Palynology of the Hagel lignite bed and associated strata, Sentinel Butte Formation (Paleocene), in central North Dakota

The Hagel bed is an economically important lignite and is the lowest named lignite in the Sentinel Butte Formation, Fort Union Group. The Hagel bed extends throughout the Knife River Basin coal-mining area of central North Dakota. Stratigraphic sections of the Hagel bed, including intercalated clastic rocks, were measured in the highwalls of the Center mine, Glenharold mine, and Falkirk mine. Samples from the stratigraphic sections were described and analyzed, using standard palynological techniques, for their palynomorph content. Palynomorphs proved to be well preserved and abundant. Maceration of Hagel bed samples yielded a diverse collection of palynomorphs. A total of seventy-five palynomorph types consisting of thirty form genera, five extant genera, and thirty-seven morphotypes were described. Common constituents of the palynoflora include representatives of the modern classes Gymnospermae, Angiospermae, Filicineae, and Musci. Palynologic evidence suggests that the contributing flora was dominated by swamp-forest taxa (e.g., Osmunda, Steriosporites antiguasporites, and some Taxodiaceae). Deciduous plants were dominated by riparian types (e.g., Alnus) and were consistently present but made small contributions to the palynoflora. Palynologic percentage-frequency data were used to elucidate floral trends present. The palynomorphic associations present (based on groups of high taxonomic rank) were interpreted as a single, relatively consistent palynoflora. A preliminary investigation of the relationship of palynologic data to present-day coal chemistry was inconclusive. A correlation of palynomorphic and geochemical data suggested that palynomorphs have a potential utility as geochemical biomarkers with further study. Palynologic evidence and corroborating lithologic evidence suggest that the alternating deposition of clastics and coal precursors was controlled by the lateral shifting of fluvial and lacustrine environments marginal to the forest-swamp environment. The local depositional basin was broad, laterally continuous, and possessed little relief. Relatively minor changes in water level may be responsible for laterally continuous alternating clastic-to-coal depositional sequences found in the study area

Advanced SEM Techniques to Characterize Coal Minerals

Research at the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) has focused on methods to characterize the inorganic components in coals. Because the scanning electron microscope and electron probe microanalysis system (SEM/EPMA) provide both morphologic and chemical information, the SEM/EPMA system is well-suited to the characterization of discrete minerals in coal. Computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy (CCSEM), along with simultaneous automated digital image collection, is one means of gaining more detailed insight into coal mineralogy. Computer-stored images of coal surfaces already analyzed for minerals using CCSEM can be reanalyzed to discern mineral morphologies and coal-to-mineral associations. Limitations may exist when using just CCSEM to characterize chemically and physically complex clay minerals without complimentary data on the association of the minerals to the coal organic matrix. Mineralogic investigations of San Miguel and Beulah lignites and Upper Freeport bituminous coal using CCSEM and automated digital image collection are given with a particular reference to the clay minerals present. Total mineral quantities generated for the three coals were in good agreement with total ash content, provided that organically bound constituents were taken into account for the lignites. Classification of the more complex aluminosilicate minerals was aided by the use of distribution plots of Si/Al ratios and concentrations of ion exchangeable cations derived from the CCSEM analysis. Morphologic analysis of stored SEM images proved to be helpful in characterizing kaolinite group minerals

Model development of the Aquistore CO2 storage project

AbstractThe Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, through the Energy & Environmental Research Center, is collaborating with Petroleum Technology Research Centre in site characterization; risk assessment; public outreach; and monitoring, verification, and accounting activities at the Aquistore project. The PCOR Partnership constructed a static geological model to assess the potential volumetric storage capacity of the Aquistore site and provide the foundation for dynamic simulation for the dynamic CO2 storage capacity. Results of the predictive simulations will be used in the risk assessment process to define an overall monitoring plan and assure stakeholders that the injected CO2 will remain safely stored

Dynamic partnership: A new approach to EM technology commercialization and deployment

The task of restoring nuclear defense complex sites under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) Program presents an unprecedented challenge to the environmental restoration community. Effective and efficient cleanup requires the timely development or modification of novel cleanup technologies applicable to radioactive wastes. Fostering the commercialization of these innovative technologies is the mission of EM-50, the EM Program Office of Science and Technology. However, efforts are often arrested at the {open_quotes}valley of death,{close_quotes} the general term for barriers to demonstration, commercialization, and deployment. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), a not-for-profit, contract-supported organization focused on research, development, demonstration, and commercialization (RDD&C) of energy and environmental technologies, is in the second year of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) designed to deliver EM technologies into the commercial marketplace through a unique combination of technical support, real-world demonstration, and brokering. This paper profiles this novel approach, termed {open_quotes}Dynamic Partnership,{close_quotes} and reviews the application of this concept to the ongoing commercialization and deployment of four innovative cleanup technologies. 2 tabs

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership Quarterly Report

The Plains Co{sub 2} Reduction (PCOR) Partnership continues to make great progress. Task 2 (Technology Deployment) activities have focused on developing information on deployment issues to support Task 5 activities by providing information to be used to assess CO{sub 2} sequestration opportunities in the PCOR Partnership region. Task 3 (Public Outreach) activities have focused on developing an informational video about CO{sub 2} sequestration. Progress in Task 4 (Sources, Sinks, and Infrastructure) has included the continued collection of data regarding CO{sub 2} sources and sinks and data on the performance and costs for CO{sub 2} separation, capture, treatment, and compression for pipeline transportation. Task 5 (Modeling and Phase II Action Plans) activities have focused on screening and qualitatively assessing sequestration options. Task 5 activities also continue to be useful in structuring data collection and other activities in Tasks 2, 3, and 5

Potential of Restored Prairie Wetlands in the Glaciated North American Prairie to Sequester Atmospheric Carbon

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) covers about 900,000 km2 (347,500 mi2), which is approximately a fourth of the area in the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership region. Specifically, the PPR covers portions of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the United States and Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in Canada. Formed largely by glacial events, this region historically was dominated by grasslands interspersed with shallow palustrine wetlands. Prior to European settlement, this region may have supported more than 20 million ha (49 million acres) of wetlands, making it the largest wetland complex in North America. However, fertile soils in this region resulted in extensive loss of native wetlands as cultivated agriculture became the dominant land use. With cultivation through agricultural practices resulting in oxidation of organic matter, the soil organic carbon (SOC) in wetlands was depleted. Recent work by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Ducks Unlimited Canada scientists for the PCOR Partnership demonstrated that restoration of previously farmed wetlands results in the rapid replenishment of SOC lost to cultivation at an average rate of 3 Mg ha-1 yr-1 (1.34 tons acre-1 yr-1). The findings that restored prairie wetlands are important carbon sinks provide a unique and previously overlooked opportunity to store atmospheric carbon (CO2-C) in the PCOR Partnership region. The overall goal of this study was to develop a database to estimate the regional potential to store atmospheric carbon by restoring previously farmed wetlands. Additional topics discussed in this report include other forms of potential carbon storage processes and greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets derived from restored wetlands

Zama acid gas EOR, CO2 sequestration, and monitoring project

AbstractSince October 2005, the Zama oil field in northwestern Alberta, Canada, has been the site of acid gas (approximately 80% CO2 and 20 H2S) injection for the simultaneous purpose of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), H2S disposal, and sequestration of CO2. Beginning in December 2006 and continuing through the present, injection has taken place at a depth of 1494 meters into one of over 800 pinnacle reef structures that have been identified in the Zama Subbasin. To date, over 36,000 metric tons of acid gas has been injected, resulting in incremental oil production over 25,000 barrels. Cost-effective monitoring at EOR sites that utilize H2S-rich acid gas as the sweep mechanism has been the overall goal of the project. The primary issues that have been addressed include (1) cap rock leakage, (2) long-term prediction of injectate, and (3) generation of data sets that will support the development and monetization of carbon credits. To address these issues, activities have been conducted at multiple scales of investigation in an effort to fully understand the ultimate implications of injection. Geological, geomechanical, geochemical, and engineering work has been used to fully describe the injection zone and adjacent strata in an effort to prove the long-term storage potential of this site. Through these activities, confidence in the ability of the Zama oil field to provide long-term containment of injected gas has been achieved. Results obtained from these activities can be applied not only to additional pinnacles in the Alberta Basin but to similar structures throughout the world