Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

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


N0.174	January 10,1999



	IN THIS ISSUE
China's High Tech Industry of Nuclear Power Taking Shape Major Progress for Division of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties China's Major Breakthroughs in Mast Cell Heterogeneity 200 Chinese S&T Periodicals Joined Internet

SPECIAL    ISSUES


China's High Tech Industry
of Nuclear Power Taking Shape

Thanks to two decades' opening and reform, China has enjoyed uprising high tech industry of its nuclear power generation, which has made China the 7th country in the world able to independently design and build nuclear power plants with its manufactured equipment exported to other countries.

    On December 1991, Chinese designed and made Qinshan Nuclear PowerPlant with a capacity of 300,000 kw was connected to the grids. This is another historical breakthrough in China's nuclear industry following the successful development of its nuclear weapons and nuclear power equipment for submarines. China has seen gradually shaped designing and construction model featured with cooperation with foreign countries and keeping the initiative in our own hands.

    From 1993 to the end of 1997, the 5year average load factor of the unit reached 77%. Experts pointed out that it was not commonplace to reach such an operational performance in the world, let alone China's first baby to generate nuclear power.

    Since its going into commercial operation in 1994, Dayawan Nuclear Power Plant has demonstrated its good management capability and fine operational performance.Dayawan Power Plant has reached internationally advanced level for its six targets among 10 defined by World Nuclear Power Plant Operator Association with three other reaching internationally medium level. The said power plant has kept its foreign exchange earning above US＄ 400 million in past years. As of the end of October, it has repaid US＄ 2.8 million debt including principal and interest, half and more of its total debt.

    Following 4 nuclear power generation units with 26 million kw in Qinshan and Dayawan nuclear power plants, there will be 4 projects of 8 units with a total capacity of 6.6 million kw being put into construction in the 9th Five-Year Plan period and be put into operation in early next century.

Major Progress for Division of Xia,
Shang and Zhou Dynasties

Division of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, one of top priorities in China's 9th FiveYear Plan for solving major S&T issues have applauded for its major progress as the result of threeyear collaborations among 170 experts. As shown by experts' further excavation in Er'litou relics in Henan Province and their investigations, Er'litou culture represents the culture of Xia Dynasty. Now experts are working on year ranging for the samples collected in the said site and have formulated the basic chronological framework for Xia Dynasty. Experts have confirmed that the beginning time of the construction of the small town in Yanshi city can be deemed as the demarcation line for the division of Xia and Shang Dynasties. On the basis of conclusions drawn by experts on paleography, astronomers made the calculations and worked out their conclusions that appropriate years during which Shang Emperor Wuding was in his office should be between 1250 B.C. and 1192 B.C.. Experts also measured samples collected from Fenggao Relics in the suburb of Xi'an with carbide 14 and deferred that the time when Emperor Wu launched his battle against Zhou should be ranging from 1050 to 1020 B.C..

    It is reported that in the 5000-year-long civilized history of Chinese nation that Chinese descendents both at home and abroad are proud of, in fact about 2100 years in the chronological record remain unclear. To address the problem, in 1995 Chinese academic community decided to clarify the chronicles of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties with the assistance of modern scientific means such as nuclear physics and astronomy together with history, archaeology and paleography. On May 16, 1996, the State Council decided to formally launch the project of “Division of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties”.

    The Project is a large research activity with the participation of researchers from natural science, social science and humanities. This project includes 9 research topics and 40 special subjects. It aims to construct the chronological framework of Xia Dynasty and early Shang Dynasty and to define the exact years of every emperor in their terms in late Shang Dynasty (From Emperor Wuding to Zhou) and Western Zhon Dynasty before 841 B.C.. The research activities have already worked out a number of major breakthroughs and a chronological table on Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties will be published in 1999.

RESEARCH   AND    DEVELOPMENT

Breakthrough for Cloning
Disease Causing Genes

China's Key National Lab on Medical Genetics sitting in Hunan Medical University declared on December 4, 1998 that it has successfully and for the first time inthe world cloned human genes causing nerve deafness. This marks the breakthrough for cloning disease causing genes.

    It is reported that this is also the first disease triggering gene cloned by China. The result has been applied with international patent right protection. This encouraging development was published in the latest issue of Nature, an internationally renowned academic journal.

    Genes are the carriers of human genetic information. To clone diseases triggering genes is to study the sequence structures of a human gene, interpret its code combination and discover gene mutation and its direct relationship with certaindiseases. As estimated by experts, there are about 50,000 to 100,000 genes in ahuman body, of which about 3000 may trigger the attack of genetic diseases. Asof November 20, 1998, international medical community has cloned 890 disease triggering genes.

    As early as in the beginning of 1980s, Prof. Xia Jiahui of Hunan Medical University and others started their research on location of genes and carried out fruitful investigations on gene cloning and new carriers of genetic treatment. These efforts have led to the formulation of mature techniques for cloning disease triggering genes. In 1997, by taking advantage of the data accumulated in international genome research project, they created computer based disease triggering gene cloning technology, the first of its kind in China. So far, they have cloned 7 diseases related full length genes and have them registered and coded in international gene bank. Deafness is one of the diseases notorious for their highest incidence of diseases in human society. As shown by statistics, there are about 1% of the total youth population in the world who suffered from hearing handicap with the proportion going up to 10% for the population aged at 60 and above and 50% for 75 and above. 50% of serious dementia hearing handicapped are mainly attributed to their genetic defects. There are 40 and more genes controlling deafness in human body with only 5 of them being cloned. It is reported that the result will be applied in clinic diagnosis.

China's Major Breakthroughs in Mast
Cell Heterogeneity

Thanks to his 8year systematic studies of basic biology of domestic animals' mast cells such as pig, ox and sheep, Prof. Xu Leren of Guizhou University has discovered that the connective tissue mast cell (CTMC) of pig's mucous mast cells (MMC) are of apparent heterogeneity in its tissue chemistry and morphology. The discovery has led to the improvement of techniques applicable to identification of animal mast cell and regular, enzyme and immune grouping. In Prof. Xu's studies, trypsinoid has been proved of its existence in animal mast cells for the first time. And also for the first time in the world he proved that pig's CTMC contains heparin proteoglycan. In addition, in-depth observations and studies have been made on domestic animals＇ TMMC and mast cells. The studies mentioned above have shown apparent differences of mast cells among different animals in terms of their tissue chemistry and morphology.Even in the same family, animals of different sub-families may present their differences in mast cell heterogeneity. Ruminants' liver rot is associated with apparent growth of mucous mast cells in biliary tract, which explains the importance of mast cells in forming parasitic immune system.

　

NEWS BRIEFS

　

“The living Fossil”Zoraptera
Insects Discovered again
in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon

Chinese scientific investigation team traveling across the depopulated zone of Yarlung Zongbo Grand Canyon had discovered again the socalled living fossil- notchwing insects. When traveling from Motuo to Gandai along the grand canyon, Prof. Yao Jian, an entomologist in group 2 of the investigation team, gathered the rare species, another major discovery of the expedition.

    As briefed by scientists, zoraptera insects have already become extinct in other parts of the world. Such ancient primitive living fossil was originally living in Australia and then shifted to other places when Australian plate met with Indian plate and European and Asian plates and eventually survived in Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, a very special environment.

8 Theories Created
by Chinese Experts in Circuits and System

Research on Circuits and System Mechanism of Super Integrated Circuit CAD Technology undertaken by Shanghai Jiaotong University has recently passed ministerial approval. The appraisal panel consisted of senior experts on micro electronics and circuit theory believed that eight new theories including axiomatization system of circuit theory, mapping theory of circuit components, circuit issues in the third category, excitation theory on circuit failure, two-way system theory on IC CAD, theory on integrated IC designing, testing and diagnosing and redesigning theory on IC analysis are the first of their kinds in the world. Experts also believed that these new theories are major creative works of the importance to the fields above mentioned and what Prof. Lin Zhenghui and others have done for creating these new theories are the pioneering efforts for the cutting edge sciences in the world.

    With the support of both central authorities and Shanghai municipal government, Super IC Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University have completed 8 national or ministerial projects including “IC Computation auxiliary analyzing system”, “IC CAD twoway system”, “IC CMOS designing system”, “IC CAD secondary system”, “integrated system of IC designing”, “verification and testing”, “redesigning system for IC analyzing”, “IC CAD tertiary system” and “high performance tool collection for IC verification, identification and testing”. These results have been conferred with 15 national or ministerial awards for scientific progress. On the basis of these scientific project results, academic leaders of the institute have theorized the issues arisen in the practice and worked out 8 new theories for the first time in the world.

200 Chinese S&T Periodicals Joined Internet

ChinaInfo has recently launched its mass campaign by staging 200 kinds of Chinese S&T periodicals on the Internet and made it a major window displaying Chinese S&T periodicals to the world.

    ChinaInfo S&T Periodicals are online published in HTML language. It has not only basically solved many technical problems such as diversified formulas, graphics and images, chemical molecular formulas and some other special symbols appearing in S&T publications but also tackled the difficulty of online displaying.It developed a programmed editing system capable of translating paper publications into electronic ones and a whole set of associated standardized working process. ChinaInfo will realize scale publication of Chinese S&T periodicals within the timeframe of 2000 so as to provide massive online periodical service.The first on-line published periodicals reached 120 in assortment covering 12 major S&T disciplines. Most of them are internationally renowned periodicals such as 60 series periodicals published by China Medical Association. At present, phase two online publication has been kicked off with the assortment of online published S&T periodicals reaching 200 in number before the end of 1998. On the basis of reaching the targets of 1998, 1999 will see the number reaching 500 or even 1000 as scheduled, and 2000 will see the realization of largescale operation of S&T periodicals About 1000 kinds of most important academic periodicals in China will be in cluded. While realizing scale online publication, ChinaInfo will make available some new functions such as billing, tracking back issues of some 10 kinds of influential periodicals, analysis of quotations of these, retrieving and analysis of research results and studying of capabilities of S&T institutions in addition to existing functions such as retrieving, hyperlinks and interactive communication.

    ChinaInfo's website is: http://www.ChinaInfo.gov.cn/periodical, OR www.wanfangdata.com.cn/periodical

Computer Software Training
Center Passed Approval

Computer Software Technology Training Center of Ministry of Science and Technology, a large joint project between Chinese and Japanese governments passed its final assessment and approval on August 1998.

    The Project was launched on November 12, 1993 with the signed approval for implementation by both sides. Thanks to the efforts of authorities concerned of bothcountries, it took five years to complete the construction of this professionaltraining center with modern facilities. With the assistance of a strong teaching team, the Center will train the students enrolled from the society and hold more than dozens of computer software training courses per year. So far it has sponsored 132 training courses and trained 2151 personnel for advanced system development, system integration and software application.

    From August 17, 1998, ChinaJapan Joint Assessment Group carried out two-week investigations and assessment of the project. Applied with PDM approach commonlyaccepted internationally, several hundred questionnaires were sent out and a number of institutions were interviewed. Strict assessment were made in five areas including target fulfillment, implementation efficiency, results, planning appropriateness and independent development. Assessment results showed that the Project has reached its planned targets and apparent achievement through selecting correct objectives, ensured investment and strengthening training system. Upon the completion of the project, the training center will, under the leadership of Ministry of Science and Technology and Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, continue its development, provide software expertise to the country and render its due contribution to the development of China's software industry.

       Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Dong Jianlong, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2921