HYDROCARBON MIGRATION AND CHARGE HISTORY IN THE KARANJ,PARANJ AND PARSI OILFIELDS,SOUTHERN DEZFUL EMBAYMENT,ZAGROS FOLD-AND-THRUST BELT,SW IRAN

This study investigates the charge history of the Oligocene – Lower Miocene Asmari Formation reservoir at three oilfields (Karanj, Paranj and Parsi) in the southern Dezful Embayment, SW Iran, from microthermometric analyses of hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions. The Asmari Formation reservoir was sampled in seven wells at depths of between 1671.5 and 3248.5 m; samples from three of the wells were found to be suitable for fluid inclusion analyses. The samples were analyzed using an integrated workflow including petrography, fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman microspectroscopy and microthermometry. Abundant oil inclusions with a range of fluorescence colours from near-yellow to near-blue were observed. Based on the fluid inclusion petrography, fluorescence and microthermometry data, two episodes of oil charging into the reservoir were identified: 7 to 3.5 Ma, and 3.5 to 2 Ma, respectively. Fluid inclusions in general homogenized at temperatures between 112 and 398°C and with salinities of 14 to 23 wt.% NaCl equivalent. Based on the burial history, the Albian Kazhdumi and Paleogene Pabdeh Formation source rocks in the study area have not reached the gas generation window. The abundant fluid inclusions containing gas-liquid phase observed in the Asmari samples studied are therefore inferred to have been derived from secondary oil-to-gas cracking which resulted from Late Pliocene uplift.     

Using the red-near infrared spectral to estimate ground cover based on vegetative indices

Rapid and accurate estimation of Ground Cover (GC) at regional and global scales for agricultural management application is only possible by using remote sensing (RS). In this study, two Vegetation Indices (VIs) including the Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used for estimating GC. Since the parameters of the bare soil line have an important role in calculating GC based on PVI, this line was extracted based on the red-NIRmin (minimum near infrared) method with different intervals (0.0001, 0.0005, and 0.0010). In addition to traditional statistics such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), the sensitivity analysis (S) was also used to sharpen the accuracy of the models' estimations. The results indicated that the PVI-based method, in contrast to the NDVI-based approach, had a better performance in estimating GC of wheat. The highest correlation between the observed GC and the estimated GC based on PVI method was achieved in interval length of 0.0005 (R2 = 0.91) with RMSE equal to 8.82. This regression line (GCEST = -3.47 + 0.96 GCOBS) was not significantly different from the 1:1 line. As expected, the best estimation was achieved when the sensitivity of estimated GC based on PVI (length of the interval: 0.0005) was almost constant and low compared to the other models.     

Green synthesis of ZnO and ZnO/CuO nanocomposites in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mentha longifolia</Emphasis> leaf extract: characterization and their application as anti-bacterial agents

In this work, we fabricated ZnO and ZnO/CuO nanocomposites using Mentha longifolia leaf extract as a natural, non-toxic, and efficient stabilizer. Anti-bacterial activities of the prepared samples against two pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli (Gram-negative), and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) were investigated. The properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM, TEM, TGA, FT-IR, UV–Vis DRS, and BET instruments. The XRD analysis indicated that the size of crystallites was decreased for the ZnO powder prepared in the presence of the leaf extract. The SEM images showed that the samples consist of spherical shaped well-distributed particles. In addition, the presence of biomolecules from the leaf extract was revealed by EDX, TGA, FT-IR, and UV–Vis DRS analyses, which are important in biosynthesis process. The highest anti-bacterial activity belonged to the ZnO/CuO (10%) nanocomposite and the other compounds, including ZnO/CuO (5%), ZnO (ext), and ZnO (W) were in the next ranks, respectively. It was observed that the viability percentages against E. coli (10.16?±?2.2) is higher than that of S. aureus (17.1?±?0.87) in the presence of the ZnO/CuO (10%) nanocomposite. Ultimately, the mechanism for the action of the ZnO/CuO (10%) nanocomposite was explored through the SEM images, which involved the disruption of the bacterial membranes.