A method and apparatus for raising, leveling, and supporting a foundation by placing steel piers beneath the necessary peripheral and interior beams and using a jack to raise the slab beams, then allowing the slab beams to rest on piers. According to the invention, a fluorescent mineral or mixtures of minerals are employed for use as a fluorescence standard. The proximal end of the tip section is fixedly attached to the distal end of the catheter body. Optical parameters extracted from the reference signal may be used to correct parameters extracted from a sensor signal. A hardware device such as a hardware probe may be connected to the processor on a target board and used to gather and transfer data to a host computer without resort to a COM port. The control unit controls the driving speed according to the position of the sheet stacking unit detected by the position detecting unit.