Humanitarian Supply Chain/Logistics: Roadmap to Effective Relief Effort

Between the years of 2000 and 2012, natural disasters caused 1.7 trillion dollars in damage and affected 2.9 billion people (dosomething.org). In Americas (ranked second globally in terms of natural disasters) between 2007 and 2016, disasters caused 255,033 deaths, 898,816 injuries and damages worth $470 billion (Disasters, 2017). In 2016 alone, natural disasters caused$175 billion in damage with 8,700 lives (Munich RE, 2017). The above numbers reflect the amount of physical destruction only but do not include indirect losses such as unemployment, environmental consequences, and business disruptions. Therefore, the full impact of these catastrophic events is much greater than these numbers suggest. Response to and management of disaster relief supply chain is different from that of commercial supply chain/logistics in many aspects. Since humanitarian relief efforts depend to a large extent on international donors and the donors usually respond well to emergency, a well thought out long term strategic plan to relive human suffering is not well established. But studies indicate that investment in the planning stage of humanitarian supply chain is much more effective and saves many lives than spending on the operation side of relief efforts. This paper explores alternative ways to respond and manage humanitarian relief efforts utilizing the principles of commercial supply chain. More specifically, this paper addresses/outlines the process to improve relief outcomes by investing in the prepared stage of humanitarian supply chain

Dispersion of Vascular Plant in An-do, Korea

AbstractThe vascular plants observed in the area were composed of a total of 342 taxa; 104 families, 239 genus, 309 species, 30 varieties, 2 forms and 1 sub-species. The endangered species found in the area were Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schm. and Milletia japonica (Siebold & Zucc.) A.Gray. The five endemic plants were found growing in the area like Carpinus coreana Nakai., Celtis choseniana Nakai, Clematis trichotoma, Spiraea prunifolia for. simpliciflora and Weigela subsessilis L.H.Bailey. Specialized plants of Geumodo were a total of 45 species; 34 taxa in Grade I, 10 taxa in Grade III, and 1 taxon in Grade V. Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schm. and Milletia japonica (Siebold & Zucc.) A.Gray confirmed in this study formed a colony alongside the coast and mountain paths. Currently, the construction to build water supply and sewer systems destroyed part of the colony. Therefore, in the long-term perspective, the conservation plan such as comprehensive research and monitoring on the ecosystem shall be established to protect indeciduous plants in the warm temperate zone

The Interaction of Phospholipase C-{beta}3 with Shank2 Regulates mGluR-mediated Calcium Signal

Phospholipase C-{beta} isozymes that are activated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) and heterotrimeric G proteins carry a PSD-95/Dlg/ZO-1 (PDZ) domain binding motif at their C terminus. Through interactions with PDZ domains, this motif may endow the PLC-{beta} isozyme with specific roles in GPCR signaling events that occur in compartmentalized regions of the plasma membrane. In this study, we identified the interaction of PLC-{beta}3 with Shank2, a PDZ domain-containing multimodular scaffold in the postsynaptic density (PSD). The C terminus of PLC-{beta}3, but not other PLC-{beta} isotypes, specifically interacts with the PDZ domain of Shank2. Homer 1b, a Shank-interacting protein that is linked to group I metabotropic glutamate receptors and IP3 receptors, forms a multiple complex with Shank2 and PLC-{beta}3. Importantly, microinjection of a synthetic peptide specifically mimicking the C terminus of PLC-{beta}3 markedly reduces the mGluR-mediated intracellular calcium response. These results demonstrate that Shank2 brings PLC-{beta}3 closer to Homer 1b and constitutes an efficient mGluR-coupled signaling pathway in the PSD region of neuronal synapses

Perception-Oriented Single Image Super-Resolution using Optimal Objective Estimation

Single-image super-resolution (SISR) networks trained with perceptual and adversarial losses provide high-contrast outputs compared to those of networks trained with distortion-oriented losses, such as L1 or L2. However, it has been shown that using a single perceptual loss is insufficient for accurately restoring locally varying diverse shapes in images, often generating undesirable artifacts or unnatural details. For this reason, combinations of various losses, such as perceptual, adversarial, and distortion losses, have been attempted, yet it remains challenging to find optimal combinations. Hence, in this paper, we propose a new SISR framework that applies optimal objectives for each region to generate plausible results in overall areas of high-resolution outputs. Specifically, the framework comprises two models: a predictive model that infers an optimal objective map for a given low-resolution (LR) input and a generative model that applies a target objective map to produce the corresponding SR output. The generative model is trained over our proposed objective trajectory representing a set of essential objectives, which enables the single network to learn various SR results corresponding to combined losses on the trajectory. The predictive model is trained using pairs of LR images and corresponding optimal objective maps searched from the objective trajectory. Experimental results on five benchmarks show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art perception-driven SR methods in LPIPS, DISTS, PSNR, and SSIM metrics. The visual results also demonstrate the superiority of our method in perception-oriented reconstruction. The code and models are available at https://github.com/seungho-snu/SROOE.Comment: Code and trained models will be available at https://github.com/seungho-snu/SROO

The distribution of attached bacteria on cellulose film and cellulose degradation rates in Lake Soyang, Korea.

Article信州大学理学部附属諏訪臨湖実験所報告 9: 69-75(1995)departmental bulletin pape

Role of G{alpha}12 and G{alpha}13 as Novel Switches for the Activity of Nrf2, a Key Antioxidative Transcription Factor

G{alpha}12 and G{alpha}13 function as molecular regulators responding to extracellular stimuli. NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is involved in a protective adaptive response to oxidative stress. This study investigated the regulation of Nrf2 by G{alpha}12 and G{alpha}13. A deficiency of G{alpha}12, but not of G{alpha}13, enhanced Nrf2 activity and target gene transactivation in embryo fibroblasts. In mice, G{alpha}12 knockout activated Nrf2 and thereby facilitated heme catabolism to bilirubin and its glucuronosyl conjugations. An oligonucleotide microarray demonstrated the transactivation of Nrf2 target genes by G{alpha}12 gene knockout. G{alpha}12 deficiency reduced Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK)-dependent Nrf2 ubiquitination required for proteasomal degradation, and so did G{alpha}13 deficiency. The absence of G{alpha}12, but not of G{alpha}13, increased protein kinase C {delta} (PKC {delta}) activation and the PKC {delta}-mediated serine phosphorylation of Nrf2. G{alpha}13 gene knockout or knockdown abrogated the Nrf2 phosphorylation induced by G{alpha}12 deficiency, suggesting that relief from G{alpha}12 repression leads to the G{alpha}13-mediated activation of Nrf2. Constitutive activation of G{alpha}13 promoted Nrf2 activity and target gene induction via Rho-mediated PKC {delta} activation, corroborating positive regulation by G{alpha}13. In summary, G{alpha}12 and G{alpha}13 transmit a JNK-dependent signal for Nrf2 ubiquitination, whereas G{alpha}13 regulates Rho-PKC {delta}-mediated Nrf2 phosphorylation, which is negatively balanced by G{alpha}12