The next item of business is the statement by Nicholas Sturgeon on update on refugees from Ukraine. Before I call on the First Minister to deliver the statement, I invite members to join me in welcoming to the gallery Yevin Mankowski, the consul of Ukraine. I would remind members that the First Minister will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I now call on Nicholas Sturgeon, First Minister. Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine is causing the largest displacement of people in Europe since World War 2 and of course in a much shorter timescale. The UN has estimated that over 3 million people, over five per cent of Ukraine's total population, have already left the country.  Y Caerdaid communities across Europe er arfer mae'r oeddiau greenhouseanydd. Befel yma mae 1,8 miliwn niER unlockodiad eu 4 miliwn. Many of us were moved last week by scenes in Berlin of German families flocking to the railway station to offer shelter and support for those arriving from Ukraine. However, even as we are moved and inspired by such scenes of compassion, we continue to be deeply shocked that this is happening at all. Just three weeks ago, the world still hoped that there would be no evasion. People in Ukraine were still going to work school and university, but we are living normal lives. Today, those lives have been ripped apart. More than 3 million are displaced, thousands more are fighting on front lines, many have been killed and an entire population is showing incredible courage and resistance. All of that, of course, is down to the evil—I am using that word deliberately—of one man, Vladimir Putin. Scotland stands firmly with all Governments, including, of course, the UK, in condemning Putin's war crimes, taking action to isolate and penalise his regime and doing everything possible to support the people of Ukraine. The Scottish Government is committed to playing our full parts in the international effort to help those displaced as a result of the war. Other countries, of course, have waived the requirement for people from Ukraine to obtain visas in order to gain entry and settle the strong preference of the Scottish Government is for the UK to adopt the same approach. However, while we will continue to press for this, we will also work with UK ministers to make the processes that they have put in place as effective as possible. That is the focus of my statement today. A present people from Ukraine can enter the UK through the family scheme. I hope that the changes that were announced last week will make it easier and quicker than it has been so far. A second route, homes for Ukraine, was announced this week. In time, it is hoped that very significant numbers of Ukrainians will come to the UK through this scheme. The fact that more than 100,000 people across the UK have already signed up to offer accommodation demonstrates the willingness of the public to help and the response so far has been magnificent. The terms of the scheme will mean that it will take time for this outpouring of support to translate into large numbers of people from Ukraine able to come to the UK. The first phase of the scheme depends on matches being made between refugees and individual sponsors, and initially it is only those who already have or can themselves find details of people seeking refuge who will be able to provide help quickly. The Scottish Government's proposal seeks to short-circuit that process. We want to have offered to act as a single supersponsor to allow significant numbers of people fleeing Ukraine to come to Scotland immediately. We have offered to sponsor 3,000 straight away, longer term we have given an uncapped commitment to support at least 10 per cent of the total number who seek sanctuary in the UK. In practice, Scottish Government sponsorship would mean that people from Ukraine do not need to be matched with individual sponsors before being allowed entry to the UK. They would be able to come here to sanctuary and safety first. We will provide temporary accommodation and then, with people already safely here, and I am sure wrapped in a warm Scottish welcome, we will work at speed with partners, local councils, the Scottish Refugee Council, the NHS, Disclosure Scotland and others to complete safeguarding checks, put in place wider health education, practical and befrending support and arrange longer-term accommodation. We warmly welcome and intend to fully harness the thousands of individual offers from people willing to provide at refugees with a home. I want to thank everyone who has volunteered. Of course, not everyone will be in a position to offer accommodation, but there will be many other ways for people to offer support. However, welcome and necessary, though the voluntary offers of accommodation are, we must be mindful that those fleeing the war may need to be here for a long time. They will wish, as we all wish, for them to return to Ukraine as soon as possible and for Scotland to be just a temporary home. Unfortunately, they may need to be here for longer than we can reasonably expect members of the public to provide accommodation. As well as fully harnessing the goodwill of people across Scotland, we also need to plan for long-term sustainable accommodation and ensure appropriate public service provision, and I will say more about that shortly. First, let me underline the immediacy of the preparations that we are making. As I indicated yesterday, the UK Government has given in principle support to the supersponsor proposal. We are now working to agree as quickly as possible the operational detail. Our aim is that our supersponsor route will run in parallel with the first phase of the wider UK scheme. That should make it possible, and that is certainly our hope for the first 3,000 displaced Ukrainians to begin arriving in Scotland from as early as this weekend. I need to be clear that this is dependent on UK Government agreement, only the Home Office can issue the visas. However, there is no good reason, in my view, for this agreement not to be reached. We hope and expect that it will be, and crucially, this is the basis on which we are now planning. Detail preparations are being led by Neil Gray as Minister with special responsibility for co-ordinating this response. They cover five priorities, ensuring that we get the data that we need from UK Government systems, making contact with those coming to Scotland, securing short-term accommodation for those who need it, working on longer-term support, including housing and community integration, and finally establishing welcome hubs over the coming days. I will say a bit more on each of those and on resources to support delivery. We are working closely with local authorities, other public sector agencies, Disclosure Scotland, for example, the third sector and the UK Government on the practical issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the process operates smoothly. For example, urgent work is under way to ensure the sharing of data from UK Government systems, including from the visa application system. That information will allow us to better and more quickly understand who is coming here and what needs they might have. We are also exploring how we can start making support available even before people get here, help with travel, for example. Obviously, as a matter of priority, we are working to secure immediate temporary accommodation that is safe and comfortable for people while longer-term arrangements are put in place. In addition to harnessing voluntary support, we are assessing other longer-term housing options. That will include where available local authority and housing association properties, but also private sector or holiday accommodation. Finally, we are establishing with a range of partners, including local authorities, the police, health services and the Scottish refugee council, welcome hubs to offer practical help and assistance, for example with food, clothing, healthcare, language support and signposting to other services. Decisions on exactly where those hubs will be located will firm up as we develop a better understanding of when and exactly where people will arrive. We have considered the resources necessary to support that work in the first instance. I can confirm that. In addition to financial support that the UK Government will provide, the Scottish Government is allocating £15 million to support our immediate response. Just over £11 million of that will be allocated to local authorities. £2.25 million will be set aside for temporary accommodation and a further £1.4 million is being allocated to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of the refugee integration service. I visited the Scottish Refugee Council earlier today to discuss their invaluable contribution to Scotland's response to the Ukraine crisis and to thank them for their wider work to support refugees and asylum seekers. It is important for me to be clear to Parliament that the challenges of resettling thousands of displaced and traumatised people in such a short space of time are significant and should not be underestimated. Given the sheer pace at which everyone is working and the need to agree the operational arrangements with the UK Government, not every question of detail yet has a definite answer. Meeting the challenge will require effective and on-going co-operation between the Scottish and UK Governments and councils across the wider public and third sectors and with many other partners and local communities. Parliament also has a vital part to play. As MSPs, we often gain a unique insight into the quality of support provided on the ground and can be instrumental in making sure problems are identified and quickly addressed. However, for all the undoubted challenges, I am confident that Scotland will live up to our humanitarian obligations. We have very recent experience of successfully integrating refugees into our community schools and workplaces. I am confident that we will provide not just refuge but a warm welcome and a helping hand to people whose lives have been ripped apart. We will open our doors and we will also open our hearts. The duty of government is to ensure that the practical assistance that we provide matches the warmth and goodwill of people across the country. We have an obligation to play our full part in the global humanitarian effort and offer sanctuary, security and a home to thousands of people who desperately need it. I know that those aims are shared across Parliament, so let's all of us work together as we stand in resolute solidarity with the people of Ukraine in this hour of need. Thank you, First Minister. The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press the request to speak buttons now. Can I thank the First Minister for advance sight of her statement and associate these benches with the sentiments expressed towards the people of Ukraine and her recognition of the compassion of those here in Scotland who have volunteered to help? Needless to say, we continue to condemn the abhorrent violence that the Putin regime is inflicting on Ukraine and its people. Providing a place of refuge and sanctuary for those fleeing violence is a tradition that belongs to no one country or nation but arises from the instinct in us all to ensure the dignity of every human being in need of safety and protection. In that spirit, it is very welcome that the Scottish and UK Governments are working collaboratively to ensure that in Scotland we can provide that place of refuge, and I appreciate the additional detail that we have just been given. Given that many refugees may struggle with English and that in any event will be arriving in a new place, what plans does the Scottish Government have to ensure that they are provided clear information about how to access vital public services? In particular, will any assistance be provided to new arrivals to allow them to register quickly with the GP so that they can have full access to healthcare, particularly if language is a possible barrier? I referred in my statement to the work that is being done with our partners right now to establish welcome hubs. Those will be arrangements that are in place to offer immediate practical advice, assistance and support to people arriving. I hope that members will understand that, while we are seeking through our work with the UK Government to understand exactly when and where people will arrive, we cannot yet finalise the precise location of those hubs, but that work is under consideration and those decisions will be taken quickly as soon as possible. They will offer, and multi-agency teams are already working to support that. They will offer, for example, welcome packs and information leaflets that will be translated into Ukrainian, and those will offer information about how to access broader support, including social security benefits, which will be important. Translators will be on hand to help. The provision of language support will be a longer term on-going requirement, which we are also considering. Part of that welcome hub approach will be also to signpost people to healthcare services, including how they register with GPs. The issue was raised in Parliament with me yesterday. We are paying particular attention and taking advice from Public Health Scotland. The chief medical officer about what support will be offered in the context of Covid as well—vaccination, for example, for people who have not had that. That will all be part of the initial arrangements that are in place to welcome and support people. Much of that will have to continue on a longer-term and more sustainable basis, but those are the arrangements that are being worked on, literally, as we speak here in Parliament. We all stand in solidarity with people of Ukraine as they resist the unprovoked and unjustified attack on their country by Vladimir Putin. The UK Government has been slow in response to the refugee crisis, and I hope that they do waive the bureaucratic visa requirements. However, there are 5,000 Ukrainians settled in Scotland, at least another 6,000 as seasonal workers, so it is clear to me that the SNP Government will need to offer more than the 3,000 places. The overriding concern is that we move at pace to help with the rapidly unfolding humanitarian crisis. We have all been overwhelmed by the generosity of people in our constituencies and, indeed, across Scotland who want to help, whether that is through overseas aid donations or offering rooms in their homes for refugees. Can the First Minister indicate whether people should register with the UK Homes for Ukraine website, or is there another route to do so in Scotland? What are the plans to quickly vet the properties and potential hosts for refugees? What are the plans to provide wraparound services, including education and childcare, to enable parents to work? What are the plans for health services? Given the trauma that people have experienced, mental health support will be critical, but we know that CAMHS is already under huge pressure and experiencing long waiting times. How much will be allocated to mental health? How much it expects to be allocated by the UK Government? When additional resources will be made available to local government who stepped up to the plate in the past to help Syrian refugees and I will place to help people from Ukraine. Some of that information was provided in my statement. I am happy to expand on it. Let's take numbers. First of all, I was very careful to say in my statement that the commitment that we have given to the flow of people from Ukraine through the Homes for Ukraine scheme and hopefully our super-sponsor route is uncapped. 3,000 is an initial immediate commitment, and we hope that we will see people start to arrive under that as early as this weekend. We would anticipate at least 10 per cent of the overall number coming to the UK, but we are not putting a cap on that. The other point that is worth making is that that is in addition to people who will come through the family scheme and settle with families already here. I have already met last weekend, again this morning, in Glasgow. Members of the Ukrainian community hear many of them already going through the process of getting visas via the family scheme to have family members come here. That is the scale of the commitment, and it would be wrong to misrepresent that as a fixed commitment of 3,000. I think that everything that I have said has been clear that that is not the case. Secondly, in terms of my advice to people in Scotland, yes, I would advise people who can offer accommodation to register their interest through the UK Government portal that was launched on Monday. One of the things that we are working with the UK Government on is how we then get that data, access that data in Scotland, so that we know who has volunteered in Scotland, so that we get the data from the visa application process, so that we can then, once people are already here, make those matches here. In terms of disclosure checks, one of the agencies that we are working closely with, again I mentioned this in my statement, is disclosure Scotland in terms of the checks on people volunteering that will be done, because safeguarding is a really important part of this. Finally, in terms of services, we obviously need to start planning now, and we are doing a huge amount of planning now, but we do not yet know exactly how many people will come to Scotland, and therefore it would be wrong and inappropriate to put capped figures for financial support any more than capped figures for numbers of people. That will apply to mental health support, to local government support. We will need to make sure that, in addition to the tariff that has been agreed by the UK Government, that is publicly available, the money that the Scottish Government provides is commensurate to the scale of people coming here. Again, I have made an initial commitment, and I set that out in my statement, of £15 million that we are making available as of today. In addition to UK Government tariff resources, just over 11 million of that will be allocated to local authorities immediately. We are working across a range of those things, but I think that all members will appreciate that, as we agree the operational details, as I hope we will, because that is still very much dependent on the UK Government agreeing visas for people to come. As we agree that, as we know when, where and how many people arrive, we are going to have to continue to flex those arrangements to make sure that they are appropriate for the scale of the challenge and obligation that we are meeting. I call Alex Cole-Hamilton to be followed by Co-Cab Stewart. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I express the admiration and solidarity of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the people of Ukraine and our utter condemnation of the war crimes of Vladimir Putin, Slava and Ukraine? I welcome very much the announcement of the supersponsor scheme. We should not be justifiably proud but not wholly surprised by the colossal response that we have seen not just from the people in Scotland, but across Great Britain, opening their homes to the Ukrainians fleeing conflict. Those refugees will have been through the very worst in human suffering. They will require access to trauma recovery, long-term counselling. As I suggested yesterday, perhaps even immediate vaccination against Covid should they wish it, they will all be vital. I would be grateful for an update or further detail on that. I would also like to ask the First Minister about the Scottish Government's refugee integration strategy, the new Scots strategy. That runs up until the end of this year, so it is nearing the end of its life and it is still struggling to deal with people from Afghanistan, which, unless we forget, was just six months ago. STV News revealed that as many as 300 Afghans remain in temporary and bridging accommodation in different parts of this country, as work to resettle them continues. So can I ask the First Minister what lessons have been learned from the failure to resettle those refugees from Afghanistan and what changes can we make to ensure that similar backlogs do not occur with this scheme? We are drawing heavily on experience through the previous refugee integration work, not just Afghanistan. I do not think that it is fair to describe this in terms of failure. There is an on-going process to not just welcome people here, but to settle and to integrate them into our communities. I think that anybody looking fairly at, in particular, the response of the Scottish Public, local authorities, other agencies and the success of the work that they did in supporting the Syrian resettlement scheme would know that we have a lot of very positive experience to draw on there. We want to see this work very much embedded in that new Scots strategy. That is one of the things that I was talking to the Scottish Refugee Council about this morning. The 3000 figure that we have committed as an initial welcome to the UK Government in terms of the supersponsor scheme has not been drawn from nowhere. 3,000 are the number of Syrian refugees that we were able to settle through that scheme, so we know that we can. Relatively quickly, although that has been done much more quickly than with the Syrian scheme, we can make sure that we do that. However, we will be learning all of those lessons and the good ones and the more challenging ones as well. There are lots of challenges here. If we were simply to look at this as a challenge, we would shy away from it. However, this is a moral obligation that we, in common with countries across the world, have right now—a moral humanitarian obligation. I am not standing here suggesting that this will be easier straightforward, that there will not be real difficulties and challenges, that we will not face hurdles along the way. However, this is work that we have a duty to do, and it is work that, with our partners, we are focused on making sure that we get right and put all of the practical arrangements in place as quickly as possible. It is important that the Scottish Government ensures the fair and equitable treatment of all Ukrainian refugees, black and white, old and young. What discussions has the Scottish Government had with relevant partners regarding safeguarding issues related to the homes for Ukraine's scheme to ensure that all people, and in particular children and young people, are placed in safe and supportive environments? I think that co-capture makes an important point that we are all horrified at what is happening in and to Ukraine right now, and we all desperately want to do everything that we possibly can to help. However, the duty to give refuge to people fleeing war or famine does not depend on where they come from or who they are, what religion or faith or culture they come from. That is a duty that we all owe as a matter of humanity to everybody who needs it. I believe that Scotland has a good record, notwithstanding the challenges that we know are involved in this in opening our doors and hearts to Syrian refugees, to Afghan refugees, but perhaps not just in the immediate response to those fleeing war in Ukraine, one of the lessons that we can take from this is that we have that duty to open our hearts to people fleeing war from all parts of the world. In terms of safeguarding, the issue of safeguarding is central to all the discussions that we are having with partners. It is really important that, as we harness the outpouring of support from the public, we do not neglect the wellbeing and the safety of those fleeing war and trauma. Obviously, the principal discussions that we are having are with Disclosure Scotland to make sure that we have the processes in place to quickly do appropriate checks, but I want to assure the chamber that that is a critical part of all of the work that we are doing as we seek to put in place the arrangements for immediate welcome, but then ensure that that support continues as people settle and integrate here. That applies accommodation, health services, wider support services and that focus on wellbeing and safety as well. Can the First Minister offer a guarantee that no Ukrainian refugee will find themselves in temporary accommodation for a period of longer than one month in order to minimise uncertainty for those individuals, many of whom have experienced high levels of stress and required a stable environment integrated as soon as possible? Our priority first of all, and this is the whole intention of the super sponsor proposal, is to get people to sanctuary in Scotland as quickly as possible. Rather than having bureaucratic processes that take a long time while people are still in Poland or other countries to get them here, that will mean that because we then want to do the longer-term matching process while people are in Scotland that there will be a period in which we house them in temporary accommodation. There is work on going again, literally as we speak, to secure temporary accommodation in the short-term. That is likely to be hotel accommodation, perhaps university accommodation. It will be our intention for that to be short-term while the longer-term support is put in place. However, having people in that short-term accommodation is preferable to them having to go through long-standing bureaucratic processes just to get here in the first place. Speed of action here is what is really important, but speed of action underpinned by all the proper safeguarding and other processes that I think everybody has a right to expect. I think that there is also a need to recognise that, while we are hugely grateful for and must harness the public support and offers of accommodation, we should not take that for granted nor should we expect members of the public to shoulder a disproportionate part of that responsibility. Some people will be able to offer accommodation, some people will be able to do it for longer than others, but if we are, and we all hope that the war will end quickly and people will be able to go home as quickly as possible, but if people need to be here for a longer period of time, we must be thinking about the long-term sustainability of accommodation rather than expecting members of the public to perhaps make their homes available for very lengthy periods of time. Those are all things that we are thinking about very carefully, but we are not just thinking about them, we are seeking to get on at pace and making sure that we have those arrangements in place so that we can start welcoming people literally within days if the UK Government and the Home Office make it possible for us to do so. Public opinion has now ensured that the UK Government will provide more assistance to refugees than it originally intended. Last August, 3,000 UK households volunteered to take Afghan refugees, but sadly not one has been progressed by Westminster. Does the First Minister agree that Scotland and Wales, by acting as super sponsors for the Ukrainian refugee scheme, will be able to avert further foot dragging by the UK Conservative Government? I know that there have been considerable delays with the UK Government's matching process for Afghan families. Indeed, one of the reasons why initially we argued for the UK Government to take a different route than a community sponsorship route was that our experience has been that we managed to settle more people through the Syrian resettlement scheme than we have done through previous community sponsorship schemes. However, this is the route that the UK Government have opted to take. They have simplified it and made the requirements less onerous than in previous schemes and that is welcome. However, we must continue to do everything that we can to make it as effective and as efficient and as quick and safe and humane for people as possible. If we manage to, as I really hope we will, make a success of this super sponsor proposal, I think that it might give us lessons for how we deal with humanitarian crises like this in future. I hope that the Home Office and the UK Government generally will be open as we will be to learning those lessons as we go. Sarah Boyack is followed by Collette Stevenson. First Minister, you mentioned the importance of the need to learn lessons from supporting people from Syria who have come to Scotland. Employability and welfare rights were mentioned by 78 per cent of respondents in research. What work is the Scottish Government doing now with employers to prepare them to offer jobs to Ukrainians coming to Scotland? What work is the Scottish Government doing to support digital connectivity so that people can access welfare support, keep connected for learning and enabling them to access support networks? The Ukrainian Council general was clear in committee last week that many Ukrainians will want to return to Ukraine to rebuild their country, but we do not know how long that will take, given that many of them have homes that no longer exist. We need to see our businesses able to reach out to Ukrainians so that their skills can be matched with potential employers so that they can support their families. I am keen to hear what the First Minister is doing to make that a reality. I want to give an assurance to the chamber that work across all of those issues is on-going. I think members will understand that the principle and immediate focus is on making the arrangements and getting the agreements to get people here to put immediate support in place for them, to accommodate them with health services and other support in place very quickly, but already we are thinking about employability. We have businesses and sectors that are already making offers of employment and accommodation support. Remember that we need people to come here and work across a range of sectors, so we are already seeking to collate and coordinate that. There will be requirements to help people who perhaps have qualifications in Ukraine to adapt those qualifications here. I cannot give commitment right now, but this is work that we are exploring. If somebody has qualifications in healthcare or in teaching, for example, are we able to support them to quickly make those skills available here? That is all work that is under way. Similarly, in digital connectivity, a big part of that is making sure that we use all the systems that are there to speed up that work. All of that is under way. Some of it will take longer to get in place than other parts of it, because that immediate focus is what is most important. However, all of that is part of a very rapid and comprehensive—the reason why we are working and want to do that through the supersponsor route is so that we can do this much more comprehensively. We have a greater visibility of how many people are here, where they are going to be and what skills they bring that allow us to do that in a holistic way. We will keep Parliament updated as that develops. We referred to the Syrian precedent before. It is worth remembering that we had months to prepare for the Syrian resettlement scheme. We are doing this literally in a matter of days. I can answer every single question in detail right now, but I can give an assurance that all of those questions are being considered and that we are working at pace to put the answers and the arrangements in place. Collette Stevenson, whose journey is remotely, is to be followed by Ross Greer. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Following contact from a constituent in East Kilbride who is waiting on extended family to arrive from Ukraine, the First Minister is to get out how the Scottish Government is working with stakeholders such as local authorities and the Scottish Refugee Council to ensure that accommodation is available for people on arrival. Furthermore, what organisation is best placed to help people with disabilities requiring accommodation? Those are important questions. Most of my comments today in my statement and in the answers that I have been given to questions have been about the people who will come through the Homes for Ukraine route and, hopefully, the super sponsor route that will run in parallel to that in relation to Scotland. It is important to say that we are also standing ready to provide support to those who are coming through the family route. Many of them will not need accommodation because they will be coming to stay with family, but they may need help when they get here, travelling to their destination. They will need help in accessing other services, so we are seeking to put that in place. We have been trying over the past week or so to keep track of people who might be coming into the country already, whether that is people coming into Cairnryan from Ireland, because, obviously, the Republic of Ireland has waved visa requirements, or whether it is people coming in through the family route to airports. As I have said already to the Scottish Refugee Council this morning, it had people at Edinburgh airport at the weekend just to see with boards saying, if you are coming from Ukraine, we are here to welcome you and support you. Some of that is happening already, and we need to make sure that it continues to happen. The accommodation is obviously the critical, most immediate issue for people coming who do not have family accommodation, getting that temporary accommodation in place and then working through those longer-term options is definitely at the top of the priority list in terms of the various issues that we are working through. We have four more members seeking to ask a question, and I am keen to take each of them. In order to do so, I will need to have succinct questions and answers. Across the EU, we have seen incredible solidarity from bus and rail operators providing free transport to those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. From Deutsche Bahn in Germany, the SNCF in France and ferry operators in Sweden, countries and companies have stepped up to provide free, safe travel for refugees. Does the First Minister agree that both the UK and Scottish Governments, as well as transport providers themselves, should join our European neighbours to do similar and help all those seeking refuge here, including those from the devastating war in Ukraine, by offering the widest possible free access scheme to public transport? Yes, I do, and we will seek to reach out to transport providers to make sure that that is the case. Ross Greer is talking about transport and travel within Scotland, but we have already had very tentative discussions exploring the possibilities should people who are in Poland and seeking and get agreement to come to Scotland, whether we can arrange travel for them to Scotland as well. All of that is very much in the ambit of what we are looking at. Not all of those bits of support will be necessary for everybody, but we want to make sure that the support that we are able to provide is as comprehensive and all-encompassing as it can be. I imagine that almost every member in this chamber has been contacted, as I have, by constituents reaching out to offer their support to welcome Ukrainians to Scotland. Is the First Minister confident that the roll-out of the supersponsor scheme can fully utilise and co-ordinate the outpouring of generosity, particularly among Scots who are unsure how to proceed when they have a room to offer, but is yet no name of a person to offer it to? Yes, I am confident that we can, through this scheme, match the generosity of the Scottish public. Just to be clear again about what we are effectively asking the UK Government to do, from Friday, when I understand visas will start to be issued under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, it is effectively issued 3,000 visas to people because we have said that we will sponsor them.  I believe that, through all the work that we are doing, we have operational meetings on-going while we speak here in Parliament right now. I believe that if we get that agreement from the UK Government, then we can put in place the arrangements to give people 3,000 initially and more than that beyond that, that safe sanctuary that they need here. What we need though is the UK Government able and willing to start to issue those visas from this weekend. That is the bit that I hope we are going to get agreement on. I am optimistic about that, but that is the bit that we still need to secure. First Minister, two weeks ago, a couple arrived from Ukraine having faced the trauma of travel. They were turned down for temporary accommodation because they weren't willing to give up one of their cats who they brought with them. Would the First Minister agree with me that there needs to be some primatism from local authorities when people come through horrific situations to allow them to have things that they brought with them to take to that accommodation, whether that is pets or other things? We agree with me that there is a lack of accommodation here within the city, and will people who arrive in Edinburgh go to other parts of the country or just see Edinburgh becoming a major hub? The experience of the Syrian resettlement scheme is that many different parts of Scotland, rural and remote island communities all played their part in welcoming people. I think that that is what we want to see here. Obviously, one of the issues of discussion that we are in with the UK Government right now is that this single super-sponsored proposal is given the practical green light to get a sense of exactly where people will arrive. Will they all arrive into Edinburgh Airport? Will some come via London or other points of entry? Those sound like points of detail—they are points of detail, but they are really important points of detail—to know where we put the initial welcome hubs and then where we immediately accommodate people temporarily while we do that wider matching. The point about pets is an important one—people are fleeing trauma. Not everybody offering accommodation will be willing to take a pet along with a pet, but this is part of the more information and visibility we have of people coming here, the more able we are to assess their needs and to properly match those needs with people willing to offer help here. The super-sponsored proposal is partly—I will be perfectly frank about this—about short-circuiting UK processes that I still think—I have to say this—are too bureaucratic, too cumbersome and are taking too long. It is also about allowing us to offer more comprehensive support by having greater information about people who are coming here. That is why I really hope that it works. If it does, I am confident that the Scottish Government is working with its partners and that that great body of goodwill from across Scotland will make Scotland a place of safety, sanctuary and welcome for as many Ukrainians as possible. I note the proposal for welcome hubs and, if necessary, temporary accommodation. Can I suggest that the Scottish Government could start by utilising premises in its ownership for welcome hubs and that accommodation? In Edinburgh, for example, we have Holyrood Palace. A stone store from here, its own—I understand by the Scottish Government—has lots of space over 200 rooms in its largely under-occupied. I am very keen that we keep our focus on what we are trying to do to help Ukraine. I know that it is a series, but I am taking it seriously. I am just a little bit reluctant to give an answer here that perhaps might generate a headline that detracts from the important work that we are doing. Christine Grahame's general point is right. We should be looking to utilise all possible ways of helping to accommodate people in Ukraine. We are all being asked right now if we will do it. Everybody's circumstances are different, but her general point is absolutely right that all accommodation that we can make available reasonably should do that. That will allow us to ensure that we maximise the contribution that we are making. Thank you, First Minister, and that concludes the statement. There will be a very short pause to allow front-bench teams to change over it for the next time in business.


with this third week and second half of the spring college. So we have a new set of speakers and lecturers. So it's my pleasure to introduce Professor Kaneko. Professor Kaneko spent his career at the University of Tokyo and recently moved to the Nisbold Institute in Copenhagen and is going to lecture about universal biology for the next two weeks. So thank you very much and welcome. Okay, so maybe I should. Yeah, okay. So good morning. Yeah, and so I talk about this universal biology. Maybe almost nobody has heard what is universal biology. Yeah, so but I talk maybe if that kind of field is possible or not within these two weeks, I try to show that, okay, maybe there is some kind of universal law in the sense of physics even for biological systems. So that's my plan. And so, okay, so the basic plan is that so for the first two lectures, I give some kind of introductory parts and some example that there is some kind of universal statistical laws in biology. So that's, okay, the plan for the first two talks. And then, and I think there is a tutorial on by Tuan Pham on Tuesday and Thursday. Probably. Yeah, I guess, yeah. So that's, so in this study, I use some kind of dynamical systems approach and stochastic process approach that is related to statistical physics you've heard already last two weeks. And so maybe some kind of a computer program example, he'll show some kind of tutorial on Tuesday and Thursday. And then so I talk about some kind of examples of such universal biology approach to replication of cells and adaptation or evolution or development. And this order of this evolution or development maybe swapped, it depends on the other seminars. Yeah, and so there are related seminars and the Friday, so actually due to the time difference between Japan and here, so I give the course in the afternoon and instead, so in the morning, Professor Wakamoto at the University of Tokyo gives a very nice presentation on the experiment on the single cell bacteria, how they adapt to new environment and to antibiotics. So that's a very fantastic experimental results. So he'll show that. And then on the next week, so there is a seminar by retorts from Barcelona. And so he'll talk about some kind of evolution-related problem from statistical physics. And so that's a theoretical approach. And then there is another seminar and this is from Japan online and that's Chikara Furusawa, who is both in the University of Tokyo and Riken. And actually he has been a long-term collaborator of mine and he used to be my student, but he is now doing a very fantastic experiment on evolution of bacteria to many different antibiotics and how they are related. And so actually this is related to the theory I present next week. And this is related to maybe you have heard fluctuation, dispassion theorem last week. And so that is kind of application or extension of this idea to evolution. So that I'll talk about next week. Okay, so brief introduction of myself is that so I've been a professor at the University of Tokyo for a long time but then I have to retire with the age rule. And so from last year I moved to Niels Bohr Institute so I'm closer to your place. But actually I do not like a dark cold weather there so in winter time I returned to Japan and so I just came back from Japan. So still a little bit jet lagged. Okay, so the research history of myself, so maybe that's not so important, but anyway I started working on non-linear non-equilibrium statistical physics problem so based on stochastic process. And then I worked on chaos and chaos, especially chaos with many degrees of freedom, pattern, formation and so in that system I worked on for instance coupled map problem and in the coupled map problem there are many many chaotic elements. Simple chaotic dynamics, very simple dynamical systems and then coupled with each other and then it gives some kind of collective dynamics. And so it's some kind of microscopic chaos versus macroscopic chaos and then how this kind of interrelationship introduce some kind of interesting collective dynamics. So that I worked on this and in some sense that is a base of my approach to biology because in biology as I talk today or next day is that there are many many elements so many many molecules and consist of a cell. So there is microscopic and macroscopic relationship and then how this relationship introduce some kind of important biological phenomena. So that's what I called complex systems biology or universal biology. And so as for complex system biology I wrote this book and this is somewhat related to what I talk today but this is a little bit kind of old one. So in Japanese I wrote another book that is this one is universal biology in Japanese. So I hope to give the contents of this through this talk. Okay, so the universal biology so actually this is not the invention of myself this was invented actually surprisingly. More than 50 years ago by this Japanese science fiction writer Sakeo Komatsu who wrote a very interesting science fiction. And so in his one of his novels there is a professor working on universal biology and so that's a very great professor and so that's my kind of hero when I was a high school student and so but it took so long I started to work on universal biology but finally we could start. So the idea is that basically life system has some kind of universal class in nature and so we can have some kind of common phenomenological theory of general laws therein and so in that sense maybe we can understand life system not necessarily restricted to those that happen to be evolved on this earth so maybe in future we may find some life system in some other planet or some other places in the universe so in Canada or some other place and or some people are now making trying to make a kind of protocell so from the laboratory and this is being done for maybe 50 years or something like that and it's progressed and so I had some collaborator working in this experiment and when we did some collaboration maybe 30 years ago or 20 years ago that looked quite difficult but now they're coming close to make a kind of so artificial reproducing cell in the laboratory then when we want to make that okay we can discuss if some general law is applied to such system and the present system also so that's kind of ambition or a dream for long term ambition for the universal biology and okay so actually according to his Novel so universal biology is science to explore universal patterns and possible variations of living organisms in this cosmos and it started to expand at the end of last century and actually this science fiction is so he wrote 50 years ago but this is the topic it's already 21st century so that means 20th century and since then characterization of life term in terms of topological geometry and maybe that corresponds to dynamical systems has developed and now grand theory comparable to relativity is anticipated so and now is now I think so we need to do some kind of thing to realize his novel so that's our plan and actually so inspired by his novel so in University of Tokyo so we set up universal biology institute and there is also universal biology group at Illinois I'm not sure that's maybe that's mostly organized by Nigel Goldenfeld but he moved to California so I'm not sure how it is going on but anyway so there is some approach for that okay so the grand challenge of this universal biology is that in this cell so there are many many components so you have so at least when we discuss about life maybe we can think of cell and cell there are many many so many molecules and actually not only the number of molecules is large so that is common in statistical physics but there are many many too many species so molecule species so for example in even for bacteria so about maybe 5,000 different protein species and similar messenger RNA or some other RNA species and there are many other metabolites and so there are so many chemical species and so people try to make a so reduce this number but still they are not so successful so mostly the important thing is this kind of very diverse diverse molecule species or diverse maybe components so that is maybe most universal property in the life system so still this can be somehow stable and sometimes reproduce so that's amazing in some sense because so many species here and then when this cell grows and divides into two it's not completely the same of course this contents but roughly same so that's quite amazing for in the sense of physics it's so many different species and maybe some of them are not so many so as a number it's not so many but still they can keep some kind of stability so the challenge for us is can we understand it such kind of complex diverse system so that looks too challenging but consider thermodynamics so in thermodynamics we know there are many huge number of molecules here in this room for instance but we have some theory and actually very strong universal theory we have so in that case so we can set up such theory by restricting to equilibrium states or transition between them and so microscopically there are huge number of molecules but by restricting that macroscopically we can have a theory so governed by just a few degrees of freedom that's thermodynamics so in that sense so stability of the equilibrium system is quite important so let us first recall the thermodynamics maybe you have already known quite well but maybe maybe we have such success in the history of physics so when we try to make a kind of universal biology maybe we have to learn such success so we recall how it was successful and so first as I said so we restrict to equilibrium state and maybe transition among them the important thing is that if we just consider any condition of these molecules and with any different conditions it's almost impossible to describe this system just few degrees of freedom so for example here this is very hot here it's not so hot you may need a huge number of temperatures for instance but assuming that equilibrium we can just have few degrees of freedom or maybe temperature pressure or something like that and the important thing is that this equilibrium system is stable so this is stability and stability and irreversibility is maybe the two sides of coins because if the system equilibrium system is stable so if you part up this from this somewhere it comes back here so part up here it comes back here so always there is a direction towards it so that is some kind of irreversibility so assuming that kind of stability of equilibrium system we need some kind of irreversibility so maybe that's how we so from that we introduce so if you have irreversibility then it's going here, going here and then we can make some kind of ordering and then by this ordering we can introduce entropy and actually there is some kind of such axiomatic theory for thermodynamics by Leib and Engafso also so anyway stability and irreversibility is one of the important issues and then of course in thermodynamics we have thermo so that is corresponding to energy and energy but energy and free energy is different so the energy itself is conserved but free energy that can be used is somehow different from that and we have this kind of relationship and so that's the basis of this thermodynamics and related to that so we have some kind of equation of states in so forth that's ideal gas or something and another important point related to also stability and irreversibility is that some kind of fluctuation-response relationship and Le Chatelier principle Le Chatelier principle is that when you perturb the system so then the system tries to react to reduce the applied change and actually so it's again the statement by stability and we will see that something similar will exist in biology because biological system is also stable so and fluctuation-response maybe you already had is that this kind of fluctuation in a biological system or in the thermodynamic system is related to when you apply this external response and external field and response and so these are kind of basic issues in thermodynamics and also in establishing thermodynamics the use of ideal model such as Carnot cycle or ideal gas is quite important and actually of course we know that thermodynamics is not restricted to ideal gas but to establish that by using that is quite useful so these are lessons from thermodynamics when we try to make a kind of universal biology so in the universal biology so inspired by this success by thermodynamics is that okay maybe we consider kind of restriction to kind of steady state or stable state or steady growth state so of course bacteria when you put bacteria into a very bad condition this internal state will change dynamically so during this dynamics occur many interesting but complex phenomena occur but first of all we just forget about that and consider focus on that kind of steady state so after you put this bacteria into a bad condition it takes some time then it becomes stable and it starts to grow and divide and starts to grow and divide they produce basically similar bacteria so we focus on such kind of steady state so that means and actually biological system has quite robustness and that is also we I will discuss this kind of robustness in these lectures basically even if you perturb a little bit it can come back to this original state so that's similar to thermodynamics but of course this is not a equilibrium thermodynamic equilibrium but still it's robustness and then so we can have stability and irreversibility in a similar way as thermodynamics has established so actually that kind of picture is also discussed in famous biologists and actually in this lecture I sometimes discuss about this Waddington's landscape oh waddington somehow the spelling is different Waddington energy aspect and Waddington's landscape so in Waddington's landscape so he discussed cell differentiation so in this multi-cell organism so we have initial cell type and then after cell differentiation development cell differentiates into many different types and so he introduced this kind of landscape so initial cell type and then different cell types but each cell type is sits in the bottom of the valley so that means even if you part of it it comes back so it's a kind of representation of robustness or stability so maybe you can see that this structure of this landscape is somewhat quite related to free energy landscape so in thermodynamic system you have free energy and this is equilibrium so of course this is not free energy his landscape is not free energy but there is some kind of similar concept here so we try to understand that and so maybe for free energy so actually I said that free energy and energy is different but here also in a cell they take for the growth they take nutrients and growth so if there is some kind of conservation all the nutrients imported here can be used for the next generation and nothing is lost but actually that is not true even for the cells in some condition these cells cannot grow still they need some kind of nutrients and consume that so there is some kind of minimal energy to sustain itself so that is some kind of growth so the rate growth rate is nutrient flow minus loss so that is a little bit similar to free energy energy relationship and so okay equation of states so maybe I'll skip that but I'll talk later and as for the Châtelier principle so this is consequence of stability and so evoked first change is compensated by internal response and that is similar to adaptation biological adaptation and evolution we will see and so fluctuation response relationship is that okay I'll talk maybe later yeah this next week yeah okay and also in this universal biology maybe we still lack the so very good ideal model so similar to ideal gas so we want to consider kind of ideal cell model so of course in the real sense it's very very complex and complicated but somehow minimal minimally simplified ideal cell model so I try to introduce some kind of cell model simplified maybe one of the candidates for ideal cell model but maybe that is not the final ideal cell model so maybe you can think of your better ideal cell model so that's yeah after hearing this talk maybe you can consider okay this will be better ideal cell model and that is yeah so our plan okay so that's our hope but of course there is some difficulty and because one of the things that I said that there are many many kinds of molecules many different types of molecules and in the statistical physics mostly they are concerned that's few number of molecular species and instead number is large so statistical physics number this is large so that is thermodynamic limit but here this is how many different types exist that is much more so this is large so this is a kind of new challenge to us and also in statistical physics so microscopic phenomena fluctuation of each molecular dynamics and macroscopic dynamics the time scales are quite well separated and so that's how we can we do not need to discuss so much on each molecules motion when we discuss thermodynamics and so in the biology case if that kind of separation can be applied or not so that's also a challenge but still we can see some kind of consistency between microscopic and macroscopic level and also maybe another difficulty may exist in somehow maybe inherently cellular processes are dynamic so oscillation and that kind of thing exists but maybe that is not so big problem as we see okay so basically what I want to discuss this kind of this problem yeah I already said that and maybe I show that few examples that how biological system is complex and this is a kind of famous picture of this metabolic network of bacteria and actually here at each point here you cannot see but this is some kind of molecule each shows that how this molecular and molecular reaction goes on to make some other so biochemists are so intelligent so they explore each of these and actually this is just only one eighth of the total bacteria and maybe this may not be enough maybe there is some other more exists here but anyway such complex such complicated so that's maybe you can see but still it's amazing that even though this kind of complexity but it's bacteria is bacteria so after division it can have basically same so same of these so in that sense it's a very strong robustness so that's one point and another point is that when we discuss of microscopic level and reaction actually we use a simple reaction dynamics but sometimes this may not be enough is that within this cell every molecules are very much crowded in a condition so like a rush hour in Japanese train so in that sense so it's a strongly interacting system so maybe if you are in quantum physics or condensed matter they are interesting strongly interacting system but this is a very very strongly interacting system each molecule so interact with all nearby molecules always and so such kind of strongly interacting diverse components and still robust so that's maybe you can see the impression of biological system so my standpoint for universal biology is as I already said a little bit is that even though you have very very diverse components and but this has some kind of microscopic macroscopic consistency and so focusing on this microscopic and macroscopic consistency maybe we can have some kind of universal properties or universal laws so that's our plan and yeah so and actually this approach can be applied to many different levels in biology and actually in biology there is always some kind of hierarchy and that is also an important point and why such kind of hierarchy exists or should exist that may be a topic in universal biology and I'm not sure I may not have time to discuss on that so much but anyway usually there is molecules and molecules replicate and with the proteins so it replicates with the aid of DNA and DNA replicates so there's mutually helping and interacting to replicate each other and then they form a cell and then cell reproduce so molecular replicates and cell reproduces and then maybe there is some kind of consistency between this cell reproduction and molecular replication and then as a higher level so multi-cell organism like us has many many different cell types so again many different cell types many different kinds but there is some kind of stability so we have this part of this has a kind of some skin cell or muscle cells or these different cell types exist in a certain fraction and in a certain pattern so that has some kind of multi-cell stability and then at a higher level so there is a ecosystem so like is working on but yeah so that's also a problem of this kind of approach but for this I cannot go on to the ecosystem so much yeah ok so maybe I can say ok this already I said this and so this I already said ok and ok another issue is that this kind of microscopic macroscopic maybe you think of mostly spatial scale so molecule and cell and cell multi-cell organism so that is concerns on the spatial scale but in biology also many different time scales exist and so in within each so consider cell within each generation to produce this there are several reactions going on this reaction is very very fast time scale and then according to that molecules replicate or if you put this cell into a different condition this some kind of adaptation change to change this concentration of these molecules so that's a very fast response and then maybe adaptation to new condition so that takes some time and then as a higher level scale longer time scale there is memory when you put cells into some condition this external so experience to external conditions are memorized to cells sometimes a few generations or so even after division this state is memorized so there is some kind of memory and then for longer time scale there is evolution that occurs much longer time scale because genetic change here to govern the evolution is occurs in a very low rate so that takes more time so for the evolution so again in this case how these different time scale phenomena interfere each other and make a kind of consistent structure so that's a question in this universal biology and actually in the evolution we discuss that consistency with this faster time scale and evolution time scale somehow surprisingly related so that's maybe the topic of next week and this is also the good experimental result by Chikara Furusawa okay so okay I'm not sure maybe so from now I just want to say so I'm not sure how many know about dynamical systems they already know most of them know okay then I can skip that dynamical systems so basically just a few words and actually Tuan will give a kind of somebody already talked about dynamical systems or not in this but but maybe yeah maybe they know already okay so basically dynamical systems approach is that if you have many for instance many components and then the concentration of each molecule so maybe I explain in terms of this kind of problem in dynamical systems the equation of chemical species and chemical species 1, 2, 3, or 4 and if you have thousand chemical species so this is thousand dimensional dynamical systems so the state is the point in a thousand dimensional state space and then dynamical system is that this moves around according to the rule of this equation and then so we can discuss how this goes to some kind of so maybe attractor and final state and this can be yeah discussed in dynamical systems okay maybe then I can skip attractor and so this is a fixed point attractor and limit cycle attractor so as time goes on it reaches to this kind of states and then so maybe we can discuss how this kind of attractor is obtained so maybe so an example here is that okay maybe I'll skip this here today and maybe Tuan will give kind of this example but you also give kind of dynamical systems I don't think we would make the phone dynamical system tutorial but we will briefly mention to try example yeah so okay so maybe I for this moment I skip this and I may come back again okay then okay so then I go to the questions okay so yeah if you have questions so I may go to a little bit next but this is so so general so maybe you have any questions maybe so maybe maybe so so far this is so kind of imagination not something in the fantasy or something like that so I show at least one example that maybe this kind of approach may really possible okay so so this kind of consistency approach so okay so as I said that okay this if you have 5000 so for instance 5000 protein species you have 5000 dimensional system and then can we have some kind of general law from there so I discuss one simple example okay even though you have many many components here so basically if you have 5000 components or something like that so you have okay this kind of this 5000 dimensional but basically this cell grows and divides so within this process each molecule number so there are 5000 species so for instance so this changes with some rule of this reaction so there are some reaction dynamics so this change depending on all others probably and then so this is there is nothing here but then according to this growth maybe at least this grow and divide so basically within this process all molecules number have to be roughly doubled so actually they grow in the same rate so for example if you consider this kind of so this function of all this and in any dynamical systems this can be different by each molecule but if you have a kind of stable growth system that means this should be equal to all molecule components because if you have for instance mu1 is larger than others then as cell grows then this fraction of chemical one increases and then the fraction of chemical one increases and then maybe it cannot be sustained in the same but here I assume that this kind of steady growth cell so after division they have basically same composition so if this is larger then after division then one molecule fraction is increased so it's not steady so to have kind of stable growth this all mu i should be equal so that's a very strong constraint so because mu i is a generally a function of all other molecule components if you have many different molecules here some type of molecules then some reaction going on more and then mu1 or mu2 changes so this gives so mu1 mu chemical species is you have mu1 minus 1 condition so even though you have m or 5000 dimensional dynamical systems this restriction gives mu1 minus 1 so if you try to change this cell sustaining this kind of steady growth then there is so this is constrained into one dimensional manifold because even though m dimension but m minus 1 condition so this is just one so that means if you try to so change this cell in a slightly different condition and keep that so kind of steady condition then it should follow along one dimensional line so here if you do not change no stress here or no environmental condition it just stays there but what we did is that we apply a little bit stress and then after so when we apply a stress maybe internal state will change and during that we cannot discuss because we are restricting kind of steady growth state like we are discussing in equilibrium state so during that change we are not sure but after this change maybe we assume that this cell comes to a kind of stable growth state again and then in that case again this relationship should be satisfied so then maybe this one dimensional constraint and then slightly change external condition and then along this and along this so by that we have can consider this one dimensional constraint and then from that we show that there is some kind of general relationship and that can be confirmed experimentally so that's this so plan for 20 minutes or something like that okay so so in some sense maybe this is somewhat analogy to thermodynamics so when we put this equilibrium system in a different condition then maybe if you put this kind of this is very hot this is lower temperature then each position's temperature may change but after equilibrium it goes to sing temperature and then we discuss this equilibrium state so when we discuss this cell and put this cell into a different condition maybe then responding to this external condition maybe chemical one is more needed here and this abundance is increased then during that mu one increases and mu two decreases or something like that but after all it comes back to the state that this growth rate is same as long as this cell keeps kind of steady growth after in this condition I have a question so this picture seems to suggest that the only thing that matters to understand the system is the growth rate or mu but suppose that you have E. coli growing with the same growth rate in two different conditions then the composition will be different so here I assume that okay this will not bifurcate so it's always kind of there is single stable state so that's kind of restriction also yeah so there is some kind of yeah so in that sense we are not putting this very very strong stress so if we put a very very strong stress maybe we may hear some example by professor Akamoto that this cell may become a kind of different states but here we are assuming that okay the stress is not so strong to switch to a completely different state I have a sort of I mean even if the stress is not strong suppose that I apply two different type of stress right I don't know I change the temperature or I give antibiotics yeah so actually if you apply a different type of stress okay maybe for one type of stress this goes along this and for a different type of stress it goes a different line so it's yeah yeah okay so we try to write a simple equation for this okay so now instead of the number we consider the concentration of each chemical component so you have xi xi so basically you have yeah now you have chemical species here and each concentration of this is xi so i chemical component so just for instance just consider protein you have 5000 proteins and this concentration xi and then this concentration is so concentration is basically if you have volume of this cell and then each component here but the point here is that volume increases as the cell grows and volume grows and when it becomes twice it's basically yeah split into two so V increases and so as I said this increases so with this but also volume increases and if this all increases with the same rate then this volume also increases with this so basically cell volume growth rate is mu here so with this growth each molecule concentration is diluted if the cell becomes twice the volume becomes twice then the concentration becomes half if it's not increased so basically there is a term so by this volume growth it's diluted so this is dilution so if nothing occurs this is just this term but here there is some reaction and produce each chemical component and that gives any other so maybe it depends on any other molecule concentration in general so you have some equation here and this so this is the equation here and then we are considering the steady growth state steady growth state means that this is so after all this is basically constant so that means this cell so for this yeah and so that's the condition here and I can use the concentration itself but in many cases it's more convenient to use log concentration instead of concentration itself so in that case this is just a change of variable and then assume that this can be written so this is just a change from small f to large f it's just a change of variable and so that means this original equation changes to because dividing x so this is just what I just used this logarithmic x derivative so this question yeah I assume that everything is not 0 correct yes yeah so you are using deterministic equations so whereas what is happening there is large distochastic because there are reactions that is not discussed here and actually this may lead to some kind of problem of fluctuation and actually I may go into the fluctuation problem later just to forget about the is there a rational by which you can neglect fluctuation it's just an approximation for the moment it's just an approximation yeah and actually so maybe some molecules concentration are very minor and so this very few number then the fluctuation is much larger so that is an important question but here I just forget about fluctuation yeah and also another important assumption here is that okay this x is not 0 so sometimes molecule number may go to 0 but maybe most important chemicals we are concerned on this so important chemicals then probably we can assume that they are not 0 of course this is a assumption yeah sir I have a question how are we incorporating these stresses into the equations okay now okay it's okay now we import the stress condition here and so if you apply so this is the condition here and then there is some kind of external condition and external condition change of course by changing external condition this reaction process changing so if you put some stress some reaction is not going on if you put some heat then some reaction goes on much more and some are not so much and then this changes so this is a function external function of environment of stress and so if you write here there is some kind of environment so then also there accordingly the growth rate changes so this is also concerned and x is also finally it goes to change of this environment so the if you assume that okay environmental stress is represented by a scalar variable e then you can write down this equation this equation put e and then the steady condition is this something like this yes so why we are considering only linear dependence up to mu in the mu like can't we take higher order dependence this mu here yeah yeah but this is just dilution so if you increase the volume rate so every yeah component so if v increases just so v increases then accordingly the concentration decreases so it's a yeah x is yeah n divided by v so the increase of v so and in the derivative form yeah so if you increase this real then accordingly so then and if this is just so slow so derivative change so it's just so if you make this a larger and if nothing occurs then it's so the concentration is diluted and then so with the derivative yeah you can write down maybe you can check easily by this calculation yeah okay so so we have this equation so this is yeah kind of condition that I said for this kind of one dimensional constraint because this means that mu is a growth rate of the cell volume so so finally it goes to this steady state this should be satisfied here f1 f2 fm so it's a different reaction process is going on so it's a different function and different form but this mu this is independent of i so this should be equal to this equal so you have m minus 1 condition so that's one dimensional constraint so that's what I said okay from this I make another okay another kind of simple or it's some kind of traditionally physics approach is that linearization so starting from the original state you put some kind of environmental stress and assuming that this change external change by stress or external degree of stress is not so large then we can linearize the change everything and so that leads to okay from this equation and change e to delta e so after you make a change from e to e plus delta e and then this is also e plus delta e then linearize everything but delta e is not so large so then we can use okay so this is just a very simple jacobi matrix here so for each component and then plus maybe environmental stress change itself this function for myself and so slightly change so that's kind of this and then delta mu change accordingly and the point here is that this is computed at without the stress condition so this is computed without the stress condition because we linearize everything around here so put some kind of stress delta e is not so large and then linearize everything so of course originally maybe like that but linearize everything so then so I write down this equation here so here I use jacobi matrix j a i j here and so this is some kind of susceptibility so this depends on environmental type so heat and different type of yeah stress may change this so okay so you agree this equation of course this is linearize linearize I'm not sure if it's really good to linearize or not so that's also approximation and then so using that okay then basically if you use the inverse matrix of this jacobi matrix L then you can solve this so basically you have j delta x so and assuming L is then we can write down this kind of equation that delta x is and then okay delta mu again this linear regime so this should be proportional to some yeah environmental stress here so basically you have alpha and then delta e and so you get this equation here so this is just a linear algebra simple calculation so assuming that I assume linearization so this is just yeah then okay from this we can write down this equation here so this is just a linear algebra calculation then if you apply two strengths two types of strengths so what we want to do now is that you apply heat stress for a little bit and a little bit much more and then you can have a state different and then we compute here and delta x i and much more e plus or something like that then you can write down two equations here if you apply two strengths of this yeah equation and put e and e prime so that means delta x j we have these two equations this is just simply we write this e to e prime and divide these two so and these terms are cancelled here gamma i depends on the stress type because gamma i was so if you have a totally different strength type this may be different so this depends on stress type but for the same stress type and as long as this change is not so large we can have the same gamma i so this is measured at the state at e equals zero no stress state so basically this can be cancelled out so we get this equation so this is an interesting equation because this delta x j e delta x j e prime so this can be measured by so putting this cell into a different condition each component and the concentration changes and then we can measure each and growth rate can be measured by measuring this bacterial growth and the important thing is that mu is just the growth rate of a cell so it's independent of each molecule so the left side sign which includes j each molecule component but if you divide these two this value is independent of each molecule so that's theoretical consequence of course here we assume that kind of steady growth and everything molecule is not zero and linearization so this is a simplification so we can check experimentally if this is valid or not and actually there is an experiment so in this experiment so now in biology there are many many recent technological advances and so they can get many important quantities they are quantitatively so in this experiment what they did is that they measure so in this bacteria there are maybe 4,000 proteins and corresponding to each protein there are messenger RNA so they measured messenger RNA so different types, different chemical species of messenger RNA so you have maybe 4,000 messenger RNA so that corresponds to XI so they can measure this XI concentration by some kind of technological advances so what they did is that they measure the protein into some condition and they wait for some time that the cell can recover the steady growth and then they measure this concentration so in this case they measure not the single cell but average over many cells so in that sense of stochasticity is removed from all the cells so this is XI and then they measure this XI in a different environmental stress and then what this theory says ok instead of using XI maybe you use log X XI and then XI we measure and then XI we put some stress stress so for instance in this experiment so they put some increase the temperature a little bit and then a little bit and increase the temperature more so this degree of this temperature increase here and then they measure this and then what the theory says that we consider delta XI delta XI is just delta E minus XI original so we can measure this from this experiment and then the theory says that ok let's plot delta XI delta XI E and delta XE prime and plot this then it's independent of each component I so then what we need to check is that E1 delta XI E2 and we have for instance 4,000 messenger RNA species and then maybe for one messenger RNA this value, for another messenger RNA this value, for another messenger RNA this value, this value so the theory says that this log, this fraction is independent of each messenger RNA so it should follow this line and so let's check that experimentally and so this is the result so this is an example that you put this is some temperature increase and this is a much larger temperature increase and so each point corresponds to a different messenger RNA ok, looks like ok of course there are some kind of fluctuation but maybe this experimentally technical problem also exists and maybe there are some inherent fluctuation exists but still ok and they did this kind of osmotic pressure and there are a few messenger RNAs that are a little bit deviated but consider that there are 4,000 points here so most of these points follow the same line and this is starvation so decrease the nutrients and then ok, so this kind of simple theory seems to work at least to some degree so and also this slope so from this theory this slope should be, the theory says that and actually this is the line we put here so expected from this and actually these can be measured separately because this cell grows so one can count the number of cells and then how this number of cells so the number of cells increases basically if the cell grows and it's divided so the number increases accordingly so basically the number of cells with this great mu and this, so they experimentally they can measure how this cell number increases the growth rate so that that can be measured separately so it's a kind of, so the same experiment but in a different measurement condition measurement too but anyway they measure mu and from this we can measure how this growth rate decreases and actually this is this example of this growth rate this growth rate is originally here so maybe roughly in this case in a good condition bacteria divides by roughly by 20 minutes so 1 over 20 minutes is the growth rate and then in kind of this heat condition then this decreases and if you put more heat this decreases and if you put more heat this decreases and we actually measured comparing these three different conditions little stress, medium stress and high stress and plot all these conditions and measure this kind of thing so for instant for this osmotic pressure so three levels of osmotic pressure here and heat three levels of heat and three levels of starvation so you can see somehow osmotic pressure there are more deviations, we do not know why but there are little deviations some deviated chemicals but anyway it's not so large compared with the total 4000 just maybe 10 species or something and heat as you can see mostly along this line and starvation mostly along this line and this is the estimate so this slope from this growth rate so the theory is so simple but it works rather well in this experiment and there are ok maybe I need it's almost time so I finish soon ok there are ok maybe one may think ok this is maybe not may not be so much surprising because ok the bacteria anyway in a steady growth condition we try to make this so carefully and maybe one questionable thing is that we used linearization so linearization usually we know that ok small perturbation then we can make linearize everything but in the reaction process within this cell maybe highly non-linear many many reaction processes going on many many molecules commit with each other so this function generally should be rather non-linear and so linearization if it works or not we are not so sure and also interestingly in this experiment you can see this growth rate decreases in this condition and actually this is some strong stress condition according to that delta mu is delta mu mu after environmental stress is that almost 0.2 or 0.0 original so initially 20 so the bacteria can grow per 20 minutes but in some condition it grows only after maybe 2 hours or something like that so in that sense very strong stress and actually the experiment do not impose further stress actually they impose further stress but then the steady growth condition cannot be reached so well so they try to make many quite large stress as long as the steady growth condition is satisfied linearization seems to work rather well so you can consider some kind of yeah spring and then hook slow is valid before as long as it can be the spring shape form and if you try to make this spring is broken so the cell is something like that so as long as it can steadily grow it's almost linearization works so it's a linearization works so so that's one mystery so so far the theory cannot say anything why why linearization works so well and okay another point okay another point okay maybe I that's we solve this next week is that another point we are concerning here surprising point okay surprising point is that okay we can consider a different type of stress so heat versus osmotic pressure or starvation versus heat or something like that and the theory cannot say anything because when we derive that equation we assume that gamma i is identical for different type of stress different strength of stresses because it's when we divide into this for different stress condition so we need to cancel out but for a different stress condition one condition go in here and another condition may go to a different direction then we cannot these two terms cannot cancel then we cannot derive that linear relationship and actually of course in the experiment still we have experimental data we can just plot this and then the result is something like that okay this is much worse compared with this comparison between the same strength but still considering that there are 4,000 points so many different so in this case of starvation versus osmotic pressure heat versus starvation this roughly follows the linear relationship of course this deviation is larger but still there is some kind of common trend so that's another mystery so linearization why it so works then across different environmental conditions still somewhat okay these cannot be answered with this simple theory and what is missing here is that bacteria is not just a kind of steady growth system it's a result of evolution and then considering evolution we may derive this kind of thing on the topic of maybe next week okay so maybe okay it's about 30 minutes so okay so yeah thank you Questions? Thanks I was wondering can deviation from the low in gene expressions can consider that signals that the specific gene is important for the correct and steady reproducibility of the organism because maybe the tighter like the more important is the gene the tighter has to follow that expression you cannot be wrong that much with respect to the total yeah so probably these so mutually linear relationship region is that so they keep the state in a good condition and as long as it keeps in this kind of stable state so this kind of mutual relationship should satisfy should be satisfied and then but still some molecules specifically respond to some kind of specific external condition and that may not be so cancelled out by others so such kind of specific molecules exist probably and so actually similar thing is so okay this kind of yeah probably in a different so environmental condition maybe some are deviated here so maybe this is specific to osmotic pressure or something like that but others there are 4,000 points here so others are mutually consistent with each other to have a kind of stable state so that's a very high dimensional but it's restricted to this kind of and actually recently yeah Yuichi Wakamoto measured some kind of many many new techniques and many changes and he found this kind of behavior and we are calling this homeostatic core so many molecules so they are mutually consistent so among 4,000 maybe 3800 molecules are homeostatic core and maybe some others are kind of specific yeah but that's quite important question yeah other questions when you say that setting all mules to be the same corresponding to the system being in steady growth could you expand that a bit more like why is it like why is setting mules the same is the steady growth okay so in the experiment so one can see that if mu is changing so this cellar state after division may change yeah so if maybe one can check that okay this kind of concentration of this Xi does not change so much after making divisions so if you put this cell into bad condition initially this change and then after so repeating this cell division process and then maybe after one day or something yeah that comes to kind of steady condition so only after that we know that and how long it takes we are not sure at this theory yeah after a long time and how long it is is a kind of difficult question so in this experiment they did this condition okay up to this kind of stress and if you put much stronger heat then the cell state changes and maybe if you wait much longer time it may go to a steady state but then the question is that if you wait many many time then cells may evolve so that the problem of time scales initially I said that this different time scales exist and here I consider the time scale that's only within the adaptation so during which cells do not evolve so they do not change the mutation if that occurs then maybe we revise this theory totally so far this is not included but here I assume within this time scale for adaptation this is yeah so experimentally it's quite difficult to choose such kind of condition so actually I'm not doing any experiment but this group Yomo's group they did a very yeah nice yeah techniques yeah I have one question so the equation you showed delta mu equals to that Jacobian time something that equation so can it be related to other kind other equations in some statistical system like I want to physically understand that equation is that equation derivable in some other processes so you mean this equation of this kind of yeah so you mean to get some from statistical physics or something yes okay so for instance it's not so easy to get from for instance in equilibrium statistical so yeah I think it's not so this is purely dynamical systems type approach and of course this reaction rate is determined by from some kind of term dynamics so from that so maybe you can use some kind of statistical physics and but this law is in a kind of different level from a usual yeah term dynamics statistical equilibrium state and for instance this reaction rate and this reaction process is not necessarily given by thermal equilibrium equilibrium yeah so but the point is that independent of the details of this reaction rate or something we can derive this kind of thing so it's a kind of different universality from the usual different universality of the statistical physics or for thermodynamic equilibrium okay there are no other questions we can take the break thank you yeah it is I don't know if I will have time because I also have lectures oh okay yeah the paper with the signatures so you are giving a lecture no no no I'm lecturing in the university in the university


Good job. Good morning. I'm really pleased to be joined today by four of my colleagues in government as we assign a bill that brings relief to New York. I'm home owners. We're here with the co-sponsors, Councilman Justin Brennan, Councilman Kalman Yaga, Councilwoman Camilla Hanks, Camilla Hanks, and long-time fighter for this bill, Councilman Joe Borelli. This is something that you've found important for many years. We want to thank this speaker, Adrian Adams for being one of the lead co-sponsors of this bill. We know right now too many New Yorkers and middle income homeowners across our city and boroughs are struggling. We often talk about low income, but many of the moderate and middle income New Yorkers are also feeling the pinch. COVID-19 has brought a level of despair for them and has made matters worse. Broken people lost wages while their cost of living continues to increase. And we want to remove some of that worry and burden that New York homeowners are feeling. And so today we deliver for them. These council members came together and made sure to produce a bill that would give relief to these homeowners. Intro 600 provides a property tax rebate of up to $150 to low and middle income homeowners. This will implement a state authorized law allowing the city to provide a rebate of property taxes for eligible properties on fiscal year 2022. And I am extremely pleased with this. I think far too often we forget about our middle income homeowners and even low income homeowners that are trying to eke out living every day in the city as a city and countries becoming more and more expensive. I want to turn it over to my good friend, co-sponsor of the bill, Councilman Justin Brennan. Thank you, Mayor. We've successfully identified the one thing that old New Yorkers can agree on. Our property tax system is badly broken and the city is doing its part. The city is doing everything it's can to fix the property tax system. And this is a way for us to give just a little bit back to property owners. Like the mayor said, I think sometimes people think that if you own a home or a co-op or a condo, you're rich. That's not the case. Homeowners and co-op and condo owners are struggling. This is the first time in 15 years that the city is giving money back to middle and low income homeowners. So that's a really, really big deal. And I like to call it a rebate while you wait. While we wait to get the property tax system actually reformed, this is a good faith down payment to say, look, we're working on it. We need our partners in Albany to help us out. But this is the city saying we're serious about fixing this. And this is just a little bit to ease your burden. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a great day. And Councilman Yegan, Carmen Yegan. You know, you get to the park after a couple of people speak that everything's been said, but not everybody said it. But I do really want to thank the mayor for your leadership and for your advocacy on this. This is something that you believe in as well as we do. You know, it's been said that the city has this kind of resource. Well, why should we give it back? It's a reminder, I think, that tax dollars belong to the taxpayers, not the tax spenders. And it's a small, small rebate. It's a start. But as my colleague Chair Brannon said, you know, our tax property system, our property tax system is broken. It is a regressive system. It's something that members who are here have been advocating for for a long time. And as the mayor, when he was our president and state senator, was also advocating for a reform of a system that far too often taxes the retirees of New York out of their own homes. This is a small measure, a way for us to say we get it, we hear your pain, we feel your pain, we understand where you're coming from. And particularly, particularly the last three years has shown that if we don't do something to recognize the middle class, their contributions to New York City, and particularly those who are struggling to reach that middle class, we're going to lose them. This is a way to make sure that doesn't happen. So again, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your leadership, I'm very grateful. And I will be honest, I'm now in today. Yes. Councilwoman Hanks. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good morning. So property taxes have long been a serious issue across our city, and I'm glad that we can deliver some relief for those in need. Most of my colleagues today have said the same thing, so I echo in that sentiment. But this was a truly bipartisan effort with my colleagues in New York City Council that put money in the pockets of homeowners, and we're glad to be able to get it done. My colleague, Joe Borelli, says they're Borelli Bucks and Hanks Bank. So thank you, Mayor Adams, Speaker Adams, for your collaboration and leadership. Staten Island has always forgotten in case of property taxes. We're never forgotten. So thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And my good friend, Joe Borelli, Councilman from Staten Island. I'm glad Councilmember Hanks mentioned that because the one thing that was consistent in all the months of negotiation would be that they would be, in fact, called Borelli Bucks. But today I think we gotta rename them. I think we gotta either call them Adams' allocations or perhaps Eric Shekels or something because this is a lot of good options. But this is really just more than anything. This is a sign that the city is acknowledging that the property tax system is problematic we don't give money back without a good reason. That's just the truth about this government and every other city government in the country. We don't give money back unless there's a good reason. And in this case, the good reason is that our property tax system is broken. So this is an acknowledgement, a receipt maybe, that the system needs reform. The good news that with the combination with the state's rebate, we're talking about $450, which is actually between five and 10% of most homeowners property tax bills. So trust me, if we raise people's property taxes between five and 10%, there'd be pitchforks coming down Broadway right now. So people should be a little bit excited that in total they'll be getting about five or 10% reduction this year. Hopefully we can do it next year. We can never predict what the outcome is. But one thing we can predict is that we have to move forward on reforming the system that creates this inequitable system. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your support. And again, can't wait to see my Eric Shekels come in the mail. We, thanks for the comments. I really wanna thank these electors, these councilmen and women for this important bill. We will open the floor up to any comments from the public. If no comments, we will sign the bill. Thank you.