Microscopic Theory of Damon-Eshbach Modes in Ferromagnetic Films

The surface spin wave branches in ferromagnetic films are studied using a microscopic theory which considers both magnetic dipole-dipole and Heisenberg exchange interactions. The dipole terms are expressed in a Hamiltonian formalism, and the dipole sums are calculated in a rapidly convergent form. The Damon-Eshbach surface modes are analyzed for different directions of the spin-wave propagation and also for different ratios of the strength of the dipole interactions relative to the exchange interactions. Numerical results are presented using parameters for Fe and GdCl$_3$.Comment: 9 pages including figures, Revtex, to appear in the proceedings of the ICM 200

Soziale Unterstützung und Betreuungsbedarf bei Patienten während Strahlentherapie

Die soziale Unterstützung wurde bisher im onkologischen Kontext nur wenig beachtet. Sie erweist sich jedoch als ein zentraler Faktor für die Bereiche Lebensqualität, Krankheitsverarbeitung und Depression. Ärzte besitzen neben der Familie das höchste Potential zur Unterstützung der Patienten und haben einen direkten Zugang zum Patienten, durch den averse Schranken gegen Betreuungsmaßnahmen abgebaut werden können. Dieses Potential sollte verstärkt bewußt gemacht und genutzt werden. Auch die Bezugspersonen (Partner, Familie) sollten als - selbst belastete - Hauptquelle der sozialen Unterstützung Ansprechpartner finden. Patienten mit nur geringer sozialer Unterstützung äußern von sich aus verstärkt den Wunsch nach psychosozialer Unterstützung. Diesem sollte mit einem auf die jeweiligen Bedürfnisse der Klinik und des Patientenkollektivs ausgerichteten Unterstützungsprogramm begegnet werden. Betreuungs- oder Behandlungsbedarf, der nicht durch die Klinik erfüllt werden kann, bedarf einer Weitervermittlung an entsprechende Fachrichtungen, um eine umfassende Behandlung zu gewährleisten. Insbesondere depressive Patienten bedürfen vermehrter Unterstützung

Principle-based structured case discussions: do they foster moral competence in medical students?

BACKGROUND: Recent findings suggest that medical students' moral competence decreases throughout medical school. This pilot study gives preliminary insights into the effects of two educational interventions in ethics classes on moral competence among medical students in Munich, Germany. METHODS: Between 2012 and 2013, medical students were tested using Lind's Moral Competence Test (MCT) prior to and after completing different ethics classes. The experimental group (EG, N = 76) participated in principle-based structured case discussions (PBSCDs) and was compared with a control group with theory-based case discussions (TBCDs) (CG, N = 55). The pre/post C-scores were compared using a Wilcoxon Test, ANOVA and effect-size calculation. RESULTS: The C-score improved by around 3.2 C-points in the EG, and by 0.2 C-points in the CG. The mean C-score difference was not statistically significant for the EG (P = 0.14) or between the two groups (P = 0.34). There was no statistical significance for the teachers' influence (P = 0.54) on C-score. In both groups, students with below-average (M = 29.1) C-scores improved and students with above-average C-scores regressed. The increase of the C-Index was greater in the EG than in the CG. The absolute effect-size of the EG compared with the CG was 3.0 C-points, indicating a relevant effect. CONCLUSION: Teaching ethics with PBSCDs did not provide a statistically significant influence on students' moral competence, compared with TBCDs. Yet, the effect size suggests that PBSCDs may improve moral competence among medical students more effectively. Further research with larger and completely randomized samples is needed to gain definite explanations for the results

Principle-based structured case discussions: do they foster moral competence in medical students?

BACKGROUND: Recent findings suggest that medical students' moral competence decreases throughout medical school. This pilot study gives preliminary insights into the effects of two educational interventions in ethics classes on moral competence among medical students in Munich, Germany. METHODS: Between 2012 and 2013, medical students were tested using Lind's Moral Competence Test (MCT) prior to and after completing different ethics classes. The experimental group (EG, N = 76) participated in principle-based structured case discussions (PBSCDs) and was compared with a control group with theory-based case discussions (TBCDs) (CG, N = 55). The pre/post C-scores were compared using a Wilcoxon Test, ANOVA and effect-size calculation. RESULTS: The C-score improved by around 3.2 C-points in the EG, and by 0.2 C-points in the CG. The mean C-score difference was not statistically significant for the EG (P = 0.14) or between the two groups (P = 0.34). There was no statistical significance for the teachers' influence (P = 0.54) on C-score. In both groups, students with below-average (M = 29.1) C-scores improved and students with above-average C-scores regressed. The increase of the C-Index was greater in the EG than in the CG. The absolute effect-size of the EG compared with the CG was 3.0 C-points, indicating a relevant effect. CONCLUSION: Teaching ethics with PBSCDs did not provide a statistically significant influence on students' moral competence, compared with TBCDs. Yet, the effect size suggests that PBSCDs may improve moral competence among medical students more effectively. Further research with larger and completely randomized samples is needed to gain definite explanations for the results

JCat: a novel tool to adapt codon usage of a target gene to its potential expression host

A novel method for the adaptation of target gene codon usage to most sequenced prokaryotes and selected eukaryotic gene expression hosts was developed to improve heterologous protein production. In contrast to existing tools, JCat (Java Codon Adaptation Tool) does not require the manual definition of highly expressed genes and is, therefore, a very rapid and easy method. Further options of JCat for codon adaptation include the avoidance of unwanted cleavage sites for restriction enzymes and Rho-independent transcription terminators. The output of JCat is both graphically and as Codon Adaptation Index (CAI) values given for the pasted sequence and the newly adapted sequence. Additionally, a list of genes in FASTA-format can be uploaded to calculate CAI values. In one example, all genes of the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans were adapted to Escherichia coli codon usage and further optimized to avoid commonly used restriction sites. In a second example, the Pseudomonas aeruginosa exbD gene codon usage was adapted to E.coli codon usage with parallel avoidance of the same restriction sites. For both, the degree of introduced changes was documented and evaluated. JCat is integrated into the PRODORIC database that hosts all required information on the various organisms to fulfill the requested calculations. JCat is freely accessible at

Dielectric and conductivity relaxation in mixtures of glycerol with LiCl

We report a thorough dielectric characterization of the alpha relaxation of glass forming glycerol with varying additions of LiCl. Nine salt concentrations from 0.1 - 20 mol% are investigated in a frequency range of 20 Hz - 3 GHz and analyzed in the dielectric loss and modulus representation. Information on the dc conductivity, the dielectric relaxation time (from the loss) and the conductivity relaxation time (from the modulus) is provided. Overall, with increasing ion concentration, a transition from reorientationally to translationally dominated behavior is observed and the translational ion dynamics and the dipolar reorientational dynamics become successively coupled. This gives rise to the prospect that by adding ions to dipolar glass formers, dielectric spectroscopy may directly couple to the translational degrees of freedom determining the glass transition, even in frequency regimes where usually strong decoupling is observed.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Magnetic phases and reorientation transitions in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers

In antiferromagnetically coupled superlattices grown on (001) faces of cubic substrates, e.g. based on materials combinations as Co/Cu, Fe/Si, Co/Cr, or Fe/Cr, the magnetic states evolve under competing influence of bilinear and biquadratic exchange interactions, surface-enhanced four-fold in-plane anisotropy, and specific finite-size effects. Using phenomenological (micromagnetic) theory, a comprehensive survey of the magnetic states and reorientation transitions has been carried out for multilayer systems with even number of ferromagnetic sub-layers and magnetizations in the plane. In two-layer systems (N=2) the phase diagrams in dependence on components of the applied field in the plane include ``swallow-tail'' type regions of (metastable) multistate co-existence and a number of continuous and discontinuous reorientation transitions induced by radial and transversal components of the applied field. In multilayers (N \ge 4) noncollinear states are spatially inhomogeneous with magnetization varying across the multilayer stack. For weak four-fold anisotropy the magnetic states under influence of an applied field evolve by a complex continuous reorientation into the saturated state. At higher anisotropy they transform into various inhomogeneous and asymmetric structures. The discontinuous transitions between the magnetic states in these two-layers and multilayers are characterized by broad ranges of multi-phase coexistence of the (metastable) states and give rise to specific transitional domain structures.Comment: Manuscript 34 pages, 14 figures; submitted for publicatio