Microscopic remaining oil distribution and quantitative analysis of polymer flooding based on CT scanning

  To investigate the distribution characteristics of remaining oil after polymer flooding, the core samples of different stages of water flooding and polymer flooding were scanned and imaged based on CT scanning technology. The oil, water and rock were divided into three phases by image analysis method, and the corresponding digital cores were constructed. Through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the two-dimensional image and three-dimensional structure at the same position, the quantitative characterization of the micro-residual oil distribution in different displacement stages is finally realized. The results show that, the polymer flooding can significantly improve the sweep efficiency, which can increase the oil recovery by 11.45% compared with water flooding. The remaining oil in the pore is mainly network and multiple, and mainly network distribution at the stage of water flooding. After adding polymer, the proportion of multiple remaining oil increases significantly and becomes the main occurrence state of remaining oil. Affected by Jamin effect, multiple residual oil in the pore is difficult to be recovered because it cannot pass through the throat. The radius of this part of remaining oil is usually 1.34-1.5 times that of the throat radius.Cited as: Wang, X., Yin, H., Zhao, X., Li, B., Yang, Y. Microscopic remaining oil distribution and quantitative analysis of polymer flooding based on CT scanning. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2019, 3(4): 448-456, doi:10.26804/ager.2019.04.1

Measurement of the vertical atmospheric density profile from the X-ray Earth occultation of the Crab Nebula with Insight-HXMT

In this paper, the X-ray Earth occultation (XEO) of the Crab Nebula is investigated by using the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT). The pointing observation data on the 30th September, 2018 recorded by the Low Energy X-ray telescope (LE) of Insight-HXMT are selected and analyzed. The extinction lightcurves and spectra during the X-ray Earth occultation process are extracted. A forward model for the XEO lightcurve is established and the theoretical observational signal for lightcurve is predicted. The atmospheric density model is built with a scale factor to the commonly used MSIS density profile within a certain altitude range. A Bayesian data analysis method is developed for the XEO lightcurve modeling and the atmospheric density retrieval. The posterior probability distribution of the model parameters is derived through the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm with the NRLMSISE-00 model and the NRLMSIS 2.0 model as basis functions and the best-fit density profiles are retrieved respectively. It is found that in the altitude range of 105--200 km, the retrieved density profile is 88.8% of the density of NRLMSISE-00 and 109.7% of the density of NRLMSIS 2.0 by fitting the lightcurve in the energy range of 1.0--2.5 keV based on XEOS method. In the altitude range of 95--125 km, the retrieved density profile is 81.0% of the density of NRLMSISE-00 and 92.3% of the density of NRLMSIS 2.0 by fitting the lightcurve in the energy range of 2.5--6.0 keV based on XEOS method. In the altitude range of 85--110 km, the retrieved density profile is 87.7% of the density of NRLMSISE-00 and 101.4% of the density of NRLMSIS 2.0 by fitting the lightcurve in the energy range of 6.0--10.0 keV based on XEOS method. This study demonstrates that the XEOS from the X-ray astronomical satellite Insight-HXMT can provide an approach for the study of the upper atmosphere.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in Atmospheric Measurement Technique

A selective up-sampling method applied upon unbalanced data for flare prediction: potential to improve model performance

The Spaceweather HMI Active Region Patch (SHARP) parameters have been widely used to develop flare prediction models. The relatively small number of strong-flare events leads to an unbalanced dataset that prediction models can be sensitive to the unbalanced data and might lead to bias and limited performance. In this study, we adopted the logistic regression algorithm to develop a flare prediction model for the next 48 h based on the SHARP parameters. The model was trained with five different inputs. The first input was the original unbalanced dataset; the second and third inputs were obtained by using two widely used sampling methods from the original dataset, while the fourth input was the original dataset but accompanied by a weighted classifier. Based on the distribution properties of strong-flare occurrences related to SHARP parameters, we established a new selective up-sampling method and applied it to the mixed-up region (referred to as the confusing distribution areas consisting of both the strong-flare events and non-strong-flare events) to pick up the flare-related samples and add small random values to them and finally create a large number of flare-related samples that are very close to the ground truth. Thus, we obtained the fifth balanced dataset aiming to 1) promote the forecast capability in the mixed-up region and 2) increase the robustness of the model. We compared the model performance and found that the selective up-sampling method has potential to improve the model performance in strong-flare prediction with its F1 score reaching 0.5501 ± 0.1200, which is approximately 22% − 33% higher than other imbalance mitigation schemes

Phytochemical compositions, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities analysis of extracts from <i>Vaccinium bracteatum</i> Thunb. leaves

Vaccinium bracteatum Thunb. is an edible plant, which has been used for many food products and is also a resource of traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of ethanol extracts from its leaves were investigated. To study the characteristic compositions, twelve compounds of extracts accumulated by the D-101 macroporous adsorption resin (VBE) were identified by HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI/MS techniques, including chlorogenic acid and its isomers, and eight flavonoid compounds. The contents of total flavonoids, orientin and isoorientin in the accumulated part were 601.4, 44.7, and 96.1 mg/g, respectively, which were far more than that in the raw materials. Furthermore, the antioxidant activities were estimated by DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays, which showed that the high content accompanied with strong antioxidant activities. Besides, compared to the same type of bamboo leaves (AOB), the accumulated part possesses better activities. At the last, the antimicrobial activities of VBE were assessed by a serial two-fold dilution assay, the results showed that it had good antimicrobial activities. Taken together, extracts from Vaccinium bracteaturn Thunb. leaves have better antioxidant activities, which can be used as a natural antioxidant

AS160 deficiency causes whole-body insulin resistance via composite effects in multiple tissues.

AS160 (Akt substrate of 160 kDa) is a Rab GTPase-activating protein implicated in insulin control of GLUT4 (glucose transporter 4) trafficking. In humans, a truncation mutation (R363X) in one allele of AS160 decreased the expression of the protein and caused severe postprandial hyperinsulinaemia during puberty. To complement the limited studies possible in humans, we generated an AS160-knockout mouse. In wild-type mice, AS160 expression is relatively high in adipose tissue and soleus muscle, low in EDL (extensor digitorum longus) muscle and detectable in liver only after enrichment. Despite having lower blood glucose levels under both fasted and random-fed conditions, the AS160-knockout mice exhibited insulin resistance in both muscle and liver in a euglycaemic clamp study. Consistent with this paradoxical phenotype, basal glucose uptake was higher in AS160-knockout primary adipocytes and normal in isolated soleus muscle, but their insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and overall GLUT4 levels were markedly decreased. In contrast, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and GLUT4 levels were normal in EDL muscle. The liver also contributes to the AS160-knockout phenotype via hepatic insulin resistance, elevated hepatic expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase isoforms and pyruvate intolerance, which are indicative of increased gluconeogenesis. Overall, as well as its catalytic function, AS160 influences expression of other proteins, and its loss deregulates basal and insulin-regulated glucose homoeostasis, not only in tissues that normally express AS160, but also by influencing liver function

Odorranalectin Is a Small Peptide Lectin with Potential for Drug Delivery and Targeting

BACKGROUND: Lectins are sugar-binding proteins that specifically recognize sugar complexes. Based on the specificity of protein-sugar interactions, different lectins could be used as carrier molecules to target drugs specifically to different cells which express different glycan arrays. In spite of lectin's interesting biological potential for drug targeting and delivery, a potential disadvantage of natural lectins may be large size molecules that results in immunogenicity and toxicity. Smaller peptides which can mimic the function of lectins are promising candidates for drug targeting. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Small peptide with lectin-like behavior was screened from amphibian skin secretions and its structure and function were studied by NMR, NMR-titration, SPR and mutant analysis. A lectin-like peptide named odorranalectin was identified from skin secretions of Odorrana grahami. It was composed of 17 aa with a sequence of YASPKCFRYPNGVLACT. L-fucose could specifically inhibit the haemagglutination induced by odorranalectin. (125)I-odorranalectin was stable in mice plasma. In experimental mouse models, odorranalectin was proved to mainly conjugate to liver, spleen and lung after i.v. administration. Odorranalectin showed extremely low toxicity and immunogenicity in mice. The small size and single disulfide bridge of odorranalectin make it easy to manipulate for developing as a drug targeting system. The cyclic peptide of odorranalectin disclosed by solution NMR study adopts a beta-turn conformation stabilized by one intramolecular disulfide bond between Cys6-Cys16 and three hydrogen bonds between Phe7-Ala15, Tyr9-Val13, Tyr9-Gly12. Residues K5, C6, F7, C16 and T17 consist of the binding site of L-fucose on odorranalectin determined by NMR titration and mutant analysis. The structure of odorranalectin in bound form is more stable than in free form. CONCLUSION: These findings identify the smallest lectin so far, and show the application potential of odorranalectin for drug delivery and targeting. It also disclosed a new strategy of amphibian anti-infection