Improvement of the identification of four heavy metals in environmental samples by using predictive decision tree models coupled with a set of five bioluminescent bacteria

Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Apr 1;45(7):2925-31. doi: 10.1021/es1031757. Epub 2011 Feb 28.

Abstract

A primary statistical model based on the crossings between the different detection ranges of a set of five bioluminescent bacterial strains was developed to identify and quantify four metals which were at several concentrations in different mixtures: cadmium, arsenic III, mercury, and copper. Four specific decision trees based on the CHAID algorithm (CHi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector type) which compose this model were designed from a database of 576 experiments (192 different mixture conditions). A specific software, 'Metalsoft', helped us choose the best decision tree and a user-friendly way to identify the metal. To validate this innovative approach, 18 environmental samples containing a mixture of these metals were submitted to a bioassay and to standardized chemical methods. The results show on average a high correlation of 98.6% for the qualitative metal identification and 94.2% for the quantification. The results are particularly encouraging, and our model is able to provide semiquantitative information after only 60 min without pretreatments of samples.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteria / drug effects*
  • Decision Support Techniques
  • Decision Trees*
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Luminescent Measurements
  • Metals, Heavy / analysis
  • Metals, Heavy / toxicity*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / toxicity*
  • Water Pollution, Chemical / statistics & numerical data

Substances

  • Metals, Heavy
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical