Month: March 2021

The Department of Biology, UiTM Negeri Sembilan Branch (UiTMNS), Kuala Pilah campus, in collaboration with the University of Andalas (UNAND), hosted the first International Virtual Undergraduate Symposium (IVUS), sponsored by the Malaysian Genetics Association, on the 21st of January 2021 via the Webex and Goole Meet platforms.

A total of 40 local students of UiTMCNS and 11 international students from Universitas Andalas Padang (UNAND), Universitas Syiah Kuala (UNSYIAH), and Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji (UMRAH) from Indonesia participated in the prestigious programme.

As part of the bachelor’s degree in Biology’s final year project requirement, this symposium aimed to ignite the undergraduate’s interest in the world of research and publication. It was deemed as a  platform for the undergraduates to gain experience and exposure in such event and for the university to establish a network of ideas in all areas in the field of science with international academic institutions as envisioned by the UiTMCNS rector, Professor Dr Yamin Yasin in his welcoming message.

The keynote’s speeches preceded the symposium by two prominent entities from each organizing university. The honourable speakers were Ts. Dr. Aishah Hasan from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, UiTMCNS and Dr. Yelly Oktavia from the Faculty of Pharmacy, UNAND.

Both the speakers encouraged young minds to pursue their interest in academic research despite the worrisome coronavirus pandemic that has shrunk learning and job opportunities.

The highlight of the event was the oral presentations by undergraduate participants. The oral presentations were categorized into multidiscipline in biology: ecology, antimicrobials, bacteriology, plant science, scientific methods, applied microbiology, and anti-oxidants.

The session was subsequently enlivened by the Speaker’s Discussion whereby three speakers shared their life experiences in completing their doctorate programmes in different environmental and cultural settings. The speakers were Dr. Rashidah Iberahim (UKM, Malaysia), Dr. Muádz Ahmad Mazian (University of Hyogo, Japan) and Dr. Amirul Adli Abd Aziz (University of Sheffield, UK).  This slot was also to further encourage and lift student’s interest to embark on the scientific research field right after completing their bachelor’s degree.

The symposium ended with the award ceremony whereby students with the best presentation and the best research project were awarded accordingly.

A team of Chulalongkorn University‘s doctoral students has created a smart “DynaSeat” to adjust sitting behaviour to prevent neck pain and promote fast recovery after office syndrome.

“Office Syndrome is an ailment that takes time to accumulate. By the time one notices the symptoms, they are already suffering and healing takes time. One of the main reasons is poor posture and prolonged sitting.  Therefore, the proper sitting position is one way to prevent office syndrome,” explained Nipaporn Akrakittichok, Biomedical Sciences Program, Chulalongkorn Graduate School and Phuriphat Wawngernngam, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences.

This innovative behavioral adjustment seat that aids in preventing office syndrome has won a Gold Medal and Very Good Award in a Collegiate Innovation Contest 2020 at the Thailand Research Expo 2020.

According to the research team, DynaSeat has three main components: an inflatable seat, a controller, and an application with two functions designed to adjust sitting behavior.

“The first function is Dynaseat that will inflate the air into the seat forcing the users to move when they are uncomfortable, unbalanced, or sitting poorly for too long.  A red light indicates that the user should correct the sitting position.  Report of user’s sitting behavior is available in real-time on the application on how the user sits — crouching, leans to the left, or crossed-legged, for example,” said Nipaporn.

“The analysis is done by pressure sensors that measure the pressure of the airbag in the seat, so the users can learn how to adjust their sitting posture to prevent stiffness.  Once the posture is correct, the indicator will turn green,” said Nipaporn.

The other function is DynaRest which reminds the user to get up after a while.

“When the Dynaseat user has been sitting for a long time, the system will remind the user to get up and take a break from work.  A timer is set to see if the user is away for less or more time than specified by the program.  Increments will be rolled over to the next cycle.  This program allows the user to move and not to sit still for prolonged periods of time,” Nipaporn added.

Nipaporn cited the results of the experiment that Dynaseat prevented up to 70 percent neck pain and 80 percent back pain in the samples who tried the smart seat.

“We also tested people with neck pain from office syndrome, and found that using Dynaseat, along with physical therapy, improved neck pain problem for patients in as little as 1 month, compared to the typical 2 months most of the patients would usually need for symptoms to subside.”

This research project came under the supervision of Professor Dr. Prawit Janwantanakul, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, and received support from Chulalongkorn University Technology Center (UTC), Srithai Auto Seats Industry Co., Ltd., and Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI).

“At the moment, Dynaseat is in the commercial development process to come up with a marketable design at an affordable price for consumers.  In the future, we are planning to expand the project to cover other areas such as airplane seats, public transportation, movie theatres, etc.,” concluded Nipaporn.

Chitkara Business School was ranked in the Top 50 B-Schools of India and Top 20 B-Schools in North India by the Times B School Ranking. CBS had bagged 48th position under Top 50 B-Schools of India and 17th rank under Top 20 B-Schools in North India.

The eighth B-School 2021 survey was conducted by Optimal Media Solutions in partnership with Market Xcel Data Matrix to determine the Top Management Institutes of India.

According to Times B School, the aim of ranking research was to conclude at a list of top business schools offering full-time management courses – including two-year courses in India.

The research had 3 major modules, such as Desk Research, Factual survey and Perceptual Rating survey. After the data was collected, a methodical analysis was done to rate the various B schools that participated in the study and hence, were ranked accordingly.

The execution of the recent survey was done during 1st week of January to 1st week of February 2021.

Hilmy Muktafi, a student of the Information Systems program Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) has created educational innovation to support distance learning for prospective new students who will take the Computer-Based Examination (UTBK). The application is called Analitica.id.

“Analitica was created partly because of concerns over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education. We cannot study face-to-face because we are worried that the spread of the virus cannot be avoided,” said the final year student, Tuesday, March 22, 2021.

Hilmy continued, education cannot stop entirely and wait for the end of the pandemic. “We have been challenged to become one of the solution-makers to this problem. We try to integrate technology in the learning process with the hope of accelerating equitable access to education and being able to penetrate regional boundaries,” he added.

Analitica is an educational application specifically designed for exam preparation such as UTBK, SBMTPN, Mandiri, Official and civil servant entrance exams. Now on App Store, Analytica’s popularity is on the rise by making a place in the top 16, competing with other educational apps. It has been downloaded 20 thousand times.

For building his team, Hilmy admitted that the process was mostly done remotely from home. It did not necessarily prevent him from working with team members far outside the region, even other countries. There are many challenges, but for Hilmy, the objective of Analitica is important to strive for, to achieve equitable access to education throughout Indonesia.

“The Covid-19 pandemic creates its own challenges in the work process. I can say, the Analitica team spreads from Sabang to Merauke, ” he said.

“One of the objectives of Analitica is equal access to education. It should be only available on any platforms, ” explained the student of the Information Systems Undergraduate Program.

In the future, Hilmy hopes that the Analitica app can be a solution to educational problems that occur in Indonesia. Soon, Analitica will be collaborating with JTV and UNAIR to hold a 2021 UTBK Try-Out on April 5. The ten winners of UTBK Try-Out highest score will get Golden Tickets to enter UNAIR.

“Hopefully, the products we created can provide solutions to educational problems in Indonesia. For new prospective students, try to take part in the Try-out at Analitica, it can make you be more productive during a pandemic, ” said Hilmy.

Hilmy also revealed that the Analitica application has helped many prospective students to prepare for 2021 UTBK. It can be seen from hundreds of testimonials from application users through the Google Play Store and App Store.

Not only through the application, but Analitica also collaborates with JTV to hold a TV program called ‘Sinau nang Omah‘ to prepare prospective students to work on questions at 2021 UTBK. This program is broadcast live through the TV station and streaming channel with prizes for a quiz at the end of the program.

Researchers from Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with their colleagues from the Czech Republic have found a method to synthesize cyclic carbonates from atmospheric CO2. Cyclic carbonates are organic compounds, used as electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, green solvents as well as in pharmaceutical drugs manufacturing.

The scientists managed to synthesize carbonates under sunlight and at room temperature, while conventional methods require synthesis under high pressure and temperatures. The research findings are published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A (IF:11,301; Q1).

“The increase in CO₂ levels in the atmosphere is a global environmental problem. The solutions of the problem are usually focused on measures to reduce CO₂ emissions. An alternative method is to use the CO₂ already existing in the atmosphere for useful chemical transformations. Thus, we offered a new method allowing to obtain widely sought-after cyclic carbonates under sunlight. Most often, such reactions are carried out at high temperatures ranging from 60°С to 150°С and high CO2 pressure up to 25 atm. It means the technological chain requires additional equipment for CO2 compression and heating. In other words, it is impossible to simply extract it from the air,” Olga Guselnikova, Research Fellow of the TPU Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, one of the authors, says.

As a result of the experiments, the scientists synthesized cyclic carbonates from the interaction of CO₂ and epoxides, used as starting materials.

“To begin with, we had to capture CO₂. In order to do that, we used gold nanoparticles grafted with organic nucleobases. They served as traps for CO2 molecules and, at the same time, remained non-reactive with other substances. The experiments showed that these traps efficiently captured CO₂ from the air. We mixed the suspension from the nanoparticles and captured CO2 with epoxides,” Pavel Postnikov, Associate Professor of the TPU Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, says.

Then, the researchers irradiated this mixture with infrared light.

“The gold nanoparticles possess a plasmonic effect. It means the incident light excites plasmonic quasiparticles next to gold nanoparticles and the plasmonic quasiparticles trigger the reaction. They convert light energy into the energy required for the chemical reaction. These properties allowed conducting the reaction under ambient conditions. By the way, the matter of plasmonic chemistry mechanisms, how plasmons actually trigger chemical processes and how it works is a trending scientific topic. A number of our previous articles relate to this field of research. Control experiments allowed us to suggest that plasmon excitation on particles leads to the transfer of energy to the captured CO₂ molecule without heating,” Olga Guselnikova says.

As the authors of the article note, the synthesis process is comparable with similar methods, however, it does not require special technologically sophisticated equipment.

“The entire process takes about 24 hours, while regular indicators for other methods vary from 12 to 24 hours. We started from small volumes and received a few millilitres of cyclic carbonates. However, we explicated in the article that the method can be scaled up at least fivefold and nanoparticles themselves can be reused with the same efficiency. At the same time, the catalytic indicators of our plasmonic system are among the highest recorded ones for the reaction. The most important is to demonstrate an opportunity to conduct the reaction directly with the air without prior purification or CO2 concentration under ambient conditions and sunlight. Ultimately, it always makes the synthesis more simple and eco-friendly,” Pavel Postnikov adds.

The research was conducted jointly with the scientists from the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague and Jan Evangelista Purkyne University (the Czech Republic) with the support of the Russian Science Foundation.

Saint Petersburg Mining University has presented a new computer-modelling technology. The solution was developed by researchers working at the Department of Construction of Mining Enterprises and Underground Structures. It will help make more accurate estimates of earthwork operations’ impact on surrounding buildings. 

Numerical 3-D models were used to identify the regularities in stress and deformation changes in the “Ground-Excavation-Building” system. The patterns were found to depend on the geometrical shapes of objects and their mutual alignment, also affected by the structural features of retaining walls and load-bearing elements of foundation ditches, soil conditions and types. 

“Lack of free space for development is a common problem faced by larger cities, especially megacities. Hence, we have to switch to infill construction, which bears the risks of damaging buildings and structures nearby the construction site. The scarcity of free areas also drives the need for active underground space development. However, increasing the depth of ditches during construction further aggravates the problem,” says Vasily Komolov, a postgraduate student in geomechanics in his 3rd year, the technology’s inventor.

With the new forecasting technology, construction workers will get precise recommendations on choosing the right type of shoring and design parameters of supporting structures and retaining walls.

Mining University’s research results have been published in journals indexed by scientometric databases, with Scopus and Web of Science among them. The scientific project was supported by a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

On the 27^th of January 2021, the School of Biology, Kampus Kuala Pilah, UiTM Cawangan Negeri Sembilan, organised International Health Webinar entitled “Covid-19 Vaccine Awareness: Why is it safe to be vaccinated?”. The invited speaker for this webinar was an established Malaysian born Director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Watford General Hospital, United Kingdom, Dr Nazril Afsham Nordin.

When invited to be the speaker, Dr Nazril, who had spent almost 20 years practising medicine in the United Kingdom, said he was honoured to share with his Malaysian counterparts all his hands-on experience treating Covid-19 patients in the ICU and the Covid-19 situation in the United Kingdom which saw an average of 20,00 cases daily at the time. His experience as a Covid-19 survivor and a front liner who had received the full dose of Pfizer vaccine made him the most suitable speaker for this event.

The webinar, which was moderated by Dr. Amirul Adli Abd Aziz, a senior lecturer at the School of Biology, was attended by over 953 keen and concerned participants across Malaysia as news and rumours on the emergency mass vaccination programs undertaken by developed nations including the United Kingdom and some European countries had spread.

Attendees consisted of Malaysians from various backgrounds including lecturers, medical practitioner, students, and members of the public who wished to clear misconceptions and misinformation regarding the safety and efficacy of available Covid-19 vaccines.

After the opening remarks by the head of the School of Biology, Dr. Ida Muryany Md Yasin, the speaker began his talk by discussing the importance of vaccination in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, some key aspects of our immune system, and the danger of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Being a Covid-19 survivor, Dr Nazril talked about how UK hospitals were dealing with daily cases of infections especially from the perspective of the ICU. Dr Nazril also summarized different Covid-19 vaccine designs including the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA-based vaccines that are currently used in the UK.

Having been vaccinated himself, he stressed how safe the vaccine is and how we should all be vaccinated when given the opportunities to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible in the hope of eradicating the virus before further mutations may render the vaccines ineffective.

At the end of the talk, there was a very fruitful discussion during the Q&A session between the speaker and the participants, some of the latter remarked how his talk had cleared their doubts about taking part in the vaccination program. They also commented that they were convinced to go through with vaccination and would not hesitate to encourage eligible family members especially the most susceptible ones to be vaccinated as well.

Commenting on the overwhelming participation, the program director, Dr Izzati Adilah Azmir said that the success of the webinar reflected the commitment of Malaysian citizens in educating themselves on the current pandemic and to also put a stop to it. The webinar that was also streamed live on Facebook has accumulated around 1200 views since.

Mr Prapanpong Pianchan, the second-year student from Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Lampang Campus, the owner of “Introrest : Your Guide to Products and Services”, has won the 1st prize from “True 5G Word of Smart Education with Temi Robot Bootcamp” competition held by True Corporation Public Company Limited. The competition was held virtually via true VROOM on 29 January 2021.

The winner received 20,000 Baht as prize money and will be a representative of Thammasat University to join the competition at the national level on 30 April 2021.

The program aims to encourage students to develop their innovative ideas from Temi robots that can be practically used for business sectors via True5G. The case study for this competition was a business case from the shopping malls in Future Park and Zpell.

On 18 March 2021, Kuala Lumpur, BERJAYA University College organised the Relook, Restrategise, Revitalise (RE) Virtual Forum: Bounce into the New Norms and Beyond. In response to the devastating impact of the Covid19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality industry, and with the support from key industry associations, over 260 virtual attendees from 7 countries took part in the virtual forum to discuss how the industry can adapt and move forward.

In his opening address Mr. Alan Pryor, the Chairman of the Business Events Council of Malaysia (BECM) said, “To revive and revitalize our industry is a shared responsibility, having our own important role to play in creating a stronger and resilient supply chain. We really hope we are approaching a time where soon enough these uncertainties will be behind us and the pent up demand for travelling, meeting and entertainment will supersede the supply.”

“We need to start looking forward, in order to advance mutual recovery goals, re-strategising to elevate the cities and countries destination proposition to emerge as the regional leader.”

The virtual forum featured 10 prominent speakers from business events, hospitality, live events and tourism industries. The speakers shared the challenges they faced, how they were able to adapt to the new norm and their outlook on the future of the industry.

The virtual forum was supported by the Asia Pacific Centre for Events Management (APCEM), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Malaysia Chapter, Business Events Council of Malaysia (BECM), Malaysian Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (MACEOS), Arts, Live Festival and Events Association (ALIFE) and Business & Major Events Academic Council (BMEAC). RE Virtual Forum has donated a total of RM1,200.00 to Uncle Kentang Charity Organisation under all speaker names.