Intercalated compounds of montmorillonite and poly-6-amide were prepared by heating mixtures of ɛ-caprolactam and 5, 10, 15 and 30 wt% of montmorillonite, cation-exchanged with NH3+(CH2)11COOH, at 250°C in a nitrogen atmosphere, and examined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and elemental analysis. ɛ-caprolactam was polymerized to poly-6-amide by the heat treatment. The mean number-average molecular weight decreased from 3·6 × 104 to 0·8 × 104 with increasing montmorillonite content. TEM showed that considerable swelling had taken place subsequent to polymerization and that the clay layers were uniformly distributed in the final clay/poly-6-amide products. Both XRD and TEM showed that the basal spacing of the compound increased from 51 Å to 210 Å with increasing polyamide content. The driving force for the swelling was considered to be a combination of the polymerization energy of ɛ-caprolactam and the attractive interaction between the interlayer cation and ɛ-caprolactam.

In this contribution, we briefly describe how an observed mid-infrared (5.5-14 μm) spectrum can be used to trace key physical conditions along a given line of sight, such as the UV radiation field, the ionization parameter and the dust column density. These parameters are often difficult to determine independently from PDR models. The PAHTAT toolbox offers the opportunity to analyze mid-IR spectra using a limited number of parameters, that are associated with the physical properties of the dust and gas being observed.

Low birth weight was associated with cardiometabolic diseases in adult age. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has a crucial role in fetal growth and also associates with cardiometabolic risks in adults. Therefore, we elucidated the association between IGF-1 level and serum lipids in cord blood of preterm infants. The subjects were 41 consecutive, healthy preterm neonates (27 male, 14 female) born at <37-week gestational age, including 10 small for gestational age (SGA) infants (<10th percentile). IGF-1 levels and serum lipids were measured in cord blood, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) and very low-density lipoprotein triglyceride (VLDLTG) levels were determined by HPLC method. SGA infants had lower IGF-1 (13.1 ± 5.3 ng/ml), total cholesterol (TC) (55.0 ± 14.8), LDLC (21.6 ± 8.3) and HDLC (26.3 ± 11.3) levels, and higher VLDLTG levels (19.0 ± 12.7 mg/dl) than in appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants (53.6 ± 25.6, 83.4 ± 18.9, 36.6 ± 11.1, 38.5 ± 11.6, 8.1 ± 7.0, respectively). In simple regression analyses, log IGF-1 correlated positively with birth weight (r = 0.721, P < 0.001), TC (r = 0.636, P < 0.001), LDLC (r = 0.453, P = 0.006), and HDLC levels (r = 0.648, P < 0.001), and negatively with log TG (r = −0.484, P = 0.002) and log VLDL-TG (r = −0.393, P = 0.018). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that IGF-1 was an independent predictor of TC, HDLC and TG levels after the gestational age and birth weight were taken into account. In preterm SGA infants, cord blood lipids profile altered with the concomitant decrease in IGF-1 level.

To increase X-ray photon number generated by laser-cluster interaction, it is important to understand the dependence of X-ray generation on cluster size. We carried out Xe K-shell X-ray generation using a conical nozzle with Xe clusters, the radius of which was controllable by adjusting the backing pressure. The experiment clarifies the result that the Xe K-shell X-ray photon number increases with increasing cluster radius from 8 to 12 nm, and saturates at the radius between 12 and 17 nm. We also investigated the Xe K-shell X-ray photon number dependence on laser intensity, and found that the threshold laser intensity of the Xe K-shell X-ray generation exists between 2 × 1017 and 5 × 1018 W/cm2.

The near-infrared (NIR) spectral range (2–5 μm) contains a number of interesting features for the study of the interstellar medium. In particular, the aromatic and aliphatic components in carbonaceous dust can be investigated most efficiently with the NIR spectroscopy. We analyze NIR spectra of the diffuse Galactic emission taken with the Infrared Camera onboard AKARI and find that the aliphatic to aromatic emission band ratio decreases toward the ionized gas, which suggests processing of the band carriers in the ionized region.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, July 29 – August 2, 2012.

As the binary collision process requires much more computation time, a statistical electron-electron collision model based on modified Langevin equation is developed to reduce it. This collision model and a simple electron-ion scattering model are installed into one-dimensional PIC code, and collisional effects on fast electron generation and transport in fast ignition are investigated. In the collisional case, initially thermal electrons are heated up to a few hundred keV due to direct energy transfer by electron-electron collision, and they are also heated up to MeV by Joule heating induced by electron-ion scattering. Thus the number of low energy component of fast electrons increase than that in the collisionless case.

Within the Herschel key project “The Warm And Dense ISM” (WADI) we systematically observea number of prominent photon-dominated regions (PDRs) to measure the impact of varying UVfields on the energy balance, the chemical and dynamical structure of heated molecularclouds.

Near-infrared (NIR; 2.5–5 μm) low-resolution(λ/Δλ ~ 100) spectra were obtained for anumber of Galactic and extragalactic objects with the Infrared Camera (IRC) in the AKARIwarm mission. These data provide us with the first opportunity to make a systematic studyof the 3.3–3.5 μm PAH features in a galactic scale as well as within anobject. Whereas the 3.3 μm band is well resolved in most spectra, the3.5 μm band is not clearly separated from the 3.4 μmband in the IRC spectrum. The intensity ratio of the summation of the 3.4 and3.5 μm bands to the 3.3 μm band shows a tendency toincrease towards the Galactic center, although a large variation in the ratio is also seenin a local scale. A search for deuterated PAH features in the 4 μm regionis carried out in IRC NIR spectra. Emission lines originating from the ionized gastogether with the detector anomaly hamper an accurate search at certain wavelengths, butlittle convincing evidence has so far been obtained for the presence of significantfeatures in 4.2–4.7 μm. A conservative upper limit of a few percents isobtained for the integrated intensity ratio of the 4.4–4.7 μm possiblefeatures to the 3.3–3.5 μm PAH features in the spectra so farobtained.

Mg1-zCaz (0.03 < z < 0.17) alloy thin films covered with thin Pd are hydrogenated using 4% H2 in Ar under atmospheric pressure at room temperature. The optical indices, which are refractive indices and extinction coefficients, in the wavelength between 250 and 1700 nm of these hydrides were evaluated with spectroscopic ellipsometry. The evaluated refractive indices were about 2.0 for all hydrides, while the extinction coefficients showed the values less than 0.06 in the visible range for hydride with Ca composition of z ≤ 0.08 and the coefficients increased sharply to more than 0.3 with Ca composition z > 0.08.

We report the analysis of the mid-infrared spectral maps observed by Spitzer/IRS toward star-forming regions where the Herschel key program WADI has observed / will observe with HIFI and PACS. The IRS spectra are fitted using 4 components of small grains: PAH0, PAH+, PAHx, and evaporating VSG, and the spatial distributions of these components are derived.

There are few data on circulatory pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and cytokine gene polymorphisms in H. pylori-positive patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the effects of H. pylori infection, gastric atrophy, and the IL-8 T-251A polymorphism on plasma IL-8 levels in 98 Japanese adults. Seventy-one subjects were positive for H. pylori infection. The geometric mean of plasma IL-8 concentration was significantly higher in subjects with H. pylori infection than in those without (P=0·001). The development of atrophy was negatively associated with IL-8 levels in the H. pylori-positive subjects, although not significantly. Plasma IL-8 levels in the T/T genotype were associated with H. pylori infection and atrophy status (P=0·016). Our findings suggested that circulating IL-8 levels were associated with H. pylori infection. The effect of H. pylori infection on plasma IL-8 levels was not clearly modified by the IL-8 T-251A polymorphism.

The wavelength scalings of soft X-ray and hot electron generation efficiencies were studied using 1·05, 0·53, 0·35 and 0·26 μm lasers. A coupling efficiency from absorbed laser energy to compressed fuel core of 4.5% was obtained by using the GEKKO XII green laser.