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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Insects and Horticulture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #340502

Title: ARS-Media for Excel

Author
item Niedz, Randall

Submitted to: Electronic Publication
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/2016
Publication Date: 5/2/2016
Citation: Niedz, R.P. 2016. ARS-Media for Excel. Available: https://www.ars.usda.gov/reseach/software/download/?softwareid+482&mocecode=60-34-05-05.

Interpretive Summary: ARS-Media for Excel is an ion solution calculator that uses Microsoft Excel to generate recipes of salts for complex ion mixtures specified by the user. Generating salt combinations (recipes) that result in pre-specified target ion values is a linear programming problem. Thus, the recipes are generated using Excel’s Solver add-on. The spreadsheet is formula-based and uses no macros because they can sometimes conflict with institutional IT security systems. Calculating a mixture of salts to generate exact solutions of complex ionic mixtures is required for at least 2 types of problems – 1) mineral nutrient studies where ions are treated as statistical factors to determine ion-specific effects free of ion confounding and, 2) formulation of ecologically and biologically relevant ionic fluid compositions such as from a specific lake, soil, cell, tissue, or organ.

Technical Abstract: ARS-Media for Excel is an ion solution calculator that uses Microsoft Excel to generate recipes of salts for complex ion mixtures specified by the user. Generating salt combinations (recipes) that result in pre-specified target ion values is a linear programming problem. Thus, the recipes are generated using Excel’s Solver add-on. Calculating a mixture of salts to generate exact solutions of complex ionic mixtures is required for at least 2 types of problems – 1) mineral nutrient studies where ions are treated as statistical factors to determine ion-specific effects free of ion confounding and, 2) formulation of ecologically and biologically relevant ionic fluid compositions such as from a specific lake, soil, cell, tissue, or organ. The spreadsheet is formula-based and uses no macros because they can sometimes conflict with institutional IT security systems.