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This article presents information on a conference Jornadas de Análisis Instrumental (JAI), held in November 2002, at Barcelona, Spain. The meeting of JAI describes a very interesting approach to the extraction, purification and characterization of synthetic crudes of peptide hormones of therapeutical interest. The rigorous and useful methodology proposed is characteristic of analytical proteomics and it is being imported to trace element speciation investigations. It could be said that nowadays the JAI in Spain is playing a role which is reminiscent of that played in the U.S. by the well known Pittsburgh Conference: it is a great occasion for manufacturers to show the latest instruments and methodologies of modern analytical science in the instrument exhibition to scientists and users attending the JAI scientific meeting.

The present paper describes the development of a method for the simultaneous determination of five hormonally active UV filters namely benzophenone-3 (BP3), 3-(4-methylbenzylidene) camphor (4MBC), 2-ethylhexyl 4-(dimethylamino) benzoate (OD-PABA), 2-ethylhexyl 4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) and octocrylene (OC) by means of solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-electron impact ionization-mass spectrometry. Under optimized conditions, this methodology achieved low method limits of detection (needed for clean waters, especially drinking water analysis), between 0.02 and 8.42 ng/L, and quantitative recovery rates higher than 73% in all cases. Inter- and intraday precision for all compounds were lower than 7% and 11%, respectively. The optimized methodology was applied to perform the first survey of UV absorbing compounds in tap water from the metropolitan area and the city of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). In addition, other types of clean water matrices (mineral bottled water, well water and tap water treated with an ion-exchange resin) were investigated as well. Results evidenced that all the UV filters investigated were detected in the water samples analyzed. The compounds most frequently found were EHMC and OC. Maximum concentrations reached in tap water were 290 (BP3), 35 (4MBC), 110 (OD-PABA), 260 (EHMC), and 170 ng/L (OC). This study constitutes the first evidence of the presence of UV filter residues in tap water in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has a double objective. The first goal was to develop an authentication system to differentiate between traditional orujo alcoholic distillates with and without a certified brand of origin (CBO). Owing to their low price and quality, samples without a CBO can be used as substrates for falsification of genuine CBO ones. The second objective was to perform a comparison of the abilities of the different chemometric procedures employed for this classification. The classification was performed on the basis of the chemical information contained in the metal composition of the orujo distillates. Eight metals determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry were considered (Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, K, Mg, Na and Ni). After the appropriate pretreatment, the data were processed using different chemometric techniques. In the first stage, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were employed to reveal the latent structure contained in the data. Once it had been demonstrated that a relation exists between the metal composition and the raw materials, and not between the metal composition and the distillation systems employed for the orujo production, the second step consisted in the comparative application of different supervised pattern recognition procedures (such as linear discriminant analysis, K-nearest neighbours, soft independent modelling of class analogy, UNEQ and different artificial neural network approaches, including multilayer feed-forward, support vector machines, learning vector quantization and probabilistic neural networks). The results showed the different capabilities of the diverse classification techniques to discriminate between Galician orujo samples. The best results were those provided by probabilistic neural networks, in which the correct recognition abilities for CBO classes and without CBO classes were 98.6 ± 3.1 and 98.0 ± 4.5%; the prediction results were 87.7 ± 3.3 and 86.2 ± 5.0%, respectively. The usefulness of chemical metal analysis in combination with chemometric techniques to develop a classification procedure to authenticate Galician CBO orujo samples is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at two symposiums sponsored by the Spanish Society for Analytical Chemistry (SEQA) on general research and teaching on analytical chemistry issues is presented. Topics include the present and future of analytical nanotechnology and research on the use of quantum dots and multiwalled carbon nanotubes for novel detection strategies in biosensors. The symposiums were intended for chemists, biologists, and other professionals.

The article presents information about the past, present and future of Spanish analytical chemistry. In the last few years the international scientific community has paid a great deal of attention to the considerable rise of Spanish analytical chemistry and the spectacular improvement in its international ranking, not only in the number of papers published but mainly in relation to Spain's gross domestic product. This rise has a fling of the 1960s, when the chemical industry experienced dramatic growth as a consequence of the economic liberation. In the 1970s, the renewal of scientific equipment at universities and research institutions began to change the panorama and the 40 published papers in 1960 rose to nearly 100 in 1970 and about 200 in 1982 according to Analytical Abstracts.

Reports on bioanalytical chemistry in Spain. Information on papers presented at the 11th meeting of Jornadas de Análisis Instrumental in Barcelona in November 2005; Complexity of real biological samples.