Back-Calculated p-y Relation of Liquefied Soils from Large Shaking Table Tests

Time histories of the p-y behavior during soil liquefaction, defined as the relation between subgrade reaction and relative displacement between pile and soil, are back-calculated based on shaking table tests using a large-scale laminar box. The results show that, if the pile pushes the soil, the subgrade reaction is correlated with the relative displacement between pile and soil. In contrast, if the soil liquefies and pushes the pile, the subgrade reaction becomes correlated with the relative velocity between pile and soil. The p-y curve of loose sand shows stress-softening behavior after liquefaction, while the p-y curve of medium dense to dense sand shows stress hardening behavior. The stress-hardening behavior tends to diminish with cyclic loading after liquefaction if the sand is not sufficiently dense or the input acceleration is high. The coefficient of subgrade reaction is affected by such factors as the pore pressure ratio, relative displacement, and soil density

Effects of Soil-Structure Interaction on Stress Distribution within a Pile Group under Multi-Dimensional Loading

To investigate inertial and kinematic effects on stress distributions within a pile group, physical model tests were conducted at EDefense, one of the largest shaking table facilities in the world. A 3x3 steel pile group supporting a foundation with a superstructure was set in a dry sand deposit prepared in a cylindrical laminar box with a height of 6.5 m and a diameter of 8.0 m. Natural periods of superstructures were variable in the tests. The tests were conducted under one-, two- or three-dimensional shaking. The test results have shown that pile stresses were mainly controlled by the inertial force when the natural period of superstructure was shorter than or close to that of the ground. In this case, the pile group effects were remarkable, in which pile stresses were the largest in the leading pile and the smallest in the following pile. In contrast, the pile stresses were mainly controlled by the ground displacement when the natural period of superstructure was longer than that of the ground. In this case, the pile group effects were insignificant in such a way that the pile stresses were almost the same within the pile group

Utilization efficiency of shades used with attraction lamps for squid fisheries

Light intensivity of attraction lamps used on squid fishing boats has greatly increased since the introduce from of the automatic squid jigging machine in about 1972. Oil price rises after the first and second oil schocks have put increased economic pressures on fisherman. In order to test the efficiency of shades used with the attraction lamp lights, four types of shades were used for test; "Flat shade","Double shade", "Double and one-side reflection shade" and "Spot type". Only the flat shade is being used commercialy. The other three were made for test purposes at this time

Pile Response Characteristics of Liquefied Soil Layers in Shaking table Tests of a Large Scale Laminar Shear Box

To better understand the causes of pile damages during earthquakes such as Hyogoken-Nanbu Earthquake, shaking table tests of soil-pile-structure interaction models were done using a large scale laminar shear box. Because the pile response is affected by both the ground motion and the structure\u27s inertial forces, three models were test & a soil-pile model and two soil-pile-structure models. For the latter models, superstructures with long and short natural periods were tested separately. Through comparisons among the three cases, the influences on the pile response due to the inertial force of the superstructure for the long and short natural periods were clarified and properties of the subgrade reactions in liquefied ground were determined

Profiling ascidian promoters as the primordial type of vertebrate promoter

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CpG islands are observed in mammals and other vertebrates, generally escape DNA methylation, and tend to occur in the promoters of widely expressed genes. Another class of promoter has lower G+C and CpG contents, and is thought to be involved in the spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. Non-vertebrate deuterostomes are reported to have a single class of promoter with high-frequency CpG dinucleotides, suggesting that this is the original type of promoter. However, the limited annotation of these genes has impeded the large-scale analysis of their promoters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To determine the origins of the two classes of vertebrate promoters, we chose <it>Ciona intestinalis</it>, an invertebrate that is evolutionarily close to the vertebrates, and identified its transcription start sites genome-wide using a next-generation sequencer. We indeed observed a high CpG content around the transcription start sites, but their levels in the promoters and background sequences differed much less than in mammals. The CpG-rich stretches were also fairly restricted, so they appeared more similar to mammalian CpG-poor promoters.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>From these data, we infer that CpG islands are not sufficiently ancient to be found in invertebrates. They probably appeared early in vertebrate evolution via some active mechanism and have since been maintained as part of vertebrate promoters.</p

Development of a novel data mining tool to find cis-elements in rice gene promoter regions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Information on more than 35 000 full-length <it>Oryza sativa </it>cDNAs, together with associated microarray gene expression data collected under various treatment conditions, has made it feasible to identify motifs that are conserved in gene promoters and may act as <it>cis</it>-regulatory elements with key roles under the various conditions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a novel tool that searches for <it>cis</it>-element candidates in the upstream, downstream, or coding regions of differentially regulated genes. The tool first lists <it>cis-</it>element candidates by motif searching based on the supposition that if there are <it>cis-</it>elements playing important roles in the regulation of a given set of genes, they will be statistically overrepresented and will be conserved. Then it evaluates the likelihood scores of the listed candidate motifs by association rule analysis. This strategy depends on the idea that motifs overrepresented in the promoter region could play specific roles in the regulation of expression of these genes. The tool is designed so that any biological researchers can use it easily at the publicly accessible Internet site <url>http://hpc.irri.cgiar.org/tool/nias/ces</url>. We evaluated the accuracy and utility of the tool by using a dataset of auxin-inducible genes that have well-studied <it>cis-</it>elements. The test showed the effectiveness of the tool in identifying significant relationships between <it>cis-</it>element candidates and related sets of genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The tool lists possible <it>cis-</it>element motifs corresponding to genes of interest, and it will contribute to the deeper understanding of gene regulatory mechanisms in plants.</p

PAX6 isoforms, along with reprogramming factors, differentially regulate the induction of cornea-specific genes

PAX6 is the key transcription factor involved in eye development in humans, but the differential functions of the two PAX6 isoforms, isoform-a and isoform-b, are largely unknown. To reveal their function in the corneal epithelium, PAX6 isoforms, along with reprogramming factors, were transduced into human non-ocular epithelial cells. Herein, we show that the two PAX6 isoforms differentially and cooperatively regulate the expression of genes specific to the structure and functions of the corneal epithelium, particularly keratin 3 (KRT3) and keratin 12 (KRT12). PAX6 isoform-a induced KRT3 expression by targeting its upstream region. KLF4 enhanced this induction. A combination of PAX6 isoform-b, KLF4 and OCT4 induced KRT12 expression. These new findings will contribute to furthering the understanding of the molecular basis of the corneal epithelium specific phenotype

Exploring the capability of mayenite (12CaO·7Al₂O₃) as hydrogen storage material

We utilized nanoporous mayenite (12CaO·7Al₂O₃), a cost-effective material, in the hydride state (H⁻) to explore the possibility of its use for hydrogen storage and transportation. Hydrogen desorption occurs by a simple reaction of mayenite with water, and the nanocage structure transforms into a calcium aluminate hydrate. This reaction enables easy desorption of H⁻ ions trapped in the structure, which could allow the use of this material in future portable applications. Additionally, this material is 100% recyclable because the cage structure can be recovered by heat treatment after hydrogen desorption. The presence of hydrogen molecules as H⁻ ions was confirmed by ¹H-NMR, gas chromatography, and neutron diffraction analyses. We confirmed the hydrogen state stability inside the mayenite cage by the first-principles calculations to understand the adsorption mechanism and storage capacity and to provide a key for the use of mayenite as a portable hydrogen storage material. Further, we succeeded in introducing H⁻ directly from OH⁻ by a simple process compared with previous studies that used long treatment durations and required careful control of humidity and oxygen gas to form O₂ species before the introduction of H⁻