Data reporting laboratory accreditation

The solar to electric power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells of laboratory scale (0.158 cm2), validated by an accredited photovoltaic calibration laboratory, has reached 11.1% under standard reporting conditions, i.e., air mass 1.5 global sunlight at 1000 Wm-2 intensity and 298 K temperature, rendering it a credible alternative to conventional p-n junction photovoltaic devices [68]. Photovoltaic performance data obtained with a sandwich cell under illumination by simulated AM 1.5 solar light using complex 26 are shown in Fig. 16. At 1 sun the 26-sensitized solar cell exhibited 17.73 =b 0.5 mA current, 846 mV potential, and a fill factor of 0.75 yielding an overall conversion efficiency of 11.18%. 

Work performed in a laboratory must be traceable. This is achieved when all relevant information from sample preparation to experiments and reporting of data are recorded on paper or stored in a computer. In practice, this requires a quality management system of the laboratory. Continued effort toward good quality practice in the laboratory and, if possible, national accreditation of the laboratory (testing methods) is recommended. 

Quality Control Data. Data obtained from assays of blood gas and pH control materials may be handled in the same way as data from other clinical chemistry determinations (i.e., mean, SD, and coefficient of variation, and control and confidence limits for construction of Levey-Jennings plots). As stability of commercial aqueous control materials is generally several months, vendors often provide data reduction programs that standardize and simplify documentation. However, the resulting reports are temporally delayed and are most useful for meeting accreditation requirements as opposed to real-time corrective or preventive action. They are however useful to compare long-term performances with other laboratories. Equally important features of quality assurance to an active blood gas service are the sixth sense of practiced operators for detecting subtle manifestations of deterioration of instrument performance and the suspicion of trouble expressed by clinicians. 

In contrast, ACR emphasizes the quality control, calibration of the equipment, and technology used in the procedures, and accordingly has developed three modules - module 1 for oncology, module 2 for brain, and module 3 for heart. A PET center must apply for all modules that are performed at the facility. For accreditation, the facility is required to submit information on the quality control and quality assurance program, data collection, reporting, radiopharmaceuticals procedures, and laboratory safety, along with chnical and approved phantom images. So, all equipment in a PET center is required to be calibrated and tested for accurate functionahty for accreditation by ACR. 

And accreditation for each determinand for which monitoring data are reported is crucial to demonstrate the competence of the laboratory in the analysis of those... 

Figure 1 Averaged distribution of adverse reports obtained on urine A samples emitted by all the IOC accredited laboratories in the recent years following the classes of prohibited substance. (Adapted from original 1995-2000 data released previously by IOC see, for example, www.olympic.org.)...

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