Evacuation Process of Passengers on Trains in The Great East Japan Earthquake

特集　東日本大震

Research on effective arrangement of guide sign for tsunami evacuation along the railroad

We investigated the installation situation of the tsunami evacuation signs on the railway that were placed around the Kii Peninsula, Japan. The railway of this area has been installed most advanced sign for tsunami evacuation in Japan since 2007. Because these signs are installed for the crew, passengers will not be able to reach the evacuation area on their own. This condition setting means the crew needs long time to guide all passengers. The earthquake that occurs in this area in future will place under the sea near the peninsula, therefore the lead time for tsunami evacuation are not so long. If more passengers are able to evacuate to safe area by their-own, more passengers will become survivors. We conclude two actions are important. One is explicit clarification of evacuation sign, and another is certain indication of nearest evacuation point along the railway.本研究の一部は、関西大学平成23年度東日本大震災からの復興に関する研究助成金において、研究課題「鉄道の津波避難事前計画と緊急対応の検証～東日本大震災から学び南海地震に備える～」として研究費を受け、その成果を公表するものである

Some problems on disaster information of the foreshock sequence in 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

The complex sequence of 2016 Kumamoto earthquake caused some problems on disaster information. The main earthquake occurred on 16 April with the magnitude 7.3. This earthquake involved significant foreshock that occurred 2days ago with M6.5. Because almost all the earthquake had the Mainshock-Aftershock sequence with no foreshock sequence, the government statement about this earthquake had a serious problem for the evacuation. We researched the background of this failed statement.研究ノー

Effects of Tablet Size and Head Posture on Drug Swallowing: A Preliminary Examination Using Endoscopy in Healthy Subjects

Tablet size and head posture have been reported to affect swallowing of medications, but no previous studies have evaluated their effects in detail. Our aim was to investigate for the first time the effect of tablet size and head posture on drug swallowing by endoscopic evaluation in healthy subjects. Round tablets (7 , 10 , 12, and 14 mm in diameter) were swallowed by 15 healthy adults with an endoscope inserted in the neutral, head flex-ion, and head extension positions. Evaluation of swallowing difficulty using a numeric rating scale (NRS), presence or absence of pharyngeal residue and its location, and tablet oral transit time (TOTT) were recorded. In the neutral position, the NRS score was higher with the 14 mm tablets than with the 7 mm tablets. The TOTT with the 7 mm tablets was significantly shorter in the head extension than in the neutral position. Swallowing difficulty increased when the tablet diameter was more than 7 mm. Residues were found in the epi-glottis, pyriform sinus, and tongue base. These findings suggest that head extension shortens the TOTT and assists oral-pharyngeal transport

Role of treatment for solitary pulmonary nodule in breast cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Metastatic pulmonary tumors secondary to breast cancer detected either before or after surgery are predominantly multiple and bilateral. However, in cases detected to have a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN), determining whether the lesion represents a primary cancer, metastasis, or a benign pulmonary lesion can be difficult.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Between January 2000 and December 2009, we performed breast cancer surgery on 1,226 patients, of which 49 cases (3.9%) were detected to have pulmonary lesions before or after the surgery. In 14 of these patients, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was performed to remove a SPN.</p> <p>Result</p> <p>Pathological examination of the resected specimens in these 14 cases revealed metastatic pulmonary tumor in 8 cases, primary lung cancer in 3 cases, and benign disease in 3 cases. While lobectomy was performed in one of these patients with metastatic pulmonary tumor, the remaining 7 underwent partial resection of the lung. The primary lung cancer was an adenocarcinoma in all 3 patients, and lobectomy plus mediastinal lymph node dissection was performed in these patients. The tumor grading based on pathological diagnosis was T1N0M0, p-Stage 1A in all 3 patients. The prognosis was good in the breast cancer patients in whom the metastatic lung tumor was a SPN.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Evaluating the immunohistochemical cytokeratin profile and levels of the TTF-1 and GCDFP-15 of the lesion was useful when distinguishing between pulmonary cancer and metastatic pulmonary tumor. In addition, some patients exhibited changes in the biological properties of the metastatic tumor, and delete tumor resection by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery can be useful for deciding the drug treatment strategy in some cases</p

The design and practical use of a test course to make "disaster prevention rogaining" popular

"Disaster prevention rogaining" is a competition in which people try to gain points through getting around as many disaster prevention spots in an area as possible in a limited time. We created it for the purpose of enabling people to look at a town from the viewpoint of disaster prevention, and giving them an opportunity to take an active part in disaster prevention by making them feel as if they were playing a game. In order to make disaster prevention rogaining popular, making people experience it in a typical course is essential. So we made a test course at Shizuoka campus in Shizuoka University, which is expected to contribute to local communities. We tried the course in three training programs. Here, we will list several requirements for test courses and specify what is important in doing "disaster prevention rogaining" in other areas

Development of the Pictorial Description Method for Disaster Education of the General Citizens

We developed the method of converting the victims\u27 past experiences into the educational materials for the development of disaster-awareness in the society． This method consists of the following 4 steps; 1 conducting semi-structured interviews with victims of past major disasters, 2 reconstructing the episodes to reproduce the image of \u27damage\u27, \u27Victims behavior in the process of life recovery from the disaster\u27, \u27Received support from the community and administration\u27, 3 picturizing these episodes by professional artists, 4 making educational material combining the information about hazard and the extent of damage about the relevant disaster with the pictures of episodes． We applied this method to the 1945 Mikawa Earthquake, Japan, which caused more than 2300 casualties, conducted 20 interviews and produced educational materials including 130 pictures

Examination of Onsite Early Warning Criteria for Intermediate : depth Earthquake

An Earthquake Early Warning System is one of the modern technological methods for mitigating earthquake damage. However, an Earthquake Early Warning System has a problem that the warning cannot be issued onsite before the S-wave arrivals in the area close to the epicenter. To overcome this problem, onsite information is used supplementary. The Onsite Early Warning System has been developed in Taiwan and California where a lot of shallow crustal earthquakes occur. We verified the feasibility in Japan where remarkable intermediate-depth earthquakes occur. Intermediate-depth earthquakes, in general, show the maximum vertical displacement in the first 3 seconds bigger than crustal earthquakes. We devise new criteria for identifying the type of the earthquakes based on the maximum vertical acceleration in the first 3 seconds

Prototype of Educational Diorama for Disaster Preparedness Awareness

We propose a diorama based educational material for disasters preparedness. The two model features the structures of the Japanese highspeed train, Shinkansen. One of which focusing on seismic retrofitting for a railway embankment and the other for a concrete viaduct. Models were constructed in 1:150 scale, a popular model railway scale. A stereolithographic 3D printer and a CNC milling machine were used for making structures and associated objects

Seismic Noise Decline under COVID-19 Crisis Observed at Senriyama Campus, Kansai Univ., Japan

COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread changes in human activity, it also caused the seismic noise level changes all over the world. We analyzed seismograph data installed at Kansai University and detected seismic noise declines that closely matched the activity limits set by the university. It became clear that the high frequency band of 20 Hz or higher reflects the activity of people on campus