Project description:The epitaxy of many organic films on inorganic substrates can be classified within the framework of rigid lattices which helps to understand the origin of energy gain driving the epitaxy of the films. Yet, there are adsorbate-substrate combinations with distinct mutual orientations for which this classification fails and epitaxy cannot be explained within a rigid lattice concept. It has been proposed that tiny shifts in atomic positions away from ideal lattice points, so-called static distortion waves (SDWs), are responsible for the observed orientational epitaxy in such cases. Using low-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy, we provide direct experimental evidence for SDWs in organic adsorbate films, namely hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene on graphite. They manifest as wave-like sub-Ångström molecular displacements away from an ideal adsorbate lattice which is incommensurate with graphite. By means of a density-functional-theory based model, we show that, due to the flexibility in the adsorbate layer, molecule-substrate energy is gained by straining the intermolecular bonds and that the resulting total energy is minimal for the observed domain orientation, constituting the orientational epitaxy. While structural relaxation at an interface is a common assumption, the combination of the precise determination of the incommensurate epitaxial relation, the direct observation of SDWs in real space, and their identification as the sole source of epitaxial energy gain constitutes a comprehensive proof of this effect.
Project description:Distortion product otoacoustic emissions are sounds that are emitted by the cochlea due to the nonlinearity of the outer hair cells. These emissions play an important role both in clinical settings and research laboratories. However, how distortion products propagate from their generation location to the middle ear remains unclear; whether distortion products propagate as a slow reverse traveling wave, or as a fast compression wave, through the cochlear fluid has been debated. In this article, we evaluate the contributions of the slow reverse wave and fast compression wave to the propagation of intracochlear distortion products using a physiologically based nonlinear model of the gerbil cochlea. This model includes a 3D two-duct model of the intracochlear fluid and a realistic model of outer hair cell biophysics. Simulations of the distortion products in the cochlear fluid pressure in response to a two-tone stimulus are compared with published in vivo experimental results. Whereas experiments have characterized distortion products at a limited number of locations, this model provides a complete description of the fluid pressure at all locations in the cochlear ducts. As in experiments, the spatial variations of the distortion products in the fluid pressure have some similarities with what is observed in response to a pure tone. Analysis of the fluid pressure demonstrates that although a fast wave component is generated, the slow wave component dominates the response. Decomposition of the model simulations into forward and reverse wave components shows that a slow forward propagating wave is generated due to the reflection of the slow reverse wave at the stapes. Wave interference between the reverse and forward components sometimes complicates the analysis of distortion products propagation using measurements at a few locations.
Project description:This study explores the phenomenology of distortion products in nonlinear cochlear models, predicting their amplitude and phase along the basilar membrane. The existence of a backward-traveling wave at the distortion-product frequency, which has been recently questioned by experiments measuring the phase of basilar-membrane vibration, is discussed. The effect of different modeling choices is analyzed, including feed-forward asymmetry, micromechanical roughness, and breaking of scaling symmetry. The experimentally observed negative slope of basilar-membrane phase is predicted by numerical simulations of nonlinear cochlear models under a wide range of parameters and modeling choices. In active models, positive phase slopes are predicted by the quasi-linear analytical computations and by the fully nonlinear numerical simulations only if the distortion-product sources are localized apical to the observation point and if the stapes reflectivity is unrealistically small. The results of this study predict a negative phase slope whenever the source is distributed over a reasonably wide cochlear region and/or a reasonably high stapes reflectivity is assumed. Therefore, the above-mentioned experiments do not contradict "classical" models of cochlear mechanics and of distortion-product generation.
Project description:Structural superlubricity (SSL) is a state of contact with no wear and ultralow friction. SSL has been characterized at contact with van der Waals (vdW) layered materials, while its stability under extreme loading conditions has not been assessed. By designing both self-mated and non-self-mated vdW contacts with materials chosen for their high strengths, we report outstanding robustness of SSL under very high pressures in experiments. The incommensurate self-mated vdW contact between graphite interfaces can maintain the state of SSL under a pressure no lower than 9.45 GPa, and the non-self-mated vdW contact between a tungsten tip and graphite substrate remains stable up to 3.74 GPa. Beyond this critical pressure, wear is activated, signaling the breakdown of vdW contacts and SSL. This unexpectedly strong pressure-resistance and wear-free feature of SSL breaks down the picture of progressive wear. Atomistic simulations show that lattice destruction at the vdW contact by pressure-assisted bonding triggers wear through shear-induced tearing of the single-atomic layers. The correlation between the breakdown pressure and material properties shows that the bulk modulus and the first ionization energy are the most relevant factors, indicating the combined structural and electronic effects. Impressively, the breakdown pressures defined by the SSL interface could even exceed the strength of materials in contact, demonstrating the robustness of SSL. These findings offer a fundamental understanding of wear at the vdW contacts and guide the design of SSL-enabled applications.
Project description:Wood, being renewable and highly abundant material, with excellent high specific strength and stiffness, has received increasing attention to be used in high performance applications such as the structural element of a battery case in an electric vehicle. For a successful implementation of wood in the automotive sector, it is, therefore, crucial to understand the behaviour of wood during and after temperature exposure and in the event of fire with the presence/absence of oxygen. In this study, the mechanical properties of thermally modified and unmodified European beech and birch in air and nitrogen environments at six different treatment intensities were characterised using compression tests, tensile tests, shear tests and Poisson's ratio tests. Further, the elastic properties of these wood species were quantified using the ultrasound measurements. The obtained strength and stiffness exhibited mild improvement upon moderate temperature treatment (200 °C), followed by a decrease at elevated temperature levels. This improvement was somewhat more pronounced under nitrogen treatment than under air treatment conditions. Nevertheless, a more noticeable decrease in the material performance was observed in beech compared to birch, occurring at earlier stages of modifications. This study confirms the tension-compression asymmetry of beech and birch where higher Young's moduli were obtained from tensile than from compression tests for reference and thermally treated beech and birch. The shear moduli obtained from ultrasound for birch were comparable to those obtained from quasi-static tests, whereas there was an overestimation of approximately 11-59% for the shear modulus of beech compared to quasi-static tests. Poisson's ratios from ultrasound tests corresponded well with those from quasi-static tests for untreated beech and birch, but not for thermally modified samples. The Saint-Venant model can satisfactorily predict the shear moduli of untreated and treated beech wood.
Project description:Conflicting results on the effects of occlusal proprioceptive information on standing sway have been reported in the literature, partly due to the heterogeneity of the occlusal criterion studied and the experimental protocol used. In this study, occlusal functions, different mandibular positions and visual conditions were used to investigate the involvement of occlusal proprioception information in static postural balance. Postural adjustments of 26 healthy young adults, divided into Class I malocclusion and Class I normocclusion groups, were studied in upright position, in five mandibular positions (1 free, 2 centric and 2 eccentric), with and without vision. Due to different reported test durations, postural parameters were examined for the first and last halves of the 51.2 s acquisition time. A permutation ANOVA with 4 factors was used: group, mandibular position, vision, time window. Mean length of CoP displacement was shorter with vision (ES = 0.30) and more affected by vision loss in the free than in the intercuspal mandibular position (ES = 0.76 vs. 0.39), which has more tooth contacts. The malocclusion group was more affected by vision loss (ES = 0.64). Unexpectedly, with vision, the mean length was smaller in one eccentric occlusion side compared to the other (ES = 0.51), but independent of the left or right side, and more affected by vision loss (ES = 1.04 vs. ES = 0.71). The first-time window of the acquisition time, i.e. 25.6 s, was sufficient to demonstrate the impact of dental occlusion, except for the sway area. Comparison of the two visual conditions was informative. With vision, the weight of occlusal proprioception was not strictly related to occlusal characteristics (number of teeth in contact; centered or eccentric mandibular position), and it was asymmetrical. Without vision, the lack of difference between groups and mandibular positions suggested a sensory reweighting, probably to limit postural disturbance.
Project description:Hydrocarbon films confined between smooth mica surfaces have long provided an experimental playground for model studies of structure and dynamics of confined liquids. However, fundamental questions regarding the phase behavior and shear properties in this simple system remain unsolved. With ultrasensitive resolution in film thickness and shear stress, and control over the crystallographic alignment of the confining surfaces, we here investigate the shear forces transmitted across nanoscale films of dodecane down to a single molecular layer. We resolve the conditions under which liquid-solid phase transitions occur and explain friction coefficients spanning several orders of magnitude. We find that commensurate surface alignment and presence of water at the interfaces each lead to moderate or high friction, whereas friction coefficients down to [Formula: see text] are observed for a single molecular layer of dodecane trapped between crystallographically misaligned dry surfaces. This ultralow friction is attributed to sliding at the incommensurate interface between one of the mica surfaces and the laterally ordered solid molecular film, reconciling previous interpretations.
Project description:Friction and wear remain the primary modes for energy dissipation in moving mechanical components. Superlubricity is highly desirable for energy saving and environmental benefits. Macroscale superlubricity was previously performed under special environments or on curved nanoscale surfaces. Nevertheless, macroscale superlubricity has not yet been demonstrated under ambient conditions on macroscale surfaces, except in humid air produced by purging water vapor into a tribometer chamber. In this study, a tribological system is fabricated using a graphene-coated plate (GCP), graphene-coated microsphere (GCS), and graphene-coated ball (GCB). The friction coefficient of 0.006 is achieved in air under 35 mN at a sliding speed of 0.2 mm s-1 for 1200 s in the developed GCB/GCS/GCP system. To the best of the knowledge, for the first time, macroscale superlubricity on macroscale surfaces under ambient conditions is reported. The mechanism of macroscale superlubricity is due to the combination of exfoliated graphene flakes and the swinging and sliding of the GCS, which is demonstrated by the experimental measurements, ab initio, and molecular dynamics simulations. These findings help to bridge macroscale superlubricity to real world applications, potentially dramatically contributing to energy savings and reducing the emission of carbon dioxide to the environment.
Project description:BackgroundHeat waves have been linked with an increase in mortality, but the associated risk has been only partly characterized.MethodsWe examined this association by decomposing the risk for temperature into a "main effect" due to independent effects of daily high temperatures, and an "added" effect due to sustained duration of heat during waves, using data from 108 communities in the United States during 1987-2000. We adopted different definitions of heat-wave days on the basis of combinations of temperature thresholds and days of duration. The main effect was estimated through distributed lag nonlinear functions of temperature, which account for nonlinear delayed effects and short-time harvesting. We defined the main effect as the relative risk between the median city-specific temperature during heat-wave days and the 75th percentile of the year-round distribution. The added effect was defined first using a simple indicator, and then a function of consecutive heat-wave days. City-specific main and added effects were pooled through univariate and multivariate meta-analytic techniques.ResultsThe added wave effect was small (0.2%-2.8% excess relative risk, depending on wave definition) compared with the main effect (4.9%-8.0%), and was apparent only after 4 consecutive heat-wave days.ConclusionsMost of the excess risk with heat waves in the United States can be simply summarized as the independent effects of individual days' temperatures. A smaller added effect arises in heat waves lasting more than 4 days.
Project description:An impressive superlow coefficient of friction (CoF) as low as 0.004 (nearly equivalent to the rolling coefficient) was obtained by sliding a steel ball against a tetrahedral amorphous diamond-like carbon (ta-C) coating in glycerol under a boundary lubrication regime. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed substantial changes in the surface chemistry and topography in the friction track. As shown by XPS analysis, a transfer of iron atoms from the steel ball to the ta-C layer occurred, forming iron oxy-hydroxide (FeOOH) termination on both surfaces. Between them, theoretical calculations show that a nanometre-thick fluid film consisting of glycerol and its degradation products prevents direct contact between the solid surfaces by nm-thick film EHL lubrication and results in the superlow friction, in agreement with the experiment. Furthermore, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that hydrogen atoms act as "low-friction brushes" between sliding layers of crystalline FeOOH, resulting also in low friction. A new model of sustainable green superlubricity is proposed. The tribo-formation of FeOOH with glycerol leads to a unique polishing process, which in turn leads to a self-sustained Elasto-Hydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL) regime until the very thin fluid film is no more than a few nanometres thick. At lower thicknesses, the hydroxide layer takes over. Wear of the ta-C coating is negligible, while wear on the steel ball is very moderate and acceptable for many practical applications, such as bio-tribology and the food industry, in which green lubrication is especially needed.