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Improving sample representativeness in environmental studies: a major component for the uncertainty budget

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Abstract

For environmental quality assessment, INAA has been applied for determining chemical elements in small (200 mg) and large (200 g) samples of leaves from 200 trees. By applying the Ingamells’ constant, the expected percent standard deviation was estimated in 0.9–2.2% for 200 mg samples. Otherwise, for composite samples (200 g), expected standard deviation varied from 0.5 to 10% in spite of analytical uncertainties ranging from 2 to 30%. Results thereby suggested the expression of the degree of representativeness as a source of uncertainty, contributing for increasing of the reliability of environmental studies mainly in the case of composite samples.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (Process number 03/01075-2) for financial support. This work was also supported by the Programme Alβan, The European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin America, scholarship no. E04D041455BR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de São Paulo, P.O. Box 96, Piracicaba, SP, 13400-970, Brazil

    Elvis J. De França, Elisabete A. De Nadai Fernandes & Márcio A. Bacchi

  2. Reactor Institute of Delft, Section of Radiation and Isotopes for Health, Department of Radiation, Radionuclides and Reactors, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB, Delft, The Netherlands

    Peter Bode & Rob T. M. van Soldt

Authors
  1. Elvis J. De França
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  2. Elisabete A. De Nadai Fernandes
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  3. Márcio A. Bacchi
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  4. Peter Bode
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  5. Rob T. M. van Soldt
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Correspondence to Elvis J. De França.

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De França, E.J., De Nadai Fernandes, E.A., Bacchi, M.A. et al. Improving sample representativeness in environmental studies: a major component for the uncertainty budget. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 282, 125 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-009-0326-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-009-0326-x

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