A lipid extract of Perna canaliculus (New Zealand green-lipped mussel) has reportedly displayed anti-inflammatory effects in animal models and in human controlled studies. However, the anti-inflammatory lipid components have not been investigated in detail due to the instability of the lipid extract, which has made the identification of the distinct active components a formidable task. Considering the instability of the active component, we carefully fractionated a lipid extract of Perna canaliculus (Lyprinol) and detected furan fatty acids (F-acids). These naturally but rarely detected fatty acids show potent radical-scavenging ability and are essential constituents of plants and algae. Based on these data, it has been proposed that F-acids could be potential antioxidants, which may contribute to the protective properties of fish and fish oil diets against chronic inflammatory diseases. However, to date, in vivo data to support the hypothesis have not been obtained, presumably due to the limited availability of F-acids. To confirm the in vivo anti-inflammatory effect of F-acids in comparison with that of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), we developed a semisynthetic preparation and examined its anti-inflammatory activity in a rat model of adjuvant-induced arthritis. Indeed, the F-acid ethyl ester exhibited more potent anti-inflammatory activity than that of the EPA ethyl ester. We report on the in vivo activity of F-acids, confirming that the lipid extract of the green-lipped mussel includes an unstable fatty acid that is more effective than EPA.

Bit patterned media (BPM) is fabricated by a directed self-assembled polymer mask. CoPt magnetic dots with 17 nm pitch (2.5 Tb/in 2 ) consists of ridge-and-groove servo patterns as well as circular data tracks. Distribution of dot size and dot pitch is 16% and 15%, respectively. The position error signal (PES) is estimated numerically employing a simulation model using estimated deviation of dot size and pitch. PES linearity was found to be fairly good in spite of large dot pitch deviation. Distribution of dot size and dot pitch causes distortion in the reproduced waveform, but it does not degrade the phase information of the servo signal. This result indicates that the ridge-and-groove servo has a high tolerance to the amplitude noise and is suitable for BPM. When the width of the read head is close to the dot pitch, the linearity error increases owing to the dot size and dot pitch deviation. Reduction of these distributions is necessary in order to apply BPM to hard disk drives.Index Terms-Bit patterned media, HDD, self-assembled polymer, servo pattern.

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Magnetic nanoparticle arrays have been fabricated by combining chemically synthesized Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles with a diblock copolymer template substrate consisting of self-assembled polystyrene (PS) dots in a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix. The influence of the volume fraction of the Fe(3)O(4) suspending solution and the withdrawal speed of the template on the formation of array structures was investigated. A small volume fraction of the nanoparticles and low withdrawal speed play an important role in the fabrication of the patterned arrays of nanoparticles via template assisted self-assembly. Below a withdrawal speed of 0.5 mm s(-1) and a nanoparticle volume fraction below 0.05 vol% (in particular, at extremely high dilutions of less than 0.01 vol%), the selective deposition of one to several nanoparticles on every single PS dot becomes possible.

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