Dynamical Behavior of a Pile Under Earthquake Type Loading

In order to obtain a theoretical prediction on the seismic response of the soil-pile structure systems, the frequency response of the soil-pile system excited by ground incident waves may be necessary in addition to the response due to the excitation at the pile head. This paper is concerned with a theoretical analysis based on the three-dimensional wave propagation theory to find dynamical interaction characteristics of an elastic pile embedded in the viscoelastic soil stratum on a rigid bed rock, subjected to a concentrated external force or forced displacement at the pile head and to uniformly distributed bed rock motion. In dealing with this complicated boundary configuration and exciting condition, the technique of superposition principle associated with the auxiliary sub problems is effectively used. And, the governing equations in frequency domain reduce to the Fredholm type integral equations of the second kind, whose solutions are expressed in terms of multiple summations and integrals

Nonlinear Dynamic Impedance of Pile Group Foundation

The dynamic impedance of a pile group must be determined to perform a dynamic response analysis of the structure it supports. This problem has attracted continued research interest, but most research to date has been on linear soil media. When the excitation level becomes large during an earthquake or a machine type excitation, stress concentration occurs in the soil surrounding the pile, causing the soil to behave nonlinearly. Calculation of pile group impedance necessitates analysis of pile-soil-pile interaction. Any soil nonlinearity around the piles must be taken into account in this analysis. However, the effect of nonlinearity on dynamic impedance has not been examined adequately. This paper describes an analysis method, and presents numerical results for the nonlinear dynamic impedance of a pile group and for the distribution of forces on the pile caps

A method for generating developments using decomposition into the meaningful components of 3D polygon models

We propose a method for generating developments from 3D polygon models automatically. The conventional method generates the developments whose components are not interfering each together, by using collision detection between all polygons. However, for the model which consists of a large number of polygons, it is necessary to decompose the development into several parts manually. Therefore it is difficult to generate the development which is easy to be assembled. Our method decomposes the polygon model into meaningful components such as arms, legs, and so on, and develops them. This makes it easy to understand which parts should be glued together, and handcraft bending or folding the developments when a user assembles the paper craft

The Establishment of a Primary Culture System of Proximal Tubule Segments Using Specific Markers from Normal Mouse Kidneys

The proximal tubule contains the highest expression of angiotensinogen mRNA and protein within the kidney and plays a vital role in the renal renin-angiotensin system. To study the regulation of angiotensinogen expression in the kidney in more detail, the proximal tubule needs to be accurately isolated from the rest of the nephron and separated into its three segments. The purpose of this study was to design a novel protocol using specific markers for the separation of proximal tubule cells into the three proximal tubule segments and to determine angiotensinogen expression in each segment. Kidneys were removed from C57BL/6J mice. The proximal tubules were aspirated from region of a Percoll gradient solution of the appropriate density. The proximal tubule was then separated into its three segments using segment-specific membrane proteins, after which each segment was characterized by a different specific marker (sodium-glucose transporter 2 for Segment 1; carbonic anhydrase IV for Segment 2; ecto-adenosine triphosphatase for Segment 3). The isolation of proximal tubules into three segments was successful, and angiotensinogen mRNA in Segment 2 and 3 and angiotensinogen protein in all three segments were confirmed. This protocol will be helpful for future studies of the detailed mechanisms of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system

Electron correlation in FeSe superconductor studied by bulk-sensitive photoemission spectroscopy

We have investigated the electronic structures of recently discovered superconductor FeSe by soft-x-ray and hard-x-ray photoemission spectroscopy with high bulk sensitivity. The large Fe 3d spectral weight is located in the vicinity of the Fermi level (EF), which is demonstrated to be a coherent quasi-particle peak. Compared with the results of the band structure calculation with local-density approximation, Fe 3d band narrowing and the energy shift of the band toward EF are found, suggesting an importance of the electron correlation effect in FeSe. The self energy correction provides the larger mass enhancement value (Z^-1=3.6) than in Fe-As superconductors and enables us to separate a incoherent part from the spectrum. These features are quite consistent with the results of recent dynamical mean-field calculations, in which the incoherent part is attributed to the lower Hubbard band.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 talbl

Perfectionism and self-conscious emotions in British and Japanese students: Predicting pride and embarrassment after success and failure

Regarding self-conscious emotions, studies have shown that different forms of perfectionism show different relationships with pride, shame, and embarrassment depending on success and failure. What is unknown is whether these relationships also show cultural variations. Therefore, we conducted a study investigating how self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted pride and embarrassment after success and failure comparing 363 British and 352 Japanese students. Students were asked to respond to a set of scenarios where they imagined achieving either perfect (success) or flawed results (failure). In both British and Japanese students, self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and embarrassment after failure whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted embarrassment after success and failure. Moreover, in Japanese students, socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and self-oriented perfectionism negatively predicted pride after failure. The findings have implications for our understanding of perfectionism indicating that the perfectionism–pride relationship not only varies between perfectionism dimensions, but may also show cultural variations

Phylogenic Diversity and Similarity of Active Sites of Shiga Toxin（stx) in Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli（STEC) Isolates from Human and Animals

ヒト及び動物由来志賀毒素産生性大腸菌の毒素遺伝子の解析を行った。stx1及びstx2遺伝子を基本に系統樹を作成したところ、ウシ、カモメ、ハエ由来株はヒト由来株に類似し、ヒツジ及びシカ由来株は遺伝学的に独立した系統であることが判明した。しかし、いずれの株も活性のある毒素を産生するので、ヒトに病原性があると考える

Glomerular angiotensinogen protein is enhanced in pediatric IgA nephropathy

Enhanced intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is implicated in the development and progression of renal injury. To investigate whether angiotensinogen (AGT) expression is involved in glomerular RAS activity and glomerular injury, we examined glomerular AGT expression and its correlation with expression of other RAS components, and levels of glomerular injury in samples from patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) (23) and minor glomerular abnormalities (MGA) (8). Immunohistochemistry showed that AGT protein was highly expressed by glomerular endothelial cells (GEC) and mesangial cells in nephritic glomeruli of IgAN compared with glomeruli of MGA. Levels of glomerular AGT protein were well correlated with levels of glomerular angiotensin II (ang II), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), α-smooth-muscle actin, glomerular cell number, and glomerulosclerosis score but not with those of glomerular angiotensin-converting enzyme and ang II type 1 receptor. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analyses using cultured human GEC indicated that ang II upregulated AGT messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner. These data suggest that activated glomerular AGT expression is likely involved in elevated local ang II production and, thereby, may contribute to increased TGF-β production and development of glomerular injury in IgAN. Augmentation of GEC-AGT production with ang II stimulation might drive further glomerular injury in a positive-feedback loop