ENHANCING THE RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE BY ACCESSING THE RESERVOIR SWEET SPOTS GUIDED BY FAR-FIELD SONIC IMAGING: AN INTEGRATED CASE STUDY FROM THE NORWEGIAN NORTH SEA

The gas present in the Valhall overburden crest area interferes with the seismic data and obscures the fault detection (minor faults). Spatially resolving fractures and fracture network is essential for subsurface understanding and future well placement in this field, and it is a critical input to the dynamic reservoir model. Additionally, mapping the fracture network in poor permeable reservoir formation beyond the wellbore is crucial to identify completion intervals to maximize productivity/injectivity, and hence field value. The well 2/8-F-18 A was drilled on the crest of the Valhall field as a pilot water injector in Lower Hod formation, where core and data analysis formed the foundation for a future potential 11 well development. The well is placed in the southern section of the Valhall crest, and no major faults or strong amplitude features were mapped out in the overburden via surface seismic before drilling. In this case study, an integrated workflow is proposed and tested within the reservoir formation to identify “sweet” (permeable and fractured) zones beyond the wellbore. This is achieved using borehole acoustic data combined with image and ultrasonic imaging to characterize fracture networks beyond the borehole wall. The sonic imaging workflow identifies reflection events from fractures and faults and provides the true dip, azimuth, and location in 3-dimensions. This data is complemented by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), dielectric and spectroscopy data to understand reservoir petrophysics. NMR-derived permeability has also been evaluated for identifying high permeable zone in this formation, which primarily focuses on intergranular permeability of the formation a few inches away from the borehole wall. Reservoir textural heterogeneity and fractures beyond the wellbore wall make this method difficult to estimate or enhance the effective permeability estimate. The baseline assumption for the NMR permeability estimation is also not valid in Hod formation; the Timur and SDR equation needs significant change to match core permeability. Hence, the primary aim is to identify a fracture network that will help support water injection and maximize hydrocarbons production through them. The goal is to establish a workflow from the learnings of this study, performed on the pilot well, validate its findings with the near-field data (core, imaging, and ultrasonic), and optimize it if needed (described in the methodology section). The developed workflow is then intended to be used to optimize the placement of future wells. The results achieved from the integrated workflow identified a key fault and mapped it approximately 23 meters away on each side of the borehole. It also captures acoustic anomalies (high amplitudes), validated based on near-field data, resulting from a fracture network potentially filled with hydrocarbons. The final results show the sub-seismic resolution of the fracture and fault network not visible on surface seismic due to the gas cloud above the reservoir and frequency effect on the surface seismic when compared to borehole sonic data. Evidently enhancing the blurred surface image, which helps enhance the structural and dynamic model of the reservoir.

Sex and Tamoxifen confound murine experimental studies in cardiovascular tissue engineering

Tissue engineered vascular grafts hold promise for the creation of functional blood vessels from biodegradable scaffolds. Because the precise mechanisms regulating this process are still under investigation, inducible genetic mouse models are an important and widely used research tool. However, here we describe the importance of challenging the baseline assumption that tamoxifen is inert when used as a small molecule inducer in the context of cardiovascular tissue engineering. Employing a standard inferior vena cava vascular interposition graft model in C57BL/6 mice, we discovered differences in the immunologic response between control and tamoxifen-treated animals, including occlusion rate, macrophage infiltration and phenotype, the extent of foreign body giant cell development, and collagen deposition. Further, differences were noted between untreated males and females. Our findings demonstrate that the host-response to materials commonly used in cardiovascular tissue engineering is sex-specific and critically impacted by exposure to tamoxifen, necessitating careful model selection and interpretation of results.

Guidelines for Palliative Treatment of Spinal Metastases: Choosing Between Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy and Conventional Fractionation

Symptomatic spinal metastasis is a frequent complication of cancer that had been treated, until relatively recently, with primitive techniques to modest radiation dose levels, with a baseline assumption of limited survival and poor patient performance in that setting. In the era of targeted and personalized therapies, many patients are living longer and more functionally and are able to manage their disease on the model of chronic illness. Given these developments, an attractive option is the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to deliver high biologically effective doses of radiation conformally to maximize the palliative gains of treatment. However, randomized data to guide practice are scarce. We review the extant literature and present an algorithmic approach to selecting patients with metastatic disease for palliative spinal SBRT favoring the results of available randomized studies and remaining within the safety constraints supported by evidence from randomized trials.

Historical Institutionalism

Chapter seven covers historical institutionalism (HI), a new approach to international institutions that embraces overtly temporal themes like sequence, path dependence, critical junctures, legacy effects, and the importance of “founding moments.” While historical institutionalists make great strides in setting institutions in motion, this chapter argues that they remain trapped by the problem of Time tradition and moreover that timing theory can help them escape. After summarizing the rise of HI against sociological and especially rationalist treatments, it uses HI accounts of institutions of the “liberal international order” to clarify the role and status of “history” in HI, to show how HI recapitulates and narratively confronts the problem of Time, and to argue that historical institutionalists unintentionally position themselves as horologists who explain institutional faults without challenging the rationalist baseline assumption that institutions should work like near-perfect cooperation mechanisms. This depoliticizes HI and hamstrings its efforts to develop a distinctive theory of institutions. However, timing theory can help by recasting institutions as collective timing projects and by embracing a more realistic view of international-institutional possibility. In turn, HI can push several concepts and insights of timing theory further, opening the possibility not only of a more thoroughly temporal account of institutions but an institutionalist perspective on timing.

Design-Build Studio Outcomes: Researching Potential vs Practice

Academic design-build programs offer a method of teaching that outperforms conventional architecture pedagogy. Design build learning outcomes including those focused on complexity and collaborative problem solving offer transferable lessons that young designers can take with them into the profession. This is a baseline assumption our university’s community design center has operated under for fourteen years, an assumption based on academic writings, antidote, and personal experience. With hundreds of alumni now in practice, we used a web-based survey instrument to test these assumptions and assess the outcomes of the design-build mode of education.

The Consolidated Medium-Term Income and Expenditure Framework

The medium-term income projections have been updated from the April 2015 outlook and the February review of the adequacy of precautionary balances. The main changes to the outlook stem from a more gradual rise in the SDR interest rates and lower surcharge income following the lowering of the surcharges threshold. The revised projections still show a positive forecast for net operational income (and surcharges) over the medium term, albeit lower than projected a year ago. Lending income (excluding surcharges) is marginally higher compared with earlier estimates. Surcharge income is estimated to be lower, reflecting the adjustment of the surcharges thresholds following the implementation of quota increases under the 14th General Review. Projected income from the Fixed-Income Subaccount of the Investment Account and interest-free resources are expected to increase more gradually over the medium-term as market indicators now point to a slower rise in interest rates from their current low levels. The expenditure path includes an increase in real terms of about ½ percent in the net administrative budget for FY 2017 to accommodate rising costs for physical and IT security. Moreover, reflecting further upward pressure over the medium term and uncertainty about the scope for offsetting savings, the traditional baseline assumption of a constant real spending envelope in the outer years is complemented by an alternative scenario with a further moderate spending increase of 1½ percent, phased in over FY 2018–19. In addition, a lower projected U.S. dollar/SDR exchange rate increases the expenses in SDR terms.

Economic Implications of Widespread Expansion of Frozen Section Margin Analysis to Guide Surgical Resection in Women With Breast Cancer Undergoing Breast-Conserving Surgery

Purpose: In the current health care environment, cost effectiveness is critically important in policy setting and care of patients. This study performed a health economic analysis to assess the implications to providers and payers of expanding the use of frozen section margin analysis to minimize reoperations for patients undergoing breast cancer lumpectomy. Methods: A health care economic impact model was built to assess annual costs associated with breast lumpectomy procedures with and without frozen section margin analysis to avoid reoperation. Results: If frozen section margin analysis is used in 20% of breast lumpectomies and under a baseline assumption that 35% of initial lumpectomies without frozen section analysis result in reoperations, the potential annual cost savings are $18.2 million to payers and $0.4 million to providers. Under the same baseline assumption, if 100% of all health care facilities adopted the use of frozen section margin analysis for breast lumpectomy procedures, the potential annual cost savings are $90.9 million to payers and $1.8 million to providers. On the basis of 10,000 simulations, use of intraoperative frozen section margin analysis yields cost saving for payers and is cost neutral to slightly cost saving for providers. Conclusion: This economic analysis indicates that widespread use of frozen section margin evaluation intraoperatively to guide surgical resection in breast lumpectomy cases and minimize reoperations would be beneficial to cost savings not only for the patient but also for payers and, in most cases, for providers.

New Literacies in the Intellectual Field of Education

This article studies the theoretical perspectives about new literacies that are dominant in the intellectual field of education at an international scale. The baseline assumption is that this is the primary field in which discourses are produced and then recontextualised (selectively dislocated and relocated) as curricular contents in teacher education (Bernstein, 1993). Our identification of theoretical perspectives is based on the analysis of scientific publications in education from 2007 to 2010. The study combines the exploration of more than 1500 texts, 70 of which were analysed in depth. The main objective was to graphically represent the different perspectives, showing the relationships within and between each one of them, as well as the agents who produce and legitimatise them. The identified perspectives and the constructed dimensions of analysis have been used in further stages of research in order to study national and regional curricular documents. This chapter reflects on what these perspectives can contribute to the field of Engineering and Architecture Education.

FY2016 - FY2018 Medium-Term Budget

For the net administrative budget, the FY 16–18 medium-term budget (MTB) proposal includes: In FY 16, an unchanged budget envelope in real terms, for the fourth year in a row. To accommodate new and ongoing strategic priorities of the Fund within a flat envelope, efforts to reallocate resources away from lower-priority activities and achieve efficiency gains were stepped up both at the departmental level and across the institution. Savings measures implying a reallocation of resources of close to 5 percent of the net administrative budget were identified through this process. The bulk of these savings would be used to help meet the new priorities highlighted in the Global Policy Agenda and in Management’s Key Goals, while preserving room at the departmental level to further reduce work pressures, phase in the new streamlining measures and, more generally, cope with business uncertainties and unanticipated demands. This robust prioritization effort implies difficult trade-offs and the willingness to cut lower-priority activities in order to create space for new initiatives. For FY 17–18, as a baseline assumption, a flat real budget envelope as well. Against the backdrop of a robust income position, the Fund’s medium-term budget formulation is guided primarily by considerations of prudence and credibility. The medium-term spending path will depend on new demands placed on the institution, and the scope for further reprioritization, and will be reassessed in the context of the FY 17–19 budget.

What Longevity Predictors Should Be Allowed for When Valuing Pension Scheme Liabilities?

Data held within administration records of occupational pension schemes yield a rich source of information on mortality rates and the statistical predictors (covariates) of longevity. In this paper we provide, for the first time, a multivariable analysis of post-retirement mortality using the detailed information held within occupational pension scheme records.Using the extensive dataset of over one million living pensioners and dependants and 530,000 historic deaths collected by Club Vita, we investigate the importance of factors including gender, affluence and lifestyle on the observed period life expectancy of individuals. We describe one approach to constructing a multivariable model for pensioner baseline mortality, showing how such factors explain a variation in observed period life expectancy in excess of ten years. The relative importance of each factor on mortality is analysed and we describe the interactions between these factors and age, answering questions such as whether the impact of a healthy lifestyle or affluence attenuates with age. Further, we highlight the importance of the choice of affluence measure in analysing mortality, and show that the salary at retirement is a better predictor of longevity than the pension amount for male pensioners.The results of this paper are directly relevant to any pensions actuary advising on an appropriate baseline assumption (i.e. current mortality rates) for use with occupational pension schemes.