Protecting the Health of First Nation Personnel at Contaminated Sites: A Case Study of Mid-Canada Radar Line Site 050 in Northern Canada

Recently, First Nation (FN) organizations have entered into agreements with federal and provincial government representatives to remediate radar-line sites in Ontario. These agreements stipulated that FN people would take part in the site delineation and remediation process to gain job experience and economic benefits. One important aspect of the process was protecting FN personnel from contaminant exposure and thus, from potential negative health outcomes associated with the cleanup work itself. In this paper, we describe the safety precautions used by FN workers preparing Mid-Canada Radar Line (MCRL) Site 050 for Phase 2 of the delineation process and the health monitoring protocol that was tested. We measured concentrations of total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs as Aroclor 1260), 14 individual PCB congeners, p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, nine other organochlorine pesticides, and lead in the blood of Fort Albany FN workers before they started work at Site 050 and approximately a week before they completed their three-month work period in the contaminated zone. No significant differences were found in the paired samples. These results indicate that the safety precautions taken were adequate for the work and the site in question. The monitoring protocol discussed here may be used as a template and modified to meet the specific needs of other projects. The results of this study are important because other Aboriginal groups have entered or will be entering into agreements with government organizations for the remediation of other MCRL sites in Ontario and across Canada.Les stations de ligne radar désaffectées situées tant dans l’Arctique que dans le Subarctique canadiens seraient des sources ponctuelles de contamination. Des organismes des Premières nations ont participé dernièrement, avec des représentants des gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux, à des accords visant l’assainissement des stations de ligne radar en Ontario. Ces accords stipulaient que des membres des Premières nations prendraient part à la délimitation des sites et au processus d’assainissement afin d’acquérir de l’expérience de travail et de profiter des retombées économiques. Un volet important de ce processus visait à protéger le personnel autochtone de l’exposition aux contaminants et donc, d’effets potentiels négatifs pour la santé associés aux opérations de nettoyage mêmes. Dans cet article, on décrit les mesures de sécurité utilisées par les travailleurs autochtones oeuvrant sur le site 050 de la ligne radar Mid-Canada durant la phase 2 du processus de délimitation, ainsi que le protocole de contrôle de la santé mis alors à l’essai. On a mesuré les concentrations de l’accumulation de diphényles polychlorés (PCB comme l’Arochlore 1260), de 14 congénères de PCB, de p,p’-DDT, de p,p’-DDE, de neuf autres pesticides organochlorés ainsi que de plomb dans le sang des travailleurs autochtones de Fort Albany avant qu’ils commencent à travailler au site 050 et une semaine environ avant qu’ils terminent leur période de travail de trois mois dans la zone contaminée. On n’a pas trouvé de différences significatives entre les échantillons appariés. Ces résultats révèlent que les mesures de sécurité prises étaient adéquates pour le travail et le site en question. Le protocole de contrôle discuté ici pourrait servir de modèle et être adapté pour répondre aux critères spécifiques d’autres projets. Les résultats de cette étude sont importants car d’autres groupes autochtones participent actuellement ou vont participer à des accords avec des agences gouvernementales visant l’assainissement d’autres sites de la ligne radar Mid-Canada en Ontario et à travers le Canada

A microtubule interactome: complexes with roles in cell cycle and mitosis.

addresses: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.notes: PMCID: PMC2323305types: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright: © 2008 Hughes et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton is required for many aspects of cell function, including the transport of intracellular materials, the maintenance of cell polarity, and the regulation of mitosis. These functions are coordinated by MT-associated proteins (MAPs), which work in concert with each other, binding MTs and altering their properties. We have used a MT cosedimentation assay, combined with 1D and 2D PAGE and mass spectrometry, to identify over 250 MAPs from early Drosophila embryos. We have taken two complementary approaches to analyse the cellular function of novel MAPs isolated using this approach. First, we have carried out an RNA interference (RNAi) screen, identifying 21 previously uncharacterised genes involved in MT organisation. Second, we have undertaken a bioinformatics analysis based on binary protein interaction data to produce putative interaction networks of MAPs. By combining both approaches, we have identified and validated MAP complexes with potentially important roles in cell cycle regulation and mitosis. This study therefore demonstrates that biologically relevant data can be harvested using such a multidisciplinary approach, and identifies new MAPs, many of which appear to be important in cell division

Imaging cell surface glycosylation in vivo using "double click" chemistry.

Dynamic alterations in cell surface glycosylation occur in numerous biological processes that involve cell-cell communication and cell migration. We report here imaging of cell surface glycosylation in live mice using double click chemistry. Cell surface glycans were metabolically labeled using peracetylated azido-labeled N-acetylgalactosamine and then reacted, in the first click reaction, with either a cyclooctyne, in a Huisgen [3 + 2] cycloaddition, or with a Staudinger phosphine, via Staudinger ligation. The second click reaction was a [4 + 2] inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction between a trans-cyclooctene and a tetrazine, where the latter reagent had been fluorescently labeled with a far-red fluorophore. After administration of the fluorescent tetrazine, the bifunctional cyclooctyne-cyclooctene produced significant azido sugar-dependent fluorescence labeling of tumor, kidney, liver, spleen, and small intestine in vivo, where the kidney and tumor could be imaged noninvasively in the live mouse

Evolution of the Southwest Australian Rifted Continental Margin During Breakup of East Gondwana: Results from IODP Expedition 369

International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 369 drilled four sites on the southwestern Australian continental margin, in the deep water Mentelle Basin (MB) and on the neighboring Naturaliste Plateau (NP). The drillsites are located on continental crust that continued rifting after seafloor spreading began further north on the Perth Abyssal Plain (PAP) between magnetochrons M11r and M11n (133‐132 Ma), ending when spreading began west of the NP between chrons M5n and M3n (126‐124 Ma). Drilling recovered the first in‐situ samples of basalt flows overlying the breakup unconformity on the NP, establishing a magnetostratigraphically constrained eruption age of >131‐133 Ma and confirming a minimal late Valanginian age for the breakup unconformity (coeval with the onset of PAP seafloor spreading). Petrogenetic modeling indicates the basalts were generated by 25% melting at 1.5 GPa and a potential temperature of 1380‐1410 °C, consistent with proximity of the Kerguelen plume during breakup. Benthic foraminiferal fossils indicate that the NP remained at upper bathyal or shallower depths during the last 6 Myr of rifting and for 3‐5 Myr after breakup between India and Australia. The limited subsidence is attributed to heat from the nearby Kerguelen plume and PAP spreading ridge. The margin subsided to middle bathyal depths by Albian time and to lower bathyal (NP) or greater (MB) depths by late Paleogene time. Periods of rapid sedimentation accompanied a westward jump of the PAP spreading ridge (108 Ma), rifting on the southern margin (100‐84 Ma), and opening of the southern seaway between Australia and Antarctica (60‐47 Ma)

Gametogenesis in the Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas: A Microarrays-Based Analysis Identifies Sex and Stage Specific Genes

Background: The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas (Mollusca, Lophotrochozoa) is an alternative and irregular protandrous hermaphrodite: most individuals mature first as males and then change sex several times. Little is known about genetic and phenotypic basis of sex differentiation in oysters, and little more about the molecular pathways regulating reproduction. We have recently developed and validated a microarray containing 31,918 oligomers (Dheilly et al., 2011) representing the oyster transcriptome. The application of this microarray to the study of mollusk gametogenesis should provide a better understanding of the key factors involved in sex differentiation and the regulation of oyster reproduction. Methodology/Principal Findings: Gene expression was studied in gonads of oysters cultured over a yearly reproductive cycle. Principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering showed a significant divergence in gene expression patterns of males and females coinciding with the start of gonial mitosis. ANOVA analysis of the data revealed 2,482 genes differentially expressed during the course of males and/or females gametogenesis. The expression of 434 genes could be localized in either germ cells or somatic cells of the gonad by comparing the transcriptome of female gonads to the transcriptome of stripped oocytes and somatic tissues. Analysis of the annotated genes revealed conserved molecular mechanisms between mollusks and mammals: genes involved in chromatin condensation, DNA replication and repair, mitosis and meiosis regulation, transcription, translation and apoptosis were expressed in both male and female gonads. Most interestingly, early expressed male-specific genes included bindin and a dpy-30 homolog and female-specific genes included foxL2, nanos homolog 3, a pancreatic lipase related protein, cd63 and vitellogenin. Further functional analyses are now required in order to investigate their role in sex differentiation in oysters. Conclusions/Significance: This study allowed us to identify potential markers of early sex differentiation in the oyster C. gigas, an alternative hermaphrodite mollusk. We also provided new highly valuable information on genes specifically expressed by mature spermatozoids and mature oocytes