Investigation of Changing Pore Topology and Porosity during Matrix Acidizing using Different Chelating Agents

Core flooding acidizing experiments on sandstone/carbonate formation are usually performed in the laboratory to observe different physical phenomena and to design acidizing stimulation jobs for the field. During the tests, some key parameters are analyzed such as pore volume required for breakthrough as well as pressure. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is commonly used in the carbonate matrix acidizing while Mud acid (HF: HCl) is usually applied during the sandstone acidizing to remove damage around the well bore. However, many problems are associated with the application of these acids, such as fast reaction, corrosion and incompatibility of HCl with some minerals (illite). To overcome these problems, chelating agents (HEDTA, EDTA and GLDA) were used in this research. Colton tight sandstone and Guelph Dolomite core samples were used in this study. The experiments usually are defined in terms of porosity, permeability, dissolution and pore topology. Effluent samples were analyzed to determine dissolved iron, sodium, potassium, calcium and other positive ions using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP). Meanwhile Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was employed to determine porosity and pore structure of the core sample. Core flood experiments on Berea sandstone cores and dolomite samples with dimensions of 1.5 in × 3 in were conducted at a flow rate of 1 cc/min under 150oF temperature. NMR and porosity analysis concluded that applied chemicals are effective in creating fresh pore spaces. ICP analysis concluded that HEDTA showed good ability to chelate calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium and iron. It can be established from the analysis that HEDTA can increase more amount of permeability as compared to other chelates

Designing of Anti keratin Antibody kit by Immuno fluorescent assay (IFA) and it's evaluation in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) pathients

Background and purpose: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a systemic auto immune Rheumatoid diseases. Auto antibodies are detected in this disease, with diagnostic and prognostic properties. One of them is AKA which reacts with the fibrous keratin in epiderm and the stratum corneum of rat esophageal epithelium. Hence at first AKA – IFA kit was designed, then its sensitivety and specificity was measured, and the titer of Anti body was evaluated in RA patients, and finaly the results of AKA were compared with that of RF test.Materials and method: AKA-IFA kit was designed with protein antigens in the stratum corneum of rat esophageal and anti human IgG conjugated to FITC.52 patients with RA (mean age 48.0 ±15.8) according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria were selected for measuring the sensitivity and specificity. The results of AKA test in sera of RA patients were campared with 23 sera of patient control groupe (mean age 32.5 ±16.4) and 30 sera of healthy control groupe (mean age 32.1 ±16.9). Inter and intra assay method was used to determinig precision of AKA kit. RF test was also performed and it's results compared with result of designed AKA kit.Results: AKA were found in 75% of patients with RA (39/52), 13% of patient control groupe (3/23) and 3.3% of healthy control groupe .(YBO)The designed AKA kit by inter and intra assay method had 100% and 98% percision respectively. The sensitiviety and specificity of AKA in (1/10) serum dilution was 75% and 92.5% respectively but sensitiviety and specificity of RF was 88.5% , 86.8% respectively. Conclusion: According to the results, IFA– AKA test could be diagnostic and confirmative for RA , And AKA in (1/10)serum dilution has the best diagnostic Value for RA. (cut off)

Experimental study of the impact of CO2 injection on the pore structure of coal: A case study from the Bowen Basin, Australia

This study investigates the impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the pore structure of coal during CO2 injection to understand the technical challenges associated with CO2 sequestration in depleted coal seam gas reservoirs. In an integrated approach, Micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) scanning, helium porosity and air permeability tests are performed on a coal sample prior to and after CO2 flooding experiments to identify both reversible and irreversible changes in cleat and fracture networks. The results indicate that irreversible changes contribute to a 43% reduction in effective porosity, which can be readily observed in the 3D model of the cleat and fracture networks constructed after CO2 flooding. At lower effective stresses, pore compressibility offsets the matrix swelling effect, resulting in improved permeability, which is beneficial for CO2 injection. Additionally, the analysis of borehole image logs of the study well reveals that most fractures and cleats terminate within coal intervals, with very few fractures extending into adjacent strata that are siltstone and fine sandstone with very low permeability.Alireza Salmachi, Abbas Zeinijahromi, Mohammed Said Algarni, Nawaf Abdullah Abahussain, Saad Abdullah Alqahtani, Alexander Badalyan, Mohammad Rezaee, Mojtaba Rajab

Improved Oil Viscosity Characterization by Low-Field NMR Using Feature Engineering and Supervised Learning Algorithms

Conventional methods for determining and monitoring the viscosity of oils are time-consuming, expensive, and in some instances, technically unfeasible. These limitations can be avoided using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) relaxometry. However, due to the chemical dissimilarity of oils and various temperatures these oils are exposed to, as well as LF-NMR equipment limitations, the commonly used models fail to perform at a satisfactory level, making them impractical for use in heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs and in environments with large temperature oscillations (e.g., mechanical systems). We present a framework that combines supervised learning algorithms with domain knowledge for synthesizing new features to improve model forecasts using only one NMR parameter - T2 geometric mean. Two principal methods were considered, support vector regression (SVR) and gradient boosted trees (GBRT). Models were trained using the experimental data from our previous studies and literature data combining conventional oils, heavy oils, and bitumens from various reservoirs in Canada and United States. The models' performance was compared against four other intelligent algorithms and four well-known empirical NMR models against which the SVR- and GBRT-based models achieved the highest statistical scores. These two models can be used for oil viscosity prediction in conventional and heavy oil reservoirs with a wide range of oil viscosities and in situations where high precision is needed, such as in the determination of viscosity of petroleum distillates or for monitoring of oil viscosity in mechanical systems. The proposed framework can also be applied to determine other physicochemical properties of oils by LF-NMR, where the application of supervised learning is usually impractical due to the limited volume of experimental data

Phylogenetic and phylodynamic study of Human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) in Iran

Human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that causes the neurological disorder HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/ tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and/or adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). Iran is one of the endemic regions of the HTLV-1 in the Middle East. To infer the origin of the virus in Iran and to follow the movements of human population and routes of virus spread to this country, phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses were performed. To this purpose, the long terminal repeat (LTR) region of HTLV-1 was used. New LTR sequences were obtained from 100 blood samples which infected with HTLV-1. Moreover, all Iranian LTR sequences which have been reported so far, were obtained from GenBank database. Sequences were aligned and maximum-likelihood and Bayesian tree topologies were explored. After identification of Iranian specific cluster, molecular-clock and coalescent models were used to estimate time to the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA). Bayesian Skyline Plots (BSP), representing population dynamics HTLV-1 strains back to the MRCA, were estimated using BEAST software. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the Iranian, Kuwaiti, German, Israelite and southern Indian isolates are located within the widespread �transcontinental� subgroup A clade of HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype a. Molecular clock analysis of the Iranian cluster dated back their respective tMRCA to be 1290 AC with a 95 HPD confidence intervals (918, 1517). BSPs indicated a rapid exponential growth rate in the effective number of infections prior the 15th century. Our results support the hypothesis of a multiple introductions of HTLV-1 into Iran with the majority of introductions occurring in prior the 15th century, at the same time the Mongol invasion of Iran. Our results further suggest that HTLV-1 introduction into Iran was facilitated by the commercial/migratory linkage as known as the ancient Silk Road which linked China to Antioch (now in Turkey). © 202

Phylogenetic and phylodynamic study of Human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) in Iran

Human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that causes the neurological disorder HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/ tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and/or adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). Iran is one of the endemic regions of the HTLV-1 in the Middle East. To infer the origin of the virus in Iran and to follow the movements of human population and routes of virus spread to this country, phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses were performed. To this purpose, the long terminal repeat (LTR) region of HTLV-1 was used. New LTR sequences were obtained from 100 blood samples which infected with HTLV-1. Moreover, all Iranian LTR sequences which have been reported so far, were obtained from GenBank database. Sequences were aligned and maximum-likelihood and Bayesian tree topologies were explored. After identification of Iranian specific cluster, molecular-clock and coalescent models were used to estimate time to the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA). Bayesian Skyline Plots (BSP), representing population dynamics HTLV-1 strains back to the MRCA, were estimated using BEAST software. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the Iranian, Kuwaiti, German, Israelite and southern Indian isolates are located within the widespread �transcontinental� subgroup A clade of HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype a. Molecular clock analysis of the Iranian cluster dated back their respective tMRCA to be 1290 AC with a 95 HPD confidence intervals (918, 1517). BSPs indicated a rapid exponential growth rate in the effective number of infections prior the 15th century. Our results support the hypothesis of a multiple introductions of HTLV-1 into Iran with the majority of introductions occurring in prior the 15th century, at the same time the Mongol invasion of Iran. Our results further suggest that HTLV-1 introduction into Iran was facilitated by the commercial/migratory linkage as known as the ancient Silk Road which linked China to Antioch (now in Turkey). © 202

Risk factors of premature coronary artery disease in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the mean age at which coronary artery disease (CAD) hase decreased in recent years in Iran. This systematic review and meta-analysis compares the prevalence of different risk factors of premature CAD (PCAD) in patients vs healthy individuals. Methods: Medline, Web of Science, Embase and Scientific Information Database were searched for studies about PCAD risk factors in Iran until 28 October 2017. Observational studies of Iranians, comparing risk factors between patients with PCAD and age- and sex-matched healthy subjects, were included. Fixed-effects and random-effects model were used for pooling data. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% CI and mean difference were used for effect size estimation among studies. Results: Twelve studies were eligible for meta-analysis. Diabetes mellitus (OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.9-3.03; P = 0.0001, I2= 25.5%; P = 0.2), family history of CAD (OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.22-3.6; P = 0.007, I2 = 86%; P = 0.0001), dyslipidaemia (OR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.15-3.64; P = 0.01, I2 = 54%; P = 0.08), smoking (OR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.11-2.46; P = 0.01, I2 = 77.2%; P = 0.000) and hypertension (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.21 to-1.50; P < 0.001, I2 = 31%, P = 0.1) associated with PCAD. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that patients with PCAD had significantly lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and significantly higher levels of triglycerides compared to healthy subjects (MD: −2.56, 95% CI: −3.54 to −1.58, P < 0.001, I2 = 42%, P = 0.01 and MD: 21.17, 95% CI: 14.73-27.62, P < 0.001, I2 = 80.12%, P < 0.001, respectively). It should be noted that although high levels of heterogeneity in LDL and HDL values among the studies were observed, when dyslipidaemia was studied as a binary variable, no significant heterogeneity among studies was observed. Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus, family history of CAD, dyslipidaemia, smoking, and hypertension were significantly and positively associated with CAD in young adults compared to healthy age- and sex-matched population in Iran. © 2019 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundatio

Prevalence of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Ramshir, Iran; an Epidemiological Study

Aims Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a prevalent parasitological disease with diverse clinical manifestations in Iran. Therefore, the present retrospective study carried out to describe the demographic features of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ramshir, Iran. Materials & Methods This descriptive study was performed on 136 cutaneous leishmaniasis patients whose data were recorded in the Ramshir health center during 2006-9. Demographic information of patients including age, sex, habitat and sites of lesions, month and years of incidence were recorded. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software. Findings Totally 79 patients (58.1%) resided in urban areas and the born to 9 years (49.3%) was recognized as the most infected age group. Hands (41.2%) had the highest rates of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesions followed by face (36.0%) and foot (22.8%). The maximum number of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesions was reported in March. Conclusion As cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ramshir seemed to be an endemic rural type, the appropriate preventing measures regarding to the rural cutaneous leishmaniasis should be considered to decrease incidence of the disease in the region

T regulatory markers expression in unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion

Objective: To evaluate expression of glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (GITR), cytotoxic T lymphocyte-Associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and IL-10 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 20 women with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) compared to 20 normal non-pregnant women (NNP) during luteal phase in the window of implantation.Methods: Quantitative real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed using the Taqman method for expression of GITR and SYBR Green method for expression of CTLA-4 and IL-10.Results: Expression of CTLA-4 in the NNPs (median; interquartile range; 3; 1.8-10) was significantly higher than the URSAs (0.72; 0.26-3.81, p = 0.015). Expression of GITR in the NNPs (53; 10-139) was significantly higher than the URSAs (6; 3-27, p = 0.005). However, IL-10 expression in the URSAs was significantly higher than the NNPs, did not meet a significant value. A significant correlation was found between CTLA-4 and GITR expression in the study population (p = 0.0001).Conclusions: Expression of CTLA-4 and GITR were significantly down-regulated in the URSAs compared to NNPs at the window of implantation, which shows the essential role of Treg cells in creating an immunological privileged site for fetus as an allograft at the maternal-fetal interface by high expression levels of CTLA-4 and GITR during a normal pregnancy. © 2015 Iran University of Medical Sciences