[en] When characterizing facilities, advanced autonomous systems are safe, efficient, and cost-effective tools, which can safely deploy state-of-the-art instrumentation without exposing workers to radiation risks. One main focus of the research is the visual mapping of the environment.This paper presents a framework for the mapping aspect that utilizes lidar and SLAM technologies coupled with a monocular camera to create a point cloud of the environment. Upon completion, the present research work aims to provide an autonomous mobile robot the capability to localize itself and aid the user with visualizing the radiation data. Challenges: C++ node needs to properly synchronize image and point cloud data. 3D lidar has resolution of ± 3 cm. Proper camera calibration needed. Transforms need to be precise for proper alignment of image and point-cloud. Results: Voxelated point clouds. Accurate colors from calibrated cameras including details smaller than lidar resolution. Developed Robotics Operating System (ROS) package for ease of transfer to other robot platforms

[en] A new concept for a micro pressure sensor is demonstrated. The pressure difference between the inlet and the outlet of glass nanochannels is obtained by measuring the electrokinetically generated electric potential. To demonstrate the proposed concept, experimental investigations are performed for 100 nm wide nanochannels with sodium chloride solutions having various concentrations. The proposed pressure sensor is able to measure the pressure difference within a 10% deviation from linearity. The sensitivity of the electrokinetic pressure sensor with 10⁻⁵ M sodium chloride solution is 18.5 µV Pa⁻¹, which is one order of magnitude higher than that of typical diaphragm-based pressure sensors. A numerical model is presented for investigating the effects of the concentration and the channel width on the sensitivity of the electrokinetic pressure sensor. Numerical results show that the sensitivity increases as the concentration decreases and the channel width increases

[en] Limonium insigne (Plumbaginaceae) is a perennial halophyte endemic to the SE of the Iberian Peninsula. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of different salinities (0, 100, 200 and 400 mM NaCl) on the seed germination of L. insigne under different temperature regimes (20/10, 25/15, 30/20 and 35/25 degree C), both in a 14 h light and 10 h dark photoperiod. Seed germination of L. insigne was affected significantly by salinity levels, temperature and their interaction. Maximum germination was observed in the least saline media (100 mM NaCl) and distilled water (0 mM NaCl) at 20/10 degree C temperature. No seeds germinated at concentrations higher than 200 mM NaCl at the highest temperature (35/25 degree C). The increase in salinity delayed the beginning and ending of germination, reduced final germination percentage and increased mean time to germination. The rate of germination decreased with an increase in salinity and temperature. (author)

[en] Decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities are major challenges facing the nuclear industry. Robot manipulators with capabilities of restoring nuclear structures and significantly prolonging nuclear power generation in addition to their applications in decommissioning and dismantling (D and D) would immensely ease the above-mentioned challenge. Ability to remotely sense/monitor and analyze dangerous and hazardous environments such as nuclear reactors as well as performing reparatory tasks in such environments using robot manipulators require additional information from vision sensors. Structural sample collection and inspection as well as restoration require object and position information. Computer vision is used to obtain precise 3D position information. The current work uses the Sawyer robot with the integrated Cognex camera. The research presents an approach to facilitate and improve operations in a nuclear reactor using robotic vision control. The vision control system is modeled with Augmented Image Space-based visual servoing approach. Results showing accurate robot control. Object recognition is used to recognize the image and calculate it poses. To transform coordinates of the object's pose from the camera frame to the robotic frame transformation matrices are employed. Future work will employ a 3D camera (with depth information) using Denso robot. (authors)

[en] It is well known that iron is one of the most common impurity elements sound in aluminum and its alloys. Iron in the aluminum forms an intermetallic compounds such as FeAl₃. The FeAl₃ particles on the aluminum surface are one of the most detrimental phases to the corrosion process and anodizing procedure for aluminum and its alloys. Trial and error surface treatment will be carried out to find the preferential and effective removal of FeAl₃ particles on the surfaces without dissolution of aluminum matrix around the particles. One of the preferable surface treatments for the aim of getting FeAl₃ free surface was an electrochemical treatment such as cathodic current density of -2 kAm^-2 in a 20-30 mass% HNO₃ solution for the period of 300s. The corrosion characteristics of aluminum surface with FeAl₃ free particles are examined in a 0.1 kmol/m³ NaCl solution. It is found that aluminum with free FeAl₃ particles shows higher corrosion resistance than aluminum with FeAl₃ particles

[en] Peculiarities of the kinetics and the mechanism of corrosion of (α-Al-Mg₂Si) aluminum euthectic alloy in a 3% NaCl solution imitating the marine water have been studied using the methods of anodic potential-dynamic polarization curves and layer-by-layer analyses of solid-phase interaction products (the AES, EDX, petrographic analysis, SEM, SEI), as well as AAS-analysis of electrolyte after the electrolysis. It has been established that, at the anodic polarization during different corrosion stages, amorphous Al₂O₃, silicon, and SiO₂ (cristobalite phase) are formed as sold-phase products, while Mg₂Si is partially transported to the solution as Mg^- and SiO₃^2--ions.

[en] A spherical coil was used to measure a broad range of conductivities of solutions of NaCl in water. The method proposed in this paperrelates the conductivity of the sample with the frequency at the minimum value of an imaginary admittance spectrum when the coil is immersed in the solution. There is a high correlation between the experimental results and the fit equation (r = 0.95). Since the proposed method is an inductive one, the drawbacks of electrode methods are avoided, e.g. the interface polarization impedance. The method presented is fast, does not require an estimate for the Q factor and the measurements do not depend on the sample volume when the coil is completely immersed. This system is capable of continuous monitoring of biological and inorganic samples. (paper)

[en] Highlights: • Alternating polarization (AP) is tested with a capacitive deionization (CDI) stack. • AP enhances CDI performance without the formation of inversion peaks. • A maximum in salt adsorption capacity occurs halfway through the cycling test. • The electrodes are oxidized during cycling to possess negative surface charge. • Surface charge distribution is used to interpret salt removal resulting from AP. - Abstract: Alternating polarization (AP) at ±1.2/0 V is performed on a capacitive deionization stack assembled with carbon xerogel (CX) electrodes. Long-term testing shows enhanced cycling stability without the formation of inversion peaks. AP also leads to an arch-shaped plot of salt adsorption capacity (SAC) versus cycling time, with the highest SAC of approximately 3 mg (NaCl) g"−"1 (CX) during this long-term test. Characterization of both the freshly prepared and cycled electrodes depict that AP results in surface charge of all the electrodes being modified from positive to negative character. By leveraging balances of electronic, surface, and ionic charges in carbon micropores, it is found that a portion of the electronic charge contributes to the ionic charge for salt adsorption, and another portion is parasitically consumed to balance the surface charge during the charge reconciliation process. When the consumption of electronic charge for charge reconciliation becomes minimal, both the positive and negative surface charges are nearly equivalent on the CX electrode. Under such a condition, the highest SAC values can be achieved for AP testing.

[en] Soil salinity is a major environmental issue in arid and semiarid regions of the world. Acacia has very important role for salt affected barren lands due to its high salinity tolerance potential. The aim of the present study was to explore the genetic differences among Acacia ampliceps and Acacia nilotica regarding their response to salinity. Three-weeks old seedlings of both species were transplanted in half strength Hoagland nutrient solution having five salt levels (control,100, 200, 300 and 400 mM NaCl) with four replications in completely randomized design with factorial arrangement. After eight weeks of transplantation, the plants were harvested and data for shoot and root length and their fresh and dry weights were recorded. Na/sup +/, K/sup +/ and Cl/sup -/concentration of both root and shoot was determined. All the growth parameters of both species declined significantly in response to salinity. Acacia ampliceps was more salt tolerant than Acacia nilotica with better growth owing to higher K/sup +/: Na/sup +/ ratio in plant tissues. (author)

[en] Full text: Crystalline insulating thin films are promising substrates to support nanostructures when it is necessary to reduce charging effects with the support. For example, this kind of materials can be used in systems where the ultra-thin film acts as a tunnel barrier improving the performance of a device. Moreover, crystalline and insulating films have been also used to control the growth of oriented metal nanocrystals and nanoparticles. Most of the materials used to support and electronically isolate nanostructures for technological applications are crystalline oxide and alkali halides thin films. However, crystalline oxide thin layers are usually oxygen deficient. Alkali halides thin films have been deposited mainly by evaporation in Knudsen effusion cells since this technique allows growing ultra thin films crystalline oriented. There are few previous reports of alkali halides films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique even though this method has been used successfully for deposition of other cubic materials. Arieta et al. deposited polycrystalline films by PLD on glass and silicon substrates founding that the crystalline orientation strongly depends on the substrate. However to our knowledge, there are no other studies of the effect of the background pressure on the crystallinity of NaCl films and the formation of the film increasing the number of laser pulses. We report the epitaxial growth of NaCl films on silicon and glass substrates by PLD. The structure of the films was characterized by X-ray diffraction and their morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The effects of Ar background pressure on the crystallinity of the films have been investigated. The evolution of the film growth was also studied. Our results prove that PLD is suitable to grow oriented crystalline NaCl layers of micrometer dimensions. (author)