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Atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the late 1950s and early 1960s almost doubled the amount of C-14 in the atmosphere. The resulting C-14 "bomb-pulse" has been shown to provide useful age information in e.g. forensic and environmental sciences, biology and the geosciences. The technique is also currently being used for retrospective cell dating in man, in order to provide insight into the rate of formation of new cells in the human body. Bomb-pulse dating relies on precise measurements of the declining C-14 concentration in atmospheric CO2 collected at clean-air sites. However, it is not always recognized that the calculations can be complicated in some cases by significant local variations in the specific activity of C-14 in carbon in the air and foodstuff. This paper presents investigations of local C-14 variations in the vicinities of nuclear installations and laboratories using C-14. Levels of C-14 in workers using this radioisotope are also discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper presents a study in which the specific activity of (14)C in hair has been investigated as an easily determined bio-indicator of the integrated (14)C exposure (over several months). The study includes 28 Swedish workers handling (14)C-labelled compounds, or working in a (14)C-enriched environment. Hair samples from personnel at a Swedish nuclear power plant showed very low levels of (14)C contamination, if any. In contrast, personnel at the investigated research departments showed (14)C levels in hair of up to 60% above the natural specific activity of (14)C. Much higher levels, up to 80 times the natural specific activity of (14)C, were found in hair from individuals working at a pharmaceutical research laboratory. This contamination was, however, not solely an internal contamination. There were indications that most of the (14)C in the hair originated from airborne (14)C-compounds, which were adsorbed onto the hair. The difficulties in removing this external (14)C contamination prior to analysis are discussed, as are the possibilities of using accelerator mass spectrometry to analyse various types of samples for retrospective dose assessment.

A measurement platform for online studies of print runnability in a full-scale four-high web offset printing press is described. Results from two trial runs showed no effect of reel tightness on pr ...

This paper is concerned with the offset lithographic colour printing. To obtain high quality colour prints, given proportions of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) inks (four primary inks used in the printing process) should be accurately maintained in any area of the printed picture. To accomplish the task, the press operator needs to measure the printed result for assessing the proportions and use the measurement results to reduce the colour deviations. Specially designed colour bars are usually printed to enable the measurements. This paper presents an approach to estimate the proportions directly in colour pictures without using any dedicated areas. The proportions—the average amount of C, M, Y, and K inks in the area of interest—are estimated from the CCD colour camera RGB (L*a*b*) values recorded from that area. The local kernel ridge regression and the support vector regression are combined for obtaining the desired mapping L*a*b* ⇒ CMYK, which can be multi-valued.

A technique for measuring optical dot gain, i.e. the relative difference between the actual screen dot and the optically perceived one, is presented. By combining measurements from the non-optical nuclear microprobe with data from image analyzing technique the optical dot gain can be determined. The procedure to reach pixel by pixel correlation on a micrometer scale is discussed. In the newsprint sample studied in this investigation a typical optical dot gain between 15 and 20% was deduced. The variation in the optical dot gain was correlated with other characteristic parameters of the print and newsprint and especially a positive correlation to the mass density of the newsprint was observed.

This paper is concerned with a multi-resolution tool for screening paper formation variations in various frequency regions on production line. A paper web is illuminated by two red diode lasers and the reflected light recorded as two time series of high resolution measurements constitute the input signal to the papermaking process monitoring system. The time series are divided into blocks and each block is analyzed separately. The task is treated as kernel based novelty detection applied to a multi-resolution time series representation obtained from the band-pass filtering of the Fourier power spectrum of the series. The frequency content of each frequency region is characterized by a feature vector, which is transformed using the canonical correlation analysis and then categorized into the inlier or outlier class by the novelty detector. The ratio of outlying data points, significantly exceeding the predetermined value, indicates abnormalities in the paper formation. The tools developed are used for online paper formation monitoring in a paper mill.

We present a soft computing techniques based option for assessing the quality of colour prints. The values of several print distortion attributes are evaluated by employing data clustering, support vector regression, and image analysis procedures and then aggregated into an overall print quality measure using fuzzy integration. The experimental investigations performed have shown that the print quality evaluations provided by the measure correlate well with the print quality rankings obtained from the experts. The developed tools are successfully used in a printing shop for routine print quality control.

Fluorescence from paper following excitation by either ultraviolet or visible light gives information on the chemical composition of the paper. This can be used for on-line monitoring of the paper during production. Such measurements can be performed non-intrusively at sampling rates high enough to give a sub-millimetre resolution at paper webs moving at velocities higher than 20 metres per second. Two types of fluorescence meters, operating at different wavelengths, have been constructed. Together with an optical speedometer they have been tested at newsprint producing paper mills. A fluorescence based method for scanning cross-directional newsprint profiles in the laboratory has been developed. From these measurements the relative shrinkage of the paper during drying can be calculated using time-frequency analysis.

When water is removed from the paper during paper making, a dimensional change occurs in which the paper shrinks in the direction perpendicular to the direction of processing. The dimensional changes vary across the web and influence, e.g., the surface and compression properties of the paper; they also complicate the control of the paper machine. In this article, a robust method for estimating the relative shrinkage profile is presented. The method is based on a one-dimensional recording of the imprints from the forming fabric, using a fluorescence technique. The recording is transformed into a time-frequency spectrum, on which three different frequency estimators have been evaluated. In simulations on synthetic data and measurements on paper profiles the estimator that maximizes the correlation energy showed the most robust and accurate performance of the methods evaluated, even at a low signal-to-noise ratio.

A robust sensor is developed for on-line measurements in paper production. The sensor is designed for optimal response to lignin in paper. A diode laser operating at 630 nm is used for excitation a ...