Yamagata Prefectural Education Institute

ABSTRACTMoso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) is cultivated for edible bamboo shoot production in Japan. Yamagata Prefecture is located in a heavy-snowfall region at the northern limit of the cultivated area. However, snow damage to bamboo culms occurs every year and decreases bamboo shoot production. “Uradome” is a treatment that involves cutting off the upper portion of the new culms when the bamboo shoot is almost fully grown. We studied the effect of “Uradome” implementation on incidence of snow damage to bamboo culms. In addition, we investigated terrain characteristics of bamboo forest at sites where snow damage occurred. As a result, the higher the degree of “Uradome” was, the lower the damage rate was. Furthermore, the results revealed that implementation of “Uradome” prevents snow damage to culms. It is considered that snow damage may be prevented by rendering the culm shape straight as a result of “Uradome”. The results also indicated that snow damage is more likely to occur on steep slopes. Factors that influence the incidence and severity of snow damage are considered to differ between Japan and other countries. Therefore, it is desirable to adopt preventative measures against snow damage, such as the “Uradome” method, irrespective of the local climate and terrain.

目的：単純X線で経過を追った麻痺性側弯症の特徴を検討した．

Background: The effects of empagliflozin in addition to standard care, on day-to-day variability of self-measured home blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) at home in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) at high cardiovascular risk are not known. Method: We followed twenty-three consecutive T2DM patients (mean age: 69 years old, 12 men) to add 10 mg of empagliflozin once daily for three months. Home BP and HR were measured once every morning at home, using an oscillometric device. The variability of BP and HR were defined as the standard deviations (SD) of measurements which were performed on seven consecutive days. Results: For home blood pressure, empagliflozin significantly reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) from 130±11 mmHg at baseline to 126±11 mmHg at the first week(1W) of the administration (P<0.05). SBP achieved the target home BP goal (125±11 mmHg) at the second week(2W) and was maintained during the study (P<0.01). As regards day-to-day variability of SBP, SD decreased from 7.3±3.5 mmHg at baseline to 6.7±2.5 mmHg at 1W (4W: 6.4±2.8 mmHg, 8W: 5.2±2.3 mmHg, P<0.05). In diastolic blood pressure (DBP), there was a significant reduction of SD compared with that at baseline (4.9±1.6 mmHg at baseline, 4W: 4.3±1.6 mmHg, 8W: 3.9±1.8 mmHg, 12W: 4.4±1.6 mmHg, P<0.05); however, there was no change of DPB (71±10 mmHg at baseline, 12W: 71±8 mmHg). Similarly, there was a decreasing trend in SD of HR (3.9±1.0 beats per minute (bpm) at baseline, 4W: 3.3±1.3 bpm, 12W: 3.1±1.3 bpm, P<0.1), although there was no significant change in HR (62±13 bpm at baseline, 12W: 61 ± 12 bpm). Conclusion: Empagliflozin tended to reduce the day-to-day variability of self-measured morning home BP and HR.

The purpose of this paper is to report the activities by collaborations with administration and citizens towards the regeneration of the town center in Kaminoyama city. The characteristics of the activities are as follows: 1) The activities concentrate in the compact core area of the city and they base on its history and culture. 2) There are various types in the activities. 3) In the first stage the administration took the initiatives of beginning the activities of collaborations. As a result the leader and the basic principles of the town planning were generated. In the second stage the basic principles were realized as a visible shape, and some activities by citizens started. In the third stage the characters of activities changed because other types of leaders came from the outside of Kaminoyama.

BackgroundThe ambrosia beetle, Platypus quercivorus, is the vector of oak wilt, one of the most serious forest diseases in Japan. Population genetics approaches have made great progress toward studying the population dynamics of pests, especially for estimating dispersal. Knowledge of the genetic structuring of the beetle populations should reveal their population history. Using five highly polymorphic microsatellite loci, 605 individuals from 14 sampling sites were assessed to infer the ongoing gene flow among populations as well as the processes of expansion of damaged areas.ResultsPopulation differentiation (FST = 0.047, G'ST = 0.167) was moderate and two major clusters were detected by several methods, dividing the samples into north-eastern and south-western populations, a similar genetic divergence was reported in host oak trees. Within the north-eastern populations, the subgroups mostly corresponded to differences in the collection period. The genetic characteristics of the population might have changed after 2 years due to the mixing of individuals between populations with enhanced migration related to population outbreaks. Because isolation by distance was detected for whole populations and also within the north-eastern populations, migration was considered to be limited between neighbouring populations, and most populations were suggested to be in genetic equilibrium of genetic drift and gene flow. Recent bottlenecks were found in some populations with no geographical bias; however, they were all from newly emerged oak wilt forests. The emergence of oak wilt should have induced intense fluctuations in the beetle population size.ConclusionsBecause the genetic boundaries coincide, we suggest that the geographical structuring of the beetle was formed by co-evolution with the host species. Our findings indicate the oak wilt expansion process.

Osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome (OPS; OMIM 259770) is an autosomal-recessive genetic disorder characterized by severe osteoporosis and visual disturbance from childhood. Biallelic mutations in the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 gene (LRP5) have been frequently detected, while a subset of patients had only one or no detectable mutation. We report on the clinical and molecular findings of four unrelated Japanese patients with the syndrome. The four patients had typical skeletal and ocular phenotypes of OPS, namely severe juvenile osteoporosis and early-onset visual disturbance, with or without mental retardation. We undertook standard PCR-based sequencing for LRP5 and found four missense mutations (p.L145F, p.T244M, p.P382L, and p.T552M), one nonsense mutation (p.R1534X), and one splice site mutation (c.1584+1G>A) among four OPS patients. Although three patients had two heterozygous mutations, one had only one heterozygous splice site mutation. In this patient, RT-PCR from lymphocytic RNA demonstrated splice error resulting in 63-bp insertion between exons 7 and 8. Furthermore, the patient was found to have only mutated RT-PCR fragment, implying that a seemingly normal allele did not express LRP5 mRNA. We then conducted custom- designed oligonucleotide tiling microarray analyses targeted to a 600-kb genome region harboring LRP5 and discovered a 7.2-kb microdeletion encompassing exons 22 and 23 of LRP5. We found various types of LRP5 mutations, including an exon-level deletion that is undetectable by standard PCR-based mutation screening. Oligonucleotide tiling microarray seems to be a powerful tool in identifying cryptic structural mutations.