scholarly journals Cell geometry across the ring structure of Sitka spruce

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (142) ◽  
pp. 20180144 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. S. Reynolds ◽  
H. C. Burridge ◽  
R. Johnston ◽  
G. Wu ◽  
D. U. Shah ◽  
...  

For wood to be used to its full potential as an engineering material, it is necessary to quantify links between its cell geometry and the properties it exhibits at bulk scale. Doing so will make it possible to predict timber properties crucial to engineering, such as mechanical strength and stiffness, and the resistance to fluid flow, and to inform strategies to improve those properties as required, as well as to measure the effects of interventions such as genetic manipulation and chemical modification. Strength, stiffness and permeability of timber all derive from the geometry of its cells, and yet current practice is to predict them based on properties, such as bulk density, that do not directly describe the cell structure. This work explores links between micro-computed tomography data for structural-size pieces of wood, which show the variation of porosity across the wood's ring structure, and high-resolution tomography showing the geometry of the cells, from which we measure cell length, lumen area, porosity, cell wall thickness and the number density of cells. High-resolution scans, while informative, are time-consuming and expensive to run on a large number of samples at the scale of building components. By scanning the same volume of timber at both low and high resolutions (high-resolution scans over a near-continuous volume of timber of approx. 20 mm 3 at 15 μm 3 per voxel), we are able to demonstrate correlations between the measurements at the two different resolutions, reveal the physical basis for these correlations, and demonstrate that the data from the low-resolution scan can be used to estimate the variation in (small-scale) cell geometry throughout a structural-size piece of wood.

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (123) ◽  
pp. 20160589
Author(s):  
James Rafferty ◽  
Lance Farr ◽  
Tim James ◽  
David Chase ◽  
John Heinrich ◽  
...  

We present a novel, high-resolution magnetic resonance technique, fine structure analysis (FSA) for the quantification and analysis of amorphous and quasi-amorphous biological structures. The one-dimensional technique is introduced mathematically and then applied to one simulated phantom, two physical phantoms and a set of ex vivo biological samples, scanned with interpoint spacings of 0.0038–0.195 mm and cross-sectional sizes of 3 × 3 or 5 × 5 mm. The simulated phantom and one of the physical phantoms consists of randomly arranged beads of known size in two and three dimensions, respectively. The second physical phantom was constructed by etching lines on Perspex. The ex vivo samples are human bone specimens. We show that for all three phantoms, the FSA technique is able to elucidate the average spacing of the structures present within each sample using structural spectroscopy, the smallest of which was 180 µm in size. We further show that in samples of trabecular bone, FSA is able to produce comparable results to micro-computed tomography, the current gold standard for measuring bone microstructure, but without the need for ionizing radiation. Many biological structures are too small to be captured by conventional, clinically deployed medical imaging techniques. FSA has the potential for use in the analysis of pathologies where such small-scale repeating structures are disrupted or their size, and spacing is otherwise altered.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 2127-2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Penna ◽  
M. Borga ◽  
G. T. Aronica ◽  
G. Brigandì ◽  
P. Tarolli

Abstract. This work evaluates the predictive power of the quasi-dynamic shallow landslide model QD-SLaM to simulate shallow landslide locations in a small-scale Mediterranean landscape, namely, the lower portion (2.6 km2) of the Giampilieri catchment, located in Sicily (Italy). The catchment was impacted by a sequence of high-intensity storms over the years 2007–2009, resulting in widespread landsliding, with a total landslide initiation area amounting to 2.6% of the basin area. The effect of high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) on the quality of model predictions is tested by considering four DTM resolutions: 2, 4, 10 and 20 m. Moreover, the impact of the dense forest road network on the model performance is evaluated by separately considering road-related landslides and natural landslides. The landslide model does not incorporate the description of road-related failures and is applied without calibration of the model parameters. The model predictive power is shown to be DTM-resolution dependent. Use of coarser resolution has a smoothing effect on terrain attributes, with local slope angles decreasing and contributing areas becoming larger. The percentage of watershed area represented by the model as unconditionally unstable (i.e. failing even without the addition of water from precipitation) ranges between 6.3% at 20 m DTM and 13.8% at 2 m DTM, showing an overestimation of the mapped landslide area. We consider this prediction as an indication for likely failing sites in future storms rather than areas proved stable during previous storms. When assessed over the sample of mapped non-road-related landslides, better model performances are reported for 4 and 10 m DTM resolution, thus highlighting the fact that higher DTM resolution does not necessarily mean better model performances. Model performances over road-related failures are lower than for the natural cases, and slightly increase with decreasing DTM resolution. These findings indicate that to realize the full potential of high-resolution topography, more extensive work is needed aiming more specifically to identify the extent of the artificial structures and their impact on shallow landsliding processes.


Author(s):  
Benjamin M. Siegel

The potential advantages of high voltage electron microscopy for extending the limits of resolution and contrast in imaging low contrast objects, such as biomolecular specimens, is very great. The results of computations will be presented showing that at accelerating voltages of 500-1000 kV it should be possible to achieve spacial resolutions of 1 to 1.5 Å and using phase contrast imaging achieve adequate image contrast to observe single atoms of low atomic number.The practical problems associated with the design and utilization of the high voltage instrument are, optimistically, within the range of competence of the state of the art. However, there are some extremely important and critical areas to be systematically investigated before we have achieved this competence. The basic electron optics of the column required is well understood, but before the full potential of an instrument capable of resolutions of better than 1.5 Å are realized some very careful development work will be required. Of great importance for the actual achievement of high resolution with a high voltage electron microscope is the fundamental limitation set by the characteristics of the high voltage electron beam that can be obtained from the accelerator column.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 312-317
Author(s):  
Francoise Combes

AbstractGas fueling AGN (Active Galaxy Nuclei) is now traceable at high-resolution with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) and NOEMA (NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array). Dynamical mechanisms are essential to exchange angular momentum and drive the gas to the super-massive black hole. While at 100pc scale, the gas is sometimes stalled in nuclear rings, recent observations reaching 10pc scale (50mas), may bring smoking gun evidence of fueling, within a randomly oriented nuclear gas disk. AGN feedback is also observed, in the form of narrow and collimated molecular outflows, which point towards the radio mode, or entrainment by a radio jet. Precession has been observed in a molecular outflow, indicating the precession of the radio jet. One of the best candidates for precession is the Bardeen-Petterson effect at small scale, which exerts a torque on the accreting material, and produces an extended disk warp. The misalignment between the inner and large-scale disk, enhances the coupling of the AGN feedback, since the jet sweeps a large part of the molecular disk.


2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Wright ◽  
T. K. Yeoman ◽  
L. J. Baddeley ◽  
J. A. Davies ◽  
R. S. Dhillon ◽  
...  

Abstract. The EISCAT high power heating facility at Tromsø, northern Norway, has been utilised to generate artificial radar backscatter in the fields of view of the CUTLASS HF radars. It has been demonstrated that this technique offers a means of making very accurate and high resolution observations of naturally occurring ULF waves. During such experiments, the usually narrow radar spectral widths associated with artificial irregularities increase at times when small scale-sized (high m-number) ULF waves are observed. Possible mechanisms by which these particle-driven high-m waves may modify the observed spectral widths have been investigated. The results are found to be consistent with Pc1 (ion-cyclotron) wave activity, causing aliasing of the radar spectra, in agreement with previous modelling work. The observations also support recent suggestions that Pc1 waves may be modulated by the action of longer period ULF standing waves, which are simultaneously detected on the magnetospheric field lines. Drifting ring current protons with energies of ∼ 10keV are indicated as a common plasma source population for both wave types. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (MHD waves and instabilities) – Space plasma physics (wave-particle interactions) – Ionosphere (active experiments)


Solar Physics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 164 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 303-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Kneer ◽  
F. Stolpe

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Marseille ◽  
K. Houchi ◽  
J. de Kloe ◽  
A. Stoffelen

Abstract. The definition of an atmospheric database is an important component of simulation studies in preparation of future earth observing remote sensing satellites. The Aeolus mission, formerly denoted Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM) or ADM-Aeolus, is scheduled for launch end of 2013 and aims at measuring profiles of single horizontal line-of-sight (HLOS) wind components from the surface up to about 32 km with a global coverage. The vertical profile resolution is limited but may be changed during in-orbit operation. This provides the opportunity of a targeted sampling strategy, e.g., as a function of geographic region. Optimization of the vertical (and horizontal) sampling strategy requires a characterization of the atmosphere optical and dynamical properties, more in particular the distribution of atmospheric particles and their correlation with the atmospheric dynamics. The Aeolus atmospheric database combines meteorological data from the ECMWF model with atmosphere optical properties data from CALIPSO. An inverse algorithm to retrieve high-resolution particle backscatter from the CALIPSO level-1 attenuated backscatter product is presented. Global weather models tend to underestimate atmospheric wind variability. A procedure is described to ensure compatibility of the characteristics of the database winds with those from high-resolution radiosondes. The result is a high-resolution database of zonal, meridional and vertical wind, temperature, specific humidity and particle and molecular backscatter and extinction at 355 nm laser wavelength. This allows the simulation of small-scale atmospheric processes within the Aeolus observation sampling volume and their impact on the quality of the retrieved HLOS wind profiles. The database extends over four months covering all seasons. This allows a statistical evaluation of the mission components under investigation. The database is currently used for the development of the Aeolus wind processing, the definition of wind calibration strategies and the optimization of the Aeolus sampling strategy.


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