Simulation of anisotropic wet-chemical etching using a physical model

We present a method to describe the orientation dependence of the etch rate of silicon, or any other single crystalline material, in anisotropic etching solutions by analytical functions. The parameters in these functions have a simple physical meaning. Crystals have a small number of atomically smooth faces, which etch (and grow) slowly as a consequence of the removal (or addition) of atoms by rows and layers. However, smooth faces have a roughening transition (well known in statistical physics); at increasing temperature they become rougher, and accordingly the etch and growth rates increase. Consequently, the basic physical parameters of our functions are the roughness of the smooth faces and the velocity of steps on these faces. This small set of parameters describes the etch rate in the two-dimensional space of orientations (on the unit sphere). We have applied our method to the practical case of etch rate functions for silicon crystals in KOH solutions. The maximum deviation between experimental data and simulation using only nine physically meaningful parameters is less than 5% of the maximum etch rate. This method, which in this study is used to describe anisotropic etching of silicon, can easily be adjusted to describe the growth or etching process of any crysta

One-pot synthesis, crystallization and deracemization of isoindolinones from achiral reactants

The synthesis, crystallization, and complete solid-state deracemization of isoindolinones was realized in one pot simply by grinding achiral reaction components in a suitable solvent with an achiral catalyst. Previously, this concept was applied to a reversible reaction, but herein we showed that it could also be used in combination with reactions in which product formation is irreversible. A controlled final configuration of the product was obtained by using small amounts of chiral additives or seed crystals of the product

Update of the Minimum Information About BIobank Data Sharing (MIABIS) Core Terminology to the 3^rd Version

Introduction: The Minimum Information About BIobank Data Sharing (MIABIS) is a biobank-specific terminology enabling the sharing of biobank-related data for different purposes across a wide range of database implementations. After 4 years in use and with the first version of the individual-level MIABIS component Sample, Sample donor, and Event, it was necessary to revise the terminology, especially to include biobanks that work more in the data domain than with samples.Materials & Methods: Nine use-cases representing different types of biobanks, studies, and networks participated in the development work. They represent types of data, specific sample types, or levels of organization that were not included earlier in MIABIS. To support our revision of the Biobank entity, we conducted a survey of European biobanks to chart the services they provide. An important stakeholder group for biobanks include researchers as the main users of biobanks. To be able to render MIABIS more researcher-friendly, we collected different sample/data requests to analyze the terminology adjustment needs in detail. During the update process, the Core terminology was iteratively reviewed by a large group of experts until a consensus was reached.Results: With this update, MIABIS was adjusted to encompass data-driven biobanks and to include data collections, while also describing the services and capabilities biobanks offer to their users, besides the retrospective samples. The terminology was also extended to accommodate sample and data collections of nonhuman origin. Additionally, a set of organizational attributes was compiled to describe networks.Discussion: The usability of MIABIS Core v3 was increased by extending it to cover more topics of the biobanking domain. Additionally, the focus was on a more general terminology and harmonization of attributes with the individual-level entities Sample, Sample donor, and Event to keep the overall terminology minimal. With this work, the internal semantics of the MIABIS terminology was improved

Diamond deposition on modified silicon substrates: Making diamond atomic force microscopy tips for nanofriction experiments

Fine-crystalline diamond particles are grown on standard Si atomic force microscopy tips, using hot filament-assisted chemical vapor deposition. To optimize the conditions for diamond deposition, first a series of experiments is carried out using silicon substrates covered by point-topped pyramids as obtained by wet chemical etching. The apexes and the edges of the silicon pyramids provide favorable sites for diamond nucleation and growth. The investigation of the deposited polycrystallites is done by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The resulting diamond-terminated tips are tested in ultra high vacuum using contact-mode atomic force microscope on a stepped surface of sapphire showing high stability, sharpness, and hardnes

A Note on Computations of D-brane Superpotential

We develop some computational methods for the integrals over the 3-chains on the compact Calabi-Yau 3-folds that plays a prominent role in the analysis of the topological B-model in the context of the open mirror symmetry. We discuss such 3-chain integrals in two approaches. In the first approach, we provide a systematic algorithm to obtain the inhomogeneous Picard-Fuchs equations. In the second approach, we discuss the analytic continuation of the period integral to compute the 3-chain integral directly. The latter direct integration method is applicable for both on-shell and off-shell formalisms.Comment: 61 pages, 5 figures; v2: typos corrected, minor changes, references adde

Twinning superlattices in indium phosphide nanowires

Here, we show that we control the crystal structure of indium phosphide (InP) nanowires by impurity dopants. We have found that zinc decreases the activation barrier for 2D nucleation growth of zinc-blende InP and therefore promotes the InP nanowires to crystallise in the zinc blende, instead of the commonly found wurtzite crystal structure. More importantly, we demonstrate that we can, by controlling the crystal structure, induce twinning superlattices with long-range order in InP nanowires. We can tune the spacing of the superlattices by the wire diameter and the zinc concentration and present a model based on the cross-sectional shape of the zinc-blende InP nanowires to quantitatively explain the formation of the periodic twinning.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Holonomic functions of several complex variables and singularities of anisotropic Ising n-fold integrals

Lattice statistical mechanics, often provides a natural (holonomic) framework to perform singularity analysis with several complex variables that would, in a general mathematical framework, be too complex, or could not be defined. Considering several Picard-Fuchs systems of two-variables "above" Calabi-Yau ODEs, associated with double hypergeometric series, we show that holonomic functions are actually a good framework for actually finding the singular manifolds. We, then, analyse the singular algebraic varieties of the n-fold integrals $\chi^{(n)}$, corresponding to the decomposition of the magnetic susceptibility of the anisotropic square Ising model. We revisit a set of Nickelian singularities that turns out to be a two-parameter family of elliptic curves. We then find a first set of non-Nickelian singularities for $\chi^{(3)}$ and $\chi^{(4)}$, that also turns out to be rational or ellipic curves. We underline the fact that these singular curves depend on the anisotropy of the Ising model. We address, from a birational viewpoint, the emergence of families of elliptic curves, and of Calabi-Yau manifolds on such problems. We discuss the accumulation of these singular curves for the non-holonomic anisotropic full susceptibility.Comment: 36 page

Improved imputation quality of low-frequency and rare variants in European samples using the 'Genome of the Netherlands'

Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many common variants associated with complex traits, low-frequency and rare variants have not been interrogated in a comprehensive manner. Imputation from dense reference panels, such as the 1000 Genomes Project (1000G), enables testing of ungenotyped variants for association. Here we present the results of imputation using a large, new population-specific panel: the Genome of The Netherlands (GoNL). We benchmarked the performance of the 1000G and GoNL reference sets by comparing imputation genotypes with 'true' genotypes typed on ImmunoChip in three European populations (Dutch, British, and Italian). GoNL showed significant improvement in the imputation quality for rare variants (MAF 0.05-0.5%) compared with 1000G. In Dutch samples, the mean observed Pearson correlation, r 2, increased from 0.61 to 0.71. W

Understanding coastal morphodynamic patterns from depth-averaged sediment concentration

This review highlights the important role of the depth-averaged sediment concentration (DASC) to understand the formation of a number of coastal morphodynamic features that have an alongshore rhythmic pattern: beach cusps, surf zone transverse and crescentic bars, and shoreface-connected sand ridges. We present a formulation and methodology, based on the knowledge of the DASC (which equals the sediment load divided by the water depth), that has been successfully used to understand the characteristics of these features. These sand bodies, relevant for coastal engineering and other disciplines, are located in different parts of the coastal zone and are characterized by different spatial and temporal scales, but the same technique can be used to understand them. Since the sand bodies occur in the presence of depth-averaged currents, the sediment transport approximately equals a sediment load times the current. Moreover, it is assumed that waves essentially mobilize the sediment, and the current increases this mobilization and advects the sediment. In such conditions, knowing the spatial distribution of the DASC and the depth-averaged currents induced by the forcing (waves, wind, and pressure gradients) over the patterns allows inferring the convergence/divergence of sediment transport. Deposition (erosion) occurs where the current flows from areas of high to low (low to high) values of DASC. The formulation and methodology are especially useful to understand the positive feedback mechanisms between flow and morphology leading to the formation of those morphological features, but the physical mechanisms for their migration, their finite-amplitude behavior and their decay can also be explored