Instrument total cost

In the early period of the pandemic, before the development of sensitive and reliable instruments to diagnose early infection, only patients with advanced AIDS presented to health care facilities. As a result, the estimates and projects of the costs for HIV/AIDS patients based on observed health care utilization were high. For example, Scitovsky and Rice estimated the annual costs of AIDS care in the United States in 1985, 1986, and 1991 to be US 630 million, US 1.1 billion, and US 8.5 billion, respectively these costs represented the direct and indirect costs of HIV infections (Scitovsky and Rice 1987 Scitovsky 1988, 1989). More than 80% of these costs stemmed from losses in productivity, a reflection of the fact that AIDS has afflicted primarily working-age adults. The great increase in total costs by 1991 is caused by a projected increase in the prevalence. 

Various calibration schemes similar to those given in Section 2.2.8 were simulated. The major differences were (1) the assumption of an additional 100% calibration sample after every fifth determination (including replications) to detect instrument drift, and (2) the cost structure outlined in Table 4.6, which is sununarized in Eq. (4.2) below. The results are depicted graphically in Figure 4.5, where the total cost per batch is plotted against the estimated confidence interval CI(X). This allows a compromise involving acceptable costs and error levels to be found. 

The operation of fuel cells has already been described in Section 1.3.5 (Chapter 1). Here, the emphasis will be on the control of these devices. Further research is required to reduce the cost of instruments for all fuel cell systems. For example, a complex fuel cell system can require upward of 100 flow control valves. Even if the cost is only 200 for a typical low-cost commercial valve, this cost can exceed the total cost of alternative electricity generation components by a sizable margin. Transition to high-temperature fuel cells pushes the valve price up as special materials are required, yet low cost is critical for commercial viability and salability of fuel cells if they are ever to move out of the laboratory and into general use. 

A disadvantage of this approach is that it usually is expensive. However, when the total cost of a suitably instrumented vessel not designed for vacuum is compared with the cost of a vessel designed for vacuum but without the extra equipment, the difference may be small or negligible, and the vessel designed for vacuum will be inherently safer. If a vessel is designed for vacuum, precautions should be taken to ensure that internal or external corrosion will not destroy the integrity of the vessel. 

The sum of costs for piping, insulation, and instrumentation can be estimated to be 60 percent of the cost for the installed equipment. Annual fixed charges amount to 15 percent of the total cost for installed equipment, piping, instrumentation, and insulation. 

The total cost of this titan of magnetic force, the world s largest particle accelerator 5.3 billion. When and if it is built—Congress, at this writing, still has not approved the project—scientists will have access to the largest, costliest research tool in the world, and the most powerful instrument for probing the structure of matter. 

When construction is to be subcontracted, some accounts (civil, insulation, and paint) are usually estimated on a total cost basis, combining both materials and labor. Other accounts (piping, electrical, instrumentation, equipment erection) are estimated and shown separately as material and labor. In that case, the labor should be loaded with the subcontractor s field indirects plus overhead and profit. The field indirects would reflect only the cost of construction management. 

Comparative studies have often found that high performance TLC (HPTLC) is superior to HPLC in terms of total cost and time required for pharmaceutical analyses. " The Bibliography contains sources of general information on the principles, theory, practice, instrumentation, and applications of TLC and HPTLC. Detailed information on the subjects mentioned above as well as on additional topics and applications that could not be covered because of lack of space will be found in these references. 

Batch reactors are seldom employed on a commercial scale for gas-phase reactions because the quantity of product that can be produced in a reasonably sized reactor is small. The chief use of batch systems for gaseous reactions is in kinetic studies. Batch reactors are often used, however, for liquid-phase reactions, particularly when the required production is small. Batch reactors are generally more expensive to operate than continuous units for the same production rate. However, the initial cost of a continuous system may be higher owing to the instrumentation required. Therefore, for relatively high-priced products (such as pharmaceuticals) where operating expense is not a predominant factor in the total cost, batch reactors are commbnly employed. 

The costs of materials, for installation include the costs of concrete for the foundations, steel for structural support, piping from and to the other modules, instruments and controllers, lighting and electrical materials, insulation, and paint. Piping costs can be very substantial. Guthrie (1969, 1974) indicates that the cost of piping for a heat exchanger is typically 45.6% of the f.o.b. purchase cost, while the total cost of materials for installation is estimated at 71.4% of the f.o.b. purchase cost, as shown in Table 16.10. Hence, for a 10,000 heat exchanger, the cost of materials for installation is 7,140. 

An important factor in the development of most commercial automated systems remained the 20% rule. This rule required that the total cost of any computer package should not exceed 20% of the sale price of the final automated product. Table 6.2 lists the main computers used for the control of x-ray instruments over the past three decades 1965 saw the introduction of the 4K/8 bit PDP-8 from Digital Equipment. This development was to start a major revolution and a movement away from large mainframe instrument control that persists to this day. While DEC introduced the PDP-8pIus (12-bit), closely followed by the immensely... 

Manufacturability - many high-cost analytical instruments that have been built around technical innovations tend to neglect the importance of designing in the ability to mass-produce sub-systems at low cost, with many key components handmade and aligned for optimum performance. Historically, it was more important that an instrument was capable of measuring parameters crucial to the pharmaceutical industry than it was of low cost to build and easy to use. It was accepted that PhD-level scientists would be employed to operate such equipment, and the total cost of ownership was linked to labour rather than capital expenditure costs. 

An earher chapter discussed the electrochemical measurements with the aid of commercial and virtual electrochemical analyzers. Although the conventional electrochemical analyzers are capable of performing many different kinds of electrochemical analysis, the total cost and size of the commercial instruments limits their applicabUity in point-of-care diagnosis. Moreover, they also tend to be laboratory-based and not field portable. Therefore, the primary objective of this work is to develop a new, low-cost, hand-held electrochemical device for the measurement of the release of various biomarkers. 

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