Potential climate effects on Japanese rice productivity

Adaptation to climate change has become an important policy question in recent years. Agriculture is the economic activity most sensitive to climate change. We evaluate the dynamic effects of productivity change and individual efforts to adapt to climate change. Adaptation actions in agriculture are evaluated to determine how the climate affects production efficiency. In this paper, we use the bi-directional distance function method to measure Japanese rice production loss due to climate. We find that 1) accumulated precipitation has the greatest effect on rice production efficiency and 2) the climate effect on rice production efficiency decreases over time. Our results empirically support the benefit of an adaptation approach.Climate change, productivity analysis, agriculture

Revised trauma scoring system to predict in-hospital mortality in the emergency department: Glasgow Coma Scale, Age, and Systolic Blood Pressure score

Introduction: Our aim in this study was to assess whether the new Glasgow Coma Scale, Age, and Systolic Blood Pressure (GAP) scoring system, which is a modification of the Mechanism, Glasgow Coma Scale, Age, and Arterial Pressure (MGAP) scoring system, better predicts in-hospital mortality and can be applied more easily than previous trauma scores among trauma patients in the emergency department (ED). Methods: This multicenter, prospective, observational study was conducted to analyze readily available variables in the ED, which are associated with mortality rates among trauma patients. The data used in this study were derived from the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB), which consists of 114 major emergency hospitals in Japan. A total of 35,732 trauma patients in the JTDB from 2004 to 2009 who were 15 years of age or older were eligible for inclusion in the study. Of these patients, 27,154 (76%) with complete sets of important data (patient age, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, systolic blood pressure (SBP), respiratory rate and Injury Severity Score (ISS)) were included in our analysis. We calculated weight for the predictors of the GAP scores on the basis of the records of 13,463 trauma patients in a derivation data set determined by using logistic regression. Scores derived from four existing scoring systems (Revised Trauma Score, Triage Revised Trauma Score, Trauma and Injury Severity Score and MGAP score) were calibrated using logistic regression models that fit in the derivation set. The GAP scoring system was compared to the calibrated scoring systems with data from a total of 13,691 patients in a validation data set using c-statistics and reclassification tables with three defined risk groups based on a previous publication: low risk (mortality 50%). Results: Calculated GAP scores involved GCS score (from three to fifteen points), patient age 120 mmHg, six points; 60 to 120 mmHg, four points). The c-statistics for the GAP scores (0.933 for long-term mortality and 0.965 for short-term mortality) were better than or comparable to the trauma scores calculated using other scales. Compared with existing instruments, our reclassification tables show that the GAP scoring system reclassified all patients except one in the correct direction. In most cases, the observed incidence of death in patients who were reclassified matched what would have been predicted by the GAP scoring system. Conclusions: The GAP scoring system can predict in-hospital mortality more accurately than the previously developed trauma scoring systems

Optimizing biodiesel production in marine Chlamydomonas sp. JSC4 through metabolic profiling and an innovative salinity-gradient strategy

BACKGROUND: Biodiesel production from marine microalgae has received much attention as microalgae can be cultivated on non-arable land without the use of potable water, and with the additional benefits of mitigating CO(2) emissions and yielding biomass. However, there is still a lack of effective operational strategies to promote lipid accumulation in marine microalgae, which are suitable for making biodiesel since they are mainly composed of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Moreover, the regulatory mechanisms involved in lipid biosynthesis in microalgae under environmental stress are not well understood. RESULTS: In this work, the combined effects of salinity and nitrogen depletion stresses on lipid accumulation of a newly isolated marine microalga, Chlamydomonas sp. JSC4, were explored. Metabolic intermediates were profiled over time to observe transient changes during the lipid accumulation triggered by the combination of the two stresses. An innovative cultivation strategy (denoted salinity-gradient operation) was also employed to markedly improve the lipid accumulation and lipid quality of the microalga, which attained an optimal lipid productivity of 223.2 mg L(-1) d(-1) and a lipid content of 59.4% per dry cell weight. This performance is significantly higher than reported in most related studies. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrated the synergistic integration of biological and engineering technologies to develop a simple and effective strategy for the enhancement of oil production in marine microalgae

Potential climate effects on Japanese rice productivity

Adaptation to climate change has become an important policy question in recent years. Agriculture is the economic activity most sensitive to climate change. We evaluate the dynamic effects of productivity change and individual efforts to adapt to climate change. Adaptation actions in agriculture are evaluated to determine how the climate affects production efficiency. In this paper, we use the bi-directional distance function method to measure Japanese rice production loss due to climate. We find that 1) accumulated precipitation has the greatest effect on rice production efficiency and 2) the climate effect on rice production efficiency decreases over time. Our results empirically support the benefit of an adaptation approach

Potential climate effects on Japanese rice productivity

Adaptation to climate change has become an important policy question in recent years. Agriculture is the economic activity most sensitive to climate change. We evaluate the dynamic effects of productivity change and individual efforts to adapt to climate change. Adaptation actions in agriculture are evaluated to determine how the climate affects production efficiency. In this paper, we use the bi-directional distance function method to measure Japanese rice production loss due to climate. We find that 1) accumulated precipitation has the greatest effect on rice production efficiency and 2) the climate effect on rice production efficiency decreases over time. Our results empirically support the benefit of an adaptation approach

Enhancement of astaxanthin production in Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous by efficient method for the complete deletion of genes

Additional file 1. DNA seuence of primers used in this study