Molecular correlations in sheared thermotropic copolyesters showing banded textures

Banded textures produced in a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer by shearing between glass slides are examined by using both transmission electron and polarized light microscopy. The periodic variation in director orientation about the shear axis, as measured by light microscopy, is shown to be distinctly different from that indicated by electron diffraction. Measurements of birefringence and observation of Zernicke phase contrast indicate periodic variations in optical properties of the polymer, in step with the bands. Such effects are accounted for in terms of a synchronous rotation of the planar aromatic groups about the molecular chain axes. Evidence for an out-of-plane component of molecular orientation is also presented.     

Analysis of wide-angle X-ray diffraction patterns of aligned glassy polymers with particular references to polystyrene

Improvement of WAXD patterns from aligned glassy polymers by a numerical desmearing technique is reported. This gives a fibre type diffraction pattern that can be more easily interpreted than radial or cylindrical distribution functions. Application to atactic and quenched isotactic polystyrene shows that the molecular conformations that are found are in agreement with those deduced from i.r. and n.m.r. spectroscopy. For isotactic polystyrene there is significant agreement between the fibre pattern of the aligned glassy polymer and that of the drawn crystalline polymer.     

Radial distribution functions of non-crystalline polymers and their application to the structural analysis of PMMA

The use of Radial Distribution Functions (RDFs) in the determination of the structure of non-crystalline polymers is briefly reviewed. Particular aspects of the procedure for preparing RDFs from X-ray scattering are discussed in detail; namely the employment of an energy dispersive detector to remove the Compton component of the scattered X-rays and the application of the method of sampled transforms. A RDF is presented for atactic polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and its precision and reliability are discussed. It is analysed by comparison with RDFs calculated from computer-generated atom co-ordinates for isolated lengths of PMMA chains in different conformations. Methods are introduced by which the calculated RDFs are smeared to account for random disorder in the real chain and normalized so that, despite the finite range of the model, they can be immediately compared with the difference RDF which is directly obtained by transforming the data. Comparison between experimental and calculated RDFs shows that reasonable agreement is only obtained for a very limited range of conformations corresponding to sequences of backbone bond rotation angles of (10, 10, –10, –10) and the bond angles alternately 110 and 128. The form of the RDF appears very sensitive to important aspects of the molecular structure. The results both confirm and refine an earlier proposal from this laboratory which was based on comparisons between experimental and calculated functions in reciprocal space.     

Three‐Dimensional Internal Order in Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition (Adv. Mater. 6/2005)

Unprecedented levels of internal order are obtained in multiwalled carbon nanotubes grown by chemical vapor deposition with a nitrogen‐doping level of 3% in work reported by Windle and co‐workers on p. 760. Not only is each of the tubular layers of the same orientation (chirality), but they also appear to be in three‐dimensional crystallographic register with one another as shown by the hkl reflections on the cover. The tubes are also straighter and thicker than pure carbon equivalents. The layers are either pure zigzag or pure armchair with spacings close to that of graphite.     

The electro-structural behaviour of yarn-like carbon nanotube fibres immersed in organic liquids

Yarn-like carbon nanotube (CNT) fibres are a hierarchically-structured material with a variety of promising applications such as high performance composites, sensors and actuators, smart textiles, and energy storage and transmission. However, in order to fully realize these possibilities, a more detailed understanding of their interactions with the environment is required. In this work, we describe a simplified representation of the hierarchical structure of the fibres from which several mathematical models are constructed to explain electro-structural interactions of fibres with organic liquids. A balance between the elastic and surface energies of the CNT bundle network in different media allows the determination of the maximum lengths that open junctions can sustain before collapsing to minimize the surface energy. This characteristic length correlates well with the increase of fibre resistance upon immersion in organic liquids. We also study the effect of charge accumulation in open interbundle junctions and derive expressions to describe experimental data on the non-ohmic electrical behaviour of fibres immersed in polar liquids. Our analyses suggest that the non-ohmic behaviour is caused by progressively shorter junctions collapsing as the voltage is increased. Since our models are not based on any property unique to carbon nanotubes, they should also be useful to describe other hierarchical structures.     

An ESR Spin Probe Study of Potato Starch Gelatinization

Potato starch granules in excess water exhibit three distinct starch-water stages between approximately 25° to 50°C, 50° to 70°C, and 70° to 90°C corresponding to a pre-gelatinization, a gelatinization and a post-gelatinization stage, respectively. The mobility of the absorbed water and the starch-water interaction in the first two stages depends strongly upon the initial state of hydration of the granules. By the end of the gelatinization stage, the mobility of the water in the gel is the same regardless of the initial state of hydration of the granules. Upon cooling to room temperature the mobility of the gel water decreases to a corresponding viscosity of about an order of magnitude greater than for liquid water.     

Dissemination of the Coping Power program: Importance of intensity of counselor training.

This study examined an important but rarely investigated aspect of the dissemination process: the intensity of training provided to practitioners. Counselors in 57 schools were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: Coping Power–training plus feedback (CP-TF), Coping Power–basic training (CP-BT), or a comparison condition. CP-TF counselors produced reductions in children’s externalizing behavior problems and improvements in children’s social and academic skills in comparison to results for target children in both the comparison and the CP-BT conditions. Training intensity was critical for successful dissemination, although the implementation mechanism underlying this effect remains unclear, as condition effects were not significant for completion of session objectives but were significant for the quality of counselors’ engagement with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In-situ deformation of an open-cell flexible polyurethane foam characterised by 3D computed microtomography

The deformation behaviour of an open-cell flexible polyurethane foam was observed using X-ray microtomography on the ID19 beamline at the ESRF in Grenoble, France. Tomographs, consisting of 1024 voxels cubed, were collected with a voxel size of 6.6 m from a small region near the centre of the foam at a range of compressive strains between 0 and 80%. The results show that the initial stages of compression are taken up by small amounts of elastic bending in struts that are inclined to the compression direction. At 23% strain, entirely collapsed bands were observed in the structure. By 63% strain, there was evidence of struts impinging on each other, corresponding to the densification regime. The compression of an irregular foam (i.e. one with strut length and cell size distributions) appears to involve a sudden change in modulus, accompanied by localised increases in density. Observations of this nature would have been extremely difficult to interpret unambiguously without the ability to carry out sequential microtomographic imaging under realistic in situ loading conditions. The process of finite element analysis (FEA) was begun by constructing node-strut models from the experimental data by a mathematical skeletonisation process. These were used to derive node coordination, strut-length and cell-size distributions. However, direct comparison of the elastic properties with FEA was hampered by the absence of periodicity in the experimentally determined foam structures.     

Reciprocal regulation of neu tyrosine kinase activity and caveolin-1 protein expression in vitro and in vivo. Implications for human breast cancer

Neu (c-erbB2) is a proto-oncogene product that encodes an epidermal growth factor-like receptor tyrosine kinase. Amplification of wild-type c-Neu and mutational activation of Neu (Neu T) have been implicated in oncogenic transformation of cultured fibroblasts and mammary tumorigenesis in vivo. Here, we examine the relationship between Neu tyrosine kinase activity and caveolin-1 protein expression in vitro and in vivo. Recent studies have suggested that caveolins may function as negative regulators of signal transduction. Our current results show that mutational activation of c-Neu down-regulates caveolin-1 protein expression, but not caveolin-2, in cultured NIH 3T3 and Rat 1 cells. Conversely, recombinant overexpression of caveolin-1 blocks Neu-mediated signal transduction in vivo. These results suggest a reciprocal relationship between c-Neu tyrosine kinase activity and caveolin-1 protein expression. We next analyzed a variety of caveolin-1 deletion mutants to map this caveolin-1-dependent inhibitory activity to a given region of the caveolin-1 molecule. Results from this mutational analysis show that this functional in vivo inhibitory activity is contained within caveolin-1 residues 32-95. In accordance with these in vivo studies, a 20-amino acid peptide derived from this region (the caveolin-1 scaffolding domain) was sufficient to inhibit Neu autophosphorylation in an in vitro kinase assay. To further confirm or refute the relevance of our findings in vivo, we next examined the expression levels of caveolin-1 in mammary tumors derived from c-Neu transgenic mice. Our results indicate that dramatic reduction of caveolin-1 expression occurs in mammary tumors derived from c-Neu-expressing transgenic mice and other transgenic mice expressing downstream effectors of Neu-mediated signal transduction, such as Src and Ras. Taken together, our data suggest that a novel form of reciprocal negative regulation exists between c-Neu and caveolin-1.     

Feeding value of fermented waste milk with or without sodium bicarbonate for dairy calves

Effects of feeding waste milk from antibiotic-treated cows on growth, feed efficiency, and incidence of scours of dairy calves were studied. Twenty-four newborn Holstein heifer calves were assigned at random to one of the following treatments: 1) fresh normal milk, 2) fresh waste milk, 3) fermented waste milk, or 4) fermented waste milk plus sodium bicarbonate. Means for fat, crude protein, and total solids in normal milk (3.25, 3.05, and 11.84%) were lower than the same components for fresh waste milk (3.82, 3.42, and 12.59%) and fermented waste milk (4.02, 3.42, and 12.74%). Mean pH's for normal milk, fresh waste milk, and fermented waste milk were 6.6, 6.6, and 5.1. Calves were fed colostrum the first 3 days of life, and their respective treatment milk at 10% of body weight for 42 days. Dry calf feed was offered ad libitum beginning on day 4, and water was available at all times. Mean weight gains (kg) and ratios of average dry feed to gain (kg/kg) for the 42-day treatments were: 1) 19.2, .6; 2) 17.6, .6; 3) 19.6, .7; and 4) 20.1, .6. Incidence of scours was measured as number of days that scours were present per calf during the 42 days. Mean scour days for each group were: 1) 2.0, 2) 1.8, 3) 3.0, and 4) 4.8. There were no detrimental effects on calves fed fresh or fermented milk from cows treated with antibiotics. Addition of sodium bicarbonate did not affect acceptance of fermented milk by calves.