No.2
2014
QUASIMEME
QUEST FOR QUALITY
A Newsletter of the QUASIMEME Laboratory Performance Studies
Wageningen UR, The Netherlands.
Quasimeme Project Office
It is our pleasure to introduce Winnie van Vark as the
new WEPAL/Quasimeme Manager.
the Environmental Science Group of the Wageningen
University and Research Centre. Now Winnie is very
pleased to have the opportunity to work for WEPAL
again as it brings her back to her roots: analytical
chemistry, soil and plant analysis.
New Participant’s Sites
Starting from January 2014 Bram Eijgenraam has
decided to work part time. He wants to concentrate
on the scientific content and the software of WEPAL.
This created a vacancy for the management and
acquisition of WEPAL. This vacancy is fulfilled by
Mrs. Winnie van Vark.
Winnie started her career at the Wageningen
University in 1978. She has a bachelor degree in
analytical chemistry and for 15 years was manager of
the Laboratory for Soil and Plant Analysis of the
Department of Soil Quality at the Wageningen
University. A certification from the Dutch
Accreditation Council for this laboratory became very
important for its customers. In the mid 90’s Winnie
followed several courses in good laboratory practice
and began the certification of the laboratory. Also,
Winnie was involved in the course “Soil and Plant
analysis and Data management” for foreign
laboratory managers, which was held annually for
members of WEPAL. In 2001 Winnie decided to
make a career change. She became responsible for
the management (finances, human resources and
facilities) of the two chair groups of the Department of
Soil Quality and in 2006 for the Soil Science Group of
Quasimeme would like to announce that the new
member’s website that was rolled-out in co-operation
with WEPAL in April is running well. After some initial
start-up problems we are progressing well with the
new sites. In the coming months more changes will
be made and you will be informed periodically of any
changes. The new site is known as the
Wepal/Quasimeme data-entry at
http://www.participants.wepal.nl/ .
The QUASIMEME Member’s Website offers
participants several features which will gradually
expand in the coming years. With the official launch
this year (2014) the website will feature:


Submitting data results to Quasimeme with
the ability to make changes to results prior to
the deadline without notification to the
Quasimeme Project Office;
Downloading electronic documents, such as
quarterly reports, yearly reports and
instruction manuals will be introduced as
soon as possible.
The QUASIMEME templates have changed slightly.
They are now based on the WEPAL system with
result fields for all combinations of samples and
determinands to be filled in. Quasimeme will alter this
as soon as possible to accommodate the
Quasimeme data results but in the meantime, please
QUASIMEME – Quality Assurance of Information for Marine Environmental Monitoring
No.2
2014
report only the determinands of interest to you. For
example, report only salinity for SAMPLE 1 in the
AQ2 exercise as you were only provided with one
sample for salinity. Only report AZA determinands for
the AZA standard within the BT-11 exercise etc.
At the moment there is no opportunity to report your
method s of analysis. We are working on a new
system of method information, which will be available
later this year.
You can access the Quasimeme Members Website
from our website (www.quasimeme.org) by clicking
on "Members" in the navigation list on the lefthand
menu bar. You can also find a "login" button on the
top right hand site of every page of the Quasimeme
website. Using one of these options will launch the
website below:
The new member’s website is self-explanatory and
user friendly. There is an instruction manual to
peruse if you have any questions. Simply click “Help
Website” located under documents in the navigation
list.
ElemNr,SequenceNr,Result,MIC
55,1,4.2,L|E
57,1,8.99
More detailed information can be found at the CSV
Import page of http://participants.wepal.nl
All feedback or suggestions to improve the
QUASIMEME Members Website are gratefully
accepted. We strive to improve our services to our
participants.
Outfasing Sharepoint Sites
Quasimeme Project Office would like to inform you
that the outfasing of the sharepoint sites will begin on
1 September. After the shutdown at 00.00 of the
sharepoint sites you will notice that:
-
your personal login account for the
sharepoint site will no longer be valid;
-
Round Reports and Z-score certificates
before 2014 will no longer be available.
Please download any documentation you
require now for your records.
Please contact the Quasimeme Project Office if you
require any reports after the shutdown. The
documents will always be available to you.
Print as PDF
The Print as PDF (option 1) can be used to make a
copy of the data-entry. This option is available on the
data-entry form and on for closed results. The file can
be downloaded with the name of the selected
program (file format is <program-jjjj-roundlabcode.pdf>).
Import CSV
In the data-entry webform we have added a new
function to submit the data-entry with an import file
(option 2). With this option, data-entry can be loaded
all data for the current round at once. The webform
will validate the data on errors. The format of the file
format is a comma separated file (.csv). The file
should have the following format:
ElemNr,SequenceNr,Result,MIC
MIC code is optional so can be omitted.
Reports
The reports for Round 2014.1 will be available on
your Participant Site this week. The global reports
(old style) for Round 2014.1 will be available on
the New Participant’s Site. The Lab specific reports
(new style) will become available very soon in
September.
Quasimeme LPS 2014
Passive Sampling
The Passive Sampling development exercise will go
ahead as planned in October. Quasimeme received
very good interest in this new exercise. An e-mail will
be sent to all participants informing you of the
planned dispatch date.
Example:
QUASIMEME – Quality Assurance of Information for Marine Environmental Monitoring
No.2
2014
QUASIMEME Interlaboratory Study on the
Analysis of Chlorinated Paraffins in
Environmental Matrices – Phase III
Chlorinated paraffins (CPs), also known as
Polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs), are complex
mixtures of chlorinated n-alkanes with carbon chain
lengths of 10 to 30 and a chlorination degree
between 30% and 70% by mass. They are divided in
three groups: short-chain (C10-13) (SCCP), mediumchain (C14-17) (MCCP) and long chain (C18-32)
(LCCP) CPs.
CPs are utilized in several industrial applications
such as flame-retardants in rubber, as high
temperature lubricants and cutting fluids in the metal
industry, and as additives in liquids, paints and
textile. The analysis of CPs is highly complicated.
There are 10.000 congeners that make separation by
GC and even by GCxGC hardly possible. Alternative
methods are scarce and may suffer from false
positive data. The data reported on CPs until now,
therefore, include very high uncertainties (100% or
more). http://www.quasimeme.org/workshopsstudies-and-conferences for further information and
application form.
Quasimeme LPS 2015
Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFASs) in Biota
and Sediment held together with the Vrije University
(VU) in 2013 are planning a new ILS regarding PFAS
analysis in textiles. Other matrices will be included in
this study depending on demand and identified
needs. An invitation to participate will be available
later this year. Quasimeme Project Office will keep
you informed regarding this new study.
BE-1 Imposex Assessment of the marine snail
Nucella lapillus. Unfortunately the snails for this
exercise arrived frozen and were unable to be
distributed to participants. Quasimeme will keep all
interested parties informed of the new date in 2015.
Round 2014.2
Test Material Distribution
Round 2014.2 test materials will be dispatched
from Wageningen, the Netherlands in the week
beginning 6 October.
Normal Post for non-cooled test material
Courier for cooled dispatch.
If you have subscribed to any studies and have not
received your test materials within one week of the
dispatch date, or if your test materials arrive
damaged, please contact QUASIMEME. We will
then arrange to send replacements.
All test materials are in good condition and
securely packed when they leave Quasimeme.
Please report any missing or damaged packages
promptly, at least within two weeks of receipt.
Retain any damaged packaging as the couriers
may require proof of damage. Responses after this
two week period will not automatically result in a
free dispatch of new samples.
The templates and protocols for these studies
will be placed on the new Participant’s Site. You
can access these whenever you require them.
Test Material
AQ-3 and AQ-4
On 10th July Quasimeme sent an e-mail asking
participants for feedback if there was any value to
your laboratory receiving any bottle of the test
material AQ-3 or AQ-4 with high concentrations. The
outcome of this research is that most laboratories
were not interested in test material with high
concentrations but some participants were.
Quasimeme have decided to leave these samples as
they are and the interested laboratories can report
their results. The bottle containing the high
concentrations will be clearly marked and the
participants not interested can upload their results as
they do now.
Interest
Quasimeme Project Office would like to have
feedback from you if there is interest in a LP Study in
Phthalates Surface Water?
Please circulate this newsletter, and display it on
your notice board. Multiple copies have been
provided to facilitate distribution to other
colleagues.
Requests for further information, comments or
contributions to:
QUASIMEME Project office
E-mail: quasimeme@wur.nl
www.quasimeme.org
QUASIMEME – Quality Assurance of Information for Marine Environmental Monitoring