Air samples from a plant engaged in recycling electronics goods, a factory assembling printed circuit boards, a computer repair facility, offices equipped with computers, and outdoor air have been analyzed with respect to their content of brominated hydrocarbon and phosphate ester flame retardants. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polybrominated biphenyls, 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-ethane, tetrabromobisphenol A, and organophosphate esters were all detected in the indoor air samples, with the highest concentrations being detected in air from the recycling plant. In air from the dismantling hall at the recycling plant the average concentrations of decabromodiphenyl ether, tetrabromobisphenol A, and triphenyl phosphate were 38, 55, and 58 pmol/m3, respectively. Significantly higher levels of all of these additives were present in air in the vicinity of the shredder at the dismantling plant. This is the first time that 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-ethane and several arylated phosphate esters are reported to be contaminants of air in occupational settings. At all of the other sites investigated, low levels of flame retardants were detected in the indoor air. Flame retardants associated with airborne particles, present at elevated levels, pose a potential health hazard to the exposed workers.

Nine organophosphate esters, which are commercially used as plasticizers and/or flame retardants, were identified and quantified in air samples from some common indoor work environments, i.e., an office building, a day care center, and three school buildings. One of the compounds was identified as tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate, a substance that has been shown to be a neurotoxic and genotoxic agent. The concentration levels of this substance were found to be as high as 250 ng/m 3 . In order to examine whether the organophosphates were transferred from the outdoor air, the occurrence of organophosphates in outdoor ambient air was investigated. The levels of the individual compounds in the outdoor air samples were found to be less than 1 ng/m 3 , which indicates that the main sources of organophosphates in indoor air were located indoors. A comparison between the studied indoor environments showed large differences in the concentration profiles of the nine identified compounds. This was most probably due to the large variation in indoor materials, furniture, and equipment between the different indoor work environments. A method for sampling and analysis is described and evaluated. Samples were collected by pumping air through filter and polyurethane foam plugs. At a low sampling rate, 3 L/min, the organophosphates were strongly associated with the filter, by polar interactions either directly to the filter or to the particulate phase adsorbed on the filter. Ultrasonication was shown to be a fast and efficient extraction method for all of the organophosphates studied.

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The ESS Design: Accelerator 6The ESS Design: Target 66The ESS Design: Controls 93The ESS Design: Conventional Facilities 109Physica ScriptaPhys. Scr. 93 (2018) 014001 (121pp) https://doi.org/10. 1088/1402-4896/aa9bff This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivs 3.0 licence. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivs 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Neutron scattering is a well-developed and extensively used means to get access to fundamental properties of biological matter as well as of physical materials. Until the end of the twentieth century that was mainly practiced with-and limited in performance by-the continuous flux of neutrons from ageing nuclear reactors (e.g. the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), the flagship of neutron research in Europe and in the world) [1]). Looking forward to the following two decades, an OECD report published in 1998 diagnosed the foreseeable decrease of the number of operational facilities [2] and the need to progress in performance. Considering the high scientific interest and the increasing importance of the subject for society at large, the report concluded by strongly recommending the construction of next generation neutron sources in America, Europe and Asia. Pulsed spallation neutron sources (SNS) using a proton beam power exceeding 1 MW were specifically mentioned as the most interesting high performance facilities in the future landscape of neutron laboratories.The USA was the first country to follow this advice by building the SNS in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) which started in 2006 [3, 4]. Japan followed in 2009 with the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Centre (J-PARC) in Tokai [5,6]. In Europe, the subject was part of a concerted effort to further develop the European world-leading largescale research infrastructures suite. In 2003, the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), set up by the Research Ministries of the Member States and associated countries, concluded that a 5 MW long-pulse, single target station layout with nominally 22 'public' instruments was the optimum technical reference design for an European Spallation Source (ESS) that would meet the needs of the European science community in the second quarter of the century [7].Six years later, in 2009, it materialised in a real project with the adoption of the site of Lund (Sweden). A preconstruction phase followed until the end of 2013 during which the design was finalised [8]. Construction then started with the first neutron beams planned to be available in 2019, and the ESS facility to be operational at full performance in 2025.2 Description 2.1 Principle and specifics. The high level parameters of ESS are shown in table 1. As at SNS and J-PARC, neutrons at ESS are produced by spallation, when the 2 GeV protons hit the meta...

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Triphenyl phosphate, an additive flame retardant with documented contact allergenic effects on humans, was identified in a computerized indoor office environment. The source of emission was found to be the computer video display units (VDUs). Eighteen VDUs were examined, and the outer covers were shown to contain triphenyl phosphate in levels up to 10% (w/w). When using this type of PC equipment with a brand-new VDU in a small office room, the air concentration of triphenyl phosphate raised to near 100 ng/ m 3 after 1 day of operation. The measurements were performed in the breathing zone of an imaginary operator sitting in front of the computer. After 1 week of continuous operation, the concentration of triphenyl phosphate was reduced by half. Furthermore, a decrease to approximately 10 ng/m 3 could be observed after 183 days, which corresponds to more than 2 yr of ordinary business hour operation.

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Two new carboxylate-containing polydentate ligands have been synthesized, the symmetric ligand 2,6-bis[N-(N-(carboxylmethyl)-N-((1-methylimidazol)methyl)amine)methyl]-4-methylphenolate (BCIMP) and the corresponding asymmetric ligand 2-(N-isopropyl-N-((1-aminomethyl)-4-methylphenol (ICIMP). The ligands have been used to prepare model complexes for the active site of the dinuclear nickel enzyme urease, viz. [Ni(2)(BCIMP)Ac(2)](-) (6), [Ni(2)(BCIMP)(Ph(2)Ac)(2)](-) (7), [Ni(2)(ICIMP)(Ph(2)Ac)(2)] (14), [Ni(4)(ICIMP)(2)(Ph(2)Ac)(2)][ClO(4)](2) (15), [Ni(4)(ICIMP)(2)(Ph(2)Ac)(2)(DMF)(2)][ClO(4)](2) (16), and [Ni(4)(ICIMP)(2)(Ph(2)Ac)(2)(urea)(H(2)O)][ClO(4)](2) (17), where the latter complex contains urea coordinated in a unidentate fashion through the carbonyl oxygen. The N(2)O-N(2)O(2) donor set of ICIMP provides a good framework for the preparation of urease models, but in some cases tetranuclear nickel complexes are formed due to coordination of the carboxylate moiety of one dinickel-ICIMP unit to one or both of the nickels of a second Ni(2) unit. Reactivity and kinetics studies of 7 and 15 show that these model complexes catalyze hydrolysis of 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate (HPNP) at basic pH. In this assay, complexes based on the asymmetric ligand ICIMP exhibit a significantly faster rate of hydrolysis than the corresponding BCIMP complexes. Magnetic measurements indicate that there are weak antiferromagnetic interactions between the nickel ions in complex 16.