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Diluent blending‐viscosity reduction technology is an important method for heavy oil exploitation. For conventional diluent blending‐viscosity reduction technology, many disadvantages such as large amount of light oil and poor thermal conductivity limit its development in the oil field. In this paper, nano‐molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with excellent thermal conductivity was added into diesel to improve the thermal conductivity of light oil, and the stability of MoS2/diesel dispersion was improved by adding the dispersant. The effect of diluent blending‐viscosity reduction technology was evaluated using MoS2/diesel dispersion as light oil system. The results showed that the dispersion effect of ultrasonic cell crusher was better than that of a homogenizer and ultrasonic cleaner; the stability of MoS2/diesel dispersions decrease with the increase of the dosage of nanoparticles and with temperature. A certain degree of mechanical oscillation can improve the stability of MoS2/diesel dispersions. Compared with Span‐80 and N,N‐dimethylformamide, the stability was significantly improved when the concentration of succinimide ashless dispersant was 1%. The evaluation of diluent blending‐viscosity reduction technology experiment shows that adding an appropriate dosage of MoS2 can reduce the amount of light oil and improve the viscosity reduction effect at low temperature. When the blending ratio was 5% at 50°C, the viscosity reduction rate of MoS2/diesel dispersion relative to diesel increased by 44.9%. Therefore, it is of great significance to reduce the energy consumption and increase the production of heavy oil by diluent blending‐viscosity reduction technology based on oil‐based nanofluids with high thermal conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sarcopenia is a condition characterized by age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. Increasing evidence suggests that patients with sarcopenia have higher rates of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection and poorer post-infection outcomes. However, the exact mechanism and connections between the two is unknown. In this study, we used high-throughput data from the GEO database for sarcopenia (GSE111016) and COVID-19 (GSE171110) to identify common differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We conducted GO and KEGG pathway analyses, as well as PPI network analysis on these DEGs. Using seven algorithms from the Cytoscape plug-in cytoHubba, we identified 15 common hub genes. Further analyses included enrichment, PPI interaction, TF-gene and miRNA-gene regulatory networks, gene-disease associations, and drug prediction. Additionally, we evaluated immune cell infiltration with CIBERSORT and assessed the diagnostic accuracy of hub genes for sarcopenia and COVID-19 using ROC curves. In total, we identified 66 DEGs (34 up-regulated and 32 down-regulated) and 15 hub genes associated with sarcopenia and COVID-19. GO and KEGG analyses revealed functions and pathways between the two diseases. TF-genes and TF-miRNA regulatory network suggest that FOXOC1 and hsa-mir-155-5p may be identified as key regulators, while gene-disease analysis showed strong correlations with hub genes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Immune infiltration showed a correlation between the degree of immune infiltration and the level of infiltration of different immune cell subpopulations of hub genes in different datasets. The ROC curves for ALDH1L2 and KLF5 genes demonstrated their potential as diagnostic markers for both sarcopenia and COVID-19. This study suggests that sarcopenia and COVID-19 may share pathogenic pathways, and these pathways and hub genes offer new targets and strategies for early diagnosis, effective treatment, and tailored therapies for sarcopenia patients with COVID-19., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhong, Yuan, Yang, Du, Li, Liu, Yang, Wang, Wang, Jiang, Ren, Li, Li and Liu.)

Sarcopenia, a geriatric syndrome characterized by progressive loss of muscle mass and strength, and osteoarthritis, a common degenerative joint disease, are both prevalent in elderly individuals. However, the relationship and molecular mechanisms underlying these two diseases have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we screened microarray data from the Gene Expression Omnibus to identify associations between sarcopenia and osteoarthritis. We employed multiple statistical methods and bioinformatics tools to analyze the shared DEGs (differentially expressed genes). Additionally, we identified 8 hub genes through functional enrichment analysis, protein-protein interaction analysis, transcription factor-gene interaction network analysis, and TF-miRNA coregulatory network analysis. We also discovered potential shared pathways between the two diseases, such as transcriptional misregulation in cancer, the FOXO signalling pathway, and endometrial cancer. Furthermore, based on common DEGs, we found that strophanthidin may be an optimal drug for treating sarcopenia and osteoarthritis, as indicated by the Drug Signatures database. Immune infiltration analysis was also performed on the sarcopenia and osteoarthritis datasets. Finally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to verify the reliability of our results. Our findings provide a theoretical foundation for future research on the potential common pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of sarcopenia and osteoarthritis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Yang, Zhong, Du, Wang, Jiang, Li and Liu.)