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ANALYTICAL METHOD COMPARISONS BY ESTIMATES OF PRECISION AND LOWER DETECTION LIMIT
Citation:
Holland, D. AND F. McElroy. ANALYTICAL METHOD COMPARISONS BY ESTIMATES OF PRECISION AND LOWER DETECTION LIMIT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-86/377 (NTIS PB87203089), 1986.
Description:
The paper describes the use of principal component analysis to estimate the operating precision of several different analytical instruments or methods simultaneously measuring a common sample of a material whose actual value is unknown. This approach is advantageous when none of the analytical instruments or methods is sufficiently superior to the others to serve as a reference. It also avoids the need for costly experimental designs requiring testing of duplicate instruments. Principal component analysis utilizes the results from tests of three or more analytical instruments or methods measuring common or identical material samples to provide a composite reference value for the material that can be assumed to approximate the true analytical value. From these composite values, estimates of the operating precision for each of the instruments or methods can be developed.