A full-scale seven-story reinforced concrete building section was tested on the UCSD-NEES shake table during the period October 2005 -January 2006. The shake table tests were designed to damage the building progressively through four historical earthquake records. At various levels of damage, ambient vibration tests and low amplitude white noise base excitations with root-mean-square accelerations of 0.03g and 0.05g were applied to the building, which responded as a quasi-linear system with parameters evolving as a function of structural damage.Modal parameters (natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes) of the building were identified at different damage levels based on the response of the building to ambient as well as low amplitude white noise base excitations, measured using DC coupled accelerometers. This paper focuses on damage identification of this building based on changes in identified modal parameters. A sensitivity-based finite element model updating strategy is used to detect, localize and quantify damage at each damage state considered. Three sets of damage identification results 1. Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 858-822-4545; fax: +1 858-822-2260. E-mail address: jpconte@ucsd.edu 2 are obtained using modal parameters identified based on ambient, 0.03g, and 0.05g RMS white noise test data, respectively. The damage identification results obtained in all three cases do not exactly coincide, but they are consistent with the concentration of structural damage observed at the bottom two stories of the building. The difference in the identified damage results is mainly due to the significant difference in the identified modal parameters used in the three cases. The assumption of a quasi-linear dynamic system is progressively violated with increasing level of excitation. Therefore, application of nonlinear FE model updating strategies is recommended in future studies to resolve the errors caused by structural response nonlinearity.

The innate immune system is the first line of host defense against infection and involves several different cell types. Here we investigated the role of the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway in innate immune cells. By blocking this pathway with pharmacological inhibitors, we found that the production of proinflammatory cytokines was drastically suppressed in monocytes and macrophages. Further study revealed that the suppression was mainly related to the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/p70S6K signaling. In addition, we found that the PI3K pathway was involved in macrophage motility and neovascularization. Our data provide a rationale that inhibition of the PI3K signaling pathway could be an attractive approach for the management of inflammatory disorders.

Background Past clinical trials of docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) supplements for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia have used lower doses and have been largely negative. We hypothesized that larger doses of DHA are needed for adequate brain bioavailability and that APOE4 is associated with reduced delivery of DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to the brain before the onset of cognitive impairment. Methods 33 individuals were provided with a vitamin B complex (1 mg vitamin B12, 100 mg of vitamin B6 and 800 mcg of folic acid per day) and randomized to 2,152 mg of DHA per day or placebo over 6 months. 26 individuals completed both lumbar punctures and MRIs, and 29 completed cognitive assessments at baseline and 6 months. The primary outcome was the change in CSF DHA. Secondary outcomes included changes in CSF EPA levels, MRI hippocampal volume and entorhinal thickness; exploratory outcomes were measures of cognition. Findings A 28% increase in CSF DHA and 43% increase in CSF EPA were observed in the DHA treatment arm compared to placebo (mean difference for DHA (95% CI): 0.08 µg/mL (0.05, 0.10), p <0.0001; mean difference for EPA: 0.008 µg/mL (0.004, 0.011), p <0.0001). The increase in CSF EPA in non- APOE 4 carriers after supplementation was three times greater than APOE4 carriers. The change in brain volumes and cognitive scores did not differ between groups. Interpretation Dementia prevention trials using omega-3 supplementation doses equal or lower to 1 g per day may have reduced brain effects, particularly in APOE4 carriers. Trial Registration: NCT02541929. Funding HNY was supported by R01AG055770, R01AG054434, R01AG067063 from the National Institute of Aging and NIRG-15-361854 from the Alzheimer's Association, and MGH by the L. K. Whittier Foundation. This work was also supported by P50AG05142 (HCC) from the National Institutes of Health. Funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or writing of the report.

A full-scale seven-story reinforced concrete building slice was tested on the unidirectional UCSD-NEES shake table during the period October 2005 -January 2006. A rectangular wall acted as the main lateral force resisting system of the building slice. The shake table tests were designed to damage the building progressively through four historical earthquake records. The objective of the seismic tests was to validate a new displacement-based design methodology for reinforced concrete shear wall building structures. At several levels of damage, ambient vibration tests and low amplitude white noise base excitations tests were applied to the building which responded as a quasi-linear system with dynamic parameters evolving as a function of structural damage. Six different state-of-the-art system identification algorithms including three output-only and three input-output methods were used to estimate the modal parameters (natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes) at different damage levels based on the response of the building to ambient as well as white noise base excitations, measured using DC-coupled accelerometers. The modal parameters estimated at various damage levels using different system identification methods are compared in order to: (1) validate/crosscheck the modal identification results and study the performance of each of these system identification methods, and (2) investigate the sensitivity of the identified modal parameters to actual structural damage. For a given damage level, the modal parameters identified using different methods are found to be in good agreement indicating that these estimated modal parameters are likely to be close to the actual modal parameters of the building specimen.