Top News of Last Week with ANA
Azad News Agency (ANA) published a number of scientific and technological news during the past week whose top ones are as follows:
Iranian Knowledge-Based Companies Sets Up Pavilion in Chinese Expo
Iran's Innovation and Prosperity Fund has set up a pavilion for the Iranian knowledge-based companies that have taken part at the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE).
According to a report by the Iran Innovation and Prosperity Fund, the Iranian knowledge-based firms is planning to display their products and capabilities at the Chinese exhibition.
The 6th CIIE has kicked off in Shanghai on November 5th and will end on November 10th.
Seven knowledge-based companies from Iran have taken part in the CIIE.
The report by the Iranian fund went on to stress that one of the programs of the Fund is to help the development of the export market of knowledge-based companies with supporting their presence in permanent foreign exhibitions and also through securing their participation in prestigious international exhibitions in two ways of supporting their independent presence or setting up a pavilion for them.
Knowledge-Based Company in Iran Locally Produces BLDC Servo Motor
Researchers at an Iranian knowledge-based company have successfully produced brushless DC electric motor (BLDC) for the first time in the country for uses at airports.
A knowledge-based firm that is a member of Pardis Technology Park has released BLDC servo motor as a mechanical airport scanning arm.
A servo motor is a rotary or linear actuator that can accurately control angle or linear movement, speed and acceleration.
Mohsen Modarres, managing director of this Iranian knowledge-based company pointed to the uses of servo motors, and said, “This actuator is used in various industries that require precise movement of mechanical arms, including robotics, automotive, and medical industries.”
“In this company, we have been operating in the design and production of electronic and mechatronic equipment at Pardis Technology Park for many years, and we have produced and marketed various products in this field, among which we can mention the design and manufacture of BLDC servo motors,” he added.
Moddares said that the BLDC servo motor is used for airport scanning, adding, “Servo motors have accurate and stable movement in a small space and power transmission is done directly by connecting the mechanical arm to the motor.”
Iran Launches First Innovation Center to Export Agricultural Products
The head of the center for management of large-scale and driver projects of the Iranian Vice-Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy announced the launch of the first innovation center for the exports of agricultural products.
“One of the activists in the field of agriculture in Zanjan province (Northern Iran), who has succeeded in exports to Russia, has been able to create an innovation center for the exports of agricultural products (APEIC) in this province,” Meysam Farajollahi said.
“Three events were held in the field of agriculture in this province, and during our trip to Zanjan, we were able to participate in the third event of this center, named Zeytoun, which was dedicated to the exports of olives,” he added.
“During Zeytoun event, 60 plans were presented by the students of Zanjan University and Islamic Azad University and they were assessed. 12 projects were chosen among the 60 plans and the Vice-Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy has promised to support them on the condition of purchase guarantee by the exporting company. As a result of these events, an export-based innovation center was established in the field of agriculture,” Farajollahi said.
Iran, Russia Officials Discuss Expanding Cooperation on Auto-Making, Aviation, Space Industries
On a visit to Russia, Iranian Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi held a meeting with the Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
In the meeting, Firouzabadi and Manturov exchanged views on the fields of cooperation between the two countries in various fields of technology.
Kazem Jalali, Iran's ambassador to Moscow and Andrei Fursenko, an Aide to the President of the Russian Federation were also attending the meeting, where Manturov stressed the need for expanding bilateral cooperation and pointed to automotive industry, auto parts and spare parts, aircraft manufacturing, medicine and medical equipment as the areas of interest for cooperation between the two countries.
Dehghani Firouzabadi, for his part, assessed Russia as a prominent country in various fields and considered the oppressive sanctions as laying the ground for Iran's progress, especially in the technology and knowledge-based areas.
Iranian Knowledge-Based Company Domestically Produces Optical Fiber Joints
Researchers at a knowledge-based firm in Iran’s Alborze Province have produced optical fiber joints for connecting optical fibers underground to meet the country’s domestic needs.
According to a report by the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Hossein Jardakani, managing director of the knowledge-based company located in Payam Special Economic Zone in Alborze Province near Karaj city told reporters that the research field of this company is the design and manufacturing of passive fiber optic equipment for telecommunication uses.
“From 2008 to 2012, all the equipment made in this company used to be imported from countries like Korea, the USA and China. But later we managed to produce these products in this company,” he added.
He said that as many as 15 products are produced in their knowledge-based company, adding, “Our company has been located in Payam Special Economic Zone since 2017 and the raw materials needed for our products are purchased from Tabriz, Golpayegan and Arak petrochemical copanies.”
“Optical fiber cables are 4 kilometers long and it is not possible to produce longer cables than that. Therefore, for telecommunication applications, it is vital to connect them through optical fiber joints that we produced in this company,” he went on to say.
Iranian Knowledge-Based Company Produced Fireproof Aluminum Facade Composites
An Iranian knowledge-based company has supplied aluminum facade composites to the market to tackle the challenge of fire spread in buildings.
The flammability of the facade of the building is a challenge during a fire, because it causes the fire to spread to other floors. For that, an Iranian knowledge-based firm has offered facade composite panels with aluminum sinusoidal layers which does not catch fire.”
Mehdi Esmailizadeh, one of the managers of the Iranian knowledge-based company told local media that “Previously, we were using composite in the middle layer of this product, but one of the problems with these facade composite panels is their flammability; therefore, we use aluminum to solve this problem.”
“Being lightweight and fast installation compared to stone and ceramic and other data-x-items are among the other advantages of this facade composite,” he added.
“The difference between these panels and previous ones is that the middle layer of the composite panels was made of polyethylene which is flammable. Currently we have two production lines for this product,” Esmaeilizadeh added.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis System with 98% Accuracy Commercialized in Iran
An Iranian student of artificial intelligence at the University of Tehran designed and produced a breast cancer diagnosis system with a high accuracy of over 98%.
The system was designed by Mehdi Homsian, a PhD student in artificial intelligence and soft computing at Kish International Campus of the University of Tehran, which has shown a diagnosis accuracy of more than 98% in a pilot run on 7,000 patients.
“This software has been designed to increase the accuracy of diagnosis and higher productivity for breast cancer patients. This algorithm has been implemented on nearly 7,000 cancer patients in Iran as a pilot and showed 98.6% accuracy,” said Homsian.
He noted that the method can be applied for diagnosis of breast cancer by using the diagnostic tool of mammography image.
“Reduction in the radiologist's eye fatigue due to working with fully colored images, increasing the accuracy of radiologist due to the color spectrum based on the amount of density in the image, increasing the accuracy in detecting microcalcifications due to the obvious color difference in the mammography image, and increasing the accuracy in diagnosing tumors are among features of the system,” Homsian said.
Iran’s Non-Oil Exports Hit 28.3 Billion Dollars in 7 Months
Head of Iran Customs Administration Mohammad Rezvanifar announced that the country’s non-oil exports has reached $28.3bln in the first 7 months of the current Persian calendar year (started on March 21).
Iran exported 79.5 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $28.3 billion during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year, Mohammad Rezvanifar said.
He added that the 7-month non-oil exports indicate 29.32 percent rise in weight, and less than one percent drop in value, year on year.
The deputy Iranian finance minister further said that 20.9 million tons of non-oil goods worth $36 billion were imported to the country during the seven-month period of this year, with 6.21 percent growth in weight, and 12.61 percent rise in value, as compared to the same period last year.
He added that the country’s seven-month non-oil trade stands at 100.4 million tons worth $64.4 billion, with 23.71 percent rise in weight, and 6.2 percent increase in value, year on year.
Rezvanifar termed liquefied natural gas, liquefied propane and liquefied butane the main exported goods, saying that China, Iraq, the UAE, Turkey and India were the main destinations of Iran's non-oil exports during the first seven months of the present year.
Iranian researchers at Shahid Beheshti University succeeded in designing an all-optical switch based on atomic-plasmonic resonant coupled system with application in long-range communication networks.
“What has been proposed in this research is the combination of atomic and plasmonic resonance phenomena to reduce costs and increase productivity,” said Maliheh Ranjbaran, the main researcher of the project.
“This combination creates new capabilities in the engineering of spectral properties of materials,” she added.
Noting that all-electric switches like transistors are the basis of the structure of digital circuits, Ranjbaran said, “Since in today world, long-range communications are based on optical fibers, the processes of converting optical signals into electrical signals and vice versa are essential when receiving and sending information.”
“Due to the need of this industry to highly rapid and numerous conversion processes, there is a need to use all-optical tools. All-optical devices have attracted much attention in quantum communication due to their lower cost, higher speed, and smaller dimensions,” she underlined.
Iran-Made Navigation System Facilitates Treatment of Brain Injuries, Tumors for Surgeons
Iranian specialists at a knowledge-based company succeeded in making a surgical navigation system that uses a special tracking system to display the exact position of the surgical tool in the patient's CT scan or MRI images to the surgeon at any moment to perform surgery more precisely and calmly.
“Our company uses advanced technologies for processing and displaying medical images combined with real-time positioning of surgical instruments to perform the surgical processes of brain tumors, sinus and skull base surgeries, brain sampling and spine surgery with high precision and reliability,” said Alireza Ahmadian, the managing director of the knowledge-based company.
Noting that in surgery with navigation, in addition to identifying the exact position of the lesion within the structures of the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord), a safer route for neurosurgery is created, he said, “Surgical navigation is similar to mobile or car GPS, and by using this tracking system, it can show the position of the surgical tool in the patient's CT scan or MRI images to the surgeon at any moment so that the surgeon can have accurate information about the position of his/her tool.”
Iranian Scientists Study Effective Factors in Properties of Hybrid Systems
Iranian researchers took a step towards the development of medical equipment industry and the food packaging industry by studying the effective factors in properties of hybrid systems.
“In this project, first, starch granules were processed by different softeners under special conditions, and the processable material of thermoplastic starch was obtained,” said Zeinab Javidi, a PhD graduate of Amirkabir University of Technology and the manager of the project.
“Then, in order to improve the desired properties, the material was alloyed with poly-caprolactone, and nanoparticles were also used to improve the desired properties. Finally, the desired nanostructure and properties, including electrical properties and shape memory were studied,” she added.
Noting that the remarkable thing in this project is the shape memory property of this system that can be stimulated by moisture, and therefore, this material can be placed as a stent in the human body with limited surgery, Javidi said, “Stimulated by the moisture of the body, it can change into the desired shape and decomposed after the desired time without the need to remove the piece from the body and re-surgery.”
“The result of this project can be used in production of medical equipment and the food packaging industry,” she added.
Iranian Researchers Discover Recombinant Vaccine Formulation for Viral Diseases
A team of researchers at a knowledge-based company in Iran have achieved the formulation of a vaccine based on multi-epitope protein for AIDS and Covid-19 viral diseases, which was patented in the United States.
Dr. Maria Beihaghi, the managing director of the knowledge-based company, located at Ferdowsi University of Mashahd in the Northeastern part of Iran said in an interview with local media that production of biotechnology products, diagnostic kits, smart polymeric drug delivery systems and biotechnology products are the research field of their company and said.
Regarding the biotechnology products of the knowledge-based company, she said, “This product is a recombinant protein based on cytokine genes attached to the CCR7 receptor. This recombinant protein was registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.”
According to the researcher, this recombinant protein is considered a type of vaccine for viral diseases, and it has been patented in the United States under the title "Cytokine-based multi-epitope protein for binding to ccr7-positive cells".
She further said that the cytokine-based multi-epitope protein is used both for early diagnosis of cancer and for vaccine production.
Iranian Knowledge-Based Firm Finds Way to Clean Antiquities without Chemicals
The semi-industrial plasma cleaning machine for antiquities was designed and made for the first time in Iran by the technicians of the knowledge-based ‘Danesh Pouyan Satia’ company.
“We have built a plasma device that produces cold plasma and is used in the food industry, medicine and temperature-sensitive products and materials, including cultural heritage antiques,” said Seyed Iman Hosseini, a member of the Faculty of Physics of Shahroud University of Technology and the managing-director of the knowledge-based company.
Noting that the ancient artifacts with the passage of time are contaminated with various types of pollution and materials whose cleaning by using traditional methods requires the use of acids or chemical corrosive substances which are likely to damage the ancient artifacts, he said, “With the help of plasma technology and the use of oxygen gas plasma, hydrogen plasma, or argon plasma, it is possible to eliminate the surface pollution of ancient monuments without using any chemical substances.”
“Parts like metal, glass, leather products, paper, etc., cannot withstand high temperatures or harsh chemical environments, and in order to remove pollution and clean them and reveal the patterns on ancient works and cultural heritage, we use cold plasma which contains hydrogen, oxygen and argon gases,” Hosseini said.
“Actually, the most important feature of the plasma cleaning device for ancient artifacts is cleaning without the use of chemicals and cleaning at room temperature,” he underlined.
Iran-Made Nano-Based Silk Product Treats Infertility, Anovulation
Iranian researchers at Islamic Azad University succeeded in production of special silk products by using nanotechnology to help treat different diseases, including anovulation (lazy ovary syndrome).
"For the first time in the world, we have used fabric as a medicine and treatment aid for controlling, prevention and treatment of disease. The basis of our products is natural silk which goes through a special and complex production process,” Roqayyeh Habibi, the managing-director of the company stationed at the science and technology park of Gilan province and the electronic incubator center of Islamic Azad University, told ANA on the sidelines of the 14th International Nanotechnology Exhibition in Tehran.
“One of the important features of the product is the treatment of diseases only through skin pores without harming body parts and without using chemical or natural medicine,” she added.
Noting that her company has so far made 32 products for the treatment of various body diseases, Habibi said, “Most of these products are for women's health diseases, specially infertility and anovulation.”
“These products are highly useful for treating ovarian cysts, fibroids, premenstrual syndromes, breast cysts, kidney problems, bladder and digestive diseases, depression, Alzheimer's, etc.,” she stated.
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