Development characteristics and main controlling factors of Carboniferous volcanic reservoirs in the Shixi area, Junggar Basin

The Carboniferous volcanic reservoirs in the Shixi area of the Junggar Basin are complex and diverse. Identifying the characteristics and main factors controlling high-quality volcanic reservoirs is the key to increasing oil and gas reserves and production in this area. Through core observations, thin section identification, physical property and pore structure analyses, combined with production data, the main controlling factors and development modes of high-quality reservoirs were analysed. The results show that the Carboniferous strata in the Shixi area mainly contain andesite and dacite of overflow facies, followed by volcanic breccia and tuff of explosive facies. Volcanic reservoirs in the study area are high-porosity–low-permeability and medium-porosity–low-permeability reservoirs. Volcanic breccia of explosive facies has the best physical properties, showing the characteristics of high porosity and medium permeability. The reservoir space is mainly composed of gas cavities, corrosion pores and fractures, among which the corrosion pores are the most important reservoir spaces of the Carboniferous volcanic rocks. Lithology and lithofacies, weathering and corrosion, and fractures are the main factors controlling the development of high-quality volcanic reservoirs. Volcanic rocks that had experienced weathering and denudation for a long time developed a large number of secondary corrosion pores due to the corrosion of soluble minerals or volcanic ash. Fractures further improved the physical properties, causing volcanic rocks to eventually develop into weathering crust reservoirs. The physical properties of the volcanic rocks far away from the weathering crust were improved through primary gas cavities and structural fractures, and these volcanic rocks eventually developed into the inner reservoir

Warming Affects Soil Nitrogen Mineralization via Changes in Root Exudation and Associated Soil Microbial Communities in a Subalpine Tree Species Abies fabri

The objective of this study was to quantify the responses of root exudates and nitrogen (N) mineralization of Abies fabri to warming and to identify links between root exudation and microbial N mineralization via interactions with the soil microbial characteristics. We conducted a 2-year study to assess the effects of warming on root traits, root exudation, soil microbial community, net N mineralization, and soil N availability within the rhizosphere of A. fabri. Results showed that warming enhanced the exudation rate of total organic carbon (REC) in both years, while warming tended to increase the exudation rate of total N (REN) in the first year, but decrease it in the second year. At the end of the second year, the C/N ratio of root exudates was higher under elevated temperature than under ambient (control) conditions. Warming increased the net N mineralization and net nitrification rates during the first year, but these effects were not observed in the second year. Although warming showed no significant effect on the content of bacteria and fungi in the first year, warming significantly increased the fungi, Gram-positive bacteria, and fungi/bacteria ratio in the second year. Warming effects on rhizosphere soil N mineralization were mainly positively correlated with the REC and REN. These results suggest that net N mineralization rates may be controlled by the quantity and C/N ratio of root exudates, rather than by the simple enhancement in root exudation rates. Our results suggest that warming could promote soil N cycling in cold regions via increased quality and quantity of root exudates

Increased maternal hCG concentrations in early in vitro pregnancy with elevated basal FSH.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate factors that influence maternal hCG concentration in early pregnancy and the relationship between hCG concentration in early pregnancy and basal FSH (bFSH) level. DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study. SETTING:Reproductive medical center. PATIENT(S):In total, 482 women aged 22 to 38 years with elevated basal FSH (> 10 IU/L) and who experienced a single live birth after in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer were selected. These 482 women were age-matched with an equal number of women with normal basal FSH (≤10 IU/L) who also experienced a single live birth. INTERVENTION(S):None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):HCG concentration. RESULT(S):The hCG concentrations on Day 14 and Day 21 were 560.46 (363.63-842.52) IU/L and 9862.00 (6512.25-14029.50) IU/L, respectively, in the elevated bFSH group, and these values were significantly increased compared with the normal bFSH group. After adjusting for confounding factors, the concentrations of maternal hCG on Day 14 and Day 21 were significantly associated with basal FSH. In addition, crude linear regression analysis demonstrated that hCG concentrations increased as the basal serum levels of FSH increased. CONCLUSION(S):Elevated basal FSH has implications for the interpretation of hCG concentrations in early pregnancy after in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) that led to a single live birth

Thermodynamic, Structural and Thermoelectric Properties of AgSbTe2 Thick Films Developed by Melt Spinning

Cubic AgSbTe2 compound is a metastable phase within Ag2Te-Sb2Te3 pseudo-binary phase diagram and theoretically rapid cooling molten elements to room temperature may be an effective way to obtain it. In this work, thick films composed of 5–10 nm fine grains were developed by a melt spinning technique. The formation mechanism of the nanostructure and its influences on the thermoelectric properties have been studied and correlated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis shows that the as-prepared films exhibit distinct thermodynamic properties when prepared under different cooling rates and doping element. A small amount of Se doping is effectively capable of inhibiting the emergence of the Ag2Te impurity and optimizing the electrical transport properties. All films have positive large Seebeck coefficient, but rather small positive or negative Hall coefficient, indicating a multicarrier nature of transport consisting of both holes and electrons. A power factor of ~1.3 was achieved at 500 K for Se-doped film for its excellent electrical conductivities. This result confirms that a combination of Se doping and melting spinning technique is an effective way to obtain high phase-pure AgSbTe2 compound and reveal its intrinsic transport properties routinely masked by impurities in sintering or slow-cooling bulk samples

Orbital angular momentum-mediated machine learning for high-accuracy mode-feature encoding

Abstract Machine learning with optical neural networks has featured unique advantages of the information processing including high speed, ultrawide bandwidths and low energy consumption because the optical dimensions (time, space, wavelength, and polarization) could be utilized to increase the degree of freedom. However, due to the lack of the capability to extract the information features in the orbital angular momentum (OAM) domain, the theoretically unlimited OAM states have never been exploited to represent the signal of the input/output nodes in the neural network model. Here, we demonstrate OAM-mediated machine learning with an all-optical convolutional neural network (CNN) based on Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam modes with diverse diffraction losses. The proposed CNN architecture is composed of a trainable OAM mode-dispersion impulse as a convolutional kernel for feature extraction, and deep-learning diffractive layers as a classifier. The resultant OAM mode-dispersion selectivity can be applied in information mode-feature encoding, leading to an accuracy as high as 97.2% for MNIST database through detecting the energy weighting coefficients of the encoded OAM modes, as well as a resistance to eavesdropping in point-to-point free-space transmission. Moreover, through extending the target encoded modes into multiplexed OAM states, we realize all-optical dimension reduction for anomaly detection with an accuracy of 85%. Our work provides a deep insight to the mechanism of machine learning with spatial modes basis, which can be further utilized to improve the performances of various machine-vision tasks by constructing the unsupervised learning-based auto-encoder

Effects of N addition and clipping on above and belowground plant biomass, soil microbial community structure, and function in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Nitrogen (N) enrichment and grazing are two factors that have profound effects on grassland ecosystem processes and functions. This study evaluated separate and combined effects of clipping and N addition on soil properties, soil microbial community structure, and soil extracellular enzyme activity within our experiment design which included three clipping intensities (i.e., unclipped, moderate, and heavy clipping) and two different N treatments (with and without N addition) in an alpine meadow ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Results revealed that N addition alone did not significantly affect total soil organic carbon (TOC), total soil N (TN), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and N (MBN) after 3 years of treatments. The moderate clipping alone increased root exudation rates whereas the heavy clipping decreased root exudation rates, TOC, TN, DOC, MBC and MBN, fungi biomass, and the ratio of fungi to bacteria. The effects of N addition were generally neutral or negative in the heavy clipping treatment. In contrast, N addition significantly increased aboveground biomass, MBC, MBN, DOC, and soil water content but decreased inorganic N in the moderate clipping. RDA analysis showed that N addition could stimulate soil microbial community structure in the moderate clipping treatment by impacting the availability of labile soil C. Our results improve the understanding of the role of N addition in regulating soil C storage among different grazing intensities in alpine meadows

GSDME in Endothelial Cells: Inducing Vascular Inflammation and Atherosclerosis via Mitochondrial Damage and STING Pathway Activation

The initiation of atherosclerotic plaque is characterized by endothelial cell inflammation. In light of gasdermin E’s (GSDME) role in pyroptosis and inflammation, this study elucidates its function in atherosclerosis onset. Employing Gsdme- and apolipoprotein E-deficient (Gsdme−/−/ApoE−/−) and ApoE−/− mice, an atherosclerosis model was created on a Western diet (WD). In vitro examinations with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) included oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) exposure. To explore the downstream mechanisms linked to GSDME, we utilized an agonist targeting the stimulator of the interferon genes (STING) pathway. The results showed significant GSDME activation in ApoE−/− mice arterial tissues, corresponding with atherogenesis. Gsdme−/−/ApoE−/− mice displayed fewer plaques and decreased vascular inflammation. Meanwhile, GSDME’s presence was confirmed in endothelial cells. GSDME inhibition reduced the endothelial inflammation induced by ox-LDL. GSDME was linked to mitochondrial damage in endothelial cells, leading to an increase in cytoplasmic double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Notably, STING activation partially offset the effects of GSDME inhibition in both in vivo and in vitro settings. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of GSDME in endothelial cells during atherogenesis and vascular inflammation, highlighting its influence on mitochondrial damage and the STING pathway, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for vascular pathologies

Dexamethasone ameliorates H₂S-induced acute lung injury by alleviating matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 expression.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is one of the fatal outcomes after exposure to high levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) especially MMP-2 and MMP-9 are believed to be involved in the development of ALI by degrading the extracellular matrix (ECM) of blood-air barrier. However, the roles of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in H2S-induced ALI and the mechanisms of dexamethasone (DXM) in treating ALI in clinical practice are still largely unknown. The present work was aimed to investigate the roles of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in H2S-induced ALI and the protective effects of DXM. In our study, SD rats were exposed to H2S to establish the ALI model and in parallel, A549 cells were incubated with NaHS (a H2S donor) to establish cell model. The lung HE staining, immunohistochemisty, electron microscope assay and wet/dry ratio were used to identify the ALI induced by H2S, then the MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in both rats and A549 cells were detected. Our results revealed that MMP-2 and MMP-9 were obviously increased in both mRNA and protein level after H2S exposure, and they could be inhibited by MMP inhibitor doxycycline (DOX) in rat model. Moreover, DXM significantly ameliorated the symptoms of H2S-induced ALI including alveolar edema, infiltration of inflammatory cells and the protein leakage in BAFL via up-regulating glucocorticoid receptor(GR) to mediate the suppression of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Furthermore, the protective effects of DXM in vivo and vitro study could be partially blocked by co-treated with GR antagonist mifepristone (MIF). Our results, taken together, demonstrated that MMP-2 and MMP-9 were involved in the development of H2S-induced ALI and DXM exerted protective effects by alleviating the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Therefore, MMP-2 and MMP-9 might represent novel pharmacological targets for the treatment of H2S and other hazard gases induced ALI