Evolution and distribution of pore pressure across the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand

The Taranaki Basin lies onshore and offshore in the central-west of New Zealand’s North Island. The polyphase nature of the basin has led to a complex pore pressure history, generating significant variations in the present-day vertical and lateral distribution of overpressures. Investigating pore pressure distributions at a basin scale can mask key details, so in this study eight new sub-basin areas and structural zones are designated, each displaying individual pore pressure trends defined by their stratigraphic architecture and structural development. Variations in the thickness and facies of Eocene-Oligocene stratigraphy both within and between sub-basins are shown to provide a first-order control on the magnitude, distribution and maintenance of overpressure across the Taranaki Basin. Fluid pressure compartmentalisation through sealing faults and stratigraphic architecture has been identified across the basin. Deep pore pressure transitions within Taranaki Basin are shown to be sealed by diagenetic, structural and stratigraphic mechanisms and generated by an increase in mudrock volume (reduced permeability) or gas generation. A series of one-dimensional basin models are used to investigate the phases of overpressure generation by disequilibrium compaction across the Taranaki Basin: initially driven by the formation and early filling of a foreland basin in the eastern basin margin from ∼22 Ma, and subsequently by loading due to the progradation of a succession of sedimentary wedges across the continental shelf from ∼10 Ma to the present day. The plotting of vertical effective stress against porosity from reservoirs across each stratigraphic interval and depositional facies within the Taranaki Basin, identifies no clear relationships, primarily due to the late and deep onset of abnormal pressures. Analyses focused on Palaeocene Farewell Formation and the F-Sands reservoirs, demonstrates that mechanical compaction is the principle porosity reducing mechanism during the first 3000m of burial. Dissolved CO2 in the pore fluids of the F-Sands and Farewell Formation are likely to have driven the dissolution of detrital grains, generating secondary porosity and enhancing permeability. Continued compaction of secondary porosity in the Farewell Formation has further reduced porosity towards maximum burial. The F-Sands and Farewell Formation can be characterised as geochemically closed systems, where dissolved solutes are being preferentially precipitated in fine-grained heterolithic siltstone beds. This research presents the pore pressure evolution and distribution of the Taranaki Basin within a tectonostratigraphic context, demonstrating how multiphase overpressure generation and subsequent maintenance are controlled by a combination of sediment loading, uplift, lithofacies variations, fault zone permeability and mechanical compaction. This research has important implications for both hydrocarbon exploration in tectonostratigraphically diverse regions and research into the evolution of polyphase sedimentary basins worldwide

Evaluating Global Warming Potentials as Historical Temperature Proxies: an application of ACC2 Inverse Calculation

Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) are evaluated as proxies of the historical temperature by applying them to convert historical CH4 and N2O emissions to equivalent CO2 emissions. Our GWP analysis is based on the historical Earth system evolution obtained from the inverse calculation for the Aggregated Carbon Cycle, Atmospheric Cycle, and Climate Model (ACC2). Indices higher than the Kyoto GWPs are required to reproduce the historical temperature. The GWP for N2O, in particular, does not approximate the historical temperature with any time horizon because the GWP definition and calculations assume a background system different from the ACC2 inversion results. In addition, indices have to be progressively updated upon the acquisition of new measurements and/or the change in our understanding on the Earth system processes.global warming potentials

Human Ecology and Public Policy: Overcoming the Hegemony of Economics

The thinking of those with the power to formulate and implement public policy is now almost totally dominated by the so-called science of economics. While efforts have been made to supplement or modify economics to make it less brutal or less environmentally blind, here it is suggested that economics is so fundamentally flawed and that it so completely dominates the culture of late modern capitalism (or postmodernity) that a new master human science is required to displace it and provide an alternative coordinating framework for research and for defining reality. This could then provide an alternative basis for formulating public policy. It is argued that if human ecology is to fill this role, it will must be developed on consistently anti-reductionist foundations, and that such a social science would totally reorient public policy from a domain for power elites to a domain for genuinely democratic societies to define and control their destinies

Resistance Training in Type II Diabetes Mellitus: Impact on Areas of Metabolic Dysfunction in Skeletal Muscle and Potential Impact on Bone

The prevalence of Type II Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is increasing rapidly and will continue to be a major healthcare expenditure burden. As such, identification of effective lifestyle treatments is paramount. Skeletal muscle and bone display metabolic and functional disruption in T2DM. Skeletal muscle in T2DM is characterized by insulin resistance, impaired glycogen synthesis, impairments in mitochondria, and lipid accumulation. Bone quality in T2DM is decreased, potentially due to the effects of advanced glycation endproducts on collagen, impaired osteoblast activity, and lipid accumulation. Although exercise is widely recognized as an important component of treatment for T2DM, the focus has largely been on aerobic exercise. Emerging research suggests that resistance training (strength training) may impose potent and unique benefits in T2DM. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of resistance training in treating the dysfunction in skeletal muscle and the potential role for resistance training in treating the associated dysfunction in bone

Emulating Target Trials With Real-World Data to Inform Health Technology Assessment: Findings and Lessons From an Application to Emergency Surgery

Objectives: International health technology assessment (HTA) agencies recommend that real-world data (RWD) are used in some circumstances to add to the evidence base about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health interventions. The target trial framework applies the design principles of randomized-controlled trials to RWD and can help alleviate inevitable concerns about bias and design flaws with nonrandomized studies. This article aimed to tackle the lack of guidance and exemplar applications on how this methodology can be applied to RWD to inform HTA decision making./ Methods: We use Hospital Episode Statistics data from England on emergency hospital admissions from 2010 to 2019 to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of emergency surgery for 2 acute gastrointestinal conditions. We draw on the case study to describe the main challenges in applying the target trial framework alongside RWD and provide recommendations for how these can be addressed in practice./ Results: The 4 main challenges when applying the target trial framework to RWD are (1) defining the study population, (2) defining the treatment strategies, (3) establishing time zero (baseline), and (4) adjusting for unmeasured confounding. The recommendations for how to address these challenges, mainly around the incorporation of expert judgment and use of appropriate methods for handling unmeasured confounding, are illustrated within the case study./ Conclusions: The recommendations outlined in this study could help future studies seeking to inform HTA decision processes. These recommendations can complement checklists for economic evaluations and design tools for estimating treatment effectiveness in nonrandomized studies

Investering : die problematiek van investering-besluitneming vir die privaatsektor in die vervaardigingsbedryf in die Grens, Ciskei en Transkei

Die langtermynaard van 'n investering noop die voornemende investeerder om meer omsigtig te beplan as in die geval van 'n belegging wat gewoonlik oor 'n korter termyn strek. Die voornemende investeerder moet besef dat 'n investeringsbesluit nie in isolasie van eksterne faktore geneem kan word nie. Dit is daarom raadsaam dat die voornemende investeerder hom deeglik van die makro- en mikro ekonomiese milieu waarbinne die investering beoog word, sal vergewis. Ten einde die kompleksiteit van investeringsbesluitneming op te helder, word daareerstens in hoofstuk 1 op die begrip van investering gekonsentreer. Voorts word die beginsel dat die investeringsbesluit nie in isolasie geneem kan word nie, beklemtoon. In hierdie opsig word daar veral na die determinante van investering gekyk. In makro-ekonomiese verband word die gedagte sterk beklemtoon dat investering nodig is om kapitaalvorming te laat plaasvind wat op sy beurt een van die vereistes is om ontwikkeling te bevorder. As gevolg van meningsverskille ten opsigte van die invloed van investering in ontwikkelde teenoor ontwikkelende lande is daar gevolglik aandag aan enkele ekonomiese groeimodelle gegee. Gesien uit die oogpunt van die daarstelling van 'n konsessiepakket om streeksekonomiese ontwikkeling te stimuleer, is die huidige konsessiepakket met die determinante van investering vergelyk. Daardeur word die kwessie aangeraak of die konsessiepakket weI die teoretiese determinante van investering in ag geneem het. Die belangrike vraag of die nyweraars self met die konsessiepakket tevrede is, word in die empiriese studie behandel. Die langtermynaard van 'n investering sal die weldeurdagte investeerder dwing om 'n verdere determinant, naamlik die land as risikofaktor deeglik in ag te neem. Met hierdie veronderstelling word daar in hoofstuk 2 na die land waar die investering oorweeg sal word, naamlik Suid-Afrika gekyk. Daar word veral aan die ekonomiese ontwikkeling van Suid-Afrika aandag gegee. In hierdie opsig word die ongelyke verdeling van inkome wat gedurende die jare al hoe meer beklemtoon is, bespreek en word daar na owerheidspogings gekyk om die probleem op streeksvlak teen te werk. Hierdie owerheidspogings konsentreer helaas op die daarstelling van 'n streeksekonomiese beleid wat moes meehelp om die geografiese verskille in die verdeling van inkome teen te werk. Die streeksekonomiese beleid het gestalte gekry in die vorm van 'n konsessiepakket wat dan ook in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek word. Aangesien die konsessiepakket daarop ingestel was om nyweraars na gedesentraliseerde gebiede te lok, is dit 'n voorwaarde vir die sukses van streeksekonomiese beleid dat nyweraars wat gedesentraliseer het met die konsessiepakket tevrede moet wees. Die navorsingsmetodiek wat gevolg is om hierdie vraag te probeer beantwoord word in hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Daar word in hierdie hoofstuk na die onderwerp, die hipotese, die vraelys en die beantwoordingsmetode gekyk. Hierdie hoofstuk dien dus as 'n skakel tussen die eerste twee hoofstukke wat hoofsaaklik oor die normatiewe en teoretiese aspekte van investering gehandel het en hoofstuk 4 wat die navorsingsresultate oftewel die werklikheid verteenwoordig. Die hipotese dat gedesentraliseerde nywerhede nie met die konsessiepakket tevrede is nie, word in hoofstuk 4 met die navorsingsresultate vergelyk en daar word ook na die verskille wat tussen die Grens, Ciskei en Transkei voorgekom het, gekyk. Die beleidsimplikasies van die navorsingsresultate sowel as In samevatting van die verhandeling word in hoofstuk 5 behandel terwyl daar ook na die implikasies ten opsigte van die huidige debat in die ontwikkelingsekonomie gekyk word (Introduction, p. ix-xi