Social License to Operate: Hydraulic Fracturing-Related Challenges Facing the Oil & Gas Industry

The crossroads of urban development and improved technology allowing oil and gas development in new areas can result in contentious community issues. The debate over one of the improved technologies – i.e., hydraulic fracturing – can be highly emotional. Consequently, industry must address community issues, earning trust and therefore a “social license to operate.” This paper provides fundamental knowledge of the social license to operate concept, validates its application to the oil and gas industry, particularly with respect to shale gas development, discusses the current status of social license in the unconventional development sphere, analyzes current ongoing efforts for shale gas developers to monitor and establish a social license, and identifies potential new methods of encouraging, establishing, and monitoring a social license to operate. The paper also proposes a new institutional framework in which to promote the social license to operate, “The Center for Social License to Operate in the Oil & Gas Industry

Réunion de chercheurs en éducation médicale à une conférence sur Twitter autour du sujet du professionnalisme et la construction de l’identité professionnelle

Implication Statement The Education Innovation Institute (EII) of Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, hosted a conference on Twitter about Professional Identity Formation (PIF), #MCGConf2021PIF, on February 25, 2021. The conference featured five presentations by 15 authors from Canada and the U.S. A Twitter conference is a versatile, affordable, and accessible digital option for medical education groups interested in diversifying conference offerings and reaching a broader audience. It was low-cost, organized in six months, and garnered over 9,000 Twitter impressions. Small networks and interest groups can organize Twitter conferences for their constituencies and larger conference organizations can host online mini-conferences to supplement in-person events.Énoncé des implications de la recherche Le 25 février 2021, l’Educational Innovation Institute (EII) du Medical College of Georgia de l’Université Augusta a tenu une conférence sur la construction de l’identité professionnelle sur le réseau social Twitter (#MCGConf2021PIF). Cinq communications y ont été présentées par 15 chercheurs du Canada et des États-Unis. Elle a été organisée en six mois, à coût modeste, et elle a recueilli plus de 9 000 impressions sur Twitter. La conférence Twitter s’avère être une option numérique polyvalente, abordable et accessible pour les membres du milieu de l’éducation médicale désireux de diversifier leur offre de symposiums et de toucher un public plus large. Twitter offre aux petits réseaux et groupes d’intérêt la possibilité de convier leurs membres à des conférences restreintes et aux organisateurs de conférences plus importantes la possibilité de tenir des mini-conférences en ligne pour compléter leurs activités en personne

Queen-produced volatiles change dynamically during reproductive swarming and are associated with changes in honey bee (Apis mellifera) worker behavior

International audienceAbstractDuring colony fission, honey bee workers are exquisitely sensitive to the presence of their queen in airborne swarms and bivouacs and will abandon swarming if she is absent. However, it is not known whether swarming queens produce a chemical bouquet that is distinct from non-swarming queens, containing either unique chemicals or altered proportions of chemicals. We found that queens emitted higher quantities and greater numbers of unique volatiles at liftoff than they did prior to swarming or in clustered bivouacs, and swarming workers tended to be attracted to these liftoff volatile blends. Pentadecane and heptadecane were collected most frequently and emitted in significantly higher quantities by queens at liftoff; these compounds have been described as pheromone components in other social insects, but not yet in honey bees. Our results suggest that volatile emission by queens is more dynamic than previously thought and that changes in their chemical signals may play a role in regulating the behavior of swarming workers

Blood conservation : cultural change in pediatric intensive care nursing

While monitoring of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients requires repeated blood sampling, excessive sampling can lead to anemia. Upon PICU admission, 33% of patients are anemic and 41% develop anemia. Anemia increases the PICU length of stay and days of mechanical ventilation. Anemia is often treated with red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, but RBC transfusion is associated with increased healthcare costs and morbidity. Blood conservation strategies are needed in the PICU; these changes in turn require changes in PICU practice and culture to reduce the amount of blood overdraw

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Shocks and Outflows in a normal star-forming galaxy

We demonstrate the feasibility and potential of using large integral field spectroscopic surveys to investigate the prevalence of galactic-scale outflows in the local Universe. Using integral field data from SAMI and the Wide Field Spectrograph, we study the nature of an isolated disk galaxy, SDSS J090005.05+000446.7 (z = 0.05386). In the integral field datasets, the galaxy presents skewed line profiles changing with position in the galaxy. The skewed line profiles are caused by different kinematic components overlapping in the line-of-sight direction. We perform spectral decomposition to separate the line profiles in each spatial pixel as combinations of (1) a narrow kinematic component consistent with HII regions, (2) a broad kinematic component consistent with shock excitation, and (3) an intermediate component consistent with shock excitation and photoionisation mixing. The three kinematic components have distinctly different velocity fields, velocity dispersions, line ratios, and electron densities. We model the line ratios, velocity dispersions, and electron densities with our MAPPINGS IV shock and photoionisation models, and we reach remarkable agreement between the data and the models. The models demonstrate that the different emission line properties are caused by major galactic outflows that introduce shock excitation in addition to photoionisation by star-forming activities. Interstellar shocks embedded in the outflows shock-excite and compress the gas, causing the elevated line ratios, velocity dispersions, and electron densities observed in the broad kinematic component. We argue from energy considerations that, with the lack of a powerful active galactic nucleus, the outflows are likely to be driven by starburst activities. Our results set a benchmark of the type of analysis that can be achieved by the SAMI Galaxy Survey on large numbers of galaxies.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures. Accepted to MNRAS. References update

The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Quasar Target Selection for Data Release Nine

The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a five-year spectroscopic survey of 10,000 deg^2, achieved first light in late 2009. One of the key goals of BOSS is to measure the signature of baryon acoustic oscillations in the distribution of Ly-alpha absorption from the spectra of a sample of ~150,000 z>2.2 quasars. Along with measuring the angular diameter distance at z\approx2.5, BOSS will provide the first direct measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe at z > 2. One of the biggest challenges in achieving this goal is an efficient target selection algorithm for quasars over 2.2 < z < 3.5, where their colors overlap those of stars. During the first year of the BOSS survey, quasar target selection methods were developed and tested to meet the requirement of delivering at least 15 quasars deg^-2 in this redshift range, out of 40 targets deg^-2. To achieve these surface densities, the magnitude limit of the quasar targets was set at g <= 22.0 or r<=21.85. While detection of the BAO signature in the Ly-alpha absorption in quasar spectra does not require a uniform target selection, many other astrophysical studies do. We therefore defined a uniformly-selected subsample of 20 targets deg^-2, for which the selection efficiency is just over 50%. This "CORE" subsample will be fixed for Years Two through Five of the survey. In this paper we describe the evolution and implementation of the BOSS quasar target selection algorithms during the first two years of BOSS operations. We analyze the spectra obtained during the first year. 11,263 new z>2.2 quasars were spectroscopically confirmed by BOSS. Our current algorithms select an average of 15 z > 2.2 quasars deg^-2 from 40 targets deg^-2 using single-epoch SDSS imaging. Multi-epoch optical data and data at other wavelengths can further improve the efficiency and completeness of BOSS quasar target selection. [Abridged]Comment: 33 pages, 26 figures, 12 tables and a whole bunch of quasars. Submitted to Ap

Pre-admission interventions to improve outcome after elective surgery-protocol for a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Poor physical health and fitness increases the risk of death and complications after major elective surgery. Pre-admission interventions to improve patients’ health and fitness (referred to as prehabilitation) may reduce postoperative complications, decrease the length of hospital stay and facilitate the patient’s recovery. We will conduct a systematic review of RCTs to examine the effectiveness of different types of prehabilitation interventions in improving the surgical outcomes of patients undergoing elective surgery. METHODS: This review will be conducted and reported according to the Cochrane and PRISMA reporting guidelines. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ISI Web of Science and clinical trial registers will be searched for any intervention administered before any elective surgery (including physical activity, nutritional, educational, psychological, clinical or multicomponent), which aims to improve postoperative outcomes. Reference lists of included studies will be searched, and grey literature including conference proceedings, theses, dissertations and preoperative assessment protocols will be examined. Study quality will be assessed using Cochrane’s risk of bias tool, and meta-analyses for trials that use similar interventions and report similar outcomes will be undertaken where possible. DISCUSSION: This systematic review will determine whether different types of interventions administered before elective surgery are effective in improving postoperative outcomes. It will also determine which components or combinations of components would form the most effective prehabilitation intervention. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD4201501919

Mitotic phosphorylation by NEK6 and NEK7 reduces the microtubule affinity of EML4 to promote chromosome congression

EML4 is a microtubule-associated protein that promotes microtubule stability. We investigated its regulation across the cell cycle and found that EML4 was distributed as punctate foci along the microtubule lattice in interphase but exhibited reduced association with spindle microtubules in mitosis. Microtubule sedimentation and cryo–electron microscopy with 3D reconstruction revealed that the basic N-terminal domain of EML4 mediated its binding to the acidic C-terminal tails of α- and β-tubulin on the microtubule surface. The mitotic kinases NEK6 and NEK7 phosphorylated the EML4 N-terminal domain at Ser144 and Ser146 in vitro, and depletion of these kinases in cells led to increased EML4 binding to microtubules in mitosis. An S144A-S146A double mutant not only bound inappropriately to mitotic microtubules but also increased their stability and interfered with chromosome congression. In addition, constitutive activation of NEK6 or NEK7 reduced the association of EML4 with interphase microtubules. Together, these data support a model in which NEK6- and NEK7-dependent phosphorylation promotes the dissociation of EML4 from microtubules in mitosis in a manner that is required for efficient chromosome congression

The prevalence of substance use disorders and psychiatric disorders as a function of psychotic symptoms

Psychotic symptoms represent one of the most severe and functionally impairing components of several psychological disorders. One group with particularly high rates of psychotic symptoms is chronic substance users. However, the literature on psychotic symptoms and substance use is quite narrow and has focused almost exclusively on drug-induced psychosis, neglecting the population of substance users with psychotic symptoms occurring independently of acute drug effects