Cultural Resources Survey For A Proposed Detention Pond For The City Of Richmond, In Fort Bend, County, Texas

HRA Gray & Pape, LLC, of Houston, Texas conducted an intensive pedestrian cultural resources survey on approximately 3.72 hectares (9.2 acres) of property proposed for the construction of a detention pond in the City of Richmond, Fort Bend County, Texas. The goals of the survey were to determine if the proposed undertaking would affect any previously identified archaeological sites as defined by Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (36 CFR 800), and to assess the presence of previously unidentified buried archaeological resources within the Project’s Area of Potential Effects. All fieldwork and reporting activities were completed in compliance with state law and guidelines (the Antiquities Code of Texas). Survey and site identification followed Texas Antiquities Code standards; HRA Gray & Pape, LLC. secured a Texas Antiquities Permit (number 7110) prior to the completion of fieldwork as the Project area is located on property-owned by the City of Richmond. The Area of Potential Effects for this Project is defined as the entire approximately 3.72- hectare (9.2-acre) Project area, composed primarily of a channelized drainage ditch with wooded areas adjacent to the margins of the Project area. Field investigations consisted of a combination of pedestrian survey and subsurface testing, resulting in the excavation of a total of 4 shovel tests in an area that appeared to include intact soils. In addition, a total of 3 backhoe trenches were excavated within the Project area to investigate deeply buried Holocene deposits and evaluate the potential for deeply buried archaeological deposits. HRA Gray & Pape, LLC. also focused attention on the adjacent Morton Cemetery and potential impacts to marked and unmarked burials within the fenced area of the cemetery property in designing its fieldwork methods for the Project; however, following consultation with BioWest staff, the Project boundary has been amended to exclude the fenced cemetery property and is depicted in its final amended configuration in the following report. No newly recorded historic or prehistoric cultural resources were identified during the survey. Therefore, HRA Gray & Pape, LLC. recommends no further cultural resources work within the surveyed Project area

Pedestrian Cultural Resources Survey For The Proposed Iellc 8-Inch Pipeline Project In San Patricio, Refugio, Aransas, Calhoun, Victoria, Jackson, And Matagorda Counties, Texas

In March, May, and June of 2013, and June, July, and August of 2014, HRA Gray & Pape, LLC, of Houston, Texas, completed pedestrian cultural resources survey and limited shovel testing on a proposed 185-kilometer (115.2-mile) alignment in preparation for a new 20.3­ centimeter (8-inch) diameter ethylene pipeline to be located in San Patricio, Refugio, Aransas, Victoria, Calhoun, Jackson, and Matagorda Counties, Texas. The Phase I survey was conducted on behalf of Tetra Tech, Inc. of Buffalo, New York, under contract with Ingleside Ethylene, LLC and Occidental Chemical Corporation. Over the course of the project (Project) permitting requirements have involved the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District. The issuances of federal permits were considered undertakings subject to the provisions and review process provided in Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. To date, all 185 kilometers (115.2 miles) of the Project have been investigated. This final report serves as a consolidation of information previously submitted to your office between 2013 and 2015. Field efforts consisting of several mobilizations were completed and the results were submitted in three previously submitted draft documents including a revised draft report and a succession of draft addenda and letter correspondences (Balakirova and Scott 2013, Perrine et al. 2014, Scott 2014). Portions of the Project were also previously documented in an earlier report for another project (Scott et al. 2013). A fourth draft document was submitted this year in 2015 (Scott 2015) and received concurrence on February 18, 2015. That document was associated with 7.6 kilometers (4.72 miles) of proposed pipeline reroute and two small workspaces totaling 1.5 hectares (3.8 acres). The 2015 survey resulted in negative findings and was not synthesized into this final report but the current Project footprint is represented in Appendix A and the 2015 addendum is included in Appendix E for your reference. All submitted documentation has received concurrence from your office and the lead federal agencies at the time of the report submittals (see report Appendix E). In addition to the pipeline workspace, approximately 21.4 kilometers (13.3 miles) of access roads was also surveyed. The total area surveyed for the Project amounts to approximately 260.8 kilometers (162.1 miles), or 1,560.2 hectares (3,855.4 acres) of survey coverage, including the current Area of Potential Effects, as well as surveyed areas that are no longer in consideration for the Project. Fieldwork conducted in 2013 and 2014 was completed over six separate mobilizations. The first wave of mobilizations consisted of three separate mobilizations from March 6 to 26, May 15 to 29, and June 17 to 21, 2013. The second wave of survey also consisted of three mobilizations and was carried out from June 3 to 13, July 9 to 11, and August 25 to 27, 2014, after alignment changes were made to the original plan. As described above, two additional mobilizations took place, one in December of 2014, and one in January of 2015. In addition to work conducted in 2013, 2014, and 2015, a 4.2-kilometer (2.6-mile) portion of the Project was previously surveyed by HRA Gray & Pape, LLC in 2011 and reported on in a separate document (Scott et al. 2013). Field investigation was conducted entirely on privately owned properties and consisted of walkover and limited shovel testing within the Project area. During this investigation 36 cultural resources were identified or confirmed. These include 19 new archaeological sites, one historic structure, five loci isolates of three to 10 historic artifacts, six isolated finds, and five previously recorded sites (41SP256, 41RF51, 41RF52 41RF53, 41RF54). No evidence for previously recorded Site 41JK111 was identified within the Project’s Area of Potential Effects. In general, cultural resources identified as the result of field efforts consisted of prehistoric shell middens and campsites, historic occupations and trash dumps, and historic and prehistoric isolate finds. In regard to the current Project, no further work is recommended for any of the 37 investigated resources as they are either confined to the plow zone, are now outside of the Project area, offer little information to add to the understanding of the history of the area, or will be avoided by horizontal directional drilling. Of those sites identified, Sites 41SP267, 41SP268, 41SP269, 41RF51, 41RF52, 41RF54, 41RF149, and 41CL97 have an undetermined but potential eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or as State Antiquities Landmarks. These sites consist of prehistoric occupations and shell middens (Sites 41RF51, 41RF52, 41RF54, 41RF149 41SP268, and 41SP269) and historic scatters (41SP267 and 41CL97). HRA Gray & Pape, LLC, recommended efforts to avoid these eight sites and as a result the Project alignment was either rerouted around them or they will be avoided by horizontal directional drilling. The remaining 28 resources identified during survey are considered ineligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or as State Antiquities Landmarks. These recommendations were concurred with by the Texas Historical Commission on April 29, September 29, and October 15, 2014, and by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on March 28 and May 23, 2014. All artifacts were recovered from private property and are in the process of being returned to the landowners. This concludes the cultural resource management requirements in regard to the Project as it is currently planned. Further, HRA Gray & Pape, LLC. has reviewed recent Project plans and verified that they contain exclusion zones for sensitive cultural resources as agreed upon and documented in the report. Should Project plans change to involve areas located outside of previous survey coverage, additional work may be necessary. The need for additional work will be consulted with the appropriate agencies on a case by case basis

New Producer Contract Terms and Uncertainty: Lessons From the Recent Past

The petroleum industry is volatile, and governments in “new producer” countries have operated at a significant information disadvantage when negotiating with international oil companies. This challenge is growing today; new producer countries face intensifying questions around whether to offer fiscal incentives to maintain investment in the face of 1) the pandemic-induced volatility in oil prices and 2) long-term questions about the future of the industry in the face of the climate crisis and the global energy transition. This confluence of short-term and long-term uncertainty is prompting a reexamination of the narrative that once took hold in many new producer countries. The traditional story was one of linear progression from being non-producers to small levels of production to ultimately having oil and gas become a major economic contributor over the long term. This notion of progression was associated with a commonly held theory: After a country’s first major discovery, the geological risk that wells will be dry was expected to decrease. Countries could therefore shift from a position of having to grant tax breaks (and other concessions) to international investors, to taking a tougher stance in laws and negotiations for new projects going forward. In this paper, co-authored with NRGI we examine whether this theory has been borne out in practice and make recommendations to support new producers in their navigation of the uncertainty associated with the energy transition

Data sharing and reanalysis of randomized controlled trials in leading biomedical journals with a full data sharing policy: survey of studies published in the BMJ and PLOS Medicine

Objectives To explore the effectiveness of data sharing by randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in journals with a full data sharing policy and to describe potential difficulties encountered in the process of performing reanalyses of the primary outcomes. Design Survey of published RCTs. Setting PubMed/Medline. Eligibility criteria RCTs that had been submitted and published by The BMJ and PLOS Medicine subsequent to the adoption of data sharing policies by these journals. Main outcome measure The primary outcome was data availability, defined as the eventual receipt of complete data with clear labelling. Primary outcomes were reanalyzed to assess to what extent studies were reproduced. Difficulties encountered were described. Results 37 RCTs (21 from The BMJ and 16 from PLOS Medicine) published between 2013 and 2016 met the eligibility criteria. 17/37 (46%, 95% confidence interval 30% to 62%) satisfied the definition of data availability and 14 of the 17 (82%, 59% to 94%) were fully reproduced on all their primary outcomes. Of the remaining RCTs, errors were identified in two but reached similar conclusions and one paper did not provide enough information in the Methods section to reproduce the analyses. Difficulties identified included problems in contacting corresponding authors and lack of resources on their behalf in preparing the datasets. In addition, there was a range of different data sharing practices across study groups. Conclusions Data availability was not optimal in two journals with a strong policy for data sharing. When investigators shared data, most reanalyses largely reproduced the original results. Data sharing practices need to become more widespread and streamlined to allow meaningful reanalyses and reuse of data

6 mW and 30 mW laser threshold for respectively 1st and 2nd Brillouin Stokes order in a Ge10As24Se68 chalcogenide fiber

International audienceA compact second-order Stokes Brillouin fiber laser made of microstructured chalcogenide glass is reported for the first time. This laser has very low optical pump-power threshold for Stokes conversion: 6 mW for first order and only 30 mW for second order with nonresonant pumping

Towards More Coherent Sources Using a Microstructured Chalcogenide Brillouin Fiber Laser

International audienceUp to 16 dB frequency noise reduction and a linewidth 8 times narrower that of the pump source is reported for the Stokes component in a compact Brillouin fiber laser made of chalcogenide microstructured fiber. Since the pump wave is not resonant in the ring cavity, an active stabilization of the laser is not primordial thus making the system simpler and cheaper. Although only a 3 metre-long microstructured chalcogenide fiber was used as gain medium, a very low laser threshold power of 6 mW was obtained for nonresonant pumping. The linewidth-narrowing effect achieved in our BFL cavity is also discussed