CO2 Emissions in Japan: Influences of imports and exports

The amounts of CO2 embodied in imports to, and exports from, Japan have been estimated using input-output tables, assuming imported commodities have the same CO2 emission intensities as those of the corresponding Japanese products. The concept of the attributed CO2 emission to each country was introduced. Until 1985 in Japan, the amount of CO2 embodied in exports had been larger than that in its imports, but, by 1990, such a situation had been reversed.

Junctophilin-mediated channel crosstalk essential for cerebellar synaptic plasticity

Functional crosstalk between cell-surface and intracellular ion channels plays important roles in excitable cells and is structurally supported by junctophilins (JPs) in muscle cells. Here, we report a novel form of channel crosstalk in cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs). The generation of slow afterhyperpolarization (sAHP) following complex spikes in PCs required ryanodine receptor (RyR)-mediated Ca(2+)-induced Ca(2+) release and the subsequent opening of small-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (SK) channels in somatodendritic regions. Despite the normal expression levels of these channels, sAHP was abolished in PCs from mutant mice lacking neural JP subtypes (JP-DKO), and this defect was restored by exogenously expressing JPs or enhancing SK channel activation. The stimulation paradigm for inducing long-term depression (LTD) at parallel fiber–PC synapses adversely established long-term potentiation in the JP-DKO cerebellum, primarily due to the sAHP deficiency. Furthermore, JP-DKO mice exhibited impairments of motor coordination and learning, although normal cerebellar histology was retained. Therefore, JPs support the Ca(2+)-mediated communication between voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels, RyRs and SK channels, which modulates the excitability of PCs and is fundamental to cerebellar LTD and motor functions