Investigation into the Potential Application of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery on Unconventional Oil: A Field Specific Approach

A substantial amount of the world’s recoverable oil reserves comprise unconventional resources. However great difficulty has been encountered in recovering oil lower than 22° API. Therefore, advanced methods of Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) such as microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) have been employed to increase the amount of recovered residual oil. MEOR involves the use of bacteria and their metabolic products to alter the oil properties or rock permeability within a reservoir in order to promote the flow of oil. Although MEOR has been trialled in the past with mixed outcomes, its feasibility on heavier oils has not been fully demonstrated. The aim of this study was to show that MEOR can be successfully applied to unconventional oil fields to increase oil production. Using both genomic and microbiologically applied petroleum engineering techniques, it was possible to target and isolate key indigenous microorganisms with MEOR potential from the reservoir of interest. In this study we have identified an indigenous microorganism (Bacillus licheniformis Bi10) that was capable of enhancing heavy oil recovery. This strain was applied to field specific microcosms and the effect of this microorganism was compared to variant inoculate, showing improved recovery beyond levels shown by previous MEOR related bacteria (Additional Oil Recovery- 11.8%). Furthermore, we also confirmed that the use of biosurfactant lichenysin alone was not as effective in MEOR compared to viable cell treatment, and hypothesized that a dual mechanism of action approach may be taking place within the microcosm, of both bio-plugging and wettability alteration. The interfacial tension of biosurfactant produced by the Bi10 isolate also showed a substantial decrease in wettability calculations, to < 5 mNm-1, lower than any other bacterial surfactants have been shown in heavy oil environments Comparative genomics also revealed key genetic variations between this and similar MEOR strains that could hold the key to its increased potential for future MEOR strategies. The results presented in this thesis were part of an ERDF project, involving academic and industrial partner, BiSN Laboratory Services, on fundamental and applied aspects of microbial enhanced oil recovery in heavy oilfield environments, which was funded to improve the understanding of MEOR and its processes in these unconventional oil environments

Propagation of coherent waves in elastically scattering media

A general method for calculating statistical properties of speckle patterns of coherent waves propagating in disordered media is developed. It allows one to calculate speckle pattern correlations in space, as well as their sensitivity to external parameters. This method, which is similar to the Boltzmann-Langevin approach for the calculation of classical fluctuations, applies for a wide range of systems: From cases where the ray propagation is diffusive to the regime where the rays experience only small angle scattering. The latter case comprises the regime of directed waves where rays propagate ballistically in space while their directions diffuse. We demonstrate the applicability of the method by calculating the correlation function of the wave intensity and its sensitivity to the wave frequency and the angle of incidence of the incoming wave.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Statistics of speckle patterns

We develop a general method for calculating statistical properties of the speckle pattern of coherent waves propagating in disordered media. In some aspects this method is similar to the Boltzmann-Langevin approach for the calculation of classical fluctuations. We apply the method to the case where the incident wave experiences many small angle scattering events during propagation, but the total angle change remains small. In many aspects our results for this case are different from results previously known in the literature. The correlation function of the wave intensity at two points separated by a distance $r$, has a long range character. It decays as a power of $r$ and changes sign. We also consider sensitivities of the speckles to changes of external parameters, such as the wave frequency and the incidence angle.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Exploiting disorder for perfect focusing

We demonstrate experimentally that disordered scattering can be used to improve, rather than deteriorate, the focusing resolution of a lens. By using wavefront shaping to compensate for scattering, light was focused to a spot as small as one tenth of the diffraction limit of the lens. We show both experimentally and theoretically that it is the scattering medium, rather than the lens, that determines the width of the focus. Despite the disordered propagation of the light, the profile of the focus was always exactly equal to the theoretical best focus that we derived.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Is early center-based child care associated with tantrums and unmanageable behavior over time up to school entry?

Background. Existing research suggests that there is a relationship between greater exposure to center-based child care and child behavioral problems though the mechanism for the impact is unclear. However the measure used to document child care has usually been average hours, which may be particularly unreliable in the early months when fewer children are in center care. In addition individual trajectories for behavior difficulties have not been studied. Objective. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the extent of exposure to center-based child care before two years predicted the trajectory of children’s difficult behavior (i.e., tantrums and unmanageable behavior) from 30 to 51 months controlling for child and maternal characteristics. Method. Data were drawn from UK-based Families, Children and Child Care (FCCC) study (n=1201). Individual growth models were fitted to test the relation between early center-based child care experiences and subsequent difficult behavior. Results. Children with more exposure to center-based care before two had less difficult behavior at 30 months, but more increase over time. Initial levels were predicted by higher difficult temperament and lower verbal ability. Higher difficult temperament and lower family socio-economic status predicted its change over time. Conclusion. Findings suggest that early exposure to center-based care before two years old is a risk factor for subsequent behavior problems especially when children have a longer period of exposure. A possible explanatory process is that child coping strategies to manage frustration are less well developed in a group context, especially when they lag behind in expressive language

Maternal psychological distress in primary care and association with child behavioural outcomes at age three

Observational studies indicate children whose mothers have poor mental health are at increased risk of socio-emotional behavioural difficulties, but it is unknown whether these outcomes vary by the mothers’ mental health recognition and treatment status. To examine this question, we analysed linked longitudinal primary care and research data from 1078 women enrolled in the Born in Bradford cohort. A latent class analysis of treatment status and self-reported distress broadly categorised women as (a) not having a common mental disorder (CMD) that persisted through pregnancy and the first 2 years after delivery (N = 756, 70.1 %), (b) treated for CMD (N = 67, 6.2 %), or (c) untreated (N = 255, 23.7 %). Compared to children of mothers without CMD, 3-year-old children with mothers classified as having untreated CMD had higher standardised factor scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (d = 0.32), as did children with mothers classified as having treated CMD (d = 0.27). Results were only slightly attenuated in adjusted analyses. Children of mothers with CMD may be at risk for socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties. The development of effective treatments for CMD needs to be balanced by greater attempts to identify and treat women. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00787-015-0777-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Temporally stable coherent states for infinite well and P\"oschl-Teller potentials

This paper is a direct illustration of a construction of coherent states which has been recently proposed by two of us (JPG and JK). We have chosen the example of a particle trapped in an infinite square-well and also in P\"oschl-Teller potentials of the trigonometric type. In the construction of the corresponding coherent states, we take advantage of the simplicity of the solutions, which ultimately stems from the fact they share a common SU(1,1) symmetry \`a la Barut--Girardello. Many properties of these states are then studied, both from mathematical and from physical points of view.Comment: 48 pages, 21 figure

Do emotional difficulties and peer problems hew together from childhood to adolescence? The case of children with a history of developmental language disorder (DLD)

Children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) are, overall, vulnerable to difficulties in emotional adjustment and in peer relations. However, previous research has shown that different subgroups follow different trajectories in respect of quality of peer relations. Less is known of the trajectories of emotional development. We consider here the possibility that development in these two domains is interrelated: that is, the trajectories of emotional and peer problems will proceed in parallel. We conducted longitudinal joint trajectories analyses of emotional and peer relations in a sample of young people identified as having DLD at age 7 years and seen at intervals up to 16 years. Potential influences on joint trajectory group membership were examined. Findings revealed five distinct joint trajectories. Emotional and peer difficulties do hew together from childhood to adolescence for just over half of the sample, but not all. The variables most clearly associated with group membership were pragmatic language ability, prosociality and parental mental health. This is the first study to examine joint longitudinal trajectories of emotional and peer difficulties in individuals with DLD. We demonstrate that development in individuals with DLD is heterogeneous and identify three key variables associated with personal and social adjustment from childhood to adolescence. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed

The environmental security debate and its significance for climate change

Policymakers, military strategists and academics all increasingly hail climate change as a security issue. This article revisits the (comparatively) long-standing “environmental security debate” and asks what lessons that earlier debate holds for the push towards making climate change a security issue. Two important claims are made. First, the emerging climate security debate is in many ways a re-run of the earlier dispute. It features many of the same proponents and many of the same disagreements. These disagreements concern, amongst other things, the nature of the threat, the referent object of security and the appropriate policy responses. Second, given its many different interpretations, from an environmentalist perspective, securitisation of the climate is not necessarily a positive development