Seismic risk assessment for developing countries : Pakistan as a case study

Modern Earthquake Risk Assessment (ERA) methods usually require seismo-tectonic information for Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) that may not be readily available in developing countries. To bypass this drawback, this paper presents a practical event-based PSHA method that uses instrumental seismicity, available historical seismicity, as well as limited information on geology and tectonic setting. Historical seismicity is integrated with instrumental seismicity to determine the long-term hazard. The tectonic setting is included by assigning seismic source zones associated with known major faults. Monte Carlo simulations are used to generate earthquake catalogues with randomized key hazard parameters. A case study region in Pakistan is selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The results indicate that the proposed method produces seismic hazard maps consistent with previous studies, thus being suitable for generating such maps in regions where limited data are available. The PSHA procedure is developed as an integral part of an ERA framework named EQRAM. The framework is also used to determine seismic risk in terms of annual losses for the study region

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

特集2 : 研究解説 : Natural Disaster Risk Management : A Need for a Global Perspective

Although considerable progress has been made in managing natural disaster risk in developed countries, global risk to natural hazards is in fact increasing. By looking at natural disasters as a global challenge, general strategies are discussed to mitigate losses due to them.小特集 国際災害軽減工学研究センター(INCEDE

自然災害のリスクのマネージメント : 地球的な視野の必要性

Although considerable progress has been made in managing natural disaster risk in developed countries, global risk to natural hazards is in fact increasing. By looking at natural disasters as a global challenge, general strategies are discussed to mitigate losses due to them.小特集 国際災害軽減工学研究センター(INCEDE

College Students\u27 Experiences of Race-Related Bias or Hatred in Their Lifetimes and COVID-19 Era

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether students in minority race categories are more likely to experience race-related bias and hatred in their lifetime and since the onset of COVID-19, after controlling the effect of demographic and other variables. Methods: This quantitative study used primary data from the survey of 1249 college students at one of the universities in Georgia during April and May 2020. We performed multinomial logistic regression, computing 2 models for the 2 ordinal dependent variables concerning students\u27 experience of race-related bias and hatred—(a) during their lifetime and (b) since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020—both measured as “never,” “rarely,” “sometimes,” and “fairly often or very often.” Results: During their lifetime, 47.5% of students had experienced some level of bias or hatred, ranging from “rarely” to “very often.” Since the onset of COVID-19 on March 2 in Georgia, in a short period of 1 to 2 months, 17.6% of students reported experiencing race-related bias or hatred. Univariate statistics revealed substantial differences in race-related bias and hatred by race, experienced during students\u27 lifetime as well as since the onset of COVID-19. Results of multinomial logistic regression showed that the odds of having experienced bias or hatred during their lifetime were significantly higher (P \u3c .05) for the Black students than for White students (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 75.8, for very often or often vs never; AOR = 42 for sometimes vs never). Compared with White students, the odds of hatred and bias were also significantly higher for students who were Asian, multiple races, or another non-White race. The odds of having experienced race-related bias and hatred since the onset of COVID-19 were also higher for Black Asian, multiple races, and other non-White students. Conclusions: This study adds critical scientific evidence about variation in the perception of bias and hatred that should draw policy attention to race-related issues experienced by college students in the United States