Investigation and consideration on landslide zoning of multiple slope failures and debris flows of 2014 disaster in Hiroshima,Japan

This study was intended to examine the mechanism of multiple slope failures and debris flows that occurred in the outskirts of Hiroshima on 20th August 2014. A field survey of the mountain stream where large-scale damage was incurred was carried out and the characteristics of debris flows which made serious damages were investigated. There were five findings of this study. (1) The initiation of debris flows was not limited to thin and planar shallow failures, but also showed V or U shapes, where the eroded sediments seemed to be pushed out by artesian water, and the eroded depth exceeded several meters at many locations. (2) There were areas with high permeability, such as faults, fracture zones, and joints in Mt. Abusan. It is inferred that the constantly present groundwater in these areas became artesian water because of a large amount of rainfall in upstream locations. This quickly destabilized the slopes on a large scale. (3) There were at least three estimated debris flows at the mountain stream above Midorigaoka prefectural apartments in Yagi 3-Chome, where the worst damage occurred. The mountain stream near Abu-no-Sato housing complex also had multiple debris flows. Here, the secondary debris flow changed its flow path because of the presence of sediments from an earlier debris flow. (4) The actual volumes of flowed mass were much larger than that predicted at 11 of the 18 mountain streams in Midori-i and Yagi districts. The volume of the mass of five of these mountain streams was more than twice the estimated volume. It is necessary to modify the method of calculating the volume of unstable sediments in the mountain stream. (5) It was found that the devastating damage of buildings and human lives took place in the areas well beyond the special restricted zones. The present method to designate the special restricted zone must be revised considering such problems as the underestimation of the volume of unstable sediments, the assumptions of a single debris flow and on the direction of debris flow, and the effect of the difference on rock and soil types.     

Thermosensitive bioadhesive gels for the vaginal delivery of sildenafil citrate: in vitro characterization and clinical evaluation in women using clomiphene citrate for induction of ovulation

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop and characterize in situ thermosensitive gels for the vaginal administration of sildenafil as a potential treatment of endometrial thinning occurring as a result of using clomiphene citrate for ovulation induction in women with type II eugonadotrophic anovulation. While sildenafil has shown promising results in the treatment of infertility in women, the lack of vaginal pharmaceutical preparation and the side effects associated with oral sildenafil limit its clinical effectiveness.

Methods: Sildenafil citrate in situ forming gels were prepared using different grades of Pluronic^® (PF-68 and PF-127). Mucoadhesive polymers as sodium alginate and hydroxyethyl cellulose were added to the gels in different concentrations and the effect on gel properties was studied. The formulations were evaluated in terms of viscosity, gelation temperature (T_sol-gel), mucoadhesion properties, and in vitro drug release characteristics. Selected formulations were evaluated in women with clomiphene citrate failure due to thin endometrium (Clinicaltrial.gov identifier NCT02766725).

Results: The T_sol-gel decreased with increasing PF-127 concentration and it was modulated by addition of PF-68 to be within the acceptable range of 28–37?°C. Increasing Pluronic® concentration increased gel viscosity and mucoadhesive force but decreased drug release rate. Clinical results showed that the in situ sildenafil vaginal gel significantly increased endometrial thickness and uterine blood flow with no reported side effects. Further, these results were achieved at lower frequency and duration of drug administration.

Conclusion: Sildenafil thermosensitive vaginal gels might result in improved potential of pregnancy in anovulatory patients with clomiphene citrate failure due to thin endometrium.     

Sensitization of zinc oxide photoanode with an indoline dye

A dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSC) made of nanoporous ZnO film on aluminum‐doped zinc oxide (ZnO/AZO) transparent substrate has higher solar‐to‐electric energy conversion efficiency than a DSC consisting of nanoporous ZnO film deposited on conventional fluorine‐doped tin oxide (ZnO/FTO) transparent substrate. The ZnO/AZO DSC gave an overall conversion efficiency of 7.2% whereas the ZnO/FTO yielded a conversion efficiency of 4.5%. The film‐substrate orientation and higher light harvesting of the nanoporous ZnO film on the AZO after heating in air are mainly attributed to the higher energy conversion efficiency of the ZnO/AZO DSC. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of the Optimum Trigger Level in Time Interval Measurement

Measuring the time interval (TI) with an accuracy in the picoseconds range requires having an accurate measurement system and minimizing the sources of errors contributed by the signal being measured. Trigger level timing error is one of the main sources of error that dramatically affects the measurement accuracy. In this article we study the effect of changing the trigger level on the TI measurement accuracy for sinusoidal signals, introduce a laboratory method for determining the optimum trigger level that leads to the highest measurement accuracy, and make a method validation.     

Spatial Patterning of the β‐Phase in Poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene): A Metamaterials‐Inspired Molecular Conformation Approach to the Fabrication of Polymer Semiconductor Optical Structures

Materials in which sub‐wavelength physical structures, rather than variations in chemical composition, are used to modify the nature of their interaction with electromagnetic radiation form the promising new class of metamaterials. For molecular materials one has an intriguing alternative, namely structuring the conformation or physical geometry of the molecule. In order for this to be an effective methodology one needs the change in conformation i) to engender a significant change in electromagnetic properties and ii) to be spatially controllable to allow patterning of practical structures. In this paper the potential of such an approach is demonstrated through spatial patterning, via masked solvent vapor exposure, of the β‐phase conformation in poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene) (PFO). Significantly the conformation change approach preserves a planar film format and is found not to negatively impact on optical gain properties, both very attractive features for optoelectronic and photonic lightwave circuit applications. As a specific demonstration the ability to spatially control the lasing wavelength for samples in which a β‐phase conformation is selectively patterned in a glassy PFO film spin coated atop a one‐dimensional distributed‐feedback grating etched into a spectrosil substrate is shown.     

Patterning SiC nanoprecipitate in Si single crystals by simultaneous dual- beam ion implantation

β–SiC nanoprecipitates can be patterned in crystalline silicon with an almost monomodal size distribution by simultaneous-dual-beam of C⁺ and Si⁺ ion implantations at 550 °C. Their shape appears as spherical (average diameter ~4–5 nm) ,and they are in epitaxial relationship with the crystalline silicon matrix. The narrow size distribution follows the left wing of the carbon distribution where the nuclear ion stopping, and thus the point defect generation rate is largest. This observation allows us to conclude that the induced damage act as sinks for C atoms leading to the SiC nanoprecipitates formation centered at the maximum of the simulated damage distribution. The nuclear reaction analysis, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques were used to characterize the samples.     

Balance Control of a Biped Robot on a Rotating Platform Based on Efficient Reinforcement Learning

In this work, we combined the model based reinforcement learning (MBRL) and model free reinforcement learning (MFRL) to stabilize a biped robot (NAO robot) on a rotating platform, where the angular velocity of the platform is unknown for the proposed learning algorithm and treated as the external disturbance. Nonparametric Gaussian processes normally require a large number of training data points to deal with the discontinuity of the estimated model. Although some improved method such as probabilistic inference for learning control (PILCO) does not require an explicit global model as the actions are obtained by directly searching the policy space, the overfitting and lack of model complexity may still result in a large deviation between the prediction and the real system. Besides, none of these approaches consider the data error and measurement noise during the training process and test process, respectively. We propose a hierarchical Gaussian processes (GP) models, containing two layers of independent GPs, where the physically continuous probability transition model of the robot is obtained. Due to the physically continuous estimation, the algorithm overcomes the overfitting problem with a guaranteed model complexity, and the number of training data is also reduced. The policy for any given initial state is generated automatically by minimizing the expected cost according to the predefined cost function and the obtained probability distribution of the state. Furthermore, a novel Q(λ) based MFRL method scheme is employed to improve the policy. Simulation results show that the proposed RL algorithm is able to balance NAO robot on a rotating platform, and it is capable of adapting to the platform with varying angular velocity.