CO2geological sequestration modelling and injection induced fracturing analysis of the caprock

In geological sequestration, CO2is injected under high pressure into deep underground rock formations, including deep saline aquifers. This paper presents the invading supercritical CO2-brine two-phase numerical model to describe CO2flow and transport processes in deep saline aquifers. The effects of anisotropy and different kinds of heterogeneity like horizontal and vertical layers and also existence of barriers between layers on the CO2flow and transport in a saturated porous media with brine are investigated using the presented two-phase model. Following to simulation results, it can be obtained that the permeability of the rock formations and the permeability anisotropy should be considered as the most important parameters in CO2flow and transport processes and its distribution in the rock formations. Furthermore, the capillary pressure on the buoyancy-driven flow of CO2is analyzed, and the XFEM is adopted to simulate the injection induced fracturing process of the naturally fractured caprock. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group

Normal mode analysis on three different structures of a duplex DNA d(CGCGAATTCGCG)

Normal mode analysis in dihedral angle space was carried out on two X-ray crystal structures and one model structure responded to the same sequence of duplex DNA: d(CGCGAATTCGCG). Comparing these results indicates that it is reliable and meaningful to carry out normal mode analysis on model structures. The reliability is greater except for the ends of helix

Genes Underlying Positive Influence Of Prenatal Environmental Enrichment And Negative Influence Of Prenatal Earthquake Simulation And Corrective Influence Of Chinese Herbalmedicine On Rat Offspring: Irf7 And Ninj2

Background: Prenatal environmental enrichment (EE) has been proven to positively affect but prenatal stress negatively influence the physiological and psychological processes in animals, whose trans-generational genetic mechanism remains unclearly defined. We aimed to investigate and find out key genes underlying the positive-negative effects derived from prenatal interventions.Materials and Methods: Pregnant rats were randomized into EE group (EEG), earthquake simulation group (ESG), herbal group (HG) received herbal supplements in feed after earthquake simulation, and control group (CG).Results: Light Box Defecation Test (LBDT) showed EEG offspring presented less fecal pellets than CG offspring, ESG’s more than CG’s, and HG’s less than ESG (p’s<0.05). Open-field Test (OFT) score of EEG was higher than CG offspring, of ESG’s was lower than CG’s, and HG’s higher than ESG’s. Irf7 and Ninj were screened, which were up-regulated in EEG, down-regulated in ESG (FC<0.5), and were neutralized in HG. Prenatal EE could positively promote the nervous system development, prenatal earthquake simulation could retard the nervous system development and Chinese herbal remedy (JKSQW) which could correct the retardation.Conclusion: The negative-positive prenatal effect could contribute to altered gene expression of Irf7 and Ninj2 which also could play a key role in the improving function of JKSQWfor the kidneys.Keywords: Prenatal stress; Earthquake simulation; Light Box Defecation Test; Open-field Test; Irf7; Ninj

Green tea polyphenols ameliorate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease through upregulating AMPK activation in high fat fed Zucker fatty rats

© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. To investigate protective effects and molecular mechanisms of green tea polyphenols (GTP) on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Zucker fatty (ZF) rats. METHODS Male ZF rats were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 2 wk then treated with GTP (200 mg/kg) or saline (5 mL/kg) for 8 wk, with Zucker lean rat as their control. At the end of experiment, serum and liver tissue were collected for measurement of metabolic parameters, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), inflammatory cytokines and hepatic triglyceride and liver histology. Immunoblotting was used to detect phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP1c). RESULTS Genetically obese ZF rats on a HFD presented with metabolic features of hepatic pathological changes comparable to human with NAFLD. GTP intervention decreased weight gain (10.1%, P = 0.052) and significantly lowered visceral fat (31.0%, P < 0.01). Compared with ZF-controls, GTP treatment significantly reduced fasting serum insulin, glucose and lipids levels. Reduction in serum ALT and AST levels (both P < 0.01) were observed in GTP-treated ZF rats. GTP treatment also attenuated the elevated TNFα and IL-6 in the circulation. The increased hepatic TG accumulation and cytoplasmic lipid droplet were attenuated by GTP treatment, associated with significantly increased expression of AMPK-Thr172 (P < 0.05) and phosphorylated ACC and SREBP1c (both P < 0.05), indicating diminished hepatic lipogenesis and triglycerides out flux from liver in GTP treated rats. CONCLUSION The protective effects of GTP against HFD-induced NAFLD in genetically obese ZF rats are positively correlated to reduction in hepatic lipogenesis through upregulating the AMPK pathway

Topological Quantum Phase Transition in Synthetic Non-Abelian Gauge Potential

The method of synthetic gauge potentials opens up a new avenue for our understanding and discovering novel quantum states of matter. We investigate the topological quantum phase transition of Fermi gases trapped in a honeycomb lattice in the presence of a synthetic non- Abelian gauge potential. We develop a systematic fermionic effective field theory to describe a topological quantum phase transition tuned by the non-Abelian gauge potential and ex- plore its various important experimental consequences. Numerical calculations on lattice scales are performed to compare with the results achieved by the fermionic effective field theory. Several possible experimental detection methods of topological quantum phase tran- sition are proposed. In contrast to condensed matter experiments where only gauge invariant quantities can be measured, both gauge invariant and non-gauge invariant quantities can be measured by experimentally generating various non-Abelian gauges corresponding to the same set of Wilson loops

Analysis of Kif5b Expression during Mouse Kidney Development

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Visualization of vortex motion in FeAs-based BaFe<inf>1.9</inf>Ni <inf>0.1</inf>As<inf>2</inf> single crystal by means of magneto-optical imaging

Superconductivity has been found in newly discovered iron-based compounds. This paper studies the motion of magnetic vortices in BaFe1.9Ni 0.1As2 single crystal by means of the magneto-optical imaging technique. A series of magneto-optical images reflecting magnetic flux distribution at the crystal surface were taken when the crystal was zero-field cooled to 10 K. The behavior of the vortices, including penetration into and expulsion from the single crystal with increasing and decreasing external fields, respectively, is discussed. The motion behavior is similar to that observed in high-Tc superconducting cuprates with strong vortex pinning; however, the flux-front is irregular due to randomly distributed defects in the crystal. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

On the selection and design of proteins and peptide derivatives for the production of photoluminescent, red-emitting gold quantum clusters

Novel pathways of the synthesis of photoluminescent gold quantum clusters (AuQCs) using biomolecules as reactants provide biocompatible products for biological imaging techniques. In order to rationalize the rules for the preparation of red-emitting AuQCs in aqueous phase using proteins or peptides, the role of different organic structural units was investigated. Three systems were studied: proteins, peptides, and amino acid mixtures, respectively. We have found that cysteine and tyrosine are indispensable residues. The SH/S-S ratio in a single molecule is not a critical factor in the synthesis, but on the other hand, the stoichiometry of cysteine residues and the gold precursor is crucial. These observations indicate the importance of proper chemical behavior of all species in a wide size range extending from the atomic distances (in the AuI-S semi ring) to nanometer distances covering the larger sizes of proteins assuring the hierarchical structure of the whole self-assembled system

Direct observation of local K variation and its correlation to electronic inhomogeneity in (Ba1-xKx)Fe2As2 Pnictide

Local fluctuations in the distribution of dopant atoms are a suspected cause of nanoscale electronic disorder or phase separation observed within the pnictide superconductors. Atom probe tomography results present the first direct observations of dopant nano-clustering in a K-doped 122-phase pnictides. First-principles calculations suggest the coexistence of static magnetism and superconductivity on a lattice parameter length scale over a large range of doping concentrations. Collectively, our results provide evidence for a mixed scenario of phase coexistence and phase separation originating from variation of dopant atom experiments distroibutions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures and 1 table, accepted by Physical Review Letter 201

Monosaccharide composition of polysaccharides of borojo from tropical rain forest

2010-2011 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe