Personnel Training Course for Businesses Regarding the Response to Stranded Persons Focusing on Vulnerable People from the Perspective of Business Continuity.

Businesses in urban areas have been required to accommodate stranded persons as temporary evacuation facilities during disasters. Regarding measures aimed at aiding stranded persons, aspects such as trust and the image of the business need to be considered. Therefore, in this study, a personnel training course was developed to smoothly take in stranded persons, and the outcomes of this training were evaluated by quizzes, entry sheets, and a questionnaire. This was a two-day and one-night course characterized by the use of role-play in which 20 participants experienced the series of processes that unfold during disasters, playing either the role of a stranded person or a facility member. This training included emergency food provision using real stockpiled food and accommodation training using actual bedding stored in a model facility. After the review, when the participants were taught the correct response for vulnerable people, their scores in the test regarding the points of caution in vulnerable people were significantly higher than those prior to the course, confirming that participants had acquired knowledge as a result. Furthermore, through training using real food and accommodation, the participants were able to understand victims' requirements by experiencing the need for satisfactory emergency rations and comfortable bedding.

Mitochondrial Dynamics Regulation in Skin Fibroblasts from Mitochondrial Disease Patients.

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that constantly fuse, divide, and move, and their function is regulated and maintained by their morphologic changes. Mitochondrial disease (MD) comprises a group of disorders involving mitochondrial dysfunction. However, it is not clear whether changes in mitochondrial morphology are related to MD. In this study, we examined mitochondrial morphology in fibroblasts from patients with MD (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) and Leigh syndrome). We observed that MD fibroblasts exhibited significant mitochondrial fragmentation by upregulation of Drp1, which is responsible for mitochondrial fission. Interestingly, the inhibition of mitochondrial fragmentation by Drp1 knockdown enhanced cellular toxicity and led to cell death in MD fibroblasts. These results suggest that mitochondrial fission plays a critical role in the attenuation of mitochondrial damage in MD fibroblasts.