Monitoring CO2 at an enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture and storage project, Farnsworth unit, Texas

The Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) is one of seven large scale CO2 sequestration projects sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, each with the goal of permanently sequestering at least 1,000,000 metric tonnes of CO2. The SWP project is at an active Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) project in a mature waterflood in the Farnsworth Unit, Texas, which is undergoing conversion to a CO2 flood. CO2 for this project is anthropogenically sourced from a fertilizer plant in Borger, Texas and an ethanol plant in Liberal, Kansas. Currently, the field has 13 CO2 injectors and has sequestered 386,695 metric tonnes of CO2 between October 2013 and December of 2015. Major goals of the project include optimizing the EOR/sequestration balance, ensuring storage permanence, and developing best practices for carbon storage utilizing man-made CO2. The Farnsworth Unit converts several inverted 5-spot patterns to CO2 approximately every year since 2011, allowing for rigorous testing of CO2 monitoring technologies since each new set of patterns provides a new opportunity to record zero CO2 baseline data, mid-flood data, and data from fully flooded patterns. The project has acquired multiple data sets for monitoring CO2 plume growth, and storage security including a baseline 42 square mile 3D seismic survey, baseline and repeat 3D vertical seismic profile (VSP) surveys centered on three CO2 injection wells, baseline and repeat cross-well tomography surveys between injector/producer pairs, a borehole passive seismic array to monitor for induced seismicity, distributed temperature arrays to measure variations in borehole temperature, and bottom-hole pressure and temperature sensors to monitor subsurface movement of CO2. The 3D VSP and cross-well data with repeat surveys have allowed for direct comparisons of the reservoir prior to CO2 injection and at eight months into injection, with a goal of periodically imaging the CO2 plume as it migrates away from injection wells. Additional repeat surveys at regular intervals will continue to refine direct CO2 imaging as production and injection data are integrated with newly acquired and interpreted data, and as models are regularly updated. Additional surface and near-surface monitoring methods are used to evaluate CO2 migration out of the reservoir. In order to verify that leakage of CO2 to the surface does not occur, CO2 soil flux measurements from approximately 90 surface locations are recorded quarterly and compared to the baseline data collected monthly during the first project year. In addition, an eddy covariance tower is located on site to monitor atmospheric CO2 flux and identify any potential point-source leakage (e.g. wellbores). Additional Farnsworth Unit monitoring focuses on groundwater chemistry, reservoir fluids chemistry, and aqueous- and gas-phase tracer studies. The regular CO2 soil and eddy flux, aqueous- and vapor-phase tracer, and groundwater chemistry studies have verified that CO2 (and reservoir fluid) leakage to the surface and/or groundwater has not occurred through December of 2015. Funding for this project is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FC26-05NT42591. Additional support has been provided by site operator Chaparral Energy, L.L.

The Effect of Photobiomodulation on the Treatment of Hereditary Mitochondrial Diseases

Introduction: Despite a wide variety of clinical presentations in hereditary Mitochondrial Diseases, muscle fatigue is a common theme and impairs a patient’s quality of life and ability to function. Current treatments are only supportive and include nutritional supplementation and physical therapy. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) using low-intensity, narrow spectrum light in the red/near infrared (NIR) range, from a low-level laser or light-emitting diode sources, enhances mitochondrial function in preclinical and clinical studies on a range of conditions. However, little research has been done on the effectiveness of photobiomodulation in hereditary mitochondrial disorders. Methods: We performed a scoping review of the evidence of the beneficial effects of photobiomodulation for treating the muscle-related symptoms of hereditary mitochondrial disease. Results: No studies regarding photobiomodulation in hereditary mitochondrial disease were identified. However, in other clinical conditions featuring acquired mitochondrial impairment, we identified studies that suggested improved function, although sample sizes were small in number and statistical power. Conclusion: There is emerging evidence of efficacy for PBMT for diseases involving acquired mitochondrial insufficiency. We identified no published research on PBMT in hereditary mitochondrial disease, but this review confirms a theoretical rationale for a positive effect and suggests further research

Low effective organizational strategies in visual memory performance of unmedicated alcoholics during early abstinence

Objective: Alcohol-dependent patients in early abstinence show an impairment of cognitive functions which can be seen in poor implementation of newly learned skills for avoiding relapse. Executive dysfunction may persist during abstinence in alcohol-dependent persons, thus mitigating long-term abstinence. This study assessed visual memory function and choice of organizational strategies in alcoholics, as these are major factors necessary to implement ongoing behavior changes which are required for maintaining abstinence

La Walkyria

De cada obra s'ha digitalitzat un programa sencer. De la resta s'han digitalitzat les parts que són diferents.Director, Taijiro Jimori ; director d'escena, Werner M. EsserEmpresa: Juan A. Pamia

Enhanced Immune Responses by Skin Vaccination with Influenza Subunit Vaccine in Young Hosts

Skin has gained substantial attention as a vaccine target organ due to its immunological properties, which include a high density of professional antigen presenting cells (APCs). Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this vaccination route not only in animal models but also in adults. Young children represent a population group that is at high risk from influenza infection. As a result, this group could ben- efit significantly from influenza vaccine delivery approaches through the skin and the improved immune response it can induce. In this study, we compared the immune responses in young BALB/c mice upon skin delivery of influenza vaccine with vaccination by the conventional intramuscular route. Young mice that received 5 fLg of H1N1 A/Ca/07/09 influenza subunit vaccine using MN demonstrated an improved serum antibody response (IgG1 and IgG2a) when compared to the young IM group, accompanied by higher numbers of influenza-specific antibody secreting cells (ASCs) in the bone marrow. In addition, we observed increased activation of follicular helper T cells and formation of germinal centers in the regional lymph nodes in the MN immunized group, rapid clearance of the virus from their lungs as well as complete survival, compared with partial protection observed in the IM-vaccinated group. Our results support the hypothesis that influenza vaccine delivery through the skin would be beneficial for protecting the high-risk young population from influenza infection