Iran telecoms satellite Nahid-2 goes into space on Russian launcher, state media says
The locally made satellite was successfully launched from a cosmodrome in Russia, the media said.
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Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Straits Times
Four astronauts home from space station after successful splashdown
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splash down after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station. WASHINGTON - An international crew of four astronauts is back home on Earth on Aug 9 after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station, returning safely in a SpaceX capsule. The spacecraft carrying US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splashed down off California's coast at 8.44am local time (11.34pm in Singapore). Their return marks the end of the 10th crew rotation mission to the space station under Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry. The Dragon capsule of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company detached from the International Space Station (ISS) at 2215 GMT on Aug 8 (6.15am on Aug 9 in Singapore). The capsule's dizzying, 17-hour drop back down to Earth was slowed when it re-entered the atmosphere, then further reined in by the deployment of huge parachutes. After the capsule splashed down, it was recovered by a SpaceX ship and hoisted aboard. Only then were the astronauts able to breathe Earth's air again, for the first time in months. The astronaut team, known as Crew-10, conducted numerous scientific experiments during their time on the space station, including studying plant growth and how cells react to gravity. Their launch into space in March allowed two US astronauts to return home after being unexpectedly stuck onboard the space station for nine months. When they launched in June 2024, Mr Butch Wilmore and Ms Suni Williams were only supposed to spend eight days in space on a test of the Boeing Starliner's first crewed flight. However, the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly back, leaving them stranded in space. Nasa announced this week that Mr Wilmore has decided to retire after 25 years of service at the US space agency. Last week, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six-month mission.
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Straits Times
Locally developed VR tool can detect pre-dementia with almost 90% accuracy
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Housewife Goh Ai Lian trying out virtual reality based cognitive screening tool Cavire-2, at Eunos Polyclinic on Aug 5. SINGAPORE - The immersive environments enabled by virtual reality (VR) have made the technology great for gaming and training. Now, a locally developed VR application can be used to identify which seniors have mild cognitive impairment, or pre-dementia, with almost 90 per cent accuracy. This is according to a study of the technology's effectiveness in primary care settings by SingHealth Polyclinics. The tool, known as Cognitive Assessment by VIrtual REality (Cavire-2), is designed to assess six cognitive functions – memory, attention, language, perceptual-motor function, social cognition, and executive function – through 13 interactive scenarios involving daily living tasks. Set in virtual environments of everyday places such as a Housing Board flat and a supermarket, it requires users to perform daily tasks such as calculating the price of fruits and choosing bank notes of various denominations to pay for groceries, all while a baby is crying in the background to assess their ability to focus. In the assessment of social cognition – referring to the mental processes involved in how people perceive and respond to people and situations around them – users are tested on their responses to situations such as witnessing a birthday party or a traffic accident. Starting in 2020, primary care researchers from SingHealth Polyclinics worked with local VR software firm FXMedia to develop Cavire-2. The study found that Cavire-2 is able to reliably distinguish between cognitively healthy individuals and those with mild cognitive impairment, with 88.9 per cent accuracy. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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Conventional methods of assessing cognition include the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the mini mental state examination. These are questionnaires typically conducted using pen and paper, testing areas such as attention and memory. But these methods lack 'ecological validity', a term which refers to how the results can be applied in real-life settings, said Clinical Associate Professor Tan Ngiap Chuan, director of research at SingHealth Polyclinics. 'We do not know how you actually perform your day-to-day activities. This is the critical gap that we try to address through the use of virtual reality technology,' said Prof Tan, who is also director of SingHealth Polyclinic's Primary Care Research Institute. SingHealth Polyclinics' research officer Lim Jie En noted that Cavire-2 is tailored to reflect familiar situations in Singapore's context. 'This allows us to assess cognitive function in a way that's both culturally relevant and closely aligned with a person's ability to manage daily life,' said Mr Lim. There are plans to introduce Cavire-2 at SingHealth Polyclinics, though a timeline for its rollout has not been set. Detecting cognitive impairment is especially important given Singapore's rapidly ageing population, with one in four people will be aged 65 and older by 2030 , Prof Tan told reporters at a press conference on Aug 5. He noted that about one in eight people here has mild cognitive impairment, between 10 and 18 per cent of whom will develop Alzheimer's disease – the main cause of dementia – within a year. 'While there is currently no cure for dementia, leveraging technologies and AI to detect early cognitive changes enable timely interventions that may help slow disease progression and preserve quality of life,' said Prof Tan. Current dementia interventions include drugs as well as brain stimulating activities such as memory games and physical exercise. While the use of other VR tools to assess cognitive impairment has been studied, these have been limited in that they have not been able to assess all six cognitive domains and their use has not been tested in primary care settings, he added. To test the effectiveness of Cavire-2 as a cognitive assessment tool, a study involving 280 people of different races, aged between 55 and 84, was conducted at Eunos Polyclinic between August 2023 and January 2024. Blind tests – where researchers were unaware of the participants' cognitive conditions – were conducted to minimise potential bias, with each participant completing both the Cavire-2 as well as the standard MoCA assessment. To evaluate the reliability of Cavire-2 in assessing cognition, 100 participants returned to complete the VR assessment a second time. The results demonstrated the tool's reliability, yielding consistent results after repeated tests. Noting that the study found that age and educational background also influenced outcomes, Prof Tan said this could point to the need for greater customisation in such cognitive assessments. Housewife Goh Ai Lian, 61, who was one of the participants in the study, said she was 'hesitant to take the test initially because I was afraid it might diagnose me with early-stage dementia'. (From left) FXMedia CEO Mark Wong, SingHealth Polyclinics research officer Lim Jie En, Clinical Associate Professor Tan Ngiap Chuan, and housewife Madam Goh Ai Lian, wearing the Cavire-2. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO After undergoing the Cavire-2 assessment, she was found not to have mild cognitive impairment. Nonetheless, Madam Goh described the tool as taking a 'respectful and welcoming approach' to detecting dementia. The next phase of Cavire-2's development is to test its effectiveness in charting the effectiveness of any interventions to delay the onset of dementia in those with mild cognitive impairment. A panel of healthcare professionals, including neurologists and family physicians, will also be reviewing Cavire-2's content, such as its scenarios, to assess its effectiveness.
Straits Times
01-08-2025
- Straits Times
SpaceX launches joint astronaut crew to ISS in NASA's Crew-11 mission
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox WASHINGTON - An international crew of four astronauts launched toward the International Space Station from Florida on Friday aboard a SpaceX rocket, embarking on a routine NASA mission that could be the first of many to last a couple months longer than usual. The four-person crew - two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and Japanese astronaut - boarded SpaceX's Dragon capsule sitting atop its Falcon 9 rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and beat gloomy weather to blast off at 11:43 a.m. ET (1543 GMT). After a roughly 16 hour flight, they will arrive at the ISS at around 3 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday. While normal crew rotation missions last roughly six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months, intended to better align U.S. mission schedules with Russia's missions, NASA said. Over the next few months, NASA officials will monitor the health of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which remains docked to the ISS, before committing the mission to a full eight months. Thursday's mission, called Crew-11, includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. A previous attempt to launch on Thursday was scratched at the last minute because of bad weather. A delegation of senior Russian space officials, including the head of Russia's space agency, Dmitry Bakanov, was in Florida for the launch attempt on Thursday, but it was unclear whether they stayed in town for Friday's launch. Their visit on Thursday included the first face-to-face meeting between the heads of NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, since 2018. Roscosmos said Bakanov and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy discussed continued ISS operations and cooperation on the moon. The space cooperation is a bright spot in otherwise largely frosty U.S.-Russia relations since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, apart from ISS cooperation, Russia's invasion isolated Moscow's space program from the West and foiled plans to cooperate on NASA's Artemis moon program. Russia opted to partner on China's moon program, which rivals Artemis. No new commitments on any space programs were made during the brief meeting between Bakanov and Duffy, a person familiar with the discussion said. REUTERS
