A company is selling an artifact worth millions of dollars. Many interested buyers are in the bidding process, which works as follows. Each buyer sends the information of his/her final number (e. g., $1,000,000.00) to the company to show his/her commitment. And the number must be kept confidential from other buyers and even the company before the deadline. After the deadline, all numbers are released to all buyers and the company, then the buyer with the highest number wins. Design a HASH FUNCTION based scheme to secure the bidding process. Describe steps a buyer and/or the company should do.

Solomon chemical company makes three products, b7, k6, and x9, which are joint products from the same materials. in a standard batch of 320,000 pounds of raw materials, the company generates 70,000 pounds of b7, 150,000 pounds of k6, and 100,000 pounds of x9. a standard batch costs $3,840,000 to produce. the sales prices per pound are $10, $14, and $20 for b7, k6, and x9, respectively. (a) allocate the joint product cost among the three final products using weight as the allocation base. (b) allocate the joint product cost among the three final products using market value as the allocation base. (c) allocate the joint product cost among the three final products using weight as the allocation base.