Sequential determination and chemical speciation analysis of inorganic As and Sb in airborne particulate matter collected in outdoor and indoor environments using slurry sampling and detection by HG AAS.

In this work, fast sequential determination and chemical speciation analysis of inorganic arsenic and antimony in airborne particulate matter collected in outdoor and indoor environments using slurry sampling and detection by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (HG-AAS) is proposed. A Doehlert design was applied to optimise the hydride generation conditions of As and Sb for fast sequential determination in the same aliquot of particulate matter samples after preparation of the slurry. The limits of quantification (LoQ) obtained for As and Sb were 0.3 and 0.9 ng m-3, respectively. The accuracy of the analytical method was confirmed by analysis of the certified reference material of urban particulate matter (SRM NIST 1648a), presenting concordance with certified values of 92.7±7.7% for As and 91.2±9.5% for Sb. Precision was expressed as relative standard deviation (% RSD, n=3), with our results presenting values better than 3.4% and 4.2% for total inorganic As and Sb, respectively. For all analysed samples, total As concentrations and its inorganic species were below the LoQ of the analytical method (<0.3 ng m-3). However, the averages of total inorganic Sb concentrations in airborne particulate matter, collected as total suspended outdoor particles (TSPoutdoor), inhalable particulate matter (PM10), and total suspended indoor particles (TSPindoor), were 3.1±0.5, 2.4±0.6, and 2.6±0.4 ng m-3, respectively. Trivalent Sb (Sb3+) was the predominant inorganic species in all samples investigated, with mean percentages of 76%, 72%, and 73% in TSPoutdoor, PM10, and TSPindoor, respectively. The presence of Sb and its predominant inorganic form (Sb3+) can be attributed to vehicular traffic close to the sampled urban areas. Therefore, fast sequential determination of As and Sb and their inorganic species in particulate matter samples prepared as slurry by FS-HG-AAS is an efficient, accurate, and precise method and can be successfully applied to routine analysis.

A estética como um valor na educação física / Aesthetic as a value in physical education

Um dos principais objetivos da educação é de dar um mundo às crianças, pelo que “nada do que é humano se deve ignorar em educação” (Patrício, 1993). A estética é um importante valor do nosso tempo, pelo que a educação terá também que a considerar ao longo do seu processo. O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar como que os sistemas educativos de Portugal e do Brasil, através dos seus documentos oficiais, abordam o valor da estética na disciplina de Educação Física. Para a realização deste trabalho utilizou-se a técnica de análise de conteúdo (Bardin, 1995; Grawitz, 1993; Silverman, 2000; Vala, 1986), tendo-se verificado que os documentos gerais sobre a educação referem a estética como um valor a desenvolver na escola mas que a disciplina de Educação Física a exclui das suas preocupações. Concluímos que há um afastamento entre os grandes valores que marcam hoje o nosso mundo e as atividades desenvolvidas na Educação Física, recomendando que esta se abra às novas atividades desportivas, que enfatizam a dimensão estética do ser humano.