BSI Group Chairman Sir David John in China to Meet Customers and Consolidate Relations with the Chinese Standards Community

On 29th November 2004, BSI Group Chairman Sir David John and senior colleagues were in Beijing to meet with Management Systems’ clients of the BSI Group and to consolidate already established relationships with the Chinese standards community. This trip came in the wake of last year’s visit of the Group Chairman to Beijing and Shanghai, which paved the way for the signing of a cooperation agreement between BSI and the Standardization Adminis-

Matrix effect suppressing in the element analysis of soils by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with acoustic correction

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS)has been used for soil analysis,but its measurement accuracy is often influenced by matrix effects of different kinds of soils.In this work,a method for matrix effect suppressing was developed using laser-induced plasma acoustic signals to correct the original spectrum,thereby improving the analysis accuracy of the soil elements.A good linear relationship was investigated firstly between the original spectral intensity and the acoustic signals.The relative standard deviations(RSDs)of Mg,Ca,Sr,and Ba elements were then calculated for both the original spectrum and the spectrum with the acoustic correction,and the RSDs were significantly reduced with the acoustic correction.Finally,calibration curves of MgⅠ285.213 nm,CaⅠ422.673 nm,SrⅠ460.733 nm and BaⅡ455.403 nm were established to assess the analytical performance of the proposed acoustic correction method.The values of the determination coefficient(R~2)of the calibration curves for Mg,Ca,Sr,and Ba elements,corrected by the acoustic amplitude,are improved from 0.9845,0.9588,0.6165,and 0.6490 to 0.9876,0.9677,0.8768,and 0.8209,respectively.The values of R~2 of the calibration curves corrected by the acoustic energy are further improved to 0.9917,0.9827,0.8835,and 0.8694,respectively.These results suggest that the matrix effect of LIBS on soils can be clearly improved by using acoustic correction,and acoustic energy correction works more efficiently than acoustic amplitude correction.This work provides a simple and efficient method for correcting matrix effects in the element analysis of soils by acoustic signals.

Evaluation of Uncertainty for Determination of Stevioside Content in Fermented Milk by HPLC

[Objectives]The paper was to establish an evaluation method for the uncertainty of stevioside(including stevioside,rebaudioside A,rebaudioside B,rebaudioside C,rebaudioside F,Dulcoside A,rubusoside and steviolbioside)content determination in fermented milk based on HPLC.[Methods]The mathematical model of stevioside content and the propagation rate of uncertainty were established,and the sources of uncertainty were analyzed.[Results]The uncertainty mainly came from four main aspects,including standard uncertainty u(C)introduced by solution concentration C,standard uncertainty u(V)introduced by sample volume V,standard uncertainty u(m)introduced by sample mass m weighing and standard uncertainty u(f_(rep))introduced by measurement repeatability of stevioside content after sample dissolution and constant volume.The uncertainty estimation table and fishbone chart of stevioside content X determination were established.The relative synthetic standard uncertainty of stevioside content was obtained,and the standard uncertainty was extended to form the measurement result of stevioside content and its uncertainty report.[Conclusions]The evaluation results can be directly applied to the daily practical detection work.

Parameters Optimization of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Experimental Setup for the Case with Beam Expander

Improvement of measurement precision and repeatability is one of the issues currently faced by the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS） technique, which is expected to be capable of precise and accurate quantitative analysis. It was found that there was great potential to improve the signal quality and repeatability by reducing the laser beam divergence angle using a suitable beam expander （BE）. In the present work, the influences of several experimental parameters for the case with BE are studied in order to optimize the analytical performances： the signal to noise ratio （SNR） and the relative standard deviation （RSD）. We demonstrate that by selecting the optimal experimental parameters, the BE-included LIBS setup can give higher SNR and lower RSD values of the line intensity normalized by the whole spectrum area. For validation purposes, support vector machine （SVM） regression combined with principal component analysis （PCA） was used to establish a calibration model to realize the quantitative analysis of the ash content. Good agreement has been found between the laboratory measurement results from the LIBS method and those from the traditional method. The measurement accuracy presented here for ash content analysis is estimated to be 0.31%, while the average relative error is 2.36%.

A newfangled study using risk silhouette and uncertainty approximation for quantification of acyclovir in diverse formulation

Risk assessment and uncertainty approximation are two major and important parameters that need to be adopted for the development of pharmaceutical process to ensure reliable results.Additionally,there is a need to switch from the traditional method validation checklist to provide a high level of assurance of method reliability to measure quality attribute of a drug product.In the present work,evaluation of risk profile,combined standard uncertainty and expanded uncertainty in the analysis of acyclovir were studied.Uncertainty was calculated using cause-effect approach,and to make it more accurately applicable a method was validated in our laboratory as per the ICH guidelines.While assessing the results of validation,the calibration model was justified by the lack of fit and Levene＇s test.Risk profile represents the future applications of this method.In uncertainty the major contribution is due to sample concentration and mass.This work demonstrates the application of theoretical concepts of calibration model tests,relative bias,risk profile and uncertainty in routine methods used for analysis in pharmaceutical field.

Effect of the distance between focusing lens and target surface on quantitative analysis of Mn element in aluminum alloys by using filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Ultrafast laser filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy(FIBS)is a potential technique for quantitative analysis of trace elements.In this work,we investigate the effect of the distance between focusing lens and target surface on the FIBS quantitative analysis of Mn element in aluminum alloys,and several major parameters are calculated such as the linear correlation coefficient(R^2),limits of detection(LOD),relative standard deviation(RSD),and root-mean-square error of cross-validations(RMSECV).The results show that the quantitative analysis parameter values before and after filament position are different.The optimal value can be obtained at the filament region,the average values of total 23 positions of R^2,LOD,RSD,and RMAECV were 99.45%,1.41 mg/kg,7.12%,and 0.56%,respectively.Besides,the spatial distributions of quantitative analysis parameter values in filament region are noticeable,and this is essentially due to intensity clamping effect in a filament.

Major elements analysis in bituminous coals under different ambient gases by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with PLS modeling

Three major elements, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, in twenty-four bituminous coal samples, were measured by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. Argon and helium were applied as ambient gas to enhance the signals and eliminate the interference of nitrogen from surrounding air. The relative standard deviation of the related emission lines and the performance in the partial least squares （PLS） modeling were compared for different ambient environments. The results showed that argon not only improved the intensity, but also reduced signal fluctuation. The PLS model also had the optimal performance in multi-element analysis using argon as ambient gas. The root mean square error of prediction of carbon concentration decreased from 4.25% in air to 3.49% in argon, while the average relative error reduced from 4.96% to 2.98%. Hydrogen line demonstrated similar improvement. Yet, the nitrogen lines were too weak to be detected even in an argon environment which suggested the nitrogen signal measured in air come from the breakdown of nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere.

Estimation of particle depth from two defocused images using the Fourier transform

Depth from defocus is one technology for depth estimation.We estimate particle depth information from two defocused images captured simultaneously by two coaxial cameras with different imaging distances.The images are processed with the Fourier transform to obtain the characteristic parameter(i.e.,the standard deviation of the relative blur kernel of these two defocused images).First,we theoretically analyze the functional relationship between the object depth and the standard deviation or variation of the relative blur kernel.Then,we verify the relationship experimentally.We analyze the influence of particle size,window size and image noise on the calibration curves using both numerical simulations and experiments.We obtain the depth range and accuracy of this measurement system experimentally.For the verification experiments,we use a sample of glass microbeads and the irregularly-shaped dust particles on a microscope slide.Both of these experiments present a suitable depth measurement result.Finally,we apply the measuring system to the depth estimation of drops from a small anti-fogging spray.The results show that our system and image processing algorithm are robust for different types of particles,facilitating the in-line three-dimensional positioning of particles.

Optimizing flow field in an SCR system of a 600 MW power plant:effects of static mixer alignment style

The fluid flow in a selective catalytic reduction(SCR)system of a 600 MW power station is optimized using the numerical simulation method in this work.Given that guide plates and straightening gratings are properly installed,the relative standard deviation(C_(v))of velocity related to the inlet of an ammonia injection grid(AIG)and catalysts satisfy the engineering demand of<15%,suggesting that a relatively uniform velocity field is obtained.The in-line arrangement of static mixers strengthens the disturbance of fluid,promoting the mixing of reductant NH_(3)with flue gas.The NH_(3)mole fraction C_(v)value correlated to the inlet of catalysts drops to ca.3.5%,which is lower than that in the cases when the mixers are aligned in a staggered style.These results indicate that a solid foundation is achieved for the effective abatement of NO_(x)in practical applications.