The heritability of chronic hepatitis in the Labrador Retriever is studied with the aim of identifying the related gene mutation. Identification of cases and controls is largely based on instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) Cu determination in liver biopsies. The burden for these companion animals may be reduced if nail clippings and hair (fur) could serve as a noninvasive indicator for the hepatic Cu concentrations. No correlation was found between hepatic Cu concentrations and Cu concentrations in hair and nail samples. However, hair and nail samples were also analyzed by X-ray tube excitation, taking advantage of the X-ray Compton, Rayleigh, and Raman scattering which reflects the organic components such as the type of melanin. Principal component analysis provided first indications that some differentiation between healthy and sick dogs could indeed be obtained from hair and nail analysis.

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) was performed for the determination of 25 elements in hair, toenails, and PM_2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 μ m in aerodynamic diameter) to assess how human tissues of occupational staff and inhaled particles follow the industrial exposure of Gdansk Phosphatic fertilizer plant in Poland. Statistical analysis was used to elucidate this exposure. The results obtained were compared using box and whiskers plot and the parametric t-test and nonparametric Mann–Whitney U- test. The comparison showed a statistically significant difference between workers and control group concerning for example Br, Ca, Cl, La, Mn, Sm, U and V in hair, Cu, Dy, La, Sm, Ti and U in toenails and Al, As, Cl, I, K, La, Mg, Mn, Na, Sm and Zn in PM_2.5 samples.

Nuclear analytical techniques, specially neutron activation analysis (NAA) have been for a long time giving important contribution to trace element studies in the life sciences, due to their accuracy, precision, non-destructive and multielemental capabilities. In the present paper, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was applied to the determination of Hg and/or Se in several types of biological samples such as hair, nails, fish reference materials and also in selenium supplements. The hair samples analyzed were collected from a control group and mainly from Indian populational groups living in the Amazonic region, where very high Hg contents were found (means from 3.6 to 21.8 µg g−1), probably due to gold exploration activities and biomass burning. A comparison was made of INAA for Se using two different radioisotopes: the short-lived 77 mSe (t 1/2 = 17.45 s) and the long-lived one 75Se (t 1/2 = 119.8 d). Both methods were applied to determination of Se in samples of hair, nails and ...

Sample-size reduction including homogenization is often required to obtain a test portion for element compositional analysis. Analyses of replicate test portions may provide insight into the sampling constant, and often much larger quantities are needed to limit the contribution of sampling error. In addition, it cannot be demonstrated that the finally obtained test portion is truly representative of the originally collected material. Nuclear analytical techniques such as neutron and photon activation analysis and (neutron-induced) prompt gamma activation analyses can now be used to study and overcome these analytical problems. These techniques are capable of obtaining multi-element measurements from irregularly shaped objects with masses ranging from multiple grams to multiple kilograms. Prompt gamma analysis can be combined with neutron tomography, resulting in position-sensitive information. The analysis of large samples provides unprecedented complementary opportunities for the mineral and geosciences. It enables the experimental assessment of the representativeness of test portions of the originally collected material, as well as the analysis of samples that are not allowed to be sub-sampled or dissolved, the analysis of materials that are difficult to be homogenized at large, and studies on the location of inhomogeneities. Examples of such applications of large-sample analyses are described herein.