Applications in the home

In this section, you considered the relationship among the strength of acids and bases, the concentration of hydronium and hydroxide ions, and pH. Much of the time, you examined acids and bases acting independently of each other. However, acids and bases often interact. In fact, acid-base reactions have many important applications in the home, as well as in the laboratory. In section 10.3, you will investigate acid-base reactions. 

The heat resistance and water-white color of melamine polymers make them ideally suited for use in the home as high-quality molded dinnerware melamine-surfaced decorative laminates find wide application in the home. The decorative pattern may be a solid color, a wood grain, or any design. 

The first chapter in this section provides a unique account of the ecology, i.e. distribution, survival and life-style, of microorganisms in the factory environment, and should enable process designers, controllers and quality control personnel to comprehend, trace and eradicate the sources of failure due to extraneous microbial contaminants in the finished product. Much of the information given here is applicable to hospital manufacture also, and this is extended in a contribution (Chapter 19) dealing with contamination in hospital pharmaceutical products and in the home. 

Given this situation, it is not surprising that, over the last few years, products based on platinum thin film technology have been finding their way into the home. With the growing use of electronic control systems in the new generation of domestic appliances, platinum temperature sensors have been more widely used in ovens where they have replaced electromechanical regulators such as capillary tubes, solid expansion thermometers and NTC thermistors. Typical sensor applications in the food preparation sector are shown in Fig. 5.3. 

However, oil and water can be dispersed with the help of suitable emulsifiers (surfactants) to give emulsions (Sjoblom et al., 2008 Birdi, 2008). This is a well-known fact with emulsions found in the home, such as mayonnaise, the basic reason being that the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water is around 50 mN/m, which is high, and which leads to the formation of large oil drops. On the other hand, the addition of suitable emulsifiers reduces IFT to very low values (even much less than 1 mN/m). Emulsion formation means that oil drops remain dispersed for a given length of time (even up to many years). The stability and the characteristics of these emulsions are related to the areas of their applications. 

Hydrogen can be potentially produced from renewable sources, thus enabling the intermittent and excess power generated to be stored for applications in transport, homes, and businesses, thereby making off-grid wind and solar sources economic. However, it must be noted, that commercial applications of these concepts are fairly limited at best or nonexistent at worst, and many decades of research and development may be necessary to solve the technical hurdles for application in a large-scale fashion. 

Awareness of the importance of air quality has triggered several home appliances of catalysts, whereby monoliths play a role. Table 6 gives several applications in the consumer sector. The limited lifetime of such applications overcomes a disadvantage of monolithic systems, in that they contain usually a relatively small amoimt of catalyst, and as a consequence, the buffer capacity against poisoning is less than that of conventional packed-bed reactors. In industrial operation, either robust catalysts or pure feeds are needed, but for home appliances, these criteria may be less of an issue. Similarly, for the use of N2O in hospitals, ambulances, etc., catalyst poisoning is less important. N2O decomposition can be achieved easily, and the use of a monolith structure is highly attractive for mobile applications. 

Compared with the occupational exposnre of applicators and workers following pesticide application in the field, post-application residential exposure to pesticides used in and around the home is lower in level, but encompasses a wider variety of scenarios, such as age distribution, activity patterns and product use. Typically, few data are available on residential exposure, while a large body of data does exist for occupational exposures. Residential exposure assessment and modeling may benefit from the new data requirements under the United States Food Qnality Protection Act of 1996 (Lewis et al, 1994 Hill et al., 1995 Lu and Fenske, 1998 USEPA, 1990 Whitmore et al., 1994). In occupational exposnre assessment, a database approach is favored, while in residential exposure assessment a mechanistic and statistical modeling approach is dominant. 

This indicates that polymeric stabilizers having M > 800 have high resistance against extraction by components of foods, and, moreover, they do not enter into the metabolic cycle. Public concern over the contamination of the human environment can be thus satisfied. As a consequence, stabilizers like Poly AO-79 (97), Chimassorb 944 (161a) or Tinuvin 622 (146) may be legally used in stabilization of polymers in contact with food. Possibilities for application of other polymeric stabilizers for articles used in the home are open. Extractability problems may be thus overcome. Articles made from weather resistant butadiene based multiphase systems like ABS, MBS or MABS [84] stabilized in the most sensitive BR phase with polymer bound stabilizers may serve as an example. 

Enameled articles are used both in the home and in industry. Typical household applications are ... 

The realities of modern international corporations and the international marketplace for pharmaceuticals demand a global view of patents and other forms of intellectual property. Because patents are territorial, that is, they only protect an invention within the borders of the issuing country, the inventor must think of protecting an invention in countries other than in the home country. National patent applications are very frequently extended to other countries, as we will see below. Therefore, although the discussion to follow concentrates on the United States, which is the largest and most profitable market for pharmaceutical products, this chapter will also reference international patent concepts. 

Today, ceramic materials find widespread applications in both the consumer and industrial market segments. In the home, ceramics are commonly used in kitchens and bathrooms and for decoration and ornamentation. As construction materials, ceramics are widely used as bricks, tiles, and concrete sidewalks. 

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