Use of Advanced Technologies and Information Solutions for North Sea Offshore Assets: Ambitious Changes and Socio-Technical Dimensions

The use of various forms of advanced technologies and information solutions are in common place to manage industrial assets today. This is widely seen as the way forward in various industrial sectors owing to range of commercial benefits offered by new technologies and its importance to gain competitive advantage. The objective of this paper is to describe such an ongoing major technology-dependent re- engineering process termed Integrated eOperations in oil and gas exploration and production business in North Sea since 2004-2005, and to highlight the nature of ambitious techno-managerial changes and its critical socio-technical dimensions. The change process focuses on a new development path based on 24/7 online real-time operations, with direct implications on organizational forms and managerial tasks. Given the nature and the scale of ongoing change processes, there are emerging concerns that increasing complexities, ill-defined interfaces can easily lead to serious vulnerabilities and major risks. To avoid such undesirable circumstances that will surely have long-term commercial repercussions, a holistic socio-technical consideration and early measures to ensure fully-functional and fail-safe system are absolutely necessary

Interacting fermions in synthetic non-Abelian gauge fields

Generation and study of synthetic gauge fields has enhanced the possibility of using cold atom systems as quantum emulators of condensed matter Hamiltonians. In this article we describe the physics of interacting spin -1/2 fermions in synthetic non-Abelian gauge fields which induce a Rashba spin-orbit interaction on the motion of the fermions. We show that the fermion system can evolve to a Bose-Einstein condensate of a novel boson which we call rashbon. The rashbon-rashbon interaction is shown to be independent of the interaction between the constituent fermions. We also show that spin-orbit coupling can help enhancing superfluid transition temperature of weak superfluids to the order of Fermi temperature. A non-Abelian gauge field, when used in conjunction with another potential, can generate interesting Hamiltonians such as that of a magnetic monopole

Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States

The Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard Scenarios and Tools Interagency Task Force, jointly convened by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the National Ocean Council (NOC), began its work in August 2015. The Task Force has focused its efforts on three primary tasks: 1) updating scenarios of global mean sea level (GMSL) rise, 2) integrating the global scenarios with regional factors contributing to sea level change for the entire U.S. coastline, and 3) incorporating these regionally appropriate scenarios within coastal risk management tools and capabilities deployed by individual agencies in support of the needs of specific stakeholder groups and user communities. This technical report focuses on the first two of these tasks and reports on the production of gridded relative sea level (RSL, which includes both ocean-level change and vertical land motion) projections for the United States associated with an updated set of GMSL scenarios. In addition to supporting the longer-term Task Force effort, this new product will be an important input into the USGCRP Sustained Assessment process and upcoming Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) due in 2018. This report also serves as a key technical input into the in-progress USGCRP Climate Science Special Report (CSSR)

Rashbons: Properties and their significance

In presence of a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field that induces a Rashba like spin-orbit interaction, a collection of weakly interacting fermions undergoes a crossover from a BCS ground state to a BEC ground state when the strength of the gauge field is increased [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 84}, 014512 (2011)]. The BEC that is obtained at large gauge coupling strengths is a condensate of tightly bound bosonic fermion-pairs whose properties are solely determined by the Rashba gauge field -- hence called rashbons. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of the properties of rashbons and their dispersion. This study reveals a new qualitative aspect of the problem of interacting fermions in non-Abelian gauge fields, i.e., that the rashbon state induced by the gauge field for small centre of mass momenta of the fermions ceases to exist when this momentum exceeds a critical value which is of the order of the gauge coupling strength. The study allows us to estimate the transition temperature of the rashbon BEC, and suggests a route to enhance the exponentially small transition temperature of the system with a fixed weak attraction to the order of the Fermi temperature by tuning the strength of the non-Abelian gauge field. The nature of the rashbon dispersion, and in particular the absence of the rashbon states at large momenta, suggests a regime of parameter space where the normal state of the system will be a dynamical mixture of uncondensed rashbons and unpaired helical fermions. Such a state should show many novel features including pseudogap physics.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

The Factors Affecting Recreation Behaviour of Upcountry Tamil Community in Tea Estates

This study aims to make a deeper analysis of Upcountry Tamil Community intea estates in relation to the factors affecting recreation behavior of upcountry Tamilcommunity in tea estates. The objective is to identify the influence of age and gender(demographic factor) for recreation behavior of Upcountry Tamil Community in teaestates. Two hypotheses were formulated: (i) The age influence on recreation behaviorof Upcountry Tamil Tea Estates community; (UTTE) (ii) The gender influence onrecreation behavior of Upcountry Tamil Tea Estates community. The researcher usedprimary and secondary data for this study. 200 laborers were selected for the sample andthe researcher used cluster random sampling method as a sampling technique in thisstudy. The researcher used questionnaire and interview methods to collect data andhypotheses were tested by calculate correlation and skewness. Based on the findings,the researcher concluded that employee‟s recreation behavior (individually andtogether) is negatively correlated with their age and gender. In addition, the researchermade recommendation to tea estates authority in related field. The government shouldprovide open spaces and recreational centers throughout the tea estates. Therefore, thegovernment should take steps to increase their income or release more time forrecreation.Key words: Recreation behavior, Demographic factor, Ethnic grou

Trapped fermions in a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field

On increasing the coupling strength ($\lambda$) of a non-Abelian gauge field that induces a generalized Rashba spin-orbit interaction, the topology of the Fermi surface of a homogeneous gas of noninteracting fermions of density \rho \sim \kf^3 undergoes a change at a critical value, \lambda_T \approx \kf [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 84}, 014512 (2011)]. In this paper we analyze how this phenomenon affects the size and shape of a cloud of spin-\half fermions trapped in a harmonic potential such as those used in cold atom experiments. We develop an adiabatic formulation, including the concomitant Pancharatnam-Berry phase effects, for the one particle states in the presence of a trapping potential and the gauge field, obtaining approximate analytical formulae for the energy levels for some high symmetry gauge field configurations of interest. An analysis based on the local density approximation reveals that, for a given number of particles, the cloud shrinks in a {\em characteristic fashion with increasing $\lambda$}. For an isotropic harmonic trap, the local density approximation predicts a spherical cloud for all gauge field configurations, which are anisotropic in general. We show, via a calculation of the cloud shape using exact eigenstates, that for certain gauge field configurations there is systematic and observable anisotropy in the cloud shape that increases with increasing gauge coupling $\lambda$. These results should be useful in the design of cold atom experiments with fermions in non-Abelian gauge fields. An important spin-off of our adiabatic formulation is that it reveals exciting possibilities for the cold-atom realization of interesting condensed matter Hamiltonians (eg. quantum hall spherical geometry) by using a non-Abelian gauge field in conjunction with another potential.Comment: 10 Pages, 4 figure

BEHAVIOUR OF JUVENILE ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN Panicum maximum DOMINA TED GRASSLANDS IN THE UDA WALA WA NATIONAL PARK.

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) dominated grasslands, a major habitat typein the Udawalawa National Park, is frequently occupied by wild elephants.Behaviour of juvenile elephants (4-6 years old) inhabiting the habitat wasstudied from April 2004 to March 2005. Focal animal sampling was employedto quantify behaviour and total time of observation was 3100 minutes.The activity budget of the juveniles comprised of ten behaviour patterns;feeding (44%), resting (24%), locomotion (19%), play (5%), comfort (5%),drinking, social, exploratory, agonistic and anxious. Maximum feeding (55%)and minimum resting (13%) were recorded during late afternoons (1500-1800hrs) whilst maximum resting (37%) and minimum feeding (29%) wererecorded during late mornings (0900-1200 hrs). Locomotion and otherbehaviour patterns did not significantly vary with time. Time spent on feedingwas higher in wet months (47%) than in dry months (39%). Resting wasrelatively higher in dry period (27%) than in wet (21 %). P. maximum was themajor food type consumed throughout the year while they fed on native grassesand herbs to a lesser extent (21-29%). Significant correlations between ambienttemperature and time spent on feeding (r= -0.716) and resting (r = +0.751)were evident.The Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Born Free Foundation, UKare acknowledged.

Systematic Identification of Factors for Provirus Silencing in Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) repress the expression of exogenous proviruses and endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). Here, we systematically dissected the cellular factors involved in provirus repression in embryonic carcinomas (ECs) and ESCs by a genome-wide siRNA screen. Histone chaperones (Chaf1a/b), sumoylation factors (Sumo2/Ube2i/Sae1/Uba2/Senp6), and chromatin modifiers (Trim28/Eset/Atf7ip) are key determinants that establish provirus silencing. RNA-seq analysis uncovered the roles of Chaf1a/b and sumoylation modifiers in the repression of ERVs. ChIP-seq analysis demonstrates direct recruitment of Chaf1a and Sumo2 to ERVs. Chaf1a reinforces transcriptional repression via its interaction with members of the NuRD complex (Kdm1a, Hdac1/2) and Eset, while Sumo2 orchestrates the provirus repressive function of the canonical Zfp809/Trim28/Eset machinery by sumoylation of Trim28. Our study reports a genome-wide atlas of functional nodes that mediate proviral silencing in ESCs and illuminates the comprehensive, interconnected, and multi-layered genetic and epigenetic mechanisms by which ESCs repress retroviruses within the genome

Impacts of the 2004 tsunami on groundwater resources in Sri Lanka, Water Resour

[1] The 26 December 2004 tsunami caused widespread destruction and contamination of coastal aquifers across southern Asia. Seawater filled domestic open dug wells and also entered the aquifers via direct infiltration during the first flooding waves and later as ponded seawater infiltrated through the permeable sands that are typical of coastal aquifers. In Sri Lanka alone, it is estimated that over 40,000 drinking water wells were either destroyed or contaminated. From February through September 2005, a team of United States, Sri Lankan, and Danish water resource scientists and engineers surveyed the coastal groundwater resources of Sri Lanka to develop an understanding of the impacts of the tsunami and to provide recommendations for the future of coastal water resources in south Asia. In the tsunami-affected areas, seawater was found to have infiltrated and mixed with fresh groundwater lenses as indicated by the elevated groundwater salinity levels. Seawater infiltrated through the shallow vadose zone as well as entered aquifers directly through flooded open wells. Our preliminary transport analysis demonstrates that the intruded seawater has vertically mixed in the aquifers because of both forced and free convection. Widespread pumping of wells to remove seawater was effective in some areas, but overpumping has led to upconing of the saltwater interface and rising salinity. We estimate that groundwater recharge from several monsoon seasons will reduce salinity of many sandy Sri Lankan coastal aquifers. However, the continued sustainability of these small and fragile aquifers for potable water will be difficult because of the rapid growth of human activities that results in more intensive groundwater pumping and increased pollution. Long-term sustainability of coastal aquifers is also impacted by the decrease in sand replenishment of the beaches due to sand mining and erosion