DMI Interaction and Domain Evolution in Magnetic Heterostructures with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

My thesis is dedicated to the study of the magnetic interactions and magnetization reversal dynamics in ferromagnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Two related projects will be included: 1) investigating interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in multilayer structures; 2) controlled stripe domain growth in PMA heterostructures. Magneto Optic Kerr Effect microscopy and magnetometry techniques along with vibrating sample magnetometry were used to investigate these phenomena. The CoPt bi-layer system is a well-known PMA material system exhibiting DMI. However, films with many CoPt bi-layers are known as having zero effective DMI due to its inversion symmetry. I focused my research on CoNiPt tri-layer heterostructures with broken inversion symmetry. In my project, the interfacial DMI as a function of the number of CoNiPt tri-layers in multilayered films was investigated and non-zero DMI in this constructed “bulk” magnetic materials were observed. For the project of stripe domain manipulation, the CoNi bi-layer system with PMA was studied. CoNi “bulk” multilayered materials with PMA allow for controlled direction of stripe domain growth. The formation of variable angle domain intersection segments is comprised of the stripe domains

DMI Interaction and Domain Evolution in Magnetic Heterostructures with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

My thesis is dedicated to the study of the magnetic interactions and magnetization reversal dynamics in ferromagnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Two related projects will be included: 1) investigating interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in multilayer structures; 2) controlled stripe domain growth in PMA heterostructures. Magneto Optic Kerr Effect microscopy and magnetometry techniques along with vibrating sample magnetometry were used to investigate these phenomena. The CoPt bi-layer system is a well-known PMA material system exhibiting DMI. However, films with many CoPt bi-layers are known as having zero effective DMI due to its inversion symmetry. I focused my research on CoNiPt tri-layer heterostructures with broken inversion symmetry. In my project, the interfacial DMI as a function of the number of CoNiPt tri-layers in multilayered films was investigated and non-zero DMI in this constructed “bulk” magnetic materials were observed. For the project of stripe domain manipulation, the CoNi bi-layer system with PMA was studied. CoNi “bulk” multilayered materials with PMA allow for controlled direction of stripe domain growth. The formation of variable angle domain intersection segments is comprised of the stripe domains

Investigation of the agricultural resources in Sri Lanka

The author has identified the following significant results. Several in-house capabilities were developed. The facilities to prepare color composites of excellent quality were developed, using bulk B/W 70 mm transparencies or 1:1,000,000 positive transparencies. These color composites were studied through optical devices on light tables. A zoom transfer scope was also added, enabling direct transfer of LANDSAT composite data on to base maps

Rabies in Sri Lanka: Splendid Isolation

Rabies virus exists in dogs on Sri Lanka as a single, minimally divergent lineage only distantly related to other rabies virus lineages in Asia. Stable, geographically isolated virus populations are susceptible to local extinction. A fully implemented rabies-control campaign could make Sri Lanka the first Asian country in >30 years to become free of rabies virus

Evidence to inform education, training and supportive work environments for midwives involved in the care of women with female genital mutilation: A review of global experience

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Objective: to identify how midwives in low and middle income countries (LMIC) and high income countries (HIC) care for women with female genital mutilation (FGM), their perceived challenges and what professional development and workplace strategies might better support midwives to provide appropriate quality care. Design: an integrative review involving a narrative synthesis of the literature was undertaken to include peer reviewed research literature published between 2004 and 2014. Findings: 10 papers were included in the review, two from LMIC and eight from HIC. A lack of technical knowledge and limited cultural competency was identified, as well as socio-cultural challenges in the abandonment process of the practice, particularly in LMIC settings. Training in the area of FGM was limited. One study reported the outcomes of an education initiative that was found to be beneficial. Key conclusions: professional education and training, a working environment supported by guidelines and responsive policy and community education, are necessary to enable midwives to improve the care of women with FGM and advocate against the practice. Implications for practice: improved opportunities for midwives to learn about FGM and receive advice and support, alongside opportunities for collaborative practice in contexts that enable the effective reporting of FGM to authorities, may be beneficial and require further investigation

Significance of the compliance of the joints on the dynamic slip resistance of a bioinspired hoof

Robust mechanisms for slip resistance are an open challenge in legged locomotion. Animals such as goats show impressive ability to resist slippage on cliffs. It is not fully known what attributes in their body determine this ability. Studying the slip resistance dynamics of the goat may offer insight toward the biologically inspired design of robotic hooves. This article tests how the embodiment of the hoof contributes to solving the problem of slip resistance. We ran numerical simulations and experiments using a passive robotic goat hoof for different compliance levels of its three joints. We established that compliant yaw and pitch and stiff roll can increase the energy required to slide the hoof by ≈ 20% compared to the baseline (stiff hoof). Compliant roll and pitch allow the robotic hoof to adapt to the irregularities of the terrain. This produces an antilock braking system-like behavior of the robotic hoof for slip resistance. Therefore, the pastern and coffin joints have a substantial effect on the slip resistance of the robotic hoof, while the fetlock joint has the lowest contribution. These shed insights into how robotic hooves can be used to autonomously improve slip resistance

Granular jamming based controllable organ design for abdominal palpation

Medical manikins play an essential role in the training process of physicians. Currently, most available simulators for abdominal palpation training do not contain controllable organs for dynamic simulations. In this paper, we present a soft robotics controllable liver that can simulate various liver diseases and symptoms for effective and realistic palpation training. The tumors in the liver model are designed based on granular jamming with positive pressure, which converts the fluid-like impalpable particles to a solid-like tumor state by applying low positive pressure on the membrane. Through inflation, the tumor size, liver stiffness, and liver size can be controlled from normal liver state to various abnormalities including enlarged liver, cirrhotic liver, and multiple cancerous and malignant tumors. Mechanical tests have been conducted in the study to evaluate the liver design and the role of positive pressure granular jamming in tumor simulations

Control Space Reduction and Real-Time Accurate Modeling of Continuum Manipulators Using Ritz and Ritz-Galerkin Methods

To address the challenges with real-time accurate modeling of multi-segment continuum manipulators in the presence of significant external and body loads, we introduce a novel series solution for variable-curvature Cosserat rod static and Lagrangian dynamic method. By combining a modified Lagrange polynomial series solution, based on experimental observations, with Ritz and Ritz-Galerkin methods, the infinite modeling state space of a continuum manipulator is minimized to geometrical position of a handful of physical points (in our case two). As a result, a unified easy to implement vector formalism is proposed for the nonlinear impedance and configuration control. We showed that by considering the mechanical effects of highly elastic axial deformation, the model accuracy is increased up to 6%. The proposed model predicts experimental results with 6-8% (4-6 [mm]) mean error for the Ritz-Galerkin method in static cases and 16-20% (12-14 [mm]) mean error for the Ritz method in dynamic cases, in planar and general 3D motions. Comparing to five different models in the literature, our approximate solution is shown to be more accurate with the smallest possible number of modeling states and suitable for real-time modeling, observation and control applications

A database optimization model with quantitative benchmark

Query optimization and indexing have an immense impact on database optimization. This has been considered in many different perspectives which provide several different solutions in each case. The purpose of this paper is to primarily provide a comprehensive review and discussion of the core problems through the research on query optimization technology and indexing, based on a number of optimization techniques commonly used in the general approach of a query. A new database optimization model is designed and experiments show that this model can significantly reduce the amount of query execution time to improve the optimization efficiency. Regardless of research on the database optimization model, significant work has been done to comparatively evaluate three scenarios; non-optimized query, optimized query without following any optimization standard, and optimized query via proposed optimization model using the same experimental methodology. Further, this paper describes a benchmark that was developed specifically for the purpose of measuring the quantitative evaluations of the proposed database optimization model

Conditioned haptic perception for 3D localization of nodules in soft tissue palpation with a variable stiffness probe

This paper provides a solution for fast haptic information gain during soft tissue palpation using a Variable Lever Mechanism (VLM) probe. More specifically, we investigate the impact of stiffness variation of the probe to condition likelihood functions of the kinesthetic force and tactile sensors measurements during a palpation task for two sweeping directions. Using knowledge obtained from past probing trials or Finite Element (FE) simulations, we implemented this likelihood conditioning in an autonomous palpation control strategy. Based on a recursive Bayesian inferencing framework, this new control strategy adapts the sweeping direction and the stiffness of the probe to detect abnormal stiff inclusions in soft tissues. This original control strategy for compliant palpation probes shows a sub-millimeter accuracy for the 3D localization of the nodules in a soft tissue phantom as well as a 100% reliability detecting the existence of nodules in a soft phantom