China in Africa

The Beijing Graphene Industry Innovation Center will take the advantage of Beijing’s innovative resources to research and develop cutting-edge new materials. China has substantial graphite deposits, and more than 500 companies already specialize in graphene products. China expects to establish a comprehensive graphene industry system by 2020.

CAS news release, April 12, 2017

The airfield, near China’s Zhongshan Station, will be able to handle fixed-wing aircraft. The construction of the planned airfield will be carried out by China’s 34th Antarctic expedition, which is set to arrive in Antarctica around the end of this year. The infrastructure project will go through an international environmental protection review. There are about 40 airstrips in service in Antarctica with the United States, Australia and Italy being the major operators. China will also build a 5th observation station near the Ross Sea in Antarctica, believed to be the least altered marine ecosystem on Earth.

CAS news release, April 12, 2015

Yuanwang-7 is 220 meters long, 40 meters high and has a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons. It entered service on July 12, 2016, and has performed scientific research and experiment-related tasks, including tracking missions for the maiden flight of the Long March-5, space rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft Shenzhou-11 and the Tiangong-2 space lab. China is the 4th country to master space tracking technology after the United States, Russia and France.

CAS news release, April 11, 2017

The sequencing effort towards a high-quality, chromosome-anchored reference genome (988 Mb) for the scallop Patinopecten yessoensiswas done jointly with a team of Rutgers University, USA, and the Sars International Center for Marine Molecular Biology, Norway.

CAS news release, April 10, 2017

Using a thioredoxin-fused TALE system, the groups around Tao XU and colleagues achieved high-quality imaging at various genomic loci and observed aging-associated (epi) genomic alterations at telomeres and centromeres in human and mouse premature aging models. They identified attrition of ribosomal DNA repeats as a molecular marker for human aging which may be used as a simple and robist imaging marker method.

CAS news release, April 4, 2017

The group of Ping GAO and Huafeng ZHANG at China University of Science and Technology have found that de novo FA synthesis controls cellular reprogramming and embryonic stem cell pluripotency through mitochondrial fission. Mechanistically, de novo FA synthesis regulated by the lipogenic enzyme ACC1 leads to the enhanced mitochondrial fission via (i) consumption of AcCoA which affects acetylation‐mediated FIS1 ubiquitin–proteasome degradation and (ii) generation of lipid products that drive the mitochondrial dynamic equilibrium toward fission.

CAS news release, April 10, 2017

Since 1999, the China National Arctic Research Expedition has carried out seven cruise missions in the Arctic Ocean using the icebreaker Xuelong, and has established two research stations, the Yellow River Station at Ny Alysund in Norway and the Joint China-Iceland Aurora Observatory in Kallhor, Iceland. According to Huigen YANG, director of Polar Research Institute of China, changes in the Arctic directly affect China, especially its sea level when Arctic glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet melt. Arctic warming may also open new sea routes between East Asia and North America and Europe when the Suez Canal and Panama Canal are reaching their full capacity.

CAS news release, April 10, 2017

The Medical 160 Spruce Online Hospital (就医 160－云杉医疗网上医院) will offer: online references and registrations to other clinics, to consultations, to doctor appointments registration, video-based diagnosis and treatment, follow-ups for patients, management of slow disease, patient education, drug distribution and other services. The online hospital brings together hundreds of senior clinical experts from the top three hospitals of Shenzhen and follows the directions of the national health reform, in an attempt to create a high-quality health care service platform. Future online hospitals models will rely on physical medical institutions and provide rich resources of doctors. They are more conducive to sharing large medical data for achieving precise treatment. Finally, the online hospital redistributes high-quality medical resources, providing patients with convenient medical treatment and reducing medical costs. Free-practicing doctors can freely integrate into these resources, helping to solve the long-term medical problems in areas where medical resources are scarce.

China Bio news release, April 7, 2017

More than 800 enterprises that provide products and services spanning electronics, machinery, chemicals and medical services have already laid sound foundations for the upgrade, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. China produced 72,400 industrial robots in 2016, up 34.3 percent year on year. Sales are expected to exceed 50 billion yuan (about 7.26 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020.

CAS news release, April 7, 2017

The catalogue provides standards for the production and use of coal and its products (including raw coal, coal, coal gangue, slime, coal slurry, briquette, coke, blue carbon, etc.), oil and other conventional fuels, but not for industrial waste and garbage, agricultural and forestry residues, the use of charcoal and other auxiliary fuels. Under the Air Pollution Control Law”, the list of high-polluting fuels is only applicable to cities. In urban areas, the administration should apply the standards in accordance with local requirements “

China Bio news release, April 6, 2017

The groups of Zijian ZHAO and Fanghong LI had observed that families with a history of diabetes type 1 were able to reduce the risk of their offpsring to attract this disease by providing them on long-term with fish-oil after weaning. As a consequence, they applied gene therapy to diabetes-1 mice introducing genes for EPA and DHA formation. Suprisingly, in the treated mice the process of disease was reversed. Preclinical studies are underway, and clinical trials are expected within 2 – 3 years.

China Bio April 5, 2017

Xiurong ZHANG and his team over the past 30 collected 7910 sesame germplasms, covering 30 Chinese provinces and locations on five continents, to build the first sesame gene information base, with 819.3 Gb of public data, and 7200 genome tags. They built the first high-density genetic mapand discovered a new mechanism for the geneetic regulation of the oil content, leading to variety QTL77, with higher oil content and improved resistances, providing 74 % of all Chinese varietis.

China Bio news release, April 5, 2017

China presently consumes over 2 billion tons of aviation fuel per year. IATA preducts that by 2020 bio-kerosene will reach 30 % oft he total aviation fuel. Recently, Sinopec at its Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Branch has also expanded the production of bio-aviation fuel based on waste oil, reaching a production capacity of 100,000 tons per year.

China Bio news release, April 5, 2017

According to Peizhi YANG at Yunnan Normal University, his solar cell based on long-persistent phosphor (LPP) could store sunlight energy in the day and harvest in darkness. All-weather solar cell, comprise a CQD-sensitized mesoscopic titanium dioxide/long-persistence phosphor (m-TiO2/LPP) photoanode, a I–/I3– redox electrolyte, and a platinum counter electrode. In virtue of the light storing and luminescent behaviors of LPPphosphors, the generated all-weather solar cells can not only convert sunlight into electricity on sunny days but persistently realize electricity output in all dark–light conditions. The maximized photoelectric conversion efficiency is as high as 15.1% for so-called all-weather CQD solar cells in dark conditions.

China Bio news release, April 5, 2017

State-owned China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC) have announced plans for a network of 156 mini-satellites to facilitate global broadband coverage. The low orbiting, networked satellites will orbit 1,000 km above the ground and launched between 2018 and 2025. Small satellites are easy to mass produce and upgrade at low cost. Low orbit helps avoid signal delay; and satellite communication services with frequencies from 26.5 to 40 hertz will improve Internet access.

CAS news release, April 1, 2017