The streamwater microbiome encodes hydrologic data across scales

Many fundamental questions in hydrology remain unanswered due to the limited information that can be extracted from existing data sources. Microbial communities constitute a novel type of environmental data, as they are comprised of many thousands of taxonomically and functionally diverse groups known to respond to both biotic and abiotic environmental factors. As such, these microscale communities reflect a range of macroscale conditions and characteristics, some of which also drive hydrologic regimes. Here, we assess the extent to which streamwater microbial communities (as characterized by 16S gene amplicon sequence abundance) encode information about catchment hydrology across scales. We analyzed 64 summer streamwater DNA samples collected from subcatchments within the Willamette, Deschutes, and John Day river basins in Oregon, USA, which range 0.03–29,000 km2 in area and 343–2334 mm/year of precipitation. We applied information theory to quantify the breadth and depth of information about common hydrologic metrics encoded within microbial taxa. Of the 256 microbial taxa that spanned all three watersheds, we found 9.6 % (24.5/256) of taxa, on average, shared information with a given hydrologic metric, with a median 15.6 % (range = 12.4–49.2 %) reduction in uncertainty of that metric based on knowledge of the microbial biogeography. All of the hydrologic metrics we assessed, including daily discharge at different time lags, mean monthly discharge, and seasonal high and low flow durations were encoded within the microbial community. Summer microbial taxa shared the most information with winter mean flows. Our study demonstrates quantifiable relationships between streamwater microbial taxa and hydrologic metrics at different scales, likely resulting from the integration of multiple overlapping drivers of each. Streamwater microbial communities are rich sources of information that may contribute fresh insight to unresolved hydrologic questions

Imaginary futures: liminoid advertising and consumer identity

Purpose: To establish the theoretical and practical grounds for a newly recognised advertising appeal, the liminoid appeal, and point to the wider implications of this type of appeal for advertising practitioners and consumers. Design/approach: The paper integrates a theoretical review with a selective sample of case exemplars to illustrate the novelty, salience and contribution of the liminoid advertising appeal. Findings: The study finds that the liminoid appeal is a novel and under-recognised yet widely deployed advertising and branding approach that manifests in many differing creative executions, whilst clearly carrying great resonance for consumers, and can potentially have negative social implications. Research limitations: The empirical case examples are selective and few in number and a limited basis for generalisation. Practical implications: Advertising agencies and brand managers have been practicing liminoid appeals without a theoretically grounded label with which to better understand the underlying consumer motivations. Having this knowledge will enable brand professionals to generate insights that improve training, execution and targeting of creative strategies. Social implications: The liminoid appeal resonates powerfully with consumers because of its ostensibly liberatory and self-actualising potential, but on a social level the proliferation of such appeals could contribute to rising social disharmony and psychological distress. Originality/Value: The Liminoid advertising appeal is a new, theoretically grounded label for a well established yet hitherto poorly understood category of advertising appeal. The study contributes a novel and previously neglected source of insight to the practice of creative brand communication strategy, whilst also contributing to the development of anthropologically informed marketing and consumer research

Implications of the selfie for marketing management practice in the era of celebrity

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of the selfie for marketing management in the era of celebrity. The purpose is to show that the facilitation of the creative performance of consumer identity is a key element of the marketing management task for the media convergence era. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses the selfie, the picture of oneself taken by oneself, as a metaphor to develop a conceptual exploration of the nature of marketing in the light of the dominance of celebrity and entertainment in contemporary media and entertainment. Findings: The paper suggests that marketing management in the era of convergence should facilitate consumers’ identity projects through participatory and engaging social media initiatives. Marketers must furnish and facilitate not only the props for consumers mediated identity performances, but also the scripts, sets and scenes, plot devices, cinematographic and other visual techniques, costumes, looks, movements, characterizations and narratives. Research limitations/implications: This is a conceptual paper that sketches out the beginning of a re-framed, communication-focussed vision of marketing management in the era of media convergence. Practical implications: Marketing managers can benefit from thinking about consumer marketing as the stage management of consumer visual, physical, virtual, sensory and psychic environments that enable consumers to actively participate in celebrity culture. Originality/value: This paper suggests ways in which marketing practice can emerge from its pre-digital frame to embrace the new digital cultures of consumption

Technical Support for Geopressured Geothermal Well Activities in Louisiana Annual Report

The rationale previously developed and utilized in interpreting various databases were outlined in the DOE final report titled "Technical Support for Geopressured-Geothermal Well Activities in Louisiana" (August 31, 1981), authored by Fred M. Wrighton, Don G. Bebout, Dale R. Carver, Charles G. Groat, and Adrain E. Johnson, Jr., under Contract No. DE-AS05-78ET27160. Due to the importance of the concepts presented in the previous report for developing an assessment evaluation program, much of the text and illustrations have been repeated for the convenience of the reader. However, the assessment techniques and calculations presented in this report are new. Estimates of the in-place methane resource in the geopressured zone of the U.S. Gulf Coast have varied widely, ranging from less than 1000 trillion cubic feet (TCF) to 49,000 TCF. The most recent assessment for onshore Texas, conducted by Gregory, Dodge, Posey, and Morton in 1981, estimated a total of 690 TCF. Well logs from deep oil and gas wells served as the primary data source for all assessment studies, although the interpretation of these logs varied significantly. In this study focusing on Louisiana, the methods and results were found to compare favorably with those of Gregory and others for Texas. The assessment included the Wilcox, Frio, and Miocene formations. Constructing regional cross-sections across the south Louisiana Gulf Coast was a prime objective to aid in assessing the total solution-methane resource in place. These cross-sections provided point sources of information from key wells and offered insights into the significance of each well through logical correlations with others on the section. Additionally, detailed studies of smaller areas conducted at LSU and other institutions throughout the Gulf Coast were considered, with data from these studies also contributing to the assessment. The total area under consideration in south Louisiana exceeds 18,000 square miles, with geopressured formations including the Wilcox (1692 square miles), Frio (5200 square miles), and Miocene. Parameters considered in this assessment included pressure, sandstone volume, porosity, temperature, and salinity.Bureau of Economic Geolog