A combined methodological approach using visual and geochemical methods is introduced and preliminary results of a study illustrating its effectiveness to determine chert source provenance are presented. This study focuses on lithic debitage and raw chert samples collected from the interior of southern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Chert is abundant throughout this region yet it occurs as small, scattered surface nodules that are highly variable in color. Prior to this study, little was known about the provenance of this local toolstone and whether it derived from local outcrops, glacial till sheets, or both. Given the pronounced variability exhibited by this chert, we use individual attribute analysis and petrography to impose some kind of analytical order upon an otherwise random aggregation of rocks. Thereafter, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry are used to test the validity of these color categories to determine from how many geochemically distinct sources they derive. Using a standard that measures Al to a ratio of Ga/Zr, our results indicate that all of the raw chert samples derive from a single local source, while the debitage derives from four different sources, including the one that is local. We are confident that this combined methodological approach can be applied in other regions where chert variability is pronounced and source provenance is unknown.

Anaerobic bacteria were identified in live drilling muds and cores from nine different North Sea and Irish Basin oilfields, varying in depth from 3500 to 15000 ft, and at temperatures up to 150°C. The anaerobic bacteria may be introduced into the reservoir during drilling operations or injection of water, but in many cases the bacteria are indigenous to the oilfield reservoirs. Confirmation of the indigenous anaerobic bacteria was made using molecular biology techniques (16S rDNA sequence analysis), comparing microbial populations present in the blank drilling mud as supplied to wellsite, in the live drilling mud taken during coring, and in the live core. The role of anaerobic bacteria in oilfield diagenesis is not fully understood, though pyrite precipitation, and exopolymer and H2S gas production were noted in this study, up to temperatures of 95°C.

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The use of metaphors is pervasive in all forms of discourse. This paper is concerned with providing a brief review of the development of metaphor theory,illustrated with some examples of supportive empirical research.These include a canonical study of the way concepts of instruction and education are influenced, a study into the effects of human-computer interface metaphors on computer systems users,and a study designed to assess the impacts of metaphor use on attitudes to internet commerce, particularly on attitudes to the roles played by information technology (IT). The paper provides some contextual background to assist consideration of the effects of metaphors on attitudes and beliefs.In practice, metaphor use may be intentional,unconscious,or a mixture of both, but in any case metaphors can be shown to play powerful roles in the social construction of human reality.

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