Experiments on three-dimensional wire-frame object recognition

Some experimental results on the recognition of three-dimensional wire-frame objects are presented. In order to overcome the limitations of a recent model, which employs radial basis functions-based neural networks, we have proposed a hybrid learning system for object recognition, featuring: an optimization strategy (simulated annealing) in order to avoid local minima of an energy functional; and an appropriate choice of centers of the units. Further, in an attempt to achieve improved generalization ability, and to reduce the time for training, we invoke the principle of self-organization which utilises an unsupervised learning algorithm.

Transport through an electrostatically defined quantum dot lattice in a two-dimensional electron gas

Quantum dot lattices (QDLs) have the potential to allow for the tailoring of optical, magnetic, and electronic properties of a user-defined artificial solid. We use a dual gated device structure to controllably tune the potential landscape in a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas, thereby enabling the formation of a periodic QDL. The current-voltage characteristics, I (V), follow a power law, as expected for a QDL. In addition, a systematic study of the scaling behavior of I (V) allows us to probe the effects of background disorder on transport through the QDL. Our results are particularly important for semiconductor-based QDL architectures which aim to probe collective phenomena.

On the two dimensional effective electron mass in quantum wells, inversion layers and NIPI superlattices of Kane type semiconductors in the presence of strong light waves: Simplified theory and relative comparison

An attempt is made to study the two dimensional (2D) effective electron mass (EEM) in quantum wells (Qws), inversion layers (ILs) and NIPI superlattices of Kane type semiconductors in the presence of strong external photoexcitation on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion laws within the framework of k.p. formalism. It has been found, taking InAs and InSb as examples, that the EEM in Qws, ILs and superlattices increases with increasing concentration, light intensity and wavelength of the incident light waves, respectively and the numerical magnitudes in each case is band structure dependent. The EEM in ILs is quantum number dependent exhibiting quantum jumps for specified values of the surface electric field and in NIPI superlattices; the same is the function of Fermi energy and the subband index characterizing such 2D structures. The appearance of the humps of the respective curves is due to the redistribution of the electrons among the quantized energy levels when the quantum numbers corresponding to the highest occupied level changes from one fixed value to the others. Although the EEM varies in various manners with all the variables as evident from all the curves, the rates of variations totally depend on the specific dispersion relation of the particular 2D structure. Under certain limiting conditions, all the results as derived in this paper get transformed into well known formulas of the EEM and the electron statistics in the absence of external photo-excitation and thus confirming the compatibility test. The results of this paper find three applications in the field of microstructures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spontaneous self-assembly of designed cyclic dipeptide (Phg-Phg) into two-dimensional nano- and mesosheets

In this study, we present the spontaneous self-assembly of designed simplest aromatic cyclic dipeptides of (L-Phg-L-Phg) and (D-Phg-L-Phg) to form highly stable two-dimensional (2D) nano- and mesosheets with large lateral surface area. Various microscopy data revealed that the morphology of 2D mesosheets resembles the hierarchical natural materials with layered structure. Solution and solid-state NMR studies on cyclo(L-Phg-L-Phg) revealed the presence of strong (N-H-O) hydrogen-bonded molecular chains supported by aromatic pi-pi interactions to form 2D mesosheets. Interestingly, cyclo(D-Phg-L-Phg) self-assembles to form single-crystalline as well as non-crystalline 2D rhomboid sheets with large lateral dimension. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the stacking of (N-H-O) hydrogen-bonded molecular layers along c-axis supported by aromatic pi-pi interactions. The thermogravimetric analysis shows two transitions with overall high thermal stability attributed to layered hierarchy found in 2D mesosheets.

Intra-molecular hydrogen bonding with organic fluorine in the solution state: Deriving evidence by a two dimensional NMR experiment

The direct evidence for the existence of intra-molecular C-F center dot center dot center dot H-N hydrogen bond in organofluorine molecules, in the liquid state, is derived using NMR spectroscopy by the detection of long range interactions among fluorine, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. The present study reports the determination of the relative signs and magnitudes of through space and through bond couplings to draw unambiguous evidence on the existence of weak molecular interactions involving organic fluorine. It is a simple, easy to implement, N-15 natural abundant two dimensional heteronuclear N-15-H-1 double quantum-single quantum correlation experiment. The existence of intra-molecular hydrogen bond is conclusively established in the investigated molecules. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Two-dimensional moist stratified turbulence and the emergence of vertically sheared horizontal flows

Moist stratified turbulence is studied in a two-dimensional Boussinesq system influenced by condensation and evaporation. The problem is set in a periodic domain and employs simple evaporation and condensation schemes, wherein both the processes push parcels towards saturation. Numerical simulations demonstrate the emergence of a moist turbulent state consisting of ordered structures with a clear power-law type spectral scaling from initially spatially uncorrelated conditions. An asymptotic analysis in the limit of rapid condensation and strong stratification shows that, for initial conditions with enough water substance to saturate the domain, the equations support a straightforward state of moist balance characterized by a hydrostatic, saturated, vertically sheared horizontal flow (VSHF). For such initial conditions, by means of long time numerical simulations, the emergence of moist balance is verified. Specifically, starting from uncorrelated data, subsequent to the development of a moist turbulent state, the system experiences a rather abrupt transition to a regime which is close to saturation and dominated by a strong VSHF. On the other hand, initial conditions which do not have enough water substance to saturate the domain, do not attain moist balance. Rather, the system is observed to remain in a turbulent state and oscillates about moist balance. Even though balance is not achieved with these general initial conditions, the time scale of oscillation about moist balance is much larger than the imposed time scale of condensation and evaporation, thus indicating a distinct dominant slow component in the moist stratified two-dimensional turbulent system. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3694805]

Partition function for hindered, one-and multi-dimensional rotors

Writing the hindered rotor (hr) partition function as the trace of (rho) over cap = e(-beta(H) over cap hr), we approximate it by the sum of contributions from a set of points in position space. The contribution of the density matrix from each point is approximated by performing a local harmonic expansion around it. The highlight of this method is that it can be easily extended to multidimensional systems. Local harmonic expansion leads to a breakdown of the method a low temperatures. In order to calculate the partition function at low temperatures, we suggest a matrix multiplication procedure. The results obtained using these methods closely agree with the exact partition function at all temperature ranges. Our method bypasses the evaluation of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions and evaluates the density matrix for internal rotation directly. We also suggest a procedure to account for the antisymmetry of the total wavefunction in the same. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer from a Two-Dimensional Sudden Expansion Flow Using Nanofluids

Laminar forced convection heat transfer from two-dimensional sudden expansion flow of different nanofluids is studied numerically. The governing equations are solved using the unsteady stream function-vorticity method. The effect of volume fraction of the nanoparticles and type of nanoparticles on heat transfer is examined and found to have a significant impact. Local and average Nusselt numbers are reported in connection with various nanoparticle, volume fraction, and Reynolds number for expansion ratio 2. The Nusselt number reaches peak values near the reattachment point and reaches asymptotic value in the downstream. Bottom wall eddy and volume fraction shows a significant impact on the average Nusselt number.

A Numerical Scheme for Three-Dimensional Front Propagation and Control of Jordan Mode

As an example of a front propagation, we study the propagation of a three-dimensional nonlinear wavefront into a polytropic gas in a uniform state and at rest. The successive positions and geometry of the wavefront are obtained by solving the conservation form of equations of a weakly nonlinear ray theory. The proposed set of equations forms a weakly hyperbolic system of seven conservation laws with an additional vector constraint, each of whose components is a divergence-free condition. This constraint is an involution for the system of conservation laws, and it is termed a geometric solenoidal constraint. The analysis of a Cauchy problem for the linearized system shows that when this constraint is satisfied initially, the solution does not exhibit any Jordan mode. For the numerical simulation of the conservation laws we employ a high resolution central scheme. The second order accuracy of the scheme is achieved by using MUSCL-type reconstructions and Runge-Kutta time discretizations. A constrained transport-type technique is used to enforce the geometric solenoidal constraint. The results of several numerical experiments are presented, which confirm the efficiency and robustness of the proposed numerical method and the control of the Jordan mode.

Two-dimensional flow past circular cylinders using finite volume lattice Boltzmann formulation

In this article, an extension to the total variation diminishing finite volume formulation of the lattice Boltzmann equation method on unstructured meshes was presented. The quadratic least squares procedure is used for the estimation of first-order and second-order spatial gradients of the particle distribution functions. The distribution functions were extrapolated quadratically to the virtual upwind node. The time integration was performed using the fourth-order RungeKutta procedure. A grid convergence study was performed in order to demonstrate the order of accuracy of the present scheme. The formulation was validated for the benchmark two-dimensional, laminar, and unsteady flow past a single circular cylinder. These computations were then investigated for the low Mach number simulations. Further validation was performed for flow past two circular cylinders arranged in tandem and side-by-side. Results of these simulations were extensively compared with the previous numerical data. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sequence-Structure Similarity: Do Sequentially Identical Peptide Fragments have Similar Three-Dimensional Structures?

The rapidly growing structure databases enhance the probability of finding identical sequences sharing structural similarity. Structure prediction methods are being used extensively to abridge the gap between known protein sequences and the solved structures which is essential to understand its specific biochemical and cellular functions. In this work, we plan to study the ambiguity between sequence-structure relationships and examine if sequentially identical peptide fragments adopt similar three-dimensional structures. Fragments of varying lengths (five to ten residues) were used to observe the behavior of sequence and its three-dimensional structures. The STAMP program was used to superpose the three-dimensional structures and the two parameters (Sequence Structure Similarity Score (Sc) and Root Mean Square Deviation value) were employed to classify them into three categories: similar, intermediate and dissimilar structures. Furthermore, the same approach was carried out on all the three-dimensional protein structures solved in the two organisms, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Plasmodium falciparum to validate our results.

Synthesis of one-dimensional N-doped Ga2O3 nanostructures: different morphologies and different mechanisms

N-doped monoclinic Ga2O3 nanostructures of different morphologies have been synthesized by heating Ga metal in ambient air at 1150 degrees C to 1350 degrees C for 1 to 5 h duration. Neither catalyst nor any gas flow has been used for the synthesis of N-doped Ga2O3 nanostructures. The morphology was controlled by monitoring the curvature of the Ga droplet. Plausible growth mechanisms are discussed to explain the different morphology of the nanostructures. Elemental mapping by electron energy loss spectroscopy of the nanostructures indicate uniform distribution of Ga, O and N. It is interesting to note that we have used neither nitride source nor any gas flow but the synthesis was carried out in ambient air. We believe that ambient nitrogen acts as the source of nitrogen. Unintentional nitrogen doping of the Ga2O3 nanostructures is a straightforward method and such nanostructures could be promising candidates for white light emission.

Simple coating technique for 2-dimensional zinc oxide nanostructure

We report a novel and simple solution-based technique for depositing 2-D zinc oxide platelets at low temperature. Nanoplatelets that were mostly a-oriented associated with the Lotgering orientation factor of 0.65 were obtained by locating a glass substrate at a distance of about 5cm over the aqueous vapour of the boiling precursor. Experiments were carried out to optimize the coating parameters by placing the substrate at different positions, durations and the pH of the precursor. The X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the structure associated with the crystallites to be wurzite. The different morphology of the zinc oxide films and blue light emission were observed using scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy respectively.

Practical fully three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms for diffuse optical tomography

We have developed an efficient fully three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction algorithm for diffuse optical tomography (DOT). The 3D DOT, a severely ill-posed problem, is tackled through a pseudodynamic (PD) approach wherein an ordinary differential equation representing the evolution of the solution on pseudotime is integrated that bypasses an explicit inversion of the associated, ill-conditioned system matrix. One of the most computationally expensive parts of the iterative DOT algorithm, the reevaluation of the Jacobian in each of the iterations, is avoided by using the adjoint-Broyden update formula to provide low rank updates to the Jacobian. In addition, wherever feasible, we have also made the algorithm efficient by integrating along the quadratic path provided by the perturbation equation containing the Hessian. These algorithms are then proven by reconstruction, using simulated and experimental data and verifying the PD results with those from the popular Gauss-Newton scheme. The major findings of this work are as follows: (i) the PD reconstructions are comparatively artifact free, providing superior absorption coefficient maps in terms of quantitative accuracy and contrast recovery; (ii) the scaling of computation time with the dimension of the measurement set is much less steep with the Jacobian update formula in place than without it; and (iii) an increase in the data dimension, even though it renders the reconstruction problem less ill conditioned and thus provides relatively artifact-free reconstructions, does not necessarily provide better contrast property recovery. For the latter, one should also take care to uniformly distribute the measurement points, avoiding regions close to the source so that the relative strength of the derivatives for measurements away from the source does not become insignificant. (c) 2012 Optical Society of America

A MATLAB Code for Three Dimensional Linear Elastostatics using Constant Boundary Elements

Present work presents a code written in the very simple programming language MATLAB, for three dimensional linear elastostatics, using constant boundary elements. The code, in full or in part, is not a translation or a copy of any of the existing codes. Present paper explains how the code is written, and lists all the formulae used. Code is verified by using the code to solve a simple problem which has the well known approximate analytical solution. Of course, present work does not make any contribution to research on boundary elements, in terms of theory. But the work is justified by the fact that, to the best of author’s knowledge, as of now, one cannot find an open access MATLAB code for three dimensional linear elastostatics using constant boundary elements. Author hopes this paper to be of help to beginners who wish to understand how a simple but complete boundary element code works, so that they can build upon and modify the present open access code to solve complex engineering problems quickly and easily. The code is available online for open access (as supplementary file for the present paper), and may be downloaded from the website for the present journal.