The hyperthermia and thermal denaturation literatures reveal a time-temperature equivalency when heating cells or connective tissues: thermal damage increases with increasing temperature (for the same duration) and increases with increasing duration (for the same temperature). Recent findings conversely suggest that increasing the mechanical loading on a tissue during heating decreases the thermal damage (for a given temperature and duration of heating). Surprisingly, however, there are few histological correlates of such damage. In this paper, we show that progressive light microscopic changes - swelling of collagen bands, thickening of collagen-rich layers, hyalinization, and loss of birefringence approximately - correlate very well with both increased heating times and decreased mechanical loading. Increased mechanical stress is thus thermally protective and should be considered in the design of clinical procedures that use heating to treat diseases or injuries.

Historical horizontal completions designs have very wide cluster spacing, leaving behind significant volumes of hydrocarbons. This paper develops a workflow for optimizing cluster spacing using simulated production curves in unconventional oil and gas fields. Optimizing cluster spacing reduces unstimulated reservoir rock left between widely spaced fractures, more efficiently draining the stimulated reservoir volume and increasing expected ultimate recovery and initial production. This paper illustrates the workflow developed by finding an optimal range for cluster spacing in the retrograde/wet gas region of the Eagle Ford. It is estimated that optimizing cluster spacing in this fluid window will increase ultimate hydrocarbon recovery by 20% and the net present value of each well by 50-60%.