Notes

Neuromuscular scoliosis and also pelvic fixation within 2015: Exactly where can we stand?
Spectroscopic ptychography is a powerful technique to determine the chemical composition of a sample with high spatial resolution. In spectro-ptychography, a sample is rastered through a focused X-ray beam with varying photon energy so that a series of phaseless diffraction data are recorded. Each chemical component in the material under investigation has a characteristic absorption and phase contrast as a function of photon energy. Using a dictionary formed by the set of contrast functions of each energy for each chemical component, it is possible to obtain the chemical composition of the material from high-resolution multi-spectral images. This paper presents SPA (spectroscopic ptychography with alternating direction method of multipliers), a novel algorithm to iteratively solve the spectroscopic blind ptychography problem. First, a nonlinear spectro-ptychography model based on Poisson maximum likelihood is designed, and then the proposed method is constructed on the basis of fast iterative splitting operators. SPA can be used to retrieve spectral contrast when considering either a known or an incomplete (partially known) dictionary of reference spectra. By coupling the redundancy across different spectral measurements, the proposed algorithm can achieve higher reconstruction quality when compared with standard state-of-the-art two-step methods. It is demonstrated how SPA can recover accurate chemical maps from Poisson-noised measurements, and its enhanced robustness when reconstructing reduced-redundancy ptychography data using large scanning step sizes is shown.The ever-increasing brightness of synchrotron radiation sources demands improved X-ray optics to utilize their capability for imaging and probing biological cells, nano-devices and functional matter on the nanometre scale with chemical sensitivity. Hard X-rays are ideal for high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic applications owing to their short wavelength, high penetrating power and chemical sensitivity. The penetrating power that makes X-rays useful for imaging also makes focusing them technologically challenging. Recent developments in layer deposition techniques have enabled the fabrication of a series of highly focusing X-ray lenses, known as wedged multi-layer Laue lenses. Improvements to the lens design and fabrication technique demand an accurate, robust, in situ and at-wavelength characterization method. To this end, a modified form of the speckle tracking wavefront metrology method has been developed. The ptychographic X-ray speckle tracking method is capable of operating with highly divergent wavefields. A useful by-product of this method is that it also provides high-resolution and aberration-free projection images of extended specimens. Three separate experiments using this method are reported, where the ray path angles have been resolved to within 4 nrad with an imaging resolution of 45 nm (full period). This method does not require a high degree of coherence, making it suitable for laboratory-based X-ray sources. Likewise, it is robust to errors in the registered sample positions, making it suitable for X-ray free-electron laser facilities, where beam-pointing fluctuations can be problematic for wavefront metrology.White-beam X-ray topography has been performed to provide direct evidence of micro-voids in dislocation-free high-purity germanium single crystals. The voids are visible because of a dynamical diffraction contrast. read more It is shown that voids occur only in dislocation-free parts of the crystal and do not show up in regions with homogeneous and moderate dislocation density. It is further suggested that the voids originate from clustering of vacancies during the growth process. A general method is proposed to verify the presence of voids for any crystalline material of high structural perfection.Gaseous nitriding of steel and iron can significantly improve their properties, for example corrosion resistance, fatigue endurance and tribological properties. In order to obtain a better understanding of the early stages of formation of the initial cubic primitive γ'-Fe4N, the mechanism and crystallography of the α-γ' phase transformation was investigated under simplified conditions. Single-crystal α-Fe whiskers were nitrided at 823 K and a nitriding potential of 0.7 atm-1/2 for 20 min. The resulting microstructure and phases, as well as the crystallographic orientation of crystallites belonging to a particular phase, were characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupled with electron backscatter diffraction. The habit planes were investigated by single- and two-surface trace analysis. The α-Fe whiskers partly transform into γ'-Fe4N, where γ' grows mainly in a plate-like morphology. An orientation relationship close to the rational Pitsch orientation relationship and 0.078 0.432 0.898α and 0.391 0.367 0.844γ' as habit planes were predicted by the phenomenological theory of martensite crystallography (PTMC), adopting a 101α〈101〉α shear system for lattice invariant strain, which corresponds to a 1 1 1γ'〈1 12〉γ' shear system in γ'. The encountered orientation relationship and the habit planes exhibit excellent agreement with predictions from the PTMC, although the transformation definitely requires diffusion. The γ' plates mainly exhibit one single internally untwinned variant. The formation of additional variants due to strain accommodation, as well as the formation of a complex microstructure, was suppressed to a considerable extent by the fewer mechanical constraints imposed on the transforming regions within the iron whiskers as compared to the situation at the surface of bulk samples.[This corrects the article on p. 297 in vol. 36, PMID 32547345.].The objective of this research was introduction of chit42 to tuber mustard plants through Agrobacteriummediated transformation against white mold caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The binary plasmid pGisPEC1 was used in this study. Polymerase chain reaction analysis detected the transgene in 27 transformants with a transformation efficiency of 6.9%. Southern blot test was used to assess the copy number of transgene in tuber mustard plants. One, two, two, and two chit42-related bands were observed in the transformed lines TMB4, TMB7, TMB12, and TMB18, respectively. Enzymatic tests showed a significant increase in the activity of endochitinase in protein isolated from leaf tissues of chit42 transgenic 75-day tuber mustard lines. The pathogenicity of three pathogen isolates was tested on the leaves of transformed plans. The results of current study showed that expression of the gene chit42 in tuber mustard plants markedly reduced infection radius on the leaves 7 days after inoculation with the fungus.
Website: https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Ispinesib-mesilate(SB-715992).html