CO2geological sequestration modelling and injection induced fracturing analysis of the caprock

In geological sequestration, CO2is injected under high pressure into deep underground rock formations, including deep saline aquifers. This paper presents the invading supercritical CO2-brine two-phase numerical model to describe CO2flow and transport processes in deep saline aquifers. The effects of anisotropy and different kinds of heterogeneity like horizontal and vertical layers and also existence of barriers between layers on the CO2flow and transport in a saturated porous media with brine are investigated using the presented two-phase model. Following to simulation results, it can be obtained that the permeability of the rock formations and the permeability anisotropy should be considered as the most important parameters in CO2flow and transport processes and its distribution in the rock formations. Furthermore, the capillary pressure on the buoyancy-driven flow of CO2is analyzed, and the XFEM is adopted to simulate the injection induced fracturing process of the naturally fractured caprock. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group

Stability analysis of a multi-phase car-following model

This paper presents a numerical stability analysis of a multi-phase car-following model under mild to severe disturbances. The results show that local stability was always conformed. An asymptotically unstable region was found for traffic in congested states. One of the previously calibrated boundary conditions for close-following situations was found to be in conflict with the stable condition required by the car-following model, which had attributed to speed oscillations during transition of the traffic from a non-congested to a congested state. Suggestions were made to the choice of model parameter values to meet the stability conditions and ways to improve the model

A metabolite specific 3D stack-of-spirals bSSFP sequence for improved bicarbonate imaging in hyperpolarized [1-13C]Pyruvate MRI

13C-bicarbonate is a crucial measure of pyruvate oxidation and TCA cycle flux, but is challenging to measure due to its relatively low concentration and thus will greatly benefit from improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To address this, we developed and investigated the feasibility of a 3D stack-of-spirals metabolite-specific balanced steady-state free precession (MS-bSSFP) sequence for improving the SNR and spatial resolution of dynamic 13C-bicarbonate imaging in hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate studies. The bicarbonate MS-bSSFP sequence was evaluated by simulations, phantoms studies, preclinical studies on five rats, brain studies on two healthy volunteers and renal study on one renal cell carcinoma patient. The simulations and phantom results showed that the bicarbonate-specific pulse had minimal perturbation of other metabolites (<1%). In the animal studies, the MS-bSSFP sequence provided an approximately 2.6-3 × improvement in 13C-bicarbonate SNR compared to a metabolite-specific gradient echo (MS-GRE) sequence without altering the bicarbonate or pyruvate kinetics, and the shorter spiral readout in the MS-bSSFP approach reduced blurring. Using the SNR ratio between MS-bSSFP and MS-GRE, the T2 values of bicarbonate and lactate in the rat kidneys were estimated as 0.5 s and 1.1 s, respectively. The in-vivo feasibility of bicarbonate MS-bSSFP sequence was demonstrated in two human brain studies and one renal study. These studies demonstrate the potential of the sequence for in-vivo applications, laying the foundation for future studies to observe this relatively low concentration metabolite with high-quality images and improve measurements of pyruvate oxidation

Influence of composite elastic modulus and lateral load pattern on deflection of anti-slide pile head

This paper develops a new method to directly determine the composite elastic modulus of the reinforced con­crete cantilever pile rather than adopt theoretical or empirical approaches. On the basis of the theory of material mecha­nism, the load-deflection equation was deduced to create the relationship between the elastic modulus and the ratio of load-deflection. The numerical modelling tests based on ANSYS separation modelling technology were carried out to determine the composite elastic modulus under different reinforcement ratio, concrete strength grade and distribution pat­tern of driving force. The results can be used to create the quantitative relationship between the composite elastic modulus and reinforcement ratio as well as concrete strength grade. Comparison amongst various lateral load pattern were made to show that the deflection of pile head is obviously affected by the lateral load pattern, and the corresponding equations of the deflection of the pile head under different lateral load pattern were proposed, which can reflect the ranking of the great influence on the deflection of the pile head, rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular lateral load pattern in order. First published online: 24 Aug 201

Recent changes of water discharge and sediment load in the Yellow River basin, China

The Yellow River basin contributes approximately 6% of the sediment load from all river systems globally, and the annual runoff directly supports 12% of the Chinese population. As a result, describing and understanding recent variations of water discharge and sediment load under global change scenarios are of considerable importance. The present study considers the annual hydrologic series of the water discharge and sediment load of the Yellow River basin obtained from 15 gauging stations (10 mainstream, 5 tributaries). The Mann-Kendall test method was adopted to detect both gradual and abrupt change of hydrological series since the 1950s. With the exception of the area draining to the Upper Tangnaihai station, results indicate that both water discharge and sediment load have decreased significantly (p<0.05). The declining trend is greater with distance downstream, and drainage area has a significant positive effect on the rate of decline. It is suggested that the abrupt change of the water discharge from the late 1980s to the early 1990s arose from human extraction, and that the abrupt change in sediment load was linked to disturbance from reservoir construction.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)43ARTICLE4541-5613

Protocol for producing hyperpolarized 13C-bicarbonate for clinical MRI of extracellular pH in aggressive tumors

Tumor acidosis is one of the hallmarks indicating the initiation and progression of various cancers. Here, we present a protocol for preparing a hyperpolarized (HP) 13C-bicarbonate tissue pH MRI imaging contrast agent to detect aggressive tumors. We describe the steps for the formulation and polarization of a precursor molecule 13C-glycerol carbonate (13C-GLC), the post-dissolution reaction, and converting HP 13C-GLC to an injectable HP 13C-bicarbonate solution. We then detail procedures for MRI data acquisition to generate tumor pH maps for assessing tumor aggressiveness. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Mu et al.1

On the conservation of the slow conformational dynamics within the amino acid kinase family: NAGK the paradigm

N-Acetyl-L-Glutamate Kinase (NAGK) is the structural paradigm for examining the catalytic mechanisms and dynamics of amino acid kinase family members. Given that the slow conformational dynamics of the NAGK (at the microseconds time scale or slower) may be rate-limiting, it is of importance to assess the mechanisms of the most cooperative modes of motion intrinsically accessible to this enzyme. Here, we present the results from normal mode analysis using an elastic network model representation, which shows that the conformational mechanisms for substrate binding by NAGK strongly correlate with the intrinsic dynamics of the enzyme in the unbound form. We further analyzed the potential mechanisms of allosteric signalling within NAGK using a Markov model for network communication. Comparative analysis of the dynamics of family members strongly suggests that the low-frequency modes of motion and the associated intramolecular couplings that establish signal transduction are highly conserved among family members, in support of the paradigm sequence→structure→dynamics→function © 2010 Marcos et al

An Intelligent Decision Support System for the Detection of Meat Spoilage using Multispectral Images

In food industry, quality and safety are considered important issues worldwide that are directly related to health and social progress. The use of vision technology for quality testing of food production has the obvious advantage of being able to continuously monitor a production using non-destructive methods, thus increasing the quality and minimizing cost. The performance of an intelligent decision support system has been evaluated in monitoring the spoilage of minced beef stored either aerobically or under modified atmosphere packaging, at different storage temperatures (0, 5, 10, and 15 °C) utilising multispectral imaging information. This paper utilises a neuro-fuzzy model which incorporates a clustering pre-processing stage for the definition of fuzzy rules, while its final fuzzy rule base is determined by competitive learning. Initially, meat samples are classified according to their storage conditions, while identification models are then utilised for the prediction of the Total Viable Counts of bacteria. The innovation of the proposed approach is further extended to the identification of the temperature used for storage, utilizing only imaging spectral information. Results indicated that spectral information in combination with the proposed modelling scheme could be considered as an alternative methodology for the accurate evaluation of meat spoilage

Effect of soundscape dimensions on acoustic comfort in urban open public spaces

Soundscapes in public squares play important roles in urban open spaces. This study aimed to discover the effect of four soundscape dimensions, namely relaxation, communication, spatiality and dynamics, on acoustic comfort in urban open public spaces. A typical city square in China was selected as a case site. Sound environment measurements and questionnaire surveys were carried out for 8 survey positions. The results showed that the perceived dominance of sound sources had a significant effect on relaxation, communication, spatiality and dynamics. Relaxation was greater when the natural sound was perceived dominantly, while it was lower when mechanical sounds or anthropogenic sounds were perceived dominantly. Acoustic comfort had a significant correlation with the soundscape dimensions and LAeq, with spearman's correlation coefficients of 0.495 (relaxation), 0.210 (sound pressure level) and 0.288 (spatiality). In terms of the differences in perceived sound types, acoustic comfort was positively correlated with relaxation when natural sound or anthropogenic sound was perceived dominantly. As spatiality increased, acoustic comfort first decreased and later increased when relaxation was higher, while there were positive correlations between acoustic comfort and relaxation under the other situations. Moreover, when spatiality or communication was higher, there were significant correlations between acoustic comfort and dynamics. According to these results, acoustic comfort can be increased as soundscape dimensions change in an urban open public space

Hidden Treasures in “Ancient” Microarrays: Gene-Expression Portrays Biology and Potential Resistance Pathways of Major Lung Cancer Subtypes and Normal Tissue

Objective: Novel statistical methods and increasingly more accurate gene annotations can transform “old” biological data into a renewed source of knowledge with potential clinical relevance. Here, we provide an in silico proof-of-concept by extracting novel information from a high-quality mRNA expression dataset, originally published in 2001, using state-of-the-art bioinformatics approaches. Methods: The dataset consists of histologically defined cases of lung adenocarcinoma (AD), squamous (SQ) cell carcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, carcinoid, metastasis (breast and colon AD), and normal lung specimens (203 samples in total). A battery of statistical tests was used for identifying differential gene expressions, diagnostic and prognostic genes, enriched gene ontologies, and signaling pathways. Results: Our results showed that gene expressions faithfully recapitulate immunohistochemical subtype markers, as chromogranin A in carcinoids, cytokeratin 5, p63 in SQ, and TTF1 in non-squamous types. Moreover, biological information with putative clinical relevance was revealed as potentially novel diagnostic genes for each subtype with specificity 93–100% (AUC = 0.93–1.00). Cancer subtypes were characterized by (a) differential expression of treatment target genes as TYMS, HER2, and HER3 and (b) overrepresentation of treatment-related pathways like cell cycle, DNA repair, and ERBB pathways. The vascular smooth muscle contraction, leukocyte trans-endothelial migration, and actin cytoskeleton pathways were overexpressed in normal tissue. Conclusion: Reanalysis of this public dataset displayed the known biological features of lung cancer subtypes and revealed novel pathways of potentially clinical importance. The findings also support our hypothesis that even old omics data of high quality can be a source of significant biological information when appropriate bioinformatics methods are used