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Summary Research on alkali-assisted chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology [alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP)/alkali-cosolvent-polymer (ACP)] with high total acid number (TAN) crude oils has led to developments with liquid organic alkalis and cosolvents (Southwick et al. 2020; Fortenberry et al. 2015; Schumi et al. 2019; Upamali et al. 2018). Both concepts afford potential significant cost reduction in field operations, but to date it has not been demonstrated that these two concepts can work together. Monoethanolamine (MEA) alkali and a wide variety of liquid cosolvents are evaluated with high TAN crude oil (1.5 mg KOH/g oil). Formulations are found that give ultralow interfacial tension (UL-IFT) at a specified injection salinity. Fine tuning the formulation to different injection salinities can be done by choosing alternate cosolvents (or a cosolvent blend). A formulation comprising 1% MEA and a novel high molecular weight (3152 g/gmol) cosolvent, 0.5% glycerin alkoxylate with 30 mol of propylene oxide and 35 mol of ethylene oxide (glycerin-30PO-35EO), gave UL-IFT in 21,000 total dissolved solids (TDS) injection brine and gave 100% oil recovery in Bentheimer sandstone with 3,500 ppm FP 3630Ss (SNF Flopaam 3630Sis partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide) as mobility control agent. All oil was produced clean, no separation of emulsion was needed to measure oil recovery. Alkali consumption tests were also performed with a high-permeability reservoir sandstone. Results confirmed earlier data published with Boise outcrop sandstone (Southwick et al. 2020) showing low alkali consumption with MEA. On a mass basis, only 12% of the amount of MEA is consumed relative to the amount of sodium carbonate consumed. This reduces the logistical challenges of shipping chemicals to remote locations. MEA is also a low-viscosity liquid which further simplifies field handling.

Objective/Background: Relapse is the most common cause of treatment failure after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT). No standard of care exists, and a wide range of treatments are used for post-alloHCT relapse. In the recent era, several novel therapies including targeted agents are available for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Methods: We reviewed outcomes after alloHCT relapse, with or without use of these newer agents for ALL, AML, and MDS. In total, 115 adults with relapsed or refractory ALL (n = 17), AML (n = 67), and MDS (n = 31) at median 5 (range, 1–64) months after their first alloHCT in 2010–2018 were included. Results: Median follow-up was 19 (range, 6–80) months after relapse from alloHCT. Targeted agents were given to 29 (25%) patients. In multivariable analysis, use of targeted agent at any time point after relapse was not associated with survival. Matched unrelated (vs. matched sibling; hazard ratio [HR] 1.70; p = .027) or haploidentical donor grafts (vs. matched sibling; HR 2.69; p = .003), presence of grade II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease before relapse (HR 2.46; p 12 months; HR 6.34; p 12 months; HR 3.16; p = .005) were adverse prognostic factors for post-relapse survival. Conclusion: Outcomes after alloHCT relapse remain poor regardless of the novel agent use. Innovative treatment strategies are needed to improve outcomes after relapse post-alloHCT.

Amid a crisis in biblical interpretation brought to a head by the Church Struggle in Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer delivered an address in August 1935 to a group of Confessing Church pastors entitled “Contemporizing New Testament Texts.” Bonhoeffer sounded a clarion call for the retrieval of a thoroughly theological hermeneutic that would liberate preachers for the bold proclamation of the Gospel within a culturally compromised church. This paper will present a reading of Bonhoeffer's daring address that seeks to both situate it within its unique historical context and attend to the ways that it calls into question many of the cherished hermeneutical and homiletical assumptions that dominate contemporary preaching for the sake of a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Objectives To evaluate the self-reported incidence of sleep disturbances, defined as ≤7 hours of sleep per 24-hour period, in patients undergoing arthroscopic-assisted knee surgery. Methods Patients who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery over the course of a 4-month period were prospectively included. Patients were excluded if a history of insomnia or other sleep altering medical history was reported. Self-reported sleep metrics included average number of hours of sleep per night, average number of awakenings during sleep per night, perceived quality of sleep, average pain level during sleep and number of hours of physical activity/therapy per week. Data were collected at weeks 1, 3, and 6 postoperatively. Joint circumference was measured on postoperative day 1 and served as an indicator of a knee effusion. Paired t-tests were used to compare preoperative to postoperative hours of sleep. Simple and multiple linear regression were used to evaluate relationships between surgical variables and postoperative sleep metrics. Results There were 123 patients who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery during the prospective enrolment period; 83 patients were included in the final analysis. The overall incidence of preoperative sleep disturbances was 20% (n=17). The overall incidence of self-reported postoperative sleep disturbances was 99%, 96% and 90% at weeks 1, 3 and 6, respectively. The average number of hours slept was significantly reduced at 1, 3 and 6 weeks postoperatively compared with the preinjury state (p 0.05). Conclusion Sleep disturbances were commonly reported in patients following arthroscopic knee surgery without correction of sleep metrics by 6 weeks postoperatively. The majority of sleep disturbances in this cohort correlated with an increased knee effusion. A multidisciplinary team approach is recommended to counsel patients regarding the potential for and problems with acute sleep disturbances following arthroscopic knee surgery. Level of evidence: 3.

Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding (ASP) has the potential to unlock massive oil reserves in quest of production sustenance within the bounds of profitable economics. Field results from a successful ASP pilot targeting the massive Sabriyah Mauddud (SAMA) reservoir in Kuwait, using a regular five-spot with five acre-spacing are encouraging. Oil cut post softened water pre-flushing reached 0% and tracer data indicated pre-mature breakthrough at the central producer. This necessitated in-depth conformance gel treatment1-3 to induce flow under matrix conditions and softened water injection resumed thereafter for a period of ~3 months, during which oil cut ranged between 2 to 6%. Oil cut then decreased to 0% again, beyond which polymer pre-flushing was introduced for a period of ~2 months, during which oil cut was increased to up to ~4%. ASP flooding resulted in an unambiguous and sustainable increase in oil cut with an average of ~12% over a period of more than 6 months. Furthermore, daily oil production rate after ASP flooding more than doubled. Effective oil-water separation of produced emulsion has been established and maintained using fit-for-purpose pre-heating, chemical dosing and gravity segregation technologies, thus resulting in relatively low BS&W levels in separated oil (i.e.

Busulfan-based conditioning regimens are associated with serious toxicities and literature reports increased risk of toxicities when daily area under the curve concentrations exceed 6000 µM-minute. We implemented real time pharmacokinetic-guided therapeutic drug monitoring of busulfan for myeloablative conditioning regimens. The objective was to compare toxicity of intravenous busulfan before and after therapeutic drug monitoring implementation. The primary endpoint was incidence of hepatotoxicity. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed with weight-based dose Busulfan/Cyclophosphamide (BuCy) conditioning from August 2017 through March 2018 ( N = 14) and therapeutic drug monitoring from April 2018 through December 2018 ( N = 22). Recipients of busulfan therapeutic drug monitoring were younger than those receiving weight-based dose (median: 45 vs. 58 years, p = 0.008). No other baseline differences were observed. There was no difference in hepatotoxicity between therapeutic drug monitoring and weight-based dose (median 1 vs. 0 days, p = 0.40). In the therapeutic drug monitoring group, 45% of patients had increases and 41% had decreases in busulfan dose after Bu1. Repeat pharmacokinetic after Bu2 were required in 32% of patients. A pharmacokinetic dose monitoring program for myeloablative conditioning intravenous busulfan regimens may be considered a safe practice in stem cell transplant recipients. The majority of patients receiving pharmacokinetic-guided therapeutic drug monitoring required dose changes and therapeutic drug monitoring patients had no significant difference in toxicity compared to those receiving weight-based dose.

This article introduces the use of nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) microfibrous meshes (MFMs) and Sorbothane and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) viscoelastic polymers to damp the dynamic response of a silicon micromachined vibration isolator (microisolator) for vibration reliability in mechanically harsh environments. The $9\times 9$ mm 2 microisolator is designed to house a small, packaged MEMS sensor to be isolated from the surrounding environment. Microisolators are fabricated from $\langle 100\rangle $ silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using standard lithography and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) procedures. The MFMs are attached to the microisolators post-fabrication via solder attachment. We then investigate the transmissibility of the undamped and damped vibration microisolators using laser Doppler vibrometry. The peak transmissibility of the microisolator is significantly reduced for all four cases of polymer or MFM damping. Experimental results are compared to the FEA simulated transmissibility and the analytically calculated transmissibility.

An alternative approximate implementation of an exactly solvable chaotic oscillator circuit is presented. In this implementation, the previously used op amp based NIC sinusoidal oscillator subcircuit was replaced with a single BJT Colpitts oscillator subcircuit. Although this change resulted in an increase in the order of the chaotic system and introduced additional nonlinearities, simulation and hardware testing results indicated that its performance was equivalent to that of the mathematical model for the exactly solvable chaotic system. It also demonstrated equivalent performance to previous op amp based designs, while mitigating some of the performance limitations inherent with op amp based NICs. Evaluation of the resulting 18.9 kHz oscillator circuit demonstrated chaotic dynamics comparable to those from the ideal exactly solvable chaotic system.

Ice formation can be problematic on surfaces, such as roads, bridges, wings, and sensitive plants. A simple low-cost sensor for detecting the formation of ice has been developed using standard low-cost commercial printed circuit board fabrication techniques. The sensor consists of a capacitive interdigitated electrode structure, realized in the top Cu layer of the circuit board and covered with a polymeric solder mask. The sensor's capacitance is measured at 1 and 64 kHz, and then, the ratio of the two capacitances is computed. The ratio is then compared with a threshold value of 2.0. Icing results in the capacitance ratio exceeding 2.0, whereas dry conditions or water result in a ratio of less than 2.0. This technique exploits the dielectric relaxation properties of ice, in which ice has a high dielectric constant below the relatively low dielectric relaxation frequency of ≤3 kHz and a low dielectric constant well above that frequency. The sensor was evaluated in air, water, and ice over a temperature range of −30 to 34 °C and successfully identified ice every time.

One mechanism by which lymphoid malignancies resist standard apoptosis-intending (cytotoxic) treatments is genetic attenuation of the p53/p16-CDKN2A apoptosis axis. Depletion of the epigenetic protein DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) using the deoxycytidine analog decitabine is a validated approach to cytoreduce malignancy independent of p53/p16. In vivo decitabine activity, however, is restricted by rapid catabolism by cytidine deaminase (CDA). We, therefore, combined decitabine with the CDA-inhibitor tetrahydrouridine and conducted a pilot clinical trial in patients with relapsed lymphoid malignancies: the doses of tetrahydrouridine/decitabine used (∼10/0.2 mg/kg orally (PO) 2×/week) were selected for the molecular pharmacodynamic objective of non-cytotoxic, S-phase dependent, DNMT1-depletion, guided by previous Phase 1 studies. Patients with relapsed/refractory B- or T-cell malignancies (n = 7) were treated for up to 18 weeks. Neutropenia without concurrent thrombocytopenia is an expected toxicity of DNMT1-depletion and occurred in all patients (Grade 3/4). Subjective and objective clinical improvements occurred in 4 of 7 patients, but these responses were lost upon treatment interruptions and reductions to manage neutropenia. We thus performed parallel experiments in a preclinical in vivo model of lymphoma to identify regimen refinements that might sustain DNMT1-targeting in malignant cells but limit neutropenia. We found that timed-alternation of decitabine with the related molecule 5-azacytidine, and combination with inhibitors of CDA and de novo pyrimidine synthesis could leverage feedback responses of pyrimidine metabolism to substantially increase lymphoma cytoreduction but with less neutropenia. In sum, regimen innovations beyond incorporation of a CDA-inhibitor are needed to sustain decitabine DNMT1-targeting and efficacy against chemo-resistant lymphoid malignancy. Such potential solutions were explored in preclinical in vivo studies.

Research on alkali assisted chemical EOR technology with high TAN crude oils have led to developments with liquid organic alkalis and co-solvents (Southwick J., et al., 2020) (Fortenberry, et al., 2015) (Schumi, et al., 2019) (Upamali, et al., 2018). Both concepts afford potential significant cost reduction in field operations but to date it has not been demonstrated that these two concepts can work together. Monoethanolamine (MEA) alkali and a wide variety of liquid co-solvents are evaluated with high TAN (total acid number) crude oil. Formulations are found that give ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) at a specified injection salinity. Fine tuning the formulation to different injection salinities can be done by choosing alternate co-solvents (or a co-solvent blend). A formulation comprising 1% MEA and a novel high molecular weight (3,152 g/gmol) co-solvent, 0.5% Glycerin alkoxylate with 30 moles propylene-oxide and 35 moles ethylene-oxide (Glycerin-30PO-35EO), gave ultra-low IFT in 21,000 TDS injection brine and gave 100% oil recovery in Bentheimer sandstone with 3500 ppm FP 3630 as mobility control agent. All oil was produced clean, no separation of emulsion was needed to measure oil recovery. Alkali consumption tests were also performedwith a high permeability reservoir sandstone. Results confirmed earlier data published with Boise outcrop sandstone (Southwick J., et al., 2020) showing low alkali consumption with MEA. On a mass basis, only 12% of the amount of MEA is consumed relative to sodium carbonate. This reduces the logistical challenges of shipping chemicals to remote locations. MEA is also a low viscosity liquid which further simplifies field handling.

The objective of this paper is to present a critical review of best practices for conducting laboratory experiments to evaluate chemical EOR. Some legacy methods and procedures are outdated and need to be updated to address their inherent flaws. This paper presents the reasons improvements are necessary and serves to introduce or highlight better methods, while providing a good resource to review past studies. Common laboratory methods and procedures used to evaluate chemical EOR are critically reviewed and discussed for polymer flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding, alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding, alkaline-co-solvent-polymer flooding specifically but also apply to similar processes. The laboratory methods for evaluating chemical EOR include surfactant phase behavior, coreflooding, chemical adsorption and retention measurements, polymer residual resistance factor measurements, polymer transport, polymer filtration ratio measurements, polymer stability. The best methods and procedures for these and other measurements should take into account how the laboratory measurements will be used for making field-scale performance predictions, the type of oil reservoir, the chemical EOR process and many other factors. Conducting corefloods with a low residence time is an example of a common mistake. New or improved methods are introduced or highlighted to bring best practices to the forefront. New methods that are highlighted include Residence Time Distribution Analysis to determine polymer retention and IPV, polymer transport in cores with two-phases present, and the addition of solvents/pre-shearing for improved polymer transport. The state-of-the-art laboratory methods and procedures discussed herein yield more accurate, more scalable data that are needed for reservoir simulation predictions and field-scale applications of chemical EOR. The recommended best practices will provide a better understanding needed to help select the appropriate chemicals and to determine the optimal chemical mass for field applications of chemical EOR.

The objective of this study was to test the performance of high-molecular weight polyethylene oxide (PEO) polymer in a low-permeability, oil-wet carbonate reservoir rock. Conventional HPAM polymers of similar molecular weight did not exhibit acceptable transport in the same rock, so PEO was explored as an alternative polymer. Viscosity, pressure drop across each section of the core, oil recovery, and polymer retention were measured. The PEO polymer showed good transport in the 23 mD reservoir carbonate core and reduced the residual saturation from 0.29 to 0.17. The reduction of residual oil saturation after polymer flooding using PEO was unexpected and potentially significant.