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Year: 2021

Thammasat University conducts joint research on “Thailand’s One Year After Covid-19”

Posted on by Thammasat University

At Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University, academic scholars from Thai studies, Chinese studies and Indian studies collaborated in conducting research under the topic of “Thailand’s One Year After COVID-19” to study the effects and analyze results to offer solutions and policy proposals that provides benefits to Thai people and community as follows.

Assistant Prof. Dr. Yi Lin from Chinese Studies Program found that focusing on cultural and traditional tourism would contribute to more success for Chinese tourist market to allow social and cultural exchanges between Chinese tourists and Thai people. The key to a positive attitude between Thai and Chinese people is that both of us have long-standing social and cultural integration.

Dr. Thomas Bruce, Head of Thai Studies Program, who highlighted the study of “The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Food Retail in Bangkok”, found that government measures against COVID-19 had a direct impact on the food retail and public transportations that remain available, such as MRT, are the crucial factors to the survival of Chinatown’s food retails because despite loss of foreign tourists, they were replaced by Thai customers.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Shweta Sinha from Indian Studies Program conducted a comparative study of the effects of COVID-19 on the agricultural sector of India and Thailand. The results showed interesting facts; during the pandemic, India increased rice exports by 44% compared to 2020. Vietnam also ordered rice from India for the first time in decades. However, Thailand rice exportation decreased by 31%due to its high price resulting in lack of competitiveness. According to Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), Thai farmers had a household debt of 54% and 50% of Thai farmers had debt over 200,000 baht per household and another 20% owe more than 400,000 baht per household.

“The challenges of the agricultural households are declining income and increase in debt, COVID-19 is also a factor of digital disruption,” noted Asst. Prof. Dr. Shweta Sinha.

Dr. Mohd Faheem, Head of Indian Studies Program, addressed the lessons learned during the lockdown in India which resulted in a massive relocation of labour to bigger cities for works and better income. Most of the migrants suffered from shortages of food, shelters, and money. In addition, they dealt with anxiety, paranoia, and fear of COVID-19 infection. Thus, his research suggested that the most important thing is that the labors should not have been ignored by the government and establishing labour database and distributing opportunities to the countryside would help manage and minimize migration to big cities.

Dr Usanee Lertrattananon, Head of the Chinese Studies Program, found that during the COVID-19 crisis, live streaming technology had become a key to success for several businesses. In addition, it became the people’s means to socialize. There were various successful Chinese websites and applications, e.g., Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok, that was introduced to Thai market. Therefore, COVID-19 offered opportunities and challenges for businesses at the same time.

Dr. Ornthicha Duangrat, Thai Studies Lecturer, focused on the conflicts between the superpowers, China and the United States, and mentioned “COVID-19 pandemic had inevitably intensified the competition between these two nations as well as expanded the influence of their powers. While vaccination currently played an important role. As we could see from Vietnam and the Philippines that they had to compromise and adapt themselves to balance the power of China and the United States. Likewise, Thailand needed to find more approaches for vaccination which might get from the ASEAN cooperation.”

Prommin Lertsuridej, M.D., the Former Deputy Prime Minister, said “The first priority of Thailand at this moment is vaccination and availability of rapid test kit to allow borders reopening so that Thai people would not lose their hope and faith. To be able to find infected patients quickly could save time and cancellation of quarantine measures would increase tourists’ interest in visiting Thailand. The rapid test kit is affordable and Thai specialists are developing it. I would like to see more of the government’s attention on this issue.”

COVID-19 has an impact on various aspects. It is more than a health issue because its impact remains widespread through the economy and society. This crisis is not only a challenge, but it is also a change that allows us to learn and grow at the same time.

KNU researchers develop an advanced water treatment system

Posted on by Kyungpook National University ‏‏‎ ‎

A research team at Kyungpook National University has developed an advanced water treatment system that can break down most of the naproxen, a drug that has failed to filter existing sewage treatment facilities.

Chang Min Park, a professor of Environmental Engineering at Kyungpook National University, and Yeo Min Yoon, a professor at South Carolina University, developed a technology that can break down 99.9% of naproxen, an anti-inflammatory drug, in an hour.

Existing advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as photocatalysts, ozone oxidation, and penton oxidation, require high processing costs and energy and often remain in soil and water systems with low efficiency due to incomplete release of residual drugs such as naproxen.

The research team applied a sono-photometric degradation process to a “hybrid catalyst material with a multi-component hierarchical structure” synthesized by doping a cerium oxide-zirconia (CeO2-ZrO2) nanostructure with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructure.

As a result, it was confirmed that when multi-component hybrid nanoparticles absorbed photo-ultrasonic energy, they maximized the production of active oxygen species through sonar light and hot spot formation, eliminating 99.9% of naproxen within an hour.

Furthermore, the research team said that even if multi-component hybrid nanoparticles are reused five times, the processing cost is expected to be reduced in that catalytic properties and structural stability are maintained.

“If we actively utilize the next generation of advanced water treatment technology developed this time, we will be able to drastically reduce the existing huge cost, time, and energy required to deal with naproxen remaining in the environment. In particular, the study is expected to be applied to the removal of other aqueous residual drugs.”

FBM-UiTM becomes an affiliate member of the European Foundation for Management Development

Posted on by NURUL SALIZAWATEE MAHPAR & NOOR RITA MOHAMAD KHAN

Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) has been accepted as an affiliate member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

EFMD is a global, non-profit, membership-driven organisation that act as an accreditation body for business schools, business school programmes, and corporate universities based in Brussels, Belgium, with offices in Geneva, Hong Kong, Miami and Prague. With the support of more than 900 members across 90 countries, EFMD act as a catalyst to promote and enhance excellence in management
development globally.

As a member of EFMD, FBM has become part of the largest community of management development professionals worldwide, from both the academic and corporate worlds.  This will drive the faculty towards international recognition and be part of the most diverse business education network and stay ahead of the curve in management development.

The drive of getting this recognition from EFMD for FBM was initiated by the former dean of FBM and continued by the current leadership of Professor Dr. Noryati Ahmad. It was supported by the other top management members of the faculty headed by Dr. Nor Lelawati Jamaludin together with a team of dedicated committee members; Dr. Noor Ain Mohd Yunus, Dr. Azimah Daud, Dr. Aida Azlina Mansor, Pn. Norina Ahmad Jamil and Pn. Nurul Salizawatee Mahpar.  Together they made FBM-UiTM more visible globally and credible.

This initiative is aligned with the aspirations of UiTM towards achieving globally renowned university status. The former Vice-Chancellor of UiTM, Emeritus Professor Datuk Ir Dr. Mohd Azraai Kassim once stressed on the importance of visibility in a very crisp way and reminded that: “In this world, you not only need to be good, but people need to know that you are good”.

Thus, the spotlighted membership is a good measure to move UiTM and the Faculty of
Business and Management forward with international recognition and accreditation as well as making it more visible.

KCMH successfully treats breast cancer patient with immunotherapy

Posted on by Editorial Team

Queen Sirikit Center for Breast Cancer at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital (KCMH) and Thai Red Cross Society (Chulalongkorn Hospital) has become the world’s first institution to have successfully used immunotherapy to treat a breast cancer patient. The patient is now in complete remission with minimal side effects and improved quality of life. Located in Bangkok, KCMH serves as the teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, and the Thai Red Cross College of Nursing.

After the ordeals of various breast cancer treatments that could not stop it from spreading to her liver, lungs, and bones, Ploenpit Goware decided to stop the treatments and was resigned to spend the rest of her days with her daughter.  That was before Associate Professor Dr Kris Chatamra, Head of the Queen Sirikit Center for Breast Cancer at Chulalongkorn Hospital recommended “Immunotherapy” which gave her a sense of renewed hope.

“My condition remarkably improved after six months of treatment — from being bound to a wheelchair and having trouble walking because of compromised skeletal integrity, now I can walk up and down the stairs without feeling exhausted.  The pain in my bones has disappeared and I no longer need to rely on painkillers. The biopsy results from my liver with metastasized cancer show no traces of cancer cells left,” Ploenpit said with a smile, adding that the side effects of the treatment were only some blisters and minor joint pains.

Today, Ploenpit is living a normal life.  She only has to be mindful of the movements involving her back and neck due to compromised bones from her previous treatments some years ago.

Breast Cancer: The Number One Threat to Women Worldwide

Breast cancer is the world’s number-one cancer that costs women’s lives and it is also the most prevalent type of cancer among Thai women. There are many ways to treat breast cancer according to world standards, i.e. chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and surgery. However, for some patients, even after these treatments, cancer may recur.  So, immunotherapy is another alternative.

“Immunotherapy is one option for cancer treatments. Studies have been done overseas over several decades, but the method has never been applied to breast cancer treatment, nor has there been any tailor-made treatment for each patient,” said Associate Professor Dr Kris.

“For a long time now, the Center has been studying this topic, preparing tools and equipment, as well as amassing the medical team, until we found the way to treat breast cancer with immunotherapy and can help patients.”

Associate Professor Dr Kris Chatamra, Head of the Queen Sirikit Center for Breast Cancer, Chulalongkorn Hospital

How Immunotherapy Works Against Breast Cancer

Associate Professor Dr Kris explained that immunotherapy works by stimulating the most common and basic immune cells or T-cells in order to get rid of the cancer cells.

He said, “The immune system is the most crucial system of the human body. When pathogens enter the body, the immune system activates to fight them. However, when cancer cells occur, the immune system does not destroy these cells as it misreads them for normal cells. So, we have been studying the unique properties of these cancer cells, and found that their outer cell membrane contains certain specific proteins that are different in each patient.”

“We take the patient’s immune cells and grow them in the lab alongside the specific proteins (peptides) of that patient’s cancer.  Within 24 hours, the immune cells will learn and remember the cancer cells’ specific peptides. Then, we will inject the learned immune cells into the patient’s lymph nodes so that they spread throughout the immune system and help destroy the cancer cells,” Associate Professor Dr Kris further elaborated on the immunotherapy procedure.

Immunotherapy and the Future of Cancer Treatment

Having successfully treated the first patient, the Center started using immunotherapy to treat other breast cancer patients and expected to cut the treatment cost down by one-third from that of the first patient’s – making it cost even less than chemotherapy.

“In over 50 years of my experience as a breast cancer doctor, times have drastically changed.  With early detection, coupled with immunotherapy treatment, patients’ have up to 90 percent chance of being cured.”

“For those who are cured, nobody can tell if cancer will come back.  The only thing I can say is that the immune system will remain in the body forever, and should there be new cancer cells, it should be enough to put up a fight.”

Most importantly, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kris said that the immune system has access to any part of the body, including the brain, whereas chemotherapy cannot. “Do not despair.  I want every patient to have hope,” he added.

The latest highlights from Chulalongkorn University can be accessed here.

 

A new safe and efficient data processing technology

Posted on by Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University

Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University ETU-LETI scientists, together with Smartilizer, studied a new approach to data analysis that does not require transferring data from the source to an analytical center.

The researchers tested the effectiveness of existing open-source systems on different data sets: sensor readings from moving cars and X-rays of pneumonia patients. To test the applicability in IoT systems, the authors evaluated the following features: ease of use and installation, analysis capabilities, accuracy, and performance. The paper was published in the journal Sensors.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a data transmission network that consists of physical objects with in-built connectors. Using such connectors, the objects are able to communicate with each other and their environment. For example, in the smart home concept, appliances are connected to each other and external control device, allowing managing from a cell phone.

The standard architecture of an IoT system consists of three layers. The first (device layer) is the hardware devices that produce and collect the data. The middle layer is responsible for transferring data from the devices to the application layer, which provides services or applications that integrate or analyze the data.

Traditional approaches to such systems involve data collection from IoT devices into one
centralized repository for further analysis. However, they are not always applicable due to a large volume of collected data, communication channels with limited bandwidth, security and privacy requirements.

Significant disadvantages are an increase in total processing time, network traffic, and risk of unauthorized access to the data. Therefore, new approaches to the analysis of such data are being developed. One of them is federated learning that allows analyzing data directly on sources and federating the results of each analysis to yield a result as traditional centralized data processing. There is less load and risk because all the data is processed locally.

One of the main applications of this AI-based technology is the security and privacy of
personal data collected around the world every second. This issue has become extremely important after the adoption of several legislative regulations, such as the GDPR in the European Union, CCPA in the USA, and PDPA in Singapore. They require transparent processing of personal data with an explicitly stated purpose and the consent of the data subject.

In a smart home, the data sources are the devices in each apartment: the alarm clock, the
bathroom faucet, the underfloor heating, and the lights. In the traditional approach, all data from each apartment is collected in a centralized repository. It is used to train a model (such as a neural network), and after that, the model would be transmitted back to the smart home control system.

At the alarm call, such a model “knows” that heating should start warming up, the bathtub should be filled, and the lights in certain rooms should turn on. On the one hand, data collection is necessary to train such a model because the more data, the smarter the model.

On the other hand, information about you: when you get up, when you go to the bathroom, when you eat, and so on, becomes available to someone else, and you do not know how it will be used. According to the principles of federated learning, the data will not leave your apartment.

ETU “LETI” scientists tested systems from different companies: Google, Webank, Baidu, the OpenMined community, and others. The authors conducted a series of experiments with them on three data sets.

The first contained the parameters of a moving passenger car (average speed, engine load, etc.) and assessed the driving style, the road surface, and the traffic state. The second included similar signal data for dumpers, and its analysis provided information about the vehicle operation. Finally, the third set was X-ray images from 5,232 patients (3,383 images of them with signs of pneumonia). The analysis allowed us to distinguish sick people from healthy ones.

“We compared all currently available open-source federated learning frameworks and
evaluated their capabilities. Our approach proved to be effective in all three cases. However, not all of them are suitable for industrial development now. Some systems are still in their early stages and not ready for widespread use. Nevertheless, the federated learning technology itself is extremely relevant and rapidly developing,” says Ivan Kholod, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology at ETU “LETI.”

TPU launches an online school to teach Russian to international students

Posted on by Tomsk Polytechnic University

The Division for Russian of the Tomsk Polytechnic University School of Core Engineering Education has launched the Global Russian Online School (GROSchool) project, which plans to teach Russian to international students on a permanent basis.

The School will offer a range of language courses: from learning the language for everyday use to special courses, such as “Business Russian”, “Russian for Engineers”, etc. Classes will be held online, allowing international students who are not yet able to come to Russia or who prefer to learn a foreign language remotely to be involved in the language learning process.

“The idea of launching an online school appeared in our Division a long time ago, yet it was last year that gave us the invaluable experience of running classes in a distance learning format, and we are now ready to take these classes to a commercial level,” says Evgenia Sherina, Head of the Division for Russian Language and Director of the GROSchool.

The Head of the project noted that the modern website was specially created for the School and would allow attendees not only to view the list of courses, but also to calculate their tuition fees and to submit an application promptly. Enrolment for the traditional TPU Summer Holidays Russian Language School for international attendees will soon be opened.

UiTM and Elsevier BV sign MoU to establish first SciVal lab in Malaysia

Posted on by Saidatul Akmar Ismail

The Faculty of Information Management (FPM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Elsevier BV recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) via an online ceremony on 1 July 2021.

The MoU aims for smart partnership endeavour through the establishment of the first bibliometrics facility, known as “SciVal Lab”, in Malaysia. The Lab establishment is fundamental to maximize the upskilling of professional librarians and information professionals, to enhance their personal capabilities as well as to become the prominent education and training hub while creating a network of cooperation and communication between the two parties.

The “SciVal Lab” as the first UiTM-based bibliometrics facility, is expected to expedite the establishment of UiTM as a Globally Renowned University of Science, Technology, Humanities and Entrepreneurship. The initiative will be the catalyst to the development of cutting-edge curricular, innovative and impactful research and publication in library and information analytics.

Professor Ts Dr Roziah Mohd Janor, Vice Chancellor of UiTM, applauds the move made by the Faculty of Information Management. She strongly believes that the Information Management students and academic staff are able to benefit the most from the Lab training sessions, add value to their information analytics learning experiences, and increase the graduates’ competitiveness and employability.

The moment cherishes the Elsevier Director of Research Intelligence, Ms Yoshiko Kakita. She states, “Elsevier is thrilled to have entered this partnership with UiTM as we believe that the knowledge and skills gained through the study of bibliometric analyses will benefit libraries, institutions, researchers and society-at-large. We’re privileged to be in the position to transfer this knowledge to UiTM and facilitate the responsible use of research analytics using SciVal.”

Mr Alexander van Servellen, Senior Consultant of Research Intelligence at Elsevier, has similar expectations. He expresses his gratitude for the opportunity to help establish the “SciVal Lab,” and plans to train future librarians and information professionals in the core knowledge and skills of “bibliometric research analytics.”

Dr. Zuraidah Abdul Manaf, a Professor of Information Management and a staunch advocate of bibliometrics, emphasized the expanding roles of librarians in assisting scholars across the country by providing quality analytical services using bibliometrics tools.

The signed MOU commits FPM, UiTM and Elsevier BV to develop a data analysis learning module based on the SciVal database. These modules will be incorporated into the curriculum of the library science programs offered by UiTM.

In addition, advanced training modules for working librarians and information professionals will be made available. The two-year collaboration is expected to produce more bibliometric analysis experts.

Thammasat’s Center of Excellence researchers help durian farmers in Nonthaburi, Thailand

Posted on by Thammasat University

Asst. Prof. Dr. Duangrit Benjathikul Chairungruang, Secretary to the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) as the ministry spokesperson has led a team of researchers from MHESI organizations: National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR) and Center of Excellence in Agriculture Innovation through Supply Chain and Value Chain, Thammasat University, to visit to help Durian farmers in Nonthaburi, Thailand

The farmers encounter the saltwater intrusion resulting in agricultural issues, and using innovations from NSTDA, TISTR and TU including nanotechnology for water purification, water quality monitoring system with the mobile application will allow the real-time monitoring, seawater desalination system as well as fertilizers that give durians sweet creamy flavour and rich and smooth texture with a floral scent and soluble fibres.

The biggest problem was that local farmers had been affected by the saltwater intrusion causing the agricultural problems and they expected assistance from MHESI to bring technology and innovation to solve this issue.

TISTR will use arbuscular mycorrhiza to help improve salt stress and drought resistance. These fungi also enhance durian productivity, along with their own developed desalination filter to desalinate seawater from freshwater in durian plantations. While NSTDA will set up the water quality monitoring system with a mobile application that can be monitored at all times.

TU will regulate the plant root salinity defence mechanism to desalinate seawater from freshwater and allow the plant roots to find the nutrients from the proper areas which would improve the growth and resistance from drought and salt stress.

MHESI Secretary continued that besides solving the saltwater intrusion, MHESI had other technologies that are beneficial for durian cost reduction, productivity and quality enhancement. To help farmers TU and NSTDA would deploy these technologies.

Some of these technologies are IoT-based smart irrigation systems to manage water distribution in appropriate quantity from root transpiration and absorption that is dynamic in terms of temperature, humidity, transpiration and evaporation rate to save water and energy; Basin-Fertigation to increase the efficient use of water and fertilizers to increase fruit yield and give the sweet creamy flavor, rich and smooth texture with floral scent and soluble fibers to durians; Active bagging technology for the highest quality fruit packaging, Water management forecast for plantation according to Global GAP, Technology for fruit packaging materials that allows air flow through the package and smart irrigation controller and sensor via surrounding factors etc.

Impact with Care research video series by Lingnan University underscores support for UN SGDs

Posted on by Editorial Team

Lingnan University School of Graduate Studies has produced a series of “Impact with Care” videos in which Lingnan professors talk about their research projects and explain how they can directly benefit communities and society at large. The 16 videos are available to view here.

Lingnan’s focus on “Impact with Care” puts the University in a perfect position to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Guided by the concept of ‘Impact with Care’, professors and students actively engage in identifying problems for research, finding appropriate ways for promoting positive social changes and human betterment,” says Professor Joshua Mok, Vice-President of Lingnan University, and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

“Our postgraduate programmes and student learning are well informed by impactful research, fostering a culture of care in support of the UN SDGs.”

The video series features presentations about the University’s research in applied psychology, sociology, history, environment, economics, marketing and business, gerontechnology, conservation, sustainability, and big data.

In his video, Professor Stefan Kühner, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, says that about 50 per cent of children in Hong Kong report experiencing stress and other social problems, and recommends that the government listen to children’s voices when formulating policies.

“Professors should always show a duty of care about social progress in broader society, particularly for those leading less fortunate lives,” says Professor Kühner.

”As my academic interest centres on the critical social services across the life course, caring about children, working families and older adults are at the forefront of my endeavours to produce meaningful research outputs.”

The research of Dr Padmore Adusei Amoah, Research Assistant Professor, addresses global health and wellbeing issues. In his video, Dr Amoah discusses how factors like economic status affect wellbeing.

“The concept of ‘Impact with Care’ brings new meaning and motivation to research,” says Dr Amoah.

“It iterates that research is not for its own sake but as a means to connect the findings to the development of our society. I always ask myself how any research I do can benefit our society, and how the knowledge produced can be shared with the ordinary person.”

Lingnan’s excellence in research has been recognised internationally and locally. In the latest QS World University Rankings 2022, LU is classified as “Very High”, the best benchmark for its “Research Intensity”.

In the latest Research Assessment Exercise 2020 conducted by the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong, over 50 per cent of submitted research outputs were rated either World Leading (4-star) or Internationally Excellent (3-star), while its Sociology and Anthropology came first, and Accountancy, Philosophy, and Social Work and Social Policy came second among all local public universities in terms of the percentage of 4-star research work.

Lingnan scholars have also won important Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) fellowship awards for their outstanding research and achievements.

St. Petersburg Mining University demonstrates potential of plasma technology for producing ultra-pure corundum

Posted on by St. Petersburg Mining University

A research group from Saint Petersburg Mining University has conducted a series of successful experiments to produce corundum with a purity of over 99.999% using innovative plasma technology. With low-temperature plasma used for melting alumina in the reactor, contamination of the final product by electrode materials can be avoided, thereby ensuring its high quality.

Following the results achieved in this work, Mining University obtained a patent for a plasma furnace with multi-layer refractory lining. The invention helps improve the heat-balance control of the plasma furnace whilst enhancing the chemical purity of the corundum produced. To carry out the experiments, the researchers used a plasma torch of the Institute for Electrophysics and Electric Power of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The development of plasma nanotechnologies and new materials for the minerals sector is one of the promising areas of scientific work at the University. Amongst the most significant completed projects are the plasma technologies of manufacturing aluminium for metallurgy and hydrogen energy and the technologies of producing ultra-pure white corundum and sapphire glass.

The relevance of the work done comes from the fact that the current technologies of manufacturing corundum have been in use since the mid-20th century. By now, they have reached their maximum capacity, and a further increase in output within the traditional technology would cause a problem of growing energy intensity and power consumption. Yet, it would not ensure the required purity, hardness, and thermal stability of the final product.

The proposed technology involving the innovative plasma furnace to melt alumina opens up good prospects for industrial use. Victoria Kison, a PhD student in the Department of General and Technical Physics, is writing her thesis based on the empirical data from the experiments. Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences Alexander Mustafaev, head of the department, supervises her work.

Synthetic corundum has numerous uses in a variety of industries. For white corundum, these include sandblasting, treating of hardened and tempered steels; it also serves as refractory and abrasives. Transparent corundum – leucosapphire – is used to make substrates for microchips, in optical devices, lasers, and for the manufacture of ultra-thin medical scalpels. The value of corundum is due to its hardness, which is 9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale. Diamond has the highest value of hardness. Corundum can also be used as a material for producing aluminium by electrolysis.