Capillary and viscous forces during CO2 flooding in tight reservoirs

In this study, the multiphase multicomponent Shan-Chen lattice Boltzmann method is employed to analyze the impact of capillary force on oil-CO2-water  fluid flow and enhanced oil recovery. Various sizes of the single throat are designed to  simulate the interaction between displacing and displaced phases as well as their mechanical  equilibrium. Several sensitivities are taken into account, such as wettability, miscibility,  interfacial tension, and pore aperture. Based on the objective reservoir conditions,  supercritical CO2 as an injection fluid is adopted to study the influence of different displacement  patterns on the mechanical equilibrium in both homogenous and heterogeneous porous media, in  which enhanced oil recovery is also quantitatively estimated. The results show that the  water-alternating-gas injection pattern reduces the moving speed of the leading edge by  increasing the swept area of the residual oil, and inhibits the breakthrough effect of the  gas, making it the optimal displacement method in terms of the degree of oil production. Compared with the results of different displacement patterns, the enhanced oil recovery  of water-alternatinggas injection is the highest, followed by supercritical CO2 flooding after  water flooding, and lastly, continuous supercritical CO2 flooding.Cited as: Zhang, C., Zhang, Q., Wang, W., Xie, Q., Su, Y., Zafar, A. Capillary and viscous forces during CO2 flooding in tight reservoirs. Capillarity, 2022, 5(6): 105-114. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2022.06.0

Research Progress and Trends in Metabolomics of Fruit Trees

Metabolomics is an indispensable part of modern systems biotechnology, applied in the diseases’ diagnosis, pharmacological mechanism, and quality monitoring of crops, vegetables, fruits, etc. Metabolomics of fruit trees has developed rapidly in recent years, and many important research results have been achieved in combination with transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, quantitative trait locus (QTL), and genome-wide association study (GWAS). These research results mainly focus on the mechanism of fruit quality formation, metabolite markers of special quality or physiological period, the mechanism of fruit tree’s response to biotic/abiotic stress and environment, and the genetics mechanism of fruit trait. According to different experimental purposes, different metabolomic strategies could be selected, such as targeted metabolomics, non-targeted metabolomics, pseudo-targeted metabolomics, and widely targeted metabolomics. This article presents metabolomics strategies, key techniques in metabolomics, main applications in fruit trees, and prospects for the future. With the improvement of instruments, analysis platforms, and metabolite databases and decrease in the cost of the experiment, metabolomics will prompt the fruit tree research to achieve more breakthrough results

Aldehyde Dehydrogenase-2 Attenuates Myocardial Remodeling and Contractile Dysfunction Induced by a High-Fat Diet

Background/Aims: Consumption of a high-fat (HF) diet exacerbates metabolic cardiomyopathy through lipotoxic mechanisms. In this study, we explored the role of aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2) in myocardial damage induced by a HF diet. Methods: Wild-type C57 BL/6J mice were fed a HF diet or control diet for 16 weeks. ALDH2 overexpression was achieved by injecting a lentiviral ALDH2 expression vector into the left ventricle. Results: Consumption of a HF diet induced metabolic syndrome and myocardial remodeling, and these deleterious effects were attenuated by ALDH2 overexpression. In addition, ALDH2 overexpression attenuated the cellular apoptosis and insulin resistance associated with a HF diet. Mechanistically, ALDH2 overexpression inhibited the expression of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)-1, activated protein 1 (AP-1), insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1), 4- hydroxynonenal, caspase 3, transforming growth factor β1, and collagen I and III, and enhanced Akt phosphorylation. Conclusion: ALDH2 may effectively attenuate myocardial remodeling and contractile defects induced by a HF diet through the regulation of the JNK/AP-1 and IRS-1/Akt signaling pathways. Our study demonstrates that ALDH2 plays an essential role in protecting cardiac function from lipotoxic cardiomyopathy

Rigid three-dimensional Ni3S4 nanosheet frames: Controlled synthesis and their enhanced electrochemical performance

Rigid three-dimensional (3D) NiS nanosheet frames assembled from ultrathin nanosheets are synthesized via a facile solvothermal method. Compared to flat NiS sheets, 3D NiS nanosheet frames have both a high free volume and high compressive strength. They can deliver a very high specific capacitance of 1213 F g with good rate performance. In addition, these 3D NiS nanosheet frames are stabilized by plastically deformed ridges. The stabilized nanosheet frames did not unfold or collapse during electrochemical tests, and thus showed enhanced cycling ability

The First Case of Ischemia-Free Kidney Transplantation in Humans

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) has been considered an inevitable event in organ transplantation since the first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954. To avoid IRI, we have established a novel procedure called ischemia-free organ transplantation. Here, we describe the first case of ischemia-free kidney transplantation (IFKT). Materials and Methods: The kidney graft was donated by a 19-year-old brain-dead donor. The recipient was a 47-year-old man with end-stage diabetic nephropathy. The graft was procured, preserved, and implanted without cessation of blood supply using normothermic machine perfusion. Results: The graft appearance, perfusion flow, and urine production suggested that the kidney was functioning well-during the whole procedure. The creatinine dropped rapidly to normal range within 3 days post-transplantation. The levels of serum renal injury markers were low post-transplantation. No rejection or vascular or infectious complications occurred. The patient had an uneventful recovery. Conclusion: This paper marks the first case of IFKT in humans. This innovation may offer a unique solution to optimizing transplant outcomes in kidney transplantation

A Stable Hankel Transforms Algorithm Based on Haar Wavelet Decomposition for Noisy Data

We proposed the combination of signal denoising technology and Hankel transforms algorithm which were both based on Haar wavelet decomposition. Therefore, one can achieve above two purposes simultaneously while the wavelet decomposition is carried out just for once. The principle and its derivation of the Haar wavelet method for Hankel transforms were put forward. Numerical examples and engineering application showed that the precision of Haar wavelet method is about magnitude of 1.0E-4 and 1.0E-5; it can maintain good accuracy when using fewer wavelet coefficients. Moreover, it has better anti-noise performance and better computational stability than the filter method, so it can be applied to the Hankel transforms with noisy data