In this study, various characterization techniques such as three-dimensional (3D) X-ray laminography, plan-view transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and cut-and-view electron backscattered diffraction were employed to examine the microstructures at the Cu/SiO2 hybrid bonding interfaces, including defects such as interfacial voids, as well as crystallographic orientation. A comparative analysis of their advantages and disadvantages is also presented. The results indicated that the nondestructive 3D X-ray laminography is able to check the bonding misalignment in a large area, but it lacked the resolution needed to detect small defects. High-resolution TEM (HR-TEM) analysis revealed a minimal crystal misorientation (∼0.1°), suggesting an excellent-ordered lattice at the bonding interface. Plan-view HR-TEM provides an effective and accurate approach for characterizing interfacial voids, because the distribution of the void ranges from 10 to 150 nm. In addition, the cut-and-view technique offers an excellent way to observe void distribution near the bonding interface and to elucidate the crystallographic direction for the whole Cu joint.

Using an equation for the scattering amplitude of prolate spheroids, near-to-far-field transition distances for backscattered waves from spheroids and fish are derived. In addition, transition distances are obtained from target strength analysis of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) by Pérez-Arjona, Godinho, and Espinosa [Acta Acustica, 104, 25-38 (2018)], which employed the method of fundamental solutions, and the results are consistent with those of the spheroidal model. For practical use, the transition distances derived by the spheroidal model according to several definitions are synthesized as an approximate function of the body-length (L) to wavelength-in water (λ) ratio, i.e., 0.025L/λ1.4. The formula for the transition distance of ultrasonic transducers should not be used to estimate that of the fish.

X-ray spectrometers with high count rate capability are becoming essential to provide higher speeds in synchrotron measurements, like in X-ray fluorescence mapping (XFM). Monolithic multichannel silicon drift detectors (SDDs) enable the creation of dense and high-performance matrices to reach this goal. In this paper we show the results of the development of ASCANIO, a 16-channel backscattering X-ray spectrometer based on SDD monolithic modules. The solid angle and count-rate uniformity in X-ray detection have been optimized thanks to a `tilted' configuration of the SDD units. ASCANIO underwent preliminary testing in the laboratory, where the system achieved around -42°C with an internal pressure of 5.1 × 10[-6] mbar. During further verification of its spectroscopic performance, the spectrometer showed resolutions as low as 134 eV FWHM at the Mn Kα peak. After preliminary testing the full system was commissioned on beamline P06 at PETRA III (DESY). Here the effects of the tilted configuration could be observed, and the system achieved a 20 Mcps cumulative output count rate with a dead time of 20%. As a demonstration of ASCANIO's usability, an example use case is demonstrated, where ASCANIO was used for an XFM analysis of a biological sample.

Rock varnish is a ubiquitous Mn-rich coating on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments, yet the mechanisms underlying its formation remain debated. Here, we investigate rock varnish from Murujuga, Western Australia, to assess the role of microbial processes in manganese (Mn) accumulation. Bulk compositional and mineralogical analyses confirm high concentrations of Mn, Fe, Al, and Si; however, the Mn matrix is predominantly composed of amorphous to poorly crystalline phases that fall below the indexing or detection thresholds of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Nanoscale characterization reveals a Mn-rich matrix encasing discrete Fe and Al-Si grains, featuring nanometre scale laminations and particle size distribution characteristic of biogenic Mn oxides. High-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) reveal a pronounced dominance of Chroococcidiopsidaceae and Rubrobacter_F, pioneer taxa known to accumulate intracellular Mn for defence mechanisms. Furthermore, targeted functional annotation using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) confirms a widespread, community-level genomic potential for biologically influenced Mn accumulation and utilization. Because this biomineralisation is an ongoing process governed by local environmental stressors, these rock coatings have high potential as long-term paleoenvironmental and climate proxies. This is the first microbiomic characterisation of the rock varnish from the Murujuga Cultural Landscape, and an important step in unlocking the potential of this deposit as a chronological marker for this region's petroglyphs.

Cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) is a common material for medical devices such as prosthetic joint implants due to its biocompatibility and wear and corrosion resistance. Some CoCrMo implants last for a long time in the human body, while others fail early. This discrepancy in longevity may be explained by the range of microstructures and resulting material properties that can occur in CoCrMo after different manufacturing processes. This research examines various heat treatments of CoCrMo and their resulting microstructure and properties for hip and knee implant bearing surfaces. After heat treatment, wear tests were performed using a pin on disk tribometer for two million cycles, and corrosion testing was performed using a 3-electrode cell potentiostat in bovine serum to simulate conditions in the body. Grain structure and phase composition were reviewed for each sample by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) microscopy. From this, we could determine the grain size, orientation, and phase composition that would result in the different physical and chemical properties. This research demonstrates that the untreated forged sample showed high wear resistance and a cyclically treated sample is highly resistant to both wear and corrosion. These observations can be attributed to microstructure features such as phase content, grain size, and grain boundary misorientation angles that influence the characteristics of the implant material.

We report the Fano resonance induced by backscattering in a MgF2 WGM cavity. The reflected light from the tapered fiber end facet acts as the continuum in Fano interference, with its phase adjustable to produce various Fano lineshapes. We modeled this effect and identified the optimal parameters for laser frequency locking. With the high-Q factor and low thermal noise of the MgF2 WGM cavity, effective suppression of laser frequency noise was achieved. This work demonstrates a compact, robust, modulation-free laser frequency-locking method for miniaturized low-noise lasers.

Self-injection-locked (SIL) narrow-linewidth lasers based on high-Q microresonators are promising sources for frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR, but the SIL mechanism, as well as its key characteristics, such as the frequency sweep range and the noise performance, are often determined by uncontrolled backscattering in the resonator. Here, we investigate a tunable SIL laser based on a corrugated photonic-crystal (PhC) microresonator in which the feedback strength is set by design. Numerical and experimental results show that stronger SIL feedback expands the sweep range accessible through resonator modulation while also impacting the phase-noise and linewidth during sweeping, revealing a trade-off between frequency tunability and noise performance. Using CMOS-compatible microheater tuning (sub-1 V driving voltage), we demonstrate linearized up- and down-chirps with 224 THz/s over approximately 3 GHz and, in a proof-of-concept ranging experiment, measure a 10 m fiber length with a standard deviation below 3 mm. These results establish PhC microresonators with engineered SIL feedback as robust, compact, CMOS-compatible LiDAR engines.

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging based on the diffusion equation typically requires prior knowledge of the medium's thickness and optical properties, thereby limiting its practical applicability. We present a calibration-free 3D imaging framework that overcomes this limitation. We formulate a semi-empirical forward model that captures both the backscattered signal from the medium and the target signal, and employ a multi-stage optimization strategy to estimate the medium parameters and decouple the target signal. Using these estimated parameters, we then construct a diffusion-kernel-guided spatially adaptive regularization to reconstruct the hidden target from the decoupled signal. This regularization suppresses noise while preserving structural features. Experiments across varying medium thicknesses and multi-target scenarios demonstrate that our method achieves robust reconstruction performance.

The osteochondral junction is a specialized region ensuring the biomechanical and biological integration of the unmineralized articular cartilage with the subchondral bone through an intermediate layer of mineralized cartilage. This location is of clinical relevance, being a target of osteoarthritis. While aging is considered a risk factor for osteoarthritis, the interplay between microstructural and material changes during aging and predisposing to joint degeneration is not fully clear. This is especially true for mineralized cartilage, which remains understudied despite its critical role in load transfer from unmineralized articular cartilage to bone. We investigate age-related alterations of mineralized cartilage and subchondral bone in rat tibiae of adult and aged animals using a multimodal, high-resolution, correlative analysis. Our approach includes micro-computed tomography to measure microstructural features, second harmonic generation imaging to visualize collagen organization, quantitative backscattered electron imaging to map local mineral content, and nanoindentation to obtain mechanical properties. Mineralized cartilage and subchondral bone exhibited distinct age-related modifications. At the architectural level, the subchondral plate thickened and the trabecular network became coarser, those changes being different from those observed in the metaphysis. At the tissue level, mineralized cartilage was less mineralized than bone but exhibited a greater relative increase in mineral content with age, underlying differences in mineralization. A central observation is that aging led to an abrupt transition in mineral content and mechanical properties across the interface between unmineralized and mineralized cartilage, with a conceivable impact on stress localization. Overall, these changes may alter load transfer and contribute to age-related joint degeneration. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The osteochondral junction is a critical yet poorly understood determinant of joint integrity and a primary site of osteoarthritis. Despite its central biomechanical role, mineralized cartilage remains largely under investigated. Here, we use a high-resolution correlative approach to reveal distinct, age-related changes in microstructure and material properties of mineralized cartilage and subchondral bone. Aging markedly steepens the mineralization gradient at the interface between unmineralized and mineralized cartilage, leading to an abrupt change in mechanical properties that may promote stress concentration and limit energy dissipation. Concurrently, mineralized cartilage becomes more mineralized, stiffer, and more brittle, with some changes more pronounced than in subchondral bone. These findings identify a previously underappreciated mechanism by which aging alters load transfer across the osteochondral interface, with implications for joint degeneration and biomimetic interface design.

Octenyl succinic anhydride starch (OSA-starch) is a widely used food-grade emulsifier. However, the heterogeneous synthesis process resulting from insoluble starch granules limits the functional properties of OSA-starch (HeOSA-starch). In this study, KOH/urea solution was used to dissolve starch to prepare OSA-starch via homogeneous modification (HoOSA-starch), and its emulsifying properties were investigated. Homogeneous modification significantly improved the degree of substitution and dispersibility of OSA-starch. Emulsions stabilized by HoOSA-starch exhibited superior stability than those stabilized by HeOSA-starch with lower variations in backscattered light intensity and smaller droplet sizes. Gelatinization improved the dispersibility and emulsifying properties of HeOSA-starch, though they remained inferior to those of HoOSA-starch, suggesting that gelatinization cannot replicate the advantages of homogeneous modification. Increased electrostatic repulsion, surface activity, and interfacial film strength were the driving force for enhanced stability of HoOSA-starch stabilized emulsions. Overall, this study highlights the advantages of homogeneous modification in optimizing the functional properties of OSA-starch.

Plasma-facing components (PFCs) in fusion reactors are exposed to extreme radiation and thermal environments, leading to material degradation processes such as sputtering erosion and amorphization. This study investigates and compares the erosion behaviour of tungsten (W) in potential ceramic-based PFC materials, specifically tungsten carbide (WC) thin films and their nanocomposite counterpart, WC-WO3, under 100 keV Kr[+] ion irradiation. The films were irradiated at fluences of 1 × 10[16], 3 × 10[16], and 1 × 10[17] ions/cm[2]. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry was employed to evaluate W sputtering yields and compositional stability. The WC-WO3 nanocomposite exhibited significantly reduced W erosion compared to pure WC films, attributed to the higher W binding energy and the existence of heterointerfaces within the nanocomposite matrix. SRIM simulations corroborated the experimental sputtering trends. Furthermore, preferential sputtering of lower-Z elements (C and O) was observed in both material systems. Glancing incidence X-ray diffraction analysis revealed post-irradiation grain growth in WC-WO3 films, while scanning electron microscopy results show morphological changes, indicating dynamic microstructural evolution rather than amorphization under irradiation. These results highlight the potential of WC-WO3 nanocomposites as erosion-resistant and structurally resilient candidates for future plasma-facing applications in fusion reactors.

The nonstationary distribution of dynamic atmospheric obscurants and intense backscattering interference jointly create a severely photon-starved regime, substantially degrading the depth imaging performance of array Gm-APD LiDAR in highly scattering environments. Here, we present a depth imaging estimation algorithm through dynamic atmospheric obscurants, which enables the discrimination of atmospheric obscurant interference and significantly improves depth imaging accuracy. The proposed method employs a three-step strategy comprising data preprocessing, adaptive identification of interference-source regions, and continuous multi-frame depth image fusion based on temporal correlation, thereby enabling efficient suppression of dynamic noise and improved target integrity. The proposed method is successfully demonstrated under different attenuation lengths and dynamic atmospheric obscurant conditions. Across all tested conditions, the proposed method achieves a target recovery rate (TR) ranging from 0.71 to 0.89, a root mean square error (RMSE) ranging from 35.62 to 49.20 time bins (equivalent to 5.34-7.38 m), and a structural similarity (SSIM) ranging from 0.89 to 0.94. Compared with traditional methods, the proposed method improves TR by at least 0.41 (116.2%) and SSIM by at least 0.06 (6.8%), while reducing RMSE by at least 11.03 time bins (23.6%). In particular, under the most challenging condition, with an average attenuation length of 2.43 and an occlusion ratio of 48%, the proposed algorithm achieves a TR of 0.89, an RMSE of 49.20 time bins (equivalent to 7.38 m), and an SSIM of 0.89. These results demonstrate the considerable potential of the proposed method for depth imaging in extremely strong scattering environments.

In wireless-powered sensor networks, active uplink (UL) transmissions can support both sensed-data delivery and order-dependent RF energy recycling among energy-constrained devices. This paper studies a single hybrid access point (HAP) wireless-powered sensor network (WPSN), where one wireless device (WD) is selected as the relay, and the remaining WDs act as sources. The HAP first transfers wireless energy to all WDs in the downlink. Then, the source WDs reuse the incident wireless energy signal as a controllable carrier and deliver their information to the relay through passive backscatter communication. In the subsequent active uplink phase, the source WDs transmit according to an optimized order, while later scheduled sources recycle energy from the active signals transmitted by preceding sources. The source order therefore determines not only the transmission sequence but also the directed energy-recycling structure among source WDs, thereby reshaping the energy-causality constraints and the feasible transmit-energy region. The relay finally forwards the decoded source information to the HAP. To improve throughput fairness among sensor devices, a max-min throughput optimization problem is formulated by jointly designing the source transmission order, time allocation, and transmit-power allocation. For a given order, the continuous resource allocation problem is transformed into a convex problem through transmit-energy variables, and the optimal order is obtained by searching over all candidate orders. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme achieves higher minimum throughput than the three representative comparison schemes, demonstrating the benefit of jointly exploiting passive source-to-relay collection, relay-assisted forwarding, and order-aware energy recycling.

Single-point incremental forming (SPIF) produces localized plastic deformation, resulting in thickness reduction, geometrical deviation, and microstructural evolution. To establish the relationship between forming quality and microstructural response, this study develops a cross-scale analysis framework integrating finite element simulation, Kocks-Mecking (K-M)-based statistically stored dislocation (SSD) density inference, metallographic observation and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) characterization. Applied to an Al 1060 truncated-cone part, the framework converts the simulated equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ) into SSD density via the K-M model calibrated using the Voce hardening model and the Taylor relation. The inferred SSD density distribution is then spatially correlated with thinning rate, geometrical deviation, grain size, grain-boundary misorientation, kernel average misorientation (KAM), and geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density across different forming regions. The inferred SSD density rapidly approached a saturation level of 1.55 × 10[13] m[-2], while the high-SSD density region progressively expanded during forming. This regional evolution was qualitatively consistent with the EBSD observations. The average grain size decreased from 30.4 μm to 21.9 μm, and the medium-angle grain-boundary fraction increased from 10.3% to 34.5%. Regionally, thickness reduction correlates strongly with PEEQ accumulation, SSD storage, and grain refinement, whereas geometrical deviation is more closely related to early-stage deformation heterogeneity. These findings provide a physically based route for predicting and controlling SPIF accuracy.