Water Quality control for construction sites is a requirement at any site within the United States. Erosion Controls are the first, and many times, last preventative measure for water discharge from a site. If these fail, streams, wetlands, or even off-site upland areas (yards, etc.) are adversely affected. Site quality is affected when valuable soil is lost and restoration requires replacement. Human exposure to contaminants, violation of governmental regulations, contractor reputation, and the overall economics involved in construction are at risk.
Clostridium tyrobutyricum represents the main spoiling agent responsible for late blowing defects (LBD) in hard and semi-hard cheeses. Its spores are resistant to manufacturing procedures and can germinate during the long ripening process, causing the burst of the cheese paste with a consequent undesirable taste. The lower quality of blown cheeses leads to considerable financial losses for the producers. The early identification of spore contaminations in raw milk samples thus assumes a pivotal role in industrial quality control. Herein, we developed a point of care (POC) testing method for the sensitive detection of C. tyrobutyricum in milk samples, combining fast DNA extraction (with no purification steps) with a robust colorimetric loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique. Our approach allows for the sensitive and specific detection of C. tyrobutyricum spores (limit of detection, LoD: ~2 spores/mL), with the advantage of a clear naked-eye visualization of the results and a potential semi-quantitative discrimination of the contamination level. In addition, we demonstrated the feasibility of this strategy using a portable battery-operated device that allowed both DNA extraction and amplification steps, proving its potential for on-site quality control applications without the requirement of sophisticated instrumentation and trained personnel.
Shaking a downhole seismic tool in situ is a powerful test procedure able to detect abnormal acoustical behavior. It consists of feeding a swept voltage to a special geophone located inside the tool, close to the triaxial measurement geophones. The special geophone creates a swept force, which excites the tool‐formation system. The resulting motion of the tool is recorded through the triaxial geophones. In this paper, a simple model of the tool‐formation system excited by the shaker is given. Predictions from this model compare nicely with results from a field experiment conducted with a very compact seismic tool. Another field experiment, conducted with a longer tool, shows that tool intrinsic modes are clearly visible in the shaker data. Their frequencies and amplitudes depend upon the geometry of the contact between the tool and the formation. A comparison between shaker data and impulsive shot data shows that moderate modal vibrations do not significantly deteriorate the quality of VSP data, but that large modal vibrations, when present, are visible on the shot data and also correspond to an increased sensitivity to tube waves. Recording one shaker trace at each depth allows routine well‐site quality control of VSP data. Such quality control is especially important for the horizontal axes of a tool and in an open hole, where coupling conditions are not easily controlled.
On-site Quality Control of Photovoltaic Modules with the PV MOBILE LAB
