optimization of drilling fluid parameters such as mud weight, salt concentration, and temperature is essential to alleviate instability problems during drilling through shale sections. the selection of suitable mud parameters can benefit from analyses that consider significant instability processes involved in shale-drilling–fluid interactions. this paper describes the development of analytical...

We estimate the effect of extreme weather on life expectancy in the US. Using high frequency mortality data, we find that both extreme heat and extreme cold result in immediate increases in mortality. However, the increase in mortality following extreme heat appears entirely driven by near-term displacement, while the increase in mortality following extreme cold is long lasting. The aggregate e...

BACKGROUND Case reports of human rights violations have focused on individuals' experiences. Population-based quantification of associations between rights indicators and health outcomes is rare and has not been documented in eastern Burma. OBJECTIVE We describe the association between mortality and morbidity and the household-level experience of human rights violations among internally displ...

a terrier came along. Through my binoculars, I saw the lapwing becoming increasingly anxious and, when the intruders were about 200 metres away, the bird ran off to trail a wing in front of them. The restrained dog clearly wanted to chase the injury-feigning bird and, had it been allowed to do so, would have been led well away from the nest. The lapwing's distraction would almost certainly have...

On the 8-9 January 2009 the Refugee Study Centre (RSC) and the International Migration Institute (IMI) of Oxford University convened a two-day workshop on Environmental Change and Displacement, with the support of the UNHCR. Attended by about 50 participants, the conference examined current research evidence on the relationship between climate/environmental change and migration, and the role th...

This paper introduces displacement mapped billboard clouds (DMBBC), a new image-based rendering primitive for the fast display of geometrically complex objects at medium to far distances. The representation is based on the well-known billboard cloud (BBC) technique, which represents an object as several textured rectangles in order to dramatically reduce its geometric complexity. Our new method...

Data from the 1992 wave of the Health and Retirement Study are used to examine the incidence of job displacement among workers ages 51 through 60. The average displaced worker experiences a loss in earnings of 39%. Households which contain a displaced worker have incomes 24% lower than the household of an average worker. Little of these lost earnings are replaced through pension income. The rat...

Quantitative PCR assays are now the standard method for viral diagnostics. These assays must be specific, as well as sensitive, to detect the potentially low starting copy number of viral genomic material. We describe a new technique, polymerase chain displacement reaction (PCDR), which uses multiple nested primers in a rapid, capped, one-tube reaction that increases the sensitivity of normal q...