CRITICAL APPLICATIONS OF SW 846 US EPA METHODS TO EVALUATION OF MARINE SAMPLES QUALITY

Technical evaluation of analytical data is of extreme relevance considering it can be used for comparisons with environmental quality standards and decision-making as related to the management of disposal of dredged sediments and the evaluation of salt and brackish water quality in accordance with CONAMA 357/05 Resolution. It is, therefore, essential that the project manager discusses the environmental agency`s technical requirements with the laboratory contracted for the follow-up of the analysis underway and even with a view to possible re-analysis when anomalous data are identified. The main technical requirements are: (1) method quantitation limits (QLs) should fall below environmental standards; (2) analyses should be carried out in laboratories whose analytical scope is accredited by the National Institute of Metrology (INMETRO) or qualified or accepted by a licensing agency; (3) chain of custody should be provided in order to ensure sample traceability; (4) control charts should be provided to prove method performance; (5) certified reference material analysis or, if that is not available, matrix spike analysis, should be undertaken and (6) chromatograms should be included in the analytical report. Within this context and with a view to helping environmental managers in analytical report evaluation, this work has as objectives the discussion of the limitations of the application of SW 846 US EPA methods to marine samples, the consequences of having data based on method detection limits (MDL) and not sample quantitation limits (SQL), and present possible modifications of the principal method applied by laboratories in order to comply with environmental quality standards.

Towards a hybrid approach for adapting web graphical user interfaces to heterogeneous devices using context

Ubiquitous Computing promises seamless access to a wide range of applications and Internet based services from anywhere, at anytime, and using any device. In this scenario, new challenges for the practice of software development arise: Applications and services must keep a coherent behavior, a proper appearance, and must adapt to a plenty of contextual usage requirements and hardware aspects. Especially, due to its interactive nature, the interface content of Web applications must adapt to a large diversity of devices and contexts. In order to overcome such obstacles, this work introduces an innovative methodology for content adaptation of Web 2.0 interfaces. The basis of our work is to combine static adaption - the implementation of static Web interfaces; and dynamic adaptation - the alteration, during execution time, of static interfaces so as for adapting to different contexts of use. In hybrid fashion, our methodology benefits from the advantages of both adaptation strategies - static and dynamic. In this line, we designed and implemented UbiCon, a framework over which we tested our concepts through a case study and through a development experiment. Our results show that the hybrid methodology over UbiCon leads to broader and more accessible interfaces, and to faster and less costly software development. We believe that the UbiCon hybrid methodology can foster more efficient and accurate interface engineering in the industry and in the academy.

Spin coherent states in NMR quadrupolar system: experimental and theoretical applications

Working with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in quadrupolar spin systems, in this paper we transfer the concept of atomic coherent state to the nuclear spin context, where it is referred to as pseudonuclear spin coherent state (pseudo-NSCS). Experimentally, we discuss the initialization of the pseudo- NSCSs and also their quantum control, implemented by polar and azimuthal rotations. Theoretically, we compute the geometric phases acquired by an initial pseudo-NSCS on undergoing three distinct cyclic evolutions: (i) the free evolution of the NMR quadrupolar system and, by analogy with the evolution of the NMR quadrupolar system, that of (ii) single-mode and (iii) two-mode Bose-Einstein Condensate like system. By means of these analogies, we derive, through spin angular momentum operators, results equivalent to those presented in the literature for orbital angular momentum operators. The pseudo-NSCS description is a starting point to introduce the spin squeezed state and quantum metrology into nuclear spin systems of liquid crystal or solid matter.