Environmental radionuclide monitoring of Canadian harbours: a decade of analyses in support of due diligence activities by the Royal Canadian Navy.

The Royal Canadian Navy has conducted a comprehensive programme of safety, security and environmental monitoring since the first visits of nuclear powered and nuclear capable vessels (NPV/NCVs) to Canadian harbours in the late 1960s. The outcomes of baseline monitoring and vessel visit sampling for the period 2003-2012 are described for vessel visits to Halifax (NS), Esquimalt (BC) and Nanoose (BC). Data were obtained by gamma-ray spectroscopy using high purity germanium detectors.

Validation of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for the determination of cerium, strontium, and titanium in ceramic materials used in radiological dispersal devices (RDDs).

In radiological dispersal device (RDD) studies, sintered ceramics made of CeO2 and SrTiO3 were used to simulate actinide oxides and (90)SrTiO3, respectively. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were investigated as possible analytical techniques for the measurement of SrTiO3 and CeO2 constituents in powder forms, sintered ceramics, and air particulates collected following a detonation. For ICP-OES and ICP-MS analysis, new digestion procedures were developed using a closed-vessel microwave apparatus.

The role of disulfide bonds in the structure and function of murine epidermal growth factor (mEGF).

A systematic study using solid phase peptide synthesis has been undertaken to examine the role of the disulfide bonds in the structure and function of mEGF. A combination of one, two and three native disulfide pair analogues of an active truncated (4-48) form of mEGF have been synthesised by replacing specific cysteine residues with isosteric a-amino-n-butyric acid (Abu). Oxidation of the peptides was performed using either conventional aerobic oxidation at basic pH, in DMSO under acidic conditions or via selective disulfide formation using orthogonal protection of the cysteine pairs.