Magnetic interactions in EuTe epitaxial layers and EuTe/PbTe superlattices

The magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic (AFM) EuTe epitaxial layers and short period EuTe/PbTe superlattices (SLs), grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (111) BaF$_2$ substrates, were studied by magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements. Considerable changes of the N\'eel temperature as a function of the EuTe layer thickness as well as of the strain state were found. A mean field model, taking into account the variation of the exchange constants with the strain-induced lattice distortions, and the nearest neighbor environment of a Eu atoms, was developed to explain the observed $T_{\text N}$ changes in wide range of samples. Pronounced interlayer magnetic correlations have been revealed by neutron diffraction in EuTe/PbTe SLs with PbTe spacer thickness up to 60 \AA. The observed diffraction spectra were analyzed, in a kinematical approximation, assuming partial interlayer correlations characterized by an appropriate correlation parameter. The formation of interlayer correlations between the AFM EuTe layers across the nonmagnetic PbTe spacer was explained within a framework of a tight-binding model. In this model, the interlayer coupling stems from the dependence of the total electronic energy of the EuTe/PbTe SL on the spin configurations in adjacent EuTe layers. The influence of the EuTe and PbTe layer thickness fluctuations, inherent in the epitaxial growth process, on magnetic properties and interlayer coupling is discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, accepted to PR

How does gender influence the recognition of cardiovascular risk and adherence to self-care recommendations? : a study in polish primary care

Background: Studies have shown a correlation between gender and an ability to change lifestyle to reduce the risk of disease. However, the results of these studies are ambiguous, especially where a healthy lifestyle is concerned. Additionally, health behaviors are strongly modified by culture and the environment. Psychological factors also substantially affect engagement with disease-related lifestyle interventions. This study aimed to examine whether there are differences between men and women in the frequency of health care behavior for the purpose of reducing cardiovascular risk (CVR), as well as cognitive appraisal of this type of risk. We also aimed to identify the psychological predictors of engaging in recommended behavior for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease after providing information about this risk in men and women. Methods: A total of 134 consecutive eligible patients in a family practice entered a longitudinal study. At initial consultation, the individual’s CVR and associated health burden was examined, and preventive measures were recommended by the physician. Self-care behavior, cognitive appraisal of risk, and coping styles were then assessed using psychological questionnaires. Six months after the initial data collection, the frequency of subjects’ self-care behavior was examined. Results: We found an increase in health care behavior after providing information regarding the rate of CVR in both sexes; this increase was greater for women than for men. Women followed self-care guidelines more often than men, particularly for preventive measures and dietary advice. Women were more inclined to recognize their CVR as a challenge. Coping style, cognitive appraisal, age, level of health behaviors at baseline and CVR values accounted for 48% of the variance in adherence to self-care guidelines in women and it was 52% in men. In women, total risk of CVD values were most important, while in men, cognitive appraisal of harm/loss was most important. Conclusions: Different predictors of acquisition of health behavior are encountered in men and women. Our results suggest that gender-adjusted motivation models influencing the recognition process need to be considered to optimize compliance in patients with CVR

Experimental investigations of additional gas extraction inside a cyclone

The paper presents the results of investigations on a cyclone with additional gas extraction. The experiments were performed in the cyclone with a diameter of 0.2 m equipped with a truncated counter-cone situated in the dust bin inlet. The gas stream flowing through the counter-cone was 10 and 20% of the gas supplied to the cyclone. The separation efficiencies and pressure loss were measured. The experiment showed that the extraction of gas by the counter-cone deteriorated the cyclone efficiency and forcing the outflow of gas through the counter-cone requires the use of an additional outlet fan

Correlations of spin splitting and orbital fluctuations due to 1/f charge noise in the Si/SiGe Quantum Dot

Fluctuations of electric fields can change the position of a gate-defined quantum dot in a semiconductor heterostructure. In the presence of magnetic field gradient, these stochastic shifts of electron's wavefunction lead to fluctuations of electron's spin splitting. The resulting spin dephasing due to charge noise limits the coherence times of spin qubits in isotopically purified Si/SiGe quantum dots. We investigate the spin splitting noise caused by such process caused by microscopic motion of charges at the semiconductor-oxide interface. We compare effects of isotropic and planar displacement of the charges, and estimate their densities and typical displacement magnitudes that can reproduce experimentally observed spin splitting noise spectra. We predict that for defect density of $10^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$, visible correlations between noises in spin splitting and in energy of electron's ground state in the quantum dot, are expected.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Diagnostic of the temperature and differential emission measure (DEM) based on <I>Hinode</I>/XRT data

We discuss here various methodologies and an optimal strategy of the temperature and emission measure diagnostics based on Hinode X-Ray Telescope data. As an example of our results we present the determination of the temperature distribution of the X-rays emitting plasma using a filters ratio method and three various methods of the calculation of the differential emission measure (DEM). We have found that all these methods give results similar to the two filters ratio method. Additionally, all methods of the DEM calculation gave similar solutions. We can state that the majority of the pairs of the Hinode filters allows one to derive the temperature and emission measure in the isothermal plasma approximation using standard diagnostics based on the two filters ratio method. In cases of strong flares one can also expect good conformity of the results obtained using a Withbroe – Sylwester, genetic algorithm and least-squares methods of the DEM evaluation

Zastosowanie modelowania numerycznego w analizie pracy fragmentu sieci kanalizacji deszczowej

The increase in paved surfaces area in cities, in relation to the natural permeable areas, results in increased loads of pollutants transported by the storm sewage system directly to the receivers. Storm wastewater, as it was reported in literature, in dependence to the type and of urbanized basin and manner of drainage contains significant concentration of pollutants, mainly: Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TP), heavy metals and oil derivatives. In according with the Water Framework Directive, in many European countries, the alternative methods of managing rain sewage are being developed, allowing retention and purification of storm water at the place of its formation. In the case of existing storm swage networks, the numerical analysis of hydraulic conditions and quantitative assessment of transported pollutants may support actions taken to protect the natural ecosystems against the exceeding the permissible concentrations of pollutants. This paper presents the results of modelling of hydraulic parameters and quality conditions of storm wastewater in a selected part of the urban storm sewage system. The USEPA’s (United States Environmental Protection Agency) software SWMM 5 (Storm Water Management Model) was applied to our studies. Three different rainfall events of various intensity and time duration were studied in our research. The conducted simulation tests enabled the analysis of the sewage flow rate, the canals filling height as well as the concentrations and loads of TSS, TP, TN at the outlet from the sewage system to the receiver. The results of the performed calculations showed that in the case of low-intensity rainfall, the unfavourable hydraulic conditions are present in the studied network. At the same time, the occurrence of storm event or extreme rainfall can lead to the flushing of deposits collected at the basin surface as well as at the bottom of pipes and the increase in loads of pollutants transported to the receiver.Wzrost udziału powierzchni utwardzonych w stosunku do naturalnych powierzchni przepuszczalnych miast powoduje wzrost ładunków zanieczyszczeń przenoszonych przez system kanalizacji deszczowej bezpośrednio do odbiorników. Ścieki deszczowe, jak wykazują badania literaturowe, w zależności od sposobu wykorzystania odwadnianej powierzchni zurbanizowanej przenoszą znaczne ładunki zanieczyszczeń, głównie zawiesiny ogólnej, ChZT, BZT, metali ciężkich czy związków ropopochodnych. Zgodnie z Ramową Dyrektywą Wodną w wielu krajach europejskich podejmowane są działania mające na celu rozwój alternatywnych metod zagospodarowania ścieków deszczowych, umożliwiających ich zatrzymywanie i oczyszczanie w miejscu ich powstawania. W przypadku istniejących już sieci deszczowych numeryczna analiza warunków hydraulicznych oraz ocena ilościowa transportowanych zanieczyszczeń może wspomóc działania podejmowane w celu ochrony naturalnych ekosystemów przed wzrostem/przekroczeniem dopuszczalnych stężeń zanieczyszczeń. W pracy zaprezentowano wyniki badań modelowych warunków hydraulicznych oraz jakościowych transportowanych ścieków deszczowych w wybranym fragmencie sieci deszczowej. Badania przeprowadzono w programie SWMM 5 przy założeniu zróżnicowanego natężenia deszczu oraz czasu jego trwania. Przeprowadzone badania symulacyjne umożliwiły analizę prędkości przepływu ścieków, wysokości napełnienia ścieków w przewodach, a także stężeń i ładunków zanieczyszczeń zawiesiny ogólnej, fosforu i azotu na wylocie z układu kanalizacyjnego do odbiornika. Wyniki przeprowadzonych obliczeń wykazały, iż w sieci kanalizacji deszczowej w przypadku opadów o niewielkim natężeniu panują niesprzyjające warunki hydrauliczne. Jednocześnie występowanie deszczów burzowych czy ekstremalnych może prowadzić do wymywania osadów zgromadzonych na dnie przewodów i wzrostu zanieczyszczeń przenoszonych do odbiornika

6.7 GHz methanol masers at sites of star formation

We report the results of an unbiased survey for 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission of a ~21 deg2 strip of the Galactic plane carried out with the 32 m Toruń radio telescope. An area at 20°$\le l\le$ 40°, $|b|\le$ 0\fdg52 was surveyed in an equilateral triangular grid with a sensitivity limit of about 1.6 Jy. We detected a total of 100 sources, 26 of which are new detections. All the new sources are of moderate intensity and their peak flux densities have median value of 6.5 Jy, i.e. about half that of previously known sources in the sample. About 80% of maser sources have IR counterpart candidates within a 1\arcmin radius but not all the IRAS counterparts of methanol masers have colours typical of ultracompact HII regions. An excess of masers unassociated with IR sources occurs at 30\degr < l < 35\degr because of incompleteness of IR catalogues due to strong confusion near the tangential region of the spiral arm. Our unbiased survey doubled the number of detections as compared to IRAS-based observations. Within the positional uncertainty of 1\arcmin about one third of the methanol sources have radio continuum counterparts at 5 GHz of a flux density greater than 2.5–10 mJy. The distribution of methanol sources appears to be consistent with a clustered mode of formation of massive stars

Varying Calcium Abundances in Solar Flares Seen by the Solar Maximum Mission

We report on calcium abundance A (Ca) estimates during the decay phases of 194 solar X-ray flares using archived data from the Bent Crystal Spectrometer (BCS) on the Solar Maximum Mission (operational 1980–1989). The abundances are derived from the ratio of the total calcium X-ray line emission in BCS channel 1 to that in neighboring continuum, with temperature from a satellite-to-resonance line ratio. Generally, the calcium abundance is found to be about 3 times the photospheric abundance, as previously found, indicating a “first ionization potential” (FIP) effect for calcium, which has a relatively low FIP value. The precision of the abundance estimates (referred to hydrogen on a logarithmic scale with A (H) = 12), is typically ∼± 0.01, enabling any time variations of A (Ca) during the flare decay to be examined. For a total of 270 short time segments with A (Ca) determined to better than 2.3% accuracy, many (106; 39%) showed variations in A (Ca) at the 3 σ level. For the majority, in 74 (70%) of these 106 segments A (Ca) decreased with time, and for 32 (30%) A (Ca) increased with time. For 79 out of 270 (29%) we observed constant or nearly constant A (Ca), and the remaining 85 (31%) with irregular time behavior. A common feature was the presence of discontinuities in the time behavior of A (Ca). Relating these results to the ponderomotive force theory of Laming, we attribute the nature of varying A (Ca) to the emergence of loop structures in addition to the initial main loop, each with its characteristic calcium abundance

Interlayer Coupling in EuS-Based Superlattices Deduced from Neutron Scattering Experiments

The ferromagnetic/diamagnetic semiconductor superlattices, EuS/PbS and EuS/YbSe, were studied by neutron reflectivity. In order to determine the strength of the interlayer coupling, the intensity of the first magnetic Bragg peak vs. applied external magnetic field was measured. Additionally, the in-plane anisotropy and the domain structure were studied by polarized neutron reflectivity. The dependence of the intensity of the antiferromagnetic neutron reflectivity peak vs. magnetic field was simulated using a Stoner-Wohlfarth model. To reproduce the observed spectra it was necessary to take into account the presence of fluctuations of the nonmagnetic layers thickness, by assuming a Gaussian spread of the interlayer coupling constant $J$. For both EuS/PbS and EuS/YbSe superlattices, the best fit was obtained for the directions of the in-plane easy axes, which agree with those determined by polarized neutron reflectivity