Mechanical performances of finger jointed cross laminated timber (CLT)

Based on the idea of first producing small-size CLT panels and afterward connecting them using finger joints to make larger CLT panels, finger-jointed CLT test specimens were fabricated by setting experimental parameters such as the kind of finger joint (large or normal), the combination of finger joint strength (strong–strong, or weak–weak) and the number of layers, and ply (3L3P, 5L5P, and 5L7P). Destructive tests subjected to out-of-plane as well as in-plane bending and shear, and axial compression load were performed. To judge the mechanical performance of the finger-jointed CLT panels, the lower 5% strength value evaluated from the destructive tests data were used for comparison with the characteristic strength value of CLT products assigned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan (MLIT). On the other hand, the lower 50% stiffness value evaluated from the destructive test data was used for comparison with the design stiffness values proposed by commercial sectors. Most of the tested finger-jointed CLT groups satisfied the requirements for the characteristic strength values although there were a few exceptional cases in the weak–weak groups. All of the tested finger jointed CLT groups satisfied the proposed design stiffness values

Laboratory Verification of a Proposed New Method to Determine the In-Situ Effective Porosity of Unsaturated Soil

A laboratory validation of a proposed new method of determining the in-situ effective porosity of unsaturated soils was carried out on unsaturated river sand. The proposed method consists of boring a small diameter hole into the soil and inserting an Amplitude Domain Reflectometry (ADR) probe at the bottom part of the hole. Water is supplied into the hole till saturation and later de-saturated. The water content with time is determined from the ADR probe voltage potential readings. The effective porosity is determined from the difference between the saturated and de-saturated water contents. However, in the laboratory, the water is supplied through the top and bottom parts of the sample. From the experiments the obtained effective porosity ranged from 0.28 to 0.29 for wetting from the top with an average of 0.287 and 0.29 to 0.30 for wetting from the bottom with an average of 0.293. The determined effective porosity ranged from 71.7-73.3% of the real initial porosity of 0.40 of the river sand. The maximum attained degree of saturation during the experiment was 91%. The results indicated that the method will be suitable and useful in determining the effective porosity of medium grained unsaturated soils

Evidence for Impact Shock Melting in CM and CI Chondrite Regolith Samples

C class asteroids frequently exhibit reflectance spectra consistent with thermally metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrites, or a mixture of phyllosilicate-rich material along with regions where they are absent. One particularly important example appears to be near-Earth asteroid 1999 JU3, the target of the Hayabusa II sample return mission [1], although not all spectra indicate this. In fact most spectra of 1999 JU3 are featureless, suggesting a heterogeneous regolith. Here we explore an alternative cause of dehydration of regolith of C class asteroids - impact shock melting. Impact shock melting has been proposed to explain some mineralogical characteristics of CB chondrites, but has not been considered a major process for hydrous carbonaceous chondrites. What evidence is there for significant shock melting in the very abundant CMs, or less abundant but still important CI chondrites

体の痛み、社会的支援、抑うつ状態、脳血管疾患は独立して高齢者の睡眠障害と関連する : 藤原京スタディ横断解析

OBJECTIVE: To investigate independent effects of various factors associated with sleep disturbance among community-dwelling elderly individuals. METHODS: We analyzed data obtained from 3732 individuals aged ≥65 years who responded to a self-administered questionnaire and participated in a structured interview which assessed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), subjective bodily pain, the Jichi Medical School Social Support Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), health status, and demographic characteristics. Sleep disturbance was defined as a global PSQI score >5.5, which was used as a dependent variable in multiple logistic regression analysis to determine adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of related factors. RESULTS: We identified a significant increase in the adjusted ORs for female (OR 1.56, 95 % CI 1.34-1.83), age ≥80 years (1.31, 1.01-1.69), history of stroke (1.44, 1.08-1.92), and a GDS-15 score ≥6 as compared to 0-2 (2.29, 1.86-2.81), with regard to sleep disturbance. Participants with severe or very severe bodily pain had the highest adjusted OR (3.00, 2.15-4.19), and those with very mild bodily pain also had a relatively high OR (1.30, 1.06-1.60), relative to those without subjective bodily pain. In addition, compared with participants with strong social support from spouse or family, those with weak social support had significantly increased adjusted ORs (1.21, 1.01-1.44, 1.44, 1.23-1.70, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that sleeping disturbances among the elderly are closely associated with social support from a spouse and family. They are also associated with pain, even at stages in which subjective bodily pain is very mild.博士（医学）・乙第1381号・平成28年9月28日© The Japanese Society for Hygiene 2016The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12199-016-0529-

高齢者の手段的ADL低下に対するスポーツと文化的趣味活動の交互作用－藤原京スタディー

Background: Maintenance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and social role (SR) is crucial to keep independent life because the decline in SR and IADL was a significant predictor of dependence in basic ADL in later. The independent effect of physical and cultural leisure activities and their effect modification on the IADL remains unknown. Methods: We prospectively observed 3241 elderly with intact IADL at baseline for 5 years. Higher level functional capacity such as IADL and SR was assessed using the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of competence (TMIG index). Results: The mean age of the participants was 72.3 years (standard deviation 5.1), and 46.9% were male, and 90.9% of them received a follow-up assessment. Of the participants, 10.4% developed an IADL decline. Engagement in leisure physical activity was associated with a significantly lower risk of IADL decline (adjusted risk ratio, 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.60 to 0.89), and cultural leisure activity was also associated with lower risk of IADL decline (adjusted risk ratio, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.95) independent of potential confounders. We also found significant and positive interaction between physical and cultural leisure activities at risk for IADL decline (P = 0.024) and SR decline (P = 0.004). Conclusions: We found an independent association of physical and cultural leisure activities with a lower risk for functional decline in IADL and SR with positive interaction. Combined engagement in physical and cultural activities may effectively prevent from IADL decline and SR decline.博士（医学）・乙第1456号・令和2年3月16日© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated