Volcanic Ash, Insecurity for the People but Securing Fertile Soil for the Future

Volcanic eruptions affect land and humans globally. When a volcano erupts, tons of volcanic ash materials are ejected to the atmosphere and deposited on land. The hazard posed by volcanic ash is not limited to the area in proximity to the volcano, but can also affect a vast area. Ashes ejected from volcano’s affect people’s daily life and disrupts agricultural activities and damages crops. However, the positive outcome of this natural event is that it secures fertile soil for the future. This paper examines volcanic ash (tephra) from a soil security view-point, mainly its capability. This paper reviews the positive aspects of volcanic ash, which has a high capability to supply nutrients to plant, and can also sequester a large amount of carbon out of the atmosphere. We report some studies around the world, which evaluated soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation since volcanic eruptions. The mechanisms of SOC protection in volcanic ash soil include organo-metallic complexes, chemical protection, and physical protection. Two case studies of volcanic ash from Mt. Talang and Sinabung in Sumatra, Indonesia showed the rapid accumulation of SOC through lichens and vascular plants. Volcanic ash plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and ensures soil security in volcanic regions of the world in terms of boosting its capability. However, there is also a human dimension, which does not go well with volcanic ash. Volcanic ash can severely destroy agricultural areas and farmers’ livelihoods. Connectivity and codification needs to ensure farming in the area to take into account of risk and build appropriate adaptation and resilient strategy.

Do Cells use Passwords in Cell-State Transitions? Is Cell Signaling sometimes Encrypted?

Organisms must maintain proper regulation including defense and healing. Life-threatening problems may be caused by pathogens or by a multicellular organism’s own cells through cancer or auto-immune disorders. Life evolved solutions to these problems that can be conceptualized through the lens of information security, which is a well-developed field in computer science. Here I argue that taking an information security view of cells is not merely semantics, but useful to explain features of signaling, regulation, and defense. An information security perspective also offers a conduit for cross-fertilization of advanced ideas from computer science, and the potential for biology to inform computer science. First, I consider whether cells use passwords, i.e., initiation sequences that are required for subsequent signals to have effects, by analyzing the concept of pioneer transcription factors in chromatin regulation and cellular reprogramming. Second, I consider whether cells may encrypt signal transduction cascades. Encryption could benefit cells by making it more difficult for pathogens or oncogenes to hijack cell networks. By using numerous molecules cells may gain a security advantage in particular against viruses, whose genome sizes are typically under selection pressure. I provide a simple conceptual argument for how cells may peform encryption through post-translational modifications, complex formation, and chromatin accessibility. I invoke information theory to provide a criterion of an entropy spike to assess whether a signaling cascade has encryption-like features. I discuss how the frequently invoked concept of context-dependency may over-simplify more advanced features of cell signaling networks, such as encryption. Therefore, by considering that biochemical networks may be even more complex than commonly realized we may be better able to understand defenses against pathogens and pathologies.

Acticle Foreign Direct Investment of korea in Vietnam - In Economic Security View

Since the Doi moi of Vietnam in 1986, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has quickly invested in Vietnam. From the ROK’s foreign economic policy, Vietnam is currently the third largest investment partner, and the ROK considers Vietnam as an important destination with its competitive advantages such as potential market, statble political environment, geo-strategic position. For Vietnam, the ROK is the biggest FDI provider with a series of projects worth billions of dollars. It is no doubt for the positive impacts that the FDI inflows bring, the ROK’s investment in Vietnam also has its salient characteristics and poses complex security issues as well. Based on a review of the ROK’s FDI inflows in Vietnam, this article highlights the characteristics of these investment activities from an economic security perspective, since then it provides some recommendations for more efectively using reinforcement FDI inflows in Vietnam in the coming years. Keywords FDI, the Repubic of Korea, Vietnam, FDI, economic security References [1]: “Tình hình đầu tư nước ngoài Việt Nam quý I năm 2018”, Cục đầu tư nước ngoài, Bộ Kế hoạch & đầu tư, nguồn http://fia.mpi.gov.vn/tinbai/5473/Tinh-hinh-DTNN-Quy-I-nam-2018, truy cập ngày 1/4/2018.[2]: Kim, S.H., Understanding Vietnam, Yeonhap News Press, Seoul, 2015. [3] Theo thống kê của Bộ Kế hoạch và Đầu tư tính đến đầu năm 2018.[4], [5]: Ji Hyun Oh, Jai S. Mah, The Patterns of Korea’s Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam, Open Journal of Business and Management, 2017, 5, pp. 253-271; “Hàn Quốc và “làn sóng” đầu tư thứ ba vào Việt Nam”, VnEconomy, 18/11/2016.[6]: Nguyễn Chiến Thắng, Bùi Thị Hồng Ngọc, “Thu hút FDI của Hàn Quốc vào Việt Nam: Thực trạng và định hướng”, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Kinh tế, số 430-Tháng 3/2014, tr. 59-67.[7]: Ngô Thị Trinh, “Bước phát triển mới trong quan hệ hợp tác đầu tư của Hàn Quốc”, Tạp chí Những vấn đề kinh tế và chính trị thế giới, số 11(139)/2007, tr. 75-80[8]: Anwar, S. and Nguyen, L.P., “Absorptive Capacity, Foreign Direct Investmentlinked Spillovers and Economic Growth in Vietnam”, Asian Business and Management, 2010, No. 9, pp. 553-570.[9]: Bạch Dương, “Hàn Quốc và “làn sóng” đầu tư thứ ba vào Việt Nam”, VnEconomy, 18/11/2016.[10]: Ji Hyun Oh, Jai S. Mah, “The Patterns of Korea’s Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam”, Open Journal of Business and Management, 2017, No. 5, pp. 253-271; [11]: Gill, A., “Internationalization of Firms: An Analysis of South Korean FDI in India”, Seoul Journal of Economics, 2014, No. 27, pp. 87-114.[12]: Tien, Q.T., “Reforms in FDI Policy and the Investment Climate in Vietnam”, Journal of World Trade, 2008, No. 42, 1179-1202.[13]: “Tiếp tục gia tăng đầu tư của Hàn Quốc vào Việt Nam”, Cục đầu tư nước ngoài, Bộ Kế hoạch & đầu tư, nguồn http://fia.mpi.gov.vn/tinbai/5131/Tiep-tuc-gia-tang-dau-tu-cua-Han-Quoc-vao-Viet-Nam, truy cập ngày 10/3/2018.[14]: Ngô Thị Trinh, “Bước phát triển mới trong quan hệ hợp tác đầu tư của Hàn Quốc”, Tạp chí Những vấn đề kinh tế và chính trị thế giới, số 11(139)/2007, tr. 75-80.[15]: Nguyễn Chiến Thắng, Bùi Thị Hồng Ngọc, “Thu hút FDI của Hàn Quốc vào Việt Nam: Thực trạng và định hướng”, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Kinh tế, số 430-Tháng 3/2014, tr. 59-67.[16]: Vũ Hải Thanh, Lê Văn Mỹ, “Hợp tác giữa Hàn Quốc với các quốc gia tiểu vùng sông Mekong”, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Đông Bắc Á, số 2(180) 2-2016, tr. 34-42.

International Securities: global inequalities and new threats

This article proposes to present diverse perspectives on international security. We divide the analysis in two pillars: an approach characteristic of the strongest powers and, on the other hand, a security view that take into account international hierarchies, where is possible to identify global inequalities. We examine the second pillar, understanding that autonomy is the basis for security considerations from the Global South.