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Uncertainty evaluation in normalization of isotope delta measurement results against international reference materials

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Abstract

Isotope delta measurements are normalized against international reference standards. Although multi-point normalization is becoming a standard practice, the existing uncertainty evaluation practices are either undocumented or are incomplete. For multi-point normalization, we present errors-in-variables regression models for explicit accounting of the measurement uncertainty of the international standards along with the uncertainty that is attributed to their assigned values. This manuscript presents framework to account for the uncertainty that arises due to a small number of replicate measurements and discusses multi-laboratory data reduction while accounting for inevitable correlations between the laboratories due to the use of identical reference materials for calibration. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods of uncertainty analysis are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors have benefited from discussions with Blaza Toman, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Measurement Science and Standards, National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0R6, Canada

    Juris Meija & Michelle M. G. Chartrand

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  1. Juris Meija
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  2. Michelle M. G. Chartrand
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Correspondence to Juris Meija.

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Electronic supplementary material

The Electronic Supporting information contains all relevant R codes in an Excel file from where they can be executed with the help of Excel-R interface made possible by the R package excel.link.

Published in the topical collection celebrating ABCs 16th Anniversary.

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Meija, J., Chartrand, M.M.G. Uncertainty evaluation in normalization of isotope delta measurement results against international reference materials. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 1061–1069 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0659-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0659-1

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