Effects of elevated CO 2 concentration ([CO 2 ]) and air temperature (T air ) on accumulation and intra-plant partitioning of dry matter (DM) and nitrogen in paddy rice were investigated by performing a pot experiment in six natural sunlit temperature gradient chambers (TGCs) with or without CO 2 fumigation. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) plants were grown in TGCs for a whole season under two levels of [CO 2 ] (ambient, 380 ppm; elevated, 622 ppm) and two daily T air regimes (ambient, 25.2°C; elevated, 27.3°C) in split-plot design with triplication. The effects of elevated [CO 2 ] and T air on DM were most dramatic for grain and shoot with a significant (P<0.05) interaction between [CO 2 ] and T air . Overall, total grain DM increased with elevated [CO 2 ] by 69.6% in ambient T air but decreased with elevated T air by 33.8% in ambient [CO 2 ] due to warming-induced floral sterility. Meanwhile, shoot DM significantly increased with elevated T air by 20.8% in ambient [CO 2 ] and by 46.6% in elevated [CO 2 ]. Although no [CO 2 ]×T air interaction was detected, the greatest total DM was achieved by co-elevation of [CO 2 ] and T air (by 42.8% relative to the ambient conditions) via enhanced shoot and root DM accumulation, but not grain. This was attributed largely both to increase in tiller number and to accumulation of photosynthate in the shoot and root due to inhibition of photosynthate allocation to grain caused by warming-induced floral sterility. Distribution of N (both soil N and fertilizer 15 N) among rice parts in responding to climatic variables entirely followed the pattern of DM. Our findings demonstrate that the projected warming is likely to induce a significant reduction in grain yield of rice by inhibiting DM (i.e., photosynthates) allocation to grain, though this may partially be mitigated by elevated [CO 2 ].

This study was aimed at developing a predictive model for assessing the breast cancer risk of Korean women under the assumption of differences in the risk factors between Westerners and Koreans. The cohort comprised 384 breast cancer patients and 2 control groups: one comprising 166 hospitalized patients and the other comprising 104 nurses and teachers. Two initial models were produced by comparing cases and the 2 control groups, and the final equations were established by selecting highly significant variables of the initial models to test the accuracy of the models in terms of disease probability and predictability. Both the initial models and the final disease-probability models were confirmed to exhibit high degrees of accuracy and predictability. Major risk factors determined by comparing the patients with hospitalized controls were a family history, menstrual regularity, total menstrual duration, age at first full-term pregnancy, and duration of breastfeeding. Major risk factors determined by comparing patients with nurse/teacher controls were age, education level, menstrual regularity, drinking status, and smoking status. The predictive model developed here shows that risk factors for breast cancer differ between Korean and Western subjects in the aspect of breastfeeding behavior. However, identifying the relationship between genetic susceptibility and breast cancer will require further studies with larger samples. In a model with nurse/teacher controls, drinking and higher education were found to be protective variables, whereas smoking was a risk factor. Hence the predictive model in this group could not be generalized to the Korean population; instead, breast cancer incidence needs to be compared among nurses and teachers in a nurse-and-teacher cohort.