Chemical Composition by Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) of Neo-Assyrian Palace Ware from Iraq, Syria and Israel

Neo-Assyrian Palace Ware is an 8th-7th century B.C.E. fine-ware which originated in Northern Mesopotamia and spread throughout the greater Levant. The mechanism by which Palace Ware moved across the Neo-Assyrian imperial landscape (trade or local imitation/emulation) is of great archaeological interest. This dataset provides chemical compositional data, generated using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), for Palace Ware vessels from Nimrud and Nineveh, in the Assyrian imperial core (Iraq), Dūr-Katlimmu, in one of the annexed provinces (Syria), and Tell Jemmeh, located outside the Neo-Assyrian provincial system (Israel)

The INSEN Experience, by INSEN Chairs

As a feature of this issue, we asked INSEN chairs to share their thoughts about what the organization has meant to them as they led this network of colleagues in the mission of improving nuclear security education and training at institutions and organizations around the world. Below are their stories. The chairs describe their paths to INSEN leadership, the organization’s work, challenges, and successes, and how the experience of leading INSEN affected their professional and personal lives. IJNS thanks each of the authors contributing to this collaborative article. Every chair has done a tremendous job in their tenure as INSEN’s leader—and we, the membership and all who have benefitted from their dedication and expertise, are deeply grateful. We look forward to INSEN’s next decade under the leadership of colleagues and friends like these

Development of a Novel Passive Monitoring Technique to Showcase the 3D Distribution of Tritiated Water (HTO) Vapor in Indoor Air of a Nuclear Facility

Tritiated water (HTO), a ubiquitous byproduct of the nuclear industry, is a radioactive contaminant of major concern for environmental authorities. Although understanding spatiotemporal heterogeneity of airborne HTO vapor holds great importance for radiological safety as well as diagnosing a reactor’s status, comprehensive HTO distribution dynamics inside nuclear facilities has not been studied routinely yet due to a lack of appropriate monitoring techniques. For current systems, it is difficult to simultaneously achieve high representativeness, sensitivity, and spatial resolution. Here, we developed a passive monitoring scheme, including a newly designed passive sampler and a tailored analytical protocol for the first comprehensive 3D distribution characterization of HTO inside a nuclear reactor facility. The technique enables linear sampling in any environment at a one-day resolution and simultaneous preparation of hundreds of samples within 1 day. Validation experiments confirmed the method’s good metrological properties and sensitivity to the HTO’s spatial dynamics. The air in TU Wien’s reactor hall exhibits a range of 3H concentrations from 75-946 mBq m-3 in the entire 3D matrix. The HTO release rate estimated by the mass-balance model (3199 ± 306 Bq h-1) matches the theoretical calculation (2947 ± 254 Bq h-1), suggesting evaporation as the dominant HTO source in the hall. The proposed method provides reliable and quality-controlled 3D monitoring at low cost, which can be adopted not only for HTO and may also inspire monitoring schemes of other indoor pollutants

Accelerating drug development for neuroblastoma - New Drug Development Strategy: an Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer, European Network for Cancer Research in Children and Adolescents and International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma project

Introduction: Neuroblastoma, the commonest paediatric extra-cranial tumour, remains a leading cause of death from cancer in children. There is an urgent need to develop new drugs to improve cure rates and reduce long-term toxicity and to incorporate molecularly targeted therapies into treatment. Many potential drugs are becoming available, but have to be prioritised for clinical trials due to the relatively small numbers of patients. Areas covered: The current drug development model has been slow, associated with significant attrition, and few new drugs have been developed for neuroblastoma. The Neuroblastoma New Drug Development Strategy (NDDS) has: 1) established a group with expertise in drug development; 2) prioritised targets and drugs according to tumour biology (target expression, dependency, pre-clinical data; potential combinations; biomarkers), identifying as priority targets ALK, MEK, CDK4/6, MDM2, MYCN (druggable by BET bromodomain, aurora kinase, mTORC1/2) BIRC5 and checkpoint kinase 1; 3) promoted clinical trials with target-prioritised drugs. Drugs showing activity can be rapidly transitioned via parallel randomised trials into front-line studies. Expert opinion: The Neuroblastoma NDDS is based on the premise that optimal drug development is reliant on knowledge of tumour biology and prioritisation. This approach will accelerate neuroblastoma drug development and other poor prognosis childhood malignancies

Anwendung der Neutronen-Aktivierungsanalyse zum Aufbau der Chemostratigraphie einer vulkanischen Eruptionssequenz auf Tilos und Nisyros, Griechenland

Vor etwa 66000 Jahren begann an der Ostflanke des Vulkans Nisyros eine Serie von Eruptionen, die in einem Zeitraum von etwa 40000 Jahren immer wieder neue Schichten aufbauten. Ein Teil der Eruptionsprodukte dieser, nach dem in der Nähe des vermuteten Zentrums der Eruptionen gelegenen Kloster Panagia Kyra benannten Kyra-Serie wurde auch auf der nicht-vulkanischen Nachbarinsel Tilos abgelagert. Für die geochemische Untersuchung dieser Ablagerungen gibt es mehrere Gründe.Einerseits ist die Erstellung "chemischer Fingerabdrücke" der großen und mittelgroßen bimssteinfördernden Eruptionsereignissen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum ein wichtiges Ziel des Projektes SCIEM2000. Dieser interdisziplinäre Spezialforschungsbereich, der eine intensive Kooperation von Geistes- und Naturwissenschaften darstellt, hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, die unterschiedlichen Chronologien der Zivilisationen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum im zweiten vorchristlichen Jahrtausend zu synchronisieren. Mit den chemischen Fingerabdrücken können nun Bimssteinfunde aus archäologischen Grabungen identifiziert, sowie Stratigraphien synchronisiert werden, um so gemeinsame Zeithorizonte in verschiedenen Grabungen zu erhalten.Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit war es möglich, eine Unterscheidung der beiden größten Eruptionen des Vulkans Nisyros, dem Oberen und Unteren Caldera Bims zu ermöglichen. Weiters wurde der chemische Fingerabdruck des Kos Plateau Tuffs verbessert und schlussendlich konnten die chemischen Fingerabdrücke der Eruptionsprodukte der Kyra-Serie in die Datenbank des Projektes aufgenommen werden.Ein weiterer Grund für die Untersuchungen, speziell auf Tilos, war die Hoffnung, durch Anwendung der Tephrochronologie eine Eingrenzung des Zeitraumes zu ermöglichen, während dessen die Insel von Zwergelephanten (Palaeoloxodon antiquus falconeri) besiedelt war. In einer Zusammenarbeit mit dem Naturhistorischen Museum in Wien und dem Department of Historical Geology and Paleontology von Athen wurden die Sedimente der Charkadio-Höhle, aus der die meisten Funde stammen, beprobt. Leider waren die Bimssteinfunde im Höhlensediment, in dem die Elephantenknochen eingebettet liegen, zu stark umgelagert um eine verlässliche Aussage über das Alter der Funde zu machen. Allerdings wurde während der Beprobung auf Tilos eine weitere paläontologische Fundstelle aufgetan.Zuletzt bietet die Kyra-Serie durch ihre Ablagerungen auf der nicht-vulkanischen Insel Tilos die faszinierende Möglichkeit, eine detaillierte, chemische und stratigraphische Abfolge einer komplexen Eruptionsserie zu erstellen. Die Kyra-Serie besteht aus einer Abfolge von acht Eruptionen, die selbst wieder aus verschiedenen Phasen aufgebaut sind. Durch die intensive chemische Untersuchung mit Hilfe der Neutronen-Aktivierungsanalyse und die gute stratigraphische Zuordnung der untersuchten Proben ist es möglich, die auf Tilos und Nisyros abgelagerten Schichtpakete einander zuzuordnen und so eine vollständige Chemostratigraphie der Kyra-Serie zu erstellen. Durch die hier durchgeführten Messungen konnte die letzte intensive Untersuchung der Kyra-Serie erheblich verfeinert werden.About 66000 years ago a series of eruptions on the eastern flank of Nisyros volcano in the Aegean sea built up several new layers of eruption products over the course of approximately 40000 years. Some of those eruption products from the so-called Kyra-series where deposited on the nearby non-volcanic island of Tilos. There are several reasons to geochemically investigate those deposits.The interdisciplinary research-project SCIEM2000, consisting of a cooperation of researchers in the humanities and the natural sciences tries to synchronize the different chronologies of the civilizations of the eastern mediterranean in the 2nd millenium BC. Using "chemical fingerprints" of pumice from medium- to large-scale volcanic eruptions in the corresponding area, archaeological finds of pumices can be identified and different stratigraphies can be synchronized.During this work it was possible to separate the two largest eruptions of Nisyros volcano, the Upper and Lower Caldera Pumice. Furthermore, the chemical fingerprint of the Kos Plateau Tuff eruption was improved and finally the chemical fingerprints of the eruption products from the Kyra-series could be added to the database of the project.Another reason for the investigation of the Kyra-series was the possibility that, by using tephrochronology, the period when dwarf-elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus falconeri) lived on the island Tilos could be narrowed. Unfortunately the cave sediment from Charkadio cave, containing the elephant bones and the pumices, have been naturally relocated and thus no reliable age restriction could be produced.However, during our visit to the island a new palaeontologically interesting site was found.Finally, the Kyra-series offers the unique possibility to investigate a complex series of eruptions by creating a detailed chemical and stratigraphical sequence. The Kyra-series consists of eight different eruptions, containing several phases each. By the application of Neutron Activation Analysis to the thorough chemical investigation of the eruption products and due to the clear stratigraphical relationship between the different units, the deposits on Nisyros and Tilos could be clearly related to each other.12

A workflow for neutron activation analysis of archaeological ceramics at the Atominstitut in Vienna, Austria

The main focus for neutron activation analysis (NAA) at the Atominstitut in Vienna has moved to the analysis of archaeological ceramics. The workflow for NAA has been adapted for this material and the elemental spectrum quantified has been expanded for compatibility with international databases. Statistical methods for the grouping of the archaeometric data have been implemented, following the methods applied by Mommsen et al. in Bonn (Archaeometry 30(1):47–57, 1988). Limits of detection specific for ceramics have been calculated and are at the ng/g level. High reproducibility as necessary for archaeometric analysis can be shown by comparative measurements of an internal quality control sample

Evaluierung eines Neutronenaktivierungsanalysators

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Chemical and radioanalytical investigations of 106Ru-containing air filters from Vienna in fall 2017: searching for stable element anomalies

Related to the recent nuclear release of radioactive ruthenium isotopes in fall 2017, we analyzed air filters from Vienna for irregularities in the (stable) elemental composition of particulate matter from this period. Methods were SEM/EDXS and INAA. For comparison, a reference filter from 2007 and blank filters were used. The chemical fingerprint encompassed 28 elements. The results show no indication for a considerable change in the elemental composition of the suspended matter. For example, no anomalies in the abundance of platinum group elements were found. The results suggest that the release of 106Ru had not been accompanied by a release of detectable amounts of (activatable) stable elements