We have designed and developed two breadboard versions of stand-off Raman spectroscopic systems for landers based on a 5-in. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and a small (4-in. diameter) Newtonian telescope receiver. These systems are capable of measuring the Raman spectra of minerals located at a distance of 4.5-66 m from the telescope. Both continuous wave (CW) Ar-ion and frequency doubled Nd:YA...

The electronics manufacturing industry has been experiencing a fast-changing landscape with recent legislations targeting the supply chains for the 3TG minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo. These minerals exhibit unique properties that are crucial to their role in the manufacturing process and functionality of many electronic products such as c...

Accurate control of groundwater pH is of critical importance for in situ biological treatment of chlorinated solvents. This study evaluated a novel approach for buffering subsurface pH that relies on the use of silicate minerals as a long-term source of alkalinity. A screening methodology based on thermodynamic considerations and numerical simulations was developed to rank silicate minerals acc...

the zonouz kaolin deposit is located ~15 km northeast of marand, east-azarbaidjan province. based on physical features in field investigations, such as color, five distinct kaolin types including (1) white, (2) lemon, (3) gray, (4) brown, and (5) yellow are distinguished in the deposit. field evidence and petrographic studies indicate that the deposit is genetically close to trachy-andesite roc...

bibi maryam granitoid body with about 5 km2 has intruded into ophiolite mélange complex in sistan suture zone, in east of iran. thermal effects of this body on the host rocks show that this activity occurred after emplacement of ophiolite mélange. this intrusive body with general northwest – southeast trend is mainly tonalite-quartz diorite but there is a minor unit as dykes of granodiorite in ...

cobalt (co) deficiency occurs in many parts of world especially in tropical and subtropical countries.primary co deficiency occurs only in places where the soil is deficient in co. the type of soil and the presence of other substances like manganese and lime influence the absorption of co (secondary co deficiency). to determine the co status in shahrekord district, iran, several important farms...

diseases of heart and stroke cause most deaths in both sexes of all ethnic groups. for more than 40 years epidemiological studies, experimental studies, and clinical trials have shown that numerous dietary risk factors affect serum lipids, atherogenesis and coronary heart disease (chd). substantial interest has recently focused on the hypothesis that the naturally occurring antioxidant vitamins...

ABSTRACT-Manual harvesting of saffron as a laborious and exhausting job; it not only raises production costs, but also reduces the quality due to contaminations. Saffron quality could be enhanced if automated harvesting is substituted. As the main step towards designing a saffron harvester robot, an appropriate algorithm was developed in this study based on image processing techniques to recogn...

Localized operators, like Gabor wavelets and difference-of-gaussian filters, are considered useful tools for image representation. This is due to their ability to form a sparse code that can serve as a basis set for high-fidelity reconstruction of natural images. However, for many visual tasks, the more appropriate criterion of representational efficacy is recognition rather than reconstruction...

Northern Chile is home to the world’s largest copper ore deposits, which have been exploited for thousands of years by different groups, at varying scales and purposes. In this context, it important develop new protocols characterise mineralogical variability archaeological ores. A comprehensive representative methodology in analysis minerals, application non-destructive analytical techniques, ...