Interpretation of the mechanical behavior of embankments having various compaction properties based on the soil skeleton structure

AbstractAfter the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake disaster, the seismic resistance of embankments was evaluated, and design principles were changed from specification-based to performance-based. However, compaction properties and the mechanical behavior of compacted soil were not sufficiently considered in the Manual of Highway Earthworks on Embankments.The first objective of the present study is to reproduce the mechanical behavior of three embankment materials having different compaction properties. A series of triaxial compression tests and oedometer tests is carried out. The mechanical behavior is reproduced by the SYS Cam-clay model and the influence of compaction on the mechanical behavior is interpreted based on the soil skeleton structure. The second objective is to evaluate the seismic stability of the embankment, which depends on the compaction properties of the embankment material, using GEOASIA, a soil–water coupled finite deformation analysis code.The primary conclusions are as follows. (1) Through the triaxial tests, the maximum deviator stress increases as the degree of compaction, Dc, increases. However, the trends in the increase differ depending on the material. (2) Based on one-dimensional consolidation tests, the compression curve is approximately a straight line with a large vertical effective stress. In the present study, a greater maximum dry density corresponds to less compressibility and a lower compression curve. (3) The mechanical behavior of each material is reproduced by the SYS Cam-clay model using one set of material constants for each material and representing the differences in Dc by different initial conditions for the structure and overconsolidation. An increase in Dc causes the decay of the structure, as well as the accumulation of overconsolidation. In the case of material A, the decay of the structure and the loss of overconsolidation occur quickly, whereas in the case of material C, the decay of the structure is slight and the loss of overconsolidation is moderate. (4) The seismic response analysis reveals different deformations of the embankment for different materials, even for the same Dc. The seismic stability of the embankments was increased by increasing Dc. Materials, such as material A, that have fast decay of the structure and fast loss of overconsolidation produce embankments with high seismic stability

Effect of glucose and pyruvate on nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of porcine oocytes in a chemically defined medium

The objective was to examine potential roles of glucose and pyruvate in nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of porcine oocytes. Oocyte-cumulus complexes (OCC), derived from 3 to 6 mm follicles, were cultured in a chemically defined medium (pyruvate-free mNCSU37-PVA), with or without 5.55 mM glucose, during in vitro maturation (IVM); in the absence of glucose, germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and nuclear maturation were prevented (P &#60; 0.05). Subsequently, OCC were cultured for IVM in glucose-containing mNCSU37-PVA supplemented with 6-amononicotinamide (6-AN) and diphenyleneiodonium (DPI), inhibitors of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP); both compounds (&#62;= 10 mu M 6-AN and &#62;= 10 nM DPI) inhibited resumption of meiosis (P &#60; 0.05). Supplementation of glucose-free maturation medium with increasing concentrations of pyruvate induced resumption of meiosis and increased the incidence of oocytes reaching metaphase-II in a concentration-dependent manner (P &#60; 0.05). More mature oocytes were obtained in the presence of pyruvate + glucose (P &#60; 0.05). After culture to allow maturation, glutathione content was higher in oocytes cultured in the presence of pyruvate alone than in those cultured in glucose alone; inclusion of 6-AN abolished responses to pyruvate (P &#60; 0.05). In conclusion, both glucose and pyruvate played a critical role in the release of porcine oocytes from arrest at the GV-I stage, probably through the PPP, whereas supplementation with pyruvate improved cytoplasmic maturation, as determined by oocyte glutathione content.</p

Effect of Surrounding Blur on Foveal Visibility

Visibility of a simple stimulus is known to be determined not only by its physical contrast, but also by the configuration of surrounding stimuli. In this study, we investigated the surrounding modulation of foveal visibility of a blurred target. Subjects were instructed to respond to the gap orientation of a Gaussian-blurred Landolt ring presented at a fixation point with a surrounding stimulus. The correct response rate was measured as a metric of the foveal visibility. Results were subsequently compared among different surrounding stimulus conditions. Results showed an improvement in the subjects’ performance when low-pass white noise filtered with the same Gaussian function used for the target was presented in the surrounding area, although no effect was observed using high-contrast white noise. A performance improvement was observed when the surround stimulus had an intermediate contrast in the spatial frequency band necessary for identifying the target orientation

Bounded Depth Circuits with Weighted Symmetric Gates: Satisfiability, Lower Bounds and Compression

A Boolean function f:{0,1}^n -> {0,1} is weighted symmetric if there exist a function g: Z -> {0,1} and integers w_0, w_1, ..., w_n such that f(x_1, ...,x_n) = g(w_0+sum_{i=1}^n w_i x_i) holds. In this paper, we present algorithms for the circuit satisfiability problem of bounded depth circuits with AND, OR, NOT gates and a limited number of weighted symmetric gates. Our algorithms run in time super-polynomially faster than 2^n even when the number of gates is super-polynomial and the maximum weight of symmetric gates is nearly exponential. With an additional trick, we give an algorithm for the maximum satisfiability problem that runs in time poly(n^t)*2^{n-n^{1/O(t)}} for instances with n variables, O(n^t) clauses and arbitrary weights. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first moderately exponential time algorithm even for Max 2SAT instances with arbitrary weights. Through the analysis of our algorithms, we obtain average-case lower bounds and compression algorithms for such circuits and worst-case lower bounds for majority votes of such circuits, where all the lower bounds are against the generalized Andreev function. Our average-case lower bounds might be of independent interest in the sense that previous ones for similar circuits with arbitrary symmetric gates rely on communication complexity lower bounds while ours are based on the restriction method

Improved Exact Algorithms for Mildly Sparse Instances of Max SAT

We present improved exponential time exact algorithms for Max SAT. Our algorithms run in time of the form O(2^{(1-mu(c))n}) for instances with n variables and m=cn clauses. In this setting, there are three incomparable currently best algorithms: a deterministic exponential space algorithm with mu(c)=1/O(c * log(c)) due to Dantsin and Wolpert [SAT 2006], a randomized polynomial space algorithm with mu(c)=1/O(c * log^3(c)) and a deterministic polynomial space algorithm with mu(c)=1/O(c^2 * log^2(c)) due to Sakai, Seto and Tamaki [Theory Comput. Syst., 2015]. Our first result is a deterministic polynomial space algorithm with mu(c)=1/O(c * log(c)) that achieves the previous best time complexity without exponential space or randomization. Furthermore, this algorithm can handle instances with exponentially large weights and hard constraints. The previous algorithms and our deterministic polynomial space algorithm run super-polynomially faster than 2^n only if m=O(n^2). Our second results are deterministic exponential space algorithms for Max SAT with mu(c)=1/O((c * log(c))^{2/3}) and for Max 3-SAT with mu(c)=1/O(c^{1/2}) that run super-polynomially faster than 2^n when m=o(n^{5/2}/log^{5/2}(n)) and m=o(n^3/log^2(n)) respectively

SIZE EFFECTS ON MAGNETIC PROPERTY AND CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF MN3O4 NANOPARTICLES IN MESOPOROUS SILICA

Mn3O4 nanoparticles with particle sizes of 7.8, 11.4, and 18.3 nm were synthesized in the pores of mesoporous silica, and their crystal structure and magnetic properties were investigated. The powder X-ray diffractions at room temperature indicated that the crystal structural symmetry was the same as that for bulk crystal, and the lattice constants deviated from those for bulk crystal, which depended on the particle size. In addition, compared with the bulk crystal, the Jahn-Teller distortion for the nanoparticles was suppressed and decreased with decreasing the particle size. The coercive field for 7.8 nm was rather smaller than those for 11.4 and 18.3 nm. The nanoparticles with 11.4 and 18.3 nm exhibited pronounced three kinds of magnetic transition temperatures, whereas the susceptibility for 7.8 nm indicated the existence of two transition temperatures. These experimental results suggested that the Mn3O4 nanoparticles have a strong correlation between crystallographic structure and magnetic property, and the characteristic magnetic size effects are attributed to the reduction of Jahn-Teller distortion.The 21st International Conference on Magnetism (ICM2018), July 15-20, 2018, San Francisco, US

An Adult Case of Kawasaki Disease in a Pregnant Japanese Woman: A Case Report

Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile disease predominantly seen in young children. We report a case of Kawasaki disease in a 32-year-old pregnant woman. She developed a generalized erythematous skin rash accompanied by high fever. Bilateral conjunctival congestion, tender cervical lymphadenopathy, an edematous lower lip and peripheral edema followed by desquamation were observed. She was successfully treated with aspirin and intravenous gammaglobulin (1 g/kg/day). Her course was not complicated by coronary artery aneurysm and she delivered a healthy baby. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of Kawasaki disease in a pregnant woman. We suggest that Kawasaki disease should be included in the differential diagnosis of a generalized, erythematous skin rash accompanied by high fever in adults