Mechanical Properties of Plasticized Cellulose Ester Films at Room and High Temperatures

Cellulose ester is a biomass-derived material and exhibits excellent heat resistance and high transparency, properties required for optical film application. Recently, attention has been paid to cellulose esters due to their potential application as a functional film. Some cellulose esters such as cellulose acetate propionate (CAP) show extraordinary dispersion of orientation birefringence, in which the birefringence increases with increasing wavelength, a property required as a retardation film. The similar behaviour is also observed for cellulose triacetate (CTA) plasticized with tricresyl phosphate (TCP). In this study, the mechanical properties of pure and plasticized CAP and CTA at room and high temperatures are investigated to relate with their birefringence property. At room temperature, CTA film shows a higher brittleness than CAP film. At 15 K above their respective Tg, pure CAP and CTA can be stretched to draw ratio of 5.0 and 2.0, respectively. However, the addition of TCP slightly decreases the stretchability in both CAP and CTA to draw ratio of 4.5 and 1.5, respectively. The stretchability of both pure and plasticized CAP and CTA is found to increase with the increase of stretching temperature, which is useful to increase the value of orientation birefringence as it increases with draw ratio. However, birefringence value becomes lower at higher temperature. Thus, to obtain an optimum value of orientation birefringence, a balance between the draw ratio and stretching temperature has to be considered

Mesoscopic Stern-Gerlach spin filter by nonuniform spin-orbit interaction

A novel spin filtering in two-dimensional electron system with nonuniform spin-orbit interactions (SOI) is theoretically studied. The strength of SOI is modulated perpendicular to the charge current. A spatial gradient of effective magnetic field due to the nonuniform SOI causes the Stern-Gerlach type spin separation. The direction of the polarization is perpendicular to the current and parallel to the spatial gradient. Almost 100 % spin polarization can be realized even without applying any external magnetic fields and without attaching ferromagnetic contacts. The spin polarization persists even in the presence of randomness.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures (2 color figures), to appear in Phys. Rev. B, Rapid Commu

New records of Megaselia (Diptera: Phoridae) reared from fungus sporophores in Japan, including five new species

Megaselia donaldsonae Disney sp. nov., M. flava (Fallén), M. gotoi Disney, M. kanekoi Disney, M. margaretae Disney sp. nov., M. nakayamai Disney sp. nov., M. salteri Disney sp. nov. and M. stepheni Disney sp. nov. were reared from sporophores of fungi

Association Between Risk Factors Including Bone-Derived Biomarkers and Aortic Arch Calcification in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients

Background/Aims: Aortic arch calcification (AoAC) is frequently detected in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients and is associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. We investigated the factors associated with AoAC and analyzed the relationship between the factors including bone-derived biomarkers and AoAC. Methods: We enrolled 389 stable MHD patients. AoAC was assessed using chest-X ray examination. Demographic data was collected in addition to serum levels of biochemical and bone-derived biomarkers, including sclerostin and fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23). Results: Two hundred sixteen patients (55.5%) had AoAC. Patients with AoAC score ≥ 4 were older, with a higher percentage being male, and exhibited lower serum levels of albumin and triglyceride. Serum FGF-23 levels were inversely associated with AoAC severity, and FGF-23was directly related to vascular calcification. Age, gender, and dialysis vintage were independent predictors of AoAC. Conclusion: MHD patients have a high prevalence of AoAC. The grade of AoAC was dependent on older age in association with longer dialysis vintage. Levels of circulating FGF-23 but not sclerostin were related to AoAC severity. Serum FGF-23 levels were independently associated with AoAC