Technical obstacles

A description is given of the initiatives carried out within the European Community for the harmonization of fire testing. The technical and economic reasons are explained for such initiatives, which are taken in order to remove barriers to trade from the European internal market. Of the various fire aspects, only fire reaction testing is taken into consideration here, because it appears as a major technical obstacle to the free circulation of construction materials. All possible approaches are considered for the attainment of such a harmonization and one, the so called interim solution, is fully described. The proposed interim solution, is based on the adoption of three fundamental test methods, i.e. the British "Surface Spread of Flame", the French "Epiradiateur" and the German "Brandschacht", and on the use of a rather complicated "transposition document", which should allow to derive most of the national classifications from the three test package. 

Does the available information identify any insurmountable technical obstacles to implementation of the unit operations, or is there a fatal flaw that would keep the facility from working properly ... 

An item of major importance to the preparation of an applications campaign is a complete and easily understood checklist for the collection of all the information that will ultimately be needed by both technical and market-research personnel at his home office. This form should include space for observations on the total size of the market, the share enjoyed by the company interviewed, and the probable influence of selling price of the new material within that market. Only when the interviewer brings back information from which the technical obstacles, market size, and potential profitability can all be judged realistically on a preliminary basis—only then can a commercial development manager make the necessary decisions on the future for his material. 

Thus, dual regulation of mixed waste does not present insurmountable technical obstacles to waste disposal. The main technical impediment to successful management and disposal of mixed waste has been the difficulty in obtaining operating permits for treatment, storage, and disposal facilities under RCRA, especially facilities for mixed low-level waste at DOE sites. Similar considerations apply to waste that contains radionuclides regulated under AEA, especially low-level waste, and hazardous chemicals regulated under other environmental laws (e.g., TSCA). 

Thus, there are a number of technical obstacles along the path to mass application of hydrogen fuel. To surmount them will involve serious investment and effort which will arguably take several decades. 

In addition, the significant technical obstacles associated with hypothermic treatment such as patient shivering and increased patient sus-... 

Liquid Formulations. The successful application of enzymes in liquid formulations presents several technical obstacles that are not encountered in powders and granules. These problems stem from the fact that liquid products are complex aqueous solutions, and physical separation of enzymes from other potentially inactivating ingredients is impractical. Necessary ingredients for a viable end-product can affect the physical and chemical stability of enzymes. In addition, as other types of enzymes are added to formulations that already contain proteases, proteolytic degradation of enzymes is a concern. 

As with any new technology, there will be obstacles to overcome in the years ahead. Many of the technical obstacles have been pointed out elsewhere in this symposium, and therefore we will focus attention on one problem which we have noticed as a regulatory agency, and which is more institutional in nature. 

As McDonald has pointed out, one-dimensional STRAFI images can be obtained using a standard broadband NMR spectrometer and rapid data capture system. The most important technical obstacle to be overcome in configuring a conventional spectrometer for use as a STRAFI system lies in determining the optimum position for imaging. It is necessary to locate a sensitive plane of uniform gradient in the axial (z) direction (parallel to Bq) and uniform field in the orthogonal (xy) plane. The location of the optimum plane is that at which the condition... 

Several technical obstacles face gene therapy before it can be used as a standard treatment modality. First, the range of cells that can be targeted for gene insertion must be expanded considerably. Only white blood cells and certain types of bone marrow cells have been successfully treated to date. These cells die off over a... 

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