Resveratrol attenuates chronic pulmonary embolism-related endothelial cell injury by modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, and autophagy

Objectives: Due to Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cell (PAEC) dysfunction, Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) persists even after the Pulmonary Embolism (PE) has been relieved. However, the mechanism behind this remains unclear. Method: Here, the authors incubated Human PAECs (HPAECs) with thrombin to simulate the process of arterial thrombosis. Results: CCK8 results showed a decrease in the viability of HPAECs after thrombin incubation. In addition, the expression of Tissue Factor (TF), Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1 (MCP-1), VCAM-1, ICAM-1, cleaved caspase 3, cleaved caspase 9, and Bax protein were all increased after thrombin incubation, while Bcl-2 was decreased. The effects of 3-MA treatment further suggested that autophagy might mediate the partial protective effects of Resveratrol on HPAECs. To observe the effects of Resveratrol in vivo, the authors established a Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) model by repeatedly injecting autologous blood clots into a rat's left jugular vein. The results exhibited that Mean Pulmonary Arterial Pressure (mPAP) and vessel Wall Area/Total Area (WA/TA) ratio were both decreased after Resveratrol treatment. Moreover, Resveratrol could reduce the concentration and activity of TF, vWF, P-selectin, and promote these Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) in plasma. Western blot analysis of inflammation, platelet activation, autophagy, and apoptosis-associated proteins in pulmonary artery tissue validated the results in PHAECs. Conclusions: These findings suggested that reduced autophagy, increased oxidative stress, increased platelet activation, and increased inflammation were involved in CTEPH-induced HPAEC dysfunction and the development of PH, while Resveratrol could improve PAEC dysfunction and PH

Low Resistivity Contrast Gas Bearing Formation Identification from Conventional Logs in Tight Gas Sandstones

It’s a great challenge in identifying gas bearing formation from conventional logs in tight gas sandstones due to the low resistivity contrast caused by high irreducible water saturation. Based on the difference of the principles of three kinds of porosity logs (density, neutron and acoustic logs), three porosities difference method, three porosities ratio method, correlation of neutron and density logs and the overlap method of water-filled porosity and total porosity are introduced to identify tight gas bearing reservoirs. In gas bearing formations, the difference of three porosities is higher than 0.0, the ratio of three porosities is higher than 1.0, the correlation between density and neutron logs is negative, and the water filled porosities are lower than total porosities. On the contrary, in water saturated formations, the difference of three porosities is lower than 0.0, the ratio of three porosities is lower than 1.0, the correlation between density and neutron logs is positive, and the water filled porosities are overlapped with total porosities. Considering the complexity of in-suit formation, when the proposed identification criterion are mainly meet, the pore fluid should be determined, field examples show that the proposed techniques are applicable in tight gas formation identification.Key words: Low resistivity contrast gas bearing formation; Tight gas sandstones;  Identification; Difference of three porosities; Ratio of three porosities; Correlation of neutron and density log

SIFT Saliency Analysis for Matching Repetitive Structures

The ambiguity resulting from repetitive structures in a scene presents a major challenge for image matching. This paper proposes a matching method based on SIFT feature saliency analysis to achieve robust feature matching between images with repetitive structures. The feature saliency within the reference image is estimated by analyzing feature stability and dissimilarity via Monte-Carlo simulation. In the proposed method, feature matching is performed only within the region of interest to reduce the ambiguity caused by repetitive structures. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method, especially in the presence of respective structures