Program ROBCOOP4A for Estimation of Balanced Classical and Robust Analysis of Variance: Instructions for Use and Source Code

Source web page: https://www.globalgeochemicalbaselines.eu/content/191/ebook-program-robcoop4a-for-estimation-of-classicalrobust-anova/

SYNOPSIS

The program ROBCOOP4A is a compiled FORTRAN program, which can be run on 32- and 64-bit Microsoft™ Windows computers, without a compiler. It is available in two languages, English and Hellenic. As the source code is provided it can be translated into any other language. The program estimates the balanced classical and robust analysis of variance parameters (i.e., sampling, analytical, geochemical), measurement uncertainty and the expanded uncertainty factor.

ROBCOOP4A can process concurrently up to 500 variables determined on 2000 samples times 4 analyses, i.e., 2 for the routine and 2 for the field duplicate samples. The quadruple analyses means that the program uses a balanced analysis of variance (ANOVA) design. The minimum number of duplicated sites for reliable estimates is eight, which are selected at random (Lyn et al., 2007). It is stressed that this minimum number of duplicated sites concerns small projects.

The updated ROBCOOP4A program estimates, apart from the classical and robust sampling, analytical and geochemical variances, the expanded uncertainty factor (Ramsey et al., 2019). For more explanations refer to Chapter 7 (Demetriades et al., 2022a) in the ‘International Union of Geological Sciences Manual of Standard Methods for Establishing the Global Geochemical Reference Network.

The new version of ROBCOOP4A provides the user with the option of applying a coverage factor of his/her choice, with the condition that the confidence interval used is stated. This option makes the program more robust and in compliance with the recently published EURACHEM/CITAC Guide on measurement uncertainty (Ramsey et al., 2019).

The new edition of program ‘ROBCOOP4.EXE’ by Ramsey (1998) is available, as noted above, in two different variants, a 32- and a 64-bit version, namely:

• “ROBCOOP4A_ΕΝ32.EXE”, and
• “ROBCOOP4A_EN64.EXE”.

Apart from the English versions, there is also a Hellenic language version, which is described in a separate section of the accompanying eBook:

• “ROBCOOP4Α_GR32.EXE”, and
• “ROBCOOP4Α_GR64.EXE”.

Since, the program source code is given, it can be translated into any other language.

Supplementary material

The ROBCOOP4A program and the test data are made available from the Software programs/ROBCOOP4A webpage of the IUGS Commission on Global Geochemical Baselines.

The test data set is provided in two formats: "BGRXRFTS".xlsx" and "BGRXRFTS.dat".

The executable ROBCOOP4.EXE programs, and accompanying files are made available in the following two zip files:

• IUGS-CGGB_ROBCOOP4A_32-64_bit_EN.zip (English version)
• IUGS-CGGB_ROBCOOP4A_32-64_bit_GR.zip (Hellenic version).