SUMMARYCalcium carbonate of various particle shape (CaCO,, sphere, cube, needle) treated with alkyl dihydrogen phosphate ester (APEN, CnH2n+10PO(OH)2, n = 1, 4, 8, 10, 12) and poly(propy1ene) (PP) were mixed on a two roll mill. The effect of carbon number of APEN on the mechanical properties (tensile elongation, tensile strength, impact strength, yield stress) and adhesion between PP matrix and various CaC03 particles and the effect of CaC0, shape on the storage modulus of elongated PP/ CaCO, has been investigated.The tensile elongation, impact strength and adhesion of PP-CaC0, interface increased with carbon number of APEN (n s 10) for needle and cube type, but the dependence of tensile properties on APEN carbon number is not clearly recognized for the sphere type. The relative storage moduli of elongated PP/CaC03, EZ/E? (EZ -modulus of elongated PP/CaC03 (untreated); Ef -modulus of elongated PP matrix could sufficiently be described with a modified Halpin-Tsai equation, which contains the factors of (i) polymer matrix orientation, (ii) particle effect (content, modulus, aspect ratio), and (iii) void volume at polymer-filler particle interface. ZUS AMMENFASSUNG:Mit Alkyldihydrogenphosphaten behandeltes Calciumcarbonat unterschiedlicher Teilchenform (sph%risch, kubisch, Nadeln) wurde als Fullstoff fur Polypropylen (PP) verwendet. Der Einflulj der Kettenlange der Alkylgruppe auf mechanische Eigenschaften (Zugdehnung, Zugfestigkeit, Schlagzugfestigkeit, Streckspannung) und die Adhasion zwischen der PP-Matrix und den verschiedenen CaC03-Teilchen wurde untersucht, ebenso der Einflulj der Teilchenform auf den Speichermodul des rnit unbehandeltem CaCO, gefullten und verstreckten PP.Zugdehnung, Schlagzugfestigkeit und Adhasion des mit kubischem bzw. nadelformigem CaCO, gefullten PP nehmen rnit steigender Kettenlange der Phosphat-Alkylgruppe zu, wahrend das mit sphtirischem CaC0, gefullte PP keine einheitliche Tendenz zeigt.Die relativen Moduli EZ/Ef (E: -Speichermodul der verstreckten Komposite; E: -Speichermodul der ungefullten verstreckten PP-Matrix) der verstreckten PP/CaC03-Komposite lassen sich rnit einer modifizierten Halpin-Tsai-Gleichung beschreiben,

A pyridylamination method was applied to glycosaminoglycans and the characteristics of the resulting pyridylamino glycosaminoglycans were examined. First, glycosaminoglycan chains, which uniformly possess a xylose residue at their reducing termini, were liberated from proteoglycan by successive digestion with protease and endo-beta-xylosidase. Then the glycosaminoglycan chains were coupled with 2-aminopyridine by reductive amination with sodium cyanoborohydride for 15 h according to the method of Hase, S. et al. [J. Biochem. 95, 197-203 (1984)]. The pyridylamination reaction caused neither depolymerization, de-N-acetylation, nor de-N- or de-O-sulfation. The pyridylamino glycosaminoglycan chains had an intact linkage region (GlcA-Gal-Gal-Xyl) between the carbohydrate chain and the peptide core of the proteoglycan. These pyridylamino glycosaminoglycans should be useful as substrates for endo-type glycosidases that act on glycosaminoglycan chains and as markers for studies of glycosaminoglycan metabolism.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has been generally considered as one of the most aggressive cancers with poor prognosis. Vimentin is the major protein constituent of intermediate filaments in normal and neoplastic mesenchymal cells, and has been regarded as a marker of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, little is known about ESCC with vimentin expression as a marker of EMT. In this study, we analyzed vimentin expression in 129 cases of ESCC in order to elucidate whether vimentin expression is correlated with clinicopathological features and aggressive behavior of ESCC. Vimentin expression was identified in 96 of the 129 cases (74.4%). The cases with vimentin-positive carcinoma cells showed a significantly higher incidence of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001). Carcinomas with vimentin expression were more advanced in terms of tumor status and lymphatic invasion (P = 0.001, P = 0.009, respectively), and associated with stronger stromal α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression (P < 0.001). Vimentin expression was also associated with distant metastasis, including distant node metastasis (P = 0.014). Vimentin expression in both primary and metastatic carcinomas was found in 68.6% (48/70) of the cases, while no vimentin expression in both primary and metastatic carcinomas comprised 92.3% of the cases (12/13) (P < 0.001). In conclusion, we demonstrated that vimentin expression in ESCC is an independent predictor of lymph node metastasis (multivariate analysis, P = 0.014, odds ratio: 3.314, 95% confidence interval: 1.276-8.605). In addition, vimentin expression was frequently retained in metastatic carcinoma of the lymph node.

The electric quadrupole transition from the first 2 + state to the ground 0 + state in 16 C is studied through measurement of the lifetime by a recoil shadow method applied to inelastically scattered radioactive 16 C nuclei. The measured lifetime is 75 ± 23 ps, corresponding to a B(E2; 2 + 1 → 0 + ) value of 0.63 ± 0.19 e 2 fm 4 , or 0.26 ± 0.08 Weisskopf units. The transition strength is found to be anomalously small compared to the empirically predicted value.PACS numbers: 23.20. Js, 21.10.Tg, 29.30.Kv Quadrupole strengths are fundamental quantities in probing the collective character of nuclei. The enhancement of the electric quadrupole (E2) transition strength with respect to that of single proton excitation may reflect large fluctuation or deformation of nuclear charge [1]. One of the important E2 transitions in an even-even nucleus is that from the first 2 + (2 + 1 ) state to the ground state (0 + g.s. ), the reduced transition probability B(E2) of which has long been a basic observable in the extraction of the magnitude of nuclear deformation or in probing anomalies in the nuclear structure. With recent advances in techniques for supplying intense beams of unstable nuclei, several exotic properties such as magicity loss [2,3,4] have been discovered in neutron-rich nuclei through measurements of E2 strengths.The present Letter reports lifetime measurements of the 2 + 1 state of the neutron-rich nucleus 16 C. The lifetime is inversely proportional to B(E2). A simple model of a nucleus as a quantum liquid-drop well describes the systematic tendency that B(E2) varies in inverse proportion to the excitation energy E(2 + 1 ) of the 2 + 1 state [5]. For carbon isotopes, when N changes from the magic number 8 to 10, E(2 + 1 ) decreases dramatically from 7.012 to 1.766 MeV [6]. It can then be anticipated that 16 C (N = 10) would have a much larger B(E2) than that of * Electronic address: imai@rarfaxp.riken.go.jp † On leave from ATOMKI, Debrecen, Hungary. ‡ Present address: NSCL Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.14 C (N = 8). Unexpectedly, a remarkably small B(E2) was found for 16 C in the present work. The observed value, in Weisskopf units, turns out to be far smaller than any other B(E2) measured on the nuclear chart.In the present experiment, a new technique was employed to measure the lifetime of an excited state populated in inverse-kinematics reactions. The technique essentially followed the concept of the recoil shadow method (RSM) [7], in which the emission point of the de-excitation γ-ray is located and the γ-ray intensity is recorded as a function of the flight distance of the deexciting nucleus. As the flight velocity of the de-exciting nucleus is close to half the velocity of light, the flight distance over 100 ps corresponds to a macroscopic length of about 1.7 cm. Thus, the present shadow method provides a wide range of applicability, extending to lifetimes of as short as a few tens of ps. In particular, the method is useful for determining the B(E2) value of Z < 10 nucl...

SYNOPSISPolypropylene (PP) and calcium carbonate ( CaC03) were mixed in a two-roll mill. The mixed compounds were molded on the plate by using a compression press heater. To improve the affinity of the relation between CaC03 and the PP matrix, we modified the CaC03 surface through chemical reaction with alkyl dihydrogen phosphates. The CaC03 content and size modification affected the crystallization behavior of the filled PP composites. The crystallization temperature in the nonisothermal crystallization process increased with the increase of CaC03 content and the decrease of CaC03 size. The crystallization temperature revealed the function of log( 1 + T s ) ( T s , total surface area of CaC03) irrespective of CaC03 content and size for modified and unmodified systems, respectively. The shoulder or double crystallization peak of PP composites is recognized for the unmodified system (particle sizes: 1.0 and 4.5 pm) .