Lessons Learnt from the Development of Cementitious Grouts for Deep Borehole Disposal Applications

The performance of grouts made using oilwell cement is markedly different above 90°C than at lower temperatures, and the rapidity with which grouts thicken can cause failures in well cementing. One grouting application in which such temperatures are encountered is deep borehole disposal (DBD). DBD is a concept for disposing of high-level radioactive wastes where the temperature and pressure will be 90–140°C and 30–50 MPa, respectively. In developing DBD grouts, a number of issues have been identified that will be of interest to well-cementing organizations. (1) The type of retarder used to delay grout thickening above 90°C is of extreme importance, and should be selected based on local temperature, pressure, and geochemical environment. Addition level might vary considerably depending on the retarder used. (2) Temperature and pressure will shorten the time for grouts to thicken, particularly the former. Water content will also affect grout properties such as consistency, viscosity, and flow. (3) The retarder may not influence hardened grout composition, which suggests that only the time at which the cement hydration reactions occur is influenced

Inorganic anions as retarders for deep borehole disposal grouts

Deep borehole disposal (DBD) provides an alternative to comparatively shallow mined repository concepts for many high-level radioactive wastes. Filling the annular space around the waste containers with cement grout will support them during placement and seal against ingress of groundwater. The elevated temperature and pressure (∼120°C and 50 MPa) will cause acceleration of grout thickening and setting, so retardation is required. The DBD Research Group at The University of Sheffield has developed grouts based on class G oil well cement that use organic retarders, but their presence may increase the solubility of any radionuclides released from the waste packages. New DBD grout formulations using sodium phosphate and sodium borate as inorganic retarders are reported in this paper. To place the wet grout, the onset of thickening needs to be delayed for at least 4 h. Sodium borate was found to provide this retardation at 90°C (0·75% addition) and nearly retarded sufficiently at 120°C (1% addition). Sodium phosphate did not provide sufficient retardation at either temperature. Neither compounds influenced the phases formed, but may suppress the crystallisation of calcium silicate hydrates. This work demonstrates that the performance of these inorganic materials in this application is inferior to that of organic retarders

Abundance of conserved CRISPR-Cas9 target sites within the highly polymorphic genomes of Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes.

A number of recent papers report that standing genetic variation in natural populations includes ubiquitous polymorphisms within target sites for Cas9-based gene drive (CGD) and that these "drive resistant alleles" (DRA) preclude the successful application of CGD for managing these populations. Here we report the results of a survey of 1280 genomes of the mosquitoes Anopheles gambiae, An. coluzzii, and Aedes aegypti in which we determine that ~90% of all protein-encoding CGD target genes in natural populations include at least one target site with no DRAs at a frequency of ≥1.0%. We conclude that the abundance of conserved target sites in mosquito genomes and the inherent flexibility in CGD design obviates the concern that DRAs present in the standing genetic variation of mosquito populations will be detrimental to the deployment of this technology for population modification strategies

Inorganic anions as retarders for deep borehole disposal grouts

Deep borehole disposal (DBD) provides an alternative to comparatively shallow mined repository concepts for many high-level radioactive wastes. Filling the annular space around the waste containers with cement grout will support them during placement and seal against ingress of groundwater. The elevated temperature and pressure (∼120°C and 50 MPa) will cause acceleration of grout thickening and setting, so retardation is required. The DBD Research Group at The University of Sheffield has developed grouts based on class G oil well cement that use organic retarders, but their presence may increase the solubility of any radionuclides released from the waste packages. New DBD grout formulations using sodium phosphate and sodium borate as inorganic retarders are reported in this paper. To place the wet grout, the onset of thickening needs to be delayed for at least 4 h. Sodium borate was found to provide this retardation at 90°C (0·75% addition) and nearly retarded sufficiently at 120°C (1% addition). Sodium phosphate did not provide sufficient retardation at either temperature. Neither compounds influenced the phases formed, but may suppress the crystallisation of calcium silicate hydrates. This work demonstrates that the performance of these inorganic materials in this application is inferior to that of organic retarders

Complex genome evolution in Anopheles coluzzii associated with increased insecticide usage in Mali.

In certain cases, a species may have access to important genetic variation present in a related species via adaptive introgression. These novel alleles may interact with their new genetic background, resulting in unexpected phenotypes. In this study, we describe a selective sweep on standing variation on the X chromosome in the mosquito Anopheles coluzzii, a principal malaria vector in West Africa. This event may have been influenced by the recent adaptive introgression of the insecticide resistance gene known as kdr from the sister species Anopheles gambiae. Individuals carrying both kdr and a nearly fixed X-linked haplotype, encompassing at least four genes including the P450 gene CYP9K1 and the cuticular protein CPR125, have rapidly increased in relative frequency. In parallel, a reproductively isolated insecticide-susceptible A. gambiae population (Bamako form) has been driven to local extinction, likely due to strong selection from increased insecticide-treated bed net usage

The effect of organic retarders on grout thickening and setting during deep borehole disposal of high-level radioactive waste

Deep borehole disposal (DBD) is being increasingly seen as a viable and potentially superior alternative to comparatively shallow mined repository concepts for disposal of some high-level radioactive wastes. We report here details of proof-of-concept investigations into the use of cementitious grouts as sealing/ support matrices for use in low temperature DBD scenarios. Using the cementitious grout to fill annular space within the disposal zone will not only support waste packages during placement, but will also provide a low permeability layer around them which will ultimately enhance the safety case for DBD. Grouts based on Class G oil well cement are being developed. The use of retarders to delay the accelerated onset of thickening and setting (caused by the high temperature and pressure in the borehole) is being investigated experimentally. Sodium gluconate and a polycarboxylate additive each provide suf- ficient retardation over the range 90e140 °C in order to be considered for this application. Phosphonate and sulphonate additives provide desirable retardation at 90 °C. The additives did not affect grout composition at 14 days curing and the phases formed are durable at elevated temperature and pressure

Selective pressures on genomes in molecular evolution

We describe the evolution of macromolecules as an information transmission process and apply tools from Shannon information theory to it. This allows us to isolate three independent, competing selective pressures that we term compression, transmission, and neutrality selection. The first two affect genome length: the pressure to conserve resources by compressing the code, and the pressure to acquire additional information that improves the channel, increasing the rate of information transmission into each offspring. Noisy transmission channels (replication with mutations) gives rise to a third pressure that acts on the actual encoding of information; it maximizes the fraction of mutations that are neutral with respect to the phenotype. This neutrality selection has important implications for the evolution of evolvability. We demonstrate each selective pressure in experiments with digital organisms.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, to be published in J. theor. Biolog

Limits on the 2.2-μm contrast ratio of the close-orbiting planet HD 189733b

We obtained 238 spectra of the close-orbiting extrasolar giant planet HD 189733b with resolution R∼ 15 000 during one night of observations with the Near-Infrared High-Resolution Spectrograph (NIRSPEC), at the Keck II Telescope. We have searched for planetary absorption signatures in the 2.0-2.4 μm region where H2O and CO are expected to be the dominant atmospheric opacities. We employ a phase-dependent orbital model and tomographic techniques to search for the planetary absorption signatures in the combined stellar and planetary spectra. Because potential absorption signatures are hidden in the noise of each single exposure, we use a model list of lines to apply a spectral deconvolution. The resulting mean profile possesses a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) that is 20 times greater than that found in individual lines. Our spectral time series thus yields spectral signatures with a mean S/N = 2720. We are unable to detect a planetary signature at a contrast ratio of log10(Fp/F*) =−3.40, with 63.8 per cent confidence. Our findings are not consistent with model predictions which nevertheless give a good fit to mid-infrared observations of HD 189733b. The 1σ result is a factor of 1.7 times less than the predicted 2.185-μm planet/star flux ratio of log10(Fp/F*) ∼−3.1

The origin of island populations of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles coluzzii

Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the UC Irvine Malaria Initiative Program, Open Philanthropy and NIH R56 grant (R56AI130277). We thank the National Malaria Control Program personnel from São Tomé and Príncipe and, Ministry of Health in São Tomé and Príncipe who facilitated our field collections in São Tomé. We thank the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (Franceville, Gabon) for the collections in Gabon. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).Anopheles coluzzii is a major malaria vector throughout its distribution in west-central Africa. Here we present a whole-genome study of 142 specimens from nine countries in continental Africa and three islands in the Gulf of Guinea. This sample set covers a large part of this species’ geographic range. Our population genomic analyses included a description of the structure of mainland populations, island populations, and connectivity between them. Three genetic clusters are identified among mainland populations and genetic distances (FST) fits an isolation-by-distance model. Genomic analyses are applied to estimate the demographic history and ancestry for each island. Taken together with the unique biogeography and history of human occupation for each island, they present a coherent explanation underlying levels of genetic isolation between mainland and island populations. We discuss the relationship of our findings to the suitability of São Tomé and Príncipe islands as candidate sites for potential field trials of genetic-based malaria control strategies.publishersversionpublishe