Qualitative assessment

Settling and rainout are important mechanisms of contaminant transfer from the atmospheric media to both surface soils and surface waters. Rates of contaminant transfer caused by these mechanisms are difficult to assess qualitatively however, they increase with increasing soil adsorption coefficients, solubility (for particulate contaminants or those adsorbed to particles), particle size, and precipitation frequency. 

QRA - Quantitative Risk Assessment Qualitative risk - Risk expressed without numbers. 

The report presents the findings from the analysis of the RCP failures. Estimates of the annual frequency for the spectrum of leak rates induced by RCP seal failures and their impact on plant safety (contribution to coremelt frequency) are made. The safety impact of smaller RCP seal leaks was assessed qualitatively, whereas for leaks above the normal makeup capacity, formal PRA methodologies were applied. Also included are the life distribution of RCP seals and the conditional leak rate distributions, given a RCP seal failure the contribution of various root causes and estimates for the dependency factors and the failure intensity for the different combinations of pump designers and plant vendors. 

Busscher N, Kahl J, Huber M, Andersen J O, Mergardt G, Doesburg P, Paulsen M, Kretschmer S, de Weerd A and Meier-Ploeger A (2004), Validation and Standardization of the Biocrystallization Method Development of a Complementary Test to Assess Qualitative Features of Agricultural and Food Products, Triangle report Nr. 1, University Kassel, Louis Bolk Instituut and Biodynamic Research Association Denmark. 

The minerals of the solid tailings and evaporites were assessed qualitatively with X-ray diffraction, optical, and scanning electron microscopy. 

The SNCR process is characterized by a selectivity in the reaction pathways, as the injected agent (NH3) may react with NO to form N2 (the desired reaction) or be oxidized to NO by reaction with O2 (undesired). The selectivity toward NO or N2 depends mainly on the temperature and gas composition, but also the mixing of reactants is conceivably important because changes in the local conditions may favor different reaction pathways. As a continuation of the previous exercise we will use the Zwietering approach to assess qualitatively the effect of mixing on the SNCR process. 

The same procedure is used for the formation of resins 2 and 8 by reaction of the nitroarenes with the resin-bound [3-alanine or mercaptan/ amine linker, respectively. The o-fluoronitroarenes (Fig. 3) are dissolved in DMSO or NMP (at a concentration between 1.5 and 2 M) and added to the resin, followed by diisopropylethylamine (10 equivalents) and additional DMSO or NMP (if required) to ensure resin solvation. Although many nitroarenes react rapidly at room temperature, in a library format the resin/nitroarene mixture is heated overnight at 50° to help achieve equivalent reaction kinetics between different monomers. Under the same conditions, some o-chloronitroarenes are synthetically useful. The extent of the reaction can be assessed qualitatively (or quantitatively, if desired) by carrying out a ninhydrin test to check for the presence of free amine. In any case, the resins are acetylated with five equivalents of acetic anhydride/pyridine/DMF (1 1 10) for 20 min to cap any unreacted amine. 

In each of these soil field duplicate collection techniques, matrix variability is a decisive factor that cannot be entirely controlled. Consequently, field duplicate RPD cannot be controlled and it should not be compared to a numeric standard, such as an acceptance criterion. Soil field duplicates are best assessed qualitatively by drawing conclusions from the comparison of the identified contaminants and their concentrations. 

Both analytic theory and computer simulations are included, and we note that the latter play an especially important role in understanding cluster reactions. Simulations not only provide quantitative results, but they provide insight into the dominant causes of observed behavior, and they can provide likelihood estimates for assessing qualitatively distinct mechanisms that can be used to explain the same experimental data. Simulations can also lead to a greater understanding of dynamical processes occurring in clusters by calculating details which cannot be observed experimentally. 

Indeed, the oxidation potential (assessed qualitatively by the ease of formation of the oxides and sulfides) of these ligands follows this same order. Exemplary data for the reaction... 

Exposure assessment qualitatively and quantitatively characterizes the potential for exposure to occur in particular circumstances and includes an estimate of dose when possible. The assessment includes an estimation or measurement of chemical concentration in the contact media (e.g., soil, water, air, a particular food crop, a consumer product), an estimation of the length of time over which contact will occur, characterization of potential routes of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact), and the likelihood for a chemical to be absorbed through those routes. In certain circumstances, direct measurements or fate and transport modeling may be used to estimate chemical concentrations in ambient media. For certain assessments, a quantitative estimate of the total dose of a chemical over a particular time frame and in the given circumstances is made. 

In a recent study, the interphases for different fiber/polymer matrix systems were investigated. By using phase imaging the differences in local mechanical property variation in the interphase of glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin (EP) and glass fiber reinforced polypropylene matrix (PP) composites could be unraveled. As shown in Fig. 3.68, the glass fiber, the interphase and the PP matrix can be differentiated based on their surface mechanical properties as assessed qualitatively by TM phase imaging. 

General limitations involve the long assay time including the initial response and return to baseline. These characteristics are primarily determined by the cellular diffusion characteristics. But, the broad specificity of these biosensors to environmental toxins can be an advantage if toxicity of the sample needs to be assessed (qualitative analysis). However, the broad specificity (poor selectivity) of some of... 

A number of different approaches may be subsumed under this heading—approaches which are not restricted to nonadiabatic reactions. In remote encounters, the initial and final states refer to separated reactants and products, respectively, and the transition probability may be computed from the corresponding energy defect this model is familiar for charge-transfer processes, but has been applied to chemical reactions. The effect of spin and symmetry conservation on such crossings has also been assessed qualitatively. The importance of the Franck-Condon overlap integral in determining the transition probability has also been treated semiempirically. In the theoretical discussion of nonadiabatic reactions, it is standard practice to compute the transition probability between the surfaces, for example, by Landau-Zener theory. ... 

McCabe-Thiele method. This method is used to assess qualitatively the impact of changing a design variable (Lee et al., 2000c). For the RD case, two main features are tracked to sketch the diagram for a binary mixture of reactants imdergoing an isomerization reaction and under CMO assumption,... 

NOTE 2 The safety integrity level is defined numerically so as to provide an objective target to compare alternative designs and solutions. However, it is recognized that, given the current state of knowledge, many systematic causes of failure can only be assessed qualitatively. 

In any case, risk is assessed qualitatively by utilizing the experience and judgment of the team using risk matrices, as discussed earlier. However,... 

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