Structure, Morphology and Color Tone Properties of theNeodymium Substituted Hematite

Co-precipitation method has been employed to fabricate neodymium substituted hematite with different compositions from the aqueous solution of their corresponding metal salts. Thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction studies revealed the coexistence of Fe(2)O(3) and Nd(2)O(3) phases up to 1050℃ and formation of solid solution phase among them at 1100℃ and above temperatures, which was evidenced by shifting of the XRD peaks. Unit cell parameters and the cell volumes of the samples were found to increase by adding Nd(3+) ions in the reaction process. FESEM studies showed the suppression of particle growth due to the presence of Nd(3+) ions. Spectroscopic measurement evidenced that neodymium substituted hematite exhibited brighter yellowish red color tone than that of pure α-Fe(2)O(3)

気管支喘息症例における末梢血白血球のロイコトリエンC4産生能とロイコトリエン受容体括抗薬プランルカストの効果に関する検討

The correlation between the efficacy of 4-weeks administration with pranlukast, leukotriene receptor antagonist, and LTs generation by peripheral leukocytes were evaluated in 18 patients with mild-persistent asthma. The efficacy of pranlukast administration was assessed by symptom, morning PEF and pulmonary function. Pranlukast were effective in 12/18(67%) patients. In those patients, LTC4 generation before pranlukast administration was significantly high, compared with that in pranlukast-ineffective patients. LTC4 generation decreased after 4-weeks administration with pranlukast in effective patients. In ineffective patients, however, LTC4 generation increased after 4-weeks administration. LTB4 had shown no significant difference between effective and ineffective patients before administration, and LTB4 decreased after 4-weeks in both groups. Proport ion of peripheral eosinophi Is in effective patients were higher than that in ineffective patients, however not significant. After 4-weeks, proportion of eosinophi Is was decreased in effective patients and increased in ineffective patients. These findings suggest that pranlukast is effective for patients with high LTC4 generation and has the effect to suppress the accumulation of eosinophils in such patients.軽症気管支喘息18例にロイコトリエン受容体桔抗薬プランルカストを4週間投与し，その効果と末梢血白血球からのLTC4，LTB4産生能の関係を検討した．プランルカストの効果は臨床症状，起床時ピークフロー値，肺機能の変化によって判定し，効果群，非効果群の2群に分類した．18例中12例（67％）の症例がプランルカスト投与により，臨床症状の軽減，ピークフロー値の増加，肺機能の改善が認められた．効果群におけるプランルカスト投与前のLTC4値は，非効果群のLTC4値に比較して有意に高値であった．4週間の投与後には 効果群ではLTC4値は減少し，非効果群では増加した．両群のLTB4値はプランルカスト投与前で有意な差は認められず，投与後には両群で減少した．投与前の好酸球分画は，効果群において非効果群に比べ高値であったが，有意な差は認められなかった．4週間の投与後，効果群においては好酸球は減少し，非効果群においては増加した．以上の結果より，プランルカストは末梢血白血球のLTC4産生能が高い症例において効果的であり，好酸球集積を抑制する作用を有すると考えられる

Preparation and Characterization of Additional Metallic Element-Containing Tubular Iron Oxides of Bacterial Origin

Biogenic microtubular iron oxides (BIOXs) derived from Leptothrix spp. are known as promising multifunctional materials for industrial applications such as ceramic pigments and catalyst carriers. Here, we report unprecedented BIOX products with additive depositions of various metallic elements prepared by a newly devised "two-step" method using an artificial culture system of Leptothrix cholodnii strain OUMS1; the method comprises a biotic formation of immature organic sheaths and subsequent abiotic deposition of Fe and intended elements on the sheaths. Chemical composition ratios of the additional elements Al, Zr, and Ti in the respective BIOXs were arbitrarily controllable depending on initial concentrations of metallic salts added to reaction solutions. Raman spectroscopy exemplified an existence of Fe-O-Al linkage in the Al-containing BIOX matrices. Time-course analyses revealed the underlying physiological mechanism for the BIOX formation. These results indicate that our advanced method can contribute greatly to creations of innovative bioderived materials with improved functionalities

Axial anomaly effect on three-quark and five-quark singly heavy baryons

Effects of the $U(1)_A$ axial anomaly on the mass spectrum of singly heavy baryons (SHBs) is studied in terms of the chiral effective theory based on the chiral linear representation for light flavors. We consider SHBs made of both three quarks ($Qqq$) and five quarks ($Qqqq\bar{q}$). For the three-quark SHBs we prove that the inverse mass hierarchy for the negative-parity $\Lambda_c$ and $\Xi_c$ is realized only when the $U(1)_A$ anomaly is present. For the five-quark SHBs, in contrast, it is found that the $U(1)_A$ anomaly does not change the mass spectrum at the leading order, and accordingly their decay properties induced by emitting a pseudoscalar meson are not affected by the anomaly. Moreover, taking into account small mixings between the three-quark and five-quark SHBs, we find that the observed $\Xi_c$ excited state, either $\Xi_c(2923)$ or $\Xi_c(2930)$, can be consistently regarded as a negative-parity SHB that is dominated by the five-quark component. We also predict a new negative-parity five-quark dominant $\Lambda_c$, whose mass is around $2700$ MeV and the decay width is of order a few MeV, which provides useful information for future experiments to check our description.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure