In vitro testing of drugs with excised human skin is a valuable prerequisite for clinical studies. However, the analysis of excised human skin presents several obstacles. Ongoing drug diffusion, microbial growth and changes in hydration state influence the results of drug penetration studies. In this work, we evaluate freeze-drying as a preserving preparation method for skin samples to overcome...

Vacuum freeze-drying has been considered the best dehydration process for thermolabile products because it reduces nutritional and sensorial degradation. As water is removed from a pre-frozen product, a porous structure is formed, which results in a dehydrated product that has better properties when rehydrated.1 This technique springs up rapidly along with the development of refrigeration, vacu...

In this paper the Discrete Element Model (DEM) ‘ESyS_Particle’, previously used to model fracture of brittle rocks and earthquake processes, is further developed to be able to be applied to the hydraulic fracturing process in Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS). The advantage of DEM is that large deformations and dynamic process can be modelled easily. ESyS_Particle has been used to successfull...

The recently developed Unconventional Fracture Model (UFM*) simulates complex hydraulic fracture network propagation in a formation with pre-existing closed natural fractures, and explicitly models hydraulic injection into a fracture network with multiple propagating branches [1]. The model predicts whether a hydraulic fracture front crosses or is arrested by a natural fracture it encounters, w...

[1] The role of bedrock fractures and rock mass strength is often considered a primary influence on the efficiency of surface processes and the morphology of landscapes. Quantifying bedrock characteristics at hillslope scales, however, has proven difficult. Here, we present a new field‐based method for quantifying the depth and apparent density of bedrock fractures within the shallow subsurface...

Hydraulic fracturing technology is usually used to stimulate tight gas reservoirs for increasing gas production. The stimulated volume depends in part on the pre-existing natural fractures in a reservoir. The mechanisms influencing the interaction between hydraulic fractures and natural fractures have to be well understood in order to achieve a successful application of hydraulic fracturing. In...

Induced seismicity has become a concern for industry and nearby residents. Fluid-induced earthquakes are side effect of industrial operations such as hydraulic fracturing, where high-pressure fluids pumped into the Earth’s crust to increase hydrocarbon flow well from petroleum-bearing rock formations. Previous studies on fluid-induced showed existence spatiotemporal clustering aftershock activi...

This paper presents the effect of selected parameters of abrasive blasting on the strength of a joint between dental porcelain and metal base. Experiments were conducted for different grain sizes of abrasive material and different blasting angles, with a constant blasting pressure. InLine dental porcelain was fused on samples of cobalt-chromium alloy following abrasive blasting; they were subse...

gas basin. For example, recycled produced water is less than 10% of the total water used to drill and fracture in the Barnett, Fayetteville, and Haynesville shale plays. However, the fraction of water recycled is significantly higher in the Marcellus play—greater than 90% of the total water used (Mantell 2011). Although treatment methods have been developed to recycle produced water for subsequ...

*Correspondence: Alex Hansen, Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N–7491 Trondheim, Norway e-mail: [email protected] Fracturing and refreezing of sea ice in the Kara sea are investigated using complex network analysis. By going to the dual network, where the fractures are nodes and their intersections links, we gain access to topological features which are e...