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The year 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the commercialization of inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Today, there are close to 2000 ICP-MS systems installed worldwide every year, representing around [...]

Trace elements can be taken up by crops and animals from the air, water, soil, and food during growth, or introduced during food processing. Although some of these elements are [...]

The first part of this article focused on the fundamental principles of a scanning quadrupole and how measurement protocol can be optimized based on the data quality objectives of the [...]

To understand signal management in greater detail and its implications on data quality objectives, it is important to discuss how measurement protocol is optimized based on the analytical requirements and, [...]

A recent report by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the US House of Representatives found that processed baby foods from seven of the largest manufacturers are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). The report was based on internal documentation the subcommittee requested from these companies in November 2019, following an investigation alleging high levels of toxic heavy metals in both organic and conventional processed baby food cereals in 2018. Based on the report, it was clear that the companies had few concerns about the elevated levels of heavy metals in their products and, in many cases, ignored their own internal testing limits. This article takes a closer look at the congressional report and its recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce heavy metals in baby food to acceptable levels within two years. We also review the challenges and practicalities of scrutinizing the food industry that has historically been allowed to regulate itself., The recent report published by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives highlighted that processed baby foods from [...]

Introduction I. Takings, Exhaustion, Preclusion, and Removal A. Mahon: An Old Idea Renewed B. Williamson County. The Supreme Court Makes Up the State Procedures Requirement C. The San Remo Preclusion [...]

This month's 'Atomic Perspectives' column takes a look at interface cones in inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), which are probably the most critical components of the entire ICP-MS system. The [...]

I. Federal Circuit: "Economically Beneficial Use" Means More Than Someone Might Buy the Property THIRD TIME AROUND FOR LOST TREE'S TAKINGS CASE against the federal government. The first was the [...]

This month's 'Atomic Perspectives' highlights a team of geochemists at the University of Houston that has been developing methods to streamline multielement analysis for a more complete fingerprinting of oils [...]

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE SIGNIFICANT EMINENT DOMAIN CASES decided in the past year, as well as some notable inverse condemnation and property rights cases that involve issues common to eminent [...]

In this study, we report on the use of field-portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with solid-phase microextraction, purge-and-trap, thermal desorption, and heated headspace sampling techniques to provide a fast response [...]

This study describes the recovery of compounds above the boiling point of naphthalene achieved by optimizing the thermal desorption chemistry for the determination of volatile organic compounds ranging from [C.sub.3] [...]

This study describes the recovery of compounds above the boiling point of naphthalene achieved by optimizing the thermal desorption chemistry for the determination of volatile organic compounds ranging from [C.sub.3] [...]

This column installment offers some suggestions for routine maintenance and offers guidance to troubleshoot common problems encountered in inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) sample introduction. Since inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry [...]

This installment describes the development of two novel X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques that enable the rapid analysis of samples using handheld instrumentation for remote applications. Both techniques can be applied [...]

It has now been ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court, in Kelo v. City of New London, (1) raised the public consciousness about eminent domain by holding that a [...]

This installment evaluates the application requirements for the determination of 15 elemental impurities in pharmaceutical materials as described in the new United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapters and and offers suggestions [...]

This article describes a new, single method to replace the two-method approach using United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Methods TO-15 and T0-13A for the analysis of both volatile organic [...]

This article looks at recent developments in inductively coupled plasma--mass spectrometry (ICP--MS), microwave-induced plasma--optical emission spectrometry (MIP-OES), X-ray spectroscopy, and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) by exemplifying the diverse range of [...]

Both Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) are proving to be invaluable tools in the field of biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. The robust, compact, fit-for-purpose Raman spectrometer designs [...]

This article presents a set of evaluation guidelines--developed from the author's 20 years of experience demonstrating inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and ICP--mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation and running customer [...]

Both Raman spectroscopy and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) are proving to be invaluable tools in the field of biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. The robust, compact, fit-for-purpose Raman spectrometer [...]

I. Introduction Tim SUPPEME COURT'S 2012 TERM promised to be a banner year in regulatory takings law, with no less than three cases on the Court's docket. (1) In Arkansas [...]

I. Introduction IN KELO v. CITY OF NEW LONDON, (1) the United States Supreme Court held that a municipality's exercise of eminent domain power supported only by claims that doing [...]

This article describes the use of an in-line, autodilution, and autocalibration sample delivery system coupled to an inductively coupled plasma--mass spectrometry system to analyze a group of over-the-counter pharmaceutical products. [...]

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (1) defines nanotechnology as the understanding and control of materials at dimensions of 1-100 nm, where unique properties enable novel applications to be carried out. Gases, [...]

This column installment presents a novel approach to reduce plasma-, matrix-, and solvent-induced polyatomic interferences by bleeding a collision--reaction gas into the tip of the interface skimmer cone. This approach [...]

SINCE THE U.S. SUPREME COURT'S DECISION in Kelo v. City of New London, (1) much of the focus in eminent domain litigation has been on the search for standards for [...]

Earlier research has shown that adding wind generation to a network can lower the total annual operating cost by displacing conventional generation. At the same time, the variability of wind [...]

Urinary metal concentrations may be effective indicators of particulate metal fume exposure and provide a better understanding of specific exposure-response relationships if an analytical method can be developed that is [...]

THIS ARTICLE SUMMARIZES RECENT CASES IN WHICH THE ISSUE was the power of condemnors to take property, including challenges under the Public Use Clause, as well as other challenges on [...]

It is believed that firms can develop more collaborative and innovative organizations by analyzing employee collaboration networks. This will allow companies to discover how high-performing individuals and teams connect. Network analysis can help in identifying where too much connectivity slows decision making.

This study will evaluate different sampling techniques for the determination of a group of hazardous elements in printed circuit boards as defined by the European Union RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous [...]

Consideration of the origin of alluvial deposits and their paleoenvironmental interpretation has traditionally involved two schools of thought: that alluvial deposits are either the result of processes that, on average, have acted uniformly through time, or that they are related to exceptional events that occur infrequently. Despite the long-running debate of gradualism versus catastrophism within the earth sciences, there are surprisingly few quantitative data to assess the magnitude of events that produce alluvial sedimentary successions. We report on a unique natural experiment where surface (digital elevation model) and subsurface (ground penetrating radar) data were taken immediately prior to and after a large (1 in 40 yr) flood event on the sandy, braided South Saskatchewan River, Canada. Results show that although this high-magnitude flood reworked the entire braidplain, the scale of scour and style of deposition were similar to those associated with lower magnitude annual floods. The absence of a distinct imprint of this large flood within the deposits is related to the fact that as river discharge rises, and begins to flow over the bank, channel width increases at a much faster rate than flow depth, and thus the rate of increase in channel-bed shear stress declines. Hence, rather than being a product of either frequent or rare events, alluvial deposits are likely created by a range of different magnitude floods; however, discriminating between these different scale events in the rock record may be extremely difficult. doi: 10.1130/G30861.1

TRUE OR FALSE: "when the legislature has spoken, the public interest has been declared in terms well-nigh conclusive." (1) Still true, technically speaking: legislative determinations about whether a taking is [...]

The abuse of market power is a potentially serious problem for market designers. Few indices, if any, exist to measure the potential for market power in real time. In this regard, Murillo-Sanchez et al. derived an expression for a dispatch-to-price sensitivity matrix, M. The expression requires information about network topology and parameters, as well as the rules used to operate the market. While computing the matrix is conceptually easy for those with all the market and system information, such as an independent system operator, the method is probably impractical for market participants due to the inaccessibility of much of the information. In this paper, a method for estimating the M matrix by using publically available data are suggested, indicating that any market participant who does the computation will know when conditions permit them to lower or raise prices through decreased/increased bids and/or offers. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EY.1943-7897.0000019 CE Database subject headings: Electric power; Pricing; Electric transmission; Sensitivity analysis; Matrix methods; Computation. Author keywords: Dispatch sensitivity matrix; Market power; Null space; Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions; Power transfer distribution factor (PTDF) matrix.