Effect of biodegradation on tar sand bitumen of South Woodford Area, Carter County, Oklahoma

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oklahoma, 1987Bibliography: leaves 67-74Tar-sand bitumens from the South Woodford Area have been analyzed to study effects of biodegradation on oils and to determine their possible sources. The tar-sand deposits, located approximately 1.5 miles south of Woodford, Carter County, Oklahoma, are distributed along the crest of the South Woodford Anticline. Sixteen bitumens from the Rod Club Sandstone (Mississippian) were chosen from a single well (Fitzgerald #5) which was cored near the axis of the anticline. This study shows that the tar-sand bitumens have been so severely biodegraded that most of the n - alkanes, low molecular weight cycloalkanes, isoprenoid alkanes, C27-C29 steranes, and light aromatics and sulfur compounds have been removed. In addition, the hopane distributions have been altered to differing degrees with those above C3 o decreasing prior to the C27-29 hopanes. The triaromatic steroid hydrocarbons are also altered with the preferential removal of C20-21 and C2 7 -28 20R species. Diasterane and C3 o -sterane distributions appear to be unaffected by biodegradation. The high resistance of tricyclic terpanes, C 24 -tetracyclic terpane and monoaromatic steroid hydrocarbons to biodegradation indicate that the distribution of these compounds are well -suited to serve as bitumen-oil correlation parameters. Geochemical correlation between the tar sand bitumen and oils produced in the Pauls-Valley area was attempted to determine which of these oils was the source for the tar-sand bitumen. The age of the reservoir of these oils range from Ordovician to Pennsylvanian. These oils were divided into two major groups based on biomarker distribution (JONES, 1986). One group appears to be sourced by the Woodford Shale whereas the other appears to be sourced by the Viola Limestone. The tar sand bitumen-oil correlation study , based on biomarker distributions and pyrolysis-gas chromatography of asphaltenes, shows that the tar-sand bitumen is genetically-related to the group of oils derived from the Woodford Shale

Impact of Information Technology Capability on Financial Performance of Chinese Listed Companies during the Period of Economic Downturn

The information technology (IT) resource-based view suggests that IT capability is one of the determinants of a firm’s competitive advantage and financial performance. However, we know relatively little about the relationship between IT capability and financial performance during the period of economic downturn. Even fewer research related to this is done in China as the largest emerging We used the matched sample comparison group method to collect data from 248 listed companies before and after the 2008 financial crisis during 2007-2009, and to investigate the impacts of IT capability on financial performance during economic downturn. The findings show that even during the period of financial crisis, companies with superior IT capability have better average profit ratios than a control sample of companies, but differences in the cost ratio of suggest no statistical significance between two samples

SAM-6D: Segment Anything Model Meets Zero-Shot 6D Object Pose Estimation

Zero-shot 6D object pose estimation involves the detection of novel objects with their 6D poses in cluttered scenes, presenting significant challenges for model generalizability. Fortunately, the recent Segment Anything Model (SAM) has showcased remarkable zero-shot transfer performance, which provides a promising solution to tackle this task. Motivated by this, we introduce SAM-6D, a novel framework designed to realize the task through two steps, including instance segmentation and pose estimation. Given the target objects, SAM-6D employs two dedicated sub-networks, namely Instance Segmentation Model (ISM) and Pose Estimation Model (PEM), to perform these steps on cluttered RGB-D images. ISM takes SAM as an advanced starting point to generate all possible object proposals and selectively preserves valid ones through meticulously crafted object matching scores in terms of semantics, appearance and geometry. By treating pose estimation as a partial-to-partial point matching problem, PEM performs a two-stage point matching process featuring a novel design of background tokens to construct dense 3D-3D correspondence, ultimately yielding the pose estimates. Without bells and whistles, SAM-6D outperforms the existing methods on the seven core datasets of the BOP Benchmark for both instance segmentation and pose estimation of novel objects.Comment: Accepted by CVPR2024. Github Page: https://github.com/JiehongLin/SAM-6

Retrieval of Raindrop Size Distribution, Vertical Air Velocity and Water Vapor Attenuation Using Dual-Wavelength Doppler Radar Observations

Two techniques for retrieving the slope and intercept parameters of an assumed exponential raindrop size distribution (RSD), vertical air velocity, and attenuation by precipitation and water vapor in light stratiform rain using observations by airborne, nadir looking dual-wavelength (X-band, 3.2 cm and W-band, 3.2 mm) radars are presented. In both techniques, the slope parameter of the RSD and the vertical air velocity are retrieved using only the mean Doppler velocities at the two wavelengths. In the first method, the intercept of the RSD is estimated from the observed reflectivity at the longer wavelength assuming no attenuation at that wavelength. The attenuation of the shorter wavelength radiation by precipitation and water vapor are retrieved using the observed reflectivity at the shorter wavelength. In the second technique, it is assumed that the longer wavelength suffers attenuation only in the melting band. Then, assuming a distribution of water vapor, the melting band attenuation at both wavelengths and the rain attenuation at the shorter wavelength are retrieved. Results of the retrievals are discussed and several physically meaningful results are presented

The dependence of Ni-Fe bioxide composites nanoparticles on the FeCl2 solution used

BACKGROUND: Ni(2)O(3)- γ-Fe(2)O(3) composite nanoparticles coated with a layer of 2FeCl(3)·5H(2)O can be prepared by co-precipitation and processing in FeCl(2) solution. Using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) diffraction techniques, the dependence of the preparation on the concentration of the FeCl(2) treatment solution is revealed. RESULTS: The magnetization of the as-prepared products varied non-monotonically as the FeCl(2) concentration increased from 0.020 M to 1.000 M. The Experimental results show that for the composite nanoparticles, the size of the γ-Fe(2)O(3) phase is constant at about 8 nm, the Ni(2)O(3) phase decreased and the 2FeCl(3)·5H(2)O phase increased with increasing concentration of FeCl(2) solution. The magnetization of the as-prepared products mainly results from the γ-Fe(2)O(3) core, and the competition between the reduction of the Ni(2)O(3) phase with the increase of the 2FeCl(3)·5H(2)O phase resulted in the apparent magnetization varying non-monotonically. CONCLUSIONS: When the concentration of FeCl(2) treatment solution did not exceed 0.100 M, the products are spherical nanoparticles of size about 11 nm; their magnetization increased monotonically with increasing the concentration of FeCl(2) solution due to the decreasing proportion of Ni(2)O(3) phase

The Relationship Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Posttraumatic Growth Among HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men in Beijing, China: The Mediating Roles of Coping Strategies

The traumatic experience of contracting and living with HIV/AIDS may produce a myriad of mental health problems, especially posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and conversely, bring posttraumatic growth (PTG), that is, positive changes resulting from a struggle with trauma. The growing body of research into the relationship between PTSD symptoms and PTG has produced mixed results. In addition, some research has suggested that psychosocial and cognitive factors may mediate the development of PTG after trauma exposure. Specifically, individuals experience fewer psychological symptoms and better mental health when adaptive coping strategies align with stressors; however, little research is available on the relationship and the mediating effect of coping strategies on the link of PTSD symptoms and PTG among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. The aims of the current study were to investigate the relationship between PTSD symptoms and PTG as well as the potential mediating effects of coping strategies through which PTSD symptoms contributes to PTG among this vulnerable population. One hundred and forty HIV-positive MSM were recruited from the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control and were asked to complete a battery of self-administered questionnaires, covering sociodemographic and HIV-related characteristics, coping strategies (i.e., problem-solving, seeking social support, self-blame, and wishful thinking), PTSD symptoms, and PTG. Results showed that, after controlling for sociodemographic and HIV-related variables, a negative linear relationship was found between PTSD symptoms and PTG. In addition, problem-solving and self-blame played significant mediating roles in the association between PTSD symptoms and PTG. The mediating effects of seeking social support and engaging in wishful thinking on the PTSD symptoms and PTD link were, however, non-significant. The present study contributes to an understanding of the association between PTSD symptoms and PTG and underscores the mediators through which individuals gain growth from traumatic experience in the context of HIV infection in Beijing, China. Given these findings, the future efforts at psychological intervention should differentiate and target various types of coping strategies, especially focusing on enhancing problem-solving skills and decreasing self-blame, in response to the promotion of positive growth among HIV-infected MSM