Multiple Trophic Levels in Soft-Bottom Communities

In order to assess the general applicability of recent field experiments with predatory infauna, we searched the literature and found 48 well-documented cases of infaunal consumption by such predators. In 63 % of the cases detailed enough to make a determination, the predators ate other predators. Multiple trophic levels within the infauna are probably a common feature of many soft-bottom communities

STARR Progress Report

The State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery program (STARR) has achieved its primary goal of boosting severance tax revenue for the State through research projects aimed at promoting the drilling of profitable oil and gas wells. Currently, the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) receives state funding to conduct research that aids oil and gas operators in either establishing new production or enhancing existing production across Texas. STARR operates under the mandate of being revenue neutral, meaning that the revenue generated from STARR projects must at least match the funds allocated by the Legislature. This progress report provides a detailed summary of the accomplishments of Project STARR over the past two years, from September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2014. According to the methodology approved by the State of Texas Comptroller's office, the credit attributed to the STARR program for the 2012—2014 biennium amounts to $140,766,560 (see table 1). With total income of$9 million over the current biennium, STARR demonstrates a positive revenue impact of 15.6. To date, the STARR program has concluded or is actively engaged in over 60 field (reservoir characterization) studies (see figs. 1 and 2). Figure 2 highlights 23 significant new reservoir characterization studies conducted during the 2012—2014 biennium. Additionally, STARR has initiated 8 new regional studies, encompassing areas such as the Eaglebine trend in southeastern Texas Gulf Coast, as well as the Cline Shale and Wolfcamp and Spraberry Formations in the Permian Basin of West Texas (see fig. 3). Furthermore, STARR includes eight supplementary program elements that complement the Oil and Gas Resources program. Each of these elements targets research relevant to critical economic opportunities or challenges in Texas concerning natural resources or geological conditions. These elements encompass geothermal resources, water-related issues affecting the Texas economy, mineral and earth resources, geological hazards, energy economics, baseline mapping for oil spill response, economic implications of environmental flows, and analysis of water-energy nexus issues.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Influence of residents on the development of a marine soft-bottom community

Field experiments in a Maine estuary were designed to follow community development in newly exposed sediment to determine if resident infauna affect the settlement and survivorship of colonizing infauna and thereby effect changes in community structure. Sets of buckets consisting of control buckets (buckets with previously dried sediment) and two experimental treatments (Nereis virens or Glycera dibranchiata added to dried sediment) were exposed on three dates between June and October 1979 and sampled after 8, 16 and/or 24 weeks. At each sampling, new buckets were established. The index of proportionate similarity comparing the infaunal community of exposure periods with the same starting date was usually greater than the index comparing periods initiated on different dates indicating that assemblages of initial colonizers persisted for the length of the experiment despite the availability of potential colonizers. Large numbers of infauna colonized defaunated sediment, while over the same period of time infaunal density usually declined in sediment which originally contained infauna. Effects of disturbance, drying the sediment, on colonization were controlled by comparing densities in sediment exposed on different dates but after the sediment had been exposed 8 weeks, There was no significant difference in net changes in density between these conditioned sediments despite large differences in the density of their residents. Sediment with low initial density, however, always had a greater net change in density than sediment with high initial density, suggesting that residents had some effect on net changes in density. Highest densities of most infauna were recorded in the Glycera addition treatment and lowest in the Nereis addition treatment. Nereis abundance was reduced in the presence of Glycera, which may account for high densities in the Glycera addition treatment. It is important to know the species composition of resident assemblages before it is possible to make accurate predictions concerning effects of residents on colonization. The apparent response of colonists to disturbance, in this study drying the sediment, needs to be controlled in experiments designed to determine effects of residents on colonization

Stuck at home in a cold home: the implications of Covid-19 for the fuel poor

Policies to address the impact of Covid-19 on low income energy consumers have rightly focussed on energy bills, particularly in the context of home confinement and increased energy consumption. In the longer term, however, we need policies to improve home energy standards. The evidence shows that higher standards reduce the risk of getting a respiratory illness, improve the health of those already with a respiratory illness, improve the ability of our immune systems to fight off illness and reduce the use of health services

Power frame

A rotor stage disposed within an annular fluid flowpath in a turbomachine is disclosed. The rotor stage includes outer and inner rings and a plurality of first and second airfoils. The outer and inner rings define flowpath surfaces for said flowpath. The first and second airfoils extend between the rings for transferring energy between the fluid and the rotor stage. At least one of the first airfoils surrounds means for transmitting energy across the flowpath

Humanoids Designed to do Work

NASA began with the challenge of building a robot fo r doing assembly, maintenance, and diagnostic work in the Og environment of space. A robot with human form was then chosen as the best means of achieving that mission. The goal was not to build a machine to look like a human, but rather, to build a system that could do the same work. Robonaut could be inserted into the existing space environment, designed for a population of astronauts, and be able to perform many of the same tasks, with the same tools, and use the same interfaces. Rather than change that world to accommodate the robot, instead Robonaut accepts that it exists for humans, and must conform to it. While it would be easier to build a robot if all the interfaces could be changed, this is not the reality of space at present, where NASA has invested billions of dollars building spacecraft like the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. It is not possible to go back in time, and redesign those systems to accommodate full automation, but a robot can be built that adapts to them. This paper describes that design process, and the res ultant solution, that NASA has named Robonaut