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CHINA SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry
of Science and Technology
People's Republic of
China
N0.298 June 20,2002
IN THIS ISSUE
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*
160 Million for Field Research Network
* China's
Internationalized Technical Standards
* Nuclear Power
Leakage Testing
* Microbes Eat Garbage
*
China's First Tidal Wave Generator
* Single Plant
Treating Osteoporosis
* China's First Station in the
Arctic
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
160 Million for Field Research Network
The Chinese Academy of Sciences will during
the 10th Five-Year Plan(2001-2005) period make an investment
of RMB 160 million for the establishment and improvement of
four major field observation and experiment networks and one
comprehensive data exchange center. The money will
be spent in:
Improving the
ecological research network and upgrading the existing 29
ecological stations, 5 branch centers and 1 comprehensive
center, and adding 6 more ecological stations to cover the
major ecological types in the country and providing
long-term and systematic data for ecological studies, global
change studies, ecological and environmental protection,
rational utilization of resources and national sustainable
development.
Improving
geomagnetism chains and the existing three geomagnetism
stations over Mohe, Beijing and Sanya and making them
internationally advanced geomagnetism chain running through
the mainland China from the south to the north so that they
can play a major role in geophysics and spacephysics
studies, near earth environment service, mine prospecting,
space activities and international cooperation and data
exchanges.
Establishing the
special environment and disasters watch network. On the
basis of the existing field stations, the construction of 8
permanent observation stations will be strengthened in the
areas enjoying special resources, or frequently attacked by
special disasters or with special natural environment so
that acquisition of regular data on resources, disasters and
environment variations can be ensured.
Establishing the regional
atmospheric background observation network. 6 or so field
stations will be selected from the existing ecological
research network and the special environment and disaster
watch network to form a system able to monitor the
background concentration of major greenhouse gases in the
country with the addition of necessary instruments and
facilities, which will provide scientific evidences for
China in formulating its policies on greenhouse gases
emission reduction.
The comprehensive data
exchange center, or resources, environment and ecological
data exchange center will with its large volume, processing
capability and broadband resources provide data storage,
processing and exchange services as well as computer
resources sharing services for the above mentioned 4 major
networks.
Field observation and experiment
stations are infrastructure platforms for field observation,
experiment and research activities as well as daily
accommodation for field researchers. CAS has long paid great
attention to field research activities and established 130
and odd field stations over the country. In addition to
their distribution over the Chinese territorial land and
waters, CAS has two geomagnetism observation stations in the
Antarctic.
China's Internationalized Technical
Standards
In the future 5 to 10 years, China
will work out a number of major technical standards and
associated testing techniques, methods and metric standards,
and make them internationally acknowledged standards for
related products and technologies.
As is
disclosed at the assessment meeting sponsored by the Chinese
Ministry of Science and Technology on Studies of Major
Technical Standards, a priority project listed under the
10th Five-Year Plan, China will start its development and
strategic work on major technical standards for the main
fields to address urgent issues such as lack of strategic
orientation guidance forlong-term standardization system,
incomplete technical standard system, lack of effective
strategies, standardized testing measures and methods for
trade and technology and narrow down the gaps between
Chinese and international standards for industrial and
agricultural products and major technologies.
It is reported that at present the special
steering group and working panel have been established at
ministerial level and the State Quality Control
Administration and the State Standardization Management
Committee are appointed as dedicated agencies to ensure the
effective organization and implementation of this strategic
project.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Nuclear Power Leakage Testing
Recently the Chinese engineers have competed
the so-called security shell leakage testing for No. I
generation unit of Phase III project at Qinshan Nuclear
Power Station, the first heavy water reactor built in China.
The testing result has shown that the leakage recorded only
reached 0.21% of the total reactor volume/day, or 42% of the
acknowledged standard. The said indicator has become the
most desirable leakage rate recorded in the world for the
same testing, showing China's high quality for both project
management and construction.
The purpose of
the testing is to prove that the leakage of the reactor
house meets the required limit in case of design reference
pressure accident. The acknowledged standard for such
testing is the leakage of the entire reactor house shall not
be larger than 0.5% of the reactor volume/day under the
designed reference pressure of 124kpa. Phase III project of
Qinshan Nuclear Power Station is the largest cooperation
activity between China and Canada in the field of peaceful
utilization of nuclear energy. Applied with Canadian made
proven nuclear power generation technology and with a total
installed capacity of dual 728 MW , No. 1 generation unit is
scheduled to be loaded with nuclear fuels by mid July 2002
and the reactor will reach the critical stage in September
before its grid power generation in November.
Film Free X-ray Wound Detecting
In 1999 Gansu Polytechnic University proposed
the scenario of developing new receiving and conversion
device for scintillation ray with CMOS processing and
manufacturing technologies and worked out a new X-ray
imaging device in the following year. The comprehensive
testing results show that the product has fully met the
design requirements for the system with the size and the
weight of the imaging device reduced to 1/50 and 1/20 of the
original design respectively but with the much more improved
performance and a greatly reduced cost. A number of renowned
Chinese enterprises in Hubei, Shanghai, Sichuan and Xi'an
have introduced the prototype device for testing the parts
of autos, aircraft and space vehicles, electronic components
and boilers welding seams. Some of the devices have recorded
no-failure running record for 18 months.
Based
on the improved properties of the new X-ray imaging device
and to meet the actual needs of field projects such as
transmitting natural gas from west to east, the University
started in 2001 to work on the new product called digital
X-ray scanning and imaging system for extended transmission
pipeline welding seams. Recently the expert verification
panel has approved the product with positive comments.
Microbes Eat Garbage
A research
team under Har'bin Polytechnic University has successfully
collected, cultured and developed a microbes mixture able to
effectively turn urban garbage into organic fertilizer,
finding an optimized biological approach to addressing the
serious environment problems in the country.
The bacteria mixture is composed of more than
a dozen of microbes such as bacteria, actinomyces and fungus
able to decompose different organic garbage. By taking into
account seasonal differences of garbage sources, and
differed organic compositions, the researchers have worked
out the most effective microbe bacteria mixture based on
their analysis of organic compositions of garbage. As a
result, each organic matter will be dealt with by the
microbes of the strongest vitality.
To reduce
the garbage disposal cost that might be increased by adding
too many different microbes in the mixture, the researchers
have employed genetic engineering approach to modify the
genetic compositions of natural microbes to improve and
enhance their functions.
In the meantime, the
research team has developed corresponding facilities able to
dispose 1,000 tons of garbage a day, which can turn out 500
tons of organic fertilizer with the cost for such garbage
disposal at less than RMB 50 a ton.
China's
First Tidal Wave Generator
Har'bin Engineering
University has recently landed a major breakthrough in the
development of tidal wave power station. China's first 70-kw
experimental tidal wave power station developed by the
University has reached internationally advanced level in the
research and design of straight vaned cycloidal turbine and
associated system technology.
It is briefed
that designed with a floating structure, the experimental
power house is mainly made up of power station carrier,
dual-rotor turbine, anchor system, hydraulic constant
frequency power generator and control system. With an
installed capacity of 70 kw, its working flow speed is
ranged between 1.6 and 4.2 meters per second, having a wind
resistance to 10 scale strong winds and a wave tolerance for
3 meters. The carrier of the power station is made up of
dual rotor turbines, control system and power generator. The
station selects dual straight vaned cycloidal rotors
structure as its turbine that consists of stand, rotors,
vans and associated control mechanism. The vans' spatial
movement track shows a swing line and its movement is
controlled by sliding-block linkage. With the help of its
eccentric mechanism, rotors' moving direction will not
change even when tidal wave changes its direction.
The station's electronic control section is
composed of constant pump, quantitative pump, variable
displacement motor, speed reducing gear, generator and
control cabin. Applied with hydraulic speed gear, the power
generation system is able to keep a constant frequency and
pressure. In addition, it is equipped with battery charging
control system, grid control and associated protection
functions.
Cancer Depressing Genes Cloned
Not long ago, Zhao Xintai, a research fellow
with Shanghai Tumor Research Institute and others discovered
mixed high frequency defect in liver cancer's chromosome
17p13.3 and successfully cloned a new gene in the course of
cloning section 17p13.3 and studied its relevance to liver
cancer. Chinese scientists have named the gene "liver
cancer depressing gene" in accordance with the
definition of cancer depressing genes and its properties in
liver cancer tissues. With a full length of 2kb for its cDNA
and 18 external dominants, the whole length of the genome
reaches 250 kb, sharing high homology with proteins of
yeast, wireworm, arabidopsis, drosophila and rat, which
shows its extreme conservative nature in the process of
evolution and possible important role in life process. The
said genetic product is positioned as chondriosome.
When examining its expressions in 35 liver
cancer samples, Mr. Zhao Xintai and other scientists
discovered that its expressions in 33 samples were
apparently lower than that in the tissues adjacent to the
tumor and genetic expressions simply missing in 14 of the
examined cancer tissues. 13 examined liver cancer samples
showed genetic changes including mutation spots and defect
in different forms.
The result of introducing
the said gene into liver cancer cells and planting them into
naked rats has shown that the gene is able to depress the
formation of cancer cells in naked rats against the
comparison group which shows its cancer cell depressing
capability.
Methods and Techniques for Wheat
Improvement
Liu Binghua, a research fellow of
Crop Breeding Institute under the Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences and his team have successfully turned
out short stalk wheat, and on the basis of their decade long
exploration they worked out a whole set of practical and
relatively quantitative cyclic wheat breeding methods and
techniques which may greatly improve wheat properties such
as resistance to creeping and diseases, high yield and fine
quality. They have developed improved varieties for
different breeding types and fine species featured with
integrated improvements, which have landed a revolutionary
breakthrough in China's wheat breeding techniques.
To expand the application scope of Taigu male
sterile wheat and improve its applications, with Aibian I
wheat (containing the strongest explicit short stalk gene)
as the provider of gene marking, Mr. Liu employed mass
screening and modern cell genetic technologies to develop
Taiguhe sterile wheat of short stalk genetic markings. Aibai
wheat has kept its thorough male sterility and the features
of strong stalk reducing effect and easy recognition,
becoming a desirable cyclic screening tool for wheat
breeding.
With the help of the above mentioned
techniques and methods, Mr. Liu and his team have remarkably
improved Aibai wheat and obtained improved varieties of fine
quality and high yield. These varieties have shown greatly
improved properties such as strong resistance to creeping
and diseases, high yield, fine quality and capacity for
different breeding forms. The new varieties also
demonstrated an improved process better than that in the
previous year and a yield higher than that of the previous
generation, which greatly enhance the probability of
screening out better varieties. So far they have bred out a
group of fine varieties with strong disease and creeping
resistance, fine quality, large yield increase potentials
and extensive application scopes.
Single Plant
Treating Osteoporosis
Recently the study of
preventing original Osteoporosis with the Chinese
traditional medicine capsule, a national priority R&D
project undertaken by the Beijing Qihuang Drug Clinic
Research Center has applauded for the major findings. The
Center's application of natural plants in treating
Osteoporosis has sat in the leading position both at home
and abroad.
Chinese scientists have for the
first time extracted effective matters from a single plant
and made them into the so-called bone making capsule for
treating Osteoporosis. To make the capsules, they developed
the patented new techniques for large hole resin absorbing
and extracting. The state drug supervision and management
administration approved on the basis of the new regulations
the first production project adopting the said technology,
which has remarkably improved China's modernization level of
the traditional medicine preparation.
Applied
with human genome methods and on the basis of genetic
screening of large samples, the innovative development of
bone making capsules has led to the discovery of genetic
frequency related to original Osteoporosis, which has
revealed the material basis and genetic arrangement of
original Osteoporosis of the Chinese
population.
NEWS BRIEFS
China's
First Station in the Arctic
Mr. Gao Dengyi, a
Chinese scientist engaged in atmospheric physics studies and
head of the Chinese Arctic Expedition Team disclosed on June
5, 2002 that China will soon set up its own Arctic
Scientific Research Station at the capital of Svalbard
Islands. The said station will become a temporary facility
for the convenience of Chinese scientists' Arctic expedition
activities in 2002 and 2003.
Being part of the
scientific expedition scheduled for three years, the team
will launch its second trip to the Svalbard Islands from mid
July to the end of August, 2002. With 15 members covering
different disciplines such as atmosphere, geology, glaciers
and botany, the scientists will during this trip mainly
carry out comparison studies between the ecological
environments of the Arctic and Tibet-Qinghai Plateau that
are sharing many commonplaces in terms of climate, plants,
glaciers and etc.
The spokesman of Expedition
Office of the State Oceanic Bureau expressed that China
would eventually establish its permanent station in the
Arctic in a time period of 5 years.
Establish
Incubators Overseas
By taking advantage of
China's accession to WTO, the Chinese Ministry of Science
and Technology (MOST) will through the channel of
inter-governmental cooperation, create new development
environment for small and medium Chinese S and T enterprises
featured with high domestic risks and fine perspectives for
growth. MOST's Torch Hi-Technology Industry Development
Center has recently inked an agreement with the Singapore
Economic Development Bureau for establishing high-tech
enterprises' industrial centers in Singapore.
It is reported that the running mode of
incubators is still in the process of negotiation. However,
the Center will introduce currently prevailing management
modes in the world such as professional incubator or visual
incubator to run overseas incubators so as to provide fine
quality service for enterprises at the planned low
management costs. The center will also establish its
incubators in Russia and the United States in the near
future.
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