A child with autism plays basketball with the help of a volunteer during an activity held by the Children's Hospital of Fudan University on Sunday. [Photo provided to CHINADAILY] BEIJING - Chinese medical specialists have developed a new diagnosis and screening scale for autism in Chinese based on the country's parenting culture. The new criteria for autism diagnosis, developed under the leadership of China Women's Development Foundation and the office of the national family care action project for autistic children, will be published by the People's Medical Publishing House in April. The etiology of autism is still unclear, and there are no instrumental tests for the diagnosis of the disease, which is normally identified by evaluating a patient's behavior according to such scales. Previously, most Chinese physicians used the autism diagnosis and screening scales developed by Western countries, which are not completely suitable for Chinese conditions. Moreover, the introduction and use of foreign scales are costly, which also limits their application in China. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills and social interactions and by restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. The disease affects at least 10 million people in China including more than 2 million children, according to an industry report released in 2015. african rubber braceletsbulk order wristbandswhat are those rubber band bracelets calledcustom silicone wristbands no minimum orderrubber band bracelet maker
BEIJING -- Chinese scientists have developed an innovative desalination technology that uses rice straw and sunlight for clean water production.Solar steam generation is considered a promising strategy for purification of wastewater and seawater. Scientists from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering have developed a solar steam-generation device from wasted rice straw.The device is composed of a photothermal membrane and water pumps. Rice straw leaves are carbonized and composited with bacterial cellulose to function as a photothermal membrane and the lower culms of straw are designed as water pumps.The solar rice straw-derived desalination achieves a daily clean water yield of 6.4 to 7.9 kg per square meter on sunny days and 4.6 to 5.6 kg on cloudy days. The water yielded reached safe drinking water standards with over 99.9 percent of saline ions removed.Besides seawater desalination, the device can also be used for extracting clean water from various water-bearing areas such as tidal flats, wetlands and marshes.The research was published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.As fresh water scarcity is one of the most compelling global concerns, scientists are exploring innovative desalination technologies to increase water productivity and bring down the overall desalination cost.According to Liu Fu, the leading researcher, there is a great need to reduce energy consumption in desalination technology and solar-driven steam generation has attracted wide attention."As green and inexhaustible energy, solar energy can be harnessed in desalination and water purification, leading to low-cost and sustainable technologies that address the water crisis worldwide," Liu said.To utilize solar energy, solar thermal materials are needed. Since it is complex and costly to prepare traditional solar thermal materials such as plasmonic materials, carbon nanotubes and graphene-based materials, they are not suitable for large-scale applications.Liu's team explores new materials and new engineering designs to improve the efficiency of solar thermal conversion and reduce the cost of desalination.Stepping out of the lab, learning from nature, he found rice straw was the most suitable candidate for photothermal desalination, as it possesses a high transpiration coefficient and a superior water delivery capability through its culms.China has an abundance of rice straw. Chinese farmers traditionally burn straw after harvest, which causes air pollution and has been banned in many places."If this agricultural waste can be used for extracting clean water, it will be an environmentally friendly and sustainable technology," Liu said.The technique can be used in remote islands or mountainous regions lacking water. It can be used during emergencies such as floods, earthquakes and severe environments such as in the wilderness for obtaining clean water, according to the team.Liu's team is also researching other solar thermal materials, which are expected to be commercialized in large-scale desalination projects in three years.An expert in solar-thermal desalination, Professor Zhu Jia from Nanjing University said the research was a new and creative exploration in using solar energy to desalinate sea water."By using rice straw as solar thermal materials, the cost for desalination can be further reduced," Zhu said. cheap plastic braceletscheap wristbands free shippingfournisseur bracelet siliconerecycled silicone wristbandsyouth silicone wristbands<%2fcenter>
