Manufacturing

<p indent="0mm">The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has been dedicating itself to optimizing the “diversified investment” funding mechanism since its establishment in 1986 by constantly deepening the collaboration with other government departments, provincial governments and industrial sectors and encouraging them to set up the joint funds with NSFC to support basic research in the agreed scientific areas. By 2021, nearly 9500 projects were supported by the Joint Funds Program, successfully enhancing the macro-control role of the science fund. In December 2020, the NSFC signed an agreement with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) to establish the Meteorological Joint Fund (MJF) to strengthen cutting-edge research to satisfy the demand for national and social development in meteorological services and build China’s innovation ability in atmospheric sciences. In January 2021, the call for MJF was initially issued online, attracting extensive attention from the atmospheric science community in China. Then, the NSFC received 69 eligible applications. According to the relevant rules, the reviewing procedure included both mail review and panel review. Fourteen key projects were funded based on peer review, with a success rate of 20.3%. The research period was <sc>4 years,</sc> and the average annual funding intensity was 662000 CNY/a, exceeding that of the conventional key programs of the NSFC. To ensure the operation of funding work, the NSFC approved the establishment of the MJF Management Committee (MJFMC). Additionally, an academic experts group (EG) was established by MJFMC to strengthen the top-level design of the fund. The main responsibilities of EG include (1) drafting the annual call for JMF, (2) providing academic suggestions for the projects funded, and (3) other tasks assigned by MJFMC. During their tenure, the experts cannot serve as PIs or Co-PIs for any submitted MJF proposals. Each expert can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms, with two years per term. Additionally, at least one-third of the original members could not be re-elected for the next term. The annual call drafted by EG and proved by MJFMC includes three areas, i.e., “numerical weather model development”, “theory and method of disastrous weather monitoring and forecasting”, and “artificial intelligence for meteorology applications”, respectively. Together with their affiliated research directions, these three areas reflect the frontiers in meteorological science and technologies. In addition to drafting the annual call, EG plays an important role in the peer review of the submitted proposals and in proposing insightful suggestions for the implementation of the projects funded in their kick-off meeting. To promote the development of the basic research of atmospheric sciences, some ideas of the reform measures for MJF management in the future are put forward, that is, identifying the funding strategy, increasing the fund volume, encouraging knowledge transfer to end users, and fostering more talents with the potential to grow into strategic and leading scientists. A three-step funding strategy was proposed based on the analysis of the atmospheric sciences’ funding layout and development trend. In the early stage of MJF, approximately 40 key projects will be funded as soon as possible to fill the funding gap in the field of weather forecasting. Then, in the mid-stage, MJF calls for about 5 integrated projects to integrate and refine the achievements by previously funded key projects. Finally, it is recommended that about two Basic Science Center projects be awarded for promoting the establishment of the China Research Center of Atmospheric Sciences to attract high-level academic leaders and outstanding talents who work together to tackle the deeply cross-disciplinary scientific issues in a relatively long term with stable financial support. The efforts to establish MJF reflect the consensus of the broad atmospheric sciences community on building China’s strength in meteorological science and technology, as well as the NSFC’s funding orientation in the new era of China. Along with implementing the reform measures, MJF will be destined to make significant contributions to reinforce the cooperation between the NSFC and CMA, foster scientific and technological talents, and improve China’s native innovation capabilities in meteorology and its related fields.

According to the principle of being “derived from the logical structure of the knowledge system and promoted through the integration and application of knowledge”, advancement in interdisciplinary research is one of the three core tasks of the deepening reform of the National Natural Science Fund in the new era. This article takes an international vision by first investigating the disciplinary layout and application guide for the field of earth sciences offered by leading international science foundations and agencies including the National Science Foundation, United States (NSF); National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Agence Nationale De Le Recherche; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG); European Research Council; Australian Research Council; Ministry of Business, Innovation &amp; Employment; and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). These application guides include categories of guidelines, extensive application codes, and subdivided application codes. Compared with the existing hierarchical structure for application codes in the field of earth sciences at NSFC, the feasibility and necessity of promoting the optimization of the disciplinary layout and reform of application codes are discussed. Then, it is proposed that the disciplinary layout should be based on the current conditions as well as the future developmental needs of China and that the optimization of application codes should consider the needs of both application guidance rationality and management applicability. Moreover, the setting of application codes should include self-consistent disciplines; exhibit stable inheritance; and support services, emerging intersections, and national needs. To optimize the disciplinary layout, improve the basic research capabilities, and account for the scale of basic research teams and human management resources, the application codes need to be optimized on the basis of three key factors: Extensive application codes, subdivided application codes, and intelligent assistance. Only in this way can the core mission of science foundation management reforms be fulfilled and the goal of building a science foundation management system with advanced concepts, standardized systems, fairness, and efficiency be achieved. In the future, NSFC should focus on the differences between basic scientific research conducted by large and small countries, pay more attention to balanced development in the discipline layout, develop basic general research, and comprehensively promote the growth of the earth science fund. During the past two years, under the guidance of clear, overall strategic planning and top-level design, NSFC’s Department of Earth Sciences has deployed multiple major projects by guidelines, such as those for the major basic science projects of the Sichuan-Tibet railway and frontier projects of basic polar science as well as special projects related to 2019-nCoV research, ecological protection and sustainable development of the Yellow River Basin, and deep-time earth science knowledge graphing and knowledge evolution. These established projects have played key roles in enabling NSFC to meet the major national needs and push forward international scientific frontiers. In the future, NSFC should continue to pay significant attention to strategic research and the top-level design of funding deployment. Moreover, the foundation should strengthen the overall consideration of the top-level strategic results of earth sciences and the layout of the science fund. In practice, the focus should be on the promotion of basic scientific research rather than servicing the other needs of different disciplines. By further improving the condensed mechanism and management methods of the major projects of earth sciences, the important role of guidelines in funding effectiveness will be strengthened. This article can provide the necessary international vision and strategic support for the reform of the application codes of NSFC.

Disrupted Toll-Like Receptor Signalling Of Intestinal Epithelium In Intestinal Graft-Versus-Host Disease

The Role Of Epithelial To Mesenchymal Transition In The Remodeling Of Lung Injury Induced By Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is the major funding agency for China's basic research in natural science. The total budget for NSFC was 26.7 billion Yuan (RMB) in 2017, accounting for 27% of China's total investment in basic research. In the past decades, continuous increases in the National Natural Science Fund and other funding programs provided strong support for the rapid growth in China's science and technology (S&T). In the second half of 2018, NSFC unveiled a deep reform plan that aims to build a fair, efficient and standardized new funding system that meets the demands of excellence in science in the twenty-first century in 5–10 years. Why did NSFC propose this reform? What are the major tasks of this reform? And how would NSFC implement this reform? All-in-all, this reform would not only have profound effect on S&T in China but also matters the world for the global collaborative efforts for the science. Recently, National Science Review had an exclusive interview with Jinghai Li, President of NSFC and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to learn his views and perspectives of the future of NSFC.

The Evolution of Malignant and Reactive γδ+T Cell Clones in Relapse T-ALL After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

<p indent=0mm>Under the guidance of President Xi Jinping’s strategic thinking about how to establish the archaeological science with Chinese characters, style and fashion, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) attaches great importance to archaeological science, and seeks to continuously deepen the reform of its fundamental management system. A new round of disciplines’ application code optimization was launched in April 2020. Under the first-level discipline application code “science of geography (D01)”, a new second-level code “evolution of geographic environments and civilization (D0107)” was established to promote the intersection of the sciences of geography and archaeology, and to further deepen and integrate research on “human-environment relationships”. This paper analyzes the development and difficulties of the archaeological science discipline of the NSFC based on statistics on archaeological science projects funded by the NSFC from 2011 to 2021. From the keyword co-occurrence map and the distribution of research areas, it can be seen that, with NSFC funding, the combination of archaeological science and geographical science continues to deepen, and advances have been made in research theories, research methods and research areas. These advances highlight the fact that with NSFC funding, archaeological science research has become focused more on the relationship between changes in the geographical environment and the evolution of human civilization, and also become clarifies more on the processes, laws and mechanism of the interactions between humans and the environment. For example, through analyzing the research hotspots of archaeological science projects funded by the NSFC in the past <sc>11 years</sc> (from 2011 to 2021), we found that environmental archaeology and archaeological science are the most prominent nodes in the keyword co-occurrence map, indicating that the projects funded by the NSFC fall mainly within environmental archaeology and archaeological science. However, although environmental archaeology is an important part of archaeological science, the NSFC has focused more on environmental archaeology. This is related to the stronger cross-cutting nature of environmental archaeology, and it demonstrates that with NSFC funding, archaeological science is moving to a more interdisciplinary direction. Moreover, by analyzing the distribution of the research areas of archaeological science projects funded by the NSFC in the past <sc>11 years,</sc> it can be seen that, on a large regional scale, the focus has moved from the original “cultural relics archaeological” provinces such as Shaanxi and Henan, to the frontier areas, with particular emphasis on the study of human-environment relationships in the unique ecological environment of the Tibetan Plateau. The newly-established D0107 code can make up for the lack of applications for archaeological science projects from the NSFC, and established an exclusive subject area for applications for archaeological science projects. Finally, we analyze the future role of the NSFC in promoting archaeological science, and propose that the development of the science of geography is conducive to improving and enriching the theory and methodology of archaeological science. In particular, combination with the science of geography will contribute to the transformation of the research paradigm of archaeological science. With the support of the division of geographical sciences of the NSFC, Chinese archaeological science research community will play a more active role in extending the historical axis, strengthening the historical credibility, enriching historical connotation, and revitalizing the historical scenes in China.

To analyze the role of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) on the development of the discipline of Ophthalmology from 1986 to 2010. Data on the total number of projects and funding of NSFC allocated to Ophthalmology, as well as papers published, awards, personnel training, subject construction were collected, and the role of NSFC on other sources of funding was evaluated. From 1986 to 2010, NSFC supported a total of 593 scientific research projects of Ophthalmology, funding a total amount of 152.44 million Yuan, among which were 371 free application projects, 156 Young Scientist Funds, 9 Key Programs, 5 National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 3 Major international (regional) joint research programs, 1 Science Fund for Creative Research Group and 48 other projects. Over the past 25 years, the number of NSFC projects received by Ophthalmology has been an overall upward trend in the share in the Department of Life (Health) Sciences. Take the projects (186 of 292, 63.7%) as examples completed between 2002 and 2010, a total 262 papers were published in Science Citation Index (SCI) included journals and 442 papers were published in Chinese journals. Meanwhile, 8 Second prizes of National Science and Technology Progress Award and 1 State Technological Invention Award were received. As of 2010, the training of a total of more than 40 postdoctoral, more than 400 doctoral students and more than 600 graduate students have been completed. 5 national key disciplines and 1 national key laboratory have been built. Moreover, 2 "973" programs from Ministry of Science and Technology and 1 project of special fund in the public interest from Ministry of Public Health were obtained. 2 scholars were among the list of Yangtze Fund Scholars granted by Ministry of Education. Over the past 25 years, a full range of continuous funding from NSFC has led to fruitful results and a strong impetus to the progress of discipline of Ophthalmology.

Objective: To analysis the projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the fields of occupational health (code H2602) and occupational diseases (code H2402) from 2008 to 2019, to provide a reference for the project application of scientific researchers in the field of occupational diseases in China. Methods: In October 2021, the information of all National Natural Science Foundation projects in the field of occupational health and occupational diseases from 2008 to 2019 was collected through LetPub website. It mainly analyzes the types of funded projects, the types of supporting units, the occupational disease hazard factors of the funded projects, the types of occupational injuries and representative research directions. Results: From 2008 to 2019, the National Natural Science Foundation of China funded a total of 282 projects in the field of occupational health and occupational diseases, with a total funding of 113.902 million yuan. Among them, 138 projects (48.94%) were funded, 96 (34.04%) were funded by youth science funds, and 35 projects (12.41%) were funded by regional science funds. 31 (79.93%) funded projects relied on the type of institutions of higher learning, 126 (46.84%) occupational disease hazard factors were chemical factors, and 83 (30.86%) occupational damage types were lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis. Epigenetic regulation is the most important representative research direction of the funded projects. Conclusion: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) project funding in the field of occupational health and occupational diseases in China has maintained a stable trend, but there are still problems such as incomplete funding system and late start of some research directions.

The amount of the funds supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) played as an important role in judging the capabilities and tendency of scientific research.It is believed that the supporting rate of NSFC is promoted via scientific management policies.To explore the tendency and potential of scientific management plan in the first affiliated hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University,we analyze the projects supported by NSFC of our hospital from 2002 to 2011.Accordingly,our outcomes show the supporting rates of variable programs from NSFC were similar to the average for whole nation.The inspiring policies encourage our staff to put their passion on the scientific research and funding application.The quality of bidding documents for NSFC is partially improved by the suggestions and lecture of invited experts who took the charge of evaluation of funds from NSFC for actively guide,so as to increase goal average.Of note,a cohort of the researchers at the age below 45 did the main contribution to scientific research developing and programs application from NS-FC.Furthermore,we will pay more attention to reach 3 point following:1.the policy of matching fund to strengthen the competition of the researchers all over the nation.2.the policy of Integrated research resources for the major programs.3.further improvement of projects supervision. Key words: NSFC; Project Supervision

Objective To evaluate the funding and output of pancreatitis related projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC),and provide suggestions for the funding strategy in the field of pancreatitis research.Methods Database of funded projects and completion reports of NSFC between 1990 and 2012 were retrieved.The number of grants,amount of grants,types,contents,and paper output of funded projects were respectively analyzed.Results From 2000 to 2012,114 projects involving pancreatitis were funded by NSFC,including 71 general programs (62.3％),8 regional programs,34 youth programs (29.8％),1 key program.The total fund during 2011-2012 reached 25.44 million RMB for pancreatitis research,which was 2.76 times higher than that of 2000-2010.According to PubMed search,93 SCI papers funded by NSFC were published during 2011-2012,which was 2.07 times more than that of 2000-2010.The researches mostly focused on molecular mechanism and therapeutic effect of acute pancreatitis,chronic pancreatitis and severe acute pancreatitis,which accounted for 61.4％ of all projects.Conclusions The number of grants,amount of grants,and NSFC funded SCI paper output of pancreatitis research have grown steadily,and it indicates that long-term funding of NSFC has played a positive role in promoting the development of clinical and basic research in the field of pancreatitis. Key words: Pancreatitis ; NSFC ; Fund ; Support of research ; Government programs ; Progress

The quantum spectrum of interacting electrons confined in a parabolic dot in two dimensions is obtained by employing the perturbation theory. Comparison with the existing analytical results has been made. We show that while the widely used second-order perturbation significantly underestimates the ground state energies, the results including higher orders of perturbation are highly accurate within the B-field range of experimental interest.

Down-Regulation of PPP2R5C Expression Inhibits Proliferation in Leukemic T Cells Proliferation by RNA Interference

The sterilization of the simulated unearthed silk fabrics using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system employing Ar/O2 or He/O2 plasma to inactivate the mycete attached on the silk fabrics is reported. The effects of the APPJ characteristics (particularly the gas type and discharge power) on the fabric strength, physical-chemical structures, and sterilizing efficiency were investigated. Experimental results showed that the Ar/O2 APPJ plasma can inactivate the mycete completely within 4.0 min under a discharge power of 50.0 W. Such an APPJ treatment had negligible impact on the mechanical strength of the fabric and the surface chemical characteristics. Moreover, the Ar ions, O and OH radicals were shown to play important roles on the sterilization of the mycete attached on the unearthed silk fabrics.

With the boom of a new round of scientific and technological revolution, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has launched the Reform Initiatives in a bid to establish a leading science funding system that is guided by advanced concepts, equipped by a well-established mechanism and operated in a fair and efficient manner. To achieve these goals, the NSFC has identified the funding guidance for the new era, which can be summarized in the following four categories: Funding creative and timely ideas to achieve excellence in science, focusing on the frontiers of science in unique ways to lead the cutting edges, supporting application-driven basic research to enable breakthroughs, and encouraging transdisciplinary leading-edge research to promote convergence. In short, these four categories can be abbreviated as C1, C2, C3 and C4, respectively. The four categories correspond to the NSFC’s four functions. C1 stresses on the “incubator” function. It is researchers’ inspirations and creativities that “incubate” scientific hypotheses. The NSFC highlights their free and initiative exploration that is likely to produce original results from scratch. C2 focuses on the “tractor” function. Based on the existing unsolved problems, new science questions are presented, and the answers to these questions are proposed by overcoming obstacles with unique means, including improved methodologies, technologies and theories. The NSFC aims to support the proposals with pioneering endeavours so as to facilitate cutting-edge development. C3 emphasizes the “driver” function. Science questions tend to be application-driven, problem-driven and goal-driven. Therefore, the NSFC encourages applicants to not only tackle the basic scientific issues behind the technical bottlenecks, but also to convert the research results into applicable practices. C4 underlines the “multiplier” function. Since the nature of science questions is cross- disciplinary, the NSFC is committed to promoting the synergy and convergence of knowledge systems through multi- discipline research. In 2019, the discipline of atmospheric sciences (DAS) was selected as a reform pilot by the NSFC. Facing atmospheric sciences transforming from “traditional meteorology” into “Earth system science”, the DAS has provided interpretations of the above four categories of funding guidance. Regarding C1, levels of originality are regarded as the criterion for the measurement of creativity to open up new frontiers. A reference system was established by the DAS to evaluate originality on five levels, i.e., “motherdisciplines” (the basis of science, e.g., mathematics, physics and chemistry), geosciences, and the first level, the second level and the third level of atmospheric sciences. Regarding C2, the DAS encourages applicants to provide answers to challenging questions targeting the global science frontiers of atmospheric sciences and related areas with novel data/methods/technologies/theories. Regarding C3, the DAS is committed to solving the basic scientific problems deeply rooted in the development of the meteorological industry so as to serve the main economic battlefield, strive to fulfill the significant needs of the country and benefit people’s lives and health. Regarding C4, the DAS promotes trans-, cross-, inter-, and multi-disciplinary studies, not only to extend the knowledge chain of traditional meteorology, but also to generate new research paradigms for common fields. The above interpretation lays a solid foundation for the implementation of the category-specific review. It can be expected that such reform measures will be adopted for the funding process covering a wider scope of proposals in the recent future.