The approach is expected to be useful for the analysis of various types of lipid-based systems, e.g. for the characterization of interactions between target drug molecules and potential carrier/delivery systems.Two of the microstructural parameters most influential in the properties of polycrystalline materials are grain size and crystallographic texture. Although both properties have been extensively studied and there are a wide range of analysis tools available, they are generally considered independently, without taking into account the possible correlations between them. However, there are reasons to assume that grain size and orientation are correlated microstructural state variables, as they are the result of single microstructural formation mechanisms occurring during material processing. In this work, the grain size distribution and orientation distribution functions are combined in a single multivariate grain size orientation distribution function (GSODF). In addition to the derivation of the function, several examples of practical applications to low carbon steels are presented, in which it is shown how the GSODF can be used in the analysis of 2D and 3D electron backscatter diffraction data, as well as in the generation of representative volume elements for full-field models and as input in simulations using mean-field methods.An automatic sample changer system for measurements of large numbers of liquid samples - the µDrop Sample Changer - is presented. It is based on a robotic arm equipped with a pipetting mechanism, which is combined with a novel drop-based sample holder. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/trimethoprim.html In this holder a drop of liquid is suspended between two parallel plates by surface tension. The absence of a transfer line benefits the cleaning, improving the background as well as making it faster and more efficient than most comparable capillary-based systems. The µDrop Sample Changer reaches cycle times below 35 s and can process up to 480 samples in a single run. Sample handling is very reliable, with a drop misplacement chance of about 0.2%. Very low sample volumes ( less then 20 µl) are needed and repeatable measurements were performed down to 6 µl. Using measurements of bovine serum albumin and lysozyme, the performance of the instrument and quality of the gathered data of low and high concentrations of proteins are presented. The temperature of samples can also be controlled during storage and during measurement, which is demonstrated by observing a phase transition of a mesophase-forming lipid solution. The instrument has been developed for use in small-angle X-ray scattering experiments, which is a well established technique for measuring (macro-)molecules. It is commonly used in biological studies, where often large sets of rare samples have to be measured.Laboratory diffraction contrast tomography (LabDCT) is a recently developed technique for 3D nondestructive grain mapping using a conical polychromatic beam from a laboratory-based X-ray source. The effects of experimental parameters, including accelerating voltage, exposure time and number of projections used for reconstruction, on the characterization of the 3D grain structure in an iron sample are quantified. The experiments were conducted using a commercial X-ray tomography system, ZEISS Xradia 520 Versa, equipped with a LabDCT module; and the data analysis was performed using the software package GrainMapper3D, which produces a 3D reconstruction from binarized 2D diffraction patterns. It is found that the exposure time directly affects the background noise level and thus the ability to distinguish weak spots of small grains from the background. With the assistance of forward simulations, it is found that spots from the first three strongest hkl families of a large grain can be seen with as few as 30-40 projections, which is sufficient for indexing the crystallographic orientation and resolving the grain shape with a reasonably high accuracy. It is also shown that the electron current is a more important factor than the accelerating voltage to be considered for optimizing the photon numbers with energies in the range of 20-60 keV. This energy range is the most important one for diffraction of common metals, e.g. iron and aluminium. Several suggestions for optimizing LabDCT experiments and 3D volume reconstruction are finally provided.This article reports on energy-dispersive micro Laue (µLaue) diffraction of an individual gold nanowire that was mechanically deformed in three-point bending geometry using an atomic force microscope. The nanowire deformation was investigated by scanning the focused polychromatic X-ray beam along the nanowire and recording µLaue diffraction patterns using an energy-sensitive pnCCD detector that permits measurement of the angular positions of the Laue spots and the energies of the diffracted X-rays simultaneously. The plastic deformation of the nanowire was shown by a bending of up to 3.0 ± 0.1°, a torsion of up to 0.3 ± 0.1° and a maximum deformation depth of 80 ± 5 nm close to the position where the mechanical load was applied. In addition, extended Laue spots in the vicinity of one of the clamping points indicated the storage of geometrically necessary dislocations with a density of 7.5 × 1013 m-2. While µLaue diffraction with a non-energy-sensitive detector only gives access to the deviatoric strain, the energy sensitivity of the employed pnCCD offers absolute strain measurements with a resolution of 1%. Here, the residual strain after complete unloading of the nanowire amounted to maximum tensile and compressive strains of the order of +1.2 and -3%, which is comparable to the actual resolution limit. The combination of white-beam µLaue diffraction using an energy-sensitive pixel detector with nano-mechanical testing opens up new possibilities for the study of mechanical behavior at the nanoscale.Neutron spin-echo spectroscopy is a unique experimental method for the investigation of polymer dynamics. The combination of neutron spin-echo spectroscopy with grazing-incidence geometry (GINSES) opens the possibility to probe the dynamics of soft-matter materials in the vicinity of the solid substrate in the time range up to 100 ns. However, the usage of the GINSES technique has some peculiarities and, due to the novelty of the method and complexity of the scattering geometry, difficulties in further data analysis occur. The current work discusses how virtual experiments within the distorted-wave Born approximation using the BornAgain software can improve GINSES data treatment and aid the understanding of polymer dynamics in the vicinity of the solid surface. With two examples, poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) brushes and poly(ethylene glycol) microgels on Si surfaces, the simulation as well as the application of the simulation to the GINSES data analysis are presented. The approach allowed a deeper insight to be gained of the background effect and scattering contribution of different layers.