Urban Demand for Wild Foods in Northeast Thailand: A survey of edible wild species sold in the Khon Kaen municipal market

Rural people in Northeast Thailand consume a wide range of wild species. Little is known, however, about the extent to which the urban populations of the region’s rapidly growing towns and cities consume these products, and no detailed study has been made of the edible wild species that are sold in urban markets. To help fill this knowledge gap, this paper presents findings of a survey about the wild species sold in the main urban market in Khon Kaen Municipality. The survey included identification of all species of plants, fungi, and animals being sold and recording of the quantities and prices of each species. Data were obtained by interviewing vendors selling these products in the market on 18 randomly selected nights in the dry season and 12 nights in the rainy season. The diversity of wild species sold in the market is high. Eighty-one species were identified, of which 54 were plants, 6 were fungi, and 21 were animals. Species diversity was greater in the rainy season, when 65 species were on sale, than in the dry season, when 49 species were available. Plant species were much more diverse in the rainy season than in the dry season, reflecting the better growth conditions for vegetation when water is not a limiting factor. Many species were available only in a specific season. The wild species were obtained from several different habitats. Upland fields were the habitat for the largest number of species, followed by house areas, forests, and paddy fields. Gardens and aquatic ecosystems were habitats for a smaller number of species. The supply-shed for the urban market in Khon Kaen Municipality is quite a large one. Wild species sold in the market are obtained from 8 provinces in the Northeast, although rural areas of Khon Kaen Province itself are the source of the largest number of species. Collection of wild species to supply the urban market can have both negative and positive effects on rural biodiversity in Northeast Thailand. In their desire to earn cash income, villagers may over-exploit some of these species, causing wild populations to decline in numbers or even become locally extinct. On the other hand, villagers may intensify their efforts to cultivate them so as to allow more stable production, thus contributing to biodiversity conservation. This has already begun to happen in the case of some highly valued species

Selective Proliferation of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Accumulation of Lactic Acid during Open Fermentation of Kitchen Refuse with Intermittent pH Adjustment

When minced and autoclaved model kitchen refuse was inoculated with a small amount of non-autoclaved model kitchen refuse as seed culture, incubated at 37°C for 3-5 days and intermittently pH neutralized, 27-45 g/l of lactic acid was accumulated with a small amount of acetic acid and ethanol. The highest accumulation and highest productivity levels of lactic acid were observed at an initial and adjusted pH of 7.0 and a 6 h interval of pH adjustment. After several hours of lag, the lactic acid bacteria became the dominant cell type during the incubation, while the number of coliform bacteria and clostridia decreased. Such selective and stable accumulation of lactic acid was achieved in dozens of different experiments with various refuse preparations. In contrast, with continuous pH adjustment, Iactic acid once accumulated was labile and a small amount of butyric acid was produced, increasing the number of clostridia. The dominant bacteria isolated from the fermentation with intermittent pH adjustment were identified as Lactobacillus plantarnm and L. brevis

Construction of 21st Century Archives for the Research Foundation of the Library and Information Professions and Education: Towards a Methodological Synthesis of Library and Information Science and Archival Science

We launched a project aimed to organize and create digital archives for library and information professions that will contribute to both research and education. The archive will comprise historical materials owned by the University of Tsukuba\u27s Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, which shaped the history of the education of library and information professions for most of the 20th century.This project includes the formation of a comprehensive system for collecting and conserving materials and the implementation of a system for their utilization. The aims of this project are twofold: (1) to examine a methodological synthesis of library and information science and archival science and (2) to re-examine the history of the library and information professions and education.Major users of the archives are library and information science researchers specialized in library and information professions and the history of librarianship. This system will establish a multilingual interface for international researchers who are interested in comparing professional development models of education for librarianship. Museum materials will be used for educational content on the history of media technology.There are no precedents for a comprehensive archival system for the education of library and information professions that includes archival documents and museum documents. This archive thus has the potential to serve as an international model for knowledge-sharing on library and information science.Six subordinate cross-disciplinary studies are in progress under the project. They comprise (1) A detailed examination of the collection and oral histories investigation, (2) Information architecture for digital archives, (3) Historical research on library and information professions and education, using archival materials, (4) Modeling, implementation and evaluation of the archive, (5) Modeling of the exhibition space, and (6) Analysis of the research project (museums, libraries and archives collaboration). This poster presentation focuses on studies in progress on (2) Information Architecture for digital archives and (3) Historical research on library and information professions and education, using archival materials.The first study reconsidered “digital archives” to drive forward the project entitled “21st Century Archives for the Research Foundation of the Library and Information Professions and Education.” As a result, digital archives are defined as mapping of the original archives, holding to the principles of provenance, respect for the original order, preservation of the original forms of the archives, and permanent preservation. A real digital archive must be constructed based on an information architecture methodology.Information architecture is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability. It involves analysis of information context and organization, labeling, navigation and retrieval using a consistent design philosophy. Information design prioritizes how information is presented on a website. Information architecture, on the other hand, is a website construction method that focuses on how to organize information elements. This study aims to achieve faithful mapping between the context of the original resources and electronic resources through the application of information architecture methodology to the establishment of digital archives.In the second study, we adopted the methodology of digital humanities as our analytical scheme to clarify the historical development, current conditions, and future vision of the library and information professions and education. The materials in our archive collections for historical research of librarianship are periodicals, annual reports, minutes of meetings, syllabuses, business diaries, photographs, audio materials, video materials and films. They include unpublished and handwritten materials. Whatever their form, these materials are an aggregation of the memory of the philosophy of an institution and records of past activities. Previous studies have not included these materials due to their uncatalogued nature and often poor state of preservation.We used two illustrative examples that utilize digital archive collections to demonstrate the progress of research. The first attempt was to trace the history of library and information professions focusing on changes in nominal designations of librarians/information professionals. The other was a consideration of the gender issue concerning female librarians, using digital images from the archive. These primary investigations have suggested the potential for reconstructing a discourse on the library and information professions and education.Japanese Association for Digital Humanities Conference 2014, at University of Tsukuba, September 19-21, 2014 (Poster session 2

Social Participation and the Prevention of Functional Disability in Older Japanese: The JAGES Cohort Study

Background: We examined the relationship between incident functional disability and social participation from the perspective of number of types of organizations participated in and type of social participation in a prospective cohort study. Method The study was based on the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study (AGES) Cohort Study data. We followed 13,310 individuals aged 65 years or older for 4 years. Analysis was carried out on 12,951 subjects, excluding 359 people whose information on age or sex was missing. Social participation was categorized into 8 types. Results: Compared to those that did not participate in any organizations, the hazard ratio (HR) was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.73–0.95) for participation in one, 0.72 (0.61–0.85) for participation in two, and 0.57 (0.46–0.70) for participation in three or more different types of organizations. In multivariable adjusted models, participation in the following types of organization was protective for incident disability: local community organizations (HR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.76–0.96), hobby organizations (HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.64–0.87), and sports organizations (HR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.54–0.81). Conclusion: Social participation may decrease the risk of incident functional disability in older people in Japan. This effect may be strengthened by participation in a variety of different types of organizations. Participating in a local community, hobby, or sports group or organization may be especially effective for decreasing the risk of disability

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target