Easily accessible characterization techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), or Raman spectroscopy, are at this moment the most commonly used analytical tools in heritage and conservation science. Materials identification in works of art is a fundamental step for understanding an object's history or an artist's technique. Comprehensive characterization and diagnosis of the various constituent materials in artworks can provide valuable information on the artist's working methods, as well as significant evidence for dating, provenance attribution, or forgery detection. The development of databases with high-quality data on the pure substances used as artists’ materials is of utmost importance for the identification and characterization of unknown samples. However, there are relatively few open access spectra libraries dedicated exclusively to the cultural heritage field. To address this need, within the frame of the postdoctoral project INFRA-ART, an open access spectral library of art-related materials has been developed. The database is an ongoing compilation of spectra that contains at this moment over 1,000 high-quality attenuated total reflection–FTIR, Raman, and XRF spectra associated with over 500 known reference materials. In this article, a summary of the database structure and design, functionality, and use is presented, in view of the dissemination of this new open access spectral library to the scientific community.

We show that a spectral distribution of laser-accelerated protons can be extracted by analyzing the proton track diameters observed on the front side of a second CR-39 detector arranged in a stack. The correspondence between the proton track diameter and the incident energy on the second detector is established by knowing that protons with energies only higher than 10.5 MeV can fully deposit their energy in the second CR-39 detector. The correlation between the laser-accelerated proton track diameters observed on the front side of the second CR-39 detector and the proton incident energy on the detector stack is also presented. By calculating the proton number stopped in the CR-39 stack, we find out that its dependence on the proton energy in the 1–15 MeV range presents some discontinuities at energies higher than 9 MeV. Thus, we build a calibration curve of the track diameter as a function of the proton incident energy within the 1–9 MeV range, and we infer the associated analytical function as the calculations performed indicate best results for proton spectra within the 1–9 MeV range. The calibration curve is used as a tool to ascertain the pits identified on the surfaces of both CR-39 detectors to proton tracks. The proton tracks spatial distribution analyzed by optical and atomic force microscopy is correlated with the peculiarity of the used targets.

Modern computer vision algorithms allow researchers and art historians to search for artist-characteristic contour extraction from sketches, thus providing accurate input for artwork analysis, for possible assignments and classifications, and also for the identification of the specific stylistic features. We approach this challenging task with three machine learning algorithms and evaluate their performance on a small collection of images from five distinct artists. These algorithms aim to find the most appropriate artist for a sketch (or a contour of a sketch), with promising results that have a higher level of confidence (around 92%). Models start from common Faster R-CNN architectures, reinforcement learning, and vector extraction tools. The proposed tool provides a base for future improvements to create a tool that aids artwork evaluators.

An adequate simulation model has been used for the calculation of angular and energy distributions of electrons, protons, and photons emitted during a high-power laser, 5-µm thick Ag target interaction. Their energy spectra and fluencies have been calculated between 0 and 360 degrees around the interaction point with a step angle of five degrees. Thus, the contribution of each ionizing species to the total fluency value has been established. Considering the geometry of the experimental set-up, a map of the radiation dose inside the target vacuum chamber has been simulated, using the Geant4 General Particle Source code, and further compared with the experimental one. Maximum values of the measured dose of the order of tens of mGy per laser shot have been obtained in the direction normal to the target at about 30 cm from the interaction point.

Near a nuclear reactor or a fuel container, mixed neutron/gamma fields are very common, necessitating routine neutron dosimetry. Accurate neutron dosimetry is complicated by the fact that the neutron effective dose is strongly dependent on the neutron energy and the direction distribution of the neutron fluence. Neutron field characterisation is indispensable if one wants to obtain a reliable estimate for the neutron dose. A measurement campaign at CANDU nuclear power plant located in Cernavoda, Romania, was set up to characterise the neutron fields in four different locations and to investigate the behaviour of different neutron personal dosemeters. This investigation intends to assist in choosing a suitable neutron dosimetry system at this nuclear power plant.