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No.352

 
 
 


CHINA  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China


N0.352 December 20,2003
 
IN THIS ISSUE

* First Global Research Network

* UNDP for China's Poverty Alleviation

* China's Robot Export to UK

* Secret Behind Lean Pork

* Saline-alkali Grassland Reclamation Progressed

* Fast Testing for GM Produces

* China's Nutriology Institute

 
 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
 

First Global Research Network

The US National Science Foundation recently announced that the first global education and research loop network jointly created by the US, China and Russia has been put into operation. The development has marked an important progress achieved in the scientific cooperation among the three countries.

With Chicago as the starting point, the network forms a loop over the northern hemisphere by traveling to Amsterdam via the Atlantic and further to Moscow and the Science Town in the New Siberia. From there on, it gets into China and joins Beijing and Hong Kong before returning to the starting point Chicago via the Pacific Ocean.

The loop network's phase I target is to raise the communication band width between Chinese and US research institutions to 155 Mb per second, while realizing the transboundary connection of the computer networks between China and Russia via the optic fiber cable. The network will eventually be geared to a higher speed, becoming an "advanced global application and development loop network" at 10 kilomega per second. It is disclosed that China, the US and Russian have planned to kick off the construction of GLORIAD in the second half of 2004 and the Chinese side will make the Chinese Academy of Sciences a major participant.

It is believed that the loop computer network will facilitate the international cooperation among scientists in the fields of natural disasters, human genome, space exploration, nuclear fusion and high energy physics. In addition, higher learning institutions may share and exchange their knowledge by taking advantage of numerous new functions brought up by the network.

UNDP for China's  Poverty Alleviation

China's project on poverty alleviation capacity building through information and communication technology, also known as UNDP's initiative for IT oriented poverty alleviation, has been currently under the joint implementation of UNDP, Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology and relevant local authorities.

Aiming at helping the farmers in the poverty stricken areas to free themselves from the poverty by taking advantage of information technology, the project has started its implementation since 2001 in 5 counties including Wuan, Hebei Province, Shangcheng, Henan Province, Huoshan, Anhui Province, Tongnan, Chongqing Municipality and Yulin, Shaan'xi Province.  In the last three years, 5 information poverty alleviation centers were created at county or district level which are connected to 10 township information poverty alleviation stations and 22 village information poverty alleviation service stations. Under the guideline of “with Internet as the main line and running in parallel with other media means”, the information poverty alleviation network has covered 22 administrative villages and 29,226 personnel in 7,749 farmer households and become a new poverty alleviation mechanism serving for farmers. As a result, farmers' information accessibility and utilization capacity has been consistently improved through training. The new information and technology dissemination approach and mechanism has formed an information chain made of schools-students-community-parents-households. A number of information poverty alleviation websites such as China S&T Poverty Alleviation, and Rejuvenating Tongnan with Science and Technology created by Tongnan county under Chongqing Municipality have been created and run well.

China's Robot Export to UK

The UK based Warwick university has recently purchased a robot from Tianjin University, which makes it China's first robot export to other countries. Being a result of the National 863 Program applied with the internationally advanced technologies, the robot is designed with a unique shape and only has a cost 1/3 that of similar products manufactured by other countries.

The robot, named Diamond-600, has introduced a mix-up design. The parallel motors move the two arms vertically while the tandem motors making the arms to act from point to point. The robot is also able to make quick movement on the rail with two flexible arms grasping and placing goods in a fast and accurate manner.

Unlike the traditional robots, Diamond-600 may reach an accelerated speed of 6 G, rare in the world, as the result of its lighter arms.

Tianjin University has filed the international patent application before the WIPO for the new baby and believed that it would have a bright application perspective in the fields of food and pharmacy.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
 

China's Proprietary  Chip Meets the Market

Mr. MA Songde, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology announced on December 8, 2003 that BeidaZhongzhi-863, a proprietary CPU chip developed by the Microprocessor R&D Center of Peking University has entered the market promotion from the massive production phase.

Made of 8 million transistors, the system chip has constituted the largest of its kind developed by China. It is reported that China has worked out on its own the chip's major components including the system structure, commanding system, IP core of integrated circuits, front and end design, system software and supporting software. BeidaZhongzhi-863 based LINUX operating system has delivered numerous advantages such as the proven network computer technology, high reliability, security and cost/effectiveness, easy operation and simple management.

In addition to Peking University, China's other renowned higher learning institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, and S&T University for National Defense have also developed their own proprietary CPU chips.

First Gene Found for  Heart Attacks

Not long ago Prof. WANG Qing, Director of Human Genome Center, China's Huazhong S&T University and his American colleagues announced in the US that they had identified the first gene as a cause of coronary artery disease and heart attacks. Published in the Nov. 28 issue of Science, the finding has created an important ground for the study of the cause of coronary artery disease and heart attacks and for the development of the associated new prevention and treatment drugs.

While working at the Cardiovascular Center at the Cleveland Clinic, Mr. WANG studied the genetic makeup of 21 members of an Iowa family and discovered that mutation of the gene, MEF2A has a direct relationship with coronary artery disease and heart attacks. The family has produced 13 members who had coronary artery disease, of whom 9 had heart attacks. All these patients have the mutated gene MEF2A, though the family's all other healthy members' MEF2A gene has proved normal in the makeup.

The newly discovered MEF2A gene makes a regulatory protein that controls the expression of hundreds or even thousands of other genes in the endothelium. It is explained that under the normal condition, MEF2A gene has 499 amino acids. Mr. WANG and his collaborators, however, discovered in the study that the mutation of MEF2A gene had caused the loss of 7 amino acids, which may result in the damage to the expression of other genes. In addition, the mutations to the gene weaken the endothelium, making it more susceptible to invasions and attacks by certain large cells. That will allow the formation of atherosclerotic plaques and the blockade of blood to flow into the heart, triggering heart attacks as the result of oxygen shortage.

Secret Behind Lean Pork

Thanks to a decade long painstaking efforts, the scientists of Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry have eventually discovered the secret behind the division and regulation of pork fat cells. The development has constituted a major progress in the biotechnological pork fat control.

Researchers have found that pork fat is mostly created by the fat cells in their late development stage. As a result, saturated fatty acids would show a booming growth along with the increase of the pig's age and fat cell growth. They also discovered that different pig species have differed fat catabolism and metabolism with extremely apparent age differences. Furthermore, the fat forming capacity is largely varied among the fat cells of different sizes. The larger the fat cell is, the stronger the capability to produce fat.

Researchers also found that the pig's wave shaped fiber protein regulates the division at the preliminary development stage of fat cells and is able to cut off mitosis, reducing the fat content. In addition, the extracellular components and cAMP have the apparent regulating effect on the reproduction and division of fat cells, which in turn affects the fat genes.

It is believed that these findings have provided important theoretical evidences and grounds for growing lean meat pork through improved regulating means and fine tuning the pig's growth and body quality by taking advantage of fat cell immunity. The findings also have the broad application perspectives in the fields of food and medicine.

Saline-alkali Grassland  Reclamation Progressed

Applied with the internationally advanced technology, researchers of the Institute of Natural Resources under the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Sciences have made substantive progresses in reclaiming the saline-alkalized grasslands.

Experiments have demonstrated that the 2-year long restoration oriented reclamation may reduce alkalized patches by 70% and increase the vegetation coverage of heavily and moderately saline-alkalized grasslands by 60% and 85% respectively with 95% for the light saline-alkalized grasslands. In the second year of the reclamation, the original vegetations can be restored to the grazing standard through the natural process. 25mu (1mu=0.0667ha.) of the reclaimed grassland may produce the sufficient feeds for a cow. In this context, the extensive reclamation of the saline-alkalized grassland may produce the remarkable ecological benefits and economic return.

To address the saline-alkalization problems, researchers have applied both artificial and ecological restoration techniques to reclaim the saline-alkalized grasslands. They applied differed ecological elements to the saline-alkalized grasslands at different restoration phases and planted grasses when necessary. The reclamation process has not only proved cost/effective but also realized the goals of both the ecological protection and sustainable utilization.

Sunshine Determines  Pubescence Growth

Prof. JIA Zhihai, a research fellow of China Agriculture University has recently unveiled through his study the mysteries behind the goat's pubescence growth: the seasonal growth of pubescence is affected by the cyclic changes of sunlight duration. Prof. JIA found that after the Summer Solstice, pubescence would grow faster as the result of the shortened duration of sunlight and increased secretion of melatonin. On the contrary, after the Winter Solstice, the more sunlight and reduced melatonin secretion will slow down and eventually stop the growth of pubescence.

The study has concluded that the period from September to November makes up the best season for pubescence growth and the growth would then slow down till a stop in next February. It is also found that different goat species have proved basically the same in terms of the start-to -end cycle for growing pubescence, though they could be differed in start timing. It is reported that the study has resulted in a nutrition control diet that may increase the pubescence yield by 23.4%, baby goat survival rate by 15% and fat sustaining rate by 95%.

 
 NEWS BRIEFS

Fast Testing for GM Produces

The Biotechnology Center under the Shanghai Municipal Academy of Agriculture Science announced recently that it has developed, on the basis of two-year study, a testing kit for identifying genetically modified agricultural produces. Having been put into the mass production, the testing kit is able to identify the external genes genetically planted in agricultural produces such as soy bean, rape, corn and others. Recorded with a high DNA extraction rate and purity, it only takes 50 minutes for the testing kit to work out the readout. The testing kit may last 12 months or longer for its validity with the testing sensitivity reaching 0.1%, an internationally approved testing level.

China's Nutriology Institute

On December 15, 2003, the Institute of Nutriology declared its foundation under the Shanghai Institute of Life Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The new institute will mainly work on nutriological phenomena at molecular, cellular and body levels by taking full advantage of modern life scientific theories and methodologies such as molecular biology and functional genome. In the meanwhile, it will introduce and create new nutriological disciplines in three major areas including the basic theory study, nutriology and diseases prevention and treatment, and the applied nutriology and associated products development. To make both the life and medical studies a parallel development, the Institute will focus in the near term on the basic research topics of metabolism and the associated diseases while giving sufficient attention to the nutritional and clinic aspects of obesity and diabetes studies.

Oceanic I Expedition Succeeded

On December 19, 2003, the Chinese Oceanic I expedition boat successfully returned to Qingdao after the completion of the DY105-12 and 14 investigation missions assigned by the China Oceanic Association.

Lifted its anchor on April 10, 2003, the expedition boat traveled 39,349 sea miles in 254 days and nights, left with numerous new records on China's oceanic expedition history: the longest duration, the most disciplines involved, the most advanced means applied, the largest workload and the most specimens collected.

During the expedition, the Chinese scientists studied the natural variations of baselines (NAVABA) over the multiple metal nodule zone in the Pacific Ocean that was internationally contracted to China for investigation. In addition to the establishment of the preliminary environmental baseline and environmental impact reference zone, the Chinese scientists had also independently investigated the deep sea sulfides over the active hydrothermal area in the east Pacific Ocean and collected the valuable sea floor hydrothermal sulfides specimen.


       Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Mao Zhongying, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China  Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594

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