Research on habitat utilization of the white-cheeked giant flying squirrel Petaurista leucogenys was conducted in a local shrine (0.34 ha) . The individual which was kept under observation was supposed to be the last survivor in this decaying . It was completely arboreal and throughout the year it lived within that shrine . Gliding was its main mode of locomotion. Among trees of the , it visited only those trees which were high enough to glide from (or their neighboring trees) . The trees could be classified into three groups: 1) those used as food resources, 2) those used for resting which were tall and thick enough to conceal its body and 3) those only temporarily used for relaying glides. The flying squirrel traveled several times during one night between resting and feeding places. In winter it glided for foraging far more frequently than in summer. Gliding may be advantageous in a sparse wood such as this local shrine because it can travel among trees without danger of landing on the ground. It was exclusively a vegetarian, eating young leaves, seeds, nuts and sprouts of trees of eight species including Cryptomeria japonica, Quercus glauca and Zelkova serrata. It utilized as food different parts of an individnal tree by time of the year.

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In 1980 Aphytis yanonensis DEBACH et ROSEN was introduced from China into Japan to control the arrowhead scale, Unaspis yanonensis (KUWANA). A preliminary release test of the parasitoid was conducted in Fukuoka to determine the effectiveness of the parasitoid. In June 1982, 200 females of the parasitoid were released in a containing 25 citrus trees. Percent parasitism gradually increased until it reached 67 in February 1983. Number of generations during this period was estimated to be about 8 based on the effective accumulation temperature. The parasitoid which was found in October 1982 in a citrus about 15 m distant from the where it had been released could not be detected in February 1983 in a citrus about 600 m distant from it.

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Effect of wire netting method, which had been previously proved to be effective for preventing A. malasiaca oviposition in a young citrus , was examined in a mature citrus . The following 3 treatments were tried in a of 285 trees; (1) netting the tree trunk and piling up soil around the trunk base, (2) netting the tree trunk but not piling up soil around the base, and (3) untreated (control). The proportion of oviposited trees, the mean number of eggs and larvae, percentage of living eggs, and proportion of trees bored by larvae were compared among these treatments. The wire netting proved effective in preventing injuries by A. malasiaca, and further improved by guarding the trunk base with soil.

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An evaluation method of interfacial strength and effect of environmental degradation of resin on interfacial strength were studied in dissimilar materials joint between resin and metal. In order to induce delamination, a wedge shape indenter was introduced into a

pre-machined at the interface in testing method proposed. According to results of indentation test by using PET/A5052 joint with different position of a , a pre-machined for its center at the interface was appropriate to evaluate interfacial strength in resin/metal dissimilar materials joint. Dissimilar materials adhesive joints were prepared by joining PA66, PPS and PET held in high temperature environment or high humidity environment to A5052. Interfacial crack growth resistance decreased due to the environmental degradation of the resins. It was speculated that environmental degradation of resin could affect interfacial strength of the dissimilar materials joint.

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The dispersion of Allotropa sp. liberated in a persimmon was examined. 7, 500 mummies of Allotropa sp. were released as an attempt to control Planococcus kraunhiae Kuwana. The mummies were released on four trees in a of 20a, where the host population density was relatively low.
Distance of the dispersion was estimated from the number of individuals of this parasite which stuck to "Haetori Ribbon" a kind of sticky trap. The sticky traps were hung on 20 trees, five of which were inside of the and the others were outside. Each one was placed on three parts of the tree, upper, medium, lower, by tying it on a thread hung from the top branch.
Before releasing the parasite, these traps were left hanging for a day to know the number of individuals of the parasite originally living there. At the time of release other new traps were hung and collected seven days after.
Inside of the , the average number of the parasite increased by approximately three times after release, which was observed on the traps located at about 10m from the trees released. Outside of the , however, average number was reduced to about a half after release, although an increase was observed at No. 16 situated at 8.5m from the nearest tree released.
From this investigation; it may be concluded that this parasite dispersed to a distance of about 10m and the present result agrees approximately with the estimation by Tanaka & Ko-bayashi (1967) and it seems to disperse searching the host hovering about the height of 2m or higher, the medium and upper parts of the crown. From this result, it can be expected to use this parasite as a biotic insecticide.

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In this study, water quality characteristics of citrus soil leachate were investigated. Citrus soil contains nitrogen and phosphorus in high concentrations due to the high amount of fertilization, and its soil pH is also very low. Therefore it is considered that not only nutrients but also some problematic materials such as Al and Pb for aquatic livings and ecosystem at the watershed can be contained in the leachate. It is also concerned that the materials can be discharged into the downstream site as a result.
It is observed that pH of leachate is in the range of neutral, and the concentration of Al is not at the level where the aquatic livings and ecosystem can be affected. However, some heavy metals can be discharged and nutrients can cause eutrophication. It is suggested that citrus can be a big n onpoint source of nutrients.

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"Chojaga-mori"is a developed on the Akiyoshi limestone plateau which is an extensive one of the Karst areas in Japan. There were set up two different series of transect belts of 2m in width in the present study. To make a distribution map of the forest trees (more than 3cm in diameter), one is set up successively across the in E-W, and the other is in N-S directions. The authors attempted to analyse in detail the vegetational structure of the forest community on the basis of this map. The authors found a total 26 tree species, of which 11 are included into the evergreens and 15 in to the deciduous, however, the total of importance value of the former is about three times as much as the latter. The distribution pattern of the value of D. B. H. in this does not indicate the L-type, that is, it is considerably different from those reported from many primeval forest. This, together with the fact that the dispersion type of all the individuals in the forest is contagious, may suggest that the human agency such as firing or deforesting in the past had influenced the structure of this forest. The value of the standing crop or LAI (leaf area index) of the as well as the value of α (index of diversity) reveals the magnitude comparable with those of many other evergreen forests in Japan. Camellia japonica and Machilus thunbergii, the most important species, are distributed repulsively to each other in the forest.

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Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety medical devices is mandated for healthcare workers to reduce the risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) from exposure to patients’ blood. Research has shown that a strong safety climate may promote increased use of PPE. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the association between safety climate and use of PPE among homecare/hospice nurses in North Carolina. To this end, a mail survey was conducted in 2006. The response rate, adjusted on the assumption that the proportion of eligible nurses from among those who did not return the questionnaire or could not be contacted was similar to the proportion among those who did return the questionnaire, was 69% (n=833 eligibles). The percentage of nurses who used the specified PPE was two to three times greater among nurses who had a strong safety climate. Safety climate was only weakly associated with using safety devices. These results suggest that improving safety climate may be a powerful tool for increasing use of PPE.

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The breeding distribution, breeding success and nest site selection of Japanese Lesser Sparrowhawks Accipiter gularis were studied in the suburbs of Tokyo and Utsunomiya, central Japan from 1987 to 2005. The number of nest sites increased from the late 1980s to the early 1990s but decreased thereafter in both of the study areas. After the late 1990s the hawks increasingly abandoned their nests because Jungle Crows Corvus macrorhynchos attacked them. In Tokyo, few sparrowhawks bred in a large dominated by Jungle Crows after the mid 1990s and bred mainly in a small with few pine trees where they selected tree species other than pines for nesting in. In Utsunomiya, a large number of Japanese Red Pine trees remained in a small and there hawks used pine trees for nesting in more frequently than in Tokyo. These results suggest that the increasing population of Jungle Crows has detrimental effects on the breeding distribution, the breeding success and nest site selection of Japanese Lesser Sparrowhawks.

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Recently, multiple classifier systems (MCS) have been used for practical applications to improve classification accuracy. Self-generating neural networks (SGNN), which were proposed by Wen et al., are one of the suitable base-classifiers for MCS because of their simple setting and fast learning. However, the computation cost of the MCS increases in proportion to the number of SGNN. We proposed a novel pruning method for efficient classification and we called this model as self-organizing neural (SONG). In this paper, I introduce the SONG for researchers of self-organizing maps (SOM). Experiments have been conducted to compare the pruned MCS with an unpruned MCS, the MCS based on C4.5, and k-nearest neighbor method. The results show that the pruned MCS can improve its classification accuracy as well as reducing the computation cost.

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Through this research, "Ecologicalscape" for creating an excellent landscape matching the passage of time is being proposed. For this purpose, we disclose the following three points with regard to the required concept of "Ecologicalscape" and specific methods for realizing the proposed scenery creation. 1. Based on the changes of the seashore space in the course of marine coast improvement projects, the requirement for an "Ecologicalscape" was verified. 2. With the "Rainbow Pine " in the city of Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, studied as a research case, the process of seashore scenery formation was determined. 3. Through the examination of the seashore scenery formation process in the Rainbow Pine , factors for scenery experience (scenery evaluation) were determined, and specific methods for realizing an "Ecologicalscape" were formulated.

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Investigation was made at two groves (Kasedo and Kawatoko) of "Kuroshima-mikan", a native citrus on Nagashima, Kagoshima Prefecture, in order to determine the most desirable relation between the pests and their predators in citrus groves.Of the predators, Saula japonica feeding on the arrowhead scale, citrus red mite, etc. was the largest in number and Pseudoscymnus hareja feeding on the arrowhead scale, aphids, etc.was next. These two species amounted to about 60% of the total. Of the pests, the arrowhead scale was dominant and there were many species, but none whose population was noticeably high. The population of citrus red mite was far below the control threshold.The population of Saula japonica was very high and that of Unaspis yanonensis was somewhat higher at Kasedo where the was darker, not windy, and humid. But the populations of some predators were higher at Kawatoko which was lighter, windy, and dry. Thus both the pest and predator seem to choose a habitat condition.The population of the arrowhead scale was higher at the of "Kuroshima-mikan"than at the orchard of natsudaidai cultivated and sprayed in Hagi; that of citrus red mite was far below the control threshold. The predator fauna was moer rich both in species and individual numbers at the of "Kuroshima-mikan"than at the orchard cultivated but unsprayed in Nago. The abundance of fauna seems to contribute to control the population of arrowhead scale below a certain point and to keep the citrus red mite at an extremely low density.

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This article presents the spatial changes in Tsukigase plum

, which would have changed considerably due to the decline in demand for ‘Ubai’ (a type of plum artifact) after the beginning of the Meiji era. The distribution of plum at the beginning of the Meiji era is shown in the 1887 map, and that of plum during the Taisho era is shown in the 1921 map. By overlaying these maps and the topographic map on the GIS, changes in plum distribution at Tsukigase from the early Meiji to the Taisho era are clarified. Significant plum losses occurred in Nagahiki, Momogano and Tsukise, while losses in Oyama and Dake were smaller. While plum trees were shrinking, the number of visitors has increased since around 1885. However, from the perspective of visitors, it may be said that efforts to keep the plum trees along the main road to visit and in the view range from major viewpoints might keep the Tsukigase plum worth visiting until the time of Taisho era.

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Type 2 diabetic men commonly experience erectile dysfunction for which phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors like sildenafil (Viagra) are often recommended. By preventing degradation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) in vascular smooth muscle, these inhibitors also enhance arterial vasorelaxant effects of nitric oxide donors (which stimulate cGMP synthesis). In the present work, we confirmed this enhancing effect after co-administration of sildenafil with nitroprusside to freshly-isolated rat tail arterial tissues. However, in the same tissues we also observed that sildenafil does not enhance but rather attenuates vasorelaxant effects of three commonly-used antidiabetic drugs, i.e. the biguanide metformin and the thiazolidinediones pioglitazone and rosiglitazone. Indeed, sildenafil completely blocked vasorelaxant effects of low concentrations of these drugs. In addition, we found that this same novel anti-vasorelaxant interaction of sildenafil with these agents was abolished by either 1) omitting extracellular glucose or 2) inhibiting specific smooth muscle glycolytic pathways; pathways known to preferentially utilize extracellular glucose to fuel certain adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent ion transporters: e.g. ATP-sensitive K channels, sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase, plasma membrane Ca-ATPase and Na/K-ATPase. Accordingly, we suspect that altered activity of one or more of these ion transporters mediates the observed attenuating (anti-vasorelaxant) interaction of sildenafil with the antidiabetic drugs. The present results are relevant because hypertension is so common and difficult to control in Type 2 diabetes. The present data suggest that sildenafil might interfere with the known antihypertensive potential of metformin and the thiazolidinediones. However, they do not suggest that it will interact with them to cause life-threatening episodes of severe hypotension, as can occur when it is co-administered with nitrates.

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Japan’s Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines have long histories. Many are surrounded by sizable groves that have been carefully preserved and are regarded today as sacred. We investigated whether soil acidification might be causing tree decline at the Awaga Shrine (Hyogo, Kansai, Japan). The shrine site is more than 1000 years old and has a large sacred

of Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa). This species has extremely durable wood, and some buildings built with it have stood for more than 1000 years. We found serious to severe tree decline in the Awaga cypress . The shrine’s soils have undergone acidification, which was significantly correlated with cypress decline. Chemical analysis of the shrine’s soils suggests that their nutritional status has declined relative to the national average. This suggests that soil acidification may be related to the cypress decline.

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