Multiple treatment (i.e., drying, chemical digestion, and oxidation) steps are often required during preparation of biological matrices for quantitative analysis of mercury; these multiple steps could potentially lead to systematic errors and poor recovery of the analyte. In this study, the Direct Mercury Analyzer (Milestone Inc., Monroe, CT) was utilized to measure total mercury in fish tissue by integrating steps of drying, sample combustion and gold sequestration with successive identification using atomic absorption spectrometry. We also evaluated the differences between the mercury concentrations found in samples that were homogenized and samples with no preparation. These results were confirmed with cold vapor atomic absorbance and fluorescence spectrometric methods of analysis. Finally, total mercury in wild captured largemouth bass (n = 20) were assessed using the Direct Mercury Analyzer to examine internal variability between mercury concentrations in muscle, liver and brain organs. Direct analysis of total mercury measured in muscle tissue was strongly correlated with muscle tissue that was homogenized before analysis (r = 0.81, p < 0.0001). Additionally, results using this integrated method compared favorably (p < 0.05) with conventional cold vapor spectrometry with atomic absorbance and fluorescence detection methods. Mercury concentrations in brain were significantly lower than concentrations in muscle (p < 0.001) and liver (p < 0.05) tissues. This integrated method can measure a wide range of mercury concentrations (0-500 μg) using small sample sizes. Total mercury measurements in this study are comparative to the methods (cold vapor) commonly used for total mercury analysis and are devoid of laborious sample preparation and expensive hazardous waste.

Steady state solute and heat transfer for laminar flow in a flat duct has been widely studied^[1-4]. The same problem in a circular tube is called the Graetz Problem^[5,6]. The transfer rate of solute and heat from fluids is of importance in a number of processes, such as diffusion of drugs in the blood stream and the uptake of environmental contaminants by animals in aquatic media^[7]. In this study the rate of solute or heat transfer from fluids was determined by solving the associated differential equation. Solution by the series approach in the complex plane was used with a series that had a gaussian factor. The eigenfunctions and eigenvalues involved were examined for two different sets of boundary conditions

No abstract