Ishikawa Prefecture Research Articles

Use of information and communication technology in the support of viral hepatitis patients in Japan.

In Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, the regional core center for hepatitis care coordination (Kanazawa University Hospital, the only regional core center in the prefecture) conducts follow-ups with people who tested positive for viral hepatitis at screenings organized primarily by municipal governments. This program, called the Ishikawa Hepatitis Follow-up Program, has been operating since 2010. The regional core center has conventionally verified the status of program participants using a paper-based system of "examination letters" which specialized institutes mail to the regional core center when a program participant visits a physician there. However, only a low 40% to 50% of examination letters were returned to the regional core center. The program is now using the information and communication technology tool ID-Link to help the regional core center participate in care and provide support through mutual sharing of clinical information with specialized institutes. Currently, 1,632 of the 3,202 people who had tested positive for hepatitis testing since 2002 have consented to participate in the Ishikawa Hepatitis Follow-up Program, and as of the end of March 2021, information about 132 among those 1,632 people is being shared between specialized institutes and the regional core center using ID-link. Sharing of clinical information between the regional core center and specialized institutes enabled by ID-Link provided a more accurate picture of how many people who tested positive for viral hepatitis had visited a specialized institute compared with the previous paper-based system of examination letters, making follow-up more efficient.

Factors controlling dissolved 137Cs activities in coastal waters on the eastern and western sides of Honshu, Japan

The distributions of dissolved 137Cs in river, nearshore, and offshore waters on the east and west coasts of the Japanese island of Honshu were studied in 2018–2021, 7–10 years after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident. On the east side along the north western North Pacific (Fukushima Prefecture), estuarine processes, including desorption from riverine particles and dissolution into pore water from riverine particles that had settled to the seafloor, contributed to the maintenance of high dissolved 137Cs activities in nearshore and offshore waters. A survey and mass-balance calculation in a semi-enclosed estuarine area, the Matsukawa-ura, in the northern part of Fukushima, provided convincing evidence that rivers contributed to the influx of 137Cs to coastal waters. In contrast, the extremely low activities of dissolved and particulate 137Cs in the Tedori River of Ishikawa Prefecture on the western side of Japan along the Japan Sea suggested that inputs of riverine 137Cs made a negligible contribution to the increase of dissolved 137Cs activities in the nearshore and offshore waters. The relatively high dissolved 137Cs activities observed in the offshore waters of the Japan Sea were due to movement of FDNPP-derived 137Cs into the Japan Sea via the Tsushima Warm Current. Mechanisms controlling the distributions of 137Cs activities in coastal waters of the eastern and western sides of Japan therefore differ.

Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19.

Administering medical treatment or managing quarantine for a patient is particularly difficult when a patient harming others or causing self-harm because of severe depression, a manic state, or psychomotor agitation is also infected with COVID-19. Kanazawa University Hospital is the only facility able to manage such difficult cases occurring in Ishikawa prefecture, a local administrative area in Japan. The hospital has arranged a negative pressure apparatus in a psychiatric ward with two protection rooms. This report describes an urgently established but viable system in one prefecture of Japan for treating COVID-19-infected patients with severe psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improvement in group identification of dojo loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism

In most Japanese populations of dojo loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), gonochoristic diploids of genetically diversified groups (A and B, further subdivided into B1 and B2) are present, whereas unisexual clonal lineages inhabit certain localities in the Hokkaido and Ishikawa Prefectures in Japan. Through a series of genetic studies including DNA markers, the clonal loaches were deemed to originate from a hybridization event(s) between the A and B1 groups. However, combined analyses with other DNA markers are needed to identify each genetic group. In this study, we improved the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the recombination activating gene 1 (RAG1) gene using digestion with two restriction enzymes, PvuII and StuI. The improved RAG1-RFLP analysis showed different fragment patterns for each group: two fragments (245 and 198 bp) for group A, three fragments (198, 147, and 98 bp) for group B1, and a single fragment (443 bp) for group B2. The clonal loaches exhibited four fragments (245, 198, 147, and 98 bp) derived from both groups A and B1. Moreover, the DNA markers were able to detect two different hybrid genotypes (A × B2 and B1 × B2). Thus, the improved RAG1-RFLP markers allowed for quick and accurate group identification of the dojo loaches.

Effects of Seeding Density per Seedling Box and Planting Density on Production Cost of High-yielding Rice Varieties in Ishikawa Prefecture

Effects of Seeding Density per Seedling Box and Planting Density on Production Cost of High-yielding Rice Varieties in Ishikawa Prefecture

People’s Avoidance of Neighboring Agricultural Urban Green Infrastructure: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

This study evaluates people’s preferences regarding the proximity of their residence to agricultural urban green infrastructure (UGI), such as agricultural land and satoyama, and discusses the availability of these types of land as UGI. UGI is vital for reducing the negative environmental impacts of urban areas, as these impacts are too large to ignore. In this study, we conducted an online survey and a choice experiment to investigate people’s perceptions regarding the proximity of their residence to agricultural UGI (AUGI). The respondents of the choice experiment were 802 inhabitants of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, which has rich agricultural resources. To examine explicitly the spatial autocorrelation of people’s preferences, in this study, we used the spatial econometrics method. The main empirical findings are that people prefer agricultural land far away from their residence—more than 1000 m, not within 1000 m—which reflects the not-in-my-backyard phenomenon. Meanwhile, people’s preferences regarding proximity to satoyama are complicated and their preferences are positively spatially autocorrelated. The results indicate that policymakers and urban planners should manage and provide AUGI far away from residential areas; otherwise, they must address people’s avoidance of neighboring AUGI.

Estimation of Potential Economic Losses Due to Flooding Considering Variations of Spatial Distribution of Houses and Firms in a City

In Japan, flood disasters caused by record-breaking heavy rainfall frequently cause significant damages. It is also great concern that heavy rainfall may increase and occur more frequently due to global warming. In July 2013, a heavy rainfall event caused record-flooding of the Kakehashi River in Ishikawa Prefecture. In this study, pseudo global warming (PGW) experiments were implemented for the heavy rainfall in 1998 and 2013 around the Kakehashi River basin. Based on the results of PGW simulations, rainfall with different return periods were generated. Runoff analyses and inundation simulations were carried out by forcings with multiple return periods, and the results were used to estimate the economic losses due to flood inundation. Expected values of the economic losses were calculated using two methods for multiple return periods. Differences between the two expected values indicates the importance of the weighting method for the result of each return period. In addition, variations of spatial distribution of houses and firms in a city (i.e., urban structure) were simulated using a computable urban economics (CUE) model for the area of middle-lower reach of the Kakehashi River basin to examine its impact on economic loss due to flooding. In the simulation using the CUE model, a more severe flood inundation risk and an additional insurance burden for general households were added, and possible variations of urban structure were estimated around the lower part of the Kakehashi River basin. Under the more severe risk condition, relocation proceeded from higher risk areas to safer areas, and possible economic losses decreased in the target area. This result indicates that proper recognition of risk can reduce flood damages. On the other hand, there were small variations in economic losses under the condition with the additional flood insurance burden.

Biology of the Small Diving Beetle Laccophilus yoshitomii Watanabe and Kamite, 2018 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) and Rearing Methods

The dytiscid beetle Laccophilus yoshitomiiWatanabe and Kamite, 2018 (Dytiscidae), distributed in Japan, is a small aquatic beetle that was first described in 2018. In the present study a L. yoshitomii population, collected from the type locality (Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan), was reared in the laboratory. The insects laid eggs individually into the main stems of Pogostemon sp. (Lamiaceae). The developmental period for the first, second, and third instar larvae was 2–6 (mean ± SD = 3.5 ± 0.8 days, n = 51), 3–8 (4.2 ± 0.9 days, n = 48), and 5–10 days (6.8 ± 1.3 days, n = 38), respectively; the landing to emergence and landing to escaping the pupal chamber stages lasted 8 (n = 1) and 9–14 days (11.3 ± 1.5 days, n = 13), respectively. A basic rearing model for this species is proposed.

Protein intake in inhabitants with regular exercise is associated with sleep quality: Results of the Shika study.

Although associations between sleep quality and environmental factors and nutrient intake have been reported, interactions between these factors have not been elucidated in detail. Therefore, this cross-sectional study examined the effects of regular exercise and nutrient intake on sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which is the most frequently used index for sleep evaluation. The participants included 378 individuals aged 40 years or older living in Shika Town, Ishikawa Prefecture. Of these individuals, 185 met the inclusion criteria. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire assessing lifestyle habits and frequency and duration of exercise, the PSQI, and the brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ) on nutrient intake. A two-way analysis of covariance on regular exercise and PSQI scores indicated that protein intake (17.13% of energy) was significantly higher in the regular exercise and PSQI ≤10 groups than in the non-regular exercise or PSQI ≥11 groups (p = 0.002). In a multiple logistic regression analysis with PSQI scores (≤10 and ≥11), protein intake was a significant independent variable in any of the models adjusted for confounding factors such as age, sex, body mass index, current smoker, and current drinker (OR: 1.357, 95% CI: 1.081, 1.704, p = 0.009) in the regular exercise group but not in the non-regular exercise group.Conclusions We identified a positive relationship between sleep quality and protein intake in the regular exercise group. These findings suggest that regular exercise at least twice a week for 30 minutes or longer combined with high protein intake contributes to good sleep quality.

Evaluating plant genetic diversity maintained by local farmers and residents:: A comphrehensive assessment of continuous vegetable cultivation and seed-saving activities on a regional scale in Japan

The practice of saving seeds from local varieties of crops and vegetables is integral for preserving agricultural biodiversity. After reviewing the current (1) seed saving activities practiced worldwide, (2) agricultural industry and farmer behaviour in Japan, and (3) seed system used in Japan, we conducted a survey to determine methods for the cultivation of homegrown seeds on a regional scale. Questionnaires were mailed to 7,068 families (including full-time and part-time farmers and home gardeners) in the Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, and 1,662 responses were obtained. We found that a majority of the respondents purchased seeds; however, some seeds were grown locally, and were mostly homegrown. Contrary to general expectations, the economic incentive (“good market price”) played an insignificant role in crop cultivation continuity. Cluster analysis resulted in four groups of crops, according to the rate of on-farm seed saving and changes in cultivation over a 30-year period. Certain crops, such as soybean and azuki bean, were frequently grown using on-farm produced seeds. Different conservation strategies were required for crops in each cluster due to their unique characteristics. Our data form the basis for promoting diversity and local crop cultivation by farmers in industrialized countries.

Verifying the effects of residents' evacuation actions through continuous tsunami disaster prevention training

Appropriate evacuation actions are required for tsunami evacuation. Tsunami disaster prevention training is a form of training intended to reduce tsunami evacuation time as much as possible and appropriately perform evacuation actions. This study analyses residents' evacuation actions in a non-tsunami-prone area over a long period of seven years and is novel in that it enables sufficient analysis of evacuation actions. This study examines the effects of the seven-year continuous disaster prevention trainings from 2013 to 2019, which were conducted by the Ishikawa prefecture, Kaga city, Miki district voluntary disaster prevention association, in Japan. The following four points are mentioned: 1) changes in content and evacuation actions that should be implemented during disaster prevention trainings; 2) how to respond to voluntary disaster prevention association to improve the safety of evacuation routes; 3) devising a voluntary disaster prevention association to make residents check how to operate evacuation shelters; 4) analysing evacuation actions by ages and determining ages that requires disaster prevention education.

Age and paleoclimatic implication of middle to upper Miocene plant‐bearing strata in the southern Kanazawa area, Ishikawa Prefecture, Central Japan, based on refined Neogene palynostratigraphy in the Hokuriku district

Abstract13–8 Ma (middle to late Miocene) is a key period for understanding how the unique vegetation was established in Japan. Palynostratigraphy is useful for estimating the ages of plant‐bearing strata deposited in shallow‐marine and non‐marine environments, but has low temporal resolution for this key period in Japan. We compiled Neogene and early Quaternary palynological records for the Hokuriku district of Central Japan to clarify palynostratigraphic events that may improve the temporal resolution. Our results showed that palynoassemblages changed considerably during 10–6.4 Ma in the Hokuriku district, following a relatively stable period during 13–10 Ma. We found that evergreen Quercus abundance increased at 11.5–10 Ma. We used these palynostratigraphic signatures, along with other biostratigraphic markers, to infer the ages of the Miocene plant‐bearing Saikawa and Koderayama Formations in the southern Kanazawa area of Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku district. The ages of the Saikawa and Koderayama Formations were inferred as ~13 and 10–6.4 Ma, respectively. The palynoflora of the Koderayama Formation shows floristic similarity to that of present south China, implying that the unique flora of Japan established after the age of the Koderayama Formation.

Possibility of the Regional Branding by Utilizing Human Resourses: A Case Study of Cooperation with the University in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture

Possibility of the Regional Branding by Utilizing Human Resourses: A Case Study of Cooperation with the University in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture

Daily physical activities of public nursery school children during winter: a case study of eight public schools in Ishikawa Prefecture

Daily physical activities of public nursery school children during winter: a case study of eight public schools in Ishikawa Prefecture

A questionnaire survey for “A supporting center for hearing impaired children in Ishikawa prefecture”

A questionnaire survey for “A supporting center for hearing impaired children in Ishikawa prefecture”

Verifying the effects of residents' evacuation actions through continuous tsunami disaster prevention training

Appropriate evacuation actions are required for tsunami evacuation. Tsunami disaster prevention training is a form of training intended to reduce tsunami evacuation time as much as possible and appropriately perform evacuation actions. This study analyses residents' evacuation actions in a non-tsunami-prone area over a long period of seven years and is novel in that it enables sufficient analysis of evacuation actions. This study examines the effects of the seven-year continuous disaster prevention trainings from 2013 to 2019, which were conducted by the Ishikawa prefecture, Kaga city, Miki district voluntary disaster prevention association, in Japan. The following four points are mentioned: 1) changes in content and evacuation actions that should be implemented during disaster prevention trainings; 2) how to respond to voluntary disaster prevention association to improve the safety of evacuation routes; 3) devising a voluntary disaster prevention association to make residents check how to operate evacuation shelters; 4) analysing evacuation actions by ages and determining ages that requires disaster prevention education.

Records of Masturus lanceolatus and Mola cf. mola from Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, based on recently stranding specimen and the Meiji-era literature

Records of <i>Masturus lanceolatus</i> and <i>Mola</i> cf. <i>mola</i> from Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, based on recently stranding specimen and the Meiji-era literature

Member&apos;s Plaza: Introduction to activities Hashimoto Laboratory, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Laboratory of Soil Environmental Science, Ishikawa Prefectural University

Member&apos;s Plaza: Introduction to activities Hashimoto Laboratory, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Laboratory of Soil Environmental Science, Ishikawa Prefectural University

Evaluation of Economic Damage Cost about the Beach Disappearance in Niigata and Ishikawa Prefectures due to Climate Change

Evaluation of Economic Damage Cost about the Beach Disappearance in Niigata and Ishikawa Prefectures due to Climate Change

Clinical Study of Maxillofacial Fracture at Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital in Snowfall Area

Clinical Study of Maxillofacial Fracture at Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital in Snowfall Area