NANYANG Technological University in Singapore (NTU) is now no.1 in Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) Asia University Rankings.

The rankings released today show NTU has beaten its local rival, the National University of Singapore, to the top spot, which the latter held last year but has since dropped to 2nd place this time around.

NTU President, Professor Bertil Andersson said this year’s result is proof of NTU’s “fantastic progress” from its 14th spot when the QS Asian rankings first started in 2009.

“The latest rankings are an outstanding achievement and strong endorsement of NTU’s excellent reputation built up over the years, and I wish to thank the entire NTU community for their contributions,” Andersson said in a statement.

No. 1 in Asia: #NTUsg tops the table in latest @QS_Asia University Rankings. pic.twitter.com/gM9nM80G6z

— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) October 16, 2017

The Singaporean school, founded in 1981, also scored the highest marks among regional universities for citations per paper, a metric that measures the impact and quality of scientific work done by the school.

Ben Sowter, QS’ Research Director said: “NTU has improved its standing in the academic and employer reputation indicators, as well as in the “international faculty” metric. Additionally, it has enhanced its research productivity (“papers per faculty” indicator) and impact (“citation per paper” indicator).

This is not the first NTU has bested NUS in global rankings. In QS’ World University Rankings,  released earlier this year, NTU took 11th place while NUS was 15th best worldwide.

The World University Rankings uses a different set of metrics than this Asian rankings. For one, the Asian rankings measures how international the universities in the region are, through the proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students.

SEE ALSO: Overachieving Singapore tops global competitiveness index

To this end, the young NTU brings in more than 2,000 international students each year and aims for at least 8 in 10 undergraduates to have an overseas experience.

“There are ample opportunities for our students to widen their international cultural, academic and cross-learning experience through various global programmes, including spending a semester at one of our 350 exchange partner universities. This enables NTU graduates to gain a global mindset that is vital to career success in today’s dynamic and complex global workplace,” Andersson said.

However, in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2018, the gap between the two rivals are much bigger, spanning 30 spots. NTU was at 52nd spot, while NUS shared the 22nd place with Canada’s University of Toronto.

The city state has consistently performed well in global university rankings. Source: Shutterstock.

Competition aside, Anderson had this to say about Singapore’s performance in the rankings: “Besides celebrating NTU’s success as Asia’s highest-ranked university, Singaporeans should also be very proud that Singapore leads the rest of Asia with two world-class universities.”

SEE ALSO: Forget nasi lemak, Singapore’s best diplomatic tool is its university

“As a small country, Singapore was determined to be at the forefront of research and innovation to punch above its weight when competing with the bigger Asian countries in the knowledge economy. I’m happy that NTU has contributed to this achievement for Singapore,” added Prof Andersson.

Apart from these two Singaporean universities and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the rest of the universities in the rankings’ top 10 is dominated by universities in China and Hong Kong.

This story first appeared on our sister site Study International News.

It’s the season for new smartphone launches, and Chinese tech giant Huawei was the latest to do so, unveiling its Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro smartphones in Munich, Germany on Monday (Oct 16).

At its global launch in Munich, Huawei said its Mate-branded devices, which are aimed at professionals and business users, come equipped with artificial intelligence-related innovations thanks to its Kirin 970 chipset.

The processor has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that allows for in-device machine learning, according to Mr Samuel Huang, marketing director of Huawei’s South Pacific Region Consumer Business Group.

This means the phone will pick up the user’s behaviour over time in areas such as handwriting recognition and Web browsing.

This, the executive said, will offer consumers a better user experience.

Additionally, the NPU will help to improve the battery life of the Mate 10 smartphones. Mr Huang said. Today’s mobile processors are configured with a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), which are not ideal for in-device machine learning, using more processing power for such functions.

By comparison, Huawei’s 970 chipset combines the CPU, GPU and its NPU to optimise processing these functions and it also allows for smarter allocation of computing resources, he said.

This echoes what Mr Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said at the annual IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin last month. He said the Kirin 970 chip’s speed and low power consumption can translate into features that will give its phones an edge over Apple’s iPhone 8 series and Samsung’s top-line smartphones, while the company claimed the chip will help preserve battery life on its phones by up to 50 per cent. 

The processor was designed by the company’s HiSilicon unit and built by contract manufacturers TSMC, making Huawei just one of three manufacturers – Samsung and Apple are the others – that design their own mobile processors.

Other business-centric features include its EMUI Desktop, which allows users to plug their phones into any screen and turn it into a desktop. The difference between other options such as Samsung’s Dex dock, which allows the S8, S8+ and Note8 to connect to a monitor for a PC-like experience, is that the EMUI Desktop allows people to still use their phones when they are connected and working on the screen while the Dex does not, explained Mr Huang. 

Huawei will be bringing to Singapore the 64GB Mate 10 model in Black and Mocha Brown, the 128GB Mate 10 Pro variant in Midnight Blue and Mocha Brown, as well as its collaboration with Porsche – the Mate 10 Porsche with 256GB in Diamond Black.

Mr Huang said pre-orders for the smartphones will take place between Oct 17 and Oct 23, while the official Singapore launch will be on Oct 26. The Mate 10 will have a retail price of S$888, but the pricing details for the other devices will be revealed later on. 

The Mate 10’s launch comes after rival manufacturers such as Google, Apple and Samsung all unveiled their respective flagship devices – in the hopes of catching the end-of-year festive shopping season. 

According to market analyst IDC, Huawei’s global market share rose to 11.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year, making it the third-largest phonemaker behind Samsung and Apple. “Looking ahead, Huawei will still need to successfully penetrate the US market at the carrier level if it wishes to surpass either Apple or Samsung at the top,” it added.

Huawei’s Consumer Business Group revealed in its half-year financial results in July this year that sales revenue was up 36.2 per cent year-on-year to 105.4 billion yuan (S$21.6 billion), while smartphone shipments rose 20.6 per cent year-on-year to 73.01 million units.

SINGAPORE – Asians may develop diabetes even at lower levels of obesity than Caucasians, early findings from one of the largest studies on diabetes here show.

This is because they seem less able to produce enough insulin in response to spikes in blood sugar levels.

The finding means Asians may have to watch their weight, diets and lifestyles more closely, to avoid increasing their risk of Type 2 diabetes, said the study’s principal investigator, Dr Sue-Anne Toh of the National University Hospital.

Insulin helps to regulate blood sugar levels by allowing the body to convert sugar from food to energy or to store it for future use, thus keeping diabetes at bay.

Obesity is seen as a red flag for diabetes because weight gain causes the body to become more resistant to insulin.

Dr Toh shared preliminary results of the Assessing Progression to Type 2 Diabetes (APT-2D) study on Monday (Oct 16) and urged more people of different ethnicities to sign up, in order for results to be more representative and definitive.

^{Mr Alan Phua, 34, found out he was pre-diabetic after going for the APT-2D study. He is even more conscientious after the tests, and has halved his white rice intake. Photo: Cynthia Choo/TODAY}

About 1,300 participants have been recruited so far, out of which about 900 have been screened. This is short of the 2,300 that researchers hope to get by June next year.

The findings of the study was based on 140 participants — half are pre-diabetic while the others have normal blood glucose levels.

Despite the small participant size, Dr Toh said she was surprised by the observations so early on. “The common perception is that Asians are not overweight and we look slim, so we are less prone to diabetes. But the results show that it might not be the case,” she said.

Insulin secretion in the pre-diabetic individuals was 36 per cent lower than in normal individuals, researchers found. This means the pre-diabetics were less able to produce insulin to compensate for spikes in sugar levels.

Other studies show Caucasians are “far more able to compensate for spikes in blood sugar as compared to Asians”, said Dr Toh. A European study that investigated the probability of diabetes in different ethnic groups found 8 per cent of participants of Chinese descent had diabetes — four times their European counterparts. The participants had a body mass index of 23.

Participants in the APT-2D study will be tracked over three-and-a-half years. They undergo an oral glucose tolerance test, where they consume a 75g glucose drink and have their insulin and blood glucose levels taken two hours later. They also undergo tests involving an insulin infusion. After the first visit, a second visit is done within three months, and subsequent trips to the hospital take place at six-month intervals.

Participants must be aged between 30 and 70. They must not have a history of diabetes and other chronic diseases that require long-term medication, or uncontrolled hypertension.

Businessman Alan Phua, 34, was “surprised and slightly depressed” to learn he had pre-diabetes after taking part in the study. He had thought himself to be of “extremely low risk”, given a relatively low body fat percentage of 11 per cent and an active lifestyle.

He started to be more conscious of his diet and health about two years ago due to a family history of diabetes – both his grandmothers died from diabetes complications, while five of his mother’s six siblings have Type 2 diabetes. He is now even more conscientious: “If one day I get careless or lazy and not take care of my lifestyle and diet, Type 2 diabetes is almost a certainty.”

The APT-2D study, which costs S$20 million, is jointly funded by the Ministry of Health and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The team hopes to complete the study by 2021.

Those interested to join may email brite_spot@nuhs.edu.sg or call 8781 6302 or 8781 6303 during office hours.

SINGAPORE: A random sample of 20 toothpastes sold in Singapore have been found safe for use, after a product test commissioned by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) was carried out.

CASE commissioned a test on the toothpastes for two substances, diethylene glycol and fluoride, which could be harmful to people, the consumer interest organisation said in a media release on Monday (Oct 16).

When asked about why tests were done and whether there were reports of toothpastes exceeding safety limits, CASE said it conducts several tests on consumer products every year to ensure quality and safety standards. 

“This year, we decided to look into products that were commonly used or consumed by consumers in their daily lives such as toothpastes,” said CASE’s executive director Loy York Jun. 

The two substances were selected because of the “potential risks they posed for consumers should they be detected and/or exceed the permissible level”.

Severe exposure to diethylene glycol has been associated with renal disorders, according to CASE.

It added that excessive levels of fluoride in toothpastes have been associated with symptoms such as tooth discolouration, especially for children, and the risk of bone fractures.

Under the Association of South-east Asian Nations Cosmetic Directive, diethylene glycol is prohibited as an ingredient in toothpastes, while fluoride content is allowed up to a maximum of 0.15 per cent (when mixed with other fluorine compounds permitted under the directive, total fluoride concentration must not exceed 0.15 per cent).

According to the test results, diethylene glycol was not detected in all 20 toothpaste samples in Singapore, and any fluoride that was detected was within permissible limits. 

The samples were selected using random sampling, and toothpastes were bought from department stores, supermarkets and provision stores.