Backscattered electron SEM imaging of cells and determination of the information depth

Backscattered electron imaging of HT29 colon carcinoma cells in a scanning electron microscope was studied. Thin cell sections were placed on indium‐tin‐oxide‐coated glass slides, which is a promising substrate material for correlative light and electron microscopy. The ultrastructure of HT29 colon carcinoma cells was imaged without poststaining by exploiting the high chemical sensitivity of backscattered electrons. Optimum primary electron energies for backscattered electron imaging were determined which depend on the section thickness. Charging effects in the vicinity of the SiO₂ nanoparticles contained in cell sections could be clarified by placing cell sections on different substrates. Moreover, a method is presented for information depth determination of backscattered electrons which is based on the imaging of subsurface nanoparticles embedded by the cells.     

Compositional mapping of bitumen using local electrostatic force interactions in atomic force microscopy

In recent years, many researchers have investigated bitumen surface morphology, especially the so‐called bee‐like structures, in an attempt to relate the chemical composition and molecular conformation to bitumen micromechanics and ultimately performance properties. Even though recent studies related surface morphology and its evolution to stiffness and stress localization, the complex chemical nature of bitumen and its time‐ and temperature‐dependent properties still engender significant questions about the nature and origin of the observed morphological features and how they evolve due to exposure to various environmental and loading conditions. One such question is whether the observed surface features are formed from wax or from the coprecipitation of wax and asphaltene. Our prior work was mainly theoretical; it used density functional theory and showed that the coprecipitation theory may not stand, mainly because wax–asphaltene interactions are not thermodynamically favourable compared to wax–wax interactions. This paper presents a comprehensive approach based on experiments to study surface morphology of bitumen and conduct compositional mapping to shed light on the origin of the bee‐like surface morphological features. We used Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), with the main focus being on single‐pass detection and mapping of local electric properties, as a novel approach to enhance existing compositional mapping techniques. This method was found to be highly effective in differentiating various domains with respect to their polarity. The results of our study favour the hypothesis that the bee‐like features are mainly composed of wax, including a variety of alkanes.     

Focused ion beam milling of vitreous water: prospects for an alternative to cryo-ultramicrotomy of frozen-hydrated biological samples

The feasibility of using a focused ion beam (FIB) for the purpose of thinning vitreously frozen biological specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was explored. A concern was whether heat transfer beyond the direct ion interaction layer might devitrify the ice. To test this possibility, we milled vitreously frozen water on a standard TEM grid with a 30‐keV Ga⁺ beam, and cryo‐transferred the grid to a TEM for examination. Following FIB milling of the vitreous ice from a thickness of approximately 1200 nm to 200–150 nm, changes characteristic of heat‐induced devitrification were not observed by TEM, in either images or diffraction patterns. Although numerous technical challenges remain, it is anticipated that ‘cryo‐FIB thinning’ of bulk frozen‐hydratred material will be capable of producing specimens for TEM cryo‐tomography with much greater efficiency than cryo‐ultramicrotomy, and without the specimen distortions and handling difficulties of the latter.     

Influence of the artificial saliva storage on 3‐D surface texture characteristics of contemporary dental nanocomposites

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of the artificial saliva on a three‐dimensional (3‐D) surface texture of contemporary dental composites. The representatives of four composites types were tested: nanofilled (Filtek Ultimate Body, FUB), nanohybrid (Filtek Z550, FZ550), microfilled (Gradia Direct, GD) and microhybrid (Filtek Z250, FZ250). The specimens were polymerised and polished by the multistep protocol (SuperSnap, Shofu). Their surface was examined, before and after 3 weeks’ exposure to artificial saliva storage. The surface texture was analysed using the atomic force microscope (AFM). The obtained images were processed to calculate the areal autocorrelation function (AACF), anisotropy ratio S_tr (texture aspect ratio), and structure function (SF). The log–log plots of SF were used to calculate fractal properties, such as fractal dimension D, and pseudo‐topothesy K. The analysis showed changes in surface anisotropy ratio S_tr values, which became higher, whereas the S_q roughness (root‐mean‐square) reduced after the artificial saliva storage. All the samples exhibited bifractal structure before the saliva treatment, but only half of them remained bifractal afterwards (GD, FZ250), whereas the other half turned into a monofractal (FUB, FZ550). The cube‐count fractal dimension D_cc was found to be material‐ and treatment‐insensitive.     

Two-element diffractive systems for generation of Bessel fields

We demonstrate experimentally a combination of two apodizing diffractive elements, which generate nearly propagation-invariant Bessel fields efficiently with almost uniform axial intensity distributions over the specified region recently introduced by two of the present authors. Strongly reduced intensity fluctuations near both ends of the propagation-invariant range are verified. Various design and alignment issues of the two-element systrem are addressed numerically.     

Strain-life approach in thermo-mechanical fatigue evaluation of complex structures

This paper is a contribution to strain‐life approach evaluation of thermo‐mechanically loaded structures. It takes into consideration the uncoupling of stress and damage evaluation and has the option of importing non‐linear or linear stress results from finite element analysis (FEA). The multiaxiality is considered with the signed von Mises method. In the developed Damage Calculation Program (DCP) local temperature‐stress‐strain behaviour is modelled with an operator of the Prandtl type and damage is estimated by use of the strain‐life approach and Skelton's energy criterion. Material data were obtained from standard isothermal strain‐controlled low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests, with linear parameter interpolation or piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation being used to estimate values at unmeasured temperature points. The model is shown with examples of constant temperature loading and random force‐temperature history. Additional research was done regarding the temperature dependency of the K_p used in the Neuber approximate formula for stress‐strain estimation from linear FEA results. The proposed model enables computationally fast thermo‐mechanical fatigue (TMF) damage estimations for random load and temperature histories.     

界面滑移对阶梯滑块轴承润滑行为的影响

目的 研究入/出口阶梯面界面滑移对阶梯轴承油膜厚度和摩擦因数的影响。方法 通过建立考虑入/出口阶梯面不同程度的界面滑移的一维阶梯滑块模型,求解不同入/出口滑移比例下的油膜厚度和摩擦因数。在阶梯滑块工作面制备含氟类金刚石涂层（F-DLC）,在平行间隙条件下研究了有无含氟类金刚石涂层对油膜润滑性能的影响,并与理论计算结果进行比较。结果 当滑移只发生在入口阶梯面时,随着滑移程度的增大,油膜厚度增大,摩擦因数减小;当滑移只发生在出口阶梯面时,随着滑移程度的增大,油膜厚度减小,摩擦因数减小。当润滑油在入口和出口阶梯面均发生滑移时,会产生油膜厚度及摩擦因数同时减小或油膜厚度增大而摩擦因数减小2种结果。试验结果表明,F-DLC涂层阶梯滑块的膜厚最大且摩擦因数最小,没有涂层的结论与之相反。产生这一特殊现象是由于润滑油在阶梯滑块入口区和出口区的滑移程度不同。由于激光加工形成了微凸体结构以及F-DLC涂层的协同作用,入口区的滑移程度比出口区的大,从而膜厚增大;同时滑移的存在使其摩擦因数降低。结论 在入/出口的界面滑移对阶梯滑块轴承的影响下,会产生2种结果,得到了可以同时满足油膜承载力增大且摩擦因数减小的入...