Exchange Bias in the [CoO/Co/Pd]10 Antidot Large Area Arrays

Magnetic nanostructures revealing exchange bias effect have gained a lot of interest in recent years due to their possible applications in modern devices with various functionalities. In this paper, we present our studies on patterned [CoO/Co/Pd]10 multilayer where ferromagnetic material is in a form of clusters, instead of being a continuous layer. The system was patterned using nanosphere lithography technique which resulted in creation of an assembly of well-ordered antidots or islands over a large substrate area. We found that the overall hysteresis loop of the films consists of hard and soft components. The hard component hysteresis loop exhibits a large exchange bias field up to -11 kOe. The patterning process causes a slight increase of the exchange field as the antidot radius rises. We also found that the material on edges of the structures gives rise to a soft unbiased magnetization component.Comment: 5 figure

Chemical order and crystallographic texture of FePd:Cu thin alloy films

FePd thin films have been recently considered as promising material for high-density magnetic storage devices. However, it is necessary to find a proper method of fabrication for the (001)-textured and chemically well-ordered alloy. In this paper, we present the detailed investigations of lattice parameters, chemical order degree, grain sizes and crystallographic texture, carried out on FePd alloys with 10 at.% of Cu addition. The initial [Cu(0.2 nm)/Fe(0.9 nm)/Pd(1.1 nm)]x5 multilayers were thermally evaporated in an ultra-high vacuum on MgO(100), Si(100), Si(111) and Si(100) covered by 100 nm thick layer of amorphous SiO2. In order to obtain homogeneous FePd:Cu alloy, the multilayers were annealed in two different ways. First, the samples were rapidly annealed in nitrogen atmosphere at 600oC for 90 seconds. Next, the long annealing in a high vacuum for 1 hour at 700oC was done. This paper focuses on quantitative investigations of the chemical order degree and crystallographic texture of ternary FePd:Cu alloys deposited on four different substrates. In order to obtain both quantities we have taken a novel approach to consider the problem of dopant atoms located in the FePd structure. The studies of the structure were done using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) performed with synchrotron radiation and pole figures measurements. We have found that the addition of Cu changes the FePd lattice parameters and lattice distortion. We have also shown, that using different substrates it is possible to obtain a FePd:Cu alloy with different chemical order and texture. Moreover, it was observed that texture category is substrate dependent

Rozum-Serce-Smak

Publikacja składa się z dwu zasadniczych części, z których pierwsza zawiera rozprawy poświęcone twórczości Izydory Dąmbskiej, zaś druga - jej pracy własne, publikowane poprzednio w „Kwartalniku Filozoficznym". Tom otwiera wiersz Zbigniewa Herberta „Potęga smaku" dedykowany przez poetę tej wybitnej uczonej, który to utwór dobrze oddaje, w warstwie ideowej, wartości bliskie Dąmbskiej

The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) Light Curve Server v1.0

The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) is working towards imaging the entire visible sky every night to a depth of V~17 mag. The present data covers the sky and spans ~2-5~years with ~100-400 epochs of observation. The data should contain some ~1 million variable sources, and the ultimate goal is to have a database of these observations publicly accessible. We describe here a first step, a simple but unprecedented web interface https://asas-sn.osu.edu/ that provides an up to date aperture photometry light curve for any user-selected sky coordinate. Because the light curves are produced in real time, this web tool is relatively slow and can only be used for small samples of objects. However, it also imposes no selection bias on the part of the ASAS-SN team, allowing the user to obtain a light curve for any point on the celestial sphere. We present the tool, describe its capabilities, limitations, and known issues, and provide a few illustrative examples.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PAS

Risk factors for acute asthma in tropical America: a case-control study in the City of Esmeraldas, Ecuador.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high asthma rates described in Latin America, asthma risk factors in poor urban settings are not well established. We investigated risk factors for acute asthma among Ecuadorian children. METHODS: A matched case-control study was carried out in a public hospital serving a coastal city. Children with acute asthma were age- and sex-matched to non-asthmatics. A questionnaire was administered, and blood, as well as stool, and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected. RESULTS: Sixty cases and 119 controls aged 5-15 were evaluated. High proportions of cases were atopic with population-attributable fractions for atopy of 68.5% for sIgE and 57.2% for SPT. Acute asthma risk increased with greater titers of mite IgE (3.51-50 kU/l vs. 50kU/l vs. <0.70kU/l - OR 41.98, 95% CI: 8.97-196.39, p < 0.001). Asthma risk was significantly independently associated with bronchiolitis (adj. OR: 38.9, 95% CI 3.26-465), parental educational level (adj. OR 1.26, 95% CI: 1.08-1.46), and presence of sIgE (adj. OR: 36.7, 95% CI: 4.00-337), while a reduced risk was associated with current contact with pets (adj. OR: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.01-0.56). Rhinovirus infection was more frequent in cases (cases 35.6% vs. controls 7.8%, p = 0.002). None of the cases were on maintenance therapy with inhaled corticosteroids and most relied on emergency department for control. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of children presenting to a public hospital with acute asthma were allergic to mite, particularly at high IgE titer. Poor asthma control resulted in overuse of emergency care