Nov 30, 2017 - (BusinessDesk) - BioNona, which markets skin treatment creams developed by biochemist and chief executive Iona Weir, says it has gained US Food and Drug Administration approval for its Atopis eczema cream treatment, giving it access to a market worth as much as US$6 billion.
It marks the first such FDA approval for a New Zealand-developed over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical skincare cream and is a culmination of more than 30 years of research and pharmaceutical development by Auckland scientist Weir, whose other projects have included the kiwifruit-based Phloe laxative product produced by Vital Foods Processors, where Weir was chief scientific officer until 2014.
Weir said the US market for OTC eczema creams amounts to about US$2 billion, or one-third of the total market. BioNona plans to sell online via Amazon on its eczema treatments page which only allows FDA-approved products. She said in the US about 50 percent of OTC sales now occur online through approved USFDA outlets such as Amazon.
"I suspect it will be our biggest product, though consumers use the eczema cream and then buy the other products," she said. "So it is more of a lead product that draws consumers in."
The Atopis eczema cream is already for sale but to date has been marketed as Dry Itchy Skin Relief Cream. The FDA approval means they can be re-branded as an eczema treatment. BioNona plans to seek FDA approval for its acne-prone skin care next, Weir said.
According to BioNona's website, Atopis contains myriphytase, a patented novel compound "developed for use in the treatment of eczema, psoriasis and acne." Myriphytaseis is created through a patented process called Peptilization, which "fuses together plant, bacterial and insect components."
The work grew out of Weir's Ph.D. in 1997 on programmed cell death in plants known as apoptosis. Her research showed apoptosis in plants was reversible, unlike in animals, and she was able to extract "critical reactions" in plants that could be put in a cream as a topical application for skin conditions in humans, such as eczema and acne. The extract encourages the body's immune response to attack affected areas and repair damaged cells, she told the International Conference on Clinical and Experimental Dermatology in Chicago last year.
The acne cream also contains the myriphytase extract "but it has gone through a different enzymatic fermentation reaction so that it has the bioactive properties required to treat acne," she said today.
Weir has a holding of about 33 percent in Decima Health, which owns the patents and did the research. Decima, in turn, owns 75 percent of BioNona, which was set up to handle manufacturing and distribution.
The company's chair is Paul Dallimore, who also owns about a third of Decima and was the original angel investor in the business, having been given a sample of the cream by Weir which he tried on a grandchild. Dallimore was the founder of National Property Trust and is chair of the Highgate Group.
Weir said the company hopes to have the eczema cream on sale to US consumers from the start of February next year.
Weir won an international award for her original Ph.D. and was able to continue her research with a grant from the Marsden Fund. A grant from Callaghan Innovation helped fund the double blind placebo controlled clinical trial completed by Southern Clinical Trials Group at the end of 2015.
(BusinessDesk receives funding to help cover the commercialisation of innovation from Callaghan Innovation.)
| A BusinessDesk release || November 29, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - In a manufacturing plant at Dongguan, a nondescript town about an hour outside the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a robot arrives to collect the latest box of Huawei smartphones rolling off a production line writes Mark Jennings for Newsroom.
Stand in the robot’s path and it politely tells you (in Mandarin) to move aside. The robots are busy here – this plant produces 1.3 million smartphones a month; some will likely end up in New Zealand.
Huawei sold 139 million phones last year and ranks third behind Samsung and Apple.
Robots are steadily replacing people in Huawei’s Chinese plants.
“They are more efficient and the quality is better," New Zealand journalists being shown through the plant were told.
According to Huawei, only three phones out of every million fail the rigorous quality control tests.
Humans still have a role - there are 28 of them on each Huawei production line, mainly putting cameras into the phones and testing functionality - but their days are numbered.
Word is that the nearby Foxconn plants (which make smartphones for Apple and Samsung) have 250 people on each production line.
“That’s because people are still cheaper (than the sophisticated robots) for now.”
But, it is clear from the smile on our guide’s face that Huawei doesn’t think the cost difference will last much longer.
Continue here to read the full srticle by Mark Jennings for Newsroom || November 30, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - A major tourist attraction that will include a cable car, toboggan rides, zip wire, as well as a restaurant and event venue on Kilvey Hill in Swansea has taken a step forward. Board directors of New Zealand-based Skyline Enterprises have given the green light for the company to start the detailed design process and begin legal discussions for the attraction the will overlook Swansea Bay.
Representatives from Skyline Enterprises will now work with Swansea Council to move the deal forward and get it approved.
Once an agreement is in place, Skyline Enterprises will start working towards its planning application.
Should the scheme go ahead it will be funded entirely by private money, with no funding required from taxpayers.
Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Major Projects, said: "This is great news for Swansea, for Swansea's tourism industry and for Wales.
"Thanks to a 'Team Swansea' approach and the backing of a number of local businesses who have been supportive of the Skyline proposal, we were able to convey to Skyline Enterprises our enthusiastic support for the scheme during their recent visit.
"This decision is a great vote of confidence in Swansea as a tourist destination and builds on the great work being done through the City Deal and our bid to be the UK's City of Culture in 2021."
Skyline Enterprises already runs two resorts which feature cable car rides and other attractions in New Zealand, as well as luge rides in Canada, South Korea and Singapore.
The cable car attraction set for Swansea would be the company's first outside New Zealand.
Representatives of the company have been to Swansea twice in recent months to check out the potential of Kilvey Hill as a tourism hotspot capable of attracting tens of thousands of visitors a year.
The latest visit included meetings with Swansea Council and major local businesses at the Liberty Stadium to advance Swansea's case for the attraction, which would further build on plans to regenerate the River Tawe corridor.
Cllr Rob Stewart, Swansea Council Leader, said: "Kilvey Hill, standing 193 metres tall, enjoys spectacular views over Swansea Bay, the marina, SA1, the Liberty Stadium and the historic Hafod Morfa Copperworks site.
“It's been an underused resource, and has huge potential to be transformed into a fun visitor destination for local people and hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.
"We were determined to do all we could to help bring this project to Swansea because it would also attract additional investment and benefit local businesses by generating more spending and supply chain opportunities."
Geoff McDonald, Skyline Enterprises chief executive, said: "Skyline Enterprises is very excited about the potential opportunity to partner with the Swansea community to create what we believe will be a significant and vibrant attraction for the area.
“We are encouraged by the enthusiasm and interest in our gondola and luge operation, and look forward to on-going discussions."
The cable car attraction would add to the work Swansea Council and Swansea University are continuing to do to breathe new life into the historic Hafod Morfa Copperworks site.
With support from the Welsh Government, Cadw and European funds, progress on site has included clearing vegetation, stabilising buildings at risk, improving access for visitors, community archaeology fieldwork, new pathways, an audio-visual trail and new information panels.
| A bqlive release || November 30, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - Raw material availability is a cornerstone of the U.S. industrial sector, and clearly vital to its growth. So as positive economic indicators continue to point towards manufacturing gains through 2018, it makes sense that the steel industry continues to experience growth as well. The benefits of which are being felt from Willmar, Minnesota to Conroe, Texas.
West Central Steel in Willmar has entered the final stages of its ninth expansion since transitioning from salvage yard operations in 1968. Officially starting last fall, the company has demolished its previous facilities totaling about 55,000 square feet to make room for a new 85,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. The new structure is scheduled to open in December, allowing for the installation of several pieces of new equipment.
This equipment includes a 30’ wide, 1,100-ton Ursviken press brake built in Sweden for bending steel and a Tanaka 6,000-watt CO2 laser cutter from Japan. A Kinetic plate processor from New Zealand, PythonX steel shaping system from Canada, and two Behringer saws will also need to be installed. These investments will be key to preserving the company’s two-day delivery times.
The company, which focuses on custom-fabricated steel parts utilized by manufacturers across a range of industries, will also be adding as many as 20 new employees to the current workforce of 150.
Falcon Steel America in Conroe also has a connection to the number 150. In announcing its acquisition of a 226,000-square foot facility, the steel engineering and fabricating business will bring 150 new jobs to the Houston suburb. The larger facility and workforce will allow Falcon Steel to more than double its manufacturing capacity for high voltage steel-lattice towers and commercial galvanizing and dulling operations. The company is the only fabricator of high voltage steel-lattice towers in the U.S.
The newly created positions will include quality assurance and quality control inspectors, welders, fitters, machine operators, and truck drivers. Falcon Steel uses only 100 percent U.S. recycled steel in its products.
| A thomasnet release || November 30, 2017 |||
Nov 29, 2017 - Forestry Minister Shane Jones says overseas investment in forestry that brings genuine benefits to New Zealand’s economy and its environment will be welcomed by the Government.
Mr Jones says he is pleased with the inclusion of a Forestry Directive in the new Ministerial Directive Letter issued to the Overseas Investment Office, which sets out the Government’s policy approach to overseas investment in sensitive New Zealand assets.
“The inclusion of a specific directive for forestry recognises the importance of forestry to the New Zealand economy and regional communities,” Mr Jones says.
“As part of the coalition agreement, this Government has committed to an ambitious tree planting programme that will require a partnership between the Crown and the sector itself. High-quality overseas investment can certainly help us achieve this goal.
“Forestry, and the processing of forest products, are significant sources of employment in our regions and we want to build on that to get more people into a sustainable workforce.
“I’ve heard first-hand from the industry the value of good overseas investment and the Forestry Directive recognises there is a role for overseas investors to play. However, we want to encourage value-added wood processing to generate jobs and other benefits for our regions.
“The new directive for forestry directs the Overseas Investment Office to place high importance on increased processing of primary products and the advancement of the Government’s policies when assessing applications for consent.
“It also emphasises that Ministers expect the Overseas Investment Office to impose conditions on consent where appropriate – for example, a requirement for the overseas investor to enter into a supply arrangement with a local processor,” Mr Jones says.
The letter recognises that conditions imposed on forest land may need to be for longer periods given the often long-term nature of these investments.
“Forestry has an important role to play in many of the Government’s priority areas – enhancing regional development, improving water quality, reducing carbon emissions and creating jobs – and I’m looking forward to seeing the sector prosper in the coming years,” Mr Jones says.
| A Beehive release || November 29, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - The vacuum-powered soft robots are reported capable of lifting objects a thousand times their own weight. There have been a number of soft robots inspired by the ancient art of paper folding – origami – recently, including polymer-based microgrippers and the safety-first Twister. Researchers from Harvard and MIT say that robots made of soft materials are often not as strong as their rigid counterparts. This thinking has led to the development of inexpensive artificial muscles that have been designed to give soft robots superpowers.
The artificial muscles have been developed by a team from Wyss Institute at Harvard University and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and use only air or water pressure to assist soft robots in lifting objects up to a thousand times their own weight. And they bend and flex in a less, well, robot-like fashion.
The muscle-like actuator is made up of an inner skeleton, which can be fashioned from a range of materials, including a metal coil or folded plastic, and is surrounded by air or liquid, before being sealed in a plastic or textile outer skin.
Muscle movement is triggered when a vacuum created inside the skin collapses around the skeleton, causing tension in the structure that results in movement. The type of movement is controlled purely by the shape of the skeleton, meaning that system processing and complex control algorithms may be surplus to requirements.
"One of the key aspects of these muscles is that they're programmable, in the sense that designing how the skeleton folds defines how the whole structure moves," explained Shuguang Li, Ph.D, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute and MIT CSAIL. "You essentially get that motion for free, without the need for a control system."A single vacuum source drives this snake-like soft robot with gripper
The researchers have built a number of different soft robots to demonstrate the numerous capabilities and resilience of their creation. They report that the artificial muscles are both lightweight and very powerful, claiming that one 2.6-gram actuator is capable of lifting a 3-kilogram object.
They're cheap and quick to make too. An actuator can be put together using materials that cost less than a dollar in around 10 minutes. And to demonstrate the scalable nature of the development, the researchers have made artificial muscles as small as a few millimeters in size to a meter, without any dip in performance.
The team also considers its innovation to be safer for close contact assistive robotics than other soft robot systems in development.
"Vacuum-based muscles have a lower risk of rupture, failure, and damage, and they don't expand when they're operating, so you can integrate them into closer-fitting robots on the human body," said co-author of the paper Daniel Vogt, M.S.
Potential usage examples include surgical devices, exoskeletons, deep sea manipulators and even architecture that can change its shape or function when needed and large structures that can be sent into space to aid exploration. A water-soluble version has also been developed, opening the door to potential use for ingestible robots.
"Now that we have created actuators with properties similar to natural muscle, we can imagine building almost any robot for almost any task," said Rob Wood Ph.D, Founding Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute.
A paper detailing the research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Article source Wyss Institute and New Atlas where a video can be viewed || November 30, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - A Japanese manufacturer has developed an odourless paint that can be peeled off surfaces, leaving behind no scratches or marks. Called Belay, the paint was developed and manufactured by Washin Chemical Industry – a water-based-paint specialist in Japan. The paint is simply applied with a brush, and gives a varnish-like sheen. Similar to plastic sheets currently on the market, it is designed to protect surfaces from scratches and stains.
But unlike the sheets, the paint can be applied to curved and uneven surfaces, and can be used on a wide range of materials including wood, metal, plastic resin, tile and stone.
"The paint can protect the surfaces of important items and areas such as commercial spaces at restaurants and hotels to household furniture," said the brand.
"Because it can easily be peeled off, if you're bothered by visible stains or scratches, it also reduces the burden of daily maintenance."
In addition to the clear gloss and matt finishes, which maintain the material's natural appearance, Belay has developed a collection of 10 peelable paint colours in collaboration with French designer Pierre Charpin.
The 10 hues, which include black and white, were inspired by colours that have been used in Charpin's previous design works.
Arranged into two collections each made up of six 30 millilitre bottles, the coloured paints can also be used on glass to create window murals.
The Belay brand was launched this week in Tokyo at the IFFT Interior Lifestyle Living trade show. A one-kilogram tin of paint costs 15,000 yen (approximately £100), while the colour collections cost 7,560 yen (£50).
The launch follows the introduction of eco-friendly graphene paint earlier this year by manufacturer Graphenstone. Reported to improve the thermal regulation of buildings, the paint is made from a pure lime base that has been combined with graphene – a recently engineered material hailed as the thinnest, strongest and most conductive ever developed.
| A Dezeen release || November 30, 2017 |||
Nov 30, 2017 - Zespri Shipping Manager Mike Knowles says Seatrade has decided to exit the Meridian shipping routes to Northern Europe and East Coast North America. CMA CGM has agreed to step in and provide uninterrupted service on these routes for New Zealand exporters. “We’ve partnered with Seatrade for many years and enjoyed excellent and loyal service from the company for which we thank them." “While it’s sad that they won’t be operating in New Zealand anymore, we’re confident that CMA CGM will run an excellent service for the NZ kiwifruit industry in future. CMA CGM will provide a fixed-day weekly service with a best-in-class 32-day transit to Zeebrugge next season which is based around the purpose-built Seatrade colour class ships and water-cooled containers." “This service is based on the FDD principle (Fast, Dedicated and Direct) and we’re confident that this service will be successful for both parties." The announcement has been welcomed not only by the kiwifruit industry, but by many NZ perishable shippers as well who want to get their goods quickly into this key European market.
| A FreshPlaza release by Rachel Lynch || November 30, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242