Vision social TV:towards personalised media experience and community atmosphere

The traditional TV viewing experience is being greatly influenced by the emerging social medias and online content distribution technologies. Social TV is becoming a hot topic in the media industry. The demo introduces a social TV platform, which enables the research and experimentation of personalised media experience and community atmosphere

Quantifying Produced and Injected Water Volumes in Southeastern Saskatchewan

Large volumes of often saline formation water are both produced from and injected into sedimentary basins as a by-product of oil and gas production. Despite this, the distribution and interactions of water production and injection wells have not been studied in detail, and the effects of long-term water injection on reservoir pressures and groundwater quality remain uncertain. Even where injection and production volumes are equal at the basin scale, local changes in hydraulic head can occur due to the distribution of production and injection wells. These changes in hydraulic head are important in understanding induced seismicity and can potentially act as drivers of saline fluid flow, possibly leading to contamination of overlying potable groundwater resources where high permeability pathways are present. Across the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), approximately 29 km3 of water has been co-produced with oil and gas, and 30 km3 of water has been injected into the subsurface for saltwater disposal or enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This study evaluates the effects of production and injection wells on deep groundwater resources by examining wells within the southeastern WCSB. A comprehensive fluid budget was created for each formation, as well as maps of the spatial distribution of produced and injected water within each formation. By comparing spatial distributions and formation fluid budgets, it was possible to locate areas where high levels of injection pose the most substantial risk of contamination. In the Midale Member, areas with high injection volumes were found to be injecting at rates up to 6,000 times that of the estimated natural formational flow rate. Modelled pressures changes in the Midale Member were found to exceed >8 MPa at up to 250 m away from the injection well, and 2 MPa at up to 1.5 km away, which translates to hydraulic head values above the ground surface and may potentially lead to upward leakage of fluids in the presence of permeable pathways. Increased formation pressures due to injection are not unique to the southeastern WCSB and have been recorded in several other regions including Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, in some cases leading to induced seismicity. While many of these settings have small changes in the overall fluid budgets, the distribution of production and injection wells can cause substantial changes to fluid pressures locally

UNDERGROUND NATURAL GAS STORAGE: AN EXAMINATION OF PROPERTY VALUES IN INDIANA

Recent years have seen increased discussion of issues related to natural gas, generally focusing on perceived risks associated with natural gas extraction. One aspect of natural gas extraction that has received little attention is the impact of natural gas storage on surrounding areas. Further, recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing extraction techniques have greatly increased production of natural gas wells, and will likely increase demand for natural gas storage. Like other natural gas wells, underground storage wells have the potential for environmental and amenity impacts. The impacts of these risks may be reflected by a reduction in the values of nearby properties. This thesis tests the hypothesis that properties located on or near natural gas storage fields have relatively lower values, holding everything else constant. To test the hypothesis that natural gas storage facilities bear statistically significant environmental and amenity risks, this analysis uses a semi-log hedonic property model through which to assess the impact of natural gas storage proximity and intensity on property values. The model also explores interaction effects of natural gas storage with public water, and allows for nonlinear effects. The dataset consists of a sample of 1,512 single-family residential property sales in 16 counties across the State of Indiana from 2004 to 2013. In addition to property sales data, the dataset includes housing characteristics such as size of the house, size of the property, year of construction, measures of building quality, distance to the nearest street, census block demographics, and in particular public water. Results indicate that both distance to the nearest natural gas storage well and distance to the nearest observation well have significantly nonlinear impacts on housing values, both indicating that housing values generally increase by approximately 9.2 to 10.03 percent with further distance from storage activity. The results also indicate housing values decrease by approximately 0.43 percent with increased intensity of storage activities. Additionally, the results demonstrate that homes without access to public water see statistically significant impacts of larger magnitude than homes with public water due to increased intensity of underground natural gas storage activities

The eschatology of the psalter: a study in the religious development of Israel as reflected in the book of pslams, with special reference to the destinies of the individual and the nation

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Multiple-exciton generation in lead selenide nanorod solar cells with external quantum efficiencies exceeding 120.

Multiple-exciton generation-a process in which multiple charge-carrier pairs are generated from a single optical excitation-is a promising way to improve the photocurrent in photovoltaic devices and offers the potential to break the Shockley-Queisser limit. One-dimensional nanostructures, for example nanorods, have been shown spectroscopically to display increased multiple exciton generation efficiencies compared with their zero-dimensional analogues. Here we present solar cells fabricated from PbSe nanorods of three different bandgaps. All three devices showed external quantum efficiencies exceeding 100% and we report a maximum external quantum efficiency of 122% for cells consisting of the smallest bandgap nanorods. We estimate internal quantum efficiencies to exceed 150% at relatively low energies compared with other multiple exciton generation systems, and this demonstrates the potential for substantial improvements in device performance due to multiple exciton generation.NJLKD thanks the Cambridge Commonwealth European and International Trust, Cambridge Australian Scholarships and Mr Charles K Allen for financial support. MLB thanks the German National Academic Foundation (“Studienstiftung”) for financial support. MT thanks the Gates Cambridge Trust, EPSRC and Winton Programme for Sustainability for financial support. F.W.R.R. gratefully thanks financial support from CNPq [Grant number 246050/2012-8]. C.D. acknowledges financial support from the EU [Grant number 312483 ESTEEM2]. This work was supported by the EPSRC [Grant numbers EP/M005143/1, EP/G060738/1, EP/G037221/1] and the ERC [Grant number 259619 PHOTO-EM].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms925

Love and attention in the works of Iris Murdoch

© Ruth Jellicoe Sheeran, 198

Efficient singlet exciton fission in pentacene prepared from a soluble precursor

Carrier multiplication using singlet exciton fission (SF) to generate a pair of spin-triplet excitons from a single optical excitation has been highlighted as a promising approach to boost the photocurrent in photovoltaics (PVs) thereby allowing PV operation beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. The applicability of many efficient fission materials, however, is limited due to their poor solubility. For instance, while acene-based organics such as pentacene (Pc) show high SF yields (up to 200%), the plain acene backbone renders the organic molecule insoluble in common organic solvents. Previous approaches adding solubilizing side groups such as bis(tri-$\textit{iso}$-propylsilylethynyl) to the Pc core resulted in low vertical carrier mobilities due to reduction of the transfer integrals via steric hindrance, which prevented high efficiencies in PVs. Here we show how to achieve good solubility while retaining the advantages of molecular Pc by using a soluble precursor route. The precursor fully converts into molecular Pc through thermal removal of the solubilizing side groups upon annealing above 150 °C in the solid state. The annealed precursor shows small differences in the crystallinity compared to evaporated thin films of Pc, indicating that the Pc adopts the bulk rather than surface polytype. Furthermore, we identify identical SF properties such as sub-100 fs fission time and equally long triplet lifetimes in both samples.M.T. thanks the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability for funding. A.H.K. acknowledges the Cambridge Nehru Bursary, the Cambridge Bombay Society, a Trinity-Henry Barlow- and Haidar Scholarship as well as Rana Denim Pvt. Ltd. for financial support. K.B. and J.N. would like to thank Dr. Tom Arnold and Jakub Rozboril for assistance during the beam time at Diamond Light Source. Financial support for K.B. from Diamond Light Source, Swiss Light Source, and the German Research Foundation (Grant No. BR 4869/1-1) is gratefully acknowledged. M.L.B. is a research fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Nos. EP/M005143/1, EP/G060738/1 and Cambridge NanoDTC EP/G037221/1, EP/L015978/1)

The U.S. Navy Won the Battle of Jutland

Over the course of the half-year from the battle of Jutland to the end of 1916, Williams S. Sims and his associates set the course that led to the U.S. Navy of the twenty-first century

Tackling malnutrition in residential aged care (RAC) with a new compact oral nutritional supplement (ONS) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Background: Malnutrition has several negative health consequences for older adults. Nutrition interventions using oral nutritional supplements (ONSs) are part of the solution and outcomes may be enhanced with the Medication Pass Nutrition Supplement Program (Med Pass). Aim: To determine whether 60 ml of a new compact ONS consumed four times daily with the medication round (Med Pass protocol) for 18-weeks is effective in improving nutrition status, physical strength (hand grip strength) and quality of life (QoL) measures. A secondary aim was to determine levels of compliance to the compact ONS following the Med Pass protocol. Methods: An 18-week, pilot intervention study was undertaken among 20 residential aged care (RAC) residents (mean age: 86.65 ± 6.8 y; 50 % female) assessed as being malnourished or at risk of malnutrition using the Mini Nutritional Assessment-short form (MNA-SF). Residents received 4x60 ml ONS (576 kcal/ml and 35 g protein) daily with the medication round. ONS intake and participant compliance were recorded daily. BMI, fat, and muscle mass (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis [BIA]), grip strength (handgrip dynamometer), nutrition risk (MNA-SF), QoL (SF-12 tool) and depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS-15]) were assessed at baseline and at post intervention. Results: Median overall compliance was 98.6%. Median nutrition status (MNA-SF scores) improved by 10% (+1 [-1 , 1], p=0.197, d=0.288) along with a mean increase in body weight (1.5 ± 5.9 kg , p=0.259, d=0.260) and muscle mass (0.8 ± 2.2 kg, p=0.137 , d=0.390). Improved scores for SF-12 physical (+ 5.9 ± 11.1) and mental (2.8 ± 12.0) components and depressive symptoms (-1 [-3.5, 1.0]) were also observed. Conclusion: We found compliance to a new nutrient- and energy dense ONS using the Med Pass protocol was 98.6 %, demonstrating its acceptability among RAC residents. We observed an improvement in nutrition risk status, weight, muscle mass, GDS-15 score and SF-12 score. Providing nutrient and energy dense ONS using the Med Pass protocol may be an effective method of improving nutrition status in RAC residents and warrants further investigation among a larger group of RAC residents

Matters (Un-)Becoming: Conversions in Epiphanius of Salamis

In this essay, I reconsider early Christian conversion through the writings of Epiphanius of Salamis (d. 404 C.E.). Far from the notion of conversion as an interior movement of soul (familiar from Augustine, A.D. Nock, and William James), Epiphanius shows us a variety of conversions—from lay to clergy, from orthodox to heretic, and from Jew to Christian—in the social and cultural context of empire. Epiphanius can help us reconsider late-ancient conversion not as the internal reorientation to a “new life,” but instead the exteriorized management of status and difference. As Epiphanius crafts conversion as the site of masterful intervention, he also conjures the failure of control, the blurring of boundaries, and collapse of frontiers that haunts the imperial Christian imagination