developing the design report outputs of VSP; Lucille A. Walker for her project financial accounting support; and Mary H. Cliff for her assistance in preparing the final report. The authors are pleased to acknowledge the following staff of the Research Triangle Institute in developing Version 2.0 of VSP: Lorraine Gallego for conducting quality assurance activities to verify that Version 2.0 is correctly computing the number of samples for most of the newly added designs; and Kara Morgan for her development of the "VSP Advisor" and for her comments and suggestions for improving the final product.
Visual Sample Plan (VSP) is an easy-to-use visual and graphic software tool being developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to select the right number and location of environmental samples so that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. It is a significant help in implementing the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) planning process that was developed by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Gilbert et al. (2001) documented the quality assurance (QA) procedures that were conducted to assure that Version 0.91 of VSP was operating correctly. Subsequently, Version 0.91 was renamed Version 1.0 and placed on the internet at http://dqo.pnl.gov/vsp. Since that time VSP has been enlarged and improved and is now available as Version 2.0. The current document is an expansion of Gilbert et al (2001) to include the QA procedures and testing that were conducted to assure the validity and accuracy of the new features added to Version 1.0 to obtain Version 2.0. Features added to Version 1.0 include the following: activities to verify that Version 2.0 is correctly computing the number of samples for most of the newly added designs, and Kara Morgan for her development of the "VSP Advisor" and for her comments and suggestions for improving the final product. In addition, we wish to thank John Warren of the Quality Staff, U.S. EPA, Office of Environmental Information, for his insight in how to make VSP more user friendly, and Tony Jover and Larry Zaragoza of the U.S. EPA, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, for their continued support and interest in a high quality product. We also wish to thank David Bottrell, U.S. Department of Energy, for his continued support of VSP developments. A special thanks is also extended to the following individuals in the Statistical and Quantitative Sciences Group at PNNL: Stacey A. Hartley for assistance in developing the design report outputs of VSP; Lucille A. Walker for her project financial accounting support; and Mary H. Cliff for her assistance in preparing the final report.
SummaryIn the event of the release of a lethal agent (i.e. Bacillus anthracis) inside a building, law enforcement and public health responders take samples to identify and characterize the contamination. Sample locations may be rapidly chosen based on available incident details and professional judgment. To achieve greater confidence of whether or not the decision area was contaminated, or to certify that detectable contamination is not present after decontamination, we developed a Bayesian model for combining the information gained from both judgmental and randomly placed samples. The approach permits investigators to determine the sample size required to achieve a defined level of statistical confidence that a decision area is free of detectable contamination, when none of the samples indicate the presence of contamination. We present herein the model, an example of how it may be used, a discussion of its sensitivity to parameter inputs, and recommendations for its practical use.
This user's guide describes Visual Sample Plan (VSP) Version 1.0 and provides instructions for using the software. VSP selects the appropriate number and location of environmental samples to ensure that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. VSP Version 1.0 provides sample-size equations or algorithms needed by specific statistical tests appropriate for specific environmental sampling objectives. The easy-to-use program is highly visual and graphic. VSP runs on personal computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems (95, 98, Millenium
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