National Development and Reform Commission: Fully implement the paid vacation system and encourage off-peak vacations and flexible work and rest.

  On July 31st, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on Measures to Restore and Expand Consumption (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), clearly enriching the consumption of cultural tourism and vigorously developing rural tourism.

  Encourage all localities to formulate and implement policies such as ticket reduction and exemption in scenic spots and free opening in off-season.

  In terms of enriching the consumption of cultural tourism, according to the Notice, we will fully implement the paid vacation system, encourage off-peak vacations, flexible work and rest, and promote holiday consumption. Strengthen the integration of regional tourism brands and services and actively hold cultural and tourism consumption promotion activities. Improve tourism infrastructure, strengthen the construction of smart scenic spots, and improve the quality of tourism services. Encourage all localities to formulate and implement policies such as ticket reduction and exemption in scenic spots and free opening in off-season. On the basis of ensuring tourists’ right to choose independently, we will support different regional scenic spots to cooperate in implementing the joint ticket mode, and encourage scenic spots to implement the one-ticket, multiple-time and multi-day use system in combination with the actual situation to better meet the diversified needs of tourists. Promote the innovation and development of night travel consumption norms, guide museums, cultural centers, amusement parks, etc. to extend their opening hours, and support the construction of a "24-hour living circle" in conditional areas. Create a new space for immersive performing arts and build a new gathering area for cultural tourism consumption.

  Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, pointed out that based on the new situation of the recovery of the cultural tourism market, while continuing the previous promotion fee policies such as ticket discounts, the Measures focused on improving the quality and expanding the supply side. The first is the supply of holidays. The "Measures" put forward "fully implementing the paid vacation system, encouraging off-peak vacations and flexible work and rest". Flexible holiday supply will drive the tourism consumption of illegal holidays, and it is expected to release more consumption kinetic energy from the top-level design. Secondly, the potential of the existing cultural tourism services is tapped and upgraded, and the service scenarios are optimized, such as appropriately extending the business hours of relevant cultural tourism sites, providing joint ticket services for multiple scenic spots, and using one ticket for multiple days. These measures are aimed at better matching the diversified needs and further enhancing consumer confidence with a better service experience. Furthermore, it is the right time to encourage the supply expansion of high-quality cultural products, especially to increase the supply of high-quality cultural products such as drama festivals, music festivals, art festivals, animation festivals and concerts, which will effectively alleviate the current situation that the supply of high-quality performing arts products is in short supply, thus further releasing the consumption potential of the cultural tourism market, and the tourism industry in various places will gain more increments, and the expansion of service consumption in various places will also be strongly supported.

  Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, said that the consumption of cultural tourism should occupy a very important proportion in the current "holiday" economy structure, so it is necessary and timely to introduce detailed policies from multiple angles to "promote" domestic demand again.

  Zhou Weihong pointed out that the consumption of cultural tourism in summer has entered the next stage, and it will be the off-season of cultural tourism by the end of August, so it is necessary to extend the "holiday" through policies to promote consumption. At the same time, a lot of the consumption of cultural tourism in summer is still "rigid". The next off-season travel is to improve the cost performance and compound ratio through the combination of tickets, increase the night show in Wenbo venues, increase the service time, and increase the expenditure on leisure and entertainment in cultural tourism consumption.

  Promote the implementation of rural residential service certification, and cultivate and publish a number of graded tourist homestays.

  In terms of vigorously developing rural tourism, the Notice pointed out that the experience of "Ten Million Projects" in Zhejiang should be popularized to build livable and suitable villages. We will implement the rural revitalization plan of cultural industry empowerment, protect and inherit excellent local culture, revitalize and tap rural cultural tourism resources, and improve the efficiency of rural cultural tourism facilities. Promote the implementation of rural residential service certification, cultivate and publish a number of grade tourist homestays, and create a number of quality homestays. Support business entities to develop products such as forest homes, forest trails, healthy oxygen bars, starry sky camping, motels, etc., and create a number of new formats such as beautiful countryside, landscape agriculture, farming experience, outdoor adventure, outdoor sports, research travel, etc. according to local conditions, and expand rural eco-tourism and leisure travel.

  Zhou Weihong pointed out that vigorously developing rural tourism can not only meet the natural needs of urban and rural residents in tourism consumption at present, but also make them happy through contact and experience with nature, land and folk customs. It can also help farmers to increase their income through the development of the tourism industry chain, and continue to stabilize and expand the achievements of rural revitalization. This is the best policy for both sides.

  Cheng Chaogong said that the requirements for developing rural tourism in the Notice are essentially to provide support for the expansion of tourism consumption from the supply side. On the one hand, the increase of high-quality rural tourism products is of positive significance for further releasing the leisure and holiday demand of urban residents, on the other hand, it is also an important starting point for promoting the transfer of urban consumption to rural areas, and will also have a driving effect on expanding consumption in rural areas.

Promote the integration and development of culture and science and technology according to local conditions

Author: Qian Minghui (Associate Dean and Professor, School of Information Resources Management, Renmin University of China); Ying Zhian (postdoctoral fellow, School of Information Resources Management, Renmin University of China)
In March this year, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed during his inspection tour in Hunan that we should explore an effective mechanism for the integration of culture and science and technology, accelerate the development of new cultural formats, and form more new cultural industry growth points.
At present, global scientific and technological innovation is in an unprecedented active period. With the development of emerging technologies such as 5G, 3D visual sensing, nano 3D/4D printing and artificial intelligence, the cultural industry is experiencing great changes in technical basis, business logic, service mode and consumer groups.
There are differences in the integration of culture and science and technology in different places.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has attached great importance to the integration of culture, science and technology. In 2012, "promoting the integration of culture and science and technology" was written into the report of the 18th CPC National Congress; In 2019, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Deep Integration of Culture and Science and Technology was promulgated; In 2022, the "Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the National Cultural Digitization Strategy" was issued to raise the integration and development of culture and science and technology to the national strategic height; In 2023, the "Overall Layout Plan of Digital China Construction" was issued, and the integration of culture, science and technology entered the practical stage.
At present, there are differences in the integration of culture, science and technology across the country. Beijing has 11 national demonstration bases for cultural and technological integration, and 60% of the digital entertainment "unicorn" enterprises in China, which has obvious advantages in the development of cultural and technological integration. Guangdong province focuses on the development of digital industries such as digital creativity, network audio-visual, animation and games, and has made outstanding achievements in improving the user experience of digital cultural products and services. Although the innovation benefits of related cultural industries in Hunan Province are among the best, the digitalization process is still in the early stage. Hainan province has demonstrated strong scientific and technological strength in related fields, but there is still room for further development in the operation planning of characteristic cultural industries. Many provinces in northwest China are restricted by industrial structure and economic environment, and the development of cultural digitalization is relatively slow.
Three aspects to respond to the integration challenge
The integration of culture and science and technology in different regions of China faces different challenges, so it is necessary to promote the integration and development of culture and science and technology according to local conditions, especially in the following three aspects.
First, integrate regional resources, tap local characteristics, and explore the development direction of cultural and scientific integration. The long history and cultural accumulation are intertwined with the development of modern digital technology, which has jointly shaped the unique advantages of cultural and scientific resources in various regions of China. Local governments should accurately sort out and integrate the cultural resources in the region based on their own actual conditions, which can not only protect and inherit the cultural heritage more effectively, but also provide rich cultural support and inspiration for scientific and technological innovation. The unique cultural resources such as history, geography and folk customs in each region constitute the foundation for the development of local cultural industries. Cultural resources with unique regional characteristics and humanistic connotation are not only the core competitiveness of local cultural industries, but also guide the development of cultural science and technology integration, which has irreplaceable value. To this end, all localities should further explore local cultural characteristics, use advanced scientific and technological means to empower superior cultural industries, and promote the deep integration of local cultural prosperity and scientific and technological innovation. For example, relying on its rich cultural resources and advanced digital technology, Beijing has set a good example for the integration of culture, science and technology. Cultural institutions such as the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China actively innovate and present intangible culture and precious cultural relics to the general audience in a brand-new way with the help of "internet plus" and modern scientific and technological means, which not only enhances the public’s cultural experience, but also promotes the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage, providing valuable experience and enlightenment for the deep integration of science and technology and culture.
The second is to create multiple scenarios, promote the application of results, and form a new growth point for the integration of culture and science and technology. In recent years, the rapid development of digital technology has injected new vitality into the cultural industry. In the wave of digital transformation in the new era, we should actively create diversified cultural scenes with the help of cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and panoramic presentation, so as to provide users with more open, diverse and personalized choices and bring more vivid and intuitive immersive experiences. The introduction of advanced technology subverts the traditional way of cultural presentation, greatly enriches the connotation and form of cultural experience, is conducive to the birth of more new cultural formats, and has become an important breakthrough in promoting the integration of culture and technology. Therefore, we should further take the diversified demand of the market as the guide, accurately apply the scientific and technological achievements in line with users’ preferences to the actual cultural scene, effectively promote the benign interaction between supply and demand, enhance the competitiveness of the cultural industry, promote the transformation and upgrading of the scientific and technological industry, and then form a new growth point of cultural and technological integration. For example, "Xiangjian Tuojiang", the first water-immersed art cruise project in China launched by Fenghuang Ancient City in Hunan Province, is one of the successful cases. The project skillfully combines various forms of science and technology, and meticulously creates a feast of light and shadow on the banks of the river and a national style audio-visual, so that visitors can deeply feel the love story between Cuicui and Nuo Song in Shen Congwen’s famous book "Border Town" in the colorful light and shadow interaction, which has won warm response and wide praise.
The third is to strengthen the support of talents, optimize the technical environment, and ensure the vitality of cultural and technological integration and innovation. The practice of cultural science and technology integration in China presents different modes, such as resource digitalization, process empowerment, enrichment, communication optimization and compound reinforcement. In different modes, science and technology act on different links of cultural industry. For example, the digital resource model is to use digital technology to collect, store, manage and protect cultural resources, aiming at promoting the wide sharing of cultural resources; The process empowerment model pays attention to the cultural creation link and updates the creative way through the application of big data, cloud computing, big model and other technologies; Presenting the rich mode is to enrich the cultural content experience with the help of digital technologies such as VR and AR. Therefore, each region needs to combine its own cultural characteristics and advantageous industries, strengthen the training of talents in specific fields according to different integration modes, ensure the accurate docking of professional talents and industrial needs, and provide solid talent support for promoting the practice of cultural and scientific integration. In addition, colleges and universities, research institutions and leading enterprises are encouraged to cooperate closely to jointly build platforms such as science and technology incubators in the cultural field, pool human resources, optimize the technological environment, accelerate the transformation and application of cultural and scientific achievements, and inject continuous innovation vitality into the integration of cultural and scientific achievements.
(This paper is one of the research results of the key project of National Social Science Fund "Innovation and Application of Information Analysis Method Based on the Integration of Numbers and Intelligences". )
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Reporting/feedback

Ministry of Civil Affairs: In the first half of the year, 505 people were killed and 71 people were missing due to various natural disasters.

  BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhua) According to the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, it was approved that in the first half of 2016, floods, wind and hail and geological disasters were the main natural disasters in China, and earthquakes, low-temperature freezing, droughts, snowstorms and forest fires also occurred to varying degrees. All kinds of natural disasters caused a total of 68.775 million people to be affected, 505 people died and 71 people were missing. The affected area of crops was 73.211 thousand hectares, and the direct economic loss was 89.04 billion yuan.

  Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Office of the National Disaster Reduction Committee, together with the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Health and Family Planning Commission, the Bureau of Statistics, the Forestry Bureau, the Seismological Bureau, the Meteorological Bureau, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Oceanic Administration, the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, the China Red Cross Society, China Railway Corporation and other departments, discussed and analyzed the national natural disasters in the first half of 2016.

  It is approved that in the first half of 2016, floods, wind and hail and geological disasters were the main natural disasters in China, and earthquakes, low-temperature freezing, droughts, snowstorms and forest fires also occurred to varying degrees. All kinds of natural disasters have caused a total of 68.775 million people to be affected, 505 people were killed, 71 people were missing, 1.643 million people were transferred and resettled urgently, and 1.199 million people needed emergency life assistance; 104,000 houses collapsed and 1.112 million houses were damaged to varying degrees; The affected area of crops is 7321.1 thousand hectares, of which 784.1 thousand hectares will not be harvested; The direct economic loss was 89.04 billion yuan.

  In the first half of 2016, natural disasters in the country mainly showed the following characteristics: First, the spatial and temporal distribution of disasters in the country was uneven. More than 1,800 counties (cities, districts) in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) are affected by natural disasters to varying degrees. Compared with the same period since 2011, the number of dead and missing people is slightly higher, and the rest of the disaster indicators are lighter by more than 20%. In terms of disaster types, earthquake disasters and drought disasters are obviously lighter than normal, low-temperature freezing and snow disasters are the same as normal, floods and geological disasters are slightly heavier, and wind and hail disasters are obviously heavier; From the time point of view, from January to May, the national disaster situation was obviously light. In June, floods, wind and hail and geological disasters occurred suddenly and repeatedly, and the time period was relatively concentrated, and the disaster situation developed extremely rapidly. Regionally, compared with the same period in recent years, the disaster situation in Southwest and Northwest China is obviously lighter, but the disaster situation in East China is relatively heavy. The main disaster indicators are the second highest since 2011, and the number of people missing due to disasters exceeds the average of recent years by more than 2 times.

  Second, there are frequent storms and floods in the south, and the pattern of disasters is obvious. Since the flood season began on March 21st, the national average precipitation has been more than 20% higher than normal, which is the highest in the same period of history since 1961. There have been more than 20 regional rainstorm processes in the southern region, which is the highest in the same period of history. There have been more than 20 floods in major rivers, and the total flood volume has been more than 30%. Affected by this, many major floods and geological disasters have occurred in many places in the south. In May, the mudslide in Taining, Fujian Province caused 36 deaths and disappearances. In the first half of June, the Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou regions and Anhui and Hubei provinces suffered major floods one after another, which seriously affected the economic and social development of the disaster areas and the safety of people’s lives and property.

  In the first half of the year, floods (including geological disasters) caused 34.028 million people in more than 1,000 counties (cities and districts) in 26 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) to be affected, 367 people died and disappeared due to disasters, and 1.419 million people were resettled urgently; 68,000 houses collapsed and 469,000 houses were damaged to varying degrees; The affected area of crops is 2,636.6 thousand hectares, of which 329 thousand hectares will not be harvested; The direct economic loss was 45.51 billion yuan. Generally speaking, the floods and geological disasters in the first half of the year were basically the same as those in the same period of recent years, showing a pattern of "emphasizing the south but neglecting the north". The main disaster indicators in 13 southern provinces such as Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei, Anhui and Fujian accounted for more than 70% of the country, and the number of people missing due to disasters accounted for more than 90%.

  Third, there are many strong convective weather and the wind and hail disasters are prominent. Since the flood season, there have been 26 large-scale severe convective weather processes in China, which have affected more than 1,100 counties (cities, districts) in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), ranking the second highest in the same period since 2011. Extreme weather events are obviously more frequent. The number of days of gale stations with magnitude 10 or above exceeds the sum of the past four years, and the number of heavy hail (with a diameter of more than 20 mm) is the highest in the same period since 2011.

  In the first half of the year, the wind and hail disaster caused 17.822 million people to be affected, 191 people died and disappeared due to the disaster, and 75,000 people were urgently transferred and resettled; 35,000 houses collapsed and 486,000 houses were damaged to varying degrees; The affected area of crops is 2,142.2 thousand hectares, of which 246.7 thousand hectares will not be harvested; The direct economic loss was 21.4 billion yuan.

  Generally speaking, the situation of wind and hail disasters is obviously biased, and the number of people who died and disappeared due to disasters and the direct economic losses are the highest since 2011. Among them, the disasters in Jiangsu, Shanxi, Xinjiang and Corps are the most prominent. On June 23, the tornado and hail disaster in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province killed 99 people. In the first half of June, the wind and hail disaster in Shanxi caused 140 thousand people to need emergency life assistance; In late June, the wind and hail disaster in Xinjiang and Corps caused about 100,000 hectares of crops to be affected (including 30,000 hectares), resulting in serious economic losses.

  Fourth, the level of seismic activity is weak and the loss is obviously light. There were 9 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or above in Chinese mainland, including 2 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above, the number of which was the least in the same period since 2011. The highest magnitude was the linkou county earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on January 2, and the Menyuan earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on January 21, Qinghai. The provinces where earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or above occurred involved five provinces (autonomous regions) including Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Xizang, Qinghai and Xinjiang, and Xizang had the most occurrences (four times). Among them, the earthquake with M = 6.4 in Menyuan County, Qinghai Province on January 21st and the earthquake with M = 5.5 in Dingqing County, Xizang Province on May 11th caused the heaviest losses, which totally damaged 89,000 houses in Gansu, Qinghai and Xizang provinces (autonomous regions) to varying degrees, resulting in direct economic losses of 2.63 billion yuan. Overall, the earthquake disaster in the first half of the year was obviously lighter than that in the same period of recent years, and the main disaster indicators were the lowest values in the same period since 2011, and were less than the average value in 2011-2015 by more than 70%.

  Fifth, the impact of drought is limited, and low-temperature freezing and snow disasters affect the south. Some areas in Inner Mongolia, North China, Huanghuai and Northwest China have suffered from droughts in spring and summer. Due to the timely rainfall in the later period, the losses caused by drought are obviously lighter than those in the same period of recent years, and the area affected by crops and crops are only about 10% of the average in the same period since 2011. China has suffered many large-scale cold waves, freezing rain, snow and freezing weather processes. Among them, the large-scale low-temperature freezing and snow disaster in the country was the most prominent in late January, with the maximum cooling range of 12℃-18℃. The southern cities such as Guangzhou and Nanning experienced snowfall for the first time in many years. In mid-May, most of the northwest was affected by the continuous strong cold air, and the sudden cooling caused the loss of crops such as corn and wheat to be prominent. In the first half of the year, 13.524 million people were affected by low-temperature freezing and snowstorm, and the affected area of crops was 17.119 thousand hectares, of which 1.577 thousand hectares were rejected and the direct economic loss was 16.71 billion yuan. Generally speaking, the disasters of low temperature freezing and snowstorm are close to the same period in recent years.

A n experienced person sees "Asia’s largest college entrance examination factory": it’s not heaven or prison.

  Maotanchang Middle School, located in Maotanchang Town, jin an district, Lu ‘an City, is known as "the largest college entrance examination factory in Asia" because tens of thousands of students take the college entrance examination every year, and even attracts foreign attention. Some people say that this is a paradise for repeat students, which allows many people to be admitted to undergraduate courses and fulfill their college dreams; Some people say that this is a prison, and its militarized management has destroyed many people’s youth. After all, it is inevitable to fall into emotional judgment, and it is impossible to outline the true appearance of this school.

  The reporter of Jinling Evening News interviewed a "witness" who re-read in Maotanchang Middle School in 2006. Trying to restore a more real Maotan factory middle school from his self-report. In the eyes of this "witness", it is neither heaven nor hell, but a large-scale and efficient high school under the current education system. Respect for the wishes of the interviewee, his name is hidden in this article, and the reporter recorded the following content from his perspective. After several years, the "witness" said that some details may be slightly different from the present, so I hereby explain.

  □ Jinling Evening News reporter Pan Dong

  My story

  Repeat for one year, from junior college to "211" university.

  In 2006, I graduated from a third-rate high school in a town in Lu ‘an City. The teaching in this school was extremely average, and I didn’t work hard enough myself. Of course, my score in the college entrance examination was a mess. I remember that the total score was more than 450 points, while the admission line for this year was 493 points. That is to say, I can only go to a junior college, and I may not be able to fill in a good major. At that time, there were two roads in front of me. One was to stop studying, get a job in the society, and then get married and have children. The other was to repeat studies and go to Maotan Factory Middle School, which has a good reputation.

  Although I was hesitant, my father insisted on sending me, and finally went to Maotan Factory Middle School in July of that year. One year’s hard work, the content is far more than the past three years, of course, the results are gradually improving. According to my own judgment, it is no problem to be admitted to this second school, and at most it is a university that is behind this one.

  In June 2007, I took the college entrance examination for the second time, and the result was very ideal, even exceeding expectations — — The total score is 582 points, which is more than 30 points more than that of the previous year. There is no problem in getting into a better university. I applied to many universities in Jiangsu, including a "985" university and a "211" university in Nanjing, and was finally admitted to this "211" university.

  "College Entrance Examination Factory" in My Eyes

  A small town in the mountains around the school

  When it comes to Maotanchang Middle School, we have to mention Maotanchang Town where it is located. It is reported that the school is the heart of the town, which is not an exaggeration. Soon after I entered the school, I found that this small town in the mountain is running around the school, in all aspects.

  Because of the large number of students, school dormitories are far from enough, students, especially repeat students, choose to rent houses outside the school, which has become the biggest means for small town residents to make a living. Originally, they have been farming for generations, or they have gone to work in cities with the tide of work. Although the income is brought by the students, the local residents know that it is the credit of the school, so all aspects cooperate with the school’s work. The landlords of each family have close ties with the school, and sometimes students stay out at night, which can be reflected to the class teacher that night.

  In addition to renting houses, small restaurants, shops, food markets, barbershops, stationery stores, etc. in the town all revolve around the school, so that in many detailed reports, there is such a scene. During class, the town is empty and there are not many pedestrians on the street, but at lunch or dinner, the town becomes buzzing almost instantly, and the school gate can be described as jostling with each other. The restaurant sells the prepared food to the door, and the students are choosing meals.

  The most interesting thing is that there are also several Internet cafes in the town, but people who look like students are never allowed to go in. Perhaps this is also a "tacit understanding" between schools and businesses.

  The gathering of repeat students with moderate grades

  In 2007, more than 10,000 students from Maotanchang Middle School took part in the college entrance examination. Many people who don’t know the situation are wondering how this high school can recruit so many people. In fact, the main body of the school is not the freshmen, but the repeat students who come from all over the world.

  I can’t prove it. In the end, from which year, the reputation of Maotan Factory Middle School’s good repetition effect began to spread in the local area. However, judging from the usual monthly exam and the final college entrance examination results, both the number and high scores of repeat students accounted for a large proportion.

  According to my observation, the school has its own set of standards for repeat students. When I entered school that year, because the first year’s college entrance examination was more than 450 points, I only paid a symbolic fee of several hundred yuan (based on the second score line, five yuan less). If I didn’t meet the minimum score line required by the school, I needed to pay ten thousand yuan for the entrance fee, which was actually to set a threshold for students with low scores.

  Therefore, the main body of repeat students is a group of students with medium grades. They either have poor foundation or one or two weak subjects. The main reason is poor study habits, and most of them have no self-control, but overall, their talents are not bad.

  Efficient Training and Saved Mathematics

  Perhaps readers are curious, how can this school improve the grades of repeat students so much in just one year? At that time, I didn’t know much about its teaching methods. I still remember the words of the head teacher in that year, "Our method is two horizontal and one vertical, dry!" Looking back now, I find that it is an efficient training under the simple truth.

  In the students’ view, as soon as they entered the middle school, they began to review high school knowledge from the beginning, and a large number of test papers were synchronized. At first, they were extremely uncomfortable, but such training gradually showed results. Take my weakest math as an example. In 2006, I only got more than 80 points in the college entrance examination. I didn’t even pass the exam with a perfect score of 150 points, but I got 121 points in 2007, which has achieved my best level. Careful investigation, in fact, benefited from the full training of each chapter, although only more than 90 points or more than 100 points can be scored, but in the college entrance examination, which attaches importance to the foundation and has a comprehensive assessment, once the foundation of each chapter is integrated, you can get a good total score.

  Behind the efficient training is the study of the college entrance examination questions. I found that no matter which subject teachers are very familiar with the college entrance examination questions, it should be the result of the joint study of the teaching and research group. It is worth mentioning that although the school has more training than other schools, students are never advised to do difficult problems except for particularly excellent students. Instead, they are trained repeatedly around the basic knowledge of the college entrance examination. A teacher once said, "The college entrance examination is a basic examination, and the topic should be done by most people, so it should be targeted."

  Militarized management with only half a day off every week

  Matching with efficient training is militarized management, which is mainly reflected in time management and discipline management. In 2007, when I was at school, I usually began to study by myself at 6:00 in the morning, and had a normal rest during recess, noon and evening. However, most students and children chose to study, some even asked others to buy meals for them, and studied at night until 10:50. Some students had to study a little longer until the classroom was turned off, and after returning to the rented room off campus, the more diligent students had to study for a while.

  Not only the daily time is strictly managed, but also the weekly and monthly time. When I was at school, I only had a rest on Sunday afternoon for half a day. Most students used it for laundry, shopping and sleeping. At first, I took a monthly exam, and later, I took a weekly exam every Saturday. As for holidays, the school also took a day or two off at most. In short, we should squeeze out as much time as possible to study.

  Discipline management is also very strict. It is common for the class teacher to find out about the decline in weekly and monthly exam results. If the behavior is not good for a period of time, it will inevitably be found to talk. If it is more serious, parents will be called and students will be expelled under special circumstances. Like many other high schools, the head teacher often looks inside the classroom during self-study. The most memorable thing is that there is a monitor on the roof above the podium of each classroom, which the head teacher occasionally uses. Love can’t be absolutely absent, but it’s really difficult in practice. I stay at school most of the time and have no time and space.

  Teachers with high pay and return.

  When it comes to Maotan Factory Middle School, I have to mention the teachers of the school. To be honest, compared with the teachers in the city, they are not particularly excellent. As far as I know, the way for schools to recruit teachers is usually a written test plus an interview. The written test is the college entrance examination paper of that year, and the interview is to have a class in the classroom. The final selection is all adapted to the school teaching model, which also explains why many former students return to school to teach after graduating from college. My head teacher was that year.

  But the efforts of this group of teachers are absolutely incomparable to those of many teachers in the city. Students usually get up at 5:30 and read early at 6: 00, so the teacher must get to the classroom earlier and get up earlier. Students study by themselves at night until 10:50, and the teacher must wait for all the students to leave, which means going to bed later. In addition, students’ high-intensity test paper training also brings more correction work and explanation tasks to teachers.

  High pay also has high return. As far as I know, the salary of school teachers is much higher than that of teachers in similar schools. As early as 2007, the income of ordinary teachers was six or seven thousand yuan, and the head teacher may be higher. After the college entrance examination, the school will also give bonuses to teachers according to the results of the class college entrance examination. For example, there are clear regulations on how much a book costs and how much a book costs.

  In addition, the welfare is also quite good. In the mountains deep in the school, teachers are provided with housing, clothes will be distributed every year, free meals will be eaten in the school cafeteria, and teachers will be organized to travel abroad after the college entrance examination. I heard privately in 2007 that teachers have found it boring to go to Xinmatai and want to go to Europe.

  Difficulties and superstitions of accompanying parents

  Finally, I have to talk about a unique phenomenon in this school — — Accompany reading. Like Mao Zhong, it is suitable for repeating classes. Somehow, parents feel that accompanying students is beneficial for their children to achieve better grades. Objectively speaking, children can really save more time to study when parents accompany them to do laundry and cook for them, but parents accompanying them also bring invisible pressure to their children.

  On the other hand, it is still very difficult for most parents to accompany them. Most of them come from the surrounding towns and villages. Originally, the husband and wife worked together to earn money. In order to accompany their children, the financial burden of the whole family fell on one person. It is not cheap to rent a small house in Maotan Factory. It used to be hundreds of yuan to more than a thousand yuan a month, but now it is rising even higher, and there are rising prices every year. The accompanying party has to arrange the children’s lives with limited money and bear great psychological pressure. Of course, with the expansion of the school’s reputation, more and more urban children come to repeat their studies, and parents come to accompany them, followed by the square dance and mahjong room.

  In external reports, it is often mentioned that the so-called sacred tree in the school is "worshipped" by accompanying parents. This kind of superstition does exist. This tree is near the right wall in the school. Two years ago, I saw with my own eyes that there was a pile of ash more than one meter high on the wall outside the school, all of which were accumulated by superstitious parents burning incense. Behind it, it was just a psychological comfort.

  The Future of "College Entrance Examination Factory"

  Extend downward and run a branch school … … Copy the mode of running a school

  In recent years, every time the media reports on Maotan Factory Middle School, they pay attention to its grand entrance examination, and sometimes look back on its college entrance examination resume, with little or no mention of where such a huge school will go.

  I think that as long as the current examination system continues, this school, which can enable more students to realize their college dreams, will have the soil for existence. What has to be considered is that in recent years, the only-child generation has been attending high school, and the number of students is indeed decreasing. Moreover, because of the current situation of difficult employment, parents are no longer satisfied with the result of spending money and time to finally enter a second-year college.

  The number of repeat students is shrinking, and the school has not only discovered it, but also begun to plan the future. As far as I know, in recent years, what Maotan Factory Middle School is doing is to copy its own school-running model. There are probably two ways. One is to extend to junior high schools and primary schools. For example, a private school from primary school to high school in another county was successfully acquired by it and sent management to settle in; The second is to run a branch school. Like the third-rate high school where I am located, the brand of Maotanchang Middle School Branch has been hung up, and the results of the college entrance examination have been getting better and better in recent years.

  Some people applaud this kind of replication, thinking that it is to let more students enjoy high-quality educational resources, while others worry that it may lead to the homogenization of schools in the region. However, under the background of exam-taking, this is probably a false proposition, and no one can come up with a convincing conclusion.

  In short, Mao Zhong was "demonized" by many people outside. It’s really hard to study there, but it’s not "abused" to the point of abnormal condition. Maozhong is just a place where the "routine" of the college entrance examination is thoroughly understood. Therefore, instead of saying "magic" in Mao, it is better to reflect on the college entrance examination system, which can be dismantled one by one by people and dealt with in a modular way.

The duty of the government is to conform to the people’s will and solve problems for the people.

  On the morning of March 11th, the Fifth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress held a press conference in the Great Hall of the People, and Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China attended the press conference. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Bogu photo

  Reduce taxes and fees

  Before the end of June this year, the remaining tax credits for small and micro enterprises will be refunded in one lump sum.

  Reporter from American Consumer News and Business Channel: According to relevant research conducted by the National Finance and Development Laboratory, fee reduction is the biggest help for small enterprises, followed by tax reduction. Can you share with us specific data about the impact of tax reduction and fee reduction? In addition, due to the slowdown in the development of the real estate market, local government finances have decreased. What are your considerations in this regard? And when it comes to consumption, will the government consider issuing consumer vouchers and other similar policy measures?

  Li Keqiang: The conclusion should be supported by theory and practice. From our practice in recent years, the effect of tax reduction and fee reduction is the most direct. I remember talking to more than a dozen entrepreneurs in the eastern region last year. They talked about the difficulties in the operation of enterprises and hoped that the state would introduce some macro-support policies. I said at that time that the central government’s policy reserves were available, but they needed to be used centrally. There are three choices, but you can only make multiple-choice questions, that is, choose one out of three. First, large-scale investment, maybe you can get an order. Second, issuing coupons may directly stimulate consumption. The third is to reduce taxes and fees for enterprises, stabilize employment and promote investment and consumption. They were silent for a while and almost replied with one voice, we chose the third option. Because this is the most direct, fair and efficient. Judging from the relevant reports I received this year, tax reduction and fee reduction are generally regarded as the first expectation of the government’s macro policy. It seems that fertilization has to be applied to the roots, and the roots can flourish.

  I also saw from the materials that some people are worried that the marginal effect has been decreasing after the tax reduction and fee reduction has been implemented for several years, that is to say, the effect is not as great as before. The large-scale tax reduction and fee reduction we implemented this time is a combination of tax rebate and tax reduction, with a scale of 2.5 trillion yuan. When the economy was hit hardest in 2020, it was such a large policy scale that we finally survived, and this time we adjusted the structure and put the tax rebate first. The so-called tax refund means that according to the design of the value-added tax system, the market subject is similar to the tax paid first and then returned. We adopt the method of early tax refund, that is, we will refund the remaining tax to the enterprise at one time, with a scale of more than 1.5 trillion yuan. If the effect is good, we will increase our efforts.

  We give priority to small and micro enterprises in tax refund, because small and micro enterprises are large in quantity and wide in scope, support a large number of employed people, and now it is the most tense and difficult time for them to have funds. Therefore, before the end of June this year, we will refund the remaining tax credits of small and micro enterprises in one lump sum, fully solve the remaining tax credits of some key industries such as manufacturing, R&D services and so on, and solve the incremental tax rebates for small and micro enterprises month by month. When I participated in the discussion in the CPPCC, a CPPCC member was an entrepreneur, and he told me that compared with other measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction and investment, the tax rebate effect came fastest and best. There may be many twists and turns in running a project. Tax refund is equivalent to finding money directly for enterprises and increasing cash flow, which is timely rain. It seems that it is better to say a thousand words than to do something practical, and this key measure must be put in place.

  Reducing taxes and fees is a subtraction, but it is also an addition in essence, because if you retire today, you will increase tomorrow. If you reduce today, you may increase tomorrow. Last year, the money paid by the new tax market participants exceeded the money we reduced taxes in that year, which is recorded. Since we implemented the value-added tax reform in 2013, it has been reduced by 8.7 trillion yuan under the guidance of tax reduction. At that time, our fiscal revenue was about 11 trillion yuan, and last year it exceeded 20 trillion yuan, nearly doubling. Because enterprises have benefited from this process, the benefits have increased. It can be said that there are many fish in the deep water, which is to conserve tax sources and cultivate and expand market players.

  Just now, you said that local fiscal revenue has encountered new difficulties, and we have noticed it. Therefore, this year’s increase in transfer payments from the central government to local governments is rare for many years, with an increase of 18% and a total scale of 9.8 trillion yuan. The tax rebate is mainly paid by the central government, and of course, local governments have to "chip in". Our tax refund money goes directly to enterprises. Considering the difficulties of the grassroots, our transfer payment subsidy funds go directly to the grassroots below the city and county. Local governments should be "iron cocks", and they should not spend any money they shouldn’t spend. They should not spend any less money on market players. An extra point would add luster.

  Situation in Ukraine

  Support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis.

  Reuters: Since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, two million refugees and hundreds of civilians have died. People are also worried about the prospect of nuclear escalation, but China has never condemned Russia’s behavior or called it "invasion". Will China not condemn Russia anyway? Will China further provide economic and financial support to Russia in the face of sanctions? Are you worried that this will be negatively affected by sanctions from other countries?

  Li Keqiang: As I said just now, China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace. Regarding the situation in Ukraine, China advocates that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be observed, and the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously. China makes our own judgment on this basis and is willing to play an active role in returning to peace with the international community.

  The current situation in Ukraine is indeed worrying. We should do our utmost to support Russia and Ukraine to overcome difficulties and negotiate a peaceful outcome. We support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis. It is urgent to avoid the tension from escalating or even getting out of control, and the international community and all parties have a consensus on this.

  China calls for maximum restraint to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis. China has put forward an initiative to deal with the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

  At present, the world economy is already very difficult because of the impact of the epidemic, and the relevant sanctions will have an impact on the recovery of the world economy, which is not good for all parties. China is willing to make its own constructive efforts to safeguard world peace and stability and promote development and prosperity.

  stabilize employment

  Give full play to the wisdom of ordinary people, and the big stage of employment will be colorful

  Reporter from China Central Radio and Television General Station: At present, we have seen that some enterprises have unstable expectations, some industries have reduced their jobs, and some enterprises have laid off employees. On the other hand, the new population in need of employment is increasing. May I ask the Prime Minister, what measures will we take this year to achieve the goal of stable employment?

  Li Keqiang: Employment is not only a livelihood issue, but also a development issue. Only when you have employment can you earn money, make a living and create wealth for the society. I remember when I went to the enterprise for investigation last year, a person in charge of the enterprise told me that in August, many employees advanced their wages to him. Why? Children have to pay tuition in September. Before the Spring Festival, I went to the northwest countryside for investigation. A farmer told me that it costs more than 10,000 yuan a year for one of his children to go to college, and more than 8,000 yuan a year for another child to go to high school. It is impossible to grow a few acres of land, but there must be income from working. I am really moved by our people. They are working hard. Working and getting jobs are not only related to the current family livelihood, but also strive for a better future for the next generation.

  This year, we will strengthen the implementation of macro policies, and fiscal and monetary policies should focus on achieving employment goals. Therefore, we emphasize that employment priority is also a macro policy, and other policies should be matched to achieve employment goals. At present, we must create more than 11 million new urban jobs every year, and it is better to have more than 13 million people. I always feel that as long as we achieve full employment, we can realize what some people call the potential economic growth rate of China. For example, when the epidemic hit hard in 2020, we didn’t set an economic growth target, but we set a clear target, that is, more than 9 million new urban jobs were created, and as a result, more than 11 million new urban jobs were created. The economy not only achieved positive growth, but also the growth rate reached 2.2%, which was the only one among major economies to achieve positive growth.

  This year, the number of new urban laborers who need employment has reached about 16 million, the highest in many years. There are 10.76 million college graduates, the highest in history. There are also nearly 300 million migrant workers who have the opportunity to work, and they must also ensure the employment of retired soldiers. There are still some enterprises that live and die, and some people want to re-employment. The new labor force in cities and towns is growing, and a new employment platform is needed. For the newly-added people who need employment, we should give them various support measures such as training and solve the employment problem by market-oriented methods. For example, in recent years, we have been promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting the development of new technologies, new formats and new models, and cultivating new kinetic energy. We believe that ordinary people are intellectually intelligent, and if their special skills and intelligence are brought into play, the big stage of employment will be colorful.

  Flexible employment has to be mentioned here, because there are more than 200 million people in this field, with various forms and wide coverage. As a developing country, this form of employment will exist for a long time. It is really hard for them to come and go in the wind and rain, and many places are providing them with warm-hearted services. In view of their labor rights, social security and other issues, the government should gradually improve the policy, that is to say, these "riders" should be tied with "safety belts", so that new employment forms such as flexible employment can not only solve urgent needs, but also stimulate market vitality and social creativity.

  Optimize the business environment

  The government must carry out the reform with the cutting edge inward, so that the market players can emerge one after another and be full of vitality

  Xinhua News Agency: In recent years, although China’s business environment has improved, market players have increased substantially, and enterprises have made things much more convenient, there are still many kinds of interference. What efforts will the government make to optimize the business environment and stimulate market vitality and creativity under the current circumstances?

  Li Keqiang: In recent 10 years, the State Council has held a national conference every year to promote the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform and optimize the business environment. I also noticed that at the beginning of this year, many places held meetings around the theme of improving the business environment. It can be said that the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform is to improve the growing soil for market players, to reduce taxes and fees is to fertilize and water them, and mass entrepreneurship and innovation are to promote more market players to take root. As long as we bring people’s creativity into play and stimulate the vitality of market players, everyone can imagine the vivid situation of the economy. However, the government must carry out the reform with the cutting edge inward, and can’t let the government departments turn around their own power, but through the reform, the market players will emerge one after another and be full of vitality.

  It is more difficult to touch the interests than the soul. However, the importance of government is constant. In recent years, we have continued to promote market-oriented reform and the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform. More than 1,000 administrative licenses have been decentralized or cancelled, and non-administrative licenses have withdrawn from the historical stage. In the past, it took dozens of days to get a license for running a business, and it took hundreds of days. Now it takes an average of four days nationwide and one day in the least places. At present, about 90% of government services are online, handheld, off-site, and not met. In fact, this is breaking the barriers of interests and breaking through the traditional thinking. We will continue to promote measures that benefit enterprises and benefit the people.

  Through the continuous improvement of the business environment in recent years, China’s market entities have reached 150 million, a net increase of about 100 million compared with 10 years ago, mainly private market entities, including 100 million individual industrial and commercial households. Don’t underestimate individual industrial and commercial households, they are connected with the livelihood of many people at one end and the consumption of the public at the other. When I participated in the discussion in the CPPCC, those entrepreneurs said that if small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households did not get through the "micro blood vessels", large and medium-sized enterprises and even state-owned enterprises and central enterprises would not be able to move.

  Let’s take a look at the places with good economic development. There are great reforms, good business environment and many market players, so the economy is full of enthusiasm. Of course, I have repeatedly stressed that "liberalization" and "management" go hand in hand. "liberalization" is not a responsibility, but "management" is a duty that the government must perform. "Liberalization" is not laissez-faire. We must resolutely crack down on those acts of counterfeiting, cheating and abduction, especially in some fields involving people’s lives and health and the interests of the masses, such as food and medicine, safe production and finance. Those who violate the law must be punished. Now the new format and new model are constantly changing and developing. We should constantly improve the regulatory regulations and methods so that market players can truly compete and develop in a fair and just environment.

  Hong kong epidemic situation

  The SAR government should take the main responsibility of fighting the epidemic, and the central government will fully support Hong Kong in fighting the epidemic.

  Phoenix TV reporter: Since last year, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has held elections for the Election Committee and the seventh Legislative Council. This year, the sixth Chief Executive election will be held. On the one hand, a new electoral system is implemented; on the other hand, the epidemic situation in Hong Kong has not shown signs of improvement, and everyone is very concerned about this election. How does the Prime Minister comment on this?

  Li Keqiang: At present, the epidemic situation of COVID-19 in Hong Kong is grim. The SAR Government has decided to postpone the election of the sixth Chief Executive according to law and concentrate on fighting the epidemic. We fully understand and support it. The central government pays close attention to the epidemic situation in Hong Kong every day, and is very concerned about the life, health and safety of Hong Kong citizens. The SAR Government should assume the main responsibility of fighting the epidemic, and the central government will fully support Hong Kong in fighting the epidemic.

  We will comprehensively, accurately and unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems", "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy, and the change of the SAR government will be carried out in strict accordance with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law. I hope that the SAR Government will unite and lead people from all walks of life in Hong Kong to continue to develop the economy and improve people’s livelihood, consolidate and enhance Hong Kong’s position as the three major international financial, trade and shipping centers, and maintain Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.

  epidemic prevention and control

  Make prevention and control more scientific and accurate according to the change of epidemic situation and virus characteristics.

  Spanish EFE reporter: It has been two years since the outbreak. In the past two years, China has basically been "closed". Does China now consider making the current "dynamic zero clearing" epidemic prevention and control policy more sustainable? Is there a road map that is "open" to the world?

  Li Keqiang: Covid-19 is the common enemy of mankind. It has been spreading for two years, and the virus has been mutating. Some laws need to be further studied, and corresponding measures such as vaccine protection and effective drug research and development need to be strengthened. At present, the international community should unite, cooperate and help each other, understand and tolerate each other more, and work hard to create conditions for the world to return to normal.

  China has been coordinating the prevention and control of epidemic situation and economic and social development, and actively promoting international exchanges and cooperation. We will make prevention and control more scientific and accurate according to the changes of epidemic situation and the characteristics of the virus, so as to ensure people’s life and health, normal production and living order, and the safety of industrial chain and supply chain.

  Since the outbreak, I have talked with the heads of international organizations, multinational companies and entrepreneurs many times, and they all hope to ensure the necessary business contacts. We have opened "fast track" and "green track" to ensure the normal production and operation of some key enterprises and projects. We will continue to accumulate experience, respond to possible changes in a timely manner, and gradually make logistics and people flow smoothly.

  Sino-US relations

  Sino-US cooperation has great potential and is willing to seek long-term benefits with the United States.

  Bloomberg: Fifty years ago, US President Nixon’s visit to China ushered in the era of American contacts with China. Last year, the Biden administration announced that this era had ended, and the United States and China are now entering a period of fierce competition. Do you agree with this evaluation? Will it become more and more common to ban the sale of American semiconductors in China and the listing of China enterprises in the United States?

  Li Keqiang: Fifty years ago, China and the United States broke the ice and set sail for the normalization of relations. Half a century has passed, and although the relations between the two countries have been bumpy from time to time, they have been developing forward. We still hope that the two sides will respect each other, coexist peacefully and win-win cooperation in accordance with the consensus reached by the two heads of state at the end of last year, properly control differences in a rational and constructive way, and respect each other’s core interests and major concerns. Still need more dialogue and communication. Since the two sides have opened the door to each other, they should not close it again, let alone "decouple".

  China and the United States are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the largest developing and developed countries in the world. Dealing with each other’s relations is related to the well-being of the two peoples. At present, many global challenges require cooperation and joint response between China and the United States. It should be said that Sino-US cooperation is beneficial to both countries and the world.

  Of course, there are great differences in social systems, history, culture and development stages between China and the United States, and differences are inevitable. But we believe that cooperation should be the mainstream, because world peace and development depend on cooperation. Even if we have market competition in the economic and trade field, it should be benign and fair competition. Last year, the trade volume between the two countries exceeded $750 billion, an increase of nearly 30% over the previous year. What does this mean? The scope of Sino-US cooperation is vast and has great potential. If the United States relaxes its export restrictions to China, the bilateral trade volume will be even larger, and both countries and their peoples will benefit from it. China is willing to work with the United States to choose a wide range and seek long-term benefits.

  Support difficult industries

  Support industries with special difficulties to survive and make people’s lives warm.

  China News Service reporter: In the past two years, affected by the epidemic, we found that some snack bars and small restaurants that we used to go to have not opened since they closed, including catering, and tourism, retail, passenger transport and other industries have also been greatly affected. The government work report proposes to stabilize market players and ensure employment. May I ask the Prime Minister, what measures will we take this year to help industries with special difficulties?

  Li Keqiang: After the outbreak, the service industry, especially the contact service industry, was the hardest hit, among which small and medium-sized enterprises were the largest. They have a thin foundation, and they can be said to be careful in calculating and managing day by day, and many difficulties have accumulated to make it difficult for them to support. Helping them is actually supporting employment, because only 100 million individual industrial and commercial households have driven the employment of nearly 300 million people. If the seedlings are dry and the roots are thoroughly rooted, it will be too late to help them. Therefore, we must see that "the weight is too small to weigh a thousand pounds" and we must give them timely support.

  For these industries with special difficulties, we have introduced more than 40 support policies. Just the tax rebate, roughly speaking, such industries as catering, tourism, passenger transport and culture can enjoy 180 billion yuan. They not only need financial support, but also give "seamless loan renewal" to those with good market prospects. Moreover, support should also be given to those places where they need to reduce rent and electricity charges in stages, which is actually the owner’s pull on customers.

  At present, consumer demand is indeed relatively weak, mainly due to weak offline consumer demand. As you can imagine, there are many shops in the long lane of the city, and it is steaming, that is, the bustling fireworks. If it is closed, it will not be a good thing, and the lives of ordinary people will be affected. Therefore, we support these industries with special difficulties, not only to make them survive, but also to make people’s lives warm and our economy show more vitality.

  relations across the Taiwan Straits

  Compatriots on both sides of the strait are, in the final analysis, a family’s brotherhood, which can be cut off at any time.

  Taiwan Province Dongsen New Media Reporter: With the epidemic continuing to spread and the uncertainty and instability of cross-strait relations increasing, how will the mainland respond to the situation in the Taiwan Strait and maintain and enhance the well-being of people on both sides of the strait?

  Li Keqiang: Our major policy toward Taiwan is clear, as I have stated in the government work report, that is, we will adhere to the one-China principle and the "1992 Consensus", resolutely oppose the "Taiwan independence" separatist acts, and promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and the reunification of the motherland.

  Compatriots on both sides of the strait are, after all, a family, and brotherhood can never be cut off. We are willing to continue to share development opportunities with the vast number of Taiwan Province compatriots, provide equal treatment to Taiwan Province compatriots who come to the mainland for development, and do practical things and solve difficult problems for them. As long as compatriots on both sides of the strait work together and unite, they will certainly be able to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and share the well-being of the Chinese nation’s rejuvenation.

  fulfil one’s duty scrupulously

  In the last year of this government, we will practice our promises with hard work.

  Singapore Lianhe Zaobao: This year is the closing year of the current China administration. Looking back over the past four years, what achievements do you think this government has made? What is the biggest challenge? In the last year of this government, China’s economy is facing unprecedented pressure. What policies will you focus on to better stabilize social confidence and respond to people’s concerns?

  Li Keqiang: Since the current government, the international situation has been complicated and changeable, with domestic contradictions and difficulties superimposed. Speaking of the biggest challenge, it is the COVID-19 epidemic and its severe impact on the economy. We are determined not to seek easy things, not to take refuge in things, and not to avoid risks, and we have done our best.

  I remember the first press conference I held here when I became Prime Minister, that is, in this hall, I made it clear that it is the basic task of our government to continuously develop the economy, continuously improve people’s livelihood and promote social justice. To be broad-based, people-oriented and benefit the world is to take the expectations of the people as the direction of administration. In recent years, we have been persistent and consistent, innovating the way of governance, coping with cyclical economic fluctuations by keeping the economy running in a reasonable range, especially the implementation of macro policies facing the needs of market players; Firmly promote reform, simplify and eliminate complexity, safeguard justice, cultivate and expand market players and new kinetic energy, and stimulate market vitality and social creativity; Adhere to the priority of employment, grasp the actual situation of the country, pay attention to ensuring basic people’s livelihood, and so on. We are clear that there are some areas where the government work is recognized by the people, and there are also some gaps and shortcomings with their expectations.

  As for you, this year is the last year of this government and my last year as Prime Minister. The situation we are facing is still complicated and grim, and there are still many difficulties and challenges. I have explained and expounded the difficulties and challenges in the government work report and the questions I just answered. My colleagues and I will do our duty with perseverance and practice our promises with hard work.

  I believe that under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, with the strong support from all walks of life, especially the joint efforts of the people, China’s economy will certainly be able to climb over the hill, achieve the main objectives and tasks of economic and social development this year, and lay a solid foundation for future development.

  opening up to the outside world

  No matter how the international situation changes, we will unswervingly expand opening up.

  Kyodo News: The China government indicated that it is moving towards the goal of common prosperity, and proposed to set up "traffic lights" to prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, especially to strengthen the supervision of Internet enterprises. However, foreign capital is worried that the China government will further strengthen the restrictions on corporate behavior because of the goal of common prosperity. What is China’s view? Is there any way to reduce investors’ worries?

  Li Keqiang: When we talk about common prosperity, we should work together. China’s policy of opening to the outside world has not changed and will not change. Moreover, our foreign investment law clearly stipulates that change will only develop in a direction conducive to opening wider to the outside world and investment and trade.

  Foreign businessmen come to China to develop themselves, but also bring us investment and sales channels and the goods we need, which is beneficial to everyone. Why should we restrict them? Just now I talked about the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform, which emphasizes the need to simplify administration and decentralize power, combine liberalization with management, optimize services, oppose monopoly and unfair competition, and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital. The purpose is to give support to enterprises operating according to law and ensure that all types of ownership enterprises and domestic and foreign-funded enterprises develop equally and compete fairly. Of course, I also hope that enterprises will be standardized and healthy in their development.

  China is so big that you can find every case you want. But on the whole, China’s economy has been deeply integrated into the world. China’s total import and export of goods has accounted for more than one-third of GDP, and now the comprehensive impact of imports on industry exceeds 70%. We have been the second largest import market in the world for 10 consecutive years, and have become the largest country in global goods trade for 5 consecutive years. Of course, on the whole, we are still in the process of moving from the low-end to the high-end, but it also shows that the industry and consumption are upgrading, the market potential is great, and there is a lot of room for all kinds of investment.

  Relevant countries and we jointly signed the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement, namely RCEP, which was officially implemented this year. This can be said to be the largest free trade zone in the world. We will take this opportunity to continue to promote free trade, treat state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign enterprises equally, and continue to make China a hot spot for global foreign investment.

  I tell you clearly that no matter how the international situation changes, China will unswervingly open wider to the outside world. The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards. Over the past 40 years, China has always been advancing through reform and developing through opening up. As long as it is conducive to expanding high-level opening up, we are willing to do it actively, and we must firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, which is also the need of our own development.

  China has been opening to the outside world for more than 40 years, which has developed itself, benefited the people and benefited the world. This is a door of opportunity, and we will never, never close it.

  (According to Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 11 th)

The development of big data industry in the "14 th Five-Year Plan" anchored the 3 trillion goal

  On September 8, researchers monitored the operation of the platform in the "Sustainable Development Big Data Platform System". The platform is the first basic platform of big data cloud service for sustainable development in China, which can provide "one-stop" services and data public products for different users such as the public, researchers and decision makers, such as data calculation, analysis, display and sharing services. Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang photo

  The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Big Data Industry recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) proposes that by 2025, the estimated scale of China’s big data industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan, and a modern big data industry system with strong innovation, high added value and independent control will basically take shape.

  When interpreting the Plan, China Information and Communication Research Institute and China Electronic and Information Industry Development Research Institute pointed out that digital industrialization supports industrial digitalization, and industrial digitalization drives digital industrialization. The Plan systematically lays out the new stage to promote the high-quality development of big data industry. We must seize the opportunity and push the development of big data industry to a new level.

  Big data industry ushers in a broader development space.

  Xie Shaofeng, Director of the Information Technology Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the "14th Five-Year Plan" period is a crucial period for China to accelerate the construction of a manufacturing power, a network power and a digital China, which puts forward new and higher requirements for the development of the big data industry, and the big data industry will enter a new stage of integrated innovation, rapid development, in-depth application and structural optimization. He said that data has become the fifth largest factor of production after land, labor, capital and technology. The value of data elements is reflected in two aspects. One is that data is the "oil" in the digital economy era, and the other is that data is the "diamond mine" in the digital economy era.

  According to the Plan, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the development of big data industry should focus on promoting high-quality development, take supply-side structural reform as the main line, take the value of data elements as the guide, focus on consolidating the foundation of industrial development, focus on promoting high-quality data resources, innovative technology and high-efficiency infrastructure, focus on building a stable and efficient industrial chain, focus on improving industrial supply capacity and industry empowerment effect, coordinate development and safety, and cultivate an independent, controllable and open cooperative industrial ecology.

  According to the Plan, by 2025, the big data industry will maintain rapid growth, the value system will be initially formed, the industrial base will continue to be solid, the industrial chain will be stable and efficient, the industrial ecology will develop healthily, and the modern big data industry system with strong innovation, high added value and independent control will basically take shape. Among them, the estimated scale of the big data industry exceeded 3 trillion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate remained at around 25%.

  Focusing on releasing the value of data elements, consolidating the foundation of industrial development, building a stable and efficient industrial chain, and building a prosperous and orderly industrial ecology, the Plan puts forward the main tasks of high-quality development of big data industry during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period and deploys key actions.

  Promote the high-quality development of the big data industry

  Zhang Li, president of China Electronic and Information Industry Development Research Institute, said that the Plan is based on the realistic foundation of China’s big data industry development, conforms to the law of the times when the industrial economy is striding forward to the digital economy, faces the new direction and new requirements of data factor market cultivation, supports industrial digitalization with digital industrialization, and drives digital industrialization with digital industrialization, which systematically lays out the new stage to promote high-quality industrial development, and is an important guide for the development of China’s big data industry.

  Zhang Li said that China’s big data industry is welcoming a new round of development opportunities and should vigorously promote the high-quality development of the big data industry.

  First, strengthen the basic advantage and change the development advantage into the driving force for development. Generally speaking, the advantages of data resources scale, first-Mover advantage in some fields and broad market space are the important support for China’s big data industry to become better, stronger and bigger. We should base ourselves on basic advantages, turn advantages into motivation, fully stimulate the potential of data elements, accelerate the promotion of the big data industry chain to high-end and modernization, continue to deepen the integration of big data and the real economy, and push the development of big data industry to a new level.

  Second, grasp the core of development and promote the release of the value of data elements. During the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period, to promote the development of big data industry, we must adhere to the concept of data elements, integrate, circulate, apply and manage data elements throughout, accelerate the improvement of data value system and market rules, strengthen the strategic and basic role of data elements in driving economic and social transformation and development, and realize the value release and re-creation of data elements.

  Third, make clear the main direction of attack and make overall plans to promote the upgrading of industrial base and the modernization of industrial chain. During the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period, in order to promote the high-quality development of China’s big data industry with integrated innovation, in-depth application, structural optimization and ubiquitous empowerment, first, efforts should be made to lay a solid foundation for industrial development, and new infrastructure such as communication, computing power and integration should be deployed appropriately in advance, so as to enhance the ability of technical research and market cultivation, give play to the leading role of standards, and build a solid foundation for industrial development; Second, efforts should be made to improve industrial supply capacity, optimize product supply quality, improve industrial chain, meet the needs of economic and social digital development, and strengthen the supporting role of big data in promoting high-quality economic development and building a new development pattern for services.

  Fourth, focus on ecological construction and jointly promote the construction of industrial ecological system. During the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period, we should adhere to coordinated development and classified guidance, give full play to the core role of big data enterprises, accelerate the construction of an industrial ecology with resource coordination, subject coordination and regional coordination, and fully stimulate the power and potential of industrial development.

  Make efforts to make breakthroughs in important links

  Yu Xiaohui, president of China Information and Communication Research Institute, said that the Plan made a comprehensive deployment around the overall requirements, main tasks and safeguard measures for the development of big data industry during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period. Among them, technological innovation, product services, infrastructure and data security are important links in the development of big data industry. To this end, we should take the initiative to plan and accelerate development, and push the development of China’s big data industry to a new level.

  First, strengthen technological innovation and seize the autonomy of industrial development. To improve the level of big data technology in China, we should focus on several breakthroughs: comprehensively sort out the current situation of technology development, clarify the advantages and disadvantages of China’s technology, and achieve "solid foundation, promote advantages, fill shortcomings, and strong and weak items"; Reform the establishment and organization of technology research and development projects, strengthen demand orientation, cultivate and develop technology transfer institutions and technology managers in the field of big data, and improve the professional service ability of technology transfer; Accelerate the training and introduction of talents, encourage universities to optimize the specialty settings of big data disciplines, cultivate high-quality technical and skilled talents, and attract big data talents to return to China for employment and entrepreneurship.

  The second is to optimize products and services and improve competitiveness in key areas. To improve the level of big data products and services in China, we should focus on several breakthroughs: promoting the marketization of resource allocation and further stimulating market vitality; Strengthen financial support and increase investment in research and development of big data basic software and hardware; Innovate big data service models and formats, develop new service models such as intelligent services and operational integration, and cultivate high-quality big data service providers around comprehensive service needs such as diagnosis and consultation, architecture design, system integration and operation and maintenance.

  The third is to improve infrastructure and strengthen the cornerstone of industry empowerment. To improve the energy level of China’s big data infrastructure, we should focus on several breakthroughs: focusing on data collection and transmission, building 5G and Gigabit optical networks at a high level, promoting the planning and layout of the Internet of Things such as industrial internet, intelligent pipe network and car network, and solidly improving the communication network infrastructure; Comply with the trend of integration, strengthen overall planning and coordination, and optimize the layout of data centers; Sort out the computing power demand at the regional level, coordinate the collaborative construction and scheduling of high-performance computing power and artificial intelligence computing power, and coordinate the computing power infrastructure construction; Grasp the application of data circulation and data industry, build a platform of common ability, and scientifically lay out the infrastructure of data circulation and application.

  The fourth is to ensure data security and build a firewall for the digital economy. To improve China’s data security protection ability, we should focus on several breakthroughs: strengthening the top-level design of big data security, building a perfect system of laws, regulations, policies and standards to provide protection for data security construction; Strengthen data security technology and product development and application, improve the supply capacity of data security products, and promote the development of data security industry; We will promote the construction of key areas such as data cross-border security management and data security monitoring platform, enhance the ability of risk monitoring and traceability analysis, and strengthen the construction of data security management and control system. (Reporter Zhang Hanqing reports from Beijing)

The 2023 Global Digital Economy Conference will open on July 4. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: The scale of China’s industrial Internet industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan.

Every reporter | Zhang Rui every edited | Chen Xing    

On June 21st, the press conference of the 2023 Global Digital Economy Conference was held in Beijing.

National business daily reporter learned that the 2023 Global Digital Economy Conference will be held at the Beijing National Convention Center from July 4th to 7th. With the theme of "data-driven development and intelligence leading the future", the conference provided a global platform for the exchange and cooperation of new theories, rules, technologies, industries and systems of the digital economy.

Introduction: The main forum of the conference will invite domestic and foreign experts, academicians and business representatives to deliver speeches, release the White Paper on Global Digital Economy, hold a summit dialogue on international cooperation in digital economy, and create a global weather vane for policy formulation, technological frontier, industrial trends and application paradigms in the digital economy.

Press conference scene Image source: Every reporter Zhang Rui photo

Introduce that the opening ceremony and main forum of this conference will further innovate the mode of holding the conference:

The first is to further improve the degree of internationalization and expand the scope of international cooperation and exchanges. Combined with the overall strengthening of international exchanges and cooperation in the post-epidemic period, it is planned to expand the invitation of international representatives to participate in the conference, set up the guest country of the conference for the first time, and issue the "Global Digital Economy Partner City Cooperation Initiative" to promote the joint construction of the "Digital Silk Road" and bilateral digital governance cooperation, so as to make the conference a "booster" for promoting digital open cooperation between cities around the world and under the international multilateral framework.

The second is to further optimize the degree of quality products, open up innovation and deepen cooperation. On the basis of previous exhibitions, the boutique theme exhibition will expand its exhibition area to 10,000 square meters, and set up digital infrastructure, data elements, industry digitalization, digital industrialization and digital security exhibition areas, highlighting professionalism, foresight, platform and experience, comprehensively enhancing its specifications and influence, and building a top-level international platform for digital economy frontier collision exchange and results release.

The third is to further demonstrate the charm of digital technology and start a number of "first time" attempts. For the first time, the "Digital Night" city pulse lighting ceremony was set up, and the video of the "Digital Night" city pulse lighting ceremony was broadcast live, interspersed with offline real scenes, and shared between reality and reality. At Shougang Park, Tongzhou Canal, Olympic Tower and Qianmen Dashilan, you can watch the AR show scene with a strong sense of science and technology.

Play the first China Digital Concert on the whole network at 21: 00, open a digital music feast, gather the top domestic virtual human technical team, top domestic virtual idols, virtual hosts, artists and other top resources, stage a cross-dimensional digital music festival, and show the world the Beijing business card and the vitality of an open, cooperative and win-win international city.

"It is worth mentioning that for the first time, the conference fully used digital badges to achieve paperless participation and create a new experience of digital participation." Say.

The fourth is to further highlight the degree of specialization and release major achievements. The White Paper on Global Digital Economy in 2023 will be released to promote the cooperation and exchange of global digital economy. Create a global vane of policy formulation, technological frontier, industrial trends and application paradigm in the digital economy.

At the press conference, he said that in recent years, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the vigorous promotion of various departments and regions, China’s digital economy has achieved positive results.

The first is that the comprehensive strength of digital infrastructure has reached a new level. China has built the world’s largest and technologically advanced network infrastructure. By the end of April this year, more than 2.73 million 5G base stations have been built, with 5G networks covering all prefecture-level cities, more than 17.93 million ports with Gigabit network services, 634 million mobile phone users, 100 million Gigabit optical network users and 1.984 billion mobile Internet of Things users. 5G applications have covered 52 national economic categories, and the foundation of the Internet of Everything is stable.

Second, the integration of the digital economy and the real economy has become increasingly solid. The penetration rate of numerical control and digital R&D design tools for key processes in key industrial enterprises reached 59.4% and 77.6% respectively. The industrial Internet was fully integrated into 45 categories of national economy, with an industrial scale of over 1.2 trillion yuan. The "5G+ industrial Internet" has landed in thousands of industries and extended to the core links of production.

Third, the core digital industry is growing. In 2022, China’s electronic information manufacturing industry achieved operating income of 15.4 trillion yuan, software business income of 10.8 trillion yuan, and big data industry income of 1.57 trillion yuan, which laid a solid industrial and technical foundation for the integration and development of informationization and industrialization.

The incubation and application promotion of high-quality open source communities at home and abroad are accelerating, which has injected vitality into technological innovation and economic and social development.

The fourth is to speed up the flow of data elements. Thoroughly implement the "Twenty Data Articles", speed up the construction of a data-based system, and study and formulate national standards in the fields of data property rights, circulation transactions, asset evaluation, and security governance. Continue to implement the National Standard for Data Management Capability (DCMM). By the end of March 2023, a total of 1,469 enterprises had completed the standard implementation, covering 10 major fields such as electric power and communication.

Promote the high-level construction of data exchanges in Beijing, Shanghai and other places, with the rapid rise of emerging entities such as data labeling, data intermediary and data governance, and gradually form market operation systems such as data asset evaluation, registration and settlement, and transaction matching, and further release the potential of data elements.

Finally, the international cooperation in the digital economy has gone deep into reality. Actively carry out pragmatic cooperation with ASEAN, the African Union and countries along the Belt and Road in the field of digital economy, participate in the formulation of digital rules by multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, G20 and BRICS, and advocate the launching of a series of international cooperation initiatives and agreements, such as the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, the Joint Action Initiative to Build a Community of Cyberspace Destiny and the Global Data Security Initiative, which have significantly enhanced the international influence of China’s digital economy.

Cover image source: Photo courtesy of the organizer

Speed-up of "Express Delivery into the Village" in Chenzhou, Hunan Province ignited villagers’ enthusiasm for online shopping.

CCTV News:Buses in Changxing, Zhejiang Province took the elderly out of the countryside, while in Chenzhou, Hunan Province, a passenger bus that entered the village was "transformed" into a courier van because of a large number of online shopping by villagers.

In Suxian District, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, at 4 pm every day, urban and rural bus drivers have to drive their vehicles from the city to Feitian Village, Suxian District, 28 kilometers away. Different from other trains of the day, there are many online shopping couriers in this car.

Lin Bo, bus driver of Yi Lin Bus Co., Ltd., Chenzhou, Hunan Province:The company uses the 4 o’clock in the afternoon to deliver express delivery. For each express delivery, we have a subsidy of 10 cents and a monthly income of several hundred dollars.

After the "passenger and freight mail" bus entered the village, it ignited the "online shopping craze" of the villagers. From sofas and home appliances to nail clippers, this express delivery point in Feitian Mountain Village has more than 20 express deliveries from local people online every day.

Cao Xijuan, a villager from Feitian Village, Suxian District, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province:I have never used an air fryer before, but now I want to buy it and try it. Nowadays, online shopping is very convenient, and it will take two or three days to arrive. The TV, washing machine and refrigerator at home are all online shopping.

The number of village-level delivery service points like this has expanded to 825 in Chenzhou in the past three years, covering 1342 villages with a coverage rate of 96.96%. In the whole year of 2022, the rural express delivery business in Chenzhou completed 16,959,200 pieces.

Science and Technology Frontier | Scanning of Recent Scientific Research Achievements

Team Xiang Ye of Medical College made a breakthrough in the research of African swine fever virus.

Li Pilong’s research group of School of Life and Li Haitao’s research group of Medical College cooperated to report the new mechanism of histone modification regulating chromatin compartmentalization by promoting phase separation.

The Engineering Laboratory of Medical College reported the key factors regulating the spread of dengue virus and put forward a new anti-dengue blocking strategy.

The research group of Li Yue, Department of Electronics, issued a report on the realization of near-zero exponential concept devices by dielectric integrated optical doping.

Fang Xianyang’s research group of School of Life has made new progress in the solution structure study of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA of flavivirus.

Zhu Junming and Xue Lan of the School of Public Administration jointly published a document to reveal the impact of China’s carbon emission trading policy on low-carbon innovation.

Zhong Yi’s research group of School of Life reveals the downstream molecular mechanism of active forgetting of different memory components.

Xiao Bailong from the School of Pharmacy and Li Xueming from the School of Life jointly published a paper in Nature.

Reveal the delicate molecular machines structure and mechanism that mediates human tactile perception.

Team Xiang Ye of Tsinghua Medical College has made a breakthrough in the research of African swine fever virus.

On September 17th, a team led by Xiang Ye, an associate professor hired by Tsinghua University Medical Dean and a researcher at Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, published an academic paper entitled "Structure of the African Swine fever virus major capsid protein p72" online in Cell Research. In this study, the high-resolution structure of African classical swine fever virus capsid protein p72 was analyzed for the first time by the method of three-dimensional reconstruction of single particle by cryoelectron microscope, and the possible assembly mechanism of African classical swine fever virus capsid was revealed, which laid a solid foundation for the development of African classical swine fever virus subunit vaccine.

African swine fever virus originated in Africa, and the mortality rate of domestic pig infection is nearly 100%, which is a great threat to domestic pig breeding industry and even people’s livelihood and economy. African swine fever virus has spread rapidly from Africa to Europe, South America and some parts of Asia in the past few decades. In August 2018, African swine fever virus infection was found in northeast China, and soon the virus spread to most parts of the country, causing economic losses of more than 100 billion yuan. At present, it is urgent to develop effective vaccines and epidemic prevention measures to control and prevent African swine fever virus. In response to the urgent needs of the country, Tsinghua University Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology and Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure took the lead, and more than a dozen research groups from Peking University, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Pasteur Institute and other units began to tackle key problems of African swine fever virus in April this year.

▲ Structure of African classical swine fever virus: a. Simulate the capsid structure of African classical swine fever virus produced by virus assembly according to the capsid protein p72 structure of African classical swine fever virus; B freeze electron microscopic structure of African classical swine fever virus capsid protein p72 trimer.

African swine fever virus is a double-stranded DNA virus with complex structure. Its genome is protected by two capsids and two outer membranes. The capsids are mainly composed of virus coding protein p72. According to previous experimental data, p72 accounts for about 33% of the total weight of virus particles, and p72 is the main antigen that can be detected in the blood of infected pigs. At the initial stage of studying p72 protein, Xiang Ye’s research group found that p72 protein with correct folding conformation could not be obtained by recombinant expression of p72 protein alone, and only when p72 was co-expressed with another helper protein B602L encoded by African swine fever, could the p72 protein with correct folding conformation be obtained. On this premise, the research team determined the high-resolution 3-D structure of p72 protein of 2.67 angstrom (above) by using the method of single particle 3-D reconstruction with cryoelectron microscope. The results showed that three p72 molecules formed a stable trimer form. Each p72 contains two pancake-like domains connected in series, and each domain consists of eight β-folded sheets, which is very common in the capsid protein structure of icosahedral virus. The six cake-like structures of trimer p72 together form a pseudo-hexamer whose bottom is anchored on the inner membrane of the virus. The inserted fragments between trimer p72 folded sheets together form a propeller-like top structure that extends out of the virus, which is most likely the receptor binding area on the cell surface.

There have been many attempts to study subunit vaccines based on p72 protein of African classical swine fever virus, but no satisfactory results have been obtained. The failure of previous studies is probably due to the failure to use the correctly folded p72 protein. Obtaining the correctly folded p72 protein and determining its high-resolution structure are helpful to develop drugs targeting virus capsid assembly and subunit vaccines. At present, the research and development and evaluation of p72 subunit vaccine are being closely carried out by Tsinghua University and Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Associate Professor Xiang Ye is the correspondent of this article. Liu Qi, a 2014 Ph.D. student from Tsinghua University Life Union Center, is the first author of this paper. Ma Bingting, a 2015 Ph.D. student from Xiangye Laboratory, Associate Professor Tan Xu from Tsinghua University College of Pharmacy and their laboratory members Qian Nianchao and Zhang Fan, and Professor Lei Jianlin, director of the cryo-electron microscope platform of Tsinghua University Life College, participated in this work.

Paper link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-019-0232-x

Li Pilong’s research group of Tsinghua Life College cooperated with Li Haitao’s research group of Medical College to report the new mechanism of histone modification regulating chromatin compartmentalization by promoting phase separation.

On September 16th, Li Pilong’s research group of Tsinghua University Life College cooperated with Li Haitao’s research group of Tsinghua University Medical College. An academic article entitled "Histone modifications regulate chromatin compartmentalization by contributing to a phase separation mechanism" was published in Molecular Cell.

Eukaryotic cells use many membrane-bound organelles to distinguish biochemical reactions in order to better regulate space and time. For example, their genomes are enclosed in a membrane-bound organelle, namely the nucleus, in order to better control the genetic information flow. In the nucleus, the genome is further regulated to form many compartments or regions, which play an important role in regulating gene expression. Judging from some of their characteristics, these dynamic solid compartments are similar to membraneless organelles. Many protein that play a role in chromatin compartmentalization have the inherent ability of liquid-liquid separation, such as human heterochromatin protein HP1α and Drosophila heterochromatin protein HP1a. Based on these observations, it has been suggested that chromatin compartmentalization is formed by liquid-liquid separation. However, the previous studies can’t explain why the other two homologous proteins, HP1β and HP1γ, of human heterochromatin protein HP1α, which can’t be separated by themselves or from DNA, perform similar functions, and whether the formation of constitutive heterochromatin is regulated by the liquid-liquid separation mechanism formed by multivalent interaction between multivalent HP1 protein complex and multivalent histone H3K9 trimethyl (H3K9me3).

▲ Liquid-liquid separation mediated by multivalent interaction between H3K9me3 on nucleosome string and CD of HP1 complex promotes the formation of heterochromatin compartments.

In this work, Li Pilong and Li Haitao’s research group cooperated to prove that in vitro, the modification of histone H3K9 trimethyl (H3K9me3) and the multivalent interaction of recognizing its modified HP1 chromatin domain Chromodomain(CD) can lead to the formation of heterochromatin. The authors used two polyvalent HP1-CD complexes, the key chromatin fragment (NE) extracted from human nucleus and the nucleosome string (NA) modified by H3K9me3 in vitro as experimental systems. Several evidences show that the formation of these droplets is mediated by liquid-liquid separation. The resulting droplets are reminiscent of the dynamic behavior of heterochromatin and its response to biochemical regulation and mutant phenotype. The author concludes that the liquid-liquid separation driven by multivalent H3K9me3/CD interaction is the key force for the formation of heterochromatin in cells. To sum up, this study proposed a general mechanism of histone labeling regulating chromosome compartmentalization by promoting liquid-liquid separation.

Li Pilong and Li Haitao are co-authors of this article. Wang Liang, a 2015 Ph.D. student from Tsinghua University Life College, Gao Yifei, a 2016 Ph.D. student from Medical College, and Zheng Xiangdong, a postdoctoral fellow from Medical College, are the co-first authors of this article.

Paper link:

https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(19)30658-6

Cheng Gong Laboratory of Tsinghua Medical College reported the key factors regulating the spread of dengue virus and proposed a new anti-dengue blocking strategy.

On September 16th, Professor Cheng Gong from Tsinghua University Medical College published an academic paper entitled "Host serum iron modulations of dengue virus acquisition by mosquitoes" (doi: 10.1038/S41564-019-0555-) in Nature Microbiology. This study found for the first time that the iron content in human serum is the key factor to regulate the transmission of dengue virus by mosquitoes, and put forward an anti-dengue transmission blocking strategy based on iron supplementation.

Dengue fever is one of the most widespread viral infectious diseases in the world. Dengue virus is carried by mosquitoes and spread to people. At present, dengue fever has been prevalent in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. According to the estimation of the World Health Organization, about 2.5 billion people in the world live in areas threatened by dengue infection, 390 million people are infected or repeatedly infected with dengue virus every year, and 500-1 million people are hospitalized. Dengue fever has become the largest insect-borne viral infectious disease in the world. In recent 20 years, the epidemic trend of dengue fever in the world has intensified, which has become a worldwide public health problem. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the primary vectors of dengue virus transmission in nature. This kind of mosquitoes are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, but the epidemic trend of dengue fever is not completely consistent with the distribution of mosquitoes, and there are obvious population and regional differences in dengue fever. Identifying the key factors affecting the spread of dengue virus is a key scientific problem to be answered in this field.

Mosquitoes can acquire viruses from infected hosts by sucking blood. Within a few days after mosquitoes suck blood, the infected person’s blood is quickly digested. At the same time, the virus in the blood infects the intestinal epithelial cells of mosquitoes and spreads into the body cavity of mosquitoes, so that mosquitoes have the ability to spread viruses. The above two processes are highly coincident in time, so researchers speculate that host blood factors or blood metabolites can regulate the process of virus infection in mosquitoes, and ultimately determine the vector efficiency of mosquitoes carrying and spreading viruses. Through a series of screening, it was found for the first time that the iron ion content in the host serum was highly negatively correlated with the ability of mosquitoes to acquire virus by blood-sucking, and it was proved that the iron ion concentration in the serum was the key negative regulatory factor to inhibit mosquitoes from acquiring virus infection. The results of further research show that iron ions in serum can be directly utilized by the iron metabolism system of intestinal cells after entering the intestinal tract of mosquitoes, which inhibits the expression of antioxidant enzyme genes in cells, leading to a significant increase in the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the intestinal tract of mosquitoes, and finally inhibits the infection and amplification of viruses in mosquitoes (Figure 1).

▲ Figure 1. Host serum iron ions can increase the level of reactive oxygen species in the intestinal tract of mosquitoes and inhibit the infection of dengue virus in mosquitoes by inhibiting the expression of antioxidant enzyme genes in intestinal cells.

Iron deficiency is a nutritional problem widely existing in nature. According to the World Health Organization, iron deficiency is widely distributed in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and other regions. By comparison, it can be found that the distribution area of iron deficiency is highly coincident with the epidemic area of dengue fever, so the researchers speculate that the iron deficiency state of the population is closely related to the epidemic of dengue virus. In the subsequent study, it was found that the low iron state of the host can promote mosquitoes to infect the virus during blood feeding, and iron supplementation to the low iron host can block the spread of the virus. It shows that universal iron supplementation is an effective means to cut off the spread of dengue virus in nature, which will provide a new prevention and control idea and strategy for dengue virus prevention and control.

▲ Figure 2. Iron supplementation to the host can block mosquitoes from carrying and spreading dengue virus.

Professor Cheng Gong of Tsinghua University Medical College is the correspondent of this paper, and Zhu Yibin, a postdoctoral fellow of Tsinghua University Medical College, is the first author. Professor Wang Penghua from the Medical College of the University of Connecticut, Professor Liu Qiyong from the Institute of Infectious Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Professor Bian Zhongqi from the Department of Infectious Diseases of the 920th Hospital of China People’s Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force, Professor Itsanun Wiwatanaratanabutr from Thailand Xianhuang Institute of Technology, and Wu Tianshi, deputy chief physician of Tsinghua University School Hospital, are the collaborators of this paper.

Paper link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-019-0555-x

The research group of Li Yue, Department of Electronics, Tsinghua, published a report in Nature Communication on the realization of near-zero exponential concept devices through dielectric integrated optical doping.

On September 11th, the research group of Associate Professor Li Yue of Tsinghua University Department of Electronic Engineering published a research paper entitled "Substance-integrated photonic doping for near-zero-index devices" in Nature Communications. It is the first time to propose an optical doping method that can be integrated with dielectric to realize functional devices with near-zero exponential electromagnetic characteristics, which provides a new design method for new chip integrated circuits and has potential application value in biosensor, integrated circuits, functional materials and other fields.

▲ Conceptual diagram of dielectric integrated optical doping: (a) linear structure, (b) bending structure.

Near-zero-index device is a kind of functional device based on near-zero index medium. Compared with traditional electromagnetic devices, it has the characteristics of deformation, local adjustment and field enhancement. Electromagnetic wave in near-zero exponential medium presents a special wave effect of spatial static distribution, including near-zero refractive index and group velocity, as well as infinite wavelength and phase velocity. In 2017, Professor Nader Engheta and Associate Professor Li Yue of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania jointly published an article in the journal Science, proposing the concept of optical doping based on near-zero exponential media for the first time, transplanting doping technology from micro-scale to macro-scale, and regulating the magnetic permeability of equivalent media through doping in non-ordered media, thus realizing multi-modal control such as paramagnetic, diamagnetic and ideal magnet. It is a kind of aperiodic structure.

▲ Experimental observation of optical doping characteristics of dielectric integration: (a) test platform, (b) near-zero reflection, zero phase and high group delay.

Based on the engineering application of the new theory, this paper puts forward an optical doping method based on dielectric integration. Combining with typical integrated circuit technology, the regulation of optical doping on the magnetic characteristics of equivalent media is expressed as the regulation of the electromagnetic response of chip integrated devices, and a variety of near-zero exponential functional devices are realized. For example, a high-sensitivity biosensor with the help of local field enhancement effect in doped media, an efficient photoacoustic modulator with weak mechanical vibration, and an "electric fiber" (analogous to optical fiber) that can be bent and deformed at will and its working frequency remains unchanged. In addition, Li Yue team verified the electromagnetic characteristics of the concept of dielectric integrated optical doping through experiments, and observed zero phase shift, high time delay, position independence of doped media and device shape independence, which were consistent with the analytical theoretical prediction and full-wave simulation results.

The theoretical and experimental work of this thesis was completed in Tsinghua University, and the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University was the first unit of this thesis. Li Yue and Nader Enkhtar are the corresponding authors of this article, and Zhou Ziheng, a doctoral student in the Department of Electronic Engineering, is the first author. Other authors include Li Hao and Sun Wangyu, Ph.D. students from Tsinghua University Department of Electronic Engineering, and Dr. Inigo Liberal from Navarre Public University.

Paper link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12083-y

Fang Xianyang’s research group of Tsinghua Institute of Life has made new progress in the study of solution structure of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA of flavivirus.

On September 10th, Fang Xianyang’s research group of the School of Life cooperated with Qin Chengfeng’s research group of the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Academy of Military Medicine. A research paper entitled "Long non-coding subgenomic RNA of flavivirus has extended 3D structures and is flexible in solution" was published in EMBO Reports. In this paper, the solution structure of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA from flavivirus type 2 dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus was reported in detail for the first time.

▲ Flow chart of studying the structure of flavivirus sfRNA solution by SAXS and computational simulation.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a non-coding RNA with a length of more than 200 nucleotides, which plays a variety of important functions in organisms and is a hot spot in life science research. Like its host, almost all viruses can encode long-chain noncoding RNA. Many mosquito-borne flavivirus, such as dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus, are pathogens that pose a great threat to human health. A large number of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA(sfRNA) will accumulate in the infected host cells, which play an important role in the pathogenicity of the virus and the immune escape from the host.

It is of great significance to study the structure-function of long-chain noncoding RNA, but at present, there is no effective means to study its three-dimensional spatial structure, so the three-dimensional spatial structure information of long-chain noncoding RNA is still very little. The length of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA from mosquito-borne flavivirus is between 400 and 500 nucleotides, so it is very difficult to study its structure by using traditional structural biology methods, such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance or cryoelectron microscopy. Fang Xianyang’s research team and their collaborators, combined with small-angle X-ray scattering technology and computational simulation, studied the solution structure and flexibility of long-chain non-coding subgenomic RNA from dengue virus type 2, Zika virus and West Nile virus by step-by-step solution. It is found that the long non-coding subgenomic RNA of flavivirus has multiple subdomains, which have an extended three-dimensional spatial structure in solution, modular structural characteristics similar to multi-domain proteins and great flexibility.

It is particularly interesting that the three-dimensional spatial shapes and structures of the dumbbell-shaped domains in series of sfRNA of Dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus based on small-angle X-ray scattering data are significantly different, which is presumed to be caused by the topological differences of their pseudo-knots in series. This inference is confirmed by further computational simulation, in vitro biochemistry and in vivo cell experiments. This study is an active exploration of the three-dimensional structure of long-chain noncoding RNA. The research results of this paper not only provide important structural information for understanding the physiological function of sfRNA, but also show that the integrated structural biology method based on small-angle X-ray scattering and computational simulation is a feasible method for studying the three-dimensional structure of other long-chain noncoding RNA solutions.

Fang Xianyang, researcher of Tsinghua University Life College, and Qin Chengfeng, researcher of Institute of Microbial Epidemiology, Institute of Military Medicine, Academy of Military Sciences, are co-authors of this article. Zhang Yupeng, a 2013 direct doctoral student of Tsinghua University Life College, Zhang Yikan, a 2016 general doctoral student, Dr. Liu Zhongyu, an associate professor of Institute of Microbial Epidemiology, and Cheng Mengli, a master student of Institute of Microbial Epidemiology, are co-authors of this article.

Paper link:

https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201847016

Zhu Junming and Xue Lan of Tsinghua University of Public Administration jointly published a document to reveal the impact of China’s carbon emission trading policy on low-carbon innovation.

On September 9th, Associate Professor Zhu Junming and Professor Xue Lan from School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University published a research paper entitled "Low-carbon innovation induced by emissions trading in China" online in the international academic journal Nature Communications, and evaluated the effect of the pilot policy of carbon emissions trading in China on promoting enterprise innovation and its mechanism.

Carbon emission trading is a widely concerned market-based carbon emission reduction policy, which has been adopted by many countries and regions in the world and can play an important role in mitigating climate change. At present, the empirical knowledge about the effect of carbon emissions trading policy mainly comes from the study of EU carbon market. However, people still have little understanding of the scope of this market-oriented policy, the influence of interaction with other policies and the changes in the mechanism brought about by policy design, which limits the further promotion and greater role of the policy.

In order to solve this problem, Associate Professor Zhu Junming and Professor Xue Lan from School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University pay close attention to the pilot policy of carbon emission trading in China since 2013, and use enterprise-level data and patent application information to empirically test the influence and potential mechanism of the policy on low-carbon innovation of enterprises by using the methods of matching and double difference. Low-carbon innovation is helpful to get rid of the path dependence on carbon-intensive economy and energy infrastructure, and alleviate the negative impact caused by the uncertain trend of carbon emission reduction, which is very important to achieve stable emission reduction.

▲ Patent application trends of carbon trading enterprises and non-carbon trading enterprises.

It is found that, on the basis of the impact of policies such as energy conservation and emission reduction and low-carbon pilot projects, carbon emission trading has promoted trading enterprises to increase 1.75 low-carbon patent applications within two years, which is close to the policy effect of two low-carbon patent applications in the EU carbon market within five years, and at the same time, it has increased the applications of other types of patents, especially other green technology patents. The influence scope of the policy goes beyond the carbon emission trading enterprises, and the influence on enterprises that have not been included in carbon trading but may be included in the future is also very significant. It is also found that the innovation behavior of enterprises is not affected by the price of carbon trading, but by the way of quota allocation. This series of research findings provide a reference for the construction of China’s national carbon market.

Associate Professor Zhu Junming from the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University is the first author and co-author of the article, while Deng Xinghua, a former postdoctoral fellow in Tsinghua University and now a lecturer at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, is the co-author of the article, and Professor Xue Lan and Fan Yichun, an undergraduate graduate of Tsinghua University and now a master of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are the co-authors of the paper.

Paper link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12213-6

Zhong Yi’s research group of Tsinghua Institute of Life reveals the downstream molecular mechanism of active forgetting of different memory components.

On September 5th, the research group of Zhong Yi, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University published a research paper entitled "Genetic Dissection of Active Forgetting in Labile and Consolidated Memories in Drosophila" in PNAS.

In this paper, the downstream molecular mechanisms of active forgetting of unstable short memory and stable long memory in Drosophila were systematically compared and analyzed for the first time. It was found that the active forgetting of unstable short memory was mediated by Rac1/WAVE complex/ Dia pathway, while the active forgetting of stable long memory was mediated by Cdc42/WASp/ Arp2/3 complex pathway. As Dia and Arp2/3 complex are reported to regulate the linear growth and branching growth of neurofilament skeleton respectively, the research results of this paper provide an interesting possibility: the active forgetting of memory components with different stability may be related to the growth mode of different forms of neurofilament structure.

▲ Analysis of forgetting mechanism of stable memory and unstable memory.

As early as 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, described the forgetting curve of the human brain for newly acquired memories, and began the journey of human beings to explore the mystery of forgetting. In the following 100 years, many scholars tried to find the mechanism of forgetting by using the method of experimental psychology, and also created a variety of theories to explain the phenomenon of forgetting, but ultimately failed to get a unified answer. As a basic feature of human memory, forgetfulness has been widely studied and reported in psychology, but almost no one cares about it in the research of neurobiology, and it has become a "forgotten corner". The main reason may be that the forgetting process is simply regarded as another description of memory failure, and it is a passive process (if you remember poorly, you will forget quickly, and if you remember well, you will forget slowly), thus ignoring the unique molecular mechanism of forgetting itself.

Until 2010, Professor Zhong Yi’s research group discovered the biological mechanism of active forgetting for the first time, that is, the learning process itself will activate the molecular pathway of forgetting signals to actively forget the formed memories. This active forgetting mechanism does not affect the quality of learning itself, but specifically affects the speed of forgetting acquired memories. Moreover, different memory components will have their own active forgetting mechanisms. For example, in the olfactory punishment learning of Drosophila, one training (5 minutes) can produce two completely different memory components at the same time: unstable anesthesia-sensitive memory (ASM) and relatively stable anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM) which lasts for more than one day. Zhong Yi’s research group has found that a study session can activate Rac1 molecule in the small G protein family to erase the unstable anesthetic sensitive memory that lasts for several hours, and activate Cdc42 molecule, another member of the small G protein family, to forget the more stable anti-anesthetic memory that lasts for more than one day. However, the specific downstream molecular pathways of the forgetting mechanism mediated by Rac1 and Cdc42 are not clear.

Recently, the research paper published online by Zhong Yi’s research group analyzed the downstream molecular pathways of these two forgetting mechanisms for the first time: Rac1/WAVE complex/ Dia pathway mediates the active forgetting of short-term memory components (unstable anesthesia-sensitive memories that last for several hours), while Cdc42/WASp/ Arp2/3 complex pathway mediates the active forgetting of long-term memory components (relatively stable anti-anesthesia memories that last for more than one day). Both of these active forgetting mechanisms occur in the mushroom body of the learning and memory center of Drosophila (the mushroom body contains about 4000 neurons, and the whole brain of Drosophila has more than 100 thousand neurons). Interestingly, cell biology research found that Dia was directly responsible for the linear growth of microfilament skeleton, while Arp2/3 complex was responsible for the branching growth of microfilament skeleton. This suggests that the active forgetting function of different memory components may be related to different forms of dynamic changes in the microfilament skeleton structure of neurons. On the one hand, these research results bring the academic understanding of the molecular mechanism of forgetting into a more detailed dimension, on the other hand, they provide more effective pharmacological targets for directly regulating the function of forgetting.

Gao Yang, a Ph.D. student in the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University, Shuai Yichun, a researcher in the Janelia Research Campus of the United States, Zhang Xuchen, a graduate doctoral student in the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University, and Peng Yuwei, a doctoral student, are the co-first authors of this paper. Professor Zhong Yi from Tsinghua University and Assistant Researcher Li Gan are co-authors of this article.

Paper link:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903763116

Xiao Bailong of Tsinghua Pharmaceutical College and Li Xueming’s research group of School of Life jointly published a paper in Nature.

Reveal the delicate molecular machines structure and mechanism that mediates human tactile perception.

On August 21, Nature (Nature) The journal published the research paper "Structure and Mechanizing of the Mammalian Tactical Channel Piezo2" written by Xiao Bailong’s research group of Tsinghua University Pharmaceutical College and Li Xueming’s research group of College of Life Sciences. The three-dimensional structure and exquisite working mechanism of high-resolution cryoelectron microscope, a mechanical force molecular receptor-PIEZO 2 ion channel, which gives human tactile perception ability, are reported for the first time. This research is another important research achievement in this field after the two research groups reported in Nature on January 22nd, 2018 the high-resolution three-dimensional structure and molecular mechanism of another member of the mechanically gated PIZO channel family-PIZO 1 ion channel, which not only strongly promoted the understanding of the structural basis and molecular mechanism of PIZO channel family, but also laid a solid foundation for drug development based on PIZO channel. At the same time, Nature published a commentator’s article and spoke highly of the research.

Touch, as one of the five senses, not only gives us the ability to perceive pleasant touches such as shaking hands, stroking and kissing to maintain normal social behavior, but also bears the biological basis for human beings to skillfully use various tools such as touch screen, mobile phone or mouse. However, under pathological conditions such as tissue injury or inflammation, abnormal tactile perception function can lead to severe mechanical hypersensitivity (also known as touch pain). For example, patients with cancer or arthritis often suffer from severe pain caused by slight touch such as dressing or walking, which seriously affects individual health and quality of life. In addition, autistic people usually show more sensitive tactile perception than ordinary people. Recent studies suggest that this abnormal tactile function may be one of the important causes of autism.

Tactile perception originates from the response of mechanical force sensing molecular receptor-mechanically gated cation channel expressed on primary sensory neurons to mechanical force stimulation, which causes extracellular cations, such as sodium ions and calcium ions, to flow into cells, which in turn induces nerve cell excitement and signal transmission, and finally leads to tactile sensation. In 2010, the research group of Professor Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Institute in the United States identified that the Piezo gene family encodes the necessary components of mechanically gated cation channels in mammals. In 2012, Dr. Xiao Bailong, who is engaged in postdoctoral research in Professor Patapoutian’s research group, and his colleagues reported in the journal Nature that Piezo protein constitutes the core pore component of mechanically gated cation channels, thus establishing a brand-new ion channel family type of mechanically gated Piezo channels for the first time.

Subsequent studies have proved that Piezo2 mediates the mechanical perception of tactile, proprioception (such as posture balance perception) and visceral perception (such as lung contraction and expansion, blood pressure perception and heart rate regulation) in mammals, while Piezo1 has been found to act as a molecular receptor of mechanical force in a variety of cell tissues and participate in regulating the development of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, blood pressure homeostasis, bone formation and remodeling and many other functions. The genetic mutation of Piezo gene has been found to cause many human genetic diseases, including erythrocytopenia syndrome, lymphatic edema, distal joint contracture, tactile loss and so on. The human body with the loss-of-function mutation of Piezo2 not only shows tactile and proprioception defects, but also loses the perception of mechanical hypersensitivity in pathological state, which confirms that Piezo2 channel can be used as an important target for developing new analgesic drugs.

▲ Figure A, schematic diagram of frozen electron microscope of Piezo2, in which each subunit is represented by a different color; B, a schematic diagram of a dome-shaped structure surrounded by three outward twisted transmembrane paddle areas, and the transmembrane area is marked by the green dotted line; C, schematic diagram of the topological structure of Piezo2 with 38 transmembrane regions; D, a subunit structure of Piezo2 constitutes a display diagram; E, Piezo2 central pore module area; F, the central pore area of Piezo2 and Piezo1 surrounded by IH-CTD; The radius distribution diagram of the central pore area of G, Piezo2 and Piezo1, including the switch gate of transmembrane area and the Constriction neck); of intracellular area; H, Piezo1 and Piezo2 mutants with deletion of hat region lack the current induced by mechanical stimulation.

Dr. Xiao Bailong’s research group comprehensively uses the multi-disciplinary research methods, such as biochemical structure, electrophysiological patch clamp, Qualcomm dosage drug screening, transgenic mouse model and human genetics, and focuses on solving the key scientific problems of how the mechanically gated Piezo channel converts mechanical stimulation into electrochemical signals, and how it uses its own mechanical sensitivity and channel characteristics to determine related physiological and pathological functions, and is committed to developing new drugs and technologies targeting Piezo channel. Up to now, as a correspondent (including co-author), he has made a series of important research achievements in the three-dimensional structure analysis, molecular mechanism revelation, small molecule drug discovery and physiological and pathological function exploration of Piezo channel.

In this latest Nature paper, relying on the technical system and research platform established by two research groups for analyzing the structure of Piezo1 channel by cryo-electron microscope, the researchers have made unremitting efforts for more than six years to overcome the difficulty of extremely low expression of mouse-derived Piezo2 with a total length of 2,822 amino acids. Through continuous exploration and optimization of protein purification conditions and sample preparation methods by cryo-electron microscope, a stable and homogeneous protein sample was finally obtained for data collection by cryo-electron microscope. In the process of structural analysis, Piezo protein is extremely flexible, which brings great challenges to the resolution of high-resolution structures. The researchers expanded the symmetry of Piezo2 data particles, cut them into three parts, and calculated them independently, so as to obtain high-resolution structures of each part and then put them together into a complete structure, overcoming the flexibility problem, and finally obtained a three-dimensional structure with an overall resolution of 3.6-3.8 angstroms (Figure A), and successfully analyzed the complete topological structure of Piezo2 protein including 38 transmembrane helical regions (Figures C and D).

The researchers found that the overall three-dimensional structure of Piezo2 channel is similar to that of Piezo1 channel previously analyzed, and it is assembled into a trilobal propeller-like structure with 114 transmembrane helical regions in the form of homotrimer (Figure a-d), and it is established that Piezo channel is a kind of large membrane protein with the most transmembrane times so far. Among them, the 1st to 36th transmembrane helix regions (TM1-36) are sequentially assembled into 9 repetitive structural units with the 4th transmembrane helix region as the unit, and this characteristic structural unit was previously named THU (Transmembrane Helical Unit) with the abbreviation of Tsinghua University (Figure c, d). Very interestingly, these nine thus are connected in series to form a special non-planar transmembrane "Blade" structure, which leads to the three blades enclosing into a dome-shaped structure with a diameter of 28nm and a depth of 10nm (Figure B). Researchers speculate that this dome-shaped PIZO protein-cell membrane system may be one of the structural foundations of PIZO channel with high mechanical sensitivity.

The extracellular "Cap" domain located above the central pore region is completely embedded in the bottom of the dome (Figures A and B), while there is a 9nm long Beam structure inside the cell, which connects the peripheral end of the blade to the intracellular position of the central pore region (Figures a-e). The 38th transmembrane helix (named inner helix, IH) and the trailing intracellular carboxyl terminal domain (CTD) form a central pore part (Figures E and F), including a narrow neck located in the transmembrane region and cytoplasmic region (Figures F and G), suggesting that the Piezo channel structure is in a closed state. The structural comparison between Piezo2 and Piezo1 shows that the transmembrane region narrow site is completely closed in Piezo2 structure, but open in Piezo1 (Figure f, g). Based on this, the researcher proposed that the narrow site forms a switch gate of transmembrane region (Figure f, g). Further structural analysis and electrophysiological function experiments show that the gate may be controlled by the rotation of the top hat domain (Figure H). However, because the narrow constriction neck located in the cytoplasm region is in the closed state in both Piezo1 and Piezo2 structures (Figure f, g), it remains to be further proved whether this site is controlled by the conformational changes of the blade and long rod structure as another switch gate.

Dr. Xiao Bailong said that through the full cooperation with Dr. Li Xueming’s research group, the analysis of the structure from Piezo1 to Piezo2 not only strongly promoted the understanding of the structure and mechanism of mechanical gating of Piezo channel in mammals, but also provided a solid foundation for exploring the mechanism of human diseases caused by the dysfunction of Piezo channel and the identification and discovery of related drugs. Relying on the all-round research platform and academic accumulation of Piezo channel established by their research group, they will devote themselves to the drug discovery and development of Piezo channel.

Dr. Xiao Bailong from Tsinghua University College of Pharmacy and Dr. Li Xueming from College of Life Sciences are co-authors of this paper. Wang Li, a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University College of Pharmacy, Zhou Heng, a 2015 doctoral student at School of Life, Zhang Mingmin, a 2013 doctoral student, and Liu Wenhao, a 2016 doctoral student, are the first authors. In addition, Dr. Deng Tuan, Zhao Qiancheng (now a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University) and Li Yiran of Xiao Bailong’s research group also participated in some research work. Dr lei Jianlin of Tsinghua University cryo-electron microscope platform provided help for data collection of cryo-electron microscope.

Paper link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1505-8.pdf

Graphic | School of Medicine, School of Life, Department of Electronics, School of Public Administration, School of Pharmacy

Editor | Li Jing

Retro is subversion: Kingsman’s confession of British classic spy film


"Fashion is the most fashionable" 

Salute: as exquisite as Bond? Make costumes into high-end customized brands.

    Kingsman is adapted from a cartoon of the same name in mark millar, which mainly tells the story of Harry Hart, an old agent of Kingsman Secret Service played by colin firth, training Egsey, a little agent played by taron egerton. However, Harry didn’t teach Egsey any real skills. It’s all up to Merlin, the bald instructor played by mark strong. Harry’s task, to be elegant, is to help Egsey, a street thug, become an elegant aristocrat, and to put it bluntly, to teach him how to dress. Therefore, the biggest attraction in the first half of this film is not fists or high-tech weapons, but Harry keeps showing off his suits, shoes, ties, watches and glasses. "Oxford is better than Brock", this clever trick of wearing shoes is an admonition that Harry emphasized to Egsey the most times. I think I was influenced by the spy film ipcress file starring michael caine in 1965.

    Just like Bond, those clothes in Kingsman are well-known. In fact, the Kingsman Secret Service is ostensibly a tailor’s shop, located in the famous Saville Street in London. The shops in this street are all top clothing stores that serve the royal families and nobles of various countries. The prototype of Kingsman storefront is actually a world-famous custom clothing store Huntsman. It is worth mentioning that the film hired Ariane Phillips, who once served "Single Man", as a fashion designer, and cooperated with Mr. Porter, a British men’s fashion e-commerce, to create a customized series of "costume to collection" inspired by movies, which was sold in real life. In addition, the luggage accessories in the film are also of great origin: Turnbull & Asser’s shirt, Drake’s tie, Culture&Gross’s glasses, Swaine Adeney Brigg’s suitcase, Bremont’s watch and George Cleverley’s shoes.

Subversion: gentlemen don’t need muscle blocks!

    Colin firth once played a homosexual in Single Man, and his performance style inspired Matthew Vaughn. We can hardly see any masculine flavor in Harry Hart, but we can experience a different kind of feminine charm. It is not difficult to understand that Matthew Vaughn is deliberately playing against Bourne ultimatum, Mission Impossible and the daniel craig version of 007. "Now spy films are getting more and more boring" is exactly what he thinks of these films. It doesn’t matter to him whether he has a muscle mass or not. The important thing is to wear a suit, which is the kind of elegance and grace shown between gestures. What he wants to pay tribute to is "Underwater City of 007" starring roger moore in 1977. Although this version of Bond has limited physical fitness, it has become the most attractive Bond in Vaughan’s mind because of its ease of weight and humor.

[Carrying equipment can kick and hit]

Salute: Which agent didn’t order high-tech goods? 

    Harry is naturally very proud of his image and clothes, but Egsey, who just came out of the slum, doesn’t buy it. He grew up on the street and likes to wear hoodies or sportswear with hip-hop style. The rebellious teenager was easily fooled by Harry to report to the Secret Service, mainly because Harry’s cool weapons and cool skills shocked him. Like most spy movies, Harry’s high-tech equipment is enough to make him blind. The umbrella he carried when he first met him is a powerful weapon that can be attacked and defended. The tip of the umbrella can fire and the tarpaulin can prevent guns. And almost every accessory on him is a weapon at the same time. There is a sharp knife hidden in the toe of leather shoes, a 500,000 Ford catapult hidden under the dial of the watch, a miniature explosive with the power equivalent to a Grenade in the lighter body, and a toxic pill in the pen tube. Of course, his haute couture suit is also made of special bulletproof material.

Subversion: the moves are fierce and the hair can’t be messy.

    When it comes to fighting, Harry’s action features are bright and neat, which can not only deal a powerful blow to the enemy, but also maintain the elegance of his posture and ensure that his carefully managed hairstyle will not be messed up. It was also in the scene where they first met Egsey that they met a gang of gangsters to provoke them. Harry calmly closed the doors and windows of the hotel, knocked down the gangsters one by one with three strokes and five divisions, and it was like a dance. Colin firth trained for three hours every day for several weeks in order to make a good show. The crew specially invited a number of experts to help, including Jackie Chan’s training team, world Muay Thai champion and Olympic gold medal gymnast. There is also a special forces guy who is responsible for guiding how to use a gun.

    However, if you really meet a strong opponent, it is out of place to consider the image of a gentleman. Terrorists who intend to cleanse mankind are all ruthless dissidents, and agents can only protect themselves if they give them back in their own way. Vaughn deliberately designed the action scene to be fierce and abnormal, which led to the final R rating of the film. Take the opening scene as an example. Agent Lancelot went deep into the tiger’s den to save the hostages and killed all the terrorists. He was so ruthless that people thought he was a villain. Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, the goods were split in half by the female killer Jia Zeiler (sofia boutella). Cruel enough! That’s not all. Vaughn later let this sad agent appear again, and his two halves of the body were sewn together by a rope for the villain Valentine (samuel jackson) to "enjoy and ponder". Such humor may be the essence of Vaughan’s aesthetics.