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Brittleness of rocks is one of the key parameters of lithomechanics which should be considered in exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. When the rock is brittle, fracture networks tend to form in the operation of fracturing, then the reservoir properties are effectively improved, and the single-well production get the raise. For the current technologies of evaluating the brittleness of rocks based on the seismic prestack inversion, the methods of normalized Young's modulus and Poisson ratio are widely used, but the results are greatly influenced by the normalized parameter. In the paper, the quotient of Young's modulus and Poisson ratio (EPR) is used as the evaluation index of brittleness with the scale of lithomechanics experiment, and the creditability of brittleness discrimination is significantly increased. Meanwhile, the brittleness prediction of rocks in Permian Lucaogou Formation of Jimusar Area is conducted by using inversion of the seismic prestack elastic parameters. Volumetric fracturing in horizontal wells is carried out in the favorable areas with predicted better brittleness, and the microseismic detection result shows that the formation of fracture networks are generated by fracturing. In general, good results have been achieved in reservoir reformation.

In both type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), the deterioration of glycemic control over time is primarily caused by an inadequate mass and progressive dysfunction of β-cell, leading to the impaired insulin secretion. Here, we show that dietary supplementation of baicalein, a flavone isolated from the roots of Chinese herb Scutellaria baicalensis, improved glucose tolerance and enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in high-fat diet (HFD-) induced middle-aged obese mice. Baicalein had no effect on food intake, body weight gain, circulating lipid profile, and insulin sensitivity in obese mice. Using another mouse model of type 2 diabetes generated by high-fat diet (HFD) feeding and low doses of streptozotocin injection, we found that baicalein treatment significantly improved hyperglycemia, glucose tolerance, and blood insulin levels in these middle-aged obese diabetic mice, which are associated with the improved islet β-cell survival and mass. In the in vitro studies, baicalein significantly augmented GSIS and promoted viability of insulin-secreting cells and human islets cultured either in the basal medium or under chronic hyperlipidemic condition. These results demonstrate that baicalein may be a naturally occurring antidiabetic agent by directly modulating pancreatic β-cell function.

Dietary intake of foods rich in antioxidant properties is suggested to be cancer protective. Foods rich in antioxidant properties include grape (Vitis vinifera), one of the world’s largest fruit crops and most commonly consumed fruits in the world. The composition and cancer-protective effects of major phenolic antioxidants in grape skin and seed extracts are discussed in this review. Grape skin and seed extracts exert strong free radical scavenging and chelating activities and inhibit lipid oxidation in various food and cell models in vitro. The use of grape antioxidants are promising against a broad range of cancer cells by targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its downstream pathways, inhibiting over-expression of COX-2 and prostaglandin E2 receptors, or modifying estrogen receptor pathways, resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Interestingly, some of these activities were also demonstrated in animal models. However, in vivo studies have demonstrated inconsistent antioxidant efficacy. Nonetheless, a growing body of evidence from human clinical trials has demonstrated that consumption of grape, wine and grape juice exerts many health-promoting and possible anti-cancer effects. Thus, grape skin and seed extracts have great potential in cancer prevention and further investigation into this exciting field is warranted.