Geosynthetic-sheet pile reinforced foundation for mitigation of earthquake and tsunami induced damage of breakwater

Earthquake and tsunami impose great threats on the stability of a breakwater. Foundation of the breakwater is weakened by these forces, and it may result in collapse of the breakwater. Lateral flow of seabed soils take place beneath the breakwater, and excess pore water pressure is generated in the foundation by an earthquake that precedes tsunami. These factors may lead to excessive settlement and horizontal displacement of the breakwater. Tsunami introduces additional instability to the deformed breakwater. Due to water level difference between seaside and harborside of the breakwater during a tsunami, seepage occurs through its foundation, and it may cause pipping of seabed soils. Tsunami induced scouring of mound is also a big problem for the stability of the breakwater foundation. Finally, these result in failure of the breakwater foundation. Due to failure of its foundation, the breakwater may collapse and cannot block the tsunami. It results in entering of the tsunami in coastal areas. In order to make a breakwater resilient against earthquake and tsunami induced damage, reinforcing countermeasures were developed for foundation of a breakwater. Geogrid, gabions and sheet piles were used for reinforcing a foundation model. The effectiveness of the model is evaluated through physical modeling for mitigating the earthquake and tsunami induced damage. Shaking table tests were performed to determine the effectiveness of the reinforced model under different earthquake loadings. Tsunami overflow test was conducted on the same deformed model in order to see the effects of tsunami on the model. Comparisons were made between the unreinforced and reinforced foundations, and it was observed during the tests that the reinforced foundation performed well in reducing the damage of the breakwater brought by the earthquake and tsunami. Overall, this study is useful for practice engineering, and the reinforced foundation model can be adopted for designing a breakwater foundation to reduce damage triggered by an earthquake and tsunami in the future.     

Control of colloidal behavior of polystyrene latex nanoparticles and their cytotoxicity toward yeast cells using water-soluble polymers

Positively charged polystyrene latex (PSL) nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed in physiological saline (154?mM NaCl solution) are taken up by yeast cells. However, in low ionic strength solutions, the yeast cells are covered with the NPs, leading to cell death. The environmental conditions under which NPs are taken up are therefore limited. In this study, we attempted to control the uptake of positively charged PSL NPs by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in 5?mM NaCl solution using a water-soluble polymer. Addition of a small amount of anionic sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), which has a carboxyl group, to 5?mM NaCl solution allowed the uptake of PSL NPs by living yeast cells. In contrast, non-ionic methylcellulose did not affect the NP behavior. This is because the negatively charged CMC adhered to the positively charged PSL NP surfaces and the surface charge changed from positive to negative. Atomic force microscopy using a single-NP probe consisting of one NP immobilized on the flattened end of the silicon nitride tip showed that CMC significantly reduced the interaction force between a negatively charged living yeast cell and a positively charged PSL NP.     

Adjoint Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm for the estimation of elastic modulus through the inversion of elastic wave propagation data

Efficient inversion of noisy seismic waveform data produced due to elastic wave propagation for the estimation of a high-dimensional elastic modulus vector is achieved. Estimation is carried out in a Bayesian framework using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) that enables efficient statistical estimation over high-dimensional parameters. The truncated Karhunen-Loève (K-L) expansion is introduced to reduce the dimensionality of the elastic modulus vector. Expensive computations of the gradient of the state vector with respect to the parameter vector at every step are also eliminated through the adjoint method, which is developed from a general one-step discretization of the governing second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). An Adjoint HMC algorithm that employs a truncated K-L expansion of the elastic modulus vector is presented. The efficacy of the algorithm is investigated with respect to two representative problems with varying geometric complexity. Adjoint HMC offers a significant speed up in gradient calculation time over the direct differentiation counterpart as the number of terms in the K-L expansion increases. The algorithm is able to estimate the true elastic modulus within the credible intervals for both cases.     

Carbon coating of Ti-6Al-4V for reduced wear in combined impact and sliding applications

A range of carbon coatings with different hardness and modulus was compared for wear and frictional behaviours using one-side-carbon-coated Ti-6Al-4V alloy couples tested under conditions of combined impact and sliding contact. Carbon films with hardness over 10 GPa were found to cause far greater volume loss of the uncoated counterpart, and the volume loss was approximately proportional to the extent of hardness deviation above 10 GPa. The coefficient of friction was shown to correlate positively with coating hardness. The tendency of a softer coating to possess a greater sp² or graphite-like content provides more effective solid lubrication in a wet environment, hence minimising both wear and friction. The corresponding low film modulus also provides an optimal structural integrity of the composite system by minimising the elastic modulus mismatch between the film and the underlying substrate.     

A triple quantum dot in a single-wall carbon nanotube

A top-gated single-wall carbon nanotube is used to define three coupled quantum dots in series between two electrodes. The additional electron number on each quantum dot is controlled by top-gate voltages allowing for current measurements of single, double, and triple quantum dot stability diagrams. Simulations using a capacitor model including tunnel coupling between neighboring dots captures the observed behavior with good agreement. Furthermore, anticrossings between indirectly coupled levels and higher order cotunneling are discussed.     

Evidence that a phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate-binding protein can function in nucleus

PIP3BP is a phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate-binding protein (PIP3BP) abundant in brain, containing a zinc finger motif and two pleckstrin homology (PH) domains. Staining of rat brain cells with anti-PIP3BP antibody and determination of localization of PIP3BP fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP-PIP3BP) revealed that PIP3BP was targeted to the nucleus. Targeting was dependent on a putative nuclear localization signal in PIP3BP. Generation of PIP3 in the nucleus was detected in H2O2-treated 293T cells, nerve growth factor (NGF)-treated PC12 cells, and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-treated NIH 3T3 cells. Translocation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) to the nucleus and enhanced activity of PI 3-kinase in the nucleus fraction were observed after H2O2 treatment of 293T cells, suggesting that PI 3-kinase can be activated in the nucleus as well as in the membrane after appropriate stimulation of the cells. Co-expression of the constitutively active PI 3-kinase with PIP3BP resulted in exportation of the protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, suggesting that PIP3BP can function as a PIP3-binding protein in the intact cells. These results imply that there may be an unknown function of PI 3-kinase in the nucleus.     

Application of femtosecond laser ablation for detaching grown protein crystals from glass capillary tube

We developed a novel technique for detaching protein crystals from glass capillary tube using the counter diffusion crystallization technique by femtosecond laser irradiation. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated that femtosecond laser irradiation has little effect on crystallinity. This technique will contribute to progress in structural genomics as a powerful tool.     

Purification and characterization of a highly thermostable, oxygen-resistant, respiratory [NiFe]-hydrogenase from a marine, aerobic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Hydrogenovibrio marinus

The membrane-bound [NiFe]-hydrogenase from Hydrogenovibrio marinus (HmMBH) was purified homogeneously under anaerobic conditions. Its molecular weight was estimated as 110 kDa, consisting of a heterodimeric structure of 66 kDa and 37 kDa subunits. The purified enzyme exhibited high activity in a wide temperature range: 185 U/mg at 30 °C and 615 U/mg at 85 °C (the optimum temperature). The K_m and k_cat/K_m values for H₂ were, respectively, 12 μM and 8.58 × 10⁷ M⁻¹ s⁻¹. The optimum reaction pH was 7.8, but its stability was particularly high at pH 4.0-7.0. Results show that HmMBH was remarkably thermostable and oxygen-resistant: its half-life was 75 h at 80 °C under H₂, and more than 72 h at 4 °C under air. The air-oxidized HmMBH for 72 h showed only weak EPR signals of Ni-B, suggesting a structural feature in which the active center is not easily oxidized.