Since the 1970s, various private and governmental agencies have conducted studies to assess potential unconventional gas resources, particularly those resources contained in tight sands, fractured shales, and coal beds. The US Geological Survey (USGS) has assessed the amount of unconventional gas resources in North America, and its estimates are used by other government agencies as the basis for their resource estimates. While the USGS employs a probabilistic methodology, it is apparent from the resulting narrow ranges that the methodology underestimates the uncertainty of these undiscovered, untested, potential resources, which in turn limits the reliability and usefulness of the assessments. The objective of this research is to develop an improved methodology to assess potential unconventional gas resources that better accounts for the uncertainty in these resources. This study investigates the causes of the narrow ranges generated by the USGS analyticprobabilistic methodology used to prepare the 1995 national oil and gas assessment and the 2000 NOGA series, and presents an improved methodology to assess potential unconventional gas resources. The new model improves upon the USGS method by using a stochastic approach, which includes correlation between the input variables and Monte Carlo simulation, representing a more versatile and robust methodology than the USGS analytic-probabilistic methodology. The improved methodology is applied to the assessment of potential unconventional gas resources in the Uinta-Piceance province of Utah and Colorado, and compared to results of the evaluation performed by the USGS in 2002. Comparison of the results validates the means and standard deviations produced by the USGS methodology, but shows that the probability distributions generated are rather different and, that the USGS distributions are not skewed to right, as expected for a natural resource. This study indicates that the unrealistic shape and width of the resulting USGS probability distributions are not caused by the analytic equations or lack of correlation between input parameters, but rather the use of narrow triangular probability distributions as input variables. Adoption of the improved methodology, along with a careful examination and revision of input probability distributions, will allow a more realistic assessment of the uncertainty surrounding potential unconventional gas resources.

Thesis advisor: Ziqiang Wang / The discovery of high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates, quantum Hall effect greatly challenge the single-electron understanding of condensed matter physics. In contrast to phonon-mediated BCS mechanism, the unconventional high-Tc superconductivity is widely believed to come from strongly electronic correlation. Strong electron-electron repulsion leads to the interplay among spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom, resulting in high-temperature superconductivity, charge or spin density wave, Mott insulator, orbital order, nematicity etc. On the other hand, quantum Hall effect brings us the realization of the mathematical concept of topology in condensed matter. Topology has been widely explored in the topological insulator, topological superconductors, symmetry protected topological order etc. In this dissertation, we study theoretically the physics of electronic correlation and topology in various systems, including superconductivity in single layer CuO₂, electronic nematicity in FeSe, chiral spin density wave in honeycomb lattice and antiferromagnetic Chern insulator in 2D non-centrosymmetric systems. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

As energy supplies from known resources are declining, the development of new energy sources is mandatory. One reasonable source is natural gas from unconventional resources. This study focus on three types of unconventional gas resources: coalbeds, tight sands, and shales. Whereas these resources are abundant, they have largely been overlooked and understudied, especially outside of North America. New technologies, including those needed to unlock unconventional gas (UCG) resources, have been acknowledged to be the most significant factor in increasing natural gas supply in the United States. This study evaluates advances in critical technology that will most likely increase supply the most. Advanced technology is one of the main drivers in increasing unconventional natural gas production, as observed in the United States, Canada, and Australia. 3D seismic, horizontal drilling, multilateral completion, water and gel based fracturing, coiled tubing rig, enhanced recovery, and produced water treatments are current important technologies critical in developing unconventional gas resources. More advanced technologies with significant impacts are expected to be available in the next decades. Fit-to-purpose technology reduces the cost to recover gas from unconventional resources. The better the unconventional gas resources are characterized, the better we can tailor specific technology to recover the gas, and less cost are needed. Analogy assumption is a good start in deciding which critical technology to be transferred to undeveloped unconventional reservoirs. If the key properties of two unconventional gas basins or formations are more or less similar, it is expected that the impact of certain technology applied in one basin or formation will resemble the impact to the other basin or formation.

As energy supplies from known resources are declining, the development of new energy sources is mandatory. One reasonable source is natural gas from unconventional resources. This study focus on three types of unconventional gas resources: coalbeds, tight sands, and shales. Whereas these resources are abundant, they have largely been overlooked and understudied, especially outside of North America. New technologies, including those needed to unlock unconventional gas (UCG) resources, have been acknowledged to be the most significant factor in increasing natural gas supply in the United States. This study evaluates advances in critical technology that will most likely increase supply the most. Advanced technology is one of the main drivers in increasing unconventional natural gas production, as observed in the United States, Canada, and Australia. 3D seismic, horizontal drilling, multilateral completion, water and gel based fracturing, coiled tubing rig, enhanced recovery, and produced water treatments are current important technologies critical in developing unconventional gas resources. More advanced technologies with significant impacts are expected to be available in the next decades. Fit-to-purpose technology reduces the cost to recover gas from unconventional resources. The better the unconventional gas resources are characterized, the better we can tailor specific technology to recover the gas, and less cost are needed. Analogy assumption is a good start in deciding which critical technology to be transferred to undeveloped unconventional reservoirs. If the key properties of two unconventional gas basins or formations are more or less similar, it is expected that the impact of certain technology applied in one basin or formation will resemble the impact to the other basin or formation.

The folded and thrusted Mesozoic clastic sequence of the Canadian Rocky Mountain foothills forms important hydrocarbon reservoirs. Understanding the distribution of natural fractures, their evolution, and timing of formation relative to the evolution of the fold-and-thrust system could potentially improve exploration and development outcomes in these otherwise tight unconventional reservoirs. However, the formation of fractures and their timing relative to folding and thrusting have remained unclear. I investigated the relation between folding and fracture formation in the Upper Cretaceous Cardium Sandstone by combining field structural observations and kinematic modeling of the fold-and-thrust belt evolution. I explored the relationship between fracture intensity and fracture strain with structural position by analyzing fracture spacing or frequency and aperture data collected along outcrop and micro-scanlines in the backlimb, in the forelimb close to the crest, and in the steeper dipping forelimb away from the crest of the Red Deer River anticline. Fracture frequency and aperture data collected both at the outcrop and micro scales indicate that variation in fracture strain is small across these three structural domains of the fold, with somewhat lower fracture intensity in the forelimb close to the crest. These fracture strain measurements are qualitatively consistent with calculated horizontal strain in the tectonic transport direction obtained through kinematic numerical models that simulate fold development associated with slip along the underlying Burnt Timber thrust. The models predict roughly similar amount of horizontal extension in both the back and forelimbs, and somewhat lower extension in the upper forelimb during early development of the Red Deer River anticline. Fracture formation early during fold development is consistent with the field structural observations of shear reactivation during later stages of folding. This combined kinematic modeling and field structural study demonstrates that deforming fold and thrust belts can undergo a complex evolution of bed-parallel extension in both space and time, resulting in spatially variable fracture formation in such structurally complex subsurface reservoirs. / text

This thesis examines contemporary art projects that are installed in unconventional sites in urban neighbourhoods. Using the conceptual framework of the neighbourhood imaginary, I propose that these local art practices utilize neighbourhood spaces to engage with nation, identity and citizenship practices within the contemporary discourse of globalization. The three art projects I investigate address different aspects of neighbourhood. Cuban artist René Francisco Rodriguez’s (René Francisco) project, El Patio de Nin, foregrounds the citizen in an urban neighbourhood. His project merges creativity and pedagogy with social service, and blurs the boundaries between art and life in order to comment on social conditions and citizenship practices. The Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach (2006), by Toronto artist Iris Häussler, uses a home in an urban neighbourhood as a physical space in which to create an imaginary life to explore aspects of community, human behaviour and social values. The Swamp Ward Window, a Kingston-based curatorial project, takes advantage of the intimacy of the private home and the immediacy of the street to present artworks that explore the interface between public and private and everyday life in the community. Cornelius Castoriadis argues that the social imaginary emerges when the subconscious, the symbolic and action interact, not merely to reflect the outside world, but to create new meanings from which social change is possible. In my analysis, the neighbourhood imaginary resonates with the social imaginary, functioning as a conceptual laboratory for artists to experiment with the different meanings associated with neighbourhood, community and citizenship. I propose that a reengagement with the local, as part of a iii global discourse, provides an opportunity to examine art projects that manifest in neighbourhoods. And, while taking place in different socio-political circumstances, the shared condition of locality, I argue, provides a window through which the three projects envision linkages between aesthetic practices and public life. Finally, in order to critically consider local artistic practices in relation to globalization and the commodification of culture, this thesis engages those discourses of globalization that see culture as integral in new global economies. / Thesis (Master, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2008-02-29 13:04:52.207

Moffitt (1993) proposed two trajectories for the development of criminal behaviour; one was life-course-persistent offenders with long histories of developmental and behavioural problems and the other was normally developing adolescence-limited offenders who engaged in criminal behaviour for a brief period during the teen years. Moffitt suggested that adolescence-limited offenders mimicked the behaviour of their life-course-persistent contemporaries in order to access the trappings of adulthood, a sign of the “maturity gap” that is hypothesised to occur between physical maturity and social acceptance into adult roles. Consistent with this, Bukowskiet al. (2000) found support for an increased attractiveness of antisocial peers during the adolescent years. The goal of the present study was to examine how young adolescents believe others would view different kinds of behaviour. Subjects from a longitudinal study on low socioeconomic families in Christchurch, NZ, completed a questionnaire where they indicated what they believed others would think if they engaged in pro-social, unconventional, and antisocial behaviours. Adolescents rated how they thought parents, same-sex peers, and attractive opposite-sex peers would perceive the different behaviours, and also indicated how they would perceive the same behaviours in an opposite-sex peer. Results showed that, overall, the sample did not think others would approve of antisocial behaviour, and that they would not approve of antisocial behaviour in an opposite-sex friend. However, differences in perceived approval were found when comparisons were made between boys and girls, and across variations in parenting styles of the adolescent’s caregivers. Differences were also found across indicators of different developmental trajectories, such that those youth who are probably on the life-course persistent trajectory expected less disapproval of antisocial behaviour in others than youth who are probably not on that trajectory. These results are partially consistent with Moffitt’s theory.

Most extended instrumental playing techniques are still deprived of a conventional method of notation. In order to facilitate the utilisation of these unconventional musical elements, a coherent and consistent notation system is developed in this thesis. It comprises chapters on string instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, plucked instruments and keyboard instruments. A systematic notation of unconventional instrumental playing techniques has not yet been attempted, nor have all tech-niques subject to this work yet been explained in detail. In order to coherently depict unconventional playing techniques, a set of criteria is defined. These criteria postulate that all developments are supposed to be 1. As exact as possible and 2. As simple as possible while the system may 3. Not be contradictory to traditional notation, but should instead extend and be closely related to it. Further, in order to guarantee that the additions are consistent, they need to be compatible with, and distinct from, all other signs of the system. Each unconventional playing technique is classified and explained in detail. Subsequently, previous methods of its notation are presented and discussed with regard to the previously defined criteria. Finally, a suggestion for the notation that agrees with the postulations is provided. In the next step the application of the developments is then described by presenting examples from compositions that were either produced during the writing of the thesis or revised by replacing old methods of notation with the developments from this thesis. Altogether examples from eight instrumental works that employ the new methods are displayed.

Unconventional superconductors are those which are not described by the BCS theory, and for which no known theoretical description currently exists. The careful study of the behaviour of superconducting vortices in such systems yields crucial insights into the underlying physics of these exciting materials. This thesis describes a series of magnetometry experiments conducted on three different unconventional superconductors: Sr2RuO4, MgB2 and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+; utilising two techniques: Scanning Hall probe microscopy and magneto-optical imaging. An exotic p-wave chiral order parameter is thought to exist in Sr2RuO4 and is expected to produce several identifiable magnetic signatures. A search for these signals via scanning Hall probe measurements failed to detect any such signatures, but did capture a structural transition of the vortex lattice that is consistent with the proposed chiral order parameter. Studies of several samples also suggest that the vortex behaviour is strongly modified with even tiny amounts of disorder, a conclusion that has important consequences for interpretations of vortex patterns in Sr2RuO4. Several recent experiments have reported vortex configurations consistent with a competing short-range repulsion and long-range attraction in the intervortex interaction in MgB2 single crystals. We observe the spontaneous formation of vortex chains and labyrinths in a 160nm MgB2 thin-film that are suggestive of a non-monotonic vortex interaction, but perhaps more indicative of an intermediate-range attraction in harness with short and long-range repulsions. The suitability of seven potential mechanisms of vortex attraction in MgB2 are reviewed in light of the unusually short electronic mean-free path of our sample. Finally, magneto-optical imaging has been used to study the penetration of flux into regular polygon-shaped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ platelets with various geometries. The variation of HP with geometry qualitatively contradicts conventional estimates of demagnetisation factors based on equivalent ellipsoids using inscribed circles. This work has important implications for the estimation of appropriate effective demagnetisation factors in arbitrarily shaped superconducting bodies.

During the past decade, the worldwide demand for energy has continued to increase at a rapid rate. Natural gas has emerged as a primary source of US energy. The technically recoverable natural gas resources in the United States have increased from approximately 1,400 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) to approximately 2,100 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2010. The recent declines in gas prices have created short-term uncertainties and increased the risk of developing natural gas fields, rendering a substantial portion of this resource uneconomical at current gas prices. This research quantifies the impact of changes in finding and development costs (FandDC), lease operating expenses (LOE), and gas prices, in the estimation of the economically recoverable gas for unconventional plays. To develop our methodology, we have performed an extensive economic analysis using data from the Barnett Shale, as a representative case study. We have used the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the values of the Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) for all the wells in a given gas play, to determine the values of the P10 (10th percentile), P50 (50th percentile), and P90 (90th percentile) from the CDF. We then use these probability values to calculate the technically recoverable resource (TRR) for the play, and determine the economically recoverable resource (ERR) as a function of FandDC, LOE, and gas price. Our selected investment hurdle for a development project is a 20 percent rate of return and a payout of 5 years or less. Using our methodology, we have developed software to solve the problem. For the Barnett Shale data, at a FandDC of 3 Million dollars, we have found that 90 percent of the Barnet shale gas is economically recoverable at a gas price of 46 dollars/Mcf, 50 percent of the Barnet shale gas is economically recoverable at a gas price of 9.2 dollars/Mcf, and 10 percent of the Barnet shale gas is economically recoverable at a gas price of 5.2 dollars/Mcf. The developed methodology and software can be used to analyze other unconventional gas plays to reduce short-term uncertainties and determine the values of FandDC and gas prices that are required to recover economically a certain percentage of TRR.