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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Fracking 'linked to Oklahoma quake'
27 March 2013
Last updated at 07:45 ET
Scientists say wastewater injection from hydraulic fracturing was linked to a magnitude-5.7 earthquake that struck the US state of Oklahoma in 2011.
Fracking, as it is known, injects water and chemicals into petroleum wells in a bid to extract trapped natural gas.
Opponents of the practice say that it risks causing seismic events and contaminating groundwater.
The study in Geology shows that "induced seismicity" can occur years after wastewater injection begins.
Most seismic events linked to fracking have been markedly of smaller magnitudes, and have tended to occur in the first weeks or months of injection.
By contrast, fracking wastewater was first injected into Oklahoma's Wilzetta oilfields, near the town of Prague, some 18 years prior to the November 2011 series of quakes that included three of magnitude 5 or greater.
The new study adds to an increasing body of evidence that the injection of wastewater from fracking - rather than the wellhead injection that extracts gas or oil - is correlated to an increase in seismic events.
A comprehensive review in 2012 by the US' National Academy of Sciences found that "the process of hydraulic fracturing a well as presently implemented for shale gas recovery does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events", but that "injection for disposal of waste water derived from energy technologies into the subsurface does pose some risk for induced seismicity".
However, the report said the number of such documented events over several decades was small compared to the overall number of operations carried out.
In April 2012, a study by scientists at the US Geological Survey of the interior of the US found that events of magnitude 3 or greater had "abruptly increased in 2009" from 1.2 per year in the previous 50 years to more than 25 per year - although a number of gas and oil extraction methods may be implicated in the rise.
'Unexpectedly large'But the authors of the new study focus on the significantly larger and delayed events in Prague, which they wrote "necessitate reconsideration of the maximum possible size of injection-induced earthquakes, and of the time scale considered diagnostic of induced seismicity".
Study co-author Geoffrey Abers of Columbia University said that "there's something important about getting unexpectedly large earthquakes out of small systems that we have discovered here, " adding that "the risk of humans inducing large earthquakes from even small injection activities is probably higher" than had been believed.
But seismologist Austin Holland of the Oklahoma Geological Survey said while the study showed a potential link between the earthquake and fracking, "it is still the opinion of those at the Oklahoma Geological Survey that these earthquakes could be naturally occurring".
"There remain many open questions, and more scientific investigations are underway on this sequence of earthquakes and many others within the state of Oklahoma," he said.
The topic remains hotly debated in the scientific literature, and between lobbyists and policy-makers, particularly in the UK.
Links between fracking in Blackpool and tremors in the region led to a government ban on the practice, which was lifted at the end of December 2012.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21952428#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Djokovic upset by 34-year-old Haas at Sony Open
Tommy Haas, left, of Germany, hugs Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, after Haas' 6-2, 6-4 win at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Tommy Haas, left, of Germany, hugs Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, after Haas' 6-2, 6-4 win at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Tommy Haas, of Germany, returns the ball to Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. Haas defeated Djokovic 6-2, 6-4. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Tommy Haas, of Germany, celebrates after he defeated Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, 6-2, 6-4 at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, returns the ball to Tommy Haas, of Germany, at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, returns to Sam Querrey during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. Berdych won 6-1, 6-1. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) ? Moments before the match, Tommy Haas sat in his changeover chair jiggling his legs, eager to face the world's No. 1-ranked player and old enough to know such chances don't often come along.
Haas took advantage Tuesday night, beating three-time champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round of the Sony Open, 6-2, 6-4. The upset snapped Djokovic's 14-match winning streak at Key Biscayne, where he won the tournament the past two years.
Eight days shy of his 35th birthday, Haas became the oldest man in 30 years to beat a No. 1 player.
"Playing against someone like Novak and coming out on top at this time of my career, it's unbelievable," Haas said. "This is what I play for."
Haas improved to 2-14 versus No. 1 players. His only other win came against Andre Agassi in 1999.
The top-ranked Djokovic has lost two of his past four matches after winning 22 in a row, including the Australian Open for his sixth Grand Slam title.
"All the credit to Tommy," Djokovic said. "He played a great match and he was the better player, no question about it."
The oldest player in the top 50, Haas is making his 13th appearance at Key Biscayne and advanced to the tournament's quarterfinals for the first time. His opponent Wednesday night will be No. 11 Gilles Simon, who rallied past No. 7 Janko Tipsarevic, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
With Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer skipping the tournament, Djokovic's defeat clears a path for Andy Murray, the 2009 champion and 2012 runner-up.
He beat No. 16 Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-4 and was to play Wednesday against No. 9 Marin Cilic, who defeated No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6 (4).
No. 3 David Ferrer will play unseeded Jurgen Melzer on Wednesday. No. 4 Tomas Berdych will face No. 8 Richard Gasquet on Thursday.
Sam Querrey lasted only 50 minutes in the fourth round and lost to Berdych, 6-1, 6-1. Querrey was playing his first tournament as the No. 1 American on the ATP Tour, and his elimination means that for the first time, the 28-year-old tournament will have no U.S. men in the quarterfinals.
The shutout is the latest sign of declining fortunes for American tennis.
"I guess you could say it's been somewhat of the norm the last couple of years," Querrey said. "It's not like we had guys in the quarters week in, week out."
American results on the women's side have been better lately, thanks mostly to No. 1-ranked Serena Williams. The five-time Key Biscayne champion advanced to Thursday's semifinals and tied the women's record for career victories in the tournament by beating No. 5-seeded Li Na 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Williams' opponent in the semifinals Thursday will be defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska, who hit a desperation shot behind her back for a winner en route to a win over No. 30 Kirsten Flipkens, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
With temperatures in the 50s for the final match of the night, Djokovic appeared out of sorts from the start. During his second service game he became annoyed at fans shouting as he was about to serve.
"It's definitely the worst match I have played in a long time," Djokovic said. "I just didn't feel good on the court. Conditions were really much, much different from what I have played in previous matches. Balls didn't bounce at all."
For the final few games, Haas wore a lavender shirt, a red sweatband, black shoes with lime trim and a blue cap. In other words, he won ugly.
"Yeah, I'm pretty pathetic I think when it comes to color matching," he said. "Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror before I go out and I'm like, 'Geez, what was I thinking?' I guess if I maybe had a clothing contract it would be different."
Haas, who is ranked 18th, has been as high as No. 2 ? way back in 2002. He tumbled to No. 373 at the beginning of 2011 after requiring hip and elbow surgery.
The German closed out the victory with a forehand winner, then shared a warm exchange at the net with a gracious Djokovic, who gave the crowd a wave as he left the court.
"I was fighting," Djokovic said. "I was trying, all the way up to the last ball. There are days where you just don't feel good on the court. Nothing really goes your way. This is one of those days. But all the credit to him for making me play this bad."
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Keepin' it real fake: the Star S5 Butterfly clones its HTC namesake, skips the good part
If you're going to engage in KIRF-ology, you could certainly do worse than HTC's lovely 5-inch slab of unibody plastic, the Butterfly. But if you want to sell it for $222.00, certain niceties have to go out the window -- like the signature 1080p screen, for instance. Star's slipped a 720p unit in there instead, while also downgrading the RAM to 1GB and swapping out Qualcomm's 1.5GHz quad-core CPU for a cheaper MediaTek model. The Chinese cloner's at least kept the other specs real, matching the kosher model's 8-megapixel rear and 3-megapixel front cameras, dual-sim option, SD card expansion slot and Android 4.2 software. Of course, nothing keeps costs down like not having to pay a designer -- and knowing that most of that pesky marketing's already been done for you.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: GizChina.com
Source: UreDeal
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/htc-kirf-star-s5-butterfly/
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Video: Did Te'o?up draft stock?
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/51340037#51340037
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Test Your Model-Making Skills With This Plywood Lowrider
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Major advance in understanding risky but effective multiple sclerosis treatment
Mar. 26, 2013 ? A new study by multiple sclerosis researchers at three? Canadian centres addresses why bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has positive results in patients with particularly aggressive forms of MS. The transplantation treatment, which is performed as part of a clinical trial and carries potentially serious risks, virtually stops all new relapsing activity as observed upon clinical examination and brain MRI scans. The study reveals how the immune system changes as a result of the transplantation. Specifically, a sub-set of T cells in the immune system known as Th17 cells, have a substantially diminished function following the treatment.
The finding to be published in the upcoming issue of Annals of Neurology and currently in the early online version, provides important insight into how and why BMT treatment works as well as how relapses may develop in MS.
"Our study examined why patients essentially stop having relapses and new brain lesions after the bone marrow transplant treatment, which involves ablative chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplantation using the patient's own cells," said Prof. Amit Bar-Or, the principle investigator of the study, who is a neurologist and MS researcher at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, McGill University, and Director of The Neuro's Experimental Therapeutics Program. "We discovered differences between the immune responses of these patients before and after treatment, which point to a particular type of immune response as the potential perpetrator of relapses in MS."
"Although the immune system that re-emerges in these patients from their stem cells is generally intact, we identified a selectively diminished capacity of their Th17 immune responses following therapy -- which could explain the lack of new MS disease activity. In untreated patients, these Th17 cells may be particularly important in breaching the blood-brain-barrier, which normally protects the central nervous system. This interaction of Th17 cells with the blood-brain barrier can facilitate subsequent invasion of other immune cells such as Th1 cells, which are thought to also contribute to brain cell injury.
Twenty-four patients participated in the overall clinical trial as part of the 'Canadian MS BMT' clinical trial, coordinated by Drs. Mark Freedman and Harry Atkins at the Ottawa General Hospital. The new discovery, made in a subset of patients participating in the clinical trial, was based on immunological studies carried out jointly in laboratories at The Neuro and the Universit? de Montr?al. Results of this study not only show the clinical benefits of BMT treatment, but also open a unique window into the immunological mechanisms underlying relapses in MS. Th17 cells could be the immune cells associated with the initiation of new relapsing disease activity in this group of patients with aggressive MS. This finding deepens our understanding of MS and could guide the development of personalized medicine with a more favourable risk/benefit profile.
Among the patients treated in the Canadian MS BMT clinical trial, was Dr. Alexander Normandin, a family doctor, who was a third- year McGill medical student getting ready for his surgery exams when he first learned he had MS, "I was so engrossed in my studies that I didn't pay attention to the first sign but within a few days of waking up with a numb temple, my face felt frozen. I learned that I had a very aggressive form of MS and would probably be in a wheelchair within a year. It was a brutal blow. I became patient #19 -- of only 24 for this experimental treatment. My immune system was knocked out and then rebooted with my stem cells. Today, my MS has stabilized. I now have this disease under control and I take it one day at a time."
Both the clinical and biological studies were supported by the Research Foundation of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Multiple Sclerosis
MS is a disorder of the brain and spinal cord that causes fatigue, disequilibrium, sensory problems and muscle paralysis. The cause of MS is unknown, but evidence suggests that it is an auto-immune disease that destroys myelin, a substance coating axons, the thin strands that carry signals between brain cells.It usually strikes between the ages of 15 and 40 but can begin as early as age two. Women have twice the probability of developing MS than men. Canada has one of the world's highest national rates -- about 1,100 new cases each year. Some 50,000 Canadians have MS. More than 1 in 5 lives in Quebec. The most common form of MS is relapsing-remitting, in which acute symptoms alternate with periods of remission. Primary progressive MS, the least common form, develops continually without remission. Secondary progressive MS begins as relapsing-remitting, then becomes steadily progressive.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McGill University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Peter J. Darlington, Tarik Touil, Jean-Sebastien Doucet, Denis Gaucher, Joumana Zeidan, Dominique Gauchat, Rachel Corsini, Ho Jin Kim, Martin Duddy, Farzaneh Jalili, Nathalie Arbour, Hania Kebir, Jacqueline Chen, Douglas L. Arnold, Marjorie Bowman, Jack Antel, Alexandre Prat, Mark S. Freedman, Harold Atkins, Rafick Sekaly, Remi Cheynier, Amit Bar-Or. Diminished Th17 (not Th1) responses underlie multiple sclerosis disease abrogation after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Annals of Neurology, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/ana.23784
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/DBm41Qt64fk/130326121738.htm
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