Laboratory equipment control interface

There are many products based on these life sciences standards, such as the aforementioned gene expression standard that is used in Rosetta Merck s Resolver product and the European Bioinformatics Institute s (EBI) Array-Express database. The LECIS (Laboratory Equipment Control Interface Specification) standard is used by Creon as part of their Q-DIS data standard support (note that one of the authors was the finalization task force chairperson for this standard). 

Interfacing microcomputers with laboratory equipment (controlling, data collection), literature-searching, data-base searching. 

The general equipment used can range from very simple columns and test tubes to elaborate pumps, columns, detectors, and fraction collectors automatically controlled by a computer with an appropriate human interface. Minimal equipment is sufficient for exploratory work or one-time development cycles more sophisticated equipment is beneficial for laboratories engaged in more intensive development. A modest set of useful equipment includes 1) peristaltic pump 2) end-over-end tube rotator 3) fraction collector and 4) spectrophotometer (UV visible). 

But there are signs that simpler, less expensive LC/MS systems designed and priced for the general laboratory bench chemist, production facilities, and quality control laboratories may soon be possible. It remains to seen whether manufacturers will decide to produce these systems. Older MS systems have been purchased, attached to HPLC systems equipped with relatively inexpensive interfaces, and pressed into service for molecular weight determination as a 30,000 detector, indicating that the desire and need exists for general laboratory LC/MS systems. As prices continue to drop and technology advances work their way out of the research laboratories, the LC/MS will become a major tool for the forensic chemist whose separations must stand up in court, for the clinical chemist whose separations impact life and death, and for the food and environmental chemist whose efforts affect the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. 

The state-of-the-art laboratories are equipped with the latest models of analytical instruments and computer systems, while others may have older, less sophisticated equipment or a mix of modern and outdated instruments. The goal of production laboratories is to analyze samples in the fastest possible manner. To be competitive, laboratories must have fully automated analytical systems allowing unattended sequential analysis of samples and computerized output of analytical results. Data acquisition computers, programmed with specialty software, control analytical instruments, collect the raw data, and convert them into analytical results. These computers are typically interfaced with the LIMS, which networks different laboratory sections into a single computer system and transforms analytical results into laboratory reports. 

Scope of Validation The boundaries of the validation project must be defined to ensure that there is full coverage. For example, will the analytical equipment or Chromatography Data System interfaces be validated as part of the project, will Supplier Evaluations be required, etc. It is very important at this stage to determine what is within the scope of the LIMS Validation Plan and what will be validated under other associated Validation Plans. The validation of the implementation of processes and information management within the laboratory should be managed as a cohesive whole to ensure that all parts of the LIMS are developed and validated to the appropriate standards. This may be achieved by the use of a Validation Master Plan (VMP) for all the laboratory processes and information management. The Validation Plan for the LIMS and any associated plans for other interfaced systems would be referenced in and be under the control of this VMP. 

The second method for catalyzing the membranes is to cast the same type of ink (TBA" " form of the ionomer) directly onto the membrane [44]. This process may have an advantage over the decal process in the formation of a more intimate membrane/ electrode interface. It may also be more amenable to scale-up. Indeed, initial attempts at laboratory-scale automated application of thin-film Pt/C//ionomer catalyst layers to ionomeric membranes have been quite successful. In this work, a computer-controlled mechanism of an X-Y recorder was applied to paint catalyst ink by the controlled repetitive motion of the pen of the recorder onto each of the membrane major surfaces. In this way, 100 cm areas of catalyzed membranes were re-producibly generated, yielding performances per cm of a similar level to that achieved previously with catalyzed membrane of 5 cm active area [44]. The laboratory-scale automation equipment is shown in Fig. 22. 

Various LIMS configurations may be implemented ranging from a dedicated multifunction laboratory data collection and reporting system to an integrated company wide system. GC, HPLC and other types of instruments generate the raw analytical data that is subsequently processed by the LIMS so direct communications between instruments, equipment and the LIMS computer is necessary. This is achieved via a network or an RS232 interface for bi-directional data transfer. Thus, control and instrument variables, as required for a specific analysis, for example, wavelength, flow-rate, solvent... 

Systematic investigations of microbial cell recovery by foam flotation were performed by Hansenula polymorpha [113-117] and Saccharomyces cerevisiae [ 118 -123] in continuous operation. The equipment used for flotation was often identical to that used for protein flotation. The microorganisms were cultivated in laboratory reactors on synthetic media in the absence of antifoam agents in continuous operation and the cell-containing cultivation medium was collected in a buffer storage and was fed into the middle of the colunm, at the top of the interface between the bubble and the foam layers. The height of the interface was controlled by an overflow. The foam left the colunm at the top. The cells were recovered from the foam liquid by a mechanical foam destroyer. The liquid residue left the column through an overflow [113] (Fig. 6). 

For gas-liquid-liquid reactions equipment similar to that used for liquid-liquid reactions are employed. The hydrodynamics in these reactors is extremely complex because of the three phases and their convoluted interactions. An example is the grazing behavior of small solid particles enhancing mass transfer at gas-liquid interfaces. The scale-up from laboratory to the production site thus poses numerous problems with respect to the reactant s mixing, temperature control (heat removal), catalyst selectivity, and its deactivation [1]. The performance of such processes can be predicted analytically only to a limited extent for reactors with well-defined flow patterns. 

Fluorescence measurements were performed using a spectrophotometer (Cary 17D) equipped with fluorescence accessory (Cary model 1712) operating in the front surface illumination mode with a filter monochromator providing the fluorescence excitation (Xg nm). The spectrophotometer is interfaced with microprocessor (Digital Equipment Corp. MINC 11-23) laboratory microcomputer which controls the instrument and processes the data. Both instrument control and data processing functions are based on software developed by MDRL. 

Principles and Characteristics As already indicated in Chp. 1.2.3, Raman scattering induced by radiation (UV/VIS/NIR lasers) in gas, liquid or solid samples contains information about molecular vibrations. Raman specfioscopy (RS) was restricted for a long time primarily to academic research and was a technique rarely used outside the research laboratory. Within an industrial spectroscopy laboratory, two of the more significant advances in recent years have been the allying of FT-Raman and FTIR capabilities, coupled with the availability of multivariate data analysis software. Raman process control (in-line, on-line, in situ, onsite) is now taking off with various robust commercial instrumental systems equipped with stable laser sources, stable and sensitive CCD detectors, inexpensive fibre optics, etc. With easy interfacing with process streams and easy multiplexing with normal (remote) spectrometers the technique is expected to have impact on product and process quality. 

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