Josephson Effect in MgB2/Pd/Nb Trilayer Josephson Junctions

This paper reports fabrication techniques and results of MgB2/Pd/Nb trilayer Josephson junctions. The MgB2 bottom electrode was co-evaporated by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique from both magnesium and boron sources at a low substrate temperature ~ 300 °C, while the interlayer and the top niobium electrode (Pd/Nb bilayer) were deposited ex-situ using RF sputtering. The junctions exhibited and Josephson effect as well as a modulation of the critical current in a magnetic field applied in a direction normal to the junction plane. Fractional and integer Shapiro steps were observed at voltages corresponding to the frequency of the applied microwave radiation field. The products of the junctions compare well with the previously reported values. The results suggest that it should be possible to fabricate all-MgB2 and MgB2 as one of the electrodes Superconductor/Normal/Superconductor (SNS), Superconductor/Insulator/Superconductor (SIS) or even Superconductor/Ferromagnet/Superconductor (SFS) tunnel junctions with interesting characteristics and for various applications. Keywords: MgB2; all-MgB2; Josephson Tunnel junctions; trilayer devices; Niobium

A Topographic Atlas of the Human Brainstem in the Ponto-Mesencephalic Junction Plane

The human brainstem harbors neuronal aggregates that ensure the maintenance of several vital functions. It also acts as a major relay structure for the neuronal information that travels between the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum and the spinal cord. As such, this relatively small portion of the human brain houses a multitude of ascending and descending fibers that course among numerous nuclei whose exact boundaries are still uncertain. Such a large number of nuclei and fiber tracts confined to a relatively small and compact brain region imposes upon the brainstem a highly complex cytoarchitectonic organization that still needs to be deciphered. The present work provides a topographic atlas of the human brainstem composed of 45 anatomical plates, each containing a pair of adjacent sections stained with Cresyl Violet and Luxol Fast Blue to help delineating brainstem nuclei and fiber tracts, respectively. The plates, which cover the entire midbrain, pons and medulla oblongata, are composed of equally-spaced sections referenced and aligned parallel to the ponto-mesencephalic junction rather than the fastigium or the obex. This topographic landmark is particularly suitable for neurosurgical interventions aiming at specific nuclei of the mesencephalic tegmentum. In complement, we provide 8 anatomical plates containing adjacent sections stained for choline acetyltransferase and Luxol Fast Blue, taken through the midbrain and the pons. This open access atlas of the human brainstem is intended to assist neuroanatomists, neurosurgeons and neuropathologists in their work.

ACCURATE REGISTRATION OF AERIAL IMAGES AND ALS-POINTCLOUD VIA AUTOMATED JUNCTION MATCHING AND PLANAR CONSTRAINTS

Accurate geometric registration of images and pointclouds is the key step of many 3D-reconstruction or 3D-sensing tasks. In this paper, a novel L-junction based approach is proposed for semi-automatic accurate registration of aerial images and the airborne laser scanning (ALS) point-cloud in urban areas. The approach achieves accurate registration by associating the LiDAR points with the local planes extracted via L-junction detection and matching from multi-view aerial images. An L-junction is an intersection of two line-segments. Through the forward intersection of multi-view corresponding L-junctions, an accurate local junction-plane can be obtained. In the proposed approach, L-junction is manually collected from one view on the flat object-surfaces like walls, roads, and roofs and then automatically matched to other views with the aid of epipolar-geometry and vanishing-point constraints. Then, a plane-constrained bundle block adjustment of the image-orientation parameters is conducted, where the LiDAR points are treated as reference data. The proposed approach was tested with two datasets collected in Guangzhou city and Ningbo city of China. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach had better accuracy than the closest-point based method. The horizontal/vertical registration RMS of the proposed approach reached 4.21cm/5.72cm in Guangzhou dataset and 4.46cm/4.34cm in Ningbo dataset, which was much less than the average LiDAR-point distance (over 25cm in both datasets) and was very close to the image GSDs (3.2cm in Guangzhou and 4.8cm in Ningbo) and the a-priori ranging accuracy of the ALS equipment (about 3cm).

Pollen wall structure in Anigozanthos viridis (Haemodoraceae)

The exine of <em>Anigozanthos viridis</em> Endl. pollen is divided into two zones by a plane which has been referred to as a"commissural line"; in our results we refer to it as a junction plane - a more apt description. Following young stages there is a pronounced reduction in thickness of the inner exine, probably due to stretching of the exine without the addition of new material as development progresses. We describe the fibrillar zone under the exine in microspores as oncus-like. Since this onciform zone precedes microspore mitosis and intine formation the fibrillar zone is divided into two layers in mature pollen an onciform part and the intine proper - it is not a two layered intine.

Composition Dependence of Compatibility in Self-Accommodation Microstructure of β-Titanium Shape Memory Alloy

Composition dependence of the compatibility condition at junction plane (JP) (interface between habit plane variants (HV)) was evaluated by geometrically non-linear theory of martensite in Ti-Nb-Al shape memory alloys that have β (cubic) to α” (C-orthorhombic) martensitic transformation. The kinematic compatibility (KC) condition requires non-zero rotation of HV to form compatible JP; the angle of this rotation is termed θ. This means that the invariant habit plane (HP) and the compatible JP are not formed simultaneously. It turned out that twelve types of θ exist depending on the pair of HV. Composition dependence of each type of θ was systematically investigated. The previous results of transmission electron microscopy observations were also discussed in terms of the present results.