Potential contributions of forestry and wood use to climate change mitigation in Japan

By considering trade-offs and complementarity between carbon removal from the atmosphere by forests and emission reduction by wood use, we developed a forest-sector carbon integrated model for Japan. We discuss mitigation measures for Japan based on model projections. The integrated model included the forest model and the wood use model. Based on three scenarios (baseline, moderate increase, and rapid increase) of harvesting and wood use, the integrated model projected mitigation effects including carbon removal by forests and emission reduction through the wider use of wood, until 2050. Results indicate that forests will not become a source of net carbon emissions under the three scenarios considered. The baseline scenario is most effective for mitigating climate change, for most periods. However, the sum total of carbon removal in forests and carbon emission reductions by wood use under the rapid increase scenario exceeded the one of the moderate increase scenario after 2043. This was because of strong mitigation activities: promoting replanting, using new high-yield varieties, and wood use. The results also indicated that increases in emission reduction due to greater wood use compensated for 67.9 % of the decrease of carbon removal in 2050, for the rapid increase scenario. The results show that carbon removal in forests is most important in the short term because of the relative youth of the planted forests in Japan, and that mitigation effects by material and energy substitution may become greater over the longer term.     

Natural variation in photoperiodic flowering pathway and identification of photoperiod-insensitive accessions in wild wheat, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aegilops tauschii</Emphasis>

The D-genome progenitor of hexaploid wheat, Aegilops tauschii Coss., has a wide natural species range in central Eurasia and possesses wide natural variation in heading and flowering time. Here, we report identification of two Ae. tauschii accessions insensitive to short day length. Similarly to a loss or reduced degree of vernalization requirement, the photoperiod-insensitive mutations were found only in the early flowering sublineage (TauL1b) of Ae. tauschii. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses using two F₂ mapping populations showed that a QTL for heading time on the long arm of chromosome 5D was related to the early heading phenotype of the photoperiod-insensitive accessions under short-day conditions. In the photoperiod-insensitive accession, expression patterns of two flowering-related genes were altered under short-day conditions compared with the patterns in photoperiod-sensitive accessions. This study indicates that analysis of natural variations in the Ae. tauschii population is useful to find novel genetic loci controlling agronomically important traits.     

In vitro susceptibility of 21 antimicrobial agents to 37 isolates of Brachyspira hyodysenteriae isolated from pigs in Okinawa Prefecture

The in vitro susceptibilities to 21 antimicrobial agents, of 37 isolates of Brachyspira (B.) hyodysenteriae isolated from pigs in Okinawa meat center and a pig farm in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, were determined by the agar dilution method. Carbadox was the most active of all the agents tested against the isolates (MIC: <0.003 to 0.05). All the isolates were highly susceptible to olaquindox, tiamulin, dimetridazole, efrotomycin and valnemulin with MICs ranging from 相似文献   

The influence of early weaning on aggressive behavior in mice

Early postnatal experiences have been shown to have a tremendous influence on behavior development. In this study, we focused on weaning time and investigated the effects of early weaning on adulthood aggressive behavior in mice with the resident-intruder test. Early weaning resulted in decreased sideways threat and tail rattle. In addition, the frequency of attack bites was more variable in the early weaned group, although the mean frequency did not differ from the normally weaned group. The results of the present study suggest that aggressive behavior is also affected by early weaning manipulation.