Methodologies and techniques

Amicro-liquid/liquid (p-L/L) interface is usually formed either at the tip of a pulled glass micropipet or within a small hole made in a thin membrane (8, 91, 92). Unlike solid ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs), such pipets or holes are easily made. Pipets as small as a few nanometer radii have recently been fabricated using a laser puller (93). Dual-pipets (or d-pipets) can also be prepared by pulling 0-glass tubing (94-96). Another simple way of producing a p-L/L interface in a microcavity is to chemically dissolve microwire encapsulated within a glass tube (97). 

Unlike the situation at a solid/electrolyte interface where a three-electrode system is used, four- and two-electrode systems have been widely employed for large and small liquid/ liquid interfaces. Most of the four-electrode potentiostats are homemade and only a few instruments with such functions have been commercialized (98). This is probably one of the reasons why this field has not been very popular since most electrochemical laboratories are equipped with a three-electrode potentiostat. In 1998, Anson et al. reported that charge transfer reactions at a liquid/liquid interface could also be studied by a three-electrode system with a thin-layer cell (99,1(X)). Later, Scholz et al. reported a three-phase junction setup (101, 102). Shao et al. supported a small droplet of aqueous solution (pL) containing a certain concentration ratio of redox couples on a Pt surface and demonstrated that charge transfer could be studied by a three-electrode setup (103). Girault et al. extended this to a supported small droplet of aqueous (organic) phase on the surface of 

For an aqueous droplet supported on a solid (Pt or C) electrode surface, the potential difference at the solid/liquid interface is fixed because the concentration ratio of the redox couples in the droplet is constant and it can be used as a pseudo-reference electrode. It forms a W/0 interface when the assembly is immersed in an organic solution. The W/O interface formed between the aqneons droplet and the organic phase can be studied with a three-electrode system. The FT process at the solid/liquid interface and the charge transfer processes at the liquid/liquid interface are coupled as reactions in series. The disadvantage of this setup is the cations associated with the redox couples usually limit the potential window and very few redox couples can be chosen (103). The droplet supported on Ag/AgCl or Ag/AgX (X is a big anion) can function similarly and only needs Cl (or X ) to be present in the aqueous (organic) droplet to fix the potential difference at the solid/liquid interface. In this way one can obtain a wider potential window and study the effect of the phase volume ratio on charge transfer reactions at a L/L interface. 

In the past 10 years, more and more applications of charge transfer reactions at liquid/ liquid interfaces have been demonstrated (1-10). The following are some examples. 

In pharmaceutical sciences, log P is an important parameter, which is defined as log P = log(a° la ) (where a is the activity of species i in both phases). Lipophihcity represents the affinity of a compound for a lipidic environment, and has been widely used to design drugs and to assess their performances. It is commonly measured by its partition coefficient in a biphasic system, P. Therefore, log P is actually related to the difference in 

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Human error probabilities can also be estimated using methodologies and techniques originally developed in the nuclear industry. A number of different models are available (Swain, Comparative Evaluation of Methods for Human Reliability Analysis, GRS Project RS 688, 1988). This estimation process should be done with great care, as many factors can affect the reliability of the estimates. Methodologies using expert opinion to obtain failure rate and probability estimates have also been used where there is sparse or inappropriate data. 

Many organizations are now actively involved in ERA, developing methodologies and techniques to improve this environmental management tool. Such organisations include OECD, WHO and ECETOC. One of the major difficulties concerning the use of risk assessment is the availability of data and the data that are available are often loaded with uncertainty. 

For rapid research into new methodologies and techniques, which may in some cases be transferred later to laboratory systems. 

Since the earliest days of coal liquefaction processing and research, the need for correlations of coal properties with coal reactivity under direct hydroliquefaction conditions has been recognized by coal scientists. This article traces the history of reactivity correlations from the earliest work of Bergius through the classic work at the Bruceton Bureau of Mines during the 1940 s to the most recent advances in this subject. Particular emphasis in this review is placed on an examination of the contributions of Professor Peter Given and his co-workers. Reactivity methodologies and techniques for correlation are presented and critically evaluated for utility and applicability as predictive tools. 

There are a number of valuable publications which provide accounts, of a more or less comprehensive nature, of aspects of the methodology and techniques of synthetic organic chemistry. A number of these are listed below. 

Many examples of immortalization methodologies and techniques to obtain continuous cell lines are described in the literature (Land et al., 1983 ... 

Albini, A. and Fagnoni, M. (2008) Photochemistry as a green synthetic method, in New Methodologies and Techniques for a Sustainable Organic Chemistry (eds A. Mordini and F. Faigl), Springer Science Business Media B.V., pp. 279-293. 

In this volume we have assembled all the methods used in our respective laboratories emphasizing the methodologies and techniques that are considered to be the most relevant, appropriate and least subject to error, whilst presenting critical assessments of all the approaches described. Where major specialized, high-cost instrumentation is required the text emphasizes the interpretation of the data obtained, the advantages and disadvantages of the technique and the chemical basis of the approach, rather than the specific details of how to operate the relevant instrument. 

D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D PAGE) and MS are weU-established and the most commonly employed techniques in proteomics today. 2D PAGE, however, provides limited information of the total amount of proteins. Low-abimdance proteins and small peptides are not detected [1]. Additional methodologies and techniques in sample preparation, selective enrichment, high resolution separation, and detection need to be developed which would allow even higher resolution than 2D PAGE. Acceptable sensitivity to detect the low-abundance proteins is also still an issue. LC can address some of the above-mentioned... 

Another feature of hydro(solvo)thermal synthesis is the operability and tunability of hydrothermal and solvothermal chemistry, which bridges the synthetic chemistry and physical properties of synthesized materials. With deepening studies on hydrothermal and solvothermal synthesis chemistry, more and more reaction types have been discovered. Compared with other synthesis and preparation techniques, hydro(solvo)thermal synthesis methodology and techniques have irreplaceable advantages. So far, a variety of materials and crystals used in many fields could be hydrothermally or solvothermally synthesized, and the quality and properties of the resulting products are often much better than those prepared by other methods. 

Theoretical studies of the properties of the individual components of nanocat-alytic systems (including metal nanoclusters, finite or extended supporting substrates, and molecular reactants and products), and of their assemblies (that is, a metal cluster anchored to the surface of a solid support material with molecular reactants adsorbed on either the cluster, the support surface, or both), employ an arsenal of diverse theoretical methodologies and techniques for a recent perspective article about computations in materials science and condensed matter studies [254], These theoretical tools include quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations coupled with structural optimizations (that is, determination of equilibrium, ground state nuclear configurations), searches for reaction pathways and microscopic reaction mechanisms, ab initio investigations of the dynamics of adsorption and reactive processes, statistical mechanical techniques (quantum, semiclassical, and classical) for determination of reaction rates, and evaluation of probabilities for reactive encounters between adsorbed reactants using kinetic equation for multiparticle adsorption, surface diffusion, and collisions between mobile adsorbed species, as well as explorations of spatiotemporal distributions of reactants and products. 

While pharmaceutical analysis methodology and techniques can provide information... 

The first edition of the laboratory handbook Diinnschicht-Chromatographie edited by E. Stahl was pubhshed by Springer in 1962. Many subsequent publications can now be regarded as obsolete because of the developments in methodology and technique. I hope that the personal comments on the publications listed below will help the user in his or her choice. 

The efficacy of using element-to-element correspondences is greatly increased by the fact that they need not be specified by a human user. They could be in fact the result of an automatic component that matches the elements of the two schemas, and then the mapping designer simply verifies the correctness of the results. This task is found in the literature under the name schema matching and has received considerable attention, and has led into a variety of methodologies and techniques [Rahm and Bernstein 2001],... 

In the final chapter of this volume on fiuidamentals of plasma chemistry, we would like to point out future opportunities for the atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics community to contribute to a better microscopic understanding of the plasma-chemical processes in various plasma-assisted materials-processing applications as well as in other applications. We will address both gas-phase (volume) processes and plasma-surface/wall processes. We will fiirther attempt to identify some of the important challenges for the AMO physics community. By opportunities we mean problems that can be addressed through the application of established AMO physics methods and techniques, and by challenges we mean problems where the development and application of new AMO physics methods, methodologies, and techniques will be needed. 

An audit system is not just a checklist it is a methodology that often includes the technique of a checklist. The distinction needs to be made between methodology and techniques. Over three decades ago, Easterby (1967) used Bainbridge and Beishon s (1964) definitions ... 

The aim of the present contribution is to review the role of acid-base interactions in adsorption, wetting, and adhesion, and the methodologies and techniques to characterize the acid-base properties of materials. Examples have been selected from the authors research work and from a survey of the literature. This chapter is organized into the following three sections definition, properties, and strength of acid-base interactions theory of acid-base interactions in adhesion and experimental assessment of acid-base properties of polymers and other materials. 

System health management is a wide subject that consists of several methodologies and techniques. Most of them are focused on the reliability and maintenance topics. 

The work is a part of a strategic research project on New methodologies and techniques for risk and health effects of occupational and environmental exposures , funded by Italian Ministry of Health Research Grant 040/06. 

Moreover, the research effort of the Ascis and Nana partners has been planned with real applications in mind. Real-life drivers have been selected to steer the development of the required methodologies and techniques. Some of the main drivers will also be used as real-life demonstrator applications in the following chapters. 

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