Effect of Immobilization on Insoluble Collagen Concentration and Type I and Type III Collagen Isoforms of Rat Soleus Muscle

Immobilization is often associated with decreased muscle elasticity. This condition is known as muscle contracture; however, the mechanism remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to clarify the mechanism governing muscle contracture in rat soleus muscle by identifying changes in ankle joint mobility, insoluble collagen concentration and type I and type III collagen isoforms following 1- and 3-week immobilizations. Following a 1-week immobilization, range of motion (ROM) of dorsiflexion declined to 90% of the control value; additionally, ROM dropped to 67.5% of the control value after a 3-week immobilization. This finding suggested that ankle joint mobility decreases in conjunction with extended periods of immobilization. Insoluble collagen concentration in soleus muscles, which was unchanged after 1 week of immobilization, increased 3 weeks after immobilization. These results may be indicative of collagen fibers with strong intermolecular cross-links contained in the muscle was made increased relatively by 3 weeks of immobilization. Therefore, the change in intermolecular cross-links may be significant in terms of progress of muscle contracture with longer periods of immobilization. On the other hand, the ratio of type III to type I collagen isoforms in muscular tissue increased following a 1-week immobilization; moreover, this ratio remained constant after 3 weeks of immobilization. These data suggested that muscle immobilization may induce type III collagen isoform expression. The increase in the ratio of type III to type I collagen isoforms do not change in parallel with the increase in the limitation in ROM; however, this phenomenon probably is not closely related to the progress of muscle contracture. The change of collagen isoform in immobilized muscle may be involved in the mechanism governing the progression of muscle fibrosis.     

Determination of sulphide ion at trace levels by ethylation and gas chromatography

Summary A method is described for the determination of sulphide ion in aqueous samples by gas chromatography. Sulphide is ethylated with diethyl sulphate and the resulting diethyl sulphide is extracted with chloroform and determined with a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization or a flame photometric detector. In the case of a flame photometric detector, the detection limit for sulphide ion is 0.05 g/ml. Other anions commonly found with sulphide ion do not interfere. Sulphide ion in spring waters was analysed by this new method and for comparison also by colorimetry (methylene blue). The results revealed the reliability of the new method.

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Bestimmung von Sulfidspuren durch Ethylierung und Gas-Chromatographie

Zusammenfassung Sulfid wird mit Diethylsulfat ethyliert, das gebildete Diethylsulfid mit Chloroform extrahiert und gaschromatographisch mit Hilfe eines Flammenionisationsoder eines flammenphotometrischen Detektors bestimmt. Die Nachweisgrenze beträgt 0,05 g S/ml für den FPD. Anionen, die üblicherweise mit Sulfid zusammen vorkommen, stören nicht. Das Verfahren wurde, im Vergleich mit der colorimetrischen Methylenblaumethode, auf Quellwasser angewendet. Es wurde gute Übereinstimmung der Ergebnisse erzielt.

     

Estimation of monomer reactivity ratios by nonlinear least-squares procedure with consideration of the weight of experimental data

To obtain the optimum values of the monomer reactivity ratios for the copolymerization systems with largely different reactivities between both monomers, a nonlinear least-squares procedure which took into account the weights of experimental data, was proposed and discussed. The weights of the data were treated for the errors arisen from the amounts of monomers charged, the densities of monomers, the weights of copolymer formed, and the composition of copolymer. The least-squares procedure with the consideration of the weights was applicable to both differentiated equation and integrated equation derived by Lewis and Mayo. This procedure was applied to radical copolymerizations of α-substituted crotonic esters with styrene, and reasonable monomer reactivity ratios were obtained. It was noted that errors from the copolymer composition were more important than those from the other factors and that the use of the integrated equation was recommended even when the copolymers were isolated at low conversions.     

Organic homojunction diodes with a high built-in potential: interpretation of the current-voltage characteristics by a generalized Einstein relation

We realize p- and n-type doping of the organic semiconductor zinc-phthalocyanine using a novel strong organic donor. This allows us to demonstrate the first stable and reproducible organic p-n homojunctions. The diodes show very high built-in potentials, attractive, e.g., for organic solar cells. However, the diode characteristics cannot be described by the standard Shockley theory of the p-n junction since the ideality factor strongly increases with decreasing temperature. We show that this behavior can be explained by deviations from the Einstein relation for disordered materials.     

Electromagnetically induced diffraction in sodium vapor

By using a sodium atomic vapor we have observed a honeycomb-type multiple-diffraction pattern that was due to a grating induced optically by three noncollinear bichromatic excitation beams. In particular, when the two incident frequencies satisfy the two-photon resonance condition and the atomic density is high, the diffraction is enhanced by electromagnetically induced transparency, and strong Stokes and anti-Stokes components are generated in well-defined directions.     

Single-particle light scattering study of polyethyleneglycol-grafted poly(ureaurethane) microcapsule in ethanol

Microcapsules having polyethyleneglycol-grafted poly(ureaurethane) (PUU) membrane and di-2ethylhexyl phthalate core have been prepared, and the structure when they were suspended in dispersing ethanol have been studied by means of single-particle light scattering method. The PUU membrane was synthesized from monomers with aromatic functional groups (microcapsule MC110) and hexamethylene functional groups (microcapsule MC160). Because the outer and inner solvent passed through the membrane easily, the outside and inside of the membrane were the same at the equilibrium state. The thickness of the wall membrane was significantly smaller than that calculated from the overall weight ratio of the wall-forming material and the core solvents. It was attributed to low affinity of PUU membranes and ethanol.     

Positive Operator Majorization and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-hyponormality

In this note we examine the relationships between p-hyponormal operators and the operator inequality . This leads to a method for generating examples of p-hyponormal operators which are not q-hyponormal for any . Our methods are also shown to have implications for the class of Furuta type inequalities.