According to The Asahi Shimbun, pregnant mice whose foetuses were induced with Down syndrome produced offspring with inhibited symptoms after being administered a chemical compound discovered by Japanese researchers.
The finding, published Sept. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could have important ramifications for expectant mothers, said Masatoshi Hagiwara, a chemical biology professor at Kyoto University, who headed the research team.
He said the lab tests led to a "symptomatic improvement" in baby mice.
Down syndrome is mainly caused by the presence of an extra copy of the human chromosome 21 and is a common cause of intellectual disabilities in humans. A healthy individual only has a pair of each type of 23 chromosomes.
The excessive activity of a gene in those suffering from the disorder results in mental disabilities, congenital heart diseases and other health problems.
While human foetuses with Down syndrome can be diagnosed, there is no radical cure for the disorder.
Inspired by the fact that a gene to inhibit the proliferation of nerve cells becomes excessively active in Down syndrome patients, the researchers tried to find a chemical that can inhibit the activity of the gene to help nerve cells’ proliferation.
The scientists orally administered the compound to pregnant mice and confirmed that the brains of newborn mice with Down syndrome grew properly.
They also checked the cognitive abilities of 12 baby mice suffering from the disorder through maze testing and found their capabilities were comparable to those of healthy mice.
The team also discovered other mice that were given the compound produced more nerve cells.
The researchers added the chemical to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells created from cells of Down syndrome sufferers. They said this helped nerve cells proliferate in human cells as well.
Although the compound cannot cure the chromosomal abnormality itself, the finding could lead to the development of prenatal treatment to deal with Down syndrome.
Hagiwara said he holds high expectations for new therapeutic methods, but cautioned that extensive trials would be necessary before commercializing the technique.
“There are high hurdles to overcome before we administer the compound to pregnant women," he said, citing the need to ensure a safe clinical environment and win social acceptance for the treatment. “We are looking to make it clinically available first as a drug for cerebral infarction and other diseases.”
More than 90 percent of expectant mothers underwent abortions after prenatal checks based on a new type of blood test turned up Down syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities in the foetuses.
The development of a prenatal Down syndrome treatment would give parents another choice beyond giving birth or having an abortion.
“The compound has been tested only in mice and human cells, and its effects on mothers, as well as appropriate doses, when to administer it and other long-term factors need to be studied,” said Rika Kosaki, a senior doctor at the Division of Medical Genetics of the National Centre for Child Health and Development.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201709260006.html
 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, German-backed WestWind Energy has submitted plans for a $1.7 billion wind farm in south-west Victoria, making it the largest such facility potentially in the southern hemisphere.
If approved, the massive Golden Plains wind farm of 231 turbines will generate 3,000GWh of power annually, enough to power 500,000 homes.
The Golden Plains project is among the next generation of wind farms in the pipeline as the state government legislates its own state-based renewable energy target.
The state planning authority is now considering four wind farm projects, along with applications to amend three existing permits.
Adding momentum to the sector two years ago, Victoria limited the setbacks around wind farms to one kilometre, reducing the two-kilometre zone within which land holders could previously veto a proposal.
For WestWind, the Victorian initiatives are helpful but they are not core to the project's business case.
Indeed, for chief executive Tobias Geiger, the Golden Plains project must stand on its own merits, particularly when energy policy is at the mercy of politicians.

Ref:http://www.afr.com/real-estate/westwinds-17b-plan-largest-wind-farm-in-southern-hemisphere-set-for-victoria-20170922-gymo5k
 
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According to The Nikkei Asian Review, Daiwa House Industry plans to launch a type of apartment where guests can enjoy hotel-style services and check out anytime, as Japan's hotel shortage worsens amid a surge of tourists into the country.
While such home-sharing services as Airbnb have spread in Japan, regulations remain strict. Daiwa House will work with local governments to ensure its new properties fall into the legal category of hotels and hostels.
The Japanese home developer plans to build 3,000 units of such properties, known as apartment hotels in the U.S. and Europe, by 2020. Each unit will be equipped with a kitchen, and while hotel-style amenities are provided, their selection will be limited to keep prices affordable. With no minimum stay, guests can book for one night or extended periods.
Daiwa House has already begun talking with landowners in major cities. The company is also considering development in such tourist destinations as Kanazawa, a city in central Japan. The company either hopes to buy the land, or reach subcontracting deals with landowners for construction and management of the apartments.
Daiwa House expects to spend as much as 30 billion yen ($US 271 million) on the project, considering construction costs will come to around 10 million yen per apartment. Buildings will house between four and 100 units, each with two or three rooms capable of accommodating up to six guests. Prices are likely to be around 30,000 yen per night or about 5,000 yen per person for a group of six.
As for services, Daiwa House will clean the units and change bed sheets twice a week, even for long-term guests. Buildings with several dozen units or more will include a front desk and a concierge. Daiwa House is looking at hiring foreign concierges for the service.
The use of home-sharing is growing in Japan, but these services remain controversial amid concerns raised by nearby residents about safety. Current regulations only permit these services to operate in special zones such as Tokyo's Ota Ward and in Osaka city, where guests must stay at least two nights. Even the new legislation set to come into effect in 2018 caps such rentals at 180 days a year.

Ref: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-s-Daiwa-House-to-debut-hotel-style-apartments

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According to The Australian Financial Review, the $2 billion auction of Rio Tinto's Kestrel and Hail Creek mines in central Queensland is set to get underway early next month.
Street Talk understands sell-side adviser Credit Suisse has been meeting with potential suitors in recent weeks and plans to open a data room in early October.
First round bids will be due in late November allowing for an eight week period in the data room.
Parties said to be in-and-around the process include mining giant Anglo American, ASX-listed Whitehaven Coal, global buy-out firm Apollo Global Management, Russia's Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) and specialist resources private equity firm EMR Capital.
Rio's Hail Creek open cut mine is located south-west of Mackay in central Queensland and supplies hard coking and thermal coal. The company's website says Rio manages the operation on behalf of joint venture partners Queensland Coal, Nippon Steel Australia, Marubeni Coal and Sumisho Coal Development.
The Kestrel mine is an underground operation located north-east of Emerald in central Queensland and supplies coking and thermal coal. 

Ref: http://www.afr.com/street-talk/rio-tinto-gears-up-for-kestrel-hail-creek-divestments-20170923-gynjxl

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According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia is on the cusp of the biggest wave of public infrastructure spending in at least three decades and has already ensured a record proportion of construction workers have found jobs.
In a shift that has been overlooked amid the focus on negatives such as high household debt, weak consumer sentiment and low wages growth, research published this week shows almost $100 billion in local, state and federal government spending will hit the economy this year financial alone.
According to a chart presented by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe in a speech in Perth this week, public infrastructure work "yet to be done" will be just under 6 per cent of nominal gross domestic product in 2017. 
That figure is set to keep rising, with transport projects alone set to boom for much of the next five years, and peak three years from now in 2020, according to research by economic consultancy Macromonitor.
Craig James from Commsec says that while bad news about the economy draws people's attention, new infrastructure spending is likely to be comparable or larger than what was invested during the resources boom of the past 15 years.
"It's a huge amount, one and half times the size of the mining boom, and people tend to lose sight of it because it's scattered around Australia," he said.
Data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week confirms that construction is Australia's hottest job creation sector.
The labour market has just gone through its strongest six month stretch of job creation - with employment rising by 273,000 - in records going back almost 33 years.
Construction jobs devoted to new roads, bridges, tunnels, hospitals and schools rose by 64,400 in the second quarter, and now accounts for a record share of workers, just shy of one-in-10.
Healthcare is next, producing an extra 48,000 jobs last quarter, followed by a 26,700 job surge in agriculture.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/news/economy/australias-next-boom-has-barely-started-20170922-gympx4

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According to The Australian Financial Review, Newcastle-based MJH Group, the country's fastest-growing home builder, wants to expand into Victoria, where it does not yet operate, and could buy out ASX-listed Simonds Group, in which it already holds a 16 per cent stake, to do so.
Privately owned MJH, which last November used its shareholding to block the bid by founder Gary Simonds to take back the company he listed in 2014, had long intended to expand into Victoria, the largest detached house-building market, but had not decided whether to do that by starting up a new operation or acquiring an existing one, chief executive Andrew Helmers told The Australian Financial Review.
"If Simonds were to fit our plans for expansion into Victoria, then we'd be interested in pursuing them with an alliance or a potential takeover," Mr Helmers said. "But we are yet to determine whether they fit our plans in Victoria."
A Simonds spokeswoman said the company had had no discussions with any of its significant shareholders about any possible tie-up.
Mr Helmers would not comment on the board restructure announced by Simonds on Wednesday. Nor would Melbourne developer Frank Palazzo, who recently doubled his holding in the company to 10 per cent.
MJH's fortunes have soared. The company was the fast-growing home builder in the HIA ranking for a second year in 2017 and overtook Simonds, jumping into sixth place with 2716 home starts.
But the market is slowing, Mr Helmers said.
"We're seeing a slowdown in the market and the buyers are moving towards affordability. So build prices are coming down. That's a challenge for them and us."

Ref:http://www.afr.com/real-estate/newcastles-mjh-group-owner-of-16pc-of-simonds-wants-to-expand-into-victoria-20170919-gyks4e

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, freshly baked bread can provide some of life’s little, yet immense, pleasures, and so it stands to reason that discarding unsold loaves would pain any passionate baker.
To solve this age-old problem, Yoji Tamura, 41, who runs the deRien bakery in Hiroshima, radically changed the way his business makes and sells bread--and now it is in a position where it never has to throw away perfectly good produce.
Tamura’s achievement chimes with the United Nations’ drive to solve social problems through sustainable development goals (SDGs), which its member countries have agreed to achieve by 2030.
In Tamura’s bakery, “pain de campagne” country breads are baked to perfection in a stone kiln, their crusts thickening, and sweet aromas intensifying as the oven’s temperature gradually declines.
The only ingredients used are wheat flour, salt and water. And the loaves, which are baked slowly in the kiln using sticks, look impressive, with diameters spanning as much as 30 centimeters.
Tamura runs the bakery with his wife, Fumi, 36. They have not thrown out a single loaf since summer 2015.
When Tamura took over his family business in 2005, it was in dire straits. In a bid to turn its fortunes around, he implemented changes at the shop and began to make bread using natural yeasts, as well as loaves with homemade fillings.
The bakery sold 40 kinds of bread, and Tamura was extremely busy. His working day started at 10 p.m., and did not finish until the early evening of the next day.
Almost every day, the shop had to discard unsold bread after closing time, and that product often filled a 25-liter bag. Such waste did not impress one part-time member of staff, a woman from Mongolia, who scolded him for putting those loaves in the trash.
Tamura did not want to waste it, either, but there seemed to be no other way, as he feared he would be forced to close the bakery if any food poisoning cases emerged from it.
The bakery found popularity, but turning a profit proved more elusive. He struggled to pay his young employees’ wages, and could not make time to teach them bread making, either.
He found himself questioning whether the life of a baker was one he could continue with for the next couple of decades and beyond.
In 2012, Tamura temporarily closed the bakery and went to Europe for training. He worked on his craft at a series of bakeries, the third of which was the renowned shop, Gragger, in Vienna.
At that bakery, staff did not work excessive hours, but just the mornings. Neither did they ferment the doughs twice, which is common in Japan. Tamura could not help but feel that the working practices were subpar, but nevertheless, he noticed that the end results were much more delicious than the bread he had been making.
Another lesson he learned was to use the best ingredients possible, and he began to reconsider his previous way of working, in which he had toiled away for more than 15 hours each day.
Tamura decided to put his newfound knowledge into practice back in Japan, and he went home to reopen his bakery.
He slashed the types of bread he sells to just two, including pain de campagne. He changed his source of wheat to one that is cultivated in Hokkaido’s Tokachi region using organic agriculture methods. The new flour was four times more expensive than the imported variety, but he curbed costs by not using fillings such as cheese. Without the fillings, his loaves remained edible for about two weeks.
The next challenge was to change how the shop was run. Staffing was cut down to just himself and his wife, who is in charge of sales. In addition, he decided to open the shop in the afternoons only, three days a week. On those three days, he bakes bread from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m., and rests in the afternoon.
Then, he thought about how to sell the bread in ways that would not force him to discard unsold loaves. One wheat producer encouraged this approach, telling him in an e-mail message, “If loaves made from my wheat remain unsold, send them to me. I will buy all of them.”
These days, instead of having sales staff, Tamura puts his freshly baked bread on a shelf next to the kitchen, with an unmanned box placed next to it to collect payment. If any loaves get left on the shelf, he passes them on to a mobile vegetable store business and a ham shop.
He also began a service in which he takes advance orders from customers and then bakes bread to send to them regularly. The idea took off, and now about 160 people, ranging from Hokkaido to Okinawa Prefecture, buy his goods through the service.
As a result of all these efforts, Tamura’s bakery reached the point where none of its produce goes to waste. Numerous customers visit the small 18-square-meter shop to snap up fresh bread, and annual sales stand at about 25 million yen ($US 227,500), unchanged from those before the 2012 suspension.
“Instead of making bread that loses popularity after five years, I want to continue making types that have endured over many years. If bakeries like my shop increase in Japan, it will be interesting,” he said.

Ref:​ http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201709200001.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/8880886
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Airport will soon host the largest single rooftop solar installation in the southern hemisphere as part of a six-megawatt system across six buildings.
The overall array, stretching across 3.6 hectares, will account for 18 per cent of Brisbane Airport Corporation's direct electricity consumption, saving it about $1 million in energy bills annually.
"We are in the enviable position of having thousands of square metres of unimpeded roof space ideal for solar harvesting," BAC's general manager for assets, Krishan Tangri, said.
"It makes financial sense to invest in this readily available supply of renewable energy to save costs and decrease our carbon footprint."
In all, the Brisbane Airport system will comprise 22,000 panels and an $11 million investment. When fully installed it will be capable of generating 9.3 gigawatt hours of energy annually.
The airport project, being installed by Epho in collaboration with Shakra Energy, will be complete by August next year.
It became commercially viable as the cost of solar panels fell, their efficiency increased and as energy prices began to rise.

Ref:​ http://www.afr.com/real-estate/brisbane-airport-to-save-1m-a-year-from-massive-solar-array-20170915-gyikfc
 
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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1008629677
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a research team has created a non-invasive method of measuring the blood glucose level by simply applying an infrared laser to the fingers, a development expected to help lessen the burden on diabetics.
The technology developed by scientists at the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology would make it unnecessary for diabetes patients to take blood samples daily to check their glucose levels.
The team is looking to commercialize medical equipment based on the technology within five years.
If the method becomes commercially available, “more people are expected to measure their blood glucose levels by themselves,” said Koichi Yamakawa, a senior official of the national institutes.
According to the health ministry, an estimated 9.5 million adults are “strongly suspected of suffering from diabetes” in Japan.
Patients regularly taking insulin injections have to measure their glucose levels daily on their own, taking blood samples by puncturing the tips of their fingers with needles.
Although the needles have improved and cause less pain, daily collection of blood is still a troublesome task for patients.
The new method measures blood glucose levels based on the strength of absorbed laser after exposing fingers to an infrared laser.
To commercialize the technology, the researchers set up a start-up company. They plan to start a full-scale clinical study that will cover 300 diabetes patients the next fiscal year, working with a university hospital and other institutions.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201709150007.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/6182042 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, McDonald's Japan took a series of hits starting in 2014 that threatened to crack its Golden Arches but chief executive officer Sarah Casanova decided to counterpunch. Casanova visited all of the country's 47 prefectures to assure diners - especially mothers - that her company was implementing safeguards, and to ask them what they wanted from McDonald's.
"It made us go out and listen to customers," Casanova, 52, said of the crisis. "We were not doing a great job of giving them what they wanted."
Armed with their feedback, Casanova revamped the menu to add local flavours like the pork-and-ginger "Yakki Burger" and quirky headline-grabbing items like chocolate-covered fries. She gave many outlets a facelift and forged a partnership featuring Pokemon characters.
She cut off the troubled Chinese chicken supplier and introduced measures so parents could trace where their children's meals were coming from.
Since then, the shine has returned to the arches. McDonald's Japan stock closed at a record high on September 11 as part of a 64 per cent increase this year. Same-store sales climbed for the 21st consecutive month in August, and the company raised its full-year profit outlook twice.
"They focused on the foundations - renewing stores, changing its menu and listening to the voices of moms," said Seiichiro Samejima, a Tokyo-based analyst at Ichiyoshi Research Institute. "It wasn't a sudden turnaround, but something done step by step."

Ref:http://www.afr.com/business/retail/fmcg/mcdonalds-chocolate-fries-help-its-japan-ceo-overcome-food-scandals-20170914-gyhzj3

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
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