TECHNOLOGY
NTU unveils cancer sensor
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday unveiled a portable device it developed that is capable of detecting cancer and viral infections in just 12 minutes. The device, called VensorNTU, has proven to be highly sensitive and accurate in detecting liver, lung and cervical cancers, enterovirus 71, influenzas and sepsis during a year of clinical testing, said Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池), dean of NTU’s College of Medicine. He said that traditional detection of those diseases involves the application of optics technology to examine affected cells after they are dyed, but the process is time--consuming and expensive, with low accuracy. The new device, with NTU’s exclusive electronic antibody detection technology, allows patients to use it at home, and find out the results in 12 minutes. NTU has transferred the VensorNTU manufacturing expertise to the private sector for commercial production.
TRANSPORTATION
Customs seize ¥19 million
A Japanese traveler had more than ¥19 million (US$230,000) confiscated at an airport in Taiwan after the undeclared cash was seized from his luggage, the Taipei Customs Office said Monday. The man had to hand over ¥19.16 million of the ¥20 million in cash that he did not declare after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday on a Cathay Pacific flight from Nagoya, the office said. The money, which will be turned over to Taiwan’s national coffers, was spotted by customs officials in the passenger’s baggage as it went through an X-ray inspection. The office returned ¥840,000 to the man, who said he was not aware of the US$10,000 cap on the amount of foreign currency travelers are allowed to bring into the country, adding that he had hoped to take advantage of the higher interest rates available in local banks.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,