Graphene energy loss spectroscopy: Perpendicular case

AbstractThe energy loss of a fast charged particle probe incident on a two-dimensional graphene sheet is examined here. The fast particle motion is taken to be perpendicular to the 2D graphene sheet, which is considered to be in the degenerate limit of zero temperature. The response dynamics of the 2D graphene layer are described in the random phase approximation and the energy loss for particle motion perpendicular to the 2D graphene layer is calculated as a function of the velocity of the charged particle

Influence of longitudinal structural connectivity on seismic performance of three-hinged precast arch culverts

The hinge type of precast concrete arch culvert was introduced to Japan from France in the 1990s in consideration of the saving of labor, shortening of the construction period, and high quality control of the concrete members. However, due to the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake (March 11, 2011), the three-hinged precast arch culverts that had been constructed in Japan at the beginning of the period when precast arch culverts were firstly introduced, suffered damage, which spoiled their serviceability. According to the extent of the damage and the type of culverts that were damaged, the longitudinal structural connectivity of the culverts was assumed to be one of the possible reasons for the reported damage mechanism. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to clarify how strongly the longitudinal structural connectivity influenced the longitudinal seismic behavior of the three-hinged arch culverts. To achieve this objective, an elasto-plastic finite element analysis was conducted with an analytical model that could capture the characteristics of the damaged culverts. Simultaneously, a penalty method with the bi-linear spring model was applied as a solution to the contact-impact problems of the precast segmental arch members. As a result, it was found that the weaker longitudinal structural connectivity in the damaged culverts allowed the torsional displacements of the arch members to induce critical damage to the arch members, namely, edge defects in the arch crown and concrete foundation. The numerical results proved the unignorable influence of the longitudinal structural connection on the possible damage to three-hinged arch culverts

Experimental investigation of bearing mechanism of closed- and open-ended piles supported by thin bearing layer using X-ray micro CT

In order to clarify the bearing mechanism of closed-ended and open-ended piles supported by a thin bearing layer, pile-loading tests are conducted on model grounds with different bearing layer thicknesses, and the soil deformation characteristics around the pile tips are observed by X-ray micro CT. In the case of open-ended piles supported by a thin bearing layer, the soil in the pile greatly displaces following the downward displacement of the soil located more deeply than the pile tip, and the soil density in the pile becomes lower than when the bearing layer thickness is sufficiently large. These characteristics probably cause lower inner friction and lower base resistance, resulting in a lower bearing capacity. When the bearing layer thickness is more than three times the pile diameter, the bearing capacity is much higher than when the bearing layer thickness is the same as the pile diameter. In addition, soil deformation which occurs is almost entirely in the bearing layer, and the changes in bearing capacity are hardly affected by the soft layer below the bearing layer. The experimental findings obtained in the present study support the idea that the criterion for the bearing layer thickness, where the influence of a thin bearing layer on the bearing capacity can be ignored, is three times the pile diameter, regardless of whether the pile tip is open or closed

Numerical investigation on arching effect surrounding deep cylindrical shaft during excavation process

Predicting the inner displacements of deep vertical shafts during the excavation process has been a difficult task considering the geological, structural, and constructional influences. In fact, the two-dimensional (2D) analytical solution based on the retaining wall model remains insufficient for understanding the actual behavior during an excavation. This is because the deformation of vertical shafts becomes complicated due to the unexpected arching effect brought about by the three-dimensional (3D) flexible displacements occurring in the excavation process. Previous analytical solutions only considered the limit equilibrium. Therefore, the present study deals with a 3D soil-structure simulation by considering the displacements of a cylindrical shaft and the mechanical behavior of the surrounding soil as well as the geometry of the cylindrical structure. Moreover, this mechanical behaviors of the surrounding soil and shaft are controlled by the shaft stiffness; hence, the relationships among the shaft stiffness, mechanical behavior of the surrounding soil (in terms of earth pressure coefficient), and shaft displacement were investigated. A cylindrical model, 120 m in depth and 20 m in diameter, was positioned at the center of a sand domain, and each excavation step was performed at an interval depth of 20 m. A 3D finite difference method analysis was applied using the modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model to represent the soil behavior. As a result, the present study provides a new normalized lateral earth pressure theory for excavated shafts by considering the 3D arching effect obtained from parametric studies using various levels of shaft stiffness. From a comparison with the analytical solutions of previous studies (Terzaghi, 1943a; Prater, 1977; Cheng & Hu, 2005), it is found that the previous studies underestimated the earth pressure acting on the cylindrical shaft because they did not consider the accurate arching effect

Deformation behavior and acting earth pressure of three-hinge precast arch culvert in construction process

The three-hinge precast arch culvert consists of two segmental precast units and three hinge points. It harnesses the passive resistance of an embankment by permitting deflection, resulting in a mechanically stable structure. However, the design of the three-hinge precast arch culvert differs from that of a conventional culvert, prompting the mechanical behavior of the culvert to become an important issue. In this study, therefore, 1/5 scale model tests were conducted on a three-hinge precast arch culvert to measure the changes in the inside width and earth pressure acting on the culvert at each step in order to investigate the culvert’s mechanical behavior at each construction stage. Moreover, the deflection measurement of the culvert was obtained at the in-situ construction site. The results indicate that the arch members were displaced according to the embankment depth in a similar manner to the design load. Therefore, the horizontal earth pressure, which was larger than the earth pressure at rest, acted on the culvert at the end of its construction

Seismic performance of group pile foundation with ground improvement during liquefaction

A pile foundation with ground improvement under the footing is a composite foundation with the objectives of enhancing the seismic performance and rationalizing the substructure by combining the pile foundation with ground improvement. Although the effectiveness of this method has been confirmed in previous studies for application to soft grounds, the applicability of this method to liquefiable grounds has yet to be fully investigated. In this study, therefore, centrifuge model tests and finite element analyses were conducted to clarify the effectiveness of this method and to ascertain the improvement in strength (stiffness) when the method is applied to a liquefiable ground. Firstly, in order to investigate the effect of an improved ground on the behavior of the pile foundation during liquefaction, dynamic centrifuge model tests were conducted for three cases with different strengths of the improved ground. Then, three-dimensional soil–water coupled finite element analyses of the centrifuge model experiments were performed to validate the applicability of the analytical method. After that, parametric studies, in which the strength of the improved ground and the input ground motion were changed, were conducted using the same analytical model. The results confirmed that the horizontal displacement of the pile heads was reduced by the improved ground even in the liquefiable ground, and that the effect of this reduction was more remarkable in cases of high stiffness of the improved ground. Furthermore, it was possible to reduce the bending moments at the pile heads by applying the ground improvement. However, since the bending moment at the boundary between the improved ground and the natural ground became the local maximum, there was an optimum stiffness of the ground improvement at which the maximum bending moment of the piles was reduced. This is because improving the ground around the pile heads has the same effect as extending the footing. It was thus concluded that the behavior of the pile foundation is similar to that of a composite foundation comprised of a caisson and group piles

Cellular analysis of SOD1 protein-aggregation propensity and toxicity: a case of ALS with slow progression harboring homozygous SOD1-D92G mutation

Mutations within Superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), accounting for approximately 20% of familial cases. The pathological feature is a loss of motor neurons with enhanced formation of intracellular misfolded SOD1. Homozygous SOD1-D90A in familial ALS has been reported to show slow disease progression. Here, we reported a rare case of a slowly progressive ALS patient harboring a novel SOD1 homozygous mutation D92G (homD92G). The neuronal cell line overexpressing SOD1-D92G showed a lower ratio of the insoluble/soluble fraction of SOD1 with fine aggregates of the misfolded SOD1 and lower cellular toxicity than those overexpressing SOD1-G93A, a mutation that generally causes rapid disease progression. Next, we analyzed spinal motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) of a healthy control subject and ALS patients carrying SOD1-homD92G or heterozygous SOD1-L144FVX mutation. Lower levels of misfolded SOD1 and cell loss were observed in the motor neurons differentiated from patient-derived iPSCs carrying SOD1-homD92G than in those carrying SOD1-L144FVX. Taken together, SOD1-homD92G has a lower propensity to aggregate and induce cellular toxicity than SOD1-G93A or SOD1-L144FVX, and these cellular phenotypes could be associated with the clinical course of slowly progressive ALS

Ganglioside metabolism in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease: expression of Chol-1α antigens in the brain

The accumulation of Aβ (amyloid β-protein) is one of the major pathological hallmarks in AD (Alzheimer's disease). Gangliosides, sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids enriched in the nervous system and frequently used as biomarkers associated with the biochemical pathology of neurological disorders, have been suggested to be involved in the initial aggregation of Aβ. In the present study, we have examined ganglioside metabolism in the brain of a double-Tg (transgenic) mouse model of AD that co-expresses mouse/human chimaeric APP (amyloid precursor protein) with the Swedish mutation and human presenilin-1 with a deletion of exon 9. Although accumulation of Aβ was confirmed in the double-Tg mouse brains and sera, no statistically significant change was detected in the concentration and composition of major ganglio-N-tetraosyl-series gangliosides in the double-Tg brain. Most interestingly, Chol-1α antigens (cholinergic neuron-specific gangliosides), such as GT1aα and GQ1bα, which are minor species in the brain, were found to be increased in the double-Tg mouse brain. We interpret that the occurrence of these gangliosides may represent evidence for generation of cholinergic neurons in the AD brain, as a result of compensatory neurogenesis activated by the presence of Aβ

Nationwide surveillance of bacterial respiratory pathogens conducted by the surveillance committee of Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010: General view of the pathogens\u27 antibacterial susceptibility

The nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from patients in Japan, was conducted by Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010.The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period from January and April 2010 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institutes using maximum 45 antibacterial agents.Susceptibility testing was evaluable with 954 strains (206 Staphylococcus aureus, 189 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 Streptococcus pyogenes, 182 Haemophilus influenzae, 74 Moraxella catarrhalis, 139 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 160 Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Ratio of methicillin-resistant S.aureus was as high as 50.5%, and those of penicillin-intermediate and -resistant S.pneumoniae were 1.1% and 0.0%, respectively. Among H.influenzae, 17.6% of them were found to be β-lactamase-non-producing ampicillin (ABPC)-intermediately resistant, 33.5% to be β-lactamase-non-producing ABPC-resistant and 11.0% to be β-lactamase-producing ABPC-resistant strains. Extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing K.pneumoniae and multi-drug resistant P.aeruginosa with metallo β-lactamase were 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively.Continuous national surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of respiratory pathogens is crucial in order to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis