Japan's tallest pyramid-style hina doll display is now open to the public in Saitama Prefecture until March 8 Hina dolls are ornamental figures used to celebrate Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day) every year on March 3 The display is part of an event called Konosu Bikkuri Hina Matsuri — with bikkuri meaning "surprise" — at the Elumi Konosu Shopping Mall in Konosu City The towering 31-tier hina platform stands about 7 meters tall and showcases 1,605 hina dolls These dolls were gathered from across the country through public submissions this year marks the festival's 21st edition a city known for its doll-making tradition worked together to set up the impressive display Ai Odajima from the Konosu City Tourism Association shared "Each hina doll holds precious memories from those who sent them We hope visitors can feel the heartfelt sentiments behind each one." visited the festival with her one-month-old daughter Smiling as she looked forward to celebrating her daughter's first Hinamatsuri It was even more overwhelming than I imagined." Author: Naoki Aikawa You must be logged in to post a comment ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Saitama Prefecture--A private business is involved in another public uproar this time over its planned photoshoot event featuring female models posing in school uniforms and “yukata” at a former municipal elementary school here involving about 120 women photographed almost all day long Residents have vehemently opposed the plan saying it is “inappropriate to provide sexual entertainment in a school building where children were studying not long ago.” The venue is Kasahara Elementary School in Konosu The school closed at the end of fiscal 2021 The Konosu city government has been renting out the old school building to general corporations groups and individuals to make effective use of the abandoned educational facility The city’s regulations regarding the rental of the building ban events that are “offensive to public order and morals” or involve “religious or political use.” The private business hosting the photoshoot has paid the fee to rent the old school building from the city But the business is one of the operators that came under fire for organizing a swimsuit photoshoot event at a Saitama prefectural park in 2023 and letting participants take overtly revealing photos Such swimsuit events had been held frequently at certain parks in the prefecture but citizens complained that the models were being photographed in extreme poses The Saitama parks association ordered six businesses planning to hold such events to cancel the swimsuit photoshoots And it imposed stricter rules concerning the models explained there will be no swimsuit models at the event at the former school The Konosu government said it received the application from the business for the school rental in May It also said it is aware that the business was involved in a swimsuit photoshoot event The city said it examined the pros and cons of renting the school building to the business and it decided that the event was within the scope of “freedom of expression” because there would be no photos of women in swimsuits The municipal government also cited a precedent allowed a school uniform photoshoot event at an old school building Konosu city also said it has asked the business to submit a written pledge to immediately cancel the event if a model exposes excessive skin But such explanations have not convinced people in the neighborhood of the former school it was a place for children to study,” a resident said several city council members and representatives of civic organizations visited the city government and demanded the scrapping of the photoshoot “It is not an event that we can say ‘no’ to.” One of the city council members said: “The combination of young women and a real-life school building probably gives (this event) a sexual commodity value The local government should not be involved.” The municipal Kasahara Elementary School opened in 1873 and had a history of nearly 150 years the city decided to close the school due to the decreasing number of children in the area But residents demanded the continuation of the school and it took about six years until the official decision to close the school was made The residents’ opposition to the photoshoot event appears related to those circumstances Residents have held various events on the grounds of the former school from time to time The city conducted a survey three years ago asking residents how the old school building and grounds should be used Many residents responded that they wanted facilities for elderly care As the birthrate declines and closures of public elementary and junior high schools accelerate across Japan one of the issues facing local governments is how to make use of the empty school buildings and schoolyards Some of the sites have attracted producers of films and TV dramas Companies are also using the former schools for satellite offices Town famous for snow to turn old school into a ‘glamping’ site Host towns lose out by canceling of pre-Olympic training camps Child drowns after swimming lesson switched to deeper pool Officials not turning a blind eye to sexy photo shoots at parks Closed Osaka school offers cool barbecue venue in outdoor pool Water bill sent to teacher for pool overflow sparks ire in Kawasaki Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) 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Volume 15 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.785366 This article is part of the Research TopicThe Neural Basis of Hyper-Adaptability in Humans and AnimalsView all 34 articles Humans and animals learn the internal model of bodies and environments from their experience and stabilize posture against disturbances based on the predicted future states according to the internal model We evaluated the mechanism of predictive control during standing by using rats to construct a novel experimental system and comparing their behaviors with a mathematical model rats (n = 6) that were standing upright using their hindlimbs were given a sensory input of light this disturbance induced a large postural response including backward rotation of the center-of-mass angle and hindlimb segments the rats gradually adjusted to the disturbance after experiencing 70 sequential trials and a reduction in the amplitude of postural response was noted We simulated the postural control of the rats under disturbance using an inverted pendulum model and model predictive control (MPC) MPC is a control method for predicting the future state using an internal model of the control target It provides control inputs that optimize the predicted future states Identification of the predictive and physiological parameters so that the simulation corresponds to the experiment resulted in a value of predictive horizon (0.96 s) close to the interval time in the experiment (0.9–1.15 s) These results suggest that the rats predict posture dynamics under disturbance based on the timing of the sensory input and that the central nervous system provides plasticity mechanisms to acquire the internal model for MPC we establish a novel experimental task in rats by incorporating a floor tilting disturbance and a conditioning paradigm into this system which is the extent to which future behavior is predicted for control is a major parameter for determining the behavior by MPC By comparing the behavior of the mathematical model with the simulation and the behavior of rats in the experiment we can evaluate the prediction time of rats in the experiment A comparison of the estimated prediction time of the rats and the experimental conditions will show the control characteristics of the prediction behavior in rats we numerically evaluated the neural mechanism of predictive postural controls against external disturbances through a combination of experiments in rats and simulation with MPC 404 ± 28 g body weight) supplied by CLEA (Tokyo They were kept in a room with a constant temperature and a light and dark cycle of 12 h The experiment was approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Experiments at the University of Tokyo and was conducted in accordance with the Guidelines for Research with Experimental Animals of the University of Tokyo The floor rotated by 8.8 degrees over 0.25 s (C) A rat maintaining upright posture and rotation direction of the floor (E) Definitions of center-of-mass angle and segment angles The height of the water supply port was determined during the habituation period for each rat to ensure that the heel did not float and the hip did not touch the floor in the upright position (24.0 ± 0.3 cm) the right-sided body surface of the rats was shaved and markers using black ink were applied to eight body landmarks [4th metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint the midpoint between the iliac crest and scapula and the temporomandibular joint] under anesthesia with 2.5% isoflurane gas United States) recorded the movements of the right side of their body For each trial, the CoM angle (the angle of the vector from the MTP joint to the whole-body CoM) and the angles and angular velocities of the segments were calculated. These parameters are shown as the angles with the perpendicular line and backward rotation (Figure 1E) the effects of segment rotations on the CoM angle (E_i) were estimated using the following formula: mi is the mass of the body part above the segment i (e.g. and head segments when i is the leg segment) M is the mass of the whole body,r(t) is the vector from the MTP joint to the whole body CoM ri(t) is the vector from the lower end marker of the segment i (e.g. lateral malleolus when i is the leg segment) to the CoM of the body part above segment i and ωi(t) is the angular velocity of segment i The integrand of this equation was calculated for each frame based on the experimental data and a discrete-time integration was performed for the interval from the start of floor tilt to 0.3 s later It was assumed that the body part above the segment of interest was a rigid body and rotated around the lower end of the segment We used a mathematical model to reproduce the behavior of the rats to control with the prediction of future disturbances after a light stimulus. A block diagram of the mathematical model is presented in Figure 2 Mathematical model of the postural motion of a rat with the prediction for tilting disturbance The body is modeled with a single link inverted pendulum and the control system is modeled with model predictive control The body of the rat was modeled as an inverted pendulum with one link from the MTP joint to the CoM where θ is the angle of the body from the vertical (elevation angle), J is the moment of inertia, and m, h, and g are the mass of the rat, the length from the MTP joint to the CoM, and the acceleration of gravity, respectively. The control torque is τ, the torque due to biological noise is σξ, where time-variant function ξ(t) is a Gaussian white noise and time-invariant coefficient σ is the intensity (Asai et al., 2009) τFloor is the torque input to the body according to the floor inclination and is explained below The stability of the rat’s body is partially supported by the physical stiffness of the muscles around the MTP joint during standing (Winter et al., 1998) The torque generated at this time is modeled by the elasticity k_P and viscosity k_D of the muscles around the MTP joint where ϕ is the angle of the floor from the horizontal line τFloor acts as a disturbance torque according to the inclination The control system with prediction was modeled with MPC MPC predicts the state from the current time to H_p steps later It also derives the control inputs that optimize the predicted states by providing control inputs with different values for H_u steps MPC performs this prediction and optimization in each time step and uses the input of only the first step as the actual control input 3) are used as the internal model for prediction assuming that the internal model has been created accurately by sufficient learning The target value of the predicted state θ~ for the state θ an evaluation function is set to minimize the sum of the squares of θ~ for the H_p step interval The sampling time of the simulation and MPC is set to 0.001 s Model Predictive Control Toolbox of Matlab/Simulnk is used to implement the MPC the control gains were normalized with mgh to eliminate differences in the body We compared the behavior of the constructed mathematical model with that of the rat and examined the characteristics of the controller that reproduces the behavior of the rat we identified the unknown parameters (prediction horizon H_p elastic coefficient around the MTP joint k_P and noise magnitude σ) of the mathematical model that best reproduced the behavior of the rat we compared the time series of the CoM angle from the experiment with that of the body angle θ from the simulation and searched for the parameters that minimize the squared error the time sequences of CoM angle from −0.35 s to 0.45 s (here 0 s is the start of floor tilt) of the terminal 3 trials in each rat are extracted (18 in total) and are compared with the simulation for identification To reduce the effect of noise variation in the parameter search the simulation was repeated for five trials and averaged for each evaluation We used a genetic algorithm (GA) for parameter searching The “ga” function of Matlab Global Optimization Toolbox was used for GA MPC searches were conducted to identify the optimal control input in each simulation step (every 0.001 ms) and simulation with real-time optimal input was repeated five times with same parameters the average of the simulation result was compared with the experiment for updating the parameter values once the next simulation with real-time optimization was started for the next update of parameters The parameters were identified by repeating these sequences using the GA Trials in which the rats lifted their feet off the floor during the tilt were excluded from the analyses Parameters calculated based on marker coordinates that may not have been calculated accurately by DeepLabCut (“likelihood”<0.9) were also excluded The results of the analysis are shown as the mean ± standard deviation of the six rats For the displacements of CoM and segment angles from the start of the tilt to 0.3 s later the differences in the average of the initial and terminal eight trials were tested with the paired t-test using SPSS (IBM in which p < 0.05 was considered as significant By comparing the experimental results and the simulation results of the proposed model the values for five unknown parameters were identified To validate the significance of the identification results we used a two-way ANOVA with experimental sequences and parameters The increase was significantly smaller in the terminal eight trials than in the initial eight trials The difference in the increase between the first and 11th trial (9.9 deg in average) was larger than the difference between the 11th and final trial (3.6 deg in average) suggesting that the rats primarily learned to compensate for the floor tilt in the initial 10 trials Figure 3. Reduction of postural response due to experience of tilting trials. (A) Stick pictures of first and last trials in a representative rat. The period from the start of floor tilt to 0.28 s later was shown using black-point markers in Figure 1C Time series of center-of-mass (CoM) angles of all 70 trials in a representative individual with the start time of the tilting at time 0 (C) Fluctuation in CoM angle from the start of tilt to 0.3 s later for all individuals (gray line; n = 6) and the average (black line (D) Statistical comparison of fluctuation in CoM angle from the start of tilt to 0.3 s between the average of initial and terminal eight trials by paired t-test (n = 6) Figure 4. Rotation of body segments due to perturbation. (A) Time series of segment angles in the initial (left) and terminal (right) trials, with the start time of floor tilting at time 0. Definitions of segment angles are in Figure 1E (B) Rotation angles of segments from the start of floor tilt to 0.3 s later (C) Effects of segment rotations on the CoM angle calculated by Eq individual averages (n = 6) of trial averages (initial and terminal eight) are shown *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 These results show that the proposed system using MPC successfully reproduced the behavior of the rat Identified parameters of the proposed model the results of MTP stiffness and viscosity are normalized with m body mass Blue bars and their error bars represent the average and standard deviation of the identified results for 18 experimental sequences of rats Figure 5B shows the reaction of the conventional controller, PD controller with Peterka’s gain parameters (Peterka, 2002) and a non-linear PD controller for standing rats (Funato et al., 2021) Both models could stabilize the body after floor disturbances but the behaviors were slightly different from the experiment When we focus on the control torque τ the control torque of every controller gradually increases after the floor torque τFloor increased and the control torque τ becomes larger than the floor torque τFloor The disturbance via floor torque τFloorterminates when time = 0.2 s and the CoM angle gradually returns to the vertical position the controllers react differently to the termination of the disturbance The MPC controller smoothly reacted to the change in the floor torque τFloor while conventional controllers drastically changed the control torque Next, we investigated the features of the proposed model to reproduce the behavior of the rats. The proposed model has two MPC parameters, that is, the prediction horizon H_p and control horizon H_u, and three parameters related to the body system, the MTP stiffness k_P, the MTP viscosity k_D, and the magnitude of the noise σ. The effect of the two MPC parameters on the behavior is shown in Figures 5C–G the longer control and prediction horizons suppressed the variation in the CoM angle with a smaller torque the prediction horizon H_p affected the peak value whereas the control horizon H_u affected the pattern Based on the characteristics of these control parameters We searched for model parameters (prediction horizon H_p, control horizon H_u, MTP stiffness k_P, MTP viscosity k_D, and noise magnitude σ) whose simulation reproduces the measured time series of the rat’s CoM angle. Figure 6 shows the results, and the time series of the simulation with these parameters is shown in Figure 5A The significance of the identified parameters was tested using a two-way ANOVA with the parameters and experimental sequences The results did not show significant differences among experimental sequences (P = 0.47 but showed significant differences with the parameters (P < 0.001 implying the robustness of the identification results to different experimental sequences This indicates that the identified control horizon is long enough to produce sufficiently complex inputs we constructed a floor-tilting task for upright standing rats and compared these behaviors with a simulation that was based on MPC the postural response of the rats due to disturbance dramatically reduced after experiencing 70 sequential trials indicating that they acquired predictive control against the disturbance The simulation showed that prolonging the predictive and control horizons allowed a reduction in the fluctuation of the CoM and peak control torque The predictive horizon identified to match the simulation with the measured CoM data was close to the interval time from the light turning off to the disturbance suggesting that the rats predicted posture dynamics under the disturbance based on the timing of the sensory input the overall mechanics by which a floor rotation evokes postural response is by the transmission of the rotation to the legs giving backward momentum to the pelvis and lower trunk This is common between bipedal humans and rodents Although the present study is limited to measuring kinematics similar adjustments are likely to be evoked in the muscles around the MTP joints the nervous system is equipped with a mechanism that enables MPC and it is reasonable to model postural control with prediction using MPC Our simulation results successfully reproduced the predictive behavior of rats and the identification results for the MPC parameters were consistent with the experimental conditions and past identification results for postural control One of the advantages of our MPC model over the conventional PID-based feedback control models is that our model explicitly considers the internal model for prediction This enables us to discuss the effect of learning the internal model on posture control flexibility in the internal model causes uncertainty The internal model is composed of learning; thus Only one point that can determine the property of the internal model is after learning the internal model is assumed to be a good copy of the actual body and environment this system model can simulate only the behavior of rats after learning we compared simulation results with the experimental results after learning This model minimizes the uncertainty in the internal model and succeeds in the discussion of prediction control the learning process in rats could not be discussed using the current model the internal model should include learning The internal model used in our model is based on the equation of motion of the body and environment and these equations can be learned by machine learning by including machine learning in our model approaching the learning mechanism of rats using the model will become possible These refinements in experiments will play an important role in neuroscientific research on predictive postural control in the future the inactivation of specific areas in the nervous system clarifies the responsibilities for associative and non-associative learning and identifying neural activities synchronizing with sensory input and muscle activities will help understand the coding and processing mechanisms of predictive postural controls in the nervous system The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The animal study was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Experiments at the University of Tokyo and AF designed and conducted the experiment and AF designed and executed the simulation RS contributed to programming for the simulation DY and TF conceptualized and supervised the whole study This study was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (No and for the Promotion of Joint International Research [Fostering Joint International Research (B)] (No 20KK0226) funded by the Ministry of Education The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Tetsuro Funato, ZnVuYXRvQHVlYy5hYy5qcA==; Dai Yanagihara, ZGFpLXlAaWRhdGVuLmMudS10b2t5by5hYy5qcA== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Metrics details The central nervous system predictively controls posture against external disturbances; however We tested the hypothesis that the cerebellar vermis plays a substantial role in acquiring predictive postural control by using a standing task with floor disturbances in rats and sham groups of rats sequentially underwent 70 conditioned floor-tilting trials only the lesion group underwent focal suction surgery targeting vermal lobules IV–VIII In the naïve stage of the sequential trials the upright postures and fluctuations due to the disturbance were mostly consistent among the groups Although the pattern of decrease in postural fluctuation due to learning corresponded among the groups the learning rate estimated from the lumbar displacement was significantly lower in the lesion group than in the intact and sham groups These results suggest that the cerebellar vermis contributes to predictive postural controls Biomechanical fluctuations in upright-standing rats due to the disturbance generally agreed with those in humans and comparisons between the experimental data and a simulation suggested that the rats acquired predictive muscle outputs at the hind limb joints based on the time difference between the conditioning stimulus and disturbance it is suggested that vermal lobules IV–VIII play a central role in the embedding of internal models for predictive postural control and that lesions in this region can result in deficits in acquiring predictive controls we tested the hypothesis that vermal lobules IV–VIII play substantial roles in acquiring the predictive postural controls using the external disturbance task in rats Experimental and analysis methods. (a) Experimental apparatus and rotation direction of the floor. (b) The paradigm of floor tilting trial. (c) Lesioned cerebellar area in a representative rat. Overall view of the brain (top) and the sagittal section of the cerebellum at the midline (bottom). R: rostral, scale bar: 1 mm. (d) Definitions of body segments and their angles. The lesioned area is represented on the rat atlas37 Postural fluctuations due to disturbance. (a) Stick pictures from the onset of floor disturbance to 0.2 s later. An example rat from the intact group is shown. (b) Time series of segment angles in a representative trial (trial 1 in figure a). (c) Group means and 95% confidence intervals of segment angles in the initial and terminal eight trials. The bold line indicates the floor tilting period. TC: conditioning stimulus, TD: onset of floor disturbance, T0.3: 0.3 s after the TD. Posture and its fluctuation in the naïve stage Segment angles at the onset of floor disturbance (TD) and rotation angles from TD to 0.3 s later in the initial eight trials were compared between groups as well as means and standard deviations are presented Changes in posture and its fluctuation due to learning the segment angles at conditioning stimulus (Tc) and rotation angles from TC to the onset of floor disturbance (TD) and from TD to 0.3 s later were compared between the initial and terminal eight trials Coefficients in learning formula (Eq. 1) (a) Coefficient $A$ is shown as means and standard deviations of rats and ${{\text{log}}}_{10}B$ (learning rate) is shown as boxplots (b) Relations between the sizes of lesioned area (right-left and rostral-caudal lengths of the opening area) and ${{\text{log}}}_{10}B$ were examined by Pearson’s correlation coefficient test The relationship between the size of the lesioned area and the learning rate was examined (Fig. 7b) Although the rostral-caudal length of the opening area showed no correlation with the learning rate (r = − 0.044 the right-left length showed an almost significant negative correlation (r = − 0.787 These results suggest that the target area contributes to the efficient learning of predictive postural controls against external disturbances and similar factors might have contributed to the present experiment These studies demonstrated that cerebellar diseases impair the establishment of at least the former two strategies our results suggest that the cerebellar vermis is a region that embeds internal models to execute these predictive strategies We will validate this in the future by modeling and simulating studies of postural dynamics during learning Establishing a complete map of the cerebellar area contributing to predictive postural controls is an urgent issue To clarify the detailed functions of each area optimization of the experimental paradigms the cerebrocerebellar loop might have been reorganized so that the cerebellar areas which had originally been irrelevant to predictive postural controls became responsible for those functions during the 6 days from surgery to measurements These compensatory effects could be further investigated by conducting experiments with optogenetics or neural inhibitors to inhibit the target area and comparing the results to those obtained from the present data This is a promising direction for our future research If the cerebellum has a high capability for the reorganization of circuits for predictive postural control elucidating its mechanisms will contribute to rehabilitation and drug discovery in patients with ataxia the circuit formed by the frontal cortex and vermis may generate and maintain predictive postural commands through theta-band communication Our next goal is to elucidate the intricate mechanisms involved by recording neural activities during the disturbance task Three groups of male Wistar rats (intact: n = 6 The rats were housed in a room with a constant temperature and a 12-h light and dark cycle and had ad libitum access to food and water The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments at the University of Tokyo and was conducted in accordance with the Guidelines for Research with Experimental Animals of the University of Tokyo This study was conducted and reported in accordance with the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines a craniotomy was performed in the same cortical area Each rat underwent sequential 70-floor tilting trials in a day. The paradigm of each trial was as follows (Fig. 1b): First the lights installed in front of the rats were turned on and simultaneously sucrose water was supplied as a reward through a flexible tube suspended above the center of the floor The rats stood upright on their hind limbs in the direction of the light to drink water The measurer entered an electrical trigger into the system after confirming that the rat was in proper posture (the body was stationary This trigger turned the light off as a conditioning stimulus (TC) and the floor began to rotate backward as an external disturbance about 0.9 (0.91 ± 0.04) s later (TD) The height of the water supply port was determined for each rat during the habituation so that the heels are not floated and the hips do not touch the floor during the standing posture (intact group: 24.0 ± 0.3 cm; lesion group: 24.2 ± 0.4 cm; sham group: 24.0 ± 0.3 cm) In the lesion group, perfusion fixation and sucrose replacement of the brain tissue were performed within 3 weeks of the measurements. The tissues were then sliced into sagittal sections of 40 μm in thickness and subjected to Nissl staining (Fig. 1c) and markers using black ink were applied to eight body landmarks (4th MTP joint midpoint between the iliac crest and scapula and temporomandibular joint) under anesthesia using 2.5–3.0% isoflurane gas Six high-speed cameras (Prime 13 and 13 W; NaturalPoint Inc. United States) recorded the movements of the right side of the body at 200 Hz where $x$ is the trial number with the first being 0 and $y$ is the horizontal displacement of the iliac crest marker from the onset of floor tilting to 0.3 s later (posterior is taken positive) Coefficients $A$ and $B$ represent the expected displacement in the first trial and learning rate a post-hoc comparison was performed using Tukey’s test To examine the changes in posture and its fluctuation due to learning in each group (intact: n = 6; lesion: n = 6; sham: n = 6) the angles and rotation angles of the segments were compared between the initial and terminal eight trials using a two-sided Welch’s t-test the head segment data of an intact rat after the onset of the floor disturbance in the initial eight trials were excluded because it tended to turn its head to the left in response to the disturbance To examine the group differences (intact: n = 6; lesion: n = 6; sham: n = 6) in the learning rates on a logarithm of coefficient $B$ (${{\text{log}}}_{10}B$) the normality and homogeneity of the variances were confirmed using the Shapiro–Wilk test and Bartlett’s test post-hoc comparisons were made with Tukey’s test Note that the variances of $B$ were judged to differ among the groups whereas those of ${{\text{log}}}_{10}B$ were not The relationship between the size of the lesioned area (right-left and rostral-caudal lengths of the opening area) and ${{\text{log}}}_{10}B$ was examined using Pearson’s correlation coefficient test statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 Upon acceptance of this paper, the trained DeepLabCut network, kinematic data, and analysis codes will be available at the Dryad data repository (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgqzx) Wolpert, D. 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Neurosci. 18, 1310–1317. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4077 (2015) The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates (Elsevier Academic Press Download references This study was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No for the Promotion of Joint International Research [Fostering Joint International Research (B)] (No 20K19592 and 23K16746) funded by the Ministry of Education Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53186-x Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Snohomish County officials told KOMO News that the two men were exchange students from Japan KOMO News also spoke with the Japanese Consulate in Seattle confirming it's in contact with the men’s families and will work to do whatever needed to get their loved ones back to Japan Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue officials said Konosu and Suzuki were hiking in a group of four One of them slipped on wet rocks and fell into the water and the other one went in trying to save him A sign posted along the road says the river was closed and the falls are dangerous Sky Valley Fire Chief Eric Andrews said the falls gained popularity in the last three to four years after people posted videos on social media he said they have responded to several drownings Given the broad range of international guests who come to experience the beauty of western Washington KOMO News asked if there’s been any discussion of posted danger signs in additional languages Eagle Falls include a series of rapids where glacier-fed water rushes down narrow chutes in between large rocks Here is a selection of Kyodo News photos taken this week in Japan and beyond Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 17-23 Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 10-16 Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 3-9 Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Jan. 27-Feb. 2 To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox, subscribe here. 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CloseA new world record has been set for the heaviest firework in the city of Konosu in Saitama Prefecture The 460kg rocket was launched as part of a festival and exploded into a rosette of light measuring 800m in diameter The record was certified by a Guinness World Records official Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRead descriptionExplore moreRecord-breaking firework in Japan 0:56 Up Next 0:35 Fireworks role in Chinese New Year 00:01:54Fireworks role in Chinese New Year 1:54 London fireworks welcome 2014 3:09 Fireworks display lights up Geneva 00:01:01Fireworks display lights up Geneva 1:01Editor's recommendations Watch: Prince Louis steals the show as royals mark VE Day 00:01:15Watch: Prince Louis steals the show as royals mark VE Day 1:15 Watch: How Lady Gaga's record-breaking concert almost ended in disaster Video 00:01:21Watch: How Lady Gaga's record-breaking concert almost ended in disaster 1:21 'Trump was the game-changer': Three things to know about the Australian election result 00:01:20'Trump was the game-changer': Three things to know about the Australian election result 1:20 Prince Harry 'can't see a world' where his family will visit the UK 00:02:54Prince Harry 'can't see a world' where his family will visit the UK 2:54 Watch: Key moments from the local elections.. 00:01:32Watch: Key moments from the local elections.. 1:32 Watch: Reform by-election win raises questions for Labour and Tories 00:01:11Watch: Reform by-election win raises questions for Labour and Tories 1:11 Russell Brand's court appearance explained.. 00:00:50Russell Brand's court appearance explained.. 0:50 Ros Atkins on.. What's in the US-Ukraine resources deal 1:23 Kamala Harris hits out at Trump in first major speech since losing election 00:01:18Kamala Harris hits out at Trump in first major speech since losing election 1:18 Watch: Moment Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi is released 00:00:46Watch: Moment Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi is released 0:46 Watch video shown to jurors in Sycamore Gap tree trial 00:01:17Watch video shown to jurors in Sycamore Gap tree trial please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent A 31-tier pyramid made of hina dolls towers above shoppers in the Elumi Konosu shopping mall in Konosu an area with a doll-making history that dates back to the Edo period (1603-1867) About 1,600 traditional dolls in colorful costumes make up the pyramid catching the attention of shoppers and passersby alike Set up ahead of the Hina Matsuri festival on March 3 the display is part of the 18th Konosu Surprising Hina Doll Festival themed on “wishing for good health.” The display will last through March 5 Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Palestinians gather in the ruins of Gaza City to break their fast on the second day of Ramadan Catholics pray and light candles at a church in Manila to mark Ash Wednesday A man is covered in mud during the Bloco Da Lama party in Rio de Janeiro Sled dogs run during the start of the Iditarod Trail race in Anchorage A showcase featuring 1,605 traditional Japanese dolls in Konosu Firefighters battle a large blaze at a toy store in Lima A pancake-flipping race is held at the Guildhall in London People rest after participating in the flour festival in Galaxidi Firefighters and residents work together to combat a fire in Kampala Muslim devotees break their fast with iftar meals in Yangon Two teams fight against each other during the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com Anahi Valenzuela, The Week USSocial Links NavigationAnahi Valenzuela has worked as an editorial assistant at The Week since 2022 where she assists with magazine content and covers the week's best photos She started her career as a media producer at The Daily Californian and a writer for College Magazine Japan — Julio Franco is getting the best of both worlds as a 56-year-old player-manager for the Ishikawa Million Stars of Japan’s semi-professional Baseball Challenge League Not only does the native of the Dominican Republic and former major league All-Star get to keep playing the game he loves Franco now has a chance to pass on a wealth of baseball knowledge to a new generation of players “I don’t see myself out of baseball,” Franco said in a recent interview with The Associated Press go play golf or go to Starbucks but at the end of the day I love baseball and this is what I want to do.” When he signed a contract with the Million Stars Franco saw himself more as a manager than player but that hasn’t been the case so far Franco finds himself playing more than he expected And he’s doing well for a guy who started his pro career back in 1982 Playing in 10 of his team’s 14 games this season Franco has a .333 batting average with four RBIs and six runs scored “I wasn’t planning to play this much but one of my best hitters got hurt so I have to play first base or DH,” Franco said “I was thinking about just pinch-hitting and playing once a week but since he got hurt I’m playing a lot more than I expected.” Franco says what really motivates him is the chance to teach the game to young players “What I enjoy most is the teaching,” Franco said “When I went to America there were a lot of guys who put me on the right track and that’s what I want to do here.” While he has no plans to leave Japan anytime soon Franco said he sees his position with Ishikawa as a stepping stone to a possible coaching or managing job in Japan’s pro leagues or even Major League Baseball his young players couldn’t be more thrilled to have someone of Franco’s stature as their mentor “He has a lot of knowledge and is very wise so we pick his brain a lot,” Million Stars catcher Jack Daru said “He’s given us a different insight into the game because he’s played here and in the United States.” Franco played parts of 23 major league seasons for eight teams from 1982-2007 with stints in Japan for the Chiba Lotte Marines and South Korea for the Samsung Lions during that time A three-time All-Star infielder and former American League batting champion Franco was the oldest active player in the majors when he played his last game for the Atlanta Braves in 2007 at the age of 49 “I want to play until I’m 66,” Franco said Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version A stunning display of 1,500 dolls, arranged on a 7-meter (30-feet) pyramid, was showcased at a festival aptly named the Konosu Bikkuri Hinamatsuri Festival Bikkuri means "to be surprised" in Japanese. a special event celebrated in Japan on March 3 This is the 19th time the festival is held. It took place at the Elumi Kounosu Shopping Mall near JR Konosu Station making it the tallest of its kind in Japan Many visitors stopped to take in the spectacular sight One visitor is a woman from Semboku, Akita Prefecture who is visiting her parents' house in Saitama Prefecture with her two daughters. I'm astounded at the number and height of the dolls The dolls will be on display until March 4 (Read the related Japanese article) You must be logged in to post a comment Nurses in Japan are heading into their communities to meet elderly people and others with health concerns at cafes and other familiar neighborhood locations to promote healthy lifestyles and provide health education and patient care one of their tasks is to look out for any signs of illness or ill health in those they meet are dispatching them to care for seniors at a time when the coronavirus pandemic sometimes makes it hard for family members to keep tabs on their elderly loved ones opens her community "health care office" at a cafe in Warabi and giving them health care advice while engaging them in conversation Nurses like Tsuji help people maintain their physical and mental health with visits to community hubs such as cafes and even gas stations unlike nurses from hospitals who only make home visits Tsuji asks people about their interests and everyday activities who still regularly works as a home-visitation nurse began providing health education and care at neighborhood spots such as cafes in 2018 on a voluntary basis Regular visitors to the consultations include seniors who normally tend to shut themselves away at home "I hope coming here gives people a renewed appetite for life and that they can lead a healthier lifestyle," Tsuji said The community nurse movement was started by Akiko Yata in the prefectural city of Unnan in 2017 to educate community nurses after her activities began to attract attention She says nearly 600 nurses have completed the training course and become an integral part of their communities Many local governments and companies have shown strong interest in the movement the Nara prefectural government began training community nurses in 2018 while a gas company in Fukuoka is considering assigning such community nurses to places in its service area such as housing complexes where residents are rapidly aging Yata and her colleagues started a fee-based service called "Nasukuru," which means "Nurses are coming." For 11,000 yen ($90.00) they began sending nurses to private homes twice a month because of increased calls amid the pandemic from people worried about their parents living far away and Ehime prefectures and has resulted in favorable effects such as getting people out for exercise and improving their dietary habits Users appreciate the service as it allows them to rapidly notice unusual changes in their parents while providing family-like care In the building housing East Japan Railway Co.'s Kumagaya Station in Kumagaya held trials of the service free of charge in January and February The service "supports people in their daily life before they need medical assistance," said Hirofumi Kannari We would like to have them become a part of the lives of as many people as possible," Yata said To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible had his 30-year-old home remodeled this past summer he replaced a room on his second floor with a 33-square-meter balcony As a refreshing breeze now passes through the outdoors platform the 58-year-old homeowner thought that it should be “equipped with artificial turf and a hammock." The outdoor structure can be used as well for barbecue parties and film screenings using a projector The man is part of a trend as people are increasingly using their balconies for camping and other recreational uses Those unable to venture out during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic can enjoy a taste of glamping a portmanteau of “glamorous” and “camping,” at home many people are finding novel uses for their verandas in the so-called "veran-ping" boom Seeing consumers’ desire to utilize their balconies for not only hanging their laundry out but also outdoor leisure activities home builders are seeking new business opportunities the renovation plan for the homeowner in Konosu was suggested by Sumitomo Realty and Development Co one can dramatically change their lifestyles at home,” said a Sumitomo Realty and Development representative “We will further step up efforts to propose that type of residence from now on.” More priority is currently being put on verandas and other outside fittings likewise at newly built homes designed a residential arrangement with an external space of 40 to 50 square meters along the living room on the second floor The company signed franchise agreements with 27 building contractors nationwide from last year through this year for them to sell the unique setup named Glamp The outside space is half covered with a roof to allow residents to eat out or telework there Though the prices of Glamp-mounted homes start from 18 million yen ($164,000) 1 million to 1.5 million yen higher than their ordinary counterparts “The structure can ensure residents’ privacy better than yards,” said Shinji Endo “The design was devised before the novel coronavirus outbreak but the proposal has ended up meeting demand in this era as things turned out.” The veran-ping wave has also reached apartments started making balconies larger at some apartments within the Branz City Minami-Kusatsu housing complex in Kusatsu The depth of the extended outside platform measures 2.3 meters long 0.5 meter more than that of standard balconies Sumitomo Realty & Development equipped 16 apartments on the first floor of the City House Shimo-Meguro residential complex hosting barbecue parties on them is prohibited “We expect residents to use the space as an extension of their living rooms such as placing outdoor gear on them,” said an official of Sumitomo Realty & Development said the growing fad is providing momentum for its business “Individuals who have become interested in veran-ping last year or afterward have actually started camping leading to an increased number of people casually involved in the activity,” said a public relations representative of Snow Peak Hotel Okura to open 2nd luxury hotel in Kyoto in January 2022 Specialty shop opens at Haneda Airport to promote Hokkaido Fraudsters using ‘vacant’ rooms in Kinki area to deliver the goods Tokyo home with a view: no roof over the living room Iconic bunkhouse for wartime Korean laborers being torn down No reproduction or republication without written permission SAITAMA — An arrangement of some 1,800 traditional hina dolls on a stepped pyramid delights visitors at a shopping mall in Konosu The city produces large numbers of the dolls for the hinamatsuri doll festivals held on March 3 each year The display is the star attraction of the Konosu Bikkuri Hinamatsuri (Konosu surprise hina doll festival) event which is being run by the city’s tourist association at the Elumi Konosu Shopping Mall Some 80 volunteers spent about eight hours placing the dolls gathered from all over the country on the seven-meter- but setting up a seven-meter high pyramid of these traditional figures was hardly child’s play a holiday that is meant to celebrate the health and happiness of the girls in a family which are dressed in the style of members of the court during the Heian period are bought shortly after the birth of a daughter The dolls are meant to help ensure that a household’s daughters all find suitable marriage partners and particularly precious hina figures are passed down from generation to generation the city of Konosu in Saitama Prefecture has outdone itself putting together a seven-meter (23-foot) tall hinadan (doll pyramid) in the Elumi Konosu Shopping Mall Instagram user @inaya_fmmn Instagram user @kazu.xavier.miura Instagram user @kaztak1972 Instagram user @pariparipaan Instagram user @ayakonbu0902 Approximately 1800 dolls from around the country have been arranged on 31 platforms; 19 trained carpenters were responsible for placing the dolls on the higher platforms, while a team of 60 volunteers decorated the lower levels. And, as it’s considered bad luck to leave the hina dolls displayed after March 4 there will be some pretty busy carpenters at work on Friday “You didn’t take down the hina dolls yesterday!?” (Instagram user @hirogram7767) You can see a video of the massive hina doll pyramid being erected over at Asahi Shimbun, and if you’re keen to go check them out yourself, the mall’s about an hour’s journey from Shinjuku Japanese version Read the full story on Japan 2 Earth - AI Robots Revolutionize Rice Planting, Reduce Labor in Saitama Prefecture The rice planting season is approaching its peak. In northern Saitama Prefecture, a group of agricultural producers researching smart agriculture recently demonstrated a robot rice-planting machine that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) The farmers are operating in the cities of Kazo Those who have already begun using the rice-planting robot have reported a marked decrease in the level of fatigue associated with the farmwork The machine used in the demonstration was the Kubota Agri Robo NW8SA Equipped with a total of eight obstacle detection sensors at the front The Agri Robo has position correction capability based on linkage to GPS information and radio waves Its system can correct for misalignment caused by slippage of the vehicle's tires due to uneven surfaces in the rice paddies enabling automated rice planting with an error of 5 to 10 centimeters Continue reading the full story on Japan 2 Earth And find more great articles on the environment and the challenges of achieving the SDGs on our new website Japan 2 Earth (J2E) (Read the article in Japanese.) You must be logged in to post a comment from samurai swordsmen to sex workers in shop windows two woodblock artists in the 1830s depicted the astonishing sights on the ancient route from Edo to Kyoto Japanese version Japanese version Today's print edition Home Delivery In the run-up to Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day) people traditionally display hina dolls at home — and they must be taken down by March 4 to prevent a late marriage The centuries-old tradition has both persevered and evolved Here's how it played out on social media this year [View the story "Hina Matsuri 2016" on Storify]googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Get your fix of the best floral festivities around We had a pretty wet and disappointing cherry blossom season this year but you know what they say — April showers bring May flowers Japan has plenty of flower festivals for the rest of the spring and summer season with many of them taking place in the gorgeously warm month of May Here’s a round-up of flower festivals that are happening in and near Tokyo this month that’s definitely worth the trip and Hirogaru Chizu to Hōkiboshi (Chōshi Egaku) manga will move to the Kirara Web and Kirara Base manga websites The December issue is Manga Time Kirara Miracle!'s final issue Notable series that ran or are running in the magazine include Tachi's Sakura Trick, Ayumu Kasuga's Jōkamachi no Dandelion, Makoto Kawai's Kōfuku Graffiti all of which inspired television anime adaptations Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web Three Indonesian nationals have been arrested in Japan for allegedly murdering their compatriot a Foreign Affairs Ministry official said on Wednesday are accused of murdering a man on December 30 was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped on a roadside in the city of Tamura the prefecture of Fukushima,” Judha Nugraha the ministry’s director of Indonesian citizen protection The local police have notified the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo about the ongoing murder investigation The embassy is asking for consular access to legal assistance for the suspects His statement came after Twitter user @kevinpramudya posted a report about the murder case The Twitter user said that according to news reports by Japanese broadcasters the suspects and the victim worked in the same company in Japan and stayed in the city of Konosu The victim allegedly came from the Central Java regency of Pati He was murdered in December 2021 but the body was hidden somewhere until the murderers stuffed it in a suitcase and dumped it last month the Twitter user wrote citing local TV reports A strong earthquake jolted Japan's capital Tokyo and nearby areas yesterday shaking buildings and injuring at least 18 people The 6.0 magnitude quake at a depth of 73 km in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo halted trains and briefly closed airports which initially gave the quake's magnitude as 5.7 It warned of possible aftershocks in the next few days Public broadcaster NHK said 18 people were injured in the earthquake "There was shaking from side to side.. The escalator shook and it was scary," a young woman in Shibuya The quake triggered panic in an indoor ice rink in Kanagawa About 70 people were on the rink and people were screaming and scrambling to get off the ice," a Reuters witness said Among the injured were five women who were hurt by a falling sign in a supermarket in Konosu city north of Tokyo and a 93-year-old woman who fell off her porch A fire broke out at a three-storey house in Meguro ward in Tokyo and there were at least 15 reports of people being trapped inside elevators The earthquake also caused a steel tower to collapse in Tokyo one of the world's most seismically active areas The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater Many train services were halted and road were closed Two Tokyo-area airports shut down for checks but later resumed operations Another witness said he saw a car park swaying in eastern Tokyo and that elevators had stopped at an apartment complex A government disaster prevention panel that examined disaster scenarios for Tokyo said in February the capital could suffer damages of around 1 trillion yen and 13,000 deaths if an earthquake of around magnitude 7.0 hits Tokyo killed more than 140,000 people in Tokyo and neighbouring cities an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region killing about 40 people and injuring more than 3,000 That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995 that killed more than 6,400 people please register for free or log in to your account Recommended Foreigner-Friendly Apartments in Saitama Saitama is one of the places where many foreigners also like to live Many large factories and manufacturing businesses are located in Saitama where many foreigners work It is also a prefecture situated right next to Tokyo Finding a place to live in a rural area like Saitama is quite difficult unlike in the cities where a lot of agencies and people that you can ask for we will introduce the best apartments in Saitama we can help you find a place for you to live and provide you with the information you need *Please note that this article contains affiliate links let me give you some information about the Saitama area Saitama Prefecture (埼玉県, Saitama-ken) is a part of the Greater Tokyo area and a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu And Saitama city is the capital and the most famous city of Saitama Prefecture of Japan also being one of the biggest cities in Japan Popular as the heart of bonsai along with the long history of Japanese ningyo doll making there are a lot of places where you can go to feel the history and tradition of Japan: we will introduce our 10 picks for the best apartments in Saitama for foreigners I hope this article has helped you have an idea of what kind of apartments you can find in the Saitama area For more related articles please visit and check the articles below Greetings to all mommies I am a supermom from Philippines I worked and lived in Dubai for seven years I am happily settled here with my Japanese husband and our 7 months old baby I could only describe my almost 6 years of living here as a roller coaster ride more so I was able to witness firsthand the pros and cons of living in the country Those years were enough to give me quite personal and memorable experiences which I would be more than delighted to share with you