Tag: Japan
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University Consortium to Research Nanotech Health Monitors
North Carolina State University in Raleigh will lead a group of universities in the U.S., Australia, and Asia to develop self-powered health monitoring sensors and devices. Some 30 industry partners are expected to join the five-year, $18.5 million consortium, known as the Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), and funded…
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Grant to Fund Research on Earthquakes, Building Design
Engineers at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and UC-Berkeley will study the impact of building construction practices, particularly the design and performance of structural walls, on resisting earthquake damage. The team led by UCLA civil and environmental engineering professor John Wallace is funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s…
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Japanese Robot to be Adapted for Work with Humans
Engineers at the Tecnalia Research and Innovation Centre in San Sebastián, Spain will further develop the intelligence of a Japanese humanoid robot to enable the device to work along side humans in European factories. The robot model, known as Hiro — short for Human Interactive Robot — is made by Kawada Industries in Tokyo. The…
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LED Process Adapts Ultraviolet Light to Kill Pathogens
Researchers from North Carolina and Japan have devised a light-emitting diode (LED) process that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Their discoveries are described in the May issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters (paid subscription required). The research team included materials scientists and engineers from North Carolina State…
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Degradable Stent Found Safe for Long Term Coronary Treatment
Researchers in Japan and the Netherlands completed a 10-year study that found a stent that degrades and is absorbed into the blood vessel tissue to be safe for patients with coronary artery disease. The findings are published online ahead of print in the journal Circulation. Stents are mesh tubes inserted to prop open coronary arteries…
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Bridgestone Tire to Study Natural Raw Rubber Alternative
Bridgestone Corporation, a global tire manufacturer in Tokyo, Japan unveiled plans today for a research project in the U.S. to develop a new commercially viable, renewable source of tire-quality natural rubber. The project aims to harness the cultivation of guayule — pronounced why-YOU-lee — as an alternative to hevea trees, the current source of almost…
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Biotech, Pharma Companies to Collaborate on New Vaccines
Medicago Inc. in Quebec City, Canada and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. in Osaka, Japan have agreed to develop and commercialize at least three new vaccines based on Medicago’s technology. The first part of the deal is expected to provide Medicago with up to $C33 million ($US 33 milion) in revenues. The partnership will give Mitsubishi…
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Semiconductor Sales Gain in 2011, Decline in 4th Quarter
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in Washington, D.C. says worldwide semiconductor sales for 2011 reached a record $299.5 billion, an annual increase of 0.4 percent from $298.3 billion recorded in 2010. But sales for semiconductors at the end of 2011 dropped off compared to the same period in the previous year. In the last quarter…
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Prostate Cancer Therapy Shown Effective in Chemo Patients
A phase 3 clinical trial has shown a new drug to treat prostate cancer is effective with patients who had previously been treated with chemotherapy. The results of the study of MDV3100 — made by the biopharmaceutical company Medivation Inc. in San Francisco and Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo, Japan — will be presented tomorrow…
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Faster, More Sensitive Flu Diagnostics Developed
Researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center in Yokohama, Japan have developed a new technique to identify influenza virus infection in only 40 minutes and with 100 times the sensitivity of conventional methods. The findings from the team led by RIKEN Omics’ Toshihisa Ishikawa appear in the online journal PLoS ONE. Ishikawa and his colleagues…