Nuclear Power Plant Explosions at Fukushima-Daiichi

AbstractThe Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 generated a series of large tsunami waves. The tsunami waves reached area deep within the units at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The station blackout and loss of all instrumentation and control systems at reactor 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused the loss of control and cooling means of three reactor units that were operational up to the time of the earthquake. These three reactor cores were heated up due to reactor decay heating. Severe damage of the fuel and a series of explosions occurred. The explosions of unit 1 and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been investigated using image processing. The explosion of unit 1 is a typical gas explosion with the following steam release from the reactor container vessel. It seems that the destruction of the reactor building of unit 3 initiated by the major leakage from the reactor container vessel or gas explosion and following massive release of internal fluid accelerated the structural destruction. The ejected flammable gas burned as a counter flow flame on the roof of the reactor building of unit 3

Inclusive Education is Power: Revising Sexual Health Education for People with Disabilities

For people with disabilities in the United States, comprehensive sexual health education is not always available. There are a number of reasons for the lack of comprehensive sexual health education, including excessive censorship and curriculum that is not representative of people with disabilities. Sexual health education and disability are both topics that have several preconceived notions attached to them, yet there is a dearth in resources that could provide accurate information to those both with and without disabilities. These preconceived notions that have been associated with these identity labels lead to negative health outcomes for people with disabilities such as increased reports of abuse and higher rates of female sterilization. Without a revision of the way the U.S. currently addressed sexual health education, people with disabilities will continue to suffer these consequences at higher rates than their non-disabled counterparts. This paper will discuss how comprehensive sexual health education for people with disabilities is lacking and provide recommendations as to how this gap in education can be remedied. Teaching people through comprehensive sexual health education allows people to advocate for their personal health with an informed mindset, regardless of ability status

Cyclic Torsional Shear Tests to Obtain Dynamic Soil Properties for Seismic Design of Road Embankments

Many road embankments have suffered damage during past earthquakes. The authors took soil samples from several embankments and conducted laboratory tests to demonstrate the mechanism of the damages and study appropriate seismic design methods. In the laboratory tests, cyclic torsional shear tests were carried out to obtain undrained cyclic strength, excess pore water pressure and shear modulus after cyclic loading of embankment soils. Test results showed a unique relationship between Plasticity Index and undrained cyclic strength is existed. Relationship between excess pore water pressure ratio and safety factor against liquefaction is also influenced by Plasticity Index. Then appropriate seismic design methods by applying these test results are discussed

Value of MR neurography for evaluating extraspinal neuropathic leg pain: a pictorial essay

Journal ArticleSummary: Fifteen patients with neuropathic leg pain referable to the lumbosacral plexus or sciatic nerve underwent high-resolution MR neurography. Thirteen of the patients also underwent routine MR imaging of the lumbar segments of the spinal cord before undergoing MR neurography. Using phased-array surface coils, we performed MR neurography with T1-weighted spin-echo and fat-saturated T2-weighted fast spin-echo or fast spin-echo inversion recovery sequences, which included coronal, oblique sagittal, and/or axial views. The lumbosacral plexus and/or sciatic nerve were identified using anatomic location, fascicular morphology, and signal intensity as discriminatory criteria. None of the routine MR imaging studies of the lumbar segments of the spinal cord established the cause of the reported symptoms. Conversely, MR neurography showed a causal abnormality accounting for the clinical findings in all 15 cases. Detected anatomic abnormalities included fibrous entrapment, muscular entrapment, vascular compression, posttraumatic injury, ischemic neuropathy, neoplastic infiltration, granulomatous infiltration, neural sheath tumor, postradiation scar tissue, and hypertrophic neuropathy

0.5U CubeSat Form Factor Pressurized Module Development for On-Orbit Biological Experiment

National research institutes are exploring the Moon and Mars and studying the space environment near Earth. ISS (International Space Station) is scheduled to end its operation in 2030, and it is said that experiments using the space environment, such as biological-missions conducted on ISS, may not be able to be carried out after 2030. Teikyo University aims to propose new space experiment platforms with two different mass-class space systems; “Micro-ISS” (50kg-class microsatellite) and “Nano-ISS” (1U ~ 6U CubeSat)

Magnetic resonance neurography for cervical radiculopathy: a preliminary report

Journal ArticleMAGNETIC RESONANCE NEUROGRAPHY was used to directly image cervical spinal nerves in patients with clinical and radiographic evidence of cervical radiculopathy. A magnetic resonance imaging phased-array coil system was used to obtain high-resolution coronal T1-weighted spin echo, coronal/axial T2-weighted fast spin echo with fat saturation, and coronal/axial fast short tau inversion recovery weighted images of the cervical spine and spinal nerves. Three patients with neck and upper extremity pain and one asymptomatic volunteer were studied. The T2-weighted and the fast short tau inversion recovery images demonstrated markedly increased signal in the proximal portion of the affected spinal nerves. In two patients, contrast-to-noise measurements of the affected spinal nerves showed a markedly increased intensity compared with that of the noninvolved spinal nerves. Our findings demonstrate that phased-array coils used in conjunction with magnetic resonance neurography sequences can detect signal abnormalities within compressed cervical spinal nerves in patients with corresponding radicular symptoms and findings. This technique may prove to be helpful in evaluating patients with multilevel disc and/or spondylotic disease of the cervical spine

Determination of Pinning Parameters in Flux Creep-Flow Model for E-J characteristics of High Temperature Superconductors by using Differential Evolution

The pinning parameters such as strength of pinning force, temperature dependence of pinning force and so on using in flux creep-flow model to explain electric field vs current density (E-J) characteristics were determined by Differential Evolution (DE). DE is one of the methods in Evolutionary Computation (EC) to find an optimization of a problem. First, a model data of E-J characteristics in which the pinning parameters were given was prepared, and it was confirmed that DE can find the given pinning parameters from the model data. Then, DE and mesh method were used to determine the pinning parameters in experimental E-J characteristics of GdBa2CuO7-δ high temperature superconductor. In mesh method, the all combinations of pinning parameters with constant interval for each parameter are calculated, and best set of pinning parameters is selected. It was found that DE shows better performance than mesh method in terms of calculation time and accuracy for determining pinning parameters

Coiled Coils Direct Assembly of a Cold-Activated TRP Channel

SummaryTransient receptor potential (TRP) channels mediate numerous sensory transduction processes and are thought to function as tetramers. TRP channel physiology is well studied; however, comparatively little is understood regarding TRP channel assembly. Here, we identify an autonomously folded assembly domain from the cold- and menthol-gated channel TRPM8. We show that the TRPM8 cytoplasmic C-terminal domain contains a coiled coil that is necessary for channel assembly and sufficient for tetramer formation. Cell biological experiments indicate that coiled-coil formation is required for proper channel maturation and trafficking and that the coiled-coil domain alone can act as a dominant-negative inhibitor of functional channel expression. Our data define an authentic TRP modular assembly domain, establish a clear role for coiled coils in ion channel assembly, demonstrate that coiled-coil assembly domains are a general feature of TRPM channels, and delineate a new tool that should be of general use in dissecting TRPM channel function

Expression transmission using exaggerated animation for Elfoid

We propose an expression transmission system using a cellular-phone-type teleoperated robot called Elfoid. Elfoid has a soft exterior that provides the look and feel of human skin, and is designed to transmit the speaker's presence to their communication partner using a camera and microphone.To transmit the speaker's presence, Elfoid sends not only the voice of the speaker but also the facial expression captured by the camera. In this research, facial expressions are recognized using a machine learning technique. Elfoid cannot, however, display facial expressions because of its compactness and a lack of sufficiently small actuator motors. To overcome this problem, facial expressions are displayed using Elfoid's head-mounted mobile projector. In an experiment, we built a prototype system and experimentally evaluated its subjective usability