Atomic force microscopy is a common technique used to determine the elastic properties of living cells. It furnishes the relative Young's modulus, which is typically determined for indentation depths within the range 300-500 nm. Here, we present the results of depth-sensing analysis of the mechanical properties of living fibroblasts measured under physiological conditions. Distributions of the Young's moduli were obtained for all studied cells and for every cell. The results show that for small indentation depths, histograms of the relative values of the Young's modulus described the regions rich in the network of actin filaments. For large indentation depths, the overall stiffness of a whole cell was obtained, which was accompanied by a decrease of the modulus value. In conclusion, the results enable us to describe the non-homogeneity of the cell cytoskeleton, particularly, its contribution linked to actin filaments located beneath the cell membrane. Preliminary results showing a potential application to improve the detection of cancerous cells, have been presented for melanoma cell lines.

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The γ-rays from the decay of the GDR in the compound nucleus reaction 18 O+ 28 Si at bombarding enery of 105 MeV have been measured in an experiment using a setup consisting of the combined EUROBALL IV, HECTOR and EUCLIDES arrays. The shape of the rotating compound nucleus, 46 Ti, is expected to undergo the Jacobi transition around spin 28h. A comparison of the GDR lineshape data with the predictions of the thermal shape fluctuation model, based on the most recent rotating liquid drop LSD calculations, shows evidence for such Jacobi shape transition. In addition to the previously found broad structure in the GDR lineshape region at 18-25 MeV caused by large deformations, the presence of a low energy component (around 10 MeV), due to the Coriolis splitting in prolate, well deformed shape has been identified for the first time.

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