Mural inspection by vibration measurements with TV-holography

A commonly encountered problem in the conservation of historical murals is the identification of sections in the plaster that have detached from the wall and thus threaten to fall off. Commonly, walls are inspected by the acoustic response to a gentle finger-tapping (percussion method). Since this is a costly and cumbersome technique, means for a more automatic inspection are searched for. A TV-holography system of increased sensitivity in combination with acoustic excitation of the object is shown to be a new and powerful tool for monitoring of loose areas. It has the advantage of non-contact and remote operation which, for example, is extremely useful in large buildings. Principles of the method, experimental results obtained at an artificial wall in the laboratory, and a thorough comparison of results from historical sites gained by the traditional percussion method and the new technique are presented. The latter shows very good agreement in the assessment of wall quality and thus is evidence of the suitability of the optical equipment for tasks in conservation.     

Calabi-Yau 4-folds and toric fibrations

We present a general scheme for identifying fibrations in the framework of toric geometry and provide a large list of weights for Calabi-Yau 4-folds. We find 914 164 weights with degree d ≤ 150 whose maximal Newton polyhedra are reflexive and 525 572 weights with degree d ≤ 4000 that give rise to weighted projective spaces such that the polynomial defining a hypersurface of trivial canonical class is transversal. We compute all Hodge numbers, using Batyrev's formulas (derived by toric methods) for the first and Vafa's formulas (obtained by counting of Ramond ground states in N = 2 LG models) for the latter class, checking their consistency for the 109 308 weights in the overlap. Fibrations of k-folds, including the elliptic case, manifest themselves in the N lattice in the following simple way: The polyhedron corresponding to the fiber is a subpolyhedron of that corresponding to the k-fold, whereas the fan determining the base is a linear projection of the fan corresponding to the k-fold.     

Quality control strategy for the determination of 210Po

A quality control programme is presented for the determination of ²¹⁰Po in samples from the phosphate ore-processing industry. Accuracy and precision of selected steps of the analytical procedure are quantified and the change in these parameters is monitored by analysis of hundreds of reference samples during the last two years.     

A sample preparation method for recovering suppressed analyte ions in MALDI TOF MS

In matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF MS), analyte signals can be substantially suppressed by other compounds in the sample. In this technical note, we describe a modified thin‐layer sample preparation method that significantly reduces the analyte suppression effect (ASE). In our method, analytes are deposited on top of the surface of matrix preloaded on the MALDI plate. To prevent embedding of analyte into the matrix crystals, the sample solution were prepared without matrix and efforts were taken not to re‐dissolve the preloaded matrix. The results with model mixtures of peptides, synthetic polymers and lipids show that detection of analyte ions, which were completely suppressed using the conventional dried‐droplet method, could be effectively recovered by using our method. Our findings suggest that the incorporation of analytes in the matrix crystals has an important contributory effect on ASE. By reducing ASE, our method should be useful for the direct MALDI MS analysis of multicomponent mixtures. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lithium intercalation into disordered carbon/SiCN composite. Part 2: Raman spectroscopy and <Superscript>7</Superscript>Li MAS NMR investigation of lithium storage sites

Within this work, we analyze the lithium storage sites within carbon/silicon carbonitride (SiCN) composites. Commercial carbons, HD3 (hard carbon) and LD1N and LD2N (soft carbons), of varying porosity are impregnated with polysilazane (HTT 1800) and pyrolysed at 1100 °C. It is found in the first part of this study (Graczyk-Zajac et al. J Solid State Electrochem 19:2763–2769, 2015) that the initial porosity of the carbon phase plays an important role in determining the lithium insertion capacity and rate capability of the composite material. By applying Raman spectroscopy and solid-state ⁷Li MAS NMR on pristine, lithiated, and delithiated samples, we investigate the lithium storage sites within the composite materials. By means of Raman spectroscopy, it has been found that lithium storage in hard carbon-derived composites occurs in a significant extent via adsorption-like process within unorganized carbon, whereas for the soft carbon composites, storage in turbostratic carbon is identified. ⁷Li solid-state NMR confirms these findings revealing that more than 33 % of lithium stored in HD3/SiCN is adsorbed in ionic form at the surface and in pores of the composite, while around 38 % is stored between carbon layers. LD1N and LD2N composites store more than 50 % of lithium in the intercalation-type sites.     

Comparison of a Filter- and a Model Predictive Control Based Motion Cueing Algorithm

Motion Cueing Algorithms (MCA) include control strategies to take into account the motion-based driving simulator's restrictions concerning workspace limits and dynamic boundaries. A typical 6-DoF simulator consists of a motion system which exhibits three translational and rotational degrees of freedom. Its actuators are capable of realizing accelerations, velocities and positions in a limited range. Based on these facts MCAs aim to generating realistic simulations of the driving motion (such as a driving manoeuvre) in order to immerse persons in virtual environments provided by the simulator. Filter-based, classical MCAs belong to the most applied algorithms and mainly consist of linear transfer functions. Whereas, Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithms rest upon a reduced model of the technical system's dynamics and, optionally, a model of the human motion perception system. An optimization problem subject to the restrictions of the motion system predicts the control variables over a time horizon. This paper addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the two stated approaches with focus on Motion Cueing errors. These errors describe discrepancies between the motion that is to be simulated (e.g. a driving manoeuvre) and the motion that is eventually provided by the combination of the MCA and the motion simulator. On basis of the results, it gives an outlook why optimization based algorithms have a higher potential to improve driving simulation. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Combination of HAADF‐STEM and ADF‐STEM Tomography for Core–Shell Hybrid Materials

Characterization of core–shell type nanoparticles in 3D by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be very challenging. Especially when both heavy and light elements coexist within the same nanostructure, artifacts in the 3D reconstruction are often present. A representative example would be a particle comprising an anisotropic metallic (Au) nanoparticle coated with a (mesoporous) silica shell. To obtain a reliable 3D characterization of such an object, a dose‐efficient strategy is proposed to simultaneously acquire high‐angle annular dark‐field scanning TEM and annular dark‐field tilt series for tomography. The 3D reconstruction is further improved by applying an advanced masking and interpolation approach to the acquired data. This new methodology enables us to obtain high‐quality reconstructions from which also quantitative information can be extracted. This approach is broadly applicable to investigate hybrid core–shell materials.     

On the performance of the Prange-Hellinger-Reissner finite element formulation for elasto-plasticity at small strains

This contribution deals with a stress-displacement mixed finite element formulation for elasto-plasticity within the framework of small deformations based on the Prange-Hellinger-Reissner (PHR) functional. The interpolations for the displacements are given by standard Lagrangian shape functions and a 5-parameter discontinuous interpolation is introduced for the stresses which was published by [1]. Based on the principle of maximum plastic dissipation the flow rule and hardening law will be derived by regarding a von Mises yield criterion, see [2]. In contrast to [3], we apply a point-wise enforcement of the flow rule, hardening law and loading/unloading conditions. This work is related to the physically nonlinear mixed finite element based on the Prange-Hellinger-Reissner formulations for elasto-plasticity, [4]. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)