Broadband dielectric microwave microscopy on micron length scales

We demonstrate that a near-field microwave microscope based on a transmission line resonator allows imaging in a substantially wide range of frequencies, so that the microscope properties approach those of a spatially resolved impedance analyzer. In the case of an electric probe, the broadband imaging can be used in a direct fashion to separate contributions from capacitive and resistive properties of a sample at length scales on the order of one micron. Using a microwave near-field microscope based on a transmission line resonator we imaged the local dielectric properties of a focused ion beam milled structure on a high-dielectric-constant Ba(0.6)Sr(0.4)TiO(3) thin film in the frequency range from 1.3 to 17.4 GHz. The electrostatic approximation breaks down already at frequencies above approximately 10 GHz for the probe geometry used, and a full-wave analysis is necessary to obtain qualitative information from the images.     

A discriminative learning framework with pairwise constraints for video object classification

To deal with the problem of insufficient labeled data in video object classification, one solution is to utilize additional pairwise constraints that indicate the relationship between two examples, i.e., whether these examples belong to the same class or not. In this paper, we propose a discriminative learning approach which can incorporate pairwise constraints into a conventional margin-based learning framework. Different from previous work that usually attempts to learn better distance metrics or estimate the underlying data distribution, the proposed approach can directly model the decision boundary and, thus, require fewer model assumptions. Moreover, the proposed approach can handle both labeled data and pairwise constraints in a unified framework. In this work, we investigate two families of pairwise loss functions, namely, convex and nonconvex pairwise loss functions, and then derive three pairwise learning algorithms by plugging in the hinge loss and the logistic loss functions. The proposed learning algorithms were evaluated using a people identification task on two surveillance video data sets. The experiments demonstrated that the proposed pairwise learning algorithms considerably outperform the baseline classifiers using only labeled data and two other pairwise learning algorithms with the same amount of pairwise constraints.     

Web-collaborative filtering: recommending music by crawling the Web

We show that it is possible to collect data that are useful for collaborative filtering (CF) using an autonomous Web spider. In CF, entities are recommended to a new user based on the stated preferences of other, similar users. We describe a CF spider that collects from the Web lists of semantically related entities. These lists can then be used by existing CF algorithms by encoding them as ‘pseudo-users'. Importantly, the spider can collect useful data without pre-programmed knowledge about the format of particular pages or particular sites. Instead, the CF spider uses commercial Web-search engines to find pages likely to contain lists in the domain of interest, and then applies previously proposed heuristics to extract lists from these pages. We show that data collected by this spider are nearly as effective for CF as data collected from real users, and more effective than data collected by two plausible hand-programmed spiders. In some cases, autonomously spidered data can also be combined with actual user data to improve performance.     

ILSE: The next step in heavy ion fusion research

Induction Linac Systems Experiments is the next experiment planned by the Heavy Ion Fusion Accelerator Research (HIFAR) group at LBL, following the recent completion of the MBE-4 experiment. ILSE at 10 MeV will address many of the key physics and technology issues of HIF such as performance of a multiple beam, high voltage injector, high intensity electrostatically-focused transport, beam combining, high intensity magnetically-focused transport, drift-compression and energy-tilt removal, high intensity transport around a magnetic bend, and, possibly, recirculation. Presuming a new start in FY 94, experiments could begin with ILSE in FY 97.     

Base Pressure Measurements under a Scale Model Stockpile

The ability of a granular bulk material to transmit internal shear stress is a fundamental property that is often overlooked or underestimated, yet it is this ability that allows many observed physical phenomena to occur. One such area that continues to be a focus for numerical, theoreticals and experimental researchers is the pressure that a stockpile of granular material places on the supporting surface. While appearing to be a simple problem, the ability of granular materials to transmit shear stress makes this an extremely complex problem. This article presents high-quality data collected under a 2 m high stockpile and full details of the experimental facilities used in the collection of the data.

The work presented is of significant value, having a much greater scale than previous studies (Jotaki & Moriyama, 1979; Lee & Herington, 1971; Smid & Novosad, 1981), and the deliberate inclusion of a central reclaim channel offers insight into stress changes during gravity reclaim and refilling. The results of this work have shown that the so-called 'M' pressure does exist under larger stockpiles both with and without reclaim hoppers; of more significance is the reemergence of the M pressure upon refilling of an emptied stockpile. This clearly illustrates that the M pressure is a robust and natural pressure distribution for a conical stockpile.     

DNA immobilization and SAW response in ZnO nanotips grown on LiNbO3 substrates.

DNA immobilization enhancement is demonstrated in a structure consisting of ZnO nanotips on 128 degrees Y-cut LiNbO3. The ZnO nanotips are grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on the top of a SiO2 layer that is deposited and patterned on the LiNbO3 SAW delay path. The effects of ZnO nanotips on the SAW response are investigated. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy are used to analyze the ZnO nanotips, which are of single crystalline quality, and they are uniformly aligned with their c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the ZnO nanotips shows strong near bandedge transition with insignificant deep level emission, confirming their good optical property. DNA immobilization enhancement is experimentally validated by radioactive labeling tests and SAW response changes. The ZnO nanotips enhance the DNA immobilization by a factor of 200 compared to ZnO film with flat surface. DNA hybridization with complementary and noncomplementary second strand DNA oligonucleotides is used to study the selective binding of the structure. This device structure possesses the advantages of both traditional SAW sensors and ZnO nanostructures.     

Effects of Ti on N distribution and diffusion in FeTiN thin films

We studied the distribution and diffusion of N atoms in FeTiN single-layer and bilayer thin films by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We found that in as-deposited films N atoms are first absorbed by Ti atoms, the rest being dissolved into FeTi lattices. Ti not only directly absorbs N by chemical bonding, but also decreases the energy of the N atoms that are dissolved into FeTi lattices. The diffusion study of N atoms in single layer and bilayer films showed that although the presence of Ti stabilized the /spl alpha/ phase of FeTi lattices during 200/spl deg/C annealing, the diffusion length of dissolved N in FeTi (Ti/spl les/8 at.%) lattices was still comparable to the diffusion length of N in pure Fe. Thus, the addition of a small amount of Ti in /spl alpha/-Fe lattice can not completely stabilize N atoms in the film, and the induced magnetic anisotropy of the films can still be unstable, although the /spl alpha/ phase of FeTiN is stabilized by the addition of Ti. The distribution of N atoms in bilayer films can be fitted by a simple enthalpy model.