The enzyme urease drives the hydrolysis of urea leading to the release of ammonium ions and bicarbonate; in the presence of calcium, the rise in pH leads to increased calcium carbonate saturation and the subsequent precipitation of calcite. Although such alkalinizing ureolysis is widespread in nature, most studies have focussed on bacteria (i.e. indigenous communities or urease-active Sporosarcina pasteurii) for calcite precipitation technologies. In this study, urease-active jack bean meal (from the legume Canavalia ensiformis) was used to drive calcite precipitation. The rates of ureolysis (k urea), determined from measured NH4 +, enabled a direct comparison to microbial ureolysis rates reported in literature. It is also demonstrated that a simple single reaction model approach can simulate calcite precipitation very effectively (3-6% normalised root-mean-square deviation). To investigate the reduction of Permeability in porous media, jack bean meal (0.5 g L-1) and solutions (400 mM urea and CaCl2) were simultaneously pumped into a borosilicate bead column. One-dimensional magnetic resonance profiling techniques were used, non-invasively, for the first time to quantify the porosity changes following calcite precipitation. In addition, two-dimensional slice selective magnetic resonance images (resolution of ~0.5×1.0 mm) revealed that the exact location of calcite deposition was within the first 10 mm of the column. Column sacrifice and acid digestion also confirmed that 91.5% of calcite was located within the first 14 mm of the column. These results have important implications for the design of future calcite precipitation technologies and present a possible alternative to the well known bacterial approaches.

Objective(s): Multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), are regarded as autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS, testes, and eyes are immune privileged sites. It was initially presumed that ocular involvement in EAE and infertility in MS are neural-mediated. However, inflammatory molecules have been detected in the eyes of animals affected by EAE. It prompted us to investigate if the testes may also be targeted by immune response during EAE. Materials and Methods: kinetics of T cell response was investigated in the CNS and testes in EAE at different clinical scores. IFN-γ , IL-4, IL-17, and FoxP3 mRNA expressions were considered as representatives of Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg, respectively. Results: In CNS, IL-17 and IFN-γ were initially up-regulated and attenuated at the late phase of the disease. IL-4 and FoxP3 were markedly down-regulated, but IL-4 was then up-regulated at the late phase of the disease. In the testes, IFN-γ and IL-17 were diminished but increased at the late phase of the disease. FoxP3 was gradually increased from the initial step to the peak of the disease. IL-17/ IFN-γ showed a similar pattern between the CNS and testes. However, FoxP3 and IL-4 expression appeared to have different timing patterns in the CNS and testes. Conclusion: Given the Permeability in blood-retina/brain/CSF barrier by complete Freund’ s adjuvant, the pattern of T cells may be changed in the testes during EAE as a consequence of the blood-testis barrier Permeability. More research is required to explore the connection between immune privileged organs.

In this research, drying kinetics and mass transfer coefficients (Permeability and diffusion) of hornbeam wood (Carpinus betulus) from Nooshahar region were investigated. For this purpose, several boards with two nominal thicknesses of 2.5 an 5 cm were prepared from a freshly cut log.The boards were dried inside a laboratory kiln at the dry bulb temperature of 40°C and relative humidity of 50% to the final moisture content of 6%. The pattern of moisture loss, thermal diffusion, final moisture gradient along the board thickness, transverse Permeability and diffusion coefficients were then measured. The results showed that by increasing of board thickness, the rate of moisture loss decreased, particularly in the hygroscopic range and the moisture gradient increased, but the thermal diffusion was not affected. The transverse Permeability and diffusion coefficient of hornbeam wood was 2.91×10-19 m2 and 3.29×10-9 m2s-1, respectively. Overall, it can be concluded that due to low transverse Permeability coefficient of hornbeam wood, this species is difficult to be impregnated in common wood preservation process. In contrast, due to low diffusion coefficient, hornbeam wood is recommended for applications where high resistant to water vapor diffusion is required.

The main objective of water spreading projects is recharging aquifers. In this study, changes of soil surface Permeability in Yazd water spreading projects, including Sirizi in Bafgh, Herat and Miankouh in Mehriz were investigated. Using a double ring, 12 Permeability tests (in first and fourth strips and three tests for each strip) were performed. Using measured data the performance of Permeability equations such as Kostiakov, Kostiakov-Lewis, Horton, SCS, and Philip were compared in estimating cumulative infiltration and infiltration rate in the study areas. Results showed that average Permeability for Bafgh, Herat and Mehriz water spreading projects were about 1. 06, 1. 52 and 2. 94 cmhr-1, respectively. The best equation for estimating cumulative infiltration in Bafgh was the Horton equation with RMSE and Nash Sutcliffe coefficients of 0. 097 and 0. 992, respectively, while in Herat and Mehriz the best equation was the Kostiakov-Lewis equation with Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and RMSE of 0. 385, 0. 994, 0. 081 and 0. 991 respectively.

Foam flooding (or injection of foam) is a common technology to enhance oil recovery. Although the effects of Permeability on foam flooding were well studied in many laboratory experiments, little research has been focused on the specificity of low Permeability. In this paper, a series of constant-quality nitrogen foam flow experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of Permeability on the foam performance and oil displacement efficiency. Moreover, the results indicated that foam can be generated in low Permeability porous media. With uniform experimental conditions, the higher Permeability core has a bigger recovery amplification and greater decreasing range of water cut decline. Furthermore, the effect of microscopic heterogeneities of low Permeability reservoir on foam displacement is considered. Moreover, experimental comparative analysis with different microscopic heterogeneity cores showed that, in low Permeability condition, homogeneous porous media has a better prospects of oil-displacement. Finally, in this work, the results of the Permeability effects on the foam performance and oil displacement efficiency exemplify a potential to apply the technology to low Permeability reservoir.