STRAWMEN IN TRADE PROTECTIONISM: THE CASE OF CITRUS IMPORT QUOTAS

The hypothesis that shipments of oranges into Japan have displaced, and will continue to displace, domestic Mandarin orange shipments in Japan was tested using annual and monthly data and by estimating an econometric model. It was found that the marketing seasons of Mandarin and imported oranges are substantially different. This result, along with econometric estimates, indicated that Mandarin and imported oranges do not directly compete with each other, and supported rejection of the hypothesis that imported oranges have displaced Mandarin orange shipments. It was projected that, under full trade liberalization, orange imports would increase by 115 percent. However, most of this increase would occur during the April to September period when few Mandarin oranges are shipped.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

Why Koreans Became Taller Than Japanese?

Children grew appreciably fast in height in Japan and South Korea after the end of WW II. Children in both countries were the same in height at the ages of maturity, both boys and girls, in the 1970s to 1980s. Japanese children ceased to grow in the early 1990s, whereas Korean children kept growing until the mid-2000s. As a consequence, Koreans are 3-4 cm taller than Japanese at present. Do these phenomena reflect ethnic differences between the two nations or differences in "inputs to health" or food consumption? Japanese children have been eating more meat and drinking substantially more milk than Korean children. On the other hand, Koreans have been eating a lot more rice with kimchi and their fruit consumption has been soaring, whereas Japanese children eat substantially less vegetables and they have reduced fruit consumption radically since the early 1980s

On the pairing of Antarctic ureilites with refernce to their parent body

In spite of their apparent igneous textures, ureilites preserve significant records of primitive nature including oxygen isotope anomaly and high planetary-type noble gas contents in the carbonaceous matrices. Mineralogical studies of new Antarctic ureilites revealed that pairing of the small ureilite specimens may be only minor (two out of twenty-two) in comparison with the polymict eucrites. However, we noticed two groupings, which are almost paired but are distinct in pyroxene assemblages and reduction textures. The magnesian and calcic groups have been recognized only in the Antarctic collections. The individual specimens within the group may have evolved in the vicinity within a parent body. A model in conformity with this evolution has been proposed in the context of the ureilite-carbonaceous chondrite connection. However, the carbon-containing chondrite-like materials do not imply the actual chemistry of the known chondrites, because the preferential sedimentation of mafic silicates in the solar nebula may produce source materials much closer to ureilites

Theory of quasiballistic transport through nanocrystalline silicon dots

A model to describe the underlying physics of high-energy electron emission from a porous silicon diode is presented. The model is based on an atomistic tight-binding method combined with semiclassical Monte Carlo simulation. It well reproduces essential features of experimental findings. An initial acceleration region is shown to play a crucial role in generating quasiballistic electron emission

BEEF IN JAPAN: THE CHALLENGE FOR UNITED STATES EXPORTS

International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

Development of thermosensitive polymer-conjugated enzyme for repeated use.

温度感受性ポリマー誘導体を作製し、アルカリホスファターゼ（ALP）と結合させることによって、反復利用が可能なALPの開発を試みた。温度感受性ポリマー結合ALPは、反応混合液の温度を37℃以上に温度を上げることによって、簡単に他の成分から分離回収することができ、回収後も約80％の活性を保持していることが明かとなった。For the purpose of repeated use of enzyme, alkaline phoshatase congugated with the reactive derivative of thermosensitive polymer was developed. This novel enzyme was precipitated immediately and recovered from reaction mixture, when the solution temperature was raised to 37℃. Recovered enzyme retained 80% activity compared to that of untreated one