Environmental and economic information for aggregates provision

This report describes a one-year research project entitled ‘Environmental and economic information systems for aggregates provision’. This project is an extension to previous research on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and future aggregates extraction, which was carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and reported in early 2004 (Steadman, et al., 2004). Both phases of the research were co-funded by the BGS and the Mineral Industry Sustainable Technology Programme (MIST). Environmental, economic and social information are essential for sustainable planning for the provision of aggregates. There is a need to bring together disparate information relating to aggregate extraction. Datasets include the location of resources and their potential end-uses, as well as those on the environment and transport. Bringing this digital information together into one location or system will assist in supporting a more balanced and informed approach to the decision making process. A number of regulatory mechanisms are currently driving the gathering and compilation of relevant environmental, economic and social information. Current drivers for information relevant to aggregate provision include environmental appraisal of the provision of aggregates, SEA and Sustainability Appraisal (SA). The objective of this research was to provide an interactive ‘tool’ or information system for the minerals industry, land-use planners and other stakeholders to use when considering options for future aggregate provision. The study area for the research was the East Midlands Region of England. The project had three main deliverables: 1. To provide an online Geographic Information System (GIS) to access the ‘environmental sensitivity’ map which was developed for the East Midlands Region during the first phase of research; 2. to compile aggregate end-use suitability maps for the East Midland Region; and 3. to hold a stakeholder consultation exercise and dissemination seminars. Each of these was met within the agreed timeframe. The environmental sensitivity map information and associated attributes have been made available on the internet via the BGS ‘Minerals information online’ web GIS for the East Midlands Region (www.mineralsuk.com/web_gis). Accommodating these data in a web GIS environment has entailed some compromises on data resolution and system functionality. A methodology has been developed to integrate a range of aggregate technical property data. This can be used to summarise the distribution of aggregate resources suitable for particular end-uses. These summary technical data are useful in communicating issues of variable aggregate quality and economic value to non-technical stakeholders in the mineral planning process. Availability of appropriate technical property data for different aggregate resources across a wide geographical area is critical in developing these maps. Feedback from an extensive consultation and dissemination exercise has generally been very positive. Two critiques by independent consultants of the environmental sensitivity map were also undertaken. These were deemed an important aspect of the consultation process. Stakeholders raised several issues. There were some concerns about updating and maintenance of asset data and about the lack of social information. In addition, some fundamental issues of approach (particularly asset weighting) raised in the previous phase of this research resurfaced during this consultation. Environmental sensitivity mapping will be carried out for the whole of England by the BGS in the near future. The data will be made available online as each region becomes available. It is anticipated that the mineral GISs for all regions of England (except London) will be completed by December 2005. New datasets may be added to the environmental sensitivity layer as they become available. The research into end-use suitability maps will be carried on by the BGS under its Minerals Programme, with the support of co-funding where possible. The project team continue to welcome feedback and criticism of this research

SARS-CoV-2 and mitochondrial health: implications of lifestyle and ageing

Infection with SARs-COV-2 displays increasing fatality with age and underlying co-morbidity, in particular, with markers of the metabolic syndrome and diabetes, which seems to be associated with a “cytokine storm” and an altered immune response. This suggests that a key contributory factor could be immunosenescence that is both age-related and lifestyle-induced. As the immune system itself is heavily reliant on mitochondrial function, then maintaining a healthy mitochondrial system may play a key role in resisting the virus, both directly, and indirectly by ensuring a good vaccine response. Furthermore, as viruses in general, and quite possibly this new virus, have also evolved to modulate immunometabolism and thus mitochondrial function to ensure their replication, this could further stress cellular bioenergetics. Unlike most sedentary modern humans, one of the natural hosts for the virus, the bat, has to “exercise” regularly to find food, which continually provides a powerful adaptive stimulus to maintain functional muscle and mitochondria. In effect, the bat is exposed to regular hormetic stimuli, which could provide clues on how to resist this virus. In this paper, we review the data that might support the idea that mitochondrial health, induced by a healthy lifestyle, could be a key factor in resisting the virus, and for those people who are perhaps not in optimal health, treatments that could support mitochondrial function might be pivotal to their long-term recovery

Measurements of the production and transport of helium ash on the TFTR Tokamak

Helium ash production and transport have been measured in TFTR deuterium-tritium plasmas using charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy. The helium ash confinement time, including recycling effects, is 6--10 times the energy confinement time and is compatible with sustained ignition in a reactor. The ash confinement time is dominated by edge pumping rates rather than core transport. The measured evolution of the local thermal ash density agrees with modeling, indicating that alpha particle slowing-down calculations used in the modeling are reasonable

Improvements in the CHERS system for DT experiments on TFTR

Improvements in the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CHERS) system have resulted in accurate measurements of T{sub i} and V{sub {phi}} profiles during DT experiments. These include moving the spectrometer detector array and electronics farther away from the tokamak to a low neutron flux location. This relocation has also improved access to all components of the system. Also, a nonplasma-viewing calibration fiber system was added to monitor the change in fiber transmission due to the high flux DT neutrons. Narrowband filtered light transmitted through the calibration fiber is now used as a reference for the VO measurement. At the highest neutron flux of {approximately} 2.5 {times} 10{sup 18} neutrons/see (fusion power {approximately} 6.2 MW) a modest 5% decrease in fiber transmission was observed. Corrections for transmission loss are made and T{sub i} (r,t) and absolute V{sub phi} (r,t) profiles are automatically calculated within four minutes of every shot

Scientists and public: is the information flow direction starting to change?

Over half of the population of the UK own a smartphone, and about the same number of people uses social media such as Twitter. For the British Geological Survey (BGS) this means millions of potential reporters of real-time events and in-the-field data capturers, creating a new source of scientific information that could help to better understand and predict natural processes

3D-HST+CANDELS : the evolution of the galaxy size-mass distribution since z=3

Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)–1.48, and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)-0.75Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

An assessment of the potential for natural flood management to offset climate change impacts

Natural Flood Management (NFM) aims to work with natural processes to reduce flood risk, and can potentially contribute to integrated flood risk management (alongside engineering solutions) by providing landscape-based resilience to climate change impacts. Here, two approaches are used to assess the extent to which NFM could offset the impacts of climate change on floods in Great Britain. The first looks at specific catchments where there is quantitative evidence for the effect of NFM measures on peak flows. The second takes a broad-brush national view, assuming two potential levels of NFM reductions in peak flows. Both approaches use flood impacts derived from climate change projections for a range of future time-slices and emissions scenarios. The results show that NFM measures are much less likely to be able to offset the impacts of climate change for later time-slices and for higher emissions scenarios, but also that the chance of offsetting the impacts of climate change in any individual catchment will depend on its type (how sensitive it is to climatic changes) and its location (due to spatial variation in climatic changes). Confounding factors in the analysis include any time lag associated with the NFM reduction in peak flows, and different effects of NFM on peak flows of different return periods. It is also unclear whether there is any relationship between a catchment's type and its practical potential for implementing NFM, or the level of peak flow reduction that NFM could achieve; any such relationship could be critical in determining the overall potential for NFM to offset climate change impacts in different catchments. Although the focus here is Great Britain, a similar approach could be applied internationally

Big bang of the brane universe

Big bang of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW)-brane universe is studied. In contrast to the spacelike initial singularity of the usual FRW universe, the initial singularity of the FRW-brane universe is point-like from the viewpoint of causality including gravitational waves propagating in the bulk. Existence of null singularities (seam singuralities) is also shown in the flat and open FRW-brane universe models.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 3 EPS figure

Nucleosome Turnover Regulates Histone Methylation Patterns over the Genome

Recent studies have indicated that nucleosome turnover is rapid, occurring several times per cell cycle. To access the effect of nucleosome turnover on the epigenetic landscape, we investigated H3K79 methylation, which is produced by a single methyltransferase (Dot1l) with no known demethylase. Using chemical-induced proximity (CIP), we find that the valency of H3K79 methylation (mono-, di-, and tri-) is determined by nucleosome turnover rates. Furthermore, propagation of this mark is predicted by nucleosome turnover simulations over the genome and accounts for the asymmetric distribution of H3K79me toward the transcriptional unit. More broadly, a meta-analysis of other conserved histone modifications demonstrates that nucleosome turnover models predict both valency and chromosomal propagation of methylation marks. Based on data from worms, flies, and mice, we propose that the turnover of modified nucleosomes is a general means of propagation of epigenetic marks and a determinant of methylation valence. © 2018Previous work has revealed that “writers” and “erasers” of histone modifications play a critical role in regulating gene expression. Now, studies by Chory et al. reveal that, in addition, the patterns, kinetics, and topology of histone modifications over the genome can be shaped by the rate of nucleosome turnover