The damage to hillside embankments in Sendai city during The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

AbstractThe 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake resulted in severe damage to housing and housing lots. In particular, the hillside embankments for residential use surrounding the downtown of Sendai city suffered serious damage. Many hillside lands which had been damaged during the 1978 off Miyagi-Prefecture earthquake were subjected to further damage. Typical damaged hillside embankments in Sendai city were investigated and the causes of the damage were discussed in this paper. The main cause of the damage to housing was not the seismic motion but the ground displacement of the fill embankment. A comparison of the damage from the 2011 earthquake with that from the 1978 earthquake indicates that the countermeasures constructed after the 1978 earthquake performed well in that they prevented large landslide type failure; however, they were not successful in reducing the amount of damage to housing or housing lots due to ground displacements from cracks, differential settlement, and shallow slips. A classification of failure types of fill embankment is proposed to be of assistance in the choice of countermeasures

The Specific Heat of Copper Alloys Containing Small Amounts of Iron

The specific heat of copper alloys containing small amounts of iron (0.3 to 3.5 at. % of iron) was measured under various heat treatment conditions at liquid helium temperatures. The excess specific heat of copper-iron alloys in solid solution was observed and it would be due to a magnetic origin. It is tried to explain the specific heat by the Marshall-Klein theory based on s-d interactions and the Ising model. The specific heat of copper alloys containing γ-iron precipitates involves a temperature independent contribution from the superparamagnetic character of γ-iron precipitates

Identification of the nuclear export signal in the helix–loop–helix inhibitor Id1

AbstractId proteins play important roles in cellular differentiation and proliferation by negatively regulating basic helix–loop–helix transcription factors. Although their intracellular localization may change depending on the biological situation, little is known about the molecular determinants underlying such changes. Here we report the identification of a nuclear export signal (NES) in Id1. The identified NES was different from that of Id2, but had the ability to confine heterologous green fluorescent protein to the cytoplasm. Thus, our results indicate that the intracellular localization of Id1 is regulated differently from that of Id2

Experimental gold nephropathy in guinea pigs: Detection of autoantibodies to renal tubular antigens

Experimental gold nephropathy in guinea pigs: Detection of autoantibodies to renal tubular antigens. Renal tubular dysfunction was induced in Hartley guinea pigs by injection of sodium aurothiomalate (gold) as manifested by excretion of tubular basement membrane (TBM) antigen and renal tubular epithelial (RTE) antigen in urine and tubular proteinuria. Following the tubular dysfunction, autoimmune tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN) and/or immune complex nephropathy (ICN) developed in a large proportion of animals. TIN was associated with anti-TBM antibodies, and the histological features were characterized by tubular lesions with interstitial mononuclear cell infiltration, destruction of tubules, and interstitial fibrosis. In ICN, the glomerular lesions consisted of partial thickening of capillary walls and mesangial cellularity, and granular immune deposits were seen in the mesangial area and on capillary walls. Furthermore, electron-dense deposits were demonstrated in the mesangial area and in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) by electron microscopy. Anti-RTE antibodies were detected in the sera and eluates from the kidney of animals with ICN. RTE antigens were also detected in the glomerular deposits by indirect immunofluorescence using anti-guinea pig RTE antibody. These results suggest that TBM and RTE antigens released from renal tubules damaged by a direct toxic action of gold may lead to antibody formation against these antigens and induce TIN and/or ICN

Roles of outer capsid proteins as determinants of pathogenicity and host range restriction of avian rotaviruses in a suckling mouse model

AbstractWe previously demonstrated that a pigeon rotavirus, PO-13, but not turkey strains Ty-3 and Ty-1 and a chicken strain, Ch-1, induced diarrhea in heterologous suckling mice. In this study, it was suggested that these avirulent strains, but not PO-13, were inactivated immediately in gastrointestinal tracts of suckling mice when they were orally inoculated. To determine which viral proteins contribute to the differences between the pathogenicitiy and the inactivation of PO-13 and Ty-3 in suckling mice, six PO-13 × Ty-3 reassortant strains that had the genes of the outer capsid proteins, VP4 and VP7, derived from the opposite strain were prepared and were orally inoculated to suckling mice. A single strain that had both PO-13 VP4 and VP7 with the genetic background of Ty-3 had an intermediate virulence for suckling mice. Three strains with Ty-3 VP7, regardless of the origin of VP4, rapidly disappeared from gastrointestinal tracts of suckling mice. These results indicated that the difference between the pathogenicity of PO-13 and that of Ty-3 was mainly dependent on both their VP4 and VP7. In particular, VP7 was found to be related to the inactivation of Ty-3 in gastrointestinal tracts of suckling mice

Surgical treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic mural and floating thrombi extending to infrarenal aorta

AbstractThe case of a 49-year-old man with thoracoabdominal aortic mural and floating thrombi extending to the infrarenal aorta and occlusion of the common iliac artery is described. He had no factors promoting thrombosis, with a history of thrombectomy of the femoral artery. The thoracoabdominal aortic thrombi were successfully removed with a Forgaty catheter through a thoracotomy under simple aortic clamping and subsequent femoro-femoral cardiopulmonary bypass. Intravascular ultrasound performed through the femoral artery after thrombectomy revealed that little mural thrombi remained and that the celiac, superior mesenteric, and bilateral renal arteries were all patent