Isolation,biodegradation ability and molecular detection of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in petroleum samples from a Brazilian offshore basin

The detection of microorganisms with potential for biodeterioration and biodegradation in petroleum fields is of great relevance, since these organisms may be related to a decrease in petroleum quality in the reservoirs or damage in the production facilities. In this sense, petroleum formation water and oil samples were collected from the Campos Basin, Brazil, with the aim of isolating microorganisms and evaluating their ability to degrade distinct classes of hydrocarbon biomarkers (9,10-dihydrophenanthrene, phytane, nonadecanoic acid and 5α-cholestane). Twenty eight bacterial isolates were recovered and identified by sequencing their 16S rRNA genes. Biodegradation assays revealed that bacterial metabolism of hydrocarbons occurred through reactions based on oxidation, carbon–carbon bond cleavage and generation of new bonds or by the physical incorporation of hydrocarbons into microbial cell walls. Based on the biodegradation results, selective PCR-based systems were developed for direct detection in petroleum samples of bacterial groups of interest, namely Bacillus spp., Micrococcus spp., Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Dietzia spp. and Bacillus pumilus. Primer sets targeting 16S rRNA genes were designed and their specificity was confirmed in silico (i.e. computational analysis) and in PCR reactions using DNA from reference strains as positive and negative controls. Total DNA from oil was purified and the amplification tests revealed the presence of the target bacteria in the samples, unraveling a significant potential for petroleum deterioration in the reservoirs sampled, once proper conditions are present for hydrocarbon degradation. The application of molecular methods for rapid detection of specific microorganisms in environmental samples would be valuable as a supporting tool for the evaluation of oil quality in production reservoirs.     

Some Morphological Aspects and Hydrological Characterization of the Tagus Floods in the Santarém Region, Portugal

In Portugal, few studies have been made of the historical floods of the RiverTagus (the longest in the Iberian Peninsula). This fact led to the study of theLower Tagus (Santarém region) using written historical documents,cartographic documents and hydrological data, consisting mainly of waterlevel records. With the support of the historical documents and the analysisof all the maps, it was possible to verify that the human intervention has beenfundamental in the morphological changes of the Tagus' channel. It becameaware that the river changed from a braided to a single channel with alternatebars. From the hydrological data, return periods for the floods were determined,using the Pearson Type 3 distribution. The selection of the most important floods,from 1855 to 1998, enabled to build a ``flood hazard scale' for this region.     

Performance of masonry enclosure walls: lessons learned from recent earthquakes

This paper discusses the issue of performance requirements and construction criteria for masonry enclosure and infill walls.Vertical building enclosures in European countries are very often constituted by non-load-bearing masonry walls, using horizontally perforated clay bricks.These walls are generally supported and confined by a reinforced concrete frame structure of columns and beams/slabs.Since these walls are commonly considered to be nonstructural elements and their influence on the structural response is ignored,their consideration in the design of structures as well as their connection to the adjacent structural elements is frequently negligent or insufficiently detailed.As a consequence,nonstructural elements,as for wall enclosures,are relatively sensitive to drift and acceleration demands when buildings are subjected to seismic actions. Many international standards and technical documents stress the need for design acceptability criteria for nonstructural elements,however they do not specifically indicate how to prevent collapse and severe cracking,and how to enhance the overall stability in the case of moderate to high seismic loading.Furthermore,a review of appropriate measures to improve enclosure wall performance and both in-plane and out-of-plane integrity under seismic actions is addressed.     

Variations in stratigraphic and reservoir properties adjacent to the Mid-Paleocene sequence boundary, Campo section, Pyrenees, Spain

The Paleocene of the Campo section, Spain has different sedimentological characteristics above and below the Mid-Paleocene Unconformity. Beneath the unconformity sediments are dominated by evaporitic carbonates and collapse breccias. Above it they are characterized by continental detrital beds alternating with paleosols. Different subaerial features are observed and correspond to different porosity values, pore–throat sizes and micrite morphologies. Unexposed or intertidal facies have low porosity, low throat–pore size (mesoporosity) and well preserved rhombic crystals. Intermediate exposed facies (paleosols) possess medium porosity, medium pore–throat size (microporosity) and mainly micro-rhombic crystals. Finally, the facies corresponding to high exposure intensity and to evaporitic original facies presents high porosity, permeability, large pore–throat size and rounded micritic crystals. These observations show that the emersion phase caused important dissolution, especially when associated with an easily dissolved original lithofacies.     

Timing of Proterozoic magmatism in the Sunsas belt,Bolivian Precambrian Shield,SW Amazonian Craton

We present new U-Pb zircon and monazite ages from the Sunsas belt granitic magmatism in Bolivia,SW Amazonian Craton.The geochronological results revealed four major magmatic events recorded along the Sunsas belt domains.The older igneous event formed a granitic basement coeval to the Rio Apa Terrane(1.95-1.85 Ga)in the southern domain.The second magmatic episode is represented by 1.68 Ga granites associated to the Paraguá Terrane(1.69-1.66 Ga)in the northern domain.The 1.37-1.34 Ga granites related to San Ignacio orogeny represent the third and more pervasive magmatic event,recorded throughout the Sunsas belt.Moreover,magmatic ages of～1.42 Ga revealed that the granitogenesis asso-ciated to the Santa Helena orogeny also affected the Sunsas belt,indicating that it was not restricted to the Jauru Terrane.Lastly,the 1.10-1.04 Ga youngest magmatism was developed during the Sunsas oro-geny and represents the final magmatic evolution related to Rodinia assembly.Likewise,the 1.95-1.85 and 1.68 Ga inherited zircon cores obtained in the～1.3 Ga and 1.0 Ga granite samples suggest strong par-tial melting of the Paleoproterozoic sources.The 1079±14 Ma and 1018±6 Ma monazite crystallization ages can be correlated to the collisional tectono-thermal event of the Sunsas orogeny,associated to reac-tions of medium-to high-grade metamorphism.Thus,the Sunsas belt was built by heterogeneous 1.95-1.85 Ga and 1.68 Ga crustal fragments that were reworked at 1.37-1.34 Ga and 1.10-1.04 Ga related to orogenic collages.Furthermore,the 1.01 Ga monazite age suggests that granites previously dated by zir-con can bear evidence of a younger thermal history.Therefore,the geochronological evolution of the Sunsas belt may have been more complex than previously thought.     

The impact of dust on the scaling properties of galaxy clusters

We investigate the effect of dust on the scaling properties of galaxy clusters based on hydrodynamic N -body simulations of structure formation. We have simulated five dust models plus radiative cooling and adiabatic models using the same initial conditions for all runs. The numerical implementation of dust was based on the analytical computations of Montier & Giard. We set up dust simulations to cover different combinations of dust parameters that make evident the effects of size and abundance of dust grains. Comparing our radiative plus dust cooling runs with a purely radiative cooling simulation, we find that dust has an impact on cluster scaling relations. It mainly affects the normalization of the scalings (and their evolution), whereas it introduces no significant differences in their slopes. The strength of the effect critically depends on the dust abundance and grain size parameters as well as on the cluster scaling. Indeed, cooling due to dust is effective in the cluster regime and has a stronger effect on the 'baryon driven' statistical properties of clusters such as   L _X– M , Y – M , S – M   scaling relations. Major differences, relative to the radiative cooling model, are as high as 25 per cent for the   L _X– M   normalization, and about 10 per cent for the Y – M and S – M normalizations at redshift zero. On the other hand, we find that dust has almost no impact on the 'dark matter driven'   T _mw– M   scaling relation. The effects are found to be dependent in equal parts on both dust abundances and grain size distributions for the scalings investigated in this paper. Higher dust abundances and smaller grain sizes cause larger departures from the radiative cooling (i.e. with no dust) model.     

黄骅裂谷盆地第三系水循环和渗流场形成演化的重溯

在简述盆地地质环境和含水系统、水文地质期与水压系统类型定位的基础上，通过建立数学模型，采用反演、比拟和地静压力等方法，模拟计算了各研究层在各研究时期泥岩压出水水头值（m),Es^2层的依次为2－28，2－26，2－6，2－16，0．5－3．5；Es^1层的依次为2－42，2－26，2－6，10－54，1－14；Ed层的依次为2－22，2－54，2－12；Ng层的依次为10－24，1－5；Nm层的为12－24。各研究层在各研究时期的压挤式水交替强度均小于1，累加值Es^2,Es^1,Ed层的均大于1，Ng，Nm层的小于1；Ed层渗入水交替强度为0.44。各研究层在各研究时期渗流场的高水压带位置和流动态具有相似性，并均以离心型流动型为主要特征。     

Effects of the number of stations and time resolution on derivation

For at least 30 years now it has been well known that the Dst index can be modelled using the solar wind as input. Since then, many attempts have been made to improve the predictability of Dst using different approaches. These attempts are useful, for instance, to understand which features of the solar wind–magnetosphere interactions are most important in producing magnetospheric activity and how the Dst index would improve the space weather forecast. The Dst index is by far the most reliable and simple indication that a magnetic storm is in progress. In this work, the effect of using more than four magnetic stations and shorter time intervals than the hourly averages used in Sugiura's procedures is evaluated. The discussion is based on the results presented by Burton in 1975 and Feldstein in 1984 considering 4 or 12 magnetic stations and time averages of 2.5 min for a magnetic disturbed period that occurred from February 7–28, 1967, including two geomagnetic storms. The analysis has shown that the global representation of a magnetic storm by the standard Dst (Sugiura) is well preserved either using 4, 6, 12 magnetic stations or using 1 h, 2.5 min 1 min averages. A brief review of the current understanding of Dst has been included to support the discussions. The analysis performed has shown that a more refined Dst index (time and number of stations>4) would be useful to investigate the intrinsic processes and the different current systems involved in the ring current development during magnetic storms; the standard Dst, as it is conceived, is quite adequate to monitor geomagnetic storms and identify their overall features; concerning the magnetic stations normally considered, the inclusion of higher magnetic latitude stations (>35) may underestimate the observed Dst.     

Groundwater behaviour in Madeira, volcanic island (Portugal)

Madeira Island is a hot-spot originating from a mantle plume. K-Ar age determinations indicate that the emerged part of the island was generated during Post-Miocene times 6000–7000 years B.P. Groundwater occurs in perched-water bodies, spring discharge from them is high, about 3,650 l/s; in dike-impounded water and basal groundwater. Basal groundwater is exploited by tunnels (1,100 l/s) and wells (1,100 l/s). Hydraulic gradients range from 10^–4 to 10^–2 and transmissivity ranges from 1.16×10^–2 to 2.89×10^–1 m²/s, indicating the heterogeneity of the volcanic aquifers. Water mineralisation is variable, and electrical conductivity ranges from 50 to 3,300 S/cm. There is a difference between groundwater discharging from perched-water bodies (43–201 S/cm) and from basal groundwater (109–3,300 S/cm). Groundwater average pH is 7.37, with waters acid to slightly alkaline (6.13–8.4), and generally cold. Nevertheless, a few samples associated with fault zones can be classified as thermal waters.

---

Resumen La Isla de Madeira tuvo origen en un punto caliente proveniente de una pluma del manto. Las dataciones K – Ar, indican que la parte emergida de la isla se formó durante en Post—Mioceno, hace unos 6000–7000 años. El agua subterránea se encuentra en acuíferos colgados, cuya descarga a través de manantiales es alta, alrededor de 3650 l/s; también como agua retenida en diques o bien como agua subterránea propiamente dicha. Esta última es explotada por túneles (1100 l/s) y pozos (1100 l/s). Los gradientes hidráulicos varían desde 10–4 hasta 10–2 y la transmisividad varía desde 1.16×10^–2 hasta 2.89×10^–1 m²/s, indicando la heterogeneidad de los acuíferos volcánicos. La mineralización de agua es variable y la conductividad eléctrica varía desde 50 mS/cm hasta 3300 mS/cm. Hay una diferencia entre el agua subterránea proveniente de acuíferos colgados (43–201 mS/cm) y aquella del acuífero principal (109–3300 mS/cm). El pH promedio para el agua subterránea es 7.37; con variación desde ácida hasta ligeramente alcalina (6.13–8.4), y es generalmente fría. Sin embargo unos pocos ejemplos asociados con zonas de falla, pueden ser clasificados como agua termal.

---

Résumé Lîle de Madeira est un point chaud, provenant dun panache mantélique. Les datations par la méthode de K-Ar indiquent que la part émergée de lîle a été générée pendant le Post Miocène, il y a 6000–7000 ans. Les eaux souterraines sont cantonnées dans des aquifères perchées qui se déchargent par des sources à grands débits, avec des valeurs dapproximativement de 3500 l/s, ainsi que dans les dikes. Une importante quantité des eaux souterraine se trouve sur la forme deau de fonds, formant une nappe basale, qui est exploitée par des tunnels (1100 l/s) et par des puits (1100 l/s). Les gradients hydrauliques ont des valeurs dans lintervalle de 10^–2 à 10^–4, tandis que les transmissivités se rangent entre 1.16×10^–2 m²/s et 2.81×10^–1 m²/s, ce quindique la hétérogénéité de laquifère volcanique. La minéralisation des eaux est aussi variable avec des conductivités électriques qui se rangent ente 50 mS/cm et 3300 mS/cm. Il y a une différence entre la conductivité des eaux provenant des aquifères perchées (30–201 mS/cm) par rapport à la conductivité les eaux de la nappe basale (109–3300 mS/cm). Le pH moyen est de 7.37 avec des valeurs de 6.13 pour les eaux acides et de 8.4 pour les eaux à faible alcalinité. En général il sagit des eaux froides, mais quelques échantillons provenant des zones faillées peuvent être classifiés comme des eaux thermales.

     

应用EUROSEM模型对三峡库区陡坡地水力侵蚀的模拟研究

三峡库区坡地资源被广泛利用,但水土保持措施没有被很好地利用。坡地,尤其是陡坡地是库区主要泥沙来源,因此,有效评估土壤侵蚀风险、预测径流和侵蚀速率以及选择合理的水土保持措施在该地区显得非常必要。EUROSEM模型是动态分布式模型,可以在单独地块或小流域中预测水力侵蚀强度,其特点比较适合库区土壤侵蚀预测预报。本研究以在三峡库区秭归县王家桥小流域水土保持试验站的标准径流小区的人工降雨资料为基础,应用EUROSEM模型模拟陡坡地中的侵蚀状况。模拟结果表明,EUROSEM对人工降雨中径流模拟效果较好,但对土壤流失的模拟效果相对较差,更精确地模拟库区陡坡地的土壤侵蚀状况则需要作进一步的研究