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International audience; Recent advances in portability of analytical equipment have been considered to enlighten the advantages offered by portable instrumentation on greening the analytical methods. Their use drastically reduces sampling, sample stockage, and transport, thus avoiding environmental side effects and risks, also improving decision-making. The fact that portable instrumentation is, in general, less expensive than bench instruments and apparatuses makes also available the analytical tools for extended sectors of the population, thus making accessible the advantages derived from analytical methods. The role of sensor technology and portable miniaturized systems has been considered to be paid special attention to the portable sample treatment systems based on microwave and ultrasound technologies and the use of image processing systems.

This guidance document for archaeological collections management and curation for Department of Defense Service installations gives an overview of current collection management policies and procedures and presents best practices in each area of curation. The recommended policies and practices are designed to minimize costs while maximizing the research, education, and cultural heritage value of Federal collections in accordance with 36 CFR Part 79, Curation of Federally Owned and Administered Archaeological Collections.

11 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables.-- PMID: 13680063 [PubMed].-- Available online Sep 16, 2003., In this study, a new procedure, based on on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analysis by liquid-chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-APCI-MS), has been developed for the simultaneous, multianalyte determination of 21 selected pesticides, phenols and phthalates in water. SPE was carried out on polymeric PLRP-s cartridges by percolating 20 mL-samples. For sample preconcentration, the performance of a prototype programmable field extraction system (PROFEXS) was evaluated against the commercial laboratory bench Prospekt system used for method development. The Profexs is designed for the automated on-site sampling, SPE preconcentration, and storage of up to 16 samples in SPE cartridges. These cartridges are further eluted and on-line analyzed with the Prospekt coupled to the chromatographic system. In the optimized method, where completely on-line SPE-LC-MS analysis of the samples is carried out with the Prospekt in the laboratory, detection limits lower than 100 ng/L, and satisfactory precision (relative standard deviations 75%) were obtained for most investigated compounds from the analysis of spiked Milli-Q water. The extraction efficiency achieved with the Profexs was comparable to that of the Prospekt for most compounds and somewhat lower for the most apolar analytes, probably due to adsorption on the pump filters. The completely on-line optimized method was applied to the analysis of surface water, ground water and drinking water from a waterworks in Barcelona. Some pesticides and phenols were found in both surface water and groundwater at ng/L or µg/L levels, but not in the final drinking water. Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) was present in all samples investigated, including blanks. To the author's knowledge, this is the first work describing the application of a fully automated on-line SPE-LC-MS method for the simultaneous analysis of pesticides, phenols, and phthalates in water, and the second one that examines the possibilities of the prototype Profexs for automated on-site SPE preconcentration of organic pollutants from water samples., This work was supported by the Environmental and Climate Program (Project OWWA ENV4-CT97-0608), by the Energy, Environmental and Sustainable Development Program (Project ARTDEMO EVK1-CT2002-00114), and by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Project BQU2002-10903-E).