The achievement of rice monitoring in China using radar remote sensing (RS) technology has been put into practice in some countries and drawn the attention of FAO. Before long, a scientist group headed by Professor Yun SHAO, director of the Key Laboratory of RS Information Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, CAS, published a paper on rice monitoring by radar remote sensing on a well-known international journal, Environment Remote Sensing. The paper was compiled into the FAO Report on the use of space earth observation information for food security.

By using space earth observation (SEO) information for dynamic monitoring of the growth of cereal crops, real-time information on cereal yield can be obtained. Prof. Yun SHAO and her colleagues found a new source of SEO data as well as an effective technical approach for monitoring and yield prediction of rice. With radar remote sensing technology, they have solved the problem of data source in the RS monitoring of rice in rainy regions, especially in southern China. The project revealed for the first time the law governing the backscattering coefficient of rice, it found an effective method for the application of single-parameter radar RS data to agriculture and proposed first the optimum time period for monitoring and yield prediction of rice using this technology, in addition to a composite mode of frequency choices for image acquisition.

Excellence of Chinese Patent Award Conferred upon KIZ

The "Venin used as Substitutes for Stopping Drug Taking and Anti-Senile Dementia Preparations", invented by Professors Yu-liang XIONG and Wan-yu WANG, the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), CAS, was granted the 7th Excellence of Chinese Patent Award jointly by the State Bureau for Intellectual Property Rights and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2001.

The project is to use the neurotoxin and nerve growth factors obtained through purification, enzyme and gene engineering
procession of venom from cobras and pallas pit vipers for making drugs that relieve pain, stop drugging and alleviate senile dementia mainly by blocking neuromuscular postsynaptic acetylcholine in combining with the receptor. The patent comprises two drugs: Ketongning injecta and oral Keloqu pill. They are effective for killing pain and stopping drugging, without addictive effects and better than any conventional drug. They are also effective for the symptoms of senile dementia. At present, both drugs have a total output of more than ten million RMB.