Efficient Installation of Gravel Drains

The gravel drain system aims to avert liquefaction in a sandy soil by quickly dissipating excess pore water pressure. We have developed a compaction-rod type machine which allows efficient construction of gravel drains. Main attributes of this machine are: (1) extremely fast installation of gravel drains, (2) low noise, (3) low level of vibration, (4) virtually no ground deformation during construction, and (5) densification of the surrounding soil. Large-scale model tests demonstrated that a cone-type compaction rod is most effective in densifying the surrounding soil when installing gravel drains with our machine

Visualizing an Execution Trace as a Compact Sequence Diagram Using Dominance Algorithms

Visualizing an execution trace of an object-oriented system as sequence diagrams is effective to understand the behavior of the system. However, sequence diagrams extracted from an execution trace are too large for developers to inspect since a trace involves a large number of objects and method calls. To support developers to understand extracted sequence diagrams, it is necessary to remove the less important details of the diagrams. In this paper, we apply a dominance algorithm to a dynamic call graph among objects in order to detect and remove local objects contributing to internal behavior of dominator objects. The case study shows our approach automatically removed about 40 percent of the objects from execution traces on average.4th International Workshop on Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis(PCODA'08)co-located with the 15th International Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE’08)October 16th, 2008 – Antwerp, BelgiumAndy Zaidman, Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, Orla Greevy, David Röthlisberger(editors)刊行年月日は会議開催日を参考にし

A New Find of a Prboscidean Fossil from Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan

Article信州大学理学部紀要 6(1): 37-44(1971)departmental bulletin pape

Effect of Impeller Agitation on Preparation of Tetra- n

The slurries-containing tetra-n-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) solution and its semiclathrate hydrate have attracted a lot of interest as latent heat transport media. These hydrate slurries contain some microparticles of crystal, and the size and shape of these hydrate particles could affect the mobility of slurries. Hence, it is essential to investigate the efficient hydrate-slurry preparation methods and the effect of hydrate particles on the fluid property of slurries for the application to latent heat transport media. In the present study, the effect of agitation on particle size distribution and aggregation of particles was studied to prepare easily flowing TBAB hydrate slurries that were suitable for fluid transport. First of all, the effects of impeller rotational speed and impeller type on the particle size and frequency of aggregation were investigated. The results suggested that the particle size distribution and the frequency of particle aggregation are strongly affected by the intensity of shear rate and its uniformity, which was controllable with impeller type and its rotation speed

Tazobactam/piperacillin for moderate-to-severe pneumonia in patients with risk for aspiration: comparison with imipenem/cilastatin.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of aspiration pneumonia is becoming an important issue due to aging of populations worldwide. Effectiveness of tazobactam/piperacillin (TAZ/PIPC) in aspiration pneumonia is not clear. PURPOSE: To compare clinical efficacy between TAZ/PIPC (1:4 compound) and imipenem/cilastatin (IPM/CS) in patients with moderate-to-severe aspiration pneumonia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this open-label, randomized study either TAZ/PIPC 5 g or IPM/CS 1 g was intravenously administered every 12 h to patients with moderate-to-severe community-acquired aspiration pneumonia or nursing home-acquired pneumonia with risk for aspiration pneumonia for average 11 days. The primary outcome was clinical response rate at the end of treatment (EOT) in validated per-protocol (VPP) population. Secondary outcomes were clinical response during treatment (days 4 and 7) and at the end of study (EOS) in VPP population, and survival at day 30 in modified intention-to-treat (MITT) population. RESULTS: There was no difference between the groups in primary or secondary outcome. However, significantly faster improvement as measured by axillary temperature (p < 0.05) and WBC count (p = 0.01) was observed under TAZ/PIPC treatment. In patients with gram-positive bacterial infection, TAZ/PIPC was more effective at EOT in VPP population (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: TAZ/PIPC is as effective and safe as IPM/CS in the treatment of moderate- to-severe aspiration pneumonia

Protein C activity as a potential prognostic factor for nursing home-acquired pneumonia

[Introduction] Despite the poor prognosis for nursing home acquired pneumonia (NHAP), a useful prognostic factor is lacking. We evaluated protein C (PC) activity as a predictor of in-hospital death in patients with NHAP and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). [Methods] This prospective, observational study included all patients hospitalized with pneumonia between July 2007 and December 2012 in a single hospital. We measured PC activity at admission and investigated whether it was different between survivors and non-survivors. We also examined whether PC activity 20 mg/dL, respiratory rate >30/min, and blood pressure 65). When it was a useful prognostic factor for pneumonia, we combined PC activity with the existing prognostic scores, the pneumonia severity index (PSI) and CURB-65, and analyzed its additional effect by comparing the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of the modified and original scores. [Results] Participants comprised 75 NHAP and 315 CAP patients. PC activity was lower among non-survivors than among survivors in NHAP and all-pneumonia (CAP+NHAP). PC activity <55% was a useful prognostic predictor for NHAP (Odds ratio 7.39 (95% CI; 1.59–34.38), and when PSI or CURB-65 was combined with PC activity, the AUC improved (from 0.712 to 0.820 for PSI, and 0.657 to 0.734 for CURB-65). [Conclusions] PC activity was useful for predicting in-hospital death of pneumonia, especially in NHAP, and became more useful when combined with the PSI or CURB-65

喫煙は小胞体ストレスを惹起し、RhoAの活性化を介してefferocytosisを抑制する

長崎大学学位論文 [学位記番号]博（医歯薬）甲第1295号 [学位授与年月日]令和2年12月2

Dopamine D_1 Receptors and Nonlinear Probability Weighting in Risky Choice

Misestimating risk could lead to disadvantaged choices such as initiation of drug use (or gambling) and transition to regular drug use (or gambling). Although the normative theory in decision-making under risks assumes that people typically take the probability-weighted expectation over possible utilities, experimental studies of choices among risks suggest that outcome probabilities are transformed nonlinearly into subjective decision weights by a nonlinear weighting function that overweights low probabilities and underweights high probabilities. Recent studies have revealed the neurocognitive mechanism of decision-making under risk. However, the role of modulatory neurotransmission in this process remains unclear. Using positron emission tomography, we directly investigated whether dopamine D_1 and D_2 receptors in the brain are associated with transformation of probabilities into decision weights in healthy volunteers. The binding of striatal D_1 receptors is negatively correlated with the degree of nonlinearity of weighting function. Individuals with lower striatal D_1 receptor density showed more pronounced overestimation of low probabilities and underestimation of high probabilities. This finding should contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of risky choice, and extreme or impaired decision-making observed in drug and gambling addiction