Welcome to UCL Calculator 1.0

UCL Calculator 1.0 is an Excel Add-In tool designed to properly calculate the 95% upper confidence limit of the sample mean concentration of a contaminant. This value is often used as the exposure point concentration value in a risk assessment. This tool has been developed under contract to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection by faculty of the University of Florida.

There are only a five (5) files in the UCL Calculator Windows distribution. These files must be placed together in an appropriate folder on your computer for the system to properly work. Once this is done, Excel must be pointed to where you have placed the files, after which the tool will be available for you to use whenever you need it.

The developers have not tested this tool in the Macintosh environment hence installation instructions for Macintosh systems are not available.

Files in the UCL Calculator Distribution

The important files in the distribution are listed below along with a description of each file.

  1. UCL.xla - The Excell add-in code for the UCL tool.
  2. UCLFl.chm - The technical help file.
  3. SampleSize.chm - The sample size issues help file.
  4. ContactInfo.chm - The developers and contact information help file.
  5. Conf95DLL.dll - An application extension for Excel containing functions needed by the UCL tool.

 

The other files on the distribution CDROM are involved in presenting this introductory material each time the CDROM is opened. The information in this file is also available on the on-line documentation for the UCL Calculator in Excel.

Establishing FLUFL as an Excel Add-Ins application

To establish the UCL Calculator 1.0 for use in Excel, the five files above must be placed in the following locations.

 

Conf95DLL.dll - This file MUST be placed in a system folder. The name of the systems folder can differ with different systems but you should look for one of the following folders into which to copy this file.

If more than one of these folders are available on your system, it does not seem to matter which folder you use.

NOTE - How to tell if the installation is correct: After installation is complete, if you run the UCL Calculator and the report sheets have labels but no numeric values you can be fairly certain that the problem lies with the location of the Conf95DLL.dll file. Locate the file with your file search tool and then copy it to a system folder.

AddIns Files - The remaining four files should be stored together in one of two locations:

  1. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns
  2. C:\Documents and Settings\"user account"\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns

Here "user account" is the name of the login account of a specific user.

The first method puts the UCL Calculator in a location where all individuals having accounts on the computer will have access to the UCL Calculator within Excel. Note that you may have to create the AddIns folder. The second method sets up the UCL Calculator so that it is only available for use by the specific user whose account is "user account".

 

Identifying the UCL Calculator in Excel

Once the files are stored in the appropriate locations, you will need to check that the UCL Calculator has been found by Excel.

  1. Open Excel with a blank spreadsheet.
  2. On the Menu bar select the Tools item and scroll down to the AddIns... item to bring up the Add-Ins dialog box.
  3. UCL version 1.0 should be the last item in Add Ins dialog box. Make sure that the associate box is checked. Select OK to close the dialog box.

If the UCL Calculator does not show up on this list, the files are in the wrong folder. If you placed the files in the "All Users" Add-Ins folder, switch them to a specific user's Add-Ins folder to see if this fixes the problem.

 

NOTE about Application Server Systems: Some computers rely on network application servers for running applications. For these computers, the UCL Calculator files may have to be placed in appropriate SYSTEM and Add-Ins folders on the server rather than on the client (personal) workstation for the Add-In to work. Please check with your systems administrator for installation help if the two methods above do not work.

The UCL Calculator 1.0 is now ready for use. Note that once you check the UCL version 1.0 Add Ins box, the tool will be available for all future spreadsheets opened. To temporarily remove tool availability (and hence save some system memory) simply uncheck the Add Ins box.

Removing the UCL Calculator 1.0 tool

To remove FLUCL from your system perform the following.

  1. Delete all five files from your system.
  2. Bring up Excel with a blank spreadsheet. You should get a Warning dialog box indicating that the .xla file could not be found. Select OK.
  3. Go to the Menu bar, select Tools and scroll down to AddIns... to bring up the Add-Ins dialog box.
  4. Remove the check from the UCL box. You should get an Information dialog telling you that it cannot find the .xla. To the question "Delete from list?" select YES.
  5. Select OK to close the Add-Ins dialog box. The UCL Calculator 1.0 has been removed from your system.

UCL Calculator Tool Developers

 

Kenneth M. Portier, Ph. D, Associate Professor of Statistics

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 110339, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0339

e-mail: portier@ufl.edu

phone: 352-392-3067

fax: 352-392-8555

 

J. Keith Tolson, Ph.D., Consultant

Formerly of the UF Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology and now with GeoSyntec Consultants

14055 Riveredge Drive, Suite 300, Tampa, FL 33637

e-mail: Tolson@ufl.edu

Phone: 813-558-0990

Fax: 813-558-9726

Cell: 352-665-0515

 

Stephen M. Roberts, Ph.D., Professor and Program Director

Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology, University of Florida, PO Box 110125, 2015 SW 16th Avenue , Gainesville, Fl 32610

e-mail: RobertsS@mail.vetmed.ufl.edu

Phone: 352-302-4700 x 5505