Effect of Impurities and Effective Masses on Spin-Dependent Electrical Transport in Ferromagnet-Normal Metal-Ferromagnet Hybrid Junctions

The effect of nonmagnetic impurities and the effective masses on the spin-dependent transport in a ferromagnet-normal metal-ferromagnet junction is investigated on the basis of a two-band model. Our results show that impurities and the effective masses of electrons in two ferromagnetic electrodes have remarkable effects on the behaviors of the conductance, namely, both affect the oscillating amplitudes, periods, as well as the positions of the resonant peaks of the conductance considerably. The impurity tends to suppress the amplitudes of the conductance, and makes the spin-valve effect less obvious, but under certain conditions the phenomenon of the so-called impurity-induced resonant tunneling is clearly observed. The impurity and the effective mass both can lead to nonmonotonous oscillation of the junction magnetoresistance (JMR) with the incident energy and the thickness of the normal metal. It is also observed that a smaller difference of the effective masses of electrons in two ferromagnetic electrodes would give rise to a larger amplitude of the JMR.Comment: Revtex, 10 figure

4-[(2H-Tetra­zol-2-yl)meth­yl]benzonitrile

The title compound, C9H7N5, was synthesized by reaction of 4-(bromomethyl)benzonitrile and 2H-tetrazole in the presence of KOH. The relative orientation of the planar tetra­zole ring and the methyl­benzonitrile moiety is (−)-anti­clinal. The crystal packing is dominated by van der Waals inter­actions

PSO-GA Based Resource AllocationStrategy for Cloud-Based SoftwareServices with Workload-Time Windows

Cloud-based software services necessitate adaptive resource allocation with the promise of dynamic resource adjustment for guaranteeing the Quality-of-Service (QoS) and reducing resource costs. However, it is challenging to achieve adaptive resource allocation for software services in complex cloud environments with dynamic workloads. To address this essential problem, we propose an adaptive resource allocation strategy for cloud-based software services with workload-time windows. Based on the QoS prediction, the proposed strategy first brings the current and future workloads into the process of calculating resource allocation plans. Next, the particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm (PSO-GA) is proposed to make run time decisions for exploring the objective resource allocation plan. Using the RUBiS benchmark, the extensive simulation experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy on improving the performance of resource allocation for cloud-based software services.The simulation results show that the proposed strategy can obtain a better trade-off between the QoS and resource costs than two classic resource allocation methods.publishedVersio

Architecture-based integrated management of diverse cloud resources

Cloud management faces with great challenges, due to the diversity of Cloud resources and ever-changing management requirements. For constructing a management system to satisfy a specific management requirement, a redevelopment solution based on existing management systems is usually more practicable than developing the system from scratch. However, the difficulty and workload of redevelopment are also very high. As the architecture-based runtime model is causally connected with the corresponding running system automatically, constructing an integrated Cloud management system based on the architecture-based runtime models of Cloud resources can benefit from the model-specific natures, and thus reduce the development workload. In this paper, we present an architecture-based approach to managing diverse Cloud resources. First, manageability of Cloud resources is abstracted as runtime models, which could automatically and immediately propagate any observable runtime changes of target resources to corresponding architecture models, and vice versa. Second, a customized model is constructed according to the personalized management requirement and the synchronization between the customized model and Cloud resource runtime models is ensured through model transformation. Thus, all the management tasks could be carried out through executing programs on the customized model. The experiment on a real-world cloud demonstrates the feasibility, effectiveness and benefits of the new approach to integrated management of Cloud resources ? 2014, Chen et al.; licensee Springer.EI11-15

Effect of Interval between Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy and Surgery on Oncological Outcome for Rectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Aim. To evaluate the influence of interval between neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) and surgery on oncological outcome. Methods. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Embase databases for publications reporting oncological outcomes of patients following rectal cancer surgery performed at different NCRT-surgery intervals. Relative risk (RR) of pathological complete response (pCR) among different intervals was pooled. Results. Fifteen retrospective cohort studies representing 4431 patients met the inclusion criteria. There was a significantly increased rate of pCR in patients treated with surgery followed 7 or 8 weeks later (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.18–1.78; and P<0.01 and RR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.15–1.92; and P=0.002, resp.). There is no consistent evidence of improved local control or overall survival with longer or shorter intervals. Conclusion. Performing surgery 7-8 weeks after the end of NCRT results in the highest chance of achieving pCR. For candidates of abdominoperineal resection before NCRT, these data support implementation of prolonging the interval after NCRT to optimize the chances of pCR and perhaps add to the possibility of ultimate organ preservation

Phase formation of polycrystalline MgB2 at low temperature using nanometer Mg powder

The MgB2 superconductor synthesized in a flowing argon atmosphere using nanometer magnesium powder as the raw materials, denoted as Nano-MgB2, has been studied by the technique of in-situ high temperature resistance measurement (HT-RT measurement). The MgB2 phase is identified to form within the temperature range of 430 to 490 C, which is much lower than that with the MgB2 sample fabricated in the same gas environment using the micron-sized magnesium powder, denoted as Micro-MgB2, reported previously. The sample density of the Nano-MgB2 reaches 1.7 g/cm3 with a crystal porosity structure less than a micrometer, as determined by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, while the Micro-MgB2 has a much more porous structure with corresponding density of 1.0 g/cm3. This indicates that the Mg raw particle size, besides the sintering temperature, is a crucial factor for the formation of high density MgB2 sample, even at the temperature much lower than that of the Mg melting, 650 C. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows a good MgB2 phase with small amount of MgO and Mg and the transition temperature, TC, of the Nano-MgB2 was determined as 39 K by the temperature dependent magnetization measurement (M-T), indicating the existence of a good superconducting property.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure, Solid State Communicatio

Flavonoids from Saussurea stella Maxim as superoxide scavengers and antioxidants

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