century. The process involved polishing a silver coated copper plate, made photo sensitive by exposure to halogens, then exposed to light, and finally coated with gold. This complex, intricate process has yielded some of the most iconic images of the 19 th century. Unfortunately, in some instances plate interaction with storage materials have yielded objects ranging from pristine to disfigured....

Synchrotron-based micro-X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) and micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy (micro-XAS) were used in the present study to obtain spatially resolved micro-scale information on elemental composition, trace element distribution, chemical speciation and oxidation state and/or mineral phase distribution within historical iron artefacts dating from the Iron Age to early Medieval Ti...

It has been recently demonstrated that the internal jugular vein may exhibit abnormalities classified as truncular venous malformations (TVMs). The investigation of possible morphological and biochemical anomalies at jugular tissue level could help to better understand the link between brain venous drainage and neurodegenerative disorders, recently found associated with jugular TVMs. To this en...

K. Tsuji, K. Tsutsumimoto, K. Nakano, K. Tanaka, A. Okhrimovskyy, Y. Konishi, and X. Ding Department of Applied Chemistry; Graduate School of Engineering; Osaka City University; 3-3-138 Sugimoto; Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585; Japan Telephone/Fax: +81-(0)6-6605-3080; E-mail: [email protected] 2) JST-PREST; 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama; Japan Institute of Low Energy Nuclear Physi...

Non-destructive analysis of cultural objects by micro-XRF spectrometry is an advantageous multi-element technique that has rapidly developed during the past few years. Portable instruments contribute significantly to the in situ analysis of valuable cultural objects, which cannot be transported to the laboratory. Ancient ceramics are the most common archaeological findings and they carry a sign...

The development of highly efficient X-ray optics has allowed the development of bench-top XRF systems which have high intensity X-ray beams with diameters ranging from 10 micrometres through to a few millimetres. Coupled with integrated high magnification optical cameras, these systems are ideally suited to the needs of the forensic scientist. A microscopic particle from a crime scene can be an...

Cement is an important component in repositories for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. Nd uptake by hardened cement paste (HCP) has been investigated with the aim of developing a mechanistic understanding of the immobilization processes of trivalent lanthanides and actinides in HCP on the molecular level. Information on the microstructure of HCP, the Nd distribution in the cem...

One of the latest developments in X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF) is 3D micro-XRF by means of two confocally aligned X-ray optics. Fig. 1 sketches the principle of this type of experimental setup. The foci of two X-ray optics, one in the excitation channel and the other in the detection channel, overlap and define a probing volume. This is typically demonstrated by scanning through the probin...