It is Worth the Effort

Laboratory analyses only make sense if their results are reliable. In scientific terms this statement requires that the analyses and their results are reasonable, accurate and precise. 

Reasonable means the analytical problem can be solved with a suitable method. Imagine an ion-sensitive electrode which allows to find out quickly and cheaply that the amount of cadmium in a drinking water sample is far below the legal maximum limit. For this very purpose it is not necessary to perform further investigations. However, there are situations where a trace concentration needs to be known precisely, calling for a rather big effort in instrumentation, personnel, time and money. 

Accurate means in principle the analysis yields the true result. This statement is less trivial than it seems because the true value of an amount or a concentration is unknown as a matter of principle. We can only try to obtain as small a difference between the found and true values. This can be verified by using alternative analytical methods (Section 20.2) and by the participation in interlaboratory tests. 

Precise means the scatter of the results is low if the analysis of the same material is repeated, i.e. the standard deviation is small. In most cases a high precision is only attainable with high effort as described above. High precision is only meaningful if it is accompanied by high accuracy. 

Dammann, G. Donnevert and S. lanelli, Quality Assurance in Analytical Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2nd edn, 2007 E. Prichard and V. Barwick, Quality Assurance in Analytical Chemistry, John Wiley Sons, Ltd, Chichester, 2007 P. Konieczka and J. Namiesnik, Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the Analytical Chemical Laboratory, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2009 l.N. Papadoyannis and V.F. Samaridou, J. Liq. Chromatogr. Rel. Tech., 27, 753 (2004). 

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Burns, R. J. 1994 Reliability Is it Worth the Effort - an assessment of the value of reliability tasks and techniques. Microelectronic Reliability, 34(11), 1795-1805. 

Are these publications of provincial universities, professional schools (institutes), and republic academies of enough importance to warrant so much trouble We can readily enough obtain the most important publications, such as those of the USSR Academy, most trade publications (those sponsored by the ministries), and possibly the publications of most, if not all, of the republic academies. Hence, is it worth the effort to obtain university and institute publications It seems to me so. Some of my reasons are ... 

Madjid, M., Zarrabi, A., Litovsky, S., et al. (2004) Finding Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaques Is It Worth the Effort , Arterioscler. Thromb. Vase. Biol., 24, 1775-82. 

Why is it worth the effort Because the patients and employees for whom we are responsible are intrinsically valuable, and this fact alone demands such effort on our part. The effort we make—or fail to make—shapes the values and culture of the organization. We cannot be effective in creating a culture that values safety unless we value and respect the intrinsic worth of the individuals in our charge. Our values play out in the culture. If a leader relentlessly and exclusively pursues extrinsic values (e.g., cost efficiency), or if that is how others perceive him, this sense begins to pervade an organizational culture in which motivation is directed away from safety toward these extrinsic values. Staff may then cut corners in the name of necessity, unconsciously neglecting patient safety. 

Lehner Mitosis is a risky procedure it involves the disruption of cell—cell contacts, for instance. Broken chromosomes can get lost during mitosis. If it is not worth the effort, why do it ... 

It is easy to construct a network of perceptrons by bolting them together so that the outputs of some of them form the inputs of others, but in truth it is hardly worth the effort. The perceptron is not just simple, it is too simple. A network of perceptrons constructed manually can perform a few useful tasks, but it cannot learn anything worthwhile, and since learning is the key to a successful neural network, some modification is needed. 

During the later phases of remediation of an aquifer, it has often been suggested that the expense of continuing LNAPL recovery is not worth the effort, considering the remaining small quantities of recoverable product. The implication of this argument has been that the product will eventually go into solution and therefore will be recovered as part of the dissolved contaminant recovery. Experience has demonstrated that this is not usually a viable option, because the time required and treatment costs to accomplish the task are much greater than with respect to LNAPL product recovery efforts. 

Normally, the best activities observed during the development process are found for catalysts prepared in the laboratory where special attention is paid to each preparation step and where better control of e.g. impregnation and calcination temperature history can be achieved. This should be kept in mind when comparing activities of new lab-prepared catalysts with standard products from a production facility. As a consequence, it is seldom worth the effort to continue with a test production if the activity of the lab-prepared catalyst fails to meet the requirements. Important results for the test-produced catalysts are activity measurements covering the full range of operating conditions in the industrial converter and the mechanical strength. 

From Puma s point of view, it is well worth the effort to be proactive with our standards whenever the health of our consumers and manufacturing partners Is at stake."... 

Few measurements or calculations of all 16 scattering matrix elements have been reported. There are only four nonzero independent elements for spherical particles and six for a collection of randomly oriented particles with mirror symmetry (Section 13.6). It is sometimes worth the effort, however, to determine if the expected equalities and zeros really occur. If they do not, this may signal interesting properties such as deviations from sphericity, unexpected asymmetry, or partial alignment some examples are given in this section. But we begin with spherical particles. 

In practice, then, it is fairly straightforward to convert the potential energy determined from an electronic structure calculation into a wealth of thennodynamic data - all that is required is an optimized structure with its associated vibrational frequencies. Given the many levels of electronic structure theory for which analytic second derivatives are available, it is usually worth the effort required to compute the frequencies and then the thermodynamic variables, especially since experimental data are typically measured in this form. For one such quantity, the absolute entropy 5°, which is computed as the sum of Eqs. (10.13), (10.18), (10.24) (for non-linear molecules), and (10.30), theory and experiment are directly comparable. Hout, Levi, and Hehre (1982) computed absolute entropies at 300 K for a large number of small molecules at the MP2/6-31G(d) level and obtained agreement with experiment within 0.1 e.u. for many cases. Absolute heat capacities at constant volume can also be computed using the thermodynamic definition... 

It should perhaps be stated at this point that the use of diagrams in the many-body perturbation theory is not obligatory. The whole of the theoretical apparatus can be set up in entirely algebraic terms. However, the diagrams are both more physical and easier to handle than the algebraic expressions and it is well worth the effort required to familiarize oneself with the diagrammatic rules and conventions. 

Next, the technical, economic, and financial feasibility of proposed processes must be demonstrated. Unless the project shows considerable promise when matched against other potential projects, it may be abandoned. Any particular coiT5)any will have several projects to invest in but limited financial resources so that only the most promising projects will be continued. The research engineer should estimate the capital investment required and the production cost of the product. No matter how crade or incon jlete the process data may be, the research engineer must estimate the profitability of the process to determine if further process development is economically worth the effort. This analysis will also uncover those areas requiring further research to obtain more information for a more accurate economic evaluation. 

The work in developing the crystal-forming bacteria as control agents is well worth the effort involved. They are superb control agents. Bacillus thuringiensis has failed infrequently, and only when misused. I am confident that it will eventually be of great benefit in the control of some noxious insect species. 

A single figure for t] is not appropriate for non-Newtonian substances, and it common practice to plot flow curves of such malerials in terms of (apparent viscosity) against corresponding values of y. Many equations have been proposed to describe non-Newtonian behavior. Generally, however, the mathematics involved is not worth the effort except for the simplest problems. It is most efficient to read the required viscosity values from experimental rjn-y plots. These relations can usually be described over limited shear rate ranges by power law expressions of the form ... 

That little book was written at home, at night it did not interfere with laboratory time. It did lead to endless requests for American Chemical Society (ACS) local-section talks, which involved dozens of long train trips and many weeks away from home. Those ACS tours took a lot of time away from experiments, and I found them nothing short of exhausting. Was it worth the effort to preach the gospel of organosilicon chemistry by pen and in the lecture room The answer is a resounding yes ... 

Once sufficient material of each type is in hand, many analytical methods can be brought to bear as needed. It is always worth the effort to attempt to grow single crystals which are suitable for X-ray structure determination, as this technique gives an unequivocal picture of the solid form. Waters or solvents of crystallization, as well as the number of independent conformations of the drug... 

It s clear that not just any make and model of dock light will do. Think through these six questions — and also factor in the reputation of the manufacturer and the distributor — before you make the purchase. A little homework up front is well worth the effort when it comes to LED dock lights given the number of choices and the important role they play. 

It is often worth the effort to build a stack with a lower air pressure drop so that a blower can be used. A lower pressure drop can be achieved by making the flow channels straighter, shorter, wider, and deeper. The stack may offer a slightly lower performance due to the lower air partial pressure. 

There are now a good range of methods for ruthenium separation or retention available, both chemical and physical. One concern is that, while highly effective, many modified metathesis catalysts are not commercially available. Therefore, their use would represent a considerable additional effort on the part of the experimentalist. However, it is all worth the effort, especially if exceptionally pure products are a necessity, as they are in the pharmaceutical sector. 

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