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A total of 1074 patients with a history of ischemic stroke enrolled in The Recurrent Stroke Prevention Clinical Outcome (RESPECT) Study were assigned to intensive blood pressure (BP) control group (blood pressure < 120/80 mmHg) or standard blood pressure control group (blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg) and were followed up for a mean of 3.9 years. Seventy-eight first recurrent strokes occurred, including 70 ischemic stroke and 8 intracerebral hemorrhage. Intensive treatment did not change annual risk of ischemic stroke (1.74% vs. 1.75%, P = 0.999), but markedly reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke (0.00% vs. 0.39%, P = 0.005). Beneficial effect of intensive BP control were observed for risk of hemorrhagic stroke in the patients with a history of ischemic stroke.

A collection of 33,275 human Gateway entry clones and complementary in vitro protein expression methodologies are described that allow proteome-scale production of human proteins. This 'human protein factory' was validated by expression of 13,364 human proteins and assessment of activity in a variety of assays.

The nucleating effect of silk fibroin nanodisc on the crystallization behavior of poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) was investigated by polarizing optical microscope observations and the differential scanning calorimetry measurements. The experimental results show that the small amount of SFN (only 1%) reduces the induction period and the crystallization half-time while it increases the final degree of crystallinity. It was found that the SFN works as a nucleation agent by increasing the number of nuclei about four times while it does not change the growth rate of spherulites.

A new beamline called the frontier soft-material beamline at BL03XU for soft materials was recently installed at SPring-8, using an in-vacuum undulator. The photon flux can reach 10¹³ photons sec⁻¹ and the energy resolution is about 10⁻⁴ at an energy of 12.4 keV. The present paper introduces details on the instrumental and some of the first scattering data measured at BL03XU, revealing its cutting-edge design and high performance.

Three-dimensional structural analyses of huge spherulites of poly(oxyethylene) (PEG) using X-ray computerized tomography (CT) in blends of PEG and amorphous poly(d,l-lactic acid) are reported for the first time. Slit-shaped cracks that were straight or curved were clearly observed using X-ray CT. Furthermore, they appeared to form a set of spokes, presenting a signature of a huge spherulite. Several aspects that are representative of an axialite structure are presented, and they are in good agreement with the intuitively proposed structural model for axialite long ago, although the size scale is much larger in our study.

We report experimental results of an attempt to control the orientation of cylindrical microdomains using the directional coalescence of non-equilibrium spheres along the stretching direction of a triblock copolymer film specimen. Thermal annealing, which induced the sphere-to-cylinder transition, was performed on the triblock copolymer film under a uniaxially stretched state. Unlike the application of shear flow, cylinder orientation with its long axis parallel to the stretching direction was not achieved by uniaxial stretching.

The new experimental system has been launched by coupling with the measurement techniques, which are grazing incidence small/wide-angle X-ray Scattering (GISWAXS) and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), as well as X-ray reflectivity (XR), at the BL03XU of SPring-8. Using this integrated system, we can achieve to measure the hierarchical structure of the same sample.

The effects of thermal gradient on dynamical behavior of nanoparticles dispersed in polymer matrix were studied by X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. Anisotropic motions of nanoparticles were observed when the sample was kept in a cell using a capillary tube covered with copper block. As the same experiment using another cell without such thermal gradient clearly demonstrated that even the small thermal gradient around the probe windows caused the anisotropic dynamical behavior.

Photooxidation and fragmentation behaviors of itPP were studied. Photooxidation likely occurred in the amorphous regions of itPP due to the higher oxygen diffusion. Surface deterioration was observed on the UV-exposed itPP films. Pressed films exhibited much denser cracks compared to uniaxially oriented itPP films. Notably, cracks in the uniaxially oriented itPP films were formed along the direction of orientation and decreased with increasing draw ratio. The crystalline structure and oriented molecular chains notably inhibited the photooxidative degradation and fragmentation of the itPP films.

The clear experimental results are revealed to confirm that a special type of a diluent can act as an agent of improving the crystallizability of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA). We conducted time-resolved SWAXS to follow the isothermal crystallization of PLLA. The WAXS result shows enhancing effects of the diluent on the crystallization of PLLA such as reducing induction period and accelerating crystallization. The growth of the crystalline lamellae in their thickness direction and the space filling by the stacks of crystalline lamellae are found to be accelerated in the presence of the diluent.

The grain size was quantitatively evaluated on the free surface, and in the thickness direction. The grain growth on the free surface was very slow in the early stage of thermal annealing, then it shifted to a rapid mode with a power law (~t^0.7). While in the thickness direction, the growth followed a power law of t^1.72 until 1180 min, then it shifted to a slow mode with t^0.21. Furthermore, the oriented layer near the free surface was found to be as thick as 9.5 µm, indicating that grain growth serves as a propagator for the regular ordering of spherical microdomains and orientation of the bcc lattice.

We succeeded in elongational crystallization of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) by compressing the supercooled melt. When the elongational strain rate ( ) surpassed a critical value ( *=2×10² s⁻¹), crystallization behavior and structure discontinuously changed. The induction time decreased by 10⁻⁶ times (Figure), the crystal size decreased by 10⁻³ times and morphology changed from spherulites to ‘nano-oriented crystals (NOCs)’. It is concluded that large induced the ‘oriented melt’ and NOCs. The NOCs showed high crystallinity and ultra-high performances, such as high tensile stress (210 MPa).

Significant progress in cylindrical microdomain orientation is reported for a polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-co-butylene)-block-polystyrene triblock copolymer (SEBS-16) as analyzed by two-dimensional small-angle X-ray scattering. To achieve this goal, the morphological transition from sphere to cylinder was utilized. By applying compressional flow to the SEBS-16 specimen undergoing a morphological transition at 210 °C, superior cylinder orientation was achieved compared with the results obtained by applying compressional flow to the SEBS-16 specimen containing the cylindrical phase.

The grain size was evaluated by atomic force microscope observation for the thin film specimen of the polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-co-butylene)-block-polystyrene triblock copolymer in which the perpendicularly oriented polystyrene cylinders are existing, while that in the interior of the specimen was evaluated by the small-angle X-ray scattering measurements. Both results for the grain growth on the surface and in the interior of the sample exhibited power-law behavior with the same extent of the exponent (~0.45).