Kinki Region Research Articles

Taxonomic studies of the ground beetle subgenus Falcinebria Ledoux & Roux, 2005 (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Nebria) from Honshû, Japan.

Nebria (Falcinebria) reflexa Bates (Carabidae), a Japanese endemic flightless ground beetle, is geographically polytypic and was thought to be composed of four subspecies (including nominotypical subspecies). Populations from Honshû recognized as three subspecies were taxonomically revised based primarily on the shape of the endophallus, a membranous inner sac everted from the aedeagus. Three known taxa, Nebria reflexa, Nebria niohozana Bates, and Nebria uenoi Nakane, are redefined based on endophallus morphology, and the latter two are described as distinct species rather than subspecies of N. reflexa. Seven new species are described: N. sagittatasp. nov., N. iidesanasp. nov., N. furcatasp. nov., N. pisciformissp. nov., N. kuragadakensissp. nov., N. dichotomasp. nov., and N. chugokuensissp. nov. Comparative morphology, primarily of the endophallus, indicated that N. furcata, N. pisciformis, N. kuragadakensis, and N. uenoi form basal lineages, and the remaining six species form a clade in which N. niohozana and N. dichotoma are sister taxa. Species phylogeny and known distributions suggest that the initial diversification of these species occurred in the western Chûbu and eastern Kinki regions of Japan.

Recent trends and challenges for older adults at community sport clubs in Japan: Analysis of FY 2016 Survey Results on Comprehensive Community Sports Clubs

Objectives Comprehensive community sports clubs (CCSCs), of which more than 3,500 exist in Japan, have the potential to contribute to healthy aging in older adults, but their effect on this population has not, thus far, been well explored. This study aimed to investigate the current environment affecting seniors at Japanese CCSCs and to examine issues identified by the analysis.Methods Data were collected from the FY 2016 Survey Results on Comprehensive Community Sports Clubs, conducted by the Japan Sports Agency. A total of 2,444 clubs were divided equally into four groups after calculating the proportion of senior members (ages 60 and over) per total number of members in each club. The groups were then ranked from lowest to highest according to proportion of senior members: Groups A, B, C and D. Additionally, the 2,444 clubs were classified into six regions according to location. Group designation (A to D) and regional classification were used as independent variables. The dependent variables were categorized as follows: basic information (e.g. total number of members), crisis management and accident prevention measures (13 specific items in total), and each club's compliance with legal obligations.Results Study results revealed that Group D, containing the highest proportion of senior members, had fewer total members, lower monthly membership fees, lower annual club income, less annual club budget apportioned to each member, and fewer instructors than other groups. Regarding crisis management and accident prevention measures, Group D had lower completion rates on 6 items (health certificate submissions, liability insurance enrollment, safety workshop implementation, heatstroke prevention, liaison with healthcare professionals, and AED availability). Group D also showed a lower rate of compliance with legal obligations than other groups. In comparisons between the six regions, the median proportion of senior members was found to be highest in Chugoku-Shikoku and lowest in Chubu, although each median ranged from only 20% to 30%. Regarding crisis management and accident prevention measures, clubs in Kanto region had the highest completion rates for 10 items, whereas clubs in Kinki region had the lowest completion rates for 8 items.Conclusion The CCSCs with higher proportions of senior members had smaller budgets, fewer members and staff, and delayed implementation of crisis management and accident prevention measures. Regional disparities were also observed both in club scale and management of medical and safety issues. Although our study identified several shortcomings in this area, medical and safety management implementation is an important consideration for CCSCs with high proportions of senior members, as these members are at higher risk for disease and frailty. Affected CCSCs and relevant authorities should therefore acknowledge and address this issue cooperatively.

Morphological abnormalities of two species of Cobitis (Cobitidae) in Kinki Region

Morphological abnormalities of two species of <i>Cobitis</i> (Cobitidae) in Kinki Region

The Proceedings of the 2019 Kinki Regional Post Graduate Education Meeting

The Proceedings of the 2019 Kinki Regional Post Graduate Education Meeting

Epidemiological and molecular characterization of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated following introduction of 7-valent conjugate vaccine in Kinki region, Japan, 2008–2013

Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the most common bacteria causing community-acquired pneumonia and meningitis. The use of 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) has reduced the incidence of pneumococcal disease while changing pneumococcal population through herd immunity and non-vaccine pneumococci replacement. This study investigated molecular epidemiologic characteristics of pneumococcal strains in the Kinki region of Japan from 2008 to 2013. A total of 159 invasive pneumococcal isolates were characterized by serotyping, antibiotic susceptibility testing, PCR analysis of penicillin-binding protein genes, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). In adult populations, pediatric PCV7 introduction decreased isolates expressing PCV7 serotypes via herd immunity and increased isolates expressing non-PCV7 serotypes. The rate of penicillin resistance and isolates with alterations in all three pbp genes was higher in PCV7 type isolates than in non-PCV7 type isolates. In MLST analysis, all of serotype 19F isolates were of the same sequence type, ST236, which is the antimicrobial-resistant clone Taiwan19F-14, and the majority of serotypes 23F and 19A isolates were of ST1437 and ST3111 respectively, which are the predominant clones of antimicrobial-resistant pneumococci in Japan. In PFGE profiles, serotype 6B-ST2224, serotype 19F-ST236, serotype 19A-ST3111, and serotype 23F-ST1437 formed six separate clusters composed of genetically identical strains, and genetically identical serotype 22F-ST433 formed two different clusters between the pre- and post-PCV7 period. The results of molecular analysis suggest the spread and persistence of these identical antimicrobial resistant clones in the Kinki region and genetic changes of epidemic clone serotype 22F-ST433 before and after pediatric PCV7 introduction.

P-wave first-motion polarity determination of waveform data in western Japan using deep learning

P-wave first-motion polarity is the most useful information in determining the focal mechanisms of earthquakes, particularly for smaller earthquakes. Algorithms have been developed to automatically determine P-wave first-motion polarity, but the performance level of the conventional algorithms remains lower than that of human experts. In this study, we develop a model of the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to determine the P-wave first-motion polarity of observed seismic waveforms under the condition that P-wave arrival times determined by human experts are known in advance. In training and testing the CNN model, we use about 130 thousand 250 Hz and about 40 thousand 100 Hz waveform data observed in the San-in and the northern Kinki regions, western Japan, where three to four times larger number of waveform data were obtained in the former region than in the latter. First, we train the CNN models using 250 Hz and 100 Hz waveform data, respectively, from both regions. The accuracies of the CNN models are 97.9% for the 250 Hz data and 95.4% for the 100 Hz data. Next, to examine the regional dependence, we divide the waveform data sets according to the observation region, and then we train new CNN models with the data from one region and test them using the data from the other region. We find that the accuracy is generally high ({ gtrsim } 95%) and the regional dependence is within about 2%. This suggests that there is almost no need to retrain the CNN model by regions. We also find that the accuracy is significantly lower when the number of training data is less than 10 thousand, and that the performance of the CNN models is a few percentage points higher when using 250 Hz data compared to 100 Hz data. Distribution maps, on which polarities determined by human experts and the CNN models are plotted, suggest that the performance of the CNN models is better than that of human experts.

Report of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Kinki Region of the JSCPT

Report of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Kinki Region of the JSCPT

Special Issue on the Western Japan Heavy Rain

In 2018, Japan not only had an abnormally hot summer, but also experienced successive disasters, including the Northern Osaka Earthquake, the Western Japan Heavy Rain, Typhoon No. 21, the Hokkaido Mid Iburi Earthquake, and Typhoon No. 24. In particular, the record-breaking heavy rains continued in a large area of Western Japan from June 28 to July 4, due to the storm front and Typhoon No. 7. The amount of rainfall totaled over 1,800 mm in the Shikoku Region and 1,200 mm in the Tokai Region. The quantity of rain that fell within 48 and 72 hours in both the Chugoku and Kinki Regions, as well as many other areas, was the highest rainfall ever recorded. A special warning regarding heavy rain was issued in 10 prefectures and every kind of disaster that Japan had experienced recently occurred in various locations. As of August 21, a report from Disaster Management Section, Cabinet Office indicated 221 deaths, 9 missing persons, 68 severely injured persons, 319 slightly injured persons, 3 persons with an unknown level of injury, 6,206 destroyed homes, 9,764 severely-damaged homes, 3,765 partially-destroyed homes, 9,006 homes with flooding above the first-floor level, and 20,086 houses with flooding below the first-floor level. During this large-scale disaster, which was named the Western Japan Heavy Rain, the Disaster Relief Act was applied to 110 municipalities and JDR decided to issue a special edition to address issues pertinent to this specific disaster event. Paper submissions were requested that not only comprised demonstrative researches on hazard and damage characteristics, methods of evacuation, and features of disaster response, but also included introductions of best practices, which were conducted in various fields and prompted diverse collaboration to develop and establish measures to mediate the effect of the future Nankai Trough Earthquake, as well as problems and solutions to successfully realize diverse collaboration. In response to the call for papers for the special issue, nine researches were submitted and six were accepted following a strict review process. To address the category of hazard characteristics analyses, two papers analyzing the characteristics of the flooding resulting from the Western Japan Heavy Rain and one paper comprising an analysis of landslide disasters were accepted. In the category of disaster response, one paper focusing on the use of SNS and two papers regarding the elderly were accepted. It would be our sincere pleasure if this special issue could contribute to future reductions in damage resulting from natural disasters.

Antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance of obligate anaerobic bacteria in the Kinki area

Obligate anaerobes exist as resident flora in various sites in humans, but they are also emphasized as endogenous causative microorganism of infections. We performed surveillance to understand the trend of drug susceptibility in obligate anaerobic bacteria in the Kinki area of Japan. In the experiment, we used 156 obligate anaerobe isolates collected from 13 institutions that participated in the Study of Bacterial Resistance Kinki Region of Japan. MALDI Biotyper was used to identify the collected strains, and among the 156 test strains, those that could be identified with an accuracy of Score Value 2.0 or more included 6 genera, 30 species, and 144 strains (Bacteroides spp. 77 strains, Parabacteroides sp. 2 strains, Prevotella spp. 29 strains, Fusobacterium spp. 14 strains, Porphyromonas spp. 2 strains, and Clostridioides difficile 20 strains), and they were assigned as subject strains for drug susceptibility testing. The drug susceptibility test was carried out by broth microdilution method using Kyokuto Opt Panel MP ANA (Kyokuto Pharmaceutical Industrial Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) and judged according to CLSI criteria. As a result, Bacteroides and Parabacteroides species showed good sensitivities to tazobactam-piperacillin, imipenem, metronidazole and chloramphenicol, and low sensitivities to ampicillin, cefoperazone and vancomycin. Prevotella species showed good sensitivities to sulbactam-ampicillin, tazobactam-piperacillin, cefmetazole, imipenem, doripenem and metronidazole. Susceptibility rates to other drugs were slightly different depending on the bacterial species. Both Fusobacterium spp. and Porphyromonas spp. showed high sensitivities to many drugs. C. difficile was highly sensitive to vancomycin and metronidazole, having MIC90s of 0.5 μg/mL and ≤2 μg/mL, respectively.

Local Contributions and Regional Alliances by Pharmaceutical Wholesalers

Recently, we considered the term 'integrated community care system' and aimed to play a role in the process by joining various healthcare occupations as part of this new integrated system. Given our company's ties with people involved in a range of occupations, we are poised to play a liaison role. We called a "face-to-face meeting" with local healthcare practitioners to begin exploring this cooperation. We believe that as meetings such as these become more widespread across the Kinki Region, they can serve as part of an integrated community care system. Through the formation of a number of alliances by this means, we hope to facilitate the transition to an integrated community care system. The meetings will provide opportunities for a range of healthcare and long-term care professionals, such as physicians, pharmacists, care managers, social workers, and home-visit nurses, to engage in discussions centered on the interests and needs of patients. Another important topic is whether we can derive from these conversations efforts that would assist in the development of "health support pharmacies". In that regard, we have set up some support tools for pharmacies that have held health fairs for local inhabitants. We consider these meetings beneficial in finding a solution to the situation of "polypharmacy"-a recent medical problem. We hope that our meetings will create an opportunity to work cooperatively toward a vision for the future of healthcare and long-term care within a community, through communicating and sharing our proposals for pharmacists based on these experiences.

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИХ ОСОБЕННОСТЕЙ ГРУППЫ ЯПОНСКИХ ДИАЛЕКТОВ РЕГИОНА КИНКИ

It is not possible to study any dialect properly if it is not considered in historical, geographical, cultural, and linguistic contexts. Therefore, the research of the Kinki dialect cannot be conducted outside the context of the entire Japanese language, and in particular, the analysis of the peculiarities of the grammatical structures of various dialects of the Kinki region. The article presents a part of the research conducted by the authors in Japan by the material of the authentic Japanese dialogues through the comparative analysis of the grammatical systems of individual dialects functioning in the Kinki region of the island of Honshu.

&lt;b&gt;Report of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Kinki Region of the JSCPT&lt;/b&gt;

&lt;b&gt;Report of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Kinki Region of the JSCPT&lt;/b&gt;

Approach to Endovascular Revascularization for Acute Ischemic Stroke in Kinki Region

Approach to Endovascular Revascularization for Acute Ischemic Stroke in Kinki Region

The Proceedings of the 2018 Kinki Regional Post Graduate Education Meeting

The Proceedings of the 2018 Kinki Regional Post Graduate Education Meeting

History of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects in Kinki Regional Agricultural Administration Office

History of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects in Kinki Regional Agricultural Administration Office

The Proceedings of the 114th Kinki Regional Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

The Proceedings of the 114th Kinki Regional Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

The Proceedings of the 112th Kinki Regional Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

The Proceedings of the 112th Kinki Regional Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Prevalence of molar incisor hypomineralization and regional differences throughout Japan

BackgroundMolar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) frequently occurs in children worldwide. However, MIH prevalence throughout Japan has not yet been investigated. The purpose of this study was to clarify MIH prevalence rates and to consider potential regional differences throughout Japan.MethodsA total of 4496 children aged 7–9 years throughout Japan were evaluated in this study. MIH prevalence rates among children were evaluated in eight regions throughout Japan. A child’s residence was defined as the mother’s residence during pregnancy. The localization of demarcated opacities and enamel breakdown was recorded on a standard code form using a guided record chart. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate whether MIH prevalence rates differed among age groups, sex, and regions.ResultsThe overall prevalence of MIH in Japan was 19.8%. The prevalence of MIH was 14.0% in the Hokkaido region, 11.7% in the Tohoku region, 18.5% in the Kanto Shin-Etsu region, 19.3% in the Tokai Hokuriku region, 22.3% in the Kinki region, 19.8% in the Chugoku region, 28.1% in the Shikoku region, and 25.3% in the Kyushu region. These regional differences were statistically significant. Moreover, MIH prevalence rates decreased with age. No significant sex differences in MIH prevalence rates were demonstrated.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first MIH study carried out in several regions throughout Japan. Regional differences existed in MIH prevalence rates; particularly, MIH occurred more frequently in children residing in southwestern areas than those in northeastern areas of Japan.

Pattern of Chinese tourist flows in Japan: a Social Network Analysis perspective

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been introduced into tourism and hospitality research. However, little research has specifically addressed the structural pattern of tourist flow network. Chinese travelers to Japan keep increasing and become the largest market for Japan’s inbound tourism. In order to understand the pattern of Chinese tourist flows in Japan, 430 itineraries from travel services and 458 itineraries from free independent tourists’ trip dairies were collected and SNA with evaluation indicators was employed to identify the nodes’ structure and the structural characteristics of Chinese tourist flows. The empirical analysis shows that distribution of Chinese tourist flows is disequilibrium and it mainly concentrates in the central Japan (Kanto, Chubu and Kinki region). Through node structure analysis by means of node centrality indicators, the roles and functions of destinations in the tourist flow network are recognized: core node, secondary core node, important node, common node and attached node. Moreover, empirical results indicate that 232 nodes and 981 ties constitute the Chinese tourist flow network and the structure of this network is complex. Overall it can be divided into five sub-regions with different patterns, which are summarized as: multi-center agglomeration structure, single center equilibrium structure, single center agglomeration structure, single center dispersion structure and multi-center equilibrium structure.

Impact of soil chemical properties on rice yield in 116 paddy fields sampled from a large-scale farm in Kinki Region, Japan

Japan is in urgent need to reduce the production costs through increasing rice yield, which depends highly on soil fertility. This study aimed to investigate determinants of rice yield, from the perspectives of fertilizer nitrogen and soil chemical properties. The data were sampled in 2014 and 2015, from 116 paddy fields, on a large-scale farm located in the Kinki Region of Japan. The rice included Koshihikari and other seven varieties, cultivated in conventional, special and organic regimes. The nine soil chemical properties included pH, cation exchange capacity, ammonium nitrogen, effective phosphoric and silicic acid, saturation of base elements, exchangeable potassium, lime and magnesia. Multiple regression analysis indicated that positive effects were identified for silicic acid, exchangeable potassium, and ammonium nitrogen; while phosphoric acid affects the yield negatively, controlling the rice variety, cultivation regime, and field area. Finally, countermeasures were put forward to improve soil fertility and rice yield.