The equivalent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by Chinese Buddhists with vegetarian diets is quantitatively evaluated. By analysing data obtained from a national study, correlation analyses are performed to obtain appropriate formulas to predict the dietary GHGE by using meat consumption as the only input. To demonstrate its reliability, the prediction from the formulas developed is first compared with the results of a food-production study using a difference approach. Then the quantitative study of equivalent GHGE reduction due to Chinese Buddhists (...) with vegetarian diets is presented. An assessment of the vegetarian population amongst Chinese Buddhists is also included in this study. The results indicate that Chinese Buddhists with vegetarian diets account for the equivalent GHGE reduction of 39.68 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, which is a sizable amount and is equal to 7.2 and 9.2% of the GHGEs from United Kingdom and France in 2012, respectively. In modern times, the vegetarian practice of Chinese Buddhism should attract more Buddhists or lay people to follow, if the additional environmental and health benefits of vegetarianism could be emphasised. The resultant impact for the equivalent reduction of GHGEs could be even larger and the human-induced global warming problem could be further alleviated. (shrink)

Hydrogen is a very important industrial gas in chemical processes. It is very volatile; therefore, it can escape from the process units and its mass balance is not always correct. In many industrial processes where hydrogen is reacted, kinetics are often related to hydrogen pressure. The right thermodynamic properties of hydrogen can be found for a process simulation and optimization; they can be estimated by the Grayson-Streed model. In the case studied, a methanol plant with a capacity of 150,000 tons/year, (...) the flow rate of hydrogen can be optimized using nonlinear programming, but good estimates of thermodynamic properties of hydrogen had to be found. In the case study, the model is in relatively good agreement with experimental measurements in the existing methanol production plant. An additional flow rate of hydrogen can increase the methanol production by 1.2%. Total potential profit increase of the additional methanol production was estimated to be 30 kEUR/a. (shrink)

As of September 2005, the co-founders of Waste Concern, an organisation dedicated to improving waste recycling in Bangladesh, are considering making a change to their model in order to get approval from the municipal government for a large-scale composting site. Since its inception in 1995, Waste Concern has followed a decentralised composting model whereby each composting site is a small-scale operation processing 3 tons of organic waste per day. In this model, they have relied on land and waste supply from (...) the Dhaka City Council municipal government. Now, they are working with Dutch-based World Wide Recycling BV to set up a 700-ton per day composting plant, which will enable them to earn tradable certificates for US$11 per ton of reduced methane gas, making it the first in the world to garner credits through composting waste under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism. To launch the composting site, they face the hurdle of getting DCC’s approval. They have three alternatives: follow through with the original plan whereby the municipality would supply both the land and waste, which entails waiting for DCC’s approval; purchase the land for the composting site and rely on the municipality for a waste supply; or, purchase the land and take on the responsibility of waste collection themselves. In their considerations, they need to weigh the financial and social aspects and determine an appropriate structure for their organisation. (shrink)

Initial assessments of the potential for geologic carbon sequestration rely on existing subsurface data, most of it collected for oil and gas exploration. We document the challenges of assessing the [Formula: see text] storage potential based on archived data, for the case of the Upper Ordovician Queenston Formation in New York. In central New York, the entirely subsurface Queenston Formation consists primarily of sandstones. In contrast, in western New York where the Queenston Formation crops out, it is composed of shale, (...) siltstone, and sandstone. A foremost interpretation challenge is to obtain porosity data from the borehole logs. Intercomparisons of various measures of porosity and of the availability of those data led to the decision to use neutron porosity data for the hematite- and clay-rich sandstone. To map porosity regionally, a second challenge is to establish the physical correlation between four regionally extensive stacked petrophysical zones in central New York, each recording base-level fall trends in fluvial sandstones, and four petrophysical zones in western New York, each characterized by base-level rise deposits of marginal marine and shallow marine deposits. Two alternative correlations can be justified with differing implications for pore volumes in a transition region. This analysis estimates that the Queenston Formation of central New York can sequester up to approximately [Formula: see text] metric tons of [Formula: see text] at depths greater than 3000 ft in sandstones with porosity exceeding 10%. The Queenston Formation is not suitable for [Formula: see text] storage in western New York. (shrink)

Cangdong is a typical oil-rich sag in the Bohai Bay Basin, China. After more than 50 years of exploration and development, the Kong2 Member still has considerable residual oil and gas resource potential. To pursue replacement areas of oil and gas exploration and development, the basic geology of the entire Kong2 Member in Cangdong Sag as a unit has been reexamined, and the findings have been used to guide the secondary exploration deployment. In this study, the characteristics of sedimentary reservoirs, (...) source rocks, and oil and gas distribution in the Kong2 Member have been systematically studied, and a sedimentary model of the ring belt-circle layer of the closed lake basin in the Kong2 Member of the Cangdong Sag, with three segments on the profile, three ring belts on the plane, and three circle layers in space has been established. The ring belt and circle layer are jointly controlled by water-body differentiation in the closed lake basin, source-material supply, depositional accommodation space, and deposition base-level cycle, and they can be in round, oval, long strip, and irregular shapes. The outer ring, located near the basin margin, mainly has delta-front subfacies conventional coarse-grained medium-thick sandstone and near-source structural and stratigraphic-lithologic reservoirs; the middle ring, the transitional zone from the basin margin to the central basin, is dominated by fine sandstone, siltstone, and lacustrine carbonates of front delta subfacies, and it mainly contains isolated lithologic reservoirs and unconventional tight oil; the inner ring is the high-quality hydrocarbon source-rock development zone in the center of the closed lake basin, featuring a high abundance of shale, where the dolomite and siltstone of distal gravity flow right next to source rock, and fine-grained diamictite of the source reservoir in one area rich in tight oil, whereas the high-abundance shale of frequent source-reservoir interbeds is rich in shale oil. The strategy of oil and gas exploration deployment is to look for structural, stratigraphic-lithologic reservoirs in the outer circle, lithologic reservoirs in the middle circle, and retained tight oil and shale oil in the inner ring. In recent years, major discoveries have been made in oil and gas exploration in the three circle layers of the Kong2 Member in the Cangdong Sag through drilling, especially in tight-oil exploration in the inner-circle layer: two sandstone sweet-spot intervals of greater than 60 m and three dolomite sweet-spot intervals of greater than 100 m have been confirmed. The maximum daily oil production of vertical wells after fracturing is up to 50 t; several hundred square kilometers of favorable exploration area has been delineated, with an estimated oil geologic resource of 100 million tons. (shrink)

Cangdong is a typical oil-rich sag in the Bohai Bay Basin, China. After more than 50 years of exploration and development, the Kong2 Member still has considerable residual oil and gas resource potential. To pursue replacement areas of oil and gas exploration and development, the basic geology of the entire Kong2 Member in Cangdong Sag as a unit has been reexamined, and the findings have been used to guide the secondary exploration deployment. In this study, the characteristics of sedimentary reservoirs, (...) source rocks, and oil and gas distribution in the Kong2 Member have been systematically studied, and a sedimentary model of the ring belt-circle layer of the closed lake basin in the Kong2 Member of the Cangdong Sag, with three segments on the profile, three ring belts on the plane, and three circle layers in space has been established. The ring belt and circle layer are jointly controlled by water-body differentiation in the closed lake basin, source-material supply, depositional accommodation space, and deposition base-level cycle, and they can be in round, oval, long strip, and irregular shapes. The outer ring, located near the basin margin, mainly has delta-front subfacies conventional coarse-grained medium-thick sandstone and near-source structural and stratigraphic-lithologic reservoirs; the middle ring, the transitional zone from the basin margin to the central basin, is dominated by fine sandstone, siltstone, and lacustrine carbonates of front delta subfacies, and it mainly contains isolated lithologic reservoirs and unconventional tight oil; the inner ring is the high-quality hydrocarbon source-rock development zone in the center of the closed lake basin, featuring a high abundance of shale, where the dolomite and siltstone of distal gravity flow right next to source rock, and fine-grained diamictite of the source reservoir in one area rich in tight oil, whereas the high-abundance shale of frequent source-reservoir interbeds is rich in shale oil. The strategy of oil and gas exploration deployment is to look for structural, stratigraphic-lithologic reservoirs in the outer circle, lithologic reservoirs in the middle circle, and retained tight oil and shale oil in the inner ring. In recent years, major discoveries have been made in oil and gas exploration in the three circle layers of the Kong2 Member in the Cangdong Sag through drilling, especially in tight-oil exploration in the inner-circle layer: two sandstone sweet-spot intervals of greater than 60 m and three dolomite sweet-spot intervals of greater than 100 m have been confirmed. The maximum daily oil production of vertical wells after fracturing is up to 50 t; several hundred square kilometers of favorable exploration area has been delineated, with an estimated oil geologic resource of 100 million tons. (shrink)

Argumentative style is assumed to be instrumental to the implementation of an arguer’s strategic plan to resolve a difference of opinion in his/her favor. One important constitutive element of argumentative style are linguistic choices. It is therefore crucial to pay close and systematic attention to linguistic choices and their argumentative functions in the analysis of argumentative style. In this paper we discuss how a linguistic-stylistic analysis can be conducted systematically by making use of methodological insights from the so-called “linguistic-stylistic approach”, (...) and how such an analysis can be integrated with a pragma-dialectical analysis of argumentative discourse. Our aim is to show how such an integration could be helpful in analysing the presentational aspect of an argumentative style, and how the outcomes of such an analysis could be linked to another aspect of argumentative style, namely the strategic considerations implemented in the argumentative discourse and more particularly the argumentative strategies involved. (shrink)

This essay examines the risks of racialized science as revealed in the American mustard gas experiments of World War II. In a climate of contested beliefs over the existence and meanings of racial differences, medical researchers examined the bodies of Japanese American, African American, and Puerto Rican soldiers for evidence of how they differed from whites.

In this article I scrutinise a crucial tension in understanding the debate over shale gas production in Europe. On the one hand, analyses predominantly grasp the debate in terms of pro-and-con dialectics, as if the pro-shale gas camp faced the anti-shale gas camp in a dyadic clash of opposing voices. On the other hand, it is commonly recognised that this debate is driven by multi-party and multi-position argumentative dynamics. In this broader context, I focus on one pivotal contribution to the (...) debate – Gazprom’s press release from October 2013 outlining Russia’s energy giant’s strategy of dealing with unconventional gas production. I employ concepts and methods of argumentative discourse analysis to contend that an arguer to a multi-party debate – argumentative polylogue – faces a number of constraints and opportunities that cannot be adequately grasped in terms of dyadic pro-and-con dialectics. The analysis reveals how Gazprom needs to simultaneously design its discourse to address a number of other parties who might also disagree among themselves: from Greenpeace to European Union governments to shale gas companies. I show why and how a stakeholder analysis used in organisational communication might lead to a better understanding of this form of multi-party public argumentation. (shrink)

In this paper two models for movement of respiratory gases in the insect trachea are presented. One model considers the tracheal system as a single flexible compartment while the other model considers the trachea as a single flexible compartment with gas exchange. This work represents an extension of Ben-Tal’s work on compartmental gas exchange in human lungs and is applied to the insect tracheal system. The purpose of the work is to study nonlinear phenomena seen in the insect respiratory system. (...) It is assumed that the flow inside the trachea is laminar, and that the air inside the chamber behaves as an ideal gas. Further, with the isothermal assumption, the expressions for the tracheal partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide, rate of volume change, and the rates of change of oxygen concentration and carbon dioxide concentration are derived. The effects of some flow parameters such as diffusion capacities, reaction rates and air concentrations on net flow are studied. Numerical simulations of the tracheal flow characteristics are performed. The models developed provide a mathematical framework to further investigate gas exchange in insects. (shrink)

In the Abu Madi Formation of the Nile Delta Basin, false bright spots may be misinterpreted as being indicative of hydrocarbons due to mixed clastics and carbonates. However, rock-physics analysis of well logs in a particular prospect area where such ambiguity exists suggests that attributes derived using extended elastic impedance inversion may help identify hydrocarbons because they better show anomalous behavior in particular directions that are readily related to pore fluids and lithology. The EEI attributes calculated from well logs correlate (...) extremely well to lithology and fluid properties, thereby differentiating amplitude anomalies caused by gas-bearing sandstones encased in shale from similar amplitudes caused by juxtaposition of high-impedance carbonates over lower impedance water-filled sandstones. Comparing seismically derived EEI attributes to well logs from a productive well and a nonproductive well indicates that seismic inversion can successfully identify lithologies such as shales, sandstones, carbonates, and anhydrite and distinguish gas-bearing from water-bearing sandstones. The technique can thus potentially be used to better delineate and risk prospects in the area, as well as assisting exploration efforts in other locations where similar ambiguities in amplitude interpretation exist. (shrink)

This is an expansion of the author's 1991 work which investigates the implications of Gödel's writings on Einstein's theory of relativity as they relate to the fundamental questions of the nature of time and the possibilities for time travel.

Contribution on Peri ton areskonton philosophois physikon dogmaton (Placita philosophorum), 2nd c. CE, based on a work by Aetius, falsely attributed to Plutarch.

The thesis of this paper is that individual emitters, in contrast to governments, may be justified in employing excusable ignorance as an excuse after 1990 and even well into the future. Although it may at first seem counterintuitive, this is not only true of individuals with extremely limited access to information but potentially also of highly educated individuals with almost boundless access to data, reports, and analyses. I develop the argument based on an influential account of excusable ignorance and discuss (...) and reject an objection from expert testimony. (shrink)

What are the common denominators for success when we consider increasing gas efficiency and enhancing creativity in organizations? As an analogy, the principles of increasing gas efficiency are applicable to enhancing creativity in organizations: Plan activities in advance, allocate sufficient time, resources, and set a SMART goal with clear priority and focus. Identify talent in ourselves and others and do not fall into the temptation of following others. Big ideas take time. Maintain momentum, avoid interruptions, incorporate new technologies, information, and (...) feedback, and modify action to achieve goals. We have 100% control of our thoughts and action. Stop idling, take action, and do it now. If everyone contributes just a little, the cumulative effect over time can be huge. If we have the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) for doing the right things that will benefit humanity and the whole world, but fail to do them, is this ethical? We, the managers, need to focus on what we have done and what we have failed to do, change our thinking, change our behavior, and accomplish our goals. (shrink)

We have estimated the seismic attenuation in gas hydrate and free-gas-bearing sediments from high-resolution P-cable 3D seismic data from the Vestnesa Ridge on the Arctic continental margin of Svalbard. P-cable data have a broad bandwidth, which is extremely advantageous in estimating seismic attenuation in a medium. The seismic quality factor, the inverse of seismic attenuation, is estimated from the seismic data set using the centroid frequency shift and spectral ratio methods. The centroid frequency shift method establishes a relationship between the (...) change in the centroid frequency of an amplitude spectrum and the Q value of a medium. The SR method estimates the Q value of a medium by studying the differential decay of different frequencies. The broad bandwidth and short offset characteristics of the P-cable data set are useful to continuously map the Q for different layers throughout the 3D seismic volume. The centroid frequency shift method is found to be relatively more stable than the SR method. Q values estimated using these two methods are in concordance with each other. The Q data document attenuation anomalies in the layers in the gas hydrate stability zone above the bottom-simulating reflection and in the free gas zone below. Changes in the attenuation anomalies correlate with small-scale fault systems in the Vestnesa Ridge suggesting a strong structural control on the distribution of free gas and gas hydrates in the region. We argued that high and spatially limited Q anomalies in the layer above the BSR indicate the presence of gas hydrates in marine sediments in this setting. Hence, our workflow to analyze Q using high-resolution P-cable 3D seismic data with a large bandwidth could be a potential technique to detect and directly map the distribution of gas hydrates in marine sediments. (shrink)

Represents the first volume to consider the modern role of holism as a central anthropological concern across a wide range of anthropological traditions ...

For further development of organic agriculture, it will become increasingly essential to integrate experienced innovative practitioners in research projects. The characteristics of this process of co-learning have been transformed into a research approach, theoretically conceptualized as “experiential science” (Baars 2007 , Baars and Baars 2007 ). The approach integrates social sciences, natural sciences, and human sciences. It is derived from action research and belongs to the wider field of transdiscliplinary research. In a dialogue-based culture of equality and mutual exchange the (...) principal of a “bottom-up” experiential learning process can be stimulated and fully reflective. It provides an opportunity to develop organic agriculture as multiple best-practices based on transdisciplinary projects, cases studies, and case series. The aim of the article is to describe the methodological characteristics and the theoretical and practical potential of experiential science for research in and development of organic farming. Three characteristic projects are outlined to illustrate the main elements of the methodology: the retrospective reflection on intuitive and experiential knowledge held by farmers; the knowledge derived from on-farm experimentation; the exchange of knowledge and experiences between farming pioneers within a “masterclass” setting. The study concludes that experiential science offers an important philosophical reconciliation process whereby a synthesis of different approaches to research becomes possible in solving real-life problems: quantitative and qualitative, subjective and objective, reductionistic and holistic, practice and science. Recognizing that there are multiple elements contributing to the process of acquiring knowledge, experiential science draws on a broad field of scientific methods thereby integrating the hermeneutic approach of social sciences and the Humanities with the established methods of contemporary natural science. (shrink)

Pore- and fracture-filling gas hydrates were identified from the core samples at several sites during the second Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey expedition. Well logs indicated that gas hydrate occurred in three distinct layers at site GMGS2-08. The gas hydrate saturations calculated from well-log data and the seismic responses for the three gas hydrate-bearing layers, especially within the middle carbonate layer, were poorly known. We estimated gas hydrate saturations using isotropic and anisotropic models based on the mineral composition of the sediments (...) and the effective medium theory. In the upper and lower gas hydrate-bearing layers, saturations estimated from anisotropic models are close to those estimated from pressures cores and chlorinity data. The average saturation using an anisotropic model in the upper hydrate layer is approximately 10% with a maximum value of 25%. In the lower layer, the horizontal and vertical gas hydrate-filled fractures and visible gas hydrate were formed with a maximum saturation of approximately 85%. For the middle layer, well logs show high P-wave velocity, density, high resistivity as well as low gamma ray, porosity, and drilling rate, together indicating a carbonate layer containing gas hydrate. The hydrate saturations calculated from isotropic models assuming hydrate formed at grain contacts are less than 20%, which fit well with two values calculated from chlorinity data for this layer. The upper gas hydrate layer shows no clear seismic response and probably consisted of small fractures filled with gas hydrate. The middle carbonate and lower fracture-filled gas hydrate-bearing layers show pull-up reflections, with the carbonate layer exhibiting relatively higher amplitudes. Pore-filling gas hydrate was also identified just above the depth of the bottom-simulating-reflector from the GMGS2-05 drill site. Below the BSR, the push-down reflections, polarity reversal, and enhanced reflections indicate the occurrence of free gas in the study area. (shrink)

We model a piece of text of human language telling a story by means of the quantum structure describing a Bose gas in a state close to a Bose–Einstein condensate near absolute zero temperature. For this we introduce energy levels for the words used in the story and we also introduce the new notion of ‘cogniton’ as the quantum of human thought. Words are then cognitons in different energy states as it is the case for photons in different energy states, (...) or states of different radiative frequency, when the considered boson gas is that of the quanta of the electromagnetic field. We show that Bose–Einstein statistics delivers a very good model for these pieces of texts telling stories, both for short stories and for long stories of the size of novels. We analyze an unexpected connection with Zipf’s law in human language, the Zipf ranking relating to the energy levels of the words, and the Bose–Einstein graph coinciding with the Zipf graph. We investigate the issue of ‘identity and indistinguishability’ from this new perspective and conjecture that the way one can easily understand how two of ‘the same concepts’ are ‘absolutely identical and indistinguishable’ in human language is also the way in which quantum particles are absolutely identical and indistinguishable in physical reality, providing in this way new evidence for our conceptuality interpretation of quantum theory. (shrink)

The conducive economy challenges both the conceptual foundations and the practices of present-day economies. In the Netherlands, a few initiatives during the 1980s and early 1990s looked promising, in particular, as these initiatives focused on work quality as one major precondition for reducing disability and enhancing labor participation. Prospects are less bright today. Ever larger slices of governmental monetary, financial, economic, and social policies become market oriented, as distinct from conducivity oriented. The instrument of the covenant, nonetheless, may prove worthwhile (...) in further promoting the banner of work quality. (shrink)

As global warming continues to attract growing levels of attention, various stakeholders have put climate change on corporate agendas and expect firms to disclose relevant greenhouse gas information. In this paper, we investigate the consistency of the GHG information voluntarily disclosed by French listed firms through two different communication channels: corporate reports and the Carbon Disclosure Project. More precisely, we contrast the amounts of GHG emissions reported and the methodological explanations provided in each channel. Consistent with a stakeholder theory perspective, (...) we find that GHG amounts are significantly lower in the CR than in the CDP. We also find that firms increase the CR figures’ traceability when there is a discrepancy between disclosures in the two channels. We suggest that the aim of this greater traceability is to enhance information credibility across the different channels used. (shrink)