QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH IN JAPANESE AGRICULTURE

As modern agricultural growth has been attained through increasing use of material input, it is discussed whether agricultural growth can be sustained in the long run within the limit of environmental tolerance. In order to investigate the possibility of growth, this study applies Aghion and Howittfs Schumpeterian growth model, and conducts empirical analyses using rice production panel data from eight regions in Japan for the period 1984 to 1999. Estimation of the translog cost function, which incorporates quality improvement effects, as well as the growth accounting estimation, reveals that the growth with quality improvement occurs, as the growth with increasing material input is stagnant. The quality-based innovation does not lead to increases in chemical input, implying the shift in innovation plays a key role in attaining sustainable development, which also explains a greater increase in pollution at the early stage of development and its slowing down. Sustainable growth can be attained through quality innovation even if environmental regulations are tightened.International Development,

Comment on ``Nonlinear band structure in Bose-Einstein condensates: Nonlinear Sch\"odinger equation with a Kronig Penney potential"

In their recent paper [Phys. Rev. A 71, 033622], B. T. Seaman et al. studied Bloch states of the condensate wave function in a Kronig-Penney potential and calculated the band structure. They argued that the effective mass is always positive when a swallow-tail energy loop is present in the band structure. In this comment, we reexamine their argument by actually calculating the effective mass. It is found that there exists a region where the effective mass is negative even when a swallow-tail is present. Based on this fact, we discuss the interpretation of swallow-tails in terms of superfluidity.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Quantum Entanglement of Fermionic Local Operators

In this paper we study the time evolution of (Renyi) entanglement entropies for locally excited states in four dimensional free massless fermionic field theory. Locally excited states are defined by being acted by various local operators on the ground state. Their excesses are defined by subtracting (Renyi) entanglement entropy for the ground state from those for locally excited states. They finally approach some constant if the subsystem is given by half of the total space. They have spin dependence. They can be interpreted in terms of quasi-particles.Comment: 29pages, 7 figure

Doppler echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular diastolic function in chronic hypoxic rats

Little information is available on the mechanism of diastolic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in patients with chronic respiratory disease complicated by hypoxia. The purpose of this study was to investigate how chronic hypoxia impairs LV diastolic function in an hypoxic animal model. Thirty-six male Wistar rats 8 weeks old were assigned to normoxia (N), chronic hypoxia (CH), and re-normoxia (RN) groups, 12 rats per group. The N group rats were kept in ambient air for 8 weeks, while the CH group was kept hypoxic for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of hypoxia the RN group rats were kept for a further 8 weeks in ambient air. LV systolic and diastolic functions, as well as right ventricular (RV) function, were analyzed using Doppler echocardiography;we also measured the hematocrit, and weighed the LV and RV. Hematocrit, RV weight/body weight, and RV weight/LV weight were higher in the CH group than in the other 2 groups. However, most of these parameters returned to normoxia levels after re-normoxia. In the CH group, LV dimension and area were smaller than in the other 2 groups. LV systolic function was preserved in all groups;however, in the CH group, mitral flow showed a restrictive pattern, while pulmonary flow demonstrated a pulmonary hypertensive pattern with prolonged RV ejection time. In conclusion, chronic hypoxia induced pulmonary hypertension and RV hypertrophy. Although LV systolic function was preserved, diastolic function was impaired in hypoxia. Ventricular interaction may impair LV diastolic function.</p