In this study, a series of incremental loading oedometer tests and microscopic observations is carried out in order to investigate the influence of sand/bentonite fractions on hydraulic conductivity and compressibility. If sand particles do not form a skeletal structure, and each particle is independent in the clay matrix, an additive fraction of sand causes a decrease in the compressibility; however, it does not affect the hydraulic conductivity under the same consolidation pressure. The additive fraction of bentonite contributes to a decrease in the hydraulic conductivity, even for clayey materials. In addition, the relationship between the pore-size parameter, which represents the pore entrance size distribution, and the hydraulic conductivity is discussed using a probabilistic model known as the general capillary model.

Small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) is a post-translational modification factor composed of about 100 amino acid residues. Most plant species express a family of SUMO isoforms. We found three novel homologs of rice (Oryza sativa L.) SUMO genes, OsSUMO4, OsSUMO5 and OsSUMO6, in addition to the known SUMO genes OsSUMO1-OsSUMO3. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that rice SUMO genes have diverged considerably during their evolution. All six of these SUMO genes complemented the phenotype of the SUMO-deficient pmt3Δ mutant of fission yeast. Among the amino acid sequences of rice SUMO proteins, consensus motifs (ΨKXE/D) of the SUMO acceptor site were found in OsSUMO3, OsSUMO4, OsSUMO5 and OsSUMO6. The heat shock protein HSF7 is known to be SUMOylated in Arabidopsis thaliana. SUMOylation using a bacterial expression system revealed that the rice HSF7 homolog was modified by the six rice SUMOs, and further suggested that OsSUMO1, OsSUMO3, OsSUMO4 and OsSUMO6 are involved in its multiple SUMOylation.

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Superior contamination flashover voltage performance of polymer insulators for transmission or distribution line is attributable not only to the hydrophobicity of silicone rubber housing material but also to their configurations. In the case of transmission or distribution line polymer insulators, core diameters are small and so the ratio of shed to core diameters is very large enough to improve the voltage distribution along the insulator owing to the divided and allotted voltages to its individual core portions having much higher surface resistances compared with shed portions due to the heavier leakage current density. We tried to improve the contamination flashover voltage performance of a porcelain long-rod insulator by applying hydrophobic silicone rubber coating only to all its core surfaces without coating shed surfaces and successful results have been confirmed.In this paper, contamination flashover voltage performances were evaluated among four kinds of specimens with different silicone rubber coatings by the salt fog test method. The detailed investigation results are presented.

For the purpose of judging the safety of existing masonry walls, we applied 6 kinds of methods which we have studied. It was cleared as follows. From these 6 methods, much the same results could get, but incidentally, based on their hypothesis, large variance could happen. Therefor, to get more accurate judgement using studied methods, the corrected soil constants by which checking the results of commonly used soil-slope circular slip surface method should be used. On the other hands, the collection of the field data or the analysis using the computer are expected.

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