Reservoir and Surface Facilities Coupled Through Partially and Fully Implicit Approaches

During oil production, the change of production states could cause the change of pressure losses through the production facilities, and consequently result in the variations of well-boundary-conditions in time. In the de-coupled reservoir simulators, the well boundary condition (i.e. bottom hole pressure) is estimated and fixed. Therefore, when performing simulations for production prediction, the de-coupled reservoir simulator would fail to predict the behaviors of the well boundary conditions during production. In this case, a simulator that involves the effects of surface facilities is necessary when perform production prediction . The implementation of partially implicit coupling method has faced the issues due to their inaccuracies and instabilities for complex cases. In this case, the fully implicit coupling is demanded for such complex. This research explores the concept and implementation of fully coupling method. This study focuses on investigating the effects of coupling surface and subsurface model on production forecast. This production prediction is performed under simple constraints (i.e. surface production and injection pressures) and various surface facilities. The results from running the coupled model showed that the bottom hole pressures of producers are affected by both the gas-oil ratio (GOR) and water cut. Other surface facility fittings (i.e. chock or valves) and more complex reservoir description are considered in this project as well

GlanceSeg: Real-time microaneurysm lesion segmentation with gaze-map-guided foundation model for early detection of diabetic retinopathy

Early-stage diabetic retinopathy (DR) presents challenges in clinical diagnosis due to inconspicuous and minute microangioma lesions, resulting in limited research in this area. Additionally, the potential of emerging foundation models, such as the segment anything model (SAM), in medical scenarios remains rarely explored. In this work, we propose a human-in-the-loop, label-free early DR diagnosis framework called GlanceSeg, based on SAM. GlanceSeg enables real-time segmentation of microangioma lesions as ophthalmologists review fundus images. Our human-in-the-loop framework integrates the ophthalmologist's gaze map, allowing for rough localization of minute lesions in fundus images. Subsequently, a saliency map is generated based on the located region of interest, which provides prompt points to assist the foundation model in efficiently segmenting microangioma lesions. Finally, a domain knowledge filter refines the segmentation of minute lesions. We conducted experiments on two newly-built public datasets, i.e., IDRiD and Retinal-Lesions, and validated the feasibility and superiority of GlanceSeg through visualized illustrations and quantitative measures. Additionally, we demonstrated that GlanceSeg improves annotation efficiency for clinicians and enhances segmentation performance through fine-tuning using annotations. This study highlights the potential of GlanceSeg-based annotations for self-model optimization, leading to enduring performance advancements through continual learning.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Strong but intermittent spatial covariations in tropical land temperature

Surface temperature variations across the tropics exhibit different levels of spatial coherence, yet this is poorly characterized. Years of high temperature anomalies occurring simultaneously across large geographical regions have the potential to adversely impact food production and societal well‐being. Using cluster analysis of correlations between extensive temperature measurements from the last six decades, we find a major change occurs in the late 1970s. Two spatial clusters merge to a single dominant one, and therefore, warmer years are experienced at the same time across most tropical land regions. Noting this change occurs at the same time as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation shifts a warm phase, we investigate this potential driver by a range of coupled ocean‐atmosphere‐land climate models. These simulations verify that stronger spatial tropical land temperature coherence tends to occur in Pacific Decadal Oscillation warm phases, although model differences exist in projections of how climate change may modulate this dependence

Molecular characterization of florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance in Enterococcus isolates from animals in China

Florfenicol is widely used for the treatment of bacterial infections in domestic animals. The aim of this study was to analyze the molecular mechanisms of florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance in Enterococcus isolates from anal feces of domestic animals. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) levels were determined by the agar dilution method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to analyze the distribution of the resistance genes. Whole-genome sequencing and comparative plasmid analysis was conducted to analyze the resistance gene environment. A total of 351 non-duplicated enteric strains were obtained. Among these isolates, 22 Enterococcus isolates, including 19 Enterococcus. faecium and 3 Enterococcus. faecalis, were further studied. 31 florfenicol resistance genes (13 fexA, 3 fexB, 12 optrA, and 3 poxtA genes) were identified in 15 of the 19 E. faecium isolates, and no florfenicol or oxazolidinone resistance genes were identified in 3 E. faecalis isolates. Whole-genome sequencing of E. faecium P47, which had all four florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance genes and high MIC levels for both florfenicol (256 mg/L) and linezolid (8 mg/L), revealed that it contained a chromosome and 3 plasmids (pP47-27, pP47-61, and pP47-180). The four florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance genes were all related to the insertion sequences IS1216 and located on two smaller plasmids. The genes fexB and poxtA encoded in pP47-27, while fexA and optrA encoded in the conjugative plasmid pP47-61. Comparative analysis of homologous plasmids revealed that the sequences with high identities were plasmid sequences from various Enterococcus species except for the Tn6349 sequence from a Staphylococcus aureus chromosome (MH746818.1). The current study revealed that florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance genes (fexA, fexB, poxtA, and optrA) were widely distributed in Enterococcus isolates from animal in China. The mobile genetic elements, including the insertion sequences and conjugative plasmid, played an important role in the horizontal transfer of florfenicol and oxazolidinone resistance

The impact of different rose bengal formulations on corneal thickness and the efficacy of rose bengal/green light corneal cross-linking in the rabbit eye

PURPOSE:To examine central corneal thickness (CCT) changes during in vivo rose bengal-green light corneal cross-linking (RG-CXL) and compare the CXL efficacy of different rose bengal formulations. METHODS:After epithelium removal, the right eyes of rabbits were immersed in rose bengal solution prepared by different solvents (water, phosphate buffered saline, dextran, and hydroxypropyl methylcellulos [HPMC]) for 2 or 20 minutes, then the rose bengal distribution in the corneal stroma was analyzed by confocal fluorescence detection. During the RG-CXL process, the CCT was measured at seven time points. The left eyes served as the untreated control group. Corneal enzymatic resistance and corneal biomechanics were tested to compare the RG-CXL efficacy. RESULTS:The rose bengal infiltration depths were 120 and 200 µm for the 2- and 20-minute groups, respectively. CCT increased significantly after infiltration, then decreased significantly in the first 200 seconds of irradiation and decreased slowly for the next 400 seconds. The CCT of the 20-minute groups was significantly thicker than that of the 2-minute groups (P < .0001). All RG-CXL treatments improved the corneal enzymatic resistance and corneal biomechanics, with the effects being greater in the 20-minute groups. The inclusion of 1.1% HPMC in the rose bengal formulation helped to maintain CCT during irradiation while not affecting either the infiltration of rose bengal or the efficacy of RG-CXL. CONCLUSIONS:Within the range studied, RG-CXL efficacy increased with infiltration time. The incorporation of a 20-minute infiltration of 0.1% rose bengal-1.1% HPMC into the RG-CXL procedure may further improve the safety of the treatment and its prospects for clinical use

Engineering hibiscus-like riboflavin/ZIF-8 microsphere composites to enhance transepithelial corneal cross-linking

Riboflavin-5-phosphate (RF) is the most commonly used photosensitizer in corneal cross-linking (CXL), but its hydrophilicity and negative charge limit its penetration through the corneal epithelium into the stroma. To enhance the corneal permeability of RF and promote its efficacy in the treatment of keratoconus, novel hibiscus-like RF@ZIF-8 microsphere composites [6RF@ZIF-8 NF (nanoflake)] are prepared using ZIF-8 nanomaterials as carriers, which are characterized by their hydrophobicity, positive potential, biocompatibility, high loading capacities, and large surface areas. Both hematoxylin and eosin endothelial staining and TUNEL assays demonstrate excellent biocompatibility of 6RF@ZIF-8 NF. In in vivo studies, the 6RF@ZIF-8 NF displayed excellent corneal permeation, and outstanding transepithelial CXL (TE-CXL) efficacy, slightly better than the conventional CXL protocol. Furthermore, the special hibiscus-like structures of 6RF@ZIF-8 NF meant that it has better TE-CXL efficacy than that of 6RF@ZIF-8 NP (nanoparticles) due to the larger contact area with the epithelium and the shorter RF release passage. These results suggest that the 6RF@ZIF-8 NF are promising for transepithelial corneal cross-linking, avoiding the need for epithelial debridement

Cluster analysis of karyotype similarity coefficients in Epimedium (Berberidaceae): insights in the systematics and evolution

In order to evaluate the genome evolution and systematics, karyotype analysis of mitotic metaphase chromosomes in 51 taxa of Epimedium and two species of Vancouveria was conducted. The 53 taxa were clustered, based on their karyotype similarity coefficients. Results showed that the 53 taxa studied were all diploid with 12 chromosomes (2n = 2x = 12). Each taxon had one pair of satellites located on pair I of homologous chromosomes. Moreover, the karyotype types of the 53 taxa studied were all type 1A or 2A of Stebbins. It can be concluded that the karyotypes between species are indeed very similar and the genome of Epimedium was conservative in evolution. The cluster analysis of karyotype similarity coefficients could provide valuable clues for the systematics and taxonomy of Epimedium. Results of the cluster analysis strongly supported the previous taxonomic division of E. subg. Rhizophyllum and E. subg. Epimedium. The results also showed that the interspecific relationship was closely correlated with geographical distribution in E. subg. Epimedium and the taxa native to east Asia had the highest genetic diversity in Epimedium. Finally, the origin of the modern geographical distribution of Epimedium was inferred. Results of the present study have significant scientific values in further studies on resource utilisation, taxonomy and phylogeny in Epimedium