Uptake and depuration of paralytic shellfish toxins in the green-lipped mussel, Perna viridis, were investigated by exposing the mussels to dinoflagellates (Alexandrium tamarense, ACTI01) under laboratory conditions for 8 d, then depurating them in clean seawater for 14 d. First-order linear differential equations were set up for five tissue compartments: Viscera, gill, hepatopancreas, adductor...

An allometric scaling approach has been used to calculate biological half-lives of elimination (TB1/2) and concentration factors (CF) for radionuclides in marine biota. Power functions of organism mass are fitted to a biokinetic database for plankton, seaweed, fish, crustaceans and molluscs, using data generated by us, in combination with reviewed data. Scaling of the CF to M−0.26±0.09 is obser...

The lung dose contributed from thoron (Rn) and its progeny was usually neglected in the dose assessment because of the generally low concentrations. Recently, increased concentrations of Rn and its progeny were measured in the traditional residential dwellings in China, in dwellings in India and in other countries. The potential alpha energy concentration contributed from Rn and its decay produ...

Gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) have promising potential for diverse biological application, but it has not been completely determined whether Au-NP has potential toxicity in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, toxicity of Au-NP was evaluated in human intestinal cells as well as in rats after 14-day repeated oral administration. Biokinetic study was also performed to assess oral absorption and...

Two respirometric principles are combined in an experimental setup based on a laboratory scale batch reactor and applied to the characterization of activated sludge and wastewater. In the first respirometric principle the temporary disturbance of the dissolved oxygen concentration in the reactor is used to estimate the respiration rate. To this end, the oxygen mass-transfer must be calculated a...

Diffusion rates of numerous trace elements in bone at 20 °C were determined using laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis of experimentally induced diffusion profiles. Diffusivities are about 1 order of magnitude slower than current semiquantitative geochemical views and about 1.5 orders of magnitude faster than indirect radiotracer estimates. Intrabone volume diffu...

Significant uncertainty is known to be present in the internal radiation dose assessments for intakes of uranium compounds. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the sources of the uncertainty in the dose assessment and in particular the biokinetic models used to describe the movement of uranium in the body. A variety of numerical and statistical approaches have been used to explore the unc...