Deformation twinning is an important mechanism occurring in certain types of diffusionless shear phase transformations for which the shear processes involve a non-lattice vector. In these cases, the deformation occurs through the nucleation and motion of partial dislocations or the glide of already present partial dislocations, which induce a structural change in the material. The generation an...

alzheimer's disease (ad) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory and cognitive dysfunction due to neuronal cell loss in higher brain centers. senile plaques containing amyloid β (aβ) are associated with this disease as well as a reduction in cholinergic neuron numbers. tacrine is a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor in clinical use to treat moderate forms of ad. chit...

This paper reviews the status of molecular dynamics as a method in describing solid-solid phase transitions, and its relationship to continuum approaches[3, 5]. Simulation work done in NiTi and Zr using first principles and semi-empirical potentials is presented. This shows failures of extending equilibrium thermodynamics to the nanoscale, and the crucial importance of system-specific details t...

Magnetic shape memory alloys display magnetic-field-induced strain (MFIS) of up to 10% as single crystals. Polycrystalline materials are much easier to create but display a near-zero MFIS because twinning of neighboring grains introduces strain incompatibility, leading to high internal stresses. Pores reduce these incompatibilities between grains and thus increase the MFIS of polycrystalline Ni...