broadsword
Brigadier
To be honest, I was worried that it would take 2 or 3 seconds to make one step before I saw the video of China's design.
News on China's scientific and technological development.
- Thread starter Quickie
- Start date
The wildcat video was misleading at the start as what I thought was its 'head' was actually the tail end. Something to do with the angle of its 'legs' compared to a real life quad-legged animal.
The chinese robot seems more like a miniature big dog than the wildcat.
broadsword
Brigadier
The Chinese version is an analog to Boston Dynamic's BigDog. The WildCat is a later version.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
broadsword
Brigadier
Chinese scientists cultivate high-yield salt-resistant rice
(Xinhua) 16:00, December 31, 2013
HAIKOU, Dec. 31 -- Chinese scientists have cultivated a high-yield salt-resistant rice variety that boasts an output of six tonnes per hectare.
In an experimental program, two professors from Hainan University and additional researchers from the Hunan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences planted 18 salt-resistant varieties on 3 mu (0.2 hectares) of saline-alkali land along the sea coast in the city of Yancheng in eastern Jiangsu province this year.
After harvesting in October, one variety has proved to have similar output as varieties growing on normal farmland, said Lin Qifeng, one of the professors from Hainan University.
The progress marks a big breakthrough in the application stage as the varieties were planted in real saline-alkali soils rather than in labs, Lin said.
The professor said they will expand the experimental plantation to 100 mu in Yancheng in 2014 to further evaluate the performance of the salt-resistant varieties.
Yancheng currently has 410,000 hectares of coastal marsh, but saline-alkali land is expanding by 2,000 hectares per year.
If it proves successful in further tests and is approved by agricultural authorities, the high-yield salt-resistant variety could mean enormous economic benefits by helping the world's most populous nation cultivate its vast idle saline-alkali land, he said.
Cultivation, together with the use of rice straw and other organic fertilizers, could help improve soil conditions in the long term, said Li Guanyi, another professor with Hainan University.
China has some 13.3 million hectares of saline-alkali soils with the potential to be cultivated, equivalent to one tenth of the country's total farmland, according to data from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang Cailin, chief scientist of the rice breeding program in Jiangsu, said more than one quarter of the world's land is saline-alkali soil and another 20 percent of farmland is at risk of salination.
Traditional methods of desalination, such as soil replacement and watering down the salt, are less efficient and also costly, while the research progress on salt-resistant plants points to promising new prospects.
The professors inserted a salt-resistant gene from a wild plant into a normal rice variety six years ago. After five years of screening, they have obtained 18 salt-resistant rice varieties.
The two began to dedicate themselves to research on the development of salt-resistant varieties as early as 1992. They managed to cultivate salt-resistant vegetables, including tomatoes, eggplant, cowpeas and pepper, years later in the late 1990s.
Scientists in other countries, including the United States, have also developed salt-resistant varieties such as barley, wheat, sorghum and tomatoes. However, most saline-alkali soil exploitation worldwide focuses on landscape greening rather than the cultivation of crops and vegetables.
(Xinhua) 16:00, December 31, 2013
HAIKOU, Dec. 31 -- Chinese scientists have cultivated a high-yield salt-resistant rice variety that boasts an output of six tonnes per hectare.
In an experimental program, two professors from Hainan University and additional researchers from the Hunan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences planted 18 salt-resistant varieties on 3 mu (0.2 hectares) of saline-alkali land along the sea coast in the city of Yancheng in eastern Jiangsu province this year.
After harvesting in October, one variety has proved to have similar output as varieties growing on normal farmland, said Lin Qifeng, one of the professors from Hainan University.
The progress marks a big breakthrough in the application stage as the varieties were planted in real saline-alkali soils rather than in labs, Lin said.
The professor said they will expand the experimental plantation to 100 mu in Yancheng in 2014 to further evaluate the performance of the salt-resistant varieties.
Yancheng currently has 410,000 hectares of coastal marsh, but saline-alkali land is expanding by 2,000 hectares per year.
If it proves successful in further tests and is approved by agricultural authorities, the high-yield salt-resistant variety could mean enormous economic benefits by helping the world's most populous nation cultivate its vast idle saline-alkali land, he said.
Cultivation, together with the use of rice straw and other organic fertilizers, could help improve soil conditions in the long term, said Li Guanyi, another professor with Hainan University.
China has some 13.3 million hectares of saline-alkali soils with the potential to be cultivated, equivalent to one tenth of the country's total farmland, according to data from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang Cailin, chief scientist of the rice breeding program in Jiangsu, said more than one quarter of the world's land is saline-alkali soil and another 20 percent of farmland is at risk of salination.
Traditional methods of desalination, such as soil replacement and watering down the salt, are less efficient and also costly, while the research progress on salt-resistant plants points to promising new prospects.
The professors inserted a salt-resistant gene from a wild plant into a normal rice variety six years ago. After five years of screening, they have obtained 18 salt-resistant rice varieties.
The two began to dedicate themselves to research on the development of salt-resistant varieties as early as 1992. They managed to cultivate salt-resistant vegetables, including tomatoes, eggplant, cowpeas and pepper, years later in the late 1990s.
Scientists in other countries, including the United States, have also developed salt-resistant varieties such as barley, wheat, sorghum and tomatoes. However, most saline-alkali soil exploitation worldwide focuses on landscape greening rather than the cultivation of crops and vegetables.
Skywatcher
Captain
Saltwater hydroponics would be a very interesting application for salt tolerant rice.
China has invested heavyly on education. This is the future of China science & technology.
When I was in China, I would never dream schools like these.
CCTV Vedio: Teachers exchange
[video]http://tvplayer.people.com.cn/player.php/xml/L3B2c2VydmljZS94bWwvLzIwMTMvMTIvMjIvMTgyMjIyNGItOD lmOC00ODBlLWJmYjgtNDkxYzgyYmM2NWQxLnhtbA==/playerByOsmf.swf[/video]
When I was in China, I would never dream schools like these.
CCTV Vedio: Teachers exchange
[video]http://tvplayer.people.com.cn/player.php/xml/L3B2c2VydmljZS94bWwvLzIwMTMvMTIvMjIvMTgyMjIyNGItOD lmOC00ODBlLWJmYjgtNDkxYzgyYmM2NWQxLnhtbA==/playerByOsmf.swf[/video]
Quickie
Colonel
Scientific development is becoming more borderless. This is one of the many joint researchs involving Chinese and U.S. universities.
English.news.cn 2014-01-03 06:18:45 RSS Feedback Print Copy URL More
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and Chinese scientists said Thursday they have discovered an effective strategy that could prevent the human immune system from rejecting the grafts derived from human embryonic stem cells, a major problem now limiting the development of human stem cell therapies.
Using a novel "humanized" laboratory mice, the researchers found that one combination of two immune suppressing molecules worked perfectly to protect cells derived from human embryonic stem cells from immune rejection.
Human embryonic stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into a variety of cell types, but these foreign cells are often rejected by the human immune system because they are different from our own body's cells, or "allogenic."
One way to reduce the body's "allogenic immune response" is to suppress the immune system with immunosuppressant drugs.
But the long term use of toxic immunosuppressant drugs for patients pose serious health problems, including the increased risk of cancer and infection, said Xu Yang, a professor of biology at the University of California San Diego, who collaborated with scientists from China's Jilin University and Shenzhen Children's Hospital on the study.
Researchers had long been searching for a human immunity relevant model that would allow them to develop strategies to implant allogenic cells derived from embryonic stem cells safely.
"The problem is that we only had data from mouse immune system and those are not usually translatable in humans, because human and mouse immune systems are quite different," said Xu. "So what we decided to do was to optimize the humanized mouse that carries a functional human immune system."
To do that, they took immune deficient laboratory mice and grafted into their bodies human fetal thymus tissues and hematopoietic stem cells derived from fetal liver of the same human donor.
Ultimately, the mice contained a functional human immune system capable of mounting a vigorous immune rejection of foreign cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
With these "humanized" mouse models, the researchers tested a variety of immune suppressing molecules alone or in combination.
They found that a combination of CTLA4-lg, an FDA-approved drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis, and a protein called PD-L1 allowed the allogeneic cells to survive in humanized mice without triggering an immune rejection.
"If we express both molecules in cells derived from human embryonic cells, we can protect these cells from the allogenic immune rejection," said Xu. "If you have only one such molecule expressed, there is absolutely no impact. We still don't know exactly how these pathways work together to suppress immune rejection, but now we've got an ideal system to study this."
Xu said they will next test the strategy on monkeys. He also believed the discovery and the development of their humanized mouse models may offer the much needed tools to develop ways to activate immune response to tumors, because these molecules are known to be important in allowing tumors to evade the human immune system.
The findings were published online in the U.S. journal Cell Stem Cell.
English.news.cn 2014-01-03 06:18:45 RSS Feedback Print Copy URL More
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and Chinese scientists said Thursday they have discovered an effective strategy that could prevent the human immune system from rejecting the grafts derived from human embryonic stem cells, a major problem now limiting the development of human stem cell therapies.
Using a novel "humanized" laboratory mice, the researchers found that one combination of two immune suppressing molecules worked perfectly to protect cells derived from human embryonic stem cells from immune rejection.
Human embryonic stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into a variety of cell types, but these foreign cells are often rejected by the human immune system because they are different from our own body's cells, or "allogenic."
One way to reduce the body's "allogenic immune response" is to suppress the immune system with immunosuppressant drugs.
But the long term use of toxic immunosuppressant drugs for patients pose serious health problems, including the increased risk of cancer and infection, said Xu Yang, a professor of biology at the University of California San Diego, who collaborated with scientists from China's Jilin University and Shenzhen Children's Hospital on the study.
Researchers had long been searching for a human immunity relevant model that would allow them to develop strategies to implant allogenic cells derived from embryonic stem cells safely.
"The problem is that we only had data from mouse immune system and those are not usually translatable in humans, because human and mouse immune systems are quite different," said Xu. "So what we decided to do was to optimize the humanized mouse that carries a functional human immune system."
To do that, they took immune deficient laboratory mice and grafted into their bodies human fetal thymus tissues and hematopoietic stem cells derived from fetal liver of the same human donor.
Ultimately, the mice contained a functional human immune system capable of mounting a vigorous immune rejection of foreign cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
With these "humanized" mouse models, the researchers tested a variety of immune suppressing molecules alone or in combination.
They found that a combination of CTLA4-lg, an FDA-approved drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis, and a protein called PD-L1 allowed the allogeneic cells to survive in humanized mice without triggering an immune rejection.
"If we express both molecules in cells derived from human embryonic cells, we can protect these cells from the allogenic immune rejection," said Xu. "If you have only one such molecule expressed, there is absolutely no impact. We still don't know exactly how these pathways work together to suppress immune rejection, but now we've got an ideal system to study this."
Xu said they will next test the strategy on monkeys. He also believed the discovery and the development of their humanized mouse models may offer the much needed tools to develop ways to activate immune response to tumors, because these molecules are known to be important in allowing tumors to evade the human immune system.
The findings were published online in the U.S. journal Cell Stem Cell.
broadsword
Brigadier
Spray Bacteria on the Desert to Halt Its Spread
2014-01-03
AN ODD ally could stall the encroachment of deserts – bacteria. In northern China, the eastern edge of the Qubqi desert is a shifting wasteland of sand dunes. Most of the land is dusty and barren, but bacteria are giving some of it a new lease of life.
Living on the edge (Image: Qukai Shen/Panos)
Desertification is a big problem for China. Overgrazing by livestock has destroyed much of the fragile layer of lichen, algae and mosses – the cryptobiotic crust – that binds the sand and soil to the ground. If left unchecked, creeping sands can slowly engulf vital infrastructure such as roads and railways. Farmland and even major cities can be swamped by dust storms that began in the desert.
Planting hardy grasses helps keep sand in place, but the wind can still whip away particles between the grasses. So Chunxiang Hu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences's Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan has developed an alternative approach. She coats planted dunes with a mixture of photosynthesising cyanobacteria that can thrive in the semi-arid environment.
Grown in nearby ponds, the cyanobacteria are trucked into the desert every few days and sprayed over the dunes, where they form sticky filaments that hold soil particles in place and prevent them from being blown away. Cyanobacteria get their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis, and as part of the chemical reactions involved, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and provide the organic matter the soil needs to be productive.
Hu's long-running trial shows that after eight years, dunes treated with cyanobacteria developed a biological crust nearly 1 centimetre thick when on the shady side of dunes. On the sunny side, the crust was about half as thick. The topsoil improved where the crust developed, spurring plant growth.
The method is vital if semi-arid regions are going to rebound on a reasonable timescale, says Brian Whitton, an ecologist at Durham University, UK. "Unless you do something to help, you're probably talking centuries for it to recover naturally," he says.
Hu says the cyanobacteria are now being used to shore up the verges of roads and railways in northern China as well as the margins of oases and farmland. Her team plans to seed 133 square kilometres over the next five years (Environmental Science and Technology, doi.org/qn9).
People have been trying to use bacteria in this way since the 1980s, saysMatthew Bowker, a soil ecologist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. His group is working on a similar method, but hasn't yet used it on a large scale.
Desertification is also a problem in the US, says Bowker, but the issue isn't yet big enough to prompt the country to pour money into projects like Hu's. That might change soon, though. "The western US is getting dusty. With dust come automobile accidents and health issues," he says. "These biological soil crusts are like the living skin of the soil," Bowker says, and they need protecting. (New Scientist)
2014-01-03
AN ODD ally could stall the encroachment of deserts – bacteria. In northern China, the eastern edge of the Qubqi desert is a shifting wasteland of sand dunes. Most of the land is dusty and barren, but bacteria are giving some of it a new lease of life.
Living on the edge (Image: Qukai Shen/Panos)
Desertification is a big problem for China. Overgrazing by livestock has destroyed much of the fragile layer of lichen, algae and mosses – the cryptobiotic crust – that binds the sand and soil to the ground. If left unchecked, creeping sands can slowly engulf vital infrastructure such as roads and railways. Farmland and even major cities can be swamped by dust storms that began in the desert.
Planting hardy grasses helps keep sand in place, but the wind can still whip away particles between the grasses. So Chunxiang Hu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences's Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan has developed an alternative approach. She coats planted dunes with a mixture of photosynthesising cyanobacteria that can thrive in the semi-arid environment.
Grown in nearby ponds, the cyanobacteria are trucked into the desert every few days and sprayed over the dunes, where they form sticky filaments that hold soil particles in place and prevent them from being blown away. Cyanobacteria get their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis, and as part of the chemical reactions involved, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and provide the organic matter the soil needs to be productive.
Hu's long-running trial shows that after eight years, dunes treated with cyanobacteria developed a biological crust nearly 1 centimetre thick when on the shady side of dunes. On the sunny side, the crust was about half as thick. The topsoil improved where the crust developed, spurring plant growth.
The method is vital if semi-arid regions are going to rebound on a reasonable timescale, says Brian Whitton, an ecologist at Durham University, UK. "Unless you do something to help, you're probably talking centuries for it to recover naturally," he says.
Hu says the cyanobacteria are now being used to shore up the verges of roads and railways in northern China as well as the margins of oases and farmland. Her team plans to seed 133 square kilometres over the next five years (Environmental Science and Technology, doi.org/qn9).
People have been trying to use bacteria in this way since the 1980s, saysMatthew Bowker, a soil ecologist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. His group is working on a similar method, but hasn't yet used it on a large scale.
Desertification is also a problem in the US, says Bowker, but the issue isn't yet big enough to prompt the country to pour money into projects like Hu's. That might change soon, though. "The western US is getting dusty. With dust come automobile accidents and health issues," he says. "These biological soil crusts are like the living skin of the soil," Bowker says, and they need protecting. (New Scientist)