Latest news with #UniversityOfTokyo
Japan Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Japanese universities urged to open doors to students blocked from Harvard
Japan's education ministry has asked universities nationwide to consider accepting or supporting students who may no longer be able to study in the U.S. as President Donald Trump moves to block Harvard University from enrolling international students. Universities on Tuesday were also asked to report within a week measures they could take for both Japanese and non-Japanese students who are affected by the Trump administration's push against foreign enrollments at Harvard. According to the ministry, there are 110 students and 150 researchers from Japan currently at Harvard. Combined with those at other universities, there are about 16,000 Japanese students in the U.S. International students number 6,800 at Harvard, or 27% of its total enrollment. 'The U.S. is the biggest destination for Japanese students studying abroad,' education minister Toshiko Abe told reporters Tuesday. 'We are committed to ensuring, in collaboration with related agencies, that motivated and talented young people can continue their studies.' A list of support measures for students will be announced on the website of the ministry-affiliated Japan Student Services Organization in the near future, officials said. Non-Japanese students may also be included in the support measures, but the decision on whom to accept is up to each recipient institution, they added. Some universities have already begun making preparations. The University of Tokyo, which accepted about 20 Ukrainian students fleeing war in 2022, is planning "to assist talented students whose studies have been disrupted by external factors, whether or not their home institution is Harvard University," Kaori Hayashi, executive vice president in charge of international affairs and diversity at UTokyo, wrote in an email. The initiative will be open to students regardless of nationality, she added. The students would not be enrolled as degree-seeking students but will be issued academic transcripts so that credits taken at the university can be recognized at other institutions in the future, the university said, noting that details of the program, including the start date, scale and duration are still being worked out. Nagoya University said it is committed to accepting non-degree seeking students, regardless of nationality. The officials added they are also considering accepting degree-seeking students, though much is still under discussion. "However, as with other Japanese universities, Nagoya University has strict quotas on the number of undergraduate students who can be admitted to degree-seeking programs," the university said in a statement. "If the quotas can be adjusted, we are hoping to contribute more." The fates of Harvard's international students remain unclear. The Trump administration has told Harvard that the students must transfer to another institution or lose their legal status, on the grounds that the university is fostering antisemitism on campus. Harvard has filed a legal challenge against the U.S. government over the move, and a district court has preliminarily ruled in its favor. A hearing has been set for Thursday to determine whether the temporary order should be extended. Ryo Hotta, a Japanese pediatric surgeon and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said Trump's move has put the fate of a Japanese medical student who was planning to join his lab in the summer in limbo. 'The visa application process has suddenly come to a halt, so we are currently watching the situation,' Hotta said, adding that he is worried the move may not be limited to Harvard. 'It could have a domino effect on other universities.' Hotta has a green card and will not be affected by the visa ban. Worries of Trump's move against Harvard spreading may not be unfounded. Politico reported Tuesday that the Trump administration is considering vetting the social media accounts of foreign students applying to study in the U.S., and, as part of that, is ordering U.S. embassies and consular sections to pause scheduling new interviews for student visa applications. When asked about the Politico report, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters Wednesday that Japan will "aim to continue close communication with the U.S. to grasp the situation and act appropriately.' Hiroshi Ota, a professor and international education expert at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo who spent a year at Harvard as a visiting scholar until last year, said he is more worried about students who plan to go to the U.S. than those who are already there since the visa application process for the new school year will get into full swing in June. While thousands of U.S. student visas were initially terminated earlier this year, the Trump administration announced in April that it would restore their statuses as the number of lawsuits filed by students against the policy surged, Ota said. To challenge a case where an interview for a new visa is suspended would be quite difficult, he added. 'This is no longer just about Harvard,' he said. On the education ministry's call for universities to accept students from the U.S., Ota said Japan should not rush into anything and instead work to create a framework that will allow such students to pursue a degree in Japan, if they wish to do so. Gabriele Ninivaggi contributed to this report.
NHK
20-05-2025
- Science
- NHK
Japan researchers use new method to analyze extreme weather and global warming
Researchers in Japan are placing great hope in the country's first organization to analyze the impact of global warming on extreme weather exclusively through a method called "event attribution." Scientists taking part in the newly launched Weather Attribution Center Japan, mainly from the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, held a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. By using the event attribution method, they say they can simulate both the current Earth influenced by historical global warming and a hypothetical Earth without warming. They say this enables them to assess the extent of human-induced climate change that affects extreme weather such as record-level heat and rain. The center cited an example that the probability of the occurrence of the severe heat wave that hit Japan in July last year was 21 percent. But it said the percentage was nearly zero in a hypothetical environment without global warming. The center plans to use the method to analyze weather conditions in Japan. It says it can analyze the impact of global warming on a specific weather event within a few days of its occurrence, and will publicize the findings on its website. Such analysis would take one to two months with conventional methodology. The researchers expressed hope that the quick sharing of information will help enhance public interest in tackling global warming, as people's memory would still be fresh. They say they will focus on heat waves this fiscal year. They also plan to begin releasing their analysis on heavy rain next year. Associate Professor Imada Yukiko of the University of Tokyo said she wants to help people associate extreme weather with climate change by sharing the information in a way that ordinary people can easily understand. She added she hopes people will become personally aware of the risk of climate change.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
AI breakthrough allows doctors to 'see' dangerous blood clots forming
AI technology could be used to detect potentially deadly blood clots before they strike. That's according to scientists at the University of Tokyo, who say they have created a non-invasive way to observe clotting activity in blood as it occurs. The new artificial intelligence tool uses a powerful microscope to monitor platelets in real time, the researchers shared in a press release from the university. What Is Artificial Intelligence (Ai)? Platelets, which are tiny blood cells that help form clots to stop bleeding, play a "crucial role" in heart disease, particularly coronary artery disease, according to Dr. Kazutoshi Hirose, lead author of the study. If the platelet count is too high, it can increase the risk of blood clots. Read On The Fox News App To prevent dangerous clots, patients with coronary artery disease are usually treated with anti-platelet drugs. "However, it's still challenging to accurately evaluate how well these drugs are working in each individual, which makes monitoring platelet activity an important goal for both doctors and researchers," Hirose said in the press release. Traditional methods of monitoring platelet activity often rely on indirect measurements or invasive procedures. With the AI tool, a high-powered microscope works like a "super-high-speed camera that takes sharp pictures of blood cells in flow," said Yuqi Zhou, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Tokyo, in the release. Artificial Intelligence Transforms Patient Care And Reduces Burnout, Physician Says "Just like traffic cameras capture every car on the road, our microscope captures thousands of images of blood cells in motion every second," he said. "We then use artificial intelligence to analyze those images." The AI can distinguish between a single platelet ("like one car"), a clump of platelets ("like a traffic jam"), or even a white blood cell tagging along ("like a police car caught in the jam"), Zhou described. "This technology stands out because it allows doctors to directly observe platelets in the bloodstream and measure how they interact and form clumps in real time," said Keisuke Goda, a professor at The University of Tokyo's chemistry department, in the release. "Our studies have shown it to be highly effective in patients with coronary artery disease, the most common cause of heart attacks and one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and the world," he added. When the researchers tested the technique on over 200 patients, they found that people with more serious heart problems had more clumping in their blood. A blood sample taken from a patient's arm and tested with the tool resulted in nearly the same results as blood taken directly from the heart's arteries, they noted. Harvey Castro, a Texas-based emergency physician and AI expert, described the implications as significant for patient care. "Today, we rely on indirect lab markers or invasive cath-lab blood draws to judge clot risk," Castro, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. "This technology turns an ordinary venous draw into live telemetry of platelet behavior, giving answers in seconds rather than hours." These advancements have the potential to change the standard of care for patients with coronary heart disease, according to the researchers. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter "Typically, if doctors want to understand what's happening in the arteries, especially the coronary arteries, they need to do invasive procedures, like inserting a catheter through the wrist or groin to collect blood," said Hirose. "What we found is that just taking a regular blood sample from a vein in the arm can still provide meaningful information about platelet activity in the arteries." For more Health articles, visit Goda agreed that the tool could enable safer, more personalized treatments for heart disease patients. "Right now, doctors often give blood-thinning drugs and hope they are working," he said. "With this method, they could actually see if the treatment is working in each patient." Castro cautioned that the technology is not yet ready for widespread use. "The microscope is cutting-edge research gear, not yet a bedside device," he told Fox News Digital. "We need miniaturization and cost drops before every ER can use it." Looking ahead, after further research, Castro envisions that this innovation could change point-of-care decision-making for patients. "Five years from now, I can imagine a point-of-care analyzer that lets me adjust antiplatelet drugs and how I titrate oxygen quickly and safely for the patient in front of me," he article source: AI breakthrough allows doctors to 'see' dangerous blood clots forming
Fox News
18-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
AI breakthrough allows doctors to 'see' dangerous blood clots forming
AI technology could be used to detect potentially deadly blood clots before they strike. That's according to scientists at the University of Tokyo, who say they have created a non-invasive way to observe clotting activity in blood as it occurs. The new artificial intelligence tool uses a powerful microscope to monitor platelets in real time, the researchers shared in a press release from the university. Platelets, which are tiny blood cells that help form clots to stop bleeding, play a "crucial role" in heart disease, particularly coronary artery disease, according to Dr. Kazutoshi Hirose, lead author of the study. If the platelet count is too high, it can increase the risk of blood clots. To prevent dangerous clots, patients with coronary artery disease are usually treated with anti-platelet drugs. "However, it's still challenging to accurately evaluate how well these drugs are working in each individual, which makes monitoring platelet activity an important goal for both doctors and researchers," Hirose said in the press release. Traditional methods of monitoring platelet activity often rely on indirect measurements or invasive procedures. With the AI tool, a high-powered microscope works like a "super-high-speed camera that takes sharp pictures of blood cells in flow," said Yuqi Zhou, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Tokyo, in the release. "Just like traffic cameras capture every car on the road, our microscope captures thousands of images of blood cells in motion every second," he said. "We then use artificial intelligence to analyze those images." The AI can distinguish between a single platelet ("like one car"), a clump of platelets ("like a traffic jam"), or even a white blood cell tagging along ("like a police car caught in the jam"), Zhou described. "Right now, doctors often give blood-thinning drugs and hope they are working. With this method, they could actually see if the treatment is working." "This technology stands out because it allows doctors to directly observe platelets in the bloodstream and measure how they interact and form clumps in real time," said Keisuke Goda, a professor at The University of Tokyo's chemistry department, in the release. "Our studies have shown it to be highly effective in patients with coronary artery disease, the most common cause of heart attacks and one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and the world," he added. When the researchers tested the technique on over 200 patients, they found that people with more serious heart problems had more clumping in their blood. A blood sample taken from a patient's arm and tested with the tool resulted in nearly the same results as blood taken directly from the heart's arteries, they noted. Harvey Castro, a Texas-based emergency physician and AI expert, described the implications as significant for patient care. "Today, we rely on indirect lab markers or invasive cath-lab blood draws to judge clot risk," Castro, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. "This technology turns an ordinary venous draw into live telemetry of platelet behavior, giving answers in seconds rather than hours." These advancements have the potential to change the standard of care for patients with coronary heart disease, according to the researchers. "Typically, if doctors want to understand what's happening in the arteries, especially the coronary arteries, they need to do invasive procedures, like inserting a catheter through the wrist or groin to collect blood," said Hirose. "What we found is that just taking a regular blood sample from a vein in the arm can still provide meaningful information about platelet activity in the arteries." For more Health articles, visit Goda agreed that the tool could enable safer, more personalized treatments for heart disease patients. "Right now, doctors often give blood-thinning drugs and hope they are working," he said. "With this method, they could actually see if the treatment is working in each patient." Castro cautioned that the technology is not yet ready for widespread use. "The microscope is cutting-edge research gear, not yet a bedside device," he told Fox News Digital. "We need miniaturization and cost drops before every ER can use it." Looking ahead, after further research, Castro envisions that this innovation could change point-of-care decision-making for patients. "Five years from now, I can imagine a point-of-care analyzer that lets me adjust antiplatelet drugs and how I titrate oxygen quickly and safely for the patient in front of me," he said.
NHK
15-05-2025
- Health
- NHK
Scientists examine wild bats in Vietnam to prepare for future pandemic
A team from the University of Tokyo has begun a survey of wild bats in Vietnam to look for a virus with the potential to cause another pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have been caused by a virus that jumped from a wild animal to humans. Health experts have warned that another previously unknown virus could spread from wild animals to humans. A research team at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science plans to take samples in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Malaysia. On Monday, the group started work in a cave in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai, targeting a particular species of wild bat known to host COVID-19 and other viruses. The survey is being conducted with Japan's Nagasaki University and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Samples taken from the bats are being analyzed at a laboratory in Vietnam to see what kinds of pathogen they contain and whether any of them may be infectious to humans. The team hopes the data could be used to develop vaccines or treatments. Professor Sato Kei, the head of the project team, says identifying and analyzing previously unknown high-risk viruses from wild animals will go a long way toward preparing for a future pandemic.
