Beyond technology: pottery reveals translocal social relations at a Bell Beaker Monumental Site in Central Europe

The Bell Beaker site near Brodek u Prostějova (Czechia) has yielded remains of a large timber construction accompanied by four symmetrical ritual deposits with numerous artefacts, including more than fifty ceramic vessels. Their decoration consists of incised patterns, in nineteen cases with preserved white inlaid incrustations. To investigate the social relations at this extraordinary site, a multi-analytical and micro-destructive approach was employed to determine the provenance and technology of the pottery and the composition of the white incrustations. The results indicate various origins for the pottery within the region and the presence of extra-regional fabrics and graphitic temper. The main raw materials for the white inlays were calcium carbonate (calcite), hydroxyapatite (bone), and bright clay. The mixing of decorative motifs and the variation in the shape and size of the beakers suggest unique manufacturing processes. These results lend support to the monumental site of Brodek serving as a ritual place for several communities from both local and wider areas.Introduction Materials and methods Results - Ceramic petrography and chemical composition White inlay incrustations - Micro Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μFTIR) - Micro X-ray diffraction (μXRD) - Scanning electron microscopy-electron dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) Metrics abd decoration analysis Discussion - Ceramic provenance and materials of white incrustations - Depositional semantics and ceramic patterns in the ritual features - Translocal social relationships and the circulation of ceramics and other artefacts Conclusio

Determination of heat flux layout in the mould for continuous casting of steel

The paper deals with research of the heat transfer in the mould of continuous casting and the thermal boundary condition determination using combination of measurement and the inverse technique of numerical simulation. An average heat flux in the mould is calculated from measured parameters of mould cooling water. Layout of the heat flux at the mould working surface is derived by the original experimental and numerical simulation procedure, which is based on measuring temperatures in the mould walls and solving a numerical inverse problem including stress and shrinkage, using the software package Procast. A database of the heat flux layouts was built for various values of casting speed and steel chemical composition for purpose of determination the boundary condition for on-line modeling

Role of initial vapor density in Z-pinch polyacetal capillary discharge

An analysis of a Z-pinch in a capillary discharge is presented. It is supposed that the capillary is filled with a material ablated from the wall using a subnanosecond laser pulse of an energy of several tens of milijoules. The optimum initial atom density N0 has been found

Technical recommendations for thyroid dose rate measurements made by members of the public

International audienceTechnical recommendations in respect of the thyroid dose rate measurements potentially carried out by members of the public in case of nuclear power plant accident are elaborated based on theoretical considerations and practical experiences with instruments offered to the public for “radioactivity measurements”. Practical advices are given on how to make and interpret the measurements as simply and reliably as possible. The recommendations should be conveyed to the interested individuals and groups by radiation protection professionals. © 201

Assessing 131I in thyroid by non-spectroscopic instruments - A European intercomparison exercise

International audienceOne of the issues of the Open Project for the European Radiation Research Area (OPERRA) was human thyroid monitoring in case of a large scale nuclear accident. This issue was covered in task 5.4 as project “CaThyMARA” (Child and Adult Thyroid Monitoring After Reactor Accident), which included several aspects of thyroid monitoring, e.g. screening of facilities able to perform thyroid monitoring in the European countries, dose estimation, modelling of detector response, and two intercomparison exercises. The intercomparison described in this paper focused on thyroid monitoring by non-spectrometric instruments, including gamma cameras and other instruments that were considered available for measurements made by members of the public. A total of 12 facilities from 7 European countries have participated and 43 various measuring devices have been evaluated. The main conclusion of this intercomparison is that the ability to make assessments of 131I activity in the thyroid to the exposed population after an accidental release must, on the average, be considered as good among the European laboratories taking part in this study. This intercomparison also gave the participants the possibility to calibrate the measuring devices for thyroid measurements of children where this procedure was not available before. A comprehensive report of the intercomparison is given. © 2019 Elsevier Lt