Determination of Crossarm Installation in Fill Dams by Back Analysis

This paper discusses a numerical model that can be used to optimize the installation in a zoned type and a homogeneous type fill dam. Before installation in a real dam to evaluate dam behavior, numerical model described in this paper is carried out on a prototype dam to check the optimum installation, using cross arm measurements. Three cross arm installations at the upstream, the core and downstream to measure displacements are considered. The installation options considered are three cross arm combinations for best installation to verify the safety of dams and to reduce cost. Finite element method is used for generating the displecement field in a linear elastic numerical model. The generated data is used as an input data in the back analysis to check the adequacy of each installation option

Shape transformations of lipid vesicles by insertion of bulky-head lipids

Lipid vesicles, in particular Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs), have been increasingly important as compartments of artificial cells to reconstruct living cell-like systems in a bottom-up fashion. Here, we report shape transformations of lipid vesicles induced by polyethylene glycol-lipid conjugate (PEG lipids). Statistical analysis of deformed vesicle shapes revealed that shapes vesicles tend to deform into depended on the concentration of the PEG lipids. When compared with theoretically simulated vesicle shapes, those shapes were found to be more energetically favorable, with lower membrane bending energies than other shapes. This result suggests that the vesicle shape transformations can be controlled by externally added membrane molecules, which can serve as a potential method to control the replications of artificial cells

Glycolipid α-C-galactosylceramide is a distinct inducer of dendritic cell function during innate and adaptive immune responses of mice

α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) is the prototype compound for studying the presentation of glycolipids on CD1d molecules to natural killer T (NKT) lymphocytes. A single i.v. dose of glycolipid triggers a cascade of events involving the production of several cytokines over the course of a day, a short-lived activation of NKT and natural killer (NK) cells, and a more prolonged adaptive T cell immune response if certain antigens are given together with α-GalCer. We find that a recently described analogue, α-C-galactosylceramide (α-C-GalCer), more potently induces these innate and adaptive immune responses in mice. α-C-GalCer acts as a more effective trigger for IL-12 and IFN-γ production, although it minimally elicits IL-4 and TNF-α release into the serum. Also, α-C-GalCer better mobilizes NKT and natural killer cells to resist B16 melanoma. To help understand these effects, we find that α-C-GalCer binds more stably to dendritic cells than α-GalCer and that dendritic cells loaded with α-C-GalCer induce larger and more long lasting NKT cell responses in vivo. When glycolipid is targeted to dendritic cells in spleen together with antigens in dying cells, such as irradiated tumor cells, α-C-GalCer is active as an adjuvant for T cell-mediated immunity at lower doses, just 20 ng per mouse, where it is also able to up-regulate the required CD40L costimulatory molecule on NKT cells. Therefore, α-C-GalCer represents a glycolipid that binds more stably to dendritic cells and acts as a more effective link between innate and adaptive immunity in vivo

Settlement Prediction Method Using Observed Settlement Velocity

This paper presents a new method for prediction of consolidation settlements of soft grounds. The method is based on the theoretical result which shows that the settlement velocity of soft grounds non-improved or improved with sand drains decreases exponentially with time. Final settlements can be easily derived from the regression analysis for the relationship between the elapsed time and the observed settlement velocity. The method has advantages of its simplicity and capability to give the satisfactorily good estimate of the consolidation settlements, and also the support of the theoretical background

Estimation of Unsaturated hydraulic parameters by In-situ technique

In-situ determination of fundamental hydraulic parameters like variably saturated hydraulic conductivity (K(FS)) and the matric flux potential (Φ(m)) provides a foundation from which several other unsaturated soil parameters can be estimated, namely the Alpha (α*) parameter. This Alpha parameter is the one of the components of 3D unsaturated flow in vadose zone and its value is the measure of the capillary component of unsaturated flow pattern. Here an in-situ technique, Pressure Infiltrometer is introduced to record the steady flow rate applying a constant positive head on an unsaturated soil surface. The aim of this paper is to check the shape factor of 3D flow geometry and to find out its sensitivity on other unsaturated hydraulic parameters and to find out the influence of Alpha parameters on the results of the in-situ estimation of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity

THE COMPARISON TO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL JOINT KINETICS BETWEEN SINGLE LEG AND DOUBLE LEG REBOUND JUMP

The purpose of this study was to clarify the differences between the SRJ and DRJ in terms of three-dimensional joint kinetics for the takeoff leg. Twenty male track and field athletes were performed repeated rebound jump with single leg (SRJ) and double leg (DRJ). Kinematics and kinetics data were recorded using Vicon T20 system (250 Hz) and force platforms (1000 Hz). When comparing a SRJ to a DRJ, the characteristics of the former are as follows: 1) the jump height by a single leg is significantly higher because of the larger hip joint work around the extension-flexion, especially on the abduction-adduction axes; 2) the hip extension and abduction torque is larger; and 3) in the SRJ, the hip abduction torque is larger than the hip extension torque. Therefore, the joint kinetics of the SRJ is characterized by the large hip abduction torque, in addition to the large hip extension torque

Evaluation of Liquefaction Resistance by In-situ Testing and Its Application to Reliability Design

A calculation method of probability of liquefaction is proposed in this paper. The spatial variability of soil parameters for the dynamic shear strength, i.e., N-values, median grain size, fines contents, and the statistical characteristics of the earthquake frequency are considered in the analysis. The standard penetration test (SPT) is convenient to estimate the spatial variability of the dynamic shear strength and mainly used in this study. Furthermore the determination of dynamic shear strength based on Swedish weight Sounding test also introduced here, because it is the simpler test than SPT. While the statistical model of the earthquake frequency is determined based on the record of historical earthquakes. Using this method the probability of liquefaction is calculated. The sand compaction pile method is considered for the ground improvement against the liquefaction. Finally, the relationship between the sand replacement rate and the probability of liquefaction is clarified