Month: February 2021

Five papers written by Jong Min Park, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Kyungpook National University, during his master’s course, were published as the first author in the top 3% SCI (Science and Technology Citation Index) journal.

The paper by Jong Min Park as the first author ‘A remarkable adsorbent for removal of nitrogenous compounds from fuel: A metal-organic framework functionalized both on metal and ligand’ was published online in the top 3% academic journal in the field of chemical engineering, ‘Chemical Engineering Journal (Impact factor 10.652)’ on January 2021. The main purpose of this study is to increase the nitrogen content of the adsorbent to enhance the selective removal of carbon dioxide.

Last year, two papers about adsorbents with high adsorption capacity for effectively removing bisphenol S and phenol compounds from water (Remarkable adsorbent for removal of bisphenol A and S from water: Porous carbon derived from melamine/polyaniline, and A remarkable adsorbent for removal of bisphenol S from water: Aminated metal organic framework, MIL-101-NH2), and a paper about selective CO2 adsorption at low pressure (Effective CO2 adsorption at low pressure over nitrogen-enriched porous carbons, derived from melamine-loaded polyaniline) were published in the ‘Chemical Engineering Journal’ in December 2020.

In addition, a paper ‘Polyaniline-derived carbons: Remarkable adsorbents to remove atrazine and diuron herbicides from water’ was published in the top 3% of the journals, “Journal of Hazardous Material,” in September 2020. The paper is the results of research on carbon dioxide adsorption and removal, and contain content that chemically improves carbon dioxide removal efficiency by synthesizing a material with excellent porosity.

Professor Sung Hwa Jhung said, “During two years of his master’s course, as the first author, Jong Min Park published a total of eight papers in SCI journals, including five top 3% papers. His research is expected to contribute to the development of technology to create a clean environment by suggesting the direction of developing excellent adsorbents and adsorption processes.”

In the lead-up to the 125th anniversary of the university, Tomsk Polytechnic University and Sberbank PJSC will start a new endowment in the University Endowment Fund. The endowment income will be allocated to support the research of TPU scientists and students. On Monday, February 8, 2021, Russian Science Day, the partners launched a primary fundraising campaign to set up the endowment.

“In a milestone year for us, we are starting a new endowment. For the entire country, this is the Year of Science and Technology and, for us, it is also the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the oldest engineering university east of the Urals. Thus, it was decided to create a new endowment specifically for the research initiatives of our scientists and students,” says Andrey Yakovlev, Acting Rector of TPU.

“It will be a good opportunity for our graduates and partners to make their invaluable contribution to the development of science and technology,”

The TPU Endowment Fund is a nonprofit trust fund established to support the initiatives and projects of the TPU community in science, education, and culture. It is funded by charitable donations and, then, the funds are transferred in trust to a professional asset management company. Thus, the Endowment funds are constantly increasing by the investment returns as well.

“It is a milestone, a start of a long path of cooperation with one of the largest universities in Tomsk. The Endowment Fund under the management of Sberbank Asset Management CJSC is not only a source of long-term financing for TPU activities but also an indicator of its success rate. Last but not least is that the Endowment Fund creates new opportunities for the development of scientific and research work,” Alexey Zarubin, Head of Tomsk branch of Sberbank PJSC, says.

Community Welfare Organization, Community Organizations Development Institute, Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises Development, and School of Global Studies, Thammasat University have come together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of community’s welfare development.

The four parties came to an agreement to mutually collaborate and exchange knowledge for the sustainable development of the community’s welfare, better fund management, and ensure local community stability. The initiative will contribute to achieving the UN’s SDGs.

One of the objectives of the MoU is to strengthen the role and capacity of community welfare funds and a community welfare organization as development agents for the nation and the quality of life.

The MoU also aims to proceed in the development of the community welfare system according to the constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand in accordance with the problem of demand and concepts, principles, guidelines of the operation of community welfare funds in response to the sustainable development index.

The collaboration further aims to create mutual collaboration between a community welfare organization, other non-profit organizations, and an academic institution that strengthen the society and acts as an example for further development.

School of Global Studies, Thammasat University will support with academic personnel to contribute to the development of knowledge and new innovations in the community and social welfare system. The school will also provide academic support to develop a database of community welfare funds with a variety of issues and to be able to be utilized for policy-making strategies and development plans in various areas.

The School will also contribute through the study, research, upgrade relevant knowledge organizations to support the development of the community welfare system to be efficient and sustainable, including for dissemination, expanding knowledge both in educational institutions and other sectors in society, and linking the Thai community welfare network with academics and development organizations of Thailand and international.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for ‘Development of Community’s Welfare System to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals’ was held at Sanya Dharmasakti Convention Room, Thammasat University (Tha Prachan Campus) on December 16, 2020.

Representatives from 4 organizations, including Mr.Kaew Sangchu, Coordinator of National Community Welfare Organization, Mr.Amporn Kaewnoo, Vice President of Community Organizations Development Institute, Mr.Thananon Praichan, Director-General of Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises Development, and Asst.Prof.Dr. Prapaporn Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit, Dean of School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, were present during the signing of the collaboration agreement.

Mr Kaew Sangchu, Coordinator of National Community Welfare Organization, said, “60% of the money in community welfare funds mostly come from donations in the community. The four management principles are the goodness of people in the community, the beauty of the cultural way in the community, the capacity of people in the community, and transparency. We adopt these four principles for sustainable practice in order to strengthen community welfare funds across the country and strengthen the community as well.”

“The main objective for the community welfare fund is to upgrade the quality of life of all groups of people and all classes. The point is we do not compete with the government but we have to strengthen and support the government because sometimes the matter is unreachable for the state. For example, the community welfare fund successfully brought resources and personnel to help and alleviate the flood incident in the south of Thailand,” added Mr Kaew

“Today, we are delighted that the four organizations have signed MOU and agreed to strengthen the community by supporting more than 6,000 funds. With the collaboration of all parties, the funds are successfully implemented and is  the New Year’s gift for local people in the community.”

Asst.Prof.Dr. Prapaporn Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit, Dean of School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, stateD, “Academic sectors have to collaborate with other organizations and recognize the importance of globalization for the university. Globalization means the movement and integration of societies around the globe in terms of economy, society, politics, and culture or the mix of global and local.”

“Therefore, it is an important matter as we can learn from case study around the globe and adapt to Thailand. As a result, academic sectors should support and spread knowledge to everyone, all sectors both in the country and abroad.”

The community welfare fund also supports those non-members who are disadvantaged or in trouble in both direct and indirect ways such as by giving food and face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and creating awareness campaigns for COVID-19 prevention. This work is in accordance with the UN’s sustainable development goals in areas such as Goal 1-6 and 11-15.

On January 13, 2021, Dr Bambang Pramujati, the Vice-Rector of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember  (ITS) for Research, Innovation, Cooperation, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dr. Charlito P. Cadag, the President of Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC) the Philippines.

This partnership has been driven by the similarities of both universities in academic achievement, especially in the fields of engineering, science, and business management.

ITS will soon implement the partnership by inviting CSPC students to ITS virtual programs, such as e-exchange, e-internship, and e-short programs. ITS is also planning to send their International Undergraduate Program (IUP) students to CSPC once the pandemic is over.

Dr. Charlito P. Cadag said, “This partnership is an extraordinary opportunity for CSPC to start a new journey with ITS since internationalization is on top of CSPC priority. The partnership between ITS and CSPC has once again marked ITS spirit on becoming a World Class University.”

Specialists from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) improved the cybersecurity system mechanism, based on the ECU (Electronic control unit) in modern vehicles. The research results were published in the scientific journal “Nonlinear Phenomena in Complex Systems”.

Modern road transport systems are complex cyber-physical systems. Car electronics have a number of security problems, the solution of which is difficult due to the limited computing power of some ECU’s and rather stringent requirements for speed, including the data transfer rate. Most scientific articles divide the internal network of a motor vehicle into many domains according to its purpose.

“This distinction is relevant for solving relatively simple issues, not requiring flexible configuration. We divide the domains not according to their intended purpose, but according to their “integrity level”, an indicator, which characterizes the susceptibility of each specific electronic unit to cyber impact and the potential harm caused by the disruption of its operation,” notes Evgeniy Pavlenko, Associate Professor at the Institute of Cybersecurity and Data Protection SPbPU.

Our scientific group developed a simulation model, which automatically clusters the control units of a vehicle’s on-board system and divides it into domains thus the security breach doesn’t lead to negative consequences,” adds Evgeniy Pavlenko.

“This approach is modular and highly scalable. It doesn’t impose the restrictions on computing resources, and also minimizes the redundancy of the applied security measures,”

Experts mention that this is a unique development and such safety systems are not implemented In the vehicles.

Evgeny Pavlenko adds that in modern security systems the intruder’s model practically doesn’t consider the introduction into the electronic system of vehicles itself, and most studies are aimed at preventing the possibility of controlling the car from the outside.

The developed technology ensures that the intruder wouldn’t be able to introduce some kind of electronic units to affect the wrong decision-making in terms of piloting the vehicle.

“Our development doesn’t require complex calculations from the electronics installed in the car. We don’t add cryptographic schemes. Currently, we are at the stage of discussing our system with manufacturers of electronic devices for its experimental approbation,”  says Evgeny Pavlenko.

The scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University with colleagues from Keysight company have jointly conducted an experiment with an electron beam at the TPU microtron to study a super-radiant regime that occurs when radiation is generated by a train of electron bunches.

The research findings obtained by a high-precision measurement of a spectral line width proved that about 8,000 electron bunches in a super-radiant regime form monochromatic Cherenkov radiation. This experiment was conducted for the first time. The fundamental research findings are published in the Scientific Reports academic journal (IF: 4.120, Q1) and can be used for further research on the new sources of radiation in the terahertz range.

Researchers from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) have jointly developed the Spermine Risk Score which, coupled with the use of a urine test, provides a non-invasive and more reliable method for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

In a study conducted by the researchers, about 37% of the patients, who were ultimately found to have no prostate cancer, can avoid undergoing a prostate biopsy procedure. The findings have just been published in the scientific journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.

In search of a more reliable and non-invasive method for prostate cancer diagnosis, Professor Gary Wong Ka-leung, Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry at HKBU, and Professor Ng Chi-fai and Dr Peter Chiu Ka-fung, Professor and Associate Professor respectively of the Division of Urology in the Department of Surgery at CU Medicine, have collaborated since 2014 to identify a new biomarker to supplement the PSA test. They found that prostate cancer patients in general have lower levels of spermine, a biogenic molecule in their urine, which offers a clue for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

To investigate the diagnostic performance of spermine, the research team recruited 905 patients between 2015 and 2019 to participate in a study. All of them had elevated PSA levels and/or abnormal DRE, with a prostate biopsy scheduled.

Among the 905 patients, 600 of them who had PSA levels ranging from 4 to 20 ng/mL were included in the analysis. Their urine samples were collected before they underwent a biopsy procedure. The biopsy results showed that out of the 600 patients, 185 (30.8%) were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

At the same time, the urine samples of these 600 patients were also analysed. The results found that about 49% of the patients with spermine levels in the lowest quartile had prostate cancer, which was nearly triple the number of patients in the highest quartile (17%). The research team then used the urine spermine level figures and three other clinical parameters, namely DRE, PSA level and prostate volume, to develop the Spermine Risk Score, with the objective of offering a more accurate estimation of patients’ prostate cancer risk.

The higher the Spermine Risk Score, the greater the patient’s risk of developing prostate cancer. Only patients with Spermine Risk Scores higher than 6.2 will be advised to undergo the biopsy procedure. Based on Spermine Risk Scores calculated with data collected from the study, about 37% of the non-cancer patients could have avoided the biopsy procedure. Moreover, the negative predictive value of the Spermine Risk Score for significant prostate cancer is 95%, which means the chance of no significant cancer is 95% if the value of the Score is negative.

Dr Chiu concluded the findings by highlighting that, “This study confirms that urine spermine and the Spermine Risk Score are effective at identifying men at higher risk of prostate cancer and the test could help reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies.”

“It is the first prospective study to investigate the efficacy of urine spermine in prostate cancer detection. It successfully demonstrated that the Spermine Risk Score, developed based on patients’ urine spermine levels and other clinical parameters, can serve as a novel and promising approach to address the limitations of the diagnostic methods currently in use,” said Professor Wong.

“Although there are a number of blood and urine adjuncts to guide prostate biopsy decisions in patients with elevated PSA levels, urine spermine is a convenient non-invasive test that doesn’t require another blood test or attentive DRE before specimen collection. Thus it minimizes any potential complications associated with the procedures,” said Professor Ng.