Questions methodological

The Committee is unable to determine whether the absolute probabilities of accident sequences in WASH-1400 are high or low, but it is believed that the error bounds on those estimates are, in general, greatly understated. This is due in part to an inability to quantify common cause failures, and in part to some questionable methodological and statistical procedures. 

Where multiple, diverse hazards exist, the practical approach is to treat each hazard independently, with the intent of achieving acceptable risk levels for all. In the noise and toluene example, the hazards are indeed independent. In complex situations, or when competing solutions to complex systems must be evaluated, the assistance of specialists with knowledge of more sophisticated risk assessment methodologies such as Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) or Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) may be required. However, for most applications, this author does not recommend that diverse risks be summed through what could be a questionable methodology. 

Effect of the culture age, the medium composition, various concentrations of phosphate and possible precursors, tryptophan, mevalonic acid and methionine, on the clavine alkaloids production by A. fumigatus was examined more authors (Rao and Patel, 1974 Rao et al, 1977 Narayan and Rao, 1982). Tryptophan, mevalonic acid and methionine stimulated the clavine alkaloid production. Correlation between the alkaloid production and the culture growth was not established. Quality of the results obtained by these authors (Rao and Patel, 1974 Narayan and Rao, 1982 Ohmomo et al, 1989) can be, however, hampered by questionable methodology. 

Design an experiment examining the effect of acid rain on snail shells. Imagine that you have access to a large supply of snail shells and common acids and laboratory apparatus. Include a research question, methodology including the control of variables, and a prediction and explanation for your expected results. 

Suppose you are asked to develop a way to determine the concentration of lead in drinking water. How would you approach this problem To answer this question it helps to distinguish among four levels of analytical methodology techniques, methods, procedures, and protocols. ... 

One of the particulady challenging aspects of the work in a museum laboratory is the enormous variety of problems encountered. Every object examined is unique and for each the questions to be answered differ. Thus the museum laboratory most closely resembles, if anything, the forensic laboratory, and many of the methodologies employed are common (see Forensic chemistry). 

For every new tolling situation a process hazard analysis should be conducted using one of several acceptable methodologies in common use. The goal is to select a methodology appropriate to evaluate the hazards of the toll process in question. 

The first and most important aim of design methodology is to produce, by systematic analysis, a description of the design procedure that is commonly accepted and used in every process in different markets. The idea is to make a description of the technical process of design in other words, to answer two questions ... 

There have been other promising lines along which the theory of quenched-annealed systems has progressed recently. One of them, worth discussing in more detail, is the adsorption of fluids in inhomogeneous, i.e. geometrically restricted, quenched media [31,32]. In this area one encounters severe methodological and technical difficulties. At the moment, a set of results has been obtained at the level of a hard sphere type model adsorbed in sht-like pores with quenched distribution of hard sphere obstacles [33]. However, the problem of phase transitions has remained out of the question so far. 

Several problems m basic methodologies have persisted over the 25 years since F-NMR spectroscopy was first apphed to a biochemical question Most hmiting IS that of NMR sensitivity High substrate concentrabons, relative to the naturally occumng biological levels, are required for NMR detection Although most NMR studies use millimolar and somebmes submilhmolar concenbatrons, many bio molecules exist at micromolar or lower levels... 

Another link exists between the PIF concept and the sociotechnical assessment methods described in Section 2.7 The checklists used in the TRIPOD methodology are essentially binary questions which evaluate whether the sets of PIFs making up each of the general failure types are adequate or not. The hierarchical sets of factors in HRAM are essentially PIFs which are expressed at increasingly finer levels of definition, as required by the analyst. The audit tool which forms MANAGER also comprises items which can be regarded as PIFs which assess both management level and direct PIFs such as procedures. 

What is going to be the first area of broad, commercial ionic liquid application This is probably the question most frequently asked of everybody who is active in developing ionic liquid methodology. The answer is not easy to give. Some petrochemical processes are ready to be licensed or are in pilot plant development (as described in Section 5.2), but there is still some time needed to bring these applications on stream and to claim a broad replacement of existing technologies by ionic liquids in this area. For some non-synthetic applications, in contrast, the lead time from the first experiments to full technical realization is much shorter. 

Our concepts of petroleum reserves and resources and their measurements are changing to reflect the uncertainty associated with these terms. Petroleum reseiwes have been largely calculated deterministically (i.e. single point estimates with the assumption of certainty). In the past decade, reseiwe and resource calculations have incorporated uncertainty into their estimates using probabilistic methodologies. One of the questions now being addressed are such as how certain arc you that the rcsciwcs you estimate arc the actual reseiwes and what is the range of uncertainty associated with that estimate New techniques arc required to address the critical question of how much petroleum we have and under what conditions it can be developed. 

Generally speaking, to obtain, reliable rheological characteristics of disperse systems with fibre-like filler turned out to be a difficult methodological problem. Therefore, the question on the effect of the shape of a filler particles on the value of yield stress is left open at present. In the papers published we can encounter only individual examples and qualitative considerations concerning this question, which do not enable us to formulate general conclusions. 

The LCA methodology has been used by Krahsch and Kreisel to investigate the pros and cons of micro-reaction technology at the stage of process development. The motivation for this study was the question whether ecological improvements can be expected for the chosen model reaction performed in the micro-structured device Cytos produced by CPC Systems GmbH, Germany. Such improvements were the premise for the construction of a continuously operated pilot plant based on Cytos micro-reactors. 

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