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Heavy metal pollution in rivers and lakes arising due to rapid economic development has been extensively studied by various countries due to its direct impact on ecological health and human well-being. However, there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic reviews addressing the current research status of this subject. In this study, we conducted a visual metrological analysis of the literature from 2001 to 2021 using the Web of Science (WoS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) citation databases. The results show that studies conducted in other countries initially outnumbered those in China; after 2010, China emerged as the foremost contributor. Furthermore, both the WoS and CNKI databases indicate active engagement of Chinese researchers through a significant proportion of published papers on metal research, with prominent contributions coming from institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and University CAS. Nevertheless, Chinese research institutions still have relatively low total paper citation numbers and have yet to establish themselves as key players in international scientific research efforts. Additionally, core authors from different countries share substantial similarities in their research directions and focuses. Consistent research hotspots regarding heavy metals in rivers and lakes were identified across both databases, including heavy metal pollution, adsorption, human activities, water quality, and sediment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer, characterized by its high morbidity and lethality, necessitates thorough research to enhance our understanding of its pathogenesis and discover novel therapeutic approaches. Recent studies increasingly demonstrate that lung cancer cells can modulate the tumor microenvironment, promoting tumor growth, and metastasis through the release of exosomes. Exosomes are small vesicles secreted by cells and contain a variety of bioactive molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, and metabolites. This paper presents a comprehensive review of exosome research in lung cancer and its progress through bibliometric analysis. Methods: Publications related to exosomes in lung cancer patients were systematically searched on the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviwers, CiteSpace, and the R package "Bibliometrics". Publications were quantitatively analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2019. The language of publication was restricted to "English" and the search strategy employed TS=(exosomes or exosomes or exosomes) and TS=(lung cancer). The search period commenced on January 1, 2004, and concluded on November 12, 2023, at noon. The selected literature types included Articles and Reviews. Results: The study encompassed 1699 papers from 521 journals across 71 countries and 2105 institutions. Analysis revealed a consistent upward trend in lung cancer exosome research over the years, with a notable surge in recent times. This surge indicates a growing interest and depth of inquiry into lung cancer exosomes. Major research institutions in China and the United States, including Nanjing Medical University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Chinese Academy Of Sciences, and Utmd Anderson Cancer Center, emerged as crucial research hubs. The annual publication count in this field witnessed a continuous rise, particularly in recent years. Key terms such as lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), microvesicles, intercellular communication, exosomal miRNAs, and oncology dominated the research landscape. Fields like cell biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, and oncology exhibited close relation with this research. Clotilde The'ry emerged as the most cited author in the field, underlining her significant contributions. These results demonstrate the broad impact of exosome research in lung cancer, with key terms covering not only disease-specific aspects such as lung cancer and NSCLC but also basic biological concepts like microvesicles and intercellular communication. Explorations into exosomal microRNAs and oncology have opened new avenues for lung cancer exosome research. In summary, lung cancer exosome research is poised to continue receiving attention, potentially leading to breakthroughs in treatment and prevention. Conclusion: Publications on lung cancer exosomes show a rising trend year by year, with China and the United States ranking first and second in terms of the number of publications. However, there is insufficient academic learning cooperation and exchanges between the two sides, and Chinese universities account for a large proportion of research institutions in this field. Jing Li is the most productive author, Clotilde The'ry is the most co-cited author, and Cancers is the journal with the highest number of publications. The current focus in the field of lung cancer exosomes is on biomarkers, liquid biopsies, immunotherapy, and tumor microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the massive use of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and energy storage, the environmental and resource problems faced by used lithium-ion batteries are becoming more and more prominent. In order to better resource utilization and environmental protection, this paper employs bibliometric and data analysis methods to explore publications related to waste lithium-ion battery recycling from 1984 to 2021. The Web of Science core set from the SCIE online database was used for this article. These findings demonstrate a considerable increase trend in the number of publications published in the subject of recycling used lithium-ion batteries, with a natural-sciences-centric focus. Argonne National Lab, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China Academic and Scientific Research Center are the top three institutions in terms of quantity of papers published. The affiliated journals corresponding to these three institutions also have high impact factors, which are 106.47, 44.85, and 58.69, respectively. In comparison to comparable institutes in other nations, the American Argonne National Laboratory supports 223 research articles in this area. China and the US make up the majority of the research's funding. The two key aspects of current lithium-ion battery recycling research are material structure research and environmentally friendly recycling. Nevertheless, high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, waste lithium-ion integrated structures, and gentle recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries will be the major aspects of study in the future. It is hoped that the above analysis can bring new ideas and methods to the field of waste lithium-ion battery recycling and provide a basis for the subsequent research and application of waste lithium-ion battery recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 31st December 2020, The National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released a list of 65 international scientific journals, all of them indexed by the Web of Science, that were said to be potentially in conflict with academic rigour. The list immediately influenced the publication patterns of Chinese researchers. A year later, on 31st December 2021, CAS released a revised and reduced list of 35 questionable journals and said the publishers in the meantime had reacted constructively and improved the procedures of their journals. This study aims to provide an understanding of the motivations and criteria behind the list, partly by reviewing Chinese policy documents and public debates, partly with a quantitative analysis to detect the relative importance of the criteria used to select the journals for the list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Strategy" is one of China's three major national development strategies. Enhancing the protection and quality of arable land in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) is pivotal for fostering regional growth. In this study, land use data spanning the years 1980 to 2020 in the YEB were extracted from the national land use database maintained by the Resource and Environment Data Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial analysis techniques and arable land change metrics, the study delineated the spatiotemporal characteristics of arable land alterations across the YEB for the period. Additionally, using grain output data at the prefecture level from 2011 to 2020, the paper calculated provincial grain output to analyze the impact of arable land changes over the last four decades on grain output. The findings revealed that: (1) From 1980 to 2020, the total arable land area in the YEB decreased by approximately 41,775 square kilometers, with the most significant decrease occurring in the downstream region. (2) From 1980 to 1990, the primary factor contributing to the decrease in arable land area was the expansion of water bodies, while from 1990 to 2020, the principal reason for the reduction in arable land area was the expansion of construction land. (3) From 1980 to 2020, the decrease in arable land area resulted in a net reduction of approximately 25.12 million tons in total grain output, with the largest decline observed in the downstream regions and the smallest decline in the upstream regions. (4) Consistent with the trends in arable land area reduction, the main reason for the decline in grain output from 1980 to 1990 was the expansion of water bodies encroaching upon arable land, whereas from 2000 to 2010, the primary cause of arable land reduction was the expansion of construction land areas. In conclusion, the research suggested that over the past four decades, the primary driver behind the reduction in arable land within the YEB has been the expansion of construction land areas. Particularly noteworthy was the period from 2000 to 2010, during which the impact of arable land reduction on grain output was most pronounced. This period coincided with the rapid economic development and accelerated urbanization process within the YEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to show that international peer review can work in China's context with satisfactory outcomes. Moreover, this paper also provides a reference for the practice of science and technology management. This paper starts with a discussion of two critical questions about the significance and design of international peer review. A case study of international peer review of CAS Centers for Excellence is further analyzed. International peer review may provide a solution to address the problem of quantitative oriented research evaluation in China. The case study of research evaluation of CAS Centers for Excellence shows that it is possible and feasible to conduct an international peer review in China's context. When applying this approach to other scenarios, there are still many issues to consider including individualized design of international peer review combined with practical demands, and further improvement of theories and methods of international peer review. 1) Only the case of international peer review of CAS Centers for Excellence is analyzed; 2) A relatively small number of respondents were surveyed in the questionnaire. The work presented in this study can be used as a reference for future studies. Currently, there are no similarly detailed studies exploring the significance and methodology of international peer review in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors influencing precipitation in western China are quite complex, which increases the difficulty in determining accurate predictors. Hence, this paper models the monthly measured precipitation data from 240 meteorological stations in mainland China and the precipitation data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the National Climate Centre and employs 88 atmospheric circulation indices to develop a precipitation prediction scheme. Specifically, a high-quality grid-point field is created by fusing and revising the precipitation data from multiple sources. This field is combined with the Empirical Orthogonal Function decomposition and the causal information flow. Next, the best predictors are screened through Empirical Orthogonal Function decomposition and causal information flow, and a data-driven precipitation prediction model is established using a Back Propagation Neural Network and a Random Forest algorithm to conduct the 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month precipitation predictions. The results show that: The machine learning-based precipitation prediction model has high accuracy and is generally able to predict the precipitation trend in the western region better. The Random Forest algorithm significantly outperforms the Back Propagation Neural Network algorithm in the prediction of the three starting times, and the prediction ability of both models gradually decreases as the starting time increases. Compared with the 2022 flood season prediction scores of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the model improves the prediction of 1-month and 3-month precipitation in the western region and provides a new idea for the short-term climate prediction of precipitation in western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most serious health issues facing trees, the occurrence of decay and hollowing not only reduces the stability and quality of living trees but also leads to the deterioration of their eco-physiological functions, which creates great challenges to the conservation and sustainable management of forest resources. In recent years, the study of tree decay and hollow rot have attracted more and more attention from scholars at home and abroad. The relevant research results have a great significance for the prevention and control of affected living trees and the conservation and sustainable management of endangered species. However, there is a lack of systematic literature review and an insufficient understanding of research hotspots and trends in this field. This paper selects literature retrieved from the CNKI and Web of Science core databases as data sources, the number of publications, research topics, research status, hot spots, and trends, as well as the main research countries, institutions, and co-cited authors in the field of tree decay are visualized by using bibliometrics software CiteSpace (V.5.8.R3), and the current international research hotspots and development trends in this field were systematically summarized. The results showed that the number of papers in this field at home and abroad showed rapid growth in general, and the number of Chinese papers showed a slow growth after 2009. The number of papers published in English by Chinese authors was more than the number of papers published in Chinese in the field. From 2002 to 2021, the research hotspots in this field are constantly changing. Cluster analysis shows that the main themes of the relevant research are as follows: "Eastern Canada" tree species, "hydraulic vulnerability segmentation", "dead wood management", and "hydraulic safety". The advantages and disadvantages of hollow/dead wood on forest ecosystems were explored from different perspectives, providing a theoretical basis and scientific support for the forest health and sustainable management. The United States dominates the research in this field, while China is a relatively late comer but is catching up fast, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the most prolific publisher on this topic in China. The influence of Chinese research in this field on relevant international publications is gradually increasing. In short, the research in this field is still in the phase of rapid development, and both the breadth and depth of quantitative research are increasing. How to accurately diagnose and quantify the internal decay of tree trunks and its relationship with tree death and forest decline under the interference and pressure of climate change and human activities is still a hot and difficult issue in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of the social history of science and transnational history, this paper reviewed the development of the Institute of Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS), rather than focusing on its scientific achievements. Before the 1950s, the discipline of geophysics in China, except for the branch of meteorology, had a very weak foundation, and few researchers were engaged in it. The systematic development of geophysics began with the establishment of IGCAS. In this paper, the early development of IGCAS was researched thoroughly. At first, we briefly reviewed the establishment process for IGCAS. After being promoted by the desire of scientists to develop big geophysics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) integrated scattered academic forces, which included geomagnetism and geophysical exploration, to establish the IGCAS. The IGCAS was based on the Institute of Meteorology of Academia Sinica in the Republic of China era. After that, we summarized work done by IGCAS in the development of geophysics from the 1950s to 1966, the year in which the Cultural Revolution began. We focused on policy support, adjustment of organizational structure, and scientific capacity building, when China was facing an isolated international diplomatic environment, continuous domestic political movements, and an austere social economy. Then, to bolster the development of geophysics in China, the slogan of "Missions Drive Disciplines", which was instilled and implemented by the Chinese scientific community, was introduced briefly. The scientific development of the IGCAS and typical examples in several branches of geophysics, which included atmospheric science, seismology, space physics, and other fields, were systematically summarized and benchmarked to the international academic level. We then summarized the basic research on geophysics carried out by the institute in economic construction and national defense. Finally, the experience and lessons in the development of this institute and its effect on geophysics in China were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an unbalanced cooperative game, its grand coalition can be stabilized by some instruments, such as subsidization and penalization, that impose new cost terms to certain coalitions. In this paper, we study an alternative instrument, referred to as cost adjustment, that does not need to impose any new coalition-specific cost terms. Specifically, our approach is to adjust existing cost coefficients of the game under which (i) the game becomes balanced so that the grand coalition becomes stable, (ii) a desired way of cooperation is optimal for the grand coalition to adopt, and (iii) the total cost to be shared by the grand coalition is within a prescribed range. Focusing on a broad class of cooperative games, known as integer minimization games, we formulate the problem on how to optimize the cost adjustment as a constrained inverse optimization problem. We prove NP -hardness and derive easy-to-check feasibility conditions for the problem. Based on two linear programming reformulations, we develop two solution algorithms. One is a cutting-plane algorithm, which runs in polynomial time when the corresponding separation problem is polynomial time solvable. The other needs to explicitly derive all the inequalities of a linear program, which runs in polynomial time when the linear program contains only a polynomial number of inequalities. We apply our models and solution algorithms to two typical unbalanced games, including a weighted matching game and an uncapacitated facility location game, showing that their optimal cost adjustments can be obtained in polynomial time. History: Accepted by Area Editor Andrea Lodi for Design & Analysis of Algorithms—Discrete. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72022018 and 72091210]; the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR, China [Grant 16210020]; Hong Kong Polytechnic University [Grant P0032007]; and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant 2021454]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0268. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-hosted by Tsinghua University, ICOMOS China, Tsinghua Heritage Institute for Digitization, and Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, the CIPA2021 symposium (28th biennial symposium of the international scientific committee for documentation of cultural heritage) was held online successfully at Tsinghua University during August 28th to September 1st, 2021. This is the first time CIPA held a biennial symposium in mainland of China and in online format since its establishment in 1968. The theme of the symposium is "Great Learning & Digital Emotion". During the 5-day online symposium, opening ceremony & keynote-speech session-1, education session, outstanding youth forum, 12 sub-theme forums, and keynote-speech session-2 & closing ceremony were organized, which included 130 more presentations and attracted more than 1,000 online participants from more than 30 countries on five continents to conduct academic exchanges and seminars.Among all the presentations, four of them are keynote speeches. These include: 1) "deep learning for cultural heritage" by Professor Christian Heipke (President of ISPRS), 2) "space technology in support of world heritage" by Professor Huadong Guo (Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences), 3) "digital culture heritage and territorial spatial planning — China's practice and perspective" by Professor Jun Chen (Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering), and 4) "documentation — foundation of any heritage policy" by Professor Teresa Patrício (President of ICOMOS). Besides these keynotes, all other 120 more presentations are selected from the publication papers of ISPRS Annals and Archives.The progress and prospects of research and practice of digital cultural heritage all over the world can be summarized as theory, technology, and method of CHIM that will be described as follows. Basically, CHIM refers of Cultural Heritage Information Modelling. However, based on CIPA2021 symposium and the paper publications, CHIM is not just Modelling and Model, but the current progress and future prospects of digital cultural heritage research and practice, such as "C" represents Collection, Collaboration, Coordination, and Conference; "H" represents High-Speed, High-Quality, High-Tech. and High-Education; "I" represents Integration, Interpret, International, and Intelligent; and "M" represents Multi-Classes, Methodology, Multidisciplinary, and Management. And all of the aspects are included into the following table (see Table 1) and it is clear that CHIM is not only a Model for documentation but also a platform for future intelligent conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Do distinct subpopulations of decidual stromal cells (DSCs) exist and if so, are given subpopulations enriched in recurrent miscarriage (RM)?Summary Answer: Three subpopulations of DSCs were identified from which inflammatory DSCs (iDSCs) and glycolytic DSCs (glyDSCs) are significantly enriched in RM, with implicated roles in driving decidual inflammation and immune dysregulation.What Is Known Already: DSCs play crucial roles in establishing and maintaining a successful pregnancy; dysfunction of DSCs has been considered as one of the key reasons for the development of RM.Study Design, Size, Duration: We collected 15 early decidual samples from five healthy donors (HDs) and ten RM patients to perform single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A total of 43 RM patients and 37 HDs were enrolled in the validation cohort.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Non-immune cells and immune cells of decidual tissues were sorted by flow cytometry to perform scRNA-seq. We used tissue microarrays (TMA) to validate three distinct subpopulations of DSCs. The expression of inflammatory and glycolytic proteins by DSCs was validated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC). Different subsets of decidual NK (dNK) cells and macrophages were also validated by multicolor flow cytometry and mIHC. Cell ligand-receptor and spatial analyses between DSCs and immune cells were analyzed by mIHC.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: We classify the DSCs into three subtypes based on scRNA-seq data: myofibroblastic (myDSCs), inflammatory (iDSCs) and glycolytic (glyDSCs), with the latter two being significantly enriched in RM patients. The distribution patterns of DSC subtypes in the RM and HD groups were validated by mIHC. Single-cell analyses indicate that the differentiation of iDSCs and glyDSCs may be coupled with the degrees of hypoxia. Consequently, we propose a pathological model in which a vicious circle is formed and fueled by hypoxic stress, uncontrolled inflammation and aberrant glycolysis. Furthermore, our results show that the inflammatory SPP1+ macrophages and CD18+ dNK cells are preferentially increased in the decidua of RM patients. Cell ligand-receptor and mIHC spatial analyses uncovered close interactions between pathogenic DSCs and inflammatory SPP1+ macrophages and CD18+ NK cells in RM patients.Large Scale Data: The raw single-cell sequence data reported in this paper were deposited at the National Omics Data Encyclopedia (www.biosino.org), under the accession number OEP002901.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: The number of decidual samples for scRNA-seq was limited and in-depth functional studies on DSCs are warranted in future studies.Wider Implications Of the Findings: Identification of three DSC subpopulations opens new avenues for further investigation of their roles in RM patients.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (No. XDB29030302), Frontier Science Key Research Project (QYZDB-SSW-SMC036), Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFE0200600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31770960), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2019SHZDZX02, HS2021SHZX001), and Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (17411967800). All authors report no conflict of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider optimization problems over closed embedded submanifolds of Rn , which are defined by the constraints c(x) = 0. We propose a class of constraint-dissolving approaches for these Riemannian optimization problems. In these proposed approaches, solving a Riemannian optimization problem is transferred into the unconstrained minimization of a constraint-dissolving function (CDF). Different from existing exact penalty functions, the exact gradient and Hessian of CDF are easy to compute. We study the theoretical properties of CDF and prove that the original problem and CDF have the same first-order and second-order stationary points, local minimizers, and Łojasiewicz exponents in a neighborhood of the feasible region. Remarkably, the convergence properties of our proposed constraint-dissolving approaches can be directly inherited from the existing rich results in unconstrained optimization. Therefore, the proposed constraint-dissolving approaches build up short cuts from unconstrained optimization to Riemannian optimization. Several illustrative examples further demonstrate the potential of our proposed constraint-dissolving approaches. Funding: The research of N. Xiao and K.-C. Toh is supported by the Ministry of Education of Singapore Academic Research Fund Tier 3 [Grant MOE-2019-T3-1-010]. The research of X. Liu is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 12125108, 11971466, 12288201, 12021001, and 11991021]; the National Key R&D Program of China [Grants 2020YFA0711900 and 2020YFA0711904]; and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant ZDBS-LY-7022]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear physics has been aiming at understanding of the origin, structure, and property of strongly interacting matters, which constitute nearly all visible matter in the universe. Despite tremendous breakthroughs and achievements over the past century, there still exists overarching questions that animate nuclear physics today and incite constructing next-generation heavy-ion accelerator complexes worldwide. In order to promote the national development of heavy-ion science and technology, China government approved the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) in 2015, proposed by the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. HIAF is composed of a superconducting ion linear accelerator, a high-energy synchrotron booster, a high-energy radioactive isotope beam line, an experimental storage ring, and a few experimental setups. By using HIAF characterized with unprecedented intense ion beams from hydrogen through uranium, we can produce a large variety of exotic nuclear matters not normally found on the Earth, including super-heavy nuclides, short-lived extremely neutron-rich and proton-rich nuclides, finite nuclear matters in the quantum chromodynamics phase diagram, exotic nuclides containing hyperons, meson-nucleus-bound systems, and highly charged ions. Therefore, HIAF will bring researchers to the forefront of promoting the most vigorous and fascinating fields in nuclear physics, such as to explore the limits to the existence of nuclides in terms of proton and neutron numbers, to discover exotic nuclear structure and properties and then to study the physics behind, to understand the origin of heavy elements in the cosmos, to depict the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter, etc. In addition, HIAF will provide an excellent platform to develop heavy-ion applications in life science, space science, and material science. The construction of HIAF started up in December of 2018 and takes 7 years. The civil engineering and infrastructure are being constructed on time schedule and will be completed in July, 2023. R&D on key accelerator techniques are going on successfully, and prototypes of core devices are fabricated in collaboration with home and abroad universities, institutes, and companies. Presently, we come to the stage of invitation for bids and volume production of various apparatuses. We plan to start facility installation in summer of 2023. As a scientific user facility opening to domestic and oversea researchers, HIAF user community plays key roles in defining research programs and raising requirements. We call upon expertise, aspirations, and resources of a host of collaborators. Collaborations, dedicated to specific research subjects, are established and will be established. These collaborations develop new experimental techniques and methods and take responsibility for design and building of measurement systems. We have completed the design of experimental setups. A new gas-filled recoil separator and a novel storage-ring-based isochronous mass spectrometer are already built, and other measurement systems are under construction. The facility commissioning is scheduled at the end in the year of 2025. After into operation of the 2.5 billion Chinese yuan HIAF, this world-class facility will ensure the nation's continued competitiveness in heavy-ion physics and technology through provision of outstanding discovery potential. Based on HIAF, we aim at establishing a world's leading laboratory for research and education in nuclear science, accelerator physics and technology, and applications of energetic heavy ions to meet societal needs. In this paper, progress and status of civil engineering and infrastructure construction of HIAF are introduced, R&D on critical accelerator techniques and prototypes of core devices as well as development of new experimental techniques and methods are presented, and design and construction of experimental setups and the associated physics research programs are briefly depicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This study aims to evaluate the changes of development trends and research hotspots of biomaterials research from 2013 to 2017, which can identify the general information of papers and explore the changes of research content, thus providing perspectives for the development of biomaterials in China and other countries. Methods. Data of the paper were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, and then analyzed by the bibliometric and CiteSpace visualization analysis. Results. It was found that a total of 3,839 related papers had been published from the year 2013 to 2017. The analysis of the articles showed that the annual quantity and quality of the articles in the biomaterials research have been increasing since 2013, and the Wang L / Chinese Academy of Sciences were the most productive author/institution. Meanwhile, the keywords “in vitro”, “scaffold”, “nanoparticle”, “mechanical property”, and “biocompatibility” have the relatively higher frequency, and the keywords “apatite”, “deposition”, and “surface modification” have the strongest burst citation. Conclusions. After statistics and analysis, we found that biomaterials is a promising research field. The study may be helpful in understanding research trends in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Is it possible to evaluate the methylome of individual oocytes to investigate the DNA methylome alterations in metaphase II (MII) oocytes with reduced embryo developmental potential?Summary Answer: The DNA methylome of each human first polar body (PB1) closely mirrored that of its sibling MII oocyte; hypermethylated long interspersed nuclear element (LINE) and long terminal repeats (LTRs) and methylation aberrations in PB1 promoter regions may indicate poor embryo development.What Is Known Already: The developmental potential of an embryo is determined by the oocyte's developmental competence, and the PB1 is a good substitute to examine the chromosomal status of the corresponding oocyte. However, DNA methylation, a key epigenetic modification, also regulates gene expression and embryo development.Study Design, Size, Duration: Twelve pairs of PB1s and sibling MII oocytes were biopsied and sequenced to compare their methylomes. To further investigate the methylome of PB1s and the potential epigenetic factors that may affect oocyte quality, MII oocytes (n = 74) were fertilized through ICSI, while PB1s were biopsied and profiled to measure DNA methylation. The corresponding embryos were further cultured to track their development potential. The oocytes and sperm samples used in this study were donated by healthy volunteers with signed informed consent.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Single-cell methylome sequencing was applied to obtain the DNA methylation profiles of PB1s and oocytes. The DNA methylome of PB1s was compared between the respective group of oocytes that progressed to blastocysts and the group of oocytes that failed to develop. DNA methylation levels of corresponding regions and differentially methylated regions were calculated using customized Perl and R scripts. RNA-seq data were downloaded from a previously published paper and reanalysed.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: The results from PB1-MII oocyte pair validated that PB1 contains nearly the same methylome (average Pearson correlation is 0.92) with sibling MII oocyte. LINE and LTR expression increased markedly after fertilization. Moreover, the DNA methylation levels in LINE (including LINE1 and LINE2) and LTR were significantly higher in the PB1s of embryos that could not reach the blastocyst stage (Wilcoxon-Matt-Whitney test, P < 0.05). DNA methylation in PB1 promoters correlated negatively with gene expression of MII oocyte. Regarding the methylation status of the promoter regions, 66 genes were hypermethylated in the developmental arrested group, with their related functions (significantly enriched in several Gene Ontology terms) including transcription, positive regulation of adenylate cyclase activity, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade and intracellular oestrogen receptor signalling pathway.Large Scale Data: N/A.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: Data analysis performed in this study focused on the competence of human oocytes and compared them with maternal genetic and epigenetic profiles. Therefore, data regarding the potential regulatory roles of paternal genomes in embryo development are lacking.Wider Implications Of the Findings: The results from PB1-oocyte pairs demonstrated that PB1s shared similar methylomes with their sibling oocytes. The selection of the good embryos for transfer should not only rely on morphology but also consider the DNA methylation of the corresponding PB1 and therefore MII oocyte. The application of early-stage analysis of PB1 offers an option for high-quality oocyte and embryo selection, which provides an additional tool for elective single embryo transfer in assisted reproduction.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1004003, 2017YFA0103801), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81730038, 3187144, 81521002) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA16020703). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate economic development in the digital economy and uncover trends and insights that might contribute to future research. Furthermore, the study, examining English-language publications from 2000 to 2023 in the Web of Science Core Collection, employs bibliometric and content analysis to statistically evaluate the field of economic development in the digital economy. Co-citation, co-authorship, and bibliographical coupling analyses revealed China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and "Sustainability" as the leading influencers in terms of country, institution, and journal, respectively. Five key themes emerged: (1) the interplay between digital technologies and economic growth, (2) leveraging digital tools for businesses, (3) the applications and impacts of diverse digital technologies across sectors, (4) the broader social implications of the digital economy, and (5) government policies for fostering digital economic progress. The study concludes by proposing avenues for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chih-chen Wang is a distinguished biochemist and molecular biologist, and an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). From 2008 to 2013, she was a vice chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). As a young researcher, Wang participated in research on insulin. Since the 1990s, she has been focusing on the study of protein folding, and has initiated a new research area of isomerase and molecular chaperones in China. In this interview, Chih-chen Wang elaborates on the social responsibility of scientists by drawing on both her scientific research and CPPCC experience. In Wang's view, what China really needs are intellectuals with independent thinking and strong social responsibility, who are able to provide the government valuable advice and communicate with the public to increase society's scientific literacy. She also hopes that female scientists can be more confident and gain greater attention and support from society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual development and competition among enterprises, the products of motion control system are diversified and the performance difference is bigger. The technology of motion control system is monopolized by a few foreign professional manufacturers. The development of motion controller in China is relatively late, and the number with independent research and development ability is still in the minority. Compared with foreign countries, some developed countries still restrict the export of high-end products to China. This paper will use Loongson 3A3000 processor to realize open motion controller. Loongson series processor is a general domestic processor developed by Institute of computing technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It uses MIPS instruction system. At present, Loongson is gradually catching up with and surpassing the world advanced level. The communication module of motion controller uses EtherCAT real-time Ethernet, which has the characteristics of high efficiency, flexible topology and short refresh cycle. At present, there are few cases of open motion controller based on domestic CPU Loongson, which provides a typical case for independent innovation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecological products are closely related to ecological balance, and an in-depth understanding of the development dynamics of these products is crucial to the realization of sustainable development that integrates ecological, economic, and social benefits. Based on the Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases, this study conducted a comprehensive econometric analysis of the number of articles, journals, research institutions, author collaborations, research hotspots, and research trends of forest ecological products globally during the period of 2003–2023 with the help of CiteSpace software (Philadelphia, PA, USA). The study's results revealed the following insights: (1) The research on forest ecological products in recent years showed a general upward trend, but the research interest in foreign countries was higher than that in China. (2) The literature within the WOS database primarily focused on the field of ecology, whereas the literature in the CNKI database predominantly emphasized the field of forestry. (3) In both databases, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the organization with the highest number of articles. Globally, Chinese institutions had the largest proportion of articles issued. The high percentage of articles issued by specialized agricultural and forestry schools in China showed clear domain relevance. (4) In both databases, author collaborations were relatively decentralized, and no significant core group of authors had been formed. (5) The research hotspots in foreign countries focused on the ecological regulation of forest ecological products, while the research hotspots in China focused on the realization of the economic value of forest ecological products. (6) "Machine learning", "river basin", and "health" are the future research frontiers in foreign countries, while "ecological function" and "forest ecosystem service" are the future research frontiers in China. The results of both databases indicate that the sustainability of forest ecological products is a research trend for the coming period. Finally, the outlook for future research on forest eco-products is presented in four aspects: promoting the establishment of a unified international standard certification system for forest eco-products, developing diversified products, strengthening the function of policy support and guidance, and establishing national partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozonesondes are widely used to obtain ozone concentration profiles from the surface to the upper atmosphere. A kind of double-cell ozonesonde has been developed at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (named the 'IAP ozonesonde') based on previous experience over the past 20 years of developing the singlecell GPSO3 ozonesonde. The IAP ozonesonde is of the Electrochemical Concentration Cell (ECC) type. A detailed description of the IAP ozonesonde is firstly provided in the present paper, followed by a presentation of results from a series of launches carried out to evaluate its performance. The analysis involved comparing its observations with measurements from the GPSO3 and ECC ozonesondes (Model type ENSCI-Z) as well as a Brewer spectrophotometer. The results showed that the IAP ozonesonde is a vast improvement over the GPSO3 ozonesonde, able to capture vertical ozone structures very well and in good agreement with ECC ozonesonde measurements. The average difference in the ozone partial pressure between the IAP and ECC ozonesondes was 0.3 mPa from the surface to 2.5 km, close to zero from 2.5 to 9 km and generally less than 1 mPa for layers higher than 9 km. The apparent deviation is likely caused by a decreasing pump flow rate in the IAP ozonesonde which needs further improvement. The total ozone amounts measured by the IAP ozonesonde profiles were highly comparable with the Brewer data with a relative difference of 6%. The development of the IAP ozonesonde and its strong performance will surely accelerate the process of conventional observations of ozone profiles over China in the near future as well as provide more data for ozone research in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences is developing a 40 T hybrid magnet. The hybrid magnet cryostat consists of two separate but attached cryostats. The main function of the cryostats is to provide a thermal barrier between the ambient temperature experimental hall and the supercritical helium forced cooled superconducting magnet. It also provides feed-through penetrations for all the connecting elements inside and outside the cryostat. The Outsert Magnet Cryostat is a large vacuum vessel with cylindrical shell, standard elliptical top, and flat bottom. The structural analyses, including buckling, for the cryostat vessel have been carried out using finite element code. Stress analysis results show that the maximum Von Mises stress will be below the allowable value. In this paper, we focus on the structural analyses and design of the cryostat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human behavior analysis is an important area of research in computer vision and is also driven by a wide spectrum of applications, such as smart video surveillance and human-computer interface. In this paper, we present a novel approach for human behavior analysis. Two research challenges, motion representation and behavior recognition, are addressed. A novel motion descriptor, which is an improved feature based on optical flow, is proposed for motion representation. Optical flow is improved with a motion filter, and feature fusion with the shape and trajectory information. To recognize the behavior, the support vector machine is employed to train the classifier where the concatenation of histograms is formed as the input features. Experimental results on the Weizmann behavior database and the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science real- world multiview behavior database demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an innovative combination of hard and soft methods-soft systems methodology (SSM) with data envelopment analysis (DEA). Problems in defining and agreeing appropriate inputs and outputs for DEA led to the use of SSM as a way or producing a comprehensive and systemic database of performance indicators. The contributions of the paper are: the use of SSM to improve DEA specifications; conceptual clarifications within both SSM and DEA; and an innovative example of multimethodology. These developments are illustrated through a study evaluating the performance of the basic research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the recent researches implemented in Chinese Academy of Sciences, with achievements on integrated resonant microcantilever sensors. In the resonant cantilevers, the self-sensing elements and resonance exciting elements are both topdown integrated with silicon micromachining techniques. Quite a lot of effort is focused on optimization of the resonance mode and sensing structure for improvement of sensitivity. On the other hand, to enable the micro-cantilevers specifically sensitive to bio/chemical molecules, sensing materials are developed and modified on the cantilever surface with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) based bottom-up construction and surface functionalization. To improve the selectivity of the sensors and depress environmental noise, multiple and localized surface modifications are developed. The achieved volume production capability and satisfactory detecting resolution to trace-level biological antigen of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) give the micro-cantilever sensors a great promise for rapid and high-resoluble detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• Cavity ring-down spectroscopy is reported, which is suitable for cesium feeding on high power RF ion source. • Cavity ring-down spectroscopy gives a comprehensive evolution information of negative ion density. • Density of hydrogen negative ions increased from 6.3E15 m−3 to 1.8E16 m−3, about 2.8 times at the first cesium feeding. • The best density of hydrogen negative ions is up to 3.4 E16 m−3 under the 50 kW RF power discharge, after ten days of condition up. From September 2017, an advance study project of Negative ion-based Neutral Beam Injection (NNBI) prototype for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) was supported by the ministry of science and technology of China. The entire test facility will be integrated at Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). In order to meet requirement of the development of negative ion based neutral beam injection system for CFETR, a negative ion source test facility with radio frequency source is being built. At the same time, cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is employed for measurement of negative ion density. CRDS is an ultrasensitive absorption diagnostic technique for density measurement. Based on photo-detachment process of hydrogen negative ions, CRDS can measure integrated line-of-sight density of hydrogen negative ions in high power ion source. In this paper, the principle of CRDS diagnostic system has been introduced. Based on previous tests, the system setup and improvement are mentioned. In this paper, typical ring-down signals and time evolution of density of hydrogen negative ions are reported. With the first time cesium seeding, density of hydrogen negative ions increased obviously. It increased from 6.3E15 m−3 to 1.8E16 m−3, about 2.8 times under the 40 kW RF power discharge. Several days condition up, the density of hydrogen negative ions is up to 3.4 E16 m−3 under the 50 kW RF power discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The third generation of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) began to provide global services on 27 December, 2018. Differential code bias (DCB) is one of the errors in precise BDS positioning and ionospheric modeling, but the impacts on BDS-2 satellites and receiver DCB are unknown after joining BDS-3 observations. In this paper, the BDS-3 DCBs are estimated and analyzed using the Multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Experiment (MGEX) observations during the period of day of year (DOY) 002–031, 2019. The results indicate that the estimated BDS-3 DCBs have a good agreement with the products provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). The differences between our results and the other two products are within ±0.2 ns, with Standard Deviations (STDs) of mostly less than 0.2 ns. Furthermore, the effects on satellite and receiver DCB after adding BDS-3 observations are analyzed by BDS-2 + BDS-3 and BDS-2-only solutions. For BDS-2 satellite DCB, the values of effect are close to 0, and the effect on stability of DCB is very small. In terms of receiver DCB, the value of effect on each station is related to the receiver type, but their mean value is also close to 0, and the stability of receiver DCB is better when BDS-3 observations are added. Therefore, there is no evident systematic bias between BDS-2 and BDS-2 + BDS-3 DCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analysis based on 8740 research articles from the Web of Science Core Collection published in the last 20 years (2000–2020) for a better understanding of the research progress and development trend of arsenic pollution in freshwater (FAP). The results showed a significant increase in the number of publications from 2007 to 2020, especially after 2015. Four of the top 10 productive authors are from China. Two of the top three research institutions are from China, and the publications of Chinese Academy of Sciences accounted for 5.40% of the total. China is also the center of the national cooperation network, indicating a greater influence of China in this scientific research field. The top three journals included Science of the Total Environmental, Environmental Science Technology, and Journal of Hazardous Materials. Besides arsenic, the high-frequency keywords in this field included adsorption, contamination, groundwater, removal, detection, and geochemistry. The researchers mainly focused on the groundwater environment, as well as the pollution hazards of arsenic in water bodies, remediation techniques, detection, migration, and transformation. Studies should pay more attention to the application and development of phytoremediation technology in the field of FAP in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on MOD09GA/MYD09GA surface reflectance data, a new MODIS snow-cover-extent (SCE) product from 2000 to 2020 over China has been produced by the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The NIEER MODIS SCE product contains two preliminary clear-sky SCE datasets – Terra-MODIS and Aqua-MODIS SCE datasets and a final daily cloud-gap-filled (CGF) SCE dataset. The first two datasets are generated mainly through optimizing snow-cover discriminating rules over land-cover types, and the latter dataset is produced after a series of gap-filling processes such as aggregating the two preliminary datasets, reducing cloud gaps with adjacent information in space and time, and eliminating all gaps with auxiliary data. The validation against 362 China Meteorological Administration (CMA) stations shows that during snow seasons the overall accuracy (OA) values of the three datasets are larger than 93 %, all of the omission error (OE) values are constrained within 9 %, and all of the commission error (CE) values are constrained within 10 %. Bias values of 0.98, 1.02, and 1.03 demonstrate on a whole that there is no significant overestimation nor a significant underestimation. Based on the same ground reference data, we found that the new product accuracies are obviously higher than standard MODIS snow products, especially for Aqua-MODIS and CGF SCE. For example, compared with the CE of 23.78 % that the MYD10A1 product shows, the CE of the new Aqua-MODIS SCE dataset is 6.78 %; the OA of the new CGF SCE dataset is up to 93.15 % versus 89.54 % of MOD10A1F product and 84.36 % of MYD10A1F product. Besides, as expected, snow discrimination in forest areas is also improved significantly. An isolated validation at four forest CMA stations demonstrates that the OA has increased by 3–10 percentage points, the OE has dropped by 1–8 percentage points, and the CE has dropped by 4–21 percentage points. Therefore, our product has virtually provided more reliable snow knowledge over China; thereby, it can better serve for hydrological, climatic, environmental, and other related studies there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China continued to gather momentum in space in 2021. With a record-breaking 55 orbital launches, the country made it again to the top of the list, ahead of the USA's 51 and Russia's 25 launches. However, nearly 90% of the Chinese launches were carried out by the state-owned Long March rocket family. In contrast, only about one-third of the US launches were made by government-funded rockets. National Science Review invited Ji Wu (吴季), an expert in space science, former director of the National Space Science Center (NSSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and author of The Moon Summit, Lunar Hotel and Space Tourism, to talk about the internal and external driving forces behind the emerging private space sector in China, and government policies supporting its development since 2014. Wu also shared his insights into space tourism as a gateway to space for all, as well as his concerns for the orderly competition in the global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synchrotron light source is familiar to many researchers. Biologists use it to determine structures of proteins and other biomacromolecules; material scientists use it to analyze internal structures of different materials; physicists use it to explore the basic matter states; and physicians use it to perform medical imaging. A high-performance synchrotron light source is often the workhorse supporting a prosperous multi-disciplinary research center. In China, that is the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). Since its opening to users in 2009, SSRF has bred many significant scientific achievements and laid the foundation for the Shanghai Zhangjiang Cluster of Big Science Facilities. On 3 August 2021, National Science Review (NSR) interviewed Professor Zhentang Zhao, Director of the SSRF Science Center and vice president of the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Prof. Zhao introduced the construction and development of the synchrotron light source and X-ray free electron laser facilities in Shanghai, as well as how SSRF experiences may be valuable for big science facilities and centers now under construction in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Lunar soil simulant is a geochemical reproduction of lunar regolith, and is needed for lunar science and engineering researches. This paper describes a new lunar soil simulant, CAS-1, prepared by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to support lunar orbiter, soft-landing mission and sample return missions of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, which is scheduled for 2004–2020. Such simulants should match the samples returned from the Moon, all collected from the lunar regolith rather than outcrops. The average mineral and chemical composition of lunar soil sample returned from the Apollo 14 mission, which landed on the Fra Mauro Formation, is chosen as the model for the CAS-1 simulant. Source material for this simulant was a low-Ti basaltic scoria dated at 1600 years from the late Quaternary volcanic area in the Changbai Mountains of northeast China. The main minerals of this rock are pyroxene, olivine, and minor plagioclase, and about 20–40% modal glass. The scoria was analyzed by XRF and found to be chemically similar to Apollo 14 lunar sample 14163. It was crushed in an impact mill with a resulting median particle size 85.9μm, similar to Apollo soils. Bulk density, shear resistance, complex permittivity, and reflectance spectra were also similar to Apollo 14 soil. We conclude that CAS-1 is an ideal lunar soil simulant for science and engineering research of future lunar exploration program. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A long-term Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) snow cover extent (SCE) product from 1981 until 2019 over China has been generated by the snow research team in the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The NIEER AVHRR SCE product has a spatial resolution of 5 km and a daily temporal resolution, and it is a completely gap-free product, which is produced through a series of processes such as the quality control, cloud detection, snow discrimination, and gap-filling (GF). A comprehensive validation with reference to ground snow-depth measurements during snow seasons in China revealed the overall accuracy is 87.4 %, the producer's accuracy was 81.0 %, the user's accuracy was 81.3 %, and the Cohen's kappa (CK) value was 0.717. Another validation with reference to higher-resolution snow maps derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images demonstrates an overall accuracy of 87.3 %, a producer's accuracy of 86.7 %, a user's accuracy of 95.7 %, and a Cohen's kappa value of 0.695. These accuracies were significantly higher than those of currently existing AVHRR products. For example, compared with the well-known JASMES AVHRR product, the overall accuracy increased approximately 15 %, the omission error dropped from 60.8 % to 19.7 %, the commission error dropped from 31.9 % to 21.3 %, and the CK value increased by more than 114 %. The new AVHRR product is already available at 10.11888/Snow.tpdc.271381 (Hao et al., 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus has appeared in China by the end of 2019 and later recognized as a global pandemic. This pandemic has evolved as a global public health menace. It has affected every aspect of human life. In line with these concerns, governments and the scientific community react promptly to the outbreak of this pandemic. These efforts are devoted to develop vaccine and curative medicines. Further efforts are dedicated to assessing the impacts of the pandemic in relation to socioeconomic, psychological, and environmental dimensions. In this regard, it is important to follow up developments and research activities on this global issue. The present work intended to tracking the current hotspots and research trends on COVID-19 in environmental fields. Bibliometric analysis and visualization mapping were utilized with the objective of revealing and evaluating the developments in knowledge on COVID-2019 and its impacts based on a collection of environmental sources. A sum of 729 documents were collected from Scopus database limiting to environmental sources only. Of all these publications, 563 (77.2%) were articles, 56 (7.7%) were reviews, and 110 (15.0%) were others. China has the highest share of publications (163; 22.4%). It is followed by the USA (139; 19.15), and Italy (110; 15.1%). Most publications on COVID-19 were in prestigious journals. The most productive institution at global level was Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (24 documents; 3.3%). The most prevalent topics are in relation to impacts of the pandemic on air quality, mental health, psychological, and economic aspects. The development of these topics is based on cross-sectional studies, evidence-based tools, remote sensing, satellite mapping, geographic information systems, market analysis and sampling. The progress of environmental research on COVID-19 will guide the development of global environmental strategies to control future global environmental risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a profile of the activities and administration of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as of 2015, highlighting its reappraisal of research evaluation methods. Topics addressed include an overview of the size and scope of the Academy's research and organizational reach, its transition away from relying on quantitative metrics and ranking for research evaluation, and how it is seeking to promote more cooperation and communication between fellow members of its institutes.

• CFETR central solenoid model coil heat treatment was successfully completed. • The calculation and simulation heat transfer model of Nb 3 Sn coil heat treatment is established. • The design of the inner cover improves the temperature uniformity of the Nb 3 Sn coil heat treatment. • To provide experience for other large superconducting coil heat treatment in China. The heat treatment of Nb 3 Sn coils of China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) central solenoid model coil (CSMC) has been completed at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). The brittle A15 phase material requires coil winding prior formation of the superconducting material, and the technology of "wind and react" has been used to manufacture Nb 3 Sn coil. The Nb 3 Sn coils were heat-treated under the argon atmosphere and the heat treatment was successful. Since the critical properties of Nb 3 Sn strongly depend on the heat treatment temperature, especially the uniformity of temperature, it is necessary to analyze the detailed temperature change process during the heat treatment. During the heat treatment, several thermocouples were arranged on the coil surface for temperature monitoring. At the same time, the heat transfer process of heat treatment and the distribution of the coil temperature field is theoretically analyzed and simulated. The uniformity of heat treatment temperature meets the requirements. This paper mainly presents the heat transfer analysis, heat treatment process, and numerical simulations during heat treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Crop production is facing unprecedented challenges. Despite the fact that the food supply has significantly increased over the past half‐century, ~8.9 and 14.3% people are still suffering from hunger and malnutrition, respectively. Agricultural environments are continuously threatened by a booming world population, a shortage of arable land, and rapid changes in climate. To ensure food and ecosystem security, there is a need to design future crops for sustainable agriculture development by maximizing net production and minimalizing undesirable effects on the environment. The future crops design projects, recently launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), aim to develop a roadmap for rapid design of customized future crops using cutting‐edge technologies in the Breeding 4.0 era. In this perspective, we first introduce the background and missions of these projects. We then outline strategies to design future crops, such as improvement of current well‐cultivated crops, de novo domestication of wild species and redomestication of current cultivated crops. We further discuss how these ambitious goals can be achieved by the recent development of new integrative omics tools, advanced genome‐editing tools and synthetic biology approaches. Finally, we summarize related opportunities and challenges in these projects. Significance Statement: To ensure food and ecosystem security, there is a need to design future crops for sustainable agriculture development by maximizing net production and minimalizing undesirable effects on the environment. The future crops design projects, recently launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), aim to develop a roadmap for rapid design of customized future crops using cutting‐edge technologies in the Breeding 4.0 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In the W/Steel bonding, the effects of interlayer and intermetallics on the joints failure have been discussed. Compared the reaction products, shear strength and failure mode, the copper has been chosen as the interlayer material. • It is considered that the condition of 1000 °C, 20 MPa is rather proper to bond steel/steel interface to control the deformation of cooling channel. • Using HIP technology, we have prepared a 600 mm-long W(Cu)/steel FW straight plate. Dimension tests shown that the channel sizes were within 8 ± 0.5 mm, which has met the technical requirement. • Finally, we presented some electron-beam welding results for the assembling of sub-components. As one candidate of blankets for China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), the Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder (WCCB) blanket is proposed and designed in Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, we formulated a roadmap on its manufacturing. In this work, the research and development (R&D) on bonding technology for W/Steel and Steel/Steel has been summarized first. Bonding quality was evaluated by microstructure observation and mechanical test. In the W/Steel bonding, the effects of interlayer and intermetallics on the joints failure have been discussed. In the Steel/Steel bonding, the deformation issue and the heat treatment of RAFM Steel have been presented. Then the progress on manufacturing technology and bonding quality tests of the middle-size first wall (FW) mockups also have been shown in the paper. Finally, some technology experiments of assembling weld for the sub-components have been discussed. It is considered that this research construct a foundation to manufacture the WCCB component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the above paper , the name of the institution of the authors Dandan Zhi, Tanqi Yu, and Yan Pan were incorrect, they are with the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Optical Calibration and Characterization, Hefei 230031, China, and also with the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China (e-mail: 1416652331@qq.com). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2003, a heat wave swept Europe and caused more than 70 000 additional fatalities [J.-M. Robine et al. , C. R. Biologies 331 (2008)]. Global warming and climate change is no longer a prophecy to be fulfilled, as strong heat waves and typhoons, as well as severe rainfalls, are becoming more severe. Extreme weather and climate events in the world, especially over Europe and North America, are widely studied and frequently reported in the media. These events may be related to the ongoing climate change. In this NSR forum, active researchers specialized in this field gather to discuss the climate and weather changes in China. They present the current changes, identify knowledge gaps, discuss the research difficulties, and propose ways forward to better serve the society with climate science. Ying Sun Professor at the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, China Qiuhong Tang Professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Zhongwei Yan Professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Jing Yang Professor at the Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, faculty of Geographic Science of Beijing Normal University, China Panmao Zhai Professor at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences of the China Meteorological Administration, and the current Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group I, China Tianjun Zhou Professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Deliang Chen (Chair) Professor at the University of Gothenburg, NSR Editorial Board member, Sweden [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has attached a great significance to bringing science to the public—known as kepu (科普, 'science popularization') or kexue chuanbo (科学传播, 'science dissemination')—in recent years, partly in response to its unprecedented push for innovation in science and technology. In 2018, it spent 16 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) on such endeavours, nearly 80% of which was government funding, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology. With one science-education venue for every million people, approximately 76 million visits were made to the country's 518 general-science museums and 142 million visits were made to 943 museums dedicated to a specific subject matter, such as the Geological Museum of China. In a forum chaired by National Science Review 's executive editor-in-chief, Mu-ming Poo, scientists, journalists and public-information officers discussed the differences in science communication between China and developed nations, the challenges and opportunities of raising scientific literacy in China, how it has played out in a wide range of controversial topics, from stem-cell research to climate change, and the importance of international collaboration. Tao Deng Director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Hepeng Jia Science journalist and science-communication scholar at Soochow University, Suzhou, China Brian Lin Director of the Editorial Content Strategy, EurekAlert!, American Association of the Advancement of Science, Washington DC, USA Joy Ma Manager of the Editorial Content, EurekAlert!, American Association of the Advancement of Science, Washington DC, USA Lai Xu Former chief editor of Guokr.com, Beijing, China Shi Yan Deputy director of the China Research Institute for Science Popularisation, Chinese Association of Science and Technology, Beijing, China Mu-ming Poo (Chair) Director of the Insitute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The increasing prevalence of extensively drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (XDR-KP) poses a serious threat to clinical anti-infective treatment. This retrospective study assessed the molecular epidemiology of and risk factors for infections with XDR-KP to investigate the mechanism of drug resistance and the epidemiological characteristics. Methods: A retrospective 1:2 case-control study was conducted at Chongqing Renji Affiliated Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Sciences University from January 2015 to December 2017. A total of 69 non-repetitive XDR-KP strains were collected. Patients infected with XDR-KP comprised the case group, and 138 matched patients with non-XDR-KP infection at the same site comprised the control group. The chi-square test and logistic regression were performed to evaluate the related risk factors. Molecular typing was performed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Potential resistance genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. Predictors of 28-day mortality in patients with XDR-KP infection were also identified in our study. Results: Only tigecycline and polymyxin B showed favorable in vitro drug sensitivity tests. These XDR-KP strains had a high prevalence rate (n = 66, 95.7%) of carbapenemase-related drug resistance genes. Among them, KPC-2 was the most frequently detected gene (n = 52, 75.4%). Particularly, all of the isolates harbored multiple drug resistance genes. Epidemiological analysis showed that fifty-eight XDR-KP isolates were resistant strains with the ST-11 genotype. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that ICU admission (OR: 3.28, 95% CI: 1.66–6.49, P < 0.001), tracheal cannula (OR: 3.16, 95% CI: 1.48–6.76, P = 0.003), and carbapenem exposure (OR: 3.16, 95% CI: 1.25–7.98, P = 0.015) were independent risk factors for XDR-KP infection. Solid tumors (OR: 7.22, 95% CI: 1.84–28.34, P = 0.005) and septic shock (OR: 9.46, 95% CI: 2.00–44.72, P = 0.005) were independent risk factors for 28-day mortality from XDR-KP infection. Conclusion: This study showed that XDR-KP isolates were highly resistant and exhibited clonal transmission. ST11 was the predominant epidemic type of XDR-KP producing KPC-2 in Southwestern China. Physicians should be aware of these high-risk patients with notable predictive factors for XDR-KP infection. These findings may provide some recommendation for the diagnosis and treatment of patients infected with XDR-KP strains in Southwestern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many examples of hierarchies are present in nature, such as water transport in leaf vein systems, the respiratory system, the blood circulatory system, etc. Hierarchically structuring a material over different length scales by mimicking natural systems can provide an opportunity to render the material suitable for a variety of functions. Tremendous research over the past decade has focused on the synthesis and applications of hierarchically structured porous materials. This rapidly evolving field has attracted great interest from both academia and industry. China is at the forefront of this field, and a scientific leader of this research is Professor Ming-Yuan He of East China Normal University. Professor He was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995, and he received the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Ho Leung Ho Li Foundation in 2001. He also won the National Catalysis Achievement Award of China in 2012 and the National Zeolite Lifetime Achievement Award of China in 2019. Professor He's research interests focus on new catalytic materials and oil-refining catalysts and processes. He is a pioneer in the area of green chemistry in China and actively promotes the development of green chemistry and chemical engineering. NSR recently interviewed Professor He about the current achievements and future prospects of hierarchically structured porous materials. This interview is dedicated to Professor He on the occasion of his 80th birthday, in recognition of his distinguished contributions to many aspects in the field of catalytic science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of an accurate precipitation dataset is of primary importance for regional hydrological process studies and water resources management. Here, four regional precipitation products are evaluated for the Heihe River basin (HRB): 1) a spatially and temporally disaggregated Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) at 0.25° spatial resolution (DCMAP); 2) a fusion product obtained by merging China Meteorological Administration station data and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission precipitation data at 0.1° spatial resolution supported by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITP-F); 3) a disaggregated CMAP downscaled by a statistical meteorological model tool at 1-km spatial resolution (DCMAP-MicroMet); and 4) a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model simulation with 5-km resolution (WRF-P). The validation metrics include spatial pattern, temporal pattern, error analysis with respect to observation data, and precipitation event verification indicators. The results indicate that 1) precipitation from the DCMAP product may not be suitable for water cycle studies at the watershed scale because of its coarser spatial resolution and 2) ITP-F, WRF-P, and DCMAP-MicroMet precipitation products generally show similar spatial-temporal patterns in HRB but have varying performances between different subbasins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new species of the genus Pseudolathra Casey from mainland China are described and attributed to their respective species groups, P. cylindrata sp. n. from Hubei and Sichuan, and P. superficiaria sp. n. from Yunnan. Pseudolathra pulchella (Kraatz, 1859), P. transversiceps Assing, 2013 and P. bipectinata Assing, 2013 from Yunnan are reported from China for the first time. The history of the exploration of the Chinese fauna of Pseudolathra is summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]