Valuation of urban rail service: Experiences from Tokyo, Japan

Promoting public transportation, which includes rail, metro, bus rapid transit, and bus services is one of the most popular urban transportation policies among transportation authorities in many countries. This popularity may reflect the social requirement to pursue a sustainable transportation system by motivating people to use an environmentally friendly transportation mode. In particular, the modal shift from the automobile to public transportation is highlighted in urban transportation planning because many cities have suffered from serious traffic congestion, which has caused economic losses as well as negative impacts on local, regional, and global environments. In order to attract individuals to use public transportation, the improvement of service is critical. This includes increasing service frequency, decreasing travel time, upgrading station facilities, and introducing higher-capacity vehicles. As most public transportation services are provided directly by public authorities or are financially supported by government/public-sector entities, an investment in public transportation is typically evaluated within a cost-benefit analysis framework. However, since public transportation service consists of many different components, including accessing public transit stops, waiting for the service, riding trains, transferring from one train to another, and exiting to a final destination, it is necessary to evaluate each component in detail. This has made it more difficult to analyze the benefit from public transportation projects than road projects. Thus, there is a strong need to develop a clear methodology by which to value the expected benefits stemming from a public transportation service change in monetary terms according to each service component

Stress Responses from the Endoplasmic Reticulum in Cancer

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic organelle that is essential for multiple cellular functions. During cellular stress conditions, including nutrient deprivation and dysregulation of protein synthesis, unfolded/misfolded proteins accumulate in the ER lumen, resulting in activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR also contributes to the regulation of various intracellular signalling pathways such as calcium signalling and lipid signalling. More recently, the mitochondria-associated ER membrane (MAM), which is a site of close contact between the ER and mitochondria, has been shown to function as a platform for various intracellular stress responses including apoptotic signalling, inflammatory signalling, the autophagic response, and the UPR. Interestingly, in cancer, these signalling pathways from the ER are often dysregulated, contributing to cancer cell metabolism. Thus, the signalling pathway from the ER may be a novel therapeutic target for various cancers. In this review, we discuss recent research on the roles of stress responses from the ER, including the MAM

ヘッジファンド運用戦略の事後評価とリスク計測モデルの検討

要旨あり金融リスクの統計解析研究詳

Urban Goods Transport of Medan: Basic Survey and Scenario Analysis

Abstract. This paper intends to propose a simple and effective methodology to collect urban goods transport data in developing cities and to analyze the urban policies based on the freight traffic flow model. As a case study, we surveyed the goods transport in Medan, Indonesia. We interviewed the related people, counted the traffic flows at major road accessing the CBD, and interviewed enterprises to collect the goods transport data. We estimated the freight traffic flow simulation model by synthesizing the collected data. Then, two land-use scenarios of the area where the airport is now located are discussed under the condition that the airport will be relocated. By applying the model, we found that the traffic volume and air pollution will increase when no countermeasure is taken in the commercial development scenario

A connecter-like factor, CacA, links RssB/RpoS and the CpxR/CpxA two-component system in Salmonella

BACKGROUND: Bacteria integrate numerous environmental stimuli when generating cellular responses. Increasing numbers of examples describe how one two-component system (TCS) responds to signals detected by the sensor of another TCS. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain poorly defined. RESULTS: Here, we report a connector-like factor that affects the activity of the CpxR/CpxA two-component system in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. We isolated a clone that induced the expression of a cpxP-lac gene fusion from a high-copy-number plasmid pool of random Salmonella genomic fragments. A 63-amino acid protein, CacA, was responsible for the CpxA/CpxR-dependent activation of the cpxP gene. The CpxR-activated genes cpxP and spy exhibited approximately 30% and 50% reductions in transcription, respectively, in a clean cacA deletion mutant strain in comparison to wild-type. From 33 response regulator (RR) deletion mutants, we identified that the RssB regulator represses cacA transcription. Substitution mutations in a conserved -10 region harboring the RNA polymerase recognition sequence, which is well conserved with a known RpoS -10 region consensus sequence, rendered the cacA promoter RpoS-independent. The CacA-mediated induction of cpxP transcription was affected in a trxA deletion mutant, which encodes thioredoxin 1, suggesting a role for cysteine thiol-disulfide exchange(s) in CacA-dependent Cpx activation. CONCLUSIONS: We identified CacA as an activator of the CpxR/CpxA system in the plasmid clone. We propose that CacA may integrate the regulatory status of RssB/RpoS into the CpxR/CpxA system. Future investigations are necessary to thoroughly elucidate how CacA activates the CpxR/CpxA system

“feeling with”the other: Empathy on Caring

本稿は，ケア関係において求められる「共感」のあり方について，これまでの共感概念や共感に関する議論を追いながら考究するものである．伝統的な共感の理論は，他者の感情について分析・類推によって反省的に理解を深めることで他者を把握することを唱えた．また，近代的な感情移入論では，他者を知覚することの中で模倣と表現を通して，他者の自我を私に体験可能なものとすることを主張する．こうしたそれぞれの理論に対し，ケア関係における「共感」はそこで述べられている他者との関わり方それ自体を批判する．ケア関係における「共感」は，他者に入り込むのではなく，その受け容れを基礎とし，他者を私と相対する存在として具現化することこそが求められる．これによってケア関係において，「私とともに他者が自己となること」というケアの対話的な相互性が現れうる基盤が形作られるのである．departmental bulletin pape