Nanomechanical magnetization reversal

The dynamics of the ferromagnetic order parameter in thin magnetic films is strongly affected by the magnetomechanical coupling at certain resonance frequencies. By solving the equation of motion of the coupled mechanical and magnetic degrees of freedom we show that the magnetic field induced magnetization switching can be strongly accelerated by the lattice and illustrate the possibility of magnetization reversal by mechanical actuation.     

Intrinsic spin Hall edges

The prediction of intrinsic spin Hall currents by Murakami et al. and Sinova et al. raised many questions about methods of detection and the effect of disorder. We focus on a contact between a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupled region with a normal two-dimensional electron gas and show that the spin Hall currents, though vanishing in the bulk of the sample, can be recovered from the edges. We also show that the current-induced spin accumulation in the spin-orbit coupled system diffuses into the normal region and contributes to the spin current in the leads.     

A modified rheometer for in-situ radial and tangential SAXS studies on shear-induced alignment

A tooth rheometer designed to investigate the influence of large amplitude oscillatory shear on the macroscopic orientation of complex fluids is described. The rheometer allows in-situ two-directional small-angle scattering measurements, making it possible to observe in particular the orientation process of hierarchically structured block copolymers in dynamics. Experiments performed with a linear poly(vinyl methyl ether) show that, despite a considerable gap/width ratio, the rheometer can be used for adequate rheological measurements. In addition we found an unexpected dependence of the dynamic parameters on the rheometer gap. The small amount of sample required favors the use of this rheometer for measuring the rheological characteristics of new compounds.     

Preparation and characterisation of palladium, platinum and manganese di(organo)carbene complexes from quinolinone and quinolinium precursors

A series of palladium, platinum and manganese di(organo)carbene complexes have been prepared from 4-chloro-N-methylquinolinone by processes that involve alkylation before or after attachment to the metal unit; the nucleophilic heteroatoms are separated from the C-donor atom by three bonds.     

The German bakery waste incident; use of a combined approach of screening and confirmation for dioxins in feed and food

During the last six years several incidents have occurred with dioxins in feed, stressing the need for rapid screening methods for these compounds. The most recent incident was the contamination of bakery waste used for animal feed due to the use of waste wood for drying of the material. In addition to Germany, the material was also shipped to the Netherlands. Levels up to 12 ng TEQ/kg have been detected, being about 15 times over the current limit of 0.75 ng TEQ/kg. In the Netherlands a combined strategy of screening with the CALUX-bioassay and the HRGC/HRMS confirmatory method was used to rapidly control the incident. Pigs were contaminated by the incident but only to a very limited extent. Despite the rather low limits for pig meat, the CALUX bioassay showed excellent performance, once again confirming the value of this assay.     

Holding costs under push or pull conditions - The impact of the Anchor Point

Holding costs are traditionally determined from the investment in physical stock during a cycle. An alternative approach instead derives holding costs from Net Present Value (NPV) functions. It is known that applying both frameworks to the same system can lead to different holding cost valuations, but little explanation has been offered. By introducing the Anchor Point in a model, this paper shows, for four different systems, that traditional holding cost models (implicitly) assume pull conditions, while current NPV approaches model push conditions. This explains in part the differences between the methods. It is shown that the Anchor Point concept allows the construction of NPV models under pull conditions, giving results in better correspondence with traditional models. The traditional framework is restricted to pull conditions and important considerations could be easily overlooked, leading to wrong valuations of holding costs. NPV seems superior as such considerations are automatically incorporated. The application to multi-echelon inventory systems provides interesting insights on the roles of echelon stocks and lead-times, and offers potential for future research.     

Using rheometry to determine nucleation density in a colored system containing a nucleating agent

A new suspension-based rheological method was applied to experimentally study the crystallization of a nucleating agent (NA) filled isotactic polypropylene. This method allows for determination of point nucleation densities where other methods fail. For example, optical microscopy can fail because nucleation densities become too high to be counted (materials with effective NA) or crystallites are not easily visible (colored materials), while differential scanning calorimetry does not allow the effect of flow to be studied. Both quiescent and mild-shear-induced crystallization were investigated. The results show that the addition of a nucleating agent increases the nucleation density by six decades for quiescent crystallization. The effect of shear on crystallization in the presence of a nucleating agent was assessed, and it is demonstrated that, at least for this system, the effect of shear is much smaller than the effect of the nucleating agent.     

Digital simulation as an aid to sample scheduling in a routine laboratory for liquid chromatography

A computer model is described to aid decision-making in a routine laboratory for liquid chromatography. The managerial demand was to reduce the delay times of the samples in the laboratory despite an increasing sample input. Knowledge derived from records on the laboratory and from the experience of the laboratory staff is used to develop a simulation model of the laboratory. The model is applied to study the effects of several factors on the performance of the laboratory in order to trace the bottlenecks.