Homogeneity testing of microanalytical reference materials by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA)

Homogeneity testing of candidate reference materials requires distinguishing the effects of measurement uncertainty of the analytical method from true compositional variations within the material. Many in situ microanalytical techniques do not allow classical ANOVA homogeneity testing due to the infeasibility of truly replicated analyses on the same analysis volume. This also applies to the analysis of beam-sensitive and light element-bearing materials by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). This reality has led me to reconsider the homogeneity index approach used in the testing of microanalytical reference materials by EPMA. Based on statistical considerations, I show that the homogeneity index is suitable for statistical significance testing using F and chi-squared statistics and allows estimating the contribution of compositional heterogeneity to the total uncertainty budget of the referenced values. However, there are problems of bias and masking of small compositional variations by measurement uncertainty. This contribution shows the strong impact of the total number of measurements on the resolution of a microanalytical homogeneity study and discusses how to quantify the relative contribution of heterogeneity to the total uncertainty budget. I present an example of EPMA to illustrate this approach and show some pitfalls and limitations in its application.     

纳米计量学的基础技术组件

为了满足ASTROD激光宇航动力学任务慨念计划的高精度要求 ,以及实现新质量标准 ,我们开始进行次纳米激光测长与纳米定位控制的研究。本文将回顾我们在清华大学与工研院测量中心的研究成果 ,介绍如何利用外差式激光干涉仪、挠性微动台与压电陶瓷 ,进行次纳米激光测长与纳米定位控制。此研究成果将做为ASTROD计划中 ,无拖曳航天技术的研发基础。之后讨论如何将纳米定位控制系统与扫描穿隧显微镜进行整合 ,完成计量型扫描穿隧显微镜 ,进一步将微结构的测量尺寸直接追溯至长度标准。     

井下巷道围岩变形的散斑分析法

通过对散斑计量法原理分析、数学描述及观测实例的论述,证明激光散斑法是研究煤矿地下结构物相似模型变形状态的一种新的无损检测技术,若采用白光作为光源,该项技术可用于二维变形场的实地测试。     

Remote spectral imaging with simultaneous extraction of 3D topography for historical wall paintings

PRISMS (Portable Remote Imaging System for Multispectral Scanning) is designed for in situ, simultaneous high resolution spectral and 3D topographic imaging of wall paintings and other large surfaces. In particular, it can image at transverse resolutions of tens of microns remotely from distances of tens of metres, making high resolution imaging possible from a fixed position on the ground for areas at heights that is difficult to access. The spectral imaging system is fully automated giving 3D topographic mapping at millimetre accuracy as a by-product of the image focusing process. PRISMS is the first imaging device capable of both 3D mapping and spectral imaging simultaneously without additional distance measuring devices. Examples from applications of PRISMS to wall paintings at a UNESCO site in the Gobi desert are presented to demonstrate the potential of the instrument for large scale 3D spectral imaging, revealing faded writing and material identification.     

Recent advances and low cost concept for the gamma-ray lens project MAX

Until recently, focusing of gamma-radiation was regarded as an impracticable task. Today, gamma-ray lenses have become feasible and present promising perspectives for future instrumentation. For the first time in high energy astronomy the signal/noise ratio will be dramatically improved as gamma-rays are collected on the large area of a lens from where they are focused onto a small detector. Besides an unprecedented sensitivity, MAX will feature very high angular and energy resolution. The conjunction of this new technique of Gamma Ray focusing and the new possibilities brought by the developping formation flying technology will allow a great step for Gamma Astronomy. This paper will describe after a short recall of the scientific objectives of MAX, the design of the MAX formation flying concept and the associated main design drivers and constraint.     

Rethinking economy

Rethinking economy requires rethinking the relationship between economics and its object. The economy is a recent product of socio-technical practice, including the practice of academic economics. Previously, the term “economy” referred to ways of managing resources and exercising power. In the mid-twentieth century, it became an object of power and knowledge. Rival metrological projects brought the economy into being. The development of the modern electricity industry illustrates the kind of work involved. It required new technical processes, new forms of distribution, addressing, and monitoring, new forms of calculation that were simultaneously electrical, chemical, economic, and social. Analyses of how the economic is embedded in social ties or in cultural meanings cannot understand these intersecting projects. The projects that form the economy involve the work of economics. Economic knowledge does not represent the economy from some place outside. It participates in making sites where its facts can survive. The case of an economic research project on property rights in Peru illustrates how this happens. Economic facts were established in a world that was organized, through specific projects, such as the property titling programs of Hernando de Soto, to enable economic knowledge to be made. There is no simple divide between a virtual world of economic theory and a real world outside it. Every economic project involves multiple arrangements of the simulated and that to which it refers.     

Phase errors in accelerometer arrays: An analysis based on collocated sensors and FEM

The error properties of arrays of accelerometers were studied on the basis of systematic experiments and analysis of the differences in the recordings of collocated sensors. Four identical tri-axial force-balance accelerometers with common recordings and time stamping, were set at symmetrical positions on a prototype oscillator, a T-type inverted pendulum, and were subject to controlled excitations. Based on Finite Element Modeling (FEM) the response of the oscillator was modeled and there were identified time series of acceleration of different collocated sensors predicted to be identical (“comparable”). The differences of the corresponding “comparable” measurement time series, which are functions only of noise, were found important, indicating that the accelerometer arrays are characterized by significant dynamic noise and not by low-amplitude Gaussian noise, as is widely assumed.Further analysis of time series of accelerometer noise was based on spectral analysis techniques in the frequency and the time domain and on coherence, on filtering and on cross-correlation, as well as on examination of the impact of noise in the drift (errors computation of displacements using double numerical integration).The output of this study is that phase noise (jitter, or phase instability) characterizes accelerometers, as in the case with all other array sensors and sensor networks and this is a main source of dynamic noise. The latter becomes significant especially at the level of sampling interval (0.005 sec in our experiments), characterizes strong motions, is not constant and may be regarded as instrument-specific noise. Strategies to overcome this dynamic noise important for the modeling of structural response are discussed.     

Close range photogrammetry for industrial applications

This article summarizes recent developments and applications of digital photogrammetry in industrial measurement. Industrial photogrammetry covers a wide field of different practical challenges in terms of specified accuracy, measurement speed, automation, process integration, cost-performance ratio, sensor integration and analysis. On-line and off-line systems are available, offering general purpose systems on the one hand and specific turnkey systems for individual measurement tasks on the other. Verification of accuracy and traceability to standard units with respect to national and international standards is inevitable in industrial practice. System solutions can be divided into the measurement of discrete points, deformations and motions, 6DOF parameters, 3D contours and 3D surfaces. Recent and future developments concentrate on higher dynamic applications, integration of systems into production chains, multi-sensor solutions and still higher accuracy and lower costs.     

Sorption of Iron on Surfaces: Modelling,Data Evaluation,and Measurement Uncertainty

Assessment of the likely outcome of engineered invention strategies in acid mine drainage often involves complex geochemical modelling activities. Geochemical modelling is based on chemical thermodynamic data. In addition sorption models, kinetical reaction rates and transport tools are included into the modelling codes because the interactions between solution components and surfaces, reaction time and transport are considered important features characterising the site‐specific situation. In the determination of both thermodynamic data and sorption coefficients, speciation calculations play an important role. By applying the probabilistic speciation code Ljungskile to some simplified acid mine drainage scenarios, the strong impact of chemical speciation on the complete measurement uncertainty budget of geochemical modelling predictions is shown. The complete measurement uncertainty budget in combination with other metrological concepts like traceability is an essential element of quality assurance for experimental data. The elements of quality assurance are provided by international agreements and normative documents on national and international levels. The following discussion will focus on some metrological issues of sorption data.