Gifu Prefecture Research Articles

Questionnaire-based real-world survey of diagnosing food allergy in children: Utilization of oral food challenge tests and other diagnostic methods

BackgroundOral food challenge tests are considered the gold standard for diagnosing food allergies; however, studies on their real-world implementation rates are limited. ObjectiveThe study aimed to investigate the proportion of school-aged children who underwent the oral food challenge test and to understand the motivations behind food elimination and utilization of various healthcare services. MethodsThe questionnaire-based survey for the parents of the students who submitted the "certificate for school life management (for allergic diseases)" was conducted across public elementary and junior high schools in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. ResultsThe study encompassed parents of 3457 children with food allergies who submitted the certificate. Approximately one-third of those eliminating the three major allergens—eggs (32.5%), milk (27.6%), and wheat (33.5%)—were diagnosed via oral food challenge tests, and approximately two-thirds were diagnosed using a combination of symptoms and blood tests, suggesting that majority of them were diagnosed appropriately. However, many children were diagnosed and eliminated foods based solely on blood tests without any symptoms of other allergens, such as buckwheat (55.8%), peanuts (29.2%), and tree nuts (21.2%), suggesting that there was likely unnecessary food elimination in these children. The elimination of buckwheat due to anxiety was associated with eliminating other foods for the same reason and eliminating two or more foods. ConclusionExamination of the real-world application of the proposed recommendations for the accurate diagnosis of food allergies suggests that close monitoring of the practical application should be conducted in each case to avoid unnecessary food elimination from children's diets.

Genetic variability of Myxobolus nagaraensis (Bivalvulida: Myxobolidae) infecting freshwater gobies Rhinogobius Gill 1859 (Gobiiformes: Oxudercidae) from rivers in Japan

Myxobolus nagaraensis is a myxozoan parasite first reported in freshwater gobies (Rhinogobius spp.) from the Nagara River, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Myxospores of M. nagaraensis form plasmodia in the visceral cavities of gobies, commonly presenting as distended abdomens. Although Rhinogobius is a common fish genus in Japan, details of M. nagaraensis, including genetic information, remain unknown. We compared the nucleotide sequences of the ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) of M. nagaraensis from three different host species (R. fluviatilis, R. nagoyae, and R. similis) caught in three different rivers in Japan (Sakai, Sagami, and Kaname). The ITS region (ITS-1, 5.8S rDNA, and ITS-2) and large subunit (LSU) rDNA exhibited 49 and 55 variable sites, respectively. The highest nucleotide diversity was observed in the ITS region (0.00962), whereas that of the LSU rDNA was 0.00187. Differences in host species, rather than rivers, were a significant factor for genetic variation in both the ITS region (62.58%; P < 0.001) and LSU rDNA (55.22%; P < 0.01). Significant genetic variation was observed in M. nagaraensis from R. similis compared to R. fluviatilis (P < 0.001) or R. nagoyae (P < 0.001) from the same river. Such details are valuable for understanding parasite dispersal and its ecological impact on Rhinogobius hosts.

Evaluation of Immune Status of Pigs against Classical Swine Fever for Three Years after the Initiation of Vaccination in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.

In 2018, classical swine fever (CSF) reemerged in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, after 26 years of absence, and vaccination of domestic pigs using a live attenuated vaccine was initiated in 2019. Because the vaccine efficacy in piglets is influenced by the maternal antibody levels, vaccination should be administered at the optimal age by assuming the antibody level in sows. In this study, the shift in the antibody titer distribution in sows due to the initiation of vaccination to naïve herds and its influence on the vaccine-induced immunity rate in fattening pigs were investigated for 3 years. The results indicated that higher antibody titers were induced in first-generation sows after vaccine initiation because they were immunologically naïve, but the distribution of antibody titers shifted to lower levels along with their replacement with second-generation sows. The average vaccination age of fattening pigs became earlier year by year, and the vaccine-induced antibody rate was almost ≥80%. Based on the estimation of the optimal age for vaccination, it was found that vaccination at a younger age may reduce the risk of CSF infection. Taken together, the risk of CSF outbreaks can be reduced by administering vaccines at the optimal age based on the sequential monitoring of the sow's immune status.

Predictive Factors Associated with Future Decline in Swallowing Function among Japanese Older People Aged ≥ 75 Years.

Predictive factors associated with a decline in swallowing function after 2 years were examined in 3409 Japanese older people aged ≥ 75 years who had undergone a dental checkup in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Participants with normal swallowing function in a baseline survey in April 2018 were followed for 2 years. Swallowing function was assessed using a repetitive saliva swallowing test. In our study, 429 participants (13%) who were swallowing less than three times in 30 s based on a repetitive saliva swallowing test after 2 years were diagnosed as those with decline in swallowing function. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed the decline in swallowing function after 2 years was associated with the male gender (odds ratio [ORs]: 0.772; 95% confidence interval [CIs]: 0.615-0.969), age ≥ 81 years (presence; ORs: 1.523; 95% CIs: 1.224-1.895), support/care-need certification (presence; ORs: 1.815; 95% CIs: 1.361-2.394), periodontal pocket depth (PPD) ≥ 4 mm (presence; ORs: 1.469; 95% CIs: 1.163-1.856), difficulty in biting hard food (yes; ORs: 1.439; 95% CIs: 1.145-1.808), choking on tea and water (yes; ORs: 2.543; 95% CIs: 2.025-3.193), and dry mouth (yes; ORs: 1.316; 95% CIs: 1.052-1.646) at baseline. Therefore, the dental checkup items associated with a decline in swallowing function after 2 years were a PPD ≥ 4 mm, difficulty in biting hard food, choking on tea and water, and dry mouth. PPD status and confirming to the self-administered questionnaire about biting, choking, and dry mouth may be useful in predicting future decline in swallowing function.

Application of machine learning with large-scale data for an effective vaccination against classical swine fever for wild boar in Japan

Classical swine fever has been spreading across the country since its re-emergence in Japan in 2018. Gifu Prefecture has been working diligently to control the disease through the oral vaccine dissemination targeting wild boars. Although vaccines were sprayed at 14,000 locations between 2019 and 2020, vaccine ingestion by wild boars was only confirmed at 30% of the locations. Here, we predicted the vaccine ingestion rate at each point by Random Forest modeling based on vaccine dissemination data and created prediction surfaces for the probability of vaccine ingestion by wild boar using spatial interpolation techniques. Consequently, the distance from the vaccination point to the water source was the most important variable, followed by elevation, season, road density, and slope. The area under the curve, model accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for model evaluation were 0.760, 0.678, 0.661, and 0.685, respectively. Areas with high probability of wild boar vaccination were predicted in northern, eastern, and western part of Gifu. Leave-One-Out Cross Validation results showed that Kriging approach was more accurate than the Inverse distance weighting method. We emphasize that effective vaccination strategies based on epidemiological data are essential for disease control and that our proposed tool is also applicable for other wildlife diseases.

Retrieval of cherry flowering phenology on Flickr and YouTube: a case study along the Tarumi railway, Gifu, Japan

To further develop the accuracy of monitoring cherry flowering dates, we require phenological records from multiple points in multiple years at the catchment scale, as well as conventional in situ phenological observations, phenological data published on the Internet, and analysis using statistics of Internet search engines. We tried to detect the dates of cherry flowering phenology along the Tarumi railway, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, by using Flickr, an image hosting service, and YouTube, an online video sharing and social media platform. We detected full bloom of Cerasus ×yedoensis and Cerasus jamasakura mainly at cherry blossom viewing spots (around some train stations) on Flickr and at both viewing spots and multiple points in the landscape along the railway on YouTube. Despite local climatological differences along the railway, the detected full blooming dates corresponded not only with each other, but also with the full bloom period of Neodani Usuzumi-zakura (Cerasus itosakura), a famous tree with long-term detailed records. We could not detect the date and location in many photographs on Flickr or in any videos on YouTube. However, the usefulness of both platforms is supported by the facts that we can evaluate the year-to-year variability of full bloom dates, especially at cherry blossom viewing spots, and detect flowering phenology even in a non-photogenic landscape. By applying our method to other railways, we expect to collect multi-year records of plant phenology dates at multiple points that cannot be collected by older methods.

First Report of Mermithidae (Enoplea: Mermithida) Parasitizing Adult Stable Flies in Japan.

Mermithidae is a family of nematodes that parasitize a wide range of invertebrates worldwide. Herein, we report nematodes that were unexpectedly found in three of 486 adult stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) captured from three farms (F1, F2, and F3) in different regions of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. We aimed to characterize these nematodes both at the morphological and molecular level. Morphological studies revealed that the nematodes were juveniles of Mermithidae. Phylogenetic analysis based on 18S and 28S rDNA indicated that the mermithids from farms F1 and F2 could be categorized into the same cluster as Ovomermis sinensis and Hexamermis sp., whereas the mermithid from farm F3 clustered with Amphimermis sp. Additionally, these mermithids could be categorized within the same clusters as related mermithids detected in Japan that parasitize various arthropod orders. Our findings suggest that these stable flies may have been parasitized by mermithids already present in the region and that genetically distinct species of mermithids occur across Japan. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mermithids parasitizing adult stable flies in Japan.

A genome-wide association study reveals fetal genetic factor for gestation length on chromosome 21 in Japanese Black cattle.

Gestation length (GL) in cattle is associated with neonatal health and the subsequent reproductive performance of dams. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using 25,144 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 4373 animals to detect genetic variants associated with GL as a fetal trait in Japanese Black cattle in Gifu Prefecture. We identified four significant SNPs on chromosome 21 in moderate linkage disequilibrium (LD). The minor allele of the most significant SNP has the effect on -2.47 days GL with a 0.019 allele frequency. Of the 4373 animals, 140 heterozygotes and one homozygote with the minor allele were traced back to a heterozygous sire. The 7.2Mb LD region harbors three genes: gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor subunit beta3 (GABRB3), arrestin domain containing 4 (ARRDC4), and nuclear receptor subfamily 2 group F member 2 (NR2F2, also known as COUP-TFII). RNA expression analysis and its functions suggest that GABRB3, ARRDC4, and NR2F2 (COUP-TFII) are involved in glucose production via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during the fetal stress response at gestation period termination. These results suggest that an increase in the allele frequency of the associated SNPs has an impact on genetic improvement by shortening the GL in the population.

Diversity of genes encoding immune-related GTPase B2 protein, an inherited element responsible for resistance against virulent Toxoplasma gondiistrains, among wild Mus musculus in local area of Japan.

The major genetic group of Toxoplasma gondii, known as type I, generally displays high lethality in laboratory Mus musculus (mouse) strains, with few exceptions. However, because rodents are the primary reservoir hosts for T. gondii, if this characteristic manifests in the wild, type I strains would be extinct. Therefore, we hypothesized that populations of wild rodents capable of harboring type I T. gondii asymptomatically exist globally and are not limited to a few localized areas, as previously thought. The strength of mouse resistance to T. gondii is known to depend on the affinity of the mouse-expressed immunity-related GTPases B2 (IRGB2) protein for the T. gondii-expressed rphoptry protein 5B (ROP5B) protein. Therefore, the Irgb2 gene sequences of 12 individuals mice captured at two animal farms in Gifu Prefecture, and on an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan were determined, and subjected to a molecular phylogenetic analysis together with those of various mouse strains worldwide. The Irgb2 gene of M. musculus individuals captured on one farm and one island showed diverse sequences. The sequences from two individual mice captured in an animal farm formed a single clade with a wild mouse derived CAST/EiJ strain, known for its exceptional resistance to type I T. gondii lethality. These results suggest that M. musuculus individuals resistant to the Type I T. gondii strain may be present in Japan, in addition to the previously known populations in South Asia, Thailand and India.

Proposed Flood Mitigation Using Backwater in Highly Developed Watersheds with Consideration of Crop Calendars and Spatial Resolution: Toward Consensus Formation

In this study, we examine the possibility of proactive floodwater diversion to fields via backwater in numerical experiments using multiple elevation data products with different spatial resolutions and explore the optimal timing of water diversion from the perspective of crop calendars. This study targeted the Ida River System Land Improvement District, which has beneficiary lands on both banks of the Ida River, one of the tributaries of the Jinzu River that flows through Toyama and Gifu Prefectures in the Hokuriku and Chubu Regions of Japan. First, a comparison of the elevation data products revealed that photogrammetric data can capture microtopography, such as the footpaths between rice paddies and drainage channels around a field. Numerical experiments using two elevation data products, 5m DEM and LP-derived approximately 5m DEM, showed that flood peaks were reduced downstream in both cases using 5m DEM and LP approximately 5m DEM by directing floodwaters. Interviews with land improvement districts and a review of previous studies revealed that the ear-burst period is particularly vulnerable to flooding. Although the effect of flood peak reduction is reduced due to flooding of the field, it is possible that floodwater can be channeled during the ripening period in August and in late September and October when the ears have been harvested.

Analysis of effective spatial range of oral vaccination against classical swine fever for wild boar

Classical swine fever (CSF) re-emerged in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan, in September 2018 and is currently widespread in wild boar populations. Due to its widespread in wild boars, an oral mass vaccination strategy was initiated in March 2019, employing a commercial bait vaccine that is a live attenuated vaccine. To enhance the effectiveness of oral vaccination, it is crucial to determine the vaccine’s effective spatial range. This understanding is essential for devising a comprehensive vaccination strategy, which should also include a preliminary investigation of wild boar habitats before vaccination. This study aimed to estimate the effective range of oral vaccination for wild boars against CSF by analyzing the geographical relationship between immune wild boars and vaccination points within the vaccination areas in Gifu Prefecture. This study utilized oral vaccination data from April 2021 to March 2022. The prevalence of CSF infections in wild boars remained below 5% in this period, suggesting limited disease transmission and immune wild boars were considered to be induced by the effect of vaccination. Two vaccination campaigns were conducted during this period, with almost 2000 vaccination points each. To investigate the factors associated with the intensity (i.e., density) of immune wild boar, the nearest distances to a vaccination point and to a susceptible wild boar were evaluated as explanatory variables. The Rhohat procedure and point process model were utilized to analyze the relationship between the intensity of immune wild boars and the explanatory variables. The point process model revealed a significant decrease in the intensity of immune wild boars when the distance from the nearest vaccination point exceeded 500 m, indicating that the effective spatial range of bait vaccination is within 500 m of the vaccination point. Although the distance to the nearest susceptible animal did not show significance in the model, Rhohat plots indicated that the intensity of immune wild boars decreased at distances greater than 1200 m from the nearest susceptible wild boar. This finding highlights the importance of investigating susceptible wild boar populations within a range of at least 1200 m from a vaccination point before implementation. The present study revealed the effective range of oral vaccination for wild boars against CSF and indicated the importance of investigating susceptible wild boar habitats around vaccination points before the implementation of vaccination. These findings may help improve the effectiveness of oral vaccinations.

Factors Associated with Low Albumin in Community-Dwelling Older Adults Aged 75 Years and Above.

This study aimed to clarify the factors associated with low albumin in Japanese older adults aged ≥75 years. The data utilized were the health checkup data of older adults aged ≥75 years from 42 municipalities in Gifu Prefecture, which were provided by the National Health Insurance database system. After excluding the data of individuals with incomplete information on serum albumin, BMI, lifestyle habits, or weight at previous year, the data from 18,674 individuals' health checkup were analyzed. A logistic regression showed that low albumin was associated with smoking, not walking at least 1 h/day, slow walking speed, difficulty in chewing, slow eating speed, weight loss in the previous year, and underweight. Furthermore, an analysis conducted for older adults aged ≥85 years showed that low albumin was associated with not walking at least 1 h/day, difficulty in chewing, slow eating speed, weight loss in the previous year, and underweight. In the future, the number of older adults will increase in Japan; therefore, a strategic approach to promote the health of these aged individuals will become even more necessary. An early approach to maintaining an active physical life, an appropriate weight, and good oral function will lead to improved health in older adults.

Classification of Chubu-region dialects using random forest

The present study investigated how Japanese dialects in Chubu region are classified using random forest (RF) and an adaptive synthetic (ADASYN) sampling approach. We obtained the written-format pronunciations of 22 words from 884 Japanese speakers (average age = 71.1) who had been residing in their birthplaces. We calculated phonetic distance (ALINE distance) between the dialectal and standard Japanese pronunciations, and ran RF models with 1,000 bootstrap samples. The results of the RF models (ROC = 0.953, F1 = 0.68) demonstrated that speakers with a predicted probability greater than 50 percent (n = 415) were generally located in their residing prefectures, suggesting that each prefecture has its own dialect. Speakers with a predicted probability less than 50 percent were located in both their residing prefectures and the vicinities of the prefectures, particularly those in Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka, Nagano, Gunma, and Niigata prefectures, suggesting that the speakers in the areas share some characteristics of the prefectural dialects. This potentially led to the poor predictions of the speakers. The expansion of these prefectural dialects seems to be limited by the Japanese Alps; dialects spoken on the eastern and western side of the mountain range are generally widespread only in the area, respectively.

Overview of KAGRA : Data transfer and management

Abstract KAGRA is a newly built gravitational wave observatory, a laser interferometer with a 3 km arm length, located in Kamioka, Gifu prefecture, Japan. In this article, we describe the KAGRA data management system, i.e., recording of data, transfer from the KAGRA experiment site to computing resources, as well as data distribution to tier sites, including international sites in Taiwan and Korea. The amount of KAGRA data exceeded 1.0 PiB and increased by about 1.5 TB per day during operation in 2020. Our system has succeeded in data management, and has achieved performance that can withstand observations after 2023, that is, a transfer rate of 20 MB s-1 or more and file storage of sufficient capacity for petabyte class. We also discuss the sharing of data between the global gravitational-wave detector network with other experiments, namely LIGO and Virgo. The latency, which consists of calculation of calibrated strain data and transfer time within the global network, is very important from the view of multi-messenger astronomy using gravitational waves. Real-time calbrated data delivered from the KAGRA detector site and other detectors to our computing system arrive with about 4–15 seconds of latency. These latencies are sufficiently short compared to the time taken for gravitational wave event search computations. We also established a high-latency exchange of offline calibrated data that was aggregated with a better accuracy compared with real-time data.

Assessing mammal fence crossing and local fence management in relation to classical swine fever spread in Japan.

Infectious diseases at the wildlife-livestock-human interface have become a crucial issue, and evidence-based measures are growing increasingly important. One countermeasure against animal diseases in wildlife is using fencing to contain and reduce disease spread and transmission rates between wild populations; however, quantitative assessments on fencing are rare. Moreover, existing research on fencing has highlighted knowledge gaps on the social and ecological aspects relevant to the use and design of fences. To control the spread of classical swine fever, fences were installed from the east to west in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, by March 2019, with the aim of restricting wild boar movement. To clarify the process of installation and maintenance of the fences, we conducted semi-structured interviews with prefectural government officers in Gifu Prefecture. Additionally, we installed infrared-triggered cameras at fence locations with and without gaps to evaluate the fence permeability of mammals. We used a generalized linear mixed model to evaluate the relationship between the presence of gaps and the relative abundance and permeability of each mammal. Our findings showed that the occurrence of gaps was inevitable during the installation and management of wide-area perimeter fence in Japan, partly because of social factors. For example, fences could not be installed on roads that were frequently used by residents and were not adequately maintained owing to budgetary reasons in some cases. Analysis of footage from the infrared-triggered cameras revealed that several mammal species crossed the fence at gaps and even had the ability to cross the gapless parts of the fences. Wild boars crossed through the gaps regularly. It is possible that Sika deer, Japanese serows, raccoons, Japanese badgers, raccoon dogs, Japanese macaques, and feral cats crossed through fence gaps because their relative abundance was high at gap locations. In contrast, Japanese hares slipped through the fence mesh rather than crossing through the gaps. In conclusion, we suggest that coordination and collaboration among related parties, a sufficient supply of fence materials, and securing a budget for fence maintenance are important for fence installation and maintenance. Furthermore, as fence gaps are inevitable, technical development of countermeasures for these gaps could be effective.

The phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance patterns of Salmonella isolated from chickens and meat at poultry slaughterhouses in Japan and Thailand.

Poultry meat is a popular food consumed globally. However, poultry farming is a source of Salmonella contamination which causes human salmonellosis. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of Salmonella among chickens and meat at poultry slaughterhouses in province study areas in Thailand and Japan. Chicken meat and feces samples were collected in Thailand and Japan. In Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand, 558 samples were obtained from slaughterhouses from January 2021 to March 2022. In Gifu Prefecture, Japan, 140 samples (70 each of intestinal contents and meat) were purchased from slaughterhouses from June to October 2022. For Salmonella detection, the samples were cultivated according to the International Organization for Standardization 6579:2002/AMD 1:2007 method and confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and agglutination tests for serotyping. Isolated Salmonella were tested for AMR to nine antibiotics using the disk diffusion method. Selected phenotypic multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates were evaluated for AMR genes (AMRGs) using PCR. Salmonella prevalence from chickens and meat at slaughterhouses in Thailand and Japan was 41.2% and 40.7%, respectively. All the Salmonella isolates in Japan were serotyped as Schwarzengrund, and no Salmonella isolates were resistant to the nine antibiotics tested. In contrast, most of the Thai Salmonella isolates from chicken cloacal swabs and meat were resistant to doxycycline (78.3%) and colistin (63.5%). The prevalence of MDR Salmonella (MDRS) in chickens and meat from Thailand and Japan was 29.1% (67/230) and 0% (0/57), respectively. However, the most frequent AMRGs found in MDRS in Thailand were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-Temoneira (ESBL-TEM) (45.1%). All isolated Salmonella from Japan revealed a class 1 integron gene (Int-1). Phenotypic MDRS isolates from Thailand showed the greatest correlation to AMRG and ESBL-TEM. Although there were no phenotypic AMR Salmonella isolates found in Japan, they can be found associated with Int-1, which may carry other AMRGs within the gene cassettes.

Home Range and Habitat Selection of Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in Rural Landscape

Wild boars can cause crop damage and are vectors causing infectious diseases. Thus, population management is essential to mitigate the damage. Because home range and habitat selection is important for the management of target species, accurate spatial data would provide valuable information to establish population management scheme. In this study, we investigated the home range and habitat selection of wild boars and aimed to help implement effective population management. We captured seven wild boars in central Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and monitored each individual from October 2020 to June 2022. We calculated the home range size and investigated environmental characteristics during daytime and nighttime. The home range sizes estimated from the minimum convex polygon method ranged from 0.32 to 28.51 km2. Moreover, wild boars avoided anthropogenic environments during the daytime and selectively used areas in the cropland category during the nighttime. Therefore, wild boars had narrow home ranges depending on the anthropogenic environments. Consequently, wildlife managers could reduce agricultural damage caused by wild boars by managing bamboo forests and abandoned cultivated lands in the rural landscape. For infectious diseases, moreover, they should implement countermeasures against wild boars around areas where infectious diseases are endemic.

Climate Change Impacts on Soil Moisture and Temperature in the Plain and Mountainous Regions of Gifu Prefecture, Japan

Climate change alters air temperature, precipitation, and rainfall patterns, thereby affecting the soil environment, including soil water content and temperature. The impact of climate change on soil environment varies from region to region. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the soil environment using meteorological and soil information specific to each region. The Gifu Prefecture, Japan, has a large area and rich topographical diversity. This study aimed to elucidate the impact of climate change on the soil environment in the plain and mountainous regions of Gifu Prefecture. The present (2011–2020) and future (2091–2100) soil temperature, water content, and snow depth were calculated using HYDRUS-1D and Agro-Meteorological Grid Square Data. The analysis predicted an increase in soil temperatures by 3°C in the future. The increase in soil temperature at the plain site was larger than that at the mountainous site. The future soil water content in the plain site increased (by 0.01×10−3 m3 m−3) and that in the mountainous site decreased (by 0.67×10−3 m3 m−3). These results may differ depending on the global circulation model selected. The mountainous site indicated heavier snowfall in winter, affecting the soil water content. The plain site was more sensitive to climate change than the mountainous site with respect to soil temperature, and the mountainous site was more sensitive to climate change with respect to soil moisture. This study revealed the impacts of climate change on two regions, in the future we will expand our analysis to cover the entire Gifu prefecture.

Development of an Effective Oral Vaccine Dissemination Strategy against Classical Swine Fever for Wild Boar in Gifu Prefecture, Japan

In September 2018, classical swine fever (CSF) reemerged in Japan after more than a quarter of a century. After the first notification on a pig farm, wild boars positive for CSF were found continuously in the surrounding area. Gifu was the first prefecture in Japan to disseminate oral vaccines to wild boars in March 2019, with vaccines spread to approximately 14,000 sites between 2019 and 2020. While these diligent measures seemed to have shown some effectiveness, several vaccine spray sites remained without wild boar emergence. Based on the vaccine dissemination records from these periods, this study conducted a statistical analysis to propose more effective vaccine dissemination sites. First, a generalized linear mixed model was used to identify factors correlated with wild boar emergence. Then, two spatial interpolation methods, inverse distance weighted (IDW) and Kriging, were adopted to create a probability map of wild boar emergence for the entire Gifu Prefecture. The analysis showed a positive correlation between wild boar emergence and the appearance of raccoons, raccoon dogs, and crows as well as road density and wild boar distribution index. In particular, raccoon (OR: 1.83, 95%CI: 1.25–2.68, p &lt; 0.001), raccoon dog (OR: 1.81, 95%CI: 1.25–2.66, p &lt; 0.001), and medium level road density (OR: 1.56, 95%CI: 1.04–2.39, p = 0.04) were strongly correlated with wild boar emergence. The spatial interpolation approach resulted in better prediction accuracy for the Kriging method than for IDW by the root mean square error, but both approaches identified a high wild boar appearance probability area in southeastern Gifu and a low appearance probability area in central Gifu. Here we have demonstrated a tool to effectively disperse oral vaccine to wildlife.

Machine‐reeling technology diffusion in early Meiji Japan's silk industry

AbstractUsing 1880 s panel data from Yamanashi and Gifu prefectures in Japan, we estimated the diffusion factors and total factor productivity (TFP) in machine‐reeling technology in Japan's silk‐reeling sector. While the cost of distance through the traditional highway from the Shimosuwa‐shuk post town in the Nagano Prefecture has a negative correlation with technology diffusion, the correlation of silk production per population is positive. Machine‐reeling technology is raw‐material‐intensive and does not show increasing returns to scale. While the TFP in Yamanashi is higher than in Gifu, machine‐reeling output expansion is larger in the latter.