Microporous polycaprolactone matrices for drug delivery and tissue engineering:the release behaviour of bioactives having extremes of aqueous solubility

Microporous polycaprolactone (PCL) matrices loaded with hydrophobic steroidal drugs or a hydrophilic drug - pilocarpine hydrochloride - were produced by precipitation casting using solutions of PCL in acetone. The efficiency of steroid incorporation in the final matrix (progesterone (56 %) testosterone (46 %) dexamethasone (80 %)) depended on the nature of the drug initially co-dissolved in the PCL solution. Approximately 90 % w/w of the initial load of progesterone, 85 % testosterone and 50 % dexamethasone was released from the matrices in PBS at 37°C over 8 days. Pilocarpine hydrochloride (PH)-loaded PCL matrices, prepared by dispersion of powder in PCL solution, released 70-90 % of the PH content over 12 days in PBS. Application of the Higuchi model revealed that the kinetics of steroid and PH release were consistent with a Fickian diffusion mechanism with corresponding diffusion coefficients of 5.8 × 10-9 (progesterone), 3.9 × 10 -9 (testosterone), 7.1 × 10-10 (dexamethasone) and 22 × 10-8 cm2/s (pilocarpine hydrochloride). The formulation techniques described are expected to be useful for production of implantable, insertable and topical devices for sustained delivery of a range of bioactive molecules of interest in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

The applied computer science of economic analyses: Internet prioritization and Internet pricing, and software engineering and software pricing for the mass market

This research examines evolving issues in applied computer science and applies economic and business analyses as well. There are two main areas. The first is internetwork communications as embodied by the Internet. The goal of the research is to devise an efficient pricing, prioritization, and incentivization plan that could be realistically implemented on the existing infrastructure. Criteria include practical and economic efficiency, and proper incentives for both users and providers. Background information on the evolution and functional operation of the Internet is given, and relevant literature is surveyed and analyzed. Economic analysis is performed on the incentive implications of the current pricing structure and organization. The problems are identified, and minimally disruptive solutions are proposed for all levels of implementation to the lowest level protocol. Practical issues are considered and performance analyses are done. The second area of research is mass market software engineering, and how this differs from classical software engineering. Software life-cycle revenues are analyzed and software pricing and timing implications are derived. A profit maximizing methodology is developed to select or defer the development of software features for inclusion in a given release. An iterative model of the stages of the software development process is developed, taking into account new communications capabilities as well as profitability. ^

Matrix and reservoir-type multipurpose vaginal rings for controlled release of dapivirine and levonorgestrel

A matrix-type silicone elastomer vaginal ring providing 28-day continuous release of dapivirine (DPV) - a lead candidate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) microbicide compound - has recently demonstrated moderate levels of protection in two Phase III clinical studies. Here, next-generation matrix and reservoir-type silicone elastomer vaginal rings are reported for the first time offering simultaneous and continuous in vitro release of DPV and the contraceptive progestin levonorgestrel (LNG) over a period of between 60 and 180days. For matrix-type vaginal rings comprising initial drug loadings of 100, 150 or 200mg DPV and 0, 16 or 32mg LNG, Day 1 daily DPV release values were between 4132 and 6113μg while Day 60 values ranged from 284 to 454μg. Daily LNG release ranged from 129 to 684μg on Day 1 and 2-91μg on Day 60. Core-type rings comprising one or two drug-loaded cores provided extended duration of in vitro release out to 180days, and maintained daily drug release rates within much narrower windows (either 75-131μg/day or 37-66μg/day for DPV, and either 96-150μg/day or 37-57μg/day for LNG, depending on core ring configuration and ignoring initial lag release effect for LNG) compared with matrix-type rings. The data support the continued development of these devices as multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPTs) for HIV prevention and long-acting contraception.

Milestones in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering History: A Comparative Review

We present a review of the historical evolution of software engineering, intertwining it with the history of knowledge engineering because “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This retrospective represents a further step forward to understanding the current state of both types of engineerings; history has also positive experiences; some of them we would like to remember and to repeat. Two types of engineerings had parallel and divergent evolutions but following a similar pattern. We also define a set of milestones that represent a convergence or divergence of the software development methodologies. These milestones do not appear at the same time in software engineering and knowledge engineering, so lessons learned in one discipline can help in the evolution of the other one.

Improving the freshman electrical and computer engineering lab

This thesis covers the challenges of creating and maintaining an introductory engineering laboratory. The history of the University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering department’s introductory course, ECE 110, is recounted. The current state of the course, as of Fall 2008, is discussed along with current challenges arising from the use of a hand-wired prototyping board with logic gates. A plan for overcoming these issues using a new microcontroller-based board with a pseudo hardware description language is discussed. The new microcontroller based system implementation is extensively detailed along with its new accompanying description language. This new system was tried in several sections of the Fall 2008 semester alongside the old system; the students’ final performances with the two different approaches are compared in terms of design, performance, complexity, and enjoyment. The system in its first run shows great promise, increasing the students’ enjoyment, and improving the performance of their designs.

冀东油田柳南地区新近系油藏剩余油形成及分布规律研究

This thesis is based on the research project of Study on the Geological Characteristics and Remaining Oil Distribution Law of Neogene Reservoirs in Liunan Area, which is one of the key research projects set by PetroChina Jidong Oilfield Company in 2006. The determination of remaining oil distribution and its saturation changes are the most important research contents for the development and production modification of oilfields in high water-cut phases. Liunan oilfield, located in Tangshan of Hebei Province geographically and in Gaoliu structural belt of Nanpu sag in Bohai Bay Basin structurally, is one of the earliest fields put into production of Jidong oilfield. Focusing on the development problems encountered during the production of the field, this thesis establishes the fine geological reservoir model through the study of reservoir properties such as fine beds correlation, sedimentary facies, micro structures, micro reservoir architecture, flow units and fluid properties. Using routine method of reservoir engineering and technology of reservoir numerical modeling, remaining oil distribution in the target beds of Liunan area is predicted successfully, while the controling factors of remaining oil distribution are illustrated, and the model of remaining oil distribution for fault-block structure reservoirs is established. Using staged-subdivision reservoir correlation and FZI study, the Strata in Liunan Area is subdivided step by step; oil sand body data-list is recompiled; diagram databases are established; plane and section configuration of monolayer sandstone body, and combination pattern of sandstone bodys are summarized. The study of multi-level staged subdivision for sedimentary micro-facies shows that the Lower member of Minghuazhen formation and the whole Guantao formation in Liunan Area belong to meandering river and braided river sedimentary facies respectively, including 8 micro facies such as after point bar, channel bar, channel, natural levee, crevasse splay, abandoned channel, flood plain and flood basin. Fine 3D geological modeling is performed through the application of advanced software and integration of geological, seismic logging and reservoir engineering data. High resolution numerical simulation is performed with a reserve fitting error less than 3%, an average pressure fitting fluctuation range lower than 2Mpa and an accumulate water cut fitting error less than 5%. In this way, the distribution law of the target reservoir in the study area is basically recognized. Eight major remaining oil distribution models are established after analysis of production status and production features in different blocks and different layers. In addition, fuzzy mathematics method is used to the integreted evaluation and prediction of abundant remaining oil accumulation area in major production beds and key sedimentary time units of the shallow strata in Liunan Area and corresponding modification comments are put forward. In summary, the establishment of fine reservoir geological model, reservoir numerical simulation and distribution prediction of remaining oil make a sound foundation for further stimulation of oilfield development performance.

复杂断块油气藏成藏机理和剩余油预测

Complex fault block reservoir is very important type in chinese oilfield.The reservoir have for many years and it has been the important issue of oil-gas exploration and development in china that how to increase reserves and production. Therefore,taking the Pucheng-oil field as an example, the article intensive study the geologic feature of oil pool, correctly recognize the rule of oil-gas accumulation and based on the fine representation of the characteristic of reservoir, research the remaining oil in high developed area,which is important for progressive exploratioon and development and taping the remaining oil. The article multipurpose uses the data of geology,drilling,wellloging, analysis and assay and so on, under the guidance multi-disciplinary theory, intensify the comprehension of the geologic feature of oil pool in high developed oil field. Based on the high-resolution sequence stratigraphic framework ,the article points out that Es_2 upper 2+3 reservoir in the south area of Pucheng oilfield is in the depositional environment of Terminal Fan, which has constant supply of sedimentary source ,and build the sedimentation model. Studies have shown that the major reservoir in work area is the distributary channel sandbody in central Sub-facies of Terminal Fan，secondary is both lateral accretion sandbodies of channel sands，nearby and far away from the channel overflowing sandbodies in front of the fan. The article analyze the effect of depth of burial of the reservoir, sandstone structure, strata pressure and bioturbate structure on control action of physical property for reservoir and indicate that deposition and diagenesis are major controlling factors.By building the model of reservoir heterogeneity, the article show the magnitude of reservoir heterogeneity ,the genesis and identification mark of Interlayer and build the the model of interlayer. in this area the vertical distribution of interlayer is complicated,but the intraed interlayer distribute steady. Thick interlayer is steady and the thin is relatively spreaded. By building models of fault sealing,stress field and fluid potential field of the south of the pucheng oil field, the regular pattern of fluid migration and accumulation runs out. By researching the elements of oil accumulation, migration pathway and accumulation period with quantification and semiquantitative methods,we bulit the oil-gas reservoir-forming mode of the south of the pucheng oil field,which will be the foundation of the rolling exploratory development in the future. We promulgated the master control element and the rule of distribution of the remaining oil with the upside 2+3 oil layer in shaer in the south of the pucheng oil field as an example.In this area, the formation and the distribution of the remaining oil is controled by the sedimentary microfacies, reservoir heterogeneity,fault and reservoir engineering. The remaining oil is concentrated in the vicinity of the gas cap, updip of the fault block and the area with incomplete flooding. Remaining oil saturation in some area can get 50%, so there are many places in which we can enhance oil recovery.

孤东油田馆陶组河流相储层流动单元模型与剩余油分布规律研究

Since C.L. Hearn presented the concept of flow unit in 1984, its generation mechanisms and controlling factors have been studied in many aspects using different methods by researchers. There are some basic methods to do the research, and there are several concepts and classification standards about flow unit. Based on previous achievements and using methodologies from sedimentary geology, geophysics, seismic stratigraphy, and reservoir engineering, the author systemically studies the factors controlling flow unit, puts forward a series of methods for recognition, classification and evaluation of flow unit. The results obtained in this paper have important significance not only for understanding the flow unit, but also for revealing the distribution of remaining oil. As a case, this paper deals with the reservoir rocks in Guantao Group of Gudong Oilfield. Zhanhua Sag, Jiyang Depression in Bohaiwan Basin. Based on the study of stratigraphic, depositional and structural characteristics, the author establishes reservoir geological models, reveals the geological characteristics of oil-bearing reservoir of fluvial facies, points out the factors controlling flow unit and geological parameters for classification of flow unit. and summarizes methods and technologies for flow unit study when geological, well-logging and mathematical methods are used. It is the first attempt in literatures to evaluate reservoir by well-logging data constrained by geological conditions, then a well-logging evaluation model can be built. This kind of model is more precise than ever for calculating physical parameters in flow unit. In a well bore, there are six methods to recognize a flow unit. Among them, the activity function and intra-layer difference methods are the most effective. Along a section, the composition type of flow unit can be located according amplitude and impedance on seismic section. Slice method and other methods are used to distinguish flow unit. In order to reveal the distribution laws of flow unit in space, the author create a new method, named combination and composition of flow unit. Based on microscopic pore structure research, the classification methods of flow unit are developed. There are three types of flow unit in the reservoir of fluvial facies. They have their own lithology, petrophysics and pore structure character. Using judgement method, standard functions are built to determine the class of flow unit of fluvial facies. Combining reservoir engineering methods, the distribution laws of remaining oil in different types, or in different part of a flow unit are studied. It is evident that the remaining oil is controlled by the type of flow unit. The author reveals the relationship between flow unit and remaining oil distribution, builds the flowing models, predicts the variation of reservoir parameters in space, put forward different methods developing remaining oil in different flow unit. Especially, based on the results obtained in this paper, some suggestions for the adjustment of the developing flow units have been applied in Districts No.4 and No.7, and good results have been yielded. So, the results of this paper can guide oil field development. They are useful and significant for developing the remaining oil and enhancing the oil recovery efficiency.

开发早期油藏动态地质模型与油藏工程优化研究——以埕岛油田馆上段油藏为例

In order to developing reservoir of Upper of Ng at high-speed and high-efficient in Chengdao oilfield which is located in the bally shallow sea, the paper builds up a series of theory and means predicting and descripting reservoir in earlier period of oilfield development. There are some conclusions as follows. 1. It is the first time to form a series of technique of fine geological modeling of the channel-sandy reservoir by means of mainly seismic methods. These technique include the logging restriction seismic inversion, the whole three dimension seismic interpretation, seismic properties analysis and so on which are used to the 3-dimension distributing prediction of sandy body, structure and properties of the channel reservoir by a lot of the seismic information and a small quantity of the drilling and the logging information in the earlier stage of the oil-field development. It is the first time that these methods applied to production and the high-speed development of the shallow sea oilfield. The prediction sandy body was modified by the data of new drilling, the new reservoir prediction thinking of traced inversion is built. The applied effect of the technique was very well, according to approximately 200 wells belonging to 30 well groups in Chengdao oilfield, the drilling succeeded rate of the predicting sandy body reached 100%, the error total thickness only was 8%. 2. The author advanced the thinking and methods of the forecasting residual-oil prediction at the earlier stage of production. Based on well data and seismic data, correlation of sediment units was correlated by cycle-correlation and classification control methods, and the normalization and finely interpretation of the well logging and sedimentation micro-facies were acquired. On the region of poor well, using the logging restriction inversion technique and regarding finished drilling production well as the new restriction condition, the sand body distributing and its property were predicted again and derived 3-dimension pool geologic model including structure, reservoir, fluid, reservoir engineering parameter and producing dynamic etc. According to the reservoir geologic model, the reservoir engineering design was optimized, the tracking simulation of the reservoir numerical simulation was done by means of the dynamic data (pressure, yield and water content) of development well, the production rule and oil-water distributing rule was traced, the distributing of the remaining oil was predicted and controlled. The dynamic reservoir modeling method in metaphase of development was taken out. Based on the new drilling data, the static reservoir geologic model was momentarily modified, the research of the flow units was brought up including identifying flow units, evaluating flow units capability and establishing the fine flow units model; according to the dynamic data of production and well testing data, the dynamic tracing reservoir description was realized through the constant modification of the reservoir geologic model restricted these dynamic data by the theory of well testing and the reservoir numerical simulation. It was built the dynamic tracing reservoir model, which was used to track survey of the remaining oil on earlier period. The reservoir engineering tracking analysis technique on shallow sea oilfield was founded. After renewing the structure history since tertiary in Chengdao area by the balance section technique and estimating the activity character of the Chengbei fault by the sealing fault analysis technique, the meandering stream sediment pattern of the Upper of Ng was founded in which the meandering border was the uppermost reservoir unit. Based on the specialty of the lower rock component maturity and the structure maturity, the author founded 3 kinds of pore structure pattern in the Guanshang member of Chengdao oil-field in which the storing space mainly was primary (genetic) inter-granular pore, little was secondary solution pore and the inter-crystal pore tiny pore, and the type of throat mainly distributed as the slice shape and the contract neck shape. The positive rhythmic was briefly type included the simple positive rhythm, the complex positive rhythm and the compound rhythm. Interbed mainly is mudstone widely, the physical properties and the calcite interbed distribute localized. 5. The author synthetically analyzed the influence action of the micro-heterogeneity, the macro-heterogeneity and the structure heterogeneity to the oilfield water flood development. The efficiency of water flood is well in tiny structure of convex type or even type at top and bottom in which the water breakthrough of oil well is soon at the high part of structure when inject at the low part of structure, and the efficiency of water flood is poor in tiny structure of concave type at top and bottom. The remaining oil was controlled by sedimentary facies; the water flooding efficiency is well in the border or channel bar and is bad in the floodplain or the levee. The separation and inter layer have a little influence to the non-obvious positive rhythm reservoir, in which the remaining oil commonly locate within the 1-3 meter of the lower part of the separation and inter layer with lower water flooding efficiency.

井间地震技术研究和应用

Cross well seismic technique is a new type of geophysical method, which observes the seismic wave of the geologic body by placing both the source and receiver in the wells. By applying this method, it averted the absorption to high-frequency component of seismic signal caused by low weathering layers, thus, an extremely high-resolution seismic signal can be acquired. And extremely fine image of cross well formations, structure, and reservoir can be achieved as well. An integrated research is conducted to the high-frequency S-wave and P-wave data and some other data to determine the small faults, small structure and resolving the issues concerning the thin bed and reservoir's connectivity, fluid distribution, steam injection and fracture. This method connects the high-resolution surface seismic, logging and reservoir engineering. In this paper, based on the E & P situation in the oilfield and the theory of geophysical exploration, a research is conducted on cross well seismic technology in general and its important issues in cross well seismic technology in particular. A technological series of integrated field acquisition, data processing and interpretation and its integrated application research were developed and this new method can be applied to oilfield development and optimizing oilfield development scheme. The contents and results in this paper are as listed follows: An overview was given on the status quo and development of the cross well seismic method and problems concerning the cross well seismic technology and the difference in cross well seismic technology between China and international levels; And an analysis and comparison are given on foreign-made field data acquisition systems for cross-well seismic and pointed out the pros and cons of the field systems manufactured by these two foreign companies and this is highly valuable to import foreign-made cross well seismic field acquisition system for China. After analyses were conducted to the geometry design and field data for the cross well seismic method, a common wave field time-depth curve equation was derived and three types of pipe waves were discovered for the first time. Then, a research was conducted on the mechanism for its generation. Based on the wave field separation theory for cross well seismic method, we believe that different type of wave fields in different gather domain has different attributes characteristics, multiple methods (for instance, F-K filtering and median filtering) were applied in eliminating and suppressing the cross well disturbances and successfully separated the upgoing and downgoing waves and a satisfactory result has been achieved. In the area of wave field numerical simulation for cross well seismic method, a analysis was conducted on conventional ray tracing method and its shortcomings and proposed a minimum travel time ray tracing method based on Feraiat theory in this paper. This method is not only has high-speed calculation, but also with no rays enter into "dead end" or "blinded spot" after numerous iterations and it is become more adequate for complex velocity model. This is first time that the travel time interpolation has been brought into consideration, a dynamic ray tracing method with shortest possible path has been developed for the first arrivals of any complex mediums, such as transmission, diffraction and refraction, etc and eliminated the limitation for only traveling from one node to another node and increases the calculation accuracy for minimum travel time and ray tracing path and derives solution and corresponding edge conditions to the fourth-order differential sonic wave equation. The final step is to calculate cross well seismic synthetics for given source and receivers from multiple geological bodies. Thus, real cross-well seismic wave field can be recognized through scientific means and provides important foundation to guide the cross well seismic field geometry designing. A velocity tomographic inversion of the least square conjugated gradient method was developed for cross well seismic velocity tomopgraphic inversion and a modification has been made to object function of the old high frequency ray tracing method and put forward a thin bed oriented model for finite frequency velocity tomographic inversion method. As the theory model and results demonstrates that the method is simple and effective and is very important in seismic ray tomographic imaging for the complex geological body. Based on the characteristics of the cross well seismic algorithm, a processing flow for cross well seismic data processing has been built and optimized and applied to the production, a good section of velocity tomopgrphic inversion and cross well reflection imaging has been acquired. The cross well seismic data is acquired from the depth domain and how to interprets the depth domain data and retrieve the attributes is a brand new subject. After research was conducted on synthetics and trace integration from depth domain for the cross well seismic data interpretation, first of all, a research was conducted on logging constraint wave impedance of cross well seismic data and initially set up cross well seismic data interpretation flows. After it applied and interpreted to the cross well seismic data and a good geological results has been achieved in velocity tomographic inversion and reflection depth imaging and a lot of difficult problems for oilfield development has been resolved. This powerful, new method is good for oilfield development scheme optimization and increasing EOR. Based on conventional reservoir geological model building from logging data, a new method is also discussed on constraining the accuracy of reservoir geological model by applying the high resolution cross well seismic data and it has applied to Fan 124 project and a good results has been achieved which it presents a bight future for the cross well seismic technology.

Estudo do fenômeno de instabilidade de estruturas cilíndricas de paredes finas submetidas ao carregamento de pressão externa

Thin walled cylindrical shells are widely used in many areas of industry, including civil, mechanical, nuclear, marine, petroleum and aerospace engineering. The wide application of thin cylindrical shells and the importance of instability phenomenon are the motivation basis to this study, since these factors have a great importance in engineering projects. It is presented a detailed study about the instability of cylindrical shells based on theoretical calculation, which results are compared with finite elements method calculation. The loading and boundary conditions analyzed are based on the most common types verified in real engineering projects and refer respectively to lateral (external) pressure and cylinders with simply supported edges. The calculation based on the finite elements method was executed with ANSYS 13.0 software. The results obtained with this calculation are in good agreement with the analytical theory presented in the technical note NACA No 1341 (BATDORF, 1947) considering a wide range of applicability. On the other hand, the analytical method presented in the book Theory of Elastic Stability (TIMOSHENKO; GERE, 1936) has a very restrict applicability and has presented considerable deviations in a great sort of the analyzed cases

Proyecto de evaluación de un yacimiento de gas mediante fracturación hidráulica

En este proyecto se evalúa la posibilidad de mejorar la producción de gas en un yacimiento en el que las reservas son todavía suficientes para ser explotadas. Para realizar esta evaluación se estudia en primer lugar la cantidad de gas que se extrae sin ningún método de mejoramiento de producción, y después se evalúa la cantidad de gas que se extraería si se aplicase el método de estimulación de yacimientos llamado fracturación hidráulica mediante unos ensayos de calibración que se han realizado en uno de los pozos que hay en el yacimiento de gas. Finalmente se hace una comparación económica de cómo mejoraría la producción de gas cuando el yacimiento no está estimulado y cuando lo está. Además, se aprovecha también para hacer una sucinta revisión de la base teórica de la fracturación hidráulica y de la ingeniería de yacimientos, así como un breve estudio de impacto ambiental de la fracturación. ABSTRACT This project is trying to assess the possibility to improve the gas production of a reservoir in which there are still enough reserves to be exploited. To do that, it is necessary to evaluate the quantity of gas that is producing without any type of stimulation method and then assess how the production will grow if a stimulation method called hydraulic fracturing is applied though some calibration tests, subsequently compare how much the incomes will be increased in case of application of the stimulation method. In addition, some of the basis and concepts of reservoir stimulation and reservoir engineering are reviewed in order to understand the project. Finally, a brief environmental impact is also assessed.