Importance of the induced recharge term in riverbank filtration: Hydrodynamics, hydrochemical, and numerical modelling investigations

While ensuring adequate drinking water supply is increasingly being a worldwide challenging need, managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes may provide reliable solutions in order to guarantee safe and continuous supply of water. This is particularly true in riverbank filtration (RBF) schemes. Several studies aimed at addressing the treatment capabilities of such schemes, but induced aquifer recharge hydrodynamics from surface water bodies caused by pumping wells is seldom analysed and quantified. In this study, after presenting a detailed description of the Serchio River RBF site, we used a multidisciplinary approach entailing hydrodynamics, hydrochemical, and numerical modelling methods in order to evaluate the change in recharge from the Serchio river to the aquifer due to the building of the RBF infrastructures along the Serchio river (Lucca, Italy). In this way, we estimated the increase in aquifer recharge and the ratio of bank filtrate to ambient groundwater abstracted at such RBF scheme. Results highlight that in present conditions the main source of the RBF pumping wells is the Serchio River water and that the groundwater at the Sant’Alessio plain is mainly characterized by mixing between precipitation occurring in the higher part of the plain and the River water. Based on chemical mixing, a precautionary amount of abstracted Serchio River water is estimated to be on average 13.6 Mm3 /year, which is 85% of the total amount of water abstracted in a year (~16 Mm3). RBF is a worldwide recognized MAR technique for supplying good quality and reliable amount of water. As in several cases and countries the induced recharge component is not duly acknowledged, the authors suggest including the term “induced” in the definition of this type of MAR technique (to become then IRBF). Thus, clear reference may be made to the fact that the bank filtration is not completely due to natural recharge, as in many cases of surface water/groundwater interactions, but it may be partly/almost all human-made

Tectonic setting of the kenya rift in the nakuru area, based on geophysical prospecting

In this paper, we present results of tectonic and geophysical investigations in the Kenya Rift valley, in the Nakuru area. We compiled a detailed geological map of the area based on published earlier works, well data and satellite imagery. The map was then integrated with original fieldwork and cross sections were constructed. In key areas, we then performed geophysical survey using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), Hybrid Source AudioMagnetoTelluric (HSAMT), and single station passive seismic measurements (HVSR). In the study area, a volcano-sedimentary succession of the Neogene-Quaternary age characterized by basalts, trachytes, pyroclastic rocks, and tephra with intercalated lacustrine and fluvial deposits crops out. Faulting linked with rift development is evident and occurs throughout the area crosscutting all rock units. We show a rotation of the extension in this portion of the Kenya rift with the NE-SW extension direction of a Neogene-Middle Pleistocene age, followed by the E-Wextension direction of anUpper Pleistocene-Present age. Geophysical investigations allowed to outline main lithostratigraphic units and tectonic features at depth and were also useful to infer main cataclasites and fractured rock bodies, the primary paths for water flow in rocks. These investigations are integrated in a larger EU H2020 Programme aimed to produce a geological and hydrogeological model of the area to develop a sustainable water management system

Focus on Internal Urethrotomy as Primary Treatment for Untreated Bulbar Urethral Strictures: Results from a Multivariable Analysis

Background: The use of internal urethrotomy for treatment of urethral stricture remains a controversial topic in urology.Objective: To investigate outcomes and predictors of failure for internal urethrotomy as primary treatment for untreated bulbar urethral strictures.Design, setting, and participants: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent internal urethrotomy. Patients with bulbar urethral stricture who did not receive any previous treatment were included. Patients with traumatic, penile or posterior urethral strictures, lichen sclerosus, failed hypospadias repair, or stricture length >4 cm were excluded.Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: The primary outcome was treatment failure. Kaplan-Meyer plots were used to depict treatment failure-free survival. Univariate and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to test the association between predictors (age, body mass index, diabetes, history of smoking, etiology, stenosis type and length, preoperative maximum flow [pQ(max)]) and treatment failure.Results and limitations: Overall, 136 patients were included. The median stricture length was 2 cm. Median follow-up was 55 mo. At 5-yr follow-up the failure-free survival rate was 57%. On univariate analysis, diabetes, nonidiopathic etiology, stricture length of 3-4 cm, and pQ(max) were significantly associated with treatment failure. These predictors were included in a multivariable analysis, in which pQ(max) was the only significant predictor of treatment failure.Conclusions: Failure of internal urethrotomy for untreated bulbar urethral strictures greatly depends on pQ(max) flow at uroflowmetry. Patients with pQ(max >) 8 ml/s have a high probability of success, while patients with pQ(max) <5 ml/s have a low probability of success.Patient summary: The use of internal urethrotomy in patients with an untreated bulbar urethral stricture should only be considered in selected cases. (C) 2018 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

How men step back – and recover – from suicide attempts: A relational and gendered account

Men account for three-quarters of suicide deaths in the UK, yet we know little about how at-risk men construct their experiences of moving towards - and then subsequently stepping back from - suicide, nor the part played by relational factors therein. An inductive thematic analysis was used to examine narrative interviews with eleven UK men who self-reported serious thoughts, plans and up-to and including suicide attempts in progress, but who consciously decided against carrying out an attempt. Their accounts suggest a highly social process of movements towards and away from suicide (e.g. frustrated help-seeking). Stepping back from suicide represents not a discrete issue, but a linked process in suicidality and wider recovery. Here, the use of military metaphors in particular (e.g. waging war, fighting back) highlights the gendered nature of the issue. Additionally, our article illuminates a range of social relations and forces that circulate in and around suicidality, which itself is embedded in varying forms of relationality, normativity and gendered practices. [Abstract copyright: © 2020 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

An NLO QCD analysis of inclusive cross-section and jet-production data from the ZEUS experiment

The ZEUS inclusive differential cross-section data from HERA, for charged and neutral current processes taken with e+ and e- beams, together with differential cross-section data on inclusive jet production in e+ p scattering and dijet production in \gamma p scattering, have been used in a new NLO QCD analysis to extract the parton distribution functions of the proton. The input of jet data constrains the gluon and allows an accurate extraction of \alpha_s(M_Z) at NLO; \alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1183 \pm 0.0028(exp.) \pm 0.0008(model) An additional uncertainty from the choice of scales is estimated as \pm 0.005. This is the first extraction of \alpha_s(M_Z) from HERA data alone.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to EPJC. PDFs available at http://durpdg.dur.ac.uk/hepdata in LHAPDFv

High-E_T dijet photoproduction at HERA

The cross section for high-E_T dijet production in photoproduction has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 81.8 pb-1. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon, Q^2, of less than 1 GeV^2 and a photon-proton centre-of-mass energy in the range 142 < W < 293 GeV. Events were selected if at least two jets satisfied the transverse-energy requirements of E_T(jet1) > 20 GeV and E_T(jet2) > 15 GeV and pseudorapidity requirements of -1 < eta(jet1,2) < 3, with at least one of the jets satisfying -1 < eta(jet) < 2.5. The measurements show sensitivity to the parton distributions in the photon and proton and effects beyond next-to-leading order in QCD. Hence these data can be used to constrain further the parton densities in the proton and photon.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures, 20 tables, including minor revisions from referees. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass. The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6, where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure