Citizen science and science-policy interface: Towards sustainable forest managements

The forest policy research with quantitative approaches is limited especially in the research fields of policy transfer and science-policy interface at the local government level. As a context of the citizen science and the science-policy interface, the attitudes of the Japanese local governments vary from municipality to municipality. For example, certain local governments proactively introduce participation of citizen in forest policy making and its implementation, while such attitudes or policies are absent for others. Where comes such differences amongst municipalities? This study conducts empirical analysis at local policy level, which has been largely overseen. In concrete terms, trends of adoption of local ordinances of forest planning in Japanese prefectures and participatory monitoring activities in forest lands are reviewed and analyzed. This study examines the relationships between political factors, social economic factors, and policy diffusion. We have looked at the various factors including local demographics, size of administrative areas, government structure, percentage of forest lands and net forestry production in local government to examine the differences. The results reveal the significant impacts of behavior of neighboring local governments. In other words, if a neighboring body acts, others will follow. The perceptions of the governors who are not from conservative political party seems to be a factor to motivate local governments to introduce the local ordinances of forest planning which encourage citizen to participate forest managements and forest policy making processes. Furthermore, participatory monitoring is a useful tool in citizen science and the number of biodiversity monitoring activities is increasing in Japan as well as other Asian countries such as Korea. The local ordinances of forest planning can influence the monitoring activities. The focus of recent monitoring activities based on citizen science in Japan is changing from “scientists use citizens as data collectors” to “citizens as scientists” under the recent development of data science. Alternatively, sharing, collecting and analyzing data in effective manner with participations remains as future challenges for data science

Do Historical Production Practices and Culinary Heritages Really Matter? Food with Protected Geographical Indications in Japan and Austria

Background: Geographical indications (GIs) are collective intellectual property rights that protect food and other products uniquely linked to the production area, local geophysical conditions, and traditions, namely, with the terroir. Thus, GIs can contribute to the transmission and retention of culinary heritages and historical production practices. Methods: Based on an analysis of application documents, we compare the historical linkages of all the Japanese and Austrian GI products. Although more than half of the Japanese applications refer to historical roots in the 20th century, the median of the Austrian GI linkages is in the 17th century. To closely examine these GI linkages, and to better understand their relevance to current cultivation practices, we compared three Japanese cases with roots of diverging depth to the first Austrian GI regarding motivations, geographical and historical linkages, and current cultivation practices and governance. Results: The comparison found that all four products refer to the historical roots of the product name, the product varieties, or cultivation techniques. However, deeper roots did not automatically translate into higher priorities of protecting these historical linkages. The four in-depth case studies found that historic provenance and traditional production methods, although prominently highlighted in the official GI documents of all four GIs, were eclipsed by commercial motivations for GI protection and/or current production practices. In the cases analyzed, we found some potential mismatches between GI historical claims in registration documents and actual GI cultivation and GI management practices. Conclusions: We conclude that our four GI cases do not represent “museums of production” or overly fixed perceptions of history. However, the collective action of the producer group has resulted in dynamic local cultivation practices without restricting innovation. The GI status has rather resulted in the protection of local farmers' collective action and old varieties than in the protection of old production methods

Japanese sake and tea as place-based products: a comparison of regional certifications of globally important agricultural heritage systems, geopark, biosphere reserves, and geographical indication at product level certification

Background: This study analyzed certifications at the regional/landscape level and at product level. We focused on Japanese sake and tea as local place-based luxury items related to ethnic foods and socio-ecological landscape. Methods: Specifically, this research analyzed two materials: the minutes of local assemblies (both sake and tea) and sales-promotion pamphlet (of a sake brewery). The quantitative approach of text mining was experimentally applied to the two materials. The cases of both sake (Hakusan City) and tea (Kakegawa City) were selected from areas designated with three certifications; Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Biosphere Reserves (BR) under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), and Geopark. The sake of Hakusan City is the product with geographical indication (GI), of the Hakusan Kikusake. Results: As the product level certification, the GI of sake is used in the context of a promotional tool both at the municipality assembly and sake brewery dimension. Alternatively, regional certifications (Geopark and BR) are utilized with limited extent for sake promotion in Hakusan City. The regional certification of the GIAHS is utilized in context of promoting Japanese tea in Kakegawa City. The product is not registered as the GI, and this may have influenced the use of the GI. Conclusion: These results imply that the place-based character remains at product level certification and is rather limited at landscape level. The product level certificate or the GI are used more frequently in the promotion of the place-based products than regional certifications. In order to further establish the placeness of the regions, certifications of landscape level need to be harmonized with the products that are produced in the landscape, using methods of place branding or story-telling

Hepatocyte Growth Factor Activator: A Proteinase Linking Tissue Injury with Repair

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) promotes pleiotropic signaling through its specific receptor tyrosine kinase, MET. As such, it has important roles in the regeneration of injured tissues. Since HGF is produced mainly by mesenchymal cells and MET is expressed in most epithelial, endothelial and somatic stem cells, HGF functions as a typical paracrine growth factor. HGF is secreted as an inactive precursor (proHGF) and requires proteolytic activation to initiate HGF-induced MET signaling. HGF activator (HGFAC) is a serum activator of proHGF and produces robust HGF activities in injured tissues. HGFAC is a coagulation factor XII-like serine endopeptidase that circulates in the plasma as a zymogen (proHGFAC). Thrombin, kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK)-4 or KLK-5 efficiently activates proHGFAC. The activated HGFAC cleaves proHGF at Arg494-Val495, resulting in the formation of the active disulfide-linked heterodimer HGF. Macrophage stimulating protein, a ligand of RON, is also activated by HGFAC in vivo. Although HGFAC functions primarily at the site of damaged tissue, a recent report has suggested that activated HGFAC relays a signal to stem cells in non-injured tissues via proHGF activation in the stem cell niche. This review focuses on current knowledge regarding HGFAC-mediated proHGF activation and its roles in tissue regeneration and repair

Hepatocyte Growth Factor Activator Inhibitor Type 1 (HAI-1) Is Required for Branching Morphogenesis in the Chorioallantoic Placenta

Hepatocyte growth factor activator inhibitor type 1 (HAI-1) is a membrane-associated Kunitz-type serine proteinase inhibitor that was initially identified as a potent inhibitor of hepatocyte growth factor activator. HAI-1 is also a cognate inhibitor of matriptase, a membrane-associated serine proteinase. HAI-1 is expressed predominantly in epithelial cells in the human body. Its mRNA is also abundant in human placenta, with HAI-1 specifically expressed by villous cytotrophoblasts. In order to address the precise roles of HAI-1 in vivo, we generated HAI-1 mutant mice by homozygous recombination. Heterozygous HAI-1(+/−) mice underwent normal organ development. However, homozygous HAI-1(−/−) mice experienced embryonic lethality which became evident at embryonic day 10.5 postcoitum (E10.5). As early as E9.5, HAI-1(−/−) embryos showed growth retardation that did not reflect impaired cell proliferation but resulted instead from failed placental development and function. Histological analysis revealed severely impaired formation of the labyrinth layer, in contrast all other placental layers, such as the spongiotrophoblast layer and giant cell layer, which were formed. Our results indicate that mouse HAI-1 is essential for branching morphogenesis in the chorioallantoic placenta and lack of HAI-1 function may result in placental failure