In the last 30 days

• Open/close News in Brief

   2009 Science Foundation in China 17 1 Tag this article

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  NSFC Delegation Visits Russia
  NSFC President Visits UNEP and ICRAF
  Professor Chen Yiyu, NSFC President Visits South Africa
  Evaluation results for applications to the National Natural Science Fund Programs in 2009 Released ---- 17,858 proposals approved, 72,964 declined
  Prof. Shen Meets Guests from the Netherlands
  The 12th Joint Committee Meeting of the Sino-German Center Held in Germany
  NSFC-CIHR Workshop on Health Sciences held in Beijing
  President Chen Yiyu Meets with Dr. Alain Beaudet
  NFSC-FRSQ Joint Workshop on Genomics Held in Beijing
  President Chen Meets with Dr. Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart
  NSFC Vice President Attends the 13th U.S.-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation
  DFG Secretary General Visits NSFC
  NSFC Vice President Attended the 3rd ASIAHORCs Meeting
  NSFC Vive President Visits Cuba and Canada
  NSFC Vice President Attends Second China-Thailand Joint Workshop
  Top Ten Events in China's Basic Research in 2009 Unveiled
  NSFC-RGC Funded Research Won IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award

• Open/close A New Approach to Reconstruct Paleogene Atmospheric Hydrology at High Latitudes

  Qin Leng and Hong Yang 2009 Science Foundation in China 17 46 Tag this article

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  Reconstruction of ancient atmospheric conditions through the analysis of precipitation patterns is a novel endeavor in the study of paleoclimate. A new approach is now available for a quantitative reconstruction of Paleogene atmospheric hydrological conditions in High Arctic. It is based on 1) the discovery of exceptionally-preserved Paleogene plant fossils from the Canadian Arctic which yielded in situ labile biomolecules; 2) the development of compound-specific hydrogen isotope analysis which can be applied to small amount of plant material; and 3) taxon-specific apparent hydrogen isotope fractionation factors obtained from empirical measurement. A new moisture recycling model is established to explain the reconstructed paleohydrologic pattern in the High Arctic during Paleogene.

• Open/close New Vaccine Against Tuberculosis: Current Developments and Future Challenges

  Jun Liu 2009 Science Foundation in China 17 50 Tag this article

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  Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a global health threat. BCG was developed as an attenuated live vaccine for tuberculosis control nearly a century ago. Despite being the most widely used vaccine in human history, BCG is not an ideal vaccine and has two major limitations: its poor efficacy against adult pulmonary TB and its disconcerting safety in immunocompromised individuals. A safer and more effective TB vaccine is urgently needed. This review article discusses current strategies to develop the next generation of TB vaccines to replace BCG. While some progresses have been made in the past decade, significant challenges lie ahead.

• Open/close Porous Anodic Metal Oxides

  Zixue Su and Wuzong Zhou 2008 Science Foundation in China 16 36 Tag this article

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  Porous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) and anodic titanium oxide (ATO) attracted an increased attention in the recent years due to their high potentials of application in nanotechnology. This article presents a brief review of some important developments of these smart materials including anodization methods, formation mechanisms of the pores, self-ordering processes and applications. Anodization of other metals are also highlighted.

• Open/close Progress in the Researches on Insect Mitochondrial Genome and Analysis of Gene Order

  Li Hu et al 2009 Science Foundation in China 17 39 Tag this article

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  Insect mitochondrial genome is a double-stranded circular genomes which range from 14,503 bp to 19,571 bp in size. Nearly all the sequenced insect mitochondrial genomes encode 37 genes: two for rRNAs, 13 for proteins and 22 for tRNAs. This review compares and summarizes the features of complete mitochondrial genomes from 175 sequenced species of insects in 22 orders. The genomic organization, contents, gene order, and rearrangements of gene order are analyzed.

• Open/close Zebrafish: A Renewed Model System For Functional Genomics

  Xiao-Yan Wen 2008 Science Foundation in China 16 36 Tag this article

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  In the post genome era, a major goal in molecular biology is to determine the function of the many thousands of genes present in the vertebrate genome. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) provides an almost ideal genetic model to identify the biological roles of these novel genes, in part because their embryos are transparent and develop rapidly. The zebrafish has many advantages over mouse for genome-wide mutagenesis studies, allowing for easier, cheaper and faster functional characterization of novel genes in the vertebrate genome. Many molecular research tools such as chemical mutagenesis, transgenesis, gene trapping, gene knockdown, TILLING, gene targeting, RNAi and chemical genetic screen are now available in zebrafish. Combining all the forward, reverse, and chemical genetic tools, it is expected that zebrafish will make invaluable contribution to vertebrate functional genomics in functional annotation of the genes, modeling human diseases and drug discoveries.

• Open/close A Survey of Repetitive Control for Nonlinear Systems

  Quan Quan and Kai-Yuan Cai 2010 Science Foundation in China 18 45 Tag this article

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  In aerospace engineering and industry, control tasks are often of a periodic nature, while repetitive control is especially suitable for tracking and rejection of periodic exogenous signals. Because of limited research effort on nonlinear systems, we give a survey of repetitive control for nonlinear systems in this paper. First, a brief introduction of repetitive control is presented. Then, after giving a brief overview of repetitive control for linear systems, this paper summarizes design methods and existing problems of repetitive control for nonlinear systems in detail. Lastly, relationships between repetitive control and other control schemes are analyzed to recognize repetitive control from different aspects more insightfully.

• Open/close Role of cyclic AMP signaling in the production and function of the incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide-1

  Zhiwen Yu and Tianru Jin 2008 Science Foundation in China 16 23 Tag this article

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  Pancreatic cells express the proglucagon gene (gcg) and thereby produce the peptide hormone glucagon, which stimulates hepatic glucose production and thereby increases blood glucose levels. The same gcg gene is also expressed in the intestinal endocrine L cells and certain neural cells in the brain. In the gut, gcg expression leads to the production of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). This incretin hormone stimulates insulin secretion when blood glucose level is high. In addition, GLP-1 stimulates pancreatic cell proliferation, inhibits cell apoptosis, and has been utilized in the trans-differentiation of insulin producing cells. Today, a long-term effective GLP-1 receptor agonist has been developed as a drug in treating diabetes and potentially other metabolic disorders. Extensive investigations have shown that the expression of gcg and the production of GLP-1 can be activated by the elevation of the second messenger cyclic AMP (cAMP). Recent studies suggest that in addition to protein kinase A (PKA), exchange protein activated by cAMP (Epac), another effector of cAMP signaling, and the crosstalk between PKA and Wnt signaling pathway, are also involved in cAMP-stimulated gcg expression and GLP-1 production. Furthermore, functions of GLP-1 in pancreatic cells are mainly mediated by cAMP-PKA, cAMP-Epac and Wnt signaling pathways as well.

• Open/close Modeling Long-term Forest Carbon Spatiotemporal Dynamics With Historical Climate and Recent Remote Sensing Data

  Jing M. Chen 2010 Science Foundation in China 18 38 Tag this article

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  Forests have long life cycles of up to several hundred years and longer. They also have very different growth rates at different stages of their life cycles. Therefore the carbon cycle in forest ecosystems has long time scales, making it necessary to consider forest age in estimating the spatio-temporal dynamics of carbon sinks in forests. The focus of this article is to review methods for combining recent remote sensing data with historical climate data for estimating the forest carbon source and sink distribution. Satellite remote sensing provides useful data for the land surface in recent decades. The information derived from remote sensing data can be used for short-term forest growth estimation and for mapping forest stand age for long-term simulations. For short-term forest growth estimation, remote sensing can provide forest structural parameters as inputs to process-based models, including big-leaf, two-leaf, and multi-layered models. These models use different strategies to upscale from leaf to canopy, and their reliability and suitability for remote sensing applications will be examined here. For long-term forest carbon cycle estimation, the spatial distribution of the forest growth rate (net primary productivity, NPP) modeled using remote sensing data in recent years is a critical input. This input can be combined with a forest age map to simulate the historical variation of NPP under the influence of climate and atmospheric changes. Another important component of the forest carbon cycle is heterotrophic respiration in the soil, which depends on the sizes of soil carbon pools as well as climate conditions. Methods for estimating the soil carbon spatial distribution and its separation into pools are described. The emphasis is placed on how to derive the soil carbon pools from NPP estimation in current years with consideration of forest carbon dynamics associated with stand age variation and climate and atmospheric changes. The role of disturbance in the forest carbon cycle and the effects of forest regrowth after disturbance are also considered in this review. An example of national forest carbon budget estimation in Canada is given at the end. It illustrates the importance of forest stand age structure in estimating the national forest carbon budgets and the effects of climate and atmospheric changes on the forest carbon cycle.

• Open/close Research Fellowship for International Young Scientists NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects With Danish National Research Foundation NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects with DFG News in Brief: NSFC set up Department of Medical Sciences NSFC Announced Approved Cooperative Projects With France and Germany NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects With Academy of Finland NSFC Announced Application Guide for Cooperative Research Projects with K. T. Li Foundation NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research projects With Japan Science and Technology Agency NSFC Announced Application Guide for Cooperative Research Projects With Royal Society of Edinburgh for 2010 NSFC Announced a List of proved Cooperative Projects With Three International Organizations

   2009 Science Foundation in China 17 43 Tag this article

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  Research Fellowship for International Young Scientists
  NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects With Danish National Research Foundation
  NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects with DFG
  News in Brief: NSFC set up Department of Medical Sciences
  NSFC Announced Approved Cooperative Projects With France and Germany
  NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research Projects With Academy of Finland
  NSFC Announced Application Guide for Cooperative Research Projects with K. T. Li Foundation
  NSFC Announced Results of Preliminary Evaluation of Bilateral Cooperative Research projects With Japan Science and Technology Agency
  NSFC Announced Application Guide for Cooperative Research Projects With Royal Society of Edinburgh for 2010
  NSFC Announced a List of proved Cooperative Projects With Three International Organizations