Ecological Role of China's Forests
A paper carried in the latest issue of Sciences on the research find ings of Peki ng University announced the healthy growth of the ecological functions of China's forests. The said paper is also the first Chinese domestic findings on ecology published in US based Sciences.
The research team headed by Prof. Fang Jingyun, Dept. of Urban Environment, Peki ng University have worked on the dynamic changes of the roles of forest vegetation on carbon dioxide in the last five decades in China on the basis of abundant field data and forest resources survey data collected in the last five decades. They have discovered that before the mid-1970s Chinese forest vegetation had emitted a great amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to unwise development approaches such as destroying the forest for arable land. However, the said situation has seen changes in the last decades and more with remarkably enhanced net absorption of carbon dioxide by forest vegetation. During the period of nearly two decades from the early 1980s to the end of 1990s, it had landed a net absorption equivalent to half of the carbon dioxide emissions discharged by China' s industries in the mid 1990s. The research team also studied the satellite data and corresponding data on climate, soil and vegetation in the last two decades. They made the findings on these data that owing to a number of factors such as increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and climate warming, China's indicato r on bioproductivity, the one indicating the capacity of land based vegetation synthesis and energy conversion, has been going up at an annual rate of 1%.
The research findings of Prof. Fang Jingyun and others are of great importance t o the studies of global climate changes and ecological system both at home and abroad and are thought highly of by their counterparts in the field. In the sameissue of Sciences, two commentaries were made on the said achievements, believin g their efforts created a benchmark for the follow-up studies as well as a basic principle for sensitive inter-state and international forest and carbon cycle p olicies. The commentaries also added that the findings reflected the rare fine research efforts that had missed for a long time. Prof. J. Mellilo, the former science advisor of the White House believes that the finding has greatly stimulated the studies of the relationship between the global changes and land based ecological system. The renowned US magazine National Geography has also made its high comments of the findings.
Another importance derived from the said research headed by Prof. Fang Jingyun i s presenting convincing evidence for China's future diplomatic talks on environment issues. Namely they can prove that China's land based vegetation, specially its forests are able to absorb part of carbon dioxide emissions by human activities.
Talents Incentive Mechanism for West Development
At the International Workshop on the Human Resources Development in West China h eld on July 19, 2001, Mr. Li Zibin, Vice Minister of the State Development Planning Commission and Vice Chairman of the Steering Group of West Development under the State Council pointed out that the west region should learn from the experience of human resources development both at home and abroad and accelerate the exploration and improvement of innovative human resource development mechanis m so as to attract more talented people to work for the west development.
It is briefed that the competent authorities will establish incentive mechanism for the R&D and management personnel in the west region, exploring positive incentive approaches such as annual salary system, future stocks and equity of technologies and management, encouraging the establishment of R&D oriented businesses and brokerage firms as well as the technical contract of plantation and breeding businesses by R&D personnel in the field of agriculture and accelerating the e stablishment of credit guarantee system for small and medium enterprises and service firms.
China's World Advanced Monocrystal GaAs Growth Technique
On July 29, 2001, Beijing Non-ferrous Metal Research Institute announced th a t China has successfully worked out a semi-insulated monocrystal GaAs of a diameter of 4 inches with the help of VCZ based crystal growth system and associated techniques. The said development has made China the third country in the world following Japan and Germany possess the said technology and marked China's monocrystal GaAs growth technique into the world advance rank.
The development of the new techniques for producing VCZ semi-insulated monocrys t al GaAs undertaken by the said Institute is a project listed in the national key technologies R&D program for the 9th Five-Year Plan period, and has recently pa ssed the approval checks at national level. The said new system can be used to m eet the requirements of high quality VHF and super high speed integrated circuits. The system is of a simple structure for easy dismantling and mass production.
GaAs is up to date the most important and mature compound material for semi-con d uctors, enjoying extensive applications in the fields of photoelectric and micro electronics. Along with the fast development of wireless and optic-fiber telecom munication and automobile electronics, GaAs based semi-conductor industry has entered an unprecedented fast growth period.
Beijing Non-ferrous Metal Research Institute is one of the major compound semi -c onductor R&D bases in China with the largest GaAs and gallium phosphide materials manufacturer. During the 10th Five-Year Plan period, the Institute will work on the 6-inch semi insulated monocrystal GaAs furnace and associated growth techniques in line with latest international development in the field.
New Cancer Treatment Approach
The Third Working Meeting on Tumors Traditional Treatment sponsored by China Ant i-Cancer Association was recently held in Beijing. 50 and more Chinese tradition al medical experts on cancers from different parts of the country gathered at the meeting, discussing the current clinic cancer treatment development and sharing the latest findings. An cancer treatment approach by taking advantage of effective elements in ginseng has attracted great attention of the participants.
The participating experts point out that relapse and metastasis are the essentia l difficulties challenging the cancer treatment, while the cancer growth and metastasis shall depend on the formation of new blood vessels. The studies have discovered that the effective elements of Rg3 in ginseng roots have strong effect depressing the formation of the new blood vessels of cancers with little toxicant effect, suitable for long term application and continuous treatment against the relapse and metastasis of cancers. On the basis of the studies, a new drug called Sheng I capsule of a single Chinese traditional medical formula has been developed and won the approval of China State Drug Supervision and Management Administration for clinic applications. So far 20,000 and more patients both at home and abroad have been treated with the new drug. The participating ex perts express ed that the 863 Treatment Program based on the new drug Sheng I capsule created a new approach to cancer treatment.
World First Innovative Prosomillet Species
The world first innovative prosomillet species - Longmi 5, jointly developed by the Grain Institute of Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and others has fou nd successful growth in four provinces and autonomous regions including Gansu, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. Up to date the said new species has extended its growing over 6.23 million mu and harvested economic benefits of RMB 63.088 million. The said world first new prosomillet species is a hybrid of wild millet species and regular domestic millet hybrid with numerous characteristics such as strong stalk, green inflorescence, large seeds and high protein content.
It is briefed that the new species has four merits: 1) earlier ripening. It is s uitable for the Spring growing over the areas of sea levels ranging from 1750m to 2100m, though also applicable to the Summer growing in the areas of sea levels from 1350m to 1500m; 2) high and stable yield. It may increase a yield of 18.3% or more against regular species; 3) strong resistance to drought. It is able to be the replacement for the after-disaster rescue plantation; and 4) wide appli c able areas. So far it has been grown over four provinces and autonomous regions in the country with fine results.
Superfine Preparation Techniques and Equipment
The Institute of Superfine Technologies under Ha'erbin Polytech University has r ecently worked out its nanometer level superfine preparation techniques and associated equipment. The said new techniques and associated equipment have been put into operation in pharmaceutical and food industries in the city.
It is briefed that processed with the said techniques, the medicines and foods h ave not only presented greatly enhanced speed for absorbing and being absorbed but also the reduced in-take volume and prolonged quality guarantee period for me dicines. The effective elements of most Chinese foods, medicines and cosmetics are produced at micron level, easily to deposit with incomplete functions.
It is briefed by experts that the two-year R&D efforts have generated the new c o mpound smashing approach characterized with mechanic cutting, pounding and high frequency shaking that may produce the grains with a diameter less than 50 nanometers, or 100 times smaller than the grains processed under the current technical conditions. It is expected that the said nanometer level superfine preparation techniques and associated equipment may realize the overall upgrading of the whole pharmaceutical and food processing industries within a short period of t ime with limited cost.
High Density Digital Disk Player
On the basis of their one year and odd collaborative efforts, Prof. Zhang Wenjun and others of Shanghai Jiaotong University have successfully turned out the high density digital disk player of independent intellectual property right that passed the technical approval checks on July 29, 2001.
The said new product can be used in saving and playing the high resolution digit al TV programs, testing signal generation, sales demonstrations and monitoring products manufacturing process. It is believed of broad perspectives for future technical expansion and market applications.
At present, an ordinary DVD available at Chinese market is of a resolution of 72 0X576, playing the compressed digital TV data of regular resolution with an average coding speed at 5-6 megahertz per second. The high density digital disk and high resolution TV player developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University may reach an average coding speed of 20-25 megahertz per second and a resolution of 1920X1080, all much higher than that of the ordinary digital disks.
New Infertility Treatment
A young lady of 29 years old who suffered from egg immaturity has recently given birth to a healthy baby girl at Shandong Provincial Hospital. The external egg maturity techniques developed by the Hospital helped her to realize her dream of being a mother. As is shown by the retrieval results, the said case is the first of its kind in the country.
The new technique makes the infertile women get pregnant through the application of new egg collection and cultivation techniques combined with the traditional techniques such as external insemination and fetus transplanting. The new technique is of merits using less cost with high security and little by-effect as it uses very limited medicine to stimulate ovulation. In addition, it avoids the danger of possible excessively stimulated ovulation when dealing with polycysti c ovary patients.
New Efficient Soot Purifying Device
Recently the scientists of Tsinghua Ziguangtongxing Environment Protection S&T C o. Ltd. have developed a new static soot purifier on the basis of their many-yea r expertise and application of static dust removing technique for efficient collection of oil and smoke particles in the soot. The module based new purifying device is designed with divisional draw structures, landing a purifying efficiency as high as 95%. The new device has not only met the different needs for soot pu rifying but is also easy for installation and cleaning. Applied with automatic tuning of the electric field intensity, the said device is able to maintain a relatively high purifying efficiency and stability even after long use with a desig ned life of 10 years and more.
Requirement for frequent cleaning has long been the bottleneck of traditional so ot purifier. Thanks to the applications of new materials and techniques, the cleaning cycle of the new device has been greatly extended to 6 months. At present the new devices have found applications in restaurants and hotels and passed the verification checks of Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Monitoring Center.
Major Breakthroughs in Diabetes Studies
Chinese scientists have made the discovery through full genome scanning techniqu es that there are two spots relating to vulnerable genes of diabetes II in No. 9 human chromosome. The said two spots are the accurate location uniquely possessed by Chinese diabetes patients. The discovery has made a major breakthrough in China's genetic studies of diabetes.
The studies jointly undertaken by Shanghai Institute of Endocrinology subordinat e to Shanghai based Ruijin Hospital and National Human Genome Southern Research Center have conducted the full genome scanning, divisioning and consecutive analysis of 102 diabetes II families who have at least two generations suffered from the said disease over Shanghai, Shandong, Fujian and Liaoning, and discovered diabetes II vulnerable genes at two spots D9S171 and D9S175 in No. 9 chromosome.
The two spots have so far not been registered in the international gene bank. Th e said findings were published at the Europe based Diabetes journal. Prof. Luo Min, the Director of Shanghai Institute of Endocrinology and the head of the project expressed that the accurate positioning of venerable genes on diabetes II uniquely possessed by Chinese population was only the first step leading to the relevant genes. Chinese scientists will conduct further studies with the help of mononucleotide marks to narrow down the scope and single out the genes causing d iabetes in Chinese population.
New Techniques Disposing Used Battery
On the basis of 2 decades and more R&D efforts on key technologies, Beijing S&T University and other institutes have jointly developed the new technique to dispose the used batteries. The so-called physical screening and chemical disposal t echnique, the first of its kind in the country is able to effectively address the pollution of the used batteries on the environment.
The new technique separates iron and zinc sheets, copper nail and cap and mangan ese dioxide and graphite through physical screening and purifies them through chemical process, before removing the heavy metal ions from contaminated water disposal. The new technique has made the used battery disposal meet the emission standards and realize the non-hazardous and resourceful process of the used battery disposal.
Computer based Nuclear Power Monitoring
On July 20, 2001, the China-made computer based monitoring system for Phase II Q inshan Nuclear Power Station project passed the technical verification checks. The said development marks China's independent technical development capacity in the field. The said monitoring system is of China's own independent intellectual properties, especially its software copyright. Experts believe that the system has better interference resistance, real time response, data testing accuracy and event resolution than their foreign made counterparts, reaching the internatio nally advanced level.
It is briefed that the said system is made of KIT and KPS, the cores of data col lection and security monitoring of the nuclear power station, through which the operators may check up the operating status of different components of the station on a real time basis and ensure the efficiency and stability of the operation.
Three Anticancer Marine Matters Discovered
The scientists of the Marine Medicines Institute of No. 2 Military Medical Schoo l have discovered 23 marine organisms in 15 families that have anticancer activity to different extents when screening 300 and odd specimen collected from a dozen of harbors and a hundred islands in the southeast coastal areas of the country. Of them, the anticancer activity of foliaceous stipule sargassum, Ishigeaceae, blue back sea hare is more distinctive than the rest of 20 other marine organisms.
It is briefed that the studies of bioactivity and chemical compositions of the s aid three marine organisms will provide valuable precursor compounds for developing the drugs against thyroid cancer、larynx cancer and lymphoid cancer while providing scientific evidence for further utilization of marine organisms.
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