Monitoring of a wide range of organic micropollutants on the Portuguese coast using plastic resin pellets

We analyzed polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethane and its metabolites, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and hopanes, in plastic resin pellets collected from nine locations along the Portuguese coast. Concentrations of a sum of 13 PCBs were one order of magnitude higher in two major cities (Porto: 307. ng/g-pellet; Lisboa: 273. ng/g-pellet) than in the seven rural sites. Lower chlorinated congeners were more abundant in the rural sites than in the cities, suggesting atmospheric dispersion. At most of the locations, PAH concentrations (sum of 33 PAH species) were ∼100 to ∼300. ng/g-pellet; however, three orders of magnitude higher concentrations of PAHs, with a petrogenic signature, were detected at a small city (Sines). Hopanes were detected in the pellets at all locations. This study demonstrated that multiple sample locations, including locations in both urban and remote areas, are necessary for country-scale pellet watch.This research was financially supported by Mitsui and Co. Ltd., Environment Fund for their financial support (Project R11-G4-1053) and Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Japan (Project No. 22254001). We also appreciate to be supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal for their financial support through the project POIZON reference PTDC/MAR/102677/2008 and fellowship reference SFRH/BD/74772/2010.publishe

Isotope-production cross sections of residual nuclei in proton- and deuteron-induced reactions on

The isotope-production cross sections in p- and d-induced reactions on 93Zr at approximately 50 MeV/nucleon were measured by using the inverse-kinematics method at RIKEN RI Beam Factory. The measured data were compared with the previous experimental 93Zr + p, d at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon data. This comparison represents that the isotopic distribution of production cross sections at 51 MeV p-induced reaction is appreciably different from those at 105 and 209 MeV. On the other hand, these three data sets show that the shape of isotopic distribution is similar in the case of the d-induced reaction. Also, the measured production cross sections were compared with the theoretical model calculations with Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) version 3.10 in order to investigate the reproducibility of the models implemented in PHITS. The calculations well reproduced the experimental data even in such low incident energy, while several discrepancies were still seen as in the p- and d-induced reactions at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon

Isotope-production cross sections of residual nuclei in proton- and deuteron-induced reactions on 93Zr at 50 MeV/u

The isotope-production cross sections in p- and d-induced reactions on 93Zr at approximately 50 MeV/nucleon were measured by using the inverse-kinematics method at RIKEN RI Beam Factory. The measured data were compared with the previous experimental 93Zr + p, d at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon data. This comparison represents that the isotopic distribution of production cross sections at 51 MeV p-induced reaction is appreciably different from those at 105 and 209 MeV. On the other hand, these three data sets show that the shape of isotopic distribution is similar in the case of the d-induced reaction. Also, the measured production cross sections were compared with the theoretical model calculations with Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) version 3.10 in order to investigate the reproducibility of the models implemented in PHITS. The calculations well reproduced the experimental data even in such low incident energy, while several discrepancies were still seen as in the p- and d-induced reactions at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon