Case History of Soil Improvement for a Large-Scale Land Reclamation

In recent years, land reclamation works have been extensively implemented along the coastal lines for a variety of purposes. This paper relates to the case history of a land reclamation project for a steel mill complex construction in Korea. Site improvement techniques used in this project include construction of sand drains and preloading. Construction procedures of sand drains are described as well as staged loading process along with field observations. Field measurement of settlement and theoretically estimated values are compared. The results of standard penetration tests and unconfined compression tests at various depths of soil, and time intervals are presented. Finally, the methods of construction quality assurance are discussed

Case History of Soil Improvement for a Large-Scale Land Reclamation

In recent years, land reclamation works have been extensively implemented along the coastal lines for a variety of purposes. This paper relates to the case history of a land reclamation project for a steel mill complex construction in Korea. Site improvement techniques used in this project include construction of sand drains and pre loading. Construction procedures of sand drains are described as well as staged loading process along with field observations. Field measurement of settlement and theoretically estimated values are compared. The results of standard penetration tests and unconfined compression tests at various depths of soil, and time intervals are presented. Finally, the methods of construction quality assurance are discussed

Dynamic Loading Induced Settlement of Strip Foundation on Geogrid-Reinforced Clay

Laboratory model tests to determine the load. The variation of the maximum permanent supported by geogrid-reinforced saturated clay and subjected to a low-frequency cyclic load are presented. In conducting the test, the foundation was initially subjected to an allowable static load. The cyclic load was then super-imposed over the static permanent settlement of a surface strip foundation settlement with the intensity of the static load and the intensity of the amplitude of the cyclic load are also presented

Short-term Improvements for SEPTA\u27s Regional Rail System

SEPTA has made significant improvements on its Regional Rail System since its takeover from Conrail some 10 years ago. This system now offers highly reliable service; stations are clean, many have obtained improved platforms, signs and other equipment; Trailpasses are used extensively. Yet, the ridership is low relative to the excellent coverage the network provides, and it has had a predominantly declining trend. Moreover, financial results are unsatisfactory: the Regional Rail Division\u27s operating ratio is considerably lower than the other SEPTA divisions\u27 ratios. There is a serious danger that the system will continue along a spiral of increasing fares and/or service cuts - decreasing ridership - reduced revenues - further fare increases and/or service cuts. The reasons for this upsetting trend are many. At the time of system\u27s takeover, SEPTA discontinued many atavistic railroad practices, such as paying an extra day\u27s wage when the crew uncouples cars for the second time in one day, heavy payments for any extra work of the crew (bringing a seat into the car, etc.). Yet, the basic problem is that the system still has an inherently obsolete structure as well as many operating practices of old-fashioned commuter railroads : very slow station boarding due to low platforms and poor car design, obsolete manual fare collection, highly labor-intensive operation and the resulting long headways, restrictive FRA rules, etc. All of these factors make the service less competitive with the private automobile, as well as inefficient in operation. A plan for permanent upgrading of the Regional Rail System, entitled A Plan for SEPTA\u27s Metrorail System was presented by this team to SEPTA in May 1993. There are, however, a number of non-capital modernizations and improvements which can be introduced in the short term, and which would have a significant impact on stopping, possibly reversing, the above-mentioned downward spiral of the Regional Rail System. A number of such improvements are presented and explained in this report

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 post-transcriptionally regulates Drp1 expression in neuroblastoma cells.

Excessive mitochondrial fission is associated with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) possesses specific fission activity in the mitochondria and peroxisomes. Various post-translational modifications of Drp1 are known to modulate complex mitochondrial dynamics. However, the post-transcriptional regulation of Drp1 remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (hnRNP A1) regulates Drp1 expression at the post-transcriptional level. hnRNP A1 directly interacts with Drp1 mRNA at its 3'UTR region, and enhances translation potential without affecting mRNA stability. Down-regulation of hnRNP A1 induces mitochondrial elongation by reducing Drp1 expression. Moreover, depletion of hnRNP A1 suppresses 3-NP-mediated mitochondrial fission and dysfunction. In contrast, over-expression of hnRNP A1 promotes mitochondrial fragmentation by increasing Drp1 expression. Additionally, hnRNP A1 significantly exacerbates 3-NP-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in neuroblastoma cells. Interestingly, treatment with 3-NP induces subcellular translocation of hnRNP A1 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, which accelerates the increase in Drp1 expression in hnRNP A1 over-expressing cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that hnRNP A1 controls mitochondrial dynamics by post-transcriptional regulation of Drp1.This research was supported by a grant of the Korea–UK Collaborative Alzheimer's Disease Research Project by Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (A120196, HI14C1913) and was supported by the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation, Republic of Korea (2014R1A2A1A11053431). We are grateful to Wellcome Trust, Principal Research Fellowship to DCR (095317/Z/11/Z)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2015.10.01

Physiological properties of astroglial cell lines derived from mice with high (SAMP8) and low (SAMR1, ICR) levels of endogenous retrovirus

Previous studies have reported that various inbred SAM mouse strains differ markedly with regard to a variety of parameters, such as capacity for learning and memory, life spans and brain histopathology. A potential cause of differences seen in these strains may be based on the fact that some strains have a high concentration of infectious murine leukemia virus (MuLV) in the brain, whereas other strains have little or no virus. To elucidate the effect of a higher titer of endogenous retrovirus in astroglial cells of the brain, we established astroglial cell lines from SAMR1 and SAMP8 mice, which are, respectively, resistant and prone to deficit in learning and memory and shortened life span. MuLV-negative astroglial cell lines established from ICR mice served as controls. Comparison of these cell lines showed differences in: 1) levels of the capsid antigen CAgag in both cell lysates and culture media, 2) expression of genomic retroelements, 3) the number of virus particles, 4) titer of infectious virus, 5) morphology, 6) replication rate of cells in culture and final cell concentrations, 7) expression pattern of proinflammatory cytokine genes. The results show that the expression of MuLV is much higher in SAMP8 than SAMR1 astrocyte cultures and that there are physiological differences in astroglia from the 2 strains. These results raise the possibility that the distinct physiological differences between SAMP8 and SAMR1 are a function of activation of endogenous retrovirus

Automatic segmentation of multiple cardiovascular structures from cardiac computed tomography angiography images using deep learning.

OBJECTIVES:To develop, demonstrate and evaluate an automated deep learning method for multiple cardiovascular structure segmentation. BACKGROUND:Segmentation of cardiovascular images is resource-intensive. We design an automated deep learning method for the segmentation of multiple structures from Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) images. METHODS:Images from a multicenter registry of patients that underwent clinically-indicated CCTA were used. The proximal ascending and descending aorta (PAA, DA), superior and inferior vena cavae (SVC, IVC), pulmonary artery (PA), coronary sinus (CS), right ventricular wall (RVW) and left atrial wall (LAW) were annotated as ground truth. The U-net-derived deep learning model was trained, validated and tested in a 70:20:10 split. RESULTS:The dataset comprised 206 patients, with 5.130 billion pixels. Mean age was 59.9 ± 9.4 yrs., and was 42.7% female. An overall median Dice score of 0.820 (0.782, 0.843) was achieved. Median Dice scores for PAA, DA, SVC, IVC, PA, CS, RVW and LAW were 0.969 (0.979, 0.988), 0.953 (0.955, 0.983), 0.937 (0.934, 0.965), 0.903 (0.897, 0.948), 0.775 (0.724, 0.925), 0.720 (0.642, 0.809), 0.685 (0.631, 0.761) and 0.625 (0.596, 0.749) respectively. Apart from the CS, there were no significant differences in performance between sexes or age groups. CONCLUSIONS:An automated deep learning model demonstrated segmentation of multiple cardiovascular structures from CCTA images with reasonable overall accuracy when evaluated on a pixel level

Sclerostin neutralization unleashes the osteoanabolic effects of Dkk1 inhibition

The WNT pathway has become an attractive target for skeletal therapies. High-bone-mass phenotypes in patients with loss-of-function mutations in the LRP5/6 inhibitor Sost (sclerosteosis), or in its downstream enhancer region (van Buchem disease), highlight the utility of targeting Sost/sclerostin to improve bone properties. Sclerostin-neutralizing antibody is highly osteoanabolic in animal models and in human clinical trials, but antibody-based inhibition of another potent LRP5/6 antagonist, Dkk1, is largely inefficacious for building bone in the unperturbed adult skeleton. Here, we show that conditional deletion of Dkk1 from bone also has negligible effects on bone mass. Dkk1 inhibition increases Sost expression, suggesting a potential compensatory mechanism that might explain why Dkk1 suppression lacks anabolic action. To test this concept, we deleted Sost from osteocytes in, or administered sclerostin neutralizing antibody to, mice with a Dkk1-deficient skeleton. A robust anabolic response to Dkk1 deletion was manifest only when Sost/sclerostin was impaired. Whole-body DXA scans, μCT measurements of the femur and spine, histomorphometric measures of femoral bone formation rates, and biomechanical properties of whole bones confirmed the anabolic potential of Dkk1 inhibition in the absence of sclerostin. Further, combined administration of sclerostin and Dkk1 antibody in WT mice produced a synergistic effect on bone gain that greatly exceeded individual or additive effects of the therapies, confirming the therapeutic potential of inhibiting multiple WNT antagonists for skeletal health. In conclusion, the osteoanabolic effects of Dkk1 inhibition can be realized if sclerostin upregulation is prevented. Anabolic therapies for patients with low bone mass might benefit from a strategy that accounts for the compensatory milieu of WNT inhibitors in bone tissue