Converting Informal Systems

In many organizations, the existing PSM and ESH systems may be partially or almost completely informal. It is essential that this informality is eliminated in the integrated system. An informal system exists when there are few written policies, procedures or standards, or written requirements are not enforced or followed. Informal systems almost invariably contain internal inconsistencies which can lead to breakdowns in PSM and ESH management. Different departments and locations will have different systems. Part of the team s work will be to formalize these informal PSM and ESH management during the integration process. 

Where existing PSM and ESH systems are informal, it is usually better to document or formalize the existing systems (depending on the scope of the system and its criticality) before integrating them, instead of simultaneously formalizing and integrating them. 

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The CRC-Elsevier materials selector , 2nd edition, N.A. Waterman, and M.E Ashby CRC Press (1996) ISBN 0412615509. (Now, also available on CD-ROM). Basic reference work. Three-volume compilation of data for all materials includes selection and design guide. The Materials Selector is the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative information system on engineering materials and related methods of component manufacture. It contains information on the properties, performance and processability of metals, plastics, ceramics, composites, surface treatments and the characteristics and comparative economics of the manufacturing routes which convert these materials into engineering components and products. 

Coordinate Representation. A coordinate representation of a chemical substance is a recording of the atoms and bonds of that substance with an indication of their relative position in a plane. This coordinate representation provides a valuable form to facilitate on-line, real-time manipulation of the structure diagram and to store the diagram for subsequent composition in journals, handbooks, and search output. Because this representation is difficult to manipulate, it is typically converted to some other form for other information system functions. Farmer and Schehr [11] describe the approaches and capabilities used at CAS for representing and processing a coordinate form of structure diagrams. 

Some systems support various structure formats and need to convert the structures from one format to another from time to time. Although this may not be required by a registration system, it could be very useful in other types of chemical information systems such as molecular modeling. The good news is that some tools from the major chemical informatics software vendors can do the conversions. In this situation, commercial solutions make sense because you do not want to reinvent the wheel. 

The ID nucleotide/amino acid sequences in character format (without index, e.g., fasta format) can be converted into the 2D chemical structures with ISIS Draw, which can be downloaded from MDL Information System at http //www.mdli.com/ download/isisdraw.html for academic use. Install the package by issuing Run command, C Isis Draw23.exe. Launch IsisDraw to open the Draw window. 

ROSDAL. Linear notation scheme devised by the Beilstein Institute. It can contain just connection table information, or it may also contain atom coordinates. Several chemical information systems can convert ROSDAL strings to other structure file formats. 

In this chapter, we will explain fundamental en neering dimensions, such as i and time, and their units, such as meter and second, and their role in engineering analysis and desiffi. As an engineering student, and later as practicing engineer, when performing an analysis, you will find a need to convert from one system of units to another. We will explain the steps necessary to convert information from one system of units to another correctly. 

Still, a general guideline does not make the task simple. Each case is different and it is impossible to describe a detailed, universally appUcable method. Rather, a general framework is established where the details are left to the analysts and the experts involved. Thus it is crucial that they have the necessary competence within their fields. A bad judgment may have significant catastrophic consequences in terms of safely, environment or economy. The analyst must for instance know how to convert information to reliability and know how to express uncertainty. The system expert must be able to see the difference of the novel technology and similar qualified technology, identify possible failure modes and predict functionality. 

The chromatography BIOS(CBIOS) concept allows system control and data acquisition under one platform. On the CBIOS driver level, general chromatography commands, for example, a NaOH gradient, are converted to system-specific commands. The concept works bidirectionally, that is, the instruments are under direct control and give positive feedback, so the user is continuously informed about the status of a single module or the complete system. 

For many computer tasks and for the transfer of structiural information from one computer program to another, a linear representation of the chemical structure may be more suitable. " A popular linear representation is the SMILES notation. Part of its appeal is that for acyclic structures the SMILES is similar to the traditional linear diagram. For example, ethane is denoted by CC and ethylene C=C. Examples of additional SMILES are given in Figure 4. SMILES is the basis of a chemical information system, and this notation provides a convenient framework for more sophisticated computer coding of chemistry described below. For some internal computer functions, structures encoded in a linear notation may be converted to connection tables. 

Developments in communication devices have occurred in three main areas personal communication networks (PCNs), WANs and information systems (IS). PCNs are involved with the collection and storage of information provided by sensors and converting the data into signals that can be transferred for analysis. WAN systems deal with the information collected from PCNs and transfer it to remote locations. IS help in the analysis, storage and interpretation of results (Figure 11.3). 

The Du Pont proprietary technical information system was state-of-the-art when it was developed 20 years ago. It is still operating in batch mode but has become increasingly difficult to support. In response to demand from the technical community for online access to the information, the abstract file was duplicated and converted to an interactive, free-text searchable database as an interim measure. 

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