China Science & Technology Forum

[JSCh]

Nanfang Additive Manufacturing's EBM metal 3D printing used for oil and gas pipelines for the first time
May 16, 2018 | By Tim Patterson

Nanfeng Co., Ltd announced that its subsidiary Nanfang Additive Manufacturing Technology Co,.Ltd reached an agreement with the Tubular Goods Research Institute of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for a development project for special fittings, which will make use of additive manufacturing. The two sides have signed a contract for joint technology development.

According to the contract, the CNPC Tubular Goods Research Institute will commission Nanfang Additive Manufacturing to develop special 3D printing materials and manufacturing processes for electron-beam additive manufacturing of three-way pipe fittings, to complete electron-beam additive manufacturing of two thick-walled, large-diameter three-way pipe fittings, and to develop special 3D printing materials for repairing pipeline/pipe fittings.

In an official announcement by China National Petroleum Corporation released at the end of March, the CNPC Tubular Goods Research Institute first declared its intent to use this EBM additive manufacturing technology in the production of high-grade, large-caliber, and thick-walled three-way pipe fittings. This will be the first time this is carried out in China.

Product performance for these 3D printed fittings should meet the standard requirements for OD1422 X80 hot extrusion three-way pipe fittings, which are used in the low-temperature conditions of the East Railway Station. This will be the first application of metal 3D printing technology by Nanfang Additive Manufacturing for oil and gas pipelines. Previously, the main application for the technology was in the field of nuclear power.

In early February 2018, a major breakthrough was achieved by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN)’s technical research project. The project was looking at the use of 3D printing technology for creating spare parts, as part of the nuclear power plant repair process. The research team successfully used EBM additive manufacturing technology to fabricate an end cap for a refrigerating machine, and this part was installed in the compressed air production system of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power plant, in Guangdong province. It also successfully passed the quality check.

This was one of the first joint R&D initiatives between CGN and Nanfang Additive Manufacturing, after the two companies had signed the "CGN Nuclear Power Plant Additive Manufacturing Technology and R&D Cooperation Agreement" back in December 2017.

According to CNPC Tubular Goods Research Institute, fabricating large-diameter, high-strength thick-walled three-way pipe fittings has always been a major obstacle for the construction of high-pressure long-distance pipelines in China. The traditional hot extrusion manufacturing method is limited by the thermal processing capability of the equipment, and it is not capable of meeting the standard wall thickness requirements.

In the hot-drawing process of the branch pipe, the multiple high-temperature heat treatment and subsequent heat treatment would result in significant differences in the microstructure and properties of the surface and central parts. The yield strength and Charpy impact energy absorption at the central part were significantly decreased. Welding of the three-way pipe body would use the manual arc welding approach, which has low welding efficiency, and the weld line's impact and toughness would be the weakest part of the entire pipe fitting.

EBM 3D printing technology is a major step forward from the methods traditionally used for creating these pipe fittings. It makes use of digital models and intelligent manufacturing systems, with no mold processing. The technique faces no limitations in terms of the thickness of the parts produced, so it is capable of meeting wall thickness requirements, and the product quality is also very stable. The electron-beam 3D printed parts demonstrate excellent performance, with mechanical properties that reach or even exceed the level of those produced by forging.

According to Nanfang Additive Manufacturing, this new collaboration will see the two parties working hard to overcome the obstacles in the production of large-diameter, high-strength and thick-walled three-way pipe fittings for high-pressure long-distance pipelines. The cooperation will also help further enhance the company’s metal 3D printing technology R&D.

This partnership will open up a new field of applications for Nanfang Additive Manufacturing's heavy metal 3D printing technology. At present, pipes produced in China do not adapt well to the low temperatures and bad weather conditions that Sino-Russian oil pipelines must endure. On the other hand, the prices of imported pipes that can meet these conditions are prohibitively high. The potential of 3D printing technology to overcome this issue could prove to be highly valuable.



3ders.org - Nanfang Additive Manufacturing's EBM metal 3D printing used for oil and gas pipelines for the first time | 3D Printer News & 3D Printing News

 

[JSCh]

Beijing Trials Smart Cones to Offer Traffic Updates Via Alibaba’s Amap
DOU SHICONG
DATE: FRI, 05/18/2018 - 14:56 / SOURCE:YICAI

Beijing Trials Smart Cones to Offer Traffic Updates Via Alibaba’s Amap​

(Yicai Global) May 18 -- Beijing transport authorities have installed the country’s first intelligent traffic cones to monitor and release updates on roadblocks via a digital application developed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s map unit.

The 18 sets of cones will ensure real-time distribution of information on road construction work and accidents, Beijing News reported, citing an official from Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation. Such information was delayed in the past because it was submitted manually, the official added.

China’s leading digital map and navigation service provider, Beijing-based Autonavi Holdings Ltd., also known as Amap, will publish the data via its mobile app. The smart traffic cones are equipped with buttons which construction workers can press to immediately update the system’s database.

The smart traffic cones are mostly being tested on Beijing’s urban roads and will be deployed on highways in the future. The cones are a positive sign for roadwork safety and public travel efficiency, according to the project leader at Amap.

Alibaba acquired AutoNavi for CNY10.2 billion (USD1.6 billion) in 2014 to compete with rival internet giants Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. in the sector. Amap also launched ride-sharing platforms in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Wuhan, Hubei province, in March.

 

[JSCh]

2018 National Science Week brings high-tech to citizens
By Jiang Jiao, Guo Meiping
2018-05-20 22:40 GMT+8

China’s 2018 National Science Week kicked off on Saturday with its main session in Beijing attracting a crowd of tech enthusiasts, especially young people who show a great interest in some of the latest applications.

The exhibition held in Beijing Military Museum – a choice that reflects a focus on “military-civilian integration in sci-tech industry” – covers an area of 11,500 square meters with over 460 items. Among all, several sections are particularly appealing.

A peek at 2022 Winter Olympics stadium

A 1:120 scale model of the National Speed Skating Oval for 2022 Winter Olympic Games caught the eyes of many for its simple and clean outlook.

Scale model of the National Speed Skating Oval for 2022 Winter Olympics is on display, May 19, 2018. /Xinhua Photo

But what truly matters is the innovation behind the design. The external wall of the oval is made up of 22 “ice ribbons” that are formed by thousands of pieces of single-curved glass and plate glass. Full-locked coil cables made of vanadium alloy which is less prone to corrosion makes it more durable.

The construction of the National Speed Skating Oval will be finished by the end of 2019. The multi-sports venue for events, including ice hockey, curling and short track speed skating, will hold test competitions in 2020. After the Winter Olympics in 2022, the venue will be used as a public gymnasium like the National Swimming Center.

Robotic endoscopic capsule

"Internet+medical" is one of the main themes of the exhibition area. A booth which presented a robotic capsule was frequently visited by attendees.

The robotic endoscopic capsule which is developed for painless gastroscopy. /Xinhua Photo

Developed for gastroscopy, the five-gram robotic endoscopic capsule is 27 millimeters in length and 12 millimeters in diameter, just like normal capsules. Made of polymer medical materials, the capsule can be used on people from four to 97 years old.

The tiny machine consists of more than 300 high precision components include camera, sensor and battery. When used for examination, the capsule can do five types of movements – front and back, left and right, up and down, and horizontal and vertical moves – based on engineer’s operation.

During the 15-minute painless examination, nearly 20,000 pictures will be taken by the capsule. After analysis by an internal artificial intelligence system, a package of medical images will be sent to doctors for identifying lesion locations inside the patient’s intestines and stomach.

VR and AR help explain hard technology

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are used to better explain the technology of aerospace and navigation to attendees during the event.

Through a pair of AR glasses, Gao Yixuan was able to see the assembly and launch process of the Long March 2F carrier rocket.

“I came here to learn more about rocket and aircraft,” said the fifth grader. “I could see how the rocket got assembled step by step.”

Attendees watch China's deep-sea manned submersible through VR glasses. /Photo via ST Daily

China's deep-sea manned submersible “Deep-sea Warrior” is presented through VR glasses.

“I could see the internal structure of the submersible, which gave me a better understanding of how it works in the ocean,” said Li Yanxiong, a teacher from Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, who attended with his students.

“(VR and AR) help popularize technology to citizens,” Yu Hui, from the China Manned Space Engineering Office, told ST Daily.

Besides the main session in Beijing, similar science and technology events are held across the country durin National Science Week.

 

[JSCh]

Have your brain mapped out! Chinese researchers work on personalized brain mapping
New China TV
Published on May 20, 2018

Chinese researchers have announced progress in personalized brain mapping, which gives a picture of the brain in ever-greater detail. Such a map will mark a great leap in brain disease diagnoses and surgeries. Find out more.

 

[JSCh]

China to help ID unknown lethal viruses
By WANG XIAODONG/SHAN JUA | China Daily | Updated: 2018-05-22 07:23

Quarantine workers at Qingdao airport in Shandong province test samples for the Ebola virus on Aug 11, 2014.[Xie Hao/For China Daily]
Global effort aims to find disease vectors that can jump from animals to humans

China will help lead a project to identify unknown viruses from wildlife to better prepare humans for major epidemics－if not global pandemics. The project is to be launched this year, according to one of the country's top health officials.

The Global Virome Project will start in China and Thailand with field work to collect samples from wild animals and analyze the viruses detected, said Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Scientists will collect virus samples from animals such as bats and rats for study using techniques like next generation (DNA) sequencing to find whether new viruses exist," he said.

The project, estimated to cost up to $1.2 billion, is expected to take 10 years and involves many countries including the United States, Brazil and Nigeria.

Through more intensive and extensive study of viruses from animals that could infect humans, it may be possible to deal with viruses using preemptive controls and prevention instead of passive, reactive measures, Gao said.

"We all know there are almost certainly new viruses that could cause the next global pandemic, but based on the existing early warning capacity for diseases, we do not know, for example, which virus will cause an epidemic," Gao said.

"We are sure that new virus strains will appear in the future along with changes in our ecology, environment and human behaviors."

For instance, humans' abuse of antibiotics has lead to the potential development of superbugs.

"There are many viruses living in wild animals, so we can identify viruses and thoroughly study those that could pass to humans," Gao said. "Ideally we can develop vaccines and a diagnosis for such viruses even before they cause human epidemics."

It is known that 263 viruses can infect humans, but scientists estimate there may be more than half a million viruses that live in birds and mammals and that are unknown to humans that may be capable of infecting humans, and they are the primary subject of the project's research, Gao said.

Even if a large number of such unknown viruses are identified, it is possible that just a small fraction of them have the ability to cause major epidemics that cause human deaths, he said.

However, considering the huge cost of a major epidemic like SARS to human health and economies, the findings of the project still have the potential to greatly reduce losses through improved early diagnosis and identification of hosts vulnerable to a new virus after an outbreak, according to Gao.

A similar project carried out by the US Agency for International Development proved the feasibility of the Global Virome Project and provides helpful experience, he said.

The USAID project, known as Predict and launched in 2009, with China a participant, led to findings of more than 1,000 viruses previously unknown to humans. The project cost was over $170 million, he said.

Some of the technologies used for that project have proved reliable and economically affordable and can be used for the Global Virome Project, Gao said.

 

[JSCh]

Tianjin University makes breakthrough in synthetic genome rearrangement
Updated: 2018-05-23 16:57:04 | (chinadaily.com.cn) |

A synthetic biology team at Tianjin University (TJU) reported new methods and strategies for genome rearrangement and accelerated the evolution of yeast strains in three recent studies published in Nature Communications on May 22, 2018.

Produced by an international research consortium, the publications are part of an effort towards application of chemically synthesized designer yeast chromosomes (Sc 2.0).

The seven newly published papers were written by researchers from seven universities in four countries, including Tianjin University and Tsinghua University in China, New York University (NYU) and Johns Hopkins University in the US, the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London in the UK, and the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Precise control switch mediated multiplex SCRaMbLE iterative cycles for rapid evolution.​

Designer yeast cells incorporating the Synthetic Chromosome Rearrangement and Modification by the LoxP-Mediated Evolution (SCRaMbLE) system provide a platform for generating genotype diversity. However, leaky expression of the Cre switch, high lethality rates and single strain backgrounds previously limited the application of SCRaMbLE. To overcome these challenges, synthetic biology team members Jia Bin and Wu Yi and collaborators from other colleges developed a precisely controllable SCRaMbLE system in synthetic haploid and diploid yeast.

"How to control the SCRaMbLE process is crucial for organisms with specified advantages, because leaky SCRaMbLE decreases the stability of strains with fixed phenotypes," said Bin Jia, who has constructed a genetic AND gate based on transcriptional control of the GAL promoter and intracellular location of the estrogen-binding domain.

This AND gate performed with higher reliability without observed leakage. As a proof of concept, the AND gate control of SCRaMbLE can increase the yield of carotenoids produced in synV yeast.

"The deletion of large fragments containing essential genes in haploid yeast can result in loss of viability, potentially decreasing the diversity generated by SCRaMbLE," said Yi Wu, who came up with an idea to use SCRaMbLE in diploid strains.

This strategy allowed the essential alleles in the wild-type chromosomes to remain intact and successfully improved genome diversity. Based on the precise control of SCRaMbLE in diploid strains, the TJU team developed a strategy called Multiplex SCRaMbLE Iterative Cycling (MuSIC) to increase the production of carotenoids up to 38.8-fold through 5 iterative cycles of SCRaMbLE.

Heterozygous diploid and interspecies SCRaMbLEing​

With collaborators from NYU, Yi Wu led the study of SCRaMbLEing in heterozygous and interspecies. In this research, they reported a collection of heterozygous diploids by mating synthetic yeast strains with native strains.

"Such heterozygous diploid strains take advantage of the flexible genotype of Sc2.0 yeast and robust phenotype of wild type yeast," said Yi Wu. "This study establishes that SCRaMbLE can drive phenotype evolution in heterozygous and interspecies hybrid strains."

In vitro DNA SCRaMbLE​

Additionally, synthetic biology team members Wu Yi and Zhu Ruiying and other universities' collaborators developed an in vitro DNA SCRaMbLE technology for structural varied library construction and biosynthetic pathway optimization.

"This system provides a straightforward way to correlate phenotype and genotype and a new strategy for biochemical optimization, enabling the acceleration of biological discovery and productive industrial microbe evolution," said Yi Wu.

"The SCRaMbLE methods reported are potentially a powerful tool for increasing the production of bio-based chemicals and also for mining deep knowledge," said TJU Professor Ying-Jin Yuan, "It will prove invaluable for both academic and industrial applications."

The findings are especially important, and TJU’s synthetic biology team has started a new Long March towards accelerating genome evolution to improve human health, prevent and cure disease, provide clean energy and promote a sustainable environment.

Nature Communications is an open access journal which publishes high-quality research papers in technology fields relating to biology, physics, chemistry, Earth sciences, and other areas.

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 24-MAY-2018
Dusty rainfall records reveal new understanding of Earth's long-term climate
Contrary to what Milankovitch suggested, the Earth's glacial/interglacial cycles may be driven by how much the sun warms the middle of the planet, rather than the northernmost region

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

​

Weijian Zhou (left) of the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Xi'an and Warren Beck (right) of the University of Arizona at a cross-section of a hill near Xi'an, China. The layers of loess soil shown in the photo represent thousands of years of soil deposition. CREDIT: © 2009 Xian Feng, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ancient rainfall records stretching 550,000 years into the past may upend scientists' understanding of what controls the Asian summer monsoon and other aspects of the Earth's long-term climate, reports a University of Arizona-led international team of researchers in the May 25 issue of the journal Science.

The standard explanation of the Earth's regular shifts from ice ages to warm periods was developed by Milutin Milankovitch in the 1920s. He suggested the oscillations of the planet's orbit over tens of thousands of years control the climate by varying the amount of heat from the sun falling above the Arctic Circle in the summer.

"Here's where we turn Milankovitch on its head," said first author J. Warren Beck, a UA research scientist in physics and in geosciences. "We suggest that, through the monsoons, low-latitude climate may have as much effect on high-latitude climate as the reverse."

During the northern summer, the subtropics and tropics north of the equator warm and the tropics and subtropics south of the equator cool.

Modern observations show the difference in heat propels atmospheric changes that drive the intensity of the monsoon. Beck said the monsoon can affect wind and ocean currents as far away as the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

The Asian monsoon season is the biggest annual rainfall system on Earth and brings rainfall to about half the world's population. The monsoon season occurs approximately April to September.

Beck and his colleagues found that over tens of thousands of years the changes in the intensity of the Asian summer monsoon corresponded to the waxing and waning of the polar ice caps.

The researchers suggest those long-term changes in the monsoon drove global changes in wind and ocean currents in ways that affected whether the polar ice caps grew or shrank.

Beck said this new explanation of the Earth's past climate cycles will help climate modelers figure out more about the world's current and future climate.

The new explanation of what drives the Earth's climate system stems from a decade-long effort by Beck and his colleagues to develop a new record of rainfall in Asia reaching far back into the past.

Scientists have been trying to develop a quantitative proxy for ancient precipitation for more than 30 years, he said.

By analyzing thousands of years of dust from north-central China for an element called beryllium-10, Beck and his colleagues developed the first quantitative record of the region's monsoon rainfall for the past 550,000 years.

The team studied the deposits of fine soil called loess that blow year after year from central Asian deserts into north-central China. The layer-cake-like deposits, hundreds of feet thick, are a natural archive extending back millions of years.

The researchers cut stepwise into the side of a hill of loess to expose a 55-meter span of loess representing 550,000 years. The researchers collected a loess sample every five centimeters. Five centimeters represents about 500 years.

Scientists can use the amount of beryllium-10 in soil as a proxy for precipitation, because when it rains the element washes out of the atmosphere on dust particles. Because more rain means more beryllium-10 deposited on the soil, the amount of beryllium-10 deposited at a particular time reflects the intensity of the rainfall.

To put together the ancient rainfall history of the area, team members analyzed the samples for beryllium-10 at the UA Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and for magnetic susceptibility at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Earth Environment in Xi'an.

Other investigators used the natural archive of oxygen isotopes within stalagmites from several Chinese caves to reconstruct the region's past climate. Those records only partially agree with the rainfall-based records of ancient climate developed by Beck and his colleagues.

Beck and his colleagues suggest their new explanation of the forces driving the Earth's long-term climate cycles reconciles the climate record from Chinese stalagmites and modern observations of the monsoon with the new ancient rainfall record from Chinese loess.



Dusty rainfall records reveal new understanding of Earth's long-term climate | EurekAlert! Science News

J. Warren Beck, Weijian Zhou, Cheng Li, Zhenkun Wu, Lara White, Feng Xian, Xianghui Kong & Zhisheng An. A 550,000-year record of East Asian monsoon rainfall from 10Be in loess. Science 2018. DOI: 10.1126/science.aam5825​

 

[JSCh]

Press Release

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
[URL='https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201802932']doi.org/10.1002/anie.201802932[/URL]
Nr. 16/2018
May 25, 2018​

Shine Bright Like a Nanoaggregate
Highly luminescent inks made from copper–iodine hybrid clusters with aggregation-induced emission

Chinese scientists have turned copper–iodine cluster molecules into aggregated, highly luminescent nanostructures for use in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The solid-state assemblies made of complexes of the copper–iodine cluster with phosphor–organic compounds as ligands are easily prepared, cheap, and can emit light in many colors, they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The nanoaggregates can be used as luminescent inks for invisible paintings and color coatings for LEDs.

© Wiley-VCH​

Luminescence is light emission triggered by some form of energy, which can be chemical, electrical, or radiation. For a long time, scientists thought that aggregation would be detrimental to luminescence. But in some substances, aggregation can be beneficial, researchers reported for the first time in 2001 when they observed that conformational changes turned a weak luminophore into a strong emitter. Since then, research on the so-called aggregation-induced emission (AIE) compounds has grown fast. One of the reasons: in real-world applications such as luminescent coatings and inks, the pigments usually adopt an aggregated state.

The team led by Hong-Bin Yao at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China, explores the preparation routes to AIE compounds, with the goal to prepare inks on a larger scale and without a big budget. A stable cluster of copper and iodine grabbed their attention. In combination with common phosphine ligands, this cluster was known to exhibit strong luminescence in its aggregated state, the typical AIE phenomenon. But a reliable way to get to that state, let alone applications, were not reported.

To prepare the AIE emitter, the starting compound must be present as a single, soluble molecule, then it is assembled and turned into something nanoparticular and non-soluble. The authors tackled the problem by employing an emulsifying–demulsifying process. By shaking the non-emitting complex dissolved in an organic solvent with a surfactant, they managed to confine the copper–iodine hybrid clusters in small droplets to obtain AIE-active nanoaggregates in a simple but effective way.

The method has another advantage: when swapping the ligands of the complex, the colors changed. The scientists replaced the phosphor ligand with a set of nitrogen-containing ligands and obtained a beautiful array of luminescent inks in colors ranging from orange to blue. With which they clearly enjoyed painting: Using their aqueous inks luminescing in orange, yellow, and sky-blue, they transformed a black-and-white sketch of an underwater world into an atmospheric exquisite aquarelle visible only under UV light.

Not only inks for paintings, but also color coatings for LED lamps were prepared. Normally, white LED light is difficult to achieve. Here, the researchers coated blue LED sources with yellow luminescent copper–iodine hybrids and observed the LED emission turning white. However, some adjustments still need to be made to increase the efficiency, the authors admitted.



Angewandte Chemie International Edition : Shine Bright Like a Nanoaggregate

 

[JSCh]

China sets new record in deep-well drilling
By Zhou Huiying in Anda, Heilongjiang | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-05-26 19:53

China completed the drilling of deepest well in Asia and the first one in the world that goes through continental stratum of the cretaceous period on March 26, 2018. [Photo by Gu Landing/for chinadaily.com.cn]

China on Saturday completed the drilling of deepest well in Asia and the first one in the world that goes through continental stratum of the cretaceous period.

The project, called Songke 2, was launched in April 13, 2014, in Anda, Heilongjiang province, by the China Geological Survey and undertaken by about 20 organizations, including the Institute of Exploration Technology, SinoProbe Center, China University of Geosciences, Jilin University and Petrol China Daqing Oilfield Company Ltd.

After four years, the team finished drilling the 7,018-meter-deep well.

"On behalf of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), I would like to congratulate you on the project achieved at the unprecedented depth and with great success," said Ulrich Harms, head of Operational Support Group of ICDP. "These technical achievements are outstanding and will have a long-term impact on the role partnership between industry and science played in scientific drilling in China and in the world. And it will have an impact on the scientists involved."

 

[cirr]

China-developed heavy ion cancer treatment system enters clinical testing

2018-05-27 13:51:55 Xinhua Editor : Huang Mingrui

Heavy ion medical accelerators developed by Chinese researchers entered clinical testing for cancer patients in northwest China's Gansu Province this month, researchers said.

Cancer radiation treatments employing heavy-ion accelerators can bombard a target with high-energy electrons to kill cancer cells.

Xiao Guoqing, head of the Institute of Modern Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said it is widely considered the most effective way of fighting tumors.

Compared to traditional therapy such as radiation, heavy ion treatment is considered to have more balanced properties with less radiation on healthy cells. The treatment period is shorter and the therapy could more effectively control cancer cells.

The institute, based in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, developed the accelerators in 2015. It took two years for the accelerators to undergo medical equipment testing. Registration and testing were completed in April this year and clinical tests began.

Currently, the institute has produced two sets of the cancer treatment equipment, one each in Lanzhou and Wuwei City, which has a high rate of stomach cancer.

Patients were selected from Gansu Provincial Cancer Hospital and Wuwei Cancer Hospital. Testing is under way for cancer treatment for the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and limbs.

In order to ensure the safety of the tests, 36 leading doctors in cancer treatment were assigned to oversee the tests.

Xiao said the domestically developed equipment marks the end of China's dependence on imports. The institute started basic research into the technology in 1993.

Currently very few hospitals in China offer heavy ion cancer treatment in China. Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center uses imported equipment from Germany for cancer treatment. There is a long wait for the treatment at the Shanghai hospital.

A report published by the National Cancer Center in 2017 showed that China has nearly 25 percent of the world's new cancer cases, with 10,000 cancer patients added per day. Every year, there are two million cancer-induced deaths. Lung, breast and stomach cancers are the most common types.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/2018-05-27/detail-ifyuqkxh5547616.shtml

 

[JSCh]

Synopsis: Magnetic Cloak Without Superconductors
May 29, 2018
A new magnetic-cloak device works without requiring cryogenically cooled superconductors.

W. Jiang et al., Phys. Rev. Applied (2018)​

Electromagnetic cloaks can shield objects from electromagnetic radiation, while rendering them virtually invisible. While cloaks for visible electromagnetic waves have proven difficult to realize, researchers have demonstrated schemes that work on magnetic fields. Such magnetic cloaks typically use superconducting materials, which must be cooled to cryogenic temperatures—a great drawback for practical applications. Now, Sailing He, Yungui Ma, and Wei Jiang of Zhejiang University, China, have built a room-temperature cloak that does not employ superconductors. Such a cloak could be useful in shielding sensitive devices from external magnetic fields.

A magnetic cloak should perform two basic functions: block out all magnetic fields and eliminate any magnetic-field distortions introduced by the cloaked object. Previously, researchers built cloaks out of superconductors because these materials repel magnetic fields via the so-called Meissner effect. They layered the superconductor with another material that creates a magnetic field compensating for the distortions.

The authors’ cloak consists of a hollow cylinder—12 cm in length and 4 cm in diameter—made of several foils of a high-magnetic-permeability material. Several copper wires run along the cylinder’s length. When currents pass through the wires, the cylinder and wires together shield the interior of the cylinder from external magnetic fields, mimicking the Meissner effect. The currents, in turn, can be tuned to generate the compensating field outside of the cloak. Experiments demonstrated that the device works at room temperature for static magnetic fields about 20 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. The current tunability gives the device an important advantage: the currents can be adjusted to optimize cloaking under different external magnetic-field or environmental conditions.

This research is published in Physical Review Applied.

Static Magnetic Cloak without a Superconductor
Wei Jiang, Yungui Ma, and Sailing He
Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 054041 (2018)
Published May 29, 2018​

Physics - Synopsis: Magnetic Cloak Without Superconductors

 

[JSCh]

360 finds 'epic bug' worth US$10b in EOS network
Zhu Shenshen
22:10 UTC+8, 2018-05-30

China’s biggest cyber security firm 360 Technology said today that it has found an “epic bug” worth US$10 billion in EOS, a popular blockchain project.

EOS is a popular cryptocurrency token adopting blockchain technology to offer investors and companies a smart contract platform and decentralized applications. It differs from Bitcoin because it is smart contract that supports industrial-scale applications and conducts millions of transactions per second without transaction fees.

Hackers can use the bug or exploit security vulnerability to access and control the whole EOS network and transfer EOS coins belonging to other clients, damaging the whole system and bringing losses to investors, said Zhou Hongyi, 360’s chief executive.

“It’s an epic bug valued at US$10 billion (considering booming EOS investors and market value)," Zhou said.

Source: SHINE Editor: Wang Xiang

 

[JSCh]

UV light may make brain work better, researchers find
By Zhu Lixin | China Daily | Updated: 2018-05-31 07:42

Science has already proved that sunny days can lead to sunny dispositions, helping improve a person's mood, intelligence and memory－and researchers in East China have now shed light on why.

A team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, discovered that ultraviolet light－an element of sunshine－activates a change in the brain that can make us smarter.

Tests on mice showed that moderate exposure to UV light enhances perception and learning, according to Xiong Wei, a professor at the university's School of Life Sciences who co-led the study.

Mice were exposed to 50 milijoules per square centimeter of UV, he said, which is equal to 20 to 30 minutes of ambient midday sun in Florida in summer.

The mice that received the light needed just four rounds of training to complete a rotarod test, a standard tool used to evaluate the motor skills of a rodent. Those not exposed to UV required six rounds of training to complete the same test.

Using single-cell mass spectrometry, an extremely sensitive and specific analytical technique, scientists found that a metabolic pathway in the brain was involved.

Exposure to UV increases blood urocanic acid, which is largely found in the skin and acts as a natural sunscreen. However, tests showed that the acid also reacts with brain cells to boost levels of glutamate, a neurotransmitter involved in cognitive functions such as learning and memory.

Xiong said previous research had found that urocanic acid was converted to glutamate in the liver, but this is the first time it has been demonstrated that the synthesis process can happen in the brain－a finding that surprised the team.

"Our research originated from an unexpected finding about three years ago, when we were researching small molecules in nerve cells," Xiong said. "We detected urocanic acid in nerve cells in the brain. This substance is found predominantly in the outermost layer of the skin, and in sweat and urine. So we wanted to know where the acid in the brain comes from and what role it plays."

The team's ultimate goal is to work on molecule-related mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

"To diagnose the diseases in their early stages, which has been very hard, we wanted to find some small molecules that could serve as biomarkers," Xiong said.

He said the research team also includes chemists and materials scientists.

The team's findings were published this month in Cell, an international science journal.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese scientists develop bendable batteries
Source: Xinhua| 2018-06-04 12:24:08|Editor: Yurou


BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists say they have invented bendable lithium sulfur batteries, paving the way for producing a generation of flexible smart devices.

Traditional batteries are made by pouring liquid electrolytes into solid electrodes, yet the new approach puts electrolytes into ultrathin metal layers to form 3D networks in dishcloth-like materials.

"By doing this, electrolytes won't fall off the networks no matter how you flex or twist the flexible materials," said Zhang Hongzhang, a researcher at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhang and other six researchers from DICP published their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials in May.

According to Zhang, flexible batteries based on this new approach can raise initial specific discharge capacity up to 1600 mAh, five times more than most commercial lithium batteries on the market.

Zhang said, these batteries should be more stable and resilient, and when used in smart devices such as mobile phones, they could be twisted and bent while still storing large amounts of charge.

"These batteries are light and have high energy density. The means of making them is cost effective and can be applied for mass production in the future," Zhang said.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese Researchers Achieve 3D Underwater Acoustic Carpet Cloak First with “Black Panther”-like Feat
Jun 04, 2018

Cloaking is one of the most eye-catching technologies in sci-fi movies. In two 2018 Marvel films, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther conceals his country Wakanda, a technologically advanced African nation, from the outside world using the metal vibranium.

However, in the real world, if you want to hide something, you need to deceive not only the eyes, but also the ears, especially in the underwater environment.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. YANG Jun from the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences designed and fabricated a 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak (UACC) using transformation acoustics.

Figure 1. Model and photograph of the 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak composed of over 700 steel strips. Objects can hide under the cloak without being detected by sonar. (Image by IOA)

The research was published online in Applied Physics Letters on June 1.

Like a shield, the carpet cloak is a material shell that can reflect waves as if the waves were reflecting off a planar surface. Hence, the cloaked target becomes undetectable to underwater detection instruments like sonar.

Figure 2. The 3D UACC looks like a shield from the vertical view, and a pyramid from the side view. (Image by IOA)

Using transformation acoustics, the research team first finished the 2D underwater acoustic carpet cloak with metamaterial last year (Scientific Reports, April 6, 2017). However, this structure works only in two dimensions, and becomes immediately detectable when a third dimension is introduced.

To solve this problem, YANG Jun and his IOA team combined transformation acoustics with a reasonable scaling factor, worked out the parameters, and redesigned the unit cell of the 2D cloak. They designed the 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak and then proposed a fabrication and assembly method to manufacture it. The 3D cloak can hide an object from top to bottom and deal with complex situations, such as acoustic detection in all directions.

The 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak is a pyramid comprising eight triangular pyramids; each triangular pyramid is composed of 92 steel strips using a rectangle lattice, similar to a wafer biscuit. More vividly, if we remove the core from a big solid pyramid, we can hide something safely in the hollow space left.

“To make a 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak, researchers needed to construct the structure with 2D period, survey the influence of the unit cell’s resonance, examine the camouflage effect at the ridge of the sample, and other problems. In addition, the fabrication and assembly of the 3D device required more elaborate design. The extension of the UACC from 2D to 3D represents important progress in applied physics,” said YANG.

In experimental tests, a short Gaussian pulse propagated towards the target covered with the carpet cloak, and the waves backscattered toward their origin. The cloaked object successfully mimicked the reflecting surface and was undetectable by sound detection. Meanwhile, the measured acoustic pressure fields from the vertical view demonstrated the effectiveness of the designed 3D structure in every direction.

Figure 3. Measured acoustic pressure fields. (a) The incident pressure field at 0 ms. (b)–(d) The scattered pressure fields at 1.8 ms from the soft plane (b), the soft target (c), and the cloaked soft target (d), respectively. (Image by IOA)

“As the next step, we will try to make the 3D underwater acoustic carpet cloak smaller and lighter,” said YANG.

Funding for this research came from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.11304351, 1177021304), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (Grant No. 2017029), and the IACAS Young Elite Researcher Project (Grant No. QNYC201719).

Prof. YANG Jun and Dr. JIA Han led the research team from the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. YANG Jun engages in research on sound, vibration and signal processing, and especially sound field control and array signal processing. They also work on other devices based on metamaterial in order to manipulate the propagation of sound waves.


Chinese Researchers Achieve 3D Underwater Acoustic Carpet Cloak First---Chinese Academy of Sciences