Journal articles on the topic 'Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company'

This article aims at the implementation of safety at work in the daily life of a Junior Company, which often uses laboratories for chemical analysis. To achieve the objective, initially a risk map was structured. Then, a business model was defined, adding safety factors through the methodology of Business Model Canvas. And finally, the application of the Balanced Scorecard, proposing objectives and operation’s indicators relating this specific junior company. When the analysis was done, the presence of hazards was detected in the laboratory and there have been set ways to eliminate or minimize these risks and accidents at work. Therefore, after the implementation of this study, the company has a structured safety culture, allowing focused actions of improvements, education and training.

Ross Macdonald is the CEO and Managing Director of Cynata Therapeutics Limited (Australia). He has over 30 years of experience and a track record of success in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology businesses. His career history includes positions as Vice President of Business Development for Sinclair Pharmaceuticals Ltd (now Sinclair IS Pharma), a UK-based specialty pharmaceuticals company, and Vice President of Corporate Development for Stiefel Laboratories, Inc., then the largest independent dermatology company in the world and acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2009 for £2.25 billion. He has also served as the CEO of Living Cell Technologies Ltd, Vice President of Business Development of Connetics Corporation and Vice President of Research and Development of F H Faulding & Co Ltd.

A pleasant working environment starts with a smooth adjustment of the graduate to the workplace. For this reason, preparing students in line with companies' work requirements must be in the focus during faculty. Since many of the subjects currently taught do not take this into account, this paper aims to contribute validated ideas and techniques to the creation of industry-oriented teaching activities. Therefore, this paper presents how practical work at a laboratory in an IT faculty has been adapted to accommodate some important aspects encountered in companies and required from future employees: teamwork where each member has well-defined tasks, creativity, taking on the task at hand, using cloud-hosted tools, tracking tasks within a team using dedicated platforms, and logging and solving a bug in a professional way. Actively helping the students in acquiring the necessary skills to design and verify a part of a chip, several didactic methods (e.g. brainstorming, explanation, discussion, “jigsaw” method) were also used to lead the students, step by step, to a good understanding of the working environment in a corporation. As results, it is shown that the students managed to learn how to approach the specific tools and methods of a company, and the good quality of the products obtained was confirmed by representatives of several companies in the field. The students' views on the teaching process, collected through an anonymous questionnaire, are also deeply analysed and discussed. Finally, the paper highlights the main aspects that positively influenced the students' professional development during teaching activities.

The relevance of the research is predetermined by factors as the strengthening of the role of chemical analytical (testing) laboratories of gas transmission companies in the implementation of Gazprom’s PJSC strategy in the field of reliable and trouble-free transportation of natural gas and the need of testing laboratories to constantly confirm their impartiality and ability to carry out production tasks at a competent level. Protection of the interests of the consumer and the rights of the supplier is ensured by the accuracy of determining the quantity and quality indicators of the supplied products established in technical regulations, standards and by minimizing risks to life, human health and the environment on the basis of reliable measurements. The issue of the quality of measurement results is acute today. Depending on the direction of measurement processes and applications of the measurement results the shape of laboratories attestation has different requirements. All types of measurements carried out in an organization should be subject to mandatory or voluntary accreditation. Ensuring the competence of chemical analytical laboratories at Gazprom PJSC subsidiaries and companies of in the field of product conformity assessment is facilitated by the corporate accreditation system operating in accordance with Company Standard STO Gazprom 5.8-2020. Uniform requirements adapted to the industry specifics of activities and sufficient for reliable measurement results, encourage subsidiaries to become participants in the updated accreditation system. Gazprom Transgaz Kazan LLC acts as the research base. The object of the study is to ensure the uniformity of measurements through compliance with the accreditation criteria, the subject is the accreditation of a testing laboratory in the corporate system. The article considers the procedure and activities carried out by the testing laboratory during accreditation

Pharmaceutical industry is one of the industries that heavily regulated in most of country in the world. Regulation made by the regulatory is intended to ensure the system or process in the industry produce the product without impacting the safety, efficacy, integrity and quality of the product. Computerized system are commonly used by pharmaceutical manufacturing activities from planning, warehousing, production, engineering and testing in laboratories. Computerized system that used not only as information system or processing the data the system also used by the company to control their proses such automation system in production area. Recent report from regulatory showing there is increasing reports from regulatory regarding company failure in maintain their computerized system to comply with cGMP (current good manufacturing practice) from regulator.

Introduction: In general, university laboratories can be characterized as a polluting source, as they use several chemical substances that are potentially harmful to the environment and human health in the development of their academic activities. Therefore, proper handling of chemical products and management of waste generated are necessary for environmental safety. Objective: make a diagnosis respect to the management of hazardous waste at the Technical University of Ambato. Methods: it’s a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study, in which 41 laboratories generating hazardous waste were selected. A survey was applied based on the current technical regulations of the Ministry of the Environment of Peru, with 3 sections, and the results were analyzed in the SPSS 24.0 program. Results: at the laboratories of the university predominates the generation of infectious residues in the School of Health Sciences and construction in the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, the number of containers is insufficient for generation demand or does not meet the needs (80.50%), sharps are segregated in rigid containers (75.60%), waste is not disposed of according its class (68.30%), central storage is far from medical and food services (61.00%), no treatment or final disposal is carried out by specialized companies (80.50%). Conclusions: the laboratories have an appropriate internal waste management, they have covered containers, the sharps are appropriately segregated, there is a correct middle storage. However, in the external management of hazardous waste, there aren’t routes or timetables for transport, no treatment or collect is carried out through an specialized company. KEYWORDS: hazardous waste, diagnosis, laboratories, waste management, universities, environment.

The article is dedicated to the Scientific Research Company “Electron-Carat”, which was founded in 1972 as the Lviv Research and Development Institute of Materials — the leading developer of the state-of-art materials. Nowadays, the SRC “Electron-Carat” is leading industrial institution of Ukrainian specialized on search, investigation, technological development and small-scale production of materials for functional electronics, in particular nano-, micro-, opto-, acoustic-, cryo-, magneto- and quantum electronics. The SRC “Electron-Carat” is a certified scientific organization included in the state register. Some of the company’s laboratories have been recognized as national heritage of Ukraine. The main scientific and technological scope of SRC “Electron-Carat” includes production of single-crystal epitaxial layers of complex oxides using the liquid-phase epitaxy method; production of epitaxial semiconductor structures based on A3B5 compounds by MOCVD and liquid-phase epitaxy methods; precision mechanical processing of single-crystal materials; vacuum deposition of metal and dielectric coatings; property research and parameter control of materials; production of silicon wafers; manufacture of electronic components based on ceramic and thick-film technologies.

Among the objectives of any IT company is to offer its customers products with a high degree of satisfaction, particularly those whose market is the area of usability and UX. Among these laboratories is the UsaLab Usability Laboratory of the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca (UTM), which has a wide compendium of good practices to manage IT services, being the result of its great experience in various academic and commercial projects at a national and international level. Following up on continuous improvement, it is necessary to update these good practices, because the laboratory processes have been transformed, as a result of current market needs. That is why this research shows the work carried out in the formalization of the processes, and that it is aimed mainly at laboratory personnel, allowing to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the services offered. In addition, it is intended to make this a guide for those usability laboratories that wish to offer services at a commercial level.

Water for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals demands rigorous quality, so it requires successive purification steps to meet the requirements of Brazilian legislation. Likewise, the effluent generated in the production process also requires treatment before its disposal into water bodies. The monitoring of water quality and industrial effluent is carried out through laboratory analysis, in many cases by third-party laboratories at a high cost. The objective of this article is to show a case study that was carried out in a company in the South of the State of Rio de Janeiro and that used the Continuous Exponential Probability Distribution to paver the useful life of an industrial effluent filtration equipment.

In city of Pilsen (Czech Republic) modern transport engineering is developed. The Skoda Transportation (production company) has successfully been producing rail and road vehicles for many years (electric locomotives, trams, metro cars, trolleybuses, battery buses). This producer cooperates in developing these vehicles with the Research and Testing Institute (commercial research institute) and with the University of West Bohemia (public university). Fatigue tests are carried out by the Dynamic Testing Laboratory at the Research and Testing Institute and by the Regional Technological Institute, the research center of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the university. The paper describes various fatigue tests and presents their practical realization in the mentioned laboratories.

Purpose There is little known about investigating the importance of all proximity dimensions simultaneously as a result of geographical proximity on university-industry collaborative innovation. This paper aims to answer the question of how geographically proximate university and industry influence cognitive, social, organizational, institutional and cultural proximity within university-industry joint laboratories and finally, what is the outcome of these interplays on collaborative innovation. Design/methodology/approach The study uses an exploratory multiple-case study approach. The results are derived from 53 in-depth, semistructured interviews with laboratory directors and representatives from both the company and the university within 8 joint laboratories of Telecom Italia (TIM). The data collection was carried out in 2014 and 2015. The analysis follows a multi-grounded theory approach and relies on a mix of deductive and inductive reasoning with the final goal of theoretical elaboration. Findings This study finds the role of social and cultural proximity at the individual level as a result of geographical proximity as an enabler of collaborative innovation by triggering mutual learning, trust formation and frequent interactions. Cognitive proximity at the interface level could systematically influence collaborative innovation, while organizational and institutional proximity has marginal roles in facilitating collaborative innovation. The qualitative analysis offers a conceptual framework for proximity dimensions and collaborative innovation within university-industry joint laboratories. Practical implications The framework not only advances state-of-the-art university-industry collaboration and proximity dimension but also offers guidance for managers in designing collaborative innovation settings between university and industry. Originality/value With this study, the paper advances the understanding beyond solely the relationship between proximity and collaboration and shed light on the interplay between geographical proximity and other proximity dimensions in this context, which has received limited scholarly attention.

PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VII (Persero) Sungai Niru Unit is a company engaged in agriculture, especially oil palm, rubber, sugarcane and tea which has parts of employee duties, the first is processing, engineering, crafts, operators, laboratories, human resources, general and warehouses. The payroll method at this company has used bank transfers, it's just that, employees have to take payslips to the company. In addition, how to make payslips still uses Mircosoft Office Excel 2010 which has to go through a long process and takes a relatively long time, and also data storage is less secure. The purpose of this study is to build an application using a website to facilitate PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VII (Persero) Sungai Niru Unit in processing employee payroll because it is well computerized and easy to use. The research method uses qualitative descriptive methods with data collection techniques in the form of observation, interviews and literature studies. This type of data consists of qualitative data as well as data sources consist of perimer and secondary data. The device development method uses the waterfall method. System design tools used are use case diagrams, class diagrams and activity diagrams. This application is built using a website with php programming language and Mysql database, as well as to print reports using pdf components.

My involvement in a large medical imaging company for nearly 20 years shaped my approach to teaching biomedical engineering. These experiences are described in Medical Physics International Journal, 6,602–620, May 2021. At Boston University, I taught undergraduates using a four pronged approach. The first part included a “lessons learned” career overview lecture and discussion to incoming freshman. This talk emphasized shifting paradigms in medical device development and changing trends in research and development and how to best prepare for a biomedical engineering career by prudent course selection, practical experience and life-long networking. Second, I designed two ultrasound lab modules which were part of the mandatory physiology lab all juniors took. These laboratories provided condensed theory with hands-on experiments on imaging and Doppler processing/imaging and data analysis. Third, I taught ultrasound and medical imaging courses which included rigorous theory, applications and examples. My book, Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging: Inside Out, second edition, is being used in ultrasound courses throughout the world. A new book and curriculum, coauthored with Peter Kaczkowski, and sponsored by Verasonics, is underway. Finally, for 15 years, I taught a usually two semester course in entrepreneurship, innovation and engineering design which culminated in a team-based senior project.

Editor's Note: As part of our plan to reprint previously published papers of great historical interest, the editorial board is pleased to reproduce the following paper by Hanawalt, Frevel and Rinn. This paper was originally published in Volume 10 (1938) of the Analytical Ediction of “Industrial and Engineering Chemistry” and is considered by most diffractionists to be the classic work in qualitative identification of multiphase polycrystalline material. The original publication carried a foreword written by the editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. This foreword ended with this prophetic statement:“There is reason to believe that this publication, which is made possible in this form by the generous financial assistance of the Dow Chemical Company, will serve to bring this method of analysis into general use in industrial and consulting analytical laboratories.”

The study investigated the major Causes of inconsistency in the cast results of the aluminium cast products from the metal moulds supplied by the then Hungarian Technical Partners to Scientific Equipment Development Institute, Minna. The metal moulds for different scientific products for Schools Scientific Laboratories were to achieve mass production of these products. The aluminium alloy A6063 ingot used were likewise imported. However, another consignment of the ingot used is produced in Nigeria by Nigerian Aluminium Extrusion Company, Lagos. Result of the products defects including shrinkage, blow holes, etc. remained the same, hence the need for this investigation work to ascertain the causes traceable to either moulds or the class or group of alloys.The outcome as shown could be that pouring speed or melting temperature etcetera are responsible for the inconsistency in obtaining acceptable cast products at different operations and with these moulds. A particular product mould gives inconsistent cast products and varying defects. This is applicable to all the available moulds supplied to the Institute at the same time.

The preferred architecture and the source company for radio frequency identification (RFID) badge access cards can vary over time within the same company, depending on what management may envision for the future of working. Additionally, the preferred badge architecture and the company that makes those badges can vary from company to company, and from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to their supplier partners. These circumstances create some inefficiencies amongst the workforce. Within the same engineering campus of a large OEM, many employees may still have the old key ring style badge, but some of the new RFID device readers may no longer accept this outdated badge architecture, which means these employees may not have access to certain areas until they get their new smart badge ID card. This makes doing their job much more difficult, potentially forcing them to find new ways to access the room or area that they need. Additionally, due to differences in badge architecture, an OEM’s supplier partners do not have access to areas of the OEM’s testing site or offices, even ones in which the OEM would prefer that they have permission to access in order to increase work efficiency (including test tracks and special laboratories). This paper presents a new open sourced RFID card reader which is designed, tested and implemented to read both of the most popular badge architectures (key ring badges and smart cards). The new proposed system also includes a unique function which shows the employee more information about the occupants inside of the room that they are trying to access. After reflecting on the state-of-the-art, the main selling point of the proposed system is that it recognizes multiple different badge architectures, and it doesn’t require the end user to source their RFID devices from a certain company. It provides other benefits including allowing suppliers and OEMs to seamlessly share collaborative spaces, and ensuring older versions of badges don’t become obsolete.

The research aims to integrate the two technologies of simultaneous engineering and the green target cost in providing an environmentally friendly product, because these two technologies are among the most important techniques that have emerged as a result of work strategies that change rapidly with market requirements and the essence of the modern production process, through the manufacture of products that meet the desires of customers in the shortest possible time and less cost. To achieve this goal, the General Company for Southern Cement was chosen as a research community and through one of its laboratories, represented by (Babylon Factory). The research reached several conclusions represented in the shift from the development of sequential products to the development of simultaneous products, which enables them to respond quickly by reducing the time required for products to enter the market and adapt to changing work environments, and following the techniques of simultaneous engineering and green target cost in product development is a shortcut The product design and development process. The most important recommendations are the need to direct modern technologies to serve the environment in view of the trend of global interest in the environment due to environmental pollution and the scarcity of natural resources, especially scarce ones.

Companies in the IT sector cannot function independently if they want to follow global innovation trends. In a highly competitive environment, access to sources of knowledge and technologies outside the company is necessary. In this context, companies should look to universities, and other firms and government laboratories, as potential sources of useful knowledge and technologies. Cooperative initiatives originate from both the academic and industrial spheres, often encouraged by governments, at regional and national levels, and by multinational organizations. Companies in the IT sector should base their business on interactions in their ecosystem. This means that it is desirable to direct human, social and intellectual capital towards more intensive cooperation primarily between universities, industry and government, in terms of the Triple Helix (TH) concept, all with the aim of greater innovation. The research analyses the impact of cooperation between companies and participants from the external ecosystem aimed at developing innovations and explains the dynamics of such interactions as a factor of competitiveness and development.

This chapter's main goal is to emphasize the language exercises engineering students participate in communication skills laboratories to improve their communication abilities. The 21st century is known as the age of science and technology, during which such fields made remarkable advancements practically everywhere, including in the field of English language instruction. Without a doubt, English has become the official language of the entire world. English has grown throughout the world since the days of colonialism, and it now holds official language status in terms of both communication abilities and soft skills. Effective communication and soft skills are now necessary to achieve not only the attention of the world but also the company goals. In these conditions, it is imperative for the aspiring professionals to improve their proficiency in fundamental English abilities, which are crucial and unavoidable in terms of job searching in the fiercely competitive professional sector. An important aspect of a professional career in transforming the science and technology world is engineering education. As a result of interacting with and training engineering students in English language and communication skills over a long period of time, some helpful recommendations have been made to help students acquire communication competence through activity-based teaching learning communication skills.

West Sumatera is one of the provinces in Indonesia that has an excellence in agricultural commodities. One of the agricultural products in West Sumatera is natural rubber. In addition to producing rubber, in West Sumatera there are also several rubber plantation processing industries, one of which is PT. Perkebunan Karet (Rubber Plantation Ltd.). In every activity PT. Perkebunan Karet (Rubber Plantation Ltd.) produces liquid waste that comes from domestic activities. The purpose of the research is to identify sources of domestic wastewater, identify liquid waste treatment processes at domestic wastewater treatment plants, identify liquid waste quality before and after treatment and calculate the eficiency of domestic wastewater treatment. The method used is the method of observation and interviews and analysis of data processing using descriptive analysis. The results of this study are the source of domestic wastewater PT. Perkebunan Karet (Rubber Plantation Ltd.) comes from public toilet facilities, company ofices, employee mess, control and document center ofices, laboratories, dining rooms and canteens. The stages of domestic wastewater treatment include oil and grease traps, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection. The eficiency of reducing the quality of domestic wastewater on average from January to June for parameters BOD 50.54%, COD 15.79%.

Abstract. In applicable standards and sets of rules (VDI/VDE, 2014; DIN, 2010, 2017), recommendations are made concerning the types of experiments for determining the dynamic parameters in fluids (flowing water and flowing air) under well-defined conditions. In the data sheets of the thermometer manufacturers, quite different specifications can be found, such as time percentage values or time constants. Only a few thermometer manufacturers specify the medium and flow conditions under which these parameters have been determined. Above all, it is not common practice to indicate a measurement uncertainty for the dynamic parameters found. In Augustin et al. (2017), a first model for the indication of the measurement uncertainty of dynamic parameters in flowing air was presented. The present paper describes the results of a bilateral comparison made for the first time for determining dynamic parameters in the laboratories of the JUMO GmbH & Co. KG Fulda company and at the Institute of Process Measurement and Sensor Technology of the TU Ilmenau. In doing so, two type-N thermocouples with different diameters were investigated in experimental facilities with flowing water and flowing air. Subsequently, the dynamic parameters found were compared with each other. The differences revealed mainly resulted from plant-specific parameters.

Online experimentation allows students from anywhere to operate remote instruments at any time. The current techniques constrain users to bind to products from one company and install client side software. We use Web services and Service Oriented Architecture to improve the interoperability and usability of the remote instruments. Under a service oriented architecture for online experiment system, a generic methodology to wrap commercial instruments using IVI and VISA standard as Web services is developed. We enhance the instrument Web services into stateful services so that they can manage user booking and persist experiment results. We also benchmark the performance of this system when SOAP is used as the wire format for communication and propose solutions to optimize performance. In order to avoid any installation at the client side, the authors develop Web 2.0 based techniques to display the virtual instrument panel and real time signals with just a standard Web browser. The technique developed in this article can be widely used for different real laboratories, such as microelectronics, chemical engineering, polymer crystallization, structural engineering, and signal processing.

The current study includes determination of the concentrations of lead (Pb) in 18 specimen of Kirkuk city soil (K). Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) technology has been used in the analysis of soil samples in laboratories Acme company in Canada. Results of chemical analysis of samples clarified a rise in average of lead in soil samples (26.11 ppm) compared with international average of soil (10 ppm) and with uncontaminated ones (15 ppm), and rise in its average in surface depth (30.2ppm) compared with the lower depths (17.97ppm), and decreases in its average as compared with local soils in other cities in Iraq. Factor analysis of the geochemical data for the samples above has been conducted and has been shown a presence of affinity and geochemical associations among Pb and both of potassium oxide and phosphorus penta oxide and also some elements such as phosphorus, cadmium, copper and zinc, as well as organic materials. Size analysis of the samples has confirmed that the concentration of Pb increases in the clay fraction in soils, and in a larger quantities than in the silty and sandy fractions. The value of Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) for samples of soil showed that it lies within the medium pollution category to non-pollution. Oxidation - reduction potential and the acidic function have helped to identify the prevailing metallic phase in the soils at the area of study, which is a type of Cerussite.

In many branches of industrial production, there is a need for continual monitoring of the quality of manufactured product. Such requirements arise in the production of fertilizers, as the physical and mechanical properties of fertilizers affect the quality of application provided by fertilizer spreaders. The aim of the presented paper was to compare the suitability and applicability of the photo-optical image analysis with the sieve analysis used for the determination of fertilizer particle size distribution. The photo-optical method was used by [1] to study the fertilizer particle size distribution. These researchers tried to measure the size and velocity of flying particles in relation to the quality of application of centrifugal spreaders. During our comparative experiments, we have compared the photo-optical image analysis and sieve analysis. In experiments, we used the samples of the granulated fertilizer NMgS produced by the Duslo, a.s. company. The sieve analysis was conducted according to the national standard STN EN 1235 in the laboratories of the Department of Machines and Production Systems at the Faculty of Engineering, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra.

The experience with the original Superpave gyratory compactors (SGCs) introduced into the paving industry in 1994 was very positive. Consequently, since 1995 several additional manufacturers have developed SGCs to meet the growing demand for such devices. Although these units generally meet the broad requirements of the original SGC specification developed by FHWA, their basic designs are somewhat different. To ensure a systematic means for evaluation of the compactors, FHWA developed a standard protocol, designated AASHTO PP35. This procedure was used to evaluate various gyratory compactors. By using the discriminating value of 0.010 for difference in bulk specific gravity ( Gmb), the compactors were evaluated in terms of Gmb. The five gyratory compactors evaluated were the Rainhart, Test Quip, Troxler Electronic Laboratories, Inc. (Troxler), Model 4141, Pine Instrument Company (Pine) Model AFG1A, and Interlaken compactors. These compactors were compared with either Pine Model AFGC125X (Pine 1) or Troxler Model 4140 (Troxler 1) SGCs, which were used as reference compactors. In addition, the project included a comparison of two Pine compactors (Pine 1 and Pine 2) of the same model (AFGC125XS) with each other. A total of 336 specimens (48 specimens for each compactor) were prepared for all the compactors to fulfill the comparison. Eleven comparisons of each candidate compactor and the reference compactor were made during a 12-month period. All of the candidate compactors compared favorably with an existing SGC. It was found that all seven compactors would provide the same results within the given tolerance range under the rigid conditions of the AASHTO PP35 protocol.

This work reports the incorporation result of a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Program in the two-years master's degree in Instrumentation and Metrology Engineering (MEIM) held at the School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP). The procedure developed to find internships in industrial companies and institutions, which have needs for engineers in the areas of instrumentation and metrology is displayed. The authors also present the information on the situation of students that, by the end of the first academic year, could get enrolled in the curricular unit Dissertation/Project/Professional Training (opting either for a professional internship in a company or by a research project conducted in ISEP laboratories). In order to understand the benefits and impact of a WIL program, from a student perspective, students were asked to answer a questionnaire. Lastly, the results achieved during the study period are presented, including the student reported outcomes (from the questionnaire), as well as the informal feedback from students and companies' supervisors. The good results achieved, regarding the development of theoretical-practical competencies as well as generic or soft skills, during the master's, were also confirmed by the fact that students are hired by the companies to continue their work after the end of professional training.

The main parameter determined in heat engineering tests of heat insulated cars superstructures or the locomotive operator’s cabs is the heat transfer coeffi cient К. The study introduces automated analysis technology for the heat transfer coeffi cient К of enclosure structures of the heat insulated transport means using a remote server. The underlying method provides coeffi cient K of the heat insulated transport means without additional work and time loss for complicated calculations. Personnel of test laboratories involved in heat engineering tests of vehicles possess tools for remotely calculating К, from any point in the world with internet access. To obtain К three controlled parameters measured during the heat engineering tests for 5.5 h including: the difference of the inside and outside temperature of the test object superstructure, total power of the electric heaters and geometric area of the heat transfer surface are sent to the server, after which the user promptly receives the calculated К. The economic effect of introducing the proposed technology for vehicle manufacture is the absence of required tests conducted at the test center; for an operating company — a signifi cant reduction of the idle time of the vehicle at the test center directly affects the loss of profi t. The proposed technology expands the area of operation of the test centers, while calculated К values are offi cially input into the data sheet of the vehicle.

The case discusses the history, growth and prospects of India's second largest pharmaceutical firm — Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (DRL). It details the strategies, actions, resources and capabilities of the company since its inception in 1985 to the close of the case in 2003. In the period up to the mid 1990s, DRL exploited the Indian process patent regime by leveraging its skills in reverse engineering patented drugs quickly and launching these faster than the rivals in the Indian market. However, the environment changed once India signed the GATT agreement in 1994. Competition in the domestic market had also heated up in mid 1990s. DRL maintained its lead by moving up the value curve and positioned itself in domestic formulations market while simultaneously exploiting its existing capabilities in developed markets by filing Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs). Realizing that it must quickly build such resources and capabilities that would be valuable in the post-WTO world, it started moving up the value curve into drug discovery for New Chemical Entities (NCEs). It met with some success as some multi-national firms licensed their molecules for clinical research. It was also successful in being the first to launch a generic version of a patented drug, thereby enjoying marketing exclusivity for six months in the US. As the date for India's integration with the world draws close, DRL was seen to proactively develop resources to thrive in the new post-WTO world. This case is useful in learning about effective responses to deregulation and the post-WTO environment.

Professor Edward Purcell was a physicist of great distinction. With Felix Bloch he received the joint award of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952, for the developments respectively of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear induction. In 1951, H.L. Ewen and Purcell (21)* detected radiation at the hydrogen hyperfine frequency of 1421 MHz coming from interstellar space, which created a new branch of astronomy. The Smith–Purcell effect (28) is now regarded as a potentially powerful source of radiation in the far infrared region of the spectrum. These were further achievements of prize–winning quality. Edward Mills Purcell was born in Taylorville, Illinois, USA, the son of Edward A. Purcell and Mary Elizabeth Mills, both natives of Illinois. From public schools in Taylorville and Mattoon, Illinois, he won a scholarship to Purdue University, Indiana. He graduated in 1933 in electrical engineering and published two papers (1, 2) on thin films with Professor K. Lark–Horowitz. Realizing that Purcell's gifts and interests lay in mathematics and physics, Lark–Horowitz invited him to take part in a research project on electron diffraction while he was still an undergraduate, and then recommended him for an exchange studentship in Germany. Purcell spent a year studying physics at the Technische Hochschule in Karlsruhe, with Professor W. Wenzel. On his return he entered Harvard University to work under J.H. Van Vleck (For.Mem.R.S. 1967; Nobel Laureate in Physics 1981). With Malcolm Hebb, who later became Director of Research at the Laboratories of the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, he made a theoretical study (3) of the properties of paramagnetic salts below 1 K. This publication was widely used for the interpretation of magnetic cooling experiments in low–ndash;temperature physics, including my own thesis work in 1937–39. Later, when I mentioned it, Purcell, always a modest man, said, ‘that was all Hebb’.

Regenerative medicine (hereinafter – RM) is a rapidly developing area of biomedicine. The main tools of RM are cell therapy, gene therapy and tissue engineering. Like any innovative direction, RM on the way of development will have to overcome such barriers as lack of funding, underdevelopment of infrastructure, unpreparedness of the market and consumers for products and services with unknown characteristics, etc. The relevance of the article lies in the absence among scientific publications of works on finding successful examples of promoting products and services of the RM, which is extremely important for learning from experience and effective development of this area. The purpose of the article is to study the successful experience of the development strategy of biomedical companies promoting products and services of the RM. The choice of companies for analysis and strategy development is extremely limited. Therefore, to study the positive experience, two subsidiaries of one large holding PJSC “ISCH” were selected. The holding includes NextGen LLC, which promotes the gene therapy drug Neovasculgen, and Vitacel LLC, which provides the SPRS cell therapy service. Since the consolidated statements of the entire holding cannot be used to analyze the enterprises included in it, the calculations were carried out according to the financial statements posted in the Spark-interfax system. Consolidated annual reports of PJSC “HSCI” and accounting reports of an independent audit company were used to study the development strategy, development plans, analysis of the competitive environment, risk assessment and conclusions of the holding’s management on the results achieved. To describe the company’s financial status, standard groups of indicators characterizing financial results, profitability, business activity, financial stability and liquidity were used. The analysis made it possible to identify important elements of the company’s successful development in the field of RM. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a detailed analysis of a successful strategy, highlighting the key success factors specific to the direction of the RM and comparing them with changes in financial statements. The resulting hybrid strategy can be used by start-up companies as a development guide. The author will continue to search for new examples of successful development of companies in this area, and will also monitor newly emerging companies for the purpose of comparison. The article may be useful to students of faculties of innovation management, medical faculties, employees of scientific laboratories involved in the development of RM products, as well as specialists from technology transfer centers.

We have been developing and manufacturing special bird protection devices (SBPD) for overhead power lines (PL) and substations since 2006. Our devices are in demand all over Russia, from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk. Products are developed by experienced designers with the participation of ornithologists – professional experts in bird protection. The combined experience of specialists allows us to produce effective, reliable, and durable SBPDs. Today the company owns 23 patents. Our products are certified, meet the technical requirements of “ROSSETI”, and are recommended for use in the facilities of “ROSSETI” PJSC The product development process includes: 1) Study of problem areas and units of electrical equipment; 2) Data analysis; 3) Design and modeling of SBPD models; 4) Production of molds and selection of materials. Various tests play a key role in the manufacturing process. First, the samples undergo field and bench testing in a specially equipped yearround aviary with live birds of model species and constant video monitoring. The equipment is then tested in accredited laboratories. At the same time, test batches of SBPD are tested in test sites with extreme climatic conditions. If the results are positive, the products are put into pilot operation in existing power grid facilities. Special attention is paid to the selection of materials for SBPD production. Thanks to the use of high-quality components, we obtain strong, durable, UV-resistant material with the necessary dielectric properties. We manufacture our products on our own plastic molding lines, which allows us to fully control the production process and monitor the quality of the delivered products. In 2020, in a region with an increased number of bird deaths on power lines, we have set up an electrical network test manufactured and installed in accordance with the requirements of the organizational standard of PJSC “ROSSETI” undergo a final commissioning quality control. At present we offer a wide range of our own models of bird protection devices of various types certified by “ROSSETI” PJSC: – Anti-perching type, – Barrier, – Insulating, – Safe perching. The full list of devices is presented on Eco-NIOKR LLC website. “ASBPD”-E-650-NG “ELKA” Bird protection device of anti-perching type. Thanks to its sloping shape, birds are unable to land. Snow, branches and other objects cannot be caught by the device, confirmed by field tests. The device does not contain any metal parts, the whole construction is made of dielectric non-combustible material with excellent resistance to mechanical stress. The device has a universal durable mount and can be adjusted in three planes. “BPD”-B-ZONT-NG Barrier-type bird protection device. It protects the Insulator string and other elements of overhead power lines and substation equipment from contamination by bird waste. The “ZONT” does not require assembly – it is completely ready for installation. Suitable for protection of suspended insulators of all types and sizes, thanks to the bracket attachment. Successful testing confirms reliable fastening and resistance of the structure to mechanical influences. The “ZONT” is made of non-combustible dielectric material. BPD-N-NST1-NG “PRISADA” Perch-type bird protection device. Designed for the safe landing of birds on power lines, preventing contact with potentially dangerous elements of electrical equipment. The device does not contain any metal parts, all construction is made of dielectric non-combustible material with excellent resistance to mechanical stress. The device has a universal and reliable mounting. “BPD”-B-KV-500-NG “POLOTNO” Barrier-type bird protection device. Intended for protection of power network equipment of all voltage levels against penetration and nesting by medium and large birds. It is used to equip catenary supports of various designs, supports and portals of substations, as well as various electrical equipment. M-6-10kV-TR-NG Insulating-type bird protection device. Designed for protection of birds from electric shocks on disconnectors “RLND-10”, as well as at the inputs of current-carrying conductors in Unit Transfer Substation with bushings. Redesigned “TRK” cover, now in two parts with added ventilation, mounting, and drainage holes, which greatly facilitates the installation process and improves performance, preventing overheating and moisture accumulation. The unit is made of non-flammable dielectric material. Insulating rod SDP-PTR-15 Remote mounting device SBPD We have mastered an only-in-Russia experience of SBPD installation from the ground without removing voltage from overhead lines. Reliable fastening of protective devices was improved thanks to improvements to the assembly and wire fastener elements. The fastener consists of a reinforced insulating rod and an original handle of its own design, permitting rapid installation. Remote installation of SBPD avoids disconnection of consumer service, yearround, without any regulatory restrictions. All this provide significant cost savings. BPD-MGLB-M-NG “Marker” Marker-type bird protection device. Device is used on overhead power lines of all voltages and reduces the probability of bird collisions with overhead power lines. It is installed on wires with a diameter up to 30 mm. Our devices provide power engineers with uninterrupted, reliable equipment operation and have been highly appreciated by state and public environmental organizations many years! We are always open to cooperation and are constantly striving to improve our products based on the latest achievements in the field of bird-protective electrical engineering.

AbstractFocused Energy is a new startup company with the goal of developing laser-driven inertial fusion energy for electrical power production. The company combines the results from decades of fundamental research in inertial confinement fusion at universities and national laboratories with the flexibility and the speed of a startup company. Focused Energy has chosen the direct-drive, proton fast ignition approach to reach ignition, burn and high gain as the most promising approach. Located in Austin/US and Darmstadt/Germany, supported by the science community and private investment Focused Energy is paving the way to inertial fusion energy combining the best skill set and state-of-the-art technology from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In this paper we discuss the details and reasoning for the approach and the technical directions we have chosen. We will outline our roadmap for getting to a fusion pilot plant in the mid to late 2030s.

The essay analyzes three cases of collaborations between artists and companies considered particularly emblematic since in the first half of the twentieth century led to the invention of sound/light devices and the establishment of joint research departments between artists and engineers: the meeting in 1927 between the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann and the engineer Daniel Broido of the berliner electric company AEG which leads to the patent of the Otophone, a device for converting light into sound and vice-versa; the collaboration between the director Modest Altschuler and the engineer Preston S. Millar of the Electrical Testing Laboratories which leads to the realization of the Chromola, a keyboard for light; the exhibition Nine Evenings: Theater and Engineering, curated in 1966 by the artist Robert Rauschenberg and the engineer of the company Bell Telephone Laboratories Billy Klüver, which leads to the establishment of E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology), a research and development center for artists and engineers. The aim is to highlight the role that artists have had during the twentieth century whitin the field of innovation and development of technical-cultural artefacts, and also of discursive practices and methodologies of creation and sharing of knowledge.

Objective: Designing a CPFR (collaborative planning forecasting and replenishment) model for the delivery of diabetes and arterial hypertension medicines from a health insurance company (EPS) to a healthcare provider (IPS) and comparing the performance of this collaborative chain to that of the traditional one through their corresponding supply chain costs. Methodology: A series of collaboration agreements involved in joint planning were established according to the designed CPFR model. This allowed (i) raising the levels of interaction between the health insurance company, the healthcare provider, the supplying pharmaceutical laboratories, and the patients; (ii) determining demand forecasts; (iii) locating distribution centers; and (iv) defining medicine distribution strategies oriented to the minimization of costs along the chain. Subsequently, the main differences between the current operation and CPFR models at the level of structure and decisions were characterized and then evaluated in terms of supply chain costs. Results: The significant impact of the proposed model is demonstrated. The total monthly cost of operating the chain is reduced by 11.2 % on average. Within the proposed innovation, an outstanding place is held by the savings reached in the purchase and distribution of medicines from the laboratory to the distribution centers, and by the customer satisfaction differences, which increased 15.3 % on average during the studied six-month period.

AbstractExternal quality assessment data of clinical microbiology obtained over ten years by the Colombian company PROASECAL in laboratories of seven countries in Central and South America are analyzed. The objective is to describe the quality of clinical microbiology results of the participants in the study period (2010–2021). This analysis includes the results of genus and species identification and proper reporting of both Gram staining and susceptibility testing. Data from 195 laboratories, which processed 31 bacteria, were analyzed. In this study, 32 % of laboratories were classified as good because they successfully determined the genus and species, 36 % fair, 12 % poor, and 20 % critical, to which recommendations for improvement were sent as part of the reports. In the analysis conducted for concordance between Genus, Morphology, and Gram, the success rates obtained are between 83 % and 94 %. Regarding antibiograms, the performance observed in Gram-positive bacteria ranges from 57 to 98 %, while in Gram-negative bacteria, it is between 82 and 98 %. The descriptive tools to explain external quality assessment results in clinical microbiology are limited to the percentage of successes in each item to be reported. For the analysis of the population data set, in this article, we propose to use contingency tables (including estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values) and equality of proportions tests as techniques that facilitate the interpretation of the data. On the other hand, the statistical analysis described here can be used as an analysis methodology for similar studies.

This paper reports on a project based learning approach taken to teach the ECE 3740 Systems Engineering Principles and ECE 3730 Principles ofEmbedded Systems Design courses at the University of Manitoba. These courses were 100% hands-on, and each student was given development hardware and software in a lunch box to take home and work on projects throughout the course. Industry representative projects were chosen based on the author’s 5 years of experience working in the embedded systems industry. The courses were given in a company-like setting, where the lectures and laboratories were organized as product requirements gathering and analysis, design modeling and review, test plan and procedures, engineering change request and management, documentation, and product deployment meetings and events. The test and final exam were performed by students in the laboratory; they brought their embedded systems hardware in the lunch box,solved the given hands-on problems of the test/exam, and demonstrated their solutions, in real-time. This novel methodology allowed the examiner to directly assess student performance in the CEAB attributes of Design, Analysis, Investigation, and Tools, because their designsand solutions were actually demonstrated in actual hardware and software, not just on paper, like the conventional assessment approach for tests and exams.

We define personal data as name, telephone number, address, photograph, or fingerprints, as well as any other data that can identify you, it is critical that we take care of this data for security reasons and because it is our right. Data must be protected against misuse such as identity theft, improper or unlawful transmissions or unauthorised access. The new legislation places individuals at the centre of the State's protection Mexicans now have legislation that protects personal information that can be found in the databases of any natural person or company, such as insurance companies, banks, department stores, telephone companies, hospitals, laboratories, universities, etc. This legislation contains a series of clear rules for the protection of personal information. This legislation contains a series of clear rules respectful of the privacy, dignity and information of individuals, derived from principles internationally observed by other countries around the world. The law regulates how and under what conditions companies should use your personal data.

AbstractThe organoleptic assessment (Panel test) is the only procedure within the official methods for determining the quality of virgin olive oils that involves an expert panel. There is an urgent need for analytical methodology that can reliably measure volatile compounds in virgin olive oils that is capable of supporting and anticipating the official Panel test. For this reason, a new method based on solid‐phase microextraction–gas chromatography with the choice of two possible detectors (FID or MS) was subjected to a large international interlaboratory validation study. The study involved a two‐stage process: first, a pretrial phase in which 7 participants were exposed to the method for the first time to identify any initial problems with the methodology; then, a formal validation stage (trial proper), which involved 20 laboratories from Europe, USA, Japan and China. The performance of the different detectors was investigated. While both methods have advantages, the method using FID provided better results for 11 compounds, in terms of reproducibility, compared to MS. This information will allow to implement the method with accurate information of the method performance depending on the detector used.Practical applications: This study provides information from an interlaboratory validation of a method for measuring volatile compounds in virgin olive oils conducted with laboratories (from industry and academia) working in the olive oil sector. The information on the expected analytical errors in the determination of each volatile compound is necessary to apply this method for supporting the official Panel test (sensory analysis). The SPME‐GC‐MS/FID methods proposed in this work can be used for the internal quality control of a company/distributor/quality control laboratory and could also be used in cases of difficult/contradictory organoleptic assessment, or to confirm results from sensory panels in cases of disputes/disagreement (Reg. EU 2022/2105).

Every year, international scientific conferences are held in China, dedicated to the search for high-class talents, the attraction of innovative technologies, the creation of joint ventures in various fields of science and production. One of the organizers of such events was the Ukrainian-Chinese Silk Road Center, which, as part of the "One Belt, One Road" program, regularly conducts online video road shows between Chinese and Ukrainian specialists. This time, projects from several branches of production, including mechanical engineering and robotics, were presented. The best works are selected for the preparation of grant applications for research funding in laboratories and research groups in China, as well as for participation in the country's production activities. One of the successful applications was a joint project of the Kyiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the pipeline diagnostics company Zhejiang Yuexin Inspection Technology Co., Ltd. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor M.K. Sukach took part in it as the technical director of the project., specialist in deep-sea technology. The Chinese side was headed by the project's chief manager, company director Jin Hangfei. The project became one of those selected by the Ukrainian-Chinese Center and nominated for a state grant. He won the support of the Beijing High-Tech Exchange and government funding for joint research. In addition to the scientific component, it provides an educational program for student training, PhD training and advanced training of specialists in the relevant field.

AbstractOwing to the popularization of electric vehicles worldwide and the development of renewable energy supply, Li-ion batteries are widely used from small-scale personal mobile products to large-scale energy storage systems. Recently, the number of retired power batteries has largely increased, causing environmental protection threats and waste of resources. Since most of the retired power batteries still possess about 80% of their initial capacity, their second use becomes a possible route to solve the emergent problem. Safety and performance are important when using these second-use repurposed batteries. Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global safety certification company, published the standard for evaluating the safety and performance of repurposed batteries, i.e., UL 1974. In this work, the test procedures are designed according to UL 1974, and the charge and discharge profile datasets of the LiFePO4 repurposed batteries are provided. Researchers and engineers can use the characteristic curves to evaluate the quality of the repurposed batteries. Furthermore, the profile datasets can be applied in the model-based engineering of repurposed batteries, e.g., fitting the variables of an empirical model or validating the results of a theoretical model.

ABSTRACTClathrate hydrates are crystalline inclusion compounds of water and a guest molecule (e.g., methane) that form at temperatures below ambient but above the freezing point of water. There are three known crystalline structures of hydrates (structure I, II, and H) in which cavities within the hydrogen bonded water molecule lattice trap the hydrate-forming species. The clathrate structure excludes dissolved solutes, such as sodium chloride, from the aqueous phase and thereby offers a possible means to produce potable water from seawater or brackish water. The concept of using clathrate hydrates for desalination is not new. However, before clathrate hydrate desalination becomes a viable technology, fundamental issues of controlled hydrate formation, hydrate size and morphology, agglomeration, amount of entrapped salt, and the efficient recovery of hydrates must be understood. This paper will report structural characterization of hydrates formed with several guest molecules over a wide range of conditions in an attempt to further the physicochemical insight needed to address these issues.Clathrate hydrate formation experiments were performed using a variety of host molecules, including R141b, a commercial refrigerant, C2FCl2H3. Hydrates of R141b were formed at temperatures from 2°C to 6°C and atmospheric pressure from deionized water and 2% - 7% NaCl solutions. Samples of the hydrates were characterized by cold-stage x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy and determined to be structure II. Additional experiments were conducted with a gaseous hydrate former, ethylene, which readily formed hydrates with deionized or saline water at 2°C and several atmospheres of pressure. Experiments with several other hydrate forming molecules were conducted and the results obtained from their structural characterization will be reported. We will also present proof-of-concept experiments demonstrating a novel technique of desalination using these hydrate formers.Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Covid 19 pandemic has crucially affected the economy, health and other spheres of life. This unprecedented pandemic has severely affected consumer attitudes, behaviorism, and purchasing habits.The rapid shifts in consumer behavior patterns have major implications on consumer goods industries. Now, most of the purchases are centered on basic needs specially health and nutrition for general well-being. In present situation, consumers are fascinated towards health and immunity boosters. Personal health and hygiene has become a top priority of the people.People are changing their buying preferences based on global circumstances, the product categories being purchased are also changing. The market is also flooded with immunity boosters especially Ayurvedic products, hygiene and sanitizing solutions.. The most important change that this pandemic has brought in the consumer behavior is that they are now moving from reactive to proactive mindsets and because of Ayurveda there will surely a sales boost in those kind of products as consumer focus and priorities shifting towards inner health and immunity. Major players in the Indian market include Dabur India Limited, Himalaya Drug Company Private Limited, Patanjali Ayurved Limited, Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Private Limited, Charak Pharma Private Limited, Emami Limited, Vicco laboratories. These key players are building Ayurveda as a brand through their innovative marketing strategies and giving a boost to the Ayurveda sector. Before Covid, the situation goes the same for the companies but this pandemic makes a change in the concept of consumerism. Consumerism is also looking for new aspects as only dumping and increasing consumption of products is not the way for the future. Now consumers are more focused on saving money, saving health and saving for the future.One more new concept is emerging with it is adjusting to a New Normal which means a new way of living and going about our lives, work and interactions with other people. The factors that influence brand decisions are also changing as a "buy local" trend accelerates. Vocal for a local tagline has also created an emphasis on local products rather than wellestablished brands.Digital commerce has also seen a boost as new consumers migrate online for grocery shopping – a rise that is likely to be sustained post-outbreak. This paper focuses on the shift in buying behavior of consumer towards Ayurvedic products and changing marketing strategies of Ayurvedic companies specially Dabur in India in alignment with consumer preferences

11th Brazilian Congress on Metrology (Metrologia 2021) The Metrology 2021 congress was held from October 18th to 21st, 2021. It was a remote event, with all activities done in virtual rooms. The general president of Metrology 2021 was Americo Bernardes, president of the Brazilian Society of Metrology and professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. Metrology 2021 Magna session was the lecture Dr. Claire M. Saundry (NIST) gave on the first day, October 18th. Dr. Saundry spoke about the main activities of the Interamerican Metrology System (or “Sistema Interamericano de Metrologia” – SIM) regarding capacity building and knowledge transfer. Following the Magna session, on the morning of October 18th, the work began with the plenary lecture given by Dr. Daniel Varela Magalhães from the Mechanical Engineering Department at USP. The speaker gave a general outline of the new edition of the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM). Further after, on the afternoon of October 18th, two virtual rooms were held in parallel with the sessions related to CBM (general metrology) and CBMRI (ionizing radiations). CBMRI sessions also featured four thematic discussions on specific topics of interest. The second day of the congress, October 19th, started with the lecture of Dr. Thomas Hartung from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He spoke about assessing the health effects of drugs and chemicals, which is considered a scientific revolution and a critical application of Metrology in the Health Area. Continuing in the Health area, Dr. Cameron Miller from NIST presented his lecture on documentary standards and the development of measurement methods for UV disinfection technologies. The plenary lectures were closed by Dr. Renato Garcia from UFSC, who spoke about quality programs in medical equipment used in primary health care, specifically about post-market safety and performance trials. Later, on the afternoon of October 19th, two virtual rooms were held in parallel sessions related to CBM (general metrology) and CBMO (optical metrology). The third day of the congress started with an exciting round table about female researchers’ presence in ionizing radiations. A plenary lecture by Stephane Solve from the “Bureau International de Poids et Mesures” (BIPM) Radiometry-Photometry group followed. The main subject was an extension of the BIPM on-site primary voltage standards comparisons to AC voltages, an important topic in Electrical Metrology. Further on, the morning works ended with a round table about Metrology in Health, featuring Renata Souza from FIOCRUZ and Roberto Macoto Ichinose from the Biomedical Engineering of COPPE/UFRJ. The afternoon of the third day started with two virtual rooms that held parallel sessions related to SEMETRO (electrical metrology) and to CIMMEC (mechanical metrology). Later on, there was another round table about Metrology in Health, specifically about metrological traceability of laboratory tests, with lectures by Dr. Marcelo Medeiros from INMETRO, Debora Michele Morone D’Aiuto from FIOCRUZ, Rafael Monsores from the company CONTROLLAB and MD Luisane Maria Falci Vieira, manager of the laboratory Álvaro Apoio. The event’s last day, October 21st, started with a plenary lecture by Dr. Jim Huggett from National Measurement Laboratory (NML), talking about the role of measurement science in supporting a molecular diagnosis of SARS-COV-2, a very current and hot topic. A vivid discussion on Metrology Education followed the plenary lecture. The afternoon of the last day started with two virtual rooms that held parallel sessions related to REMEQ (chemical metrology) and CBM (general metrology). Later, round tables were held in the two parallel virtual rooms, discussing hot topics such as metrological traceability, quality control on COVID-19 diagnostics, alternative methods applied to toxicology, and a web app developed for the performance evaluation of laboratories. Metrologia 2021 disclosed about 170 articles. After the second round of revision, the editorial committee selected the best 35 to be published by IOP JPCS. Metrology 2021 had sponsors from the industrial sector (Fluke Calibration and Sartorius do Brasil (Gold sponsors) and institutional support (ARBB Consultoria em Metrologia e Qualidade, RMMG, Canal Metrologia, REDE, SBLUZ and GM Metrologia). The event’s next edition will be face-to-face in 2023, from 28th to 30th November, in Itaipava, a gorgeous area belonging to the “Imperial City” of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro state. You are all welcome to join us! Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, August 28th, 2023. List of Editorial committee, Organizing committee are available in this Pdf.

Machinofacture, computer control and globalisation have created the appearance that in the relation between humanity and the machine the human possesses ever-deepening power. However, this is a very Whiggish view of the history of science and technology as a field of ever-expanding knowledge. History is littered with examples of technologies which have been abandoned as out-dated, then later attempts to revive them have failed because the expertise has been lost. Technology is not merely a reflection of human needs, but an embodiment of the human condition. Machines can be seen as products of their creator, but in the case of long-lived machines they can out-live their creator whilst embodying some of their expertise and their failings. If there is a human need for that lost experience contained within the machine, then there is a form of remote power exercised through the machine. Although the machine can be owned, and the owner 'controls' the machine, it is not a deity-subject (uni-directional) relation; the machine may fail -- because the master does not understand the processes of the machine, there is no way to enforce the power of ownership. This potential for control loss has resonances with the 'Frankenstein syndrome' where the fear is that humanity could unleash something beyond its control. This fear has found recent expression in the debate about genetically-modified (GM) foods in Europe, taking place not over the results of scientific tests; indeed the debate precedes those tests and concerns the effects of releasing them from the direct (space-time) control by humans in laboratories. Frankenstein's monster and GM-foods share the common trait that both are organic, and it makes more sense that a sentient or at least living object could upset the human-object power relation. The inanimate analogue of this (e.g. the golem of Jewish folklore) has a much weaker hold over popular consciousnesses. Asimov 'built' his robots with the laws of robotics to prevent upsetting the hegemony of human over machine. Even huge advances recently in computing power, neural networks and artificial intelligence have come nowhere near producing an Asimov robot with the freedom to have and exercise power over humanity. However, there are other more mundane and diffuse ways that machines can have power over humans. The company Joyce-Loebl, based in the North East of England, from the 1950s to the 1970s built thousands of microdensitometers, and through the effort of its sales teams sold them all over the world. The company was like a family; little was done in the way of formal drawings -- even the machinists were highly skilled and exercised great initiative; the 'secrets' of the machine were passed through incredibly elaborate apprenticeships, and were diffused into many individuals in a range of trades. The machine's inventor described it in correspondence thus: "many scientific measurements result in a series of darkened bars similar to a barcode. To interpret these bars it is necessary to measure their density. The microdensitometer does this by balancing the signal from the bars with light passing through an optical wedge. This balancing technique gives great accuracy". These machines did not embody absolute power of humans over machines; they came about only because the highly place-specific and combined efforts of a number of highly-skilled complementary craftsmen. At a time when the region was said to be "good for the nearest inch" (i.e. good at shipbuilding) the company made instruments that were "good to the nearest thousandth [of an inch]" (i.e. as precise as clockwork). Loebl, in his forthcoming memoirs, relates a number of examples where the microdensitometer conferred the power to influence human life even when it was notionally under anthropological control. It found a crashed moon probe from a lunar satellite photograph when all other analyses had failed, and allowed him, as a one-time refugee from the Nazis, to snub the apartheid regime by refusing to sell machines to South African firms. More palpably, it disproved the evidence in a murder appeal where the machine 'proved' that the rope submitted as evidence could not have produced the marks on the neck of the strangulated wife (legal power). Although the machine required an operator to use, in common with many technologies today, there is a separation between the knowledge necessary to manufacture the microdensitometer, and that required to make it carry out it designated functions. It appeared for a time as if microdensitometers were a commodity to be bought and sold; humans controlled them absolutely through determining where they were located. The appearance of absolute control only arose out of a particular techno-economic configuration particular to the 1960s, dependent on the mass-production and mass marketing of the machine. When this configuration disintegrated, so the balance of power shifted towards the machine. Joyce-Loebl broke up in the 1980s; technologies moved towards analytic software rather than electro-mechanical measurement; the skills of craftsmen were lost; the instrument teams drifted. Electronic instrument standardisation and the effects of the PC on software seemed to spell the end for analogue hardware. However, the microdensitometer remains the most precise instrument for the measurement of grey scale on photograph emulsions, yet the skills to produce microdensitometers have been lost. The Soviets tried for over a decade to reverse engineer the machine, even copying faults in a screw thread, but the machine steadfastly 'refused' to be copied, and the imitation would not work (geopolitical power). One film-manufacturing multi-national firm has paid thousands of pounds for the refurbishment of one such device from the 1970s (commercial power). The device is still in use in scientific, medical and engineering installations world-wide (technical power). Joyce-Loebl broke up in the 1980s; technologies moved towards analytic software rather than electro-mechanical measurement; the skills of craftsmen were lost; the instrument teams drifted. Electronic instrument standardisation and the effects of the PC on software seemed to spell the end for analogue hardware. However, the microdensitometer remains the most precise instrument for the measurement of grey scale on photograph emulsions, yet the skills to produce microdensitometers have been lost. The Soviets tried for over a decade to reverse engineer the machine, even copying faults in a screw thread, but the machine steadfastly 'refused' to be copied, and the imitation would not work (geopolitical power). One film-manufacturing multi-national firm has paid thousands of pounds for the refurbishment of one such device from the 1970s (commercial power). The device is still in use in scientific, medical and engineering installations world-wide (technical power). Value is not identical to power, but arises in the independence the machines have as bearers of the skills of their creators. It is not just the skill embodied in those machines, but the machines arise because of the particular contingency of their creation. Although design conventions can exist, machines are purposively designed and manufactured, the outcomes of these processes affecting their final state. The machine is not just the creature its maker desires, but like Frankenstein's Monster, emerges from a struggle to shape the raw materials to the designer's ends, and records that struggle for posterity. In the case of the micro-densitometer, understanding the reasons for the precise arrangement of the various optics, mechanisms, metal and electronics is impossible. However, in the machine lies a series of messages about the context of the creation of the machine. The North East of England is a declining industrial region; the machine can be read as a recipe for creating material success in a high-technology industry in the North East even given the absence of contemporary activity -- 'assemble a range of disparate craft skills, make a branded product, sell globally, find new avenues for your skill base'. Mythology has served a similar purpose in a number of ancient civilisations. To westerners raised on an abstract, Kiplingesque diet of 'native tales' providing neat explanations of natural phenomena, these myths might appear pointless, but even today, in their context of a particular location, contain highly encoded cultural information for survival and edification (e.g. Australian Aboriginal peoples). The power of these myths provided access to extensive micro-zoological and anthropological observation and understanding without necessarily understanding why. The Joyce-Loebl microdensitometer came out of particular situation in the economy of the North East of England which has materially all but vanished. Messrs. Joyce and Loebl built a company making branded equipment selling worldwide, in a way that was and is supposed to be impossible for a heavy industrial region, whose cultural traits of the industrial structure are supposed to endure in the communitarian and anti-entrepreneurial aspirations of the working classes. However, the microdensitometer challenges the notion that the North East was only a centre of heavy industry, but was once somewhere where instruments of beauty and purpose were fashioned and sold. The Joyce-Loebl microdensitometer came out of particular situation in the economy of the North East of England which has materially all but vanished. Messrs. Joyce and Loebl built a company making branded equipment selling worldwide, in a way that was and is supposed to be impossible for a heavy industrial region, whose cultural traits of the industrial structure are supposed to endure in the communitarian and anti-entrepreneurial aspirations of the working classes. However, the microdensitometer challenges the notion that the North East was only a centre of heavy industry, but was once somewhere where instruments of beauty and purpose were fashioned and sold. Just as the Story of the Dreaming explains that "storytelling, while explaining the past, helps young Indigenous Australians maintain dignity and self-respect in the present", there is a modern role for past machines in helping the inhabitants of declining industrial regions maintain their dignity and sustain themselves economically into the future. Much of the debate about industrial renewal in the UK has recently focussed around the notion of the knowledge economy in the abstract form; the microdensitometer is the embodiment of how a knowledge economy can be created. This suggests three potential ways of understanding a machine beyond the delivery of a piece of technological functionality within a production paradigm. A machine can at once have and exercise technological, political and cultural power when the constraints of its control are removed. This brings us back to the starting point of the article, the idea of the Frankenstein monster, who demonstrated a highly spectacular specific physical power; in a modern(-ist?) reality, the power of many 'rogue machines' (those beyond tight contextual control) is entirely more mundane, diffuse and abstract, yet represents a real influence on life experiences in the modern world. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Paul Benneworth. "The Machine as Mythology -- The Case of the Joyce-Loebl Microdensitometer." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.6 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/micro.php>. Chicago style: Paul Benneworth, "The Machine as Mythology -- The Case of the Joyce-Loebl Microdensitometer," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 6 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/micro.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Paul Benneworth. (1999) The machine as mythology -- the case of the Joyce-Loebl microdensitometer. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(6). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/micro.php> ([your date of access]).

I first came across etoy in Linz, Austria in 1995. They turned up at Ars Electronica with their shaved heads, in their matching orange bomber jackets. They were not invited. The next year they would not have to crash the party. In 1996 they were awarded Arts Electronica’s prestigious Golden Nica for web art, and were on their way to fame and bitterness – the just rewards for their art of self-regard. As founding member Agent.ZAI says: “All of us were extremely greedy – for excitement, for drugs, for success.” (Wishart & Boschler: 16) The etoy story starts on the fringes of the squatters’ movement in Zurich. Disenchanted with the hard left rhetorics that permeate the movement in the 1980s, a small group look for another way of existing within a commodified world, without the fantasy of an ‘outside’ from which to critique it. What Antonio Negri and friends call the ‘real subsumption’ of life under the rule of commodification is something etoy grasps intuitively. The group would draw on a number of sources: David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, the Manchester rave scene, European Amiga art, rumors of the historic avant gardes from Dada to Fluxus. They came together in 1994, at a meeting in the Swiss resort town of Weggis on Lake Lucerne. While the staging of the founding meeting looks like a rerun of the origins of the Situationist International, the wording of the invitation might suggest the founding of a pop music boy band: “fun, money and the new world?” One of the – many – stories about the origins of the name Dada has it being chosen at random from a bilingual dictionary. The name etoy, in an update on that procedure, was spat out by a computer program designed to make four letter words at random. Ironically, both Dada and etoy, so casually chosen, would inspire furious struggles over the ownership of these chancey 4-bit words. The group decided to make money by servicing the growing rave scene. Being based in Vienna and Zurich, the group needed a way to communicate, and chose to use the internet. This was a far from obvious thing to do in 1994. Connections were slow and unreliable. Sometimes it was easier to tape a hard drive full of clubland graphics to the underside of a seat on the express train from Zurich to Vienna and simply email instructions to meet the train and retrieve it. The web was a primitive instrument in 1995 when etoy built its first website. They launched it with a party called etoy.FASTLANE, an optimistic title when the web was anything but. Coco, a transsexual model and tabloid sensation, sang a Japanese song while suspended in the air. She brought media interest, and was anointed etoy’s lifestyle angel. As Wishart and Bochsler write, “it was as if the Seven Dwarfs had discovered their Snow White.” (Wishart & Boschler: 33) The launch didn’t lead to much in the way of a music deal or television exposure. The old media were not so keen to validate the etoy dream of lifting themselves into fame and fortune by their bootstraps. And so etoy decided to be stars of the new media. The slogan was suitably revised: “etoy: the pop star is the pilot is the coder is the designer is the architect is the manager is the system is etoy.” (Wishart & Boschler: 34) The etoy boys were more than net.artists, they were artists of the brand. The brand was achieving a new prominence in the mid-90s. (Klein: 35) This was a time when capitalism was hollowing itself out in the overdeveloped world, shedding parts of its manufacturing base. Control of the circuits of commodification would rest less on the ownership of the means of production and more on maintaining a monopoly on the flows of information. The leading edge of the ruling class was becoming self-consciously vectoral. It controlled the flow of information about what to produce – the details of design, the underlying patents. It controlled the flows of information about what is produced – the brands and logos, the slogans and images. The capitalist class is supplanted by a vectoral class, controlling the commodity circuit through the vectors of information. (Wark) The genius of etoy was to grasp the aesthetic dimension of this new stage of commodification. The etoy boys styled themselves not so much as a parody of corporate branding and management groupthink, but as logical extension of it. They adopted matching uniforms and called themselves agents. In the dada-punk-hiphop tradition, they launched themselves on the world as brand new, self-created, self-named subjects: Agents Zai, Brainhard, Gramazio, Kubli, Esposto, Udatny and Goldstein. The etoy.com website was registered in 1995 with Network Solutions for a $100 fee. The homepage for this etoy.TANKSYSTEM was designed like a flow chart. As Gramazio says: “We wanted to create an environment with surreal content, to build a parallel world and put the content of this world into tanks.” (Wishart & Boschler: 51) One tank was a cybermotel, with Coco the first guest. Another tank showed you your IP number, with a big-brother eye looking on. A supermarket tank offered sunglasses and laughing gas for sale, but which may or may not be delivered. The underground tank included hardcore photos of a sensationalist kind. A picture of the Federal Building in Oklamoma City after the bombing was captioned in deadpan post-situ style “such work needs a lot of training.” (Wishart & Boschler: 52) The etoy agents were by now thoroughly invested in the etoy brand and the constellation of images they had built around it, on their website. Their slogan became “etoy: leaving reality behind.” (Wishart & Boschler: 53) They were not the first artists fascinated by commodification. It was Warhol who said “good art is good business.”(Warhol ) But etoy reversed the equation: good business is good art. And good business, in this vectoral age, is in its most desirable form an essentially conceptual matter of creating a brand at the center of a constellation of signifiers. Late in 1995, etoy held another group meeting, at the Zurich youth center Dynamo. The problem was that while they had build a hardcore website, nobody was visiting it. Agents Gooldstein and Udatny thought that there might be a way of using the new search engines to steer visitors to the site. Zai and Brainhard helped secure a place at the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts where Udatny could use the computer lab to implement this idea. Udatny’s first step was to create a program that would go out and gather email addresses from the web. These addresses would form the lists for the early examples of art-spam that etoy would perpetrate. Udatny’s second idea was a bit more interesting. He worked out how to get the etoy.TANKSYSTEM page listed in search engines. Most search engines ranked pages by the frequency of the search term in the pages it had indexed, so etoy.TANKSYSTEM would contain pages of selected keywords. Porn sites were also discovering this method of creating free publicity. The difference was that etoy chose a very carefully curated list of 350 search terms, including: art, bondage, cyberspace, Doom, Elvis, Fidel, genx, heroin, internet, jungle and Kant. Users of search engines who searched for these terms would find dummy pages listed prominently in their search results that directed them, unsuspectingly, to etoy.com. They called this project Digital Hijack. To give the project a slightly political aura, the pages the user was directed to contained an appeal for the release of convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick. This was the project that won them a Golden Nica statuette at Ars Electronica in 1996, which Gramazio allegedly lost the same night playing roulette. It would also, briefly, require that they explain themselves to the police. Digital Hijack also led to the first splits in the group, under the intense pressure of organizing it on a notionally collective basis, but with the zealous Agent Zai acting as de facto leader. When Udatny was expelled, Zai and Brainhard even repossessed his Toshiba laptop, bought with etoy funds. As Udatny recalls, “It was the lowest point in my life ever. There was nothing left; I could not rely on etoy any more. I did not even have clothes, apart from the etoy uniform.” (Wishart & Boschler: 104) Here the etoy story repeats a common theme from the history of the avant gardes as forms of collective subjectivity. After Digital Hijack, etoy went into a bit of a slump. It’s something of a problem for a group so dependent on recognition from the other of the media, that without a buzz around them, etoy would tend to collapse in on itself like a fading supernova. Zai spend the early part of 1997 working up a series of management documents, in which he appeared as the group’s managing director. Zai employed the current management theory rhetoric of employee ‘empowerment’ while centralizing control. Like any other corporate-Trotskyite, his line was that “We have to get used to reworking the company structure constantly.” (Wishart & Boschler: 132) The plan was for each member of etoy to register the etoy trademark in a different territory, linking identity to information via ownership. As Zai wrote “If another company uses our name in a grand way, I’ll probably shoot myself. And that would not be cool.” (Wishart & Boschler:: 132) As it turned out, another company was interested – the company that would become eToys.com. Zai received an email offering “a reasonable sum” for the etoy.com domain name. Zai was not amused. “Damned Americans, they think they can take our hunting grounds for a handful of glass pearls….”. (Wishart & Boschler: 133) On an invitation from Suzy Meszoly of C3, the etoy boys traveled to Budapest to work on “protected by etoy”, a work exploring internet security. They spent most of their time – and C3’s grant money – producing a glossy corporate brochure. The folder sported a blurb from Bjork: “etoy: immature priests from another world” – which was of course completely fabricated. When Artothek, the official art collection of the Austrian Chancellor, approached etoy wanting to buy work, the group had to confront the problem of how to actually turn their brand into a product. The idea was always that the brand was the product, but this doesn’t quite resolve the question of how to produce the kind of unique artifacts that the art world requires. Certainly the old Conceptual Art strategy of selling ‘documentation’ would not do. The solution was as brilliant as it was simple – to sell etoy shares. The ‘works’ would be ‘share certificates’ – unique objects, whose only value, on the face of it, would be that they referred back to the value of the brand. The inspiration, according to Wishart & Boschsler, was David Bowie, ‘the man who sold the world’, who had announced the first rock and roll bond on the London financial markets, backed by future earnings of his back catalogue and publishing rights. Gramazio would end up presenting Chancellor Viktor Klima with the first ‘shares’ at a press conference. “It was a great start for the project”, he said, “A real hack.” (Wishart & Boschler: 142) For this vectoral age, etoy would create the perfect vectoral art. Zai and Brainhard took off next for Pasadena, where they got the idea of reverse-engineering the online etoy.TANKSYSTEM by building an actual tank in an orange shipping container, which would become etoy.TANK 17. This premiered at the San Francisco gallery Blasthaus in June 1998. Instant stars in the small world of San Francisco art, the group began once again to disintegrate. Brainhard and Esposito resigned. Back in Europe in late 1998, Zai was preparing to graduate from the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts. His final project would recapitulate the life and death of etoy. It would exist from here on only as an online archive, a digital mausoleum. As Kubli says “there was no possibility to earn our living with etoy.” (Wishart & Boschler: 192) Zai emailed eToys.com and asked them if them if they would like to place a banner ad on etoy.com, to redirect any errant web traffic. Lawyers for eToys.com offered etoy $30,000 for the etoy.com domain name, which the remaining members of etoy – Zai, Gramazio, Kubli – refused. The offer went up to $100,000, which they also refused. Through their lawyer Peter Wild they demanded $750,000. In September 1999, while etoy were making a business presentation as their contribution to Ars Electronica, eToys.com lodged a complaint against etoy in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The company hired Bruce Wessel, of the heavyweight LA law firm Irell & Manella, who specialized in trademark, copyright and other intellectual property litigation. The complaint Wessel drafted alleged that etoy had infringed and diluted the eToys trademark, were practicing unfair competition and had committed “intentional interference with prospective economic damage.” (Wishart & Boschler: 199) Wessel demanded an injunction that would oblige etoy to cease using its trademark and take down its etoy.com website. The complaint also sought to prevent etoy from selling shares, and demanded punitive damages. Displaying the aggressive lawyering for which he was so handsomely paid, Wessel invoked the California Unfair Competition Act, which was meant to protect citizens from fraudulent business scams. Meant as a piece of consumer protection legislation, its sweeping scope made it available for inventive suits such as Wessel’s against etoy. Wessel was able to use pretty much everything from the archive etoy built against it. As Wishart and Bochsler write, “The court papers were like a delicately curated catalogue of its practices.” (Wishart & Boschler: 199) And indeed, legal documents in copyright and trademark cases may be the most perfect literature of the vectoral age. The Unfair Competition claim was probably aimed at getting the suit heard in a Californian rather than a Federal court in which intellectual property issues were less frequently litigated. The central aim of the eToys suit was the trademark infringement, but on that head their claims were not all that strong. According to the 1946 Lanham Act, similar trademarks do not infringe upon each other if there they are for different kinds of business or in different geographical areas. The Act also says that the right to own a trademark depends on its use. So while etoy had not registered their trademark and eToys had, etoy were actually up and running before eToys, and could base their trademark claim on this fact. The eToys case rested on a somewhat selective reading of the facts. Wessel claimed that etoy was not using its trademark in the US when eToys was registered in 1997. Wessel did not dispute the fact that etoy existed in Europe prior to that time. He asserted that owning the etoy.com domain name was not sufficient to establish a right to the trademark. If the intention of the suit was to bully etoy into giving in, it had quite the opposite effect. It pissed them off. “They felt again like the teenage punks they had once been”, as Wishart & Bochsler put it. Their art imploded in on itself for lack of attention, but called upon by another, it flourished. Wessel and eToys.com unintentionally triggered a dialectic that worked in quite the opposite way to what they intended. The more pressure they put on etoy, the more valued – and valuable – they felt etoy to be. Conceptual business, like conceptual art, is about nothing but the management of signs within the constraints of given institutional forms of market. That this conflict was about nothing made it a conflict about everything. It was a perfectly vectoral struggle. Zai and Gramazio flew to the US to fire up enthusiasm for their cause. They asked Wolfgang Staehle of The Thing to register the domain toywar.com, as a space for anti-eToys activities at some remove from etoy.com, and as a safe haven should eToys prevail with their injunction in having etoy.com taken down. The etoy defense was handled by Marcia Ballard in New York and Robert Freimuth in Los Angeles. In their defense, they argued that etoy had existed since 1994, had registered its globally accessible domain in 1995, and won an international art prize in 1996. To counter a claim by eToys that they had a prior trademark claim because they had bought a trademark from another company that went back to 1990, Ballard and Freimuth argued that this particular trademark only applied to the importation of toys from the previous owner’s New York base and thus had no relevance. They capped their argument by charging that eToys had not shown that its customers were really confused by the existence of etoy. With Christmas looming, eToys wanted a quick settlement, so they offered Zurich-based etoy lawyer Peter Wild $160,000 in shares and cash for the etoy domain. Kubli was prepared to negotiate, but Zai and Gramazio wanted to gamble – and raise the stakes. As Zai recalls: “We did not want to be just the victims; that would have been cheap. We wanted to be giants too.” (Wishart & Boschler: 207) They refused the offer. The case was heard in November 1999 before Judge Rafeedie in the Federal Court. Freimuth, for etoy, argued that federal Court was the right place for what was essentially a trademark matter. Robert Kleiger, for eToys, countered that it should stay where it was because of the claims under the California Unfair Competition act. Judge Rafeedie took little time in agreeing with the eToys lawyer. Wessel’s strategy paid off and eToys won the first skirmish. The first round of a quite different kind of conflict opened when etoy sent out their first ‘toywar’ mass mailing, drawing the attention of the net.art, activism and theory crowd to these events. This drew a report from Felix Stalder in Telepolis: “Fences are going up everywhere, molding what once seemed infinite space into an overcrowded and tightly controlled strip mall.” (Stalder ) The positive feedback from the net only emboldened etoy. For the Los Angeles court, lawyers for etoy filed papers arguing that the sale of ‘shares’ in etoy was not really a stock offering. “The etoy.com website is not about commerce per se, it is about artist and social protest”, they argued. (Wishart & Boschler: 209) They were obliged, in other words, to assert a difference that the art itself had intended to blur in order to escape eToy’s claims under the Unfair Competition Act. Moreover, etoy argued that there was no evidence of a victim. Nobody was claiming to have been fooled by etoy into buying something under false pretences. Ironically enough, art would turn out in hindsight to be a more straightforward transaction here, involving less simulation or dissimulation, than investing in a dot.com. Perhaps we have reached the age when art makes more, not less, claim than business to the rhetorical figure of ‘reality’. Having defended what appeared to be the vulnerable point under the Unfair Competition law, etoy went on the attack. It was the failure of eToys to do a proper search for other trademarks that created the problem in the first place. Meanwhile, in Federal Court, lawyers for etoy launched a counter-suit that reversed the claims against them made by eToys on the trademark question. While the suits and counter suits flew, eToys.com upped their offer to settle to a package of cash and shares worth $400,000. This rather puzzled the etoy lawyers. Those choosing to sue don’t usually try at the same time to settle. Lawyer Peter Wild advised his clients to take the money, but the parallel tactics of eToys.com only encouraged them to dig in their heels. “We felt that this was a tremendous final project for etoy”, says Gramazio. As Zai says, “eToys was our ideal enemy – we were its worst enemy.” (Wishart & Boschler: 210) Zai reported the offer to the net in another mass mail. Most people advised them to take the money, including Doug Rushkoff and Heath Bunting. Paul Garrin counseled fighting on. The etoy agents offered to settle for $750,000. The case came to court in late November 1999 before Judge Shook. The Judge accepted the plausibility of the eToys version of the facts on the trademark issue, which included the purchase of a registered trademark from another company that went back to 1990. He issued an injunction on their behalf, and added in his statement that he was worried about “the great danger of children being exposed to profane and hardcore pornographic issues on the computer.” (Wishart & Boschler: 222) The injunction was all eToys needed to get Network Solutions to shut down the etoy.com domain. Zai sent out a press release in early December, which percolated through Slashdot, rhizome, nettime (Staehle) and many other networks, and catalyzed the net community into action. A debate of sorts started on investor websites such as fool.com. The eToys stock price started to slide, and etoy ‘warriors’ felt free to take the credit for it. The story made the New York Times on 9th December, Washington Post on the 10th, Wired News on the 11th. Network Solutions finally removed the etoy.com domain on the 10th December. Zai responded with a press release: “this is robbery of digital territory, American imperialism, corporate destruction and bulldozing in the way of the 19th century.” (Wishart & Boschler: 237) RTMark set up a campaign fund for toywar, managed by Survival Research Laboratories’ Mark Pauline. The RTMark press release promised a “new internet ‘game’ designed to destroy eToys.com.” (Wishart & Boschler: 239) The RTMark press release grabbed the attention of the Associated Press newswire. The eToys.com share price actually rose on December 13th. Goldman Sachs’ e-commerce analyst Anthony Noto argued that the previous declines in the Etoys share price made it a good buy. Goldman Sachs was the lead underwriter of the eToys IPO. Noto’s writings may have been nothing more than the usual ‘IPOetry’ of the time, but the crash of the internet bubble was some months away yet. The RTMark campaign was called ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. It used the Floodnet technique that Ricardo Dominguez used in support of the Zapatistas. As Dominguez said, “this hysterical power-play perfectly demonstrates the intensions of the new net elite; to turn the World Wide Web into their own private home-shopping network.” (Wishart & Boschler: 242) The Floodnet attack may have slowed the eToys.com server down a bit, but it was robust and didn’t crash. Ironically, it ran on open source software. Dominguez claims that the ‘Twelve Days’ campaign, which relied on individuals manually launching Floodnet from their own computers, was not designed to destroy the eToys site, but to make a protest felt. “We had a single-bullet script that could have taken down eToys – a tactical nuke, if you will. But we felt this script did not represent the presence of a global group of people gathered to bear witness to a wrong.” (Wishart & Boschler: 245) While the eToys engineers did what they could to keep the site going, eToys also approached universities and businesses whose systems were being used to host Floodnet attacks. The Thing, which hosted Dominguez’s eToys Floodnet site was taken offline by The Thing’s ISP, Verio. After taking down the Floodnet scripts, The Thing was back up, restoring service to the 200 odd websites that The Thing hosted besides the offending Floodnet site. About 200 people gathered on December 20th at a demonstration against eToys outside the Museum of Modern Art. Among the crowd were Santas bearing signs that said ‘Coal for eToys’. The rally, inside the Museum, was led by the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping: “We are drowning in a sea of identical details”, he said. (Wishart & Boschler: 249-250) Meanwhile etoy worked on the Toywar Platform, an online agitpop theater spectacle, in which participants could act as soldiers in the toywar. This would take some time to complete – ironically the dispute threatened to end before this last etoy artwork was ready, giving etoy further incentives to keep the dispute alive. The etoy agents had a new lawyer, Chris Truax, who was attracted to the case by the publicity it was generating. Through Truax, etoy offered to sell the etoy domain and trademark for $3.7 million. This may sound like an insane sum, but to put it in perspective, the business.com site changed hands for $7.5 million around this time. On December 29th, Wessel signaled that eToys was prepared to compromise. The problem was, the Toywar Platform was not quite ready, so etoy did what it could to drag out the negotiations. The site went live just before the scheduled court hearings, January 10th 2000. “TOYWAR.com is a place where all servers and all involved people melt and build a living system. In our eyes it is the best way to express and document what’s going on at the moment: people start to about new ways to fight for their ideas, their lifestyle, contemporary culture and power relations.” (Wishart & Boschler: 263) Meanwhile, in a California courtroom, Truax demanded that Network Solutions restore the etoy domain, that eToys pay the etoy legal expenses, and that the case be dropped without prejudice. No settlement was reached. Negotiations dragged on for another two weeks, with the etoy agents’ attention somewhat divided between two horizons – art and law. The dispute was settled on 25th January. Both parties dismissed their complaints without prejudice. The eToys company would pay the etoy artists $40,000 for legal costs, and contact Network Solutions to reinstate the etoy domain. “It was a pleasure doing business with one of the biggest e-commerce giants in the world” ran the etoy press release. (Wishart & Boschler: 265) That would make a charming end to the story. But what goes around comes around. Brainhard, still pissed off with Zai after leaving the group in San Francisco, filed for the etoy trademark in Austria. After that the internal etoy wranglings just gets boring. But it was fun while it lasted. What etoy grasped intuitively was the nexus between the internet as a cultural space and the transformation of the commodity economy in a yet-more abstract direction – its becoming-vectoral. They zeroed in on the heart of the new era of conceptual business – the brand. As Wittgenstein says of language, what gives words meaning is other words, so too for brands. What gives brands meaning is other brands. There is a syntax for brands as there is for words. What etoy discovered is how to insert a new brand into that syntax. The place of eToys as a brand depended on their business competition with other brands – with Toys ‘R’ Us, for example. For etoy, the syntax they discovered for relating their brand to another one was a legal opposition. What made etoy interesting was their lack of moral posturing. Their abandonment of leftist rhetorics opened them up to exploring the territory where media and business meet, but it also made them vulnerable to being consumed by the very dialectic that created the possibility of staging etoy in the first place. By abandoning obsolete political strategies, they discovered a media tactic, which collapsed for want of a new strategy, for the new vectoral terrain on which we find ourselves. Works Cited Negri, Antonio. Time for Revolution. Continuum, London, 2003. Warhol, Andy. From A to B and Back Again. Picador, New York, 1984. Stalder, Felix. ‘Fences in Cyberspace: Recent events in the battle over domain names’. 19 Jun 2003. <http://felix.openflows.org/html/fences.php>. Wark, McKenzie. ‘A Hacker Manifesto [version 4.0]’ 19 Jun 2003. http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html. Klein, Naomi. No Logo. Harper Collins, London, 2000. Wishart, Adam & Regula Bochsler. Leaving Reality Behind: etoy vs eToys.com & Other Battles to Control Cyberspace Ecco Books, 2003. Staehle, Wolfgang. ‘<nettime> etoy.com shut down by US court.’ 19 Jun 2003. http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9912/msg00005.html Links http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9912/msg00005.htm http://felix.openflows.org/html/fences.html http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Wark, McKenzie. "Toywars" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0306/02-toywars.php>. APA Style Wark, M. (2003, Jun 19). Toywars. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0306/02-toywars.php>