China’s Human Genome Sequencing Effort Started
Being part of an international cooperative program on human genome, a sub-program on 1% Chinese human genome sequencing was formally kicked off recently in Beijing based Konggang Industrial Zone.
Human Genome Center, Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences registered its existence at HGSI on July 1999 and applied for the 1% sequencing mission. In September 1999, China’s involvement, working load and area were formally defined at the 5th International Strategic Conference on Human Genome held at Sanger Center, Cambridge, London. In this context, China is supposed to sequence and preliminarily assemble 30 million base pairs of No. 3 chromosome before March 2000 and complete the entire assembling and analysis before 2003.
China has become the 6th participating country in the program following US, UK, Japan, Germany and France. The completion of the said 1% mission demonstrated China’s capability in mastering extensive genetic sequencing technique, a latest frontier technology in life science studies. It also shows that China has been positioned at the same level that developed countries have been at in developing and utilizing valuable genetic resources and secured its position in genome structure studies.
With the support of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, the said sequencing mission will be jointly completed by Human Genome Center, Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences together with South Research Center and North Research Center of National Genome Study Group.
New Harvest for China No. 1 New Circulator
China No. 1 new circulator (HL-IM) was developed by Southwest Institute of Physics of Nuclear Industry in 1994. In 1997, the Institute created a key lab to study nuclear circulator technologies. China No. 1 new circulator is the first experimental equipment for the studies of controlled nuclear fusion in the country with a plasma current produced exceeding 300 KA. In recent years, the Institute has witnessed a number of fine results come out of the experiments made on the circulator such as 320 KA plasma current, 2.9 T vertical magnetic field, 4 seconds of consecutive plasma discharging. The Institute has also developed a unique high efficient feeding technology in the world termed as supersonic molecular beam injection which is able to obtain high density discharging and improve restraining performance by taking advantage of highly controlled internal beams produced by biased polar. In addition, the Institute developed and improved a number of key technologies in studies of controlled nuclear fusion. The said key technologies have been successfully applied in the physical experiments.
Now the Institute is intensifying its efforts to construct China No. 2 A Circulator, a new generation physical experiment unit for controlled muclear fusion and it is expected to be put into operation in 2001.
Large Scale Production of 18 m Copper Foil
Chinese State Planning and Development Commission heralded its approval for the demonstration project of Shandong Zhaoyuan Electronic Materials Factory, designed with an annual output of 2000 tons of high grade copper foil, which marks the scale production of the said products spun off from the National 863 Program.
Zhaoyuan Electronics has devoted most of its efforts in developing high grade copper foil manufacturing technology. In 1993 this project were listed in a S&T priority project in Shandong Province. In 1996, a trial production line was established and the project was advanced to the one under the framework of National 863 Program in the same year.
Zhaoyuan Electronics have developed key technologies in producing high grade copper foil such as preparation of electrolytic solution of high purity, high grade copper foil manufacturing techniques and copper foil surface processing. By the end of last year, it has completed what was defined in its contract with the National 863 Program and turned out a complete set of electrolytic techniques for copper foil manufacturing on a massive scale. During the period of 1997 and 1998, Zhaoyuan Electronics has produced 300 tons and 600 tons of 18 m high grade copper foil respectively. Its output of copper foil in the first ten month of this year has gone over a thousand tons with most of them being exported.
According to the spin-off demonstration plan approved by State Planning and Development Commission, by the end of the next year state and local authorities, together with the enterprise, will invest Rmb 120 million in the construction of China’s first demonstration production line producing 2000 tons of high grade copper foil completely with China’s own technology.
China’s Commercialization of Bivalent
Trans-genetic Cotton
It is revealed at a technology innovation conference held in Hebei Province on November 10, 1999 that Shijiazhuang Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology Center of Chinese Academy of Agriculture have jointly worked out China’s first bivalent trans-genetic cotton (BT+CpTI) named SGK321. It is a major result out of China national 863 program and has passed safety appraisal of agricultural genetic engineering organized by Ministry of Agriculture.
Pest resistant cotton extensively used in China is univalent in nature. It is easy for univalent species to lose their resistance to pests, which was a hidden danger in production activities. Biotechnology Center of Chinese Academy of Agriculture started in 1995 to join their efforts with Shijiazhuang Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences to breed bivalent species.
As shown by intercomparison studies of cotton grown over an area of 5000 mu(1m=0.0667 ha.), bivalent species have demonstrated their merits of strong growth, larger boll, strong resistance to drought, earlier ripening and late decaying with its strongest superiority of long lasting resistance to pests. The said products have been approved by Ministry of Agriculture to be reproduced on commercial basis in Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and Anhui.
R&D of Chinese Made Fuel Battery, World First
Experts from Fuel Battery Engineering Center, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, revealed that an experiment they are conducting together with Institute of Electronic Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is part of Proton Fuel Battery Technology, a priority project listed in 9th Five-Year Plan. Xu Guanhua, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology, announced at 16th session of EVS that China will make the debut of its first fuel battery power auto vehicle in 2000. China’s research and development of fuel battery has shown that 1) Chinese made proton fuel battery has reached application level; 2) the proton fuel battery produced by Fuel Battery Engineering Center, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics is a high tech result of China’s own intellectual properties; 3) China is now in a position to compete with its counterparts in the developed world in fuel battery R&D and China is able to occupy its due in the international market.
New Mercury Laser Developed
New generation laser generator, a national key project undertaken by University of Science and Technology for National Defense passed the experts’ appraisal on November 12, 1999 in Changsha. The appraisal committee headed by Prof. Zhou Bingkun with Tsinghua University an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, agreed that the new development is a breakthrough result in China’s studies of laser technology and filled in a blank in the field.
Research and applications of atomic laser is a tough topic of international communities in the field. Scientists of University of Science and Technology for National Defense worked out China’s first He-Ne laser device in 1994, which made China the third country following US and Germany that mastered the technology. Thanks to their 5-year hard and painstaking efforts, Chinese scientists successfully turned out new generation mercury laser device of important academic and application values, which opened a new area for China’s laser technology development.
New Non-binde Molecular Sieve
Technicians with Refinery of Jinling Petrochemical Corp. started from June, 1978, their development of non-binder A type spherical molecular sieve with completely new approach for its alkylbenzene production unit. In 1981, they turned out NWA-I non-binder 5 A type spherical molecular sieve with its performance reaching the level of ADS-12 (first generation) manufactured by US based UOP; In 1986 while domestic enterprises were busy importing ADS-14, the second generation molecular sieve of UOP, technicians with Refinery had completed the development of its own second generation product NWA-II non-binder 5 A type spherical molecular sieve that was granted with national patent and an associated Golden Award in 1987. The said molecular sieve was continuously improved and upgraded through its trial applications and commercialization and was eventually placed into alkylbenzene dewaxing unit of Jinling Petrochemical on May, 1997. At the end of October, 1998, the sieve was put into operation pursuant to the testing criteria set by UOP. As shown by two rounds of testing made during its one year operation, its performances have reached the level of its US counterparts with new breakthroughs in some areas.
China’s First Parallel Robot Machine Tool
China’s first parallel robot machine tool designed by Prof. Huang Tian with Tianjin University and manufactured by Tianjin University and Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool Factory made its debut on the International Machine Tool Exhibition held at the end of October in Beijing. The said developed was deemed as one of six high tech breakthroughs in Chinese built machine tools displayed at the exhibition. As judged by authorities in the area, the robot machine tool has reached the internationally advanced level and also the application level that only several countries in the world have reached.
The said robot represents the concept of structural integration of robot and mechanical processing equipment, the technical integration of control, computer and software, functional integration of mechanical processing, high energy beam processing, jig measuring, assembling and material busing and performance integration of high hardness, speed, accuracy, flexibility, light weight and low cost. In this context, it is a high S&T content and value added product integrated with machinery and electronics and is of extensive engineering application perspectives.
China’s research and development of parallel machine tool has been listed a priority project financed by national S&T development plan. Last three years have witnessed financial support to Tianjin University from National Natural Science Foundation, CIMS Project of National 863 Program, Doctor Foundation of Ministry of Education and major S&T projects of Tianjin in 9th Five-Year Plan. The project was listed as a symbolic research result in the socalled 211 trans-century program of Tianjin University for its breakthrough progress achieved.
Internationally Advanced Marketing
Resources Management Software
Chinese made marketing resources management software has witnessed major breakthroughs after working out the solutions to dynamic control, interactive contribution, decision making supporting and risk warning. The socalled EMRP developed by Botong Information Co. of Xi’an Jiaotong University for this purpose has passed the technical appraisal organized by Ministry of Information Industry on November 16, 1999 in Beijing.
On the basis of careful analysis of international marketing management trend and surveys on nearly 200 domestic enterprises, Botong Information took the initiative to develop marketing resources management software and eventually turned out Botong Marketing Resources Planning and Management System. So far the system has been successfully applied at more than 10 enterprise groups such as Xintian International, Nanjing Machinery and Electronics and Xi’an Nanfeng. It is briefed that the system has increased integrated economic benefits by 15% and above.
Applied with target approach, distributive date processing and remote incremental duplication, the software package is of the functions of interactive distribution, dynamic control, decision making supporting and risk warnings, which translated the internationally advanced marketing management of “analysis, planning, execution and control” into reality.
The appraisal committee consisting of renowned experts such as Prof. Yang Fuqing, Academician of CAS and Director, Dept. of Information and Engineering, Peking University, and others believed that the system has realized the marriage between modern marketing concept and information technology and met the needs of domestic enterprises for marketing resources management in line with the international mainstream.
China’s Flat Color TV Technology World Advanced
Golden Huaxia large screen flat color TV sets (74&86 cm) developed by Xiahua Electronics Co. passed experts’ verification and approval organized by Chinese Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Industries in the mid-November 1999. The results have shown that the comprehensive technical performances of the said products have reached the internationally advanced level with some of its performance even better than that of the ones manufactured in Japan. The verification committee believed that Xiahua’s development of the new product in the course of its introduction of similar products from abroad demonstrated China’s mature technology in manufacturing flat color TV sets and proposed the further extension of the technology in the domestic color TV industry.
It is reported that Golden Huaxia is of latest advanced functions such as frequency digital tuning, full international circuits, unique 16-frame menu (Xiahua’s patent) , fasting tuning and channel location. It is also of full digital stereo sounding system and reception of picture and texts in Chinese. In addition, it is designed to adapt to wide fluctuation of electric pressure and power sources and applied with multiple image reinforced technique. Thanks to its upgraded circuits, improved performance- cost ratio and reliability, experts believed that it is expected to march into the international market. It is reported that the technological content of the said products is higher than that of similar products manufactured domestically and Chinese Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Industry has listed it a major R&D project.
Maiden Issue of China’s Engineering Sciences
China’s Engineering Sciences, a top academic journal in the country rolled off the press on November 18 ,1999, in Beijing.
Under the motion proposed by Song Jian, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), the Presidium meeting of Chinese Academy of Engineering unanimously approved the creation of the new journal. Dedicated to the readers of engineering communities both at home and abroad and being a representative academic publication of Chinese engineering community, it will take full advantage of the initiatives of institutes subordinated to CAE and its academicians and gradually turn itself into a world class academic journal in the field. It will carry scientific discoveries, technical innovations, research results, technical discussions, major study reports, latest engineering information and innovation views of renowned people in 30 and more engineering fields in the country. It is reported that next year will see the publication of its English version. Separate issues relating to seven different disciplines will be published respectively.
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