Improving the Characteristics of Water-Based Drilling Fluids Using Nanoparticles

The capabilities of different types of nanoparticles (NPs) had been exploited to develop a water-based drilling fluid having better characteristics for harsh drilling conditions. More specifically, the objectives of this work are to: 1) investigate the effectiveness of using different oxide NPs: ferric oxide (of sizes< 50 nm), magnetic iron oxide (of average particle size 50 –100 nm), silica NPs (size =12 nm), and zinc oxide NPs (of sizes < 100 nm) on the rheological properties and filter cake characteristics of Ca-bentonite-based drilling fluid at downhole conditions, 2) conduct a sensitivity analysis of the rheological properties of these drilling fluids and investigate the effect of charge potential, 3) determine the optimum concentration of NPs, and 4) evaluate the effect of different drilling fluid additives on the performance of NPs/Ca-bentonite fluids by formulating and testing a complete bentonite-based drilling fluid formula. A reduction of 43% in the fluid loss volume was achieved when using 0.5 wt% of ferric oxide NPs with 7 wt% Ca-bentonite suspension compared to that without NPs. However, using silica or zinc oxide NPs at different concentrations resulted in an increase in the fluid loss volume and filter cake thickness. The inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis of the filtrate fluids and the scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) of the filter cakes revealed the replacement of the cations dissociated from the Ca-bentonite by ferric oxide NPs at the investigated conditions, which promoted the formation of rigid clay platelet structure. Furthermore, using 0.5 wt% of NPs provided less agglomeration, as shown by the SEM images, and less filter cake permeability. Moreover, the produced filter cake consisted of two layers, as indicated by the computed-tomography (CT) scan. Increasing the concentration of NPs resulted in an increase in the fluid loss and filter cake thickness. At high NP concentration (2.5 wt%), a new layer of the agglomerated NPs generated in the filter cake close to the surface of formation, which adversely affected the cake characteristics. The ferric oxide and magnetic iron oxide NPs/Ca-bentonite fluids were found to have stable rheological properties at different NP concentrations and temperatures (up to 200°F). Additionally, thermally aging these fluids at 350°F for 16 hours showed minor changes in their rheological properties, which confirmed their applicability in drilling downhole environments. The ferric oxide NPs improved the filter cake and filtration properties of Ca-bentonite-based drilling fluids in the presence of polymer and other additives under both static and dynamic filtration (at 100 rpm). The best filter cake characteristics were obtained when using a NP concentration of 0.3-0.5 wt%. Furthermore, the formulated NPs/Ca-bentonite-based drilling fluids could withstand downhole conditions up to 500 psi and 350°F and produced a filter cake that has 0.151-in. thickness, 6.9 ml filtrate loss volume, and 0.428 µd permeability at this conditions. Moreover, it was noticed that the ultrasonication for at least one hour and bentonite hydration for 16 hours are recommended for better preparation of the formulated ferric oxide NPs/Ca-bentonite-based drilling fluid

La aceptación de la oferta en español y árabe: análisis empírico

Our goal is to analyse the role of social distance and power in the formulation of the speech act of acceptance of offers in Peninsular Spanish and Egyptian Arabic. For the collection of data, we rely on the instrument of role-playing. Our participants are young Egyptians and Spaniards, men and women, with a medium-high socio-cultural level. The most significant results indicate that there is a phase of rejection-insistence in the intervention of the Egyptians, regardless of the degree of relationship between the speakers. In Spanish, this phase only appears in cases of close relationship. Although the configuration of acceptance is more similar in the two languages in the latter case, there are still other divergences that separate Egyptians and Spaniards when it comes to formulating this act. The data obtained might be useful for the teaching of Spanish and Arabic as foreign languages.Nuestro objetivo es analizar el papel de la distancia social y el poder en la formulación del acto de habla de la aceptación de ofertas en español peninsular y árabe dialectal egipcio. Para la recogida de datos nos basamos en el instrumento del juego de rol. Nuestros informantes son jóvenes egipcios y españoles con un nivel sociocultural medio alto. Los resultados más destacados indican que suele haber una fase de rechazo-insistencia en la intervención de los egipcios, independientemente del grado de relación entre los hablantes. En español, esta fase solo aparece en los casos de relación cercana. Pese a que la configuración de la aceptación es similar en las dos lenguas en este último caso, aún existen otras divergencias que separan a egipcios y españoles a la hora de formular este acto. Los datos obtenidos pueden ser útiles de cara a la enseñanza del español y árabe como lenguas extranjeras

THE PROPOSAL SYSTEM OF SUPPORTING ECONOMIC EFFECTS FOR INTRODUCING NEW EDIBLE OILS TO THE LIBYAN MARKET

There are two food production processes that involve the replacement of one ingredient with other substance or a mixture of two or more products. One of them is adulteration of food products. This applies to high-cost and high-quality oils e.g. olive oil that is frequently subject to adulteration with other edible oils of lower value. Such a food fraud affects the quality of the gentle oil and the foods the ingredient of which is olive oil. The second action often applied to the oils is blending of the variety of  products originating from many different regions and countries. Sometimes the oils originating from various sources and years are blended to create a consistent taste.The subject of this paper is the application of the multi-analysis method to assess the process of the blending of several oils and thus creating a new mixture to satisfy the market demand for new hitherto unknown oils, advertised as new products. For this task we construct a new system under the label of Special Modification Oil-SMO. The system consists of three parts: 1. Theoretical part, 2. Practical part; that is, an experimental part 3. The last part is the economic justification to fulfill market demand by launching new oils of high quality serving many purposes and at the same time being cheaper. Therefore, in this paper we mainly focus on the practical aspect of the issue; however, the economic justificatory criteria are of equal importance. Economics starts to be relevant once we start considering the possibility of producing the oils in question. The proposed SMO system has been used in these calculations to obtain the required composition of the blend destined for special application. The present work shows that the chemical parameters of the final mixture can be numerically calculated when the characteristics of primary components are known. The SMO procedure can constitute input data for theoretical evaluations. The SMO procedure computes the best mixtures for the new oil demanded by the market. According to the SMO’s formula, also the economic factors of a given undertaking are taken into account (that is, such technological factors as costs of different mixtures). The verification of experience finishes when certain economic ends are achieved

Quantum simulation of quantum mechanical system with spatial noncommutativity

Quantum simulation has become a promising avenue of research that allows one to simulate and gain insight into the models of High Energy Physics whose experimental realizations are either complicated or inaccessible with current technology. We demonstrate the quantum simulation of such a model, a quantum mechanical system with spatial noncommutativity, which is inspired by the works in Noncommutative Geometry and Noncommutative Field theory for a universal quantum computer. We use the novel group theoretical formalism to map the Hamiltonian of such a noncommutative quantum system into the ordinary quantum mechanical Hamiltonian and then carry out the quantum simulation using the Trotter-Suzuki product formula. Furthermore, we distinguish the impact of the noncommutativity parameter on the quantum simulation, especially on the Trotter error, and point out how its sizable value affects the simulation.Comment: Discussion on entanglement entropy and noisy simulation added, accepted versio

Effect of Thermal Cycling on Corrosion Rate of Carbon Steel (0.4%C), Water Cooled

The effect of thermal cycling was carried out on steel bars (0.4 %C). A single run was performed at a lower temperature of 320C and an upper temperature of 5000C cooled in water and seawater. For several numbers of cycles up to 30 cycles for an accurate determination of heating and cooling times. The effect of thermal cycling on the corrosion rate was evaluated. The effect of thermal cycling on the following properties was evaluated the corrosion rate. The comparison between the effect of thermal cycling on carbon steel (0.4% C) seawater cooled (previous results, sea-water cooled [1]) and the effect of thermal cycling on carbon steel (0.4 C %) (in this manuscript, water-cooled) has been studied. From the obtained test results (previous and in this paper, it was found that the type of corrosion is uniform, the corrosion rate of the first stage gradually increases with the number of thermal cycling up to 15 cycles, then it takes steady-state up to 30 cycles. It was found that the rate of corrosion (previous results, seawater cooled) is more than (the results in this paper, water-cooled)

A squamous cell carcinoma arising from scrotal epidermal cyst. A case report and review of 94 cases from the world literature

Epidermal cysts are a common benign skin abnormality, comprising 85–90% of all excised skin cysts. The term epidermal inclusion cyst refers specifically when the cyst resulted from the implantation of epidermal elements in the dermis. Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are common skin lesions; however, a malignant transformation of an epidermal cyst is very rare with incidence of 0.011–0.045%. Few cases of malignant transformation of an epidermal cyst have been reported in the literature so far. This paper presents a case of squamous cell carcinoma arising from a scrotal epidermal cyst

Knowledge, attitudes and practice among high school teachers toward students with mental disorders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Mental disorders are highly prevalent among adolescents, and they correlate negatively with students’ achievement, performance, and leadless school engagement and participation. School Teachers can contribute significantly to the early detection and intervention strategies for mental disorders among adolescents. This study estimates high school teachers’ knowledge, attitude, and practice toward mental disorders and determines the association between selected demographic factors.Methods: The ethical committee of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, approved this cross-sectional study. Multistage random sampling was done, which included 62 male and 48 female high schools in Riyadh between August and December 2021. An Anonymous self-administered questionnaire consisting of 39-item was used for data collection.Results: A total 487 responses were received from the high school teachers, on a scale of 10 maximum score, only (60.4%) showed adequate knowledge regarding mental disorders. Even though, Majority of teachers (76.2%) show a favorable attitude toward mental disorders on a scale of 24 maximum scores. Furthermore, approximately one-third of study participants (34.4%) on a scale of 4 points maximum show good practice toward mental disorders.     Conclusions: This study revealed teachers’ lack of knowledge about mental disorders with poor practice. Even though school teachers have shown favourable attitudes in most aspects toward mental disorders, implantation of the mental health literacy program is recommended to enhance the essential role of school staff in providing the needed support for promoting student mental health

Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among Syrian people resident in Turkey

Background: Measuring knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 helps policymakers observe knowledge gaps and provide key messages to people to act better against the pandemic. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among Syrian people resident in Turkey.&nbsp; Methods: A cross-sectional study designed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among the Syrian people resident in Turkey. The data were collected via a web-based and self-administered questionnaire of 313 participants from 17-31 July 2020. SPSS version 16.0 was recruited to analyze the data using univariate and multivariable regression data analyses. Results: Our finding as the first study among Syrian people resident in Turkey found a high rate of good knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 accordingly with 83.0%, 72.0%, 84.0%. Regression analysis showed that age-group of 45 years and more years, marital status of being married, female gender, living in urban area were significantly associated with upper knowledge score. Age-group of 45 years and more significantly associated with positive attitude score but inversely being married and unemployed statues significantly associated with a negative attitude. Regarding practice score, married and female people had better practice, but poor-rated health status was significantly associated with the weak practice. Conclusion: Although our finding showed a good rate for knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19, but it needs to improve cause of many barriers on Syrian people resident in Turkey, such as living in a crowded place, distant from health care services, losing whole or part of their income due to COVID-19 as an economic crisis, different language barriers. Some groups like men, people living in a rural area, and those unemployed or lost their job should be exposed by timely and accurate knowledge

Antibiotic resistance microbes in tropical mangrove sediments, East Coast Peninsular, Malaysia

The study has been conducted at Tanjung Lumpur, mangrove swamp on January 2009 to isolate and identify the bacterial community in mangrove soil and their resistance against antibiotics. Identified bacteria were Aeromonas hydrophila group 1 and 2, Escherichia coli 1, Chryseomonas luteola, Chromobacterium violaceum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia rubudaea, Klebsiella pnuemoniae and Enterobacter cloacae. The identified bacteria were introduced to fourteen different antibiotics to determine the bacterial susceptibility. All the isolates showed 100% resistant towards β-lactam antibiotics (ampicillin, amoxicillin and penicillin), vancomycin, sulphafurazole, gentamicin, erythromycin, tetracycline, novobiocin, clindamycin and bacitracin indicates the presence of bacterial amidases and β-lactamases in the bacteria which inhibit the action of β- lactam antibiotics. Bacteria isolated from mangrove soil showed 66.7 and 77.8% resistance against chloramphenicol and streptomycin, respectively, suggesting that the lipid composition might play a key role in preventing the entrance or binding of antibiotic to the cell. All the isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin since it inhibits the enzyme topoisomerase II that cause the negative super coil in DNA and thus permits transcription or replication. All bacterial isolates showed Multi Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index higher than 0.2 and proved high-risk sources of contamination of the environment. This study proved the presence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains in mangrove soil that could be used for further studies

Association of the serum chemerin level with the development of diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Background: In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR) correlates positively with elevated serum chemerin levels. This study was aimed at investigating the probable association between the serum chemerin level and the development of DR in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we included Egyptians and classified them into four groups: group 1, including healthy individuals; group 2, including patients with T1DM without DR; group 3, including patients with T1DM with non-proliferative DR (NPDR); and group 4, including patients with T1DM with proliferative DR (PDR). The assessment included best-corrected distance visual acuity assessment, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, funduscopy, fundus fluorescein angiography, and macular ocular coherence tomography. Fasting blood samples were obtained from all participants to measure serum chemerin, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol, triglyceride, and creatinine levels. Serum chemerin levels were compared among the groups, and their correlations with age, duration of diabetes, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and creatinine levels were analyzed. Results: We recruited 209 participants, including 46 healthy individuals in group 1, 52 patients (T1DM and no DR) in group 2, 61 patients (T1DM and NPDR) in group 3, and 50 patients (T1DM and PDR) in group 4, with comparable mean ages and sex ratios among groups. The diabetes duration, body mass index, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and serum chemerin levels differed significantly among the groups (all P &lt; 0.001), whereas the creatinine level did not (P &gt; 0.05). The serum chemerin level was significantly higher in group 4 than in groups 3 and 2, in group 3 than in group 2, and in groups 3 and 4 than in group 1 (all P &lt; 0.001). However, it was comparable between groups 1 and 2 (P &gt; 0.05). It correlated with the duration of T1DM and HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and creatinine levels but not with age. Conclusions: Patients with T1DM with DR showed higher serum chemerin levels than those with T1DM without DR or healthy individuals. Serum chemerin levels were higher in those with PDR than in those with NPDR. Thus, serum chemerin levels are a potential biomarker of the development and severity of DR in patients with T1DM. Nevertheless, future diagnostic accuracy studies are required to confirm these potential applications