The Pollution Release and Transfer Register System in the U.S. and Japan: An Analysis of Productivity

This study analyzes productivity in the context of environmental regulations on the provision and dissemination of environmental information. Our study measures total factor productivity (TFP) by considering the emission of toxic chemical substances in the U.S. and Japan and the two countries’ corresponding policies. We apply the directional distance function to measure the Luenberger productivity indicator to estimate TFP. The data for U.S. and Japanese manufacturing firms include 386 firms over 1999 and 2007 and 466 firms over 2001 to 2008, respectively. This paper focuses on nine industries with highest pollution intensity: rubber and plastic, chemicals and allied products, paper and pulp, steel and non-ferrous metal, fabricated metal, industrial machinery, electric products, transportation equipment, and precision instruments. These nine sectors are categorized into two industry groups: the basic materials group and the processing and assembly group. The results show that productivity improved in all industrial sectors in the U.S. and Japan from 2001 to 2007. In particular, the electric product industry improved rapidly after 2002 for both countries. The enforcement of RoHS and the REACH directive in Europe might be one of the reasons for these increases. These stringent restrictions on toxic chemical substances give U.S. companies that export to the European market a strong incentive to treat their toxic chemical substances

Low-Temperature Characteristics of an AlN/Diamond Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator

Phonons confined in mechanical resonators can be coupled to a variety of quantum systems and are expected to be applied to hybrid quantum systems. Diamond surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are capable of high efficiency in phonon interaction with color centers in diamond. The temperature dependence of the quality factor is crucial for inferring the governing mechanism of coupling efficiency between phonons and color centers in diamond. In this paper, we report on the temperature dependence of the quality factor of an AlN/diamond SAW device from room temperature to 5 K. The temperature dependence of the quality factor and resonant frequency suggests that the mechanism of SAW dissipation in the AlN/diamond SAW resonator at 5 GHz is the phonon-phonon scattering in the Akheiser region, and that further cooling can be expected to improve the quality factor. This result provides a crucial guideline for the future design of AlN/diamond SAW devices.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

In Vitro Fertilization Activators for Future

Artificial insemination is an indispensable technology for cattle breeding and is used for treating infertility in humans. Thus, new or improved methods are needed to increase the efficiency of artificial insemination. In vitro fertilization (IVF) has been developed in mice. Although many mouse lines produced using IVF have been preserved by freezing embryos and/or fertilized eggs, the more efficient IVF using freezing preservation or long‐term refrigeration of sperm is expected to preserve mouse lines more easily. In this chapter, we introduce the active compounds in licorice to improve the rate of IVF. We previously reported that the rate of IVF in mice was improved by adding a water extract of licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis), but not glycyrrhizin, to the artificial insemination culture medium. Recently, we analyzed the active ethyl acetate fraction containing high levels of flavonoids. This fraction was further purified by bioassay‐guided separation to isolate isoliquiritigenin and formononetin, which contributed to the improved rate of IVF. Isoliquiritigenin and formononetin may be useful therapeutic agents for infertility treatment

Molecular cloning of haploid germ cell-specific tektin cDNA and analysis of the protein in mouse testis

AbstractTektins are a class of proteins that form filamentous polymers in the walls of ciliary and flagellar microtubules. We report here the molecular cloning of a new member of the tektin family, tektin-t, identified from a mouse haploid germ cell-specific cDNA library. Tektin-t mRNA encodes a protein of 430 deduced amino acids possessing RSNVELCRD, the conserved sequence of tektin family proteins. Western blotting showed a single band having a molecular weight of 86 kDa in the mouse testis. Immunohistochemistry of the testis showed that tektin-t is localized in the flagella of elongating spermatids from developmental step 15 to maturity

インドネシアジャワ島南央部における高地の天水農業の収量とグローバル指数との関係について

Although there has been a high interest to investigate the relationship between climate and crop yields in Indonesia, little evidence is available for crops in highland of the country. This study evaluates the relationships between global climate indices (Southern Oscillation Index, SOI; sea surface temperature, SST) and rain-fed crop yields in Gunungkidul district, highland of South-Central Java. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approach was used to summarize the averaged SSTs during planting season for the El Nino monitoring regions: IOBW (Indian Ocean Basin-Wide), Nino.West and Niiio.3. Crops yield of each sub-district of the area was detrended using a 5-year moving average to enhance reliability of the data. For some sub-districts, the first principal component of SSTs was negatively correlated to crop yield residuals of corn and soybean while SOI was positively correlated to that of corn and dryland paddy.インドネシアにおいては気候と農作物収量との関係に高い関心が寄せられているが，高地農業に関しては進展が少ない状況である。本研究では，南方振動指数（SOI）および海水面温度（SST）のグローバル指数とジャワ島南央部に位置するグヌンキドウール地区における天水農作物収量との関係を分析した。３つの地域（IOBW, Niňo.ＷestおよびNiňo.3）のＳＳＴに対して主成分分折（PCA）を適用し，その代表となる主成分を抽出した。各地域の作物収量データの信頼性を向上させるために，元の収量データとその５年移動平均値から残差を計算し，正規化した。いくつかの地域では，SSTの第１主成分とトウモロコシ・ダイズの残差との間に負の相関を示し，またSOIはトウモロコシ・陸稲の残差との間に正の相関を示すことが明らかとなった