bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Streamlining ‘environment in design' decision-making – from concept to operations in major development projects
Authors: Barrow Janine M.
Published: May 2018

As the engineering design process for a major development project advances from concept through to ready for start up, many key decisions are made and controls formulated that ultimately influence environmental, social (and safety) outcomes. These decisions are often made based on sound technical grounds with key decision logs, hazard identification or hazard and operability studies or similar used to record the process, but with limited recognition of environmental outcomes. Many of the onshore and offshore regulations in Australia (most notably, the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas (Environment) Regulations 2009) require environmental risks and impacts to be reduced to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). Additionally, justifiable assessment of controls and decisions are presented in the environment plans (EP) that are typically prepared later on in the design process. Challenges can often arise when geographically disparate design contractors lack ALARP assessment processes to evaluate decisions and controls from an environmental perspective and record outcomes for future use in regulatory documentation. This can be particularly pronounced for operations EPs.
Janine shares her practical experience in environmental integration in engineering design to showcase methods that tangibly demonstrate robust decision-making, inclusive of delivering environmental outcomes, to regulators.
2018 offshore petroleum exploration acreage release
Authors: Schofield Lisa
Published: May 2018

The Australian Government’s 2018 offshore petroleum exploration acreage release was announced by the Commonwealth Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Senator the Hon Matthew Canavan at the 2018 APPEA conference. This paper provides insights into the processes that the Australian Government has undertaken to select the final release areas and goes into detail on the ongoing petroleum related activities of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (the Department).
The annual acreage release is a central component of ensuring ongoing, sustainable and responsible investment in Australia’s offshore petroleum sector. The annual acreage release remains the primary mechanism for securing investment in offshore oil and gas exploration in areas of known petroleum potential and new geological frontiers. Continued exploration for oil and gas in Commonwealth waters is a central component of ensuring Australia’s future energy security.
Australia’s well established and independent environmental regulator, NOPSEMA (the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority), ensures all petroleum activities in Commonwealth waters are performed safely and in an environmentally responsible manner. Combined with NOPTA’s (National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator) leading practice titles administration, Australia remains an attractive investment destination while offering industry leading environmental protections and ensuring safe working conditions industry-wide.
Australia offers investors access to data, secure tenure, a stable economic environment and a well-established transparent regulatory system for offshore petroleum activities. A key driver for sustainable activity in Australia is the acceptance of multiple use access to Australia’s marine resources. Recognising this, the department consults with a range of stakeholders on the areas it proposes to release for petroleum exploration. This consultation process provides an opportunity for all interested parties to provide comments and feedback on the areas proposed and in particular highlight how interested parties or the areas might be impacted by exploration activities.
The 21 areas in the 2018 offshore petroleum exploration acreage release are located in the offshore areas of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and the Ashmore-Cartier Islands. These areas will enable the next wave of investment in the Australian resources sector, and the prospect of new oil, gas and condensate production.
Reducing rig personnel requirements with standards-based real-time data streaming
Authors: Philo Ross , Hollingsworth Jay
Published: May 2018

Cost reductions have become an essential response to lower oil and gas prices. Drilling rigs operate in distant and sometimes hostile environments, so relocating rig-based experts to remote control centres saves costs and improves health, safety and environment (HSE). Key staff can work in an improved environment and movements to-and-from the rig are fewer, lowering transport-related costs and risks. The offsite experts can apply their expertise to the operations of multiple drilling rigs from a single location.
To make this a reality, data from thousands of sensors on the rig and from measurement devices such as logging while drilling must be fed to the control room instantaneously and continuously. Legacy systems that poll rig-based devices for new data consume significant bandwidth and deliver data in a discontinuous manner with delays of 15 s or more. This does not meet the criteria for safe and reliable remote control of a rig and has been the reason why many roles have remained rig-based. This paper describes a new set of protocols that establish a continuous stream of data from devices on the rig to the control room with sub-second lag time. The new protocol also uses an order of magnitude less bandwidth, thus allowing more data to be carried in less time. Associated with industry-standard well-site information transfer standard mark-up language data transfer formats, the process operates with numerous service providers and software systems transparently. This paper includes a case-study to which the new protocol is applied, resulting in fewer permanent staff on a North Sea rig and fewer visits by an intervention contractor to the rig, with clear cost savings and HSE risk mitigation.
Accelerating oil and gas investment and reserves by design
Authors: Goldstein Barry A.
Published: May 2018

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence (Adams 1770). Some people unfamiliar with upstream petroleum operations, some enterprises keen to sustain uncontested land use, and some people against the use of fossil fuels have and will voice opposition to land access for oil and gas exploration and production. Social and economic concerns have also arisen with Australian domestic gas prices tending towards parity with netbacks from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. No doubt, natural gas, LNG and crude-oil prices will vary with local-to-international supply-side and demand-side competition. Hence, well run Australian oil and gas producers deploy stress-tested exploration, delineation and development budgets. With these challenges in mind, successive governments in South Australia have implemented leading-practice legislation, regulation, policies and programs to simultaneously gain and sustain trust with the public and investors with regard to land access for trustworthy oil and gas operations. South Australia’s most recent initiatives to foster reserve growth through welcomed investment in responsible oil and gas operations include the following: a Roundtable for Oil and Gas; evergreen answers to frequently asked questions, grouped retention licences that accelerate investment in the best of play trends; the Plan for ACcelerating Exploration (PACE) Gas Program; and the Oil and Gas Royalty Return Program. Intended and actual outcomes from these initiatives are addressed in this extended abstract.
Resolving double taxation in a global environment – when might it impact on deal value? Consideration of the availability of mutual agreement procedures and arbitration
Authors: Blakelock Sarah , Hempenstall George
Published: May 2018

Multinationals are under increasing scrutiny by revenue authorities across the globe. The heightened risk of tax audits, transfer pricing adjustments and the potential for double taxation mean that it is more important than ever for multinationals to consider what strategies are available to resolve international tax disputes.
Inherent tax risk and uncertainty creates unique challenges for oil and gas multinationals as it can impact on deal value where double taxation arises. This is because countries are increasingly behaving like companies – competing to preserve and defend their tax base.
With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Multilateral Instrument pending ratification by the Australian Parliament, this paper considers the availability and practical use of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) for the resolution of double taxation. Additionally, the paper provides an overview of which jurisdictions have opted to adopt arbitration as a mechanism to resolve double taxation disputes where the MAP has failed.
Esso pipeline replacement project
Authors: Bapat Dilip , Standfield David
Published: May 2018

Esso recently commissioned (October 2017) a new 350-mm 187-km-long pipeline for carrying crude and condensate from Esso’s Longford Plant (Longford) in Gippsland Victoria, along an existing easement to the Long Island Point facility (LIP) at Hastings, Victoria. This pipeline replaces an existing 700-mm pipeline that was approaching the end of its operational life.
Through continued delivery of crude and condensate, this pipeline also ensures that the natural gas which is produced along with these liquids continues to flow to Australian households and businesses. The project included pig launching and receiving facilities at Longford and LIP terminals, 10 main-line valve stations as well as fibre-optic cable for control, leak detection and communications purposes.
Early engagement of its contractor partners played a key role in the successful execution of the project. Today’s landscape along the pipeline route significantly differs from that when the original pipeline was installed. Individual needs of the landowners affected by the construction were carefully considered. Significant measures were taken to minimise any impact to the unique flora and fauna of the region. Sensitivities around cultural heritage locations were taken into account while finalising the construction methods.
Construction of the pipeline occurred in two summer phases (2015–2016 and 2016–2017) to make efficient use of dry weather and to minimise disturbance to landowners and the environment. The project was completed within budget and ahead of schedule.
Marine seismic triple source case studies from the Asia–Pacific region
Authors: Hager Ed
Published: May 2018

There has been a rapid uptake on the idea of using multiple sources in marine seismic data acquisition because of the additional flexibility the technique offers in survey design based not only on geophysical quality, but also for health, safety and environment (HSE) and efficiency. This paper examines three case studies conducted in Australia and Indonesia covering aspects of the advantages.
An important consideration in survey design is efficiency, and multisource designs improve this by allowing wider spreads to be towed, so more data is acquired per vessel pass. In turn, HSE exposure is decreased by reducing survey times and by reducing the amount of in-sea equipment.
The Trepang Survey carried out for Ophir Energy offshore West Papua was designed for efficiency, but the HSE aspect came to the fore when large amounts of floating debris (several hundred tree trunks) were found in the path of the survey vessel. By reducing the acquisition time, the risk the timber posed was minimised.
The Cygnus survey in the Vulcan sub-basin is an example of where the multisource technique increased quality by improving the cross-line resolution and increasing fold without decreasing efficiency.
Bianchi and Hockey were two surveys in the same area and, because the surveys were small, they were inefficient to acquire because much of the time was spent on line changes. The operator Quadrant used the fact that a triple-source design would allow for symmetrical bins to be acquired and joined the two small surveys together: effectively two sets of line change times were turned into acquisition time.
Play-based exploration in the southern Cooper Basin: a systematic approach to exploration in a mature basin
Authors: Lockhart D. A. , Riel E. , Sanders M. , Walsh A. , Cooper G. T. , Allder M.
Published: May 2018

Exploration within a mature basin poses many challenges, not least how to best utilise resources and time to maximise success and reduce cost. Play-based exploration (PBE) provides a team-based approach to combine key aspects of the petroleum system into an integrated and wholistic view of basin prospectivity. While the PBE methodology is well established, it is not often applied to its full extent on a basin scale. After a period of declining exploration success in parts of the South Australia Cooper-Eromanga Basin, this study was undertaken by a dedicated regional geoscience team with the aim of rebuilding an understanding of the basin, based on first principles and stripping away exploration paradigms.
The study area comprises an acreage position in the South Australian and Queensland Cooper-Eromanga Basins covering 70 000 km2 in which Senex Energy has 14 oil fields, has drilled more than 80 exploration wells and has acquired 2D and 3D seismic material. A plethora of proven and emerging plays exist within the acreage ranging from high productivity light sweet oil (Birkhead and Namur Reservoirs) to tight oil (Murta Formation), conventional gas (Toolachee/Epsilon and Patchawarra Formation), tight gas (Patchawarra Formation) and the emerging deep coal play (Toolachee and Patchawarra Coals).
Play-based exploration methodologies incorporating the integration of seismic data, log and palynological data, structural analysis, geochemistry, 3D basin modelling, consistent well failure analysis and gross depositional environment maps have allowed the systematic creation of common risk segment maps at all play levels. This information is now actively utilised for permit management, business development, work program creation and portfolio management. This paper will present an example of the work focussing on the southern section of the South Australian Cooper-Eromanga Basin.
Perspectives on successful coal seam gas well decommissioning
Authors: Huddlestone-Holmes Cameron R. , Measham Thomas G. , Jeanneret Talia , Kear James
Published: May 2018

Decommissioning of wells and well pads (plugging and abandonment of the well and rehabilitation of the well pad) is an important activity in coal seam gas developments due to the large number of wells drilled and their co-location with other land uses. Successful decommissioning will need to be conducted in a way that is effective, efficient, complies with regulatory requirements and is socially acceptable. This study sought to understand the perspective of industry, government and local stakeholders on the decommissioning process and asked the question ‘what does successful decommissioning mean’? The study was conducted through workshops held in Camden, Chinchilla and Narrabri involving industry, government and local residents.
All stakeholders agreed that the goal of successful decommissioning is to effectively have no legacy issues arising from the abandoned well or well pad, in perpetuity. However, there were differences in the confidence that stakeholders had in the process of achieving this outcome, largely based on the varying levels of understanding of well abandonment. This lack of confidence and understanding contributes to cross-cutting themes that emerged from the workshops. Local stakeholders expressed a strong desire for independent oversight and assessment of well abandonment processes, with increased transparency and access to information on abandoned wells in an understandable form. They also stated that long-term monitoring of wells post abandonment would assist in providing them with confidence that wells can be successfully decommissioned.
Well productivity enhancement by applying nanofluids for wettability alteration
Authors: Naik Saurabh , Malgaresi Gabriel , You Zhenjiang , Bedrikovetsky Pavel
Published: May 2018

Water blocking is a frequent cause for gas productivity decline in unconventional and conventional fields. It is a result of the capillary end effect near the wellbore vicinity. It creates significant formation damage and decreases gas well productivity. The alteration of the rock wettability by nanofluids is an effective way to reduce water blockage and enhance gas production. Presently, several types of surfactants and nanofluids are used in the industry for contact angle alteration. In this study, we developed an analytical model and analysed the sensitivity to several parameters.
After the treatment, the porous medium in the well vicinity (or along the core) will have a stepwise constant contact angle profile. We derive analytical models for compressible steady-state two-phase linear and axi-symmetric flows, accounting for the piecewise-constant contact angle and contact-angle-dependent capillary pressure and relative permeability. The modelling reveals a complex interplay between the competing effects of compressibility, viscous and capillary forces, which influence the optimal contact angle for treatment.
The optimal contact angle for treatment will depend on the initial wettability of the formation, the water cut and the capillary-viscous ratio.
Recent exploration results in the Lower Triassic, Bedout Sub-basin: Australia's next petroleum province?
Authors: Thompson Melissa , Wehr Fred , Woodward Jack , Minken Jon , D'Orazio Gino , Fernandes Fred , Kongowoin Margarita , Hansen Laurence , Kuek David , Fabrici Rylan
Published: May 2018

Commencing in 2014, Quadrant Energy and partners have undertaken an active exploration program in the Bedout Sub-basin with a 100% success rate, discovering four hydrocarbon accumulations with four wells. The primary exploration target in the basin, the Middle Triassic Lower Keraudren Formation, encompasses the reservoirs, source rocks and seals that have trapped hydrocarbons in a self-contained petroleum system. This petroleum system is older than the traditional plays on the North-West Shelf and before recent activity was very poorly understood and easily overlooked. Key reservoirs occur at burial depths of 3500–5500 m, deeper than many of the traditional plays on the North-West Shelf and exhibit variable reservoir quality. Oil and gas-condensate discovered in the first two wells, Phoenix South-1 and Roc-1, raised key questions on the preservation of effective porosity and productivity sufficient to support a commercial development. With the acquisition and detailed interpretation of 119 m of core over the Caley Member reservoir in Roc-2 and a successful drill stem test that was surface equipment constrained to 55 MMscf/d, the productive potential of this reservoir interval has been confirmed. The results of the exploration program to date, combined with acquisition of new 3D/2D seismic data, have enabled a deeper understanding of the potential of the Bedout Sub-basin. A detailed basin model has been developed and a large suite of prospects and leads are recognised across a family of hydrocarbon plays. Two key wells currently scheduled for 2018 (Phoenix South-3 and Dorado-1) will provide critical information about the scale of this opportunity.
Earning community trust to operate – Northern Gas Pipeline
Authors: Spink Jonathan
Published: May 2018

The Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP), is a 622-km gas pipeline in outback Australia that will connect gas reserves in the Northern Territory to the east coast gas market. With the current east coast gas crisis and continuing pressure to reduce coal-fired base load power, this project creates a new market to deliver additional gas to the east coast.
The project includes the construction of the pipeline and two compressor station facilities at the start and end of the line: the Phillip Creek Compressor Station, which includes gas processing infrastructure, and the Mount Isa Compressor Station. The AU$800 million project began in November 2015 and first gas is scheduled to flow in late 2018.
The bid to contract the pipeline included a range of local and Indigenous commitments that would maximise local participation in the project, ensuring that the social licence to achieve land access and government approvals was realised while keeping to a very aggressive timetable.
Jemena worked closely with local businesses, communities and Traditional Owners to provide training and development opportunities, employment and other social support services.
This approach has meant that the project is on track to deliver this nationally significant gas pipeline under budget, ahead of the contractual schedule requirement, while meeting or exceeding all local obligations and commitments.
Reimagining the future of gas
Authors: Jaffray Angus
Published: May 2018

To meet the twin objectives of limiting climate change and providing affordable energy to a growing and urbanised population, natural gas must adapt its role in a changing energy market and remain competitive with other sources of energy longer term. Santos is ensuring its role in this future by incorporating technology into its existing operations to improve energy efficiency, reduce operating costs and reduce emissions. The declining cost of new technology, historic production data and analytics create opportunities to improve efficiency in existing facilities. As new technologies such as variable renewable power generation increase their market penetration, the role of gas and the opportunities for gas producers are also changing.
Santos is investigating several projects that incorporate new technology and leverage these market changes. These projects include:
• conversion of existing operations to run partially or fully on renewable power to reduce fuel consumption, reduce emissions from Santos’ operations, improve reliability and make more product available to the market;
• using predictive analytics to improve well performance;
• using technology to improve logistics performance; and
• leveraging Santos’ existing infrastructure footprint to develop commercial-scale gas, renewable and storage hybrid power projects.
The Lower Triassic Caley Member: depositional facies, reservoir quality and seismic expression
Authors: Woodward Jack , Minken Jon , Thompson Melissa , Kongawoin Margarita , Hansen Laurence , Fabrici Rylan
Published: May 2018

Recent exploration success in the Lower Keraudren Formation of the Bedout sub-basin has resulted in the emergence of the Caley Member reservoirs (Thompson et al. 2018). The interplay of several unique characteristics at this stratigraphic level are favourable for the generation, trapping and deliverability of hydrocarbons.
These unique characteristics include, the preservation of porosity and permeability at depths greater than 4000 m, an organic-rich delta-plain lagoon mudstone source rock interbedded with the reservoir and the presence of a thick hemi-pelagic shale. This proximity of the mature source rocks and reservoir quality units combined with a thick overlying shale has created a highly efficient system for trapping hydrocarbons.
Seismic data is a key tool to help unlock this play. Seismic imaging of a relatively thin reservoir at a depth below 4000 m has proved challenging. Quadrant has undertaken several stages of reprocessing and conducted multiple seismic inversions to better image and predict the reservoir.
Integration and interpretation of geophysical, geological and geochemical data of this recently discovered reservoir has increased Quadrant’s understanding of the potential of the under-explored Bedout sub-basin.
Evolving Santos' onshore execution and production business to unlock value and growth through the commodity cycles
Authors: Woods Brett
Published: May 2018

Over the last three years, Santos has transformed its onshore operated assets from high cost assets to strong cash generating assets that are resilient at low oil prices. Santos is now Australia’s lowest cost onshore developer of oil and gas. In the Cooper Basin, Santos has delivered a 61% reduction in the drill, fracture stimulate and complete costs of gas wells since 2014. For Gladstone liquefied natural gas (GLNG), over the same timeframe, the continual review and optimisation of both surface and subsurface designs has led to an 83% reduction in Roma drill, complete, connect costs since the initial phase of Roma development. Key enablers have been (1) organisational focus, (2) a disciplined operating model and (3) a relentless drive for cost and efficiency. Santos continues to strive for further improvements. The company’s competitive cost base and operating capability can now be used to unlock new resources, both within Santos’ current portfolio and for acreage currently held by others, that would have previously been considered sub-economic to develop. Unlocking these new resources will benefit of Santos, joint venturers, customers and communities.
Effect of kaolinite content on formation damage due to fines migration: systematic laboratory and modelling study
Authors: Russell Thomas , Chequer Larissa , Badalyan Alexander , You Zhenjiang , Bedrikovetsky Pavel
Published: May 2018

Laboratory tests have been done to investigate the effect of kaolinite content on the behaviour of unconsolidated sandstone rocks during the injection of low-salinity water. Artificial cores comprised of kaolinite and chemically washed sand were prepared and compacted for this study. Five cores with kaolinite weight percentages ranging from 1% to 10% were injected sequentially with sodium chloride solutions of stepwise decreasing salinity. The permeability of the cores declined to as little as 1/54 times the initial permeability. Negligible permeability decline was observed when the kaolinite content was only 1% of the total mass. Generally, the extent of permeability decline was greater in cores with a larger percentage of kaolinite. The results are explained by the effect of kaolinite not only on the abundance of detachable clays, but also on the pore size. The results from the laboratory test were fitted with an exact solution of a model for fines migration. The parameters from these tests were input into a model for radial injection of low-salinity water to predict the extent of injectivity decline. The results serve as a benchmark for correlating injectivity decline due to fines migration between wells using the rock mineralogy. The tests suggest that mineralogy alone is not sufficient to fully predict formation damage, and that pore geometry and the nature of particle detachment are still critical factors for this process.
The insensitivity of thermal diffusivity of natural sediments to saturation
Authors: Ezdini Ayman , Griffith James , Lange Nick , Tehrani Soroush , Roshan Hamad , Sarmadivaleh Mohammad
Published: May 2018

This extended abstract presents a ground-breaking study of thermal properties of soils and their dependency on saturation. The paper tries to prove that thermal diffusivity is not significantly dependent on saturation due to its close relationship with saturation-independent parameters such as thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity. The investigation is divided into two main scopes of work: the first is to build statistical analysis using the Monte Carlo technique by means of random sampling certain soil thermal properties; and the second is to experimentally validate the statistical models. The experimental framework of the study encompasses the measurement of thermal properties of different soil samples. These samples varied in terms of grain size, percentage clay content, and level of saturation. The experiments were carried out using a KD2-Pro Dual Needle Probe Thermal Properties Analyser. The results demonstrate that saturation has a negligible effect on thermal diffusivity of soils but an inverse relationship exists between diffusivity and clay content. Furthermore, the variation in grain size effect on diffusivity is within 5%. The study shows a correlation between lithology, porosity, and thermal properties. The implications are numerous: from the determination of unwanted heat diffusion of pipelines to the estimation of reservoir properties such as porosity and permeability.
A comprehensive approach to safe and successful asset operatorship transition
Authors: Clegg Neil , Heinemann Steve
Published: May 2018

There are many drivers for transitioning an asset’s operatorship, whether it be seeking a more cost-effective operations model in a challenging market environment, the sale of aging depleted assets or the need to upgrade operations to support business strategy.
This paper will detail the opportunities and complex elements involved with transitioning an asset’s operatorship from operations philosophy to personnel, procurement, logistics, engineering, maintenance and integrity. The transition process is best approached as a standalone project with a disciplined and robust execution methodology.
Building a safe working culture is critical to the establishment of a strong operatorship, requiring collaboration among all parties, as well as strong alignment of objectives.
This paper will provide an overview of the elements to be coordinated during the transition of an asset’s operatorship, sharing insights from recent transitions of asset operatorships to highlight the challenges and opportunities.
Full waveform inversion: early start of model building process to resolve the complex near surface model in the Exmouth sub-basin, North West Shelf Australia
Authors: Zhang Lianping , Trihutomo Haryo , Gong Yuelian , Lim Bee Jik , Karvelas Alexander
Published: May 2018

The Schlumberger Multiclient Exmouth 3D survey was acquired over the Exmouth sub-basin, North West Shelf Australia and covers 12 600 km2. One of the primary objectives of this survey was to produce a wide coverage of high quality imaging with advanced processing technology within an agreed turnaround time. The complexity of the overburden was one of the imaging challenges that impacted the structuration and image quality at the reservoir level. Unlike traditional full-waveform inversion (FWI) workflow, here, FWI was introduced early in the workflow in parallel with acquisition and preprocessing to produce a reliable near surface velocity model from a smooth starting model. FWI derived an accurate and detailed near surface model, which subsequently benefitted the common image point (CIP) tomography model updates through to the deeper intervals. The objective was to complete the FWI model update for the overburden concurrently with the demultiple stages hence reflection time CIP tomography could start with a reasonably good velocity model upon completion of the demultiple process.
Innovation and technology in marine science: AIMS' North West Shoals to Shore Research Program
Authors: Parsons Miles J. G. , Meekan Mark G. , Miller Karen J. , Thums Michele , Gilmour James P.
Published: May 2018

The North West Shoals to Shore Research Program began in July 2017 and encompasses four themes, each of which addresses major gaps in scientific knowledge relevant to the environmental management of the offshore petroleum industry in north-west Australia. The themes are:
1. Marine Noise Monitoring and Impacts: investigate selected potential impacts of exposure to a seismic survey on demersal fishes and infauna across different spatial and temporal scales.
2. Benthic Habitats and Demersal Biodiversity: understand physical and biological characteristics of the Ancient Coastline Key Ecological Feature (125 m) and the ecological processes that maintain benthic communities from the ancient to contemporary coastlines, focusing on the distribution and genetic connectivity of pearl oysters.
3. Protected and Iconic Species Movement, Distribution and Threats: determine biologically important areas for pygmy blue whales and hawksbill and green turtles. This will lead to better quantification and mitigation of the risks to megafauna posed by vessel movements, industrial infrastructure and activities.
4. Spatial Dynamics of Isolated Coral Reef Atolls: developing a bio-physical model for benthic and fish communities at the Rowley Shoals and an adaptive monitoring program that quantifies and predicts their spatial dynamics.
In this talk, we will discuss planning and progress of the program achieved to date, including innovative and technological approaches used to address scientific uncertainty currently faced by industry.
Evolution of the east coast gas market
Authors: Byrne Philip
Published: May 2018

This extended abstract reviews how the east coast gas market is managing the major transition from being a ring-fenced domestic market to being part of an interconnected global trading market, and what still needs to be done to rebalance after half a decade of disruption. The east coast gas market has a great future ahead of it, but only if Australia acts quickly to open up access to new gas supply sources as existing gas fields mature and decline. The presence of a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply market on the east coast now provides an incentive for gas producers to invest in new provinces and new plays at a scale the domestic gas market could not have supported on its own. This can only be good for competition in the east coast gas market over the medium to long term, and potentially open up enormous supplies for the growth of Australian industry, akin to the US shale gas revolution. To make the most of the resources and infrastructure we now have on the eastern seaboard, there is a role for governments to play in ensuring access to resources and providing stable, coordinated, robust energy policy and regulatory frameworks that attract investment in further growth in the gas sector, the benefits of which will flow on to Australian industry more generally.
Working on the land
Authors: Paull Matthew , Patterson Natasha , Patch Anthea , How Kelli
Published: May 2018

A defining characteristic of Queensland’s natural gas industry is that upstream operations are located in a region with a strong and diverse agricultural industry.
The gas resource lies beneath this farming land and the industry has had to overcome the challenge of covering huge distances to maintain thousands of gas wells and associated infrastructure – all while trying to reduce disruption on thousands of predominantly family-owned properties. Earning the trust and respect of landholders has, therefore, been essential to the success of the industry.
Mistakes were made by the industry in the early days, but attitudes on both sides have since changed and evolved. There has been a move towards coexistence, respect and consent as the foundation for a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship. Along the way, the industry approach to land access has changed significantly over time. There are now many shining examples of best practice and innovation in the industry and a willingness to share solutions.
This paper details the legal underpinning of Queensland’s land access process, the history of the industry in Queensland’s Darling Downs region, key lessons learned by the industry, and some of the innovations and new approaches developed by the land access professionals in the industry.
Latitudinal variation in the geometric morphology of the largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides
Authors: Hall Elijah S. , Martin Benjamin E. , Brubaker Kristen , Grant Christopher J.
Published: May 2018

Geometric morphology can be influenced by several biotic and abiotic factors, including predator–prey interactions and habitat structure. We measured the external morphology of Micropterus salmoides (largemouth bass, LMB) from two states in north-eastern United States, to assess the potential divergence of body shape. LMB varied in overall body shape (canonical variate analysis, P<0.001) between states, with Maine populations exhibiting shorter jaws (ANOVA, P<0.001) and thicker caudal peduncle depths (ANOVA, P<0.001) than the LMB in Pennsylvania. We propose that these observed differences in morphological traits suggest that jaw length may be influenced by prey availability and resource utilisation, whereas peduncle depth is better explained by surrounding habitat structure. These findings showed that body shape is variable and is influenced by a complex array of environmental factors, even over small latitudinal differences.
How social is the internet?
Authors: Mey Jacob L.
Published: May 2018

To many, the collocation of the terms ‘internet’ and ‘social’ may seem a bit strange, even contradictory. Either the internet is by definition social, or it is, by observation and intuition, a rather anti-social affair. The article tries to dispel this ambiguity of attribution, by focusing on both positive and negative aspects of internet practices, as we see them developing among its (often younger) users. A new vision of sociality is attributed mainly to the rise of the internet, and the consequences of a ‘fake’ social life are examined. Adaptation, both to the user and the soft/and hardware is seen as a key term in this respect, and some ethical and moral problems related to internet use are discussed with the aid of some actual cases. Finally, a general evaluation of the internet in both its positive and negative aspects is provided.
Breakfast at School: a First Look at the Role of Time and Location for Participation and Nutritional Intake
Authors: Moeltner Klaus , Spears Karen , Yu Ling
Published: May 2018

Participation in the subsidized School Breakfast Program has traditionally been unsatisfactory. Universally free breakfast service in the classroom has boosted participation, but is not financially feasible for many schools. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent participation under the standard cafeteria setting is hampered due to insufficient time to eat. This study separately identifies time and location effects using a unique, individual‐level panel data set of elementary school students under three experimental treatments: original setup in the cafeteria, original setup plus ten minutes of mandatory presence in the cafeteria, and in‐classroom service. We find that the extra time plus the fixed location effect in the cafeteria increases average daily participation by approximately 20%, while the transition to classroom implementation adds another 35%–45% for the typical student. We also collect detailed data on nutritional intake, and find that, in total, neither treatment has a significant effect on consumption compared to the baseline.
Optimal Tenurial Contracts Under Both Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection
Authors: At Christian , Thomas Lionel
Published: May 2018

This paper determines the optimal tenurial contract between a monopoly landlord and a tenant protected by limited liability under both adverse selection (based on the tenant's ability) and moral hazard (based on the tenant's choice of effort). We identify different optimal contracts depending on the tenant's outside option. For intermediate values, there is a threshold of tenant ability depending on the outside option level below which the optimal contract is a separating sharecropping contract, and a pooling one otherwise. We also find that an increase in the outside option does not monotonically increase the tenant's optimal effort.
deepNF: deep network fusion for protein function prediction
Authors: Gligorijević Vladimir , Barot Meet , Bonneau Richard
Published: May 2018

Motivation

The prevalence of high-throughput experimental methods has resulted in an abundance of large-scale molecular and functional interaction networks. The connectivity of these networks provides a rich source of information for inferring functional annotations for genes and proteins. An important challenge has been to develop methods for combining these heterogeneous networks to extract useful protein feature representations for function prediction. Most of the existing approaches for network integration use shallow models that encounter difficulty in capturing complex and highly non-linear network structures. Thus, we propose deepNF, a network fusion method based on Multimodal Deep Autoencoders to extract high-level features of proteins from multiple heterogeneous interaction networks.

Results

We apply this method to combine STRING networks to construct a common low-dimensional representation containing high-level protein features. We use separate layers for different network types in the early stages of the multimodal autoencoder, later connecting all the layers into a single bottleneck layer from which we extract features to predict protein function. We compare the cross-validation and temporal holdout predictive performance of our method with state-of-the-art methods, including the recently proposed method Mashup. Our results show that our method outperforms previous methods for both human and yeast STRING networks. We also show substantial improvement in the performance of our method in predicting gene ontology terms of varying type and specificity.

Availability and implementation

deepNF is freely available at: https://github.com/VGligorijevic/deepNF.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Parental Decision-Making and Deaf Children: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Porter Ann , Creed Peter , Hood Michelle , Ching Teresa Y C
Published: May 2018

Parents or caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing are required to make complex and rational decisions soon after the confirmation of hearing loss. Ways of facilitating decision-making have been a focus within the healthcare sector for two decades and shared decision-making is now widely viewed as the standard for good clinical care. A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify the extent to which the principles of shared decision-making and informed choice have been implemented for parents when they make decisions related to their children with permanent hearing loss. Five databases were searched for peer-reviewed papers describing the results of original research published from 2000 to 2017, yielding 37 relevant papers. Studies were reviewed using the three phases of decision-making—information exchange, deliberation, and implementation. Two decisions dominated these studies—implantable devices and communication modality. Most papers dealt with decision-making in the context of bilateral hearing loss, with only one study focusing on unilateral hearing loss. The review identified gaps where further research is needed to ensure the lessons learnt in the broader decision-making literature are implemented when parents make decisions regarding their child who is deaf or hard of hearing.
mRNA transcript distribution bias between Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria and their outer membrane vesicles
Authors: Malge Anjali , Ghai Vikas , Reddy Panga Jaipal , Baxter David , Kim Taek-Kyun , Moritz Robert L , Wang Kai
Published: May 2018

Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium in the spirochete phylum, is the causative agent of Lyme disease. Borrelia burgdorferi has a linear chromosome with a number of circular and linear plasmids. Bacteria, including B. burgdorferi, release spherical outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) that are known to carry secretory products including metabolites, nucleic acids and proteins. Herein, we provide the first comparative transcriptomic analysis of the vesicles released from B. burgdorferi. We identified a total of ∼1200 unique transcripts with at least one mapped read from the bacterial cell and its OMVs. We compared the spectrum of transcripts between bacterial cell and its OMVs, and found a biased distribution based on the source of transcripts, i.e. plasmid-encoded transcripts are more likely to be enriched in the OMVs. We validated the distribution for some of the transcripts by qPCR. This analysis provides the first evidence that some of the B. burgdorferi transcripts are preferentially packaged in OMV, which further suggest that the bacteria might use its OMVs for bacteria–bacteria or bacteria–host communications. This report also suggests a possible involvement of Borrelia-derived OMVs in the development of Lyme disease in both early and post disease syndromes.
Effects of patient safety auditing in hospital care: results of a mixed-method evaluation (part 1)
Authors: Hanskamp-Sebregts Mirelle , Zegers Marieke , Westert Gert P , Boeijen Wilma , Teerenstra Steven , van Gurp Petra J , Wollersheim Hub
Published: May 2018

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of internal auditing in hospital care focussed on improving patient safety.

Design, Setting and Participants

A before-and-after mixed-method evaluation study was carried out in eight departments of a university medical center in the Netherlands.

Intervention(s)

Internal auditing and feedback focussed on improving patient safety.

Main Outcome Measure(s)

The effect of internal auditing was assessed 15 months after the audit, using linear mixed models, on the patient, professional, team and departmental levels. The measurement methods were patient record review on adverse events (AEs), surveys regarding patient experiences, safety culture and team climate, analysis of administrative hospital data (standardized mortality rate, SMR) and safety walk rounds (SWRs) to observe frontline care processes on safety.

Results

The AE rate decreased from 36.1% to 31.3% and the preventable AE rate from 5.5% to 3.6%; however, the differences before and after auditing were not statistically significant. The patient-reported experience measures regarding patient safety improved slightly over time (P < 0.001). The SMR, patient safety culture and team climate remained unchanged after the internal audit. The SWRs showed that medication safety and information security were improved (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Internal auditing was associated with improved patient experiences and observed safety on wards. No effects were found on adverse outcomes, safety culture and team climate 15 months after the internal audit.
Simultaneous Determination of Amphetamine-Related New Psychoactive Substances in Urine by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry†
Authors: Kim Jin Young , Suh Sunglll , Park Jaehyeong , In Moon Kyo
Published: May 2018

Despite the efforts to prevent the spread of new psychoactive substances (NPS) such as synthetic amphetamine derivatives, it is apparent that newer types of NPS are still emerging on the market in recent years. Due to high potential for their abuse, reliable analytical methods are required to determine these substances in biological samples. The objective of this study was to develop and validate the gas chromatography–mass spectrometric (GC–MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 13 amphetamine-related NPS (amphetamine; AP, 4-fluoroamphetamine; 4FA, methamphamine; MA, 4-fluoromethamphetamine; 4FMA, 4-chloroamphetamine; 4CA, para-methoxyamphetamine; PMA, 4-chloromethamphetamine; 4CMA, 6-(2-aminopropyl)benzofuran; 6APB, 4-methylenedioxyamphetamine; MDA, para-methoxymethamphetamine; PMMA, 6-(2-methylaminopropyl)benzofuran; 6MAPB, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; MDMA, 5,6-methylenedioxy-2-aminoindane; MDAI) in urine. The analytes were extracted at pH 7.4 by liquid–liquid extraction prior to their trifluoroacetyl derivatives and then analyzed by GC–MS. The validation parameters included selectivity, linearity, lower limits of quantification (LLOQ), intra and interday precision and accuracy, recovery and stability. The linear ranges were 2–100 ng/mL for AP, 4FA, 4FMA, 4CA, PMA, 6APB, MDA, and MDAI, 2–250 ng/mL for 4CMA, PMMA, and 6MAPB and 25–1,000 ng/mL for MA and MDMA, with acceptable coefficients of determination (r2 > 0.9963). The intra and interday precision were within 11.9 and 12.5%, while the intra and interday accuracies ranged from −10.6% to 13.0% and −11.0% to 6.8% for the nominal concentration at all studied levels, respectively. The LLOQs for each analyte were 2.0–25 ng/mL. The recoveries ranged from 69.3% to 96.4%. The short- and long-term variations of the analytes in urine were lower than 8.5 and 12.7%, indicating that the analytes are stable at least for 16 h at room temperature and for 7 days at 4°C, respectively. The applicability of the method was examined by analyzing urine samples from drug abusers and was determined to be effective for detecting multiple drug use.