Disaster Management: Tsunami and Remote Sensing Technology

Remote sensing technology has changed the way disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis are detected, monitored, and mapped in recent years. This paper summarizes the general theoretical study of Tsunami generation, propagation, and its inundation for deep, intermediate, and coastal waters. Tsunami is a Japanese word, which is made up of two words: “tsu” means harbor, and “nami” means waves. It means that Tsunami is the coastal gravity waves, which propagate close to the coastline. This analysis presents a novel method to explore the effects of tsunami waves on coastal areas. The methodology includes remote sensing nearness examinations and alteration identification strategies in remote sensing to outline a number of support routes along the coast and divide them into four homogenous sub-regions. The adjustments in the land spread are then measured in these sub-regions when the tidal wave occurs. The proposed paper gives a more solid and exact method than ordinary strategies to assess spatial examples of harmful territories through various land qualities along the coastline. The generative phase of tsunami development comprises the creation of an early disruption at the surface of the ocean due to the earthquake-generated distortion on the seafloor. Various comparative studies are also carried out using spatial technology to examine tsunami routes around the globe, taking into account the most recent tsunami occurrences.

Additive Effects of L-Ornithine on Preferences to Basic Taste Solutions in Mice

In addition to the taste receptors corresponding to the six basic taste qualities—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, and fatty—another type of taste receptor, calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), is found in taste-bud cells. CaSR is called the ‘kokumi’ receptor because its agonists increase sweet, salty and umami tastes to induce ‘koku’, a Japanese word meaning the enhancement of flavor characters such as thickness, mouthfulness, and continuity. Koku is an important factor for enhancing food palatability. However, it is not well known whether other kokumi-receptors and substances exist. Here, we show that ornithine (L-ornithine but not D-ornithine) at low concentrations that do not elicit a taste of its own, enhances preferences to sweet, salty, umami, and fat taste solutions in mice. Increased preference to monosodium glutamate (MSG) was the most dominant effect. Antagonists of G-protein-coupled receptor family C group 6 subtype A (GPRC6A) abolished the additive effect of ornithine on MSG solutions. The additive effects of ornithine on taste stimuli are thought to occur in the oral cavity, and are not considered post-oral events because ornithine’s effects were confirmed in a brief-exposure test. Moreover, the additive effects of ornithine and the action of the antagonist were verified in electrophysiological taste nerve responses. Immunohistochemical analysis implied that GPRC6A was expressed in subsets of type II and type III taste cells of mouse circumvallate papillae. These results are in good agreement with those reported for taste modulation involving CaSR and its agonists. The present study suggests that ornithine is a kokumi substance and GPRC6A is a newly identified kokumi receptor.

Enacting burikko

Adopting a single case analysis, this article examines how the learning of the Japanese word burikko is occasioned in a bilingual lunch conversation through enactments that are employed for three interactional purposes: (a) renewal of laughter, (b) vocabulary explanation (VE), and (c) demonstration of understanding. The interactional analysis is enhanced by Praat to respecify the role of prosody in enactments. I first describe how burikko, the laughable of a humor sequence, becomes a learnable through a repair sequence. I then analyze a reinitiated joking sequence, where the VE recipient categorizes one of the co-participants as burikko and escalates the categorization through multimodal enactments. I argue that this jocular mockery, occasioning a demonstration of understanding, exhibits that the learning opportunity has been taken. Furthermore, I discuss how a repair work embedded within a larger humor-oriented activity may afford resources for language learning outside of the classroom, while sacrificing progressivity for intersubjectivity. The fact that the VE recipient, after intersubjectivity has been achieved, resumes the original activity of pursuing humor through the same means employed for the explanation of the target word offers interesting implications for CA-SLA and pragmatics.

Bodies in Japanese Language An Introduction to the Polysemous Character of Corporeality

This article presents an inspection into the vast arena occupied by terms and signs in Japanese language that designate the word ‘body’. The study is centred around etymons and semantic descriptions offered in selected monolingual lexical sources, thereby revealing slight divergencies that surface when confronting these entries in order to underscore the ambiguity and hybridity that characterise corporeality itself. In addition, part of this study is dedicated to Ichikawa Hiroshi’s semantic analysis of the Japanese word mi (body), to Uno Kuniichi’s discourse on the shintai (body) and to insights on corporeality offered by Kan Takayuki. The purpose of illustrating this diversified lexical treasure that surrounds, sustains and recreates bodies is to draw attention to the central position occupied by corporeality itself in Japanese culture, where the body/bodies emerge as a catalyst of cultural production.

JWSAN: Japanese word similarity and association norm

We present a new Japanese dataset, Japanese Word Similarity and Association Norm (JWSAN), comprising human rating scores of similarity and association for 2145 word pairs, with a clear distinction between word similarity and word association. Computational models of human semantic memory or mental lexicon, such as distributed semantic models, must predict not only association but also similarity. People can distinguish between word similarity and association. However, although the SimLex-999 dataset is publicly available for English, there is no Japanese similarity dataset with a clear distinction between the two types of word relatedness. JWSAN is the first large Japanese dataset with similarity and association ratings, containing noun, verb, and adjective word pairs. It is also characterized by data collection from a sufficient number of age- and-gender-controlled assessors, with similarity and association ratings obtained via a web-based survey conducted of 6450 native speakers of Japanese. In addition, the effects of the gender and age of the raters were also examined; these factors were only given scant consideration in the past. This dataset can act as a benchmark for improving distributed semantic models in Japanese.

The revitalization of “Osekkai”: How the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of Japanese voluntary social work

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused worldwide panic, and rural areas are no exception. In Japanese rural areas, many older people live alone and lack access to reliable sources of information. During the pandemic, older adults were initially isolated from their communities because of the recommended social isolation measures, even when there were no cases in rural communities. However, various formal and informal caregivers went beyond their usual roles and tried to reconnect the older rural population with their communities and nurtured their social connections; Japanese community workers mitigated the stress and fear experienced by the rural elderly in the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this pandemic encouraged rural Japanese customs. One such custom is “Osekkai.” The Japanese word Osekkai describes actions that someone considers useful and meaningful to perform for others. Osekkai involves both formal and informal care, and as social gatherings began to disappear, Osekkai allowed individuals to deal with the various social problems created by the pandemic. Conferences based on Osekkai can strengthen rural people’s connections and improve their social capital. Activities of rural people that are constructed through Osekkai conferences are not only evidence-based but also based on reliance. This unprecedented pandemic has taught us not only the importance of usual healthcare and precautions against infection but also that nurturing social connection in communities is crucial in the face of social turbulence.