A convolutional neural network approach to calibrating the rotation axis for X‐ray computed tomography

This paper presents an algorithm to calibrate the center‐of‐rotation for X‐ray tomography by using a machine learning approach, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The algorithm shows excellent accuracy from the evaluation of synthetic data with various noise ratios. It is further validated with experimental data of four different shale samples measured at the Advanced Photon Source and at the Swiss Light Source. The results are as good as those determined by visual inspection and show better robustness than conventional methods. CNN has also great potential for reducing or removing other artifacts caused by instrument instability, detector non‐linearity, etc. An open‐source toolbox, which integrates the CNN methods described in this paper, is freely available through GitHub at tomography/xlearn and can be easily integrated into existing computational pipelines available at various synchrotron facilities. Source code, documentation and information on how to contribute are also provided.     

Zero-temperature properties of randomly self-interacting polymers

We study the zero-temperature behavior of several simple models for randomly self-interacting polymers in one and 1+1 dimensions. Results are based on exact enumeration and closed-form expressions.     

Influence of polar surface properties on InGaN/GaN core-shell nanorod LED properties

InGaN/GaN nanorod core-shell LEDs have shown to be very promising candidates for high efficiency lighting devices. Such nanorods can be grown in different ways, leading to different device geometry and in particular to different structures near the polar Ga- and N-face nanorod surfaces. In this work the influence of the properties of the polar surfaces on the electrical device behaviour is studied qualitatively based on a semiclassical simulation model.     

A three-phase single sheet tester with digital control of flux loci based on the contraction mapping principle

Tight control of flux loci in 2D testing of soft magnetic laminations is realized by a method based on the principle of contraction mapping. It is implemented through digital control of the currents supplying a three-phase yoke magnetizer and the use of circular samples. Faithful realization of the prescribed loci and good measuring accuracy are demonstrated in grain-oriented and non-oriented Fe–Si laminations.     

An alternative for moduli stabilisation

The one-loop vacuum energy is explicitly computed for a class of perturbative string vacua where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by a T-duality invariant asymmetric Scherk–Schwarz deformation. The low-lying spectrum is tachyon-free for any value of the compactification radii and thus no Hagedorn-like phase-transition takes place. Indeed, the induced effective potential is free of divergence, and has a global anti-de Sitter minimum where geometric moduli are naturally stabilised.     

On the euler equation: Bi-Hamiltonian structure and integrals in involution

We propose a bi-Hamiltonian formulation of the Euler equation for the free n-dimensional rigid body moving about a fixed point. This formulation lives on the physical phase space so(n), and is different from the bi-Hamiltonian formulation on the extended phase space sl(n), considered previously in the literature. Using the bi-Hamiltonian structure on so(n), we construct new recursion schemes for the Mishchenko and Manakov integrals of motion.     

Immobilization of kojic acid in ZnAl-hydrotalcite like compounds

Kojic acid (KOJ) is a melanin synthesis inhibitor widely used as skin lightening agent in topical preparations. Unfortunately it is easily susceptible to photo-oxidation, phenomenon responsible for chemical and organoleptic modifications. The aim of this work was the intercalation of KOJ in hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTlc) in order to stabilize KOJ and to reduce its photolability. Hydrotalcite containing Zn and Al (ZnAl-HTlc) was used as host to obtain the final compound ZnAl-HTlc-KOJ. The intercalation was carried out, after many attempts, by ionic exchange mechanism by means of the strong base EtO^? in anhydrous ethanol/dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) mixture as solvent in order to generate KOJ^? anions. The final product was characterized by the X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and elemental analysis. The intercalated compound was formulated in a siliconic water free self-emulsifying ointment and the in vitro release profile was evaluated. All samples (intercalation compound and its formulation) were submitted also to spectrophotometric assays in order to evaluate the matrix protective effect towards ultraviolet rays.     

Reconfigurable silicon filter with continuous bandwidth tunability

We present the design and the fabrication of compact tunable silicon-on-insulator bandpass filters based on the integration of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with ring resonators and activated via thermo-optic phase shifters. The proposed architecture provides wide filter bandwidth tunability from 10% to 90% of the free spectral range preserving the filter off-band rejection. Possible applications are channel subset selection in wavelength division multiplexing optical systems, adaptive filtering to signal bandwidth, and reconfigurable filters for gridless networking.     

Are there more than five linearly-independent collision invariants for the Boltzmann equation?

The problem of finding the summational collision invariants for the Boltzmann equation is tackled with the aim of proving that the most general solution of the problem is not different from the standard one even when the equation defining a collision invariant is only satisfied almost everywhere inR ³×R ³×S ². The collision invariant is assumed to be in the Hilbert spaceH of the functions which are square integrable with respect to a Maxwellian weight.