Day: December 21, 2020

(Xinhua)16:05, December 12, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — Personal computer (PC) shipments in China registered double-digit growth in the third quarter of the year, according to an industrial report.

Total PC shipments in the country reached 14.45 million units in Q3, up 10.1 percent year on year, data from global market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) showed.

The increased demand from the consumer market is essential to the growth in the total PC shipments, according to the IDC.

From July to September, shipments of PCs for the consumer market saw a 14.6-percent increase compared with a year earlier to 6.69 million units, while that for the business market rose 6.5 percent year on year to 7.77 million units.

(Xinhua)14:46, December 09, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — Amid surging COVID-19 cases worldwide, some countries are kicking off mass COVID-19 vaccinations after months of waiting, bringing hope to people in the pandemic-battered regions.

Over 68 million cases have been registered across the world, including more than 15 million cases in the United States as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, AFP tally showed that the total number of confirmed cases in Europe has surpassed 20 million.

Britain started its large-scale COVID-19 vaccination program on Tuesday, about a week after it became the first Western country to greenlight a COVID-19 vaccine. A 90-year-old retired shop clerk from Northern Ireland was the first to get a dose, and the process was closely watched around the world.

Also on Tuesday, the country recorded the highest number of weekly coronavirus deaths since May 15.

In Russia, mass vaccination program on Friday kicked off in the capital city of Moscow, the countrys worst-hit region.

Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow, said on Monday that around 2,000 people from high-risk groups, including medical workers, teachers, and social services employees, have been injected with vaccine.

The nationwide vaccination is expected to start in Russia later this week, as President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 2.

Vaccination campaign in Mexico is also on schedule, with priority given to healthcare professionals and the elderly, according to Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell.

The official said on Tuesday that vaccination should begin in the last days of the third week of December, starting from the capital Mexico City, home to some 20 million residents, and northern Coahuila state.

In Israel, the government plans to vaccinate its population from Dec. 20, state-owned Kan News quoted the director-general of the Israeli Health Ministry as saying, adding that medical staff are expected to receive vaccine even before that date.

Israel confirmed purchase of 8 million doses of the vaccine from the U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer last month.

Meanwhile, some campaigners are concerned that people from poor countries might be missed out in the distribution of vaccine.

Nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against COVID-19 next year while rich nations representing just 14 percent of global population have bought up 53 percent of all the most promising vaccines so far, said the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of campaigners, on Wednesday.

The alliance called on pharmaceutical firms working on vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization (WHO) to produce more vaccines.

WHO has been appealing for a fair and effective distribution of vaccines and leading the development of the Fair Allocation Framework, which advises that all countries should receive doses in proportion to their population size to immunize the highest-priority groups once a vaccine is authorized to use.

On Dec. 3, the UN agency also quoted a report by the Eurasia Group as saying that leaving low- and lower-middle-income countries behind in distribution of vaccines might cause significant economic damage that puts decades of economic progress at risk.

(Peoples Daily Online)17:12, December 09, 2020

An elderly villager sings with her fellows via WeChat on a smartphone in Palian Village of Tengchong, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province, Aug. 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)

China is taking steps to help senior people deal with inconveniences they may encounter in their daily life, including using the internet and making a payment on a smartphone, skills they need to learn in order to better adapt to the digital era.

Since many do not know how to use a health QR code, a way to indicate their health status, some elderly people without these codes were rejected by public transportation when the country was in a fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

To help senior people bridge the 鈥渄igital gap鈥? the General Office of the State Council released the Implementation Plan on Effectively Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly Using Smart Technology in November.

The plan requires the retaining of a traditional way of services for senior people in fields including transportation, medical services, cultural and sport activities, consumption and payment. It also bans the practice of rejecting cash.

The measures reflect a people-centered development philosophy, said Li Zhihong, deputy head of the policy research office of the National Working Commission on Aging (NWCA).

Official statistics indicated that by the end of 2019, the population in China aged 60 and above hit 254 million, but only 6.7 percent of the netizens were aged 60 or above by the end of March.

Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson for the municipal health commission of Beijing, disclosed that all medical institutions in the city will open a green passage to senior people for making an appointment and seeing a doctor by the end of the year. Currently, a QR code is still needed to prove one鈥檚 health status.

Some websites and apps closely related to senior people have been encouraged to upgrade for the convenience of senior people, said Sui Jing, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The plan also requires relevant parties to help senior people identify and stay vigilant on Internet security risks, enhancing their awareness of protecting personal information.

(Xinhua)09:33, December 10, 2020

CHICAGO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — An interdisciplinary team of chemists and physicists at Northwestern University (NU) and the University of Chicago (Uchicago) has developed a new method to create tailor-made qubits, short for quantum bits, by chemically synthesizing molecules that encode quantum information into their magnetic, or spin, states.

Qubits work by harnessing a phenomenon called superposition. While the classical bits used by conventional computers measure either 1 or 0, a qubit can be both 1 and 0 at the same time.

The team wanted to find a new bottom-up approach to develop molecules whose spin states can be used as qubits and can be readily interfaced with the outside world. To do so, they used organometallic chromium molecules to create a spin state that they could control with light and microwaves.

By exciting the molecules with precisely controlled laser pulses and measuring the light emitted, the team could read the molecules spin state after being placed in a superposition, a key requirement for using them in quantum technologies.

By varying just a few different atoms on these molecules through synthetic chemistry, they were also able to modify both their optical and magnetic properties, highlighting the promise for tailor-made molecular qubits.

One potential application for these molecules could be quantum sensors that are designed to target specific molecules. Such sensors could find specific cells within the body, detect when food spoils or even spot dangerous chemicals.

This bottom-up approach could also help integrate quantum technologies with existing classical technologies.

The results, posted on NUs website on Tuesday, have been published in the journal Science.

(Xinhua)09:50, December 10, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced Wednesday that it has completed the in-orbit delivery of the communication satellite APSTAR-6D to its customer.

China Great Wall Industry Corporation, a commercial satellite launch company under the CASC, delivered the satellite to Shenzhen-based APT Mobile SatCom Limited.

The satellite was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the southwestern Xichang Satellite Launch Center on July 9. Both the satellite and the rocket were developed by subsidiary institutes of the CASC.

The APSTAR-6D is a part of Chinas first global high-throughput broadband satellite communication system. It aims to provide high-throughput broadband communication services for users across the Asia-Pacific region.

The results of in-orbit tests show that the function and performance of the satellite meet technical requirements, said the CASC.

The APSTAR-6D is the 12th communication satellite delivered by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation.

(Xinhua)15:53, December 05, 2020

File photo taken on Sep. 28, 2019 shows staff members of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) Southwestern Institute of Physics working at the installation site of the HL-2M Tokamak, Chinas new-generation artificial sun, in Chengdu, southwest Chinas Sichuan Province. The HL-2M Tokamak went into operation on Friday and achieved its first plasma discharge, according to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the apparatus in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, will provide clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion, said CNNC. (CNNC Southwestern Institute of Physics/Handout via Xinhua)

The HL-2M Tokamak, Chinas new-generation artificial sun, went into operation on Friday and has achieved its first plasma discharge, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the apparatus in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, will provide clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion, said the CNNC.

The self-developed device is the countrys largest in scale and highest in parameters, with a more advanced structure and control mode than its predecessor, the HL-2A Tokamak.

It is able to generate plasma hotter than 150 million degrees Celsius and is expected to greatly enhance the research and development of key technologies in plasma physics research in China.

The energy confinement time of international tokamak devices is less than one second. The shot discharge duration of the HL-2M is around 10 seconds, with an energy confinement time of a few hundred milliseconds, said Yang Qingwei, chief engineer of the HL-2M at the Southwestern Institute of Physics under the CNNC.

The artificial sun will provide key technical support for Chinas participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project and frontier research fields including flow instability and magnetic phenomena of ultra-high temperature plasma, according to Yang.

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(Xinhua)14:04, December 07, 2020

CANBERRA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — Researchers from Australias national science agency have developed an implant capable of monitoring brain activity and preventing seizures after surgery.

The team from Data61, the digital specialist arm of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), revealed the implant on Monday.

Umut Guvenc, a member of the research team, said that traumatic brain injuries affect 69 million people around the world, one in three of whom will likely develop epilepsy as a result of frequent seizures.

These seizures are often difficult to detect, with current monitoring techniques only able to be used in a hospital, using bulky devices for less than 24 hours, providing a brief snapshot of brain activity during that time only, he said in a media release.

This new method can continuously monitor brain activity wirelessly, allowing the patient to be mobile, comfortable and more socially active.

During normal activity the device conserves power, only becoming active when it detects a seizure.

Researchers will now use a one million Australian dollar grant from the government to develop a smart helmet to monitor brain swelling in stroke and brain injury patients as well as a brain machine interface that will enable clinicians to monitor brain function in real time.

Information provided by the implants can be used to inform clinicians about the patients brain activity and inform decisions regarding the administering of drugs, senior Data61 researcher Peter Marendy said.

The combination of brain swelling, surgery timing and patient outcome data will enable further study on the ideal time to perform a reconstructive cranioplasty to achieve the best patient outcome–research that will ultimately influence future medical decisions.

(Peoples Daily Online)15:48, December 07, 2020

Sun Yuanming, the person in charge of the customized bracelet project, introduces the use of the smart bracelets. (Chinanews.com/Li Jie)

Heping district of Shenyang city, capital of northeast Chinas Liaoning province, has recently distributed free customized intelligent positioning bracelets to 1,246 people with intellectual disabilities, as part of the efforts to bring safety and convenience to the disabled and their families.

The intelligent positioning bracelets enable the families to track the geographical location of the mentally disabled in real time through their mobile phones, greatly ensuring their safety while traveling and reducing their risk of getting lost.

Thanks to the management function making it possible to set the travel range, whenever the user exceeds the set range, the bracelets can automatically set off an alarm, providing a safety barrier.

The bracelets were distributed to those in need on December 3, the International Day of Disabled Persons.

There is only one button on the bracelet, the heart rate and blood pressure can be measured with one click, the body temperature can be measured with two clicks, and the intercom function can be activated with three clicks, said Sun Yuanming, the person in charge of the customized bracelet project.

(Xinhua)09:16, December 08, 2020

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — The SpaceXs upgraded Dragon cargo spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday in its first mission.

The upgraded Dragon cargo ship autonomously docked to the ISS at 1:40 p.m. EST.

This is the first automated docking for a SpaceX cargo resupply mission and the first time two Dragon spacecraft are on station simultaneously, said NASA.

NASA and SpaceX launched the first mission of the upgraded Dragon cargo on Sunday, from historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission, dubbed CRS-21, is the first flight of the updated cargo version of Dragon, which is capable of carrying about 20 percent more volume than the previous version of Dragon and has double the amount of powered locker cargo capability.

(Xinhua)09:41, December 08, 2020

TOKYO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) — A capsule from the Hayabusa2 space probe possibly containing samples from an asteroid it landed on has been transported to Japan, the national aerospace and space agency (JAXA) said on Tuesday.

According to the space agency, the probe was collected from the Australian desert two days earlier and transported to Japan.

The probes payload of samples from the asteroid may help scientists understand the origins of life, JAXA said.

Early in the morning, a jet landed at Tokyos Haneda airport and JAXA said a truck was carrying the capsule to its Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa Prefecture next to Tokyo.