Instrumenting the Earth

You might remember the TV coverage of last winter’s floods, reporters standing in waders in the suburban streets of west London, talking about the mysterious phenomenon of ‘groundwater flooding’. Occasionally they might bring in a BGS (British Geological Survey) expert to explain the process. The whole thing was replayed for ‘sinkholes’. Why do they happen and where would they happen next? Shale gas started to worry people too. Where is the shale gas, and what are the consequences of drilling for it - for the landscape... and house prices? Rarely have geological processes been so close to people’s lives

The art of seeing

Over the last year I took part in two unusual events, in Dublin at the National Museum of Ireland, and at the Feile Na Bealtaine arts and poetry festival in Dingle, Ireland. At each, I gave a talk alongside poet and physicist Iggy McGovern, on the poetry of Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney. We read some wonderful poems and discussed with audiences those great poets’ intuitive grasp of geology and science. An unexpected insight was an appreciation of the similarity of the scientist’s and poet’s inspiration and motivation

On the cusp of a revolution

In geoscience, we run the risk of unfulfilled potential in the world of big data analytics. Mike Stephenson and colleagues suggest the Deep Time Digital Earth project could help by providing a global data platform, or ‘geological Google

When and how should you ventilate a child?

The importance of mechanical ventilation and why there is a move to non-invasive treatment. Ventilators play an essential role in supporting the respiratory system and breathing at several stages in a child’s life. The purpose of a ventilator is to ensure a child’s lungs receive sufficient air flow to deliver oxygen and remove carbon dioxide, while reducing the effort required by the child to move air in and out of the lungs (Tobin and Manthous 2017)

Understanding shock in children

Understanding the five classifications of shock and their effect on the child's circulation supports nurses in playing a vital role in identifying the child in shock. Accurate assessment and physiological monitoring allows the nurse to recognise the underlying cause and initiate an appropriate intervention

Improved Hexahedral Meshing on Biological Models

Certain applications of the finite element method require hexahedral meshes for the underlying discretization. A procedure, known as THexing, which is guaranteed to produce an all-hex mesh is to begin with a tetrahedral mesh and then subdivide each element into four hexahedra. This research presents a method for improving the THex approach, known as Diced THexing, or DTHexing. The DTHex approach is based on general coarsening tools. An initial triangle surface mesh is coarsened and smoothed iteratively until a coarse mesh of reasonable quality is obtained. The volume is then easily meshed using a tetrahedral scheme, then refined using ’h’ type modifications. The goal of this method is to 1) improve the quality of elements in the finite element mesh and 2) decrease the number of overall nodes. The DTHex approach has been successful at improving models on biological meshes without increasing node count. This research was conducted using the CUBIT software

Jacksonville State University Saxophone Quartet: Ronald Attinger, Soprano; Jeff Lenard, Alto; Philip Stephenson, Tenor; Mike McCorsley, Baritone; March 16, 1973

Centennial East Recital HallFriday EveningMarch 16, 19738:15 p.m

New potential carbon emission reduction enterprises in China: deep geological storage of CO2 emitted through industrial usage of coal in China

Deep geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) could offer an essential solution to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the continued use of fossil fuels. Currently, CO2 capture is both costly and energy intensive; it represents about 60% of the cost of the total carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain which is causing a bottleneck in advancement of CCS in China. This paper proposes capturing CO2 from coal chemical plants where the CO2 is high purity and relatively cheap to collect, thus offering an early opportunity for industrial-scale full-chain CCS implementation. The total amount of high concentration CO2 that will be emitted (or is being emitted) by the coal chemical factories approved by the National Development and Reform Commission described in this paper is 42 million tonnes. If all eight projects could utilize CCS, it would be of great significance for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in China. Basins which may provide storage sites for captured CO2 in North China are characterized by large sedimentary thicknesses and several sets of reservoir-caprock strata. Some oil fields are nearing depletion and a sub-set of these are potentially suitable for CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and CCS demonstration but all these still require detailed geological characterization. The short distance between the high concentration CO2 sources and potential storage sites should reduce transport costs and complications. The authors believe these high purity sources coupled with EOR or aquifer storage could offer China an opportunity to lead development in this globally beneficial CCS optio

Life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from unconventional gas in Scotland

Publisher PD

Development of a Technical Memorandum Describing Optimal Room Acoustic Parameter Ranges for Musical Performance and Rehearsal Spaces

A working group has been convened by the European Acoustics Association to develop optimum Room Acoustic Parameter (RAP) ranges for musical performance and rehearsal spaces. A Technical Memorandum, outlining the proposals of the working group is in production: the main contents are summarized in this article. The main focus has been to develop optimum parameter ranges for concert halls, as well as for other spaces for music rehearsal and performance, such as chamber music halls and orchestra rehearsal halls. It is widely accepted that room acoustic quality is multi-dimensional: multiple RAPs are therefore required to quantify acoustic quality. The RAPs as currently implemented do not however provide a robust differentiation of acoustic quality - both good and bad sounding halls can fall within the RAP ranges currently proposed in the literature. The Technical Memorandum describes a selection process for RAP ranges, with the aim of setting projects on a good path towards acoustical excellence, and to improve the quantification of the outcome. While the possibility to develop novel parameters was at first discussed, is has been agreed that the RAPs already defined in ISO 3382 Part 1 will be used. The RAPs are physically linked; therefore, the RAP optimum ranges must form an internally consistent set, taking into consideration their variation throughout the space. Other important aspects that must be considered in the definition of optimal RAPs that are often overlooked are the orchestra/ensemble size, music type or genre, room volume available, ideal loudness during loud (forte) passages, variation of parameters with acoustic volume and with distance from the source. It has also been established that measurement protocols should be refined to improve the differentiation between spaces of differing acoustical quality