A case study based assessment of potential cumulative impacts on groundwater from shale gas production in Northern England

The UK shale gas industry might see significant growth in the near future, with many energy companies already having gained approval and others in the stages of seeking approval for exploration. Exploratory boreholes have been in place in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, and the Fylde Basin, Lancashire, since 2013 and 2010 respectively. Since then, several other sites around the UK have been earmarked for future exploration. The current absence of producing shale gas wells within the UK means it is too early to assess any actual impact of these operations at the local, regional and national scale. However, international analogues may provide some indications based on areas elsewhere in the world where a shale gas industry is more developed (e.g. the Marcellus Shale, USA) albeit with obvious limitations due to differences in geology and setting. While regulation and compliance of shale gas operations varies between countries, the process and method of extraction and the environmental risks are comparable. The general requirements for water, drilling mud/fluids, hydraulic fracturing fluids (“frac fluids”) and the design of wells and well pads can all be extracted from an already mature international experience. However, the requirements in the UK will be modified by the regulatory requirements and restrictions that exist. There are ongoing discussions within the UK to determine whether shale gas is beneficial, economically viable and environmentally safe. In this report, the impact on land use, groundwater quality and water resources of one well in a selection of approved Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) areas will be considered, followed by an estimation of the cumulative impacts that may result from multiple extraction sites within these areas. The exercise will depend on ranges of input parameters informed by international analogues applied in a UK geo-environmental setting. To recognise the variability in parameters and uncertainty in UK industry development, a range of impact scenarios - low, moderate and high – have been considered

Antimicrobial treatment improves mycobacterial survival in nonpermissive growth conditions

Antimicrobials targeting cell wall biosynthesis are generally considered inactive against nonreplicating bacteria. Paradoxically, we found that under nonpermissive growth conditions, exposure of Mycobacterium bovis BCG bacilli to such antimicrobials enhanced their survival. We identified a transcriptional regulator, RaaS (for regulator of antimicrobial-assisted survival), encoded by bcg1279 (rv1219c) as being responsible for the observed phenomenon. Induction of this transcriptional regulator resulted in reduced expression of specific ATP-dependent efflux pumps and promoted long-term survival of mycobacteria, while its deletion accelerated bacterial death under nonpermissive growth conditions in vitro and during macrophage or mouse infection. These findings have implications for the design of antimicrobial drug combination therapies for persistent infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis

Employing a New BVIc Photometric Survey of IC 4665 to Investigate the Age of this Young Open Cluster

We present a new, BVIc photometric survey of the young open cluster IC4665, which improves on previous studies of this young cluster by incorporating a rigorous standardization procedure, thus providing high-fidelity colors and magnitudes for cluster members. We use this new photometric dataset to reevaluate the properties (age and distance) of IC4665. Namely, using a statistical approach incorporating Tau^2 CMD modeling, we measure a pre-main-sequence isochrone age and distance of 36+-9 Myr and 360+-12 pc, as well as a upper-main-sequence turn-off age and distance of 42+-12 Myr and 357+-12 pc. These ages and distances are highly dependent on the isochrone model and color used for the fitting procedure, with a possible range of ~10-20 Myr in age and ~20 pc in distance. This spread in calculated ages and distances seen between colors and models is likely due to limitations in the individual membership catalogs and/or systematic differences in the predicted stellar parameters from the different sets of models. Interestingly, when we compare the isochrone ages for IC4665 to the published lithium depletion boundary age, 28+-5 Myr, we observe that this cluster does not appear to follow the trend of isochrone ages being 1.5 times smaller than lithium depletion boundary ages. In addition, comparing the overall magnetic activity (X-ray and H-alpha emission) in IC4665 with other well studied open clusters, we find the observed activity distributions for this young cluster are best characterized by assuming an age of 30-40 Myr, thus in agreement with our pre-main-sequence and turn-off isochrone ages for IC4665. Overall, although some age discrepancies do exist, particularly in the ages measured from pre-main-sequence isochrones, the range of possible IC4665 ages derived from the various dating techniques employed here is relatively small compared to that found for other well studied open clusters.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables; Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Liquid Sucrose Consumption Promotes Obesity and Impairs Glucose Tolerance Without Altering Circulating Insulin Levels

© 2018 The Obesity Society Objective: Multiple factors contribute to the rising rates of obesity and to difficulties in weight reduction that exist in the worldwide population. Caloric intake via sugar-sweetened beverages may be influential. This study tested the hypothesis that liquid sucrose intake promotes obesity by increasing serum insulin levels and tissue lipid accumulation. Methods: C57BL/6J mice were given 30% sucrose in liquid form. Changes in weight gain, body composition, energy expenditure (EE), and tissue lipid content were measured. Results: Mice drinking sucrose gained more total body mass (TBM), had greater fat mass, and displayed impaired glucose tolerance relative to control mice. These metabolic changes occurred without alterations in circulating insulin levels and despite increases in whole body EE. Lipid accrued in liver, but not skeletal muscle, of sucrose-consuming mice. Oxygen consumption (VO2) correlated with fat-free mass and moderately with TBM, but not with fat mass. ANCOVA for treatment effects on EE, with TBM, VO2, lean body mass, and fat-free mass taken as potential covariates for EE, revealed VO2 as the most significant correlation. Conclusions: Weight gain induced by intake of liquid sucrose in mice is associated with lipid accrual in liver, but not skeletal muscle, and occurs without an increase in circulating insulin

A Novel Automated Method for Analyzing Cylindrical Computed Tomography Data

A novel software method is presented that is applicable for analyzing cylindrical and partially cylindrical objects inspected using computed tomography. This method involves unwrapping and re-slicing data so that the CT data from the cylindrical object can be viewed as a series of 2-D sheets in the vertical direction in addition to volume rendering and normal plane views provided by traditional CT software. The method is based on interior and exterior surface edge detection and under proper conditions, is FULLY AUTOMATED and requires no input from the user except the correct voxel dimension from the CT scan. The software is available from NASA in 32- and 64-bit versions that can be applied to gigabyte-sized data sets, processing data either in random access memory or primarily on the computer hard drive. Please inquire with the presenting author if further interested. This software differentiates itself in total from other possible re-slicing software solutions due to complete automation and advanced processing and analysis capabilities

Detection of Potential Transit Signals in Sixteen Quarters of Kepler Mission Data

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in four years of photometry data acquired by the Kepler Mission. The targets of the search include 111,800 stars which were observed for the entire interval and 85,522 stars which were observed for a subset of the interval. We found that 9,743 targets contained at least one signal consistent with the signature of a transiting or eclipsing object, where the criteria for detection are periodicity of the detected transits, adequate signal-to-noise ratio, and acceptance by a number of tests which reject false positive detections. When targets that had produced a signal were searched repeatedly, an additional 6,542 signals were detected on 3,223 target stars, for a total of 16,285 potential detections. Comparison of the set of detected signals with a set of known and vetted transit events in the Kepler field of view shows that the recovery rate for these signals is 96.9%. The ensemble properties of the detected signals are reviewed.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Supplemen

Improved Experimental Limits on the Production of Magnetic Monopoles

We present new limits on low mass accelerator-produced point-like Dirac magnetic monopoles trapped and bound in matter surrounding the D\O collision region of the Tevatron at Fermilab (experiment E-882). In the context of a Drell-Yan mechanism, we obtain cross section limits for the production of monopoles with magnetic charge values of 1, 2, 3, and 6 times the minimum Dirac charge of the order of picobarns, some hundred times smaller than found in similar previous Fermilab searches. Mass limits inferred from these cross section limits are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 4 eps figures, REVTe