Category Archives: Green-tech

Business, China, Green-tech

MIIT mulls over telecom industry reform

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BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is mulling over a fresh round of telecom industry reform, said Zhang Feng, chief engineer of MIIT, on Thursday at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Zhang said the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward deepening telecom industry reform further in the 2016-2020 period. The development and integration of enterprises are decided by market demands. MIIT is mulling over the progress and orientation of telecom industry reform.

As the authority discloses expectation for telecom industry reform, share prices of Besttone Holding (600640.SH) and China Unicom (600050.SH) once rose to the upper limits, and those of Shaanxi Broadcast & TV Network Intermediary (Group) (600831.SH), Datang Telecom Technology (600198.SH), Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group (600804.SH) and ZTE Corp. (000063.SZ) also increased immediately.

Thanks to the stimulus policy that encourages private capital invest in broadband operation, operating revenue of Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group rose 12.00 percent year on year in the first three quarters of this year to 5.75 billion yuan and the net profit attributable to shareholders of parent company soared 41.5 percent to 597 million yuan.

Chinese authority licensed pilot operation of virtual carriers on December 26, 2013 and there are 42 virtual carriers so far. The pilot scheme will be ended at the end of this year and formal licenses are expected to be issued next year.

Guotai & Junan Securities held that the reform on state-owned telecom enterprises has begun and significant investment opportunities are likely to exist in the near future.

An analyst with CITIC Securities suggested A-share investors to pay attention to listed companies under Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group, FiberHome Technology Group, China Potevio, and China Electronics Corp. (Edited by Luo Jingjing, luojj@xinhua.org)

Green-tech, News

The gut microbiota can influence the effectiveness of dietary treatments

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Stockholm, Nov 7(Greenpost)–Why a dietary treatment works for some but not others seems to depend on interactions between the gut microbiota and the diet.

A new study, published in Cell Metabolism, shows that people with better control of blood sugar after eating barley kernel bread also have a different balance of microbes in the gut.

Dietary interventions can be used to improve the metabolism of humans, and they also have a major impact on the gut microbiota. Previous studies at the Sahlgrenska Academy have shown that the gut microbiota is altered in metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and that the gut microbiota contributes to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In a new study, 39 subjects ate barley kernel bread for three days followed by control bread made from white flour for three days (with a break between the two diets). The results showed that barley kernel bread improved the control of blood sugar, but only in some individuals.

Prevotella, a group of bacteria previously shown to be associated with high fiber intake, was present in higher proportions in those who responded beneficially to barley kernel bread than in those who did not respond to this dietary intervention.

By transferring the gut microbiota of these individuals to germ-free mice, the research group could demonstrate that the altered gut microbiota contributed to the beneficial effects of the barley kernel bread.

“Our findings clearly show the importance of the interaction between the gut microbiota and the diet and contribute to our understanding of metabolism in health and disease. The results may help to explain why responses to different dietary treatments are so individual,” says Professor Fredrik Bäckhed at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

Bread with different fibers has attracted considerable interest and is a focus area at the Antidiabetic Food Center at Lund University (a VINN Excellence Center), which participated in the study.

“It is incredibly exciting to see the link between the gut microbiota and various dietary fibers, which can help us develop more individualized dietary guidelines,” says Professor Inger Björk at Lund University.

The researchers are now planning further studies and hope to confirm if the gut microbiota can identify which individuals will respond to a specific diet.

“Our results also show that control of blood sugar is improved in mice supplemented with Prevotella if they are given a high-fiber diet. Our findings could lead to a combination product with Prevotella and fiber from grains,” says Fredrik Bäckhed at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

 

Business, China, Environment, Exchange, Green-tech, Indepth, News, World News

News Analysis: China five-year plan to chart reform, growth path

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BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Greenpost) — China is mulling the 13th five-year plan, which will chart its reform and growth path, when the country is entering a “new normal” of slower growth and boosting re-balancing towards consumption and services.

The new five-year period from 2016 to 2020 will be key for reforms, which can facilitate economic growth, including reforms on tax and fiscal policy, state-owned enterprises and finance, according to China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of China’s leading investment banks.

Leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met in Beijing on Monday for a four-day meeting to discuss changes, while the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will review proposals for the five-year plan. After taking into account the proposals, a final plan will be ratified by the annual session of China’s top legislature in March 2016.

The biggest challenge for the 13th five-year plan may be capping the runaway financial sector without hammering growth, according to Bloomberg research.

More financial market reforms are expected to be included in the new plan to encourage risk-taking and stoke growth for small and medium businesses.

Non-traditional financial services may be allowed a greater role in the economy to cut reliance on the state-owned mega-banks and their traditional deposit taking and lending function, it forecast.

Newly-packaged financial intermediation services such as peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding, Internet-based financing, asset securitization, derivatives and corporate bonds are likely to be a regulatory focus and encouraged, it said.

The more meaningful function of the meetings is prioritization of various policy targets, especially considering China’s economic growth has continued to decelerate, settling at 6.9 percent during the third quarter of this year, said Zhu Haibin, chief economist for J.P. Morgan China.

Like in previous five-year plans, a GDP growth target is likely to be included. The market estimates the growth target for 2016-2020 will be put between 6.5 and 7 percent.

The market interprets the growth target as an important indicator of how leaders will prioritize growth and structural re-balancing, Zhu said.

If the growth target is lowered to 6.5 percent, it implies the government will tolerate slower growth to leave more room for structural re-balancing. Accordingly, there will be less stimulus efforts by the government. If the target is left unchanged at 7 percent, it implies the government will have to maintain its loose policy stance and do more easing, and perhaps at the cost of structural re-balancing, Zhu said.

Not surprisingly, no one seems to consider a growth target below 6.5 percent, as China’s target to double GDP between 2010 and 2020 will require the average GDP growth in 2016-2020 to be 6.5 percent, he added.

The previous five-year plan in 2011-2015 set an average annual growth target of around 7 percent. Between 2011 and 2014, the economy expanded by an annual rate of 8 percent. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, Energy, Environment, Exchange, Green-tech, News

China mulls routine navigation through Arctic to Europe

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DALIAN, Oct. 26 (Greenpost) — Shipping experts are considering routine navigation through Arctic waters to link China and Europe, a shortcut to bypass the route that passes through the Malacca Strait and Suez Canal.

In October 2015, Chinese vessel Yong Sheng finished a record-setting round trip from Europe to north China by sailing through the Arctic waters of the Northeast Passage and docking at Tianjin Port.

The cargo ship operated by China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), the country’s top shipping line, is the first Chinese merchant ship to sail from Europe to China via the Northeast Passage, an icy path north of Russia and Scandinavia.

Yong Sheng sailed nearly 20,000 nautical miles (37,040 kilometers) during the 55-day voyage, according to COSCO.

Many experts expect the Arctic passage to become the next “golden waterway” for trade between China and Europe, according to a seminar held last week in the northeast China port city of Dalian.

The seminar focused on the possibility of normalizing the Yong Sheng’s Arctic shipping route.

“The company is considering increasing the number of ships sailing via the new path,” said Cai Meijiang, general manager of the safety and technical supervision department of COSCO.

The 19,000-tonne vessel first started its journey from Dalian to Rotterdam on August 8, 2013, sailing through the Northeast Passage and shortening the traditional shipping time by nine days.

Global warming has transformed the Arctic in recent years, and its summer ice cover has dropped over the last few decades, making it possible to sail along the Arctic sea routes with comparative ease. Enditem

Source   Xinhua

Business, Green-tech, News

New drugs help treatment of diabetes 2

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STOCKHOLM, Oct. 31(Greenpost)–A new combination of drugs can help individuals with complex type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar levels, reducing their weight and use fewer insulin doses. This is shown in a study published in The British Medical Journal.

According to a press release reaching here from Gothenburg, individuals with type 2 diabetes who are treated with basal and mealtime insulin injections have few treatment options if their blood glucose is increased, other than increasing insulin doses. This often leads to a downward spiral with increased weight, which can have a negative effect on blood glucose.

In this study Swedish researchers have evaluated the effect of adding liraglutide, a drug that can be used along with oral antidiabetic drugs and basal insulin that has shown positive effects on blood glucose levels, to individuals with type 2 diabetes treated with basal and mealtime insulin.

The study was performed at 14 clinics in Sweden and included 124 participants with type 2 diabetes, overweight and increased blood glucose levels in spite of treatment with basal and mealtime insulin. Participants were randomly assigned to liraglutide or placebo (an inactive substance), and used their assigned drug/placebo for 24 weeks without making other changes to their treatment regimen.

Among all participants, 122 had enough data to be analysed. The main focus was the effect of liraglutide on HbA1c, weight and insulin doses. HbA1c is a test used to indicate blood glucose levels over the last three months. Results after 24 weeks showed that the liraglutide group reduced their HbA1c much more than placebo, with an average difference of 12.3 mmol/mol.

– In earlier studies, an Hba1c reduction of this magnitude has been shown to be associated with a considerablipal investigator Dr. Marcus Lind.

Results also showed that the liraglutide group had weight reductions averaging 3.8 kg, while there was no change in the placebo group. The liraglutide group also had insulin doses that were lowered by 18.1 units, as compared to only 2.3 units in the placebo group.

These results are positive news for people with type 2 diabetes, as it provides another treatment option for those using a complex regimen consisting of basal and mealtime insulin injections. Treatment alternatives conforming to international clinical diabetes guidelines for these types of complex patients are sparse today, according to Dr Lind.

-In contrast to many other studies of novel glucose lowering agents, this study was performed independent of the manufacturer. Study coordination was performed by the NU Hospital Group in Uddevalla, according to study coordinator Sofia Dahlqvist.

The article Liraglutide in people treated for type 2 diabetes with multiple daily insulin injections: randomised clinical trial (MDI Liraglutide trial) was published in BMJ 28 October.

Energy, Environment, Green-tech, News

Finland’s traffic accidents reduced after lowing speed limit

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Stockholm, Oct. 29(Greenpost)–A new study from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland shows that Finland’s policy of enforcing lower speed limits during the dark winter months reduces the number of traffic accidents.

Statistics indicate that some 36 accidents leading to personal injuries are avoided each year, as are eight deaths, according to a report by Alaska Dispatch News.

Most countries do not change their speed limits for the colder months. In Finland, however, the combination of snow, ice and very dark conditions forces a lower speed limit during the winter. As of Friday, motorway speed limits will drop to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour, while other major roads will see an 80 kilometer-per-hour (49 mile-per-hour) limit enforced. Both are 20 kilometer-per-hour (12 mile-per-hour) decreases from the  summer limits.

In some 80 kilometer-per-hour areas with large amounts of heavy traffic and roadside dwellings, the speed limit will be lowered to 70 kilometers (43 miles) per hour.

Those motorway sections with a variable speed limit that allows them to adjust the limit to suit weather and road conditions have a maximum 100 kilometer-per-hour (62 mile-per-hour) speed limit from the start of November to the end of February. The speed limit reverts back to 120 kilometers (74 miles) an hour on these roads in early March, if the weather and road conditions cooperate.

According to Finnish law, vehicle owners must also fit winter tires to their vehicles by Dec. 1 and keep them in use until the end of February.

Lower speeds save lives

The new study from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland shows that Finland’s policy of enforcing lower speed limits during the dark winter months reduces the number of traffic accidents.

“A reduction in speed allows more time to react in unexpected situations and shortens the stopping distance when an elk appears on the road, for instance,” says Tuomas Österman, a traffic control expert at the Finnish Transport Agency.

Even so, in some situations, the reduced winter speed limits may not be enough. Österman advises motorists to adjust their driving speed according to weather conditions.

“During a snow storm, for example, visibility and driving conditions may deteriorate to the point that it becomes necessary to lower your driving speed to far below the appointed limit,” he says.

Lower winter speed rates also reduce the amount of fine particles released in the air from traffic and slow the wear on road surfaces, particularly when studded tires are in use. Depending on the weather, officials usually change the winter speed limits back to the higher summer limits sometime in late March-early April.

 

Business, Energy, Environment, Green-tech

IN-DEPTH China Focus: China to further loosen control on fuel prices

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  • BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, on Thursday announced guidance in accelerating reform of pricing mechanisms. The government is poised to further marketize energy prices and loosen its control on prices of refined oil products.
    Energy experts point out that the time is ripe for further reform of the product oil pricing mechanism as China’s oil refining capacity keeps expanding and the supply of refined oil becomes abundant. However, concerns are hovering over the monopoly of China’s product oil market.

    — Adjustments of product oil pricing mechanism
    The reform will be the latest of a series of adjustments China has made in the past several years to marketize its product oil pricing mechanism.
    Compared with natural gas and electricity, China’s product oil pricing reform is a front runner. The government launched an initiative at the end of 2008 to reform the pricing mechanism of refined oil products, which aimed to make the market play a bigger role in deciding product oil prices.
    The reform was amid a shortage of product oil supply in China. The new mechanism, which pegged domestic product oil prices more closely with international crude oil prices, boosted oil refiners’ performance and increased product oil supply in the country.
    However, the pricing mechanism was criticized for its lack of transparency, especially after international crude oil prices climbed to the high level over the years.
    To improve the product oil pricing mechanism, China made several adjustments in March 2013, shortening the adjustment cycle to 10 working days and lowering the price-change trigger to 50 yuan per tonne.

    — Time for further reform
    Under the current product oil pricing mechanism, prices of refined oil products are still controlled by the government. Experts point out that the time is ripe for further reform.
    China’s oil refining capacity expanded fast during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015), which resulted in the abundant and sometimes excessive supply of refined oil. China should change the produce oil pricing mechanism along with the change in the market, said Yao Daming, a member of the Guangdong Oil and Gas Association.
    Prices of refined oil in China are expected to remain at a low level as the international crude oil supply continues to grow while demand growth is likely to be limited. Low crude prices will be beneficial for Chinese refiners looking to turn around and for further reform of China’s product oil pricing mechanism, according to Lin Boqiang, an energy expert with Xiamen University.

    — Concern over monopoly
    China’s product oil market is highly monopolized. China’s two largest oil refiners, PetroChina (PTR.NYSE; 00857.HK; 601857.SH) and Sinopec Corp. (SNP.NYSE; 00386.HK; 600028.SH), produce over 80 percent of China’s total product oil output.
    According to the two companies’ interim reports, PetroChina produced 46.475 million tonnes of gasoline, diesel and kerosene, and Sinopec Corp.’s output stood at 74.75 million tonnes in the first half of the year. Their combined output accounted for 81.6 percent of China’s total output of refined oil during the period.
    Many analysts are concerned that if the pricing of refined oil is fully marketized, the two refining giants will have a decisive say.
    China needs a systematic reform in order to achieve the real marketization of the product oil pricing mechanism, said Lin.
    Yao said the government should open the upstream of the oil and gas sector as well oil pipelines to private firms and improve oil futures and spot trade so that market players can have an opportunity to compete fairly. Enditem

  • Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

 

Business, China, Green-tech, News

China becomes 1st largest industrial robot market worldwide

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BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — China sold 57,000 sets of industrial robots in 2014, up 55 percent year on year, said Xu Xiaolan, the executive member of China Economic and Social Council on Friday.
The number accounted for one quarter of the total sales number in the world, indicating that China has become the first largest industrial robot market globally for two consecutive years. Enditem

Environment, Green-tech

Pay Drechsel wins 2015 IWA Development Award

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Stockholm, Oct. 18(Greenpost)–Pay Drechsel, IWMI’s research theme leader for Resource Recovery, Water Quality and Health, has won the 2015 International Water Association’s Development Award for Research, according to news reaching here from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

The award has just been presented at the opening ceremony of the IWA’s Development Congress and Exhibition in Amman, Jordan on Sunday, October 18.

 

“The award is granted in recognition for Pay’s contributions to science which have led to demonstrable impact in low and middle income countries,” said Ger Bergkamp, Executive Director of IWA. “[He is] an example to the water community in each corner of the globe.”

 

Drechsel’s research has played an important role in developing options for safe wastewater use in countries where treatment capacities are low and informal wastewater irrigation is common. His studies continue to explore the importance of irrigated urban and peri-urban agriculture for food security in cities.

 

The award, which is granted every two years, recognizes his long track record in research which has contributed to the development of low-cost safety options along the farm to fork pathway. This work directly supported the World Health Organization’s multi-barrier concept for safe wastewater irrigation, as has been acknowledged by Robert Bos, the former WHO Coordinator of Water, Sanitation and Health.

 

“This recognition is a fantastic acknowledgment of more than a decade of research,” said Drechsel. “I have been strongly supported in this by my dear colleagues, students and partners, as well as the International Water Management Institute which entrusted me with the task to conceptualize and coordinate our work on water quality, food safety and resource recovery”.

 

“This Award from the IWA, the largest global association of water professionals, is also very special as most of our work is been carried out in those places where the technical solutions we all prefer to see are not yet in place.”

 

German by birth, Drechsel graduated as environmental scientist from the University of Bayreuth and started his career as consultant in Africa. He then became as research coordinator for the continent at the International Board of Soil Research and Management (IBSRAM), being first based in Bangkok and then Ghana where he opened the organization’s Africa office. After IWMI incorporated IBSRAM in 2001, Drechsel worked as its sub-regional representative, expanding the number of IWMI staff in Ghana from five to over thirty. In 2005 he became a research division leader. During his 11 years in West Africa, Drechsel comprehensively analyzed the links between rural-urban food demands and the urban footprint. Given the high density of irrigating farmers in and around cities, he was particularly interested in the pollution of water bodies and consequent food safety risks. This work influenced legislation in Ghana including national strategies, development plans and policies, as well as several international water reuse guidelines and their supplements produced by WHO, FAO and USEPA/USAID. His work on safe wastewater management was also one of several highlights cited in 2012 award of the Stockholm Water Prize to the International Water Management Institute.

Green-tech, News

Youyou Tu, Campbell and Omura wins 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 5(Greenpost)–Chinese Scientist Youyou Tu, American William Campbell and Japanese Satoshi Omura share the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

DSC_3707This was announced by  Urban Lendahl President of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.

Campbell and Omura won half of the prize for their discoveries concerning a nove therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites. And Youyou Tu won the other half for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.

DSC_3714They will get the prize and diploma from the hands of the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf on Dec. 10 in Stockholm.

Green-tech, News, World News

Who can be 2015 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology/ Medicine?

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 5(Greenpost)– According to DN, Swedish Newspaper, Karl Daisseroth, James Allison, Michel Sadelain, Jeffrey Gordon, Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton, Charles Rice are among the list of Nobel Prize winner in 2015 for physiology/Medicine.

The announcement will be made at around 11:30 at Nobel Forum in Karolinska Institutet.

Energy, Environment, Green-tech, News, World News

2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine to be announced in two hours

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Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 5(Greenpost)–2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine to be announced in two hours.

Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday at 11:45.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday at 11:45.

Nobel Prize in Literature will likely be announced on Thursday in Swedish Academy and Nobel Prize in Peace will be announced on Friday in Oslo.

Swedish Riksbanken Prize for Economics in memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced next Monday at 11: 45.  Please stay tuned.

Business, China, Energy, Environment, Green-tech

China launches new climate prediction prototype

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BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — A numerical simulation prototype system that could one day help predict natural disasters debuted in Beijing on Wednesday, the first of its kind to be made by China.

The current iteration can be used by Chinese scientists to support research into short-term climate prediction, and dust and haze control.

The high-performance prototype, which was developed under the lead of the Institute Atmospheric Physics with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is capable of producing a numerical simulation of Earth, and features a support framework and visualization system.

Zhang Minghua, researcher with the institute, said that the prototype system applies features and experience gained from the Earth system model version 1.0, which is used to predict evolution of atmosphere, ocean current, land surface process and ecology.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, in March 2013 urged the scientific community to develop “a numerical simulator of the Earth system.”

This prototype system is the first step toward a full simulator, according to the CAS.

Climate and eco-system changes have become a global scientific problem.

According to statistics with China Meteorological Administration, some 70 percent of all natural disasters are directly related to climate conditions. About 400 million people are affected annually by major climate disasters in China. Enditem

 

Business, China, Energy, Exchange, Green-tech

China-France to increase nuclear fuel recycling

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BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said on Wednesday that it is choosing a site for a Sino-France nuclear power project featuring mass nuclear fuel recycling.

The construction by the CNNC and the France-based Areva is expected to start in 2020 and finish in 2030.

Nuclear recycling refers reprocessing materials which has already been used and recovering unused uranium and plutonium.

The project will reprocess 800 tonnes of materials from domestic nuclear power stations.

The project will also store the spent fuel, manage nuclear power station discharges and solidify liquid waste via vitrification to make safe, clean nuclear power.

It is estimated that spent fuel produced by China’s pressurized water reactors will add up to 23,500 tonnes by 2030.

Yang Changli, vice general manager of the CNNC, said that the project will ease the pressure of storing spent fuel around 2030, improve safety of spent fuel administration and speed up reactor development. Enditem