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Bitumen is widely used as an essential binder for many applications due to its excellent adhesive properties, waterproofing, and high durability. However, the conventional application of bitumen involves on-site melting at high temperature exceeding 250°C, necessitating rapid pouring on the surface with additional torch-on, which poses complications and safety risks. Moreover, the on-site melting process releases harmful gases, including hydrogen sulphide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), endangering workers and nearby areas. To address these challenges, there is a need to develop a safer form of bitumen that does not compromise material performance. This technology transforms solid bitumen into a single-component liquid bituminous coating at room temperature via a simple and cost-effective formulation using solvents, fillers, and additives. The fillers used in the single-component liquid bituminous coating can be made from waste materials such as food waste. Such sustainable fillers could offer comparable material performance to conventional industrial fillers. This high-performance bituminous coating has excellent workability at room temperature, fast drying, and easy production without the need for heating. Thus, this technology eliminates the hazards associated with conventional application of bitumen, providing a safe and energy-saving alternative. One practical application of this technology is a roof waterproofing system that complies with Singapore standards SS133:2017 and/or SS374:1994 (2023). This technology is available for R&D collaboration, IP licensing, and test-bedding with industrial partners in the construction and infrastructure sectors.   Free of smoke and fumes Simple and energy-saving production (no heating required) Water-resistant, corrosion-resistant, and UV resistant Fast-drying and odourless after drying Easy application with excellent coverage Can be easily applied by brush, spray, squeegee, or trowel Compatible with various substrates and structures (dry or damp surfaces) Applicable to both horizontal and vertical surfaces without substantial runoff Option to incorporate sustainable fillers Complies with SS133:2017 and/or SS374:1994 (2023) standards The potential applications include: Primer and paints Waterproofing coating Sealants Adhesives Binder additive in various substrates, including cement, concrete, metal structures, and castings The technology offers the following unique features: Transform solid bitumen into a single-component liquid bituminous coating at room temperature via a simple and cost-effective formulation Option to incorporate sustainable fillers Simple, eco-friendly, and energy-saving process without heating Can be applied to different structural elements for waterproofing, damp proofing, and corrosion resistance Materials, Composites, Chemicals, Coatings & Paints, Organic

One-fifth of all local and imported food in Singapore and about 15% of all food globally is spoiled during the supply chain due to inadequate food transport facilities. To overcome this, the startup offers a patented technology in the form of a hardware device that emits a magnetic interference field. It can be used throughout the supply chain starting immediately after harvest and all the way to storage and display. In particular, this technology has great potential to be applied during the food transportation when the chance of spoilage is highest due to reasons such as overripening caused by supply chain delays. The startup is looking to collaborate with food logistics and storage companies, as well as retailers, to integrate their solution. This technology locks the water inside fresh food, minimises bacteria and mold growth, thus extending the food shelf life by at least 30%. Each small semi-circular device can cover a region of 24 inches in diameter and 15 inches in height. The device is completely passive and requires no energy or maintenance. The useful life of the device is 3 years and the energy field emission conforms to WHO safety guidelines. This technology can be applied to slow down food spoilage in: Cold chain containers Non-cold chain containers Food transport trucks Food storage baskets Refrigerators (Domestic and Commercial) Supermarket shelves It may also be applied during farming process to enhance plant growth and reduce water requirements.  The unique value proposition of this technology lies in the following areas: Extends food shelf life in fluctuating ambient conditions No energy or maintenance required  Effective and economical in reducing food waste by up to 40% food preservation, supply chain, food storage, fresh food Materials, Nano Materials, Foods, Packaging & Storage

Despite the increasing prevalence of obesity, all FDA-approved medications, which act indirectly on the central nervous system to suppress appetite or on the gastrointestinal tract to inhibit fat absorption, suffer from poor effectiveness and side effects. Most of these medications have been withdrawn from the market. Although liposuction performed in clinics can effectively remove targeted subcutaneous fat, it suffers from invasiveness, high costs, associated risks, induction of compensatory increase of visceral fat. Although thermal lipolysis induced by high-power laser energy is a non-invasive way to reduce subcutaneous fat, its effectiveness is limited and it often causes skin burning. Both liposuction and laser lipolysis cannot improve whole-body metabolism. The technology owner has developed a transdermal mild photothermal therapy directly acting on the root of evil, i.e. subcutaneous fat, to induce its ameliorating remodelling (browning, lipolysis, angiogenesis, and apoptosis), based on the injectable hydrogel encapsulated with photothermal agent. Browning refers to the conversion of energy-storage white fats into energy-burning brown fats. Further, combining with pharmaceutical therapy by codelivery of pharmacological agent leads to a strong therapeutic synergy. This method not only ensures high effectiveness and low side effects due to localized and targeted application but also remotely creates significant improvements in whole-body metabolism (e.g., reduction of visceral fat, relief of diabetic symptoms). In addition, this technology is applicable for cosmetic purposes, e.g., body contouring and reduction of double chin. The technology owner is seeking potential biotechnology companies, clinicians, and other partners to clinically translate and commercialize this technology. Possible modes of collaboration include R&D, process, and product development. Photothermal agents and pharmacological agents are encapsulated in biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogel which retains the therapeutics to ensure sustained effects. After being injected into subcutaneous fat depots (e.g., belly fat) using an insulin needle or an automated injection device with minimal pain, NIR irradiation at each injection site will be applied for only five minutes using a portable laser source, one to three times a day for several days without the need of another injection. This described procedure (injection + laser treatment) can be applied once or several times. Obvious mass reduction of the treated fat and other beneficial effects on the whole-body should be resulted. In contrast to laser lipolysis, this procedure shall be much more effective, pain free without causing skin burning, and profoundly beneficial. It can be conducted in clinics by professionals or be self-administered at home for long-term care. The primary application area of our technology is for treating obesity and associated metabolic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes). This technology can also be used for non-therapeutic or cosmetic purposes, including contouring, sculpting, or slimming one or more regions of the subject’s body for a desirable appearance. To be specific, this technology can locally remove stubborn fat below the chin, or in thigh, abdomen, thorax, flank, upper limb, upper body, lower limb, back, etc.   As highlighted by Mordor Intelligence, the anti-obesity drugs market was valued at about US$ 1,690 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach US$ 4,250 million in 2026, registering a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15% over the forecast period, 2021-2026. And according to IMARC Group, the global body contouring market reached a value of US$ 7.3 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach US$ 11.1 billion by 2027, exhibiting at a CAGR of 6.9% during 2022-2027. This technology provides an unprecedented solution with high effectiveness and low risks. Non-invasive targeted treatment on subcutaneous fat Drastic reduction of subcutaneous fat and visceral fat Relief of obesity-associated metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes) Low risks and low side-effects High effectiveness Self-administrable Obesity, Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases, Transdermal Therapy, Personal Care, Slimming Healthcare, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics

After a skin injury or surgery, a scar may form as the wound heals. In this body's repair mechanism, the myofibroblast cells produce new collagens and they form an extracellular matrix (ECM) to repair a wound. Over time, most scars become flat and pale. However, in some abnormal cases, the body produces excessive collagens. The excessive ECM formation and deposition of these scar tissue will result in raised scars such as hypertrophic scar and keloid scar. These raised scars may leave lifelong marks on the skin. Although the raised scars are not dangerous or life-threatening, they create aesthetic concern, restrict physical movement and may also lead to itching, tenderness, pain or even depression and anxiety. The currently available scar removal products such as silicon patches and topical products may cause skin irritation, which has led researchers to look for safer and more effective solutions. The present technology is a series of phytonutrient-based remedial fluids, which can be used as a general topical agent or complemented with a nano sprayer for the management of raised scars. The product developed from this technology is a safe, non-invasive and convenient approach to suppress hypertrophic and keloid scars. The technology provider is looking for collaboration opportunities to co-develop skincare products incorporated with this series of plant-based remedial fluids for scar management, collaborators for conducting clinical studies to evaluate effects of the current prototypes as well as other partnership mode including IP licensing.  Hypertrophic and keloid scars are two different fibroproliferative disorders of the dermal tissue upon skin injury. The activation and local proliferation of myofibroblasts in the dermal layer is considered prerequisite for excessive ECM formation, including the overproduction of collagens for filling up the wounds. The phytonutrient-based remedial fluids consist of small-molecule flavanol glycosides extracted from ferns. Experimental results showed that these plant-based fluids could significantly suppress the activation and proliferation of skin myofibroblasts in patients with hypertrophic scars or keloids. These small molecules could also largely reduce the deposition of ECM. As a result, the formation of raised scar can be prevented. The prototypes of the phytonutrient-based remedial fluids have been developed and are currently undergoing product testing. They are designed to reduce raised scars and improve skin conditions. Over 50 volunteers with various types of scars and different skin conditions have tried the prototypes in the initial trial. Overall, positive feedback were received, including notable improvement in scar appearance, alleviation of itchy feeling and prevention of excessive scar tissues. This phytonutrient-based formulation can be used in scar treatment in the form of skincare products such as a general topical agent or nano-mist. They could help shrink, soften and flatten the raised scars, especially for hypertrophic scars and keloids. In addition, this technology can also be used for therapeutic purposes, such as inhibiting the development of fibrosis.  Since many scar treatment gel sheets or creams contain silicone, this natural, non-toxic product provides another option for the people who are allergic to silicone. Customers can be benefited from these herbal-based products with their non-irritating, refreshing texture. Personal Care, Cosmetics & Hair, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics

One use of AI, including deep learning, is in prediction tasks, such as image scene understanding and medical image diagnosis. As deep learning models are complex, heatmaps are often used to help explain the AI’s prediction by highlighting pixels that were salient to the prediction. While existing heatmaps are effective on clean images, real-world images are frequently degraded or ‘biased’-such as camera blur or colour distortion under low light. Images may also be deliberately blurred for privacy reasons. As the level of image clarity decreases, the performance of the heatmaps decreases. These heatmap explanations of degraded images therefore deviate from both reality and user expectations.  This novel technology-Debiased-CAM-describes a method of training a convolutional neural network (CNN) to produce accurate and relatable heatmaps for degraded images. By pinpointing relevant targets on the images that align with user expectations, Debiased-CAMs increase transparency and user trust in the AI’s predictions. Debiased-CAMs are effective in helping users identify relevant targets even on images affected by different clarity levels and multiple issues such as camera blur, poor lighting conditions and colour distortion. The AI’s prediction also becomes more accurate. As the model is trained using self-supervised learning, no additional data is needed to train it.  The training for Debiased-CAM is generalisable, and thus applicable to other types of degraded or corrupted data and other prediction tasks such as image captioning and human activity recognition. Used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to produce accurate and relatable heatmaps for degraded images. By pinpointing relevant targets on the images that align with user expectations, Debiased-CAMs increase transparency and user trust in the AI’s predictions. It also increases the ability of meeting regulatory standards to deploy CNN models in the following applications, where explainable AI is required. Healthcare, eg. Radiology Autonomous Vehicles   Produces accurate, robust and interpretable heatmaps for degraded images Works on images with multiple degradation levels and types such as blurring and improper white balance Agnostic to degradation level, so that enhancement can be applied even when the level is unknown Perceived by users to be more truthful and helpful as compared to current heatmaps distorted due to image degradation Method of training can be applied to other degradation types and prediction tasks Explainable AI Infocomm, Video/Image Analysis & Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence

Lists are an indispensable part of the online experience, often used to show many results, such as products, web pages, and food dishes. These items can be neatly sorted by a desired attribute like price, relevance, or healthiness. Listed items often have multiple attributes. However, instead of being able to sort multiple attributes simultaneously, consumers are currently limited to sorting only one attribute at a time. This makes searching for the desired item tedious and confusing. Imma Sort supports interpretable and multi-attribute sorting. Sorting for two or more attributes is possible. In contrast to existing search technology, Imma Sort trades off the smoothness of the sorted trend for the main attribute to increase ease of prediction for other attributes, by sorting them more approximately. Results for specific attributes can be made smoother by setting higher importance weights. Provides intuitively sorted results sorted by two or more attributes to improve decision-making and user experience Results can be customised by allocating higher weightage for selected attributes Enables users to perform multi-attribute sorting in any existing list interface without requiring sophisticated spreadsheets or data visualisations Can be integrated into search and recommendation systems across a wide range of applications Can also be incorporated into various search and recommendation systems for more effective search results. Examples of possible applications: Food dishes can be sorted by healthiness and tastiness Hotels can be sorted by price and distance Sorting by price and rating would generate results that generally trend in one direction for both attributes. This makes it easy for users to anticipate the values of multiple attributes as they move down the list, without having to construct a mental list for the secondary attribute. By decreasing users’ mental effort, this will improve decision-making and increase satisfaction. Multi-Attribute Sorting, e-commerce, algorithm Infocomm, eCommerce & ePayment, Enterprise & Productivity

EBV is a ubiquitous human herpes virus, which spreads through saliva. EBV infects over 90% of the human population and can establish life-long persistence in the host. Most people get EBV when they are young, but they will not experience any symptoms until they get older. There are about 200,000 EBV-associated cancer new cases per year. Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is one of EBV associated cancers which is endemic in a few areas including Southern China, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Arctic. The highest NPC incidence rate is found in Southern China including Hong Kong. The association of NPC and EBV is nearly 100% in endemic areas. Unfortunately, more than 80% of the new NPC cases are diagnosed in stage III or IV, while the survival rate of stage IV NPC is only 38%. Early detection and treatment would help to increase survival rate. This invention is a new EBV-specific targeted agent which selectively kills cancer cells without affecting any normal cells. The uptake of this drug can also be traced by the fluorescent signal that can be used for cancer cells imaging. Currently, there is no single agent that can both image and kill NPC cancer cells at the same time. Epstein–Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) is the only viral protein expressed in all EBV-infected cells. This invention is an EBNA1 targeting bio-probe that can effectively target EBNA1 to disrupt its cancerous activities and inhibit cancer cell growth. In addition, it can also emit fluorescent signals to show the presence of EBV-infected cells, and this can be used for imaging the EBV-associated cancers. The invention is the first known agent with a dual function that can accurately trace and image for the EBV-associated cancers while being a pinpointed therapeutic intervention at the same time.  Other than providing a fast, simple and accurate detection for EBV-associated cancers, this invention shows a high efficacy at a low dose (less than 4mol/kg, ~92% cancer inhibition) toward cancer treatment. This invention shed light to develop a new generation medical reagent that has both imaging function and anti-cancer activity. The specificity of this technology provides a crucial means in the accurate detection of EBV-associated cancers. More importantly, its anti-tumour ability provides inhibition in the cancer cells and thus reduces potential metastasis. People in NPC-endemic areas could benefit from this world’s first agent with dual functions that can detect EBV-infected cells and inhibit cancer cells. It can be used to trace the presence of residual cancer cells after treatments. This invention could also replace or minimize the use of the radio- and chemo-therapies for NPC which could greatly improve the survival of patients with advanced diseases, as well as their quality of life. Nasopharyngeal cancer, Nasopharynx cancer, Epstein-Barr Virus, EBV, EBNA1, EBV-positive Healthcare, Diagnostics, Telehealth, Medical Software & Imaging, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics, Life Sciences, Biotech Research Reagents & Tools

According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. Chance of survival is greater if tumour is diagnosed when it’s still confined to the organ of origin (stage I). Survival rates decline when tumours are getting larger and spreading regionally (stages II, III) or even distantly (stage IV). For example, 93% of colon cancer patients are alive five years after the disease is diagnosed, but this number drops to only 11% if the cancer is diagnosed late and has spread to other organs. Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) are cancer cells shed from primary tumours into the bloodstream. They can be considered as an indicator of the presence of tumours during early cancer stage. However, the blood-based or liquid biopsy detection of cancer has always been challenging due to the heterogeneity and small size of CTCs. There is an urgent clinical demand for a more efficient cancer-detecting method.  Our technology offers early cancer detection for patients, tracking cancer metastasis, cancer relapse, and giving prognostic information by making use of our patented nanoparticles for CTC catching. This technology enables surgeons to identify the cancer cells location precisely and navigate the whole isolation process in real-time under magnetic manipulation. Besides, combining our technology with the current commercially available CTC detection kit, the sensitivity of cancer detection could be significantly improved by 20 folds when compared with the existing technology.  A regular CTCs screening can be performed using only a few blood samples (7.5 mL). Some commercially available CTCs detection methods like CellSearch and AdnaTest have limitations and their sensitivity is only up to 70%. Besides, the captured CTCs cannot be further analysed due to the damage to CTCs during assay process.  In contrast, our unique technology captures most of CTCs, isolating different CTCs without relying on cancer markers expression. Identification and quantification of CTCs can also be achieved. Furthermore, without damaging the CTCs during the isolation process, the CTCs isolated could be used in single cell analysis and cell culture for further investigation. Accounting for the benefits of CTC screening, it offers a rapid evaluation of post-surgical and therapeutic drug efficacy. Other than early cancer detection, it plays a monitoring role in drug resistance, cancer relapse and metastasis. Most importantly, it can be performed regularly in a non-invasive way. The screening outcome will be formatted into a customized report, providing full analytic results and representative cell images. Our technology provides an easy and accurate means of early detection. It is beneficial to cancer patients, cancer survivors and people who are at high risk of suffering cancers for monitoring their health conditions. It can be used with other cancer detecting tools (e.g. iFISH) to improve the sensitivity and specificity of detection. It could make a valuable contribution to early cancer diagnosis, monitoring cancer status and relapse, and treatment efficiency evaluation. Early cancer screening using this technology can be introduced into routine body check-ups. In particular for the individuals with a family history of cancer. We are actively seeking potential collaborations with hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres, where people of interest could acquire CTC screening. It is a non-invasive and fast way for early cancer detection. People can benefit from early cancer screening when this technology is used in routine clinical practice. Detecting cancer early can effectively reduce the mortality associated with cancer. Cancer diagnosed at a late-stage may result in lower survival, potentially greater morbidity and higher costs of treatment.  cancer, cancer detection, Circulating Tumour Cells, CTC, iFISH Materials, Nano Materials, Healthcare, Diagnostics, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics, Life Sciences, Biotech Research Reagents & Tools

As an increase in people’s awareness of health, traditional Chinese medicine becomes more and more popular. Among many of the Chinese medicines, Tiepi Shihu (i.e. one of the types of Dendrobium) and Cordyceps sinensis are two of the most expensive products. Dendrobium is one of the largest genera in the plant family Orchidaceae, and more than 1,100 species of Dendrobium have been identified. Among them, Tiepi Shihu is traditionally recognised as the best Shihu for tonic purposes, such as nourishing the stomach, protecting the throat and eyes. The uncharacteristic appearance and high price of Tiepi Shihu could lead to the occurrence of adulterants, confusion of species and counterfeits. Therefore, authentication and quality analysis of Tiepi Shihu is crucial for ensuring safety and efficacy. One of the conventional authentication methods greatly depends on the experience of botanical experts and subjective judgement; and the other is based on DNA bio-coding, which is very expensive and time-consuming. These existing methodologies are extremely intricate, difficult and time-consuming, and therefore they are not suitable for routine quality control. This patented technology aims to target some unique polysaccharide markers which can be successfully applied to the authentication of Tiepi Shihu and Cordyceps products. We have identified that only Tiepi Shihu or Cordyceps sample shows its unique peak in the high molecular size range by using high-performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC). Apart from authentication, this method can assess the herb’s quality by distinguishing the quantity of the polysaccharide.   The key of this technology is to provide a low cost, efficient, stable and convenient tool with reduced uncertainties in the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Dendrobium officinale. The technology is now being adopted by the industry for both qualitative and quantitative authentication of herbal products. The technology has been successfully applied to the authentication of Cordyceps and extended to other products such as edible bird’s nest and Ejiao. This technology provides a new detection method with the following advantages: High specificity: It can accurately distinguish the genuine product from other varieties. Quick detection: It only takes about one hour for detection. The larger the sample size, the shorter the average measurement time for each sample. High-throughput detection can be achieved, and it is suitable for large-scale detection by enterprises. Low cost: The detection process is simple, and no other reagents are needed. Owing to the high sensitivity, tens of milligrams of samples are adequate for the detection. This greatly reduces the detection cost of precious Chinese medicines. The invention is based on the polysaccharide marker authentication and can be successfully applied to the authentication of expensive Chinese medicine such as Tiepi Shihu and Cordyceps samples. Currently, this is being adopted by the industry for both qualitative and quantitative authentication of these expensive Chinese medicines. A customer base platform is currently being developed to provide more services for authentication of more different types of expensive Chinese medicines such as edible bird’s nest and Ejiao. The annual output of Tiepi Shihu and Cordyceps in China have reached 27,000 tons and 100 tons respectively. The market sales of Cordyceps has reached 41.6 billion RMB in 2017. So, the demand is huge. It facilitates the upgrading of the traditional Chinese medicine industry with the support of innovative technologies and helps to boost consumer confidence in the long run. authentication, biomarker, Chinese Medicine, herbs, plants, quality control, Dendrobium, Cordyceps, Tiepi Shihu, edible bird’s nest, Ejiao, polysaccharide Foods, Quality & Safety