Prediction of shear wave velocity from petrophysical data utilizing intelligent systems: An example from a sandstone reservoir of Carnarvon Basin, Australia

Shear wave velocity associated with compressional wave velocity can provide the accurate data for geophysical study of a reservoir. These so called petroacoustic studies have important role in reservoir characterization such as lithology determination, identifying pore fluid type, and geophysical interpretation. In this study, a fuzzy logic, a neuro-fuzzy and an artificial neural network approaches were used as intelligent tools to predict shear wave velocity from petrophysical data. The petrophysical data of two wells were used for constructing intelligent models in a sandstone reservoir of Carnarvon Basin, NW Shelf of Australia. A third well of the field was used to evaluate the reliability of the models. The results show that intelligent models have been successful for prediction of shear wave velocity from conventional well log data

Electrowetting-on-Dielectric Actuation of a Vertical Translation and Angular Manipulation Stage

Adhesion and friction during physical contact of solid components in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) often lead to device failure. Translational stages that are fabricated with traditional silicon MEMS typically face these tribological concerns. This work addresses these concerns by developing a MEMS vertical translation, or focusing, stage that uses electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) as the actuating mechanism. EWOD has the potential to eliminate solid-solid contact by actuating through deformation of liquid droplets placed between the stage and base to achieve stage displacement. Our EWOD stage is capable of linear spatial manipulation with resolution of 10 μm over a maximum range of 130 μm and angular deflection of approximately ±1°, comparable to piezoelectric actuators. We also developed a model that suggests a higher intrinsic contact angle on the EWOD surface can further improve the translational range, which was validated experimentally by comparing different surface coatings. The capability to operate the stage without solid-solid contact offers potential improvements for applications in micro-optics, actuators, and other MEMS devices.United States. Office of Naval ResearchNational Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Grant 1122374)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Major Research Instrumentation Grant for Rapid Response Research (MRI-RAPID)

Criteria-Based Fuzzy Logic Risk Analysis of Wind Farms Operation in Cold Climate Regions

Different risks are associated with the operation and maintenance of wind farms in cold climate regions, mainly due to the harsh weather conditions that wind farms experience in that region such as the (i) increased stoppage rate of wind turbines due to harsh weather conditions, (ii) limited accessibility to wind farms due to snow cover on roads, and (iii) cold stress to workers at wind farms. In addition, there are risks that are caused by wind farms during their operation, which impact the surrounding environment and community such as the (iv) risk of ice throw from wind turbines, (v) environmental risks caused by the wind farms, and (vi) social opposition risk to installing wind farms in cold climate regions, such as the Arctic. The analysis of these six risks provides an overall view of the potential risks encountered by designers, operators, and decision makers at wind farms. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the aforementioned risks using fuzzy logic method. At first, two criteria were established for the probability and the consequences of each risk; with the use of experts’ judgments, membership functions were graphed to reflect the two established criteria, which represented the input to the risk analysis process. Furthermore, membership functions were created for the risk levels, which represented the output. To test the proposed methodology, a wind farm in Arctic Norway was selected as a case study to quantify its risks. Experts provided their assessments of the probability and consequences of each risk on a scale from 0–10, depending on the description of the wind farm provided to them. Risk levels were calculated using MATLAB fuzzy logic toolbox and ranked accordingly. Limited accessibility to the wind farm was ranked as the highest risk, while the social opposition to the wind farm was ranked as the lowest. In addition, to demonstrate the effects of the Arctic operating conditions on performance and safety of the wind farm, the same methodology was applied to a wind farm located in a non-cold-climate region, which showed that the risks ranked differently

High Expression of FOXP3 mRNA in Blood and Urine as a Predictive Marker in Kidney Transplantation

Background: Diagnosis of allograft dysfunction by noninvasive biomarker tests is preferable to invasive allograft biopsies and has been extensively considered in recent years. This study aims to evaluate blood and urinary forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in renal transplant recipients in an attempt to determine whether differential diagnosis of graft dysfunction is feasible using mRNA profiles. Methods: We analyzed FOXP3 mRNA expression in paired urinary and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples. A total of 91 kidney transplant recipients enrolled in this study that were classified into 3 groups: biopsy-proven acute rejection (AR; n = 27), chronic allograft nephropathy (n = 19), and well-functioning graft (n = 45). The FOXP3 mRNA expression was quantified by TaqMan probe real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: Acute rejection patients had a higher expression level of transcription factor FOXP3 compared to the chronic nephropathy and control groups. Analysis of receiver operating characteristic curves showed that rejection could be diagnosed with 100 sensitivity and 96 specificity in urine, and 92 sensitivity and 86 specificity in PBMC samples using the optimal FOXP3 mRNA cutoff value. We subdivided the AR group into progressive and nonprogressive patients, which showed a significant difference in FOXP3 mRNA expression. This result confirmed the role of FOXP3 as a diagnostic marker in predicting transplantation outcomes. Conclusion: Our results suggested that elevated expression of FOXP3 in blood and urine samples from kidney transplant recipients could be a useful noninvasive biomarker to diagnose graft dysfunction

Dynamic variation of kidney injury molecule-1 mRNA and protein expression in blood and urine of renal transplant recipients: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Acute renal dysfunction still constitutes a highly significant obstacle to renal transplantation outcome. Kidney injury molecule-1 is highly upregulated in proximal tubular cells and shed into the urine and blood circulation following kidney injury. The aim of current cohort study was to evaluate the urine KIM-1 (uKIM-1) mRNA expression level and its protein concentration in blood and urine samples to determine whether sequential monitoring of KIM-1 in renal allograft recipients is a reliable biomarker for predicting the clinical status and outcome. METHODS: Both uKIM-1 mRNA expression level and the level of serum and uKIM-1 protein concentration in the 52 renal transplant recipients were respectively quantified using real-time PCR and ELISA methods at 2, 90 and 180 days after transplantation. RESULT: KIM-1 mRNA and protein expression level in the blood and urine samples of patients with graft dysfunction was significantly higher than patients with well-functioning graft on days 2, 90 and 180 after transplantation. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis of mRNA and protein expression levels showed that urinary and blood KIM-1 at months 3 and 6 could predict acute renal dysfunction at 6 months and 1 year after transplantation. CONCLUSION: Sequential monitoring of uKIM-1 mRNA expression level and its protein concentration in the serum and urine samples of renal transplant patients suggests that KIM-1 could be a sensitive and specific biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis of kidney allograft injury

High expression of TIM-3 and KIM-1 in blood and urine of renal allograft rejection patients

Background-T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 (TIM-3) is involved in alloimmune and autoimmune responses, as well as tolerance induction in kidney transplantation. Kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) is highly expressed in epithelial cells of the injured proximal tubule. In this study, we have investigated both urinary and blood TIM-3 mRNA expressions, urinary KIM-1 mRNA expression, and urinary and serum KIM-1 proteins in renal allograft recipients diagnosed with acute allograft rejection (AR) and chronic allograft dysfunction (CAD), as well as those with well-functioning transplants (WFG). Methods: We divided 85 patients into the following groups: AR (n = 24), CAD (n = 19), and WFG (n = 42). TIM-3 and KIM-1 mRNA expressions were quantified using real-time reverse-transcription TaqMan probe polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). An ELISA test was used to measure the amount of KIM-1 protein in serum and urine samples. Results: AR and CAD patients had significantly greater urinary and blood TIM-3 mRNA expressions, urinary KIM-1 mRNA expression, and urinary and serum KIM-1 proteins compared to WFG patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that these molecules discriminated Allograft rejections from WFG. Conclusion: Quantification of TIM-3 and KIM-1 mRNA expressions, along with KIM-1 protein measurements in urine and blood could be employed as promising tools for noninvasive diagnosis of allograft dysfunction

Antineoplastic Biogenic Silver Nanomaterials to Combat Cervical Cancer: A Novel Approach in Cancer Therapeutics

Nanomedicine is a rapidly growing and promising field to combat cancer. This study was aimed to systematically review the original published articles to evaluate the efficacy of biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) against cervical cancer cells through in vitro investigations. The articles were selected through the online databases, including Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, ProQuest, and Web of Science for the articles published up to 31 August 2019. Sixty-five articles were found eligible to enter into our study. Our finding revealed that a vast 92.3 of articles stated the significant cytotoxicity of biogenic AgNPs against cervical cancer cells, while 7.7 of articles represented no cytotoxicity against cervical cancer cells. The proposed molecular mechanisms of anticancer activity of biogenic AgNPs against cervical cancer cells included the release of silver cations from AgNPs in the cell culture medium, generation of intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), induction of apoptosis pathways, and DNA damage. This study provided significant preliminary evidence from the anticancer potential of biogenic AgNPs against cervical cancer cells. Future molecular studies will elucidate the exact molecular mechanisms of biogenic AgNPs-induced cytotoxicity in cervical cancer cells. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature