Mechanical, Chemical, Structural, and Radiological Changes in Pigeon Bone, Associated with The Dietary Intake of Nickel Recovery Slag
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Slag from nickel smelting operations in the Sudbury basin in Ontario, Canada, has become ubiquitous. This material rich in heavy metals such as iron, upon ingestion has the potential to effect physical, radiological, chemical, mechanical, and structural changes in biological systems. In this work, we analyzed the effects of slag ingestion through diet, on several quantitative and qualitative parameters of the tibio-tarsal bones in pigeons (Columbia Livia Domestica). The specimens were maintained on a seed diet and divided into a control group (n = 9) provided (normal) clean limestone grit, and an experimental group (n = 9) provided slag-based grit, both for a period of one year. Their tibio-tarsal bones were harvested for analysis. Quantitative analytical methods included conventional density measurements, caliper-based cortical thickness measurements, bone mineral density measurements using Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), calcium and iron concentration measurements using mass spectrometry, and the determination of Young Moduli and ultimate breaking strength (both in compression) using a universal testing machine (UTM). Qualitative microscopy studies, both optical and electron - including energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) - were carried out for both sample groups. A Welchs t-test (single tail) was used to compare means of the seven quantitative parameters between control and experimental samples; in six of these parameters, a statistically significant difference was found (p ≤ 0.05). Microscopy, both optical and electron - coupled with EDS analysis - revealed structural differences in bone between the two groups. Engineering hardness testing of grit types in the dietary components revealed that the slag ingested by the experimental group was approximately twice as hard (Brinell and Rockwell hardness) as the limestone grit in the control group diet. We conclude that slag ingestion through diet in the species examined, is associated with measurable changes in mechanical, chemical, structural, and radiological properties of the tibio-tarsal bones.<div><br></div>
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".