By Mr. Mizuo Inukai, IISEE Chief Research Engineer

Following the No. 110, we would like to introduce the Latin American Earthquake Engineering Course. The Course is composed of the course in Japan and the oversea program in El Salvador. This time, the course in Japan is introduced.

Please see the Newsletter attached on pages 1&2.

(1) Mr. Jose Manuel DIAZ FELIZ (Dominican Republic)
The participants of the Latin American Course went to Tokyo on July 10th 2014. Our study trip included a morning visit to Toho Building at Shinjuku. This project is being built by Takenaka.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 2.

(2) Ms. Karla Jeannette BENITEZ DE ESCAMILLA (El Salvador)
Natural disaster could occur anywhere at any time, causing tremendous damage. In January 17th, 1995, at 05:46 occurred the Great Hanshin earthquake or Kobe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 JMA in the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture, Kansai region.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 2.

(3) Mr. Manuel Arturo SALAZAR NAVIDAD (El Salvador)
During the development of our Course we had the opportunity to improve our knowledge regarding concrete and masonry industrial preparation process, in order to do that, we visited two different factories, they both taught and showed us the industrial process to make concrete and masonry with a high quality level following JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards), with the main objective and vision of guarantee a good performance of the structures against static and dynamic loads.

Please see the Newsletter attached on pages 2&3.

(4) Ms. Ileana Margarita SILVA ESPINOZA (Nicaragua)
In our study trip, the participants of the Latin American Course visited in July 3rd 2014 Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center which is the major section of Full Scale Three-Dimensional Earthquake Testing Facility; named E- Defense, which is the 15 m x 20 m shaking table, creates the same three-dimensional motion in the actual earthquakes.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 3.

By Dr. Masanori Tani, IISEE Research Engineer

I attended to the Annual Convention of Japan Concrete Institute which was held on July 9th to 11st in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. Over 600 papers were reported related to concrete technology and I made a presentation of my paper titled “Full-scale Experiment on Non-structural R/C Walls Focused on Failure Modes and Damage States.”

Please see the Newsletter attached on pages 3&4.

It was with profound sorrow that we received the sad news of the passing away of Dr. Daisuke Shimozuru, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo on June 25, 2014.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 4