Tectonic Stresses and Injection-Induced Fault Slip Assessment

Understanding the Earth's stress state at depth is fundamental to a wide variety of subsurface projects, ranging from seismology projects to studies on underground energy storage or extraction. The primary objectives of this dissertation are first to constrain the state of stress by combining drilling-induced wellbore failures and earthquake focal mechanisms, and second to use a probabilistic approach for stresses, pore pressures and rock properties to assess injection-induced fault slip in unconventional and geothermal resources. Knowledge of the state of stress in an area helps us understand the seismic hazard and crustal-scale seismicity pattern issues (>10 km); the energy development (3-6 km) issues from hydrocarbon to geothermal resources; the reservoir scale issues (0.1-1 km) of induced seismicity arising from energy extraction; and borehole scale engineering issues (up to 100 m) related to casing shear and borehole stability. As part of this dissertation, I measure the orientation and constrain the magnitude of present-day stresses in the Dezful Embayment within Iran’s Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB), Alberta's Fox Creek area, the Montney Formation in Alberta and British Columbia, and Alberta's Grande Prairie area. The ZFTB in southwest Iran is one of the world's most seismically active areas. The Dezful Embayment (DE) within the ZFTB is also one of the richest hydrocarbon regions in the world, hosting many onshore hydrocarbon fields. Western Canada is also home to some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, including unconventional resources such as the Montney and Duvernay Formations. The injection-induced earthquakes in western Canada have some of the largest magnitudes reported worldwide, such as those near Fort St. John in British Columbia and Fox Creek in Alberta. Considering the economic importance of the region and the seismic activity in these areas, it is important that we gain a better understanding of the state of stress in ZFTB and Western Canada. It is noteworthy that tectonic stresses have not been studied on such a large scale in these regions. To understand the state of stress in each region, two datasets were used. The first included petrophysical data from drilled wells, and the second contained natural and injection-induced earthquake focal mechanisms. Formal stress inversion analysis of the tectonic earthquake focal mechanisms in ZFTB demonstrates that there is currently a compressional stress state in the basement below the sediments. The seismologically determined SHmax direction is NE-SW, nearly perpendicular to the strike of most faults in the region. However, borehole geomechanics analysis in the ZFTB region using rock strength and drilling evidence leads to the counterintuitive result that the shallow state of stress is a normal/strike-slip regime. Based on Coulomb faulting theory, these results indicate that a reverse fault regime with a maximum horizontal principal direction of SW-NE is unfavorable for slip along the N-S strike-slip basement Kazerun Fault System. In Alberta and British Columbia, a similar approach but using injection-induced earthquakes indicates that strike-slip faulting with NE-SW SHmax directions dominates the region. It has been observed that relative stress magnitudes are primarily related to pore pressure variation in Alberta and British Columbia. In the compartmentalized Montney Formation of western Alberta and northeastern British Columbia, these characteristics are evident. Stress measurements will always contain some level of uncertainty due to either inadequate data or inherent uncertainties. These uncertainties impact any project in which the stress plays a central role at different scales. Therefore, probabilistic methods are necessary to quantify the impact of these uncertainties on each project. The uncertainty invariably associated with the state of stress measurements affects the analysis of subsurface events such as seismicity induced by hydraulic fracture (HF) stimulation. HF for energy extraction from underground conventional, unconventional, and geothermal resources is typically accompanied by anthropogenic seismicity. Increasing pore pressure by injecting fluid into naturally fractured media leads to slip/shearing of faults and fractures, resulting in detectable earthquakes. The magnitude and rate of such human-made earthquakes are directly related to stress orientations and magnitudes. This uncertainty in the stress state, plus a variety of uncontrollable subsurface parameters including the original pore pressure, size, and density of pre-existing faults/fractures, fault/fracture orientation, and frictional strength make up the most important factors affecting the probabilistic assessment of fault/fracture slip. In HF treatments, accounting for parametric uncertainty by using appropriate statistical probability distributions leads to better decision-making/risk management for user-controlled parameters such as injection pressure. Historically quiet areas in Alberta and eastern British Columbia have experienced noticeably higher seismicity rates over the last decade. Shale gas and shale oil production from the unconventional plays in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin has grown with the use of multi-stage HF (Hydraulic Fracture stimulation) technology. Supported by high oil prices and new HF technology availability, development started in 2005 and accelerated significantly in 2011; accordingly, the seismicity rate has increased. The anthropogenic seismicity for this area includes some of the largest MW values reported globally, including events near Fort St. John of MW 4.6 on August 17, 2015, and MW 4.2 on November 30, 2018. Most of these occur during HF treatments and are spatially and temporally restricted to the region around the wells at a scale of 1-2 km, rather than being regional at a scale of more than two kilometers. As part of this dissertation, the probability assessment of fault/fracture slip due to fluid injection has been used and implemented in three different case studies. These include Alberta’s Fox Creek area, the Montney Formation of western Alberta and northeastern British Columbia, and Alberta’s Grande Prairie area. In each case study, geomechanics parameters are expressed as probability distributions using different datasets from borehole petrophysical data to injection-induced focal mechanisms. Monte Carlo simulations are applied to assess the potential slip tendency of local faults. The cumulative distribution function of critical pore pressure to cause slip on each known fault is developed by using analyses of the Mohr-Coulomb shear parameters and local tectonic stress state. Injection-induced seismicity in the region is a formation-related phenomenon governed by the in-situ formation conditions and pre-existing fault patterns. A map is developed that can be used to predict which area of the Montney Formation is at greater risk of earthquakes caused by fracking. Probabilistic maps of fault stability can provide a basis for future fluid injection projects, such as wastewater disposal, hydraulic fracture stimulation, CO2 storage, and geothermal energy extraction

Tajikistan Contemporary Poetry Themes

Tajik poetry deviated from its mainstream with the victory of the communist revolution. The imposition of Russian language and the new communist literature made Tajik poetry to take influence from the works of Russian romantic poets and to have new themes. Meanwhile, it benefited from the ancient Persian poets and one can see the rhetorical figures such as metaphor, simile, conflict, pun, ?h?m, proverb, husn-i ta'lil (good reason), imagery and paradox in the works of Tajik poets. Additionally, B?del's poem has also had a clear influence on the poetry of some contemporary poets. Tajik poetry is very close to the informal language of the people, and in these poems, we encounter words that are specific to the Tajik dialect. The first Persian she'r-e now (new poetry) in Central Asia was written by Sadriddin Ayni.In Tajik poetry, we occasionally encounter with recurrences, the nostalgia of the missed glory, the oppression of the nation, and the unwanted fate of their ancestors. In these poems, the rely on emotion and content, and the epic and passionate tone prevail other poetic performances. The present study gives a general overview of the poetry of some Tajik poets

Optimization of Gamma Aminobutyric Acid Production from Various Protein Hydrolysates by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MCM4

Background and Objective: Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid with various physiological properties that is used as synthetic drugs for curing anxiety, acute stress, and hypertension. In the recent years, producing the GABA-enriched foods and supplements via biological methods has gained much attention. Material and Methods: In this study, at first, one factor at a time (OFAT) approach was used to study the effect of various kinds of protein hydrolysates (soy protein isolate (SPI), whey protein concentration (WPC) and casein) at different concentrations, fermentation time (24 to 72h) and inoculum size (1, 3, and 5% v/v) on GABA synthesis. Then, the most effective parameters i.e., soy protein hydrolysate (SPH) concentration, inoculum size, and fermentation time were further employed by central composite design (CCD)-based response surface methodology (RSM) for GABA synthesis by Lactobacillus plantarum MCM4. Results and Conclusion: Among different protein hydrolysates, SPH was found to be more suitable for GABA synthesis. Moreover, higher GABA content was obtained when soy protein with extended enzymatic hydrolysis (SPH6) was used as the substrate. The polynomial mathematic model could predict the GABA synthesis successfully. The optimization using CCD indicated that the maximum GABA syntehsis yield (19.387 mg GABA/100 mL) was achieved under optimium conditions (fermentaion time of 28.99 h, inoculum size of 3.65% v/v, and SPH6 concnetration of 3.89% w/v). Overall, L. plantarum MCM4 was found to be a novel LAB species to produce GABA from inexpensive sources

Evidence-Based Approach in Medical Education and Research

No abstract

The relationship between serology of hepatitis E virus with liver and kidney function in kidney transplant patients

Although hepatitis E virus (HEV) is well known to cause acute hepatitis, there are reports showing that HEV may also be responsible for progression of acute to chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis in patients receiving organ transplantation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HEV in patients with kidney transplantation. In this study, 110 patients with kidney transplantation were recruited, and anti-HEV IgG, creatinine, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the first, third and sixth months after renal transplantation were measured. The mean serum anti-HEV IgG titers in the study participants was 1.36 (range 0.23 to 6.3). Twenty-three patients were found to be seropositive for HEV Ab defined as anti-HEV IgG titer > 1.1. The difference in liver and renal function tests (creatinine, eGFR, AST, ALT and ALP) at different intervals was not significant between patients with HEV Ab titers higher and lower than 1.1 (p > 0.05). However, an inverse correlation was observed between HEV Ab and eGFR values in the first (p = 0.047, r = -0.21), third (p = 0.04, r = -0.20) and sixth (p = 0.04, r = -0.22) months after renal transplantation in patients with HEV Ab 1.1. Also, a significant correlation between age and HEV Ab levels was found in the entire study population (p =0.001, r = 0.33). Our findings showed a high prevalence of seropositivity for anti-HEV IgG in patients receiving renal transplants. However, liver and renal functions were not found to be significantly different seropositive and seronegative patients by up to 6 months post-transplantation

A New Dynamic Random Fuzzy DEA Model to Predict Performance of Decision Making Units

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a methodology for measuring the relative efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) which ‎consume the same types of inputs and producing the same types of outputs. Believing that future planning and predicting the ‎efficiency are very important for DMUs, this paper first presents a new dynamic random fuzzy DEA model (DRF-DEA) with ‎common weights (using multi objective DEA approach) to predict the efficiency of DMUs under mean chance constraints and ‎expected values of the objective functions. In the initial proposed†â€DRF-DEA model, the inputs and outputs are assumed to be ‎characterized by random triangular fuzzy variables with normal distribution, in which data are changing sequentially. Under this ‎assumption, the solution process is very complex. So we then convert the initial proposed DRF-DEA model to its equivalent multi-‎objective stochastic programming, in which the constraints contain the standard normal distribution functions, and the objective ‎functions are the expected values of functions of normal random variables. In order to improve in computational time, we then ‎convert the equivalent multi-objective stochastic model to one objective stochastic model with using fuzzy multiple objectives ‎programming approach. To solve it, we design a new hybrid algorithm by integrating Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and Genetic ‎Algorithm (GA). Since no benchmark is available in the literature, one practical example will be presented. The computational results ‎show that our hybrid algorithm outperforms the hybrid GA algorithm which was proposed by Qin and Liu (2010) in terms of ‎runtime and solution quality. â€

Effect of chitosan coating incorporated with artemisia fragrans essential oil on fresh chicken meat during refrigerated storage

The present study was conducted to assess the impact of chitosan coating (1%) containing Artemisia fragrans essential oil (500, 1000, and 1500 ppm) as antioxidant and antimicrobial agent on the quality properties and shelf life of chicken fillets during refrigerated storage. After packaging meat samples, physicochemical, microbiological, and organoleptic attributes were evaluated at 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 days at 4 °C. The results revealed that applied chitosan (CH) coating in combination with Artemisia fragrans essential oils (AFEOs) had no significant (p < 0.05) effects on proximate composition among treatments. The results showed that the incorporation of AFEOs into CH coating significantly reduced (p < 0.05) pH, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N), especially for 1% CH coating + 1500 ppm AFEOs, with values at the end of storage of 5.58, 1.61, and 2.53, respectively. The coated samples also displayed higher phenolic compounds than those obtained by uncoated samples. Coated chicken meat had, significantly (p < 0.05), the highest inhibitory effects against microbial growth. The counts of TVC (total viable counts), coliforms, molds, and yeasts were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in 1% CH coating + 1500 ppm AFEOs fillets (5.32, 3.87, and 4.27 Log CFU/g, respectively) at day 12. Organoleptic attributes of coated samples also showed the highest overall acceptability scores than uncoated ones. Therefore, the incorporation of AFEOs into CH coating could be effectively used for improving stability and shelf life of chicken fillets during refrigerated storage.Axencia Galega de Innovación | Ref. IN607A2019 / 01CYTED | Ref. 119RT056

Evaluation of the Effect of Knowledge Concerning Healthy Nutrition and Nutrition Science on the Knowledge Development Approach

Background: Nutrition can be regarded as an important part of any preparation program, as well as an important part of life. It seems essential to develop nutritional science and improve eating habits with the purpose of developing a healthy diet and avoiding the outcomes that arise from a lack of nutrition. Proper nutrition is one of the important factors for the development of health. Lack of sufficient awareness about nutrition can result in improper eating habits. Objectives: The present study evaluated the effect of knowledge about healthy nutrition and nutrition science on the knowledge development approach. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, the statistical population consisted of 190 experts and other scholars in the area of nutritional science. A questionnaire based on demographic details, nutritional science, nutrition education, research, proper solutions to individuals’ nutritional problems, and a culture of nutrition was used for data collection. Results: A relatively strong positive correlation was found between the knowledge development approach, nutritional science, nutrition education and research, and proper solutions for individual nutritional problems and a culture of nutrition (P < 0.001). Conclusions: 1) Effective enhancement and participation in an academic community will be important in the future of food and nutrition security; however, major gaps and weaknesses also exist in this context; 2) The main weaknesses in relation to the lack of clear policies and procedures include focusing on only Tehran, Iran; the need to overcome bureaucracy; and problems related to motivation, capital, and international communications; 3) Qualitative and quantitative improvement of research is not possible without access to skilled experts and researchers; 4) To solve these problems, it will be beneficial to pay more attention to the role of universities, facilitate intellectual communication among professors in Tehran and other provinces, ensure that Iranian professors are employed abroad, develop educational and research cooperation with foreign countries, and ensure that facilities for international cooperation put in place by united nations (UN) agencies are used. Keywords: Nutritional Science, Knowledge Management, Foo