Study on the Performance Mechanism of Polyformaldehyde Glycol Ether Polymer for Crude Oil Recovery Enhancement.

The demand for energy continues to increase as the global economy continues to grow. The role of oilfield chemicals in the process of oil and gas exploration, development, and production is becoming more and more important, and the demand is rising year by year. The support of national policies and the formulation of environmental protection regulations have put forward higher requirements for oilfield chemical products, which has promoted the innovative research and development and market application of oilfield chemicals. Polyformaldehyde glycol ether polymer (PGEP) is simple to synthesize, easily biodegradable, green and environmentally friendly, and in line with the development trend of chemicals used in oil and gas development. The interfacial tension performance of PGEP after compounding with different surfactants can reach as low as 0.00034 mN/m, which meets the requirements of the oilfield (interfacial tension ≤ 5 × 10-3 mN/m). The best oil washing efficiency performance of PGEP compounded with different surfactants reached 78.2%, which meets the requirements of the oilfield (oil washing efficiency ≥ 40%). The fracturing fluid drainage efficiency of PGEP after compounding with different surfactants reaches 22%, which meets the requirements of the oilfield (drainage efficiency ≥ 15%). The surface interfacial tension of the system remains constant after the concentration exceeds 0.2% and decreases with lower concentrations. The drainage efficiency increases with increasing concentrations in the range below 0.6%. It was determined that PGEP can be used as a surfactant instead of fatty-alcohol ethoxylates (FAE) in oilfield development.

Using One-Step Acid Leaching for the Recovering of Coal Gasification Fine Slag as Functional Adsorbents: Preparation and Performance.

Coal gasification fine slag (FS), a kind of by-product of coal chemical industry, was recovered for the preparation of functional adsorbents by acid leaching process, which was orthogonally optimized by HCl, HNO3, HF, HAc, and H2SO4. Methylene blue (MB) was used to evaluate the performance of functional adsorbents. The results demonstrated that 57.6% of the leaching efficiency (RLE) and 162.94 mg/g of adsorption capacity (CAC) of MB were achieved under the optimal conditions of HNO3 of 2.0 mol/L, acid leaching time of 2.0 h, and acid leaching temperature of 293K. The detections on X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and BET surface area (SBET) indicated that the synthesized functional adsorbents were characterized by mesoporous materials. The good fitting of adsorption process using pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models demonstrated that the chemisorption contributed to MB removal. The results of thermodynamics further revealed that the adsorption process of MB occurred spontaneously due to the exothermic properties. The work is expected to develop a novel and cost-effective strategy for the safe disposal of FS, and potentially offer an alternative pathway to increase the additional value for the coal chemical industry.

Abnormal lipid droplets accumulation induced cognitive deficits in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome mice via JNK/SREBP/ACC pathway but not through PDP1/PDC pathway.

The mechanisms of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH)-induced cognitive deficits remain unclear. Here, our study found that about 3 months CIH treatment induced lipid droplets (LDs) accumulation in hippocampal nerve and glia cells of C57BL/6 mice, and caused severe neuro damage including neuron lesions, neuroblast (NB) apoptosis and abnormal glial activation. Studies have shown that the neuronal metabolism disorders might contribute to the CIH induced-hippocampal impairment. Mechanistically, the results showed that pyruvate dehydrogenase complex E1ɑ subunit (PDHA1) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) activator pyruvate dehydrogenase phosphatase 1 (PDP1) did not noticeable change after intermittent hypoxia. Consistent with those results, the level of Acetyl-CoA in hippocampus did not significantly change after CIH exposure. Interestingly, we found that CIH produced large quantities of ROS, which activated the JNK/SREBP/ACC pathway in nerve and glia cells. ACC catalyzed the carboxylation of Acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA and then more lipid acids were synthesized, which finally caused aberrant LDs accumulation. Therefore, the JNK/SREBP/ACC pathway played a crucial role in the cognitive deficits caused by LDs accumulation after CIH exposure. Additionally, LDs were peroxidized by the high level of ROS under CIH conditions. Together, lipid metabolic disorders contributed to nerve and glia cells damage, which ultimately caused behavioral dysfunction. An active component of Salvia miltiorrhiza, SMND-309, dramatically alleviated these injuries and improved cognitive deficits of CIH mice.

Heteroatom-doped hollow carbon spheres made from polyaniline as an electrode material for supercapacitors.

In this work, novel heteroatom-doped hollow carbon spheres (HHCSs) were prepared via the carbonization of polyaniline hollow spheres (PHSs), which were synthesized by one-pot polymerization. It was found that the carbonized PHSs at 700 °C exhibit high specific capacitance of 241 F g-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g-1 and excellent rate capability. The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to the heteroatom-doping and hollow carbon nanostructure of the HHCSs electrodes. Heteroatom groups in the HHCSs not only improve the wettability of the carbon surface, but also enhance the capacitance by addition of a pseudocapacitive redox process. Their unique structure provides a large specific surface area along with reduced diffusion lengths for both mass and charge transport.

[The associations between the peer relation, social support and mental health of adolescents in Wenchuan Earthquake-hit areas].

OBJECTIVE: To identify trajectory and its correlates of mental health among adolescents in Wenchuan earthquake-hit areas. METHODS: The students of grade seven were selected in two junior high schools from slightly and severely earthquake-hit areas respectively. Longitudinal design was used to address 5-time follow-up surveys among the same participants every 6 months since October, 2010. The main contents of thequestionnaire included demographic information, adolescent mental health, self-esteem, social support, peer relationship and so on. The number of cases in this study sample included 970 students who attended five surveys. 415 students were in the severely earthquake-hit area( boys 48. 2%, girls 51. 8%) and 555 students were in the slightly earthquake-hit area( boys 49. 2%, girls 50. 8%). The average age of the subjects was11. 6 ± 0. 5 years at the first survey. Repeated measure analysis of variance and latent variable growth curve model were used to analyze data. RESULTS: The mental health of adolescents presented a worse trend in the whole stage of junior high school( F = 9. 1, P <0. 05), and the mental health of the adolescents from slightly earthquake-hit area areas was always better than that from the severely earthquake-hit area( F = 135. 9, P < 0. 05). The self-esteem, peer relation of the slightly earthquake-hit areas were significantly higher than corresponding measurements of the heavily earthquake-hit areas( F = 17. 7 and 3. 8, P <0. 05), but the social support had a reverse result( F = 7. 8, P < 0. 05). Directly positive influencing factors for mental health were self-esteem, peer relation. The better peer relationships and higher self-esteem, the better mental health of adolescent were( ß =- 0. 119 and- 0. 526, P < 0. 05). Peer relations could not only directly affect the mental health of adolescents, but also improve the level of self-esteem( ß = 0. 334, P < 0. 001)by increasing the level of social support( ß = 0. 565, P < 0. 001) to indirectly affect act on mental health. CONCLUSION: The status and trajectory of mental health of adolescents from the earthquake-hit areas were influenced by the type of disaster areas, peer relation, self-esteem and social support.

Genetic associations of CLU rs9331888 polymorphism with Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis.

Recent studies showed the Clusterin gene (CLU) is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, studies investigating the association of CLU single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs9331888 with AD are controversial. We then performed a meta-analysis to assess the association between CLU SNP rs9331888 and AD. Computerized bibliographic searches of PUBMED and AlzGene database were conducted for the period up to July, 2014. The strength of the association between SNP rs9331888 and AD was estimated by odds ratios (ORs) and OR 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A total of 11 studies composed of 8766 AD cases and 11,366 controls were included in this study. Significant association of SNP rs9331888 with AD was found in Caucasian population among allelic model (C vs. G: OR=1.12, 95%CI=1.06-1.17, P<0.001), additive model (CC vs. GG: OR=1.25, 95%CI=1.12-1.40, P<0.001), recessive model (CC vs. CG+GG: OR=1.20, 95%CI=1.07-1.34, P=0.001), and dominant model (CC+CG vs. GG: OR=1.13, 95%CI=1.06-1.21, P<0.001). No significant association among these models was found in Asian and overall populations. Sensitivity analysis found that one study caused the distinct heterogeneity in Asian subgroup. Our analysis demonstrated that CLU SNP rs9331888 might be associated with an increased AD risk in Caucasian population, but not in Asian population.