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BackgroundClimate change, particularly rising temperatures, negatively affects rice grain quality, increasing chalky grain percentage (CG) and hampering rice grade and price. Heat-tolerant cultivars have been bred and released since the 2000s, but the effectiveness of heat tolerance in reducing the occurrence of CG has yet to be quantified.ObjectivesThis study aimed to measure the effectiveness of breeding for better heat tolerance in reducing the negative impact of high temperatures on rice quality.MethodsThrough a systematic literature search, we developed a dataset including 1297 field observations covering 48 cultivars from five different heat tolerant ranks (HTRs) at 44 sites across Japan. A linear mixed-effect model (LME) and a random forest model (RF) were fitted to the data to analyze the effect of HTR and climatic factors such as the cumulative mean air temperature above 26 °C (TaHD), mean solar radiation, and mean relative humidity for 20 days after heading on CG.ResultsThe LME model explained 63 % of the variation with a 14% RMSE. The RF partial dependence plot revealed that the logit-transformed CG response to climate factors was linear, supporting the assumption of LME. The statistical analysis showed that CG increased as a function of TaHD (P < 0.001), with significant differences among HTRs (P < 0.001). The strongest effect of TaHD was obtained for the lowest HTR and was found to decrease with increasing HTR. CG also increased with higher relative humidity (P < 0.001) and solar radiation (P < 0.01). Based on our modeling, we estimated that as TaHD increased from 20 to 80 °Cd (equivalent to a mean temperature increase from 27 °C to 30 °C), CG increased by 66 points for cultivars with the lowest HTR, 45 points for cultivars with an intermediate HTR, and 19 points for cultivars with the highest HTR. Raising HTR by just one step (from intermediate to moderately tolerant) is projected to increase the proportion of first-grade rice at a grain-filling temperature of 27 °C, but tolerance levels need to be improved further in case of stronger warming.ConclusionsThe effect of high temperatures on CG was highly dependent on the cultivar’s HTR. Improvements in HTR effectively reduce the negative impacts of high temperatures on rice grain quality.SignificanceHeat-tolerant cultivars are projected to suppress the prevalence of CG more than threefold compared with heat-sensitive cultivars when grain-filling temperature increases from 27 to 30 °C.

Abstract The breeding of heat-tolerant (HT) varieties is considered an effective adaptation measure to reduce the impacts of global warming on crops. However, little is known about how much heat tolerance needs to be attained in the breeding of HT varieties and by when the HT varieties should be introduced in a warming climate. Here, we assessed the effect of the introduction of HT rice varieties on the incidence of low-quality rice grains (chalky rice grain, CRG, as a result of high temperatures), and formulated a breeding target for rice in Japan, where high incidence of CRG is already a concern. Varieties with a 3 °C higher temperature tolerance should be bred and introduced until the 2040s under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5, in the pessimistic scenario, considering the uncertainties in climate models and an impact assessment model, which were large. In the median case, varieties with a 1 and 2 °C higher temperature tolerance are needed until the 2040s under RCPs 2.6 and 8.5, respectively. The findings revealed necessary efforts in breeding research and programs under conditions of global warming.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the monthly precipitation forecasts of JMA/MRI-CPS2, a global dynamical seasonal climate forecast (Dyn-SCF) system operated in the Japan Meteorological Agency, by comparing them with the forecasts of a statistical SCF (St-SCF) system using climate indices systematically and globally. Accordingly, we developed a new global St-SCF system using 18 climate indices and compared the monthly precipitation of this system with those of JMA/MRI-CPS2. Consequently, it was found that JMA/MRI-CPS2 forecasts are superior to St-SCFs around the equator (10° S–10° N) even for six-month lead forecasts. For one-month lead forecasts, the accuracy of JMA/MRI-CPS2 forecasts was higher than that of St-SCFs when viewed globally. In contrast, for forecasts made two months or longer in advance, St-SCFs had an advantage in global forecasts. In addition to evaluating the accuracy of JMA/MRI-CPS2 forecasts, the slow dynamics of the ocean and atmosphere, not reproduced by the JMA/MRI-CPS2 system, were determined by comparing the evaluations, and it was concluded that this could contribute to improving Dyn-SCF systems.

Ozone is an important air pollutant that affects growth, transpiration, and water use efficiency (WUE) in plants. Integrated models of photosynthesis (An) and stomatal conductance (Gs) (An-Gs) are useful tools to consistently assess the impacts of ozone on plant growth, transpiration, and WUE. However, there is no information on how to incorporate the influence of ozone into An-Gs integrated models for crops. We focused on the Ball-Woodrow-Berry (BWB) relationship, which is a key equation in An-Gs integrated models, and aimed to address the following questions: (i) how does ozone change the BWB relationship for crops?; (ii) are there any difference in the changes in the BWB relationship among cultivars?, and (iii) how do the changes in the BWB relationship increase or decrease WUE for crops? We grew four rice cultivars in a field under ambient or Free-Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE) of ozone in China and measured An and Gs using a portable photosynthesis analyzer. We simulated WUE in individual leaves during the ripening period under different BWB relationships. The results showed that ozone significantly changed the BWB relationship only for the most sensitive cultivar, which showed an increase in the intercept of the BWB relationship under FACE conditions. These results imply that changes in the BWB relationship are related to the ozone sensitivity of the cultivar. Simulations of an An-Gs integrated model showed that increases in the intercept of the BWB relationship from 0.01 to 0.1 mol(H2O) m−2 s−1 indicated decreases in WUE by 22%. Since a reduction in WUE indicates increases in water demand per unit of crop growth, air pollution from ozone could be a critical issue in regions where agricultural water is limited, such as in rainfed paddy fields.

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have shown promise for various problems including anomaly detection. When anomaly detection is performed using GAN models that learn only the features of normal data samples, data that are not similar to normal data are detected as abnormal samples. The present approach is developed by employing a dual-encoder in a bidirectional GAN architecture that is trained simultaneously with a generator and a discriminator network. Through the learning mechanism, the proposed method aims to reduce the problem of bad cycle consistency, in which a bidirectional GAN might not be able to reproduce samples with a large difference between normal and abnormal samples. We assume that bad cycle consistency occurs when the method does not preserve enough information of the sample data. We show that our proposed method performs well in capturing the distribution of normal samples, thereby improving anomaly detection on GAN-based models. Experiments are reported in which our method is applied to publicly available datasets, including application to a brain magnetic resonance imaging anomaly detection system., Comment: 2020 19th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA)

Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) are increasingly used for climate risk assessments and adaptation planning in agriculture. GGCM historical simulation performance is therefore crucial for such applications. However, GGCM performance is lower for rice than for other crops at an aggregated administrative unit level despite the lack of a clear difference in model performance at the site level. Here, we present key factors that need to be considered in the spatial and temporal aggregation of GGCM outputs to improve the evaluation of GGCM historical rice simulations at the country scale. The factors include an adjustment for the harvesting year in GGCM rainfed and irrigated simulations, the removal of misreports from reference data, a consideration of the quality of national crop statistics (census reports), and the explicit incorporation of a planting window. The effect of each individual factor is demonstrated by analyzing a multi-GGCM dataset and performing a planting date ensemble simulation of two GGCMs. We reveal that among others, aligning the harvesting year in the GGCM simulations with that in national reports is pivotal. Although our analysis focuses specifically on rice, the findings of this study are useful for improving the country-level evaluations of GGCM historical simulations for other crops.

In this study, we used a statistical model to simulate the impact of climate change and adaptations on the occurrence of chalky rice grains (CRG), recognized as an indicator of rice quality. The target variety was ‘Koshihikari’, the most widely grown cultivar in Japan. A large number of ensemble climate projection data sets were used to provide probability information for impact assessment and adaptation simulations. The impact assessment predicted that the occurrence of CRGs would increase with increasing temperature in all regions of Japan. One adaptation simulation indicated that moving the transplanting date would be effective for reducing the occurrence of CRG. A further adaptation simulation using a virtual heat-tolerant variety indicated that this would also be effective in reducing CRG throughout Japan. The results of this study will be useful to stakeholders such as farmers and policymakers when considering the impact of climate change on rice quality.

We conducted two types of validation for the simulations by MATCRO-Rice developed by Masutomi et al. (2016). In the first validation, we compared simulations with observations for latent heat flux (LHF), sensible heat flux (SHF), net carbon uptake by crop, and paddy rice yield from 2003 to 2006 at the site where model parameters are parameterized. In the second validation, we compared the observed and simulated paddy rice yields over Japan from 1991 to 2010 between observations and simulations. The 4-year average root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the first validation for LHF and SHF were 18.20 and 15.47 W m−2, respectively. These values for errors are comparable to those reported in earlier studies. The comparison of biomass growth during growing periods from 2003 to 2006 at the parameterization site shows that the simulations were in agreement with the observations, indicating that the model can reproduce the net carbon uptake by crops well. The 4-year average RMSE of the first validation for crop yield in the same period was 410.6 kg ha−1, which accounted for 8.1 % of the mean observed yields. The error of the second validation for crop yield was 16.7 % and the correlation of crop yields between observations and simulations from 1991 to 2010 was significant at 0.663 (P

Global warming is predicted to have significant impacts not only on crop productivity but also on crop quality, leading to economic loss. In the present study, focusing on grain quality of rice in Japan, we assessed the impact of global warming on the occurrence of low quality rice grain called ‘chalky rice grain’, and the incurred economic loss. Using 10 future climate scenarios and a simulation model to estimate the occurrence of chalky rice grain, we showed that global warming will double the occurrence of chalky rice grain by the 2040 s under RCP8.5. This corresponds to one third of paddy rice fields in Japan showing a decrease in grain grade. This would produce an annual economic loss of 401.4 million US$/yr under RCP8.5 in the 2040 s. These results suggest that the development and implementation of national and local adaptation strategies are urgently needed for rice production in Japan.

Modeling stomatal behavior is critical in research on land-atmosphere interactions and climate change. The most common model uses an existing relationship between photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. However, its parameters have been determined using infrequent and leaf-scale gas-exchange measurements and may not be representative of the whole canopy in time and space. In this study, we used a top-down approach based on a double-source canopy model and eddy flux measurements throughout the growing season. Using this approach, we quantified the canopy-scale relationship between gross photosynthesis and stomatal conductance for 3 years and their relationships with leaf nitrogen content throughout each growing season above a paddy rice canopy in Japan. The canopy-averaged stomatal conductance (gsc ) increased with increasing gross photosynthesis per unit green leaf area (Ag ), as was the case with leaf-scale measurements, and 41-90% of its variation was explained by variations in Ag adjusted to account for the leaf-to-air vapor-pressure deficit and CO2 concentration using the Leuning model. The slope (m) in this model (gsc versus the adjusted Ag ) was almost constant within a 15-day period, but changed seasonally. The m values determined using an ensemble dataset for two mid-growing-season 15-day periods were 30.8 (SE = 0.5), 29.9 (SE = 0.7), and 29.9 (SE = 0.6) in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively; the overall mid-season value was 30.3 and did not greatly differ among the 3 years. However, m appeared to be higher during the early and late growing seasons. The ontogenic changes in leaf nitrogen content strongly affected Ag and thus gsc . In addition, we have discussed the agronomic impacts of the interactions between leaf nitrogen content and gsc . Despite limitations in the observations and modeling, our canopy-scale results emphasize the importance of continuous, season-long estimates of stomatal model parameters for crops using top-down approaches.

The aim of this study was to clarify the atmosphere-paddy exchange of ammonia (NH3) at a single-crop rice paddy field in central Japan. Measurements of NH3 air concentrations were carried out using passive samplers at two heights above the ground surface (4.0 and 1.5 m) on a weekly basis over a four-year period. The mean NH3 air concentrations ± standard deviations at 4.0 m were 2.5 ± 0.8 and 3.0 ± 1.0 (20°C, 1013 hPa) in the cropping and fallow seasons, respectively. Sharp increases in the NH3 concentrations coincided with the application of poultry manure and post-harvest fieldburning activities; those values exceeded the 95% range of the weekly mean concentrations. The NH3 exchange fluxes were calculated using a gradient method in which the flux was expressed as the product of the difference in air concentrations multiplied by the diffusion velocity between the two heights. The mean NH3 exchange fluxes ± standard deviations were 0.016 ± 0.022 and 0.019 ± 0.115 μg N msof deposition in the cropping and fallow seasons, respectively; where the weekly mean flux was assumed to be zero if the difference in the air concentrations between the two heights was not significant (p < 0.05). In general, the paddy field acted as a net sink of atmospheric NH3, with an annual net deposition of 7–9 kg N hayr-. However, the application of poultry manure in February 2008 induced a strong NH3 emission of approximately 10 kg N haduring three weeks, which nearly counterbalanced the annual deposition for an entire year. Passive samplers are a convenient option for long-term monitoring, although the weekly mean exchange fluxes of NH3 had a systematic error; a case study showed a 66% overestimation for the weekly mean exchange flux.

In the past, there have been many epidemiological and genetic studies of mood disorders, schizophrenia, and alcohol dependence, and in this study, the human serotonin 2A receptor (5-HTR2A) polymorphism was examined in 80 patients with mood disorders, 50 patients with schizophrenia and 41 patients with alcohol dependence. 5-HTR is related to affectivity, regulation, and pharmacologic effects of antidepressant, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications. The polymorphism in 5-HTR2A (102T/C, −1438 A/G) was identified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The results suggest that 5-HTR2A (102T/C, −1438G/A) polymorphism might not be associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia or mood disorders, and it might not be a risk factor contributing to alcohol dependency. We found that the 102T/C polymorphism was in linkage disequilibrium with the −1438G/A polymorphism in psychosis (mood disorder, schizophrenia, and alcohol dependence) and in health controls. Further studies are needed to determine whether or not the novel serotonin receptor (5-HTR) polymorphism reflects the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and alcohol dependence.

We conducted a comprehensive validation of the simulations by MATCRO-Rice developed by Masutomi et al. (2016). In the validation, we compared simulations with observations for latent heat flux (LHF), sensible heat flux (SHF), net carbon flux, and paddy rice yield from 2003 to 2006. The observation site used for the comparison is located in Tsukuba, Japan, where inputs for running the model and outputs for the validation were fully observed. The 4-year average root mean square errors (RMSEs) between simulations and observations for LHF and SHF were 18.57 and 12.66 W m−2, respectively. These values for errors are comparable to those reported in earlier studies. The comparison of biomass growth during growing periods from 2003 to 2006 shows that the simulations were in agreement with the observations, indicating that the model can reproduce the net carbon flux well. The 4-year average RMSE for crop yield in the same period was 402.4 kg ha−1, which accounted for 7.9 % of the mean observed yields. These results indicate that MATCRO-Rice has high ability to accurately and consistently simulate LHF, SHF, net carbon flux, and crop yield.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the air concentrations (mass concentration) and exchange fluxes of inorganic particles, i.e., water-soluble inorganic components in fine and coarse particles, and relevant gases at a paddy field for the single cropping of rice in central Japan. The target chemical species were ammonium (pNH4), nitrate (pNO3), nitrite (pNO2), sulfate (pSO4), and chloride (pCl) for inorganic particles separated into coarse and PM2.5 fractions and ammonia (NH3), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrous acid (HNO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and hydrochloric gas (HCl) for the relevant gases. Intensive observations were conducted for approximately one week in the winter of 2009 as a fallow season (winter 2009) and in the summer of 2010 at the heading stage of paddy rice (summer 2010). The filter-pack and gradient methods were used to determine the air concentrations and the exchange fluxes, respectively. The air concentrations of the coarse particles were lower than those of the PM2.5 except pCl and pNO3 in the summer of 2010. The ion balance of PM2.5 implied an acidic condition in the daytime in summer 2010 but neutral conditions at other times. Ammonia showed the highest air concentrations and the largest exchange fluxes in most cases among all target species. The paddy field was usually a sink for the inorganic particles and relevant gases; however, NH3 emission in the summer of 2010, perhaps from the paddy rice, occasionally occurred when the air concentrations of NH3 became very low.

We analyzed genetic variants of the promoter region of the cholecystokinin (CCK; which modulates the release of dopamine) gene, and intron 1 and exon 5 of the CCKA receptor gene, and performed association analyses of nicotine dependence using an allele-specific amplification (ASA) method and PCR-RFLP methods. There was a significant difference between the current smoking and nonsmoking groups in the allele frequency of the CCK-45C/T polymorphism. However, there was no significant difference in the CCKA PstI polymorphism, and the HincII polymorphism was not detected in our study. Our data suggest that polymorphisms of the CCK gene may be one of the risk factors for smoking behavior.

The relationship between nicotine metabolism of CYP2A6 and the smoking behavior in a Japanese population was investigated. The CYP2A6 genotypes were determined by the PCR method. There was a significant difference in the frequency of the CYP2A6*4C allele, which is a whole deleted allele for the human CYP2A6 gene, between smokers and nonsmokers. The frequency of the CYP2A6*4C allele was higher in nonsmokers than in smokers, whereas the frequency of CYP2A6*1A/*1B heterozygotes with a higher activity of nicotine metabolism was lower. In this study it was suggested that the CYP2A6*4C allele may prevent the carrier from smoking and the CYP2A6*1A/*1B heterozygote may be at risk for developing smoking behavior.

This study was aimed at clarifying the characteristics of oil film thickness, piston friction and oil consumption in the two-ring piston. Through experimental studies it was found that the oil film thickness of the two-ring piston is thinner than that of the three-ring piston due to the greater amount of blowby through the piston. As a result, increase of oil consumption of the two ring piston was kept to the low level of the conventional three ring piston. A quantitative analysis on the friction force and the relationship between the oil consumption and oil ring movement were carried out using the unique measuring device developed by the authors.

To objectively evaluate the relationship between psychiatric disorders and stress, we attempted to measure the levels of 70 kilodalton (kDa) heat shock proteins (HSP70) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using ELISA. Although the standard curve created from measurements of a commercial HSP70 (from bovine brain; S-HSP70) showed good linearity, measurements of HSP70 in PBMC samples appeared negative when concentrations were calculated using this curve. We determined that addition of the detergent used for PBMC lysis to dilutions of S-HSP70 also resulted in negative calculations. Therefore, when we dissolved the PBMC in distilled water instead of the detergent, HSP70 levels could be correctly determined. To verify the accuracy of HSP70 calculations for the PBMC samples dissolved in distilled water, we compared the ELISA results with those obtained by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting for PBMC dissolved in the detergent. Both methods resulted in similar patterns of HSP70 expression.

Panic disorder (PD) is the repeated sudden occurrence of panic attacks, episodes characterized by psychological symptoms. Peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) is closely associated with personality traits for anxiety tolerance, and that it holds promise as a biological marker of stressful conditions. We have performed association analyses using the polymorphism to determine the PBR in PD. We screened the subjects for sequence variations within the 5' region, the coding region (exons 2-4), and the 3' noncoding region. One novel missense variant in exon 4, derived from the nucleotide transition in codon 162 (CGT --> CAT:485G > A) resulting in an arginine-to-histidine (Arg --> His) change, was detected in these subjects. The 485G > polymorphism of the PBR gene was analyzed in 91 PD patients and 178 controls. The genotypic and allelic analyses of the 485G > A revealed significant differences between the panic patients and the comparison subjects (P = 0.021 and 0.014, respectively). The present study provides new and important evidence that variation in the PBR gene influences susceptibility to PD.

The relationship between nicotine metabolism of CYP2A6 and the smoking behavior in a Japanese population was investigated. The CYP2A6 genotypes were determined by the PCR method. There was a significant difference in the frequency of the CYP2A6AST;4C allele, which is a whole deleted allele for the human CYP2A6 gene, between smokers and nonsmokers. The frequency of the CYP2A6AST;4C allele was higher in nonsmokers than in smokers, whereas the frequency of CYP2A6AST;1A/AST;1B heterozygotes with a higher activity of nicotine metabolism was lower. In this study it was suggested that the CYP2A6AST;4C allele may prevent the carrier from smoking and the CYP2A6AST;1A/AST;1B heterozygote may be at risk for developing smoking behavior.

Background: Heat shock protein (HSP) expression can be induced by any stress such as with adrenocorticotropic hormones and catecholamines. It has been reported that patients with major depression have a 162-base deletion in the 5′-flanking region of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70)-1 gene mRNA. Methods: To detect the HSP70-1 gene mRNA, total RNA was isolated and amplified by RT-PCR, and the sequence was confirmed in all five patients by DNA direct sequencing analysis. Results: RT-PCR produced was no deletions of 162 bp in the human heat shock protein 70-1 gene in any of the patients with major depression or the nine controls. Conclusion: This finding is inconsistent with previous reports. We suggest that the 162-base deletion in the 5′-flanking region of the HSP70-1 gene mRNA is not associated with major depression. Further studies are required to determine the amounts of HSP70 and its mRNA in stress disorders such as major depression.

Methamphetamine (METH) is one of the most commonly abused psychostimulant. We have investigated the effect of METH administration on the CYP2E1 mRNA level using quantitative competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. Rats were given METH (4 mg/kg or 8 mg/kg/day) for 2 weeks. The expression of CYP2E1 mRNA increased (5.7 fold) in 4 mg/kg/day administration rat liver in compared with control rat liver. The results suggest that exposure to METH may increase CYP2E1 level but superfluous exposure (8 mg/kg/day) of METH may reduce the expression of CYP2E1 gene.

翼長, 翼巾, 羽根板角度, 翼段数などの装置条件を包含した撹拌槽内冷却コイルよりの伝熱相関式を実験的に求めた。著者らの得た実験式によれば従来報告されている実験値の相関は良好であった。また従来の研究者によるRe数の指数の相違 (0.5, 0.62および0.67) は, 翼による吐出流が冷却コイルに直接衝突する位置にあるか否かによることを明らかにした。なお邪魔板設置による伝熱係数の上昇は冷却コイル側ではわずかであった。

We have been developing a virtual surgery system that can simulate various surgical maneuvers on elastic organs with haptic feedback, and we have constructed an elastic organ model called the sphere-filled model. This paper describes a method for making a deeper incision in the same region and a slanting incision that approaches the resection for volume data by the use of the sphere-filled model. Using this method, we are able to perform not only pushing and pinching but various incisions that approach the resection in this system.