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Month: May 2022

8 in 10 people associate suicide with stigma, shows Singapore survey

Posted on by Valerie Won

More than 8 in 10 Singaporeans associate suicide with stigma and only one in every three Singaporeans “will do something to help” someone who shares personal thoughts of suicide.

Less than 1 in 10 think the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, is high.

A study conducted by the Singapore Management University (SMU) revealed these perceptions of suicide in a city known for its cosmopolitan vibrancy, high quality of life and educated workforce.

With the Samaritans of Singapore (S.O.S.) as supporting partner, SMU Principal Lecturer of Statistics, Rosie Ching, created and carried out the nation-wide study, named “Save.Me.” with her 62 students in January and February this year, interviewing 2,960 people across Singapore, on the topic of suicide. Ms. Ching and her students conducted the surveys through face-to-face interviews, telephone calls and Zoom.

The survey results are available at www.screeningstatistics.com/saveme.

Save.Me. delved into knowledge levels of signs of suicide, beliefs propagated about suicide, their preferred platforms for reaching out for help, the level of support available to people in crisis, and the efficacy of such support channels. It adhered closely to the demographics of Singapore with regard to gender, race, age and found that more than 8 in 10 (83%) in Singapore believe in the existence of stigma associated with suicide. Those with no connection to suicide have a significantly more negative attitude towards suicide than those with immediate family who attempted or took their lives and those with friends who did the same.

Overall, more than 3 in 4 Singaporeans (77%) rate their level of knowledge about suicide as below average. People with more intimate connections to suicide (from immediate family to relatives to friends) cite “No outreach or education” as the top reason for their low knowledge levels. For everyone who would avoid someone suicidal or in a crisis, more than 70% say it is their fear of making the affected person worse, their lack of ability to do anything, and their lack of knowledge.

The most outstanding myth believed by Singaporeans is that that talking about suicide may give someone the idea. People with immediate family connected to suicide form the highest proportion who believe this, at 70%.

Less than 1 in 10 think highly of the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, with the overall effectiveness of such support in Singapore rated as significantly lower than average by all profiles of respondents.

Commented Mr Gasper Tan, Chief Executive, Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), “The results from the survey confirms what many of our mental health experts are saying: there is an unprecedented Page 2 of 6 mental health crisis in our country, accentuated by the pandemic. Over the last two years, SOS has seen an increase of 89% in at-risk individuals seeking support. As a community, we must continue to galvanise our resources to strengthen and transform our health care ecosystem to address mental health and suicide holistically and accessibly.”

According to Professor Lieven Demeester, Associate Provost (Teaching and Learning Innovation) at SMU, “It is great that SMU’s collaboration with SOS, has yielded such valuable insights that may be usefully applied towards more effective prevention of suicide.”

The older a person, the more he believes in the unpredictability of suicides. Yet overall, more than 9 in 10 (92%) believe that suicide can be prevented. The younger a person, the higher the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented: Gen Z (93.3%) to Millennials (93%) to Gen X (90%) to Baby-Boomers (84%). The more years of education, the greater the percentage who believe suicide can be predicted and prevented as well, with the highest at 96% of those with postgraduate education.

Said Ms. Ching, “The memory of three special individuals lost to suicide drew me to this realm of suicide. As I learnt from SOS, each of them only wanted the pain, not their life, to stop, but they saw no way out. It is to each of their memories I dedicate every tear shed in Save.Me. I know those whom I have lost would want anyone in crisis to be pulled from the brink, that their pain be addressed, that everyone may know where, how to seek help and support. So that healing may begin.”

Key Findings:

a) More than 8 in 10 (82.87%) believe in existence of stigma associated with suicide in Singapore. All profiles show strong majorities who believe in the stigma of suicide in Singapore.

b) Only one in every three Singaporeans ”will do something to help“ someone who shares personal thoughts of suicide. “Offering presence and continual support” is the top most immediate and effective action, followed by a fairly distant second-placed “Encourage professional support, e.g. mental health counsellors”. Together they form almost 3 in 4 of Singaporeans’ responses to someone in a crisis. Only about a third (33%) would encourage professional support.

c) For every two in three persons who would not support and save someone who is in a crisis or suicidal, more than 70% say it is their fear of making the suicidal person worse, their lack of ability to do anything, and their lack of knowledge.

d) More than 9 in 10 (92%) believe that suicide can be prevented. The younger a person, the higher the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented: Gen Z (93.3%) to Millennials (93%) to Gen X (90%) to Baby-Boomers (84%). The more years of education, the greater the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented, with the highest at almost 10 in 10 (96%) of those with postgraduate education.

e) Preferred sharing platforms: Overall, 6 in every 10 choose “Physical, F2F” as their most comfortable platform to talk to someone about their problems. Second place of text messaging goes for Gen Z and Millennials, but not so for Gen X and Baby-boomers, who prefer the telephone or a hotline. Statistically, text messaging to Gen Z and Millennials is what the telephone or a hotline is to Baby-boomers.

Across all age bands, “a friend” is the person they will most likely turn to about problems. Amongst all age groups, only 6.35% choose a trained counsellor, with Gen X the most open to them at 9.47%. 67.43% would be more willing to talk to someone about their problems if their identity were anonymous, a common thread across genders, ages, races, religions, professions, educational qualifications.

f) Effectiveness of support: Less than 1 in 10 think the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, is high. In fact, 74% overall rate the effectiveness of such support in Singapore as significantly lower than average. This low rating stretches across all profiles connected to suicide.

Background Information on Save.Me

In January 2022, SMU students in a unique Statistics module called STATISTICS-X created by Rosie Ching, Principal Lecturer of Statistics at SMU, collaborated with Samaritans of Singapore to conduct Save.Me., an original nationwide study.

With the support of SOS, Ms. Ching spent 13 months in total crafting this project from the outset at the request of SOS CEO Mr. Gasper Tan in December 2020.

At both the kick-off and mid-term of the project, Ms. Ching invited the Samaritans of Singapore to SMU, who warmly and enthusiastically supported and guided her and students about managing persons in distress, and learn about the meaningful work and outreach efforts of the SOS through the many years in Singapore.

Ms Ching and her students collectively invested more than 3.5 months of intense work in the study, survey and analysis, gathering data from more than 2,960 interviews in 5 weeks.

Thammasat Business School partners with eight business schools to enhance Thai business education

Posted on by Thammasat University

For the first time in Thailand’s history, Thammasat Business School (TBS), Thammasat University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with eight other leading Thai business schools to enable the building of a business school network in Thailand (Business School Network of Thailand: BSNT).

This historical event, which took place at Thammasat University Tha Prachan Campus on 4th April 2022, consisted of 9 representatives from 9 leading Thai business schools coming together to show their solidarity in working together to shape and form the future of business management education in Thailand.

The main goals of the BSNT are to promote academic and research activities, to exchange knowledge and expertise among its members, to enhance the competence of Thai business schools, and to develop world-class academic personnel in Thailand, facilitating the development of the Thai economy in the future.

Since its inception in 2020, Professor Ruth Banomyong, Ph.D., Dean of Thammasat Business School has worked diligently for almost 18 months to initiate and coordinate the MOU ceremony for the nine members of the BSNT, which include: 1. Chulalongkorn Business School, Chulalongkorn University; 2. CMU Business School, Chiang Mai University; 3. Kasetsart Business School, Kasetsart University; 4. Khon Kaen Business School, Khon Kaen University; 5. Faculty of Management Sciences, Prince of Songkla University; 6. Faculty of Management and Tourism, Burapha University; 7. National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA); 8. Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University; and 9. Thammasat Business School, Thammasat University.

One of the main goals of the BSNT collaboration is to develop and certify national accreditation standards for business management education, which will be discussed in more detail throughout the course of 2022.

After the MOU signing is completed, members will continue to work together on academic collaboration, academic activities, sharing experiences, and developing expertise in various business related fields to enhance the competence of business schools in Thailand.

A breakdown of the details of the MOU agreement are as follows:

– Academic activities: teaching and learning, faculty development, staff and student exchange, and sharing of best practices between member schools.

– Academic research networking: collaborations between BSNT faculty members on common research interests

– Academic seminars: knowledge sharing and pooled resources (e.g., faculty and staff)

– Community service: organizing free training or seminars for the general public and the provision of academic mentors from member institutions according to each school’s field of expertise. In addition, each school will take turns in hosting annual BNST meetings. This may consist of visits to each school in various regions or the schools from surrounding provinces attending or organizing activities in Bangkok.

Prof. Dr. Ruth also added that this is to improve and advance the potential of Thai business education and build a strong foundation for creating skilled and academically orientated personnel that can help lead in the development of the Thai economy in the future.

In addition, the BSNT network aims to initiate an important turning point in the history of the Thai educational system from a classic model (focused more on competition) to one more focused on networking in education. This cooperation and mutual support will strengthen the capability of all member institutions. Faculty members from the BSNT now have an opportunity to exchange knowledge, ideas, and perspectives to teach students.

As for the students, which make up a key part of each school, they will have a broader vision from learning exchanges with faculty and students from other schools. Students will be equipped with various professional skills and be able to apply and adjust their own knowledge to work and be ready for driving the labor market.

“For the future direction, there may be an agreement with other schools. I think that networking will be beneficial for the Thai education system. All the business schools in the country have great potential and play a role in Thai education. If we bring the expertise and strengths of each school and work together, it will definitely have a positive effect on the Thai education system”, Prof. Dr. Ruth concluded.

Getting sticky with it: Phospholipid found to play key role in epithelial cell adhesion

Posted on by Tokyo University of Science

Cells have certain proteins that help them adhere to each other while covering body surfaces and organs. Loss of these identifying proteins could result in cellular progression towards cancer and, subsequently, metastasis.

However, lipids may play a role in maintaining cellular identity as well. Japanese scientists have now identified the role of PIP2, a phospholipid, in maintaining epithelial cell-cell adhesion and cellular identity. Their findings will help develop strategies aimed at suppressing metastasis.

In multicellular organisms, body cells adhere to each other to form tissues that perform various physiological functions. Epithelial cells form our skin and lining surfaces, such as the gut and other ducts, and protect our internal organs. To maintain the integrity of an organism and function properly, it is important for these cells to remain attached to each other.

They do so through specific types of cellular junctions. These junctions are characterized by proteins, which also help in maintaining cellular identity. The loss of these proteins from cell surfaces causes them to lose their identity as epithelial cells, prompting their transformation into mesenchymal cells (through a process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transformation, or EMT), and subsequently, their progression towards cancer and fibrosis.

These cancerous cells are only loosely adherent to each other (given that the proteins that helped maintain cellular adhesion are now lost), so they may separate from each other, migrate into the bloodstream, and cause the cancer to metastasize (spread to other parts of the body).

Now, while the role of proteins in maintaining cellular identity is well-researched, we can’t help but wonder–do lipids (fatty molecules) also play a role in characterizing cells and preventing EMT?

Under the guidance of Dr. Yoshikazu Nakamura and Dr. Kaori Kanemaru, researchers from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Akita University, Hokkaido University, and Kobe University have tried to find an answer to this question.

“We know lipids are an important class of biomolecules, necessary for certain cellular functions. One such lipid, a phosphatidylinositol, forms a phospholipid called phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate (PIP2),” Associate Professor Dr. Nakamura from TUS dives into the topic.

He tells us that PIP2 is important because it is crucial for the formation of signaling molecules that regulate cell proliferation, survival, and migration. “We had evidence that higher amounts of PIP2 were found in the epidermal layer of skin, so we hypothesized that this phospholipid contributed to the properties and characterization of epithelial cells.”

The findings from their study have been published in Nature Communications. The paper describes how the team used a battery of analytical techniques including chromatography, mass spectroscopy, immunofluorescence, retroviral expression, and real-time quantitative PCR to confirm that PIP2 plays a critical role in the determination of epithelial identity.

“We saw that epithelial cells lost their properties when PIP2 was depleted from their cell membranes. On the other hand, osteosarcoma cells (which are cancerous, non-epithelial cells) gained epithelial cell-like properties when PIP2 was produced in their plasma membranes.” says Dr. Nakamura, with a look of excitement. The group was also able to show that PIP2 regulates these epithelial properties by recruiting Par3—a protein which guides vesicles intracellularly—to the plasma membrane.

Once in the plasma membrane, Par3 facilitates the formation of adherens junctions (one of the cellular junctions discussed above) which anchor neighboring cells together. This partially prevents EMT, and hence, progression of cancer.

“So,” Dr. Nakamura explains, “In theory, PIP2’s partial inhibition of EMT could halt cancer progression, making this phospholipid an attractive target molecule for anti-cancer treatment.”

TUS’ research has opened a new avenue for the development of anti-cancer drug development, possibly giving us a solution that will “stick.”

***

Reference

Title of original paper: Plasma membrane phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate is critical for determination of epithelial characteristics

Journal: Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30061-9

About Dr. Yoshikazu Nakamura from Tokyo University of Science

Dr. Yoshikazu Nakamura earned his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Tokyo and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Biological Science at Tokyo University of Science. His lab conducts basic medical research tied to understanding the role of inositol lipids in skin diseases and cancer. He is currently coordinating research on the role of lipids in epithelial regulation and their importance in skin barrier formation. He is affiliated with the Japanese Biochemical Society and the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology and received Young Investigator Award from the Japanese Biochemical Society in 2016.

Funding information

The project was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 18H02575, the Takeda Science Foundation, the Sumitomo Foundation, the Terumo Life Science Foundation, the Mochida Memorial 1 Foundation for Medical and Pharmaceutical Research, the Ichiro Kanehara Foundation, the Hamaguchi Foundation for the Advancement of Biochemistry and PRIME to Y.N. and a Grant in-Aid for Young Scientists to Kaori Kanemaru.

World’s new stream frog found in Myanmar

Posted on by Chulalongkorn University

At about the same time that a new type of green frog was found in the forests of Myanmar, Dr. Panupong Thammachoti a lecturer at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University has also found two new types of stream frogs in the Bago region to the north of Yangon, Myanmar.

For Dr. Panupong, a taxonomist and ecologist who has continuously researched reptiles and amphibians in this region, the discovery of these frogs in Myanmar is a reflection of the biodiversity in Southeast Asia which we all should be aware of and work together to ensure its survival.

Genome technology reveals the heredity of a new species of frogs

This discovery is a result of the collaboration between research teams from three countries – Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Science, East Yangon University of Myanmar, and Germany’s Senckenberg Forschungs institut und Naturmuseum led by Prof. Dr. Gunther Köhler, an expert in taxonomy and genome technology for reptiles and amphibians.

“We took two years to conduct our research and most of the time was spent collecting specimens both in Thailand and Myanmar after which the frogs were sent for analysis at the Senckenberg laboratory in Germany. The process involved applying our knowledge in physics that’s applied to biology to examine the DNA, analyze the vocal variations of frogs, as well as study the genome, or the entire genetic data of these frogs until we found two of the world’s newest species of frogs.” Dr. Panupong explained the process of the research project on the diversity of stream frogs in Myanmar, and the mountain range in the western and southern part of Thailand which began in 2019.

The study that led to the discovery of the two species of stream frogs has been documented and published in the international journal, Diversity, in August of 2021.

The characteristics of the world’s new stream frogs

Dr. Panupong explained the general characteristics of the stream frog that “their habitat is in the streams of tropical forests like the jungles in the western and southern part of Thailand. The size of each frog is about 3-5 centimeters. Their bodies are brown and appear much like a leaf which is a form of camouflage. These frog species only make mating calls at night. As tadpoles, they live around the streams where the gush of water isn’t very strong and when they are fully grown will move to the side of the stream. They are found mostly in the rainy season which is their mating season.”

The two newly discovered species of stream frogs are the Bago Stream Frog (Limnonectes bagoensis) and the Bamboo Forest Bago Frog (Limnonectes bagoyoma).

“Both types of frogs are similar in that their skin is slippery, they are dark brown or brown mixed with olive green. Their forelegs have four toes without connective tissue while the hind legs have five toes with connective tissues that enable them to swim. The skin on their backs is quite smooth with only a few lumps while the skin on their stomachs is white or cream-colored, very smooth and not lumpy.”

“In terms of differences, the Bago Stream Frog has a black strip from the end of its nose to the side of the ear and its body size is 30-49 centimeters. It is larger than the Bamboo Forest Bago Frog which measures 23-29 centimeters.”

Relationship between frogs and the ecosystem

The discovery of these new species of frogs is a good indicator of the fertility of the forests in Southeast Asia since the habitat of these frogs are natural bodies of water that are clean, clear, and always flowing.

Although there are still some stream frogs remaining, Dr. Panupong reminds us that the numbers are dwindling and if deforestation continues the changes in forest conditions could eventually lead to the frogs’ extinction.

“We hope that the knowledge generated from this research will let people see the importance of forests and refrain from cutting down trees and destroying forests. It is also important to find ways to develop the appropriate form of ecotourism that also leads to the conservation of forests.” Dr. Panupong added.

The future of other species discoveries

Dr. Panupong continues to study and disseminate knowledge on reptiles and amphibians in Thailand. He plans to further his research on stream frogs and frogs in the south of Thailand which have features that are similar to frogs found in Myanmar. Research will also be carried out on other reptiles such as the world’s new skink found on the mountains of Indonesia, the Kukri snake which isn’t poisonous but often likes to eat the eggs of poisonous snakes, and the rattlesnake which is highly poisonous. We often hear news of people being bitten by this type of snake.

Dr. Panupong ended by sharing his opinion that “The discovery of new animal species is an indicator of the fertility of forests in our region.

I believe there are still a large number of reptiles and amphibians waiting for us to discover and study. Research on these animals will enable us to understand the significance of the animal life that coexists with humans in the ecosystem. Some of the reptiles and amphibians can be beneficial in terms of science and technology.

Even if their appearance isn’t as attractive as other animals and some are also poisonous but they are important to the ecosystem, the study and research on natural history and biology which also includes the way of life of these animals will help us humans to be able to sustainably maintain the balance of the ecosystem.”

FBM, UiTM organises Malaysia’s 1st National Pitching Research Competition

Posted on by NURUL SALIZAWATEE MAHPAR & NOOR RITA MOHAMAD KHAN

Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) has successfully organized Malaysia’s first-ever National Pitching Research Competition (NPRC).

The competition was launched on 1st November 2021 whereby Professor Robert Faff’s (2015) Pitching Research Tool was used as the main tool for the participants to communicate their research ideas. Participants had to pitch their research at a national-level and whoever was selected as the winner will then proceed to the global stage.

This prestigious competition was spawned from the InSPiR2eS International Research Network’s networking initiatives and collaboration with Professor Robert Faff. It received quite an overwhelmed response, whereby about 40 pitching scripts were submitted by the postgraduate research students and early career researchers (ECR) throughout Malaysia.

There were three categories in this competition: Early Career Researchers, PhD students, and Master’s students.

For each category, only five best scripts were chosen by the appointed academic judges to advance to the final stage. During the grand finale, held on 23 February 2022 via online platform, each contender was given two minutes to pitch his or her research. Three distinguished academicians, Associate Professor Dr. Amirul Afif (UiTM), Dr. Abdul Rais Abdul Latiff from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and Dr. Ihtisham Malik from University of Queensland, judged the finalists.

Winners from each category were awarded with cash prizes and e-certificates. Dr. Yvonne Ang, from FBM, UiTM Puncak Alam campus won the competition (for the ECR category) and has qualified for the semi-final round of the InSPiR2eS Global Pitching Research Competition (IGPRC).

She will be competing against several others contestants from various universities in this pitching competition.

The 1st NPRC was a success under the leadership of its chairperson, Dr. Norliza Che Yahya, support from its advisors, Professor Dr. Noryati Ahmad (Dean of FBM) and Associate Professor Dr. Amirul Afif Muhamat (FBM Deputy Dean of Research) and commitment from the organizing committees.

The organizing committee, and in particular FBM, were honoured to host to this inaugural prominent event and to collaborate with InSPiR2eS network. It was a milestone for the faculty and participants to share their research ideas and expand their networking with various universities.

HITK students win National Level Hackathon at Gujarat

Posted on by Partha

Today, internet-based education has undergone a big boom, thereby boosting the economy to a greater extent.

In a country like India, EdTech Startups have contributed not only to the job market, but also to the upliftment of the quality of education for the Indian students. However, there is a major loophole in the process of certification, in most cases, the companies; even the big players in the market, like, Coursera and Udemy only provide a certificate in PDF format.

Now this certificate can be easily forged or manipulated, the name of the student can be easily changed. Hence, there is a need for a proper authentication mechanism to check the validity of the certificate generated in a PDF format.

Finding a solution to this problem, a duo from Heritage Institute of Technology (HITK), Agnish Ghosh B.Tech- CSE 2nd Year and Rajarshi Paul B.Tech- ECE 2nd Year invented a web-based application DeCert which is based on the core-principles of blockchain, encryption and network security. Using the ideas of non-fungibility and tokenization, the students have managed to create an interface which tokenizes the PDF certificate data.

The idea of tokenization works in encrypting the PDF certificate’s data and distributing it over a decentralized blockchain network, in such a way that every time a user/organization wants to access the certificate data, there is a need to render the information from the network. In this process, the data undergoes an immense level of security, preventing copyright infringements, forgery and fraud.

The application had won at HackSVIT, a national level Hackathon organized by Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Technology (SVIT),Vasad, Gujarat on 29th April 2022.

The Hackathon was sponsored and partnered by Major League Hacking which is a Talent-Acquisition division by Facebook (Meta Platforms). This was the only offline Hackathon, organized by Major League Hacking (Meta Platforms), in the Indian Subcontinent, for the year 2022.

There were 980+ selected registrations for the offline event, over 600 submissions of projects in their online platforms, and finally 115 teams competing in the final event with about 500 programmers from all across the country.

The Hackathon had duration of 36 hours at a stretch. Here the participants had to program and assemble their ideas into websites, applications and software prototypes. The organizers provided all the infrastructural support to the participants.

There were 3 rounds of mentoring, where computer scientists, startup-founders, and other company tech leads mentored the participants about the product and tech stack they used. In between those 3 rounds, there were 2 rounds of judging where the participants had to pitch and demonstrate their products in front of the judges.

In these rounds, the judges and mentors were quite impressed by the level of technology and product knowledge Agnish & Rajarshi possessed for which they were declared as the winner in the National event.

In the final round, there was entire jury of tech start-up founders and investors who asked various questions to the participants where the duo also proved their best with their unique idea of data security overtaking others.

“Usually, every other team had a strength of 3-6, but we had just two, myself and Rajarshi, but somehow we managed to work our souls out and get the product ready 3 hours before the final code push.

After our final pitch, I literally held the judges for another 12-15 minutes and drew and explained the entire web/app architecture, since they may not be interested in looking through the code anymore. I gave a final demonstration of the product after which they were amazed. Some spoke about investing in this product and there was one who literally gave a blank cheque offer and said he had links to Y-Combinator. We exchanged numbers, but I knew deep down that being placed was still hard, the other winning teams made products over Augmented Reality and Internet of Things,” said Agnish.

The winner of HackSVIT Agnish & Rajarshi won a prize money of Rs. 50000/- which they have decided to donate for a social cause.

“On this National Technology Day, on behalf of the entire Heritage Family, we recognize the valuable invention Agnish and Rajarshi had made which not only won the First Prize in a National level Hackathon but also will contribute in solving a major problem faced by the entire Nation,” said Mr. P.K.Agarwal, CEO, Heritage Group of Institutions, Kolkata.

Newly-proposed search strategies improve computational cost of bicycle-sharing problem

Posted on by Tokyo University of Science

Bicycle sharing is an attractive zero-carbon transportation option for a world that is being increasingly disrupted by climate change.

But bikes need to be restored at bike ports every now and then. Calculating the optimal way to restore bicycles is time consuming and computationally expensive.

Recently, researchers from Tokyo University of Science have built upon their previous optimization algorithm to propose two strategies to reduce computational costs while maintaining the performance of the algorithm.

Bicycle sharing systems (BSSs) are transport solutions wherein users can rent a bicycle from a depot or ‘port,’ travel, and then return the bike to the same port or different port. BSSs are growing in popularity around the world because they are eco-friendly, reduce traffic congestion, and offer added health benefits to users.

But eventually, a port becomes either full or empty in a BSS. This means that users are no longer able to rent a bike (when empty) or return one (when full). To address this issue, bikes need to be rebalanced among the ports in a BSS so that users are always able to use them. This rebalancing must also be carried out in a way that is beneficial to BSS companies so that they can reduce labor costs, as well as carbon emissions from rebalancing vehicles.

There are several existing approaches to BSS rebalancing, however, most solution algorithms are computationally expensive and take a lot of time to find an ‘exact’ solution in cases where there are a large number of ports. Even finding an approximate solution is computationally expensive.

Previously, a research team led by Prof. Tohru Ikeguchi from Tokyo University of Science proposed a ‘multiple-vehicle bike sharing system routing problem with soft constraints’ (mBSSRP-S) that can find the shortest travel times for multiple bike rebalancing vehicles with the caveat that the optimal solution can sometimes violate the real-world limitations of the problem. Now, in a recent study published in MDPI’s Applied Sciences, the team has proposed two strategies to search for approximate solutions to the mBSSRP-S that can reduce computational costs without affecting performance. The research team also featured PhD student Ms. Honami Tsushima of Tokyo University of Science and Prof. Takafumi Matsuura of Nippon Institute of Technology.

Describing their research, Prof. Ikeguchi says, “Earlier, we had proposed the mBSSRP-S and that offered improved performance as compared to our original mBSSRP, which did not allow the violation of constraints. But the mBSSRP-S also increased the overall computational cost of the problem because it had to calculate both the feasible and infeasible solutions of the mBSSRP. Therefore, we have now proposed two consecutive search strategies to address this problem.”

The proposed search strategies look for feasible solutions in a much shorter period of time as compared to the one originally proposed with mBSSRP-S. The first strategy focuses on reducing the number of ‘neighboring’ solutions (solutions that are numerically close to a solution to the optimization problem) before finding a feasible solution. The strategy employs two well-known algorithms called ‘Or-opt’ and ‘CROSS-exchange,’ to reduce the overall time taken to compute a solution. The feasible solution here refers to values that satisfy the constraints of mBSSRP.

The second strategy changes the problem to be solved based on the feasible solution to either the mBSSRP problem or the mBSSRP-S problem and then searches for good near-optimal solutions in a short time by either Or-opt or CROSS-exchange.

The research team then performed numerical experiments to evaluate the computational cost and performance of their algorithms. “With the application of these two strategies, we have succeeded in reducing computational time while maintaining performance,” reveals Prof. Ikeguchi. “We also found that once we calculated the feasible solution, we could find short travel times for the rebalancing vehicles quickly by solving the hard constraint problem, mBSSRP, instead of mBSSRP-S.”

The popularity of BSSs is only expected to grow in the future. The new solution-search strategies proposed here will go a long way towards realizing convenient and comfortable BSSs that benefit users, companies, and the environment.

***
Reference

Title of original paper: Searching Strategies with Low Computational Costs for Multiple-Vehicle Bike Sharing System Routing Problem

Journal: Applied Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052675

Exploring the relationship between school kindness and students’ sense of belonging

Posted on by eduhk

Recent studies have demonstrated that character strengths, including a group of individual characteristics that have moral value and lead to ‘good virtues,’ play a crucial role in students’ participation in society and achievement of success.

Kindness, which is a significant aspect of character strength, has been considered essential for school programmes to improve students’ mental health and foster positive well-being.

As a key social context, schools influence students’ academic, psychological, and social well-being, providing mastery of knowledge and shaping their whole-person development. Numerous studies have highlighted the social aspects of school functions and recognised the effects of schooling on students’ academic and psychological outcomes.

A study conducted by Dr Huang Jing, Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, used multilevel structural equation modeling to explore the relationships between students’ sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness.

It included 1,973 students (55.2% girls) in 29 local secondary schools, aged from 13 and 17. Since gender differences in students’ character strengths and perceptions of the school climate have been found in previous studies, the secondary purpose of the study was to examine possible differences in the study constructs across gender groups.

The study tested four sets of hypotheses: (1) Students’ sense of school belonging at the between- and within-school levels are positively correlated with their perceptions of school kindness; (2) students’ sense of school belonging at the between- and within-school levels are positively associated with character strength of kindness; (3) students’ perceptions of school kindness at the between- and within-school levels are positively associated with character strength of kindness; and (4) female students have higher levels of sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness than male students.

The study found that students’ sense of school belonging was positively correlated with their perceptions of kindness at the school and student levels. At the individual level, as students’ sense of school belonging increased, they were more likely to perceive the school as a fair, caring and kind community.

At the school level, if a school was characterised by a high level of sense of belongingness, it can be predicted that the school tended to be considered as a kind and caring place, where school members helped and cared about each other. The students’ sense of school belonging was positively linked to character strength of kindness at the individual level, but this relationship was found to be non-significant at the school level. At both levels of analysis, the positive relationships between students’ perceptions of school kindness and character strength of kindness were significant. In addition, girls reported higher levels of character strength of kindness than boys.

The study was co-conducted with Professor John Lee Chi-kin, Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction. It provided a better understanding of the relationships between students’ sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness.

HITK students selected for Microsoft Engage Mentorship Programme

Posted on by Partha

Education is a wide topic that goes beyond classroom interactions. This is where mentorship comes in as another way of training students imparting them with the practical knowledge.

Nowadays well known IT companies have started Mentorship programmes apart from coding competitions and Hackathons to ignite the young minds and give them ample opportunities.

The motive of students being mentored in such programs is to connect them with experts who are skilled and knowledgeable in software programming and also to help them land up with internship opportunities.

This year students of Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, Ishika Saha from B.Tech- IT 2024 Batch, Sayani Nandi, B. Tech CSE Batch 2024 and Ayesha Solanki, B.Tech- CSE 2024 Batch got selected for Microsoft Engage Mentorship Programme 2022.

Student engagement and mentorship program by Microsoft offers 1:1 mentorship to shortlisted students while working on a project, learning sessions specially curated for them and also a sneak peek into Microsoft’s culture and values.

“This gives me the right opportunity to hone my skills and prepare myself for the industry, ” said Ishika.

Recently Rituparna Padira from the same college secured a Global Rank # 28 in TCS codevita season-10 Round- 2 . She will be appearing for the Grand Finale on 14th May 2022.

Subham Raj from Heritage Institute of Technology had made to the Grand Finale at Hackwithinfy 2022 in this month.

 

Chula urges researchers to launch Deep Tech

Posted on by Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University Technology Center (UTC) urges Deep Tech researchers to push forth deep innovations onto the market, promote business ventures, and be the driving force in the Thai economy.

DeepGI artificial intelligence detection of colorectal cancer, Aqua Innovac needle-free aqua vaccine for farmed fish, ReadMe by eikonnex.ai, an artificial intelligence device that reads texts, images, and videos and transfers them to digital documents.

These are but a few of the 30 outstanding innovations from in-depth research or Deep Tech by Chulalongkorn Universities researchers and their networks supported by Chulalongkorn University Technology Center: UTC.

According to Dr. Pravee Kruachottikul who heads Chulalongkorn University Technology Center (UTC) “Good research not only contributes towards cultivating academic knowledge but can also be of added value when it is put to actual use. UTC is determined to provide a platform to accelerate Deep Tech research works onto the market by creating impactful research that sustainably addresses social and economic questions.”

Deep Tech is in-depth technology that is highly complex and cannot be easily imitated within a short time which proves advantageous in the highly competitive business arenas. Dr. Pravee also added that there are a large number of Deep Tech research in Thailand that have been published and are widely accepted internationally, but unfortunately, haven’t been utilized fully. Moreover, if researchers were to work on their own, they might not be able to add the commercial dimension to their work in a more substantial manner. UTC was therefore established to address this gap.

“Innovations deriving from Deep Tech can be patented, and are therefore able to add social and economic value following Chula’s Innovations for Society concept.”

How does UTC provide support for Deep Tech research?

Currently, UTC concentrates on working with three types of Deep Tech research, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI), Medical Technology (MedTech), and Biotechnology (BioTech). Its work begins with a search for Deep Tech research, after which UTC will work closely with the research team to improve its capacity for commercialization and specific technology readiness by UTC’s qualified specialists as well as its alliance of experts comprising experts in innovation project development, and business planning.

They will help in offering advice at various stages such as business model development, market testing, selection of commercial models, etc. Experts in business laws and patent strategies can offer advice on such matters as the IP landscape or food and drugs registration.

Specialists in specific areas, such as applied AI in medical technology will offer their advice on how to conduct clinical trials, disbursement systems, or strategies for ensuring physician’s adoption of technology, etc. There are also coaches from outside Chulalongkorn University who provide advice on innovation development, some of whom are Chula alumni, business practitioners, and those working on social projects.

Developing Deep Tech for the Innovation Market

Dr. Pravee explained that turning research into a commercialized innovation should not extend over 12 months. The process entails the three major steps:

1. The search for available research
UTC is constantly on the lookout for and welcomes submissions of research and has committees to consider plausible research projects. Once the research has been accepted, another team of experts on innovation development will oversee the project to enhance its business potentials alongside technological development until a primary business model is derived. They are then able to assess the potential of the research in providing solutions for the target market and whether there are interested customers.

2. Product Development and field testing with potential customers or actual product users.
With the derived business plan, the research team can soon develop a model that can then undergo actual market testing with the target group. UTC’s experts or coaches in various dimensions are there to provide advice after which the test results are applied to make changes or improvements as needed so that the product follows the direction set within the determined timeframe.

3. Proceeding with the commercial aspect
Once the desired product has been developed, the next step is to plan how to handle its commercial aspect to derive the highest benefits. UTC’s experts are there to provide such useful information as legal matters, patent application, the transmission of technology/patents from the university, negotiations with business partners, and fundraising for example.

UTC’s Deep Tech Innovations

For almost three years (2019 onward), the UTC has played a part in cultivating more than 36 Deep Tech research projects. At the end of 2021, the UTC Deep Tech Demo Day was organized to showcase outstanding AI and MedTech Innovations from 15 teams that showed the potential to become Thailand’s Deep Tech Startups in the future. The event had online booths displaying more than 30 AI and MedTech innovations and also featured a Business Matching activity with agencies from both the government and private sectors. Internationally renowned experts were invited to share their expertise on matters related to Deep Tech. Some of the innovations presented at the event are as follows:

ReadMe by eikonnex.ai
by researchers from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Engineering — an AI innovation with the ability to read texts in Thai and English along with symbols on documents, images, and videos and transform them into digital documents that can be used in various ways, such as company’s financial documents storage, credit scoring for bank loans, etc.

Aqua Innovac
a needleless vaccine for farmed fish by researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University. An innovation that prevents infection from a bacterium that causes Branchiomycosis or “gill rot disease”, and reduces deaths in fish caused by stress after vaccination with needles.

DeepGI
by a joint research team from the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Medicine that features AI detection of colorectal cancer that improves diagnosis and reduces the number of examination errors.

How does one join UTC projects?

Not only does UTC lend its support to researchers affiliated with Chulalongkorn University, but it is also open to Deep Tech researchers from elsewhere, especially in the fields of AI, MedTech, and Biotech which are UTC’s main concentrations. Other Deep Tech research works are also welcome.

Dr. Pravee concluded that students who are interested in Deep Tech but do not have any research works can also join the UTC team to undergo practical training.