bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An Improved Understanding About CO2 EOR and CO2 Storage in Liquid-Rich Shale Reservoirs
Authors: Mahzari Pedram , Oelkers Eric , Mitchell Thomas , Jones Adrian 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
During the past decade, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by CO2 in shale oils has received substantial attention. In shale oil reservoirs, CO2 diffusion into the resident oil has been considered as the dominant interaction between the CO2 in fractures and the oil in the matrices. CO2 diffusion will lead to oil swelling and improvement in oil viscosity. However, despite two-way mass transfer during CO2 EOR in conventional oil reservoirs, one-way mass transfer into shale oils saturated with live oils is controlled by an additional transport mechanism, which is the liberation of light oil components in the form of a gaseous new-phase. This in-situ gas formation could generate considerable swelling, which could improve the oil recovery significantly. This mechanism has been largely overlooked in the past. This study is aimed to better understand the role of this evolving gas phase in improving hydrocarbon recovery.
Taking account of Bakken shale oil reservoir data, numerical simulations were performed to identify efficiencies of EOR by CO2 at the laboratory and field scales. Equation of state parameters between CO2 and oil components were adjusted to optimize the calculations and a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the role of gas formation and consequent EOR efficiencies. At the laboratory scale, in-situ gas formation can increase oil recovery by 20% depending on the amount of gas saturation. Also, the CO2 storage capacity of the shale matrix can be enhanced by 25%, due to CO2 trapping in the gas phase. At the field scale, an additional oil recovery of 9.1% could be attained, which is notably higher than previous studies where this gas evolution mechanism was ignored. Furthermore, the results suggest that a six-weeks huff period would be sufficient to achieve substantial EOR if this new mechanism is incorporated. On the other hand, the produced fluid in the early period was primarily composed of CO2, which would make it available for subsequent cycles. The produced gas of the well under CO2 EOR was used in an adjacent well, which resulted in similar additional oil recovery and hence, impurities in CO2 injection stream would not undermine efficiency of this EOR method. The results of this study, therefore, could potentially be used to substantially improve the evaluations of CO2 EOR in liquid-rich shale reservoirs.
Modeling of Hydrate Formation Hysteresis in Porous Media
Authors: Adams Jeremy J. , Akkutlu I. Yucel , Moridis George J. 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
Methane hydrate is formed in a sand pack that undergoes cooling-heating cycles over a range of temperature. Five cycles are designed so that hysteresis can be observed in the sand pack. Each cycle has a different melting temperature which leads to varying intensity of temperature relaxation effect on the hysteresis. Evidence of hysteresis is observed in three separate temperature readings of thermocouples. Formation of hydrates is dependent on the thermal cooling rate of the sand pack, and the melting temperature of the previous cycle. A temperature increase is observed in the whole system, and this increase is driven by temperature peaks indicating significant hydrate formation near the thermocouples. These peaks have important effects on the whole system. By comparing each cycle's temperature peaks, hysteresis is clearly observed at the temperature readings of the short thermocouple. The same hysteresis pattern follows for the location of the temperature peaks. When significant hydrate formation occurs in the sand pack, a steepening of the pressure decline is observed, indicating a rapid loss of free gas in the system. The pattern that is observed in the temperature peaks is also identified in the pressure profiles, thus linking the gas saturation to hydrate formation. The time derivative of pressure corroborates these findings. A new model is proposed for the prediction of secondary hydrate formation time as a function of the melting temperature the porous medium experienced.
4D Seismic and Production History Matching, a Combined Formulation Using Hausdorff and FréChet Metric
Authors: Zhang Qi , Chassagne Romain , MacBeth Colin 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
Integration of time-lapse seismic data into dynamic reservoir model is an efficient process in calibrating reservoir parameters update. The choice of the metric which will measure the misfit between observed data and simulated model has a considerable effect on the history matching process, and then on the optimal ensemble model acquired. History matching using 4D seismic and production data simultaneously is still a challenge due to the nature of the two different type of data (time-series and maps or volumes based).
Conventionally, the formulation used for the misfit is least square, which is widely used for production data matching. Distance measurement based objective functions designed for 4D image comparison have been explored in recent years and has been proven to be reliable. This study explores history matching process by introducing a merged objective function, between the production and the 4D seismic data. The proposed approach in this paper is to make comparable this two type of data (well and seismic) in a unique objective function, which will be optimised, avoiding by then the question of weights. An adaptive evolutionary optimisation algorithm has been used for the history matching loop. Local and global reservoir parameters are perturbed in this process, which include porosity, permeability, net-to-gross, and fault transmissibility.
This production and seismic history matching has been applied on a UKCS field, it shows that a acceptalbe production data matching is achieved while honouring saturation information obtained from 4D seismic surveys.
A Review of Numerical Modelling Techniques for Reactive Transport in Subsurface Reservoirs and Application in Mimetic Finite Difference Discretization Schemes
Authors: Abd Abdul Salam , Abushaikha Ahmad 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
Reactive transport is an area of growing interest to the petroleum industry due to the need to develop efficient simulators for oil production in mature and fractured fields. The subsurface flow processes are highly dependent on the chemical reaction between fluid and rocks, and between fluids themselves. This means that fluid flow in a reservoir should be characterized by mass change and chemical reactions, and thus researchers are trying to account for both phenomena through their corresponding governing equations. In this work, we discuss the early efforts to couple mass transfer and chemical reaction equations through presenting key studies in the field of modelling reactive transport and suggest a new discretization scheme for geochemical reactions. Our main objective is to improve on the formulation and simulation of reactive transport problems and explain how to implement Mimetic Finite-Difference (MFD) discretization scheme in reservoir simulators. The paper outlines the steps to discretize the governing equations of reactive transport, and construct and solve the resultant Jacobian system. The purpose of this work is to provide a clear presentation of the main mathematical and theoretical concepts of reactive transport, and how they can be applied in reservoir simulation framework. Such framework can be utilized in the future to develop a state-of-art reservoir simulator that employs Mimetic Finite Difference schemes in unstructured grids and full tensor permeability structures to solve for fluid flow in porous media, while accounting for the geochemical reactions at the subsurface.
Investigation of the Severity of Wax Deposition in Bend Pipes Under Subcooled Pipelines Conditions
Authors: Makwashi Nura , Sarkodie Kwame , Akubo Stephen , Zhao Donglin , Diaz Pedro 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
Curved pipes are essential components of subsea process equipment and some part of production pipeline and riser. So far, most of the studies on of wax deposition and the possible mitigation strategies have been carried out using straight pipelines, with little attention given to curved pipes. Therefore, the objective of this study is to use an experimental flow loop designed and assembled in the lab to study and understand the mechanisms and variable parameters that affect wax depositional behaviour under the single-phase flow. Series of experiments were carried out with pipes curvatures of 0, 45 and 90-degree at different flow rates (2 and 11 L/min). The sequence in which the bends are incorporated creates non-uniformity of boundary shear, flow separation, and caused isolation of fluid around the bends that affect wax deposition, which depends on flow regimes – Reynolds number along with the radius of curvature of the bend. Prior to the flow loop experiment, the waxy crude oil was characterized by measuring the viscosity, WAT (30°C), pour point (25.5°C), n-Paraffin distribution (C10 - C67), and the saturated/aromatic/resin/asphalte (SARA) fractions
Results of this study shows that the wax deposit thickness decreases at higher flow rate within the laminar (Re&lt;2300) and turbulent (Re&gt;2300) flow regimes. It was observed that the deposition rate was significantly higher in curved pipes, about 8 and 10% for 45 and 90-degree, respectively in comparison to the straight pipe for all flow conditions. Increase elevation of the curved pipe, however, led to a more wax deposition trend; where a higher percentage of wax deposit was observed in 45-degree compared to 90-degree curved pipe. This trend was due addition of gravity forces to the frictional forces - influenced by the physical mechanisms of wax deposition mainly molecular diffusion, shear dispersion and gravity settling. From the results of this study, a new correlation between wax deposit thickness and pressure drop was developed. A relationship was established between wax deposit thicknesses, bend angle in pipes and wax deposition mechanisms with a reasonable agreement with published data, especially for steady state condition. Therefore, this study will enhance the understanding of the wax deposition management and improve predictions for further development of a robust mitigation strategy.
Evaluation of Upscaling Approaches for the Amellago Carbonate Outcrop Model
Authors: Liu Ching-Hsien , Nunna Krishna , Syed Imroj , King Michael J. 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
Carbonate reservoirs are extremely challenging for reservoir modeling and flow simulation due to their high heterogeneity and the complexity of controls on the porosity and permeability. The porosity and permeability may be connected or weakly connected, which can cause difficulties in coarse grid design and upscaling of flow. We report on the application of a recently developed "Diffuse Source" upscaling approach here applied to the upscaling of a high resolution 3D carbonate reservoir model.
A high-resolution 3D geological model of the Amellago carbonate outcrop was utilized for analysis. This model, which has similar stratigraphy, structure and diagenetic controls as Middle East reservoirs, has proven to be a challenge for existing layer upgridding and flow-based upscaling approaches. We utilize flow-based "Diffuse Source" upscaling to obtain the intercell transmissibility and well indices, as this approach has improved localization and resolution compared to steady state calculations, and also allows us to distinguish between well connected and weakly connected sub-volumes.
We report on the performance of the statistical layer upgridding approaches used to design the flow simulation grid from the underlying 3D geologic model, and the impact of the choice of the heterogeneity measure (velocity error, time of flight error, or a combination of the two). We benchmarked the Diffuse Source against several methods available in the literature. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of a recently developed method for flow diagnostics that allows us to test the quality of the coarse simulation models relative to the fine-scale geologic model. All of the upscaled models are tested using commercial finite difference simulation and are compared to the upscaling approaches available within commercial flow simulation and geologic modeling applications.
Simultaneous removal of Cd2+ and Zn2+ from aqueous solution using an upflow Al-electrocoagulation reactor: optimization by response surface methodology
Authors: Burboa-Charis Vianey Ariadna , Moreno-Román Eddy Jonatan , Contreras Juan Antonio Vidales , García-Gómez Celestino 
Published: April 2019

Abstract
The presence of heavy metals in the environment has increased, and cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) are considered to be among the most dangerous. An upflow Al-electrocoagulation reactor was used to remove Cd2+ and Zn2+ ions from aqueous media. The system consisted of perforated aluminum circular electrodes for fluid distribution with elimination of external agitation. The effect of different parameters, i.e. current intensity, electrolysis time, concentration of Cd2+ and Zn2+ ions and electrolytic support dose were optimized by response surface methodology. The results indicated that increasing the current intensity and the electrolysis time had a positive effect on the elimination efficiency of the pollutant ions. Likewise, increasing the dose of electrolytic support and decreasing the concentration of the pollutants improved the efficiency of the system. The optimal results were: current intensity of 0.4 A, electrolysis time of 40 min, ion concentration of 44.6 mg·L−1 and electrolytic support dose of 0.56 mg·L−1, with the maximum elimination percentages of 96 ± 3.8% and 96 ± 2.7% for Cd2+ and Zn2+, respectively. This study showed that the electrocoagulation process in an upflow electrocoagulation reactor could be successfully applied to remove pollutants from water.
The Regulatory Roles of Long Non-Coding RNA in the Chemoresistance Process of Ovarian cancer
Authors: Qu Jiayuan , Kamal Mohammad Amjad , Yuan Chengfu 
Published: April 2019

Background:
Ovarian cancer is the most malignant tumor in gynecological tumors, with low five-year
survival rate. The main reasons are diagnosis at advanced stages (the early symptoms are uncharacteristic, and
most are diagnosedlate.), relapse, and resistance to existing chemotherapy drugs.

Methods:
Search strategy was performed in the following steps. Firstly, LncRNA related to ovarian cancer was
retrieved by using the LncRNA Disease database, and articles were searched by searching keywords: ovarian
cancer, drug resistance, and LncRNA retrieved from the LncRNA Disease database.

Results/Conclusion:
With the development of the study on drug resistance of ovarian cancer, the role of
LncRNAs as sensitive biomarker and therapeutic target has emerged, providing a direction for precision medicine
of ovarian cancer resistance.
Statistical Modelling Outcome of In Vitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection: A Single Centre Study
Authors: Xu Boyun , Liu Chang , Qian Lianfen , Qu Yue , Su Weijue , Xu Jialing , Zhao Junzhao 
Published: April 2019

Background:
Assisted reproductive techniques (ART) have been extensively used to
treat infertility. Inaccurate prediction of a couple’s fertility often leads to lowered self-esteem for
patients seeking ART treatment and causes fertility distress.

Objective:
This prospective study aimed to statistically analyze patient data from a single
reproductive medical center over a period of 18 months, and to establish mathematical models that
might facilitate accurate prediction of successful pregnancy when ART are used.

Methods:
In the present study, we analyzed clinical data prospectively collected from 760 infertile
patients visiting the second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou
Medical University between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. Various advanced statistical
methods, including broken-line regression, were employed to analyze the data.

Results:
Age remained the most important factor affecting the outcome of IVF/ICSI. Using the
broken-line regression model, the fastest clinical pregnancy declining age was between 25 and 32.
Female infertility type was found to be a key predictor for the number of good-quality embryos and
successful pregnancy, along with the antral follicle count (AFC), total number of embryos,
recombinant follicle stimulating hormones (rFSH) dosage, estradiol (E2) on the trigger day, and
total number of oocytes retrieved. rFSH dosage was also significantly associated with the number
of oocytes retrieved and the number of frozen embryos.

Conclusion:
The fastest clinical pregnancy declining age is ranged between 25 and 32, and female
infertility type is evidenced as another key predictive factor for the cumulative outcome of ART.
Decreased Disposition of Anticancer Drugs Predominantly Eliminated via the Liver in Patients with Renal Failure
Authors: Fujita Ken-ichi , Matsumoto Natsumi , Ishida Hiroo , Kubota Yutaro , Iwai Shinichi , Shibanuma Motoko , Kato Yukio 
Published: April 2019

Background:Evidence has revealed that renal impairment can affect the systemic exposure of drugs which are predominantly eliminated via the liver. The modulation of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters expressed in the liver and/or small intestine by diverse entities, including uremic toxins, in systemic circulation of patients with severe renal failure is considered as the cause of atypical pharmacokinetics, which sometimes induce undesirable adverse events that are especially critical for drugs with narrow therapeutic window such as anticancer drugs. A dosing strategy for anticancer drugs in these patients needs to be established.Methods:The effects of renal impairment on the systemic exposure and safety of anticancer drugs were summarized. The proposed mechanisms for the alterations in the pharmacokinetics of these anticancer drugs were also discussed.Results:Changes in pharmacokinetics and clinical response were reported in 9 out of 10 cytotoxic anticancer drugs investigated, although available information was limited and sometimes controversial. Systemic exposure of 3 out of 16 tyrosine kinase inhibitors was higher in patients with severe renal failure than that in patients with normal kidney function. An increase in systemic exposure of anticancer drugs in patients with renal impairment is likely to be observed for substrates of OATP1B1, despite the limited evidence.Conclusion:The molecular basis for the effect of uremia on non-renal drug elimination still needed to be clarified with further studies to generate generalizable concepts, which may provide insights into establishing better clinical usage of anticancer drugs, i.e. identifying patients at risk and dose adjustment.
Tanshinone IIA Promotes Macrophage Cholesterol Efflux and Attenuates Atherosclerosis of apoE-/- Mice by Omentin-1/ABCA1 Pathway
Authors: Tan Yu-lin , Ou Han-xiao , Zhang Min , Gong Duo , Zhao Zhen-wang , Chen Ling-yan , Xia Xiao-dan , Mo Zhong-cheng , Tang Chao-ke 
Published: April 2019

Background:Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) and Omentin-1 have a protective role in the cardiovascular system. However, if and how Tan IIA and Omentin-1 regulate cholesterol metabolism in macrophages has not been fully elucidated.Objective:To investigate the possible mechanisms of Tan IIA and Omentin-1 on preventing macrophage cholesterol accumulation and atherosclerosis development.Methods:The effect of Tan IIA on the protein and mRNA levels of Omentin-1 and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) in macrophages was examined by Western blot and qRT-PCR assay, respectively. Cholesterol efflux was assessed by liquid scintillation counting (LSC). Cellular lipid droplet was measured by Oil Red O staining, and intracellular lipid content was detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition, the serum lipid profile of apoE−/− mice was measured by enzymatic method. The size of atherosclerotic lesion areas and content of lipids and collagen in the aortic of apoE−/− mice were examined by Sudan IV, Oil-red O, and Masson staining, respectively.Results:Tan IIA up-regulated expression of Omentin-1 and ABCA1 in THP-1 macrophages, promoting ABCA1-mediated cholesterol efflux and consequently decreasing cellular lipid content. Consistently, Tan IIA increased reverse cholesterol transport in apoE−/− mice. Plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), ABCA1 expression and atherosclerotic plaque collagen content were increased while plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and atherosclerotic plaque sizes were reduced in Tan IIA-treated apoE−/− mice. These beneficial effects were, however, essentially blocked by knockdown of Omentin-1.Conclusion:Our results revealed that Tan IIA promotes cholesterol efflux and ameliorates lipid accumulation in macrophages most likely via the Omentin-1/ABCA1 pathway, reducing the development of aortic atherosclerosis.
New Rules on Patient’s Safety and Professional Liability for the Italian Health Service
Authors: Albolino Sara , Bellandi Tommaso , Cappelletti Simone , Di Paolo Marco , Fineschi Vittorio , Frati Paola , Offidani Caterina , Tanzini Michela , Tartaglia Riccardo , Turillazzi Emanuela 
Published: April 2019

Background:The phenomenon of clinical negligence claims has rapidly spread to United States, Canada and Europe assuming the dimensions and the severity of a pandemia. Consequently, the issues related to medical malpractice need to be studied from a transnational perspective since they raise similar problems in different legal systems.Methods:Over the last two decades, medical liability has become a prominent issue in healthcare policy and a major concern for healthcare economics in Italy. The failures of the liability system and the high cost of healthcare have led to considerable legislative activity concerning medical malpractice liability, and a law was enacted in 2012 (Law no. 189/2012), known as the “Balduzzi Law”.Results:The law tackles the mounting concern over litigation related to medical malpractice and calls for Italian physicians to follow guidelines. Briefly, the law provided for the decriminalisation of simple negligence of a physician on condition that he/she followed the guidelines and “good medical practice” while carrying out his/her duties, whilst the obligation for compensation, as defined by the Italian Civil Code, remained. Judges had to consider that the physician followed the provisions of the guidelines but nevertheless caused injury to the patient.Conclusion:However, since the emission of the law, thorny questions remain which have attracted renewed interest and criticism both in the Italian courts and legal literature. Since then, several bills have been presented on the topic and these have been merged into a single text entitled “Regulations for healthcare and patient safety and for the professional responsibility of healthcare providers”.