Susceptibility of South Korea to Extremes Affecting the Global Food System

Food security in South Korea is tightly linked to the global food system. The country's production of major grains declined from 5.8 million metric tons (mmt) in 1998 to 4.8 mmt in 2014, which caused the country's grain self suciency to decline from 31.4% to 24%. This decline is a consequence of several factors including reductions in domestic agricultural land, governmental policies supporting industry over agriculture, and a push towards trade liberalization. South Korea's self suciency is now one of the lowest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, leaving it vulnerable to disruptions in the global food system

Solving multivariate functional equations

This paper presents a new method to solve functional equations of multivariate generating functions, such as $$F(r,s)=e(r,s)+xf(r,s)F(1,1)+xg(r,s)F(qr,1)+xh(r,s)F(qr,qs),$$ giving a formula for $F(r,s)$ in terms of a sum over finite sequences. We use this method to show how one would calculate the coefficients of the generating function for parallelogram polyominoes, which is impractical using other methods. We also apply this method to answer a question from fully commutative affine permutations.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. v3: Main theorems and writing style revised for greater clarity. Updated to final version, to appear in Discrete Mathematic

The Internal Extinction Curve of NGC 6302 and its Extraordinary Spectrum

In this paper we present a new method for obtaining the optical wavelength-dependent reddening function of planetary nebulae, using the nebular and stellar continuum. The data used was a spectrum of NGC 6302 obtained with a mean signal to noise of >10^2 A^-1 in the nebular continuum. With such a high S/N the continuum can be accurately compared with a theoretical model nebular plus stellar continuum. The nebular electron temperature and density used in the model are determined using ratios of prominent emission lines. The reddening function can then be obtained from the ratio of the theoretical and the observed continuum. We find that for NGC 6302, the visible to IR extinction law is indistinguishable from `standard' interstellar reddening, but that the UV extinction curve is much steeper than normal, suggesting that more small dust grains had been ejected into the nebula by the PN central star. Finally, using the extinction law that we have determined, we present a complete de--reddened line list of nearly 600 emission lines, and report on the detection of the He(2-10) and He(2-8) Raman Features at 4331 A and 4852 A, and the detection of Raman-Scattered OVI features at 6830 and 7087 AA.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures, to appear in PASA 2002, 1

Optimization of sub-critical water extraction (SWE) of lipid and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from Nannochloropsis gaditana

Microalgae are a promising source of omega-3. The purpose of this study was to extract lipid with a relatively high content of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from Nannochloropsis gaditana using subcritical water extraction (SWE). The effects of different temperatures (156.1-273.9°C), extraction times (6.6-23.4 minutes), and biomass loadings (33-117 g algae/L) on the extraction yield were studied. From the optimization study using central composite design (CCD), quadratic models generated for lipid yield and EPA composition were considered to be significant models (p < 0.05). The predictive equations were also formed for lipid yield and EPA composition. The predicted optimum lipid yield and EPA composition at 236.54°C, 13.95 minutes, and 60.50 g algae/L were 18.278 wt% of total biomass and 14.036 wt% of total fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), respectively

チームの業績に影響を与える人的資源と両面性の統合効果 : 韓国建設コンサルタント業を題材として

学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学

Rapid Characterization of hERG Channel Kinetics I: Using an Automated High-Throughput System

Predicting how pharmaceuticals may affect heart rhythm is a crucial step in drug-development, and requires a deep understanding of a compound’s action on ion channels. In vitro hERG-channel current recordings are an important step in evaluating the pro-arrhythmic potential of small molecules, and are now routinely performed using automated high-throughput patch clamp platforms. These machines can execute traditional voltage clamp protocols aimed at specific gating processes, but the array of protocols needed to fully characterise a current is typically too long to be applied in a single cell. Shorter high-information protocols have recently been introduced which have this capability, but they are not typically compatible with high-throughput platforms. We present a new 15 second protocol to characterise hERG (Kv11.1) kinetics, suitable for both manual and high-throughput systems. We demonstrate its use on the Nanion SyncroPatch 384PE, a 384 well automated patch clamp platform, by applying it to CHO cells stably expressing hERG1a. From these recordings we construct 124 cell-specific variants/parameterisations of a hERG model at 25C. A further 8 independent protocols are run in each cell, and are used to validate the model predictions. We then combine the experimental recordings using a hierarchical Bayesian model, which we use to quantify the uncertainty in the model parameters, and their variability from cell to cell, which we use to suggest reasons for the variability. This study demonstrates a robust method to measure and quantify uncertainty, and shows that it is possible and practical to use high-throughput systems to capture full hERG channel kinetics quantitatively and rapidly

Autocorrelated measurement processes and inference for ordinary differential equation models of biological systems

Ordinary differential equation models are used to describe dynamic processes across biology. To perform likelihood-based parameter inference on these models, it is necessary to specify a statistical process representing the contribution of factors not explicitly included in the mathematical model. For this, independent Gaussian noise is commonly chosen, with its use so widespread that researchers typically provide no explicit justification for this choice. This noise model assumes `random' latent factors affect the system in ephemeral fashion resulting in unsystematic deviation of observables from their modelled counterparts. However, like the deterministically modelled parts of a system, these latent factors can have persistent effects on observables. Here, we use experimental data from dynamical systems drawn from cardiac physiology and electrochemistry to demonstrate that highly persistent differences between observations and modelled quantities can occur. Considering the case when persistent noise arises due only to measurement imperfections, we use the Fisher information matrix to quantify how uncertainty in parameter estimates is artificially reduced when erroneously assuming independent noise. We present a workflow to diagnose persistent noise from model fits and describe how to remodel accounting for correlated errors

Accounting for variability in ion current recordings using a mathematical model of artefacts in voltage-clamp experiments

Mathematical models of ion channels, which constitute indispensable components of action potential models, are commonly constructed by fitting to whole-cell patch-clamp data. In a previous study, we fitted cell-specific models to hERG1a (Kv11.1) recordings simultaneously measured using an automated high-throughput system, and studied cell-cell variability by inspecting the resulting model parameters. However, the origin of the observed variability was not identified. Here, we study the source of variability by constructing a model that describes not just ion current dynamics, but the entire voltage-clamp experiment. The experimental artefact components of the model include: series resistance, membrane and pipette capacitance, voltage offsets, imperfect compensations made by the amplifier for these phenomena, and leak current. In this model, variability in the observations can be explained by either cell properties, measurement artefacts, or both. Remarkably, by assuming that variability arises exclusively from measurement artefacts, it is possible to explain a larger amount of the observed variability than when assuming cell-specific ion current kinetics. This assumption also leads to a smaller number of model parameters. This result suggests that most of the observed variability in patch-clamp data measured under the same conditions is caused by experimental artefacts, and hence can be compensated for in post-processing by using our model for the patch-clamp experiment. This study has implications for the question of the extent to which cell-cell variability in ion channel kinetics exists, and opens up routes for better correction of artefacts in patch-clamp data. This article is part of the theme issue 'Uncertainty quantification in cardiac and cardiovascular modelling and simulation'