Seismic response to evolving injection at the Rotokawa geothermal field, New Zealand

Catalogs of microseismicity are routinely compiled at geothermal reservoirs and provide valuable insights into reservoir structure and fluid movement. Hypocentral locations are typically used to infer the orientations of structures and constrain the extent of the permeable reservoir. However, frequency-magnitude distributions may contain additional, and underused, information about the distribution of pressure. Here, we present a four-year catalog of seismicity for the Rotokawa geothermal field in the central Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand starting two years after the commissioning of the 140 MWe Nga Awa Purua power station. Using waveform-correlation-based signal detection we double the size of the previous earthquake catalog, refine the location and orientation of two reservoir faults and identify a new structure. We find the rate of seismicity to be insensitive to major changes in injection strategy during the study period, including the injectivity decline and shift of injection away from the dominant injector, RK24. We also map the spatial distribution of the earthquake frequency-magnitude distribution, or b-value, and show that it increases from ∼1.0 to ∼1.5 with increasing depth below the reservoir. As has been proposed at other reservoirs, we infer that these spatial variations reflect the distribution of pressure in the reservoir, where areas of high b-value correspond to areas of high pore-fluid pressure and a broad distribution of activated fractures. This analysis is not routinely conducted by geothermal operators but shows promise for using earthquake b-value as an additional tool for reservoir monitoring and management

Reduced Data Sets and Entropy-Based Discretization

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Results of experiments on numerical data sets discretized using two methods—global versions of Equal Frequency per Interval and Equal Interval Width-are presented. Globalization of both methods is based on entropy. For discretized data sets left and right reducts were computed. For each discretized data set and two data sets, based, respectively, on left and right reducts, we applied ten-fold cross validation using the C4.5 decision tree generation system. Our main objective was to compare the quality of all three types of data sets in terms of an error rate. Additionally, we compared complexity of generated decision trees. We show that reduction of data sets may only increase the error rate and that the decision trees generated from reduced decision sets are not simpler than the decision trees generated from non-reduced data sets

Factorial Invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale among Senior Women in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses’ Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density

Additive drug-specific and sex-specific risks associated with co-use of marijuana and tobacco during pregnancy: Evidence from 3 recent developmental cohorts (2003-2015).

BACKGROUND: Methodologic challenges related to the concomitant use (co-use) of substances and changes in policy and potency of marijuana contribute to ongoing uncertainty about risks to fetal neurodevelopment associated with prenatal marijuana use. In this study, we examined two biomarkers of fetal neurodevelopmental risk-birth weight and length of gestation-associated with prenatal marijuana use, independent of tobacco (TOB), alcohol (ALC), other drug use (OTH), and socioeconomic risk (SES), in a pooled sample (N = 1191) derived from 3 recent developmental cohorts (2003-2015) with state-of-the-art substance use measures. We examined differential associations by infant sex, and multiplicative effects associated with co-use of MJ and TOB. METHODS: Participants were mother-infant dyads with complete data on all study variables derived from Growing Up Healthy (n = 251), Behavior and Mood in Babies and Mothers (Cohorts 1 and 2; n = 315), and the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 625). We estimated direct effects on birth weight and length of gestation associated with MJ, TOB, and co-use (MJ x TOB), using linear regression analysis in the full sample, and in male (n = 654) and female (n = 537) infants, separately. RESULTS: Mean birth weight and length of gestation were 3277 g (SD = 543) and 37.8 weeks (SD = 2.0), respectively. Rates of prenatal use were as follows: any use, n = 748 (62.8%); MJ use, n = 273 (22.9%); TOB use, n = 608 (51.0%); co-use of MJ and TOB, n = 230 (19.3%); ALC use, n = 464 (39.0%); and OTH use n = 115 (9.7%.) For all infants, unique effects on birth weight were observed for any MJ use [B(SE) = -84.367(38.271), 95% C.I. -159.453 to -9.281, p = .028], any TOB use [B(SE) = -0.99.416(34.418), 95% C.I. -166.942 to -31.889, p = .004], and each cigarette/day in mean TOB use [B(SE) = -12.233(3.427), 95% C.I. -18.995 to -5.510, p \u3c .001]. Additional effects of co-use on birth weight, beyond these drug-specific effects, were not supported. In analyses stratified by sex, while TOB use was associated with lower birth weight in both sexes, MJ use during pregnancy was associated with lower birth weight of male infants [B(SE) = -153.1 (54.20); 95% C.I. -259.5 to -46.7, p = .005], but not female infants [B(SE) = 8.3(53.1), 95% C.I. -96.024 to 112.551, p = .876]. TOB, MJ, and their co-use were not associated with length of gestation. CONCLUSIONS: In this sample, intrauterine co-exposure to MJ and TOB was associated with an estimated 18% reduction in birth weight not attributable to earlier delivery, exposure to ALC or OTH drugs, nor to maternal SES. We found evidence for greater susceptibility of male fetuses to any prenatal MJ exposure. Examination of dose-dependence in relationships found in this study, using continuous measures of exposure, is an important next step. Finally, we underscore the need to consider (a) the potential moderating influence of fetal sex on exposure-related neurodevelopmental risks; and (b) the importance of quantifying expressions of risk through subtle alterations, rather than dichotomous outcomes

Design optimization of offshore wind jacket piles by assessing support structure orientation relative to metocean conditions

The orientation of a three-legged offshore wind jacket structure in 60 m water depth, supporting the IEA 15 MW reference turbine, has been assessed for optimizing the jacket pile design. A reference site off the coast of Massachusetts was considered, including site-specific metocean conditions and realistically plausible geotechnical conditions. Soil–structure interaction was modeled using three-dimensional finite-element (FE) ground–structure simulations to obtain equivalent mudline springs, which were subsequently used in nonlinear elastic simulations, considering aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading of extreme sea states in the time domain. Jacket pile loads were found to be sensitive to the maximum 50-year wave direction, as opposed to the wind direction, indicating that the jacket orientation should be considered relative to the dominant wave direction. The results further demonstrated that the jacket orientation has a substantial impact on the overall jacket pile mass and maximum pile embedment depth and therefore represents an important opportunity for project cost and risk reductions. Finally, this research highlights the importance of detailed knowledge of the full global model behavior (both turbine and foundation) for capturing this optimization potential, particularly due to the influence of wind–wave misalignment on pile loads. Close collaboration between the turbine supplier and foundation designer, at the appropriate design stages, is essential.</p

Dimension- and Context-Specific Expression of Preschoolers’ Disruptive Behaviors Associated with Prenatal Tobacco Exposure

Objective—Precise phenotypic characterization of prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) −related disruptive behavior (DB) that integrates nuanced measures of both exposures and outcomes is optimal for elucidating underlying mechanisms. Using this approach, our goals were to identify dimensions of DB most sensitive to PTE prior to school entry and assess contextual variation in these dimensions. Methods—A community obstetric sample of N=369 women (79.2% lifetime smokers; 70.2% pregnancy smokers) from two Midwestern cities were assessed for PTE using cotinine-calibrated interview-based reports at 16, 28, and 40 weeks of gestation. A subset of n=244 who completed observational assessments with their 5-year-old children in a subsequent preschool follow-up study constitute the analytic sample. Using two developmentally-meaningful dimensions previously associated with emergent clinical risk for DB—irritability and noncompliance—we assessed children with 2 parent-report scales: the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior (MAP-DB) and the Early Childhood Inventory (ECI). We also assessed children by direct observation across 3 interactional contexts with the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule (DB-DOS). We used generalized linear models to examine between-child variability across behavioral dimensions, and mixed effects models to examine directly observed within-child variability by interactional context. Results—Increasing PTE predicted increasing impairment in preschoolers’ modulation of negative affect (irritability), but not negative behavior (noncompliance) across reported (MAP-DB) and observed (DB-DOS) dimensional measures. Moreover, children’s PTE-related irritability was more pronounced when observed with parents than with the examiner. The ECI did not detect PTE-related irritability nor noncompliance. Conclusions—Nuanced, dimension- and context-specific characterization of PTE-related DB described can optimize early identification of at-risk children

PERSONALITY TRAITS (. . .BUT NOT THE BIG FIVE) PREDICT THE ONSET OF DISEASE

1 pageThe utility of personality measures as predictors of distal outcomes (e.g., mortality, longevity) is well-documented. Few have reported on more proximal outcomes; one prominent exception (Weston, Hill, & Jackson, 2014) considered personality predictors of chronic disease onset. We report here on efforts to (1) replicate their findings in a second cohort of participants from the Health and Retirement Study and (2) extend their analyses to evaluate the effects of socioeconomic factors. For 7 chronic diseases and the Big Five scales, the only significant measure in both samples when controlling for SES was Openness as a protective factor in the development of a heart condition. SES, by contrast, was a significant predictor in more than one-third of the models. We also demonstrate methods for empirically deriving outcome-specific scales with substantially improved predictive utility and advocate for broader use of these methods when prediction is more important than taxonomic description

Non-commutative flux representation for loop quantum gravity

The Hilbert space of loop quantum gravity is usually described in terms of cylindrical functionals of the gauge connection, the electric fluxes acting as non-commuting derivation operators. It has long been believed that this non-commutativity prevents a dual flux (or triad) representation of loop quantum gravity to exist. We show here, instead, that such a representation can be explicitly defined, by means of a non-commutative Fourier transform defined on the loop gravity state space. In this dual representation, flux operators act by *-multiplication and holonomy operators act by translation. We describe the gauge invariant dual states and discuss their geometrical meaning. Finally, we apply the construction to the simpler case of a U(1) gauge group and compare the resulting flux representation with the triad representation used in loop quantum cosmology.Comment: 12 pages, matches published versio

Increased levels of RNA oxidation enhance the reversion frequency in aging pro-apoptotic yeast mutants

Despite recent advances in understanding the complexity of RNA processes, regulation of the metabolism of oxidized cellular RNAs and the mechanisms through which oxidized ribonucleotides affect mRNA translation, and consequently cell viability, are not well characterized. We show here that the level of oxidized RNAs is markedly increased in a yeast decapping Kllsm4Δ1 mutant, which accumulates mRNAs, ages much faster that the wild type strain and undergoes regulated-cell-death. We also found that in Kllsm4Δ1 cells the mutation rate increases during chronological life span indicating that the capacity to han- dle oxidized RNAs in yeast declines with aging. Lowering intracellular ROS levels by antioxidants recovers the wild- type phenotype of mutant cells, including reduced amount of oxidized RNAs and lower mutation rate. Since mRNA oxidation was reported to occur in different neurodegen- erative diseases, decapping-deficient cells may represent a useful tool for deciphering molecular mechanisms of cell response to such conditions, providing new insights into RNA modification-based pathogenesis

A left circumflex aorta with a displaced thoracic duct in a 94-year-old male cadaver: a case report with discussion on embryology

A left circumflex aorta (LCA) is an extremely rare variation of the thoracic aorta. It is distinguished by a retroesophageal descending aorta that subsequently travels down the right side of the thoracic vertebrae towards the aortic hiatus. Nonetheless, its embryological origin ought not to be overly generalized, but each case should be considered individually due to its unique vascular patterns. This study presents a description of a LCA in a 94-year-old male cadaver. The dissection revealed the descending aorta posteriorly from the trachea and esophagus and then laterally on the right from the thoracic vertebral bodies. The branching pattern of the aortic arch was typical, so was the course of the left and right recurrent laryngeal nerves. However, the thoracic duct was placed on the right, and drained into the right internal carotid vein. Due to the normal appearance of the ascending part and the arch of the aorta, it is safe to presume that the variation originated from the persistent right dorsal aorta, with the retroesophageal part from the persistent left dorsal aorta. Detailed understanding of the variations of the thoracic aorta, and the anomalies associated with the LCA, can help to improve management of these conditions, and with that, improve patients’ overall outcomes. Patients with a LCA, or another vascular ring, can either be asymptomatic or present with esophageal and / or tracheal compression symptoms. Management of this anomaly consists namely of ligation of the patent ductus arteriosus / ligamentum arteriosum and aortic uncrossing