Genetic studies provide valuable data to inform conservation strategies for species with small or declining populations. In these circumstances, obtaining DNA samples without harming the study organisms is highly desirable. Excrements are increasingly being used as a source of DNA in such studies, but such approaches have rarely been applied to arthropods. Bumblebees are ecologically and econom...

If a magnetic bit in a thin film memory array is driven in the hard direction, the changing flux produces eddy currents in the surrounding conducting surfaces. It has been pointed out by Pohm and others that the eddy field produced by these currents always tends to restore the bit magnetization to its original direction. If this eddy field were strong enough at the end of the word drive pulse, ...

Materials issues are a key concern for the existing nuclear reactor fleet in the United States as material degradation can lead to increased maintenance, increased downtime, and increased risk. Extending reactor life to 60 years and beyond will likely increase susceptibility and severity of both known and new forms of degradation. A multitude of concrete-based structures are typically part of a...

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Over the last decades, a large number of new and improved nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques have been successfully developed. For example, NDT techniques have proven to be espe...

We discuss the motivation and an architectural framework for using small mobile robots as automated aids to operators of nondestructive inspection (NDI) equipment. We review the need for aircraft skin inspection, and identify the constraints in commercial airlines operations that make small mobile robots the most attractive alternative for automated aids for NDI procedures. We describe the desi...

Much of our expectation of the future is based on a linear extrapolation from the present. However history tells us time and again that it’s the nonlinearities that make the big differences in predicting the future. New technologies like smart materials, MEMS, micro adaptive flow control, and nanotechnology all have the potential to have a big influence on the future of aeronautics. A forward-l...

Concrete is a multi-phase composite material which is difficult to inspect using conventional ultrasonic techniques, including those that work well on relatively homogeneous materials such as metals. This paper summarizes recent research that makes use of signal processing techniques to overcome ultrasonic inspection difficulties in concrete. Basic findings from several new laboratory-based NDE...

The spatial observation of a Bose condensate is reported. Dispersive light scattering was used to observe the separation between the condensed and normal components of the Bose gas inside a magnetic trap. This technique is nondestructive, and about a hundred images of the same condensate can be taken. The width of the angular distribution of scattered light increased suddenly at the phase trans...

This paper describes nondestructive characterization techniques for module reliability. These techniques include light and dark current versus voltage and related analysis such as resistance, diode quality factor, and dark current. The use of the NREL laser scanner at zero volts and forward bias is also described as a technique to uncover cracks, shunts, and open-circuit regions in a module. Qu...