Shape reconstruction from gradient data

We present a novel method for reconstructing the shape of an object from measured gradient data. A certain class of optical sensors does not measure the shape of an object, but its local slope. These sensors display several advantages, including high information efficiency, sensitivity, and robustness. For many applications, however, it is necessary to acquire the shape, which must be calculated from the slopes by numerical integration. Existing integration techniques show drawbacks that render them unusable in many cases. Our method is based on approximation employing radial basis functions. It can be applied to irregularly sampled, noisy, and incomplete data, and it reconstructs surfaces both locally and globally with high accuracy.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, zip-file, submitted to Applied Optic

Supercontinuum radiation in fluorescence microscopy and biomedical imaging applications

Compact, high brightness supercontinuum sources have already made a big impact in the fields of fluorescence microscopy and other biomedical imaging techniques, such as optical coherence tomography and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. In this review, we provide a brief overview on the generation and properties of supercontinuum radiation for imaging applications. We review specific uses of supercontinuum sources and their potential for imaging, but also their limitations and caveats. We conclude with a review of recent advances in UV supercontinuum generation, near-IR microscopy, exciting new potentials for the use of hollow-core PCFs, on-chip supercontinuum generation, and technologies to improve supercontinuum stability for certain applications.H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) (722380); MedImmune; Infinitus (China) Ltd.; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (EP/H018301/1, EP/L015889/1); Wellcome Trust (089703/Z/09/Z, 3-3249/Z/16/Z); Medical Research Council (MRC) (MR/K015850/1, MR/K02292X/1)

Physical Properties of Metallic Antiferromagnetic CaCo{1.86}As2 Single Crystals

We report studies of CaCo{1.86}As2 single crystals. The electronic structure is probed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements of CaCo{1.86}As2 and by full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave calculations for the supercell Ca8Co15As16 (CaCo{1.88}As2). Our XRD crystal structure refinement is consistent with the previous combined refinement of x-ray and neutron powder diffraction data showing a collapsed-tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure with 7(1)% vacancies on the Co sites corresponding to the composition CaCo{1.86}As2 [D. G. Quirinale et al., Phys. Rev. B 88, 174420 (2013)]. The anisotropic magnetic susceptibility chi(T) data are consistent with the magnetic neutron diffraction data of Quirianale et al. that demonstrate the presence of A-type collinear antiferromagnetic order below the Neel temperature TN = 52(1) K with the easy axis being the tetragonal c axis. However, no clear evidence from the resistivity rho(T) and heat capacity Cp(T) data for a magnetic transition at TN is observed. A metallic ground state is demonstrated from band calculations and the rho(T), Cp(T) and ARPES data, and spin-polarized calculations indicate a competition between the A-type AFM and FM ground states. The Cp(T) data exhibit a large Sommerfield electronic coefficient reflecting a large density of states at the Fermi energy D(EF), consistent with the band structure calculations which also indicate a large D(EF) arising from Co 3d bands. At 1.8 K the M(H) data for H|| c exhibit a well-defined first-order spin-flop transition at an applied field of 3.5 T. The small ordered moment of 0.3 muB/Co obtained from the M(H) data at low T, the large exchange enhancement of chi and the lack of a self-consistent interpretation of the chi(T) and M(H,T) data in terms of a local moment Heisenberg model together indicate that the magnetism of CaCo{1.86}As2 is itinerant.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, 61 references; v2: extended the fits of experimental data by additional electronic structure calculations; published versio

Bounded Model Checking for Probabilistic Programs

In this paper we investigate the applicability of standard model checking approaches to verifying properties in probabilistic programming. As the operational model for a standard probabilistic program is a potentially infinite parametric Markov decision process, no direct adaption of existing techniques is possible. Therefore, we propose an on-the-fly approach where the operational model is successively created and verified via a step-wise execution of the program. This approach enables to take key features of many probabilistic programs into account: nondeterminism and conditioning. We discuss the restrictions and demonstrate the scalability on several benchmarks