China in Africa

Through a share transfer agreement with Australia’s Macquarie and General Electric (GE) Financial Services, the Chineses company acquired 75% of shares of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm “North Pole” located in Pitea, Sweden. The plan calls to install 179 wind power generators with a capacity of 3.63 MW and to start operation after installation by the end of 2019. It will become Europe’s largest land-based wind power plant. The project meets the demand for electricity of 400,000 households and will reduce CO2 emissions by 750,000 tons annually. CGN, via its European operations based in France, has so far acquired over 1,000 MW of wind and solar power assets in Europe
Japan JST China news, July 27, 2018

A research and development (R&D) base for stem cells storage and application recently went into operation in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The base can preserve three million stem cell samples extracted from, e. g., children’s lost baby teeth or umbilical cord. It covers 3.24 hectares, has cell production workshops operated under GMP, a quality inspection center and a global cooperation R&D center.

CAS news release, June 26, 2018

The headset system is based on noninvasive brain stimulation and regulation technology. Flexible electrode sensors are used to determine the change when brain waves perform various tasks in the brain and further stimulate with a weak current pulse by combination of electrodes. The stimulus reaches a specific area of ​​the brain, thereby changing the activity of the electroencephalogram and adjusting the activity state of neurons of the brain.The technology will be used for skill training of special people, rapid growth of learning and memory ability, and interference and relaxation to feeling frustration and tension in a strong stress environment. In the medical field, it can be expected to interfere with children’s hyperactivity, depression, dementia, aphasia, functional abnormalities such as Parkinson’s disease, physical disability and dementia.

Japan JST China news, July 25, 2018

The first LNG carrier to supply to China from the Yamar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) field near the Arctic arrived at China’s East LNG station. The northeast passage departs from Sabetta, Russia, heading east and traveling south through the Cara, Laptev, Eastern Siberian, Chukchi and Bering Straits. The sailing distance is about 10,700 kilometers, about 14,400 km shorter than the way to the east via the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. Navigation takes about 20 days on average, 20 days less than the conventional route. The Yamal Project is jointly operated by Nova Tech of Russia, China Oil, France Total and China Silk Road Foundation. Its natural gas reserves are 130 million cubic meters, and the amount of refined mineral oil (“white oil”) reserves is 60 million tons.

Japan JST China news, July 20, 2018

The Dragon Castle bookshop works on automatic face recognition and mobile payment. The customer scans the purchased book on a code reader available in many places of the store, and completes his payment upon a command “purchase” in the WeChat app. The article does not report about sorting and refilling the bookshelfs and details of security.

 Japan China information, July 19, 2018

The group around WU Zhongshuai reports on the development of a fully solid, planar integrated lithium ion micro battery. The miniature battery takes nano titanate nanospheres as the cathode, lithium iron phosphate microspheres as the anode, calcium carbide as the nonmetallic fluid, an ionic gel as the electrolyte, and works without the use of the traditional diaphragm and metal collecting fluid. It has the advantage of multidirectional mass transfer, showing a high volume energy density of 125.5mWh/cm3, excellent multiplier performance, super long cyclic stability, no attenuation after 3300 cycles, good mechanical flexibility, and an electrode performance which is not damaged under repeated bending or twisting.

CAS news release, July 18, 2018

Unit 5 is a domestically produced nuclear reactor of China’s 3d reactor generation ACPR 1000. It has widely enhanced safety features. Construction began in September 2013, and the first electricity transmission was realized in May 2018. Recent tests had the reactord in full operation for 168 hours.

Japan China news release, July 17. 2018

The 55 km long bridge was built in 3,2 years. Telecommunication facilities are located on the gates and public towers of the bridge. Due to the special climatic conditions, all of the equipment exposed to the outside of the bridge must have resistance to extremely strong winds and, being subject to corrosion, must be galvanized and painted.

Japan China news, July 19, 2018

A group of researchers at the CAS Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biologyhave subjected 5 different strains of mice to a variety of 30 different diets over 3 months, corresponding to 9 years in humans. Over 100,000 measurements were made of the mice’s body weight changes and their body fat was measured using a micro MRI machine. The result of this enormous study was unequivocal – the only thing that made the mice get fat was eating more fat in their diets. Carbohydrates, including up to 30% of calories coming from sugar, had no effect. Combining sugar with fat had no more impact than fat alone. There was no evidence that low protein (down to 5% of the total calories) stimulated greater intake, suggesting there is no protein target. The researchers believe that dietary fat caused weight gain because fat in the diet uniquely stimulated the reward centers in the brain, thus causing greater intake of calories.

CAS news release, July 13, 2018

According to the China Internet Development Report 2018 of the Chinese Internet Association, over 700 million people living in China used the internet on average 27 times a week. Livestreams were used 980 million times. The Chinese Internet market last year rose by 32.2 percent to 7 trillion yuan. There were close to 600 million online payments by mobile phone.

Japan China news, July 13, 2018

The group of WU Zhengyan has clothed potatoes in “raincoat” to keep the surface away from moisture and inhibit sprouting, leading to toxic solanin. The raincoaat consisted of hydrophobic nano silica (H-SiO₂) modified by nano silica with amino silicon oil (ASO). Residues of H-SiO₂do not pass through the potato skin at all and can be easily washed off before cooking, which ensures food safety. Although, this technology is suitable for the storage of potatoes, it shows slightly negative effect on the germination of potatoes when the plant is used as a seed in soil.

CAS news release, July 12, 2018

A group led by Dr LI Jiangang of CAS Institute of Physics and comprising Chinese researchers from MIT and South China University of Technology used high-dose focused ion beam (FIB) as a “trimming” method of gold nanofilms. When the gold film is irradiated by FIB, the defects generated in the film and injected gallium ions induce different types of stress, and the structure reaches a new mechanical equilibrium state through closed-loop deformation under the intelligent guidance of its own morphology. Therefore, by designing different initial two-dimensional patterns, it is possible to realize three-dimensional structural deformation such as bending, rotation, and twisting downward or upward under the same scanning conditions. This method breaks through the limitations of traditional nano-processing methods such as bottom-up, top-down and self-assembly, and is a new type of three-dimensional nano-manufacturing technology. Combined with advances in contemporary materials and manufacturing, paper cutting and origami technology has been developed in many fields, including solar windsurfing folding technology for outer space vehicles, micro-nano electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), deformation architecture, performance-specific mechanical, biological and optical devices, and even DNA nano-cutting and folding technology.

CAS news release, July 12, 2018

ZHOU Rongbin and JIANG Wei from University of CASScience and Technology of China could showhow Oridonin (Ori), the major ingredient of Chinese medicinal herb Rabdosia rubescens, targets NLRP3 to exert anti-inflammatory activity. NRLP3 is a multiple protein complex whose activation contributes to the progress of human diseasessuch as type 2 diabetes (T2D), atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases.Experiments on mice suggest that Ori has both preventive and therapeutic effects on peritonitis, gouty arthritis and T2D, via inhibition of NLRP3 activation. Ori might thus serve as a lead in developing new therapies.

CAS news release, July 12, 2017

The ancient Silk Road was opened up for silk trade and were the birth of communication and dissemination between early Eastern and Western civilizations. Although previous studies have shown that domestication of silkworms originated in China from a single domestication event, the detailed domestication process and propagation history of silkworm lines are still unclear. The group of ZHAN Shuai at the CAS Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, in cooperation with others, has done a large-scale resequencing and population genetic analysis of silkworm strains selecting 137 representative silkworm areas reconstructing the evolutionary history of domesticated silkworm strains. The researchers found that Chinese domestication was slow when silkworms spread to European and South Asia. The presently used improved strains used in sericulture production are mainly Chinese and Japanese varieties. Enrichment of amino acid metabolic pathways was a major improvement. Key circadian clock genes were also strongly selected.

CAS news release, July 10, 2018

The 500 m2 “Motoyuto” restaurant is located in the Shenzhen A8 Building, with a staff of 10 people. Under an app of Ali Baba, orders can be placed on the smartphone using phonetic demands or scanning desktop codes. Payment is effecte by Alipay. According to statistics, this can save about 15 to 30 minutes per customer compared to conventional meal orders, as the meals can be served at the counter at the time the customer arrives at the shop. In the future, Motoyuto will improve smart cooking based on consumer preferences, consumption habits, features of target groups, etc. by using big data.

Japan China news, July 6, 2018