Trace element and radiological characterisation of ash and soil at a legacy site in the former Raša coal-mining area.

Coal mined in the shut-down Raša mine in Istria, Croatia had a high organic sulphur content. What has remained of its local combustion is a coal and ash waste (legacy site) whose trace element and radionuclide composition in soil has enduring consequences for the environment. The aim of this study was to follow up on previous research and investigate the potential impact on surrounding soil and local residents by characterising the site's ash and soil samples collected in two field campaigns.

Detection, fate and transport of the biohazardous agent Toxoplasma gondii in soil water systems: Influence of soil physicochemical properties, water chemistry and surfactant.

A series of laboratory experiments were conducted to study the fate and transport of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in soils as a function of soil physicochemical properties and soil water chemistry properties. Soil columns were homogeneously packed with loamy sand soils (Lewiston and Greenson series) and sandy loam soils (Sparta and Gilford series), and subject to hydrologic conditions characterized by the absence and presence of an anionic surfactant-Aerosol 22 in the artificial rainfall. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was utilized for the detection and enumeration of oocysts in soil leachates to evaluate their breakthrough and in soil matrices to examine their spatial distribution.

Toward Developing Techniques─Agnostic Machine Learning Classification Models for Forensically Relevant Glass Fragments.

Glass fragments found in crime scenes may constitute important forensic evidence when properly analyzed, for example, to determine their origin. This analysis could be greatly helped by having a large and diverse database of glass fragments and by using it for constructing reliable machine learning (ML)-based glass classification models. Ideally, the samples that make up this database should be analyzed by a single accurate and standardized analytical technique.

Inter-laboratory workflow for forensic applications: Classification of car glass fragments.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has coordinated a research project titled "Enhancing Nuclear Analytical Techniques to Meet the Needs of Forensics Sciences" (CRP F11021) with the aim of empowering accelerator and reactor based techniques for applications in forensic sciences. One of the key topics of this project was the analysis and classification of forensic glass specimens using Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques and in particular, Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). To this end, glass fragments from car windows from different car models and manufacturers provided by the Israeli police force were subjected to PIXE measurements at three laboratories to determine their elemental compositions and possible glass corrosion.

Cystic Echinococcosis in Algeria: the Role of Cattle as Reservoirs in the Dynamics of Transmission of Echinococcus granulosus to Humans via Dogs.

In North Africa, the parasite Echinococcus granulosus is transmitted in a synanthropic cycle evolving mainly between dogs (DH) and sheep (IH), but other animals like cattle are most often found to be more infested with hydatid cysts but their potential role in human contamination via dogs is unknown. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence and fertility rates of hydatid cysts in ruminants (cattle and sheep) in two slaughterhouses in central and eastern Algeria. Determining the frequency and fertility of cysts in cattle will assess the degree of involvement of this species, alongside sheep, in the epidemiological cycle of E.