75 research outputs found
Strain Effects on Point Defects and Chain-Oxygen Order-Disorder Transition in 123-Structure Cuprate Superconductors
The energetics of Schottky defects in 123 cuprate superconductor series, (where RE = lanthandies) and (AE =
alkali-earths), were found to have unusual relations if one considers only the
volumetric strain. Our calculations reveal the effect of non-uniform changes of
interatomic distances within the RE-123 structures, introduced by doping
homovalent elements, on the Schottky defect formation energy. The energy of
formation of Frenkel Pair defects, which is an elementary disordering event, in
123 compounds can be substantially altered under both stress and chemical
doping. Scaling the oxygen-oxygen short-range repulsive parameter using the
calculated formation energy of Frenkel pair defects, the transition temperature
between orthorhombic and tetragonal phases is computed by quasi-chemical
approximations (QCA). The theoretical results illustrate the same trend as the
experimental measurements in that the larger the ionic radius of RE, the lower
the orthorhombic/tetragonal phase transition temperature. This study provides
strong evidence of the strain effects on order-disorder transition due to
oxygens in the CuO chain sites.Comment: In print Phys Rev B (2004
Close-Packing of Clusters: Application to Al_100
The lowest energy configurations of close-packed clusters up to N=110 atoms
with stacking faults are studied using the Monte Carlo method with Metropolis
algorithm. Two types of contact interactions, a pair-potential and a many-atom
interaction, are used. Enhanced stability is shown for N=12, 26, 38, 50, 59,
61, 68, 75, 79, 86, 100 and 102, of which only the sizes 38, 75, 79, 86, and
102 are pure FCC clusters, the others having stacking faults. A connection
between the model potential and density functional calculations is studied in
the case of Al_100. The density functional calculations are consistent with the
experimental fact that there exist epitaxially grown FCC clusters starting from
relatively small cluster sizes. Calculations also show that several other
close-packed motifs existwith comparable total energies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Determining collagen distribution in articular cartilage using contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography
Objective: Collagen distribution within articular cartilage (AC) is typically evaluated from histological sections, e.g., using collagen staining and light microscopy (LM). Unfortunately, all techniques based on histological sections are time-consuming, destructive, and without extraordinary effort, limited to two dimensions. This study investigates whether phosphotungstic acid (PTA) and phosphomolybdic acid (PMA), two collagen-specific markers and X-ray absorbers, could (1) produce contrast for AC X-ray imaging or (2) be used to detect collagen distribution within AC. Method: We labeled equine AC samples with PTA or PMA and imaged them with micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) at pre-defined time points 0, 18, 36, 54, 72, 90, 180, 270 h during staining. The micro-CT image intensity was compared with collagen distributions obtained with a reference technique, i.e., Fourier-transform infrared imaging (FTIRI). The labeling time and contrast agent producing highest association (Pearson correlation, BlandeAltman analysis) between FTIRI collagen distribution and micro-CT -determined PTA distribution was selected for human AC. Results: Both, PTA and PMA labeling permitted visualization of AC features using micro-CT in non-calcified cartilage. After labeling the samples for 36 h in PTA, the spatial distribution of X-ray attenuation correlated highly with the collagen distribution determined by FTIRI in both equine (mean +/- S.D. of the Pearson correlation coefficients, r = 0.96 +/- 0.03, n = 12) and human AC (r = 0.82 +/- 0.15, n = 4). Conclusions: PTA-induced X-ray attenuation is a potential marker for non-destructive detection of AC collagen distributions in 3D. This approach opens new possibilities in development of non-destructive 3D histopathological techniques for characterization of OA. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd and Osteoarthritis Research Society International.Peer reviewe
Magnetic Anisotropy of a Single Cobalt Nanoparticle
Using a new microSQUID set-up, we investigate magnetic anisotropy in a single
1000-atoms cobalt cluster. This system opens new fields in the characterization
and the understanding of the origin of magnetic anisotropy in such
nanoparticles. For this purpose, we report three-dimensional switching field
measurements performed on a 3 nm cobalt cluster embedded in a niobium matrix.
We are able to separate the different magnetic anisotropy contributions and
evidence the dominating role of the cluster surface.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure
Dictionary learning for fast classification based on soft-thresholding.
Classifiers based on sparse representations have recently been shown to
provide excellent results in many visual recognition and classification tasks.
However, the high cost of computing sparse representations at test time is a
major obstacle that limits the applicability of these methods in large-scale
problems, or in scenarios where computational power is restricted. We consider
in this paper a simple yet efficient alternative to sparse coding for feature
extraction. We study a classification scheme that applies the soft-thresholding
nonlinear mapping in a dictionary, followed by a linear classifier. A novel
supervised dictionary learning algorithm tailored for this low complexity
classification architecture is proposed. The dictionary learning problem, which
jointly learns the dictionary and linear classifier, is cast as a difference of
convex (DC) program and solved efficiently with an iterative DC solver. We
conduct experiments on several datasets, and show that our learning algorithm
that leverages the structure of the classification problem outperforms generic
learning procedures. Our simple classifier based on soft-thresholding also
competes with the recent sparse coding classifiers, when the dictionary is
learned appropriately. The adopted classification scheme further requires less
computational time at the testing stage, compared to other classifiers. The
proposed scheme shows the potential of the adequately trained soft-thresholding
mapping for classification and paves the way towards the development of very
efficient classification methods for vision problems
Growth of nanostructures by cluster deposition : a review
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of simple models useful to
analyze the growth of nanostructures obtained by cluster deposition. After
detailing the potential interest of nanostructures, I extensively study the
first stages of growth (the submonolayer regime) by kinetic Monte-Carlo
simulations. These simulations are performed in a wide variety of experimental
situations : complete condensation, growth with reevaporation, nucleation on
defects, total or null cluster-cluster coalescence... The main scope of the
paper is to help experimentalists analyzing their data to deduce which of those
processes are important and to quantify them. A software including all these
simulation programs is available at no cost on request to the author. I
carefully discuss experiments of growth from cluster beams and show how the
mobility of the clusters on the surface can be measured : surprisingly high
values are found. An important issue for future technological applications of
cluster deposition is the relation between the size of the incident clusters
and the size of the islands obtained on the substrate. An approximate formula
which gives the ratio of the two sizes as a function of the melting temperature
of the material deposited is given. Finally, I study the atomic mechanisms
which can explain the diffusion of the clusters on a substrate and the result
of their mutual interaction (simple juxtaposition, partial or total
coalescence...)Comment: To be published Rev Mod Phys, Oct 99, RevTeX, 37 figure
Photovoltaic plant cloud shadowing and energy drops in Northern Europe
In this paper the effect of shadowing due to clouds on the energy production of a photovoltaic power plant installed in northern latitudes in Finland is analyzed. Numerical techniques, which can be also implemented on an embedded system because of their low computational and memory requirements, have been used for having an efficient processing of millions of experimental current vs. voltage curves acquired on the photovoltaic plant. The analysis allows to affirm that, at high latitudes, clouds can have a significant instantaneous effect on the power produced by the plant, but the time duration of the power drop is so short that the energy production is only marginally affected. This result is in full agreement with other studies appeared in the recent literature and suggests that, in such contexts, control electronics producers should avoid to implement related maximum power point tracking techniques for facing mismatched conditions, since their effect on energy production appears to be negligible
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