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Abstract: A series of wood-fibre mats was investigated using high-resolution phase-contrast microtomography at the beamline ID 19 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. A method for data reduction to quantify the degree of fibre–fibre contact has been derived. The degree of fibre–fibre contact and bonding plays a fundamental role in the mechanical properties of cellulose-fibre mats, paper materials and cellulose-fibre composites. The proposed computerised automated method consists of two parts. First, fibre lumens are segmented using a watershed based method. This information is then used to identify fibre–fibre contacts in projections along the z-axis of the material. The method is tested on microtomographic images of mats made of wood pulp fibres, and is shown to successfully detect differences in the amount of fibre–fibre contact between samples. The degree of fibre–fibre contact correlates well with measured out-of-plane strength of the fibrous material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The (CR–LR) difference technique, based on the CR-39 and LR 115 detectors, for the determination of implanted 210Po in glass after deposition of short-lived radon progeny, was analyzed in details in this paper. The sensitivities of both detectors were calculated using the Monte Carlo method with V functions particularly derived in our previous works for the detectors used in the present experiments. The dependency of the sensitivity ratio on the removed layer of both detectors was determined and verified experimentally. The simulated sensitivity ratios correlate well with the experimental ones. A major finding of the present work is that the sensitivity ratio between the CR-39 and LR 115 detectors depends only weakly on the ratio between the 238U and 232Th concentrations in the glass samples. This is crucial for the application of the (CR–LR) difference technique for retrospective radon exposure assessments, since measurements of the 238U and 232Th concentrations in the relatively small real-life glass samples will make the retrospective radon exposure assessments impractical. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper we consider the calculation of the linearly polarised undulator brightness with the inclusion of the sextupolar magnetic field contributions and an axial magnetic field. The analysis is aimed at the damping of the betatron oscillations which arise when the electrons are injected off the undulator axis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The use of the elemental composition, determined by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), to characterize ancient and modern papyrus and parchment, and newspaper from three different years is reported. The concentrations of S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Br, Rb, Sr, Ba and Pb were determined in these samples in order to proceed to its characterization. From this work, we can conclude that the obtained results allow distinguishing modern and ancient documents by its elemental amount. It was observed, with few exceptions, that the modern samples present lower elemental concentration than the older ones. Furthermore, in the newspaper samples the number of detected elements depends on the newspaper''s age, and decreases from the oldest (1919) to the most recent (2005). X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is a good elemental technique with the main advantage of being non-destructive, which makes it the perfect tool for the elemental analysis of cultural heritage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]