Editorial: CORROSION Welcomes New Associate Editor

Ingrid Milošev has been named to the CORROSION Editorial Board as an Associate Editor. Dr. Milošev is currently a scientific advisor and the Head of the Department of Physical and Organic Chemistry at Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she has worked since 1987. She is also a scientific advisor for Valdoltra Orthopaedic Hospital, where she previously worked for 18 years as the assistant manager for research and education.

Use of Gaussian process regression for radiation mapping of a nuclear reactor with a mobile robot

Collection and interpolation of radiation observations is of vital importance to support routine operations in the nuclear sector globally, as well as for completing surveys during crisis response. To reduce exposure to ionizing radiation that human workers can be subjected to during such surveys, there is a strong desire to utilise robotic systems. Previous approaches to interpolate measurements taken from nuclear facilities to reconstruct radiological maps of an environment cannot be applied accurately to data collected from a robotic survey as they are unable to cope well with irregularly spaced, noisy, low count data. In this work, a novel approach to interpolating radiation measurements collected from a robot is proposed that overcomes the problems associated with sparse and noisy measurements. The proposed method integrates an appropriate kernel, benchmarked against the radiation transport code MCNP6, into the Gaussian Process Regression technique. The suitability of the proposed technique is demonstrated through its application to data collected from a bespoke robotic system used to conduct a survey of the Joz̆ef Stefan Institute TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor during steady state operation, where it is shown to successfully reconstruct gamma dosimetry estimates in the reactor hall and aid in identifying sources of ionizing radiation.

Stratigraphic constraints on the Jurassic carbonate platform succession of Trnovski Gozd, SW Slovenia: Strontium isotope dating of brachiopods and belemnites

<p>Jurassic successions of the northern part of the Friuli (a.k.a. Dinaric or Adriatic) Carbonate Platform (hereinafter FAD) are best exposed along the Trnovski Gozd Plateau in SW Slovenia. A major stratigraphic unit, known as the Trnovo (Ternowaner) oolite has been considered as a classical, textbook example of a highly productive carbonate platform system exporting oolite sediments to the adjacent deep water depositional settings, producing massive bodies of resedimented oolite, such as the Vajont Limestone of the Belluno Basin. Whereas the stratigraphy of the basinal units in the eastern southern Alps and NW Dinarides is well constrained, coeval shallow marine depositional sequences of FAD Carbonate Platform lack a reliable chronostratigraphic framework.</p><p>We performed Sr isotope analysis of brachiopod shells and belemnite rostra from two stratigraphic levels at the base and above the Trnovo oolite unit (TOU). Suitability of the fossil material was controlled by selecting skeletal parts without fractures and lacking evidence of alteration due to diagenesis and weathering. The ultrastructure of specimens was inspected in resin-embedded polished thin sections under a petrographic microscope, supported by cathodoluminescence and SEM examination, including EDS semi-quantitative elemental analysis of skeletal parts in thin sections and slabs. For chemical analysis, powdered samples were drilled from thin section wafers and analysed for <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (stratigraphy), d<sup>13</sup>C, d<sup>18</sup>O, Ca, Mg, Sr, Fe, Mn and Rb (diagenetic alteration control).</p><p>The elemental quantification was performed at Jožef Stefan Institute on an Agilent 8800 Triple-Quad Mass Spectrometer and Sr isotopic analysis on a Nu plasma II Multi-Collector MS. Additional <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr measurements were performed at UCM Madrid on a IsotopX TIMS. The numerical values were calculated from published Sr curves.</p><p>Brachiopod species from a lumachelle directly overlying a condensed interval in the base of TOU have been considered indicative for the early Toarcian. However, <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr values obtained from rynchonellid brachipod shells ranged from 0.707109 to 0.707122, corresponding to numerical ages of either 184.7 ± 0.4 Ma (late Pliensbachian) or 181.8 ± 0.5 Ma (early Toarcian). Belemnites from the Limestone with chert, an informal unit overlying TOU, yielded <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr values from 0.706838 to 0.706862, that fit two intervals of the Sr isotope curve, i.e., 162.5 ± 1.9 Ma (latest Callovian-early Oxfordian) and 159.4 ± 1.7 Ma (middle to late Oxfordian), respectively. In both cases, the duality in results is caused by their proximity to the Sr curve minima.</p><p>These ages open several important questions about the geometry and depositional history of the northern FAD platform system. Despite of a limited accuracy of our results, the age range for TOU clearly spans (at least) late Toarcian and almost whole middle Jurassic, while the age of the supposedly time-equivalent basinal unit, the Vajont Limestone, falls into the late Bajocian-Bathonian interval. Furthermore, our sedimentological re-examination of the classical TOU localities has not shown characteristics of in-situ oolite production environments but, on contrary, evidence of deeper marine deposition marked by beds of carbonate mudstone, including most typical rosso-ammonitico-type facies, associated with (resedimented) oolite and crinoidal facies, similar to parts of the succession of the Vajont Limestone.</p>

First person – Mirjana Malnar

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Mirjana Malnar is first author on ‘SFPQ regulates the accumulation of RNA foci and dipeptide repeat proteins from the expanded repeat mutation in C9orf72’, published in JCS. Mirjana is a PhD student in the lab of Boris Rogelj at Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, investigating RNA biology and the involvement of non-coding RNAs in various diseases.

Implementation of a Savvy Mobile ECG Sensor for Heart Rhythm Disorder Screening at the Primary Healthcare Level: An Observational Prospective Study

Introduction: The Jozef Stefan Institute developed a personal portable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor Savvy that works with a smartphone, and this was used in our study. This study aimed to analyze the usefulness of telecardiology at the primary healthcare level using an ECG personal sensor. Methods: We included 400 patients with a history of suspected rhythm disturbance who visited their family physician at the Healthcare Center Ljubljana and Healthcare Center Murska Sobota from October 2016 to January 2018. Results: The study found that there was no statistically significant difference between the test and control groups in the number of present rhythm disorders and actions taken to treat patients with either observation or administration of a new drug. However, in the test group, there were significantly fewer patients being referred to a cardiologist than in the control group (p < 0.001). Discussion: The use of an ECG sensor helps family physicians to distinguish between patients who need to be referred to a cardiologist and those who can be treated by them. This method is useful for both physicians and patients because it shortens the time taken to start treatment, can be used during pandemics such as COVID-19, and reduces unnecessary cost.

The European Nuclear Experimental Educational Platform – ENEEP: Progress, Prospects and Remote Education Capabilities

The European Nuclear Experimental Educational Platform – ENEEP is currently being established by five European educational and research organizations in the framework of a Horizon 2020 project, initiated in 2019. The ENEEP partner institutions are the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI, Slovenia), the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU, Slovak Republic), the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, Czech Republic), Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien, Austria) and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME, Hungary). ENEEP is intended as an open educational platform, offering experimental hands-on education activities at the ENEEP partner facilities. ENEEP education activities will be offered in different formats (group and individual) and are targeted at university students at all educational levels and young professionals in the nuclear field. This paper gives an overview of the ENEEP project activities and the progress achieved thus far, highlighting the experimental capabilities which will be offered. In the first implementation phase, ENEEP will be based on a comprehensive set of experiments comprising the basics in Reactor Physics and Nuclear Engineering curricula, as well as more specific experiments focusing on particular aspects – investigated phenomena, types and working principles of detectors, etc. Subsequently, novel education activities will be introduced and implemented in ENEEP, following scientific development in nuclear science and technology and nuclear instrumentation detectors, stemming from research activities. Attention will be devoted to the development and optimization of remote education capabilities at the ENEEP partner institutions, of particular relevance during the current Covid-19 pandemic, which is responsible for major changes in education activities worldwide.

CEA-JSI Experimental Benchmark for validation of the modeling of neutron and gamma-ray detection instrumentation used in the JSI TRIGA reactor

Constant improvements of the computational power and methods as well as demands of accurate and reliable measurements for reactor operation and safety require a continuous upgrade of the instrumentation. In particular, nuclear sensors used in nuclear fission reactors (research or power reactors) or in nuclear fusion facilities are operated under intense mixed neutron and gamma-ray fields, and need to be calibrated and modeled to provide selective and accurate neutron and gamma-ray measurements. The French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) and the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) have started an experimental program dedicated to a detailed experimental benchmark with analysis using Monte Carlo particle transport calculations and a series of neutron and gamma-ray sensor types used in the JSI TRIGA Mark II reactor. CEA has setup a simplified TRIPOLI-4® modeling scheme of the JSI TRIGA reactor based on the information available in the IRPhEP benchmark in order to facilitate analysis of future neutron and gamma-ray measurements. These allow the CEA to perform a TRIPOLI-4 instrumentation calculation scheme benchmarked with the JSI MCNP model. This paper presents the main results of this CEA calculation scheme application and the analysis of their comparison to the JSI results obtained in 2012 with the MCNP5 & ENDF/B-VII.0 calculation scheme. This paper will conclude with some information about the new experimental program to be carried out in 2022 in the TRIGA reactor core.

On teaching experimental reactor physics in times of pandemic

The COVID-19 induced restrictions have prevented reactor physics students from attending in-person reactor physics exercises which are a vital part of their education. Jožef Stefan Institute has organized remote exercises with the help of off-the-shelf technology, including multiple videoconferencing setups, remote desktop software, portable cameras, a dome camera, shared spreadsheets, and a common whiteboard. The students were encouraged to actively participate in the exercises by giving instructions to the reactor operator, asking and answering questions, logging data, operating digital acquisition systems, and performing analysis during the exercise. The first remote exercises were organized as a five-day course of experimental reactor physics for students from Uppsala University. The feedback was collected after the course using an anonymous online form and was generally positive but has revealed some problems with sound quality which were resolved later. The Jožef Stefan Institute can also organize a remote course during a full lockdown when the reactor is not able to operate using the in-house developed Research Reactor Simulator based on a point kinetics approximation and a simple thermohydraulic module.

Determination of backscattered neutrons/gammas from open beam port of a research reactor

Neutron and gamma dose rate calculations were carried out around horizontal beam tube no. 5 at the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) TRIGA Mark II research reactor. Results were compared to the experimental measurements in order to verify the computation model. In addition, another set of calculations and measurements was carried out, where an additional shield made out of concrete and paraffin was installed. With that configuration, we were able to study neutron and gamma scattering.