Biology and Conservation of the Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of Peru

Little information has been published on Peruvian chelonians. Here we have compiled the available literature pertaining to Peruvian freshwater turtles and tortoises on four topics: Human consumption and ethnobiology, habitat use, status and abundance, and reproduction. In addition, we provide a map of the regions of Peru showing the number of research records and the number of species that occur in each region. Reproduction was the topic most frequently studied, although investigations were concentrated on only three species (Podocnemis unifilis, P. expansa, P. sextuberculata). The regions where the most studies were implemented are the Departamentos de Loreto and Madre de Dios, with studies tending to be concentrated in the vicinity of  Iquitos, the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, and Manu National Park and its buffer zone. In general, regions in which more research effort was evident reported more turtle species, which suggests that the least-studied states could have more species, as they share the same types of habitats as the more intensely investigated regions. We identified major gaps in information and suggest future research in the following poorly studied Peruvian regions: Departaments of Junín, San Martín, Tumbes, Huanuco, Amazonas, Cusco, Ayacucho, Puno, Huancavelica, and Cajamarca. The status, distribution, and abundance of Peruvian populations of Podocnemis expansa, P. unifilis, Chelonoidis carbonaria, Peltocephalus dumerilianus, and Mesoclemmys heliostemma are in particular need  of study. Conservation priorities are also discussed

An engineering approach to quantify geomechanical safety factors in UGS programs

Abstract. Underground Gas Storage (UGS) has become one of the most widely used practices to cope with seasonal peaks in energy consumption. The planning of any new UGS facility, or its upgrading to increase the working gas volume and reservoir performance, must be supported by an evaluation of possible induced effects on the environment. From a geomechanical point of view, storage activity results in a cyclic change in stress and deformation in the reservoir rock and the surrounding formations. The main environmental issues to be accounted for when natural fluid pore pressure is planned to be exceeded are the following: (a) the differential displacements at the land surface possibly mining the integrity of ground structure; (b) the integrity of the reservoir and caprock; (c) the possible reactivation of faults, if the target reservoir is located in a faulted basin; and (d) the vertical upheaval and land subsidence that can impact on the surface drainage network in low lying coastal areas. We present an original methodology for evaluating the geomechanical safety of UGS activities using an approach derived from what is traditionally applied in the structural design of buildings. A safety factor, a margin of security against risks, is defined for each of the geomechanical issues listed above. First, a 3D FE-IE numerical model is developed to reproduce the stress and displacement due to the UGS program under evaluation. Then the reservoir pressure is increased until the "failure" condition is reached allowing to evaluate how far the project designed condition is from the above limit. The proposed approach is applied to Romagna, a depleted gas reservoir in Northern Italy converted to UGS, with the aim of investigating the safety of the project to increase the reservoir pressure up to 120 % pi, where pi is the original reservoir pressure before the start of primary production. The 3D geomechanical model has been developed using recent 3D seismic data, land displacements by InSAR, lab tests on reservoir and caprock samples, in-situ Modular Formation Dynamic Tester (MDT) stress tests, and large background information acquired from other UGS reservoirs located in the same sedimentary basin. The analysis outcome has revealed that the investigated scenario is safe, with safety factor larger than 1, in the range from 1.2 to 4. The most critical condition (the smallest safety factor) has been obtained in relation to the mechanical integrity of the reservoir formation, under very conservative conditions (cohesion = 0, friction angle = 30∘)

On the possible contribution of clayey inter-layers to delayed land subsidence above producing aquifers

Abstract. In recent years, measurements of land subsidence above pumped aquifers by permanent GPS and InSAR have exhibited some delay relative to drawdown ranging from months to years. The current modeling approaches accounting for water fluid dynamics and porous medium geomechanics may fail to predict such a delay and may underestimate the land settlement after the well shutdown. In the present communication, an investigation is made on the residual compaction of the intervening clayey formations as a possible contribution to retarded land subsidence. The pore pressure variation within the aquifer and its propagation in the clay are simulated by a finite element flow model, with the resulting pore pressure decline used as input data in a hypo-plastic geomechanical model. A proper sensitivity analysis on (i) aquifer depth, (ii) ratio between the sandy and the clayey layers thickness and hydraulic conductivity, (iii) oedometric compressibility in first and second loading cycles, is performed for a typical geology of a Quaternary sedimentary basin. The results show that a certain fraction, up to 20 % of the overall land subsidence, can take place after the shutdown of the producing wells depending on actual basin, litho-stratigraphy and parameter values

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the international space station:Part II - Results from the first seven years

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector on the International Space Station (ISS) conducting a unique, long-duration mission of fundamental physics research in space. The physics objectives include the precise studies of the origin of dark matter, antimatter, and cosmic rays as well as the exploration of new phenomena. Following a 16-year period of construction and testing, and a precursor flight on the Space Shuttle, AMS was installed on the ISS on May 19, 2011. In this report we present results based on 120 billion charged cosmic ray events up to multi-TeV energies. This includes the fluxes of positrons, electrons, antiprotons, protons, and nuclei. These results provide unexpected information, which cannot be explained by the current theoretical models. The accuracy and characteristics of the data, simultaneously from many different types of cosmic rays, provide unique input to the understanding of origins, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays

Parallel Matrix-free polynomial preconditioners with application to flow simulations in discrete fracture networks

We develop a robust matrix-free, communication avoiding parallel, high-degree polynomial preconditioner for the Conjugate Gradient method for large and sparse symmetric positive definite linear systems. We discuss the selection of a scaling parameter aimed at avoiding unwanted clustering of eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrices at the extrema of the spectrum. We use this preconditioned framework to solve a $3 \times 3$ block system arising in the simulation of fluid flow in large-size discrete fractured networks. We apply our polynomial preconditioner to a suitable Schur complement related with this system, which can not be explicitly computed because of its size and density. Numerical results confirm the excellent properties of the proposed preconditioner up to very high polynomial degrees. The parallel implementation achieves satisfactory scalability by taking advantage from the reduced number of scalar products and hence of global communications

Avaliação de genótipos de feijoeiro comum dos grupos carioca e preto na região Sudoeste de Mato Grosso.

O objetivo desse trabalho é obter cultivares mais apropriadas para a agricultura familiar com uso da irrigação no feijoeiro, atendendo também outras regiões do Estado com características climáticas similares

Avaliação de genótipos de feijoeiro comum dos grupos carioca e preto na região Oeste de Mato Grosso.

O objetivo desse trabalho é obter cultivares mais tolerantes a altas temperaturas, menores altitudes e apropriadas para a agricultura familiar que atendam essas condições no estado de Mato Grosso

On the importance of the heterogeneity assumption in the characterization of reservoir geomechanical properties

The geomechanical analysis of a highly compartmentalized reservoir is performed to simulate the seafloor subsidence due to gas production. The available observations over the hydrocarbon reservoir consist of bathymetric surveys carried out before and at the end of a 10-yr production life. The main goal is the calibration of the reservoir compressibility cM, that is, the main geomechanical parameter controlling the surface response. Two conceptual models are considered: in one (i) cM varies only with the depth and the vertical effective stress (heterogeneity due to lithostratigraphic variability); in another (ii) cM varies also in the horizontal plane, that is, it is spatially distributed within the reservoir stratigraphic units. The latter hypothesis accounts for a possible partitioning of the reservoir due to the presence of sealing faults and thrusts that suggests the idea of a block heterogeneous system with the number of reservoir blocks equal to the number of uncertain parameters. The method applied here relies on an ensemble-based data assimilation (DA) algorithm (i.e. the ensemble smoother, ES), which incorporates the information from the bathymetric measurements into the geomechanical model response to infer and reduce the uncertainty of the parameter cM. The outcome from conceptual model (i) indicates that DA is effective in reducing the cM uncertainty. However, the maximum settlement still remains underestimated, while the areal extent of the subsidence bowl is overestimated. We demonstrate that the selection of the heterogeneous conceptual model (ii) allows to reproduce much better the observations thus removing a clear bias of the model structure. DA allows significantly reducing the cM uncertainty in the five blocks (out of the seven) characterized by large volume and large pressure decline. Conversely, the assimilation of land displacements only partially constrains the prior cM uncertainty in the reservoir blocks marginally contributing to the cumulative seafloor subsidence, that is, blocks with low pressure

Assessment of water quality and soil salinity in the agricultural coastal plain (Ravenna, North Italy)

To improve knowledge on salt leaching suitability on different soils, in Arenosols and Cambisols croplands in the coastal area of Ravenna (Italy), soil samples were collected in the non-irrigation winter period and irrigation summer period. Concurrently, waters of the canal network were also investigated. Soil samples were analyzed for pH, carbonate, total organic carbon (TOC), particle size distribution, electrical conductivity (EC), bulk density (BD) and water content at field capacity (FC). Water samples were investigated for pH, EC, biological and chemical oxygen demand, sodium adsorption ratio, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfates and chlorides. All soils had low TOC concentrations and Arenosols showed the lowest clay content, BD and FC. Soils had similar EC values in winter, but in summer the lowest ones were observed in Arenosols, suggesting that irrigation mitigated salinization in Arenosols, while the high clay content, BD and FC prevented or limited the salt leaching in Cambisols. In summer, the increase of total nitrogen and biological oxygen demand, especially in drainage channels, might suggest the leaching of soluble nutrients and organic matter from soils due to the high irrigation water volumes. Finally, our findings stress the need to consider soil type and properties to contrast soil salinization without negative effects on soil C leaching caused by salt leaching practice

Paraneoplastic Anti-Tif1-gamma Autoantibody-positive Dermatomyositis as Clinical Presentation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is rarely associated with autoimmune paraneoplastic syndromes. We report a case of anti-transcriptional intermediary factor-1 gamma (TIF1-??)-positive dermatomyositis (DM) as clinical presentation of HCC recurrence in a 72-year-old male patient admitted to our hospital due to fatigue, myalgia, and typical skin rash. His medical history was notable for hepatitis C-related cir-rhosis, successful treatment with direct-acting antiviral agents, and previously efficacious treatment of HCC. Labo-ratory testing showed significant rhabdomyolysis with anti-TIF1-?? antibodies at high titer, and DM was diagnosed. After a careful diagnostic workup, HCC recurrence was diagnosed. After first-line corticosteroid treatment, azathioprine and in-travenous immunoglobulin treatments were administered; unfortunately, he mounted only partial response. Owing to the compromised performance status, no HCC treatment was feasible, and, according to international guidelines, he received only best supportive care. Here, we discuss the diagnostic, prognostic, and pathogenic roles of anti-TIF1-?? antibodies associated with paraneoplastic DM and the scant literature data on its occurrence in HCC patients. Consider-ing the TIF1 gene family???s established role in oncogenesis, we also review the role of TIF1-?? as a tumor-related neo-antigen, leading to the development of clinically overt anti-TIF1-?? antibodies-positive DM