The contamination of aquatic environments by toxic metals such as radionuclides is of great concern because of the tendency of those metals to accumulate in the vital organs of humans and animals, causing severe health problems. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of natural and modified magadiite clay as an adsorbent to remove Th(IV), U(VI), and Eu(III) from aqueous solutions. Magadiite from the Amazon region, Brazil, was modified chemically with 5-mercapto-1-methyltetrazole (MTTZ) using a multi-step or heterogeneous synthesis pathway. The natural and modified materials were characterized using 29Si and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen gas adsorption, and elemental analysis. The physical-chemical properties of the chemically modified magadiite sample were modified, e.g. the specific surface area changed from 35.0 to 678.9 m2 g−1. The ability of the magadiite to remove Th(IV), U(VI), and Eu(III) from aqueous solution was then tested by a series of adsorption isotherms adjusted to a Sips equation. The effects of properties such as pH, contact time, and metal concentration on the adsorption capacity were studied. The adsorption maxima were determined to be 7.5 × 10−3, 9.8 × 10−3, and 12.9 × 10−3 mmol g−1 for Th(IV), U(VI), and Eu(III), respectively. From calorimetric determinations, the quantitative thermal effects for all these cations/basic center interactions gave exothermic enthalpy, negative Gibbs free energy, and positive entropy, confirming the energetically favorable conditions of such interactions at the solid/liquid interface for all systems.

In this essay we propose a reframing of the Bloomberg Terminal, an interface used to track financial trades and values, by using it as a creative, critical and curatorial device to explore the relationship between the art and finance. To contextualise this approach, we offer a history of the Bloomberg Terminal alongside an analysis of the power of interfaces to shape both the user and the represented information. We use the terminal as a way to critique the relationship between art acquisition and financial trading companies. We then describe some outcomes of a series of workshops themed around the idea of ‘building an alternative Bloomberg’. We conclude by offering some potential applications of a re-framed Bloomberg Terminal as an open and modular interface for engaging with issues around art and finance, both in terms of content and curation.

This paper introduces a new software interface to elicit belief distributions of any shape: Click-and-Drag. The interface was tested against the state of the art in the experimental literature—a text-based interface and multiple sliders—and in the online forecasting industry—a distribution-manipulation interface similar to the one used by the most popular crowd-forecasting website. By means of a pre-registered experiment on Amazon Mechanical Turk, quantitative data on the accuracy of reported beliefs in a series of induced-value scenarios varying by granularity, shape, and time constraints, as well as subjective data on user experience were collected. Click-and-Drag outperformed all other interfaces by accuracy and speed, and was self-reported as being more intuitive and less frustrating, confirming the pre-registered hypothesis. Aside of the pre-registered results, Click-and-Drag generated the least drop-out rate from the task, and scored best in a sentiment analysis of an open-ended general question. Further, the interface was used to collect homegrown predictions on temperature in New York City in 2022 and 2042. Click-and-Drag elicited distributions were smoother with less idiosyncratic spikes. Free and open source, ready to use oTree, Qualtrics and Limesurvey plugins for Click-and-Drag, and all other tested interfaces are available at https://beliefelicitation.github.io/.

The invention of silicon drift detectors has resulted in an unprecedented improvement in detection efficiency for energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope. The result is numerous beautiful atomic-scale maps, which provide insights into the internal structure of a variety of materials. However, the task still remains to understand exactly where the X-ray signal comes from and how accurately it can be quantified. Unfortunately, when crystals are aligned with a low-order zone axis parallel to the incident beam direction, as is necessary for atomic-resolution imaging, the electron beam channels. When the beam becomes localized in this way, the relationship between the concentration of a particular element and its spectroscopic X-ray signal is generally nonlinear. Here, we discuss the combined effect of both spatial integration and sample tilt for ameliorating the effects of channeling and improving the accuracy of EDX quantification. Both simulations and experimental results will be presented for a perovskite-based oxide interface. We examine how the scattering and spreading of the electron beam can lead to erroneous interpretation of interface compositions, and what approaches can be made to improve our understanding of the underlying atomic structure.

Atom probe tomography is a powerful tool for investigating nanostructures such as interfaces and nanoparticles in material science. Advanced analysis tools are particularly useful for analyzing these nanostructures characterized very often by curved shapes. However, these tools are very limited for complex materials with non-negligible peak overlaps in their respective mass-to-charge ratio spectra. Usually, an analyst solves peak overlaps in the bulk regions, but the behavior at interfaces is rarely considered. Therefore, in this work, we demonstrate how the proximity histogram generated for a specific interface can be corrected by using the natural abundances of isotopes. This leads to overlap-solved proximity histograms with a resolution of up to 0.1 nm. This work expands on previous work that showed the advantage of a maximum-likelihood peak overlap solving. The corrected proximity histograms together with the maximum-likelihood peak overlap algorithm were implemented in a user-friendly software suite called EPOSA.

Interfaces play critical roles in materials and are usually both structurally and compositionally complex microstructural features. The precise characterization of their nature in three-dimensions at the atomic scale is one of the grand challenges for microscopy and microanalysis, as this information is crucial to establish structure–property relationships. Atom probe tomography is well suited to analyzing the chemistry of interfaces at the nanoscale. However, optimizing such microanalysis of interfaces requires great care in the implementation across all aspects of the technique from specimen preparation to data analysis and ultimately the interpretation of this information. This article provides critical perspectives on key aspects pertaining to spatial resolution limits and the issues with the compositional analysis that can limit the quantification of interface measurements. Here, we use the example of grain boundaries in steels; however, the results are applicable for the characterization of grain boundaries and transformation interfaces in a very wide range of industrially relevant engineering materials.

The current review outlines the size-dependent plastic behavior of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) and the underlying deformation mechanisms. Particular focus is laid upon the influence of microstructural design on the small-scale deformation characteristics. The role of defect types as carriers of plasticity is appraised and correlated with the frequently observed mechanical behavior peculiar to the breed of HEAs. Deformation response is classified on the basis of mechanical testing techniques probing intrinsic (nanoindentation techniques) as well as extrinsic size (micro/nanopillar compression) effects. The mechanisms of incipient plasticity and serrated flow behavior in HEAs are discussed. Furthermore, the role of interfaces between crystallographically dissimilar lattices on small-scale deformation behavior in these alloys is assessed. The article provides a clear overview of the existing HEA research in this avenue as well as the critical knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.

This paper introduces the special issue “Advances in Implemented Shape Grammars: Solutions and Applications” and frames the topic of computer implementations of shape grammars, both with a theoretical and an applied focus. This special issue focuses on the current state of the art regarding computer implementations of shape grammars and brings a discussion about how those systems can evolve in the coming years so that they can be used in real life design scenarios. This paper presents a brief state of the art of shape grammars implementation and an overview of the papers included in the current special issue categorized under technical design, interpreters and interface design, and uses cases. The paper ends with a comprehensive outlook into the future of shape grammars implementations.

With the development of affordable aberration correctors, analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) studies of complex interfaces can now be conducted at high spatial resolution at laboratories worldwide. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in particular has grown in popularity, as it enables elemental mapping over a wide range of ionization energies. However, the interpretation of atomically resolved data is greatly complicated by beam–sample interactions that are often overlooked by novice users. Here we describe the practical factors—namely, sample thickness and the choice of ionization edge—that affect the quantification of a model perovskite oxide interface. Our measurements of the same sample, in regions of different thickness, indicate that interface profiles can vary by as much as 2–5 unit cells, depending on the spectral feature. This finding is supported by multislice simulations, which reveal that on-axis maps of even perfectly abrupt interfaces exhibit significant delocalization. Quantification of thicker samples is further complicated by channeling to heavier sites across the interface, as well as an increased signal background. We show that extreme care must be taken to prepare samples to minimize channeling effects and argue that it may not be possible to extract atomically resolved information from many chemical maps.

In the present study, nano-sized cuboid-shaped particles in Mg–Nd–Y are studied by means of Cs-corrected atomic-scale high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy. The structure of the cuboid-shaped phase is identified to be yttrium (major component) and neodymium atoms in face-centered cubic arrangement without the participation of Mg. The lattice parameter a=5.15 Å. During isothermal aging at 225°C, Mg3(Nd,Y) precipitates adhere to surface (100) planes of the cuboid-shaped particles with the orientation relationship: $[100]_{{{\rm Mg}_{{\rm 3}} {\rm RE}}} \,/\,\,/\,[100]_{{{\rm Cuboid}}} $ and $[310]_{{{\rm Mg}_{{\rm 3}} {\rm RE}}} \,/\,\,/\,[012]_{{{\rm Cuboid}}} $ . The fully coherent interfaces between the precipitates and the cuboid-shaped phases are reconstructed and categorized into two types: $(400)_{{{\rm Mg}_{{\rm 3}} {\rm RE}}} $ interface and $(200)_{{{\rm Mg}_{{\rm 3}} {\rm RE}}} $ interface.

Graphite flakes (Gf)/Si/Al composites have been fabricated with different volume fraction of graphite by vacuum gas pressure infiltration. In the composites, the addition of Si played a role of spacing apart graphite layers, which can produce voids between layers for the infiltration of molten aluminum. Microstructural characterization indicated that the reinforcements were fairly distributed in the Al and a clean interface lacking of Al3C4 phase was formed between Al and Gf. With the increase of Gf from 39 to 81 vol%, the longitudinal thermal conductivity (TC) of composites increased from 294 to 390 W/m K, but the open porosity increased from 1.85 to 6.03%. Besides, a joint M1–M2 prediction model was established, which considered that the microstructure of composites lies in between two models: (M1) a layered structure in binary metal-particle composites and (M2) ternary composites that oriented flakes randomly distributed in metal-particle confirmed a better theoretical prediction of TC.

Most of the issues that undermine firms’ globalization efforts are attributable to a combination of cultural differences and weak managerial skill and experience. Because of its exclusive focus on influences from the political stability and institutional maturity aspects of country contexts, Child and Marinova’s (2014) framework for identifying the challenges faced by Chinese firms going abroad is incomplete. It needs to also include the cultural mindsets of executives as an explanatory factor in analyzing how the ‘qualitative interface’ in contextual combinations affects the operation of firms investing into foreign countries.

Atom probe tomography (APT) provides three-dimensional analytical imaging of materials with near-atomic resolution using pulsed field evaporation. The processes of field evaporation can cause atoms to be placed at positions in the APT reconstruction that can deviate slightly from their original site in the material. Here, we describe and model one such process—that of preferential retention of solute atoms in multicomponent systems. Based on relative field evaporation probabilities, we calculate the point spread function for the solute atom distribution in the “z,” or in-depth direction, and use this to extract more accurate solute concentration profiles.

Can transfer occur in child bilingual syntax when surface overlap does not involve the syntax-pragmatics interface? Twenty-three Spanish/English bilingual children participated in an elicited imitation study of clitic placement in Spanish restructuring contexts, where variable word order is not associated with pragmatic or semantic factors. Bilingual children performed poorly with preverbal clitics, the order that does not overlap with English. Distinct bilingual patterns emerged: backward repositioning, omissions (for simultaneous bilinguals) and a reduction in forward repositioning bias. We conclude that transfer should be defined in lexical terms as the result of priming effects leading to shifts in lexical items.

An analytical solution to compute the 3D steady state temperature distribution in abearing ring is presented in this paper. The ring is formed by a hollow cylinder of finitelength. Its radial external surface is subjected to localized, identical heat sources,equally spaced in the azimuth direction. This surface is also subjected to convectivecooling while as the internal surface is maintained at a uniform temperature. Thedeveloped solution is explicit and does not impose any restriction on the geometrical orphysical parameters.

This paper investigates how syntactic knowledge interfaces with other cognitive systems by analysing the production of postverbal subjects, V(erb)–S(ubject) order, in an L1 Spanish–L2 English corpus and a comparable English native corpus. VS order in both native and L2 English is shown to be constrained by properties operating at three interfaces: (i) lexicon–syntax: the verb is unaccusative (Unaccusative Hypothesis); (ii) syntax–discourse: the subject is focus (End-Focus Principle) and (iii) syntax–phonology: the subject is heavy (End-Weight Principle). We show that, since learners produce VS under the same interface conditions as native speakers, unaccusativity is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for VS production. However, learners overproduce VS and make persistent errors in their syntactic encoding. Our findings support recent proposals that these difficulties stem from problems at coordinating syntactic knowledge with knowledge from other external systems, but they suggest that the nature of such difficulties is not external to the syntax.

The following article is based on the Outstanding Young Investigator Award presentation given by Harold Y. Hwang of the University of Tokyo on March 29, 2005, at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Hwang was cited for “innovative work on the physics of transition-metal oxides and the atomic-scale synthesis of complex oxide heterostructures.” Perovskite oxides range from insulators to superconductors and can incorporate magnetism as well as couple to phonon instabilities. The close lattice match between many perovskites raises the possibility of growing epitaxial thin-film heterostructures with different ground states that may compete or interact. The recent development of superconducting Josephson junctions, magnetic tunnel junctions, ferroelectric memory cells, and resistive switching can be considered examples within this new heteroepitaxial family. In this context, Hwang presents his studies of electronic structure at atomically abrupt interfaces grown by pulsed laser deposition. Some issues are generic to all heterointerfaces, such as the stability of dopant profiles and diffusion, interface states and depletion, and interface charge arising from polarity discontinuities. A more unusual issue is the charge structure associated with Mott insulator/band insulator interfaces. The question is, how should one consider the correlated equivalent of band bending? This semiconductor concept is based on the validity of rigid single-particle band diagrams, which are known to be an inadequate description for strongly correlated electrons. In addition to presenting an interesting scientific challenge, this question underlies the attempts to develop new applications of doped Mott insulators in device geometries.