Studies on Changes in Japan's Dairy Farming Regions and Related and Related Factors

Recently, in lndonesia, through big increases in milk consumption within the last few years, dairy farming regions have tended to move from big consuming areas to the outskirs. It has become a big problem as to how to create new production areas. so in this paper, at first we will review dairy development and regional movements in Japan. Second, our objective is to make clear what factors are involved in the regional movement of dairy farming. (1)First, we looked over the realities of regional development. The development of dairy farming in Japan has experienced an introduction period, a growing period, and a ripe period, and the number of dairy cattle has increased. From 1960 to 1990, the main production areas which were located near the big cities on a small scale have moved to the suburbs and increased in scale. When we look over the share of dairy cattle, those of Tokyo and Osaka prefecture have decreased and that of remote areas has increased. (2) We have clarified the factors of change in the dairy farming regions clear. We undertook regression analysis for this purpose. In this analysis, the factors of regional change turned out to be as follows. 1) Dividing the whole nation into 9 blocks. The sign of the coefficients of population and numbers of dairy cattle per household are plus. The sign of the coefficient of dairy production costs is negative. 2) Calculation of the whole nation by prefecture. The coefficient of population is almost constant. In contrast with this, the coefficient of employment fee is negative and its absolute value is increasing year by year. (3)Conclusions Dairy farming regions have tended to be concentrated in cities and prefectures whose populations are large, but gradually, they have nationwide spread. Recently, production areas have moved to Hokkaido and Kyusyu, where competitive power is strong. Factors in the regional movement of dairy farming are wage levels, rents production costs, natural conditions and so on.以上の分析結果を要約し結論すると、日本における酪農地域変動の実態とその要因について明らかにした。まず、日本の牛乳消費は国民所得の増大にともない増加してきたことがわかった。そして①酪農地域は牛乳消費の増加の中で当初は人口の多い都市及び都道府県に集中していたが、交通条件の発達により次第に全国に普及し、さらに近年においては産地競争力の強い北海道及び九州等に産地が変動していることが明らか化になった。②酪農の地域変動要因は多様であるが、人口の多い地域から雇用労賃水準や地価の低い地域へ、または生産費の低い地域へ変動していることがわかった。さらには自然的条件の優れた地域へ立地が変動していることが判明した。また、表を用いた分析で1人当り年間牛乳消費量は1人当り年間国民所得と正の関係があることがわかった。したがって、インドネシアにおいてもこのような日本の経験を考慮して産地育成を図っていく必要がある

Amygdala Response During Anticipatory Anxiety in Patients with Tension-type Headache

Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most prevalent primary headache disorder, affecting 0.5%〜4.8% of the population worldwide. Psychological factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of TTH. For instance, depression and anxiety are thought to enhance central sensitization, and thus increase the frequency of headaches. In this study, we used the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and measures of anxiety to analyze personality traits associated with TTH. Specifically, we were interested in the relationship between these variables, respiratory responses, and brain activity. Our results showed that individuals with TTH had significantly higher state anxiety scores compared with healthy controls. In addition, individuals with TTH showed a greater increase in RR during a stressful task involving anticipation of an electrical stimulation. During anticipatory anxiety, there was bilateral amygdala (AMG) activation in TTH patients, while only the right AMG was activated in healthy controls. Interestingly, patients in the TTH group with high levels of state anxiety and high scores on schizophrenia scales had the following MMPI personality traits: peculiar perception, poor familial relationship, difficulties concentrating, and lack of deep interest. We suggest that the psychological factors associated with the above-mentioned brain activation might induce peripheral muscle pressure, which then triggers headaches

Parallel Activation of the Amygdala and Visual Cortex Estimated by Dipole Tracing Analysis during Visual Stimulation of Fear and Sadness

In this study we used the electroencephalograph (EEG) dipole tracing method to analyze the visual and emotional evoked potentials (VEEPs) triggered by emotional stimuli induced by pictures of fear, sadness and happiness selected from the International Affective Picture System. We hypothesized that if we used the emotional pictures as triggers for averaging the EEG, we could determine VEEPs, and dipoles could be estimated in the visual cortex as well as in the areas related to the picture-induced emotions. We found the VEEP components elicited by fearful and sad stimuli were quite similar and there were no differences in the root mean square values of the positive waves, P1 and P2, in these two stimuli. However, the VEEP elicited by the happy stimulus had a significantly different amplitude compared to the fearful and sad stimuli. Different amplitude components of VEEPs between negative and positive emotions might be caused by differences in the processing of activations. The negative emotions of fear and sadness activated the amygdala in parallel with the visual cortex immediately after the stimuli; and at a later time period the anterior cingulate cortex was activated for conscious awareness of the negative emotions. A simple happy stimulus does not need parallel activation of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, along with activation of the visual cortex. We suggest that parallel processing in the visual cortex and amygdala might serve to rapidly evaluate stimuli, in readiness for the conscious awareness of negative emotions

Individual Radiation Exposure Dose Due to Support Activities at Safe Shelters in Fukushima Prefecture

Immediately after the accidents in the nuclear power stations in Fukushima on March 11, the Japanese Government ordered the evacuation of the residents within a 20-km radius from the station on March 12, and asked various institutions to monitor the contamination levels of the residents. Hirosaki University, which is located 355 km north of Fukushima City, decided to send support staff to Fukushima. This report summarizes the results of the exposure of 13 individual teams from March 15 to June 20. The support teams surveyed more than 5,000 people during this period. Almost all subjects had external contamination levels of less than 13 kcpm on Geiger-Müller (GM) survey meter, which is categorized as “no contamination level.” The 1st team showed the highest external exposure dose, but the 4th team onward showed no significant change. Subsequently, the internal radiation exposure was measured using a whole body counter that indicated undetectable levels in all staff members. Although the measured external radiation exposure dose cannot have serious biological effects on the health of an individual, a follow-up study of the residents in Fukushima and other regions where the radioactive material has spread will be required for a long time

Increased tolerance to photooxidative stress by overexpression of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase in transgenic tobacco

76-80Under abiotic stress conditions, plants suffer from oxidative damage caused by increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Although chloroplasts are the main source of ROS generation in plant cells, changes in ROS level in mitochondria affect plant stress response. In this study, we investigated whether overexpression of mitochondrial manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) can enhance tolerance to photooxidative stress. We produced transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing rice Mn-SOD under the control of cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, and assessed the stress tolerance of those plants. The transgenic lines showed higher total SOD activity by 2.8 to 5.2 fold than wild type plants. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurement revealed that the stress-induced inhibition of photosystem II was alleviated under high light, chilling and heat stresses in the transgenic lines. This result indicates that the Mn-SOD contributes to the defense against photooxidative damages in chloroplasts under these stress conditions

Autoantibodies to insulin, insulinoma-associated antigen-2, and zinc transporter 8 improve the prediction of early insulin requirement in adult-onset autoimmune diabetes

Objective: The aim of this study was to indentify the predictive marker for early insulin requirement in adult-onset autoimmune diabetes in the Japanese populations.Design/Patients: We analyzed insulin autoantibodies (IAA), IA-2 autoantibodies (IA-2icA), and ZnT8 autoantibodies (ZnT8A) by radioimmunoassay in 47 Japanese patients with adult-onset autoimmune diabetes who were identified by native GAD autoantibody (nGADA) screening in ~3,000 non-insulin-requiring diabetes and in 302 nGADA-negative type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, GAD65 autoantibody-specific epitopes were also analyzed using GAD65/GAD67 chimeric constructs.Results: The prevalence of IAA, IA-2icA and ZnT8A in nGADA-positive patients was 26%, 15%, and 19%, respectively, which was significantly higher than that in nGADA-negative type 2 diabetes (2%, 2%, and 2%, P<0.0001). Among nGADA-positive patients, 38% had one or more of IAA, IA-2icA, or ZnT8A, and 15% had two or more of these autoantibodies, compared with none of the nGADA-negative patients (P<0.0001). Thirty-six % of nGADA-positive patients subsequently required insulin therapy, and high nGADA titer (log-rank P=0.003), middle epitope recognition of GAD65A (P=0.002), and the presence of one or more of IAA, IA-2icA, or ZnT8A (P=0.002) at diagnosis marked the risk for early requirement of insulin therapy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed the multiple islet autoantibodeis to be independently associated with the risk for insulin requirement (Odds ratio=13.77, 95%CI: 2.77-68.45, P=0.001).Conclusions: These results indicate that the determination of IAA, IA-2icA, and ZnT8A improves the prediction of a future insulin insufficiency in adult-onset autoimmune diabetes, which appears to be superior to GADA titer and GAD65A-specific epitopes

Humoral immune response to islet autoantigens in Japanese patients with type 1 diabetes.

In this study, we evaluated autoantibodies to IA-2 (IA-2As), glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GADAs), and islet cell antibodies (ICAs) in 233 patients with type 1 diabetes (M:F = 90:143, mean duration 4.0 +/- 6.7 yr) as a cross-sectional study. Of 233 patients with type 1 diabetes, IA-2A was detected in 58% of patients with duration within 2 weeks, 61% of patients with duration or=10 yr. These prevalences were similar to those of ICA, while the prevalence of GADA was not influenced by duration of diabetes with positivity of 63-74%. Thus, as the duration of diabetes became longer, the frequency of GADA(+)/IA-2A(-) patients increased and the frequency of GADA(+)/IA-2A(+) patients decreased. However, the frequency of GADA(-)/IA-2A(+) patients was not influenced by duration of diabetes. The prevalence of IA-2A was significantly higher in abrupt-onset group (68%, n= 79) compared to the slowly progressive group (23%, n= 22) in new-onset patients (P= 0.0001). However, there was no difference in the IA-2A frequency between these two groups (abrupt-onset 26%, n= 53 vs. slowly progressive 24%, n= 21) in patients with long-standing disease, suggesting that IA-2A positivity might persist in patients with slowly progressive type 1 diabetes. These results emphasize the heterogeneity of humoral autoimmunity to protein tyrosine phosphatase-like molecules, but not to GAD, in patients with type 1 diabetes

Comparative Outcomes of Laparoscopic Gastrectomy and Open Gastrectomy for Scirrhous Gastric Cancer: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study

Objective: A multicenter retrospective cohort study was performed to compare the outcomes of laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) versus open gastrectomy (OG) for scirrhous gastric cancer (GC) as a unique subtype also known as type 4 gastric cancer or linitis plastica. Background: Although data on the efficacy and safety of LG as an alternative to OG are emerging, the applicability of LG to scirrhous GC remains unclear. Methods: Patients with clinical type 4 GC undergoing gastrectomy at 13 hospitals from 2005 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. As the primary endpoint, we compared overall survival (OS) between the LG and OG groups. To adjust for confounding factors, we used multivariate Cox regression analysis for the main analyses and propensity-score matching for sensitivity analysis. Short-term outcomes and recurrence-free survival were also compared. Results: A total of 288 patients (LG, 62; OG, 226) were included in the main analysis. Postoperative complications occurred in 25.8% and 30.1%, respectively (P = 0.44). No significant difference in recurrence-free survival was observed (P = 0.72). The 5-year OS rates were 32.4% and 31.6% in the LG and OG groups, respectively (P = 0.60). The hazard ratio (LG/OG) for OS was 0.98 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65–1.43) in the multivariate regression analysis. In the sensitivity analyses after propensity-score matching, the hazard ratio for OS was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.58–1.45). Conclusions: Considering the hazard ratios and 95% CIs for OS, LG for scirrhous GC was not associated with worse survival than that for OG

Influence of post-disaster evacuation on childhood obesity and hyperlipidemia

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine the longer-term trends in childhood obesity and hyperlipidemia among residents of Fukushima Prefecture 5 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Methods: We evaluated the changes in height, weight, body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (BMI-SDS), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-CHO), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-CHO), and triglyceride (TG) in residents aged 7-15 years who had lived in the evacuation zone between 2011 and 2015. Results: (i) the mean BMI SDS in all residents in 2011 was 0.113, and the mean BMI-SDS in all residents gradually decreased from 2011 to 2015; (ii) serum LDL-CHO levels and TG levels in all residents with a BMI value ≧ 2SD in 2011 were higher than those in residents with a BMI value <2SD; (iii) the frequency of residents with an LDL-CHO level ≥ 140 mg/dl in 2012, 2013, and 2014 did not decrease in comparison with that in 2011, whereas the frequency of residents with an LDL-CHO level of ≥ 140 mg/dl in 2015 was lower than that in 2011. The frequency of residents with a TG level ≥ 120 mg/dl increased over the 5 years. Conclusions: These results suggest that a number of pediatric residents suffered from obesity and hyperlipidemia. Furthermore, the long-term observation indicated an improvement in obesity, although the improvement in lipid abnormalities was delayed compared with that in obesity. Thus, it is necessary to continue with health checks for these residents with obesity and/or hyperlipidemia