPZ, increasing its thickness and the overall separation efficiency.

Nevertheless, the DPZ should not reach the electric field in order to avoid shortcuts. Over this configuration, it is possible to successfully apply a modeling approach used for vertical gravity separation, known as the Dispersion Band Model.

The robust experimental data obtained provides an interesting base for the understanding of one of the most classical electrostatic separation processes, useful information for the process optimization.
Nano Graphene Application Improving Drilling Fluids Performance
Authors: Taha Norasazly Mohd , Lee Sean
Published: December 2015

Scomi together with the technical partner had developed series of nano graphene engineered product in mass production scale, one of the latest product that had been field trial successfully in the region is a graphene enhanced product that provides superior lubricity and thermal stability to the water based drilling fluids. It is a blend of proprietary surfactants engineered with nano graphene, where graphenes will penetrates into microscopic pores of the tubular metal, crystalized in layers under high pressure, forming a protective film to improve lubricity, prevent bit balling, improve BHA's life span, improve ROP, and most important of all improving fluids' thermal stability.

Laboratory performance test with EP/Lubricity Tester indicated 70–80% torque reduction on a water based salt polymer mud system, compared to conventional lubricants of only 30–40% reduction. The product had been field trial in a HTHP onshore well with temperature up to 176°C (349°F), and hard formation reducing the bits' life span to only 2–3 days. During the field trial, it's agreed that 2–3% of the product had improved ROP 125%, actual reaming torque reduction of 20%, bit's life span increased >75%, also noticed by the fluids company Scomi that fluids loss reduction of 30% with 40% polymers concentration reduction compared to planned mud formulation, which are additional benefits observed and yet to be continously monitor in future subsequent field trials. The improvement in drilling performance and bits' life span had reduced operator's operational time and cost.

With the success of the first field trial on nano graphene engineered drilling fluids, Company is in the midst of developing series of graphene enhanced product to cater more challenging drilling and production conditions.
Modeling and Optimization of Horizontal Well Completions Located in Gas Injection Patterns of Hassi Messaoud Oilfield
Authors: Mahboub Youcef , Otmanine Mohamed , Salhi Bachir
Published: December 2015

In The giant Hassi Messaoud Oilfield, horizontal and short radius wells are mostly crossing more than one layer and many of them are crossing two compartments, where gas breakthrough is occurring in some layers and compartments. There are three main objectives of the present study. Firstly, is to improve oil productivity while reducing the gas breakthrough production. The second aim is to preserve the accumulated injected gas gained over decades of time. The third objective is to maintain the miscibility conditions within some injection gas patterns as initially planned.

Two principles have been used to complete the study. The first one is the composite inflow performance relationship "IPR" between oil and gas reservoir systems crossed by a horizontal well, whereas the second option is a smart well completion implementation and modeling of horizontal wells crossing two layers having two reservoir pressures due to gas injection wells.

Three categories of results have been obtained. Primarily, well modeling and optimization of horizontal well without smart completion, and secondly an implementation of intelligent completion model for horizontal well crossing different intervals in gas breakthrough. Some scenarios of optimizations have been done based on the available input of well. Finally, it will be possible to maintain the miscibility conditions within a gas injection pattern using the intelligent completion option.
Understanding the Impact of Hydrocarbon Co-absorption Losses on Revenues from Your Gas Plants: The Reality Through Life-Cycle Costs Analysis
Authors: Chilukuri Pavan , Bowerbank Gary , Bhattacharya Arnav
Published: December 2015

Gas development projects face growing challenges from increasingly sour resources with relatively high levels of CO2, H2S, Mercaptans and COS, and tighter sales specifications and stricter environmental emission standards. The removal of trace components such as COS and RSH can have detrimental effect on project value as considerable CAPEX and OPEX investments have to be made.

Predominantly mercaptans are either removed in Acid Gas Removal Unit (AGRU) with the use of hybrid solvents such as Shell's Sulfinol solvent, or slipped to downstream dehydration/mercaptan removal adsorption unit using molsieves. While the former line-up involves a single process unit to remove all sulphur compounds (H2S, RSH and COS) and CO2, the latter process line-up involves multiple process steps including an AGRU absorber with aqueous amines to remove H2S and CO2, and a molecular sieve downstream unit to dehydrate and remove mercaptans in combination with a dedicated physical or hybrid solvent for removal of mercaptans from molsieve regeneration gas.

There is the perception that the use of hybrid solvents reduces revenue through hydrocarbon absorption losses. Simple hydrocarbon-loss percentages around AGRU absorber provide some insight, but this data must be used cautiously, as this data alone will not tell the full story.

Previous work has shown that, in most cases, higher hydrocarbon losses through co-absorption with hybrid solvents compared with using aqueous amines such as methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) are offset by savings in reboiler energy consumption. This paper goes a step further by modelling the full life-cycle costs of the two conventionally used process line-ups so that informed solvent-selection and capital investment decisions can be made. This paper also discussed capital- and additional operating-cost savings associated with hybrid solvents, which further tip the economic balance in favour of hybrid solvent systems.
Retarded HF Acid System to Deeply Stimulate Sandstone Formation and Eliminate the Needs of Pre-Flush and/or Post-Flush Acid Stages: Experimental and Field Cases
Authors: Gomaa Ahmed M. , Stolyarov Sergey , Cutler Jennifer
Published: December 2015

The goal of sandstone matrix acidizing is to remove siliceous particles such as formation clay, feldspar, and quartz fines that are blocking or bridging pore throats. This is accomplished by injecting acid formulations containing hydrofluoric (HF) acid or its precursors, as HF is the only common acid that dissolves siliceous particles sufficiently. Standard treatments include pre-flush and/or post-flush stages of HCl acid to minimize the potential for calcium fluoride and other secondary precipitation. However, there is no guarantee that the HF acid stage will follow the path of the preflush stage; therefore, precipitation could still occur. In addition, the fast reaction of HF acid with clay minerals presents another challenge to effectively stimulating deep sandstone formations.

This paper presents experimental and field case studies with a sandstone acidizing treatment designed to retard the HF reaction rate and enable single-stage treatment – eliminating the pre- and post-flush HCl acid stages and thereby reducing treatment complexity and the associated treatment rig time.

Extensive laboratory testing was performed using a variety of quarried sandstone cores with varying amounts of clay minerals, feldspar, and carbonate to confirm the ability to stimulate a wide range of sandstone formations. Also, formation core material was evaluated to confirm the results. Static solubility tests indicated that around 80% of the treated formation was soluble in the new acid system formulation. Coreflood testing noted an improvement in permeability of as much as 326%. Also, corrosion tests conducted using different metallurgy showed a very low corrosion rate (less than 0.005 lb/ft2 for N-80 and less than 0.02 lb/ft2 for Cr-13). Using coiled tubing, the new design was injected into three deep offshore wells, resulting in injectivity increases of 227%, 236%, and 256%.
Motivation Interventions in Education
Authors: Lazowski Rory A. , Hulleman Chris S.
Published: December 2015

This meta-analysis provides an extensive and organized summary of intervention studies in education that are grounded in motivation theory. We identified 74 published and unpublished papers that experimentally manipulated an independent variable and measured an authentic educational outcome within an ecologically valid educational context. Our analyses included 92 independent effect sizes with 38,377 participants. Our results indicated that interventions were generally effective, with an average mean effect size of d = 0.49 (95% confidence interval = [0.43, 0.56]). Although there were descriptive differences in the effect sizes across several moderator variables considered in our analyses, the only significant difference found was for the type of experimental design, with randomized designs having smaller effect sizes than quasi-experimental designs. This work illustrates the extent to which interventions and accompanying theories have been tested via experimental methods and provides information about appropriate next steps in developing and testing effective motivation interventions in education.
Football, Culture and Religion: Varieties of Interaction
Authors: Ludwig Frieder
Published: December 2015

This paper explores the correlations between football (soccer), culture and religion. It offers a short historical introduction on the origins and rise of the game in Europe and in mission territories from the nineteenth century. The connection of football with cultic, superstitious and quasi-religious practices is then explored first in Africa and Latin America and then in Europe. Concluding theological reflections note that, while football is a quasi-religion in many ways, it is, after all, only a game.
A Local Texture-Based Superpixel Feature Coding for Saliency Detection Combined with Global Saliency
Authors: Nan Bingfei , Mu Zhichun , Chen Long , Cheng Jian
Published: December 2015

Because saliency can be used as the prior knowledge of image content, saliency detection has been an active research area in image segmentation, object detection, image semantic understanding and other relevant image-based applications. In the case of saliency detection from cluster scenes, the salient object/region detected needs to not only be distinguished clearly from the background, but, preferably, to also be informative in terms of complete contour and local texture details to facilitate the successive processing. In this paper, a Local Texture-based Region Sparse Histogram (LTRSH) model is proposed for saliency detection from cluster scenes. This model uses a combination of local texture patterns and color distribution as well as contour information to encode the superpixels to characterize the local feature of image for region contrast computing. Combining the region contrast as computed with the global saliency probability, a full-resolution salient map, in which the salient object/region detected adheres more closely to its inherent feature, is obtained on the bases of the corresponding high-level saliency spatial distribution as well as on the pixel-level saliency enhancement. Quantitative comparisons with five state-of-the-art saliency detection methods on benchmark datasets are carried out, and the comparative results show that the method we propose improves the detection performance in terms of corresponding measurements.
Primary Human Blood Dendritic Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy—Tailoring the Immune Response by Dendritic Cell Maturation
Authors: Sittig Simone , De Vries I. , Schreibelt Gerty
Published: December 2015

Dendritic cell (DC)-based cancer vaccines hold the great promise of tipping the balance from tolerance of the tumor to rejection. In the last two decades, we have gained tremendous knowledge about DC-based cancer vaccines. The maturation of DCs has proven indispensable to induce immunogenic T cell responses. We review the insights gained from the development of maturation cocktails in monocyte derived DC-based trials. More recently, we have also gained insights into the functional specialization of primary human blood DC subsets. In peripheral human blood, we can distinguish at least three primary DC subsets, namely CD1c+ and CD141+ myeloid DCs and plasmacytoid DCs. We reflect the current knowledge on maturation and T helper polarization by these blood DC subsets in the context of DC-based cancer vaccines. The maturation stimulus in combination with the DC subset will determine the type of T cell response that is induced. First trials with these natural DCs underline their excellent in vivo functioning and mark them as promising tools for future vaccination strategies.
Comparison between IEEE and CIGRE Thermal Behaviour Standards and Measured Temperature on a 132-kV Overhead Power Line
Authors: Arroyo Alberto , Castro Pablo , Martinez Raquel , Manana Mario , Madrazo Alfredo , Lecuna Ramón , Gonzalez Antonio
Published: December 2015

This paper presents the steady and dynamic thermal balances of an overhead power line proposed by CIGRE (Technical Brochure 601, 2014) and IEEE (Std.738, 2012) standards. The estimated temperatures calculated by the standards are compared with the averaged conductor temperature obtained every 8 min during a year. The conductor is a LA 280 Hawk type, used in a 132-kV overhead line. The steady and dynamic state comparison shows that the number of cases with deviations to conductor temperatures higher than 5 ∘ C decreases from around 20% to 15% when the dynamic analysis is used. As some of the most critical variables are magnitude and direction of the wind speed, ambient temperature and solar radiation, their influence on the conductor temperature is studied. Both standards give similar results with slight differences due to the different way to calculate the solar radiation and convection. Considering the wind, both standards provide better results for the estimated conductor temperature as the wind speed increases and the angle with the line is closer to 90 ∘ . In addition, if the theoretical radiation is replaced by that measured with the pyranometer, the number of samples with deviations higher than 5 ∘ C is reduced from around 15% to 5%.
An Assessment of the Security of China’s Natural Gas Supply System Using Two Network Models
Authors: Zhang Mingqi , Su Meirong , Lu Weiwei , Su Chunhua
Published: December 2015

In the context of climate change, natural gas is becoming increasingly important for low-carbon development in China. The gap between the demand and supply of natural gas, domestically, and China’s high dependence on foreign sources, highlights the importance of ensuring a secure system for supplying natural gas in the country. This study applied ecological network analysis, a powerful systems-oriented method, to simulate interactions between different nodes of the natural gas supply system and to evaluate the system’s security level. Two network models were constructed at the regional and national layers, respectively, by dividing external natural gas suppliers into multiple regions and countries. These models were used to evaluate the overall security level and related characteristics of China’s natural gas supply system from 2000 to 2012. The results showed stable improvement in the system’s security during this period. With the exceptions of some specific indicators (e.g., the mutualism index (MI)), analyses of network information and structure yielded the mostly similar results for the two models. In conclusion, a regional layer (RL) network model is considered more economical than a national layer (NL) model for evaluating the overall security of China’s natural gas supply system, especially when available data are limited.
Collaborative Strategies for Sustainable EU Flood Risk Management: FOSS and Geospatial Tools—Challenges and Opportunities for Operative Risk Analysis
Authors: Albano Raffaele , Mancusi Leonardo , Sole Aurelia , Adamowski Jan
Published: December 2015

An analysis of global statistics shows a substantial increase in flood damage over the past few decades. Moreover, it is expected that flood risk will continue to rise due to the combined effect of increasing numbers of people and economic assets in risk-prone areas and the effects of climate change. In order to mitigate the impact of natural hazards on European economies and societies, improved risk assessment, and management needs to be pursued. With the recent transition to a more risk-based approach in European flood management policy, flood analysis models have become an important part of flood risk management (FRM). In this context, free and open-source (FOSS) geospatial models provide better and more complete information to stakeholders regarding their compliance with the Flood Directive (2007/60/EC) for effective and collaborative FRM. A geospatial model is an essential tool to address the European challenge for comprehensive and sustainable FRM because it allows for the use of integrated social and economic quantitative risk outcomes in a spatio-temporal domain. Moreover, a FOSS model can support governance processes using an interactive, transparent and collaborative approach, providing a meaningful experience that both promotes learning and generates knowledge through a process of guided discovery regarding flood risk management. This article aims to organize the available knowledge and characteristics of the methods available to give operational recommendations and principles that can support authorities, local entities, and the stakeholders involved in decision-making with regard to flood risk management in their compliance with the Floods Directive (2007/60/EC).
New Whitening Constituents from Taiwan-Native Pyracantha koidzumii: Structures and Tyrosinase Inhibitory Analysis in Human Epidermal Melanocytes
Authors: Lin Rong-Dih , Chen Mei-Chuan , Liu Yan-Ling , Lin Yi-Tzu , Lu Mei-Kuang , Hsu Feng-Lin , Lee Mei-Hsien
Published: December 2015

Nontoxic natural products useful in skin care cosmetics are of considerable interest. Tyrosinase is a rate-limiting enzyme for which its inhibitor is useful in developing whitening cosmetics. Pyracantha koidzumii (Hayata) Rehder is an endemic species in Taiwan that exhibits tyrosinase-inhibitory activity. To find new active natural compounds from P. koidzumii, we performed bioguided isolation and studied the related activity in human epidermal melanocytes. In total, 13 compounds were identified from P. koidzumii in the present study, including two new compounds, 3,6-dihydroxy-2,4-dimethoxy-dibenzofuran (9) and 3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxybiphenyl-2ʹ-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (13), as well as 11 known compounds. The new compound 13 exhibited maximum potency in inhibiting cellular tyrosinase activity, the protein expression of cellular tyrosinase and tyrosinase-related protein-2, as well as the mRNA expression of Paired box 3 and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor in a concentration-dependent manner. In the enzyme kinetic assay, the new compound 13 acted as an uncompetitive mixed-type inhibitor against the substrate l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and had a Km value against this substrate of 0.262 mM, as calculated using the Lineweaver–Burk plots. Taken together, our findings show compound 13 exhibits tyrosinase inhibition in human melanocytes and compound 13 may be a potential candidate for use in cosmetics.
Transcriptomic Response to Nitric Oxide Treatment in Larix olgensis Henry
Authors: Hu Xiaoqing , Yang Jingli , Li Chenghao
Published: December 2015

Larix olgensis Henry is an important coniferous species found in plantation forests in northeastern China, but it is vulnerable to pathogens. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important molecule involved in plant resistance to pathogens. To study the regulatory role of NO at the transcriptional level, we characterized the transcriptomic response of L. olgensis seedlings to sodium nitroprusside (SNP, NO donor) using Illumina sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly. A significant number of putative metabolic pathways and functions associated with the unique sequences were identified. Genes related to plant pathogen infection (FLS2, WRKY33, MAPKKK, and PR1) were upregulated with SNP treatment. This report describes the potential contribution of NO to disease resistance in L. olgensis as induced by biotic stress. Our results provide a substantial contribution to the genomic and transcriptomic resources for L. olgensis, as well as expanding our understanding of the involvement of NO in defense responses at the transcriptional level.
Cloning of the Major Capsid Protein (MCP) of Grouper Iridovirus of Taiwan (TGIV) and Preliminary Evaluation of a Recombinant MCP Vaccine against TGIV
Authors: Liu Hsin-I , Chiou Pinwen , Gong Hong-Yi , Chou Hsin-Yiu
Published: December 2015

Fish iridoviruses cause systemic diseases with high mortality in various species of wild and farm-raised fish, resulting in severe economic losses. In 1998, we isolated a new epizootic iridovirus in cultured grouper (Epinephelus sp.) in Taiwan, thus named as grouper iridovirus of Taiwan (TGIV). We report here the cloning of TGIV major capsid protein (MCP). Phylogenetic analysis of the iridoviral MCPs confirmed the classification of TGIV into the Megalocytivirus genus. Recombinant TGIV MCP and GIV MCP were then generated to produce polyclonal antibodies. Western blot analysis revealed that the two antisera were species-specific, indicating no common epitope shared by the MCPs of the two viruses. We further assayed the potency of a subunit vaccine containing recombinant TGIV MCP. The vaccine effectively protected grouper from TGIV infection. The result demonstrated that MCP is a suitable antigen for anti-TGIV vaccines.
Overexpression of X-Box Binding Protein 1 (XBP1) Correlates to Poor Prognosis and Up-Regulation of PI3K/mTOR in Human Osteosarcoma
Authors: Yang Jielai , Cheng Dongdong , Zhou Shumin , Zhu Bin , Hu Tu , Yang Qingcheng
Published: December 2015

Increasing evidence demonstrates that dysregulation of XBP1 function contributes to tumorigenesis in some cancers. However, little is known about the role of XBP1 in the progression of osteosarcoma (OS). The expression of XBP1 in OS samples was measured by quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting assays. Cell cycle analysis and cell counting kit 8 (CCK8) assays were performed to determine the effects of XBP1 expression on cells growth capacity. Cell apoptosis coassay was applied to determine cell survival. The expression of genes affected by XBP1 was examined by quantitative RT-RCR and validated by Western blotting assays. XBP1 was overexpressed in OS clinical samples compared with corresponding non-cancerous tissues. Overexpression of XBP1 was significantly associated with advanced clinical stages, high degree of malignancy and low tumor necrosis rate. Furthermore, hypoxia activated XBP1, and silencing XBP1 significantly enhanced OS cell apoptosis. Knock-down of XBP1 resulted in inhibition of OS growth. Most importantly, knockdown of XBP1 led to down-regulation of PIK3R3 and mTOR. Taken together, XBP1 is up-regulated and has a pro-tumor effect in OS with activation of PI3K/mTOR signaling. Thus, targeting XBP1 may provide a new potential therapeutic method for OS.
Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of the VQ Motif-Containing Protein Family in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. Pekinensis)
Authors: Zhang Gaoyuan , Wang Fengde , Li Jingjuan , Ding Qian , Zhang Yihui , Li Huayin , Zhang Jiannong , Gao Jianwei
Published: December 2015

Previous studies have showed that the VQ motif–containing proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa play an important role in plant growth, development, and stress responses. However, little is known about the functions of the VQ genes in Brassica rapa (Chinese cabbage). In this study, we performed genome-wide identification, characterization, and expression analysis of the VQ genes in Chinese cabbage, especially under adverse environment. We identified 57 VQ genes and classified them into seven subgroups (I–VII), which were dispersedly distributed on chromosomes 1 to 10. The expansion of these genes mainly contributed to segmental and tandem duplication. Fifty-four VQ genes contained no introns and 50 VQ proteins were less than 300 amino acids in length. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that the VQ genes were differentially expressed in various tissues and during different abiotic stresses and plant hormone treatments. This study provides a comprehensive overview of Chinese cabbage VQ genes and will benefit the molecular breeding for resistance to stresses and disease, as well as further studies on the biological functions of the VQ proteins.
Spatial Distribution of Estimated Wind-Power Royalties in West Texas
Authors: Brannstrom Christian , Tilton Mary , Klein Andrew , Jepson Wendy
Published: December 2015

Wind-power development in the U.S. occurs primarily on private land, producing royalties for landowners through private contracts with wind-farm operators. Texas, the U.S. leader in wind-power production with well-documented support for wind power, has virtually all of its ~12 GW of wind capacity sited on private lands. Determining the spatial distribution of royalty payments from wind energy is a crucial first step to understanding how renewable power may alter land-based livelihoods of some landowners, and, as a result, possibly encourage land-use changes. We located ~1700 wind turbines (~2.7 GW) on 241 landholdings in Nolan and Taylor counties, Texas, a major wind-development region. We estimated total royalties to be ~$11.5 million per year, with mean annual royalty received per landowner per year of $47,879 but with significant differences among quintiles and between two sub-regions. Unequal distribution of royalties results from land-tenure patterns established before wind-power development because of a “property advantage,” defined as the pre-existing land-tenure patterns that benefit the fraction of rural landowners who receive wind turbines. A “royalty paradox” describes the observation that royalties flow to a small fraction of landowners even though support for wind power exceeds 70 percent.