Chemical Methods for Determination of Hydroxylated Metabolites of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Biological Material

U ovome preglednom radu prikazani su postupci analize hidroksiliranih metabolita policikličkih aromatskih ugljikovodika i poliklorbifenila u ljudima i životinjama. Ti metaboliti služe kao biomarkeri izloženosti ljudi i životinja navedenim zagađivalima, no neki od njih i sami posjeduju toksična svojstva. Analiziraju se najčešće u urinu koji je kao uzorak najdostupniji, ali se isto tako mogu analizirati i u ljudskoj, odnosno životinjskoj jetri, žuči i masnom tkivu. Analiza metabolita aromatskih zagađivala važna je zbog određivanja biodostupnosti aromatskih zagađivala, njihove potencijalne toksičnosti u ljudskom organizmu, ali i zbog toksičnosti samih metabolita. Napredak analitičkih metoda omogućio je simultanu analizu velikog broja metabolita u uzorcima. Nove tehnike ekstrakcije i selektivnije i preciznije kvalitativne i kvantitativne analize omogućuju detekciju vrlo niskih koncentracija metabolita. Pri tome dodatnu prednost imaju jednostavne tehnike koje zahtijevaju manje kemikalija i vremena za analizu.This review presents methods for the analysis of hydroxylated metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls in humans and animals. These metabolites serve as biomarkers of human and animal exposure to the mentioned pollutants, but some metabolites also have toxic properties. Most are analysed in urine, which is the most accessible sample, but they can also be analysed in human and animal liver, bile, and adipose tissue. Their analysis is important for assessing bioavailability of aromatic pollutants and their toxicity in human organism, but also the toxicity of metabolites themselves. Advancements in analytical methods have made it possible to analyse multiple metabolites in a sample at the same time. New extraction techniques and more precise and selective qualitative and quantitative analyses can now detect very low metabolite oncentrations. An extra advantage is that these simple techniques require less chemicals and time

Sedimentation and Fouling of Optical Surfaces at the ANTARES Site

ANTARES is a project leading towards the construction and deployment of a neutrino telescope in the deep Mediterranean Sea. The telescope will use an array of photomultiplier tubes to detect the Cherenkov light emitted by muons resulting from the interaction with matter of high energy neutrinos. In the vicinity of the deployment site the ANTARES collaboration has performed a series of in-situ measurements to study the change in light transmission through glass surfaces during immersions of several months. The average loss of light transmission is estimated to be only ~2% at the equator of a glass sphere one year after deployment. It decreases with increasing zenith angle, and tends to saturate with time. The transmission loss, therefore, is expected to remain small for the several year lifetime of the ANTARES detector whose optical modules are oriented downwards. The measurements were complemented by the analysis of the ^{210}Pb activity profile in sediment cores and the study of biofouling on glass plates. Despite a significant sedimentation rate at the site, in the 0.02 - 0.05 cm.yr^{-1} range, the sediments adhere loosely to the glass surfaces and can be washed off by water currents. Further, fouling by deposits of light-absorbing particulates is only significant for surfaces facing upwards.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures (pdf), submitted to Astroparticle Physic

The ANTARES Optical Module

The ANTARES collaboration is building a deep sea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. This detector will cover a sensitive area of typically 0.1 km-squared and will be equipped with about 1000 optical modules. Each of these optical modules consists of a large area photomultiplier and its associated electronics housed in a pressure resistant glass sphere. The design of the ANTARES optical module, which is a key element of the detector, has been finalized following extensive R & D studies and is reviewed here in detail.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, to be published in NI

ANTARES: the first undersea neutrino telescope

The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope was completed in May 2008 and is the first operational Neutrino Telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The main purpose of the detector is to perform neutrino astronomy and the apparatus also offers facilities for marine and Earth sciences. This paper describes the design, the construction and the installation of the telescope in the deep sea, offshore from Toulon in France. An illustration of the detector performance is given