31 research outputs found
Scanning Electron Microscopy: A Review and Report of Research in Wood Science
Scanning electron microscopy is discussed in light of its principles, advantages, and applications. Comparisons of this system are made with the light microscopic and transmission electron systems. A cross section of pertinent literature on the scanning electron microscope, its development and use, has been integrated into the initial sections to provide a reference base for this general field. A detailed literature view on the use of this system in the field of wood science has also been included.The result of the author's research on wood through use of the scanning electron microscope is reported. Effect of techniques used to prepare specimens for viewing by this method and the effect of the environment inside the microscope itself were determined. A means for preserving original green structure of wood was determined by studying the bordered pit structure in redwood. Finally, 3/8-inch plywood was used in exploring means for improving image contrast at the wood-adhesive interface. Use of much reduced incident electron-beam voltage on uncoated specimens showed promise as a means of studying distribution patterns in wood containing materials of different conductivity
Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale
Accurate astronomical distance determination is crucial for all fields in
astrophysics, from Galactic to cosmological scales. Despite, or perhaps because
of, significant efforts to determine accurate distances, using a wide range of
methods, tracers, and techniques, an internally consistent astronomical
distance framework has not yet been established. We review current efforts to
homogenize the Local Group's distance framework, with particular emphasis on
the potential of RR Lyrae stars as distance indicators, and attempt to extend
this in an internally consistent manner to cosmological distances. Calibration
based on Type Ia supernovae and distance determinations based on gravitational
lensing represent particularly promising approaches. We provide a positive
outlook to improvements to the status quo expected from future surveys,
missions, and facilities. Astronomical distance determination has clearly
reached maturity and near-consistency.Comment: Review article, 59 pages (4 figures); Space Science Reviews, in press
(chapter 8 of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ
workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age
Insect Brains Use Image Interpolation Mechanisms to Recognise Rotated Objects
Recognising complex three-dimensional objects presents significant challenges to visual systems when these objects are rotated in depth. The image processing requirements for reliable individual recognition under these circumstances are computationally intensive since local features and their spatial relationships may significantly change as an object is rotated in the horizontal plane. Visual experience is known to be important in primate brains learning to recognise rotated objects, but currently it is unknown how animals with comparatively simple brains deal with the problem of reliably recognising objects when seen from different viewpoints. We show that the miniature brain of honeybees initially demonstrate a low tolerance for novel views of complex shapes (e.g. human faces), but can learn to recognise novel views of stimuli by interpolating between or ‘averaging’ views they have experienced. The finding that visual experience is also important for bees has important implications for understanding how three dimensional biologically relevant objects like flowers are recognised in complex environments, and for how machine vision might be taught to solve related visual problems
Specialized ommatidia of the polarization-sensitive dorsal rim area in the eye of monarch butterflies have non-functional reflecting tapeta
Many insects exploit sky light polarization for navigation or cruising-course control. The detection of polarized sky light is mediated by the ommatidia of a small specialized part of the compound eye: the dorsal rim area (DRA). We describe the morphology and fine structure of the DRA in monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). The DRA consists of approximately 100 ommatidia forming a narrow ribbon along the dorsal eye margin. Each ommatidium contains two types of photoreceptor with mutually orthogonal microvilli orientations occurring in a 2:6 ratio. Within each rhabdomere, the microvilli are well aligned. Rhabdom structure and orientation remain constant at all retinal levels, but the rhabdom profiles, as seen in tangential sections through the DRA, change their orientations in a fan-like fashion from the frontal to the caudal end of the DRA. Whereas these properties (two microvillar orientations per rhabdom, microvillar alignment along rhabdomeres, ommatidial fan array) are typical for insect DRAs in general, we also report and discuss here a novel feature. The ommatidia of monarch butterflies are equipped with reflecting tapeta, which are directly connected to the proximal ends of the rhabdoms. Although tapeta are also present in the DRA, they are separated from the rhabdoms by a space of approximately 55 μm effectively inactivating them. This reduces self-screening effects, keeping polarization sensitivity of all photoreceptors of the DRA ommatidia both high and approximately equal
Empirical modelling of the BLASTPol achromatic half-wave plate for precision submillimetre polarimetry
A cryogenic achromatic half-wave plate (HWP) for submillimetre astronomical polarimetry
has been designed, manufactured, tested and deployed in the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture
Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol). The design is based on the five-slab
Pancharatnam recipe and itworks in thewavelength range 200–600 μm, making it the broadestband
HWP built to date at (sub)millimetre wavelengths. The frequency behaviour of the HWP
has been fully characterized at room and cryogenic temperatures with incoherent radiation
from a polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer. We develop a novel empirical model, complementary
to the physical and analytical ones available in the literature, that allows us to
recover the HWP Mueller matrix and phase shift as a function of frequency and extrapolated
to 4 K. We show that most of the HWP non-idealities can be modelled by quantifying one
wavelength-dependent parameter, the position of the HWP equivalent axes, which is then readily
implemented in a map-making algorithm. We derive this parameter for a range of spectral
signatures of input astronomical sources relevant to BLASTPol, and provide a benchmark
example of how our method can yield improved accuracy on measurements of the polarization
angle on the sky at submillimetre wavelengths