Politics and the Economy in Pre-War Japan

The paper by Richard J Smethurst discusses the influences that led to the economic policies pursued in the interwar period by Takahashi Korekiyo, who engineered Japan's recovery from the depression in the early 1930s, and is often thought of as the 'Keynes' of Japan. The paper traces the influence on Takahashi's thinking of his Western experiences and diverse bureaucratic career, but focusses in particular on the role of Takahashi's mentor, Maeda Masana. The paper by Masataka Matsuura analyses the term zaikai as used in prewar Japan and its identity as a small network whose influence was distinct from that of the zaibatsu. The paper traces the membership and activities of this small group from the time of Shibusawa Eiichi through to the Second World War, and argues for the importance of the functions they discharged in the context of the developing Japanese economy.Japan, economic depression in early 1930s, Takahashi Korekiyo, Maeda Masana, zaikai, zaibatsu, Japanese economic development, Shibusawa Eiichi.

Translocation of Cyclin C During Oxidative Stress Is Regulated by Interactions with Multiple Trafficking Proteins

Eukaryotic cells take cues from their environment and interpret them to enact a response. External stresses can produce a decision between adjusting to behaviors which promote surviving the stress, or enacting a cell death program. The decision to undergo programmed cell death (PCD) is controlled by a complex interaction between nuclear and mitochondrial signals. The mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that constantly undergo fission and fusion. However, a dramatic shift in mitochondrial morphology toward fission occurs early in the PCD process. We have identified the transcription factor cyclin C as the biochemical trigger for stress‐induced mitochondrial hyper‐fragmentation in yeast (Cooper et al., 2014 Dev. Cell) and mammalian (Wang et al., 2015, MCB) cells

The influence of tree root water uptake on the long term hydrology of a clay fill railway embankment

This paper uses a numerical model to investigate the influence of tree root water uptake and tree removal on pore water pressures and the vertical movement of a clay fill railway embankment. Simulated results of soil wetting and drying are compared with field measurements from an instrumented railway embankment before and after tree removal. A parametric study compares the influence of vegetation on the seasonal movement of the embankment slope. The simulations and field measurements show that while trees cause significant seasonal variations in pore water pressure and water content near the soil surface, they can maintain persistent soil suctions at depth within the tree rooting zone. Demonstration of this result using a numerical model requires a root water uptake function that separates spatially the processes of water infiltration, evaporation and transpiration. When all of the trees are removed, the persistent soil suctions established by the trees are lost as water infiltrates from the soil surface. Leaving the trees in place over the bottom third of the slope can maintain persistent suctions at the slope toe, while potentially also reducing seasonal ground movements at the crest that may adversely affect railway track geometry

Mechanisms of root reinforcement in soils:An experimental methodology using four-dimensional X-ray computed tomography and digital volume correlation

Vegetation on railway or highway slopes can improve slope stability through the generation of soil pore water suctions by plant transpiration and mechanical soil reinforcement by the roots. To incorporate the enhanced shearing resistance and stiffness of root-reinforced soils in stability calculations, it is necessary to understand and quantify its effectiveness. This requires integrated and sophisticated experimental and multiscale modelling approaches to develop an understanding of the processes at different length scales, from individual root-soil interaction through to full soil-profile or slope scale. One of the challenges with multiscale models is ensuring that they sufficiently closely represent real behaviour. This requires calibration against detailed high-quality and data-rich experiments. This study presents a novel experimental methodology, which combines in situ direct shear loading of a willow root reinforced soil with X-ray computed tomography to capture the 3D chronology of soil and root deformation within the shear zone. Digital volume correlation (DVC) analysis was applied to the computed tomography (CT) dataset to obtain full-field 3D displacement and strain information. This paper demonstrates the feasibility and discusses the challenges associated with DVC experiments on root-reinforced soils

Galaxy Zoo: constraining the origin of spiral arms

Since the discovery that the majority of low-redshift galaxies exhibit some level of spiral structure, a number of theories have been proposed as to why these patterns exist. A popular explanation is a process known as swing amplification, yet there is no observational evidence to prove that such a mechanism is at play. By using a number of measured properties of galaxies, and scaling relations where there are no direct measurements, we model samples of SDSS and S4G spiral galaxies in terms of their relative halo, bulge and disc mass and size. Using these models, we test predictions of swing amplification theory with respect to directly measured spiral arm numbers from Galaxy Zoo 2. We find that neither a universal cored or cuspy inner dark matter profile can correctly predict observed numbers of arms in galaxies. However, by invoking a halo contraction/expansion model, a clear bimodality in the spiral galaxy population emerges. Approximately 40 per cent of unbarred spiral galaxies at z 10^10 Msolar have spiral arms that can be modelled by swing amplification. This population display a significant correlation between predicted and observed spiral arm numbers, evidence that they are swing amplified modes. The remainder are dominated by two-arm systems for which the model predicts significantly higher arm numbers. These are likely driven by tidal interactions or other mechanisms