Validation of interferometric imaging from a pupil-masking experiment on a solar telescope

We present the results of a pupil-masking experiment that uses the Sun as the source object. The goal of our experiment was a proof-of-concept validation for a Fizeau (image-plane) interferometric beam combination with a complex source that overfilled the field of view. We employed a phase-diversity technique to measure the optical phases required to recover the instantaneous optical transfer function for the masked pupil. We used a Wiener filter to deconvolve the dirty images.     

Wedged multilayer Laue lens

A multilayer Laue lens (MLL) is an x-ray focusing optic fabricated from a multilayer structure consisting of thousands of layers of two different materials produced by thin-film deposition. The sequence of layer thicknesses is controlled to satisfy the Fresnel zone plate law and the multilayer is sectioned to form the optic. An improved MLL geometry can be created by growing each layer with an in-plane thickness gradient to form a wedge, so that every interface makes the correct angle with the incident beam for symmetric Bragg diffraction. The ultimate hard x-ray focusing performance of a wedged MLL has been predicted to be significantly better than that of a nonwedged MLL, giving subnanometer resolution with high efficiency. Here, we describe a method to deposit the multilayer structure needed for an ideal wedged MLL and report our initial deposition results to produce these structures.     

Epoxidized linolenic acid salts as multifunctional additives for the thermal stability of plasticized PVC

Calcium and zinc salts of epoxidized linolenic acid were synthesized and used as multifunctional additives, to minimize or prevent the reaction of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) with liberated hydrochloric acid (HCl) during the thermal degradation of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) in particular. These metal epoxy salts were incorporated as thermal stabilizers for both diisodecyl phthalate and ESO–plasticized PVC blends that underwent thermal degradation studies at 170°C. The overall performance of these metal epoxy salts was examined by thermal gravimetric analysis and visual color retention of the PVC blends. The weight loss profiles of the metal salt stabilized PVC were comparable to those of blends containing metal stearates. There were, however, vast improvements in color retention of the plasticized PVC using these novel additives. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41736.     

Variation in ovarian morphology in four species of New World moles with a peniform clitoris

Female moles of the Old World genus Talpa display a curious suite of reproductive features that include a peniform clitoris and ovaries with a discrete interstitial gland or testis-like region (so-called 'ovotestes'). The masculinization of the female external genitalia in Talpa has accordingly been linked with secretion of androgens from the interstitial gland region of the fetal gonad. Although their ovarian morphology has received less attention, some species of New World moles also have ovaries with a pronounced interstitial gland (for example star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata), whereas females of other species do not (for example eastern mole, Scalopus aquaticus). Although it is difficult to determine the sex of both Old and New World moles, published accounts describing the external genitalia of female moles are available only for Talpa. The hypothesis that masculinization of the female external genitalia in moles is associated with the presence of an ovarian interstitial gland (OIG) was tested in the present study by using a comparative approach to determine whether these features are ever found in isolation of one another. Three genera of North American moles (Scapanus, Condylura and Neurotrichus) were studied and a peniform clitoris was found in all three species, but OIG were found in only two of three genera. The ovaries of S. latimanus and S. orarius were unremarkable, with no evidence of a discrete interstitial gland or testis-like region. Mapping these results onto recent talpid phylogenies indicates that loss of the bipolar ovarian morphology is a derived trait in Scapanus, and conclusively demonstrates that masculinization of the external genitalia in female moles can develop in the presence or absence of 'ovotestes'.     

Does spatial resolution matter? A multi-scale comparison of object-based and pixel-based methods for detecting change associated with gas well drilling operations

An implicit assumption of the geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) literature is that GEOBIA is more accurate than pixel-based methods for high spatial resolution image classification, but that the benefits of using GEOBIA are likely to be lower when moderate resolution data are employed. This study investigates this assumption within the context of a case study of mapping forest clearings associated with drilling for natural gas. The forest clearings varied from 0.2 to 9.2 ha, with an average size of 0.9 ha. National Aerial Imagery Program data from 2004 to 2010, with 1 m pixel size, were resampled through pixel aggregation to generate imagery with 2, 5, 15, and 30 m pixel sizes. The imagery for each date and at each of the five spatial resolutions was classified into Forest and Non-forest classes, using both maximum likelihood and GEOBIA. Change maps were generated through overlay of the classified images. Accuracy evaluation was carried out using a random sampling approach. The 1 m GEOBIA classification was found to be significantly more accurate than the GEOBIA and per-pixel classifications with either 15 or 30 m resolution. However, at any one particular pixel size (e.g. 1 m), the pixel-based classification was not statistically different from the GEOBIA classification. In addition, for the specific class of forest clearings, accuracy varied with the spatial resolution of the imagery. As the pixel size coarsened from 1 to 30 m, accuracy for the per-pixel method increased from 59% to 80%, but decreased from 71% to 58% for the GEOBIA classification. In summary, for studying the impact of forest clearing associated with gas extraction, GEOBIA is more accurate than pixel-based methods, but only at the very finest resolution of 1 m. For coarser spatial resolutions, per-pixel methods are not statistically different from GEOBIA.     

Monitoring boreal forest leaf area index across a Siberian burn chronosequence: a MODIS validation study

Landscapes containing differing amounts of ecological disturbance provide an excellent opportunity to validate and better understand the emerging Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) vegetation products. Four sites, including 1‐year post‐fire coniferous, 13‐year post‐fire deciduous, 24‐year post‐fire deciduous, and >100 year old post‐fire coniferous forests, were selected to serve as a post‐fire chronosequence in the central Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk (57.3°N, 91.6°E) with which to study the MODIS leaf area index (LAI) and vegetation index (VI) products. The collection 4 MODIS LAI product correctly represented the summer site phenologies, but significantly underestimated the LAI value of the >100 year old coniferous forest during the November to April time period. Landsat 7‐derived enhanced vegetation index (EVI) performed better than normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to separate the deciduous and conifer forests, and both indices contained significant correlation with field‐derived LAI values at coniferous forest sites (r ² = 0.61 and r ² = 0.69, respectively). The reduced simple ratio (RSR) markedly improved LAI prediction from satellite measurements (r ² = 0.89) relative to NDVI and EVI. LAI estimates derived from ETM+ images were scaled up to evaluate the 1 km resolution MODIS LAI product; from this analysis MODIS LAI overestimated values in the low LAI deciduous forests (where LAI<5) and underestimated values in the high LAI conifer forests (where LAI>6). Our results indicate that further research on the MODIS LAI product is warranted to better understand and improve remote LAI quantification in disturbed forest landscapes over the course of the year.     

E. Lowell Kelly (1905–1986).

Presents an obituary for E. Lowell Kelly. Kelly was an innovator, an iconoclast, a public-spirited individual, and an enemy of pretension. He constantly helped people solve their problems, from personal counseling in his early professional years to later work with many graduate students as they labored through their dissertations. Early in World War II, when he learned that lives were lost in night training because naval aviation cadets crashed into the planes ahead of them, he realized that the cadets could not judge their distance from a plane with only one tail light, and he introduced the simple notion of having two lights a standard distance apart. At the organizational level, Lowell worked for the Veterans Administration for a decade, while also carrying out his academic responsibilities at the University of Michigan. His service to the American Psychological Association included chairing the Executive Committee for the Boulder Conference on Graduate Training in Clinical Psychology (1948-1949), a conference that left its mark on the field for decades to come. He served on the Board of Directors for APA for six years and was president of both the Division of Consulting Psychology and the Division of Clinical Psychology. He was elected president of the Association and served in that role from 1954 to 1955. Throughout his career, Kelly's scientific interests and contributions centered on assessment. He tackled the problem of evaluating performance on the job, confronting the difficulty that criterion measures of such performance do not agree well with each other. Longitudinal research was Kelly's other focus. Throughout his scientific career, Kelly studied such varied phenomena as synaesthesia, graphology, pharmacology, and apparent movement. Kelly passed away in 1986. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis, functionalization, and environmental stabilization of ZnO nanobridge transducers for gas and liquid-phase sensing

Three methods of functionalizing ZnO NW surfaces with biotin were demonstrated. Biotinylated ZnO NWs were found to dissolve during exposure to deionized (DI) water, so a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process was developed for parylene-A, a common moisture barrier with an amine group which allows further functionalization. Parylene-A coated ZnO NWs were found to be resistant to dissolution. Electrical measurements on parylene-A coated nanobridge devices showed normal operation with higher dark current and an attenuated response to UV and O₂, indicating the ability to modulate environmental sensitivity. This work demonstrates the novel use of parylene-A coatings as an encapsulation layer as well as a potential starting platform for general functionalization of ZnO NW devices for selective sensing.