What drives farmers to make top-down or bottom-up adaptation to climate change and fluctuations?:A comparative study on 3 cases of apple farming in Japan and South Africa

Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Farmers have been exposed to multiple stressors including climate change, and they have managed to adapt to those risks. The adaptation actions undertaken by farmers and their decision making are, however, only poorly understood. By studying adaptation practices undertaken by apple farmers in three regions: Nagano and Kazuno in Japan and Elgin in South Africa, we categorize the adaptation actions into two types: farmer initiated bottom-up adaptation and institution led top-down adaptation. We found that the driver which differentiates the type of adaptation likely adopted was strongly related to the farmers' characteristics, particularly their dependence on the institutions, e.g. the farmers' cooperative, in selling their products. The farmers who rely on the farmers' cooperative for their sales are likely to adopt the institution-led adaptation, whereas the farmers who have established their own sales channels tend to start innovative actions by bottom-up. We further argue that even though the two types have contrasting features, the combinations of the both types of adaptations could lead to more successful adaptation particularly in agriculture. This study also emphasizes that more farm-level studies for various crops and regions are warranted to provide substantial feedbacks to adaptation policy

Arguments over the Educational Role of Teachers in Moral Classes in the 1950-70’s

　「道徳の時間」成立後に提唱された授業論において，教師と子ども（たち）の関係がどのように語られてきたかを整理し，次第に教師の指導性が前景化する様相を描き出した。1958 年ならびに1969・70 年の学習指導要領および指導書では「道徳の時間」特設前から重視された「子どもに寄り添う」教師像に加えて「子どもとともに学ぶ」「子どもたちの関係をつくる」教師像が提示された。これらの教師像を前提としつつ，道徳授業論においては「子どもたちの学習の道筋をつくる」という教師の役割が強調されたことが明らかになった

Dermoscopic Features of CD8-Positive Solitary Pagetoid Reticulosis on the Left Leg

Solitary pagetoid reticulosis, also known as Woringer-Kolopp disease, is a rare subtype of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The typical clinical presentation is a solitary, localized psoriasiform or hyperkeratotic plaque or tumor located on the extremities. It primarily affects middle-aged males. Because the clinical features of pagetoid reticulosis are indistinctive, pagetoid reticulosis may progress for years before accurate diagnosis. We reported a 57-year-old Japanese woman who presented with a 1-year history of a solitary erythematous plaque on the left leg. Dermoscopic features simulated Bowen's disease showing dotted and glomerular vessels, whitish scaly areas, and a broad negative network. Dermoscopic features of pagetoid reticulosis have never been reported. We have discussed the diagnostic significance of the observed dermoscopic findings

Facile synthesis of > 99% phase-pure brookite TiO 2 by hydrothermal conversion from Mg 2 TiO 4

The synthesis of pure brookite is generally much more difficult than that of pure anatase. The hydrothermal conversion, recently developed by Kozawa et al., is a facile method to synthesize brookite TiO2 from inverse spinel-type Mg2TiO4 under a mild hydrothermal condition e.g. in 1 M HCl solution at 100 °C. However, slight rutile TiO2 is usually co-existed under the reported conditions. The aim of this study is to prepare a high-purity brookite TiO2 powder by the hydrothermal conversion from Mg2TiO4. We investigated the conditions of Mg2TiO4 preparation and hydrothermal conversion, and it was found that the most important factor for the high-purity brookite synthesis, i.e. decreasing the co-existing rutile TiO2, was to prepare the Mg2TiO4 precursor without MgTiO3. Using an MgO-rich composition and adding a second calcination step for the Mg2TiO4 preparation yielded a high-purity (99.3 wt%) brookite powder with a surface area of 27.7 m2/g. Under the current experimental conditions, addition of a surfactant or an alcohol for the hydrothermal treatment was not apparently effective for the high-purity brookite synthesis

Protective effects of cold spinoplegia with fasudil against ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbits

ObjectiveParaplegia remains a serious complication after surgical repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the neuroprotective efficacy of fasudil, a Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor, by reducing the number of infiltrating cells in the ventral horn and increasing the induction of eNOS against ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbits.MethodsEighteen Japanese white rabbits were divided into three groups: saline (group 1, n = 7, 4°C) and fasudil (group 2, n = 6, 4°C) were immediately infused into the isolated segmental lumbar arteries over 30 seconds after aortic clamping. Group 3 (n = 5) was the sham-operated group. Hind limb function was evaluated 4 and 8 hours, and 1 and 2 days after 15 minutes of transient ischemia. Cell damage was analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin staining and temporal profiles of endothelial nitric oxide synthase immunoreactivity were performed. The number of intact motor neuron cells and infiltrating cells in the ventral horn were compared.ResultsTwo days after reperfusion, group 2 and group 3 showed better neurologic function, a greater number of intact motor neuron cells, and a smaller number of infiltrating cells in the ventral horn than group 1. The induction of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) was prolonged up to 2 days after reperfusion in group 2.ConclusionThese results indicate that fasudil has neuroprotective effects against ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbits by reducing the number of infiltrating cells in the ventral horn and prolonging the expression of eNOS.Clinical RelevanceParaplegia or paralysis caused by spinal cord ischemia remains a devastating and unpredictable complication after descending and thoracoabdominal aortic surgery. This study has revealed that fasudil has a neuroprotective effect against ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbits. Inhibition of the Rho/Rho kinase pathway by fasudil reduces the number of infiltrating cells in the ventral horn and prolongs the expression of eNOS. In the near future, Rho kinase may be an important therapeutic target for paraplegia induced by spinal cord ischemia

The Delay Time Distribution of Type Ia Supernovae and the Single Degenerate Model

We present a theoretical delay time distribution (DTD) of Type Ia supernovae on the basis of our new evolutionary models of single degenerate (SD) progenitor systems. Our model DTD has almost a featureless power law shape (\propto t^{-n} with n \approx 1) for the delay time from t \sim 0.1 to 10 Gyr. This is in good agreement with the recent direct measurement of DTD. The observed featureless property of the DTD has been suggested to be favorable for the double degenerate (DD) scenario but not for the SD scenario. If the mass range of the companion star to the white dwarf (WD) were too narrow in the SD model, its DTD would be too limited around the companion's main-sequence lifetime to be consistent with the observed DTD. However, this is not the case in our SD model that consists of the two channels of WD + RG (red giant) and WD + MS (main-sequence star). In these channels, the companion stars have a mass range of \sim 0.9-3 M_\sun (WD+RG) and \sim 2- 6 M_\sun (WD+MS). The combined mass range is wide enough to yield the featureless DTD. We emphasize that the SD scenario should include two important processes: the optically thick winds from the mass-accreting WD and the mass-stripping from the companion star by the WD wind.Comment: 5 pages including 2 figures, to appear in ApJL (accepted version