The Study on a Cooperative Education System for Logistics: the Case Study of International Program in Logistics Management Systems in Technology University of Eindhoven

Korea needs to build world-class infrastructures that will shape the country into the logistics hub of the Northeast Asia. To achieve the goal, highly skilled and internationalized experts in the area of logistics are required. In Korea, however, there are no education programs that train qualified experts who have not only knowledge in logistics but also industrial and international experiences. This paper introduces a case study on education programs which cultivate such experts. An in-depth analysis was conducted on the global logistics program of Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) in the Netherlands. The global logistics program of TU/e is an international post master program in which several universities as well as famous companies such as Philips, Nokia, etc. are tightly involved. We analyzed the success factors of this program by investigating the roles of university, social community, and industry. Based on these success factors, some suggestions are made for establishing competitive logistics education programs in Korea.clos

Effect of Floor Openings on Evacuation Efficiency in Multipurpose Commercial Buildings: IFC Mall in Yeouido, Seoul, Korea

To achieve evacuation-optimized design at the architectural planning phase, this study analyzed the effect of floor openings in multipurpose commercial buildings on their evacuation efficiency. Herein, the IFC Mall in Yeouido, Seoul, Korea was considered the study site, because all the factors influencing the evacuation efficiency can be controlled owing to the underground location of all floors. Therefore, all evacuees followed the same evacuation direction. Comprehensively, a spatial analysis methodology (Cellular ECEM) was employed to derive the evacuation costs through the sum of visibility cost and distance cost. Subsequently, the evacuation costs were compared in all cases to review the hindrances in evacuation according to the type and area ratio of the planned floor opening, and several causes of evacuation cost deviations were discussed. Overall, increasing the area of the floor opening deteriorates the evacuation efficiency. The evacuation efficiency increased if the area of the floor opening is appropriately separated and a bridge is constructed in the middle to connect a path. Furthermore, following the longer path around the floor opening to use the main vertical means of circulation, owing to the connection between the atrium and floor opening, is more vulnerable toward evacuation efficiency than other floor opening types

Construction of a Stable Replicating Shuttle Vector for <i>Caldicellulosiruptor</i> Species: Use for Extending Genetic Methodologies to Other Members of This Genus

<div><p>The recalcitrance of plant biomass is the most important barrier to its economic conversion by microbes to products of interest. Thermophiles have special advantages for biomass conversion and members of the genus <i>Caldicellulosiruptor</i> are the most thermophilic cellulolytic microbes known. In this study, we report the construction of a replicating shuttle vector for <i>Caldicellulosiruptor species</i> based on pBAS2, the smaller of two native <i>C. bescii</i> plasmids. The entire plasmid was cloned into an <i>E. coli</i> cloning vector containing a pSC101 origin of replication and an apramycin resistance cassette for selection in <i>E. coli</i>. The wild-type <i>C. bescii pyrF</i> locus was cloned under the transcriptional control of the regulatory region of the ribosomal protein S30EA (Cbes2105), and the resulting vector was transformed into a new spontaneous deletion mutant in the <i>pyrFA</i> locus of <i>C. bescii</i> that allowed complementation with the <i>pyrF</i> gene alone. Plasmid DNA was methylated <i>in vitro</i> with a recently described cognate methyltransferase, M.CbeI, and transformants were selected for uracil prototrophy. The plasmid was stably maintained in low copy with selection but rapidly lost without selection. There was no evidence of DNA rearrangement during transformation and replication in <i>C. bescii</i>. A similar approach was used to screen for transformability of other members of this genus using M.CbeI to overcome restriction as a barrier and was successful for transformation of <i>C. hydrothermalis,</i> an attractive species for many applications. Plasmids containing a carbohydrate binding domain (CBM) and linker region from the <i>C. bescii celA</i> gene were maintained with selection and were structurally stable through transformation and replication in <i>C. bescii</i> and <i>E. coli</i>.</p></div

Comprehensive tuning of bioadhesive properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes with controlled porosity

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based elastomers have become the de facto platform for various biomedical applications. But the stable attachment of biomolecules to PDMS for more robust and longterm performance of the PDMS-based devices has been a significant challenge, owing to its unique physical properties (e.g. hydrophobicity, dynamic molecular mobility). Herein, the PDMS membrane with tunable surface porosity is developed via high-pressure saturated steam technology in order to promote a strong and lasting bioadhesion to the PDMS membrane without additional processing steps. The resulting porous PDMS membranes demonstrate enhanced physical properties (e.g. Young???s modulus, roughness, and air permeability), which is dependent on the membrane thickness. The bioactivity of porous PDMS membranes, evaluated by measuring the adhesion of various biomolecules and bioactivity of cells, shows significant improvement over conventional non-porous control. This effect can be attributed to the strong physical adsorption on the porous PDMS membrane by increased surface roughness and stiffness. In sum, the porous PDMS membrane provides a simple and yet highly effective platform to create bioactive surface for various biomedical devices

Strains and plasmids used in this work.

1<p>German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures.</p

Chromosomal map and PCR analysis of the Uridine Monophosphate (UMP) biosynthetic gene cluster in <i>C.bescii</i> DSM 6725 and the spontaneous deletion in <i>pyrFA</i> (JWCB005) locus.

<p>(A) A diagram of the <i>pyr</i> operon region with the 878 bp deletion in the <i>pyrFA</i> ORFs. The line below the diagram indicates the length of the deletion. Bent arrows depict primers used for verification of the structure of the chromosome in the JWCB005 (Δ<i>pyrFA</i>) strain. <i>pyrF</i> and <i>pyrE</i> loci indicated as black color filled arrow and black dashed filled arrow, respectively. (B) Gel depicting PCR products of the <i>pyrFA</i> region in wild type (3.44 kb) compared to the Δ<i>pyrFA</i> (2.52 kb) strain amplified by primers (JH020 and FJ298). (C) Gel depicting the 2.66 kb PCR products of <i>pyrE</i> region in wild type and the Δ<i>pyrFA</i> strain by primers (DC326 and DC331). M: 1 kb DNA ladder (NEB).</p

Plasmid map of shuttle vector (pDCW89) and verification of its presence in <i>C.bescii</i> transformants.

<p>(A) A linear DNA fragment containing the <i>pyrF</i> expression cassette as well as the entire sequence of pBAS2, generated by PCR amplification using primers DC283 and DC284, was ligated to a DNA fragment containing <i>E. coli</i> replication and selection functions to generate the final shuttle vector. The cross-hatched box corresponds to the pBAS2 plasmid sequences. ORFs from <i>C. bescii</i> are indicated as empty arrows and those from <i>E. coli</i> as black arrows. The apramycin resistant gene cassette (Apr^R); PSC101 low copy replication origin in <i>E. coli</i>; <i>repA</i>, a plasmid-encoded gene required for PSC101 replication; <i>par</i>, partition locus are indicated. The proposed replication origin (115 bp) of pBAS2 is indicated. The primers and restriction sites (AatII and EcoRI) used for the verification are indicated. A detailed description of the construction of pDCW89 is described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0062881#pone.0062881.s001" target="_blank">Fig. S1</a> and the Materials and Methods. (B) Gel showing the 1.6 kb PCR products containing the pSC101 <i>ori</i> sequences only presence in pDCW89 using primers DC230 and JF199, total DNA from JWCB005 (Lane 1), a <i>C. bescii</i> transformant with pDCW89 (Lane 2), and pDCW89 isolated from <i>E. coli</i> (Lane 3) as template. (C) Restriction analysis of plasmid DNA before and after transformation of <i>C. bescii</i> and back-transformation to <i>E. coli</i>. Lanes 1 and 4, pDCW89 plasmid DNA isolated from <i>E. coli</i> DH5α, and digested with AatII (Lane 1, 4.4 kb and 3.3 kb cleavage products), and EcoRI (Lane 4, 1.9 kb and 5.8 kb cleavage products); lane 2, 3, 5, 6, plasmid DNA isolated from two biologically independent <i>E. coli</i> DH5α back-transformed from <i>C. bescii</i> transformants, and digested with AatII (Lane 2 & 3), and EcoRI (Lane 5 & 6). M: 1 kb DNA ladder (NEB).</p