Real-time release design

D. Process Control, Design Space, and Real-Time Release... 

Ziomas, I. C. et al., 1989, Design of a System for Real Time Modeling of the Dispersion of Hazardous Gas Releases from Industrial Plants, J. Loss Prevention 2 October. 

Small-scale, tabletop nuclear fusion devices, known as compact accelerator neutron generators, are routinely used as a source of neutron radiation. By design, however, these devices consume more energy than they release. The beam of neutrons generated by these devices can be used to identify the elemental composition of amaterial.The coal industry uses such beams to measure the sulfur content of coal in real time as the coal moves over conveyor belts. The cement industry similarly uses these beams to judge the quality of cement mixes. These fusiongenerated neutrons are also used to identify the elemental composition of nuclear wastes and for the detection and identification of explosives. 

Unmanned satellite laboratories are a possible alternative to a central laboratory facility. To demonstrate the practicality of such an approach, investigators at the University of Virginia have developed remote automated laboratory systems- (RALS) designed to automate POCT in hospital intensive care units. The results from the analytical instruments in each RALS are sent to a central monitoring workstation several floors away from the satellite laboratory by a network interface, where results are viewed and either accepted or rejected by a trained medical technologist before being released for clinical use. Error codes built into the analytical instruments are also passed to the main laboratory by the computer netw ork. Technologists in the control center can also shut down the satellite laboratory when necessary, as in the case of instrument failure. Patient information is downloaded from the hospital information system in real time so that users can select their patients and the tests to perform from a fist presented on the computer touchscreen. 

A similar technology relies on hydrolysis probes, namely, Taqman chemistry. Two probes are designed, one a perfect match to the normal allele and one to the mutant or variant allele. In Taqman chemistry, probes are released from quenching when the Taq polymerase degrades the probe, releasing the fluorophore into solution. This technology was developed from Applied Biosystems (Foster City, California) and is compatible with the 7900 real-time instrument (Applied Biosystems). Taqman chemistry also is developed easily by individual laboratories [7]. 

Hopefully, this work will encourage further research on how to capitalize state-of-the-art modeling techniques and high-frequency meteorological measurements to improve our real-time ability in response to atmospheric releases of hazardous materials from an industrial accident or terrorist act. An urgent and challenging issue that needs to be addressed is diffusion model validation. Without comprehensive validation, even a well-designed prediction system cannot be accepted for operational application. 

---