Effect of Anisotropy on Drained and Undrained Shear Behavior of IN-SITU Sandy Soils

Two different types of undisturbed cylindrical specimen (V-specimen: the axis is parallel to the direction of sedimentation, and H-specimen: the axis is perpendicular to the direction of sedimentation), were prepared from high quality undisturbed sand column obtained by in-situ freezing technique. A series of drained compression and extension tests (CD, test, CD, test) and cyclic undrained triaxial tests (liquefaction test) on these samples were performed in order to investigate the effect of the anisotropy on the drained and undrained shear behavior. Following were concluded. 1) The effect of anisotropy on both internal friction angle and liquefaction strength is negligible. 2) The difference in deformation characteristics between V and H-specimens for Holocene soil layer appeared in both CD and liquefaction tests implies that in-situ soil is easier to compress in horizontal direction than in vertical direction. 3) The effect of anisotropy on deformation characteristic of Pleistocene sand samples is not so remarkable as that of Holocene sand

Comparison of three representative subjective evaluations of chewing function

In 2018, oral hypofunction was registered officially as a disease in Japan. It is important to detect oral hypofunction symptoms early in patients, before frank oral dysfunction symptoms occur. Subjective evaluations of chewing function, which help to identify foods that cannot be chewed, might be useful in diagnosing oral hypofunction. Previous evaluations used to identify patients with oral hypofunction used varying standards, making it impossible to compare and integrate them without first developing a unified screening method. This study aimed to compare and integrate known evaluation methods that are useful for diagnosing oral hypofunction. A total of 76 elderly participants （aged ＞65 years） were enrolled after providing consent to participate in this study. The established subjective evaluation methods of chewing function investigated for this study included the Yamamoto denture performance judgment table, the Sato table for evaluation of chewing function in complete denture wearers, and the Hirai evaluation method for the masticatory function in complete denture wearers. As the Yamamoto method lacks scoring, the total number of circles was used as the score. A time study was performed on the time taken for the description, entry, and analysis of these tables. There was a strong correlation between the Sato and Hirai methods （r＝0.71） and between the Sato and Yamamoto （r＝0.68） and Hirai and Yamamoto （r＝0.60） methods. During the time study, the description time was the shortest with the Yamamoto method, and the entry and analysis times were the shortest with the Sato method. The total time was significantly shorter with the Sato method than with the Yamamoto method. Three evaluation methods showed correlation, but the examination times varied. In future studies, we plan to clarify the selection criteria, including the relevance of objective evaluation and usability

Dilute solution properties of polymacromonomer consisting of polybutadiene backbone and polystyrene side chains

A polymacromonomer consisting of polybutadiene backbone and polystyrene side chains (BS-PM) with the degree of polymerization of side chain n = 20 was synthesized by anionic polymerization. Five samples with different molecular weight or main-chain length were prepared. Light scattering and viscosity measurements were taken on dilute solutions of these BS-PM samples in toluene at 15.0 °C and in cyclohexane at 34.5 °C and 29.0 °C. The second virial coefficients of BS-PM in cyclohexane vanished at 29.0 °C, which is lower than the theta temperature, 34.5 °C, of linear polystyrene and polymacromonomer consisting of polystyrene (PS-PM) in the same solvent. This shows that the interaction between side and main chains is appreciable in cyclohexane at 34.5 °C. The mean-square radius of gyration and the intrinsic viscosity in toluene and cyclohexane determined as functions of molecular weight were analyzed with the aid of the theories for the wormlike chain model to determine the stiffness parameter λ[−1] of the main chain. The values of λ[−1] for BS-PM in both solvents were smaller than those for PS-PM with the same n, reflecting the wider side-chain spacing. These results are consistent with the prediction of the first-order perturbation theory of Nakamura and Norisuye [Polym J 2002;33:874], which gives the contribution of the segmental interactions among side chains λb[−1] to λ[−1]. However, the difference of λ[−1] between BS-PM and PS-PM in each solvent is appreciably larger than the difference of the calculated λb[−1] between BS-PM and PS-PM, suggesting that the difference of the contribution of steric hindrance among side chains to λ[−1] between these two polymers is appreciable

Association of gene mutations with clinicopathologic features in patients with external auditory canal squamous cell carcinoma

Background External auditory canal squamous cell carcinoma (EACSCC) is a rare form of malignant tumor. Due to the extremely limited understanding of the genomic landscape in EACSCC, the association between gene mutations and clinicopathologic features remains unclear. This study aimed to explore somatic gene mutations associated with the clinicopathological features in patients with EACSCC, and to identify the candidate gene mutations for predicting survival outcome in EACSCC. Methods Twenty-two tissue samples obtained from patients with EACSCC were analyzed for genetic mutations based on targeted next-generation sequencing and genetic expression based on IHC staining to investigate the driver of tumorigenesis and/or the candidates of genes for predicting clinical outcome in EACSCC. Results Gene alterations were most frequently observed in TP53 (59.1%), followed by CREBBP (9.1%). TP53 mutations showed significant correlation with T classification (P = 0.027) and p53 expression phenotype (P < 0.001). The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for EACSCC patients with TP53 mutations and wild-type TP53 were 45.0% and 75.0%, respectively. Multivariable analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that TP53 mutations were independent predictors of OS rates for EACSCC patients (P = 0.007). Conclusion This study has suggested that TP53 mutations have potential for use as a biomarker for identifying individuals at high risk of developing tumors and for predicting survival outcome in EACSCC. IHC staining for p53 might play a useful role as screening tool for detecting TP53 mutations in patients with EACSCC

Effects of flow rate on sensitivity and affinity in flow injection biosensor systems studied by 55-MHz wireless quartz crystal microbalance

In this paper, we developed a 55-MHz wireless-electrodeless quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and systematically studied the effects of flow rate on the sensitivity to the detection of proteins and on the affinity between biomolecules evaluated by the flow injection system. Brownian motion of proteins in liquid suggests a low probability of meeting, and the convection effect plays an important role in the sensitivity and the affinity in the flow cell injection system. The wireless quartz crystal was isolated in the QCM cell, and flow rates between 50 and 1000 μL/min were used for monitoring binding reactions between human immunoglobulin G and Staphylococcus aureus protein A. The sensitivity was significantly increased as the flow rate increased, while the affinity value remained unchanged. However, the affinity value was affected by the reaction time for a large-concentration analyte, indicating the need of a high-sensitivity biosensor system for accurate evaluation of affinity. The electrode effect on the QCM sensitivity was also theoretically investigated, showing that the electrode significantly deteriorates the QCM sensitivity and makes the Sauerbrey equation invalid.Hirotsugu Ogi, Yuji Fukunishi, Toshinobu Omori, Kenichi Hatanaka, Masahiko Hirao, and Masayoshi Nishiyama. Effects of flow rate on sensitivity and affinity in flow injection biosensor systems studied by 55-MHz wireless quartz crystal microbalance. Analytical Chemistry, 2008, 80(14), 5494-5500. ©2008 American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac800459g

Aggregation behavior of amyloid β₁₋₄₂ peptide studied using 55 MHz wireless-electrodeless quartz crystal microbalance

A homebuilt wireless-electrodeless high frequency quartz crystal microbalance is adopted for long-time monitoring of the aggregation behavior of amyloid β₁₋₄₂ peptide in a flow-cell system. The monomer amyloid peptides are immobilized on both surfaces of the crystal, and an amyloid-β solution is injected. The monotonic frequency decrease indicates aggregation on the crystal, which yields aggregation rate. Aggregation is observed even at a peptide concentration as low as 550 nM.Hirotsugu Ogi, Kenichi Hatanaka, Yuji Fukunishi, Hironao Nagai, Masahiko Hirao and Masayoshi Nishiyama. Aggregation behavior of amyloid β₁₋₄₂ peptide studied using 55 MHz wireless-electrodeless quartz crystal microbalance. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2009, 48(7S), 07GF01. https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.48.07GF01

Quantitative Analysis of Retinal Vascular Leakage in Retinal Vasculitis Using Machine Learning

Retinal vascular leakage is known to be an important biomarker to monitor the disease activity of uveitis. Although fluorescein angiography (FA) is a gold standard for the diagnosis and assessment of the disease activity of uveitis, the evaluation of FA findings, especially retinal vascular leakage, remains subjective and descriptive. In the current study, we developed an automatic segmentation model using a deep learning system, U-Net, and subtraction of the retinal vessel area between early-phase and late-phase FA images for the detection of the retinal vascular leakage area in ultrawide field (UWF) FA images in three patients with Behçet’s Disease and three patients with idiopathic uveitis with retinal vasculitis. This study demonstrated that the automated model for segmentation of the retinal vascular leakage area through the UWF FA images reached 0.434 (precision), 0.529 (recall), and 0.467 (Dice coefficient) without using UWF FA images for training. There was a significant positive correlation between the automated segmented area (pixels) of retinal vascular leakage and the FA vascular leakage score. The mean pixels of automatic segmented vascular leakage in UWF FA images with treatment was significantly reduced compared with before treatment. The automated segmentation of retinal vascular leakage in UWF FA images may be useful for objective and quantitative assessment of disease activity in posterior segment uveitis. Further studies at a larger scale are warranted to improve the performance of this automatic segmentation model to detect retinal vascular leakage