Test accountability 19 - specifications

A special POC food intolerance test (antigen-specific IgG test) has been prepared to account for an increasing incidence of food intolerance implied in different disease states. It can detect a total of 57 different antibodies. There are possibilities to analyze more than 150 different components or antigens from about 20 pL of sample using a biochip-based allergy test (ImmunoCAP IS AC) (Samson, 2001 Duran-Tauleria et al., 2004 Lidholm et al., 2006). 

The IRMM has launched the production of a basic peanut reference material using the most commonly used peanut varieties for food production. This material may be used for spiking food matrices for further method development, validation and proficiency testing, for clinical tests and in vitro assays. This future peanut reference standard will take into account specific demands from the food industry and respect various technological conditions as mentioned. 

Thus, standard tests account for much of the testing done in industry and are used to ensure product specifications. These tests measure stress-strain relationships, flex life, tensile strength, abrasion resistance, moisture retention, dielectric constant, hardness, thermal conductivity, etc. New tests are continually being developed and submitted to ASTM, and after adequate verification through "round robin" testing are finally accepted as standard tests. 

Qualified data should be used to calculate the TSU. Data sources may include any of the following operating experience, equipment qualification tests, equipment specifications, engineering analysis, laboratory tests, and engineering drawings. The TSU should account for the effects of process instmment uncertainties, considering the following ... 

When a complex joint is to be introduced in a structure, the ideal situation is to test that specific joint. However, this approach is very expensive. Before real joints or prototypes are built, the designer should first come up with a good prediction of the failure load based, among other things, on the basic mechanical properties of the adhesive. The basic properties can mean the elastic properties, such as the Young s modulus and the Poisson s ratio in case the analysis is linear elastic. However, for the more realistic theoretical methods that take into account the nonlinear behavior of the adhesive, the yield stress, the ultimate stress, and the failure strain are necessary. The stress-strain curve of adhesives is necessary for designing adhesive joints in order to compute the stress distribution and apply a suitable failure criterion based on continuum mechanics principles. 

Detention efficiency. Conversion from the ideal basin sized by detention-time procedures to an actual clarifier requires the inclusion of an efficiency factor to account for the effects of turbulence and nonuniform flow. Efficiencies vaiy greatly, being dependent not only on the relative dimensions of the clarifier and the means of feeding but also on the characteristics of the particles. The cui ve shown in Fig. 18-83 can be used to scale up laboratoiy data in sizing circular clarifiers. The static detention time determined from a test to produce a specific effluent sohds concentration is divided by the efficiency (expressed as a fraction) to determine the nominal detention time, which represents the volume of the clarifier above the settled pulp interface divided by the overflow rate. Different diameter-depth combinations are considered by using the corresponding efficiency factor. In most cases, area may be determined by factors other than the bulksettling rate, such as practical tank-depth limitations. 

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