Characterization and analysis of Devonian shales as related to release of gaseous hydrocarbons

Activities are summarized for a program to determine the relationships between shale characteristics, hydrocarbon gas content, and well location to provide a sound basis for defining the productive capacity of the Eastern Devonian shale deposits and for guiding research, development, and demonstration projects to enhance the recovery of natural gas from the shale deposits. The program includes a number of elemental tasks as a part of the Resource Inventory and Shale Characterization subprojects of ERDA's Eastern Shale Project and is designed to provide large quantities of support data for that project. Approximately 1000 core samples of gas bearing Eastern Devonian shale will be examined in the program. After the characterization data for individual wells have been compiled, a regression-type analysis for pattern recognition will be performed to establish the interrelationship between the shale characteristics, the hydrocarbon gas content, and well locations from which the samples were obtained. A milestone chart depicting the planned progress on the various tasks is given, and the status of the sampling and characterization tasks are summarized. The program is approximately on schedule and the requirements set by the milestone chart will likely be met by the next quarterly report. Some unforeseen difficulties in certain characterization efforts and anomalies encountered in the data have caused unexpected delays. Most of these experimental difficulties, however, have been overcome and no serious problems are expected in future investigations

Rhinitis associated with asthma is distinct from rhinitis alone : The ARIA-MeDALL hypothesis

Asthma, rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis (AD) are interrelated clinical phenotypes that partly overlap in the human interactome. The concept of "one-airway-one-disease," coined over 20 years ago, is a simplistic approach of the links between upper- and lower-airway allergic diseases. With new data, it is time to reassess the concept. This article reviews (i) the clinical observations that led to Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA), (ii) new insights into polysensitization and multimorbidity, (iii) advances in mHealth for novel phenotype definitions, (iv) confirmation in canonical epidemiologic studies, (v) genomic findings, (vi) treatment approaches, and (vii) novel concepts on the onset of rhinitis and multimorbidity. One recent concept, bringing together upper- and lower-airway allergic diseases with skin, gut, and neuropsychiatric multimorbidities, is the "Epithelial Barrier Hypothesis." This review determined that the "one-airway-one-disease" concept does not always hold true and that several phenotypes of disease can be defined. These phenotypes include an extreme "allergic" (asthma) phenotype combining asthma, rhinitis, and conjunctivitis. Rhinitis alone and rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity represent two distinct diseases with the following differences: (i) genomic and transcriptomic background (Toll-Like Receptors and IL-17 for rhinitis alone as a local disease; IL-33 and IL-5 for allergic and non-allergic multimorbidity as a systemic disease), (ii) allergen sensitization patterns (mono- or pauci-sensitization versus polysensitization), (iii) severity of symptoms, and (iv) treatment response. In conclusion, rhinitis alone (local disease) and rhinitis with asthma multimorbidity (systemic disease) should be considered as two distinct diseases, possibly modulated by the microbiome, and may be a model for understanding the epidemics of chronic and autoimmune diseases.Peer reviewe