Polyethylene glycol fusion repair of severed rat sciatic nerves reestablishes axonal continuity and reorganizes sensory terminal fields in the spinal cord

Peripheral nerve injuries result in the rapid degeneration of distal nerve segments and immediate loss of motor and sensory functions;behavioral recovery is typically poor.We used a plasmalemmal fusogen,polyethylene glycol(PEG),to immediately fuse closely apposed open ends of severed proximal and distal axons in rat sciatic nerves.We have previously reported that sciatic nerve axons repaired by PEG-fusion do not undergo Wallerian degeneration,and PEG-fused animals exhibit rapid(within 2–6 weeks)and extensive locomotor recovery.Furthermore,our previous report showed that PEG-fusion of severed sciatic motor axons was non-specific,i.e.,spinal motoneurons in PEG-fused animals were found to project to appropriate as well as inappropriate target muscles.In this study,we examined the consequences of PEG-fusion for sensory axons of the sciatic nerve.Young adult male and female rats(Sprague–Dawley)received either a unilateral single cut or ablation injury to the sciatic nerve and subsequent repair with or without(Negative Control)the application of PEG.Compound action potentials recorded immediately after PEG-fusion repair confirmed conduction across the injury site.The success of PEG-fusion was confirmed through Sciatic Functional Index testing with PEG-fused animals showing improvement in locomotor function beginning at 35 days postoperatively.At 2–42 days postoperatively,we anterogradely labeled sensory afferents from the dorsal aspect of the hindpaw following bilateral intradermal injection of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated horseradish peroxidase.PEG-fusion repair reestablished axonal continuity.Compared to unoperated animals,labeled sensory afferents ipsilateral to the injury in PEG-fused animals were found in the appropriate area of the dorsal horn,as well as inappropriate mediolateral and rostrocaudal areas.Unexpectedly,despite having intact peripheral nerves,similar reorganizations of labeled sensory afferents were also observed contralateral to the injury and repair.This central reorganization may contribute to the improved behavioral recovery seen after PEG-fusion repair,supporting the use of this novel repair methodology over currently available treatments.

An inverse analysis of fluid flow through granular media using differentiable lattice Boltzmann method

This study presents a method for the inverse analysis of fluid flow problems.The focus is put on accurately determining boundary conditions and characterizing the physical properties of granular media,such as permeability,and fluid components,like viscosity.The primary aim is to deduce either constant pressure head or pressure profiles,given the known velocity field at a steady-state flow through a conduit containing obstacles,including walls,spheres,and grains.The lattice Boltzmann method(LBM)combined with automatic differentiation(AD)(AD-LBM)is employed,with the help of the GPU-capable Taichi programming language.A lightweight tape is used to generate gradients for the entire LBM simulation,enabling end-to-end backpropagation.Our AD-LBM approach accurately estimates the boundary conditions for complex flow paths in porous media,leading to observed steady-state velocity fields and deriving macro-scale permeability and fluid viscosity.The method demonstrates significant advantages in terms of prediction accuracy and computational efficiency,making it a powerful tool for solving inverse fluid flow problems in various applications.

The acceleration of a high-charge electron bunch to 10 GeV in a 10-cm nanoparticle-assisted wakefield accelerator

An intense laser pulse focused onto a plasma can excite nonlinear plasma waves.Under appropriate conditions,electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities.This scheme is called a laser wakefield accelerator.In this work,we present results from a laser wakefield acceleration experiment using a petawatt-class laser to excite the wakefields as well as nanoparticles to assist the injection of electrons into the accelerating phase of the wakefields.We find that a 10-cm-long,nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield accelerator can generate 340 pC,10±1.86 GeV electron bunches with a 3.4 GeV rms convolved energy spread and a 0.9 mrad rms divergence.It can also produce bunches with lower energies in the 4–6 GeV range.

Geologic characteristics,exploration and production progress of shale oil and gas in the United States:An overview

We present a systematic summary of the geological characteristics,exploration and development history and current state of shale oil and gas in the United States.The hydrocarbon-rich shales in the major shale basins of the United States are mainly developed in six geological periods:Middle Ordovician,Middle-Late Devonian,Early Carboniferous(Middle-Late Mississippi),Early Permian,Late Jurassic,and Late Cretaceous(Cenomanian-Turonian).Depositional environments for these shales include intra-cratonic basins,foreland basins,and passive continental margins.Paleozoic hydrocarbon-rich shales are mainly developed in six basins,including the Appalachian Basin(Utica and Marcellus shales),Anadarko Basin(Woodford Shale),Williston Basin(Bakken Shale),Arkoma Basin(Fayetteville Shale),Fort Worth Basin(Barnett Shale),and the Wolfcamp and Leonardian Spraberry/Bone Springs shale plays of the Permian Basin.The Mesozoic hydrocarbon-rich shales are mainly developed on the margins of the Gulf of Mexico Basin(Haynesville and Eagle Ford)or in various Rocky Mountain basins(Niobrara Formation,mainly in the Denver and Powder River basins).The detailed analysis of shale plays reveals that the shales are different in facies and mineral components,and"shale reservoirs"are often not shale at all.The United States is abundant in shale oil and gas,with the in-place resources exceeding 0.246×10^(12)t and 290×10^(12)m^(3),respectively.Before the emergence of horizontal well hydraulic fracturing technology to kick off the"shale revolution",the United States had experienced two decades of exploration and production practices,as well as theory and technology development.In 2007-2023,shale oil and gas production in the United States increased from approximately 11.2×10^(4)tons of oil equivalent per day(toe/d)to over 300.0×10^(4)toe/d.In 2017,the shale oil and gas production exceeded the conventional oil and gas production in the country.In 2023,the contribution from shale plays to the total U.S.oil and gas production remained above 60%.The development of shale oil and gas has largely been driven by improvements in drilling and completion technologies,with much of the recent effort focused on“cube development”or“co-development”.Other efforts to improve productivity and efficiency include refracturing,enhanced oil recovery,and drilling of“U-shaped”wells.Given the significant resources base and continued technological improvements,shale oil and gas production will continue to contribute significant volumes to total U.S.hydrocarbon production.

Accuracy comparison and improvement for state of health estimation of lithium-ion battery based on random partial recharges and feature engineering

State of health(SOH)estimation of e-mobilities operated in real and dynamic conditions is essential and challenging.Most of existing estimations are based on a fixed constant current charging and discharging aging profiles,which overlooked the fact that the charging and discharging profiles are random and not complete in real application.This work investigates the influence of feature engineering on the accuracy of different machine learning(ML)-based SOH estimations acting on different recharging sub-profiles where a realistic battery mission profile is considered.Fifteen features were extracted from the battery partial recharging profiles,considering different factors such as starting voltage values,charge amount,and charging sliding windows.Then,features were selected based on a feature selection pipeline consisting of filtering and supervised ML-based subset selection.Multiple linear regression(MLR),Gaussian process regression(GPR),and support vector regression(SVR)were applied to estimate SOH,and root mean square error(RMSE)was used to evaluate and compare the estimation performance.The results showed that the feature selection pipeline can improve SOH estimation accuracy by 55.05%,2.57%,and 2.82%for MLR,GPR and SVR respectively.It was demonstrated that the estimation based on partial charging profiles with lower starting voltage,large charge,and large sliding window size is more likely to achieve higher accuracy.This work hopes to give some insights into the supervised ML-based feature engineering acting on random partial recharges on SOH estimation performance and tries to fill the gap of effective SOH estimation between theoretical study and real dynamic application.

Mechanisms of fracture propagation from multi-cluster using a phase field based HMD coupling model in fractured reservoir

Natural fractures(NFs)are common in shale and tight reservoirs,where staged multi-cluster fracturing of horizontal wells is a prevalent technique for reservoir stimulation.While NFs and stress interference are recognized as significant factors affecting hydraulic fracture(HF)propagation,the combined influence of these factors remains poorly understood.To address this knowledge gap,a novel coupled hydromechanical-damage(HMD)model based on the phase field method is developed to investigate the propagation of multi-cluster HFs in fractured reservoirs.The comprehensive energy functional and control functions are established,while incorporating dynamic fluid distribution between multiple perforation clusters and refined changes in rock mechanical parameters during hydraulic fracturing.The HMD coupled multi-cluster HF propagation model investigates various scenarios,including single HF and single NF,reservoir heterogeneity,single HF and NF clusters,and multi-cluster HFs with NF clusters.The results show that the HMD coupling model can accurately capture the impact of approach angle(θ),stress difference and cementation strength on the interaction of HF and NF.The criterion of the open and cross zones is not fixed.The NF angle(a)is not a decisive parameter to discriminate the interaction.According to the relationship between approach angle(θ)and NF angle(a),the contact relationship of HF can be divided into three categories(θ=a,θ<a,andθ>a).The connected NF can increase the complexity of HF by inducing it to form branch fracture,resulting in a fractal dimension of HF as high as2.1280 at angles of±45°.Inter-fracture interference from the heel to the toe of HF shows the phenomenon of no,strong and weak interference.Interestingly,under the influence of NFs,distant HFs from the injection can become dominant fractures.However,as a gradually increases,inter-fracture stress interference becomes the primary factor influencing HF propagation,gradually superseding the dominance of NF induced fractures.

Data-driven diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells based on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy: Robustness improvement and evaluation

Utilizing machine learning techniques for data-driven diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells is beneficial and meaningful to the system durability. Nevertheless, ensuring the robustness of diagnosis remains a critical and challenging task in real application. To enhance the robustness of diagnosis and achieve a more thorough evaluation of diagnostic performance, a robust diagnostic procedure based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and a new method for evaluation of the diagnosis robustness was proposed and investigated in this work. To improve the diagnosis robustness: (1) the degradation mechanism of different faults in the high temperature PEM fuel cell was first analyzed via the distribution of relaxation time of EIS to determine the equivalent circuit model (ECM) with better interpretability, simplicity and accuracy;(2) the feature extraction was implemented on the identified parameters of the ECM and extra attention was paid to distinguishing between the long-term normal degradation and other faults;(3) a Siamese Network was adopted to get features with higher robustness in a new embedding. The diagnosis was conducted using 6 classic classification algorithms—support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), and Naive Bayes employing a dataset comprising a total of 1935 collected EIS. To evaluate the robustness of trained models: (1) different levels of errors were added to the features for performance evaluation;(2) a robustness coefficient (Roubust_C) was defined for a quantified and explicit evaluation of the diagnosis robustness. The diagnostic models employing the proposed feature extraction method can not only achieve the higher performance of around 100% but also higher robustness for diagnosis models. Despite the initial performance being similar, the KNN demonstrated a superior robustness after feature selection and re-embedding by triplet-loss method, which suggests the necessity of robustness evaluation for the machine learning models and the effectiveness of the defined robustness coefficient. This work hopes to give new insights to the robust diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells and more comprehensive performance evaluation of the data-driven method for diagnostic application.

Assessing the Performance of a Dynamical Downscaling Simulation Driven by a Bias-Corrected CMIP6 Dataset for Asian Climate

In this study,we aim to assess dynamical downscaling simulations by utilizing a novel bias-corrected global climate model(GCM)data to drive a regional climate model(RCM)over the Asia-western North Pacific region.Three simulations were conducted with a 25-km grid spacing for the period 1980–2014.The first simulation(WRF_ERA5)was driven by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5(ERA5)dataset and served as the validation dataset.The original GCM dataset(MPI-ESM1-2-HR model)was used to drive the second simulation(WRF_GCM),while the third simulation(WRF_GCMbc)was driven by the bias-corrected GCM dataset.The bias-corrected GCM data has an ERA5-based mean and interannual variance and long-term trends derived from the ensemble mean of 18 CMIP6 models.Results demonstrate that the WRF_GCMbc significantly reduced the root-mean-square errors(RMSEs)of the climatological mean of downscaled variables,including temperature,precipitation,snow,wind,relative humidity,and planetary boundary layer height by 50%–90%compared to the WRF_GCM.Similarly,the RMSEs of interannual-tointerdecadal variances of downscaled variables were reduced by 30%–60%.Furthermore,the WRF_GCMbc better captured the annual cycle of the monsoon circulation and intraseasonal and day-to-day variabilities.The leading empirical orthogonal function(EOF)shows a monopole precipitation mode in the WRF_GCM.In contrast,the WRF_GCMbc successfully reproduced the observed tri-pole mode of summer precipitation over eastern China.This improvement could be attributed to a better-simulated location of the western North Pacific subtropical high in the WRF_GCMbc after GCM bias correction.

Polyethylene glycol has immunoprotective effects on sciatic allografts, but behavioral recovery and graft tolerance require neurorrhaphy and axonal fusion

Behavioral recovery using(viable)peripheral nerve allografts to repair ablation-type(segmental-loss)peripheral nerve injuries is delayed or poor due to slow and inaccurate axonal regeneration.Furthermore,such peripheral nerve allografts undergo immunological rejection by the host immune system.In contrast,peripheral nerve injuries repaired by polyethylene glycol fusion of peripheral nerve allografts exhibit excellent behavioral recovery within weeks,reduced immune responses,and many axons do not undergo Wallerian degeneration.The relative contribution of neurorrhaphy and polyethylene glycol-fusion of axons versus the effects of polyethylene glycol per se was unknown prior to this study.We hypothesized that polyethylene glycol might have some immune-protective effects,but polyethylene glycol-fusion was necessary to prevent Wallerian degeneration and functional/behavioral recovery.We examined how polyethylene glycol solutions per se affect functional and behavioral recovery and peripheral nerve allograft morphological and immunological responses in the absence of polyethylene glycol-induced axonal fusion.Ablation-type sciatic nerve injuries in outbred Sprague–Dawley rats were repaired according to a modified protocol using the same solutions as polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts,but peripheral nerve allografts were loose-sutured(loose-sutured polyethylene glycol)with an intentional gap of 1–2 mm to prevent fusion by polyethylene glycol of peripheral nerve allograft axons with host axons.Similar to negative control peripheral nerve allografts not treated by polyethylene glycol and in contrast to polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts,animals with loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts exhibited Wallerian degeneration for all axons and myelin degeneration by 7 days postoperatively and did not recover sciatic-mediated behavioral functions by 42 days postoperatively.Other morphological signs of rejection,such as collapsed Schwann cell basal lamina tubes,were absent in polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts but commonly observed in negative control and loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts at 21 days postoperatively.Loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts had more pro-inflammatory and less anti-inflammatory macrophages than negative control peripheral nerve allografts.While T cell counts were similarly high in loose-sutured-polyethylene glycol and negative control peripheral nerve allografts,loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts expressed some cytokines/chemokines important for T cell activation at much lower levels at 14 days postoperatively.MHCI expression was elevated in loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts,but MHCII expression was modestly lower compared to negative control at 21 days postoperatively.We conclude that,while polyethylene glycol per se reduces some immune responses of peripheral nerve allografts,successful polyethylene glycol-fusion repair of some axons is necessary to prevent Wallerian degeneration of those axons and immune rejection of peripheral nerve allografts,and produce recovery of sensory/motor functions and voluntary behaviors.Translation of polyethylene glycol-fusion technologies would produce a paradigm shift from the current clinical practice of waiting days to months to repair ablation peripheral nerve injuries.

The ALMA-QUARKS Survey.Ⅱ.The ACA 1.3 mm Continuum Source Catalog and the Assembly of Dense Gas in Massive Star-Forming Clumps

Leveraging the high resolution,sensitivity,and wide frequency coverage of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array(ALMA),the QUARKS survey,standing for“Querying Underlying mechanisms of massive star formation with ALMA-Resolved gas Kinematics and Structures”,is observing 139 massive starforming clumps at ALMA Band 6(λ~1.3 mm).This paper introduces the Atacama Compact Array(ACA)7 m data of the QUARKS survey,describing the ACA observations and data reduction.Combining multiwavelength data,we provide the first edition of QUARKS atlas,offering insights into the multiscale and multiphase interstellar medium in high-mass star formation.The ACA 1.3 mm catalog includes 207 continuum sources that are called ACA sources.Their gas kinetic temperatures are estimated using three formaldehyde transitions with a non-LTE radiation transfer model,and the mass and density are derived from a dust emission model.The ACA sources are massive(16–84 percentile values of 6–160 M_(⊙)),gravity-dominated(M∝R^(1.1))fragments within massive clumps,with supersonic turbulence(M>1)and embedded star-forming protoclusters.We find a linear correlation between the masses of the fragments and the massive clumps,with a ratio of 6%between the two.When considering fragments as representative of dense gas,the ratio indicates a dense gas fraction(DGF)of 6%,although with a wide scatter ranging from 1%to 10%.If we consider the QUARKS massive clumps to be what is observed at various scales,then the size-independent DGF indicates a self-similar fragmentation or collapsing mode in protocluster formation.With the ACA data over four orders of magnitude of luminosity-to-mass ratio(L/M),we find that the DGF increases significantly with L/M,which indicates clump evolutionary stage.We observed a limited fragmentation at the subclump scale,which can be explained by a dynamic global collapse process.

Experiments and simulations of isochorically heated warm dense carbon foam at the Texas Petawatt Laser

An experimental and simulation study of warm dense carbon foams at ambient density(ne∼10^(21) cm^(−3))is presented.This study of isochorically heated foams is motivated by their potential application in carbon-atmosphere white-dwarf envelopes,where there are modeling uncertainties due to the equation of state.The foams are heated on an approximately picosecond time scale with a laser-accelerated proton beam.The cooling and expansion of the heated foams can be modeled with appropriately initialized radiation-hydrodynamics codes;xRAGE code is used in this work.The primary experimental diagnostic is the streaked optical pyrometer,which images a narrow band of radiation from the rear surface of the heated material.Presented are xRAGE modeling results for both solid aluminum targets and carbonized resorcinol-formaldehyde foam targets,showing that the foam appears to cool slowly on the pyrometer because of partial transparency.So that simulations of cooling foam are processed properly,it is necessary to account for finite optical depth in the photosphere calculation,and the methods for performing that calculation are presented in depth.

Spatial Discrimination of Complex, Low-Relief Quaternary Siliciclastic Strata Using Airborne Lidar and Near-Surface Geophysics： An Example from the Texas Coastal Plain, USA

Depositional units preserved on coastal plains worldwide control lithologic distribution in the shallow subsurface that is critical to infrastructure design and construction, and are also an important repository of information about the large-scale climate change that has occurred during many Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles, The lateral and vertical lithologic and stratigraphic complexity of these depositional units and their response to climatic and sea-level change are poorly understood, making it difficult to pre-dict lithologic distribution and to place historical and future climate and sea-level change within a nat-ural geologic context, Mapping Quaternary siliciclastic depositional units on low-relief coastal plains traditionally has been based on their expression in aerial photographs and low-resolution topographic maps, Accuracy and detail have been hindered by low relief and lack of exposure, High-resolution air- borne lidar surveys, along with surface and borehole geophysical measurements, are being used to iden-tify subtle lateral and vertical boundaries of lithologic units on the Texas Coastal Plain within Quaternary strata, Ground and borehole conductivity measurements discriminate sandy barrier island and fluvial and deltaic channel deposits from muddy floodplain, delta-plain, and estuarine deposits, Borehole conductiv- ity and natural gamma logs similarly distinguish distinct lithologic units in the subsurface and identify erosional unconformities that likely separate units deposited during different glacial-interglacial stages, High-resolution digital elevation models obtained from airborne lidar surveys reveal previously unrecog- nized topographic detail that aids identification of surface features such as sandy channels, clay-rich interchannel deposits, and accretionary features on Pleistocene barrier islands, An optimal approach to identify lithologic and stratigraphic distribution in low-relief coastal-plain environments employs ① an initial lidar survey to produce a detailed elevation model; ② selective surface sampling and geophysical measurements based on preliminary mapping derived from lidar data and aerial imagery; and ③ borehole sampling, logging, and analysis at key sites selected after lidar and surface measure- ments are complete,

Variation and mechanisms of clastic reservoir quality in the Paleogene Shahejie Formation of the Dongying Sag, Bohai Bay Basin, China

Reservoir quality varies greatly in the Shahejie Formation in the Dongying Sag. It is essential to analyze the variation and mechanisms of reservoir quality for determining the controlling factors based on cores, porosity measurements and fluid inclusion techniques and so on. The sandstones in the fluvial, （fan） delta-front have the best reservoir quality due to the depositional conditions mechanically controlling the petrology configuration and the primary porosity, and chemically influencing the diagenesis and development of secondary pores. The activity of the boundary faults and the sedimentary facies dominate the variation of reservoir quality in different areas and intervals. The reservoir quality varies with the position of sandstone beds in different vertical models of sandstone and mudstone. This mainly arose from the strong cementation or strong dissolution in the sandstone caused by the diagenesis evolution of adjacent mudstone. With higher oil saturation reservoir quality is better because the hydrocarbon charge favors dissolution and restricts cementation. Diagenesis, depositional conditions and tectonic setting are the key controls of reservoir quality in the Shahejie Formation of the Dongying Sag.

Digitized Outcrop Geomodeling of Ramp Shoals and its Reservoirs： as an Example of Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation of Eastern Sichuan Basin

Numerous hydrocarbon accumulations are found in ramp crest shoals worldwide and therefore this depositional setting has a high potential of being the hydrocarbon reservoir. In this paper, we combined digital outcrop geology and traditional geological mapping to build an outcrop-based geocellular model of the ramp-crest shoal complex of the Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation in the Eastern Sichuan Basin. The outcrop model serves as an analogue for the subsurface reservoir of the Feixianguan Formation and illustrates the complexity of the lithofacies types, stratigraphic architecture, and reservoir heterogeneities at a scale below conventional subsurface data resolution. The studied ramp -crest shoal complex consists of thirteen types of lithofacies that can be grouped into three facies-groups corresponding to subtidal intraclastic shoal, sub- to inter-tidal oolitic shoal, and tidal flat depositional environments respectively. The stratigraphic architecture of the shoal complex shows mostly a strong progradation of the high energy facies associated with an overall decrease of accommodation space associated with relative sea level still stand. Two reservoir facies associations have been recognized. The first one consists of supratidai dolomudstone and upper intertidal partially dolomitized oolitic packstone with anhydrite or nodules. These facies were deposited above the high energy oolitic grainstones and occurs as thin-bedded and laterally continuous layers, characterized by high porosity and low permeability. The second reservoir facies association is composed of intertidal crystalline dolomite and subtidal intraclastic bindstone that occurs stratigraphically below the oolitic grainstones. These deposits consist of massive laterally discontinuously beds, and are characterized by high porosity and high permeability. Both types of reservoir facies tend to be stacked vertically and migrated laterally with the progradation of the shoal complex. The construction of the outcrop-based 3D geological model provide a description and quantification of the facies distribution within a robust stratigraphic framework and the style and amount of reservoir heterogeneities associated with a ramp-crest shoal complex reservoir such as the one found in Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation and Cambrian Longwangmiao Formation in Sichuan Basin or other ramp-crest reservoir worldwide.

A unified model for the formation and distribution of both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs

The discovery and large-scale exploration of unconventional oil/gas resources since 1980s have been considered as the most important advancement in the history of petroleum geology;that has not only changed the balance of supply and demand in the global energy market,but also improved our understanding of the formation mechanisms and distribution characteristics of oil/gas reservoirs.However,what is the difference of conventional and unconventional resources and why they always related to each other in petroliferous basins is not clear.As the differences and correlations between unconventional and conventional resources are complex challenging issues and very critical for resources assessment and hydrocarbon exploration,this paper focused on studying the relationship of formations and distributions among different oil/gas reservoirs.Drilling results of 12,237 exploratory wells in 6 representative petroliferous basins of China and distribution characteristics for 52,926 oil/gas accumulations over the world were applied to clarify the formation conditions and genetic relations of different oil/gas reservoirs in a petroliferous basin,and then to establish a unified model to address the differences and correlations of conventional and unconventional reservoirs.In this model,conventional reservoirs formed in free hydrocarbon dynamic field with high porosity and permeability located above the boundary of hydrocarbon buoyancy-driven accumulation depth limit.Unconventional tight reservoirs formed in confined hydrocarbon dynamic field with low porosity and permeability located between hydrocarbon buoyancy-driven accumulation depth limit and hydrocarbon accumulation depth limit.Shale oil/gas reservoirs formed in the bound hydrocarbon dynamic field with low porosity and ultra-low permeability within the source rock layers.More than 75%of proved reserves around the world are discovered in the free hydrocarbon dynamic field,which is estimated to contain only 10%of originally generated hydrocarbons.Most of undiscovered resources distributed in the confined hydrocarbon dynamic field and the bound hydrocarbon dynamic field,which contains 90%of original generated hydrocarbons,implying a reasonable and promising area for future hydrocarbon explorations.The buried depths of hydrocarbon dynamic fields become shallow with the increase of heat flow,and the remaining oil/gas resources mainly exist in the deep area of“cold basin”with low geothermal gradient.Lithology changing in the hydrocarbon dynamic field causes local anomalies in the oil/gas dynamic mechanism,leading to the local formation of unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs in the free hydrocarbon dynamic field or the occurrence of oil/gas enrichment sweet points with high porosity and permeability in the confined hydrocarbon dynamic field.The tectonic movements destroy the medium conditions and oil/gas components,which leads to the transformation of conventional oil/gas reservoirs formed in free hydrocarbon dynamic field to unconventional ones or unconventional ones formed in confined and bound hydrocarbon dynamic fields to conventional ones.

On the uncertainty of interwell connectivity estimations from the capacitance-resistance model

The capacitance-resistance model （CRM） is an alternative to conventional reservoir simulation. CRM, a simplification of complex numerical models, uses production and injection rates to infer a reservoir description. There is no prior geologic model. The principal output of CRM fitting is the fraction of injected fluid （usually water） that is produced at a producer at steady-state. These fractions are interwell connectivities. Interwell connectivities are fundamental information needed to manage waterfloods in oil reservoirs. The data-driven CRM is a fast tool to estimate these parameters in mature fields and allows one to make full use of the dynamic data available. This paper considers the problem of setting an upper bound on the uncertainty of interwell connectivities for linear-constrained models. Using analytical bounds and numerical simulations, we derive a consistent upper limit on the uncertainty of interwell connections that can be used to quantify the information content of a given dataset.

Systematic Hydrological Evaluation of the Noah-MP Land Surface Model over China

We evaluate water budget components-namely,soil moisture,runoff,evapotranspiration,and terrestrial water storage (TWS)-simulated by the Noah land surface model with multi-parameterization options (Noah-MP) in China,a large geographic domain challenging for hydrological modeling due to poor observational data and a lack of one single parameterization that can fit for complex hydrological processes.By comparing the model simulations with multi-source reference data,we show that Noah-MP can generally reproduce the overall spatiotemporal patterns of runoff and evapotranspiration over six major river basins,with the annual correlation coefficients generally greater than 0.8 and the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient exceeding 0.5.Among the six basins evaluated,the best model performance is seen over the Huaihe River basin.The temporal trend of the modeled TWS anomalies agrees well with GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) observations,capturing major flood and drought events in different basins.Experiments with 12 selected physical parameterization options show that the runoff parameterization has a stronger impact on the simulated soil moisture-runoff-evapotranspiration relationships than the soil moisture factor for stomatal resistance schemes,a result consistent with previous studies.Overall,Noah-MP driven by GLDAS forcing simulates the hydrological variables well,except for the Songliao basin in northeastern China,likely because this is a transitional region with extensive freeze-thaw activity,while representations of human activities may also help improve the model performance.

Numerical modeling of wave equation by a truncated high-order finite-difference method

Finite-difference methods with high-order accuracy have been utilized to improve the precision of numerical solution for partial differential equations. However, the computation cost generally increases linearly with increased order of accuracy. Upon examination of the finite-difference formulas for the first-order and second-order derivatives, and the staggered finite-difference formulas for the first-order derivative, we examine the variation of finite-difference coefficients with accuracy order and note that there exist some very small coefficients. With the order increasing, the number of these small coefficients increases, however, the values decrease sharply. An error analysis demonstrates that omitting these small coefficients not only maintain approximately the same level of accuracy of finite difference but also reduce computational cost significantly. Moreover, it is easier to truncate for the high-order finite-difference formulas than for the pseudospectral for- mulas. Thus this study proposes a truncated high-order finite-difference method, and then demonstrates the efficiency and applicability of the method with some numerical examples.

Methylene blue enhances polyethylene glycol-fusion repair of completely severed rat sciatic nerves

Complete transection of peripheral mixed nerves immediately produces loss of sensory perception,muscle contractions and voluntary behavior mediated by the severed distal axons.In contrast to natural regeneration(~1 mm/d)of proximal axons that may eventually reinnervate denervated targets,re-innervation is restored within minutes by PEG-fusion that consists of neurorrhaphy and a sequence of well specified hypo-and isotonic calcium-free or calcium-containing solutions,the anti-oxidant methylene blue(MB)and the membrane fusogen polyethylene glycol(PEG).In this study,we examined the relative efficacy of PEG-fusion with no MB(0%),0.5%MB,or 1%MB on the recovery of voluntary behaviors by female Sprague-Dawley rats with a complete mid-thigh severance of their sciatic nerve bathed in extracellular fluid or calcium-containing isotonic saline.The recovery of voluntary behaviors is the most relevant measure of success of any technique to repair peripheral nerve injuries.We assessed recovery by the sciatic functional index,a commonly used measure of voluntary hindlimb behaviors following complete sciatic transections.We reported that both 1%MB and 0.5%MB in sterile distilled water in our PEG-fusion protocol with neurorrhaphy significantly increased the rate and extent of behavioral recovery compared to PEG plus neurorrhaphy alone.Furthermore,0.5%MB was as effective as 1%MB in voluntary behavioral recovery as assessed by the sciatic functional index.Since sterile 1%MB is no longer clinically available,we therefore recommend that 0.5%MB be included in upcoming human clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PEG-fusion.All animal procedures were approved by the University of Texas Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee(AUP-2019-00225)on September 9,2020.

Pharmacotherapy for the management of achalasia: Current status, challenges and future directions

This article reviews currently available pharmacological options available for the treatment of achalasia, with a special focus on the role of botulinum toxin(BT) injection due to its superior therapeutic effect and side effect profile. The discussion on BT includes the role of different BT serotypes, better pharmacological formulations, improved BT injection techniques, the use of sprouting inhibitors, designer recombinant BT formulations and alternative substances used in endoscopic injections. The large body of ongoing research into achalasia and BT may provide a stronger role for BT injection as a form of minimally invasive, cost effective and efficacious form of therapy for patients with achalasia. The article also explores current issues and future research avenues that may prove beneficial in improving the efficacy of pharmacological treatment approaches in patients with achalasia.