Computer purchases

ATS offers its employees a computer purchase plan, on-the-job training, an educational program and scholarships. 

Hydro offers its employees a pension plan an employee assistance program a wellness program a computer purchase program social clubs automobile and property insurance Canada Savings Bonds and a scholarship program for children of employees. 

Assets (such as machines, cars, and computers) lose their value over a period of time. For example, a computer purchased today by a company for 2000 is not worth as much in three or four years. Companies use this reduction in value of an asset against their before-tax income. There are rules and guidelines that specify what can be depreciated, by how much, and over what period of time. Examples of depreciation methods include the Straight Line and the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS). 

Molecular modelling used to be restricted to a small number of scientists who had access to the necessary computer hardware and software. Its practitioners wrote their own programs, managed their own computer systems and mended them when they broke down. Today s computer workstations are much more powerful than the mainframe computers of even a few years ago and can be purchased relatively cheaply. It is no longer necessary for the modeller to write computer programs as software can be obtained from commercial software companies and academic laboratories. Molecular modelling can now be performed in any laboratory or classroom. 

Mass-produced workstation-class CPUs are much cheaper than traditional supercomputer processors. Thus, a larger amount of computing power for the dollar can be purchased by buying a parallel supercomputer that might have hundreds of workstation CPUs. 

If you cannot specifically answer these questions, then you have not formulated a proper research project. The choice of computational methods must be based on a clear understanding of both the chemical system and the information to be computed. Thus, all projects start by answering these fundamental questions in full. The statement To see what computational techniques can do. is not a research project. However, it is a good reason to purchase this book. 

UniChem (we tested Version 4.1) is a graphic interface made for running calculations on remote machines. The UniChem GUI runs on the local workstation and submits the computations to be run on a remote machine. The server software comes with MNDO, DGauss, and CADPAC. It can also be used as a graphic interface for Gaussian and Q-Chem. A toolkit can be purchased separately, which allows users to create an interface to their own programs. 

Thermal printing usually involves passing materials over a full-width array of electronically controlled heaters (a thermal printhead). This marks thousands of spots simultaneously, so pages print relatively quickly. Image data to control the printhead usually come from computer systems. Black-and-white and full-color systems are both practical. Color is slower and more cosdy to purchase and use, primarily because this involves three or four successive printing operations, one for each color used. 

Office. Various segments of the office market have the largest population of computers, and thus the greatest demand for computer printers. In 1994, however, more computers were purchased for home use than for the office. The fastest developing computer printer technology is thermal ink jet, whether measured by rates of performance increase, price decrease, or purchase. 

The mechanical parts of computer-controlled viscometers can be simple and should not become obsolete for many years. The complexity is in the software, and this is where changes will have to be made to keep the instmment up to date. Some manufacturers are offering new, updated software free for a period of several years after the instmment is purchased. 

Almost all vendors and manufacturers of process equipment use computer programs in designing and rating the equipment that they make. Such programs are made available to the purchasers of their equipment, often as a service or at a minimal cost. From an engineering point of view, some of these programs are biased in favor of the vendor s equipment. 

The most recendy developed model is called UNIQUAC (21). Comparisons of measured VLE and predicted values from the Van Laar, Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC models, as well as an older model, are available (3,22). Thousands of comparisons have been made, and Reference 3, which covers the Dortmund Data Base, available for purchase and use with standard computers, should be consulted by anyone considering the measurement or prediction of VLE. The predictive VLE models can be accommodated to multicomponent systems through the use of certain combining rules. These rules require the determination of parameters for all possible binary pairs in the multicomponent mixture. It is possible to use more than one model in determining binary pair data for a given mixture (23). 

Published Cost Correla.tions. Purchased cost of an equipment item, ie, fob at seller s site or other base point, is correlated as a function of one or more equipment—size parameters. A size parameter is some elementary measure of the size or capacity, such as the heat-transfer area for a heat exchanger (see HeaT-EXCHANGETECHNOLOGy). Historically the cost—size correlations were graphical log—log plots, but the use of arbitrary equation forms for correlation has become quite common. If cost—size equations are used in computer databases, some limit logic must be included so that the equation is not used outside of the appHcable size range. 

Raw material costs should be estimated by direct computation from flow rates and material prices. The flow rates are deterrnined from flow sheet material balances. The unit prices are obtained from vendors, company purchasing departments, or the Chemical Marketing Reporter. For captive raw materials produced internally, a suitable transfer price must be estabHshed. Initial catalyst charges can be treated as a start-up expense, working capital component, or depreciable capital, depending on the expected catalyst life and cost. Makeup catalyst is frequendy treated as a raw material. 

Essence of Profitability. If an investor purchases a computer in the morning and seUs it in the afternoon for a larger sum, then a return on the investment is realized. This is profit a reward for the effort (investment) made. A somewhat more difficult situation is the case of three choices having different purchase costs and expected selling prices ... 

Ejfect of Inflation on (NPV) When computing the (NPV) for a proposed project, error arises if the actual cash flows are simply added together instead of adjusting all the values to their purchasing power in a particular year. The reason hes in the basis of (NPV) calculations. We all rewrite Eq. (9-57) to give... 

The period covered by the published accounts of a company is usually 1 year, but the details from which these accounts are compiled are entered daily in a journal. The journal is a chronological listing of every transaction of the business, with details of the corresponding income or expenditure. For the smallest businesses, this may provide sufficient documentation, but in most cases the unsystematic nature of the journal can lead to computational errors. Therefore, the usual practice is to keep accounts that are listings of transactions related to a specific topic such as purchase-of-oil account. This account would list the cost of each purchase of oil, together with the date of purchase, as extracted from the journal. 

Example 20 Inventory Computation Let us consider 10 successive batches of raw materials, of 1000 units, purchased in a time of rising prices in which C] = 0.10 per unit, C9 = 0.11 per unit, etc., as listed in Table 9-29. The total cost of the purchases in the inventory is found from Eq. (9-155) to he 1450. 

The interpretation of the results and the quality of the design from the pulsation study, whether performed on the analog simulator or with digital computer simulation, depends quite heavily on the experience and skill of the analyst performing the study, A purchaser of a compressor system who may be a novice at this type of analysis should give serious consideration to using the services of a competent consultant. 

Any comparison of the cost of computer applications requires the assessment of many factors in addition to the purchase price identified by the vendor. (See note above for a detailed discussion of costs.)... 

Computer systems are continually being modified and refined. The results of the evaluation become out-of-date and should be repeated if the purchase of a system is delayed. 

Prior to orders being placed the purchasing documents should be checked to verify that they are fit for their purpose. Again this requirement is appropriate to subcontracts but only if you submit your purchasing documents to your vendors. The extent to which you carry out this activity should be on the basis of risk and if you choose not to review and approve all purchasing documents, your procedures should provide the rationale for your decision. The standard does not require that the review and approval be documented. In some cases orders are produced using a computer and transmitted to the vendor directly without any evidence that the order has been reviewed or approved. The purchase order does not have to be the only purchasing document. If you enter pur-... 

Provide a computer file containing details of purchasing transactions with read and write access. 

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