12,255 research outputs found
EBSD mapping of herringbone domain structures in tetragonal piezoelectrics
Herringbone domain structures have been mapped using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) in two tetragonal piezoelectrics, lead zirconate titanate, [Pb(Zr,Ti)O<sub>3</sub>] and bismuth ferrite â lead titanate, [(PbTi)<sub>0.5</sub>(BiFe)<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>3</sub>]. Analysis of the domain misorientations across the band junctions shows that the structures correspond very well to crystallographic models. High resolution mapping with a 20 nm step size allowed the crystal rotation across one of these band junctions in lead zirconate titanate to be studied in detail and allowed an improved estimation of the peak strain at the junction, of 0.56 GPa. The significance of this for crack nucleation and propagation in such materials is discussed
Charge transport through a single molecule of trans-1-bis-diazofluorene [60]fullerene
Fullerenes have attracted interest for their possible applications in various
electronic, biological, and optoelectronic devices. However, for efficient use
in such devices, a suitable anchoring group has to be employed that forms
well-defined and stable contacts with the electrodes. In this work, we propose
a novel fullerene tetramalonate derivate functionalized with trans-1
4,5-diazafluorene anchoring groups. The conductance of single-molecule
junctions, investigated in two different setups with the mechanically
controlled break junction technique, reveals the formation of molecular
junctions at three conductance levels. We attribute the conductance peaks to
three binding modes of the anchoring groups to the gold electrodes. Density
functional theory calculations confirm the existence of multiple binding
configurations and calculated transmission functions are consistent with
experimentally determined conductance values.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Craquelure as a Graph: Application of Image Processing and Graph Neural Networks to the Description of Fracture Patterns
Cracks on a painting is not a defect but an inimitable signature of an
artwork which can be used for origin examination, aging monitoring, damage
identification, and even forgery detection. This work presents the development
of a new methodology and corresponding toolbox for the extraction and
characterization of information from an image of a craquelure pattern.
The proposed approach processes craquelure network as a graph. The graph
representation captures the network structure via mutual organization of
junctions and fractures. Furthermore, it is invariant to any geometrical
distortions. At the same time, our tool extracts the properties of each node
and edge individually, which allows to characterize the pattern statistically.
We illustrate benefits from the graph representation and statistical features
individually using novel Graph Neural Network and hand-crafted descriptors
correspondingly. However, we also show that the best performance is achieved
when both techniques are merged into one framework. We perform experiments on
the dataset for paintings' origin classification and demonstrate that our
approach outperforms existing techniques by a large margin.Comment: Published in ICCV 2019 Workshop
Characterisation of spatial network-like patterns from junctions' geometry
We propose a new method for quantitative characterization of spatial
network-like patterns with loops, such as surface fracture patterns, leaf vein
networks and patterns of urban streets. Such patterns are not well
characterized by purely topological estimators: also patterns that both look
different and result from different morphogenetic processes can have similar
topology. A local geometric cue -the angles formed by the different branches at
junctions- can complement topological information and allow to quantify the
large scale spatial coherence of the pattern. For patterns that grow over time,
such as fracture lines on the surface of ceramics, the rank assigned by our
method to each individual segment of the pattern approximates the order of
appearance of that segment. We apply the method to various network-like
patterns and we find a continuous but sharp dichotomy between two classes of
spatial networks: hierarchical and homogeneous. The first class results from a
sequential growth process and presents large scale organization, the latter
presents local, but not global organization.Comment: version 2, 14 page
Detecting the presence of large buildings in natural images
This paper addresses the issue of classification of lowlevel
features into high-level semantic concepts for the purpose of semantic annotation of consumer photographs. We adopt a multi-scale approach that relies on edge detection to extract an edge orientation-based feature description of the image, and apply an SVM learning technique to infer the presence of a dominant building object in a general purpose collection of digital photographs. The approach exploits prior knowledge on the image context through an assumption that all input images are ïżœoutdoorïżœ, i.e. indoor/outdoor classification (the context determination stage) has been performed. The proposed approach is validated on a diverse dataset of 1720 images and its performance compared with that of the MPEG-7 edge histogram descriptor
Conductance of Atomic-Sized Lead Contacts in an Electrochemical Environment
Atomic-sized lead (Pb) contacts are deposited and dissolved in an
electrochemical environment, and their transport properties are measured. Due
to the electrochemical fabrication process, we obtain mechanically unstrained
contacts and conductance histograms with sharply resolved, individual peaks.
Charge transport calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) for
various ideal Pb contact geometries are in good agreement with the experimental
results. Depending on the atomic configuration, single-atom-wide contacts of
one and the same metal yield very different conductance values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Transition from tunneling to direct contact in tungsten nanojunctions
We apply the mechanically controllable break junctions technique to
investigate the transition from tunneling to direct contact in tungsten. This
transition is quite different from that of other metals and is determined by
the local electronic properties of the tungsten surface and the relief of the
electrodes at the point of their closest proximity. The conductance traces show
a rich variety of patterns from the avalanche-like jump to a mesoscopic contact
to the completely smooth transition between direct contact and tunneling. Due
to the occasional absence of an adhesive jump the conductance of the contact
can be continuously monitored at ultra-small electrode separations. The
conductance histograms of tungsten are either featureless or show two distinct
peaks related to the sequential opening of spatially separated groups of
conductance channels. The role of surface states of tungsten and their
contribution to the junction conductance at sub-Angstrom electrode separations
are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Correlating Cell Behavior with Tissue Topology in Embryonic Epithelia
Measurements on embryonic epithelial tissues in a diverse range of organisms
have shown that the statistics of cell neighbor numbers are universal in
tissues where cell proliferation is the primary cell activity. Highly
simplified non-spatial models of proliferation are claimed to accurately
reproduce these statistics. Using a systematic critical analysis, we show that
non-spatial models are not capable of robustly describing the universal
statistics observed in proliferating epithelia, indicating strong spatial
correlations between cells. Furthermore we show that spatial simulations using
the Subcellular Element Model are able to robustly reproduce the universal
histogram. In addition these simulations are able to unify ostensibly divergent
experimental data in the literature. We also analyze cell neighbor statistics
in early stages of chick embryo development in which cell behaviors other than
proliferation are important. We find from experimental observation that cell
neighbor statistics in the primitive streak region, where cell motility and
ingression are also important, show a much broader distribution. A non-spatial
Markov process model provides excellent agreement with this broader histogram
indicating that cells in the primitive streak may have significantly weaker
spatial correlations. These findings show that cell neighbor statistics provide
a potentially useful signature of collective cell behavior.Comment: PLoS one 201
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