Distinct BSRs and their implications for natural gas hydrate formation and distribution at the submarine Makran accretionary zone

To investigate the nature of gas hydrates in the Makran area,new high-resolution geophysical data were acquired between 2018-2019.The data collected comprise multibeam and two-dimensional multi-channel seismic reflection data.The multibeam bathymetry data show East-North-East(ENE)ridges,piggy-back basins,canyon and channel systems,and the morphology of the abyssal plain.Continuous and discontinuous bottom simulating reflectors(BSRs)occur in the piggy-back basins on most of the seismic profiles available.The BSRs cut the dipping layers with strong amplitude and reversed polarity.Discontinuous BSRs indicate a transition along a dipping high-permeable sand layers from gas-rich segment to the gas hydrate-bearing segment and sugge st alternating sediments of fine and relatively coarse grain size.Double BSRs are highly dynamic and attributed to slumps occurring in the study area.The BSRs induced by slumps are located both at deep and shallow depths,responding to the temperature or pressure variation.For the first time,BSRs are observed in the abyssal plain of the Makran area,being associated with anticline structures,which do not show large spatial continuity and are strongly conditioned by structural conditions such as anticlines and fluid migration pathways,including deep fault,gas chimney,and high-permeable sedimentary layer.Our results may help to assess the gas hydrate potential within the piggy-back basins and to determine the most promising target areas.Moreover,results about the abyssal plain BSR may help to locate hydrocarbon reservoirs in the deep ocean.

Quick repositioning maneuver for horizontal semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

Objective:To investigate the efficacy of quick repositioning maneuver for horizontal semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (H-BPPV). Methods:Clinical data of 67 patients with H-BPPV who underwent quick repositioning maneuver in our hospital from July 2009 to November 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The maneuver involved rotating the patient in the axial plane for 180? from the involved side towards contralateral side as quickly as possible. Results:Complete symptom resolution was achieved in 61 patients (91.0%) at one week and in 64 patients (95.5%) at 3 months post-treatment. During the repositioning maneuver process, there were no obvious untoward responses except transient nausea with or without vomiting in a few patients. Conclusion:The results indicate that the quick repositioning maneuver is an easy and effective alternative treatment in the management of H-BPPV. Copyright ? 2015 The Authors. Production & hosting by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd On behalf of PLA General Hospital Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Environmentally sensitive fluorescent probes with improved properties for detecting and imaging PDEδ in live cells and tumor slices

Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog(KRAS)-phosphodiesterase-delta(PDEδ)is a promising target for antitumor drug discovery.Herein,highly efficient and environmentally sensitive fluorescent probes of PDEδ(DS-Probes)were rationally designed.As compared with the reported PDEδprobes,DS-Probes showed higher binding affinity and selectivity,which were able to conveniently and efficiently label PDEδin live cells as well as tumor tissues.Therefore,these fluorescent probes are expected to facilitate PDEδ-based mechanism elucidation,drug discovery and pathologic diagnosis.

Design and test of centrifugal disc type sowing device for unmanned helicopter

In China,it is difficult for manned aircraft to sow seeds in small and scattered plots,especially in areas including hills,swamps,telegraph poles,windbreaks,and residential areas;in such terrain,the sowing machinery cannot function properly.However,unmanned helicopters(UHs)are flexible enough to control and adapt to the complex environments that are not easily accessible by terrain sowing machinery and large agricultural aircraft,which have been widely used in agriculture.In this study,a centrifugal disc-type sowing device for an unmanned helicopter(CDTSDUH)was designed.The factors influencing the seed velocity when the seeds move away from the disc were explored by analyzing the forces of the seed acting on the sowing disc and the wind field of the UHs.The influential factors include the distance from the falling mouth to the center of the disc,the offset angle of the falling mouth,and the rotation speed of the disc.An orthogonal test was designed with the sowing width and the curvature of the sowing area as the indexes.The test results showed that the three factors mentioned above had a greater impact on the sowing width than the curvature of the seeding area.Moreover,the superior parameters of the disc were determined.It was also suggested that the above factor levels had little effect on the offset width of sowing.The results of the test conducted for studying the sowing uniformity of the CDTSDUH indicated that the maximum and minimum difference values among the number of particles of the sampling points in the forward direction was 11 and 8,and the coefficient of variation of the number of particles in each row was more than 20%,indicating less uniformity was achieved when sowing in the lateral(perpendicular to the forward direction)direction,as compared to that in the forward direction.This study determined the ideal values for the radius of particles position,the offsetting angle,and the disc speed of the sowing machinery designed.Furthermore,considering that there are so many factors that influence the manner in which a UH functions,more analysis results and test data of influencing factors need to be acquired by experiments.The uniformity of sowing needs to be further improved.The results provided some theoretical and experimental references for the technology research on the centrifugal disc-type sowing device for UHs.