DATABASE UPDATE - Chemical & Engineering News

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Technoloay

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ed to have repairs done by the Beijing group rather than have the instruments repaired abroad. This is of immediate value to the instrument maker, but it does intensify the problem of incentives: After five years, the Chinese have also discovered that equipment becomes obsolete very rapidly. Replacement and upgrading of instruments is now a subject of concern to the scientific community in China and to the government of China, which must appropriate the necessary funds for modernization. Lyttle also notes that the particular list of instruments that the Chinese purchased in the early 1980s doesn't evidence much concern for optimal usage. Some of the instruments, he suggests, were more sophisticated than needed at the time they were purchased. Likewise, there are some obvious shortcomings, such as very little nuclear magnetic resonance equipment. During the next five years, the Chinese expect to continue rapid modernization of their analytical capabilities in every respect. Such modernization is symptomatic of a broader problem, that of industrialization generally. With a population that is now projected by the Chinese to be 1.2 billion people by the end of the millennium, modernization has become a matter of grave importance. Most people in China still use coal briquettes for cooking and for what little space heating is done. Less than 5% of the population has access to gaseous fuels of any kind. Liquid fuels are reserved for the scarce vehicles. Yet, in July 1988, Union Carbide started up its 50th Unipol p o l y e t h y l e n e reactor in Daqing. Obviously there will be a lot of industrial leapfrogging, which will require the support of the educational and research institutions. In the West, industrial chemistry focuses heavily on hydrocarbon production and conversion. In China, that will probably be much less the case, with a more basic thrust into "natural" products derived either from a renewable base or from other native resources. These resources are considerable, and their utilization will continue to tax the ingenuity of the Chinese. D

• Freditor (TechAlliance, $80, Circle 301), a text editor that runs on Apple Macintosh PCs, assists scientists and engineers in the creation of Fortran programs. The program, which was developed at Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, has editing andformatting functions that facilitate working with Fortran source and data files.

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February 27, 1989 C&EN

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• Tri Form R Data Entry (Software Innovations, $150, Circle 302) helps chemical producers with EPA Title 313 toxic chemical release inventory form R submission filings. The menu-driven program, which runs on IBM PCs and compatibles, features data windows for entry of form R information. Once entered, data can be saved and then validated according to EPA requirements. • Mallin (Mallinckrodt, Circle 303), a database that contains more than 1400 OSHA-formatted material safety data sheets for laboratory and electronic chemicals, is now available on the Chemical Information System database service. Data sheets may be retrieved from the system by "searching for chemical names, CAS Registry Numbers, or a variety of other inputs. • Materials Master (Vincent Rae Associates, $1995 single user, $2995 multiuser, Circle 304) is a program for IBM PCs and compatibles that handles transactions related to materials management (such as in chemical stockroom operations), including allocation, checkout, return, ordering, account management, bookkeeping, and facility access for up to 8 stocking locations. It permits physical tracking of items and maintenance of audit trails. • FitAll (MTR Software, $50 standard edition, $75 research edition, Circle 305) is a nonlinear least-squares regression analysis program for IBM PCs and compatibles. The standard edition fits data to 20 different built-in functions. The research

edition also allows the user to modify the program so that it will fit data to virtually any function. Both editions provide a choice of w e i g h t i n g schemes, report standard deviations of resolved parameters, and display graphs of data. • Rodiecalc MSDS Chemical Component Calculation System (Rodie Co., Circle 306) helps facilities comply with Title III of the Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization Act and hazardous waste regulations. The program, available in both IBM PC ($750) and Apple Macintosh ($1050) versions, totals chemical components in a company's material safety data sheets and references those totals to reportable quantity limits of hazardous chemicals specified in federal regulations.

Literature • Lab View brochure (National Instruments, Circle 307) covers graphical programing system for development of instrumentation and analysis applications on Apple Macintosh computers. LabWindows brochure (Circle 308) describes package used to develop instrument control, data acquisition, and data analysis applications programs on IBM PCs, PS / 2s, and compatibles. • Brochure (Shimadzu Scientific Instruments/Circle 309) provides information about two software packages that allow data transfer between the company's Chromatopac data processors and IBM PCs and compatibles. • White paper (Gilson Medical Electronics, Circle 310) discusses the effects of new developments in computers and operating systems on laboratory instrument control, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of different types of HPLC controllers. For information on these items or numbered ads, see Reader Service Card