Month: November 2020

(Xinhua)21:27, September 04, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — The 2020 China Cybersecurity Week, a campaign to promote public awareness of cybersecurity, is scheduled to be held from Sept. 14 to 20 nationwide, Chinas cyberspace affairs authority said Friday.

The campaigns main events, including a forum on cybersecurity, will be held in Zhengzhou, central Chinas Henan Province, said the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission.

The campaign will also feature a digital exhibition, in which more than 100 companies will use livestreaming and 3D modeling, among other technologies, to showcase major achievements, cutting-edge technologies and the latest products in the field of cybersecurity.

Zhengzhou has built the first cybersecurity science and technology museum in China and the museum boasts a total exhibition area of 15,000 square meters.

The event will be jointly hosted by departments including the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the ministries of education, public security and industry and information technology.

China initiated the first China Cybersecurity Week in 2014.

(Xinhua)21:41, September 04, 2020

BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — German biotechnology company CureVac would produce 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year, co-founder of software company SAP and CureVac controlling shareholder Dietmar Hopp told the newspaper Handelsblatt in an interview on Friday.

A precise date for the market entry of the vaccine by CureVac would still depend on the results of clinical studies and final permission by regulatory authorities, said Hopp.

The completion of the phase 1 testing process of the vaccine was expected to be finished this year, according to Hopp. Data from the combined phase 2 and 3 study would be available during the course of next year.

We are very confident, stressed Hopp. All results to date indicate good safety, tolerability and efficacy. There was even the possibility of early approval for particularly vulnerable professional groups or regions.

Hopp acknowledged that the international race for first producer of a COVID-19 vaccine could not be won by the German company. Instead, CureVac focused on good effectiveness and long-lasting vaccination protection at the lowest possible dosage which would also lower production costs and the price.

Almost 15 years ago, Hopp first invested in CureVac, spending 20 million euros (23.7 million U.S. dollars) after founder Ingmar Hoerr convinced the German billionaire of the companys future prospects. By now, Hopps investments in the biotechnology sector total more than 1.4 billion euros while the German company has reached a market value of around nine billion euros.

In June, the German government announced to invest 300 million euros in CureVac supporting the further development of the company and its projects in the pipeline.

Back then, Peter Altmaier, Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, stressed that CureVacs technology has the potential to develop new vaccines and therapeutic modalities that are accessible for many people and available via the market.

Looking back on his financial efforts over the years and the development of the industry, Hopp had no doubts that it was the right thing to invest in biotech, particularly in the case of CureVac.

I feel joy, pure joy, not because the business pays off, but above all because we can help people with our work, Hopp told the newspaper.

(China Daily)15:14, August 20, 2020

Huawei Technologies Co has achieved high-speed growth in the personal computer business despite economic uncertainties globally, a top executive said on Wednesday, as the Chinese tech giant strives to boost its portfolio of products.

Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huaweis consumer business group, said on Wednesday that Huaweis personal computer business has been growing rapidly and accounts for 16.9 percent of the countrys total personal computer market.

We aim to bring Huaweis innovative technologies and designs from smart terminals and smart hardware to the personal computer field, he added.

Huawei entered the personal computer business only four years ago.

Yu made the remarks as the smartphone maker launched on Wednesday its latest series of MateBook laptops, as well as smart electronic goods including eyewear and earphones.

Industry experts said the move is part of Huaweis smart growth strategy to develop a full range of products amid the changing global economic situation.

With a starting price of 7,999 yuan ($1,158), MateBook X, the companys new flagship personal computer, adopts what the company claimed to be the industrys first floating full screen. Featuring a high screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent, the new laptop is smaller than a sheet of A4 paper and weighs just one kilogram.

The future giant in electronic goods cannot just be a smartphone manufacturer. It should establish a complete ecosystem to provide users with a variety of products and services and allow cross-terminal multi-screen collaboration, said Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association.

The newly unveiled MateBook X is also embedded with a multiscreen collaboration function, in which users can directly operate smartphone applications on their computer.

The most valuable move by Huawei is not regarding its various products, but is in its ability to get these products to support each other. In this regard, few companies in the world have truly formed such a strong ecosystem, he said.

A report by third-party database firm Sigmaintell showed that in the first quarter of this year, computer giant Lenovo Group and US tech firm Dell Technologies Inc took the lead in online sales of personal computers in China.

Meanwhile, Huaweis sales of personal computers in China grew rapidly over the same period, reaching around 550,000 units and notching up year-on-year growth of 96 percent, the report said.

(Xinhua)14:33, August 19, 2020

Chinese researchers have developed a non-invasive method to differentiate ovarian cancer subtypes, which could help improve therapeutic plans, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Ovarian cancers can be divided into type I and type II according to etiology and prognosis. Accurate subtype differentiation can help improve treatment plans and prognosis.

Researchers from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology under the CAS and Jinshan Hospital of Fudan University conducted a multicenter study involving more than 294 ovarian cancer patients, of which 143 were type I and 151 type II.

They collected the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of patients and used machine learning method to build a novel MRI-based radiomics model that can differentiate between type I and type II ovarian cancer. The diagnosis has an average accuracy of 83 percent.

The research was published in the journal European Radiology.

(Xinhua)09:57, August 20, 2020

The 2020 Smart China Expo, co-hosted by southwest Chinas Chongqing Municipality and Singapore, will be held online from Sept. 15 to 17, the organizers said Wednesday.

The expo, which has been held twice in Chongqing since 2018, serves as a platform to promote global exchanges of smart technologies and international cooperation of the smart industry.

More than 500 guests, including world-renowned scientists and industry insiders, have been invited to attend the expo, according to Chongqings economic and information commission.

Over 300 domestic and foreign industry giants are expected to participate in online exhibitions, the commission said.

The three-day event will feature a livestreamed opening ceremony, 41 forums, 17 contests and more than 100 online and offline launch activities.

Using technologies of augmented reality, mixed reality and extended reality, this years expo is expected to offer visitors an interactive, immersive and scenario-based experience.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity and will see Singapore become one of the hosts of the expo.

The opening ceremony will have a Singapore branch venue, which will realize a real-time connection with the main venue in Chongqing.

About 600 projects were signed during last years expo.

(Xinhua)10:50, August 20, 2020

A Chinese firm has made modifications to a heavy-duty mining truck to turn it into a driverless vehicle.

Aerospace Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. based in central Chinas Hubei Province made the changes to an electric mining truck with a payload capacity of 291 tonnes.

The transformation also includes the installation of sensors, as well as maps of the mining-operations area, including all the data necessary to allow the Internet-connected truck to operate autonomously.

The vehicle is owned by Zhunneng Group, a subsidiary of Chinas energy conglomerate China Energy Corporation (CHN Energy).

The unmanned truck has autonomously performed various functions, such as advancing, retreating, turning, going up and down slopes, loading and unloading, in a test area of 3.6 km.

The truck is currently operating on the 4G network, but it has been made compatible with 5G communications technology. It is expected to join the fleet of trucks at Heidaigou Open-pit Coal Mine operated by Zhunneng Group within the year.

(Xinhua)11:01, August 20, 2020

China will launch four ocean-observation satellites within the coming 16 months, according to China Youth Daily.

Two will be launched in September and November this year, and the other two will be sent into space in 2021, the newspaper quoted director of the National Ocean Satellite Application Center Jiang Xingwei as saying.

As of August, China has independently developed and launched seven Haiyang satellites, named after the Chinese word for ocean and given the HY designation for short.

The country launched its first ocean-monitoring satellite, the HY-1A, on May 15, 2002, and sent HY-1D into orbit in June this year.

The space-based remote-sensing technology has been used in fields such as marine environmental resources survey, marine disaster prevention and alleviation, marine economy, marine ecology and maritime security, according to a sub-forum of the World Marine Science and Technology Conference.

The HY-2A and HY-2B satellites can monitor typhoons in the northwest Pacific region and capture information on all the typhoons throughout the year, providing support for typhoon forecasting during the flood season.

(Xinhua)17:21, August 20, 2020

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — The China National Space Administration announced Thursday that the Gaofen-7 Earth observation satellite has been put into service, representing significant progress for the countrys surveying and mapping capabilities.

Launched on Nov. 3, 2019, Gaofen-7 is Chinas first civil-use optical transmission 3D surveying and mapping satellite that reaches the sub-meter level. It can provide 1:10,000 scale satellite 3D mapping for users in China and countries participating the Belt and Road Initiative.

During in-orbit tests, satellite functions such as the monitoring of geographical conditions, agricultural surveys and road constructions have been verified, said Zhang Kejian, head of the administration.

In May, using data from the Gaofen-7 and Ziyuan III satellites, scientists drew a 1:10,000 scale map for surveyors to measure the height of Mount Qomolangma.

Since the Gaofen project began in 2010, data from the Gaofen series of satellites have been used in more than 20 industries across the country.

(Xinhua)11:17, August 21, 2020

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — Chinas Mars probe Tianwen-1 has traveled more than 8 million km away from Earth and is functioning normally, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration Thursday.

As of 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, the Mars probe has traveled 8.23 million km away from Earth. Starting from 10:20 p.m. Wednesday, multiple payloads on the Mars probe, including Mars Magnetometer, Mars Mineralogy Spectrometer and High-resolution Camera, have completed self-check to confirm that they are in normal condition.

Medium and high-resolution cameras will be used for imaging the Mars surface and conducting research on the topography and geological structure of the planets surface. The Magnetometer will detect the magnetic environment on Mars, and the Mineralogy Spectrometer will be used to analyze the composition and distribution of minerals on Mars.

China launched the Mars probe on July 23, designed to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission, thus taking the first step in its planetary exploration of the solar system.

The Mars probe is expected to reach the red planet around February 2021. After entering the orbit, it will spend another two to three months surveying the candidate landing sites before landing.