Preserving Heritage and Protecting the Environment: Sustainable Stormwater Management in Gamle Stavanger

The heritage area Straen, also known as Gamle Stavanger is, due to heavy rain and climate change, in a position of stormwater flooding. The sewage system, that normally drains stormwater away from the streets, is old and cannot take on the increasing amounts of stormwater predicted in the future. This thesis explores how using local stormwater management (LSM) measures, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and nature-based solutions (NBS) can help mitigate the damaging effects of stormwater. The thesis also seeks to answer how this can be done without damaging the cultural-historical heritage. Through the use of literature studies, reference projects, visits to the site and GIS analysis, a proposal for a stormwater management plan using local measures is presented. To identify the suggested measures, an analysis of the area and how the area is affected by stormwater was done. Further, the thesis seeks knowledge from other projects that have addressed the same issues. The stormwater’s effect on Straen is in close correlation to its catchment area encompassing parts of Trehusbyen, the largest connected wooden house area in Europe. The measures proposed in this area can be upscaled and implemented in several parts of Trehusbyen, due to similarities in urban layout. Thus, the proposal suggests measures for the upper districts of the catchment, as well as for Straen. The planning for measures in these areas, Straen and Trehusbyen, had to be approached very differently, due to the availability of spaces fit for measures. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed measures, a 20-year 10-minute event with a climate factor of 40% is used. This equals an event of 17,5 mm in 10 minutes. For Trehusbyen, the thesis proposes an implementation of a range of solutions that together are capable of handling the precipitation of a 20-year event. The measures are implemented in between housing, in gardens, driveways and entrances, and in the streets. These measures are effective and will not damage heritage values connected to Trehusbyen. But rather increase the resilience and make the areas more attractive. The streets and neighbourhoods in Straen are narrowly built and require a different set of measures. Focusing on the creation, and dividing of flood paths, may lead to lower pressure on individual streets, thereby minimizing the risk of damage. The measures proposed makes Straen capable of handling the increasing precipitation, and stormwater flooding. There are however implications when implementing big scale infiltration measures. A problem of water running on the bedrock, entering basements trough the foundations already exist in Straen. An increased infiltration may lead to this issue being more widespread

Totalsynthesen von antibiotisch hoch potenten Cystobactamiden

Die ersten Cystobactamide wurden 2014 am Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung im Saarland (HIPS) durch Fermentation aus dem Myxobakterium Cystobacter sp. Cbv34 isoliert. Sie bestehen aus zwei nicht proteinogenen polyaromatischen Segmenten mit einem einzigartigen Set von para-Aminobenzoesäure-Monomeren und einer ungewöhnlichen beta-Methoxyasparagin-Einheit als Linker. Die Cystobactamide verfügen über eine außerordentlich hemmende Wirkung gegen zahlreiche klinisch relevante Gram-negative Bakterien, indem sie die Topoisomerase IIa adressieren. Die Kombination aus einzigartigen Strukturelementen und breitem antibakteriellem Wirkungsspektrum machen die Cystobactamide zu einer potentiellen Leitstruktur für die Entwicklung einer neuen Klasse von Gyraseinhibitoren. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden synthetische Zugänge zu den Cystobactamiden etabliert und für große Labormaßstäbe optimiert. Als Leitstruktur diente dabei das Cystobactamid 861-2. Die Schutzgruppenstrategie und die Optimierung der Peptidkupplungen spielte dabei eine herausragende Rolle. Des Weiteren wurden 15 Strukturanaloga synthetisiert, die zur Untersuchung des Struktur-Aktivitäts-Profils verwendet wurden. Da sowohl die Naturstoffe als auch die ersten vereinfachten Derivate eine gewisse Basenlabilität aufwiesen, wurde bei der Wahl der zu synthetisierenden Derivate auf basenstabilere Strukturmotive gesetzt. Darüber hinaus bestimmten die Erkenntnisse der Struktur-Aktivitäts-Beziehungen der 1. Generation die Auswahl der Strukturmotive beim Entwurf einer zweiten Generation synthetischer Analoga. Das Ersetzen einer Amidbindung durch ein Harnstoffmotiv oder das Kürzen von polyaromatischen Segmenten führte zu einem Verlust der biologischen Aktivität. Der Einbau einer hydrolytisch stabilen Triazolgruppe bewahrte die Aktivität gegenüber einigen klinisch relevanten Pathogenen, darunter zum Beispiel P. aeruginosa, S. aureus und A. baumanii. Des Weiteren konnte das Aktivitätsspektrum teils auf K. pneumoniae erweitert werden. Die neuen Analoga werden zur Weiterentwicklung der Verbindungsklasse verwendet, z.B. indem hydrolytisch stabile Einheiten die Halbwertszeit des Arzneimittels erhöhen

Games as a Platform for Student Participation in Authentic Scientific Research

This paper presents results from the design and testing of an educational version of Quantum Moves, a Scientific Discovery Game that allows players to help solve authentic scientific challenges in the effort to develop a quantum computer. The primary aim of developing a game-based platform for student-research collaboration is to investigate if and how this type of game concept can strengthen authentic experimental practice and the creation of new knowledge in science education. Researchers and game developers tested the game in three separate high school classes (Class 1, 2, and 3). The tests were documented using video observations of students playing the game, qualitative interviews, and qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. The focus of the tests has been to study players' motivation and their experience of learning through participation in authentic scientific inquiry. In questionnaires conducted in the two first test classes students found that the aspects of doing “real scientific research” and solving physics problems were the more interesting aspects of playing the game. However, designing a game that facilitates professional research collaboration while simultaneously introducing quantum physics to high school students proved to be a challenge. A collaborative learning design was implemented in Class 3, where students were given expert roles such as experimental and theoretical physicists. This significantly improved the students’ feeling of learning physics compared to Class 1 and 2. Overall the results presented in this paper indicate that the possibility of participating in authentic scientific experiments, which this class of games opens, is highly motivating for students. The findings also show that the learning design in the class setting must be considered in order to improve the students’ experience of learning and that various design challenges remain to be addressed even further

Igneous sill and finger emplacement mechanism in shale-dominated formations: a field study at Cuesta del Chihuido, Neuquén Basin, Argentina

Seismic reflection data and field observations have revealed the presence of voluminous igneous sill complexes emplaced into organic-rich shale formations in sedimentary basins worldwide. Damage and structures associated with sills have major implications for fluid flow through basins. Constraining the distribution of these structures requires a good understanding of the sill emplacement mechanism. However, most mechanical models of sill emplacement assume elastic host behaviour, whereas shale is expected to deform inelastically. This contradiction calls for new field observations to better constrain sill emplacement mechanisms. In this paper, we report on detailed field observations of spectacularly exposed fingers and a sill emplaced in shale at Cuesta del Chihuido, in the Neuquén Basin, Argentina. Exceptional outcrop conditions allow detailed descriptions of both (1) the entire cross-section of the intrusions, and (2) the deformation structures accommodating intrusion propagation in the host rock. All intrusions exhibit irregular, blunt or rectangular tips. The structures accommodating the tip propagation are systematically compressional, including reverse faults, folding and imbricate thrust system. Our observations suggest that the studied intrusions have propagated by pushing the host rock ahead, as a viscous indenter. Our observations suggest that the viscous indenter model is probably a dominant mechanism of sill emplacement in shale.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Seismic imaging in the Krafla high-temperature geothermal field, NE Iceland, using zero- and far-offset vertical seismic profiling (VSP) data

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Program under grant agreement No. 608553 (Project IMAGE). We thank Landsvirkjun, the operator of the Krafla geothermal field, for technical and logistical support during the survey. We also thank the Operational Support Group of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) for their technical support. We further acknowledge the support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project 22372 (SP).Peer reviewedPostprin

Mud extrusion dynamics constrained from 3D seismics in the Mercator Mud Volcano. El Arraiche mud volcano field, Gulf of Cadiz

Located on the western Moroccan continental shelf of the Gulf of Cadiz, the Mercator Mud Volcano (MMV) is one of a total of eight mud volcanoes which compose the El Arraiche mud volcano field. We collected a high-resolution P-cable 3D seismic cube during the Charles Darwin cruise 178 in April 2006, covering an area of 25 km2. The data image the upper 500-1000 m of the MMV. El Arraiche mud volcano field is located in the top of the Tortonian accretionary wedge in the Gulf of Cadiz, between 200 and 700 m water deep. Despite of the general compressive trend of the Gulf of Cadiz due to the westward movement of the Gibraltar arc, the local regimen of the western Moroccan margin is extensional in the study area. The MMV is a 2.5 km diameter positive conical structure at 350 m water deep that rises from the flank of a salt diapir. The high-resolution 3D cube shows the main internal structure in the southern flank of an anticline and a secondary structure southwest of it. Parallel and continuous reflections onlapping the anticline structure define the seismic character outside the mud volcano. The body of the main structure shows the typical "Christmas tree" features related to mud flow deposits. The preliminary interpretation of the 3D seismic cube shows four main mud flows southwestward oriented from the main structure and interfingered into the hemipelagic regional sedimentation. From deeper to shallower, the flows are located approximately at 0.870 s, 0.838 s, 0.774 s, and 0.685 s travel time, respectively. The extrusions correlate with the main seismic sequences observed in the surrounding hemipelagic deposits. The maximum run-out distance for the mud flows is approximately 1 km southwestward from the main structure, which corresponds to the third youngest mud flow described. The secondary "Christmas tree" structure penetrates the hemipelagic sediments almost to the seabed. Its seismic character is defined by low amplitude and chaotic signal. Several mud flows are interfingered with the surrounding sediments and, in some cases, overlap the mud flows from the main structure but they are less extensive and thinner but more frequent than those from the main structure. The MMV is an active mud volcano and depends on complex fluid and mud dynamics. The existence of a secondary and apparently "abandoned" structure indicates the variation of mud pathways during the evolution of its plumbing system

Halogen Enrichment of Siberian Traps Magmas During Interaction With Evaporites

Volatile emissions to the atmosphere associated with the Siberian Traps eruptions at the Permian-Triassic boundary were sourced from the outgassing of primary magmas and the sedimentary host rocks into which they were intruded. Halogens in volcanic gases may have played an important role in environmental degradation and in stratospheric ozone destruction. Here we investigate how halogens behave during the interaction between salts and basalt magma emplaced as sills and erupted as lava. We present whole-rock, trace, and halogen concentrations for a suite of samples from three locations in the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province, including basalt lavas erupted, and dolerites intruded into both organic-bearing shales and evaporites. Dolerites are enriched in Cl, Br, and I; their enrichment in Cl is similar to MORB and OIB that have been inferred to have assimilated seawater. The dolerites exhibit halogen compositional systematics, which extend towards both evaporites and crustal brines. Furthermore, all analyzed samples show enrichment in Rb/Nb; with the dolerites also showing enrichment in Cl/K similar to MORB and OIB that have been inferred to have assimilated seawater. We infer that samples from all three locations have assimilated fluids derived from evaporites, which are components of crustal sedimentary rocks. We show that up to 89% of the chlorine in the dolerites may have been assimilated as a consequence of the contact metamorphism of evaporites. We show, by thermal modeling, that halogen transfer may occur via assimilation of a brine phase derived from heating evaporites. Halogen assimilation from subcropping evaporites may be pervasive in the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province and is expected to have enhanced emissions of Cl and Br into the atmosphere from both intrusive and extrusive magmatism.</jats:p