Cytokines are pleiotropic and redundant signaling molecules that govern the inflammatory response and immunity, a critical ecological parameter for organism success and population growth. Produced at the site of injury or pathogen intrusion by a variety of cell types, cytokines mediate cell-signaling in either an autocrine or paracrine manner. The type and magnitude of the cytokine milieu produced subsequently dictates the strength and form of immune response. As the most diverse vertebrate group, with a high sensitivity to contaminants, fish represent an important foci for the evaluation of immune system evolution, function, and alteration upon toxicant exposure. While many cytokines have been identified in teleosts, primary study has been limited to model species (e.g. zebrafish and fugu). However, evidence exists for several variations of cytokine genes within taxa, underscoring the need for species-specific evaluation. In this study, two pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNFα ), one chemokine (IL-8), and one anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) were cloned, sequenced, and characterized for the first time in two commercially relevant Perciformes in the Gulf of Mexico, golden tilefish (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) and red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus). The complete amino acid sequence was obtained and confirmed for IL-β and IL-8 from golden tilefish and for IL-8, IL-10, and TNFα from red snapper, with partial sequences obtained for the remaining proteins. The results indicate high homology among Perciformes for all cytokines studied, but divergence with other teleost orders, and low conservation when compared to birds, amphibians, and mammals. The sequences will be used to create a multi-plexed antibody-based assay for the routine detection of cytokines in teleost serum. This would allow the biochemical response to fish health challenges, such as oil spills and other contamination events, to be monitored at the protein level, building upon the current regime of genetic biomarkers. Thus, this work will aid in the understanding of how oil spills and other contamination events may alter the immune response in fishes.

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil between April 20, 2010 and July 15, 2010. An estimated 36% of the oil formed a neutrally buoyant intrusion, containing both dissolved compounds and oil microdroplets, between 1000 and 1300 m depth. This study used geographic information systems software, and data from water samples that were collected as part of the National Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), to determine that an area of at least 1,600 km2 was exposed to DWH oil. Toxic BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) reached concentrations 950 and 50 times higher than maximum background concentrations, respectively. BTEX and n-alkane concentrations above pre-2010 values were present through late August, more than a month after the wellhead was capped. This study is the first to examine the DWH intrusion over such a large temporal and spatial extent. We further estimated that an area between 500 and 1000 km2 may have been exposed to harmful PAH concentrations, based on studies of PAH toxicity and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. We also found evidence of aggregation and deposition of oil near the DWH wellhead, as well as an area of 400 km2 where the intrusion may have impinged on the seafloor. While relative rates of dilution, degradation, and deposition in the intrusion are unknown, we have shown evidence that supports two previously proposed processes that may have deposited DWH oil from this deep intrusion onto sediments, where toxic compounds could be resuspended and continue to be bioavailable to benthic organisms.

<p>After emergencies involving chemical spills it is of great importance that correct measures are taken with short notice, both for the security of people and in order to minimize future environmental consequences. The RIB-unit at the Swedish Rescue Services Agency initiated this study, the aim of which is to propose changes to the existing chemical transport calculation tool: Chemical Spill 3.4, included in RIB - Integrated Decision Support for Civil Protection, so that it can be used for decision support as well as in preventive work. A rough estimation of chemical transport in the subsurface is considered being of great importance when making decisions during emergency response operations.</p><p>The proposition presented in this report is a non site specific chemical transport model which is designed to give a rough estimation of NAPL flow in homogenous isotropic soil shortly after an instantaneous release. The model can be used at two levels; both in situations without access to information on subsurface properties, and with more accuracy in situations with knowledge of the included parameters. For that reason the user can choose among predefined alternatives or assign the parameters a numeric value to increase the quality of the model output. The predefined alternatives are represented by default values for different parameters in the model.</p><p>Suggested model output are vertical and horizontal transport of NAPL phase, horizontal transport of dissolved chemical in the aqueous phase, as well as the amounts of spill that are evaporated and entrapped in the soil, all at the time specified by the user. Moreover the maximum transport of the chemical phase and time to groundwater pollution are given. To make the uncertainty of the model clear for the user the results are given as the most likely value together with the smallest and largest values that can be expected.</p><p>Equations presented in this report describe a selection of subsurface processes which occur after a release of chemicals. The selection is made with the aim to reach satisfying result when the model is used within its domain without making the model complicated for the user. Therefore simplifying assumptions have been made in the descriptions of some processes while some other processes are neglected. Simplifications have been based on recognized references or on theoretical arguments, but the overall performance of the model as well as some of the default input parameters need to be further tested and validated before the new version of the model can be included in RIB. However, compared with the existing version Chemical Spill 3.4 several changes have been suggested; including additional processes, development of default values and making model uncertainty clear to the user. These changes are thought to significantly improve the existing model.</p> / <p>Vid olyckor med kemikalieutsläpp är det av stor vikt att rätt åtgärder snabbt vidtas, både för människors säkerhet och för att minimera framtida miljökonsekvenser. Räddningsverkets RIB-enhet initierade den här studien vars mål är att ge förslag på modellteknisk förbättring av det befintliga beräkningsprogrammet Kemspill Mark 3.4, som ingår i programpaketet RIB - Integrerat beslutsstöd för skydd mot olyckor, så att det i framtiden kan användas som beslutsstöd vid räddningsinsats efter kemikalieutsläpp samt vid förebyggande planeringsarbete. En grov vägledning om kemikaliens spridning anses vara av stor betydelse för att räddningstjänsten ska kunna fatta rätt beslut vid en insats.</p><p>Förslaget som presenteras i denna rapport är en icke platsspecifik spridningsmodell anpassad för vätskor med begränsad löslighet i vatten och ger en grov uppskattning av spridning i homogen och isotrop mark inom några timmar efter ett momentant utsläpp.</p><p>Modellen ska kunna användas på två nivåer; för att ge en mycket grov uppskattning av spridningen även utan tillgång på uppgifter om markegenskaper, samt med större noggrannhet då informationen finns. Med anledning av detta kommer användaren ges möjlighet att välja bland fördefinierade alternativ eller att ange indata numeriskt för att öka noggrannheten. De fördefinierade valen representeras av typvärden för olika parametrar i modellen.</p><p>Den nya modellen i förslaget ger vid angiven tid vertikal och horisontell spridning av fri kemikaliefas, horisontell spridning av löst förorening i vattenfas samt hur stor andel av utsläppet som hålls kvar i marken respektive har avdunstat från spillytan. Dessutom anges kemikaliefasens maximala spridning och hur lång tid det tar för utsläppet att nå grundvattnet. För att tydliggöra modellens osäkerhet för användaren ges utdata som det mest sannolika värdet tillsammans med det största och minsta värdet som är sannolikt.</p><p>Ekvationerna som presenteras i rapporten beskriver ett urval av de processer som sker i marken vid ett kemikalieutsläpp. Urvalet har gjorts med utgångspunkt att uppnå tillfredställande resultat inom modellens domän utan att komplicera för användaren och därmed har förenklande antaganden gjorts för att beskriva vissa förlopp medan andra försummats helt. Förenklingarna har grundats på vedertagna referenser eller på teoretiskt resonemang. Validering av modellresultat samt vissa typvärdens intervall krävs före inkludering i RIB. Jämfört med det befintliga Kemspill Mark 3.4 har dock stora förändringar föreslagits; fler processer inkluderas, typvärden utvecklas och modellens osäkerhet görs tydlig för användaren. Förändringar tros medföra en signifikant förbättring av modellen.</p>

Oil extraction in Nigeria has caused extensive environmental degradation and health problems in many Nigerian communities, particularly in the ecologically sensitive Niger Delta where nearly all of the oil extraction takes place. The reasons for this are complex and have roots in Nigeria’s colonial past. The Nigerian economy is largely reliant on its petroleum resources which, in conjunction with governmental corruption and high international demand for Nigerian oil, has created a system where environmental externalities are largely ignored. Multinational oil companies with little stake in the development and environment of Nigeria are responsible for most of the extraction projects and subsequent environmental damage. However, the Nigerian federal government has failed to effectively regulate these projects. Communities in the Niger Delta bear nearly all of the environmental burden of oil extraction, but see very little of the economic benefits. The main environmental impacts of oil extraction are oil spills, land use change, and gas flaring. Oil spills are very common in the Niger Delta. Cleanup efforts are often inadequate, resulting in loss of delicate ecosystems as well as fisheries and farmland. Large tracts of rainforest and mangrove ecosystems have been cleared or degraded by the oil extraction process. Nigeria flares more gas per barrel of oil extracted than any other country in the world, contributing to global warming and creating serious health hazards for communities located near gas flares. Diversification of the Nigerian economy would help to alleviate many of the factors that lead to environmental degradation, including the dependence of the government on oil revenues, high unemployment, and rampant oil theft. Curbing government corruption is also vital to effective regulation of oil extraction. International consumers can help Nigeria head towards a less petroleum-driven future through an increased awareness of the origins of their oil and pressure on the Nigerian federal government and the multinational oil companies to extract oil more conscientiously or even to discontinue oil extraction. But most importantly, the solution to Nigeria’s economic concerns must ultimately come from Nigerians as international influence has been a major contributor to the environmental degradation in the first place.

Since the 1980s, satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been investigated for early warning and monitoring of marine oil spills to permit effective satellite surveillance in the marine environment. Automated detection of oil spills from satellite SAR intensity imagery consists of three steps: 1) Detection of dark spots; 2) Extraction of features from the detected dark spots; and 3) Classification of the dark spots into oil spills and look-alikes. However, marine oil spill detection is a very difficult and challenging task. Open questions exist in each of the three stages. In this thesis, the focus is on the first stage—dark spot detection. An efficient and effective dark spot detection method is critical and fundamental for developing an automated oil spill detection system. A novel method for this task is presented. The key to the method is utilizing the spatial density feature to enhance the separability of dark spots and the background. After an adaptive intensity thresholding, a spatial density thresholding is further used to differentiate dark spots from the background. The proposed method was applied to a evaluation dataset with 60 RADARSAT-1 ScanSAR Narrow Beam intensity images containing oil spill anomalies. The experimental results obtained from the test dataset demonstrate that the proposed method for dark spot detection is fast, robust and effective. Recommendations are given for future research to be conducted to ensure that this procedure goes beyond the prototype stage and becomes a practical application.

Since the 1980s, satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been investigated for early warning and monitoring of marine oil spills to permit effective satellite surveillance in the marine environment. Automated detection of oil spills from satellite SAR intensity imagery consists of three steps: 1) Detection of dark spots; 2) Extraction of features from the detected dark spots; and 3) Classification of the dark spots into oil spills and look-alikes. However, marine oil spill detection is a very difficult and challenging task. Open questions exist in each of the three stages. In this thesis, the focus is on the first stage—dark spot detection. An efficient and effective dark spot detection method is critical and fundamental for developing an automated oil spill detection system. A novel method for this task is presented. The key to the method is utilizing the spatial density feature to enhance the separability of dark spots and the background. After an adaptive intensity thresholding, a spatial density thresholding is further used to differentiate dark spots from the background. The proposed method was applied to a evaluation dataset with 60 RADARSAT-1 ScanSAR Narrow Beam intensity images containing oil spill anomalies. The experimental results obtained from the test dataset demonstrate that the proposed method for dark spot detection is fast, robust and effective. Recommendations are given for future research to be conducted to ensure that this procedure goes beyond the prototype stage and becomes a practical application.

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) onboard Earth observing satellites has been acknowledged as an integral tool for many applications in monitoring the marine environment. Some of these applications include regional sea-ice monitoring and detection of illegal or accidental oil discharges from ships. Nonetheless, a practicality of the usage of SAR images is greatly hindered by the presence of speckle noises. Such noise must be eliminated or reduced to be utilized in real-world applications to ensure the safety of the marine environment. Thus this thesis presents a novel two-phase total variation optimization segmentation approach to tackle such a challenging task. In the total variation optimization phase, the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi total variation model was modified and implemented iteratively to estimate the piecewise smooth state by minimizing the total variation constraints. In the finite mixture model classification phase, an expectation-maximization method was performed to estimate the final class likelihoods using a Gaussian mixture model. Then a maximum likelihood classification technique was utilized to obtain the final segmented result. For its evaluation, a synthetic image was used to test its effectiveness. Then it was further applied to two distinct real SAR images, X-band COSMO-SkyMed imagery containing verified oil-spills and C-band RADARSAT-2 imagery mainly containing two different sea-ice types to confirm its robustness. Furthermore, other well-established methods were compared with the proposed method to ensure its performance. With the advantage of a short processing time, the visual inspection and quantitative analysis including kappa coefficients and F1 scores of segmentation results confirm the superiority of the proposed method over other existing methods.

Sammanfattning -  ”Mind the Gap”- En studie om samarbetet mellan byrå och kund. Seminarium: 31 maj 2012 Institution: Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hållbar samhälls-och teknikutveckling Kurs: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi med inriktning mot marknadsföring, 15 ECTS Författare: Alexandra Bergkvist, Jenny Bernhardsson, My Lundberg 21 April 1988   11 December 1987   23 September 1988 Handledare: Dan Linder Examinator: Cecilia Lindh Nyckelord: Arbetsprocess, kundrelation, gapet, dödvikt, spill, reklambyrå Problem: Studien behandlar relationen mellan reklambyråer och deras kunder, vilka problem som kan uppstå i samarbetsprocessen samt hur det är möjligt att undvika problem och därigenom ge förslag på eventuella förändringar i samarbetet. Problemformuleringen bygger på att identifiera gapet i arbetsprocessen Syfte: Identifiera var gapet i arbetsprocessen mellan kunder och byråer består av. Frågeställning: Vad består gapet i arbetsprocessen mellan kunder och byråer av? När uppstår gap? På vilka sätt kan de berörda parterna minska gapet? Metod: I uppsatsen tillämpas en kvalitativ metod för att förstå vad gapet i arbetsprocessen består av. Studiens empiriska del utgörs av fyra personintervjuer, tre reklambyråer och en byråvalsrådgivare. Intervjufrågorna är av en halvstrukturerad intervjuform, vilket innebär att samma frågor, med frihet till följdfrågor kommer ställas. Slutsats: Bland de intervjuade byråerna och byråvalsrådgivaren rådde det en samstämmighet av vad gapet består av, med undantag av ett fåtal skilda meningar. Det framkom att gapet främst består av skild syn på förväntningarna i samarbetet. / Abstract - ”Mind the Gap”- A study on the cooperation between advertising agencies and their clients. Seminar date: May 31th 2012 Institution: University of Mälardalen, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology Course: Bachelor thesis in business administration focusing on marketing, 15 ECTS Authors: Alexandra Bergkvist, Jenny Bernhardsson, My Lundberg 21 th April 1988   11th December 1987   23rd September 1988 Tutor:  Dan Linder Examinator: Cecilia Lindh Keywords: Work process, Customer Relations, Gap, Deadweight, Overflow, Advertising agency Problem: The problem formulation is based on identifying the gap in the work process between advertising agencies and their clients. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify what the gap in the work process between clients and advertising agencies consists of. Research question: What does the gap in the work process between clients and advertising agencies consists of? When does gaps occur? In what way can the two parts bridge the gap? Method: The paper applies a qualitative method for understanding what the gap in the work process consists of. The empirical part of the study consists of four personal interviews, with three advertising agencies and one agency-choice counsellor. The interview questions are of a semi-structured interview form, which means that the same questions will be asked but with freedom to ask follow-up questions. Conclusion: Among the interviewed agencies and the agency-choice counsellor, there was a consensus of what the gap consists of, with the exception of a few different opinions. The appearance showed that the gap mainly consisted of different expectations and visions.

After the Cold war, the economic and political cooperations between the regions has gradually replaced the relations between individual countries. European Union and ASEAN are the two regional orginazations in Eurasia which interacte and cooperate through these three organizations: Asia-Europe Meeting, ASEAN Regional Forum, and EU-ASEAN Ministerial Meetings. This thesis is based on neo-functionalism to analyze the cooperation between EU and ASEAN, and study the process of the ramification effects on the sectors of natural resources of EU and ASEAN, and the possible ¡§spill-over¡¨ effect to political and security cooperations. The result of this thesis could be provided as the suggessions for the government of Taiwan making decisions on the foreign policy.

There has been, and will continue to be, tremendous growth in the use and distribution of liquefied natural gas (LNG). As LNG poses the hazard of flammable vapor cloud formation from a release, which may result in a massive fire, increased public concerns have been expressed regarding the safety of this fuel. In addition, regulatory authorities in the U.S. as well as all over the world expect the implementation of consequence mitigation measures for LNG spills. For the effective and safer use any safety measure to prevent and mitigate an accidental release of LNG, it is critical to understand thoroughly the action mechanisms. Water spray curtains are generally used by petro-chemical industries to prevent and mitigate heavier-than-air toxic or flammable vapors. It is also used to cool and protect equipment from heat radiation of fuel fires. Currently, water spray curtains are recognized as one of the economic and promising techniques to enhance the dispersion of the LNG vapor cloud formed from a spill. Usually, water curtains are considered to absorb, dilute, disperse and warm a heavier-than-air vapor cloud. Dispersion of cryogenic LNG vapor behaves differently from other dense gases because of low molecular weight and extremely low temperature. So the interaction between water curtain and LNG vapor is different than other heavier vapor clouds. Only two major experimental investigations with water curtains in dispersing LNG vapor clouds were undertaken during the 1970s and 1980s. Studies showed that water spray curtains enhanced LNG vapor dispersion from small spills. However, the dominant phenomena to apply the water curtain most effectively in controlling LNG vapor were not clearly demonstrated. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of water spray curtains in controlling the LNG vapor clouds from outdoor experiments. A research methodology has been developed to study the dispersion phenomena of LNG vapor by the action of different water curtains experimentally. This dissertation details the research and experiment development. Small scale outdoor LNG spill experiments have been performed at the Brayton Fire Training Field at Texas A&M University. Field test results regarding important phenomena are presented and discussed. Results have determined that the water curtains are able to reduce the concentration of the LNG vapor cloud, push the vapor cloud upward and transfer heat to the cloud. These are being identified due to the water curtain mechanisms of entrainment of air, dilution of vapor with entrained air, transfer of momentum and heat to the gas cloud. Some of the dominant actions required to control and disperse LNG vapor cloud are also identified from the experimental tests. The gaps are presented as the future work and recommendation on how to improve the experiments in the future. This will benefit LNG industries to enhance its safety system and to make LNG facilities safer.