Electron-Spin Precession in Dependence of the Orientation of the External Magnetic Field

Electron-spin dynamics in semiconductor-based heterostructures has been investigated in oblique magnetic fields. Spins are generated optically by a circularly polarized light, and the dynamics of spins in dependence of the orientation (θ) of the magnetic field are studied. The electron-spin precession frequency, polarization amplitude, and decay rate as a function ofθare obtained and the reasons for their dependences are discussed. From the measured data, the values of the longitudinal and transverse components of the electrong-factor are estimated and are found to be in good agreement with those obtained in earlier investigations. The possible mechanisms responsible for the observed effects are also discussed

Therapy Insight: Parenteral Estrogen treatment for Prostate Cancer—a new dawn for an old therapy

Oral estrogens were the treatment of choice for carcinoma of the prostate for over four decades, but were abandoned because of an excess of cardiovascular and thromboembolic toxicity. It is now recognized that most of this toxicity is related to the first pass portal circulation, which upregulates the hepatic metabolism of hormones, lipids and coagulation proteins. Most of this toxicity can be avoided by parenteral (intramuscular or transdermal) estrogen administration, which avoids hepatic enzyme induction. It also seems that a short-term but modest increase in cardiovascular morbidity (but not mortality) is compensated for by a long-term cardioprotective benefit, which accrues progressively as vascular remodeling develops over time. Parenteral estrogen therapy has the advantage of giving protection against the effects of andropause (similar to the female menopause), which are induced by conventional androgen suppression and include osteoporotic fracture, hot flashes, asthenia and cognitive dysfunction. In addition, parenteral estrogen therapy is significantly cheaper than contemporary endocrine therapy, with substantive economic implications for health providers

Genome-Wide Association Analysis of Oxidative Stress Resistance in Drosophila melanogaster

Background: Aerobic organisms are susceptible to damage by reactive oxygen species. Oxidative stress resistance is a quantitative trait with population variation attributable to the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Drosophila melanogaster provides an ideal system to study the genetics of variation for resistance to oxidative stress. Methods and Findings: We used 167 wild-derived inbred lines of the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel for a genomewide association study of acute oxidative stress resistance to two oxidizing agents, paraquat and menadione sodium bisulfite. We found significant genetic variation for both stressors. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with variation in oxidative stress resistance were often sex-specific and agent-dependent, with a small subset common for both sexes or treatments. Associated SNPs had moderately large effects, with an inverse relationship between effect size and allele frequency. Linear models with up to 12 SNPs explained 67–79 % and 56–66 % of the phenotypic variance for resistance to paraquat and menadione sodium bisulfite, respectively. Many genes implicated were novel with no known role in oxidative stress resistance. Bioinformatics analyses revealed a cellular network comprising DNA metabolism and neuronal development, consistent with targets of oxidative stress-inducing agents. We confirmed associations of seven candidate genes associated with natural variation in oxidative stress resistance through mutational analysis. Conclusions: We identified novel candidate genes associated with variation in resistance to oxidative stress that hav

Measurement of the Top Pair Production Cross Section in the Dilepton Decay Channel in ppbar Collisions at sqrt s = 1.96 TeV

Submitted to Phys. Rev. DA measurement of the \ttbar production cross section in \ppbar collisions at $\sqrt{{\rm s}}$ = 1.96 TeV using events with two leptons, missing transverse energy, and jets is reported. The data were collected with the CDF II Detector. The result in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity 2.8 fb$^{-1}$ is: \sigma_{\ttbar} = 6.27 $\pm$ 0.73(stat) $\pm$ 0.63(syst) $\pm$ 0.39(lum) pb. for an assumed top mass of 175 GeV/$c^{2}$.A measurement of the tt̅ production cross section in pp̅ collisions at √s=1.96  TeV using events with two leptons, missing transverse energy, and jets is reported. The data were collected with the CDF II detector. The result in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity 2.8  fb-1 is σtt̅ =6.27±0.73(stat)±0.63(syst)±0.39(lum)  pb. for an assumed top mass of 175  GeV/c2.Peer reviewe

Disk recording beyond 100 Gb/in.2:hybrid recording? (invited)

\u3cp\u3eA new method for recording above 100 Gb/in.\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e is discussed. We call this method hybrid recording, a form of thermally-assisted recording that combines thermo-magnetic writing and magnetic reading. In order to increase the stability of the recorded information, writing is carried out at an elevated temperature on a medium with a very high coercivity at room temperature. In our proposal write and read heads with extremely narrow trackwidths are used, so the trackwidth is not determined by the optical spot size and the written bits have a rectangular shape, in contrast to the schemes proposed by others. Preliminary experiments are shown. The applicability of today's granular and MO type media for hybrid recording is discussed. It is calculated that hybrid recording on optimized media can give an increase of the areal density of a factor 2.9 in areal density or 7 dB (2.2X) medium SNR improvement in case of Poisson noise and 11 dB (3.4X) in case of transition noise. Practically a factor of about 2 in density is more realistic, pushing limiting densities for longitudinal recording to 100-200 Gb/in.\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e. Typical limitations at very high densities arise from heat dissipation in the head and thermal instability of the medium. Based on simplified model calculations including realistic limitations on medium, head and leads, and today's practical limitations on electronics, comparisons are made between read heads containing a tunnel junction magnetoresistive (TMR) element and containing a giant magnetoresistive element with sense current in the plane (CIP-GMR) or perpendicular to the plane (CPP-GMR) of the sensor films. They show that the signal-to-noise ratio of TMR sensors for areal densities above 15 Gb/in.\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e is not advantageous over GMR sensors with sense current in the plane as long as the junction's tunnel resistance is not drastically reduced to below 10 Ω μm\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e. The CPP-GMR heads are disadvantageous with respect to CIP-GMR heads until the highest densities, 300 Gb/in.\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e, considered.\u3c/p\u3

Giant magnetoresistance and its application in recording heads

A short overview is given of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect and its device applications. As an example of present research topics, the optimization of the ferromagnetic-layer composition of spin valves for application in recording heads is discussed. The influence on output voltage and stability has been investigated in test structures and compared with material parameters that were experimentally obtained from unpatterned films. It is found that in practical applications a small addition of cobalt is advantageous, since, although the output voltage is decreased, it leads to an improvement in reproducibility, linearity, signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range

Spatial resolution of domain copying in a magnetic domain expansion readout disk

In a magnetic amplifying magnetooptical system (MAMMOS) disk, the copying process of a magnetic domain from the recording layer into the readout layer is investigated by using a laser spot diameter of 0.66 µm. Interference between neighboring bits occurs when the spatial resolution of the copy process is larger than half the domain size. It is observed that a reduction of the readout power from 2.3 to 2.0 mW corresponds to a decrease of the copy window from 0.5 to 0.06 µm. As a result, at 2.0 mW packed magnetic domains with a width of only 0.11 µm have been resolved without interference by using domain expansio