We introduce a new class of high-porosity microstructures, called “single-scale laminates,” made from arrays of parallel walls. They are extremal, in the sense that no stiffer structure exists with the same total mass. They are simple, in the sense of being easy to describe, and perhaps to manufacture. And they are universal: for any high-porosity microstructure there is a single-scale laminate...

High-performance photovoltaic cells use semiconductors to convert sunlight into clean electrical power, and transparent dielectrics or conductive oxides as antireflection coatings. A common feature of these materials is their high refractive index. Whereas high-index materials in a planar form tend to produce a strong, undesired reflection of sunlight, high-index nanostructures afford new ways ...

Surgical mesh devices composed of synthetic materials are commonly used for ventral hernia repair. These materials provide robust mechanical strength and are quickly incorporated into host tissue; factors that contribute to reduced hernia recurrence rates. However, such mesh devices cause a foreign body response with the associated complications of fibrosis and patient discomfort. In contrast, ...

In this paper, we propose a new approach to building synchronization primitives, dubbed “lwlocks” (short for light-weight locks). The primitives are optimized for small memory footprint while maintaining efficient performance in low contention scenarios. A read-write lwlock occupies 4 bytes, a mutex occupies 4 bytes (2 if deadlock detection is not required), and a condition variable occupies 4 ...

3D whole body, electro-optical scanners have facilitated the creation of personalised, realistic human models. However, realism comes at the cost of a large number of polygons that may surpass the time/accuracy requirement set for rendering/computation in a variety of application systems. We present new automatic constraints that approximate the symmetry of human body parts. These feature const...

This development provides a framework for container types like sets and maps such that generated code implements these containers with different (efficient) data structures. Thanks to type classes and refinement during code generation, this light-weight approach can seamlessly replace Isabelle’s default setup for code generation. Heuristics automatically pick one of the available data structure...

This study investigated weight changes of seven different light-cured composite restorative materials, one polyacid glass ionomer compomer, and one light-cured glass-ionomer cement following short-term and long-term storage in water. Two packable composites, three universal (hybrid) composites, one microglass composite, one polyacid glass ionomer resin composite (compomer), one microhybrid low-...

With the growing use of CT systems in industrial non-destructive testing the spectrum of applications is widening. In order to optimize a CT system with respect to quantitative accuracy of the reconstructed values, the complete chain of data processing was analysed by the Fraunhofer EZRT during the research project "ZeLuR". Two new methods were developed that both allow for a highly accurate re...

The experience of building a customised process-centered software development environment is described. This environment supports a team-oriented software process and supports to collect automatically process data like number of defects per module and development time per phase per module. The underlying model for collecting those data is the Personal Software Process. The environment has been ...