Ferromagnetic resonance in Ni-Mn-Ga thin films and thin-film tubes

We report on FMR experiments performed for the first time on thin Ni-Mn-Ga films clamped to the mica substrates and then fully released from them. The aim is to evaluate the role of magnetoelastic coupling in stressed Ni-Mn-Ga Heusler alloy films that undergo martensitic transformation. The experimental results show that the difference in the effective magnetization 4π(M_eff ^tubes-M_eff ^films) is negligible in the austenite phase and it increases to about 1–1.5 kG at temperatures well below the martensitic transformation. The data suggests that magnetoelastic coupling in the martensite phase of Ni-Mn-Ga thin films is typical of normal thin magnetic films with magnetostriction of about 50 ppm.     

Perspective methods of human identification: Ear biometrics

Geometrical methods of feature extraction from ear images in order to perform human identification are presented. Geometrical approach is motivated by the actual procedures used by police and forensic experts (so-called ear otoscopy). In their work, geometrical features of ears such as size, height, width, and shapes of earlobe are useful and valid proofs of identity. The contribution of the article is development of the new and original methods of geometrical feature extraction from 2D ear images. Four novel algorithms of ear feature extraction from contour images are described in detail. Moreover, identification results obtained for each of the methods, based on the distance of feature vectors in the feature space, are presented.     

Thermal Analysis of the Ferromagnetic Materials in the Region of Curie Temperature by Temperature-Modulated DTA

Thermal analysis has been employed to measure changes of the heat capacity of ferromagnetic materials such as alloys in the region of the Curie temperature. Thermal response for these materials is usually small in this region. The necessary increase in sensitivity was achieved by applying temperature modulation. Results obtained by this technique including temperature-modulated differential thermal analysis simultaneously with A.C. thermomagnetometry are presented.     

Effect of GMR and Magnetization Reversal on Microwave Absorption

Low-field microwave absorption has been measured as a function of magnetic field in a series of thin film structures exhibiting or not exhibiting the giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR). Although a close correlation has been found between the microwave absorption and GMR, an additional absorption due to magnetization reversal is shown to have substantial effect on the overall microwave response.     

Folding of aromatic oligoimides of trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane

Chiral oligomeric diimides prepared from pyromellitic dianhydride, (R,R)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane and phthalic anhydride fold into M or P helical conformers; trimer 1 folds into the P conformer in the crystal but the M conformer dominates in solution; longer chain oligomers 2 and 3 form preferentially P conformers in solution, as a result of intermolecular interactions.     

SO(2) Symmetry of a Maxwell p-Form Theory

We find a universal SO(2) symmetry of a p-form Maxwell theory for both odd and even p. For odd p, it corresponds to the duality rotations but for even p, it defines a new set of transformations which is not related to duality rotations. In both cases, a symmetry group defines a subgroup of the O(2,1) group of R-linear canonical transformations which has also a natural representation on the level of quantization condition for p-brane dyons.     

Additive quark model of multiparticle production and α-α interactions at ISR energies

Using a specific version of the additive quark model we compute the relative (to proton-proton) single particle rapidity distributions for particles produced in α-α interactions at CERN ISR energies.     

Influence of the cation on the formation of free hydrogen and formaldehyde in the thermal decomposition of formates

Three stages have been distinguished in the thermal decomposition of formates: It was found that in the first stage carbon dioxide is evolved, leaving structural elements of the respective cation hydride in the reaction system: \(HCO_2^ - \to H^ - + CO_2 \) The second stage depends on the character of the bond in the intermediately formed hydride: The third stage is connected with formaldehyde transformation into different organic compounds, depending on the character of the metal oxide formed in the thermal decomposition of the formate. This explains the formation of free hydrogen and organic compounds identified as thermal decomposition products of various formates.     

Thermal, pressure and light switchable spin-crossover materials

This article reviews the most relevant chemical and structural aspects that influence the spin-crossover phenomenon (SCO). Special attention is focussed on the recent development of SCO coordination polymers. The different approaches currently being explored in order to achieve multifunctionality in SCO materials are discussed.     

Modeling tubulin at interfaces. Immobilization of microtubules on self-assembled monolayers

A theoretical study of protein docking to self-assembled monolayers using a new approach is presented. Docking experiments based on space complementarity implemented in FTDock software were performed for three different proteins: tubulin dimer, cytochrome c, and lysozyme. The proteins were adsorbed on alkanethiol surfaces with different terminating groups and 50,000 best orientations of each protein were analyzed. For all systems three filters based on different chemical and biological approaches were applied. Correctly docked proteins for the cytochrome c and lysozyme systems were found in a list of the first 12 results after applying the geometrical and grouping filter and in a list of the first 3 results after applying the biological filter. We have found that alkanethiol monolayers with odd and even numbers of -CH2- groups have similar properties in terms of interactions with the two proteins. Docking of the tubulin dimer revealed that the orientation favored from the applicational point of view can be found in a list of the first 14 results for monolayers with different terminating groups and that there may be a noticeable difference in tubulin dimer interactions with alkanethiol chains of various length. The results for tubulin dimer docking combined with microtubules ability of reversible assembly suggest that these biological structures may become good candidates to serve as templates for fabrication of nanowires and other nanoscale electronic devices. The new method of theoretical docking presented may be used as a fast and reliable tool complementing other theoretical and experimental techniques of exploring other protein-surface interfaces.