Introduction: Spectroscopic observations (400-670 nm) of Mercury were made at La Palma with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in June and July of 2002. Extensive observations of solar analog standard stars and validation spectra of 7 Iris and a variety of locations on the Moon were also collected. The 2002 Mercury data were also combined with previous observations (520-970 nm) from the Swedish...

Introduction and Background: The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) CheMin instrument on the Curiosity rover is a transmission X-ray diffractometer (Co-K radiation source and a ~5 to ~52 2 range) where the analyzed powder samples are constrained to have discrete particle diameters <150 μm by a sieve [1]. To date, diffraction patterns have been obtained for one basaltic soil (Rocknest (RN)) and f...

Fluid migration and distribution are important aspects of the evolution of sedimentary basins. An essential parameter affecting fluid flow is permeability. Even mm thick fractures have permeabilit ies many orders of magnitude above surrounding sediments, and thus have the potential of focusing fluid flow. It is a major task to establish the importance of these fractures as fluid conduits. One a...

Recently, the demolition of old houses and the construction of new buildings in Kathmandu valley are in the peak which in turn generates a huge amount of construction waste. This construction waste is rich source of alumino-silicate and thus used as raw material for the synthesis of geopolymer in this study. Geopolymers have been synthesized from construction waste using NaOH and Na2SiO3 as act...

Silicate hydration is prevalent in natural and technological processes, such as, mineral weathering, glass alteration, zeolite syntheses and cement hydration. Tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5), the main constituent of Portland cement, is amongst the most reactive silicates in water. Despite its widespread industrial use, the reaction of Ca3SiO5 with water to form calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H) s...

Transport of carbon, major and trace elements by rivers in permafrost-affected regions is one the key factors circumpolar aquatic ecosystem response to climate warming permafrost thaw. A snap-shot study element concentration Lena River basin during peak spring flood revealed a specific group solutes according their spatial pattern across river main stem tributaries allowed establishment link ce...

First principles calculations are employed to provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the reactivity of synthetic calcium silicate phases and their electronic structure. Our aim is to shed light on the wide range of hydration kinetics observed in different phases of calcium silicate. For example, while the dicalcium silicate (Ca2SiO4) phase slowly reacts with water, the ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of a calcium silicate-based sealer (iRoot SP), with or without a core material, on bond strength to radicular dentin, in comparison with various contemporary root filling systems. Root canals of freshly extracted single-rooted teeth (n = 60) were instrumented using rotary instruments. The roots were randomly assigned to one of the following ex...