Theory and technique of permeability enhancement and coal mine gas extraction by fracture network stimulation of surrounding beds and coal beds

AbstractThe existing reservoir stimulating technologies are only applicable to hard coal but helpless for soft coal, which is one of the main factors hindering the CBM industrialization in China. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a universal stimulating technology which can increase the permeability in various coal reservoirs. Theoretical analysis and field tests were used to systematically analyze the mechanical mechanisms causing the formation of various levels and types of fractures, such as radial tensile fractures, peripheral tensile fractures, and shear fractures in hydraulic fracturing, and reveal the mechanism of permeability enhancement by fracture network stimulating in surrounding beds and coal reservoirs. The results show that multi-staged perforation fracturing of horizontal wells, hydraulic-jet staged fracturing, four-variation hydraulic fracturing and some auxiliary measures are effective technical approaches to fracture network stimulation, especially the four-variation hydraulic fracturing can stimulate the fracture network in vertical and cluster wells. It is concluded that the fracture network stimulating technology for surrounding beds has significant advantages, such as safe drilling operation, strong stimulation effect, strong adaptability to stress-sensitive and velocity-sensitive beds, and is suitable for coal reservoirs of any structure. Except for the limitation in extremely water-sensitive and high water-yield surrounding beds, the technology can be universally used in all other beds. The successful industrial tests in surface coal bed methane and underground coal mines gas extraction prove that the theory and technical system of fracture network stimulating in surrounding beds and coal reservoirs, as a universally applicable measure, will play a role in the CBM development in China

Tetherin inhibits prototypic foamy virus release

Background: Tetherin (also known as BST-2, CD317, and HM1.24) is an interferon- induced protein that blocks the release of a variety of enveloped viruses, such as retroviruses, filoviruses and herpesviruses. However, the relationship between tetherin and foamy viruses has not been clearly demonstrated. Results: In this study, we found that tetherin of human, simian, bovine or canine origin inhibits the production of infectious prototypic foamy virus (PFV). The inhibition of PFV by human tetherin is counteracted by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Vpu. Furthermore, we generated human tetherin transmembrane domain deletion mutant (delTM), glycosyl phosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor deletion mutant (delGPI), and dimerization and glycosylation deficient mutants. Compared with wild type tetherin, the delTM and delGPI mutants only moderately inhibited PFV production. In contrast, the dimerization and glycosylation deficient mutants inhibit PFV production as efficiently as the wild type tetherin. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that tetherin inhibits the release and infectivity of PFV, and this inhibition is antagonized by HIV-1 Vpu. Both the transmembrane domain and the GPI anchor of tetherin are important for the inhibition of PFV, whereas the dimerization and the glycosylation of tetherin are dispensable

Construction and Characterization of a Chimeric Virus (BIV/HIV-1) Carrying the Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus \u3ci\u3egag\u3c/i\u3e-\u3ci\u3epol\u3c/i\u3e Gene: Research Letters

HIV-1HXB2 5′LTR region, most of BIVR29 gag-pol segment and HIV-1HXB2 pol IN-3′LTR region were respectively amplified. A chimeric clone, designated as pHBIV3753, was constructed by cloning three fragments sequentially into pUC18. MT4 cells were transfected with pHBIV3753. The replication and expressions of the chimeric virus (HBIV3753) were monitored by RT activity and IFA. The results firstly demonstrated that it is possible to generate a new type of the BIV/HIV-1 chimeric virus containing BIV gag-pol gene

Molecular Studies on BIV Infection and its Interaction with Other Bovine Viruses

Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) is a bovine lentivirus that infects animals world-wide. The authors have cloned the BIV env and gag proteins and several sub-unit peptides spanning the entire coding regions of the two proteins as fusions to the bacterial trpE protein and expressed them in Escherichia coli (Spindler et al. 1984). These recombinant proteins can readily be expressed but the expression levels of these peptides varied. When these proteins were tested against a panel of bovine sera, only sera from BIV-infected animals reacted specifically. One major antigenic determinant was identified in the cartoxyl terminus of the p26 gag protein and another was identified in the transmembrane (TM) domain of the envelope glycoprotein. The pathogenesis of the BIV infection has not been well characterized. Experimentally-infected animals did not develop immunodeficiency. It is possible that co-factors may play a role in enhancing the pathogenesis of BIV infection; and one of these co-factors could be bovine herpesviruses (BHV). BHV-1 co-infection of BIV-infected cells enhanced BIV replication and an immediate early gene of BHV-1 is involved. This herpes-viral gene product acts on the BIV promotor element to stimulate BIV expression. In vivo co-infection of animals with BIV and BIV-1 demonstrated that these viruses can interact in vivo, with BHV-l reactivated BIV expression in infected animals

Identification and Characterization of a Human Herpesvirus 6 Gene Segment That \u3ci\u3etrans \u3c/i\u3eActivates the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Promoter

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a lymphotropic herpesvirus, and in vitro, HHV-6 can productively infect many of the same cell types as can human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Coinfection by both viruses in vitro can lead to both activation of the HIV promoter and acceleration of cytopathic effects. We have previously demonstrated that a large, 22.25-kb cloned HHV-6 fragment, pZVB70, can trans activate HIV promoter expression in vitro. In this study, we show that the pZVB70 fragment can trans activate the HIV promoter in human T-cell lines as well as in the monkey kidney cell line CV-1. The pZVB70 insert was digested with various restriction enzymes, and individual fragments were transfected into cells to test for their ability to trans activate the HIV promoter. By this method, we have identified a 1.8-kb subfragment, B701, that is involved in trans activation. Sequence analyses show that B701 potentially encodes a 143-amino-acid protein. This protein shares no homology with other herpesvirus proteins, such as ICPO and ICP4, that have been shown to trans activate the HIV promoter. However, it shows weak sequence homology with the gene products encoded by the cytomegalovirus early US22 gene family, suggesting that the putative B701 protein may be an HHV-6 early regulatory protein. The 143-amino-acid coding sequence of B701 was cloned by polymerase chain reaction, and transfection of this construct into cells activated HIV promoter expression. The target site on the HIV promoter for the putative B701 protein is mapped to the NF-KB binding site. Our results suggest that the putative B701 protein may function by directly binding to the NF-KB site or may involve cellular factors, such as NF-KB, either directly or indirectly

Comparative analysis of the fusion efficiency elicited by the envelope glycoprotein V1–V5 regions derived from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 transmitted perinatally

Understanding the properties of viruses preferentially establishing infection during perinatal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is critical for the development of effective measures to prevent transmission. A previous study demonstrated that the newly transmitted viruses (in infants) of chronically infected mother–infant pairs (MIPs) were fitter in terms of growth, which was imparted by their envelope (Env) glycoprotein V1–V5 regions, than those in the corresponding chronically infected mothers. In order to investigate whether the higher fitness of transmitted viruses was conferred by their higher entry efficiency directed by the V1–V5 regions during perinatal transmission, the fusogenicity of Env containing V1–V5 regions derived from transmitted and nontranmsmitted viruses of five chronically infected MIPs and two acutely infected MIPs was analysed using two different cell–cell fusion assays. The results showed that, in one chronically infected MIP, a higher fusion efficiency was induced by the infant Env V1–V5 compared with that of the corresponding mother. Moreover, the V4–V5 regions played an important role in discriminating the transmitted and non-transmitted viruses in this pair. However, neither a consistent pattern nor significant differences in fusogenicity mediated by the V1–V5 regions between maternal and infant variants was observed in the other MIPs. This study suggests that there is no consistent and significant correlation between viral fitness selection and entry efficiency directed by the V1–V5 regions during perinatal transmission. Other factors such as the route and timing of transmission may also be involved

An Optimized Two-Step Magnetic Correction Strategy by Means of a Lagrange Multiplier Estimator with an Ellipsoid Constraint

The geomagnetic field is as fundamental a constituent of passive navigation as Earth’s gravity. In cases where no other external attitude reference is available, for the direct heading angle estimation by a typical magnetic compass, a two-step optimized correction algorithm is proposed to correct the model coefficients caused by hard and soft iron nearby. Specifically, in Step 1, a Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) fitting estimator with an ellipsoid constraint is applied to solve the hard magnetic coefficients. In Step 2, a Lagrange multiplier estimator is used to deal with the soft magnetic iron circumstance. The essential attribute of “the two-step” lies in its eliminating the coupling effects of hard and soft magnetic fields, and their mutual interferences on the pure geomagnetic field. Under the conditions of non-deterministic magnetic interference sources with noise, the numerical simulation by referring to International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF), and the laboratory tests based upon the turntable experiments with Honeywell HMR3000 compass (Honeywell, Morristown, NJ, USA) conducted, the experimental results indicate that, in the presence of the variation of multi-magnetic interferences, the RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) value of the estimated total magnetic flux density by the proposed two-step estimator falls to 0.125 μT from its initial 2.503 μT, and the mean values of the heading angle error estimates are less than 1°. The proposed solution therefore, exhibits ideal convergent properties, fairly meeting the accuracy requirements of non-tactical level navigation applications

Renaut de Montauban ou Les Quatre Fils Aymon (prose vulgate)

Hydraulic fracturing can improve the permeability of coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs effectively, which is of great significance to the commercial production of CBM. However, the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing is affected by multiple factors. The mechanism of fracture initiation, morphology and propagation in CBM reservoirs is not clear and need to be further explored. Hydraulic fracturing experiment is an accurate tool to explore these mechanisms. The quantity of experimental coal rock is large and processing method is complex, so specimen made of similar materials was applied to replace coal rock. The true triaxial hydraulic fracturing experimental apparatus, 3D scanning device for coal rock section were applied to carry out hydraulic fracturing experiment. The results show that the initiation pressure is inversely proportional to the horizontal stress difference (Δσ) and positively related to fracturing fluid injection rate. When vertical stress (σv) is constant, the initiation pressure and fracture width decrease with the increasing of Δσ. Natural fractures can be connected by main fracture when propagates perpendicular to the direction of minimum horizontal stress (σh), then secondary fractures and fracture network form in CBM reservoirs. When two stresses of crustal stress are close and far different from the third one, the fracture morphology and propagation become complex. Influenced by perforations and filtration of fracturing fluid in specimen, fracturing fluid flows to downward easily after comparing horizontal well fracturing with vertical well fracturing. Fracture width increases with the decreasing of elastic modulus, the intensity of fracture is positively related with the elastic modulus of coal rock. The research results can provide theoretical basis and technical support for the efficient development of CBM