Practical handling issues

Finally, as SMB is now proposed for biochemical applications, great care must be taken for all the good manufacturing practice (GMP) issues (cleaning, reproducibility, software validation, etc.). Moreover, as SMB is probably always linked with a device enabling product recovery in the extract-raffinate streams and/or solvent recycling, these solvent-handling devices should be considered as part of the SMB. 

Due to increased levels of sensitivity of analytical techniques and a range of legal requirements (including Good Laboratory Practices and issues in potential litigation), particular care must be taken in collecting and handling samples to both avoid contamination and maintain a chain of custody of samples and sample records. There are a vast variety of techniques now employed in analysis, as outlined below. 

Gas chromatography has been used to determine water levels in samples. However as a routine method of analysis for various drug substances, gas chromatography is not very practical. Many drug substances are not volatile and therefore pose sample handling issues. 

Of course, before being able to use all the resources that the Internet has to offer, one needs to actually make a physical connection between one s own computer and the information superhighway. For purposes of this discussion, the elements of this coimection have been separated into two discrete parts the actual, physical coimection (meaning the wire miming from one s computer to the Internet backbone) and the service provider, who handles issues of routing and content once connected. Keep in mind that, in practice, these are not necessarily treated as two separate parts—for instance, one s service provider may also be the same company that will run cables or fibers right into one s home or office. 

It is good practice to reviewa project on completion and record the reasons for departure between planned and actual performance. Where lessons can be learned, or opportunities exploited, they should be incorporated into project management guidelines. Some companies hold post project sessions with their contractors to explore better ways of handling particular issues, especially when there is an expectation of additional shared activities. 

Environmental Issues. The mbber industry has responded to concerns about the environment by developing new product forms for accelerators and other chemicals which improve industrial hygiene and minimize worker exposure to these materials by eliminating dust exposure and improving handling ease. Another important benefit for newer product forms is better, more consistent quaHty mbber products resulting from improved factory practices. 

The U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 required careful analysis of the consequences of any federally funded project. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 established guidelines for handling, transport, and hauling of hazardous materials, such as required in cleanup of soil contaminants. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 established, for the hrst time, strict mles on legal liability for soil contamination. CERCLA stimulated identihcation and cleanup of thousands of contaminated land sites, and consequently raised awareness of property buyers and sellers to make soil contamination a focal issue of land use and management practices (US-EPA 2007c). 

Of course, there are limitations to this approach that must be kept in mind. First, because we use commercially available components for the data visualization, we are tied to the standard file formats. For the most part these formats are sufficient, but in certain cases they can be limiting. For example, there is no standard for handling multiple entries for a single data field. This becomes an issue when retrieving assay results, because in many cases more than one experiment has been run. Second, this system requires a robust and fast network since many file uploads and downloads to the server are involved. However, in practice we have found these issues to be manageable. 

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