Chinese scientists started their 38th ocean scientific expedition on Monday, with the country’s first deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong.

The mother ship, “Xiangyanghong 09”, left east China’s Qingdao carrying the sub and more than 150 personnel for a 124-day trip, the longest for Jiaolong.

The researchers will carry out surveys in the northwest Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench in the west Pacific Ocean.

With Jiaolong, more discoveries are expected in the northwest Indian Ocean, said chief scientist Han Xiqiu.

The trip lasts until June 9.

Named after a mythical dragon, Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012.

On Monday, “Hailong 2”, or Sea Dragon 2, and “Qianlong 1”, both unmanned submersibles, were officially deployed at the National Deep Sea Center in Qingdao.

“Hailong 2”, which needs a wire to link to the support ship, can work at a maximum depth of 3,500 meters. In 2009, the home-made underwater robot discovered a deep-sea hydrothermal “chimney” vent near the equator in the eastern Pacific.

Wireless “Qianlong 1” can operate at a depth of 6,000 meters.

The three types of subs are all domestically-made and each has its own specialties, according to researchers.

A new mother ship for Jiaolong is estimated to be put into use in March 2019. It will be capable of carrying the three sub types together, said Yu Hongjun, director of the center.

A healthy baby boy has been born from an embryo frozen 16 years ago, a hospital in south China announced on Monday.

A 46-year-old woman gave birth to a son at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong Province in early February. Her other first son, already 16 years old, was from the same batch of embryos frozen in 2000.

“I’m just really ecstatic to have another child,” said the woman. She gave birth to her first child through IVF in 2000, when the hospital froze her 18 other embryos.

Last year, the mother came to the hospital asking to get pregnant again, after China lifted the one-child policy.

“There were a few issues to handle when she asked to unfreeze her embryos,” said Xu Yanwen, director with the reproductive center of the hospital. “It was not easy to awaken the frozen embryos because of freezing techniques and there were also problems with her womb.” Xu added that risks were also high for women of advanced maternal age.

Both the baby and mother are doing well and will be discharged from hospital soon.

Xu Yanwen said that embryos frozen in the hospital date back as early as 1994.

“As more mothers come to have their embryos unfrozen, the record may probably be broken any time,” Xu said.

With the end of the one-child policy, an increasing number of woman of advanced maternal age have visited the hospital to conceive with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology, Xu said.

“In 2016, we received about 1,000 woman above 40 years old seeking to have more babies, and the average age of women to have their eggs retrieved rose from 32.7 years to 33.7 years,” Xu said.

Angela
Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, commenting on the Government’s
announcement regarding the sale of the student loan book, said: 


“The Tories have tried to sell-off the student loan book before, but
abandoned the idea when they realised it was a bad deal for students and a bad
deal for the tax-payer.

"This Government never learn any lessons – this sale will do nothing to
ease the burden of debt piled on students by the Tories who have trebled
tuition fees and scrapped maintenance grants.

“Labour
has committed to restoring maintenance grants to help young people from all
backgrounds have access to University.”

Ends 

6 Feb 2017

Pressure is mounting on the SNP after two of its politicians voiced concerns over plans to significantly increase business rates.

Mairi Evans, MSP for Angus North and Mearns, and Stuart Donaldson, MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, both admitted that the SNP’s Budget could result in serious issues for many Scottish businesses in the future.

After meeting with Aberdeenshire hotel owners last week, Ms Evans told the Mearns Leader that she will be “asking both Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Government what actions will be taken to mitigate the impact of the new values”.

Mr Donaldson meanwhile, said: “We met some of the local business people to discuss their concerns over business rates.”

He added: “We both know how vital small businesses are to Aberdeenshire and how much of a driving force tourism is to the local community”.

The comments from the SNP politicians are the latest evidence of the growing internal division within its ranks over the Budget.

Last week during First Ministers Questions Ruth Davidson embarrassed the SNP after she revealed that the SNP’s Banff and Macduff branch had cancelled a reservation for room hire at a local hotel which had been forced to increase its prices due to the rise in business rates.

Scottish Conservative MSP for North East Scotland Liam Kerr said:

“The SNP rebellion against the rise in business rates continues.

“Last week, it was the SNP Banff branch which pulled their business from a local hotel after it was forced to pass on costs. Now two local SNP politicians have jumped on the bandwagon as well.

“I wrote to Derek Mackay last week demanding answers, but I have not had any response at all.

“When will he get it? Fresh from slapping the highest taxes in the UK on people across Scotland, he has totally failed to face up to the outrage from across Scotland over these staggering increases.

“As Ruth Davidson said last week, if even the SNP can’t support these rate rises – isn’t it time the SNP leadership did something about it?”

Please see a copy of the Mearns Leader article here:

http://www.mearnsleader.co.uk/news/politics/mp-and-msps-against-business-rates-hike-1-4355327