Wright’s “adaptive landscape” has been influential in evolutionary thinking but controversial, especially because the landscape that organisms encounter is altered by the evolutionary process itself and the effects organisms have on their environments. Lewontin offered a mathematical heuristic describing the coupling of niche construction and adaptive evolution. Here, we propose a “dual landscape” model to view these relationships. Our model represents change as simultaneous movement on two landscapes, each a function of phenotype and environment. This model clarifies the evolutionary feedback generated by niche construction. We relate our model to Lewontin’s niche construction equations and illustrate it with three examples.

We present studies of a protocluster at z =2.5, an overdense region found close to a radio galaxy, 4C 23.56, using ALMA. We observed 1.1 mm continuum, two CO lines (CO (4–3) and CO (3–2)) and the lower atomic carbon line transition ([CI](3P1-3P0)) at a few kpc (0″.3-0″.9) resolution. The primary targets are 25 star-forming galaxies selected as Hα emitters (HAEs) that are identified with a narrow band filter. These are massive galaxies with stellar masses of > 1010Mʘ that are mostly on the galaxy main sequence at z =2.5. We measure the molecular gas mass from the independent gas tracers of 1.1 mm, CO (3–2) and [CI], and investigate the gas kinematics of galaxies from CO (4–3). Molecular gas masses from the different measurements are consistent with each other for detection, with a gas fraction (fgas = Mgas/(Mgas+ Mstar)) of ≃ 0.5 on average but with a caveat. On the other hand, the CO line widths of the protocluster galaxies are typically broader by ˜50% compared to field galaxies, which can be attributed to more frequent, unresolved gas-rich mergers and/or smaller sizes than field galaxies, supported by our high-resolution images and a kinematic model fit of one of the galaxies. We discuss the expected scenario of galaxy evolution in protoclusters at high redshift but future large surveys are needed to get a more general view.

The Universe is full of galaxies of various shapes; some galaxies have spiral arms and others don’t. Why do galaxies show such diversity? How were galaxies formed and evolved? Galaxies are thought to grow by interacting and merging with other galaxies, and the galaxy mergers may be the key process creating the variety. GALAXY CRUISE is the first citizen science project conducted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to unlock galaxies’ secrets using the big observational data. We made the superior quality big data taken by the Subaru Telescope accessible to the public and invited them to participate in data classification. Here we report how we designed the website and its first-year progress.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

The brush-clawed shore crab Hemigrapsus takanoi is a native species from the Western Pacific and an invader of the European Atlantic coast from northern Spain to southern Denmark. Despite the increasing concern about its rapid expansion, little is known about the early stages in its life history. In the present study, the larval morphology of H. takanoi is described and illustrated from specimens obtained in the laboratory from its type locality, Tokyo Bay, Japan. Its larval development follows the pattern of Varunidae, that involves five zoeae and one megalopa. The morphological characters of the larvae of H. takanoi are compared with those of the other known Hemigrapsus species of the North Pacific. In addition, to facilitate an early detection of the invasive species of Varunidae inhabiting European Atlantic waters, a summary of the key characters to identify their larval stages is included.

Growth mixture modeling with a sample of 749 Mexican heritage families identified parallel trajectories of adolescents’ and their mothers’ heritage cultural values and parallel trajectories of adolescents’ and their fathers’ heritage cultural values from Grades 5 to 10. Parallel trajectory profiles were then used to test cultural gap-distress theory that predicts increased parent–adolescent conflict and adolescent psychopathology over time when adolescents become less aligned with Mexican heritage values compared to their parents. Six similar parallel profiles were identified for the mother–youth and father–youth dyads, but only one of the six was consistent with the hypothesized problem gap pattern in which adolescents’ values were declining over time to become more discrepant from their parents. When compared to families in the other trajectory groups as a whole, mothers in the mother–adolescent problem gap trajectory group reported higher levels of mother–adolescent conflict in the 10th grade that accounted for subsequent increases in internalizing and externalizing symptoms assessed in 12th grade. Although the findings provided some support for cultural gap-distress predictions, they were not replicated with adolescent report of conflict nor with the father–adolescent trajectory group analyses. Exploratory pairwise comparisons between all six mother–adolescent trajectory groups revealed additional differences that qualified and extended these findings.

It is thought that protoplanets formed in protoplanetary disks excite the orbital motion of the surrounding planetesimals, and the bow shocks caused by the highly excited planetesimals heat their icy component evaporating into gas. We have performed model calculations to study the evolution of molecular abundances of the evaporated icy component, which suggests sulfur-bearing molecules can be good tracers of icy planetesimal evaporation. Here we report the result of our ALMA observations of sulfur-bearing molecules towards protoplanetary disks. The lines were undetected but the obtained upper limits of the line fluxes and our model calculations give upper limits of the fractional abundances of x(H2S) < 10−11 and x(SO) < 10−10 in the outer disk. These results are consistent with the molecular abundances in comets in our Solar system.

Few democratic countries have lower rates of female political representation than Japan, making it an excellent place to seek clues for female underrepresentation. We were surprised to find, based on three experimental surveys, that Japanese voters do not harbor particularly negative attitudes toward female politicians. The problem instead appears to be that women are reluctant to run for office because of socially mandated family roles. An implication of our study is that gender equality in political representation will likely founder in countries with electoral systems that require around-the-clock constituency service and legislative work, at least until citizens no longer have gendered expectations about time-consuming family obligations.

Oxoammonium cation of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (TEMPO) was used as an oxidizing dopant of triaryl amines to efficiently and almost quantitatively generate radical cations of the amines or a hole carrier. The doped-triaryl amines yielded an amorphous and homogeneous layer without any residual oxidant or neutral TEMPO molecule through its sublimination or warming the layer. The TEMPO cation-doped spiro-OMeTAD [tetrakis(dimethoxyphenylamine)spirobifluorene] produced a high hole mobility of 2 × 10−4 cm2/Vs. The perovskite solar cell fabricated with the TEMPO cation-doped or residual dopant-free spiro-OMeTAD as the hole-transporting layer displayed a photo-conversion efficiency of 20.1% with durability.

The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens Stål (BPH) can be found year-round in tropical region and causes severe damage to rice. Although there has been documented BPH damage to rice crops in the past decade in Cambodia, the extent of this epidemic is poorly understood. Here, we examined the time variation of BPH population in the abundance of morphotypes in 13 main rice-producing provinces (86 sites) by aspirator method and in the Takeo Province (five sites) by yellow sticky trap method. At least three generations were observed during the 3-month collection period in the rainy growing season. Regarding the occurrence of BPH morphotypes, in July the macropterous adults were restricted to south Cambodia and in August all morphotypes, adults (macropterous and brachypterous) and nymphs, appeared in all sampling sites. To explain the difference of regional distribution, the genetic differentiation was analyzed in south and northwest Cambodia (three sites) by using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) analysis via genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) using next-generation sequencing. The 2455 SNPs obtained by GBS clarified the three sub-populations and they corresponded to the expected dissemination patterns. These results provide a clue to understand the differentiation and epidemic of BPH in Cambodia.

We initiated a long-term and highly frequent monitoring project toward 442 methanol masers at 6.7 GHz (Dec >−30 deg) using the Hitachi 32-m radio telescope in December 2012. The observations have been carried out daily, monitoring a spectrum of each source with intervals of 9–10 days. In September 2015, the number of the target sources and intervals were redesigned into 143 and 4–5 days, respectively. This monitoring provides us complete information on how many sources show periodic flux variations in high-mass star-forming regions, which have been detected in 20 sources with periods of 29.5–668 days so far (e.g., Goedhart et al. 2004). We have already obtained new detections of periodic flux variations in 31 methanol sources with periods of 22–409 days. These periodic flux variations must be a unique tool to investigate high-mass protostars themselves and their circumstellar structure on a very tiny spatial scale of 0.1–1 au.

We investigate the relation between the emission properties of supernova shock breakout in the circumstellar matter (CSM) and the behavior of the shock. Using a Monte-Carlo method, we examine how the light curve and spectrum depends on the asphericity of the shock and bulk-Compton scattering, and compare the results with the observed properties of X-ray outburst (XRO) 080109/SN 2008D. We found that the rise and decay time of the X-ray light curve do not significantly depend on the degree of shock asphericity and the viewing angle in a steady and spherically symmetric CSM. The observed X-light curve and spectrum of XRO 080109 can be reproduced by considering the shock with a radial velocity of 60% of the speed of light, and the wind mass loss rate is about 5 × 10−4M⊙.

Silicified beyrichiocopid and podocopid ostracods from limestone nodules derived from the middle part of the Ichinotani Formation within the Hida Gaien Terrane of central Honshu Island, Japan, are associated with fusulinid foraminifera that indicate strata of the middle Moscovian (Pennsylvanian, Carboniferous). This is a rare record of ostracods from the Palaeozoic of Japan and the first systematic description of ostracods from the Carboniferous of the Hida Gaien Terrane. The fauna comprises six ostracod species (two new) assigned to the genera Amphissites, Kirkbya, Bairdia, Aechmina and Healdia, and additional material of possible cavellinids. The numerical dominance of ornamented beyrichiocopids such as Kirkbya and Amphissites, along with smaller numbers of smooth podocopids such as Bairdia, indicates an ‘Eifelian mega-assemblage’ ecotype (sensu G. Becker), that is typical of mid Palaeozoic shallow marine, high-energy environments in a fore-reef ecosystem.

We report the discovery of physical contact between the Galactic circumnuclear disk (CND) and an adjacent giant molecular cloud. The central 10 pc of our Galaxy has been imaged in molecular lines at millimeter wavelength using the Nobeyama Radio Observatory 45 m radio telescope. In the position-velocity maps of several high-density probe lines, we have found an emission “bridge” connecting the +20 km s−1 cloud (M–0.13–0.08) and the negative longitude extension of the CND. The collision between the +20 km s−1 cloud and the CND may be responsible for the formation of the bridge. This event can promote mass accretion onto the CND and/or into the inner cavity.