13,712 research outputs found
Three-dimensional double helical DNA structure directly revealed from its X-ray fiber diffraction pattern by iterative phase retrieval
Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) allows the retrieval of the structure of
an isolated object, such as a macromolecule, from its diffraction pattern. CDI
requires the fulfilment of two conditions: the imaging radiation must be
coherent and the object must be isolated. We discuss that it is possible to
directly retrieve the molecular structure from its diffraction pattern which
was acquired neither with coherent radiation nor from an individual molecule,
provided the molecule exhibits periodicity in one direction, as in the case of
fiber diffraction. We demonstrate that by applying iterative phase retrieval
methods to a fiber diffraction pattern, the repeating unit, that is, the
molecule structure, can directly be reconstructed without any prior modeling.
As an example, we recover the structure of the DNA double helix in
three-dimensions from its two-dimensional X-ray fiber diffraction pattern,
Photograph 51, acquired in the famous experiment by Raymond Gosling and
Rosalind Franklin, at a resolution of 3.4 Angstrom
Towards optical intensity interferometry for high angular resolution stellar astrophysics
Most neighboring stars are still detected as point sources and are beyond the
angular resolution reach of current observatories. Methods to improve our
understanding of stars at high angular resolution are investigated. Air
Cherenkov telescopes (ACTs), primarily used for Gamma-ray astronomy, enable us
to increase our understanding of the circumstellar environment of a particular
system. When used as optical intensity interferometers, future ACT arrays will
allow us to detect stars as extended objects and image their surfaces at high
angular resolution.
Optical stellar intensity interferometry (SII) with ACT arrays, composed of
nearly 100 telescopes, will provide means to measure fundamental stellar
parameters and also open the possibility of model-independent imaging. A data
analysis algorithm is developed and permits the reconstruction of high angular
resolution images from simulated SII data. The capabilities and limitations of
future ACT arrays used for high angular resolution imaging are investigated via
Monte-Carlo simulations. Simple stellar objects as well as stellar surfaces
with localized hot or cool regions can be accurately imaged.
Finally, experimental efforts to measure intensity correlations are
expounded. The functionality of analog and digital correlators is demonstrated.
Intensity correlations have been measured for a simulated star emitting
pseudo-thermal light, resulting in angular diameter measurements. The StarBase
observatory, consisting of a pair of 3 m telescopes separated by 23 m, is
described.Comment: PhD dissertatio
Reflectance Hashing for Material Recognition
We introduce a novel method for using reflectance to identify materials.
Reflectance offers a unique signature of the material but is challenging to
measure and use for recognizing materials due to its high-dimensionality. In
this work, one-shot reflectance is captured using a unique optical camera
measuring {\it reflectance disks} where the pixel coordinates correspond to
surface viewing angles. The reflectance has class-specific stucture and angular
gradients computed in this reflectance space reveal the material class.
These reflectance disks encode discriminative information for efficient and
accurate material recognition. We introduce a framework called reflectance
hashing that models the reflectance disks with dictionary learning and binary
hashing. We demonstrate the effectiveness of reflectance hashing for material
recognition with a number of real-world materials
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