According to The Australian Financial Review, Perth residents will be among the first people in Australia to summon driverless cars on a mobile phone app and zoom around local streets after a French "Intellicar" arrived in the Western Australian capital.
Perth is one of only three cities, along with Paris and an undisclosed North American city, to trial the autonomous on-demand electric car, which is made by France's NAVYA, after WA automobile club RAC successfully introduced the Intellibus in 2016.
The Intellicar, which will start trials in controlled spaces this week, is "substantially more complex" to operate than the Intellibus because it doesn't follow a fixed route, RAC Group's chief executive Terry Agnew told The Australian Financial Review.
"It's time to build on what we've done with the Intellibus," Mr Agnew said. Other states have been running trials of driverless shuttle buses, but have not yet put driverless cars on public roads.
The Intellicars can carry up to six passengers each, and have a maximum operating speed of 90 km/h with a recommended operating speed of 20 to 50 km/h.

Ref: https://www.afr.com/business/driverless-cars-are-coming-as-ondemand-intellicar-prepares-to-hit-perth-streets-20180912-h15a43

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1449814
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QUT will lead a $7.5 million research project to establish a pilot plant producing hydrogen from renewable energy.
Funding of $3.35 million was announced today by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA’s Research and Development Program – Renewable Hydrogen for Export and is supported by financial and in-kind support from industry and university project partners.
The pilot plant is planned to be installed at the Redlands Research Facility south of Brisbane and use locally produced solar energy to extract hydrogen from treated non-drinking water, such as seawater.
The project is being led by Professor Ian Mackinnon from QUT’s Institute for Future Environments who said it was anticipated that hydrogen would become a major clean carrier of energy in the future.
Professor Mackinnon said energy would be drawn from a Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) array at the Redlands facility which QUT has been testing in an existing joint project with Japanese energy giant Sumitomo Electric Industries who is also one of the pilot plant partners.
“This solar energy will be supplemented by commercially available battery packs to extract hydrogen from treated water,” he said.
“The hydrogen will then be fed into a fuel cell and back into the grid to re-supply power to the local system.” 
Professor Mackinnon said the collaborative project also involves Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Tokyo and industry partner Energy Developments Pty Limited.

https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=135488

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1825968
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According to The Australian Financial Review, on a 15-hectare block in a new subdivision bordered by the Westernport Highway and Cranbourne rail line, Woolworths has recently finished building the biggest and most advanced automated distribution centre (DC) in the southern hemisphere.
The size of 20 soccer fields and 45 metres or 10 double-decker buses high at its tallest point, the DC looks more like an airport than a warehouse for packaged food and groceries.
Inside, 14 kilometres of high-speed conveyors designed by Dutch firm Vanderlande zig-zag around the building, taking pallets from receiving docks to storage racks constructed from 2000 tonnes of steel, while eight fully automated depalletising stations separate pallets into cartons.
Thirteen automated cranes, each weighing 35 tonnes, stow the slowest moving stock in a 17-level high bay storage area capable of holding more than 60,000 pallets.
At the other end of the site, 50 imposing robotic heads are working in pairs packing 650 cartons an hour, almost four times faster than in a manual DC, on pallets destined to be sent to stores.

Ref: https://www.afr.com/business/retail/robots-do-the-heavy-lifting-at-woolworths-hightech-shed-20180906-h151h3

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1187905 
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According to the MSN News, an extraordinary new anti-ageing technique could see humans live to 150 years old and allow them to regrow their organs by 2020.
Harvard Professor David Sinclair and researchers from the University of New South Wales developed the new process, which involves reprogramming cells.
Dr Sinclair said the technique could allow people to regenerate organs, and even allow paralysis sufferers to move again, with human trials due within two years.
The same researchers also found they could increase the lifespan of mice by ten per cent by giving them a vitamin B derivative pill.
Professor Sinclair said he hoped the pill would be available to the public within five years and cost the same each day as a cup of coffee.
'We do not recommend people go out and take NAD precursors as they have not yet formally tested for safety,' he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/stunning-anti-ageing-breakthrough-could-see-humans-live-to-150-and-regenerate-organs-by-2020-for-the-price-of-a-coffee-a-day/ar-BBMKkn3?ocid=spartanntp

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1507902779
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According to The Australian Financial review, researchers from Melbourne's Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and Harvard Medical School have engineered a novel mechanism that homes in on a clot that has begun to form and blocks its progression.
Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is caused by a blood clot, most commonly in the legs.
Sitting in the same position for hours on a plane, together with lower air pressure, less oxygen and less hydration, increases the risk of a DVT developing.
"The drug can do two things," Professor Wang said. "It can prevent a clot from forming and break down one already formed.
"Our hope is that a patient at high risk of DVT, about to take a long-haul flight, can be injected with it. If a clotting process begins, the drug will find its way to the clot, bind to it and prevent it forming."
The same mechanism applies to a heart attack and stroke.
The drug has been proven to work in mice and in human blood.
"From what we have seen so far, there is no reason why it wouldn't work in patients at risk," Professor Wang said.

https://www.afr.com/news/new-drug-will-protect-against-deep-vein-thrombosis-on-longhaul-flights-20180816-h142fm

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​http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/2955383 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, most lung cancer is still treated with cisplatin, an old form of chemotherapy that contains platinum today.
But only 30 per cent of patients benefit and, along the way, they often develop serious side effects including kidney damage.
The scientists, led by Professor Neil Watkins, were trying to figure out why chemotherapy wasn't more effective.
As Watkins pondered a large map of a dataset, he recalled de Kretser talking about follistatin and suddenly, saw a possible connection.
This week, an elegant and compelling study has been published in the journal, Science Translational Medicine.
It is proof of principle that mixing follistatin with the chemotherapy, not only turbocharges its effectiveness but prevents devastating kidney damage.
In mice it increased the odds of success from 10 to 70 per cent. Their lung tumours shrunk, they were protected against kidney damage and survived longer.
If this translates to humans – and there is a strong expectation it will - it could transform treatment for many lung cancer patients.

https://www.afr.com/news/casual-chat-with-former-governor-of-victoria-leads-to-lung-cancer-breakthrough-20180725-h135ek

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
​http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/5179544
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Australian scientists have developed an "early warning system" that has the potential to alert doctors to an impending heart attack and then provide them with tools that may prevent it.
The system has proved effective in mice and there is a strong expectation it will translate to humans. Trials in humans are now being prepared. 
This world first research led by the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute is published in the premier cardiovascular medical journal, European Heart Journal.
Every year 54,000 Australians suffer a heart attack and 8,600 die as a result of a one. That means, on average, heart attacks claim almost one Australian an hour.

Ref: https://www.afr.com/news/australian-researchers-develop-an-early-warning-system-for-heart-attack-20180726-h135kr

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
​http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/9140075
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Australians scientists have developed what could be the world's first blood test to detect early-stage melanoma. They have proof of concept for the test which, if confirmed by further research, could be ready for use in three years.
With 79 per cent diagnostic accuracy, the test has the potential to save lives, suffering and the expense of treating late-stage melanoma.
The scientists, from Edith Cowan University in Perth, published their results in the journal Oncotarget.
If the test reaches 90 per cent accuracy in the next trial, it could be used, together with visual forms of detection, to make an early diagnosis. This could save many negative biopsies, which cost the public purse $73 million a year.
The test, MelDx, has been submitted for an international patent, and aims to provide greater diagnostic certainty prior to biopsy.
"Patients who have their melanoma detected in its early stage have a five-year survival rate between 90 and 99 per cent," says lead researcher and PhD candidate Pauline Zaenker.
If it has already spread, the five-year survival rate drops to less than 50 per cent.

Ref: https://www.afr.com/news/australians-develop-promising-blood-test-for-early-melanoma-20180717-h12s5q

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​http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7652294
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Sydney-based biomedical researchers at the Garvan Institute will kickstart an ambitious plan to create a genetic index including summary data of 5000 aggregated human genomes to help the global hunt for cures to diseases, after receiving a grant from Microsoft to crunch the data on its Azure cloud infrastructure.
The index will require enormous amounts of computing power, and the Garvan Institute hopes it will make a major contribution to ongoing international efforts, such as the hunt for cancer treatments, by making the resource accessible to the worldwide genomics community.
Chief of informatics at the Garvan Institute Warren Kaplan said there had been extraordinary advances in the technology of DNA sequencing during the past 10 years, meaning the different genomes could now be split into groups, in order to run hugely complex queries to try to pinpoint the causes of different abnormalities or diseases.
When the sequencing of the first human genome was completed in 2003 it was the result of a 10-year project that cost around $3 billion, but Dr Kaplan said it was now possible for the Garvan Institute to sequence 50 genomes a day at a cost of $1000 apiece.

​Ref:http://www.afr.com/technology/cloud-computing/garvan-institute-uses-microsoft-azure-grant-to-build-genetic-index-to-hunt-disease-cures-20180418-h0yxvf

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/2070821
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Woolworths is set to take the wraps off a new $215 million fully automated distribution centre that promises to deliver a step-change in cost savings and productivity when it goes live in the next year.
The state-of-the-art distribution centre in Dandenong South in Melbourne – which is owned by Charter Hall and leased to Woolworths for 20 years – is close to reaching practical completion and is expected to be fully operational later this calendar year or early in 2019.
Woolworths has yet to release details about the distribution centre, which is the largest in Australia and features the nation's largest solar installation and more than 14 kilometres of conveyors.
However, analysts have started crunching the numbers and believe the facility could save Woolworths at least $45 million in annual operating costs, increasing pressure on rivals Coles, Aldi and Metcash's IGA retailers.
"Woolworths is taking a major step forward on costs with this automated warehouse," one analyst said.
The facility, which sits on a 15.9-hectare site 35 kilometres south-east of the Melbourne CBD, will stock more products than Woolworths' Brisbane and Sydney distribution centres combined and will supply most of Woolworths' stores in Victoria.
The Dandenong facility combines technologies used in the traditional logistics industry and those in manufacturing and postal systems, including multi-storey racking systems, robotics and high-speed conveyor and sorting systems, to sort and distribute stock faster and with much greater accuracy than traditional warehouse technology.

http://www.afr.com/business/retail/woolworths-to-take-wraps-off-automated-warehouse-20180423-h0z452

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7665064