The thermomechanical properties of a thin film of shape memory polymer of polyurethane series were investigated experimentally. Based on the experimental results, the dynamic mechanical properties, cyclic deformation properties at high temperature, thermomechanical cycling properties, creep and stress relaxation are discussed. The shape fixity with loading above the glass transition temperature followed by unloading below does not change under thermomechanical cycling. The residual strain is recovered in the vicinity of during the heating process. Several applications of the polymer are introduced.

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In order to describe the thermomechanical properties in shape memory polymer of polyurethane series, a thermomechanical constitutive model was developed by modifying a standard linear viscoelastic model. The model involved a slip element due to internal friction and took account of thermal expansion. In order to describe the variation in mechanical properties due to the glass transition, coefficients in the model were expressed by a single exponential function of temperature. Several kinds of thermomechanical tests were carried out. The proposed theory expressed well the thermomechanical properties of the material, such as shape fixity, shape recovery and recovery stress. The proposed model is useful for design of shape-memory polymer elements, in which the amount of recovery deformation, the tightening force and the working start and completion temperatures are specified.

Shape memory polymers (SMP) are lightweight, have a high strain/shape recovery ability, are easy to process, and required properties can be tailored for variety of applications. Recently a number of medical applications have been considered and investigated, especially for polyurethane-based SMP. SMP materials were found to be biocompatible, non-toxic and non-mutagenic. The glass transition temperature (T(g)) can be tailored for shape restoration/self-deployment of clinical devices when inserted in the human body. Newly developed SMP foams, together with cold hibernated elastic memory (CHEM) processing, further broaden their potential biomedical applications. Polyurethane-based SMP are described here and major advantages are identified over other medical materials. Some SMP applications are already used in a clinical setting, whereas others are still in development. Lately, several important applications are being considered for CHEM foams as self-deployable vascular and coronary devices. One example is the endovascular treatment of aneurysms.

CD82, also known as KAI1, was recently identified as a prostate cancer metastasis suppressor gene on human chromosome 11p1.2 (ref. 1). The product of CD82 is KAI1, a 40- to 75-kDa tetraspanin cell-surface protein also known as the leukocyte cell-surface marker CD82 (refs. 1,2). Downregulation of KAI1 has been found to be clinically associated with metastatic progression in a variety of cancers, whereas overexpression of CD82 specifically suppresses tumor metastasis in various animal models. To define the mechanism of action of KAI1, we used a yeast two-hybrid screen and identified an endothelial cell-surface protein, DARC (also known as gp-Fy), as an interacting partner of KAI1. Our results indicate that the cancer cells expressing KAI1 attach to vascular endothelial cells through direct interaction between KAI1 and DARC, and that this interaction leads to inhibition of tumor cell proliferation and induction of senescence by modulating the expression of TBX2 and p21. Furthermore, the metastasis-suppression activity of KAI1 was significantly compromised in DARC knockout mice, whereas KAI1 completely abrogated pulmonary metastasis in wild-type and heterozygous littermates. These results provide direct evidence that DARC is essential for the function of CD82 as a suppressor of metastasis.

Periodic Hamiltonians on a three-dimensional (3-D) lattice with a spectral gap not only on the bulk but also on two edges at the common Fermi level are considered. By using K-theory applied for the quarter-plane Toeplitz extension, two topological invariants are defined. One is defined for the gapped bulk and edge Hamiltonians, and the non-triviality of the other means that the corner Hamiltonian is gapless. A correspondence between these two invariants is proved. Such gapped Hamiltonians can be constructed from Hamiltonians of 2-D type A and 1-D type AIII topological insulators, and its corner topological invariant is the product of topological invariants of these two phases.2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 19K56; Secondary 47B35, 81V99.

The shape fixity and recovery in a film of shape memory polymer of polyurethane series were investigated by the thermomechanical cycling tests with loading at various temperatures. The results are summarized as follows: (1) Strain is recovered at temperatures in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature Tg for loading above Tg, but it is recovered at temperatures in the vicinity of the midpoint temperature of glass transition for loading below Tg. (2) The rate of strain fixity is 98% for loading above Tg, while it decreases with increasing cycles for loading below Tg. (3) The rate of strain recovery for loading above Tg is 98% except for the early cycles. (4) The thermomechanical properties of materials with different Tg are quite alike in spite of the difference in Tg.

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