Metagenomics Microbial Characterization of Production and Process Fluids in the Powder River Basin: Identification and Sources of Problematic Microorganisms Associated with SWD Facilities

Inconsistent bacterial control and monitoring led to variability in Salt Water Disposal (SWD) well performance and injectivity creating excess costs in biocide applications and remedial work. A metagenomics study using Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) was conducted to determine the source(s) of problematic microorganisms throughout the process life cycle: Freshwater> Drilling> Completion> Flowback> Produced water> SWD. A total of 30 metagenomes were collected from the 6 process stages and identification and quantification of the major microbial taxa from each of these stages were identified. "Taxonomy to Function" associations were identified for all the major taxa found in the SWD fluids. WGS was performed on positive Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) and Acid Producing Bacteria (APB) media bottles inoculated in the field for a Flowback sample. Four of the six major taxa found in SWD samples are considered groups of microorganisms known to cause microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC): Clostridia, methanogens, SRB and Iron Reducing bacteria. Thermovirga and Thermotagae, were the two most abundant taxa found in SWD samples, both thermophilic halophilic fermenting bacteria. The Fe reducing bacteria Shewanella was only detected in Drilling and SWD fluids suggesting its source was Drilling fluids. Completion fluid metagenome profiles from two separate sites followed similar patterns. During middle of completions Proteobacteria phyla were dominant taxa represented mostly by Pseudomonas. Other abundant phyla were all characteristic of polymer degrading bacteria. None of these taxa were dominant populations identified in SWD waters. Fresh water only shared similar taxa with Drilling and Completion fluids. A few minor taxa from Drilling and Completion stages show up as significant taxa in SWD fluids. The majority of taxa found in SWD samples appear to originate from Flowback and Produced waters, although at lower abundances than found in SWD samples. It cannot be determined if the microorganisms found in Flowback and Produced waters were endemic to the formation or come from contaminated source waters, i.e. process equipment used to store and transport water sources. Petrotoga mobilis was the dominant population of bacteria that grew in both media bottles, 96% and 77% for SRB and APB, respectively, while Petrotoga was detected at 14% in the field sample. The most abundant bacteria detected in field sample were Clostridia (38%) while only 2.7% were detected in APB media. SRB media bottle had 0.18% SRB detected by WGS; APB media had 9% SRB population abundance. No SRB were detected in corresponding field sample or below detectable limits (BDL) for WGS methods (<0.01%). WGS was forensically used to successfully identify type and source of problematic microorganism in SWD facilities. Results from media bottle and field sample comparisons stress the importance of developing improved field monitoring techniques that more accurately detect the dominant microorganisms.

Integration of multiple geospatial applications and intelligence for responding to COVID-19 in Ghana

Objective: We describe the use of integrated geospatial applications for the provision of access to timely and accurate data on samples, visualisation of Spatio-temporal patterns of cases and effective communication between field sample collectors, testing laboratories, Regional Health directors and Government Decision Makers.Design: This study describes how an integrated geospatial platform based on case location and intelligence was developed and used for effective COVID-19 response during the initial stages of COVID-19 in Ghana.Data Source: Collector for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Survey123Main outcome measure: successful development and deployment of integrated geospatial applications and analytics. Results: The Collector for ArcGIS app was customised to collect COVID-19 positive cases location information. Survey 123 was introduced as a COVID-19 contact tracing application to digitise the case-based forms and provide real-time results from the laboratories to GHS and other stakeholders. The laboratory backend allowed the testing laboratories access to specific information about each patient (sample) collected by the fieldworkers. The regional supervisors’ backend web application provided accessing test results for confidentiality and timely communication of results.Conclusion: Geospatial platforms were successfully established in Ghana to provide timely results to Regional Health Directors and Government decision-makers. This helped to improve the timeliness of response and contact tracing at the district level.

The Influence of an 8-Week Training Program with Small-Sided Games on the Anaerobic Capacity of Junior Football Players

"ABSTRACT. Introduction. The level of development of anaerobic capacity at footballers requires the achievement of sporting performance. Objective. The study analyses whether the anaerobic capacity is developed as a result of the participation of the athletes in a training program with small-sided football games. Methods. A group of 40 athletes aged 16-18 years old were grouped in two equal teams, named: experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). During the period of the study, which was between 5.01.2021 – 27.02. 2021, the two groups were exposed to different training programs: the EG in a smallsided football games training program and the CG in a classic way. The following technology was used: Hosand GT.a – to measure HR – and the WittyGateMicrogate2 system for timing of the stress sample. Subjects took the YYIRTL1 sample. SPSS program, variant 23 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Results. The results taken in the initial test (IT) between the two groups had no statistical significance in YYIRTL1 field sample was concerned, but there could be noticed significant differences in the final test (FT) for the parameter indicating the hold time in the anaerobic zone>81%HRmax (U = 67.50, N1 = 20, N2 = 20, twotailed p = .000336, d = 1.46). Conclusions. The study shows that the anaerobic capacity of subjects has developed through the implementation of an 8-week period program where small-sided football games have been used."

Fabrication of Multifunctionalized Graphene Oxide Doped Alginate Hybrid Spheres for Enhanced Fluoride Adsorption

In this present investigation, amine functionalized graphene oxide (AGO) doped on alginate (Alg) polymeric matrix gives AGO@Alg hybrid spheres was developed to explore its potential towards fluoride retention. The vital characterization techniques namely FTIR, TGA, SEM and XPS analysis of AGO@Alg hybrid spheres were acquired to identify its physicochemical properties. The liable parameters for fluoride adsorption onto AGO@Alg hybrid spheres were optimized in a batch mode to attain enhance defluoridation capacity (DC). The prepared AGO@Alg hybrid spheres follow the electrostatic interaction mechanism on defluoridation. The adsorption isotherms (Fruendlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) models), kinetics (reaction and diffusion based models) and thermodynamic parameters (ΔS°, ΔG° and ΔH°) were surveyed at 303, 313 and 323 K. To lessen the cost-effectiveness of AGO@Alg hybrid spheres the recyclability test was conducted. The aptness of AGO@Alg hybrid spheres was also scrutinized for the fluoride contaminated field sample collected from fluoride endemic village.

Can Supportive Coaching Behaviors Facilitate Boundary Spanning and Raise Job Satisfaction? An Indirect-Effects Model

As organizations encounter unpredictable external environments, expectations are changing for managers and team leaders toward providing more facilitative, less directive coaching in order to stimulate more flexibility and adaptability. Prior research has underscored the role of team leader supportive coaching behaviors in reinforcing and growing team member capabilities to work independently from the leader. What is not yet understood, however, is if and how supportive coaching behaviors relate to team member engagement in boundary-spanning behaviors, which are team member efforts to establish and maintain relationships with key parties external to their team. This study examines how team leaders’ supportive coaching of boundary spanning—defined as a set of behaviors that (a) encourages team members to engage in frequent and open collaborations with key parties external to the team and (b) grants team members the latitude to engage external parties in ways the team members deem necessary—relates to team member boundary-spanning behavior and job satisfaction through a motivational pathway. We test a hypothesized indirect-effects model within a field sample of 256 engineering employees working in teams. Results indicate that leaders’ supportive coaching of boundary spanning is positively related to team member boundary-spanning self-efficacy, which in turn is positively related to team member engagement in boundary-spanning behavior for their teams. Also, team members who reported more boundary-spanning behavior experienced greater job satisfaction. The findings have important implications for organizations, team leaders, and team members.

Different Metrics for Singular Value Optimization in Near-Field Antenna Characterization

We deal with the use of different metrics in the framework of the Singular Value Optimization (SVO) technique for near-field antenna characterization. SVO extracts the maximum amount of information on an electromagnetic field over a certain domain from field samples on an acquisition domain, with a priori information on the source, e.g., support information. It determines the field sample positions by optimizing a functional featuring the singular value dynamics of the radiation operator and representing a measure of the information collected by the field samples. Here, we discuss in detail and compare the use, in the framework of SVO, of different objective functionals and so of different information measures: Shannon number, mutual information, and Fisher information. The numerical results show that they yield a similar performance.

A method for the analyses of carbon stable isotope and content of particulate inorganic carbon in inland waters

<p>Studies on particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) in inland waters are relatively scarce due to the low concentration of PIC which makes it difficult to be measured accurately. In other studies, a characteristic ratio of PIC in total suspended solids in the water column has been proposed to estimate the river PIC flux to the sea, and a titration method to measure the PIC fluxes in karst rivers has been reported. Therefore, we used the Gas Bench Ⅱ-IRMS coupled technique method to analyze the δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>PIC</sub> and PIC concentration in inland waters. The method has the advantage of being suitable for the accurate determination of the isotopic composition of trace PIC samples.</p><p>The purging time and carbon content of samples are the important factors affecting experimental accuracy. This study proposed the optimal purge time and the lowest carbon content of the inland water sample. The samples in the experiment included laboratory calcium carbonate standard (99.95 % purity) and PIC samples from the Wujiang River. The PIC samples from Wujiang River were collected on glass fiber filters. Datasets from the experiment demonstrated that the ideal purge time is 500-700 s, and at least 25 μg C should be included in the sample. The instrument signal value is low and the isotopic value fluctuates widely when the purge time is less than 500 s. The phosphoric acid cannot be injected into the sample bottle due to the high pressure in it when the purge time is more than 700 s. Therefore, a purging time of 600 s was used for the field sample analyses. The peak area displayed by the device is correlated with the carbon content in the sample, and the datasets show a good linear relationship between the peak area and carbon content in the sample when the sample be analyzed contained more than 25 μg of inorganic carbon. The carbon content of the sample can be calculated from the peak area of the same batch of calcium carbonate standard. While the peak signal is too low to detect the sample accurately when the C content is less than 25 μg. Therefore, the sample should contain more than 25 μg for the field sample analyses. This study will help to provide a reference for the method of determining the PIC content and isotopic composition in inland water.</p>