Fractal analysis of time series in oil and gas production

The peculiarities of fractal characteristics’ calculations for time series are described in this article. An algorithm for calculation of fractal dimension is suggested. It has been proved that the suggested method possesses high accuracy and the rapidity of convergence on the limited number of measurements compared to the methods of covering.The criteria of early diagnosis for changes in the condition of hydrodynamic processes, which do not vary by fractal dimension, have been recommended.The presented method is applicable for practical engineering calculations with self-affine, chaotic data, usually with relatively limited number of measurements. It is quite a simple method for calculation of fractal dimension, algorithm can be easily realized and it should be useful for engineers.The applicability of the proposed algorithm for fractal dimension calculation and early diagnosis criteria of qualitative changes in the behaviour of various dynamic systems has been tested both on simulated as well as practical examples of oil and gas production.     

Strategies for fine-tuning the catalytic activity of pincer-complexes

Various methoxy substituted pincer-complexes were prepared in order to study the substituent effects on the catalytic activity in palladium catalyzed opening of vinyl epoxides and boronation of cinnamyl alcohol. The results clearly show that methoxy substitution at the para-position of the pincer-complex leads to up to fourfold acceleration of the catalytic reactions, while substitution of the side-arms does not change the activity of the complex or leads to a slight deceleration of the catalytic processes.     

A new donor–acceptor double‐cable carbazole polymer with perylene bisimide pendant group: Synthesis,electrochemical, and photovoltaic properties

We report here electrochemical synthesis of novel soluble donor–acceptor (D–A) polymer with suitably functionalized perylenetetracarboxylic diimide dye derivative covalently linked to carbazole moiety (Cbz‐PDI). The band gap, E_g was measured using UV–Vis spectroscopy and compared with that obtained by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Efficient intramolecular electron transfer from carbazole‐donor to perynediimide‐acceptor leads to remarkable fluorescence quenching of the perylene core. Furthermore, spectroelectrochemical property and surface morphology of the polymer film were investigated. Characteristic monoanion and dianion radical bands on the UV–Vis absorption spectra attributed to the electrochemical reduction of the neutral polymer were observed. During the reduction process, red color of the film turned into blue and violet, respectively. Finally, the photovoltaic performance of the D–A double‐cable polymer was checked and nearly 0.1% electrical conversion efficiency is obtained under simulated AM 1.5 solar light with 100 mW/cm² radiation power. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 6280–6291, 2009     

Synthesis and characterization of polymeric Pd(II), Pt(IV), and Au(III) complexes of 2,2′-(1,4-phenylenedivinylene)-bis-8-hydroxyquinoline

The complexes of 2,2′-(1,4-Phenylenedivinylene)-bis-8-hydroxyquinoline (LH₂) with K₂PdCl₄, H₂PtCl₆ and HAuCl₄ were synthesized and characterized with ¹H-and ¹³C-NMR, elemental analysis, FT-IR, and molar conductivity. Au(III) and Pt(IV) complexes have characteristic conductance, while the Pd(II) complex has a non-ionic structure according to the molar conductivity and elemental analysis. This text was submitted by authors in English.     

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in waters by ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

An ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction (USAEME) procedure was developed for the extraction of US EPA 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 10 mL of water samples, with subsequent determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). After determination of the most suitable solvent and solvent volume, several other parameters (i.e., extraction time, centrifugation time and ionic strength of the sample) were optimized using a 2³ factorial experimental design. Limits of detection ranged from 0.001 to 0.036 μg L⁻¹. The developed procedure was applied to fortified distilled water with different fortification levels (0.5, 2 and 5 μg L⁻¹). Recoveries were over 92% and relative standard deviations of the recoveries were below 8%. The efficiency of the USAEME was compared with traditional liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction on real water samples (i.e., tap water, well water and surface (lake) water as well as domestic and industrial wastewaters). The USAEME showed comparable efficiencies especially with LLE. The developed USAEME was demonstrated to be robust, viable, simple, rapid and easy to use for the determination of PAHs in water samples by GC-MS.     

Lensless imaging for simultaneous microfluidic sperm monitoring and sorting

5.3 million American couples of reproductive age (9%) are affected by infertility, among which male factors account for up to 50% of cases, which necessitates the identification of parameters defining sperm quality, including sperm count and motility. In vitro fertilization (IVF) with or without intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become the most widely used assisted reproductive technology (ART) in modern clinical practice to overcome male infertility challenges. One of the obstacles of IVF and ICSI lies in identifying and isolating the most motile and presumably healthiest sperm from semen samples that have low sperm counts (oligozoospermia) and/or low sperm motility (oligospermaesthenia). Microfluidic systems have shown potential to sort sperm with flow systems. However, the small field of view (FOV) of conventional microscopes commonly used to image sperm motion presents challenges in tracking a large number of sperm cells simultaneously. To address this challenge, we have integrated a lensless charge-coupled device (CCD) with a microfluidic chip to enable wide FOV and automatic recording as the sperm move inside a microfluidic channel. The integrated system enables the sorting and tracking of a population of sperm that have been placed in a microfluidic channel. This channel can be monitored in both horizontal and vertical configuration similar to a swim-up column method used clinically. Sperm motilities can be quantified by tracing the shadow paths for individual sperm. Moreover, as the sperm are sorted by swimming from the inlet towards the outlet of a microfluidic channel, motile sperm that reach the outlet can be extracted from the channel at the end of the process. This technology can lead to methods to evaluate each sperm individually in terms of motility response in a wide field of view, which could prove especially useful, when working with oligozoospermic or oligospermaesthenic samples, in which the most motile sperm need to be isolated from a pool of small number of sperm.     

Enantioselective Addition of Diethylzinc to Aromatic Aldehydes Using Chiral Oxazoline-Based Ligands

Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry - Chiral oxazoline ligands containing an aromatic ring were prepared from norephedrine and pyrrole-2-carbonitrile or 2-hydroxybenzoyl chloride. The synthesized...     

Rate of convergence by Chlodowsky-Taylor polynomials

Approximation on an unbounded interval is studied in this work by means of a newly-defined two-parameter polynomial operator based on Chlodowsky polynomials. The operator’s properties including convergence rate are investigated using the weighted modulus of continuity. An example is given to illustrate the effect of the parameters. Some basic results are presented.