263 research outputs found
Pore-scale mechanisms of gas flow in tight sand reservoirs
Tight gas sands are unconventional hydrocarbon energy resource storing large volume of natural gas. Microscopy and 3D imaging of reservoir samples at different scales and resolutions provide insights into the coaredo not significantly smaller in size than conventional sandstones, the extremely dense grain packing makes the pore space tortuous, and the porosity is small. In some cases the inter-granular void space is presented by micron-scale slits, whose geometry requires imaging at submicron resolutions. Maximal Inscribed Spheres computations simulate different scenarios of capillary-equilibrium two-phase fluid displacement. For tight sands, the simulations predict an unusually low wetting fluid saturation threshold, at which the non-wetting phase becomes disconnected. Flow simulations in combination with Maximal Inscribed Spheres computations evaluate relative permeability curves. The computations show that at the threshold saturation, when the nonwetting fluid becomes disconnected, the flow of both fluids is practically blocked. The nonwetting phase is immobile due to the disconnectedness, while the permeability to the wetting phase remains essentially equal to zero due to the pore space geometry. This observation explains the Permeability Jail, which was defined earlier by others. The gas is trapped by capillarity, and the brine is immobile due to the dynamic effects. At the same time, in drainage, simulations predict that the mobility of at least one of the fluids is greater than zero at all saturations. A pore-scale model of gas condensate dropout predicts the rate to be proportional to the scalar product of the fluid velocity and pressure gradient. The narrowest constriction in the flow path is subject to the highest rate of condensation. The pore-scale model naturally upscales to the Panfilov's Darcy-scale model, which implies that the condensate dropout rate is proportional to the pressure gradient squared. Pressure gradient is the greatest near the matrix-fracture interface. The distinctive two-phase flow properties of tight sand imply that a small amount of gas condensate can seriously affect the recovery rate by blocking gas flow. Dry gas injection, pressure maintenance, or heating can help to preserve the mobility of gas phase. A small amount of water can increase the mobility of gas condensate
A MATLAB app to assess, compare and validate new methods against their benchmarks
Emerging technologies for physiological signals and data collection enable the monitoring of patient health and well-being in real-life settings. This requires novel methods and tools to compare the validity of this kind of information with that acquired in controlled environments using more costly and sophisticated technologies. In this paper, we describe a method and a MATLAB tool that relies on a standard sequence of statistical tests to compare features obtained using novel techniques with those acquired by means of benchmark procedures. After introducing the key steps of the proposed statistical analysis method, this paper describes its implementation in a MATLAB app, developed to support researchers in testing the extent to which a set of features, captured with a new methodology, can be considered a valid surrogate of that acquired employing gold standard techniques. An example of the application of the tool is provided in order to validate the method and illustrate the graphical user interface (GUI). The app development in MATLAB aims to improve its accessibility, foster its rapid adoption among the scientific community and its scalability into wider MATLAB tools
Are autistic traits in the general population stable across development?
There is accumulating evidence that autistic traits (AT) are on a continuum in the general population, with clinical autism representing the extreme end of a quantitative distribution. While the nature and severity of symptoms in clinical autism are known to persist over time, no study has examined the long-term stability of AT among typically developing toddlers. The current investigation measured AT in 360 males and 400 males from the general population close to two decades apart, using the Pervasive Developmental Disorder subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist in early childhood (M = 2.14 years; SD = 0.15), and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient in early adulthood (M = 19.50 years; SD = 0.70). Items from each scale were further divided into social (difficulties with social interaction and communication) and non-social (restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests) AT. The association between child and adult measurements of AT as well the influence of potentially confounding sociodemographic, antenatal and obstetric variables were assessed using Pearson's correlations and linear regression. For males, Total AT in early childhood were positively correlated with total AT (r = .16, p = .002) and social AT (r = .16, p = .002) in adulthood. There was also a positive correlation for males between social AT measured in early childhood and Total (r = .17, p = .001) and social AT (r = .16, p = .002) measured in adulthood. Correlations for non-social AT did not achieve significance in males. Furthermore, there was no significant longitudinal association in AT observed for males or females. Despite the constraints of using different measures and different raters at the two ages, this study found modest developmental stability of social AT from early childhood to adulthood in boys
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DEFENSE WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY ANALYTICAL METHOD VERIFICATION FOR THE SLUDGE BATCH 5 QUALIFICATION SAMPLE
For each sludge batch that is processed in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) performs confirmation of the applicability of the digestion method to be used by the DWPF lab for elemental analysis of Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) receipt samples and SRAT product process control samples. DWPF SRAT samples are typically dissolved using a room temperature HF-HNO3 acid dissolution (i.e., DWPF Cold Chem Method, see Procedure SW4-15.201) and then analyzed by inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). This report contains the results and comparison of data generated from performing the Aqua Regia (AR), Sodium Peroxide/Hydroxide Fusion (PF) and DWPF Cold Chem (CC) method digestion of Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) SRAT Receipt and SB5 SRAT Product samples. The SB5 SRAT Receipt and SB5 SRAT Product samples were prepared in the SRNL Shielded Cells, and the SRAT Receipt material is representative of the sludge that constitutes the SB5 Batch composition. This is the sludge in Tank 51 that is to be transferred into Tank 40, which will contain the heel of Sludge Batch 4 (SB4), to form the SB5 Blend composition. The results for any one particular element should not be used in any way to identify the form or speciation of a particular element in the sludge or used to estimate ratios of compounds in the sludge. A statistical comparison of the data validates the use of the DWPF CC method for SB5 Batch composition. However, the difficulty that was encountered in using the CC method for SB4 brings into question the adequacy of CC for the SB5 Blend. Also, it should be noted that visible solids remained in the final diluted solutions of all samples digested by this method at SRNL (8 samples total), which is typical for the DWPF CC method but not seen in the other methods. Recommendations to the DWPF for application to SB5 based on studies to date: (1) A dissolution study should be performed on the WAPS sample by SRNL which consists of the final composition of the sludge (the SB5 Blend); (2) Given the heel of SB4 in Tank 40, the DWPF lab should monitor the aluminum concentration in the first 10 SRAT Receipt batches of SB5 using both CC and sodium peroxide/hydroxide fusion to evaluate the adequacy of aluminum recovery by the CC method for this sludge batch; and (3) SRNL and the DWPF lab should investigate if comparisons between the elemental concentrations of the SME product glass (adjusted for frit addition) obtained by the mixed acid and peroxide fusion digestion and the SRAT Receipt and SRAT Product elemental concentrations obtained via the DWPF CC method provide insight into the adequacy of the CC method for analysis of the SRAT Product. The DWPF lab would need to calcine the SRAT product at 1050 C for the best comparison. If a consistent difference in elemental concentrations is revealed, another type of digestion (i.e. sodium peroxide/hydroxide fusion) should be used to determine the concentration of the element in question. Particular emphasis should be placed on monitoring the aluminum concentration in SB5
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Continuous active-source seismic monitoring of CO2 injection in abrine aquifer
Continuous crosswell seismic monitoring of a small-scale CO2injection was accomplished with the development of a noveltubing-deployed piezoelectric borehole source. This piezotube source wasdeployed on the CO2 injection tubing, near the top of the saline aquiferreservoir at 1657-m depth, and allowed acquisition of crosswellrecordings at 15-minute intervals during the multiday injection. Thechange in traveltime recorded at various depths in a nearby observationwell allowed hour-by-hour monitoring of the growing CO2 plume via theinduced seismic velocity change. Traveltime changes of 0.2 to 1.0 ms ( upto 8 percent ) were observed, with no change seen at control sensorsplaced above the reservoir. The traveltime measurements indicate that theCO2 plume reached the top of the reservoir sand before reaching theobservation well, where regular fluid sampling was occuring during theinjection, thus providing information about the in situ buoyancy ofCO2
Reactive transport model of sulfur cycling as impacted by perchlorate and nitrate treatments
Microbial
souring in oil reservoirs produces toxic, corrosive hydrogen
sulfide through microbial sulfate reduction, often accompanying (sea)water
flooding during secondary oil recovery. With data from column experiments
as constraints, we developed the first reactive-transport model of
a new candidate inhibitor, perchlorate, and compared it with the commonly
used inhibitor, nitrate. Our model provided a good fit to the data,
which suggest that perchlorate is more effective than nitrate on a
per mole of inhibitor basis. Critically, we used our model to gain
insight into the underlying competing mechanisms controlling the action
of each inhibitor. This analysis suggested that competition by heterotrophic
perchlorate reducers and direct inhibition by nitrite produced from
heterotrophic nitrate reduction were the most important mechanisms
for the perchlorate and nitrate treatments, respectively, in the modeled
column experiments. This work demonstrates modeling to be a powerful
tool for increasing and testing our understanding of reservoir-souring
generation, prevention, and remediation processes, allowing us to
incorporate insights derived from laboratory experiments into a framework
that can potentially be used to assess risk and design optimal treatment
schemes
Multi-year patterns in testosterone, cortisol and corticosterone in baleen from adult males of three whale species
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Conservation Physiology 6 (2018): coy049, doi:10.1093/conphys/coy049.Male baleen whales have long been suspected to have annual cycles in testosterone, but due to difficulty in collecting endocrine samples, little direct evidence exists to confirm this hypothesis. Potential influences of stress or adrenal stress hormones (cortisol, corticosterone) on male reproduction have also been difficult to study. Baleen has recently been shown to accumulate steroid hormones during growth, such that a single baleen plate contains a continuous, multi-year retrospective record of the whale’s endocrine history. As a preliminary investigation into potential testosterone cyclicity in male whales and influences of stress, we determined patterns in immunoreactive testosterone, two glucocorticoids (cortisol and corticosterone), and stable-isotope (SI) ratios, across the full length of baleen plates from a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), a North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), all adult males. Baleen was subsampled at 2 cm (bowhead, right) or 1 cm (blue) intervals and hormones were extracted from baleen powder with methanol, followed by quantification of all three hormones using enzyme immunoassays validated for baleen extract of these species. Baleen of all three males contained regularly spaced peaks in testosterone content, with number and spacing of testosterone peaks corresponding well to SI data and to species-specific estimates of annual baleen growth rate. Cortisol and corticosterone exhibited some peaks that co-occurred with testosterone peaks, while other glucocorticoid peaks occurred independent of testosterone peaks. The right whale had unusually high glucocorticoids during a period with a known entanglement in fishing gear and a possible disease episode; in the subsequent year, testosterone was unusually low. Further study of baleen testosterone patterns in male whales could help clarify conservation- and management-related questions such as age of sexual maturity, location and season of breeding, and the potential effect of anthropogenic and natural stressors on male testosterone cycles.This work was supported by (1) the Arizona Board of Regents Technology Research Initiative Fund; (2) the Center for Bioengineering Innovation at Northern Arizona University; (3) the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; (4) the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Life Institute and (5) Fisheries and Ocean Canada’s (DFO) Priorities and Partnership Strategic Initiatives Fund and Oceans Protection Plan
Complex and unexpected dynamics in simple genetic regulatory networks
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The relationship between sensory sensitivity and autistic traits in the general population.
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) tend to have sensory processing difficulties (Baranek et al. in J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47:591–601, 2006). These difficulties include over- and under-responsiveness to sensory stimuli, and problems modulating sensory input (Ben-Sasson et al. in J Autism Dev Disorders 39:1–11, 2009). As those with ASD exist at the extreme end of a continuum of autistic traits that is also evident in the general population, we investigated the link between ASD and sensory sensitivity in the general population by administering two questionnaires online to 212 adult participants. Results showed a highly significant positive correlation (r = .775, p < .001) between number of autistic traits and the frequency of sensory processing problems. These data suggest a strong link between sensory processing and autistic traits in the general population, which in turn potentially implicates sensory processing problems in social interaction difficulties
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