The international standard, ISO/IEC 17025 was developed to determine technical competenceand to evaluate laboratories throughout the world. Accreditation bodies playing a vitalrole are increasingly using proficiency testing methodology as a tool to ensure thecredibility of their accreditation programs. The successful completion of a well-designedproficiency test can validate the measurement method and uncertainty budgets of a testinglaboratory. Additionally, proficiency tests can provide a good indication about thequality of the test results. An important part of inter-laboratory comparisons andproficiency testing is the determination of the associated error analyses which arefocused on uncertainty values. This paper presents the implementation of proficiency testsusing inter-laboratory methodology among five different acoustic laboratories. These testswere carried out on 5.27 KWCooling standard unitary air conditioner, A/C, suchas through-wall or split room standard A/C units, for the assessment of Housing &Building National Centre acoustic laboratory. Analyses of results show a good agreementfor En-Value among the selected laboratorieswhen compared with the lowest uncertainty as stated by proficiency tests standards.

In this work we present an experimental investigation of the employment usage application of the vertical pixel binning (PB) option for PIV (particle image velocimetry) measurements. The PB option increases the speed of a CCD, at the cost of loosing spatial resolution. Consequently, it is expected that PB will positively impact the dynamic velocity range of the PIV measurements. In order to show the benefit of the CCD PB option in PIV measurements, we have carried out series of microPIV experiments on laminar flows, seeded with 1 μm fluorescent polystyrene microparticles and passing through a 200 μm × 200 μm × 50000μm microchannel. The flow images were recorded at normal, 2 × 1, and 3 × 1 vertical PB modes of a monochrome CCD camera. The experimentally obtained velocity profiles were calculated using the ensemble-averaged cross-correlation method and Gaussian sup-pixel interpolation and then compared with theoretically calculated velocity profiles. We found that the error introduced by the PB option did not exceed the inherent uncertainty of the PIV system used. For a particular PIV system CCD camera, using the PB option allowed an increase in the dynamic velocity range of a PIV system by more than a factor of two, without extra investments.

A Proficiency Test Scheme (PTS) for histamine analysis in fishery products using the Lerke and Bell (1976) fluorometric method was conducted in 26 different Moroccan laboratories. The goal of this PTS was to assess the abilities of a network of seven government laboratories and 19 laboratories performing auto-controls on fish processing units in Morocco. The samples used in the PTS were prepared from canned ground mackerel flesh, to which was added two significant concentrations (levels 1 and 2) of histamine. The homogeneity of the PTS samples was verified by a repeatability test and their stability by an intermediate fidelity test. The Cochran test was used to eradicate anomalous scattering and the Grubbs test to eradicate the anomalous averages observed in the results of the participating laboratories. The average and the usual deviations determined for levels 1 and 2 were used to calculate the Z-scores. For level 1 therefore, 23 out of 26 laboratories had satisfactory PTS results, and for level 2, 21 out of 26 laboratories had satisfactory PTS results. An analysis of the PTS samples using the HPLC reference method gave similar results for levels 1 and 2.

The behaviour of piston-cylinder operated pressure balances is characterized by thedistortion coefficient λ and zero-pressure effective areaA0 which model the variation of a pressure balance’s area interms of the applied pressure. This paper determines the uncertainties inλ and A0 when utilizing the method ofcross-floating with another pressure balance standard whose parameters and associateduncertainties are known. A limitation that is frequently encountered in many attempts ofthe uncertainty analysis for a pressure balance is that no readily accessible uncertaintyquantification framework for the distortion coefficient is present. As a result theuncertainty in a pressure balance’s area at elevated applied pressures is typicallyunderestimated in the absence of this uncertainty information. We firstly review theuncertainty formulation for a pressure balance generated pressure involving correlationeffects in terms of an implicit multivariate matrix equation approach and then utilizingthe resulting solution present the methodology to consistently perform the uncertaintyanalysis for λ and A0.

This paper describes a new approach for the analysis of signals containing fluctuating harmonics. It is based on the Fourier transform, using windowing to reduce the error arising from analysing the signal over a non integer number of signal periods and an iterative process intended to estimate and correct the errors. Some simulations have been performed to prove the efficiency of the method and showed that the final error arising from the computation generally ranges between a few parts in 1010 and a few parts in 1015.

Medical measurements are present in the everyday life of people and are fundamental processes in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. Therefore, a growing interest lies in the role of metrological decisions and conformity assessment, namely where measurements are in support of health. This paper focuses on the use of medical devices looking to enhance its metrological traceability, highlighting the specific role of metrology in the field of health care and the impact of legal control in the framework of the medical devices regulation with a measuring function. It is proposed a new regulatory approach for medical devices in use, facing the convergence between European policy enforcement and Metrological regulations.

The accuracy of thermal conductivity measurements is even more requested for materialscharacterization in energy-efficient buildings field. ENEA-UTTMATF and CertiMaC researchgroup, as national institute and private laboratory respectively, cooperate in developmentof new measurement and analysis methods applied to buildings materials and theirperformances. For what concerns this kind of measurements, an Heat Flow-meter Transducer(HFT) is used. In order to give to both customers and other research institutes involvedin the same field (e.g. International Comparison or International Round Robin Tests) themost exhaustive evaluation of the tested material thermal conductivity, a completeuncertainty analysis is implemented on the HFT measures. This uncertainty analysis,developed accordingly to the international standards and with the contribution of INRiMInstitute, is described in this paper.