scholarly journals Assessment of the Equivalence of Low-Cost Sensors with the Reference Method in Measuring PM10 Concentration Using Selected Correction Functions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5368
Author(s):  
Tomasz Owczarek ◽  
Mariusz Rogulski ◽  
Piotr O. Czechowski

The aim of the work is to demonstrate the possibility of building models to correct the results of measurements of particulate matter PM10 concentrations obtained using low-cost devices. Such devices apply the optical method to values comparable with those obtained using the reference gravimetric method. An additional goal is to show that the results corrected in this way can be used to carry out the procedure for testing equivalence of these methods. The study used generalized regression models (GRMs) to construct corrective functions. The constructed models were assessed using the coefficients of determination and the methodology of calculating the measurement uncertainty of the device. Measurement data from the two tested devices and the reference method were used to estimate model parameters. The measurement data were collected on a daily basis from 1 February to 30 June 2018 in Nowy Sącz. Regression allowed building multiple models with various functional forms and very promising statistical properties as well as good ability to describe the variability of reference measurements. These models also had very low values of measurement uncertainty. Of all the models constructed, a linear model using the original PM10 concentrations from the tested devices, air humidity, and wind speed was chosen as the most accurate and simplest model. Apart from the coefficient of determination, expanded relative uncertainty served as the measure of quality of the obtained model. Its small value, much lower than 25%, indicates that after correcting the results it is possible to carry out the equivalence testing procedure for the low-cost devices and confirm the equivalence of the tested method with the reference method.

Author(s):  
Úrsula Ribeiro ◽  
Leonardo Queiroz ◽  
Agide Marassi ◽  
André Carvalho ◽  
Gabriel Barros ◽  
...  

Growth in the international popularity of Brazil nuts oil (Bertholletia excelsa, Bonpl.) has demanded a closer look at quality aspects of the nuts. In this context, time-domain 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (TD-NMR) can be a useful tool for assessing the lipid portion of such matrices. In this work, a TD-NMR method was developed and validated to assess the oil content directly from Brazil nuts following the ISO 10565:1998 and DOQ-CGCRE-008. Full validation was addressed covering the working range from 0.67 to 25.00 g (coefficient of determination, R2 = 0.9993). Limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.20 and 0.67 g, respectively. The repeatability and intermediate precision assays met the guide requirements. Oil contents obtained in two laboratories (different equipment) were statistically similar (66.93 ± 4.69 and 70.13 ± 4.15%), highlighting the method’s robustness. The developed approach has the potential to be adopted as an industrial reference method for in situ monitoring of Brazil nuts oil contents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnatan D. Castro-Castro ◽  
Iván F. Macías-Quiroga ◽  
Gloria I. Giraldo-Gómez ◽  
Nancy R. Sanabria-González

Clay minerals can be modified organically by a cationic surfactant resulting in materials known as organoclays. The organoclays have been used as adsorbents of most of the organic contaminants in the aqueous solution and oxyanions of the heavy metal. In this study, a Colombian bentonite was modified with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide to obtain an organobentonite, and its capacity to adsorb Cr(VI) oxyanions in the aqueous solution was evaluated. The effect of pH, stirring speed, adsorbent amount, contact time, and ionic strength were investigated at 25°C. Stirring speeds above 200 rpm, contact times greater than 120 min, and the addition of NaCl (0.1 to 2.0 mM) did not have a significant effect on Cr(VI) removal. The influence of the adsorbent amount and pH on Cr(VI) adsorption was studied by the response surface methodology (RSM) approach based on a complete factorial design 32. Results proved that the Cr(VI) adsorption follows a quadratic model with high values of coefficient of determination (R2 = 95.1% and adjusted R2 = 93.9%). The optimal conditions for removal of Cr(VI) from an aqueous solution of 50 mg/L were pH of 3.4 and 0.44 g amount of the adsorbent. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models, and the model parameters were evaluated. The maximum adsorption capacity of Cr(VI) onto organobentonite calculated from the Langmuir model equation was 10.04 ± 0.34 mg/g at 25°C. The results suggest that organobentonite is an effective adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal, with the advantage of being a low-cost material.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Frei ◽  
Illias Hischier ◽  
Chirag Deb ◽  
Diego Sigrist ◽  
Arno Schlueter

Retrofitting buildings is essential for improving the existing global building stock. Innovations in wireless sensor networks have provided new means for scalable and potentially low-cost solutions for evaluating optimal retrofit measures in a building. Building models are used to explore different retrofit options and to find effective combinations of retrofit measures for a building in question. This paper departs outlining a novel grey-box modeling process for building retrofit based on measurement data. However, it is unknown if the measurement data and, as a consequence, the retrofit analysis is affected by uncertainties due to measurement accuracy and other factors. Quantifying these uncertainties during the analysis process is important in the context of making effective retrofit decisions. Consequently, this work examines the influence of measurement uncertainties on the generation of the retrofit models and the suggested retrofit measures. The results illustrate that measurement uncertainty is manageable for retrofit decisions, i.e., the measurement uncertainties rarely influence the ranking of retrofit measures. However, reduced measurement uncertainties are beneficial for adequately sizing the building retrofit interventions. It is shown that measurement uncertainty of flow meter measurements and indoor temperature measurements have the biggest impact on the heat loss coefficient estimation error, which ranges overall from 3 to 26%. Further, it is shown that some retrofit measures are more sensitive to uncertainty in the input data, such as district heating and wood pellets boilers, compared to measures that include heat pumps.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-347
Author(s):  
Chi Doan Thien Nguyen ◽  
Hien Thi To

Introduction: Continuous monitoring provides real-time data which is helpful for measuring air quality; however, these systems are often very expensive, especially for developing countries such as Vietnam. The use of low-cost sensors for monitoring air pollution is a new approach in Vietnam and this study assesses the utility of low-cost, light-scattering-based, particulate sensors for measuring PM2.5 concentrations in Ho Chi Minh City. Methods: The low-cost sensors were compared with both a Beta attenuation monitor (BAM) reference method and a gravimetric method during the rainy season period of October to December 2018. Results: The results showed that there was a very strong correlation between two low-cost sensors (R = 0.97, slope = 1.0), and that the sensor precision varied from 0 to 21.4% with a mean of 3.1%. Both one-minute averaged data and one-hour averaged data showed similar correlations between sensors and BAM (R2 = 0.62 and 0.69, respectively), while 24-hour averaged data showed excellent agreement (R2 = 0.95, slope = 1.05). In addition, we also found a strong correlation between those instruments and a gravimetric method using 24-hour averaged data. A linear regression was used to calibrate the 24-hour averaged sensor data and, once calibrated, the bias dropped to zero. Conclusion: These results show that low-cost sensors can be used for daily measurements of PM2.5 concentrations in Ho Chi Minh City. The effect of air conditions, such as temperature and humidity, should be conducted. Moreover, technical methods to improve time resolution of lowcost sensors need to be developed and applied in order to provide real-time measurements at an inexpensive cost.  


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