Other Costing Issues

As noted in the section on budgeting, it is incumbent on plant engineers, hke all managers, to maintain close control of costs, and make decisions based on accurate cost data While other chapters in this Handbook detail costing systems, and other cost issues have been noted elsewhere in this chapter, a... 

Nonwood plant fibers made from various plants have been proposed as reinforcements for polymer systems. Some of these plant fibers offer advantages over wood, especially in the way they increase tensile strength similarly to higher-density, less-environmentally-friendly glass fiber. But many plant fiber reinforcements remain in the research and development phase until problems with moisture absorption, low processing temperatures, and economies of scale (and other cost issues) are resolved. 

Furthermore, although the U.S. EPA argues that the cost of compliance for all environmental regulations is small in comparison to overall industry expenditures, there are many hidden costs that oftentimes are not considered, and go beyond the capital investment for a piece of equipment. These so-called other costs are not necessarily incremental, depending upon the size of a company and the magnitude of its environmental management issues. They include, but are not limited to ... 

Several things are immediately obvious the problem is much worse at the edge of the parabola than near the center and gets worse as pIRvertex ) Since p/Rvertex) is proportional to the // of the primary, the difficulty as the primary gets faster is clear. Of course, this must be traded off with the cost of the dome and other lesser issues that depend on the // of the primary. 

In addition to these complexities, there may be other issues that need to be included in the analysis that are not readily included using the graphical approach. These might include forbidden matches (e.g. because a long pipe run may be necessary), compulsory matches (e.g. for operability) and capital cost issues (e.g. the cost of running pipes between operations). 

Strategies for the analysis of food supply for drug residues differ in detail between laboratories and are to some extent governed by factors such as sample number, submission rate, type of analyte, and variety of matrices. Sampling, quality, cost, and accreditation are just a few of other important issues normally considered. 

Property laws must also be reconsidered. By definition, additional users can be added without exhaustion, congestion, or other costs. If the appropriation (investment) problem can be resolved, then the hegemony of absolutist property rules would crumble. If the appropriation (investment) issue is resolved, there is no reason to... 

If PGx information is included in the label of a drug product in a way that gives physicians and patients an option to have a genomic test done as part of therapy, this raises other translational issues that include knowledge of the test availability, the quality of the test results, its turnaround time and costs, including reimbursement options, and as mentioned the proper interpretation of test results. 

It should be emphasized that there are other important issues to be taken into consideration while selecting ink compositions, in addition to the performance needs. The main issues are environmental, legislation, health and safety, flammabihty and last, but not least, ink cost. 

Although steam stripping is used commercially, it is not without drawbacks. The primary drawback is the additional capital and operational costs to install such a system. In addition, there are other process issues that must also be addressed carefully. 

An ambitious effort is now under way to determine the sequence of the entire human genome comprising some three billion base pairs using the nucleic acid technologies and advanced computer technologies. The complete nucleotide sequence is expected to contribute to an unprecedented understanding of human diseases and to appropriate therapeutic approaches. However the utihty, the specific approaches, and the cost-benefit questions are still being debated. This and other frontier issues are discussed in Chapter 9. 

Like all other chemical processes, the separation processes by inorganic membranes have two major cost issues capital investments and operating costs. Capital costs are affected by the membrane area required (which in turn arc determined by the permeability and permselectivity), compression or recompression energy requirements as dictated by the operating pressure, piping and vessels, instrumentation and control, and any pretreaunent requirements (depending on the nature of the feed material and the membrane). The operating cosLs arc determined by the required membrane replacement... 

A detailed description of how to run the ICARUS software is beyond the scope of this book and is unnecessary, as the program is extensively documented (AspenTech 2002a, 2002b). Some of the common issues that arise in using the software are discussed next. These or similar problems are also faced when using other cost-estimating programs. 

Additional obstacles may include lack of a patent or other proprietary position, availability of a generic equivalent, large amount of competition, technical difficulties in any area of formulation, analytical, stability, scale-up or other related issues. Manufacturing issues or costs of any aspect of the manufacturing, from obtaining the raw products to final manufacturing and packaging to distribution, are other possible disincentives. 

Incidence and Prevalence Database. Cupertino, CA. Timely Data Resources. Provides global incidence, prevalence, morbidity, comorbidity, cost data, symptoms, and many other health issues for over 4700 diseases and procedures. Data sources include the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, The National Hospital Discharge Survey, and review articles from keyjoiumals. Searchable by text, keyword, and ICD code. Available online. 

A comment about the scope of this work Focus is placed on the envirmunental dimension of sustainability with one chapter addressing social aspects. Cost issues are dealt with in the other chapters of this book. 

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