Background considerations in the analysis of PIXE spectra by Artificial Neural Systems

In order to study the importance of background in PIXE spectra to determine elemental concentrations in atmospheric aerosols using artificial neural systems ANS. two independently trained ANS were constructed, one which considered as input the net number of counts in the peak. and another which included the background. In the training and validation phases thirty eight spectra of aerosols collected in Santiago, Chile, were used. In both cases the elemental concentration values were similar. This fact was due to the intrinsic characteristic of ANS operating with normalized values of the net and total number of counts under the peaks, something that was verified in the analysis of 172 spectra obtained from aerosols collected in Mexico city. Therefore, networks operating under the mode which include background can reduce time and cost when dealing with large number of samples.