A review of attitudes towards sharing geotechnical data and the use of geospatial data portals in Hong Kong and the U.K.: lessons for Europe

Reusing existing subsurface data can greatly cut the time and financial costs of site investigations, and reduce uncertainty regarding ground conditions that can result in delays and overspend. In Hong Kong SAR it is common practice for consultancies to deposit records in the form of factual and interpretive reports, borehole logs and laboratory test data with the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) who make this information openly available to access for future investigative works. In addition to these deposits, other datasets available at GEO include, amongst others, landslide records, aerial photographs and as-built records. These archives are the first source of information about development sites in Hong Kong and no investigation takes place without a thorough desk study. Increasingly these data are digital, and can be accessed through a GIS-based online portal. In the U.K. the British Geological Survey (BGS) acts as a custodian for geoscience data deposited by the public and private sectors on a voluntary basis, and encourages organisations to make their data publicly available through the BGS online data portals. The facility to deposit digital data via the BGS website has recently been launched and should increase uptake of data sharing in the U.K. as it becomes easier for users to batch upload records digitally. Issues regarding data ownership and confidentiality are being overcome by the establishment, in some cities, of knowledge exchange networks where members who sign up to view data are expected under the terms of membership to deposit data. This has received backing from local government in some areas. The U.K. may not have the density of existing data that Hong Kong has but as knowledge exchange gathers momentum the BGS datasets are expected to grow rapidly. In Europe there appears to be a reluctance to share data. However, escalating demand for land, greater redevelopment of brownfield sites and an ever-growing need to ensure future construction and infrastructure projects are sustainable and compliant with European environmental targets means reusing data may have a role to play in increased subsurface knowledge, the reduction of unforeseen ground conditions and ultimately saving money. Data in .ags format is particularly favourable due to its uniform nature. First-hand experience of the approach towards disseminating geospatial data in Hong Kong and the U.K. will be presented, examining the difference in attitudes regarding data sharing in the two territories, and highlighting how it benefits ground investigations and geohazard assessment with the hope that Europe can learn lessons for the future and change old habits. The different systems of data sharing used in Hong Kong and the U.K. will be discussed, and their strengths and weaknesses evaluated with the aim of fostering a methodology for sharing geoscience data within Europe that benefits from the combined successes of both approaches and builds upon existing expertise

Living on the Edge: An Assessment of the Habitat Use of Waterbirds in Estuarine Wetlands of Barataria Basin, LA

The wetlands of Louisiana are losing area at the rapid rate of 42.9 km2 yr-1 and the trend is expected to continue. This combined with expected sea-level rise will likely cause large shifts in vegetation and salinity regimes that will affect the wildlife species reliant on these ecosystems. Waterbirds serve as indicator species of ecosystem health in estuarine wetland habitats; therefore, these species are often the targets of wetland management goals in Louisiana. However, many proposed wetland restoration projects are focused primarily on social impacts with only a few specific waterbird species designated for management. The majority of these waterbird habitat-use studies in Louisiana wetlands have focused on waterfowl species and their abundance in wetland habitats during migration and winter. My overall objective was to compare habitat use of all waterbird taxa in fresh and saline estuarine wetland habitats. Additionally, I examined habitat use at finer spatial scales to assess a possible preference for marsh edge microhabitats when compared to open water and interior emergent vegetation. I also investigated waterbird associations with the environmental parameters of emergent and aquatic species composition, percentage of open water, and salinity. From July 2014 to December 2015, I compared waterbird density and species richness both spatially and temporally to assess habitat use. I found that species richness differed between fresh and saline habitats depending on the month, with the month of April having the greatest species richness. Waterbird density was greatest among edge microhabitat regardless of salinity type, and birds utilized this habitat up to 15 m from the edge. Density did not vary in open water plots in relation to salinity type. The relationships between environmental variables and species were significant (p=0.002) as well as relationships between guilds and environmental variables (p=0.002). These data will be useful in attempts to simulate the effects of wetland loss and salinity changes on habitat quality for waterbirds in coastal Louisiana, and will inform habitat restoration and management decisions for optimal waterbird use

Small Room Big Party

College: (n) those four years of your life when your time is consumed with late-night studying, tests, and of course, parties. Throwing the party of the year can be exhilarating, but also difficult. Seeing as most students aren’t living in penthouse suites, space can be a major problem. So if you’re crunched for space but still want to have a bad ass party, here are some tips and pointers to get you started

Cosmological constraints from the convergence 1-point probability distribution

We examine the cosmological information available from the 1-point probability distribution (PDF) of the weak-lensing convergence field, utilizing fast L-PICOLA simulations and a Fisher analysis. We find competitive constraints in the $\Omega_m$-$\sigma_8$ plane from the convergence PDF with $188\ arcmin^2$ pixels compared to the cosmic shear power spectrum with an equivalent number of modes ($\ell < 886$). The convergence PDF also partially breaks the degeneracy cosmic shear exhibits in that parameter space. A joint analysis of the convergence PDF and shear 2-point function also reduces the impact of shape measurement systematics, to which the PDF is less susceptible, and improves the total figure of merit by a factor of $2-3$, depending on the level of systematics. Finally, we present a correction factor necessary for calculating the unbiased Fisher information from finite differences using a limited number of cosmological simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

SN 2016iet: The Pulsational or Pair Instability Explosion of a Low Metallicity Massive CO Core Embedded in a Dense Hydrogen-Poor Circumstellar Medium

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2016iet, an unprecedented Type I supernova (SN) at $z=0.0676$ with no obvious analog in the existing literature. The peculiar light curve has two roughly equal brightness peaks ($\approx -19$ mag) separated by 100 days, and a subsequent slow decline by 5 mag in 650 rest-frame days. The spectra are dominated by emission lines of calcium and oxygen, with a width of only $3400$ km s$^{-1}$, superposed on a strong blue continuum in the first year, and with a large ratio of $L_{\rm [Ca\,II]}/L_{\rm [O\,I]}\approx 4$ at late times. There is no clear evidence for hydrogen or helium associated with the SN at any phase. We model the light curves with several potential energy sources: radioactive decay, central engine, and circumstellar medium (CSM) interaction. Regardless of the model, the inferred progenitor mass near the end of its life (i.e., CO core mass) is $\gtrsim 55$ M$_\odot$ and up to $120$ M$_\odot$, placing the event in the regime of pulsational pair instability supernovae (PPISNe) or pair instability supernovae (PISNe). The models of CSM interaction provide the most consistent explanation for the light curves and spectra, and require a CSM mass of $\approx 35$ M$_\odot$ ejected in the final decade before explosion. We further find that SN 2016iet is located at an unusually large offset ($16.5$ kpc) from its low metallicity dwarf host galaxy ($Z\approx 0.1$ Z$_\odot$, $M\approx 10^{8.5}$ M$_\odot$), supporting the PPISN/PISN interpretation. In the final spectrum, we detect narrow H$\alpha$ emission at the SN location, likely due to a dim underlying galaxy host or an H II region. Despite the overall consistency of the SN and its unusual environment with PPISNe and PISNe, we find that the inferred properties of SN\,2016iet challenge existing models of such events.Comment: 26 Pages, 17 Figures, Submitted to Ap

Surgical Patients’ Hospital Experience Scores: Neighborhood Context Conceptual Framework

Objective: Through geocoding the physical residential address included in the electronic medical record to the census tract level, we present a novel model for concomitant examination of individual patient-related and residential context-related factors that are associated with patient-reported experience scores. Summary Background Data: When assessing patient experience in the surgical setting, researchers need to examine the potential influence of neighborhood-level characteristics on patient experience-of-care ratings. Methods: We geocoded the residential address included in the electronic medical record (EMR) from a tertiary care facility to the census tract level of Orange County, CA. We then linked each individual record to the matching census tract and use hierarchical regression analyses to test the impact of distinct neighborhood conditions on patient experience. This approach allows us to estimate how each neighborhood characteristic uniquely influences Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores. Results: Individuals residing in communities characterized by high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage have the highest experience ratings. Accounting for individual patient’s characteristics such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, primary language spoken at home, length of stay, and average pain levels during their hospital stay, neighborhood-level characteristics such as proportions of people receiving public assistance influence the ratings of hospital experience (0.01, P \u3c 0.05) independent of, and beyond, these individual-level factors. Conclusions: This manuscript is an example of how geocoding could be used to analyze surgical patient experience scores. In this analysis, we have shown that neighborhood-level characteristics influence the ratings of hospital experience independent of, and beyond, individual-level factors

Monitoring groundwater temperatures in a shallow urban aquifer before, during and after installation of a Ground Source Heat System in Cardiff, U.K.

Exploitation of shallow urban aquifers, warmed by the Urban Heat Island Effect, is a relatively new concept in the U.K. An extensive groundwater temperature baseline monitoring network has been established for a shallow superficial aquifer in the city of Cardiff, U.K., to characterise groundwater temperatures and monitor the impacts of the first open-loop ground source heat pump (GSHP) installed in the city. In Spring 2014, temperature profiling was carried out at 1m depth intervals at 168 groundwater monitoring boreholes across Cardiff, establishing baseline groundwater temperatures within the shallow (<20m) superficial aquifer during the groundwater’s forecast coldest time of year. Data was contoured to form the first U.K. 2D city heat map. During the warmest time of year, Autumn 2014, a subset of boreholes were re-profiled to ascertain seasonal temperature variation, defining the Zone of Seasonal Fluctuation. Re-profiling was again carried out at these boreholes in Autumn 2015 to confirm these temperatures as normal for that time of year. By comparing Spring and Autumn profiles, the average depth to the base of the Zone of Seasonal Fluctuation was found to be 9.5mbgl. Two >100m boreholes showed the urban warming effect may extend to 80mbgl, before temperatures follow the predicted geothermal gradient. We term this the Zone of Anthropogenic Influence. After initial baseline temperatures were established, a site was selected for the installation of a shallow GSHP. Before installation work began, a monitoring network was set up to establish a temperature baseline for future GSHPs and identify any impacts on the thermal resource caused by removing ~2°C from the abstracted groundwater prior to reinjection into the aquifer. This comprised of 97 temperature loggers in 60 boreholes, including the abstraction and recharge boreholes and boreholes up and down gradient of the site. Some of these boreholes have multiple loggers at different depths, including the near-surface, but the majority of loggers were placed within the boreholes’ slotted sections, below the base of the Zone of Seasonal Fluctuation. In addition, six boreholes, including those used for the GSHP, have been telemetered, providing real-time temperature data. The aim of the monitoring network was to establish a baseline for groundwater temperatures in the shallow aquifer and to monitor local changes in temperatures close to the GSHP system. This study aimed to provide understanding of how GSHPs interact with the groundwater in order to confirm the sustainability of groundwater temperatures as a long-term thermal resource and provide planners with knowledge needed to develop sustainable wide-scale GSHP systems/networks. We present temperature data taken before and after installation

Correlated alterations in genome organization, histone methylation, and DNA-lamin A/C interactions in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a premature aging disease that is frequently caused by a de novo point mutation at position 1824 in LMNA. This mutation activates a cryptic splice donor site in exon 11, and leads to an in-frame deletion within the prelamin A mRNA and the production of a dominant negative lamin A protein, known as progerin. Here we show that primary HGPS skin fibroblasts experience genome-wide correlated alterations in patterns of H3K27me3 deposition, DNA-lamin A/C associations, and, at late passages, genome-wide loss of spatial compartmentalization of active and inactive chromatin domains. We further demonstrate that the H3K27me3 changes associate with gene expression alterations in HGPS cells. Our results support a model that the accumulation of progerin in the nuclear lamina leads to altered H3K27me3 marks in heterochromatin, possibly through the down-regulation of EZH2, and disrupts heterochromatin-lamina interactions. These changes may result in transcriptional misregulation and eventually trigger the global loss of spatial chromatin compartmentalization in late passage HGPS fibroblasts