M. J. M. Duke

University of Alberta | UAlberta · Medical Isotope Cyclotron Facility

Theranostic isotope pairs have gained recent clinical interest as they can be labeled to the same tracer and applied for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The goals of this study were to A) investigate cyclotron production of clinically relevant 133La activities using natural and isotopically enriched barium target material, B) compare fundament...

Introduction: Gallium-68 is an important radionuclide for positron emission tomography (PET) with steadily increasing applications of 68Ga-based radiopharmaceuticals for clinical use. Current 68Ga sources are primarily 68Ge/68Ga-generators, along with successful attempts of 68Ga production using a cyclotron. This study evaluated cyclotron 68Ga pro...

This article is the fourth in the Alberta Lithic Reference Project series, the goal of which is to assist the identification of raw materials used for precontact stone tools in the province. Each article focuses on one raw material; the current article discusses a silicified lignite called Knife River Flint (KRF) that originates in North Dakota and...

There is on-going concern regarding fugitive emissions of trace elements from mining and upgrading of the Athabasca Bituminous Sands (ABS) in northern Alberta, Canada, but remarkably few quantitative elemental data about the resource itself exists. By exploring advances in analytical techniques, an inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spect...

In 2012, Defence Research and Development Canada, in partnership with a number of other Canadian and International organizations, led a series of three field trials designed to simulate a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD). These trials, known as the Full-Scale RDD (FSRDD) Field Trials, involved the explosive dispersal of a short-lived radioactive...

As a result of the limited application of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) in archaeological research in Japan it is necessary to compare this technique to proven, laboratory-based, analytical techniques. In this study instrumental neutron activation analysis, inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and electron probe microanalysis are used...

This article is the first in the Alberta Lithic Reference Project series, the goal of which is to assist the identification of raw materials used for pre-contact stone tools in the province. Each article focuses on one raw material; the current article discusses a partially fused, glassy, vesicular rock that originates in Northwest Territories call...

This article is the second in the Alberta Lithic Reference Project series, the goal of which is to assist the identification of raw materials used for pre-contact stone tools in the province. Each article focuses on one raw material; the current article discusses a microcrystalline, actinolite-tremolite (amphibole)-rich rock called nephrite (jade)...

A standard high purity germanium detector (HPGe) was used to determine the neutron activity of a weak americium-beryllium (AmBe) neutron source. Gamma rays were created through 27Al(n,n'), 27Al(n,gamma) and 1H(n,gamma) reactions induced by the neutrons on aluminum and acrylic disks. A Monte Carlo simulation was developed to model the efficiency of...

Sphagnum moss was collected from 21 ombrotrophic (rain-fed) peat bogs surrounding open pit mines and upgrading facilities of Athabasca Bituminous Sands in Alberta (AB). Compared with contemporary Sphagnum moss from four bogs in rural locations of southern Germany (DE), the AB mosses yielded lower concentrations of Ag, Cd, Ni, Pb, Sb and Tl, similar...

Four pristine specimens of the Tagish Lake C2 chondrite meteorite were previously determined through mineralogy, petrology, and organic chemistry to have been affected by aqueous alteration in the order (from least to most altered) TL5b ; Blinova et al. ). Here, we report the whole‐rock data for a total of 65 elements for the same four Tagish Lake...

Purpose: We investigated whether the recent implementation of the regulatory requirements for the entry to the Canadian market of natural products has resulted in improved quality of the available glucosamine products. Methods: Eleven available products, of which 8 had been tested in 2002 (7 had contained substantially lower than the label claim...

We provide an actual bulk SiO_2 analysis of the Tissint meteorite, along with redox estimates, and then compare Tissint to other shergottites.

Advances in the chemical and isotopic characterisation of geological and environmental materials can often be ascribed to technological improvements in analytical hardware. Equally, the creation of novel methods of data acquisition and interpretation, including access to better reference materials, can also be crucial components enabling important...

Purpose: We investigated elemental strontium and/or bisphosphonate drug incorporation upon the compositional and biomechanical properties of vertebral bone, in a rat model of Osteoporosis secondary to ovariectomy. Methods: Six month old female rats were ovariectomized (OVX) and divided into untreated OVX-Vehicle, OVX-RIS (Risedronate bisphosphon...

Tissint (Morocco) is the fifth martian meteorite collected after it was witnessed falling to Earth. Our integrated mineralogical, petrological, and geochemical study shows that it is a depleted picritic shergottite similar to EETA79001A. Highly magnesian olivine and abundant glass containing martian atmosphere are present in Tissint. Refractory tra...

The bones of many terrestrial vertebrates, including humans, are continually altered through an internal process of turnover known as remodeling. This process plays a central role in bone adaptation and disease. The uptake of fluorescent tetracyclines within bone mineral is widely exploited as a means of tracking new tissue formation. While investi...

To enable mechanical milling of small (0.1–1.0 g) samples, a cylindrical grinding vessel machined from polypropylene and furnished with tungsten carbide rods has been designed and produced for use inside the conventional jar of a McCrone Micronizing Mill. The vessel is about one-seventh the volume of the conventional jar supplied by the manufacture...

Rare-earth elements and other trace elements have been determined by activation analysis and X-ray fluorescence for representative samples from each of the four blocks of basement gneisses near Valemount, eastern British Columbia. Patterns in mafic and tonalitic gneisses are generally as expected, but the granite–gneisses have very large negative e...

The biological reference material TORT-1, lobster hepatopancreas, was analyzed for aluminum by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS). After correction of the INAA results for interferences from 28Al produced by 31P(n,α)28Al and 28Si(n,p)28Al reactions, and use of HNO3 plus HF for...

Knowledge of the "fines" or clay-rich mineral fraction is necessary for the efficient extraction of bitumen from bulk oil sands, and has environmental implications in tailings disposal. Current methods for estimating the fines in oil sand are laborious and of questionable accuracy. We propose here their estimation directly in bulk oil sand by instr...

The Mountain Pine Ridge batholith is the largest of three major granitoid intrusions that crop out in the Maya Mountains of Belize. These plutons intrude a thick sequence of Upper Paleozoic metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks known as the Santa Rose Group. The mineralogy of the granitic rocks at Mountain Pine Ridge varies and the rocks are class...

The Ikkattoq gneisses of the Archaean gneiss complex in the Nuuk region, southern West Greenland, are the orthogneiss component within the amphibolite facies Tre Brødre terrane. They have mostly granodioritic compositions, with a small amount of quartz diorite. Sm–Nd isotopic data for a quartz diorite and five granodiorite Ikkattoq gneiss samples f...

The Buzzard Coulee H4 chondrite was collected as fragments from a fireball witnessed at 5:23.46 MST on November 20, 2008 by thousands of residents across the Canadian prairies.

Small impact events recorded on the surface of Earth are significantly underrepresented based on expected magnitude-frequency relations. We report the discover), of a 36-m-diameter late Holocene impact crater located in a forested area near the town of Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada. Although undetectable using visible imagery, the presence of the cra...

Several indigenous groups in northwestern North America used native copper prior to EuroAmerican contact. The Arctic, Subarctic, and Northwest Coast culture areas all have archaeological finds and geological sources of native copper. The copper-rich region of south-central Alaska and southwestern Yukon has often been credited as the source of archa...

Duke, M. (2009). The whole rock Sm-Nd 'age' for the 2825 Ma Ikkattoq gneisses (Greenland) is 800 Ma too young: Insights into Archaean TTG petrogenesis. Chemical Geology, 261 (1-2), 62-76.

The induction of phase II drug metabolizing enzymes serves as a detoxification mechanism for many mutagens, carcinogens and other toxic compounds. Specifically, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (Nqo1) and glutathione S-transferase Ya subunit (Gst ya) are key enzymes involved in cellular defense against reactive forms of oxygen and the inhibition of...

Sixty-five inflow samples from access shafts were collected at three separate potash mines in order to construct three 1000 m deep hydrochemical profiles. Bromine concentrations, and δD and δ18O stable isotopic compositions, increase with depth in each case. Measured isotopic ratios have not changed in 15+ years since the mine-inflows were first sa...

Sixty-three inflow samples from access shafts were collected at three separate potash mines in order to construct three 1000 m-deep hydrochemical profiles. Total dissolved solids, bromine concentrations, and ! D and ! 18O stable isotopic compositions increase with depth in each of the three cases. Measured isotopic ratios have not changed in 15+ ye...

There is great interest in augmenting computed tomography (CT) with information gained from other imaging modalities. Positron emission tomography (PET) provides valuable data related to patient physiology to aid in the delineation of tumor volumes. Combining the information provided by these imaging modalities requires accurate spatial registratio...

Compounds of the meta-autunite group containing monovalent cations (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ag, TI) have been synthesized by diffusion in gels or by hydrothermal methods, and their crystal structures determined. Single-crystal X-ray-diffraction intensity data were collected at room temperature using MoKalpha radiation and a CCD-based area detector. Thes...

A sampling equation was derived that relates the standard deviation in analyte mass to the number of particles in the sample, the fractions of the different types of particles in the mixture and the masses and analyte concentrations of the individual particles. The equation, which is applicable to samples containing any number of particles, was ver...

Numerous extraction and processing industries, including for example the oil and gas, fertilizer, and uranium milling industries, can concentrate significant quantities of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). When present in sufficient amounts NORM may pose a significant health hazard. Of particular concern are the long-lived radionucli...

The radionuclide 41Ar has many ideal properties as a gas flow tracer. However, the modest cross-section of 40Ar for thermal neutron activation makes preparation of suitable activities of 41Ar technically difficult particularly for low flux reactors. Argon can however be trapped in a molecular complex called a clathrate that can then be irradiated....

An inert, activable tracer method, using sized ceramic spheres custom labeled with 15% Dy2O3 during manufacture, has been developed to study soil aggregation. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) with a Slowpoke reactor, using 165mDy (T 1/2 = 1.26 min), provides an extremely rapid means with which to characterise the Dy-content of the va...

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used to predict the relative amounts of various sizes of fine particles in Athabasca oil sands. The method is based on regression analysis of element concentration data for 529 oil sand test portions, determined by INAA, against particle size distributions determined by three currently used method...

Current radiological and particle tracer methods used in soil translocation studies have several limitations. Studies of soil aggregate dynamics also require an improved particle tracer approach. Our objective was to develop an inert tracer sphere applicable in soil aggregation and translocation studies. We selected ceramic prills in varying size f...

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used to predict the relative amounts of various sizes of fine particles in Athabasca oil sands. The method is based on regression analysis of element concentration data for 529 oil sand test portions, determined by INAA, against particle size distributions determined by three currently used method...

In order to assess the timing and degree of synchroneity of extinctions near the K/T boundary, global chronologic horizons are required with time spans of a few thousand years or less. Geomagnetic polarity reversal boundaries fulfill these constraints. Detailed magnetostratigraphy has been carried out across the K/T boundary in seven sections from...

A homogeneous megacryst of schorlomite was investigated to determine the valence states of Fe and Ti and the crystallographic sites occupied by these elements. The results from XANES are consistent with exclusively Ti 4+ occupying the octahedral site only. The tetrahedral site is deficient in Si and the results of low-temperature 57Fe Mossbauer spe...

A study has been carried out of the uptake of uranium and other radionuclides by plants growing on abandoned tailings from an uranium mining operation. Assay methods included instrumental neutron activation analysis, delayed neutron counting, fission track imaging, and counting of natural radioactivity. Care was taken to avoid contamination of the...

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was carried out on hair samples from a group of twenty patients undergoing a study of osteoporosis. Half of these were judged normal. Fourteen elements were measured but only calcium was found to have a correlation with the disease state. Calcium levels in hair were significantly lower (99% confidence...

Fission track analysis (FTA) has been used to investigate the biological uptake of uranium. Examination of fission track maps of black spruce twigs (from areas of uranium mineralization and mill tailings) shows uranium to be concentrated in the inner bark while decreasing in the outer bark of the twigs. Track clusters in the bark, too large to be u...

A pre-irradiation group separation procedure for the quantification of 11 to 13 rare earth elements (REE) in geological materials by neutron activation analysis, with yield determination by mass spectrometry isotope dilution analysis of Sm and Nd, is described. Utilization of the shorterlived isotopes of the REE allow sufficient data for most geoch...

A simple method is described for the measurement of the specific activity of 131I. The method is based on analysis of 127I in the samples by means of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). This method can be performed while the sample still contains substantial quantities of 131I. The sensitivity of INAA for this purpose is more than adeq...

The homogeneity of the marine reference material TORT-1, a spray-dried and acetone-extracted hepatopancreatic material from the lobster, was tested for 26 elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Through a one-way analysis of variance based on six analyses on each of six bottles of TORT-1, it was concluded that the between-bottl...

Metallography and neutron activation analysis have been used to investigate copper artifacts from 19th century archaeological sites associated with the “Copper Inuit” of the west-central Canadian Arctic. A knowledge of the source of the copper from which the artifacts were manufactured - native (local) copper or European (exotic) copper - is import...

University Microfilms order no. UMI00482743. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 1993. Includes bibliographical references.