Hard resources

Successful strategies require resources to convert them into reality (including both hard resources [like cash, plant and equipment, and offices] and soft resources such as people and technology). The manager s unique role in resource allocation stems from three distinctive features of the job. First, the manager is the only person who can commit resources across the entire business. Since nearly every major strategy entails cross-functional commitments, the manager is normally the only executive empowered to make these commitments. 

Many computational chemistry techniques are extremely computer-intensive. Depending on the type of calculation desired, it could take anywhere from seconds to weeks to do a single calculation. There are many calculations, such as ah initio analysis of biomolecules, that cannot be done on the largest computers in existence. Likewise, calculations can take very large amounts of computer memory and hard disk space. In order to complete work in a reasonable amount of time, it is necessary to understand what factors contribute to the computer resource requirements. Ideally, the user should be able to predict in advance how much computing power will be needed. 

Extension Toxicology Network, EXTOXNET, 2nd ed., available in hard copy and electronic form from Resource Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1994. Contains 139 pesticide information profiles (PIPs), 16 toxicology information briefs (TIBS), and other information on current issues in pesticide toxicology and environmental chemistry. 

SLUDGE MANAGER Resource Conservation Services, Inc. 42 Main Street Yarmouth, ME 04096 (207) 846-3737 Recordkeeping and database management for treatment plants and facilities that produce useful sludge. Requires 312K memory, 5Meg hard disk, and dBase II. 

It is advisable to identify all your quality records within your procedures. This will avoid arguments on what is or is not a quality record, because once you have chosen to identify a record as a quality record you have invoked all the requirements that are addressed in this chapter. Any document which describes the achieved features and characteristics of a product or service are quality records. Those records which will demonstrate that work has been planned, organized, resourced, monitored, verified, and corrected when found deficient are also quality records. The note following the requirement acknowledges that quality records can be in hard copy or held on a computer disk or magnetic tape. Should both forms be held, you will need to declare which are the masters and provide the appropriate security to prevent inadvertent loss or damage (see below). 

This in itself draws attention to one of the artistic aspects of the industrial catalyst designer s job. Money values are neither absolute, invariant, nor always logically desirable entities. For example, resource producing nations can increase feedstock prices and they may do so for political rather than for hard, technological reasons. One very important consequence is the fact that a catalytic process that is economic in one year but not in the next is not as attractive as one that can adapt. 

While understanding chemical reactions is a necessary first step, integrating knowledge of reactions with knowledge of sources, sinks, and transport of chemicals is also necessary. In addition to this "hard science understanding, there is also the need to incorporate social science understanding of human use or abuse of our environmental resources. 

The calculation of direct household costs of HIV/AIDS is quite difficult. First, resource consumption is hardly documented, so that patients have to be interviewed or be asked to keep household diaries for all expenditure due to their disease. Second, it is frequently not easy to allot a certain expenditure to a specific disease. Co-payments for drugs, practitioner, and hospital services as well as transport to and from the provider are easily allocated to the COI of this disease. But other direct household costs might be even higher, such as the costs of a special diet, but it is very difficult to analyze whether these costs are really incurred due to this illness. Studies demonstrate that direct household costs might be small in developed countries, but they might make up to 50% of the total COI in developing countries (Su et al. 2006). 

Data Resource Files allow the user to access all pertinent data as needed, reducing the need for programmer support or hard code to access specialized variables. The data storage format is very user friendly in that if a user wishes to make changes, he can comment fields as desired and does not need to worry about a formatted sequential file sti ucture. 

As stated on the OMG (Object Management) website (http //www.omg. org/), a lack of data standards results in data conversions, loss of information, lack of interoperability, etc. Current standards du jour are XML (Extensible Markup Language) [17], LSID (Life Sciences Identifiers), and now the RDF (Resource Description Framework) from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), which is extensible though hard to implement. Substantial work on OO (Object Oriented) modeling of life science data types takes place at the OMG s LSR (Life Sciences Research) group—this is discussed below. 

Systems for backing up data are required. There are a variety of media that will meet the requirement. The decision should be based on logistics, resources, and systems already in place. Some appropriate back-up media are floppy disks, zip drives, additional hard drives, network server and CD-ROMs. Data must be backed up at least once per day on the day that original raw data are entered into the program. Ideally, backed-up data should be stored in a fire-resistant, secure area or a secure location separate from where the primary data are stored. 

Gehlin, S., 1998. Thermal Response Test, In-Sim Measurements of Thermal Properties in Hard Rock, Licentiate Thesis, No. 37, Lulea University of Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering, Division of Water Resources Engineering, 41 pp. 

Constraints are given as resource utilization restrictions (e.g., shift regimes, workforce availability, energy, catalyzer). In addition relations between different dynamic data objects are defined (e.g., setup matrix, order network). Constraints can be considered as hard (must be satisfied) or soft (violations are visualized) in a given time interval with regard to calculation of derived dynamic data. 

A lot of people don t have the resources that we have in this part of the country. Here there are a lot of naturopathic practitioners and people who are more aware of environmental health issues. We re in the hub of it, and I start thinking that s the way it is for everybody. But that s not true. There are some places where it s polluted and no one understands. That s got to be very hard and isolating when nobody takes you seriously. 

With an older population, higher demand, increasing cost and limited resources we have problems to satisfy all needs and priorities. These priorities and decisions are hard to do for the practitioner in relation to the patient and to the society. Priorities should be based on the three ethical principles (human dignity, needs and solidarity, cost-effectiveness) described in Box 3.7. Greater needs (severe diseases and low quality of life) and the weakest people (i.e. the elderly) should have priorities. Cost-effectiveness principles should only be used when comparing treatment methods for the same disease. 

PC-Based Information Products Floppy Disk Based. We currently have ready access to a rapidly growing variety of relevant information resources. From a current awareness perspective, an excellent source of weekly information is the floppy disk-based product called Current Contents on Diskette (CCOD). Several versions are available however, the Life Sciences version is most appropriate for this review because of its coverage, on a weekly basis, of over 1200 journals describing work in the biological sciences. One will note that the product has several useful features, including very quick retrieval of article citations as well as several output options (including either hard copy or electronic storage of references as well as reprint requests). 

A critical part of the strategy for delivery of information to the end-user is that one can anticipate marked increased usage of the more traditional, hard-copy based resources of the centralized library. The tools described here are frequently complementary to the pivotal library-based information center. What one can anticipate, however, is a much more focused use of hard-copy based information... 

---