Integrate the Information Technology with Supply Chain Management: A Trend of the Electronic Business in the New Century

In the new century, the concept of e-business (EB) has to be redefined. It covers more than e-commerce (EC) which simply handles with electronic ordering and/or on-line payment. EB covers all the managerial and operational functions of a business. So the concept of EB is to be more extensive. More and more people and business firms have recognized the fact that the application of Internet will cover both the outward functions (such as marketing, supplying, etc.) and the inward ones (such as manufacturing, R&D, etc.), go from the surface layers to the deeper layers, and arrive at the core of a firm’s business and the center of the social economy. From the point of view of a business firm, more realistic EB refers to replacement of the physical activities with electronic processes and to establish new cooperative relations with the suppliers and customers, and among all internal sections of the firm. It can be shown from an investigation and the author’s observations that the trend of EB is to integrate the information technology with the supply chain. Once business firms have completed the ERP (enterprise resources planning) or other internal integrated information systems, the business firm could develop CRM (customer relation management) or SCM (supply chain management) and so on, to get an external optimization with the internal optimal process. So EB will come true when the bases are ready and sound. By establishing communications between the upstream suppliers and the downstream cooperators, a business firm should extend its integrated information system and its operational conformity to the whole marketing management and to the whole supply chain. In years, the downstream links of a supply chain (B to C) may exist in various forms for that the customers have their individualized needs. But among the upstream links of a supply chain (B to B), the traditional business modes among business firms will certainly be replaced by EB. All the business firms have to face such a fact that from the basic application of Internet to the real-time business on Internet, there is a long way to go. At present, all business firms must face a complicated environment. Starting with the analysis of the environment of EB, this paper discusses EB’s trend and its influence on the business development, and brings forward that modern EB requires the participation of the suppliers, enterprise employees, cooperate partners, government and service institutes altogether

Quantitation of mitochondrial dynamics by photolabeling of individual organelles shows that mitochondrial fusion is blocked during the Bax activation phase of apoptosis

A dynamic balance of organelle fusion and fission regulates mitochondrial morphology. During apoptosis this balance is altered, leading to an extensive fragmentation of the mitochondria. Here, we describe a novel assay of mitochondrial dynamics based on confocal imaging of cells expressing a mitochondrial matrix–targeted photoactivable green fluorescent protein that enables detection and quantification of organelle fusion in living cells. Using this assay, we visualize and quantitate mitochondrial fusion rates in healthy and apoptotic cells. During apoptosis, mitochondrial fusion is blocked independently of caspase activation. The block in mitochondrial fusion occurs within the same time range as Bax coalescence on the mitochondria and outer mitochondrial membrane permeabilization, and it may be a consequence of Bax/Bak activation during apoptosis

Self and Nonself: How Autophagy Targets Mitochondria and Bacteria

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that transports cytoplasmic components for degradation into lysosomes. Selective autophagy can capture physically large objects, including cell-invading pathogens and damaged or superfluous organelles. Selectivity is achieved by cargo receptors that detect substrate-associated “eat-me” signals. In this Review, we discuss basic principles of selective autophagy and compare the “eat-me” signals and cargo receptors that mediate autophagy of bacteria and bacteria-derived endosymbionts—i.e., mitochondria

The Roles of PINK1, Parkin, and Mitochondrial Fidelity in Parkinson’s Disease

Understanding the function of genes mutated in hereditary forms of Parkinson’s disease yields insight into disease etiology and reveals new pathways in cell biology. Although mutations or variants in many genes increase the susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease, only a handful of monogenic causes of parkinsonism have been identified. Biochemical and genetic studies reveal that the products of two genes that are mutated in autosomal recessive parkinsonism, PINK1 and Parkin, normally work together in the same pathway to govern mitochondrial quality control, bolstering previous evidence that mitochondrial damage is involved in Parkinson’s disease. PINK1 accumulates on the outer membrane of damaged mitochondria, activates Parkin’s E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, and recruits Parkin to the dysfunctional mitochondrion. Then, Parkin ubiquitinates outer mitochondrial membrane proteins to trigger selective autophagy. This review covers the normal functions that PINK1 and Parkin play within cells, their molecular mechanisms of action, and the pathophysiological consequences of their loss

A Hybrid Quantum-Classical Hamiltonian Learning Algorithm

Hamiltonian learning is crucial to the certification of quantum devices and quantum simulators. In this paper, we propose a hybrid quantum-classical Hamiltonian learning algorithm to find the coefficients of the Pauli operator components of the Hamiltonian. Its main subroutine is the practical log-partition function estimation algorithm, which is based on the minimization of the free energy of the system. Concretely, we devise a stochastic variational quantum eigensolver (SVQE) to diagonalize the Hamiltonians and then exploit the obtained eigenvalues to compute the free energy's global minimum using convex optimization. Our approach not only avoids the challenge of estimating von Neumann entropy in free energy minimization, but also reduces the quantum resources via importance sampling in Hamiltonian diagonalization, facilitating the implementation of our method on near-term quantum devices. Finally, we demonstrate our approach's validity by conducting numerical experiments with Hamiltonians of interest in quantum many-body physics.Comment: 24 page

Variational Quantum Singular Value Decomposition

Singular value decomposition is central to many problems in engineering and scientific fields. Several quantum algorithms have been proposed to determine the singular values and their associated singular vectors of a given matrix. Although these algorithms are promising, the required quantum subroutines and resources are too costly on near-term quantum devices. In this work, we propose a variational quantum algorithm for singular value decomposition (VQSVD). By exploiting the variational principles for singular values and the Ky Fan Theorem, we design a novel loss function such that two quantum neural networks (or parameterized quantum circuits) could be trained to learn the singular vectors and output the corresponding singular values. Furthermore, we conduct numerical simulations of VQSVD for random matrices as well as its applications in image compression of handwritten digits. Finally, we discuss the applications of our algorithm in recommendation systems and polar decomposition. Our work explores new avenues for quantum information processing beyond the conventional protocols that only works for Hermitian data, and reveals the capability of matrix decomposition on near-term quantum devices.Comment: 23 pages, v3 accepted by Quantu

Structural basis for recruitment of mitochondrial fission complexes by Fis1

Mitochondrial fission controls mitochondrial shape and physiology, including mitochondrial remodeling in apoptosis. During assembly of the yeast mitochondrial fission complex, the outer membrane protein Fis1 recruits the dynamin-related GTPase Dnm1 to mitochondria. Fis1 contains a tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain and interacts with Dnm1 via the molecular adaptors Mdv1 and Caf4. By using crystallographic analysis of adaptor-Fis1 complexes, we show that these adaptors use two helices to bind to both the concave and convex surfaces of the Fis1 TPR domain. Fis1 therefore contains two interaction interfaces, a binding mode that, to our knowledge, has not been observed previously for TPR domains. Genetic and biochemical studies indicate that both binding interfaces are important for binding of Mdv1 and Caf4 to Fis1 and for mitochondrial fission activity in vivo. Our results reveal how Fis1 recruits the mitochondrial fission complex and will facilitate efforts to manipulate mitochondrial fission