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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

An Anaerobic Biosensor Assay for the Detection of Mercury and Cadmium
Published on: December 17, 2018
A Comprehensive Framework to Assess Elemental Mercury in the Department of Energy: A Time Series Analysis
Ryan T Cannady1, Cheryl Beseler1, Yeongjin Gwon1
1From the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (R.T.C.).
Objective:
This study investigated whether seasonal categories affect airborne mercury concentrations in U.S. Department of Energy operations.
Methods:
We conducted an initial assessment of the general variability of airborne elemental mercury time-weighted average samples. Then, we performed a 2-component time series analysis to determine whether long-term, cyclical temperature change patterns affect mercury concentrations.
Results:
Both ARIMA time series models demonstrated stationary, nonrandom means (χ 2 = 83.8, P < 0.001) and standard deviation (χ 2 = 55.8, P < 0.001) of mercury concentrations. Our results indicate that seasonal factors did not influence mercury concentration.
Conclusions:
Our results demonstrate that mercury concentrations primarily emanate from operational activities, work practices, and/or transient environmental conditions rather than seasonal fluctuations.
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